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Pneumococcal Infection and Malaria
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Pneumococcal Infection and Malaria
Question 1
Pneumococcal infections are usually caused by a bacterium called Streptococcus Pneumoniae that is also commonly referred to as pneumococcus. This constitutes a gram positive coccus that in most instances inhabit the upper part of the human respiratory tract. Most infections occur during early spring or winter. Although pneumococcus hardly causes illness, it can cause pneumonia; the most dangerous of all the infections caused by the bacterium. Pneumococal pneumonia is currently considered the 6th common cause of death across the globe. In addition, the disease is considered one of the most fatal infections in the hospital setting. Individuals that have a weak immune system and those with chronic diseases are at a higher risk of developing the disease. This segment of the population includes individuals suffering from sickle cell, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and multiple myeloma. Moreover those with a non functioning spleen or those whose spleen is removed are also t risk because the spleen plays an important role in preventing the disease.
In most cases, the treatment of this pnemococcal pneumonia depends on the severity of the symptoms and the cause of the disease. In general however, patients are treated using antibiotics and preferably, penicillin. For sinus and ear infections, this treatment is administered orally. However, for more severe infections, the treatment is administered intravenously. Since Pneumococci is increasingly becoming resistant to penicillin, newer quinolone antibiotics are being preferred. Currently, there are eighty different types of Pneumococcus bacteria that have been identified. Of these, twenty three are considered to be the major causes of Pneumoccocal infections. As such, the current vaccine has been developed to address the twenty three common types of infections.
The vaccine is important because it helps in prevention of relative infections. After the vaccine has been injected in the body, it works by stimulating the respective immune system to produce certain antibodies that then work against the infectious pneumococcus bacteria. Usually, the vaccine is administered in liquid form through injection in the muscle of an individual. The vaccine has certain limitation that compound it’s functioning in different ways. In this respect, the vaccine is not designed to protect a person against the pneumonia that is caused by other forms of bacteria. Moreover, it does not protect the body of an individual against other infections that are caused by the pneumococcal strains not included in the vaccine. Nonetheless, it is reassuring to note that a significant percentage of the infections tend o be caused by the twenty three serotypes that are covered by the vaccine.
Question 2:
Malaria is a preventive disease that is caused by the parasite plasmodium. There are four different types of this parasite; plasmodium vivax, malariae, ovale and falciparum. Of these four, it is widely agreed that that plasmodium falciprum is the most lethal or dangerous form of the parasite. The parasite is transmitted by the female anopheles mosquito. Usually, these mosquitoes carry the respective parasite and transfer it to human blood through their saliva when they bite them. Once in the bloodstream, the parasites travel to the liver of the individual. In the live, they get time to reproduce and then they are eventually released in the blood stream again; this time in larger numbers. When they get in the blood stream they begin causing malaria symptoms. Research indicates that malaria can also be transmitted through the process of blood transfusion.
The symptoms of malaria are wide and varied and they occur either singly or in combination with other symptoms. An individual suffering form malaria experiences uncontrollable shivering that is followed by a rise in the body temperature. The patient then begins to sweat and the temperature drops. Other symptoms that might accompany this include nausea, vomiting, severe headache, fatigue and flu like symptoms. Other symptoms that might develop immediately or when the disease progresses include enlarged liver, loss of appetite, cough, orthostatis hypotension, myalgia of limbs and back, diarrhea, abdominal pain and rigors.
There are various ways through which malaria can be prevented. To begin with, persons at risk can take prevent anti malarial medicine to aid in suppressing the parasite. Individuals can also wear protective clothing to prevent bites. They can use proprietary insect repellents to kill the mosquitoes and use mosquito nets to prevent bites. There are different types of drugs that are used for treating malaria. Examples include doxycycline, malarone and mefloquine. It is so hard to cure and eradicate malaria because the parasites are increasingly becoming resistant to the current medicines. In addition, other parasites such as the malariae that was considered to have been eradicated has remerged in spreading in other areas that is were not initially dominant.
There are various social factors that have made it difficult to treat malaria in the recent past. To begin with, poverty and lack of financial resources make it difficult for populations to seek as well as access treatment in a timely manner. Certain cultural practices related to medication seeking also compound the treatment process. Low levels of literacy with respect to when to seek for medication also compromise treatment efforts.
PM Video Project Communication Management Plan
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PM Video Project Communication Management Plan
Like other organizations and business activities, communication is a very fundamental factor that determines the success or failure of a project. During all the stages of the project; from initiation to implementation, it is important to have effective communication plan before executing the project. Project communication is therefore the process of exchanging ideas, concepts, theories, and methods (popularly referred to as project-specific information) with the aim of creating proper understanding between the receiver and the sender of the information. In this respect, project communication entails sharing of information among the stakeholders of the planned project in order to create good understanding and avoid any form of miscommunication that may arise out of lack of proper planning.
For a project to succeed there must be proper communication planning and channels. The project team must be responsible for providing accurate and timely information to all the stakeholders of the project. The information to be disseminated must be prepared in such as way that it meets the demands of the project’s stakeholders. On the other hand, the project management team must receive feedback and responses from the project’s stakeholders. Project communication entails the general communication and sharing of ideas between the team members themselves and the process is more encompassing. Project communication utilizes WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) as the framework for communication. Moreover, this process is customer focused as they are the primary or direct beneficiaries of the planned project. Other than being customers focused, project communication should take the limited time possible and also focus on the product or services. The limited project communication time should be limited in order to ensure that the information reaches the intended audience within the shortest time possible to limit distortion.
Project communication management is therefore described as the knowledge area which uses the right processes that are required to ensure appropriate and timely generation, collection, storage, distribution, ultimate disposal, and retrieval of project information. The development of Project Communication Management Planning is done by the project manager, but the task is all-inclusive process with all the project staff having a role to play in developing these communication plans for the project. The project task manager is charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the project’s customers are fully served and their needs are prioritized over the demands of other stakeholders. This is realized by ensuring effective project communication between the management and the customers of the planned project.
Communications Management Approach
The method of communication adopted by the project is as shown in the communication matrix at the end of this document. There are two main centers of communication in this project. The first is the overall project manager whose responsibility is to ensure that the project stays on course. The second center of communication is the technical leader whose role is to manage process at the technical level. The project will adopt both weekly and monthly reporting patterns to monitor the project progress. Weekly basis communication will mainly involve the technical department. The aim of the weekly reports to technical manager is to decide on the technical design that is most appropriate. The aim of monthly reporting is to monitor the overall progress of the project. The manager will coordinate with the instructor and relevant authorities on the matters pertaining to development of the DVD.
Stakeholder Requirements
Communication is vital in the coordination of a project because it helps drive various components of a project to work towards the goal of the project. The aim of this particular project is to compile a DVD that is to be used by an instructor to deliver lessons to trainees. There are three major stakeholders in this project namely the project team lead by the project manager, the instructor and the trainees. Each stakeholder has unique interest in this project. The interest of the project team is to complete the project that meets requirements in terms of relevance, regulatory requirements, material requirements, project period, quality requirements, and trainee requirements among others. The responsibility of the team therefore is to ensure the other stakeholders’ requirements are met. The requirement of the instructor is to have a DVD that is both easy to use in giving instruction, objective and informative. The need of the trainees is to be able to follow the instructor from the information on the DVD.
In order to ensure that all these needs are integrated into the project, communication is key in that it is a tool used to obtain the needs of the clients. Clients in this case are the trainees and the instructor. The learning characteristics of the trainees must be enquired and this requires effective communication. The method of training preferred by the instructor is also important in the compilation of the DVD otherwise the training process using the DVD may not be successful irrespective of how much insightful is the DVD content. The only means of tapping the needs of the clients of the project and integrating it into the DVD alongside the learning discipline is communication. In order to develop an effective communication approach toward this project, it is important to establish the number of people involved in this project, the duties and responsibilities of each stakeholder and objective of the project.
Communication Management Constraints
The primary objective of the project is to develop the DVD for training purposes. However, training will not be successful if implied objectives are not integrated. Implied objectives include concepts such as method of presentation, learning concept development, and the amount of information among other things. Therefore, communication approach developed must aim at fulfilling these objectives.
Apart from the goal of the project, the communication approach chosen is also influenced by the scale of the project, the area of expertise in which the project is based and the characteristics of the intended client. Additionally, the minimum level of communication technology that the stakeholders can understand, the interest of each stakeholder and the standard of communications for the particular field also influence communication approach. The nature of the project is to develop a comprehensive and visual learning material in the form of a DVD. This feature requires extensive search on the particular discipline to be covered in the DVD. It also requires careful planning of content to ensure learning objectives are integrated in the content development.
The production of the DVD requires various expertise including the planner of the content material, the composer of the content material, the computer graphics and special effects expertise and the narrator. It is the responsibility of the project manager to source for all these human resources among other requirements. Like all projects, this project must be done in phases carefully planned to ensure the content development remain objective. The first step is planning process by the project team on the stages of the project development.
Communication Methods and Technologies
All simple communication methods including written, verbal, visual, and audio will be involved alongside technical communication methods attributed to project management. The simple communication methods will be mainly used in coordinating the project requirements between stakeholders and project team as well as developing the DVD. Technical communication method that includes PERT and SharePoint among others will be used in project planning and adjustments.
Written communication is required for the narrator to relay the information. Verbal communication will also be used by the narrator to relay the DVD content. Visual and audio will be developed by the technical team to help realize the implied objective of the project, which is to make the DVD content insightful, objective and informative. PERT will be used mainly in project planning whereas SharePoint and similar web-based communication will be used to make contribution and adjustment to the project.
Project Flow Chart
Project flow chart represents the communication path that and information goes through to reach the project. The manager is the overall head of the project development. He is therefore charged with the vital decision making process in the project management planning.
Communication Standards
The project will adopt standard organizational formats used in the project management field. All project meetings will make use of standards of organizing minutes from the meeting so that the stakeholders are able to follow the progress of the reports. The technical design meetings and products will utilize industry standards for development of DVDs and its programs so that the project can be both formal and professional. The project status reports will take the form of technical report writing format of the reports.
Communication Escalation
Project management implies more than just management of resources and time to deliver the final project. It also involves managing individuals involved in the team. Such individuals have the potential to start a conflict that can pose adverse impacts of the project. Communication process is a means of escalating such conflicts. All the conflicts will be categorized into priorities depending on the interpreted nature of impact on the project progress. Conflicts that are regarded as immediate threat will be given preference in terms of solving the surrounding issues in the project planning and management.
PLUG IN ELECTRIC VEHICLES
Plug in Electric Cars
A plug in electric car works just like any other vehicle. It is rechargeable from external sources of electricity; these sources include wall sockets as well as the electric sources that are stored in battery packs which are rechargeable in nature which all have contributions in driving the wheels. These vehicles are sometimes synonymously referred to as the Plug In Electric Vehicles (PEVs) which is a superset of electric vehicles in its entirety. Overall, when compared to the conventional forms of the internal combustion engines, the plug in vehicles exhibit a number of advantages over the former. These benefits revolve within and around issues to do with the cost of maintenance and operation, environmental issues to do with air pollution; they also reduce overdependence on petroleum and its products among other advantages. Today, authorities in all aspects of the society both local, national as well as international have come up with credits in forms of tax, subsidies as well as incentives which all have the mother objective of promoting, introduction and the adoption of large numbers of plug in electric vehicles in their areas of jurisdiction depending the size of the batteries and the electric range. This paper will thus seek to analyze and bring to light a number of facts as well as emerging issues in relation to the plug in electric vehicles.
Logically speaking it would be rational to associate the origins, growth and development of plug in electric vehicles to the tragedy of the commons, (Hardin, 1971). According to him, the depletion of resources which are shared at individual level to satisfy their self interest is self defeating in the long run. This concept is always cited in tandem with sustainable development, environmental protection, economic growth as well as the ever growing debate of global warming. The commons refer to the atmosphere, fish stocks, rivers, oceans, parking meters and in this particular case; the term common refers to air. Concisely therefore, the population of the world is in a constant state of growth but this growth in population is not directly proportional to the growth of resources. It therefore follows that human beings have to come up with ways that ensure that the use of resources today does not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs using similar resources. Therefore, the innovation of electric cars is a milestone towards the achievement of the concept of sustainable development.
The formation of smog which is an obstacle to visibility, the development of respiratory diseases on human beings, the precondition for acid rain, corrosion of buildings hence shortening their standard life spans as well as inhibiting the growth of plants; are some of the effects associated with air pollution. This pollution is the result of exhaust fumes from the traditional combustion engines and industrial pollution. In order to curb these adverse effects, the society needs to embrace the utility of plug in electric vehicles which have a number of advantages as compared to combustible engines that offer the earth a definite end in terms of resource use.
Plug in electrical vehicles have a number of advantages; the first advantage of these vehicles is that they are environmentally friendly. This in one sense means that they do not pollute the air like the traditional internal ignition engines. However, this does not mean that they are absolutely environmentally friendly. This is because; the electricity that is used to refill the electric vehicles batteries is a product of the environment. More often than not, this electricity is derived from the combustion of fossil fuels which consequently produce little environmental pollution. It is however not logical to compare the amount of pollution produced from the combustion of fossil fuels to one produced from the internal ignition engines. These vehicles also reduce on noise pollution which is an attribute of traditional internal combustion engines In a nutshell therefore, Plug in Electric offer the planet earth a more sustainable life as opposed to the traditional internal ignition engines.
Plug in Electrical vehicles are also cheap to maintain and operate. This is reinforced by the fact that reports from the United States Department of Energy indicating that an original and typical Plug in Electrical vehicle can cover an approximate distance of 40 miles using only a dollar of electricity. This in one sense implies that only a substantial drop in the price of the commonly used gasoline could give such a low figure per mile. The cost element can also be supported by the fact that individuals who operate these vehicles can save up to 75% annually as compared to those who operate on gas powered vehicles. Therefore, these vehicles are cheap to maintain and operate.
Plug in electric vehicles are also cheap in the sense that only electricity is required to meet its utility requirements. This thus eliminates features of the traditional internal ignition engines. These features revolve within and around the charges incurred when changing oil, replacing oil filters, replacing fuel filters, charges incurred when undertaking emissions charges among other maintenance issues. A simple drive train as well as a simplified breaking system implies reliability and few potential repairs. The most expensive part of these vehicles is the battery which of course has a limited lifespan. In as much as replacing the battery may coat the owners thousands of dollars; it is once after a relatively long period which makes these vehicles a cheap alternative. Additionally, with constant innovation and developments in technology; it is hoped that the owners of these vehicles will benefit from longer battery lives as well as lower costs. To crown it all, vehicle manufacturers are likely to initiate programs such as warranties that are likely to impact on the cost effectiveness of these vehicles. These incentives may revolve between and around issues to do with battery leasing as well as longer battery warranties.
The battery used to operate the Plug in Electric vehicles can be recycled. This is another advantage of operating the electric vehicles. Approximately 100% of these batteries can be subjected to the process of recycling. The implication here is that the disposal of already used batteries which are likely to cause adverse environmental degradation is solved.
Conventionally, human beings embrace the notion that no single aspect of life is perfect. In other words, Plug in Electric Vehicles also encompasses a number of limitations and disadvantages. One major disadvantage of these vehicles is the time that is taken to recharge the batteries. This disadvantage again makes the traditional vehicles enjoy little advantage over the electric vehicles as refilling the fuel tanks is an almost immediate function whereas recharging the batteries may take a long time. It is however hoped that, in order to woo more people to use these vehicles; scientists and engineers are already trying to develop charging systems that consume less time.
With the electric car technology already taking shape in the developed nations of China and the United States of America, it is hoped that being global leaders this influence will be emulated by their allies. To that extent therefore, the future of electric cars is bright and with continued research on issues to do with electric cars; this might solve the current problems facing them. To human beings; seeing is believing, once the electric cars will prove to be effective, efficient and overall user friendly, then it will be embraced not all in some spheres of the globe but the globe in its entirety.
INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2012/12/EDI_September-2012-1024×641.png” * MERGEFORMATINET
GRAPH A: AMERICANS NOW PURCHASING LESS POLLUTING AND FUEL EFFICIENT VEHICLES. SOURCE: NEWYORK TIMES, 5th December 2012.
Reference
Hardin, G. J. (1971). The Tragedy of the commons. New York: Phoenix/BFA Films & Video [distributor.
National Research Council (U.S.). (2010). Transitions to alternative transportation technologies: Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Washington, D.C: National Academies Press.
United States. (2009). Twenty in ten: Plug in to hybrids & alternative fuels. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.