The most famous building of U of O Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The most famous building of U of O - Essay Example It also functions unconventionally through use of smart plugs, efficient electric lighting and controls, advanced monitoring systems and green roofs. Lillis Business Complex’s orientation enables it achieve maximum energy efficiency hence reducing emissions. The east-west orientation ensure that there is adequate natural light in the classrooms during the day therefore no artificial lighting, which emits heat and raises energy costs, is required. The building also runs on solar energy, a renewable source of energy, which is generated from a 44 kW of (PV) cells. These cells are incorporated into the atrium’s south-facing curtain wall finishing, windowpanes on the penthouse roof, and flat roof sheets and are fed into the university’s power grid for use by other amenities.1 This in turn ensures that there are no emissions from generators and it greatly reduces the energy cost in the university. Environmentalist are advocating for recycling and reuse of materials as a way of coming up with sustainable buildings and environments. Lillis Business Complex is made of recycled materials hence extending the life and usefulness of old materials that have fulfilled their purpose, thus making them useable. The construction waste from the previous building was sorted and valuable materials like steel and cardboards were reused in the building of the green complex.90% of the beautiful complex is made up of structural steel and concrete which contain recycled matter. The floor is made of Marmoleum, which is a biodegradable product of linseed oil and wood wastes from industries, a big part of the buildings carpet tile is from recycled carpeting, which has a prolonged life span compared to other forms of carpeting, and all this resulted in cost saving of the building materials. If not well designed for, a building may end up using more or less water than anticipated hence water conservation is a key element when coming up with green buildings. This may lead to increased water bill costs or under utilization of the building due to lack of or inadequate water supply. Sustainable landscape techniques have been put in place for water conservation purposes. Adaptive plants have been used to minimize water and pesticide use, which lead to pollution, Low flow appliances have also been put in place with the aim of conserving water by controlling the amount of water that runs from these appliances. Green roofs act as normal strainers by keeping water in plants, growing media and later vaporizing it into the air, during summer, they retain 70-80% of rainfall and 20-30% in winter and decrease and deferment run off throughout hefty and extended precipitation. By incorporating green roof in Lillis Business Complex, the institution reduced the impact of run off on the storm water drainage system and reduced the chances of local flooding. During summer, photosynthesis and evapotranspiration reduce the amount of solar energy absorbed by the roof membr ane, creating cooler temperatures in the interior while during winter, root activity of the plants produce heat thus keeping the interior warm, therefore making them good insulators. The green roofs also provide the students’ with an area where they can socialize as well as meet their green space needs, fresh air transmission in a building not only increases the tenants’ self-esteem, but also develops their health and luxury. The quality of indoor environment in Lillis Business

A New World for Women Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

A New World for Women - Essay Example Moreover, the history of American women also motivates current generation to become productive and beneficial for the American society. Answer: No: 2 When I think of an American woman, a very constructive and positive image comes to my mind. As far as my observations about American women are concerned, they are the most hardworking, talented, generous, and attractive women in the whole world. They not only give proper attention towards their personal lives but also work with full dedication and commitment in their professional lives. An American woman is also religious and spiritual. â€Å"She goes to church and does her best to live and treat others right† (Richardson, 2010). I have personally contacted many American women and have found them generous, style-oriented, and intelligent. The best thing I can say about American women is that when they are at homes, they are perfect wives and mothers, and when they are at work, they are perfect professionals. References Richardson , R. (2010). Why African American Women Are Right For You - Part 2?. Retrieved from http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-African-American-Women-Are-Right-For-You---Part-2&id=5410190

Self Reflection on Developing Confidence

Self Reflection on Developing Confidence Competence is difficult to measure and define because it is a complex concept (FitzGerald et al., 2001). As many people wrongly think, competence is not simply the satisfactory performance of a set chores; competence is much wider than that. Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council (2011) defines competence more extensively as the putting of skills, knowledge ,attitudes, values and power to perform that base productive and or better accomplishment in a professional area. Competence is one of the five main constructs of caring behaviours. To be able to demonstrate caring attitude as a well-trained professional nurse, one must first be a competent practitioner of the nursing profession. For a nurse to be fully competent there is the need to have a sound knowledge based on my area of specialty in other to function independently with confidence. Smith Straham (2004) identifies that the ability to teach requires considerable amount of confidence in ones professional career. A nurse who lacks confidence as a tutor is not probable to give up control of the ward or classroom to students. High self-efficacy is also really needed from me as tutor. One most significant aspect about teaching is that it also helps you develop your knowledge. Feeling unsure and uncertain as a nurse is not a good quality, I need to gain confidence as well as I have gained experience. As a staff nurse teaching student nurses is an important part of my duty, student will always turn to me for assistance and guidance in clinical care. Normally student nurses find it easier to approach newly registered nurses to ask for support and counselling. RELATING MY SKILL TO SECTION With latest exclusion of stimulated experience, traditional methods to clinical education in nursing have not been changed substantially for years. In this olden model, faculty instructors give instructions and evaluate learning for a group of 8 to 10 students and work as clinical experts and supervisors for them. Patient assignments are always received in advance and clinical experiences are planned for by reviewing procedures, pathology, drugs and nursing interventions. When teaching I interact with the student through the patient assigned to them but I lack confidence which is unprofessional. My priority though is my patient care first and the learning student a secondary concern. Their primary relationship normally is with faculty members. My duty also as a tutor in the ward is to work simultaneously with the students each day. Sometimes the presence of students in the ward can be seen as burdensome and interferes with my ability to provide patient care. Raines (2006, Pp. 8) stressed that nurses make a huge difference in also helping students have clinical competence and skills. When student nurses are allocated to staff nurses they begin to appreciate the full range of professional nursing roles and responsibilities but in a case where the staff nurse assigned to a student nurse lacks confidence what would the student feel? Clinical practice competence and skill competence both relies on role competence (ORourke, 2006). COMPETENCE AND NMC (NURSING AND MIDWIFERY COUNCIL) The National Council of State Board of Nursing (2005) defines competence as the power to act and apply Knowledge, interpersonal, directing and psychomotor skills to nursing practice role.Tiley (2008) noted that there is no definite and welcomed definition of competence in nursing education and practice. Notwithstanding competence is defined in unlike ways, there is a common goal: to guarantee nurses have the information, skills and power to perform duties expected and required for their practical settings. The word competence is acquired from Latin and it means having important qualities and abilities to function in a distinguishing ways. Nagelsmith (1995) explains the basis of professional competence as a set of vital and appropriate knowledge, skills and attitudes. There are different essential features needed to achieve competence: Perseverance of Knowledge, skills and abilities needed for graduates of nursing education programs, based on principles and legal necessity; Pertinence to current practice; Registration and licensing examinations by board of nursing; Board of nursing persistent education requirements for licensing; Employer watching carefully of required staff development modules, finishing of courses, demonstrations and examinations; Guidelines and accreditation for nursing practice. In addition, competences are required in practice as a profession because it is needed to always exercise ones professional responsibility and practice. Nursing and Midwifery council (NMC) included competence as a constituent in professional practice because as a professional you must keep your skills and knowledge current throughout your working life. Specifically you should take part as a matter of usual practice in learning activities that grows your competence and accomplishment. To practice capably in learning activities that develops your competence and performance. To practice capably one must have the knowledge, skills and abilities needed for lawful, safe and productive practice without direct supervision. One must recognise the extent of his or her professional competence and only attempt practice and accept responsibilities. It was also stated that if an area of practice is beyond ones level of competence or outside your area of specialization, you must get help and supervision. One also has a responsibility to assist the progress of students of nursing, midwifery and health visiting and others to cultivate their competence. Having accountability to deliver care based on current proof, best practice and where appropriate, validated research when available. RATIONALE WHY I NEED TO DEVELOP COMPETENCE IN THE CHOSEN AREAS Safe nursing practice in my chosen area, mental health at this level is typified by the use of nursing process to treat people with truly existing or potential mental health problems or psychiatric disorders to: advance and promote health and safety I should be able to evaluate dysfunction: help persons to get back or improve their coping abilities, increase strengths and stop further disability. In contributing to safe practice to the people in the society i have to develop my competence in a wide sphere of interventions ,including health promotion and health maintained plan of action, intake screening and assessment and triage, case management, milieu therapy, promotion of self care actions, psychobiologic interventions, health teaching, giving advice, critical situations care and psychiatric restoration. The nurse maintains accountability for maintaining competence in this area of mental health nursing practice through life long learning. Competence is an essential component in my professional responsibilities. Professional responsibilities also need me to recognise limitations and put myself in settings and duties that allows me to function safely. Minimum vital competence for safe practice is also essential for me they include essential features such as basic principles of nursing, critical thinking, interpersonal relations and areas of ethics. There is a lot of risk involved working as a mental health nurse; preventing suicide depends on the nurses ability to know about a persons suicidal risk status. In most cases mental health nurses are the most competent to attempt a full risk assessment of a suicidal patient. The general health professional is frequently placed in place of activity where potential patient suicide risk is sure through direct account from the patient, noting of behaviour or from patient history examination. In this clinical place of activity, the general nurse or allied health professional responsibility is to carry out a brief risk assessment and then refer to the suitable mental health professional for an inclusive psychiatric assessment (Department of Health, 2004). SELF ASSESSING AND MAINTAINING COMPETENCE IN THE CHOSEN SKILL In the field of nursing competence is required for nurses to make safe clinical decisions. Other methods for evaluating competence include self-assessment and the development of professional portfolios. The usefulness of self-assessment has helped me to maintain and improve competence in the aspect of teaching student nurses who wants to learn more in the area of mental health nursing. My individual competence has improved as I become more experience and the knowledgeable. In complying with my duties as a mental health nurse in supporting other skills development i will participate in team meetings where equal opportunities are given to share knowledge and ideas with colleagues. I will also engage in a teaching programme either as an instructor or a study under a preceptor. In addition improve my clinical practice by with self or others.

Getting Rid Of George :: essays research papers

Personal Response to Getting Rid of George Robert Arthur’s story, Getting Rid of George is a good gothic story because of it’s various examples of required gothic elements. These requirements include atmosphere, psychological state of mind, mystery, romance, and melodrama. All of these combined make this story a good gothic example. To begin, the setting, at one point, takes place at a dark secludes cabin in the mountains. Evidence of this is found when Harry describes: "It is absolutely deserted up there at this time of year." As well, the disappearance of George to everyone except Laura and Harry adds to the gloomy atmosphere. Again adding to the gloom and terror of the story is the physical exploitation of cruelty shown by Laura when she repeatedly beats George with a statuette until he lay dead on the floor. Mental exploitation of cruelty is also evident when George returns from the dead and blackmails and once again tries to ruin Laura new found life. We found clear examples of an atmosphere of gloom and terror throughout this story proving that Getting Rid of George is a well written gothic story. Along with a gloomy and terrifying atmosphere, Arthur uses the element of aberrant psychological states of mind to add to his gothic story. An example of irrational behavior is shown when Laura becomes outraged and spontaneously murders George. We thought, as well, that when Laura suffers a fainting spell is also an example of this psychological state of mind. Evidence of this is found when Arthur writes: "Harry held Laura until the nausea within her subsided." Lastly, hallucinations were also prevalent in the story as well. We thought a good example was when Harry and Laura were bringing George to the cabin to dispose of his body, Laura claims that George’s dead eye slowly opened and gave her a knowing wink. Elements of mystery were also used throughout this story. Many things were hidden or unknown. Some examples are when George walked into Laura’s dressing room disguised as part of the press. His real identity, to Laura, was unknown. Also the fact that Laura murdered George and Harry is planning to help her was kept hidden from anyone and everyone. We also found obvious secrecy and obscurity in the story as well. Laura’s past was kept as a deep secret as it would more than likely hurt her new career as an actress.

A Firearms Violence on Teens

Despite nationwide gun-free school laws that prohibit possession of a firearm on or near the property of a public or private school, students are bringing guns to school and using them against their fellow students and teachers with increasing frequency. What possesses these students to gun down their classmates? How are these students getting access to firearms? Who is ultimately responsible for these tragedies? What stresses contribute to these shootings? And how are parents and educators missing the warning signs that these children have reached the breaking point? Over the past few years, there have been an astronomical number of school shootings across the country, sending policy makers, parents, teachers, and other concerned citizens into a tailspin. These events are becoming more frequent and have shattered the sense of safety that children should have when they are in school. Shootings by students, some as young as 10, have occurred at sickeningly regular intervals in urban towns like Pearl, Mississippi, Jonesboro, Arkansas, Fayetteville, Tennessee and most recently Littleton, Colorado, where 12 students and 1 teacher lost their lives at the hand of two teen shooters who took their own lives. Firearm violence falls second only to automobile-related deaths, as the leading cause of injury-related death, in the United States. By the year 2003, firearm fatalities are projected to become the United States leading cause of injury-related death, unless the violence is curbed. In 1991, Texas and Louisiana saw firearm fatalities surpass automobile fatalities, and Virginia and Nevada also have continued this trend. In fact, the firearm death rate is increasing faster than any other cause of death except AIDS related fatalities. Recent public attention has focused on the problem of gun violence in the nation†s schools. A 1994 Gallup poll of Americans, for the first time, fighting, violence, and gangs have moved to the top of the list to tie with lack of discipline as the biggest problem facing schools. It is difficult to determine what effect the threat of violence has upon the learning of each student, but clearly education takes a back seat to one†s own sense of security and well being. According to a survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control, one in 20 high school students carry a gun and one in five students would tell a teacher if he or she knew of another student carrying weapons to school. Theories differ about where young people get their guns. School security experts and law enforcement officials estimate that 80% of the firearms students bring to school come from home, while students estimate that 40% of their peers who bring guns to school buy them on the street. The United States has weaker firearm regulations and higher numbers of deaths involving firearms than all other industrialized nations. The greatest tragedy of gun violence is the tremendous numbers of children and youth killed or injured each year by firearms. These numbers continue to increase at alarming rates. According to Gunfree.Org, in 1985, the number of firearm homicides for youth 19 years and younger was 1,339, in 1995, it was 2, 574. In 1995, guns accounted for 84% of homicides of persons 13 to 19 years of age. Averages of 14 youth each day are killed by gunshots. A group studying juvenile violence in Multhomah County, Oregon identified the inadequate response of the juvenile justice system to students expelled for possessing weapons in schools, the need for additional efforts to detect weapons, and anti-violence education in schools as primary concerns. We must, as a society, recognize that there is a cycle of violence and that violence breeds more violence. There is no single answer to the problem of violence. A multi-faceted approach is needed. Prevention must be a priority. According to a ‘Public Health† Approach, recognition of three levels of prevention activities is essential: Primary prevention: These are interventions directed at people who have no obvious risk factors for development of violence. An example would be teaching grade school children to deal constructively with anger and conflict. Secondary prevention: These activities are directed to those who show clear-cut risk factors for violence. An example would be training in anger management for people who have a history of arguments or fighting. Tertiary prevention: These activities are directed toward minimizing the danger caused by those who have displayed violent behavior. Examples include interventions to allow gang-established patterns of serious or repeated violence. Any approach to violence must include education carried out in various ways and settings including collaboration among community groups, businesses, the schools, and government. Most of all, the parents must get involved. Schools offer the opportunity to reach a substantial percentage of the youth population and teach them skills aimed at the reduction of violence. Teachers are able to identify early on problem youth and families. Schools represent an important site to convey the message of society against weapons and violence. An important part of the anti-violence prevention strategy aimed at all youth is increasing the efforts to detect weapons in schools. While schools are already vigilant about responding to individuals when specific knowledge is available about weapons possession, this approach has not addressed concerns and perceptions that a number of weapons are present in schools undetected. Expanding the commitment to zero tolerance for weapons in schools would also better communicate to youth community standards, assuming that adequate consequences are in place. Most weapons are found through reporting by a concerned student. Such reporting should be praised. The National School Safety Center offers a checklist derived from tracking school-associated deaths in the United States from July 1992 to the present. Through studying common characteristics of youth who have caused such deaths, the following behaviors are a sampling of indicators of a youth†s potential for harming him/herself or others: History of tantrums and uncontrollable angry outbursts. Habitually makes violent threats when angry. Has previously brought a weapon to school. Has a background of drug, alcohol or other substance abuse or dependency Preoccupied with weapons, explosives, or other incendiary devices. Little or no supervision and support from parents or a caring adult. Reflects anger, frustration, and the dark side of life writing projects. Often depressed or has significant mood swings. Following the horrific shooting in Littleton, President of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, Michael Beard, remarked, â€Å"As a country, we must do a better job of protecting young people. We must turn of the flow of guns into our communities. This is an adult problem that deserves an adult response. It is our responsibility.† If we, as adults, do not step forward and take action to prevent even one more senseless act of violence, the youth of today will never have a tomorrow.

Failure of Thomas Gradgrind (Hard Times by Charles Dickens)

Thomas Gradgrind is a man bereft of any imagination or fancy, and perhaps that is why he is a staunch believer in the practicality of the education system. He discards wonderment and regards facts and figures as the ultimate path to learning. In the novel Hard Times, the author Charles Dickens has shown Gradgrind as an educationist, and hence has portrayed him implementing his views on both his pupils in the school, as well as on his family. He expects his students to engage in nothing but factual education; and brings up his children on the same principle.Fashioning his children on the principle of logic, he wants to make model beings out of them, which he may portray to society as examples of a practical nature. But he fails to understand the power of human emotions, or rather their weakness. Ignoring all possibilities of what hope and imagination could bring, into the lives of both himself and others around him, he creates a wall of facts beyond which it becomes very hard for his daughter Louisa and his son Tom to see, which they very much come to want. They get sick of their father’s ‘eminently practical’ ways and long to break free from the environment they are made to live in.Their desires and wishes are so subdued that they are forced to turn to whatever respite, no matter how little they can get from any source whatsoever. Despite his efforts to implement his theory upon everyone around him, the seed of fancy does not die out in his son and daughter, and is evidently on display in the incident where the siblings are caught peeping in at the fanciful circus which fuels their starved imaginations, but their moment is short lived as they are caught by their eminently practical father who chastises them for their behavior.In his views, their behavior is astonishing, for such practical children are not expected to be seen paying attention to things such as circuses and other such buffoonery. His views, which he holds in such high regards, fail here as it shows that no matter how much practicality a person is fed with, even if it is up to the brim leaving no room for any thing belonging to another nature, that basic human nature, which is known as, among others, fancy, will find its way through the thickest of books and the toughest of facts, into the minds of human beings, especially those so deprived of it.And it may as well grow their, positively if it is fed, and negatively, in a manner of frustration and despair, if it is not. Such was the case with Gradgrind’s children that their fancy was gravely trampled upon and not allowed to grow, that their basic human nature of fancy and imagination took on a negative tone of development and brought out in them natures far from what might be considered good. Gradgrind’s forcing upon them his extreme practicality and factual nature brings out the worst in them, as is often the case with youth exposed to the extremities of human psychology.His daughter Louisa enters into a loveless marriage with the unsympathetic man Bounderby, and becomes an unfeeling and cold person. There is no hope developed within her to help her think about what other prospects might have been open for her; whereas Tom goes astray and disembarks on a path unfit for a gentleman of his stature. There is no imagination in his mind whatsoever to suggest to him another course of being other than the one he has been brought up on, which is also the one he detests, and hence, in desperation, he takes to the only other path he sees before him.Gradgrind, having firm belief in the sensibleness of his ideas, extends his educational theory to the orphan child Sissy, who is the estranged child of the circus man Jupe, whom Gradgrind, overcome by pity at realizing her prospects as an un-apprenticed orphan, invites to live in his own house, which he relishes in presenting as an example to Louisa as to what becomes of someone who engages in things which do no appeal to the rationa l side of man.He provides Sissy with the same logical education he had been fashioning his children and his pupils on, but Sissy is not able to be as practical in nature as her education ought to have made her. She is not able to leave behind her basic nature, one which has bred from a past of reading fairy tales and enjoying the circus, which Thomas Gradgrind so detests. And it is this past, this quality of nature, which ultimately helps his son to escape a dreadful turn of events. Tom Gradgrind, on the other hand, having received an education factual in nature to the core, and without any experience whatsoever in mattersotherwise, goes off course and unlike his father, becomes a man of lesser standards. He enters into gambling and commits thievery. The education tom receives, which teaches him that self interest must rise above every other, is over-done. As a result Tom becomes so selfish that he coaxes his sister Louisa into marrying the rich businessman Bounderby just so that he could mint money for his gambling purposes, and becomes cross with her, when Louisa lands up on the wrong side of her marriage and is not able to fulfill his demands anymore.His sister is distraught at being treated coldly by her beloved brother, as he is the sole love of her life. He is very efficiently able to hide the crime he commits by playing upon the general suspicion on the poor workman Stephen Blackpool, the suspicion he has facilitated by taking advantage of Stephen’s gratitude towards his sister and asking to keep watch over the bank on the days leading to the robbery, so that the general doubt would naturally fall on Stephen.Gradgrind is forced to realize the failure of his theory implemented on his children by the embarrassment he suffers at the hands of his son when Tom junior, after his heist at the bank is at the brink of exposure, is in the process of escaping but is stopped short by Gradgrind’s old student Bitzer, who has now become a man of utmost p ractical bend of mind, who places his teacher’s very theory in his own face.Bitzer is an unyielding man who gives importance to nothing above self interest, which, as he truly states, was taught to him under the school of thought propagated by Thomas Gradgrind himself. He gives no regard to his former educator, stating instead that self interest and practicality is what he has been taught all his life, and that is what he shall practice. Gradgrind’s daughter Louisa marries Bounderby solely for the sake of her brother.Neither does she feel anything special towards Bounderby, neither holds anything against him, but agrees to it solely on her brother’s suggestion. To her, nothing in her life is worth getting excited for, as the extreme practical nature of her upbringing restricts her from thinking about things she could’ve possibly engaged in. Her saying, from time to time, â€Å"What does it matter? † suggests that she is so jaded of the system she i s a part of, that it does not matter to her what goes on around her, and is devoid of all concern.Her upbringing and education has been so weak in equipping her with knowledge about human relations of any kind that she is flustered when she is approached by James Harthouse with matters of the heart, and rushes back to her father as she is clueless about what to do about or make of the situation, thus displaying the failure of Thomas Gradgrind’s principles and beliefs on which he has brought his daughter up. This which goes on to show that man’s basic temperament cannot be bottled and filed, thus failing his theory of education being profoundly practical.