Wednesday, October 30, 2019

An HIV Symptom Management Intervention for African-American mothers Essay

An HIV Symptom Management Intervention for African-American mothers - Essay Example The main purpose of this study was to "determine the efficacy of an HIV self-care symptom management intervention in reducing emotional distress and improving health among low income African American mothers with HIV." The study was based on the Maternal HIV Self-Care Symptom Management framework. The framework was adapted from the University of California-San Francisco model for symptom management as well as the current literature and studies on African-American women with HIV. As in most studies, a control and an intervention group were formed. In both groups, the HIV infected African-American women reported low income and were mothers of at least one child under the age of 9. 17 grandmothers were also involved in this study, 8 of which were placed in the intervention group. In the intervention group, the implemented procedures regarding the Maternal HIV Self-Care Symptom Management framework were the same for all subjects. The procedures regarding data collection were also the same. Data was collected during 3 data collection points: once during the enrollment of the patients in the clinics, and twice primarily in their homes. Between data collection points, the mothers were telephoned twice, in order to help with retention.

Monday, October 28, 2019

The tools of the early civilization Essay Example for Free

The tools of the early civilization Essay The tools used by hunters-gatherers in order to survive within their environment are undeniably more primitive than those of the farmers. Born in a period when the benefits of technology and advanced industrialization were not yet present, the hunters-gatherers simply relied on bow and arrow and spears which they themselves made. Most of the time, these tools were only made by wood and trunks of trees which they only gathered around their surroundings. These tools are what they use in chasing for food. They also hunt stray animals for them to have something to cook. They also obtain fruits and other edible plants along their itinerary. The simplistic way by which these tools were constructed accounted for the kind of labor hunters-gatherers had to undergo just to provide for their basic needs. The resources that are immediately available and provided by nature were their principal recourses while using crude tools to exploit these resources. As mentioned above, the tools were usually man-made so the challenge of conceptualizing the design of the tools and the scarcity of materials that can be used really pressed hard on them. However, as man’s thinking developed, he learned that he can settle in some definite place where he can sustain his livelihood. This is in contrast to the stage of hunting and gathering where he had to ambulate in order to exhaust the available resources in all of the places. Once all the edible plants and animals have been plunked down in a certain area, they were obliged to transfer to another location where there will be new resources waiting to be consumed. Upon learning that they can stay put in one location, they subsequently learned to maximize the resources available in their surroundings. He begun cultivating the land around him and plant crops on it. The tools that they used to aid the farming process are much complex but are more helpful to what they are doing. They were also able to come up with simple machines that are far more advanced compared to the tools used by the hunters and gatherers. On the other hand, the tools used by the hunters-gatherers and farmers also have similarities. The tools used by both parties have facilitated their modes of production in the early civilization. Although slightly different in terms of the complexity of design, the tools developed by both hunters-gatherers and farmers were of large contribution to the mode of production. These tools were also mostly hand-made and manifest the simple industrial skills which the early men have possessed. Through their inventiveness and innovative thinking, they were able to come up with the tools that helped them in grappling for survival and sustaining their existence.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Walking through the Woods :: Personal Narrative

So I went home this weekend, and in my neighborhood there is a small pond and all behind it is just woods. I’ve traveled in these woods as a little kid numerous times, with my friend and her father and he would teach us about the different bugs, trees and rocks we encountered along the way. Going back in the woods this past weekend, I was overcome with a feeling of nostalgia. I remember the times we would try to climb the trees, or chase after the grasshoppers or even just walk around and all the fun we used to have. Walking through the woods alone made me miss all the fun times I had as a child. As I child I was carefree, I knew who my friends were and I had no worries about trust and my relationships with others. Growing up, especially in college I’ve began to question my friends, I have a whole lot more stress and things are definitely not as simple as they once used to be.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The woods were the same woods they used to be, not much has changed, but the person walking through them has. I can not even remember the last time I entered the woods behind the pond, but I know one thing for sure that I have grown up so much since then. Walking through the forest I began to think of all the ways I have changed and I realized a few things. Physically, obviously, my appearance has changed, but emotionally I have changed a whole lot more. I have began to lead a more stressful life, with school work, friends and family always a constant thought in my mind. I have learned that I have begun to trust people too easily and then in the end I am always hurt. I have learned that people are not always who they say or portray themselves as. I do not regret all the things that I have learned, I am actually quite grateful for them. Without all these changes I would not have been able to grow into the person I am today.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

John Proctor the Tragic Protagonist

In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the protagonist John Proctor is caught in the middle of the Salem witchcraft trials in 1692. The accusers are a bunch of young girls led by Abigail, who wishes to be with john proctor by having his wife hanged at the gallows. John Proctor attempts to bring an end to the lies and corruption spawned by Abigail and her group of followers.Trough these attempts to bring justice to the court of Salem, his efforts to save his his wife Elizabeth Proctor from being hanged for witchcraft, and through his perseverance to protect the honor of his name by not falsely admitting to witchcraft, John Proctor establishes himself as The Crucibles’ Tragic hero. John Proctor realizes the girls making accusations of witchcraft in Salem are lying and pretending. Proctor first learns of Mary Warren, his servant, who making false accusation in the court. John proctor realizes Mary Warren and Abigail, the women John proctor had an affair with, are conspiring to have Elizabeth hanged for witchcraft. Proctor realizes this when Mary Warren makes a poppet for Elizabeth that mimics a voodoo doll and lands Elizabeth an arrest for witchcraft. This when John Proctor decides to go to court to expose the truth. In court while trying to accuse the girls of lying, Mary Warren puts on act to make the court think John is bewitching her, and he ends up being accused himself. This is a tragic quality of The Crucible because John Proctor in the act of trying to save his wife’s life and expose the truth gets himself convicted of the very same crime. Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth Proctor, is accused of witchcraft by Abigail, who claims she used a voodoo doll on her. Mary Warren had constructed the doll in court and John Proctor knows this and wishes to save his wife’s life. He argues with Mary Warren and forces her to testify to the court that the girls were all lying. Mary Warren ends up testifying and then turning on Proctor accusing him of witchcraft. Proctor denies his charge of witchcraft and even shames himself by admitting to the court having had committed lechery with Abigail. The Court brings out Elizabeth to confirm John Proctor’s confession of lechery. Thinking to protect her husband she denies it to the court. This is tragic because in trying save Elizabeth John himself becomes accused and in Elizabeth’s will to save her husbands image she only further convinces the Judge to arrest John Proctor. When John Proctor is accused of witchcraft, he denies all charges and his thrown in jail. He his marked to be hung. On the day of his hanging he is persuaded by Elizabeth and his own conscience to confess in order to save his life. He confesses to the judge and his confession is copied onto a confession statement to be posted on the church. John Proctor does not want his confession posted on the church because he wants his name to retain its honor, especially since he has a family and children. He is told unless his confession is posted on the church it wont be accepted. John Proctor in a moment of self righteousness decides to uphold his honor and denies the charge of witchcraft and allows himself to be hanged in the gallows. Tragedy strikes here because a good person dies while evil prevails. These events show that John Proctor is a tragic hero. He is an honest man and when he realizes the seriousness of girls’ lies he acts to bring truth to the court. He tries to protect his wife from certain death and instead receives the same fate she does. Finally Proctor tries to salvage his name out of the wreckage of the witchcraft trials but cannot do so without dying. These are all examples of why John Proctor is truly The Crucible’s tragic hero.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Metrics for GGI

The marketing approach for the implementation of the GGI procedure can be measured using several metrics. In this aspect, it would be more available for the business owners to realize how to go about the recommended processes in increasing the commercial exposure of the products. As what has been recommended previously, the significant marketing plan for the GGI commodities is advertising dealing with media facilities such as direct marketing, TV ads, radio plugs, print distribution and electronic promotions. In order to measure how each of these promotional plans are performing with respect to total profitability outputs, certain marketing metrics can be applied. In the case of GGI, items are sold through different channels of dealers, sub-dealers and retailers. However, to get hold of the natural response of the consumers to the promotional scheme, it would be advisable for the company to target measuring the metrics based on the lowest scale of transactions-the end users or the retailers. In this way, the overall flow of the products and the profit value being acquired can provide the most exact metric data for the business. The implementation of metrics needs to be separated in each of the marketing plan approaches. Advertising does not really measure how many products were sold, but can actually measure how the products’ commercial appeal will project metrics (Curtis, 2002). Electronic Approach-The best possible measuring technique for this advertising process is to measure the amount of positive responses based on e-mail replies from the consumers. Since mail database promotions were used, the actual response rate of the end users can be tallied or structured in a database which can count the frequency of the response in a limited time frame. The basic recommendation which the team can apply to this metric is that if in a succession of time frame the hits on websites and the e-mail responses increase with respect to the previous measuring interval, then additional investments can be made to make the channels more visually or commercially appealing. In terms of the website promotion, the metrics which can be used to measure the efficiency of the channel is to integrate a visit counter within the web pages. In this aspect, the company will be able to monitor how many hits per day are initiated by the online consumers on the website. Of course, it does not readily equate to sales, but the very aspect of monitoring the visits can create a very good projection of sales values. TV and Radio Advertising-In terms of the conventional mediums of advertising, the survey method can be used as the primary metrics for the efficiency of these media units. Of course, it may be difficult for the company to increase their processes within the broadcast network’s ability to expose the GGI products. But what can be done is to regularly set up survey procedures at least once a month. The metrics to be used should focus on how the respondents were greatly influenced to buy the products based on their exposure to TV and Radio advertisements. By the time the results are obtained, the team may be able to recommend purchasing additional time slots for these media ads. But before it can be done, survey results must first provide whether there is a direct relationship between consumer purchase and TV and radio ad exposures. This can be statistically measured using correlation and regression computations. Flyers, Posters, Retailer Promotion-The last suggestion for advertising is under the scope of non-electronic mediums. This is the most basic form of measuring metrics since the retailers and dealers themselves will get to construct their respective databases on how much sales they were able to produce. Moreover, each store will definitely have tallied numbers of purchases of specific items distributed by GGI. Therefore, the company will be able to immediately measure the success of the ad campaign in a given time interval. To make use of these metrics, the most effective process is to identify the market share earned by each partner retailers. Also, each of these units may capture the true flow of consumer preference by seasonally implementing Customer Relationship Management. Fabricated scorecards are always available in the market to help the retailers produce a reliable set of sales data (Miller, 2007). In an overall scale, the best metrics to use for GGI is to take note of its ROI or Return of Investment Values. This can only be computed if the company was able to dispose all of the products in a batch for a particular time frame Also, it is only possible for the business to measure such metric if all the initial investments were already acquired back. The remaining accounts receivable balance will then project the initial profit margin of the company. This will provide greater prediction strengths whether the marketing campaign was successful or needs improvement. Therefore, GGI might first consider improving its promotional campaign on the lowest level of advertising in the retailer units since these partners are the primary remitter of investment and profit value shares. At the present stage of GGI which is supposedly very young, the best metric to maintain is the ROI analysis. Since the investment values are still very fresh and somewhat conservative, it would be ideal to limit the creation of secondary analysis such as surveys and database management because these require additional investment expenses. Even though ROI exceeds surveys costs most of the time (Yun Lee, 2007), additional expenses will not be ideal for a starting business. With ROI, the only required tools are the company files and financial utilities based on the flow of products and acquisition of sales money. Apparently, knowing the most effective marketing metrics can save the company time and effort in allocating budget allowances (Cohen, 2007). References Cohen, J. 2007. Make More Money with Marketing Metrics. About.Com. Retrieved December 26, 2007 from http://marketing.about.com/od/marketingplanandstrategy/a/mrktgmetric.htm. Curtis, E. 2002. Commercial Exposure. Dental Editors. Retrieved December 26, 2007 Miller, S. 2007. How Important is Productivity Measurement in Retail Stores?. Ezine Articles. Retrieved December 26, 2007 from http://ezinearticles.com/?How-Important-is-Productivity-Measurement-in-Retail-Stores?&id=812937. Yun Lee, M. 2007. Conducting Surveys and Focus Groups. Entrepreneur.com. Retrieved December 26, 2007 from