Vulnerable populations in Health Care Assignment

Vulnerable populations in Health Care - Assignment Example People who are chronically ill may have respiratory diseases, diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia and heart disease which have sustained for longer periods of time and resulted to alterations in health or disability. Between 2000 and 2004, 87% of the U.S. population ages 65 years old and older have one or more chronic conditions while those below the age of 65 approximately 35%-45% of the U.S. population have at least one chronic medical condition (The American Journal of Managed Care, 2006, 348). Thus, people ages 65 years old and older are more vulnerable to chronic diseases and disability. Research suggest that mortality from chronic diseases is common among men while more physical restrictions due to a chronic illness are more likely to experience by women (August & Sorkin, 2010, 1834). Men gained a lot of health benefits from social integration but it is also the social-relatedness of a man that predisposes him to chronic diseases as a result of risky health behaviors such as smoking, frequent alcohol consumption, and substance abuse. Women, on the other hand, are more eager to have health-related knowledge, more likely to monitor own health status, and less likely to engage in risky health behaviors (August & Sorkin, 2010, 1834). Thus, men are more vulnerable to chronic conditions and disability compared to women. Living with a chronic condition and suffering from disability are the realities for majority of the population in the United States; however, chronic illnesses prevalence varies across racial and ethnic groups. Minority populations include African Americans, Hispanic, and Native Americans while the Caucasians are the majority population. Racial and ethnic minorities are more vulnerable to chronic illness and experience greater complications and higher death rates compared to the majority population (Gallant, Spitze & Grove, 2010, 21).

Let’s Go to the Beach Essay Example for Free

Let’s Go to the Beach Essay It was summer, last year; in July 15th the hotter day of the season made me took to my young son, my niece, and my mom to the beach. It was noon, when I noticed that my mom to come from Mexico who was visiting me for some months was getting bore at home. Because she loves to be in Mexico, when she visited me I have to do fun thinks to extend her stay with me. Thinking what should I do to make her happy I had a great idea come to me and I told them â€Å"let’s go to the beach†. Without hesitation my mom said â€Å"yes†. I asked my ten years old son and my fourteen years old niece if they could help me to hold her because my mom’s troubles to walk alone. With a very blue sky, hot and yellow sun and the kid’s support with my mom I thought that it would be a perfect day to take my mom to the beach. My mom and I would not expect that going to the beach at a beautiful day, in a blink we will be terrified and involved others to spoil their beautiful day too. Planning to have a perfect day at Seascape Beach Resort, I learn that by my mistake inadvertence the brighter day, would become in a nightmare turning our day in a darkness day. After to invite my family to the beach, quickly I had to package some staff that we need to spend all day at the beach. I gave to my niece some appropriately cloths to go to the beach, my son wore his sandals, short and a light t shirt. Faster, I dressed a short and sandals too but my mom who though that she wont get wet to the beach, she did not want to change her beautiful light green pants and her write blouse that she was wearing. After we changed our clothes, I got four towels, my sunglasses, and a cap. As my purpose was to stay six hours at the beach, I made some sandwiches, water bottlers I cut a sweet watermelon, a cantaloupe, and bananas. Having it, I tough it is all that we need to get fun at the beach. Exited to be at the beach, my mom and the kids were into my car happily where my mom was in the font, my niece and my son on the back sets. Taking the 101 north highway, I drove to the road of the Seascape Beach Resort. While I was driving, we were listening Spanish music to made my mom felt much more relax. Even though the day was hot we were happy because I turned the air condition in and there was not traffic and we laughed, joked each other, and we talked about the beautiful day that we would expected to have. After twenty minutes driving, we arrived to the parking lot As I worked at Seascape Beach Resort for seven years, I knew where I should park my car safety for a long time and how to get to the beach while we can enjoy the scene of the path. Getting out towels and food, I was trying to leave my cell phone in my car, when my mom saw it she told me â€Å"bring it I’ll take care of it, I won’t be wet in the beach. † Easily, she convinced me and she put my cell in her pans packet. Because the hotter day, anxiously my niece and my son wanted to get wet and play with the sand, so they walk faster. Feeling my niece and my son the smell of the beach, they could not wait to touch the cold water. Recently my mom got a total knee replay surgery; she was unable to walk faster as my niece and my son. Taking the path of the beach, they let my mom and me behind. Frequently, I used to take my son at this beach, so they knew the path very well that tis why I allowed them to walk quickly. Whishing this beautiful day for my mom were unforgettable we walked slowly holding my moms hand, enjoying the view through the beachs path. Feeling the freshener of the green threes, getting relax with a beautiful fountains, looking at the flower gardens, and when we were close to the beach we enjoy the smell of the beach. After a few minutes with an enjoyable rode of the beach, we finally were at the beach. Before this day I took my mom to the same beach to watch the waves sitting on the beach’s bench and got refresh because her weakness of her knee. I wanted my mom has a perfect day, pampering her, I said yes for that entire she wanted without though that a nightmare will happen to us. Feeling my mom attracted to the waves and the beachs freshness and the smell of the breeze she asked me if she could get wet her feet. â€Å"Why not†, I said her. Caring my mom shoes in my left hand and my right hand holding her, slowly, we started to walk. Felling the burner sand in our feet, we continued to walk into the wet sand. With a very beautiful blue sky, and fresh waves, my mom feet happy and relax. After, we met with my son and my niece, who were playing with the sand and getting wet with the waves; I told them â€Å"my mom wants her feet get wet, we will be walking right there to the beach†. With Disregard they said â€Å"yes† because they were very busy with the waves. A few minutes ago, still walking under the wet sand, my mom wanted her feet touch the cooler water. Feeling the coolness of the breeze, touching our face and smelling the fragrance of the beach, my mom feet got wet. Two minutes later, walking still slowly under the sand a very small wave was coming to us. Happily, my mom and I, we were waiting the wave. Suddenly, I saw a very big wave coming to us. Immediately, I told my mom: lets go back quickly a big wave is coming towards us†. Even though I want to walk faster, my mom was unable to do because my mom’s knee weakness. Then, the big wave reached us soon. Holding my mom’s hand she, felt down lay at the water. Because my back injured I was incapable to stand up her. Terrify, for a few seconds, and unable to help my mom, I saw some people far of us. Frighten, and desperate because my mom was in danger to be driven for more big waves that were coming to us, I was holding tightly my moms hand; with my other hand I made some signal wishing the American’s family help. Fortunately, they saw my hands signal, so they guest that we need help. Two minutes later, they were coming one by one to help us. First it was just a lady who was trying to stand up by pulling my mom, while I tried to push her, but we could not stand up her. Soon, they were four more people who arrived to get her up. Thankfully to the kindly family help, by my negligence to allow my niece and my son to separate of my mom instead of held them to be close to my mom while she waked I spoiled the beautiful day to this family also. My mom, totally wet and dirty her light green pants and white blouse when her shoes were driven by the waves too, finally, we got my mom up. Immediately, the kindly family called to Seascape beach life guard to be sure that my mom was not injured. Because she was shaking for the tragedy and the cold water friendly, they sat her down in one of their chair that they had, trying to calm down, cleaning and drying, her with their big new towels that they had. Pampering my mom and waiting for the safe guard they frequently, need me, to asked her if she was fine because my mom cannot speak any English word. After twenty minutes of my moms tragedy I remembered that my son and my niece also were there. Still trembling I told the family members that there were two kids with us. Then, my son and my niece were called by one lady of this family witch let they know about my mom tragedy. Generously, around half an hour, my mom was pampering by this family while we were still waiting for the life guard, such us surrounding her, warming, hugging, and trying to make her safe outside the water. A few minutes later, the life guard came to us, when in detail, the family explained to the guy all about my moms accident and telling the guy about my mom’s recently knee surgery. Immediately, her blood pressure, her knee surgery, and everything of my mom were examined by the safe guard. Patiently, they helped her to ride the big truck when she was transported the outside of the beach. They also arranged with the bell men to give us a shuttle to my car because my moms shoes were missing, even though the bell boy was known to me because we were co-workers. Helplessness, how as humans bad things can happened and we cannot help ourselves, so we just ask others for help. Luckily, the generosity of this family save my mom to be browned at the beach, this nightmare taught me that they are some places when should I not take my mom by myself. Even though I have been giving the best care at my home for a long time, with my mom’s back, hip, and knee problems and her seven and eight years old and my back problem it was my big mistake to took her to the beach alone. With our short stance and bad experience at the beach, we back inside my car quite grateful with the American family who save my mom life.

Implementation Of The Library Management System Technology Essay

Implementation Of The Library Management System Technology Essay This report focuses on the design and implementation of the library management system. It deals with the complete processes on building and implementing it. It focuses in the technical aspects of the system starting with identifying the necessary components and building the relevant relationship between or among them as needed for the smooth and efficient operation of the system. The process starts with the entities involved in the system, with proceeding towards the ER Diagram in order to identify the meaningful relationship between the entities. Next is the table design which fulfils the normalization principle of relational database system and finally the physical tables are created with the necessary and relevant data in them. The system can keep track of the members joining and leaving the library, borrowing and returning of the books. Checking the availability of the books using different attributes as parameters. Finally checking of the overdue books and fines payable is another feature of the system. Abbreviation SQL Structured Query Language ER Entity Relationship ERD Entity Relationship Diagram DDL Data Definition Language DML Data Manipulation Language 1. Introduction: Library management system is a system that facilitates the easiness in using and tracking the library assets. It provides an instant real picture and process of all the activities that happens in a library commencing from the member joining the library and the same leaving the library with all the utilization and rendering of the library facilities in between. 1.1 Background: A library is a collection resources especially books that a wide range of individuals can access and share them. Library has been in use since 15th century as has been gone through several stages of improvisation and its been in the form as today. Library can be categorized into different types according to the organization that runs it as Academic library, public library, School library etc. Further more it can be classified according to the subject matter of the documents it contains as Medical library, Law library, Arts Library etc. Libraries are organized in a way to access the materials in an easy an effective way. There are several systems in practice which makes the library organized. Library is basically concerned about acquisition, preservation and administration of its resources. In order to carry out these tasks a system is implemented. All these process has been carried out manually before the advancement of new technologies. Now the computer automated system is in practi ce to carry out these systems which makes all these processes effective and efficient. These computer automated systems makes easy for the members to access the available resources where as it makes easy for the librarians to keep track and maintain the library resources. 1.2 Objective: The objective of the entire project Design and implement a library database. Construct the expandable search alternatives for the best handling of member queries, searching the books by book title, book author, ISBN. Construct the search option for the librarian to find the over due books and fine details. 1.3 Scope: The goal of this project is to design a database for a college library which will be implemented in the form of an online library which provides members a digitized catalog in order to search the books and browse information about the book. In the same time this system also enables the librarians to find the information of the book in a precise way especially the fine and overdue books. The summarized activities are as follows: Members registration Book issue and collection Book cataloging Collecting overdue book and fines 1.4 Technology Used: Technology used in this project is MYSQL. 2. Current system and its fallacy The library is managed, organized and run by the librarian. All the functions like managing books, issuing books, and finding the books for the members is carried out by librarian. This is where the time and effort is consumed. Whereas the members also find difficulty in finding availability the books and need the assistance of librarian in every step. The librarian also finds it tedious if s/he has to deal with several members at a same time. There is a difficult system 2.1 New system and its features The new system is also based on the daily routines of the library but the function carried out within it will be automated. Once all the data are stored in a database with a proper system both the librarian and members will be benefited over the traditional system as it is designed with the following features in mind: Effective The library system will streamline the library process which accelerates the effectiveness of the library. Efficacious The users are served in a reasonable time and are also able to search and select their required books. Efficient Members and Librarians are able to use the system quickly without any long procedures. Elegant Since the system is intuitive and comprehensive and is designed to be as effortless as possible 3. Literature Review This report focuses on the conceptual design of the system using ER i.e. entity relation ship diagram which is a diagrammatic representation of the entities and their relation with one another which is explained in the forth coming section. The ER is constructed using the UML. UML stands for unified modeling language. Software engineering uses UML as the standardized modeling language. It was created by Object management group. UML is a language used to present the blueprint of the system to be designed. It has got its own notations to represent the processes and objects involved in the software to be designed. ER Diagram is a graphical representation of the entities and relation between them in order to execute a system. This Diagram is constructed in some available ER Diagramming packages which is Visual paradigm community edition in this case. MYSQL has been chosen as the database system for this library management system. Since it is relational database available under the terms of GNU public license. Besides the ease of using through a variety of freely available tools as PHPMYADMIN makes a choice of most of database designers today. Besides it is the database of choice because of its high performance, high reliability and ease of use. Moreover it runs on maximum operating systems available in the IT fraternity like windows, Mac OS, Linux, Solaris, IBM . 3.1 Requirement Analysis The library management system should be able to fulfill the user requirements to all the extent and when analyzed are found as follows Member should be able to join and leave the library Member of a library should be able to borrow and return books Member of the library should be able to check book availability. Librarian should be able to check the overdue book and the fines payable. 4. New system Design The library management system with the goal to cover the requirements noted above needs to be developed in a system which has the proven track of implementing the same or same type of systems. So, a relational database system is chosen to carry out the task. The relational database system is basically a system where data is stored in a container called tables and the relational among them is also stored in the same form. The new system follows the waterfall model of the software development models. The processes in execution order in a water fall model are: Requirement analysis Software Design Integration Testing Deployment Maintenance 4.1 Conceptual Data Model The design of this data model is part of software design phase. After going through the requirement analysis the next step is the Software design and in it conceptual data model is the first among them. The conceptual data model identifies the necessary entities and establishes a relevant relation among them. In this design ER Diagram (Entity relationship diagram) is created to illustrate the relations between the entities. The diagrammatic conceptual representation of structured data is known as ER Diagram. Relational schema is used in this method for database modeling. The dominant method of database designing in the Software industry is the ER Diagram. Peter Chen invented the ER diagram in the early days to model the design of the databases from a more abstract perspective particularly for the academic research. Based on that, ER diagram was further elaborated and now is used worldwide in different forms. ER diagram deals with three major components of a database namely, Entity, A ttributes and Relation. Entity is nothing but a set of particular thing which shares common properties. Whereas attributes are the set of common properties which the entity share. The last but not the least component of an ER Diagram is a relation which is the model of association between one or more entities. Each relationship in ER Diagram has a cardinality which defines the degree of relationship between the two entities. In other words how the related entities has presence over one another. Cardinality is of three types: one to one, one to many and many to many. In an ER diagram the one occurrence of the entity is shown by a vertical line and many occurrence of the entity is shown by the crow foot. The relationship is established on the basis of several keys called primary keys and foreign keys. Besides there are other keys called candidate key and composite key. Primary key: The attribute which uniquely identifies a record in a table is called primary key. Foreign Key: As the name specifies this is the key which points the primary key of another table to which it is related. Candidate Key: The attribute that is identified to be unique for a given record is the candidate key. Composite Key: Primary key consisting of more than one attributes to identify the record uniquely is composite key. For the library system the constructed ER Diagram is shown below. 4.2 Logical Design The logical representation of the entities is drawn out in the logical design. It is a table prototype of the entities. Based on the conceptual Design above we do have following table and entities mapping. Member member_id (integer), member_fname (varchar), member_lname (varchar), member_address(integer), member_phone (varchar), member_email (varchar), member_type(integer) member_id is primary key and member_address and member_type are foreign keys to build the one to many relationship between address table and member table and member table and member_type table respectively. Member_Type member_type_id(integer), member_type_name (varchar), member_type_allowed_day (integer), member_type_fine (integer) member_type_id is primary key. Address address_id(integer), address_description (varchar), postcode (varchar) address_id is primary key. Postcode postcode_id (integer), postcode_description (varchar), postcode id is primary key. Books ISBN (integer), book_name (varchar), book_status (varchar), book_type_id (integer), book_publisher(integer) ISBNis primary key, book_type_id, book_publisher are the foreign keys which relates the the book table with book type with one to many, and with publisher table in one to many relation ship as well. Book_Type book_type_id(integer), book_type_name (varchar) book_type_idis primary key. Publisher publisher_id (integer), publisher_name (varchar) publisher_idis primary key. Author author_id(integer), author_fname (varchar), author_lname (varchar), author_email (varchar) author_idis primary key. Librarian librarian_id(integer), librarian _fname (varchar), librarian _lname (varchar), librarian _address(integer), librarian_phone (varchar), librarian_email (varchar) librarian idis primary key, librarian_address is the foreign key which establishes the one to many relationship with address table. Book_Author ISBN(integer), author_id(integer) ISBN is the foreign key which maintains one to many relation with books table and author_id is the foreign key which establishes the one to many relationship with author table. Thus in this way Many to Many relationship is established between Book and Author table. Borrow borrow_id(integer), member_id(integer), ISBN(integer), librarian_id(integer), borrow_date (date), return_date (date), expected_return_date (date) borrow_id is the primary key and memer_id, ISBN, librarian_id are the foreign keys. Member table and borrow table shares one to many relationship, Books table and borrow table shares one to many relationship and librarian table also shares one to many relation with borrow table involving the mentioned foreign keys. In other words many to many relation ship occurs between these entities i.e. many to many between librarian and books, member and books. Fine fine_id(integer), borrow_id(integer), librarian_id(integer), fine_amount (float), fine_id is the primary key and borrow_id, librarian_id are the foreign keys. Fine is associated with borrow in one to one relation whereas librarian is associated in one to many relation. 4.3 Normalization After the conceptual model the logical representation of entities are created and then before converting them into the tables with physical existence normalization is carried out. Normalization is process by which the data redundancy is nullified. This is achieved by disintegrating the single relationship with ambiguity into multiple smaller and precise relations. The tables holding such data are split into several atomic tables so that they become isolated and the data manipulations are carried out in a propagative way i.e. a change in an entry point data in a relation makes it triggered and reflected throughout the relations which frees tables from modification anomalies, i.e. insertion, updation and deletion anomalies. Several levels of normalization exist in database design and are called Normal Forms. They are First Normal Form (1NF), Second Normal Form (2NF) and Third Normal form (3NF). First Normal Form (1NF) First Normal form is concerned with multiple valued attributes. For the table to be in a first normal form it cannot contain multiple values for any attributes. Second Normal Form (2NF) For the table to be in second normal form the non key attributes of the table shouldnt be partial dependent on any single element of composite primary key. Third Normal Form (3NF) For the table to be in third normal form the non key attributes shouldnt have the transitive dependency on the primary key. The tables for the different entities are normalized in following manner: Books Table (without normalization): Fields (ISBN, book_name, book_status, book_edition, book_type, book_publisher, book_author) where ISBN is the primary key. books table before normalization In the above table the author value is repeated in the book_author table, for the table to be in 1NF, the table cell must contain a single value. The next is the value of book publisher and book type is repeated in multiple rows so it results in the update, insert and delete anomalies. To overcome this problem the author name and publisher entity are separated into multiple tables as shown below. The author table is created with author_id as primary key. Author Table: Fields (author_id, author_fname, author_lname, author_email) where author_id is the primary key. author_id author_fname author_lname author_email 1001 Max Godwell [emailprotected] 1002 Robin Hood [emailprotected] The relationship between book and author table is maintained in book_author table which is many to many as many a book has many authors and an author can write many books. This relation is established by creating a third table book_author which maps book to author and vice versa. This table contains two fields both as foreign keys which refer to book and author table respectively to establish one to many relationship on both sides. Book_Author Table : ISBN author_id 91238745654 1 91238745654 2 Publisher Table: Fields (publisher_id, publisher_name) publisher_id is the primary key. Similarly the repetition of publisher values in a book table is rectified by creating a publisher table as publisher_id as primary key which is then mapped as foreign key in books table to create one to many relationship, which rectifies the insert, update and delete anomaly thus creates 1NF in all cases. publisher_id publisher_name 1 Apress 2 Princeton Book_Type Table: Fields (book_type_id, book_type_name) book_type_id is the primary key. Similarly the repetition of book type values in a book table is rectified by creating a book_type table with book_type_id as primary key which is then mapped as foreign key in books table to create one to many relationship, which rectifies the insert, update and delete anomaly thus creates 1NF in all cases. Book_type_id Book_type_name 1 Computing 2 Economics The second normal form deals with the dependency of the non key columns with the primary key, i.e. no non key columns can depend upon another non key columns or no non key columns can depends on any one column in case of composite primary key. The conclusion is all the non key columns must be dependent on primary key strictly. Since this is also satisfied in all the tables above all the tables satifies 2NF as well. The third Normal form deals with transitive dependency of non key columns, since this is abolished in all the tables above all the tables are in 3NF as well. Books Table (Normalized): Fields (ISBN, book_name, book_status, book_edition, book_type, book_publisher) ISBN is the primary key, book_type is the foreign key referring to book_type table and book_publisher is the foreign key referring to the publisher table. Books table after normalization Member Table: Fields (member_id, member_fname, member_lname, member_phone, member_email, member_address, member_postcode, member_type, member_allowed_day, member_type_fine) member_id is the primary key. Member table before normalization The table above contains repeated address, repeated postcode, repeated member type, repeated member_type_allowed day and member_type_fine so this should be resolved to convert the tables in 1NF. Since there is no composite primary key there is no partial dependency as such so once the above table is resolved to 1NF it becomes 2NF as well. Since member_type_allowed_day, member_type_fine is dependent on member_type alone which is dependent in member_id it creates transitive dependency. So the table to be in 3NF this anomaly should be removed. Again to overcome these anomalies the tables are separated and the relation between them are established accordingly. The member, address, postcode and member_type tables are separated as below to convert into 3NF. To avoid the repetition of member type in member table the member type is separated in member_type table with member_type_id as primary key and member_type as foreign key in member table which creates one to many relation between these two tables. This also rectifies the transitive dependency existing on the member table formerly and thus resolves the table to 3NF. Member_Type: Fields (member_type_id, member_type_name, member_type_allowed_day, member_type_fine) member_type_id is the primary key. member_type_id member_type_name member_type_allowed_day member_type_fine 1 Student 14 10 2 Lecturer 30 5 The dependency of address in postcode also creates the violation of 2NF through the dependency of non key attribute in another non key attribute other than primary key so this is further resolved by splitting address and postcode table separately. The address table has address_id as primary key which is referred in member table as foreign key which establishes one to many relation between them. At the same moment the postcode table is created with postcode_id as primary key and is referred in address table as foreign key named postcode also creates one to many relation between postcode and address. Thus the 2NF violation in member table is abolished and further more all the resulting table satisfies all the Normal form conditions. Address Table: Fields (address_id, address_description, postcode) address_id is the primary key and postcode is the foreign key referring postcode_id in the postcode table which creates one to many relation between address and postcode table. Address_id address_description postcode 1 121 East Road 1 2 45 Parr Road 2 3 36 Jhon Road 3 4 23 Plashet Road 1 Postcode Table: Fields (postcode_id, postcode_description) postcode_id is the primary key. postcode_id postcode_description 1 E15 3QS 2 NW9 1NF 3 SE1 2NX Member Table (Normalized): Fields (member_id, member_fname, member_lname, member_phone, member_email, member_type, member_address) member_id is the primary key; member_type is the foreign key referring to member_type_id in member table to create one to many relations between these two table. member_address is the foreign key referring to address_id of Address table to establish another one to many relation. As in case of librarian the repeating fields in a table address and which caused the insert, update and delete anomalies so violated 1NF and this is resolved by creating the Librarian table with the foreign key mapped to address table thus maintaining one to many relationship and thus abolishes any Normalization violations and thus results in satisfaction to all the Normal forms. Library Table (without normalization) : Fields ( librarian_id, librarian_fname, librarian_lname, librarian_phone, librarian_email, librarian_address, librarian_postcode) librarian_id is the primary key. Library Table (normalized): Fields (librarian_id, librarian_fname, librarian_lname, librarian_email) librarian_id is the primary key and librarian_address is the foreign key which refers to address_id in the Address table to create one to many relationship. Borrow Table (without normalization) : Fields (borrow_id, member_id, ISBN, issuing_librarian, borrow_date, return_date, expected_return_date, returning_librarian, fine_amount) borrow_id is the primary key. Borrow table before normalization The above table violates the 1NF by repeating the librarian ids at the same once it is resolved all other normal forms conditions are satisfied. The borrow table is divided into one more table as Fine and the librarian is associated to Borrow and Fine table separately through one to many relationships in both cases. This eradicates the violation of normal forms and thus makes the form normalized up to 3NF. Fine table: Fields (fine_id, borrow_id, librarian_id,fine_amount) fine_id is the primary key and borrow_id is the indexed foreign key which is mapped to the borrow_id of the borrow table, so as to create one to one relationship between them. The relation ship is created one to one as one borrow can only have one fine and not more than once. fine_id borrow_id librarian_id fine_amount 1 1 1001 10 2 2 1002 15 Borrow table (Normalized): Fields (borrow_id, member_id, ISBN, librarian_id, borrow_date, return_date, expected_return_date) borrow_id is the primary key. member_id is the foreign key which referrs to the member_id of the member table thus creating one to many relationship in between. Similarly ISBN is the foreign key that refers to the ISBN in the book table thus creating one to many relation between them. Similarly librarian_id is the foreign key that is mapped with librarian_id of the librarian table to create one to many relationship again. Borrow table after normalization 4.4 Physical Design The physical design refers to the creation of the physical tables in the preferred database management system. In database management system there are the specific SQL called Data definition languages (DDL) to create the physical table and establish the relationship between the tables. They are CREATE, ALTER, And DROP. CREATE statement is used to create the physical structure of the table. ALTER statement is used to modify the existing structure of a table as adding and removing columns, constraints etc. DROP statement is used to delete a table. For instance we have to create the tables as per the requirement. Here are the DDL statements to create the tables as illustrated in the ER diagram CREATE TABLE Books ( ISBN INT NOT NULL , book_name VARCHAR( 100 ) NOT NULL , book_status CHAR( 1 ) NOT NULL , book_type INT NOT NULL, book_edition INT NOT NULL , book_publisher INT NOT NULL , PRIMARY KEY ( ISBN ) ); CREATE TABLE Book_Type ( book_type_id INT NOT NULL , book_type_name VARCHAR( 50 ) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY ( book_type_id ) ); CREATE TABLE Author ( author_id INT NOT NULL, author_fname VARCHAR ( 50) NOT NULL , author_fname VARCHAR ( 50) NOT NULL , author_email VARCHAR ( 100) NOT NULL ); CREATE TABLE Publisher ( publisher_id INT NOT NULL, publisher_name VARCHAR (100) NOT NULL, PRIMARY KEY ( publisher_id ) ); CREATE TABLE Book_Author ( book_id INT NOT NULL , author_id INT NOT NULL ); CREATE TABLE Member ( member_id INT NOT NULL , member_fname VARCHAR( 50 ) NOT NULL , member_lname VARCHAR( 50 ) NOT NULL, member_phone VARCHAR( 25 ) NOT NULL , member_email VARCHAR( 100 ) NOT NULL , member_email VARCHAR( 100 ) NOT NULL , member_type INT NOT NULL , member_address INT NOT NULL , PRIMARY KEY (member_id ) ); CREATE TABLE Member_Type ( member_type_id INT NOT NULL , member_type_name VARCHAR( 50 ) NOT NULL , member_type_allowed_day INT NOT NULL , member_type_fine INT NOT NULL , PRIMARY KEY (member_type_id) ); CREATE TABLE Address ( address_id INT NOT NULL , address_desc TEXT NOT NULL , postcode INT NOT NULL , PRIMARY KEY (address_id ) ); CREATE TABLE Postcode ( postcode_id INT NOT NULL, postcode_description VARCHAR( 10 ) NOT NULL , PRIMARY KEY (postcode_id ) ); CREATE TABLE Librarian ( librarian_id INT NOT NULL , librarian_fname VARCHAR( 50 ) NOT NULL , librarian_lname VARCHAR( 50 ) NOT NULL , librarian_address INT NOT NULL , librarian_phone VARCHAR( 25 ) , librarian_email VARCHAR( 100 ) , PRIMARY KEY ( `librarian_id` ) ); CREATE TABLE Borrow ( borrow_id INT NOT NULL , member_id INT NOT NULL , ISBN INT NOT NULL , librarian_id INT NOT NULL , borrow_date DATE NOT NULL , return_date DATE , expected_return_date DATE NOT NULL , PRIMARY KEY (borrow_id ) ); CREATE TABLE Fine ( fine_id INT NOT NULL , borrow_id INT NOT NULL , librarian_id INT NOT NULL , fine_amount FLOAT NOT NULL fine_paid CHAR( 1 ) NULL , PRIMARY KEY ( `fine_id` ), INDEX (borrow_id) ); Once the table physical structures are created then the relation among them are established as per the ER diagram and normalization. Below are the DDL statements used to create the foreign keys so as to create the relationship between the tables as illustrated in ER diagram. ALTER TABLE Books ADD FOREIGN KEY (book_type) REFERENCES Book_Type (book_type_id) ; ALTER TABLE Books ADD FOREIGN KEY ( `book_publisher` ) REFERENCES Publisher( publisher_id ) ; ALTER TABLE Book_Author ADD FOREIGN KEY ( ISBN ) REFERENCES books( ISBN ) ; ALTER TABLE Book _ Author ADD FOREIGN KEY ( author_id ) REFERENCES Author( author_id ) ; ALTER TABLE Member ADD FOREIGN KEY ( member_address ) REFERENCES Address( address_id ) ; ALTER TABLE Member ADD FOREIGN KEY ( member_type) REFERENCES Member_Type( member_type_id ) ; ALTER TABLE Librarian ADD FOREIGN KEY ( librarian_address ) REFERENCES Address( address_id ) ; ALTER TABLE Borrow ADD FOREIGN KEY ( member_id ) REFERENCES Member( member_id ) ; ALTER TABLE Borrow ADD FOREIGN KEY ( ISBN ) REFERENCES books(ISBN) ; ALTER TABLE Borrow ADD FOREIGN KEY ( librarian_id) REFERENCES Librarian( librarian_id ); ALTER TABLE fine ADD FOREIGN KEY ( borrow_id) REFERENCES Borrow( borrow_id ); ALTER TABLE fine ADD FOREIGN KEY ( librarian_id ) REFERENCES Librarian( librarian_id ); ALTER TABLE address ADD FOREIGN KEY ( postcode ) REFERENCES Postcode( postcode_id) 5 Data Manipulation language Data manipulation language DML is SQL is the statement which used to insert, update, delete and retrieve the data from the table or multiple tables as per requirement. The INSERT statement is used to insert a record in a table. UPDATE statement is used to modify the value of the attribute in a record and DELETE statement is used to delete a record from the table. 5.1 DML to insert dummy records INSERT INTO Postcode (postcode_id ,postcode_description) VALUES (2, NW9 E5J); INSERT INTO Address (address_id ,address_desc ,po

Poverty Eradication Essay -- Global Development

Introduction Poverty eradication has been on the global development agenda since the birth of development itself. Unfortunately for the impoverished, the agenda of the neoliberal and transnational classes are not as concerned with poverty eradication as they are with capital and industry. This means that the needs of the citizens, poor citizens in particular, get put on the back burner in the name of economic growth and free market policy. In Latin America, 40% of the population is categorized as poor, and in Brazil the extreme level of disparity and the states refusal to adequately address it has led to the formation of a Landless Workers Movement which calls itself the MST (Leiva, 2008). The MST believe that agrarian reform and redistribution of wealth and power are the solution for Brazil's poverty woes, and that the current top-down, or trickle down policies are not solutions but are in fact a part of the problem. The purpose of this case study will be to not only get a better understanding of the MST but to also find out how, or even if its results can be duplicated in other third world countries. Identifying the problem the general problem is poverty, but under the surface there are many different elements at work. The driving force behind it all is the most important because identifying and understanding it will make it easier to diagnose, and from the research it is clear that the locomotive behind the poverty in Brazil is capitalism and its sidekick, consumptionism. As most probably already know 20% of the worlds population accounts for over 85% of total private consumption expenditures (UNDP, 1998). In Brazil, 10% of the population owns 75 percent of the nations wealth, to bring it even closer into perspective 0.1% ... .... Fernando Leiva writes, â€Å"Latin American policies on poverty are tricky because they must be designed without being perceived as a threat to the profit rate of domestic conglomerates and transnational capital; they cannot restrict capital mobility, flexible labour markets, or upset stable expectations for investors† (2008). It is against this mighty agenda that the MST fights and yet the MST has proven itself mighty in its own respect, with its ambitious, almost ridiculous demands. But the neoliberal capitalists need for stability and predictability, has been and must continue to be overpowered by the waves of change, if there should be any hope of a poverty free Brazil. As one MST advocate was quoted to have said, â€Å"there can be no progress as long as the demands are being deemed acceptable according to the standards of the establishment† (Branford and Rocha, 2002).

Individual Interview Reflections: The Role of a Teacher in Literacy Learning Essay

Literacy learning is a complex endeavor; it is faced by numerous challenges that range from the materials used to methods of teaching/learning applied to teachers’ personalities to peer influence among the students and the deluge in technological stimulus among other factors. My interview with Edith A. Diaz, PHD, CSC, and teacher ‘B’, both language art teachers and plying their trade at Tom Browne Middle School revolved around four core areas of their work as literacy instructors. The interview required the teachers describe their roles as literacy instructors, more specifically citing things such as the percentages of total time devoted to educational tasks e. g. paper work, attending and conducting workshops, discussions with other school personnel, and parents meetings, etc. ; describing materials and methods that have been recommended by school or the school district as the most appropriate in literacy learning; to quote materials and teaching/learning methods that they as teachers have found to be un-useful or ineffective in literacy learning, and to describe materials and methods that they find most appealing relative to the philosophical and theoretical schools of thought they belong as experienced teachers; to describe their greatest concerns insofar as literacy learning is concerned especially at the wake of the deluge of technological stimulus, and; to describe what they are doing to combat any negatively impacting stimulus on students literacy learning. The teachers were also required to add other comments, concerns, and personal stances relating to their roles as language art teachers. Edith’s Reflections Edith bases her convictions on the role of a teacher/educator on various philosophical and theoretical arguments as put forth by great thinkers such as Socrates, Plato, Einstein, Erickson, Steinbeck, and Roger. Her perception of the role of an educator/teacher is that of an all-round professional whose duties are many and not practically definable. She portrays this through a balanced conclusion of the role of a teacher, a conclusion that comprises of both philosophical and theoretical perspectives. For instance, from a philosophical perspective a teacher affects eternity, he can never tell where his influence stops, while from a theoretical perspective, a teacher’s influence is timeless, and it assumes both negative and positive influences. However, she clarifies that her core role as a grade seven language arts teacher is to teach the standards as set forth by the state of Texas (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills – TEKS). In one sentence her role revolves around imparting the appropriate knowledge and skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing, and presenting) that will enable the students to become competitive members of the global society. In order to achieve this seemingly tall order-task, Edith apportions her time professionally depending on the level of workload of the various sub-tasks that forms her role in a seven day-week. For instance, she dedicates 45% of her time in drawing lesson plans for the whole week, 15% on paper work (record keeping, grading and register, etc), 15% conducting research i. e. teaching strategies, pedagogy, etc. 15% on discussion with fellow teachers and other school personnel, 5% attending or conducting workshops (reviewing current research articles in preparation to conducting educational workshops), and another 5% on parent meetings. Edith seems to belong to a unique breed of teaching professionals in terms of her convictions on the choice of the best materials and methods that should be applied in classrooms situations. She prefers infusing the Socratic Method and Rogerian student-centered approach in her daily class activities. This enables her to utilize the best aspects of both pedagogical approaches, for instance, the Socratic Method tends to intimidate students but when it is infused with the Rogerian student-centered method it goes down well in empowering the students. Her advices are that, a teacher’s role should not be authoritative; rather it should be an egalitarian role that assumes the Roger’s (1957) core conditions of unconditional positive regard, empathy, and congruence. She anchors her arguments on the eight developmental stages as put forth by Eric Eriksson’s, specifically on stage five that covers â€Å"Ego Identity vs. Role Confusion†, which holds that adolescents tends to seek relativity within a global context. She therefore asserts that the establishment of an appreciation of holistic child is core to the educational process. Edith warns that some pedagogical methods such as teacher directed instruction are rewarding but their excessive use may impede or even stifle the natural creative learning process in students. To support her convictions she invokes Plato’s reasoning that sought to discourage the habit of teaching students by force and harshness, but rather directing them to learning through what amuses their minds. Again, she advocate for the Paideia model of instruction giving that seeks to balance teacher directed method by inducing Socratic method and intellectual coaching to make it more student involving. She perceives the deluge of stimulus, especially technological stimulus as a threat to literacy instruction. According to her, technology is a worthwhile tool in literacy instruction; however, too much of it may kill natural creativity. For instance, students find it hard to imagine a scene from a variety of written text, which makes the skill of inferring a challenging task. She warns that too much of reliance on technological devices may stifle and/or nullify a students creativity and imagination. To her, imagination and creativity are the key pillars to literacy instruction, just as Albert Einstein cleverly asserted, that imagination is more important than knowledge. In a her parting shot, she equates a teacher/educator’s role with that of a great artist, and refers the teaching process to as a great form of art that uses human mind and spirit as its medium. Teacher B’s, Reflections I also interviewed another language arts teacher from Tom Browne Middle School who teaches eighth graders mostly, he preferred to call himself a classroom teacher. Unlike my first interviewee (Edith), Teacher B did not use big and fancy words to describe his role or what is expected of a teacher/educator. He plainly indicated that he spends between 8 and 10 hours at school in any given school day, he spends the greatest part of this time instructing students in classroom, he spends a bit of this time grading papers, running copies, and recording scores. He also spends an hour a week writing down lesson plans for the week. However, being the chairman of the language arts department, teacher B is in charge of making the department as vibrant as it is practically possible. He contends that the choice and implementation of pedagogical approach to adopt in the school is part of his core duties together with other teachers in the department. For instance, despite the school district purporting that (Texas Assessment Knowledge and Skills – TAKS) is the best measure for learning he contends that this is not the best method. He points out that the best thing is for a school to invest in numerous programs that will benefit the students, the Kamico and Gourmet are examples of such programs that they are currently using in the school. Nevertheless, his advices are that, the most effective methods and materials for learning are the reading of texts (novels, picture books, magazines, and newspapers) as it will enable the students to become good readers. Further, according to him the use of literacy circles among other methods plays a core role in enhancing comprehension of the materials read. Though he was too brief in giving out some methods and materials that to him are less effective in learning, he clearly indicated that as a departmental head he involves other members of the department in reviewing methods and materials in order to improve them and make them more custom fit to the students. However, there are some materials and methods that cannot be improved and therefore are done away with (placed on the back burner). Teacher B contended that the impact of the teacher in literacy instruction is compromised by a number of factors. For instance, he pointed out time as the greatest of all the factors; there is no enough time for students to read on their own, and teachers usually assume they are doing so at their free time but mostly it is not that way. This in turn affects their reading prowess. Again, he quoted the lack of sufficient funds to procure quality literature materials for the students as another stumbling block to literacy learning. Students are also known for vandalizing some of the reading materials they are given. Further, he contended that there is a chronic shortage of role models to emulate in the implementation of the teaching methods, for example, he indicated that he had heard about literature circles for along time but never tried to apply them in a class situation, he only came to understand and conceptualize them when he went to college. Just like Edith indicated, teacher B contended that the deluge of computer literacy has greatly affected the interests of students to read books. He tries to compare the traditional sense of reading books and working on projects that deal with novel units with how students are currently doing with themselves in the wake of computer literacy. Though the students are now more skilled in verbally deciphering information from the short internet sources, they are faced with great difficulty when it comes to putting down in written format what hey have learned and the conclusion that their prowess in literacy has virtually declined. Again, he associates the tendency of students to read graphic novels and shorter books as a factor to their declining literacy levels. He regrettably asserted that the role of the teacher in literacy learning is affected greatly by peer influence among the students; much as they would try to be different from others, students tend to think collectively as a group, this hugely affects their reading prowess as they are more concerned about how their friends perceive them and therefore fail to stand up for their beliefs if they think they are different from their friends. The role of the teacher therefore at such situations should be to facilitate intervention practices that will enable the students to reverse to the traditional methods of reading. For instance, he believes and tries to be a good role model, he always tell his students the amount of reading he gets done through out the school year. He spends a lot of his time in a week reading novels rather than watching television. Just like Edith asserted, he always emphasizes on building self-imagination rather than having other people thinking for him. To compensate for the fact that students do not read own their own he tries to give his students a steady stream of novel reading in class, he reads picture books, poems, short book chapters to his students for enjoyment and thought provoking. In his parting shot he contended that teachers should give their students enough space to choose what they want to read as a way of creating avenues to escape from the realities that they face in their daily school and home life. References: †¢ Edith A. Diaz, PHD, CSC, (Grade Seven Teacher): Tom Browne Middle School (interview), conducted on February 11, 2009 †¢ Teacher B, (Grade Eight Teacher): Tom Browne Middle School (interview), conducted on January 20, 2009

Mujahideen (Definition)

Mujahideen (Definition) Definition: A mujahid is one who strives or struggles on behalf of Islam; mujahideen is the plural of the same word. The word mujahid is an Arabic participle drawn from the same root as the Arabic word jihad, to strive or struggle. The term is most frequently used in reference to the self named Afghan mujahideen, the guerrilla fighters who battled the Soviet army from 1979 – 1989, when the Soviets withdrew in defeat. The Soviets invaded in December, 1979 in order to provide support a recently installed pro-Soviet prime minister, Babrak Karmal. The mujahideen were fighters from the mountainous areas of the largely rural country, and also maintained bases in Pakistan. They were entirely independent of the government. Mujahideen fought under the command of tribal leaders, who also headed Islamist political parties, which ranged from radical to moderate. The mujahideen received arms by way of Pakistan and Iran, both of which share a border. They made use of an arsenal of guerrilla tactics to thwart the Soviets, such as laying ambushes or blowing up gas pipelines between the two countries. They were estimated to be about 90,000 strong in the mid-1980s. The Afghan mujahideen were not seeking to wage an aggressive jihad beyond national boundaries, but were rather fighting a nationalist war against an occupier. The language of Islam helped unify a population that was- and still isotherwise very heterogonous: Afghans have many tribal, ethnic and linguistic differences. After the war ended in 1989, these different factions returned to their previous divisiveness and fought each other, until the Taliban established rule in 1991. These unorganized guerrilla warriors were viewed as outlaws by their Soviet enemy and as freedom fighters by the Reagan Administration in the U.S., which supported the enemy of its enemy, the Soviet Union. Alternate Spellings: mujahedeen, mujahedin