An Ethical Analysis of the Role of Direct-to-Consumer Prescription Drug Advertising in the Health Care Process

Overview: A prominent debate that is currently sweeping the field of health care is the practice of direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug advertising by pharmaceutical companies. Two primary perspectives on the issue, those in favor of the advertising and those who oppose the advertising, continually clash over the implications that DTC advertising has on the health care process. Taking into consideration the various arguments presented from each of the competing viewpoints, it is evident that direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising should hold a place in society. DTC pharmaceutical advertising (DTCPA) can be a crucial factor in benefiting the health care process, and can positively influence and alter how health care is perceived. Accordingly, this paper will examine (1) background information and the history of DTC prescription drug advertising, (2) common arguments presented for and against DTC advertising, and how DTCPA is an ethical dilemma, and lastly (3) how an ethical analysis of the practice can demonstrate why DTC pharmaceutical advertising is an important part of the health care process. Author\u27s Reflection: My name is Brian Verbickas and I am currently a sophomore here at St. John Fisher College. I am a chemistry major on a pre-pharmacy track, and have just recently been accepted into the Wegmans School of Pharmacy class of 2020. I will be starting Pharmacy school in fall of 2016. Overall, I found the writing process to be rather rewarding. Personally, the most rewarding aspect of the writing process was finally being able to see a semester’s worth of work come together to develop my final paper. Of course, however, there were several challenges I encountered along the way. For me, a challenging aspect of the writing process was finding a way to accept arguments that opposed my own opinions, so that I could incorporate them into my paper to strengthen my thesis. Until this paper, I had never written a piece that so heavily considered the opposing arguments. Even more challenging than simply including the naysayer arguments was defending my thesis against each specific piece of opposition. By addressing and providing a potential solution to some of the common arguments against my opinions, I was able support my thesis to an even greater extent. It is safe to say that I am now much more confident in my writing abilities after completing the 199 course. I now have a better understanding of the writing process as a whole, and have learned what it takes to create a solid research paper. The majority of controversial topics are not simply black and white, rather they are multi-dimensional, meaning there are more than two ways to view it. By addressing an ethical issue in my paper, I have also learned to appreciate every side to a disagreement in order to develop my own opinions regarding the topic. The 199 experience will surely have a lasting impact on my writing for years to come

Rebranding Hillel at Syracuse University

My rebranding of Hillel at Syracuse University was a multi-step process. First, I had to understand what rebranding truly meant – what made a successful rebranding, what to avoid during a rebranding, etc. I gained this critical knowledge by reflecting on my education as an advertising major and consulting credible online sources on the topic. The next step was to gain a deeper understanding of my client, Hillel at Syracuse University. I again drew insights from my own experience as a student highly involved in the organization, and I also learned critical information from resources provided to me by Brian Small, Executive Director of Hillel at Syracuse University. I learned that Hillel at Syracuse University was doing pretty well overall, but there was much improvement to be made regarding the organization’s communication channels. These communication channels are paramount to the organization’s success because they are the channels that Hillel at Syracuse University’s audience accesses for information about the organization. The website and social media are two of the most important sources of information for the brand’s audience, and both needed a lot of work. The website had three key issues: outdated content, visually displeasing graphics, and a confusing navigation bar. To fix the first problem, I combed through the website page-by-page and updated any old content, fixed any grammatical errors, and relinked any broken hyperlinks. As for the visually displeasing graphics, I redesigned them to be more modern looking and inviting. Finally, I reorganized the entire website structure to be more user-friendly and intuitive in navigation. Now, when people visit the Hillel at Syracuse University website, they are seeing improved graphics, up to date content, and a more easily navigable interface. Hillel at Syracuse University had fairly active social media pages before I began my capstone project, but they were not garnering much engagement (i.e. likes, comments, shares, etc.) with their posts. They lacked a clear brand voice and consistent messaging themes. Their strong brand purpose, to make Judaism relevant to students and enable them to have Jewish experiences, was not shining through their posts. I revamped the Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts and implemented three key campaigns: #JewishHoliday, #MitzvahMonday, and #MakeJudaismRelevant. These posts brought Judaism into more relevant terms for the Hillel at Syracuse University audience and encouraged conversation between the brand and the audience. Finally, no redesign is complete without a new logo. I designed twelve completely new logos for the organization. They are currently under review by Hille at Syracuse University’s Board of Governors and, upon improval, could be implemented as early as Fall 2015. This work was both time and energy-intensive, but it was a pleasure to work with an organization as wonderful as Hillel at Syracuse Universit

Skeptical Fideism in Cicero’s De Natura Deorum

The work of Richard H. Popkin both introduced the concept of skeptical fideism and served to impressively document its importance in the philosophies of a diverse range of thinkers, including Montaigne, Pascal, Huet, and Bayle. Popkin’s landmark History of Scepticism, however, begins its coverage with the Renaissance. In this paper I explore the roots of skeptical fideism in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, with special attention to Cicero’s De Natura Deorum, the oldest surviving text to clearly develop a skeptical fideist perspective

Time and being at Trenerry Reserve

Time and Being at Trenerry Reserve, October 2014, Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney. The work exhibited is a small installation consisting of a large wall image and an elliptical table containing contemporary jewellery objects designed to invite the viewer to look closely at works that signify sensory experience and to convey knowledge of plants and place. The pieces include seven brooches, a ring and a neckpiece. A number of these are carved from a material I first developed to represent the texture of a plant. These are made from hundreds of layers of coloured tissue paper, the by-product of which is dyed archival glue – a new material. The neckpiece is made from silver and copper wirework. The Research Paper is about ways in which we come to know place. To set structure for the research I adopted the observations of poetry anthologist Brian Elliot, in particular as to how poets come to terms with the Australian landscape. In turn, my investigations at Trenerry Reserve involved the exploration of a coastal wetland, where I recorded the sensory experience of being there and how that landscape has changed over time. An essential part of my research was an investigation of the ecology of the wetland, how people have interacted with it, and in what way they have valued that place and the surrounding environment. By looking largely and closely, I have responded to Trenerry Reserve not only by creating jewellery objects but also by writing about what I have learned in the context of the accounts of others who have come to know places in the landscape more deeply. The works of three established contemporary jewellery artists who have place-related art-practices are also discussed in terms of jewellery communicating moments noticed, the things they are passionate about. Underlying this exploration is the concept of ‘collection’, a theme that resonates with each of the artists, and one that has played a role in my art practice

Archway Commencement Issue, May 1999

1999 Archway Commencement Issu

Usage-based and emergentist approaches to language acquisition

It was long considered to be impossible to learn grammar based on linguistic experience alone. In the past decade, however, advances in usage-based linguistic theory, computational linguistics, and developmental psychology changed the view on this matter. So-called usage-based and emergentist approaches to language acquisition state that language can be learned from language use itself, by means of social skills like joint attention, and by means of powerful generalization mechanisms. This paper first summarizes the assumptions regarding the nature of linguistic representations and processing. Usage-based theories are nonmodular and nonreductionist, i.e., they emphasize the form-function relationships, and deal with all of language, not just selected levels of representations. Furthermore, storage and processing is considered to be analytic as well as holistic, such that there is a continuum between children's unanalyzed chunks and abstract units found in adult language. In the second part, the empirical evidence is reviewed. Children's linguistic competence is shown to be limited initially, and it is demonstrated how children can generalize knowledge based on direct and indirect positive evidence. It is argued that with these general learning mechanisms, the usage-based paradigm can be extended to multilingual language situations and to language acquisition under special circumstances

Transportation, Terrorism and Crime: Deterrence, Disruption and Resilience

Abstract: Terrorists likely have adopted vehicle ramming as a tactic because it can be carried out by an individual (or “lone wolf terrorist”), and because the skills required are minimal (e.g. the ability to drive a car and determine locations for creating maximum carnage). Studies of terrorist activities against transportation assets have been conducted to help law enforcement agencies prepare their communities, create mitigation measures, conduct effective surveillance and respond quickly to attacks. This study reviews current research on terrorist tactics against transportation assets, with an emphasis on vehicle ramming attacks. It evaluates some of the current attack strategies, and the possible mitigation or response tactics that may be effective in deterring attacks or saving lives in the event of an attack. It includes case studies that can be used as educational tools for understanding terrorist methodologies, as well as ordinary emergencies that might become a terrorist’s blueprint

Music teacher practice and identity in professional development partnerships

Since 1995, the author has been the university music educator responsible to a professional development partnership. Over an 8-year span, she has collected narratives of experience from approximately 100 pre-service music teachers, following, to some extent, the research model of Connelly and Clandinin. In developing their notion of "personal practical knowledge," Connelly and Clandinin discovered that teaching practice questions and teacher identity questions were closely linked. They argue that identity is not a fixed entity, but is "storied." In this paper, the author re-presents the identity stories of pre-service music teachers as they were shaped by experience inside professional development partnerships. Her aim is to use the stories to illuminate and inform people's present understanding of the social construction of music teacher identity, and to suggest how music teacher identities may be shaped differently inside professional development partnerships than they are shaped in traditional music teacher preparation. Obviously, not all of the narratives she has collected can be re-presented here. Methodologically, she has selected stores that exemplify recurring phenomena, but she has refrained from forming composite characters, settings, or plot lines. In selecting and interpreting the stories, she has heeded Britzman's caution that the narrative of lived experience and the lived experience itself "can never be synonymous.

Review of Canadians on the Somme, 1916: The Neglected Campaign by William F. Stewart

Review of Canadians on the Somme, 1916: The Neglected Campaign by William F. Stewart

The Presence and Possibility of Moral Sensibility in Beginning Pre-Service Teachers

This paper presents research on the moral sensibility of six pre-service teachers in an undergraduate teacher education program. Using their reflective writing across their first two semesters of coursework as well as focus group interviews in their third semester as sources of data, the paper identifies and describes three distinctive types of moral sensibility and examines ways in which moral sensibility interacts with experiences in teacher education. Suggestions for explicitly incorporating the moral in pre-service teacher education are presented