A specific function of an element of the U.S.Department of Homeland Research Paper

A specific function of an element of the U.S.Department of Homeland Security...I want to ICE - Research Paper Example However, it seems that many had barely looked at the surface, while credits for the many accomplishments in the preservation of national security were enjoyed by renowned groups only. There is more to ICE than meets the eye. Crime has many forms, and until one is committed, authorities may not be instigated to design the appropriate laws and the organization to enforce them. The establishment of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) entails a long history of trial and error. From a small unit, it evolved into an all-encompassing crime-busting organization, and front-liner in the operation against terrorism. In fact, before 9/11, immigration and customs authorities were not widely recognized as an effective counterterrorism tool in the United States. ICE changed this by creating a host of new systems to better address national security threats and to detect potential terrorist activities in the United States. ICE targets the people, money, and materials that support terrorist criminal activity (Fay, 2007, p. 591) So much was the impact of the 9-11 tragedy that the Government addressed areas of â€Å"national security† before all other concerns. Intelligence planned to engage in strategies to monitor all means of communications and dissemination of information. The President made efforts to build close relationships with his counterparts abroad to extend the nation’s scope of alliance. Federal authorities created ICE to ensure that whatever the cause of the blunder was, it will not happen again. Today, although ICE is hardly ever portrayed in the big screen like the FBI and CIA, and thus is not identified by many, it is always included in the cast when national security is at risk. They perform such functions that affect millions of lives, directly and indirectly. Since then, the United States has not been subjected to anymore instance of terrorist attack, and the question lies on whether it was due to ICE’s effective performance, or

Bias and Diversity among healthcare services providers from an ethical Essay

Bias and Diversity among healthcare services providers from an ethical prospective - Essay Example n and medical trainees, to prevent unconscious stereotypes and cultural/racial attitudes from influencing the outcomes and course of clinical encounters. Such skills and strategies are designed to I. enhance internal motivation with an aim of reducing bias, while at the same time avoiding external pressure; II. Increase the understanding on the basis of psychological bias and III. Enhance the confidence of the providers in their ability to interact successfully with socially dissimilar patients. There is need for measures and programs that will offer an environment that is not threatening to practice new desirable skills and the need to avoid health providers ashamed of ethnic, cultural, or racial stereotypes. Studies on social cognitive psychology show that with sufficient cognitive resources, effort, and motivation, people are able to focus on the individuals’ unique qualities, and not on the groups they are from, in behaving and forming impression towards others. Even stereotypes and prejudice that are automatically activated can be inhibited when individuals are perceived more in relation to their particular qualities rather than as social categories members. Interventions to check on biases in health providers’ behavior, decision making, and judgment should therefore promote individuation cognitive strategy, where the health provider focuses on the personal attributes of a particular patient, and not on categorization (Baum 26). There is a direct relationship between health practices and culture. Different studies have shown that of the many factors that determine health behaviors and beliefs, culture is among the most influential. In an effort to meet the culturally diverse groups needs, health care providers have to be cultural competent. Dienemann (2007) defined cultural competence in his study as a set of congruent attitudes, policies, and behaviors that come together in an agency, a system, or amongst professionals and enable an agency, system or

Multimedia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Multimedia - Essay Example Digital information refers to the system of information based on discontinuous data or events. In addition, digital literacy defines the overall ability of identifying, utilizing, evaluating, creating, and manipulating information using digital technology, which incorporates the use of discrete and discontinuous values. Such data is expressed in terms of strings of zeroes and ones i.e. 0’s and 1’s, where each of these state digits being referred as a binary digit (Anon, 2009). The emergence of digital information has resulted in the introduction of and adoption of digital technology, which has provided innovations such as digital computers, laptops, digital cameras, iPads, and other digital electronics that have enhanced the digital information processing, and dissemination of digital information. The computing machines distinguish and use only the two binary values of 0’s and 1’s. Digital literacy has been adopted within the higher education because of th e technology change and the need for information access. Higher education includes tertiary institutions such as Colleges, Universities among others. Such institutions have vast number of individuals who need to access more information in terms of research, and within their studying environments to complete assignments and projects. Availability of the internet and networking technologies has efficiently enabled the access, distribution, and communication among individuals using digital literacy. Benefits of digital literacy Digital technology has led to the growth and constant adoption of digital literacy, which has promoted the following benefits. It has enabled majority of the individuals within the higher learning institutions to have constant access to information concerning their courses, performing online assessments and assignments for their academic progress. Learning course materials have been easily uploaded on the major academic sites including the various blackboard sit es for institutions for the students to easily access information, perform online assignments, and submit results for assessment. This has reduced the bulkiness of paperwork within the learning environment and reduced the time required for completion of assignments by both the students and their lecturers. Digital literacy has enabled individuals to make plans, chat with friends, get news concerning academics and the entire world, perform constant downloads for books, software, movies and music from online music stores, and access online shopping through e-commerce sites and companies (Anon, 2009). The technology has increased learner effectiveness, efficiency, engagement, and development of positive student attitudes towards learning. There has been a change in the student behavior in terms of readiness to learning, and integration of the students in the learning process of digital literacy (Underwood, 2009). Technology use Digital literacy technology can be adopted in classroom se ssions by using computing machines (personal computers and portable laptops, iPads among others) which are connected to output devices such as projectors, which output the information. The course materials including lecture notes, assignments, and student results are uploaded on the institution’s intranet, including the e-learning blackboard site and easily downloaded for use in the classrooms with students. In the workplace, such technology can be adopted through various forms such as uploading the information on the company’s site to be accessed only by authorized staff members. Also through conferencing, using digital cameras enables individuals far from their workplace to communicate and virtual conduct meetings with the present members at the offices within the company. Technology implications Digital technology

Digital Cinema Review and Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Digital Cinema Review and Analysis - Essay Example The effects used in Gravity are simply astonishing as they hit the viewers emotionally, spiritually, and psychologically. The director, Cuaron, has used his signature style for this movie which is the technique of using long shots. The camera and shooting techniques of the movie have greatly contributed in making it a visually appealing movie and along with that, these techniques have helped in depicting the story and the concepts of the movie pretty well. Gravity tends to be a weighty movie which means that the script had been prepared over a course of five years and the direction of the film only became possible with the new techniques of lighting, shooting, and directing which marked a new era of fictional film making. The story is about a medical researcher who is self-alienated from the community of humans and the Earth. Eventually she is put all alone in space for great stretches of time. Space is an important aspect and metaphor for the film which helps the characters to explore themselves and struggle for survival. In space, in the weightlessness, the inaction of an individual’s personality becomes a physical force. The movie shows many cocoons for survival including ships, stations, and spacesuits which challenge the stark deadliness for an unprotected human of the universe. The space aspect brings in an emotional theme where it is shown that humans can take the Earth’s environment into space in little bits and pieces but the Mother Planet has immense gravity which attracts the human to come back home. There are also physics concepts which come in this theme when the researcher is given deadly barriers to cross making her life-giving atmosphere a threat (Hughes 1). This story is between the Earth and space and in order to bring the heavy story back down to the Earth into the hearts of the audience, the director has used 90

The Pros and Cons and Military Draft Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Pros and Cons and Military Draft - Essay Example The pros and cons and military draft – within different political and social conditions – are presented and analyzed in this paper. Emphasis is given on the identification of the characteristics of the relevant decision – i.e. whether it promotes freedom or not. The examination of the existing literature led to the assumption that military draft is not necessarily an indication of freedom; it is rather related with the political framework of each country reflecting the thoughts of the governors rather than the willingness of the citizens to participate in military initiatives. In other words, it has been proved that freedom can cost; moreover, it is made clear that citizens are not free to decide on their participation in initiatives that aim to protect the freedom of their nation. This fact does not necessarily indicate the lack of their willingness for participating in the relevant schemes. In any case, the terms under which the military draft is currently deve loped lead to a series of positive and negative effects – as analytically explained below. The Military Draft has been developed in order to serve specific needs: the number of the citizens participating in the military corps had to be estimated and evaluated – taking into consideration the military needs of each country – at least this is the initial role of the Military Draft as part of a country’s political framework. At the next level, the Military Draft can serve a series of additional needs, for instance, the need of a country to improve its position in the international community – by showing a well structured and highly populated army.  

How the cultures of Norway, United Kingdom and Greece differ and how Essay

How the cultures of Norway, United Kingdom and Greece differ and how it affects the way the countries are run - Essay Example Situated away from the cultural centres, Norway has a strong culture flourishing from the ninth century. The unique Norwegian Farm Culture, sustained to this day is closely related to the country’s history and geography, due to the scarce resources, harsh climate and the ancient property law. Romanticism has a great influence on Norwegian language and media. With the continued support of government for various activities like exhibitions, cultural projects etc, Norwegian culture flourished in areas of art, literature and music. Present Norwegian culture is a melting pot of various backgrounds and cultures. Norwegians are mainly egalitarian people who mainly focus on fairness, equal rights and open-mindedness. They like people for their nature and not what they do or how much money they have. They are honest and sincere in their relationship and have a simple way of living. Norwegian food has diversified in recent years and all types of food is available along with sea food. Ev ery year Norwegian food festival is celebrated in late august to celebrate different kinds of food. Music has an important role to play in Norwegian history. It has been passed down the generation and mainly includes instrumental and vocal music. The traditional musical instrument includes Hardingfele followed by Harp. The traditional dress is Bunad, an elaborate dress with lot of embroidery and jewellery. From Business perspective there are certain attributes in culture of Norway like informal style, individual interests, Transactional relationship and direct communication. History defined United Kingdom as a developed power, a major power and comprising of four major countries-England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, each of which has retained its distinct culture. But with cultural influence of west, there were changes in United Kingdom’s culture. Humanism, Protestantism and representative democracy developed .With the evolution of industrial revolution in UK, there were major changes in field of agriculture, manufacturing and transportation which impacted socio- economic culture. Formerly a homogeneous society, Britain has become more diverse with people from different part of world living there. British are known for their stiff upper lip and blitz spirit. They still live up to grin and bear attitude in situations of embarrassment. They are reserved and private people and are sticklers for adherence to protocols. British cuisine follows a specific set of traditions and customs of cooking. However British has absorbed the cultural influence of those who settled in Britain. British cuisine’s international significance is limited to full breakfast and Christmas dinner. Britain has made a lot of progress in field of music with British invasion and British-pop evolving. The traditional music is centuries old and has contributed to a lot of genres. It supports major orchestras and was among the two main countries in development of rock music . UK has been in forefront in development of theatre, movies, radio and television. UK has played a major role in scientific developments from the times of scientific revolution. The Royal society serves as a centre for science and is the oldest society developed. From the prospective of business British are formal and look for long-term relationship in Business. The culture of Greece has developed over a thousand of years with influence of Roman Empire, British Empire but according to historians the credit for

Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor versus Pressurized Water Reactor debate Essay

Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor versus Pressurized Water Reactor debate - Essay Example On the contrary, the Pressurized Water Reactors are cheaper to maintain, environmentally safe and reliable. This prompted the government to commission the Sizewell B project. Future energy generation considerations are likely to favor the use of renewable sources that are cheaper, and environment friendly. Contents 1.0 Introduction From the 1960s, there was a clarion call to develop nuclear energy in UK with Advanced Gas-Cooled Reactors (AGRs) being the preferred choice. The first prototype of the advanced gas-cooled reactor was developed in 1962, but the first commercial AGR became operational in 1976. Complexities in implementation of the prototype delayed completion of the first AGR commercial plants. Other AGR projects were to be commissioned later in the 70s, and the 80s. However, they faced the same challenge (delayed implantation) compounded with a heavy cost implication. This led to an acrimonious debate about the use of AGR technology to generate electricity, when other econ omically viable means were available. The immense pressure forced the UK government to abandon building AGRs anymore and instead focused on the Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs). This led to the commissioning of Sizewell B in 1987 to 1995. The PWRs were considered to be cheaper, environmentally safer and more reliable than the AGRs. ... The AGR is designed to use carbon dioxide as a coolant and graphite as a moderator. The AGR is a specifically UK breed of reactor developed, from the design for the very first nuclear reactor, to generate electricity for commercial use, a reactor built at Calder Hall in Cumbria, UK (Breeze, 2005, p. 258). Figure 1: Schematic diagram of an AGR Source: World Nuclear Association There are several advanced gas-cooled reactors built in the UK, but they have been found to be costly to operate. Most of the AGR plants cost more at the completion than it was initially anticipated and no further units of the design are planned. Instead, the last nuclear power plant built in the UK employed a United States PWR design (Breeze, 2005, p. 258). Pressurized water reactors (PWRs) are used in light-water reactor power plants. Although, there are different manufacturers in the United States, the fundamental characteristics of the PWRs are the same: the main coolant brings up steam vapor in the heat exc hanger, known as the steam generator and this steam drives the turbines. Figure 2: Schematic diagram of a PWR Source: Tennessee Valley authority By the 1970s, United Kingdom was the only major Western Europe country yet to adopt the use of light water reactors (LWR) technology to develop. This was a result of a protracted debate between the protagonist of the AGR and the LWR. It was argued that the LWR was unsafe, thus the promotion of AGR usage. The Magnox stations in UK had for a long time been faced with the problems of low volumetric power density, low operating temperatures and low pressures. The time had come to look for an alternative, and well improved design. This led to the development of the advanced gas-cooled reactors.