6 steps decision making Essay

In addition to time pressures that we encounter when searching for evidence to support care decisions for individual patients, it may be difficult for clinicians to apply the evidence that we find. The rate limiting step may not be doing the search, but the steps needed in â€Å"setting evidence-based medicine (EBM) in motion.† We present an example of a search for evidence by a Physician Assistant (PA) student that highlights this challenge. PAs receive accelerated training in the medical model and work in teams  under physician supervision. Approximately 40 000 PAs currently work in the  US in a wide range of settings and specialties.  Practising EBM has become an important component of training for PAs.  During an internal medicine rotation, a PA student encountered a common clinical practice unsupported by current  evidence—administration of nebulised albuterol in patients with community acquired pneumonia (CAP). While this practice may  be justified in patients with underlying chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who also present with CAP, this student  questioned the grounds for its use in patients with CAP who do not have COPD. Clinical scenario A 68 year old man presented to the emergency department with fever, chills, and a non-productive cough of 1 week’s duration. He had fatigue, headache, rhinorrhoea, and mild nausea, but  denied dyspnoea. He had no history of smoking or COPD. He  had atrial fibrillation and was taking warfarin for stroke prevention. On admission, his temperature was 38.4  °C, heart rate was  108 beats/minute, respiratory rate was 24 breaths/minute,  blood pressure was 156/88 mm Hg, and oxygen saturation was  86% by pulse oximetry on room air. Rales were heard in both  lung bases and in the right middle lobe. Chest radiography  showed a diffuse infiltrate in the right middle and lower lobes. Complete blood count showed a white blood cell count of  22 000 cells/ml with a left shift, and arterial blood gases showed mild respiratory acidosis.  One dose of ceftriaxone was administered parenterally, and a course of azithromycin was started. Albuterol, 5% solution,  delivered by n ebuliser 3 times daily was also ordered, in addition to a combination of inhaled ipratropium and albuterol,  delivered by metered dose inhaler every 4 hours as needed.  During the hospital stay, his pneumonia resolved, but his heart rate increased to 150 beats/minute and his blood pressure rose from 156/88 to 200/110 mm Hg. Clinical question Although there was no institutional protocol for use of  nebulised albuterol for treatment of CAP, the house staff often ordered it.  The PA student queried: In a 68 year old man with CAP and no underlying COPD, does use of nebulised
2 agonists improve symptoms? What is the risk of harm in this  patient? Search strategy Firstly, a treatment guideline was sought to clarify recommendations regarding use of nebulised albuterol for treatment of CAP.  The American Thoracic Society guidelines for management of  CAP1 were rapidly retrieved through PubMed, UpToDate, and  MD Consult. The British Thoracic Society (BTS) guidelines for the management of CAP in adults2 were also found in PubMed.  Both sets of guidelines were relevant to our patient, but neither guideline discussed the use of nebulised albuterol in the  treatment of CAP. The BTS guidelines had a section on general management, which discussed the use of adjunctive therapies  for CAP, but nebulised albuterol was not mentioned. Evidence from controlled clinical trials was mentioned in the guideline for â€Å"bottle blowing,†3 but not for physiotherapy.  Having not fully answered our question with a review of  relevant guidelines (and having not attracted the attention of anyone who could change the patient’s treatment p lan), we  searched PubMed again, this time specifically for studies on the use of albuterol in patients with CAP. No relevant trials were found on the use of nebulisers for CAP.  To identify evidence about harm with the use of albuterol,  PubMed was searched using the terms nebulised albuterol, cardiac arrhythmias, and randomised or controlled clinical trials.  No trials were found. When just the content terms were  searched, 9 articles, not directly relevant to our patient, were found. One prospective, open label study on the effect of  nebulised albuterol (for treatment of asthma) on cardiac rhythm was found.4 10 patients were studied, and although no adverse effect on cardiac rhythm or blood pressure was found, the study did not convince the team that no potential for harm existed in this, or other patients, especially when there  was no clear indication for use of albuterol. Recognising that searching and appraising the literature are not the only important aspects of practicing EBM, we consulted an experienced pulmonologist, who practises and teaches using the EBM model. In addition to reviewing treatment plans for  multiple cases of CAP requiring hospital admission with the  Nurse Practitioner/Physician Assistant service, he recommended review of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine  website at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada  (www.cebm.utoronto.ca/), which suggested bubble blowing as a method for helping clear secretions.2–3 This served as an  excellent, rapid approach to finding good information on treatment of CAP, and confirmed the evidence previously found in  the literature search.  Application of the evidence to this, and future  patients  The treatment plan for this patient was not altered by the  student’s rapid search for evidence. Changes in usual care for a common illness required a compr ehensive search and discussion among all clinicians in our institution caring for patients  with CAP. The clinical team reviewed the results of the search and because no evidence was found to support use of albuterol in patients like ours, changes were made to future practice. As a result of this process, which took a few hours and evolved over several weeks, orders for bronchodilators for patients with CAP are now made on an individual basis, depending on the  presence of patient comorbid illnesses, such as COPD. 164 Volume 8 November/December 2003 EBM www.evidence-basedmedicine.com EBM notebook Downloaded from ebm.bmj.com on 10 August 2009 Conclusion The need for a rapid search for evidence is sometimes, but not always, important to the care of an individual patient. In this case, the speed of the search did not affect the ability of the PA student to apply the  evidence to the patient. Setting the evidence in motion may require communication of search results to other members of the clinical team and may affect the care of future patients. Although the catalyst for setting EBM in motion was a student, the evidence, including the results of further research, along with the judgment of the experienced pulmonologist,  convinced the clinical team to make changes to usual care and to base future treatment of this common condition on the best available evidence. The basic concept of evidence-based medicine proposes to  make health related decisions based on a synthesis of internal and external evidence. Internal evidence is composed of knowledge acquired through formal education and training, general  experience accumulated from daily practice, and specific  experience gained from an individual clinician-patient relationship. External evidence is accessible information from research.  It is the explicit use of valid external evidence (eg, randomised controlled trials) combined with the prevailing internal evidence that defines a clinical decision as â€Å"evidence-based.† To realise this concept in day to day clinical practice, the Evidence- Based Medicine Working Group proposed a 5 step strategy,  corresponding to step 1 and steps 3 to 6 shown in the left hand column of the table. In teaching this 5 step approach, we encountered several difficulties. We noticed a growing hesitance to accept this strategy  as students advanced in their medical training. In the presence of well established methods of treatment or diagnosis, this  resistance rises even more, regardless of the level of training.We assume that this barrier is associated with the process of socialisation into the health professions. Throughout medical  education students are virtually â€Å"trained† to make decisions under the condition of uncertainty. Advanced students and to a greater extent clinicians lose some of their ability to differentiate between scientific evidence and what seems to be evident. If we intend to implement evidence-based medicine more efficiently, we need to modify the way students and clinicians learn to make decisions. Therefore, an additional step was introduced in our evidencebased medicine teaching programme (step 2 in the table).  Students were to provide answers to their clinical questions based on their current knowledge (internal evidence) before  continuing with the remaining steps of the evidence-based  process.2 Our collective experience concerning this additional step was extremely positive. The students using this new step were satisfied that their pre-existing knowledge had been  integrated into the evidence-based approach. By explicitly  documenting their internal evidence, students used the remaining steps of the process to evaluate not only the best evidence in making a clinical decision but also to assess the accuracy of their internal evidence, the grounds upon which their preconcep- The 6 steps of evidence-based decision making Step Action Explanation  1 Transformation of the clinical problem into 3 or 4 part question (a) relevant patient characteristics and problem(s), (b) leading intervention, (c) alternative intervention, (d) clinical outcomes or goals. 2 Additional step: answer to the question based on â€Å"internal evidence† only Internal evidence: acquired knowledge through professional training and experience (in general and applied to the patient). Should be documented before proceeding to step 3. 3 Finding â€Å"external evidence† to answer the question External evidence: obtained from textbooks, journals, databases, experts. The value of the external evidence will be highly variable, see step 4. 4 Critical appraisal of the external evidence Should answer 3 questions: (1) Are the results valid? (2) Are the results clinically important? (3) Do the results apply to my patient? (or is my patient so different from those in the study that the results do not apply?) 5 Integrating external and internal evidence The 2 sources of information (external and internal) may be supportive, non-supportive, or conflicting. How the decision is made when non-supportive or conflicting will depend on multiple factors. 6 Evaluation of decision making process Once the decision has been made, the process and the outcome are considered and opportunities for improvement are identified. The health authority of Alto Adige in northern Italy initiated and supported a project, the â€Å"Bressanone Model,† in which the effects of implementing evidence-based medicine on the quality of health care were to be shown. In this model we used the six step approach, which proved to be successful in the student  project to teach experienced clinicians.3 The participants were asked to name problems of their day to day practice that lacked either an effective or an efficient solution. The evidence-based medicine support group helped participants to phrase the 3 or 4 part questions. Subsequently, the physicians were asked to submit their individual answers to the questions before continuing with steps 3 to 6. Agreement between internal and external evidence varies. Completing the full process could result in finding evidence that confirms the internal evidence, validating and strengthening the clinician’s or student’s confidence in the decision. The process could also reveal that little evidence exists to support the decision or that the available evidence is equivocal. In such cases, other factors such as cost or inconvenience to the patient may need to be given greater consideration. Possibly, the best external evidence found is not in agreement with the internal evidence. This represents a particularly valuable experience for the clinician or student because it may avoid an ill advised decision. It also shows the fallibility of making decisions on  uncertain ground based on internal evidence alone. This in turn will hopefully promote the routine assimilation of external evidence in clinical decision making. The documentation and  comparison of steps 2 and 5, used as a research tool or quality assurance outcome measure, coul d provide valid information  on the effects of evidence-based medicine on clinical decision making. In case of conflicting internal and external evidence, clinicians have several options. They may change their mind and align it with the external evidence. They may determine that the external evidence is not sufficiently convincing and remain with the  original decision. Or, they may choose to discuss with the  patient the conflict between the internal and external evidence in a manner that enables the patient to take part in the decision making process. This last approach is recommended because  patient preference is considered an essential part of the  evidence-based decision making process1 and decisions often  need to be made in the absence of clear research findings.

Adolf Hitlers Rise To Power To Rule Germany History Essay

My address is about the life of a German corporal who fought in World War I, received 2 decorations, joined the German Worker ‘s Party, led it, and participated in World War II, as the leader of Germany. In other words, my address is about Adolf Hitler. Since none of us would be interested to be re-told the narrative of the second World War, I will concentrate chiefly on Hitler ‘s rise to power, which occurred between the 2 World Wars. I would wish to portion with you Hitler ‘s rise to power, from the terminal of World War I in 1919 boulder clay Hitler ‘s presidential term in 1934.Body:Even though World War I ended severely for Germany, which sustained terrible economic, military, and human losingss, Hitler remained in the German Army and served as a constabulary undercover agent whose mission was to infiltrate a little party called the German Worker ‘s Party. Harmonizing to Richard Bessel in his book â€Å" Nazism and War † , it was so when Hitler was interested and fascinated in the anti-semitic, anti-Marxist, and anti-capitalist thoughts that this party endorsed. As Hitler ‘s addresss grew more and more popular in the party assemblages, a founding member called Dietrich Eckhart found an involvement in Hitler. Hitler references him in his autobiography â€Å" My Struggle † as his wise man. Eckhart helped Hitler frock elegantly, charm people to fall in the cause, and run into of import people in the authorities In March 1920, as Hitler grew more and more popular, he took charge of the party and had it renamed to the National Socialist German Worker ‘s Party, and was later discharged from the armed forces, harmonizing to â€Å" The Hitler Book † . ( Passage: Now that we know how Hitler gained popularity truly fast, allow ‘s see how he used it to his advantage. ) In 1924, Hitler was fed up from the weak German authorities and attempted a putsch in Munich which he referred to as the Beer Putche in his 2nd book titled â€Å" The Secret Book † . His effort was foiled by the German military and Hitler was sentenced to 5 old ages of gaol. Ironically, the same adult male who caused to Jewish race murder got his sentence reduced to 9 months due to good behaviour, but Hitler learned his lesson. As his life on www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org stated, Hitler ‘s captivity â€Å" transformed him from an unqualified adventurer into a astute political tactician † . Subsequently in 1925, after Hitler besides managed to unban his party and recover authorization to give public addresss, he successfully brought more people to fall in the Nazi party. His oratory accomplishments helped him convey Left and Right flying motions together, and Hitler was ready to travel in the elections. In 1928, Hitler started by holding a mere 2 % of the ballots and 12 seats in the Reichstag. Then, he shifted his tactics ; Hitler won over the industrialists, the conservativists, and even the Army circles. And in 1930, he managed 18 % of the ballots with 107 seats. Two old ages subsequently, Hitler got 37 % of the ballots with 230 seats. ( Passage: Now that Hitler formed a successful party with over 200 seats in the Reichstag, allow us see his ultimate rise to power, the way to presidential term. ) Harmonizing to â€Å" The Hitler Book † , the Nazis started deriving cardinal places in the authorities, and Hitler was non satisfied. In 1933, President Hindenburg appointed Hitler as Chancellor. And as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Hitler helped the Nazi party by extinguishing its oppositions, by censoring the Communist Party of Germany and the Social Democratic Party, and subsequently by declaring the Nazi party as the lone legal party in Germany. Then in 1934, after President Hindenburg ‘s decease, Hitler assumed bid as the Leader and Chancellor of the Third Reich, holding 85 % of the ballots. After taking control politically, Hitler started coercing military leaders to vacate their stations merely to be filled by himself or other fellow Nazis so that all the state ‘s powers would be left in the custodies of one adult male, himself.Decision:In decision, even though Hitler had lifted the state from the economic depression it was enduring, he got greedier and took his power hungriness to a whole new degree, a war on all of Europe, which led him to a downward spiral bing him the war, the state, and his life. My intent was non merely to inform you of the inside informations of Hitler ‘s rise to power, but besides of the tactics behind that. How could one adult male addition so much power so fast? In his book â€Å" My Struggle † , Hitler said that the reply is in his power of persuasion by his inspiring addresss. His oratory accomplishments led the German people to swear him to run their state. If a adult male, who subsequently killed 1000000s of Jews, was elected president due to his unwritten accomplishments, what would people, possessing these same unwritten accomplishments, but with good purposes, subsequently do in life?

Baby-Boomer Retirement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Baby-Boomer Retirement - Essay Example Therefore the longer the working duration and the larger the number of earnings made, the higher the benefits received. Social security is, therefore, a vital part of a workers retirement plan. Â  After World War II, birth rates in the world tremendously increased. Statistics show that about 64million American children were born in the US during this period. The kids that were born between the years 1946 and 1964 were referred to as baby boomers. The large economic growth in the 90s is attributed to the boomers. In 2004, U.K boomers controlled 80% of U.K’s wealth. The majority of the workforce today is represented by this group (Walker, 2004). Â  Social security fund is designed in such a way that the benefits retirees of today get are paid from the contributions received from today’s working population. Over the years, the beneficiary to working population has been sustained because fewer people were retiring as compared to the number of people entering the workforce; thus the system was able to accumulate more revenues. Increase in life expectancy and the decrease in birth rates has posed a threat to the beneficiary-worker ratio; few people are now joining the workforce as compared to the many who are almost retiring. Â  In 1935, the year when social security funding was formulated, the life expectancy of a 65-year-old was 12.5years; in 2012 it had risen to 17.9 years and is projected to rise to 19.5 by the year 2030.The National Academy for Social Insurance projects that the beneficiary to worker ratio will rise to 46 percent by 2030. Â  There are fears that the massive onset of the boomer's retirement may bankrupt the system. This is because the surplus contributions made over the years will be used in paying out their benefits.

History and cultural context of two significant buildings of the same Essay

History and cultural context of two significant buildings of the same typology - Essay Example Fig 1. Aerial view of the Imperial War Museum North Courtesy of www.wabbaviation.co.uk Cultural conditions The Second World War which began in 1939 and ended in 1945 had a major impact on society and the lives of people. The war saw several people from different countries die and countless others maimed. The destruction of property and infrastructure that resulted from the modern war is practically beyond description. Today, memories of the Second World War and its effects remain etched in the minds of many people who lived at the time of the conflict. Although many people living in the U.K. today never witnessed the war, they have an opportunity to see its effects by visiting the Imperial War Museum North, one of the five braches of the Imperial War Museum (David 2002). The Trafford Park area in which the Imperial War Museum North is located played host to several factories including those that produced Avro Lancaster heavy bombers and engines that were used in combat aircraft owned by the British government. The museum building is situated in an area that was a major industrial centre during World War Two (Sophie 2009). During the Manchester Blitz that occurred in 1940, the industrial centre was heavily bombarded by enemy forces. The Museum was established in the area hence to display the impacts of modern wars on society and people (David 2002). The museum contains displays of several artifacts that were used during the Second World War including a 13-pounder field gun, Russian T-34 tank, and U.S. AV-8B Harrier jet. The museum is a major attraction in London with tourists and scholars being its main customers. Given its design and the additional features that it has, many people find the place interesting. This is coupled by the fact that the museum features different media which suits various interests. Design Principles and Theories The Imperial War Museum North building takes the untraditional form of a globe that has been reassembled after being shattere d into pieces (Libeskind 2012). The building is formed by three interlocking fragments that represent water, air and earth. These three make concrete the wars that rocked the 20th century with men and women participating in the conflicts with the sea, sky, and land being the settings upon which the wars took place. Better stated, the building is formed by three shards of space that interlock to form a constellation (Libeskind 2012). The open, earthly sphere of the war is represented by the Earth Shard. On the other hand, the Water Shard is the platform upon which the Canal can be viewed. This shard also contains a cafe, restaurant, performance space and deck. Yet again, the Air Shard which leads into the museum is stringed with observatories, education spaces and projected images. Owing to financial constraints, the original design of the museum building was altered and a number of features excluded in the actual construction (Sophie 2009). The auditorium for example was removed and the exhibition content altered. The permanent exhibitions of the museum are featured in the main gallery space in the Earth Shard’s first floor. The exhibitions are displayed chronologically around the gallery that covers a perimeter of about 200 meters, and feature six thematic displays (Sophie 2009). The floor of the gallery is curved in shape and looks like the earth’s curvature from an imaginary north pole. The design of the mus

Historical film is more informed by the time and context within which Essay

Historical film is more informed by the time and context within which it has been made than the historical time and context it p - Essay Example It is worth noting that several historical films carry a common ‘theme of history’ such as history as a ‘flow’ of events, or a series of cause and effect relationships over time. Some of the theme of history is very vital being that they take into account the history affecting and shaping our society today as well as people making a difference in the society. By looking at historical context it is vital to consider the period and place where the movie takes place as well as significance about the event or time period. Furthermore it is advisable to consider what happens in the world beyond the film since relating the historical context greatly help in understanding all the important events taking place in the movie (Monaco & Harpole 2003, p. 39-54). Bataan Movie Bataan is a 1943 war film directed by Tay Garnet about the defense of the Bataan Peninsula at the start of World War II where Dane and a group of American and Philippine soldiers are caught up in the retreat from Manila toward Bataan. This movie involves the Japanese conquest of the Philippines in early 1942 where the U.S. forces conduct a fighting retreat after the army, civilians and a group of volunteers from different units blow up the bridge in order to delay Japanese rebuilding efforts as long as possible. After blowing the bridge, they wait for the expected enemy push to rebuild the bridge and dislocate the Americans but basic needs such as food, diseases and deficiencies of medicine greatly affect the soldiers’ even as they try to cope with the opposition. The soldiers were forced to move through the congested town as that was the only way they could escape from the Japanese soldiers who were really pressing forward as Dane and Jake Feingold tried to manage a defensive position (Bataan 1943, Film). After the commander orders soldiers to report to Captain Lassister, the town then suffered fierce attack from the air where civilians and soldiers were wedged in the o pen and executed. Soldiers were then ordered to hold a bridge until all refugees cross and later demolish the bridge as a way of stopping the Japanese soldiers and gathering their own in Bataan. The group of 13 men who were also equipped with enough equipment and supplies decided to position themselves on a cliff where they blew the bridge as they wait for Japanese but diseases and inadequate food and water would later demoralize them (Bataan 1943, Film). Japanese army managed to work at night on the bridge while the Americans were just reluctantly waiting; talking talk and eating but their peace is interrupted when a sniper catches Captain Lassiter in the open and shoots him dead. When Dane orders Barry Nelson to ascent a tree and echo on opponent undertaking, he sloppily displays himself thus making him to be shot dead by a sniper. The following day Dane and Todd go out alone launching grenades at the bridge to blow it up again but Dane is worried whether they will break from the tension and leave after most of their men die. However, Feingold serenely guarantees him they will definitely finish their obligation even as Philippine guide tries to break through the Japanese ranks to Bataan for help is seized, tortured and wounded

Globalizations affect the labour of North America Essay

Globalizations affect the labour of North America - Essay Example Manzella says "offshoring created 90,000 new IT jobs in the United States. in 2003". American companies have become more profitable and globally competitive because of low cost labor from overseas. Two-thirds of the economic benefits, such as monetary savings generated from hiring employees overseas are reinvested. It is not all about cheap labor. While low skilled jobs are often sent overseas, professionals will be in great demand over the next decade. There will be a need for architects, accountants, commercial/industrial designers and paralegals by as much as 29%. Even low end jobs such as customer service representatives will increase by 24% by 2012. As North American companies pursue the global market in an effort to make a profit, they have to focus on product design, branding strategies, productivity and respond to customers' needs. (Francis-Smith, 2005). Globalization represents a commitment and desire to create a better future. It conveys optimism, and offers endless possibilities for growth, renewal, and revitalization for every all involved. It brings a sense of connectivity, interdependence, and integration in the global community. Extending benefits and responsibilities on a global scale, it provides commonalities without overlooking differences. Globalization gives a company the ability to conduct business across borders in an open market, maximizing organizational benefits without causing social damage by violating the human rights of other cultures (Ali, 2001). The United Parcel Service (UPS) has seen global profits. The company has taken advantage of globalization with its purchase of the British carrier Lynx Express for $96.5 million and has established domestic services in China. As a result, last year UPS's net profit of $986 million has shown strength in all phases of the company's expanding empire. It is not only UPS but numerous American companies are able to reap huge profits due to the enormous cost savings. Companies can save by reducing their capital investment requirements, lowering the cost of parts and components, thereby achieving unprecedented economies of scales, and benefit from government incentives (Stalk, 2004). Providing the most saving, labor costs, contributes to about 60% of the total cost advantage. For example, a worker in the United States normally cost $15 to $30 per hour while a worker in China earns less than a $1 per hour. What a savings! An English speaking Indian employee typically costs 50%-60% less than the United States employee. An accountant in the United States might cost a business $26 to $30 per hour while a qualified accountant would only cost $10-$12 per hour in India. Low capital investment cost account for a 25% cost advantage. Though not much, every cent saved increases a company's profits. For instance, the costs to build and provide equipment for a factory in China would be much less than in the U.S. Reported savings are as much as 60%-70% because to build a factory in the United States would cost $50 million while in a low cost country it would only cost $15-$20 million. Such savings gives a company the ability to recover its investment quicker, and increase its capability for growth. Product design is another source

Guidelines for device based therapy of cardiac rhythm abnormalities Research Paper

Guidelines for device based therapy of cardiac rhythm abnormalities - Research Paper Example Recommendations in guideline for the device based therapy of cardiac rhythm abnormality has proved to be beneficial for reducing the risk of sudden cardiac death and has improved quality of life. However, multi-centric clinical trials are needed to find an optimal timing for the implant for an indication. Guidelines for device based therapy of cardiac rhythm abnormalities. Cardiac arrhythmias are still a major threat to human health and are so deadly that they are responsible for 50% of all the cardiovascular deaths related to the cardiovascular system (Piccini, Al-Khatib, Myers, Anstrom, Buxton, Peterson, & Sanders, 2010). Arrhythmias are not always pathological; they can be physiological like bradycardia in athletes and tachycardia during anxiety. Physiological cardiac arrhythmias usually do not need any treatment, they are recovered spontaneously but, pathological arrhythmias require heroic management. Anti- arrhythmic drugs and anti-arrhythmic devices are employed as a treatment strategy for arrhythmias. Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, pacemakers and cardiac resynchronization therapy are the devices used to prevent death from arrhythmia; use of anti-arrhythmic devices are significantly associated to reduce mortality associated with arrhythmia (Piccini et al., 2010). Devices are used to prevent arrhythmia according to the guidelines of the American Heart Association, published in 2008. Guidelines for device based therapy of cardiac rhythm abnormalities were designed by experts from the American College of Cardiology in collaboration with the American Association of Thoracic Surgery and Society of Thoracic Surgeons. The Recommendations were made after a thorough literature search so that treatment strategy can be standardized and clinical evaluation of patients can be made easy. The Guidelines aim to reduce inappropriate decisions for implantation of cardiac devices, provide confidence to cardiac consultants.When related to devices, guidelines are mea nt for promotion of their appropriate use and to abandon it’s under and over use (Epstein et al., 2008). Critical evaluation of all diagnostic procedures, diagnostic scales, and guidelines is necessary because it is directly related to appropriate health care delivery ( Epstein et al., 2008). Evidence based critical evaluation of guidelines is a scientific means to judge effectiveness of the guideline in promoting good patient care. Critical evaluation of the guidelines for device based therapy is inevitable to judge the pros and cons of the guideline; it also helps to find any danger, if associated with the recommendations. Scientific critics of the guideline are important means to generate new recommendations in order to make the guideline more favorable. Since it is related to the cardiology, critical evaluation of the guidelines for the implanted anti-arrhythmic devices are more demanding because negligence may take a patient's life in a few minutes. The nursing staff is usually the first hand care providers in hospital settings. Being medical professionals, it is inevitable for them to understand the importance of guidelines; they should know the recommended guidelines of device based management of cardiac arrhythmias because after treatment, patient’

Why do some survivors of domestic abuse maintain a relationship with Essay

Why do some survivors of domestic abuse maintain a relationship with their abusive partner - Essay Example It results in acute medical conditions such as multiple injuries to the face, head, neck, breast, or abdomen, and in chronic conditions such as headaches, abdominal pain, pelvic pain and sexual dysfunction (Campbell, 2002; Ellsberg, 1997; Gelles & Straus (1998) R.J. Gelles and M.A. Straus, The medical and psychological costs of family violence. In: M.A. Straus and R.J. Gelles, Editors, Physical violence in American families—Risk factors and adaptations to violence in 8145 families, Transaction Publishers, New Brumswick [USA] & London [UK] (1998), pp. 425–430.Gelles & Straus, 1998; Goodman, Koss, & Russo, 1993; Karol, Micka, & Kuskowski, 1992; Martin & Younger-lewis, 1997; Nduna & Goodyear, 1997). Intimate partner violence is also associated with lowered self-esteem and lowered self-perception of health by the victims (Amoakohene, 2004; Baker, 1997; Ellsberg, Caldera, Herrera, Winkvist, & Kullgren, 1999; McCauley et al., 1995; Skupien, 1998). Partner abuse has serious reproductive health consequences, including inability to use a contraceptive method at all or consistently, unwanted pregnancy, and increased levels of sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS. Even the period of pregnancy is not protective (Blaney, 1998; Diop-Sidibà ©, 2001; Gazmararian et al., 2000; Jejeebhoy, 1998; Maman, 2000; Letourneau, Holmes, & Chasedunn-Roark, 1999; Martin et al., 1999; Parsons, Goodwin, & Petersen, 2000; Rickert, Wiemann, Harrykissoon, Berenson, & Kolb, 2002; Sharps & Campbell, 1998). Of course the most extreme physical consequences of this type of violence are death of the victim, by suicide or homicide, and homicide against the perpetrator (Breiting et al, 1989; Wilson & Daly, 1994). Although the associations of IPV and detrimental health outcomes have been well established in research from industrialized countries, they have seldom been studied in developing countries. Similarly, despite the fact that IPV against men is kn own to occur in the USA,

Worrying Trends for the Global Outsourcing Industry Term Paper

Worrying Trends for the Global Outsourcing Industry - Term Paper Example However, it is a fact that a lot of organizations either multinational on national contract or outsource their jobs like electronic mail services, call center  services and  payroll. Additionally, these services are divided among different organizations that are well experienced in providing service facilities. In addition, these organizations are sometimes located overseas (Thompson, 2011; Turban, Leidner, McLean, & Wetherbe, 2005). In other words, outsourcing is an instance, where some government officials allow criminal persons to obtain license of driving. Since, it involves various security interests, economic effects on the country and political safety issues. That’s why analysis of those trends is necessary, which are affecting the outsourcing industry (Mintz, 2004; Chopra, 2010). Although majority of people has agreed that outsourcing results in creating more jobs at home since organizations are acquiring a lot of benefits from outsourcing aspect. Thus, this trend results in developing extra human resource power. Conversely, occupational dislocation factor along with collective costs survive that ought to be measured well earlier than the development. Hence outsourcing trend warns the long-term feasibility of our trade and industry system as well as the overall educational network (Mintz, 2004; Flecker, 2009; Yakhlef, 2009). Additionally outsourcing is not an ideal trend and trouble-free solution for a corporation. Thus, it is absolutely essential for a corporation to analyze each and every variable of outsourcing before they make choice to utilize this tool for rapid development. Moreover, there are numerous issues associated with outsourcing that could lead a business towards failure. Thus, there is need to assess the profiting margin that is expected from the outsourcing. There are various worrying trends or key issues that organizations can face in outsourcing. Following are some important issues: (Mintz, 2004; Chopra, 2010) Worrying Tren ds or Issues in Outsourcing When we talk about the issues that organizations can face in outsourcing, it is not single one to define. There are lots of issues which need to be discussed. However, one of the most important issues is barriers or basic difficulties that organizations face during outsourcing. Additionally, there are also some non financial issues that include differences in allocation of time regions (for instance, country trimming is different from other countries), variation in language spoken from one country to another is also a key factor, unpredicted civilizing variations in addition to the requirement for information safety are the most important issues that an organization face during outsourcing. According to a research, organizations in United States merely accumulate more than 15% that is equivalent to those funds that might be obtained through outsourcing locally to an economically depressed area (Mintz, 2004; Chopra, 2010). Expenditures and Cost The most im portant aspect that organizations must consider before outsourcing is that they have to be familiar with variations in a number of concealed costs related to outsourcing. Typically these costs may be forgotten by representatives, particularly when they are making a deal with any outside firm. Therefore they must adopt such trends which enforce to plan strategy about the legal expenses during signing deals (Mintz, 2004; Chopra, 2010). Quality Assurance Quality of product is a most adoptable step that most organizations think about before outsourcing. Additionally, organizational executives are always aware of fact that quality insurance is such a hotspot which will become a first priority of organization in

Develop a Marxist critique of Mills account of individual liberty Essay

Develop a Marxist critique of Mills account of individual liberty - Essay Example Mill introduces his account on individual liberty by describing the form of liberty present in his arguments. The author becomes clear to the reader by specifying the subject of the essay as that which considers both social and civil liberty. This is for the purpose of creating a succinct understanding of individual liberty as described by the author. Mill considers civilization as a struggle that occurs between a person and a society causing the individual to change behavior in an attempt to fit in the society (Mill 5). The author criticizes the public laws and opinions regarding them as determinants of the actions of individuals instead of the person having power over his own thoughts. Mill objects the idea of public laws and opinions, which affects the well-being of the society. He argues that such laws should only apply in cases where the actions of an individual directly affect the society (Mill 6). The argument of the author is that these laws cause an individual to act against his will. The author does not only argue on the laws but also on the morality of individuals. Mill is critical about the notion of public on the behavior of individuals; he does not accept the judgments that the public makes and that discriminates a person due to behavioral aspects. He terms such actions and ideas as coerce claiming that their illegitimacy is undesired. Mill’s notion that persons in the society can improve themselves in the absence of laws brings questions on whether the society can be a better place without these laws. His notion makes him regard various societies as a dwelling on an order of value (Mill 6). He sets an example of barbaric societies acting like children in the absence of necessary guidance of their independence. Mill’s expression of liberty is utilitarian rather than based on natural rights as exemplified in metaphysical opinion by Kant (Marx, Engels 40). The second chapter of Mill’s account

Business Plan D&D Beauty Salon Essay Example for Free

Business Plan DD Beauty Salon Essay DD (Dreams and Desires) Customize Beauty Salon is a unique salon of its kind. It tends to provide all barberry and cosmetology services under one roof in a unique way. What makes DD so unique is its distinguish software. The software allows the client to see, realize and evaluate him/herself in a real time. It takes picture of the customer and instantly allows them to perform different functions, such as; try different hairstyles, change hair color, apply different types of facial hairstyle and for girls/women it allows them to apply wide range of makeup as well. The purpose behind such a unique idea is to fully satisfy the hidden needs and wants of the people which usually they are unaware of. Once they have the opportunity to realize and evaluate themselves there is more chance that the customer will leave as a happy customer. So using the same phenomenon we are going into the market with the different slogan _No One Leaves unhappy_. As the work of a beauty salon does not ends up here, it requires professional and well experienced staff to provide customers the services exactly what they perceive in their mind and what the software had shown them. For that we are striving to hire two foreign qualified professionals initially. Along with their regular duties they will also train our local beauticians/hairdressers. Our distinctive DD software will act as a competitive advantage for us, through which we are going to compete with the well established big giants in the beauty clinic industry. As no one in the industry is currently serving the customers with this mind set so its a kind of gap we have identified and we have prepared a strong strategy to fulfill these hidden needs and wants of the customers in the market. The trend has shown that there is a boom going on in the beauty clinic industry, new salons are opening consistently and the current established brands are generating massive profits, so its a very good time for us to enter into the market with our unique selling proposition. To achieve our objectives we are seeking additional loan financing. Our capital structure will be 50% equity based and 50% external financing. Our 50% equity will be equally distribute among five owners of the company, however we will take a loan on 19% interest rate from UBL to fulfill our external financing requirement. The initial capital that is required to start our salon is Rs.4079500 hopefully by the end of year _ we  will reach our break even. Our projected Income Statement shows that by the end of year 3 we will start earning substantial profits. Overall keeping in mind the industry and market attractiveness we are quite confident that future for DD Beauty Salon looks quite bright. COMPANY DESCRIPTION COMPANY INTRODUCTION Dream and Desire is a unique kind of beauty salon. It is one of the most innovative beauty salon which is going to revolutionize the entire barberry and cosmetology segment. This is the era of technology and Dream and Desire provides customers with a blend of classic service with updated technology. At Dream and Desire we provide services to both males and females. Services include hair cutting, facial services; make up, waxing and a lot more services that are provided at any other beauty salon. We provide services for people from all genders and age. The innovation brought in by Dream and Desire is the addition of technology in the service. At Dream Desire customers can have a look at their new looks before they actually get it. Customers can choose from different hair styles and cosmetology and then the specifically trained barbers and beautician at Dream and Desire would provide the customer with the required services. COMPANY HISTORY Dream and Desire is a new company in the industry. It does not have a history but it will surely create history by revolutionizing the barberry and cosmetology industry by introducing technology in the industry. In the past companies only used to cut hair and provide cosmetology services to customers on the basis of what customer told them about what the customers requires or how he wants to look but now with the most innovative beauty salon Dream and Desire customers can actually see how they would look in different hair styles and cosmetic before even getting the service performed on themselves. Where as in the past customers only used to get their hair  cut and they could only see their new look after they used to get the service performed on them. Before Dream Desire, all beauty salon, small and big barber shops and salons all used to just provide services without the much needed, dreamt and desired technology. MISSION STATEMENT _Our mission is to build the most innovative beauty salon in the industry. We at dream desire are passionately committed at providing our customers with the most innovative barberry and cosmetology service that they can ever experience._ VISION STATEMENT _Our vision is to revolutionize the barberry and cosmetology industry by making customers happy and satisfied through our DD Software Beauty Services._ SERVICE DESCRIPTION Dream and Desire provides all the services that any other beauty salon provides but the competitive edge that we have over other salons is the addition of technology. We can actually show the client how he would look after getting the service before even providing him services. At dream and desire we provide services and fulfill appearance desires of customers. Through our DD software we can provide our customers with their pictures of what they would look like with different hair styles and cosmetics. Our services include Hair Cutting ,hair styling , hair dyeing , hair streaking, threading ,bleaching, waxing, make up , bridal make ups for both grooms and brides, manicure ,pedicure ,consultation, face massage and all the other services that you find on any other beauty salon but with an assurity of how you would look after the service is provided to you. We  provide an additional service of DD software but at a very reasonable price as compared to other salons .This shows that we at Dream and Desire really want the customers to look as they have always dreamt and desired. We use branded products for providing our services whether its bridal make up, party make up, hair streaking and dyeing and all the other services provided at our beauty salon are provided by branded products whether its scrubs, moisturizers , toners, hair color, wax, creams, hair masks, nail polishes ,gel and every other product used by our beauticians is branded. CURRENT STATUS Our business is currently in the building stage. A full-fledged business plan has been made for Dream Desire but its not yet been implemented practically. LEGAL STATUS AND OWNERSHIP Our business is still in the building stage. We have a full-fledged business plan but we are still in the process of buying patents, copyrights and license for our business Dream Desire. Dream Desire is a partnership venture which is owned by 5 partners with each one having 20% ownership rights. KEY PARTNERSHIPS (IF ANY) Currently we do not have as such any partnership but in near future we are hoping to build some of them with the people in the same or different industries. Once we see the early growth of the company we will definitely going to look for companies like different garment stores and other fashion related segments to build partnerships with them which will be sustained for longer run. We will provide them the facility of our DD software which will enhance the level of their current services. Similarly in our salon we will  promote their brand and in return we will ask them to promote DD. So will build long term sustainable relationship with other companies once we are ready for the boom. INDUSTRY ANALYSIS INDUSTRY SIZE AND GROWTH The beauty salon industry is mainly composed of small, independently owned salons. An average salon offers services such as haircutting, styling, coloring, shampooing and permanents. Other salons have expanded their businesses to offer services such as nail care, facials, makeup application, waxing, massage, tanning and other beauty treatments. Our services belong to the Beauty Clinics Industry. When we look at the industry we can see that there are a lot of hair salons and barber shops in Pakistan. In the past few years Pakistani people have become very beauty conscious especially the youth of Pakistan because of which the number of Hair and Beauty Salons in Pakistan have increased significantly. This industry caters one of the most common needs of all the people in the world. On daily basis about 15 to 20 people on an average visit the male beauty salon whereas about 20 to 25 females visit beauty parlor. The industry is very crowded and its still growing. Both the number of beauty salons and the number of beauty conscious people are increasing in Pakistan. There are uncountable beauty salons in Pakistan but none of them provide an innovative service as we do so the industry that our services belong to is very attractive and its attractiveness is increasing with time. People were beauty conscious in the past too but now the number has drastically increased and more and more beauty salon have been opened especially a large number for men so the industry is quiet new. Even though there were barbers in the early eras but beauty salons in Pakistan a comparatively newer industry. Major players in the Beauty Clinics are Depilex, Nabila, however in Lahore some other competitors are, New Look, AlleNora, Samias, Muneeba, Elysium. There is no administrative or regulatory body to govern the practices of this industry so there is no statistical data available regarding the exact number of players in the market. CURRENT INDUSTRY STRUCTURE The number of beauty clinics in Pakistan has increased at a fast pace over the last few years. The size of this sector of service industry is still growing. Due to very low amount of investment that is required to start beauty parlors, the number of such establishments has cropped up in houses all over the country. In Lahore, more professional and large clinics have been set up in commercial areas like M. M. AlamRoad, Defence, and Main Boulevard Gulberg. Professional experts are currently operating approximately 15 large beauty clinics in Lahore. The beauty industry today encompasses far more than cosmetics and skin care products, though they are still a significant portion of the sector. A wide range of services and products are available to help us put our best face forward, and the beauty industry now also encompasses hair styling and hair removal, nail and tanning salons, massage parlors, shower and shaving products, perfumes, colognes and more. Many people now treat their beauty ritual as an escape from the hustle of the information age, whether its a few minutes spoiling oneself with a high-end product or a full day at a luxury spa. Comprised of a diverse yet interrelated set of business lines, the beauty industry helps us look and smell our best. Before we leave the house each day, we have likely undergone our personalized beautification ritual. Included in this ritual are the daily shower and shave, the weekly nail trim, and the monthly haircut. And increasingly we are taking a more holistic view of our health, and our beautification ritual may now include a periodic massage and trip to the spa. But our concern with our appearance is hardly anything new; indeed the beauty industry has been expanding and growing for all of recorded history. For the interested entrepreneur this continuing growth and evolution offers a diverse menu of opportunity. KEY SUCCESS FACTORS Quality and skilled employees familiar with energy work and oriented to a soothing spiritual disposition. Use very good quality beauty products. Preferably imported and branded. The atmosphere of the clinic has to be according to the taste of targeted customers. The charges for different services should be set keeping in mind the price charged bythe competition. Establish trust within the community that each customers needs will be taken care of during every visit. Easily accessible location. Effective advertising. Ensure good quality of service at all times, and be consistent. NATURE OF PARTICIPANTS Industry participants are those whose services include salon. Salon services concern hair styling,haircutting, coloring, shampooing and permanents, nail care, facials, makeup application, waxing and other beauty treatment. INDUSTRY TREND The salon business is notoriously competitive and has really transformed itself in recent years. Previously, salons paid little attention to their decor and focused mainly on keeping it attractive and neat with good basic hairdressing furniture. Today, many of the leading salons are investing in proper interior design and product showcasing to build their retail income streams alongside their hairdressing and beauty services. Hair is an essential part of look gorgeous and one should pay extra attention to it to steal the show. In Pakistan the hair trends in (2012) theres an absolute feast of looks. There are different hair trend like The Bob, Long and Wavy, Classy Ponytails, Straight Traces. MARKET ANALYSIS AND MARKETING PLAN: Effective marketing campaign is necessary to invite clients for a newly established beauty salon. For launching an effective marketing campaign we need to find some the following things. Market segmentation and Target Market Buyer behavior Competitor analysis MARKET SEGMENTATION Segmentation is a paramount to any businesses success. Identify the marketing segment for the product and explains why this segment was selected. DEMOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION Demographic segmentation involves dividing the market on the basis of statistical differences in personal characteristics, such as age, gender, race, income, life stage, occupation, and education level. DD Salon, for example, segment on the basis of age groups such as teenagers, young adults, and mature adults. DD Beauty Salon will be targeting three dissimilar groups of clients. The salon will work hard to particularly appeal to each of these groups. DD Beauty Salon will target Women, Men, and Children. Men will characteristically create up to 75% of the clientele. Men have shorter hair and require a faster, simpler job. DD Salon will gear toward women who cannot meet the expense of an upscale  salon. There is not often a dissimilarity in quality of an upscale salon comparative to a family hair salon other than a upscale salon will tend to pamper you more, only accepts appointments, and the salon itself is generally a bit plusher. Someone who is financially responsible as opposed to someone who likes lavishness will support a family style salon. Young mothers and children will also be welcome in our salon. Typically, children are disreputably complicated when it comes to getting haircuts. DD Salon will be a laid-back environment where children can have fun while they are waiting and we will work with parents to compose children while haircuts are performed. Where you advertise is as important keeping several factors in mind when looking for the client. Our segments is the people who visits beauty and hair saloons irrespective of their age and gender Take a good look at your business you should always know where you should advertise and this works to your advantage if your goal is to get customers out of what would normally be your target group. The social media is always a great place to advertise so as another place, often overlooked, is high school and college and university newspapers, fashion magazines. Expected customers are following 60% male 25% females 15% young children with mother PSYCHOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION VALS (Values, Attitudes and Lifestyles) is a proprietary research methodology used for psychographic market segmentation. Market segmentation is designed to guide companies in tailoring their products and services to appeal to the people most likely to purchase them. According to VALS our customers will be Innovators: These consumers are on the leading edge of change, have the highest incomes, and such high self-esteem and abundant resources that they can indulge in any or all self-orientations. They are located above the rectangle. Image is important to them as an expression of taste, independence and character. Their consumer choices are directed toward the finer things in life. Experiencers: These consumers are the high-resource group of those who are motivated by self-expression. They are the youngest of all the segments, with a median age of 25. They have a lot of energy, which they pour into physical exercise and social activities. They are eager consumers, spending heavily on clothing, fast-foods, fashion, music, and other youthful favorites, with particular emphasis on new products and services. GEOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION Geographic segmentation involves dividing the market on the basis of where people live. Divisions may be in terms of neighborhoods, cities, counties, states, regions, or even countries. Considerations related to geographic grouping may include the makeup of the areas, that is, urban, suburban, or rural; size of the area; climate; or population. For example, DD salon will focus on identifying potential user segments in areas where there are potential customers It is based on variables such as customer concentration and macro-economic factors; we will be targeting the residents of Gulberg, GOR, shadman, defense, model town, faisal town. As these areas are near to the place where we will be operating and people residing in these can afford these services PRODUCT-BENEFIT Segmentation is based on the perceived value or advantage consumers receive  from a good or service over alternatives. Our customers will be satisfied because of our uniqueness Thus; markets can be divided in terms of the quality, performance, image, service, special features, or other benefits we will provide to our customers. BUYER BEHAVIOR To design our salon around the emotional buying patterns of the consumer, We have to go beyond simple design. We must incorporate the vision of environmental psychology. We have to match the best-proven practices of successful service providers and marketers inside the beauty industry. The salon of today and of the future, must combine elements of dependable science, blended with wishful thinking to create an alluring cocktail of reality and desirable fantasy. The fundamental principle of market research is that you can ask people questions and what they tell you will be the truth. In fact, it turns out that the opposite is far closer to the truth.. When the mind considers the future, it does so with idealism that is both optimistic and simultaneously devoid of any objective assessment of the past. There is a way to obtain a deeper understanding of consumers and make better-informed decisions. Humans have virtually lost the ability to appreciate the present, so wrapped up are we in dwelling on the past and wondering about the future. UNDERSTANDING THE CONSCIOUS MIND The unconscious mind is the real driver of consumer behavior. Understanding consumers is largely a matter of understanding how the consumers mind operates. The saying first impression applies to more than just the visual when a consumer enters a salon. It is also important in verbal communication with a consumer. ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES Humans like animals, interact and respond to their environment far more than we are aware of at a conscious level. If we want to change peoples behavior, the first thing we can do is change the environment. Changing the environment is uniquely powerful in changing behavior. There is no greater single influence. If we want to know why someone does or doesnt buy, we have to understand how the environment shapes behavior. To maximize sales or impact of communication, the environment has to be right. It is not a revelation to learn that music and lighting can affect our mood and as a result, our behavior, the extent to which both can cause people to spend more is surprising. ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN + PERSONAL CONSUMER EXPERIENCE = SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE COMPETITOR ANALYSIS Knowing Your Enemy is key and could help traffic into your salon. Knowing your competition is as important as anything else you will ever do in business. You need to learn who their customers are, how they work as a salon, number of employees they have on hand, what their range of services and products are and where and how they advertise. This way we will be able to know how to better serve your clients and run your business. Major competitors are the following Diplex Sobias New looks Alenora Tony and Guy Nabeela STRATEGY AND IMPLEMENTATION Skill at what we do, good customer service, and creating a pleasant environment for our customers will be important to implementing our business plan. COMPETITIVE EDGE We are unique from others, our customized style of beauty and our softwares is unique of its own kind there is no other such saloon operating in Pakistan DD wants to set itself apart from other beauty salons that may offer only one or two types of services. Having come from such a salon, they desire all of the services that we are proposing. Although the focus of DD is hair services, we do wish to offer our clients the convenience of these other services in one location. There are a number of salons. But they are mainly in the very high income parts of our city and surrounding areas. We do not intend to compete with these we wish to offer a middle ground for those clients who cant quite afford those high-end luxury salons. Our business atmosphere will be a relaxing one where clients can kick back and be pampered. Soft drinks will be offered to clients as they enter for service. Televisions will be located in the waiting and hair-drying area area MARKETING STRATEGY Our marketing strategy is a simple one: satisfied clients are our best marketing tool. When a client leaves our salon with a new look, he or she is broadcasting our name and quality to the public. Most of our clients will be referrals from existing clients. No major advertising campaigns are expected. Our research has shown that word of mouth is the best advertising for this type of business. We will, however, run specials throughout the week. We will also ask clients for referrals, and reward them with discounted or free services depending on the number of clients they bring. We will also offer discounts to the new clients who have been referred. A client would simply refer new clients to us, and we will place a card in a box for each client he or she brings. The more they bring, the more chances they have of winning the free services Our marketing strategy is the key to our success: Emphasize our name and unique services through advertising. Focus on the convenience of our location. Build community relationships through unique and quality service, friendly and caring atmosphere, and establishing absolute dependability of our services. PROMOTION STRATEGY _ADVERTISING_ We will utilize local newspaper, local social and health magazines, local radio, local television, mail-outs to all households within the immediate five mile radius, and mail-outs to all local business within a five-mile radius. Often overlooked, is high school and college and university newspapers, fashion magazines. _INTERNET_ we will have a comprehensive website and on social media such as face book page and twitter. We will also add our salon placed on Google maps. The social media is always a great place to advertise so as another place _ALLIANCES_ this type of advertising will be implemented once we have grown beyond our break-even point. We will also form advertising alliances with  any business with whom we share common business goals. We will also implement mutual perks with our business and restaurant neighbors which will aid in local visibility. Advertising promotions with certain clothing brands such as Stone Age, outfitters, cross roads and in the ladies clothing we will alliance with Rang ja and wardah clothing and in ladies foot wear we will alliance with Heels. POSITIONING STATEMENT We will automatically position ourselves as one of the top customized beauty salons in the greater area. Considering that none of the other competitors will offer the range of services we will, or that their staffs will be trained like ours, and that there are not any beauty salons of our type in our target locations. PRICING STRATEGY Our pricing strategy will not be similar to that of our competitors. We will not charge over, or substantially under, standard prices for our services. We will be implementing a price penetration strategy PRODUCT PROMOTION We will manipulate our prices and offer discounts with services such as haircuts, shampoos and coloring treatments. Offering customers 10 or 25 percent off the purchase of a particular shampoo and conditioner with the purchase of a haircut and shampoo combination can help move merchandise and increase our service sales. Customers can be tempted by the desire to take the salon experience home with them and, with discounted prices on premier products MANAGEMENT TEAM COMPANY STRUCTURE MANAGEMENT TEAM Dream and Desire has 5 founders who are also going to be the member of the board of directors. They would have the voting power for any decision that has to be made. All the five founders of Dream Desire are Business Management Students with corporate experience. The founders are also going to act as operational managers who are going to visit the salon according to their shift times. Marketing and Finance Manager are also going to be hired for promotional and financial purposes respectively. Operational Managers are going to lead a team of stylists, beauticians and barbers. There is going to be one assistant operational manager for Male customers and one for female customers. The male assistant operational manager is going to lead a team of a signature stylist ,top stylist and two barbers and the female assistant operational manager is going to lead a team of a signature stylist ,a a top stylist and two beauticians. Operational managers are also going to deal with the activities of the staff. BOARD OF DIRECTORS The founders of Dream and Desire are also going to be the member of board of directors. Dream and Desire has 5 founders and each one would have 20% voting right. 80% of the vote should be in favor for any decision to pass. The board of directors is also going to responsible for HR activities (hiring Firing). All the 5 members are also going to serve as the operational managers who are going to visit the salon according to their fixed days. BOARD OF ADVISORS Our resource person Mr. Rashid Hussain will assist us in implementing this project so he and some of our other teachers will act as Board of Advisors as well. We will seek help and guidance from them time to time. Other than there is a person, Mr.Nasir who has been successfully running his hair salon, he has helped us a lot in this project and he will further assist us in implementation phase of our project. COMPANY STRUCTURE The company is owned by 5 founders who are equal stock holders of the Dream Desire. The sister concern of the board of directors is the board of advisors who advise the board on different issues mostly when the board or the owners are facing any problem with the business. The Board of directors perform the activities of HR Department themselves but they directly control three managers below them i.e. Operational manager, financial manager and marketing manager. The operational manager further controls 2 assistant operational managers one for the females and other for the males. Assistant operational managers report to the operation manager where as the operational manager directly reports to the board of directors. The operational manager also controls the duties of the staff (Receptionist, Security guard, clerk and sweeper). The two assistant operational managers further supervise 4 employees each. i.e. Signature Stylist, Top Stylist and two beauticians or barbers on each male and female case.

Conceptual Art: Responses to Capitalism

Conceptual Art: Responses to Capitalism When Situationism evolved from the Letterist movement, in the middle of the last century, it set itself up in opposition to two other two other politically motivated groups: Dadism and Surreallism. Situationism, however, was only incidentally political, and rather than subverting the art world, aimed only to redesign its context, including the attitudes of the public, so that art could become something anyone could do or enjoy- something integrated into everyday life. Historically, arts efforts to bring down capitalist structures from within have been very ill-fated, with artists finding themselves ignored, scorned, crushed or – perhaps worse- accessories to political agendas. Artists and writers must work harder than ever to devise means of opposing or exposing capitalisms deceptions, but many commentators appear to have reached the conclusion that the battle is barely worth fighting. As we shall see, Jean Baudrillard argues that criticism of the status quo is no longer possi ble through art or literature and that the only efficient way of dissenting from capitalist society is to commit suicide, Modern art wishes to be negative, critical, innovative and a perpetual surpassing, as well as immediately (or almost) assimilated, accepted, integrated, consumed. One must surrender to the evidence: art no longer contests anything. If it ever did. Revolt is isolated, the malediction consumed. Thus the avant-garde movements in Europe put the artist under pressure to exhibit a certain individuality, while also – rather contradictorily- being a producer, and as prolific, political and reactionary a producer as possible, There is a lot of talk, not about reform or forcing the Enlightenment project to live up to its own ideals, but about wholesale negation, revolution, another new sensibility, now self- affirming or self-creating, rather than a universalist or rational self-legitimation. This in turn suggests a tremendously heightened role for the artist, the figure whose imagination supposedly creates or shapes the sensibilities of civilization. In a sense, the avant-garde has been socially commissioned to forecast the future, to scouting out new intellectual terrain, Aesthetic modernity is characterized by attitudes which find a common focus in a changed consciousness of time The avant-garde understands itself as invading unknown territory, exposing itself to the dangers of sudden, shocking encounters, conquering an as yet unoccupied future. The avant-garde must find a direction in a landscape into which no one seems to have yet ventured Early Attempts to Overthrow Capitalism In many ways, Dada and Surrealism represent the most successful artistic rebellions against capitalist norms, as they have attacked the conventional assumption of meaning itself, and in doing so drew attention to the ridiculous fact that such an assumption existed at all, Dada has often been called nihilistic and its declared purpose was indeed to make clear to the public at large that all established values, moral or aesthetic, had been rendered meaningless by the catastrophe of the Great War Dada preached nonsense and anti-art with a vengeance It is as though the Artist jumped before she was pushed. With its effort to close the gap between producer and produced by making everything equally alien, Surrealism also sought to negate its creator, using, pure psychic automatism intended to express the true process of thought free from the exercise of reason and from any aesthetic or moral purpose . Habermas, too, asserts that Surrealism poses a threat to arts existential rights, but still fails in two ways, First, when the containers of an autonomously developed cultural sphere are shattered, the contents get dispersed. Nothing remains from a desublimated meaning or a destructured form; an emancipatory effect does not follow. Habermas draws attention to the levelling affect of contemporary communication networks: networks which challenge the hierarchical assumptions of classical Marxism, and which have, in scale, surpassed what any postmodern commentator – even in the 1980s- could have imagined. More so than ever, our media are democratic and interrelated, A rationalized everyday life, therefore, could hardly be saved from cultural impoverishment through breaking open a single cultural sphere art and so providing access to just one of the specialized knowledge complexes. Any active dissent can be transformed into a commodity, a product to assist the perpetuation of capitalism. Catchy slogans devised by revolutionaries are used to sell mortgages, paintings that challenge conventional assumptions about beauty and form are written about in books to be sold, and bought by galleries where their beauty and form can be admired and valued- bought and sold. As the â€Å"Anti-Naturals† recently wrote, on the subject, â€Å"It is the nature of the Spectacle to transform all experience into a consumer commodity. It is no surprise, then, that so much of modern capitalist production should be focused on the authenticity swindle. It is not merely that we are told that our authentic self is only a credit card order away. We must be told what and how to purchase. Since, in the midst of the Spectacle, all experience is real only when it can be consumed, it is natural to follow the guidance offered by the array of products engineered to address each particular need. In reality, it is quite easy to mass market to hundreds of millions of individuals,‚ since each quest is identical in its basic features.† Any words spoken against can be turned into rallying support. Art, like any powerful weapon, can always be turned against those who use it. Whatever doesnt kill power is killed by it. In this way the Dadaists watched their anti-art works being systematically categorised as works of art, and were forced to focus their whole project completely on the evasion of this recuperation. Five years of agitation against capital, war and morality, brought them to an impasse of suicide or silence. Everything the Dadaists made, said, wrote or performed seemed to be turned against its critical purpose and used against them- and they abandoned the project. Effectively, they went on strike. The Dadaists left a legacy in the form of recuperated, commodified art works, and in multiple imitations of their style and attitude. Their advocation of collage and photomontage is now everywhere in advertisements, their paradoxically anti-art art surely at the very heart of current post-modernist critical theory. They were correct in their belief that this capitalist appropriation was inevitable while they were merely producing, and not controlling the means of production, but in some ways, they did in fact constitute a challenge to bourgeois morality. Dadaism questioned the philosophical assumptions which justified smug bourgeois attitudes, and uncovered the hypocracy of World War 1s brutality legitimising propaganda. In the end they felt that their subversions of established values were merely contributing too much to the culture they had been trying to undermine. The Situationist Asger Jorn was emphatic about the failure of Marxist theory, to liberate of art from commodification , â€Å"Instead of abolishing the private character of property, socialism does nothing but augment them as much as possible, rending humans themselves useless and socially non-existent. The goal of the development of artistic liberation is the liberation of human values by the transformation of human qualities into real values. Here begins the artistic revolution against socialist development, the artistic revolution that is tied to the communist project . . .† Debord and the Situationist Reaction to Capitalism Debords 1967 book The Society of the Spectacle, represented an attempt to articulate as fully as possible the Situationist philosophy. The term spectacle refers to the colonization of everyday life by commodity in late capitalism, an extension of alienation experienced between production and consumption. The spectacles subjective, one-directional effect requires a kind of non-participation, eventually resulting in a breakdown of communication between people. Situationism distinguishes between classical and modern forms of capitalism. Where classical capitalism demanded that wasted time describes any time not spent at work, modern capitalism actually reverses that, using advertising and other spectacular means to declare that it is the time spent at work that is wasted, and work is justifiable only because it provides the monetary ability to consume. Marx wrote that, the worker feels at home when he is not working, and when he is working he does not feel at home The Situationists describe the spectacular society as a place where, the spectator feels at home nowhere, for the spectacle is everywhere . As Debord himself explains, So long as the realm of necessity remains a social dream, dreaming will remain a social necessity. The spectacle is the bad dream of modern society in chains, expressing nothing more than its wish for sleep. The spectacle is guardian of that sleep . However, the spectacle was not unique to capitalist society; the Situationists worked on a theory of the concentrated spectacle that would incorporate individual influences on capitalist regimes. This was principally contrived as a rhetorical framework to include the cult of personality in the dictatorships of places such as Cuba, the Soviet Union and China. The Situationists argued that the same tricks that society used to sell fast cars and kitchen appliances were used to promote and deify figures such as Chairman Mao. In anarchic efforts to subvert the spiritual and fiscal poverty of urban life under the tyranny of the spectacle, the Situationists developed a revolutionary art, departed from artistic convention. In their article Preliminaries Toward Defining a Unitary Revolutionary Program, Debord and the Marxist theorist Pierre Canjuers, assert, â€Å"At one pole, art is purely and simply recuperated by capitalism as a means of conditioning the population. At the other pole, capitalism grants art a perpetual privileged concession: that of pure creative activity, an alibi for the alienation of all other activities (which makes it the most expensive and prestigious status symbol). But at the same time, this sphere reserved for free creative activity is the only one in which the question of what we do with life and the question of communication are posed practically and in all their fullness. Here, in art, lies the basis of the antagonisms between partisans and adversaries of the officially dictated reasons for living. The established meaninglessness and separations give rise to the general crisis of traditional artistic means a crisis linked to the experience of alternative ways of living or the demand for such experience. Revolutionary artists are those who call for intervention; and who have themselves intervened in the sp ectacle in order to disrupt or destroy it.† Initially, the work the Situationist International produced was aimed at ridiculing formalist conceptions of the art object: Asger Jorn bought amateur paintings at flea markets and painted over them, subverting notions of authority and value. Giuseppe Pinot-Gallizio invented a style of â€Å"industrial† painting where the canvas was over a hundred metres long, then cut strips off for potential buyers, thereby subverting traditional preconceptions of arts autonomy. In reality these processes were eventually absorbed by a capitalist art market bought, sold, exhibited, written about, and for the most part, politically neutered. In his 1974 book Theory of the Avant-Garde, Peter Burger points out that the avant-garde artists main goal is to shock the viewer, typically accustomed to organic or formalist works of art, in the hope that such withdrawal of meaning will direct the readers attention to the fact that the conduct of ones life is questionable and that it is necessary to cha nge it He goes on to state that, Paradoxically, the avant-gardist intention to destroy art as an institution is thus realized in the work of art itself. The intention to revolutionize life by returning art to its praxis turns into a revolutionizing of art. This is the kind of logic that prompted the Situationists to agree to stop producing art in 1961, when they decided to cease considering themselves artists. Any remaining members unwilling to abandon traditional forms of art, including Jorn, Pinot-Gallizio, and Constant found themselves either being forced into ideological resignation or expulsion. â€Å"It is a question not of elaborating the spectacle of refusal, but rather of refusing the spectacle. In order for their elaboration to be artistic and authentic in the new and authentic sense defined by the SI, the elements of the destruction of the spectacle must precisely cease to be works of art. Once and for all. . . . Our position is that of combatants between two worlds one that we dont acknowledge, the other that does not yet exist.† In The Situationist City, Simon Sadler write that, in abandoning early Situationism, the Situationist International abandoned its imagining of utopia a devastating decision, surely unprecedented in the history of the avant-garde, and yet at the same time surely the situationists greatest contribution to that history: the recognition that in changing the world, avant-garde art cannot be a substitute for popular redistribution of power It seemed that the SI recognized that for any avant-garde to succeed, it would do best striving to produce artists, and not art. The Dadaists, too, were aware that both art and artist are part of the capitalist system, and consequently as guilty in their participation as any other commodity or worker. Marcuse and Adorno, in contrast, argued that the Dadaist project was misguided for its attacks on conventional art. They saw art as an autonomous entity, separate from capitalist interests, and something intrinsically apolitical that must be preserved rather than aggressively undermined. For Adorno, art bears an essential negativity derived from its peculiar Form; its rearrangements of reality are conducted according to a system quite alien to those of capitalism. This â€Å"Form† grants art a: refuge and a vantage point from which to denounce the reality established through domination. While Adorno and Marcuse criticised the anti-artists for attacking artistic Form, they agreed with the avant-gardists in their slightly utopic aspiration of abolishing the distinction that existed between art and the rest of reality. In fact, Marcuse wished to see a society organised around the aesthetic principles he believed resided only within art. Both argued that this integration could not be achieved if artists were allowed to participate. Art should be kept apolitical and protected, in a realm conducive to calm reflection that might remind us of the truth an authentic life can afford us after the revolution. So, although they expressed their rejection of this view in different ways, the Dadaists, Surrealists and Situationists all aspired to a collapse of the distinction between art and the rest of life in present: â€Å"everyday life†. Instead of waiting for the revolution, all three argued that the integration of art and life was in fact necessary for the achievement of revolution, a revolution made possible only by a combined cultural, ideological and economic assault on capitalism. Asger Jorn, again, on the failure of the socialist revolution, â€Å"The capitalist revolution was essentially a socialization of consumption. Capitalist industrialization brought humanity a socialization as profound as the socialization proposed by the socialists that of the means of production. The socialist revolution is the fulfillment of the capitalist revolution. The one element removed from the capitalist system is saving, because consumptions richness has already been eliminated by the capitalists themselves†¦ Real communism will be the leap into the domain of freedom and of value, of communication. Contrary to utilitarian value (normally known as material value), artistic value is the progressive value because, by a process of provocation, it is the valorization of humanity itself. Since Marx, economic politics has shown its impotence and its cowardice. A hyperpolitics will need to strive for the direct realization of humanity.† Walter Benjamins Authentic Opposition: Crisis of Reproduction Walter Benjamin is probably Adornos most established opponent, particularly since The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, a work that concentrated upon defining the aura of traditional art preceding 1900, and assessed the decay of this aura under the impact of new media and cultural technologies. Benjamin argues that art has lost its authenticity because of mechanical mass reproduction in our capitalist-orientated culture industry. He is concerned about shifting attitudes to art, which came about as a consequence of the introduction of mechanical means of reproduction. Formerly unique objects, located in a particular space, lost their singularity as they became accessible to many people in diverse places. Lost too was the aura that was attached to a work of Art which was now open to many different readings and interpretations Unlike his Frankfurt School colleagues, however, and especially unlike Adorno, Benjamin argues, this loss of authenticity is actually a positive thing, because it democratizes and politicizes art. Benjamins claim that arts loss of authenticity might actually help free people, not enslave them in a capitalist culture industry starkly opposes Adornos ideas. In addition, each stage of reproduction of an original work of art also contributes to its loss of aura. According to Benjamin, then: culture has been transformed into an industry; thus art has become commodified; contemporary culture is the machinery by which oppressive ideologies are reproduced and disseminated; new media technologies such as phonographs, film and photography, serve to destroy arts aura and effectively demystify the process of creating art, making available radical new access and roles for art in mass culture; the spectator has become a collaborator and participant, who joins the author in determining the meaning of the production of the work of art. Art is successful only when it enables the critical contemplation of a viewer. Benjamin happily equates authenticity with authority- the authority of oppressive institutions such as the church or the state- and history. As Benjamin explains, the work of arts authenticity is the essence of all that is transmissible from its beginning, ranging from its substantive duration to its testimony to the history which it has experienced Until the 20th century, artworks retained their aura, their â€Å"authenticity† precisely because of their inability to be mass-reproduced, whether religious artifacts or one-off paintings commissioned by individual wealthy patrons. This conception clearly presents aura and authenticity as profoundly undemocratic, as the means of artistic production remain in the control of the rich and powerful, then able use such art to maintain control over the masses. The introduction of mechanical means of reproduction of art, particularly photography and film, caused the very foundations of this setup to be radically altered. For the first time it was possible for anyone to acquire the means to take photographs of a work of art, or at purchase an image of the work. However hard cultural elites in the late 19th century had tried to protect the aura of art works, the social advance of the masses and the invention of media such as film, which depends upon distribution to the masses, had led to the inevitable decay of the aura in the 20th century. Benjamin marks the distinction between manual and machine reproduction of art, The whole sphere of authenticity is outside technical, and, of course, not only technical reproducibility, he states, Confronted with its manual reproduction, which was usually branded as a forgery, the original preserved all its authority; not so vis a vis technical reproduction Benjamin states two reasons this occurs. Firstly, machine reproduction is more independent of the original than manual reproduction; secondly, technical reproduction can put the copy of the original into situations which would be out of reach for the original itself. So mass-produced copies are able to engage with the wider world in a manner not possible for the original or one-off copies. Benjamin summarises his ideas concerning reproduction by asserting the technique detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition. Many reproductions it substitutes a plurality of copies for a unique existence.† So to allow the reproduction to meet the beholder or listener in his own particular situation, is to reactivate the object reproduced, â€Å"It is these processes that lead to the tremendous shattering of tradition which is the obverse of the contemporary crisis and renewal of mankind In Benjamins conception, then, state and religious authorities have steadily lost the ability to control general access to such works of art, particularly since the 20th century began. This is most apparent in relation to the cinema, which destroyed the traces of aura with which art had been traditionally imbued; Benjamin cites arts historical value as a fundamental part of magical and religious rituals. In the process, capitalism strips art of its the idealistic, theological halo- to some extent a happy consequence and restorative, as it returns the art object to its non-utilitarian presence, its everyday reality. For Benjamin, an artworks â€Å"aura† refers to its uniqueness and the phenomena of distance, however close [an object] may be. He uses gives the example of distant mountains and a trees bough over head, both contain aura because they are images have not been effectively reproduced mechanically . Beyond the concepts of aura and authenticity, Benjamins concepts of reproduction and reversibility represent the core of his concerns about way in which arts role in society has been fundamentally altered in the 20th century. Benjamin proposes that the artworks aura of authenticity has withered away because of its reproduceability, and the process of reproduction brings art into closer proximity with a mass audience. However, paradoxically, as the authenticity erodes, the works essence becomes forefronted in the process, as it starts to become designed for reproducibility. As Benjamin describes it, â€Å"for the first time in world history, mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependence on ritual. . . . From a photographic negative, for example, one can make any number of prints; to ask for an authentic print makes no sense. But the instant the criterion of authenticity ceases to be applicable to artistic production, the total function of art is reversed. Instead of being based on ritual, it begins to be based on another practice – politics†. Benjamins commentaries on the effects of reproduction inspired other writers, such as Lechte, â€Å"it is the process of reproduction as such which is revolutionary: the fact, for instance, that the photographic negative enables a veritable multiplication of originals. With the photograph, therefore, the spectre of the simulacrum emerges, although Benjamin never names it as such. The photograph as simulacrum by-passes the simple difference between original and copy† Barbara Krugers Situationism and the Irresistible Collage of Society Barbara Kruger addresses the negative aspects of capitalist society as an artist, writer, curator, lecturer and graphic designer. Her art is displayed both inside and outside museums and in a range of different forms. Occasionally her prints are framed and hung on the walls of museums and galleries in the traditional fashion, but Kruger is endlessly inventive, and often writes text to be printed or projected directly on the walls or floors of a museum. In Picturing Greatness, a photography exhibition curated by Kruger in 1987 for The Museum of Modern Art in New York, text was printed in large black type across a central partition. Kruger selected photographs for this exhibit from the museums collection, and according to the words on the partition, the photographs were mostly of mostly famous artists† who happened to be predominantly white and male. The text on the partition claimed the works can show us how vocation is ambushed by clichà © and snapped into stereotype by the camera, and how photography freezes moments, creates prominence and makes history. Krugers work continually questions the definition of art, artists and the ways in which â€Å"great art† should be exhibited. In this work, Kruger challenges the overwhelming dominance of male artists and draws attention to the females apparent invisibility in western art history. Just like the Situationists under Guy Debord, she has altered the meaning of art by rec ontextualising it. Crucially, the visitor to Krugers exhibition does not need to be familiar with the original photographs before seeing the show- even the uneducated viewer could read Krugers text, look at the original images and come to their own conclusions about the meaning. Thus the work achieves a kind of unique political democracy. Kruger has a background as a graphic designer, and as such creates effective bold images which are in many ways visually indistinguishable from advertisements, but rather than trying to sell a product, appeal directly to our social conscience. The subject of her text is always I, me, we, or you, as though Kruger engages in conversation with the viewer. Her messages probe the assumptions of the capitalist status quo: You are seduced by the sex appeal of the inorganic, When I hear the word culture, I take out my checkbook and We have received orders not to move. Similarly, Constant, of the COBRA group, proposed a city as a kind of physical expression of his utopia of â€Å"free play† which, in parts, bears striking resemblance to representations of the Internet, in books such as Mapping Cyberspace (with wild lines pouring out of the metropolis perhaps representing bandwidth and site traffic). Made with perspex and bike parts, Constants models and his diagrams for New Babylon demonstrate his yearning for future as something mobile, organic, animated, and self-celebratory. For Constant the city was a sort of perpetual festival of leisure. With its intricately connected wires suspending clear circular layers, ramps and walkways, Constants New Babylon recalls some kind of tensile organism. As Constant describes it, â€Å"The unfunctional character of this playground-like construction makes any logical division of the inner spaces senseless. We should rather think of a quite chaotic arrangement of small and bigger spaces that are constantly assembled and dissembles by means of standardized mobile construction elements like walls, floors and staircases. Thus the social space can be adapted to the ever-changing needs of an every changing population as it passes through the sector system.† Analogues with the Internet are irresistable. Equally, he could have been referring in a general way to those unique social structures which have grown from the anti-globalisation movement – structures which, although provisional, pragmatic and short term, are nevertheless ideologically committed to social change and serve as emblems of the ongoing struggle against capitalism, a battle fuelled entirely from reserves of creativity. Constants is city as collage, similar to that celebrated by the less politically motivated group, Archigram, in the UK (many of whose members now design massive architectural features for megaband stadium concerts). In this time of desperate connectivity and complicated layering of urban cultures, with invisible webs of communication engulfing us, the need to understand the city as a place beyond work and production seems more pressing than ever. The Situationist reaction to capitalism is also excellently expressed through anti capitalist collage: for example that of the General Lighting and Power group, whose slick mock-advertising images of soft focus female forms in leotards and computer graphics of office interiors and car accidents, wryly annotated with entertaining aphorisms such as: Aerobics is necessary: progress implies it (I see you baby, shaking that ass) and God is in the retailing Comparisons to Jenny Holzer and Barbara Kruger are obvious. Charles Rice, too, has observed the oversized billboard signs now proliferating in major cities, arguing convincingly that they serve to perpetuate the distance between the real and the impossible,these spatial fantasies effectively deliver identification with the distant and the unattainable† Many writers have noted the similarities between the Situationists idea of the derive (that is, the navigating of a city via means and routes other than those originally intended) and the experience of â€Å"surfing† the internet. Colin Fournier, architect and educator makes some potent observations on this area. It would seem that many of the characteristics of the internet reflect the S.I.s utopic city. The things considered prerequisite for their utopia: an ephemeral, negotiable type of city, where uses were determined by the population, surfing the web is like the idea of drifting or â€Å"deriving†, flaneur-like, through a city. The Situationist city and the web are uniquely flexible, anarchically dynamic: spacial relations secondary on any given route. The internet always seems to somehow recall the old Surrealist idea of using a map of one city to find ones way around another. Art as Capitalism: the Medias Re-appropriation of Images Increasingly, the media is becoming governed by imagery, and the average consumer is overwhelmed by visual information on a daily basis. Through sheer competition, the commercial sphere has been forced to use stranger, scarier, more extreme imagery to earn the attention of bewildered customers. Magazines such as Vogue have lured artists to their pages, where they are seen as innovative, visionary powers for re-inventing a complacent visual vocabulary. Thus, the traditional hierarchy of photography, in which the commercial and conceptual worlds were segregated, has been broken down into a fluid, integrated world- mutual respect has ensured that crossing the boundary either way no longer carries the taint or disrespect it once did. A new generation of artists have grown up with the rather cynical and postmodern idea that all things are commercially viable. Contemporary art school graduates are less likely to see their ventures into the commercial realm as contamination, and more as a necessary aspect of their endeavor. Commerce is incorporated into art at every level, from the means to the ends to the theme. That the common thread of art and fashion- the human body- has become such a commodity, seems like an obvious extension of this. Fashion spreads frequently borrow art photographers for their pages and mimic, in the case of Diesel and others, with considerable irony- the current art world trend towards narrative ambiguity and deliberately theatrical tableaux that recall â€Å"theoretical† artists like Jeff Wall and Cindy Sherman. Russel Wong is one such new generation artist, his work strongly informed by todays cultural fascination with celebrity. Wong has become famous through striking portraits of personalities from sports to music and movies, famous for capturing moments of vulnerability, warmth and humor. A number of Wongs photos have been used on the covers of international magazines. My photos are never confrontati