DISCUSSION BOARD PART 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

DISCUSSION BOARD PART 2 - Essay Example It is actually claimed, â€Å"Medicare fraud costs the U.S. government approximately $80 billion a year† (Stefanacci, 2010, p. 1). The federal government as well as healthcare legislative bodies in the healthcare industry find it extremely difficult to address this problem adequately since the healthcare industry relies heavily on health and billing records to track Medicaid fraud (Krause, 2010). More notably, tracking of fraud becomes difficult since reimbursement formulas are not appropriate. Additionally, technological advancement especially in information systems has not been fully utilized to address the issue. However, hope in addressing this issue is still overwhelming as research that is more rigorous and fruitful continues to find interest in policy implementers. Healthcare industry is continually benefiting from technological advancement. However, integrating technology and information systems that are more reliable to address Medicaid fraud has not yielded a lot since the specific problem has not yet been addressed. Therefore, the main point of concern for this research is to find the most appropriate and appealing use of technology and information systems to solve the menace of Medicaid fraud. Whereas it is a basic and constitutional human right to have access to affordable and appropriate healthcare, Medicaid programs are heavily compromised by Medicaid fraud. More specifically, approaches to address the issue of Medicaid fraud are yet to yield meaningful results since they rely heavily on traditional methods of health records. The problem becomes even more complicated when reimbursement formulas have not been harmonized and information systems have not yet been fully optimized to address this problem. From a perfectionist point of view, healthcare industry needs a near-perfect system of tracking Medicaid fraud for there to be meaningful

The Permitted Age Of Alcohol Consumption In The United States Essay

The Permitted Age Of Alcohol Consumption In The United States - Essay Example So, the law barely served its purpose of barring underage (below 21-year-old) drinking. Moreover, students like me, arriving from countries with lower drinking age are affected by this law. I want to propose that the age should be lowered, and this paper will apply three core principles in that course. It will use ethos to appeal to ethics, by my credibility as a Chinese who began drinking at age 18 according to the Chinese Law. It will also apply pathos to appeal to the emotion of the audience. In this approach, the paper will convince the audience why the alcohol age should be lowered down to 18 years-old, and not any further below that age. Moreover, the use of logos will ensure the proposal appeals to the audience through logic, persuading them by reason in a situation experienced by former US President Bushs daughter. The legal drinking age should be lowered to 18-year-old, but augmented with stricter policies.  Dwight B. Heath, a professor at the Brown University was asked ab out the what the minimum legal age of drinking should be in the US – â€Å"8, or maybe even 6,† was his response (Griggs). According to Heath, a professor of anthropology, he was not advocating for children to get drunk. Conversely, his response was favoring a cultural model upheld by common countries such as Italy or France, where after family meals, children were served with small wine amounts. By so doing, children are educated about alcohol, eliminating the numerous taboo about alcohol that makes teenagers sneak out to drink away from the supervision of an adult (Griggs). Though I do not support the drinking age he proposes – because alcohol could put children at risk of depression, memory loss, or brain damage (Martin), I endorse the lowering the age of drinking from 21 years-old to 18-year-old. Alcohol for kids would also put them at risk of accidents, impaired judgment, distorted vision, coordination, and hearing.  

Differences Between Pr and Advertising Essay Example for Free

Differences Between Pr and Advertising Essay Differences Between Advertising and Public Relations Advertising vs. public relations, these two industries are very different even though theyre commonly confused as being one and the same. The following ten properties just scratch the surface of the many differences between advertising and public relations. 1. Paid Vs Free Coverage * Advertising: The company pays for ad space. You know exactly when that ad will air or be published. For Example: Infosys gives an ad in The Hindu on Wednesdays in the Opportunities column. So it has the liberty and control to opt whether they want to give the ad on a particular Wednesday or not depending on their requirement. * Public Relations: Your job is to get free publicity for the company. From news conferences to press releases, youre focused on getting free media exposure for the company and its products/services. For Example: Tata Nano is the best example of this. Till now Nano was not advertised and all its publicity is through PR. 2. Creative Control Vs. No Control * Advertising: Since youre paying for the space, you have creative control on what goes into that ad. Any feature of the ad can be designed according to the way you want to portray the image of your company. For Example: Close-up portrays a youthful image through its advertisements, whereas Cadbury (which earlier had largely targeted the youth) has shifted its focus and now projects its chocolate as something for the whole family to enjoy during times of rejoicing. * Public Relations: You have no control over how the media presents (or misrepresents) information about your organization. For Example: Reliance did not have a control over the news which was published regarding the conflict between Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani and had to pay for it in form of loss in the share price (initially). 3. Shelf Life * Advertising: Since you pay for the space, you can run your ads over and over for as long as your budget allows. An ad generally has a longer shelf life than one press release. * Public Relations: You generally submit a press release about a new product once. You only submit a press release about a news conference once. The PR exposure you receive is only circulated once. An editor wont publish your same press release three or four times in their magazine. 4. Wise Consumers * Advertising: Consumers know when theyre reading an advertisement theyre trying to be sold a product or service. The consumer understands that we have paid to present our selling message to him or her, and unfortunately, the consumer often views the selling message very guardedly. * Public Relations: When someone reads a third-party article written about your product or views coverage of your event on TV, theyre seeing something you didnt pay for and view it differently than they do paid advertising. Where we can generate some sort of third-party endorsement by independent media sources, we can create great credibility for our clients products or services. 5. Creativity * Advertising: In advertising, you get to exercise your creativity in creating new ad campaigns and materials. Some jingles in the ad have a long bonding with the product. Few Examples: Surf comes with a series of new ads from time to time. Britannia’s jingle is well remembered and is branded even in its website. * Public Relations: In public relations, you have to have a nose for news and be able to generate buzz through that news. You exercise your creativity, to an extent, in the way you search for new news to release to the media. For Example: Apple iPhone is an example of this. Apple created a huge buzz in the market exercising creativity to and extend and the result was a huge demand for the Iphone much before its release date. 6. Target Audience or Hooked Editor * Advertising: Youre looking for your target audience and advertising accordingly. You wouldnt advertise a womens TV network in a male-oriented sports magazine. * Public Relations: You must have an angle and hook editors to get them to use info for an article, to run a press release or to cover your event. . 7. Special Events * Advertising: If your company sponsors an event, you wouldnt want to take out an ad giving yourself a pat on the back for being such a great company. This is where your PR department steps in. Public Relations: If youre sponsoring an event, you can send out a press release and the media might pick it up. They may publish the information or cover the event. 8. Writing Style * Advertising: Buy this product! Act now! Call today! These are all things you can say in an advertisement. You want to use those buzz words to motivate people to buy your product. * Public Relations: Youre strictly writing in a no-nonsense news format. Any bl atant commercial messages in your communications are disregarded by the media.

Web2py Layout Features

Web2py Layout Features CHAPTER 5. DEVELOPMENT In the Web2py framework there are two objects that contribute in designing both static and dynamic web pages. The SQLFORM.factory object is used for developing static web pages and SQLFORM object for developing dynamic pages. The framework consists of three files, namely db.py which is created in the model, default.py created in the controller and default/index.html file for designing the web page in the view layer. When the function in the controller gets executed, the default/index.html file in the view is called which passes the variables into HTML. Since the view file is written in HTML, the python code is placed within {{ }}. The â€Å"layout.html† file represents the fundamental layout of all the applications designed in web2py. Screenshot of the files mentioned above in web2py interface: Screenshot 5.1. Files of Web2py To understand how the objects work I developed a static web page which takes name and chemical type of a chemical compound as user inputs and accepts the form if no errors are found. However, if the user does not enter any name the form sends a response to the user displaying â€Å"Form contains error† Each time a new user submits the form message â€Å"Form displayed for the first time† is displayed. Screenshot of the web page implemented: Screenshot 5.1. New page Code to implement static web page in the logical layer: def index(): form=SQLFORM.factory(Field(Name,requires=IS_NOT_EMPTY()), Field(Chemical_Type,requires=IS_NOT_EMPTY())).process() if form.accepted: session.flash=Form accepted redirect(URL(other,vars={Name:form.vars.Name})) elif form.errors: response.flash=Form contains errors else: response.flash=Form displayed for the first time return locals() Code to view the web page in the view layer: {{extend layout.html}} {{=form}} 5.2. Designing dynamic Cheminformatics Application To start with designing the web application in web2py framework, there are some built-in files that can be modified for designing purpose. These built-in files of web2py have facilitated easy designing of the web application. One of the main files is the ‘menu.py’ model file which can be customized based on the requirement of the user. By making some few changes in the above file, the following tags such as ‘Cheminformatics’, ‘Home’ and ‘Drug Database’ on the left-hand side of the page have been established. The table includes Compound_ID and row.id details of the chemical compound table created in the db.py file of model. Logic is implemented in the controller and connecting the web page to the server is implemented in the view. The web page retrieves results from the server based on the query of the user. Model Code – db.define_table (Compound_Details,Field(Compound_ID,string),Field(row.id,int)) Controller code- def index(): return dict() #search through search bar def search(): result= error=no result found x=request.body.read() result=Query_results(str(x)) if result!=: return result else: return error def Query_results(y): a= result= count1=0 my_query=(db.Compound_Details.Compound_ID.contains(y)) myset=db(my_query) rows = myset.select() for row in rows: result=str(row.Compound_ID) +t+ str(row.id) +n+ result count1=myset.count() if count1==0: return str(a) else: return result View code- {{extend layout.html}} placeholder=Search here autocomplete=off /> Search Function search_element() { //clear(); var text; text=document.getElementById("search_text").value; if(text=='') { alert("Enter some text to be searched!"); return; } â€Å"var xmlhttp; if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest(); } else {// code for IE6, IE5 xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); } xmlhttp.open("POST","{{=URL('search')}}",true); xmlhttp.setRequestHeader("Content- type","http://127.0.0.1:8000/search1/default/index?search_text="); xmlhttp.setRequestHeader("Content-length", text.length); xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=function() { if (xmlhttp.readyState==4 || xmlhttp.status==200) { var result=xmlhttp.responseText; if(result=='') { alert("no result found"); } else { var row=result.split("n");//row is the individual row for (i=0;i createDiv(row[i]); } } } } document.getElementById("search_text").value=''; xmlhttp.send(text); }† [14] Explanation of the code: The web2py framework provides the ability to the developer to view the creation of table in the sql.log file and input records into the database through the database administration file. Below is a snapshot of the implementation of the search page: Screenshot 5.2. Cheminformatics App page Three functions are declared in the controller section which includes the logic required to search for text based on user input. In the search function, when user enters text in the search box, the input is converted into string using the request.body.read object. The string is then directed to the database server through the Query_results function which retrieves ‘Name and row.id of the chemical compound each time count1==0. The index function in the controller is used for the purpose of returning the dictionary. The view section handles the display of the web page. In order to connect the HTML page to the database server of web2py, an AJAX script is initiated for the purpose of making the page dynamic. It automatically updates the web page without re-loading it. It uses XmlHttpRequest object to interact with the server. Browsers such as IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Safari are supported by the new XmlHttpRequest object. The older versions of IE such as IE5 and IE6 are supported by the new ActiveXObject. Methods open() and send(), are used for the purpose of sending request to the server. The open() method has the following syntax: open(method,url,async): The method defines the type of Http request to be sent across- either GET or POST. The url is the position of the file and async determines the asynchronous or synchronous nature of request. An asynchronous request is one that does not block the javascript which interacts with the server. A synchronous request is one that hinders the interaction of the javascript with the server until the action is complete. The code in view applies the asynchronous request that facilitates the http request to interact with the server to retrieve the results. send(string): The argument string is used for http POST request. This method is used for sending the request to the server. The POST request will then use the setRequestHeader(header,value) method for sending request to the server. ‘Header’ argument is for the header name and the ‘value’ argument is the header value. The following screenshot illustrates the value of the records after the user clicks on the search button. Screenshot 5.2. Result This initial prototype will serve as a foundation in the preparation of the cheminformatics resource that will facilitate search based on user input.

American History X :: essays research papers

In many ways, the media must be involved in ethnic and racial issues. The media is to provide the public with information useful to them. The media is on the public’s side. Racial stereotyping is a problem that is out in the public. Drugs, teen pregnancy, child abuse and rape are also problems that affect the people of the world everyday. The media has a job to make these issues aware to the people and possibly put together a form of solutions. Some ways of addressing issues are blunt and harsh but so are the problems. I don’t think the media can address the issue of racism without stepping into a stereotype somewhere but I also believe the media is obligated to address the obvious false stereotypes and offer ways to terminate them as well. American History X is a movie that directly addresses the issue of race and deals with some very serious issues in a small town. There are a group of white kids that have been influenced by Adolf Hitler’s beliefs and they are very hateful toward blacks, Jews, and any other race that is different than theirs. They all have Nazi signs tattooed on their bodies and their heads are completely shaved. There are very negative viewpoints in the first half of the movie toward blacks and Jews. The â€Å"N† word is used very freely and many of the actions of each group is quite accurate. Although this movie is very harsh and straight forward, their is a great amount of truth in all of the actions of each cultural group. One of the young white men witness a black man breaking into his truck and the black man ends up murdered in a very cruel manner. The movie is a lesson. A lesson about reality but also about how wrong reality can be. After spending years in prison, the attitude of this man is different toward black people and he has a hard time relaying this new attitude to his little brother back home and to the friends he had before going to prison.

Kinesthesis in Science :: Graduate Admissions Essays

Kinesthesis in Science Especially to the uninitiated, learning science can be daunting. A primary contribution to this problem is the fact that too often science lectures are overly formal, and they employ a notation--namely the language of math-which ostensibly is transparent to only an elite few. The belief behind my remedy to this difficulty is that any physical problem, as well as all of the associated formalism, can be rendered not only intelligible but even pleasurable if the student first achieves a gut sense of the physical situation. Put plainly, all of the math in any science class makes sense if the student first has an intuitive mental picture of exactly what is going on. Once this physical picture is in place, it serves as a framework upon which the formal treatment can hang. And when the formal treatment flows intelligibly with a student's gut picture of the situation, the subsequent sense of insight is no less than thrilling. So how to instill this essential physical picture? I have found that getting students up out of their chairs and physically acting out a problem, though it may feel ridiculous, is an incredibly effective tool for instilling a gut-level physical intuition about any scientific situation. Need to understand tides? Link hands and form a circle to represent the Earth's hydrosphere. Pick volunteers for the sun and the moon. Distort the human hydrosphere appropriately, then let each student stand in the middle, being the Earth, physically witnessing the succession of high and low tides. Though it may appear laughable at first glance, actually acting out a given situation instills the physical sense of why behind the formalism to come. Once this instinct is in place, the rest of the discussion is well-motivated, and the formalism will make sense. Moreover, it is very unlikely that a student will forget one of these exercises. I have found that retention of material so introduced is near perf ect. As an ancillary benefit, the mere fact that the students are out of their seats during these human models, moving and laughing and bumping into each other, serves extraordinarily effectively to obliterate the impetus against asking questions in the classroom. The students have already felt silly and seen their instructor acting silly. In that respect, everyone is on equal footing, and the classroom becomes a safe environment for verbalizing concerns. Additionally, the enhanced physical and verbal interaction involved in kinesthetic modeling enormously smoothes the implementation of cooperative learning, since the "ice," so to speak, has long been broken.

Death Among the Ibo Essay

Although the book Things Fall Apart and The Joys of Motherhood cover about seventy years, the difference between life in 1880s Nigeria and Nigeria in the 1950s is extreme. The Ibo people change from a clan and tribal people to a much less closely knit people much like Europeans or North Americans. The change should not necessarily be construed as an improvement in the life of the Ibo people. When Things Fall Apart begins the Ibo people are much the same as they have been for presumably centuries. They are an agrarian people living close to the land without lives that have isolated and sanitized from death. Death is a natural part of life and is common. They have rules and traditions that have taught them how to deal with death. Although many of their beliefs may seem strange to people in the twenty-first century North America the seem to work well for the Ibo until their traditions are interrupted by European Christian missionaries. The Ibo beliefs have a certain innocence and simplified world view that is remarkably refreshing when compared to today’s efforts to remove death away from society and to prolong death and aging as long as possible. There is a matter of fact character in the Ibo approach to death that makes death both real and normal. There are rules to be followed. When a man dies with a swollen abdomen and swollen limbs, he is not to be buried in the earth because his body would pollute the land (Achebe, 14-15). When an Umuofia girl is murdered, the leaders meet to decide what to do. After discussion they decide they should request compensation for the girl’s death. They elect Okonkwo a young leader who is a self-made man to visit the tribe of the man who has killed the girl and demand that a girl be sent to the Umuofia to replace the girl and another youth be given to the Umuofia as punishment for the murder. There is a balance here that lacks the vengeance of â€Å"an eye for an eye† of the Judeo-Christian culture. Instead it is more of a â€Å"tit for tat† response. Okonkwo visits the neighboring tribe and presents them with the demands of the Umuofia. Clearly there is the threat that war will result if their demand is not met, but it is not made in the â€Å"do it or else† manner common in the twentieth and twenty-first century western civilization. The tribe agrees to the demands of the Umuofia and gives a young girl who is given to the father of the murdered girl. A second youth, Ikemefuna sent to the Umuofia where he is given to the charge of Okonkwo with whom he lives for three years where he is treated like a son Three years later the leaders decide Ikemefuna should be killed to satisfy justice about the girl’s murder. Despite his having treated Ikemefuna as a son, Okonkwo participates in the slaying. He does this in spite of a warning of an elder not to participate because Ikemefuna calls Okonkwo â€Å"Father.† Okonkwo seems surprised about this warning. The decision has been made by the Umuofia leaders and therefore must be followed. There are several interesting attitudes about death and children. Certainly infant death is common among the Ibo. When a child survives infancy and it appears will live to become an adult, the child is said to be staying (Achebe, 42). Similar to this is a belief that some children are reluctant to be born into this world and retain a iyi-uwa that allows them to die so they can be reborn to their mother to torment them. To stop this cycle a medicine man will take the body of the deceased infant and mutilate it so that it will be unable to return, though some have been know to return with a missing finger or mark from the medicine man’s action. Okonkwo who is a renown and admired member of the Umuofia accidentally kills a youth, he and his family are banished. When this happens Okonkwo appears to accept his sentence stoically because it is the established rule. During his banishment European, Christian missionaries move into the area and begin to â€Å"civilize† the Ibo. Laws are made and enforced by hanging and imprisonment. Ibo who suffer such punishment lose their dignity and are no longer the man he had worked to be. When Okonkwo knows that he is going to be killed by the Europeans, he hangs himself rather than submit to the white man’s law. As one might expect from the title Emecheta’s book, The Joys of Motherhood ¸ is more concerned with childbirth and motherhood than with death. It is interesting that the perspective of this book is decidedly written from the female point of view and is concerned with life, instead of the masculine point of view expressed in Things Fall Apart where death is a more prominent concern. In this book death is treated much like it is today. The characters in this book no longer live in the tribal or clan community that Okonkwo lived in where death is considered a normal part of life. Instead they move to the city, Lagos, where they work for low wages doing the chores the more wealthy white people consider beneath them. Here death is not so common and not accepted so easily. When Nnu Ego’s son dies in infancy and she attempts to commit suicide, she is judged as insane until she is able to move on and continue her day to day life. Her dead son’s body is taken away soon to be replaced by the birth of additional children. Death is less acceptable and hidden from the people because the British people don’t want to think about it. Instead they sanitize it and move it away from day to day life. This happens to the Ibo as well as they move into the twentieth century British colonial lifestyle. Unlike the deaths occurring seventy years earlier where the clan is aware of each death and is able to accept it for the sake of the clan, Nnu Ego dies lying at the side of the road unrecognized. She is not missed by her clan or her people who are scattered throughout the country. The lack of concern about the rights of the individual regarding death in Achebe’s book is disturbing. Given today’s sensibilities where the individual is more important than the society the idea of   replacing one murdered girl with another girl to take her place and the idea of offering a hostage as a response to having committed a crime is troubling. People today   want to move on and get on with their lives after death, almost as if they were to acknowledge death, they will be stricken with some horrible contagious disease. Acceptance of death is still a societal problem today. American’s today seem unable to accept it. However, after reading these books, one if forced to wonder which of the approached to death, the 1880s Ibo, the 1950’s Ibo, or that of Americans in 2006 is best. In some ways the 1880s version with its innocent and almost nostalgic response to death seems to the best.