New Religious Movements Essay -- Analysis, Lorne Dawson

Dawson (2010) Lorne Dawson presents a unique perspective on the similarities between New Religious Movements (NRM), which are also known as cults, and radical Islamic groups. Dawson (2010) questions why no dialogue has occurred because of the similarities between the two types of movements. Dawson (2010) stated that individuals that join Islamic extremist groups have the same issues of NRM members who experience a source of deprivation or alienation from the secular world. As with both groups, Dawson (2010) alludes that the deprivation is based on personalization of an issue that could be social, psychological, and moral. Dawson (2010) cautions that deprivation is not all about economics and there is no singular profile to fit an individual and pointed reason of why an individual will feel deprivation. Dawson points out the general public may view people as down on their luck and in economic strife. However, in actuality, both groups according to Dawson (2010) come from middle class families and have obtained some education and seem unremarkable, just as asserted in the Silber and Bhatt (2007) study. With this sense of deprivation, Dawson points out seeking individuals in both NRM and radical Islamic groups may want to pursue an identity which is influenced by socialization with other people going through the same situation or who understand what an individual is going through. Dawson makes an interesting point that the social bonds that are strong and give an individual a sense of belonging which help transform a person to a NRM or radical Islamic group. Dawson refers to two key socialization tenets that are in both NRM and radical Islam and was mentioned in Silber and Bhatt (2007) study that are appli... ...to steer away from the aspect of socialization as a conduit to propel radicalization. It does mention that Larose accused of conspiring to kill Swedish artist Lars Vilks had social contacts through emails supporting her effort. The literature provides a valid point that the internet has transpired as a major component in increase of the radicalization process. This paper argues the researchers should have presented the argument that the internet is a gateway for socialization rather than a forum for self-radicalization. The paper did mention the importance of information operations to counter media promoting radicalization which has not been emphasized to the extent as it was in this literature. The Self-Awakening variable implies religion in this literature. The Social Conduit variable is obviously identified as the internet and extremist groups.

Death, Dying and Other Ethical Dilemmas

Death, dying and other ethical dilemmas are issues that all Intensive Care Units (ICUs) throughout the world have to face and address. In the Current Opinion in Critical Care, Vol 16, No 6, December 2010, p. 640, Dixon-Woods and Bosk, writing on the topic of â€Å"Death, dying and other ethical dilemmas† under the journal’s section of ‘Ethical, legal and organizational issues in the ICU’, have stated that â€Å"Recent ethnographic work suggests that ethical dilemmas associated with end-of-life care in ICU clearly persist, even if clinicians are now more open about patients’ chances of surviving.An Australian study identified how decisions and actions made outside the ICU—such as proceeding with surgical procedures with very poor prognosis or admitting moribund patients who had sustained severe respiratory or cardiac arrest—led to a higher than expected rate of non-booked admissions. Staff believed these to be the result of futile inter ventions by staff outside the ICU that then resulted in ICU staff having to manage the patient and family through the dying process.ICU staff believed that this practice was detrimental to families by offering false hope of recovery, and that they were left to ‘clear up the unfinished work of medical staff’. Other studies have also documented the problems faced by staff confronted by patients whose potential for recovery is, at best, marginal, or when patients’ ‘significant others’ seek to influence ICU priorities and distribution of resources. Tensions exist between the critical care clinician’s view of the ICU as a place for caring for patients who can be salvaged, and an external view of the ICU as a place appropriate to send desperately ill, dying patients.Patients admitted to ICU despite ICU staff’s belief that they are not candidates for intensive care lead to role conflicts and other dilemmas for staff. The conflict is embedded i n whom ICUs serve, the relative ease with which non-ICU clinicians can ‘turf’ their most critical patients to ICUs, the tensions ICU clinicians experience when delivering what they believe to be futile care, and the despair that family and clinicians share when having to abandon hope. †This administrative ethics paper takes a look at the issues contained in the article of the aforementioned journal, Current Opinion in Critical Care, Vol 16, No 6, December 2010, and applies these issues to the situations faced by ICUs today and in particular, the ICU healthcare personnel at the 6-bedded ICU at the San-Fernando General Hospital (SFGH), a general multi-disciplinary 680-bedded hospital situated in the south of the island of Trinidad and which serves a catchment area of 600,000 people. Trinidad and Tobago is a twin-island republic in the West Indies, south of the archipelago with a population of 1. million people. The SFGH also has a 4-bedded HDU (high-dependency unit) . Brainstem death The future plan for brain-dead patients whose hearts have been resuscitated by doctors in the Emergency Department (ED) of the SFGH following a cardiac and or respiratory arrest at home, poses an ethical dilemma for the healthcare personnel at the SFGH. Should these patients be admitted to the ICU which has only six beds to serve a population of 600,000? Shouldn’t these ICU beds be kept for patients with potentially reversible and salvageable pathology?Emergency physicians at the SFGH defend their decision to resuscitate such patients on the grounds that they cannot predict with any certainty which patients have reversible brain function and which do not. The present practice at the SFGH to provide ventilator support for these patients in the ED instead of the ICU while tests of brainstem function are being carried out, is frequently met with severe criticisms from relatives and loved ones who claim that the best is not being, and cannot be, done for such pa tients in the ED as opposed to the ICU.And to a certain extent, this is true bearing in mind the chronic shortage of doctors and nurses in the ED. Frequently therefore, here in Trinidad, the ICU personnel have no choice but to transfer such patients to the ICU for monitoring and cardio-respiratory support. Passive Euthanasia â€Å"While active euthanasia is illegal, passive euthanasia, or allowing a patient to die naturally, is legal everywhere. Passive euthanasia includes withdrawing basic needs such as hydration and nutritional feeding† (Fremgen, 2009, p. 304).The Ministry of Health, an arm of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, has issued a written protocol/policy for the discontinuation of life-support from patients on whom the diagnosis of brainstem death is confirmed but, for such discontinuation, written consent is required from the relatives. â€Å"The person should be pronounced dead, and there is no need for the permission of the surrogates to cease treatment, a lthough there are still questions about consent for donation† (Garett, Baillie, McGeehan and Garett, 2010, p. 253).But intensivists here in Trinidad face an ethical dilemma because forty-five percent of the population consists of people of East Indian descent who, because of their religious and cultural background, do not readily agree to the discontinuation of ventilator support from their loved ones who have been pronounced brain-dead. For similar reasons, they do not readily agree to the donation of organs while the heart is still beating, a situation that has stymied the development of transplant programs here in Trinidad and Tobago. The Surrogate’s Obligation Patient-physician relationship is at the heart of patient management. The trend over the recent years has been towards promoting patients’ autonomy. This model falls apart, however, when the patient loses decision-making capacity. Surrogacy is one means of preserving patient autonomy. Several European c ountries have recently developed laws defining the physician’s role, as well as patients’ and surrogates’ rights† (Lautrette, Peigne, Watts, Souweine and Azoulay, 2008, p. 714). â€Å"Each of the principles (the best interests principle and the rational choice principle) entails problems.The best interests principle asks the surrogate to do what is nearly impossible—to judge what is best for another. Furthermore, it does not address the fact that the interests of the patient and the interests of the surrogate may be in conflict. The rational choice principle assumes that we know what the patient would have chosen when competent and after having considered every relevant factor. This is a very broad assumption. We doubt that anyone can know what a person would have done in all circumstances† (Garett, Baillie, McGeehan and Garett, 2010, p. 2). When surrogates refuse to give permission for their brain-dead loved ones to be disconnected from the ventilator, intensivists at the SFGH in Trinidad, well aware of the limitations and constraints of the situation that exists at the SFGH, choose the ethical route and not only discontinue all drug and intravenous fluid therapy but also reduce the settings on, and oxygen therapy going to, the ventilator to as low as is possible, so as to satisfy the family that the patient has not been disconnected from the ventilator.A do-not-resuscitate order (DNR) is not only written, but is also verbally communicated to the nurses by the doctors in the event of a cardiac arrest. The Cost Factor â€Å"Critical care medicine is expensive and its high cost has been a concern for many years. † (Halpern, 2009, p. 591). Canada’s health care system, including its delivery of hospital-based critical care services, is changing due to fiscal pressures. â€Å"Critical care services should be delivered to those who can benefit from them.Limiting therapy in patients with a poor prognosis may he lp redirect resources† (Leasa and Sibald, 1997, p. 320). Trinidad and Tobago, like the rest of the world, is currently facing an economic recession and so the Government of the day has to be very prudent in its fiscal spending. The Ministry of Health which is responsible for providing the financial resources for running the health system in the twin-island republic simply does not have the money required for the provision of quality healthcare at this time.ICUs are expensive and as such all attempts must be made by all stakeholders involved in the ICU to ensure that monies spent in this area of the hospital are spent wisely, ethically, effectively and efficiently. Conclusion This administrative ethics paper took a look at various challenges faced by healthcare personnel in ICUs today as they deal with death, dying and other ethical dilemmas. Particular reference was made to the ICU at the San Fernando General Hospital, Trinidad, West Indies.

Biography of Charles Wheatstone, British Inventor

Charles Wheatstone (February 6, 1802–October 19, 1875) was an English natural philosopher and inventor, perhaps best known today for his contributions to the electric telegraph. However, he invented and contributed in several fields of science, including photography, electrical generators, encryption, acoustics, and musical instruments and theory. Fast Facts: Charles Wheatstone Known For: Physics experiments and patents applying to sight and sound, including the electric telegraph, the concertina, and the stereoscopeBorn:  February 6, 1802 at Barnwood, near Gloucester, EnglandParents: William and Beata Bubb WheatstoneDied: October 19, 1875 in Paris, FranceEducation: No formal science education, but excelled in French, math, and physics at  Kensington and Vere Street schools, and took an apprenticeship in his uncles music factoryAwards and Honors: Professor of Experimental Philosophy at Kings College, Fellow of the Royal Society in 1837, knighted by Queen Victoria in 1868Spouse: Emma WestChildren: Charles Pablo, Arthur William Fredrick, Florence Caroline, Catherine Ada, Angela Early Life Charles Wheatstone was born on February 6, 1802, near Gloucester, England. He was the second child born to William (1775–1824) and Beata Bubb Wheatstone, members of a music business family established on the Strand in London at least as early as 1791, and perhaps as early as 1750. William and Beata and their family moved to London in 1806, where William set up shop as a flute teacher and maker; his elder brother Charles Sr. was head of the family business, manufacturing and selling musical instruments. Charles learned to read at age 4 and was sent to school early at the Kensington Proprietary Grammar School and Vere Street Board School in Westminster, where he excelled in French, math, and physics. In 1816, he was apprenticed to his Uncle Charles, but by the age of 15, his uncle complained that he was neglecting his work at the shop to read, write, publish songs, and pursue an interest in electricity and acoustics. In 1818, Charles produced his first known musical instrument, the flute harmonique, which was a keyed instrument. No examples have survived. Early Inventions and Academics In September 1821, Charles Wheatstone exhibited his Enchanted Lyre or Acoucryptophone  at a gallery in a music store, a musical instrument that appeared to play itself to amazed shoppers. The Enchanted Lyre was not a real instrument, but rather a sounding box disguised as a  lyre  that hung from the ceiling by a thin steel wire. The wire was connected to the soundboards of a piano, harp, or dulcimer played in an upper room, and as those instruments were played, the sound was conducted down the wire, setting off sympathetic resonance of the lyres strings. Wheatstone speculated publicly that at some time in the future, music might be transmitted in a similar manner throughout London laid on like gas. In 1823 acclaimed Danish scientist Hans Christian Ãâ€"rsted (1777–1851) saw the Enchanted Lyre and convinced Wheatstone to write his first scientific article, New Experiments in Sound. Ãâ€"rsted presented the paper to the Acadà ©mie Royale des Sciences in Paris, and it was eventually published in Great Britain in Thomsons Annals of Philosophy. Wheatstone began his association with the Royal Institution of Great Britain (also known as the Royal Institute, founded in 1799) in the mid-1820s, writing papers to be presented by close friend and RI member Michael Faraday (1791–1869) because he was too shy to do it himself.   Early Inventions Wheatstone had a wide-ranging interest in sound and vision and contributed many inventions and improvements on existing inventions while he was active. His first patent (#5803) was for a Construction of Wind Instruments on June 19, 1829, describing the use of a flexible bellows. From there, Wheatstone developed the concertina, a bellows-driven, free-reed instrument in which each button produces the same pitch regardless of the way the bellows are moving. The patent was not published until 1844, but Faraday gave a Wheatstone-written lecture demonstrating the instrument to the Royal Institute in 1830. Academics and Professional Life Despite his lack of a formal education in science, in 1834 Wheatstone was made a Professor of Experimental Philosophy at Kings College, London, where he conducted pioneering experiments in electricity and invented an improved dynamo. He also invented two devices to measure and regulate electrical resistance and current: the Rheostat and an improved version of what is now known as the Wheatstone bridge (it was actually invented by Samuel Hunter Christie  in 1833). He held the position at Kings College for the remainder of his life, although he continued working in the family business for another 13 years. In 1837, Charles Wheatstone partnered with inventor and entrepreneur William Cooke to co-invent an electric telegraph, a now-outdated communication system that transmitted electric signals over wires from location to location, signals that could be translated into a message. The Wheatstone-Cooke or needle telegraph was the first working communication system of its kind in Great Britain, and it was put into operation on the London and Blackwall Railway. Wheatstone was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) that same year. Wheatstone invented an early version of the stereoscope in 1838, versions of which became a very popular philosophical toy in the later 19th century. Wheatstones stereoscope used two slightly different versions of the same image, which when viewed through two separate tubes gave the viewer the optical illusion of depth. Throughout his professional life, Wheatstone invented both philosophical toys and scientific instruments, exercising his interests in linguistics, optics, cryptography (the Playfair Cipher), typewriters, and clocks—one of his inventions was the Polar Clock, which told time by polarized light. Marriage and Family On February 12, 1847, Charles Wheatstone married Emma West, the daughter of a local tradesman, and they eventually had five children. That year he also stopped working in a significant way at the family business to concentrate on his academic research. His wife died in 1866, at which point his youngest daughter Angela was 11 years old. Wheatstone gleaned a number of important awards and honors throughout his career. He was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1859, made a Foreign Associate of the French Academy of Sciences in 1873, and became an honorary member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1875. He was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1868. He was named a Doctor of Civil Law (DCL) at Oxford and a doctor of law (LLD) at Cambridge. Death and Legacy Charles Wheatstone was one of the most inventive geniuses of his generation, combining combined science-based publication with business-focused patent applications and serious research with a playful interest in philosophical toys and inventions. He died of bronchitis on October 19, 1875, in Paris while he was working on yet another new invention, this one for submarine cables. He is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery near his home in London. Sources Bowers, Brian. Sir Charles Wheatstone, F.R.S. 1802–1875. London: Her Majestys Stationery Office, 1975Anonymous. Wheatstone Collection. Special Collections. Kings College London, March 27, 2018. Web. Rycroft, David. The Wheatstones. The Galpin Society Journal 45 (1992): 123–30. Print.Wade, Nicholas J. Charles Wheatstone (1802–1875). Perception 31.3 (2002): 265–72. Print.Wayne, Neil. The Wheatstone English Concertina. The Galpin Society Journal 44 (1991): 117–49. Print.