Privacy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Privacy - Essay Example As apparent, effective data management, entails adherence to ethical, social and legal standards that guide individuals or institutions when transmitting information. The standards are significant especially in the current environment where various institutions are facing immense challenges in data management. The standards present requisite incentives that ensure information within institutions is used effectively. Data privacy is of fundamental concern within several institutions, for example, banks, hospitals, and learning centres. Privacy emphasises the need for appropriate and safety management of client’s data to boost their confidence. This paper discusses privacy because it is a fundamental aspect that ensures quality administration of data within institutions. Ethical, social and legal issues relevant to Information Systems As noted Information technology (IT), systems are software or hardware used by individuals and institutions to execute activities. The systems fac ilitate effective and efficient delivery of services in various facets of operations, and are recognisable as key pillars that influence data privacy. They aid information capturing, encoding, processing, storage and dissemination. The administration of such activities or information should be reliant on excellent privacy standards (Moon2010, p.1). The standards should assume social, legal and ethical dimensions. Furthermore, they should focus on an institution’s capacity to enhance sustainability. Ethics defines moral processes in institutions. It sets clear standards and moral values that stakeholders should obey in various jurisdictions. Ethical standards ensure delivery of quality services and optimal utilisation of resources, as well as enhancement of privacy in information administration. Institutions should formulate viable ethical principles, for example, the golden rule, utilitarian and risk aversion principles (Quigley 2004, p.2). This creates a favourable environme nt where every stakeholder is treated with diligence and respect. This is significant since institutions that operate with inferior ethical guidelines cannot maintain their clients in the current dynamic world that experiences immense competition. Code of ethics requires employees within institutions or individuals to use client information with confidence. They should also enhance privacy, security in data management and treat clients with respect. Exhibition of high level of cautiousness, prudence, timely delivery of services and accountability also form key ethical guidelines. The standards are integral in facilitating performance since they encourage accountability, responsibility and adherence to due processes while executing activities. Each profession has set ethical guidelines that guide execution of activities (Moon 2010, p.1). The professions, for example, nursing and accounting focuses on data privacy based on the information that individuals in such professions possess. Information conveyed through IT system significantly affect social processes. Poor management of information may lead to increased social incoherence, animosity and damage mutual understanding. This stalls performance and delivery of quality services to clients. Institutions should adopt the recommended information management practices to advance social integration. They should also adopt best practices to facilitate effective mitigation of social issues (Wilson, 2004, p. 119).

Personl conception of the mening of helth nd heling Essay

Personl conception of the mening of helth nd heling - Essay Example Descriptions of helth bsed on physiologicl mesurements ignore the ide of helth s vlue. Wht they offer in precision, they lck in depth; for, surely, being helthy is much more thn hving n your orgns quietly functioning within plus or minus two stndrd devitions of norml. Vlue-free descriptivist definitions of helth cnnot be more thn component of comprehensive concept of helth, for helth is vlued. Helth is vlue beyond formlizble knowledge. However, vlue-bsed definitions of helth lck universlity; they depend on the individul's (or culture's) determintion of wht is to be vlued. Descriptivist definitions ignore the subjective dimension, wheres normtivist definitions exlt it. The World Helth Orgniztion defined helth s " stte of complete physicl, mentl nd socil well-being nd not merely the bsence of disese or infirmity." (Genev: World Helth Orgniztion, 1958). This definition, if tken literlly, is meningless. However, we believe tht ll normtivist definitions of helth, including this hopelessly utopin WHO vision, derive from common ground, core mening or experience of helth tht requires interprettion. (Mordcci, 1995) ny experienced clinicin cn recll terminlly ill ptient who objectively seemed the sme the dy he died s the dy before except for hving (often quite explicitly) lost his will to live. Implicit in this will to live, nd of specil importnce to the seculr individul, is sense of life being worth living despite ll the suffering one my encounter in life nd despite the wreness of the certinty of deth nd nothingness. The helthy individul is well-functioning s whole, in hrmony physiclly nd mentlly with himself nd with his surroundings. lthough we tend to spek of helth s though it were commodity--something to be lost or regined--it is not detched from the person it belongs to. It is prt of the person's life story. Helth is dynmic; it hs pst, nd present, nd it is precondition for future. Desire, without which there is no story, belongs to the future--there lies the hoped for full blossoming of life. Thus there seems to be sort of inevitble metphysics embedded in the experience nd lnguge of helth nd illness, which clls for wreness nd for creful nlysis in the light of n dequte chrcteriztion of the concepts we use. It Is extremely importnt for medicine to be conscious of the depth of our desire for helth nd our fer of illness: they re not only physicl or biopsychologicl conditions tht cn be fced in reductionistic pproch. The existentil, morl, nd symbolic dimensions of the experience of illness must be ddressed s chllenges the ptient is required to fce with his culturl, personl, nd religious resources, nd in which the physicin is sked to help him not only s physicin but s person. No technicl nswer cn help the ptient to understnd nd fce the existentil dimensions of helth nd illness: in this respect, the eduction physicins now receive in mny countries round the world (nd especilly in the West) seriously limits their bility to cre for their ptients. Helth s wholeness, hrmony, nd well-functioning, nd s slvtion from deth is desirble end in itself However, the crux of concept of helth, nd its greter mening or vlue, is helth s mens. Helth is viewed s the experience of life s Promise of good; the ultimte good tht is hoped for is the full life--this we refer to s plenitude. lthough this is similr to Seedhouse's concept of helth s foundtion for chievement, the ide of plenitude

Critically discuss the applicability of the Elaboration Likelihood Essay

Critically discuss the applicability of the Elaboration Likelihood Model to understanding consumer behaviour - Essay Example mentioned ways, it is extremely crucial for the marketers to have an understanding about how the customers process the information that they come across as ads. Numerous models and theories have been proposed that have elaborated upon the manner in which customers assimilate and process the information as well as on the way ads and other marketing communications impact on the consumer behaviour (Cohen, 1990). Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), put forward by researchers Petty and Cacioppo (1983, 1986) is among the oldest and the most popular models that define how consumers formulate their attitudes towards a product or service on the basis of the communications that they receive as advertising. ELM has been employed by marketers and advertisers in making their communications more effective. ELM has also given the basic groundwork and direction to further research in areas like consumer cognitive processes and marketing communications elaboration. (Petty., Priester & Wegener, 1994).The current paper is aimed at evaluating the applicability of ELM to understanding consumer behaviour. The paper will begin with a brief overview of ELM and will contain a critical appraisal of its applicability in the consumer behaviour field. More specifically, it will focus on how ELM provides insights about consumer behaviour which in turn leads to more targeted and cost-effective advertising. The discuss ion will also include some of the weak points of ELM that need to be addressed in order to improve its applicability in the consumer behaviour field. The Elaboration Likelihood Model, when used in an advertising context, postulates that prospective customers form attitudes about ad messages via a process of message elaboration – or the amount of time and effort they spend on issue-relevant messaging. The extent to which they are likely to elaborate the message leads to two very different routes of information processing in the minds of the customers. These are the central

The impact of electricity deregulation on customers and employees in Dissertation

The impact of electricity deregulation on customers and employees in Qatar - Dissertation Example The paper incorporates both secondary and primary research study of the issues relating to the issue of deregulation being set in as in how it tends to affect the internal and external operations of the concern. It tends to draw useful inferences through the conduct of such research to thereby arrive at final conclusions and recommendations. ... .2.1 Interview findings 51 5.3 Questionnaires 52 5.3.1 Findings from surveyed managers and employees 52 5.3.2 Strategy fit with Qatar vision 2030 56 5.3.3 Findings from surveyed customer 58 5.3.3 Understanding KAHRAMAA strategy and objectives by employees 58 5.3.4 KAHRAMAA strategy development policy 60 5.3.5 Employee’s involvement in strategy development 61 5.3.6 The impact of non involvement of employees on strategy development 62 5.3.7 Low employees’ motivation and moral 63 5.3.8 Low initiatives to participate in strategy development 66 5.3.9 Perceived problems with strategy implementation 67 5.3.10 Management perception for strategy implementation problems 68 5.4 Suggestions for improving strategy implementation 69 5.5 Perception of strategy change impact on internal culture 70 5.6 The perception of the impact of KAHRAMAA deregulation strategy 72 5.7 Summary 73 Chapter 6: Analysis and discussion 74 6.1 Introduction 74 6.2 The effectiveness of deregulation at KAHRAMA A 74 6.3 The impact of strategy on KAHRAMAA culture 76 6.4 Research objectives 76 6.4 Summary 78 Chapter 7: Conclusion and recommendations 78 7.1 Introduction 78 7.2 Hypotheses 79 7.3 Limitations 80 7.4 Recommendations 81 7.4.1 Kahramaa 81 7.4.2 Future research 84 7.5 Summary 84 Bibliography 85 Appendices 91 Appendix 1: Survey / interview consent form 92 Appendix 2: Questionnaire 93 Appendix 3: Questionnaire Analysis 96 Chapter 1: Introduction Introduction Electricity deregulation along with privatisation is referred to as ‘liberalisation.’ Liberalisation is an accessible, affordable and reliable service which is replaced by ideal competition, the myth that tend to exit with consumer choice along with priority of the economic efficiency which in turn are measured by profits and also through rate

Laboratory Report 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Laboratory Report 3 - Essay Example MacKenzie & Buxton (1992) compared five width interpretation models regarding 2-dimensional targets (MacKenzie & Buxton, 1992): ï‚ ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"Smaller of† model. It picks the smaller of the height and width. Intuitively it may produce accurate results, because the smallest dimension of the object will be the most restricting when attempting to move a cursor inside it. This model is only useful for rectangles. ï‚ ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   W’ model. It uses the length of the line between the center point of the target object and the object boundary along the approach angle. This is appealing because it is a 1-D interpretation of a 2-D task. But it is more difficult to calculate because the angle between the starting point and the target object must be known. This model is good for circles, rectangles and others. Furthermore, there are some cases that Fitts’ law failed to predict correctly. E.g., some input devices are not suited to Fitts’ Law, such as isometric joysticks that are force sensing and undergo negligible human limb motion (MacKenzie, 2001). Extensions and changes to Fitts’ Law have been proposed for some of those cases, such as Touch screens (Sears and Shneiderman, 1991), and standard GUI with lots of small target areas (such as radio button, combo buttons, and buttons on toolbars) (Sears and Shneiderman, 1991). Fitts’ Law is valid but limited. First of all, it does not address numerous factors other than target amplitude and width that affect user input performance. While there is evidence that task completion times are reduced when a task is split over two hands, Fitts Law does not address the effect of parallel strategies of delegating positioning and selecting to separate limbs. Fitts Law also does not address the effect of human body asymmetry on performance, such as the performance difference between preferred and non-preferred hands,

Annotated bibliography for analyzing a concept paper

For analyzing a concept paper - Annotated Bibliography Example as many other books or literatures on this topic do not explore real time analysis as this one, in fact, most of them only explore the relationship between PTSD and the patterns of texts in archived documents. The author addresses a wide audience because apart from addressing the psychologist alone, it can also be used by the parents and family for the participants. This is made easy by the inclusion of sample system architecture and implementation that can be used as an early screening tool for information on the participants that require close follow up. The book is also current with the official release date being April 2012 and all the authors are professionals with wide experience in computer science. Therefore, their work would be recommendable when used as a scholarly source. This book looks into the lives of clinicians who attend to trauma survivors. The book further explains how in the course of treatment to these survivors it has been established that an emotional intensity and stress levels from the survivors affects this clinicians as they listen to their stories. The authors further explain that with respect to posttraumatic therapy, there are very few experiential studies relating to pervasiveness, dynamics and personality of the mental health expert’s empathic stress reactions related to exposure to trauma survivors. The authors Wilson and Thomas carryout a study and provide data for effective management in a move to help those that are affected by empathic strain from their professions. The authors both having attained PhD levels in their studies can be viewed as of qualified opinion and, therefore, making their work credible for use in scholarly research work. Though the book was written in 2004, it cannot be termed as outdated since the information offered is still current and widely practiced. The book although not biased tends to touch on cases of severe trauma and graphic descriptions related to war crimes and torture. Therefore, it is not

Commercialization of Education Essay Example for Free

Commercialization of Education Essay Bacteria, Virus, and Parasites Years ago, waterborne diseases accounted for millions of deaths. Even today in underdeveloped countries, an estimated 25,000 people will die daily from waterborne disease. Effects of waterborne microorganisms can be immediate and devastating. Therefore, microorganisms are the first and most important consideration in making water acceptable for human consumption. Generally speaking, modern municipal supplies are relatively free from harmful organisms because of routine disinfection with chlorine or chloramines and frequent sampling. This does not mean municipal water is free of all bacteria. Those of us with private wells and small rural water systems have reason to be more concerned about the possibility of microorganism contamination from septic tanks, animal wastes, and other problems. There is a little community in California, where 4,000,000 gallons of urine hits the ground daily from dairy cows! Authorities say that at least 4000 cases of waterborne diseases are reported every year in the U.S. They also estimate that much of the temporary ills and everyday gastrointestinal disorders that go routinely unreported can be attributed to organisms found in our water supplies. INORGANIC IMPURITIES: Dirt and Sediment or Turbidity Most waters contain some suspended particles which may consist of fine sand, clay, soil, and precipitated salts. Turbidity is unpleasant to look at, can be a source of food and lodging for bacteria, and can interfere with effective disinfection. Total Dissolved Solids These substances are dissolved rock and other compounds from the earth. The entire list of them could fill this page. The presence and amount of total dissolved solids in water represents a point of controversy among those who promote water treatment products. Here are some facts about the consequences of higher levels of TDS in water: 1. High TDS results in undesirable taste which could be salty, bitter, or metallic. 2. High TDS water is less thirst quenching. 3. Some of the individual mineral salts that make up TDS pose a variety of health hazards. The most problematic are Nitrates, Sodium, Sulphates, Barium, Copper, and Fluoride. 4. The EPA Secondary Regulations advise a maximum level of 500mg/litter (500 parts per million-ppm) for TDS. Numerous water supplies exceed this level. When TDS levels exceed 1000mg/L it is generally considered unfit for human consumption. 5. High TDS interferes with the taste of foods and beverages, and makes them less desirable to consume. 6. High TDS make ice cubes cloudy, softer, and faster melting. 7. Minerals exist in water mostly as INORGANIC salts. In contrast, minerals having passed through a living system are known as ORGANIC minerals. They are combined with proteins and sugars. According to many nutritionists minerals are much easier to assimilate when they come from foods. Can you imagine going out to your garden for a cup of dirt to eat rather than a nice carrot; or drinking a whole bathtub of water for LESS calcium than that in an 8 ounce glass of milk? 8. Water with higher TDS is considered by some health advocates to have a poorer cleansing effect in the body than water with a low level of TDS. This is because water with low dissolved solids has a greater capacity of absorption than water with higher solids. Toxic Metals or Heavy Metals Among the greatest threats to health are the presence of high levels of toxic metals in drinking water Arsenic, Cadmium, Lead, Mercury, and Silver. Maximum limits for each are established by the EPA Primary Drinking Water Regulations. Other metals such as Chromium and Selenium, while essential trace elements in our diets, have limits imposed upon them when in water because the form in which they exist may pose a health hazard. Toxic metals are associated with nerve damage, birth defects, mental retardation, certain cancers, and increased susceptibility to disease. Asbestos Asbestos exists as microscopic suspended mineral fibres in water. Its primary source is asbestos-cement pipe which was commonly used after World War II for city water supplies. It has been estimated that some 200,000 miles of this pipe is presently in use to transport our drinking water. Because these pipes are wearing, the deadly substance of asbestos is showing up with increasing frequency in drinking water. It has been linked with gastrointestinal cancer. Radioactivity Even though trace amounts of radioactive elements can be found in almost all drinking water, levels that pose serious health hazards are fairly rarefor now. Radioactive wastes leach from mining operations into groundwater supplies. The greatest threat is posed by nuclear accidents, nuclear processing plants, and radioactive waste disposal sites. As containers containing these wastes deteriorate with time, the risk of contaminating our aquifers’ grows into a toxic time bomb. ORGANIC IMPURITIES: Tastes and Odours If your water has a disagreeable taste or odour, chances are it is due to one or more of many organic substances ranging from decaying vegetation to algae; hydrocarbons to phenols. It could also be TDS and a host of other items. Pesticides and Herbicides The increasing use of pesticides and herbicides in agriculture shows up in the water we drink. Rain and irrigation carry these deadly chemicals down into the groundwater as well as into surface waters There are more than 100,000,000 people in the US who depend upon groundwater for sources whole or in part of their drinking water. As our reliance upon groundwater is escalating, so is its contamination. Our own household use of herbicide and pesticide substances also contributes to actual contamination. These chemicals can cause circulatory, respiratory and nerve disorders. Toxic Organic Chemicals The most pressing and widespread water contamination problem is a result of the organic chemicals created by industry. The American Chemical Society lists 4,039,907 distinct chemical compounds as of late 1977! This list only is comprised of chemicals reported since 1965. The list can grow by some 6,000 chemicals per week! 70,000 chemicals may still be in production in the US. As of December, 1978, 50 chemicals were being produced in greater quantities than 1,300,000,000 pounds per year in the US. 115,000 establishments are involved in the production and distribution of chemicals, with the business being worth $113,000,000,000 per year. According to the EPA, there are 77,000,000,000 pounds of hazardous waste being generated each year in the US. 90 percent of this is not disposed of properly. This would equal 19,192 pounds of hazardous waste disposed each year on every square mile of land and water surface in the US including Alaska and Hawaii!! There are 181,000 manmade lagoons at industrial and municipal sites in the US. At least 75 percent of these are unlined. Even the lined ones will leak according to the EPA. Some of these are within 1 mile of wells or water supplies. There is still a lack of information on the location of these sites, their condition, and containments. THIS IS A HORROR STORY OF THE MILLENNIUM. Chemicals end up in our drinking water from hundreds of different sources. There are hundreds of publications each year highlighting this problem. The effects of chronic long term exposure to these toxic organics, even in minute amounts, are extremely difficult to detect. Contaminated drinking water may look and taste perfectly normal. The users’ symptoms might include recurring headache, rash, or fatigue all of which are hard to diagnose as being water related. The more serious consequences of drinking tainted water are higher cancer rates, birth defects, growth abnormalities, infertility, and nerve and organ damage. Some of these disorders may go unnoticed for decades!! Just how toxic these chemicals are may be illustrated by looking at two examples: TCE is a widely used chemical which routinely shows up in water supplies. Just two glassfuls of TCE can contaminate 27,000,000 gallons of drinking water! One pound of the pesticide, Endrin can contaminate 5,000,000,000 gallons of water. Chlorine Trihalomethanes (THMs) are formed when chlorine, used to disinfect water supplies, interacts with natural organic materials (e.g. by-products of decayed vegetation, algae, etc.). This creates toxic organic chemicals such as chloroform, and Bromodichloromethane. A further word about chlorine: Scientists at Colombia University found that women who drank chlorinated water ran a 44% greater risk of dying of cancer of the gastrointestinal or urinary tract than did women who drank non-chlorinated water! Chlorinated water has also been linked to high blood pressure and anaemia. Anaemia is caused by the deleterious effect of chlorine on red blood cells.