Essays on Retrospective

1. It has been argued that it is "irrational" to vote and "irrational" to become informed about politics. Explain fully how these conclusions are derived. What factors, e.g., political factors or behavior, promote voting and/or reduce the costs of voting and getting informed? Use concrete examples to explain if, why and how people become informed about politics and vote.
There have been several arguments about voting and some people have argued out that it is unreasonable to vote and become informed about politics. Such arguments are based on the nature of politics and the occurrences of events in the ...

Background information

According to the United Nations, homelessness has become “an increasing social and public health problem worldwide”. There are various states of homelessness. Absolute homelessness refers to “conditions of persons without physical shelter”. Relative homelessness refers to a state in which one has some form of physical shelter but the shelter does not meet the required health and safety standards. For instance, it has poor sanitation and access to water is limited or non-existent. Estimates reveal that over 100 million individuals are homeless worldwide. In the United States of America, the US Department of Housing ...

- What is Agile and what are user stories?
Agile refers to a software development methodology that provides more efficient ways of handling and managing software development projects as compared to traditional methods such as the waterfall development methodology. Agile development allows for the evolution of requirements and problem solutions through the collaboration of cross-functional teams. The methodology promotes evolutionary development, adaptive planning, continuous improvement, early project delivery, and promotes rapid response to change. Agile has some unique characteristics and emphasizes more on interactions than development processes and tools. The methodology also places more focus on delivering working software ...

Abstract

Ginkgo Biloba extract is widely used by older adults as a cognitive enhancer although efficacy studies show inconsistent results. A review was done of three quantitative studies with the hypothesis that once-daily use of Ginkgo Biloba does not help improve the memory of adults aged 50 years or older. One article was a clinical trial on the differences in electrical activity in the brain when Ginkgo Biloba or placebo is used during a working memory test. The second article is also a clinical trial that determined the efficacy of Ginkgo Biloba in reducing cognitive and therefore memory decline in ...

Amongst mentally ill patients at high risk for early readmission, does the utilization of a multi-component transition care plan as compared to usual care help to improve early readmission rates?

Abstract

The early hospital readmission rate in a 30-bed psychiatric unit in California is 25%. This figure is higher than the 13% reported in the literature for high-income countries like the US (Vigod et al., 2013). Early readmissions are problematic as they are costly and disruptive to the personal and professional lives of patients and their family members. In addition, they are construed to be negative patient outcomes and negative ...

Crohn's Disease (CD): A Historical Background

Crohn’s disease is a persistent inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that may impact any part of the gastrointestinal path, however, normally impacts the ileum (Yamada, 2009). It usually occurs to individuals of age 21 or under (Wilson et al., 2010). The CD may affect the quality of life (Baumgart & Sandborn, 2007; Morrison et al., 2009). It may need surgery (Pihl-Lesnovska et al., 2010).
There is a steady global rise in the occurrence of Crohn’s Disease and it represents an increased hospitalization (Gibson, 2009; Morrison et al., 2009; Wilson et al., 2010). In 2009, the CD cases in Australia ...

“Shaving versus Clipping: Which preoperative hair removal method reduces the risk of surgical site infection?"

“Shaving versus Clipping: Which preoperative hair removal method reduces the risk of surgical site infection?"
Hwang, S., Kim, S., Park, K., Im, S., Shin, W., & Kim, B. (2012). Outpatient-based scalp surgery without shaving and allowing use of shampoo. World Neurosurgery, 77(2), 391-393.
1. A study in the outpatient setting which aims to establish the benefits of “shaveless” surgery. It challenges previously held beliefs about the advantages of shaving.
2. Retrospective observational study on the outcomes of minor scalp surgery without the conventional shaving of hair. The procedures were performed on 93 patients by only one surgeon in a ...

` Literature Review
Will the implementation of strict count process and other means lower the retention of surgical items (foreign bodies) in patients and during surgery and how does it help to increase patient safety?
Ali, A., Omar, B., Okacha, N., Abderrahmane, A., & Mohamed, B. (2012). Paraspinal Textiloma. After Posterior Lumbar Surgery: A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing. World Neurosurgery, 77(2)375-380. doi:10.1016/j.wneu.2011.07.017
Paraspinal Textiloma is a complication that is common after posterior lumbar surgery. This study aims to inform spinal surgeons and radiologists on the experience of Paraspinal Textiloma so as to minimize unnecessary death that is being experienced. ...

Abstract

Aims: To evaluate the outcomes of NIV versus invasive mechanical ventilation in COPD patients.
Data Source: Relevant articles were identified from the following journals CHEST, Respiratory Care, European Respiratory Journal, Annals of Internal Medicine, and AHC Media.
Study selection: The articles identified consisted reports of two randomized controlled trials and three review articles which investigated the outcomes of NIV versus mechanical ventilation in patients with acute exacerbations of COPD, weaning of COPD patients on mechanical ventilation, and nocturnal management of COPD.
Data extraction: The study reviewed meta-analytic reviews, prospective randomized control trials, and retrospective observational studies. The various studies ...

WHI Trial (Writing Group for the WHI Investigators; JAMA)

What was the main objective of the WHI study?
Assesment of the most commonly used combined hormone preparation in the US for health benefits and risks
When and why was the subject enrollmentstopped early (specific statistical reason)?
After 5.2 years. This was due to harm from the breast cancer.

What was the design of the trial?

16608 postmenopausal women underwent the study over 8.5 years

Who monitored the “double-blind” data? How often?

Safety monitoring board.Monitored semiannually.

How many women: screened, randomized, assigned to either arm?

373092 – Screened, 16606 – Randomized, 8506 – Estrogen, 8102- Placebo
Why was the dose of E 0.625 mg/day and P 2.5 mg/day in a single tablet chosen?

Highest amount without damaging the subjects

Why was an “intact uterus” necessary for entry into the “main” ...

Chapters 12-15 Summarized in the

Form of Answers

1. What are single subject designs and why are they used.
In Single Subject Research Design or SSRD, a systematic and detailed analysis of a single system or individual is taken through recurring measurements. Although they belong the descriptive research group, SSRDs are experimental in nature. There are basically four types of SSRD, namely: a) Changing Criterion, b) ABAB or Reversal, c) Alternating Treatments, and d) Multiple Baseline. Data from such a research is represented and interpreted through simple plotted graphs. Operationalized 40 years ago, the SSRD is used by researchers and educators extensively due to ...

Literature Review: Overcrowding in Hospital Emergency Departments

Does reducing access block have a role in reducing overcrowding in emergency departments?
Literature review
Emergency department (ED) overcrowding is a serious problem currently facing hospitals in nearly all the states in the United States. It is one of the most common causes of ED dysfunction. Overcrowded EDs tend to exhibit longer waiting times, increased chances of transmission of communicable diseases, and increased delays in hospital admission (Richardson, 2006). The problem continues to grow in the US healthcare systems and poses a serious threat to the US healthcare system. Studies have shown that overcrowding in emergency departments is associated ...

Introduction

The essential aspects of software engineering project are the use of several agile software development techniques to improve the quality and the productivity of the software. Scrum is one such significant method that has greatly been used in the recent years to control the process of software development. According to Cohn (2010), we cannot change or improve what we cannot measure. With Scrum metrics, we can be able to measure and improve the software development process more effectively and efficiently.
Scrum is defined as an iterative agile method of software development that can be used to manage and control ...

English Literature

Introduction
Charlotte Brontë, Edith Wharton, and Willa Cather created heroines who deal with issues of love and marriage. For the most part, men play a central part in all of their lives. The narratives are told from a variety of perspectives in the three novels. The endings differ substantively as well. Jane Eyre was first published in 1847 as a kind of autobiography. Jane is plain looking but filled with good sense and bravery. She triumphs over her cruel guardian and an inflexible social class order. When Jane becomes the governess in Edward Rochester’s house, she falls in ...

Improving The Efficiency of Cytomegalovirus (CMV)

Abstract
The Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is known to be an important pathogen among patients with prolonged confinement to the intensive care unit and longer hospital stays (Vincent, 2010). The virus is recognized to be a common form of the herpes virus, which the Centers for Disease Control described to be present in about 50% to 80% of the people in the United States who are in their 40’s (Mandal, 2014). The infection can actually affect children and adults alike, however the virus has the greatest impact among certain individuals, especially among children and those with a compromised immune system ...

Introduction

Low socioeconomic status (SES) has been considered one of the key determinants of criminal behavior. Family-level SES is usually determined by measuring income, education level, and occupation, but SES is a multilevel concept that applies to both family and community levels (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002). Families with low SES will more likely live in neighborhoods with low community-level SES, which limits the children’s educational opportunities and increases their exposure to violence (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002). Consequently, the children will identify themselves with the community and adopt its patterns of violent behavior.
The influence of both family-level and community-level SES is ...

The study aimed to offer description on the use, as well as the effect resulting from low-dose ketamine or LDK for the analgesia cases in the emergency department (ED). The study used a retrospective mode of data collection where information on patients who received LDK for analgesia were used to describe the effectiveness and safety of the drug. The study used those patients who were aged 18 years and above and were given ketamine in the ED within a period of two years when the study was conducted. Parameters such as dose, route used to administer the drug, as ...

Bloch, F., Gautier, V., Noury, N., Lundy, J.E., Poujaud, J., Claessens, Y. E. & Rigaud, A.S. (2011). Evaluation under real-life conditions of a stand-alone fall detector for the elderly subjects (Bloch et al., 2011). Annals of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, 54 (2011):391–398.
This quantitative study by Bloch et al., evaluates the experience of 10 elderly adults aged 75 and above with the use of the VigiFall. The purpose of the research was to also to assess the participants’ acceptability and tolerance of the device in real-life settings. The accelerometric sensor of VigiFall was attached to the participants’ thorax ...

The aim of this study is to quantify ED-generated follow-up adherence rates amongst white, Black American, and Hispanic patients discharged from the ED of a managed care system.

Problem Statement

Previous studies have established that the adherence rates to ED-generated referrals are below par. These rates range between 26% and 56% amongst different ED populations (Kyriacou et al., 2005) even though higher (68 and 71.4%) and lower (17%) rates have been reported (Friedman, Dios, & Hannenman, 2010; Saroff, Dell, & Brown, 2001). The reasons for the poor compliance have also been identified. Amongst the commonly cited reasons is the problem of accessibility due ...

Reminiscing, one always finds key moments in life where now, with more experience and wisdom, the course to be taken would be different. In sixth grade, I had the pleasure of interacting almost daily with one of the noblest people I have ever come across: Mr. Mark Lewis. Nevertheless, I was young, and, because of my prejudices, I mistreated him, and did not take advantage of the contact to learn from his wisdom. In retrospective, I see him as an emblem that allowed me to realize an analysis of America and its flaws, learn that one should tolerate differences, ...

Managing Quality in Health and Social Care

As a care worker, quality control in a care setting is working towards achieving excellence in services given to patients. This should be the goal of every care worker as the populace has the right to eminence health care. In addition, the health care team has the obligation of holding themselves accountable to the care services that they offer to the public. The quality assurance procedures give account on the measurement of the care services (Donald & Douglas, 2000). They quality assurances have to be clear on the meaning of quality as a reliable and valid method is used in ...

Article review

Article review
The aim of this paper is to one, summarize in a succinct manner the salient points of a recent article from a peer reviewed nursing journal, two, to support and/or refute the authors’ position by integrating ideas and concepts and finally, to critic and describe the relevance of the findings by the authors to clinical practice as well as their impact on the family, community and society.
The article chosen for this assignment is authored by Gadsby,Galloway, Barker, & Sinclair (2011) and is titled “Prescribed medicines for elderly frail people with diabetes resident in nursing homes—issues ...

INTRODUCTION

Diabetes, a disease where the blood sugar content is supposed to increase above the normal range. The disease has become quite prevalent in the world today. Almost every third adult we meet is diabetic. Not just adults, nowadays diabetes has caught hold of the children too. It is a common finding to get a diabetic child almost in every school.
Nowadays even adolescents and young children are exhibiting the occurrence of the disease. More commonly, it is the obese children who run a high risk of the disease, children with a positive family history of diabetes are also at ...

Sampling Techniques

Environmental pollution is a well recognized risk factor for numerous respiratory diseases like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (Chauhan & Johnstone, 2003). Clinical and epidemiological studies on the link between environmental pollution and respiratory diseases are plagued by diverse and complex methodological issues (Barquera, Rico-Méndez, & Tovar, 2002). This paper will discuss the sample and sampling techniques appropriate for studying the association between respiratory diseases and environmental pollution.
A random sample would be useful in examining the issue of the association between respiratory diseases and environmental pollution. However, due to difficulties in obtaining a random sample from the ...

Article Analysis

Introduction into Nursing Research

Carol S. Coose
Abstract
Needleman et al., (2011) in Nurse Staffing Ratios and Hospital Mortality looked at the ratio of nurses to patients care, and found that there was the need to match staffing with patients’ needs for nursing care. Taking cross-sectional studies of hospital-level administrative data, they were able to justify the association between lower levels of staffing of registered nurses (RNs) and increased patient mortality. The reason for this is the unavailability of registered nurses. In an evaluation of patients of a particular hospital during the first 30 days of their admission, which ...

Implementation Plan

Implementation Plan
This Capstone Project focuses on the fall of elderly patients in hospitals. The intervention proposed by this researcher is proper assessment and customizing fall prevention, and the measured outcome is decrease in fall rates. Below are details on how this project is going to be implemented.

This capstone project requires approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the Grand Canyon University. This researcher acquires information for the documents needed in the application process and the procedures for review. Constant communication is maintained with the professor and adviser to ensure that the study is done according to ...

Bloch, F., Gautier, V., Noury, N., Lundy, J.E., Poujaud, J., Claessens, Y. E. & Rigaud, A.S. (2011). Evaluation under real-life conditions of a stand-alone fall detector for the elderly subjects (Bloch et al., 2011). Annals of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, 54 (2011):391–398.
This article describes falls as being overly trivialized by both patients and doctors. Falls, however, can be the main cause of older patients’ mortality, morbidity, and being hospitalized. Statistics are included in the report. An example is the average age of elderly (73 years old) found to have fallen, sometimes even dead, and of 51% are ...

Artist biography MAX ERNST (1891-1976)

Max Ernst is a German painter, sculptor and poet. He's one of the brightest figures of Surrealism. The artist was born in 2 April 1891 in Brühl, Germany. He was a second child in a catholic family of Philipp and Luise Ernst (Fiedorek).
In 1908, Max Ernst graduated from the lyceum in his native town, and in 1909 he started studying philosophy in the University of Bonn. During his studies at university, Ernst thoroughly studied psychology and showed a great interest to the art of mentally ill people. Soon young Ernst left the university and fully devoted himself ...

Jennifer Holloway

Last night I had a dream: sitting in a grassy field, I was listening to the radio. All of a sudden I heard the voice of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement – apparently he was speaking to me. After looking around I realized I was not the only one listening to him – my husband and a lot of church members were there too, all amazed and fascinated by Joseph Smith’s preaching the gospel.
It was a beautiful day and I could feel tender warmth of the sunshine. There was also something very nice and ...

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a modern name given to a disease with a long history. One of the first clinical papers describing the malady was from Jacob DaCosta in 1871 that described soldiers with what he termed an “irritable heart” (Kaplan, 2007, p. 613). The disease is often marked by autonomic dysfunction and cardiac symptoms. Because of these symptoms, following the American Civil War, physicians termed it “soldier’s heart.” As the Freudian school of psychoanalysis grew in stature the disease became “traumatic neurosis.” Following the First World War, the condition was referred to as shell shock and was ...

Edward Kienholz: John Doe

Edward Kienholz is best known for his installations which were quite shocking for their time and still create a lot of controversy even today. His art consists of full frontal pornography but in this particular work which is called John Doe, Kienholz looks at the anonymity of the name which is used to describe a person without an identity. The man is in the form of a shapeless corpse with a large head and the fact that he is mobile yet at the same time without direction.

Aspects of the sculpture

In John Doe, Kienholz attempts to create a situation where violence is ...

Teenage pregnancy is associated with a myriad of risk factors. Amongst them are the physical risks for mother and child, as well as psychological and sociological factors that should not be underestimated. Some 11% of the births worldwide occur in women 15-19 years old and the problem is particularly acute in lower income countries such as sub-Saharan Africa, Bangladesh and India. (Gibbs, Wendt, Peters, Hogue 2012; Conde-Agudelo, Belizan, Lammers, 2005) Adolescent childbirth has been linked to poor maternal and child health outcomes even though this may be linked to poor education levels and economic status that these families usually ...

Evolutions in Terrorism need Evolutions in Approach

Introduction
Terrorism being a highly volatile phenomenon with constantly changing facets, has been a challenge to scholars to define. While the term was once associated with honour and the struggle for freedom, it is today viewed in an extremely negative light. Violence has always been the predominant characteristic of an act of terrorism, however, terrorism today has moved on to non-violent realms in the form of cyber attacks, which are, never the less, harmful to the economy. Terrorists are generally viewed as psychopaths and lunatics who are driven by personal agenda, resorting to violence against innocents in order to ...

Since time immemorial, the existence of financial crises has had profound effects on the overall economy. In particular, consumption of individuals has been the most affected during times of such crises. My paper discusses the consumption habits of developed societies during the period when they experience a financial crisis. The way that developed countries handle a crisis varies. While some nations may favor austerity measures, others may opt for more investments by the national government. It is of interest to me to analyze what takes place at the household level. ...

Introduction

Fashion is an integral part of the social life of an average youth in the world today. Perhaps the most mysterious thing about fashion is the fact that various designers come up with extremely similar design at a time (Wolfendale & Kennett 2011). It may not be easy to understand what inspires the fact that the designers, who are in most cases worlds apart get to know what time to design which style. However, somehow, they all move in response to the market forces. Fashion, which has been described variously as a trendy distinction as far as clothing is concerned, ...

Analysis of rhetorical situation: Mexico has been increasing in violence; this increase in violence can affect Mexican-American affairs as well as the American visitors and citizens in Mexico. This paper is directed toward any person who often travels to Mexico. My purpose is to understand and address the main reasons for Mexico's recent violent activity.
Writing process: This piece of writing uses two composing strategies: real time strategy and retrospective strategy. Using real time, I reflected on what I thought were the main issues that needed to be addressed. As I wrote, I used a recursive process to come ...

Chapter One

Introduction
Administrative law can be defined as the organ of the constitutional provisions, court decisions, statutes and the orders of the executive as well as other directive officials who are involved in regulating agencies’ procedures used for making policy rules, enforcing of the laws and regulations and the governing of administrative transparency.

Discretion and delegation are two main reasons for having the administrative law. Discretion is used by the administrators in the policies and standards formulation. The administrative agencies exercise discretion greatly in laws enforcement and implementation as well as other regulations. Delegation is preferred by the legislatures since ...

The American south, or simply the south, has been one of the most stereotyped areas throughout the history of the United States. The negative portrayal of the southern inhabitants has been going on for long to the extent that southerners have come to accept the portrayal. Majorly, individuals living in the south tend be viewed as overly backward in comparison to those living in other sides. In retrospective, the media, through music, has always been a contributing factor to these stereotypes. An epitome of these is reflected in McRobbie’s lamentations. McRobbie reflected that music is the most noticeable ...

V. Intervention Decision

Discussion of implications for practice that can be drawn from results of EBP inquiry

Specific Evidence Based Practice Intervention
Evidence Based Model to be applied
Influence of patients, administration and team members on implementation
Ability to implement based on resources and clinical setting

V1.Implementation Plan

The intervention decision pertaining to this project relates to the PICOT question, ‘in the hospital
setting how does the use of central venous catheters (CVC) compare to the use of peripherally inserted central catheters (PICC) influence the risk of infection rate? After completing a comprehensive literature search and review this researcher is committed to making an intervention decision to inform future evidence based practice in ...

Epidemiology, as the name suggests is the study of diseases by analysing their trigger factors and their causes and rate of spreading. Since it is a composite study of diseases and health problems and focuses on solving these problems by research and understanding the various factors. Analysts therefore utilize various methods dependent on the disease or the health issue in question and the desired outcome of the study. The term “disease’ here covers a wide range of health related issues including their causes, controls and outcomes at various stages of the disease such as disability and eventual death. There ...

Maya Lin – Annotated Bibliography

Works Cited

Rothstein, Edward. "Maya Lin". The New York Times. Retrieved January 2, 2009.
This biographical article focuses on the strengths of Maya Lin as an architectural genius and also discusses several aspects of her work.
Paul Berger (November 5, 2006). "Ancient Echoes in a Modern Space". The New York Times. Retrieved January 2, 2009.
This article looks at some aspects of Maya Lin’s work in the context of her redefining of space with a blend of ancient architecture.
Peter G. Rowe and Seng Kuan (2004). Architectural Encounters with Essence and Form in Modern China. MIT ...