Professionals in each the three areas of education, biomedical, and Research Paper

Professionals in each the three areas of education, biomedical, and sensory integration interventions - Research Paper Example This is the current role of biomedical engineers as stipulated by many job markets. The performance of such professions can be improved through provision of a platform for research and innovation as well as provision of motivating factors such as proper remuneration and appropriate working environments. Lesson learned is that biomedical engineers apply a combination of knowledge from various disciplines. They basically guide intervention processes for children with substantial challenges in processing and interpreting information that may hinder their efforts to participate in daily life activities (http://atcnts.com/wp n.d). They act as therapists and perform duties ascribed to cognitive challenges. Their performance can be improved through research and innovation and improving their working conditions. This profession deals more with psycho-social challenges. Directors of Occupational Therapy in Sensory Integration Intervention. (n.d.). Directors of Occupational Therapy in Sensory Integration Intervention. Retrieved February 27, 2014, from

Evergreen’s administrators Essay Example for Free

Evergreen’s administrators Essay Windows Server 2003 is a better and a more efficient version of Windows 2000 such that it takes its best features and creates a system that is easier to manage and use. This paper will discuss some of the benefits that Windows Server 2003 will bring to a large organization such as Evergreen Health. Discussion Evergreen is a big organization that provides health insurance throughout the state. It is bigger now after acquiring several other smaller health insurance providers. Therefore, it needs a system that is reliable and friendly enough to cater to such an organization. Windows Server 2003 will benefit Evergreen in a number of ways. First of all, Windows Server 2003 is highly dependable and easily available. The Microsoft Cluster service now has around eight-node clusters that are divided geographically (Microsoft, 2008). This is beneficial because no matter what branch of Evergreen requires the system, it will be available and guaranteed to work reliably. Windows Server 2003 is easy to install, use, and handle. It has a similar interface to that of Windows 2000, a server already used by the staff. A wizard makes setup very easy even for servers that do not have a dedicated administrator (Microsoft, 2008). This is especially important for Evergreen because its employees have little knowledge about newer systems. It will be easy to use by anyone. Active Directory is the server’s directory that helps to store information about objects on the network. It becomes easier for administrators to find this information because it becomes logically organized. This will be very convenient for Evergreen’s administrators. Connecting the different areas and locations of Evergreen through intranets and extranets make security very vulnerable and hence, vital. Windows Server 2003 provides a number of measures to provide this kind of security. It has software restriction policies and easily encryptable data that can be used to prevent viruses and other malicious code. The damage caused by these can be immense. The Windows Rights Management Services prevents unauthorized access anywhere. A big pro for Evergreen is that this server’s Intelligent File Storage allows the firm to increase document protection and it makes them more available. Users can access earlier files easily with the use of the server’s new shadow copy restore feature. This is big for Evergreen because it must have millions of records that need handling and more importantly, protection. It also facilitates backup which is very important for an insurance organization. In today’s fast-paced business world, in order to remain competitive today, it is extremely essential to have an efficient and secure system. Windows Server 2003’s Web server IIS 6. 0 provides improved security and a steady design that offers application segregation (Microsoft, 2008). It also provides XML Web Services that will allow the firm to easily discover Web services and other programmatic resources. Conclusion In conclusion, the Window Server 2003 will be a valuable investment for Evergreen Health because this firm has to deal with millions of people and their essential records. Windows Server 2003 will greatly facilitate the organization, storage and backup of these records securely and reliably. Other than that, it is easy to use which is indispensable for Evergreen’s employees. For this reason, Evergreen should go for it. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Microsoft (2008). Top 10 Benefits of Windows Server 2003. Retrieved June 26, 2008 from Microsoft. Website:http://www. microsoft. com/windowsserver2003/evaluation/whyupgrade/top10best. mspx 2. Microsoft (2002). Windows Server 2003: Product Overview. Retrieved June 26, 2008 from Microsoft TechNet. Website: http://technet. microsoft. com/en-us/windowsserver/bb429524. aspx

Trade openness and its impact on economic growth

Trade openness and its impact on economic growth The main objective of this chapter is to have an overview of what has been said in the literature regarding trade openness and its impacts, mainly on growth and exposure to external shocks. Infact, the benefits and costs of increased integration remain the subject of a hotly contested debate. Section 2.1 provides an overview of the theoretical perspective of different authors. Section 2.1.1 and 2.1.2 elaborate on the impact of trade on growth and exposure to external shocks respectively. Finally, section 2.2 reviews the empirical literature. 2.1 Theoretical review 2.1.1 Trade and Growth The net effect of trade openness on economic growth has been and remains a subject of much controversy. It is well known that periods of openness have generally been associated with prosperity while protectionism has been the companion of recessions. World international trade has experienced exponential growth over the past two decades. L. Fontagnà © and M. Mimouni (2000) have stated that since the end of the European recovery after World War II, tariff rates have been divided by 10 at the world level, international trade has been multiplied by 17, world income has quadrupled, and income per capita has doubled (p. 2). An economys openness is said to be one of the key determinants of its growth, along with human capital, the investment ratio and the rate of population growth (The Deutsch Bank Research, 2005). Countries that have successfully indulged in international trade, opened themselves to foreign direct investment and attracted foreign workers experienced much higher economic growth than countries that have failed to become integrated into the global economy. Explanations brought forward by The Deutsch Bank Research (2005) on how increased trade boosts growth are drawn from the neoclassical trade model, the technological transfer argument and the institutional improvements argument. In order to explain the neoclassical model of international trade, one should go back to Adam Smith (1776) and David Ricardo (1817). They showed that two countries with absolute and comparative cost advantages can benefit from trade given that each country specialises in producing the good that it can manufacture at a relatively lower cost. The total number of manufactured goods that both countries can consume thus increases and higher welfare follows. However, it is to be noted that economic growth is not an immediate consequence. Technology transfer occurs via the importing of high-tech capital goods, production facilities, patents and licences, as well as knowledge-intensive services. Furthermore, the importing of new technologies also stimulates the development of domestic technology via the imitation and enhancement of imported products. So trade accelerates technological progress, which in turn is the key source of long-term economic expansion according to growth theory. The institutional framework also plays a major role. It encompasses improving infrastructure, boosting capital market efficiency and safeguarding property rights. This process is facilitated by increasing international competition, which prompts domestic companies to continually optimise their production processes and develop new products; this also speeds up technological progress and thus boosts economic growth. In the same breath, Grossman and Helpman (1991) established that openness enhances economic growth through the following channels. Firstly, trade enlarges the available variety of intermediate goods and capital equipment, which can expand the productivity of the countrys other resources. Secondly, trade permits developing countries the access to improved technology in developed countries, in the form of embodied capital goods and thirdly, trade allows intensification of capacity utilization that increases products produced and consumed. To Fontagnà © and Guà ©rin (1998), openness is certainly a prerequisite, not the engine of growth. It simply fuels the engines of investment, reform and credibility. The trade performance of individual countries tends to be a good indicator of economic performance as well. Performing countries tend to record higher rates of GDP growth. The majority of developing countries have joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) and have taken initiatives aimed at opening their economies. Nevertheless, the outcome has not been systematically positive since export performance sometimes remains disappointing and these countries steadily follow contrasted development paths. Guà ©rin (1999) pointed out that there is no systematic gain in growth associated with the binding to the multilateral rules of international trade. Accordingly, Rodrik (2000) argues that integration into the world economy hardly substitutes for a development strategy. Nonetheless, some developing countries record high growth rates by specialising in niche markets and concentrating their export markets, while other developing countries record more moderate rates of growth with a well diversified array of products and partner countries. In other cases, successful performance is the result of a favorable product or market penetration since the beginning. Successful performance can also be gauged in terms of a countrys ability to adapt its export profile to changing patterns of world demand. The phenomenal differences among the growth rates of the East Asian, the Latin American, and Sub-Saharan African countries over the last several decades have stimulated a renewed interest in the effects of trade policies on growth. During most of the 20th century, import substitution industrialization (ISI) strategies dominated most developing countries development strategies. While developing countries in Latin America that followed ISI strategies experienced relatively lower growth rates, East Asian countries, that employed export-promotion policies, consistently outperformed other countries. This probably explains why a growing body of empirical and theoretical research has shifted towards examining the relationship between trade liberalization and the economic performance of countries since the late 1970s. 2.1.2 Trade and Exposure to External Shocks Trade provides countries with new growth opportunities but also exposes them to external shocks. Many economists believe that, though openness to trade increases average GDP growth rates, it also raises output volatility by exposing countries to terms-of- trade shocks. The term vulnerability is often brought up when referring to exposure to external shocks. Vulnerability refers to inherent characteristics which render countries prone to exogenous shocks Open economies are subject to external shocks and Rodrik (1998) has argued that more open economies have bigger governments, because government spending is used to smoothen those external shocks. The vulnerability of countries to some types of external shocks should be reduced when these countries exports are better diversified. More specifically, the effect of trade openness on growth volatility, might it be either negative or positive on average, is likely to be exacerbated when the country in question exports either a relatively small set of products, or sells its goods to a small number of destination markets. The argument is that a higher degree of concentration in exports would imply that any idiosyncratic price shock experienced is more likely to have a substantial impact on the countrys terms of trade, and this would then induce greater fluctuations in a countrys growth process. Furthermore, a higher degree of diversification would likely imply that a country is involved in a larger number of both implicit and explicit international insurance schemes, which would similarly serve as a cushion against such fluctuations. It has been argued that the structure of developing countries exports makes those countries particularly vulnerable to external shocks. Michaely (1958) showed five decades ago that countries with lower GDP per capita tend to be characterized by a higher commodity concentration of exports and argued that as a result, shocks affecting individual export products can have significant effects on overall export performance and potentially on economic performance in developing countries. However, it is to be noted that many small states manage to generate a relatively high GDP per capita when compared to other developing countries in spite of their high exposure to exogenous economic shocks. This would seem to suggest that there are factors which may offset the disadvantages associated with such vulnerability. This phenomenon was termed by Briguglio (2003) as the Singapore Paradox, referring to the reality that although Singapore is highly exposed to exogenous shocks, this small island state has managed to register high rates of economic growth and to attain high GDP per capita. This reality can be explained in terms of the ability of Singapore to build its resilience in the face of external shocks. Practitioners keep wondering whether being open, or in the process of opening up, can determine long-run negative effects linked to an increased exposure to external shocks or greater stress on certain actors. The open question is the following: does trade openness or the process of opening up magnify the risk exposure of the open economy and/or increase uncertainty towards the future, with negative consequences on its welfare? This question does not have a once-for-all answer. It concerns, in general terms, the issue of the balance between the advantages of trade openness and the drawbacks of a greater exposure to shocks and uncertainty. The simplest analysis of risk suggests that at low levels of trade (as typical in developing economies), further trade liberalisation would tend to reduce risk exposure, because (larger) world markets with many players are likely to be more stable than (smaller) domestic ones (Winters, 2002). The hypothesis of a likely long term negative welfare effect of exposure to external shocks and uncertainty a sort of vulnerability hazard induced by trade openness in developing countries (Montalbano et al., 2006 and 2008; Guillaumont, 2007a, 2007b; UNUWider 2008b) has been supported by a number of considerations: Dercon (2001) underlines the role of openness as a vehicle for an entirely new set of shocks and incentives able to put traditional mechanisms under pressure and hamper people standard management strategies; Calvo and Dercon (2003 and 2007) and Ligon and Schechter (2003 and 2004) highlight how risk averse households will have lower levels of welfare or a lower expected utility if they face greater variation in future consumption, as it is more likely in the case of trade openness; Winters (2002) and Winters et al. (2004) suggest that trade openness could alter households optimal portfolio leading to sub-optimal choices, especially for the poor, because of a poor ability to bear new risks and weak capabilities to insure themselves against adverse impacts or simply because their behaviour can be negatively affected by rising uncertainty. 2.2 Empirical Review Do open economies grow faster than closed economies? Almost all empirical growth studies have provided an affirmative answer to this question. The reason for this strong bias in favor of trade liberalization is partly based on the conclusions of a wide range of empirical studies, which claimed that outward-oriented economies consistently have higher growth rates than inward-oriented countries. It is also partly due to the tragic failures of import-substitution strategies, especially in the 1980s and overstated expectations from trade liberalization. Levine and Renelt (1992) show that trade openness may affect growth through investment. Continuous openness may lead to faster long-run growth since openness allows larger access to investment goods. Trade liberalization provides incentives for foreign direct investment; nevertheless, foreign investment may crowd-out domestic investment. Rodriguez and Rodrik [1999] also emphasize the indefinite sign of the effects of trade on growth. Net effects are positive if the resource allocation driven by trade policy promotes sectors that generate more long-run growth, but are negative otherwise. Economic volatility has been shown to reduce economic growth (Ramey and Ramey, 1995; Martin and Rogers, 2000; Imbs, 2007) and the positive growth impact of trade may therefore be attenuated if it leads to significant exposure to external shocks. Terms of trade volatility is probably the most widely used measure for external shocks. A number of studies have used quantitative, multi-sector equilibrium models to analyse the effect of terms of trade shocks on output volatility. Kose (2002) finds that world price shocks play an important role in driving business cycles in small open developing economies. His results confirm the results of earlier work by Mendoza (1995) or Kose and Riezman (2001). A number of recent studies have analysed the relationship between terms of trade shocks and changes in GDP growth in vector auto-regression (VAR) models. Ahmed (2003) uses a VAR model to study the sources of short-term fluctuations in the output of six Latin-American countries and finds that changes in the terms of trade and foreign output play a moderate role in driving output fluctuations. Using industry-level data, di Giovanni Levchenko (2009) investigate the channels through which trade openness might affect volatility. They find a strong positive correlation between the risk content of exports and the variance of terms of trade and also found that export specialization affect macroeconomic volatility. They find that trade openness appears to lead to countries becoming more specialised in their exports. This is problematic given that openness is likely to also expose a country to a greater number of shocks. Trade openness may expose economies to external shocks, but may also act as a buffer against domestic shocks. The overall impact of openness on volatility is therefore an empirical question. Easterly, Islam and Stiglitz (2001) and Calderon et al. (2005) find that higher trade openness leads to larger growth volatility. In contrast, Kose et al. (2002) do not find that trade openness have a robust effect on GDP volatility. Most studies on economic vulnerability provide empirical evidence that small states, particularly island ones, tend to be characterised by high degrees of economic openness and export concentration. These lead to exposure to exogenous shocks, that is, economic vulnerability, which could constitute a disadvantage to economic development by magnifying the element of risk in growth processes, without necessarily compromising the overall viability. Cordina (2004) shows that increased risk can adversely affect economic growth as the negative effects of downside shocks would be commensurately larger than those of positive shocks. The high degree of fluctuations in GDP and in export earnings registered by many small states is considered as one of the manifestations of exposure to exogenous shocks. In the analysis of the linkages between trade openness and volatility, for instance, an extensive use of panel data appears. Among the most recent exercises, Kose et al. (2003); Hnatkovska and Loayza (2004); Wolf (2004); Calderon et al. (2005) use panel data to measure the external exposure of a worldwide sample of countries by the sensitivity of first and second moments of economic growth (average rate and standard deviation) to openness and financial shocks. They also allow the possibilities of non-linearities by allowing growth and volatility effects to vary with the level of economic development. On the same wake, Loayza and Raddatz (2006) apply semi-structural VAR to a panel of 90 countries with annual observations for the period 1974-2000 in order to isolate and standardise the shocks; estimate their impact on GDP and examine whether and to what extent this impact depends on the domestic conditions.4 Using this technique, as mentioned, they show that trade openness magnifies th e output impact of external shocks. Santos-Paolino (2007) too, who applies the same Panel VAR approach for a selection of SIDS from the Caribbean, emphasises the negative impact of terms of trade shocks on current account and real output volatility. Malik and Temple (2006), in their effort to explain differences in output volatility across developing countries, use instead a Bayesian method to highlight explanatory variables that are robust across a wide range of specifications. They show the pervasive role of geography in determining aggregate volatility: since remoteness is associated with a lack of export diversification, a significant phenomenon of high volatility of terms-of-trade and output of the more remote countries is apparent. This result is not sensitive to the precise regression specification, nor it is driven by the contrasting geographies of low income and high income countries. Concerning the analysis of the linkages between trade openness and economic crises, Cavallo and Frankel (2007), following closely the definition of Calvo et al. (2003), Frankel and Rose (1996) and Frankel and Wei (2004), use a Probit model to measure the probability of a sudden reduction in the magnitude of net capital inflows; exchange market pressure and output loss for a set of 141 countries for the period 1970-2002. They find evidence that trade openness makes countries less vulnerable to sudden stops and currency crises. A special feature of this work is that they address the problem of endogeneity of trade, using gravity estimates to construct an instrumental variable for trade openness based on geographical determinants of bilateral trade which are supposed to be exogenous. In a slight different exercise, Glick and Rose (1999) explain regional contagion of crises, using a binary probit equation across countries via maximum likelihood. They use cross sectional data for 161 countries in five different episodes of widespread currency instability. Their conclusion complement that of Cavallo and Frankel (2007), arguing that no matter who is the first victim of the speculative attack and what factors are behind it there is a strong evidence that currency crises tend to spread regionally because of trade linkages. It emerges from the above how current analyses remain basically ex post assessments, mainly targeted to issues not directly linked to vulnerability. An additional effort is needed to build a sound methodology to assess vulnerability to trade openness. A. Federici and P. Montalbano in a paper entitled Assessing vulnerability to trade openness: a cross-country analysis offer a substantive contribution to current debate on the effects of trade openness on developing countries vulnerability. The main result of this cross countries empirical test is to highlight a robust and significative statistical relationship between consumption volatility linked to trade openness and a positive consumption gap, i.e. the presence of negative shocks on consumption growth. This phenomenon remains covered up by simple data analyses and largely overlooked by current empirical literature on openness and growth. This paper demonstrates that situations of vulnerability to trade can co-exist with a positive trade and growth relationship. Some countries keep higher probability to be worse off in case of negative external shocks, because of endogenous characteristics (resilience) and/or the use of inadequate coping strategies (responsiveness). Empirical work on the construction of an economic vulnerability index (Briguglio, 1995; Briguglio and Galea, 2003; Farrugia, 2004) is often based on the premise that a countrys proneness to exogenous shocks stems from a number of inherent economic features, including high degrees of economic openness (measured as the ratio of international trade to GDP), export concentration (measured by the UNCTAD index of merchandise trade) and dependence on strategic imports (measured as the ratio of the imports of energy, food or industrial supplies to GDP). All vulnerability indices using these or similar variables come to the conclusion that there is a tendency for small states to be more economically vulnerable than other groups of countries. L. Briguglio, G. Cordina, N. Farrugia and S. Vella (2008) provide an explanation as to why inherently vulnerable countries may register high levels of GDP per capita. It is argued that countries may be economically successful because they are inherently not vulnerable, or because they are resilient in the face of the vulnerability they face. The obverse is also true, in that countries may be unsuccessful because they are not sufficiently resilient. The paper has also shown that GDP per capita is positively related to economic resilience and negatively related to inherent economic vulnerability. Furthermore, per capita GDP is found to be more sensitive to resilience variables than to vulnerability variables. H. Yanikkaya (2002) showed that trade liberalization does not have a simple and straightforward relationship with growth using a large number of openness measures for a cross section of over 100 developed and developing countries observed from 1970 to 1997. The regression results for numerous trade intensity ratios are mostly consistent with the existing literature. However, contrary to the conventional view on the growth effects of trade barriers, our estimation results show that trade barriers are positively and, in most specifications, significantly associated with growth, especially for developing countries and they are consistent with the findings of theoretical growth and development literature. 2.3 Conclusion Much has been said in the literature regarding trade and growth. However, the more exposed to trade a country is, the more vulnerable it is to shocks coming from abroad. But nonetheless, economists believe that trade openness promotes economic growth. These have led some observers to identify an interrelationship between openness to trade, output volatility and growth.

Craft :: Art

Craft Art (à ¤rt)n.  · Human effort to imitate, supplement, alter, or counteract the work of nature. · The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colors, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium. Craft (kr ft)n.  · Skill in doing or making something, as in the arts; proficiency.  · To make by hand.  · To make or construct (something) in a manner suggesting great care or ingenuity. Craft, the word has been with man for ages. There are unique mysteries in life that are usually provoking the true nature of reality, as us humans become aware of it. The genealogy of a man is equal to the idea that the term "craft" has evolved so beyond the understanding of the human mind. A skill in the form of an advanced, detailed, or progressive (movement) in the ability to perform with great skill in one view of behavioral science cannot be determined by meaning alone. It is a difficult word to be defined. The term craft I would mainly determine to be defined as the assemblage of objects that has some sort of interconnection to art, but it depends on the complexity of what is being built. After doing the many projects in class I have many different views on how craft is defined. A good example that would sort of involves both, primitive art and art deco in a small sense. Some of the African statues that are carved would have some geometric designs, (which relates to the way in which the style of art deco slightly falls in) is that would sometimes mean something in its own way. A person who could be making it for any kind of reason would usually make these sculptures by hand. Using his or her tools to be cutting into the material so that they can successfully make something with such craftsmanship, worth looking at. That is craft. Something like a fireplace with a few different color tiles that make a minor design, I deeply hesitate to call art or craft because of the fact that it seems to be so simple and isn’t really hand crafted completely. That is just one example of art deco. When you look at the way some of the different buildings interior is made, in terms of the sculptures, paintings and furniture you may have a completely different view in what you think in your mind.

Elizabeth Bishop

Personal Response to Texts Essay Format English Language Arts In a personal response to text essay the writer may choose to keep the format of the essay critical, in which the pieces of literature presented are analyzed. The writer will also relate their own experience as it relates to the material provided using emotional and sensory detail. The important thing to remember is that this format of an essay, unlike the critical/analytical response, allows you to use personal pronouns (except the word ‘you’) I.INTRODUCTION a. GENERAL STATEMENT to introduce the topic in the question. b. FOCUS into answering the question; you should also mention the literature and/or other materials and situations you will be referring to here. You may use a phrase such as: â€Å"In life, as in literature, people . . . † Follow this statement with the introduction of the materials you will be discussing in your essay. Do not talk about yourself or your experience yet because you want t o build a bridge of common knowledge with your readers first. . CONTROLLING IDEA/THESIS STATEMENT: This is where you answer the question being asked. You answer what is conveyed about people and set up what you will explain/support/prove in your body paragraphs. (You can have one point supported by all paragraphs, or one for each paragraph – the choice is yours: look at your examples and what they will support before writing your thesis. ) II. BODY PARAGRAPHS (please note that c and d are reversible; order does not matter, as long as both are present.Likewise, you may choose to have one paragraph deal with the text entirely and then your second paragraph would explain/develop your personal connection to the text) (Minimum 2 paragraphs) a. TOPIC SENTENCE: a general statement; the point from the thesis you will be addressing/supporting/proving in this paragraph. b. EXPLAIN more about the paragraph topic in your own words. c. PERSONAL ANECDOTE: Give an example from your own life , or from reality, that proves your topic sentence true; that is, the real example you give shows that people do the thing your topic sentence says they do.THIS IS THE ONLY PLACE IN YOUR PAPER THAT YOU MAY USE PERSONAL PRONOUNS: I, MY, ME, ETC.. OTHERWISE IT IS A FORMAL PAPER AND SHOULD BE WRITTEN AS SUCH. d. SPECIFIC EXAMPLE from the Texts: find an example you can explain and/or quote from the text or other materials you’ve been provided with, which supports the topic sentence and proves it true. State the situation from the piece of literature or describe the visual, what happens/how the situation is addressed, and what the outcome of the situation is to adequately prove your point. . III. CLINCHER SENTENCE: Sum up your paragraph’s point/argument in a general sentence; restate your topic sentence more specifically. CONCLUSION a. SUMMARIZE your main points; restate your thesis (look at your clincher sentences to help you). b. FINAL THOUGHTS: End with a thought provoki ng statement that will leave your reader thinking about and with an impression of your overall argument – this should be a strong statement that sums up your overall argument. English Language Arts -1- George McDougall High School

How Aids Has Affected Our Society Essays - Pandemics, HIVAIDS

How Aids Has Affected Our Society Essays - Pandemics, HIVAIDS How Aids Has Affected Our Society Science - Health How Aids Has Affected Our Society Today more Americans are infected with STD's than at any other time in history. The most serious of these diseases is AIDS. Since the first cases were identified in the United States in 1981, AIDS has touched the lives of millions of American families. This deadly disease is unlike any other in modern history. Changes in social behavior can be directly linked to AIDS. Its overall effect on society has been dramatic. It is unknown whether AIDS and HIV existed and killed in the U.S. and North America before the early 1970s. However in the early 1980s, "deaths by opportunistic infections, previously observed mainly in tissue-transplant recipients receiving immunosuppressive therapy", were recognized in otherwise healthy homosexual men. In 1983 French oncologist Luc Montagnier and scientists at the Pasteur Institute in Paris isolated what appeared to be a new human retrovirus from the lymph node of a man at risk for having AIDS. At the same time, scientists working in the laboratory of American research, scientist Robert Gallo at the National Cancer Institute, one of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and a group headed by American virologist Jay Levy at the University of California at San Francisco isolated a retrovirus from people with AIDS and from individuals having contact with people with AIDS. All three groups of scientists had isolated what is now known as HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Lorusso 2 In 1995 HIV was estimated to infect almost 20 million people worldwide, and several million of those people had developed AIDS. The disease is obviously an important social issue. AIDS has caused many to rethink their own social behavior. People are forced to use caution when involving themselves in sexual activity. They must use contraception to avoid the dangers of infection. Many people consider HIV infection and AIDS to be completely preventable because the routes of HIV transmission are so well known. To completely prevent transmission, however, dramatic changes in sexual behavior and drug dependence would have to occur throughout the world. Prevention efforts that promote sexual awareness through open discussion and condom distribution in public schools have been opposed due to fear that these efforts encourage sexual promiscuity among young adults. Similarly, needle-exchange programs have been criticized as promoting drug abuse. Governor Christine Todd Whitman vetoed a bill in New Jersey that tried to create a needle-exchange program. She was accused of being "compassionless". She replied that she could not allow drug addicts to continue to break the law. By distributing needles, she felt that she was, in fact, encouraging them to break the law. Prevention programs that identify HIV-infected individuals and notify their sexual partners, as well as programs that promote HIV testing at the time of marriage or pregnancy, have been criticized for invading personal privacy. Efforts aimed at public awareness have been propelled by community-based organizations, such as Project Inform and Act-Up, that provide current information to HIV-infected individuals and to individuals at risk for infection. Public figures and celebrities who are themselves Lorusso 3 HIV-infected or have died from AIDS-including American basketball player Magic Johnson, American actor Rock Hudson, American diver Greg Louganis, American tennis player Arthur Ashe, and British musician Freddie Mercury-have personalized the disease of AIDS and have thereby helped society come to terms with the enormity of the epidemic. In memory of those people who died from AIDS, especially in the early years of the epidemic, a giant quilt project was initiated in which each panel of the quilt was dedicated to the memory of an individual AIDS death. This quilt has traveled on display from community to community to promote AIDS awareness. The U.S. government has also attempted to assist HIV-infected individuals through legislation and additional community-funding measures. In 1990 HIV-infected people were included in the Americans with Disabilities Act, making discrimination against these individuals for jobs, housing, and other social benefits illegal. Additionally, a community-funding program designed to assist in the daily lives of people living with AIDS was established. This congressional act, the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act, was named in memory of a young man who contracted HIV through blood products and became a public figure for his courage in fighting the disease and community prejudice. The act is still in place, although continued funding for such social programs is under debate by current legislators. The lack of effective vaccines and antiviral drugs has spurred speculation that the funding for AIDS research is insufficient. Although the actual amount of government funding for AIDS research is large, most of these funds are used

Hate Crimes Essays - Racism, Politics, Discrimination, Structure

Hate Crimes Essays - Racism, Politics, Discrimination, Structure Hate Crimes Fear, anger and frustration. These are three themes that run throughout all hate groups. Most hate groups form during times of economic hardship or social change. Certain groups of people begin to blame another group for the reason of a major social or economical change. After the Civil War, the South suffered from both economic hardship and drastic social change. For centuries, the south had relied on slaves to harvest crops at plantations. When the slaves were freed, the plantations werent being worked on anymore, causing the owners to loose a lot of money. When this happened, six former Confederate soldiers started a hate group called the Ku Klux Klan. During the post-Civil War era, the Klan was very popular among southern whites. Their ignorance was feeding the fire that blacks were the root of their problem, when in reality the whites ignorance is the root of their own problems. The Klan has since died down and risen numerous times with the start of many social changes such as the womens rights movement (1920s) and the civil rights movement (1960s). Another large and devastating hate group is the neo-Nazis. These working-class people blame all immigrants for taking jobs away from the whites. Their ignorance pushes them so far as to violently attack and kill blacks, Jews, Hispanics, Asians, and homosexuals. Hate crimes can happen anytime, anywhere. In a small Texas town of Jasper, Texas, 3 white men are under heavy guard after being accused of a murder of an innocent man. Shawn Berry,23, Lawrence Brewer,31, and John King, 23, allegedly members of the extremist Aryan Brotherhood, dragged a black man to his death behind a pick-up truck, ripping his body to pieces. James Byrd, Jr., a 49 year-old, former vacuum cleaner salesman disabled by an arm injury, was walking home from a party celebrating the wedding of his niece, when he was picked up by the three white men, who offered him a ride. According to Berry, who informed on his two companions, they drove to an isolated wood, and King was alleged to have said that he was fixing to scare the s**t out of that n****r. James Byrd was beaten and kicked by the three white men. Seemingly unconscious, he was chained by the ankles to a hook on the back of the truck, which then pulled him about two miles along a narrow, winding asphalt road. His belongings, a wallet and keys, were scattered in his wake, along with dentures and parts of his body. The torso was found in a creek. Close by, empty beer cans were scattered on the grass. James Byrds head, neck and right arm were discovered a mile away. Hate crimes are not always committed against minorities. In Las Vegas, two Anti-Racist Action members were murdered. According to reports in the Las Vegas Review-Journal and from Anti-Racist Action in Columbus, the bodies of Daniel Shersty, 20, and Lin Newborn, 25, were found in the desert 150 yards from each other. The bodies were located in an area of the desert known for a place where Nazis target shoot. The two men were murdered in execution style slayings. Sometimes these horrible crimes occur within ones own family. On the night of March 5, David and Bryan Freeman decided it was time to act. Time to act on the new beliefs they had learned. Time to prove to their new friends that they were real soldiers of the racial war they were told was coming. On that Sunday night, hate came to the Freeman house. The boys, ages 15 and 17, ambushed their mother in the downstairs hallway, stabbing and clubbing her until she died. Then they went upstairs and did the same to their dad while he lay in his bed. Their little brother Erik, 11, was asleep when the older brothers entered his room and beat him to death as well. What would make people commit such horrendous crimes such as these? Why dont you ask Mark Thomas, a fascist organizer who operates a ministry for racists in eastern Pennsylvania. It was at this Aryan Nations of Pennsylvania where the Freeman brothers were taught by Mark Thomas that it was O.K. to hate. The brothers, along with hundreds of others attended a Hitler Youth Festival last April where Mark Thomas taught them weapons skills on a rifle range and other things of the sort. As a self declared reverend, Mark Thomas teaches a twisted religious known

Drug Laws of The Netherlands Essays

Drug Laws of The Netherlands Essays Drug Laws of The Netherlands Paper Drug Laws of The Netherlands Paper Introduction The Netherlands is one of the most highly developed countries in the world. It is an international, well-integrated country with policies that are among the world’s most liberal. In fact, The Netherlands has perhaps the most liberal view on drug use than any other country and has even gone to the extreme of extraordinarily relaxing its laws regarding ‘soft’ drugs. However, a common misconception about drugs in the Netherlands is that people believe they have been legalized there. Rather, cannabis and its by-products, marijuana and hashish, have merely been decriminalized. This means that the sale and use in moderate amounts of marijuana and hashish is not prosecuted. This begs the question: Is a permissive legal system more effective than a restrictive system in the case of soft drugs? This paper examines the attitude of law enforcement in The Netherlands regarding soft drug use and assesses whether or not The Netherlands’s permissive system is a successful one. Soft Drug Decriminalization in The Netherlands Contrary to popular belief, when the Dutch parliament revised the countrys drug laws in 1976, it did not actually legalize any narcotic substances. Rather, it separated illegal drugs into two distinct categories: drugs with unacceptable health risks (such as heroin and cocaine), which were classified as hard drugs,† and drugs with a lesser medical risk (such as cannabis), which were classified as soft drugs (Bransten, para. 3). The Dutch Parliament then decided to decriminalize soft drugs. Because of this determination, throughout The Netherlands so-called coffee shops† have opened. In these coffee shops, people are able to purchase limited amounts of cannabis and smoke a marijuana joint without fear of prosecution (Bransten, para. 4). These activities are not legal per se, but the local police do not monitor or prosecute them. The rationale behind the Dutch parliament’s decision was that the use of marijuana among the Dutch population was increasing, and rather than bog down the legal system, Dutch politicians decided to decriminalize marijuana (Bransten, para. 4). The other benefit of the policy, as the Dutch politicians and general public see it, is that â€Å"it isolates the hard drug market from the recreational user because cannabis consumers no longer regularly come into contact with street dealers and more harmful drugs† (Bransten, para. 5). Dutch drug policy is guided by the principle of what is best described as harm reduction (Bransten, para. 8). This means that drugs are perceived as a public health issue and the goal should be to minimize the harm those drugs do to individuals and to society –- not to criminally punish soft drug users. With respect to users of hard drugs, they are monitored and encouraged to turn to the public health system for treatment, but unless they commit other crimes, they are not prosecuted in The Netherlands (Bransten, para. 7). Consequently, the Dutch spend their time and money on prevention and education instead of criminal prosecution (Bransten, para. 8). This has allowed the Dutch authorities to concentrate their efforts policing activities elsewhere. In fact, since the policy was implemented, the Dutch police have concentrated on pursuing drug traffickers, drug laboratories, and all other crime related activities. Therefore, would it be fair to say that the decriminalization of soft drugs been a success in The Netherlands? Several decades have passed since soft drugs were decriminalized and it is still somewhat difficult to make a final determination of its ‘success’. The results (positive or negative) of decriminalizing drugs and instituting a permissive legal system with respect to drugs, are disputed and somewhat unclear. The next section of this paper attempts to sort out the conflicting data that has emerged assessing results of The Netherlands’s permissive soft drug policy. Results of Decriminalization in The Netherlands The Dutch claim that their permissive drug policy has worked. Some statistics that have been generated have indicated that marijuana and hashish use among Dutch teenagers and young adults has not grown. In fact, according to some sources, it is lower than in many other Western countries (Bransten, para. 9). Tim Boekhout van Solinge, a criminologist and drug-policy expert at the University of Amsterdam has stated: Eighty-five percent of the Dutch population have never, in their life, tried cannabis. So its 15 percent (of people) who have what you call lifetime experience prevalence. Its lower than in the UK, or the U. S. , lower than Ireland, about the same level as Germany, Belgium, France. France is a bit higher, Spain is a bit higher its kind of in the average, you could say (Bransten, para. 10). These statistics have led many to ask why hasn’t the use of marijuana increased in The Netherlands after it was decriminalized? One factor to consider is the concept of the â€Å"forbidden fruit†. That is, decriminalizing soft drugs has made them less attractive to people. According to some statistics, this has been the experience of The Netherlands. For example, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), after the Dutch government decriminalized marijuana in 1976, usage steadily declined particularly among teenagers and young adults (ACLU, para. 25). Prior to decriminalization, 10 percent of Dutch 17- and 18-yesr-olds used marijuana, yet by 1985, that figure had dropped to 6. 5 percent (ACLU, para. 25). These statistics tend to support the opinion that a permissive legal system regarding drug use is more successful than a restrictive one, such as in the United States. However, some people have argued that The Netherlands has suffered an increase in marijuana use since the softening of their marijuana policy. Various select statistic show that, since the liberalization of the marijuana enforcement policies, The Netherlands has seen marijuana use among 11-18 year olds increase 142% from 1990-1995 (Voth, para. 14). According to these same statistics, crime has risen steadily to the point that aggravated theft and breaking and entering occurs 3-4 times more than in the United States (Voth, para. 14). This would tend to support the assertion that decriminalization of soft drugs has not been successful in The Netherlands. Yet, Dutch citizens state that such claims are false and that those who perpetuate them are merely threatened by the success of The Netherlands’s liberal drug policy. For example, they say that some countries, and the U. S. in particular, are threatened by Dutch drug policy because it cuts directly against the moral ideology underlying their own restrictive drug policy (Reinarman, 2000). This is demonstrated in the United States’ history of unmitigated concern regarding intoxicating substances. A prime example of this is that for over a hundred years, Americans believed that alcohol was the direct cause of poverty, crime, and would cause civilization to crumble. This fundamentalist crusade resulted in national alcohol prohibition in 1919. Alcohol has since been legalized in the United States, but the U. S. has now applied this theory to drugs. The unofficial United States drug policy is that decriminalization (of even soft drugs) would lead to disaster. However, a ‘disaster’ has not occurred in The Netherlands as a result of decriminalization of drugs. In fact, the majority of research and statistics show that the Dutch have no more drug problems than most neighboring countries which do not have liberal drug policies. Conclusion While some people continue to claim that the permissive Dutch drug policy has led to an increased amount of drug use in that country, the majority of statistics tend to refute this. Overall, it appears that a permissive soft drug policy is certainly as effective, if not more so, than a restrictive system. Bibliography American Civil Liberties Union. ACLU Paper #19 Against Drug Prohibition. 1996. Available at: http://archive. aclu. org/library/pbp19. html. Retrieved June 6, 2003. Bransten, Jeremy. Europe: Drugs Dutch Practice Liberal Policies (Part 2). Radio Free Europe. 28 November 2000. Available at: rferl. org/nca/features/2000/11/28112000132419. asp. Retrieved June 5, 2003. Reinarman, Craig. â€Å"The Dutch example shows that liberal drug laws can be beneficial. † In: Scott Barbour (Ed. ), Drug Legalization: Current Controversies. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2000, pp. 102-108. Voth, Eric A. , and Ambassador Melvyn Levitsky. Contemporary Drug Policy. 1/21/2000. Available at: estreet. com/orgs/dsi/Legalizit/DrugPolicyLegalizationHar. html. Retrieved June 5, 2003.

Financial Distress Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Financial Distress - Essay Example The inevitable natures of factors which interplay and caused this financial turmoil on a global scale make business decisions difficult especially in areas of retrenchment. For a university which had been in operation for 164 years since its foundation in 1845, Cornell University is not exempt from the global financial crunch. As such, strategies and efforts are being evaluated to assess the possibility of retrenchment to ensure the very survival of the organization. It is in this regard that this essay is written to explain the circumstances of the financial distress and to outline an action plan where the principles of retrenchment would be implemented in order to restore equilibrium. In the year end statement written by the president of Cornell University, David J. Skorton on July 1, 2009, he identified the following effects of the global financial crisis in Cornell University, to wit: (1) a looming budget shortfall in one of its major colleges, Ithaca; (2) a 27% reduction in endowment (â€Å"reducing base budgets across the university; drawing down uncommitted fund balances; reducing endowment spending by 15 percent; implementing a construction pause, during which we reconsidered a number of proposed new projects, and decided not to pursue over $662 million in incremental capital expenditures; implementing an external hiring pause, which preserved opportunities for current Cornell employees who lost their jobs; and responsibly reducing our workforce†) and (3) a reduction in the cost of university administration in order to focus precious resources on core activities of teaching, learning, discovery, scholarship and outreach, among others. (Cornell Univer sity, University Statements, 2009) The university applies the following principles of retrenchment: (1) Selective Retrenchment Efforts where the university will use curtailment or reduction of selective activities, functions or

Online Learning Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Online Learning - Research Paper Example Today employers in all branches of business are especially interested in executors who are able not only work with modern technologies but also are willing to study simultaneously with the working process. Such combination is possible only in case of distant or online education. Therefore leaders of the leading business stress important role of online education of future specialists as such practice will ensure constant knowledge refreshment (Kazi-Ferrouillet, 1989). Extension of online education courses requires restructuring of public education. From the one point of view, this will help to prepare future specialists to the modern technological environment but there is another point of view – online education may influence the performance of students and such influence may be positive as well as negative (David, 1991). The conflict between requirements of the business world and general requirements for educational programs, which are very often can’t be met by online educational courses, is the one to be solved. There are a lot of teachers and students who support online education, teachers because they can deliver information to larger audience and students because they don’t have to attend classes (Mehlinger, 1996); for this instance, online education gain stronger positions in higher and secondary school (Grimm, 1995). Online education, online educational networks, and development of these trends in education have attracted special attention of the educational world.

Implementing and Evaluating Public Policy Simulation Summary_303 Essay

Implementing and Evaluating Public Policy Simulation Summary_303 - Essay Example Lobbyists have been known and branded for their influence on how policies are developed and which ones are actually seen by the light of day. Influence peddlers are rampant in the halls of Congress. Lobbying has turned into a profession and has since been regulated. â€Å"A professional lobbyist – one who has mastered the techniques of lobbying†¦Ã¢â‚¬â€œ is a valuable ally to any interest group seeking to influence government† (Sidlow and Henschen, 2009, p.141). They represent the loud minority view and quite often are fuelled by large corporations with deep pockets. In the given case involving Governor Nunez and outsourcing, one member of his team is Sylvia Baldwin, a corporate lobbyist for Levine & Associates closely associated to Information Technology. Another is Dr. Ramona Gaitanis who is an advocate of free trade and global competitiveness, which is the very essence of outsourcing. Seemingly, the only neutral member of the team is William Morrison who is an e xpert in policy initiatives but his stance on the issue was not made clear. Upon looking at the qualifications of the team members, it is apparent that they are one-dimensional which makes it understandable why the Governor voted for outsourcing. Without powerful interest groups, lobbyists are bound to get their way with impunity disregarding other stakeholders. To reiterate, there is no black without white and that both must co-exist for the general good. There is a great possibility that continued fine-tuning in policy implementation renders the implementer to overlook the core problem he is trying to solve. By trying to translate the spirit of the policy through its implementation, or at least make it workable, the implementer somewhat develops tunnel vision and forgets the main purpose of the policy. Program implementation is different from development and this

What moral obligations do we owe foreigners Essay

What moral obligations do we owe foreigners - Essay Example Concluding into having many foreigners residing in developed regions of a country. The most immigrants are found in the US, illegal and legal citizens combined. Many of those people feel out of place and do not have enough money for getting necessities such as food and shelter after crossing the border. This is where the government should act and provide medical and financial assistance to these foreigners in order for them to settle. After all many of the countries these foreigners belong from have provided us with trading goods. There is an unlimited amount of international trading taking place in the world, companies which had started off as small businesses are now going global because of their exceptional goods and services have a greater demand around the world which then expanded and grew larger than life which is the ultimate goal of a business. The government promoting the idea of a free trade agreement, which is a pact between two or more countries which carry out trading with very little or completely eliminated duty which a form of imported trading tax, making it even cheaper for the products being traded and making the companies more profit out of it. Countries like China, the most industrialised country in the world have signed the Free Trade Agreement with the US. This has also provided employment for foreigners by working in trading companies. However a disadvantage of such Free Trade Agreement is that the domestic businesses fail to get the governments aid as nowadays the populated prefer imp orted goods over domestic ones. (Fabre, 2007) It is always difficult to realise the moral obligations we owe to people who are not our fellow citizens. These obligations can be seen as 4 different basic views: Skeptic, who simply deny any obligations or duties beyond borders and those people who who fall under the rest of the three views and admit that

Black studies about slavery Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Black studies about slavery - Essay Example This paper gives a brief reaction to the video about Frederick Douglass, new things learnt from the video and the times he lived in, critically rating the video as a device for learning about Douglass and his times. Though the video paints a gloomy picture of what transpired from the pre-colonial Africa to the post-colonial Africa concerning slavery and slave trade, it is clear that some heroes such as Frederick Douglass spend a better part of their lifetime and great efforts in refining the American dream. One can deduce from the brief biography of Frederick Douglass that while the slave trade could not be prevented especially due to the large number of nations involved, it was possible to tame slavery more so that which consisted of torture and other inhumane acts. Frederick Douglass came out as a strong social reformer, who championed for the rights of the African Americans, his slavery status notwithstanding. This was especially so because despite being a diplomat, he was also a great orator and writer. This means that one had to be courageous enough to present a tough stance to the authorities and all the parties involves without giving it a second thought, at least according to the video. Perhaps another important point worth noting from the video is that while Frederick Douglass fought slavery through his antislavery writing and through the political front, it became apparent even to the whites that slavery was causing more polarization as opposed to driving the nation towards achieving the American dream. Although the video does not explicitly reveal how Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery, it is particularly clear that his strong stance for women’s rights gave him an edge in fighting slavery especially when more people from diverse backgrounds started believing in his ideology. Certainly, the nineteenth century was the most traumatic period for the African Americans especially those that were subjected to hard labour. From the video about

Business and Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Business and Management - Essay Example Recently UK government tried to privatise the royal mail partially. According to Lord Peter Mandelson, the business secretary of the country, it is required to have a strategic partner for bringing a gale-force fresh air in the culture and management of the organisation (Tyler, February 3 2009). The main objective of privatising the organisation is to modernise it and improve its financial condition. UK government found that there is significant declination in royal mail’s popularity and demand as there is other advanced mode of communication like email has emerged. According to some analysts there is almost 7 billion euro pension deficit in Royal mail. UK government provide various attractive benefits to royal mail so it stays ahead in the competition. But according to experts the decision of making it modernise and atomise it by bringing a private sector company as the strategic partner might result to 40,000 to 50,000 job cut. As a consequence Communication Workers Union (C WU) asked the workers to go for a strike till the decision is reconsidered. The union claimed that over 12,000 postal employees would go for strike in different cities like London, Edinburgh, Plymouth and Bristol (Hope, July 15 2009). In UK postal industry this is worker’s strike is a historical problem which is actually badly affecting the future of UK postal industry. Proper understanding and implementation of strategic human resource management would be the ultimate solution for this type of situation. Strategic human resource management is such a complex process that is continuously evolving and being discussed and studied by academic experts. There is no proper definition of Strategic human resource management as different people have different opinion regarding the topic. According to Wright and McMahan SHRM is â€Å"The pattern of planned human resource deployments and activities intended to enable the forms

What moral obligations do we owe foreigners Essay

What moral obligations do we owe foreigners - Essay Example Concluding into having many foreigners residing in developed regions of a country. The most immigrants are found in the US, illegal and legal citizens combined. Many of those people feel out of place and do not have enough money for getting necessities such as food and shelter after crossing the border. This is where the government should act and provide medical and financial assistance to these foreigners in order for them to settle. After all many of the countries these foreigners belong from have provided us with trading goods. There is an unlimited amount of international trading taking place in the world, companies which had started off as small businesses are now going global because of their exceptional goods and services have a greater demand around the world which then expanded and grew larger than life which is the ultimate goal of a business. The government promoting the idea of a free trade agreement, which is a pact between two or more countries which carry out trading with very little or completely eliminated duty which a form of imported trading tax, making it even cheaper for the products being traded and making the companies more profit out of it. Countries like China, the most industrialised country in the world have signed the Free Trade Agreement with the US. This has also provided employment for foreigners by working in trading companies. However a disadvantage of such Free Trade Agreement is that the domestic businesses fail to get the governments aid as nowadays the populated prefer imp orted goods over domestic ones. (Fabre, 2007) It is always difficult to realise the moral obligations we owe to people who are not our fellow citizens. These obligations can be seen as 4 different basic views: Skeptic, who simply deny any obligations or duties beyond borders and those people who who fall under the rest of the three views and admit that

Business and Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Business and Management - Essay Example Recently UK government tried to privatise the royal mail partially. According to Lord Peter Mandelson, the business secretary of the country, it is required to have a strategic partner for bringing a gale-force fresh air in the culture and management of the organisation (Tyler, February 3 2009). The main objective of privatising the organisation is to modernise it and improve its financial condition. UK government found that there is significant declination in royal mail’s popularity and demand as there is other advanced mode of communication like email has emerged. According to some analysts there is almost 7 billion euro pension deficit in Royal mail. UK government provide various attractive benefits to royal mail so it stays ahead in the competition. But according to experts the decision of making it modernise and atomise it by bringing a private sector company as the strategic partner might result to 40,000 to 50,000 job cut. As a consequence Communication Workers Union (C WU) asked the workers to go for a strike till the decision is reconsidered. The union claimed that over 12,000 postal employees would go for strike in different cities like London, Edinburgh, Plymouth and Bristol (Hope, July 15 2009). In UK postal industry this is worker’s strike is a historical problem which is actually badly affecting the future of UK postal industry. Proper understanding and implementation of strategic human resource management would be the ultimate solution for this type of situation. Strategic human resource management is such a complex process that is continuously evolving and being discussed and studied by academic experts. There is no proper definition of Strategic human resource management as different people have different opinion regarding the topic. According to Wright and McMahan SHRM is â€Å"The pattern of planned human resource deployments and activities intended to enable the forms

Standalone vs networked computers Essay Example for Free

Standalone vs networked computers Essay This report will clearly explain the differences between standalone and networked machines, as well as give a brief insight into the basic components of the network. Also, it will state the possible advantages and disadvantages to keeping the current standalone set up opposed to the idea of creating a network. A synopsis shall be included to summarise your options, and give a professional opinion on what would be the most beneficial for your small furniture business. STANDALONE ENVIRONMENT WHAT IS IT? A standalone environment is when a computer is used independently without connection to any communication devices. Each computer will need a copy of the operating system and software being used. If you need to transfer data between departments, it will have to be done manually. They vary from networked computers which are able to communicate to other computers because as soon as a computer is attached to a communication device, it instantly becomes in a network. The main characteristics of a standalone computer are: * It has no connection to any other computers * It does not have an internet connection * Data would need to be manually transferred via CDs, etc COMPUTER NETWORK WHAT IS IT? A basic network consists of several computers and hardware devices such as printers and scanners that are linked together so that they can communicate with each other. It features four distinct elements in addition to the computers themselves. These are: * Communication devices * Networking Software * Data transfer media * Standards and procedures Communication devices are pieces of hardware that are needed to turn standalone computers into networked computers. Before a computer can be connected to a network it must have a network interface card (NIC). This is a card that contains essential circuitry and a plug-in socket that allows a connection between the computer and the cabling. The NIC basically prepares and convert data to a form that can be transmitted through media (such as a metal cable or fibre optic cable). Networking software varies dependent on the size of the network. Because your furniture firm is only a small business, the networking software on Windows XP shall suffice, but take note of this information in case the business planning future expansion. Specialised network operating systems coordinate the activities of all the computers and other devices connected to a network. Popular network operating systems include: UNIX owned by the SCO group as 2000, Linux and Novell Netware, a popular client-server network operating system. Data transfer media is the physical material through which data travels from one computer to another. The main data transfer media an offer in todays market are metal wires, and fibre optic cable which add the cost of creating/installing a network, or alternatively wireless. Standards and procedures are important because without them one device in your network could be sending data to another device in a form that the other device may not be able to interpret. In order for a network to run properly it must adopt certain procedures. Without procedures the security of the network might be comprised, as well as the health of the employees. Legislation such as the Data Protection Act and Computer Misuse Act may accidently be disobeyed. ADVANTAGES OF STAYING STANDALONE The advantages to keeping the current 5 machines set up as they are, as standalone machines are: * It would be a cheaper option in terms of hardware and software. The cables, especially high speed fibre optic cables can be money consuming, as well this NIC and data transmission media can be costly * Less ICT knowledge is needed to keep the systems running efficiently, hence qualified network managers/administrators do not need to be employed * Training costs (such as money and time) on how to maintain/operate a network are unneeded if every member of staff knows how to use a basic standalone machine * The spread of viruses and bugs can be keep minimal as each of the computers arent communicate, meaning the virus cannot be transferred from computer to computer * Hard is less of a necessity, as servers arent needed. This is beneficial in two ways: * If a piece of hardware malfunctions, it doesnt affect every machine whereas, say, if a file server crashed the whole network would be sabotaged * Initially purchasing costs and maintenance costs do not need to be funded if the complex hardware for a network isnt needed * Standalone machines can operate a lot faster as if they are only need for a specific task (e.g. Word processing) other software doesnt need to installed on the hard drive, hence making the machine more efficient ADVANTAGES OF CREATING A NETWORK The advantages of setting up a network far outweigh the advantages of staying standalone. There are however disadvantages which will be covered on the next page of this report: * Manual file transfer is rendered inept if the network operates using a file server, which holds all the important documents an organization needs, where every computer has access to instantly * Hardware such as printers can be shared between multiple computers, meaning a separate printer doesnt need to be purchased/installed to every machine * Software such as application are shared, meaning its easier to control software maintenance and making sure the software is up-to-date is easier and more efficient * Costs of purchasing software is reduced as you can purchase a single copy which can then be installed the server so every machine has access, which would be cheaper than the alternative of purchasing the software multiple times * Network managers can control what websites employees do and do not have access to, so distracting game websites can be blocked from every computer * Downloaded material can be checked with the latest virus checking software universally, so individual scans do not need to take place * Backing up files to save loosing valuable documents can be done automatically or by the network manager so less responsibility is placed upon the work force and the likelihood of lose is reduced * Internal business communication can be made easier throughout the means of e-mail, which will improve communication between workers DISADVANTAGES OF STAYING STANDALONE When there are advantages, there are usually disadvantages to go with it. The disadvantages of keeping the current layout format are as follows: * File transfer is time consuming and frustrating, as documents cannot be directly sent to each computer, hence file transfer media such as USB memory sticks or CDs need to be purchased * Communication when working on a joint computer project can be fussy, as e-mails cannot be sent, so the employees will have to engage in face-to-face communication * Information is hard to keep up-to-date as two or more users could be updating the same piece of information unaware the other is doing so, hence two or more documents will be produced causing confusion * Software needs to be installed individually on each of the 5 machines, which can be costly as the software needs to be replicated enough times and wasteful of businesses time * Back-up of files isnt centrally done, hence each machine need to be backed up and checked regularly to ensure to lose of data * The internet or intranet cannot be accessed by employees, meaning topics cannot be research, information cannot be posted in a bulletin, etc, hindering employees efforts DISADVANTAGES OF CREATING A NETWORK The disadvantages of creating a network are scarce as networks are beneficial to almost every organisation in todays society. However, they include: * The task of running and maintaining a network, ensuring that it is fully functional requires expertise, so a professional shall need to be hired * If hardware fails or malfunctions, every computer is faced with the inconvenience. For example if the network file server goes down, no computer can gain access to the shared files * The initial costs involved in setting up a network are high as all the hardware and software need to purchased, although a network will save money in the long run, in the short run it is costly * Viruses can be spread more easily and quickly to every computer on the network, whereas if it happened to a standalone computer only one would be affected SYNOPSIS Overall, the advantages to your small business of creating a network far outweigh the advantages of keeping the machines standalone. The ability to share files such as orders, receipts, etc would be drastically improved as a file server could be emplaced for ease of access. Providing you have the funds to invest in the highly priced equipment, the option of setting up a network would be beneficial in the long term for the business especially in major growth happens which can be foresaw with the increasing mass of technology used. You could use the internet research competitors prices, to offer your customer the best quality service available and even start trading online using e-commerce. Make sure sufficient antivirus software is in place to protect from the risk of hackers or viruses; this may cost extra money, as it needs to be updated. The ICT department may need to consider employing highly qualified employees to run and maintain the network to make sure its operational on a day to day basis. So the options are to keep the 5 standalone machines and be faced with the disadvantages of them, or set up a network of computers and experience the change.

Gifted Students In The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia Education Essay

Gifted Students In The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia Education Essay Introduction Making proper stipulation for gifted students is significant for the development and growth of ones society. They are considered as valuable future resources. In the year 1998, the interest in supporting gifted children in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia grew. They have established programmes in which they were able to identify gifted children. The General Administration for Gifted Students (GAGS) was established in Saudi Arabias Ministry of Education in the year 2000. (Bondagjy, 2000). There has been not enough research and development in the field of introduction of gifted children in Saudi Arabia. According to Al-Ghamdi, 2007, there are very few programmes for gifted students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that was run by the Ministry of Education. The programmes that do exist are new and in need of evaluation and further development in order to provide maximum benefit for gifted students. The Saudi Arabian government believe that the gifts and talents of the young people in the country are nurtured. At the present time, in Saudi Arabia, gifted students who have special characteristics or abilities qualify for provision at the highest levels of services. Since 1999, the Ministry of Education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has demonstrated a strong interest in its gifted students by putting in place programmes that are developed specifically for these students; however, these programmes are rare and new. Therefore I feel it is necessary to carry out an in-depth study of the present state of gifted education, find out what is available and identify the strengths and weaknesses of what is being offered. Objectives of the study From the outset, it is acknowledged that the concept of giftedness and its identification is highly complex. As Gubbins (2002) points out, people all over the world are still asking questions about how we assess and nurture peoples abilities. Whilst there are centres around the world focusing on research and development on gifted education, there are also experts (Borland, 2005) who question the whole concept of identification of gifted students and recommend that what is needed is gifted education without labelling a group as gifted. Borland, however, states that there is agreement amongst experts that high achieving or high-ability students are among those who are the most ill-served when curriculum and instruction are not differentiated.This study aims to make a contribution to the on-going debate in aspects of gifted education. It also hopes to add to the research literature by studying the nature of gifted education in Saudi Arabia, which has a different cultural social and educ ational background to many other countries where gifted programmes exist. More specifically, the aims of this study are: to explore the effectiveness and any possible weaknesses of gifted programmes in Saudi Arabia, by seeking the perspectives of all parties involved; to draw conclusions about the Saudi programmes and make recommendations based on the data collected; to make suggestions based on what is known about gifted programmes in other countries. As previously stated, the study also aims to provide an overview of international literature on gifted education by reviewing gifted education programmes and the range of methods used in other countries. The research questions Based on the aims articulated in the previous section, the following specific research questions have been formulated: How does the Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia define gifted students? How does the Ministry identify and support gifted students? What is the nature of programmes for gifted students in the Ministry of Education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia? How effective are these programmes in terms of making provision in terms of the educational methods and resources for gifted students? In 1969 the Saudi cabinet first recognized the necessity of identifying gifted students -Nafea et all (1992), but no actual steps had been taken for action. Between the years 1990 and 1996, King Abdul Azizs City of Science and Technology, with collaboration from the Ministry of Education and the General Presidency for Girls Education, produced a project for extensive national research. The project titled: identification and care for Gifted Students (Bondagjy, 2000) and consisted of three main aims: To design a programme for identification of gifted students. To design enrichment programme models for mathematics and science curriculum. To enlighten Saudi society about the importance of the identification of gifted pupils and provision for their educational needs. Regarding identification of gifted students, the project employs seven methods, which are: Teachers nomination High academic achievement High achievement in science High achievement in mathematics. IQ test Torrance test for creativity thinking Wechsler IQ test. In 1998, a project (identify and car programme for gifted students) designed for identifying gifted students in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia was implemented by the Ministry of Education (Alwasruh, 2005). This programme consists of four units: Identification of gifted students. Care and enrichment programmes for gifted students. Training, planning and organization. Finance and administration services. This project was a very significant one in that it would serve the purpose of identifying and supporting gifted children of the kingdom. Therefore, it represents a landmark in the history of gifted education in Saudi Arabia. It provided the Ministry of Education with the opportunity to start special programmes for gifted students. Gifted Students Care Centres in Saudi Arabia: The gifted students Care Centres are establishments charged with the task of offering educational, social and psychological care for gifted students. Such centres are supervised by the General Administration for Gifted Students. The administration body which controls each of these centres includes a Centre Director, assistants, teachers, behavioural specialists, laboratory technicians, learning sources specialists and general support technicians. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, at the time of writing this thesis, has 31 Care Centres for boys and 20 for girls (MOE, web, 2007). Care Programmes for Gifted Students in the Schools of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia The General Administration for Gifted Students emphasises that all students should be provided with equal opportunities, so that their abilities may be identified and their gifts and talents developed. In order to achieve this goal, the General Administration for Gifted Students provides a programme to train teachers so as to achieve this purpose. The teachers duties include the introduction of a complete gifted programme prepared by the General Administration for Gifted Students. These programmes start at the beginning of every school term. Among the responsibilities of the teacher is the use of modern methods which help to improve students skills of leadership, social and scientific research skills, as well as improving the parents knowledge about the importance of provision for gifted students. The duties of teachers also include the liaison between the various Care Centres of Gifted Students. The number of schools that have had benefited from this programme, between the years 2002 and 2004 was 264 boys schools and 97 girls schools (Alwasruh, 2005). Support for Gifted Education The Foundation provides funds and support to students in the six main centres for gifted education of the Ministry of Education of Saudi Arabia. These centres are located in Riyadh, Jeddah, Taif, Madinah, Dammam, and Al-Hassa. They work on identifying gifted children and providing them with enriched educational activity. They also assist in the teaching of the whole community about the nature of giftedness and about the role that talents and talented people will play in the future of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Additionally, the Foundation is committed to providing training for all those who interact with the gifted children (KACFG, web, 2007). The KACFG is the first and the biggest foundation to support the education of the gifted and talented in the Saudi Arabia, as it supplies programmes and support with substantial funding. Literature Review This chapter provides a pervasive review of literature relevant to the identification of and provision for gifted students. The contents of this review constitute the basis for the empirical work and the subsequent analysis. It starts with an examination of a range of definitions and conceptions of giftedness. Theories and research relating to various aspects of gifted education are reviewed, accompanied by a critical analysis of various points of view on the complex and contested conceptions of giftedness which provide a theoretical framework for this study. In this section literature on methods of identification of gifted students is reviewed, which will be followed by a review literature on aspects of provision of educational opportunities that will extend and/or enrich the learning of the gifted students. It could be argued that using accurate methods of identification is critical in determining the nature of provision. For example, Gubbins (1995) believes that identifying gifted and talented students is not just about answering the question, who are they? but it must also address the question, how do we find them? and what do we do when we find them? The process of identification may differ from one programme to another. In some programmes, the only means used for identification is the use of standardized tests. In others, the standardized test is only one of the factors in the identification process and in addition to test scores, nominations and recommendations of teachers, parents, staff, and even self-nomination are used (Blackshear 1979; Denton and Postlehwaite, 1984; LPS 1995). ( check spelling of of Post..) Bondagjy (2000) believes that a single test to determine general ability may not be sufficient and that subject specific tests may need to be used: Standardized tests of intelligence offer a good base for staff to identify potential capability, including that of some pupils whose performance is otherwise undistinguished as poor. In a few schools the tests are used in isolation without reference to individual aptitudes in specific areas of the curriculum, either as a short cut for selecting pupils for special enrichment courses, or for determining the composition of teaching groups of. This is less useful than if combined with a subject-specific test. (Bondagjy, 2000, p.20) Standardised tests are used widely by the supporters of the theories of a one-dimensional view of ability, which go back to the first theories of intelligence, such as Spearmans theory ( date) mentioned in the previous section, which has been received with enthusiasm and also with scepticism and rejection. The arguments against this single-dimension view of ability (based on general intelligence that consists of areas that are highly correlated with each other and that are mainly intellectual and tested using IQ tests) led to the creation of multi-dimensional theories of ability, such as that of Renzulli, (1978) Gardner (1983,1993), Sternberg (2000) and others. The multi-faceted theories of giftedness are viewed by many to be more appropriate to define and identify high ability. These authors along with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, ( date ) and Benjamin Bloom (1985) have all made compelling arguments for a much broader conception of giftedness. Chongde Tsingan, (2003) describes the cont ribution to the more liberal conceptions of giftedness as: Many western theories of intelligence focus on its physiological or cognitive components. However, Howard Gardners theory of multiple intelligences (1983, 1993), Robert Sternbergs triarchic theory of intelligence (1985) and Stephen Cecis bioecological theory of intelligence (1996) are much broader in scope. They combine and extend aspects of the biological, hierarchical and contextual views of intelligence which include interactions between mental processes, contextual influences and multiple abilities. (p.) The following section provides greater detail of the specific models of identification of giftedness and associated views on high ability, which have informed the nature of data collection in the present study. Saudi Arabia has conducted research to find out the best approach to gifted education, but of course for females who are severely restricted in the subjects they are allowed to study, these moves are somewhat academic. An interesting survey of computer use in Arabic countries was made by a Jordanian, Subhi (1997). He recommended that gifted pupils records should be computerised for easier monitoring of their progress, and he has designed a programme to help this. The problem, he found though, is that although there are computers in Jordanian schools, there are very few of them and the teachers do not generally know how to use them. It looks as though most, if not all, Arab countries are willing to recognise and help the gifted, and several have made forays into out-of-school activities, but the overall outcome is still difficult to define. Some authors (such as Sternberg et al., 1986, Ziegler and Heller, 2000) believe that a consensus is yet to be reached on what is meant by the term (gifted), and yet multiple efforts have been made to establish criteria for this, which include components such as motivation, creativity, task commitment, and problem solving. However, personal talent is described by Renzulli (1999a, p.4) as exceptional ability to select and achieve difficult goals that fit ones interests, abilities and social contexts. In his view, personal talent is a capability developed in the field of self-management that is concentrated by the individual in the direction of selected outcomes that contain well-being, happiness, personal relationships, hobbies as well as career achievements. He proposes that personal talent can be referred to as a range where those in the centre of this continuum can be explained as personally competent, while those at the high end of the range can be categorized as personally talente d. On the other hand, Masten et al. (2002) argue that resilient individuals learn how to overcome obstacles in order to achieve their anticipated goals, and that this can be described as personal talent. Also, Bland et al. (1994) refer to specific characteristics of resilience as an indicator of exceptional abilities and talent regarding children from poor backgrounds. In this regard, Marker et al. (1996) propose that numerous of the principles of distinguishing curriculum for gifted and talented learners support the development of personal talent. They refer to learning environments that foster independence, flexibility and high mobility as being potentially more promising for fostering personal talents than the more traditional teacher-centred classrooms that concentrate on lectures with academic content. However, some researchers regret the fact that research on giftedness has been somewhat biased, having mainly concentrated on IQ-related abilities that address academic skills, and b y-passing or simply ignoring other basic skills such as vocational skills (Bals, 1999), practical intelligence in everyday life (Sternberg, 2000), and, most importantly, social skills (Persson, 1997). Motivation is another issue that has been the focus of research with regard to gifted children. According to Sternberg (2000), some theories depict motivation as an assisting internal factor in the expansion of giftedness. One of these theories is Gages dynamic theory of giftedness which depicts motivation, volition and self-management as interpersonal catalysts that help convert gifts into talents. However, these theories have failed to provide guidance in assisting youths of high ability to develop motivation. For this reason, some researchers (for example, Colangelo et al. 2000; Alrasheed, 2001) believe that talented students should be identified and given tasks at a higher level than the normal school curriculum. Renzulli (1999b) is of the opinion that gifted students should be pro ducers of knowledge rather than mere consumers of existing information. He believes that specific programmes and services for the talented and gifted are the only solution to allow them to live up to their potential. This idea is further supported by Reis et al (1995) who argues that it is not fair to make a gifted child sit in a classroom where learning something new will not happen until the second half of the year. Historical review of school counselling in the KSA Initially, in 1981, the Ministry of Education established the General Directorate of Guidance and Counselling. Since that time, guidance and counselling has become formalized and recognized as a profession, and counsellors have been appointed to deal with psychological, social, educational, and vocational problems and deliver protective counselling (Ministry of Education KSA, 1999). It should be mentioned here that the model for and practice of guidance and counselling in SaudiArabian schools was derived from western sources, mainly the United States. More than two decades have passed since the guidance and counselling programme was established in Saudi schools. Its development has progressed at a slow rate and, currently, it faces various problems. The major difficulty relates to the definition of the role and function of the school counsellor (Al-Gamdi, 1999) which is unclear to principals, teachers, parents, students and school counsellors themselves. Due to this problem, counsell ors have found themselves overly involved in paperwork and administrative tasks and duties not related to school counselling. Additionally, counsellors often complain about lack of support and cooperation from others involved in the counselling service, especially parents (Al-rebdi, 2000). In this situation, if school counsellors in Saudi Arabia are to provide better services for students, their role must be clearly defined. It is also necessary for those involved in counselling to have a clear view of what counsellors should and should not do. Added to this, counsellors must choose carefully how they spend their time and energy. As the role and functions of the school counsellors become clearer, they should be able to respond better to the needs of their students. Furthermore, in 1981, following decree number 216/k issued by the Ministry of Education, the Social Educational Administration was replaced by the Student Guidance and Counselling Service, and guidance and counselling in Saudi schools became formalised. That same year, the name was changed again to the General Administration for Guidance and Counselling (Ministry of Education, 1999). The responsibilities of this administration are as follows: 1- To plan, prepare and develop the programme and services of guidance and counselling. 2- To provide professional staff who are capable of delivering such services to all students at various stages of education. 3- To provide students with the appropriate care applicable to their ages and their psychological, educational and social needs. 4- To assist students to develop their capabilities, potentialities and talents, to allow them to face their problems and to help them feel comfortable with themselves and with the community in which they live. 5- To attain a high standard of mental health in a way that reflects the targets and goals sought by educational guidance in general (Ministry of Education, 1999). Saleh (1987) pointed out that, due to the immediate need for professionals to monitor and guide the counselling service in schools, the Ministry of Education sought personnel from among the existing social education supervisors to act as the supervisors; counselling and guidance programmes in addition to carrying out their normal duties. The Ministry of Education also sought personnel from within the existing teaching force, provided they had the relevant experience, to work temporarily as counsellors in schools. To meet the need for school counsellors in all schools, the General Administration for Guidance and Counselling allowed those with a Bachelors degree in psychology, social work or sociology to perform the role of the school counsellor until enough trained professional counsellors could be provided. In order to meet the need for trained full-time counsellors to work in schools, universities in Saudi Arabia were requested to offer guidance and counselling programmes at masters level. Statistical information for the year 2000 shows that there were 229 counselling supervisors and 3381 school counsellors overall (Ministry of Education, 2000). By 2003, the number of counsellors had increased rapidly toabout 4000(Al-Rebdi, 2004). The Ministry of Education (1999) defined the term counselling as the interactive process though which the counsellor assists the student to understand himself and recognise his capabilities and potentialities and gives him a more enlightened approach to his problems and how to face them. Counsellors also help students to enhance their responsible behaviour and to show conformity with their community. Counselling gifted students Landau (1990) noted that gifted students might become isolated and alienated. Moreover, Rogers (1983) pointed out that in an egalitarian system children not only lack the opportunity for confirmation and social acceptance, but they also often lack the freedom to learn. The need for confirmation and emotional support is well known in the literature which focuses on giftedness and talent (Csikszentmilalyi et al., 1993; Kelley, 1999; Stednitz, 1995). Donna (1999) suggests that teachers and counsellors need to encourage minority students to consider a teaching career in general and gifted student education in particular. Ford (1995) however, believes that from an historical point of view, the counselling of gifted students has not been an important part of educational and counselling discourse. He points out that misconceptions and stereotypes of gifted students as being immune to social, emotional, and academic problems have contributed to the lack of counselling for these students, and in cases where counselling is available it is only limited to academic, assessment and placement issues. According to Ford, the fact that more children are entering school with serious personal and academic problems should entail an expansion in the responsibilities and roles of counsellors to meet the needs of all children who seek guidance and assistance. But nonetheless according to Alrasheed, (2001) the limited availability of counselling services has failed to meet the enormous need for counselling services and research regarding gifted individuals. In this respect he endeavoured to provide counsellors, classroom teachers and educationalists as well as parents with advice regarding the understanding of the academic and social needs of gifted and talented students. Persson (2005) considers mentorship as a possible solution to aid the immediate psychological and intellectual needs of gifted individuals, particularly received mentorship. According to Person, mentorship could be direct or indirect by cooperating with the student to find a mentor of his choice, given the fact that not a ll gifted students would be likely to choose their counsellors to be their mentors. Person expresses the conviction that mentorship is the only viable counselling solution in an egalitarian context, which lacks recognition and particular provision for gifted individuals. Ford (1995) outlines the goal of counselling as that of promoting healthy self-concepts and ensuring psychological growth. Bearing that in mind, counsellors must have an awareness and understanding of the many issues that hinder gifted students and affect their psychological, social and emotional well-being. He recognises the role of counsellors in ensuring that such students remain in gifted programmes once identified and placed. Finally the concept of counselling needs to be defined within a context where it is not a task assigned merely to a particular group. Instead, as Brown et al. (1992) suggest the task has expanded from an initial concern with educational and vocational guidance to the remediation and prevention of personal, interpersonal, vocational and educational concerns. Consequently, according to Persson (2005), the aim of the intervention is for the individual to gain an understanding of self and context, in which case individual differences become a sensitive and even problematic issue, particularly in cases where gifted individuals are involved. Research Problem There have been few programmes for gifted students offered in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Even though there has been programmes existing, it is new and is for further evaluation to be able to develop it more for the students. It has been believed that if there has been more developed programmes for gifted children then they will be more enhanced and so, benefiting the country. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have put up programmes for gifted students but is new and rare. There has been studies regarding the support of the authorities in the schools on how to support gifted students. The research questions Based on the aims articulated in the previous section, the following specific research questions have been formulated: How does the Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia support gifted students? Does the authorities in the schools help in the development of the programmes? How do we determine the effectiveness of the programmes with the school counsellor, principal, and teachers help? Sub-questions Two sub-questions will also be explored: Do the teacher, student counsellor and principal who work with gifted students have special qualifications? What is the level and nature of the response of gifted students to these programmes? Research Design The design of the study is intended to determine: first, the relationship of the roles of student counsellor, teachers, and principals to the performance of the gifted students; second, the effectiveness of the programmes in developing the capacity of the gifted students. Instrumentation and Data Collection The researchers visited the [Insert name of University Library or City Library] for journals, articles and studies needed for the research paper. The researchers gathered time-series data from different physical training institutions to assure of its validity and consistency. The primary data will be gathered using quantitative method, as this is best useful with questionnaires. The use of quantitative method will be appropriate for the research because the results in the questionnaires consist of numerical information, mostly based from the ratings included in the questions. Quantitative methods are used to provide reference to numeric calculations and are often used with questionnaires that have a specific goal and a target to achieve. This is helpful in the research, and its instigation in the process needs to be further culminated so that the problem is solved with efficiency and precision. In gathering data, the researcher would like to clear certain ethical issues that might hinder the processing of data. First, confidentiality will be kept at all costs. As the main reason why questionnaires will be used in the research is for the respondents to feel secure and to be assured that their answers will not be related to who they are. There may be instances wherein the respondent will divulge information that will be detrimental to the company, or to its competitors, depending on the case. Hence, there is a better chance at more responsive respondents if they can be assured of their confidentiality. Second, the Data Protection Act will be followed at all costs. The compliance with the act will be transparently said to the respondents so that they are further assured that anything they say in response to the questions asked them will only be used for the benefit of the research and not in any other practices. It should also be clear to the researcher that any information regarding the respondents cannot be released to anyone who is not immediately connected with the research unless permission from the subject respondent has been secured beforehand. Third, the research must always bear in mind the objectives of the study and never stray away from them. A researcher who has no definite purpose in doing the research is going nowhere and is exerting effort in a research that is not delimited properly and punctually. The purpose of the research is explicitly stated at the beginning of the research and is implied in every step of the realization of the research so as to not delineate the researcher from his goals. Lastly, the researcher must opt to practice objectivity. As the researcher, he is expected to keep an open-minded approach to the topic, keeping from his mind and personal bias in the subject matter or on the people involved. The reason for doing research is to test existing information, validate, prove or disprove existing ideas, or to test the limits of a certain prospect. Given this simple definition, it is clearly seen that in no form is the personal opinions of the researcher expected to hinder in the subject. Any act that might be biased or subjective will hint of the researchs failure to achieve its goals. Planned Method of Analysis The researchers plan to analyze the different test conducted through constant evaluation of the gifted students and how they perform. There will be a weekly evaluation in terms of how the programmes and the role of the authorities, and the effect of it to their performance. The performance in the field will be evaluated by the gifted students progress and development. Conclusion This study adds to a growing body of literature that reinforces the importance of examining the programmes for gifted students adopted by the Ministry of Education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for further development. There is no, to the researchers knowledge, research that investigates such programmes. This study is identified as being the first study at the level of a doctorate research project which evaluates the gifted programmes in the Ministry of Education from the point of view of the students, the schools and the workers in such programmes. The study further attempts to use the most effective methods of collecting information, which the researcher obtained data in the form of questionnaires, interviews, observation and documentation. The mixed methods employed in the research made it possible to triangulate both qualitative and quantitative research. Further to these methods, the study used the most popular electronic program (SPSS) to gather and analyse the data as well as to design the tables and diagrams. The study focuses on the research questions at every stage of the research, either theoretically or practically. The researcher also oversaw the validity and procedural aspects of the questionnaire through sitting with students and workers when they answered the questions in order to clarify any ambiguity and confusion on their behalf. In general, the results of the study agree with many of the theoretical studies mentioned in chapter two. Finally, this is a serious explorative study, which has