Chrysanthemums Literary Review – the Antagonist

Stephens 1 Jeff Stephens Kathleen Roddy ENGL 1102-208 7-20-2011 The Antagonist is Not Who You Would Think In â€Å"The Chrysanthemums† by John Steinbeck, the character’s conflicts are very obscure. The main character, Elisa, is in constant conflict with herself, which she projects onto her husband and the tinker. Though Elisa appears to be dissatisfied with her life, she has no way to change it, and she becomes increasingly crass as the story progresses. Although she appears to be the victim, she is the story’s antagonist.Steinbeck describes different moods in relation to the fog and rain through the use of simile and metaphors. A specific use of this is when he writes about how the fog stretches across the roof of the valley, essentially closing it off like an iron kettle. He conveys, through the fog, that Elisa feels trapped and that only the rain can set her free, â€Å"fog and rain do not go together† (347). In his article, Gregory Palmerino takes note that the plowed fields represent Elisa’s fertile womanhood while the lack of rain would represent Henry’s sterile manhood.He points out that while Elisa’s character is well pronounced throughout; Henry’s character is â€Å"altogether absent† (165). Elisa’s feeling of being trapped and unattended is a predominant trait throughout the story. Henry seems to be a lot like myself, and I identify with him through his steering clear of confrontations by using compliments and jokes. Palmerino states that â€Å"The initial dialogue between Henry and Elisa sets the tone for subsequent encounters and reveals the couple’s fundamental problem: they do not know how to fight† (165).Steinbeck shows that Henry is avoiding getting into an argument with his wife when he says, â€Å"Well, it sure works with flowers† Stephens 2 after â€Å"her eyes sharpened† (348). Even though there is no way to know, I could feel a pause there- an uncomfortable silence- even if it was brief. Henry and Elisa seemed to know that continuing this particular conversation would lead to a fight, so she changed the subject. Immediately, it felt as if the mood had lightened and that they were on good terms again, but there was always something lingering behind their words.Elisa appears to be the instigator, by default, even though she also seems to want to avoid confrontation. During her interaction with the tinker, Elisa flirts with the man, trying to get his attentions. Palmerino points out that Elisa is trying to cause a confrontation by â€Å"sexually and inadequately prostrating herself in front of an implausible paramour† (166). The tinker is a poor man, he says so himself, and knows full well that he cannot get himself into the kind of situation that she intends.Elisa’s actions are impulsive and the sign of someone who is starved for the attentions of a lover. When Elisa practically throws herself at him, he immed iately switches back to his business manner and says, pitifully, â€Å"It’s nice, just like you say. Only when you don’t have no dinner, it aint† (Steinbeck 351). She immediately switched gears and offered him some work, but she knew that what she had done was wrong. She felt dirty, not just from the soil in her garden, but also from her actions. Unfortunately, Henry seems to be a fairly dense individual.While he can tell when a situation is going south, he doesn’t seem to be capable of understanding why the situation is worsening. Elisa constantly takes advantage of the fact that he is so thick-headed. She pokes and prods him at every turn, whether boasting about her planting skills or demanding to know what is meant by â€Å"nice† or â€Å"strong† (Steinbeck 352-353). Henry manages to worsen the situation by Stephens 3 joking about what he means, but Elisa breaks her composure at the idea that she would â€Å"break a calf over [her] knee, happy enough to eat it like a watermelon† (Steinbeck 353).Both Henry’s choice of words and his demeanor manage to make Elisa angry, because what she really wants is for him to tell her that she is beautiful. Henry, however, is embarrassed. When he gets embarrassed or feels like there is a fight coming, he resorts to humor. Elisa is already feeling apprehensive from everything that happened at the farm, but on their way into town, she sees the chrysanthemums that she gave to the tinker and notices that while he had no use for the flowers, he kept the pot.Palmerino writes that â€Å"Elisa cannot bring herself to acknowledge, much less confront, the reality of her situation; and instead of verbally or nonverbally expressing her outrage at the tinker’s insensitivity†¦she turns her back and avoids the overarching truth† (166). Palmerino is dead on in his description of her emotions at that moment. She is definitely outraged, but just like Henry, she is co nstantly avoiding confrontation. Her apprehension turns to sadness as she realizes that she is stuck in an unending loop of an unambiguous, non-committal, non-progressive, and non-confrontational (basically dead) relationship of a marriage.The development of the story leads me to believe that Henry tries to lighten the mood by joking around or complimenting her, but Elisa always seems to negate his efforts. Steinbeck describes a painfully awkward few moments in this story, where Elisa misinterprets the actions of others. In Japan, this kind of character is called a tsundere. (Tsun means to turn away in disgust and dere means to become lovey-dovey. ) Elisa is constantly acting like a tsundere when her husband compliments or pokes fun at her. She could confront Henry, but her non-committalStephens 4 attitude would result in nothing changing. She would probably just change the subject like she did at the beginning of the story. She, basically, is the root of the problem. Stephens 5 Wor ks Cited Palmerino, Gregory J. â€Å"Steinbeck's The Chrysanthemums. † Explicator 62. 3 (2004): 164-167. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 6 July 2011. Steinbeck, John. â€Å"The Chrysanthemums† Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing, 4th Compact Edition. Edgar V. Roberts, ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education. 2008: 347-353.

Project Network Survey Essay

Besides the basic physical security of a site, the next most important aspect is controlling digital access into and out of the organization’s network. In most cases this means controlling the points of connectivity to the outside world, typically the Internet. Partitioning the boundary between the outside Internet and the internal intranet is a critical security piece. Any services not actually needed should be turned off so that they will not become avenues of attack for security threats. Different systems will have different services running by default. The firewall process can tightly control what is allowed to traverse from one side to the other. As with most aspects of security, deciding what type of firewall to use will depend upon factors such as traffic levels, services needing protection and the complexity of rules required. The difficulty for firewalls is distinguishing between legitimate and illegitimate traffic. Firewalls, if configured correctly, can be a reasonable form of protection from external threats including some denial of service (DOS) attacks. If not configured correctly they can be major security holes in an organization. The most basic protection a firewall provides is the ability to block network traffic to certain destinations. This includes both IP addresses and particular network service ports. Many network devices and computer hosts startup network services by default, each of these services could represent an opportunity for attackers, worms and Trojans. Very often all of these default services are not needed. Doing port lockdown by turning off services reduces this exposure. Port 25: Is the virtual pathway that most e-mail traffic follows when it travels from your computer to a server. Port 25 can get clogged with spam e-mails when computers on a network become infected with a virus or other malicious software. Because of the potential threat our host computers sending spam email Port 25 will remain closed. Port 80: This is the primary port used by the World Wide Web (www) system. Web servers open this port then listen for incoming connections from web browsers. Similarly, when a web browser is given a remote address (like grc.com or amazon.com), it assumes that a remote web server will be listening for connections on port 80 at that location. This port will generally be open only when a web server of some sort is running on the machine. Due to the popularity of this port for malicious exploitation, it should never be open unless it is being actively and deliberately used to serve web pages. Port 139: Is typically used for file/printer sharing, including directory replication with Active Directory, trusts, remote access of event logs, etc. This port should be open. If you block port 139 on a Domain Controller you will kill AD replication. If you block 139 in a typical business network, you will lose the ability to do much of anything on a remote computer such as remotely manage clients/servers, install software, share printers, or files. Since the NetBIOS vulnerability is quite well-known a long time ago and heavily popularized, patches have been already released. The last remote exploits that targeted NetBIOS/139 were in the Windows NT/2000 era. Ports 1900 and Port 2869: These UDP port are opened and used by Universal Plug N’ Play (UPnP) devices to receive broadcasted messages from other UPnP devices. UPnP devices broadcast subnet-wide messages to simultaneously reach all other UPnP devices. UPnP Internet servers were found to have remotely exploitable unchecked buffers that would allow, in principle, remote malicious hackers. Microsoft Windows is vulnerable to a buffer overflow, caused by improper bounds checking by the Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) service. By sending a specially-crafted HTTP request, a remote attacker could overflow a buffer and execute arbitrary code on the system with elevated privileges when combined with another exploit. Unused Internet servers and services should not be left running if they are not actively needed, for this reason this port should be closed until needed. Port 5357: This port is opened because  you have Network Discovery enabled in a Public Network profile. The port is vulnerable to info leak problems allowing it to be accessed remotely by malicious authors. This port should be closed if network discovery is not required. Port 6839: This port is not associated with any particular services and should be closed unless it is assoc iated and used. Port 7435: This port is not associated with any particular services and should be closed unless it is associated and used. Port 9100: This TCP port is used for printing. Port numbers 9101 and 9102 are for parallel ports 2 and 3 on the three-port HP Jetdirect external print servers. It is used for network-connected print devices. This port should remain open to allow print services. Ports 9101 and 9102: Is the Bacula Director. This TCP port is used for printing. Port numbers 9101 and 9102 are for parallel ports 2 and 3 on the three-port HP Jetdirect external print servers. It is used for network-connected print devices. This port should remain open to allow print services. Port 9110: SSMP Message protocol – This protocol is intended to be used to implement thread-to-thread messaging locally or over the Internet. Ports registered with IANA are shown as official ports. The same port number may be unofficially used by various services or applications. Unofficially or sometimes with conflict, the same port may be used by different applications. This port is not associated with any particular services and should be closed unless it is associated and used. Port 9220: This port is for raw scanning to peripherals with IEEE 1284.4 specifications. On three port HP Jetdirects, the scan ports are 9290, 9291, and 9292. It is used for network-connected print devices. This port should remain open to allow print services. Port 9500: TCP Port 9500 may use a defined protocol to communicate depending on the application. In our case we are using port 9500 to access the ISM Server. The ISM Server is used for exchanging backup and recovery information between storage devices. This port should remain open while services are in use. Port 62078: This port is used by iPhone while syncing. The Port used by UPnP for multimedia files sharing, also used for synchronizing iTunes files between devices. Port 62078 has a known vulnerability in that a service named lockdownd sits and listens on the iPhone on port 62078. By connecting to this port and speaking the correct protocol, it’s possible to spawn a number of different services on an iPhone or iPad. This port should be blocked or closed when service is not required  on the device. References Gibson, S. (n.d.). GRC | Port Authority, for Internet Port 139 . Retrieved October 10, 2014, from https://www.grc.com/port_139.htm Gibson, S. (n.d.). GRC | Port Authority, for Internet Port 2869 . Retrieved October 10, 2014, from https://www.grc.com/port_2869.html Gibson, S. (n.d.). GRC | Port Authority, for Internet Port 80 . Retrieved October 10, 2014, from https://www.grc.com/port_80.htm Gibson, S. (n.d.). GRC | Port Authority, for Internet Port 9101 . Retrieved October 10, 2014, from https://www.grc.com/port_9101.html HP Support document – HP Support Center. (n.d.). Retrieved October 10, 2014, from http://h20565.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/template.PAGE/public/kb/docDisplay/?sp4ts.oid=412144&spf_p.tpst=kbDocDisplay&spf_p.prp_kbDocDisplay=wsrp-navigationalState%3DdocId%253Demr_na-c02480766-2%257CdocLocale%253D%257CcalledBy%253D&javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken HP Support document – HP Support Center. (n.d.). Retrieved October 10, 2014, from http://h20566.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/template.PAGE/public/kb/docDisplay?docId=bps53634&ac.admitted=1413144875821.876444892.199480143 Network Printer Ports. (2003, March 28). Retrieved October 10, 2014, from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc728404(v=ws.10).aspx networking – Is port 139 still vulnerable? – Server Fault. (2009, June 20). Retrieved October 10, 2014, from http://serverfault.com/questions/29065/is-port-139-still-vulnerable Port 5357 TCP on Windows 7 professional 64 bit? – Super User. (2009, October 18). Retrieved October 10, 2014, from http://superuser.com/questions/56781/port-5357-tcp-on-windows-7-professional-64-bit Port 62078 (tcp/udp) :: SpeedGuide.net. (n.d.). Retrieved October 10, 2014, from http://www.speedguide.net/port.php?port=62078 Port 6839 (tcp/udp) – Online TCP UDP port finder – adminsub.net. (2014, August 26). Retrieved October 10, 2014, from http://www.adminsubne t.net/tcp-udp-port-finder/6839 Port 7435 (tcp/udp) – Online TCP UDP port finder – adminsub.net. (2014, August 26).

Analysis of grammatical structures Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Analysis of grammatical structures - Assignment Example Using metaphors and personification The grammatical dissemination of sentential structure explores metaphorical development. This extension is fully explored by complementing the domain discourse evidently demonstrated in the extract. â€Å"Blocked out the July sunlight in a small dark room that smelt of ashtrays and disappointment† July sunlight represents a correlative construction of a noun and the sentence is also personified†¦ dark room that smelt of ashtrays. These two contingent structures propel the image of the sentence and provide the complex extension of the two-part sentence. The sentence path undertakes subsequent proceeding with initial reaction of non-standard English being meaningfully applied. The prerequisite of the metaphor offers systematic reduction of the actual meaning of the sentence and it creates the typical grammatical category needed to vaguely generate completeness in the domain of space and time. The noun established in the passage also defines typical grammatical inconsistencies. The language is quantified and it hosts critical path which is rationed in order to reduce subsequent link between the relative statements and the positives of the language. Yet grammatically the provision for categorizing the noun is equally determined by the actions relative to Scott’s personal speech and the referential functions. Ideally, these sentences are consistent with the works of Joan et al, (1994) and Bernard, (1996). For the constrained sentences, the specific modifications are relevantly ideal and the constructs of the

The Paintings of Rococo, Neoclassicism, and Romanticism Essay

The Paintings of Rococo, Neoclassicism, and Romanticism - Essay Example The essay "The Paintings of Rococo, Neoclassicism, and Romanticism" explores the Rococo, Neoclassicism, and Romanticism art. The subjects are well mannered, smartly attired, and joining in lighthearted conversation. "Pilgrimage by Cythera" draws the viewer into the scene with its non-threatening use of composition. Rococo paintings would often use a touch of nudity and coy scenes to elicit a feeling of naughtiness. The end of the 18th century witnessed a return to a more formal style of painting known as Neoclassicism. More serious subjects replaced the gaiety of Rococo and color became more dark and brooding. The "Oath of the Horatii", commissioned in 1784, was painted by Jacques-Louis David (Jacques-Louis David). It is a sharply contrasted painting with sharp edges and depicting conflict. The painting uses abrupt angles to capture a cold and rigid feeling. In David's painting we see the intricate attention to detail that is displayed in the architecture and the metal swords reflect the sharpness of the tone. The women are sullen as if saddened by an upcoming loss or introspecting on their subservient position that was common of the period. The period of 1800-1850 saw the introduction of Romanticism in art. The paintings were often directed toward nationalism and regularly used to portray historical events. In Eugà ¨ne Delacroix's "Massacre at Chios" we see Greeks waiting their impending slaughter by the Turks. The human form is more detailed and more serious. The colors are more realistic and haunting.

What does the book The American born Chinese reveal about the American Essay

What does the book The American born Chinese reveal about the American religious experience - Essay Example We can see that being an Asian and of Chinese origin, Jin Wang has difficulty is exposing his religious idea and practices in America. He cannot communicate and interact with the Westerners and feel alienated in the community. He is from Chinese background but hesitate to mingle with Asian people. Here, the author is trying to show the world the difference between Asian and American religious perception. From this book it can be understood that American religious experience is less deep and direct than Eastern religious concepts. (Thesis) In America people are more materialistic and they see life as something for pleasure. If we look at the cultural and religious value of Jin Wang, he finds it hard to express it to his peers as he finds it embarrassing. Obviously, the religious beliefs of American people are less prominent than Chinese or Asian people. We can see that most, the American do is visit church and pray. They don’t have beliefs and mythology like Asians or Chinese. The author has made a comic of the story by introducing the Monkey King of Asian mythology to entice the readers. This is the overly and superstitious representation of Asian religious beliefs which is alien to American ideologies. Here, we can see that American religion does not feature gods like Chinese religion and other Asian religion. Asian religion is more based on legends and mythological stories whereas American live on religious laws which are practical. The protagonist of the story is from a conservative Chinese background and cannot assimilate with the American people. But it is to be understood that he find Americans less religious and pious which he cannot accept. The American have their way of life and as Chinese Jin Wang find them having a more direct religious values. We can see that American and Chinese people have their typical culture and religion and Jing Wang liking a girl in school who is Christian feels hesitant to ask her out because of their religious and et hical disparity. Here we can see the struggle and problems a Chinese person undergo being in American land where his religion is looked up on with strange sense. The book reveals the American religious experience is shallow and is they endorse the idea of money, materialistic things and other earthly relationships as representing â€Å"Gods† when they present things before God. For Americans, the religious concepts of Asians have been a thing of dismissal. If they cannot understand the ideologies and scientific reasoning behind them, it does not make our values less important. We can find that many Americans are atheist and this is less common practice in Asia. The book portrays the American religious experience to be passive and not lively like that of Asians. As per ( Koebler,2013) â€Å"Though 20 percent of Americans declared "no religious preference," just 3 percent of respondents said they were "atheists.". The Americans live a life of leisure and God comes only rarely in to picture. The hero of the story cannot resemble with American life and is in a dilemma. In the interaction of Chinese with American communities one can see lot of prejudice and racism. The book reveals the American religious experience can be relevant to Buddhist world. For them there is only one God and Monkey King is absurdity. The social identities of people are different all around world and every culture has its identity and value. We as an immigrant must try to integrate with American postmodern culture. Even the accent of Chinese people differs largely from American people as they have influence of Chinese language in them but it is not less valuable than English. American religious as revealed by the book portrays that Christianity is meaningful and other religion are

Types of Aging Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Types of Aging - Essay Example exposure to toxins may dramatically reduce expectancy. Today’s society has witnessed a pronounced increase in longevity coupled with lowered birth rates. Aging bears both positive stereotypes (such as becoming wiser, more confident, and more motivated) and negative aspects such as predisposition to disease, disability, and depression arising from isolation which influences old people’s self esteem (Morgan and Kunkel 2011, p.11). Some years back, aging experience was not a cosy affair. Nevertheless, improvements in health and nutrition aided by technology have eased the experience making it more comfortable. Modern technology has improved the living conditions of many people. However, the increase in longevity has yielded shortcomings such as a rise in risk of abuse, exploitation, and neglect among the older people. Statistics from the Office for National Statistics (UK) indicate that the percentage of the population above 70 years will continue to surge through the 21st century. A report from the Office of National Statistics places the life expectancy of persons at 75 years, a figure that rises with dawn of each day. The contemporary society has undergone demographic, structural, and cultural transformations with the advent of aging populations. In fact, gerontologists have coined the term â€Å"global graying† to describe this phenomenon. ... Chronological age also aids in prediction of health problems within the population and is a common variable in research endeavours (Blackburn & Dulmus 2007, p.3). Biological/physiological aging refers to body changes that accompany advancement of years. The physical changes that occur in people are not all normal since they borrow heavily on lifestyle choices and cultural practices. Some of these changes can be modified, if not prevented. Psychological aging refers to how people act and feel about themselves as they age. As people age, the information processing capability such as reaction time, intelligence, learning, memory and problem solving are affected. Similarly, their personality and self concept is affected. For instance, a 90-year-old who is occupationally active may be considered as psychologically young (Morgan and Kunkel 2011, p.12). As people age, they become functional dependent. This is particularly more pronounced in mental functions such as learning of new languages (Hillier and Barrow (2011, p.48). Functional age helps in targeting of services to sub-groups guided by age and need e.g. identification of people with physical limitations and who need home care. Contemporary societies have been able to maintain a reasonable quality of life of the old while preserving their functional independence. In addition, as people age, social factors such as society’s perception of â€Å"growing old† or being â€Å"old† define and redefine the social construction of self. As individuals age, they are bombarded with contradictory social meanings, structures, and processes attached to age. Most of these constructions are erroneous accounts on the effect of aging on the physical and mental capabilities of the elders. People interpret events in

Sound in A Clockwork Orange Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Sound in A Clockwork Orange - Essay Example This method will illustrate how Kubrick's use of sound builds upon itself in a cumulative manner. The first scene of A Clockwork Orange starts with a move through blank screens painted with the primary colours (red and blue) with the sound of a synthesizer playing Bach. This initial juxtaposition between the most modern of instruments and Baroque music effectively alienates the audience by presenting two things that they are familiar with together. The two jar with one another and yet, as the first shot focuses in close-up on Alex's face, they seem paradoxically suited for one another. The music reflects the violent smirk that is on Alex's face as he stares straight at the camera, and thus the audience, as his opening voice-over is heard. There are thus two elements to the sound at this point: the synthesized Bach music and Alex's introduction to his world. The language that Alex uses includes words that do not ordinarily exist in English, but which will be effectively translated by the audience because of their context. Thus Alex states that he and his "droogs" are "making up our razoodocks" what to do that night. Droog obviously means "friend" and razoodock is probably "mind". The juxtaposition is increased by the fact that they are drinking milk in a decidedly odd milk-bar that sells some rather suspicious-sounding milk. The shot draws back from a close-up to a medium shot to a long shot of the whole bar, with the nude female mannequins that act as chairs. The film that started with music has now introduced the audience to a strange, surreal, threatening world: and it was the first blast of synthesized Bach that led the audience to the door. In the next scene a close-up of a hand holding a whisky bottle with another empty bottle besides it is essentially serenaded by a drunken voice singing an old Irish song. It is as if the bottle were singing, but as the shot steadily draws out the drunk is revealed. Alex and his droogs come into the scene as shadows and it is there footsteps that are heard, casual and yet ominous, just as Alex starts to tell the audience how he could not stand drunks and drunken singing. The echoing sound of the singing and the footsteps make once again for a surreal world, one that reflects the stark lighting that makes their shadows enormously long. Echoing, rather distorted voices continue on the soundtrack as Alex and the old man argue with one another and then the Droogs start to beat him up. Here Kubrick introduces the idea that violence can be seen and heard as a dance. Thus the rhymic beating of the various weapons against the man's body sound like perverted musical instruments to which their howls of joy at indulging in violence are an accompaniment. Just before the jump cut to the theatre scene the waltz music that accompanies this is introduced. This time it is a girl's screams that acts in unison with the music: violence and beautiful melodies again juxtaposed. It takes a full ten seconds for Kubrick to actually reveal in a visual manner what is happening in the scene: essentially this is secondary to the two sounds put against one another. The fact that the attempted rape of the girl is shot in a distancing long-shot adds to the importance of the sound. The sound

Project Management in Arabian gulf Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Project Management in Arabian gulf - Term Paper Example the level of the state the following issues need to be taken into consideration: a) the resources required for the development of projects related to the public sector are usually limited, compared to the private sector where the needs of projects in terms of funding, staff or infrastructure can be covered easier; b) projects of the public sector are more difficult to be closely monitored due to the high bureaucracy that characterizes the particular sector; c) tight deadlines are often not welcomed in the public sector where the time required for identifying necessary resources or completing the paperwork related to the project can be extremely high; in the private sector where no such issues appear it is quite easy to avoid delays in the completion of a project under the terms that the resources required have been identified in advance and d) in the public sector the potentials for introducing changes in a project which is in progress are rather limited, since such initiative needs to be approved by the authority which gave the permission for the project’s beginning. Current paper focuses on the characteristics and the performance of project management in Arabian Gulf. The particular area is characterized by major construction projects, as explained below. Projects in other sectors are also periodically developed in the specific region according to the local needs. It is revealed that the performance of project management in Arabian Gulf is quite high with signs for further growth. Still, it is necessary that appropriate measures are taken so that the monitoring of these projects to be improved; in this way, the projects’ costs will be kept low while the chances for the successful implementation of these projects will be significantly increased. The paper has been divided into four parts. Apart from the Introduction and the Conclusion sections of the project, as they are included in Part A and Part D, emphasis should be given on Part B, where explanations

Immigration Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Immigration - Term Paper Example America is a perfect illustration of the extent of immigration as a social issue and how it influences society in a significant way (Fairchild 48-50). America is a country whose growth and development was greatly derived from immigrant communities most of which later became Americans. Immigration has equally been a source of social, cultural and political confrontations that have shaped America. Immigration is of great interest to me because of the immense role it plays in society both negatively and positively. In America, for instance, immigration has been incidental to the development of the country in several ways. Immigrants provided cheap labor during the industrial evolution and early development stages of the country. Furthermore, the assimilation of immigrant communities into the American society advanced the country’s diversity profile. Conflicts created by immigration often revolve around the perceived threat to a country’s culture by the immigrants who are t orn between two cultures. Such a concern leads to strife between resident communities and immigrants though most of the conflicts are merely based on perceptions. According to Carl (45-52) immigration is a social problem because of how it creates tensions and misunderstandings in society. Basically, immigration is a source of social strife pitting resident communities and immigrant communities most of which are based on culture and economic factors. Culturally, immigrants are perceived as a threat to a nation’s culture owing to the fact that immigrants belong to a different cultural heritage that is seen as a huge threat to the already existing culture of their new home. Also, immigrants present a threat of cultural erosion in the sense that future generations of a country will not have anything in common. Though this problem is more attributed to the failure of immigrants to assimilate and become part of the resident culture than their presence in the country. Carl (79-81) f urther suggests that immigration has immense economic implications in society. Economically, immigrants are perceived as a challenge to materials and opportunities, therefore, creating competition for resources and jobs with local communities. Other considerations include crime whereby immigration is often linked to increased levels of crime in the society or sometimes the society may resort to crime as a way of articulating the immigration problem. However, there are some researches that show the opposite. For instance, Sampson’s research indicates that areas with many immigrants are significantly safer areas. Immigration has been subject to literary dialogue since time immemorial and many thinkers and scholars share their diverse opinion on the vast subject. Numerous scholars examine immigration in detail evaluating the nature of a problem it presents to society. In essence, immigration as a social problem has attracted the attention of numerous researchers, authors and sch olars who examine the issue from different theoretical perspectives. Robert Sampson tackles the subject from a practical perspective by unearthing the recent conflicts and issues emanating from immigration in the United States through which he presents the prevailing conflicts regarding immigration (Sampson 28-33). In his article, Rethinking Crime and Immigration, Robert Sampson reveals that immigration is indeed a social problem, and it greatly influences the society. The role played by immigration in the

Strategic management (organisational structure) Essay

Strategic management (organisational structure) - Essay Example These include the entrepreneurial simple structure, the functional specialization structure, the divisional structure, and the conglomerate structure. The entrepreneurial structure is tagged by Mintzberg as being the 'simple structure.' According to Eltern, Schwestern, and Steffen, "The simple structure is characterized, above all by what it is not - elaborated. Typically, it has little or no technostructure, few support staffers, a loose division of labor, minimal differentiation among its units, and a small managerial hierarchy. Little of its behavior is formalized, and makes minimal use of planning, training and the liaison devices. It is above all, organic. In a sense, simple structure is nonstructure" (2005, p. 1). Functional organizations are effective in minimizing activities that are repetitive in nature. They also encourage the recruitment and development of technical expertise throughout the organization. However, they are hard to organize and coordinate and result in the development of perspectives that are considered to be too narrow in nature (Tripp, Siwapiragam, Rahim, Horton 2005). Divisional organizations also have their own distinctive advantages and disadvantages. These types of organizations are able to make better decisions because of the very way they are set up. Those who work for or represent the company are held accountable for their actions and their performance. This type of organization, as opposed to functional organizations, is significantly easier to coordinate functions within. Drawbacks to the divisional organization include the fact that it is difficult to gain and allocate support from corporate staff, some economies of scale is lost, and divisions have a tendency to compete with one another which can be detrimental to the organization (Tripp, Siwapiragam, Rahim, Horton 2005). Conglomerate structures represent a combination of the aforementioned organizational structures. These are also known as matrix structures. Advantages to this type of organization include that technical expertise is encouraged, reinforced, and broadened; resources are utilized in an efficient manner; and that objectives that may be causing conflict within the organization are balanced. Disadvantages to this type of organization include an increase in power conflicts, confusion, and stress for those employees who have more than one supervisor, and that it can hinder the decision-making process that takes place within the organization (Tripp, Siwapiragam, Rahim, Horton 2005). Reebok and Starbucks and Their Appreciated Structures According to Reebok, "During this past quarter, we decided to consolidate our Reebok Brand product and marketing groups under one leader. We believe that the new organizational structure will give us greater focus on product and marketing concepts for our targeted consumer groups. The new product teams are fully integrated from design and development through to marketing, and support our product initiatives under the Rbk, Performance, Lifestyle and Children's platforms. These teams will now design and develop product and marketing concepts for a focused consumer segment, rather than by product category as we had in the past" (Reebok 2005). They believe that their new structure is more focused and responsible, and that it can better meet the demands of consumers who come from a variety of different

Martin Luther King Essay Example for Free

Martin Luther King Essay â€Å"I have a dream that one day my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character† (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). These wise and upholding words of confidence and determination changed the face of America during a time of hate and discrimination. King’s inspirational leadership and speeches helped make a local bus protest into a historical event (â€Å"King, Martin Luther Jr. †) He gathered thousands of people, both black and white, to many encouraging protests and meetings to bring a hateful and racist world to peace. His strategy of â€Å"encouraging nonviolent protest and interracial cooperation helped him to fight effectively again the southern system† (King, Martin Luther Jr.†). These strategies were also based on the belief of Indian pacifist Mohandas Gandhi. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ambition to seek a perfect world was extravagant; he will always be in the minds and hearts of Americans in years to come. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). His birth name was Michael, but he later changed it to Martin (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). His parent’s names were Alberta and Martin Luther King, Sr. Alberta was a homemaker and Martin Sr. was a minister (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). Martin Jr. also had an older sister, named Christine, and a younger brother, named Alfred Rogers 2 (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.). Young Martin grew up in Atlanta to a very loving family highly devoted to service and faith. When Martin was young, he first encountered racism when his friends’ mother (who was white) did not allow him to play with her white son (Darby 8). Martin was too young to understand completely the meaning of why he was not allowed but the message he was simple, blacks were different from whites (Darby 9). Martin’s knowledge was known at a young age. He began reading at a very early age; his favorite books were about black history and the people who made it (Darby 13). He went to school at local segregated schools in Atlanta. He went to school when he was only five years old, but at the time it was only legal for kids to start school at the age of six. After officials found this out, he was forced to wait another year and start again. Martin attended Young Street Elementary and David Elementary Schools. When Martin was a junior in high school he was taking college exams that showed how advanced he was (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). He was able to go to college at the age of fifteen, skipping two years of high school. Martin attended Morehouse College, an all boy’s school and one of the finest black colleges in the country at the time. He studied sociology and received his bachelor’s degree Morehouse in 1948 (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). At the time Martin was thinking about becoming a minister. His father being a key role model on his decision to become a minister, he described his decision as an â€Å"inner urge,† calling him to â€Å"serve God and humanity (Carson 501). He was ordained during his final semester at Morehouse (Carson 502). At this time and point in his life, this is also where Martin began to precede his first steps towards his political spotlight. After departing Morehouse, King increased his understanding of liberal Christian thoughts while attending Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania from 1948 to 1951 (Carson 502). King had interest in Reinhold Niebuhr neorthodoxy which emphasized the impact of social evil. Martin added he didn’t begin a quest or method to eliminate social evil until he attended Crozer (Darby 20). Even as he continued to question and modify his own religious belief, he was performing outstandingly and graduated at the top of his class (Carson 502). He won the Plafker Award for the most outstanding student and received the J. Luis Crozer fellowship to study at any university of his choice (Darby 21). His parents gave him and hug and bought him a brand new Chevy. After graduating from Crozer, King began his doctoral studies in systematic theology at Boston University in School of Theology (Carson 502). The paper King had written during his time at Boston University had showed little originality but much plagiarism but had also formulated a decent perspective (Carson 502). By the time King had completed his doctoral studies in 1955, King had a strong view upon a wide range of theological and philosophical texts to express his views with precise information (Carson 502). His new and increased theological insights became known as he expanded his preaching activities at local Boston churches where he had assisted his father at masses. Also during King’s stay in Boston, he had met Coretta Scott, an Alabama born Antioch graduate who was then a student at the New England Conservatory of Music (Carson 502). On June 18, 1953, the students were married in Marion, Alabama, where Coretta’s family lived (Carson 502). During the following academic year, King began work on his dissertation which he completed during the spring of 1955. Thus finishing his dissertation, he was awarded a doctorate (Ph.D.) I theology and became Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Darby 23). Although he had thought about pursing an academic career, King decided to accept an offer to become the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama (Carson 502). In 1955, King was selected by the Montgomery Improvement Association to protest the arrest of NAACP official Rosa Parks for refusing to give her bus seat up to a white man (Carson 502). With King as their leader, the association led a year long boycott. King gained his leadership abilities through his religious background to gradually form a strategy that involved black churches to gain white support (Carson 502). Many of King’s beliefs were also mixed with the concepts on Indian pacifist leader Mohandas Gandhi to enforce non-violence during his protests. During King’s speech at a local segregated black church, he had gathered four thousand people to hear the story of Rosa Parks (Darby 34). After Martin’s speech, people cheered and stomped their feet as their reaction. The Civil Rights Movement had begun with King as their leader (Darby 35). King had led the MIA’s plan to the use of blacks not using buses until they were legal to have the right to sit anywhere they would please. During the time when blacks did not ride buses, Martin would preach too many to â€Å"not boast or brag,† and if struck, â€Å"do not strike back† (Darby 43). One evening Martin was pulled over by an officer on his way home, he said he was speeding (Darby 29). The officer had told Martin that he was to be taken to the Montgomery Police, but the way he was taking him was a way through Klansman land. Klansman land was where many African Americans were taken, beaten, and hung without anybody knowing (Darby 40). Martin was very scared but soon relieved after seeing the sign: Montgomery Jail ahead (Darby 40). King was soon released from jail too good news; Alabama had passed the new desegregation law, this meant victory for the blacks and the beginning of change for both races (Darby 42). With the victory, Martin cautioned black people to accept their victory with dignity and to resist violence. When King had time away from his social life, he liked spending time with his three kids. Spending time with his kids had made him stronger and more ready mentally for what was to come (Darby 61). King’s campaign to end segregation at lunch counters and in hiring practices drew nationwide attention when police turned dogs and five horses onto demonstrators (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). King was jailed with hundreds of supporters, many of them being schoolchildren (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). After being released from prison, Martin and other Civil Rights Leaders began organizing the historic march in Washington D.C. A mix of races of about 200,000 gathered peacefully at the Lincoln Memorial to demand equal justice for all citizens (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). Here crowds were  intrigued by King’s uplifting â€Å"I have a Dream† speech (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). His speech emphasized his faith that all men, someday, would be brothers (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). His speech encouraged national opinion that resulted in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). The act enforced desegregation of public accommodation and outlawing discrimination in public owned facilities (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). The eventful year awarded King the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo in December. Opposition hit within the Civil Rights movement during March of 1965 at a demonstration in Selma, Alabama. The opposition was aimed at giving blacks federal voting rights that would provide legal support for the African Americans in the south (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). King organized the initial march from Selma to the state capital in Montgomery but did not lead it himself. The marchers were turned back with tear gas and night sticks. Determined for a second march, King set out with fifteen hundred marchers, black and white until the group came to a barrage of state troopers. Instead of forcing a confrontation, he led his followers to kneel and pray then unexpectedly turn back (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). The country was amazed by there actions resulting in the passage of Voting Rights of 1965 (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). In 1957, he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to provide new leadership for the civil rights movement (â€Å"King, Martin Luther, Jr.†). His ideas were based from Gandhi in the organization. In a period from 1957-1968, King traveled our six million miles and spoke over twenty five hundred times (â€Å"King, Martin Luther, Jr.†). He was arrested at least twenty times (â€Å"King, Martin Luther, Jr.†). He was assaulted at least four times (â€Å"King, Martin Luther, Jr.†). He was awarded five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963 (â€Å"King, Martin Luther, Jr.†). His strategy of encouraging nonviolent protest and interracial cooperation enabled him to fight against the Southern system (â€Å"King, Martin Luther, Jr.†). King’s inspirational leadership and his speeches helped to evaluate a local bus protest into a historical event (â€Å"King, Martin Luther, Jr.†). He was not only the symbolic leader of African Americans but also a world figure. He was the youngest man ever to receive the Nobel Peace Prize (thirty five years of age). He also turned down the prize money of $54, 123 and it would go to the civil rights movement. He delivered his famous speech of â€Å"I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,† April 3, 1968 (â€Å"King, Martin Luther, Jr.†). This had been King’s last speech. At 6:01 p.m. of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he lead a protest for striking sanitation workers, he was assassinated (â€Å"King, Martin Luther, Jr.†). Martin was a man, he was not God. His charismatic and powerful way of speaking had changed American lives until present day. He was a man of vision and determination. He was often overworked and overtired, but this had never stopped him of dreaming what could be.

Looking At The Ethical Issues Raised In Research Social Work Essay

Looking At The Ethical Issues Raised In Research Social Work Essay Political and ethical values have great impact on Social Sciences. While conducting research, the researcher should always be aware of those issues that may arise during time of the research process. Ethics in social research means linking individual responsibility to broader moral principles and to professional codes of conduct. Research ethics helps: to maintain the profession integrity, maintain the standards that have been set already; protects the reputation of good research; acknowledges research context; seeks funding and approval for ethical research (Z, Oleary, 2004 p42). Thus, power, politics and ethics should be analysed thoroughly by the researchers during the research process. Harm to participants: social researchers should try to minimize disturbances to both subjects and subjects relationship with their environment. Maintaining privacy and confidentiality of the participants are vital things in the research process. Researchers should be fully aware of data protection act 1998 and be recorded accordingly. Informed consent: individuals should be powered to make free decisions and be given all the information needed to make good decisions. Researchers should explain about the research including who is undertaking and financing, and why it is being undertaken and how it is to be promoted. Invasion of privacy: the anonymity and privacy of those who participates in the research process should be respected. Deception: The involvement of research participants must be entirely voluntary. If the participants do not understand fully or remember, they might not do what is expected or withdraw due to misunderstandings. Thus, participants should be empowered by full information along with the nature of the research. Indeed, it protects participants as well as researchers.(Bryman, A, 2008, p118-129) Similarly, professional practice and ethical standards should be maintained during the process of research by choosing relevant research methodology. Likewise, reporting should be accurate, fabrication and falsification of data are considered as misconduct and interpretation of the data should be according to the general methodological standards. Furthermore, the researcher- researcher relationship should be maintained by not misusing the authority or role given and researchers should not list authors in their report without their permission. The research in fact should be guided by the accepted ethical standards(S, Sarantakos, 1998, p20-25). Meanwhile, the political dimensions of the research should also be maintained during the research process in order to avoid biasness. Likewise, the political consideration of research includes the issues of outsider pressures, researchers own political position, the applicability of research findings and use of them by those who are in power, choice of research topic and research procedures, sponsors influence, funding bodies and governmental policy towards social science research (Bryman A, 2008, p131), as well as credibility of findings all should be considered throughout the research process.(S, Sarantakos,1998, p27-29) Two empirical research studies have been selected and analysed from political and ethical point of view .Those studies are : (1) Factors That Predicts How women Label Their Own Childhood Sexual Abuse, and (2)Family Environment in Hispanic College Females with a history of Childhood Sexual Abuse. Both journals are derived from the Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, vol 15(2) 2006 and; vol 16 (3) 2007 respectively. In both studies, all participants are females. Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) is a private crime, enshrouded in the Syndrome of secrecy (Furnish, 1991, p22). Ones personal appraisal of sexual abuse may depend on societal definitions that recognize extreme behaviours as abusive, but leave other behaviours. Although centuries of novels and autobiographies have dealt with the subject of child abuse in all its forms, society has been slow in term of recognizing the frequency with this committed assault. Since the last 20 years, research has understood the importance of CSA as a public health problem, yet the actual extent of CSA remains unknown. It is because of the efforts of a small number of researchers. The issues involved have been ignored, and there is correspondingly little mention of them in historical and anthropological studies (The political Consequences of Child Abuse, Alice Miller, The journal of psychiatry 26 (2) Fall 1998). For example, in May 2008 the world woke to the shocking news that a 71 years old Austrian man had imprisoned his own daughter in a small soundproofed windowless cellar of his family home for 24 years. During this time he raped her repeatedly and fathered seven children with her. Although around 100 people live on and off that house, none reported their c oncern to the authorities, preferring to turn a blind eye to what was going on. Moreover, most of the available information about CSAs distribution and determinants has not been based on methodologically valid and reliable measures. The lack of accurate estimates inhibits the development of effective preventive and treatment interventions. Similarly, S, Sarantakos (1998) illustrates further that data and materials already collected can only become available to researchers if the government allows it. The political bias may arises when government and funding bodies set priorities on issues they wish to be studied, promoting only what they consider as important and suppressing research in areas which they do not wish to see explored. Priorities are often biased, and certain minority groups and problems are neglected and certainly disadvantaged. The government appoints assessors of research grant applications to select the proposals that deserved support. But who are the assessors and who determined the parameter of choice? (S, Sarantakos, 1998). For example, Child abuse, that is actually neglected. Empirical sociological research studies based on data collected from children themselves are relatively few (Amit-Talai and Wuff, 1995; Mayball 1994a). The method used in the first journal How Women Label their Own CSA was cross-sectional followed by structured interviews. The study was supported by a grant from the Texas Academy of Family Physician foundation. The main objectives of the studies were: to compare victims of CSA who labelled their experiences as abusive with victims who did not, examining differences in abusive experiences, victim characteristics, perpetrator characteristics, and family relationships. Interestingly, it illustrates that despite the psychological impact of sexual abuse, many victims do not acknowledge that their experience were abuse. Abuse whether acknowledge or unacknowledged, is associated with more psychological and sociological adjustment problems (Varia et al, 1996). Layman et .al (1996) found that acknowledged victims of rape reported more post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms than unacknowledged victims, who had more symptoms than non-victims. Although CSA is widely prevalent in the United Sta tes, an estimated 16% of males and 27% of females report some experiences with unwanted sexual experiences during childhood (Finkelhor, 1994). Likewise, Stander, Olson, and Merrill (2002) discovered that self-identification as a victim of CSA was associated with threats-force, incest and younger age of onset. In addition to the characteristics of the abuse, other factors may affect how an individual defines the experience: victim characteristics (for example, gender, cultural background and education) and family environment. The study is a secondary analysis of the Childhood Experience and Adult Stress (CEAS) database conducted in the Family Health Centre of the University Health Centre-Downtown in San Antonio, Texas. In the study, 100 women were assessed for major depressive episode(MDE), panic disorder, agoraphobia, substance abuse, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), borderline personality disorder(BPD), bulimia and suicidal where only 68 women met criteria for at least one ad ult disorder; several had multiple co-morbidities. Re-using the qualitative data has several ethical and legal concerns. These include the use of whether and, if so, when researchers should seek consent to re-use data in secondary studies (Alderson, 1998). This could be done at the time when data are collected. However, information on exactly how data will be reused, by whom and for what purpose, is likely to be scant at this time. Alternatively, consent could be sought retrospectively, when particular secondary studies are planned. But this requires that participants identity and contact details are known and can be used for this purpose. Re-contacting participants also presents researchers with logistical and ethical difficulties where people might have changed address or may have died; being re-contacted may also be unwelcome to some former participants. In addition, whether or not researchers decide to seek fresh consent for a secondary study may depend on the data collection and the type of planned qualitative secondary analysis (Sage, social research methods, 2008). Moreover, in the study, researchers didnt do any attempt to re-contacting and taking fresh consent for the studies; which are relatively difficult task. Doing research under such situation brings conflict for future policy and practice. Likewise, the original study sought to identify predictors of mental health and mental disorders in women with a history of CSA whereas the second analytic research on the same data was to identify factors that predict how women label their own experience of CSA. Such research findings might not be reliable and replicable. Similarly, it has been observed that several women in the sample had not labelled their childhood sexual experiences as abuse. Therefore, this analysis was conducted by using dependent variable acknowledgement of abuse, in an attempt to understand how women subjected to sexual abuse as children come to define their experiences as abuse. A variable is a concept that can take two or more values where dependent variable is affected or explained by another variable (S, Sarantakos, social research methods, 1998, p73). Measurement relates to variables. In the study, several variables were associated with labelling in the bivriate comparisons, but did not reach significance in the logistic regression: (1) racial/ethnic background, (2) use of force/threats, and (3) duration of abuse. Hispanic was less likely than non-Hispanic whites to acknowledge the sexual activities as abuse. In the sample, only English speaking females aged 18-40 were approached where 65% of the women were from Hispanic family. Thus, these responses may have uniquely reflected local culture and values in a young adult cohort. The population of Sant Antonio has majority of Hispanic ethnicity and other dominant groups include non-Hispanic and African Americans. Those groups represented in the clinic population and in the sample were low income, which reflected the entire community. It is not appropriate to generalize whole population on the basis of findings of such limited study criteria. Furthermore, the sample included only those who were willing to tell and describe the childhood experiences of abusive activity in a face-to-face interview. One third of those who met the criteria were not willing to disclose and participate in the research. This is the fact that they may not have differed in the nature of their experiences because they did not differ demographically from the 100 partici pants. The CSA screening consisted of three main questions about their childhood sexual patterns. Women saying yes to any of the question were asked to complete a structured interview concerning the sexual abuse experience and their childhood environment and taken informed consent as well. The family-of-origin questionnaire describes the household environment throughout childhood. The 25-item parental bonding instrument assessed the quality of the parent-child relationship during the subjects childhood. The demographic questionnaire collected information on subjects gender, age, marital status, household size, educational attainment, occupation, income, and racial /ethnic background. The study has several limitations. Firstly, the outcome variable, acknowledgement of abuse had a single question and therefore may lack reliability. Secondly, the use of multiple comparisons may have inflation alpha level. Thirdly, the sample was small and unique, limiting statistical power and generalizability . In fact, the sample differed from other studies demographically. Finally, researching about traumatic childhood experiences biased politically because of the unattainable objectives. Furthermore, interviewing adult can result in data biased by poor recollection, re-interpretation of events, and failure to disclose. The study was funded by the private sponsor of the same study, so the applicability of the findings are surely related to political factors and it will totally depend on the sponsor to apply findings. The second journal family Environment in Hispanic College Females with a History of CSA sought to examine the family environments of a sample of Hispanic college women who reported childhood sexual abuse. The qualitative method with individual interview was used in the study. The main objective was to explore the relation of child maltreatment in ethnic diversity associated with cultural factors and prevalence through the study of Hispanic female college students .In the study, eighteen women, ranging from 20 to 49 years , were taken from a larger college sample. Those women were individually interviewed and administered the Family Environment Scale (FES, Moos and Moos, 1994). The qualitative methodology was employed to the study. The larger the sample size, the grater the precision (Bryman, A, 2008, p180). The sample size in the study were relatively small, in such circumstances, the scope of the findings of qualitative investigation is restrictive. On the other hand, the findings c an not be generalized to other settings because of its subjective nature and small sample size. Furthermore, it is almost impossible to conduct a true replication. The study illustrates that ethnic diversity and cultural factors which may affect the prevalence of such abuse, so, the victims emotional and behavioural response, as well as the disclosure of the sexual abuse should be ignored (Kenny and McEachern, 2000). Existing research that has examined Hispanic victims compared with victims from other ethnic group have found that Hispanic victims were more likely to have been abused by extended family members (Arroyo et al.1997) because of the given cultural value to the family with strict rules. However, good relationship among family members, caring each other, sense of obligation, loyalty and duty; because of those values placed in the family, they would not like to reveal the CSA, which would be marked as shame and guilt in the society. Furthermore, the participants were evenly distributed across all socioeconomic levels. However, it was impossible to analyze the data separately by Hispanic group because of small sample size. The project received approval from the University Research review Board and committee for human Subjects. Since the beginning of the research project, frequent announcement were made in a number of educational classes during the year. Potential participants were instructed to call the author and take an appointment for the participation. The participants who were participated in the research process were granted extra credit to their academic career. It implicated that they are just attracting and motivating the participants to participate and their motive was just to finish the research. In such circumstances, the research findings will be politically biased due to motives of the research funding. It does not actually seem to produce knowledge and generate theory. Such research would definitely have negative influence to future researchers. (May, T, 1997) Furthermore, the following questions can be asked in any piece of research: who funded it? How was it conducted and by whom? What were the problems associated with the design and execution and how were the results interpreted and used? This enables to understand the context in which research takes place and the influences upon it as well as countering the tendency to see the production and design of the research as a technical issue uncontaminated by political and ethical questions (May, T, 1997 p45-46) .For example, in the study, even after several announcement and with incentives (credit) there were only eighteen participants. During the process, informed consent was taken assuring confidentiality prior to the interview. Individual interviews were chosen owing to the sensitive nature of the material .The interview consisted of open-ended and closed questions about the demographic information including the participants potential history of sexual abuse. Following the use of a closed question, such as what age were you when the abuse began? further questions were elicited for more information during the interview. Furthermore, after interview, Family Environment scale (FES) was provided to the participants and allowed as much time as they like to complete. It is unstructured and often reliant upon the researchers ingenuity where conducting a true replication is almost impossible. Furthermore, there are hardly any standard procedures to be followed (Bryman, A, 2008 p391). Not only that, the researcher him or herself is the main instrument of data collection, so that what is observed and heard and also what re searcher decides to concentrate upon is very much a product of his or her predictions. For example, some researchers are likely to empathize with other issues; while others choose to focus upon what strikes them as significant. Similarly, the responses of participants to such a qualitative research are likely to be affected by the characteristics of the researcher (personality, age, gender, and so on). Because of the unstructured nature of qualitative data, interpretation will be influenced by the subjective leaning of a researcher (A, Bryman, 2008, p391). Because of those factors, it is difficult, not to say impossible-to replicate such qualitative findings. The goal of the study was to learn more about the family experiences of the women who reported CSA to generate future directions for future research and contribute to the understanding of Hispanic womens experiences with CSA. The FES measure consisting of 9-item subscale was used to measure the respondents perceptions of the topic. The results highlighted some important areas for future inquiry. Some of the hypothesis was confirmed. The first hypothesis, that this sample would report elevated scores on the EFS of family conflict and decreased scores on Organization, was not supported. They did not demonstrated elevated scores on the conflict subscale of EFS because of focus on general conflict among family members. The second hypothesis, the organization of these families found some support, but the study showed a rather hierarchical structure with the father or parents at the top in most families; for example; male authority 50% and 39% of mothers made decisions. The third hypothesi s was regarding the issue of sexuality; these women would report repressed sexual attitudes in their homes seems to have been confirmed for example, majority of them reported that their parents did not discuss issue related to sexuality. In the study, all women were from a voluntary college population that is not representative of the greater Hispanic population; hence, making generalization to other groups is difficult. Similarly, the study used non-contact sexual experiences, so, careful examination of definitions of sexual abuse used in other studies should be made before comparisons are conducted. Future studies should focus on disclosure process including family reactions and level of parental support following disclosure. Likewise, comparing the responses of these participants to those who are not college students would be helpful for future comparisons. In conclusion, both studies used relatively small sample that contained especially Hispanic female individuals from varying subgroups. Making generalization to others is difficult. Both studies are retrospective in nature, which required women to recall past incidents of child abuse as well as other dimensions of their families, poses limitation. Re-evaluation of past experiences and error in recall may affect responding in unknown ways (Clemmons et al, 2003; Rafaelli and Ontai, 2004); some claims that retrospective studies probably underreport abuse (Bolen, 1998). Furthermore, interviewing adult about past experiences of childhood sexual abuse can result in data bias. In addition, it is difficult to measure validity and reliability of the research. To a large extent, both studies lack transparency from research process to findings. The power that exercised in the research and sponsors influences over procedures are highly remarkable in both studies.

Analysis of IT Requirements for Pharmaceutical Business

Analysis of IT Requirements for Pharmaceutical Business Project Title Analyzing the IT requirement and developing software for a small pharmaceutical wholesaler working in India. Abstract The aim of this project is to enhance the effectiveness of pharmaceutical whole sale business in India. It is to investigate various ways of developing software for businesses in the pharmaceutical sector. This project will investigate domain-specific requirements for billing, stock maintenance, customer services; keep track of drug licenses and retail pharmaceuticals in India. And develop a software system to automate wholesale pharmaceutical company in order bring effectiveness and productivity, profitability into business. Introduction Pharmacy is a domain, which has already shown lot of growth in India. As of now when we consider, it is still fast growing field when compared with other fields. â€Å"Bengal Chemicals and Pharmaceutical Works† is the first Indian pharmaceutical company. This company exists even now and operating in government sector. It was established in 1930. Since then most of the time India imported drugs from other countries. It happened for around 60 years. Later on in India, the government started helping pharmacy industries to see what they are today. At present there are many laws that govern pharmaceutical companies and drugs in India. There are some patent related rights. As of now Indian pharmaceutical industry is doing well and recognized by the world. It is having good share in the world market. In India around 20000 drug manufacturers exist. As peripheral outfits, medical wholesalers, retailers, dealers started growing. In this backdrop, the aim of this project is to enhance the effectiveness of pharmaceutical whole sale business in India. It is to investigate various ways of developing software for businesses in the pharmaceutical sector. Information Technology is best used in pharmacy to increase effectiveness in the business systems. It could be used at various levels including whole sale market of the pharmacy industry. It promotes new ways of working and making business. It ensures quality of services thereby increasing overall productivity of business systems. There are some areas that have great impact on this industry by using Information Technology. When it comes the theme of this project that is increasing the effectiveness of drugs wholesalers by adopting Information Technology as the main instrument to provide quality of service to its customers and get maximum profits out of it. The main purpose of using such software is to improve the performance, transparency, consistency in the system. It is difficult to do many things manual. The manual system has the following drawbacks. Time consumption Error prone Less profitability Less customer satisfaction Provided the above drawbacks of manual system, if the same is automated we can reap the following benefits. The benefits of using such Information Systems can strengthen the pharmaceutical industry in India. Wholesalers in this field are important part of such businesses. It is not like taking care of one business. It is like taking care of complete chain of businesses. We should have good supply chain mechanism that works with co-ordination by all business partners. The wholesalers provide both stocking and distribution functionalities. They enable customers to get products easily whenever required. There must be trade association between manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers in order to provide in time and quality service to its consumers. The pharmaceutical wholesalers can also sale other related to products not only medicines. Other products related to medicine they can have some business. They can also provide technical information to people. They are equipped with the knowledge of various drugs and how to handle them and use them. One fine thing about pharmaceutical industry is that they are controlled by the government. This paves way to good and healthy nature among the companies that are into this market. Small and medium software systems can help wholesalers and business holders provide good service to their respective customers. Customer satisfaction is the key for any business to grow. For this we have got new subjects like â€Å"Customer Relationship Management† (CRM) and eCRM. The wholesalers could be a part of SCM (Supply Chain Management). In this case they can use the common software for entire chain. Or else they can have different software with heterogeneous nature and still work under common interfaces. They can work together to achieve the business goals of business partners. Once again I reiterate that Information Technology is best used in pharmacy to increase effectiveness in the business systems. It could be used at various levels including whole sale market of the pharmacy industry. It promotes new ways of working and making business. It ensures quality of services thereby increasing overall productivity of business systems. There are some areas that have great impact on this industry by using Information Technology. Client Background Padma Agencies is the pharmaceutical business wholesaler. Its business is located in Koti, Hyderabad, India. The shop area is 12*20 sqft space. Total staff is 10 members, in these 2 members fill the stock, 2 members writing bills, 1 member collecting cash, 5 members to save and packing all to customers. They dont have any problem in serving customers. Mostly the time is wasting at billing and calculating and at cash point because the calculating and billing is manually, so at cash point he must check the items and price and total again by manually due to containing the correct prices are available for customer or not. Here price can vary by mistakes. More Details of Example Company No data base is used to maintain the stock. There are different types of products and number of companies. The company salesmen (i.e., PG, Nestle, Cadbury, etc) come to the shop and check the quantity with help of staff member and place an order for stock to them by guessing the quantity. Expiry and damage stock will be replaced by company, if the staff can find it and hand over to company. Some products (i.e., summer products, rainy products, winter products) maintain heavy stock by their seasons and demanding products. Payments All the payments done by cash and cheques on company name. If shop had a credit to particular company the M.D doesnt receive original receipt. The shop keeper get the original bill after he clear the payment, up to they had a duplicate. Customer Placing Order Customer visit with order form Customer can order by phone. Delivery Pickup the order forms from customers and serve the items to customer, after calculating manually and payment Taking the order from phone and packed in a handled care boxes and delivery by using transport facility. Payment Methods These shops accept by cash, cheques and D.D only. Selling The goods are sale only who have a drug license No(i.e., only for Retail Pharmaceuticals) Every product had a price on them i.e., called maximum retail price (M.R.P.). Present Mode of Operation They are selling all the products by whole sale price, now the present system is totally manually i.e. billing on a paper and calculating with calculators, stock maintenance is just by guessing. Price checking is maintain in a book and items are 6000-8000 different types of items they maintaining. Daily Maintenance In the company they are maintaining ten employees, 1 M.D, 1 assist manager. In these shops the customers are visit in 4-500 hundreds per day. The salesmans sales the goods only for whom having a drug license, so, here the customer should have a drug license number to buy any product in the shop. Selling Daily A customer comes with an order form containing of items, sizes and quantity. The present system is manual and has the following drawbacks. Is a semi-automated at where the information is stored in the form of excel sheets in disk drives. The information storage and maintenance is more critical in this system. Tracking the salesman activities, customer activities and progress of the work is a complex operation. Existing system cannot provide the facility of accepting cheques. Very less security because of file systems. Very less customer satisfaction as quality of service is less. Time consuming process because of manual report generation. Management of stocks may not be accurate. Prediction of drugs demand, based on seasons is complex. Placing of orders through phone and home delivery is not possible. This system cannot provide the information sharing by 247 days. Literature Review India Pharmaceutical Industry Richard Gerster said â€Å"The Indian pharmaceutical industry is a success story providing employment for millions and ensuring that essential drugs at affordable prices are available to the vast population of this sub-continent.†India is a country in which it is proven that growth of pharmaceutical science, manufacturing and wholesaling is more. Across the country there are about 20,000 manufacturing units. The drug control authority in India gives licenses to drug manufacturers. India has quality producers who complete with world giants in the same industry. It is made possible as India has advantages in terms of good and skilled man power, excellent and cost-effective chemical synthesis, and good financial and legal framework which will ensure faster growth in the industry, very good strength in information technology usage, globalization, and good opportunities for foreign investors in this sector. As can be seen in the above table large share of revenue is generated by pharmaceutical industry in India. The table also shows the companies that stand top 10 positions. The future growth of India pharmaceutical sector is shown in the following diagram. Indian pharmaceutical industry has been witnessing a phenomenal growth in recent years. With low-cost manufacturing, most of small firms they dont have their own production facilities but they operate using the spare capacity of another company drug manufactures. High quality research, personal education and the facilities of manufacturing the Indian pharmaceuticals industry presents a competitive thread. The Indian pharmaceutical industry has got first in the Indian science based technologies with their wide range of capabilities in the complex of drugs manufacturing and technology. It is a highly organized sector worth to be a $4.5 billions and increasing the profitability with 8 to 9 percentage annually. Indian pharmaceutical industry placed before than all in terms of quality, technology, and the range of medicine manufactured. It is manufacturing every type of medicine for a small things to sophisticated antibiotics. In the development of medicines Indian Pharmaceutical Industry playing a key role and it fallows the quality procedures by regulatory authorities in U.S.A and U.K. Many international companies are associated with this sector and these companies are assisted and stimulated for past more than 50 years and helps to India keep on the pharmaceuticals world. It is extremely fragmented with more than 20000 registered units and growing drastically in the last two decades. Only the leading 250 companies are getting 70 percentage of market with market leader holding 7% of the market share. With demanding of tablets, capsules, orals, bulk drugs, drug intermediates and pharmaceutical formulations, Indian pharmaceutical sector meets over 70% of the countries demands. In India there is 5 central public units, 250 large units and nearly 8000 small scale sector units. The Indian pharmaceutical industry has low costs of production, low RD costs, innovation of scientific manpower, strength of laboratories and increasing balance of trade. The pharmaceutical company is going on the international market with its rich scientific talent and research capabilities. The domestic pharma industry: The domestic pharma industry has recently achieved some historic milestones through a leadership position and global assessment. Many Indian companies maintained amazing standards and stability, environmental production and supply of bulk drugs to some innovate companies. More of Indian companies are now seeking regulatory approvals in USA in specialized segments. Increasing number of Indian pharmaceutical companies have been getting international regulatory approvals for their plants. Indian companies are now seeking more abbreviated new drug approvals in USA in specialized segments. Growth of Indian market: In the year of 2009 Indian pharmacy was assessed $7,743m which increments of 4% than 2007u.Business observers decided that India has made good percentage than other international companies. It is also appearing as a preferred location for pharmaceutical companies. India is the world fourth largest producer of pharmaceuticals in volume. And it increases the productivity indirectly. Indian pharmaceutical industry reached us$10.88 billion and it is likely to becomes double in volume that is us$20.95 billion in 2014. Globalization of Indian pharmaceutical industry: In the early of 1990s the Indian government has opened its market to foreign investments and started the globalization. Indian pharmacy sector globalization took place with the other countries entered into this sector. Globalization has increased the world in recent years due to rapid progress especially in communications and transport. The various advantages of globalization is it brought huge amount of foreign currency into industry and turn to boost up India. With many foreign companies entering in Indian pharmacy sector, it increase the jobs availability in India. The benefits of Indian pharmaceutical globalization is, many of the foreign international companies entering into India and brought with a highly equipment technology and it improves the medicines quality and that were available to the people. Many Indian pharmaceutical companies took over international companies to grow up and for more profits. There are some disadvantages also appearing in globalization of Indian pharmacy that there may be increase the competition between foreign pharmaceutical companies and domestic companies. This will result that the profits may decrease and companies may shut-down. And one more disadvantage is many of the foreign pharmacy companies are taking over the domestic companies which happened already. This may led to fear that foreign companies will take over the Indian pharmacy companies. And many of employees lost their jobs by the company integrations. Advantage in India: India posses a skillful work force with high technical and as well as managerial competence. The track record of development and cost-schedule synthesis for various drug molecules are excellent. Legal framework is also good in India, financial market is also good. It has a good network of world most educational institutes. The country is committed to a free market economy and globalization. after many years international pharmaceutical industry has discovered many opportunities in India. Future of pharmaceutical sector: The future of pharmaceutical sector in India is extremely good and positive. Several Indian companies are acquiring US Europe companies and several more are raising funds to do so. India has began recognizing global patents. In future Indian pharmacy going to be an unbeatable position in Pharmacy. It is one of the fastest growing sector in India. Market for pharmaceuticals in India has strong potential for increased growth. Generic drugs produced in India being accepted worldwide. Global pharmaceutical companies dealing a long term relationships with India. View of pharmaceutical sector: As in the present scenario only few people can afford costly medicines which has improved price sensitivity in the market. That is the reason most of the companies introducing the high quality medicines with low price drugs for giving the competition to other industries. With product patent act which takes place in January 2005, the Indian pharmaceutical industry is attracted the MNCs to India. At present most of the Indian companies are looking forward to tie up with foreign industries for in-licensed drugs. Contract research and pharmaceutical outsourcing are the new events in Indian pharmacy market. Indian multinational companies have created awareness about Indian market in world pharmacy industries. Legislative Framework Pertaining To Manufacture and Sale of Drugs in India In the early 1990s, the drug industry in India was negligible and used to import drugs from other countries. Later the Indian government understood the situation and decided to introduce laws related to drug manufacturing and distribution. Gradually it ensured that industry is growing faster and introduced many other laws that govern the industry. At present in India the following acts and rules are present to control the manufacture, import, export and clinical research of medicines and cosmetics in India. The drugs and cosmetics act, 1940 The pharmacy act, 1948 The drugs and magic remedies act, 1954 The narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances act, 1985 The medical and toilet preparations act, 1956 The drugs order, 1995 Academic Literature in on Requirements Analysis for Small Business Systems Pertaining to Pharmacy Information Technology is best used in pharmacy to increase effectiveness in the business systems. It could be used at various levels including whole sale market of the pharmacy industry. It promotes new ways of working and making business. It ensures quality of services thereby increasing overall productivity of business systems. There are some areas that have great impact on this industry by using Information Technology. They are: Electronic transfer of prescriptions Hospital e-prescribing Information governance The electronic prescriptions between prescribers and pharmacists improve the efficiency and quality of service. It allows various fragments of pharmacy related systems get connected seamlessly. The hospital e-prescribing programmed is used to support chain of activities like prescription, administration and supply of medicines. Information sharing is also possible among health related systems in the world. Known Issues that Affect Pharmaceutical Business There is an improving pressure on Pharmaceutical and bio-technology companies to use information technology in order to achieve their business goals. Areas in Health Care industry such as drug development, molecular research, formulary acceptance, detailing, contract sales, whole sailing has been affected by the rapid growth of IT industry The competition in the industry is comparing to be the best or second in the fray. Every area of pharmacy industry is affected by the influence of science and technology and organizations are compelled to take the help of IT at least to remain in the industry There are some issues related to laws of Indian government. The industry must stick to the acts/rules imposed by government. Such rules may be changing from time to time. Answer to many of these issues is in the ability of companies pertaining to pharmaceutical utilizing the full power of Information Technology to leverage its profitability. The information related challenges can be overcome by using Information Technology in bio technology and pharmacy. More about Pharmaceutical Industry in India The government of India has been very supportive for drug Industry in the country. The government has been giving many benefits to the pharmaceutical companies in India. They are given land for establishing company and also tax benefits related to business. The Indian government not only encouraging the companies in India, it also helped many foreign investors muster their funds and invest in India in the industry of pharmaceuticals. In the process of improvement this industry has faced many challenges too. The problems like lack of funding for beginners, difficulty in getting funds from government. The biochemical industry is uncertain. Another important problem faced by Indian pharmaceutical companies in the early stages for long time was that â€Å"lack of skilled human resources†. Of course this is there in all industries to some extent. Indian companies overcame such problems and now having a very good share in the world pharmaceutical business. Functional Requirements of Proposed System for Padma Agencies Maintenance of customer details. Stock maintenance. Billing. Order details. Keeping track of drug licenses. Predicting the future demands of the retailers based on the seasons. Ordering of goods through phone and home delivery is possible. Online ordering of goods. Customized report generation. The functional requirements are classified into the following modules Stock Maintenance Ordering Billing Stock Maintenance Module This module is responsible for complete stock maintenance. It takes care of complete inventory of medicines and related products. It can generate reports as per the stock status. As things are sold the changes in the physical store is reflected in this inventory. Ordering Module In this module all the work related to ordering of goods is done. Placing orders by predicting the behavior of the retailers and the customers. It takes care of orders sent by its retail customers. It is also responsible to generate reports related to orders received from its customers and order made to pharmacy manufacturers. Billing Module When the system is started, it should authenticate user before providing its functionalities The output bill should appear as containing the shop name, address, phone number and drug license no. It contains which system i.e. (system 1, system 2,etc), billing staff id, name, bill no(transaction number), time, date, receipt type (original, duplicate, refund, void item, void transaction, etc), quantity, product name price per single and total price quantity, and the end grand total for all products , if vat is applicable then vat summary. Salesman is the person who involves in bill preparation, report generation for the current stocks maintained and tracking the drug licenses of the retailers. It is responsible for billing activities for the licensed customers. It does mean that the retail businesses that contain a valid drug license are allowed to buy pharmacy products from this store. System Requirements Thorough understanding of the system in terms of technologies required warrants that the following are the software and hardware requirements to build this system. SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS Operating System : Windows XP/2000/2003/Vista Technology : Core Java, JDBC, Swings (JDK 1.5/1.6) Database Server : Oracle 9i/10G HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS Processor : Pentium based systems with a minimum of P4 RAM : 256MB (minimum) Research Methodology Case 1: Standard labeling rules when dispensing medicines. Interfacing with a standard accounting package. Providing links to manufacturers web pages about specific products. Drug wholesalers websites to get some ideas? Standard Labeling Rules When Dispensing Medicines: A system for automated dispensing of a packaged pharmaceutical comprising good medicine labeling standards is vital to ensure the safe use of medicines. The intention of this study is to evaluate and compare compliance towards labeling standard for dispensed medications between community pharmacists and general practitioners. The medicines for human use Regulations 1994 specify the requirements for the labeling of relevant medical products which are supplied to patients. Dispensed medicines would normally require being added number of details at the time of supply. But much of the information about medicines will be available on the label of hospital manufacturing unit. The regulations has amended to allow for a reduced dispensing label requirement to cover the patient name, date of dispensing , dose or volume , direction to use and cautionary steps to follow. The medical product has to be prepared or dispensed in accordance with the prescription by the given practitioner. The assembled product is for retail supply or circumstances corresponding to retail supply. The assembled product must be sold from that pharmacy or at any other registered pharmacy forming part of the same retail pharmacy business. The assembled product cannot be advertised. The over label must not obscure the printed text of a licensed pack in any way. The label has to apply to the blank area designated on the original pack for the dispensing label. In cases where an original pack does not have provision for a dispensing label, the over label should be firmly attached to the pack in a manner that is easily readable and does not obscure the licensed text nor interfere with the safe and effective use of the medicine. Original packs over labeled in accordance with these principles may be supplied direct to hospital pharmacies, health centers etc without the necessity for formal variation of the Marketing Authorization by the Marketing Authorization holder. Breaking bulk (manufacturers original pack) will require a variation to the respective Marketing Authorization. It would be normally good practice to add the date of the supply; it can be form as a following diagram. The dispensed container should me labeled with the following information Practice name, address and 24 hour telephone number(s). hould specify the intended users. Client name, patient name and client address also. Purpose of the drug prescription, Drug name and Strength. Number if tables or volume in case of liquid. Date dispensed. Direction for use like dose, frequency and method taking the drug. Relevant information and warnings, and the process of preventing the danger if the drug has taken accidentally. Labeling of investigational medicines This paragraph is about the standard labeling for the investigational products which are used in clinical trials. The trail has to be conducted within the Member states conducted by study. The planning of trail doesnt require any particular manufacturing. The normal dispensing label would be of the form as shown below In addition to this quantity of dose (number of tables/capsules) is also to be added. It can also include Name of sponsor, means name research organization /investigator. Trail reference code specifying the identification of the trail site. It would contain the information on the product, dosage, storage conditions, and batch number etc. Interfacing With a Standard Accounting Package The pharmaceutical wholesaler â€Å"Padma Agencies† can have its account part integrated with some standard accounting packages already available in the market instead of reinventing the wheel again. At present its mode of payment is as shown below. Payments All the payments done by cash and cheques on company name. If shop had a credit to particular company the M.D doesnt receive original receipt. The shop keeper get the original bill after he clear the payment, up to they had a duplicate. Instead of making all the modules in the pharmaceutical application, the application can be integrated with a standard account package. All the functionalities provided by accounting packages can be reused if we can seamlessly integrate our application with that. This is possible provided standard interfaces given by the accounting packages vendors that support integration with the applications developed in other languages. This integrates accounting, accounts receivable, and inventory management systems, which allows the distributor headquarters to operate with minimal staffing. Each step of the process is self-contained and modular allowing rapid and flexible geographic expansion. Web Links to Drug Manufactures From the application we can provide the web links to different manufacturing companies across the world. So if some specific product is not available from local market that should be purchased from the manufacturing company. For that if required product has selected and makes a request than the manufacturing company web site will be explored. Pharmaceutical involves manufacturing of drugs and equipments in healthcare. Development of drugs is a costly process in pharmaceutical. And the drug producing companies should have commercial license for research and development according to the rules and regulations of the drug license standard body. And distribution and marketing is also a vital role. The pharmaceutical market of India has achieved a tremendous growth in technology and infrastructure. The sites can introduce you about the pharmaceutical industry. And site will provide the information about the latest innovations and developments and future scopes of the pharmaceutical industry. And the different aspects of the pharmaceutical industry have been explored. Moreover it provides history information about pharmaceutical industry along with its future scope. In addition to manufacturer information it is also provide that the product information, complete description of the product, its usage, storage conditions, ingredients ration, and whom should use under which circumstances. The pharmaceutical wholesalers are having a vital role in supply of medications. For ethical pharmaceuticals wholesaler provides a link between pharmaceutical manufactures and retail outlet pharmacies, dispensing doctors and hospitals and promoting the new innovative medications. The responsibilities of the Pharmaceutical wholesaler Pharmaceutical wholesalers provide distribution and stock holding functions. And for customers the products should be provided according to their daily requirements. So that avoiding customers having large stock. Retails pharmacists and dispensing doctors have to keep normal working medicine stock. The wholesalers have to efficiently supply on a daily basis or even within a shorter period after receiving the orders from their customers. Full line wholesalers can stock and sell a full range of pharmaceuticals. But Short line wholesalers should sell only fast moving products; they should not contain all the products stock. They can import these products from manufacturers or foreign wholesalers. Analysis of IT Requirements for Pharmaceutical Business Analysis of IT Requirements for Pharmaceutical Business Project Title Analyzing the IT requirement and developing software for a small pharmaceutical wholesaler working in India. Abstract The aim of this project is to enhance the effectiveness of pharmaceutical whole sale business in India. It is to investigate various ways of developing software for businesses in the pharmaceutical sector. This project will investigate domain-specific requirements for billing, stock maintenance, customer services; keep track of drug licenses and retail pharmaceuticals in India. And develop a software system to automate wholesale pharmaceutical company in order bring effectiveness and productivity, profitability into business. Introduction Pharmacy is a domain, which has already shown lot of growth in India. As of now when we consider, it is still fast growing field when compared with other fields. â€Å"Bengal Chemicals and Pharmaceutical Works† is the first Indian pharmaceutical company. This company exists even now and operating in government sector. It was established in 1930. Since then most of the time India imported drugs from other countries. It happened for around 60 years. Later on in India, the government started helping pharmacy industries to see what they are today. At present there are many laws that govern pharmaceutical companies and drugs in India. There are some patent related rights. As of now Indian pharmaceutical industry is doing well and recognized by the world. It is having good share in the world market. In India around 20000 drug manufacturers exist. As peripheral outfits, medical wholesalers, retailers, dealers started growing. In this backdrop, the aim of this project is to enhance the effectiveness of pharmaceutical whole sale business in India. It is to investigate various ways of developing software for businesses in the pharmaceutical sector. Information Technology is best used in pharmacy to increase effectiveness in the business systems. It could be used at various levels including whole sale market of the pharmacy industry. It promotes new ways of working and making business. It ensures quality of services thereby increasing overall productivity of business systems. There are some areas that have great impact on this industry by using Information Technology. When it comes the theme of this project that is increasing the effectiveness of drugs wholesalers by adopting Information Technology as the main instrument to provide quality of service to its customers and get maximum profits out of it. The main purpose of using such software is to improve the performance, transparency, consistency in the system. It is difficult to do many things manual. The manual system has the following drawbacks. Time consumption Error prone Less profitability Less customer satisfaction Provided the above drawbacks of manual system, if the same is automated we can reap the following benefits. The benefits of using such Information Systems can strengthen the pharmaceutical industry in India. Wholesalers in this field are important part of such businesses. It is not like taking care of one business. It is like taking care of complete chain of businesses. We should have good supply chain mechanism that works with co-ordination by all business partners. The wholesalers provide both stocking and distribution functionalities. They enable customers to get products easily whenever required. There must be trade association between manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers in order to provide in time and quality service to its consumers. The pharmaceutical wholesalers can also sale other related to products not only medicines. Other products related to medicine they can have some business. They can also provide technical information to people. They are equipped with the knowledge of various drugs and how to handle them and use them. One fine thing about pharmaceutical industry is that they are controlled by the government. This paves way to good and healthy nature among the companies that are into this market. Small and medium software systems can help wholesalers and business holders provide good service to their respective customers. Customer satisfaction is the key for any business to grow. For this we have got new subjects like â€Å"Customer Relationship Management† (CRM) and eCRM. The wholesalers could be a part of SCM (Supply Chain Management). In this case they can use the common software for entire chain. Or else they can have different software with heterogeneous nature and still work under common interfaces. They can work together to achieve the business goals of business partners. Once again I reiterate that Information Technology is best used in pharmacy to increase effectiveness in the business systems. It could be used at various levels including whole sale market of the pharmacy industry. It promotes new ways of working and making business. It ensures quality of services thereby increasing overall productivity of business systems. There are some areas that have great impact on this industry by using Information Technology. Client Background Padma Agencies is the pharmaceutical business wholesaler. Its business is located in Koti, Hyderabad, India. The shop area is 12*20 sqft space. Total staff is 10 members, in these 2 members fill the stock, 2 members writing bills, 1 member collecting cash, 5 members to save and packing all to customers. They dont have any problem in serving customers. Mostly the time is wasting at billing and calculating and at cash point because the calculating and billing is manually, so at cash point he must check the items and price and total again by manually due to containing the correct prices are available for customer or not. Here price can vary by mistakes. More Details of Example Company No data base is used to maintain the stock. There are different types of products and number of companies. The company salesmen (i.e., PG, Nestle, Cadbury, etc) come to the shop and check the quantity with help of staff member and place an order for stock to them by guessing the quantity. Expiry and damage stock will be replaced by company, if the staff can find it and hand over to company. Some products (i.e., summer products, rainy products, winter products) maintain heavy stock by their seasons and demanding products. Payments All the payments done by cash and cheques on company name. If shop had a credit to particular company the M.D doesnt receive original receipt. The shop keeper get the original bill after he clear the payment, up to they had a duplicate. Customer Placing Order Customer visit with order form Customer can order by phone. Delivery Pickup the order forms from customers and serve the items to customer, after calculating manually and payment Taking the order from phone and packed in a handled care boxes and delivery by using transport facility. Payment Methods These shops accept by cash, cheques and D.D only. Selling The goods are sale only who have a drug license No(i.e., only for Retail Pharmaceuticals) Every product had a price on them i.e., called maximum retail price (M.R.P.). Present Mode of Operation They are selling all the products by whole sale price, now the present system is totally manually i.e. billing on a paper and calculating with calculators, stock maintenance is just by guessing. Price checking is maintain in a book and items are 6000-8000 different types of items they maintaining. Daily Maintenance In the company they are maintaining ten employees, 1 M.D, 1 assist manager. In these shops the customers are visit in 4-500 hundreds per day. The salesmans sales the goods only for whom having a drug license, so, here the customer should have a drug license number to buy any product in the shop. Selling Daily A customer comes with an order form containing of items, sizes and quantity. The present system is manual and has the following drawbacks. Is a semi-automated at where the information is stored in the form of excel sheets in disk drives. The information storage and maintenance is more critical in this system. Tracking the salesman activities, customer activities and progress of the work is a complex operation. Existing system cannot provide the facility of accepting cheques. Very less security because of file systems. Very less customer satisfaction as quality of service is less. Time consuming process because of manual report generation. Management of stocks may not be accurate. Prediction of drugs demand, based on seasons is complex. Placing of orders through phone and home delivery is not possible. This system cannot provide the information sharing by 247 days. Literature Review India Pharmaceutical Industry Richard Gerster said â€Å"The Indian pharmaceutical industry is a success story providing employment for millions and ensuring that essential drugs at affordable prices are available to the vast population of this sub-continent.†India is a country in which it is proven that growth of pharmaceutical science, manufacturing and wholesaling is more. Across the country there are about 20,000 manufacturing units. The drug control authority in India gives licenses to drug manufacturers. India has quality producers who complete with world giants in the same industry. It is made possible as India has advantages in terms of good and skilled man power, excellent and cost-effective chemical synthesis, and good financial and legal framework which will ensure faster growth in the industry, very good strength in information technology usage, globalization, and good opportunities for foreign investors in this sector. As can be seen in the above table large share of revenue is generated by pharmaceutical industry in India. The table also shows the companies that stand top 10 positions. The future growth of India pharmaceutical sector is shown in the following diagram. Indian pharmaceutical industry has been witnessing a phenomenal growth in recent years. With low-cost manufacturing, most of small firms they dont have their own production facilities but they operate using the spare capacity of another company drug manufactures. High quality research, personal education and the facilities of manufacturing the Indian pharmaceuticals industry presents a competitive thread. The Indian pharmaceutical industry has got first in the Indian science based technologies with their wide range of capabilities in the complex of drugs manufacturing and technology. It is a highly organized sector worth to be a $4.5 billions and increasing the profitability with 8 to 9 percentage annually. Indian pharmaceutical industry placed before than all in terms of quality, technology, and the range of medicine manufactured. It is manufacturing every type of medicine for a small things to sophisticated antibiotics. In the development of medicines Indian Pharmaceutical Industry playing a key role and it fallows the quality procedures by regulatory authorities in U.S.A and U.K. Many international companies are associated with this sector and these companies are assisted and stimulated for past more than 50 years and helps to India keep on the pharmaceuticals world. It is extremely fragmented with more than 20000 registered units and growing drastically in the last two decades. Only the leading 250 companies are getting 70 percentage of market with market leader holding 7% of the market share. With demanding of tablets, capsules, orals, bulk drugs, drug intermediates and pharmaceutical formulations, Indian pharmaceutical sector meets over 70% of the countries demands. In India there is 5 central public units, 250 large units and nearly 8000 small scale sector units. The Indian pharmaceutical industry has low costs of production, low RD costs, innovation of scientific manpower, strength of laboratories and increasing balance of trade. The pharmaceutical company is going on the international market with its rich scientific talent and research capabilities. The domestic pharma industry: The domestic pharma industry has recently achieved some historic milestones through a leadership position and global assessment. Many Indian companies maintained amazing standards and stability, environmental production and supply of bulk drugs to some innovate companies. More of Indian companies are now seeking regulatory approvals in USA in specialized segments. Increasing number of Indian pharmaceutical companies have been getting international regulatory approvals for their plants. Indian companies are now seeking more abbreviated new drug approvals in USA in specialized segments. Growth of Indian market: In the year of 2009 Indian pharmacy was assessed $7,743m which increments of 4% than 2007u.Business observers decided that India has made good percentage than other international companies. It is also appearing as a preferred location for pharmaceutical companies. India is the world fourth largest producer of pharmaceuticals in volume. And it increases the productivity indirectly. Indian pharmaceutical industry reached us$10.88 billion and it is likely to becomes double in volume that is us$20.95 billion in 2014. Globalization of Indian pharmaceutical industry: In the early of 1990s the Indian government has opened its market to foreign investments and started the globalization. Indian pharmacy sector globalization took place with the other countries entered into this sector. Globalization has increased the world in recent years due to rapid progress especially in communications and transport. The various advantages of globalization is it brought huge amount of foreign currency into industry and turn to boost up India. With many foreign companies entering in Indian pharmacy sector, it increase the jobs availability in India. The benefits of Indian pharmaceutical globalization is, many of the foreign international companies entering into India and brought with a highly equipment technology and it improves the medicines quality and that were available to the people. Many Indian pharmaceutical companies took over international companies to grow up and for more profits. There are some disadvantages also appearing in globalization of Indian pharmacy that there may be increase the competition between foreign pharmaceutical companies and domestic companies. This will result that the profits may decrease and companies may shut-down. And one more disadvantage is many of the foreign pharmacy companies are taking over the domestic companies which happened already. This may led to fear that foreign companies will take over the Indian pharmacy companies. And many of employees lost their jobs by the company integrations. Advantage in India: India posses a skillful work force with high technical and as well as managerial competence. The track record of development and cost-schedule synthesis for various drug molecules are excellent. Legal framework is also good in India, financial market is also good. It has a good network of world most educational institutes. The country is committed to a free market economy and globalization. after many years international pharmaceutical industry has discovered many opportunities in India. Future of pharmaceutical sector: The future of pharmaceutical sector in India is extremely good and positive. Several Indian companies are acquiring US Europe companies and several more are raising funds to do so. India has began recognizing global patents. In future Indian pharmacy going to be an unbeatable position in Pharmacy. It is one of the fastest growing sector in India. Market for pharmaceuticals in India has strong potential for increased growth. Generic drugs produced in India being accepted worldwide. Global pharmaceutical companies dealing a long term relationships with India. View of pharmaceutical sector: As in the present scenario only few people can afford costly medicines which has improved price sensitivity in the market. That is the reason most of the companies introducing the high quality medicines with low price drugs for giving the competition to other industries. With product patent act which takes place in January 2005, the Indian pharmaceutical industry is attracted the MNCs to India. At present most of the Indian companies are looking forward to tie up with foreign industries for in-licensed drugs. Contract research and pharmaceutical outsourcing are the new events in Indian pharmacy market. Indian multinational companies have created awareness about Indian market in world pharmacy industries. Legislative Framework Pertaining To Manufacture and Sale of Drugs in India In the early 1990s, the drug industry in India was negligible and used to import drugs from other countries. Later the Indian government understood the situation and decided to introduce laws related to drug manufacturing and distribution. Gradually it ensured that industry is growing faster and introduced many other laws that govern the industry. At present in India the following acts and rules are present to control the manufacture, import, export and clinical research of medicines and cosmetics in India. The drugs and cosmetics act, 1940 The pharmacy act, 1948 The drugs and magic remedies act, 1954 The narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances act, 1985 The medical and toilet preparations act, 1956 The drugs order, 1995 Academic Literature in on Requirements Analysis for Small Business Systems Pertaining to Pharmacy Information Technology is best used in pharmacy to increase effectiveness in the business systems. It could be used at various levels including whole sale market of the pharmacy industry. It promotes new ways of working and making business. It ensures quality of services thereby increasing overall productivity of business systems. There are some areas that have great impact on this industry by using Information Technology. They are: Electronic transfer of prescriptions Hospital e-prescribing Information governance The electronic prescriptions between prescribers and pharmacists improve the efficiency and quality of service. It allows various fragments of pharmacy related systems get connected seamlessly. The hospital e-prescribing programmed is used to support chain of activities like prescription, administration and supply of medicines. Information sharing is also possible among health related systems in the world. Known Issues that Affect Pharmaceutical Business There is an improving pressure on Pharmaceutical and bio-technology companies to use information technology in order to achieve their business goals. Areas in Health Care industry such as drug development, molecular research, formulary acceptance, detailing, contract sales, whole sailing has been affected by the rapid growth of IT industry The competition in the industry is comparing to be the best or second in the fray. Every area of pharmacy industry is affected by the influence of science and technology and organizations are compelled to take the help of IT at least to remain in the industry There are some issues related to laws of Indian government. The industry must stick to the acts/rules imposed by government. Such rules may be changing from time to time. Answer to many of these issues is in the ability of companies pertaining to pharmaceutical utilizing the full power of Information Technology to leverage its profitability. The information related challenges can be overcome by using Information Technology in bio technology and pharmacy. More about Pharmaceutical Industry in India The government of India has been very supportive for drug Industry in the country. The government has been giving many benefits to the pharmaceutical companies in India. They are given land for establishing company and also tax benefits related to business. The Indian government not only encouraging the companies in India, it also helped many foreign investors muster their funds and invest in India in the industry of pharmaceuticals. In the process of improvement this industry has faced many challenges too. The problems like lack of funding for beginners, difficulty in getting funds from government. The biochemical industry is uncertain. Another important problem faced by Indian pharmaceutical companies in the early stages for long time was that â€Å"lack of skilled human resources†. Of course this is there in all industries to some extent. Indian companies overcame such problems and now having a very good share in the world pharmaceutical business. Functional Requirements of Proposed System for Padma Agencies Maintenance of customer details. Stock maintenance. Billing. Order details. Keeping track of drug licenses. Predicting the future demands of the retailers based on the seasons. Ordering of goods through phone and home delivery is possible. Online ordering of goods. Customized report generation. The functional requirements are classified into the following modules Stock Maintenance Ordering Billing Stock Maintenance Module This module is responsible for complete stock maintenance. It takes care of complete inventory of medicines and related products. It can generate reports as per the stock status. As things are sold the changes in the physical store is reflected in this inventory. Ordering Module In this module all the work related to ordering of goods is done. Placing orders by predicting the behavior of the retailers and the customers. It takes care of orders sent by its retail customers. It is also responsible to generate reports related to orders received from its customers and order made to pharmacy manufacturers. Billing Module When the system is started, it should authenticate user before providing its functionalities The output bill should appear as containing the shop name, address, phone number and drug license no. It contains which system i.e. (system 1, system 2,etc), billing staff id, name, bill no(transaction number), time, date, receipt type (original, duplicate, refund, void item, void transaction, etc), quantity, product name price per single and total price quantity, and the end grand total for all products , if vat is applicable then vat summary. Salesman is the person who involves in bill preparation, report generation for the current stocks maintained and tracking the drug licenses of the retailers. It is responsible for billing activities for the licensed customers. It does mean that the retail businesses that contain a valid drug license are allowed to buy pharmacy products from this store. System Requirements Thorough understanding of the system in terms of technologies required warrants that the following are the software and hardware requirements to build this system. SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS Operating System : Windows XP/2000/2003/Vista Technology : Core Java, JDBC, Swings (JDK 1.5/1.6) Database Server : Oracle 9i/10G HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS Processor : Pentium based systems with a minimum of P4 RAM : 256MB (minimum) Research Methodology Case 1: Standard labeling rules when dispensing medicines. Interfacing with a standard accounting package. Providing links to manufacturers web pages about specific products. Drug wholesalers websites to get some ideas? Standard Labeling Rules When Dispensing Medicines: A system for automated dispensing of a packaged pharmaceutical comprising good medicine labeling standards is vital to ensure the safe use of medicines. The intention of this study is to evaluate and compare compliance towards labeling standard for dispensed medications between community pharmacists and general practitioners. The medicines for human use Regulations 1994 specify the requirements for the labeling of relevant medical products which are supplied to patients. Dispensed medicines would normally require being added number of details at the time of supply. But much of the information about medicines will be available on the label of hospital manufacturing unit. The regulations has amended to allow for a reduced dispensing label requirement to cover the patient name, date of dispensing , dose or volume , direction to use and cautionary steps to follow. The medical product has to be prepared or dispensed in accordance with the prescription by the given practitioner. The assembled product is for retail supply or circumstances corresponding to retail supply. The assembled product must be sold from that pharmacy or at any other registered pharmacy forming part of the same retail pharmacy business. The assembled product cannot be advertised. The over label must not obscure the printed text of a licensed pack in any way. The label has to apply to the blank area designated on the original pack for the dispensing label. In cases where an original pack does not have provision for a dispensing label, the over label should be firmly attached to the pack in a manner that is easily readable and does not obscure the licensed text nor interfere with the safe and effective use of the medicine. Original packs over labeled in accordance with these principles may be supplied direct to hospital pharmacies, health centers etc without the necessity for formal variation of the Marketing Authorization by the Marketing Authorization holder. Breaking bulk (manufacturers original pack) will require a variation to the respective Marketing Authorization. It would be normally good practice to add the date of the supply; it can be form as a following diagram. The dispensed container should me labeled with the following information Practice name, address and 24 hour telephone number(s). hould specify the intended users. Client name, patient name and client address also. Purpose of the drug prescription, Drug name and Strength. Number if tables or volume in case of liquid. Date dispensed. Direction for use like dose, frequency and method taking the drug. Relevant information and warnings, and the process of preventing the danger if the drug has taken accidentally. Labeling of investigational medicines This paragraph is about the standard labeling for the investigational products which are used in clinical trials. The trail has to be conducted within the Member states conducted by study. The planning of trail doesnt require any particular manufacturing. The normal dispensing label would be of the form as shown below In addition to this quantity of dose (number of tables/capsules) is also to be added. It can also include Name of sponsor, means name research organization /investigator. Trail reference code specifying the identification of the trail site. It would contain the information on the product, dosage, storage conditions, and batch number etc. Interfacing With a Standard Accounting Package The pharmaceutical wholesaler â€Å"Padma Agencies† can have its account part integrated with some standard accounting packages already available in the market instead of reinventing the wheel again. At present its mode of payment is as shown below. Payments All the payments done by cash and cheques on company name. If shop had a credit to particular company the M.D doesnt receive original receipt. The shop keeper get the original bill after he clear the payment, up to they had a duplicate. Instead of making all the modules in the pharmaceutical application, the application can be integrated with a standard account package. All the functionalities provided by accounting packages can be reused if we can seamlessly integrate our application with that. This is possible provided standard interfaces given by the accounting packages vendors that support integration with the applications developed in other languages. This integrates accounting, accounts receivable, and inventory management systems, which allows the distributor headquarters to operate with minimal staffing. Each step of the process is self-contained and modular allowing rapid and flexible geographic expansion. Web Links to Drug Manufactures From the application we can provide the web links to different manufacturing companies across the world. So if some specific product is not available from local market that should be purchased from the manufacturing company. For that if required product has selected and makes a request than the manufacturing company web site will be explored. Pharmaceutical involves manufacturing of drugs and equipments in healthcare. Development of drugs is a costly process in pharmaceutical. And the drug producing companies should have commercial license for research and development according to the rules and regulations of the drug license standard body. And distribution and marketing is also a vital role. The pharmaceutical market of India has achieved a tremendous growth in technology and infrastructure. The sites can introduce you about the pharmaceutical industry. And site will provide the information about the latest innovations and developments and future scopes of the pharmaceutical industry. And the different aspects of the pharmaceutical industry have been explored. Moreover it provides history information about pharmaceutical industry along with its future scope. In addition to manufacturer information it is also provide that the product information, complete description of the product, its usage, storage conditions, ingredients ration, and whom should use under which circumstances. The pharmaceutical wholesalers are having a vital role in supply of medications. For ethical pharmaceuticals wholesaler provides a link between pharmaceutical manufactures and retail outlet pharmacies, dispensing doctors and hospitals and promoting the new innovative medications. The responsibilities of the Pharmaceutical wholesaler Pharmaceutical wholesalers provide distribution and stock holding functions. And for customers the products should be provided according to their daily requirements. So that avoiding customers having large stock. Retails pharmacists and dispensing doctors have to keep normal working medicine stock. The wholesalers have to efficiently supply on a daily basis or even within a shorter period after receiving the orders from their customers. Full line wholesalers can stock and sell a full range of pharmaceuticals. But Short line wholesalers should sell only fast moving products; they should not contain all the products stock. They can import these products from manufacturers or foreign wholesalers.