Thursday, October 31, 2019

Marketing Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 37

Marketing - Assignment Example Determining univariate expectedness is useful when assessing multivariate status, because one can do so justified with a miniature distribution size and because univariate expectedness is a needed premise for multivariate status. In a bivariate similitude, we liken each humans rancor on two measures, so we are thinking in iii dimensions-the X-axis, Y-axis and a 3rd alinement to resist frequency of scores. The asset of proceedings from a univariate to bivariate to multivariate test of the data is that much a work provides expedient substance on which interdependent variables to use before conducting a multivariate psychotherapy (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2001). The chief summary is an overview of your entire line drawing and should change readers with the notion that the activity is capably run, and has vim and ebullience. It is a synopsis of the important points of your line programme, lightness the key features. This is ordinarily the oldest piece of your plan that potential investors give feature and it moldiness be newsworthy and terse (Guffey & Loewy, 2010). Getting the head summary rightist is critical for any activity perception for investments and

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

McDonald Case study Essay Example for Free

McDonald Case study Essay Comparing with other competitors in the catering industry, McDonald’s has developed into one the giant and most famous fast food restaurants in the world. At present time, McDonald’s is the world’s largest food service retailers offering services to customers, in the same time they are keeping opening new shops all over the world every day. However, even though their business is keeping increasing, but they also met some negative messages from consumers or other parties, such as their products is not unhealthy, food they provided will cause obesity to the childhood. From relative estimation, it shows that obesity condition and the qty of those overweight children have been increasing rapidly throughout the world. More seriously, childhood obesity rate in the country of Australia is the highest in the world. From this consideration, it is much necessary to analysis relationship between the fast food and the obesity. Here, I will take the example of McDonald’s to research in detail 2.0 Analysis of case (McDonald fast food) There are lots of people will be consumed in McDonald’s., roughly, there are more than 30 million customers will be served in McDonald’s restaurants around the world. Accordingly, McDonald also achieved great success, especially comparing with other not so famous similar competitors. But due to fast food’s unique style of business, such as: their unique food ingredients, material used and cooking method, people think fast food will be the main cause for the obesity, typically for children, because they like the taste of such fast food a lot and consumed a lot too. In Australia, according to the study, there are about 25% of children in Australia are obese or overweight nowadays, while that was just 5% in the 1960s. The study from Australia’s Child Youth Help shows that the overweight preschoolers aged four years rose from 3.2% for boys and 3.5% for girls, to 4.1% for boys and 5.8% for girls in 2002. Also according to many scholars and nutritionist’s reflection, it is not hard to know that the fast food provided will be the main reason for causing childhood obesity. Since obesity has lots of negative effect to the health of the people, and especially for childhood, comparing with normal adults, childhood will be the focus for parents or relative health institute to pay attention on. As relative research shows that fast food will generate relative higher fats etc, so becomes one of the main causes of getting child fat. For McDonald, due to their significant achievement, together with their multi-advertisement, makes people, child is more familiar with them, on the contrary, this type of condition also makes McDonald become the target of complaints of childhood obesity. 2.1 Questions 1: McDonald relationship with childhood obesity Due to the cause of the obesity, McDonald’s relationship with child and parents becomes much tight. There are lots of people complain this giant food seller, because they have provided to many fast food to children, which cause them failed to be healthfully growing. In which, their variety type advertisement also become the target for people to blame. Because advertisement will bring good feeling and positive to the consumer, especially when child get to know the advertisement, they will be much easily to be attracted by the contents, therefore, they will be much easily tend to take such advertising food. In the meantime, since they are short of the knowledge to judge and get to know more detail of the products, is it  good, or will it bring bad effect to health once eats. So in the way, McDonald’s advertisement becomes the target of people’s blaming. As far as I am concerned, it is not doubt that McDonald will hold the direct responsibility, because they are the food providers, and they are the persuader to make children like their food by advertisement. But in the meantime, children’s parents shall also have the responsibility. Normally when the child go in to the McDonald’s shop, they will accompanied by their parents or elder person, at this point, when the children do not have the knowledge and the ability to tell the negative of the fast food, their older accompanier shall point out in time, also shall provide necessary guide in selecting the food. 2.2 Questions 2. The impact of McDonald’s marketing Advertisement will bring lots of effect to consumers, and for McDonald’s marketing because most of their advertisement contents will be designed by professional, who will be able to make the contents of the advertisement will be much attracting to their consumer, and when they target children, normally, the effect of the advertisement will work. Also they will design relative program to present their products to consumers. 2.2.1 Impact of McDonald’s marketing on individual consumers It is well-known the principle of the treatment to the people in McDonald’s that people are the key to the success of McDonald’s. To individual consumers, McDonald’s celebrate the children’s birthday with them. The parties are fun, Hassie-free and make for great memories to give an impressive and unforgettable experience for each of the individual customers in it. Customers can choose from two great-value packages, each offering games, entertainment and meals, and with more than 200 committed birthday party restaurants Australia-wide, there are plenty of nearby locations to choose from. Additionally, there is online booking for the convenience of the customers, which is even easier to give the little customers a party they’ll love. 2.2.2 Impact of McDonald’s marketing on other business and society Apart from the great favorable impact of McDonald’s to the individual consumers, McDonald’s itself also shed indispensable impact on other business and society as a whole. There are 267 franchisees and 9,000 suppliers serving as business partners in McDonald’s Australia alone (McDonald’s Australia Corporate Responsibility Sustainability Report 2010). Therefore, the great sales in McDonald’s will no doubt generate vast increase to the sales of those business partners to a large extent. 2.3 Question 3: Social marketing’s influence to children Social marketing will contribute and affect a lot to the consumer through variety type of approaches, and it can be clearly known from the example of McDonald. The great success of McDonald’s is basically because of its establishment and implication of its responsibility to do what’s right. To better carry out this responsibility, McDonald’s takes several measures as the societal marketing listing below: (1) Productive strategy of high quality products. The quality of the products is the life thread of an enterprise. From this consideration, McDonald’s places this to the first of the other four criteria. (2) Price strategy of reasonable price. To be successful in the furious competition of fast food industry, McDonald’s implicates the marketing strategy of low price and national uniform price. (3) Service strategy of clean and speedy service. The cleaning of the food in McDonald’s has closed connection with the health of the customers, especially that of the children’s. While clean and speedy service provides convenience for the necessity of busy customers. Promotional strategy oriented with ads. The promotional strategy in McDonald’s is rather simple but quite effective, mainly with the strategy of ads publicity to create sensational effects. (5) Cultural strategy of accustoming to the local culture. McDonald’s maintains its own style of diet and also adapts to the local culture to invent food of the traditional distinguishing features (Nestle Jacobson, 2000). Through the measures above, McDonald try to widely present their products as top as possible to the consumers, also their products will be accompanied with good service which will greatly influence the consumption intendance and habit of their customer, in which children are also the most part, therefore children will naturally like to eating in McDonald. 2.4 Question 4. Opinion of advertising for kids and other solutions for childhood obesity in Australia 2.4.1 Problems of advertising for kids The advertisements of McDonald’s are always aimed at interesting more customers, especially to the little children. McDonald’s enticing their children customers to want its food by applying free toy giveaways. The ads of McDonald’s are both in TV or other publications produce various attractive pictures and images to entice the children to it from their visual to their gustatory sense. 2.4.2 Other solutions to solve childhood obesity To solve childhood obesity, several strategies are decided as followed: More focus must be placed on the group prevention rather than the individual treatment and instruction. In order to change the diet and behavior in the family, it is critical whether to depend on the family and the society. The effect of the individual instruction such as the fat farm and summer camps will be very limit without the long term support from the society and school (Allison Webe, 2003). School must be the major part of the prevention of childhood obesity. The government must make no efforts to control childhood obesity. How to cooperate with the food industry is one of the parts of the strategies (Berg,Buechner Parham,2003). 2.5 Trend of the fast food industry in Australia The fast food industry in Australia has achieved its great success in recent years. The social and industrial status of fast food industry has been gradually established and become more important. The scales of both the industry and the enterprises are increasingly broadening, and the quality and standard are improving evidently. In a word, the development of fast food industry is limitless in the long run. All around Australia, fast food is not simply a commodity; it is also a representation of â€Å"the West† or â€Å"American†. If it wants to help explain its attraction, McDonald’s should innovate its quality as well as the foods themselves to match the advance  demand of the society. Australian business environment was so complicated that foreigners could not hope to survive on their own, in such circumstance, only those enterprise matching with the consumer requirement will be survive. On the whole, Australian consumers treat â€Å"fast food† restaurants as leisure centers and tend to stay longer than do most Americans. In the meantime, other type food, like rice is more than a simple grain; it is imbued with symbolic meanings and is perceived as sacred by many Australians. The style of food does not fit easily into the existing Australian food system, so McDonald’s, if can operated in a more healthy way for their food by improving step by step in innovation, it can be easier to be accepted. 3.0 Conclusion In conclusion, McDonald’s is believed the giant of the fast food industry. It has achieved great success in its sales and the fame all over the world. However, together with its great success, McDonald’s also creates serious problems to the society, in specific the childhood obesity. It is estimated that the prevalence of obesity and overweight children has been increasing rapidly throughout the world. And the rates of the childhood obesity in the country of Australia are the highest in the world. Its beginning relates to the starts of a new political era, on in which local interests challenge the authoritarian rule of the Nationalist Parethy, in this way, the Golden Arches arrive just as Australia reaches takeoff as a major player in the global electronics and computer markets. To many consumers in Australia, McDonald’s meant something the leisure and easy, and people prefer it. So in order to advance their business, but in the same time, not to bring the negative side to the consumer, especially children, it is part of McDonald’s responsibility to take care of their products, trying best to find good method or innovation to catch the problem of causing serious state of childhood obesity, that is certain measures are in great need to be taken to solve or affiliate the situation. It is also believed that with better responsibility taken, and with correct marketing, trying to stick the principle of â€Å"right goods is the base of good marketing†, then the fast food industry will be successful forever. References: Allison,D.B. Weber,M.T(2003). Treatment and prevention of obesity: what works, what doesn’t work, and what might work. Lipids Berg,F., Buechner J. Parham E. (2003). Guidelines for childhood obesity prevention programs: promoting healthy weight in children. Nutr Educ Ebhav McDonald’s Australia Corporate Responsibility Sustainability Report 2010 Nestle,M. Jacobson,M.F(2000). Halting the obesity epidemic: a public health policy approach. Public Health Rep

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Illegal Immigration And Border Security

Illegal Immigration And Border Security Introduction Department of homeland security is one of the reactions of 9/11 attacks on United States of America. It is a cabinet department of federal government of USA. It was formed on November 25, 2002. DHS was mainly formed to fight terrorism. DHS imbibed Immigration and Neutralization Services in March 2003. After assuming its duties, DHS divided the enforcement and services functions in to two different new agencies. Those two new agencies are named as immigrations and customs enforcement and citizenship and immigration services. Investigation division and intelligence gathering unit of Immigration and Neutralization services and custom services were merged to form Homeland security investigations. All these are designed to make the homeland United States of America save and secure. It was formed to assure the people of USA to secure them from any kind of terrorist related activities and also from threats like illegal immigration. The five core missions of homeland security are as follows. (Smith, 2006) Prevent terrorism and enhancing security. Secure and manage our borders. Enforce and administer our immigration laws. Safeguard and secure cyberspace. Ensure resilience to disasters.   (http://www.dhs.gov/our-mission) Department of homeland security strives to protect the nation from terrorism by increasing the security, by securing borders to prevent illegal immigration which is one of the ways for terrorists to enter in to the country. Country border security is maintained by DHS. This includes protecting USA air, land and sea point of entries. Border security force securely regulates lawful trade and travel. It also fights against illegal terrorist transactions. The department also revised laws related to immigration to prioritize the identification and removal of criminal aliens who will be the potential threats for public safety. DHS also secures cyberspace of civilian government computer systems. It also responds in the event of natural disasters coordination with federal and state partners. (Alden, 2012) Illegal Immigration As we know US is found by Great Britain. Over centuries USA has developed its culture. But still it has an essence of British culture. Unite States is known as nation of immigrants. Immigrants contributed a lot to nations development. Our nation trusted many immigrants to for its development and designing its infrastructure. If we trace the ancestors of many American citizens, they will lead to origin outside the country. America significantly has a heterogeneous culture. In 19th century immigrant labor made a significant contribution towards transcontinental rail road construction. In 20th century, immigrants like Enrico Fermi and Werner Von Braun made a notable contribution for national security. More noticeably there were significant contributions for broadcast and entrainment industry from immigrants. Some of the known examples are Penelope Cruz from Spain. Jim Carry, Pamela Anderson and Michael J Fox are from Canada. The ancestors of famous pop singer Michael Jackson who is also known as King of Pop is originally from Africa. A well-known actor and also former governor of California is originally from Gratz, Austria. This recognizable list of immigrants proves that USA receives open society of those who want to in migrate into country and make their identity. But, unfortunately there are many situations where illegal immigrations are reported which has become primary national threat in the present day. (Smith, 2006) Illegal immigration has become one of the major threats for the nation. It has become a priority national security issue that has to be dealt with immediately and forcibly. It can no longer be viewed as secondary issue besides terrorism and drugs. Illegal immigration is related to both of them. It is of the reasons where terrorism and drug dealing issues are developing its roots in the country. Solving this issue can reduce the illegal weapon and drug transactions to maximum extent. If this is left unresolved, there is a chance for our enemies to take advantages of the situation which will be threat for public safety. This problem of illegal immigration leaves three symptoms. It poses a question on inability to defend the border and enforce the immigration laws strictly. On top of all the policies and laws exists in the federal and state levels, illegal immigrations makes the citizenship meaningless, legal immigrant status pointless and illegal immigrant status penalty-less. This add s to reasons for which drugs and terrorists increasing in the country. Secondly, due to technology in the present situation, illegal immigrants have ties with their origin which doesnt make immigrants to invest proportionate effort to personally identify the new culture. This decreases factors like patriotism, loyalty and citizenship. Thirdly, at some point illegal immigrants was the cause of the reintroductions of the diseases that are eradicated decades ago. This poses a serious threat for the public safety. There are situations where some activists for illegal immigrants forced bilingual education and also subsidies on the education which was an extra burden on taxpayer. This makes the citizenship really meaningless. On top of all this, there are prisons filling with illegal immigrants of some petty crimes to drug dealing and even to murder cases. These situations leave a big burden on tax payer. This also will be the threat for public safety. Illegal Immigration in future turns in to national crisis even if it only circumscribed to our nations infrastructure. According to the latest news, the effect of illegal immigrations increased to a significant level. Large illegal immigration groups may cause a significant threat to nations security. There is a chance for terrorists to enter and also influence the other illegal immigrants towards their activities. There is also a chance of recruiting them in to terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda and other potential terrorist groups whose primary motive is to harm USA. The same illegal group under potential leadership may cause significant loss for the nation. (Rosenblum, 2012) (Smith, 2006) There are many events where there is a human flood of immigration in to the country. Most of the immigrants came from northern and western parts of Europe before the civil war. From 1890 and 1920 more immigrants sailed from southern and eastern European countries like Greece, Poland and Italy. In 1910, there was a large group migrated in to the country which contributes to a significant number of about 13.5 million who are settled in USA. The estimated population of both legal and illegal immigrations till date is about 35 million. Bracero program is one of the events where there is significant amount of immigration. Bracero program was designed by United States after 2nd world war to compensate the shortage of agriculture labor. The program was started in 1942 and ended in 1964. The program legally employed 4.5 million Mexican citizens to work mainly in Texas and California. This was a temporary arrangement which stated that they should return back to their country after 1964. Bracero program had a statutory position of a bilaterally treaty that offered measure of regulation and control. This was used as a loophole by many immigrants to enter with the intention of settling here. The estimated immigrants through bracero program are about 1.1 million. This equals to adding a city which is a size of Dallas every year. This leads to cause problems for legal residents. This also leads some terrorists to migrate in to the country easily. There are many reports stating there are many criminal activities near USA bord er such as MS-13. Terrorists using flaws in immigration laws enter in to the country and leads to some severe problems. Not only terrorists, there are many others like drug cartels that enter in to the country exploiting flaws in the immigration laws. Drug dealing is mainly controlled by illegal immigrants. Besides all this, corrupt Mexican law enforcement officials help in illegal immigration through southern border. (Alden, 2012) (http://www.dtic.mil/ndia/2008homest/needs.pdf) (Rosenblum, 2012) Exploiting immigration laws also served as an opportunity for the Lee Boyd Malvo who is alleged for random sniper attacks in Richmond, VA and Washington D.C. It was reported that he was illegally immigrated following his mother who is also migrated illegally and remained in the country. Along the southern border there was increase in lawlessness which pushed civilian border patrol and law enforcement personnel in to risk. This lawlessness by illegal immigrants helped them to generate income through drugs and support a drug cartel that indeed supports terrorist organizations. This also served them to intrude in to the country and develop their network all over the country. This also explained how 9/11 hijackers exploited immigration laws and entered in to the country. Economic impact is one of the primary reasons for illegal immigration. Irish potato blight of 1845-1849 is one of the economic disasters. At that time many refugees left Ireland for USA. The main reason for Mexicans to enter the country is mostly economic. As we know Mexico is a developing country. There are two significant sources income for the Mexico. One is direct sales of oil and second is income from the people who resides in USA and sends money to their relatives. Although there are some entrepreneurs and skilled workers there is more unemployment which leads them for migrating it to USA where the can find ample of employment opportunities. The only reason for them to migrate is money. The can earn money which has higher value than their national currency and as mentioned plenty of employment oppurnities. Prior to 9/11 attacks either governments was strict about immigration laws. The illegal worker was named as undocumented worker. After 9/11 attacks, laws were made rigid to p revent illegal immigration which may cause threat to public safety. Border security: It is the core element of Department of Homeland Security to prevent illegal immigration with U.S. border patrol (USBP) within the Bureau of customs and border protection (CBF). Border security acquired additional attention since 9/11 attacks. Since 1990 migration was controlled at the border by the strategy called prevention through deterrence. It is the idea that the concentration of personnel, surveillance technology and infrastructure along thickly trafficked region of the border prevents unauthorized entry. Since 2005, CBF attempted to reduce illegal entry by imposing heavy penalties and implementing policies known as enforcement with consequences. Immigration and reform act was implemented in 1986. After many events, IRCA authorized 50% increase in the size of USBP. 10 additional laws was added which are related to immigration. This was the reaction for 9/11 attacks. Country faces a deadly situation where border security has become primary entity. The significant decrease of il legal immigrants was lowered only after 2007. This is only because of increased enforcement. Illegal immigration has become a major problem when bracero program was implemented. From the laws of enforcement was made rigid. Despite of rigid laws there was a significant increase in illegal immigration till 2007. It was only controlled from 2007. (Rosenblum, 2012) Border control strategy: Seventy later its formation, border patrol designed its first formal national border control strategy in 1994 which is called as National strategic plan. This plan was updated as a reaction of 9/11 attacks. The new plan was published in 2012. The existing plans were based on the operational strategy of prevention through deterrence as mentioned earlier. Its main goal is to reduce illegal immigration to a significant level. CBF has also strived to decrease illegal entry by imposing high penalties and also by enforcement with consequences strategy. (Rosenblum, 2012) National strategic plan: In is the outcome of increased unauthorized immigration along southwest border of USA. It was developed in 1994. Drug smuggling was the serious problem along the southwest border. INS then changed it approach of arresting the illegal immigrants to prevent their entry. NSP designed multi-phase strategy where phase I involves hold the line program in El Paso, TX, and operational gatekeeper in San Diego, CA. Phase II includes increase of Operation Rio Grande in Texas. Phase III and phase IV includes remaining southwest border. This was a successful strategy where arrests of illegal entry were increased and reduced number of immigrants. National border patrol strategy: After 9/11 attacks, USBP has formulated new NBPS. It was designed to emphasis on terrorism. Its main motto was to prevent terrorism. The five main objectives of NBPS are as follows. (Rosenblum, 2012) By increasing the number of apprehension of terrorists and prevent their illegal entry and also prevent weapon smuggling. Decreasing illegal entry by improving enforcement laws. Detecting, apprehending and deterring smugglers of drugs and human. Leveraging Smart border technology. Reducing crime in border communities. Conclusion: Illegal immigration is one of the biggest threats to nation. It is one of the reasons for terrorism and drugs in the country. It decreases the value of legal citizen. It acts as root cause for many criminal activities, drugs, terrorism etc. This has to be prevented. Border security is striving to fight against illegal immigration.

Friday, October 25, 2019

An Analysis of the Epic Poem, Beowulf - Bravery in Beowulf :: Epic of Beowulf Essays

Bravery in Beowulf Bravery is like a very trusted friend, it will never let you down. That statement holds true in the great epic of "Beowulf." "Beowulf" is the story of a great hero who comes to the aid of a troubled king. Beowulf hears that king Hrothgar is having trouble and immediately comes to help with no questions asked. he defeats the monster, Grendel, with his bare hands. Beowulf then defeats Grendel's mother along with a dragon until he is fatally injured. Bravery is a very admirable characteristic that few people possess. First of all, Beowulf came to help Hrothgar on his own free will. Hearing of the troubles that Hrothgar was having with a monster terrorizing Herot, his mead hall, Beowulf bravely offered his help not knowing what he was up against. When he arrived, Beowulf did not ask the king for either money nor fame. The only favor that he asked of Hrothgar was that he and his men were to fight the monster, Grendel. Coming away from one's homeland to help get rid of a man-eating monster and asking for nothing in return takes much courage and is an extremely brave deed. Next, Beowulf decides to fight Grendel with his bare hands. He could have easily obtained some kind of weapon to fight with. Beowulf was the first warrior ever to have enough sheer bravery to go up against such a monster with neither help nor weapon or shield to aid him. he was a warrior that believed somewhat in fate and in God. Believing that God made the decisions and was in control, Beowulf trusted that his life was in good hands. Defeating Grendel with his bare hands, Beowulf not only proved his bravery but also his loyalty. After defeating Grendel, Beowulf came back twice in order to kill Grendel's mother and a fire-breathing dragon. Although during his bout with the dragon, Beowulf was fatally injured. As his services were needed, he always prevailed; Beowulf's bravery never tired. He even had to fight and kill these monsters in their homes where nobody had ever ventured. Successfully defeating Grendel's mother lead Beowulf into his third and final battle with the last monster.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Environmental Impact Essay

Sanchez and Hudson opened small pediatric office in Riverside, California is an example of having a dream come true without planning for the future. The building has become too large for the staffing that the Two Doctors /entruenpuers have been in for five years, Records are being lost, and waiting rooms packed medical records systems are overloaded with the possibility of patient’s records getting lost. Long lines cause patients to get in patients and staff to get stressed from their inability to serve their customers. The Two business men are spending most of their time now working on expanding the building hiring staff, talking to community services all important things with the except ion of continuing to fulfill their dream of excellent care for their patients. Sanchez and Hudson have to immediately implement immediate organizational change plan and organize for success. Some steps that could be taken to assist change would be to research other clinics of the same size or Hire a consultant firm. The company should research how the Economic, Political, Techno logical, legal and Social/Culture, Demographic trends impacts their continued growth in the community. There are many ways the company could move forward, they will have to look inside and take a complete inventory of the whole clinic, from the paper, the qualifications of employees, the job description of employees, how many employees will be needed or eliminated. Since cast study says they are busy working on the expansion, it’s safe to assume that they have either found a new location in the community and that they do have the financial backing of the banks and the stakes holders involved during the process. Managing the change for this company will be challenging for all that is involved, so there will definitely have be a Leader chosen to lead the transition team forward and to motivate the team during this time of change. The eight stage model for change used in our class room will be a go example of how Hudson and Sanchez should move forward. The first thing they should do is hire a consulting firm to manage the day to operation of the office. During this will free up Hudson and Sanchez to begin to develop a more in-depth business plan for future operations. The consulting firm will research the company’s operations to see how it can be improved, they will talk to the management team, and (if there is one in place) they will look at staffing and staffing schedules. Also they will talk to the clients to discussion their wants and needs. The consulting firm will also go outside through the community to find out how they feel about new improvements and thoughts of expansion. I had firsthand experience working with a team of consultants during an organization change at the University of Maryland. The team came 6 months before the present organization was to leave and revamped the entire system. The consulted did all of the things mentioned above plus they provided counseling, resume writing, interview procedures, and job search assistant for employees and managers that were not being retained. This consulting team tried to ensure that people remained motivated by holding classes, having lots of one conversation with staff and consistently informing the staff of almost every change that was going too happened before it happened. This would help the Hudson team because of their stress level and insecurities’ about the future of the company would motivate them. The consulting team system works even for the people who will not be retained in the company. Having a consulting team would let them always have a place to go for answers during the change. Using other people to create constructive change can only help team members feel better about the transition that is happening. (www. managing-change. net) when people don’t trust what is happening they become distrustful and resistant to the change which can cause a slowdown of events. Leaders must communicate the need for change widely and how that change will help everyone. Leaders need to be proactive and talk to and listen to what the employees have to say, this will help them feel involved and important doing the process. Researching how the Economic, Political, Techno logical, legal and Social/Culture, Demographic trends impacts their continued growth in the community. The economic trends if expanding the company is feasible at this time, financial concerns of the clients have a direct effect on the progress of the company. Such as what kind of disposable income are available, interest rates, inflation and the unemployment rates? All this reflect on the manner of how the company will received payment for services rendered. If unemployment is too high some previous clients will not be able to afford services, , but if inflation and interest rates drop there would be more money for surgery and other projects that could be done around the building. The political trends could involve official’s policies and the wants and needs of their constituents throughout the community. For instance if Hudson and Sanchez where to offered abortions and it wasn’t an excepted norm in that neighborhood it could cause a political hot spot with people for and against their expansion. At the same time if they offered a service the community badly needed like, free health screenings, of cancer, high blood pressure, or diabetes officials would jump on the brad wagon to help promote the expansion of the organization Technological trends will help identify the different resources available to improve the service given by Hudson and Sanchez. They can see what agencies/companies are using to keep medical records. At one hospital I worked they now keep all records on computer and no paper copies. At another Unit all medical records are stored using cloud technology where all information is sent to another location and pulled up on the computer when needed, which saves time, space and money. Technology can also provide quicker way to set-up appointments, review medicines the doctor has prescribed. Legal trends can help with knowledge about legal actions taken on the patient area; this will provide valuable information about compensation and liability cases. Social/Culture trends will indentify the culture and belief that are the norm in the area of the clinic. All of these trends will help Hudson and Sanchez to develop a better plan for the growth of their clinic and help with the change that will be occurring as they move forward. After the research is done Dr Harold s Resnick of worksystems suggests that there are 10 steps to change management, Confirming the compelling need for change, identifying the boundary conditions, creating the vision of the desired end state, developing the core work processes, defining key roles and responsibilities, modifying the organizational structure, establishing the key performance measure, reviewing system wide tools, develop training that enables performance ,aligning the reward system. http://worksystems. com) His steps correlates with the 8 stage model of planned organizational as outlined in our text manual. T o be successful should follow the procedures outlined in both. Stage one identify the problem Hudson, cannot provide service, they are not happy with the service provider, so this should be communicate to the staff. They should get the feedback from the staff and their feelings. Hudson and Sanchez should provide them with the research they have found. Stage 2 with this knowledge base they can get the consultant team they can get in this case indentify who should be managers, supervisors , team leaders so that they will be involved in the process moving forward. Here they can devise how new policies and procedures will be enacted and who perform what tasks. The consultant team I was involved with spoke to all managers daily to see if the implementation of new policies or procedures where going well or if there was problems. Problems where dealt with immediately. Stage 3.  Develop their Vision what kind of clinic do they want to be now, 5 years, ten years or 20 years from now. Developing a â€Å"Mission Statement â€Å"which is a summary of their Vision will help both the public and staff understand what the company striving for. When they first started it was â€Å"To provide excellent care to children† Now it might be to provide the best care possible children and families of the community meetings with ’. The Vision has to be where they want to take the practice. Stage 5: Empowering the employees to put the vision together and performance to level necessary to reach the goals. One way would be to have daily team meetings, monthly client meetings, and semi-annual town meetings for the whole community to express ideas, complaints and to get know one another better to develop a partnership. Stage 6 when something goes well let the team knows. One example My Shock trauma Team used was to mail Thank You notes to employee’s homes for jobs well done, birthday cards and when the budget allowed gift cards. This made team members feel special, motivated, they enjoy sharing with co-workers and family members. Stage 7.  When one thing is accomplished keep striving for the vision of the big picture. Stage 8 Inspect what you expect, people have a tendency to fall back on the old way doing things once the urgency seems to settle down. It is up the supervisors, manager not to fall bad into the habits of doing things. In closing the main changes I see that Hudson and Sanchez will have to do start their organizational change is Establish a unified set of policies and benefits, intergrate management structure and redefine all reporting relationships Establish best-in- industry cost structures. ross train employees to perform non-crictal tasks, add new computer system or invest in a networking system with other healthcare services in their area. Every new decision will need to be evaluated to determine if it will suit their operation, . All goals should be specific, attainable, realistic and measurable. If Hudson And Sanchez stand firm their company will grow and they will be force in the commun ity for years to come.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

How to Make Your Own Baking Powder at Home

How to Make Your Own Baking Powder at Home You can make baking powder yourself using other common kitchen ingredients. Heres a simple homemade recipe you can use in place of commercial baking powder for cooking. Baking Powder Ingredients 2 teaspoons cream of tartar (potassium bitartrate)1 teaspoon baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) Using Baking Powder Baking powder produces bubbles that cause baked goods to rise by making carbon dioxide gas as soon as the dry and wet ingredients are mixed. Ensure success by preheating your oven. Dont overmix your ingredients or wait to bake your recipe or the bubbles may have a chance to dissipate, causing your recipe to fall flat. Storing Homemade Baking Powder The homemade baking powder will clump together if it isnt used right away, but you can prevent this by adding 1 teaspoon of cornstarch to the baking powder mixture. Store the baking powder in an airtight container. Commercial baking powder preparations often contain undesirable ingredients (such as aluminum compounds). By making your own baking powder, youll have complete control over your ingredients. You can test the baking powder before using it to make sure it is still fresh.

Monday, October 21, 2019

about me essays

about me essays My culture, Hinduism, and race, Indian, have been the most influential characteristics in my life. These two characteristics combined also influence my other characteristics such as my age and sex. In America, my age restricts me from doing many things; but coming from a Hindu background brings me many more responsibilities along with my age. My sex prohibits me from achieving many life goals that other people would have no problem achieving. My ethnicity and culture have had a very big impact on my social life. Learning that I was different from others was an experience that I will remember for the rest of my life. I learned about one of my dominant characteristics in the second grade. One day in class, Steven Vogel cut out little red dots for me because I did not already have one on my forehead. He also howled like an American Indian and did a rain dance for me. That day, I realized that I was different and I would have to live with it for the rest of my life. I lived in a southern town of Florida near the border of Alabama where many people were not open to other races; so I would have to get used to the taunting. At that time, I realized that I am Indian. Growing up, everyone wants to be in the in-group. Being an Indian Hindu girl, I was told not to go out. I was not allowed to go to football games, school dances, or any other after-school functions. No matter how much we want to be in the popular group in high school, most Indian children belong in the group between the in-group and the nerds. Hindu parents usually do not let their children go out because they believe their children will be corrupted. For example, I really wanted to go to my senior prom, but I was not allowed to. I was not even allowed to get a job like a normal teenager. This summer I asked my parents if I could so that I could save up for college. My father did not let me get a job because I had to stay home to learn ho...

Sunday, October 20, 2019

The Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842

The Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842 A major achievement in diplomacy and foreign policy for post-revolutionary America, the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842 peacefully eased tensions between the United States and Canada by resolving several long-standing border disputes and other issues. Background: The 1783 Treaty of Paris In 1775, on the brink of the American Revolution, the 13 American colonies were still part of the 20 territories of the British Empire in North America, which include the territories that would become the Province of Canada in 1841, and eventually, the Dominion of Canada in 1867. On September 3, 1783, in Paris, France, representatives of the United States of America and King George III of Great Britain signed the Treaty of Paris ending the American Revolution. Along with acknowledging America’s independence from Britain, the Treaty of Paris created an official border between the American colonies and the remaining British territories in North America. The 1783 border ran through the center of the Great Lakes, then from Lake of the Woods â€Å"due west† to what was then believed to be the source or â€Å"headwaters† of the Mississippi River. The border as drawn gave the United States lands that had previously been reserved for indigenous peoples of the Americas by earlier treaties and alliances with Great Britain. The treaty also granted Americans fishing rights off the coast of Newfoundland and access to the eastern banks of the Mississippi in return for restitution and compensation to British loyalists who had refused to take part in the American Revolution. Differing interpretations of the 1783 Treaty of Paris resulted in several disputes between the United States and the Canadian colonies, most notably the Oregon Question and the Aroostook War. The Oregon Question The Oregon Question involved a dispute over territorial control and commercial use of the Pacific Northwest regions of North America between the United States, the Russian Empire, Great Britain, and Spain. By 1825, Russia and Spain had withdrawn their claims to the region as a result of international treaties. The same treaties granted Britain and the United States residual territorial claims in the disputed region. Called the â€Å"Columbia District† by Britain and the â€Å"Oregon Country† by America, the contested area was defined as being: west of the Continental Divide, north of Alta California at the 42nd parallel, and south of Russian America at the 54th parallel. Hostilities in the disputed area dated back to the War of 1812, fought between the United States and Great Britain over trade disputes, the forced service, or â€Å"impressment† of American sailors into the British Navy, and Britain’s support of Indian attacks on Americans in the Northwest frontier. After the War of 1812, the Oregon Question played an increasingly important role in international diplomacy between the British Empire and the new American Republic. The Aroostook War More of an international incident than an actual war, the 1838-1839 Aroostook War – sometimes called the Pork and Beans War – involved a dispute between the United States and Britain over the location of the border between the British colony of New Brunswick and the U.S. state of Maine. While no one was killed in the Aroostook War, Canadian officials in New Brunswick arrested some Americans in the disputed areas and the U.S. State of Maine called out its militia, which proceeded to seize parts of the territory. Along with the lingering Oregon Question, the Aroostook War highlighted the need for a peaceful compromise on the border between the United States and Canada. That peaceful compromise would come from the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty From 1841 to 1843, during his first term as Secretary of State under President John Tyler, Daniel Webster faced several thorny foreign policy issues involving Great Britain. These included the Canadian border dispute, the involvement of American citizens in the Canadian rebellion of 1837 and the abolition of international slave trade. On April 4, 1842, Secretary of State Webster sat down with British diplomat Lord Ashburton in Washington, D.C., both men intent on working things out peacefully. Webster and Ashburton started by reaching an agreement on the boundary between the United States and Canada. The Webster–Ashburton Treaty re-established the border between Lake Superior and the Lake of the Woods, as originally defined in the Treaty of Paris in 1783, and confirmed the location of the border in the western frontier as running along the 49th parallel up to the Rocky Mountains, as defined in the Treaty of 1818. Webster and Ashburton also agreed that the U.S. and Canada would share the commercial use of the Great Lakes. The Oregon Question, however, remained unresolved until June 15, 1846, when the U.S. and Canada averted a potential war by agreeing to the Oregon Treaty. The Alexander McLeod Affair Shortly after the end of the Canadian Rebellion of 1837, several Canadian participants fled to the United States. Along with some American adventurers, the group occupied a Canadian-owned island in the Niagara River and employed a U.S. ship, the Caroline; to bring them supplies. Canadian troops boarded the Caroline in a New York harbor, seized her cargo, killed one crewman in the process, and then allowed the empty ship to drift over Niagara Falls. A few weeks later, a Canadian citizen named Alexander McLeod crossed the border into New York where he bragged that he had helped seize the Caroline and had, in fact, killed the crewman. American police arrested McLeod. The British government claimed that McLeod had acted under the command of British forces and should be released to their custody. The British warned that if the U.S. executed McLeod, they would declare war. While the U.S. government agreed that McLeod should not face trial for actions he had committed while under orders of the British Government, it lacked the legal authority to force the State of New York to release him to British authorities. New York refused to release McLeod and tried him. Even though McLeod was acquitted, hard feelings remained. As a result of the McLeod incident, the Webster-Ashburton Treaty agreed on principles of international law allowing for the exchange, or â€Å"extradition† of criminals. International Slave Trade While Secretary Webster and Lord Ashburton both agreed that international slave trade on the high seas should be banned, Webster refused to Ashburton’s demands that the British be allowed to inspect U.S. ships suspected of carrying slaves. Instead, he agreed that the U.S. would station warships off the coast of Africa to search suspected slave ships flying the American flag. While this agreement became part of the Webster–Ashburton Treaty, the U.S. failed to vigorously enforce its slave ship inspections until the Civil War began in 1861. The Slave Ship ‘Creole’ Affair Though it was not specifically mentioned in the treaty, Webster-Ashburton also brought a settlement to the slave trade-related case of the Creole. In November 1841, the U.S. slave ship Creole was sailing from Richmond, Virginia, to New Orleans with 135 slaves on board. Along the way, 128 of the slaves escaped their chains and took over the ship killing one of the white slave traders. As commanded by the slaves, the Creole sailed to Nassau in the Bahamas where the slaves were set free. The British government paid the United States $110,330 because under international law at the time officials in the Bahamas did not have the authority to free the slaves. Also outside the Webster-Ashburton treaty, the British government agreed to end the impressment of American sailors.

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Compare and Contrast the Recent Economic Development of the Economies Essay

Compare and Contrast the Recent Economic Development of the Economies of China and India, Which Country Has the Best Prospects - Essay Example The effects are already showing, like the combination of the new market opportunities growing from the enhanced purchasing power and also greater competitiveness of these huge economies as the producers of various selected goods. In order to come up with effective policies, it is necessary to check the expected impact in order to come up with the policies and strategies that foresee the different changes, so as to efficiently capitalize on the new opportunities (Barro & Lee 2001, p.17). A lot has become documented about India and China of late. The two nations have experienced increased growth that has led to notable achievements, mainly in areas dealing with reduction of poverty. The two countries also share the same problems related to rapid growth like the increasing rural urban income gap and also environmental degradation. Increasing incomes generate impetus for the structural change in the agricultural field and food areas as the demand and the consumption patterns tend to shif t. In addition, these impacts will move to commerce, trade and investment. Both the two nations, China and India have witnessed impressive growth in the field of agriculture, which is at the same time followed by the rapid growth in the industrial sector and a decline in the poverty levels. The essay is going to discuss the policy separately and also the institutional changes that lead to these changes. In addition, to compare and contrast both of the two countries in respect of the future growth, the impending impact that growth will have on the nations domestic economies and to some extent the impact of their growth to other Asia- Pacific nations (Bosworth & Collins 2003, p.89). It is evident that the growing incomes in these nations will still continue to develop pressure, for the nation’s structural reform of their own agricultural development and food areas to sustain the ever changing demand size and evolving consumers’ preferences and tastes. The changing income s also provide trade opportunities with nations in the region and also other global countries (Kuijis & Wang 2006, p. 12). According to a United Nations study, Both China and India have a joint population of 2.3 billion people, nearly 37% of the global population. A $100 increase in the levels of per capita income of these two nations would result in around $230billion in extra demand for goods. The ever-increasing growth of these two over-populated countries will affect the balance and direction of trade significantly, the trading possibilities and a conducive level playing field for other small countries in the region. This calls for a timely check of the growth pattern in these developing countries, in order to come up with policies that will optimize gains and minimize the losses and marginalization (Woo 2004, p.8). Both India and China have enormous agricultural sectors. The experience of the Chinese shows the vital role agricultural development has played in the initial period s of reform. In India, for example, a country that is not as industrialized as China, agriculture plays an important role in its development. While GDP share in agriculture has been decreasing, this sector still forms an indispensable part of the job sector. Performance in the agricultural sector is hence of immense importance for future policies and strategies to achieve the Development Goals, mostly the crucial first

Friday, October 18, 2019

Toasting the Rebellion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Toasting the Rebellion - Essay Example The examples of how such public display of Celebration shaped the formation of various revolutions are explained quite vividly in the text. Some of the examples are, The Boston Massacre, Boston Tea Party and The Stamp Act Riots. The text points out that despite the idea behind such Toasting and loud singing are revolutionary the act in itself have been carried out in a very peaceful manner on various occasions. Thus, the focus remained on affirmation of political and national identities rather than public outcry. The significance of Toasts and Singing were usually carried out by huge amounts of drinking and singing in famous public places like Tavern and coffeehouses. At first the tradition was to play and sing songs that are mainly patriotic, however later the tradition moved on to playing satirical Ballads especially on politico-administrations. Usually its significance lay in venting oneself out, and to display one’s spirit openly. Most of the time, such Toasts and songs we re utilized in exerting enough pressure by certain politico groups. A huge amount of nationalism and collective consciousness was created among the people of similar beliefs, or even drawing people on one’s belief, during that time.

Criminal Law Case Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Criminal Law Case Report - Essay Example She therefore initiated a legal action in order to challenge the constitutionality of the criminal abortion laws in Texas. There were additional plaintiffs, however, the facts were quite different than those of Roe. In particular, these plaintiffs were not pregnant and they did not present the same sense of urgency and relevance as existed in the case of Roe. The United State Supreme Court dismissed these plaintiffs because they lacked legal "standing" and because the issues in their cases were not yet decidable or "justiceable." This report, consequently, will focus on the specifics and the legal merits of the case involving Roe. The main questions presented are whether the Texas criminal abortion laws violate certain constitutional principles and provisions. Roe, a resident of Dallas, Texas, initiated this lawsuit in a federal court. The defendant was the District Attorney of the county in which she resided. She didn't sue for money; instead she requested that the federal court issue a declaratory judgment stating that the criminal abortion laws violated the federal constitution and she further requested that the federal court issue an injunction to prohibit the District Attorney from enforcing the criminal abortion statutes. ... Roe was successful as the federal trial court found that the ninth and fourteenth amendments did, in fact, extend to women a "fundamental right" to decide whether or not to have children. The federal court further decided that the Texas criminal abortion laws were "unconstitutionally vague" and that Roe was entitled to a declaratory judgment. A difficulty, however, was that because the criminal abortion laws were declared void, the injunctive relief requested by Roe was dismissed. Neither party was satisfied. Roe appealed from the rejection of her request for injunctive relief and the District Attorney appealed from the declaration that the criminal abortion laws were unconstitutional and therefore void. Traditionally, cases are appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. In this case, by contrast, a "protective appeal" was made to the 5th Circuit and also directly to the United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court noted some awkwardness with the skipping of the intermediate appellate court, but at the same time noted that it had discretion to review the appeals. Therefore, the Supreme Court proceeded to review the case on its merits. Legal Discussion: The United States Supreme Court Justice Blackmun was compelled to address a number of preliminary issues prior to addressing the constitutionality of the Texas criminal abortion laws. There was a suggestion that Roe did not have legal standing to bring this case because she was not pregnant at certain times during the course of the litigation. The Supreme Court dismissed these arguments by stating that pregnancy is by its very nature a limited condition and that the legal issues were of sufficient important to

World and Independent Cinema Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

World and Independent Cinema - Essay Example Casino Royale reopens the sequence, creating a new timeline and chronicle sequence not meant to follow or head any earlier bond production. This enabled the movie to demonstrate an inexperienced and more valuable James and for once in the character, series of Miss Money Penny fails to appear. Additionally, forming the movie involved an intensive search for a new character to portray Bond, and critical debate surrounded Craig when he was appointed to take over from Pierce Brosnan, (Williams, 2006, p. 23). Casino Royale film documents the story of a newly selected British agent, James Bond, who in collaboration with impudent little agent of treasury, starts rogue mission to kill a terrorist bankroller in a high stakes poker game before his customers reach him first and try a global attack. The movie has some differences as compared to the mainstream (Hollywood) formula. For instance, when Pierce assumed the role of Bond J for Goldeneye, a lot was produced concerning the modernization of franchise. In fact, the only evident transformations were cosmetics, (Lindner, 2009, p. 45). Pierce Brosnan 007 is easily related to the character earlier performed by Connery S, Lazenby G, Moore R and Dalton T. With the rise of Craig Daniel to the authority to kill, martini, firearm and tux seismic shifts have taken place. The movie is not about the famous James bond of 1960s to 90s but the new era of M16s highly featured agent. The primary function of the film is to recreate the franchise. Daniel is not taking over after Brosnan; he is recreating the role. Additionally, as far as the film is concerned, little in the earlier 20 series has happened compared to the current scene. This is the origin story of Bond, and the only crucial bit of continuity is Dench Judy’s return as Mrs. M Forget. For decades now, James Bond formula has been submerged in an ocean of rip-offs and claimants, each highly over-the-top as compared to its successors. In a bid to

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Organizational Communication Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Organizational Communication - Research Paper Example Effective communication in this case requires message, a sender, a recipient, codes to help in encoding the message, and a means of transmitting the message. If passed on well information contained in communication will encourage and promote good relations between people and entities. This therefore emphasizes the need for effective communication if the businesses are to prosper as well as have a good flow of information within the out of their confines. One of the characteristics of effective communication is the absence of conflict in response or reaction as has been captured perfectly by Katherine Miller (2008). When we talk of organizational communication, we essentially refer to the way in which companies, associations or groupings communicate with their employees, clientele as well as how departments interrelate with each other. It is also encompasses the relationship between a business and its environment, a process that enables the organization to relate with its surrounding in order to serve them with finesse (Carsten, & De Dreu, 2007). Literature Review: Effective communication in a very important tool in an organization, especially because of the way it helps in promoting good flow of information and hence relationship and performance of the business departments as they create a synergy for achieving the best results in terms of production. Organizational communication can either be internal or external. Internal communication is solely communication within the confines of the company while external is communication with other businesses or any other external entity. Effective communication leads to many positive effects and leads to good productivity. There are several ways that management can use communication to pass information. They include emails, meetings, face-to-face discussions, letters, video conferencing, conferences and telephone calls (Fredric, & Jablin 2007). Noteworthy, is the fact that some methods of message transfer are more effect ive and detailed than others and therefore appropriate to always evaluate the organization and weigh the most effective and cost efficient mode of communication for your business, and through which the company can achieve maximum profits. When the most appropriate mode of communication is used then message contained in it not only leads to its effective transfer but it also enhances a good relationship between various entities in the an organization and especially the top management and the workers. It also creates an enabling environment for the building of trust within the company workers (Miller, 2008). Communication as a process is a very dynamic and vibrant process when compared to other business processes. As a process communication changes with individuals and this is dependent on factors such as education, eloquence, target audience and the message being transmitted itself. It is therefore right to say that the sender of the message determines how the message will be underst ood and interpreted. If communication is efficient, it will get rid of events of conflicting messages or conflicting responses (Fredric, & Jablin, 2007). Successful communication at different levels of management is important in an organization in that it helps in building of relationships amongst these people. Communication between management and employee is also a very important aspect

IN6 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

IN6 - Essay Example Inspirations appear from the region of controlling configurations of ground or in-flight vehicles with purposes in air travel organize, satellite grouping, mechanical highways, movable robotics and movable sensor networks. One of the major aims is to attain a synchronized purpose while employing merely confined information. Due to their recurrent expression in multi-agent schemes, active networks have previously established considerable attention. In a determination of local connectedness of a network is brought in that below positive conditions is enough for global connectedness (Alben et al, 2002). This main focus of this paper is to see this technique in organizational management prospective. In an era when "always accessible, forever connected" has turn out to be the standard anticipation in business, benevolent employees the aptitude to access appliance and real-time data and information could be serious for a companys continued existence. Though a number of industries applications are inexorably client based, a lot of of the center business procedure applications, like that CRM, sales strength automation, and electronic mail, are network based facilities and utilities. In addition, in business situations where teamwork and information distribution are serious, it commonly creates the most intelligence to influence the corporate network as an electronic warehouse of information and possessions. In both of these statements, offering Distributed connectivity and real-time access to the mainly current information be able to be serious to member of employees effectiveness and, normally, to the fulfillment of the enterprises clientele (Deshmukh et al, 1993). This section elaborates why we need this technique for the original management? Here it is described that how this technique can provide effective project management approach and facilitate the project manager. While end-to-end direct connectivity was a necessity

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

World and Independent Cinema Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

World and Independent Cinema - Essay Example Casino Royale reopens the sequence, creating a new timeline and chronicle sequence not meant to follow or head any earlier bond production. This enabled the movie to demonstrate an inexperienced and more valuable James and for once in the character, series of Miss Money Penny fails to appear. Additionally, forming the movie involved an intensive search for a new character to portray Bond, and critical debate surrounded Craig when he was appointed to take over from Pierce Brosnan, (Williams, 2006, p. 23). Casino Royale film documents the story of a newly selected British agent, James Bond, who in collaboration with impudent little agent of treasury, starts rogue mission to kill a terrorist bankroller in a high stakes poker game before his customers reach him first and try a global attack. The movie has some differences as compared to the mainstream (Hollywood) formula. For instance, when Pierce assumed the role of Bond J for Goldeneye, a lot was produced concerning the modernization of franchise. In fact, the only evident transformations were cosmetics, (Lindner, 2009, p. 45). Pierce Brosnan 007 is easily related to the character earlier performed by Connery S, Lazenby G, Moore R and Dalton T. With the rise of Craig Daniel to the authority to kill, martini, firearm and tux seismic shifts have taken place. The movie is not about the famous James bond of 1960s to 90s but the new era of M16s highly featured agent. The primary function of the film is to recreate the franchise. Daniel is not taking over after Brosnan; he is recreating the role. Additionally, as far as the film is concerned, little in the earlier 20 series has happened compared to the current scene. This is the origin story of Bond, and the only crucial bit of continuity is Dench Judy’s return as Mrs. M Forget. For decades now, James Bond formula has been submerged in an ocean of rip-offs and claimants, each highly over-the-top as compared to its successors. In a bid to

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

IN6 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

IN6 - Essay Example Inspirations appear from the region of controlling configurations of ground or in-flight vehicles with purposes in air travel organize, satellite grouping, mechanical highways, movable robotics and movable sensor networks. One of the major aims is to attain a synchronized purpose while employing merely confined information. Due to their recurrent expression in multi-agent schemes, active networks have previously established considerable attention. In a determination of local connectedness of a network is brought in that below positive conditions is enough for global connectedness (Alben et al, 2002). This main focus of this paper is to see this technique in organizational management prospective. In an era when "always accessible, forever connected" has turn out to be the standard anticipation in business, benevolent employees the aptitude to access appliance and real-time data and information could be serious for a companys continued existence. Though a number of industries applications are inexorably client based, a lot of of the center business procedure applications, like that CRM, sales strength automation, and electronic mail, are network based facilities and utilities. In addition, in business situations where teamwork and information distribution are serious, it commonly creates the most intelligence to influence the corporate network as an electronic warehouse of information and possessions. In both of these statements, offering Distributed connectivity and real-time access to the mainly current information be able to be serious to member of employees effectiveness and, normally, to the fulfillment of the enterprises clientele (Deshmukh et al, 1993). This section elaborates why we need this technique for the original management? Here it is described that how this technique can provide effective project management approach and facilitate the project manager. While end-to-end direct connectivity was a necessity

Video games are good Essay Example for Free

Video games are good Essay In this 21st generation, video games are one of the most entertaining and one of the most popular ways to enjoy time. Video games are electronic human interactive games, which can be played in different types of consoles in a variety of ways. Have you ever thought about video games being beneficial? Or not just something which helps pass time or something that is a bad addiction? Video games are so popular in today’s world that, the video game business earns billions of dollars on releasing a game or a type of console. In 2010 the play station brand hit 155 million units sales of their ever so famous console, â€Å"the play station 2,† which is also known as the â€Å"PS2. † Video games are not just an entertainment but, it has turned into something much bigger, it has turned into a business and also a living for some people. Many people state that video games are bad for us, like there is a topic posted in debate. org, where people who think video games are not of any good, and surprisingly to my benefits of my opinion 67% of the people who rated the discussion disliked it! Many people also have related violent behavior to violent games, like the tragic massacre that took place on the December 12th 2012, when 20 year old Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 children and 6 adult staffs, in Sandy Hook Elementary School. Many have said that, Violent video games was one of the main motivations for Adam’s violent act, A TV and a radio host, named Glen beck stated that the, â€Å"Sandy Hook Massacre,† was caused by video games. He also states that, â€Å"video games are a gateway drug for our kids and instead of a high, they get numbness, they get an indifferent heart and a mind that cannot tell the difference between fiction and reality. † I strongly disagree with his point; there was violence before video games. I believe the Sandy Hook murderer was a mentally ill and an unstable teenager. If video games was the case, there are a lot of children play violent video games, like the first person shooting game â€Å"Call of Duty Black Ops II,† is a violent war game and the game is really realistic and it is brutal. The game went to gross $ 1 Billion in the first 15 days of availability. With so many people playing violent games there should have more than at least 50 massacres yearly according to my calculation. I mean if a normal human being plays a violent video game for maybe even more than 12 hours a week, it wont motivate or trigger us to go kill someone, you have to have some kind of a mental illness or a violent angst, to go fling around guns in public. Video games are not harmful for someone, and many parents and critics are very judgmental about it, as many kids are not properly guided and supervised while playing video games. Video games, are surely fun but an individual should be self discipline and even the parents should be able to handle and guide their children on how much they play their video games. An article by Health Central also suggests that video games are bad. It tells the readers that it makes people un-social, obese, and also it causes them to have bad grades, aren’t these reasons all about self-disciplinary? Are video games the main cause of this? Video Games are even in fact educational, like the game Civil-war, teaches us and gives us like a first hand experience about the American civil war fought in 1861. It also gives out facts and important dates about the civil war in the loading screen. Maybe even someone who has a hard time making friends, get along with others, while playing video games or them having the same interest in video games. â€Å"A growing body of university research suggests that gaming improves creativity, perception and also decision making† (Hotz par. 1). Experts of health central said that, video games causes people to be obese, anti-social and perform bad in schools, but I believe it is the fault of those gamers who get to addictive to video game and their lack of self-discipline. Video games cannot be blamed for those reasons. If we put it like that anything we do excessively is harm to us. Playing video games is not a bad thing at all; it instead helps us pass time more entertainingly and has benefits to it as well. A research showed that people who played video games made better decisions 25% faster than those who did not play video games. A research by University of York aimed to discover if video games improver hand-eye coordination. † In order to discover this, they compared the brain activity of participants who played video games for at least 4 hours a week with the results from participants who did not play video games. The study showed that the participants who did not play video games relied mostly on a part of the brain that controls hand eye coordination. In order to complete the games, the men who were not accustomed to playing video games had to focus a large amount of mental energy on coordinating what they were seeing on the screen with the physical actions they were making on the controller. Besides hand eye co-ordination, active games like the, â€Å"Nintendo Wii has promoted where you have to do things physically which has proved to improve your physicality and give you enough exercise† (Wittman par. 5). As I mentioned before video games can be a way of living for someone nowadays, an article by Kyle Russell states that, â€Å"over 60 gamers earn more than 100,000 US dollar without counting the sponsorship deals and streaming their practice games. † Even I have experinced how drastically video games improve you reactions and hand eye cordination. When I was in middle school, we had to play indoor games during the winter as it used to be really cold outside to play soccer, which was really sad for me as I love soccer and I kind of didn’t like to play indoor game. We were made to play table-tennis, and I used to hate it as I was really not that good. Around that time was when I started playing video games and as soon as that, after two months or so, I really felt myself improving in table-tennis drastically and without practice. My reactions were really fast, I later then realized how video games had a big role in that. Video games have many benefirts, In an article by Drew Guarini posted in the Huff post says â€Å"a study by a group of Italian researchers proved that video games helps dyslexic children read better. Many may still argue that, even after all these benefits video games are not worth its cost, but if we look at the long run it might save us a lot of money, a anti video game mom, Jo Ashiline also re-considered getting a video game, she said, â€Å"This dilemma led me this Christmas to consider getting a video game system, at least a Wii that we could all play together. The kids pointed out that I spent $82 the last time we all went bowling, and with the Wii, we could bowl at home for free (Ashline, par. 7). Ultimately, it is apparent that video games are a lot more beneficial than many people think, video games have had its prejudices created by all the critics those have very invalid reasoning like how some said, Video games are the reason for mass massacre, or even maybe how video games causes bad-grades and obesity. Those reasons are not because of the video game, but because of lack of supervision and self-disciplinary. I think that Video games are a wonderful way to spend time while having many benefits to everyone. For the old folks who may think that video games are only for the younger one, you may want to re-consider. A study this year conducted by University of Iowa found out that, Playing brain-teasing game for just two hours a week may help slow the degree of mental decay associated with the natural aging process. (Guarini D, par. 10). Work Cited FYI: Video Game Statistics by the Entertainment Software Association. Critical Gaming Project. Word Press, n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. Are Video Games Bad for Children? The Premier Online Debate Website. N. p. , n. d. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. Sandy hook shoting article Sandy Hook Shooter Motivated by Violent Video Games, Norway Massacre (Report). The Hollywood Reporter. N. p. , 18 Feb. 2013. Web. 19 Nov. 2013. Feraligatr, Caz. Glenn Beck: Video Games Are A Drug That Killed 28 People! Blog by CazFeraligatr IGN. IGN. N. p. , 22 Feb. 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. Main Menu. Dependable Video Games. N. p. , 19 Sept. 2012. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. Video Gaming Increases Physical Activity. The Journal of Extension (JOE). Journal of Extension, n. d. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. Russel, Kyle. The Highest-Paid Professional Video Gamers In The World. Web log post. Business Insider. N. p. , n. d. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. Guarini, Drew. 9 Ways Video Games Can Actually Be Good For You. The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost. com, 07 Nov. 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. Work Cited Ashline, Jo. Video Games Were Invented by the Devil OC Moms: The Mom Blog : The Orange County Register. OC Moms: The Mom Blog. N. p. , 27 Dec. 2009. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.

Monday, October 14, 2019

Treatment of Rituximab in Pemphigus Vulgaris Patients

Treatment of Rituximab in Pemphigus Vulgaris Patients Part 3: Clinical Research 2 INTRODUCTION Pemphigus is the name of a group of life-threatening blistering diseases of the skin and mucous membranes. The base of treatment for this disease is corticosteroids; however, recently, new drugs, such as rituximab, have been verified for more severe forms of it. In the authors previously unpublished study, the effect of rituximab on variation in the laboratory indices of pemphigus vulgaris patients is addressed. After investigation of the files of pemphigus patients who received rituximab in Razi Hospital, Tehran, Iran from 2008 to 2013, 39 patients were entered into the study. All patients had lab sheets containing CR (creatinine), urea, ALT (alanine aminotransferase), AST (aspartate aminotransferase), Plt (platelet), Hgb (hemoglobin), and WBC (white blood cell) before and after receiving rituximab. The patients received rituximab 4 times at a dosage of 500 mg in 4 successive weeks. The lab results before receiving the first dose of rituximab were compared to the results after receiving treatment. The effect of rituximab on the variation in lab indices with the adjustment effect of age, gender, disease duration, sites of involvement, received adjoins, and the background disease were also investigated. In the initial analysis, rituximab only had a significant effect on urea reduction. In the CellCept ® (mycophenolate mofetil) receiving subgroup, the mixed consumption of rituximab led to a significant reduction in WBC. In the subgroup having background disease, rituximab had a statistically significant impact on platelet reduction. In the subgroup having no background disease, rituximab had a statistically significant effect on urea reduction. The lab indices were shown to have no significant relationship with age and disease duration. Thus, it can be predicted that disease duration and age would have no effect in the relationship between rituximab and lab indices variations. Although in stratified single-variable analysis for adjusting the effect of other variables (involvement sites and received adjoins) on the relation of rituximab and lab indices, some of these variables showed interacting effects with rituximab on the variations of lab indices. However, due to the low volume of sample and non-normal distribution of most of these variables, it was impossible to do multivariable analysis for investigation of their independent and interactive effects on variations of lab indices in an integrated manner, therefore, we can not make certain comments about their relationships. Chapter 1 Pemphigus is the name of a group of life-threatening blistering diseases that have characteristic acantholysis leading to formation of intraepithelial blisters in mucus and skin [1]. The acantholysis process is induced via attachments of flowing autoantibodies to adhesion molecules in the cells [2]. Patients with pemphigus have mucosal erosions, blisters, papules, and cutaneous erosions. The different types of pemphigus are pemphigus vulgaris, pemphigus foliaceus, immunoglobulin A (IgA) pemphigus, and paraneoplastic pemphigus. Different types of pemphigus are differentiated by clinical symptoms, related autoantigens, and histological methods. Pemphigus vulgaris has mucosal and mucocutaneous involvement. The blisters are acantholytic and suprabasal. The autoantibodies responsible for the disease are against desmoglein (DSG) 1 or both desmoglein 3 and 1. Pemphigus foliaceus only involves the skin. The blisters are acantholytic and subcorneal. The responsible autoantibodies are against desmoglein 1. IgA pemphigus has the form of grouped erythematous crusts, papules, and vesicle plucks. Blisters can be subcorneal or intraepithelial and acantholytic. The responsible autoantibodies are against desmocollin (DSC) 1 [3]. Paraneoplastic pemphigus involves vast and resistant stomatite along with different cutaneous findings. The responsible autoantibodies are against desmoplakin (DSP) or other desmosomal antigens. Pemphigus vulgaris is the most common type of pemphigus, but is still very rare. The chance of its occurrence is between 0.1 to 0.5 per 100,000 people [4]. Pemphigus often happens among adults and the average age of onset is 40 to 60 years old. It is very rare among children [5,6]. Its prevalence is almost the same in the 2 sexes [7]. Almost all the pemphigus vulgaris patients have mucosal involvement. The mouth is the most common site of involvement and is often the first site of involvement. Other mucosal membranes such as conjunctivae, nose, esophagus, vulva, vagina, cervix and anus are rarely involved [8]. As mucosal blisters are fragile and burst easily, in clinical examination it is difficult to find intact blisters, and instead the examiner tends to find mucosal erosions. Buccal and pa latal mucosa are the most common sites of blister involvement in the mouth cavity [9]. Mucosal involvement can be very painful. This pain often increases by chewing and swallowing, which can result in improper alimentation and weight reduction. Most of the patients also have cutaneous involvement appearing in the form of soft blisters in healthy skin or erythematosus. The blisters easily break, resulting in painful erosions. Pemphigus vulgaris rarely causes pruritis. Almost any part of body skin can be involved, but the palmar aspects of the foot and hands are rarely involved. The Nikolsky sign is often observed among these patients (mechanical pressure on the healthy skin results in blistering). Pemphigus is diagnosed based on the clinical, histological, immuno-pathological symptoms and laboratory findings. Even in cases where the clinical symptoms are intensively supporting pemphigus, laboratory investigation is still needed to confirm the diagnosis, as other diseases may have the same symptoms. The first line of treatment of pemphigus is systemic corticosteroids, an d addition of adjuvants may also be needed. Patients who do not respond to the first line of treatment might need additional interventions. In such patients, cyclophosphamides, rituximab, intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) or plasmapheresis may be helpful. Initial treatment of pemphigus vulgaris is systemic glucocorticoid, which is often applied in combination with other non-steroidal immunosuppressants such as azathioprine and mycophenolate mofetil. Pemphigus resistant to treatment is a type of pemphigus that does not respond to the aforementioned treatments. Pemphigus is a chronic disease that needs long-term treatment. A retrospective study was conducted during 1982-1993 on 40 patients [8]. On average, these patients achieved complete remission after 7.7 years; 25% had remission after 2 years; 50% after 5 years; and 75% after 10 years [8]. Most pemphigus vulgaris patients respond to initial treatments [9]. The first step, in the patients who do not respond to initial treatment, is increasing the dosage of systemic corticosteroids (1.5-2 mg/kg of prednisolone per day) or adjuvant drug. The adjuvant drug can also be changed (changing azathioprine to mycophenolate mofetil). In resistant cases, cyclophosphamides, rituximab, IVIG, and plasmapheresis could also be used. As pemphigus is an auto-immune disease caused by autoantibodies, treatments that reduce B cells are investigated [10-13]. Rituximab is a monoclonal antibody that targets CD20, located on B-lymphocytes, as its antigen. This drug has been shown to have profound effects on pemphigus treatments [13,14]. In a multicenter study conducted on 14 pemphigus vulgaris patients and 7 pemphigus foliaceus patients, both groups were resistant to systemic glucocorticoids and experienced several relapses during glucocorticoid tapering. They were then put on 1 cycle of rituximab with a weekly dosage of 275 mg/m2 for 4 weeks, and this addition proved advantageous [15]. Although, severe infections were reported in the patients under rituximab treatment, its effect on risk of infection is not clear, as other immunosuppressants were also concurrently used. Reactions during injection are among the most common side effects of rituximab. Deep vein thrombosis (DVT), pulmonary embolism, long-term hypogammaglobu linemia, and neutropenia were also common among the patients under rituximab treatment. Regarding the excellent impact of this drug on treatment of resistant pemphigus, and also on other diseases such as idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), vasculitis, lymphocytic leukemia, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), we decided to evaluate the effects of this drug on the variation of lab parameters such as white blood cell (WBC), Hemoglobin (Hg), platelet (Plt), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), urea, and creatinine (CR). So far, no study has been conducted on investigation of these variations due to receiving rituximab. OBJECTIVES AND HYPOTHESES Major Objective Investigation of laboratory variations after injection of rituximab in pemphigus vulgaris patients. Minor objectives of the project: Determination of rituximab impact on laboratory indices Determination of rituximab impact on laboratory indices by adjusting for the effect of age Determination of rituximab impact on laboratory indices by adjusting for the effect of gender Determination of rituximab impact on laboratory indices by adjusting for the effect of other treatment methods Determination of rituximab impact on laboratory indices by adjusting for the effect of disease duration Determination of rituximab impact on laboratory indices by adjusting for the effect of disease involved sites Determination of rituximab impact on laboratory indices by adjusting for the effect of Underlying disease Application objectives: Enhancement of health level among pemphigus vulgaris patients and paying attention to laboratory effect of patients after rituximab consumption. Research questions or hypotheses: Rituximab affects the laboratory indices Rituximab affects the laboratory indices with age effect adjustment Rituximab affects the laboratory indices with gender effect adjustment Rituximab affects the laboratory indices with disease duration effect adjustment Rituximab affects the laboratory indices with previous treatment effect adjustment Rituximab affects the laboratory indices with other disease effect adjustment Rituximab affects the laboratory indices with involved sites effect adjustment Chapter 2 Literature Review In 1997, rituximab was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a treatment for non-Hodgkins lymphoma of B-cell that was resistant to chemotherapy. After that, it was applied for treatment for other diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), Wegeners granulomatosis, idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), and Sjà ¶grens syndrome. Ten years later, its impact on the treatment of blister diseases such as pemphigus was shown [16]. In a 2006 study by Larrar et al, 2 children with autoimmune hemolytic anemia who were treated with rituximab experienced acute thrombocytopenia and neutropenia [17]. They resolved in several days, which showed that these hematologic effects are directly dependent on the toxicity of rituximab. In a study by Chairwatanatorn et al in 2003, neutropenia following application of rituximab was tested in 53 patients [18]. All patients except one were under Hodgkins lymphoma treatment. Eight cases of grade 4 neutropenia were observed after 1 to 5 months of rituximab treatment (5 patients only received rituximab and 3 patients were also under additional chemotherapy); 3 patients advanced toward sepsis. Neutropenia was not related to other diseases or treatments, and was related with reduction of neutrophil precursors, except for one of the patients whose bone marrow had hypoplasia. All cases of neutropenia occurred among the patients whose polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) were normally or weakly reduced [18]. In a study by Tesfa et al in 2008, neutropenia occurred 4 or more weeks after rituximab treatment in lymphoma patients [19]. However, the mechanism of how rituximab causes neutropenia is still unknown. In a retrospective study of 113 lymphoma patients under rituximab treatment (alone or along with chemotherapy), 8 patients (7%) had neutropenia. The average onset was 88 days after receiving their last dosage of rituximab. The average time interval of neutropenia was 54 days. Four of the 8 patients underwent stem cell transplantation, 3 patients had neutropenia with fever and 2 of them needed granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) treatment. In the patients who had neutropenia, a cessation in maturation was observed in the promyelocytes category (the same as congenital neutropenia or Kostmann disease) [19]. A study by Otrock in 2005 addressed 2 patients who had acute thrombocytopenia after receiving rituximab [20]. One of the patients had hairy cell leukemia and the other one suffered from mantle cell lymphoma. In these patients, thrombocytopenia improved without the need of any treatment after several days. The reason for this is unknown. A study by Leo et al was conducted in 2004 for investigating the safety of rituximab [21]. In this study, the mixture of fludarabine, rituximab and cyclophosphamide was applied for treatment of follicular lymphoma. Surprisingly, severe thrombocytopenia with World Health Organization (WHO) grades 3 and 4 were observed in the patients, which resulted in the end of trial. Cytological and serological analysis was based on direct toxicity of rituximab. Chapter 3 Investigation Method 39 Therapy resistant pemphigus patients in Razi Hospital in Tehran, who had received rituximab from 2008 to 2012 were considered for inclusion in this retrospective cohort study. Data was collected before and after rituximab treatment. The variables included WBC, Hg, Plt, AST, ALT, Urea, and Cr and age, gender, involved sites, previous therapies, underlying disease, and disease duration. Test sheets associated to before and after rituximab application, containing WBC, Hg, Plt, AST, ALT, Urea and Cr were compared. Type of Study This study is a retrospective cohort study conducted on the pemphigus patients resistant to therapies who had received rituximab in 2008-2012. Studied Population Therapy-resistant pemphigus patients who were treated with rituximab in Razi Hospital, Tehran, Iran in 2008-2012. Inclusion Criteria Pemphigus patients who did not respond to the initial therapies (therapy-resistant pemphigus), and then were treated with rituximab. Exclusion Criteria Patients with no required tests before application of rituximab in their file Patients with no follow-up after receiving rituximab Patients whose first follow-up, after the last dosage of rituximab, is greater than 1 month. Sampling Method According to the available files, files of all the patients who had received rituximab from 2008 to 2012 were considered for inclusion. Data Collection The data collection tool included a checklist divided into 2 parts: one for the data before and one for the data collection after rituximab treatment. The variables included WBC, Hg, Plt, AST, ALT, Urea, and Cr and age, gender, involved sites, previous therapies, underlying disease, and disease duration. Project Implementation After studying the files of therapy-resistant pemphigus patients, the patients who had required data in their files were entered into the research. Rituximab treatment was defined as receiving 4 doses of 500 mg for 4 weeks, along with normal saline. Test sheets associated to before and after rituximab application, containing WBC, Hg, Plt, AST, ALT, Urea and Cr were compared. (The maximum time interval between the second test sheet and the last dosage of rituximab could be 1 month.) Data Analysis Finally, the finalized cases that had the inclusion criteria, were analyzed in Stata statistical software (StataCorp, Texas, USA) in terms of variations in WBC, Hg, Plt, AST, ALT, Urea and Cr after application of rituximab as the major variable and investigation of minor variables. Problems and Limitations As the base of this research was on filed files of hospital, inadequacy of data either before or after rituximab application excluded a bunch of samples from the study in a way that among 105 available files, only 39 files had the required data. Variables Major variables: quantitative measurement of white blood cells (WBC), Hemoglobin (Hgb), platelets (Plt), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), ALT, urea, and creatinine (Cr) before and after application of rituximab Minor variables: Gender Age Involved sites Previous therapies Underlying disease Disease duration The data of variables were collected according to the positive findings in the patients files (Table 1). Table 1 Patient variables. Title Variable Type Quantitative Qualitative Scientific Practical Definition Measurement Method Scale Independent Dependent Continuous Discrete Nominal Ranking WBC Number of WBC per ÃŽ ¼(mu)L of blood File reading Cell/mCl Hgb Amount of hemoglobin File reading Gr/dl Plt Number of plackets in patient blood File reading Cell/mcl AST * Amount of AST File reading IU/L ALT Amount of ALT File reading IU/L Urea Microgram of urea per deciliter of blood File reading Mg/dl Cr * Keratin amount File reading Mg/dl age * Years from birth File reading year gender * According to patient phenotype File reading Male/female Underlying disease * Existence of systemic disease File reading Having/not having Previous therapies * Received adjoin before rituximab File reading Azathioprine, IVIG Cyclophosphamide, CellCept ®, methotrexate Involved sites * Involved sites before starting rituximab File reading Upper body, lower body, face. Genitalia, sculp, mucus Disease Duration Months passed from onset to receiving rituximab File reading Month WBC white blood cell, Hgb hemoglobin, Plt platelet, AST aspartate aminotransferase, ALT alanine aminotransferase, CR creatinine, IVIG intravenous immunoglobulin Chapter 4 Results Among 105 therapy-resistant pemphigus patients who received rituximab treatment in Razi Hospital, Tehran, Iran from 2008 to 2012, only 39 patients managed to enter the study. The others were excluded due to inadequate data. Also in the included patient group, the maximum time interval between the last dosage of rituximab and follow-up was 1 month. The data of the remaining 39 patients were analyzed by Stata statistical software (StataCorp, Texas, USA) and the following results were obtained: The age of the patients ranged from 16 to 67 with a mean of 36.46 years. Their disease duration from the beginning of the disease until receiving rituximab ranged from 5 to 84 months with a mean of 39.30 months. Of the patients, 25 (64%) were men and 14 (36%) were women. It does not seem that the sex difference is related to therapy-resistant pemphigus, it is rather associated with the data collection method and exclusion of patients with incomplete files. Investigation of the involved sites showed that 25 patients (64%) had mucosal involvement, 20 patients (51.3%) had upper body involvement, 18 patients (46.2%) had lower body involvement, 19 people (48.7%) had genitalia involvement, 23 people had facial involvement, 36 people (92%) had body involvement, and in 22 patients (56.4%) the scalp was involved. The lab result variations of the mentioned patients were investigated in terms of the involved sites. The patients, before application of rituximab, were simultaneously under treatment with prednisolone and other adjoins. To summarize the unsuccessful treatments, 5 patients had cyclophosphamide, 18 of them received CellCept ® (mycophenolate mofetil), 7 people (17.9%) had intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG), 5 patients were treated with methotrexate, and 22 patients had azathioprine. All these patients did not respond to corticosteroid and had active disease. In terms of variation in lab test results after receiving rituximab, the patients were investigated in terms of the previous adjuvants as well. Among 9 patients, 12 of them (30.8%) had systemic underlying diseases such as hypertension (HTN), diabetes mellitus (DM), Ischemic Heart Disease (IHD) and many more. The major variables were WBC, Hgb, Plt, AST, ALT, Urea and Cr before and after application of rituximab. Before Receiving Rituximab: The WBC range was 4,000-14,800 with average of 10,092. The Hgb range was 9.1-16.8 with average of 13.8. The Plt range was 100,000-683,000 with an average of 243,384. The AST range was 6-64 with average of 24.56. The ALT range was 10-143 with average of 43.92. The Urea range was 12-145 with average of 37.25. The Cr range was 0.5-1.2 with average of 0.87. After Receiving Rituximab: The WBC range was 5,400-19,000 with average of 9,964. The Hgb range was 7.4-16.7 with average of 13.42. The Plt range was 110,000-440,000 with average of 232,512. The AST range was 10-121 with average of 25.43. The ALT range was 12-144 with average of 48.46. The Urea range was 15-54 with average of 29.12. The Cr range was 0.6-1.2 with average of 0.85. The WBC had no statistically significant variations. The Hgb had no statistically significant variations. The Plt had no statistically significant variations. The AST had no statistically significant variations. The ALT had no statistically significant variations. The Urea had statistically significant variations. The Cr had no statistically significant variations. After receiving rituximab and adjusting for the effect of gender: The WBC had no statistically significant variations. The Hgb had no statistically significant variations. The Plt had no statistically significant variations. The AST had no statistically significant variations. The ALT had no statistically significant variations. The Cr had no statistically significant variations. In the case of Urea, we concluded that it depends on gender, as in men the variation was significant while in women the variations were not statistically significant. When investigating the results with adjustment of the involved sites, the following results were obtained: In patients with lower body involvement, rituximab had no significant effect on WBC, Plt, AST, ALT, Urea and Cr, but it had significant impact on Hgb reduction. In patients whose lower body was not involved, Urea significantly increased after receiving rituximab. In patients whose lower body was involved, rituximab caused a significant reduction in Cr, Urea, and Hgb. In patients whose upper body was not involved, rituximab had no significant effect on the variables. In the patients with or without facial involvement, rituximab had no significant impact on any of the variables. In patients whose genitalia region was involved, rituximab has no significant impact on any of the major variables. In patients with no genitalia involvement, rituximab resulted in significant reduction of urea. In patients with body involvement, rituximab resulted in significant reduction of urea. In patients with scalp involvement, rituximab resulted in significant reduction of urea. The adjustment of previous therapies was also addressed. As all the patients received prednisolone, the effect of adjoins (azathioprine, CellCept ®, cyclophosphamide, IVIG and methotrexate) was addressed: In patients who had received cyclophosphamide, rituximab has no statistically significant impact on the major variables. In patients who had not received cyclophosphamide, rituximab led to statistically significant reduction of urea. In patients who had received CellCept (mycophenolate mofetil), rituximab has statistically significant impact on reduction of urea and WBC. In patients who did not use IVIG adjoin, rituximab had a significant impact on reduction of urea. In patients who did not use methotrexate adjoin, rituximab had significant impact on reduction of urea. In patients who used azathioprine adjoin, rituximab had significant impact on reduction of urea. The adjustment impact of systemic underlying diseases (such as HTN, DM, IHD) was also addressed. In patients with systemic underlying disease, rituximab had significant impact on platelet reduction. In patients with no systemic underlying disease, rituximab had significant impact on urea reduction. There was no statistically significant relationship between the lab test result variations and disease duration and age (Table 1 through Table 8). TABLES Table 1 Age distribution in the studied patients Min Max Standard Deviation Average Age 16 67 13.48 36.48 Table 2 Disease duration distribution in the studies patients Min Max Standard Deviation Average Disease duration 5 84 20.28 29.30 Table 3 Absolute and relative frequency distribution of patients based on their gender Number % Men 25 64.1 Women 14 35.9 Total 39 100 Table 4 Absolute and relative frequency of involved sites at the time of rituximab injection. Frequency % Upper body 20 51.3 Lower body 18 46.2 Face 23 59 Genitalia 19 48.7 Body 36 92.3 Mucus 25 64.1 Scalp 22 56.4 Table 5 Absolute and relative frequency of received adjoins before application of rituximab Frequency % cyclophosphamide 5 12.8 CellCept ® 18 46.2 IVIG 7 17.9 methotrexate 5 12.8 azathioprine 22 56.4 IVIG intravenous immunoglobulin Table 6 Absolute and relative frequency of the patients based on having or not having underlying disease. Frequency