Silent Suffering – A short Story

In the beginning, the job of an obesity councillor had its perks, I must admit. I used to crave the enjoyment I received from helping someone who needed me, but I never thought that helping myself would be my downfall. My wife, she hates me, I can see it in her eyes every time she dares to look my way. And my children, what use am I to them now? Too fat to even kick a ball! A little support from her wouldn't go amiss I reckon, but of course she has a life of her own. I used to be happy, we used to be happy. Then everything changed. My job was everything to me, but how can a fat pig of a man like me show any kind of encouragement for his patients? I think it happened when my father died, we were close me and him. I took four weeks off from work, the wife was away on business and the kids stopped with her parents. All I could do was eat, I thought it would go away, but even now, almost two years later food is all I think about. I suppose the fact I recognise what I'm doing is a starting point, but what have I got to live for now? I really can't see my marriage making it to the end of the year, they'll take the kids off me, I'm sure. What kind of a dad can I be? They'll say I'm mad, they're probably right too. Look at me! So desperate for someone to talk to that I have talk to the ugly thing staring back in the mirror! Councillor heal thyself comes to mind doesn't it? It never works you know, bottling things up. It only leads to unhappiness. But when you're unhappy anyway there's not really a difference. Sometimes I just want to end it; it's like a physical pain, burning in my chest. I've planned it you know, I'm scared of course, that's why I keep putting it off. Fat coward! Yesterday at work, suicide seemed inevitable once again. For 15 years I've sat at my desk listening to the depressed stories of people like me. Can you imagine what that does to a man? My whole working career has been spent in a cell of depression and my professional mind is telling me it's definitely taken its toll! I remember my daughter's sports day a few months ago. She dragged me up for the parents' race, I tried to refuse but she wouldn't let me. The whistle blew and away we went. Other dads racing like ruddy hares and then there was me, huffing and puffing at the back. I didn't even cross the line before I collapsed in a heap, pains tearing through my chest. Teachers rushing around, determined to phone for an ambulance but I wouldn't have it. I looked up; my wife stood in the distance a scowl on her face as usual. She said later that it served me right, practically calling me a greedy pig in the process! She's right though, as always. You see, what can a man like me give to the world? I'm just another statistic, another middle aged man with no life. Fat and ugly, that's all I am! All I need is some pills; I know we have plenty around the house. Just enough to do the job. I'll take them before I sleep, that way I'll never feel it, just go to sleep and never wake up. She'll be happy, I know it. Free to be with the fancy man I know she has! My eyes are closed now, it won't be long. I left a note in the kitchen telling my kids that I love them. I didn't say anything about the wife mind you. I used to be a good man, with a purpose! How did I come to be this?

Pre-Linguistic Development Essay

As linguistic development designates the stage when children are able to manipulate verbal symbols, it should be apparent that pre-linguistic development refers to the stage before the child is able to manipulate such symbols. Consequently, this stage is sometimes called the pre-symbolic stage. Pre-linguistic development, therefore, concerns itself with precursors to the development of symbolic skills and typically covers the period from birth to around 13 months of age. Four stages can be identified: * Vegetative sounds (0-2 months): the natural sounds that babies make, e.  g. crying, coughing, burping, and swallowing. * Cooing and laughter (2-5 months): these vocalizations usually occur when the baby is comfortable and content. They are typically made up of vowels and consonants. * Vocal play (4-8 months): the infant engages in longer and more continuous streams of either vowel or consonant sounds. * Babbling (6-13 months): at least two sub-stages are identified – reduplicated babbling, in which the child produces a series of Consonant-Vowel (CV) syllables with the same consonant being repeated (e.  g. wa-wa-wa, mu-mu-mu) and non-reduplicated babbling, consisting of either CVC vocalizations (e. g. mom, pip) or VCV vocalizations (e. g. ama, ooboo). [See Speech Development] Up to this stage of development much of what the child produces is really no more than a sort of verbal play. The child is practicing individual sounds, and sound sequences, and gaining the motor skills necessary to produce what will eventually be considered as actual adult words. So, young children make various sounds and others then assign meaning to these. So, for example, a child may reach for an object whilst at the same time saying ‘m’. An adult may interpret this as the child wanting help to get the object. The child, having realized that this combination of physical gesture (reaching) and articulating ‘m’ prompts an adult to pass the desired object, may go on to repeat this behavior. The child is learning that certain actions that he or she performs can be used to control his or her environment. These changes come about because the child’s ability to focus their attention on their caregiver and on objects becomes more refined as they mature. For example, from 0-2 months there is shared attentiveness in which only the baby and caregiver form part of any interactive event – all other elements are ignored. From 2-6 months there is interpersonal engagement when the baby is conceptually able to differentiate their own self from the caregiver and focus attention on each other and on the ‘message’ of the communicative event. Then, from about 6-15 months there is a shift such that the child is now able to focus attention on objects (e. g. cups, toys, books) and understand that the communicative event is focused on these. This is sometimes called joint object involvement. It is, however, the emergence of words from about 12 months onwards that signals the onset of linguistic development. This is the stage when there is symbolic communication emerges. Linguistic Development Linguistic development occurs at what is called the One Word Stage. It is at this stage that we can properly talk about a child’sexpressive language, i. e. the words used to express emotions, feelings, wants, needs, ideas, and so on. This should not be confused with the child’s understanding or receptive language. The two are, of course, closely related. However, a child will typically understand much more than he or she can actually express and a child’s expressive language, therefore, lags behind its comprehension by a few months. Early One Word Stage (12-19 months) Before the emergence of the first ‘adult’ words the child will use specific sound combinations in particular situations. The sound combinations are not conventional adult words but they appear to be being used consistently to express meaning. For example, if the child says mu every time he or she is offered a bottle of milk then this may be considered to be a ‘real’ word. Similarly, if the child says bibi each time he or she is given a biscuit then, even though the sound combination does not represent an exact adult word, it would still be considered an early word. These early words are called protowords. The child will also be using gesture together with these specific vocalizations in order to obtain needs, express emotions, and so on. The important point is that the child is consistent in his or her use of a particular ‘word’. Later One Word Stage (14-24 months) The words used by the child are now more readily identifiable as actual adult words. A variety of single words are used to express his or her feelings, needs, wants, and so on. This is the stage at which, amongst other things, the child begins to name and label the objects and people around them. Examples include common nouns such as cup dog hat proper nouns such as Dad Sarah Rover and verbs such as kiss go sit The child may also use a few social words such as no bye-bye please The child will not yet have developed all the adult speech sounds and so the words used are unlikely to sound exactly as an adult would say them. However, they are beginning to approximate more closely to an adult model and they are beginning to be used consistently. At the end of the One Word Stage the child should have a much larger vocabulary, should be able to sustain a simple conversation, be using several adult speech sounds appropriately, and be conveying meaning through the use of single words in combination with facial expression, gesture and actions. These single words will express a variety of meaning. The next stage in the child’s development of expressive language is that he or she begins to combine two words together into simplephrases. Two Word Stage (20-30 months) It is at this stage that the child begins to produce two-word combinations similar to the following. daddy car shoe on where Katie Note that a variety of different word classes may be combined: * For example, daddy car involves the combination of two words from the same word class of nouns one noun (daddy) with another noun (car). * However, shoe on consists of two words from two different word classes, nouns and prepositions: one noun (shoe) plus a preposition (on). * Also, where Katie uses a so-called interrogative pronoun (where) together with a proper noun (Katie). In fact, a high percentage of these two-word combinations incorporate nouns. This is not surprising, as the child has spent a lot of time learning the names of objects and people. These are the important things in his or her environment and the things that are most likely to be manipulated, talked about, and so on. They are often the concrete, permanent things to which the child can most readily relate. In addition, at this Two Word Stage there is also prolific use of verbs (e. g. go, run, drink, eat). Three Word Stage (28-42 months). As its name implies, at this next stage of development children extend their two-word utterances by incorporating at least another word. In reality children may add up to two more words, thereby creating utterances as long as four words. The child makes greater use of pronouns (e. g. I, you, he, she, they, me) at this stage, e. g. me kiss mummy you make toy he hit ball It is at this stage that the child also begins to use the articles the, a and an. At first their use is inconsistent but as the child approaches 42 months of age they become more consolidated in their utterances, e. g. me kick a ball you give the dolly he throw an orange. In addition, it is common for the prepositions in and on to be incorporated between two nouns or pronouns, e. g. mummy on bed you in it Sarah in bath Four Word Stage (34-48 months) From about 34 months the child begins to combine between four to six words in any one utterance. There is greater use of contrast between prepositions such as in, on and under and adjectives such as big and little, e. g. mummy on little bed daddy under big car daddy playing with the little ball Complex Utterance Stage (48-60 months) This stage is typified by longer utterances, with the child regularly producing utterances of over six words in length. It is at this stage that the concept of past and future time develops and this is expressed linguistically in a child’s utterances, e. g. we all went to see Ryan yesterday [past time] Daddy is going to get a shoe [future time] Robert stopped and kicked a good goal [past time] Some of the more conceptually difficult prepositions such as behind, in front and next to also become established at this stage. The child will also be using the contracted negative, e. g. can’t rather than can not, didn’t rather than did not, won’t rather than will not, and so on. Example utterances include the following. Helen can’t go to granddad’s house Connor didn’t stop crying he won’t eat up all his dinner for mummy There is a lot of controversy about just when the Complex Utterance Stage is completed. Some researchers claim that at five years of age a child has developed all of the major adult linguistic features and that the only real progression beyond this stage is the further acquisition of vocabulary items. Other researchers, however, argue that children up to the age of 12 years are still developing adult sentence structure. As indicated, our overview of language development has focused on how the child develops longer and longer utterances, i. e. it has concentrated on expressive language. It should be noted, however, that there is a parallel development of comprehension, or receptive language. So, for example, at the Early One Word Stage the child is capable of understanding a few single words spoken by others as well as speaking a few words. Similarly, at the Three Word Stage the child can also comprehend the four to six word utterances spoken by others as well as producing such utterances themselves. In summary, the child will need to be able to comprehend utterances at least at the same level as those that he or she is able to construct and use expressively. In reality, we find that a child’s level of understanding actually precedes their level of expression. That is to say, a typically developing child will always understand more than they can express. The extent to which the development of receptive language precedes expressive language is highly variable and it is not possible to define any precise norms. The following table summarizes the stages of early development of expressive language. Precursors to Language (Pre-linguistic)| 0-2 months| 2-5 months| 4-8 months| 6-13 months| reflexive crying and vegetative sounds| cooing and laughter| vocal play| babbling – reduplicated – non-reduplicated| (Symbolic) Language| 12-19 months| 14-24 months| 20-30 months| 28-42 months| 34-48 months| 48-60 months| Early One Word Stage(protowords)| Later One Word Stage| Two Word Stage| Three Word Stage| Four Word Stage| Complex Utterance Stage| Table 1. Early Development of Expressive Language.

Healthcare Disparities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Healthcare Disparities - Essay Example In other words, there were separate hospitals for both the whites and the blacks (Williams, 2007). Much has been done to reduce these disparities but the situation is still the same even today. Other racial or ethnic minorities are also affected by these healthcare disparities. The prevalence of disparities among the blacks and racial minorities is still high. Healthcare disparities are common in new AIDS cases among the Blacks and Hispanics, preventive care for pneumonia among the Asians, and communication with healthcare providers among the poor. Access to healthcare services is hampered by healthcare disparities and the response varies from one community to the other. Access to quality healthcare is not a guarantee and this is evident to the uninsured population. Healthcare coverage among the population is based upon the social class. The poor people especially those from the minority and ethnic groups tend to have poor coverage and this has been linked to racial disparities (Mullner, 2009). The federal government should take into consideration the minority and ethnic groups within the population. They should come up with a better policy that addresses the needs of these groups. The most vital thing is to understand how their cultures operate and they will be in a better position to assist them in the best

The World of Regionalism and Globalism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The World of Regionalism and Globalism - Essay Example Globalisation is the process by which the various world economies become increasingly interlinked resulting in a worldwide economy characterized by global economic policymaking conducted by mandated international agencies such as the World Trade Organization (WTO). However, Globalization can also be perceived in terms an emerging global culture in which people consume similar goods and services across boundaries in addition to having a common business language for example English. The continued integration of world economies enables efficient and effective economic interaction and in turn, they are further promoted by it (Todaro and Smith, 2003). The increased interaction and integration leads to improved openness and willingness of different economies to undertake international trade which paves the way for financial flows and direct foreign investment. Therefore, Globalization enables the increased mobility of factors of production chief among them capital and labor which facilitates business carried out among states and global business actors. Global business actors, in this case, refer to the private sector actors who are in control of assets in more than one country and are also referred to as multinationals or multinational corporations (MNCs). The importance of this group in the assessment of globalization is based on their control over a growing share of international trade flows which are beyond the reach of their parent governments (Bremmer, 2010).

Managing organizational transition Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Managing organizational transition - Essay Example A transition in an organization is crucial for the business to thrive. Factors such as competition and demands by customers affect the transition in an organization. They are perceived to bring better services, innovative products and improve the efficiency of the organization. A well-planned transition sees to it that there is improved competitiveness, an encouraging financial performance, and most importantly an excellent customer and employee satisfaction. Most organizations have invested their time, energy and resources in the management of organizational transition management. The management of organizational transition has been known to increase an organizations power to accelerate the transitions process and to capitalize on the opportunities presented by the transition process. For the effective management of an organization, the company needs build their organizations capability to initiate change and facilitate rapid transitions (Durant 5). Durant also suggests that an organization needs to do away with processes that do not add value. Durant also believes that organisations, change agents should come up with a vision, which reflects on the groups energy the vision should be able to link the present and future. Durant looks at the initial stage during a transition, which he calls the unfreezing stage. He argues that this stage involves unlearning of past behaviours he explains that the organization at this stage experiences disconfirmation, which is an incompatibility between two or more attitudes. He suggests that the organisation needs to reduce the discomfort I agree with Durant, which changes most of the time causes discomfort. Usually it does not only happen in an organization, but also in all aspects of life, a comprehensible form of illustration would be a student who changes schools. In a new schooling environment, one is not at ease and tries so much to fit into the new system for some

HRM And SHRM Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

HRM And SHRM - Essay Example Virgin very early realized that simple management of employees is not good enough to achieve greater success in the global market. It took the idea that investment in human element with respect to all aspects of the organization is essential for the success of the company. It integrated management of human resources into organizational strategy and has reaped tangible benefits as a result of this. Virgin took the HRM approach of designing systems, policies, and procedures to manage employees and integrated it with SHRM approach wherein human resources were seen as the key asset, extensive interest was shown and investment was made in order to meet key objectives. The approach of the group towards SHRM can be best understood by their group motto: "Our people come first†. Virgin has adopted various initiatives to ensure that their employees are managed effectively. Safe working environments are created, training is undertaken to ensure that employees are updated with the skills n eeded to handle their work, employment contracts for all staffs, and many more HRM initiatives have employed. There are other HRM systems in place such as bonuses, stock options, profit sharing, etc. Along with this Virgin have come up with numerous SHRM strategies such as recruitment criteria were in the company looks for values and character among the prospective employees that can uphold the company's brand value. Only those are selected who possess values that fit with the company's brand culture (Verma, 2006).

Poor Drug Compliance and Education to Asthma Patients Essay

Poor Drug Compliance and Education to Asthma Patients - Essay Example Unintentional non-compliance results when the patient lacks understanding on doctor’s prescription due to factors such as illiteracy, language barrier, or forgetfulness. Intentional non-compliance results due to patient’s choice to ignore the medication for personal reasons or fear of side effects of the drugs. Heath care teams such as nurses and doctors can play a major role in enhancing medical adherence. This can be through reviewing the compliance of patients to the medications, identifying, and dealing with the reasons behind patient’s noncompliance. Background Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease, which is triggered by allergens such as tobacco smoke, rapid weather changes, and infections. Asthma is characterized by attacks of inflammation and narrowing of small airways when asthmatic persons are exposed to the trigger factors. Asthma attacks can be mild or life threatening. Asthma symptoms include shortness of breath, wheezing or panting, chest pain, as well as coughing (Axelsson & Lotvall, 2012). Good compliance with medical regimes is a main factor to prevent these symptoms. There is no cure for asthma, but there are medicine used for Asthma management that enables patients live a normal life. There are several medications options and guidelines to treat asthma and help to diagnose and manage the chronic disease that has been established (McDonald, 2002).  Management entails reducing exposure to allergens or asthma triggers and use of medications prescribed by physician. Medications can be either quick relief, which are used in treating acute signs while long-term medications are used to control aggravation of the condition. The drugs are administered as metered-dose inhales but are sometimes available as dry powder taken by inhalation. These drugs have side effects such as mild regressions. For emergency attacks, other options such as magnesium sulphate and heliox are used (Barnes, Peter, & Godfrey, 2000). Literature Research Strategy Review on asthma drug noncompliance is significant since there has been increase in the number of noncompliant asthma patients. This has hindered realization of the benefits of using asthma drugs. It is thus important to understand the reasons behind the noncompliance as well as the importance of educating asthma patients on the importance of adhering to prescriptions (McDonald, 2002). Information on the level of drug noncompliance can be published in Cinahl, ProQuest, Medline, and Cochrane databases of systematic reviews. Medline has a simplified index on its journals thus this review would be more widely available if published in any of the Medline Journals such as the journal of American Medical Association. This is because the websites deal with medical related journals such as diseases. The searching keys words that can be used to find information on asthma include respiratory disease, Asthma, inhalation drug therapy, drug compliance, patient education. Information on asthma can also be obtained from online websites.  Coming up with a review entails finding details on the level of noncompliance, reasons behind noncompliance and how the issue can be resolved (Barnes, Peter, & Godfrey, 2000). Interventions to Reduce Drug Noncompliance The issue of drug non-compliance among asthma patients is very common and requires to be addressed. The issue should be published to help reveal the reasons why most asthma patients do not comply to doctors prescriptions.

Intellectual property protection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Intellectual property protection - Essay Example The scope of the work will cover the conventions in design management and intellectual property rules and processes. In addition to this, relevant elements of international intellectual property law as regulated by the key stakeholders like the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) will be integrated into the study to form the parameters of the discussion Patents are rights to new or useful ideas (Motro, 2012). Thus, if a designer creates a new idea and a new concept, that individual can seek to register it as a patent. A patent is used for inventions and there is the individual who registers a patent has the general authority or license to confer rights for replication of the design or concept (Cannady, 2010). The fundamental requirement for a patent registration is that the idea being patented by a designer is new and useful (Dworkin and Taylor, 2011). Thus, in the world of design, as long as a design is useful and new, a designer can register it. The idea must be one that does not exist and it can be attained if a design can be applied in a scientific way or manner. The advantage of patents over other forms of registration of intellectual property is that it excludes others (Waller, 2011). This protects the legal rights and limits replications through licensing opportunity which brings the inventor royalties (Yu, 2007). This can be easily extended to different nations around the world (Yu, 2007). The disadvantage of patents on the other hand is that it lasts for only 20 y ears (Waller, 2011). It is expensive to register a patent and the requirements are extremely complicated. There is also a long time requirement for people registering patents. Another approach to the registration of a design is to use trademarks. Trademarks are however different from patents and might not be applicable to some forms of designs (Bowen, 1994). The essential role of trademarks is that it gives a commercial

The statement of purpose Essay Example for Free

The statement of purpose Essay Being an international student is a major learning curve. Miles away from Hong Kong, I’m way out of my comfort zone, navigating a stormy sea of emotions unique to international students- the excitement of seeing new things and places, the pride of being an international student, the fear of dealing with home sicknesses, the frustration of not being able to fully understand everything in this country, the embarrassment of even the minute faux pas I do. Academic challenges are nothing compare to the emotional battles one must face. Â   While there is no harness that I can latch to, my experiences back home can steer my journey here. As a school prefect, I was in charge of keeping order and discipline in my school. I can use it to keep my perspective balance on everything that comes my way, to be able to open my eyes to the world in a new way. I am proud to say that I am an international orientation leader in my community college now. Being a leader has kept me sane, kept my feet on the ground. I know that I am responsible to my fellow international students and I’m doing my best to do so, by combining studying hard and being a good example to them. My current GPA is 3.9. I know having good grades are not everything to a student. Believe it or not, students also need to have a life that does now involve memorization and algebraic equations. Being a leader has expanded my network, exposed me to other students who I now call friends. In HK, I was in our ping-pong team, played saxophone and piano. I hope to continue my hobbies here, perhaps enlist in the school band. HK is a fast-paced environment. Everybody moves quickly, as if on a race. By studying here, I hope to do the opposite. Don’t get me wrong. Fast can be fabulous. Email and YM are a godsend solution to instant conversations. But there are some things that can’t be rushed, such as readying yourself for the future. Adapting to a new environment can be daunting but capitalizing on my personal experiences is something I can rely on to survive this journey.

The murders in Mary Shelleys Essay Example for Free

The murders in Mary Shelleys Essay There were however, moments when his conscience surfaced often did my human nature turn with loathing from my occupation this obviously shows us that Frankenstein was not completely enthralled by his work and that he did have some of his morals intact. But eventually his true reasoning behind his experiments surfaces. Frankensteins whole intention was to play God and to create a creature different from humans. `A new species would bless me as its creator. This shows us that Frankenstein feels that by completing his experiments he could become almost God-like by holding the power of life and reviving the dead. This can also be seen through the title of the novel Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus, as Prometheus stole fire from the Gods, Frankenstein stole creation from the Gods for the betterment of humanity. The stronger theme is that of discrimination to outsiders. The character of Frankenstein is not represented as evil. He is self-centred and single minded in his pursuit to create perfection and learn, the secrets of heaven and hell. He doesnt consider the implications of his hazardous research or believe that anything could possibly go wrong, his intentions he believed were good. Shocked at his failure and unable to accept his loss of control over his creation Frankenstein runs away from the problem. He is too vain to confess that what he has done is wrong and will not reveal his secrets to even his most loyal friend Clerval. He almost lives in a dream world, believing that he can become an architect of life and respected by all. Frankensteins ultimate weakness is his failure to admit failure. In this way Frankenstein could be held partly responsible, inevitably it was the monster that had killed. His killings were premeditated and targeted in who he was to kill, he did not kill to defend himself but to cause pain to Frankenstein. When the creature is first brought to life, he is confused; he is quick to develop an understanding of the sense of pain, heat, hunger and cold. He marvels and delights like a child at the sights and sounds of nature. He is puzzled by the beating that he receives from the villagers and resolves to keep his distance and observe them, hoping that he will discover why they drove him away. We can clearly see that there is no anger or desire for revenge at this stage, the creature delights in their beauty and happiness and shares their sorrows, when they were unhappy, I felt depressed, when they rejoiced, I sympathised in their joys i He has no evil intentions towards anyone or anything at this stage, he is still very innocent. This could have been a deliberate portrayal by Shelley to make the creation like a child, impressionable by society. However, when the monster tries to help others, he is rewarded not by acceptation into society but by physical abuse. When he is shot after trying to save a small girl he vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind i The monster showed no hatred to mankind until he was repeatedly rejected by society and even the De Lacey family who he thought he was close to abandoned him, as had his creator. In this way we can see that throughout the novel society rejects someone who is different, which meant the monster could not live like others, but in stead live an existence where he sought human companionship even though they rejected him. The monster says that his reasoning for his murders was, ` the barbarity of man. so Shelley is trying to show us that monster murdered because he was rejected by man. The monster says ` I am malicious because I am miserable because he was outcast from the world forever. So society is partially responsible for the murders. In conclusion we can see that the question, Who is responsible for the murders in Frankenstein? cannot be answered by placing the blame wholly onto one character. In fact Frankenstein, his creation and society as a whole played a part in the deaths. Although it may have been the monster who strangled William and murdered both Elizabeth and Clerval it was Frankensteins inability to admit to his faults that led to the death of Justine. As Frankenstein could not be bold enough to let other people know that it was not Justine who killed William but his creation. If Frankenstein had divulged his secret then they would know it was the monster who perpetrated the murders. Furthermore, if Frankenstein had told Clerval of the monster then Clerval may not have died, but this can be said for all the murders that occur in the novel. So it was the monster that killed not to defend himself but to have his revenge on a society who judged him not by his morals but by the way he looked. As can be said for our society today which contains many people who discriminate others because of sex, age or race. I feel that Victor is mainly responsible, he started an experiment to which he had given no thought and when he was not happy with the result he ran away hoping that it would pass over but it didnt. Even though he had numerous chances to admit to his failure it was only when it was too late that he confessed.