The Theory Of Mind ( Tom ) - 1987 Words

Theory of mind (ToM) is the ability to differentiate one’s own mental state from others and therefore, influence the behaviour accordingly. Mental states comprise of the individual’s desires, beliefs and intentions. ToM is considered to be a milestone in psychosocial development as pre-schoolers at the age of 4 or 5 tend to be able to recognise that not everyone perceive the same reality as they do (Wellman, Cross Watson, 2001). This is known as false-belief and is an important skill in comprehending and predicting people’s emotions and actions to construct a meaningful relationship. Many have argued that ToM coincides with language acquisition providing a mechanism to apprehend mental states within one’s cognition (Karmiloff-Smith,†¦show more content†¦That is, whether a deaf child was from a deaf family or normally hearing, and thus the immersion of the natural language leading to a successful ToM maturation. Moreover, a cochlear implant can im prove a hearing impaired child’s communication skills, which benefits social functioning, but still lag considerably behind in ToM compared to normally hearing peers. The outcomes of a delayed ToM do not occur in a particular order nor should they be considered as distinct features. Rather, the consequences are intertwined whereby one particular aspect can affect the other. For a deaf child, their natural language is signing (Mayer Leigh, 2010). Auslan or other variations of signing is instinctive to a deaf individual because it is the language that they can form coherent sentences and explicit semantics to engage in a discourse. Although language is predominately symbols rather than verbal or written compared to a deaf child’s normally hearing peers, it still allows the child to apprehend mental states in their cognition and conceive others around. Therefore, studies have shown that these children can do just as well, or even better, on false belief tests than hear ing children (Marschark Clark, 1998). In other words, despite being diagnosed as deaf or hard of hearing, ‘native signers’ typically show no delayed ToM and the implication is higher control of behaviours, or executive functioning, and

Descriptive Essay - Original Writing - 1544 Words

As I opened my eyes I saw nothing but darkness. It surrounded me, comforted me, and urged me to go back to sleep. Then, I heard my Dad’s voice cutting through the pitch black. â€Å"Are you still going?† he asked. I rolled over and let out a sleepy moan. He asked again, â€Å"Do you still want to go?† I nodded my head and attempted to arouse my brain. â€Å"Alright, if you are sure you want to.† he mumbled apprehensively as he walked out of my room. I closed my eyes and began to drift back to sleep. I caught myself drifting and threw off the mountain of covers I was buried under. The cool air of my room hit me and woke me instantly. My feet hit the ice cold floor and goose bumps appeared instantly on my skin. It was 5:00 a.m. on December†¦show more content†¦Then, slowly, I reached for the cold, metal handle and opened the door The small house was silent, except for the soft, religious music pouring out of the CD player which sat next to my Grandma’s bed. The house seemed plain; there was not a single decoration in sight. There were six people sitting in the tiny living room. All of them wore tired, melancholy expressions on their faces. It had been a rough night. We exchanged whispered hellos and I set my bag down as my Dad stepped inside and shut the door. I slipped off my shoes and sat down on the ugly, yellow carpet. The memories began to flood back into my mind. Six weeks earlier, while sitting on the same ugly, yellow carpet, I was told my Grandma was going to die. It was a Saturday. I remember because I had gone with my Dad to stay overnight and take care of my Grandma. Upon arriving, my aunt Janet told us my Grandma’s breathing had become uneven the night before. We called a nurse to come and examine my Grandma. The nurse walked into the room where my Grandma had been laying for weeks, made a short examination, then walked back into the living room. All of my Dad’s brothers and sisters had gathered and waited to hear what the nurse had to say. The nurse started off by apologizing for the horrific amount of pain my Grandma was experiencing. Then she dropped the bomb we had all been waiting for. The nurse told us my Grandma’s irregular breathing was

Adaptive Level of Agile Development †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Adaptive Level of Agile Development. Answer: Introduction Adaptive methodologies are systematic and structured and systematic project management processes that allow gradual improvement of the practices and decisions that are made during the development of a project, by learning from the outcomes of the decisions that were taken in the previous phases of the project. Project management is a continuous process which is usually divided into phases upon which decisions have to be made on each phase. Adaptive methodologies were introduced to compliment the traditional predictive methodologies which were based on making a project plan which was strictly followed by the development team (Freedman, 2010). Adaptive methodologies were introduced to adapt to the needs of the organization thus leading higher levels of customer satisfaction. Comfort Quits Limited believes that use of an adaptive methodology to develop their information system is the best approach as adaptive methodologies are designed and formulated to adapt to changes while encouragin g continuous learning throughout the process to make sure the needs of the customer are fulfilled. There are many types of adaptive methodologies but this report focuses on The Unified Process (UP) (Mrsic, 2016). The unified process is an adaptive methodology which follows all the basic principles of adaptive methodology as discussed above but has an architecture-centric approach of developing the system in increments. UP is a use-case driven and iterative framework which uses the Unified Modelling language to model the architecture of the proposed system (Alhir, 2001). The Unified process is suitable for large-scale projects and small scale projects like the Comfort Quits Limited Information system. The unified process has the following key features that distinguish it from other adaptive methodologies; Unified process is component based as it at most times used to coordinate projects that are developed using the object oriented approach. The component based approach of developing the system means that some of the components will be reusable with minimal modifications or customizations of the components. The reuse factor of different components gives the development team a chance to focus on the problem and the requirements of the client while spending less time on building of new components It uses the Unified Modelling Language (UML) which is a diagrammatic type of notation of modelling objected oriented designed systems. The process of designing the system is driven and anchored by use of use cases which play a significant role in modelling the expected behaviors of the system and the actors that will be interacting with the system within a certain boundary. For developers, use cases help save time in understanding the requirements of the system as compared to documents like the requirements document which tend to be redundant, ambiguous or redundant at most times. Thus use of use cases help both the development team and the client team to trace the requirements of the system because use cases are easy to analyze after the two teams have agreed on the requirements of the system based on the use case diagrams. For the implementation phase of the project use cases help decompose requirements into smaller requirements which can be allocated to various development team members (Scott, 2001). The unified process is architecture-centric. Architecture can basically be defined as the fundamental organization of the proposed system as a whole. For Comfort Quits Limited, this includes all the sub systems making up the integral system through which different business activities are carried out for example; the stock control subsystem, customer relationship subsystem and the accounting subsystem. The unified process will describe the Comfort Quits Limited information system by describing the static and dynamic elements making up each subsystem, how the two types of elements work together and how the different subsystems are integrated to form one integral information system. The design process in Unified process is incremental and iterative where by the design of the system is done through a sequence of processes. An iteration is a mini project that is released externally for example to Comfort Quits limited or internally to the development team. The end of every iteration results to a new version of the system. The life cycle of the proposed system can be viewed as a series of cycles where by at the end of every cycle a version of the system will be released to Comfort Quits Limited. Each cycle can be divided into four phases where by a phase is the span of time between two major milestones and points at which important decisions affecting the schedule, budget and scope are evaluated and taken. The four phases are; The inception phase is the phase of the cycle where the viability of the Comfort Quits Limited will be evaluated. The evaluation is done by defining the scope of the proposed system, specifying the architecture which is best suited for the system for example it could be N-tier or client-server architecture, identifying all the critical risks that might be incurred and formulating contingency plans and measures to address the risks and finally establishing the direction of the project based on the cost estimates, effort estimates and schedule estimates. The major milestone achieved in the inception phase are referred to as life-cycle objectives. The key indications of the project reaching these milestones include an agreement between Comfort Quits limited and the development team. The main objective of the elaboration phase is to establish the possibility that the proposed Comfort Quits Limited will be built despite of the schedule constraints, financial constraints and other types of constraints that might be faced by the project. The major milestone in elaboration phase is called life-cycle architecture and its achieved if most if not all of the functional requirements are captured within the use case model. The primary objective of the phase is the actual implementation which involves building the system capable of successfully operating in the Comfort Quits Limited. The major milestone of this phase is called initial operational capability and is achieved if the client has an operational version of the system. The primary objective of the transition phase is the deployment of the fully working system to the client. The major objective is called product release. The unified process is the most suitable adaptive methodology for use to develop the Comfort Quits Limited as it will provide a better way of documenting the system thus making it easy to maintain in the future. References Alhir, S.S., 2001. Understanding the Unified Process (UP). Method and Tools. Available at: https://www.methodsandtools.com/archive/archive.php?id=32 [Accessed October 19, 2017]. Freedman, R., 2010. Adaptive Project Framework: A new level of agile development. Tech Republic. Available at: https://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/adaptive-project-framework-a-new-level-of-agile-development/ [Accessed October 19, 2017]. Mrsic, M., 2016. Adaptive Project Management. Active Collab LLC. Available at: https://activecollab.com/blog/project-management/adaptive-project-management [Accessed October 19, 2017]. Scott, K., 2001. Overview of the Unified Process. Inform IT. Available at: https://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=24671seqNum=10 [Accessed October 19, 2017].

Strategic Comparison of Companies

Question: Discuss about theStrategic Comparison of Companies. Answer: Introduction Business management can be understood as the process of developing plans, procedures, strategies and policies that guides a company on both day-to-day and extended term basis. It encompasses financial, human along with the material resources to attain company objectives (Barnett, Darnall and Husted 2015). The objective of the paper is to compare and contrast the strategic position of two companies namely, Blackmore and Brambles. Such comparison is conducted based on the vision and mission statement, values, corporate social responsibility along with SMART analysis of the companies. Moreover, the history of the companies also with the achievement of them in certain areas will also be evaluated in this paper. Comparison and Contrast of Blackmore and Brambles Vision and Mission Statement Blackmore Company Vision Statement- The Company intends to achieve its business objectives through translating their unrivalled heritage and knowledge into quality branded healthcare and innovative solutions that is effective (Beringer, Jonas and Kock 2013). Mission Statement- The mission of the company is to enhance lives of people through delivering the worlds best solutions on natural health that turns out to be first choice of consumers in healthcare. Brambles Company Vision Statement- Brambles intends to improve performance of the consumers through helping them in transporting goods by means of their supply chain. Mission Statement- The mission statement of Brambles considers developing sustainability framework in order to position itself as the world-leading provider of the logistics solutions. Organizational Values Organizational Values of Blackmore Company Passion for Natural Health- The Company has increased enthusiasm and belief in a natural approach to healthcare motivates the company in maintaining expense in all its operations (Blackmores.com.au., 2016). Integrity- The Company is honest and committed to highest standards of personal and business behavior. Leadership- The Company works as a team and as individuals, the company employs wisdom and knowledge for influencing employees at their best. Organizational Values of Brambles Company Shared values of Brambles Company are mentioned in the code of conduct of the company and serves as a core aspect of the companys culture. The shared values of the company consider that the operations within the company begin with the consumers, the company has passion for success, and it is committed to diversity, safety and teamwork (Brambles Corporate Site., 2016). Moreover, the values of the company believes in the culture of innovation and makes sure that the company acts with integrity and respect for the communities within which the company operates. Corporate Social Responsibility/Sustainability Blackmore Corporate Social Responsibility The social responsibility actions of the company demonstrate the companys care, respect compassion for all its employees, the wider community and the environment. The company is committed to promote its social responsibility values. Blackmore encourages its staff to get involved in social responsibility guidelines, in all its business conducts and employing social responsibility strategies in their everyday life (Della Rocca 2015). Brambles Corporate Social Responsibility The social responsibility of Brambles is developed on the principles those are greatly sustainable. The company offers safe, effective and sustainable solutions within the supply chains of its consumers. The company contributes to the circular economy by means of their CSR strategies of reuse, recover, reduce and recycle (Elms and Low 2013). Stakeholders Management Blackmore Company attempts to manage its capital in order to make sure that the entities of the group might be capable to continue as an increasing concern at the time of maximizing the stakeholders returns by means of optimizing equity and debt balance. Brambles Company has developed strategies such as zero harm that ensures that the company has the right to be safe at work and get back to their home healthy. Zero harm strategy makes sure that it provides increased priority to its stakeholder groups (Guarino, Reckase and Wooldridge 2014). SMART Analysis of the Companies SMART Analysis of Blackmore Company Specific- Blackmore has a specific goal of defining a new market where the company has taken time for innovating in a particular way. Measurable- Blackmore intends to set standard and this serves as a measurable goal for the reason that sales figures are needed to be reported. The company is implemented sales metrics analytics system properly to report to all its stakeholders. Achievable- Being the worlds most popular companies, the results of the companys efforts is closely recognized by the world. Relevant- In the recent years, the company is making great attempts to access the new healthcare facilities in the huge following; it can expand its product line in a manner that makes its medical facilities more convenient. Time-Oriented- The company sets superior standards for growth in a region where the firm has currently invested in huge quantity of its resources. Such objective is time-bound, as they have limited time to attain market share at the end of the year. SMART Analysis of Brambles Company Specific- Brambles Company intends took increase yearly sales of its specialized products at the end of the end of the year. This serves as a specific goal as it considers an area where the company has just developed a product line and attains a particular figure to attain its growth objective. Measurable- The above objective of the company serves as measurable goal as Brambles Company maintains track of its yearly sales reports. Achievable- The goal and distinct services of attaining specific sales figure is attainable, as the available of all the product lines will offer tough competition to its competitors. Relevant- The specific goal of the company is considered relevant as the company continues to deal with large competition. Time-Oriented- The goal of increasing annual sales of the company is deemed to be time-bound as it determines the deadline for the measurement of growth after implementation of specific sales growth strategies. Believable and Added Value Analysis Blackmore Companys Achievements With great contribution to attain business objectives, the company has a significant milestone and has an attained as new era of achievements in collaboration, learning and discovery. The company has offered a number of new products every year with more than 80 fresh products, new pack sizes and enhanced product development resulting in growth of the company. Blackmore has launched an award-winning website that was re-launched in order to gain increased consumer attention in the social media. The new site was highly interactive and has turned out to be among the renowned online health communities in Australia. The production line of the company has increased its capability by 20%, along with enhanced product flows from from its new layout and focus on the improvements, and attained a daily production record of 82,000 units packed in a single day (Koo 2016). Brambles Companys Achievements The financial performance of Brambles Company is observed to be significant. The performance of the company improved with years that further triggered the companys performance. Because of the companys superior performance it attained long-term incentive awards and share based incentive plans. The sales revenue increased over the year that is designed to drive profitable business growth and continuous sales increase over the three years period is observed to help the company in attaining performance achievement The Company manages its capital and the profitable growth based several cash awards for the company (Lorange 2013). All the operating segments of the company attained considerable improvements and developed efficient technology to facilitate flexibility in its business operations. Moreover, the company continued to ensue better reporting that helped the company in identifying and addressing the higher risk potentials. Moreover, the company has attained great growth through bein g highly committed to sustainable use of products and services by means of its supply chain. Recommendations Based on the strategic comparison of both the companies, Blackmore Company is recommended to invest new growth opportunities to increase returns and generate value for the sustainability of its stakeholders in the long term. The companys sustainability strategy should focus on the employees so that learning and the development opportunities are easily available to them. Moreover, the Brambles Company is recommended to invest more in the growth program (Seuring and Gold 2013). This strengthens its existing business in consideration to the actions to offer operational efficiencies that can intend to sustain the competitive advantages. Moreover, to gain strategic advantages, the company must consider reconstructing its pricing strategy and encourage the pricing team for implementing automated online pricing tool in order to develop simplified pricing structure. Brambles must make huge attempts to search for opportunities for addressing the challenges to the supply of pallet-grade chain in some developing geographic regions. Conclusion The objective of the paper was to compare and contrast the strategic position of two companies namely, Blackmore and Brambles. Such comparison was conducted based on the vision and mission statement, values, corporate social responsibility along with SMART analysis of the companies. It was gathered from the paper that the Blackmore Company has increased enthusiasm and belief in a natural approach to healthcare motivates the company in maintaining expense in all its operations. The shared values of the company consider that the operations within the company begin with the consumers, the company has passion for success, and it is committed to diversity, safety and teamwork. Blackmore has a specific goal of defining a new market where the company has taken time for innovating in a particular way. Blackmore intends to set standard and this serves as a measurable goal for the reason that sales figures are needed to be reported. The company is implemented sales metrics analytics system properly to report to all its stakeholders. Based on the strategic comparison of both the companies, Blackmore Company is recommended to invest new growth opportunities to increase returns and generate value for the sustainability of its stakeholders in the long term. Moreover, the Brambles Company is recommended to invest more in the growth program that strengthens its existing business in consideration to the actions to offer operational efficiencies that can intend to sustain the competitive advantages. Reference List Barnett, M.L., Darnall, N. and Husted, B.W., 2015. Sustainability strategy in constrained economic times.Long Range Planning,48(2), pp.63-68. Beringer, C., Jonas, D. and Kock, A., 2013. Behavior of internal stakeholders in project portfolio management and its impact on success.International Journal of Project Management,31(6), pp.830-846. Blackmores.com.au., 2016.Annual half-year reports. [online] Available at: https://www.blackmores.com.au/about-us/investor-centre/annual-and-half-year-reports [Accessed 8 Dec. 2016]. Brambles Corporate Site., 2016.Annual Reports. [online] Available at: https://www.brambles.com/annual-reports [Accessed 8 Dec. 2016]. Della Rocca, G., 2015. The definition and implentation of CSR strategy in multinational companies: cross industry analysis on the impact of CSR on global supply chain management. Elms, D.K. and Low, P. eds., 2013.Global value chains in a changing world. Geneva: World Trade Organization. Guarino, C.M., Reckase, M.D. and Wooldridge, J.M., 2014. Can value-added measures of teacher performance be trusted?.Education Finance and Policy. Koo, B.K., 2016. The Smart Strategy for Side Branch Intervention: Still the Less, the Better?.JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions,9(6), pp.527-529. Lorange, P., 2013. Co-operative strategies: planning and control considerations.Strategies in global competition, pp.370-389. Seuring, S. and Gold, S., 2013. Sustainability management beyond corporate boundaries: from stakeholders to performance.Journal of Cleaner Production,56, pp.1-6. Song, Y.B., Park, T.K., Hahn, J.Y., Yang, J.H., Choi, J.H., Choi, S.H., Lee, S.H. and Gwon, H.C., 2016. Optimal strategy for provisional side branch intervention in coronary bifurcation lesions: 3-year outcomes of the SMART-STRATEGY randomized trial.JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions,9(6), pp.517-526. Wang, S. and Xiao, X., 2016, July. CSR, strategy and financial performance. InIndustrial Economics System and Industrial Security Engineering (IEIS), 2016 International Conference on(pp. 1-6). IEEE.