Inventories and Cost of Goods Sold Essay Example

Inventories and Cost of Goods Sold Essay Example Inventories and Cost of Goods Sold – Essay Example The paper "Inventories and Cost of Goods Sold" is a great example of an essay on finance and accounting. Students face difficulty in understanding the difference between the physical flow of inventory and the cost flow assumption because the cash flow does not consider taxes in its computations unlike the physical flow of inventory (Greenberg Wilner, 2011). This arises because taxes are not permanently reduced, but deferred. It implies that the reduced amount will still be remitted to the tax authorities after the decrease in the cost of inventory. It is also apparent that the deferred tax owed by an organization is beneficial during inflationary periods since it reduces net income. Another reason that causes confusion between the physical flow of inventory and the cost flow is the earnings in which costs are charged off against current revenues (Greenberg Wilner, 2011). This takes place during inflationary periods when prices of goods are high and the company tends to reduce its c osts by hiking charges. It is also evident that the cost flow assumption is different from the physical flow of the products because a firm can turn around inventory through the sale of its oldest units first and then run the overheads using LIFO or weighted average (Greenberg Wilner, 2011). This suggests that firms normally switch cost flow assumption from FIFO to LIFO during inflation. As a result, spreading the current higher overhead costs into the cost of goods sold (COGS) on the income statement and tax return reveals a positive net income and less payable returns. In this regard, the disparity evident between the physical flow of inventory and the cost flow assumption relates to the taxes and net income that a firm attains to achieve when prices are higher in the market (Greenberg Wilner, 2011).

ACT Prep Methods Pros and Cons of Each

Secret Truths of SAT / ACT Prep Methods Pros and Cons of Each SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips You know it's a great idea to prep for the SAT and ACT. After all, for most students it's the most time-efficient way to increase their college admission chances. However, there are so many ways to prep for the test out there what's the best way for you? Obviously, some methods will be better than others, but it's also the case that some methods are overall not very good. Quite frankly, every single SAT / ACT prep method has certain strengths. For some students, tutoring is by far the best while, for others, self-study is clearly optimal. Which one to choose depends on your circumstances and budget, but it’s quite simple to figure out. Pay careful attention because finding the right prep method for you is by far the highest leverage choice you can make to improve your SAT / ACT score. If you choose correctly, you may never again have to worry about test scores. The follow through will be easy, and the point improvements will be quick. Some say half the work is just getting started. I disagree half the work is getting started correctly. Introduction I’ve had personal experience in helping thousands of students study for the SAT. This means that I have a lot of experience and exposure to both the best and the worst prep methods. Name any test prep method, and I’ve probably mentored at least a dozen students who’ve tried it. For each method, I can tell you exactly what worked and didn’t. The â€Å"all iPhone ACT prep† method? The â€Å"binge SAT practice tests† method? The â€Å"six separate private tutors† method? I’ve seen them all, both the success and the carnage, and I can tell you exactly which methods work for which students. To top that off, I’ve developed many test prep methods myself. The first test prep method I made was back in 2003 for myself. When I got 200 points lower than I wanted on the SAT, I sat down and carefully developeda strategy that eventually got me a perfect score and admissions into Harvard. Today, as cofounder of PrepScholar, I’ve written ACT and SAT prep methods for my students, helping them improve their scores sometimes as much as 300 points on the SAT and 5 points on the ACT, or more. All this has taught me the importance of one single point: If you are going to actually improve your ACT and SAT scores, you need to choose the method that best fits your style! You see, like a boat setting sail, a small correction at the start means a big difference in where you end up. If you head in the right direction now, it can save you weeks of agony later on. Prepping the wrong way will totally waste your time and money. You’ll be hosed if you self-study but have no insight on how to improve. You’re also sunk if what you really need is to focus on a couple of areas, but you make the mistake of taking a small group class. The wrong prep can make you feel hopeless and doubt whether you can ever improve your SAT and ACT scores. That’s the bad news. The good news is you really can learn what method is best for you if you have an expert like me (or anyone else with as muchexperience) willing to debunk the topic and take the mystery out of it for you. Students, parents†¦ start your engines! You are, as promised, going to learn the real pros and cons of the different prep methods. Tutoring Is tutoring the best prep method across the board? After all, it costs the most usually running into three or four digits the same cost as a year of tuition at many good public universities! At that price, tutoring must be good, right? I’ve worked with hundreds of tutoring students as well as tutored many students myself in ACT and SAT prep, and I can debunk the myths for you. Pros If all goes well, tutoring is indeed the very best prep you can get. When things go well, your tutor will not only be a great scorer on the SAT / ACT, but your tutor will also be vetted to be a great teacher. It's not enough to have a tutor who only scores well on standardized tests; they also must be able to explain their methods in a way that helps you perform well too. When things go well, tutors will sit with you one-on-one and actively diagnose your errors. They’ll look at your specific errors, ask you specific questions, and use their expertise to figure out customized strategies. Imagine an expert mechanic asking exactly the right question to find which screw in your car needs tightening and then going in and tightening it the right amount. This is what the best tutors will do for you. There’s also a definite emotional advantage to tutoring. The tutor pays close, specific attention to the student and provides emotional support as well as psychological assurance. If you let the test get inside your head, then tutoring can help. The tutor will build a personal connection and soften the anxiety the student feels in taking the test. Cons But, truth be told, most real cases of tutoring fall short of this ideal. The major issue is finding the right tutor. I’ve seen so many tutors who score less than 1400 on the SAT or less than 32 on the ACT. When you’re scoring this low as a tutor, it reveals serious gaps in base skill content. The tutor probably doesn’t understand the most sophisticated idioms or doesn't know how to answer non-routine math problems quickly. This affects not only students who are aiming for above 1400 out of 1600 on the SAT or 32 out of 36 on the ACT, but alsostudents who are aiming for a more modest score like 1000 or 20. You want a tutor who is much better than you, not just a bit better. If you’re learning to drive, you don’t want to learn from someone who just passed their exam last month you want a professional with years of on-the-road experience. Is score all that matters then? Is the solution to hire a college freshman with a perfect score for $50/hour? No. Even if you find a high scorer, there is still the question of whether the tutor can teach. Tom Brady is one of the best football players but is he the best guy to coach a middle school student who is just getting started with the sport? You might think that a decent professional football player who really understands the struggle of middle-school players would make a better coach and you’d be absolutely right. Teaching is hard. You have to understand each student’s way of thinking and then fix the student’s mistakes. However, many purely high scorers suffer from the curse of knowledge. Doing well on the ACT / SAT is so second nature to many high scorers that they have no idea what it’s like not to understand. These suffering tutors explain the same strategies that worked for them over and over again. Unsurprisingly, on the day scores come out, there’s no increase and everyone is disappointed. Here’s a fact that’ll blow your mind: 75% of tutors are not fully effective for their students. Usually, this is more because they don’t know how to teach and notbecause their score is too low. How to Make It Effective The best way to fight against this is to get a good reference. Like lawyers and doctors, the best way to find a good tutoris to get a close friend to tell you who worked for them. Make sure that your referrer’s situation is the same as yours: if your student is scoring high, you don’t want a reference from a low-scorer with a learning disability who may have had different struggles than your student If you don’t have a close reference, an equally good option is to hire a tutor through a company. A reputable company itself acts as the best reference possible. A company like ours has incredibly high standards. We select our tutors through rigorous mock sessions. Our interviewers are tutoring stars themselves. Finally, we keep on grading our tutors monthly to ensure continuing quality, and we match each student to the best tutor for them. We’re not the only company that provides tutors out there, but you definitely want to get a match from a high-quality company. Here’s a list of questions you must ask the tutoring company: Do you require each tutoring candidate to mock tutor before you hire them? Do you only hire tutors who scored 95%tile or above? Do you only have tutors with previous experience improving scores? Do you screen more than a dozen applicants for each tutor you hire? For us, the answers are all yes, and you’d want any company doing tutoring for you to answer yes to everything above too. I can tell you right now, the top two oldest big names in test prep don’t qualify they’ve grown so old and convoluted that the left hand barely knows what the right hand is doing. Summary Cons of tutoring: Hard to select the right tutor Most expensive test prep option Pros of tutoring: If you choose the right tutor, it’s the most effective prep possible Great tutors can give you personalized diagnosis of your issues as well as emotional attention and enforcement Classes Oh boy, classes are going to be a fun topic for me to talk about. There are just so many stories that you wouldn’t believe! But I’ll get to that in just a moment. First, let me be clear. When I say classes, I mean a physical room (or worse, a Skype virtual room) where one teacher stands at the front and talks to many students at a time. Cons Where did classes go wrong? After all, don’t most students in school learn in classes? Doesn’t it combine the best of all worlds? After all, don’t you get a live person without the cost of a tutor? But when it comes to test prep, classes are a recipe for failure like none other. They’re the perfect storm of two ingredients that create destruction. On the one hand, students come into test prep with vastly different skills. Some students will be scoring 20th percentile; other students will be scoring 80th percentile. Some students really need vocab help; others need to make fewer careless mistakes. On the other hand, classrooms have a fixed curriculum. They teach every student the same sequence of lessons and spend the same amount of time on each topic. Mix them together, and you have the perfect recipe for the least effective way to test prep. What will you be doing in a test prep class? Half the time, you’ll be going over stuff you already know. Already know all of Algebra I? Don’t be surprised if you waste multiple hours getting lectured on how to isolate variables and solve for x. On the opposite front, are you having problems with careless mistakes? Don’t be surprised if your course only spends a couple of minutes talking about how to attack careless mistakes and instead devotes a bunch of time to strategies that couldn’t possibly apply to you. But why do classes work well for school? In school, everyone is up to the same speed. When you took Literature II, everyone in your class had already taken Literature I. When all students are at the same point, the same lessons make sense. With test prep, the exact opposite is true: students come in at vastly different levels and don’t have enough time to catch up during the short course. Trust us, many of us at PrepScholar took classes back in high school (when we were naive), and each one of us hasregretted it. One horror story revolved around a big-name test prep company. The teacher spent three hours reading dictionary definitions of vocab words: â€Å"Timmy do you know what the definition of plethora is?† †¦ â€Å"No, Timmy, that is not right. Katie, do you have an answer?† Imagine that exchange repeated about 90 times and you can imagine how that 3-hour class went. To add insult to injury, many of the biggest names don’t have particularly high standards when it comes to hiring class teachers. Anyone who has a passable resume will get hired. We were literally told this directly by a hiring manager of one of the big-two tutoring company branches. Oh, and did I mention classes still aren't that cheap? They're only slightly cheaper than tutoring but lack many benefits. Classes don’t offer customization and still cost up to $2000. Compare that to our tutoring program that costs less than $2000, and you'll scratch your head wondering why you don't either upgrade to tutoring or save money with a more automated program. Pros I should be fair to classes at this point. There is one type of student classes do work on: If your student has huge motivational issues, and only motivational issues, classes can work. If your student just needs someone to stand over them to get work done, and the qualifications and teaching ability of the person standing over them don't matter, then classes can boost that student’s score. Self Study Self study is the original form of test preparation, and it has some very distinct advantages. First, it’s incredibly cheap free if you do it right and use library books. Students essentially create their own programs and find out what to study and when. Self study can work, and you can find success stories all over the Internet. The first step of a self study program is to identify the right resources. Princeton Review books tend to work best for fast studiers who only want to improve a little, especially by working on test tricks instead of underlying skills. Kaplan is good if you’re mid-range, and Barron’s is the best if you’re at the top and willing to really sink time into getting an even higher score. You then need to self-diagnose your issues by analyzing questions you got wrong on practice tests and training questions. Divide these issues into content holes versus strategy holes. Then, design a study plan to figure out exactly how you will improve up until test day. You absolutely must stick to putting in the hours you promised yourself and revise your study plan as you get more data about what is working and what isn’t. Pros As you can probably see, self studyworks best for a certain set of students. It’s important that you’re self-motivated. If you’ve had a history of being able to plop down hundreds of hours of time to concentrate on a singular goal, then self study might be the right choice for you. If you’re the type of student who gets distracted from time to time or benefits from some external encouragement, you should be careful. Self study also works best for students who are already doing well on the test. They understand enough of the test, and how they have improved in the past, to self-diagnose their issues correctly. Cons It’s very easy, especially if you don’t fit the profile above, to fall by the wayside if you choose to self study. The number one most common mistake is running out of motivation. Like going on a diet, students are a lot more enthusiastic at the start. After tenhours of pounding away at questions, reality sets in. Some students browse YouTube, others skip study days, and still some students grab at any other reason (â€Å"I gotta finish this homework!†) to not study. The second most common reason for self study failing badly is not self-diagnosing correctly. We’ve seen so many self studiers go through a book cover to cover. Most of the material the student probably knows already, and the few pages that really hit upon a weak spot the student glosses over. Other students become obsessed with ways to â€Å"trick† the test and get really into test-taking tactics that don’t actually work for them. Summary on Self Study The end conclusion is that self study can work,and it has producedsome stellar cases you can read about on the Internet. And it is absolutely the cheapest way to study, especially when paired with a library. However, the student does need to be very insightful and self-motivated, and even then there is still a lot of risk involved. Many parents we’ve encountered are confident of their student’s ability to self study. However, often they still invest in help just to be safe after all, it’s their student’s education, their student’s future we're talkingabout here. Some students take pride in self studying, but it’s instructive to ask yourself whether pride or getting the highest score is more important. In the end, for well-qualified students, the decision is a personal one. Online Prep Programs The Internet is more popular now than ever. Budding Internet technologies that were just wisps of ideas in the 1990s are now functional, tested realities. If you’re a parent, you may remember decades ago when we would wait hours to download a tiny file over a noisy modem. Today videos can be streamed live to teach lessons anywhere. I know exactly what you’re thinking. Is online prep for real? The promise of instant access to hundreds and thousands of hours of lessons right in front of you sounds too good to be true. The idea that a machine can pick and choose lessons based on your exact skill level seems too much like science fiction. Can online test prep be the holy grail, or is it just catering to the hype, taking advantage of buzz words? Lucky for you, we at PrepScholar have an exceptional online prep program. What that means is that, in order to develop our product, we’ve done thorough research on every single program out there. We’re here to tell you what works and what doesn’t. First, I want to debunk some myths for you. Online test prep can provide a much better learning experience than usual, but it is not magical learning. If you’re picturing instant, effortless understanding, that’s NOT what online test prep is. Let’s debunk the myths. Here is what online test prep CANNOT do for you: Improve your score without you putting in time Make learning as relaxing as watching a TV show Allow you to learn passively, putting in no effort Improve your score substantially if you have no motivation Eliminate your careless mistakes without you thinking hard about them In fact, no test prep can pull off the magic above! Online test prep is not magic; it can’t get you a 4x improvement (in either efficiency or raw point increase) over the best traditional test prep methods. Anyone claiming revolutionary effortlessness should be seriously examined for whether they’re telling the truth. For quantitative types, a good estimate is that online prep isabout TWICE as good as traditional test prep. In that sense, online test prep can work better! A good online test prep program will: Be comprehensive Diagnose the student’s strengths and weaknesses Assign content lessons based on this diagnosis Keep updating the diagnostics based on student progress Assign strategy lessons based on student performance Let the student know at every single point in time what to work on, whether it’s practice tests, quizzes, lessons, drills, or even taking a break Have exact measures of the student’s skill in every category Motivate the student using progress bars, reminders, and regular parental progress reports If you’ve been following other blog posts about how we recommend students prep for the SAT, you'll have seen that these strategies are strongly recommended even if you are studying on your own. Look around on the Internet and do your own research: You’ll find every high scorer, every high point improver, has used a close variation of the above strategy to achieve their goal. Pros What online test prep does is make the above customization process totally automated so you can put all your hard work into learning and not into stressing about what to do next.It is our strong opinion that the best online prep programs are indeed effective. Another advantage is cost. By letting a computer monitor you and help you, online prep programs are generally a lot more affordable than classroom programs and tutoring. Most online prep programs are twice as affordable (if not more) than classes, and online programs are more effective as well. Finally, another fringe benefit of online prep is you can study anywhere. Students are busy, and studying from a car before soccer practice, or at home if you live away from city center, is very important in encouraging students to put in the right hours. Cons One strong warning about online test prep programs though: You absolutely must choose the right one. Many online test programs are just riding on hype and haven’t invested much in their program. One online prep program by a big-name test prep company costs hundreds of dollars. You take a one-time diagnostic, and then you get an e-book with certain sections highlighted. Here’s the kicker: The e-book is the same as the $20 book they sell at Barnes and Nobles. I personally asked this program’s saleslady about whether this method was good, and she frankly told me, â€Å"Yeah, almost no students finish this program.† I was shocked they would market such a program. Another â€Å"boutique test prep company† started by a celebrity tutor had an online test prep program that was literally just a PDF. No customization, no progress reports. You pay a few hundred bucks, and all you get is access to a site with a PDF. My jaw dropped. Bad online test prep programs offer only token customization, no guidance, and no motivation. They’re no better than e-books. In fact, many programs are actually literally that: an e-book! Note From Our Experience: At PrepScholar, we’ve created a prep program that succeeds in all the ways we described above. It’s based on our founders’ own study methods from when they got their perfect SAT scores and 99th percentile ACT scores. These methods have been improved over time with the thousands of students they’ve taught. Our complete online prep program guides you through a structured study plan from beginning to end. You start by taking adiagnostic exam, and we automatically determine your strengths and weaknesses through advanced statistics. Next, we create a customized study plan for you, assigning you the right lessons and practice questions to work on every week. For example, if you always ace the math section but need help with tricky grammar, your study plan will explain grammar rules carefully and won’t waste your time with math problems you already understand. We track your progress and automatically adjust your schedule so that you’re always workin g on what’s best for you. We also integrate real practice tests into your program, so you get training for the real exam. We also go above and beyond the teaching by caring about student motivation. We know that it’s easy for you to get distracted, even if you know that SAT / ACT prep is important. That’s why we send out progress reports every week to you and your parent, so you know you’re on track. We also help you fit prep into your schedule and commit to your study times. These features have been proven to increase study time by over 200%, leading to better score results. What's Next? You have many choices when it comes to test prep, and each methodhasspecific strengths and weaknesses. Tutoring is great for it’s effectiveness, although you can face problems finding theright tutor and affordingits high cost. Classes are generally not very effective, but they can be good for students who need just monitoring. Self-study is very effective when done right, but it requires motivation, insight, and getting it right. While each method has strong and weak points, that doesn’t mean the methods are created equal for example classes are usually a bad deal, whereas self-study often works. And, of course, everyone today should be seriously considering online prep. It’s an affordable method that can lead to better results than self-study and textbooks. However, only some online programs are actually effective. At PrepScholar, we avoid the mistakes that other programs make and deliver a comprehensive prep program specifically designed to maximize your score. Further Reading Thinking about tutoring? Check out our guide to learn if online tutoring is right for you. Want to get started on your test prep?We have great tips to help you boost your SAT score orACT score. Are you aiming for a top score?Read our guides to getting a perfect score on the SAT or a perfect score on the ACT, written by a full-scorer of both exams.

The OJ Simpson Trial Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The OJ Simpson Trial - Essay Example Simpson â€Å"not guilty†. The Evidence The DNA evidence against O.J. Simpson was the most powerful evidence presented against him. The prosecution presented DNA samples on the alleged blood drops and footprints of Simpson that was positive for DNA match. The blood drops was said to be collected at Nicole Brown’s home, in Simpson’s car and his home. Another important evidence was the bloody glove found at Simpson’s home that tested positive for the DNA of Simpson and the victims Brown and Goldman. Although a surprising amount of DNA evidence was produced by the prosecution, as author John M. Butler believed â€Å"DNA evidence is not always understood and can be quite complex to explain to the general public†.1 The defense team took this complexity as an opportunity to debase prosecution’s DNA evidence and attacked on the validity of the collection and the preservation of the evidence. They argued that the evidence was mishandled and violated the â€Å"chain of custody† as provided in the Rules of Evidence. A systematic argument was created by the defense panel in invalidating the evidence, including the possible contamination of the blood drops collected, and the alleged planting of evidence by police officers on the samples found in Simpson’s car, footprints, and the bloody glove that was found in the murder scene by Detective Mark Fuhrman. The handling of the samples openly, created the â€Å"reasonable doub†t of possible contamination in the DNA testing. Although the DNA test resulted positive, the doubt of its validity gave more credibility to the jury. But perhaps, the most positive result that failed to convict Simpson of guilt beyond reasonable doubt was the presentation of the bloody glove as object evidence. The defense team demonstrated their argument by asking Simpson to fit the questioned glove. As demonstrated, the glove was small and could not fit Simpson’s athletic hands, which lead Johnnie Cochran, Simpson’s lawyer to say the infamous line â€Å"if the glove doesn’t fit, you must acquit†. Another prosecution weakness was the presentation of Detective Mark Fuhrman as a witness. The defense team took note of Fuhrman’s history of racism, by attacking his character based on beating up suspects and prior statements recorded using the word â€Å"nigger† repeatedly in an interview made by a screenwriter in 1986.2 The prosecution attempted to present character evidence against Simpson that was in general rule, not allowed by the Rules of Evidence. But Judge Ito accepted the character evidence presented by applying the same on the angle of a possible motive by Simpson to allegedly perform the murders. Arrest records were found indicating that Simpson was charged with domestic violence. A picture of the beaten and bruised ex-wife Brown was presented in court. But the images were not enough to convict Simpson and remove the doubt that the planted evidence has created. THE JURY The Sixth Amendment of the US Constitution provides for the right to elect a trial by jury. Unlike other judicial procedure in most part of the world that follows an inquisitorial system (where a judge makes a decision based on witnesses and evidence in an investigative form), a trial by jury is an adversarial process. Janet Coterril explained that an â€Å"adversarial trial process attempt to persuade the jury that one constructed version of reality is more plausible than the other†, giving more focus on â€Å"

The Treatment of the Working Classes, the Poor and the Uneducated Research Paper

The Treatment of the Working Classes, the Poor and the Uneducated - Research Paper Example The novel explores various themes such as ambition, social isolation, science, psychological balance, and moral responsibility among others (Shelley 23). However, one of the key themes explored in Shelly's book is the treatment of the working classes, the poor and the uneducated in the society. Thus, this paper will analyze how the treatment of working class, the poor and the uneducated theme is brought out in Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein. According to Shelley (25), the monster represents the oppressed, the poor people in the society, and how the working class is brutalized in the modern industry. There is a clear evidence of class struggle in Shelley's novel, and that is why she uses this theme to criticize the society and expose some of the economic, social, and corruption problems people experienced during that time and their effects on society. One of the key causes of the English revolution in 1640 and the French Revolution in 1789 was the rise of wealth and strengt h of the bourgeoisie, which resulted in capitalism. King Charles sided with the upper class and the noble people in the society during the English revolution, but not the common ones. ... This is also applies to the upper and working classes. The upper class people are highly educated and have a lot of wealth while the working class people are poor and uneducated. For this reason, the bourgeoisie use their wealth and power to exploit the working class in order to get profit. According to Shelley (45), the monster argues that he is gentle and docile to his king and lord; thus, demands that Victor should perform his part, as well. This means that the bourgeoisie should give back to the working class since what they are giving back is not enough. It also reveals a separation of class in the society since it contributes to the idea of social inequality. For instance, during the French revolution only the noble people became bishops and army officers and were able to hold real power while the working class who consisted of 95% of the France population could only become peasants. In Shelley’s novel, the De Lacey’s family represented the common people who were poor and powerless, but virtuous. Additionally, in the novel, Frankenstein did not create an evil creature, but rather the cruel treatment the monster received from the world made him evil. Nearly every creature in Mary’s novel assumes that the monster is destructive and dangerous due to its appearance, yet it is open and warm-hearted. Despite his attempts to show his noble intentions, the monster is rejected and assaulted by the entire society and families. Thus, this rejection and violence that he experiences convinces him that man is a barbaric being; hence, becoming a cruel creature and vows to take revenge on society and his creator. Moreover, after the monster observed De Lacey’s family through a hole in the wall, he

Professional Development of Nursing Professionals Essay Example for Free

Professional Development of Nursing Professionals Essay In this day and age when medicine becomes more technological and industry driven, nursing needs to find its new role in the rapidly transforming healthcare system. In 2010 the Institute of Medicine (IOM) published proposals about remodeling of nursing in the U.S. â€Å"The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health.† This report points out to the need for changes in education, expanding practice, and demonstrating leadership in nursing. This modification will have a strong effect on the nursing in future and will contribute to changes of scope and standards of practice. Impact of the IOM Report on Nursing Education In regards to nursing education IOM report proclaim, nurses should achieve higher levels of education and training through improved education system that promotes seamless academic progression. (IOM Report, 2010). Today healthcare system is advancing rapidly and requires from all caregivers to improve their knowledge and specialization. The training and education that was given in the past to the nurses does not satisfy the demands of modern days and need to changed dramatically to allow them to keep up with rapidly changing scope of todays medicine. Nowadays, ever-growing complexity of patients demands from nurses to achieve a higher level of education in order to deliver a higher-quality patient care. To achieve this goal nursing schools have to develop new educational model, that provide competencies in decision making, quality improvement, systematic thinking, and team leadership. Another recommendation that IOM repot promotes to raise the proportion of BSN graduates among of the nurses to 80% by the end of 2020 (IOM, 2010). An increase in the percentage of nurses with a bachelor degree would help to manage a challenging and increasingly diverse healthcare environment. Impact of the IOM Report on Practice, Particularly in Primary care Nowadays, the health care system starts to focus on the new ways to provide patient-centered care by delivering more primary care and working on education of communities by promoting disease prevention and healthy lifestyles. Nurses now qualified to provide these services, since they have enough scientific knowledge and training. Regrettably, however this welcomed change is hindered by various restrictions coming from outdated policies and rules. These restrictions prevent nurses to deliver services to the patient and community in the full capacity. The IOM report advice to redesign the roles of nurses to satisfy the need for improved and safe service to the public. The report also advised to revise the outdated standards of practice and eliminate the obstacles to maximize the contribution to the community that nurses can make. Impact of the IOM Report on Nursing Role as a Leader Public is not used to seeing the nurse as a leader, mostly because of historical and rather stereotyped role of a nurse as a physician extender. However, in a constantly changing climate of a healthcare reform and increasing power of entities such as insurance companies, nurses cannot stay passive any longer if they want to continue to be relevant. â€Å"Because nurses have regular and close proximity to patients and scientific understanding of care processes across the continuum of care, they have a unique ability to act as partners with other health professionals and to lead in the improvement and redesign of the health care system and its many practice environments, including hospitals, schools, homes.† states in IOM recommendation. A unique nurses role as a patient advocate combined with a stronger leadership role that they ought to embrace is indispensible in order to form new health care policies that put patient in the center of the discussion. Changing Your Practice to Meet the Goals of the IOM Report Another key point of IOM report is to promote a high level education in the nursing. I am working toward achieving my goal and receiving Bachelor degree in nursing. I’m an operating nurse with more than fifteen years of an experience. Over many years of my practice I have achieved a high level of skill in many different areas of my profession. Now looking back I have a renewed appreciation to all the nursing educators that trained me so well and equipped me with tools to strife for continued self-improvement. I feel that now is my turn to pass on the torch and make sure that the future generation of nurses with rip from my experience and knowledge. Current concerning trend in the nursing is an acute deficiency in experienced locally educated nurses. As stated by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing,† U.S. nursing schools turned away 78,089 qualified applicants from baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs in 2013 due to an insufficient number of faculty,† (AACN, 2014). I fully intend to use my BSN education to embark on the difficult role as a nurse educator initially on my workplace and possibly later in a nursing academic institution In summary, an academic nursing education is an important evolution in my profession since it equips me with knowledge, skills and tools to continue to provide better patient care in safer environment, take part in shaping future health care policies and pass on my knowledge in an efficient way. References American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). (2014). Nursing Faculty Shortage. Washington, DC Retrieved from: http://www.aacn.nche.edu/media-relations/fact-sheets/nursing-faculty-shortage Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (IOM). (2010). The future of nursing: Leading change, advancing health. Retrieved from: http://iom.edu/Reports/2010/The-Future-of-Nursing-Leading-Change-Advancing-Health.aspx

Modern Man - The Unknown Citizen (auden) :: essays research papers

The English-born American writer Wystan Hugh Auden was one of the most important poets of the 20th century. Educated at Oxford, he attracted attention as a prominent member of a group of young leftist writers who generally expressed a socialist viewpoint. The poem I have chosen for this essay is "The Unknown Citizen". I felt the time period reflected W.H. Auden's views, making the unknown citizen an example of the government's view of the perfect modern man in an overrated unrealistic society.In the time period that he wrote this poem in the late 1930's America was going through tremendous changes. This is the period in history in which The Great Depression was in effect. Most people living in the United States values, morals, and ethics were rapidly diminishing. The Great Depression fundamentally changed the relationship between the government and the people, who came to expect and accept a larger federal role in their lives and the economy. Throughout this time period Social Security was created.Back then this poem must have had a different meaning than today, it shows the value government has on issuing Social Security numbers. They make people believe it's for your own benefit when in reality they have the best use of it to track and retrieve information about your personal life. We see government as people we elected to represent our views they see us as a number. "Was he free? Was he happy? The question was absurd: Had anything been wrong we should certainly have heard (Auden 212)".I also felt he was expressing the fact that government makes it seem that everyone else is doing the "right thing" so you must follow him or her, and if you do so living a quality life will reward you. Their standards are so high that you will never reach the optimum point, so you work hard your whole life trying to improve. "His poems and essays present the idea of the good society as, at best, a possibility, never actually achieved, but which one must always work (Mendalson 112)". "Auden's poems speak instead in a voice almost unknown to English poetry science the eighteenth century: the voice of a citizen who knows the obligations of his citizenship (Mendalson 113).

The Effects of Thc, Spice, and Opiates on the Human Body

Ben Vu The effects of THC, Spice, and Opiates on the human body In the modern generation, many kids have experimented with all sorts of drugs. They are looking for a euphoric feeling that nothing else gives them. Some of these drugs have been used for medical reasons and recreational use since the beginning of man. Humans naturally are curious and try many different things to give them the high they are looking for. The most common of these drugs are marijuana, spice, and opiates. Cannabis, also known as marijuana, has over hundreds of different chemicals that affect the human body.Delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol or THC is the main chemical that gives the user the euphoric high they are looking for. Along with the euphoric feeling, the user also receives relaxation. Marijuana can be used in many different ways such as smoking it in a joint or cooking it in to food or sweets. The most common way of getting high is by smoking it. This can either be achieved by rolling a simple joint or bl unt to smoking it out of a bong or a vaporizer. Marijuana has been so common for many generations that the brain has adapted to have cannabinoid receptors.When ingested, the THC flows from the lung into the bloodstream. Once in the bloodstream it goes to the brain attaching to the cannabinoid receptors. The most common receptor, CB1, is mainly found in the part of the brain that associates with movement and memory. This explains why marijuana affects the users balance and coordination. While THC is in the brain, it makes the user have short-term memory lost; this is why it is used to treat nausea, pain, and lost in appetite. Other effects on the user’s body include laughter, altered perception of time, increased appetite and heart rate, paranoia and panic attacks.When marijuana is ingested or inhaled the effects appear as soon as the chemicals enter the brain and may last from one hour up to two hours. If it is ingested in food the short-term effects such as short-term memory lost and coordination begin more slowly usually taking up to half an hour to an hour to kick it. The benefits of ingesting it would be that the effects of marijuana would last longer, up to four hours. When smoking marijuana more of the chemicals are being deposited in the bloodstream.It only takes a few minutes after smoking that the user’s heart rate begins to beat more rapidly resulting in the blood vessel to expand resulting in bloodshot eyes. As the THC enters the brain, it causes the brain to release a chemical called dopamine, which in turns gives the user the high feeling. When high the user may experience pleasant sensations, colors and sounds may seem more intense, time appears to pass by a lot more slowly. The user’s mouth begins to feel dry this is known as cottonmouth causing the user to become suddenly very hungry or thirsty.After the euphoric high goes away the user begins to feel drowsy. There are two different strains of marijuana, indica and sativa. Indica strains have more cannabinoids than THC. This affects the user in more of a physical high resulting in an influx of appetite, laughter and a couch lock feeling. This is when the user gets the stoned effect where they do not want to move around. Indica is the most common strain of marijuana that is smoked by the average person. As a result of the higher CBDs indica strains are helpful to those who need sleeping aid and people wit insomnia.Whereas sativa which has a lot more of the chemical THC which gives the user more of a head high than a body high. This strain is prescribed to patients who have anxiety and depression. It gives the user more of a jubilant feeling without the feeling of being couch locked. The smoke of marijuana contains of a toxic mixture of gases and other particulates that are harmful to the lungs. The lungs of someone who smokes marijuana on a daily basis resembles those of a tobacco smoker. Marijuana has the potential to promote lung cancer because of th e carcinogens in the smoke.Nowadays most companies, businesses, and schools drug test for THC. This has caused people to move on to another drug even more dangerous and marijuana, spice. Spice is synthetic marijuana, made to give the user the same high as marijuana. Most people are not aware of what is actually in the spice and just smoke it because they cannot smoke marijuana. The most dangerous thing about spice is the fact that it is not regulated; anybody can make spice in his or her own privacy. Spraying chemicals such as JWH-018 on herbs and plants makes spice.When the government decides to make the chemical illegal producers tweak the chemical just a bit to create a whole knew molecule. Spice affects each user different; one smoker may a certain way and the other another way. Spice is a rarely new drug and scientist are still not certainly sure about how it affects the human body. A few minutes after smoking spice the user have side effects such as nausea/vomiting, severe par anoia, involuntary movements, hallucinations, and prolonged headaches lasting up to days after use.Some cases have shown that teenagers under the influence of spice are unable to speak or move; they are conscious but respond to normal situations in a weird way. User who smoke spice on a daily basis have a high risk of becoming addicted an addiction, which is similar to those of meth, cocaine, and opiates. The effects of spice usually wear off in about thirty minutes to an hour and this causing the user to want to keep smoking more and more. Scientists do not know the long-term effects of smoking spice; this makes it more dangerous because teens are smoking something that has the potential to harm their bodies.Opiates have been used as a pain reliever for over hundreds of generations. Opiates are the common name for any narcotic that was derived from opium. Painkillers such as morphine, codeine, hydrocodone, and oxycodone are all obtained from opium. Opiates the most additive an abus ive substances in the world today. Opiates obtain their powerful effects by attaching themselves in opiate receptors in the brain and body. The effects of opiates include extreme relaxation, euphoria, fatigue, confusion, decreased feeling of pain, and decreased sexual drive.While on opiates they cause the pupil of the eyes to dilate. Other effects include nausea and vomiting if too much of the opiate is taken. Opiates attach themselves to the neurotransmitters in the brain, which control body movement, moods, digestion, body temperature and breathing. They cause to the neurotransmitter to work at a very high rate. The short-term effects can show soon after a dose and lasting up to a few hours. Regular use of opiates leads to a higher tolerance, meaning the user needs more of the opiate to achieve the same effect as before.After a time of increasing tolerance the body becomes addicted to the drug, developing dependent on the opiate to function properly. Death from an opiate overdose usually occur when a user who has been off of opiates for some time again starts to take the same amount of the opiate as they are used to and because the user’s tolerance has gone done the result is an overdose. After repeated use of opiates, long-term effects soon appear. Most addicts who have been using for a long time seem to just ignore their health because they are only concerned about obtaining the opiate.Longtime users may develop collapsed veins, infection in their heart and valves, and liver disease. Due to the fact that opiates decrease reparation rate, pneumonia may occur in longtime users due to respiratory depression and the poor health of the user. When trying to stop the use of opiates, the withdrawal is very dangerous and painful. Withdrawl symptoms can occur as soon as a few hours after the last does. Symptoms include intense craving for the opiate, restlessness, body pain, insomnia, diarrhea, vomiting, and cold flashes.

Aircraft Carriers Essay

Aircraft Carriers became an essential part of Military History. They act as a mobile Sea base for Aircrafts to maintain a powerful Military wherever possible. Presence, influence, and options. These are three words that can describe and define a United States Naval Aircraft Carrier. They are floating cities with crews of thousands. They are the key player of any military strategy, they provide what has become the key to every battle fought since World War I. They present a presence in a region that is an automatic display of strength that no potential enemy can ignore. A 15-carrier force is required today to provide a full-time presence in three key regions where the Department of Defense considers a naval presence to be important: the Mediterranean, the Western Pacific and the Indian Ocean/Persian Gulf. The primary mission of an Aircraft Carrier is to deploy and to recover aircrafts. Aircraft Carriers were the essential role in making the United Navy the strongest in the world. The Aircraft Carrier has had issues of controversy from early on and this is due to budgeting. So the Aircraft Carrier is a huge importance in the military alone, besides from the United States Navy. Updates, additions and improvements are always being made. I would like to explore these questions and others from the history of the Aircraft Carriers to what the future hold for this billion-dollar ship. The history of the aircraft carrier began on Jul. 11, 1919 the Naval Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 1920 provided for the conversion of the collier Jupiter into a ship specifically designed to launch and recover airplanes at sea — an aircraft carrier — later to be named Langley. The engineering plans for this conversion were modified in November and included catapults to be fitted on both the forward and after ends of the â€Å"flying-off† deck. Mar. 20, 1922 – USS Langley (CV 1), converted from the collier USS Jupiter (AC 3), was placed in commission at Norfolk, Va., as the Navy’s first aircraft carrier. The ship’s executive officer, Cmdr. Kenneth Whiting, was in command. Apr. 1, 1922 – The specifications of arresting gear of the type later installed in early aircraft carriers were sent to various design engineers. â€Å"The arresting gear will consist of two or more transverse wires stretched across the fore and aft wires †¦ [and which] lead around sheaves placed outboard to hydraulic brakes. The plane, after engaging the transverse wire, is guided down the deck by the fore and aft wires and is brought to rest by the action of the transverse wire working with the hydraulic brake.†Jul. 1, 1922 – Congress authorized the conversion of the unfinished battle cruisers Lexington and Saratoga as aircraft carriers and as permitted under the terms of the Washington Treaty. Nov. 16, 1927 – USS Saratoga (CV 3) commissioned at Camden, N.J., Capt. Harry E. Yarnell, commanding. Dec. 14, 1927 – USS Lexington (CV 2) commissioned at Quincy, Mass., Capt. Albert W. Marshall, commanding. Jan. 11, 1928 – The first take off and landing aboard on the USS Saratoga (CV 3) was made by the ship’s Air Officer Cmdr. Marc A. Mitscher in a UO-1.Jan. 23-27, 1929 – The carriers Lexington and Saratoga took part in fleet exercises, attached to opposing forces. Saratoga was detached from the main force, and with an escorting cruiser, was sent on a wide southward sweep before turning north to approach within striking distance of her target, the Panama Canal. On the morning of the 26th, while it was still dark, she launched a strike group of 69 aircraft which arrived over the target undetected shortly after dawn and completed the theoretical destruction of the Miraflores and Pedro Miguel locks without opposition. This demonstration made a profound impression on naval tacticians. Apr. 9, 1929 – Operations aboard Langley and Saratoga confirmed that the fore-and-aft wires of the arresting gear were not needed. The Secretary of the Navy authorized their removal in September. All carrier aircraft, based on these tests, were equipped with brakes and wheel type tailskids. During the 1930 – USS Lexington (CV 2) completed a 30-day period in which she furnished electricity to the city of Tacoma, Wash., in an emergency arising from a failure of the city’s power supply. The electricity from the carrier totaled more than 4.25 million kilowatt-hours. Sept. 26, 1931 – The keel for USS Ranger (CV 4), the first ship of the U.S. Navy to be designed and constructed as an aircraft carrier, was laid at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry-dock Company in Newport News, VA. The ship was launched on 25 Feb. 1933, and commissioned 4 Jun. 1934 at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Capt. Arthur L. Bristol, commanding. Nov. 1, 1934 – The Naval Aircraft Factory was authorized to manufacture and test a flush-deck hydraulic catapult, Type H Mark I. This catapult was designed to launch land planes from aircraft carriers and was the Navy’s initial development of a hydraulic catapult, a type which was to be the primary means of launching land planes from carriers. Apr. 21, 1937 – Following a four-month conversion period, the Navy’s first carrier USS Langley was converted to a seaplane tender and reclassified as AV-3. Sept. 30, 1937 – USS Yorktown (CV 5) was placed in commission at the Norfolk Naval Operating Base Norfolk, Va., with Capt. Ernest D. McWhorter in command. The ship’s keel was laid on 21 May 1934 and it was launched on 4 April 1936. May 12, 1938 – USS Enterprise (CV 6) was placed in commission at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry-dock Company, Newport News, Va., Capt. N. H. White commanding. The ship was launched 3 Oct. 1936. Jun. 11-13, 1939 – USS Saratoga (CV 3) and the tanker USS Kanawha (AO 1) conducted underway-refueling tests off the coast of southern California, demonstrating the feasibility of refueling carriers at sea. Apr. 25, 1940 – USS Wasp (CV 7) was placed in commission at the Army Quartermaster Base, Boston, Mass., Capt. John W. Reeves, Jr., commanding. The ship’s keel was laid 1 Apr. 1936, at Quincy, Mass., by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Co., and the ship was launched 4 Apr. 1939. Jun. 2, 1941 – USS Long Island (AVG 1), the Navy’s first escort carrier, commissioned at Newport News, Va., Cmdr. Donald B. Duncan in command. The ship was originally built as Mormacmail, a cargo ship, by Sun Shipbuilding and Dry-dock Company, Chester, Pa., and converted in 67 days to a flush-deck carrier. She was reclassified as CVE-1 on 15 Jul. 1943. Oct. 20, 1941 – USS Hornet (CV 8) was placed in commission in Norfolk, Va., Capt. Marc A. Mitscher in command. The ship was launched 14 Dec. 1940 at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry-dock Company. Dec. 7, 1941 – Carrier aircraft of the Japanese Imperial Navy launched a devastating attack on Pearl Harbor and on the military and air installations in the area. The three aircraft carriers of the Pacific Fleet were not present. USS Saratoga (CV 3), just out of overhaul, was moored at San Diego. USS Lexington (CV 2) was at sea about 425 miles southeast of Midway toward which she was headed to deliver a Marine Scout Bombing Squadron. USS Enterprise (CV 6) was also at sea, about 200 miles west of Pearl Harbor, returning from Wake Island where she had delivered a Marine Fighter Squadron. These were some of the early experiences of Aircraft Carriers and we could determine how to divide carriers up from their makeup and function. U.S. aircraft carriers were named traditionally for older American warships and battles except for the first carrier the Langley, which was named after aviation pioneer Samuel P. Langley. Your first class of Aircraft Carriers began with the Essex class. These were 24 ships of World War II and these carriers were the backbone of the US carrier strength from 1943 through the Korean War. They operated alongside the larger Midway and Forrestal class ships through the Cold War and the Vietnam War. The Lexington was the last active ship, serving as a trained carrier until decommissioned in November 1991. After World War II, carriers were being modified to being designated as the Hancock class carriers. The Antietam was the first carrier in the US modified to an angled-deck configuration. Out of 32 ships 24 were completed during 1940 -1942. They were all originally designed to be CV and then later changed to CVA in 1952. Your list of carriers in the Essex’s class were from (CV 9) – (CV 40); Essex (CV 9), Yorktown (CV 10), Intrepid (CV 11), Hornet (CV 12), Franklin (CV13), Ticonderoga (CV 14), Randolph (CV 15), Lexington (CV 16), Bunker Hill (CV 17), and the Wasp (CV 18). (CV 40) Hancock (CV 19), Bennington (CV 20), Boxer (CV 21). List of light carriers that was from (CVL 22) – (CVL 30 Independence – class light carriers (CVL 22) – (CVL 30) and then continue back to your Essex class from (CV 31) – (CV 40); Bon Homme Richard (CV 31), Leyte (CV 32), Kearsarge (CV 33), Oriskany (CV 34), Reprisal (CV 35), Antietam (CV 36), Princeton (CV 37), Shangri-La (CV 38), Lake Champlain (CV 39) and Tarawa (CV 40). The next class of carriers was the Midway class large carriers (CVB 41) – (CVB44), and (CVB 56-57). The Midway (CV 41) was the last World War II era warship in commission in the Navy. She was decommissioned in 1992. The Midways were the largest warships designed by the US Navy during World War II. They were larger than the Essex class. They had a larger aircraft capacity and heavier gun battery and they were the first US carriers with an armored flight deck. Each ship was built had two haudralic catapults and aircraft capacity of 137. They were the first US warships constructed with a beam too great to permit passage through the Panama Canal. The Midway hangar deck is 692 feet long, 85 feet wide and 17  ½ feet high. Her flight deck is canted 13 degrees to port and is 682 feet long. The Midway carried Carrier Air Wing which operated three F/A Hornet squadrons, two A-6E Intruder Squadrons and an SH-3H Sea King squadron and plus combat support aircraft. Six Ships of this class were authorized in 1942- 1945: CVB 41-44, 56 and 57. The CVB 44 was cancelled on 1 Nov. 1943; the CVB 56 and CV 57 were cancelled on 28 March 1945. None had been laid down. The Roosevelt (CVB 42) was commissioned in 1945 and remained active her entire career. The Coral Sea (CVB 43) was commissioned in 1947 and pretty much active until decommissioned in 1990. Your next class was the Ticonderoga class the Valley Forge (CV-45). The Iwo Jima (CV 46) was cancelled in 1945. Then back to the Essex class Philippine Sea (CV 47) and (CV 50-55) were also Essex class were cancelled in 1945. Saipan class light carriers (CVL 48-49); Saipan (CVL 48) and the Wright (CVL 49). Then picking up after your Midway large class carriers was the United States heavy carriers. There were fours ships of this class and they were intended to primarily operate nuclear strike aircraft and the lead ship, the United States (CVA 58), was authorized in 1948 but canceled in 1949. Even though she was never completed she served as a design to the Forrestal and large US aircraft carriers. The United States design provided for a flush-deck configuration that could launch two heavy attack aircraft and two fighters from a pair of forward catapults and a pair of waist catapults simultaneously. Your next class was the Forrestal and modified Forrestal classes (CV 59-64), and (CV 66-67). Forrestal (CV 59), Saratoga (CV 60), Ranger (CV 61), Independence (CV 62), Kitty Hawk (CV 63), and the Constellation (CV 64). Modified Forrestal class America (CV 66) and the John F. Kennedy (CV 67). The Forrestal class was the world’s first aircraft carrier design to be constructed from the keel up after World War II. The ships were intended to operate heavy and high-performance turbojet attack aircraft. Four ships originally were to be completed from 1955 -1959. The classification taken from the Independence was that this class of ship was built as an attack aircraft carrier, and then changed to a multi-mission aircraft when modified to operate S-3A Viking ASW aircraft and SH-3 Sea King ASW helicopters. The Forrestal was modified during construction to incorporate the British developed angled flight deck. The hangar deck is 740 feet, 101 wide and 25 feet high. These were the last aircraft carriers built with a minor gun armament. The USS Enterprise (CV 65) was the world’s second nuclear-propelled surface warship, and at the time of construction she was the world’s largest and most expensive. The estimated cost was 444 million dollars. The Enterprise is classified as an attack aircraft carrier and was later changed to a multi-mission carrier. She was built to modify the Kitty Hawk but in her original configuration she had an island structure because of the arrangement of radar antennas. Her hangar deck is 860 feet long, 107 feet wide and 25 feet high. The Enterprise was involved in the Pacific Fleet in 1965 which she conducted air strikes over North Vietnam in November. That made her the first nuclear ship to enter combat. The next class of aircraft carriers is the Nimitz class from (CV 68-77). Nimitz (CV 68), Eisenhower (CV 69), Vinson (CV 70), Roosevelt (CV 71), Lincoln (CV 72), Washington (CV 73), Stennis (CV 74), Truman (CV 75), Reagan (CV 76) and George H. Bush (CV 77). These are the largest warships ever built. A program to construct the first three CVNs of this class was approved by Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara during the Vietnam War as replacements for the three Midway class carriers to provide a force of 12 large carriers. The Nimitz and the Eisenhower were to ordered as attack carriers and then changed to multi-mission aircraft carriers in 1975. These ships are similar to the Kitty Hawk class in regards to the flight deck. The hangar deck is 684 feet long, 108 feet wide and 26  ½ feet high. This class has been in production longer than any other carrier design in history. These were also the first aircraft carrier combatant ships to have women assigned to them. The Eisenhower was the first to deploy with women in 1994 with 367 women aboard for a six-month deployment. All of these ships are still active in the fleet. A future aircraft carrier as of right now is The Gerald R. Ford class is the future aircraft carrier replacement class for USS Enterprise and CVN 68, or Nimitz class aircraft carriers. Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) and the John F. Kennedy (CVN 70) was ordered from Newport News Shipbuilding on Sept. 10, 2008, and is scheduled to be delivered in 2015. The Gerald R. Ford class will be the premier forward asset for crisis response and early decisive striking power in a major combat operation. Gerald R. Ford class aircraft carriers and carrier strike groups will provide the core capabilities of forward presence, deterrence, sea control, power projection, maritime security and humanitarian assistance. The structure of the future aircraft carriers as of right now is to consist of the Nimitz class flight deck. But the deck has been re-arranged to increase sortie rates and improve weapons movement. In order for this to happen the island has been designed differently and there is to be three instead of four aircraft lifts. Other features include electromagnetic aircraft launching system, new integrated warfare system and an advanced nuclear power plant. The electrical generating capacity is to be at least 2  ½ times that of the Nimitz class to support new fighting technologies such as energy weapons and also to support high communications. With discussing the future carriers many have suggested going away from the highly expensive and vulnerable super carriers toward smaller, light carriers. The new super carrier is going to expensive to maintain with the high sortie technology and electromagnetic aircraft launch system. This is an idea for future aircraft carriers because of budgeting and vulnerability. Aircraft carriers will remain the cornerstone of the United States Navy regardless of their change. Aircraft carriers and their embarked air wings are the most important weapons systems in the Navy. These large ships never operate alone but as core of a carrier battle group that consists of cruisers, destroyers, frigates and submarines, which safeguard the carrier. At its most basic level, an aircraft carrier is simply a ship outfitted with a flight deck and a runway area for launching and landing airplanes. This concept dates back almost as far as airplanes themselves. The new carriers allowed military forces to transport short-range aircrafts all over the world. Today super aircraft carriers are a crucial part of almost all major U.S. military operations. While the ship itself isn’t especially useful as a weapon, the air power it transports can make the difference between victory and defeat. One of the major obstacles of using air power in war is getting the planes to their destination. To maintain an air base in a foreign region, the United States has to make special arrangements with a host country, and then has to abide by that country’s rules, which may change over time. No matter if aircraft carriers change for technology or for budgeting they will remain. They carry a huge punch and presence wherever they go. Their range, power and weaponry create a powerful image to the enemy that cannot be ignored. Without the creation of the aircraft carrier in the United States Navy we would not be the most powerful Naval force in the World today. We have seen over time from the very beginning aircraft carrier, the evolving technology, design and configuration change. But the main purpose for the aircraft carrier is being able to deploy aircrafts at anytime and to maintain the aircrafts. Each aircraft carrier is a self-sustained floating airport that’s sovereign U.S. territory. When deployed, they operate with their own ZIP code, post office, hospital, dental clinic, barbershops, athletic facilities and chapels. More than 18,000 meals are prepared daily and each of the crew has e-mail access. That is why they are seen, as a floating city and it is essential to maintain their protection. The carrier’s mobility allows them to be deployed wherever needed to support ongoing or sudden conflicts. The ships are routinely sent to international waters, and the air wing teams that travel with each carrier are available to perform a variety of missions ranging from surveillance to strikes. So again aircraft carriers will remain an essential value to the United States military. Throughout military history they have played a major role especially since World War I and causing major conflictions on the enemy. So we will continue to enhance our technology to aircraft carriers and the air wings to remain the strongest in the world. We will do so to maintain air superiority and superiority of the United States. Regardless of controversy or budgeting the United States will continue to make aircraft carriers or make modifications to existing aircraft carriers in the fleet. The United States Navy has shown it power and force through aircraft carriers. The ability to execute at anytime or anywhere with it powerful mobilization of aircrafts. But behind the aircraft carrier is the crew who operates it and maintain. Thank you United States Navy! Works Cited Morris, James. Readings in American Military History. Pearson, ISBN-13: 978-0-13-182516-1 Millett, Allan, and Peter Maslowski. For the Common Defense: A Military History of the United States. 2nd Edition: Free Press, ISBN-13: 978-0- 02-921597-5. Chambers, John W., and G. Kurt Piehler. Major Problems in American Military History. Houghton Mifflin, ISBN-13: 978-0-669-33538-5. Rampolla, Mary Lynn. A Pocket Guide to Writing in History. 6th Edition. Bedford/ St. Martin’s, ISBN-13: 978-0-312-53503-2. Polmar, Norman. The Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet. 6th Edition. United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, Maryland. ISBN: 1-55750-686-8 Clancy, Tom. Carrier A guided tour of an Aircraft Carrier. Berkley publishing group, ISBN: 0-425-16682-1 Sanders, Stephen. Jane’s Fighting Ships 2011-2012. 114th edition. United States Naval Institute, Annapolis Maryland. ISBN: 978-0710629593

Bald Eagles And Golden Eagles Essays - Eagles, Bald Eagle

Bald Eagles And Golden Eagles Essays - Eagles, Bald Eagle Bald Eagles and Golden Eagles Eagle is the common name for a number of diurnal birds of prey, some of which are the largest members of their family which also includes kites, hawks, buzzards, and certain vultures. The name eagle is somewhat loosely applied, as several of the groups are not particularly closely related to one another, and some birds called hawks are larger than some called eagles. The Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus Leucocephalus) and the Golden Eagle (Aquila Chrysaetos) are two eagles that have several of the same characteristics and have several different ones as well. The Bald Eagle is the only eagle species living strictly in North America, and has a presence in every state in the US except Hawaii. Young (immature) Bald Eagles are light gray when hatched, and turn dark brown before leaving the nest at about 12 weeks of age. During their third and fourth years, Bald Eagles have a mottled brown and white color under their wings and on their head, tail and breast. The distinctive white head and tail feathers do not appear until they are 4 to 5 years old. Bald Eagles range from about 29-42 inches long, and can weigh between 7-16 pounds, and have a wingspan of 6 to 8 feet. This makes them one of the largest birds in North America. Bald Eagles residing in the northern US are larger than those that reside in the south. They have a life span of up to 30-40 years in the wild and longer in captivity. Bald Eagles are monogamous and remain faithful to their mate until death. Females lay one to three eggs annually, and the incubation period is approxim! ately 35 days. Only about 50% of Eagles hatched survive the first year. Strong endangered species and environmental protection laws, as well as active private, state and federal conservation efforts have brought back the USA's Bald Eagle population from the edge of extinction. There are now about 4500 nesting pairs and 20,000 total birds in the lower 48 states, and there are over 35,000 Bald Eagles in Alaska. America's Bald Eagles are back in strong numbers today, but they are still a "threatened" species in the lower 48 states. Breeding season last from November to April. Bald eagles mate for life and use the same nest each year. They build a huge nest (aerie) of sticks and twigs in a tree, or on rocky cliffs and average in size of 2 feet deep and 5 feet across. The nest takes weeks to construct and is increased yearly. Eventually some nests reach sizes of more than 10 feet wide and can weigh several tons. Bald Eagles feed primarily on fish, but also eat small animals (ducks,! coots, muskrats, turtles, rabbits, snakes, etc.) and occasional carrion (dead animals). Eagles swoop down to seize fish in their talons and carry it off, but can only lift about half of their weight. Bald Eagles can even swim to shore with a heavy fish using their strong wings as paddles. However, it is also possible that they can drown if the fish weighs too much. The Golden Eagle is a large brown and golden colored eagle that can be found in a variety of habitats in the western North America region including mountainous areas, canyons, shrub-land and grasslands. The Golden Eagle can also be found in Europe, Asia and northern Africa. The breeding range in North America includes north central Mexico, the western United States as far east as the Dakotas, Kansas and Texas, also Alaska, and across northern Canada. This bird of prey can weigh up to 15 pounds and can have a wingspan of 6 to 8 feet and a length of 30-40 inches. Females are often more noticeably larger than males as is true with most birds of prey. Young (immature) Eagles have a patch of white on the tail, and the adult tail is gray and brown. The Golden Eagle also builds large their nest out of sticks and twigs in a tree or on a cliff. The female lays 1-4 eggs (usually 2) and often does most of the incubation. The males provide most of the food while the females feed and tend! the

5 Causes of the Death of a Tree

5 Causes of the Death of a Tree Trees have an extraordinary ability to withstand many damaging agents that are ever-present in their environment. Trees have evolved over millions of years to ward off many stressors that bite and burn and starve and rot their roots, trunk, limbs, and leaves. It is amazing how a tree compartmentalizes itself to seal off dead wood and disease, defoliates to reduce the effect of drought and bleeds to extract harmful insects. We know that all trees do eventually die. There are many hundreds of seedlings and saplings that succumb for every mature tree left in the forest. All ages of trees eventually die to the same agents and only the most adaptive (and often lucky) individuals make it to old age. There are 5 factors to which a tree eventually succumbs: death from its environment, death from harmful insects and diseases, death from a catastrophic event, death from age-related collapse (starvation) and of course, death from harvest. In most cases, death is the result of several, if not all of these conditions taking place simultaneously. Lets take a look at each of these. Adverse Environment Ground and site conditions on which a tree lives ultimately determines the environmental stressors placed on that tree. If a drought-sensitive tree lives on a dry site during drought conditions, it may indeed die from lack of water. But that same tree can also be more susceptible to every other life-threatening factor placed upon it. For example, a disease that appears to be killing the tree may in effect be only a secondary issue to the initial environmental problem. Examples of adverse environments to trees are poorly draining soils, salty soils, droughty soils, air and ground pollution, extreme sun heating or cold spots and many, many others. It is particularly important to understand a tree species genetic tolerance to environmental conditions when planting. Many trees adapt very well to poor sites, but you need to understand which species fits where. Harmful Insects and Disease Virulent diseases like Dutch elm disease and the chestnut blight have caused sudden death to entire forests in North America. However, the most common diseases are more subtle in their work, killing many more trees in total than virulent types and cost forest and yard tree owners billions of dollars in forest product and specimen tree value. These common diseases include three bad ones: Armillaria root rot, oak wilt, and anthracnose. These pathogens invade the tree through leaves, roots and bark wounds and damage a trees vascular system if not prevented or treated. In natural forests, prevention is the only economic option available and is a significant part of a foresters silvicultural management plan. Harmful insects are opportunistic and often invade trees under stress from environmental problems or disease. They not only can directly cause tree death but will spread harmful disease fungi from a host tree to surrounding trees. Insects can attack a trees cambial layer by boring for food and nesting cavities, or they can defoliate a tree to the point of death. Bad insects include pine beetles, the gypsy moth, and emerald ash borers. Catastrophic Events A catastrophic event is always possible in a vast forest as well as in an urban setting. All property, including trees, are subject to being damaged or destroyed. In many cases, trees are not killed but are damaged to the point where their vigor is lost, and insects and disease take advantage of a trees loss of resistance. Significant tree losses can occur during a forest fire or when exposed to tornado-strength winds. Trees take a terrible hit when heavy ice is deposited on species sensitive to limb weight which results in breakage. Floods that do not recede quickly can cause root oxygen levels to diminish to the point where tree damage can occur. Extraordinary drought makes quick work of moisture-loving tree species and can harm all trees when extended over a long period. Old Age For trees who beat the odds and live through maturity to old age, there is a slow dying process that may take centuries to complete (in long-lived species). The modular tree compartmentalizes around damage and infected areas and continues to grow. Still, growth starts slowing after a tree matures, the ability of the plant to support itself diminishes and incurs the loss of adequate foliage for hydration and food. New immature branches, called epicormic sprouts, try to assist in maintaining an old trees vigor but are weak and are insufficient to sustain life for very long. A mature tree slowly collapses under its weight and crumbles to become the nutrients and topsoil for future trees. Timber Harvests Well remind you that trees do die to the ax. Trees via their wood have supported humankind and civilization for millennia and continue to be a necessary part of the human condition. The practice of forestry through professional foresters work continually with much success to provide a sustained flow of available wood volume and at the same time, ensure a surplus of trees. Some consider deforestation a growing global crisis.

Plato's Allegory of the Cave Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Plato's Allegory of the Cave - Essay Example He expresses a point unknown and less considered by many, that a philosopher could be zero in knowledge. Through the puzzle, the victim of such circumstances only discovers of such truths after a long time. Exposure, which happens to be less in the profession, uncovers such truths hence making it a puzzle that majority of the philosophers are ignorant and hide behind the veil of ignorance. The claim that Socrates makes to be the wisest of all and later declares his ignorance as every other philosopher therefore makes the riddle. Socrates happens to come out as one of the wisest philosophers. By denouncing the level at which philosophers are placed in the society, he tried to connect with what is considered as the real world. He comes out as one who is certain of the shortcomings in his world that other philosophers have not discovered. By saying ‘I know that I do not know’, he comes out as a wise philosopher who knows he does not know everything. He brings out an aspect of acceptance that one can never be self-sufficient. Regardless of how much one is perceived by others to be sufficient, a gap in everybody can only be discovered through exposure. This is the opposite of what the world thinks of philosophers. It is also the opposite of what philosophers think of themselves. To many of them, their small professional world gives them confidence as all knowing. Majority do not acknowledge their struggles as part of a problem emanating from ignorance. To them, the struggles are just part of the process. Allegory of the Cave is a dialogue between Plato’s teacher, Socrates and Plato’s brother. Socrates, who is the main narrator, brings out a dark, congested world inhabited by people in a particular class of wisdom. In that small world symbolized by a cave, there is commonality of knowledge since all are pinned to the same wall. They face the same issues and none of them feels free to explore the outside world even when freedom is declared. The Allegory is given in a setting of a prison where prisoners are put in an underground cave. The cave receives limited light that makes it hard for each one of them to see anything that happens behind them. All they know are their own shadows and those of people passing behind them. Their manner of communication and the things they talk to each other relates to what they share in common. Their discussions are tied around what is common to them and any attempt to release them will not be easy for them. Select one incident from Plato’s Allegory of the Cave that best serves to illustrate the meaning of this statement. According to the allegory, the prisoner disabused of his error and liberation to walk around represents Socrates. Due to the conditions he has been in before, the prisoner is likely to suffer so many things. Part of the problems will be facing the light that has been rare in the former state. Any exposure to the light will be so disturbing but a positive step tow ards discovering the reality outside the prison. The exposure will be the start of getting wisdom as he tries to define different things around him. For example in the Allegory, giving seasons and the years will be a demonstration of newly found wisdom that never existed in the former state. The incident brings out a realization of the real world where fantasies do not apply. Facing realities makes one realize how much they do not know even after being higher in knowledge as per fellow people. To Socrates, getting