Cell Phone Use While Driving Essay Example for Free

Cell Phone Use While Driving Essay Cell phone use while driving has caused unnecessary injuries and deaths throughout history. Those injuries and deaths prove the ignorance of the victims and set an example for others. Many people have lost their loved ones in cell phone related accidents but with every experience comes a lesson, which in this case is that cell phone use while driving should not be allowed. The road would be a safer place to drive if the use of cell phone while driving is prohibited. The risk of accidents increases significantly when a cell phone is being used while driving. A study by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis estimated that six percent of vehicle crashes causes about 2,600 deaths and 330,000 injuries a year, which can be linked to one or more of the drivers involved using a cell phone (â€Å"Cell Phone Use While Driving a Big Cause of Accidents†). According to this study, the use of cell phones while driving is causing many unnecessary deaths and injuries. To treat those irresponsible drivers, all the citizens of the United States pay in the form of taxes. The forbiddance of cell phone use while driving will not only make the United States to be a safer nation, but it will also make it a happier nation. Many people are unaware of the dangers and effects of cell phone use while driving. To most people, drunk driving is a very serious crime, but using a cell phone while driving is a trivial matter. However, a research by the University of Utah proves that drivers drunk at the .08 percent blood-alcohol level drive slower than drivers using a cell phone. Driving with a cell phone is more distracting because drivers tend to concentrate less on the road, and more on the conversation, which leads to many accidents. If one is caught driving drunk in Michigan, his or her license is suspended for several months and an additional fine ranging from $250-$10,000 has to be paid. If the crime of drunk driving has such punishments, then the use of cell phone while driving should also have severe punishments. To many people, it may seem that cell phone use while driving should not be outlawed because emergency calls need to be attended or made any time. However, people can pull over to the side and make or receive emergency calls. According to the Human Factors and Ergonomics society, cell phone distraction puts the driver at a four time great risk of a crash. It may take more effort to pull over, stop, and call, but doing so would decrease the number of accidents by a massive number. . Even using cell phones during school times can be a big problem. It can  distract a students studies, since he/she will be too busy texting and calling people; he/she wont be able to concentrate and will keep thinking about those text messages. If there is something bad then they will be depressed all day long. If parents need to talk to their children urgently they will be able to talk to them during school. Some students during classes are always tense because of someone/something so by calling or texting they can clear their tension and focus on studies. Cell phones will help them solve the problems outside the school so they can peacefully study. Schools should understand how important it is for students to study and this is only possible if they are not thinking about anything else. The rate of accidents for drivers using cell phones has increased alarmingly. The convenience that cell phones offer must be judged against the hazards that they pose. Therefore, the government should ban the use of cell phones while driving, which would not only decrease the number of traffic injuries and deaths, but will also make the road a safer place to drive. The use of cell phone while driving is a crime that should be outlawed and punished for severely. There are two dangers linked with driving and cell phone use, including text messaging. First, drivers should not take their eyes off the road while dialing. Secondly if the drivers start talking on the phone then they get so lost in others conversations that they have no clue what is going on in front of them which causes them to get in an accident. That is one reason why so many states and countries banned the use of cell phones while driving and even in schools so young teenage people know when they have to use the phone and when not to.

Looking At Port Scanning Techniques Information Technology Essay

Looking At Port Scanning Techniques Information Technology Essay This article gives you an in-depth knowledge on some of the commonly used TCP port scanning techniques along with the pros and cons associated with each of the port scanning technique. Apart from the TCP based port scanning, it also briefly explains the different port scanning techniques available to scan the non TCP ports. Index Terms three-way handshake, open port scanning, stealth scanning, half open port scanning, Ident scanning, FTP bounce scanning, Decoy scanning, UDP scanning. In this paper firstly we will see an overview of port scanning, which includes what it is, why it is used, how it can be used and what are its effects. The second section explains in details about the various port scanning methods. This section includes detailed description on each of the port scanning methods based on TCP and some of the other port scanning methods, including the advantages and disadvantages of each of the methods. This section also contains information on the TCP connection establishment, which would be helpful to have a better understanding on the various port scanning techniques. Overview on Port Scanning Before start discussing about the actual topic port scanning, first lets see what a port is, how it is used and what its functions are. The Transmission Control Protocol and User Datagram protocol are used for communication over the internet. Each of this protocol contains 65536 ports (from 0 to 65535). Each port has an associated service running. The first 1024 ports are the reserved/privilege ports which runs the dedicated service defined by IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) (for example port 80 is reserved for HTTP service, port 21 for FTP, port 23 for telnet access and etc.) and these ports are known as well-known ports. The remaining are called registered ports (from 1024 to 49151) and dynamic and/or private ports (from 49152 to 65535). So, the applications in the computer use its specific port for communication with the server or with another computer. Now lets discuss about port scanning. Port scanning is a technique used to uncover the port details in a computer. Details like whether the port is open/listening or not, if it is open/listening which service is running on that port, etc can be obtained by scanning the ports. Port scanning is mainly used to find if there is any security risk involved in the computer and also to check for its weaknesses. Port scanning is done by sending messages to all the ports of the computer, and based on the response from each of the ports we can check whether the computer is prone to attacks. This technique is used by the network administrators to check for vulnerabilities in the network, like if a port is unused and it is open, then it should be closed immediately, because open ports will listen to the incoming messages which could me malicious. This could be a useful technique for the network administrators to secure their network. Also it would be good to port scan our own computers periodical ly, so that we will be able to find out what are the unwanted process and some of the malwares running in our own computer systems. Having said this, we should also be aware of the fact that, the port scanning methods will be known to the hackers too, who will try to break into the network/computer to steal the vital information. Using this technique the hackers will try to get a list of unused open/available ports. The hackers will then try to probe these ports for additional information and weakness. Using these results the hacker will try to exploit and will gain access to the computer. The operating system in the target computer will have the knowledge of logging the request that is used for port scanning activities. So the hacker will use an effective method to perform port scanning else the hacker can be easily identified. Port Scanning Methods The port scanning technique can be classified into three main types, they are Open scanning This type of scan opens a full TCP connection with the targeted host. Half-open scanning In this type of scan the client terminates the connection on receiving a response from the targeted host. Stealth scanning This type of scan prevents the connection request to the targeted host to be logged. All the above mentioned scanning types are used by a hacker to get the list of open or closed ports in the server. Among the three the open scanning technique gives accurate information about the state of the port, but it is easily detectable. Stealth scan technique can fool some of the basic Intrusion detection systems and some of the basic firewall rule sets. Before explaining in detail about each of the port scanning technique lets look into the steps involved in establishing a full TCP connection and the usage of each of the flags in the TCP message [Marco, Eddy, Germinal, Gabriela, 1999]. This is because most of the port scanning methods are based on the TCP connection and the functionalities of each of the flags bits in the TCP message. Following are the list of flags used in the TCP message and its functionalities. SYN This flag is used to initiate a TCP connection. FIN This flag specifies that the sender has finished sending the entire data. RST This flag is set to reset the connection. ACK This flag is set to acknowledge for the request. URG This flag is set to indicate that the urgent pointer is valid. PSH This flag is set to indicate that all the data should be pushed to receiver immediately without waiting for the additional information. The TCP connection establishment consists of three steps hence it called as three-way handshake. First the client will send a TCP message with SYN flag set with an initial sequence number to the targeted host. The second step is that, if the respective port in the target host is open then the target host will acknowledge the clients SYN by incrementing the clients initial sequence number by 1 and sends back to the client along with its own initial sequence number with the SYN message. Third step, the client on receiving the target hosts TCP message with SYN flag set it will send an ACK message and the target hosts initial sequence number incremented by 1 to the target host. This is how the TCP connection will be established between two hosts. Shown below is the pictorial representation of three-way handshake TCP connection. SYN, Clients ISN (initial seq. num) Client Target host SYN, Target hosts ISN (initial seq. num) Clients ISN + 1Client Target host ACK, Target hosts ISN + 1 Client Target host Having the basic knowledge of TCP connection and the functionalities of each of the flags in TCP message we will discuss in detail in each of the port scanning techniques. Open Scanning Technique: The open scanning technique will try to establish a full TCP connection with the target host. Based on the response from the target the client will decide whether the port in the target host is open or closed. This technique is slower when compared to other two techniques, since it involves in establishing a three way connection with the target. Also this technique is easily detectable and can be filtered easily. Described below is one of the open scanning methods. TCP connect scan method: The TCP connect scan method uses the connect() method in the operating system to establish a three-way connection between the target host [Dethy, 2001]. Client will send Æ’Â   SYN Server will respond with Æ’Â   SYN, ACK Client will respond with Æ’Â   ACK In the above three-way handshake the server responds with the SYN message which means that the listening port in the targeted host is in the open state. Client will send Æ’Â   SYN Server will respond with Æ’Â   RST, ACK Client will respond with Æ’Â   RST In this case, the server responds with the RST message to the request. This shows that the listening port in the targeted host in the closed state. By this way a list of open or closed ports in the targeted host can be obtained. The advantages of this scanning method are that it is fast, accurate and does not require extra user privileges. The disadvantages are this method is easily detectable and could be logged. Half Open Scanning Technique: In the half open scanning technique the client will terminate the connection even before the three-way handshake is completed. Two types of scanning methods come under the half open scanning technique. They are 1) SYN scanning and 2) IP ID header or dumb scanning. SYN scan method: This method is similar to the full connection/TCP connect scan method. The difference is that when the client receives a SYN message from the target host it will close the connection by sending a RST message to the target machine. This is because the SYN message from the target host is enough to know that its listening port is in open state. If a RST message is received from the target host then it means that the listening port in the target host is in closed state. Thus a three-way handshake is restricted in this type of scan method. The pictorial representation of which is shown below [Dethy, 2001]. Pictorial representation if the port is in open state, Client will send Æ’Â   SYN Target will respond with Æ’Â   SYN, ACK Client will respond with Æ’Â   RST Pictorial representation if the port is in closed state, Client will send Æ’Â   SYN Target will respond with Æ’Â   RST, ACK The advantages of this method are it is fast, accurate and it is less frequently logged when compared to open scan method. The main disadvantage is that for this type of scanning the sender or client needs to customise the IP packet which requires special user privileges, and this is the case for almost all of the operating systems. IP ID header or dumb scanning method: The basis of this scan method is similar to the SYN scan method but the difference is that IP ID header or dumb scanning method uses a third host to scan the target host, and based on the id value in the IP header field this scan method will decide whether the listening port in the targeted host is in open or closed state. The third host should be identified in such a way that it should send very little amount of traffic or preferably no traffic, hence this type of host is said to be silent or dumb host. It requires lots of effort to identify this type of host. In this scenario, there will three different host. One is the attacker host (A), second is the silent host (S) and third is the target host (T). First A will send consecutive ping packets to S, this is to analyse the id value in the IP header field. Each time the silent host will increment the id value by 1 in its response. An example of which is shown below, 60 bytes from AAA.BBB.CCC.DDD: seq=1 ttl=64 id=+1 win=0 time=96 ms 60 bytes from AAA.BBB.CCC.DDD: seq=2 ttl=64 id=+1 win=0 time=88 ms 60 bytes from AAA.BBB.CCC.DDD: seq=2 ttl=64 id=+1 win=0 time=88 ms Now using the source address of host S, host A will send a spoofed SYN message to the host T. The host T will respond to host S with either SYN message or the RST message based on the listening ports state. Now the host A will examine the ping responses from the host S to check the id value in the IP header. If the id value is more than 1 then it shows that the respective port in the host T is open, because only when the host S will respond back to host T and increments the id value. That is the host T would have responded to the host S with the SYN message for the spoofed SYN message from the host A. If the value of id is 1 then it indicates that the respective listening port in the host T is in closed state. Stealth scanning technique: The stealth scanning technique is a technique used to avoid the logging of port scan performing in a host and to break into the basic filters and firewalls implemented. This technique slows the scan due to which the ports are scanned over a long time period. Thus it restricts the target host to trigger an alert. In this section we will discuss about four types of stealth scanning techniques. FIN scan method: As the name implies this method uses the FIN flag in the TCP message to identify the list of open or close ports in the target host. That is the attacker will send a TCP message with FIN flag set to target host. Based on the response from the target the attacker will determine whether the listening port in the target is open or closed. If the listening port in the target is closed then it will reply back with the RST message. The negotiation is shown below, Attacker will send Æ’Â   FIN Target will respond with Æ’Â   RST If the listening port is open then the target will not send any response back. The negotiation is shown below, Attacker will send Æ’Â   FIN Target response Æ’Â   none The advantages of this method are it can bypass many intrusion detection systems and these scans are not logged. The disadvantage is that at times it can produce false results. NULL scanning method: The null scanning method will send a TCP message to the target without setting any of the six flags in the TCP message. Based on the response from the target the attacker will generate a list of open ports. If the response from the target is RST then the listening port in the target host is said to be in closed state, else if a there is no response from the target then the port is open. The advantages of this method are it can bypass many intrusion detection systems and these scans are not logged. The disadvantage is that at times it can produce false results and it can be used only in UNIX systems. XMAS scanning method: The implementation of XMAS method is exactly opposite to the NULL scanning method. That is, the Xmas scanning method will send a TCP message with all the six flags set. If the response from the target is RST then the listening port in the target host is said to be in closed state, else if a there is no response from the target then the port is open. The advantages and disadvantages of this method are same as that of the NULL scanning method. TCP fragmenting method: The TCP fragmenting itself is not a port scanning method; instead it is used to improve the other stealth port scanning methods like FIN, NULL, and XMAS [Marco, Eddy, Germinal, Gabriela, 1999]. This method splits the TCP header into smaller fragments such that it is not easily detected by the firewalls and other intrusion detection systems implemented. All the above discussed port scanning techniques are specific to the TCP ports. There are other port scanning techniques available for scanning non TCP ports, some of which are explained below. UDP scanning technique: The UDP scanning technique is used to get a list of available/open DUP ports in a target host. The method sends a UDP message to the target, and based on the response from the target the attacker will determine whether the port is open or closed. If the response from the target host is a UDP message then the port is open. If the response from the target is an ICMP port unreachable [Dethy, 2001] message then the port is closed. If the response is some other ICMP unreachable message then the port is filtered. If there is no response from the target host then the listening port is either open or filtered. The advantages are, it is used to scan non TCP ports and it is not restricted by TCP Intrusion detection system. Its disadvantages are it is easily detectable and requires root access. Ident scanning technique: The scanning methods that we have discussed so far is used to get a list of open/available ports, but the Ident scanning technique is used to get the information about the owner of the process running in those available/open ports. This method uses the insecure issue in the Identification protocol to uncover the owner details of the process running in the listening ports. This technique can be employed only when the target host is running the identd service in port 113. FTP bounce scanning technique: This technique uses an option in the FTP protocol to perform port scanning. That is, this method uses proxy ftp servers to communicate with the target host and to perform port scanning in each of its ports. For this the proxy functionality in the ftp server should be enabled. In this method, first the attacker establishes ftp connection with the proxy FTP server. Then using the port and list commands it tries to scan each of the ports in the target host. If the listening port is open then the server will send 150 and 226 response codes to the attacker, else if the port is closed the server will respond with the 425 reply code to the attacker. Decoy scanning technique: The decoy scanning technique sends several packets to the same port in the target host. All of these IP packets contain spoofed IP address except one of the packet. That is, one in a several packets holds the actual attackers IP address. Thus this method makes sure that at least one response from the target host is sent to the attacker. The advantages of this method are that it is extremely hard for the administrator to identify the exact scanner/attacker and the result obtained from this method is accurate. The disadvantage of this technique is that, since it sends several packets to the same port the flow of traffic will be high. Conclusion The different types of port scanning techniques are explained in detail along with their advantages and disadvantages. We have seen that most of the port scanning techniques are based on the TCP protocol, but other port scanning techniques are available to scan the non TCP ports. At present numerous software tools are available to perform an effective port scanning in the local host or the remote host to check for the existing vulnerabilities and ways to fix them. Some of the popular tools are SATAN and N-Map. Port scanning techniques are not only used by the attackers to break into the computer/network, it can also be used to check our own computers for vulnerabilities and to take preventive actions for those vulnerabilities.

Against Abortion Essay -- Abortion Against Pro-Life Essays Argumentati

Against Abortion   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Why is it that by 21 days into the fetal development the baby's heart begins to beat, but yet in most people's eyes the baby is still not 'technically' alive' That heart beat means nothing, it doesn't represent a human person whom God has created in his own image and has had a plan for that baby ever since the beginning of time. To most people that statement isn?t allowing women and their families freedom of choice. And yet that baby isn't given any say in its freedom to live. This paper will give many supporting statistics towards the right to life, I am pro-life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  *Forty-nine percent of pregnancies among American women are unintended, half of these are terminated by an abortion. Each year, two out of every one hundred women aged fifteen- forty-four have an abortion, forty-eight percent of them have had at least one previous abortion and sixty-one percent have had a previous birth. This means that these women understand the joy of a baby being born, and still choose to take away their privilege to live. They?ve carried this children before and know the happiness of seeing their own healthy child in their arms for the first time. Why then, when they know they are creating new life inside of them, choose to deprive their child the right to live and experience everything life has to offer. They willingly decide to kill that child, certainly for their own benefit.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Each year, an estimated forty-six million abortions occur worldwide. Of these, twenty million procedures are obtained illegally.* Why are there stories on the news everyday of people being murdered and mistreated and the culprit being sent to jail of punished in some way for the crime they?ve committed. Yet I don?t think I?ve ever heard on the news of a women being sent to jail for the murder of her unborn baby. It?s still illegal, it?s the murder of a child, they are given no freedom, and the mother goes unpunished. *On average, women give at least three reasons for choosing abortion; 3/4 say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or other responsibilities; about 2/3 say they can?t afford a child; and 1/2 say they don?t want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner. A baby would interfere with their ?responsibilities?, one of the biggest responsibilities as a sexually active person is to use c... ...like to make a difference too, but the Supreme Court won?t allow him to. Partial-birth abortion is banned in certain states in the United States, its a horrible image to put in someone's head. However, some of the pictures I've seen really make people wonder how someone could destroy human life like that. Abortion all together should be banned, but some people are more pro-choice than pro-life. Senator John Kerry is pro-choice, if he is elected president there is virtually no hope in the end of abortion, and Roe v. Wade. President Bush is at least attempting to change the law, but is constantly being stuck down. John Kerry will do nothing in our country to stop the murder of unborn children. His concern is in Iraq, where a few people are dying each day, while every third baby conceived in America is killed by an abortion. Kerry wants to raise taxes for the wealthy, I wonder how they would feel about this tax raise knowing that some of it could be contributing to the murder of an unborn child. If Kerry wins the election basically all hope of ending abortion is crushed for another four years. Our worry won?t be on the Supreme Court, it will be on our pro-choice President.

Organic Foods: They Are Only Natural! Essay -- Health Benefits of Orga

When going to the grocery store or supermarket, people have a one track mind. Their one and only concern is food, food, and more food. Most shoppers come prepared with a list, so they can get in, get the supplies they need, and go happily on their way. Some shoppers tend to pick out brand name or well advertised products. Others prefer the brands they grew up with as kids. However, many choose the money saving route and buy only the items that are on sale or the cheap knock-offs of the original. With all these different kinds of shopping habits, do any of these customers stop and think about what items might be the best for their families and the world? Do the consumers know where their products come from, and how they were produced? There is one item on the shelves that states it directly on the label. This item is organic food. Organic foods may be found in multiple stores and supermarkets now, and shoppers are becoming more and more aware of them. Organic foods are produced for t he benefit of people and the environment in terms of how they are grown, raised, and processed; additionally, their cost, availability, and health benefits play dominant roles in human and environment welfare as well. In fact, organic foods are beneficial to society because of the way they are grown and maintained. â€Å"Organic farming is based on the idea of producing healthy, natural organic food, keeping the soil healthy, encouraging and enhancing biodiversity, and using sustainable farming methods,† stated Healthy Eating Made Easy (â€Å"What Are 1†). Organic farms do not use synthetic, artificial fertilizers or pesticides on crops; only biological pesticides, pesticides from natural resources, are used. Natural fertilizers include manure and compost to ... ... not only a healthy choice for a single person, but also a choice for future generations and the world. Works Cited Byrum, Allison. â€Å"Report Confirms More Health Benefits of Organic Food.† American Chemical Society 3 Mar. 2003. 1-2. Web. 4 Mar. 2010. Healthy Eating Made Easy. â€Å"What Are Organic Foods?† Healthy Eating Made Easy 1-3. Web. 4 Mar. 2010. Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. â€Å"Why Organic Food Is Better Food.† Planet Maine 1-3. Web. 4 Mar. 2010. Mayo Clinic Staff. â€Å"Organic foods: Are they safer? More nutritious?† Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research 20 Dec. 2008. 1-5. Web. 7 Mar. 2010. Organic Facts. â€Å"Health Benefits of Organic Food.† Organic Facts 1-2. Web. 4 Mar. 2010. Organic Fruits and Vegetables. Philippines Manila News. 10 Sep. 2008. Web. 10 Mar. 2010. USDA Label. The B.S. Report. 30 Jul. 2009. Web. 10 Mar. 2010.

A Habit of Being Great: Learning From Flannery O?Connor :: essays research papers fc

â€Å"There she stands, to me, a phoenix risen from her own words: calm, slow, funny, courteous, both modest and very sure of herself, intense, sharply penetrating, devout but never pietistic, downright, occasionally fierce, and honest in a way that restore to honor to the word†, this is how Sally Fitzgerald described her dear friend Mary Flannery O’Connor. (xii) Not to long ago, I read my first Mary Flannery O’Connor story and I came to view Mary Flannery O’Connor as an artist whose key subject was grace, but what are these stories, these works of art truly about, what is Flannery O’ Connor trying to tell the readers. In order to interpret a story though the eyes of an author like Flannery O’Connor you must first look through the eyes of the author. You must see what he/she sees. It would be arrogant to believe that a person can truly understand another by studying them, but I have learned a great deal in trying to do so. Mary Flannery Oâ⠂¬â„¢Connor wrote about grace and salvation, and has taught me about finding truth; I attribute the lessons she has taught me to, the way she viewed herself, the way others viewed her, her writings, and many other effects. Mary Flannery O’Connor was confident, modest, and honest. She often criticized herself. She once referred to herself as â€Å"prematurely arrogant† in a letter to her friend, Paul Engle. (Fitzgerald 14) â€Å"Flannery described herself as a ‘pigeon-toed only child with a receding chin and a you-leave-me-alone-or-I'll-bite-you complex.’†(Wikipedia) Even with all of her self-critizism, she was self-confident. She was quite arrogant and lead her to write what I believe is her greatest work, â€Å"The Artifical Nigger†. â€Å"What she often described as proably the best thing she would ever write , ‘The Artifical Nigger’ –a story that she contains more than she herself ever understood.†(Fitzgerald xviii) She was witty and quick to tell you exactly what she thought. In O’Connor’s letters she never lied not even to spare the feelings of those she was in correspondence with. She lived a seemly boring life, but was always lively and sharp until the day she died. Many people adored her and she adored them as well,but the person who knew O’Connor best would have to be Sally Fitzgerald. It is though her eyes that I see who the true Mary Flannery O’Connor was. It is clear that even though O’Connor lived a sheltered life she still was a people.

Data Collection Plan Essay

Abstract Postoperative Pulmonary complications (PPC) such as atelectasis, impaired gas exchange, pneumonia and acute respiratory failure (ARF) are not uncommon in patients undergoing major surgery and are a leading cause of increased patient morbidity, mortality and increased length of hospital stay (Yoder, Sharma, Hollingsworth, Talavera, & Rice, 2013). Healthcare professionals are now expected to give patients verifiably effective treatments by implementing current evidence based practice (EBP). In order to do so, interventions to prevent PPCs must be investigated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of adding incentive spirometry (IS) to traditional postoperative chest physiotherapy (CPT) and respiratory care. Eighty patients between 30 and 50 year old who had undergone surgery participated in the study. Patients were divided into two groups: the intervention group where IS was used in addition to the traditional CPT, and the control group which included only traditiona l CPT. The results obtained in the investigation indicated that there were significant differences between both groups at the end of the study in terms of PPCs and hospital length of stay (LOS). Conclusion: Addition of IS to postoperative care helped in controlling PPCs. Keywords: postoperative pulmonary complication, incentive spirometer, chest physiotherapy, length of Stay Research Question In postsurgical patients, how does using incentive spirometer, compared to not using incentive spirometer, affect incidence of PPCs and hospital LOS? Hypothesis Because the risk for developing PPCs is not well studied specific numbers of occurrences are difficult to predict. However, it was hypothesized that patients who incorporated IS as part of their postoperative care would have a clinically significant decrease in the occurrence of PPCs and hospital LOS compared to those who did not incorporate IS into their postoperative care. Data Collection A quasi-experimental control trial was conducted from February 1, 2014 to May 31, 2014. The lead researcher, Adrienne Hinson, collected the data personally. During the four month study, eighty patients ranging in age from 30 to 50 years old who were undergoing surgery where the abdomen or chest was opened were selected randomly from the General Surgery Department at McLeod Regional Medical Center in Florence, SC. On sampling days, patients meeting the criteria were numbered chronologically based on their surgery time. For eighty consecutive business days, one of the patients was chosen randomly using a random numbers table created on Microsoft Excel. Patients who had recently been diagnosed with or treated for acute pulmonary complications, those who could not be instructed or supervised to assure appropriate use of the IS, and patients whose cooperation or comprehension was lacking were excluded from the study. All appropriate procedures were used to safeguard the rights of study participants. The study was externally reviewed by the hospital’s institutional review board before data collection began. Patients received verbal and written explanations of the study purpose and data collection procedures and after indicating willingness to participate in the study, voluntary informed consent was obtained (See Appendix A). Information included within the informed consent included participant status; participants were told which postoperative activities were routine, and which activities were being evaluated. Participants were informed that the data collected about them would be used for research purposes. The overall goals of the research, to evaluate to addition of IS to postoperative care, was described to patients. Participants were informed about which types of data would be collected, what procedures they would undergo, and how they were selected. The time frame of the commitment was defined as beginning on post-op day one and lasting until their follow up  visit after discharge. Information regarding funding was available to participants. All participants were educated on potential risks and benefits of participation. Finally, patients were assured that their privacy would be protected at all times and that they would be allowed to withdraw from the study at any point during their hospital stay (Polit & Beck, 2012). The patients were deliberately placed into one of two experimental groups. Deliberate placement reduces confounding by ensuring the two groups were comparable when age, sex, smoking history, type of surgery and post-operative analgesia were compared. The control group consisted of 40 patients who underwent routine chest physiotherapy (CPT) postoperatively, as recommended by the Clinical Practice Guidelines set forth by The Agency for Healthcare Research Quality (2011). A physiotherapist supervised and assisted the treatment twice a day in the first two postoperative days and once a day from the third to the tenth days. During any session, the patients performed three to five deep breaths interspersed with periods of quiet breathing followed by two or three coughs or huffs with support from a pillow at least 10 times over a 15 minutes period. Additional techniques such as positioning and chest wall percussion were applied if breathing and coughing exercises alone were not effective in clearing excessive or retained pulmonary secretions. Patients were instructed to perform coughing and deep breathing exercises independently every hour while awake. The treatment group consisted of the remaining 40 patients who also followed the same Clinical Practice Guidelines but also received breathing exercise training with IS (Voldyne Volumetric manufactured by Sherwood Medical Company U.S.A.) In addition to the routine chest physiotherapy up to the tenth postoperative day. Application of breathing training with incentive spirometry was applied for five minutes, five times a day (El-Marakby et al., 2013). Monitoring began immediately postoperatively and continued until discharge. Hospital LOS was documented for each patient, along with whether or not the patient developed a PPC within 10 days of surgery. The researcher rounded on each hospitalized patient daily to ensure compliance and to update discharges and PPC diagnoses. In order to determine LOS, participant observation was used as a tool to collect data. LOS was calculated by subtracting day of admission from day of discharge. Date of admission was the date of surgery for all participants. Date of discharge was determined  by the surgical teams, who were blinded to the study and therefore measures are not likely to be influenced by reactivity (Polit & Beck, 2012). PPCs were defined as any pulmonary abnormality that produced identifiable disease or dysfunction, was clinically significant, and adversely affected the postoperative clinical course (Hayden, Mayer, & Stoller, 1995). Patients were monitored daily for 10 days for the diagnosis of a PPC. Given this definition, PPCs documented included atelectasis, pneumonia, acute respiratory failure, and exacerbation of COPD. Along with physical assessment and past history, biophysiological measures were used as data collection tools to aid in the diagnosis of PPCs (See Appendix C). Equipment and lab analysis were readily available and tests for biophysiological measures were completed by the appropriate staff at McLeod Regional Medical Center. Ordering tests and the interpretation of results was fulfilled solely by the healthcare providers as deemed necessary. The researchers were not responsible for diagnosing PPCs, but rather the observation and recording of data. Biophysiological measures for diagnosing acute respiratory failure include a low level of oxygen; a pulse oximetry falling below 80% saturation on room air or when arterial blood gas shows PaO2.

Educational Trip to UP Diliman and PHILVOCS

The first part of the trip was on UP Dilemma Engineering Laboratory, the first equipment introduce to us was the hydraulic bench, it is used to investigate channel flow, hydraulic Jump, determining the coefficient of discharge flow of the system. The second equipment was air pipe assembly and oil pipe assembly, for the air pipe it is used to determine friction losses in pipe and discharge, oil pipe it is used to determine if the flow is laminar or turbulent, velocity distribution in pipes.The other equipment were the closed circuit wind tunnel, it determines the pressure distribution and velocity distribution around various bodies, Portable Wind tunnel, it determines the lift and drag around various bodies. The other equipments are the different types of Universal Testing Machines, which determines the strength of the material being tested. For the testing of steel reinforcement they are determining the yield point and breakage point of the steel, while on the concrete cylinder testi ng they are only to determine the ultimate strength of concrete because concrete doesn't have yield point.The last equipment they show us was the rainfall simulator which determines the discharge flow of water on the drainage system. The second part of the trip was on PHILIPPICS, here they discuss us the recently earthquake that happened on Boll which is 7. 2 magnitude. The presentation they show us tells us how devastating the earthquake was, it has destroy a lot of establishments and churches that are centuries old, the place was a total mess.In here they explained to us how disastrous an earthquake can be. For us being Civil Engineering students they have a presentation which shows the full scale shaking test of CHUB houses, which shows the difference of a substandard and standard built houses. They also thought us here on how to be prepared when earthquakes occurred and also remind us to check our houses if they are safe when time earthquake occurs.Because of the this educationa l trip it awakens me that the reality of responsibility of being a Civil Engineer we should not only be obliged to Just do our work, we also need to ensure the safety of the people around us. It is strongly recommended for us to have this kind of educational trip because it is true that we can't learn everything with Just the four corners of the classroom, sometimes we need to go beyond the four corners of a classroom.