Monday, December 30, 2019

Communicative Intent in Autistic Children

Communicative Intent is critical for developing communication skills. In typical children the desire to communicate wants and desires is innate: even if they have impaired hearing, they will indicate wants and desires through eye gaze, pointing, even vocalizations. Many children with disabilities, especially developmental delays and autism spectrum disorders, are not hard-wired to respond to other individuals in their environment.  They may also lack Theory of Mind, or the ability to understand that other people have thoughts that are separate from their own.  They may even believe that other people are thinking what they are thinking, and may get angry because significant adults do not know what is happening. Children Who Lack Communicative Intent Children with autism spectrum disorders, especially children with apraxia (difficulty with forming words and sounds) may even show less interest than skill in communication. They may have difficulty understanding agency -- the ability of an individual to impact his or her environment. Sometimes loving parents will over-function for a child, anticipating his (most often) or her every need.  Their desire to care for their child may eliminate opportunities for the children to express intent.  The failure to support building communicative intent may also lead to maladaptive or violent behavior, as the child wants to communicate, but significant others have not been attending to the child. Another behavior that masks a childs lack of communicative intent is echolalia.  Echolalia is when a child will repeat what he or she hears on the television, from an important adult, or on a favorite recording.  Children who have speech may not actually be expressing desires or thoughts, merely repeating something they have heard.  In order to move a child from echolalia to intent, it is important for the parent/therapist/teacher to create situations where the child must communicate. Developing Communicative Intent Communicative intent can be developed by letting children see preferred items but blocking their access to those same items. They can learn to point or perhaps exchange a picture for the item (PECS, Picture Exchange Communication System.) However the communicative intent is developed, it will be reflected in a childs repeated attempt to acquire something he or she wants. Once a child has found a means to express communicative intent by pointing, by bringing a picture, or by uttering an approximation, he or she has their foot on the first step toward communication.  Speech pathologists may support teachers or other therapy providers (ABA, or TEACCH, perhaps) to assess whether the child will be able to produce vocalizations that they can control and shape into understandable utterances. Example Jason Clarke, the BCBA in charge of Justins ABA therapy, was concerned that Justin spent most of his time in self-stimulatory behavior, and seemed to show little communicative intent during his observation of Justin in his home.

Sunday, December 22, 2019

Essay on Elisabeta Olah Kocsis Tangelwood Case 5 - 1256 Words

Elisabeta Kocsis Human Resources Consultant 03/31/2015 Case 5 Marilyn Gonzales Vice President for Human Resources Tanglewood Inc. Ms. Gonzales, I write you in regards of your request to present a report on the discrimination charges of disparate impact brought to our attention by one of our employees, Stanley Root, represented by the law firm of Eaglette-Schubert LLC. Stanley Root contacted the law firm, claiming that he was repeatedly passed over for promotion opportunities despite positive performances. Tanglewood promotes diversity in the workplace, and all hiring and promotion are made on the basis of character and quality of work. The ensuing lawsuit brings a need to analyze Tanlgewood’s selection methods to ensure these are†¦show more content†¦To analyze disparate impact, it requires to compare the availability of protected classes (the proportion of the qualified and available workforce who are members of protected classes) to the utilization of protected classes (the proportion of those employed who are members of protected classes) for each job in the organization. In the flow analysis presented, and the chart below, data from the organization’s hiring practices and applicant pool are used to compare how many individuals were hired from various groups in the applicant pool. Selection ratios and the 4/5 rule This method to assess disparate impact is to compare the proportion of applicants who are hired from several sources. The rule states that if the organization’s utilization rate of minority group is below fourth-fifth (0.8) of the utilization rate of a majority group, disparate impact may exist. In our case, there are both external and internal applicants for the positions listed: A. Store Associate: a) We have only external candidates for this position. The applicant versus selection ratio is 20.87% Whites, 21.90% Non-Whites, and 22.73% African-American. Comparing the minority selection ratio to the majority selection ratio, more than 80.00% are hired, so there is no sign of disparate impact. B. Shift Leader: a) External hires: there is a percentage of 57.58% for Non-White, and 69.67% for African-American, both below the 80.00% required by the

Saturday, December 14, 2019

Melanoma Free Essays

Breakthroughs in medicine are occurring at a more predictable rate in the 21st century. This is due to technology and also the glut of information that is due to decades of research in the area of biology and medicine. Still, there are some medical conditions and illnesses that still puzzle the medical community and the public. We will write a custom essay sample on Melanoma or any similar topic only for you Order Now One of these is melanoma a type of cancer. This study will look into the basic definition of this sickness. This paper will also address the current status and future standing of the illness and provide information as to what will be the next possible steps in curing the disease and the future of melanoma treatment. Melanoma This disease is a type of skin cancer but it is not just an ordinary kind of cancerous growth but it is actually, â€Å"†¦the most serious type of skin cancer† (Melanoma.com, 2007). The main cause of melanoma is too much exposure to ultraviolet radiation such as in the case of sun bathers and those who just crave to have that bronze look and then go lie under intense UV rays courtesy of tanning booths. This type of disease is prevalent because this is a nation of sun worshippers, meaning people in this country just love to bask under the ultraviolet glow of sunlight just to get that much sought after tan. Now, melanoma is on the rise and the faster growing cancer in the United States of America. It is a serious problem not just because of its frequency but also because it is very aggressive. In fact, â€Å"The median survival of patients is generally limited to 6 t 10 months, and it has not been significantly improved since the 1970s† (University of Michigan Health System, 2007). But according to the National Cancer Institute (â€Å"NCI†) this type of cancer can also occur in the eye and is called intraocular or ocular melanoma (NCI, 2007). But the organ of choice – so to speak – for the disease is the human skin which is the largest organ of the human body. It is not only because of the large surface area but more on the fact that melanoma develops first in the skin cell called melanocytes. Melanocytes are skin cells found in the skin that is in charge in the production of melanin. Melanin’s main purpose is to give skin its color and explains why those who live in different environs e.g. too much sun, have a different skin color than those who only receive minimal amounts of sunlight throughout the year. Another major purpose of melanin is to protect deeper layers of the skin from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet or UV rays. Due to prevalence of the disease in those who love to get deep tan lying motionless in beaches or those frequenting tanning booths there is a consensus that too much exposure to UV light is the major cause of melanoma. When a person spends a considerable amount of time under the sun, melanocytes are worked into a frenzy – they work extra hard to produce melanin. This increased activity when done frequently causes this particular cell to suddenly behave abnormally. When this happens, Stage 1 cancer has already occurred. Yet, no one has been able to pinpoint the exact mechanism or the exact chemical process that cause this abnormality. The dermatology research team in the University of Michigan asserts remarked that, â€Å"The identification of the molecular basis of melanoma progression [†¦] are largely unknown† (Soengas, 2007). Current Status In the early stages of melanoma, it is highly treatable but there are limited options for those who are already in the advanced stages (Medical News Today, 2007). There are bigger problems when it concerns this illness. Reacting to the aforementioned poor prognosis of those who are in the later stages of the disease, the University of Michigan research team gave the following findings, â€Å"A main contributor to this poor prognosis is an extreme resistance to standard modalities of anticancer treatment, ranging fro immuno, to radiao or chemotherapy† (Soengas, 2007). Future Standing There are exciting developments though and one could be found in the laboratories of The Wistar Institute, an independent nonprofit biomedical research institution dedicated to discovering the causes and curse for major diseases including cancer. One of their researchers discovered that a substance called peptide exists in approximately 70 percent of melanomas but not in normal cells. Dorothee Herlyn the main proponent of this novel vaccine approach used the peptide to stimulate T cells in the body to attack the melanoma cells. Herlyn found out that a substantial proportion of melanoma patients, about 50 percent have killer T cells responding to the peptide and is very optimistic that in due time this new approach will be able to treat at least one third of all melanoma patients (Medical News Today, 2007). Discussion As mentioned earlier there are is still no hard evidence that will point to the exact cause of the disease on the molecular level. So far what is ascertain is the fact that too much exposure to UV rays are causing the melanocytes in the skin to grow abnormally and then becomes cancer causing. Prevention of course is better than seeking more expensive and emotionally draining cure especially when it comes to cancer. So experts suggest decreasing the amount of time under the harsh elements of the sun’s rays. Also, there is a serious need to be conscious of protecting one self from ultraviolet rays and this includes sun screen lotions, hats, working under the shade etc. But when cancer has already set in medical professionals are needed on the scene. There are at least four (4) major types of treatment (National Cancer Institute, 2007): Surgery – This includes removing the melanoma or removing cancer cells and some of the normal tissue around it. Lymphadenectomy is also an option wherein the lymph nodes are removed. Skin grafting is also part of this type of treatment. Chemotherapy – Cancer drugs are taken orally or injected into a vein so that it can enter the bloodstream and kill cancer cells. But due to the fact that melanoma is in the skin, basically outside the internal organs of the body this common cancer treatment has to be modified. The technique is called â€Å"hyperthermic isolated limb perfusion† where the flow of blood from the limb is inhibited through the use of tourniquet and thus anticancer drug can be put directly into the blood of the limb. Radiation Therapy – There are two types of radiation therapy – internal and external radiation therapy where the former uses high-energy x-rays while the latter uses radioactive substances sealed in catheters and then placed near the affected areas of the body. Biologic Therapy – This type of therapy finds ways to boos the body’s immune system so that it can fight the disease. There are also new types of treatment being tested in clinical trials. One is the aforementioned radical technique developed by Dorothee Herlyn of The Wistar Institute where she was able to coax T killer cells to attack melanoma and what a novel approach indeed. Works Cited Medical News Today. â€Å"Melanoma Research Progress Suggests Optimism for Future Cures.† Available from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=45539nfid=rssfeeds Accessed [20 April 2007]. Melanoma.com. â€Å"What is Melanoma?† Available from http:www.melanoma.com Accessed [19 April 2007]. Soengas, Maria. â€Å"Molecular Basis of Melanoma Progression and Drug Resistance.† University How to cite Melanoma, Essay examples

Friday, December 6, 2019

Business Intelligence and Analytics and Performance Management

Question: Discuss about the Business Intelligence and Analytics and Performance Management. Answer: Introduction There is a significant relationship between the performance management and business intelligence. This relationship will be established through different aspect of performance management role in a business functions. The next part of the essay will analyse the different aspect of performance analytics. This next hypothesis will take into account, different relevant factor of performance measure in an organisation that leads to necessity of measuring them. The key performance indicators are to create the portfolio of the businesss strategical improvement (Bronzo et al. 2013). The objectives, mission and values are the focus point of creating business intelligence, which leads to business analytics. For the betterment and increasing, the effectiveness of the decision-making business intelligence and analytics is needed. Both of this aspect is complement of each other. Integrating business analytics with performance calculations have become necessary to build the necessary outcome of th e process. It also enables top-level management to verify the data that supports the decision (Hazen et al. 2014). Discussion: The relationship between business intelligent and business performance management Performance management may lead to consistency in efficient and effective management. The process is to align the enterprise strategically align the objectives and priorities. A better decision making can be backed by the knowledge of their business. Performance can be managed by different metrics known as key performance indicators. Thus, the improvements can be measurable adding the values in the indicators. The cycle is to measure, the performance is planning, progress review and evaluation (George et al. 2014). Business intelligence is deriving the concepts with the business decision making and fact based support system. Converting the raw data got from different sources to information that can be used in future are the basic steps of business intelligence. Thus, the information is used in intelligence and used in the reporting department. Whereas business analytics is evidently based in building mathematical models through statistical analysis and predicting the future based on the historic data. Business intelligence helps in reporting the data based on the predictive model based on interrelationships of the variables identified (Hazen et al. 2014). In this case, the identified variables are the different metrics of performance indicators. The evidence based decision-making and reporting on the outcome of the performance is known as the performance analysis. Business analysis is used in every kind of business. The function where it is necessary are customer acquisition and customer loyalty, cross and up selling, insurance rate setting and others, risk in fraudulent. Performance management and business intelligence complements each other. The correlations are shown on the strategic dashboards with periodic intervals. The predictive models of performance management, after feeding data gives output on the scales and measure the outliers in their performance. The periodical data can also be compared with respect to improvement in the performances regard. Performance management is a departmental function of human resource management. The key are of performance indicators are performance appraisals, compensation and their implementati ons and evaluation. Relevant performance information is necessary for better decision making (Waller and Fawcett 2013). The integrated software solutions for the support to decision making are CPM (corporate Performance Indicators) or EPM (Enterprise Performance Management). Oracle Big data are being used by the Pepsico, IBM, PG, Ford, Dell. The most important part where it is being used are in enhancing the customer relationship management (George et al. 2014). The Business Performance management area where BI can be included are balance score cards, quality management, and comparison between previous and current data. The measurable aspects of a balance scorecard are measure quality of execution on periodic basis and dashboards includes visual display of BI implementation through graphs and lights (Waller and Fawcett 2013). This may be system generated and can reflect the result on real time information at a glance. The top down approach in management balance scorecard combines the vision of ultimate goal by monitoring key metrics of the financial information and growth, customer interaction and business process and operational effectiveness The variables of that are calculated to gauge the customer satisfaction are Customers experience Loyalty Customer satisfaction Trend in visits and buying rate On a financial perspective, the balance scorecard contains the following balancing units for measure Revenue growth - Shareholder value which are divide in two that are building franchise and customers value Productivity growth strategy that can be build to improve cost and asset structure The benefits of BSC are, it drives to enhance strategy using all the components measured in BSC dashboards. The building blocks of the framework are given emphasis in terms getting the result. This also takes into consideration about different level of scores and integrates them for quick and visual prediction on data (Walle and Fawcett 2013). Managing the quality of the operations and continuously improving the performance is done through six-sigma scorecard. Main criteria of measuring the performance are to driving for excellence through effectiveness of operations. Thus, the performances are managed on financial perspectives. Increasing the market share and sales volume is also part of business intelligence process. Business analytics comes after business intelligence, as data needs to be gathered on the above-mentioned aspects are and then information will be processed. The performance indicators metrics are decided based on the functions that they belong to (Rausch et al. 2013). Relevance of business analytics in business performance management as well as performance analytics Managers face problems in categorising the competitive advantage. Affectively using the business analytics can help in decision-making. The visualisation of the performance metrics generalises the outcome and facilitate the decision-making capability of the managers. Considering the internal and external output of the environment can lead to betterment of the outcome. A strategic business decision making helps in drawing conclusion, identify, and implement the alignment of the strategic goals. The direction of the goals is directed towards the desired performance standards. Business analytics identifies the efficient way of decision-making variables. The forecasting of sales and demand as well as analysing the trends of the marketing, consumer behaviour gives valid insights in the problem-solving path (Kasemsap 2015). Forecasting and predicting based on the variable on performance level are implemented in the organisation. However, the down turn of the predicting based on the histori cal data have some drawbacks but at the same time, it gives approximately close value of the variables. Transforming the data by using the business intelligence tools like data warehousing tools, reporting and dashboards and analytics tools are is initial stage and output are measured by the business performance management models and dimension. Aligning the business objectives of the company with the business process and creating BI portfolio map are used in approaching the objective (George et al. 2014). The prospect of using analytics in planning, forecasting, budgeting to assess the soundness of the performance is very important. To check trends, identify relationships analytics is needed. The prescriptive data regarding any performance indicators like key performance drivers are identified in the first essay are balance scorecard, total quality management and customer relationship management. These ones use the business analysis of to achieve the ultimate goals. The performance analytics is used in finding the meaning in the data that can help in forming decisions. Creating a novel insight from statistical analysis of the dataset helps in embracing the possibilities that could not have been identified in a manual analysis. Executive level of business analysis of optimises the business process which serves as a asset to companies which are data driven (Kasemsap 2015). Performance analytics uses the indicators, targets and threshold decided by the administrators. The power user here uses the system configuration data on collection of jobs as well as in data modification layer. Performance analytics target administrator is in position of formulating dashboards and scorecards. The analytics viewer is the one that views the dashboards based on assigned rights. The access control breaks-down the elements of security from the source. The relevancy of the Performance Analytics lies in the six-divided part of the performance overview. The dashboards, scorecards, widgets, indicators, data collector, automation, system. The dashboard of performance contains the property and to view points. The scorecards are to break down performance type of the indicators. The indicators are manual or automated which gauge the relevant updates of the score sheets (Laursen and Thorlund 2016). Targets and threshold are the elements reporting and alerting about the score of t he performance after breaking it down to view and analyse it. The most essential part of performance analytics are the data collector phase. Creating and running schedule jobs to collect scores periodically. To view information the job logs are searched for different information (Stefanovic 2014). The reason behind the failure of strategic improvement is the lack of getting meaningful clue of the data gathered. Thus, business analytics helps enabling the manager to draw proper conclusion of the inputs of the business. The performance management helps in targeting specific part of the organisation to implement analytics with holistic approach. The factors discussed above are foundation of the variables that are required to assess the performance. As companies is complex part of societies. The interdependency factor that works in them is also complex in nature (Phillips-Wren et al. 2015). Therefore, creating a link between the organisational strategy and performance has become necessary for the organisations. Thus, the data driven outcomes becomes most reliable part for the managers to make decision. Overload of data leads to limit the processing the data capabilities. The performance investigation is includes more variables that indicates the success factor of the individuals. Therefore, it can be said that the affective decision-making is enhanced by several level of business analytics and business intelligence (Hazen et al. 2014). Conclusion Therefore, it can be concluded that Business Intelligence and Business Analytics has become essential for organisations who are looking for While taking into consideration the internal and external factors of environment in organisation integration of business analytics with the performance drivers also helps in management action and control system. Due to individualisation and globalisation of business environment, the dire need of business analytics has increased. Considering the factors of performance drivers also equips the managers with implementing the best outcome of taken actions in the business process. Benefits of business analytics can be reaped if chosen strategically. The necessity of the proper internal and external environment can be used in terms of implementation of analytics in business environment. Business analytics enables administration to take affective and rationale decision making based on historical data. However, its affective implementation requires suppor tive organizational culture, stakeholder awareness and support from top-level management. Therefore, careful contemplation is required to develop the benefits associated with business analytics and addressing hindrances associated with its performance. References Agarwal, R. and Dhar, V., 2014. Big data, data science, and analytics: The opportunity and challenge for IS research. Bronzo, M., de Resende, P.T.V., de Oliveira, M.P.V., McCormack, K.P., de Sousa, P.R. and Ferreira, R.L., 2013. Improving performance aligning business analytics with process orientation.International Journal of information management,33(2), pp.300-307. George, G., Haas, M.R. and Pentland, A., 2014. Big data and management.Academy of Management Journal,57(2), pp.321-326. Hazen, B.T., Boone, C.A., Ezell, J.D. and Jones-Farmer, L.A., 2014. Data quality for data science, predictive analytics, and big data in supply chain management: An introduction to the problem and suggestions for research and applications.International Journal of Production Economics,154, pp.72-80. Holsapple, C., Lee-Post, A. and Pakath, R., 2014. A unified foundation for business analytics.Decision Support Systems,64, pp.130-141. Kasemsap, K., 2015. The role of business analytics in performance management.Handbook of research on organizational transformations through big data analytics, pp.126-145. Kwon, O., Lee, N. and Shin, B., 2014. Data quality management, data usage experience and acquisition intention of big data analytics.International Journal of Information Management,34(3), pp.387-394. Laursen, G.H. and Thorlund, J., 2016.Business analytics for managers: Taking business intelligence beyond reporting. John Wiley Sons. Phillips-Wren, G.E., Iyer, L.S., Kulkarni, U.R. and Ariyachandra, T., 2015. Business Analytics in the Context of Big Data: A Roadmap for Research.CAIS,37, p.23. Rausch, P., Sheta, A.F. and Ayesh, A. eds., 2013.Business intelligence and performance management: theory, systems and industrial applications. Springer Science Business Media. Stefanovic, N., 2014. Proactive supply chain performance management with predictive analytics.The Scientific World Journal,2014. Waller, M.A. and Fawcett, S.E., 2013. Data science, predictive analytics, and big data: a revolution that will transform supply chain design and management.Journal of Business Logistics,34(2), pp.77-84. Wamba, S.F., Akter, S., Edwards, A., Chopin, G. and Gnanzou, D., 2015. How big datacan make big impact: Findings from a systematic review and a longitudinal case study.International Journal of Production Economics,165, pp.234-246.