Reaction paper Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Reaction paper - Assignment Example It was very important to her, this act of maturity, so much so that when, after visiting her semi-comatose mother at the hospital, she went out for lunch with a cousin and remembered that she had left them at her mother’s bedside, she made her cousin turn the car back and rushed in to retrieve them. Conversation in June About Mothers by Hwang Sun-Won is just that: a group of people gathered together in June and talking about mothers. A man related how his son, who had always been a daddy’s boy, ran back to his mother when she called out to him, rather than flee to South Korea with him. He claims that mothers are absolute beings for their children. A man disagrees, relating how his mother eloped with a lover when he was very small, never to return, and how much he hated her. He recounts that when he was wounded in a war, and was about to die, his mother’s apparition came to him, but he rejected her – his hatred being that strong. However, the group states that in effect it was his mother’s apparition that had saved his life. Another man tells the story of a woman who was escaping to South Korea in a boat with a group of people; for fear of being caught by the North Korean shore guard, she threw her crying infant into the river. The narrator feels a de ep hatred for the woman, however, before the hatred becomes permanent, the man relating the story tells the group that the woman was lactating and when her breasts became swollen, she cut off her nipples herself with

Does a nurse with a BSN make a difference in patient outcomes Essay

Does a nurse with a BSN make a difference in patient outcomes - Essay Example In this paper I will be answering the question of whether nurses with BSN make a positive difference in patient outcomes. Research by a different organization and scholars converges at the conclusion that competency, knowledge and application of specific skills significantly depends on educational attainment. According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, nurses with BSN degrees are better placed to effectively meet the demands and expectations of the modern society. Nurses with BSN have a good training and as such develop strong critical thinking skills, leadership abilities, capacities to manage cases and promote healthcare outcomes. These nurses have a strong foundation that enables them to effectively work in both outpatient and inpatient settings without little challenge. It is for such unique and beneficial capabilities that baccalaureate prepared nurses are highly regarded and associated with promoting positive patient outcomes. It has been identified in the past few years that the level of education really makes a great difference in the way nursing is practiced. The BSN program covers content taught at both diploma and associate degree as well as providing students with a deeper understanding of the entire nursing profession. It covers research, leadership in nursing, physical sciences, social sciences and public health among many other courses. This broader coverage prepares the student nurses in a manner that allows them to understand the different issues impacting on patients and influencing healthcare provision. An inverse relationship has been demonstrated to exist between the number of BSN nurses and patient mortality when in hospitals; mortality decreases with increase in number of BSN nurses (Kimberly, 2009). Education for the nurse has also association with the safety of patients as well as quality of healthcare offered. Education provides the necessary theoretical as well as practical

The Fall of the Berlin Wall

The Fall of the Berlin Wall The Fall of the Berlin Wall The history books, the political polemics, and economic and the geopolitical analyses of the fall of communism and the break-up of the Soviet Union fill shelves with cruel crimes committed for the party and proletariat under the dreaded regimes of Stalin, Khrushchev, and Brezhnev. The end of the empire, however, was humiliatingly public, glowing on millions of television screens as sledgehammers tore chunks out of the Berlin Wall. The end of the end began in 1985 with the ascendancy of Mikhail Gorbachev and a new generation of Soviet leaders born after Stalin and his paranoid terrors had died. Ironically, the penultimate cause of the collapse was the Soviet Unions invasion of Afghanistan, where it fought a hopeless war for nearly a decade, which that almost crushed its economy to a halt and, like the Vietnam war, called into question national leadership and purpose. The presidency passed from a rather incompetent Jimmy Carter to Ronald Regan, who had no appetite for further appeasement with the Kremlin. Historian Paul Johnson argues that the tremendous losses in Afghanistan left the Soviet Union incapable of facing President Reagans Strategic Defense Initiative, and the new leadership in Moscow realized that their imperial ventures had caused the Soviet economy to rust (History of the American People 928-29). â€Å"For our internal progress, Gorbachev said in 1987, we need normal international relations. The Soviets had to catch up to the rising prosperity and technological advances of Europe and North America. The Soviet Union had to concentrate on domestic development and promote international peace whenever possible. However, it could only accomplish such a goal by giving up any global ambitions. Therefore, as Paul Johnson and other historians point out, Gorbachev abandoned the traditional Soviet anti-western orientation. He wanted to integrate the Soviet Union into the main currents of modern life and that meant democracy, free enterprise and a market economy. He gave the Soviet Union and the World two slogans:perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness). Perestroika held out the promise of reorganizing the state and society. For example, individual initiative would be revived and there would be emphasis on technology and a higher standard of living. Glasnost was the corrective held up to Stalinist excesses. Openness would permit the open discussion of the nations problems and it would rid public thinking of propaganda and lies. Soviet pseudo-history, pilloried in George Orwells dystopian novel, 1984, tapered off. New histories published archival material on the Stalinist purges and the Great Terror. In Gorbachevs way of thinking, the Russian Communist Party was to serve as the vanguard of perestroika and stimulate civic activity and responsibility. In 1990, the Supreme Soviet elected Gorbachev as the countrys president for a term of five years. At the time, Gorbachev was still the leader of the increasingly unpopular Communist Party. Economic changes accompanied these political reforms. Industrial enterprise was encouraged which in turn would foster private initiative and loosed the stranglehold of decades of central planning. By 1990, Gorbachev was cautiously promoting a market economy including the individuals right to possess private property. Religious freedoms were restored and in 1988, the Russian Orthodox Church celebrated its 1000th anniversary. Meanwhile, contacts with the outside world, especially the west, began to intensify. However, all this seemingly good stuff especially from the western perspective had its downside as well. For instance, glasnost released decad es of bitterness which had accumulated over the fifty years of Stalinist repression and terror. Perestroika and glasnost also revealed the widespread ecological damage the Soviets had caused on the environment. Gorbachevs reforms also polarized opinion in ways that even Gorbachev and his stalwart supporters could never have foreseen. In an effort to preserve unity by compromise, Gorbachev entered a bitter quarrel with his more radical rival, Boris Yeltsin. The weakening of traditional Soviet authority and the release of history brought about by the reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev, in the end, brought disunity. Meanwhile, Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians all demanded independence which in turn set off similar demands among Ukrainians, Georgians, Byelorussians, Armenians and the various peoples of central Asia. By the late 1980s, inter-ethnic violence had escalated. And in 1990, the Russian Republic, the largest republic of the Soviet Union, declared its limited independence under Yeltsin, and an Anti-Reform Russian Communist Party broke off from the reformist party faction led by Gorbachev. Meanwhile, the transition to a market economy was too complex for ready and easy solutions. The production and distribution of consumer goods collapsed. Local governments hoarded essential commodities and the black market flourished as did the Russian Mafia. As journalist David Remnick has written: the Communist Party apparatus was the most gigantic Mafia the world has ever known. It guarded its monopoly on power with a sham consensus and constitution and backed it up with the force of the KGB and the Interior Ministry police. (Kreis, History Guide) In October 1990, Gorbachev remarked, unfortunately, our society is not ready for the procedures of a law-based state. Oppressed generations lose high expectations and the Communist elite, hypothetically similar to the Guardians in Platos utopia had lost perspective. Grenville twists an old maxim that explains the myopia: â€Å"Absolute power not only corrupts, it blinds† (894). Gorbachevs own hammer blow for Eastern Europe, Harold Evans observes, was â€Å"to renounce Brezhnevs imperial doctrine by which the Soviet Union had claimed the right to intervene in defense of its ideology in any Communist country† (American Century 655). Outside the Soviet Union, perestroika and glasnost spread among people who were resentful of Soviet domination and worried about economic collapse. In 1989 and 1990, these people showed their dislike of communist leadership and demanded democratic reforms. Poland took the lead. Here the population was traditionally anti-Russian. The Poles had long protested their countrys economic decline. Soviet assurance to assist and massive loans from western Europe brought no relief. The slightest relaxation of Soviet control only encouraged Polish nationalism, which had always been expressed with the support of the Roman Catholic Church. With the selection of Pope John Paul II in 1978, Polish nationalism surged ahead. In 1980, workers under the leadership of a electrician, Lech Walesa, succeeded in forming an independent labor union called Solidarity. Pressured by a series of strikes, the Polish government recognized Solidarity, despite threats of Soviet intervention. J.A.S. Grenville hits the truth squarely: â€Å"Masses lost their fear of the state† (894) Significantly, the Christian Cross opposed the Soviet hammer and sickle. As nearly all observers assumed, Walesa enjoyed the hefty support of the Roman Catholic Church and from Polish Catholics in the United States that warrants amplification. Scholars and historians will debate for years to come the precise causes and historical forces that produced the sudden collapse of communism at the end of the 1980s. One matter not in dispute, however, will be the earth-shattering role played in the process by Pope John Paul II, the Polish pope. Jack Kemp stresses the spiritual strength and personal prestige the Pope put behind the Solidarity, or freedom movement. From the day of Cardinal Karol Wojtylas election to the papacy in October 1978, Kemp observes, the Pope â€Å"began to shake the very foundations of communism† (Human Events). With a Polish Pope in Rome, the Polish church increased its resistance against communism. Pope John Paul II encouraged his fellow countryman, Lech Walesa, as Kemp reports, and Walesa eventually became president of Poland post-communism (Human Events). After the crumbing of totalitarian communism, Pope John Paul II released a papal encyclical titled Centesimus Annus (1991), which explained within a Christian framework why communism had failed and from that failure drew lessons about social, political and economic organization. The papal encyclical urged people not to establish an ideological heaven on Earth but to maintain human dignity and social conditions conducive to each individuals opportunity to achieve salvation of his soul. In short, the Pontiff placed individual freedom deeply within the core of Christian theology. In January 1989, Solidarity was legalized and the Communist Party retired. In May 1989, Hungary abolished the communist bureaucracy. By years end there were more than fifty political parties. In East Germany, the upheaval in 1989 was even more momentous. East Germany had always been indispensable to Soviet Russia. Its industry was nationalized, its agriculture collectivized and its people regimented by the Communist Party. In June 1953, the workers of East Berlin staged an uprising. What followed as a steady exodus of skilled workers into West Germany. Three million people escaped before the East German government erected the infamous Berlin Wall in August 1961. The East Germans braved their lives to escape: they â€Å"voted with their feet.† Bulgaria, Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary soon followed suit and East and West Germany united in 1990. In the long and bitter Cold War, capitalism and freedom triumphed over communism and tyranny. Gorbachev and Yeltsin came along at the right time and faced the hidden facts of a long ruined system. American military and economic power made the Cold War too costly for the Soviet Union to press without smashing up. Gorbachev, Yeltsin, Walesa, and the Pope helped cause the fall of communism, but none compared with the late President Ronald Regan and his â€Å"innocent audacity† (Evans 656) who called the Soviet Union an empire of Evil and threatened to bankrupt it with a â€Å"star wars† defense. The national and international causes of the fall of communism were rooted in economic, military, political, trade balances, and imperial illusions, but few can deny that the United States, for decade after decade, carried the brunt of containing a predatory system. Future historians may revive tentative conclusions, but one that seems to do justice to the fall comes from Harold Evans at the end of his The American Century: History will go on unraveling the knot of circumstance, stratagem, chance, and personality. In the end, it is unlikely that no single brow will be able to claim the wreath of victory over a dangerous and depressing totalitarianism. But there can be no doubt that it was the American example, in its spiritual as well as its material beneficence, that in the long dark years was the torch of freedom all the world could see. (656) Works Cited Boyer, Paul S., ed. The Oxford Companion to United States History. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2001. Evans, Harold. The American Century. New York: Knopf, 1998. â€Å"Fall of Communism.† U.S Department of State. December 8, 2005. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/dr/17672.htm Grenville, J.A. S. A History of the World in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1994. Johnson, Paul. A History of the American People. New York: Harper, 1997. Kemp, Jack. â€Å"How the Pope Helped Bring about the Fall of Communism.† Human Events. Posted Apr 5, 2005. http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=7064 Kreis, Steven. The History Guide. 1989: â€Å"The Walls Came Tumbling Down.† http://www.historyguide.org/europe/lecture16.html Accessed Dec. 8, 2005.

Company of Lovers :: essays research papers

THE COMPANY OF LOVERS: JUDITH WRIGHT Judith Wright’s 1946 poem â€Å"The Company of Lovers† makes a juxtaposition of two essential forces of major impact upon human existence, the effects of love and those of death. Within the poem it can be noted that the two stanzas reflect each of the certain themes. The first, a universal description of love and the ambitions two lovers might have, whilst the second a reflection of how quick all may soon be lost through the loneliness of death. Wright is renown for her use language, and many of her poems contain paradoxes in which the reader is confronted with a phrase completely unrealisable, but effective in portraying the nature of the poem. â€Å"The Company Of Lovers† itself opens with the use of a paradox â€Å"†¦We meet and part now†¦Ã¢â‚¬  instils an image of simultaneous unity and depart, evoking in a sense of temporary cohesion that may soon be lost. This may represent a changing nature of ‘lovers’ and perhaps such a quick meeting and farewell represents the promiscuous nature of some who class themselves as ‘lovers.’ Nonetheless, a different approach is taken as the first stanza introduces ‘the lost company’ which could quite well represent lost ideals or values that once offered what was a company of lovers, which has now become short-term relationships. This emphasis goes on to describe, with passion, the joining of ‘hands together in the night’ of those â€Å"who sought many things, throw all away for this one thing, one only† – love. Such descriptions change, however, as the last lines change in tone, bringing forth a harsh reality, even to those submerged in the unified joys of love with a strategically placed ‘narrow grave’ to emphasise the loneliness of death. Ambiguity can also be noted through the use of many words within the poem, even from the first lines of the title itself. The word ‘company’ has several connotations of which could signify the reader being within the company of lovers, or perhaps lover’s in the company of one another.

Concern for the Environment Essay

Environment refers to everything that surrounds and influences an organism. Our environment is getting worse day by day, and we are suffering for other people and our mistakes. We might not be able to see all of the bad things in our environment, but they are for sure there. This could affect our families and our future one day. There are some problems affecting the environmental stability, namely- ozone depletion, enhanced greenhouse effect, global warming, and climate change. First, what is ozone depletion? Ozone depletion is defined as the thinning of the ozone layer, caused by a group of manufactured chemicals called ozone-depleting substances (ODS). Ozone –depleting-substances include chlorofluorocarbons, halons, carbon tetrachloride, methyl bromide, hydrobromofluorocarbons, and Bromochloromethane. Chlorofluorocarbons are mostly used in refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pump systems. Halons are used historically as fire suppression agents and fire fighting, but now only allowed in very limited situations. Carbon tetrachlorides are limited solvent use in laboratories and chemical and pharmaceutical industry. Methyl bromides are historically used in fumigation, soil treatment, pest control, quarantine, market gardening. Hydrobromofluorocarbons are historically used in fire suppression systems and fire fighting. Bromochloromethanes are historically used in the manufacture of biocides. Second, what is enhanced greenhouse effect? Enhanced greenhouse effect is an increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that results in more heat being retained and an overall warming of the Earth’s temperature. Although they make up a small percentage of atmospheric gases, changes in the concentration of greenhouse gases have a huge effect on the balance of natural processes. Burning fossil fuels – coal, oil and natural gas – releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Cutting down and burning trees also produce a lot of carbon dioxide. Because there are more and more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, more heat is trapped which makes the Earth warmer. This is known as global warming. Global warming is the increase of Earth’s average surface temperature due to effect of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels or from deforestation, which trap heat that would otherwise escape from Earth. This is a type of greenhouse effect. Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. Global climate change will affect people and the environment in many ways. Some of these impacts, like stronger hurricanes and severe heat waves, could be life threatening. Others, like spreading weeds, will be less serious. And some effects, like longer growing seasons for crops, might even be good! However, as the Earth keeps getting warmer, the negative effects are expected to outweigh the positive ones. From the previous discussions I have made, we already have known how ozone depletion, enhanced greenhouse effect, global warming, and climate change would affect the environment. I think, if ozone depletion would still continue, the rate of skin cancers, cataracts, genetic changes and inability of human systems to respond to infection, will increase because, much UV rays can now enter the earth. I also think that, if enhanced greenhouse effect would continue to increase, more heat will be trapped in the atmosphere that will result in global warming of the earth. With connection to the enhanced greenhouse effect, if global warming would still continue, sea levels could rise due to the melting of glaciers and polar ice caps, and the current patterns of rainfall could change drastically around the world. With regards to climate change, if it would still continue, many larger cities could experience a significant rise in the number of very hot days. Air pollution problems would increase, placing children and elderly people suffering from respiratory problems. Each and everyone of us should be aware of what is happening in our environment. We could reach out to people who don’t care about our surroundings and we could change their negative attitudes to positive ones in creating a better place for us to live in. I guess, by becoming more environmentally aware we can minimize the detrimental effect we have on our world by keeping ourselves fully informed about the bad effects of these environmental issues such as- ozone depletion, greenhouse effect, global warming, and climate change.

Limit Pricing and Oligopolies

Limit pricing is the type of pricing wherein firms discourage entrants to the market by choosing a low price that is below short-run profit maximizing price but above the competitive level. Firms who engage in limit pricing are forfeiting current profits to earn future profits. The output is being maintained despite the presence of entrants. However, there are still issues whether the application of limit pricing models is profitable for firms (2002). A firm engages in limit pricing by choosing its price and output while an entrant cannot sufficiently cover the average total cost of the remaining market demand. An established firm that is threatened by an entry in a single-period could use limit price as the highest price. This will block the entry. As first explained by Modigliani in 1958, it was assumed that entrants would expect that incumbent firm will continue production at an entry-limiting output with an entry present. It is the same as the Cournot Competition wherein firms believe that its competitors will continue production at the current levels (McAuliffe, 1997). On the other hand, â€Å"classic limit pricing† is another pricing policy where limit pricing allows established firms to earn economic profits while they are preventing the occurrence of entry. It happens if there are economies of sale in production even if the entrants and the incumbent firms have the same costs (McAuliffe, 1997). Another model is explained by Gaskin in 1971, called the dynamic limit pricing. It happens if there are threats from potential competition to a firm for current and future periods. The firms would now depend the rate of entry from the difference between the current price and their marginal costs. If a firm would want to earn high profits at current period, it will set a high price. However, the number of entry will also increase while the price and profit are likely to decrease in the future. On the other hand, if an established firm decided for a lower price, both the entry and the profits will decrease. Moreover, if the firms do not have any cost over the entrants, it will lose its position then the market will be competitive. The competitive outcome of the market however is not astonishing at all since only the price is used by the firm (McAuliffe, 1997). Both in the classic and dynamic limit pricing, the market power of the established firms are restricted due to the potential competition. In the end, they have no choice but to set the price under monopoly level. However, the expectation from an entrant that a firm would always maintain its output is not always true. After the entry period, both firms would earn high profits through high prices and restricted output. An established firm therefore with maintained output after the existence of an entry is not always a threat for an entrant. Otherwise, the established firm should bind for the current period   in order to obtain high profits with high output for the next periods (McAuliffe, 1997). Successful limit pricing could affect the market structure however few firms do set prices equal to or below the monopoly level to discourage entry. Major American companies use different strategies such as advertising and product proliferation  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   to discourage entry (McAuliffe, 1997). Competition is important in the American economy system but what if there is only a small number of competing companies? This condition falls under the oligopoly market. Unlike the monopoly where there is only one seller and many buyers, in oligopoly there is more than one seller (Schenk). In oligopoly, there may be homogenous or heterogeneous products; however entry is deterred by legal restrictions such as banking, minimum efficient scale such as overnight mail service , or strategic behavior (2008). Oligopoly has different models such as the Cournot-Nash Equilibrium of Duopoly and the Collusive Oligopoly. Cournot focused only on duopoly where there are only two firms competing assuming that both sell the same products produced at zero marginal cost. Both firm engage in output that is profit-maximizing expecting that the output of the other firms is maintained or held constant (Lipsey and Crystal, 2007). Under Cournot-Nash equilibrium, duopolists are competing for the quantities where each produces less than a monopoly. However, the sum of the production of both duopolists is more than the monopoly but their economic profits are less than the monopoly. The price is always less than monopoly level but not more than the competitive price (2008). Under Cournot equilibrium, firms would earn less than a monopoly because the duopolists’ outputs are more then the monopoly output. They would earn however more than the perfectly competitive firms since they could decrease the price upon increasing output (Lipsey and Crystal, 2007). Each competing firm is expected to adjust their outputs. However, if they cannot make any more adjustments then equilibrium is reached (Hobbs, 2001). Unlike Cournot-Nash equilibrium with doupolists as competing firms, in collusive oligopoly the firms cooperate in order to have a monopoly power. They may agree in setting price and dividing the output therefore gaining the quantity a monopoly produces and earning the economic profits a monopoly can. The firms are now earning more than doupoly profits (2008). There are many factors for collusion such as the number of sellers, personalities, equality of shares, costs of each firm, and others. There is a possibly that a collusion might disintegrate especially if the firm begin competing and cheating with the other firms (Schenk). Monopolies in the U.S. are most likely to be regulated by the government unlike the oligopolies. Price-fixing by the collusive oligopolies however is not allowed unless for agricultural cooperatives and professional sports league (2006). Collusion oligopolies, just like the doupoly, could turn into competition as well. Firms begin violating the production limits and producing more than they have to. Besides, the price tends to be lower. In the end, the collusion becomes unsuccessful. Bibliography OECD 2002, Limit Pricing, viewed 6 May 2007, . NC State University 2006, Collusive Oligopolies, viewed 6 May 2008, . 2008 Oligopoly, viewed 6 May 2008, . Hobb, B.K. 2001, Cournot Equilibrium, viewed 6 may 2008, . Lipsey, R. G. & Crystal, A. 2007, Doupoly. Oxford University Press, viewed 6 May 2008, . McAuliffe, R. E. 1997, Encyclopedic Dcitionary of Managerial Economics, Blackwell Punlishing, viewed 6 May 2008, . Schenk, R. The Theory of Few Sellers, viewed 6 May 2008, .