National Crime & Criminal Information System

Preliminary Project Plan For the National Crime Information System Project Group Members Asebe Jeware Bereka Yesuf Betreab Solomon Fantaye Kumssa Hijira Seid Tadesse Aregawi Tilaye Teshome Table of Contents 1Executive Summary3 2Project Scope6 3Expected Benefits8 4Preliminary Project Timeline9 5Preliminary Staffing Requirements10 6Preliminary Risk Assessment11 7Preliminary Assumptions12 8Preliminary Budget13 9This Project And Its Impact On Or By Other Projects14 10This Project And Its Impact On Or By Existing Systems15 11This Project And Its Impact On Or By Existing Infrastructure16 12Recommendations / Next Steps17 13Appendices18Executive Summary The  National Crime Information System (NCIS)  will be the country’s central  database for tracking crime-related information. The project would act as a computerized index of crime and criminal justice information (i. e. – criminal record history information, fugitives, stolen properties, wanted and missing persons) and w ill be available to Federal Police, Regional state Police commissions, Federal Ministry of Justice, Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, Federal Prison Administration, Authorized law enforcement agencies and other criminal justice organizations and it will be operational 24 hours a day.The purpose for maintaining the NCIS is to provide a computerized database for ready access by the Federal Police making an inquiry and for prompt disclosure of information in the system from other criminal justice agencies about crimes and criminals. This information assists authorized agencies in criminal justice and related law enforcement objectives, such as apprehending fugitives, locating missing persons, locating and returning stolen property, generating statistical data on crimes and criminals as well as in the protection of the law enforcement officers encountering the individuals described in the system.The project would be involved in eliciting the requirements from Federal Police , Regional State Polices, Ministry of Justice and Other Stakeholders, understanding those requirements and developing a prototype of the application that we have planned to build. The NCIS project will be completed in two years. We plan to achieve maximum automation of crime Investigation process and try to minimize the manual intervention. The system will have a common database in which authorized officers can easily find crime and criminal information anywhere in the country. BackgroundEthiopia has an administrative structure of federal system in which states forming the federation govern themselves through their own legislative, judiciary and executive organs. There are nine regional states and two city administrative councils that form the Government. This necessitates a high degree of coordination among the Federal Government, states and other institutions towards achieving national objectives. The Federal Police which is one of the major law enforcement bodies is expected to p lay a pivotal role in the administration of Crime Prevention and Investigation.However, the absence of a well organized National Crime Information system has remained a major challenge to the Organizations in Criminal Justice to carryout their duties and responsibilities successfully. This reality makes it mandatory to create and develop a well defined and systematized crime data collection method and the establishment of a sustainable Crime Information System that would be used as inexhaustible source of data/information for purposes of crime prevention, criminal investigation, policy formulation etc. Scope (X months or years in duration)The Project will introduce a new Information System; with the following features: †¢ It records and manages the national crimes and criminals information. †¢ Manages and Records missing, wanted persons and fugitives. †¢ Locating stolen properties and missing persons. †¢ Searching and generating statistical report on crimes and c riminals. †¢ Providing information on missing persons and stolen properties for further investigation. Outcomes / Expected Benefits †¢ The NCIS will make available a variety of records to be used for law enforcement and security purposes.These records are made up of a variety of forms of personal and property records. †¢ The information in the NCIS assists authorized agencies in criminal justice objectives, such as apprehending fugitives, locating missing persons, locating and returning stolen property, as well as in the protection of the law enforcement officers encountering the individuals described in the system. †¢ The system will have crime database information which will be centrally available and shared among stakeholders. Make available statistical data on crimes and criminals that would help in providing education to the public on major crimes †¢ Researchers and study centers will have access to the database information relevant for their purpose. à ¢â‚¬ ¢ Make available Statistical data on crimes that would help in revising existing laws and crime prevention directions †¢ Easily allocate data on criminals, missing persons, and lost properties.†¢ Formulates means and methods of criminal statistical data collection, organization , analysis and interpretation necessary to study the causes of crimes and design methods of crime prevention Project Scope Project Name: National Crime Information System (NCIS) | |Project Sponsor(s): |Project Manager: | |Federal Police |Fantaye | |Project Start Date: |Project End Date: | |October 2010 |October 2012 | |Goals / Objectives | |The business goals and objectives for this project will focus on implementing an Information System that: | |Facilitates coordination and information sharing between the major law enforcement and crime prevention organizations of the country | |Facilitates coordinated crime prevention and reduction. |Provides high levels of data security. | |Facilitates the electronic capture of data at its source. | |Eliminate redundant data entry throughout the organization. | |provide a computerized data base for ready access by a criminal justice Organs | | | |Project goals and objectives: | | | |Ensure that end users have input into the design process. |Accomplish project business goals and objectives within defined budget and time parameters. | |Minimize impact to standard business operations within the affected units. | |Craft a favorable and secure agreement between the Department and the selected vendor. | |Background / Narrative | |The absence of a centrally shared information system on crimes and criminals is a major problem for all criminal justices bodies of the country | |to easily allocate wanted persons, locate missing properties and have a realistic statistical data on major crimes.This reality makes it | |mandatory to create and develop a well defined and systematized crime data collection method and the establishment of a sustainable Crime | |Information System that would be used as inexhaustible source of data/information for purposes of crime prevention, criminal investigation, | |policy formulation etc. | |Project Deliverables | |The following are the tangible deliverables for this project: | |Preliminary Project Plan |Requirements Elicitation | |Requirements Analysis | |Architectural Design | |Object/Component Design | |Coding | |Testing | |Final version of all documents | | | |Intangible deliverables | |Security | |Performance | |Availability | |Accuracy | |Completeness | |Project Boundaries | |The project is limited to handle crime and criminal related information.

Mass Media and Younger Generation Essay

The media can definitely change your perception of intimacy, as well as alter your ability to be intimate. As the media displays false images of the human body and makes false descriptions of what humans desire sexually. There are too many subjects and issues to go on about here, but a small example of the two issues i mentioned before are in magazines the pictures of the models are airbrushed to display, what most call a â€Å"flawless† body and in movies and sitcoms the most desired people are medium height, and very slender and so on. Giving the receivers of this idea the false realization that’s what you have to have to be sexually attractive. which would cause embarrassment of their own bodies or thinking some thing is wrong if they are attracted to some one that’s 4 foot and heavy.Possibly leading them to involvement with someone they are not sexually attracted to and embarrassed to take their clothes off in front of. This is definitely, in my opinion, going to cause intimacy issues and is an excellent description of proof how mass media plays a role in shaping your meaning of intimacy. the mass media, including TV, radio, newspapers have a great influence on people and especially on the younger generation. It plays an important role in shaping the opinions and position of the younger generation. Argue for or against this statement. The peril from Mass media In the present, the younger generations are influenced by the mass media, including TV, radio, and newspapers. They think this is the model for them because in daily life is necessary for everyone therefore it is not unusual that it have a great influence on the people and especially on the younger generation. .It plays an important role in shaping the opinions and position of the younger generation. The younger imitate by the mass media and it has impact for younger that is impact for dressed, language, and behavior. Nowadays the younger or teen have been sensitive because the younger is the people who has been 13-18 years old and they want to find something for them that is their dream, acceptance from other people so they want to find inspiration and don’t have limited. So the mass media are important for the younger that they want to be the same the star or some thing when they think is good for them. If they were persuaded by vice maybe they will be scoundrel. Some of people are think it is unsuitable dressed. Although the younger want to be one that who are the modern of them. Some of people think it is suitable but the younger can not consider. The stars are good dress but adult think it is unsuitable. The mass media have good or bad but we do not know so we must warn you child before late time. However it has impact for family because when the younger use the mass media be the model neither it bad nor it not bad I think it is directly for the younger especially language. It was influenced by younger because when the stars are speaking, the younger are listen it I think they copy the speech from the stars if it is bad I think it is not good.

Essay of Ancient China

Ancient China In ancient Chinese cosmology, the universe was created not by divinities but self-generated from the interplay of nature's basic duality: the active, light, dry, warm, positive, masculine yang and the passive, dark, cold, moist, negative yin. All things, animate and inanimate, and all circumstances were a combination of these fundamentals. The ultimate principle of the universe was the tao, â€Å"the way,† and it determined the proper proportions of yin and yang in everything. Anything that altered the natural relation of yin to yang was considered bad, and right living consisted of carefully following the tao.If one observed the tao by moderation, equanimity, and morality, as taught in the Tao-te Ching, by Lao-tzu (sixth century B. C. ), one would be impervious to disease and resistant to the ravages of aging; disregard of the tao led to illness, which was not so much a punishment for sin as the inevitable result of acting contrary to natural laws. However, illn ess also could be caused by forces beyond one's control: â€Å"Wind is the cause of a hundred diseases,† and atmospheric conditions could upset the harmonious inner balance of the yang and yin.One had to be alert to this possibility and combat its effects as well as modify internal imbalances of the vital forces. Longevity and health were the rewards. Chinese medicine, in league with Taoism, was focused on the prevention of illness; for, as the legendary Huang Ti, father of Chinese medicine, observed, â€Å"the superior physician helps before the early budding of disease. † Although Taoist hygiene called for temperance and simplicity in most things, sexual mores were governed by the yin-yang aspect of Chinese philosophy.Ejaculation in intercourse led to diminution of a man's yang, which, of course, upset the inner balance of his nature. On the other hand, one was strengthened by absorption of the yin released by the orgasm of one's female partner—unless she was over thirty, the point where female essence lost its efficacy. The tao was important in Confucianism also, as the path of virtuous conduct, and for centuries the precepts of Confucius (K'ung Fu-tzu, 550-479 B. C. ) set the most prevalent standards of behavior. In early Chinese philosophy, there was a tendency to accept and combine aspects of all religions and to make way for new ideas.Nevertheless, the ancient Chinese were profoundly conservative once an institution, custom, philosophy, mode of dress, or even a furniture style was firmly established, and it remained relatively unchanged over centuries. As Confucius said: â€Å"Gather in the same places where our fathers before us have gathered; perform the same ceremonies which they before us have performed; play the same music which they before us have played; pay respect to those whom they honored; love those who were dear to them. † Although ancient China's development was relatively isolated, there was early contact with India and Tibet.Buddhism came to China from India, and medical concepts and practices were an important part of its teachings. The gymnastic and breathing exercises in Chinese medical methodology also came from India and were closely related to the principles of Yoga and to aspects of Ayurvedic medicine. There were also contacts with Southeast Asia, Persia, and the Arabic world. In the second century B. C. , the Chinese ambassador Chang Chien spent more than a decade in Mesopotamia, Syria, and Egypt, bringing back information on drugs, viticulture, and other subjects.Over the centuries, knowledge of humoral medicine and of numerous new medicaments filtered into China. The introduction of the wisdom of the Mediterranean world was greatly facilitated in the fifth century by the expulsion and wide dispersion from Constantinople of the heretical Nestorian Christians. The mother of Kublai Khan (1216-94), founder of the Mongol dynasty, was a Nestorian and asked the Pope to send European d octors to China. Early Medical Writings Classical Chinese medicine was based primarily on works ascribed to three legendary emperors. The most ancient was Fu Hsi (c. 2900 B. C. , who was said to have originated the pa kua, a symbol composed of yang lines and yin lines combined in eight (pa) separate trigrams (kua) which could represent all yin-yang conditions. This system is followed even today in the I Ching (Book of Changes), though as a game or superstition in the West. Shen Nung, the Red Emperor (Hung Ti), compiled the first medical herbal, the Pen-tsao (c. 2800 B. C. ), in which he reported the effects of 365 drugs, all of them personally tested. One legend explains that a magic drug made his abdominal skin transparent, so he could observe the action of the many plants he evaluated.Another story tells that he cut open his abdomen and stitched in a window. Shen Nung is also said to have drawn up the first charts on acupuncture, a medical procedure presumably even older than the legendary emperors. The fame of Yu Hsiung (c. 2600 B. C. ), the Yellow Emperor (Huang Ti), rests on his great medical compendium, the Nei Ching (Canon of Medicine). Transmitted orally for many centuries, this seminal work was possibly committed to writing by the third century B. C. Its present form dates from the eighth century A. D. when the last extensive revision was done by Wang Ping. The major portion of the Nei Ching, the Sun-Wen (Simple Questions), records the discourse of the Yellow Emperor with Ch'i Po, his prime minister, on virtually all phases of health and illness, including prevention and treatment. The section called Ling-Hsu (Spiritual Nucleus), deals entirely with acupuncture. Yu Hsiung also was said to be responsible for another great compendium, The Discourses of the Yellow Emperor and the Plain Girl, which thoroughly covered the subject of sex from the Taoist point of view.Among other notable sources for ancient medical lore, one might mention the Shih Ching (Boo k of Odes), which perhaps predates Homer's epics, and the Lun-yu, discourses of Confucius probably written down shortly after his death, which affected patterns of behavior for many generations. During the long Chou dynasty (c. 1050-255 B. C. ), a lengthy compilation of medical works, Institutions of Chou, was completed and became the criterion for subsequent dynasties on the duties and organization of physicians. In the Han dynasty (206 B. C. -A. D. 20), there was a noted clinical author named Tsang Kung, who pioneered in the description of many diseases, including cancer of the stomach, aneurysm, and rheumatism. Chang Chung-ching, the Chinese Hippocrates, in the third century A. D. , wrote the classic treatise Typhoid and Other Fevers. Ko Hung, a famed alchemist and a careful observer, wrote treatises describing beriberi (a vitamin B deficiency), hepatitis, and plague, and gave one of the earliest reports on smallpox: â€Å"As the New Year approached there was a seasonal affectio n in which pustules appeared on the face and spread rapidly all over the body.They looked like burns covered with white starch and reformed as soon as they were broken. The majority died if not treated. After recovery purplish black scars remained. † Sun Szu-miao (A. D. 581-682) wrote Ch'ien Chin Yao Fang (A Thousand Golden Remedies), which summarized in thirty volumes much of the known medical learning, and he headed a committee which produced a fifty-volume collection on pathology. An extensive codification of forensic medicine, Hsi Yuan Lu, was done in the Sung dynasty and became the prime source for knowledge of medical jurisprudence.Anatomy and Physiology Ideas of anatomy in ancient China were reached by reasoning and. by assumption rather than dissection or direct observation. Since the doctrines of Confucius forbade violation of the body, it was not until the eighteenth century, long after Vesalius, that the Chinese began systematic, direct anatomical studies. Even as l ate as the nineteenth century, in the Viceroy's Hospital Medical School, anatomy was taught by diagrams and artificial models rather than dissection.Physiological functions were constructed into a humoral system much like Greek concepts of the sixth century B. C. and Galenic views of the second century A. D. , except that there were five instead of four essential humors. (The number five had mystical value for the Chinese and was used for most classifications: five elements, five tastes, five qualities, five kinds of drugs, five treatments, five solid organs, five seasons, five emotions, five colors, etc. ) The medical compendium Nei Ching stated that each emotion had its seat in a particular organ.Happiness dwelt in the heart, thought in the spleen, sorrow in the lungs, and the liver housed anger as well as the soul. Ideas in the Nei Ching concerning movement of the blood (â€Å"All the blood is under control of the heart. † â€Å"The blood current flows continuously in a c ircle and never stops. â€Å") have been thought to approach an understanding of its circulation antedating Harvey by thousands of years; however, some body vessels were believed to convey air, and there is little evidence that commentators perceived the blood-carrying vessels as a contained system. DiagnosisThe Chinese methods of diagnosis included questioning, feeling the pulse, observing the voice and body, and in some circumstances touching the affected parts. In almost all times and cultures physicians have used a similar approach, for all healers have sought to know as much as possible about a patient in order to understand his or her illness and advise treatment. However, in some respects ancient physicians saw each patient more completely as a reflection of his surroundings (indeed, the entire universe) than does the doctor of today. The Chinese doctor wanted to learn ow the patient had violated the tao, and to do this he took into account the patient's rank; changes in his or her social status, household, economic position, sense of well-being, or appetite; the weather; and the dreams of the patient and his or her family. Perhaps the most important diagnostic technique of the ancient Chinese was examination of the pulse. The physician felt the right wrist and then the left. He compared the beats with his own, noting precise time as well as day and season since each hour affected the nature of the pulsations.Each pulse had three distinct divisions, each associated with a specific organ, and each division had a separate quality, of which there were dozens of varieties. Moreover, each division or zone of the pulse had a superficial and deep projection. Thus literally hundreds of possible characteristics were obtainable. In one treatise, Muo-Ching, ten volumes were necessary to cover all the intricacies of the pulse. A patient had only to extend his or her arm through drawn bed curtains for the physician to determine the symptoms, diagnosis, prognosis, a nd proper treatment by intensive palpation of the pulse.Whenever possible the examiner also felt the skin of the ill person. However, it was considered bad form for a man to intimately examine a woman, so special ceramic, ivory, and wooden dolls were pointed to by the invalid to indicate where discomfort was felt. Treatment According to the Nei Ching, there were five methods of treatment: cure the spirit, nourish the body, give medications, treat the whole body, and use acupuncture and moxibustion. The physician had to put the patient back on the right path, the tao.Assuming that specific mental states caused changes in specific organs, the healer linked certain objectionable behavioral and constitutional factors with illness and attempted to have the patient rectify these. For instance, dissolute and licentious ideas led to diseases of the lungs, but acting out such thoughts brought on heart trouble. A doctor had to determine the cause of disharmony in the body and act accordingly. Exercises were developed to keep the body fit and to restore well-being. Hua T'o, the great surgeon, worked out an ingenious system of physical therapy by advising mimicry of the natural movements of animals.Massage—kneading, tapping, pinching, and chafing—was also a regular method of treatment, as were the application of plasters and evacuation of the intestinal tract by cathartics. In nourishing a patient's body, the physician resorted to complex combinations of foods according to their potential amounts of yang and yin. Foods also had to fit the seasons, and each of the five tastes had benefits for a particular element of the body: sour for the bones, pungent for the tendons, salty for the blood, bitter for respiration, and sweet for muscle.Medications The Chinese pharmacopoeia was always rich, from the time of the Pen-tsao, the first medical herbal, to the later dynasties when two thousand items and sixteen thousand prescriptions made up the armamentarium. Drugs w ere considered more likely to be good if they tasted bad. As one would expect, they were classified into five categories: herbs, trees, insects, stones, and grains. The therapeutic minerals and metals included compounds of mercury (calomel was employed for venereal diseases), arsenic, and magnetic stones.Animal-derived remedies, in addition to â€Å"dragon teeth† (powdered fossilized bones), included virtually anything obtainable from living creatures: whole parts, segments of organs, urine, dung. Two plant substances especially associated with China may be singled out. One is ephedra (ma huang), the â€Å"horsetail† plant described by the Red Emperor, which was used for thousands of years as a stimulant, as a remedy for respiratory -diseases, to induce fevers and perspiration, and to depress coughs.Ephedra entered the Greek pharmacopoeia and eventually was disseminated throughout most of the world. It only became a factor in Western medicine in the late nineteenth cen tury after Japanese investigators isolated and purified the active principle, ephedrine, and established its pharmacologic action. A second medicinal herb, always highly popular among the Chinese, is ginseng (â€Å"man-shaped root†). To the Chinese, preparations containing ginseng were almost miraculous in delaying old age, restoring sexual powers, stimulating the debilitated, and sedating the overwrought.In addition it improved diabetes and stabilized blood pressure. In recent years this root has been under scrutiny by Western pharmacologists attempting to evaluate its true benefits. Multitudes in Asia, and even some Westerners, are so convinced of its effectiveness that high-grade wild roots have brought fabulous prices (even reaching thousands of dollars apiece). Although many items in the Chinese materia medica have either faded into bscurity or been labeled fanciful, others subsequently have been found to possess sound pharmacologic bases: seaweed, which contains iodine, was used in treating enlargement of the thyroid; the willow plant, containing salicylic acid, was a remedy for rheumatism; the Siberian wort has antispasmodics for menstrual discomfort; and mulberry flowers contain rutin, a treatment for elevated blood pressure. Whether opium was used as a drug before quite late in Chinese history is still in dispute. Acupuncture and Moxibustion These modalities have been an integral part of Chinese medical therapy for thousands of years.The Yellow Emperor is said to have invented them, but they may well have existed long before his time. The aim of these treatments was to drain off excess yang or yin and thus establish a proper balance, but external energy also could be introduced into the body. In acupuncture the skin is pierced by long needles to varying prescribed depths. Needles are inserted into any of 365 points along the twelve meridians that traverse the body and transmit an active life force called ch'i. Each of these points is related to a particular organ.For instance, puncture of a certain spot on the ear lobe might be the proper way to treat an abdominal ailment. Virtually every illness, weakness, and symptom is thought to be amenable to correction by acupuncture. Acupuncture spread to Korea and Japan by the end of the tenth century A. D. , to Europe about the seventeenth century, and recent years have seen a wider interest in this Chinese medical practice in the West. Individual paramedical healers and even some medical practitioners have been swamped with requests for acupuncture, especially for problems apparently little benefited by conventional practices.The eventual acceptability of this practice in standard Western medicine remains to be seen. Moxibustion is as old as acupuncture, and the same meridians and points govern placement of the moxa. However, in this treatment a powdered plant substance, usually mugwort, is fashioned into a small mound on the patient's skin and burned, usually raising a blister. Dentistry The treatment of tooth disorders was confined mainly to applying or ingesting drugs—pomegranate, aconite, ginseng, garlic, rhubarb, and arsenic, as well as animal products such as dung and urine.The Nei Ching classified nine types of toothaches, which included some obviously due to infections and tooth decay. Like the Mesopotamians and Egyptians, the ancient Chinese believed that worms were often responsible for dental problems. Toothpicks and tooth whiteners were used, and loose teeth were stabilized with bamboo splints. Gold was sometimes used to cover teeth, but the purpose was decorative rather than protective. Surgery Although surgery was not one of the five methods of treatment listed in the Nei Ching, the knife was known and used.Hua T'o, one of the few names mentioned in connection with surgery, treated an arm wound of the famous general Kuan Yu by cutting his flesh and scraping the bone. Physicians knew how to deal with wounds, and at least two classics we re devoted entirely to their treatment. The proper attitude toward pain was to bear it without a sign of emotion, and much was made of the insouciance of the general treated by Hua T'o; he played chess while the surgeon operated. Nevertheless, apparently some kind of anesthesia was often used.Wine and drugs like hyoscyamus were probably mainstays, but the use of opium and Indian hemp is still in question. Eunuchs and Footbinding Another surgical procedure, though hardly therapeutic, was the frequent castration of certain males seeking advancement at court. Though originally a severe punishment, the total removal of penis and testicles came to be a pledge of absolute allegiance to the monarch, since it released the eunuch from conflict with Confucian admonitions of first loyalty to family and the obligation of siring a son for posterity.Footbinding is also of medical interest, for it caused the development of artificially clubbed feet. Over a period of one thousand years, every young girl of proper family willingly permitted herself to be crippled by her mother and aunts to achieve the tiny foot of ideal feminine beauty. Her toes were gradually folded under the sole, and by increasingly tight bandaging her heelbone and forefoot were brought closer together. Without Golden Lotuses, as the best-shaped bound feet were called, a girl was unmarriageable, nor was the life of a courtesan open to her, for tiny feet were a woman's most desirable feature.For a man, a bound-foot wife had profound sexual significance, but she was also a status symbol inasmuch as her helplessness indicated that he was wealthy enough to support a woman, or women, in idleness. There was also an advantage to him in her restricted mobility, for it kept her home and made illicit amorous adventures difficult. Although China's Manchu conquerors forbade the practice in the nineteenth century, it was not until the early twentieth that footbinding was completely abandoned. Diseases Some epidemic dise ases were understood well enough to allow the development of protective measures.In the eleventh century, inoculation against smallpox was effected by putting scabs from smallpox pustules into the nostrils, a method which may have come from India. Wearing the clothing of someone who had the disease was another means of prevention. The relationship of cowpox (as a protective) to smallpox may have been perceived, since ingesting powdered fleas from infected cows was also recommended to stave off smallpox. But other devastating pestilences were neither understood nor held in check. During the Han dynasty an epidemic of what appears to have been typhoid fever killed two-thirds of the population of one region.Precise descriptions of leprosy in the Nei Ching and later works attest to the diagnostic accuracy of the early Chinese healers, but their explanation of the disease's causes and their treatment follow preconceived notions of the time. â€Å"The wind and chills lodge in the blood v essels and cannot be got rid of. This is called li-feng. For the treatment prick the swollen parts with a sharp needle to let the foul air out. † Fourteenth-century writings referred to chaulmoogra oil, a pressing from seeds of an East Indian tree, as a specific for leprosy, and this oil remained the principal antileprous drug even in the West until recent decades.An illness that may have been tuberculosis was recognized as contagious: â€Å"Generally the disease gives rise to high fever, sweating, asthenia, unlocalized pains making all positions difficult and slowly bringing about consumption and death, after which the disease is transmitted to the relations until the whole family has been wiped out. † Venereal diseases, although not well differentiated, received a variety of therapies, including the use of metallic substances for internal medication.In the Secret Therapy for the Treatment of Venereal Disease, the seventeenth-century physician Chun Szi-sung reported us ing arsenic, which, until the development of penicillin, was the modern medication for venereal disease, in the form of Salvarsan and derivatives synthesized by Paul Ehrlich. There seem always to have been places in China where the sick poor could go for medical care. With the advance of Buddhism in the Han and T'ang dynasties, in-patient hospitals staffed by physician-priests became common.However, in the ninth century, when anti-Buddhists were in control, hospitals as well as 4,600 temples were destroyed or emptied. Nevertheless, by the twelfth century hospitals had again become so numerous that virtually every district had at least one tax-supported institution. The upper classes preferred to be treated and cared for in their homes, thus leaving public hospitals to the poor and lower classes. The Practitioners In the Institutions of Chou, compiled hundreds of years before Christ, the hierarchy of physicians in the kingdom was delineated.The five categories were: chief physician ( who collected drugs, examined other physicians, and assigned them); food physicians (who prescribed six kinds of food and drink); physicians for simple diseases (such as headaches, colds, minor wounds); ulcer physicians (who may have been the surgeons); and physicians for animals (evidently veterinarians). Physicians were also rated according to their results, and as early as the Chou and T'ang dynasties each doctor had to report both successes and failures—to control his movement up or down in the ranks.In the seventh century A. D. examinations were required for one to qualify as a physician, some four centuries earlier than the first licensing system in the West. Medical knowledge was thought of as a secret power that belonged to each practitioner. Whereas in other societies, both advanced and primitive, closely knit guilds might control the spread of medical lore, the Chinese physician kept his secrets to himself—passing them on only to sons or, sometimes, specially selected qualifiers.In early times, a physician gave his services out of philanthropy, for since the original healers were rulers, sages, nobles, and, perhaps, priests, economic and social incentives were absent. Later, direct fees or salaries were instituted, and the court and certain prosperous households kept physicians on retainer. Formal schools may have existed as early as the tenth century, and in the eleventh century an organization for medical education was set up under imperial auspices. Under the Ming dynasty in the fourteenth century, the school system became fixed. It changed little over the next centuries, xcept for a gradual decline, and by 1800 there was only one medical school left in Peking. Teachers were held strictly accountable for the performance of their students, and fines were imposed if the professor failed to enforce attendance or if his pupils did poorly on exams. The examination system was complex: a pyramidal structure provided a process of elimination which continued until those with the highest scores emerged. The top students could be heart doctors, the next level were assistant examiners, and lower scores could mean limited assignment in teaching.Specialization may have occurred early. While physicians and apothecaries were separate for a long time, they were both regarded as healers. In the Chou dynasty there were nine specialties, and they grew to thirteen by the Mongol period, early in the fourteenth century. The subdivisions became even more complex, with doctors for the great blood vessels, small vessels, fevers, smallpox, eyes, skin, bones, larynx, and mouth and teeth. There were also gynecologists, pediatricians, and pulsologists for internal diseases, external medicine, the nose and throat, and for children's illnesses.Some healers specialized in moxibustion, acupuncture, or massage. Even the experts in incantation and dietetics were considered medical specialists and were often held in higher regard than other doctor s; surgeons were generally of low rank. Furthermore, each of the practitioners in each category had assistants and students—all of whom had to qualify by examination. Obstetrics was in the hands of midwives for many centuries; it is not known when the first women doctors were in practice. One female physician is mentioned by name in documents from the Han dynasty (206 B.C. -A. D. 220), but women may have been doctors at an earlier date. By the fourteenth century women were officially recognized as physicians. Throughout the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), the practicing medical theorists could be divided into six main philosophic schools. The Yin-yang group focused on insufficiencies of one of these forces. The Wen-pou doctors attributed illnesses to a preponderance of yang and frequently prescribed ginseng and aconite. The Radical group used drastic medication.The Conservatives relied entirely on the authorities of the past, reedited the classic works, and made no deviations from strict authoritarianism. The Eclectic physicians, as their name implies, used a variety of principles from the other sects. The sixth school based all therapy on bringing the five elements and six vapors into harmony. Spread of Chinese Medicine to Korea, Japan, And Tibet Ancient Chinese medicine was well-developed long before the beginning of the Christian era, and its influence appears to have spread into adjacent Korea by the sixth century A.D. At that time, after a severe epidemic had ravaged Japan, Korean doctors who were invited to counsel Japanese physicians introduced them to Chinese medical classics and commentaries. By the seventh century, Japanese scholars and doctors were going directly to China for their information and experience. In the eighth century, a Chinese Buddhist monk named Chien Chen came to Japan and achieved a prominent position in the imperial court at Nara, where, given the Japanese name Kanjin, he taught, practiced medicine, and translated Chinese materia medica.Late in that century, Chinese medicine was well-established in Japan, and a medical school based on its methodology was founded by the Japanese physician Wake Hiroya. Early in the next century (806–10), the Emperor Heijo vainly attempted to combat foreign influence and restore traditional Japanese medical practice, but the methods of Chinese healing were too firmly entrenched. In the tenth century, acupuncture reached Japan, followed by moxibusti on (the word moxa is Japanese), and the full complement of Chinese medicine was accepted in Japan.With medical training closely based on Chinese systems, the Japanese exacted exceptionally intensive and prolonged study before permitting entrance into the profession by governmental examination. As in ancient China, high social standing was a requirement for admission to medical school, but separate instruction by assigned teachers was apparently also arranged to accommodate the more lowly. The authority of Chinese medicine, no t to mention Chinese culture and philosophy, moved east as well as west by the seventh and eighth centuries.However, Arabic and Indian missionaries of Islam and Buddhism made influence a two-way exchange as they traveled to China seeking converts. Since their missions necessitated the translation of Sanskrit and Arabic writings into Chinese and vice versa, medical knowledge inevitably was passed back and forth. Consequently, the crossroads areas of Southeast Asia and Tibet developed a medical system combining aspects of Chinese, Indian, and Arabic practice. Arabic influence, which stemmed in part from Greek teachings, was evident in the doctrine of four humors (phlegm, blood, bile, and wind), whereas Indian deas were seen in the Yogic placement of the soul in the core of the spinal column and reliance on breathing exercises. Traveling Buddhist priests, who were quite successful in spreading their faith, for a long time also practiced medicine. During this early period, the two wives (one Chinese) of a Tibetan king converted him to Buddhism, and thereafter scholars were invited to bring Chinese writings into Tibet, which resulted in collections in Tibetan called Kanjur and Tanjur, the latter containing medical information.In the thirteenth century, the Mongol conqueror Kublai Khan wanted this body of knowledge available again in Chinese but was unable to carry through the translation. Nevertheless, his grandson in the next century arranged for scholars from Tibet, Mongolia, and Central Asia to accomplish the task. Ironically, while the Mongols were in control they allied themselves with non-Chinese such as Uighars, Jews, Christians, and Moslems, and they preferred Arabic medicine to Chinese. Essay of Ancient China Ancient China In ancient Chinese cosmology, the universe was created not by divinities but self-generated from the interplay of nature's basic duality: the active, light, dry, warm, positive, masculine yang and the passive, dark, cold, moist, negative yin. All things, animate and inanimate, and all circumstances were a combination of these fundamentals. The ultimate principle of the universe was the tao, â€Å"the way,† and it determined the proper proportions of yin and yang in everything. Anything that altered the natural relation of yin to yang was considered bad, and right living consisted of carefully following the tao.If one observed the tao by moderation, equanimity, and morality, as taught in the Tao-te Ching, by Lao-tzu (sixth century B. C. ), one would be impervious to disease and resistant to the ravages of aging; disregard of the tao led to illness, which was not so much a punishment for sin as the inevitable result of acting contrary to natural laws. However, illn ess also could be caused by forces beyond one's control: â€Å"Wind is the cause of a hundred diseases,† and atmospheric conditions could upset the harmonious inner balance of the yang and yin.One had to be alert to this possibility and combat its effects as well as modify internal imbalances of the vital forces. Longevity and health were the rewards. Chinese medicine, in league with Taoism, was focused on the prevention of illness; for, as the legendary Huang Ti, father of Chinese medicine, observed, â€Å"the superior physician helps before the early budding of disease. † Although Taoist hygiene called for temperance and simplicity in most things, sexual mores were governed by the yin-yang aspect of Chinese philosophy.Ejaculation in intercourse led to diminution of a man's yang, which, of course, upset the inner balance of his nature. On the other hand, one was strengthened by absorption of the yin released by the orgasm of one's female partner—unless she was over thirty, the point where female essence lost its efficacy. The tao was important in Confucianism also, as the path of virtuous conduct, and for centuries the precepts of Confucius (K'ung Fu-tzu, 550-479 B. C. ) set the most prevalent standards of behavior. In early Chinese philosophy, there was a tendency to accept and combine aspects of all religions and to make way for new ideas.Nevertheless, the ancient Chinese were profoundly conservative once an institution, custom, philosophy, mode of dress, or even a furniture style was firmly established, and it remained relatively unchanged over centuries. As Confucius said: â€Å"Gather in the same places where our fathers before us have gathered; perform the same ceremonies which they before us have performed; play the same music which they before us have played; pay respect to those whom they honored; love those who were dear to them. † Although ancient China's development was relatively isolated, there was early contact with India and Tibet.Buddhism came to China from India, and medical concepts and practices were an important part of its teachings. The gymnastic and breathing exercises in Chinese medical methodology also came from India and were closely related to the principles of Yoga and to aspects of Ayurvedic medicine. There were also contacts with Southeast Asia, Persia, and the Arabic world. In the second century B. C. , the Chinese ambassador Chang Chien spent more than a decade in Mesopotamia, Syria, and Egypt, bringing back information on drugs, viticulture, and other subjects.Over the centuries, knowledge of humoral medicine and of numerous new medicaments filtered into China. The introduction of the wisdom of the Mediterranean world was greatly facilitated in the fifth century by the expulsion and wide dispersion from Constantinople of the heretical Nestorian Christians. The mother of Kublai Khan (1216-94), founder of the Mongol dynasty, was a Nestorian and asked the Pope to send European d octors to China. Early Medical Writings Classical Chinese medicine was based primarily on works ascribed to three legendary emperors. The most ancient was Fu Hsi (c. 2900 B. C. , who was said to have originated the pa kua, a symbol composed of yang lines and yin lines combined in eight (pa) separate trigrams (kua) which could represent all yin-yang conditions. This system is followed even today in the I Ching (Book of Changes), though as a game or superstition in the West. Shen Nung, the Red Emperor (Hung Ti), compiled the first medical herbal, the Pen-tsao (c. 2800 B. C. ), in which he reported the effects of 365 drugs, all of them personally tested. One legend explains that a magic drug made his abdominal skin transparent, so he could observe the action of the many plants he evaluated.Another story tells that he cut open his abdomen and stitched in a window. Shen Nung is also said to have drawn up the first charts on acupuncture, a medical procedure presumably even older than the legendary emperors. The fame of Yu Hsiung (c. 2600 B. C. ), the Yellow Emperor (Huang Ti), rests on his great medical compendium, the Nei Ching (Canon of Medicine). Transmitted orally for many centuries, this seminal work was possibly committed to writing by the third century B. C. Its present form dates from the eighth century A. D. when the last extensive revision was done by Wang Ping. The major portion of the Nei Ching, the Sun-Wen (Simple Questions), records the discourse of the Yellow Emperor with Ch'i Po, his prime minister, on virtually all phases of health and illness, including prevention and treatment. The section called Ling-Hsu (Spiritual Nucleus), deals entirely with acupuncture. Yu Hsiung also was said to be responsible for another great compendium, The Discourses of the Yellow Emperor and the Plain Girl, which thoroughly covered the subject of sex from the Taoist point of view.Among other notable sources for ancient medical lore, one might mention the Shih Ching (Boo k of Odes), which perhaps predates Homer's epics, and the Lun-yu, discourses of Confucius probably written down shortly after his death, which affected patterns of behavior for many generations. During the long Chou dynasty (c. 1050-255 B. C. ), a lengthy compilation of medical works, Institutions of Chou, was completed and became the criterion for subsequent dynasties on the duties and organization of physicians. In the Han dynasty (206 B. C. -A. D. 20), there was a noted clinical author named Tsang Kung, who pioneered in the description of many diseases, including cancer of the stomach, aneurysm, and rheumatism. Chang Chung-ching, the Chinese Hippocrates, in the third century A. D. , wrote the classic treatise Typhoid and Other Fevers. Ko Hung, a famed alchemist and a careful observer, wrote treatises describing beriberi (a vitamin B deficiency), hepatitis, and plague, and gave one of the earliest reports on smallpox: â€Å"As the New Year approached there was a seasonal affectio n in which pustules appeared on the face and spread rapidly all over the body.They looked like burns covered with white starch and reformed as soon as they were broken. The majority died if not treated. After recovery purplish black scars remained. † Sun Szu-miao (A. D. 581-682) wrote Ch'ien Chin Yao Fang (A Thousand Golden Remedies), which summarized in thirty volumes much of the known medical learning, and he headed a committee which produced a fifty-volume collection on pathology. An extensive codification of forensic medicine, Hsi Yuan Lu, was done in the Sung dynasty and became the prime source for knowledge of medical jurisprudence.Anatomy and Physiology Ideas of anatomy in ancient China were reached by reasoning and. by assumption rather than dissection or direct observation. Since the doctrines of Confucius forbade violation of the body, it was not until the eighteenth century, long after Vesalius, that the Chinese began systematic, direct anatomical studies. Even as l ate as the nineteenth century, in the Viceroy's Hospital Medical School, anatomy was taught by diagrams and artificial models rather than dissection.Physiological functions were constructed into a humoral system much like Greek concepts of the sixth century B. C. and Galenic views of the second century A. D. , except that there were five instead of four essential humors. (The number five had mystical value for the Chinese and was used for most classifications: five elements, five tastes, five qualities, five kinds of drugs, five treatments, five solid organs, five seasons, five emotions, five colors, etc. ) The medical compendium Nei Ching stated that each emotion had its seat in a particular organ.Happiness dwelt in the heart, thought in the spleen, sorrow in the lungs, and the liver housed anger as well as the soul. Ideas in the Nei Ching concerning movement of the blood (â€Å"All the blood is under control of the heart. † â€Å"The blood current flows continuously in a c ircle and never stops. â€Å") have been thought to approach an understanding of its circulation antedating Harvey by thousands of years; however, some body vessels were believed to convey air, and there is little evidence that commentators perceived the blood-carrying vessels as a contained system. DiagnosisThe Chinese methods of diagnosis included questioning, feeling the pulse, observing the voice and body, and in some circumstances touching the affected parts. In almost all times and cultures physicians have used a similar approach, for all healers have sought to know as much as possible about a patient in order to understand his or her illness and advise treatment. However, in some respects ancient physicians saw each patient more completely as a reflection of his surroundings (indeed, the entire universe) than does the doctor of today. The Chinese doctor wanted to learn ow the patient had violated the tao, and to do this he took into account the patient's rank; changes in his or her social status, household, economic position, sense of well-being, or appetite; the weather; and the dreams of the patient and his or her family. Perhaps the most important diagnostic technique of the ancient Chinese was examination of the pulse. The physician felt the right wrist and then the left. He compared the beats with his own, noting precise time as well as day and season since each hour affected the nature of the pulsations.Each pulse had three distinct divisions, each associated with a specific organ, and each division had a separate quality, of which there were dozens of varieties. Moreover, each division or zone of the pulse had a superficial and deep projection. Thus literally hundreds of possible characteristics were obtainable. In one treatise, Muo-Ching, ten volumes were necessary to cover all the intricacies of the pulse. A patient had only to extend his or her arm through drawn bed curtains for the physician to determine the symptoms, diagnosis, prognosis, a nd proper treatment by intensive palpation of the pulse.Whenever possible the examiner also felt the skin of the ill person. However, it was considered bad form for a man to intimately examine a woman, so special ceramic, ivory, and wooden dolls were pointed to by the invalid to indicate where discomfort was felt. Treatment According to the Nei Ching, there were five methods of treatment: cure the spirit, nourish the body, give medications, treat the whole body, and use acupuncture and moxibustion. The physician had to put the patient back on the right path, the tao.Assuming that specific mental states caused changes in specific organs, the healer linked certain objectionable behavioral and constitutional factors with illness and attempted to have the patient rectify these. For instance, dissolute and licentious ideas led to diseases of the lungs, but acting out such thoughts brought on heart trouble. A doctor had to determine the cause of disharmony in the body and act accordingly. Exercises were developed to keep the body fit and to restore well-being. Hua T'o, the great surgeon, worked out an ingenious system of physical therapy by advising mimicry of the natural movements of animals.Massage—kneading, tapping, pinching, and chafing—was also a regular method of treatment, as were the application of plasters and evacuation of the intestinal tract by cathartics. In nourishing a patient's body, the physician resorted to complex combinations of foods according to their potential amounts of yang and yin. Foods also had to fit the seasons, and each of the five tastes had benefits for a particular element of the body: sour for the bones, pungent for the tendons, salty for the blood, bitter for respiration, and sweet for muscle.Medications The Chinese pharmacopoeia was always rich, from the time of the Pen-tsao, the first medical herbal, to the later dynasties when two thousand items and sixteen thousand prescriptions made up the armamentarium. Drugs w ere considered more likely to be good if they tasted bad. As one would expect, they were classified into five categories: herbs, trees, insects, stones, and grains. The therapeutic minerals and metals included compounds of mercury (calomel was employed for venereal diseases), arsenic, and magnetic stones.Animal-derived remedies, in addition to â€Å"dragon teeth† (powdered fossilized bones), included virtually anything obtainable from living creatures: whole parts, segments of organs, urine, dung. Two plant substances especially associated with China may be singled out. One is ephedra (ma huang), the â€Å"horsetail† plant described by the Red Emperor, which was used for thousands of years as a stimulant, as a remedy for respiratory -diseases, to induce fevers and perspiration, and to depress coughs.Ephedra entered the Greek pharmacopoeia and eventually was disseminated throughout most of the world. It only became a factor in Western medicine in the late nineteenth cen tury after Japanese investigators isolated and purified the active principle, ephedrine, and established its pharmacologic action. A second medicinal herb, always highly popular among the Chinese, is ginseng (â€Å"man-shaped root†). To the Chinese, preparations containing ginseng were almost miraculous in delaying old age, restoring sexual powers, stimulating the debilitated, and sedating the overwrought.In addition it improved diabetes and stabilized blood pressure. In recent years this root has been under scrutiny by Western pharmacologists attempting to evaluate its true benefits. Multitudes in Asia, and even some Westerners, are so convinced of its effectiveness that high-grade wild roots have brought fabulous prices (even reaching thousands of dollars apiece). Although many items in the Chinese materia medica have either faded into bscurity or been labeled fanciful, others subsequently have been found to possess sound pharmacologic bases: seaweed, which contains iodine, was used in treating enlargement of the thyroid; the willow plant, containing salicylic acid, was a remedy for rheumatism; the Siberian wort has antispasmodics for menstrual discomfort; and mulberry flowers contain rutin, a treatment for elevated blood pressure. Whether opium was used as a drug before quite late in Chinese history is still in dispute. Acupuncture and Moxibustion These modalities have been an integral part of Chinese medical therapy for thousands of years.The Yellow Emperor is said to have invented them, but they may well have existed long before his time. The aim of these treatments was to drain off excess yang or yin and thus establish a proper balance, but external energy also could be introduced into the body. In acupuncture the skin is pierced by long needles to varying prescribed depths. Needles are inserted into any of 365 points along the twelve meridians that traverse the body and transmit an active life force called ch'i. Each of these points is related to a particular organ.For instance, puncture of a certain spot on the ear lobe might be the proper way to treat an abdominal ailment. Virtually every illness, weakness, and symptom is thought to be amenable to correction by acupuncture. Acupuncture spread to Korea and Japan by the end of the tenth century A. D. , to Europe about the seventeenth century, and recent years have seen a wider interest in this Chinese medical practice in the West. Individual paramedical healers and even some medical practitioners have been swamped with requests for acupuncture, especially for problems apparently little benefited by conventional practices.The eventual acceptability of this practice in standard Western medicine remains to be seen. Moxibustion is as old as acupuncture, and the same meridians and points govern placement of the moxa. However, in this treatment a powdered plant substance, usually mugwort, is fashioned into a small mound on the patient's skin and burned, usually raising a blister. Dentistry The treatment of tooth disorders was confined mainly to applying or ingesting drugs—pomegranate, aconite, ginseng, garlic, rhubarb, and arsenic, as well as animal products such as dung and urine.The Nei Ching classified nine types of toothaches, which included some obviously due to infections and tooth decay. Like the Mesopotamians and Egyptians, the ancient Chinese believed that worms were often responsible for dental problems. Toothpicks and tooth whiteners were used, and loose teeth were stabilized with bamboo splints. Gold was sometimes used to cover teeth, but the purpose was decorative rather than protective. Surgery Although surgery was not one of the five methods of treatment listed in the Nei Ching, the knife was known and used.Hua T'o, one of the few names mentioned in connection with surgery, treated an arm wound of the famous general Kuan Yu by cutting his flesh and scraping the bone. Physicians knew how to deal with wounds, and at least two classics we re devoted entirely to their treatment. The proper attitude toward pain was to bear it without a sign of emotion, and much was made of the insouciance of the general treated by Hua T'o; he played chess while the surgeon operated. Nevertheless, apparently some kind of anesthesia was often used.Wine and drugs like hyoscyamus were probably mainstays, but the use of opium and Indian hemp is still in question. Eunuchs and Footbinding Another surgical procedure, though hardly therapeutic, was the frequent castration of certain males seeking advancement at court. Though originally a severe punishment, the total removal of penis and testicles came to be a pledge of absolute allegiance to the monarch, since it released the eunuch from conflict with Confucian admonitions of first loyalty to family and the obligation of siring a son for posterity.Footbinding is also of medical interest, for it caused the development of artificially clubbed feet. Over a period of one thousand years, every young girl of proper family willingly permitted herself to be crippled by her mother and aunts to achieve the tiny foot of ideal feminine beauty. Her toes were gradually folded under the sole, and by increasingly tight bandaging her heelbone and forefoot were brought closer together. Without Golden Lotuses, as the best-shaped bound feet were called, a girl was unmarriageable, nor was the life of a courtesan open to her, for tiny feet were a woman's most desirable feature.For a man, a bound-foot wife had profound sexual significance, but she was also a status symbol inasmuch as her helplessness indicated that he was wealthy enough to support a woman, or women, in idleness. There was also an advantage to him in her restricted mobility, for it kept her home and made illicit amorous adventures difficult. Although China's Manchu conquerors forbade the practice in the nineteenth century, it was not until the early twentieth that footbinding was completely abandoned. Diseases Some epidemic dise ases were understood well enough to allow the development of protective measures.In the eleventh century, inoculation against smallpox was effected by putting scabs from smallpox pustules into the nostrils, a method which may have come from India. Wearing the clothing of someone who had the disease was another means of prevention. The relationship of cowpox (as a protective) to smallpox may have been perceived, since ingesting powdered fleas from infected cows was also recommended to stave off smallpox. But other devastating pestilences were neither understood nor held in check. During the Han dynasty an epidemic of what appears to have been typhoid fever killed two-thirds of the population of one region.Precise descriptions of leprosy in the Nei Ching and later works attest to the diagnostic accuracy of the early Chinese healers, but their explanation of the disease's causes and their treatment follow preconceived notions of the time. â€Å"The wind and chills lodge in the blood v essels and cannot be got rid of. This is called li-feng. For the treatment prick the swollen parts with a sharp needle to let the foul air out. † Fourteenth-century writings referred to chaulmoogra oil, a pressing from seeds of an East Indian tree, as a specific for leprosy, and this oil remained the principal antileprous drug even in the West until recent decades.An illness that may have been tuberculosis was recognized as contagious: â€Å"Generally the disease gives rise to high fever, sweating, asthenia, unlocalized pains making all positions difficult and slowly bringing about consumption and death, after which the disease is transmitted to the relations until the whole family has been wiped out. † Venereal diseases, although not well differentiated, received a variety of therapies, including the use of metallic substances for internal medication.In the Secret Therapy for the Treatment of Venereal Disease, the seventeenth-century physician Chun Szi-sung reported us ing arsenic, which, until the development of penicillin, was the modern medication for venereal disease, in the form of Salvarsan and derivatives synthesized by Paul Ehrlich. There seem always to have been places in China where the sick poor could go for medical care. With the advance of Buddhism in the Han and T'ang dynasties, in-patient hospitals staffed by physician-priests became common.However, in the ninth century, when anti-Buddhists were in control, hospitals as well as 4,600 temples were destroyed or emptied. Nevertheless, by the twelfth century hospitals had again become so numerous that virtually every district had at least one tax-supported institution. The upper classes preferred to be treated and cared for in their homes, thus leaving public hospitals to the poor and lower classes. The Practitioners In the Institutions of Chou, compiled hundreds of years before Christ, the hierarchy of physicians in the kingdom was delineated.The five categories were: chief physician ( who collected drugs, examined other physicians, and assigned them); food physicians (who prescribed six kinds of food and drink); physicians for simple diseases (such as headaches, colds, minor wounds); ulcer physicians (who may have been the surgeons); and physicians for animals (evidently veterinarians). Physicians were also rated according to their results, and as early as the Chou and T'ang dynasties each doctor had to report both successes and failures—to control his movement up or down in the ranks.In the seventh century A. D. examinations were required for one to qualify as a physician, some four centuries earlier than the first licensing system in the West. Medical knowledge was thought of as a secret power that belonged to each practitioner. Whereas in other societies, both advanced and primitive, closely knit guilds might control the spread of medical lore, the Chinese physician kept his secrets to himself—passing them on only to sons or, sometimes, specially selected qualifiers.In early times, a physician gave his services out of philanthropy, for since the original healers were rulers, sages, nobles, and, perhaps, priests, economic and social incentives were absent. Later, direct fees or salaries were instituted, and the court and certain prosperous households kept physicians on retainer. Formal schools may have existed as early as the tenth century, and in the eleventh century an organization for medical education was set up under imperial auspices. Under the Ming dynasty in the fourteenth century, the school system became fixed. It changed little over the next centuries, xcept for a gradual decline, and by 1800 there was only one medical school left in Peking. Teachers were held strictly accountable for the performance of their students, and fines were imposed if the professor failed to enforce attendance or if his pupils did poorly on exams. The examination system was complex: a pyramidal structure provided a process of elimination which continued until those with the highest scores emerged. The top students could be heart doctors, the next level were assistant examiners, and lower scores could mean limited assignment in teaching.Specialization may have occurred early. While physicians and apothecaries were separate for a long time, they were both regarded as healers. In the Chou dynasty there were nine specialties, and they grew to thirteen by the Mongol period, early in the fourteenth century. The subdivisions became even more complex, with doctors for the great blood vessels, small vessels, fevers, smallpox, eyes, skin, bones, larynx, and mouth and teeth. There were also gynecologists, pediatricians, and pulsologists for internal diseases, external medicine, the nose and throat, and for children's illnesses.Some healers specialized in moxibustion, acupuncture, or massage. Even the experts in incantation and dietetics were considered medical specialists and were often held in higher regard than other doctor s; surgeons were generally of low rank. Furthermore, each of the practitioners in each category had assistants and students—all of whom had to qualify by examination. Obstetrics was in the hands of midwives for many centuries; it is not known when the first women doctors were in practice. One female physician is mentioned by name in documents from the Han dynasty (206 B.C. -A. D. 220), but women may have been doctors at an earlier date. By the fourteenth century women were officially recognized as physicians. Throughout the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), the practicing medical theorists could be divided into six main philosophic schools. The Yin-yang group focused on insufficiencies of one of these forces. The Wen-pou doctors attributed illnesses to a preponderance of yang and frequently prescribed ginseng and aconite. The Radical group used drastic medication.The Conservatives relied entirely on the authorities of the past, reedited the classic works, and made no deviations from strict authoritarianism. The Eclectic physicians, as their name implies, used a variety of principles from the other sects. The sixth school based all therapy on bringing the five elements and six vapors into harmony. Spread of Chinese Medicine to Korea, Japan, And Tibet Ancient Chinese medicine was well-developed long before the beginning of the Christian era, and its influence appears to have spread into adjacent Korea by the sixth century A.D. At that time, after a severe epidemic had ravaged Japan, Korean doctors who were invited to counsel Japanese physicians introduced them to Chinese medical classics and commentaries. By the seventh century, Japanese scholars and doctors were going directly to China for their information and experience. In the eighth century, a Chinese Buddhist monk named Chien Chen came to Japan and achieved a prominent position in the imperial court at Nara, where, given the Japanese name Kanjin, he taught, practiced medicine, and translated Chinese materia medica.Late in that century, Chinese medicine was well-established in Japan, and a medical school based on its methodology was founded by the Japanese physician Wake Hiroya. Early in the next century (806–10), the Emperor Heijo vainly attempted to combat foreign influence and restore traditional Japanese medical practice, but the methods of Chinese healing were too firmly entrenched. In the tenth century, acupuncture reached Japan, followed by moxibusti on (the word moxa is Japanese), and the full complement of Chinese medicine was accepted in Japan.With medical training closely based on Chinese systems, the Japanese exacted exceptionally intensive and prolonged study before permitting entrance into the profession by governmental examination. As in ancient China, high social standing was a requirement for admission to medical school, but separate instruction by assigned teachers was apparently also arranged to accommodate the more lowly. The authority of Chinese medicine, no t to mention Chinese culture and philosophy, moved east as well as west by the seventh and eighth centuries.However, Arabic and Indian missionaries of Islam and Buddhism made influence a two-way exchange as they traveled to China seeking converts. Since their missions necessitated the translation of Sanskrit and Arabic writings into Chinese and vice versa, medical knowledge inevitably was passed back and forth. Consequently, the crossroads areas of Southeast Asia and Tibet developed a medical system combining aspects of Chinese, Indian, and Arabic practice. Arabic influence, which stemmed in part from Greek teachings, was evident in the doctrine of four humors (phlegm, blood, bile, and wind), whereas Indian deas were seen in the Yogic placement of the soul in the core of the spinal column and reliance on breathing exercises. Traveling Buddhist priests, who were quite successful in spreading their faith, for a long time also practiced medicine. During this early period, the two wives (one Chinese) of a Tibetan king converted him to Buddhism, and thereafter scholars were invited to bring Chinese writings into Tibet, which resulted in collections in Tibetan called Kanjur and Tanjur, the latter containing medical information.In the thirteenth century, the Mongol conqueror Kublai Khan wanted this body of knowledge available again in Chinese but was unable to carry through the translation. Nevertheless, his grandson in the next century arranged for scholars from Tibet, Mongolia, and Central Asia to accomplish the task. Ironically, while the Mongols were in control they allied themselves with non-Chinese such as Uighars, Jews, Christians, and Moslems, and they preferred Arabic medicine to Chinese.

Consider Shakespeare’s presentation of Portia in “The Merchant of Venice”

â€Å"The Merchant of Venice† is believed to have been written in the 16th century and it is to a large extent reflective of England at the time, which was a patriarchal society. Portia’s character embodies the characteristics of an ideal woman at the time that arguably defers to her father and eventually her husband. However, as the play advances we see a different side of Portia.Shakespeare introduces her character in a very conventional way. He uses Bassanio as a device for introducing the character of Portia. The audience is treated to Bassanio’s perception of Portia. It is through him the audience forms an impression of Portia, with the aid of his effective use of imagery. Bassanio begins with: â€Å"In Belmont there is a lady richly left,And she’s fair, and – fairer than that word – Of wondrous virtues.†To get a clearer picture of who Portia is from Bassiano’s perspective, we consider his choice of words in his description . For example, â€Å"Richly left† – her wealth is the first quality the audience learns about before we hear of her beauty as well as her virtues. The adjective â€Å"fair† and the use of the comparative form â€Å"fairer† in the same line gives the impression that she is stunning. In addition to that, â€Å"wondrous† which qualifies her virtues portrays that she is of impeccable character. Bassanio’s speech foregrounds the idea that a woman’s wealth, fairness and virtues are the qualities men looked for in women at the time.Bassanio then finally formally introduces her to the audience: â€Å"Her name is Portia, nothing undervaluedTo Cato’s daughter, Brutus’ Portia. Nor is the wide world ignorant of her worth†A modern day audience is able to instantly see clearly that women are assigned second-class status, because Bassanio describes her as though she is defined by her relationship with Cato (in this case her daug hter). His reference to her as Brutus’ Portia helps the audience get a feel of what she  is really like, as Shakespeare brings the characters of Brutus and Portia from Julius Caesar, which the audience is most likely familiar with.Portia in Julius Caesar starts out as a devoted wife but as the play progresses shows steadiness as well as masculinity and in fact her character echoes Queen Elizabeth who famously said â€Å"I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king† – these are qualities Portia exemplifies in The Merchant of Venice as well. â€Å"Nor is the wide world ignorant of her worth† informs the audience that everybody acknowledges that she is a catch and she is in fact many men’s dream wife, which lays emphasis on her fairness and virtues. In addition to this he says: â€Å"Renowned suitors, and her sunny locksHang on her temples like a golden fleece, Which makes her seat of Belmont Colchos ’ strand, And many Jasons come in quest of her†Here Bassanio uses classical mythology to qualify. In one of the oldest quest stories, Jason led a party of Greek heroes called the Argonatus through many hazards in order to bring back the Golden Fleece from the shores of Colchis on the Black Sea. His intriguing use of metaphors and simile highlights how there are many men after her.Finally, we meet Portia in the next scene, where her first line is: â€Å"By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary of the great world† This echoes Antonio’s opening line of the play, which highlights the point that the world of Belmont – a feminine world- and the world of Venice – a masculine world- are going to be intrinsically linked throughout the play mainly through Portia and Antonio. Portia then informs the audience of the casket test – which is a test her dead father arranged for her husband to be chosen. â€Å"I may neither choose who I marry, n or refuse who I dislike, so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father.†Portia reiterates Edwin Sandys’s Sermon Sixteen where he insists that children are to accept the advice of their parents in choosing a spouse and in fact concludes that children who marry without the consent of parents are not sanctioned by God. This causes her to carry on her father’s plan even though he is dead. Shakespeare therefore manages to present her as being a dutiful  daughter in addition to being fair and virtuous. In addition to this, Shakespeare portrays Portia as though she is a slave to the casket test because she has no control over whom she marries. This is a conventional portrayal of women and would have been accepted at his time as the thought process of people moved in this direction.We observe that as Nerissa names Portia’s suitors who appear to be coming from all over the world, Portia’s responses, for example: â€Å"I had rathe r be married to a death’s head with a bone in his mouth than to either of these. God defend me of these.† Gives the impression that amidst being virtuous and dutiful she is also selective dismissive and stereotypical. She echoes the anti-Semitism in Venice (Antonio against the Jew, Shylock) through her reaction upon learning of the arrival of the Prince of Morocco: â€Å"†¦If he have the condition of a saint, and the complexion of a devil, I had rather he should shrive me than wive me.† Without even meeting him she makes up her mind that she would rather have him for a confessor than a husband because of his skin colour, which she likens to the devil because devils were traditionally black. From this moment on, it is established to the audience that Antonio and Portia are going to be the link between Belmont and Venice.When Bassanio with his train arrives to take the casket test, we get a love scene, which is arguably the best since Romeo and Juliet. Portia who up until this point has been either warily polite or contemptuously dismissive, now displays a turmoil of emotion as she begs Bassanio to delay his choice: â€Å"I pray you tarry, pause a day or twoBefore you hazard, for in choosing wrong I lose your company; therefore forbear a while.†Shakespeare immediately portrays to the audience that Bassanio is Portia’s desired suitor. Portia changes the rhythm of her speech from prose when she was speaking to Morocco to a softer more poetic verse form. Some may assume that she wants to influence his decision while others may see it as her simply wanting to spend quality time with the man she appears to have fallen in love with before the tension of the casket test takes over. As the scene progresses the we catch a glimpse of a flirty side of Portia, when she says  to Bassanio: â€Å"Upon the rack Bassanio? Then confessWhat treason is mingled with your love.† Following this, Portia insists on â€Å"music† repe atedly in her speech which echoes, â€Å"if music be the food of love play on† from the Twelfth Night thus buttressing that she is trying to influence his decision. In the same breath she arguably poetically transforms Bassanio’s choice of the casket: â€Å"Go Hercules!†Hercules, who is a legendary hero, reinforces that she is currently a slave of the casket test and she is imploring him to liberate her from it. At this point, we begin to see Portia attempting to manipulate the situation in order for it to suit her. When Bassanio finally makes the right choice and wins the lottery of the casket test, Shakespeare uses the device of soliloquy: â€Å"I feel too much thy blessing: make it lessFor I fear I surfeit†To allow the audience feel her joy. She immediately submits all that she has to Bassanio by referring to him as â€Å"Lord Bassanio† which again shows that she is indeed dutiful and subservient. She continues to express her elation and in fact begins to refer to herself in third person: â€Å"Happy in this, she is not yet so oldBut she may learn; happier than this, She is not bred so dull but she can learn; Happiest of all is that her gentle spirit†The use of third person distances Portia from the situation and not owning her joy shows that she doesn’t believe how lucky she is and cannot believe the happiness is really hers, which makes the audience able to respond to her ecstasy even more. In addition, the comparative and superlative form of the adjective â€Å"happy† compels the audience to feel and in fact share her joy. Furthermore, she continues to surrender everything to him: â€Å"Commits itself to yours to be directedAs from her lord, her governor, her king. Myself and what is mine, to you and yours Is now converted. But now I was the lord Of this fair mansion, master of my servants, Queen o’er myself; and even now, but now, This house, these servants, and this same myself Are yours, my lord’s.†She now begins to refer to him as not just as her lord but now her king and governor and she hands over all her wealth and material possessions to him. She is now subservient to the patriarchal society. Although at the beginning, her vulnerability caused her to want to challenge the patriarchal society and now love makes her accept it.We then begin to see a Portia of resource and command. As she sends Bassanio quickly to help Antonio: â€Å"O love! Dispatch all business and be gone.†Amidst her resourcefulness, we see her desperation to make him happy. Following this, the first time the audience sees Portia in the masculine world of Venice, disguised as a man in the courtroom scene where she has come to rescue Antonio, after she has been liberated by the casket test. Portia is given the control from the moment of her discreet ceremonial entry into the scene and she manages to retain it till the end of the scene. She shapes the scene into a rhetorical sy mmetry that would have been evident to an Elizabethan audience. Portia unlike the other Christians refers to Shylock like a human being. She attempts to persuade him by insisting â€Å"mercy† is a divine percept of both their religions, when that doesn’t work – she tries to appeal to his financial instincts: â€Å"Take thrice thy money; bid me tear the bond†She makes it obvious that she is acknowledging the bond but in the same breath takes advantage of his known love for money and implores him to have mercy on Antonio and offers him double the money. Despite this, Shylock refuses again, which she manages to respond: â€Å"Have by some surgeon, Shylock, on your charge,To stop his wounds, lest he do bleed to death†By asking for a doctor to be present she attempts to make Shylock, realise  the inhumane nature of his intentions. Portia is steadily offering Shylock every chance to be merciful. Portia, picking up a reverberation from the world of dall iance with her â€Å"Tarry a little†, steps back into the world of reckoning and authoritatively changes the whole direction of the trial. Overall, Shakespeare presents her as learned, eloquent and confident which is very different to the way she is portrayed – quiet, obedient and submissive prior to this scene. However, it can be argued that because she did it for Bassanio, she is showing her love, subservient and fully committing herself to him and in fact putting into practice the traditional wedding vows even before they’re married.In the fifth and final act, she still expands her freedom, as she grows in authority and dignity, fresh touches of humour enlightening her new traits of courteousness showing. Shakespeare presents her as a woman of perfect simplicity, in her tact especially how she keeps her guest Antonio out of the mock quarrel about the rings even though it is more or less his fault. Her final word of the act, which is â€Å"faithfully†, is reflective of her character throughout the play.To conclude, Shakespeare generally presents her in a positive light not only through her character but also through the ways other characters speak of her. For example when Jessica likens her to being â€Å"heaven on earth† as well as when Lorenzo likens her to a â€Å"god-like amity†. In addition, she is presented as a very interesting and calculating character.

Discrimination In Employment Essay

Two separate statutes specifically pertain to discrimination in employment. The first is the Equal Pay Act, which was passed in 1963 (effective date was June 10, 1964). The second is Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. While the Equal Pay Act deals solely with wages paid to women and men within the same company, Title VII focuses on discriminatory hiring/firing practices and advancement policies within companies (Crouch, 2001, p.37-38). Neither is specific to the issue of sex discrimination; however, they both encompass discrimination on the basis of race, religion, or national origin. Both of these statutes have been applied to interscholastic and intercollegiate athletics, primarily in suits brought by female coaches claiming sex discrimination.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Title VII was enacted as a comprehensive prohibition on private acts of employment discrimination. It forbids discriminatory employment practices based on the race, color, religion, sex, or national origin of the applicant. These categories may, however, be used to differentiate between applicants when sex, religion, or national origin is a bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ). A BFOQ is very narrowly defined as an actual job requirement, not merely a customer or employer preference. For example, race is never considered a BFOQ (Crouch, 2001, 38-40).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Title VII also contains a â€Å"nonretaliation† provision which prohibits all employers defined in the act from discriminating against any employee or job applicant who has invoked his or her rights under Title VII or who has assisted with or participated in any proceeding brought by someone else (Gregory, 2003, p. 28).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the analysis of the courts, the alleged sex discrimination action need not only be based upon a consideration of an unalterable characteristic (like gender) possessed by the discriminatee but which is not possessed by the discriminator (Minchin, 2001, p. 50). Thus, not only are acts such as terminating female employees when they marry or refusing to accept employment applications from any female actionable, but also acts taken by a member of one sex against a member of the same sex can be actionable. A demand for sexual favors directed by one male to another as a condition of employment can be just as discriminatory as a similar demand directed by a male to a female.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Title VII is applicable to all employers of more than fifteen persons, and it specifically covers almost all state and local government employees as well as employees of most educational institutions. It is enforced by the EEOC, which has the authority to process and investigate any complaints. The EEOC may also bring suits in federal court if necessary. A charge brought by the EEOC is based on what the EEOC perceives to be a pattern or practice of unlawful discrimination which adversely affects an entire class of individuals. The EEOC may also conduct industrywide compliance reviews. If the discrimination found by the EEOC in state or local government cannot be corrected informally, the EEOC may refer the matter to the U.S. Attorney General. In all other cases, the EEOC may go to federal court to enforce the law (Gregory, 2003, p.28-29). Enforcement of Title VII is not limited to EEOC actions, however, because the legislation also has individual and class causes of action. This type of charge originates from an individual or group of individuals who allege that they were adversely affected by some act of unlawful discrimination (Gregory, 2003, p. 29).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Organizations can bring discrimination claims on behalf of their members if the alleged discriminatory action injured its members, if the claim can proceed without the participation of those injured members, and if the claim is relevant to the organization’s purposes. The requirements for filing a charge include the following: The person filing the charge must be or represent an aggrieved person (must have a personal stake in the outcome of the controversy and must have suffered a personal injury), except in cases in which the charge is filed by the EEOC itself. The charge must be directed against an â€Å"employer† as defined by Title VII. The charge must be filed within the specified time limits. The form of the charge must comply with certain procedural requirements (Saguy, 2003).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Once these requirements are met, the EEOC will proceed with the charge. The remedies of both injunctive and affirmative relief are available to the winning party in an employment discrimination suit. The prevailing party may be awarded back pay and attorney’s fees as well as an injunction prohibiting the employer’s unlawful action. In addition, the court may order the employer to cease its discriminatory practices, to reinstate employees, and to implement an appropriate affirmative action plan to eliminate existing discrimination and prevent its recurrence. These remedies are guided by the two goals of the act: (1) to achieve equality of employment opportunity by removing barriers based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, and (2) to make the victim of unlawful discrimination whole–to put the victim in the position he or she would have been in had the discrimination not occurred.Both of these approaches have limitations. Even taken together, they are not sufficient to enforce a prohibition against sex discrimination(Saguy, 2003).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Although the Equal Pay Act applies to all employers, Title VII has been limited to employers of more than fifteen people. Thus, many smaller businesses are not subject to the mandates of Title VII. The Equal Pay Act is limited in other ways. For example, it is directed only to discrepancies in pay levels once on a job. It does not address the problem of discriminatory hiring or advancement policies. The basic weakness of these acts is that neither is all-encompassing. They fail to address the overall problems of sex discrimination that exist outside of the workplace (Saguy, 2003). Thus, very few of the problems of discrimination encountered in athletics are addressed by either act. This legislation provides potential relief only in athletic employment.Another major problem in pursuing litigation under these statutes is the cost.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Neither statute provides any guaranteed basis for the eventual recovery of attorney’s fees and/or double or triple damages. Thus, litigation is not an option for many of those who might wish to file claims. Cases are seldom pursued, and the effectiveness of the legislation diminishes as the chance that an employer will be punished lessens. One last problem is that courts have been reluctant to interpret the statutes broadly. This reluctance stems from the fact that hiring and salary decisions are well within the area of management prerogatives allotted to employers. The court is reluctant to interfere in any discretionary decision unless there has been a clear abuse of that discretion. Thus, it is very difficult to establish a case based on a complaint regarding practices in either of these areas. Usually, the evidence is open to a variety of interpretations. Such circumstances can make it difficult or even impossible for a plaintiff to prevail in a sex discrimination case under application of the aforementioned statutes. References Crouch, Margaret A. (2001).   Thinking about Sexual Harassment: A Guide for the   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Perplexed. Oxford University Press. Gregory, Raymond F. (2003). Women and Workplace Discrimination: Overcoming   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Barriers to Gender Equality. Rutgers University Press. Minchin, Timothy J. (2001). The Color of Work: The Struggle for Civil Rights in the   Ã‚  Ã‚   Southern Paper Industry, 1945-1980. University of North Carolina Press. Saguy, Abigail C. (2003). What Is Sexual Harassment? From Capitol Hill to the Sorbonne.University of California Press   

Education of Women and Girls Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Education of Women and Girls - Research Paper Example From the discussion it is clear that  80 percent of out-of-school girls in Yemen and 62 percent in Pakistan are unlikely even to enter school, compared with 36 percent of boys in Yemen and 27 percent in Pakistan. The situation is the most dramatic in sub-Saharan Africa, where 12 million girls are unlikely to enroll. In 2007, eighteen sub-Saharan countries had the gender parity index (GPI) of less than 0,90, which meant that they had not achieved the goal of gender parity in primary schooling, set by UNESCO for 2005.  This paper discusses that  there is a strong inverse relation between gender parity and school enrolment; in poor countries with a low enrolment ratio there is usually a large disparity between boys and girls out-of-school. Thus, several developing countries have included strategies to reach gender parity as part of their wider policies aimed to provide all children with universal primary education. The policy measures introduced in Yemen to increase the gender par ity index contributed significantly to the increase in enrolment from 2.3 million in 1999 to 3.2 million in 2005. The interventions targeted at out-of-school girls, such as providing girls in grades 1 to 6 with free textbooks and employing more female teachers in rural areas, enabled many girls to enroll, which lead to an increased number of all school children. Due to security concerns and household labor demands, few parents decide to enroll their daughters in schools far away from home.

Appraisal Form Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Appraisal Form - Assignment Example Softcom Incorporation is a software development company located in New York. The company has 80 employees in it which include software engineers, business developers, marketing personnel, HR personnel and management people. The company conducts a yearly appraisal of its employees in order to reward them and provide feedback on their performance. This appraisal process is designed for the Human Resource department appraisals. The HR Manager is responsible to conduct the appraisal of the assistant manager HR. The organizational value of the company is to ensure employee performance in order to deliver high-quality products and services to the consumers. The mission and objective of the company is to focus on employee motivation and develop a healthy organizational culture where each employee is rewarded  according to the  performance,  growth, and development of employees. It would ensure  that  the  company can meet and exceed its short term and long term targets. The assistant manager HR will be given  three  days to raise the appraisal form one month before the appraisal final interview date. In this way he will provide details  of  short term and long term goals, achievements made with respect to time, targets achieved, targets left unmet, brief description of projects, routine job performance, trainings attended and any exceptional performance delivered in the year time and finally, the HR manager will include his remarks as feedback. The ERG theory by Alderfer asserts that for motivation of employees three kinds of human needs should be addressed including growth needs, existence needs and relatedness needs. The HR manager should consider these needs while planning the requirement of trainings for growth, allocation of tasks based on capability and assign duties in a way that a healthy organizational culture is developed to fulfill the relatedness

TQM in Hospitals and Healthcare organizations Essay

TQM in Hospitals and Healthcare organizations - Essay Example very critical to the quality of health care, public expectations have also been one of the main reasons in increasing health care quality .There are diverse strategies and multiple approaches to improve the safety and the quality of services. (John, 2003) Health Care Industries require optimal quality levels as it provides vital services and is usually measured with various indicators such as mortality rates, rate of medical errors, avoidable injuries to patients etc. (Fawziah S Balghonaim, 2009) There has been a momentous interest in the application of Total quality management and Continuous quality improvement (TQM and CQI) in many of the Health Care Organizations in the recent past. (Colleen, 2003) Implementations of TQM have been in high demand in many organizations and have also been made compulsory in others to face both internal and external challenges. TQM implementation will also help the public and private health Organizations to achieve good quality health services and also compete globally. (Fawziah S Balghonaim, 2009) Quality Management is very essential in all companies especially in the health care industry due to the type and nature of service rendered. Quality in this sector consists of customer quality of life, services rendered and patient satisfaction. (Fawziah S Balghonaim, 2009)There are 3 TQM principles identified by Hill and Wilkinson (1995) which are, Total quality management is viewed as the best way to implement rapid improvement in the process. TQM has become critical and mandatory as there is high level of competition between health sector organizations and increase in demand for high quality services. It helps in providing customer satisfaction and also achieving the desired outcomes for these hospitals. Implementation of TQM involves all the levels of management. It involves all the staff, employees, doctors and nurses in the health care organization and it covers all the activities. Top level involvement and continuous

Culture in American Society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Culture in American Society - Essay Example Culture can be judged by means of religion, lifestyle, literature, music, foods, arts, and architecture, language, fashions, behaviors, rituals, and symbols employed by individuals of a society (Tyler 1974). The culture is shifted from generation to the other generation and keeps on changing (Kroeber and Kluckhohn 1952). The topic, which interests me the most, is the association of culture to the development of society and individuals of a society. American society has developed not because of one culture but it has many cultures behind its origin. America is a multicultural society in which, people from different societies develop and add their own cultural values to this multicultural society (Schlesinger 1991). Because of the existence of multiple cultures in America, the society as a whole is affected (Schlesinger 1991). I want to do research on American society and the role of multiple cultures and individuals from those cultures on the development of the society as a whole. I w ant to analyze whether the multicultural impact on the society has come up to be advantageous or disadvantageous and how has the society developed because of the migration of individuals from multiple cultures. Culture is an important part of our lives, which is responsible for shaping our personalities (Dabaghian 1970). It enables us to develop into the individuals as we are. People from different cultures are different because of the different social values that are there because of culture (Tyler 1974). With the help of culture, the development in a society can be judged. With the passage of time, the culture of a society goes through various transactions that are the outcome of change in cultural values because of many reasons (Dabaghian 1970). This aspect can be better judged in American society that has gone through many transactions since its development.  Ã‚