Nursing Image Essay

1 Introduction One of the most challenging issues nurses striving for since 20 years ago is nursing image in nursing profession. We define ourselves and are defined by others through images and similarly in any other profession like nursing. The way nurses how nurses perceive themselves as professional will affect the way others include family, friends, associate and public to look you. In the Concise Oxford English Dictionary image is defined as ‘the general impression that a person, organization or product presents to the public’ (Soames & Stevenson, 2004) or as ‘a mental picture representing a real object or a more or less accurate likeness of a thing or person’ (Thomas, 1993, p. 965) in Tabor’s Encyclopedic Medical Dictionary. Nurses have to try to get out from the stereotype of nursing image from the past like ministering angel, battle-axe/sex symbol, handmaiden of doctors, subordinate professional and finally autonomous professional that need critical thinking to make decision to ensure the to render the most effective and efficient care for patient. The image of a nurse portrayed in the media will very much influence the public the way they view at nurses either positively or negatively. Nurses are invisible as mentioned by public as they are used to be silent and accept what others think about them until recently some coalition announced In this write up I am interested to explore nursing image and nursing profession in past year that impact current positive image of nursing in the country with strategies that promoting and sustaining nursing image. 2 Critical Discussion on the Current Image of Nursing in the country In order to upgrade the nursing status in Malaysia to become more profession which account to better image of nursing, nurses are encouraged to pursue higher education to admit to degree program, Master’s and PhD courses either in full time or distance-learning program. This uptake brought Malaysian  nurses to become more professionalization. Besides, Malaysia Nursing Board had endorsed a mandatory CPE program in 2008 with feedbacks from nurses to update knowledge, better patient outcome, improve communication skills, increase sense of self-esteem and competency to practice autonomously and improve decision making skills (Chong, 2011). In the study of Natan, 2009 stated 68.5% (245 out of 358) of nursing students of Israel believed they must have undergo change with these Five characteristics of the present profession of nursing, that is, Angel of Mercy, Romantic, Careerist, Obedient and Bureaucratic. Same as other studies that student nurses expect the aspect of Careerist (Mackay & Elliott, 2002; Spouse, 2000) as the major characteristic of nursing profession which represent an intelligent, logical, progressive nurse committed to achieve increasingly higher standard of patient care (Kalisch and Kalish, 1987; Natan, 2009). Due to the strong patriarchal society, nurses in Iran have a poor image of nursing that bring to low self-esteem, sense of frustration, hopelessness and confusion about self-image and social identity of nursing. So, male nursing student strived to get a university degree to work in hospital as supervisor, internal managers, in the office of nursing, or even on business side of medicine or medical equipment but not in patient care provision. And, there is always a need for male and female nurses vacancy as female nurses have their limitation to meet all the male patients’ needs and male nurses always occupy the senior position (Nasrabadi, Emami, & Yekta, 2003; Adib Hajbaghery, & Salsali, 2005; Zamanzadeh, Azadi, Keogh, Monadi, & Negarandeh, 2013). After the Iran-Iraq War there is an increasing demanding in male nurses to provide emergency care in affected area and also in compliance with the laws of the Islamic Republic Iranian male patients’ preference to be cared by male nurses (Fooladi, 2003). Therefore, about 50% of the baccalaureate students admitted into the nursing program in the final years of war (1985-1988) but it dropped to 20% again after the war (Zarea, Negarandeh, Dehghan-Nayeri, & Rezaei-Adaryani, 2009; Nikbakht, & Emami, 2006). Factors that associate with nursing image a) Uniform If a nurse wears a fit uniform which public perceive as sexy, which may suggested more sexualized work attire actually lessens respect for female workers in responsible jobs like management, causing others to see them as less competent and intelligent. b) Gender In general the public reflected nursing as a female profession where they are subordinate, nurturing, domestic, humble, caring and self sacrificing as stereotyped since nightingale’s work and European religious sisterhood model of nursing education (Anthony, 2004). In United State, 6.2% of RNs were men before year 2000 and then increased to 9.6% (Department of Health and Human Service, 2010). c) Media This is the most salient factor that affect nursing image. Due to the media perception about nursing is ‘caring’ but not knowledgeable, competent in patient care, therefore, public will see nurses in the same way as they get known to nursing through what media portrayed. Nurses nowadays are aware of the poor image of nursing as perceived by public had greatly devaluing the nursing profession. Inspiringly, The Center for Nursing Advocacy who helps to guard the influence of nursing image from media by announcing the best and worst portrayal of nurses in the media annually. d) Poor communication According to Gordon 2004, nurses who do have enough confidence, tools and skills to communicate with media will gain respect, public recognition and rewards for being considered as a profession. 3 Critical Discussions on the Significance of Portraying Positive Image in Nursing Profession It is important to have portraying positive image in nursing profession as it reflect nurses’ high quality of patient care, recognition from nurses and others by making a difference in patient wellbeing and hence gain empowerment in decision making in better patient outcome (Ulmer, 2000). By improving and maintaining both public perception of nursing image and nurses self-image, it help to increase nurses’ recruitment and retention, better working environment to improve nurses’ morale and motivation to work, and enhance better job performance, job satisfaction, patients’ satisfaction and empower nurses to affect policy making (Fletcher, 2007; National Students’ Nurses Association 2009-2010). Nurses must grab every single opportunity to positively reflect share your own experiences contributed to patient care in workplace as a role model and mentor to junior nurses formally via organization authority or informally as through your own awareness, mission and enthusiasm in bringing nursing profession to perfection. In 1989, Zukav stressed the way we see and picture ourselves will affect us subconsciously to seek and make the image either positively or negatively and hence gravitate towards others to reinforce it as your image. Nursing had been regarded as a vocation where a nurse provides service to patient and as a divine calling which linked to early roots of nursing within religious order. But in professional field today, nursing is a profession that renders patient care to a complex healthcare system by using our critical thinking skills to make clinical decision together with patients through the specialty knowledge acquired. If only we strike to portray our profession and specialty in positive manner then we must be able to attract and recruit people to join nursing career and to retain in these nursing profession. In addition, the positive nursing image we portraying will correct the devastating image shown in media to public, friends, family members and relatives by telling them what is actually nursing profession means and its contribution to patient care, what are nurses doing in their day to day practice in clinical or non-clinical area, what types of critical or  technology skills we need in order to keep abreast of medical and technology innovation. To genuinely lobbying all these messages through media and discourses with high school students we will be able to recruit more intellectual people not only thinking but also inspired to count on nursing profession as their career. Conversely, the negative nursing image like work incompetently, not interested to work extra effort, not valuing what nurses contributed to patients, gossiping and criticize about colleagues, will make others, public and media to devalue nursing image in nursing profession. As a leader in nursing, nurses should wrote to media to correct whatever the misconception of public regarding nursing image which may devaluing nursing qualities of patient care. 4 Suggestions on Strategies in Promoting and Sustaining Nursing Image Nurses must always identify themselves as a nurse and talking about their nursing profession to public, friends, family and relatives to promote positive image of nursing. Media always interested in human-interest stories rather than nurses professional abilities. Nurses must explicitly explain to media our aspects of work in order to make the nurses profession be visible and to advance. Nurses take themselves seriously and dress the part. With the uniform they wear to keep reminding them to act professionally and collaborate with other healthcare profession to enhance quality of care render to patients through team work among staff and shared clinical decision making with patients and family member. Nurses must join at least one or more professional association. It can be Malaysia Nursing Association (MNA), National Kidney Foundation (NKF) and others. These association helped to organize seminar annually on continuing nursing education in different diversities among different facilities either locally or internationally to update our knowledge to keep abreast with other healthcare professional group to enhance the image of nursing in the  media to make us visible and to represent our practice area to affect the policy maker on Evidenced-Based Practice (EBP) issues by sharing nursing experiences through networking with other nurses. For example, nurses from different facilities meet together to share successful experiences of reducing the rate of Catheter Related Blood Stream infection (CRBSI) among Haemodialysis patient by instilling Gentamicin block into Intrajugular catheter (IJC) and hence to reduce the rate of mortality due to septicemia while awaiting for the Arterio-veno us fistula to be mature and ready for use. In Nurses Week, nurses write to editor of health-related magazine to announce Nurses Day to make public aware of nurses’ contribution to public through clinical experiences to improve and enhance public perception of nursing image to regards nursing as profession. Dispense nurse-related book as free gift to non-nurses to inspire and inform public of nurses’ contribution in healthcare system. Therefore, we can promote our nursing image to them by making it visible and known to public in order to breakdown the stereotype negative images of public. Get involved in a health campaign to give talk regarding contemporary healthcare issue, for example, educate about ‘dengue fever’ by using our professional knowledge regarding disease to educate the public ways of prevention and instruct them to seek treatment in clinic if needed to early detect and improve community health problem. 5 Conclusions Promoting and sustaining positive nursing image is very crucial in nursing profession to keep nurses to be motivated to work and retain in the profession to be more professional and be a role model and mentor nurses everywhere you go to promote nursing image either in personal life or professional workplace. It is also very inspiring to correct public media’s misconception of nursing image by writing to them to keep inform and upgrade them regarding positive image in nursing to recruit more staff to join nursing and retain in nursing and to enhance job satisfaction, job  performance. By actively involved in professional organization to talk to policy maker, write to media or newspaper to keep them well-informed of nurses’ achievement and to get recognition from public. 6 References 1. Adib, H. M., & Salsali, M. (2005). A model for empowerment of nursing in Iran. BMC Health Service Research, 5(1), 24-35. 2. Anthony, A. S. (2004). Gender bias and discrimination in nursing education: Can we change it? Nurse Educator, 29(3), 121-125. 3. Chong, C. M., Sellick, K., Francis, K., & Lim, K. (2011). What Influences Malaysian Nurses to Participate in Continuing Professional Education Activities? Asian Nursing Research, 5(1), 38-47. 4. Fletcher, K. (2007). Image: changing how women nurses think about themselves. Literature review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 58, 207-215. 5. Fooladi, M. M. (2003). Gendered nursing education and practice in Iran. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 14(1), 32-38. 6. Gordon, S. (2004). Nurses and public communication: Protecting definitional claims. Journal of Nursing Management, 12, 273-278. 7. Kalisch, P. A., & Kalisch, B. J. (1987). The changing image of the nurse. Menlo-Park, CA: Addison-Wesley. 8. Mackay, L., & Elliott, J. (2002). Nursing recruitment: School daze. Health Service Journal, 112(5801), 30-38. 9. Nasrabadi, A. N., Emami, A., & Yekta, Z. P. (2003). Nursing experience in Iran. International Journal of Nursing Practice, 9(2), 78-85. 10. National Students’ Nurses Association (2009-2010). The Ripple Effect of Nursing: How Our Actions Reflects Our Image. Available at: http://www.nsna.org/Portals/0/Skins/NSNA/pdf/pubs_image_guidelines.pdf. 11. Soames, C., & Stevenson, A. (eds) (2004). Concise Oxford Dictionary, 11th edn. Oxford University Press, Oxford. 12. Spouse, J. (2000). An impossible dream? Images of nursing held by pre-registration students and their effect on sustaining motivation to become nurses. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 32, 730-739. 13. Thomas, C. L. ed. (1993). Tahor’s Encyclopedic Medical Dictionary, 17th edn. F. A. Davis Company, Philadelphia, PA. 14. Zarea, K., Negarandeh, R., Dehghan-Nayeri, N., & Rezaei-Adaryani, M. (2009). Nursing staff shortages and job satisfaction in Iran: Issues and challenges. Nursing and Health Sciences, 11(3), 326-331.

Police Brutality Essay

United States police play a very important role in the lives of U.S. citizens today. Their duty is to serve and protect us from harm, but often times this may not be the case. Americans are made to believe that these officers will serve and protect us, when in all reality police are more interested in enforcing the law and making arrests. The police often overstep their authority and begin acting as if they are above the law. Police brutality has become an ongoing topic amongst American citizens for quite some time now. Police often use excessive force physically, which often times results in death or severe injury to citizens. Police have been violating the human right of peaceful assembly, and have often times let race become a main factor in which the officer will use in engaging in enforcement. The use of wearable cameras can help eliminate the injustice, or at least the officers whom continue the violence. When Americans think of police the first thing that often times comes to mind is fear. The police are supposed to protect and serve, but are more likely just to over enforce the law and make as many arrests as they can. Many officers also use racial profiling against people, this is demonstrated in some of the most recent white cop/ black man shootings. Black males ages 15 to 19 died at the hands of police at a rate 21 times the rate of white males of the same age. (Lott Jr., 2014) Some people may argue that police don’t use racial profiling because the rate of crime is higher in black men. Among blacks, teenage crime is much more of a problem. Black male teenagers were nine times more likely to commit murders than similarly aged white males, not two to three times as likely. (Lott Jr., 2014) Police officers will shoot an unarmed suspect, and or disable the suspect by using a taser gun. On September 14, 2013, Jonathan A. Ferrell was shot and killed by North Carolina police off icer Randall Kerrick after a wreck in Charlotte, N.C.  Ferrell was unarmed. Police said Kerrick was charged with voluntary manslaughter. (AP/Florida A&M University) That night Jonathan Ferrell knocked on the door of a woman after he was allegedly involved in a car accident. The woman called the police and made a report, the police who were responding to the call found Ferrell nearby. The report stated that Ferrell ran towards the officers, who tried to stop him with a taser. The police then stated that Ferrell continues to run toward them, when officer Randall Kerrick fired his gun, hitting Ferrell several times. Ferrell died at the scene. A police statement Saturday said the investigation showed the shooting was excessive and â€Å"Kerrick did not have a lawful right to discharge his weapon during this encounter.† (Press, 2013) With the rise of police brutality and fatality of U.S. citizens Americans are protesting against this violence. People have a right to assemble together to promote and protect human rights through peaceful protest or the expression of their views. States have a responsibility to ensure that people are able to demonstrate peacefully and express their views without facing threats, intimidation or violence. (Humanrightshouse.org, 2014) In some states, police officers are becoming introduced to new technology to help record the interaction between the officer and the suspects. A wearable camera is worn on the front of an officer and not only records video, but also audio. This will help properly document what happens during conversation, contact and situations that may involve weapons. It is currently unknown how many police departments are actually using this camera on a regular basis, but this technology is being considered to become used in a way to perhaps alter the course of events in places such as Ferguson, Mo., where an officer shot and killed an unarmed black teenager. (Mims, 2014) So far the use of this technology has proved to be effective according to Mims, In the first year the use of force by officers declined 60%, and citizen complaints against police fell 88%. (Mims, 2014) Although there are cons concerning this technology including the price of not only the device but that of the storage to be used to store the footage captured. The current price of a device can vary from $300 to $400 dollars, not including the storage and management of the generated data. These are all reasons that Michael White, a professor of criminology at Arizona State University, says  the cameras, now a curiosity, could soon be ubiquitous. It has happened before: Taser’s guns went from introduction to use by more than two-thirds of America’s 18,000 police departments in about a decade. â€Å"It could be as little as 10 years until we see most police wearing these,† (Mims, 2014) In conclusion, something needs to be done to protect citizens. Strengthening the policies and using less lethal force weapons, along with proper documentation and proof of what really happens at the crime scene will greatly reduce the number of complaints filed against police. By police being required to wear a wearibal camera/audio device the percents of brutality has already reduced. Police are here to serve and protect us and it is about time they step up and do just that. Police are not above the law, they need to suffer more consequences for their actions, then maybe the brutality will stop. References Humanrightshouse.org, (2014). Human Rights House Network  » HRHN  » Why?  » The right to peaceful assembly. [Online] Available at: http://humanrightshouse.org/HRHN/Why_/The_right_to_peaceful_assembly/index.html [Accessed 27 Oct. 2014]. Lott Jr., J. (2014). The truth about young black men and police shootings. [Online] Fox News. Available at: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/10/22/truth-about-young-black-men-and-police-shootings/ [Accessed 27 Oct. 2014]. Mims, C. (2014). What Happens When Police Officers Wear Body Cameras. [Online] WSJ. Available at: http://online.wsj.com/articles/what-happens-when-police-officers-wear-body-cameras-1408320244 [Accessed 27 Oct. 2014]. Press, A. (2013). North Carolina police officer charged with shooting unarmed man. [Online] Fox News. Available at: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/09/16/north-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-shooting-unarmed-man/ [Accessed 27 Oct. 2014].

Discuss whether the division between virtual and real is becoming more Essay

Discuss whether the division between virtual and real is becoming more blurred through the use of augmented reality - Essay Example It is a part of common sense that we rarely can view it. It is an idea according to which each individual has a mind. The constituents of the mind include faiths, apprehensions, anticipations, motivations, yearnings, etc. The continuity of our minds is the source of our personality and identity as individuals. In the past couple of centuries we have also become convinced that this common-sense psychology is rooted in the brain. These mental conditions and occurrences are somehow going on in the neurophysiological systems of the brain. So this leaves us with two stages at which we can illustrate and elaborate human beings: a level of common-sense psychology, which seems to operate well enough in practice although not scientific; and a level of neurophysiology, which is definitely scientific. However, the most modern specialists know very little about the level of neurophysiology (Searle, 2007, p. 1). What we call minds are merely very complicated digital computer programs. Mental states are only computer states and mental procedures are computational systems. Any process whatever that had the correct program, with the correct input and output, would have to have mental conditions and systems in the same literal sense that we do. The programs in question are "self-modifying" or "self-structuring" "systems of representations" (Searle, 2007, p. 2; Calvin, 1987). The fast progress of computers may indicate the possibility of these machines replacing human brain and emulate human intelligence. It is apparent that at least some human mental capabilities are algorithmic. It follows that a person could not find out that the brain or anything else was inherently a digital computer. A person can allocate a computational interpretation to it. Some physical arrangements make possible the computational application much better than others. That is why we put

David Sedaris' The Learning Curve Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

David Sedaris' The Learning Curve - Essay Example The author has rightly presented that the essay â€Å"The Learning Curve† is witty and artful. Here, Sedaris does not conform to the aspect of seriousness, which most artists employ in literary fiction or in the category of serious nonfiction. Sedaris in this essay, therefore, does not aspire to the formality that is adopted in most literary works. For this reason, this essay, including other essays by Sedaris, make him unique. Sedaris works are, therefore, different, compared to the works of other authors today, who has taught in universities or higher learning institutions, and whose works are examined in seminar rooms. Sedaris does not, therefore, share similar objectives with the other such authors, whose ambition is to set standards in the literary world. â€Å"The Learning Curve† is light and full of humor, and lacks seriousness and profoundness. This essay is also simple, thus easy for the reader to understand. The straightforwardness employed by Sedaris in the e ssay does not require a reader to interpret or look for the literary meaning of the essay. In addition, the prose employed in the essay is simple. On the contrast, a serious essay would require a reader to consider the implications of the art form and to read the essay with considerable emotional depth. However, in Sedaris’ essay, a reader is not required to make such efforts. Instead, the essay is easy to read, artful, and entertaining. There are various humorous situations in the essay â€Å"The Learning Curve.† A part of the humor in the essay centers on the teaching methods of Sedaris at the beginning. For instance, Sedaris asks his students for food recipes for his slow cooker (Sedaris 86). He then tries to convince his students that this would help them to develop their writing outlines. Additionally, Sedaris plays his favorable his favorite soap operas after which he asks his students to write papers on what would happen next (Sedaris 86). In another instance, Sedaris asks his students that writing becomes fiction when they write it down and fail to say it loud (Sedaris 92-3). Another humorous situation in this essay is when Sedaris opens his briefcase during his first class, and lets out leaf-shaped papers, which he wants his students to use as nametags, â€Å"I arrived bearing name tags fashioned in the shape of maple leaves. I’d cut them myself out of orange construction paper and handed them out along with a box of straight pins. .† (Sedaris 84). Although Sedaris made these tags by himself, when the students ask him whether the tags were handmade, Sedaris argues that they were store bought. Nonetheless, these among other humorous are effective in this essay, as they help to remove seriousness in the essay, even though the author passes on important themes. Although â€Å"The Learning Curve† is humorous, this addresses the intelligence of the reader. The author presents his themes in a clever manner and in an easy way for the reader. Nonetheless, this essay is engaging and intellectually vigorous. For instance, Se

Case Study Summary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

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Financial Statement Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

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Discussion Board 3-2 Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Discussion Board 3-2 - Research Paper Example This is usually observable even to layman and does not require deep thinking or analysis of the criteria or the process. A test may have low face validity if the structure or outward organization fails to relate to the intended purpose of the test. Face validity is very important since it gives test takers and test users substantial confidence over and increase reliability of a test. Cohen, Swerdlik and Sturnam (2013) reassure that lack of face validity in a test does not discredit relevance or usefulness of the given test. Content validity describes the extent or adequacy of a test covers or samples behaviours or elements that represent a collection of behaviours that the design of a test intended to measure. For a test to have content validity, it must prove to sample or cover part of elements or characteristics of a given item under test. Cohen, Swerdlik and Sturnam (2013) report that content validity is widely important in employment. Test to determine content validity of a given employee analyzes and evaluates skills and behaviour of a given employee with relation to the skills and knowledge desired for a given job

Renewable Energy Generation in Scotland Assignment

Renewable Energy Generation in Scotland - Assignment Example This research will begin with the statement that the amount of renewable energy generated in Scotland is increasing day by day, with onshore-wind energy being the single largest contributor. The present trends in renewable energy generation indicate that it would technically be feasible to achieve the Scottish Executive’s target of 40% energy generation from a range of renewable resources by 2020. While renewable energy generation will undoubtedly help meet Scotland’s commitment to addressing climate change, it also places a lot of constraints on the existing grid and power distribution system due to the intermittent generation of electricity from wind-mills, which calls for adequate interconnectivity build-up of the Scottish grid with its neighboring grid systems besides necessitating the introduction and implementation of energy storage and demand side management technologies. In addition to onshore-wind, other renewable technologies such as offshore-wind, wave and ti dal energy also hold out promises of energy generation though to lesser degrees. This paper attempts to address some of the basic issues in renewable energy generation as applicable to the Scottish context. The influence of renewable energy generation on demand management, the effect of rise or fall in renewable energy generation on the Scottish grid, the accessory storage facilities and technologies required for renewable energy industry and their possible sites are also discussed. According to FREDSThe government of UK has set a target to cut CO2 emissions by 60% by 2050 to achieve which 30-40% of electricity would have to be generated from renewable energy resources. This requires that Scotland generate 40% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. The Friends of the Earth Scotland point out that demand scenarios can be either of demand growth or of demand reduction. In the Demand Growth scenario, demand is expected to grow again in 2011 as the present recession is about to be over and the projected demand will attain a steady growth of 12.2% corresponding to 45,900GWh annually by 2030. In the Demand Reduction scenario, the demand will start diminishing from 2012 resulting in an annual electricity consumption of only up to 35,180GWh by 2030.The projected values for demand growth and demand reduction in a Low Renewable scenario and High renewable scenario are shown at Table-1 while renewable energy generation as a percentage of total consumption is shown at Table-2.

Clinical Phlebotomy Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

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ART HISTORY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

ART HISTORY - Essay Example It stands in a low sculpture that looks like an uneven terrain that is in a rectangular base (Hemingway 22). Eusebio Francisco Kino was dedicated in the year 1988 in honor of the Father Eusebio of Italy. He had traveled in 1645 to Americas as a missionary where prior to his death he traveled to Pimera and established 17 missions. This statue has three copies in the world. The Padre Kinos presence in the statute in Campbell carries dignity and craftsmanship that captures every wrinkle and muscle. Its 25 foot cast concrete bronze statute done by Julian Martinez in the year 1988. It is located in the drab corner surrounded by traffic and fulfills the promise of ADOTS in bringing public art to the town (Hemingway 11). Tucson town is full of contradictions. The Pancho Villa has been very controversial for nearly 3o years. The statute has already undergone three lawsuits which it has survived which were aimed at erecting it.The city has defended the statute where it has paid almost $2,000 for a sculptor to do some touch ups in the year 2006. This shows that the sculpture of the Pancho Villa does not get support from the local administration where it has outlived its usefulness. The cost of maintaining the sculpture is also high and needs to be replaced. The Villa has lost its purpose to serve as a political tool for the Villa future legacy in Mexico. It has provided many intense arguments due to issues of cultural diversity and politics. It is seen as the Robin Hood for the poor. The Kino and Villa statutes are no longer effective in their purpose of history resemblance and create a variety of cultural differences and, therefore, there is a need to replace them with new statutes in Tucson town. There are people in the world studying the history of Mexico and would like to see the cultural art used to describe the famous missionaries like Padre Kino. Therefore, the city experiences tourists from across the globe that come to

Tma Essay Example for Free

Tma Essay People, being naturally inquisitive, have often been referred to as scientists. Even as young children, people are constantly testing and evaluating the boundaries to decipher their own social environment and quickly recognise what is acceptable and what is not. This soon evolves into intuition and whether it is constructed in a logical and rational way depends on a number factors. However, when considering cognitive psychology and the information processing that underpins judgements and risks, peoples cognitive processes are often likened to computers in the way that these processes interact. This essay begins by looking at Fritz Heider (1944, as cited in Buchanan et al. , p. 60) an influential psychologist in this area who coined the phrase naive psychology. It then progresses onto the advantages and disadvantages of the attribution theories using Kelleys covariation method and MacArthurs vignettes to test the theory. This is followed by looking into optimistic bias and whether this bias can prevent people from constructing rational and logical theories when making sense of their social environment. Finally, the essay evaluates the HIV/AIDs and smoking progression and how people can conceptualise risk, resulting in laying blame elsewhere other than in their social group. Heider was one of the first psychologists to study in detail social cognition. He believed that delving into how people made sense of their social environments was fundamental in understanding social behaviours, he believed people actively built models of cause and effect to find predictability and regularity which would help control their lives, operating like naive psychologists. Heider also believed people used this method when people perceive others and their actions. He constructed a study using animated cartoons of moving shapes consisting of a circle, a box and a rectangle. When asked to describe what they saw, all but one of the participants described the shapes movement in terms of human action. The fact that these people were perceiving these shapes automatically to be people goes some way to provide support for Heiders theory and prove that people are certainly trying to make sense of their social environment. However this, albeit simple use of experimental social psychology, has a few limitations. As this was a simplified experiment and disimilar to what would happen in a real social environment, Heider was not able to prove that the results would be the same outside in real life. In fact, often results obtained outside of the laboratory conclude opposite results to that of the laboratory. There is also a possibility that the participants, upon hearing that they would be attending a psychological experiment, subconciously associated psychology with people or themselves and their answers reflected this. In an experimental condition there will always be confounding variables no matter what measures are taken to eliminate them, it is certainly difficult to take research on perception and attention out of everyday life and into a controlled experiment. In a social environment because people are not manufacturing social situations, people see them as they are, this could put them in good stead to construct rational and logical theories on their environment. What Heiders theory lacks is specific procedures and data. Harold Kelley (1967, as cited in Buchanan et al. , p. 2) who developed the covariation model, used testable predictions and data in his attribution theory. The attribution theories suggest people distinguish between external/disposition factors and internal/disposition factors to recognise the causes of social behaviour. Kelley proposed that when people use information in causal reasoning, three variables are decided upon, distinctiveness, consensus and consistency, this was known as the covariation model. He supported the belief that people behave like intuitive scientists. MacArthur (1972, as cited in Buchanan et al. , p. 4) tested this theory in her studies, she wanted to test the effect of different types and level of information on the nature of causal attributions. She used 16 vignettes, a short description of a behaviour event that contained different types of the three variables, CCD. They then assigned an internal or external cause to the event. The results were supportive of MacArthurs theory and imply that we tend to favour internal rather than external attributions, the FAE (fundamental attribution error). However, it has been proven that people do not use always use all the information available to them. This shows that the way people view risk is not particularly logical, people overlook risk and when comparing people to experts, people do not usually conceptualise risks as well as experts Vignettes are easy to use and provide much needed data and from a large number of participants which is likely to produce more accurate results. The kind of control applied in this study would not have been able to take place if it took place in real life. However they do have low ecological validity because of this very reason, it is still constructed. Attribution theories have also been criticised for overstating the rationality of peoples causal reasoning. When considering the idea of people as intuitive scientists it is important to understand that people can tend to be more optimistic about risk than statistics warrant. This results in optimistic bias. For example, irrespective of empirical evidence, some people think smoking wont harm them. Some people know that they are likely to become ill from it and still continue because the immediate gain overcomes any alternative, albeit potentially deadly. This may be as a result of a motivational source which can result in judgemental biases. There are several explanations for this optimistic bias. The availability heuristic, which involves making decisions based on generating examples in peoples cognitive system, perhaps someone they know who has smoked constantly for 60 years has other any side effects. These are good examples to use when deciphering whether people are intuitive scientists and can make rational and logical judgements because the risk of smoking can be estimated using mathematics. The amount of people that still smoke however is a strong argument that people may be intuitive scientists but the concept of making rational, logical decisions can still be lost if alternative factors get in the way, like smoking or HIV. When people have to make decisions quickly, they often unconsciously rely on incomplete information as a result of the environment in which the social cognition takes place, rather than just the basic cognitive processes, this could account for people rejecting the possibility of HIV leading to death, perhaps because the information they have in incomplete. The fact that people have survived despite this however goes some way to suggest that although peoples cognitive processes do not always lead them to the mathematically correct answer, perhaps that element of risk, optimistic bias and inquisitiveness has prolonged peoples evolution so far. The studies involving optimistic bias and indeed many studies involving how people conceptualise risk however, have been conducted in largely Western cultures and having found previous contradictions between studies in Western cultures, (which tend to focus largely on the individual rather than the social group, as is more popular in many Asian cultures), these theories may not apply to the majority of people and therefore more research entailing diverse cultures would build a more successful conclusion as to why optimistic bias occurs. One reason could be evolution, natural selection could have resulted in humans having evolved with optimistic bias meaning that the people who took the risks were more sexually successful. Another reason for this could that in the urgency of everyday life, people do not use all the information available. One could argue that as we do not process everything we see, we connect the dots based on our rational judgement. The people in many of these experiments drew from their own conclusions and upon their own schema which could be wrong. This kind of error highlights one of the disadvantages of people drawing from their own logical and rational theories. Although it is important to note that the above examples are experiments and the situations are unlikely to occur in everyday life, however research has also shown our schema is highly tuned and usually correct. Both cognitive psychology and experimental social psychology initiate ideas of people thinking in machine ways, operating like scientists but the studies have shown otherwise. Perhaps logical and rational ideas are ideologies and are not appropriate in the context of our own social environments. People, in general tend to perceive events as being more under their own control than they perhaps are, it is clear from these studies that people can sometimes become more optimistic when is comes to risks when comparing the true scientific statistics. From the research into varying theories it appears that the majority of people are intuitive scientists, that to a certain extent people do use logical and rational theories to make sense of their social environment, however these are not always successful. As the evidence of several theories suggests, intuition in people is not always correct. Mistakes are bound to be made, especially when motivation factors overcomes logic and experience and imagination interferes with the process. If people have survived thus far using their own rational and logical judgements than anything further may be seen as striving for improvement, where one could argue, it is unnecessary. Word count 1,503 References K. Buchanan, P. Anand, H. Joffe ; K. Thomas (2007) Perceiving and understanding the social world. In D. Miell, A. Phoenix, ; K. Thomas (Eds. ), Mapping Psychology (2nd ed. , pp. 5-49). Milton Keynes: The Open University

XY Department Of Software Projects

XY Department Of Software Projects The initial budget of XY Department has 2.3 million pounds requested for implementation of new computer systems of XY department of the federal government, but they decided for work around and spent only 1.5 million pounds due to the shortage of funds. A project was scoped and planned within the budget, by setting goals for implementation of software and hardware across 87 sites and the projected date if completion is 30th June 2010. The steering committee of the project was established with all members of XY department CEO as the sponsors and managers belong to the individual departments as the original business case had some risks that were also included as the part of the project plan. A company called Good Programmes grabs the opportunity to implement software and hardware systems for XY Department, as it was its biggest client in the region. Good Programmers Company initially implemented new versions of the softwares after consulting with different individual project managers wh o accommodate requested features. Though Good Programmes developing the new versions of the software and hardware systems, all the XY department and the steering committee identified some problems with the software and decided to acquire system testers for future versions. Because of the over head of the departments the system testers were not available to identify the problems in software systems. The new CEO has been appointed after the existing CEO and Finance manager had been removed, who are involved when the original project was scoped and commenced. CEO is been advised for 185,000 pounds more needed for completion of this project and which is not in his current budget and he is not sure what aspects have been implemented, and how much spent for which parts from the original scope of the project as he cant see any reports or documentation available, scope changes schedule or the budget. ASSESSMENT REPORT ON CURRENT PROJECT: The initial budget 2.3 million pounds requested for implementation of new computer systems of XY department of the federal government, but they decided for work around and spent only 1.5 million pounds due to the shortage of funds. A project was scoped and planned within the budget, by setting goals for implementation of software and hardware across 87 sites and the projected date if completion is 30th June 2010. The steering committee of the project was established with all members of XY department CEO as the sponsors and managers belong to the individual departments as the original business case had some risks that were also included as the part of the project plan. A company called Good Programmes grabs the opportunity to implement software and hardware systems for XY Department, as it was its biggest client in the region. Good Programmers Company initially implemented new versions of the softwares after consulting with different individual project managers who accommodate request ed features. Though Good Programmes developing the new versions of the software and hardware systems, all the XY department and the steering committee identified some problems with the software and decided to acquire system testers for future versions. Because of the over head of the departments the system testers were not available to identify the problems in software systems. The new CEO has been appointed after the existing CEO and Finance manager had been removed, who are involved when the original project was scoped and commenced. CEO is been advised for 185,000 pounds more needed for completion of this project and which is not in his current budget and he is not sure what aspects have been implemented, and how much spent for which parts from the original scope of the project as he cant see any reports or documentation available, scope changes schedule or the budget. Thus, the original project scope and plan with specific milestones for implementation of latest software and hardware systems has not been achieved in the given time lines and the agreed budget due to the lack of anticipation of department represented managers and deficiency of project management skills. COMPARE ASSESSMENT WITH SOUND PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLANNING PRACTICES OVER CHANGE CONTROL PLANNING: From the given scenario of the XY Department of the federal government has not been followed standard practices of change request management process, due to that this case will go into the never ending loop. Therefore, the following project managing practices shall give more confident on change control and planning. A formal request of a change is called a Change Request, which should be documented. Objective of the Change Request: Study the adverse Impact of change minimize it Create maintain a Change Management process Prevent Unauthorized changes Prepare Change ( Back out) Plans Post Implementation Reviews of Changes Maintain a record of all changes Change types have been classified as below: Standard changes Emergency changes Request for Change (RFCs) Change Classification Prioritization Change Models Forward Schedule of Changes Projected Service Availability Back Out Plan Change Advisory Board (CAB) CAB/Emergency Committee Standard Changes: These are the common changes that follow an accomplished procedure and do not disturb current running services. For example: Updating the Anti-Virus software is a standard Change. Emergency Changes: These are critical to an organization and have to be implemented on emergency bases. These are prone to failure. Request for Change (RFCs): These are the type of incidents, upgrades to the infrastructure or changes in the business requirements generate the need for a Request For Change (RFC). Change Classification Prioritization: here we can classify and plan the changes in order of their impact and urgency. Change Models: These are The predefined for resolving the known type and complexity. Automated as far as possible. Maintain scalability to create new models. Forward Schedule of Changes (FSC): Contains details of all approved changes and their implementation dates for an agreed period. Detailed short term schedules and less detailed for longer term planning. Projected Service Availability (PSA): To determine the best time for a change implementation Both the FSC and PSA are agreed with the customers Back Out Plan: It is executed when if the Change cannot happen as per plan Usually but not necessarily the typical back out plan is to bring the systems back to original state it was in before the change started Change Advisory Board (CAB): CAB approves the Changes after assessing and prioritizing the RFCs. CAB members should have sound technical knowledge and good business perspective. CAB/Emergency Committee: This team targets to review only urgent changes Few members required (typically Senior Managers from concerned dept in the given Case) Availability after shift hours Change Management Process Flow: Back out plan Activities: Record Request For Change Review Request For Change Assess Evaluate Change 7 Rs of Change Authorize Change Issue Change Plan (to R D Team) Support/Coordinate Change Implementation Post Change Review 7 Rs of Change Who RAISED it What is REASON for change What is the RETURN expected from change What could be the RISKS involved in change Which RESOURCES are needed to implement change Who (which RD Team) is RESPONSIBLE for build, test implement change Is there (or what) any RELATIONSHIP between this change other changes Change Manager Chairperson of the CAB Filtering and accepting RFCs Primary Responsibility of planning and coordinating implementation of changes Obtaining authorization for change Reviewing Implemented Changes Convening emergency CAB meetings Generating Change Management reports May have Change coordinators to support CAB Member Belongs to the CAB and participates in all CAB meetings Helps in reviewing all RFCs to estimate impact Participates in Scheduling Changes If the good programmers followed the above change control planning methodologies they could have resolved all the issues in the project and deploy hardware and software components successfully in the given time frame. [4] STEPS RECOMMENDED FOR THE PRESENT PROJECT TO A CLOSE: From the given case, due to the poor project management techniques the project comes into a loop, which never ends. The following recommend steps bring the project to close. Specify Scope and objectives of the project Specify the deliverables Define Project planning Internal/ External team communication Bug/Issue/Service request tracking and progress reports Change management Risk management Initially, the Good Programmes should know the objectives of this project. They should define requirements of the XY Department. Determining the real objectives will help them to plan the project. Also the scope of the project should be defined the amount of work which needs performing, and the total number of resources required to deploy the hardware software installations across 87 sites. And understand who the stake holders are, and what they expect to deliver also who the testers and enlist their support. After defining the scope and objectives must have a review with stakeholders and agree with them through Project Steering Committees, and including Project Manager, Department chief, and Department managers, testers in the committees. The main drawback of the given project scenario is they have not employed a Project Manager, which is Essential for best project management practices. Good Programmes needs to define what the project is been delivered. As this project scope is to change the outdated computer systems and implementing the latest hardware and equally software around 87 sites, they must determine what real things will be delivered and document with enough detail to enable someone else to provide them efficiently. Also, all these definitions of the deliverables must review and accept by the project steering committee. Good Programmes must define what different ways were require for producing all deliver techniques known as all sites information and Breakdown Structures of each site. They need to find the approximate time and puts the effort that is required in every activity like implementation of Hardware Software on each site also involve the complete project team in estimating how long all activities will take. Set milestones which indicate deadline dates during the project. Also include this into the project plan, and key stakeholders should review the project plan and agree. All the other departments of project planning are unprofitable unless there is no communication between internal or external teams. All the team members must know their role responsibility on the project and every team member should know the scope, objective and milestones of the project. Also it is ideal that every member should know all kind of problems hitting the project. Project Manager should share all kind of information of the project with each and every member of the project. After the project is kick-off, on each and every stage project manager should compare the actual progress with the estimated progress in terms of work and budget. If any large variations in the scope and actual, manager and other key stake holders of the XY Department should take corrective actions on each level. Change is common in any project environment. However it should be handled in smooth way to implement those changes. When scope OR Deliverables of the project needs changing, the project manager should identify the changes which only possible in the given time deadlines and Budget. Else if manager accepting all the changes, project will never end in the given time frame or budget. Good Programmes manager needs to consult with various managers of the departments to accommodate only possible requested new features instead of all. Also manager should be in a position to incorporate the emergency changes in immediately and new features in future releases as the budget defined only for work around and not as estimated. Not managing changes effectively is often a reason why projects fail, so Manager is the key here to manage Change Requests. The outcome of the project is massively effect with these risks. For example if any of the resource is lack of the implementation of the Hardware or software then possibly we miss the deadlines. And there should be plan defined to overcome the risks, and identify as soon as possible. When we have more risks in the project, numbering or assigning the priorities of the risks will help. For Example, If an employee successfully implement the new Hard ware and software in one site, but the problem with one specific component of the Hardware which is know should marked as Low risk category, same way we can define medium and critical risks, Hence everyone would know the total risks in the project with their criticality, including the team members and key stake holders. In order to bring the project to a close the above 7 project management techniques the project will be closed in the given time frame and budget. IMPROVEMENT STEPS RECOMMENDED FOR FUTURE PROJECT MANAGEMENT PRACTICES: The following improvements need to be implementing to the XY Departments to get the fruitful results in future projects. The entire project needs to be categorized for different phases like: Planning Phase Execution Phase Close packed phase There are many phases in which every phase has there own review process and also the end. The important milestone event is been marked in the starting or at the end of every event with some of the series of its events where the main thing is to complete the major stage. For a successful project we need to meet some criterias. They are: Impermanent: The project has a beginning and the end where the project has a purpose. Uniquely: Though projects are similar but the planning might have their own elements which are same or else different. The computer system needs to implement the hardware for the project management the best technique we need to apply for activity to meet the definition of the project. The actual market plan. The budget needs to be corporate. The human resources needs developing and upgrade of policies and manually. The customer related management system is used to design and install. There will be over hauling of response of bid system. The annual audit needs to be prepared. The consultant needs to be engaged and been hired. SCOPE: The project is to be defined, the audience need to be targeted, the customer and the recipient also needs to be defined. STAKEHOLDERS: The project is been affected by the individuals and also the organisations GOALS: Goals need to be return clearly and in detail where the stack holders need to sign off before the execution is commenced to avoiding the confusion further. PLANNING: Doing a project without a plan is impossible because for controlling a project we need a plan which should be executed by the people who needs to involve through out the project. The documentation needs to be proper and accurate as it is the important task for the project management. Stack holders need to be signed off in the project plan in the meeting. The stack holders need to sign the change order form in which the range is being recorded to the project. The statement need to be developed for the large projects where the objectives are being established. The customer satisfaction of the project is the primary objective which should be written and is being placed in the project. The main objective is to contain the actual deadlines is being specified within some months. ESTIMATING TIME AND COST: To reduce the risk the time is to be reduced based on the available person who works on the project and arranges the meeting and other required things. Account chart is used for tracking the labour costs which results reducing the time to record the delay of accuracy. The Gantt chart is more useful for seeing the responsible tasks. SCHEDULING: It considers both the task duration and the work must be done in sequence. The work is broken down into levels which need to develop and estimated sufficiently to be intended accurately. The plain should not be more details where you can manage. As we know Bar chart is equal to Giant chart where bar charts doesnt show inter relations in the work, that dont allow the easy way of analysis of impact of the project in which the activity slips of the software will show the holidays and the vacations of the work extended in order to time access on their impact. ORGANISATION: The organisation needs to have their own structure during their plan and the project needs to have perfect staff. The project has a structure which is hierarchical disadvantages while running the multi discipline projects. Project management has matrix which is synonymous this deal with many kinds of disciplines. The success of this matrix needs to require a very good skills which are inter personal on all parts of the managers. PROJECT MANAGER: A leader not only looks like a manager but he needs the skills of the people which are important. The skills of them are negotiable the flexibility are very important attributes. Any project doesnt work according to the plan where the project manager needs some adjustments in it. The problems need to be resolved territory. To avoid this conflict the technical problems will only make them to build and get faster. Here the communications is very critical for the project manager who often bridges a gap in between the technical stack holders and stack holders who are non technical. Project manager needs to be friendly with everybody and he should not be friend for anyone if he needs to lead the project in correct path. The decision is very important for deciding the time, cost and budget. NON FINANCIAL INFORMATION: This includes man different things namely he defining of the task, sequence of the task, task scheduling, task planning resource for all the people who are well equipped, planning of the organisation, identification of the risk, planning of the quality, task staffing, task reporting, solving of task problems and finally the task change control. FINANCIAL INFORMATION: projects generally have a financial factor where the limitation of cost estimates the budgets and shows how to have control over the cost. Project manager needs to interact with the organisation and also with outside agencies regarding the resources after that they will be the stack holders for the project. In this situation the manager has independence to manage and reports when they use which would be in their control throughout the project. [5] [6] STEPS RECOMMENDED IN SELECTING A PROJECT MANAGER IN FUTURE: There are 10 steps for a project manager to follow for the future development of the project. INSPIRES A SHARED VISION: A project leader will be effective when he has a vision of what he doing and the ability to over come the problems. The change is been able to draw the boundaries. A leader needs to have lifts up that gives the reason for the vision and also the spirit to change. The leaders visionary enables the people feel very real stake in their project. The people empower the experience vision that explores the vision which means that their jobs are part of future vision in the organisation. GOOD COMMUNICATOR: The people who have the ability for communicating in all levels namely the second most important skill are for the project managers and also the team members. The leader needs to have the clear communication regarding the goals, performances, responsibilities and have more expectations with feed backs. There is a great value deal which places openness directly. The project leader is linked with the large organisation. The leader needs to have the ability of effective use of persuasion when it is necessary for ensuring the team success of the project. The effective communication of the project leader will support the team individual by achieving and also creating the guidelines that results for achieving the career with advancements of the team members. INTEGRITY: The project leader needs to remember some important things for setting the team. The leadership will be good but the demands need to be committed and the demo of the ethical practises needs to be there. The ethical behaviour of these type pf standards is well rewarded by the project leaders based on their responsibility and practice. The leadership needs to be motivated by serving the self interest of the team. The integrity of the leadership represents a set of values which has less values to share, and the behaviour need to be consistent with all the values that is dedicated honestly with team members. The leader need to be like a walks to the talk which brings the trust in process earns. ENTHUSIASM: All the leaders should have a plain and simple character but should not have a negative thought which brings the public down. We need the leaders to be enthusiastic and needs a attitude that makes us to step into a invigorate journey by that we needs to feel very lively. We usually follow the people who have a attitude of doing but not like the giving 200 useless reasons that doesnt work. The leaders need to be enthusiastic for their commitment towards the goals that they optimise. Leader ship is something which emerges and also expresses the confidence of their commitment towards the project and also for others who wants to share their optimistic area of expectations. This enthusiasm is very much contagious and also needs to have a effective leaders who know this very well. EMPATHY: Empathy is a word which is similar to the word sympathy. These two looks like similar but sympathy is a word according to the subject principle that absorbs other feelings and is protected into that object which has less concern towards the reality and also the validity of that special object. Empathy is another word that exists when a object is separated by the individual that entitles others feelings and also emotions. COMPETENCE: The project leader needs to have a technical ability in the core area of technology business. Project management has a continues recognition in the field itself which will be chosen based on the ability of the successful lead rather on technical as per the past. It is having the track record to win the way which is known as competent. The skills needed for the leadership is to have the ability for challenge, inspiring capability, model to encourage leaders for seeing a capable leader. ABILITY TO DELEGATE TASKS: the relationship between the project leader and the team needs to be essential. By using the actions we can demonstrate the trust for checking and having control on the work to delegate and allow people to participate. All the individuals who cannot able to trust the other people often fail like leaders and remain like small managers who will end up their work by themselves. According to project management always a good leader will be little bit lazy and being interested in some perspectives. COOL UNDER PRESSURE: In this world all the projects are delivered according to time, budget overcoming all the major obstacles or problems. Now one is living in the perfect world which doesnt have problems. A leader needs to have a hard attitude that needs to handle all these problems. When they face a event which is stressful and considered to be interesting will feel to influence and the outcomes looks like an opportunity. Out of all these uncertainty the change in chaos will rise up the leaders to articulate the image of future that pulls the project to close. TEAM-BUILDING SKILLS: It is defined as the person who is strong provides the team to hold together for the general purpose that is a right work. For the progress of the team the group needs strangers who have single unit of cohesiveness for the leader who understands the process that is required for transformation. Every one needs to know exactly the style of leadership during every stage throughout the developing team. Here the leader needs to understand about the team workers styles and should know how to maintain and be a capital throughout the time and handles the problem. PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS: The leadership should be effective and needs to know how to share the problem and handle the responsibilities in the team that usually expect from the project leaders who have skill of excellent way to solving the problem by themselves. They have fresh and creative type of response that is heard now as opportunities which are not much concerned by others performances. [1][2][3] ADVICE GIVEN TO C.E.O: Every CEO need to follow some steps for the successful project. There needs to be a continuous gradual improvement in the project. The CEO will be happy rarely because among them there needs to be a better performance. There needs to be a obsession for lifelong learning that is read constantly by attending few seminars in groups and join that which inspires and also educate. The strategically ability is to think and perform the plans effectively which focus on both long and short term strategy that is executed and also keeps the company moving in better direction. The ability and desire is to be true towards the servant leader. This helps the team members to work for better tools, to improve the technology, the work need to be efficient with good clearer goals. In return the employees have the resource to view the employee success. CONCLUSION: Based on the current case study the project management is not completely successful due to the fewer funds from the government and the Good Programmers need to show their ability to serve 87 sites for all the systems with all the techniques that gives better performance for the XY Department.

Alaska Airlines Flight Human Factors

Alaska Airlines Flight Human Factors The term human factors can be defined as anything to do with humans. In aviation maintenance human conditions like stress, illness, complacency are important because if these factors are not taken care of can lead to fatal accidents. Human factors in aviation industry have become more significant as over the time it has been realized that in most airborne accidents, human error is the main reason rather than mechanical failure. Human Factors are too broad a definition for our understanding of its application in aircraft maintenance. It focuses on a wide range of challenges faced by any human in his/her day to day personal or professional life and when combined how they can lead to human errors and ultimately to a fatal accident. This report is the case study of one such incident, Alaska Airlines Flight 261, a McDonnell Douglas MD 83, which crashed into Pacific Ocean near Anacapa Island, California killing all 88 people on board. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determines that the probable cause of this accident was a loss of airplane pitch control resulting from the in-flight failure of the horizontal stabilizer trim system jackscrew assemblys acme nut threads. The thread failure was caused by excessive wear resulting from Alaska Airlines insufficient lubrication of the jackscrew assembly (NTSB (2003). Loss of Control and Impact with Pacific Ocean Alaska Airlines Flight 261. WASHINDTON, DC: NTSB. 180.) After going through the accident and studying all the possible causes of this fatal accident it has been observed that it was the chain of events that led to one error after the other. The Cheese Error Model is used for analysis to explain the causes. C:UsersYashikaDesktopswisscheese2.gif Fig 1 (http://www.aviation.unsw.edu.au/about/articles/swisscheese.html) SYNOPSIS According to NTSB report 2003, on January 31, 2000, about 1621 Pacific standard time, Alaska Airlines flight 261, a McDonnell Douglas MD-83, N963AS, crashed into the Pacific Ocean about 2.7 miles north of Anacapa Island, California. The 2 pilots, 3 cabin crewmembers, and 83 passengers on board were killed, and the airplane was destroyed by impact forces. Flight 261 was operating as a scheduled international passenger flight under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 121 from Lic Gustavo Diaz Ordaz International Airport, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Seattle, Washington, with an intermediate stop planned at San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, California. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the flight, which operated on an instrument flight rules flight plan. (NTSB. (2003). HISTORY OF FLIGHT. In: NTSB Loss of Control and Impact with Pacific Ocean, Alaska Airlines Flight 261. WASHINDTON, DC: NTSB. 1.) PROBABLE CAUSE The National Transportation Safety Board carried out an intense investigation to find out what brought the flight 261 down and founded many reasons responsible for this accident. The NTSB report considered the main reason as the loss of airplane pitch control due to the in-flight failure of the horizontal stabilizer trim system jackscrew assemblys acme nut threads. The thread failed because of excessive wear resulting from Alaska Airlines insufficient lubrication of the jackscrew assembly. NTSB reports also mentions about the design flaw of McDonnell Douglas MD-80 as it didnt have fail safe mechanism to prevent the disastrous effects of failure of acme nut threads. AEROPLANE INFORMATION The McDonnell Douglas MD-83 is low wing, twin engine commercial aircraft. The horizontal stabilizer is mounted on top of the 18-foot-high vertical stabilizer in a T-tail configuration and controls the pitch movement of an aircraft. The horizontal stabilizer is about 40 feet long and its movement is provided by the jackscrew assembly, which consists of an acme screw and nut, a torque tube inside the acme screw, two gearboxes, motors an alternate and a primary trim motor, and associated components. C:UsersYashikaDesktopAlaska 261 1.gif Fig 2 http://www.tailstrike.com/310100.htm The movement of horizontal stabilizer is controlled either by autopilot automatically when engaged or manually by the pilots by de-pressing either set of dual trim switches (located on each control wheel), moving the dual longitudinal trim handles on the center control pedestal, or moving the dual alternate trim control switches on the center pedestal. Through these controls one of the two electric motors that rotate the acme screw by applying torque to the titanium torque tube that is held fixed inside the acme screw gets activated. When autopilot senses that the horizontal stabilizer has reached the desired pitch trim condition or when pilot commands are terminated, or when the horizontal stabilizer reaches its maximum travel limits the motor is de-energized. The MD-80 horizontal stabilizers design limits are 12.2 ° leading edge down, which results in airplane-nose-up trim, and 2.1 ° leading edge up, which results in airplane-nose-down trim. In Alaska flight 261, horizontal sta bilizers went beyond its design limit plunging the aircraft nose and rolling the plane to 360 °. ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION The captain and first officer of Alaska Flight 261 were highly qualified and experienced pilots of Alaska Airlines. There were no medical problems or any other drug abuse that could have affected the performance of either pilot. The Alaska Airlines Flight 261 was dispatched in accordance with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations and approved procedures by Alaska Airlines. Prior to take off and during the initial phase of the flight, the longitudinal trim control system was functioning normally and did not record any problems but as they reached 23,400 feet pilots realized the horizontal stabilizer on tail plane was not moving and they immediately carried out a standard checklist to try and free the stabilizer. They tried to troubleshoot the problem by repeatedly trying the two switches that operate the stabilizer. The primary motor is activated by both the switch on the control stick known as pickle switch and a longitudinal sliding handle on the pedestal but both the sy stems were inoperative so they decided to disengage the autopilot and fly the plane themselves. The jammed stabilizer was pushing the nose of aircraft towards the ground therefore it was taking lot of physical strength for the pilots to keep the plane at level altitude. Meanwhile they contacted ground maintenance to seek advice or if there is any hidden switch or system they are not aware of but dint get any considerable help. As they were approaching to the destination the problems got worst. For one more time pilots tried to free the jammed stabilizer by turning on both alternate and primary motors at same time. The plane plunged downwards for over a minute. Pilots tried to level the plane and they did with lot of efforts. They slowed the plane and informed Air Traffic Controller at Los Angeles and made a decision for emergency landing at Los Angeles. They tried to contact the ground maintenance again but they did not appreciate the significance of the situation and pilots had no appreciable advice from them. They slowed down the plane and headed towards Los Angeles when suddenly the jackscrew holding the horizontal stabilizer broke moving the stabilizer way beyond its aerodynamic limits. The aircraft plunged rapid losing altitude. It rolled 360 degrees and ultimately crashed into Pacific Ocean killing 5 crew members and 83 passengers onboard. After going through all the incident and report of NTSB, it is clear that it was not just the mechanical failure of jackscrew assembly but it was a sequence of events that ultimately led to failure of acme nut threads which was paid off by the lives of 88 innocent people on board. Number of factors contributed to the crash of flight 261. The summative economical and organizational pressure led Alaska Airlines to increase the lubrication interval of jackscrew assembly and FAA oversight to those extensions and use of unapproved tools and measures. Along with these the maintenance staff falsified the records of work done when actually the work wasnt done. This evaluation involves the use of Swiss Cheese Model to explain the chain of events like design flaw, inadequate maintenance, extended lubrication and end play check intervals and deficient maintenance procedures of Alaska Airlines that led the tragic end of Alaska airlines flight 261. The design of McDonnell Douglas MD-80 had major design flaw to it. The horizontal stabilizer jackscrew assembly did not have the fail safe mechanism to prevent the disastrous effects of failure of acme nut thread. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification procedures for DC-9 did not sufficiently considered the consequences of excessive wear in context to horizontal stabilizer jackscrew assembly. Designers of the system presumed that at least one set of the jackscrew assemblys acme screw and nut threads would always be sound and engaged to act as a load path. Therefore, the consequences of stripped acme nut threads and the corresponding effect on the airplane (including the possibility of the acme screw disengaging from the acme nut) were not considered in the design of the horizontal stabilizer trim system. After the accident the investigators recovered the wreckage from 700 feet underneath the sea. The horizontal stabilizer jackscrew assembly were found intact and attached to the horizontal stabilizers front spar. The acme screw was found cracked but attached to the support assembly. Metallic filaments were found wrapped around the central part of the acme screw. Fig 3 http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?do=main.textpostid=a406ede6-772f-4c84-a95f-410a0744a8ca The probable cause of this was the inadequate maintenance procedures of Alaska Airlines. In aviation industry there is enormous pressure to maintain, rectify and deliver the plane on scheduled time to prevent the delay in departure of flight. The economic turn down in early 1990s had hit the company badly and they started to fly their fleets more intensively thereby sharply increasing the planes average daily use and thus altering the maintenance intervals. The initial C-check interval of Alaska Airline was 2,500 flight hours. The recommended C-check interval according to MRB (Maintenance Review Board) report was either 3,500 flight hours or 15 months, whichever came first. In 1988, Alaska airlines extended its C-check intervals to every 13 months (which was about 3,200 flight hours, based on the average airplane utilization rate at Alaska Airlines at the time). In 1996, again the C-check interval was extended to 15 months (which was about 4,775 flight hours, based on the average air plane utilization rate at Alaska Airlines at the time). The task of lubrication of jackscrew assembly was to be accomplished in every B-check intervals which was increased to 500 hours in 1987 from 350 hours in 1985. However in 1988, Alaska Airlines removed B-checks and the entire tasks of B checks were conjoint with A-checks and C-checks. Lubrication of jackscrew assembly was due at every eighth A-check or every 12,000 hours of flight but in July 1966 the task of jackscrew assembly lubrication was removed from A-check and was placed on a time-controlled task card with time interval of 8 months. At that time there was no accompanying flight-hour limit and thus based on airplane utilization rates at that time, 8 months was about 2,550 flight hours. Also the investigators found widespread deficiencies within the Alaska Airlines maintenance procedures. Two years before, during the crashed airliners last overhaul one of the lead mechanic at airlines Oakland maintenance facility had ordered the jackscrew for this particular aircraft. He then went off shift and his recommendation was over ruled by the next shift personnel and the plane was put back to service. It would be 2 years for the next due overhaul but the time ran out and flight 261 faced the fatal consequences. Fig 3 http://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/reports/2002/AAR0201.pdf Along with extended intervals Alaska Airlines changed the lubrication grease from Mobilgrease 28 to Aeroshell 33 even after McDonnell Douglas didnt approve it completely. Alaska Airlines notified FAA about this change but FAA dint reply to this change until the flight 261 accident after which it disapproved the use of grease Aeroshell 33. Not only this, the maintenance personnel at Alaska Airlines were not trained properly for the lubrication task. It was evident when in interview with the mechanic responsible to carry out the lubrication task stated that the lubrication task took about 1 hour, whilst Boeing documents and testimony said that, when properly done, the task should take more than 4 person hours. INCOMPLETE: small access panel (include in design flaw), important senior managers positions vacant for 2 years, missing records. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦..Page no 171 of NTSB report. FAA oversight CONCLUSION Following can be concluded from the above analysis: The flight crew on Alaska flight 261 was fully qualified and had received sufficient training as per the federal regulations. Both the pilots did not have any preexisting medical conditions that could jeopardize with flights safety. The flight 261 was dispatched in accordance with the FAAs regulations and Alaska airlines procedures. The weight and balance of the plane was within the limit. Weather was not the factor for the accident and there was no evidence of fire or bird impact or any other foreign object damage. Both the engines were functioning normal during the flight. Air traffic control personnel was properly certified and qualified for the respective jobs. The horizontal stabilizer was functioning normally during the initial phase of flight but jammed at 23,400 feet. Neither the pilots nor the ground maintenance staff could understand the reason for this jam. The worn threads inside the horizontal stabilizer acme nut were incrementally sheared off by the acme screw and were completely sheared off during the accident flight. As the airplane passed through 23,400 feet, the acme screw and nut jammed, preventing further movement of the horizontal stabilizer until the initial dive. As there was no checklist present to land as soon as possible and the circumstances confronting the flight crew, their decision not to return to Lic Gustavo Diaz Ordaz International Airport, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, immediately after recognizing the horizontal stabilizer trim system malfunction was understandable. The flight crews use of the autopilot while the horizontal stabilizer was jammed was not appropriate. The flight crews decision to divert the flight to Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles, California, rather than continue to San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, California, as originally planned was apposite. Alaska Airlines dispatch personnel appear to have attempted to influence the flight crew to continue to San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, California instead of diverting to Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles, California. There was no effective lubrication on the acme screw and nut interface at the time of the Alaska Airlines flight 261 accident.

Literary approaches :: essays research papers

Literature †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Choose six of the following approaches and find one article for each approach. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Writing:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One page per article   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  2 pgs summary Critical approaches important in the study of literature: MORAL/INTELLECTUAL †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Concerned with content and values †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Used not only to discover meaning, but also to determine whether works of literature are both true and significant. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To study lit from this perspective is to determine whether a work conveys a lesson or a message and whether it can help readers lead better lives and improve their understanding of the world. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Answer these questions:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What ideas does the work contain?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  How strongly does the work bring forth its ideas?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What application do the ideas have to the work’s characters and situations?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  How may the ideas be evaluated intellectually? Morally? TOPICAL/HISTORICAL †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Stresses the relationship of lit to its historical period †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Investigates relationships of this sort, including the elucidation of words and concepts that today’s readers may not immediately understand. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Common criticism is that in the extreme, it deals with background knowledge rather than with lit itself. NEW CRITICAL/FORMALIST †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Focuses on literary texts as formal works of art, and for this reason it can be seen as a reaction against the topical/historical approach. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Most brilliant in the formal analysis of smaller units such as poems and short passages. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Discussions of point of view, tone, plot, character, and structure are formal ways of looking at lit from this point of view. STRUCTURALIST †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Stems from the attempt to find relationships and connections among elements that appear to be separate and discrete. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Attempts to discover the forms unifying all lit †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Important because it enables critics to discuss works from widely disparate cultures and historical periods. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Furnishes an ideal approach for comparative lit and the method also enables critics to consolidate genres such as modern romances, detective tales, soap operas and film. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Best in the analysis of narratives and larger units. FEMINIST †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Holds that most of lit presents a masculine/patriarchal view in which the role of women is negated or at best minimized. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Seeks to raise consciousness about the importance and unique nature of women in lit. ECONOMIC DETERMINIST/MARXIST †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Features individuals in the grips of the class struggle. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Often called proletarian lit †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Emphasizes persons of the lower class – the poor and oppressed who spend their lives in endless drudgery and misery, and whose attempts to rise above their disadvantages usually result in renewed suppression. PSYCHOLOGICAL/PSYCHOANALYTIC †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Provided a new key to the understanding of character by claiming that behavior is caused by hidden unconscious motives. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Treat lit somewhat like information about patients in therapy. ARCHETYPAL/SYMBOLIC/MYTHIC †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Presupposes that human life is built up out of patterns, or archetypes, that are similar throughout various cultures and historical times.

What Christians can do in a world of cultures in conflict? :: Religion

What Christians can do in a world of cultures in conflict? The main topic of this book is â€Å"worldview†. What’s â€Å"worldview†? It’s not easy to find completed answer. There is a story like that. King of Siam was surprise about story of Dutch ambassador that in winter elephant could walk on river. It’s hard for King of Siam living in the tropics to believe. The King’s worldview could not allow him to accept this. The aim of this book is to help reader will gain a better understanding of his own worldview. This book seems not interesting for me at the first time I read. However, I realized that sometimes I had asked myself such questions. After chapter 2 I gradually understand. In chapter 3 tell about â€Å"the secular world view†. It means the world without God and spirits. The rest tell about modernists’ thought. Some of these are Ludwig Feuerbach (1804 - 1872) he said: humanity created God. Another one is psychologist Richard Gregorg said that body is hardware and â€Å"mind† is software. The other is human is consider a biological mechanism. Sometime I surprise with assumption from it. This non-answer question I asked myself sometimes. The rest of chapter 3 tells about community, value (ethic), Marxism and why the secular worldview influences around the world, and the imperfect. In community, the worth of each member is more important than that of family and social responsibilities. Laws and ethical values are based upon man-made assumption. The Marxism’s view is â€Å"nothing remains exactly the same† or the new generation is better than previous generations. According to this, communism is better than capitalism. Nex t, the reason why secular worldview influences most the world is affecting the economy and technological development. Therefore, this affects the country economic in specially. However, this worldview has some weakness. The secular worldview has result in major scientific develop but it has failed to provide answer to some of the basis question of human life. In chapter 4 tell about the traditional worldview. I read this chapter very quickly because I live in a traditional worldview. This chapter compares secular and traditional worldview. For example, person‘s soul is external which differ to Western worldview. In traditional worldview community or society is more important than individual desires. I always believe that important decisions are made by the community as a whole and age is important and respect. However, some thought is not up to date such as the viewing time of traditional worldview.

Homeschooling Pros and Cons Essay -- Home School Education Essays

Homeschooling Pros and Cons Homeschooling is a rising alternative in children’s education. As with any other major movement there have been doubts and debates as well as support and promotion for this educational approach. Homeschooling was once the norm in society before there was a public school system. But the parents involved in homeschooling feel very strongly about the positive outcomes that it has brought about in the lives and success of their children. It has once again surfaced and become popular but there are several people who question the possible negative effects this option creates. Criticism of homeschooling is vast and there are several different aspects as to why it could be detrimental to the development of a child. One such argument is that experiences of diversity are lost when students are taught in the home. They have lost the opportunity to work with peers of varying culture and social statuses in an academic environment. Such experiences are essential preparation for social and professional life outside the home. Without this training at an early age they may be at a disadvantage when forced to go out into the work force. Another reason why some people disapprove of homeschooling is that since the parents can design what is taught their children only are exposed to the parents’ views. This results in the children having limits on their ability to form their own views and ultimately forming their own unique personality and values. Also to be considered is lack of work ethic built through a structured school setting. The discipline that is learned will be used later on to maintain a steady job and allows them to become accustomed to the rigidity of professional industry. Also in the classroom children ... ...November 23, 2003, from EBSCOhost on the World Wide Web: http://search.epnet.com Ray, B. (2002). Customization through homeschooling. Educational Leadership 59(7), 50-55. Retrieved November 23, 2003, from EBSCOhost on the World Wide Web: http://search.epnet.com Reich, R. (2002). The civic perils of homeschooling. Educational Leadership 59(7), 56-60. Retrieved November 23, 2003, from EBSCOhost on the World Wide Web: http://search.epnet.com Staehle, D (2000). Taking a different path: A mother’s reflection on homeschooling. Roeper Review 22(4), 270-272. Retrieved November 23, 2003, from EBSCOhost on the World Wide Web: http://search.epnet.com Wichers, M. (2001). Homeschooling: Adventitious or detrimental for proficiency in higher education. Education 122(1), 145-151. Retrieved November 23, 2003, from EBSCOhost on the World Wide Web: http://search.epnet.com

BofA Mobile Banking case Essay

Introduction Bank of America (BofA) is the largest bank holding company in the United States, by assets, and the second largest bank by market capitalization. As a global Finance Service Institution, BofA serves clients in more than 150 countries and has a relationship with 99% of the U.S. The bank’s 2008 acquisition of Merrill Lynch made Bank of America the world’s largest wealth manager and a major player in the investment banking industry. BofA launched mobile banking in May 2007. Mobile Banking lets customers easily and securely access balance information, pay bills with optional Bill Pay service, transfer funds, and find nearby ATMs and banking centers through a mobile application on their smartphones, and through mobile web on their phone browser. Douglas, SVP of Mobile Product Development was quoted, â€Å"In less than 3 years we have four million mobile banking customers. That’s an adoption rate almost five to eight times that of our online banking several years ago.† Line-of-business managers are looking for leveraged mobile platforms with functionalities that can meet different needs and the different target groups such as: Merrill Lynch brokerage, mortgages, credit cards, consumer payments, etc†¦ The capabilities of mobile banking through the use of smartphones or mobile web have become popular with today’s bank customers. There are increasing overall growth in mobile banking in the financial services industry. In addition, the transaction cost1 of mobile banking and internet banking is much lower than the traditional channel (e.g. Branch, Call Center, ATMS and IVR). Due to the economic downturn, banks are looking for extend the service channels and aim to increase the profit via tradition core banking service, such as transaction fees. The system automation can reduce the operation cost; increase the transaction turnaround time and accuracy. With the popularity of smartphones and mobile data services, mobile banking can be the booming tools for banking industry profit engine. However, investing in the enhancement of the mobile banking is costly and will directly affecting the bank’s revenue and brand images. The worse scenarios, may encounter customer complain and regulatory comments and punishments. Therefore, the management of BofA have to decide how can they effectively utilize this technology as a new media to make banking services easier, faster and more convenient for customer, at the same time, how can the app can help for BofA marketing the banks new products, service and increase the customer loyalty. In the short run, what do BofA tell the line-of-business managers – should the app increase functionality, build new app or refuses to add complexity to the current app? In the long run, how do BofA position the bank in this fast changing industry? Analysis Mobile banking (app) is not a mandatory product (or say channel) for bank’s customer. It’s just an optional channel, based on the product itself, let’s analysis base on Porter’s 5 forces analysis. 1. New entrants are HIGH. There will not be any new large mass-market players or niche players bursting on the scene, but there will be new independent players like PayPal that will provide some similar functions app in the market. 2. Power of suppliers are from MEDIUM to LOW. The majority of the suppliers of mobile banking should be those technologies partners, technology consultants, outsource software house and marketing partners as alliance in some promotion campaigns. Bank has stronger power than those outsource software house in most situations. 3. Bargaining power of buyers is HIGH. Given the mobile banking is only an optional channel for customer. Customers still have other options to complete their transaction thru the bank and able to say NO to mobile banking. The switching cost of changing the channel is low but the switching cost of BANK may from LOW to MEDIUM. 4. Threat of substitution is HIGH. Currently customers still can utilize other channels to fulfill their needs via Branches, Call Center, ATMS, Internet banking and IVR. 5. Intensity of rivalry is HIGH. Many banks like Well Fargo, Citibank, JP Morgan are working on the mobile banking and each of these app have the same majority functions and include some differentiate functions. BofA Mobile Banking App functionalities To install the app and apply the mobile banking is free. As the mobile banking include 3 major segments of core function: Mobile Website, Text Banking and Mobile App2 . The BofA’s new app include below functions: †¢Check account balances for accounts and facilities lines held with BofA. †¢Pay bills. †¢Transfer funds between BofA accounts. †¢View transaction details for all BofA accounts or facilities lines, including posted, pending and scheduled transactions. BofA Mobile Banking App include the majority functions that customer requires and let’s talk about the Brand of BofA in the following section. The Brand of BofA & Competitors Bank of America ($30.6B) is the most valuable banking brand in the USA. Its brand value has increased by 18% and it has a brand rating of AAA-. Despite concerns of further mortgage-related write-downs, Bank of America was also the #1 most valuable banking brand in the world at 2011. The Designs The Bank and the Mobile Banking App Logo Given the icon of BofA can be shown in the Bank and the mobile banking logo, it can help the customers to connect the mobile banking app to BofA. The color use of the Bank is Red and Blue and the Mobile banking is single using Red only. Red color is a powerful color, symbolizing energy, passion or even danger. It works best for action-oriented products or brands, products associated with speed or power, or dominant or iconic brands. The mobile banking icon didn’t use the Red and Blue color which only using Red to show the passion and commitment of the bank to customer via mobile banking. Bank of America and Mobile Banking Slogans Bank Bank of America. Higher Standards Embracing ingenuity Think what we can do for you Mobile Banking Life is mobile, so is your bank The Slogan of Mobile Banking can directly identify the availability and accessibility of the apps that can provide the mobility banking services everywhere. However, it can’t strongly connect to the Bank’s core Slogans. Recommendations Given the increment of additional functions will slow down the performance of the mobile banking app; it does not recommend incorporating the additional business functions to the current app. From technologies risk and regulatory prospective, it will be too risky if pulling all business applications in one single platform. If on module down, it will totally affect the bank normal day to day operations. In short run, suggest developing new apps for extending the advance mortgages, credit cards service or investments service for different business functions. To leverage different branding to differentiate the different category of services that offered. Apart from leverage different brands3 own by the group, BofA can also cooperate with Smartphone and Telecom Services Providers to ingredient branding to provide the end to end mobile service. Bank customer can encounter discount on purchase latest smartphones, discount on data service plan and possible to issue mobile credit cards by offering promotions. BofA can consider consolidating all apps in one single platform when there are needs in future. In long run, BofA can cooperate with the Telecom Services Providers and sizeable Merchants, to provide addition information for customer when customer arriving the merchants and let them know what kinds of promotions or discounts are offer. This can uplift the service from singling banking service to mobile living yellow pages. This can help to increase the customer loyalty and build strong connections with bank customers. It can also attract more alliance (other merchants) to share the promotion and marketing cost to developing a new banking and living experience. Of cause, it is necessary to maintain the balance of utilizing the mobile banking app, customers segments for marketing promotion events, if over sell which may obtain opposite result. To differentiate BofA from other competitors, it is necessary to ensure the Bank can position the Bank with Stronger Branding and Images extend the services from â€Å"Banking† only to diversify the service to other related informational services in daily life and provide incredible services and experience for customers. This can help the bank to reposition the bank as a full around bank which can fulfill customer day to day activities that require of any payment or transactions. This can help to identify stronger alliance for the long term development. In conclusion, BofA must keep on investing in mobile banking apps, as it is a trend that smartphone or more innovative device (e.g. Google device) will become more popular, bank must utilize these new technologies by re-design the current channels to increase the bank traditional income (e.g. Transaction fees) and other new incomes (e.g. investments service, financial consultation service, etc.) and extend the service with alliance to promoting the daily service tools. This can help the bank to enlarge the customer groups, define new customer groups segments or sub-segments for better marketing and promotion campaigns and maintain the brand in the leading positions. Exhibit 1 Costs per Transaction by different channels The Pricing, when the apps developed to more advance, and able to customize and fully integrate full around service for customer, at that time, BofA can consider of charging customer for service charges after trial. If customers are satisfying with the full around services after the trial, the bank can also extend the income by promotion the comprehensive mobile banking and service apps. Exhibit 2 Mobile website Customers can pay bills whenever they want with optional online Bill Pay. Check balances on checking accounts, savings accounts and credit cards. Transfer funds immediately to any other Bank of America account. Locate banking centers or ATMs, along with maps and directions. Text banking Use text message banking to request information about self-own checking, savings and credit card accounts. Getting the answers you need is simple when it’s received within seconds on your phone. Mobile app Mobile Banking App, designed specifically for iPhone ®, iPad ®, Windows ® Phone, BlackBerry ®, HP ® webOSâ„ ¢ and Androidâ„ ¢ devices. Wherever you are, you’ll have easy access to your Bank of America accounts with their quick and convenient Mobile Banking App Exhibit 3 – BofA’s branding