Public Awareness of Chronic Kidney Disease

ICYMI, in Case You Missed It

ICYMI, in Case You Missed It ICYMI, in Case You Missed It ICYMI, in Case You Missed It By Mark Nichol Apparently, I missed it: Ten years ago, the initialism ICYMI entered the social media lexicon by way of Twitter. Like BTW, IMO, IIRC, and others, it’s employed as an entrà ©e to a discussion; ICYMI signals to you that the writer is going to provide context by referring to something you may not have read or heard about before. But I wasn’t aware of the initialism itself until I recently stumbled across it in an online article. I’ve somehow managed to get by without using it and most other examples of online shorthand, including two of the earliest specimens of the form: LOL and ROTFL (and the latter’s more effusive variation, ROTFLMAO). That’s because I’m not a twit- er, not a Twitter user- and I don’t use LOL-speak in text or email messages. But many people do lean heavily on such usage, though some of these condensed expressions, like ICYMI, are less prevalent than others. That means IAS: It’s a shibboleth. ICYDK, a shibboleth (in its original sense) is a word whose pronunciation by someone marks that person as an insider or an outsider; by extension, one’s very use of the word identifies one’s place within or outside of a social group. BTW, the meaning has also loosened up to refer to any behavior or custom that may, intentionally or otherwise, serve this function. (IIRC, the use of this odd-looking, odd-sounding word, which refers to the part of a plant from which grain grows, stems from a biblical tale of how one Hebrew tribe distinguished members of another tribe by how members of the latter group pronounced it differently than the members of the first tribe.) Our culture is replete with shibboleths, from slang and jargon to modes of dress and other visual cues about one’s self-identification (and one’s desire to belong). Initialisms that serve as abbreviations for standard phrases are part of the game: If you use them, you assume that the recipients of your written communication know what they mean. Anyone who doesn’t is L7 and either doesn’t belong on your blog or had better step up their game if they want to hang with the cool kids. That’s the danger of using language that is obtusely insular: Do you really want to exclude readers who may need a little hand-holding? If you’re a publisher, whether of a quirky little blog or of a book publishing company of international scope, that’s a choice you make- a choice that will affect the future of your enterprise. So, when you write, or commission others to write for you, consciously make a choice about how inclusive or exclusive the writing style is. I readily admit that I had to look up ICYMI (â€Å"in case you missed it,† in case you missed it). And though I was already familiar with many such initialisms, it’s not the only one I was unacquainted with before I checked out an online glossary of terms of this type. So, in a hand-holding spirit, here are translations of the other initialisms I have used in this post: BTW: by the way ICYDK: in case you didn’t know IIRC: if I recall/remember correctly IMO: in my opinion (IMHO- â€Å"in my humble opinion†- is a variation) LOL: laugh out loud ROTFL(MAO): roll on the floor laughing (my ass off) L7, BTW, predates the Internet: It represents the thumb and forefinger of each hand extended at a 90-degree angle (as if to simulate a gun) and held fingertip to fingertip with one hand reversed to form a rough square. An L7 is, therefore, a square, or a conventional or uncool person. This post by a fellow DailyWritingTips.com contributor lists some of the many other Internet initialisms. (An initialism, FWIW, is an abbreviation that, unlike an acronym, is pronounced as a series of letters, not as a word.) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:"Based in" and "based out of"50 Latin Phrases You Should Know10 Functions of the Comma

Strategic Analysis of Image Scan Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Strategic Analysis of Image Scan - Case Study Example The x-ray imaging marketplace is an emergent one as the use and adoption of x-ray technology in general still has to reach its maturity. The increasing need for public security measures in all aspects of government and business entail that the safety and security market is on the rise. This growth of the safety and security market is primarily driven by increased threats of terror activities confronting governments and businesses and the need for public assurance that safety measures are in place to reduce these threats. (Homeland Security Europe, 2008) The increasing number of terrorist activities and the highly sophisticated means by which these activities are carried out have prompted concerned public officials to seriously respond to the threats of terror attacks using legislation to force strict compliance among businesses and other sectors in the implementation of advanced security systems in highly vulnerable places. The establishment of legal frameworks for safety and securit y measures have therefore increased the demand for security technologies from x-ray detection to surveillane systems. Meanwhile, Image Scan's experience of the weak performance in its industrial solutions suggests that there is minimal adoption of x-ray imaging technology in industrial settings, which points to the fact that businesses might be more interested in the development of cheaper alternatives to x-ray imaging in quality control processes. It is also logical to assume that companies involved in industrial manufacturing and processing already have their own detection systems in place. On the other hand, technological innovations in the industrial sector geared at automating processes could enhance the adoption of x-ray technologies. This makes the industrial x-ray imaging market a relatively attractive market for industry players. The highly attractive and profitable x-ray imaging solutions

Is the US Congress too powerful Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Is the US Congress too powerful - Essay Example In evaluating whether the Congress is "too powerful", it is necessary to consider what it actually does. Congress makes laws, and within the United States this "law-making" role has in fact been made difficult rather than easy. In the United States of America laws are difficult to pass for a number of reasons and in a number of ways. American law is based upon a mixture of English and French law, and the Constitution was designed to produce three co-equal branches of government that would provide checks and balances on one another (Friedman, 1998) . These checks and balances are designed to make laws difficult to pass for a good reason: it stops any one individual, political party or branch of government dominating too much. A weak government makes for a strong people. The co-equal branches of government are designed to make laws difficult to pass. However, in a well-organized administration in which the President has a good relationship with Congress laws can be passed quite quickly and easily. But even when one particular Party has control of the Legislative and Executive branches: the House, the Senate and the Presidency, it can still be difficult to pass laws. This is shown by the difficulties that President Clinton had in 1992-1994 and President Bush has had for much his Presidency. The making of an Ameri... This stops what has been called "the tyranny of the majority" (Brennan, 1996). The President can also veto a bill if it does not have the support of 2/3 of both the House and Senate in order to override the bill. However, pressure put on individual members by key positions such as the Speaker of the House or the Leader of the Senate may moderate the effects of this individual power. Members of each party tend to vote with their party. The process of moving from a Member/Senator's idea through to Bill and on to Law is deliberately set in a complex way. The Bill may be stopped at a number of hurdles, and indeed, the vast majority of Bills never make it to be laws (Sabato, 2006) Overall, a Bill may be introduced by a member of the House or Senate. It is then distributed to each member of the House. The Speaker of the House can then give it to a Committee which will recommend that it be released with a recommendation for passing, release with revision or be set aside entirely and not considered at all. Bills introduced by the majority party tend to be taken more seriously than those form the minority. The majority of Bills that have the support of the major powers in Congress (House, Senate, Presidency) do make it to be laws - the other bills are often never intended to become laws by the Members/Senators that introduce them. In fact they are for discussion or to score political points. The relationship between the House and Senate is designed to produce either compromise or to stop Bills making it to be a law. Bills that pass the House need to be introduced into the Senate, and there they may be adapted or changed to be something completely different in "conference committees" (Wilson, 2005).

Securities activities of banks class Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Securities activities of banks class - Essay Example According to the 2008-2012, Global Economic Crisis report, interplay of a number of factors may have triggered this crisis. Some of those factors include high-risk mortgage lending rate, inaction by the financial systems’ regulators to enforce available financial prudence acts and laws which created a loophole that allowed some financial players to act and lend imprudently, untrue credit ratings given to investors by some financial system players to woe and attract investors, and valuation and liquidity problems in the banking systems of global economies. Its turbulences and ripple effects have been heavily felt by virtually all economies, both great and mighty, and fairly considered small ones.1 A number of research have been done in the line of global economic crisis delving into what may have been underlying factors that led to great global economic recession. Commissions of inquiries into causes of the global financial crisis have been constituted and reports have been raised on the possible factors that may have triggered the crisis. Levin-Coburn Report in particular investigates on causes of financial crisis and concludes that, the crisis that plunged many economies into collapse was avoidable if due diligence was followed by major players in the banking systems, especially the ones in the mortgage lending section. Prudence in mortgage lending and adept adherence to the financial regulations and acts could have certainly saved many financial economies from collapsing under the harsh effects of the global recession. To avoid failures by banks insinuated as possible reasons for the global economic crisis, financial regulators have tightened the existing regulations on le nding, liquidity and reserve requirements among others, and banks are now keener in how they handle credit risks. The concept of Asset securitization as a prudent risk management tool is finding global acceptance and many financial institutions concede that it could have

Comparison and Criticism

Comparison and Criticism OUR MISSION: * Comparison and Criticism Hofstedes aim was to evaluate work values, while Trompenaars Hampden-Turners questionnaires inquired into respondents preferred behaviour in a number of both work and leisure situations. What both studies have in common is that in both questionnaires the focus is on the ultimate goal state, and that the underlying values, the underwater part of the culture iceberg, are derived from a series of questions about more outer layers of the culture onion, closer to the top of iceberg. Trompenaarss system appears focus-oriented; it speaks a lot about what is on peoples minds and what is in their sight, it speaks about the logical organization and framework of their behaviour (specific vs. diffuse, internal vs. external control, universalism vs. particularism) and relationships (individualism vs. collectivism; achievement vs. ascription; neutral vs. affective). Hofstede, on the other hand describes some of values present in people and finally affecting their behavior. The difference therefore is that Trompenaarss investigation lies on the surface of the investigation of the persons culture, showing exactly the choice and manner in which the actions are planned and handled, while Hofstede tries to go in the very deep of culture layers and lets us make our own forecasts of peoples behavior based on the knowledge of the hidden part of iceberg. . Taking a closer look into the comparison between the dimensions themselves, we can notice similarities between the two theories. One of these is the closeness between the notions of collectivism vs. individualism of Hofstede and communitarianism vs. individualism of Trompenaars. For a marketer, from our point of view, there is close no difference which index to use. There is some degree of similarity in Hofstedes power distance index and achievement vs. ascription. One values the accepted degree of high class/low class lifestyle and secondary characteristics difference, while the other measures the motivation of the low class to move higher. A marketer can infer that customers are better evaluated with the high power distance index in relation of selling status-emphasizing products (like luxury brands), while Trompenaarss index is better used when selling low cost practical business tools (like cheap PDAs). We would advise to use the two indices together as they complement each other. Long-term vs. short-term orientation index of Hofstede has got something in common with the past/present/future orientation of Trompenaars. That is in the way, how i.e. short-term oriented cultures will show the same tendency to be populist, tradition-oriented as the past- and present-oriented cultures. After taking a look into evaluations of different cultures one can find that the results, obtained by the two theories are often counter logical. German corporate culture is hierarchical, as is claimed by Trompenaars in his studies. Whereas Hofstede identifies Germany as relatively low in terms of Power Distance. These differences in the approach attracted some serious criticism over the years. One of the most prominent points often criticized is Hofstede perception of culture as a static characteristic of societies and their representatives. This approach does not take into the account the cultural drift that can easily be observed as the time passes by. As a vivid example, one can take the comparison between, say, the UK of the Victorian age and the Post Second World War UK and just try to assess the Power Distance Indices. Apparently, over this period of time peoples behavior has altered enough to allow a society with a lot lower power distance, the expressions of which found their way in the art of the time as well as in the politics (Rise of the Labor Party in 1945-1951) people of lower class were have become conscious to demand equality in these dimensions with the former unapproachable higher class, the expression of wealth and power and respect to it have decreased, as well as PDI. S imilar drift patterns can now be observed today in some of the underdeveloped countries, like Mexico, where former strong collectivist communities are dissolving, as their member become more individualistic, pushed by their desire to be successful in the new highly commercialized society. The same can be said about political influence on the culture (transition from Communist to Capitalist values). In other words it is easily observable that through time cultures evolve. Therefore the estimations for indices are slowly becoming outdated. Hofstede was later pushed by this evidence to regularly update his Index database, still retorting that cultural evolution is a very slow process. However the problem that may be hard to identify is actually not the quantitative, but rather the qualitative obsolescence of the framework itself, that will sooner or later present itself. I.e. what was reasonable and precise description in the 1970s can be an incomplete, flawed and vague characterizatio n for 2010, and even more so for future. That is however just one of the many debatable things. Among the others are: 1. Question interpretation of the surveyed, i.e. will the question really be a precise way to determine the culture, as the culture and personality may directly affect the way the question is translated and thus produce errors in the resulting evaluation. 2. Researchers background diminishes the completeness of cultural description and offers one-sided look at the problem. This way it would be preferable for marketers to have a marketer, not a manager, to make the proper evaluations framework, which would be more suited for marketing decision making. 3. Ignoring the ethnic group and communities presence, national culture fragmentation. Just saying that Germany has low UAC index may totally confuse the policymaker, as this does not differ between East, West and especially Turkish communities. Moreover, a study carried out only in only one company (Hofstede) cannot give an outlook on the entire cultural system of a country. Conclusion As described in this paper, there are several approaches to the classification of the cultures of different nations. The ones that were observed closely here are Geert Hofstedes and Fons Trompenaarss classifications, so-called cultural dimensions. These, as shown have a number of things in common and many differences as well. Thus, a marketer has to make a decision, which part of which study is to be used to develop a successful strategy. However there is little doubt that some way of adapting the strategy to the local culture is to be used. We may live in a globalized enviroment, however, so far there is no mundial culture and different clusters of people, whether they are separated geographically, historically or socially; some may choose one product instead of the other because of their culture and values. All of that is to be taken into consideration. And there are so far not many standartised approaches to the culture evaluations, other than Hofstedes and Trompenaarss, which eco nomise time and enable the creation of a consolidated strategy in approach to culture. It is not surprising that some of the companies nowadays are already fully involved in applying these methods in their decision making, and the amount of them will inevitably grow as the studies of the theories are being held in many Universities and Business Schools, from wich the future excecutives will come. However one has to rememember, that both these method are quite controversial and obviously imperfect, therefore we should learn learn to use the questionnaires and the databases responsibly. Only in this way can they provide precise, trustworhy and calculated assistance to people learning to work effectively in other countries. Our Purpose: We help business expand the value of compensation through employee benefits. * Our Vision : To integrate personal lives committed to God into a business devoted to serving our clients. * Our Values : With Gods grace, we will: * Strive to lead balanced lives. * Keep quality our first priority. * Always improve ourselves and our methods. * Connect our daily tasks to the overall purpose of our Company. * Never compromise our integrity or honesty. The Fringe Benefit Company Phoenix Arizona www.FBCServ.com FBC is one of Arizonas oldest and largest locally owned Benefit Consulting Firms. Established in 1983, and licensed in over 19 states, we have grown to serve the needs of over 250 major employers both in Arizona and across the country. We have earned our reputation as the preeminent service company by creating the highest standards for performance and ethics in the industry. We are a full service firm practiced in the design and administration of all areas of employee benefits programs. Our people are our most valuable resource, each a licensed agent, cross trained in all aspects of our operation. We are committed to helping our clients successfully manage the evolution of health care and the ongoing challenge of enhancing the value of compensation through employee benefits. Our well earned relationships and market shares with local and national carriers afford our clients the strongest possible negotiating leverage for their benefit plans. We are committed to quality work above sales volume and while we recognize service promotes good will, we sincerely believe it to be its own reward. * The Fringe Benefit Company Community * Chris Durkin gets a Masai warriors blanket from Ataulwah and Simon, Young Life leaders and friends in Tanzania and Unganda. * Orphans at the Koomba school in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania August 2005 * Ryan Durkin, young life leader, with children from the Muslim orphanage in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, August 2005 * Chris Durkin gets acquainted with some village children in the outskirts of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, August 2005 * After lunch potty party for the 1-2 year olds at Mother Theresas orphanage in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, August, 2005 * Dedication plaque for the basketball courts in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, August 2005 * Shawn Durkin carries an orphan at the Muslim orphanage in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, August 2005 * Brett Durkin with an orphan, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania August, 2005 * Aaron, Brett, Garrett, Ryan and Chris Durkin, building the Young Life basketball courts in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania August 2005 * Julie, Young Life leader, with children in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania during the building of the basketball courts, August 2005

When Pigs Heads Talk :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"What are you doing out here all alone? Aren’t you afraid of me?† asks a pig’s head on a stick, covered in flies. But it’s more that, it’s an entity, which is hidden within the depths of the book, concealed for the reader to discover. The book Lord of the Flies by William Golding contains symbolism all throughout the text, each symbol to be interpreted in its own way.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The main symbol in Lord of the Flies is quite obviously, the Lord of the Flies, which as aforementioned, is a pig’s head on a stick, covered in flies. The symbol represents the evil within the boys that reside on the island. Each one corrupt in his own, fearing what resides within them. Jack with his â€Å"macho† attitude, while he is a leader, has actually took part in killing someone, but then again, so has every boy there. This evil could also be interpreted as a loss of innocence, in which the boys spiral from helpless little tykes to voracious savages, living only to kill.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another symbol, is just the flies residing upon the sow’s head. They seem to represent people that cling to evil, as though it would their only chance of survival. An example of that would be a cannibal, whose own desires have led him to feast upon flesh, and then, even when he knows that what he has done is wrong, he continues to do it until his disgusting gorging has ended with his capture and punishment. Oddly enough, the flies are feeding on rotting flesh as well.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Simon, the boy murdered by his peers, can be viewed as a Christ figure. While some may say it is Ralph, Simon seems more like a savior. He comes down from the mountain, bearing news of the boys salvation from the beast that torments him and he is persecuted by them, each one taking part in the frenzy of his death. He also seems to be knowledgeable about things the boys can’t comprehend. He is always off in his own little world, pondering something that most boys wouldn’t even consider thinking about.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Yet another symbol in Lord of the Flies would the conch, which Ralph clings to so dearly. All of the boys see that as the upholding of order, until Jack claims it not so. With the shattering of the conch, Ralph seems to plummet into a slight depression, wherein he has nothing to remind of the upright and strict ways of his home. Without it he is nearly lost in a sea of his thoughts, buses as an example.