Madness in Hamlet

DRAFT- NOT MLA-LACKS FORMATTING/REFERENCES Hamlet-Melancholy, Madness and Sanity Hamlet, a play by William Shakespeare, is as much a mystery as a tale about depression, madness and sanity. Shakespeare reveals how the scourge of corruption and decay rapidly spread; and the emotional consequences that follow. Insanity, madness and depression are as intolerable as corruption and deceit; and just as intertwined. The play makes one ponder if it is possible to be sane in an insane world full of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption?By examining the themes of melancholy, madness and sanity in Hamlet, Shakespeare details his character’s descent from depression to madness. Additionally, Hamlet’s psychological state can be analyzed by utilizing modern psychological diagnoses, in order to understand his mental state. Throughout the story, Hamlet exists in a melancholy state, â€Å"essentially not in madness, / But mad in craft† (3. 4. 204-205). Hamlet states to H oratio â€Å"as I perchance hereafter shall think meet/ To put an antic disposition on† in order to deceive the king that he is insane (Act I, Scene V, Line 190).However, was Hamlet acting or was he already mentally disturbed? Did Hamlet go mad in the end, or was Hamlet insane from the start of the play, and his mental condition only worsened as the play unfolded? The world in which Hamlet existed appears hostile. The king is a murderer; his mother the queen lusts after her deceased husband’s brother; friends spy and deceive one another; and Hamlet’s lover Ophelia literally loses touch with reality. Hamlet believes that only suicide can free him from his misery. Hamlet is not the only person struggling with depression.From the beginning, Francisco says, â€Å"’Tis bitter cold, / And I am sick at heart†. Marcellus states that â€Å"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark† (). Fear is spread by the ghost of King Claudius wandering the city streets. Reoccurring themes of corruption result in Hamlet stating â€Å"The dram of evil / Doth all the noble substance of a doubt / To his own scandal† (Shakespeare 51). One evil person can contaminate an entire kingdom. As the kingdom decays, emotional trauma increases. Hamlet concludes that the world â€Å"’Tis an unweeded garden / that grows to seed.Things rank and gross in nature / Possess it merely ( ). The weeds represent decay in a world of evil and sin. The â€Å"things† are symbolic of man and his temporary dominance over himself, his fellow man and nature. Pessimism permeates the screenplay and the reader is led to connect the dysfunction with the resulting mental states of depression that infect Hamlet. Hamlet’s psychological status can also be analyzed from a modern perspective. Today we have the diagnostic tools to identify and treat the disorders that afflicted Hamlet.Though Hamlet presents as melancholy throughout the play, there are th ree additional disorders that afflict Hamlet including post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, and bipolar depression. Three traumatic events contribute to Hamlet’s descent into madness: the death of his father, the incestuous marriage between his uncle and mother, and the discovery of his father’s murder by Claudius. These emotional traumas contributed to Hamlet suffering from what we would now diagnose as Post-traumatic stress disorder.Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is characterized by the inability to properly construct emotional appropriate responses to situations and an emotional blunting. Throughout the play, Hamlet had issues with people in his social circle. Hamlet becomes enraged with Laertes because of his dramatic sorrow over the death of Ophelia (Act V, Scene I). Soon thereafter, Hamlet realizes his reaction to Laertes was inappropriate and later apologizes to Laertes. Hamlet demonstrates impulsive behavior and lashes out at people without con sidering the ramifications.In addition to Laertes, Ophelia, Hamlet’s beloved, is also not immune to his rage. Hamlet is susceptible to highly reactive emotional responses, and suicidal ideation is mentioned throughout the play. Symptoms of PTSD often include changes in self-perception, relationship stressors, and frequently revenge fantasies. Hamlet’s emotional state deteriorates over the duration of the play. These changes include increased helplessness and the inability to make decisions as he becomes more ill. Hamlet exhibits other PTSD symptoms. Hamlet feels inferior to Fortinbras and Horatio, and in his attempts to kill Claudius.Hamlet also isolates himself and becomes more paranoid as the play progresses. Not that being paranoid would be an inappropriate emotional response to the environment he is in, but his paranoia takes over. Eventually Hamlet becomes obsessed with revenge after he is compelled by his father’s ghost to avenge his death. Symptoms of sch izophrenia also present in Hamlet. The symptoms of schizophrenia can include hallucinations, isolation from others, a loss of reality and paranoia. While berating his mother about her rapid remarriage, suddenly Hamlet begins addressing an invisible specter. â€Å"What would your gracious figure? [QUEEN] Alas, he’s mad! † (Act III, Scene IV, Line 116-117). Hamlet has visions, or hallucinations, of his dead father’s ghost. The ghost was seen once by Horatio and some guards at the start of the play, but not by anyone else. The appearance of the ghost may have been reality or a hallucination. However, the second ghost to appear, that only Hamlet could see and hear, was confirmation of Hamlet’s insanity. Schizophrenia is often symptomatic with visual, but more commonly auditory hallucinations. After the death of Hamlet’s father, Hamlet began to withdraw and became reclusive in nature.He didn’t combat be forced to leave to boarding school, he spen t less time with Ophelia, and he became very isolated. Hamlet appears to have been in the initial stages of schizophrenia where the real and unreal become blurred, but he is not yet incapacitated by his disorder prior to his murder. Perhaps if he didn’t die young the disease would have progressed. Even Polonius questioned Hamlet’s state-of-mind when he said, â€Å"How pregnant sometimes his replies are – a happiness that often madness hits on† (Act II, Scene II, Lines 213-215). Throughout the play, evidence of bipolar disorder (also known as manic depression) is identified.It is hard to distinguish if Hamlet is bipolar or having a schizophrenic break since both diseases have common behavioral features. Bipolar disorder is known for manic or escalated behaviors coupled with severe depression when the mania recedes. Manic behaviors include pressured (or rapid) speech, grandiose beliefs, insomnia, and hyper or frantic behavior, followed by periods of extreme anergic depression that is emotionally and physically debilitating. Hamlet escalates between periods of excitement and kinetic activity to states of absolute misery and unproductivity.Hamlet procrastinates, but it may be due to the depressive period he cycles in and out of. Hamlet’s soliloquies all contain themes of suicide and hopelessness (depression), but his manic states are more difficult to define. Hamlet creates a plan to prove Claudius’s guilt while justifying his own rage and revenge. When Hamlet discovers that the players are coming to the castle, he rapidly goes from melancholy to a state of over-excitement. He becomes highly focused and implements a detailed plan to kill Claudius. Hamlet quickly abandons his plan and slips back into his depression (sparing Claudius).If Hamlet was able to execute all of the schemes and plans he devises, the play would be chaotic. Another incident suggests another bipolar episode when Hamlet, on the boat to England, facilita tes the execution of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern; and also plans an attack on a pirate ship for revenge. Grandiose thoughts are a common feature while in a manic phase. Hamlet quickly forgets or fails to follow through with his plan and falls back into a depressive state. Hamlet’s manic depression is referred to as rapid cycling because the mania and depressive states change quickly.Ultimately, Hamlet may not be procrastinating at all like is assumed throughout the play. Hamlet may be incapable of fulfilling his grandiose plans while in a depressive state. In Hamlet’s time people had no concept of mental illness or mood disorders. People believed that behavior was deliberate and labeled unacceptable behaviors as character defects. Hamlet was a deeply disturbed individual. Author Gertrude Morin suggests that a cognitive approach be used to understand Hamlet. Hamlet, Morin says, is â€Å"a portrayal of a tortured, depressed young man who loses his way in the labyrinth of his negative thoughts. He not only suffered from negativity, mania and depression; the environment in which he lived was highly dysfunctional for anyone’s mental health, let alone an ill man. At the beginning of the play, Hamlet is depressed but the events that develop during the play exacerbate his descent into madness. Not many people in the Kingdom of Denmark escape the toxicity of the world in which they lived. Ophelia may have suffered the most, and was also tormented by Hamlet’s illness, and eventually by saw no other option but to end her life. Depression and despair seemingly became as contagious as the small pox- and just as untreatable.Hamlet’s mental state and the events in his life may have finally drove him to madness. The reader may first believe that Hamlet is faking his dementia, when in fact, his mental dysfunctions were both organic (of biological origin)and very real. Among the mentally ill it is common to see a mentally vulnerable individu al succumb to the pressures of his environment. That person may have been able to keep their illness in check in a stable environment, but when external stressors mount- they may not have the coping behaviors to cope and they escalate out of control.Suicide, in our modern world, is often a result of life stressors the vulnerable person could no longer manage. Had Hamlet not been murdered, his suicidal impulses may have caused him to self destruct. Psychiatry was just emerging as a science during the time Shakespeare wrote Hamlet. Robert Burton, the most famous author on melancholy from the Renaissance, first published his Anatomy of Melancholy in 1621. Burton, who was afflicted with melancholy himself suggested treatments â€Å"from taking hellebore to boring a hole in the skull to let out the ‘fuliginous vapours,’† while adding his consolations (Burton ).Had Hamlet received the services of Burton, it is probable that if the hellebore didn’t work, the hole in the skull would have left Hamlet disabled or dead. In conclusion, the question persists: Is it possible to be sane in an insane world full of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption? It appears that the majority of people is somewhat resilient and can cope with adversity to a certain degree. However, there are people like Ophelia and Hamlet who are vulnerable to chaotic conditions. These people tend to internalize the trauma and don’t have the coping mechanisms to deal with intense emotional situations.It is fascinating that Shakespeare had the insight to connect intolerable conditions with states of mental vulnerability. ‘Madness’ was a catch-all term for all mental disorders in Shakespeare’s time, but through his dialogue and scenery, he was able to identify numerous mental states of dysfunction- centuries before we had terminology to describe these illnesses in diagnostic terms. Shakespeare’s acuity in describing a mentally-ill princ e is why Hamlet has endured over time. The issues, diseases, desires, fears and dreams remain constant over time among humanity. To be, or not to be’ will always be relevant in more ways than life and death. Our views on mental illness and physical ailments that relate to Melancholia are endless, and therefore so is our application of each possibility to Shakespeare’s work of Hamlet. Sources: Diagnostic Manual DMV-IV Burton, Robert. The Anatomy of Melancholy. Ed. Floyd Dell and Paul JordanSmith, NewYork: Tudor Publishing Co. , 1941. Morin, Gertrude. â€Å"Depression and Negative Thinking: A Cognitive Approach to Hamlet. † Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature 25. 1 (1992): 112.

Computer Literacy Essay

The computer technology became a very important aspect in human lives that is greatly relied upon. Nowadays personal computers are made quite affordable and allow for easy and fast way to access information and solve problems in daily life. Life is a continuous information interchange and technological progress helps accelerate this exchange. However, people are so dependable on computers that they do not realize the impact it has on literacy. Computer literacy is essential in our modern society but with great advantages of this skill come disadvantages that can have a negative impact on the three basic skills such as reading, writing and arithmetic. Reading is a skill that is taught from a very young age that makes people more intellectual and formed in an everyday life. Technology made access to information very simple which is why many people turn to computers for news, books and others sources of information. A trip to a library or a newspaper shop is a thing of the past since everything is available at your fingertips in the comfort of your own home. However reading from a computer screen can be much slower and inefficient. In the following quote,â€Å"These differences in reading speed are assumed to be due to a declined sense of orientation when reading long lines of online text presented in single wide columns† it is evident that reading from a computer screen can affect the reading speed when comparing to reading from the book. A person can easily lose track of where they are when reading from a screen and as a result this can affect comprehension of the text. This is evident in the â€Å"Failure to Connect† by Jane Healy, â€Å"Reading from the screen is slower, more fatiguing, less accurate, and more subject to information overload than standard reading. In several studies, students tested for comprehension after reading from a screen demonstrated less understanding and poorer memory than those getting the same information from a book. They tended to get lost or flip too quickly through the screens without reading† . When reading of the computer screen people tend to stare and blink less causing static stare which increase chances in eye strain and headaches, while on the paper there is rapid and rhythmic eye movement which significantly causes less strain on the eyes. Reading printed text gives a reader time to reflect and imagine thus creating an overall different environment. Clifford Stoll also points out a negative effect of computer literacy on reading, he writes â€Å"As computers replace textbooks, students will become more computer literate and more book illiterate. They’ll be exploring virtual worlds, watching dancing triangles, downloading the latest Web sites. But they won’t be reading books† . When computers were invented there was an argument that this technology will sharpen intellectual skills and their development which in part is true through the use of various teaching software. However it seems that people spend more time on entertainment such as online chatting and playing games rather than taking an advantage of reading an intellectual book which is certainly intended to teach. Writing is another skill that produces human literacy. Writing on the computer changes the way of writing and the nature of the relationship between the writer and his writing. â€Å"Writing requires focused attention, and anything that diverts attention away from the process of writing (in particularly, thinking about what to write) is going to affect the quality of the work produced† . As mentioned by Armstrong and Casement writing requires focused attention and writing on the computer can be very distracting since online chatting software or other means of distractions are only a click away. Writing can be frustrating at times since organizing and expressing your thoughts is always difficult but it can be much harder to do using the computer due to distractions. Work written using the computer appears stilted and less considerable even though it is neater. However, the hand written work appears better organized, and has a better expression of thoughts as there is no distraction. There is an advantage to reviewing several pages at the same time when hand writing rather than on the computer where you can only see a page at once. People tend to focus more on how their work looks paying more attention to things such as font size and alignment instead of organizing their thoughts and what to write. Many people think that writing aids on the computer are good for their writing, but this is not true. As Jane Healy says, â€Å"Computers will not themselves teach writing skills† , computer ought to help in writing, but they will not teach those skills. Due to the word processing software a lot of students cannot write clearly and punctually nowadays. Clifford Stoll made a very good point about writing on the computer, he said â€Å"Instead, you type delete or undo. Your mistakes don’t teach you as well† . Since it is so easy to use spell-check that people tend to not pay attention to their mistakes and let word processing software do the job. Quite frequently the software automatically corrects mistakes while typing that a person does not realize he spelled the word incorrectly. The trend of online chatting and text messaging also has a huge impact on writing skills due to the use of short forms. Arithmetic is the third basic skill which develops human logic. Computer is not a way to develop logic because it only gives someone else’s logic. There are programs which solve problems and calculate answers, but they certainly teach nothing. Students find answers to problems online or in special software without understanding and manipulating the concepts. As the example of this problem, â€Å"The World Wide Web will tell me the volume of water behind Egypt’s Aswan Dam – a fact. Far more useful is to know how to calculate this number – a skill† . The use of calculators can greatly affect the understanding of numerical relationships since students go from numbers to answers skipping the fundamentals of understanding the concept. This is evident in â€Å"High Tech Heretic† by Clifford Stoll, â€Å"No surprise that students weaned on calculators can’t multiply in their heads. They can’t divide. They’re minimally cognizant of basic arithmetic† . Computer programs and calculators work against learning basic arithmetic and have a big effect on the arithmetic skills. Students are dependent on computer programs and calculators that without the use of this technology, their skills are very limited because they are taught on how to plug in the numbers to get answers without understanding the concept. As another example of a computer program Logo, â€Å"I see Logo as a means that can, in principle, be used by educators to support the development of new ways of thinking and learning. However, Logo does not in itself produce good learning anymore than paint produces good art. † . Logo does not fit in mathematical skills, because it is just a program that solves the problems. The program makes to believe that there is always answer to the problem-solving, where one click on the mouse will show you the answer. The very good point was in the book â€Å"The Cult of Information† by Theodore Roszak, he says â€Å"The problem that AI(Artificial Intelligence) has encountered in pursuing its inflated claim are illuminating, if for no other reason that they reveal the limitations of the mathematical mind when it strays beyond the boundaries of pure reason – or rather seeks to extend those boundaries into the real world† . Mathematics is a translation of problems into an abstract view where numerical solutions are converted into understanding which neither computer programs nor calculators can do. Nowadays, there is surprisingly a big amount of people that do not get the mathematical concepts and the logic of solutions. Computer literacy has a negative influence on the three basic skills. There is nothing taught using computers, except of a bad access of information, the manner of its presentation, manipulation, and the easy answers. Computer cannot impart information to a human. It can only changes human views to a life. â€Å"They dull the skills we use in everyday life† .

Reading Response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 29

Reading Response - Essay Example The documentary shows how movements are using women’s sexuality to advocate for women rights. The documentary relates with other texts, articles and movies that advocate for women rights using women’s sexuality. Arielle Loren article authored in 2011 and titled "is Beyonce the Face of Contemporary Feminism" is a compelling text that raises the urge of the reader to know more about feminism. Loren asserts that, young women, especially those in 20s showcase their different aspects of their womanhood , for example, being sexy without having an identity crisis. From this article, it becomes evident that powerful women could create movements that advocates for gender roles and end of discrimination. I realized that women could use their womanhood to achieve anything in the world. The author means the men would be powerless if the women withdraw certain advantages. One question raised is â€Å"What is the importance of woman’s sexuality in advocating for equal gender rights?† The other question is "When will women start embracing their womanhood and use it to their

Perception of The Vietnam War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Perception of The Vietnam War - Essay Example However, America’s involvement in Vietnam began long before the decision to send troops into the region. Near the beginning of 1950, the Ho Chi Minh regime in Vietnam had been recognized as the governing body by Communist China, and the Soviet Union3. Thus, the Truman administration was faced with the decision of whether to allow communism to extend throughout Vietnam, or to attempt to fight it. Three key sources will be examined as part of this discussion, which take different perspectives and approaches to discussion on the war. These are, Vietnam Wars 1945-1990, A Rumor of War and the movie Platoon. This article focuses on the perceptions of the Vietnam War as portrayed in these three sources and argues that to understand the way that the Vietnam War occurred, and its true cost, it is important to examine many different perspectives. The first aspect of this argument is to understand the way that Vietnam veterans were treated, and the attitudes of the country to war. Becaus e of the high controversy that surrounded the Vietnam War, many veterans felt ostracized and mistreated on their return to America. To help mitigate this, some books and movies, such as the ones being discussed in this article, attempted to portray the Vietnam War in a different light. Platoon attempted this by showing harsh reality of the war from the American perspective, without glamorizing the events through propaganda. The film tells the story of a young, naive soldier, Chris Taylor, who enters the war full of high hopes and the desire to serve his country. The director uses the experiences of Chris to enlighten the audience about the confusion that soldiers felt during the war, and to create a connection between the people that viewed the movie, and the soldiers. The approach of personalizing the soldier that was used in Platoon, was also used in the book A Rumor of War, which is a war memoir written by Philip Caputo about his own experiences in the war. Both of these sources take a highly personal and emotionally charged approach to explain the difficulties that soldiers faced during the war. In addition, this perspective helps viewers to sympathize with the soldiers, and to better understand the role that they played in the war. One of the biggest contentions about Vietnam is the politics, specifically, whether the United States should ever have become involved in the war. This approach is considered differently in the sources. In Platoon, Stone does not address the morality of the presence of Americans in Vietnam. His characters do discuss the desire to go home, it is not because of the morality of the war, but because of how bad it is for them. As Chris comments â€Å"Someone once wrote: â€Å"Hell is the impossibility of reason.† That’s what this place feels like. Hell.† Thus, for the soldiers, the politics of the war matter little; they are all involved in their own personal, and deadly, hell. In A Rumor of War, the author expr essly states â€Å"This book does not pretend to be a history. It has nothing to do with politics, power, strategy, influence, national interests or foreign policy†4. In contrast, The Vietnam Wars 1945-1990 focuses almost exclusively on the political aspect. This is indicated by the fact that the author opens the introduction with the question â€Å"Why are we in Vietnam?†5 This question suggests a very different focus to the book, one that is expanded on throughout the introduction and then the rest of the

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Technical managers and the law - Essay Example Employees get a formal workplace with increased freedom and better-working conditions. The customer has an advantage related to workplace laws in that products are made following the set standards with no unnecessary advertisements and misrepresentation of facts to misguide the customers (BizFilings, 2012). Some of the negatives related to workplace laws are the costs associated with legal action in response to these rules. The management, the government, the employees, and the courts suffer significant costs when workplace cases touch on them. The exemption from liability by the workplace laws is another negative that affects most parties. Employees sign laws that limit the extent of their working conditions and impose strict measures regarding the functioning of the business. The management is required by law to establish various provisions relating to the employees and their families at the expense of the company’s working hours. Employees can also sue the business for the mistakes of an individual member of the management team and receive financial compensation at the expense of the company (Root III, 2015). Yes, I have witnessed an ethical workplace law. The management was imposing strict clothing requirements for women while not touching on the requirements for men. The management was using the women in a discriminatory manner to increase their customer base. Women were required to wear short dresses and tightly fitting clothing in a move aimed at increasing male clients. BizFilings. (2012, May 24). Workplace rules protect your business and maintain a positive employee environment. Retrieved from http://www.bizfilings.com/toolkit/sbg/office-hr/managing-the-workplace/workplace-rules.aspx Root III, G. N. (2015). Advantages & disadvantages of ethical compliance in an organization | Chron.com. Retrieved from

Information Systems and Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

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Financial management of channel tunnel Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Financial management of channel tunnel - Essay Example Eurotunnel was mainly financed by bank loans from a large consortium of over 100 European and Japanese banks. Eurotunnel also raised substantial amounts of equity in four public offerings during the construction of the Tunnel, mainly from small shareholders in France and the UK. The marketing of the shares was pitched towards small shareholders. In the end, the Channel Tunnel costs about 10 billion to build (compared with initial estimates 8 years earlier of about 5 billion). Of this 10 billion, 8 billion was raised in debt from banks and 2 billion in equity. The last fund-raising exercise took place in May 1994, just 2 months before the new services were to begin, when 800 million of new equity and 700 million of debt was raised to get the project finished and up and running. By then the banks and many shareholders were very nervous about the costs and delays to the project and the prospects of recouping their investment. Eurotunnel shareholders have seen their investment crumble by around 90% since the company went public in 1987. Construction costs spiralled and revenues fell short of forecasts, leaving the company struggling with debts of 9bn (6.4bn). Shareholders have never been paid a dividend. The UK government has already made it clear that there can be no question of any public money for Eurotunnel, and there is no change in that position. Eurotunnel shareholders are mostly French private investors. But it said it could not afford to do so without help in cutting the burden of repayments on debts which it ran up during vast cost over-runs on the tunnel's construction in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Euro tunnel begs for rescue plan (Clark, 2004)2. 2. Andrew, Clark, (2004) Guardian, retrieved from the website on 19th Feb' 06. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/) Financial Management of Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) The Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) is the largest civil engineering infrastructure project currently being constructed in the UK with a budget of 5.3 billion (S$14.8 billion). The Project is split into two sections. Section 1, 70 km long from the Channel Tunnel to Fawkham Junction in North Kent is scheduled for completion and operational running of Eurostar trains by September 2003. Section 2, 39 km long, completes the Link from North Kent to St Pancras in central London and is programmed to be operational in January 2007 (Davies and Joy, 2004)2. The London & Continental Railways Limited (LCR) was awarded the contract to build the CTRL in February 1996 and to run the British arm of the Eurostar International train service (Eurostar UK). Initially, LCR proposed to fund the construction of the link from private finance through debt and equity raised on the back of future revenue from Eurostar, UK and from direct government grants. This overtly optimistic plan backfired and LCR abandoned its plans to raise private finance and approached the Department for additional grants in return for a share of future profits. After reviewing the options, the department of transport decided to restructure the existing deal with LCR. In 1998, the government set out the principles of a negotiated restructuring which enhanced public

Clinical Examination Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Clinical Examination - Case Study Example History: This is a 56-year-old male who works in a travel agency. He is a smoker for years, and he is still smoking about 10 cigarettes per day. In this presentation, he started feeling breathless with his usual activity about a week back. He stays near his office, and normally he goes to work on foot. Previously he was able to walk to his office in a slower pace without much of discomfort; however, for the last 1 week or so, he is trouble covering this small distance without taking rest midway, and the distance for taking rest is decreasing day by day. Although with rest, the breathlessness seems to wane down, he is worried due to the fact that his feet are swollen, and this time the grade of swelling is much more than earlier ever. EHehHe has noted also that he is coughing a little with expulsion rusty sputum of small quantities. His sleep is disturbed since he can no longer sleep on the bed with usual two pillows that he uses, and of late, he needs to use 4 pillows which makes him reclined on the bed. Over the top of that he can sense his heart is beating faster, and last night he had to wake up from whatever sleep he was having with sudden episodes of acute breathlessness just after midnight. He is feeling fatigued, tired, and exhausted. His appetite is poor, he is having a bloated sensation in the abdomen, and heaviness in the upper part of his abdomen, more on the right hand side. From his previous visit, the doctor asked him to quit smoking, and he did not comply, and now he knows that like previous such episodes, he is going to have another now, and so he decided to visit the clinic. He has past history of congestive heart failure with ischaemic heart disease. He has no evident drug allergies or drug interactions. He is on diuretic and digitalis. He has associated hypertension. On interrogation, there is no suggestive history of weight loss or blood loss; however, he has gained some weight. Clinical Examination: On inspection, he was obviously with discomfort, and respiratory distress was obvious with nasal flaring, retraction of the suprasternal notch, moderate use of accessory muscles of respiration, and intercostal retraction. His vital sign examination revealed him to be puffy, with pallor. There was no cyanosis, jaundice, but he had grade 2 clubbing and +4 pitting edema in both the ankles and pretibial regions. There was no cervical lymphadenopathy, thyroid was not palpable, face was puffy. On examination, he had harsh vesicular breath sounds throughout the lung fields, with features of laboured breathing at a rate of 22 per minute at rest. The lungs were otherwise clear except at the bases, there were fine moist rales. There was no dullness to percussion in any lung area including the bases. His pulse rate was 92, blood pressure 100/92, peripheral pulses were equal volume on both the sides with carotids being palpably normal. The jugular venous pressure was elevat ed in clinical examination with distention up to 12 cm from the suprasternal notch on a 45 degree recline on the examination couch. The apical pulse was located in the seventh intercostal space 1.5 cm lateral to the left midclavicular line, and with close inspection, the apical impulse was visible. There was obviously evidence of cardiomegaly, but it was difficult to discern whether there was any

Affirmative Action Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Affirmative Action - Research Paper Example This would remind everyone of the fact that change has been taking place and it will be more progressive and imminent in the future. Taking into account the idea of affirmative action, there is a strong point to consider that it could be a form of reverse discrimination because for instance, it could limit employer’s freedom to hire employees on the basis of race and sex (Rabe 113). This point is a bit clearer because affirmative action is historically more associated with the workplace, but its application can span into a larger field (Erasmus and Schenk 105). However, affirmative action does not mean giving preferences to any group or people but it only ensures giving equal opportunity for everyone, disregarding the issue of sex and race (Shaw and Lee 561). Furthermore, affirmative action only makes sure of active steps for employers to ensure equal employment opportunity for everyone (Dempsey and Forst 188). Original belief So here is one perspective of affirmative action t hat needs to be critically considered. It is a form of giving equal opportunity for everyone, but on the basis of employment activity, employers always have the choice to select and employ employment criteria for specific jobs or tasks with associated functions and responsibilities. So the original belief of the proponent concerning affirmative action is the thought that it could be a form of reverse discrimination. This is contradictory to what Shaw and Lee pointed out as a corresponding myth associated with affirmative action. Affirmative action would turn out as a way of neutralizing everything, but the point may be a bit more different when applied in specific context. Hiring women for instance on a particular job is definitely covered by affirmative action in order to ensure equality. However, one should also try to take a look at it on the context of employers’ perspective. Employers have also the freedom to select the best employees suitable to the continuation of thei r quality operation. However, some may try to look at this approach as highly discriminatory especially on the part of employers who are employing the working concept of affirmative action. So at this point, a clear policy is necessary, creating a balance within the context of employment. There are some requirements in the company that would require competency, skills and even other related factors and some of them may essentially point out to the concept of discrimination. However, there are certainly companies that would only require men rather than women for the purpose of ensuring continuation of quality, standard and efficient operation. The problem with employing affirmative action would be to consider these companies for discrimination and even passing on the idea of being able to justify things for the sole purpose of ensuring their profitability. Changed stand Based on the actual observation, policies concerning inequality are changing and improving. For this reason, affirm ative action is consistently moving forward to its refinement for the purpose of serving everyone with all equality. So at this point, it has become clearer that affirmative action’s main intention is to only promote equality for everyone as stated by Shaw and Lee. However, some policies on the other hand may try to reinforce inequality (Shaw and Lee 562). For this reason, affirmative action is trying to make sure everyone is embracing the policies associated with it that would only promote maximum level of equality for all, and this is evident on how it stands for no one but for everybody’

Important challenge facing management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Important challenge facing management - Essay Example Other times the employee’s pay is low with minimal benefits. This could greatly affect an employee. Some employees also lack the necessary skills and qualifications required for the job. There are many ways to address the issue of employee performance. Proper pay and remuneration of employees will motivate them to work harder and more effectively. It is also important to have effective screening processes to ensure that the ideal worker gets the job, which they are most comfortable doing. This ensures that one excels in their area of specialization (DuBrin, 2009). It is also necessary to set a good example for the employees. They need motivation by the leadership of the organization, and this should inspire them to work harder. One should also engage in creative discussion with the employees so that they can freely voice their opinions concerning work and the workplace environment. This will help tackle the issue of employee

Upton Hall School Essay Example for Free

Upton Hall School Essay The purpose of a trailer is to persuade the viewers to go and see a specific film that it is advertising. A trailer is an overview of a forthcoming movie due for release at a cinema, DVD or video, which attracts the audiences attention. The trailer for Moulin Rouge is targeted at audiences over 12. This age certificate is set by the British Film Censors Board. It persuades people to go to watch the film as awarding actors, actresses and film director are in this movie. For example Baz Luhrmann the director has directed many other accredited movies including Rome Juliet and Strictly Ballroom, therefore Moulin Rouge will appeal to Baz Luhrmann fans (synergy). The genre of this film is a musical love story set in late 19th century Paris at the Moulin Rouge, meaning it is a fast and exciting trailer which creates tension and suspense for the audience. The main characters in the trailer for Moulin Rouge are Satine (played by Nicole Kidman) the courtesan and main protagonist for both the passionate filled playwright Christian (played by Ewer McGregor) and the lovelorn Duke (played by Richard Roxburgh). Another character shown in the film is Zidler (played by Jim Broadbent) the master of ceremonies at the Moulin Rouge. Besides the main characters of the film, also present in the trailer are performances by dancers, jugglers, and acrobats at the fabulous sensuous nightclub Moulin Rouge. The Moulin Rouge trailer shows the films potential through the film language used. It uses sound, lighting, colour, editing and camera movements to its advantage so the audience wants to see this film. This moving romantic journey is set in and around the mesmerising extravagance of the Moulin Rouge. It is set in the late 19th century in Paris, a time of change and excitement. The director has chosen to set this film in Paris as it compliments the story. Paris is known as the city of love and romance paralleling the theme of the film. By setting the movie in a familiar place it adds to the affect as the audience can relate more to the story. In the 5th shot of the trailer it shows a view of Paris including the Eiffel Tower and the Moulin Rouge. This allows the audience to be able to become more involved in this trailer by this use of clever imagery of the city. This persuades the viewers to go and see the film. Baz Luhrmann, the director has chosen to use Mise-En-Scene (costume, hair and make-up) as a major part of this film all of which are, bright, colourful and eye-catching drawing the audience to the excitement and passion of the Moulin Rouge. Each character has their own individual style which represents their personality and beliefs; Satines period costume hair and make-up are very sensuous and revealing drawing the audience to her. The colours used in the costumes are all dramatic e. g. red, black and purple which convey a strong and mysterious character. These colourful bright costumes are set against Satines pale translucent and vibrant red hair, giving her a very dramatic appearance. In contrast Christians costumes are very plain ordinary clothes of the late 19th century period. The Duke although wearing similar clothes to Christian his clothes look more expensive and he wears a top hat. He has waxed moustache and like the archetype villain, he strokes his moustache when he is being particularly evil and malvolant. By using the difference costumes for each character the audience quickly develop relative feelings and perceptions towards them. This is a very persuasive piece of film language the director has chosen to use, as this makes the audience more interested in the film trailer so they will want to go and see the whole movie. Another part of Mise-En-Scene in this rapid montage of shots is how props are used to persuade the audience to watch the movie. Trapeze swings and dance choreography are all part of props which are used to interest the audience, conveying the excitement and energy inside the exotic nightclub. In the 13th frame Satine is suspended on a trapeze swing as she performs to the men below. As she performs not only does this create excitement and enjoyment for the male audience below but it creates tension and excitement for the audience watching the trailer arousing their interest. This use of props are used to persuade the viewers to go and see the full blockbuster hit. The film maker has chosen to use body language to create relationships between characters. Characters who like one another have their bodies closer together, for example Satine and Christian are lovers meaning their bodies are closer and the shot is more intimate. The audience are made to feel extra comfortable around the couple where as between the Duke and Christian this shot is more aggressive and powerful. Satine is very confident when performing and when she is with Christian but when she is featuring in a shot with the Duke, she is timid and turns away from him. This shows to the audience her true feelings about the Duke. Christian is less confident and timid but as the trailer continues his confidence grows, as his love for Satine develops. The audience can develop relationships with characters depending on the characters actions. If relationships between the audience and characters can be formed in a 3 minute trailer, it is more likely the audience will be persuaded to go and watch Moulin Rouge at the cinema. The lighting and colour the director has chosen to use is very atmospheric and creates a feeling of tension and excitement for the viewer throughout this trailer. The lighting and colour reflects the characters personality, action and feelings, which influence the audience into a feeling a certain way. The trailer consists of around 120 shots all of which are in colour. Almost all the shots are set inside the Moulin Rouge where the lighting is from above showing down on those people below. This lighting effect is known as high key lighting. The Duke is always set in low key lighting as this creates harsh shadows over his face. In one frame in particular part of the Dukes face is in shadow whilst the other half of his face is in a spotlight. By using harsh lighting when the Duke is in the frame it adds to the effect and conveys to the audience he is an evil and dangerous character. When Satine and Christian are together lighting is soft and intimate to reflect their loving feelings for each other. High key lighting is used here as it looks natural. This is achieved with filter lighting. The lighting conveys a loving and caring mood compared to the evil and aggressive Duke. In trailer there are two main types of sounds; diegetic and non-diegetic sound. Diegetic is sound which is part of the film world which the characters can hear. This can be in the form of dialogue, music, or sound effects which come from a source in the movie. This can occur on or off screen: the audience can see what is making the sound (on screen) or they cannot (off screen). Non-diegetic is sound which the characters cannot hear. This can be background music, voice over or narrative. Only the audience hear non-diegetic sound. In this trailer for Moulin Rouge diegetic sound is used; dialogue between characters, gun shot and music. In the 30 second shot Satine is singing in the play but then this diegetic sound turns into non-diegetic sound, as different frames continue whilst the singing (which the characters in this frame cannot hear) continues. This is what makes the trailer more unique and appealing for the viewers. Another example of diegetic sound used very often in the Moulin Rouge trailer is dialogue between character for e. g. Satine and Zidler appear on one shot together where they are discussing the Duke. Having a variation of diegetic sounds persuades the audience to go and see the film. Non-diegetic sound is used in the Moulin Rouge trailers. Examples of non-diegetic sound are the narrator, Christian (the second main narrator) and background music, all of which are sounds the characters do not hear. Non-diegetic sound is sound which the viewers do not recognise as part of the film world. In this case popular non-diegetic sounds are the narrators. Christian is a character in the film but he is also a main narrator. He occasionally speaks over shots giving the audience a short synopsis of the storyline to arouse their interest, so they will want to go and watch the full length feature film. An example of narrative speech Christian says is this story is about love. at the Moulin Rouge.

Alfred Hitchcock Impact on Society

Alfred Hitchcock Impact on Society Whenever people desire to watch a movie, they have thousands, if not millions of options to choose from. The first movie dates back as far as the late 1800s and since then, movies have become one of the most popular forms of entertainment and art worldwide. This is all thanks to the people who create movies for a living, people known as directors. Each director differs in his or her own way, leaving a â€Å"thumbprint,† or directing style on all of his or her films. Many directors today try to mimic the thumbprints of previous minds from the early 1900s in order to become as successful and legendary as they were. Names such as Orson Welles, Stanley Kubrick, Charlie Chaplin, and Woody Allen still live on for their groundbreaking contributions to the history of cinema. However, one of the most famous directors to have lived is none other than Alfred Hitchcock, whose career spanned more than fifty years and helped define an entire movie genre. The film industry has been greatly i nfluenced by the British director Alfred Hitchcock, whose works employed techniques to instill suspense, reoccurring plot devices, and innovative cinematography. Throughout the world, Alfred Hitchcock is known as the Master of Suspense for his special techniques he incorporated in his films. One thing he always kept in mind was how the audience would react to his movies, because without the audience he considered his movie incomplete. Hitchcock says there is no satisfaction in having a large auditorium but with only one seat. It is the collective audience and their reaction that gives interest to your endeavor (Alfred Hitchcock 10). His goal was to take the audience on a journey to escape the reality of their own lives and, the more fun they have, the quicker they will come back begging for more (Bays 1). Keeping the mentality of the average moviegoer in mind, Hitchcock only used straightforward plotlines which could easily be followed. When reviewing a film script, he removed anything that was considered boring or irrelevant to the story. What is drama, Hitchcock states, but life with the dull bits cut out (Bays 4). Using this method, the audience can maintain their interest in the movie and suspense can be delivered more efficiently. Vital to any Hitchcockian film is what is known as information. Information is something the characters do not see, yet the audience does. In most cases, the information is usually dangerous and is presented in the opening of a scene. As the scene continues, the audience is reminded of that information which could jeopardize the ignorant characters. For example, in the 1976 movie Family Plot, the audience sees a shot of a car leaking brake fluid, yet the characters in the car have no idea this is happening. Watching scenes with information build up tension, and it is one of the most popular techniques Hitchcock has made famous. Surprisingly, one would not think to include anything comical in a thriller movie, yet Hitchcock believed suspense doesnt have any value if its not balanced by humor (Bays 1). By using contrasted characters and settings, it made his films more amusing to watch. In order to intensify the audiences anxiety, Hitchcock utilized understatement, which was a means of turning the attention of an action scene to insignificant and petty character features or actions. In Rear Window, the protagonist Jeff tries to stall the villains attack by blinding him with flashing camera bulbs. The great effort the villain uses to regain his vision is amusing, yet at the same time is suspenseful because of his steady and eerie approach. Hitchcock also frequently inserted a character which mocked a serious matter such as murder. This is usually a sign of foreshadowing, as seen in Rear Window when Stella (the nurse) laughs about the idea of a killing in an adjacent apartment. Irony is also evident in Hitchcoc ks films because he places characters in terrible situations against bright and joyful settings. He thought the more happy-go lucky the setting, the greater kick you get from the sudden introduction of drama (Bays 3). An excellent example of irony is in The Trouble With Harry, where a dead body appears with a beautiful fall scenery. The final suspense method is none other than the twist ending. Hitchcock never wanted his films to have a predictable ending because it would destroy the entire point of putting suspense into the audience. In the key moment of Saboteur, Barry Kane corners Fry, the real saboteur, on the top of the Statue of Liberty. Although one would normally think the scene ends with Fry being captured, Kanes sudden talking actually startles the saboteur, which causes him to tumble over the railing and plunge to his death.   Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   When watching several Hitchcock films, it may be noticed that certain objects and themes have a tendency to appear in the plot over and over again. These plot devices are an important quality because they link the British to the American period, because their recurrence is particularly obstinate, and because they seem taken in conjunction, central to the thematic complex of Hitchcocks total oeuvre (Wood 2). The three themes which are profoundly examined are the wrongly accused man, the female culprit, and the alluring villain. The accused man is usually the central character who is blamed for something he did not do, and often experiences the double chase. The double chase is the hero is pursued by the police and in turn pursues (or seeks to unmask) the actual villain (Wood 2). The female culprit is present in Sabotage, Notorious, Vertigo, Dial M for Murder and many more Hitchcock films. Interestingly, the villains in his films are considered to be some of the most intriguing charact ers to observe. They all possess one or more of the following characteristics: a) Sexual perversity or ambiguityb) Fascist connotationsc) The subtle associations of the villain with the devild) Closely connected with these characteristics is a striking and ambiguous fusion of power and impotence operating on both the sexual and non-sexual levels (Wood 2). Norman Bates in Psycho is one of the most famous sociopaths in cinema history.  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚      Arguably one of Hitchcocks greatest contributions to the film industry is the MacGuffin. Yet the MacGuffin is, in truth, one minute entity. Its definition describes it as a device or plot element that catches the viewers attention or drives the plot. It is generally something that every character is concerned with (Alfred Hitchcock Film Techniques 1). Primarily, the MacGuffin is something that the majority of the film revolves around, yet in the end its importance diminishes and can sometimes be forgotten. Examples of MacGuffins include the government secrets in North by Northwest, the uranium in Notorious, and the stolen 40,000 dollars in Psycho. These MacGuffins keep the audience spinning in a certain direction while the real action was getting ready to come in from the side. A true MacGuffin will get you where you need to go but never overshadow what is ultimately there (Alfred Hitchcock Film Techniques 2).  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   Although Hitchcock was greatly identified for his suspense techniques, his movies would not be complete without their creative cinematography. He was excellent at knowing what to film, when to cut to a different shot, and how to edit a scene after it was completed. Because Hitchcock began directing silent films, he liked to work purely in the visual and not rely upon words at all (Alfred Hitchcock 2). Camera angles make a great contribution to the quality of Hitchcocks films. He incorporates his â€Å"theory of proximity to plan out each scene† (Bays 2). Essentially, this means a certain scene would call for a certain camera shot in order to change its emotion. The closer the camera is to the characters eyes, the more emotion the audience could see. If Hitchcock wanted to increase suspense, he would use a high angle shot above the characters head. In a way, the camera also acts as a human eye because it gazes around objects as if it truly contained curiosity. His idea of personifying the camera remains constant because when films did not have sound, visuals were the only form of communicating with the audience. In order to  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚     Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   Hitchcock always welcomed innovation in film technology, but in the 1950s he reveled in it (Silet 2). As a result of combining these three factors, Alfred Hitchcocks movies will forever be considered some of the most revolutionary works of art known to man. It is also not an exaggeration to claim that his films elevated the medium as a form of art in the minds of the public in ways that exceeded the work of more self-consciously artistic directors. And that is not a bad accomplishment for a director who set out merely to entertain (Silet 3).  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚     Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  

What Is Systematic Literature Review Information Technology Essay

What Is Systematic Literature Review Information Technology Essay Empirical software engineering requires the scientific employment of qualitative and quantitative data to realize and improve the software product and process. To conduct empirical studies, the process steering steps to be performed and research strategy are very essential elements [11]. Apart from the traditional method such as experiments, case studies and surveys, the systematic literature review, also called systematic review, is another strategy becoming normally used in empirical software engineering in order to identify relevant empirical studies and combine results to provide reliable information for researcher. This paper aims to provide the general idea of systematic review, process to conduct the review according to the existing guideline and suggestion to improve the guideline. The paper is structured as follows: section 1 gives an introduction to systematic review, explains the reason why systematic review is needed, discusses the differences from narrative review and pros and cons of systematic review. Section 2 explains process of conducting systematic review in detail according to Kitchenham ¿Ã‚ ½s guideline [1]. Since there are still some restrictions and gaps could be improved in the guideline, section 3 described those limitations and provides suggestions for improvement. Lastly, section 4 presents some concluding remarks. 1.1 What is Systematic literature review? Systematic literature review is the methodology that researchers use to gather and evaluate available information to specific research topic. The use of a SLR is mainly proposed to provide an unbiased and systematic approach to answer a structural question which focuses to research topics. The studies or articles that used for systematic review are called primary studies, the systematic review itself is considered as the secondary studies. The review process is very formal with strict procedures and sequence. Each step of the process must be well-defined and can be reproducible by other researchers. The selection criterion of primary studies and type of acceptable information are also defined before hand and thoroughly reviews. To identify the primary studies is done by the use of searching technique. All search methodology and selection criteria are transparent for the reader by described in review protocol. Thus, this means other readers can replicate this review in systematic way. Finally, selected primary studies are analyzed and aggregated, in which forming a systematic review for answer the research questions. 1.2 Why Systematic reviews is needed? Originally, systematic review has been introduced in medical and clinical field as a way to help clinical practitioner finds the answer to their question relating to their practices. Before systematic review was implemented, researchers have difficulties in several areas that traditional review cannot satisfy their need. There is no structural way to review primary studies and to ensure that all related evidence has been evaluated. To summarize and evaluate the knowledge from primary studies is very difficult and also because each study may use different design and organization of information may be vary. The result from traditional review is difficult to evaluation if there is conflicting result. Many times, reader of the review have some doubt to the quality of researchers ¿Ã‚ ½ work since the review method is not clear and explicit. In addition, due to broad scope of traditional review, the result of the review can easily be bias as the selection choice by reviewer may not be co nsistency without well defined guideline of the selection. Thus, systematic review methodology has been introduced to address those difficulties. Systematic review process have increasingly recognized and replaced traditional reviews in many academic fields including software engineering discipline since it provides effective way to summarize and determine research result to help those researchers in their studies. The researchers can utilize systematic review to design new studies that previously difficult in the past with traditional review. With systematic review, it helps reducing reviewer bias since it uses objective and reproducible criteria for primary sources selection with strict assessment of the resources. It also help s researchers to combine result from several small studies in which can help them conclude more precise and dependable result. Moreover, it assists in identifying gap that researchers could make further investigation [1]. 1.3 Differences between Systematic and Unsystematic review There are several key differences between systematic review and unsystematic review or traditional review. This topic will discuss each difference of these two types of review. First, the search for primary studies of these two reviews is widely different, with traditional review, the scope of primary studies search usually have wide range of coverage with no strict rules how to search. In contrast, the search of primary studies in systematic review is very focused on the topics, researchers need to identify question and predefined search rules that can be reproducible by other researchers. Second, the primary sources selection process is also different. With systematic review, selection process has to be predetermined; researchers must decide which type of resources is acceptable for the review so that the selection process is explicit and transparent, and then select primary sources with these strict rules and criteria. Unlike systematic review, traditional review selection process does not have specified criteria on the selection process and dependent on researchers experiences to select the primary sources. Finally, the evaluation method of systematic review followed strict evaluation rules to evaluate each of selected primary sources while traditional review is variable based on individual researchers methods. 1.4 Advantages and disadvantages of Systematic review Though there are several advantages that researchers can utilize systematic review method in their studies, there are still some disadvantages remain comparing with traditional review. Researchers will need to aware and select review type that is appropriate with their situation. This topic will discuss both advantage and disadvantage of systematic review. Advantages  ¿Ã‚ ½ One of the major advantages of the systematic review is that it improves the precision and completeness of the result. Because systematic review process uses well-defined method to search and select for primary studies in which will result in less biased sources comparing with traditional review  ¿Ã‚ ½ The systematic review process helps researchers to identify the consistency or inconsistency of the result from its selection process. If result is consistent, it provides strong answer to researchers ¿Ã‚ ½ questions. If not, researchers can identify the gap and then study the variance. This benefit will be difficult to identify through traditional review process.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Systematic review can apply statistic technique (meta-analysis) to help combining data from more than one primary studies which will give more precise answer to researchers question than using only one primary study. With traditional review, it will be more difficult for researchers to compare and conclude the result from several primary studies to answer their focus question. Disadvantages  ¿Ã‚ ½ Because of its limited focus and predefined method, as it is the advantage of systematic review, it can be disadvantage in some cases. Since the process does not allow comprehensive coverage of the evidence to answer research topics. Thus, researchers must carefully determine their condition and select technique appropriately. In general, traditional review is more useful if researchers want to obtain more broad perspective of their research topic comparing to systematic review.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Traditional review is more useful if the researched topic is the brand new topic, since not much primary studies will be available. Traditional review will have more information coverage than systematic review.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Due to its strictness in process and methodology, systematic review process usually needs more time and effort from researchers to conduct the review. 2. Systematic review guidelines As first introduced in medical research studied, systematic review has also been brought to software engineering field by B. Kitchenham (2004). Since software engineering research method is less strict and less experimented-dependent comparing with medical studies, the revision is needed in the process of systematic review to adapt to the characteristic of software engineering studies. The guidelines emphasize the distinction to medical systematic reviews and guide the software engineering researchers how to perform a systematic review. There are several activities involves in the systematic literature review and they are specified in the guideline. In this section, I refer to the guideline suggested by Kitchenham [1] which describes a systematic review process into three main phases: Planning the review, Conducting the review and Document or Reporting or the review. Each of them consists of order of stages. The implementation each phase involves iteration, feedback and refinement in order to move to next stage and finally reach satisfactory outcomes as illustrated in figure 1. Please note that there are some more optional stages described in the guideline. But I only refer to the stages that are essential to be performed Fig. 1. Phases in Systematic Review 2.1 Planning the review In the first phase of the review, the final outcome which would be produced is a review protocol. It is considered as a plan which defines the research questions that will be addressed by the review and basic review procedures. The planning phase consists of the following stages:  ¿Ã‚ ½ Identification of the need for a review  ¿Ã‚ ½ Specifying the research question(s)  ¿Ã‚ ½ Developing a review protocol  ¿Ã‚ ½ Evaluating the review protocol 2.1.1 Identification of the need for a review Before conducting the review, the reasons behind why the systematic review could answer the research questions or could be useful for further must be given. Originally, the need for a systematic review initiates from the demand to fairly sum up all existing information about some phenomenon. Probably the reasons are to represent more general conclusions instead of just obtaining from individual studies, or may be carried out to lead up to further research activities. In particular, Kitchenham notes that the researchers should first make sure that a new systematic review is really needed before starting the review. And they should consider finding any existing systematic reviews relates to the topic of interest. It could be possible that they do not even need a new systematic review if there existed. Besides, the already published systematic review could help construct a protocol. 2.1.2 Specifying the research question(s) This is the most important stage of the systematic review process. The research questions can be seen as a goal of the review since they drive the whole process of systematic review. To be in detail, the search process is conducted with the aim to classify primary studies that discuss the research questions. Furthermore, the data extraction and analysis processes must extract and synthesize the data in such a way to answer the questions. Kitchenham notes that asking the right question is the important issue in any systematic review. She provides some guideline questions to help in construct the correct questions. She also discusses the characteristics and various types of research questions which are proper for the systematic review. For detailed structure of the questions, the PICOC (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcomes, and Context) criteria are used to define the review question elements. Besides, Kitchenham discusses about the different kinds of experimental designs to derive the acceptable studies. In particular, she argues whether studies based on primary studies of one particular type should be accepted for systematic reviews in software engineering. 2.1.3 Developing a review protocol A review protocol is a concrete plan which details the process and strategy to perform a particular systematic review. A pre-defined protocol is crucial to minimize the possibility of researchers ¿Ã‚ ½ bias. The protocol contains all the essentials of the review and some other planning information. The elements described in protocol are: background, research questions, planned search strategy, study selection criteria and procedures, quality assessment criteria and procedures, data extraction strategy, data synthesis strategy and project timetable. Kitchenham suggests that the review protocol should be piloted during its development to find mistakes in the data search procedures, in which it can help to improve the review methodology. 2.1.4 Evaluating the review protocol Because the review protocol is significant for the systematic review, it should be evaluated before execution. The evaluation procedures are done by asking researchers or experts to review the protocol and the agreements among all reviewers must be reached. 2.2 conducting the review This is the execution phase which follows the plan defined in the review protocol. The final outcomes of the systematic review are generated in the end of this phase. To conduct the review, the subsequent stages must be carried out:  ¿Ã‚ ½ Identification of research  ¿Ã‚ ½ Selection of primary studies  ¿Ã‚ ½ Study quality assessment  ¿Ã‚ ½ Data extraction and monitoring  ¿Ã‚ ½ Data synthesis 2.2.1 Identification of research Since the systematic review aims to find all possible of available publications relating to the research question and make conclusion in a fair manner, how to generate the search strategy and publication bias are the critical issues that Kitchenham discusses in this stage. The search strategies defined in the protocol are used to discover the relevant publications. In general, the search strategies are done iteratively by trial searches using different combinations of search terms and in consultations with relevant experts. Typically the search term can be obtained by separate the research questions into individual elements base on PICOC criteria and then create a list of synonyms and relevant words. Another good way to derive the search term is by analyzing the heading of journals. Kitchenham notes that the search strategy should be designed to detect articles that report pessimistic results in order to illustrate researchers ¿Ã‚ ½ bias. Other major concerns regarding the systemat ic review are the completeness and repeatability. Kitchenham suggests that the review process must be transparent and replicable. By providing sufficient detail when documenting the review, this enables the study to be replicable and allows the external reader to evaluate the search terms. And the search terms should be documented properly. 2.2.2 Selection of primary studies The purpose of the selection process is to assess if obtained primary studies have any actual relevance to the research questions. So that we can identify ones that provide direct information for the review. This process should proceed according to the plan defined in the protocol. Kitchenham explains that the study selection is a multistage process. Firstly, base on the research questions, the researchers should define the study criteria to point out the direct relevant studies. These inclusion and exclusion criteria should be piloted to ensure the reliability and correctness when interpreted. The exclusion criteria should be applied first in order to exclude any irrelevant studies. Kitchenham suggests keeping the record of excluded publication with the reason of exclusion just after all unrelated publications have been filtered out. Then the inclusion criteria are applied to remaining studies. Kitchenham also mentions about how to increase trustworthiness of the process in an attem pt to decrease the possibility of bias. 2.2.3 Study quality assessment After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria to select the primary studies, the quality of primary studies is also considered significantly important to be assessed. Kitchenham describes how important of the quality assessment for example, to allow researchers to evaluate differences in the study, and to weight the importance of each study when synthesize the results. She also discusses about the hierarchy of the evidence described in medical guidelines. Base on their assumption, this hierarchy can be used to control the sorts of study included in the systematic review and it is a ground for the initial quality evaluation. To explain, the top of the hierarchy is the evidence from systematic reviews and controlled experiments, which is believed in the medical area that it is more reliable than the bottom level evidence such as the evidence from expert opinions. However, this argument was later proved that it is not always true. After that, Kitchenham describes about how to defi ne and to use the quality instruments. Basically, checklists are used to assess quality in detailed. To construct the checklists, factors that could bias study results are considered. 2.2.4 Data extraction and monitoring Once the primary studies have been selected, the next step is to extract the relevant information. The extraction process should be performed as defined in review protocol which will describe the extraction forms used to collect the data from the filtered primary studies and also the procedure of data extraction. Kitchenham discusses what should be contained in the data collection form. Not only the information to facilitate the answer of review question and the criteria for quality assessment are included, but also the basic information such as name of reviewer, date of performing data extraction and publication detail must be given. Importantly, the extraction form must be piloted before implementation. Kitchenham suggests that there should be two or more researchers perform data extraction independently. And they have to set agreements either by consensus or by using additional researchers to resolve disagreements on the data. If each paper cannot be assessed by at least two resea rchers, some checking technique, such as random sample of primary studies, has to be employed to ensure that the data are extracted correctly. Monitoring data is also important to perform in this stage. Kitchenham notes that multiple publications of the same study should not be contained in the systematic review since it can lead to bias. It is sometimes needed to contact the authors to make sure if those publications refer to the same study or not and also to derive the required information if the data obtained from studies are missing or we need some unpublished data. 2.2.5 Data synthesis Data synthesis aims to gather and summarize the data extracted from selected primary studies. Same as other stages, the activities to be performed should be defined in the review protocol. Base on Kitchenham research on various options of data combination from several types of studies, sensitivity analyses is suggested to perform to find out the impacts on the synthesis results where some studies are higher quality than others. 2.3 Reporting the review The purpose of this last phase is to write the results of the review. The guidelines explain there are three main stages in this phase  ¿Ã‚ ½ Specifying dissemination mechanism  ¿Ã‚ ½ Formatting the main report  ¿Ã‚ ½ Evaluating the report The final report does not only include the answers to the intended research questions, but it also need to specify the dissemination strategy so that the researcher can expose the result efficiently. Kitchenham presents seven mechanisms to disseminate the systematic reviews results. They are: a) Academic journals and/or conferences b) Practitioner-oriented journals and/or magazines c) Press Releases to the popular and specialist press d) Short summary leaflets e) Posters f) Web pages g) Direct communication to affected bodies Basically, the results are reported in two formulas: in a technical report or in a conference or journal paper. After writing the reports, it is necessary to perform evaluation. Kitchenham discusses evaluation technique for each type of reports. One effective technique is organizing a peer review. The structure and contents of report papers can be seen in the Kitchenham ¿Ã‚ ½s guideline [1]. 3. Improvement suggestions on Systematic review guidelines This section aims to present limitations and to provide suggestion for improvement on each step of the systematic review guidelines on software engineering. The recommendations are collected base on lessons learned and experiences from various articles which utilize systematic review as literature review technique. The study reported in [7] reveals that one of the significant problems of publishing low quality systematic review is that some people conducting systematic review do not understand exactly what systematic review is and how to perform it. So, they end up with having no obvious research questions, explicit search strategy and so on. The subsequent suggestions should be always kept in mind before starting and while performing the systematic review  ¿Ã‚ ½ Thoroughly review and study the guidelines, e.g. Kitchenham ¿Ã‚ ½s guidelines.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Review several SLR examples and experiences to help you understand the process.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Make sure you understand each step of activities and be reasonable for everything you do.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Record the decisions made during conducting the systematic review as much as possible since this information will be needed for writing the final report. According to [2], they suggest to perform training on systematic reviewing in the very first step in order to make the reviewers familiar with the specific terms in the area where they will conduct systematic review. Furthermore, this helps the reviewers get better understanding about the review process and activities. 3.1 Planning the review During this phase, the main activities to be performed are specifying the purpose of conducting a systematic review, formulating research questions, developing and evaluating a review protocol. 3.1.1 Identification of the need for a review In order to identify the clear statement of the objective of the review, the researchers should use the checklist to help pointing out the reasons and ensure their needs. Regarding this issue, there are several useful checklists provided in Kitchenham ¿Ã‚ ½s guideline [1]. In addition to identify rationale of the review, Staples and Niazi [3] collected information from case studies, surveys, and reports to check if the intended research questions are possible to be answered by systematic review. This is founded very useful since they come to know what is common and uncommon in the research questions. Sometimes people thought the question is normal and feasible to be answered by other researches but in the later phases when they try searching for the related literature, they found that their question is very uncommon and then they have to discard those questions. Another crucial point is that the researchers should try to identify the existing systematic review related to their topics of interested in order to avoid conducting a duplicate review. Nevertheless, it is quite difficult to find published systematic review in the area of software engineering comparing with medicine. Since there is no powerful scientific database which collects systematic reviews of studies related to software engineering empirical studies, like the Cochrane (www.cochrane.com) which stores a large amount of systematic reviews of medical research. Although there are currently several services providing access to sources of software engineering publications, there are still many restrictions of those publications as followings [17]:  ¿Ã‚ ½ The available studies is limited and disintegrated properly since many researchers in this field are focused on their own style to generate result rather than structural review process.  ¿Ã‚ ½ It is difficult to combine the result of software engineering review because the quality of review is so variable with no agreed standard for systematic review for this field.  ¿Ã‚ ½ There is no guideline that is well-accepted, though some guideline has been proposed but it neither addresses all necessary topics nor provided sufficient detail. 3.1.2 Specifying the research question(s) As mentioned before, the research questions are specified as part of the review protocol and will be used to construct the search string for searching related primary studies. Basically they will be revised repeatedly during piloting the review protocol and should not be changed when the protocol is committed. The most important point when formulate the research questions is to make them as obvious and concrete as possible. Other than structuring the question by using the PICOC criteria which is shown in [1], it is essential to specify rationale to formulate a particular question. Tabulate the question and purpose such in table 1 could be helpful. Table 1. Research question Research question Purpose RQ1: RQ2: Brereton et al [4] recommend that during protocol construction, researchers should anticipate to refine their research question both for increasing their understanding and making the automated search more effective. There are several systematic reviews, for example the  ¿Ã‚ ½Systematic literature review of guidelines for conducting systematic literature reviews ¿Ã‚ ½ in [4], which firstly define a few research questions. Later on, after investigation some information sources, those questions are extended in more detailed questions Regarding [5], the research questions are not only the questions that needed to be answer by the review, but also the question providing some idea in the area of such a topic for better comprehension. This is also confirmed by Staples and Niazi [3] since their research questions are part of a larger research project. By performing the systematic review on these questions will help them understand better in the project background. By selecting clear and narrow research questions, it helps confining the scope of a systematic literature. [4] proposes another method that may help to scope the research question. That is a systematic pre-review mapping study. The idea is to map out sorts of studies relating the systematic review question have been conducted. The mapping process can be considered as a quick data extraction but the studies described are not very details. The further information about mapping study can be found at [12]. 3.1.3 Developing a review protocol As explained in the section 2, the protocol provides information of the plan for conduction the review, including, for example, the procedure to be performed, the search strategy for selecting primary studies, the allocation of reviewers to some specific activities and the quality assessment criteria for evaluate primary studies. Lacking of a protocol, some process such as the selection of primary studies or data analysis and synthesis may be motivated by researcher bias [14]. And because one of the key features of the systematic review is repeatable, a well-documented review protocol is needed to guarantee the reproducibility of the review. Many experiences on systematic review show that developing a review protocol is an iteration process that needs several revisions to get the complete protocol. Thus, the researchers should expect protocol changes, take a long time and allot appropriate time for it. Brereton et al [4] suggests all members in systematic review team should participate actively in constructing the review protocol, in which helps all of them get insights about the protocol and understand the process of data extraction. Additionally, piloting the review protocol is highly suggested to be performed. Not only because it supports discovering misunderstandings and mistakes in the data extraction and aggregation process, but also it may specify that the researchers need to change the method planned to deal with the research questions. As mentioned above, the search strategy must be documented in the protocol, enabling the reader of a review to evaluate how accurate and complete this is. However, due to the restriction of existing software engineering search engines that are not well-supported systematic reviews like in medicine, the software engineers should conduct resource-dependent searches. In particular, they might have to use different search string for each searchable sources which have different form interfaces and search syntaxes [4]. The followings are recommendations to improve the search strategy.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Searches should be performed to title as well as abstract [6]. However, before making a decision to accept or reject a primary study, searching on summary and content is founded very useful. Since mostly in software engineering, the abstract and titles are not much indicative [6] and not so dependable for primary studies selection [4].  ¿Ã‚ ½ Any search strategy should be made up of multiple keywords, and it is essential to use a various combinations of terms to get the very successful search [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ Using more standardized vocabulary will promote the search results [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ For some software engineering topics, the publications in related fields should be searched as well. i.e. information systems, psychology, economics, quality, artificial intelligence [6]  ¿Ã‚ ½ To get the most out of relevant publications, synonyms of the main search term should be used for search [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ It is likely that adding other more general terms to synonyms of the key search term detects more relevant studies. However, this tends to increase the number of irrelevant articles as well. So, it should only be used when there are a number of systematic review resources available in detecting and rejecting irrelevant articles [6]  ¿Ã‚ ½ It is not necessary to search on all the search fields because it is not considerably benefits the response and also requires a big effort [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ Construct search strings using Boolean  ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½AND ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ to link the key terms and  ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½OR ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ to group synonyms [4]. An example could be the following: (experiment OR  ¿Ã‚ ½empirical study ¿Ã‚ ½) AND ( ¿Ã‚ ½software cost estimation ¿Ã‚ ½ OR  ¿Ã‚ ½software effort estimation ¿Ã‚ ½)  ¿Ã‚ ½ Try searching from synonyms to the term representing the study type need to search [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ Include search fields that typically contain the key terms of the study type such as title and abstract [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ To get the key search terms. ,beak down the research questions into single words pertaining to the types of study that will help answer the question, technology of interested, and the response test [4].  ¿Ã‚ ½ After deriving the key search terms, using various combinations of those terms to perform trial searches [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ Specifying the year of the paper first published in the search string can help lessen the amount of irrelevant articles [4].  ¿Ã‚ ½ Be careful when using the Basic or Advances search forms because some search engines may produce different results even though the key searched terms are the s

Biological Causes of Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa Essay

Biological Causes of Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa affect millions of people each year in the United States (1). Popular thought holds that these disorders are caused by women trying to fulfill a culturally imposed ideal body image which stresses thinness. As anorexia and bulimia have proven difficult to treat solely with a psychological-based treatment plan it is likely that there are many factors contributing to these disorders. Research has shown, however, that there is a significant biological component which leads to a manifestation of these disorders (2). Current ideas on the biological origins of anorexia and bulimia will be explored in this paper. These include areas ranging from genetic factors to neurotransmitter and hormone imbalances. Genetics appears to play a significant role in predisposing a person to developing an eating disorder. Abnormal neurotransmitter levels have been shown to exist in people with both bulimia and anorexia. Hormone functioning and levels are also atypical in people with eating disorders. While most studies focus on one area, and usually on just one neurotransmitter or hormone, the different biological causes of eating disorders seem to be related to one another. How these possible biological causes influences the I-function (which is the term for the components of the nervous system which give a sense of being oneself) will be examined as well in this paper. Anorexia nervosa is described as a disorder in which women and men intentionally starve themselves, losing at least fifteen percent of their normal body weight. This self imposed emaciation usually begins during puberty and is most common among middle to upper class Caucasian women, affecti... ...nclusion, however was very useful. http://www.ama-assn.org/sci-pubs/journal/archive/psyc/vol_54/no_6/oa5354a.htm 9. Research Re: Treatment of Bulimia Nervosa. This page is a list of absrtacts from research articles centered on the treatment of bulimia. It is good for a quick overview on what is being done currently in this field. The anstracts were generally easy to understand and follow. http://www.mentalhealth.com/dis-rs2/p25-et02.html 10. Scientific American: Explorations. This page, from Scientific American, is an article from that journal. It focuses on the discovery of two new hormones related to weight control. http://www.sciam.com/missing.cfm 11. Eating Disorders. This is an extensive web site on eating disorders from The Harvard Mental Health Letter. It is well written and very complete. http://www.mentalhealth.com/mag1/p5h-et03.html Biological Causes of Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa Essay Biological Causes of Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa affect millions of people each year in the United States (1). Popular thought holds that these disorders are caused by women trying to fulfill a culturally imposed ideal body image which stresses thinness. As anorexia and bulimia have proven difficult to treat solely with a psychological-based treatment plan it is likely that there are many factors contributing to these disorders. Research has shown, however, that there is a significant biological component which leads to a manifestation of these disorders (2). Current ideas on the biological origins of anorexia and bulimia will be explored in this paper. These include areas ranging from genetic factors to neurotransmitter and hormone imbalances. Genetics appears to play a significant role in predisposing a person to developing an eating disorder. Abnormal neurotransmitter levels have been shown to exist in people with both bulimia and anorexia. Hormone functioning and levels are also atypical in people with eating disorders. While most studies focus on one area, and usually on just one neurotransmitter or hormone, the different biological causes of eating disorders seem to be related to one another. How these possible biological causes influences the I-function (which is the term for the components of the nervous system which give a sense of being oneself) will be examined as well in this paper. Anorexia nervosa is described as a disorder in which women and men intentionally starve themselves, losing at least fifteen percent of their normal body weight. This self imposed emaciation usually begins during puberty and is most common among middle to upper class Caucasian women, affecti... ...nclusion, however was very useful. http://www.ama-assn.org/sci-pubs/journal/archive/psyc/vol_54/no_6/oa5354a.htm 9. Research Re: Treatment of Bulimia Nervosa. This page is a list of absrtacts from research articles centered on the treatment of bulimia. It is good for a quick overview on what is being done currently in this field. The anstracts were generally easy to understand and follow. http://www.mentalhealth.com/dis-rs2/p25-et02.html 10. Scientific American: Explorations. This page, from Scientific American, is an article from that journal. It focuses on the discovery of two new hormones related to weight control. http://www.sciam.com/missing.cfm 11. Eating Disorders. This is an extensive web site on eating disorders from The Harvard Mental Health Letter. It is well written and very complete. http://www.mentalhealth.com/mag1/p5h-et03.html

Coca-Cola SWOT Analysis :: Business Management swot Analysis

Coca-Cola SWOT Analysis SWOT stands for Strengths Weakness Opportunities Threats. SWOT analysis is a technique much used in many general management as well as marketing scenarios. SWOT consists of examining the current activities of the organisation- its Strengths and Weakness- and then using this and external research data to set out the Opportunities and Threats that exist. Strengths: Coca-Cola has been a complex part of world culture for a very long time. The product's image is loaded with over-romanticizing, and this is an image many people have taken deeply to heart. The Coca-Cola image is displayed on T-shirts, hats, and collectible memorabilia. This extremely recognizable branding is one of Coca-Cola's greatest strengths. "Enjoyed more than 685 million times a day around the world Coca-Cola stands as a simple, yet powerful symbol of quality and enjoyment" (Allen, 1995). Additionally, Coca-Cola's bottling system is one of their greatest strengths. It allows them to conduct business on a global scale while at the same time maintain a local approach. The bottling companies are locally owned and operated by independent business people who are authorized to sell products of the Coca-Cola Company. Because Coke does not have outright ownership of its bottling network, its main source of revenue is the sale of concentrate to its bottlers. Weaknesses: Weaknesses for any business need to be both minimised and monitored in order to effectively achieve productivity and efficiency in their business’s activities, Coke is no exception. Although domestic business as well as many international markets are thriving (volumes in Latin America were up 12%), Coca-Cola has recently reported some "declines in unit case volumes in Indonesia and Thailand due to reduced consumer purchasing power." According to an article in Fortune magazine, "In Japan, unit case sales fell 3% in the second quarter [of 1998]...scary because while Japan generates around 5% of worldwide volume, it contributes three times as much to profits. Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Japan account for about 35% of Coke's volume and none of these markets are performing to expectation. Coca-Cola on the other side has effects on the teeth which is an issue for health care. It also has got sugar by which continuous drinking of Coca-Cola may cause health problems. Being addicted to Coca-Cola also is a health problem, because drinking of Coca-Cola daily has an effect on your body after few years. Opportunities: Brand recognition is the significant factor affecting Coke's competitive position.

Christos Fabricated Fun-world :: Essays Papers

Christo's Fabricated Fun-world. Imagine the coast of Little Bay in Sydney, The Pont Neuf in Paris and the foyer of the Art Gallery of NSW, wrapped mercilessly in hundreds and thousands of metres of fabric. They are all the works of the controversial Christo, known to be the world's greatest big-scale artists in history. One of his most recent works, Surrounded Islands, was a contentious issue around the world. The astonishing 603,850 square metres of brightly coloured pink fabric surrounded eleven of the islands of Biscayne Bay. In the two weeks that the amazing installation was exposed, it attracted numerous visitors enjoying the wonderfully luminous fabric that complemented the tropical waters and wildlife. Though constructing this massive work of art was not easy. Hundreds of volunteers were needed to help tend to the floating fabric and 79 patterns were painstakingly stitched together to complete the silhouettes of eleven islands. The bright pink fabric gave a stark contrast to the deeps dark sea and looked as if they were large floating inflatable pool toys. Aerial views of the islands were breath taking as the fabric highlighted the curvy contours of the islands which would not have been nearly as obvious without the magic touch of Christo. The work of the pink fabric gave the islands an almost angelic aura around them. The beautiful pink is wonderfully feminine which can also represent the reason the way the shapes of the islands were portrayed: curvy and feminine. Surrounded Islands is Christo's first attempt in doing a floating fabric art work. Many of his other art works were wrapped around objects, buildings or structures that had significance. He guides the audience into considering the area in a whole new light. That is, compelling the viewers to notice the area more not just when it is wrapped, but even more importantly when it is unwrapped. With Surrounded Islands, Christo truly and utterly pushes the boundaries of traditional and contemporary art forms. His art works have no hidden meaning. He is not depicting the dark and crusty