Robert E. Lees Life :: biographies bio biography

A LONG TIME AGO ON THE DAY OF JANUARY 19,1807 TO BE EXACT IN STARATFORD,VIRGINIA THEIR WAS A MIRACLE THAT WAS BORN.THE MIRACLE BABY THAT WAS BORN WAS NAMED ROBERT E. LEE. THE MIRACLE BABY WAS GIVEN BIRTH BY HIS MOTHER ANN HILL CARTER AND HIS FATHER NAMED HERNY LEE AND MOST PEOPLE KNOW HIM AS â€Å"LIGHT-HORSE HARRY†. HIS MOTHER ANN HAD BEEN RAISED FROM A FAMILY THAT HAD BEEN REPECTFUL AND THAT THEY HAD WORKED FOR THE VIRGINIA’S GOVERNMENT SOCIETY THAT HELD PROMINENT POTIONS. STILL LEE’S FAMILY HAD EXTENED IN THE UPPER CLASSES. DURING SOME OF THE SIGINIFICANT EVENTS THAT HAPPENED WAS THE LOTS OF SLAVERY THAT HAD WENT ON THROUGH HIS CHILDHOOD. IN 1818 ROBERT’S FATHER HERNY HAD PAST AWAY. WHEN THE FIRST GROWING ISSUE OVER SLAVERY IN THE UNTIED STATES HAD SOON INVOLVED ROBERT. ROBERT E. LEE WAS A GREAT GENERAL WHO COMMANDED THE CONFEDERTE ARMY IN THE AMERICAN CIVILWAR. IN 1831 ROBERT HAD MARRIED A WOMEN BY THE NAME OF MARY CUSTIS, WHO WAS THE DAUGHTER OF WASHINGTON PARKE CUSTIS. WHILE MARY AND ROBERT WHERE TOGETHER THEY HAD SEVEN CHILDERN AND THEIR NAMES WERE G.WCUSTIS,MARY,W.H.FITZHUGH,ANNIE,AGNES,ROBE-RT AND MILDERD. HE HAD MASTERFULLY FOUGHT MR.CLELLANTO A STAND STILL AT ANTIETAM AND TWO DAYS LATER HE HAD RECROSSED THE POTOMAC. FOLLOWING A STINTIN THE BALTIMORE HABOR HE BECAME SUPERINTENDENT OF THE MILTARY ACADAMY IN 1852. IN THE CHARGE OF VIRGINIA’S FLEDGLING MILTARY MIGHT, HE WAS MAINLY INVOLVED IN ORGANIZATIONAL MATTERS. IN THE FIRST SUMMER OF THE WAR HE WAS GIVEN HIS FIRST FIELD COMMAND IN WESTERN VIRGINIA. GENERAL LEE WAS A SUCCESS OF THE ENTIRE ITALIN CAMPAINGN TURNED UPON THE SUCCESSFUL PASSAGE OF THE BRIDGE OF LODI.THEY STRAGGERD UNDER THE WITHERING FIRE AND RETREATED BUT THE FAILURE WAS RUIN AND THE PAST MUST BE WON. BEFORE THE MEXICAN WAR ROBERT HAD SERVED ON ENGINEERING SOME PROJECTS IN GEORGIA, VIRGINIA, AND NEW YORK. ROBERT HAD GRADULLY BECAME â€Å"UNCLE ROBERT† AND â€Å"MARSE ROBERT†. ON APRIL 18 , 1861 RO BERT WAS OFFERED FIELD COMMAND OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY.

Health Care Essay

Under indemnity insurance, the insurers guarantee payment to any licensed health care provider for all covered services. In recent years, fee-for-service indemnity plans also have grown more similar to man- aged care plans. Traditionally, fee-for-service indemnity plans gave individuals an unrestricted choice of licensed health care professionals. Care providers were free to determine which services were appropriate based on their professional judgment and were reimbursed for all the care they delivered. Today, nearly all fee-for-service plans have adopted some form of the utilization- management strategies formerly associated with managed care, such as preauthorization for hospitalization or referral to specialists. In my opinion the indemnity design will not be around in the next thirty years it is losing favor with employers. HMOs are the most tightly closed of all managed care systems. HMOs typically provide no coverage for out-of-plan services and require health care providers to share the financial risk for the amount of services provided. Data have shown that, at an aggregate level, premiums are lower n communities with a higher penetration of HMO plans and more intense competition among health plans (Stein, 1997). Restricted provider networks and a strong reliance on primary care physicians have been major forces allowing HMOs to keep health care premiums below those of other plans. However, the tradeoff between low cost and limited provider choice has been unacceptable to ma ny consumers, as evidenced by the recent trend toward looser and more expensive forms of managed care, such as PPOs and POS plans (Sisk, Gorman, Reisinger, 1996, Stroul, 1996). This trend is likely to raise premium levels and individual copayments and deductibles in the future. Because of the rising of premiums I predict that within the next thirty years HMOs will slowly fade away. In the mid-80s, legislation allowing insurers to contract selectively with different providers at different reimbursement rates provided a starting ground for the development of preferred provider organizations (PPOs) (Gabel &Ermann 1985). Generally, the term PPO refers to a third-party payer system that contracts certain providers for patient services on a discounted fee-for-service basis. Patients are encouraged to select these â€Å"preferred providers† with economic incentives including broader coverage, and in-network providers gain a larger patient base in return for their discounted services (Gabel & Ermann 1985). Unlike health maintenance organization (HMO) coverage, PPO patients retain the ability to go out-of-network for care. Although patients are responsible for most of the costs in such situations, there is usually a yearly limit on out-of-pocket payments that allows patients who experience severe chronic conditions to access long-term out-of-network specialty care without prohibitive costs. PPOs have made a huge leap in the past two decades as a model for health insurance (Sengupta & Kreie 2011): In 1988, PPOs represented 11 percent of employer-provided health care; by 2005, 85 percent of large employers offered at least one PPO option (Hirth, Grazier, Chernew, & Okeke, 2007). PPO will be around for the next thirty years because it allows PPO patients to retain the ability to go out-of-network for care. Very long paragraph here 2. Debate whether or not private health insurance violates the standard principles of insurance. Don’t start at bottom of page. Start at top of next page PHI began with coverage principally for hospital and physicians’ services. As political debates in the United States continue regarding health insurance, there has been considerable argument and criticism about the overhead generated by the PHI mechanism (Woolhandler & Himmelstein, 1991). From1960 to 2000, the total overhead costs of PHI averaged about 12 percent of premiums, ranging from about 9 to 16 percent. This total includes administrative costs, taxes, profits and other nonbenefit expenses (Lemieux, 2005). The full cost of PHI administration to Americans including insurer’s administrative cost, net additions to reserves, rate credits and policyholder dividends, premium taxes, and carrier’s profits or losses is estimated to be about 15 percent of total national health expenditures. None of this including the formidable â€Å"hidden† costs to providers for filing claims, collecting data on quality of care, and submitting various financial reports to insurers. Private health insurance is made up of the three principal entities, which is commercial carriers, the Blues, and HMOs plus self- funded plans. The important of PHI as a source of financing for personal health care expenditures has increased slowly, but steadily (Williams & Torrens, 2010). Although there is no denying that some government health insurance programs such as Medicare deliver benefits at far less administrative cost per dollar of reimbursement than the PHI industry, health insurance by itself is not always a profitable business for insurers. This is particularly true at the high end of the market, where self-funded administrative-services-only customers generate relatively narrow profit margins for most group insurers. Indeed, the health insurance industry suffered a net underwriting loss in many years since 1976. Health insurance is beneficial for many insurers because it servers as a vehicle for selling other, more profitable products (such as insurance) and because health insurance premiums generate revenues via investment income (Whitted, 2001). A number of health insurance entities (including commercial carriers and the blue) offer insurance coverage for individuals and their families (pPauly & Percy, 2000). Some f the nation’s largest commercial accident and health insurers sell few or no individuals policies. Ordinary individual policies for basic medical (hospital and the physician coverage are extraordinarily expensive. This is because of adverse selection: insurers assume that the individual knows something that the insurance plan doesn’t future health needs. Therefore, the insurer adds on premium can easily reach $5,000 per year, even for HMO plans with extensive cost-sharing provisions. In addition, underwriting guidelines for individuals policies have become increasingly stringent; so many people who might wish to purchase coverage are not able to do so (Saver & Doescher, 2000). . Analyze the evolution of the promotion of health and disease prevention in the U. S. and identify the point at which a clear shift in the thinking in the dominant culture occurred residing in the greatest impact on the health care insurance system in the United States. Organized public health activities in the United States began in local seaport communities and only gradually expanded to state and federal government agencies. The Constitution of the United States reserves to the state all functions such as health not specifically earmarked to the federal government. For most of our country’s history, public health was an activity that was primarily carried out by a local or state governmental agency, and it was only after World War II that it was received as necessary or appropriate to have a federal cabinet-level Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. This development would suggest that our country views public health activities and perhaps health activities in general as a local and state matter; federal government involvement developed mostly after World War I, and mostly because of the abundance of federal tax revenues to be redistributed to states and local governments. The continuing efforts to reduce the size and scope of the federal government and to return basic functions and funds to local and state government in recent years may be seen as a continuation of this general idea (Williams & Torrens, 2010). According to (Williams &Torrens, 2010), organized public health activities in the United States began with the quarantine and isolation of potential disease carriers, moved on to the improvement of sanitation in the environment, then went on to focus on immunization of children and control of individuals with contagious infectious disease. Almost all the activities focused on acute infectious diseases, regardless of their origins. This has given rise to an unofficial and generally unspoken agreement that the primary mission of organized public health efforts in the United States should be toward the prevention and control of acute illness rather than chronic disease. Organized public health efforts in the United States have focused on out breaks of illness such as diphtheria and polio because of the suddenness and the severity of any outbreaks of this illness. The much more serious and public health problems of the United States are no longer-term degenerative conditions such as heart disease, cancer, and stroke. Because of the unfortunate political controversies of the 1930’s around a possible national health insurance program, it would have to be admitted that there has been a relatively guarded relationship between the private medical sector and organized public health agencies throughout the country. As long as the organized public health agencies kept to the more traditional public health role of sanitation, immunizations, and infectious diseases control, their activities were generally supported by the private sector. However, whenever the public health sector became more active in the provision of general health services or in the governance or planning facilities and personnel in the private sector, considerable opposition arose. As a result of this opposition, organized public health agencies have been rather cautious about expanding their efforts beyond the boundaries of what were perceived as â€Å"tradition† public health activities (Williams & Torrens, 2010). It is assumed that public health must protect the interest of the public in obtaining access to appropriate health services of high quality, but that has not been an accept role for organized public health in the United States until now. References Gabel J, & Ermann D. (1985). Preferred provider organizations: performance, problems, and promise. Health Aff (Millwood). 1985; 4(1): 24-40. Hirth RA, Grazier KL, Chernew ME, Okeke EN. Insurers’ competitive strategy and enrollment in newly offered preferred provider organizations (PPOs). Inquiry. 2007; 44(4): 400-411. Lemieux, jJ. (2005). Perspective: Administrative cost of private health insurance plans. Washington, DC: America’s Health Plans. Pauly, M. V. , & Percy, A M. (2000). Cost and performance: A comparison of the individual and the group health insurance markets. Journal of the health politics policy and law, 25,9-26 Saver, B. G. , & Doescher, M. P. (2000). To buy, or not to buy: Factors associated with the purchase of non- group private health insurance. Medical Care, 38, 141-151. Sengupta B, & Kreier RE. (2011) A dynamic model of health plan choice from a real options perspective. Atlantic Econ J. 2011; 39(4): 401-419. Sisk, J. E. , Gorman, S. A. , & Reisinger, A. L. , List all authors here etal(1996). EvaluationofMedicaidmanagedcare: Satisfaction, accessanduse. ?Journal of the American Medical Association (1996) 276:50–55. Stein, R. E. K. , ed. Health care for children: What’s right, what’s wrong, what’s next. New York: United Hospital Fund, 1997. Stroll, B. , ed. (Year) Children’s mental health: Creating systems of care in a changing society. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Company, 1996. Whitted, G. (2001). In S. J. Williams & P. J. Torrens (Eds. ), Introduction to health services (6th ed. ). Albany, NY, Delmar. Williams, S. J. , Torrens, P. R. , (2010). Introduction t health services (7th ed. ). Albany, NY, Delmar. Woodhandler, S. , & Himmelstein, D. (1991). The deteriorating administrative efficiency of the U. S. health care system. New England Journal of Medicine, 324(18), 1253-1258.

Sea Turtle Facts

Sea turtles are water-inhabiting reptiles, six species of which belong to the Cheloniidae  family and one to the Dermochelyidae  family. These glorious seaborne relatives of land turtles glide through the coastal and deepwater regions of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. Long-lived creatures, it can take 30 years for a sea turtle to mature sexually. Fast Facts: Sea Turtles Scientific Name: Dermochelys coriacea, Chelonia mydas, Caretta caretta, Eretmochelys imbricate, Lepidochelys kempii, Lepidochelys olivacea, and Natator depressusCommon Names: Leatherback, green, loggerhead, hawksbill, Kemp’s ridley, olive ridley, flatbackBasic Animal Group: ReptileSize: 2–6 feet long  Weight: 100–2,000 poundsLifespan: 70–80 yearsDiet:  Carnivore, Herbivore, OmnivoreHabitat: Temperate, tropical, subtropical waters of the worlds oceansConservation Status: Critically Endangered (hawksbill, Kemps ridley); Endangered (green); Vulnerable (loggerhead, olive ridley, and leatherback); Data Deficient (flatback) Description Sea turtles are animals in the Class Reptilia, meaning they are reptiles. Reptiles are ectothermic (commonly referred to as cold-blooded), lay eggs, have scales (or did have them, at some point in their evolutionary history), breathe through lungs, and have a three or four-chambered heart. Sea turtles have a carapace  or upper shell that is streamlined to help in swimming and a lower shell, called a plastron. In all but one species, the carapace is covered in hard scutes. Unlike land turtles, sea turtles cannot retreat into their shell. They also have paddle-like flippers. While their flippers are great for propelling them through the water, they are poorly-suited for walking on land. They also breathe air, so a sea turtle must come to the water surface when it needs to do so, which can leave them vulnerable to boats.   Westend61 - Gerald Nowak/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images Species There are seven species of sea turtles. Six of them (the hawksbill, green, flatback, loggerhead, Kemps ridley, and olive ridley turtles) have shells made up of hard scutes, while the aptly-named leatherback turtle is in the Family Dermochelyidae and has a leathery carapace made up of connective tissue. Sea turtles range in size from about two to six feet long, depending on the species, and weigh between 100 and 2,000 pounds. The Kemps ridley turtle is the smallest, and the leatherback is the largest. The green and olive ridley sea turtles reside in tropical and subtropical waters around the globe. Leatherbacks nest on tropical beaches but migrate northward to Canada; loggerhead and hawksbill turtles live in temperate and tropical waters in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. Kemps ridley turtles hang out along the coasts of the western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, and flatbacks are found only near the Australian coast. Diet Most of the turtles are carnivorous, but each has adapted to specific prey. Loggerheads prefer fish, jellyfish, and hard-shelled lobsters and crustaceans. Leatherbacks feed on jellyfish, salps, crustaceans, squid, and urchins; hawksbills use their bird-like beak to feed on soft corals, anemones and sea sponges. Flatbacks dine on squid, sea cucumbers, soft corals, and mollusks. Green turtles are carnivorous when young but are herbivores as adults, eating seaweeds and seagrass. Kemps ridley turtles prefer crabs, and olive ridleys are omnivorous, preferring a diet of jellyfish, snails, crabs, and shrimp but also snacking on algae and seaweed. Behavior Sea turtles may migrate long distances between feeding and nesting grounds and also stay in warmer waters when the seasons change. One leatherback turtle was tracked for over 12,000 miles as it traveled from Indonesia to Oregon, and loggerheads may migrate between Japan and Baja, California. Young turtles may also spend considerable amounts of time traveling between the time they are hatched and the time they return to their nesting/mating grounds, according to ​long-term research. It takes most sea turtle species a long time to mature and consequently, these animals live a long time. Estimates for the lifespan of sea turtles is 70–80 years. Reproduction and Offspring All sea turtles (and all turtles) lay eggs, so they are oviparous. Sea turtles hatch from eggs on shore​ and then spend several years out at sea. It may take 5 to 35 years for them to become sexually mature, depending on the species. At this point, males and females migrate to breeding grounds, which are often near nesting areas. Males and females mate offshore, and females travel to nesting areas to lay their eggs. Amazingly, females return to the same beach where they were born to lay their eggs, even though it may be 30 years later and the appearance of the beach may have greatly changed. The female crawls up on the beach, digs a pit for her body with her flippers (which can be more than a foot deep for some species), and then digs a nest for the eggs with her hind flippers. She then lays her eggs, covers her nest with the hind flippers and packs the sand down, then heads for the ocean. A turtle may lay several clutches of eggs during the nesting season. Sea turtle eggs need to incubate for 45 to 70 days before they hatch. The length of incubation time is affected by the temperature of the sand in which the eggs are laid. Eggs hatch more quickly if the temperature of the nest is warm. So if eggs are laid in a sunny spot and there is limited rain, they may hatch in 45 days, while eggs laid in a shady spot or in cooler weather will take longer to hatch. Temperature also determines the gender of the hatchling. Cooler temperatures favor the development of more males, and warmer temperatures favor the development of more females (think of the potential implications of global warming!). Interestingly, even the position of the egg in the nest could affect the gender of the hatchling. The center of the nest is warmer, therefore eggs in the center are more likely to hatch females, while eggs on the outside are more likely to hatch males. Carmen M/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 3.0 Evolutionary History Sea turtles have been around for a long time in evolutionary history. The first turtle-like animals are thought to have lived about 260 million years ago, and odontocetes, the first marine turtle, is thought to have lived about 220 million years ago. Unlike modern turtles, odontocetes had teeth. Sea turtles are related to land turtles (such as snapping turtles, pond turtles, and even tortoises). Both land and marine turtles are classified in the Order Testudines. All animals in the Order Testudines have a shell that is basically a modification of the ribs and vertebra, and also incorporates the girdles of the front and back limbs. Turtles and tortoises do not have teeth, but they have a horny covering on their jaws.​ Conservation Status and Threats Of the seven sea turtle species, six (all but the flatback) exist in the United States, and all are endangered. Threats to sea turtles include coastal development (which leads to loss of nesting habitat or making previous nesting areas unsuitable), harvesting turtles for eggs or meat, bycatch in fishing gear, entanglement in or ingestion of marine debris, boat traffic, and climate change. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), out of the seven species of sea turtles, two are classed as Critically Endangered (hawksbill, Kemps ridley); one as Endangered (green); three are vulnerable (loggerhead, olive ridley, and leatherback), and one  is Data Deficient, meaning they need additional study to determine the current status (flatback). You can help by: Supporting sea turtle research and conservation organizations and projects through volunteering or donating fundsSupporting measures to protect nesting habitatsChoosing seafood that is caught without impacting turtles (e.g., in areas where turtle excluder devices are used, or where bycatch is minimal)Not purchasing sea turtle products, including meat, eggs, oil, or tortoiseshellWatching out for sea turtles if you are out on a boat in sea turtle habitatReducing marine debris. This includes always disposing of your trash properly, using fewer disposable items and plastics, buying locally and purchasing items with less packagingReducing your carbon footprint by using less energy Placebo365/Getty Images   Sources Abreu-Grobois, A and P. Plotkin (IUCN SSC Marine Turtle Specialist Group). Lepidochelys olivacea. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: e.T11534A3292503, 2008.  Casale, P. and A.D. Tucker. Caretta caretta (amended version of 2015 assessment). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: e.T3897A119333622, 2017.Marine Turtle Specialist Group. Lepidochelys kempii. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: e.T11533A3292342, 1996.  Mortimer, J.A and M. Donnelly (IUCN SSC Marine Turtle Specialist Group). Eretmochelys imbricata. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: e.T8005A12881238, 2008.  Olive Ridley Project: Fighting Ghost Nets and Saving Turtles.  Sea Turtle ConservancySpotila, James R. 2004. Sea Turtles: A Complete Guide to Their Biology, Behavior, and Conservation. The Johns Hopkins University Press.Unlocking the Secrets of Sea Turtle Migration. Science Daily, February 29, 2012.