Evidence-based Practice Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Evidence-based Practice - Assignment Example This research will begin with the statement that PICOT refers to a formula that is designed to answer focused clinical questions concerning a given target population or a fundamental issue for nursing research. PICOT was developed to enhance the efforts of establishing an evidence-based practice in nursing. PICOT calls for continued research to improve the body of knowledge and base the current nursing practice on sound scientific research. PICOT will help to maintain the status of nursing as a professional and autonomous career. PICOT is an acronym that is used by clinicians when carrying out clinical research. This method of evidence-based clinical research promotes understanding among the researchers. The letter â€Å"p† stands for the study population. The letter â€Å"I† refers to the clinical intervention and its variables. The letter â€Å"C† is the comparison with a placebo while â€Å"O† refers to the outcome of the process after a particular inte rvention. The letter â€Å"T† refers to the time taken for an outcome of a nursing intervention can achieve an objective. In a patient with an abscess that has been recurring for six months, does prophylactic antibiotic treatment, compared to no treatment, reduce the rate of recurrence? The PICO (T) elements are; P = Patients with recurrent abscess I = Prophylactic antibiotic treatment C = No antibiotic treatment O = Decline in the high rate of recurrence of the abscess T = Six months

Theories and Treatment Programs for Delinquent and Adult Offenders Research Paper

Theories and Treatment Programs for Delinquent and Adult Offenders - Research Paper Example Some treatment programs for delinquents and adult offenders may be used for both populations. Substance abuse treatments are used for both delinquents and adult offenders. According to substance treatments for both sides, the philosophy they work upon is that substance abuse is one of the major reasons why the majority of the youth and delinquents are taking part in organized crime gangs, in turn ending up with extensive criminal records. According to Nelson (2007), adult offenders take part in criminal activities as a result of their being jobless and a need to make a living, therefore, the majority end up stealing while others may have been under the influence of drugs at the time of the crime. Educational programs for individuals who may be addicted to drugs or other substances is highly recommended within the rehabilitation process. Rehabilitation is the ultimate goal of current treatment programs. During probation, the drug addicts undergo rehabilitation programs that enlighten them on the dangers of drug abuse, with a focus on transforming the individuals into responsible and productive human beings within society. At the end of many rehabilitation programs, research shows that many of these individuals turn out to be responsible individuals. Improving an individual’s ego is one treatment program for delinquent offenders. This treatment program works on the belief that if the ego of the youthful or delinquent offender is boosted by increasing self-esteem, then these individuals are able to engage as positive role models in society; they are able to have a new life that conforms to society’s values. Since the direction and focus is to instill behavioral change in the individuals this method is also used toward reforming the adult offenders, as well. The hope is that the offenders may be given an opportunity to advance in life by introducing them to

Individual Project 1 EDU 620 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Individual Project 1 EDU 620 - Essay Example Thus, it demands a more dynamic personality having skills in analysis, planning, management, and implementation. Most importantly, it requires a learning attitude that leads toward continuous personal and professional development. Discipline of Instructional Design Wills(2009) states that instructional design is a discipline based on scientific principals and a specific set of assumptions verified by empirical data. Upon the base of this data, the professionals design their instructions to meet the specific learning needs of the particular audience. Hence, instruction is a science and instructional design is a technology based upon the science. (Merrill, Drake, Lacy, Pratt, & the ID2 Research Group, 1996).Further, it is a process that includes planning, management, implementation and assessment. Thus instructional design is a process to improve how instructions gets designed and delivered better. However, some scholars consider it not just a science but an art as well. Instructional Design as a Science The scholars who claim instructional design as aligned with science say that instruction is based upon some scientific principals—a huge body of research. Supporting this view point Rowland (1993) establishes that the principles that can explain cause and effect relationship are to be said scientific.

Entrepreneurial Ambitions Essay Example for Free

Entrepreneurial Ambitions Essay Abstract An entrepreneur is someone who goes into business for themselves, hoping to expand and maximize profit. Throughout this report, I will briefly explain two of the premiere entrepreneurs who took a risk and it paid off. Entrepreneurial Ambitions It’s not about the price one charges for his goods and services, nor is it about the competition or how to beat them. It’s all about the customers and clients. Your clients are the ones who generally decided whether your product fails or succeeds (goods, services, 2008). Many famous and non famous entrepreneurs become who they are for a plethora of reasons. Some embark on this experience to avoid being taken advantage of, conflict in work environment, but most just want to call their own shots and be the boss. When I think of a successful business entrepreneurs, the first name that comes to mind is the gentleman by the name of Sean Combs. Growing up in the mean streets of Harlem, New York, becoming a successful mogul and businessman was only an after thought. Living to see the age 15, in which majority of his childhood friends weren’t fortunate to do was his first priority. Being an entrepreneur, one has to be willing to take a calculated risk in which you accept all responsibility if your idea fails. Sean Combs came up with a strategic plan to lower the cost of his merchandise and make it more affordable for people on a budget. Aside from having one of, if not the biggest record labels in the industry, he also is the joint owner of a alcoholic beverage that goes simply by the name of Ciroc (Grabow, 2008). Ciroc is a brand of alcoholic beverage, manufactured in France and marketed as vodka (Grabow, 2008). In 2007, the beverage’s first year of existence, the sales were slow, only moving 120,000 cases that year. By 2009, Comb’s second year with the brand, the cases more than doubled and moved 400,000 cases. Today, this vodka is the number one selling beverage of all time, with revenue that exceeds more that 100 million dollars. The next entrepreneur I want to discuss is one who’s made her mark in the industry for decades now. She goes by the name of Oprah Winfrey. It’ll take me some time to list her numerous accolades, so I’ll just name a few ways she’s made an impact on people’s lives. She endorsed a political candidate for the first time, hosting a fundraiser for senator and now president Barack Obama (â€Å"Political, candidate†, 2011). It is widely believed that her support was crucial to his winning the Democratic nomination, and presidency itself. She also founded the Family for Better Lives Foundation and also contributes to her alma mater, Tennessee State University (A and E Television Network, 2011). It’s had to pick just one approach and leadership style that I most identify with. The type of business I’m aiming to venture into requires both social responsibility and profit oriented. Growing up, I was always a fan of the latest apparel. But do to the economic crisis, I wasn’t able to afford, nor wear the clothing I always wanted. I understand that do to the recession, companies are forced to increase the prices to maximize profit; also do to the increase of prices I was forced to focus more on my needs more than my wants. That’s why my plan is to assemble a clothing line to compete with all the other leading clothing lines. The only difference is my product will be affordable. I am also an aspiring barber and would like to tie the two together; sell my own brand of clothing inside my barbershop. My barbershop will differentiate among its competitors. In addition to styling hair, there will also be a salon for women. I’m sure you’re thinking, â€Å"What’s so different about that?† We all know how boring it can be while your children  sit and waits there for hours for their mother to gets their hair done. That’s why I plan to incorporate a game area so the kids can have fun while waiting. The game room will include a playpen, bowling, snack area, etc. All the resources available through the Small Business Administration and â€Å"score† are intriguing and helpful, but the three that best fits my entrepreneurial approach are International Trade, Small Business Developmental Center, and Office of Governments. International Trade, whose goal is to enhance a company’s ability to compete internationally, will help my clothing line gain exposure all over the world. This will give me an opportunity to expand my brand globally. We all know that starting a business can be challenging and time consuming. The Small Business Developmental Center aims to give educational advice/service for small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs such as myself (â€Å"Educational Advice†, 2007). Office of Government Contracting Business Development, whose mission is to help enhance the effectiveness of small business programs by working with government contracting and business development programs offices and others to develop policies, regulations, and statutory changes (â€Å"business, programs†, 2005). References A and E Television Network, 2011 â€Å"Educational advice† 2007 Grabow, Chris. (2008). Biography of Sean Combs â€Å"Political Candidate† 2011

Rdbms Oodbms Ordbms And Xml Information Technology Essay

Rdbms Oodbms Ordbms And Xml Information Technology Essay Data modeling refers to the process where data is structured and organized. It is a key component in the field of computer science. Once data is structured, it is usually then implemented into what is called a database management system (DBMS). The main idea behind these systems to manage vast amounts of both structured and unstructured data. Unstructured data include documents, word processing, e-mail messages, pictures, and digital video and audio files. Structured data, what is needed to make a data model (via a data model theory), is found in management systems like relational databases. A data model theory is the formal description of a data model. In the development of software, the projects may focus on the design of a conceptual data model, or a logical data model. They represent two ways of describing data models. The logical description focuses on the basic features of the model, outside of any particular implementation. The physical description, on the other hand, focuses on the implementation of the particular database hosting the models features. 1.2 Data Models We can define the Data Model as a collection of concepts that can be used to describe the structure of a database, provides the necessary means to achieve this abstraction. Notice that we mean by structure of a database the data types, relationships, and constraints that should hold on the data. Most data models also include a set of basic operations for specifying retrievals and updates on the database. In addition to the basic operations provided by the data model, it is becoming more common to include concepts in the data model to specify the dynamic aspect or behavior of a database application. This allows the database designer to specify a set of valid user-defined operations that are allowed on the database objects. Database Model can be categorized according to the data structures and operators they present to the user. (1) E-R Model (2) Hierarchical Data Model (3) Network Data Model (4) Semi Structured Data Model (5) Relational Data Model (RDBMS) (6) Object Oriented Data Model (OODBMS) (7) Object Relational Data Model (ORDBMS) Among all data models mentioned below, relational model followed by object oriented and object relational models enjoyed most popularity, we are going to compare them and then we try to find out what is the relationship between XML and these relational data models. COMPARISON RDBMS, OODBMS, ORDBMS  and XML 2.1 Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) The relational model is based on the structure of a database. A database is simply a collection of one or more relations or tables with columns and rows. The use of set theory allows for data to be structured in a series of tables that has both columns and rows. Each column corresponds to an attribute of that relation, while each row corresponds to a record that contains data values for an entity. The main elements of RDBMS are based on Ted Codds 13 rules for a  relational system, the concept of relational integrity, and normalization. The three fundamentals of a relational database are that all information must be held in the form of a table, where all data are described using data values. The second fundamental is that each value found in the table columns does not repeat. The final fundamental is the use of Standard Query Language (SQL). Benefits of RDBMS are that the system is simple, flexible, and productive. Because  the tables are simple, data is easier to understand and communicate with others. RDBMS are flexible because users do not have to use predefined keys to input information. Also,  RDBMS are more productive because SQL is easier to learn. This allows users to spend more time  inputting instead of learning. More importantly, RDBMSs biggest  advantage is the simplicity with which users can  create and access data and extend it if needed. After the original database is created, new data categories can be added without the existing application being changed. There are limitations to the relational database management system. First, relational databases do not have enough storage area to handle data such as images, digital and audio/video. The system was originally created to handle the integration of media, traditional fielded data, and templates. Another limitation of the relational database is its inadequacy to operate with languages outside of SQL. After its original development, languages such as C++ and JavaScript were formed. However, relational databases do not work efficiently with these languages. A third limitation is the requirement that information must be in tables where relationships between entities are defined by values. Today, the relational model is the dominant data model as well as the foundation for the leading DBMS products, which include IBMs DB2 family, Informix, Oracle, Sybase, Microsofts Access and SQLServer. 2.3 Object Oriented Database Management (OODBMS) The main objective of Object-Oriented  Database Management Systems, commonly known as OODBMS, is to provide consistent, data independent, secure, controlled and extensible data management services to support the object-oriented model. They were created to  handle big and complex data that relational databases could not. There are important characteristics involved with object-oriented databases. The most important characteristic is the joining of object-oriented programming with database technology, which provides an integrated application development system. Object-oriented programming results in 4 main characteristics:  inheritances, data encapsulation, object identity, and polymorphism. Inheritance allows one to develop solutions to complex problems incrementally by defining new objects in terms of previously defined objects. Data encapsulation or simply encapsulation allows the hiding of the internal state of the objects. Encapsulated objects are those objects that can only be assessed by their methods instead of their internal states. There are three types of encapsulated objects users and developers should recognize. The first is full encapsulation, in which all the operations on objects are done through message sending and method execution. The second is write encapsulation, which is where the internal state of the object is visible only for reading operations. The third is partial encapsulation, which involves allowing direct access for reading and writing for only a part of the internal state. Object identity allows objects of the database to be independent of each other. Polymorphism and dynamic binding allow one to define operations for one object and then to share the specification of the operation with other objects. This allows users and/or programmers to compose objects to provide solutions without having to write code that is specific to each object. The language important to OODBMS is data definition and manipulation language (DDML). The use of this language allows persistent data to be created, updated, deleted, or retrieved. An OODBMS needs a computational versus a relational language because it can be used to avoid impedance mismatch. DDML allows users to define a database, including creating, altering, and dropping tables and establishing constraints. DDMLs are used to maintain and query a database, including updating, inserting, modifying, and querying data. The OODBMS has many advantages and benefits. First, object-oriented is a more natural way of thinking. Second, the defined operations of these types of systems are not dependent on the particular database application running at a given moment. Third, the data types of object-oriented databases can be extended to support complex data such as images, digital and audio/video, along with other multi-media operations. Different benefits of OODBMS are its reusability, stability, and  reliability. Another benefit of OODBMS is that relationships are represented explicitly, often supporting both navigational and associative access to information. This translates to improvement in data access performance versus the relational model. Another important benefit is that users are allowed to define their own methods of access to data and how it will be represented or manipulated. The most significant benefit of the OODBMS is that these databases have extended into areas not known by the RDBMS. Medicine, multimedia, and high-energy physics are just a few of the new industries relying on object-oriented databases. As with the relational database method, object-oriented databases also has disadvantages or limitations. One disadvantage of OODBMS is that it lacks a common data model. There is also no current standard, since it is still considered to be in the development stages. A significant difference between object-oriented databases and relational databases is that object-oriented databases represent relationships explicitly, supporting both navigational and associative access to information. As the complexity of interrelationships between information within the database increases, so do the  advantages of representing relationships explicitly. Another benefit of using explicit relationships is the improvement in data access performance over relational value-based relationships. 2.4 Object Relational Database Management System (ORDBMS)   Object Relational Database Management System (ORDBMS) is an extended development of existing relational database system. To overcome the certain limitations and to increase the performance level, and to achieve the benefits of relational model and object model, ORDBMS technology evolved by combining the relational databases and object oriented concepts. We can incorporate our custom data types, functions, operators and methods with the database and we can store images, geographical information and multimedia objects such as audio and video in ORDBMS. And it allows us to raise the level of abstraction at which we want to view the problem domain. In RDBMS, it is difficult to map the objects to the database whereas in OODBMS object oriented features are supported extensively. However, in ORDBMS limited support of object oriented features, mostly to new data types. Moreover, it supports abstract data types (ADTs) and complex relationships. ORDBMSs have the same query centric approach to data management as we have in RDBMS. Through declarative SQL statements, we can handle the data access and there is no procedural or object-at-a-time, navigational interface. ORDBMS allows us to continue using our existing systems, without having to make major changes. Another advantage is that it allows users and programmers to start using object-oriented systems in parallel. In ORDBMS technology the concept of extensibility is a principal innovation. ORDBMSs have an extended functionality of DBMS and information system which can be deployed over different machines as it has a central server program whereas OODBMS has a typical distributed data architecture. This is the difference in architectures of ORDBMS and OODBMS. Another difference between ORDBMS and OODBMS is, an object-oriented databases design is based solely on Object-Oriented Analysis and Design (OOAD) principles whereas ORDBMS is an extended development of traditional relational database with object oriented concepts structures such as abstract data type, nested tables, and varying arrays. In simple words, we can say that ORDBMSs synthesize the features of RDBMSs with the best ideas of OODBMSs.   Where Does Xml Fit? DBMS have advanced into the Internet and Web Age.  Stored data is widely being accessed through a Web browser. Today, queries are being generated through Web-accessible forms and answers are being formatted using a mark-up language such as HTML or XML. In addition, many vendors and distributors are adding features to their DBMS aimed at making it better equipped for Internet usage If your application requires moving data between enterprises, XML is a good solution. XML lets you send data across the Internet and through firewalls by using the standard HTTP protocol. XML is also a good choice if your application needs to move data between hardware or software platforms (OSs).  XML is not machine- or OS-specific. Finally, XML is a  good choice if you simply want to ensure that your application or data source is robust even if the data schema changes.  XML enables your application to be extensible  because you access the XML-formatted data by using element and attribute names instead of offsets, which structured programming languages use. If you have one or more of these application requirements, then XML is a good solution. 3.1 Data storage using XML XML Databases offer the same functionality of Object Databases, data is structured in a hierarchical manner and they store XML documents instead of theoretical Objects. We could even say that the XML database model is just a comeback of the hierarchical model because in principle this is the same concept of data storage, indexation and querying. XML databases have the added benefit of being able exchange the data in its native format, which is perfect for todays web requirements. 3.2 Data exchange using XML   XML  messages exchanged are by nature hierarchical and deeply tree structured, sometimes the data is even unpredictable and sometimes the structure is prone to change at any time, developers trying to map this data to a relational structure may find their lives becoming more and more difficult. XML Databases can accept structured as well as unstructured data. XML documents do not have to conform to any set Schema so a developer can fire anything they wish at the database, no need to modify tables and columns. XML Schema allows one to define an XML document in both its node structure (e.g. elements and attributes) as well as the data types contained within these nodes. It allows one to define these data types in very explicit detail. This usage has a lot of advantages, at least for front-end applications: It saves a lot of memory by removing application-specific classes and replacing it with a small set of classes, the DOM. This means that a single application server can handle a lot more of different data types. This is important to us as we designed our presentation layer for Application Service Provider (ASP) usage. The ASP context means that to keep costs as low as possible, you run many different applications in the same application server. If each application had its own set of application-specific classes to model data, the application server would be crowded with classes. It saves a lot of time and energy by the sheer flexibility of XML. If your data and application code are written in XML, adding or removing data to the presentation layer is a way much easier than if data was modelled in application-specific classes. You dont have to modify the application-specific classes, recompile the whole application and redeploy. There are of course some disadvantages, but I think its just a matter of work and time before they can be fixed: -If you dont seem to have a requirement to move data between enterprises, across the Internet, or through firewalls.  So, unless youre trying to make your applications more extensible, XML isnt a good choice for your scenario -Using XML as your database will work fine as long as your datasets stay relatively small. Meaning, it can all fit in memory and stay there comfortably. Once your data grows to the point where it will not all fit in memory, you will probably start seeing serious performance degradation -The problem for many XML aspirations is that the core of an RDBMS are its  relations. In particular, the set of constraints that exist between tables, and that are enforced by the RDBMS are what make RDBMSs so useful and powerful. XML has no inherent mechanism for enforcing constraints. -If you have a heavy investment in an Object-Relational DBMS (Oracle, MS, IBM) and have learned to live with them changing the data model in such systems from relational to anything else would entail a huge amount of work and risk. Conclusions Relational databases have a strong-hold on the current database market due to their maturity, reliability, the majority of existing applications using the relational model. As object-oriented programming languages continue emerging as the favored or dominate programming language for building new applications, probably OODMBS will surpass the RDBMS as the most popular and dominate database management systems in the business market. Something similar is happening to the object-relational database management system (ORDBMS) which the main objective is to merge the benefits of both the relational and object-oriented model. Many RDBMS products on the market today are releasing first generation ORDBMS products. If these products are able to fulfill the main objective of ORDBMS as well as enable companies to convert existing relational models to partial or full object-oriented models, the end of relational databases could be eminent. The growth in popularity of XML has been almost as dramat ic as that of OO. As a consequence, new standards for data objects and new development products based on XML keep emerging. In my opinion the main reason why RDBMS Data Model dominates the market right now is because RDBMS design has evolved to disallow users from asking questions that the database isnt good at answering. The fact that we ship databases that only permit things that we know how to answer efficiently does NOT imply that we will never be able to answer other questions more efficiently. It is quite easy to see a trend in the industry that shows consistent continual progress at solving hard query problems. Of course some problems will always be hard (distributed cost-based query optimization is one), but I would point out that research on RDBMS optimizations has tapered off quite a bit and we have seen major increases in research geared towards semi-structured data. So we are simply easing off on some of the traditional RDBMS constraints and beginning to allow things like recursive self-joins, ragged hierarchies, etc. and we are optimizing these things. I mean, we already solved the RDBMs opti mization challenge and now it is time to move to the next thing. XML seems like a very appropriate evolutionary step.

If This World Were Mine, by E. Lynn Harris :: Essays Papers

If This World Were Mine, by E. Lynn Harris In the hilarious â€Å"just keepin’ it real† style novel, If This World Were Mine, by E. Lynn Harris, a group of friends decide to start a journal club, like they did back in their college English class. This story is told by each and all takes place in the 90's around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Sometimes it is easier to put your thoughts on paper rather than express them out loud. A group of college friends decides to restart their journal club called, If This World Were Mine. The group includes Yolanda, single, independent, and not looking for a man. She was once married, but her husband wanted to travel, while she was ready to be stable. Then there’s Dr. Leland Thompson, gay and single. Riley Woodson, the epidimy of beauty. She’s married to her college sweetheart Selwyn, who is also a member of the journal club, and they have a set of twins’, Ryan and Reginald. Dwight Leon Scott is also a member he is divorced and mad at the world. He was married to Kelli, a former member of the group. She left because Dwight wouldn’t. The group has monthly meetings where they eat, drink, and read and discuss their journals. Each member of the group always brings something to read to the meeting, but they never read what is really going on in their lives. Th ey all feel like they have to impress the other members, which defeats the whole purpose of the journal club. The climax of the story begins when Leland’s client, Taylor Wilson called and asked to have an emergency meeting. After Leland’s secretary scheduled the meeting and Taylor made it to the office, he began to tell Leland what was going on. At the same time Yolanda was in New York handling some business and also visiting John, her new guy friend. One day she went to John’s apartment on surprise and got a bigger surprise than she expected. While back in Chicago, Taylor was still talking with Leland about the man he saw that he had met back in the days when he was a family court judge. They had an affair and caused him to divorce his wife and leave his kids and career. Taylor told Leland about the man’s gray eyes which made Leland think about Yolanda’s new guy friend.

Effects of Technology Essay

The advent and development of computer technology through the past three decades may be the most important and revolutionary technology ever invented in history. It has completely changed the way people do things, from interpersonal communication to professional transactions. Computers have affected the cultures of families, friends, offices, academes and even states and countries. The effect of computer technology can be felt starting with the most basic social institution, the family. The personal computer has become a regular fixture in millions of homes around the world as much as the television or the couch. Some families even own more than one computer units. Of course, the statistics would be lower among less developed countries. Nevertheless, an effect of the prevalence of the personal computer is that it has become more and more affordable. For third world countries, the idea of catching up has also come to mean being competitive when it comes to computer literacy compared to developed countries. Parents use the computer to surf the Net, look for job-related information or anything that interests them like news or hobby sites. The children use the computer as aid in making assignments and research, playing video games or make friends they won’t ever see in person through the chat rooms. Outside the home, the influence of computers is felt much more. Offices cannot survive without computers as they are used for word processing, calculations, presentations, and other tasks. Internet technology, an offshoot of computers, has created a thriving electronic-based commerce which has made millionaires out of people whose capital has been their mere creative minds. Other activities that before were done without computers are now computer aided. Automated banking has made banking and bill payments possible even outside office hours. People can shop online using their credit cards without the hassle of crowds and miles of walking inside malls just to find the perfect shirt or gift. Government agencies keep voluminous records and provide computer-aided services making it possible to make transactions with the public even without the latter’s physical appearance. Like all technologies, the computer has its downsides, too. For instance, it has caused concern regarding the privacy of people as with the interconnectedness of networks in cyberspace it has become easy to look for information about anybody. Another is that computers, being machines, break down. Since people have grown dependent to this machine, a crash or malfunction of computers especially those doing tasks which a lot of people depend on (like ATMs when they go offline or very important data that suddenly become irretrievable with a crash) could result to a lot of frustration and anxiety. Computer technology has also created computer addicts and affected the health and social skills of some people who would rather sit in front of a monitor than interact with humans or play ball outside. Computer technology has become so prevalent and people and nations have become dependent to it so much so that in modern times it has become unimaginable to survive without computers. The future is going to be defined by how fast and how far computer technology is going to take humankind and to be computer-illiterate in this modern world is to be left behind in the past.