Environmental Service Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Environmental Service Project - Essay Example There are doing this as a way of starting a new community of the plants in different locations in the park. All these activities lead towards restoring the park by creating a complete new phase that ensures environment conservation. It was on a Sunday morning when I and my other five friends visited Lewis Park not to admire its beauty but on a volunteer service. We were not the only volunteers in the park as there were others who had also come to offer their services. The team leader divided the entire group into two smaller groups for easy management and work accomplishment. The first group was to shovel the dirt that there was on the ground. I joined the second group that had to work on several tasks. Since one of the activities at the park was trimming back plants and relocating them, we were supposed to pick up the branches from the ground (Green Seattle Partnership, 2015). You will agree that a place looks messy with branches of trees all over. We had to pick up the branches from the ground so as to make the environment look clean and smart. Some branches can be dangerous to human beings using that surrounding as they could cause injuries due to pricking. I know a friend who got infected because of getting injured by a cedar tree branch and had to undergo treatment. We were, therefore, making the environment safe for use by all the users in the park. Our group also had to rake the leaves and other small branches that we could not easily pick up with our hands. The importance of the activity was to ensure that we clear the ground entirely so as to prevent sprouting of weeds that could affect the plants. After raking the leaves and the small branches, we had to put them into a pail to make it easy for transportation. We were required to pour the leaves and branches down the hill where preservation would take place for future use as manure on the farm. It was quite

Anne Sexton Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Anne Sexton - Research Paper Example The person responsible for Sexton picking up the pen is her psychiatrist Dr. Martin Orne. It was May 29, 1957 and at her second attempt at taking her own life when Dr. Orne came up to her and told her she has something to live for. Her poetry is something that people just like her may find emphatic. She was then 28 years old with two daughters when she was admitted to Glenside Hospital after another breakdown. It was barely a year since their doctor-patient relationship that lasted for a decade. Previously, Dr. Martha Brunner-Orne, Dr. Martin Orne’s mother was treating her. It was only because Orne left Boston for Philadelphia that their medical relationship stopped. Later, when Sexton died, her revered therapist even went so far as to condemn her two succeeding therapists. One was alleged to have had an unethical affair with Sexton while treating her while the second who forbade her to see Orne abruptly stopped treating her (Hughes, par.11-14). Her mental illness is so entwined with her poetry that despite reproach, Orne allowed biographer Diane Wood Middlebrook to listen to confidential tapes in Sexton’s psychotherapy sessions in 1991 (Hughes, par.6-10). Her personal demons are such an integral part of her writing that it cannot be dismissed as a focal point for a number of her works. â€Å"I checked out for the last time, on the first of May; graduate of the mental cases, with my analyst’s okay, my complete book of rhymes, my typewriter and my suitcases† (Sexton, â€Å"Double Image†). From one of her earlier works, â€Å"Double Image† carries a lot of ground and is forthright in her struggles with mental illness. It was also an account on how she got started with writing. Written as an open letter to her daughter, Joyce, Sexton winds back and forth between her childhood to her adult life to her motherhood. It was an account of the way she got started into poetry, determined to put

Examining whether glaxoSmithKline has successful internal innovation

Examining whether glaxoSmithKline has successful internal innovation 1) GSK is a leader in the pharmaceuticals industry with 7 per cent of the world market. Its mission is to better the quality of human life so that the people feel better, live longer and is able to perform the tasks assigned to them properly. This can only be achieved by proper planning and implementation of research and development programmes. GSKs purpose of merger was to improve R D (as it would also obtain technology from outside) because it looks to excel in internal innovation by making use of the knowledge and learning provided by individuals of other organisations. These individuals might be experienced, trained, flexible, committed and help the firm to accomplish its goals which is its primary objective. The main aim of internal innovation is to outperform its competition by implementing new ideas into developing new and better products which are sustainable in the market. GSK focuses on providing drugs at a cheaper rate to the developing countries. GSKs strategy is to nurtu re, distribute and make things easier. It implements its strategies by employing a large number of people in different countries. The employees research to produce new pharmaceuticals to treat the diseases focused on. However, GSK is facing a problem of patent expiry. It has 30 patented drugs that are nearing expiry. So it wants to redefine its range of drugs by focussing on its R D. The individuals involved must have a positive attitude and should be willing to take risks. They should learn from each other and also understand what others are doing. That would help in implementation. Implementation involves the proper utilisation of resources and capabilities of a firm. It involves the management of innovation and focuses on managing politics, control and fighting with change. 2) GlaxoSmithKline wants to ensure that the firm focuses on the best science. It realised that to be successful in future, it needs to be more innovative. So it reorganised its research and development area to improve efficiency and accomplish its goals. It created 70 Discovery Performance Units (DPUs) which focussed on eight therapy areas for future growth of the company. However, GSK successfully completed or extended 21 new drug discoveries in the year 2008. Innovation involves the implementation of ideas into some new product and the new product leads to new opportunities. In case of GSK, it would generate more revenue if the ideas are implemented properly. New technology provides a competitive edge to the firm. The four elements of implementation are leadership, engagement, alignment and extension. The 70 DPUs would affect these four elements. The DPUs are compact, fully authorised, determined and integrated teams which are responsible for a small part of the pipeline associated with the production of a drug. The teams include scientists, marketing specialists, engineers and others from key business domains to work on innovations. The exchange of ideas amongst its own scientists through building alliances and meetings are encouraged. They showcase different compounds and potential products. R D groups of individuals gather and learn about new products and processes. In case of GSK, leadership would focus on creating procedures for innovation and distribute sufficient resources for crucial activities. It would help in the induction of supportive systems and policies and set up adequate infrastructure for achieving the required goals. Engagement would focus on building a knowledge based cultu re, education, progress and mentoring. Alignment would help in building a competent organisation and would bind rewards to accomplishments. Extension would help in examining organisational capabilities and search for other prospects. It would also develop and share lessons learnt. Implementation ensures that the goals and support of management are understood properly. It also involves looking out for people who possess the necessary skills required to meet the project objectives. The internal culture and external environment of GSK would also affect the implementation effort. We can expect disinterest, apprehensions, satisfaction, hostility and competition for resources. The teams might become satisfied with their achievements and their ideas could be clashing with each other. They may lack the necessary skills. This would hinder the future growth of the firm and it would not be able to accomplish its goals. However, engagement would help them overcome the problem. Implementation also involves setting up of scrutinising system which addresses possible technical and market uncertainties arising out of radical, continuous change and competition from the external environment. Radical change involves high risk whereas continuous change involves low to medium risk. This is because radical change has a wider impact on the firm as the failure of the product will demotivate the firm and decrease its revenues whereas continuous change has a marginal impact on the firm because improvements are made to the existing product or service. Radical change involves major streamlining of the firm, product line or market. The case study shows that GSK has a background and the processes that support innovation. It also hires individuals to conduct research and develop new products, encourages employees to try out new ideas, undertake risks and experiment. The first part of these processes involves constructing a structure for innovation. Proper teams and co-ordination between different units in an organisation like GSK are needed for the successful implementation. It needs to organise special training and development programmes for the employees, providing technical knowledge about the product, programmes on marketing the product, focus on building new skills in employees and encouraging cross functional activities. 3) GSK needs to evaluate its total organisational performance because it is large, the external environment factors (political, social, economical, technological and competitive factors), the strategic environment, information systems and structural analysis. An organisation involves human, physical, financial and information resources and how these resources are used in the management, operations, production and integration of ideas and actions. The output is the products and services. However, it needs a process to evaluate the diverse ideas and products because it produces far more ideas and products than it can follow at any given time. Cost plays a crucial role when it comes to evaluating an idea. GSK also needs to evaluate the innovation cost which is the internal cost to develop and distribute and also the true cost to the customer to purchase and use. It needs to calculate the costs for development and marketing, market penetration and sales when evaluating a new product and service. It needs a business plan (expected revenue, cost of producing a product or service and profits to be generated) to commercialise the ideas. The evaluation process helps GSK in assessing the kind of innovations it should continue supporting or initiate support for. The team promoting the product should have the ability to justify the product at each step of the process. It should continue with ideas or products that are generating revenue and doing well in the market. It should also start developing new products which have the potential to do well in the market because that will provide competitive advantage to the firm. It would create new opportunities and customers. The shareholders would not hesitate to invest in the firm if it is doing well because they would get appropriate returns on their investment. The evaluation system is designed to be flexible and helps GSK to discontinue those projects that are not meeting expectations. In other words, those projects are hinder ing the growth of the firm. GSKs disciplined and focussed approach has the most influence on how well it evaluates progress towards stated innovation goals. It sees where and how resources are allocated within R D. It terminated more than 35 per cent of discovery projects following the reorganisation in 2008. Those projects might not be meeting its expectations. The DPUs were given financial support for three years after the termination of the projects. The financial support aids the R D group to focus on granting the best science and the best product for the consumers but at the same time it also gave them tough timelines to produce a profitable product. If the product is not profitable it will reduce the revenues of the firm. In that case the firm would have to discontinue with the product. In 2008, GSK received 30 per cent of its revenues from products that had been in existence for less than three years as an outcome of these innovation efforts. It means its revenue was coming from new products. It gained t he first mover advantage. However, it needed to improve its old products. GSKs widespread internal development efforts often lead to innovations that do not fit with the companys main focus. 4) There are three types of control systems: financial control, strategic control and cultural control. They all have advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of financial control are that it is quantitative and easy to understand. The disadvantages are it can become narrow, internally focussed and analysis paralysis is possible. The example of financial control is that it leads to percentage of profit increase from new products. GSK employs financial control because 30 per cent of its revenue has come from products which have been in existence for less than three years. The advantages of strategic control are that it sets direction, more qualitative and fits environment. The disadvantages are it is hard to justify based on some financials, can lose sight of where the firm is. The example of strategic control is that it leads to increase in market share. The case study shows that GSK employs strategic control because its widespread internal development efforts often lead to innov ations that do not fit with the companys main focus. The advantages of cultural control are that it is very behavioural and qualitative. The disadvantage is it requires managers to be involved on a personal level. The example of cultural control is that it leads to value enhancement. GSK employs cultural control because it develops external discovery teams with other firms or universities or research labs. However, it can be seen that GSK faces a vague institutional environment because it emphasises both on financial and strategic control and firms that prefer strategic control to financial control adopt strict corporate authority. The choice of innovation mode is affected considerably by the firms internal control procedures. Therefore a model was developed to look at the relationship between a firms internal control procedures and preference of innovation mode. Using a sample of 585 Chinese firms, this study tests the proposed model. The findings show that strategic control has a negative relationship with incremental innovation but a positive relationship with radical innovation, while financial control has a positive relationship with incremental innovation but a negative relationship with radical innovation. So, GSK should employ strategic control for radical innovation and financial control for incremental innovation. There is a need to make amendments if a gap is identified between goals and performance. This can only be achieved through proper planning. GSK needs to be more cross functional by rethinking of the business processes. In particular the knowledge, equipment and processes must be managed and controlled properly. The processes used by the firm for its internal innovation must be redesigned and looked upon for improvements to meet its objectives. It will help GSK gain competitive advantage. Key decisions should be made by those involved in the innovative process. They would identify new opportunities and find solutions to the existing problems. GSK should develop new goals if the existing goals do not match its capabilities. The goals must be rational and easily achievable because that would save time and money. The individuals involved must have strong personal idea and ethics with the firms values and goals.

Andrew Wythe :: essays research papers

Andrew Wythe Andrew Wythe was an amazing artist full of imagination, feelings, and compassion for his work. He has a great portfolio of work consisting of his two major styles of work, realistic and abstract. A lot of his personal life goes into each painting he creates. Each piece can usually be linked back to the life he lived and fond memories he wished to preserve.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Andrew was born in Maine and has quite a history to be told from living there. He has been painting for fifty years and has changed his style some during those years. He used to paint realistically for quite some time but then made the change to painting abstract. As a child, Andrew has very fond memories of his father and the fun times the family had together. He can recall a time when his father dressed as St. Nick and frightened him so much that he wet the bed. Just before Christmas, the whole family recalls hearing footsteps on the roof. Their father dropped a painting of St. Nick down the chimney for them. His father did illustrations, so Andrew had plenty of backing for his creative talents. Andrew can remember being very interested in the art of war ever since his early childhood years. He remembers playing with his tiny soldiers and creating stories for them. Andrew?fs father believed that a painter should be left alone from the ages of 6-18. Andrew had tutors for his schooli ng whereas his brothers and sisters went off to school. This gave him free time to roam the countryside. Andrew did not attend college but instead studied under Howard Pyle at his school with 12 other students.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Andrew?fs father died near his house in Maine because of a train accident. Andrew really viewed his father as a hero and looked up to him. He will always remember his father and because of this a heavy influence is always with Andrew when painting. His father?fs life truly inspired Andrew and because of this, Andrew?fs paintings are all very personable and all have a story to tell. The paintings mostly represent his life in Maine and represent the climate and area well. Most of the paintings are of houses, naturalistic surroundings, and his neighbors and friends. He would paint various rooms in his house to portraits of his friends. All were done with such depth and character.

Evaluation of a multiprofessional community stroke team Essay

The study aims to conclusively evaluate how effective it is to employ a specialist community stroke team for the rehabilitation of stroke victims in a community based setting. This is clearly established at within the opening lines of the article. In the summary at the beginning of the article the author claims that the available evidence is inconclusive and his aim is to provide conclusive proof with regards to evidence based practise for the patient. A research article should state its’ aims clearly and should assume the audience has no previous background knowledge (Greenhalg, 2006). The literature reviewed in this article was from a variety of sources such as the Cochrane database and a selection of journal articles. On this basis the authors were able to deduce that previous research carried out provided contradicting reports. For example Roderick et al (2001) as cited by Lincoln et al (2004) found no significant difference in the effectiveness of rehabilitation which had taken place in the home to that which had occurred in a hospital setting. On the contrary Gladman et al (1993) as cited by Lincoln et al (2004) found a significant difference in a small group of younger patients. It was also suggested that there was a shift of focus from mainly hospital based rehabilitation to community based rehabilitation of stroke patients. According to Polger and Thomas (2008) a literature review should provide appropriate background information. That is, it should show the current knowledge level in that area of study. The author appears to have utilised much of his own previous work in the study and some are more than ten years old. This could possibly be an indication that indeed, there is a large gap in knowledge of this subject area. On the other hand it may indicate that the author has done a selective search of the literature. A quantitative approach was utilised in this study and the method used was a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT). The articles’ methodology was well documented. According to Sim and Wright (2000) an analytic study attempts to quantify the relationship between two factors, that is, the effect of an intervention or exposure on an outcome. A term used to describe the design randomized controlled trial according to Greenhalgh (2006) is Parallel group comparison. This is when each group receives a different treatment and both are entered into the experiment at the same time. By comparing the groups an analysis is provided. In the Lincoln et al (2004) study Participants were divided into two groups, A and B with the former receiving routine care while the latter received the intervention – rehabilitation with the multi-professional community stroke team. The question posed by the authors could have been answered using a qualitative approach. The question could possible state; Evaluation of a multiprofessional community stroke team: a phenomenological study. SAMPLE Altman (1991) states that a study should have enough participants recruited in order to detect a significant effect if one exists. The sample group consisted of patients referred to the Nottingham Community Stroke Team who had suffered a stroke within the last two years, who were over sixteen years old and needed intervention from more than one multidisciplinary team member. Patients who lived outside the geographical area and/or had been treated by the community stroke team in the preceding two years were excluded. Four hundred and twenty eight patients were randomly selected at the start of the trial and randomly allocated to either Group A or Group B. An error resulted in seven people being recruited twice. This error was corrected by including only the outcome of their initial recruitment when the results were being analyzed. The target population of this study is relatively clearly defined (patients who have had a stroke within last two years, over the age of sixteen, etc†¦ ) and lends credence to the external validity of the study (Payton, 1994). According to Sim and Wright (2000) the accessible population is the portion of the target population that is available to the researcher and the sample is then taken from this accessible population. The groups are similar to each other with regards to gender and age distribution; this also increases the validity of the study as this similarity reduces the variables of the study. The overall population was a convenience sample which was then randomized to two groups. Six months after randomization all the patients were sent a letter asking them to consent to being in a study to evaluate the input of a community stroke team. According to Lincoln et al (2004) the consent forms and outcome questionnaires were sent this late so as to reduce bias. It was thought that group A which was receiving routine care would have lower expectations if confronted with the realization that the alternate group may receive superior care. Some would possibly insist on being referred to the specialist community stroke team The Local Research Ethics Committee granted ethical approval for this study to go ahead. This indicates that the value of the research undertaken outweighed any harm that this consenting method may have caused as patients in Group A were still receiving routine care. However, the department of health has issued guidelines which state that participants must be consented and all pertinent information given prior to the start of any study. Data was collected via a questionnaire comprising of the Barthel Index, Extended ADL, General Health Questionnaire 12 (GHQ-12) and Euroquol. The participants were also asked to rate their knowledge of the expected extent of recovery from their stroke, and their overall satisfaction with the services they received from the community stroke team. The use of a questionnaire for data collection has both negative and positive aspects. Greenhalgh (2006) states that a questionnaire is an instrument used to measure human psychology, so whilst sending the questionnaire via post proves to be cost effective as the alternative would be to hold face to face interviews with the participants as focus groups or individually, it raises concerns about the reliability of the study. This is because the researcher is not present to interpret facial expressions and body language when the participants answer the questions. The alternative of conducting face to face interviews with such a large number of participants would prove to be costly and time consuming. However, according to Oppenheim (2003) long questionnaires are sometimes off putting and may generate low response rates, conducting these questionnaires via the postal service could possibly increase the likelihood of a low response rate. The results were shown as a table and diagram, the Mann-Whitney U-test which was used to compare the groups showed no significant differences on independence in personal or instrumental activities of daily living or on the patients’ mood. There was also no significant difference between the groups in their knowledge with regards to the resources available to assist them in adjusting to life after a stroke. There was also no difference between the two groups with overall satisfaction or in satisfaction with the practical helped received. However, patients in the Community Stroke Team were significantly more satisfied with the emotional care they received. (Lincoln et al, 2004) According to Wright et al (2009) the Mann-Whitney U-test is used when one group from the sample is larger than the other and when both samples are from the same population, as is the case with this study. There was no significant difference in carers’ mood between the two groups. However, the strain on carers of patients seen by the community stroke team was significantly less than that of carers of patients randomized to the routine care group. The carers of patients in the community stroke team group were significantly more satisfied with their knowledge of stroke and had higher overall satisfaction than the carers of those in the routine group. By utilizing the randomized controlled trial design the author lends credence to its validity as this design allows for the eradication of systematic bias. (Sim et al, 2000) This was done through the sampling process of selecting the participants from the target population and randomly allocating them to Group A which received routine care or Group B those in the care of the community stroke team. The collection of data by using a postal questionnaire helps to â€Å"blind† the researcher as he cannot influence the participants’ response. Although some participants did not respond to the questionnaire, others responded with incomplete forms, some died and a few were recruited twice, the author is cognizant of this and incorporates it into his findings. Crombie (2000) states that if the withdrawals and failures to respond can be seen as being consistent between both comparison groups then the results of the research will not be negatively impacted upon. This is because the results show that these failures are random among both groups and not specific to one. However one major fault is the fact that the services received by Group A were not collected due to impracticalities and unreliable recollections of the patients. Critical appraisal is not just an exercise in fault finding, it is the analysis of these faults and the assessment of their potential impact on the research which allows the reader to come to a decision regarding the strength or usefulness of the article being critiqued. In order for the research results to be utilized in clinical practice its’ reliability and validity are essential aspects which need to be covered. (Polger and Thomas, 2008) This article shows a research that was methodically sound and well designed. The sample was representative of the population being examined and attempts were made to minimize bias. The author was aware of the shortfalls of this research and attempted to incorporate this in his findings however, most of the issues identified did not affect the results of the study. The study if repeated would provide comparable results. However, the author states that the study provides evidence supporting the use of a community based stroke team to assist in the rehabilitation of stroke patients because of the increased emotional support for patients and greater satisfaction and reduced strain on carers. This statement would have been better justified on results from a qualitative study as this type of study aims to interpret people’s emotional and psychological response to the intervention or interventions being employed. The results from such a study would be closer to the patients’ and carers true feelings as the methodology behind that study would be different.

Addressing the Ill Effects of the Five Paragraph Theme

A student has an Idea; a great, huge, expansive Idea. She wants to write about It, so she turns to the only way she knows how to write. The Five Paragraph Theme. In all of her years of school, she has been led to believe that it is the only good way to write an essay. In the process of writing her essay and forcing all of her ideas into three main topics, she loses a great deal of the important information she had previously planned to write about.But that's okay, she thinks, because at least her writing is well organized and written in an â€Å"acceptable† way, right? Wrong! All their lives, students have been manipulated into believing that five paragraphs in an essay is the only way to go. In reality however, according to Mrs.. Kimberly Wesley, an English teacher at Berkeley Preparatory School, Tampa, Florida, becoming complacent with only being able to write In one format â€Å"stunts the growth of human minds† (57). The FTP was meant to help students with their wri ting and organizational skills after they mastered the art of writing In Itself.Instead, what's been happening Is that teachers eve become satisfied with staying on the edge of the status quo, and have fallen back on using the simply structured â€Å"national phenomenon† FTP as their main teaching method to teach their students how to write efficiently. To create an easy grading system and keep organized order in the class so students think they know what they're doing, they have forced the belief on the children that the FTP is the only way they will ever, and should ever write essays.I myself remember on separate occasions in Junior high when I would receive less than satisfactory grades mainly cause I didn't stick expressly to the FTP. With time, I conformed to the idea, as all of my classmates with me and before me had. Now, In high school, learning that It's not the only way to write, and that it's actually desired to write In a different format, comes as a challenge as well as a relief to me.Along with so many others, I had unwittingly fallen prey to the complacence that came with the belief that I had learned all that my teachers wanted from me, and that besides more complicated topics, not much more would ever be expected of me. Changing the way I've been rating for years will not be impossible, but it will be an uphill road. If a teacher does not challenge a student, they will not ever reach their full potential.When students believe they must stay strictly within their guidelines for their essays, they â€Å"carry seeds of critical thought that are never allowed to grow,† says Wesley (58). Instead they focus mainly on clearly summarizing the effects of whatever they were sent to write about, and not revealing much, or any opinion of their own, as it â€Å"didn't fit within the neat prescribed formula of their thesis† (58). As a result, many essays that ad the potential for great Insight were cut and pruned until only the most bas ic bones remained.In other words, Instead of using It to create an Interesting, more thought provoking essay, students channel all of their energy Into keeping wealth the confines of three neatly connected ideas. Rather than endlessly revolving in this dry, staring them right in the face. They don't need to stick to five paragraphs. Especially when they have topics that are extremely complicated and must fit into, for example six to seven pages. The thought of using only three ideas and five paragraphs to write six to seven page paper seems absolutely ridiculous when one really ponders the notion.What Wesley introduces is that while there must be an introduction, body, and conclusion, there is no set rule that says there must only be one paragraph for each the introduction and conclusion, and only three paragraphs that explain three ideas. As long as you have a clear introduction, body, and conclusion, you can use as many paragraphs and ideas as you like! Wesley calls this the †Å"Rhetorical Process. † A symbiotic relationship is when two organisms share or feed after another in order to main. Take for example, the relationship between feeder shrimp and sharks.Feeder shrimp eat the organisms and plants that get caught in sharks' gills. By them doing so, the shark is able to breathe efficiently, and the shrimp get nutrients that allow them to live and grow. The student and teacher have a similar symbiotic relationship. When the student works harder for the teacher, the teacher works harder for the student, and in doing so, they are both able to grow. The student responds to a teacher's encouragement, and in return, the teacher responds to a student's enthusiasm.When that occurs, the student grows as an independent writer, and the teacher is allowed to accomplish their Job more fully. When teachers go beyond the minimum requirement and revoke the easy, cookie cutter way of teaching that turns out cookie cutter students to pass on to the next grade, but instead build on students strengths, work on strengthening their weaknesses, and teach each student according to their individual potential, they remove the boundaries on the students' learning, and set them free.One way of proposing this change in organizing ideas is o show students different styles of writing, from different time periods and from people of all ages and backgrounds, to show them that there really are many different ways to write. Wesley believes that when students are asked to â€Å"reflect on what format best enables them to voice their concerns and meets the needs of their audience† (60), they are encouraged to become communicators, which will help them immensely out in the real world. Coming from a student's point of view, I agree wholeheartedly.