Masters of public health revised Free Essays

For over twenty years, I have filled in as a dental specialist in the Armed Forces of Pakistan.â I have spent an extraordinary piece of my expert life as a dental professional in the absolute most testing conditions while working with incredibly fundamental offices at a network level.â I have likewise served a broadened gathering of individuals paying little mind to their financial status. We will compose a custom article test on Experts of general wellbeing modified or on the other hand any comparable subject just for you Request Now  Since HIV and hepatitis are profoundly transferable infections that can be gained through dental treatment and related strategies, I have made open mindfulness about its counteraction through data scattering by methods for leading talks, video movies and banners. I have likewise given data about the dental wellbeing status of the populace and the disparities in wellbeing program.  In expansion, I have shared my insight about the determinants of wellbeing and sickness, procedures for wellbeing advancement, injury anticipation, wellbeing insurance and the elements that impact the conveyance and utilization of wellbeing services.â I was likewise entrusted to do an ordinary yearly oral dental investigation at different network levels.â I evaluated all the data that was assembled and arranged spending plans, reports and proposals for strategy and program development.â These endeavors prompted the improvement of a school dental program in Pakistan. I finished my dental investigations in the renowned, de’Montmorency College of Dentistry in Pakistan.â This is a high profiled and most established dental school in my country.â My enthusiasm for the field of general wellbeing comes from the dental administrations that I have accomplished for more than two decades while serving the Armed Forces of Pakistan.â This activity permitted me to concentrate on the treatment of dental sicknesses just as on the anticipation of dental ailments, related irresistible and transmittable illnesses, for example, hepatitis and HIV. The developing interest of my family didn't empower me to perform voyages through obligation outside of my home city, Karachi.â Hence, I chose to take an early retirement from the Armed Forces of Pakistan.  Then, I worked in different clinical focuses and offered dental types of assistance to the Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation (P.T.C.L.) representatives and their dependents.â  P.T.C.L. around then was a state run Telecommunication organization utilizing more than 60,000 employees.â Recently I likewise accomplished humanitarian effort as a trainor for the Kitchnerâ and Waterloo Sexual Assault Support Center. Seeking after a Masters qualification in Public Health is in accordance with my drawn out profession objective ofâ moving towards an administrative andâ strategic job in human services provision.â I believeâ that with the information and introduction that I will learn in the University of Waterloo will improve my abilities as a dental specialist and will furnish me with a superior handle on the issues identified with general wellbeing and infection anticipation for a bigger populace. Since I have moved in Canada, I might want to be a successful general wellbeing proficient and accomplish the wellbeing objectives set out by the Canadian wellbeing services.â I likewise plan to direct an examination that will prompt the improvement of wellbeing and advancement of the populace based counteraction programs. After effectively raising two keen and skilled youngsters who are autonomously seeking after their advanced degree and being a devoted mother and a girl and a cheerfully hitched companion for a long time, I am currently progressively engaged and arranged to seek after a deep rooted fantasy about winning a Masters qualification in Public Health from a lofty college. I put stock in the expression of C. Everett Koop that â€Å"health care matters to us all a portion of the time, general wellbeing matters to us all the entirety of the time†.â With my energy, devotion and drive in accomplishing my objectives, I will have the option to finish my alumni program in the University of Waterloo and add to the malady control and counteraction program of my locale.  The most effective method to refer to Masters of general wellbeing modified, Essay models

Inherit The Wind Essay -- essays research papers

     Inherit the Wind, a play composed by Jerome Lawrence, and Robert E. Lee, is one of the best and most questionable plays of now is the ideal time. It was composed during a period of logical upset to profit individuals of the day and later on, be that as it may, individuals of the day made some hard memories tolerating new thoughts. It is social orders reluctance to change, and acknowledge new thoughts that make bigotry, and abhor gatherings of today. This reluctance is one of the significant topics of this play. This postulation will be additionally clarified, and bolstered by such artistic components, as setting, and character all through the article.      The first case of the people’s reluctance to acknowledge new thoughts, for example, Darwinian hypothesis, is towards the start of the book when the two sides of the arraignment show up in Hillsboro. The town is marching all over the boulevards reciting, â€Å"give me that bygone era religion†, and â€Å"down with Darwin†. The incongruity of this is none of them have perused Darwin’s book, for instance, when E.K. Hornbeck was conversing with Eliza, the Bible sales rep. Eliza stated, that he, â€Å"can’t neither read nor write†, so he was unable to have perused Darwin’s book, yet he is calling Hornbeck a â€Å"sinner, and â€Å"evil-utionist† for having faith in its thoughts. None of the town’s individuals on Mr. Brady’s side of the preliminary have perused, The Evolution of Species, not even Mr.Brady himself. By the by, they won't acknowledge the thought or contemplate it. It is the town’s peo pl...

Can Reading Make A Difference

Can Reading Make A Difference Would Donald Trump have won the election if everyone in America had read Girls Sex by Peggy Orenstein and Sex Object by Jessica Valenti? Can  reading make a difference? Would more Americans  embrace Black Lives Matter if they read  Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates  or the March trilogy by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin? The ultimate lesson of 2016  shows we exist in a polarized political hellhole  because we don’t see each others reality. Would the U.S. be less polarized if we all read widely about people not like ourselves? And to be fair, I’ve listed books liberals embrace. Are liberals  willing to read books conservatives favor to depolarize the country? During the past year, I’ve read many essays  that pleaded with  Trump to read books about important issues, but it seems that won’t happen. Allen Barra at The Daily Beast wrote “The Best and Worst Presidential Memoirs” where he said, “Donald Trump’s name as author or co-author is on more than 30 volumes, which makes him, in all probability, the first American president to have written more books than he has read.” Much of what Trump tweets suggest he’s no bookworm. This reminds me of an old joke, “Conservatives are liberals who have been mugged.” I’d like to believe Some liberals were conservatives who became bookworms. I have to wonder if those Republicans who want to do away with the Department of Education secretly know  reading leads to liberalism. Of course,  conservatives do read books, even ones not written by Ann Coulter or Bill O’Reilly. The problem with us  liberals is  we believe that  evidence is on  our side and if conservatives would just study the consensus of  scientific research they would  change their minds. Well, after billions of words written about climate change, I consider that theory shot down. Robert Reich wrote, “The Life of the Party: 7 Truths for Democrats” on inauguration day which also points to the even more dreary “Democrats in the Wilderness” by Edward-Isaac Dovere. What these two essays reveal is if we want to keep  fighting for  our causes we need to read fewer fantasies and more nonfiction. In 2008 and 2012 many pundits predicted the end of the Republican party.  We know they  were wrong. And pundits writing about Democrats today will be wrong too. Conservatives have been mobilizing for decades to get where they are today. Just read Dark Money by Jane Mayer. But Trump’s success was an unexpected windfall for Republicans. Most Democrats and Republicans are diehards  â€" both  will vote for a yellow dog if that’s all they got. It’s the independent voters that swing back and forth. Independents caused this current situation. This is where liberals need to be reading. And these are the people we need to get to read liberal books. A great example of this is “I Spent 5 Years with Some of Trump’s Biggest Fans. Here’s What They Won’t Tell You”  by Arlie Russell Hochschild in Mother Jones, excerpted from her new book, Strangers in Their Own Land. Hochschild is a sociologist that studies emotions and beliefs, and her essay goes a long way to answering why 53% of white women voted for Trump. Hochschild  profiles Sharon Galicia to clearly make her point. Her essay is long but very worth reading. Hochschild has developed a little story she shows her subjects that reflect  their conservative beliefs. I hope its okay to quote because I believe it will make you understand the people we need to reach: You are patiently standing in the middle of a long line stretching toward the horizon, where the American Dream awaits. But as you wait, you see people cutting in line ahead of you. Many of these line-cutters are blackâ€"beneficiaries of affirmative action or welfare. Some are career-driven women pushing into jobs they never had before. Then you see immigrants, Mexicans, Somalis, the Syrian refugees yet to come. As you wait in this unmoving line, youre being asked to feel sorry for them all. You have a good heart. But who is deciding who you should feel compassion for? Then you see President Barack Hussein Obama waving the line-cutters forward. Hes on their side. In fact, isnt he a line-cutter too? How did this fatherless black guy pay for Harvard? As you wait your turn, Obama is using the money in your pocket to help the line-cutters. He and his liberal backers have removed the shame from taking. The government has become an instrument for redistributing your money to the undeservin g. Its not your government anymore; its theirs. This must be a near  perfect verbal Rorschach test for revealing conservative emotions because all conservatives I know constantly complains to me in this way. Hochschild says her subjects resonate deeply with this story. I consider it such a nasty idea that I hate to quote, but its exactly the concept thats blocking liberal progress. Im a bookworm, and I believe in reading. But is reading enough to get everyone to want equality for all? I think all the answers already exist, its just a matter of getting enough people to discover them by reading. I might be naive. We thought logic was behind Hillary. Would Sharon Galicia have voted for Trump if she had read Girls Sex and Sex Object? Or does all economic issues override issues of equality with Trump voters? I normally read books about feminism, racism, climate change,  overpopulation, automation,  mass extinction, wealth inequality, but these issues  may not  matter if society cant solve the core problems of Trump supporters. Trump voters arent all against liberal causes, but this is where they’ve drawn the line in the sand. I’m not sure Trump and Republicans will even help them. Im confident they will use their windfall to just take what they want  â€" money. For example, repealing Obamacare is really just a tax cut for the rich. But this puts liberals in a strange position. We must win back the independents by solving their problems. And there’s no guarantee they will reciprocate the favor by supporting our causes. Liberals will need to read everything they can to find economic solutions  for Democrats to push. This is why I read about wealth inequality and automation. The future is about the choice between giving jobs to people or machines. The rich will make more money if they can pick machines. And thats not Trump voters want. Maybe we can make a deal.

Individual Controversy in the Classroom Soc/110 Essay

Technology: How it affects the Human Species Liberio Miguel SOC/110 01 July 2013 Larry Bohleber Technology: How it affects the Human Species Technology has improved the human species by providing information around the world, leading to developments in different countries. Biotechnology is improving the world of medicine, agriculture, and energy production. In the medical world, technology has a big impact by helping scientists and doctors figure out how to fight off diseases and viruses. For example, there are two individuals, one who has malaria and the other has built up a resistance to malaria. Knowing that an individual has built up resistance to malaria can help, simply by taking a sample of their blood†¦show more content†¦The energy production in biotechnology can make us come to new advanced technology that creates fuel with plants. In the past, there were studies on using vegetable oil to replace gasoline for motored vehicles, which will cause us to use less fossil fuel. We have gathering many organism’s and manipulated them with other organism’s genes, so we can replicate the gasoline or the diesel fuel. It will take time to create the fuel, and it will take many scientists as well to conduct trials. With all of the biotechnology trials death can result to it as well. If one is not careful, these organisms can become unstable, out of control and release toxic fumes or cause a new disease to break out. There are 6.8 billion people on the planet. 5.1 billion of them own a cell phone, but only 4.2 billion own a toothbrush (Hopkins, 1). About 6,000 deaths and a half a million injuries are caused by distracted drivers every year (â€Å"Cell Phone Texting Accident Statistics† 1). As we advance in technology, there are always pros and cons. Everyday humans use their cell phones to contact their loved ones, some humans will place a cell phone call or send a text while driving. That little distraction takes four seconds for someone to realize they are about to hit something, and they are an accident waiting to happen. The irresponsible driver will collide into anoth er vehicle or object, causing an individual to have serious injuries or death. InShow MoreRelatedHuman Resources Management150900 Words   |  604 Pagestrained workers. Estimates are that about half of the U.S. workforce (about 50 million workers) needs or will need new or enhanced workplace training to adapt to the myriad job and technological changes that are occurring. At the same time, many individuals who are obtaining higher education degrees are doing so in nontechnical or nonscientific fields rather than engineering or computer sciences, where the greatest gap between job growth and worker supply exists. On the lower end, far too many studentsRead MoreFundamentals of Hrm263904 Words   |  1056 Pages PART 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 THE LEGAL AND ETHICAL CONTEXT OF HRM Equal Employment Opportunity 56 Employee Rights and Discipline 84 PART 3 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 STAFFING THE ORGANIZATION Human Resource Planning and Job Analysis 110 Recruiting 132 Foundations of Selection 154 PART 4 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT Socializing, Orienting, and Developing Employees 182 Managing Careers 208 PART 5 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 MAINTAINING HIGHRead MoreMarketing Mistakes and Successes175322 Words   |  702 Pagesyou and your students may find this somewhat unique and very readable, a book that can help transform dry and rather remote concepts into practical reality, and lead to lively class discussions, and even debates. In the gentle environment of the classroom, students can hone their analytical skills and also their persuasive skills—not selling products but selling their ideas—and defend them against critical scrutiny. This is great practice for the arena of business to come. NEW TO THIS EDITION Read MoreDeveloping Management Skills404131 Words   |  1617 PagesEssential Management Skills 8 What Are Management Skills? 9 Improving Management Skills 12 An Approach to Skill Development 13 Leadership and Management 16 Contents of the Book 18 Organization of the Book 19 Practice and Application 21 Diversity and Individual Differences 21 Summary 23 SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL 24 Diagnostic Survey and Exercises 24 Personal Assessment of Management Skills (PAMS) 24 What Does It Take to Be an Effective Manager? 28 SSS Software In-Basket Exercise 30 SCORING KEY AND COMPARISON

Socrates Convictions - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1577 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2019/08/06 Category People Essay Tags: Socrates Essay Did you like this example? In this essay I evaluate according to Socrates, must one heed popular opinion about moral matters? Does Socrates accept the fairness of the laws under which he was tried and convicted? Would Socrates have been wrong to escape? In my evaluation I explain Socrates decision to accept his conviction, and that popular opinion will likely do great damage to the spiritual/mental/moral well-being, and if he would have decided to escape his life of virtue would end with that decision. Socrates was born 469 B.C. his father Sophroniscus, was an Athenian stone mason and sculptor. Socrates followed his fathers footsteps and practiced it for many years. His mother Phaenarete was a midwife. Athenian law required men to serve in the service at this time. Socrates also serve as a civilian soldier as an armored infantryman, known as the hoplite. Which is a soldier with a shield, long spear and face mask, where he participated in three military campaigns in the Peloponnesian War, at Delium, Amphipolis, and Potidaea. Socrates was known for his bravery saving the life of one of his Generals. Being in the military you learn the principles of honor, loyalty, duty, respect, courage, fearlessness and it changes a persons life that does not already have those attributes. I would think that Socrates instilled these attributes also through combat and brotherhood for one another. Especially instilling courage and selflessness during saving the lives of his peers. Those traits stayed with him the rest of his life. Once the trial had ended, he compared the trial to his military experience. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Socrates Convictions" essay for you Create order Socrates had an ordinary Greek education and gave most of his time to philological interests. He is thought to be the first moral philosopher, of the tradition of thought. The character of our soul, where virtues are found, are more important for our lives than our bodies or external conditions. That the quality of the soul decides is the aspect of our lives, for the good or the bad. He says that if we want to do well in this world, we must take care of our soul. That we must want to get the virtues to change our souls better and live our lives for the better. To get these virtues we must have knowledge of how the act in the best interest of any way of life. That if you act badly its because of your incomprehension of how to act and why. Socrates, a citizen satisfied with his faithfulness to Athens, engaged in discussions and dialectic on essential questions of ethics, politics, religion and education. He went against the traditional knowledge of the elites. Socrates did not offer his teachings as a way to support his family, he took no payments. He just wanted to give the people of Athens the knowledge for them to think through and give them the opportunity on how to manage their lives. Once the uncertainty of a disturbed age in Athens, due to economy crashing and men coming home from the foreign and civil wars dead, the population starved and the political scene in turmoil, that brought Socrates to the hemlock. Other than follow the lead of his persecutors, we should perhaps honor Socrates encouragement to know ourselves, to be independently honest, to do what we, not the next man, knows to be the right way to live our lives. Just because the majority has hatred for something does not mean you have to also, the roa r of the crowd so to speak, but to go hard as it might be towards the good life. Socrates states that, its not my crimes that will convict me, but instead, rumors, gossip; the fact that by whispering together you will persuade yourselves that I am guilty. In my opinion, this is true even in our society. People tend to listen to the word of the majority other than making their own minds up using the methods of reasoning to understand what makes them happy, which is the rule of living a good life. Because if you are sad and not happy your life would not be good. This comes in fact with our social media we have today, which is good on both sides of the table. One, we can practice our freedom of speech and get our message across. But on the other side, it tends to build up to changing someone elses mind due to the lack of knowledge someone has on that subject. This results in the people going with the majority and not thinking for themselves. In which he had angered the majority of the wrong people and led to his conviction. Socrates trial was completed in two stages, the first was to convict him of his crimes of not believing in the mythical gods, and corrupting the youth of Athens. The second stage was to sentence him to which was obviously death. The trial took nine to ten hours in the Peoples Court, the civic center of Athens. The jury consisted of 500 male citizens over the age of thirty. The magistrate questioned both Socrates and the accusers. He also gave all of them the opportunity to question each other. The three accusers had a total of three hours to present their argument. One of the accusers, Anytus was the driving force behind the prosecution of Socrates. In my opinion, to the relationship of Anytus son and Socrates. Socrates did not really try to defend himself but to lecture his accusers and the magistrate by using his method of Socrates paradox. Since Socrates was sitting around quite willing to wait his impending execution. His old friend Crito gives him many arguments to persuade Socrates to escape. The first was, what will people think? In the eyes of Socrates his friends could have a bad reflection on themselves if they helped him escape. That Crito was well acquainted with the Guard and could persuade him to let Socrates leave. But in the eyes of his friends the people of Athens would think they did not try to help him get out of prison. Was he just thinking about his friends finances because they were willing to provide or was it totally his own morals that held him from escaping? In my opinion after reading his dialogues, He had strong moral concepts of the laws of Athens and he understood those laws and wanted to respect them. Crito also thought if he stayed and went through with the sentence, he was just aiding his antagonists to unjustly wronging him, at the same time acting unjust himself. Socrates states that one is never just in doing wrong, even if it is for the right reasons. In other words, two wrongs do not make a right. He had made a commitment to obey the laws of Athens and has lived happily for many years under them. So, if he attempted to escape it would not only break his agreement, but also challenge the weight of the law. Wouldve Socrates been wrong to escape his imprisonment? He believes it would have been wrong to escape stating that he wasnt afraid of death, felt he would be no better off it in exile and said he was still a faithful citizen of Athens. This is an extremely moral and honest and unbelievably honest level of integrity. This belief is based on what we call the social contract theory of government today. Social contract theory states a persons moral and/or political obligations are dependent upon a contract or agreement among them to form the society in which they live. Socrates did not want to break his agreement with the laws of Athens. Socrates was also was true to his beliefs in the truth. He also believed that for him if death was like a sleep without interruptions or migration of the soul to another world it would be good for him. Because he says if its like sleep this would only be on night of eternity in a state of unconsciousness compared to other days of his life. He seemed to want to go to this place to reach new truths. Also, to find out who is wise, who pretends to be wise, who is not, and to continue his research and knowledge. Since he says that everyone already knows everything, they just have to recollect the knowledge. Thinking of this, makes me wonder if he thinks that going back to this state, he will receive the knowledge he is in search of. Socrates would have been labeled even if he had exiled to another Greek town. He would have gone against his morals and been disappointed the rest of his life living in hiding. He wanted even in the trial to continue his teaches and frankly despite his accuser s. Socrates mindset was that no one should listen to the popular opinion and listen to the intelligent, professional advice, and behave well. Socrates argues that if it is never good to do wrong, then you should never act illegally in the reaction of a wrong action. The statement from Socrates, for the unexamined life is not worth living. Here he meant if it refers to a life by rote under the rules of others without the subject ever examining whether or not he truly wants to live those routines or rules. According to Socrates, this type of life was not worth living. Rather than living an unexamined life, Socrates chose death.

Succubus Dreams CHAPTER 2 Free Essays

string(31) " hearts and watching them cry\." For a few seconds, I was no longer at the party. My mind’s eye flashed back to where I stood on a cliff outside the town I’d grown up in, barely old enough to be called an adult by today’s standards. And Niphon was there, smiling at me, promising me he had all the answers and could make my problems disappear†¦. We will write a custom essay sample on Succubus Dreams CHAPTER 2 or any similar topic only for you Order Now I shook my head, driving off the memories and returning to the party at hand. His smile grew, an evil smile that promised even more evil things. I could have been facing Eden’s serpent himself. â€Å"I knew you had it in you,† he continued, stepping toward me. His voice stayed soft. â€Å"I knew it the minute I saw you. I can’t wait to find out firsthand just how†¦experienced you’ve become.† My defenses snapped into place, and I stepped back. â€Å"Touch me, and I’ll break your fucking neck.† â€Å"Such ingratitude, considering I made you what you are.† â€Å"Stay away from me.† He started to move forward again, and my heart leapt to a pace that would have killed most humans. Suddenly, Jerome’s voice fell over us, and I realized the room had become silent. â€Å"Leave her alone, Niphon. She said no.† The imp paused and made a pleading face. â€Å"Aw, come on, Jerome. What kind of demon doesn’t share his goods?† â€Å"You aren’t here to fuck my succubus. If you can’t do your job, I can replace you.† Jerome’s voice held a warning note that even an asshole like Niphon couldn’t ignore. Maybe someone would be consigned to Hell tonight after all. Disappointingly, the imp inclined his head in obeisance and backed off. The look he gave me warned we would have a later conversation. I walked over to Jerome. â€Å"Maybe you should have given me a heads up earlier.† â€Å"And ruin things for you lovebirds? Hardly something a die-hard romantic like me could do. Besides, I told you to come early.† Hugh snapped his cell phone shut and wandered over to join us. He kissed my cheek. â€Å"Hey, sweetie. Big things going on here.† My already enormous sense of dread grew by leaps and bounds. â€Å"Such as?† â€Å"Re-org. Seattle’s lines have been redrawn. We’re getting another succubus. Or, well, we’ve got one.† My jaw dropped, and I replayed Niphon’s earlier words. â€Å"You are so joking.† â€Å"Afraid not. This is Tawny.† Robo-Blonde pranced over on her stiletto heels and tried to shake my hand again. I kept it out of reach, fearing for my bones. I forced a smile. â€Å"Hi, Tawny.† I turned back to Jerome and jerked my head at Niphon. â€Å"Why is he here then?† â€Å"I acquired her,† the imp explained. â€Å"Acquired† was a nice way of saying he’d bought her soul for Hell, just as he’d purchased mine. â€Å"It’s my job to stay and watch her until she’s settled in and taken her first victim.† â€Å"No one ever did that for me,† I recalled. â€Å"You sort of threw me to the wolves.† I’d had to be some innkeeper’s sex toy in Constantinople for a few years until I’d learned the succubus ropes. Niphon shrugged. â€Å"HR’s new policy. Just think of all the time it’ll give us to catch up.† Giving Tawny a sidelong glance, I hoped her adamant desire to destroy men everywhere meant she’d be a quick study. Eyeing her leopard-skin skirt, I had my doubts. â€Å"Well. Fantastic. Now that I’m up to speed, I guess there’s no need to stay – â€Å" Hugh shook his head, suddenly becoming my-friend-the-imp as opposed to the all-business imp. I could tell from his expression that I wouldn’t like what he had to say next. â€Å"There’s something else you need to know. For the next year or so, you have to be her†¦uh, mentor.† â€Å"Mentor,† I repeated flatly. He nodded, looking sympathetic. Jerome watched our exchange with amusement. â€Å"What, um, does that mean for me exactly?† Hugh set his briefcase on a coffee table and pulled out what looked like the kind of copied-and-bound manual Kinko’s would run off. He tossed it to me. I caught it and nearly keeled over. The thing had about eight-hundred pages. Mentor’s Official and Complete Procedural Handbook on Initial Succubus Intake and Probationary Period (Abridged). â€Å"Abridged?† I spun toward Jerome. â€Å"Tell me you’re getting back at me for the time I accused you of wearing Old Spice.† â€Å"That one’s still coming,† said the demon. â€Å"This one’s for real.† â€Å"I can’t do this, Jerome. I don’t have the time! Do you know how much stuff I’ve got going on? I’m still training the new assistant manager at work – â€Å" He stood up with speed a vampire might have admired. He leaned toward me, the amusement gone from his face. â€Å"Oh gee, Georgie. How inconsiderate of me to take you away from your human boyfriend and your crucial-to-the-world bookstore job and all the other fucking absurdity in your life! Let me just go ahead and tell my superiors that you’ve got more important things to do than answer to the powers who control your immortal soul and could wipe out your existence in the blink of an eye.† Heat flooded my cheeks. I didn’t really appreciate being verbally bitch-slapped in front of Niphon and Seattle’s entire dream team of evil. â€Å"I didn’t mean it like that. I just – â€Å" â€Å"It’s not up for debate any longer.† His words crawled over my skin. I swallowed. â€Å"Yes, Jerome.† Even I knew when to back down. Silence fell. A smirk played over Niphon’s face. â€Å"A human boyfriend. How terribly quaint. I can’t wait to hear all about it.† â€Å"I think it’s cute,† said Tawny. â€Å"I hope you’re making him suffer.† â€Å"Their romance is a great tale of self-exploration,† remarked Hugh, straight-faced. I shot him a glare. As a sexual workaround, Seth and I found we could do unto ourselves what we couldn’t do to each other. I’d never actually told my friends about this solution, but they’d kind of figured it out. With the drama complete, the rest of the room lost interest in me. Tawny did not, however, and immediately began talking to me about the joys of ripping out men’s hearts and watching them cry. You read "Succubus Dreams CHAPTER 2" in category "Essay examples" I left her as quickly as I could, working the room and talking to those I hadn’t seen in a while. I was good at smiling and making people laugh while all the while, my mind spun and processed this new complication. When I finally found Cody, Peter, and Hugh huddled in a corner, I breathed a sigh of relief. I could tell from the looks on their faces that this was the most hilarious thing they’d seen in a while. Cody, young for a vampire but ancient compared to Tawny, threw an arm around me. His shaggy blond hair was tamed into a short stub of a ponytail. He was perpetually laidback and upbeat, and his â€Å"youth† always made the rest of us want to baby him. â€Å"Oh, man. This is going to be great. You are so screwed.† â€Å"As if,† I said, squirming away. â€Å"You think I’m afraid of her?† â€Å"I am,† said Peter with a shiver. He had thinning brown hair and wore casual yet exquisitely coordinated clothes, all the way down to his argyle socks. He was an old vampire, close to my age, and was Cody’s mentor. I’d never thought much about their mentor-apprentice relationship before. It always seemed pretty effortless, but then, Cody was no Tawny. I followed Peter’s gaze to where the new succubus animatedly told a story to a stone-faced demoness named Grace. From the dangerous jiggling of Tawny’s breasts, it looked as though the structural integrity of her shirt could only last so long. â€Å"I don’t think you’re afraid,† said Hugh slyly. â€Å"I think you’re jealous.† â€Å"Of what exactly? Bad fashion sense? An ergonomically unsound bustline? I have nothing to be jealous of.† â€Å"Whatever. I saw your face when you heard we were getting a new succubus. Looks like someone isn’t going to be the only girl in our little clique anymore.† â€Å"So?† â€Å"So, we’ll have a new little sister to fawn and fret over. You’ll have to share the spotlight.† â€Å"I’m not sharing anything,† I said huffily. Peter laughed. â€Å"So it does bother you. Can’t wait until the fur starts flying.† â€Å"Her fate is in your hands,† said Cody. â€Å"You should make her call you ‘Miss Georgina,'† added Hugh with a mocking southern drawl. â€Å"Or at least ‘ma’am.'† Niphon’s presence and Jerome’s lecture had put me in a grouchy mood. â€Å"I’m not doing any mentoring. She’s so gungho to take on the world’s male population, she doesn’t even need me.† The three men exchanged more smirks. Cody made some hissing and meowing sounds, scratching at the air. â€Å"This isn’t funny,† I said. â€Å"Sure it is,† said Cody. â€Å"Besides, don’t you want to help others? Where’s your sense of goodness and charity?† â€Å"I think I cashed that in when I, you know, sold my soul to Hell.† Peter waved his hand. â€Å"Details, details. ‘Tis the season to put aside petty rivalries and animosity. You’ve got to get into the holiday spirit. You probably haven’t even put up your Christmas tree yet.† â€Å"I’m not getting a tree this year.† The smile slipped from Peter’s face. â€Å"What?† â€Å"Oh, shit. You’ve done it now,† said Hugh. â€Å"I already got lectured earlier for not having one.† â€Å"You’re a Scrooge,† Peter told him while still looking at me. â€Å"No one expects that kind of festive cheer from you. But Georgina†¦didn’t you have a Christmas tree last year?† â€Å"Yeah. Somebody burned it down. At my Christmas Eve Martini Party.† â€Å"I was there,† said Peter. â€Å"I don’t remember that.† â€Å"You were drunk. You’d already passed out.† â€Å"What kind of sick bastard burns down a Christmas tree?† Hugh and I exchanged glances. â€Å"That’s an excellent question,† I said dryly. Peter looked startled. â€Å"Was it you?† he asked Hugh. â€Å"No,† said the imp. â€Å"It was Carter.† â€Å"Your Christmas tree was burned down by an angel?† asked Cody. He hadn’t been with our group last December, so this was all new to him. And Peter too, apparently. â€Å"Yup. The irony isn’t lost on me,† I said. â€Å"He had his ashtray too close to where a branch was hanging down.† â€Å"Well, I think he did you a favor,† said Hugh. â€Å"You can get a fake one now. They’re easier. No watering. No woodland animals. Besides, you can get them to match your d? ¦cor. Did you notice Peter’s is ‘pissed-off ocean green’?† Peter sighed. â€Å"It’s ‘jaded sea green.'† I followed their gazes to Peter’s monstrosity of a Christmas tree. Nine feet of perfectly shaped needles draped in gold tinsel and red glass ornaments. Everything on it coordinated. In fact, I suddenly realized, it matched Peter’s outfit. The tree looked like a display model from a department store. The green in the multicolored bejeweled star on top even seemed to bring out the blue in the ‘jaded sea green.’ â€Å"At least you don’t have an angel on top,† I said. â€Å"Because that would have been kind of wrong. And possibly a fire hazard.† â€Å"Joke all you want,† the vampire said, â€Å"but you have to have a Christmas tree. Oh, yeah – you also have to draw a name for Secret Santas.† I groaned. â€Å"Are we doing that again?† â€Å"Let me go get the cup,† he said, trotting to the other side of the kitchen. I looked at the other two. â€Å"A vampire obsessed with Christmas. That has to be the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard.† â€Å"No weirder than an angel burning down a Christmas tree,† pointed out Cody. Peter returned with a reindeer mug that held a few folded pieces of paper. He held it out to me. â€Å"Not many left. Pick.† I pulled out a slip and opened it. Carter. â€Å"Son of a bitch,† I swore. â€Å"I hate Christmas.† â€Å"You do not,† said Peter. â€Å"You just have to get a tree. Then you’ll feel better.† My eyes drifted from the star, down to Tawny and Niphon. â€Å"What I have to do is get out of here,† I told them, setting my glass on the counter. I made my good-byes to them and endured a bit more teasing about my new mentoring job. As I walked to the door, I overheard Jerome saying to Grace, â€Å"†¦but I’ll be out of town for a few days.† I suddenly realized I needed to ask him something. â€Å"Hey, Jerome.† He turned from the demoness, shooting me an impatient look. In as few words as possible, I recapped how I’d woken up without the energy I’d stolen the previous night. Jerome listened, looking bored. â€Å"What’d you do last night? Bursts of shape-shifting? Rocket science? Heavy lifting?† I didn’t need him to tell me what sorts of things would burn through my energy. â€Å"I didn’t do any of those things. I just slept. I did dream, though.† â€Å"Dreams only suck the life out of humans, not us,† he remarked dryly. â€Å"It’s what keeps Hell in business.† Seeing my expression, he sighed. â€Å"It’s probably nothing, Georgie. Mental exhaustion’ll do it. You probably spent the whole night unconsciously wrestling with sexual temptation.† I didn’t appreciate his flippant answer, but there was nothing I could do about it. I left the party, driving home at a reasonable speed limit this time. As soon as I cleared the door, I tossed that ridiculous manual to the floor. It landed with a ground-shaking thump that made my cat Aubrey puff up her tail. â€Å"Sorry,† I mumbled, scratching her black-speckled head in consolation. Traipsing to the bedroom, I promptly dialed Seth on my cell phone. â€Å"Hey,† he said. â€Å"Hey. You have to come over here tonight.† A pause. â€Å"Well, I could, but†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Oh, come on! You won’t believe what I just went through. We’re getting another succubus.† He paused again. â€Å"I’m not really sure how to respond to that.† â€Å"Respond by getting your ass over here. I need you.† â€Å"Thetis†¦I’m so close to the end here. Four chapters away. And I got this idea while we were having breakfast†¦Ã¢â‚¬  I groaned. Cady and O’Neill had defeated me again. Before actually meeting Seth, I’d worshipped him from afar as a literary genius, reading his novels over and over. Now I knew the dark truth about being a bestselling author’s girlfriend. Hearing my silence, he reluctantly added: â€Å"But, I mean, if you really need me†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"No, no. Don’t worry about it. It’s okay.† â€Å"You don’t sound like it’s okay. I know how women work. You say that, then you’ll hold a grudge against me forever. Literally.† â€Å"No, really. It’s fine. I’ll be seeing you tomorrow anyway. Besides, as soon as I get out of this dress, I’m just going to pass out anyway.† No way was I starting that procedural tome. â€Å"You’re wearing a dress?† â€Å"Yup.† â€Å"You weren’t wearing one earlier. What’s it look like?† I started laughing. â€Å"Ooh†¦are you trying to have phone sex with me?† â€Å"Phone sex? Hardly. We haven’t even had a phone first date.† â€Å"It’s not that hard. You see, I tell you how the dress has a really low neckline with nothing underneath. Then, you tell me how you’ll reach out and peel it off and stroke my – â€Å" â€Å"Oh my God. No. We are not doing this.† Typical Seth. He could write sex scenes that set the page on fire or dialogue clever enough to impress even me. Make him vocalize any of it, and he choked up. He was shy around others, fearful in large groups, and much happier staying an unnoticed listener. I sympathized but sometimes had trouble really comprehending it, considering how often I became the center of attention. I liked to think he’d improved a bit since we got together, but he had a long way to go. â€Å"It just takes practice. Here, I’ll help you. Picture it. I’m getting on my knees and slowly unfastening your pants – â€Å" â€Å"Okay, look. If you really want to go through with this, I’d be happy to, you know, go get on my computer and IM it†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Oh good grief. Go work on your book.† I hung up the phone and sat down on my bed. Good Lord. My weekend had taken an abrupt U-turn. Like it or not, I supposed it had been only a matter of time before a new succubus joined the ranks here. Seattle had grown significantly over the years, and I could only do so much. But a green succubus? One I had to train up? If I hadn’t known such administrative decisions were out of the demon’s hands, I would have accused Jerome of doing it on purpose. It was on par with his sense of humor. Why couldn’t we have just gotten some antisocial pro who did her job without ever interacting with me? And Niphon†¦well, that was the coup de gras. I didn’t like being reminded of my past, and I didn’t like him. Something told me he had it in for me, though I couldn’t entirely fathom why. He’d bought my soul and recruited my eternal services. What more was there? Wait and see, a warning voice whispered in my head. I shivered. Tawny couldn’t make her first score a moment too soon. Suddenly, I didn’t feel like passing out after all. I wanted to go out. Not for a victim or anything†¦just to, well, be out. Grab a drink. Do a little flirting. It might salvage the train wreck I’d just endured. I headed downtown to the Cellar, a favorite watering hole for local immortals. After Tawny’s coming-out party tonight, I doubted anyone I knew would be there. A little alone time suited me just fine. Yet, as I entered the crowded bar and slipped through the drinking, laughing patrons, I felt a cool sensation tickle my immortal senses. It made me think of crystal and ozone. Scanning around, I finally found Carter sitting across the room at a round table. Seattle’s most powerful angel – and the one who had burned down my Christmas tree – had sensed me too, and a slight smile curled his lips in greeting. Although he naturally hadn’t been at Hell’s all staff meeting, he did have a tendency to hang out with my little clique. It had weirded me out at first, but I’d since come to view him as a normal fixture in my life, albeit a strange and badly dressed one. More startling than seeing him out tonight, however, was his assortment of companions. Three angels and a human – none of whom I’d ever met before. All of them watched me, displaying curiosity and – for one of them – scorn at my presence. Whatever. He could scorn all he wanted. It would take more than an angel posse to get to me after everything I’d experienced today. Carter’s company did strike me as odd; I’d never known him to work with others. A grudging curiosity rose up within me, wondering what could have brought them all together – with a human, no less. Noting my scrutiny, Carter winked and made a small gesture of invitation, much to the astonishment of two of the angels. I nodded back in acknowledgement, first stopping by the bar to get a vodka gimlet. When I walked over a minute later, I put on my best saucy succubus attitude and pulled up a chair beside Carter. â€Å"Well, well,† I said. â€Å"I feel like it’s Rush weekend or something. We’re all entertaining guests, huh?† â€Å"So I hear,† he said. He absentmindedly ran a hand through his chin-length blond hair. Unless I was mistaken, it had been washed for the first time in six months. These guests must be serious. â€Å"I also hear one of yours is of a more permanent nature.† I pulled a face. â€Å"I don’t really want to talk about that, if it’s all the same to you.† â€Å"Can we expect a cat fight soon?† â€Å"That joke is so one hour ago. You want to introduce me to the rest of the class?† This made one of the angels laugh. She had deeply tanned skin and black hair that shone like silk. A merry glitter danced in her eyes as she extended a hand to me. â€Å"Yasmine. And you’re Georgina.† I nodded back, unable to help a smile. The one she gave me in return filled me with warmth and joy. Maybe some angels weren’t so bad after all. It was a good thing, too, because her companions seemed less thrilled to make my acquaintance. â€Å"I’m Whitney,† said another slowly, a pretty black woman whose hair consisted of myriad tiny braids. She dressed with a fashion sense that met my standards and wore cat-eye glasses that made her look both cute and wise. Her handshake took a moment in coming, but it did come. I glanced at the last angel expectantly. He had dark brown hair and blue eyes, paired with a long and narrow face. His expression conveyed clear disapproval and a haughty coldness. Now that was behavior I associated with angels. For a moment, I didn’t think he’d speak at all. Then, with great stiffness, he said, â€Å"I’m Joel.† No handshake followed. I turned to the human. He grinned back with as much enthusiasm as Yasmine and flipped his longish dark hair out of his eyes. â€Å"Vincent Damiani. Nice to meet you.† â€Å"You too.† I cut Carter a sly look. â€Å"And all this time, I didn’t think you had any friends.† â€Å"You’re jumping to conclusions, Daughter of Lilith.† He sipped from what looked like whiskey straight up. â€Å"They’re here on business.† â€Å"Ooh. Top secret angel business, huh? What’re you going to do? Dance on a pinhead? Lobby for National Cute Puppy Day?† Joel’s cold look dropped another ten degrees. â€Å"As if we would discuss our affairs with a dark seductress of evil.† Yasmine elbowed him with an eye roll. â€Å"She’s joking.† â€Å"That’s what she wants you to think,† he warned ominously. â€Å"I for one am not going to let my guard down while she attempts to use her wily and sinister powers of seduction on us.† Fixing him with a slow, languid smile, I leaned back in the chair, crossing my legs so the skirt rode up my thighs. â€Å"Baby, if I were using my wily and sinister powers of seduction, you’d be the first to know.† A dark flush stained his cheeks. He fixed his gaze on Carter. â€Å"I don’t know what game you think you’re playing, but you need to get rid of her.† Carter stayed unfazed. â€Å"She’s harmless – unless you’re a drug-pushing god or a nephilim. Or an introverted writer.† Yasmine flinched, her cheerful countenance becoming sober. â€Å"Don’t joke about nephilim.† â€Å"In fact,† Carter obliviously continued, â€Å"she might fix that little logistical problem. Georgina, I don’t suppose you’d mind playing hostess, would you? Vincent needs a place to stay while he’s in town.† I arched an eyebrow in surprise. Misinterpreting my silence, Vincent hastily added, â€Å"It’s okay if you don’t want to. I mean, you don’t even know me. I can see how that’d be weird.† â€Å"I don’t know,† I told him, even more curious as to what was transpiring with this odd group. â€Å"If angels vouch for you†¦well, you can’t really get a better recommendation than that. If you don’t mind sleeping on the couch, it’s fine by me.† â€Å"You’re a pearl among succubi,† Carter declared. Joel nearly choked on his drink. Considering his stick-up-the-ass attitude, I doubted he had anything alcoholic. Probably Kool-Aid or Pepsi. Diet Pepsi, at that. â€Å"Are you out of your mind?† he exclaimed. â€Å"She’s a succubus. You can’t subject him to that. Think about his soul.† â€Å"She’s not really into nice guys,† Carter said. â€Å"Usually. You won’t have a problem.† Yasmine offered Vincent a playful look. â€Å"He’s not that nice anyway.† â€Å"Carter – † began Joel. â€Å"I told you, she’s fine. Let it go. You have my word. Besides, she won’t ask any questions, and it’ll give him an accessible place to stay while you guys search.† I jumped on the word â€Å"search.† Now we were getting somewhere. â€Å"What are you guys looking for?† Dead silence met me. Whitney crossed her arms. Vincent sipped his drink. â€Å"Okay, I get it.† I finished the gimlet with a gulp. â€Å"Need to know basis. Mum’s the word. Hush-hush and all that.† Yasmine’s easy grin returned. â€Å"I love her, Carter. No wonder you keep her around.† She then started talking about another succubus she’d met in Boston, smoothly changing subjects as deftly as Carter could. Guessing what I was thinking, Carter caught my eye and grinned. I rolled my own eyes in exasperation. Nonetheless, as the evening progressed, I found myself liking Yasmine immensely. She, Vincent, and Carter carried most of the conversation, and while angels weren’t nearly as fun as the rest of my friends, I found this group entertaining in their own way. They also swore and drank a lot less, but well, nobody’s perfect. When the bar closed, I took Vincent with me, but not before Joel issued warnings about the sanctity of the human soul. Vincent listened to it with a patient face, nodding along at the key parts. â€Å"Is he always like that?† I asked on the drive home. Vincent laughed. â€Å"He can’t help it. He means well. He’s just worried about me.† â€Å"Are you worried?† â€Å"Nah. You’re pretty cute, but no, I’m not worried. I’m already in love with someone.† I started to joke that that was no protection against anything, that I’d seduced plenty of guys who thought they were in love. Something in his voice stopped my quip. The way he spoke implied that being in love was indeed protection from me and all the other evils of the world. He spoke like one who was invincible. I suddenly felt sad. â€Å"Good for you,† I said softly. He cut me a sidelong look. â€Å"You’re okay for a succubus.† â€Å"Okay enough to tell me what you and the Super Friends are doing in town?† A smile flashed back over his face. â€Å"No.† At home, I set him up on the couch, producing piles of blankets to keep him warm. I kept my apartment at a steamy temperature most of the time, but it was December, and the part of me that still remembered huddling around meager fires in days gone by felt one could never have enough blankets. I soon went to bed, buried under my own stash of covers. This time, I didn’t dream. How to cite Succubus Dreams CHAPTER 2, Essay examples

Empirical Research Methods for Business

Question: Write a report on "Empirical Research Methods for Business". Answer: Introduction Health Care Expenditure in the OECD countries have been rising on an increasing rate such that the maximum pressure has been imposed on the public budgets of these countries which is not only increasing the spending on the social programs which is estimated to a increase by 1% in 2015, according to the 2015 outlook ("Health Expenditure And Financing" 2016). The main issue lies in the health expenditure that is started following a reverse trend in comparison to the economic growth such that economic growth levels in health expenditure have grown due to the reforms in the sector that has led to health funding as being a demoralizing task for the government. However, according to Baumols theory health sector is representative of low productivity growth. However, according to the present conditioning, the government has to formulate policies so that corrective measures could be taken with proper time and in efficient manner. According to the preliminary analysis, it has been stated that the concern of low and middle countries can easily be manifested by the changes that has been based on the analysis of the technologies, demographic factors as well as income level of the respondents followed by institutional characteristics ("OECD Reviews Of Health Care Quality - OECD Ilibrary" 2016). However, the research needs to be based on the research aims that can be manifested in analysing the drivers factor that are essential to study health expenditure in the OECD countries. On the other hand, GDP will be even considered as one of the drivers of health expenditure as well. Data In this study, all the OECD countries are considered. However, all the data is taken from major 34 countries from the year 2009 to 2014. Current and public health expenditure is taken from OECD Health Stats. The data taken was complemented with data on demographics and mortality. However, according to the research question stated above, two hypotheses were generated (Xu and Saksena 2011). Hypothesis 1 Ho: There is no significant impact of variables like current health expenditure, public expenditure and out of pocket on GDP. H1: There is significant impact of variables like current health expenditure, public expenditure and out of pocket on GDP. Hypothesis 2 Ho: There is no significant impact of variables like out of pocket, mortality rate and demographic characteristics on current health expenditure. H1: There is significant impact of variables like public expenditure, mortality rate and demographic characteristics on current health expenditure. All the expenditure variables are taken US $ except GDP which is turned into log to give the instantaneous change made in the US dollars. However adding to the study, summary statistics were also presented Methods The various concepts have been adopted for the research that it is helped in conduct of the study to give a critical explanation provided with the secondary data taken from OECD Health Statistics. Research Paradigm The research paradigm selected for the study is to alleviate the theoretical process and procedures. Although, the study is based on certain assumptions like GDP is impacted by health expenditure and public expenditure which deals with the knowledge and result in following epistemology paradigm for the enquiry of results (Shajahan 2015). Research Philosophy The research process validates a post-positivism approach as its is based on facts and figures such as interrelationship is established between different variables (Cohen, Louis, Manion and Morrison 2011). However, the background of health expenditure is calculated by the help of calculations. Research Approach The research approach taken into consideration is deductive in nature as it is based on the hypothesis testing as certain propositions have been made between different variables and relevant methods like multivariate regression analysis is taken for accepting or rejecting the theory so that appropriate modifications can be devised. The relationship criterion helps in analysing the clarity and reliability of the data (Harlow 2014). Research Design The research design is correlational in nature as different drivers are tested on the health expenditure that does not elaborates on the interconnection between variables but also helps in physical conduct of the data through the meta-analysis procedure. Data Collection Methods The interpretation as well as gathering of information is tested by building a research framework on the variables. The secondary data collection method was adopted such that the data for different variables were taken from OECD Health Statistics and the data is quantitative in nature. However, the data collected from secondary sources is helpful in creating an ideal scenario on the health expenditure condition of the OECD countries. The quantitative method is adopted because it gives an experimental as well as descriptive method through variables structured on the sample size (Gorard 2013). Sampling Method and Sampling Size The random method adopted is cluster random sampling as the average data of all the 34 countries listed in OECD is taken into consideration to avoid errors on the degree of attainment. When analysed, the sample size is undertaken is 6 that is from the year 2009 to 2014 to analyse the impact of variables on GDP and health expenditure. Data Analysis Data analysis is the process of analysing the information based on the decision making exercise that has been carried out to study the figures with statistical as well as structural technique. Although, the data is structured in nature but it is closely linked with quantitative data analysis using SPSS statistical tool for data processing and matching files (Brymen and Bell 2015). Results The results and discussion can be based on the analysis of all the variables considered. The data results can be divided into two divisions, one in the summary statistics gained on mean, standard deviation and quartile on each variable. Section 1 - Summary Statistics According to the summary statistics calculated for each variable as it is based on the original data taken without the log values. The explanation of each variable can be described below. Mortality Rate The average of mortality rate that have achieved from 2009 to 2014 years is 79.18 with the deviation from mean achieved is 2 years such that the inter quartile range is one year and 8 months across the years amongst the different OECD countries (Refer Appendix). According to the normal, curve, the data is more skewed to the age of 79-80 years as given by life expectancy of 79-80 years which has not changes much since 2005 (Refer Appendix)..General Demographics General Demographics includes the income level achieved of the countries across years. According to the calculation of the data, the change has seen to be efficient as there is vast gap in the inter quartile range that is 7.14 (000) US Dollars and the mean received has been 367.03 which has shown to increase in the last year of the analysis that is 2013-2014 (Refer Appendix). Out of Pocket Payments Out of pocket payments is the general consultation fees, medication and other hospital bills that have recently showed to be increasing with each passing year such that the change manifested has shown positive skewness with rising changes in the values as it poses a standard deviation 97.16 (000) US Dollars (Refer Appendix).. Current Health expenditures According to the summary statistics, the health expenditure includes both the spending made by the public as well as private external funds through the channels to national health system. However, the data shows a deviation of 417.21 (000) US Dollars that is increased to a twofold as depicted on normally distributed histogram as well (Refer Appendix). Public Expenditure Public expenditure elaborates the government spending of the country on OECD countries across years that has averaged to 2462.98 (000) US Dollars with a change of 221.952 (000) US Dollars (Refer Appendix).. GDP According to GDP results, GDP has been growing in each country and across each year but its log form has not shown any drastic change as compared to last years GDP ("Gross Domestic Product (GDP)" 2016). Section 2 Regression Analysis The regression analysis is based on two hypotheses as mentioned. a) Impact on GDP The impact of GDP as seen from the regression results has been significant. However, in this case long form of GDP was considered. That makes it a log-linear form of equation. The regression equation comes out to be as LnGDP = 16.4 +0.003Current_health_expenditure 0.003public_expenditure 0.002out of pocket. However, this states that with the change in current health expenditure, the positive changes of 0.3% will be made in GDP followed by negative change of 0.3% on public expenditure and 0.2% on out of pocket expenses made by the individuals. However, adjusted R square with 85.6% makes the model a good fit (Refer Appendix).. Moreover, as depicted on F statistics, the changes have been significant on the 95% level which depicts that analysis dealt with accurate results across the years. On the whole, with residual value of 0.001 on ANOVA table that mostly the values taken are estimated and none of them is affected by the errors made in the data (Riff, Lacy and Fico 2014). However, we reject the null hypothesis and state that there is significant impact of variables like current health expenditure, public expenditure and out of pocket on GDP. b) Impact on Current Health Expenditure LnCurrent_Health_Expenditure = 7.81 -0.009General_demographics + 0.3morality_rate + 0.002out of pocket. However, this states that with the change in general demographics, the negative changes of 0.9% will be made in GDP followed by positive change of 3% on morality rate and 0.2% on out of pocket expenses made by the individuals. However, adjusted R square with 98.6% makes the model a good fit (Refer Appendix). Moreover, as depicted on F statistics, the changes have been significant on the 95% level with value 120.461 which depicts that analysis dealt with accurate results across the years. On the whole, with residual value of 0.00 on ANOVA has only been estimated and none of them is affected by the errors made in the data. However, we reject the null hypothesis and state that there is significant impact of variables like public expenditure, mortality rate and demographic characteristics on current health expenditure. Discussion Research Limitations The basic research limitations taken across in the model is a period of 6 years depicting only the changes made after the global financial crisis to analyse the gearing up of GDP and public expenditure in the OECD countries. The research limitations are the taken countries according to the OECD Statistics is only 34 countries followed by only 6 years of analysis. Secondly, the variables included in the study were only important variables and rest other variables were missing. The third reasoning can be stated that the GDP is country specific but healthy expenditure is not necessarily predicted on GDP (Xu and Saksena 2011). Comparison with Previous research According to the previous research done, it can be explained that the study is based on cross section studies and no such evidence has been provided but health has not been considered as an luxury good as opined by Friedman (Xu and Saksena 2011). However, the cross elasticity in earlier researches were based on the time series and panel; data models through the distinction in the transitory and permanent income. Only demographic factor have been considered at micro as well as micro level. Demographic factors were considered using inconclusive results being ageing and health expenditure, but here mortality rate has been taken (Astolfi, Lorenzoni, and Oderkirk 2012). Conclusion To conclude, it can be elaborated major impact has been experienced by GDP resulting in marginal change in the GDP of 34 countries across 6 years. Moreover, globally health expenditure has been growing with the excessive spending on health activities and less of investments achieved in comparison to fixed budget that is followed in each country. Lastly, irrespective of key driver, most of the factors should be considered to give more generalized results. References "Gross Domestic Product (GDP)". 2016.OECD Statistics. "OECD Health Statistics". 2016. doi:10.1787/health-data-en. "OECD Health Statistics". 2016. doi:10.1787/health-data-en. "OECD Reviews Of Health Care Quality - OECD Ilibrary". 2016.Oecd-Ilibrary.Org. Astolfi, Roberto, Luca Lorenzoni, and Jillian Oderkirk. "Informing policy makers about future health spending: a comparative analysis of forecasting methods in OECD countries."Health Policy107, no. 1 (2012): 1-10. Bryman, Alan, and Emma Bell.Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA, 2015. Cohen, Louis, Lawrence Manion, and Keith Morrison.Research methods in education. Routledge, 2013. Gorard, Stephen.Research design: Creating robust approaches for the social sciences. Sage, 2013. Harlow, Lisa L.The essence of multivariate thinking: Basic themes and methods. Routledge, 2014. Riff, Daniel, Stephen Lacy, and Frederick Fico.Analyzing media messages: Using quantitative content analysis in research. Routledge, 2014. Shajahan, S.Introduction to Business Research Methods. Jaico Publishing House, 2014.

Curt Lemon in Tim OBriens The Things They Carried Essay Example

Curt Lemon in Tim OBriens The Things They Carried Paper TNT should be placed all over Vietnam so this bitchy would disappear from the map. Thats all It deserves after taking away my freaking best friend. I did see plenty of people die In Vietnam, but this was bucking unbelievable, partly because he was my bucking best friend and partly because of the way It happened. Just Like we used to, Curt and I went to play catch with a smoke grenade, which was certainly the greatest name ever thought, under some huge trees; the biggest Eve ever seen of my life. We were having a great time. In fact, everyone always had a great time with Curt; he was such a nice guy, a respectable guy. However, this bitchy of Name decided It was enough. As Curt moved away from the shade of the gigantic trees, he stepped on this bucking booby-trap. It was definitely no usual booby-trap. His freaking body was lifted so high that you couldnt even look at it because of the dazzlingly bright sun. I was under the impression I was watching a firework. It was bucking surreal. Curt Lemon, my freaking best friend in the world had died and I could not believe it. The explosion was so powerful that I felt my heart responding to it. It felt just like when a firework ends; the biggest piece of the show explodes and the explosion is so important that sometimes you get scared and you close your eyes for a second, even if you know its a show. But, afterwards, when you open your eyes you can appreciate all the beauty of it. Name made several awesome shows of that kind, but this one was no bucking good show. We will write a custom essay sample on Curt Lemon in Tim OBriens The Things They Carried specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Curt Lemon in Tim OBriens The Things They Carried specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Curt Lemon in Tim OBriens The Things They Carried specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer

Plot Fragmentation in Modern Comedy

Plot Fragmentation in Modern Comedy Introduction/Thesis statement One of foremost characteristics of late 20th and early 21st centuries’ comedy is the fact that, as time goes by; it tends to become increasingly plot-fragmented, cognitively incomprehensible and even somewhat aesthetically distasteful. This, however, does not seem to affect the ability of such a comedy to win favor with the audiences.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Plot Fragmentation in Modern Comedy specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More As Auslander (1989) had put it in his article: â€Å"As of today, whether performance remains marginal or gains mass exposure seems to have little to do with the nature or content of a particular artists work†¦ Nowadays, the relative success of performance in the mass media attests to the ability of a mass-mediated culture to convert almost anything into ‘entertainment (122). According to Andersen (2010), there are two most striking traits in what she defines as ‘post-modern comedy’: â€Å"1. A tendency toward reflexivity†¦ 2. An emphasis on fragmented forms, discontinuous narratives†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Carrie Andersen Blog). In order to realize the full validity of an earlier suggestion, one would simply have to familiarize itself with such comparatively recent and very successful Hollywood comedies as Naked Gun, Nutty Professor, A Night At the Roxbury, Scary Movie, etc. All of these comedies feature the absence of a well-structured plot, the plenty of plot-unrelated self-referrals, on the part of the characters, and the inclusion of a number of primitively humorous gags. And, there are good reasons to believe that, the very fact that this type of comedies appear to grow ever-more popular with the broader audiences, should not be discussed as ‘thing in itself’, unrelated to socio-political realities of modern living. In our paper, we will aim to explore this thesis at length, while focusin g on what we consider the two most plausible explanations as to the essence of a discussed subject matter. Increasing irrelevancy of the actual plot in latest Hollywood comedies As we have implied earlier, when it comes to discussing the essence of a particular cultural phenomenon, such as the increasing irrelevancy of the actual plot in latest Hollywood comedies, it represents the matter of crucial importance to be able to identify the objectively existing preconditions for such a phenomenon to have emerged, in the first place. After all, up until comparatively recent times, the most successful comedies used to feature a well-defined linear narrative as one of its most important characteristics. While referring to the mechanics of how satire and humor were explored in classical Hollywood comedies, Chambers (1989) points out to the fact that in these comedies, the very sensation of ‘funnyness’ derived out of viewers’ ability to assess surrounding reality in terms of logic: â€Å"An appreciation of the ridiculous is a matter of exposing appearances for what they really are, primarily by realizing the gap between what people say (or how they perceive their actions to be interpreted) and how people appear to an objective observer† (590).Advertising Looking for essay on literature languages? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In other words, the presence of a well-structured plot in classical comedies simply reflected the rationalistic workings of their creators’ mentality – these people perceived the objective reality through the lenses of euro-centrism. That is, they would go about endowing their comedies with humorous appeal by exploring the dichotomy between white people’s sense of rationale, on one hand, and non-white people’s sense of irrational emotionality/passion, on another. As Chin (1989) had put it: â€Å"In the context of the United States, the cultural power structure has always been dominated by the ideology of a specifically white, Eurocentric, specifically capitalist establishment† (167). Therefore, the reason why until recently, comedies with linear narratives appealed to movie-going audiences is that these audiences predominantly consisted of whites. This continues to be the case even today, although to a lesser degree, which in its turn explains why recent Hollywood comedies with well-defined plot very rarely feature people of color, as characters. For example, in the recent commercially successful ‘white comedy’ Meet the Parents, there is no even a single non-white character. Apparently, movie-goers’ ability to enjoy a well-defined plot in the comedy reflects their varying ability to remain focused on plot’s unraveling, which in its turn reflects their ability to operate with abstract categories, which in its turn reflects the rate of their Intellectual Quotidian. And, as we are all well aware of – the rate of one’s IQ is genetically predetermined category. In their book, Lynn and Vanhanen (2002) state: â€Å"IQs appear to be determined by the racial and ethnic make-up of the populations†¦ The IQs of 96 are typical of Europeans. The countries with lower proportions of Europeans and greater proportions of Native Americans, Blacks, and Mestizos have lower IQs† (263). Thus, it would only be logical to hypothesize that the cinematographic trend of Hollywood comedies becoming essentially ‘plotless’ has to do with an ongoing process of Western societies’ intellectual marginalization. And, it is namely the institutialization of multiculturalism, as an official policy in Western countries, which had triggered such a process. For example, it is now being estimated that by the year 2050, the population of Hispanics in U.S. will reach 90 million. And, as statistics show, the dropout rate among Hispanics in Americ a’s high schools accounts for 45%-50%. In his article, Crosnoe (2005) states: â€Å"Compared to other racial/ethnic populations, Hispanics lag behind on most indicators of academic progress, such as grades, test scores, and social-psychological adjustment in school† (563).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Plot Fragmentation in Modern Comedy specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Thus, it is namely the fact that Hollywood producers are well aware of the actual essence of demographic dynamics in today’s America, which explains why they deliberately strive to ensure that their comedies will appeal to the marginalized tastes of America’s multicultural populace, as the foremost mean of guaranteeing these comedies’ commercial successfulness. And, as practice shows, in order for a particular comedy to become popular with non-whites, its plot does not have to be concerned with ensuring the integr ity of a linear narrative, as much as it needs to be concerned with exploiting viewers’ animalistic urges. This is exactly the reason why in many recent Hollywood comedies, directors had made a point in satirizing purely physiological aspects of people’s existence, such as defecating, indulging in sex or eating. For example, in such Hollywood’s ‘black comedies’ as 1996 The Nutty Professor, 2000 Big Mommas House and 2004 Fat Albert , directors had gone about exploiting viewers’ sense of humor by exposing them to the sight of main characters simply walking around for no apparent purpose and consuming a lot of hamburgers, while appearing grossly overweight. For intellectually marginalized audiences, these comedies proved being ‘funny’ enough, as it is only the direct onslaught onto such audiences’ animalistic senses, which can result in triggering an emotional reaction, on their part. The evolution of people’s aestheti c tastes Nevertheless, the same issue (the fragmentation of plot in recent Hollywood comedies) can be accessed from entirely different perspective. It might very well be the case that the increasing irrelevance of plot in comedies is simply being reflective of today’s post-industrial realities, as such that are being concerned with the process of humanity growing increasingly ‘post-human’, which in its turn, undermines the soundness of traditional concepts, founded on the principle of linearly defined rationality. For example, as of today, most people believe that, in order for anyone to be considered a truly intelligent person, he or she would have to know at least one foreign language.Advertising Looking for essay on literature languages? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More And, the studying of a foreign language is rather lengthy process, which cannot be successful without learner remaining utterly dedicated to studying, throughout process’s entirety. Nevertheless, due to the revolutionary breakthroughs in the fields of informational technology and biology that had taken place recently, in 20-30 years from now, it will become possible for just about anyone to learn foreign languages instantly, by the mean of inserting a microchip in its brain. In post-human or cyber-human world, just about every aspect of people’s existence will be qualitatively different from it used to be the case, from the time when humans evolved from apes, until now. And, that will include the manner in which they perceive surrounding reality. In its turn, this will affect the structural subtleties of a cognitive process. What it means is that in near future, in order for the literary or cinematographic narrative to be considered structurally plausible, it will no l onger need to feature such plot’s classical elements as exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution, because the manner in which ‘post-human’ people would perceive objective reality might very cease being linearly defined. As some contemporary Hollywood’s ‘plotless’ comedies (such as Scary Movie) indicate, the absence of a well-structured plot in the comedy does not necessarily reflect such comedy’s inability to convey a certain semantic message. In his article, Kellner (1987) points out to the fact that, under certain conditions, even chaotic meaninglessness can be quite meaningful: â€Å"In fully constituted flowing discourse the facts function irresistibly either as indexes or as links in an indexical sequence; even an anarchic presentation of the facts will at least convey the meaning anarchy and suggest a particular philosophy of history† (3). Therefore, the fact that today’s comedies become prog ressively more ‘plotless’ may simply be reflective of people’s subconscious anxieties, regarding the ways of a future. For example, the humoristic appeal of a Scary Movie directly derives out of how this comedy ridicules the conventions of a horror genre in cinematography. Apparently, for people who enjoy watching this particular comedy, it represents a particular pleasure to assess such conventions as being outdated – that is exactly what is being funny in Scary Movie and in its sequels, and that is also what makes up for the fact that this movie simply does not feature a coherent plot, whatsoever. As it was noted by Weinberg (2000): â€Å"There really is no plot at all (in Scary Movie) to speak of, and Ive giggled at several reviewers try to describe one. What youre presented with is a series of scenes parodying other films, or just plain old being raunchy† (EfilmCritic.Com). Yet, for the reasons mentioned early, it is specifically plot-fragmented comedies, such as Scary Movie, which are going to attain a mainstream status in Hollywood’s comedy-related cinematography in the future. A somewhat altered hypothesis can be used to explain the apparent popularity of black ‘plotless’ comedies, such as Fat Albert. The fact that these comedies aim to humorise physiological aspects of people’s lives, may be suggestive of audiences’ tendency to view the biological constraints of one’s existence as being quite inconsistent with the ways of a ‘brave borderless world’, because it is namely the specifics of our biological functioning that relate us to animals more than anything else does. In post-human society, however, the extent of people’s ‘biologism’ will reflect their ability to attain social prominence in counter-geometrical progression – that is, the more they would be biologically constrained, the lesser would be their chances to attain such a prominen ce. This is the reason why viewers tend to perceive individual’s strongly defined ‘biologism’ as the foremost indication of his or her inability to evolve physiologically and intellectually, which in its turn, renders such individual particularly funny in the eyes of a viewing audience. Conclusion Even though two earlier articulated explanations, as to the tendency of recent comedies to become ever more plot-fragmented, differ rather substantially in how they address the discussed subject matter, we believe that they nevertheless substantiate the validity of paper’s initial hypothesis. As we have shown the increasing irrelevance of plot-presence in comedies has nothing to do with the evolution of people’s aesthetic tastes as ‘thing in itself’, but rather with the evolution/devolution of these people themselves, as representatives of Homo Sapiens specie. In its turn, this proves once again that, unlike what the hawks of political correc tness would like us to believe, it is fully appropriate to discuss the essence of just about any social or cultural phenomenon well within the conceptual framework of ‘hard’ sciences, which have nothing to do with ‘promotion of tolerance’ but rather with promotion of scientifically proven facts, regardless of how ‘intolerant’ they might be. References Andersen, Carrie â€Å"Millennials and Postmodernism in TV Comedies†. 2010. Carrie Andersen Blog. 28 Nov. 2010. Web. Auslander, Philip â€Å"Going with the Flow: Performance Art and Mass Culture†. TDR 33.2 (1989): 119-136. Chambers, Erve â€Å"Thalias Revenge: Ethnography and Theory of Comedy†. American Anthropologist 91.3 (1989): 589-598. Chin, Daryl â€Å"Interculturalism, Postmodernism, Pluralism†. Performing Arts Journal 3.12 (1989): 163-175. Crosnoe, Robert â€Å"The Diverse Experiences of Hispanic Students in the American Educational System†. Sociological F orum 20.4 (2005): 561-588. Kellner, Hans â€Å"Narrativity in History: Post-Structuralism and Since†. History and Theory 26.4 (1987): 1-29. Lynn, Richard. Vanhanen, Tatu. IQ and the Wealth of Nations. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002. Weinberg, Scott â€Å"Scary Movie†. 2000. EfilmCritic.Com. 28 Nov. 2010. efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=1796reviewer=128

Case Study Strategy Development in the Global Automotive Industry Essay

Case Study Strategy Development in the Global Automotive Industry - Essay Example Even as the automobile industry continues to grow, it is evident that the market is becoming more competitive by the day, and this has forced many manufacturers to reduce their costs of production, look for new markets, reduce the time for the production for development of a new product, also there has been the need to form mergers and alliances with other business partners and create more newer and innovative design and content. Thus the companies are giving more to its customers for less. With the need for ‘basic’ cars rising within the American and European markets there has been very little room for profits hence the profit margin has been small. Automobile industries have realized that one of the answers to improving profit margins is partnering, and this has led to the sharing of architectures and components. The merger of the automobile companies has forced consumers to choose from an ever reducing market. This has been brought about by three main factors; strong brands are increasingly important, manufacturers need to enter difficult markets and the cost of technology keeps rising. The best example of a merger is that of Daimler-Benz’s acquisition of Chrysler. The Daimler Benz company pulled off what seems to be the biggest takeover in history when it acquired Chrysler Corporation, which is the smallest of the three biggest American automobile companies. This acquisition brought together several companies such as Jeep, Mercedes, Chrysler and Dodge Truck. Through this the company has produced savings from buying and purchasing, staff recruitment and finance. Sharing of the different aspects of the two companies is increasing as the two companies continue to come together. It seems that the Daimler Chrysler company seems to have stopped trying to blend the two companies, thereby reducing the chances of the company becoming a super-giant automobile company. It is a well known fact that Chrysler has the most productive and efficient

Persuasive Peer Review Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Persuasive Peer Review - Assignment Example It also uses the claim of â€Å"common philosophy,† which does not automatically prove that the thesis is right. The thesis for me can be rewritten into: â€Å"Technology can help people become better parents, because it supports communication needs, it teaches children to be responsible, accountable and trustworthy, and it supports connectivity and family time.† The organization of the essay is clear, but better transitions can be made, where they are connected from one main point to another. Not all paragraphs are related to the thesis. The second paragraph, in particular, does not talk about the role of technology in better parenting, and it is more focused on the role of communication skills for parents. Each paragraph has one topic only and one topic sentence, but sometimes, the paragraphs are too long. Some sentences can be removed, when they no longer contribute to the claims of the writer. The major claims are not supported with outside evidence. The writer uses personal experiences and anecdotes only to support her claims. She should have used the sources she listed at the end of the paper to support her main points. The writer, nevertheless, responds to opposing views, such as concerns for young children having cellular phones and the impact of technology on quality family time. As for citation, MLA citation is not properly used. In-text citation is missing, and the works cited list is not completed and properly organized. The writing style is sometimes too informal, because of the use of contractions, and its excessive conversational style makes the paper less credible in proving its thesis. The paper is appropriate according to the instructions, because it has 6 pages, it is double-spaced, and it has a thesis at the end of the introduction. It also uses five outside sources. The introduction does not provide any hook and it does not end with a thesis. It provides background on some of the technologies used nowadays and some potential effects of

Effect of sleep quality on perceived academic performance

Effect of sleep quality on perceived academic performance Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of the quality of sleep of student of premier MBA institutes on their perceived academic performance. This study also aims to establish whether the burnout faced by students behaves as a mediator in the relationship between the sleep quality and the perceived academic performance. Finally, keeping work experience as a moderator, we also aim to study whether students with more than 12 months of work experience show any difference in the results when compared to those with less than 12 months experience. Design/methodology/approach: A questionnaire was designed using 3 pre-existing scales to measure Sleep Quality, Burnout and Perceived Academic Performance. This questionnaire was floated in the electronic format to students of XLRI Jamshedpur and other schools of business in India. A total of 163 students responded with completely filled in surveys. Findings: The study concluded that the Sleep Quality does not have a direct impact on the Perceived Academic Performance in the case of students without work-experience. However, the indirect effect is significant, and Sleep Quality affects Burnout, which in turn has an impact on Perceived Academic Performance. Research limitations/implications: One of the major limitations of the study was that majority of the respondents were from only one Business-school, viz. XLRI Jamshedpur. In order to generalize the result across all B-school students of India, more participants from other B-schools need to be contacted. Also, while the Academic Confidence Scale, used to measure perceived academic performance, is better than using only grades, a better scale needs to be developed to thoroughly measure the performance of students not only in examinations but also in class through learning capacity, etc. Originality/value: Previous studies have identified that there is certainly an impact of duration and quality of sleep on the academic performance of high-school (and younger) students, as well as on the organisational performance of professionals. However, no study has previously been conducted for students of MBA courses. Keywords: Sleep Quality, Perceived Academic Performance, Burnout, Exhaustion Paper Type: Research Introduction As the corporate world begins to get more competitive, greater demands are made by organisations from employees and even more from those in managerial capacities. These demands are met by working professionals who modify their lifestyles in order to dedicate more time and effort towards achieving the high standards set by a demanding corporate world. This includes habits such as skipping breakfast and sleeping less. Such characteristics are observed also among B-school students who live on or near campus. Apart from low duration of sleep, many students also have irregular sleeping patterns and their quality of sleep is often not very high due to disturbances and other reasons. This irregular sleep pattern and low quality of sleep result in a drop in perceived academic performance of students. The high levels of academic rigour encouraged by the premier B-schools of India result in a high requirement of hard work and a very large number of hours per week to be put into coursework. A continued high level of demand can result in students feeling a sense of burning out-which is defined by a drop in motivation levels to work, mental exhaustion and sometimes also leads to students questioning their courses and their own abilities. Irregular and poor quality sleep is likely to result in a quicker onset of burnout among students. It is to be expected that once students start burning out, their performance in class and their confidence in their academic capabilities begin to suffer. Prior studies have observed and established the effect of sleep quality on students of high-school and of younger ages. Some studies have also been carried out on students of under-graduate courses. However, our study is primarily aimed at observing these effects on students of Business schools only. We are also aiming to establish whether or not the burnout level of a student is a significant mediator on the effect of sleep quality on perceived academic performance. Research background and hypotheses Sleep Quality Sleep is a complex phenomenon to measure. Sleep quantity is considered universally as a good measure to evaluate this phenomenon but results indicate that for studies, researchers should use sleep quality than sleep quantity which includes many other factors other than just the duration of sleep (Vail-Smith et al, 2009). In some studies, sleep quality was measured by factors such as sleep environment, noise disturbances, other sleep accessories (Triangle Business Journal, 2010). Many other studies measured sleep by collecting information regarding not just the number of hours of sleep but also time awake in the middle of the night, time taken to fall asleep related factors (Business Wire, 2009) To suit our requirement for measuring sleep quality, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (Sleep Medicine Index, 2010) was used. This index includes not only the number of hours of sleep but also any disturbances in sleep, sleeping waking up time, and the subsequent effects of the sleep pattern on the subsequent days functioning. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) (Buysse et al. 1989a) helps to discriminate between good and poor sleepers. The different dimensions covered by this index are Subjective Sleep Quality, Sleep Latency, Sleep Duration, Habitual Sleep Efficiency, Sleep Disturbances, Use of Sleep Medications, and Daytime Dysfunction. It is comprises of 19 self-rated questions 5 questions that are by a roommate. In the end it generates seven scores by summing up the component scores of the seven components. For our research purpose, we have taken only the 19 self-rated questions only since in the B-School context many students stay in single rooms in hostels. Hence, including the other 5 questions will not aid in the research. For the scale items, see Appendix 1. Burnout No doubt the sleep quality affects the perceived academic performance but it alone will keep the research restricted. Hence, a mediating variable is used to explain the whole effect. So burnout is used as a mediator here. Burnout is a concept that is used mainly in the work related context. It is defined as a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, cynicism or depersonalization, and reduced personal efficacy. Common symptoms of burnout are stress, exhaustion, fatigue, lack of concentration etc. As stated above, usually burnout is used in work related context especially for executives, CEOs etc (Anonymous, 2002); however, we have extended its usage for B-School students as well. Since a B-School environment demands meeting deadlines, toiling hard working for long hours- all of which are reasons that can cause burnout. To measure Burnout, School Burnout Inventory (SBI) is used. This inventory comprises of three dimensions- exhaustion, cynicism towards meaning of school sense of inadequacy. Out of these, only first two namely, exhaustion cynicism are used in our research; inadequacy is not measured since it is not applicable for our sample students. For the scale items, see Appendix 2. Perceived Academic Performance Instead of taking the academic Grade point as a measure of the academic performance of a student, we took the perceived academic performance as an effective construct to measure the capability of a student. Since academic performance means understanding, assimilating reproducing the teachings not getting good grades alone. This has been cited as the militation in many studies before. According to researchers, learning satisfaction from the course sheds more light on the topic of academic performance. (Garger et al, 2010) To measure the perceived Academic Performance for the B-School student, Academic Confidence Scale (ACS) is used. This scale has six factors namely, studying, understanding, verbalizing, clarifying, attendance grades. Out of these, verbalizing clarifying are not very relevant variables in a B-School context since these are basic skills which are expected from all students of B-schools. For the scale items, see Appendix 3. Work Experience as Moderator Research has been done linking sleep deprivation with burnout in corporate environment. The continuous stress that people in jobs feel is more especially at the higher levels in the organization (Anonymous, 2002). This continuous exposure to the high levels of stress gives students with more than 12 months of work experience more ability to handle low quality sleep and therefore, it should not affect their performance. Sleep Quality Burnout Burnout has a variety of causes and symptoms that erode the mental, emotional and spiritual quality of life. (Francis, 2006) Among other symptoms, sleep quality is considered as one of the major symptoms of burnout in humans. During sleep our body releases hormones etc which are used to repair damaged cells etc. Lack of sleep stops this process and hence leads to irritation, frustration, fatigue-all symptoms of burnout (Francis, 2006). Human body has a natural way of relieving stress through sleep (Spencer, 1987). Research has been done linking sleep deprivation with burnout in medical students (Dyrbye et al, 2006) corporate (Anonymous, 2002) but no such study has been done in B-School students. This research gap has been identified used in our model. Burnout and Perceived Academic Performance Students who feel energetic feel the vigour to perform give good academic results compared to their counterparts (Schaufeli et al, 2002). Burnout levels of students indicated by stress, fatigue etc cause low performance by students in academics this result is true not just for people of a particular nationality but has been proved for people of many countries (Schaufeli et al, 2002). This result can be used here as well for linking the burnout to academic performance of B-School students. Since in a B-School environment, there is a high stress work load which causes burnout to a large extend hence can affect the academic performance of the students. Sleep Quality and Perceived Academic Performance In the past, extensive research has been done in the area of sleep affecting academic performance. Most of the students who complained about sleep difficulties showed a drop in the performance compared to the others. (Anonymous, 2008). Regular proper sleep patterns among others are healthy habits which affect the grades a student gets. (Paul et al, 2008). Especially in a college environment, the students who take enough sleep, tend to score better than the others who sleep less. (France. 2009). Sleep patterns of college students are unique since it is influenced by work-related stress, parties, communal living arrangements etc. (Vail-Smith, 2009) This is an interesting observation as peoples attitude here are determined, to a large extent, by the group dynamics. Methods Sample The targeted sample consisted of B-school students studying in a 2-year full-time Post-Graduate course in MBA. Most of the respondents were students of the first year who have spent approximately 9 months in the course. However, some students of the second year have also been contacted to take their responses. The questionnaire, consisting of 33 items, was hosted online on Google Documents and the link to the form was sent personally to students via email and instant messages. The form contained no personal information that could be used to identify the respondents. In total, 163 respondents filled in the questionnaire. Of these, it is estimated that 131 respondents are from among the first and second year students of XLRI Jamshedpur. The remaining 32 respondents are from other institutes across India. Measures Our model consists of 3 constructs and one moderator as given below. The constructs were measured using modified versions of pre-existing scales as indicated below. Figure 1: Model Sleep Quality Work Experience Burnout Academic Confidence Sleep Quality Sleep Quality was measured using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), a 24-item scale that consists of various types of questions ranging from subjective questions to multiple-choice questions, as well as some questions based loosely on the Likert Scale. Of the 24 items present on the PSQI, we have modified the scale to exclude the last 6 items (refer Appendix 1), since these are not applicable to B-school students. These questions are to be answered if the respondent generally sleeps with a partner or room-mate, and if the room-mate has observed any irregular sleeping patterns. Burnout Burnout has been measured by the School Burnout Inventory, developed by Salmela-Aro et al (Salmela-Aro,K. et al, 2009). This inventory was developed to be used on higher secondary school students and contains 9 items that measure burnout on 3 dimensions-exhaustion due to coursework, cynicism towards school and inadequacy at performing well at school. Of these dimensions, we have chosen to study only exhaustion and cynicism, since inadequacy is not applicable to students of the age of MBA students. Therefore, the scale has been modified to include only 7 questions in the final questionnaire (refer Appendix 2). Perceived Academic Performance The perceived academic performance is measured by using the Academic Confidence Scale (ACS) (Sander, P. Sanders, L., 2003). This scale consists of 24 items based on 5-point Likert scale. The questions measure Academic Confidence in 6 dimensions-Studying, Understanding, Attendance, Grades, Verbalizing, Clarifying. Of these 6 dimensions, the last 2 are not applicable for students of B-schools, since it is assumed that these students would show an accomplished level of verbalizing and clarifying aptitude. Of the remaining questions, we have chosen 8 items (Appendix 3) that display the best coefficients for the remaining 4 dimensions. Analysis The analysis is carried out for both Moderator Analysis and Mediator Analysis. For types of analysis, we are using the four-step method developed by Baron and Kenny (Baron, R.M. Kenny, D.A., 1986). For Moderator Analysis, we initially select all cases for which the student has work experience greater than 12 months and carry out the analysis. Similarly, the same is carried out for students having greater than 12 months of work experience. Finally, all cases are taken to carry out the Mediation Analysis. In order to measure the significance of mediation analysis, the Sobel Test is carried out as well. Results Sleep Quality and Burnout The regression analysis was carried out to find out the relationship between sleep quality burnout. It was carried out for both the values of the bi-variate moderator. Relationship Significance Unstandardised coefficient Standardised coefficient R Square Work experience 0.000 0.453 0.405 0.164 Work experience > 12 m 0 0.428 0.444 0.197 Overall 0 0.461 0.442 0.195 Table 1: Results for Sleep quality Burnout As we can see from the above table, the relation is significant in all the three cases the impact is also almost the same. From the values of beta and B, we can interpret that for every B-School student a poor sleep quality leads to increase in burnout. This could be attributed to the fact that burnout is a physical a mental condition which is same for the all the human beings. Every human being needs sleep to recover energy though the time duration of the requirement may be different. But a minimum amount of sleep is necessary for all. Burnout and Perceived Academic Performance The regression analysis was carried out to find out the relationship between burnout and academic performance. It was carried out for both the values of the bi-variate moderator. Relationship Significance Unstandardised coefficient Standardised coefficient R Square Work experience 0.001 -0.53 -0.355 0.126 Work experience > 12 m 0.002 -0.541 -0.355 0.126 Overall 0 -0.527 -0.353 0.125 Table 2: Results for Burnout Perceived academic Performance As we can see, here also burnout level increase leads to a decrease in the perceived academic performance of an individual. This shows that a persons perceived academic performance is affected by the burnout level. This in turn proves the hypothesis stated and reinforces the previous researches done on the same subject. Sleep Quality and Perceived Academic Performance The regression analysis was carried out to find out the relationship between sleep quality perceived academic performance. It was carried out for both the values of the bi-variate moderator. Relationship Significance Unstandardised coefficient Standardised coefficient R Square Work experience 0.883 -0.040 -0.024 0.001 Work experience >12 m 0.009 -0.443 -0.302 0.091 Overall 0.081 -0.213 -0.137 0.019 Table 3: Results for Sleep quality Perceived Academic Performance As we can see that the significance level is within the confidence interval only for the values with work experience > 12 months. The likely reason for this can be that people with work experience are used to maintaining high pressures on the job. Working round the clock, meeting deadlines etc are a part of their lives and they dont feel much difference when they enter a B-School. In contrast to this, freshers (college graduates) are not accustomed to a hectic schedule. The model with the results is shown below: Figure 2: Model with the moderator values Values on the left hand side are values for work experience less than 12 months; Values on the right hand side are values for work experience more than 12 months *symbolises that the result is significant Discussions and Implications As we can see, that the total effect is significant but is attributed to the indirect effect only and not to the direct effect. Also, the net magnitude of the total effect is very less. The factors that can be attributed to these results can be as follows. Over a period of time, human body adapts itself to any routine. Here the timing of our research plays an important role. Most of our respondents are 1st year MBA students who have spent almost nine months in a B-School. Nine months is a long enough time for the human body to adapt to such any change in routine. Had this research been conducted when the students entered the B-School, results might have been different The age group of all the respondents is between 20 to 30 years. In this age group predominantly, the human body has the energy, stamina the will to withstand any adversities in the external environment. If such a study is conducted in people of a different age group, their body might not have the vigour and will to withstand harsh environment circumstances Also, as we saw that the direct relationship between sleep quality perceived academic performance is significant only in the case of people having work experience more than 12 months. As we know, across B-Schools in India, number of students with prior work experience is less compared to the others. Hence, had the research been conducted for B-Schools overseas as well, the results might have been different with a significant direct effect as well. This research highlights the relationship between poor sleep quality burnout of students in B-Schools. This further leads to a dip in their perceived academic performance. To avoid this, B-school administration should consider preparing the schedule or curriculum of the academic year in such a way that the students dont need to compromise on their sleep quality. This will help them maintain attentiveness, concentration, etc. this in turn will help them improve their perceived academic performance. Also, the hectic life-style in a B-school takes its toll on mental health of the students by making them cynical in their approach towards their courses/academics due to burnout. Limitations Following are the limitations we encountered during this research study: Sample size not large enough: Although, responses from 163 respondents were collected but, still larger number of respondents if covered would lend more accuracy to the research findings. Also, majority of the respondents (about 80%) are XLRI students, research findings could be much more accurate if we can collect more responses from other B-school students. Timing of the survey: Since, after spending about 9-10 months in a B-school environment, students become habitual to this kind of a life style, so the impact of sleep quality on burnout or their perceived academic performance subsides. Had this research been conducted when the students would have just entered the B-school, responses would have been more impactful. Age group of the respondents: Since, most of the students in a B-school are in the age group of 20 to 30 years, they have much more will power their capabilties in terms of adapting to the needs of the environment are much more. Thus, they easily adopt to the lifestyle requirements of a B-school. Homogeneous group: These responses are collected from the respondents belonging to the same race culture, thus, the group is homogeneous. Responses should also be collected from the students of foreign B-schools who belong to different race, culture, religon ethnicity then, the findings would be far more accurate diverse. Group Dynamics: Group Dynamics play a very important role in influencing the behaviour of B-school students. Since, almost everybody sleeps late in the night, so it becomes a norm nobody feels that he/she is not getting enough sleep or he/she is being sleep deprived. Future Scope The scope of this research can be extended in future as follows: Increase the sample size to include students from other B-schools also, not only students from top B-schools. Also, students from foreign B-schools can be included in the sample. Similar research can be done for students who are not B-school students but, tend to follow similar life-style, like aspirants preparing for competitive entrance examinations. As already stated above, this research should include the responses of the students studying in foreign B-schools. Probably, then we will be able to make general statements about the characteristics of all B-school students. We need to measure the effect of Group dynamics also in our research study since group behaviour is known to influence the norms in the group. The timing of the research study is very important. Research should be conducted at the start of the B-school session for new admits who have not become habitual to B-school lifestyle. References Anas, B. (2009), Sleepless On Campus, McClatchy Tribune Business News. Training Development Anonymous (2002), To burnout and back: CEOs are top candidates for stress overload. Admit it or face the consequences, Profit. Toronto: Sep 2002. 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(2009), Relationship Between Sleep Quality And Health Risk Behaviors In Undergraduate College Students, College Student Journal, East Carolina University, Vol. 43 Issue 3, p924-930 Appendix 1 Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index INSTRUCTIONS: The following questions relate to your usual sleep habits during the past month only. Your answers should indicate the most accurate reply for the majority of days and nights in the past month. Please answer all questions. 1. During the past month, what time have you usually gone to bed at night? BED TIME ___________ 2. During the past month, how long (in minutes) has it usually taken you to fall asleep each night? NUMBER OF MINUTES ___________ 3. During the past month, what time have you usually gotten up in the morning? GETTING UP TIME ___________ 4. During the past month, how many hours of actual sleep did you get at night? (This may be different than the number of hours you spent in bed.) HOURS OF SLEEP PER NIGHT ___________ For each of the remaining questions, check the one best response. Please answer all questions. 5. During the past month, how often have you had trouble sleeping because you . . . a) Cannot get to sleep within 30 minutes Not during the past one month _____ Less than once a week _____ Once or twice a week _____ Three or more times a week _____ b) Wake up in the middle of the night or early morning Not during the past one month _____ Less than once a week _____ Once or twice a week _____ Three or more times a week _____ c) Have to get up to use the bathroom Not during the past one month _____ Less than once a week _____ Once or twice a week _____ Three or more times a week _____ d) Cannot breathe comfortably Not during the past one month _____ Less than once a week _____ Once or twice a week _____ Three or more times a week _____ e) Cough or snore loudly Not during the past one month _____ Less than once a week _____ Once or twice a week _____ Three or more times a week _____ f) Feel too cold Not during the past one month _____ Less than once a week _____ Once or twice a week _____ Three or more times a week _____ g) Feel too hot Not during the past one month _____ Less than once a week _____ Once or twice a week _____ Three or more times a week _____ h) Had bad dreams Not during the past one month _____ Less than once a week _____ Once or twice a week _____ Three or more times a week _____ i) Have pain Not during the past one month _____ Less than once a week _____ Once or twice a week _____ Three or more times a week _____ j) Other reason(s), please describe__________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ How often during the past month have you had trouble sleeping because of this? Not during the past one month _____ Less than once a week _____ Once or twice a week _____ Three or more times a week _____ 6. During the past month, how would you rate your sleep quality overall? Very good ___________ Fairly good ___________ Fairly bad ___________ Very bad ___________ 7. During the past month, how often have you taken medicine to help you sleep (prescribed or over the counter)? Not during the past one month _____ Less than once a week _____ Once or twice a week _____ Three or more times a week _____ 8. During the past month, how often have you had trouble staying awake while driving, eating meals, or engaging in social activity? Not during the past one month _____ Less than once a week _____ Once or twice a week _____ Three or more times a week _____ 9. During the past month, how much of a problem has it been for you to keep up enough enthusiasm to get things done? No problem at all __________