A Stillness at Appomattox Essay -- Bruce Catton American Civil War Ess

A Stillness at Appomattox â€Å"All up and down the lines the men blinked at one another, unable to realize that the hour they had waited for so long was actually at hand. There was a truce†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Bruce Catton’s Pulitzer prize winning book A Stillness at Appomattox chronicles the final year of the American Civil War. This book taught me a lot more about the Civil War than I ever learned through the public school system. Bruce Catton brought to life the real day to day life of the soldiers and the generals who led them into battle. The day to day life for the regular soldier was not glorious. Many times the regiments were low on supplies such as food and clothing. They lived in the elements. Medical conditions were grotesque because of the lack of advanced equipment and anesthesia. â€Å"Discipline was enforced with brutality† as if all the other conditions were not bad enough. The author is graphic in his detail of the people and the places of importance during this time in history. The book is written more from a Northern point of view and so I didn’t get quite the same perspective of the Southern side but still learned more than I knew before. A few chapters into the book the war year of 1864 begins with a changing of the guard again with President Lincoln appointing Ulysses Grant to lead the Army of the Potomac. Grant has an illustrious past. People talked about his being a drunkard but Catton says â€Å"He was simply a man infinitely more complex then most people could realize.† Grant, even though he was a West Point graduate, never wanted to be a soldier or to have a life in the military. He wanted to be a teacher. What Grant did bring to the Army of the Potomac was his ability to relate to the soldiers and made them his army. He completely retrained and re-organized the armies, and re-enlisted troops that were going to go home. They all realized that under Grant the Army of the Potomac changed which meant now that the entire war would change. The Battle of the Wilderness was a very unusual battle because it was fought in the woods. The terrain and the trees wouldn’t allow for the smoke to clear and it was dark anyway because of the trees. The men described it as eerie. Both sides fired blindly because of the smoke. Artillery was abandoned because they could not transport it through the woods. So those soldiers became... ... or ending the war, because it was the only rail junction connecting Richmond to the rest of the Confederacy. Faced with the need to defend a line running continuously from north of Richmond to Petersburg, the Confederates were stretched thinner and thinner. Eventually their line broke. Within a little over a week it was over. The final year of the Civil War was something new in the history of warfare - never before had two large armies remained locked in continuous combat for such a long period of time. In the past the armies would fight, retreat, regroup, and usually meet at some later date and place but in 1864-65 even though they moved around some it was almost one continuous fight to the end. On the final day the Union soldiers were told that â€Å"if they hurried this was the day they could finish everything† although that inspired them, they were also promised that once they reached Appomattox Station rations would be handed out. Many of the men later admitted they did so â€Å"because they figured it was the quickest way to get breakfast.† After a small skirmish near Appomattox Station Lee decided to surrender his army right before the Union carried out their attack.

Ww1 Trench Warfare

Nature of Life in the Trenches The nature of life in the trenches was a dangerous place. It was a place for the dead or for the survivors. Trenches were a front line which was dug metres underground, inside the trenches, were supplies, training areas, stores and mainly headquarters. The trenches were the main area to store arms of artillery and mortars. Life was hell for soldiers. Bearing the pain they went through, the diseases, the infections, the bad conditions living in, having to deal with sickness, all these illnesses became worse in the long run as soldiers ceased from them.The whole idea of the trenches was to gain and to give protection from enemy lines who would want to attack their enemies once seen, so trenches were a good hiding spot hence other various reasons as well. September 1914 was when trench warfare began and ended in August 1918. In the area of the River Somme on the Western Front, the ground is deathly and is easily tunnelled. The trench sides would dissolve e asily after rain so the ideas would have to be changed and wood, sandbags or any other suitable material would have to be a substitute of dirt.Trenches were never built to be straight for a reason, in case an enemy ever jumped into the trench they could have point blank shot of everyone hiding inside it, whereas, trenches were built in a zigzag form to avoid quick target shots from enemies. The living conditions in the trenches were unbearable. In order to minimise the risk of trench foot (a disease on the feet) they would have to build duckboards on the bottom of trenches to clear the mud and faeces at the bottom. The health risk was very severe and was a maximised hazard of death as the unhygienic smell can affect the body.The weather was a big factor in the trenches, temperatures down to less than 10 degrees Celsius was made impossible for soldiers to cope while sleeping or doing any activity. Diseases such as frost bites could occur as well as exposure and trench foot. Uses of s econdary weapons were used in the war as well as fire weaponry. Secondary weapons such as grenades, bombs, gas bombs, and much more were used and it was effective at long and short range targets. Gas masks were used continually due to the gas mixing with the air and making it hard to breathe so gas masks were introduced to protect the face from burnt skin as well as inhaling it.The main diseases caught while in trenches were trench foot, shell shock, blindness from mustard gas, snakes, infected rats, grenades, bombs, colds from low temperatures, frost bite, gangrene, body lice was a main disease maker as it irritated soldiers to itch numerous times of the day and that would cause infectious diseases on skin and could be caught off one another, the insufferable conditions, stench from rotting bodies, self-inflicting punishments and as well as suicide due to the trauma and depression. Body lice were a main factor in the trenches.It brought upon soldiers infections, high fevers, diseas es and probably death. Lice would stay on the body throughout the whole day and eat at the flesh and irritate soldiers, they would have to itch and itch and itch continuously in order to get the irritation feeling away. The aftermath would leave redness, bad smells, trench fever, first symptoms and shooting pains around the body and high illnesses. Many of the other diseases were much similar to lice and the treatment was similar was well but some things did differ, such as the kind of sickness, disease and the way the â€Å"infection† was going to affect the soldier.Mud affected the body as well as their existence, what they ate, what they were wearing and how they breathed. Mud was an enemy and misery to soldiers. Trench foot was a painful swelling of the feet caused by constant absorption in water. Some cases, toes could rot off and that can lead to gangrene and that can be led to amputation. Rats were known as â€Å"trench rats† because they were sizes of small dog s. Rats would consume food that was left on the ground as well as fresh food and take all food supplies which would then be limited for soldiers the next day or so.Rats were also good humour for the soldiers as they would attract it to food and shoot them once they seem them and hang them as a â€Å"trophy†. Gas gangrene was an easy target for many soldiers, the least of their problems were rats. They had to survive and live to continue the war, they couldn’t afford to inhale dangerous gases and die instantly. If the gas was ever inhaled, it would destroy the tissue inside the human body and the body will decay gradually and disintegrate. Gas masks were then produced.The cold fell to temperature of minus Forty degrees Celsius; nevertheless, trenches had temperature of minus Fifteen degrees Celsius. Soldiers had to manage with the cold, hard to believe, it was worse than lice. The cold made it impossible to sleep. Frostbite affected many men and frequently directed to i nfection, decomposition and later on, amputation, along with hypothermia. In addition the infections led to boils, impetigo (a contagious skin disease caused by streptococcal bacteria, forming pustules and yellow sores), ulcers, hypothermia, frostbite, gangrene and amputation.There were many psychological effects that were put onto soldiers such as trauma, shell shock, tics, a feeling of disillusionment and a growing sense of distrust of political leaders. The effects led to long term effects which made them think about the past most of their lives and that caused controversy to war officials. In conclusion, life in the trenches was difficult and distressing. Soldiers sacrificed their life to create peace in the world but it continued unfortunately. As oppose to all the past dramatic effects on soldiers, they had to live with it their whole lives, having to go through long or short term effects.

The Battle of Ayn Jalut, 1260 - Mongols vs. Mamluks

At times in Asian history, circumstances have conspired to bring seemingly unlikely combatants into conflict with one another. One example is the Battle of Talas River (751 A.D.), which pitted the armies of Tang China against the Abbasid Arabs in what is now Kyrgyzstan. Another is the Battle of Ayn Jalut, where in 1260 the seemingly unstoppable Mongol hordes ran up against the Mamluk warrior-slave army of Egypt. In This Corner: The Mongol Empire In 1206, the young Mongol leader Temujin was declared the ruler of all the Mongols; he took the name Genghis Khan (or Chinguz Khan). By the time he died in 1227, Genghis Khan controlled Central Asia from the Pacific coast of Siberia to the Caspian Sea in the west. After Genghis Khans death, his descendants divided the Empire into four separate khanates: the Mongolian homeland, ruled by Tolui Khan; the Empire of the Great Khan (later Yuan China), ruled by Ogedei Khan; the Ilkhanate Khanate of Central Asia and Persia, ruled by Chagatai Khan; and the Khanate of the Golden Horde, which would later include not just Russia but also Hungary and Poland. Each Khan sought to expand his own portion of the empire through further conquests. After all, a prophecy predicted that Genghis Khan and his offspring would one day rule all the people of the felt tents. Of course, they sometimes exceeded this mandate - nobody in Hungary or Poland actually lived a nomadic herding lifestyle. Nominally, at least, the other khans all answered to the Great Khan. In 1251, Ogedei died and his nephew Mongke, Genghiss grandson, became the Great Khan. Mongke Khan appointed his brother Hulagu to head the southwestern horde, the Ilkhanate. He charged Hulagu with the task of conquering the remaining Islamic empires of the Middle East and North Africa. In the Other Corner: The Mamluk Dynasty of Egypt While the Mongols were busy with their ever-expanding empire, the Islamic world was fighting off Christian Crusaders from Europe. The great Muslim general Saladin (Salah al-Din) conquered Egypt in 1169, founding the Ayyubid Dynasty. His descendants used increasing numbers of Mamluk soldiers in their internecine struggles for power. The Mamluks were an elite corps of warrior-slaves, mostly from Turkic or Kurdish Central Asia, but also including some Christians from the Caucasus region of south-eastern Europe. Captured and sold as young boys, they were carefully groomed for life as military men. Being a Mamluk became such an honor that some free-born Egyptians reportedly sold their sons into slavery so that they too could become Mamluks. In the tumultuous times surrounding the Seventh Crusade (which led to the capture of King Louis IX of France by the Egyptians), the Mamluks steadily gained power over their civilian rulers. In 1250, the widow of Ayyubid sultan as-Salih Ayyub married a Mamluk, Emir Aybak, who then became sultan. This was the beginning of the Bahri Mamluk Dynasty, which ruled Egypt until 1517. By 1260, when the Mongols began to threaten Egypt, the Bahri Dynasty was on its third Mamluk sultan, Saif ad-Din Qutuz. Ironically, Qutuz was Turkic (probably a Turkmen), and had become a Mamluk after he was captured and sold into slavery by the Ilkhanate Mongols. Prelude to the Show-down Hulagus campaign to subdue the Islamic lands began with an assault on the infamous Assassins or Hashshashin of Persia. A splinter group of the Ismaili Shia sect, the Hashshashin were based out of a cliff-side fortress called the Alamut, or Eagles Nest. On December 15, 1256, the Mongols captured Alamut and destroyed the power of the Hashshashin. Next, Hulagu Khan and the Ilkhanate army launched their assault on the Islamic heartlands proper with a siege on Baghdad, lasting from January 29 to February 10, 1258. At that time, Baghdad was the capital of the Abbasid caliphate (the same dynasty that had battled the Chinese at Talas River in 751), and the center of the Muslim world. The caliph relied on his belief that the other Islamic powers would come to his aid rather than see Baghdad destroyed. Unfortunately for him, that did not happen. When the city fell, the Mongols sacked and destroyed it, slaughtering hundreds of thousands of civilians and burning down the Grand Library of Baghdad. The victors rolled the caliph inside a rug and trampled him to death with their horses. Baghdad, the flower of Islam, was wrecked. This was the fate of any city that resisted the Mongols, according to Genghis Khans own battle plans. In 1260, the Mongols turned their attention to Syria. After only a seven-day siege, Aleppo fell, and some of the population was massacred. Having seen the destruction of Baghdad and Aleppo, Damascus surrendered to the Mongols without a fight. The center of the Islamic world now drifted south to Cairo. Interestingly enough, during this time the Crusaders controlled several small coastal principalities in the Holy Land. The Mongols approached them, offering an alliance against the Muslims. The Crusaders erstwhile enemies, the Mamluks, also sent emissaries to the Christians offering an alliance against the Mongols. Discerning that the Mongols were a more immediate threat, the Crusader states opted to remain nominally neutral, but agreed to allow the Mamluk armies to pass unhindered through Christian-occupied lands. Hulagu Khan Throws Down the Gauntlet In 1260, Hulagu sent two envoys to Cairo with a threatening letter for the Mamluk sultan. It said, in part: To Qutuz the Mamluk, who fled to escape our swords. You should think of what happened to other countries and submit to us. You have heard how we have conquered a vast empire and have purified the earth of the disorders that tainted it. We have conquered vast areas, massacring all the people. Whither can you flee? What road will you use to escape us? Our horses are swift, our arrows sharp, our swords like thunderbolts, our hearts as hard as the mountains, our soldiers as numerous as the sand. In response, Qutuz had the two ambassadors sliced in half, and set their heads up on the gates of Cairo for all to see. He likely knew that this was the gravest possible insult to the Mongols, who practiced an early form of diplomatic immunity. Fate Intervenes Even as the Mongol emissaries were delivering Hulagus message to Qutuz, Hulagu himself received word that his brother Mongke, the Great Khan, had died. This untimely death set off a succession struggle within the Mongolian royal family. Hulagu had no interest in the Great Khanship himself, but he wanted to see his younger brother  Kublai  installed as the next Great Khan. However, the leader of the Mongol homeland, Toluis son Arik-Boke, called for a quick council (kuriltai) and had himself named Great Khan. As civil strife broke out between the claimants, Hulagu took the bulk of his army north to Azerbaijan, ready to join in the succession fight if necessary. The Mongolian leader left just 20,000 troops under the command of one of his generals, Ketbuqa, to hold the line in Syria and Palestine. Sensing that this was an opportunity not to be lost, Qutuz immediately gathered an army of roughly equal size and marched for Palestine, intent on crushing the Mongol threat. The Battle of Ayn Jalut On September 3, 1260, the two armies met at the  oasis  of Ayn Jalut (meaning The Eye of Goliath or Goliaths Well), in the Jezreel Valley of Palestine. The Mongols had the advantages of self-confidence and hardier horses, but the Mamluks knew the terrain better and had larger (thus faster) steeds. The Mamluks also deployed an early form of firearm, a sort of hand-held cannon, which frightened the Mongol horses. (This tactic cannot have surprised the Mongol riders themselves too greatly, however, since the Chinese had been using  gunpowder weapons  against them for centuries.) Qutuz used a classic Mongol tactic against Ketbuqas troops, and they fell for it. The Mamluks sent out a small portion of their force, which then feigned retreat, drawing the Mongols into an ambush. From the hills, Mamluk warriors poured down on three sides, pinning the Mongols in a withering cross-fire. The Mongols fought back throughout the morning hours, but finally the survivors began to retreat in disorder. Ketbuqa refused to flee in disgrace, and fought on until his horse either stumbled or was shot out from under him. The Mamluks captured the Mongol commander, who warned that they could kill him if they liked, but Be not deceived by this event for one moment, for when the news of my death reaches Hulagu Khan, the ocean of his wrath will boil over, and from Azerbaijan to the gates of Egypt will quake with the hooves of Mongol horses. Qutuz then ordered Ketbuqa beheaded. Sultan Qutuz himself did not survive to return to Cairo in triumph. On the way home, he was assassinated by a group of conspirators led by one of his generals, Baybars. Aftermath of the Battle of Ayn Jalut The Mamluks suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Ayn Jalut, but nearly the entire Mongol contingent was destroyed. This battle was a severe blow to the confidence and reputation of the hordes, which had never suffered such a defeat. Suddenly, they did not seem invincible. Despite the loss, however, the Mongols did not simply fold their tents and go home. Hulagu returned to Syria in 1262, intent on avenging Ketbuqa. However, Berke Khan of the Golden Horde had converted to Islam, and formed an alliance against his uncle Hulagu. He attacked Hulagus forces, promising revenge for the sacking of Baghdad. Although this war among the khanates drew off much of Hulagus strength, he continued to attack the Mamluks, as did his successors. The Ilkhanate Mongols drove towards Cairo in 1281, 1299, 1300, 1303 and 1312. Their only victory was in 1300, but it proved short-lived. Between each attack, the adversaries engaged in espionage, psychological warfare and alliance-building against one another. Finally, in 1323, as the fractious Mongol Empire began to disintegrate, the Khan of the Ilkhanids sued for a peace agreement with the Mamluks. A Turning-Point in History Why were the Mongols never able to defeat the Mamluks, after mowing through most of the known world? Scholars have suggested a number of answers to this puzzle. It may be simply that the internal strife among different branches of the Mongolian Empire prevented them from ever throwing enough riders against the Egyptians. Possibly, the greater professionalism and more advanced weapons of the Mamluks gave them an edge. (However, the Mongols had defeated other well-organized forces, such as the Song Chinese.) The most likely explanation may be that the environment of the Middle East defeated the Mongols. In order to have fresh horses to ride throughout a day-long battle, and also to have horse milk, meat and blood for sustenance, each Mongol fighter had a string of at least six or eight small horses. Multiplied by even the 20,000 troops that Hulagu left behind as a rear guard before Ayn Jalut, that is well over 100,000 horses. Syria and Palestine are famously parched. In order to provide water and fodder for so many horses, the Mongols had to press attacks only in the fall or spring, when the rains brought new grass for their animals to graze on. Even at that, they must have used a lot of energy and time finding grass and water for their ponies. With the bounty of the Nile at their disposal, and much shorter supply-lines, the Mamluks would have been able to bring grain and hay to supplement the sparse pastures of the Holy Land. In the end, it may have been grass, or the lack thereof, combined with internal Mongolian dissension, that saved the last remaining Islamic power from the Mongol hordes. Sources Reuven Amitai-Preiss.  Mongols and Mamluks: The Mamluk-Ilkhanid War, 1260-1281, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995). Charles J. Halperin. The Kipchack Connection: The Ilkhans, the Mamluks and Ayn Jalut,  Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 63, No. 2 (2000), 229-245. John Joseph Saunders.  The History of the Mongol Conquests, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001). Kenneth M. Setton, Robert Lee Wolff, et al.  A History of the Crusades: The Later Crusades, 1189-1311, (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2005). John Masson Smith, Jr. Ayn Jalut: Mamluk Success or Mongol Failure?,  Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 44, No. 2 (Dec., 1984), 307-345.

Cartilaginous Fish - Chondrichthyes - Profile

Cartilaginous fishes (Chondrichthyes) are a group of vertebrates that includes sharks, rays, skates and chimaeras. Members of this group include the largest and most formidable marine predators alive today such as the great white shark and the tiger shark as well as large filter feeders such as the manta ray, whale shark and basking shark. Cartilaginous fishes have a skeleton that consists  of cartilage (in contrast to their cousins the bony fish, whose skeletons are made up of true bone). Cartilage is both tough and flexible and it  provides sufficient  structural support to enable cartilaginous fishes to grow to considerable size. The largest living cartilaginous fish is the  whale shark  (about 30 feet long and 10 tons). The largest known cartilaginous fish ever to have lived is  Megalodon  (about 70 feet long and 50-100 tons). Other large cartilaginous fish include the manta ray (about 30 feet long) and the basking shark (about 40 feet long and 19 tons). Small cartilaginous fishes include the short-nose electric ray (about 4 inches long and weighs 1 pound), the starry skate (about 30 inches long), the pale catshark (about 8 inches long) and the dwarf lantern shark (about 7 inches long). Cartilaginous fishes is that they have jaws, paired fins, paired nostrils and a two-chambered heart. They also  have tough skin that is covered with small  tooth-like scales called denticles. Denticles are similar to teeth in many ways. The core of a denticle consists of a  pulp cavity that receives blood flow for nourishment. The pulp cavity is capped with a cone-shaped layer of dentine. The denticle sits on top of a basal plate which overlies the dermis. Each denticle is covered with an enamel-like substance. Most cartilaginous fishes live in marine habitats all their lives, but a few species of sharks and rays live in freshwater during all or part of their lives. Cartilaginous fishes are carnivorous and most species feed on live prey. There are some species that feed on the remains of dead animals and still others that are filter feeders. Cartilaginous fishes first appear in the fossil record about 420 million years ago during the Devonian Period.  The earliest known cartilaginous fishes were ancient sharks that were descended from bony-skeleton placoderms. These primitive sharks are older than the dinosaurs. They swam in the world’s oceans 420 million years ago, 200 million years before the first dinosaurs appeared on land. Fossil evidence for sharks is plentiful but consists mostly of tiny remnants of the former fish—teeth, scales, fin spines, bits of calcified vertebra, fragments of cranium. Extensive skeletal remains of sharks are missing—cartilage does not fossilize like true bone. By piecing together the shark remains that do exist, scientists have uncovered a diverse and deep ancestry. Sharks of the past include ancient creatures such as Cladoselache and Ctenacanths. These early sharks were followed by Stethacanthus and Falcatus, creatures that lived during the Carboniferous Period, in a window of time referred to as the â€Å"Golden Age of Sharks†, when shark diversity blossomed to include 45 families. During the Jurassic Period, there was Hybodus, Mcmurdodus, Paleospinax and eventually the Neoselachians. The Jurassic Period also saw the emergence of the first batoids: the skates and rays. Later came the filter feeding sharks and rays, the hammerhead sharks, and the lamnoid sharks (great white shark, megamouth shark, basking shark, sandtiger, and others). Classification Cartilaginous fishes are classified within the following taxonomic hierarchy: Animals Chordates Vertebrates Cartilaginous Fishes Cartilaginous fishes are divided into the following basic groups: Sharks, rays, and skates (Elasmobranchii) - There are about 800 species of sharks, rays, and skates alive today. Members of this group are known as elasmobranchs.Chimaeras (Chimaeriformes) - There are about 50 species of chimaeras alive today. Members of this group are also known as ghost sharks, spooksharks, or rabbit fish.

Quality Management Essay - 1062 Words

Deming’s 14 points were first applied to Japan and United States manufacturing but the philosophy can be applied to many different industries now. The theories can be applied to healthcare, including Long Term Acute Care Hospitals (LTACH). These types of hospitals are not as common to people, but were created to deliver care based on patient’s needs. This paper will look at an LTACH located in Denver and like many healthcare facilities, employee morale is down due budget cuts and the rising cost of healthcare. A total quality management program could potentially help the facility develop new processes that allow for positive changes. Deming’s 14 Points could be applied to this hospital and help give direction to the leadership staff of†¦show more content†¦Without a direction the hospital has not been able to achieve the performance results that it has been looking for. Why use Deming’s 14 points Deming’s 14 points is not just a quality management program, it is a philosophy for leadership to help make the changes necessary (Darr, 1990). The points Deming created are based on his ideas using statistical information. That actual performance and average performance can be compared to determine whether the system is in statistical control. The data gathered would be used in a trend analysis report. This allows management to identify variation, positive or negative. Common variations can be identified, along with special variations. Special variations would be three standard deviations from the mean, that would be seen only a small percentage of the time (Darr, 1990). This may sound confusing, but what are being looked at are specific trends and behaviors. The data will allow the hospital to determine if the occurrences are related to the system or the individual. The conclusion is usually that employees are performing to the best of their abilities within the system provided (Darr, 1990). Those deviations above the standard are random and may not be replicated. This causes problems for both employees and management. In most cases, employees want to be successful. They cannot be if theShow MoreRelatedDefinition Of Total Quality Management1946 Words   |  8 Pages Total Quality Management is the concept of processes and integration all of functions in an organization in order that to focus on quality control and approach to long-term success will continue improvement in all aspects but not short- term goal. TQM of business plan began in 1980 in the United States. It was popular until early 1990. Nowadays, in the small business to large business, including restaurant and fast food businesses that used system quality standards to manage the organization becauseRead MoreQuality And Total Quality Management1662 Words   |  7 PagesQuality is defined by meeting customers needs. Total quality management in the company through continuous improvement of the quality of its products, services and people. (Goetsch, 2010) Quality and total quality management, the main difference is that perception and activities. (Goetsch, 2010) Here are two of the main elements of the total amount as follows: 1) Education and training: all must be trained and the staff of the organization and educated so that they work hard to do a smart job.Read MoreMeasuring the Cost of Quality Management3443 Words   |  14 PagesCASE FOR QUALITY Measuring the Cost of Quality For Management by Gary Cokins T he quality movement has used the term cost of quality (COQ) for decades. But few organizations have actually adopted a reliable and repeatable method for measuring and reporting COQ and applied it to improve operations. Is the administrative effort just not worth the benefits, or is there a deeper problem with the methodology for measuring COQ? What COQ Should Do At an operational level, quality managementRead MoreProductivity and Quality Management9708 Words   |  39 PagesIssue paper one: Productivity and Quality Management Executive Report Prepared by G.Y. Attanayake MBA/2003/1448 Course : MBA 501 Managing Business Operations Dr. Travis Perera and Mr. A.K.L Jayawardana July, 2003 POSTGRADUATE INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT University of Sri Jayewardenepura TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE NO. EXECUTIVE SUMMERY 4 1.0 INTRODUCTION 5 1.1 MEASURING PRODUCTIVITY IN THE MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE SECTORS 1.1.1 Productivity Defined and Explained 5 1.1.1.1 Why ProductivityRead MoreQuality Management: Implementing Quality Systems2153 Words   |  9 PagesImplementing quality systems 01_Introduction A quality material, product, process, service or system is one that meets the needs of customers. Today, customers, including consumers, know what they want and can easily recognise ‘quality’. Businesses interact with a variety of customers e.g. †¢ Internal e.g. staff who have their office cleaned, or use the canteen †¢ Business e.g. suppliers of raw materials, stationery, transport, telecommunications †¢ End users e.g. other firms, the government orRead MoreTotal Quality Management750 Words   |  3 PagesTotal Quality Management Total quality management is something that was introduced to us around the 1950s. By the 1980s this was something that had been implemented more into many different businesses and the movement began. A total quality management team is defined as the techniques an association uses to recover not only the quality of its company and services but also its production level. This technique involves a lot of joint effort and is used through-out an organization. Everyone is includedRead MoreQuality Of Quality Management Process919 Words   |  4 PagesThe Quality Management process is a set of procedures that are followed to ensure that deliverables that are produced by a team that comply with standards. The start of a Quality Management process involves setting quality levels, which agree with the customer. Quality Assurance along with Quality Control Process are measured and reported to the actual quality of deliverables. Part of the Quality Management Processes are quality issues are id entified and resolved quickly. A Quality Management ProcessRead MoreThe Quality Of Total Quality Management896 Words   |  4 Pages Total quality management, also known as TQM, which is an umbrella methodology drawing on knowledge of the principles and practices of the behavioral sciences, the analysis of quantitative and non-quantitative data, economic theories, and process analysis to continually improve the quality of all processes. Three major contributors to the quality profession include: Walter A. Shewhart, W. Edwards Demings, and Joseph M. Juran, who taught the concepts of controlling the quality and managerialRead MoreQuality Of Quality Assessment And Management1313 Words   |  6 PagesQuality Assessment and Management Healthcare facilities have a legal and moral obligation to provide the high quality patient care, (Huber, 2014). The Quality Management team’s goal will be to continually strive to improve the care their organization delivers. In order for this to be achieved their must goals and objectives to work towards. The success of these goals and objectives are dependent upon The Quality Management Structure of the organization. With proper implementation and managementRead MoreQuality Management : Quality Of House Building Essay1821 Words   |  8 Pages 4.729 QUALITY MANAGEMENT QUALITY OF HOUSE BUILDING IN AUCKLAND Name : MILTON JOSEPH FRANCIS I.D. No. : 20142314 Email : itsmemilton@gmail.com Word Count : 1706 Prepared for : PROF. RAY NINOW Introduction: Substandard building work is on the ascent, with protests to the administration run Licensed Building Practitioners plan up 30 for each penny this year. The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment which runs the plan says more developers

Catholic Medical Mission Board

Question: Write an essay on Collaboration Between Catholic Medical Mission Board And Pan American Health Organization? Answer: Collaboration Between Catholic Medical Mission Board And Pan American Health Organization Catholic medical mission board delivers a great impact on working for child health in poor countries through collaboration with a extraordinary partners which includes local, national and international organizations 1. One of the partners among them is Pan America Health Organization (PAHO).some of the important points of this collaboration is as follows: Shared vision: Taking inspiration by the example of Jesus, CMMB works in collaboration globally to provide quality health, locally sustainable solutions to the childrens. Their core values are to work in collaboration with PAHO for locally sustainable solutions, to grasp and benevolent towards all people, to provide quality, sustainable and an effective results and to act with honesty, and to honour and value the dignity of all the individuals. Skilled Leadership: Collaboration is generally made between the two organization having common values and needs. This two organizations work for the same cause. For the success of this cause they maintain a continuity and orderly transition of the leadership. Accountability: It means specific results predictable at the outset and continuously supervising progress so that corrections can be done. In order to precede a project such as CHAMPS this partners provide a huge amount of funding. PAHO for the development of the children care donate funding to CMMB through this collaboration. The joint PAHO-CMMB efforts to agree to focus on the following areas: Cooperation with some of the poor countries to implement the recommendations of the Commission on Information and Accountability for Children's Health. Collaboration for the application of the strategy for initial child development, help the childrens to reach their full promises which include mental, physical and emotional health 2. References: 1. Schneider B, Pea R. Toward collaboration sensing.Intern J Comput-Support Collab Learn. 2014;9(4):371-395. doi:10.1007/s11412-014-9202-y. 2. Yan M, Yan C, Li J. The Architecture and Implementation of Interactive Broadcasting Based on CMMB.AMM. 2014;519-520:489-493. doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.519-520.489.

Never Too Young to Be Beautiful Essay Example

Never Too Young to Be Beautiful? Paper Imagine a girl strutting across a stage in high heels, short skirt, and tank top. Makeup airbrushed onto her smooth, spray-tanned face, red lipstick, and cascading blond curls make her look like a Barbie doll. She starts dancing to risque music in a promiscuous way. Would you believe that this girl is only two-years-old? Would you be shocked to know that she has been acting and dressing this way since she was a baby? Many young girls are subjected by their parents to act and dress this way to compete against other girls to win money and other prizes. These girls start in pageants at only a few days old and sometimes keep entering pageants into adult-hood. Others still are â€Å"retired† from pageants to pursue modeling at as young as six-years-old. It is widely accepted that materialism, vanity, and â€Å"skinny equals pretty† ideas go against moral codes. It is also universally accepted that children should be allowed to enjoy a care-free childhood full of fun and learning; not the pressure of winning a crown, money for their parents, and looking like a doll. The TLC reality show, â€Å"Toddlers Tiaras,† is a good representation of why children’s beauty pageants are wrong because it shows that the pageants teach materialism and vanity, promote â€Å"skinny equals pretty,† and force girls to grow up too quickly which are all poor characteristics to enforce on young girls just for prizes and titles. Children’s beauty pageants are wrong because they teach materialism and vanity at an extremely early age. In season four of â€Å"Toddlers Tiaras,† three-year-old Olivia showed just how materialistic and spoiled a pageant makes young girls. We will write a custom essay sample on Never Too Young to Be Beautiful? specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Never Too Young to Be Beautiful? specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Never Too Young to Be Beautiful? specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Not only does she smart off to her mother, Karey, without consequence frequently, but she is quoted in one episode for shouting, â€Å"I want the crown! † Karey told TLC that â€Å"Olivia has only been in four or five pageants, but now we better leave with a crown or she’s gonna have a meltdown. † Instead of punishing her child for that sort of behavior, Karey instead feels that she needs to give her everything that she wants in order to keep her from getting angry or aggressive. The point of a pageant is to win a shiny crown, money, and other prizes. Putting a young girl like Olivia through pageants that force competition for material items could only result in the spoiled attitude Karey receives from her daughter. According to some body image experts, these children that are subjected to the pageants will eventually become obsessed with their body image, making them more likely to develop eating disorders and desire plastic surgery. â€Å"‘You see a high rate of dissatisfaction with their looks when they are older,’ says Dr. Martina Cartwright, a psychologist and nutritionist who has worked with professional dancers. There are unrealistic expectations to be perfect. They strive to be flawless, and they can take that too far’ (Triggs). While the general image of a beautiful girl is one who embraces her flaws and is beautiful because of them, the idea of beauty pageants is to make little girls perfect. Along with airbrush makeup, girls wear wigs and hair pieces from as young of an age as one year. Not only do they wear makeup, wigs, hair pieces, and get spray tans, but their parents buy things called â€Å"flippers. † Flippers are dental prosthetics that cover up gaps in teeth left by missing baby teeth (Hollandsworth). These things are teaching girls from an extremely young age that beauty is entirely external and that one is only beautiful when flawless. If there are flaws on a pageant girl’s body, she is taught to repair the flaws with surgery, faux teeth, and other vanities instead of recognizing her flaws and being proud of them. Learning this from a young age causes girls to grow up extremely self-conscious. â€Å"Skinny equals pretty† ideas are another basis of the immoral function children’s beauty pageants hold. They are the ideas of women who firmly believe that one must be size 0 to be beautiful. These ideas are endorsed by many ad campaigns for anything from fashion and makeup to beer and cars. In another episode of â€Å"Toddlers Tiaras,† eleven-year-old Sydney tries on her dress for an upcoming pageant. Her mother, Marlo, tightens a corset lace in the back of the dress to the point that Sydney can barely breathe. When she complains about the lack of air-flow, Marlo merely says, â€Å"It doesn’t matter if you can breathe or not; it only matters if you look beautiful! According to research done on the connection between children’s beauty pageants and eating disorders in the summer of 2005, â€Å"Of the 131 females who participated in beauty pageant contests, 48. 5% reported a desire to be thinner, 57% stated they were trying to lose weight, and 26% had been told or were believed to have an eating disorder† (Wonderlich). The media have told people for many gen erations that in order to be beautiful, one must be skinny. These pressures to be skinny that the media have placed on society have forced many females, young and old, into eating disorders. It is estimated that seven million American women and one million American men are currently suffering from an eating disorder. Not only do the eating disorders caused by low self-esteem make one extremely unhealthy, they are known to have the highest mortality rate among mental illnesses. â€Å"A study by the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders reported that 5 – 10% of anorexics die within 10 years after contracting the disease; 18-20% of anorexics will be dead after 20 years and only 30 – 40% ever fully recover. The mortality rate associated with anorexia nervosa is 12 times higher than the death rate of ALL causes of death for females 15 – 24 years old (South Carolina Department of Mental Health). † With all of this risk of death by eating disorders for young women and men, it is easy to blame the media for stereotyping â€Å"beauty. † However, these beauty pageants that have been in many children’s lives for years cause many of the self-esteem issues that end in these deadly eating disorders. Furthermore, â€Å"Toddlers Tiaras† shows how children’s beauty pageants force girls to grow up too quickly, which is wrong, because children should be able to live a care-free, fun childhood without the stress and demands of adult life. In a different episode of the TLC reality show â€Å"Toddlers Tiaras,† eighteen-month-old Brystol finally becomes old enough to wear makeup and hair pieces in pageants. This episode shows Brystol being introduced to airbrush makeup, lipstick, and hair pieces. In yet another episode of the show, four-year-old Karley and six-year-old Kylie receive spray tans from their mother in preparation for pageants. When Karley and Kylie’s mother threatens to put the spray tan can away if Karley refuses to stand still for her spray, Karley throws a tantrum because she knew that the spray tan was cold, but she did not want her mother to put it away because she wanted to be â€Å"tan and beautiful. † All of these instances show how the beauty pageants that these young girls are put through by their mothers force them to grow up too quickly, because they show that the young girls are being forced by their parents to partake in activities normally fit for a much older woman. Usually we are told by our mothers to wait until we are in our teens before we wear makeup or get hair extensions. We are told that we are too young for skimpy outfits or spray tans. To see a baby getting makeup put on her in order to win a beauty pageant is sickening. In another episode of â€Å"Toddlers Tiaras,† four-year-old Maddy wears padding for fake breasts and butt in order to act as Dolly Parton for an upcoming pageant. In the same episode, two-year-old Paisley dresses as Julia Roberts in â€Å"Pretty Woman† wearing knee-high black boots, a skimpy cut-out dress, and wig. In an 80s themed pageant two-year-old Mia was dressed as Madonna, complete with cone-shaped bustier. Many of the young pageant girls are encouraged to wink, wiggle their hips, and blow kisses at the judges of pageants. Though they do not necessarily realize that these actions are seductive, this may be part of the problem. Deborah Tolman, Ed. D. , a Hunter College professor and author, explained that, â€Å"Focusing so much on how you look is problematic. Instead of focusing on how she feels – which is an important skill growing up – a girl learns to sexualize herself. Your body is a compass, and premature sexuality takes the arrow out of the compass† (Hollandsworth). A young woman needs to be able to discover her sexuality, limits, and mature slowly. Forcing her to become a sexual item causes a young girl to mature too quickly, not allowing her to discover who she is sexually. Forcing her to become a sexual item at such an early age, can make it feel like a normal thing, perhaps causing her to feel like she needs to be a sex item for the rest of her life in order to get what she wants and succeed. Some parents of young pageant queens argue that pageants are just games of â€Å"dress-up with mommy† that have more benefits, such as prizes, money, or titles. However, this excerpt from an article featured in â€Å"People† magazine explains that this is not the case: But child development experts point to a difference between playing dress-up and making a career out of it. Little girls are supposed to play with dolls, not be dolls, says Mark Sichel, a New York-based licensed clinical social worker, who calls the extreme grooming common at pageants a form of child abuse. Playing dress-up is normal and healthy, but when its demanded, it leaves the child not knowing what they want, he says. Accentuating their appearance with such accoutrements as fake hair, teeth, spray tans and breast padding causes the children tremendous confusion, wondering why they are not okay without those things (Triggs). There is a difference between putting a â€Å"pretty dress† on oneâ €™s daughter and oneself and having a tea party with dolls, and putting makeup, fake hair, breasts, and teeth onto one’s daughter make her into the doll in order to win prizes and money. Another argument is that children want to be in pageants, they are not forced. However, how can a few days’ old baby choose to be dressed up in frilly dresses and pranced around a stage? Children get their decisions made for them from birth by their parents until they grow old enough to make wise choices. However, if a child’s parents have her participating in beauty pageants since birth, the pageants become ritual and the child believes them to be part of everyday life. How is this giving a child free-will to choose whether or not to be a part of the glamorous world of pageantry? When the bad aspects of children’s pageants are combined, it seems that the big problem most people have with pageants is the sexualization of children. However, is the sexualization everyone is focused on really just the result of pageants? Peggy Orenstein, journalist and author of Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches From the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture, does not think so. In 1996, when JonBenet was murdered, it was shocking for us to see a 6-year-old wearing lipstick and eye shadow. Now, market research studies have found nearly half of todays 6- to 9-year-olds are already using lipstick or lip gloss. Walmart launched a makeup line just for girls 8 to 12. Abercrombie Fitch marketed a padded push-up bikini top for 8-year-olds. Its easy to slam pageants, but maybe thats because no one wants to deal with the bigger picture, which is the daytoday sexualization of all our daughters. (Hollandsworth) Though the horrors of pre-maturity and eating disorders seem like enough reason to rid the country of children’s pageants, it seems that the sexualization of the children is the worst of it all. Not only could this cause problems for the girls later on in life, but it has potential as a form of child abuse. Works Cited Wonderlich, Anna, Diann Ackard, and Judith Henderson. Childhood Beauty Pageant Contestants: Associations With Adult Disordered Eating And Mental Health. Eating Disorders 13. 3 (2005): 291-301. Academic Search Premier. Web. 9 Nov. 2011. Triggs, Charlotte, Kay West, and Elaine Aradillas. Toddlers Tiaras TOO MUCH TOO SOON? (Cover Story). People 76. 12 (2011): 160-168. Academic Search Premier. Web. 9 Nov. 2011. HOLLANDSWORTH, SKIP. Toddlers In Tiaras. Good Housekeeping 252. 8 (2011): 150-194. Academic Search Premier. Web. 10 Nov. 2011. Lexton, Lauren, prod. Toddlers Tiaras. The Learning Channel. Winter 2009. Television. Giroux, Henry A. Nymphet Fantasies CHILD BEAUTY PAGEANTS AND THE POLITICS OF INNOCENCE. Social Text 16. 4 (1998): 31. Academic Search Premier. Web. 10 Nov. 2011. South Carolina Department of Mental Health. Eating Disorder Statistics. South C arolina Department of Mental Health. 2006. Web. 18 Nov. 2011. http://www. state. sc. us/dmh/anorexia/statistics. htm.