Contract law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 3

Contract law - Essay Example This is the principle of promissory estoppel and in its modern form it is based on the dicta of Denning J in the Central London Property case (Central London Property Trust Ltd V. High Trees House Ltd) and the decision of the House of Lords in the Tool Metal case (Tool Metal Manufacturing Co Ltd V. Tungsten Electric Co Ltd ). In Williams v. Roffey, Roffey had a contract to refurbish a block of flats. He sub-contracted the carpentry work to Williams, who after the commencement of the work came to realize that he had underestimated its cost and as a result, he was placed in financial difficulties. Roffey, realizing that the work would not be completed on time and that this would result in the breach of a penalty clause in their main contract with the owner, agreed to pay Williams an extra payment per flat (Williams v Roffey Bros & Nicholls (Contractors) Limited). Williams completed the work on these flats but did not receive full payment. He stopped work and brought in an action for damages. In the Court of Appeal, Roffey argued that Williams was only doing what he was contractually bound to do and had therefore not provided any consideration. It was held by the Court of Appeal that where a party to an existing contract later agrees to pay an extra "bonus" in order to ensure that the other party performs his obligations under the contract, then that agreement is binding if the party agreeing to pay the bonus has thereby obtained some new practical advantage or has avoided a disadvantage. In the present case, there were benefits to Roffey such as: (a) making sure Williams continued his work, (b) avoiding payment under a damages clause of the main contract if Williams was late, and (c) avoiding the expense and trouble of sub contracting the work to someone else. Therefore, Williams was entitled to payment (Williams v Roffey Bros & Nicholls (Co ntractors) Limited). In the CTN Cash case it was

Victims and Legislative Solutions Essay Example for Free

Victims and Legislative Solutions Essay â€Å"knowing production, use or trafficking in counterfeit or unauthorized access devices such as any card, plate code, account number, electronic serial number personal identification number, that can be used to obtain money, goods, services, or any other thing of value, or that can be used to initiate a transfer of funds† (Cybercrime Public and Private Entities, 2007). Despite these measures in place, cybercrime is still a massive problem. This is due to the fact that hiring and retaining skilled investigators is a daunting task because private companies offer a higher salary and better benefits than the federal government (Cybercrime Public and Private Entities, 2007). Also, â€Å"staff rotation policies in place at certain law enforcement organizations† make it difficult for law enforcers to fully attend and address the situation properly (Cybercrime Public and Private Entities, 2007). Besides, it takes a year to train an investigator to be competent enough to handle his own case (Cybercrime Public and Private Entities, 2007). Individuals have to be trained because federal agencies lack resources to employ professional investigators (Cybercrime Public and Private Entities, 2007). In addition, multiple jurisdictions in place makes the matter even more complicated to handle (Cybercrime Public and Private Entities, 2007). â€Å"Law[s] used to address cybercrime differ across states and nations. For example, not all US states have anti-spam laws or anti-spyware laws Further, jurisdictional boundaries can limit the actions that federal, state, and local law enforcement can take to investigate cybercrime that crosses local, regional and national borders† (Cybercrime Public and Private Entities, 2007). Lastly, the complex nature of tracking an identify theft also poses a problem. â€Å"[C]ybercriminals can take steps to remain anonymous, making it difficult, if not impossible, to attribute a crime to them [this is because] [c]ybercriminals can be physically located in one nation or state, direct their crime through computers in multiple nations or states and store evidence for the crime on computers in yet another nation or state† (Cybercrime Public and Private Entities, 2007). Hence, cybercriminals are rarely caught and if they are apprehended, the â€Å"penalties are minimal Community service and parole are the usual sentence† (Identity Theft: How it Happens, 2000). Cybercriminals exist because engaging in identity theft enables them to acquire money and benefits such as material assets, medical insurance and tax returns without working conventionally to obtain them. Also, they are rarely caught because the system in place is disorganized and ineffective; that is why identity theft remains a big problem. A national and specialized agency should be set up to handle this situation. Resources should be allocated to this agency so that skilled investigators can be employed. This will speed the investigation process because individuals in the force do not have to be trained for a year to be able to effectively deal with cases. References: Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. (2000, July 12). Identity Theft: How it Happens, Its Impact on Victims and Legislative Solutions. Retrieved January 20, 2008, from http://www.gao.gov/

Telecom Industry

Telecom Industry Management information system Introduction MIS (Management Information System) is a process which provides the necessary information for managing an organization in an effective manner. The information generated by MIS is considered to be the most important equipment of careful and the decisions made in business. For an organization, MIS must have the guidelines, practices, procedures, standards, and policies. All these have to be followed throughout the development, maintenance, and usage of the institution. Multiple levels by the management are used and viewed by the MIS. Owner is the user of the system who uses the present customer and the constituent requirements and has the enough budgets for funding the new projects. By building the ownership it not only promotes the institutions pride but also helps in ensuring the accountability. Not necessarily the reduction of the expenses is done by MIS. By developing the systems meaningfully, using them properly reduces the possibility of making erroneous decisions due to inaccura tely. The resources can be wasted by the decisions made erroneously. This might result adversely on the capital. TELECOM INDUSTRY- A Case Study Aircel is a JV of Gogo Communications located in Malaysia and Apollo Hospitals of India. 74% stake belongs to Maxis and the other 26% belongs to Apollo hospitals. Aircel is Indias 5th largest provider of GSM mobiles service. .Its subscribers too are many they account for about 27.7 million as on the 31st of Oct 2009. By 2010 it is thinking of expanding its services throughout India. It has also sought permission for to provide for Long distance calls for both national and international users. The telecom dept has granted permission. ABS (Aircel business solutions) is a part of Aircel and it is an ISO 9000 certified organisation. Its products include enterprise solutions like Multiprotocol Label Switching Virtual Private Networks (MPLS VPNs), Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Managed Video Services on wireless platform including WiMAX (www.aircel.com) Q1) Provide information across various departments Stability in the Payroll and financial departments For companies to be successful, it is critical to manage data efficiently. Data was made available and accesses able to everyone. This included. * Payroll * Financial information * Customer tracking systems. Implementation of MIS indeed played a very crucial role at Aircel. Absence of proper MIS system would mean lack of proper accessibility of data at the nick time, this further leads to confusion and lack of proper sustenance of available resources. In order to plan the budgets and operations and for making projections, data has to be retrieved continuously by the managers and the corporate executives. Leaders can accurately make decisions and access large data by storing the data in a single place and manage it. As the managers and the employees got accustomed to the new learning curve for the first year has to be expected. Training is needed for the executives for reading the results and learning to start with the usage of the resources they had not used in past. Implementation in the HR function and its overall benefits Aircel selected SAP ERP which is a Payroll and HR software. It helped Aircel to get rid of unwanted /duplicate information across many locations. Also it saved the HR personnel from making manual entries of data. Benefits of MIS in field of HR: By Implementing the MIS through SAP ERP, HR functions are 33% quicker than standard approach Improvement in all field such as 60% of cost reduction in development, 50% cost and time saved for spending in lower project and 70% fewer in post go-live corrections. Risk Mitigation and resolving issues on time services. Ongoing support from SAP is fully active for the user to access go-live it. Reduce Manual work and saves time. Decreased the Payroll Processing Cycle time from 15 days to 5 days. Monitoring the payroll and Generating Tax Declaration for employee is easier. 8. Simple and Easy way of handling application of employee leaves entitlement. Effective implementation of MIS should be done by analysing and considering MIS needs at tactical level and strategic levels. Tactical Level of MIS can be used in processing annual report and annual budget. In this case, the support of long term Strategic level of MIS also required to initiates the business plan. This implies that to get benefit of effective MIS, organization should consider the levels of MIS that are to be used in organization and that should be analyzed before implementing. Merger and Acquisition of company with other company, Developing Company introducing new products and services are the best common example for developing and implementing MIS. Q2) Facilitate decision making at the three tiers of management MIS deals with process of collecting the information, processing, storing the information and transmitting relevant to the support the management operation. This shows the process and success of decision-making. Administrative process of organization highly depends on the decision making. Decision making is done with the available information and functions in the organization. Proper result cannot be found because of lack of information that leads unlikely to yield the optimal or desired result. The back bone for the systems of decision making This system is growth along with the development in Management Information System. MIS also supports decision making in both structured problem environment and unstructured problem environment at every strata of organization. MIS constitutes many things such as people, computers, procedures, databases, interactive query facilities and so on. Methods of Decision Making An MIS system must be developed in such a manner that it aids in accomplishing organisational objectives listed here under. * Communication channels and mediums should be more effective amongst employees * Send across critical data more efficiently and effectively * A comprehensive and constructive system should be made available for collecting, analysing and using the data. * A process of digitization has to be implemented which minimise the cost of labour oriented activities * Be able to strategise the organisations decision making process. There are lot of MIS tools available which includes software, databases, hardware and specially designed support applications. The input given to any one of the mentioned Management Information System is transformed into useful and related information that help to give results as reports or statements, try to make future predictions based on the derived information. Knowledge Base in the MIS can also be used as answer to queries which helps to take a particular action/decision on â€Å"what if† scenario. Thus information given by Management Information Systems is accurate and unique which helps to give decision making. The primary aim of MIS is to make sure that information is appropriately channelized to the right people at workplace. That is called as Internal Decision Makers and External Decision Makers. And they are considered as good decision maker for running the organization. And this process is completed on time, reliable with good quality information to the decision makers. It is essential to understand that managers are answerable for * The outcomes of the actual reports * The effect of the reports that are direct on certain behaviour * Making a team which is long lasting and equally effective which can accomplish targets effectively and on time. * Equipping their respective teams with good managerial and leadership support. In the conventional management arrangement hirarchy for the flow of information is inthe following fashion Top Middle lower In a digitised environment the scenario is different it aids in effective communication simultaneously across the various levels. Presently managers are use and trust computerised systems. * They are Systems * Which process transactions * Which support the process of decision making * Which aid and store data regarding operations * Expert system a. Transaction Processing System Transaction Processing System is a collection of information, used to process the data at the time of transaction in database system. It is used to monitor the transaction program such as predefined program for the output. For example, Electronic Payment is made to withdraw money from one account and added the same to the other or none at all, likewise transaction made in shopping, car rental, poker, ticket reservation are also the examples of Transaction Processing System. If the transaction is failed or partially completed, it must be rolled back (undo the recent changes) by this Transaction Processing System. Other transaction monitoring functions like deadlock (two or more process competing for each other to release the resources in circular chain). b. Operation Information System Operation Information Systems is a group of system provides significant information for the day-to-day operation in the organization. The advantage of OIS is, it supports the real time delivery of information to the other application such as task allotted, start time and end time, time taken to complete the allotted tasks. This automated system will enable a manager to make a conclusive estimate on a project given or task handled. He will also be able to monitor an employees performance. Similarly an employee too will be able to highlight his performance at the time of annual appraisal or at the time of interim check. c. Decision Support System It is set of manual or computer based tools to support technological and managerial decision-making activities. Decision Support System is interactive software based helpful to make decision by formulate the alternatives, analysis the business models and impact of it, identify and solve the problem by selecting the appropriate option for implementation. This application aids many functions by collecting information like Analysis of cash flow Forecasting at various levels and other relate information Information on the performance of a product Allocation of resources Sales comparison etc Aircel has to streamline all its information such as its financial information, data regarding its assets, legacy and other kinds of data. If this is in place, the DSS will be able to assist in a sound decision making process. d. Expert System Expert System is Artificial Intelligence (AI) software which uses the knowledge base of human expertise for problem solving. Expert System is based on quality of data and rules obtained and assigned from the human expert. Most common methods used to simulate the performance of Expert System are: * Creating Knowledge Base uses information representation to acquire the (Subject Matter Expert) knowledge of the SME * Knowledge Engineering The information should be gathered via a rigorous questioning process. For Aircel, once everything is in place the Expert system will assist in addressing unresolved issues. The above mentioned systems are largely used in handling the data in an organization. MIS can be preserved and further developed either manually or via automated systems or by using both methodologies combination of both. It also performs other activities such as monitoring the information, distribution the information to the management, employees and customers. Effective implementation of MIS results in Meeting the Business Goals and Objectives, Supports the delivery of the product and services. Easy to access and use at level of organization. Significant use of the strategy used for handling risk to assist the management in performing reviews.. Q3 Serve as efficient means for managing business process Business Process A business process or a methodology of business is the gathering concerned, channelized activities to finally contour either a service or a product. Also it can be said as a group of activities clearly spread across time and people with a start and an end. Here the materials to be used and what would be the resultant outputs are clearly defined. The very start of a process of business is usual the wants of customer and it ends at a point of customer satisfaction. In order to complete such a process organisations rely on sources of information which may be external or internal. It may be noted that business processes are created to add value to a customer. The result of an excellent business process is enhanced effectiveness (to the customer and the way of doing business) with a reduction operating costs monitor Till date the various MIS systems have were not able satisfy the requirements of an individual making decision entirely. These are in terms of * Decision making under stress/pressure * Tracking competition * Taking into consideration organisational information that has a different view point. â€Å"In order to be able to react quickly to changes that take place on the market, organisations need management information systems that would make it possible to carry out different cause and effect analyses of organisations themselves and their environments† (Power, 2001). â€Å"According to (Kalakota, Robinson Business Intelligence (BI) systems provide a proposal that faces needs of contemporary organisations. Main tasks that are to be faced by the BI systems include intelligent exploration, integration, aggregation and a multidimensional analysis of data originating from various information resources. Systems of a BI standard combine data from internal information systems of an organisation and they integrate data coming from the particular environment e.g. statistics, financial and investment portals and miscellaneous databases. Such systems are meant to provide adequate and reliable up-to-date information on different aspects of enterprise activities.† (Kalakota, Robinson, 1999; Liautaud, Hammond, 2002; Moss, Alert, 2003) The primary results of the research say that the BI systems have a major role in showing and infusing both enhancements in production and transparency in cascading knowledge. Also they make sure that business * Monitor the profitability * Scrutinize expenditures * Gauge the environments and atmosphere of corporates * Investigate upon irregularities and instances of fraud. The upcoming years have had many discussions regarding problems in BI .These include the approaches of OLAP. Though problems are discussed in detail talks regarding the actual proper implementation of BI are yet to materialize. There are no proper guidelines or information regarding proper implementation of BI. Organisations are in the process of finding out efficient methods of creating and handling BI themselves. All in an environment of rampant change,growth and increase in the competitiveness amongst business. Businesses in general are treading the path of disaggregation. How its implementation is effective Implementation of Business Intelligence is effective and it is analyzed from different perspectives. Decision Makers of the organization mainly associate with Business Intelligence for implementing organizational specific methodology and philosophy. Here, BI systems are thought to be the solution, essential for recording information into data by analyzing including reporting with the consolidated data. Information is transferred into knowledge by Data Drilling and finally knowledge transferred to Decision to improve competitiveness. (Refer Fig.2) ‘It is said that the Value of BI for business is predominantly expressed in the fact that such systems cast some light on information that may serve as the basis for carrying out fundamental changes in a particular enterprise, i.e. establishing new cooperation, acquiring new customers, creating new markets, offering products to customers (Chaudhary, 2004; Olszak, Ziemba, 2004; Reinschmidt, Francoise, 2002). Source: own elaboration. The four critical facets of Risk management are: 1. Operational procedures 2. Management and Employees 3. Practices or strategies 4. Feedback mechanisms and devices Using Management Information System, information management are available for both planning and decision making with respect to the technology. Technology also enhances the scope for incorrect and inaccurate information being reported out which as a result cause wrong decision making due to lack to data, unclear/missing data. Since data is extracted from many financial system and transaction system, there should be apt control processes or functions have to be setup to make sure the data is accurate and appropriate. Control must ensure that systems on small computer like microcomputers which have well defined processing controls are as good as traditionally larger mainframe computers. It has become mandatory to set up an individual framework with effective fundamental principles like identifying risk, establishing controls and providing a review of MIS that is good and mentoring systems across the organization. OCC gives full support to putting these concepts from penning them to enhancing the usefulness communication throughout the organization. OCC recommended the organization to follow the fundamental principles such as appropriate Internal Controls, Operating Procedures and Safeguards and Audit Coverage. Aircel has chosen an MIS system that will provide the best results for its organisation. While conferring upon an MIS Aircel has done a cost analysis. According to it an MIS should bring a good return on the investment made and additional costs should not be incurred for implementation of such a system. For the success of an MIS there should be * Deft planning * Good foresting * Timely reporting and evaluation. If the entire above are adhered to then an organisation will be able to make proper decisions. If information is stacked appropriately then the flow of information will be easier and efficient which will enable an organisation to make effective value add decisions. Over all benefits of MIS implementation at Aircel According to Gary ‘BI differs from MIS (i.e. DSS, EIS, and ES) in first of all, their wider thematic range, multivariate Analysis, semi-structured data originating from different sources and multidimensional data Presentation (Gray, 2003). Olszak and Ziemba say that ‘BI may support decision make on all levels of management regardless of the level of their structuralisation (Olszak, Ziemba, 2003). On the Strategic Level, Setting the Objectives precisely and following the established objectives is easy in BI. Using BI, it is easy to perform different comparative reports such as Comprehensive results, the viability of certain offers, successfulness of the various distribution startegis and channels alongside implementation of and predicting the results for the future based on assumptions made. Conclusion Implementation MIS in organization is very essential. This can be found by the following benefits. To improve the quality of an administrative process in an organization can be identified by their proven practices. MIS is User-friendly window based system performing Time management, Resource Management by generating tickler/alert, online appointment Scheduling, Clear, better and faster record access which includes real time updation. MIS is easy to access through internet and Availability and reliability of Access and Crisis line information to service provider. Information analysis, Data Gathering, Report and Performance Monitoring. Usage of MIS application results in greater accountability such as improve the measurement at Client, program and system levels. MIS have built-in quality and compliance controls to give quality. MIS can able to replace multiple applications such as old software, billing system, having inefficient client data and software which are considers as very old, non-user friendly, inapt to the organization. Handling single application is easier than maintaining much old application. References * Maniac , Management information system: The centre of management decision making, available at http://www.helium.com/items/242575-management-information-system-the-center-of-management-decision-making, accessed on March 20th 2010. * Anon (2005), COREinternational Inc, available at http://www.coreinternational.com/threeTierManagement.htm, accessed on March 15th 2010. * Stair, Reynolds, Principles of Management Information Systems: A managerial Approach, 7th edition * P. Kishore Kumar, 2006, Information Decision Making, available at http://www.indianmba.com/Faculty_Column/FC307/fc307.html * Kotler, Philip; Keller, Kevin Lane (2006). Marketing Management (12 ed.). Pearson Education. * OBrien, J (1999). Management Information Systems Managing Information Technology in the Internetworked Enterprise. Boston: Irwin McGraw-Hill. * Comptrollers Handbook 3 Management Information Systems * James Reason (1990). Human Error. Ashgate. ISBN 1840141042. * Daniel Kahneman, Amos Tversky (2000). Choice, Values, Frames. The Cambridge University * Charles H. Kepner, Benjamin B. Tregoe (1965). The Rational Manager: A Systematic Approach to Problem Solving and Decision-Making. McGraw-Hill, June 1965 * Blackhart, G. C., Kline, J. P. (2005). Individual differences in anterior EEG asymmetry between high and low defensive individuals during a rumination/distraction task. Personality and Individual Differences, 39, 427-437. * Drake, R. A. (1993). Processing persuasive arguments: 2. Discounting of truth and relevance as a function of agreement and manipulated activation asymmetry. Journal of Research in Personality, 27, 184-196. * Chua, E. F., Rand-Giovannetti, E., Schacter, D. L., Albert, M., Sperling, R. A. (2004). Dissociating confidence and accuracy: Functional magnetic resonance imaging shows origins of the subjective memory experience. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16, 1131-1142. * Isabel Briggs Myers|Myers, I. (1962) Introduction to Type: A description of the theory and applications of the Myers-Briggs type indicator, Consulting Psychologists Press, Palo Alto Ca., 1962.

Mathildes Inability to Accept Destiny in Guy de Maupassants The Neckl

Mathilde's Inability to Accept Destiny in Guy de Maupassant's The Necklace Many people born into the middle to lower class of society come to accept their lot in life and make the best of it, Mathilde, the main character in Guy de Maupassant's short story, 'The Necklace', is not one of these people. Mathilde felt that she was attractive and that fate must have made a mistake in birthing her into a family that could not provide a suitable dowry for a proper marriage. This situation left her with no choice but to marry Mr. Loisel, a minor clerk. Although many would think that Mathilde would have come to accept her lot in life, she never did; as time passed she dreamed more about the things she lacked, became more discontent with the things that she did have, and she even became manipulative and inconsiderate towards her husband.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As a child Mathilde lived a simple life with her family of clerks and copyists, and as a wife she lived a simple life with her husband, thus Mathilde?s excuse for her insatiable craving for expensive and luxurious things was destiny. ?She was one of those pretty and charming women, born, as if by error of destiny, into a family of clerks and copyists? (paragraph 1). Mathilde dreamed about ?large, silent anterooms, decorated with oriental tapestries and lighted by high bronze floor lamps, elegant valets in short culottes dozing in armchairs under forced-air heaters. She dreamed about large drawing rooms draped in expensive silks, with fine end tables on which where placed knickknacks of inestimable value, and she dreamed of dainty private rooms designed for tà ªte-à  -tà ªtes? (paragraph 3). A glamorous house was not all that Mathilde dreamed about, ?she dreamed of expensive banquets with shining place settings, and wall hangings portraying ancient heroes and ex otic birds in an enchanted forest. She imagined a gourmet prepared main course carried on the most beautiful dishes, and whispered gallantries which she would hear with a smile as she dined on the pink meat of a trout or the wing of a quail? (paragraph 4).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When Mathilde was not busy daydreaming about the things that were lacking in her life, she was busy complaining about the things that she did possess. Mathilde never once considered that she was fortunate because she owned furniture, she considered herself unfortunate because the furnishings that she did own wer... ...obligations, did business with finance companies and the whole tribe of loan sharks. He compromised himself for the reminder of his days, risked his signature without knowing if he?d be able to honor it? (paragraph 94). Thanks to Mathilde and her desire to save face and not seem irresponsible to her friend, Mrs. Forrestier she and Mr. Loisel were forced into a true life of poverty.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After going through such hardship and trial, such as heavy house work, dirty kitchen jobs, hand-washing the laundry, taking the garbage out, carrying water up the stairs, haggling and defending each penny (paragraph 99) Mathilde still did not learn her lesson. She did not learn to be satisfied with what she had and be grateful; proof of this is evident when she says that ?sometimes when her husband is at work. She sits down near the window, and dream of that evening so long ago, of that party, where she had been so beautiful and admired? (paragraph 103). One has to wonder what it would take for Mathilde to realize that maybe her destiny was not to be rich, envied and sought after as she so often dreamed, maybe her destiny has been fulfilled, and she?d exactly where she?s supposed to be in life.

Bag of Bones CHAPTER FOUR

The phone was ringing when I walked in my front door. It was Frank asking me if I'd like to join him for Christmas. Join them, as matter of fact; all of his brothers and their families were coming. I opened my mouth to say no the last thing on earth I needed was a Irish Christmas with everybody drinking whiskey and waxing sentimental about Jo while perhaps two dozen snotcaked rugrats crawled around the floor and heard myself saying I'd come. Frank sounded as surprised as I felt, but honestly delighted. ‘Fantastic!' He cried. ‘When can you get here?' I was in the hall, my galoshes dripping on the tile, and from where I standing I could look through the arch and into the living room. There was no Christmas tree; I hadn't bothered with one since Jo died. The room looked both ghastly and much too big to me . . . a roller rink furnished in Early American. ‘I've been out running errands,' I said. ‘How about I throw some in a bag, get back into the car, and come south while the still blowing warm air?' ‘Tremendous,' Frank said without a moment's hesitation. ‘We can have us a sane bachelor evening before the Sons and Daughters of East Malden start arriving. I'm pouring you a drink as soon as I get off the telephone.' ‘Then I guess I better get rolling,' I said. That was hands down the best holiday since Johanna died. The only good holiday, I guess. For four days I was an honorary Arlen. I drank too much, toasted Johanna's memory too many times . . . and knew, somehow, that she'd be pleased to know I was doing it. Two babies spit up on me, one dog got into bed with me in the middle of the night, and Nicky Arlen's sister-in-law made a bleary pass at me on the night after Christmas, when she caught me alone in the kitchen making a turkey sandwich. I kissed her because she clearly wanted to be kissed, and an adventurous (or perhaps ‘mischievous' is the word I want) hand groped me for a moment in a place where no one other than myself had groped in almost three and a half years. It was a shock, but not an entirely unpleasant one. It went no further in a houseful of Arlens and with Susy Donahue not quite officially divorced yet (like me, she was an honorary Arlen that Christmas), it hardly could have done but I decided it was time to leave . . . unless, that was, I wanted to go driving at high speed down a narrow street that most likely ended in a brick wall. I left on the twenty-seventh, very glad that I had come, and I gave Frank a fierce goodbye hug as we stood by my car. For four days I hadn't thought at all about how there was now only dust in my safe-deposit box at Fidelity Union, and for four nights I had slept straight through until eight in the morning, sometimes waking up with a sour stomach and a hangover headache, but never once in the middle of the night with the thought Manderley, I have dreamt again of Manderley going through my mind. I got back to Derry feeling refreshed and renewed. The first day of 1998 dawned clear and cold and still and beautiful. I got up, showered, then stood at the bedroom window, drinking coffee. It suddenly occurred to me with all the simple, powerful reality of ideas like up is over your head and down is under your feet that I could write now. It was a new year, something had changed, and I could write now if I wanted to. The rock had rolled away. I went into the study, sat down at the computer, and turned it on. My heart was beating normally, there was no sweat on my forehead or the back of my neck, and my hands were warm. I pulled down the main menu, the one you get when you click on the apple, and there was my Word Six. I clicked on it. The pen-and-parchment logo came up, and when it did I suddenly couldn't breathe. It was as if iron bands had clamped around my chest. I pushed back from the desk, gagging and clawing at the round neck of the sweatshirt I was wearing. The wheels of my office chair caught on little throw rug one of Jo's finds in the last year of her life and I tipped right over backward. My head banged the floor and I saw a fountain of bright sparks go whizzing across my field of vision. I suppose I was lucky to black out, but I think my real luck on New Year's Morning of 1998 was that I tipped over the way I did. If I'd only pushed back from the desk so that I was still looking at the logo and at the hideo us blank screen followed it I think I might have choked to death. ‘When I staggered to my feet, I was at least able to breathe. My throat the size of a straw, and each inhale made a weird screaming sound, but I was breathing. I lurched into the bathroom and threw up in the basin with such force that vomit splashed the mirror. I grayed out and my knees buckled. This time it was my brow I struck, thunking it against the lip of the basin, and although the back of my head didn't bleed there was a very respectable lump there by noon, though), my forehead did, a little. This latter bump also left a purple mark, which I of course lied about, telling folks who asked that I'd run into the bathroom door in the middle of the night, silly me, that'll teach a fella to get up at two A.M. without turning on a lamp. ,'When I regained complete consciousness (if there is such a state), I was curled up on the floor. I got up, disinfected the cut on my forehead, and sat on the lip of the tub with my head lowered to my knees until I felt confident enough to stand up. I sat there for fifteen minutes, I guess, and in that space of time I decided that barring some miracle, my career was over. Harold would scream in pain and Debra would moan in disbelief, but what could they do? Send out the Publication Police? me with the Book-of-the-Month-Club Gestapo? Even if they could, what difference would it make? You couldn't get sap out of a brick or blood out of a stone. Barring some miraculous recovery, my life as a writer was over. And if it is? I asked myself. What's on for the back forty, Mike? You can play a lot of Scrabble in forty years, go on a lot of Crossword Cruises, drink a lot of whiskey. But is that enough? What else are you going to put on your back forty? I didn't want to think about that, not then. The next forty years could take care of themselves; I would be happy just to get through New Year's Day of 1998. When I felt I had myself under control, I went back into my study, shuffled to the computer with my eyes resolutely on my feet, felt around for the right button, and turned off the machine. You can damage the program shutting down like that without putting it away, but under the circumstances, I hardly thought it mattered. That night I once again dreamed I was walking at twilight on Lane Forty-two, which leads to Sara Laughs; once more I wished on the evening star as the loons cried on the lake, and once more I sensed something in the woods behind me, edging ever closer. It seemed my Christmas holiday was over. That was a hard, cold winter, lots of snow and in February a flu epidemic that did for an awful lot of Derry's old folks. It took them the way a hard wind will take old trees after an ice storm. It missed me completely. I hadn't so much as a case of the sniffles that winter. In March, I flew to Providence and took part in Will Weng's New England Crossword Challenge. I placed fourth and won fifty bucks. I framed the uncashed check and hung it in the living room. Once upon a time, most of my framed Certificates of Triumph (Jo's phrase; all the good phrases are Jo's phrases, it seems to me) went up on my office walls, but by March of 1998, I wasn't going in there very much. When I wanted to play Scrabble against the computer or do a tourney-level crossword puzzle, I used the Powerbook and sat at the kitchen table. I remember sitting there one day, opening the Powerbook's main menu, going down to the crossword puzzles, then dropping the cursor two or three items further, until it had highlighted my old pal, Word Six. What swept over me then wasn't frustration or impotent, balked fury (I'd experienced a lot of both since finishing All the Way from the Top), but sadness and simple longing. Looking at the Word Six icon was suddenly like looking at the pictures of Jo I kept in my wallet. Studying those, I'd sometimes think that I would sell my immortal soul in order have her back again . . . and on that day in March, I thought I would sell my soul to be able to write a story again. Go on and try it, then, a voice whispered. Maybe things have changed. Except that nothing had changed, and I knew it. So instead of opening Word Six, I moved it across to the trash barrel in the lower righthand corner of the screen, and dropped it in. Goodbye, old pal. Weinstock called a lot that winter, mostly with good news. Early in March she reported that Helen's Promise had been picked as one half of the Literary Guild's main selection for August, the other half a legal thriller by Steve Martini, another veteran of the eight-to-fifteen segment of the Times bestseller list. And my British publisher, Debra, loved Helen, was sure it would be my ‘breakthrough book.' (My British sales had always lagged.) ‘Promise is sort of a new direction for you,' Debra said. ‘Wouldn't you say?' ‘I kind of thought it was,' I confessed, and wondered how Debbie respond if I told her my new-direction book had been written a dozen years ago. ‘It's got . . . I don't know . . . a kind of maturity.' ‘Thanks.' ‘Mike? I think the connection's going. You sound muffled.' Sure I did. I was biting down on the side of my hand to keep from howling with laughter. Now, cautiously, I took it out of my mouth and examined the bite-marks. ‘Better?' ‘Yes, lots. So what's the new one about? Give me a hint.' ‘You know the answer to that one, kiddo.' Debra laughed. †You'll have to read the book to find out, Josephine,† she said. ‘Right?' ‘Yessum.' ‘Well, keep it coming. Your pals at Putnam are crazy about the way you're taking it to the next level.' I said goodbye, I hung up the telephone, and then I laughed wildly for about ten minutes. Laughed until I was crying. That's me, though. Always taking it to the next level. During this period I also agreed to do a phone interview with a Newsweek writer who was putting together a piece on The New American Gothic (whatever that was, other than a phrase which might sell a few magazines), and to sit for a Publishers Weekly interview which would appear just before publication of Helen's Promise. I agreed to these because they both sounded softball, the sort of interviews you could do over the phone while you read your mail. And Debra was delighted because I ordinarily say no to all the publicity. I hate that part of the job and always have, especially the hell of the live TV chat-show, where nobody's ever read your goddam book and the first question is always ‘Where in the world do you get those wacky ideas?' The publicity process is like going to a sushi bar where you're the sushi, and it was great to get past it this time with the feeling that I'd been able to give Debra some good news she could take to her bosses. ‘Yes,' she could say, ‘ he's still being a booger about publicity, but I got him to do a couple of things.' All through this my dreams of Sara Laughs were going on not every night but every second or third night, with me never thinking of them in the daytime. I did my crosswords, I bought myself an acoustic steel guitar and started learning how to play it (I was never going to be invited to tour with Patty Loveless or Alan Jackson, however), I scanned each day's bloated obituaries in the Derry News for names that I knew. I was pretty much dozing on my feet, in other words. What brought all this to an end was a call from Harold Oblowski not more than three days after Debra's book-club call. It was storming out-side a vicious snow-changing-over-to-sleet event that proved to be the last and biggest blast of the winter. By mid-evening the power would be off all over Derry, but when Harold called at five P.M., things were just getting cranked up. ‘I just had a very good conversation with your editor,' Harold said. ‘A very enlightening, very energizing conversation. Just got off the in fact.' ‘Oh?' ‘Oh indeed. There's a feeling at Putnam, Michael, that this latest of yours may have a positive effect on your sales position in the market. It's very strong.' ‘Yes,' I said, ‘I'm taking it to the next level.' ‘Huh?' ‘I'm just blabbing, Harold. Go on.' ‘Well . . . Helen Nearing's a great lead character, and Skate is your best villain ever.' I said nothing. ‘Debra raised the possibility of making Helen's Promise the opener of a three-book contract. A very lucrative three-book contract. All without prompting from me. Three is one more than any publisher has wanted to commit to 'til now. I mentioned nine million dollars, three per book, in other words, expecting her to laugh . . . but an agent has to start somewhere, and I always choose the highest ground I can find. I think I must have Roman military officers somewhere back in my family tree.' Ethiopian rug-merchants, more like it, I thought, but didn't say. I felt the way you do when the dentist has gone a little heavy on the Novocain and flooded your lips and tongue as well as your bad tooth and the patch of gum surrounding it. If I tried to talk, I'd probably only flap and spread spit. Harold was almost purring. A three-book contract for the new mature Michael Noonan. Tall tickets, baby. This time I didn't feel like laughing. This time I felt like screaming. Harold went on, happy and oblivious. Harold didn't know the bookberry-tree had died. Harold didn't know the new Mike Noonan had cataclysmic shortness of breath and projectile-vomiting fits every time he tried to write. ‘You want to hear how she came back to me, Michael?' ‘Lay it on me.' ‘Well, nine's obviously high, but it's as good a place to start as any. We feel this new book is a big step forward for him.' This is extraordinary. Extraordinary. Now, I haven't given anything away, wanted to talk to you first, of course, but I think we're looking at seven-point-five, minimum. In fact ‘ ‘No.' He paused a moment. Long enough for me to realize I was gripping the phone so hard it hurt my hand. I had to make a conscious effort to relax my grip. ‘Mike, if you'll just hear me out ‘ ‘I don't need to hear you out. I don't want to talk about a new contract.' ‘Pardon me for disagreeing, but there'll never be a better time. Think about it, for Christ's sake. We're talking top dollar here. If you wait until after Helen's Promise is published, I can't guarantee that the same offer ‘ ‘I know you can't,' I said. ‘I don't want guarantees, I don't want offers, I don't want to talk contract.' ‘You don't need to shout, Mike, I can hear you.' Had I been shouting? Yes, I suppose I had been. ‘Are you dissatisfied with Putnam's? I think Debra would be very distressed to hear that. I also think Phyllis Grann would do damned near anything to address any concerns you might have.' Are you sleeping with Debra, Harold? I thought, and all at once it seemed like the most logical idea in the world that dumpy, fiftyish, balding little Harold Oblowski was making it with my blonde, aristocratic, Smith-educated editor. Are you sleeping with her, do you talk about my future while you're lying in bed together in a room at the Plaza? Are the pair of you trying to figure how many golden eggs you can get out of this tired old goose before you finally wring its neck and turn it into pat? ¦? Is that what you're up to? ‘Harold, I can't talk about this now, and I won't talk about this now.' ‘What's wrong? Why are you so upset? I thought you'd be pleased. Hell, I thought you'd be over the fucking moon.' ‘There's nothing wrong. It's just a bad time for me to talk long-term contract. You'll have to pardon me, Harold. I have something coming out of the oven.' ‘Can we at least discuss this next w ‘ ‘No,' I said, and hung up. I think it was the first time in my adult life I'd hung up on someone who wasn't a telephone salesman. I had nothing coming out of the oven, of course, and I was too upset to think about putting something in. I went into the living room instead, poured myself a short whiskey, and sat down in front of the TV I sat there for almost four hours, looking at everything and seeing nothing. Outside, the storm continued cranking up. Tomorrow there would be trees down all over Derry and the world would look like an ice sculpture. At quarter past nine the power went out, came back on for thirty seconds or so, then went out and stayed out. I took this as a suggestion to stop thinking about Harold's useless contract and how Jo would have chortled the idea of nine million dollars. I got up, unplugged the blacked-out TV so it wouldn't come blaring on at two in the morning (I needn't have worried; the power was off in Derry for nearly two days), and went upstairs. I dropped my clothes at the foot of the bed, crawled in without even bothering to brush my teeth, and was asleep in less than five minutes. I don't how long after that it was that the nightmare came. It was the last dream I had in what I now think of as my ‘Manderley series,' the culminating dream. It was made even worse, I suppose, by unrelievable blackness to which I awoke. It started like the others. I'm walking up the lane, listening to the crickets and the loons, looking mostly at the darkening slot of sky overhead. I reach the driveway, and here something has changed; someone has put a little sticker on the SARA LAUGHS sign. I lean closer and see it's a radio station sticker. WBLM, it says. 102.9, PORTLAND'S ROCK AND ROLL BLIMP. From the sticker I look back up into the sky, and there is Venus. I wish her as I always do, I wish for Johanna with the dank and vaguely smell of the lake in my nose. Something lumbers in the woods, rattling old leaves and breaking a branch. It sounds big. Better get down there, a voice in my head tells me. Something has taken out a contract on you, Michael. A three-book contract, and that's the worst kind. I can never move, I can only stand here. I've got walker's block. But that's just talk. I can walk. This time I can walk. I am delighted. I have had a major breakthrough. In the dream I think This changes everything! This changes everything! Down the driveway I walk, deeper and deeper into the clean but sour smell of pine, stepping over some of the fallen branches, kicking others out of the way. I raise my hand to brush the damp hair off my forehead and see the little scratch running across the back of it. I stop to look at it, curious. No time for that, the dream-voice says. Get down there. You've got a book to write. I can't write, I reply. That part's over. I'm on the back forty now. No, the voice says. There is something relentless about it that scares me. You had writer's walk, not writer's block, and as you can see, it's gone. Now hurry up and get down there. I'm afraid, I tell the voice. Afraid of what? Well . . . what if Mrs. Danvers is down there? The voice doesn't answer. It knows I'm not afraid of Rebecca de Winter's housekeeper, she's just a character in an old book, nothing but a bag of bones. So I begin walking again. I have no choice, it seems, but at every step my terror increases, and by the time I'm halfway down to the shadowy sprawling bulk of the log house, fear has sunk into my bones like fever. Something is wrong here, something is all twisted up. I'll run away, I think. I'll run back the way I came, like the gingerbread man I'll run, run all the way back to Derry, if that's what it takes, and I'll never come here anymore. Except I can hear slobbering breath behind me in the growing gloom, and padding footsteps. The thing in the woods is now the thing in the driveway. It's right behind me. If I turn around the sight of it will knock the sanity out of my head in a single roundhouse slap. Something with red eyes, something slumped and hungry. The house is my only hope of safety. I walk on. The crowding bushes clutch like hands. In the light of a rising moon (the moon has never risen before in this dream, but I have never stayed in it this long before), the rustling leaves look like sardonic faces. I see winking eyes and smiling mouths. Below me are the black windows of the house and I know that there will be no power when I get inside, the storm has knocked the power out, I will flick the lightswitch up and down, up and down, until something reaches out and takes my wrist and pulls me like a lover deeper into the dark. I am three quarters of the way down the driveway now. I can see the railroad-tie steps leading down to the lake, and I can see the float out there on the water, a black square in a track of moonlight. Bill Dean has put it out. I can also see an oblong something lying at the place where driveway ends at the stoop. There has never been such an object before. What can it be? Another two or three steps, and I know. It's a coffin, the one Frank Arlen dickered for . . . because, he said, the mortician was trying to stick it to me. It's Jo's coffin, and lying on its side with the top partway open, enough for me to see it's empty. I think I want to scream. I think I mean to turn around and run back up the driveway I will take my chances with the thing behind me. But before I can, the back door of Sara Laughs opens, and a terrible figure darting out into the growing darkness. It is human, this figure, and yet it's not. It is a crumpled white thing with baggy arms upraised. There is no face where its face should be, and yet it is shrieking in a glottal, loonlike voice. It must be Johanna. She was able to escape her coffin, her winding shroud. She is all tangled up in it. How hideously speedy this creature is! It doesn't drift as one imagines ghosts drifting, but races across the stoop toward the driveway. It has been waiting down here during all the dreams when I had been frozen, and now that I have finally been able to walk down, it means to have me. I'll scream when it wraps me in its silk arms, and I will scream when I smell its rotting, bug-raddled flesh and see its dark staring eyes through the fine weave of the cloth. I will scream as the sanity leaves my mind forever. I will scream . . . but there is no one out here to hear me. Only the loons will hear me. I have come again to Manderley, and this time I will never leave. The shrieking white thing reached for me and I woke up on the floor of crying out in a cracked, horrified voice and slamming my head repeatedly against something. How long before I finally realized I was no longer asleep, that I wasn't at Sara Laughs? How long before I realized that I had fallen out of bed at some point and had crawled across the room in my sleep, that I was on my hands and knees in a corner, butting my head against the place where the walls came together, doing it over and over again like a lunatic in an asylum? I didn't know, couldn't with the power out and the bedside clock dead. I know that at first I couldn't move out of the corner because it felt safer than the wider room would have done, and I know that for a long time the dream's force held me even after I woke up (mostly, I imagine, because I couldn't turn on a light and dispel its power). I was afraid that if I crawled out of my corner, the white thing would burst out of my bathroom, shrieking its dead shriek, eager to finish what it had started. I know I was shivering all over, and that I was cold and wet from the waist down, because my bladder had let go. I stayed there in the corner, gasping and wet, staring into the darkness, wondering if you could have a nightmare powerful enough in its imagery to drive you insane. I thought then (and think now) that I almost found out on that night in March. Finally I felt able to leave the corner. Halfway across the floor I pulled off my wet pajama pants, and when I did that, I got disoriented. What followed was a miserable and surreal five minutes in which I crawled aimlessly back and forth in my familiar bedroom, bumping into stuff and moaning each time I hit something with a blind, flailing hand. Each thing I touched at first seemed like that awful white thing. Nothing I touched felt like anything I knew. With the reassuring green numerals of the bedside clock gone and my sense of direction temporarily lost, I could have been crawling around a mosque in Addis Ababa. At last I ran shoulder-first into the bed. I stood up, yanked the pillowcase off the extra pillow, and wiped my groin and upper legs with it. Then I crawled back into bed, pulled the blankets up, and lay there shivering, listening to the steady tick of sleet on the windows. There was no sleep for me the rest of that night, and the dream didn't fade as dreams usually do upon waking. I lay on my side, the shivers slowly subsiding, thinking of her coffin there in the driveway, thinking that it made a kind of mad sense Jo had loved Sara, and if she were haunt anyplace, it would be there. But why would she want to hurt me? Why would my Jo ever want to hurt me? I could think of no reason. Somehow the time passed, and there came a moment when I realized the air had turned a dark shade of gray; the shapes of the furniture in it like sentinels in fog. That was a little better. That was more it. I would light the kitchen woodstove, I decided, and make strong coffee. Begin the work of getting this behind me. I swung my legs out of bed and raised my hand to brush my sweat-hair off my forehead. I froze with the hand in front of my eyes. I must have scraped it while I was crawling, disoriented, in the dark and to find my way back to bed. There was a shallow, clotted cut across the back, just below the knuckles.

Positive Behavior Support Essay

In essence, Positive Behavior Support or PBS refers to the general approach for providing a resolution to problems involving behaviors which are shown or manifested by individuals with certain disabilities (â€Å"Fact Sheet: Positive Behavior Support†, 2005). These behaviors deemed problematic may include but is not limited to: self-inflicted injury, aggressive behavior, and other similar destructive actions; tantric behavior and other disruptive physical responses; irritating conducts which are repeated in excess which include   behaviors that interfere with an individual’s social or learning interactions.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Positive Behavior Support is founded on values which are focused on the individual which necessitates methods that are considerably positive and respect the individual’s sense of dignity. Moreover, interventions through the use of PBS are done on an individual basis and are taken from the comprehension of the individual and the individual’s surrounding environment. Interventions through the use of PBS are commonly characterized of many strategies which entail collaboration between two or more support providers and care givers. Lastly, the tasks under the PBS methods should involve developments in terms of social relationships and other variants of enhancements to the person’s ‘lifestyle’ and declines in behavior problems (Jackson & Warren, 2000, p. 1441).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   PBS starts with the recognition and establishment of a support team consisting of people who are most related to the life of the individual in need of PBS. Apparently, the support team may be composed largely of the members of the family, friends, classmates and school teachers and other people who are related in a certain way to the person and to the person’s problem behavior (Amado & Rivera, 1999, p. 375). The PBS plan is usually under the helm of the responsibility of the members of the support team.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   After the team has been identified, an agreement concerning the general goals or PBS vision is agreed upon by the team through the method termed as â€Å"person centered planning†. After identifying the vision, the team begins with the scheme to obtain information regarding the problem behavior. Consequently, the team then jots down the PBS plan which is comprised of several components or which include strategies for: preempting the problem behaviors before they take place; teaching and giving increments to skills which are designed to change the problem behaviors; handling the problem behaviors if or when these behaviors do occur, and; for checking and observing progress in order to evaluate the progress of the PBS plan and to create adjustments accordingly.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   For instance, Tary J. Tobin (2007) argues for the use of PBS in identifying â€Å"ways to assess and measure behavior support practices in schools†, in developing processes which support classroom teachers, and contributing to sustainable â€Å"positive behavior support systems for students† with behavior problems which place them â€Å"at risk for emotional and behavioural disorders† (p. 2). The author specifically showed evidence on the application of PBS specifically Project FIVE or Functional Interventions in Versatile Environments in the development and sustainment of PBS in various systems such as School Wide System, Classroom and Non-Classroom Systems (Tobin, 2007, p. 2). The author was able to arrive at the conclusion that PBS benefits the aim of not only resolving problem behaviors but also preventing the occurrence of problem behaviors.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Another case example is that of the observations of Lise Fox, Susan Jack and Linda Broyles (2005) which arrived at several notable conclusions. It was found out that PBS initiative has paved the way for life-changing results for children such as the decrease in the â€Å"number of children identified as having challenging behavior† who were then referred for mental health services (p. 13). The authors were also able to determine the conclusion that children are capable of understanding and following â€Å"behavior expectations† inasmuch as they â€Å"support each other in following classroom expectations†, are capable of making transitions from one classroom to another classroom with minimal or zero difficulties with regard to the observation that children â€Å"adjust to the classroom more quickly† (p. 13).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The findings of the reviewed articles relate to the rationale for using PBS— to provide a resolution to problems involving behaviors which are shown or manifested by individuals with certain disabilities—inasmuch as the methods used for meeting the goals of PBS directly meet the objectives. Tobin’s (2007) methods, arguments and findings were able to substantiate on the general application of PBS in schools and its desired effects on the resolution of problem behaviors. On the other hand, Fox, Jack and Broyles (2005) focused on a less general scope in the application of PBS—school children in the classroom setting.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The two articles are only some of the many studies conducted in reaffirming the effect and effectiveness of Positive Behavior Support in providing answers to the problem behaviors of children especially young students with disruptive behaviors and in preventing the occurrence of these behaviors. Further, PBS is shown as a means of lessening the hindrances in the learning environments of students and children alike. Since PBS primarily involves the people who are closest or who are directly related to the individual in need of PBS, there is strong reason to believe that the individual will be able to overcome problem behaviors in the process. References Amato, P. R., & Rivera, F. (1999). Paternal Involvement and Children’s Behavior Problems. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 61(2), 375. Fact Sheet: Positive Behavior Support. (2005).  Ã‚   Retrieved December 5, 2007, from http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:IQEnuBe9mtEJ:www.ucf-card.org/uploads/factsheets/1187875091_eng.pdf+Positive+Behavior+Support&hl=tl&ct=clnk&cd=13&gl=ph Fox, L., Jack, S., & Broyles, L. (2005). Program-Wide Positive Behavior Support: Supporting Young Children’s Social-Emotional Development and Addressing Challenging Behavior [Electronic Version], 1-17. Retrieved December 5, 2007, from http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:sCY8zBaOfjEJ:challengingbehavior.fmhi.usf.edu/Kansas_Book_Web.pdf+Positive+Behavior+Support&hl=tl&ct=clnk&cd=11&gl=ph Jackson, Y., & Warren, J. S. (2000). Appraisal, Social Support, and Life Events: Predicting Outcome Behavior in School-Age Children. Child Development 71(5), 1441. Tobin, T. J. (2007). Systems of Individual Support: The Functional Interventions in Versatile Environments Project’s Pilot Study of Evaluation Tools [Electronic Version], 1-46. Retrieved December 5, 2007, from http://www.uoregon.edu/~ttobin/measure.pdf