How Minority Students Struggle in College Essays -- Personal Narrative

How Minority Students Struggle in College In the lives of minority students, education is seen as essential. It’s a dream, one that we are still trying to interpret. If we know nothing else, we know that education is important because it determines the future one is going to have. The major problem is that the education of minority students before college is poor. This deficiency causes great conflict for minority students in adapting themselves to new educational habits. Lack of good study skills makes it difficult for a minority student to control one’s time management and concentration. While these students are trying to change their study habits, there is another variable that could help or distract them from fixing their weaknesses. It is true that parents and professors do have an influence upon us. These people play a big part in the education of students, but the impact of their persuasion is not always positive. Despite all the struggles that a minority student faces, I believe people in this group can find the secret to becoming educated and successful individuals. Education is exceptionally significant for a minority student. A minority student faces economic issues with his or her lower class status. There is very little money. A minority student comes from a home in which parents have a low level of education. There are not many books around while growing up. A desire to change their economic and cultural position makes education their first priority as a goal they have to reach. Life’s circumstances did not give their parents the chance to go to school. Minority students have seen first-hand how hard it is to live throughout their lives without education. These students believe that if they ed... ...an the upper class students. As a minority student, I advise that we should not let anyone put us down. That is the secret. With or without support, we should keep in mind our goal of becoming professionals in our field of study. If our interest in school is interrupted, we must maintain our deepest reasons for attending college. Looking back and reminding ourselves of our goals will help us to get back on track. College is a race that many of us are competing to win, but we are starting off behind. Minority students should keep on fighting to catch up. It is a complicated battle that consists of personal ambition, educational desire, and inner persistence. If we keep on struggling to become better individuals, we can hopefully someday free ourselves and take off these uneducated and minority labels from our backs and become part of the educated majority.

Pert Mustang

1. Using the information provided, prepare the report that Roberts requested, assuming that the project will begin immediately. Assume 45 working days are available to complete the project, including transporting the car to Detroit before the auto show begins. Your report should briefly discuss the aspects of the proposed new business, such as the competitive priorities that Roberts asked about. Roberts want to restore her Mustang to mint condition or as close to mint condition as possible, and use it in sales and advertising and take it to auto shows to attract new business within 45 working days.From the activities estimate of times and tasks that need to be done, we identify that there are 22 activities involved in the process starting from order of materials to pull car to Detroit Auto Show. A table containing the project activities, the time estimates and the precedence relationship will be prepared and a network diagram will be drawn to structure the immediate predecessor activ ities. The critical activities will be identified to indicate that the project can be completed within 45 working days.RASAS is consists of three car dealerships and this venture into restoration business still can fit into business. RASAS has noticed that there is a market for this new business because the public is growing interest in this restoration of vintage automobiles and many people want to own a vintage auto. With RASAS’s knowledge and experience in the car business, it can be market leader for this restoration business if it success. However, RASAS’s operation task should be regard to cost, quality, customer service and flexibility.To capture the car restoration market, RASAS will have to keep the operation cost low such as the cost of the skill workers and the spare parts. To reduce costs, processes must be designed and operated to make them efficient using rigorous process analysis that addresses workforce, methods, scrap, or rework, overhead, and other fa ctors such as investment in new automated facilities or technologies to lower the cost per unit of the service. The quality of the car will have to be top from in its workmanship, spare parts, safety and finishes.The flexibility for the customer to select the type of car that they like is very important. RASAS need to maintain their quality which producing services that meets design specification on a consistent basis. This processes must be designed and monitored to reduce errors, prevent detects, and achieve similar outcomes over time regardless of the â€Å"level† of quality. For example, RASAS might have to standardize work methods, staff training processes, procurement of raw materials to achieve the same consistent process from one activity to the next.RASAS should consider restore vintage car into various from such as mint condition, with or without customization or any other specification that requested by customers. It is important to accelerating or decelerating the rate of production of service quickly to handle large fluctuations in demand. Moreover, satisfying the unique needs of each customer by changing service or product design is also important. Processes with customization strategy typically low volume, close customer contact, and an ability to reconfigure processes to meet diverse types of customer needs.However, it is not necessarily unique to specific customers and may have repetitive demand. Processes supporting variety must be capable of larger volumes than processes supporting customization. RASAS also has to focus on customer services such as delivery the car on time, handle complaints and after-sale services has sufficient spare parts in store and provide professional advice to the customers. Along with processes that reduce lead time, planning processes likes forecasting, order promising, scheduling, and capacity planning are used to increase percent of customers orders shipped when promised.Moreover, RASAS design processes ca n be reduce a lead time through keeping backup capacity cushions, storing inventory, and using premier transportation options. 2. Construct a table containing the project activities using the letter assigned to each activity, the time estimates, and the precedence relationships from which you will assemble the network diagram. Activity Details| Activity | Activity Time (Days) | Immediate Predecessors| Cost($)| Order all needed material and parts| A| 2| * | 100| Receive upholstery material for seat covers| B| 30| A| 2100| Receive windshield| C| 10| A| 800|Receive carburetor and oil pump| D| 7| A| 1750| Remove chrome from body| E| 1| * | 200| Remove body from frame| F| 1| E| 300| Have fenders repaired by shop| G| 4| F| 1000| Repair doors, trunk, and hood| H| 6| F| 1500| Pull engine from chassis| I| 1| F| 200| Remove rust from frame| J| 3| I| 900| Regrind engine valves| K| 5| O| 1000| Replace carburetor and oil pump | L| 1| D, I| 200| Rechrome the chrome parts| M| 3| E| 210| Reinstall engine| N| 1| K, L | 200| Put doors, hood and trunk back on frame| O| 1| H, J | 240| Rebuild transmission and replace brakes| P| 4| N, O| 2000| Replace windshield| Q| 1| C| 100|Put fenders back on| R| 1| G, P| 100| Paint car| S| 4| R, Q| 1700| Reupholster interior of car| T| 7| B, S| 2400| Put chrome parts back on| U| 1| M, S| 100| Pull car to the Detroit Auto Show | V| 2| T, U| 1000| Table of Project Activities 3. Draw a network diagram of the project. Determine the activities on the critical path and the estimated slack for each activity. Remarks : Earliest Start and Finish Steps * Begin at starting event and work forward ES = 0 for starting activities ES is earliest start EF = ES + Activity timeEF is earliest finish ES = Maximum EF of all predecessors for non-starting activities Latest start and finish steps * Begin at ending event and work backward LF = Maximum EF for ending activities LF is latest finish; EF is earliest finish LS = LF – Activity time LS is latest start L F = Minimum LS of all successors for non-ending activities * The critical path activities are A-B-T-V; and the time required is 41 days * The slack time for each activity are as been written on top of each activity on the PERT Diagram

Business Intelligence with Data Mining

Business Intelligence with Data Mining Abstract Banking and finance institutions are growing very fast in this globalization era. Mergers, acquisitions, globalization have made these institutions bigger. No doubt, the data also grow real huge and more varied. Big data storage such as data warehouse and data marts are provided to give a solution on big data storage. On the other sides, those data are needed to be analyzed. Business intelligence finally comes in as a solution in analyzing those huge data. Business intelligence especially with data mining can create a solution in further decision making.With various tools and techniques, data mining has been proven in many aspects of business. Hidden informations that stored inside either data warehouse or data marts can be gained easily. In example, those hidden informations are market and economy trens, competitor trends, competitive price, good products and services and also can provide better customer relationship management. There is still one benefit in business intelligence with data mining that this paper will focus on, i. e. risk management and frauds and losses prevention. One of product from banking and finance institutions is credit loans.It is really a high risk business, but with business intelligence with data mining especially classification and clustering techniques, it can be maintained and implemented safely and of course with low risks, minimized frauds and losses and increased profits and revenues. Keywords : Banking and Finance, Business Intelligence, Data Mining, Risk Management, Credit Loans Introduction Banking and Finance institutions are growing rapidly nowadays. For one institution, there are more than one offices or branches in one country or even in different country.Globalization, mergers, acquisitions, competitions, market changes are some of the reasons behind why are they growing fast. As those banking and finance institutions grow, so do the data. In this case, banking and financ e institutions probably have much more data than other institutions. Every single customer or people has one or more accounts in one institution or more. The challenge is how to maintain those data easily, how to make good decision among those data, how to create good product for customers and how to retain good customers that can bring much more profits and increase revenues.For those that can not maintain data and make a decision for further movement without analyze the data before will find it hard to be success or even lose in competition with other banking and finance institutions. Some of key success factors in banking and finance institutions, such as : 1. Customer satisfaction Good customer management and good product are the key to satisfy customer. If the institution could manage the customer well and offer good product that can produce benefit to both sides then it will guarantee customer will be very satisfied. 2. Customer loyalty There is no guarantee that satisfied cus tomers will be loyal.Strategies and tactics are needed to retain those customers. 3. Increased profit & revenue Similar with business institutions, gaining profit and increase revenue are the most important thing. 4. Minimal risk With many customers, banking and finance institutions need to analyze the risks that probably could happen. Not all of customers are good customer. Fraud or loss might happen. 5. Readiness for new markets to increase customer Markets are changing rapidly. Winning the competition means winning the customer. Offered products are the key here such as higher interest, free admin cost etc. 6. Efficiency of operationsSince banking and finance institutions have several branches and many customers, the challenge is to make operations in daily transactions become efficient. Problems in Banking and Finance Institutions Similar with other institutions in business, banking and finance institutions also have some of problems in their business. Below are some of those pr oblems : 1. Separated data instance Data are separated through branches all over the place. The banking and finance institution will find it hard to collect and analyze the data. This will also impact in decision making because decision should be made after analyzing all of the data. . High risk Banking and finance institutions have many customers and not all of those customers are good customer. Need to find out whether the customer is realible or not. 3. How to detect fraud and prevent loss Frauds and losses might happen in banking and finance institutions. Fraud in credit loans will cause loss to the institution. 4. How to create good customer relationship To compete in the market and winning customer, banking and finance institutions need to create good customer relationship to satisfy customers and make them loyal. 5. How to create good productProduct is one the aspect that customers consider. Create a good product and can compete with others product will impact in customer win ning. 6. How to find the hidden information inside those data to ease the decision making Huge data are needed to be analyzed and there are some hidden informations in those data that could affect the decision maker in making the decision. If the decision made is crucial one, it could lead to future success. Business Intelligence Business Intelligence can be defined as an ability of an enterprise to comprehend and use information in order to increase the performance.Business intelligence has several activities, procedures and applications. Some of those that mostly used are : Data Warehousing, Data Marts, OLAP Tools, tools for Extract Transform and Load (ETL), Information Portals, Data Mining, Business Modelling, etc (Katarina Curko, 2007). Business Intelligence can also defined as the process of gathering high-quality and meaningful information about the subject matter being researched that will help the individual(s) analyzing the information, draw conclusions or make assumptions (Muhammad Nadeem, 2004). In this paper, we shall focus more in data mining.Data mining works with data warehouse and data marts for data storage and extract transform and load (ETL) tools. Some of advantages by using business intelligence with data mining: 1. Gain profit and revenue for enterprise With business intelligence, the enterprise can gain the data access easily and integrated inside data warehouse & data marts. So the enterprise can service customers better and quicker which will impact in profit and revenue increment. 2. Decision making With data mining in business intelligence, the enterprise can gain the hidden informations in those huge data and can make quick and easy decisions. . Expand the market segment With the ease of decision making, the enterprise can make decision in markets such as price, discount, etc which will impact in winning the market competition. Data Mining Data mining refers to computer-aided pattern discovery of previously unknown interrelationship s and recurrences across seemingly unrelated attributes in order to predict actions, behaviours and outcomes. Data mining, in fact, helps to identify patterns and relationships in the data (Bhasin, 2006). Some of goal examples in using Data mining: 1.Forecasting market price With data mining, enterprise can predict the market price and decide on the best price to compete the price in market. 2. Cross-selling and up-selling analysis Data mining can be used to analyze market based on products. It means enterprise can make cross-selling or up-selling to their products to optimize or increase the sales. 3. Profiling customers Data mining can be used to segment customers depends on the category. For example we categorize customers by their profit or revenue. 4. Manage customer retentionNot only enterprises data, data mining can be used to manage customer data which will impact in better customer relationship management. [pic] Figure 1. Overview of Business Intelligence with Data Mining S ource of data that we shall process come from various sources such as customer data, market data, transaction data, product data, service data etc. As mentioned above, those huge and heterogeneous data will be stored in data warehouse and data marts. Before entering either data warehouse and data marts, those data will be extracted, cleaned up and sometimes transformed into different types of data.Then it will load the results into data warehouse and data marts. In this data warehouse and data marts, the data will be stored. Once the user want to analyze the data using data mining, the system will gather the data stored in data warehouse and data marts. With some of slicing and dicing techniques, data mining process the required data and resulting in enterprise reports. With these reports, management of enterprise then decides what to do next. Data Mining Techniques According to (Larissa T. Moss, 2003), data mining itself has many models and various methods in analyzing data.When to use one of these models or methods depend on the requirements. Below are some of those models or methods : †¢ Associations Discovery Is used to identify the behaviour of specific events or processes. Associations discovery links occurrences within a single event. Example of use in discovering when a person buys a toothbrush then may also buy a toothpaste or a person buys a cigarette may also buy the lighter. †¢ Sequential Pattern Discovery Is similar to associations discovery except that a sequential pattern discovery links events over time and determines how items relate to each ther over time. Example of use in predicting a person who buys a couple sets of computer may also buy a switch or router within three months. †¢ Classification Is the most common data mining technique. Classification looks at the behaviour and attributes of predetermined groups. Data mining tool can classify to new data by examining the existing data that has been classified before. Example of use in classifying characteristics of customers. †¢ Clustering Is used to find different groupings within the data.Clustering is similar to classification except that no groups have yet been defined at the outset of running the data mining tool. Clustering divides items into groups based on the similarities the data mining tool finds. Clustering is used for problems such as detecting manufacturing defects or finding affinity groups for credit cards. †¢ Forecasting Is used to forecasting market or forecasting products in manufacturing enterprise. Comes in two types: regression analysis (predict future based on whole past trends) and time sequence discovery (predict future based on time-dependent data values).Business Intelligence in Banking and Finance Banking and finance in this paper, is the institution that require to adapt in globalization, flexible in market, keep growing, create innovations to gain more customers that will increase profit and revenue. The challengi ng questions is how to achieve those requirements. Those institutions also do risk management to handle frauds and losses. With high profit and revenue, it will be useless if the institution can not handle possible risks, in this case frauds and losses are the most possible risks. They need customers but after customers increased so do the risks.So the possible way is to manage those risks. The same question as above, how to make the risk management easily and cover up all the risks. With business intelligence, all of those things can be achieved. Banking and finance institutions can depend on business intelligence in many aspects. Efficiency of analyzing the data, detection of frauds and losses, risk management, customer management and product management are some of these aspects. Striving for success, banking and finance institutions always trying to create new innovation either in products or services.Mergers and acquisitions have inevitable made those institutions have really hu ge and heterogeneous data. Impossible to maintain those data without new technologies (Katarina Curko, 2007). Using Data Mining as Solution in Credit Loans for Banking and Finance As mentioned above, this paper will focus more on data mining in business intelligence. After discussing the benefit of business intelligence in banking and finance institutions, at last we go to the last important question, how to extract the hidden informations from those huge and heterogeneous data.In this section, we shall focus more on how to predict frauds, losses and risks that might happen in credit loans. Being able to predict risks, frauds and losses are the main concern these days in banking and finance institutions. Credit loans nowadays have been growing rapidly. Almost every single shop or business center allows payment with credit card, but we shall focus more on credit loans such as loan for business, vehicle etc. Credit loans have been the most interesting product for banking and finance i nstitutions. Many customers are looking for credit availability to help them financially.With the credit interests, the banking and finance institutions gain profits. Quite interesting business when they can offer credit and gain the profit from the credit interests, but the most important question is how to guarantee that the customer is a good one or at least make sure the customer will pay back including the credit interests so those institutions will not get frauds and losses. We can say to prevent frauds and losses is a kind of risk management. Risk management really is a crucial step to do especially in banking and finance institutions.Risk management in banking and finance institutions itself covers many aspects such as liquidity risk, operational risk and concentration risk. Today, integrated measurement of different kinds of risk (market and credit risk) is moving into focus. These all are based on models representing single financial instruments or risk factors, their beha viour, and their interaction with overall market (Dass, 2006). We shall focus more on credit risk. Credit risk assessment is key component in the process of commercial lending (Dass, 2006). The institution has money to lend but to decide which customer or borrower is not an easy matter.We shall learn more about the customer or borrower, find their background, their market transaction, their current income, and in more extreme way is learning their current life. To make those tasks possible, we can use classification or clustering in data mining technique. These data mining tools can provide a grouping of customer or borrower. Let’s say there are three groups of customer or borrower that we want to manage. First, high valued customers, middle valued customers and low valued customers. Before put customers into those groupings, there are many things to consider and analyze.Different institutions use different kinds of classification and analysis. But in general, things to consi der and analyze are customer background, customer history transaction, customer credit history, customer account at another banking or finance institution, customer income. Those are from credit customer or borrower perspective. They also consider and analyze market and economy trends to calculate and manage the possible profit gained before make a decision to lend or give the credit. [pic] Figure 2. Overview of Data Mining Process (Classification & Clustering) in Credit LoansWith these data mining tools, the analyst from those institutions can easily decide to approve the credit or not. Logically, analyst or management inside institutions will decide to lend or approve the credit requested by customers in high valued customer then it goes down until low valued customer. But not all decisions are correct, many aspects can cause wrong decision such as incomplete data or unconsistent data of customers, market & economy trends changing, or other aspects. But these tools surely help a l ot to do risk management in credit loans which will impact in minimized rauds and losses and increased profits and revenues. Conclusion Banking and finance institutions have so many products and services offered to customers. One of those are credit loans. Credits that offered to customers or borrowers are not directly approved if one of the customer or borrower makes a request of credit. Many aspects to consider and analyze. With business intelligence especially with data mining including data warehouse and data marts, those important aspects are collected, stored and analyzed. Specifically we use a couple of data mining technique i. e. classification and clustering.The purpose is to group the customer or borrower into groups that are easily to read and analyzed by institution analyst or management to ultimately decide to approve the requested credit or not. In this paper we suggest three groupings of customers or borrowers such as high valued customer, middle valued customer and l ow valued customer. Analyst or management also analyze the market and economy trends beside customer aspects. In the end, these business intelligence and data mining tools are used to ease in decision making to make the best decision for whole enterprise. References Journals: [1] Dass, R. (2006).Data Mining In Banking And Finance: A Note For Bankers. Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad . [2] Katarina Curko, M. P. (2007). Business Intelligence and Business Process Management in Banking Operations. Information Technology Interfaces . [3] Muhammad Nadeem, S. A. (2004). Application of Business Intelligence In Banks (Pakistan). CoRR . Textbooks: [1] Bhasin, M. L. (2006). The Chartered Accountant, Banking and Finance, Data Mining: A Competitive Tool in the Banking. Oman. [2] Larissa T. Moss, S. A. (2003). Business Intelligence Roadmap: The Complete Project Lifecycle for Decision-Support Applications. Addison Wesley.

Hanging (Out) with the Masters

At first glance, it is easy to think that not much is happening in Mark Kostabi’s Hanging with the Masters. We get to simultaneously view works of art from various art movements as they dangle motionlessly from their taut strings. Everything is nonchalant and serene against the sky blue background, the threat of gravity underneath disappears, and even the anonymous human figure tied to a noose by the neck has surrendered. Whatever was supposed to happen in the painting has already happened. No action is caught. This is the state in which we find things because we have unfortunately arrived late.This apparent lack of motion is what makes Hanging with the Masters so busy. By kidnapping an assortment of works of arts, miniaturizing and tying them in place to become manageable spectacles (classic paintings within a present-day painting), Mark Kostabi has converged, or more appropriately eroded, time and space. There is no nostalgia for the kidnapped paintings at all; just a matter -of-factness. Very postmodern. Taken out of their contexts and arranged in a whole new landscape, the works of arts inside the painting call attention to themselves. Each one of them competes for our attention.Even if we recognize only one of the paintings/mobiles/cartoon character Hanging with the Masters blatantly references, we still get the feeling a kidnapping has happened. Something has been violated and celebrated at the same time. The verb hang takes on two meanings: Hang a picture, Hang a person. As if decoration and decoration are the same thing. And Mark Kostabi is unapologetic. DEAD MAN PERFORMING In the middle of it all, there is the faceless, sexless artist with the paintbrush pointing downwards, the hanged human,—all red (red-faced, red-bellied, and red-handed) from an unseen light source. It is as if he/she has failed a mission.In the essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Walter Benjamin tells us that â€Å"[Mankind’s] self-alien ation has reached such a degree that it can experience its own destruction as an aesthetic pleasure of the first order† (681). After exhausting every possible medium and subject of art, from Campbell’s soup cans to elephant dung, we only have to turn to ourselves next, explore and defy the thresholds of our own body and mind, as if they are the next frontier to turn into art. True enough, the hanged artist in Hanging with the Masters is engrossed in his/her own performance art. He/she is both a subject and object.If in modernism the subject is a â€Å"rational, individualistic, responsible, unified self†, in postmodernism, that subject is dead (Chernus, â€Å"Fredric Jameson’s Interpretation of Postmodernism,† par. 7). What replaces is an â€Å"identity [that] must be conceived as an intersection of conflicting subject positions† (Collins 337). Kostabi’s hanged artist is neither male nor female. We can’t tell if he/she is just p laying dead. We are not sure if his/her execution was forced or self-willed. If this were punishment, we don’t know what the sin was. We aren’t even sure if he/she really is a painter, or just someone with a good grip on the paintbrush.Like a true postmodern subject, everything about the hanged artist is open to speculation. One thing we are sure of though is that now he/she has laid claim to being a work of art. And who doesn’t want to be a work of art, a shiny spectacle, in our YouTube generation? MEETING HALFWAY Hanging with the Masters instantly inherits timelessness just because it gathers samples of classic works of arts all in one place. What’s more is that these works of arts are tied in place. As if we are looking at a museum wall and the theme is A Very Short History of Art.Hanging with the Masters cleverly showcases cultural artifacts of the past (a nude, a cartoon character, a Warhol-style portrait, a mobile, an op-art painting), and at the sa me time it gives a commentary on those cultural artifacts. According to Jim Collins, â€Å"[†¦] the past is not just accessed but ‘hijacked’, given an entirely different cultural significance than the antecedent text had when it first appeared† (333). In postmodernism, such â€Å"highly self-conscious forms of appropriation and rearticulation have been used by postmodern painters, photographers and performance artists† (335).But because they have been hijacked, the works of art have lost their â€Å"aura† and â€Å"quality of presence†, terms which Walter Benjamin uses to describe the authority of the original work of art that is not yet reproduced or recopied (667). For Benjamin, this diminishing aura of the work of art every time it is reproduced or finds itself in a different context (Edvard Munch’s screaming man in a mousepad, for example) is okay because it â€Å"enables the original to meet the beholder halfway† (667) . Also, according to Benjamin, it is perfectly natural and okay for cultural artifacts to lose their original intentions and change into something else.His example is that of an ancient statue of Venus. For the Greeks, it was an â€Å"object of veneration†, but for people in the Middle Ages, it became an â€Å"ominous idol† (669). â€Å"Both of them, however, were equally confronted with its uniqueness, that is, its aura† (Benjamin 669). What we see now in Kostabi’s painting are works of art that are classic examples of the art movements they are part of. They are works of arts that are exclusively tied to a genre, tied in place in the painting’s unseen ceiling, just like the hanged artist. If there is any aura left, it is only a memory of that aura as we try to identify each work of art.Yet, ironically enough, Hanging with the Masters’s style itself is tied to the surrealist art movement. The painting itself cannot escape the same bonds whi ch have taken the other paintings as captives. But of course, this is okay. Everything in postmodernism is okay, and things are not judged based on whether they are good or bad, but only whether they work for us. According to Chernus: †¦a cultural artifact is now just a random collection of signs momentarily existing side by side, ready to change at any moment into another random collection. So it cannot point beyond itself to any meaning.It cannot represent any reality outside itself. It cannot even raise the question of its relationship to any reality outside itself. It refers only to itself; it is its own referent. [†¦] Since the signs are not supposed to relate to anything beyond themselves, it makes no sense to ask what they mean. So the problem of meaning simply disappears. (Chernus, par. 19). THE MEANINGLESSNESS OF IT ALL The meaninglessness of postmodernism can be depressing but that’s what is happening right now. The millions of YouTube video clips uploaded every day don’t have to make sense at all, but we enjoy watching them all the same.The more stupid and the more disgusting, the better. YouTube has given us a platform where we can be our own celebrities, our own artists, our own works or arts, where we can be viewed by millions other simultaneously. And we all wish we’d get lots of hits every day. Just like the hanged paintings in Hanging with the Masters, we try to be amazing so we can be worthy of being looked at. Underneath it all, just like the paintings, we are all just competing for each other’s attention. Maybe we can call each YouTube clip a cultural artifact in its own right. They, after all, tell a narrative.They tell us a little something about the person who uploaded it. They tell us that at one point in time, somewhere in the world, this person took the trouble of recording a clip of himself/herself, never mind the ulterior motive. Sure, for a cultural artifact, it may be fleeting, and it is not e ven tangible, but as each footage weaves into the next one and a medley of voices occur and we are overwhelmed by the sheer number of people out there in the world, a whole community our parents’ parents never knew existed back then, we lose the urge to explain things or make sense of them.We simply turn on our curiosity and enjoy the fact that all these are happening right here right now. As Chernus has said above, there is no reliable meaning anymore and there is no point in finding the relationships of things. It is quite possible then that Hanging with the Masters is really, at the end of the day, meaningless. That, really, it is just a collection of images randomly picked. If the audience recognizes one or two paintings embedded in Hanging with the Masters, then they’re lucky and good for them.That will add a new layer to whatever meaning they decide to put into it. If not, then the painting is still nice, and deep, and mysterious, still very marketable. Which is the fate of cultural artifacts in late capitalism: to become commodities in an everything-is-for-sale world (Chernus, par. 7). It is okay to not find or force any connections among the images trapped inside Kostabi’s painting, or even reunite them with other images outside the realm of the painting.For Chernus, the postmodern way is to â€Å"accept the images living side by side in an ever-changing kaleidoscope† (Chernus, par 26). In this postmodern world where diversity is very much welcome, Hanging with the Masters, as a present-day cultural artifact, makes a strong statement about harmony. In the end, it’s not just about works of art with clashing differences in style and opinion and meanings being able to coexist peacefully in a single canvas. Substitute â€Å"people† for â€Å"works of art† in the sentence and you get the bigger picture.

Compare and Contrast 10 Cultural Death Rituals Essay

Compare and Contrast 10 Cultural Death Rituals - Essay Example They believe that death is an important aspect of culture especially the Bakongo people. African Americans believe that death is not a time of sadness but rejoicing because the dead person leaves the troubles and sufferings of the world and goes to a place full of happiness. This is important to healthcare provision because it helps care givers to prepare for a terminally ill patient without much difficulty and also make it easy for them to announce the death of a loved one to the people. They believe in life after death. When a person dies, he cannot be buried in a rainy day, should be buried facing east to allow him or her to rise at judgement day (Lobar, Youngblut & Brooten, 2006). White Americans believe that death is a natural ending of life caused by a variety of sources and also that there is life after death. Death rituals in this culture includes visitation where the body of a deceased is placed on coffin to allow for viewing, performance of a funeral (memorial service involving the clergy and a eulogy) and a burial service where the deceased is laid to rest. This affects healthcare delivery in the sense that when a person dies in the hospital, it becomes easier for nurses and other medical professionals to explain to the family members of the cause of death (Vaughn, Jacquez & Baker, 2009). Arab Americans have death rituals as well. They believe in life after death. First, they prefer to bury the body of the deceased the same day that the death occurs. However, before the body is buried, they wash the body and all its orifices. They do not allow organ donation after the death of their loved ones. These rituals have effects to healthcare provision. Washing the dead body could lead to numerous infections and further deaths in cases of communicable diseases. The refusal on organ donation makes it difficult for people to get organs when they need them and this negatively affects healthcare provision (Padela, Gunter

Professional Ethics Paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Professional Ethics - Research Paper Example If he decides to send him to the asylum, then he is snatching away his independence but is reducing risk that the patient can pose to himself and others. Thus, the physician has to face a conflict between what is legal and what is ethical. Personal Values and Professional Ethics †¢ The physician interacting with the patient should be honest and straightforward, and should deal with the patient in a candid fashion. †¢ The patient should also be honest with the physician. †¢ The patient’s consent should be considered before sharing, selling or disclosing his personal information. †¢ The patient’s privacy should be maintained by blocking unauthorized access to his health records and personal data. †¢ Informed Consent is about having the capable patient take part in making decisions about his healthcare and treatment process (Wear, 1992). The patient should be well informed about all the circumstances and his wishes and judgment has to be considered by the practitioner. Ethical Theories and Principles According to Rainbow (2002), â€Å"ethical theories and principles are the foundations of ethical analysis because they are the viewpoints from which guidance can be obtained along the pathway to a decision.† Ethical Principles Beneficence. ... Justice. This principle states that physicians make ethical decisions that are fair to the patient and all those who are involved in the treatment process. The decisions should be made on logical bases. Ethical Theories Deontology. This theory focuses on that physicians should stick to their responsibilities when they are facing a dilemma in making ethical decisions. This will help them to make consistent decisions while adhering to their ethical obligations. Utilitarianism. This theory helps the physician to make choices whose consequences are better for the patient. He will make a decision that will yield greatest benefit to all involved. Rights. This theory respects and protects the rights of people as enforced by the society itself. Casuist. This theory enables the physicians to make decision about an ethical dilemma by comparing it to similar dilemmas and their consequences that might have happened in the past. Virtue. This theory is about judging a person through his values and standards rather than by his actions. Application to My Current Practice My current practice as a health practitioner is providing healthcare to e-consumers. I apply all ethical theories and principles because I aim to provide beneficence to my e-patients with least harm I can inflict upon them. I respect their decisions and stick to my ethical obligations. I strictly follow the Casuist theory whenever I am in some kind of a dilemma. For example, once I had to prescribe a diabetes patient to start insulin injections but I found out that his body was too frail to bear the injections twice a day. So, I referred to previous case histories of my patients to find out a

Social Media Marketing Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Social Media Marketing - Article Example This paper highlights that  planning and strategy development can be considered as important aspects of successful social media presence. There are several small and medium enterprises that do not even plan before adopting and implementing social media marketing strategies. For this specific reason, those organisations failed to get success through the adopted and implemented social media marketing strategy. Example of Dove Real Beauty Campaign can be considered as a perfect planning of social media marketing strategy. The organisation used common people in the videos and texts while putting the advertisements on social media networking platforms. They tried to convey emotional marketing and promotional message.Accordings to the paper findings the planning of consideration of common women in promotional campaign can be considered as the example of ultimate planning of an effective social media marketing strategy. This specific social media campaign helped the organisation to create significant brand awareness among the target customers. In addition to this, effective implementation of planning and strategy development process helped this campaign to redefine the face and concept of real beauty.  The organisation is the first ever organisation that adopted and implemented social media marketing strategy in UK retail industry. Slowly and gradually, the organisation promoted its products through several leading social media networking platforms that helped the organisation to create significant brand awareness among the target customers.