Forecasting Emergency Department Overcrowding †MyAssignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about the Forecasting Emergency Department Overcrowding. Answer: Introduction The success of organizations is determined by the operational efficiency of the organization in service delivery. Organizations strive to deliver quality services and products to their consumers in the most cost-effective way but keeping in mind the need to maintain the quality of the products or services. An organization can, therefore, be said to be operating at their maximum operational efficiency when it receives maximum output from the resources employed or the inputs. For operational efficiency to be achieved there is a need to ensure that there are adequate material and information flow in various organizational departments (Narasimhan, 2014, P. 216). Lack of operational efficiency in an organization contributes to increased costs, inability to meet the consumer demands as well as the overall decrease in the organization's revenues or profitability. This report, therefore, seeks to provide an understanding of how we can improve the operational efficiency and effectiveness of N SW Health Emergency Department and improve the quality of patient care. It will provide the techniques, principles, practices as well as Information technology solutions which can facilitate the improved process and information flow in the emergency department. Operation management in any organization or business is involved with the science of understanding business processes and identifying effective strategies to improve the processes. In this case, we refer operations management to the science of understanding the emergency department operations in NSW health Emergency Department and developing the methods to improve hospital efficiency in service delivery and quality health care (Matthias Buckle, 2015, P. 114). The hospital had experienced concerns over the continued demand from customers for the provision of quality services and at the lowest cost. The introduction of modern information systems led to the development of challenges in operational processes. The hospital has a burden of reducing medical errors and increasing patients safety in the emergency department through improved operational procedures and general information flow. Due to the overcrowding effect in the emergency department, there is a great need to develop effecti ve strategies and techniques to facilitate information flow Different emergency departments have embraced the use of different operation management practices in solving the problems facing them or in improving service delivery to their customers. One of the standard methods used in most emergency departments is the lean management practice or principle. The training seeks to improve the operational efficiency of the emergency departments by attempting to provide or meet the demands of the customers in a more efficient manner with little wastes (Amaral Costa, 2014, P. 4). The lean management practice emphasizes the creation of value to their services and products and argues that the emergency services and products should be designed to meet customer demands and expectations and set the right prices. The further outline that every step of the operational process in the emergency department should produce value for the customers by eliminating the wastage of resources. The Lean management practice/principle Lean management practice is designed to ensure that the system flows efficiently or without other intermediate processes of storage. However, the flow of material and information affects the operational process and is determined by the content being delivered The lean practice emphasized that the data or the operational process in the emergency departments must be flexible and centered on meeting individual consumer demands. This means that the executive management process in these departments should produce or provide their services based on consumers needs and not based on what the hospitals consider to be good for the consumers (Saghafian et al. 2015, P. 109). The primary emphasis of the practice is to achieve perfection by creating a constant review strategy to the operational processes in different hospital emergency departments from the floor and learning from the past mistakes as these are critical in enhancing quality health care and improving the hospital emergency. Another common practice and principle in operation management is the waiting time formula. This practice is employed in almost every emergency department and consists of providing an understanding of how long it takes to complete an operational process in the emergency department, the overall activity time, utilization rate as well as the variations in the methods (Song et al. 2015, p. 3045). The practice provides to the management of the hospitals with parameters which can be used to in improving the efficiency of the operations by reducing the waiting time. The crowding effect in most emergency departments has resulted due to lack of time management and delays in service provision. This practice or operation management principle has played a vital role in reducing delays and minimizing the time taken to provide a particular service or activity time. The efficient Frontier Practice/Principle Lastly, many emergency departments have adopted the principle or practice of efficient frontier. The method provides a comparison of the performance of emergency departments in delivering quality healthcare concerning two practical dimensions (Liebler McConnell 2016, p. 8). The first dimension is the responsiveness of the emergency departments towards consumer health care needs while the second dimension is the utilization rate of the operational processes in the emergency departments. The practice advocates for two strategies for improving efficiencies in emergency departments (Haddow et al. 2014). The management of the hospitals can either choose to apply this practice by moving along the efficient frontier. Such a move will require the managements efforts to increase the emergency department capacity without improving their efficiency. The management can, therefore, achieve this by hiring new staff and building more treatment spaces. However, studies have shown that having more areas for treatment does not necessarily lead to reduced crowding in the emergency departments but having the right systems controlled to enhance efficiency (Batt Terwiesch 2015, p. 44). Secondly, the practice holds that the management of hospital can also choose to move towards the efficient frontier which means that, they will be required to increase the efficiency of the emergency departments. Increased efficiency leads to increased utilization rates as well as the increased responsiveness of the departments to consumer demands (Brown et al. 2015, p. 367). This can be achieved by eliminating general waste, reducing the variability of the emergency operations or activities and increasing their flexibility. Such an initiative will eventually lead to improved efficiency of the emergency departments and impact positively on the provision of quality healthcare. Impact of Operation management practice and principles on the process and information flow Successful implementation of these practices and policies should result in the definite improvement of the operations of the emergency department and improve the quality of healthcare provided by meeting consumer demands. The methods should give the management of the hospitals with an opportunity to impact the operations of the emergency departments (DAndreamatteo et al. 2015, p. 1202). The lean management practice helps in improving efficiency in the emergency department by ensuring that the management is determined in meeting consumer demands through the provision of services which create value for the consumers. The practice, therefore, provides the control with an opportunity to continually review its operational management activities and learning from their past mistakes. The waiting time formula has dramatically impacted and contributed to the reduced crowding effect in most emergency departments. Through designing systems to control the time taken for every activity in the emergency department, the management has to be able to reduce time wastage for the consumers as well as enhance their levels of efficiency regarding increased responsiveness to consumer demands (Fagel 2016, p. 12). The practice or principle provides the management with an opportunity to reduce the time and the length of stay at the emergency department by regulating various parameters such as the utilization rate or the activity time. Lastly, the efficient frontier practice or principle has enhanced the effectiveness of emergency services through improved efficiency and responsiveness to consumer demands (Hillman, 2014, p. 492). It provides the management with an opportunity to examine which approach best suits their goal and may decide on whether to use the strategy of moving alo ng the frontier or moving towards the efficient frontier. In this case, running towards the frontier is more useful as it leads to increased efficiency through increased utilization rates and responsiveness. The supply chain and inventory management concepts can be instrumental in developing the process of health care or hospitals emergency departments. The ideas involve the efficient integration of some players in the industry or business such as the manufacturers, the suppliers, distribution agents, warehouses among others (Kadri et al. 2014, p. 107). The main aim of integrating these players is to ensure that good and services are produced and distributed in the right quantities, are delivered to the correct locations, the delivery is done in time in a manner that minimizes the operational costs and offers satisfactory services to the consumers. The concept is beneficial in the healthcare sector due to the number of players involved in providing health care to consumers. The healthcare supply chain can be designed to include product manufacturers, the purchasers of the products and the healthcare providers (Skinner 2016, P. 8). For the hospital emergency department to improve their ef ficiency in service delivery and in meeting consumer demands, there is a need to integrate these players by developing an effective healthcare supply chain and inventory management strategy. Inventory Management Concepts The central inventory concepts which can be used to improve the efficiency of the emergency department include; the adoption of the just in time or stockless inventory management systems to reduce waste, outsourcing the inventory management systems as well as the use of new models to improve patients scheduling decisions which help in lowering crowding effect. The management can also create better demand forecasts (Kang DeFlitch 2014, P. 3974). The primary goal however of the inventory management, as well as the supply chain concepts in health care, is to reduce the operational costs of the facility and general health care and still maintain the quality of service provided by improving service efficiency and increased the productivity of the system. For improved efficiency and effectiveness of NSW Health Emergency Department, there is need to adjust the operations of the department from registry or admission of patients in emergency treatment. The waiting time formula systems will help in enhancing the prioritized queue systems in the departments. The major problems experienced in achieving efficiency and effectiveness of emergency departments include increasing the flexibility of the emergency healthcare systems. Some hospitals still use the traditional emergency response systems and have been reluctant in adopting the new policies. The modern emergency centers have also faced a challenge in increasing the flexibility of these systems in meeting consumer demands. In responses to these issues, it is essential to for the operation management of the emergency department to design systems which are flexible or customized to meet consumer increasing demands. Flexibility will ensure that there are increased efficiency and utilization rates as well as the department responsiveness to consumer needs (Wylie et al. 2015, p. 98). With the increased technological advancements in the health sector, it is essential for the management also to adopt modern technologies and inventory as well as supply chain systems to help in improving their service delivery. The significant barriers expected in the implementation of these strategies can either result from resource capabilities of the hospital and especially in adopting or implementing the modern operation management systems. It is also expected that the hospitals may be resistant in embracing the changes due to organizational culture and structure since most hospitals have remained conservative to their practices and even their operational processes. Conclusion Operational efficiency and effectiveness in emergency departments can be achieved through the development of effective strategies. However, sound management of the operating processes in the emergency departments is very vital in the reduction of waste and inventory costs. It will also be able to improve the department operational efficiency and bring about a significant impact on the quality of patient care provided in the facility. List of references Amaral, T.M. and Costa, A.P., 2014. Improving decision-making and management of hospital resources: An application of the PROMETHEE II method in an Emergency Department. Operations Research for Health Care, 3(1), pp.1-6. Batt, R.J. and Terwiesch, C., 2015. Waiting patiently: An empirical study of queue abandonment in an emergency department. Management Science, 61(1), pp.39-59. Brown, C.A., Bair, A.E., Pallin, D.J. and Walls, R.M., 2015. Techniques, success, and adverse events of emergency department adult intubations. Annals of emergency medicine, 65(4), pp.363-370. DAndreamatteo, A., Ianni, L., Lega, F. and Sargiacomo, M., 2015. Lean in healthcare: A comprehensive review. Health policy, 119(9), pp.1197-1209. Fagel, M.J., 2016. Principles of emergency management and emergency operations centers (EOC). CRC press.pp. 12 Haddow, G., Bullock, J. and Coppola, D.P., 2017. Introduction to emergency management. Butterworth-Heinemann. Hillman, A., 2014. Why must I wait?The performance of legitimacy in a hospital emergency department. Sociology of health illness, 36(4), pp.485-499. Kadri, F., Harrou, F., Chaabane, S. and Tahon, C., 2014. Time series modelling and forecasting of emergency department overcrowding. Journal of medical systems, 38(9), p.107. Kang, H. and DeFlitch, C., 2014, January. Identifying Emergency Department Efficiency Frontiers and the Factors Associated with their Efficiency Performance. In IIE Annual Conference. Proceedings (p. 3974). Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE). Liebler, G. and McConnell, C.R., 2016. Management principles for health professionals. Jones Bartlett Publishers.pp. 8 Matthias, O. and Buckle, M., 2015. Accidental lean: performance improvement in an NHS hospital and reflections on the role of operations strategy.PP. 114 Narasimhan, R., 2014. Theory development in operations management: Extending the frontiers of a mature discipline via qualitative research. Decision Sciences, 45(2), pp.209-227. Saghafian, S., Austin, G. and Traub, S.J., 2015. Operations research/management contributions to emergency department patient flow optimization: Review and research prospects. IIE Transactions on Healthcare Systems Engineering, 5(2), pp.101-123. Skinner, J., 2016. Forecasting Emergency Department Overcrowding. SPNHA Review, 12(1), p.8. Song, H., Tucker, A.L. and Murrell, K.L., 2015. The diseconomies of queue pooling: An empirical investigation of emergency department length of stay. Management Science, 61(12), pp.3032-3053. Wylie, K., Crilly, J., Toloo, G.S., FitzGerald, G., Burke, J., Williams, G. and Bell, A., 2015. Emergency department models of care in the context of care quality and cost: A systematic review. Emergency Medicine Australasia, 27(2), pp.95-101.

Vodafone Commercial Analysis and Evaluation free essay sample

The net earnings also increased by 1. 0 percent to almost 19 billion Euros in 2011. TV operators gained 3981 million Euros and are the top sector (ZAW 2012). This shows that advertisement is still increasing in importance in our daily life. We face advertisement every day. Watching TV comes along with watching advertisement. Approximately 15 minutes per hour are filled with commercials about cars, beauty products, toys, groceries and many more. Furthermore TV commercials featuring phone companies are also very usual. Vodafone is one of these phone companies. How good is Vodafone’s advertisement campaign shown in TV in 2010? In this paper we focus on one of Vodafone’s TV commercials in Germany and examine it by describing, analyzing and evaluating it. The data used in this paper is from literature research and from reliable sources from the Internet. 2. Vodafone Vodafone (Germany) is one of the biggest telecommunication providers in Europe. The company employs 12. 000 people and its turnover is almost nine billion Euros. We will write a custom essay sample on Vodafone Commercial Analysis and Evaluation or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Vodafone offers fixed line and mobile telephony as well as Internet services to a total of 37 million business and private customers in Germany. The company is part of the Vodafone Group with 404 million customers worldwide therefore it is also part of one of the biggest providers in the world (Vodafone Deutschland 2012). 3. TV Commercial â€Å"Where are you? † Description The Vodafone Commercial that will be examined in this paper is called â€Å"Where are you? † and has been introduced to the German market in 2010. The commercial is 47 seconds long and shows a man who wallows in memories looking at old Polaroid photos picturing his early love. He picks out one Polaroid and writes â€Å"Where are you? under one of her photos. Then he takes his mobile phone to take a picture of it. Next he sends this digital picture to a friend. The friend is sitting in a lecture and he shows the picture to all his friends in university and they send it to their friends and so on. Soon you can see how this picture is spread across the globe. A taxi driver in a big city knows the picture as well as a man in a tent in the snow i n the middle of nowhere. They take notice of it through their mobile phones. A woman is designing a T-shirt with the Polaroid print on it on her laptop. Next you can see how this T-shirt is produced and short after you can see how different people in different areas are wearing T-Shirts or jumper with the picture’s print with the message on it. Lewis Hamilton (a formula 1 driver) wears a T-Shirt on an interview, a singer of a rock band wears it during a concert, it hangs on a laundry line in an eastern country and an Indian person tries to sell it on the street. Different clothes with the print on it are shown. Next you can see a boy who is skateboarding on a board with the print on it. Then you can also see graffiti of her face on walls in big towns. A girl looks at the picture on her tablet while she is lying in her bed. Then you can see people standing in front of a big print of the photo in an art museum. And last but not least there is a huge illuminated display of the woman’s picture on Time Square in New York City. Shortly after you can see that the man who is looking for her is also on Time Square. Then he receives a message of his old love saying â€Å"Im here† with a new picture of her. Then you can see her walking through a crowd of people, smiling at him while in the background a big illuminated display of er new picture with the message â€Å"Im here† appears. After that scene the commercial ends with the slogan of Vodafone â€Å"Power to you†. The scenes change quickly and each one is just seen for a short time. The commercial is supported by the background music, a song called â€Å"We are the people† by â€Å"Empire of the sun†. 4. TV Commercial â€Å"Where are you? † Analysis The Vodafone commercial was published in 2010. This was the time when the mobile Internet became more and more attractive for different kind of people. Not only the younger generation was interested in being informed about anything at any time but also the older generation and especially business leaders put their focus on being available at all times. That is why Vodafone produced a commercial with the statement of an information process that is able to connect people in a way it has never been possible before. The transfer of information has become easier with the use of mobile internet and Vodafone caught the attention of many people by showing that it is possible to find a person within a few days or weeks by just uploading one picture. The commercial starts with a man looking at picture of a young woman. Due to him having similar pictures of her you already know that he has been in love with that girl some day. He picks out one specific picture and writes â€Å"Where are you? † under it. At that moment it is clarified for the viewer that he tries to find that girl. He takes a picture of that Polaroid with his mobile phone. At this point Vodafone used a hidden sign because the choice that they decided to let him take that picture with his smart phone was smart as well. Due to Vodafone being a mobile phone provider they told the customer in this first happening to get a smart phone in order to do the first transaction. There is no extra camera or scanner needed to get the picture as a digital media file. As the young man sends this picture to his friend in university, the first line of the song is introduced in the background. This line says: â€Å"we share in each other†. This sharing process is started when the man sends this picture to his friend who shows it around in university. The persons who sees this picture keeps on sending or uploading it in order to spread the picture all over the world. They show a guy in university who looks at that picture, turns around and shows it to someone else. Then you can see his mobile phone display with the picture of her in the background and the word â€Å"send† in the foreground. This tells the viewer the picture gets widely spread. Directly after that scene one can see a man that drives around in a big town and opens the photo on his mobile phone. The bright lights in the background indicate that it must be a big town. In contrast to that they show a man in a tent surrounded by snow receiving the same picture with his mobile phone shortly after. Vodafone used this strong contrast in order to make people aware of the possibilities they have by being independent of external environmental forces. Furthermore it shows that it does not matter what kind of person you are. There is no difference if you are a business person or an adventurist because you can use your mobile phone and your mobile internet everywhere to be informed about all types of news. Furthermore the spot shows a woman inventing the idea of creating a T-Shirt with the mentioned picture and the question while another one produces it at the same time. The quick motion is used to let the viewer believe there is nearly no time left between one action and another. This is a sales strategy because they want to reveal the rapidity of their data transfer to their customers. In the next moment Lewis Hamilton (a famous formula-1 driver) wears this T-Shirt in an interview which underlines the popularity of an action started over the internet with a mobile phone within a short time. For those who might not know Lewis Hamilton you can see him on a TV with two man in front of it watching this interview where he wears the T-Shirt with her picture right after. The short extract tells the customer how fast mobile internet connects and how fast a message can be spread by using the mobile network. And again a contrast is added to the advertisement when a person tries to sell this shirt on a market. The fact that this person wants to sell this T-Shirt is clarified by a lot of T-Shirts hanging behind his back. Within this short section the intercultural relations of Vodafone are shown as well as the possibilities for every person in every country to purchase their products. And again the search for the young woman goes on. In the next scene a rock inger wears a T-Shirt with her face on it and directly after you can see it hanging on a laundry line in an old town, probably in the Middle East. This comparison between the two completely different types of lifestyle is lightly to show that there is a possibility for every person to be connected with the whole world and to show civil courage. It also tells you that someone who has influence on peopl e can help as well as people who do not have such a big influence. And especially for Vodafone it shows that even in areas where the internet is not that spread people are able to get in connection with another. During the next section they show how this action developed. Therefore a rapid run-through of different styles of that one particular picture are inserted. At first the Polaroid, a pencil drawing, a watercolor, a jumper with her picture, a T-Shirt with her picture as a comic, her picture as pop art, a jumper with her picture on the back, in black and white, a T-Shirt in stylish colors, her picture on a skateboard, someone sprays a graffiti of her, kids playing basketball in front of another graffiti of her, a girl looking at her picture on a tablet, a canvas in an exhibition and a huge illuminated display in a big city. This accumulation of her picture is supposed to show the variation and creativity of the people all over the world. These two factors indicate in what direction you can develop when using a smart phone because all those different type of pictures have been created with a smart phone or computer and in order to spread it all over the world the Internet was needed. Not just these two characteristics but also adaptability is displayed during this part of the spot. In order to motivate especially the older generation Vodafone needs to convince them to let themselves in for a new phone or tariff. So this section points on the diversity of everybody and that there are many ways (many different contracts of Vodafone) to get connected. You do not need to be famous but one will still recognize a T-Shirt like this hanging on a laundry line. While different kind of pictures and drawings of her face are shown the audience can hear â€Å"we are the people that rule the world†. This underlines the statement of Vodafone that there are many kinds of smart phones and tariffs for different people and they are free to decide what fits for them. Also they have the possibility to compile a special tariff for their pecific needs. The next line â€Å"a force running in every boy and girl† can be heard when the basketball players play in front of her graffiti. This is a metaphor that is supposed to tell there is a force in every person to do something. In this section the players have the force to run after the ball. They need to be mobile in a physical way. A girl under a blanket looks at her tablet. She might have the force to be mobile in a materialistic way such as being online even at nighttime. This metaphor is well chosen due to the message being hidden and still reaching the viewers sub consciousness. At that moment where the man can see her picture on his phone with the message: â€Å"Im here. † the background is filled with the line â€Å"take me now† and the line â€Å"we can try† can be heard at the moment her picture shows up on the big illuminated display. This compositing of music and movie is likely to present information that persons need to give a try for something new. In the case of Vodafone it could be a new tariff or mobile phone. The song ends with the line â€Å"we are the people that rule the world† and parallel to this one can see people all over the place and the girl he was looking for stands right in the middle and smiles at him. The search for her has been successful as well as the search for the perfect tariff that suits you should be. The slogan â€Å"the power to you† is shown with the Vodafone logo at the end in order to make the viewer aware of the weight their decisions have. â€Å"The power to you† is perfect to describe the whole spot in one sentence because it is all about the individuality of people in every nation no matter how much money they have or to what religion they belong to. The success in the end matches with the slogan because we are the ones who can decide what happens in our lives and we can change or reach something if we want to. And that is exactly what the man in the commercial did. He decided to search for his old girlfriend and found a modern way to spread the news. The way he chose was the internet. It can be helpful at times but still there is a lot of abuse of information on the internet. Due to different types of insecure networks people can easily be tapped. Every mobile phone has an IMEI (international mobile equipment identity) at command. While the mobile phone is turned off some programs like the clock or alarm are still turned on. Basically on you can say the mobile phone is more or less in a standby phase then. Special agencies such as the police or the intelligence service will be able to detect the phone. When the mobile phone is turned on it will be easier to detect the phone. Even an ordinary person can be able to track it at this stage. The WAP (wireless application protocol) is included in every mobile phone nowadays. A lot of people use WLAN (wireless local area network) or WAP to find the next possibility to park their car or a restaurant. In order to use this service they need to reveal their current location. For many people this became an everyday life routine over the last few years. The problems occur when the information is not just used by governmental constitutions such as police or intelligence to track criminals but when it is misused by private persons who want to harm their fellow human beings. The intervention in the privacy of others is supported by using those applications on a mobile phone where one can tap another person. The UMTS (universal mobile telecommunications system) is an even more complex network that allows locating people more accurately. So for those who do not have the technology to locate their subject via satellite they now have the possibility to track them via UMTS. The signal of UMTS and â€Å"GSM (global system for mobile communications) is just encoded until it reaches the first radio mast. Behind it the conversations are held via a usual unciphered network. † (Reischl 2001). That is why conversations can be easily trapped. Being available at all times is as one can see a big risk. Vodafone supports this availability because they want to fulfill the customer’s needs and provide new marketing strategies that tempt the customer to sell their product. This strategies are shown here as a commercial that displays a situation that could have happened in real today. People want to see something new what they have not seen before and that is what Vodafone tries to reach with this advertisement. A young man who is driven to find a girl he admires using the latest methods to spread her picture. This action expands as much as he would not have imagined. People get connected due to a mobile network and a mobile phone. They are ambitious and take part in this action because they feel as a member of a social project. For many people it is important to feel needed but they often do not have the courage to start such a project or enter it because they fear they do not have time to carry n their part of the work they have to do. The project shown in the commercial is slightly different and differs from others due to the fact that there are no obligations. There are no rules, there is no contract and everyone is free to decide if they want to participate in the action or not. That is a very important fact for many persons because there are already too many restrictions so that people get bored of it and prefer not to participate in an action when they have to stick to certain rules. In this case everyone was free to decide whether to join this project or rather to leave it. People have the freedom to be creative and they used this opportunity to create T-Shirts, different styles of paintings and graffiti. That is exactly what catches the viewer’s attention. One wants to be part of this action because everyone else seems to be. One can see there is the opportunity to be creative and to spread the message in their own personal way. This tempts people to take action and to join the project. Enviousness is a big issue in our society. This envy is aroused through this commercial because when people who did not participate in the spot watch it, they might want to take action themselves and that is the strategy of Vodafone. They want to reach this pressure to buy in order to sell their products. The spectators of the advertisement can watch the chain of people interacting grow and that wakes a kind of peer pressure in them. No one wants to be left behind and that is where Vodafone starts. They give the spectator the opportunity to join by buying a mobile phone and by signing a contract. So when such an action starts again they will be informed because they can be online everywhere at every time. To have a feeling of security helps people to think that they are part of a big society and that they can help others if it is needed. Exactly this is what a lot of people want – to be needed. You can see that appreciation a huge issue in our society is because not just younger people often want to help others by actively participating in foreign aid but also the older generation is inclined to be up-to-date and they want to feel needed. It is not for nothing that retirees go back into their profession. They do not just do it for money reasons but especially because they want to â€Å"find recognition in what they do and new social contacts† (Sigel 2012). That is what Vodafone offers them. When one uses mobile internet one will always be connected with their friends and family no matter where he or she is. This is shown in the scene with a man in a tent surrounded by snow somewhere in the countryside. Even though he might not have any social contact around him he still has his mobile phone and mobile internet which connect him to everyone else. He does not need to fear the loneliness because he can be in contact with anyone at any time. The question that turns up is if this availability does harm us or not. On one side as I mentioned before there is the danger of being spied by others and on the other side there is the opportunity to be connected with the whole world, to get information whenever they are needed and one will never forget a birthday again thanks of social networks. But is it really necessary to be online at all times? For some it might be important because their job does not allow to be offline at all but for a usual person who has the possibility to check ones mails at home, does one really need to be online everywhere? Vodafone encourages us to but the risks we take when we allow Google to face our location and surfing habits are extremely high because the chance for third parties to read that information is given. When using the mobile internet we should always take into account that our decipherment is not as high as we would expect it to be. 5. TV Commercial â€Å"Where are you? † Cons and Pros The Vodafone commercial â€Å"Where are you? † is well known in Germany. In the following we will evaluate this commercial by focusing on the negative as well as on the positive aspects of this commercial. First of all the commercial does not deal with data privacy protection. The picture of the woman is taken and published without her permission. What if she does not want her picture to be published all over the world? Or maybe she does not want the man to look for her. Nowadays data privacy protection is very important because using someone else’s picture can not only be for good purposes. The misusage of private data can become a big problem for everyone. A lot of people upload and share photos on social networks like Facebook or Twitter without thinking about possible consequences. Other people can easily copy your photo and use it for external websites or other purposes. Even if you delete your pictures from social networks, someone else might have already copied and used it without your knowing. In the commercial the man uses among others social networks to spread the picture of his old love. But using social networks can not only be helpful to find a person and stay in contact with your friends, it can also become dangerous. In 2012, for example a 15 years old girl was murdered out of revenge because she supposedly spread rumors on Facebook (Focus Online 2012). Another case shows that the misusage of personal data in social media can also lead to suicide. A 20 year old Dutch boy committed suicide due to cyber bullying. People spread rumors about him in the Internet telling that he is homosexual and a looser. After enduring this bullying for some years the boy could no longer live with it and committed suicide in 2012 (Lorenz 2012). Furthermore the Vodafone commercial does not really offer any particular product or special plan that is required to make use of the fast network that is shown in the television spot. It only shows what you are able to do due to the fast network Vodafone is offering. But if you want to get more information on how you can use it you need to contact Vodafone or visit the website that is shown in the end of the commercial by yourself. Besides it is necessary to have a smart phone that is able to connect to the mobile Internet to use the fast network of Vodafone and its advantages like sending photos fast to your friends. But not everyone is able to effort such a smart phone. Not only the phones itself are still very expensive but also the operating costs. The basic plan Vodafone is offering to use the fast network with a mobile Internet speed of 14. mbit/s starts at 24. 99â‚ ¬ per month (Vodafone Tarife 2012). Therefore this commercial is only addressed to people who are able to buy such a phone and plan. Another negative aspect is that the commercial â€Å"Where are you? † looks like a new and unique television commercial but this is not the case. The story that is told within the commercial is almost identical to a T-Mobile commercial pu blished in 2003. The basic story is the same, in the T-Mobile commercial Steffi Graf, a famous German tennis player, is looking for her husband Andre Agassi who is also a popular tennis player. Therefore Steffi Graf uses her mobile phone to send a photo of her husband all over the world to find him (Kolbruck 2010). In the Vodafone commercial a man that is not known to the public is looking for his old love sending a picture of her to all his friends and they send it to all their friends and so on until the photo is known worldwide. The Vodafone commercial also hosts popular people like Lewis Hamilton (a famous formula-1 driver) who is wearing a t-shirt with the Polaroid print on it while giving an interview. Not only the commercial idea is not new to market but also the use of the song â€Å"We are the people† by Empire of the sun because in September 2009 the same song was used in an American advertising campaign for Vizio televisions (Vizio TV Commercial 2009). In the end of the commercial there is one more negative detail to notice. The photo of the woman that the man is looking for is seen all the time during the commercial but however in the end it is hard to identify the woman standing in the crowd and on the new picture saying â€Å"I’m here! † as the woman the man is looking for. You need a second look to realize that this is the woman because her face and hair looks different from the Polaroid picture the man used to find her. Maybe the man should have taken another Polaroid picture of the woman in a different posture of the head and with her actual hair color. This would have made it easier for the audience to identify the woman as the searched one. Otherwise the commercial is telling a short love story with a happy end. The audience is engrossed in this short love story hoping that the man will find the woman. This makes the commercial emotional and more attractive for the audience. In the end everyone is happy to see the woman standing in the crowd with her picture on the big display in the background saying â€Å"I’m here! † Due to this emotional fact it is not only another advertisement trying to sell products by offering special prices and rates. It is a special commercial trying to show what is possible nowadays by using the mobile network. This is how the television spot engages the audience’s sympathy for Vodafone. Furthermore people buy products on an emotional basis. Without emotions it is not possible to make a buying decision. The brain analyzes the emotional value of a product. The stronger and better the emotion is the higher is the value of the featured product and the person will be more willing to buy it (Hausel 2004). Because of this emotional and effective fact this advertisement is easy to remember and people will talk about it. This brings Vodafone into a good image. But you can not only talk about this commercial you can also become a part of it because Vodafone is selling the t-shirts and sweatshirts that are shown in the commercial with the Polaroid picture of the woman on it. You can buy those t-shirts and sweatshirts in any size online in the Vodafone shop (Vodafone Collection 2010). By wearing this t-shirt you can underline the message given in the commercial â€Å"Power to you†, together we can achieve anything we want to and almost nothing is impossible. Vodafone also gets more people to talk about this commercial by selling those t-shirts. Another positive aspect about this commercial is that it is music based. There are no dialogues that need to be understood to get the message of the clip. So everyone is able to understand this message regardless of the language the person speaks who is watching this television spot. The two phrases that are used are â€Å"Where are you? † and â€Å"I’m here! † those two phrases are in English. Since English is a world language and the first learned second language in the German education system, most of the audience will understand those two phrases and what they mean. And even if you do not know what they mean, you are still able to understand the story by just watching. The song that is used in the commercial is called â€Å"We are the people† and played by the Australian electronic music duo Empire of the sun. The lyrics of the song support the message of this commercial â€Å"Power to you†. The chorus of the song that is also heard in the advertisement is saying â€Å"We are the people that rule the world. A force running in every boy and girl, all rejoicing in the world, take me now’ we can try† (Empire of the sun – we are the people 2008). This chorus says that â€Å"we are the people that rule the world†, not only people but the people. This also emphasizes the message. We all can achieve everything if we work together. You should enjoy your life and be happy about it, everything is possible and you should always remember the past and how good it was. If you are listening to the whole song you can interpret the song as a song about a couple that is about to split up. But the one partner tries to remind the other one on the time they spent ogether when they were young in the 1970’s. Then it says in the last phrase of the chorus that you should always try again, never give up. This links to the commercial. The man is looking for his old love. When he is looking at the old Polaroid pictures he might think about the time they spent together and he decid es that he wants to get her back and try again. By help of all his friends and later the whole world his dream comes true and he finds the woman. This makes this song a perfect fit for this story in this commercial. Due to this advertisement the song became number one in the German single charts in 2010 (Vodafone 2010). This commercial shows that even in modern times where a lot of people communicate by using the Internet and social networks personal relationships still matter. The man not only wanted to find the woman on a social network but in real life. He wanted to see her face to face. Even if the commercial is about sending photos via Internet and social networks it is not only addressed to teenagers and young adults. Nowadays social networks represent all ages. This age range goes from teenagers to retired persons. In Germany the average age of a Twitter user is 32 years and 37% of the German Facebook users are older than 35 years. This proves that it is not only the adolescence that is active in social media. Therefore it is no wonder that the most growing target group of social media users is the group of 50 years and older (Bernecker amp; Beilharz 2012) Furthermore the television spot shows people from different countries and classes of population. An Indian person trying to sell the shirt with the woman’s picture on it is shown in this commercial as well as people in an art museum looking at a big print of the picture. Everyone is part of the social network regardless of the origin or wealth. The commercial â€Å"Where are you? shows that whole world can help you to find a missing person. People are willing to help each other. This shows that you are not alone nowadays and you have much more opportunities to be successful in finding your old love by using the help of hundreds of people. But hundreds of people can not only help you finding your old love they can also help finding lost people. A mothe r found her two missing children by using Facebook. The children’s father took off with them in 1995 when they were two and three years old. The mother searched for her daughter’s name on Facebook hoping to find her. And she did. The mother found her daughter’s Facebook profile and called the police that found the two children and the father in Florida (Huffingtonpost 2010). This shows that being connected to the whole world can help you finding lost people but it also can help to encourage you. In Texas a group of firefighters tried to make the family of a four year old boy who was diagnosed with cancer feel better by taking a photo of their fire truck with his name on it. The parents uploaded this photo on Facebook where other firefighters saw this photo and decided to take one on their own. This was the start of a big photo campaign. Firefighters from all over Texas took photos with the boy’s name on it using firefighter equipment and their trucks. Even a television show reported about those photos and what they stand for. Other families, sport clubs and soldiers joined this campaign and took photos as well. More and more photos were sent to the family trying to make them feel better. And even if the boy’s cancer was not curable the parents said those pictures made them smile in this sad time and that they will always appreciate them(Merchant 2012). Last but not least the idea behind this TV commercial is very creative. Telling a love story just by showing how a man is looking for his old love by using modern technologies. Each scene is just shown for a second to underline how fast the network is. The more often this commercial is watched the more details will be noticed. The song is very memorable so that the audience will link it to this advertisement campaign and to Vodafone. The audience is engrossed by the emotion and the happy end. 6. Outlook Vodafone is not stopping to expand their network and product range. In the future the mobile network will influence our daily life and our way to spend time because a lot of people will spend more time with their mobile phone than with friends. This leads to a loss of communication between two individuals. For some people it is easier to tell their feelings by using a social network than by direct conversations. The use of smart phones increased in the last two years after the â€Å"Where are you? † advertisement. While 8. 43 million people used a smart phone in 2010, the number increased to 27. 30 million people in 2012 (Statista 2012). Due to this change in the society Vodafone’s products will sell well. Furthermore a lot of people were impressed by the advertisement Vodafone used in the past, if Vodafone keeps on producing such successful advertisement, the company will sell even more products. 7. Conclusion Vodafone is one of the most successful telecommunication providers in Europe. Not only is the image and product range responsible for this success but also advertisement. The commercial â€Å"Where are you? † is one of the best known advertisements in Germany. Even though the same plot already existed and the song was previously used in an American TV commercial, Vodafone made a completely new version out of it.

Back Up Your Writing

Back Up Your Writing Back Up Your Writing Back Up Your Writing By Simon Kewin John Steinbecks dog ate an early draft of Of Mice and Men. Ernest Hemingway famously lost an entire suitcase of his early writings a suitcase that contained his originals and all his copies. The only copy of Thomas Carlyles The History of the French Revolution was destroyed when it was used to light a fire. It took him six months to recreate it. Dylan Thomas managed to lose the script for Under Milk Wood three times. These days, if youre using a computer to create and store your work, none of this should ever happen. While computer hard disks can fail and laptops can be lost or stolen, you should always have your precious work safely backed up. Making copies of computer files is a trivial matter and if disaster strikes, restoring your magnum opus to working order should be a simple matter of a few clicks. Many writers have some informal system for backing up what they create. Perhaps they copy everything to a CD or USB drive from time to time, or email a copy to someone else. These approaches are a good start, but theres no substitute for an automated mechanism. Its all-too easy to forget to carry out a back up. Whole weeks can go by without one being made and that means whole weeks of work can be lost. Computers are good at mundane, repetitive tasks like this whereas people often arent. Ideally, you should make (at least) two backups of everything you write : one local and one off-site or remote. The local one can be used to quickly recover an accidentally-deleted file, or to revert to an earlier version of a manuscript if something has been lost. A USB drive is ideal for this : they are cheap and portable. A 2GB (2 gigabyte) model can hold the manuscript of a 100,000 word novel a couple of thousand times over. You’ll also need some software to automatically perform the back up. There’s lots available, some of it free. The remote backup is vital if disaster really strikes and both computer and local backup are lost (because of, say, theft or fire-damage). There are numerous services available on the internet that will use your broadband connection to back up your files in a safe, remote location. If the worst happens, you can just download them all and carry on working. If you dont have a backup scheme in place, set one up now before its too late. Footnote : Backup and back up are often used interchangeably. The best approach is to treat backup as a noun : the name given to the copy of some data and to use back up as a verb : what you do to create a backup. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Freelance Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:20 Words with More Than One SpellingDisappointed + PrepositionHow to Punctuate Introductory Phrases

Death and Dying Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Death and Dying - Research Paper Example Death and Dying Morality is a central principal requirement that defines humanity as provided by several religions. Both Christianity and Islamic religions subscribe to the necessity for the living to embrace morality during their lifetime. The two religions attach the living human’s moral conduct as determinants to their destiny after death. Death in the two religions is a fulfillment of thee religious writings and doctrines that guide human conduct. The ultimate position that the dead acquire after death, according to the two religions, are determined during their lifetime. Death is attainable before one actually dies in the physical sense. To learn the concept of death while one has physical life constitutes a core consideration as a skill of life. An individual needs to ensure reforms as a living entity and to accommodate the understanding and perception of death. Different religions have diverse conceptions of the art of death before physical demise. In as much as death comes after life and end of existence of the soul according to Islam and Christianity religions, life itself presents a platform for preparation for death. In both religions, the process of dying presents an opportunity for the individual to develop and heal.Every religion holds dissimilar perception about death. Most religious beliefs on the notions of death and dying believed that death was a transition from one from of life to another form. Knowledge of dea th and fate after death serves to regulate the conduct of believers in both the Islamic and Christianity religions, for instance. ... Foucault proposes the need to revert to ethics promoted by the Greek cultures in pursuit of ensuring the restoration of morality in the society. The promotion of ethics in Greek related to the advocate of the will to have a beautiful form of life. The need to ensure a beautiful form of life presents the best way to renew the lost ethical considerations in the society. Ethics that have its basis on the quest to lead a good life can help the society to regain the lost morality. Society members do not trust the belief that religion is the foundation of ethics. According to Foucault, there is a notable abandonment of the ethics of self in the society. Humanity does not base their ethical performance on the scientific knowledge that informs about what constitutes the self. There is a great need of society members to integrate rigorous honesty in the self. The operation of societal values has high dependence on ethical conducts that promote morality. The urge to account for the truth in an y situation is an example of morality that society should adopt. All these, according to Foucault, depend on the ability of an individual to know himself of herself; hence ensuring technology of the self. Foucault’s conception of technology of the self was highly relevant to the role of both Christianity and Islamic religions in regulating morality through the notions of fate after death of an individual. Hospice professionals used several means of control that helped in managing the process of dying. People who are at their critical point of health need care. Those in charge of the terminally ill should take proper care and be in fully in charge. Hospice care initiatives have its basis on two most significant objectives. The first objective of

Political Particpation and how it works in different forms of Essay

Political Particpation and how it works in different forms of government - Essay Example It will be argued in the following that new technologies have the potential to bring the young voters in. The internet presents a number of opportunities to improve political participation, and recent political transformations in the Middle East and the impact of 'social media' on those revolutionary actions, should be sufficient proof that much of the potential is already being realized. Moreover, the 'world wide web' which was launched in [Lipson and Day 10] 1993 (internet is older) is now eighteen years old or the age in which youth begin to vote. Voters have now had the web at their disposal, for the entirety of their lives and this is actually a demographic water-shed of sorts. All voters from this time forward, will have had web-era computer technologies at their disposal, and these technologies hold a number of deposits of hope for attracting participation from precisely the age group with the worst turn-out. Before getting to the potential for increasing participation, some o f the positives of current practices will be outlined to demonstrate what can be built on. Political transparency is one of the areas that the world wide web has been very good thus far at improving.

Why we treat men and women differently Essay Example for Free

Why we treat men and women differently Essay The process of learning gender roles begins right when we are born. The first question people ask of a newborn is â€Å"Is it a boy or girl? † This question illustrates the importance of gender in organizing our expectations and perceptions of an individual. In American culture we tend to give boys and girls different types of toys to play with and dress infants according to gender. If you look at your baby pictures, you may find that you were often dressed in either blue or pink. One US study reports that 90% of the infants observed at a shopping mall were dressed in gendered colors and or styles (Shakin, Shakin Sternglanz, 1985). By the age of 3 children begin to accurately label people by sex (Fagot, Leinbach Hagen, 1986). Gender role socialization progress throughout life from various sources – parental expectations, modeling of gender roles by peers and images of males and females in the media all contribute to our ideas on what it means to be male or female. Gender role is a psychological construct that develops in children as they are socialized in their environments. As children become older, they learn specific behaviors and patterns of activities appropriate and inappropriate for their sex and they either adopt or reject those gender roles. Sandra Bem (1981) argues that gender is one of the fundamental ways we organize information and understand experiences about the world. The way we think of being male or female is a web of behaviors, attitudes, objects and conventions that are associated with being male and being female. We then use this web of preconceived notions to understand the people around us. To illustrate, lets look at the story of Stella, a senior high school student. Stella’s parents were egalitarian; they believed that gender should not hinder their daughter’s future. They wanted their daughter to grow up without the encumbrances of gender Perception of stereotypes affects our behavior Page #2 role stereotypes. They made sure that they trained her to be assertive, to be an achiever and always told her that being female should not hinder her from pursuing her dreams. True to her parents’ words, Stella was an outstanding student, had good leadership skills and had been accepted to a university that she wanted. However, Stella did not have many girl friends. She was not invited to slumber parties and girly stuff though she got along well with the boys. Then one day, she overheard the boys at school talking about her, one of them remarked that Stella was more of a boy than a girl and he wouldn’t want to go to the prom with her. Stella was stunned, she never thought of herself that way, she felt confused and hurt. The story tells us of Stella’s predicament. She was brought up to think that everyone can reach for his or her dreams and you simply have to work hard for it and this is what she did. But her peers see her as a misfit, the girls did not like her because she was not interested in girly stuff and the boys did not think of her as a girl. We can say that her peers are reluctant to accept Stella because she goes against the traditional gender roles. Majority of her peers have been socialized to think that girls should be emotional, gentle, beautiful and nurturing while boys should be tough, competitive and strong. Our preconceived notions of what a man /woman should be and what they should not be is always present in our daily interactions and in how we understand others. Children generally use the term sissy to label a boy who is not a bully and boys torment girls because they are weak and cannot keep up with them. We applaud men who are achievers, who are leaders, who can provide their family with all the comfort and luxury of life, while we scorn at women who exhibit the same traits because we think that a woman should not sacrifice her family for her career. Consequently we can observe that more and more women choose to be single or marry at Perception of stereotypes affects our behavior Page #3 a later age when they have reached their dreams. Even the sex double standard favors men over women, it is almost innate in us to be forgiving to husbands who have extramarital affairs because we rationalize that boys will always be boys. On the other end we become disgusted when we hear of a wife having extramarital affairs. Our judgment is clouded by our schemas rather than finding out the story behind the act. Gender stereotypes are actually the most ingrained and prevalent forms of stereotyping. It is present across cultures and affects all of us from birth to the day of our death. The way we relate to and are being related to is largely based on our gender. It has become a fundamental part of who we are as persons and even dictates what we become in life. Women generally pursue careers that are nurturing and man generally are in occupations that makes use of their power and authority. Stella in such an early age is confronted with her being not a typical girl and if she gives in to the pressure of being accepted by her peers then she might not become what her parents dreamed her to be. And the end question of whether gender stereotypes are negative or positive is not really the issue. Gender role socialization is a necessary function of society to maintain the status quo. Women are disadvantaged by these stereotypes because it limits their opportunity for personal growth, but at present we see a breaking away of the traditional gender roles into a more egalitarian form. More and more husbands have stayed home to care for the children, while more women are joining the work force and getting top positions in all the institutions of society. Thus, like Stella’s parents, we can dispel our gender role biases and hope that in the future our children would live their lives the way they want it to be, not because they are male or female.

Man Against Nature in Jurassic Park Essay -- Jurassic Park Essays

Man Against Nature in Jurassic Park   Ã‚  Ã‚   "The world was made for man to conquer and rule, and under human rule it was meant to become a paradise" (Ishmael 82). Much like this evolutionary mythological theory, the movie Jurassic Park tells a tale of man's attempt to rule over nature. Through the movie's description and imagery, the viewer perceives the arrogance of humans to control nature, and the consequences and failures of this flawed intention. John Hammond, park creator, uses state of the art technology and ideas to recover dinosaur DNA, fill in missing gene caps, and breed the previously extinct animals to exploit his accomplishment. This process is set into motion without regard to the ethics behind the research, and without asking if pure scientific curiosity and drive should usurp natural evolution. Hammond arrogantly takes these responsibilities in hand and proceeds without consequence, as if he were somehow above his natural counterparts in mother nature's eyes. When this superiority is broken down, those who thought they were in control realize that their control was imagined. Jurassic Park conveys the consequences of human insolence in believing that nature is purely beautiful and subordinate to their existence, and this illusion of superiority reveals nature's true chaos and danger.    Having bred species of dinosaurs, and built a series of rides and attractions for this theme park, Hammond seeks the endorsement of several specialists to satisfy his investors' curiosity and concerns. Dr. Grant (a Paleontologist), Dr. Sadtler (a Paleobotanist), and Dr. Malcolm (a Chaotician), as well as a lawyer all are summoned to the island of Isla Nublar, 120 miles from Costa Rica and home of Jura... ...sts of Jurassic Park don't realize that the control they think that they have does not exist.    In Jurassic Park, nature appears beautiful and controllable when it is viewed from afar. The arrogant and naà ¯ve creators of Jurassic Park believe that they can regulate nature when, how, and where they please. Throughout the movie, this illusion gets broken time and time again. In actuality, nature is chaotic, uncontrollable, and dangerous. These aspects are taken for granted by the scientists of Jurassic Park and sometimes today in society. "They got so caught up in whether they could they didn't stop to think whether or not they should."       Works Cited Jurassic Park. Dir. Steven Speilberg. Perf. Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff   Goldblum. Universal Studios, 1993. Quinn, Daniel. Ishmael. New York: Bantam/Turner, 1992.