Monday, September 30, 2019

Why to be a chemical engineer

An individual should take on chemical engineering due to requirement of diverse knowledge, the striving to better them self, and to increase their potential. In the diverse knowledge column, there are a set of base standards one has to meet. To prepare for such a high paying and Incredible Job, the applicant must have a â€Å"Bachelor's degree In chemical engineering for entry-level; masters or doctoral degree for advanced positions†. (n. Page. With this education one must have, the applicant can really be a dependable to the company's success and can be prone to raises, extra jobs and many opportunities to go deeper in their occupation. When preparing to look into actually becoming and pursuing the occupation of a chemical engineer, applicants are safe under the studies and modern statistics about supply and demand of the occupation Itself. On a Job outlook done by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the statistics stated, â€Å"Demand for chemical engineers' services depends la rgely on demand for the products of various manufacturing industries. (n. Page) To penetrate the demand and supply to a deeper extent, chemical engineering has a shining virtue in the statistics column, there is a 2% unemployment in the engineering fields, yet there are jobs that [not taken]. pig. 2) Also In the preparation portion, advice along with a Job notice states the following preparation for an applicant. â€Å"Be prepared to work In areas of â€Å"blended engineering† where chemical engineering principles walk hand in hand with mechanical, civil, electrical, and/or industrial engineering.Be willing to diversify because you will excel. † (pig. 2) Preparation for this Job is quite simple due to the consistent stated postulate of the job being blended and diversified with other engineering types. If an applicant should ever wonder why the occupation is blended, an actual account of a chemical efferent Job sectors that a chemical engineer can fit into. It is impor tant to do your homework and identify what your interests are up front. You can waste a lot of time and effort if you are taking a shotgun approach.If you are interested in a certain sector or a certain geographic area, you're better off to expend your energies on those Jobs. † With the blend of other engineering occupations, the choice of chemical engineering could benefit a possible applicant by strengthening the weaknesses in parts of their knowledge that are lacking. This blend leads to discipline in the occupation to better the applicant. Not only could this blend draw out discipline in the occupation, but could also strengthen personal and social issues one could have.An engineer with personal experience in these categories advices applicants by stating, â€Å"Work with others it varies from Job to Job, probably from about a 3 Tao 10. Accept criticism. But this is a life issue, not an engineering issue. â€Å"(n. Page) With actual experience and not statistics with stu dies, this valuable advice could prepare an applicant to be disciplined in a different category than engineering itself, therefore, expanding their diversity of knowledge and interaction. These could truly be attributes an applicant would want to desire even if they didn't decide to pursue chemical engineering.In chemical engineering, an applicant would not only want to submerse themselves in complete knowledge of chemical engineering, but also in learning qualifications that could get them noticed and hired. To be a chemical engineer, an applicant should not be only strong in the occupation itself, but also in their interaction and sociability. A chemical engineer informs a group of applicants by stating, â€Å"A lot of my work is team-oriented. I work with a few other people and we all upend on each other to bring certain results or knowledge to the group as a whole so that we can accomplish our overall goal. (n. Page) By having interactive qualities, it is clear and also postula ted that one cannot be an introverted person when looking to get hired. By actual accounts of a chemical engineer, he postulates and informs applicants that, â€Å"All engineers must at some point (if not nearly always) work as part of a group or team, and all engineers must be able to communicate the results of their work – to their peers, supervisors, upper management, subordinates, and the outside world. You could have the most wonderful idea, but if you can't convince others of its merit, your idea will die on the vine. (n. Page. ) With the plethora ideas and accounts of the social and interactive aspects, applicants most likely will look to improve on speaking or getting a certain point or idea across. More information and advice from a group of engineers concludes the interaction and speaking qualities by advising applicants, â€Å"The key, which many engineers and scientists Just don't realize, is not to dazzle the audience with technophobia, but to be as clear, conc ise, and to he point as possible. The hardest thing for many engineers to do is get to the point. This information and advice that is given could strike the desire to expand interactive qualities. Companies are not only looking for social and interactive people, but also responsible applicants. An account of an experienced chemical engineer gives his personal point of view by inferring, â€Å"l would believe that I was hired because I tend to take on lots of responsibility. † An applicant could have all the qualities required to be hired, except for the drawback of irresponsibility. While an individual could be the ND with a high probability not want an irresponsible chemical engineer to be staffed with.If an applicant were to search for a generally high paying Job, they would most likely find that outside of chemical engineering, requirements could possibly appear unreasonable and very rigorous to go through. On a Job that medians at $187,000 per year such as a medical docto r, the requirements would most likely be postulated to be longer, and more rigorous than those of chemical engineering. Statistics and accounts done by Education Portal exemplify requirements of a medical doctor by dating, â€Å"Completing a bachelor's degree program is necessary to prepare prospective doctors to enter medical school. † (n. Page. After accomplishing a bachelor's degree, which takes 4 years of college, the student must proceed to 4 years of medical school. The same education portal informs their audience, â€Å"Medical school consists of four years of medical training and education†¦ The first two years of a prospective doctor's medical school experience are devoted to book study and laboratory work to prepare students for diagnosing and treating illnesses. During the second year of med school, dents take the first portion of the United States Medical Licensing Examination, which is administered by the National Board of Medical Examiners. After these two years of rigorous training and examination, the portal informs students, â€Å"During the last two years of medical school, students begin their clinical experience, going through rotations at clinics and hospitals. Students work under attending physicians to begin their practical training in medicine. † (n. Page) In a total of 8 years of college, which could lead to financial problems, the student would fill the requirements of being a medical doctor. If a graduated high school student were to pick to pursue chemical engineering, they have the possibility and are potentially able to earn Just as much with less requirements.A popular career guidance center informs students, â€Å"A Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering is the most common entry- level requirement for Chemical Engineers. † With only 4 years of college and only in the science portion, a chemical engineer has a potential to earn â€Å"$1 1 5,000 or more† (n. Page) per year. With this s alary potential, money spent on college and time is saved to better the encouragement in actually pursuing the occupation of chemical engineering. Leading up to this well-rounded occupation includes many opportunities for experience, life benefits, and a very comfortable potential salary.In the experience column, many encounters by actual chemical engineers advise students, â€Å"Consider participating in an internship with an engineering firm while in college. Most internships are part of a four-year degree program. It will offer you a chance to apply what you have learned in the classroom in an actual work situation and will give you the opportunity to network with people in the field. (n. Page) With these benefits, dents have an opportunity to not go into their occupation completely blindfolded.A career guidance program infers why chemical engineers pick their occupation by inferring, â€Å"They should enjoy making decisions and directing the work of others, as well as be willi ng to improve their knowledge and skills on an ongoing basis. † With this inference that earned positive feedback, these potential encounters could give a chemical engineer the benefits of pursuing that occupation. Life benefits would also pursuing this occupation could potentially earn an engineer â€Å"$1 1 5,000 or more† with also a stated postulate informing applicants, â€Å"it is not uncommon to have incomes ranging from $90,000 to $130,000 or more. (n. Page) This salary would not only draw out applicants who would desire money and being comfortable, but this comfortable living could also be tied in and related to life benefits and experience. To finish off the tied in topics, retirement would not be a problem financially if the certain engineer was responsible with their money. Responsibility was also an inference for qualities an applicant should have which was stated in earlier texts. Ranging from possible, achievable, comfortable, enjoyable, beneficial, and k nowledgeably wide, the occupation of chemical engineering appears to be worth the time and money spent.Salaries tying in with comfortable living can keep a chemical engineer stress free to an extent, and with interaction within the Job itself, can potentially balance personal life, with its own occupation. An actual account of a chemical engineer concludes his interview by stating, â€Å"l believe that a chemical engineer degree is great for opening doors. † This can be agreed with due to all the benefits of pursuing the career of chemical engineering stated previously. As a Heimlich engineer himself said, this great and worth-while occupation has potential to open your doors.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

European Tourism Essay

The article in question paints a perfect picture of the little country of Andorra, one of the few places remaining on earth where culture and sanctity has have not been overrun by the trappings of modern life. After reading the article, one comes away with a warm and happy feeling about what is going on in Andorra. It is a place, to be frank, that any person would want to visit in order to feel the beauty of the Pyrenees Mountains and understand the history of Europe. The author is careful to point out the fact that Andorra is certainly not stuck in the 15th century, though. It has updated itself to modern culture and although you cannot catch a flight to the country, one could certainly drive there to take advantage of a few conveniences. Among those are the shopping, which the author spends a great deal of time talking about. It is interesting that a place with such a richness and wealth of history and culture would have to offer bargain basement tax breaks for people to come and visit. In a way, this speaks to today’s culture, where people are more concerned with commerce than they are with culture. Andorra is a perfect mix of that commerce and culture, though. It is a place that is naturally torn and conflicted between two of Europe’s most traditional powers, yet it somehow maintains a measure of neutrality and independence. It is similar to plenty of other countries in Europe in regards to size, but does not share many similarities beyond that. Andorra is a place that, according to the author, every person should get to see because of the beauty and history that will immediately engulf the senses.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Sony Corporation marketing strategy Research Paper

Sony Corporation marketing strategy - Research Paper Example †¢ At present, the company wants to launch its new product i.e. PlayStation 4 which is the extension of its existing product line †¢ Prior to introducing its new product, the company is required to follow and implement new product development strategy which would facilitate to identify the current market situation, competitors’ performance and changing consumer buying behaviour among others †¢ After analysing marketing mix strategies, it has been observed that the company’s new product possesses a wide variety of innovative features which are quite unique from its competitors, which offer similar kind of products †¢ In terms of pricing strategy, the company will follow the strategies of discounting price, competitive price and psychological pricing in order to attract the target market across the duration from launch to the upcoming five years †¢ Apart from these, the company also would offer trade discounts, seasonal allowances and also offer payment discounts to the consumers who deliver early cash before getting the product †¢ Additionally, the company will adopt certain distribution strategies in order to reach more market coverage for the next five years. Furthermore, it will also adopt certain promotional strategies which would facilitate to increase the sales for the next consecutive five years... Additionally, the company operates under four business segments such as electronics market, game, Motion pictures and music as part of entertainment and financial services. Since the past few years’, the company has continuously attained huge success through its unique business model and by developing effective capabilities that have facilitated the company to deliver innovative products and services as per the market needs (Sony Corporation, 2013). It has been viewed that the company has earned considerable reputation not only in its domestic market but also has attracted international customers through its unique products and services. Moreover, it offers a wide variety of products by emphasising upon different market segments by which the organisation has comprehend the exact needs of the products and services of the target market. Sony delivers electronic products such as LED TV, Smart TV, music system, mobile phones and also various gaming products including PlayStation ( Sony Corporation, 2013). It has been observed that the company has attained core competency particularly in its gaming market segment where it delivers unique gaming experiences along with affordable prices as compared to its rivals. This market segment helps the company to earn huge revenue in the past five fiscal years (Sony Corporation, 2013). The core objective of this study is to present a five year marketing plan for introducing a new product in the gaming segment i.e. PlayStation 4 by considering new product development and marketing mix strategies. Additionally, this discussion also aims to show the company’s new pricing, promotional mix and distribution strategies in order to launch this

Friday, September 27, 2019

Human Resource Management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Human Resource Management - Assignment Example Employees have started relating their career success in terms of their upward mobility in the organization. The major vehicle for climbing up the ladder is the promotional system of the organization. The study would mainly focus on promotional decisions of the organization and present different facets of promotional system in the companies. Stumpf and London (1981) had developed a representation that included the influence of the organization and the individuals on the promotion decisions. It also involved the types of promotion decisions, such as potential of the individuals, performance level, etc. Later Stumpf and London (1981), found that the promotional decisions should be based on the potential ratings of the employee. The other research states that there are many other informal and formal criteria of evaluation for taking the promotional decisions based on the ability and the seniority (Halaby, 1978; Mills, 1985). Other features like performance, education and demographic char acteristics also matter in this case (Taylor, 1975). The two major inputs considered by most of the organization for taking promotional decisions are potential of the employee and the performance. Still the question remains unanswered, as how can we understand that an employee has potential. The well-designed tool for the measurement of potential can be done at the assessment center. According to the results from a study, bad hiring and poor promotion in organizations are increasing and about 51 percent of the survey respondents in the survey agreed to the fact. Poor promotion decisions include undeserved promotions, favoritism, etc. Among all the reasons that can be stated for poor promotion decisions, favoritism is the most common. In US, about 92 percent agreed that favoritism takes place in almost all large organizations. 75 percent have witnessed this and about 23 percent have practiced this. The surprising element is that about 83 percent executives agreed that favoritism lead s to poor promotion decisions, yet they follow it blindly. The promotion decisions include searching competencies of the employee to fit in to the new job profile and match up to the manager's expectations. However, it is difficult to identify competencies. Managers face the dilemma while selecting the appropriate candidate. If they consider new candidates or even the existing employees, they have to evaluate, assess and monitor their performance and potentials. This is a time taking and laborious method, though the most efficient one. In this scenario poor promotion decision-making creeps in. Ineffective promotion can increase the inefficiency of the organization as well. Poor Promotional decisions can rouse suspicion, and fear among the employees. For example, promotions given to those employees who have good relation with the upper management are often seen in organizations. When such employees are given promotion, they might threaten the managers to complain against them to the members of the top level management. It can also become a major issue for discrimination. After considering the significance of promotional decisions and the general factors that affect the poor promotional decisions in the organization, further study on the issues related to poor promotion decisions would be done in context of Peter Principle. Peter Principles states that the individua

Thursday, September 26, 2019

International interview Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

International interview - Essay Example He says that with the economic decline and the need for employees with college degrees, he has seen the need to go back to school and finish his studies. He looks forward to completing his BS studies in another three years and hopes to land a job as a manager of a hotel or become a banker. He claims that he actually is not interested in management or in numerical subjects but promising jobs for his course can lead him to succeed financially therefore, he took Management. Andrew Hale is a third year college student majoring in Physics. For him, education is his key to becoming competent and employable in this highly competitive world. Hale says he wants to become a professor in Physics because he wants to share the knowledge that he gained in school and the passion he has for sciences, with the younger generation. Liza Brown on the other hand is in her final year majoring in dentistry. She says that her mother who is also a dentist is the greatest influence in her decision because she has seen how productive her job is. In addition to helping people with their dental needs, she says she will also be able to earn decently because of the increasing demand for

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Compare the carnival of Barranquila with the one of Rio de Janeiro and Essay

Compare the carnival of Barranquila with the one of Rio de Janeiro and another one in the US - Essay Example This essay intends to explore the subtle and intricate differences between the carnival of Barranquilla with that of Rio-de-Janerio and that of the Atlanta carnival in the United Sates which make them unique in their respective ways. Carnival of Barranquilla is one of the biggest and popular carnivals. This carnival is renowned as one of the biggest folklores and as the most significant celebration in Colombia. The heritage of the carnival is quite ancient and its traditions originate back in 19th century. The event is marked by exotic and intense festivities and the deck of Barranquilla warmly welcomes the tourists and nationals at least forty days before the initiation of the festival. The festival is marked by its unique dance practices of paloteo of Spanish origin along with Congo dance of Africa and indigenous music and dance of mico y micas. The carnival is marked by the wide practice of varieties of Columbian music and cumbia is pertinently practiced in the carnival. The cumbia music and dance is the most important activity of the carnival and the practice of this kind of music and dance in the festival makes it unique in its essence (Sinning, â€Å"Joselito Carnaval†; Proexport Colombia, â€Å"Th e Barranquilla Carnival: The Most Colorful Carnival in the World†). The extraordinary blend of the ancient and colorful tribal dances of African origin with the accompaniment of Spanish music enriches and renders a unique quality to the festivity. Among those, the dances like porro, mapale, puya and cumbia generate the chief attraction of the carnival. The carnival initiates on Saturday and ends on Tuesday. The inception of the festival is marked by the battle of flowers which is a treat to the eyes and is unique of its kind. The finale of the festival includes mourning day and the death of the Joselito Carvajal is observed followed by the announcement of his burial (Sinning, â€Å"Joselito

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Philosophy Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 10

Philosophy - Assignment Example ey argue using stock question, "If everything has a cause, then what caused about God?† To recommend that God require not have a cause, and then it implies the universe did not have a cause. Perhaps, the individuals who disagree with the question and recommendation, it is the universe itself or the occasion that rose it, that is the uncaused cause (Solomon and Martin 90). There are numerous illustrations of philosophers who are against the straw man First Cause contention. They incorporate Graham Priest, Steven Hales, Bertrand Russell, Nigel Warburton, Robin Le Poidevin, Simon Blackburn, Jenny Teichman, Michael Martin, and Katherine Evans. Solomon and Martin offers a few further samples from philosophy books, including Russells book Why I Am Not a Christian as the source from which numerous writers realized the caricature that was answered by the stock. Solomon and Martin believe that David Hume through his book the Dialogs Concerning Natural Religion discredits the stock straw man’s First Cause contention; he was among the first extraordinary authors to do as such. Solomon and Martin suggest that it is agreeable without qualifying the rule "Each being has a cause,† any invalidation this, if nothing else, ought to excite suspicions among the believers concerning the principle or practice. Critics routinely discredit the straw man without referring to any individual who has ever defended it. For example, Le Poidevin conceded that nobody has actually defended it, after dishonestly criticizing proponent or the advocates for the First Cause contention of disaffirming themselves by denying that God has a cause. Solomon and Martin note that Aquinas unequivocally denied that everything had a cause. Aquinas said that "to be caused by an alternate or another, does not apply to a being inasmuch as the being; generally, every being would be caused by another, so we ought to need to move ahead to limitlessness in causes - impossibility†. Aquinas believes that it is

Monday, September 23, 2019

Develop a leadership plan for addressing the issue identified in the Research Paper

Develop a leadership plan for addressing the issue identified in the case study - Research Paper Example The downtown areas of Monson largely populated by local government and municipal buildings suffered heavy losses of government property owing to the large scale destruction of government buildings and offices. Apart from the large scale destruction of residential and government properties the central and downtown areas of Monson also suffered from potential damage of several commercial properties. Many business offices operating in such regions had to close down or were bound to switch over to other areas by opening up newer branches. It is observed that the downtown region of Monson which was once largely populated with trees now was completely barren after being heavily struck by the tornado. Large scale destruction of residential properties in the downtown region were observed after the tornado strike ruined around 290 houses thereby claiming both properties and lives in a devastating fashion. Thus, it is found that the region of Massachusetts became struck by a tornado of deadly potential. In the light of the above case the paper tends to evaluate the leadership issues in regards to the conduct of emergency operations to save both life and property and thereby in citing an effective plan to help enhance the efficiency of the emergency plans. For Massachusetts the year of 2011 was quite a disaster as the state was struck with one of the largest tornadoes across around 18 community regions that claimed around 550 lives and made a huge chunk of the population homeless (Town of Monson, 2011, p.1; Earth Observatory, 2011). A large number of faults were observed in regards to leadership issues to render effective emergency services to the victims of such tornado devastated regions. Firstly, it was observed that there were huge communication gaps between the government authorities and the agencies that were working to promote emergency related services. There were also communication gaps where the people pertaining to the agency operations

Sunday, September 22, 2019

The American Dream in Death of a Salesman Essay Example for Free

The American Dream in Death of a Salesman Essay Consideration of colour, text size and font Present an analysis of issues and ideas linked to your class texts and areful choice of hyperlinks relating to these subjects Visual representations of your chosen and ideas Character section should profile one charcter from each of your texts, detailing their background, interests, etc Compose a blog with at least three messages on a topic relevant to an issue linked to your study ISSUES : The American Dream The American Dream is an issue portrayed through different aspects and characters in Death of a Salesman. Through the play, failed visions of the American Dream are contrasted with the successful ones, highlighting the abstract quality and implications of such delusions. Willy is unable to accept the disparity between his belief in his diminutive version of the dream and his own life. The failure of Willy’s dream is indicative of the fact that the bewildered circle of American society has broken down his personal relationships, and also that the society is unstable. This reveals the tragic side of the American Dream, where it does not bring anticipation, but affliction. In contrary to this, the play also demonstrates the prosperous version of the American Dream, through Willy’s brother, Ben, whose wealth is an example of tangible success. Ben is not alive and is a figment of Willy’s troubled imagination. He gloats and says, ‘Why, boys, when I was seventeen I walked into the jungle, and when I was twenty-one I walked out. And by God, I was rich!’ The material wealth and pervasiveness of capitalism in American society drives Ben into giving up his intention of looking for his father, and instead, flourishing economically. Willy associates Ben with qualities that he himself severely lacks Realtiy vs Illusion Willy has dreams of material success, notoriety and has a misguided notion of the American Dream. These hopes dwarf the other aspects of his mentality and ultimately result in a psychological descent. He is then unable to distinguish his wild dreams and unattainable goals from the harsh reality of the present. Willy attempts to convince his sons that he is well-liked: ‘ and know me,boys, they know me up and down New England†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ This demonstrates that he is discernibly delusional, as he is neither well-liked nor known. The pressure of striving for success becomes evident in Willy, where he becomes immoral, harsh and illogical. His intense desire for gaining respect results in reliving past memories and triumphs to boost his ego, which is adopted by his family, much to their detriment. His son Biff suffers through immense embarrassment and shame derived from his father’s failed hopes, distorting his own sense of purpose and reality. The Loman’s all live in a world of illusions, and their issues mostly revolve around Willy. Linda encourages Willy’s inflated sense of self by providing false compliments and the negative aspects of his personality. Abandonment and Betrayal The issues of abandonment and betrayal are prominent in Death of a Salesman. Willy Loman’s father and brother abandoned him as a child, leaving him emotionally unstable. This rendered him to be extremely deficient in terms of nurturing his children and emotional comfort. The betrayal from such a young age resulted in a lack of morals and an unhealthy perception of life, which would most likely have been non-existent with the presence of a father figure. Willy is evidently desperate for memories of his father: ‘No, Ben! Please tell me about Dad.’ As his fear of abandonment grows, Willy attempts to raise flawless children, reflecting his inability to understand reality. Even though he is set on Biff’s imminent success, Biff betrays him and he refuses to accept his father’s unattainable, dementia-driven dreams for him. Another example of betrayal in Death of a Salesman is when Willy, who fears betrayal from his family, ironically betrays Linda, by having an affair with another woman and also buying stockings for her. At this time, stockings were expensive and Willy’s unfaithfulness to his wife was shown when he bought stockings for a strange woman, rather than for Linda. At the end of the play, Willy ends up abandoning his own family, by committing suicide. SUMMARY ‘Death of a Salesman’ is a tragic play which explores the concept of material success, reputation and dreams. Willy Loman is a man who is chasing his unattainable goals and whose mind lives in the past. His mind is set on materialistic achievements, so much that his dreams are passed on to his family, as well. The Lomans are a family of delusional people – a family of lies and deceit. In the end, Willy is unable to abstain from reality anymore, and ultimately, results in him committing suicide. This play demonstrates the effect of the ‘American Dream’ and how people’s dreams can be shattered by false promises in their business lives and also their personal relationships. Willy LOMAN – character profile Name: Willy Loman Age: 45-55 years old Present Family: Linda Loman, Biff Loman, Happy Loman Profession: He has been a traveling salesman of the lowest position for 34 years Interests and goals: His dream is to become like Dave Singleman, who was a very popular salesman. He wants to be successful in life, and to be known to everyone as a great salesman. Background: His father and his brother abandoned him as an infant.

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Public Relations Essay Example for Free

Public Relations Essay The term public relations (PR) is a campaign anticipated to establish benevolence for an individual or organization appearance. According to Tye (1998, p. 13), one of the initial descriptions of PR was formed by Bernays which claims that PR is an institutional operation which organizes public manners and characterizes the rules, measures and activity of an association after carrying out a course of action to obtain public consideration and acknowledgment. Cases in point of patrons of PR consist of firms employing â€Å"marketing public relations (MPR)† to communicate knowledge concerning the goods that they produce and services that they make available to prospective clientele so as to sustain their immediate selling labors (Stauber Rampton, 1995). On average, they confirm transaction in the short to long term, setting up and improving the firm’s trademark for a sturdy, continuing market. Another example is business entities utilizing PR as a means to access members of parliament, in search of complimentary levy and other dealing. Likewise, they can apply PR to depict themselves as progressive managers in favor of staff engaging agenda. Another case is non-profit institutions, comprising academies, infirmaries, and community service groups, may operate PR for consciousness agenda, fund-raising activities, personnel hiring, and to enhance support of their services. Furthermore, elected officials intending to draw votes and create funds once those operations are doing well at the poll, this assists in upholding their service in the workplace, with discernment to the subsequent ballot vote or, at an occupation’s outcome, to their bequest. In the present day, public relations is defined as an arrangement of managerial, administrative, and mechanical functions that promote an institution’s capability to advantageously pay attention to, recognize the value of, and act in response to those people whose equally favorable relations with the association are essential if it is to realize its tasks and principles. Basically, it is an administrative action that concentrates on mutual interaction and development of jointly useful affairs between an association and its publics. It is so difficult to define since it is associated with publicity and marketing. The concept of public relations is not synonymous with the concept of publicity. Publicity is the dispersal of information to achieve communal familiarity in an item for consumption, service, and the like. It is a condition of being public with a sense of making something known† or advertising. Marketing on the other hand is the promotion of an industry’s products or services. Technical and industrial parts, which nowadays revolutionize at a rapid rate, is covered by marketing through advertisements that can be seen everywhere. According to Whiteley (2000, p. 34), novel procedures, new-fangled merchandise, and innovative markets for earlier unlikely manufactured goods are the standard or custom. PR is also difficult to define since it includes the idea of ethics. To facilitate the perception of what is considered essential in PR ethics, people must initially be made acquainted with the range of roles of PR, especially in decision- making. These cases are possible problems to the field due to the following reasons. Soon after, PR practitioners were and are even frequently engaged from the lines of reporting. A number of correspondents involved with ethics, critique previous contemporaries for making use of their inner comprehension of information media to facilitate patrons obtain constructive media exposure. In spite of several factors of distress to reporters in the area of public relations, profitable PR statuses stay an admired preference for correspondents enforced into a profession alteration by the unsteadiness and frequently less economic prospects supplied by the print and electronic media commerce. Even though PR specialists are conventionally regarded as business servants, the reality is that roughly any institution that has an interest in how it is exposed in the public field provides work for no less than a single PR supervisor. Big associations may even hold devoted connections sectors. Administration bureaus, commerce alliances, and other non-profit organizations usually perform PR actions. As business merging happens to be more customary, lots of associations and persons are deciding to preserve boutique businesses (Macnamara, 2005) contrary to professed international interactions companies. Those minor businesses normally focus in merely a pair of training parts and therefore, frequently retain a better insight of their customer’s concern. And since they handle particular reporters with greater regularity, specialty enterprises habitually hold greater media links in the subjects that are of importance to their patrons. Additional advantages of minor, specialty businesses take account of more special consideration, responsibility, as well as expenditure funds This is not to express that smaller is constantly superior; however, there is an increasing consent that specialty businesses bid more than just on one occasion contemplated. The most principal query for PR ethics is the dilemma of separated reliability that is innate in the custom. The question â€Å"How can we equalize the good of the institute with the welfare of its publics, in addition to the wellbeing of society and of the PR line of work? † is at hand (Stoykov Pacheva, 2005). Neither genuine sponsorship nor absolute fidelity to the patron group is the solution to this drawback. Rather moral values that aid in balancing separated allegiance and keeping in proportioned exchange of ideas offer an improved remedy. It must be kept in mind that PR practitioners are at all times ethically compelled to themselves primarily, which is to safeguard their personal uprightness. The next is to their customers who are to honor agreements and to apply their proficient capability on their patron’s behalf. The third is to their association or manager which is to stick to managerial objectives and strategies. Another is to their occupation and their work contemporaries to maintain the principles of the job and, by extension, the repute of their associate practitioners. The last is to society—to reflect on communal wants or demands. The matter for those involved in PR is to do their responsibility and not to be anxious on whether anyone observes them or not. The existing definitions which seem to be the most useful to the concept of public relations are the following. Bernays identified PR as an applied social science that utilizes viewpoints from psychology, sociology, along with other branches of learning to systematically deal with the philosophy and behavior of a groundless and herdlike public (Tye, 1998, p. 317). Taking part in 1950, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) authorizes the initial Professional Standards for the Practice of Public Relations, a precursor to the existing Code of Ethics, most recently amended in 2000 to comprise the six main standards and system conditions. As stated by Tymson and Lazar (2006), the six principal standards are â€Å"Sponsorship, Integrity, Proficiency, Sovereignty, Allegiance, and Equality. † The six code provisions consulted with are â€Å"Open stream of knowledge, Competition, Disclosure of Information, Assurance, Divergence of concerns, and Improving the work. † Contemporary public relations applies different methods incorporating the abovementioned principles with outlook survey and focus clusters to assess public view, shared with a range of advanced procedures for disseminating knowledge on behalf of their patrons, together with the Internet, database-driven transmission faxes, and many more to employ followers for a patron’s basis. As indicated by the PRSA, information that may be necessary in the certified routine of PR consists of the different fields such as â€Å"communication arts, psychology, sociology, political science, economics, and the principles of management and ethics†. Scientific familiarity and skillfulness are mandatory for outlook study, public affairs examination, media associations, organizational promotion, motion picture making, exclusive proceedings, and productions. With the purpose of recognizing what is considered necessary in PR ethics, there must be an initial familiarity with the variety of tasks of PR and its part in assessment composition. There are two major functions related with PR and these are the sending of message and administrating transmission. The moral conduct in PR can be observed in three modes. These are from a societal accountability viewpoint, from an expert outlook, and from an individual point of view. Societal accountability is the indication that institutions are obliged to the community as they are existent at the will of the people. As a result, they are indebted of gratefulness to the public. Its types are the implementation of the institution’s fundamental duty, apprehension with the end results of those pursuits on other groupings exterior to the institute, and interest with facilitating to answer the common societal troubles not related with the institution’s chief task. The first two can be looked at as civic duty, which is constantly required on the side of the institution. The third type could then be categorized as societal accountability, which is not binding for the institution. For any job to develop into a profession, it must come across four decisive factors. The first is proficiency which is the specific familiarity and skillfulness that are very important to carry out its purpose in society. The second is sovereignty which permits the practitioner to function with no external intervention. The third is dedication which is the effect of expertise, entails attachment to the pursuit of superiority exclusive of highlighting on the returns or compensations. The last is accountability which signifies that the influence given by proficiency involves a reliance connection between the expert and his or her patrons. One of the most central concerns when speaking on the subject of PR ethics is the function of PR in the principled management of associations. There is inadequate study on the most usual ethical obstructions in PR, and a small amount of, if any, conventional ethical assumptions to handle them. Studies on outstanding public relations proposes that PR can be the moral principles of an association—the organization task chiefly in charge for establishing ethical standards and communal duty into managerial pronouncements. PR can be the recognized means that integrates inquiries of moral principles and conscientiousness into managerial assessment determination. It is also the task that leads into the difficulties of stakeholders into premeditated choices and that sets up a just factor to those choices. For PR practitioners to work as ethics representatives for associations, it is basic to attend to the principles of PR as a career and to assimilate ethics and collective duty into the normative theories of how PR should play a role to the planned decisiveness procedures of associations. Most significantly, theories of ethical PR must be constructed from reputable idealistic theories of moral values. Ethicists all through the past have formed two main types of theories namely the consequential hypotheses, which give emphasis to the outcomes of an individual’s manners on other people, and the non-consequential or rules-based assumptions. Consequential speculations are an appropriate preparatory situation for PR ethics for the reason of the vital function of effects in PR. In any case, a PR dilemma is present once an institution has effects on a public or a public on an association. Additionally, associations hold a communal duty when they exhibit upshots on the general public or on community as one. On the contrary, Pearson (1989) formed a non-consequential philosophy of PR ethics established on the notion of a prime example of interaction circumstances. He suggested set of laws of PR ethics. It is a proper requirement to create and sustain communication dealings with the entire publics influenced by governmental procedures. It is also an ethical obligation to enhance the characteristics of these transmission affairs that is, to cause them to be progressively more proportioned. The first of these policies broadly indicates that it is basic for an association to acquire corollaries on publics in consideration when it creates tactical decisions. The second asserts that associations enclose the ethical responsibility to communicate with the publics although the association cannot continuously provide accommodation to the public. Grunig (1996) recommended that Pearson’s two ethical rules can be interpreted into a moral premise of PR that assimilates both a teleological and a deontological view. In consequentiality, moral PR professionals look for what results possible directorial choices comprise on publics. Non-consequentiality on the other hand, concerns principled PR experts in that case control the ethical responsibility to reveal these results to publics that are affected and to take part in conversation with the publics regarding the probable choices. Cutlip and Broom (1994) created a deontological hypothesis of moral decisiveness in public relations centered on Kant’s idea of definite essential and wide-ranging conferences with PR experts in situation study of two exceedingly moral associations. Her model progresses in phases. Stage 1 raises whether people are taking action on the center of sense only and not for the reason of political pressure, financial control, or natural self-centeredness. Stage 2 employs the â€Å"Categorical Imperative† and poses queries like, â€Å"Would the association acknowledge a particular verdict if it were on the accepting edge? † Stage 3 invites the association to reflect on its responsibility, its purpose, and nobility and regard for the association, publics, and the social order. Stage 4 then appeals for balanced interaction in relation to the consequences of the creation of evaluation procedure. In application to the real life situation, the problem of PR is that diverse age groups perceive the dissimilar principles in different areas or aspects. The PR practitioner dilemma is to get hold of the collective standards to assist association to perform more efficiently. As an example, the setting can be of younger personnel and baby boomers. As said by Wilcox, et al. (2002), they retain diverse standards such as chain of command, legitimacy, fairness, direct demands, stability and safety, and future targets. The different generations such as â€Å"Gen X and Gen Y† are enthusiastic to view the accumulation of merit to the group. Professor Smith recommends appointing a counselor to mingle with recent staff to the principles of a business. Younger recruits favor part-time occupations and adaptable program or agenda. They are not generally fascinated in investing on monetary or capital industries. Nevertheless, those people who submit an application for these occupations may become accustomed to commerce habits faster than other Generation-X and Gen-Y jobseekers. The appropriate discussion may appear as follows. The course of adjustment is a complicated matter. In contending with staff affairs, it must be considered that people are constantly coping with distinctive age groups. Dissimilar generations entail diverse principles, as it can be viewed in the situation. The common ethics are a foundation of a group civilization. A corporate background is obtaining more significance in the recent period. Occasionally, commercial customs is subsidiary to a business’ task and purposes. However, business traditions frequently influence objectives and undertaking. This result turned out to be prevalent as modern economy appeared. Contemporary economy creates innovative regulations even in the largest companies. The function of PR practitioner these days is to regulate workers’ relationships to existing business customs that implies that individuals must be handled consistent with what kind of company customs exist in the association (Crifasi, 2000, p. 18); although fundamental standards are still vital. If people are managing workers, the main concerns do not vary. The human resources would like to be notified, valued well, must receive responses, and have certain independence. It is attractive to see, though, that baby boomers are apt to enjoy dictatorial rule in associations, whereas people belonging to GenX and Y are more open-minded (Hall, 2007). That goes along with the additional coursework for PR practitioner which is to hand over knowledge for those staff in several modes of communication. The recommendations would be that the interactions in the prevailing corporation relatively fulfill the abovementioned conditions. Business networks are adaptable for person wants. As indicated by Dube and Manchanda (2005), senior citizens may possibly come across information in relation to medication, indemnity and many more, whereas young workers might get hold of a few prospects for self-realization inside an industry, publications of forthcoming dealings and so on. An instance of website is www. bsu. edu which offers the opportunity to log in as present scholar or teaching staff (Nelson, 1989). It is renowned that lots of periodicals are available in several editions, in accordance with demographical traits of purchasers. The commercial bulletin can be available in assorted adaptations as well. A PR practitioner regularly stands in front of the trouble of dissimilar morals among workers. In this instance, a PR executive is supposed to work as HR administrator, acting upon the transmission of messages between distinctive groupings of staff (Carlton Perloff, 2005. It can be a kind of mingling, similar to classifying of serving unfamiliar persons to be acquainted to the business customs. It is occurring every now and then that firms are dealing with dilemma in managerial communications not between people but between departments, especially in companies with extended structure. PR practitioner handles this problem as well, organizing committees and work meetings with participation of people from different departments. Problems in organizational communications are discussed on those meetings. Lastly, one of the most difficult matters at business customs is the responsibility of CEO as mentioned by Center and Jackson (1995, p. 14). His or her discourses facilitate individuals to be aware of the business’ objectives more openly. It must not be taken for granted that company executives also handle foreign affairs. The regulation of the conferences with the upper administration is an exceedingly crucial PR work. As a conclusion, public relations must be viewed as an organizational operation in any institution or association. A successful exchange of ideas, or public relations arrangement for a management is advanced to correspond to addressees whether inner or outer publics in such an approach that the implication matches with the managerial objectives and seeks out to profit shared wellbeing at any time feasible. PR can be of assistance by conveying to the association what a range of publics consider to be conscientious deeds, and then impart to the publics what the association has made. References: Carlton, D. W. Perloff, J. M. (2005) Modern Industrial Organization. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman and Company. Center, A. H. Jackson, P. (1995) Public Relations Practices. 5th ed. , Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle, N. J. , p. 14. Crifasi, S. C. (2000) Everythings Coming Up Rosie. Public Relations Tactics, September, Vol. 7, Issue 9, Public Relations Society of America, New York, p. 18. Cutlip, S. M. , Center, A. H. Broom, G. M. (1994) Effective Public Relations, 7th Ed. , Prentice Hall, Inc. A Simon and Schuster Company, Englewood Cliffs, N. J. 07632. Dube, J. P. Manchanda, P. (2005) Differences in Dynamic Brand Competition Across Markets: An Empirical Analysis. Marketing Science. 24 (1), p. 81. Hall, P. (2007) The New PR. Mount Kisco, NY: Larstan Publishing. International Association of Business Communicators (IABC). Macnamara, J. (2005) Jim Macnamaras Public Relations Handbook. 5th ed. , Melbourne: Archipelago Press. Nelson, J. (1989) Sultans of Sleaze: Public Relations and the Media. Toronto: Between The Lines. Stauber, J. C. Rampton, S. (1995) Toxic Sludge is Good for You: Lies, Damn Lies, and the Public Relations Industry. Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press. Stoykov, L. Pacheva, V. (2005) Public Relations and Business Communication. Sofia: Ot Igla Do Konetz. Tymson, C. Lazar, P. (2006) Public Relations Manual. Sydney: Tymson Communications. Tye, L. (1998) The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays the Birth of Public Relations. New York: Crown Publishers, p. 13, 317. Wilcox, D. L. et al. (2002) Public Relations Strategies and Tactics, 7th ed. , Allyn Bacon, Boston, MA. Whiteley, R. C. (2000) The Customer Driven Company: Moving From Talk to Action. Pfeiffer Company, p. 34. The key ideas of the critical theory approach to public relations thinking can be applied to PR practice in the following sets of circumstances. Critical theory is societal hypothesis linked headed for assessing critically and transforming the social order in totality, contrary to conventional hypothesis linked barely to comprehending or elucidating it. Calhoun (1995) aimed to differentiate critical theory as an extremist, liberated type of Marxian assumption, evaluating both the standard of science present ed by rational positivism and what he and his contemporaries perceived as the hidden positivism and dictatorship of traditional Marxism and communalism. Fundamental ideas are the following. The first is that critical social theory must be intended for the whole public in its past certainty or on how it happened to be constituted at an exact instance. And the second is that it must develop awareness of the general public by incorporating each and every chief social science, consisting of â€Å"history, sociology, economics, political science, anthropology, and psychology† as stated by Te’eni (2006, p. 65). For the transcendental view, critical theory signifies setting and evaluating the boundaries of the authenticity of a mass of information, particularly in the course of taking into consideration the limits constituted by the basic concepts at hand in that particular information scheme. In the early periods, the idea associated with critical theory is with the breakdown of wrong and non-approvable, philosophies since the motive included in hypothesis was entwined with the development of principled sovereignty and the Enlightenment assessment of unreasonable power. Marx clearly expounded this idea into the analysis of philosophy and related it with the concept of societal transformation with the quotation that â€Å"theorists have merely construed the world in particular means; what must be done is to alter it† (Cutlip, 1994). This meaning of critical theory originated entirely within the social sciences, and there are works of critical social theory and critical social science which show no awareness of the literary/humanities version of critical theory. The subsequent denotation of it is that of hypothesis employed in well-educated review and in the study of writing. This structure of critical theory is not essentially familiarized for extremist societal transformation or even for the study of the public, but as an alternative focuses on the scrutiny of transcripts and text-like occurrence. This form of this hypothesis develops from the idea of literary analysis as setting up and improving the appropriate knowledge and assessment of public relations. This sense of this theory began exclusively in the humanities. To use an epistemological peculiarity, critical theory in public relations analysis is eventually a type of hermeneutics wherein the data by means of understanding the sense of individual wordings and figurative language whereas critical societal theory is a kind of self-reflective facts relating both discernment and hypothetical account to decrease setup in schemes of control or reliance, complying with the liberate attention in increasing the extent of self-sufficiency and sinking the scale of control (Stoykov Pacheva, 2005). From this perception, critical theory is directed on understanding and description rather than on communal revolution. This theory as applied in public relations generally does not essentially entail a normative aspect, while critical societal hypothesis does, either in the course of appraising the social order from various broad assumptions of principles or in analyzing it in terms of its individual advocated standards. Critical realization was realized as awareness that facilitated people to liberate themselves from types of rule through self-reflection and procured psychoanalysis as the example of it. From the PR part, PR practitioners responds particularly in opposition to the New Criticism of the earlier periods, which attempted to examine merely transcripts, started to feature into their scrutiny and explanations of publications originally linguistic and interpretive hypothesis, followed by structuralism. Accordingly, PR critique turned out to be very hypothetical and some of those putting it into practice embarked on indicating to the speculative aspect of their effort as analytical assumption. And so this theory in the social implication additionally developed into one of the many pressures upon the lines within critical assumption in the public relations significance. Moreover, together with the extension of the mass media and popular culture as well as the unification of societal and public relations critique, the approaches of both types of critical theory system, would be instituted in the similar explanatory composition. Both aspects were existent in the range of modes of hypothesis. In verbal communication, the two points at which there is the shared concept of the two account of critical theory are in their interconnected aspect on expression, representation, and in their focal point on creation. Critical theory is as well characterized as a system of exchange of ideas wherein expansive proficiency and open reasonableness conversely, indistinct interaction on the other, the two adaptations of this premise started to extend beyond to a much larger level than previously. Both adaptations of critical theory have directed on the procedures of creation by which the occurrence and matters of personal interaction, civilization, and political perception take place. Whether it is in the course of the changing systems by which the organization of verbal communication grows to be its apparent configuration, the general realistic ideologies in which common discernment is produced, the semiotic conventions by which things of every day use of implications, there is a general concern in the course of a figurative category that mounts to evident incidents. With this, there is a major shared control among features of the diverse adaptation of critical theory. In accordance with the Critical Approach to Organizational Communication theory, the persons concerned in the interaction course are engrossed in a setting where they form the set of laws in their association (Babos Peterson, nd. ). Deetz believes as a lot of lots of place of working environment have turned out to be very political, which in turn, depressingly influences the employees and the welfare of the associations. He as well thinks that the interaction processes all over the firms and institutions are defiling the agency setting. This critical theory has realistic usage in usual groupings like in associations and industries. This theory is morally reliable and if employed appropriately will generate constructive moods in these daily backdrops. This would have been unfeasible to visualize without its underpinning in critical theory. The implementation of critical theory supplies a way of regarding once more the idea of information managing in terms of the moral principles of human interaction and permits the inquiring of the vitality of logical decision making as the foundation of organization (Vary, 2002). From the basis of critical theory produced four systems of administrative rule and the consequences they entail on the individuals functioning under these schemes. When running under the critical theory, a cluster will achieve collaboration and this will create a better-off general result. Deetz (1982) views authority as an unconstructive influence that brings about conflict between workers and their manager. Supremacy is an exceedingly chaotic, contentious idea in the societal studies and remarkably in the organization context. Deetz is as well a supporter in interpretative study techniques. The fundamental goal of interpretative study is to create a rational explanation of daily proceedings which is credible to clerical associates (Koch Deetz, 1981, p. 14). For that reason, interpretative researchers consider that hypotheses are not made for circumstances, but are created because of personal reactions in all parts of a condition. As an alternative in creating and circulating innovative views to the communal area, interpretative researchers focus more in conditional features that are settled in the diverse characters of distinct individuals. As stated by Koch and Deetz (1981), interpretive study techniques do not adjoin original information to a growing basis of facts (p. 15). Rather, they position or relate foundations of information by explaining the indirect potentials innate in present circumstances and undertakings. A critical theory presents the explanatory and normative foundation for public question intended at lessening power and growing autonomy in all their structures. It denotes that know-how is power and with it appears control over people. If a person gets sufficient expertise or authority in a matter, he or she can be liberated to control the circumstances that he or she is in. Deetz (2003) states that â€Å"critical theories have been functional as they have acknowledged the character of the members in the argument as the main troubles (p. 606). † He became conscious that in any case, organizations have to formulate resolutions; however he sensed that the workers and other stakeholders are supposed to speak in what is happening as they may view in the organizations. If staffs are granted this authority, they would have some bearing on the firm and may eventually sense more fulfillments in their occupation. He does not believe that human resources must possess all the authority; they simply have to maintain equilibrium between the power of executives and personnel to facilitate growth of firms. Within the critical theory, Deetz (1982) illustrates some interaction processes in which firms can generate resolutions. There are four distinct processes in how businesses undergo decision-making and convey their decisions to their staff. The first technique is by means of stratagem which is under administrative jurisdiction. With this approach, power goes beyond personnel thoughts and they obtain their influence and exercise it to as much scope as workable even if it signifies generating a depressed environment among employees. When applying administrative power, the board esteems their degree of domination over workers and occasionally takes advantage of their liberties (p. 132). The second technique under administrative rule is consent. Consent is when a member of staff acts as they are informed devoid of any inquiring. An instance of this was with the Manhattan venture throughout World War II. Employees were assembling the grenades to be released in Japan although they had no notion of what they were really creating. Conceivably, if the workers of the industry are familiar with what they were making, they may have not preferred to work in that setting. By means of this approach in creating a business resolution, personnel will be discontented by reason of their lack of participation in the pronouncements presented. â€Å"The short term yearning for construction has headed it to becoming accustomed to the public transformation rather than being concerned in it on a mindful degree† (Varey, 2002, p. 229). Co-determination is considerably an enhanced means for a business to make pronouncements. By applying this, both the administrators and employees collaborate and fo

Friday, September 20, 2019

Major Depressive Disorder Assessment Strategies

Major Depressive Disorder Assessment Strategies Introduction The mental health problem that I have selected is Major Depressive Disorder. This can be recognized by low mood, low self-esteem and loss of pleasure in normal activities. This is known by many names such as clinical depression, unipolar depression and major depressive disorder. The symptoms interfere with all areas of a person’s life- personal, social and economic and are experienced most days and have been present for at least two weeks. Depression can be described as mild, moderate or severe; melancholic or psychotic. (BeyondBlue, 2014) Depression has a high lifetime prevalence one in seven Australians will experience depression in their lifetime. (ABS, 2009). Ranked 13.3%, depression has the third highest burden of all diseases in Australia (AIHW, 2007). Assessment Framework The purpose of a conducting a clinical assessment is to gather information enabling the clinician to determine what is likely to be causing impairment in the individual’s functioning. I would develop a hypothesis and proceed to rule in/ rule out associated disorders while progressing through the process. Each individual case would require consideration for options regarding, interview, symptoms checklists and behavioral assessments. (Goldfinger Pomerantz, 2010) The structured process of assessment would include File Review Collateral Information I would check the GP referral and conduct a file review, appraising historical information and copies of reports and notes from previous interviews. (Week2, Weekly Notes). I would also gather collateral information from significant others to assist in the overall assessment of the individual Clinical Assessment To determine what symptoms the individual is presenting I would conduct a face-to-face initial interview. I would establish parameters of assessment (e.g. informed consent and confidentiality) and build rapport with the individual through the acceptance, understanding and respect. (Phares Trull, 1997). This would enable the individual to feel comfortable and gain trust in the process. Groth-Marnat (2003) discuss the benefit of the face-to-face interview as enabling the clinician to make behavioural observations and note the idiosyncrasies and reaction to their current challenges and difficulties including the risk of harm to self and others. I would take note of the history of the presenting difficulties and note the onset of symptoms. I would also conduct a psychosocial evaluation. (Wright, 2011). Psychological Testing: Selection, administration and interpretation A psychological test uses standardised materials, administration instructions, time limits and scoring procedures for all test takers.(Cohen et al, 1996). This step in the process would assess the individual’s appearance, behaviour, speech, mood, thought processes, attention, memory and level of consciousness through the use of the Mental Status Examination (Daniel Crider, 2003). I would also assess the presence of symptoms consistent with diagnostic criteria for depression. As outlined in Wright (2011), to support the hypothesis of depression I would use self-report, symptom focused measure such as Structured Clinical Interview for DSM Disorders (SCID) or Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) during the interview phase. In selecting the diagnostic tools I would review validated assessment tools in line with major international classification for depressive conditions such as DSM-IV-TR Criteria for Major Depressive Episode and Major Depressive Disorder (APA, 2000). I could use the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2) to help develop treatment plans and differential diagnosis (Butcher et al, 1989). A trained professional with the expertise in depressive disorders should administer, score and interpret the information. The analysis of test scores would be transformed into a standardized metric and compared to various sets of norms. Psychological tests are only one element of the assessment and should never be used alone as the sole basis for a diagnosis. A detailed history of the individual and a review of psychological, medical, educational, or other relevant records are required to lay the groundwork for interpreting the results of any psychological measurement. (FAQS, 2014) Psychological Assessment Report Feedback In the writing of the report I would first determine who the audience would be- i.e. referring GP, case manager or individual and include background information that had been gathered during the semi-structured interview. The outline of each test conducted and the results of the symptom and behavioral checklists, along the results from structured interview and behavioral assessment would be included in the report. (Goldfinger Pomerantz, 2010) Modification of approach for different individual populations Cultural and language differences in the individual may affect test performance and may result in inaccurate test results. There is also the potential for the standardized testing to exhibitâ€Å"cultural bias† (Goldstein Hersen, 2000). I would need to be aware before psychological testing begins if the individual is not fluent in English and/or belongs to a minority culture. I would need to consider the inclusion of an interpreter or cultural support person during the assessment. (ACAP, 2013) Different tests would also need to be considered that were age specific i.e. Child, Adolescent or Elderly. Conclusion Overall, the psychological assessment holds avitalrole in counseling and clinical practice. Without the useof psychological testing, the treatment of thepatientwould not be as effective and fewer people wouldreceivethe necessaryhelpthey need to live a healthy life. References American Psychiatric Association (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. (4th Text Revision ed.) Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association. Australian Bureau of Statistics (2009). National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing: Summary of Results, 4326.0, 2007. ABS: Canberra. Australian College of Applied Psychology (2013) Facilitate the Counselling Process Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2007). The Burden of Disease and Injury in Australia. AIHW: Canberra. Beyond Blue (2014) Sign and Symptoms. Retrieved 20/08/14 from Beyond Blue website: http://www.beyondblue.org.au/the-facts/depression/signs-and-symptoms Butcher, J. N., Dahlstrom, W. G., Graham, J. R., Tellegen, A, Kaemmer, B. (1989).The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2): Manual for administration and scoring. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Cohen, R.J., Swerdlik, M.E., Phillips, S.M. (1996) Psychological testing and assessment: An introduction to tests and measurement (3rd ed.). Mountain View, CA, US: Mayfield Publishing Co. (1996). xxviii 798 pp. Daniel, M. S., Crider, C. J. (2003). Mental Status Examination.Diagnostic interviewing (3rd ed.). FAQS (2014) Psychological tests Retrieved 20th August 2014 from FAQS.org website http://www.faqs.org/health/topics/56/Psychological-tests.html#ixzz3AvfH5RMR Goldfinger, K., Pomerantz, A. M. (2010).Psychological assessment and report writing. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE. Goldstein, G. Hersen, M. (Eds.). (2000).Handbook of Psychological Assessment (3rd ed.). New York: Pergamon Groth-Marnat, G. (2003).Handbook of psychological assessment(4th ed.). Chapter 3, Laureate Online Education (2011) Week 2, Weekly notes: Assessments in mental health https://elearning.uol.ohecampus.com/bbcswebdav/institution/UKL1/MAP/201480_AUGUST/APPTRE/readings/APPTRE_Week02_weeklyNotes.html Phares, E.J. Trull, T.J (1997) Clinical psychology: concepts, methods, and profession Wright, A. J. (2011).Conducting psychological assessment: A guide for practitioners. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley Sons.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Loyalties in Kurt Vonnegut’s Mother Night Essay -- Mother Night

Kurt Vonnegut’s Mother Night is a novel that deals with the loyalties that humans form to each other, as well as things and places. However, Vonnegut does not address this issue by creating a cast of characters who are loyal and true to a particular person, place or thing; instead, he places the reader in a world that is seemingly void of all sense of loyalty and trustworthiness. Almost every character in this novel is apparently devoid of all ability to trust, and more significantly, be trusted. In his creation of this dark and uncertain world, Vonnegut is effectively emphasizing the importance of allegiances in one’s life. Through characters like Howard W. Campbell, Jr. and Resi Noth, among others, he proves that a life without loyalty and devotion is not a life worth living. Each character is lacking the same core qualities and abilities, yet each shows this deficiency in a different way - by betraying a country, another person, or themselves. Because of their betrayals, each of them ends up miserable, in prison, or dead, with the possible exception of Frank Wirtanen. Every life in this novel is somehow affected by the deceit and inability to sustain any kind of commitment that these characters so tragically display. Howard W. Campbell, Jr., the main character of the novel, experiences the most severe and damaging lack of loyalty and coherency in his life. Howard’s problems begin when he agrees to become an American spy posing as a Minister of Propaganda for the Nazis during World War II. No one knows of his true identity except for himself and three other men; therefore, everyone believes Howard to be a Nazi. At times, it seems as though Howard himself is not entirely sure whether or not he is a Naz... ...: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition. Salem Press, 2000. Magill On Literature. 29 Nov. 2002. Hume, Kathryn. â€Å"Vonnegut’s Melancholy.† Philological Quarterly. 77.2 (1998): 221- 238. Klinkowitz, Jerome. Kurt Vonnegut. London and New York: Metheun, 1982. Reed, Peter J. â€Å"Kurt Vonnegut Jr.† Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 152: American Novelists Since World War II, Fourth Series. Bruccoli Clark Layman, 1995. 248-272. Dictionary of Literary Biography. Gale Group Databases. 27 Nov. 2002. Somer, John, and Jerome Klinkowitz, eds. The Vonnegut Statement. USA: Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence, 1973. Vonnegut, Kurt. Mother Night. New York: Random House, 1966. Westbrook, Perry D. "Kurt Vonnegut Jr.: Overview.† Contemporary Novelists, 6th ed. St. James Press, 1996. Literature Resource Center. Gale Group Databases. 26 Nov. 2002. Loyalties in Kurt Vonnegut’s Mother Night Essay -- Mother Night Kurt Vonnegut’s Mother Night is a novel that deals with the loyalties that humans form to each other, as well as things and places. However, Vonnegut does not address this issue by creating a cast of characters who are loyal and true to a particular person, place or thing; instead, he places the reader in a world that is seemingly void of all sense of loyalty and trustworthiness. Almost every character in this novel is apparently devoid of all ability to trust, and more significantly, be trusted. In his creation of this dark and uncertain world, Vonnegut is effectively emphasizing the importance of allegiances in one’s life. Through characters like Howard W. Campbell, Jr. and Resi Noth, among others, he proves that a life without loyalty and devotion is not a life worth living. Each character is lacking the same core qualities and abilities, yet each shows this deficiency in a different way - by betraying a country, another person, or themselves. Because of their betrayals, each of them ends up miserable, in prison, or dead, with the possible exception of Frank Wirtanen. Every life in this novel is somehow affected by the deceit and inability to sustain any kind of commitment that these characters so tragically display. Howard W. Campbell, Jr., the main character of the novel, experiences the most severe and damaging lack of loyalty and coherency in his life. Howard’s problems begin when he agrees to become an American spy posing as a Minister of Propaganda for the Nazis during World War II. No one knows of his true identity except for himself and three other men; therefore, everyone believes Howard to be a Nazi. At times, it seems as though Howard himself is not entirely sure whether or not he is a Naz... ...: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition. Salem Press, 2000. Magill On Literature. 29 Nov. 2002. Hume, Kathryn. â€Å"Vonnegut’s Melancholy.† Philological Quarterly. 77.2 (1998): 221- 238. Klinkowitz, Jerome. Kurt Vonnegut. London and New York: Metheun, 1982. Reed, Peter J. â€Å"Kurt Vonnegut Jr.† Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 152: American Novelists Since World War II, Fourth Series. Bruccoli Clark Layman, 1995. 248-272. Dictionary of Literary Biography. Gale Group Databases. 27 Nov. 2002. Somer, John, and Jerome Klinkowitz, eds. The Vonnegut Statement. USA: Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence, 1973. Vonnegut, Kurt. Mother Night. New York: Random House, 1966. Westbrook, Perry D. "Kurt Vonnegut Jr.: Overview.† Contemporary Novelists, 6th ed. St. James Press, 1996. Literature Resource Center. Gale Group Databases. 26 Nov. 2002.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Mary Shelley and Parallels :: Free Essay Writer

Mary Shelley and Parallels Novels, are they parallels of the authors lives’? The story of Frankenstein is the first articulation of a woman’s experience of pregnancy and related fears. Mary Shelly, in the development and education of the monster, discusses child development and education and how nurturing of a loving parent is extremely important in the moral development of an individual. Thus, in Frankenstein, Mary Shelley examines her own fears and thoughts about pregnancy, childbirth, and child development; hence a link between her and the novel is created. Pregnancy, childbirth, as well as death, played an integral role in the young adult life of Mary Shelley. She mothered four children a miscarriage that almost lead to her death, all before the age of twenty-five. Only one of her children, Percy Florence, survived to adulthood and outlived her. In June of 1816, when she had the waking nightmare, which became the catalyst of the tale, she was only nineteen and had already had her first two children. Her first child, Clara, was born prematurely February 22, 1815 and died March 6. Mary, as any woman would be, was devastated by this and took a long time to recover. The following is a letter that was written by Mary to her friend Hogg the day that the baby died. 6 March 1815 My dearest Hogg my baby is dead – will you come to see me as soon as you can – I wish to see you – It was perfectly well when I went to bed – I awoke in the night to give it suck it appeared to be sleeping so quietly that I would not wake it – it was dead then but we did out find out till morning – from its appearance it evidently died from convulsions – Will you come – you are so calm a creature and Shelley is afraid of a fever from the milk – for I am no longer a mother now Mary What is informative and devastating about this letter is that Mary turned to Hogg because Percy was so unsupportive. Actually Percy didn’t really seem to care that the child was dead and even went out with Claire, leaving Mary alone to suffer in her grief. William, Mary’s second child, was born January 24, 1816. (William died of malaria June7, 1819.) Subsequently, at the time that Mary conceived of the story, her first child had died and her second was only 6 months old.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Promoting Electric Vehicles in Hong Kong

Advantages of using EV (Electric Vehicles) in Hong Kong Improved air quality Electric vehicles have zero emissions at the tailpipe. The wider use of EVs can greatly improve roadside air quality and reduce exhaust emission. Better suited to the urban environment: saving up to 1800-1900 gear changes a day helps reduce driver fatigue, while reduced noise pollution is a benefit to services delivered in residential areas Reduced noise Noise from traffic and transport is a major or fairly major problem. At high speeds, most noise is down to wind and tyres so there is little difference between ICE and electric vehicles. However, electric vehicles are almost silent whilst idling. Incentives Government would extend the waiver of the first registration tax on electric vehicles for five years from April 1, 2009 to March 31, 2014. Low running costs EVs also have higher fuel efficiency than conventional petrol/diesel vehicles. It costs about HK$2. 20 for a normal petrol seven-seater to run for about one kilometre and HK$1 for better ones. However, it apparently only costs about 10 Hong Kong cents for EV. To fully charge up EV, all it takes is about HK$10. That is enough for it to run about 100 kilometres. It is probably cheaper than riding on a bus. Cost savings not only in fuel (up to 10 times cheaper), but also in maintenance (less wear and tear, fewer services). There are also potential significant cost savings in the long-term. Travel distance of EV without recharging the battery In general, electric vehicles today can travel over 100km with a fully charged battery. The distance of 100km can suit most of the drivers in Hong Kong daily.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Kudler Fine Food †Marketing Essay

With the marketing focus review, this paper will discuss the potential technology solutions for customer contests, loyalty points programs, purchase tracking, benchmarking of internal versus external service processes, and the management of inventory and related costs. Also concepts such as consumer databases and customer relationship management systems (CRM) will be elaborated upon. A potential technology solution to support customer contests can be achieved through a simple manner of employing an online survey that can be held daily. A winner would be selected each day. The winner would enjoy the prize of being in the presence of Kathy Kudler in being taught how to prepare specialty foods in a cooking class. Another suggestion for a prize would be to provide tickets to special and private events that are held by Kudler Fine Foods. On the technology end of this solution, the customer would fill out the online survey and the information would be stored in a database. At the end of the month, a winner would be randomly selected from the database for the contest. The cost of the implementing and maintaining a program and the database would be affordable for Kudler Fine Foods. Essentially, the time and cost would be made up by the targeted customer’s desire to enter said contests to fully enjoy the Kudler Fine Foods executive experience. Also another option for a prize is to have cooking classes that are presented by cooking professionals, celebrities, or food experts rather than just the owner, Kathy Kudler. The Loyalty Points Program, also known as â€Å"frequent shopper program†, is a program that would allow the customer to accumulate points that can be used within the Kudler Fine Foods stores. With this program, customers shopping and purchasing habits can also be tracked. With the points that have been accumulated by the customer, the points can be exchanged for high-end items within the stores. By employing this program, Kudler Fine Foods will be more familiar with their customers as well as their spending habits. In addition to, this program will allow Kudler Fine Foods to keep track of each and every customer on the frequency of their visits to the stores and keep having them come back to accumulate more points. On the technology side of this programs, a data management system would be need to be constructed and maintained in order to keep track of the multitude of customers and their accumulation of â€Å"loyalty† points. This data management system would service all of the Kudler Fine Foods stores in ensuring that the all of the data is integrated for new customers, customer information is updated, and that duplicates are prevented. To allow customers to redeem their accumulated â€Å"loyalty† points, web servers would need to be set up to assist with the vast amount of data. Also, redundancy of the said servers would need to be implemented in case there is a hardware or software failure. The most important piece of the â€Å"loyalty† program is the card itself. It is a card that the customer would carry and has a unique identifier dedicated to that customer. With these cards, the customer can view online their accumulated points and purchases at Kudler Fine Foods. Kudler Fine Foods utilizes purchase tracking to follow profit, profit margin, and transactions that have taken place over a period of time. With the large amounts of data, Kudler Fine Foods will need an effective, efficient, and accurate means of capturing and storing this information. In stating that, the main server will need to be located at the main store so as to be a focal point for all communications that happen between all stores. Benchmarking can be described as the most effective method in relation to both products and processes. Other successful business entities that are similar to Kudler Fine Foods can be viewed as a model such as Wal-mart. Being able to view Wal-mart as a model for the processes, Kudler Fine Foods is able to meet benchmarking, if not higher, and continuously improve on it products and processes. On the technology side of benchmarking, online web based training courses can be created to teach and inform employees on the new products and services. An important part of Kudler Fine Foods is inventory management since Kudler Fine Foods is a store that sells a large amount of fine foods. Not knowing what is in stock can lead to an overstock or a shortage of merchandise. Having an overstock simply spells wasted money that could have been spent elsewhere. Having a shortage of product would lead to dissatisfied customers. On the technology side of inventory management, IT is a huge factor in tracking, recording, and warning about inventory. A main server would be connected to the point-of-sales machines and continuously keep track of all of the inventory from each and every store. The inventory management system would always be updated from when a new inventory is placed into stock and when an item is taken out of inventory. In conclusion, Kudler Fine Foods currently has a strong foothold in its marketing abilities. Employing the suggested potential technology solutions would not only promote efficient and effective processes but would also allow for room potential growth and increased revenue. With this vision in mind, this mission statement of Kudler Fine Foods will be met successfully as well as all of the standards that Kathy Kudler is counting on. References https://ecampus. phoenix. edu/secure/aapd/cist/vop/Business/Kudler2/internet/index. asp

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Website report

However, the sample code provided In the lecture notes is in C. Therefore, this mall task is divided into the following sub-tasks: Port the SSP code to Java Implement missing timer related classes and functions The following sections will cover these three sub-tasks. Porting the code Minor changes were made in order to change the syntax of the code to Java. As see_nor was not specified in the given files, it was replaced with into type. In the original code, to declare a frame named s, it used the following syntax:However, to create a frame object in Java, the code was modified accordingly. The same change was made to the following code: The resulting code was shown below. The out_buff and event were not declared here because they were pre-set in the given code. In order to make the piece of code below work, credits were added as parameter. As a result, it was changed to NOR_BUFFS was the maximum buffer size (window size) that could be held to avoid redundant retransmission. Therefor e, It was put In as credit to Initialize the network layer with the same number of buffers. Implementation of classes and functionsTwo timer related classes were Implemented for different timer purposes. D Peacetimes Peacetimes was to monitor and time how long had passed since a packet was transmitted. Cacciatore Cacciatore was to monitor the expiration of an acknowledgement timer. Both of them extended from the Timer Task class and overrode the run method to generate cacciatore_event. On the other hand, five functions were implemented to complete the protocol. Private void start_timer(into see) The start_timer started a timer function for each packet transmitted. If a packet timer already existed, it was cancelled.When the timer of a packet had expired (time_out), that packet would be required to resend. Private void stop_timer(see) The stop_timer was to cancel the timer of a packet when it was called. Private void start_jack_timer() The start_jack_timer was to set a timer for an a cknowledgement. This was to ensure that the sender could receive an acknowledgement within a reasonable time constraint. Originally, an acknowledgement should take advantage of piggybacking to travel to the sender. However, when there was no outgoing packet back to the sender, retransmission might take place. This caused redundant retransmission.Therefore, his timer was created. If it timed out, a separate acknowledgement would be sent to the sender to indicate the packet was received successfully. If there was already an acknowledgement timer, the current timer would be cancelled. Private void stop_jack_timer() The stop_jack_timer was to stop the acknowledgement timer if there already existed one. However, in order to get the timers work, two files were imported. Inc(mum) This Inc function simply incremented the input parameter's value by 1 . As there implemented as (mum + 1) % (MAX_SEE + 1). This would ensure that the number would increment in a circular manner.

Saturday, September 14, 2019

Chinese Nationalist Party Essay

On 1 October 1949, Mao Zedong, leader of the Chinese Communist Party declared victory over the Nationalist Party (Guomindang) and brought an end to four brutally long years of Civil War. The Communist victory in the Civil War has however, created significant debate among historians, namely: was a Communist victory inevitable and if so is it more sensible to see the Chinese Civil War as a Communist victory or as a Nationalist defeat?When researching these questions it becomes blatantly obvious that the Guomindang government led by Chiang Kai-Shek was riddled with problems and they are very much the cause of their own downfall. Widespread government corruption, spiraling inflation, loss of public confidence and intractable poverty are just a few of the failings the Guomindang afflicted upon the Chinese people. These monumental failings make a Communist victory seem almost inevitable, in that they just happened to be there to assume power as the Nationalists lost support and drowned in their own mistakes. In this sense it is more sensible to view the Civil War as a Nationalist defeat, rather than a Communist victory. On the other hand, the Communists were able to turn dismal rural poverty and the Japanese invasion into assets, using them to convince villagers that radical change was imperative and that the Communist Party was best qualified to bring about this change. Seen in this light, superior strategy and organisational methods allowed the Communists to achieve victory and not just â€Å"move into a vacuum† as suggested by Barnett (Barnett, 1965: 1). There is certainly an element of inevitability with regard to the Communist victory, however, in this essay I will argue that not only was the outcome of the Chinese Civil War not preordained, but I will also critically evaluate the reasons the Guomindang lost the Civil War and explain that given their policy mistakes, the Civil War should be seen as a Nationalist defeat rather than a Communist victory. If the Nationalists had been willing to adapt and had they initiated some changes in their strategies, the Communist Party, no matter what its internal organisation or external strategies, would not have been able to bring revolution to China. This theory is not supported by Kubek, who argues that the cause of the  Nationalist defeat was due to a lack of aid from the United States, declaring â€Å"sovietisation of China and Manchuria could be the only logical outcome of post-war United States policy in China† (Kubek, 1965: 62). This view point is unduly simplistic and overvalues America’s role in China, an opinion supported by Chang, who believes the Guomindang government’s â€Å"failure was due not so much to lack of American support, but to its inherent defects† (Chang, 1965: 40). Before analysing these inherent defects and the reasons that the Nationalist Party lost the Civil War, it is important to understand the fundamentals of the situation in China at the end of World War Two; specifically the consequences of the eight year war with Japan that totally exhausted the Guomindang militarily, economically and spiritually. Hsu argues that the war with Japan is the â€Å"single most important cause for the downfall of the Nationalists† and â€Å"had there been no Japanese war, the situation in China would have been very different† (Hsu, 1990: 734). Many of the Guomindang’s problems such as factionalism, corruption and leadership were prevalent prior to the Sino-Japanese War; however it was during the last phases of the Sino-Japanese War that these problems reached crisis proportions and in hindsight it seems impossible that the Guomindang could have overcome these problems to defeat the Communists (Service, 1965: 29). Chang also believes that the Guomindang faced insurmountable problems prior to the Civil War, stating that â€Å"the government of Chiang Kai-Shek was built on quicksand and clay. How can it stand? Is it any wonder that it fell like a house of cards when it had to face the Communist crisis?† (Chang, C. 1965: 41). Westad, (2003: 7) however argues that â€Å"in spite of the Guomindang’s weaknesses, the outcome of the post-war conflict with the Communists was no way predetermined in 1945†. At the end of the Sino-Japanese War the Guomindang held significant advantages over the Communists, with its widely recognised legitimate government controlling China, giving it the power to tax and conscript. On the other hand, the Communists could not match the Guomindang’s troops in terms of training and equipment and could be  Ã¢â‚¬Å"outgunned and outmanoeuvred in all major regions of the country† (Westad, 2003: 8). Furthermore, the Communist party was hardly represented in the cities at all, which of course was the power base of the Guomindang. However, the Communists also had successes resulting from the war with Japan including increasing their area of control and practiced evolving their strategies of protracted guerrilla warfare against the Japanese which in turn generated public support. Despite this the party’s main forces were still located in North-west China and they were not in such a powerful position that a civil war with the Guomindang would be a mere formality in securing control of the country. The Civil War is therefore simply not a case of the imminent decline of the Guomindang and the Communists’ irresistible rise. Rather the Sino-Japanese War provided the framework for the decisions and strategies that would ultimately lead to Nationalist defeat. The war with Japan left the Guomindang decimated and they did need to undergo reform in order to survive; however the factionalism and corruption within the Guomindang resulted in increasingly repressive controls being implemented upon the war weary Chinese people. At a time when new strategies were needed, the government instead continued its repressive controls and when war again broke out, the government lost even more support and collapsed with cataclysmic speed. This was due in no small part to the leadership of the Guomindang, whose perpetuation of their own power dominated over all other considerations (Service, 1965: 28). The arrogance and mismanagement of the Guomindang alienated the Chinese people and caused a loss of public confidence and respect. This loss of respect not only resulted in the Nationalists losing influence in their own power bases, but made it easier for the Communists to exploit this public disharmony and encourage the Chinese people to think that a change in administration would bring about a change in their fortunes. An example of the Guomindang’s poor leadership strategies can be seen in their occupation of former Japanese colonies (Service, 1965: 29). The Chinese citizens within these Japanese occupied territories had waited eight  years for the return of Nationalist rule, but instead of being treated as victims of war, they were exploited. The Guomindang leaders did not return their land but acquired it as their own property; moreover, they virtually eliminated the monetary assets of these people. This was caused by the currency in the occupied territories going through extreme inflation as the government only offered the exorbitant exchange rate of two hundred to one; when a more reasonable rate would have been half that much (Phillips, 1996: 158). Furthermore, the puppet leaders that had been installed by the Japanese often kept their positions or became members of the Guomindang. Poor policy decisions such as this would lead to the downfall of the Guomindang, as it is impossible to fight an effective war without the support of the people and the economic policies of the government alienated millions of suffering people. The Guomindang’s economic problems were not limited to the territories formerly occupied by the Japanese. All over China inflation was an exceptionally large problem, for as the increases seen during the Japanese War were allowed to spiral out of control during the Civil War. Service, (1965: 29) argues that this is a direct result of corruption within the Guomindang, and that they refused to take any effective steps to check inflation or implement agricultural reforms for fear of losing the support of the landlord class in China. In view of this, the Guomindang developed urban industry at the expense of agricultural and financed this by simply printing more bank notes. Their economic mismanagement was disastrous for the majority of the Chinese people and meant that by 1948 government expenditure had become thirty times larger when compared to its pre-war level; the budget deficit had also blown out to thirty times it pre-war level and inflation was increasing at the rate of thirty per cent a month (Chang, K. 1965: 23). The Nationalist government faced imminent financial doom and the Chinese people were becoming aware of the selfish nature of their government whose economic policies and financial mismanagement destroyed the livelihood of hundreds of millions of Chinese. The failings of the Guomindang would provide the Communist party with ample opportunities to exploit the discontent of the Chinese people. This was one of the reasons for the Communist victory in that they were able to gain the support of people from the rural areas who the Guomindang had alienated. An example of this can be seen in the rural land reforms implemented in newly gained territories. In these areas the Communists promoted production and ensured supplies by creating a self-sufficient economy. To rouse the productive enthusiasm of the peasants, they launched a campaign to reduce rent and interest. Peasant associations and other organisations were urged to demand and enforce a 25 percent rent reduction, with a rent ceiling set at 37.5 percent of the crops. The interest rate on loans was limited to 1.5 percent a month, or 18 percent a year, much lower that the excessive rate formerly charged by the landlords (Westad, 2003: 11 and Fielding, 1999: 134). They were able to achieve these reforms without confiscating large amounts of land, as considerable redistribution of land to the peasants was accomplished by impo sing graduated taxes in such a way that larger landholders voluntarily sold land because it was no longer profitable. It is arguable that the Communists had no intention of eliminating the economic power of the landlords, but instead they showed the peasants that they could exercise their power locally and play an active role in the war against a government that some had come to despise. The Communists gave the peasants what they wanted: an army of friendly troops who not only did not steal their crops but helped them bring in the harvest and who implemented popular but gradual economic reforms (Ebrey, 1996: 289). This is in stark contrast to the Guomindang who did not understand the peasants and showed no interest in aiding them. They failed to see the revolutionary potential of the peasant masses and unlike the Communist Party never attempted to organise them. This situation was best summarised by Hsu: â€Å"the stone that one builder had rejected became the cornerstone of the other’s house† (Hsu, 1990: 738). However, many of the most important cause of the Nationalist defeat during the Civil War were military ones. Despite emerging from the Japanese War better equipped and trained, the Nationalist Army was a tired force (Hsu, 1990: 734). This war-weariness was felt throughout China and there was  widespread recognition that full scale civil war would be a tragedy for the country. It is therefore, not surprising that the Guomindang’s persistence in military aggression towards the Communists, who were Chinese after all, failed to arouse the same patriotic loyalty as when the enemies were Japanese (Stuart, 1965: 19). Given this situation the Nationalist Army needed good leadership and to gain the support of the people; they were unsuccessful on both counts. This was largely due to the leadership system created by Chiang Kai-Shek that was â€Å"a congerie of conservative political cliques† concerned primarily with maintaining their own power (Service, 1965: 30). Furthermore, the highest military posts were reserved for those who like Chiang Kai-Shek had graduated from the Whampoa military academy and this often meant that more talented officers were turned away. General Barr of the United States said of the Guomindang leadership in 1949 that, â€Å"their military debacles in my opinion can all be attributed to the world’s worst leadership and many other morale destroying factors that lead to a complete loss of will to fight† (Barr, 1949: x quoted in Bianco, 1971: 180). In fact, many battles were lost by the Nationalists without a fight, as hundreds of thousands of troops simply defected or surrendered to the Communists (Barnett, 1965: 5). An example of this may be seen during the Huai-Huai Campaign, where poor military leadership caused the Nationalist troops to become surrounded and resulted in an irreparable loss of manpower without a fight (Phillips, 1996: 158). Rather than undertaking offensives to seek out and destroy the main mobile guerrilla units of the Communists, they holed up for the most part in isolated, vulnerable, defensive positions allowing the Communists to concentrate their forces and attack and overwhelm Nationalists’ positions one by one (Barnett, 1965: 5). This strategy played into the hands of the Communists whose primary goal was to reduce the numbers of the Nationalist army. They were not concerned with holding specific geographic areas and this allowed them to be a lot more flexible in their attacks. Moreover, the Communist troops were ordered to avoid large battles and to engage the enemy only when there was a high probability of victory. Mao Zedong argued that the only way guerrilla warfare could succeed  is if the army had the support of the people, and the Communists certainly had this (Mao Zedong, 1940: x cited in Bianco, 1971: 184). The Communists successfully achieved this through the use of propaganda. They portrayed themselves as defenders of the nation and the Guomindang as enemies of all levels of society, from peasant to scholar (Chang, C. 1965: 40). Chiang Kai-shek himself admitted that the Nationalists failure in propaganda â€Å"was a major defect in our struggle against Communism† (Kai-shek, 1965: 77). Despite this, the Nationalist army had many opportunities to seriously weaken the Communists. However, their leadership too often committed crucial tactical mistakes, which were the result of lack of communication and disputes within the party caused by the factionalism that riddled the Guomindang leadership (Westad, 2003: 11). Clique politics and factionalism would eventually lead to the situation where unified action to either solve the problems in Nationalist held territory or to fight against the Communists became virtually impossible (Barnett, 1965: 6). This is in stark contrast to the leadership of the Communist armies, whose generals were not concerned with personal gain, but instead co-operated with each other and gained the support of the Chinese people and worked towards a united goal (Westad, 2003: 9). These superior military tactics and aforementioned economic reforms brought the Communists wide spread support and ultimately victory. However, this victory would never have been achievable were it not for the military, economic and social failings of the Guomindang. Chiang Kai-Shek himself admitted major defects in organisation and technique in the Nationalists’ war against Communism, however he argued that these defects were remediable, â€Å"so long as our strategy and policy were correct, I believe we still could have won† (Kai-Shek, 1965: 82). It is in this light that the Chinese Civil War should be viewed not as a Communist victory, but as a Nationalist defeat. There is no doubt that the war against Japan was a crushing blow to the Nationalists economic and military power, however it was not fatal. The  Nationalist government could have continued to consolidate its power and authority by the sheer weight of its military strength and financial resources (Tsou, 1965: 28). Even though the Nationalist government was far from popular, it was the most powerful military and economic force in China and could have survived if it had been willing to regain the support of the people. Defeat to the Communists was therefore, far from inevitable, and the Nationalists were very much the engineers of their own demise. BIBLIOGRAPHY Barnett, A. (1965), ‘Multiple factors’, in Pichon Loh (ed.) ‘The Kuomintang Debacle of 1949: Conquest or Collapse?’ D.C. Heath & Company, BostonBianco, Lucien. (1971), ‘Origins of the Chinese Revolution, 1915-1949’ Stanford University Press, StanfordChang, Carsun. (1965), ‘Chiang Kai-shek and Kuomintang dictatorship’, in PichonLoh (ed.) ‘The Kuomintang Debacle of 1949: Conquest or Collapse?’ D.C. Heath& Company, BostonChang, Kia-Ngua. (1965) ‘War and Inflation’ in Pichon Loh (ed.) ‘The Kuomintang Debacle of 1949: Conquest or Collapse?’ D.C. Heath & Company, BostonEbrey, Patricia. (1996), Cambridge Illustrated History: China, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, EnglandFielding, Mark & Morcombe, Margot. (1999), ‘The Spirit of Change – China in Revolution’ McGraw Hill Book Company, Roseville, NSWHsu, Immanuel C.Y. (1990), ‘The Rise of Modern China’ Oxford Univer sity Press, New YorkKai-shek, Chiang 1965, ‘Communist designs and Kuomintang blunders’, inPichon Loh (ed.) The Kuomintang Debacle of 1949: Conquest or Collapse?, D.C. Heath & Company, BostonKubek, Anthony 1965, ‘Communist subversion and American appeasement’, inPichon Loh (ed.) The Kuomintang Debacle of 1949: Conquest or Collapse?, D.C. Heath & Company, BostonPhillips, Richard. (1996) ‘China since 1911’ St Martin’s Press, New York. Service, John S. 1965, ‘The enthronement of reaction’, in Pichon Loh (ed.)The Kuomintang Debacle of 1949: Conquest or Collapse?, D.C. Heath & Company,BostonStuart, John L. (1965), ‘Popular Discontent and Creeping Paralysis’, in Pichon Loh (ed.)The Kuomintang Debacle of 1949: Conquest or Collapse?, D.C. Heath & Company,BostonTsou, Tang 1965, ‘Contradictions between program and practise’, in PichonLoh (ed.) The Kuomintang Debacle of 1949: Conquest or Collapse?, D.C. Heath& Company, BostonWestad, Odd Arne 2003, Decisive Encounters: the Chinese Civil War 1946 -1950, Stanford University Press, California