Green cars (electric cars) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Green cars (electric cars) - Essay Example ough no one can argue that electricity is a form of â€Å"clean energy† as compared to traditional fossil fuels, the fact remains that this electricity must be generated in some way: whether from coal, nuclear, or hydro stations – all of which represent a definite environmental drawback. Thesis sentence: A tangential problem to electrical generation that few people spend much time thinking about concerns the material that is used to make the batteries which will store the electrical power for the vehicles. V. Total environmental impact of the production process as compared to total carbon output and green technology/electric/hybrid vehicles as compared to the environmental effect s of traditional automobile manufacturing Thesis statement: As factories will need to retool and diverse supplies of â€Å"rare earth† materials will need to be utilized in order to create these batteries, there will be a net loss of the earth’s resources as compared to traditional automotive manufacturing; as such, this analysis asks how this loss will be

Research Papers in Computer Science Essay Example for Free

Research Papers in Computer Science Essay Since we recently announced our $10001 Binary Battle to promote applications built on the Mendeley API (now including PLoS as well), I decided to take a look at the data to see what people have to work with. My analysis focused on our second largest discipline, Computer Science. Biological Sciences (my discipline) is the largest, but I started with this one so that I could look at the data with fresh eyes, and also because it’s got some really cool papers to talk about. Here’s what I found: What I found was a fascinating list of topics, with many of the expected fundamental papers like Shannon’s Theory of Information and the Google paper, a strong showing from Mapreduce and machine learning, but also some interesting hints that augmented reality may be becoming more of an actual reality soon. The top graph summarizes the overall results of the analysis. This graph shows the Top 10 papers among those who have listed computer science as their discipline and chosen a subdiscipline. The bars are colored according to subdiscipline and the number of readers is shown on the x-axis. The bar graphs for each paper show the distribution of readership levels among subdisciplines. 17 of the 21 CS subdisciplines are represented and the axis scales and color schemes remain constant throughout. Click on any graph to explore it in more detail or to grab the raw data.(NB: A minority of Computer Scientists have listed a subdiscipline. I would encourage everyone to do so.) 1. Latent Dirichlet Allocation (available full-text) LDA is a means of classifying objects, such as documents, based on their underlying topics. I was surprised to see this paper as number one instead of Shannon’s information theory paper (#7) or the paper describing the concept that became Google (#3). It turns out that interest in this paper is very strong among those who list artificial intelligence as their subdiscipline. In fact, AI researchers contributed the majority of readership to 6 out of the top 10 papers. Presumably, those interested in popular topics such as machine learning list themselves under AI, which explains the strength of this subdiscipline, whereas papers like the Mapreduce one or the Google paper appeal to a broad range of subdisciplines, giving those papers a smaller numbers spread across more subdisciplines. Professor Blei is also a bit of a superstar, so that didn’t hurt. (the irony of a manually-categorized list with an LDA paper at the top has not escaped us) 2. MapReduce : Simplified Data Processing on Large Clusters (available full-text) It’s no surprise to see this in the Top 10 either, given the huge appeal of this parallelization technique for breaking down huge computations into easily executable and recombinable chunks. The importance of the monolithic â€Å"Big Iron† supercomputer has been on the wane for decades. The interesting thing about this paper is that had some of the lowest readership scores of the top papers within a subdiscipline, but folks from across the entire spectrum of computer science are reading it. This is perhaps expected for such a general purpose technique, but given the above it’s strange that there are no AI readers of this paper at all. 3. The Anatomy of a large-scale hypertextual search engine (available full-text) In this paper, Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page discuss how Google was created and how it initially worked. This is another paper that has high readership across a broad swath of disciplines, including AI, but wasn’t dominated by any one discipline. I would expect that the largest share of readers have it in their library mostly out of curiosity rather than direct relevance to their research. It’s a fascinating piece of history related to something that has now become part of our every day lives. 4. Distinctive Image Features from Scale-Invariant Keypoints This paper was new to me, although I’m sure it’s not new to many of you. This paper describes how to identify objects in a video stream without regard to how near or far away they are or how they’re oriented with respect to the camera. AI again drove the popularity of this paper in large part and to understand why, think â€Å"Augmented Realityâ€Å". AR is the futuristic idea most familiar to the average sci-fi enthusiast as Terminator-vision. Given the strong interest in the topic, AR could be closer than we think, but we’ll probably use it to layer Groupon deals over shops we pass by instead of building unstoppable fighting machines. 5. Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction (available full-text) This is another machine learning paper and its presence in the top 10 is primarily due to AI, with a small contribution from folks listing neural networks as their discipline, most likely due to the paper being published in IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks. Reinforcement learning is essentially a technique that borrows from biology, where the behavior of an intelligent agent is is controlled by the amount of positive stimuli, or reinforcement, it receives in an environment where there are many different interacting positive and negative stimuli. This is how we’ll teach the robots behaviors in a human fashion, before they rise up and destroy us. 6. Toward the next generation of recommender systems: a survey of the state-of-the-art and possible extensions (available full-text) Popular among AI and information retrieval researchers, this paper discusses recommendation algorithms and classifies them into collaborative, content-based, or hybrid. While I wouldn’t call this paper a groundbreaking event of the caliber of the Shannon paper above, I can certainly understand why it makes such a strong showing here. If you’re using Mendeley, you’re using both collaborative and content-based discovery methods! 7. A Mathematical Theory of Communication (available full-text) Now we’re back to more fundamental papers. I would really have expected this to be at least number 3 or 4, but the strong showing by the AI discipline for the machine learning papers in spots 1, 4, and 5 pushed it down. This paper discusses the theory of sending communications down a noisy channel and demonstrates a few key engineering parameters, such as entropy, which is the range of states of a given communication. It’s one of the more fundamental papers of computer science, founding the field of information theory and enabling the development of the very tubes through which you received this web page you’re reading now. It’s also the first place the word â€Å"bit†, short for binary digit, is found in the published literature. 8. The Semantic Web (available full-text) In The Semantic Web, Tim Berners-Lee, Sir Tim, the inventor of the World Wide Web, describes his vision for the web of the future. Now, 10 years later, it’s fascinating to look back though it and see on which points the web has delivered on its promise and how far away we still remain in so many others. This is different from the other papers above in that it’s a descriptive piece, not primary research as above, but still deserves it’s place in the list and readership will only grow as we get ever closer to his vision. 9. Convex Optimization (available full-text) This is a very popular book on a widely used optimization technique in signal processing. Convex optimization tries to find the provably optimal solution to an optimization problem, as opposed to a nearby maximum or minimum. While this seems like a highly specialized niche area, it’s of importance to machine learning and AI researchers, so it was able to pull in a nice readership on Mendeley. Professor Boyd has a very popular set of video classes at Stanford on the subject, which probably gave this a little boost, as well. The point here is that print publications aren’t the only way of communicating your ideas. Videos of techniques at SciVee or JoVE or recorded lectures (previously) can really help spread awareness of your research. 10. Object recognition from local scale-invariant features (available in full-text) This is another paper on the same topic as paper #4, and it’s by the same author. Looking across subdisciplines as we did here, it’s not surprising to see two related papers, of interest to the main driving discipline, appear twice. Adding the readers from this paper to the #4 paper would be enough to put it in the #2 spot, just below the LDA paper. Conclusions So what’s the moral of the story? Well, there are a few things to note. First of all, it shows that Mendeley readership data is good enough to reveal both papers of long-standing importance as well as interesting upcoming trends. Fun stuff can be done with this! How about a Mendeley leaderboard? You could grab the number of readers for each paper published by members of your group, and have some friendly competition to see who can get the most readers, month-over-month. Comparing yourself against others in terms of readers per paper could put a big smile on your face, or it could be a gentle nudge to get out to more conferences or maybe record a video of your technique for JoVE or Khan Academy or just Youtube. Another thing to note is that these results don’t necessarily mean that AI researchers are the most influential researchers or the most numerous, just the best at being accounted for. To make sure you’re counted properly, be sure you list your subdiscipline on your profile, or if you can’t find your exact one, pick the closest one, like the machine learning folks did with the AI subdiscipline. We recognize that almost everyone does interdisciplinary work these days. We’re working on a more flexible discipline assignment system, but for now, just pick your favorite one. These stats were derived from the entire readership history, so they do reflect a founder effect to some degree. Limiting the analysis to the past 3 months would probably reveal different trends and comparing month-to-month changes could reveal rising stars.

Smoke-laden Essay Example for Free

Smoke-laden Essay We read the following Sherlock Holmes stories; The adventure of the veiled lodger, The speckled band, The red headed league, The crooked man and The silver blaze. In detail I studied The adventure of the veiled lodger, The speckled band and The silver blaze. In terms of narrative of the characters, the use of language, Structure and the authors view point and then compared them. In The veiled lodger Holmes is passed on a message by a landlord, from a tenant. It said do you wish to find out what really happened to Mr. Render. When Holmes and Watson got to the house they find out that the tenant was Mrs. Render. They also found out that Mr. Render did not die the way they originally thought, which was being attacked by a lion, but it was a murder carried out by Mrs. Render and her lover called Leonardo. They did this because of the way that Mr. Render treated Mrs. Render, he would abuse her when she commented on how he had other women. They made the murder look like it was a lion from the circus attacking him, by using a club with nails attached, to look like claws but the plan went wrong. They managed to attack Mr. Render but when Mrs. Render opened the loins cage to let the lion loose from the cage the smell of blood had sent it wild and it turned on Mrs. Render. The Speckled Band is about a family of two sisters and their step father. The mother had died and left a sum of money in the step fathers possession to keep the whole family going. When the daughters gets married some of the money was to go to them, so that the money in the end will be split three ways between them. When one daughter does get engaged she starts to notice strange occurrences, like a low whistle early in the morning about three am which is not normal. She then dies in mysterious circumstances and the case was never solved. When the second of the daughters got engaged she had to move into her sisters old room as her room was supposedly being decorated, she too started to hear a low whistle early in the morning. She then comes and finds Holmes and explains her situation she asks him to investigate what is happening. Holmes looks at all the evidence and clues only to discovers that the step father is planting a deadly snake in their bed each night and then calls it back after so long using a whistle and milk. The plan was that the snake would bite the daughters and then he could call the snake back before someone could see it. In The silver blaze Holmes is called to investigate the murder of a man and the where abouts of a lost racing horse. When Holmes gets to the site he notices something even before he has left the carriage, he stays sat down quiet for a moment and when he gets up he doesnt say what it was he noticed, which was that some of the sheep seemed to be lame. When the case is closed he then reveals what he found and how he got his conclusion. What actually happened was the victim had drugged the stable boy and taken the horse out in to the moors, where he attempted to take a nick out of a bone of the horse so that would be paralysed . It would therefore lose its next race. He did this because he had a bet on another horse to win. But the plan went wrong when he started to cut the horse, as it kicked him in the head killing him. The horse had wondered off and had been found by the rival horse trainer and then hidden. In these three short stories there are some big similarities, they all contain a murder they are either at the start of the story, end or both. The plots begin very close to the start of the stories this makes the readers intrigued sooner and therefore continue to read the stories. The odd murder is in The veiled lodger where the story is been told as past not present like The Speckled Band and The silver blaze. There are more similarities in The Speckled Band and The silver blaze because of this. For instance both the stories were solved by Holmes instead of Holmes been told the story, this could have a negative effect upon the reader because it is harder for them to become involved in the story as they already know the outcome. The characters in The veiled lodger and The Speckled Band have similarities between them, for example Helen and Mrs. Render both have a dominant male in there lifes who they fear. Helen goes behind Dr. Royllots back to see Holmes and does not confront Dr. Royllot. Mrs. Render also describes Mr. Render as being the devil. But there are still some similarities with The silver blaze, for example the victims wife in The silver blaze and Mrs. Render in The veiled lodger both have men which dont stay faithful to them. In The veiled lodger Mrs. Render is a middle aged widow, she got married young to the circus manager and found out too late it was a wrong decision because he physically abused her. This drove Mrs. Render to her limits and she planned his murder. She did this with Leonardo a lover of hers he was the strong man in the circus. He came up with the killing method but when the plan did go wrong he ran from the scene. When the other people heard Mrs. Render they came to help and Leonardo came to. This shows what judge of character Mrs. Render has, it is clear that she has a poor judge of character.

The Service Line Development

The Service Line Development At present time, there are many areas that are in high demand for patients in the service line area for completely new service lines. When following the strategic plan of implementation of the cardiovascular, cancer and orthopedic centers it will help to analyze the demand for the development of three new service lines. Please see below the elements necessary to perform such evaluation. How will position this three programs and centers (Cancer, Orthopedic and Cardio-Vascular), as an aggressive business competition for Trinity Community Hospital in the assigned market area. By reviewing the existing Trinity Community Hospital programs and services offered, that could serve as complementary components of the three new service lines. This will make accessible the most advanced medical approaches for diagnosing, treating and preventing disease elements that will end helping many people, we could say in the thousands. How will this three programs and centers (Cancer, Orthopedic and Cardio-Vascular), strengthen the outreach to be able to compete for great care and value-driven customers (patients), in the assigned market area. Most likely this will drive very strong increases in volume and at the same time will improved the financial performance. By performing a competitive analysis of similar programs (Cancer, orthopedic and Cardiovascular programs) in the assigned market area. To evaluate and analyzed the trends in the industry (healthcare, but specifically to Cancer, Orthopedic and Cardiovascular elements) and evaluate the demand in the defined market area for such specialty services. The demand to expand the service line is essential to increase performance of the organization and its future depends on the success of implementation of these three service lines (Cancer, Orthopedic and Cardio-Vascular). The demand for developing these service lines as a Regional Cancer Center, a Regional Orthopedic Center and finally a Regional Cardiovascular Center in the assigned market area is based in specialty services is as follows, by using information from the WGU case study, exactly from the five-years program strategic plan (PDF file): Goal 1: Developing a Regional Cancer Center. Strategy A: Offer Distinctive Clinical Programs and Services Multidisciplinary, disease-focused clinics: breast, GI, lung, prostate Comprehensive medical, surgical, radiation, support services Evidence-based treatment and access to leading clinical trials Strategy B: Emphasize Cancer Prevention and Control Community education Screening and risk assessment Outreach to underserved communities Strategy C: Enhance Service Access Fast-track scheduling Patient navigation Goal 2: Developing a Regional Orthopedic Center. Strategy A: Offer Distinctive Clinical Programs and Services Spine, total joint, hand Comprehensive rehab and support programs Best practices and treatment protocols Strategy B: Emphasize Prevention of Injury and Disease Community education Screening and risk assessment Outreach services to underserved communities Strategy C: Enhance Service Access Fast-track scheduling Coordination of services Goal 3: Developing a Regional Cardiovascular Center. Strategy A: Offer Distinctive Clinical Programs and Services Peripheral artery disease, heart failure, electrophysiology Cardiology for women Evidence-based treatment Strategy B: Emphasize Prevention and Control of Cardiovascular Disease Community Education Screening and risk assessment Outreach services to underserved communities Strategy C: Enhance Service Access Fast-track scheduling Coordination of services When looking at the above goals (three of them) and strategies, the demand for this three (Cancer, Orthopedic and Cardio-Vascular) service lines in the assigned market area will required to direct the focus on the following crucial elements: To guarantee that Trinity Community Hospital operations are conducted in an effective and competent manner. To help to differentiate the organization (Trinity Community Hospital), also to generate profits, and to improve the care of their patients, and document quality especially in this time of increased transparency.   Establishing a positive learning environment for the Trinity Community Hospital and their medical staff emphasizing on achievement and innovative strategies, which usually are used in very successful hospital around the country. To guarantee that patient care is consistently of high quality and that the Trinity Community Hospital environment is safe for patients, staff and visitors. To guarantee a high priority of service excellence for Trinity Community Hospital patients and staff. How to prioritize this three new service line strategies at Trinity Community Hospital. To aligned these three new service lines as an integrated group, to maximize the value across the continuum of care, decreasing internal organization competition, and improving the services performance and manageability as a whole.   2. ANALYZE HOW CURRENT INTERNATIONAL HEALTHCARE TRENDS COULD BE INCORPORATED INTO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEW SERVICE LINE. There are many different international healthcare trends that can be incorporated into the development of the new service line. Some are listed below: The seeking and the accessing of health information. Increasingly health information available is becoming more personalized at the individual level. The generalized information on disease and the typical treatment responses over the internet, are becoming irrelevant to the consumer. Diversity of individual specific sources should include personalized medicine, the use of social media (people being able to express their feelings, their emotions, especially when they are relevant to the treatment), also the access to their electronic health records. The use of self help groups, disease specific. Following the trend that consumers are demanding more information transparency. We need to understand that the transparency of information in healthcare is becoming an ethical obligation. Some of them are: waiting list, cost, patient access, patient satisfaction measures, also patient safety measures (Hospital error rates, infection rates, etc). Using trends in home base service delivery. In our case Cancer, Ortho and Cardiovascular programs. This can be also performed at the customer (patient) home. Especially for patients that cannot drive, or cannot be transported to their appointments (treatments, consultations, etc) to Trinity Community Hospital. It could as is used in Australia, as the care continuum, which usually is initiate with internet-based information. This is a great element, especially for patients who are motivated towards receiving self care. In our case, two of the new service lines, Ortho and Cardiovascular can be very easily implemented in the home based service delivery. The use of advances in technology and also in medicine, as in many other different countries. When investing in the disease prevention element and treatment it can direct us to a better understanding of the disease. Todays day there is a technological growth, in home care based products, especially diagnostic tools as: Telemedicine, remote monitoring blood pressure, heart rate, skin temperature, etc. Microscopy added to cell phones. Regardless of many challenges during the adoption of telemedicine at various levels, a crucial development can be seen worldwide towards adopting telemedicine applications, tools and techniques.   Telemedicine has become a powerful element and has brought never seen dimensions to healthcare, not only by rendering therapeutic healthcare but also preventive care, supportive and educational.   Understand the changes in generational attitudes. We need to understand that the Baby Boomers, do think and behave differently from their children. The aging populations (Baby Boomers) will soon increased in the healthcare system and overwhelm it. When there are older generations involved, it can lead to increased number of individuals that suffer from chronic and very expensive diseases to treat, that will put pressure on the healthcare system in general. Presently, it has been identified that once healthcare reform takes effect, and everyone will have health coverage there will be a huge shortage of physicians to take care of the people. Focusing on preventatives and improving health before the aging population gets to this level, should be a vital element because the end result could be more cost effective, by not having so many members of the aging population with so many chronic diseases. Medical Cost that continue to rise in healthcare are never ending. By using the state of the art technological advances, at the same time with the cost of the aging population, these two items will have a combined cost that can affect spending of the healthcare system, and the delivery of the healthcare at nationwide. Focusing on the preventatives and the best up to date technology advances that lead to cost effectiveness, should be one of the most important focus of the healthcare system today. Follow the trend of the growth in complementary and alternative medicine. Usually this occurs without a high level of expending. One of the countries using this great and valuable methods, is Australia. The need for emotional support, the help with anxiety, with fear, the information and education, make the patients feel comfortable, with their medical problems and concerns. Focus on medicine that is evidence based is vital, instead of the old fashion process of trial and error given what the patient and doctor decide to try. Using research information with standard studies and protocols for treating illness is the best approach. Having physicians with the most up to date information and treatment is vital in the healthcare business. Having physicians keeping their education, to be able to keep their medical skills and medical knowledge up to date, is also vital. To allow the use of what is called the international private medical insurance (IPMI). Method extremely popular in many countries around the world (Specially in European countries). By doing this, it will allow Trinity Community Hospital to treat patients from another countries for any medical reason. Especially if we can offer them treatments for various medical problems, that would not exist in their countries, or it would be very expensive there too. Also it is extremely essential for people traveling to the USA, and suddenly finding themselves in situations requiring medical attention. Provide care to patients is not just for medical doctors anymore. There are many other types of healthcare practitioners that have college degrees to practice medicine that are not physicians, such as nurse practitioners, physician assistants, etc. Since there is already a shortage of physicians in the healthcare business, by using these other type of practitioners as the ones listed above, this will help tremendously with the elevated cost of medicine, to focus on protocol standardization and latest technology, which will bring huge differences for the changes of healthcare not only for the present time, but for the coming future. Another trend it has to do with having influence of the payer over treatment of medical decisions. Due to the rising cost of healthcare the decisions need to be made by the payer, instead of the healthcare physician based upon ability to pay. Trinity Community Hospital is focusing on financials, regarding patient stay per day and making future decisions, based upon the lack of funding to invest. This already is taking direction towards the global trend of payers making the decisions of care based upon lack of stay or hospital admissions. Strengthening prevention and wellness. Our present health system, needs to put more emphasis on helping people to stay healthy. Our healthcare system requires stronger investment in wellness, as is done in many European countries. A great element for prevention is to put emphasis on vaccines and other serious health issues. This would help to decrease the cost of healthcare and chronic conditions in the future. We need to understand, that early detection and appropriate intervention, will maintain the people in an optimal health possible. When focusing on preventatives this in turn will decrease the amounts of expenditures needed for treatment in the future. When increasing services such as orthopedics, cardiovascular, and oncology this will help tremendously with prevention of diseases that are extremely costly during their treatment. Going to another countries for medical reasons, is very popular for many individuals around the world. As costs get cheaper for medical care in other countries people will travel for the cost savings benefit. Cost pressure forces people to seek healthcare treatment outside of our country, for the purpose of cost reduction that fits their finances. In that case by finding ways of bringing such services locally, this will promote business and looks for ways of cost effectiveness in the Trinity Community Hospital organization. 3. DISCUSS THE EXISTING PROGRAMS AND SERVICE LINES IN THE HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATION, THAT COULD SERVE AS COMPLEMENTARY COMPONENTS OF THE NEW SERVICE LINE. Presently the existing programs and service lines for Trinity Community Hospital are aligned as complimentary components of the new service line and will enhance the success of the new service lines for all three specialty areas. They are outlined below: The offering of another very important services as: Pulmonary medicine, internal medicine, neurology, thoracic surgery, gynecology, general surgery, otolaryngology and urology. Making sure that patient care is of a great quality and that the hospital environment is safe for patients, staff and visitors. The hospital reputation is considered very good. Keep offering excellence in service to patients and the staff. Making sure that hospital functioning is conducted in a competent, productive and successful approach. One of the greatest strength is the very competent, dedicated nursing staff, committed to outstanding patient care. An intensive care unit, with 14 beds. 20 operating rooms and a very good emergency department. Developing a positive learning environment for medical staff and non-medical staff, with attention on modernization and accomplishment. Having all the basic support services as physical therapy, laboratory, respiratory therapy, pharmacy and radiology. In addition to the usual and basic X-ray, the radiology department has one MRI scanner and two CT scanners. Also offers ultrasound services and nuclear medicine. Finally a PET scanner that is used twice a week. When analyzing the board members professions, personalities, and the involvement in the community, are also vital elements to success as complementary components for the new service line (Cancer, Ortho and Cardiovascular programs). The information below is from the WGU case study, exactly from the Trinity Community Hospital board profiles (PDF file): Dr. David Joint is an orthopedic surgeon, native of the community. He is planning to open a branch office near the hospital campus. from the description, it tells us that he is very known in the community, and it has a lot to say. In another words his position and opinion really counts in the community. Mr. Robert Holland holds a CPA degree. Has lived in the community for (5) five years. He is quite interested in national healthcare policy and legislation, especially when is related to healthcare finance. Mrs. Cathy Promo she holds an undergraduate degree in marketing. Lived in the community for about (7) seven years. She is quite involved with the local chamber of commerce and recognizes the importance of good healthcare services in attracting new business and industry to the area. Mrs. Promo strongly believes that an extensive marketing and advertising, could reverse Trinity Community Hospital declining utilization trend. Dr. Randy Sharp is a general surgeon. He has lived in the community for (15) fifteen years. His main interest is in cancer services. His group is planning to recruit a subspecialty-trained oncologic surgeon. Very similar situation as with Dr. David Joint. Dr. Sharps position and opinion really counts in the community too. Mrs. Maria Lopez holds an undergraduate degree in journalism. She has lived in the community for (9) nine years. She also owns an small newspaper that is quite popular within the Latino community. One of hers priorities, is to ensure that adequate healthcare services are available to all minority groups. Below we can also see some more complementary components, by using information from the WGU case study, exactly from the Trinity Community Hospital brochure (PDF file), page 1: Trinitys Commitment. We are committed to serving the community in a capacity that permits every patient to receive the care and support that they require. Quality and Safety. At Trinity Community Hospital we endeavor to provide high quality services while ensuring the safety of patients, visitors, and staff. Service Excellence. We will continue to strive to exceed the service expectations of our patients, visitors, employees, and physicians. Staff Achievement. We will provide opportunities for the enhancement of the skills and expertise of all staff members. Growth and Profitability. Striving to grow service volume, to operate efficiently, and generate sufficient capital for investment. The information below about more complementary components also comes from the WGU case study, exactly from the Trinity Community Hospital brochure (PDF file), pages 2 and 3: WHAT SETS US APART FROM THE REST OF THE MEDICAL COMMUNITY Trinity Community Hospital is a 150-bed, not-for-profit hospital offering: A broad range of medical, surgical, and support services to the community. Patient-friendly, pleasant environment that truly sets us apart. Facilitate a soothing environment, by using large windows, natural woods and tranquil views of an expansive landscape. Nourishing and delectable cuisine prepared and directed by a world renowned Russian dietitian. Providing exceptional care and services, through outstanding employees and medical staff members. Modern, high-tech laboratory, radiology, pharmacy, physical and respiratory departments. Surgery and endoscopy suites, with the newest digital equipment. Robotic surgery. Newly renovated patient rooms, with homelike ambience. Physician locater service, to help finding the right physician for your needs. 4. ANALYZE THE FINANCIAL AND OPERATING DATA TO DETERMINE THE FINANCIAL FEASIBILITY OF INSTITUTING THE NEW SERVICE LINE. The first three tables below, are the current utilization trend and revenue of the current year data, also shows the previous data for a year and two years prior; As we can see in every column (top to bottom) has decreased in every single hospital category. Under table two, the AR (accounts receivable), instead of decreasing, they also increased, making the hospital to wait longer to collect the ending balance. Anytime that the time increases above 50 days, this indicates a serious collection problem, which at the same time causes a significant pressure on the hospital cash flows (each one of the years, starting with the current to two years prior, are over 50 days. The only visible exceptions are Medicare, Medicaid, and Self Pay (See table three). The last table is predicted data with the new service lines being implemented within the organization and increase in utilization and revenue. When looking and paying attention, to the predicted increases based on the new service line in every column (with the exception of ALOS- Average length of stay, which by the way is a positive result, not a negative) there is a significant increase. And the revenue section shows that will help the organization to get out of the negative margin, to a nearly $30000000- million dollars positive margin. When looking at the prediction, we can determine a financial feasibility, if we institute the new service lines. This will bring dramatic increases in volume and improved the financial operations and performance for Trinity Community Hospital. When reviewing the predicted results, we can see that there is a crucial positive effect on the hospital revenue, which it will allow to invest capital in the new service lines, which at the same time will increase the services and supports the community is demanding. At the end, the most important issue, element is that it will make available the most advance approaches for preventing, treating different disease processes and diagnosing, which will impact thousands of people in the community and surroundings. 5. DISCUSS THE TARGET AND MARKETING REFERRAL SERVICES FOR PHYSICIANS. Describing below is a step by step plan, for marketing and referral services designed for the specialty physicians of Trinity Community Hospital. This will bring attention, and receive reputation at the same time from the community, specifically for services offered and rendered, which will increase their business, which creates an increase in revenue. This techniques will help to build name recognition and service awareness. Marketing referrals has many valuable advantages. it will bring patients (customer) at little or even not cost. One single referral could generate a series of leads, because of satisfied customers passing the word-of-mouth to other people they know. Also, this kind of referrals are more trusting people, most likely not skeptical of the hospital, because they are usually confident in the person, friend that refereed them. the result is that this leads are much easier to bring to the hospital business, as potential patients. An extremely important element in the healthcare business, is because is considered a very personal and private service, that from the beginning relies on trust, bonds and many times personal recommendations. Trinity Community Hospital must develop a planed and active approach that is based on many diverse marketing principles, as the ones described below. Put emphasis on the foundation: A well-defined idea of the specialty practice vision and the elements that must be establish, for a profitable and successful practice. Explain and simplify the vision is key to the goal of a profitable and successful specialty practice, as the new service lines at Trinity Community Hospital. To audit the current referral program for Trinity Community Hospital. make an inventory of the current referral system. We need to ask ourselves, how effective are the current means of creating referrals?. What percentage of our patients has been obtained through a referral?. What percent of increase we think we could reasonably achieve?. Do we know the current satisfaction level of our patients?. Such evaluation will allow us to have an inventory of the referral programs weaknesses and strengths. Developing and putting in place the marketing plan: Concentrate on a goal for medical marketing checklist and determine the medical specialty programs that will be offered, which in our case are Oncology, Ortho and Cardiovascular. Create a checklist for the chosen goals. The checklist will concentrate on direct marketing advantage to physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners in our community with faith and assurance. When creating this kind of marketing plan, this will make the specialty practices much effective, valuable, productive and profitable. Attract referrals for the business: One of the most important elements in business is to stay in communication with the medical community. Marketing is all about selling the business, and in order to do that, we need to create presentations to other medical professionals in the community, in order to establish professionalism and credibility. Initially, we need to start with researching the needs of directing ourselves to other medical professionals, and finding out what are their expectations. It should be diverse, balance but powerful, with plenty of resources. People from all the aspects of the healthcare industry. Reach out to others by writing letters introducing the business practice and services offered, this information should included progress reports to be able to show the evidence to the medical community of the demand and service. Making progress and connections with the medical community: Develop strategies for the hospital business, which include several types of presentations to the medical community to show the outreach of services that are available to the community. To know the most important people in this business, with whom discuss about our business and whom are the decision makers. When a connection is established, then setting up the patient care program, will be based upon the diagnosis. Then we begin with the word-of-mouth marketing element, which usually gets the business more and more referrals from other medical offices. A very important, I will say crucial element, is to do not forget to thank them for sending the referrals. A thank you letter or a gift certificate will do. When using this method of marketing referral for specialty physicians, this plan will continue to do several things, first it will help patients with serious diagnosis and the treatment of serious medical conditions. Second, it will also help to meet the needs of diverse medical professionals. Third, it will build a long-lasting and trusting relationship. By the end, this strategy will be well worth the effort.

Truman Capotes In Cold Blood: Novel vs Movie Essay -- In Cold Blood Es

The book, â€Å"In Cold Blood†, is a nonfiction story by Truman Capote. This book presents one of the worst murders in history. It was a best seller worldwide, and turned into a successful movie. As usual the movie does not stand up to the book. If you want more knowledge of the townspeople, victims and more insight into the trial, more background details of the murders, you should read the book. If you are interested in history and a good murder mystery all in the confines of a book cover, read In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. While reading the book â€Å"In Cold Blood† you are introduced to the Clutter family one by one. You learn that Herb Clutter is the head of the house. He is well liked and respected by the townspeople. Mr. Clutter was a prosperous farmer. As the reader, you learn that Bonnie Clutter, Herb Clutter’s, wife is a recluse due to fainting spells. This caused her to stay close to home, inside a lot. Nancy is the daughter of Herb and Bonnie, and she is popular with her peers and liked throughout the town. The last of the Clutter family to be introduced to us is Kenyon, the son of Herb and Bonnie and Nancy’s brother. These are the victims of the awful murders. You get to know them all. In the movie they are humanized, but in the book you get to know them better. The movie shows us a very disturbed Perry Smith and a cunning, want to get rich quick, Dick Hickock. While the book details Perry’s life in the juvenile detention center, his life in the convent, and the closeness he shared with his sister Barbara. The movie closely mirrored this, and you see great detail of Perry Smith’s childhood. Mr. Capote sets the stage and the fill of the town nicely, by describing in detail the drive into town. He sets the ... ...ted Gindin, James. â€Å"Harvest of a Quiet Eye: The Novel of Compassion.† Contemporary Literaray Criticism. Vol. 3. Ed. Carolyn Riley. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1975. 100. Hollowell, John. â€Å"Truman Capote’s Nonfiction Novel.† Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 19. Ed. Sharon R. Gunton. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1975. 84. â€Å"Literary Classics.† (Mar. 18, 1999): n. pag. Online. Available: http://www.bomc.com. â€Å"Manaly Analysis: In Cold Blood†. (Mar. 18, 1999): n. pag. Online. Available: http://www.showcase.com. Nance, William L. â€Å"The Worlds of Truman Capote.† Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 13. Ed. Dedria Bryfonski. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1975. 137-139. Whittington-Egan Richard. â€Å"Needle-Pointed Penman.† Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 8. Ed. Dedria Bryfonski. Detroit: Gale Research company, 1975. 133.

Handling the Brain Essay -- Biology Essays Research Papers

Handling the Brain The initial premise of this web search was to determine what differences, if any, were known to exist in the brain of the ambidextrous individual. An actual classification of "ambidexterity" seems to have been all but eliminated, while the explanation of the term, "handedness", has become increasingly muddled. Beyond superstitions and mysticism, in its earliest history an individuals favoritism of the left or right hand proved significant mainly to those clinicians who utilized this physical clue of handedness as an indicator of brain lateralization (2). Lateralization in general "refers to the concept that a given function is controlled preferentially by one side of the brain or body (5). Brain lateralization further implicates the functional specialization of the two cerebral hemispheres - the left and right - which may be distinct in the localization of neural mechanisms for particular functions (3). The corpus callosum serves as the physical and functional connection between these two cerebral hemispheres. Each hemisphere receives sensory information and controls movement on the side of the body opposite its location. An intact corpus callosum insures communication between the two hemispheres to build a full understanding of actions and perception. In certain extreme cases of severe epileptic seizures a "split-brain operation" is necessary, severing the corpus callosum, which serves to greatly reduce seizure frequency but leaves the cerebral hemispheres to function virtually independently (6). "Handedness" then, has come to be considered - not merely the hand you favor for writing - but rather a possible indication of hemispheric language specialization. It was the French neurosurgeon, Paul... ... Interaction by John Gregory Hibbard http://monroe.lib.in.us/~bpmchi/Hibbard.html 2)handedness http://www.nurseminerva.co.uk/handedne.htm 3)Handedness and Brain Lateralization http://www.indiana.edu/~primate/brain.html 4)Scientific American: Ask the Experts: Biology http://www.sciam.com/missing.cfm 5) Evolution of Lateralization and a Role in Language http://n002bsel.bios.uic.edu/evolution/vertcns/lateralization/index.html 6)Splitting the Human Brain by Paul Pietsch http://www.php.indiana.edu/~pietsch/split-brain.html 7)Ambidexterity: Memory Power and Mindfulness - Ambidexterity Develops http://www.earthlink.net/error/404.html Further Investigation 8)TRY IT! Hemispheric Specialization http://www.cord.edu/faculty/covey/hemisphere.html 9)Left brain / Right Brain http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/1892/hemisphr.htm

civil war1 :: essays papers

civil war1 [The following document comes from the Confederate Veteran, a magazine published throughout the South from the 1890s until the 1940s. It comes from Volume ? which contains writings from the year 1926, page 379.] If there ever was a hell on Earth, Elmira Prison was that hell, but it was not a hot one, for the thermometer was often 40 degrees below zero. There were about six thousand Confederate prisoners, mostly from Georgia and the Carolinas. We were housed in long prison buildings, say one hundred and twenty feet long and forty feet wide, three tiers of bunks against each wall. A big coal stove every thirty feet was always kept red hot; but for these stoves, the most of us would have frozen. Around each stove was a chalk mark, five feet from the stove, marking the distance we should keep, so that all could be warm. We were thinly clad and not half of us had even one blanket. Our rations were ten ounces of bread and two ounces of meat per day. My weight fell from 180 to 160 in a month. We invented all kinds of traps and deadfalls to catch rats. Every day Northern ladies came in the prison, some followed by dogs or cats, which the boys would slip aside and choke to death. The ribs of a stewed dog were delicious, and a broiled rat was superb. One day I was at the guardhouse when about thirty-five of our boys had on barreled shirts, guards marching them around. A barreled shirt was made by knocking out the head of a barrel then cutting a hole in the other head and putting it on the body. On these barreled shirts was written in big letters, "Stole a dog," "Stole a cat," "Stole a ration," "Stole a fur," etc. If a lady's fur was not fastened on, the boys would grab it, and some of them had been caught. All the Yankees soldiers were not cruel. The chalk marks were drawn around the stoves so that all could get some of the heat. One day a poor sick boy lay down near the chalk line and went to sleep. In his sleep he threw his leg over the chalk line. A big guard caught him by his shoulder and threw him against the wall, making his nose bleed. I popped my big fist against the guard's jaw, knocking him heels over head.