Marketing Communication Strategies for Kudler Fine Foods

Marketing Communication Strategies While Kudler Fine Foods (KFF) will offer similar products both domestically and internationally, the marketing communication strategies will be both similar and different amongst its regional interests. By understanding the comparing and contrasting of the KFF market strategies in the United States, as well as overseas, effective marketing communication can be determined and utilized. Comparison Considering the company’s expansion to both Canada and England, one obvious similarity, is that there will be no language barrier.Although phrases and slang may differ, for the most part, the labeling and promoting will be understandable by all countries. Language barriers can often be a struggle for international businesses, but in this case, interpreting market trends and consumer wants will be easier to help design effective marketing strategies. Likewise, KFF will meet competition in both domestic and international markets, which affects how commu nication strategies will change based on market needs.Competition will determine whether or not KFF will maintain its superiority in the domestic market and its success in the new international markets, (â€Å"Difference Between Domestic And International Marketing†,  2013). Contrast Similarly, the types of competitors and how to combat each situation will differ with the domestic and international marketing communication. For starters, KFF already has a foothold in the domestic market, whereas they are just entering a new market internationally. In this case, internationally market communication is more complex and requires more financial resources, time, effort, and contains higher risk.Differently, the audience will change between domestic and internationally consumers. Understanding the cultural differences and market demands are the highest priority. In this way, how a product is marketed will change amongst the regional locations. Also the laws that govern each countr y may affect what can be marketed and how. It is essential to understanding all business laws that pertain to KFF during the planning phase. Last, another noticeable difference is the budget amount for marketing in domestic and international strategies.The budget is smaller for the domestic marketing, because KFF already has a reputation built and already has the necessary marketing in place. However, internationally, the marketing requires building. In this way, the budget for marketing strategies will be higher, (â€Å"Difference Between Domestic And International Marketing†,  2013). Reference: Difference Between Domestic and International Marketing. (2013). Retrieved from http://www. differencebetween. net/business/difference-between-domestic-and-international-marketing/

Forex

It gets far too complicated to keep tabs on all four. I also recommend that traders choose one of the majors because the spread is the best and they are the most liquid. I personally follow only USED/CHEF because it moves the most every day. Foundation #2: Follow and understand the daily Force News and Analysis of the professional currency analysts. Even though this system is based solely on technical analysis of charts, it is important to get a birds-eye view of the currency markets and the news that affects the prices.It Is also Important that you know and understand what the key technical ‘support' predicted level to buy (where currency pair should move up on the charts), resistance s a predicted level to sell (where the currency pair should move down on the charts). Fortunately, all the best Force news and analysis is offered free on the Internet. Here is what you should do first: *While you are reading the daily news and technical analysis, write down on a piece of paper w hat direction the analysts are saying about the major currency pair you are following and the key support and resistance levels for the day. A. Go to foreknows. Mom and you will find rah news and analysis on the spot FAX markets. The site will give you the big picture of how the economic calendar ND central banks affect the currency markets. A great resource. B. Then go to festered. Com and click on the ‘Top Force Reports'. Here there is a wonderful listing of all the major daily currency analysis and forecasts with support and resistance and direction forecasts. C. Click on currency. Com and go to ‘Today's Market Research' and there you will find more excellent analysis on the Major Currency pairs. Another great Force Portal. D. Wry. Monterey. Com E. Free Force trading forum: www. Respiratory. Net F. Comprehensive listing of everything, related to the Force Markets: www. Engorge. Com/resource/glossary. SP Foundation #3: Only get into a trade when the FPS technical indic ators say when. Always trade with stop losses! It is important when you are trading Force, to be disciplined and to stick to a plan. Don't Just trade your ‘gut' feeling. Use the technical indicators outlined and always enter in stop losses on every trade. Foundation #4: Practice makes perfect. As they say, there is no substitute for hard work and diligence. Practice this system on a demo account and pretend the virtual money is your own real money.Do not open a live trading account until you are profitable trading on a demo account. Stick to the plan and you can be successful. Foundation #5: Trade with a DISCIPLINED Plan: The problem with many traders is that they take shopping more seriously than trading. The average shopper would not spend $400 without serious research and examination of the product he is about to purchase, yet the average trader would make a trade that could easily cost him $400 based on little more than a â€Å"feeling† or â€Å"hunch. † Be s ure that you have a plan in place BEFORE you start to trade.The plan must include stop and limit levels for the trade, as your analysis should encompass the expected downside as well as the expected upside. Foundation #6: Cut your losses early and Let your Profits Run: This simple concept is one of the most difficult to implement and is the cause of most traders demise. Most traders violate their predetermined plan and take their profits before reaching their profit target because they feel uncomfortable sitting on a profitable position. These same people will easily sit on losing positions, allowing the market to move against them for hundreds of points in hopes that the market will come back.In addition, traders who have had their stops hit a few times only to see the market go back in heir favor once they are out, are quick to remove stops from their trading on the losing more then a predetermined amount! The mistaken belief is that every trade should be profitable. If you can ge t 3 out of 6 trades to be profitable then you are doing well. How then do you make money with only half of your trades being winners? You simply allow your profits on the winners to run and make sure that your losses are minimal.Foundation #7: Do not marry your trades The reason trading with a plan is the #1 tip is because most objective analysis is done before the trade is executed. Once a trader is in a position he/she tends to analyze the market differently in the â€Å"hopes† that the market will move in a favorable direction rather than objectively looking at the changing factors that may have turned against your original analysis. This is especially true of losses. Traders with a losing position tend to marry their position, which causes them to disregard the fact that all signs point towards continued losses. Foundation #8: Do not bet the farm Do not over trade.One of the most common mistakes that traders make is leveraging their account too high by trading much larger sizes than their account should prudently trade. Leverage is a double-edged sword. Just because one lot (100,000 units) of currency only requires $1000 as a minimum margin deposit, it does not mean that a trader with $5000 in his account should be able to trade 5 lots. One lot is $100,000 and should be treated as a $100,000 investment and not the $1000 put up as margin. Most traders analyze the charts correctly and place sensible trades, yet they tend to over leverage themselves.As a consequence of this, they are often forced to exit a position at the wrong time. A good rule of thumb is to never use more than 10% of your account at any given time. Trading strategy: TRENDS Trend is simply the overall direction prices are moving UP, DOWN, OR FLAT. The direction of the trend is absolutely essential to trading and analyzing the market. In the Foreign Exchange (FAX) Market, it is possible to profit from UP and Down movements, because of the buying and selling of one currency and against the other currency e. G. Buy US Dollar Sell Japanese Yen ex. Up Trend chart. SUPPORT Price supports are price areas where traders find that it is difficult for market prices to penetrate lower. Buying interest in the dollar is strong enough to overcome. Selling interest in the dollar keeping prices at a sustained level. RESISTANCE Resistance is the opposite of support and represents a price level where Selling Interest overcomes Buying interest and advancing prices are turning back. 3 50% Retrenchment. There are also 33% and 66% Retrenchments. 4 5 Step 1: Prepare your charts The Force Profit System uses 2 technical indicators to show you when you should enter and exit a trade.These are called the Parabolic SARA and the Exponential Moving Average 10, 25 and 50. A. Setup a 60 minute USED/CHEF chart. This is my favorite currency pair to trade because it swings up and down the most. You can choose any major pair you like though. B. Choose Parabolic SARA as an indicator. Click on displa y when it shows you the . 02 and . 2 acceleration factor and constant. C. Choose Moving Averages, Exponential 10, 25 and 50. D. Click on Exponential, then enter 10 in the Period box, then K E. You should have the Parabolic SARA and the three Ma's 10, 25 and 50 in different colors on your charts.Step 2: When to Enter and Exit your Trades This is what your chart should look like. These are the FPS indicators that I use to trade. The EMMA 10 should be in pink, the EMMA 25 should be in yellow, and the EMMA 50 should be in blue. The Parabolic SARA is charted with dots above and below the line. When to ENTER a trade The FPS indicators tell you when to get into a trade when the EMMA ten crosses the 25 and the 50. If the ten crosses the 25 and 50 up from the bottom, you enter your trade ‘long and ‘buy.If the 10 cross the 25 and 50 down from the top you go ‘short' and ‘sell'. Make sure that when you get into your trade that the Parabolic SARA is on the bottom when you go long and on the top when you go short. In the example above, on October 1 5th, there was a great opportunity to go long on the USED/CHEF pair, where I circled and labeled enter. Notice how the EMMA 10 crossed up the 25 and 50 and the Par SARA was on the bottom. *If you are trading the hourly charts like in the above example, make sure that the 15 min charts Parabolic SARA is going the same way.Simply click on the arrow beside the 60 min and change it to 15 min and your studies will automatically adjust to the new time frame. Never trade against the 15 min Parabolic SARA! When to EXIT a trade 6 The best time to exit a trade is when the price crosses back down through all 3 Ma's USED/CHEF on the 20th crossed back down all three indicators where I circled EXIT. If o held this position all week, you could have made a 275 pip profit. With 1 lot traded on a standard account this would have been approximately $1780. 00 in profit. With 2 lots–$3560! A mini account would have prof ited you $178 and $356 respectively.If you profited 275 pips with ERR/USED or GAP/USED you would have made approximately $10 per pip, which you would have made $2750 with one lot and $5500 with 2 lots traded. Not bad for one week! Where to Set the Stop Loss When you open a demo account you will find on the online trading platform that you will always be able to enter a stop order level that will automatically stop out your read at the level you set, or a limit order that will close your position at your desired profit level. Using the FPS means that you should always set your level Just below the EMMA 50.As your position moves in the right direction, you should move your stop accordingly. Then if your position moves against you, you would have locked in your profits by moving up your stop order. It is important that if the prices cross back over the 10, 25 and 50 that you close your position. Here is an example of how the FPS works on the 15 min charts: Using the FPS on the 15 min c harts is more volatile, but it will give you more trades on n intra-day basis. On the example above you could have sold the USED/CHEF ‘short' at 1. 5060 and closed your position at 1. 000 for a 60 pip profit. One note of caution trading the 15 min charts: there are often times when the price will Whipsaw' back and forth, up and down through the 10,25 and 50 moving averages. If this happens soon after you entered a trade, close your position and wait till the moving averages fan out and the Parabolic SARA signals strong. 7 ‘Scalp' Trading the Min Charts System Scalp trading is when you use the 1 to 5 min charts to ‘scalp' small profits. These trades usually only last a few minutes to an hour. You can use the FPS to scalp trade Force on the 1 min charts.Here is how: Instead of using the 10, 25, 50 Ma's like we did in the above examples, put on the 25, 50 and 100 Ma's. Often it is best to scalp trade at the London Open (3:MAMA EST) or the New York open (8:00 AM EST) b ecause that is generally when the currency pairs will start to move more in one direction. When the actual price crosses all three indicators, you enter your trade, long or short. If the price crosses down through the 100 EMMA, enter short, if the price crosses up through the 100 EMMA go long. Make sure that you book a 5-10 pip profit.That is a $50-$100 dollar profit on a regular account, and more if you bought more lots. Don't try to hang on to you winning position too long, because the price can whipsaw back and you can lose. Take your 510 pip profit as soon as you can. Here is an example on the 1 min charts: price crossed up through the 100 EMMA and at 10:45 you could have closed your position (little circle) and made a 10 pip profit. Then again the price crossed back down the 100 EMMA at 1 1 EST. You could have sold the Yen short (big circle) and then ten minutes later made another 10 pip profit. Little circle) The Setup: Open up your trading platform and open a chart. Set the i nstrument to the currency pair of your choice. Set the chart pattern to filled candle. Set the timeshare to 30 minutes Set up a moving average line in your indicators menu. -set period to 11 days Now that you have your chart setup properly, go ahead and set up your normal indicators that you use for reassurance and entrance/exit, etc. I use an MAC, a volume indicator, and Bollixing bands, but everyone has their own theory on what works and why, and everyone has a reason why your indicators don't work when they seem to work Just fine for you!Now before I explain what you are doing with this setup I loud like you to set up the chart as I have indicated, and take a good solid look at the history of the data. Do you see any telltale signs yet, or have a clue as to what the point of the setup is yet? If you do not, do not worry or feel inferior, as this has slipped past some of the best. I happen to be great with numbers and have a strong background in analysis, so I was able to pick up on this trend mostly by dumb luck but good fortune and a keen eye for detail. Now that you have stared at your screen looking for it, I'll explain myself.What you are looking for is the moving average line, or herein referred to as the MA, that you et up on your chart to cross through the price line. You are probably saying to yourself, â€Å"This happens like every hour or so, what gives? â€Å". Well, it does happen fairly often, maybe not that drastically, but it does. The key point is where the MA crosses the price line. You don't need to worry or care about it crossing the thin peaks of the high/low lines on the candle, but you want to concentrate on it crossing through the middle of the wide, filled part of the candle, the openness prices.And further yet, it must cross in around the middle of this center section. If it crosses at the top or OTTOMH of the candle centre area, than you can pretty much disregard the trade. It may be profitable, but not worth the risk. Stick with the center of the central region and you will be much safer. Now, when the MA indeed crosses the price line through the centre of the central wide part of the candle, a trade signal is triggered. You should try and wait at least on the radar and its not about to recant its previous move.The chart is set to the 30 minute timeshare, so generally wait 30 minutes or so, unless the market suddenly takes a quick shift in that direction. Then you can open the position to catch the wing. Now to determine direction. If the MA moves from above the price line to below it, the trade is going to be long. And likewise, if the MA moves through the candle from below the price line, the trade will be short. This can be verified by checking your indicators that you have set up to corroborate with your MA.To better clarify this direction idea, if after the cross the price is below the MA, the price is most likely dropping or SHORT. If the after the cross the price is above the MA, the price is consid ered to be rising and the trade is LONG. Another important factor to consider. While an MAC is a great too to determine market direction and activity, in this case it helps to build on the strength of the trend that we are pointing out here. If the MA crosses the price line from above to below, so that the trade we have forecasted is long, we can compare this with the MAC.If the MAC average lines are above the zero line, then you can expect a large climb. If the trade was reported as short, and the average lines on the MAC screen were below the zero line, you could expect to a see a rather large drop. When I say large drop or gain, I am speaking of 75, 100, 150 point gains. This is not to say that if, n a long trade for instance, the average lines on the MAC are BELOW the zero that you will NOT see a gain. It generally will provide a gain, but of 20, 30, or maybe even 50 points. Where you exit the trade is up to you and how much you can tolerate and are willing to risk.If you feel c omfortable taking 30 points and are okay with yourself if it does end up going to 150 points above your buy price, then good for you. If you are a thrill-seeker and go for the 150, I wish you all the best of luck! You may or may not need it. That's it! It's Just that simple! If you move back through the history of the chart and kook at when and where the MA crosses the price line, you can see for yourself that it seems to catch every big movement, and almost all of the smaller ones. This set can be used on the minute chart for mid-term trades and further yet on the daily chart for longer term setups.Make sure that you are using your regular technical indicators to monitor market activity and ensure the trade is on target. If you are looking to enter a short and your MAC says long, or the 30 minute chart is oversold, you are asking for trouble. You need checks and balances with any system to eliminate as much of the margin of error as possible. The Force Profit System is specifically designed for use with the 1, 5 or 10 minute charts, with the goal of taking 5-20 pip profits per trade?closing bad trades out using tight stops, or hedging any losing trades.The following steps will show you how to do this. Set up your charts: USED (or whatever currency pair you like) , 5 min, line and the chart will appear on the right hand side. Maximize the chart to fill the right hand side. Now if you want to make the price line darker, you can right click right on the price line and a properties box will appear. You can adjust the thickness of the line. Now we will add the Moving Averages to the chart. We will be using the Exponential Moving Average 10, the Bollixing Band Exponential Set at 20, and the Exponential Moving Average 50.Click on Moving Average on the left hand side under Studies. Set your first MA to 10, close, exponential and you can make it red with line width 2 under the Color/Style Tab. Click on Moving Average again and add your MA 50, close, exponential and ma ke this line blue with line width 2. Now we will add 3 more indicators below the chart to help us confirm the trend, and to help us identify exact entry and exit buy or sell signals. The following indicators give us insight into the momentum, direction and overbought/sold indicators.Used along with the Exponential Moving Averages, Parabolic SARA and Bollixing Bands?these indicators can be very helpful to the day trader. MAC Histogram. Read about how to trade the MAC Histogram here: http:// www. Incredibleness. Com/technical/Mac_histogram. HTML Relative Strength Index (RSI) Read about how to trade the RSI here: http://www. Incredibleness. Com/technical/ relative_strength_index. HTML Slow Stochastic Read about how to trade the Slow Stochastic here: http://www. Incredibleness. Com/ technical/slow_stochastic. Tm Now add these studies to your charts.Under Studies click on MAC Histogram and use the default settings (9,Exponential, 12, 26, Close, Exponential) and set the line width to 2. Y our study will automatically open under your chart. Under Studies click on Relative Strength Index and set it to 14 and set the line width to 2. Your study will automatically open under your chart. Under Studies click on Slow Stochastic and set it to (533, Exponential) and make the %K line blue with line width 2, and the %D line red with line width 2. Your chart, with all the studies on it should now look like this (example of USED/CAD 10 in chart): I clicked on the zoom in button a couple of times. *tip: If you are in a winning trade, you can move your stop to your entry level, so that if your trade moves against you, the platform closes your position without any losses. **tip: You should be comfortable setting your stop Order at 15-20 pips. If you can't handle a 15-20 pip loss, then you are need to trade smaller amounts. This will help you from over leveraging your trading account. Limit Order: Is a price you enter into an open position for the trading platform to automatically cl ose your position at a profit. For example, you might set your limit order at a 15 pip profit.If the exchange rate never hits that level, then the Order doesn't get filled. We will be looking at 3 different ways to day trade the Force Markets. In a trading session, you may look for 1 or more of these approaches. The 3 techniques are as follows: Trade the Breakout Trade the Trend Trading Tops and Bottoms Micro Trading Before we look at these trading approaches, let's answer a question that is often asked by new traders. When is the best time to trade? Because the Force Market is open rash a day, and traded on a global scale, the question to ask is, When should I trade?.The good news is that no matter what time zone or hemisphere you live in globally, there are always good opportunities to trade. The three major trading ‘sessions' are as follows (all in Eastern Standard Time): 1 . New York open 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM 2. Japanese/Australian open 7:00 PM to 3:00 AM 3. London open 3:00 AM to 8:00 AM **Often, the best times to trade is at the beginning 3-5 hours of the above mentioned opening times, because the major currency pairs tend to move the most in a particular direction. The first Transformed. Com trading technique we will look at is he easiest to recognize on the charts.We will call it ‘Trade the Breakout'. You can use the 5, 10 or 15 minute charts for this method. The indicators on the 5 minute charts are the fastest. Practice until you feel comfortable with the time frame that suits you best. 1. Trade the Breakout The principle behind trading the breakout is to enter a trade when the price ‘breaks out' of a tight range, because often it tends to keep moving in the same direction. We use our Bollixing Bands on our charts to spot this trading opportunity. The second Transformed. Com trading technique uses the same principles, but is less extreme.

Second paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Second paper - Essay Example Baker succinctly elucidates on the favorable commitment that should be used by a family to ensure their family member is of sound health (Baker and Buchanan-Barker, 2005). Therefore, the paper will give the initial commitments that are involved during family integration, in accordance to the Baker theory (Baker and Buchanan-Barker, 2005). This means that there are various steps that are used by a family in ensuring their close family member is responding positively to treatment. In the end, the family will appreciate positive results as the affected person will have a positive reaction to treatment. Though the affected person may not be fully reverted to normal health, he or she will be in a positive mode when there is increased positive reaction from the family members. This reflects on the positivity of using family integration in treatment of mentally retarded people in the family. Belief and Metaparadigms In Baker’s perspective, there is a belief that nursing is a professi on that denotes people with a caring notion and have responsibility of the patients in their midst. Baker states that, nursing ensures that there is an amicable solution to the illness or disease, reflecting a healing to the affected person. ... There is no need to pay the family for the services that are offered. In addition to this, this theory refers to the positivity of the inception of the practice. The negative side is not considered as it may affect the use of the process. Since time immemorial, the tidal theory has been used and records plausible results, hence the reliance on the theory. Personal philosophy Baker states that development in the current world strongly depends on evidence-based treatment. The mental health is a considerable focal point that should be treated with evidence based treatment (Baker and Buchanan-Barker, 2005). Continuous reflection on the mental health of a person is therefore a guarantee to sound health. According to Baker, the family is the basic group in a community that has close relationship to each other. The family is the basic interaction that involves people with a connection, as either in blood or adoption. Therefore, they are in the best point of having a close connection to each other. This is partially due to the blood and other connection. However, the family becomes a basic interaction as the people are in a daily basis of connecting to each other (Rose-Ackerman, 1982). In essence, the family spends most of their time bonding with each other. This involves sharing meals, playing together and teaching each other mannerisms. This philosophy makes each of the families connected in most of their activities. This calls for a caring and responsible family unit that will give the best treatment to all the family members, though there could be absence of any disease. In recent times, philosophy dictates that families are a growing unit, as the

Diffusion of Innovations Theory and Applications Essay

Diffusion of Innovations Theory and Applications - Essay Example The relationships have been built for a long period of time and therefore breaking them means beginning afresh which is costly in terms of time and efforts. Other people are just skeptical of change because of the fear of the unknown. They are afraid that the introduction of something new may affect their lives negatively and thus they are better off without it not knowing that such a new idea may change their lives for the better (French, Rayner, Rees, & Rumbles, 2011). On the other hand if people are subjected to the change they do not automatically pick up the new idea and begin using it, they go through a series of stages before they fully adopt the idea into their lives. Diffusion of Innovations theory Everett Rogers a professor in sociology developed this theory and popularized it in 1962 in a book titled Diffusion of Innovations. The theory essentially seeks to bring to attention how, why and which rate new ideas and technology are spread through cultures. The origins of this theory stem from many ideas and thus come from varied fields. This theory has been used in many disciplines since its introduction and gained popularity in the field of social change in spreading ideas through its established philosophies. The theory is still popular though it has been overtaken by other social change theories that scholars are using to advance innovations or new ideas to communities (Rogers, 2003). In its historical development the concept of diffusion was first studied and propagated by a French Scholar by the name Gabriel Tarde (1890) and two other scholars Friedrich Ratzel and Leo Frobenius. The concept was also influenced by the ideas of Earl Pembrton who described aspects of institutional diffusion as including postage stamps and the early compulsory school laws. Later on Everett Rogers carried out a study on over 500 diffuse studies and came up with the theory of the adoption of innovations among communities and organizations (Rogers, 2003). In his book he pr oposes four elements that are crucial and influence the spread of new ideas which include: The innovation, channels of communication, time and the context (social system). He first defines the concept of diffusion and sees it as a process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system. This brings up the four elements mentioned above (Kreuter, 2003). An innovation is described as an idea, practices, or objects that are perceived by individuals or a unit of adoption. This innovation may spread quickly or slowly depending on a number of factors. The innovation to spread and be adopted they must show the following characteristics: (1) relative advantage (2) Compatibility (3)Complexity (4) triability (5) observability to those people in a given context (Kreuter, 2003). Communication channels are the means by which the message is spread from one individual to the other. Mass media channels are described as more effective in the creation of knowledge of innovations and the interpersonal channels on the other hand are seen as effective in forming and transforming attitudes towards the innovation and thus play a significant role in influencing the decision to either adopt or reject the new idea. Research has shown that most individuals to do subject

Economic impact Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Economic impact - Research Paper Example of one such nation where demand for coffee has reached an epitome so much so that it accounts for being one of the largest consumers of the commodity in the world. Annual consumption of the good is near to 4.5 kilograms per capita in USA, clearly indicating the degree of popularity that coffee has attained among Americans. Despite the downfall in the income growth rate of the nation, the nationals continue to spend an average of $165 per year on coffee with 54% of them consuming it on a regular basis (International Coffee Organisation, 2006). The present paper is a case study on how a push cart selling hot coffee and cappuccino in the industrial belts of Cleveland, Ohio and Houston, Texas will fare in its business. Objective of the paper will be to draw a conclusion about the prospects of the business in either location on the basis of the degree of demand and the economic influence it will impose. Production of coffee in USA is concentrated only within the states of Hawaii and Papua, though the nation imports a lumpsum quantity of coffee from Latin American nations, whose tropical climate are suited for its growth. In fact, as far as the data of 2001 is concerned, USA is the largest importer of coffee beans accounting for more than 25% of gross imports of the product. However in terms of production, USA produces only a fraction compared to its huge demand for coffee. Hence, a majority of the coffee being supplied in various parts of the nation comes from its imports from South American economies of Colombia and Brazil (International Coffee Organisation, 2006). Demand for coffee depends upon a number of factors which tend to vary from place to place, leading to diverse outcomes of business ventures. In Ohio for instance, these factors could be elaborated as follows. Population – According to census conducted by US Census Bureau in 2008, Cleveland comprised of 397,901 people out of whom 47.8% were males and the rest of them being females. This statistic is

Motivation and Its Impact on Employees Commitment and Work Performance Essay

Motivation and Its Impact on Employees Commitment and Work Performance - Essay Example According to Gallup Organization research, â€Å"only 29 percent of employees are motivated and energized† (Daft 2007: 248). A similar Towers Perrin global survey reveals even lower results with only 14 percent of employees across the world showing high engagement levels in their jobs. Empowering employees promotes motivation which in turn increases their engagement and commitment to their jobs, these factors raise their performance levels, and ultimately increase the company’s competitive advantage. Employee motivation is inducement or incentive which may be self-generated or produced by external forces, that promotes satisfaction and an urge towards improvement in performance. Employee commitment is defined as the attachment, loyalty, and the â€Å"strength of the individual’s identification with, and involvement in a particular organization† (Armstrong 2006: 271), and includes the employee’s extent of engagement in his job. Productivity is define d as â€Å"the efficient as well as the effective use of resources to achieve outcomes† (Berman, Bowman, West & Van Wart 2005: 309). Productivity is related to the quality of human resources and their performance. Thesis Statement: The purpose of this paper is to examine the significance of empowering employees to increase their motivation levels, and with the help of relevant theories and examples explain how motivation can affect employees’ commitment and performance at work. The Empowerment of Employees to Motivate Them Empowerment is the process of increasing employees’ responsibilities while holding them accountable for outcomes. The purpose of empowerment is to get employees to take responsibility for producing results rather than merely â€Å"following rules and regulations without producing tangible results† (Berman et al, 2005: 316). It includes various factors such as re-engineering and re-designing existing delivery processes to make them less error-prone, more efficient, effective, and timely. Re-organization of the company’s operations to eliminate wastage of resources and personnel, and replacement of earlier methods of working with information technology are also reforms that empower the workforce. Replacement of old tasks with high technology equipment or new approaches would require staff training for new responsibilities. Any anxiety on the part of workers should be addressed by human resources personnel to help employees increase their skill sets, and when any jobs become obsolete the employees should be helped to find comparable jobs within the organization. An example of addressing employees’ concerns regarding management’s disinterest in their welfare, is the Scotland-based insurance intermediary Kwik-Fit Financial Services.

2 page letter to the editor Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

2 page letter to the editor - Assignment Example This involves an ability to clearly think through an issue, formulate opinion / policy, communicate it effectively and argue successfully the merits and demerits of the opinion and alternatives. In other words, a leader has to talk, listen and argue coherently to win over skeptics if any. Since we are all individuals from different socio-economic and political backgrounds, we manifest our leadership qualities in different styles. Some of us are authoritative, some are democratic and yet others are of please-all by nature. These styles appear appropriate in different situations e.g., military commanders are in general more authoritative, HR managers are more democratic etc. Authoritative leaders impose their will on the subordinates or even colleagues by the force of their personality and the power of their hierarchical status. Persuasive leaders opt for a more democratic approach Since the topic of healthcare reform is with the political leaders, I wish to draw a parallel with the council member of our neighborhood and the successful way he practices his leadership skills. On the one hand, this council member has to listen to the suggestions and grievances of his constituency (voters), prioritize them and do his best to get them executed through the administration. On the other hand, he has to contend with similar (and sometimes, opposing) demands from the other council members who have obligations to their own voters. There are political careers involved here and the contest is, as in the National Congress, among local leaders. Our council member is a soft spoken Republican. His priorities are dictated by public opinion and national policy. His interactions with the other council members can be seen as the flip side of his interactions with his own voters. Skillfully, he persuades the other council members to support his priorities within reasonable limits and extends similar support to them. By this way, he has

Write a case study on a small group, community, or organization

Write a on a small group, community, or organization - Case Study Example The paper is a comprehensive explanation of the mode of interaction between the American Indians and the rest of Americans. The American Indians are the indigenous inhabitants in the United States of America. They are distinct from the rest of the Americans because they preserve their traditions and are not easily influenced by the modern technology. California in 2000 had the largest population of American Indians. The census report of that year indicated that there were 628,000 American Indians in total. The American Indians are composed of numerous distinct tribes and ethnic groups whose migration happened over thousands of years ago. It involved different groups which are usually referred to as Native Americans or the American Indian. These people crossed over from Asia through a frozen land bridge to the modern day Russia which was by then still part of northern America. They later migrated to Alaska as the ice began to decline thus making them move even further to the southern part. These migrants eventually settled in the modern days United States. Due to their conservative nature, American Indians are regarded as uncivilized by majority of the rest of Americans. But they value their practices since they attach them to identity and unity symbols. Just like all the other communities, they adhere to various social concepts and theories. This is because they have to interact with the rest of the Americans thus making them venerable to internal and external influences. The social concepts and theories apply in various levels and aspects of the American Indians’ lives just like in other social units. Amongst the theories affecting American Indians is the conflict theory. The theory argues that in any society, people do not coexist in pursuit of equilibrium where everybody receives an equal share of resources. It further states that people live competitively with everyone trying to outdo the other with the weakest

Food Cloning Essay Example for Free

Food Cloning Essay Food cloning is a very controversial topic to be discussed because of the large number of disagreements associated with it. Just like anything else in the world, it has positive and negative sides to it. The consumers all over the world only see the negative side. It is time that they now witness the benefits that cloned food brings along with it. This paper will outline these controversies and will describe how the media portrays them. It will also demonstrate the effect of food cloning on our culture, if there is any, and will highlight what this new technology can do for man’s future. Discussion Food cloning is basically obtaining food from cloned animals. How exactly does this work? It is as simple as this. Biotech companies clone animals such as cows, pigs and goats etc by taking the nuclei of cells from adults and combining them into other egg cells from which the nuclei have been extracted. Using this method, a large number of livestock have already been cloned for sale to producers (Reuters, 2003). The first cloned animal that was ever produced was a sheep in 1997. Since then, this technology has become more common and common with time. Because of this reason, the Food and Drug Authority asserted its control over cloning (Patel Rushefsky, 2002). Food cloning is a controversial topic since the time cloning of animals was introduced in 1997. Consumer groups all over the world want authorities to look in ethical and moral issues that are associated with cloning. People are not accepting this new technology and the benefits that come with it for a variety of reasons and controversies. The controversies largely have to do with the degree of safety of the meat, milk and other food products that are obtained from these cloned animals. Why is safety an issue? The answer to this question is obvious. Man is once again trying to intervene with nature and this may not give out the best results because man is subject to errors. Therefore, man will never be able to produce or reproduce animals and food products exactly like the ones present naturally with the help of science and technology and this difference is the main health concern of authorities all over the world. Another reason why cloned food is considered unsafe is that cloned animals usually have higher death rate, low life expectancy and are more prone to diseases (Poulter, 2008). Other safety issues that are considered to pose include the possibility of causing allergic reactions in human and unexpected genetic effects, altering of significant nutrients that are required, containing higher level of toxicants, reducing the effects of antibiotics, and others (Gralla, Gralla, 2004). After the famous Mary Shelly’s story in which she creates a Frankenstein, people have started to associate cloned animals with that as well. They fear that just like the Frankenstein turned against its creator, the food products obtained from cloned animals may also back fire. They think that just like the Frankenstein turned out to be harmful, cloned food products will also turn out to be harmful. Because of these health concerns, consumers all over are getting worried and concerned regarding whether of not the food products they are having are cloned or not. According to a source, companies now want their produced food products to be labeled as â€Å"clone free† so that their consumers can buy and consume food products without having to worry about safety issues. We can take the example of Ben and Jerry’s. Because of this non acceptance of the consumers, Ben and Jerry’s which is a popular ice cream producing company want to ensure their customers through media that the ice cream they produce comes from normal cows and not clones (The Associated Press, 2008). The media has a huge role to play in this. It made the debate regarding food cloning very open and all the concerns were right there in front of the consumers. Despite being confirmed as safe by the government, cloned food will not be accepted by consumers. However, the reality may be a lot different from this perception that the general public has regarding cloned food. Various legal authorities have given a green light to the use of cloned food as they consider it safe. These include the government, scientists and agencies like the Food and Drug Administration are using media to affirm the fact that there is no difference in food products from cloned animals and from conventional livestock. Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the Food and Drug Administration Center for Veterinary Medicine announced that â€Å"meat and milk from cattle, swine and goat clones is as safe to eat as the food we eat every day,† Both cloned and natural foods are equally safe and this also goes for the food obtained from off springs of cloned animals (The Associated Press, 2008). They say that there is nothing in the world that is completely natural, therefore there is no reason to stop when it comes to food and not use science and technology to use ways in which abundant food can be made available and that too at better quality. An example of potatoes is given. It is said that potatoes are not edible in their natural form as they are poisonous. Only after selective breeding, they are made edible (Crompton, 2007). Another point put forward to counter the argument of cloned animals being more prone to diseases and having a lower expectancy age is that the milk and meat obtained from cloned animals while they are healthy and alive will not harm the consumers in any way. Therefore there is no reason to be scared to consume such foods. The government and agencies like FDA have confirmed the safety of the foods but still the businesses are not ready to use cloned animals for their products. They fear that if they use such animals, they will have to label their products as ‘cloned’ and because of this people will not go for this product. However, their fear is logical because people are not ready as yet. We are living in a world where the population is increasing at a very rapid exponential rate. This increasing population will eventually demand food and the rate at which we are using up all our resources, it is predicted that very soon man will not have a lot to eat. We need to find better and newer ways which enable that we have abundant food supply for everyone in the world. Biotechnology is a new field that has been grown because of this. Cloned food is something that has been developed as a result. There were health concerns in the past regarding cloned food, but since now the government and other authorities like FDA have confirmed the safety of food obtained from cloned animals, we consumers must learn to accept it as in near future, this food will become a necessity and out only option. Conclusion In conclusion, I would once again like to emphasize on the need to accept such technologies. Food cloning was considered unsafe in the past because it is something new. Everything new has to go through a testing stage until it can be made ready to use. Similarly, food cloning has undergone the testing stage and it is now safe and ready to use. It is no longer the Frankenstein that it was once considered and because of this it has been made legal all over the world. References The Associated Press (2008) Cloned food may prompt ‘clone-free’ labels. Retrieved, 4 Oct, 2008, from MSNBC. Web site: http://www. msnbc. msn. com/id/16383458/ Crompton, S. (2007) Frankenstein’s monsters or the future of food? Retrieved, 4 Oct, 2008, from Times Online. Web site: http://women. timesonline. co. uk/tol/life_and_style/women/body_and_soul/article1461151. ece Gralla, J. D. Preston Gralla (2004) Complete Idiots Guide to Understanding Cloning. Alpha Books. Patel, K. Mark E. Rushefsky (2002) Health Care Policy in an Age of New Technologies. M. E. Sharpe. Poulter, S (2008) EU gives green light for cloned food to go on sale in UK shops. Retrieved, 4 Oct, 2008, from Daily Mail Online. Web site: http://www. dailymail. co. uk/health/article-507700/EU-gives-green-light-cloned-food-sale-UK-shops. html Reuters (2003) Cloned Food OK by FDA. Retrieved, 4 Oct, 2008, from Wired. Web site: http://www. wired. com/techbiz/media/news/2003/10/61038

Vaccines and Autism Essay Example for Free

Vaccines and Autism Essay The measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine is used to immunize children against diseases that can cause major disabilities and fatal illnesses. In 1994, the vaccine was mandated for all school children and since then a spike has been seen in the diagnosis of autism. Many of those diagnosis falls within a few months of the MMR vaccine and in 1998, Andrew Wakefield published a study indicating a relationship between the MMR vaccine and autism (Rudy, 2009). Intense media coverage followed and many parents refused to give their children the MMR vaccine, believing their children would develop autism. The study was later retracted due to the lack of evidence but many children are still not receiving the MMR vaccine. The public health field has tried to raise awareness about the benefits of the MMR vaccine but many are still skeptical about the vaccine. Efforts have now been focused towards increasing awareness about the vaccine and trying to encourage parents to get their children vaccinated. In February 1998, The Lancet published an article entitled â€Å"Ileal-Lymphoid-Nodular Hyperplasia, Non-Specific Colitis, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder in Children,† which suggested that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine could contribute to the development of autism. Dr. Andrew Wakefield, a gastroenterologist, suggested the link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Wakefield proposed that the virus could â€Å"have a negative impact on a child’s immune system, lead to persistent infection in the gastrointestinal tract and lead, in the long run, to possible brain damage and autism† (Rudy, 2009). Eight of the twelve children had severe intestinal inflammation, with symptoms emerging six days after receiving the MMR vaccine. The vaccine had damaging effects on the intestines and caused serious inflammation, â€Å"allowing harmful proteins to leak from the gut into the bloodstream and from there to the brain, where they damaged neurons in a way that triggered autism† (Begley, 2009). Wakefield’s study was later called fatally flawed due to the fact that Wakefield was studying children who had pre-existing gastrointestinal problems. The group size was also very small, 12 children, and â€Å"no proof was offered that the measles virus found in autistic children’s’ guts was causally connected to their autism† (Rudy, 2009). The researchers lastly suggested that the MMR vaccine caused bowel problems in children which lead to autism. In the children studied, symptoms of autism appeared before the symptoms of the bowel disease, proving that the bowel symptoms, as a result of the MMR vaccine, did not cause autism. In 2004, The Lancet published a retraction submitted by 10 of the 13 original authors that stated that there was no connection between the MMR vaccine and autism: We wish to make it clear that in this paper no causal link was established between MMR vaccine and autism, as the data were insufficient. However, the possibility of such a link was raise† (Immunization safety review vaccines and autism, 2004). There were many things found flatulent with the Wakefield study. Details of the medical histories of all the children used in the study were later revealed to the public and journalist Brain Deer interviewed several parents whose children participated in the study. Deer outlined major problems with the study including that the children were not randomly selected for the study and one came from as far as California when the study was conducted in the United Kingdom. All of the children were found to be recruited through anti-MMR vaccine campaigners (DeNoon, 2011). Wakefield was a paid consultant to a lawyer who was suing MMR vaccine makers for damages caused to children who contracted autism months after the vaccine. Wakefield received a sum of about $668,000 to publish the study from the lawyers and was published biased results. Five of the children had evidence of developmental problems before receiving the MMR vaccine and this is a significant number of children since only twelve children were studied. Only one of the children had regressive autism, despite the fact that the studied reported nine of the children had the condition. Three of these nine children were never diagnosed with autism (DeNoon, 2011). â€Å"At least five were clients of an attorney who was working on a case against vaccine makers alleging that the MMR caused the childrens autism† (Begley, 2009). Lastly, all twelve children’s medical records and parent’s accounts contradicted the case descriptions in the study. All of these discrepancies proved that Wakefield deliberately faked the study and was paid to publish these false, biased results. Wakefield had multiple conflicts of interest, had manipulated the evidence, and broke numerous ethical codes (DeNoon, 2011). Wakefield defamed his reputation and later had his medical license revoked, no longer able to practice medicine. There is no evidence that links the vaccine to autism and the overall benefits outweigh the risks. Wakefield’s theories have raised controversy due to the fact that autism arises around age two to three, the exact same age children receive the MMR vaccine, the chicken pox vaccine, and other shots (Rudy, 2009). Some parents state that their children respond with autistic regression after receiving the MMR vaccine. Other research has correlated the MMR vaccine with brain injury, making parents more wary about giving their children the vaccine. In 1998, Dr. Vijendra Singh and Dr. Victor Yang correlated the MMR vaccine to brain injury. Their findings suggest that exposure to the measles virus may trigger an autoimmune response that interferes with the development of myelin†¦ If myelin in the brain doesn’t develop properly, nerve fibers won’t work as they should. This could be one way that the brain abnormalities associated with autism arise (Rudy, 2009). Many studies have been conducted proving that autism is not a direct result of the MMR vaccine including the 1999 study conducted by Taylor, â€Å"Autism and Measles, Mumps, Rubella Vaccine: No Epidemiological Evidence of for a Causal Association. † The study showed that the number of autism cases has increased since 1979, but no significant increase since the introduction of the MMR vaccine in 1988 (Autism and the MMR Vaccine, 2001). Children exhibiting symptoms of autism were diagnosed with autism at the same age of the onset of the symptoms. This is important because if the MMR vaccine really did result in autism, the children who were vaccinated would show symptoms before and after the vaccination, not just after like the 1998 study concluded (Begley, 2009). The vaccination rate for children with autism was at the same rate for children who did not have autism. If the MMR vaccine resulted in autism then the vaccination rate for children with autism would be higher than the rate for children who do not have autism; there would be a greater percentage of children with autism who received the MMR vaccine than children who do have autism. Lastly there is no definitive time frame for the onset of the symptoms of autistic behavior. The symptoms can occur at any given time and are not more likely to occur after the MMR vaccine (Autism and the MMR Vaccine, 2001). The Wakefield study resulted in large longitudinal effects across the globe. After the study was published, MMR vaccination rates decreased in the United Kingdom, Europe, and in the United States. MMR vaccine peaked in 1996 at 92% and after the study was published the MMR vaccination dropped in the United Kingdom to 84% in 2002 (Miller, 2009). By 2006, the MMR vaccine was only given to 85% of children aged 24 months. In London, the rate was estimated at 61% in 2003, far below the expected rate for the vaccination (Miller, 2009). The study continues to have merit in those parents who believe the vaccination results in autism. Despite the fact that the study used twelve children, it led to widespread fear regarding the vaccine. After the study was published, measles became endemic in the United Kingdom and vaccination rates dropped sharply, leading to an increased incidence of measles and mumps (DeNoon, 2011). This in turn led to more deaths and injuries from measles and pumps and physicians have made statement tying this study to various epidemics and deaths. In 1998 there were 56 cases of measles in the United Kingdom and by 2006 there were 449 cases in the first five months (Does the MMR Vaccine Cause Autism, n. d. ). Each of these cases occurred in children who did not receive the vaccination due to widespread fear evoked from the Wakefield study. Mumps also began to rise in 1999 and by 2005 there were 5000 cases within the first month in the United Kingdom. Measles and mumps continued to rise and in 2006 rates were 13 to 37 times higher than the 1998 levels† (Does the MMR Vaccine Cause Autism, n. d. ). In the United States there was a sevenfold increase in measles outbreak (Begley, 2009). This study had widespread consequences and in 2000 an Irish outbreak lead to three deaths and 1,500 cases which occurred due to a decrease in the vaccination rates of the MMR vaccine following the Wakefield study (Does the MMR Vaccine Cause Autism, n. d. ). Lastly in 2008, measles was declared an endemic in the United Kingdom due to the high rates of the disease. The Wakefield study has had serious repercussions, even after its retraction, and many parents are still convinced that there is a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. After the publication of the Wakefield study parents became very skeptical about the effectiveness of the MMR vaccine. The perceived risks of the vaccination outweighed the risks and parents refused to give their children the vaccine out of fear. The one shot approach was also very fearful since it was thought that children’s immune systems were too young to receive the vaccine in one dose. Concerns regarding the MMR vaccine were never a large issue; it was the fear of autism as a result of the vaccination that led parents to reject the MMR vaccine (Shan, 2011). Parents look to the internet for reliable information and any parent coming across the Wakefield study would be wary about allowing their children to receive the vaccine. The media is a major contributor to the public’s opinion and the public listens to the media regarding risks and what to avoid. Since the retraction of the study more parents are opting for the MMR vaccine but more needs to be done to raise the vaccination rates. Educating the public regarding the benefits of the MMR vaccine is crucial to increase vaccination rates; this is where the public health sector is needed (Shan, 2011). Educational efforts are needed to increase MMR vaccination rates and parents need to be educated about the MMR vaccine to increase overall rates of vaccination. The decreased vaccination of MMR in children following the Wakefield study has occurred due to a decrease in public confidence in the safety of the MMR vaccine. This has resulted from the incorrect assertions that the vaccine results in autism, as demonstrated in the fraudulent study conducted by Wakefield. No credible evidence supports the claim that MMR causes autism and more than 20 studies have been conducted since the Wakefield study that found no evidence that links the MMR vaccine to autism (Poland, 2011). The media’s role in fostering fear in parents has led to an overall decrease in vaccination which is detrimental to children who have an increased risk of developing life-threatening diseases. Autism is now a public health concern that must be addressed by â€Å"enhancing research funding and directing that funding toward studies of credible hypotheses of causation† (Poland, 2011). Money needs to be funded in an attempt to disprove the connection between the MMR vaccine and autism and money needs to be funded for studies that provide information on the benefits of the MMR vaccine. Another important public health concern is to insist on â€Å"responsible and scientifically informed media reporting† (Poland, 2011). Widespread fear occurs when conspiracy theories and other misinformation is given to the public. Uninformed reporting increases fear and mistrust about vaccines, leading to parental confusion and reduced vaccination to children. It is the responsibility of the public health sector to ensure reliable information is given and to continue funding scientific research regarding the MMR vaccine and autism (Poland, 2011). The reluctance of parents to immunize their children has become a public health threat in that it can lead to vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles. Viruses spread quickly among children who are not vaccinated and it is a threat to the public health when children are not receiving the appropriate vaccinations. Measles is a life-threatening disease and parents are putting it off due to fear. Vaccines are the foundation in the public health field as â€Å"vaccines are one of the greatest achievements of biomedical science and public health† (Miller, 2009). The reduction of any vaccination is of major concern to the public health arena and in response to the reduction in the MMR vaccine the CDC examined the major safety issues regarding the vaccination. The CDC rejected the link between the MMR vaccine and autism based on the following, â€Å"a lack of epidemiologic evidence linking autism and MMR vaccine, case reports of children with autism and bowel disorders that did not address causality, and a lack of biologic models linking ASD and MMR vaccine† (Miller, 2009). Vaccine phobias become a public health threat and it is the responsibility of the public health arena to educate the public on the benefits of such vaccinations (Grant, 2010). There is an urgent need for research on the causes and treatment for autism as well as better support services for families caring for an autistic child. â€Å"One in 110 American children are considered to fall somewhere along the autism spectrum, a stunning 57% increase in prevalence since 2002† (Park, 2009). Autism is a significant public health concern and researches continue to discover new information linked with the condition. Public health officials need to make available more services and knowledge regarding autism in the schools, families, and community (Park, 2009). Public health experts endorse the safety of the MMR vaccine and advise parents to give their children the MMR vaccine. Since 1995, the Department of Health and Human Services has increased its focus on ASDs (Autism Spectrum Disorders). From 1995 to 2001, â€Å"research funding for autism has quintupled from $11 to $56 million. At the same time, both the CDC and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have developed new initiatives, building a federal foundation for the public health response to autism† (Newschaffer, 2003). Autism now includes a broad spectrum of affected individuals and more individuals have been seeking â€Å"educational, medical, and social services to help confront the formidable challenges of autism† (Newschaffer, 2003). The Center for Disease Control supports ASD surveillance projects to provide accurate information regarding risk factors of autism. The Disabilities Education Act also provides funding for screening and early intervention to infants and toddlers. Early detection is important to the public health and a new emphasis is now placed on providing training and consultation to physicians about detection and diagnosis of autism. Resources are more being directed towards assessment of autism and has led to a more informed public health response to autism. Making the decision to not immunize children with the MMR vaccine due to fear places children at great risk and is an irresponsible decision. When fewer people are immunized, diseases begin to increase in numbers and in order to protect everyone the population must be immunized. Regardless of the overwhelming data, parents still continue to refuse vaccinating their children. Parents are ill-informed and because signs of autism arise around the same time as children receive the MMR vaccine, some parents link the MMR vaccine to the development of autism. The current research provides evidence that the MMR vaccine is safer than not getting vaccinated and the CDC agree that the MMR vaccine is not responsible for the onset of autism.

Critical Essay On Human Error In Healthcare System Nursing Essay

Critical Essay On Human Error In Healthcare System Nursing Essay The potentially devastating consequences of accidents means the NHS has a clear mandate to prioritise medical error reduction, whilst utilising energy, attention, and creativity towards delivering high-performance, high-confidence healthcare (DoH, 2000). The application of psychological theories of human action and error has an important part to play within this endeavour, not least because they exceed the merely descriptive, instead combining cognitive, affective and behavioural considerations to provide more integrated understandings of patient safety issues (Parker Lawton, 2006). Indeed, according to Zhang and colleagues (2002, p.75) medical error is primarily an issue for cognitive scienceà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦not for medicine. Psychology has a long and distinguished tradition of discerning the nature and sources of human error (e.g., Broadbent, 1958; Rasmussen, 1990; Reason, 2000) and, in terms of patient safety, researchers are increasing recognising that appreciating such mechanisms is a vital prerequisite for devising suitable remediation (Parker Lawton, 2003, 2006). One important distinction in this regard is between the concept of slips/lapses (a sound plan, poorly executed), mistakes (an inappropriate plan, correctly implemented) and violations (a deliberate deviation from recommended practice). In contrast to the latter, which are generally intentional, slips/lapses and mistakes are primarily driven by failures in cognitive processing, and are therefore amenable to interventions based on knowledge acquisition, skills enhancement, and information provision (Lawton, 1998). It is these particular principles that form the basis of this review. Practitioner Errors Error in the health industry is ubiquitous, and the capacity for mistakes within even routine medical procedures is considerable (Bogner, 2004a). For example, a sobering compilation by Van Cott (1994) identified medication/anesthesia administration, laboratory testing, blood transfusions, diagnostic screening and the operation of medical technology as regular candidates for both incident reporting and malpractice claims. However, while healthcare providers conventionally emphasised refining technical proficiencies, appreciating the intricacy of staffs cognitive performance (and developing strategies to augment it) has a greater likelihood of enhancing safety (Hudson, 2003; Looseley et al., 2009; Zhang et al., 2004). According to Casey (1993, p.9) the individual as an independent system (i.e., unhampered by any kind of technology) is actually remarkably reliable; conversely, error likelihood is amplified by incompatibilities between the characteristics of peopleà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦and the characteristics of the things we create and use. Applying psychological principles within healthcare systems has shown that working conditions, conventions, and procedures can be tailored to complement what we know about human behaviour, and that this wisdom can be utilised in a corrective way. Psychological research within other high-risk industries demonstrates that while mental operations often function beyond voluntary control, it is both possible and desirable to modify conditions in which staff perform (Green, 2004; Raab et al., 2006; Wilf-Miron et al., 2003). For example, McCulloch and colleagues (2009) designed an intervention derived from aviation-style Crew Resource Management coaching, implemented in the o perating theatre of a UK teaching hospital. The programme, comprised of teamwork skills, safety attitudes and performance training, was associated with significant reductions in operative technical errors and non-operative procedural errors. Similar results have been reported by Haller et al. (2008), who found that aviation-style training contributed to a significant improvement in multidisciplinary teamwork and organisational safety culture. In contrast, Rogers and colleagues (2004) advocate designing nurses work-shift cycles in concordance with current psychological knowledge about the impact of sleep disruption on acuity and performance, whereas Laschinger and Finegan (2005) suggest using empowerment principles derived from organisational psychology (e.g., workplace trust, respect, and justice) to motivate staff to lend their energy and expertise to prioritising patient safety. In more cognitive terms, Valenstein (2008) used tenets from the psychology of perception (e.g., optimized information density, ease of transfer, maximized fidelity/speed) to devise strategies for pathologists to format surgical reports in a manner that communicates most effectively and limits the chance of misinterpretation. Similarly, Shojania (2002) suggests that research inspired both by cognitive psychology and accident investigation within other industries provides the raw materials for predicting errors, recording critical incidents, and r eacting to them in a proactive, non-punitive manner. According to Reason (1994, p.ix) blaming fallible individualsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦is universal, natural, emotionally satisfying and legallyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦convenient. Unfortunately it has little or no remedial value  [1]  . One of the most basic principles of error management that transitory mental states like preoccupation, disorientation, and distraction are mostly inadvertent and hugely variable has been guided by psychological research into human performance that emphasise the necessity of systems-based approaches which identify latent organisational failures in addition to active individual errors (Bogner, 2004b). Medical systems incorporate vast, intricate arrays of disparate and semi-autonomous components, operating within variable, diffused and unpredictable circumstances. Indeed, according to Van Cott (1994, p.55) of all sociotechnical systems [healthcare delivery]à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦is the largest, most complex, most costly and, in some respects, the most unique. Furthermore, it is grounded within a person-centred, person-driven system, with human operators its most ubiquitous and valuable element. Using the science of human thought and behaviour to enhance and refine human performance therefore appears a profitable way of pursuing healthcare quality and safety. Patient Errors Poor adherence to self-administered medical interventions is a pervasive, wide-ranging problem which compromises the efficacy of prescribed healthcare, squanders therapeutic resources and, most seriously, potentially endangers patient well-being (Park et al., 2004; Roter et al., 1998; Thomas, 2009). Research suggests that at least 50% of patients fail to receive the full benefit of therapeutic recommendations (e.g., preventative practices, medication regimens, lifestyle modification) due to inadequate observance of medical advice (Morisky et al., 2009), whereas up to 30% use drug prescriptions in a manner that poses a serious risk to health (Schmittdiel et al., 2008). Both conceptually and methodologically, medical compliance raises complex issues for patients and providers, meaning that a careful consideration of the problem is necessary before significant and meaningful enhancements in adherence (and consequent health status) can be achieved (Haynes et al., 1996). An important contribution from psychology for precluding self-care errors is a systematic understanding of the cognitive changes that may provoke them. Specifically, memory and comprehension deficits are a manifest cause of poor compliance (Park et al., 2004). This is particularly prevalent in terms of age-related cognitive decline, although even younger adults with high cognitive functioning are not exempt from the kind of intellective impairments that thwart the ability to attend to ones medical needs. This is consistent with the well-established finding that declines in cognitive ability are gradual, continuous and linear across the adult lifespan (Baltes Lindenberger, 1997). For example, medical errors in elderly individuals may be partly generated by deteriorations in processing speed, working memory and long-term recall (Davis et al., 2010; Hayes et al., 2009; Stoehr et al., 2008), which impede the ability to both encode and retrieve unfamiliar medical regimens, or to incorpor ate them into a treatment plan compatible with daily routine. In contrast, deficits in time-based prospective memory (Woods et al., 2009), working memory (Smith, 2007), and source memory (Park et al., 2004) can compromise the capacity of younger adults to adequately self-manage medical recommendations, an effect exacerbated amongst those who are inexperienced healthcare consumers (Park, 1999), or who are subject to excessive distraction, stress or fatigue (Stilley et al., 2010). Similarly, the illusion of truth effect, whereby statement repetition heightens perceived truth (Begg, 1992), is a powerful memory distortion to which adults of all ages are susceptible, and which can be dangerous in the medical realm if false information is remembered as true (for example, a conscientious clinician who repeatedly extols the futility of herbal remedies for diabetes may risk her patient paradoxically recalling herbal remedies as advantageous, due to failures in context-dependent memory: Park et al., 2004). In response to this, psychological research has informed a range of interventions to reduce medical self-management errors. For example, providing older adults with novel information in written form promotes assimilation through decreasing burdens on working memory (Tsai, 2006), whereas comprehension and decision-making can be enhanced through environmental supports like audiovisual materials, telephone instruction, and follow-up sessions with a healthcare provider (Myers Midence, 1998). Cognitive resources may also be supplemented with contextual supports, which help consolidate memory for health communications at the time of encoding and retrieval for patients of all ages. For example, simplified treatment regimens, or those that are conveniently tailored to daily habits (Smith, 2007), medication organizers and reminder pill packaging/prescription refills (Petersen et al., 2007), supportive home visits (Kripalani et al., 2007), behavioural contracting and modelling (Christensen J ohnson, 2002), text-message prompts (Matsui, 2009), and electronic beepers (Kalichman, 2005), have all been shown to consistently enhance treatment adherence, with subsequent improvements in treatment outcomes. A considerable benefit of all these strategies is that they employ resources that are readily accessible within clinical settings. Conclusions According to Rasmussen (1994, p.392) patient safety is a frontier for change. An important aspect of this process is effective transfer of research themes into clinical practice. While psychological approaches have facilitated enhanced performance and learning at both organisational and individual levels, ensuring such improvements remain sustained and intentional is a complex task. Successful diffusion of evidence-based interventions to real-world applications requires prudent planning, implementation, and evaluation in order that healthcare quality can be constantly revised and refined. For example, inadequate understandings of the theoretical processes implicated in behaviour change means evidence-based guidelines are often poorly implemented within medical settings (Michie et al., 2005), while the intense rapidity and intricacy of change within healthcare means conflict can exist between academics seeking to develop and refine theories, and the more immediate, practical need of p ractitioners seeking information on which to develop interventions. In this respect, a promising area for development is increased multidisciplinary working, not only in terms of partnerships between practitioners and psychologists, but in the active involvement and recruitment of patients themselves (DoH, 2005). Collaboration can be seen as the coming together of diverse interests and people to achieve a common purpose via interactionsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦and coordination of activities(Jassawalla Sashittal, 1998, p.239), with such alliances potentially facilitating the merging of science and practice through enhanced information-sharing, formulating accessible and meaningful research questions, developing shared visions of patient safety, and designing/disseminating interventions using appropriate materials and methods for practitioner/patient needs. As Carr and Kemmis (1996, p.165) observe, within this aspiration is: Improvement of a practice of some kindà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦improvement of the understanding of a practiceà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦andà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦the improvement of the situation in which the practice takes placeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Those involved in the practice being considered are to be involved inà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦all its aspects of planning, acting, observing and reflecting for optimum results. 1782=1727

The Key to the Protection Against Tyranny in the American Constitution

Tyranny riddles many forms of government, such as oligarchy, absolute monarchy, dictatorship, autocracy, and totalitarianism. In May of 1787, delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia gathered to create a stronger central government -- while avoiding the tyranny that so many other forms of government had allowed for. James Madison, of one those very same delegates, defined tyranny as â€Å"The accumulation of all powers...in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many...† in Federalist Paper #47. The key to the protection against tyranny in the American Constitution was the way in which power was divided. The Constitution guarded against tyranny by making provisions for federalism, the separation of powers, checks and balances of power, and fairly equal congressional power. In the Constitution, central and state governments received power that was shared and split in a federalist system, preventing tyranny of one over the other. Madison put forward his idea of federalism in Federalist Paper #51. â€Å"...the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments...The different governments will each control each other, at the same time each will be controlled by itself† (Doc. A). A Venn diagram derived from the Constitution shows that the central government controlled national affairs such as war, foreign trade, and foreign relations, and states controlled internal affairs such as establishing public services and regulating in-state businesses. The shared powers included taxes, loans, and laws. Despite Madison’s bias towards the federalist system (rarely does one truly attack one’s own political treatise within it) in his quote, the apportioning of powers shows that neither the central or st... ...ny of a branch by setting controls on each branch set by the other branches. Fairly equalizing representation in Congress protected the power of small states overall while preserving that of larger states. However, the framers may have mistakenly given the power to prevent tyranny to the government, not the people. The framers crafted a delicate system, but one that focused on creating strong inter-governmental relations. Since the first Constitution was drafted, power slowly began shifting to the national government. If the branches wished to control more, it would not matter if they controlled each other because they would all move together. The focus on creating a government as far away as possible from despotic in a group of white, mostly wealthy, and educated landowners may have prevented the creation of the sort of tyranny-free system the people wished for.

The Thirty Years War Essay -- History, War

The section of documents, numbering nineteen to twenty three, consist of many different accounts ranging from of a portion of the â€Å"Swedish rule of war†, a theologian’s take on peace, the assassination of General Wallenstein, an account of battle and even a Cardinal’s warning. These documents vary in years from 1632-1634, drawing a close to the middle segment of the Thirty Years War. These articles illustrate not only events such as a General’s murder, Swedish defeat or French apprehension, they also show a growing desire for peace and political well-being contrasted with serious religious sentiment. At this stage in history Sweden is now involved with many allying to protect German liberties. The balance of power in Europe, always a delicate manner, was naturally threatened by the war, kingdoms such as France watched closely to protect their own states. It is through the coupling of this time of history with the documents listed here that one ca n see an intricate web of motives, including ones from political success and dominance to religious purity, all under the blanket of a â€Å"religious war†. This leads the audience to ask and judge where Europeans’s opinion and ideas stand considering the war as the unique solution to war loomed ahead. To investigate these different motives three out of the five mentioned documents will be closely analyzed, beginning with document twenty. Entitled â€Å"Memorandum of Hoe von Hoenegg† this article was written in Dresden, Germany by Lutheran Theologian Matthias Hoe von Hoenegg. It is his answer to the Elector of Saxony’s question on the religious consequences of peace. Just before this, the Heilbronn League formed, coming under Sweden and France to fight against imperialist forces. Yet, Sa... ... only one question: how, how would France take these next steps for their national interests. Richelieu ends his letter with this heed, â€Å"but that if, in order to remedy the present evil, one fails to make an extraordinary expenditure now, it will be necessary to make one in the future—through it would then not produce any result, nor prevent our ruin† (152). French involvement is for the protection of the nation, and it would seem this sentiment alone. The above documents seem to be the opinions and views of particular people throughout this tumultuous time. They show two motives: religious and political. What remains is to decipher if this theme is of value and if so, what value does it have and what can it tell historians about the war, as well as the approaching treaty that would come to rule European ideas on religion and government for decades to come.

Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story Chapter 6

Chapter 6 The Animals The daytime people called them the Animals. The store manager had come into work one morning to find one of them hanging, half-naked, from the giant red S of the Safeway sign and the rest of them drunk on the roof, pelting him with Campfire marshmallows. The manager yelled at them and called them Animals. They cheered and toasted him by spraying beer on each other. There were seven of them now that their leader was gone. They wandered into the store around eleven and the manager informed them that they were getting a new crew chief: â€Å"This guy will whip you into shape – he's done it all, his application was four pages long.† Midnight found the Animals sitting on the registers at the front of the store, sharing worries over a case of Reddi Wip. â€Å"Screw this hotshot from back East,† said Simon McQueen, the oldest. â€Å"I'll throw my fifty cases an hour like always, and if he wants more, he can do it himself.† Simon sucked a hit of nitrous oxide from the whipped cream can and croaked, â€Å"He won't last longer'n a fart on a hot skillet.† Simon was twenty-seven, muscular and as wiry-tense as a banjo string. He was pockmarked and sharp-featured, with a great mane of brown hair that he kept out of his face with a bandanna and a black Stetson, and he fancied himself a cowboy and a poet. He had never been within six-gun range of a horse or a book. Jeff Murray, a has-been high school basketball star, pulled a can of whipped cream from the open case and said, â€Å"Why didn't they just promote one of us when Eddie left?† â€Å"Because they don't know their ass from a hot rock,† Simon said. â€Å"Can up,† he added quickly. â€Å"They probably did what they thought best,† said Clint, a myopic, first trimester born-again Christian, who, having recently been forgiven for ten years of drug abuse, was eager to forgive others. â€Å"Can up,† Simon repeated to Jeff, who had upended the whipped cream can and was pushing the nozzle. Jeff inhaled a powerful stream of whipped cream that filled his mouth and throat, shot from his nostrils, and sent him into a blue-faced choking fit. Drew, the crew's pot supplier and therefore medical officer, dealt Jeff a vicious blow in the solar plexus, causing the ex-power forward to expel a glob of whipped cream approximately the size of a small child. Jeff fell to the floor gasping. The glob landed safely on register 6. â€Å"Works as good as the Heimlich maneuver† – Drew grinned – â€Å"without the unwanted intimacy.† â€Å"I told him to hold the can up,† Simon said. There was a tap on the glass at the front of the store and they all turned to see a skinny dark-haired kid in jeans and flannel waiting by the locked door. He wore a price gun low on his right hip. â€Å"That would be our hotshot.† Simon went to unlock the door. Clint grabbed the case of whipped cream and shoved it under a register. The others ditched their cans where they could and stood by the registers as if awaiting inspection. They were sensing the end of an era; the Animals would be no more. â€Å"Tom Flood,† the new guy said, offering his hand to Simon. Simon did not take his hand, but stared at it until the new guy withdrew it, embarrassed. â€Å"I'm Sime; this is Drew.† Simon waved the new guy in and locked the door behind him. â€Å"We'll get you a time card.† The new guy followed Simon to the office, pausing to look at the glob of whipped cream on register 6, then at Jeff, still gasping on the floor. â€Å"Can up,† the new guy said to Jeff. Simon raised an eyebrow to the rest of the crew and led the new guy into the office. While he was digging in the drawers for a fresh time card, the new guy said, â€Å"So, Sime, do you bowl?† Simon looked up and studied the new guy's face. This could be a trap. He stepped back and squared off like a gunfighter at high noon. â€Å"Yeah, I bowl.† â€Å"What do you use?† â€Å"I like a twelve-pound Butterball.† â€Å"Net or no net?† â€Å"No net,† Simon said. â€Å"Yeah, nets are for grannies. I like a fourteen-pound self-basting, myself.† Tommy grinned at Simon. Simon grinned back and offered his hand to shake. â€Å"Welcome aboard.† He handed a time card to Tommy and led him out the office. Outside, the crew waited. â€Å"Dudes,† Simon announced. â€Å"This is Tom Flood.† The crew fidgeted and eyed Tommy. â€Å"He's a bowler.† The crew let out a collective sigh of relief. Simon introduced them each, tagging them each with what they did. â€Å"That's Jeff on the floor, cake-mix aisle, plays basketball. Drew, frozen food and budmaster. Troy Lee, glass aisle, kung-fu fighter.† Troy Lee, short, muscular, wearing a black satin jacket, bowed slightly. â€Å"Clint,† Simon continued, â€Å"cereal and juices; he's buddies with God.† Clint was tall and thin with curly black hair, thick horn-rims, and a goofy, if beatific, smile. Simon pointed to a stout Mexican in a flannel shirt. â€Å"Gustavo does the floors and has forty kids.† â€Å"Cinco ninos,† Gustavo corrected. â€Å"Excuse the fuck out of me,† Simon said. â€Å"Five kids.† He moved down the line to a short, balding guy in corduroys. â€Å"Barry does soap and dog food. His hair fell out when he started scuba diving.† â€Å"Fuck you, Sime.† â€Å"Save your money, Barry.† Simon moved on. â€Å"This dark-skinned fellow is Lash, dairy and non-foods. He says he's studying business at Frisco State, but he's really a gunrunner for the Bloods.† â€Å"And Simon wants to be Grand Dragon for the Klan,† Lash said. â€Å"Be good or I won't help you with your master's feces.† â€Å"Thesis,† Lash corrected. â€Å"Whatever.† â€Å"What do you do, Sime?† Tommy asked. â€Å"I am on a quest for the perfect big-haired blonde. She must be a beautician and she must be named Arlene, Karlene, or Darlene. She must have a bust measurement exactly half that of her IQ and she must have seen Elvis sometime since his death. Have you seen her?† â€Å"No, that's a pretty tall order.† Simon stepped up, nose to nose with Tommy. â€Å"Don't hold back, I'm offering a cash reward and videotape of her trying to drown me in body lotion.† â€Å"No, really, I can't help you.† â€Å"In that case, I work the can aisle.† â€Å"When's the truck due?† â€Å"Half an hour: twelve-thirty.† â€Å"Then we've got time for a few frames.† There are no official rules for the sport of turkey bowling. Turkey bowling is not recognized by the NCAA or the Olympic Committee. There are no professional tournaments sponsored by the Poultry Farmers of America, and footwear companies do not manufacture turkey bowling shoes. Even the world's best turkey bowlers have not appeared on a Wheaties box or the  «Tonight » show. In fact, until ESPN became desperate to fill in the late-night time slots between professional lawn darts and reruns of Australian-rules football, turkey bowling was a completely clandestine sport, relegated to the dark athletic basement of mailbox baseball and cow tipping. Despite this lack of official recognition, the fine and noble tradition of â€Å"skidding the buzzard† is practiced nightly by supermarket night crews all over the nation. Clint was the official pinsetter for the Animals. Since there was always wagering, Clint's religion forbade his playing, but his participation, in some part, was required to ensure that he would not squeal to the management. He set ten-quart bottles of Ivory liquid in a triangle pattern at the end of the produce aisle. The meat case would act as a backstop. The rest of the crew, having chosen their birds from the freezer case, were lined up at the far end of the aisle. â€Å"You're up, Tom,† Simon said. â€Å"Let's see what you got.† Tommy stepped forward and weighed the frozen turkey in his right hand-felt its frigid power singing against skin. Strangely, the theme from Chariots of Fire began playing in his head. He squinted and picked his target, then took his steps and sent the bird sliding down the aisle. A collective gasp rose from the crew as the fourteen-pound, self-basting, fresh-frozen projectile of wholesome savory goodness plowed into the soap bottles like a freight train into a chorus line of drunken grandmothers. â€Å"Strike!† Clint shouted. Simon winced. Troy Lee said, â€Å"Nobody's that good. Nobody.† â€Å"Luck,† Simon said. Tommy suppressed a smile and stepped back from the line. â€Å"Who's up?† Simon stepped up and stared down the aisle, watching Clint set up the pins. A nervous tick jittered under his left eye. Strangely, the theme from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly began playing in his head. The turkey was heavy in his hand. He could almost feel the giblets pulsing with tension – the Butterball version of the Tell-Tale Heart. He strode to the line, swinging the turkey back in a wide arc, then forward with an explosive yell. The turkey rocketed, airborne, three quarters of the way down the aisle before touching down and slamming through the soap bottles and into the base of the meat case, smashing metal and severing wires in a shower of sparks and smoke. The store lights flickered and went out. The huge compressors that ran the store's refrigeration wound down like dying airliners. The smell of ozone and burned insulation filled the air. A moment of dark silence – the Animals stood motionless, sweating, as if waiting for the deadly sound of an approaching U-boat. Battery back-up modules switched on safety lights at the end of each aisle. The crew looked from Simon, who stood at the line with his mouth hanging open, to the turkey, sticking, blackened and burned, in the side of the meat case like an unexploded artillery shell. They checked their watches: exactly six hours and forty-eight minutes to exact repairs and stock the shelves before the manager came in to open the store. â€Å"Break time!† Tommy announced. They sat on a row of grocery carts outside the store, their backs against the wall, smoking, eating, and, in the case of Simon, telling lies. â€Å"This is nothing,† Simon said. â€Å"When I was working a store in Idaho, we ran a forklift through the dairy case. Two hundred gallons of milk on the floor. Sucked it up in the Shop-Vac and had it back in the cartons ten minutes before opening and no one knew the difference.† Tommy was sitting next to Troy Lee, trying to get up the courage to ask a favor. For the first time since arriving in San Francisco, he felt as if he fit in somewhere and he didn't want to push his luck. Still, this was his crew now, even if he had padded his application a bit to get the job. Tommy decided to dive in. â€Å"Troy, no offense, but do you speak Chinese?† â€Å"Two dialects,† Troy said around a mouthful of corn chips. â€Å"Why?† â€Å"Well, I'm living in Chinatown. I kinda share a place with these five Chinese guys. No offense.† Troy clamped a hand over his mouth, as if appalled with Tommy's audacity. Then he jumped to his feet into a kung-fu stance, made a Bruce Lee chicken noise, and said, â€Å"Five Chinese guys living with you? A pasty-faced, round-eyed, barbarian pig dog?† Troy grinned and dug in the bag for another handful of chips. â€Å"No offense.† Tommy's face heated with embarrassment. â€Å"Sorry. I just wondered if – I mean, I need an interpreter. There's some weird shit going on at my place.† Troy vaulted back to his seat on the carts. â€Å"No problem, man. We'll go there in the morning when we get off – if we don't get fired.† â€Å"We won't get fired,† Tommy said with confidence he didn't feel. â€Å"The union – â€Å" â€Å"Jesus,† Troy interrupted and grabbed Tommy's shoulder. â€Å"Check this out.† He nodded toward Fort Mason at the edge of the parking lot. A woman was walking toward them. â€Å"She's out a little late,† Troy said; then, to Simon, he shouted, â€Å"Sime, skirt alert.† â€Å"Bullshit,† Simon said, checking his watch. Then he looked in the direction where Troy was pointing. A woman was, indeed, walking across the parking lot toward them. From what he could tell at that distance, she had a nice shape. Simon climbed down from the carts and adjusted his black Stetson. â€Å"Stand back, boys, that redhead is down here for a reason, and I'm packing that reason right here.† He patted his crotch and fell into an affected bow-legged gait toward the woman. â€Å"Evening, darlin', you lost or just in search of excellence?† Jeff, who was sitting beside Tommy opposite Troy, bent over and said, â€Å"Simon is the master. That guy gets more pussy than all of the Forty-Niners put together.† Tommy said, â€Å"Doesn't look like he's doing that well tonight.† They couldn't hear what Simon was saying to the woman, but it was obvious she didn't want to hear it. She tried to walk away from him, and Simon stepped in front of her. She moved in another direction and he cut her off, smiling and chattering the whole time. â€Å"Leave me alone!† the girl shouted. Tommy leaped off the carts and ran toward them. â€Å"Hey, Simon, lighten up.† Simon turned and the woman started away. â€Å"We're just getting acquainted,† Simon said. Tommy stopped and put his hand on Simon's shoulder. He lowered his voice as if sharing a secret. â€Å"Look, man, we've got a lot to do. I can't afford to lose you all night while you show this babe the meaning of life. I need your help, dude.† Simon looked at Tommy as if he'd just exposed himself. â€Å"Really?† â€Å"Please.† Simon slapped Tommy on the back. â€Å"I'm on it.† He turned back toward the store. â€Å"Break's over, dudes. We've got some wrenching to do.† Tommy watched him go, then broke into a run after the woman. â€Å"Excuse me!† She turned and eyed him suspiciously, but waited for him to catch up to her. He slowed to a walk. As he approached her he was surprised at just how pretty she was. She looked a little like Maureen O'Hara in those old pirate movies. His writer's mind kicked in and he thought, This woman could break my heart. I could crash and burn on this woman. I could lose this woman, drink heavily, write profound poems, and die in the gutter of tuberculosis over this woman. This was not an unusual reaction for Tommy. He had it often, mostly with girls who worked the drive-through windows at fast-food places. He would drive off with the smell of fries in his car and the bitter taste of unrequited love on his tongue. It was usually good for at least one short story. He was a little breathless when he reached her. â€Å"I just wanted to apologize for Simon. He's – he's†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"An asshole,† she said. â€Å"Well, yes. But – â€Å" â€Å"It's okay,† she said. â€Å"Thanks for coming to the rescue.† She turned to walk away. Tommy swallowed hard. This was why he had come to the City, wasn't it? To take a few risks? To live on the edge. Yes. â€Å"Excuse me,† he said. She turned again. â€Å"You're really beautiful. I know that sounds like a line. It is a line. But – but it's true in your case. Thanks. ‘Bye.† She was smiling now. â€Å"What's your name?† â€Å"C. Thomas Flood.† â€Å"Do you work here every night?† â€Å"I just started. But yes, I will be. Five nights a week. Graveyard shift.† â€Å"So you have your days free?† â€Å"Yes, pretty much. Except when I'm writing.† â€Å"Do you have a girlfriend, C. Thomas Flood?† Tommy swallowed hard again. â€Å"Uh, no.† â€Å"Do you know where Enrico's is on Broadway?† â€Å"I can find it.† He hoped he could find it. â€Å"I'll meet you there tomorrow night, a half hour after sunset, okay?† â€Å"Sure, I guess. I mean, sure. I mean, what time is that?† â€Å"I don't know; I have to get an almanac.† â€Å"Okay then. Tomorrow evening then. Look, I've got to get back to work. We're sort of in the middle of a crisis.† She nodded and smiled. He shuffled awkwardly, then walked away toward the store. Halfway across the parking lot he stopped. â€Å"Hey, I don't know your name.† â€Å"It's Jody.† â€Å"Nice meeting you, Jody.† â€Å"See you tomorrow, C. Thomas,† she called. Tommy waved. When he turned around again, the Animals were all staring at him, slowly shaking their heads. Simon glared, then turned abruptly and stormed into the store.