Healthcare Information Systems - Hardware and Software Essay - 1

Healthcare Information Systems - Hardware and Software - Essay Example Moreover, patients also have to be physically available at the time of inspection that may be a daunting task for old and weak patients. However, if the disease is diagnosed at the early stages, life of a patient can be saved. Hence, if the same tasks can be performed by incorporating clinical information systems, the quality of curing diseases will improve significantly. Clinical information systems adds value to clinical practices and provide advantages that may also contribute significant factors affecting on a life of a patient. The factors are demonstrated below: Clinical Information Systems provides health care with quality and value Clinical Information Systems eliminates clinical or medical errors Clinical Information Systems eliminates cost associated with health care procedures Clinical Information Systems improves the productivity of administrative staff of hospitals. Clinical Information Systems decreases paperwork and can be accessible via Internet to anywhere on the pla net. Moreover, the cost related to health care is also an emerging problem (Demographics of aging, n.d). For instance, expenditures in the United States will grow to 15.9% for the health care from the GDP of $2.6 trillion by 2010 (Keynote, n.d). The leadership of a global economy has a caterpillar approach, to address the computerized health care systems. Increment is observed over recent years and some steps are taken for the resolution of these issues. Various computerized applications are developed to improving clinical practices in an organization or hospitals. In an organization, computerized clinical practices are vital to handle the clinical procedures on a daily basis in healthcare organizations. These clinical procedures are utilized to promote productivity of an organization equipped with computerized healthcare systems. Moreover, the contribution of a healthcare system is applied, to utilizing resources and modifying activities of the clinical staff by best practice guide lines. Currently, there are complex diagnostic tools for processing medical records, laboratory reports, various forms are available in print form, and there is a requirement of exchanging information between the clinical staff. This is where the role of clinical information systems makes their presence. Electronic Medical/Health Records, Tele consultation and continual medical education are contributing to the healthcare industry. EHR is defined as â€Å"The Electronic Health Record (EHR) is a longitudinal electronic record of patient health information generated by one or more encounters in any care delivery setting. Included in this information are patient demographics, progress notes, problems, medications, vital signs, past medical history, immunizations, laboratory data and radiology reports† (HIMSS - electronic health record (EHR), n.d). The electronic health and medical records maintain health data of a patient to create an individual set of medical data. The data is maintained in an independent set because healthcare provides gain access of EMR from anywhere to diagnose a patient based on the patient’s health information. Moreover, EMR also facilitates to establish a personalized health plan for a patient. Moreover, EMR improves the health planning and policies at the national level by demonstrating the information and services of people or individuals. In addition, EMR system also facilitates clinical procedures, which are mentioned below: Heath insurance companies access EMR

Learning Experience Of Partnership Working Social Work Essay

Learning Experience Of Partnership Working Social Work Essay To begin with I would like to focus on the policies and legislation which have identified partnership working. There is a large body of policies and legislation that focuses on collaboration and partnership working; some include duties for statutory organisations in relation to inter-agency working. I have examined only some of the key polices and legislation as there are too many to examine for the purpose of this essay. First of all I looked at the UK wide policies/legislations and then I focused on Welsh policy; these are set out in chronological order. To start with the Seebohm Report (1968) argued for a co-operation across the spectrum of welfare state services and more effective co-operation by different professionals. It proposed a major restructuring of personal social services into a unified social service department. The National Health Service and Community Care Act (1990) gave a duty to local authorities to assess and where applicable meet a persons needs for community care services by collaboration with other agencies. Following this Building Bridges (1995) encourages interdisciplinary and multi-agency care planning. The Health and Social Care Act (2001) aimed to develop partnerships and provide integrated care by building on existing health and local authority powers to develop care trusts. The National Service Framework for Older People (2001) set out standards for care of older people across health and social services. It aimed to remove age discrimination, provide person centered care, and promote independence, fitting services around peoples needs. Means for achieving these aims included the single assessment process and integration in commissioning arrangement and service provision. Valuing people: a new strategy for learning disability for the 21st century (2001) highlighted partnership. Working through local partnership boards and inter-professional/inter-agency co-operation are seen as central to achieving the four key principles; rights, independence, choice and inclusion for people with learning disabilities. National Service Framework (NSF) for Older People (2001) highlighted that pro fessionals should become more engaged in assessments and for agencies to minimise any duplication of work. Community Care (Delayed Discharge) Act (2003) introduced a new dynamic in interagency and inter professional relationships. It made Social Services authorities liable to reimburse the NHS for delays where patients in hospital are medically fit but unable to be discharged due solely to Social Services inability to provide assessment and community care services within a required timescale. Every Child Matters (2003) in response to the Victoria Climbià © inquiry proposed: improved interagency information sharing and co-operation; work in multi-disciplinary teams; a lead professional role; creation of local safeguarding boards. In the long term integration of key services for children and young people in childrens trusts will be under a director of childrens services. Children Act (2004) allowed the creation of database to support professionals in sharing information. The Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act (2004) placed a duty on Social Services to inform carers of their right to an asses sment. It also enabled Social Services to ask other public bodies including the health organizations to provide services to carers. Single Assessment Process Implementation Guidance (2004) sets out how the single assessment process described in the Mental Capacity Act (2005) where social workers and care professionals acting on behalf of someone who lacks capacity, must act in a persons best interest. Working Together to Safeguard Children (2006) addressed to practitioners and managers, sets out how organisations and individuals should work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, stressing shared responsibility and the need to understand the roles of others. It described the role of local safeguarding childrens boards (LSCBs), training for inter-agency work and the detailed processes for managing individual cases. These elements are statutory guidance, which required compliance. Mental Health Act (2007) amended the 1983 Act broadening the group of professional practitioners who undertake approved social worker (ASW) functions, to be known as Approved Mental Health Professionals. Concurrently, the code of practice of the 1983 Act was updated, stressing inter-professional collaboration in assessment and after care planning and involvement of patients and carers. Building brighter futures: next steps for the childrens workforce (2008) sets out components of integra ted working as they emerged from Childrens Trusts. It considered the contribution of the Common Core of Skills and Knowledge and the pros and cons of professional identities and boundaries. It looked forward to achieving a broad vision of integrated working that has support across the whole childrens workforce. Now I would like to focus upon the policies that are specifically within Wales. Firstly, The Review of Health and Social Care in Wales, (WAG, 2003) emphasized the importance of multi-agency working. It looked at decision-making processes, the capacity and effectiveness of existing services, the capacity of management, the processes governing standard setting, information management, resource flows, and incentives and sanctions. The Report of the Wanless Committee (WAG, 2004) focuses on shared decision-making between professionals and users and patients. It also highlights that there needs to be integrated thinking across health and social care boundaries. It also highlights the need for a new approach for funding health and social care. Making the Connections: Delivering Better Services for Wales: The Welsh Assembly Government Vision for Public Services (WAG, 2004) policy aims to involve communities and people by putting them in the centre of service planning and delivery, it hopes t o achieve this by having effective and efficient co-operation between public services.. Children and Young People: Rights to Action, Stronger Partnerships for Better Outcomes (WAG, 2005)is paper outlines the expectation from the Assembly Government for local agencies to take a joint approach in planning services to make them as effective as possible. Fulfilled Lives, Supportive Communities: Improving Social Services in Wales from 2008-2018 (WAG, 2006) this focuses on partnership arrangements which put the citizen at the centre and work effectively across sectors and organisations using care pathways to support people. Lastly, Sustainable Social Services for Wales A Framework for Action (WAG, 2011) highlights the importance of developing more integration of health and social services for children, young people, and frail older people, and in respect of re-ablement services. Joining up in this way will help break down barriers that can often get in the way of providing services and d rive out duplication. This sets out the current vision for partnership working within Wales until 2016. As highlighted above there are many key pieces of legislation and policies which focus on the importance of multi-agency working. Since the 1960s there has been a focus on partnership working for social services. The main emphasis is that welfare services could be improved if statutory organisations worked together (WAG, 2003). There appears to be a fastening pace to make partnership working more effective. Perhaps this is down to the increased budget cuts therefore eliminating duplication of work and improving service delivery may be more important than ever before. There are some key principles and ethical issues to partnership working that are highlighted below. Gasper (2010) highlights that partnership working can improve access to services and avoid duplication; this means services can be delivered in more of a cost-effective way. Although Gasper reflects positively on partnership working there are other areas of partnership working that could lead to several dilemmas. Glasby (2004) defines inter-professional working as two or more people from different professions communicating and co-operating to achieve a common goal. Adams et al (2006) highlights the importance of having a professional identity to partnership working. Adams et al (2006) suggests that a professional identity gives a person a set of values, expertise, role and responsibilities; for example, social workers side more with the social model and health more with the medical model. Partnership working can be complex and often brings people together who have different views on wh at is right for a service user with different approaches (Gasper, 2010). Whittington (2003) suggests that if professionals can understand what they have in common, what they can contribute individually, what can be complementary and identify the possible tensions between them; it could improve the effectiveness of partnership working. By identifying these areas clients could benefit to better services. Keeping (2006) highlights a general uncertainty from other professionals around what social workers actually do. Lack of knowledge of what each professional involved, can lead to stereotyping each worker (Lymbery, 2006). There is often no clarity around the roles of voluntary and service users in partnership working (Marks, 2007). This means that it is important for social workers and other professionals to remember what responsibilities lay with them and try to understand other professionals responsibilities to make partnership working more efficient. Seden et al (2011) suggests that social workers are often caught between care and control, finding their way through complex relationships with service users, other professionals, peers and the public. Trust is an important factor when facilitating open discussion and successful role negation, both of which are important features of inter-professional working (Barrett and Keeping, 2005). Where professionals trust each others motives, competence and dependability they are more able to manage risky situations (Lawson, 2004). Trust is an important element of a successful collaborative working relationship. Issues may arise within partnership working when there is a use of specialist language that not everyone understands (Maguire and Truscott, 2006). For example health professionals may have abbreviations that the social workers may not understand and vice versa. Communication across professions can be difficult, especially when they are not in the same location. Not being based in the same location can result in a breakdown and delays in services; this can be seen in hospital discharges for example (McCormack et al, 2008). There may be differences in status between professionals and this must be acknowledged to understand the impacts it can have on communication (Barrett and Keeping, 2005). Some practitioners perceive threats to their professional status, autonomy and control when asked to participate in more democratic decision making forums (Lloyd and Wait, 2006). There may be issues around different resources available across different professionals. Resources can be split into three areas; money, information and time. Issues around money can be acknowledged in numerous areas. One is that there are different funding cycles, separate budgets and financial pressures (Frye and Webb, 2002). Also professionals may be reluctant in funding services if there are pressures on budgets (White and Harris, 2001). Information sharing can pose constraints for partnership working. For example in Health and Social Care there are different ICT systems in place, there is a need for a universal and shared systems between Health and Social Care to improve the exchange of information (WAG, 2003). There is also reluctance around sharing information with different professionals for fear of breeching confidentiality (WAG, 2003). Partnership working also needs a sufficient amount of dedicated time for it to be effective (Atkinson, 2007). Frost and Lloyd (2006) suggest ed that time is needed for relationships to develop and trust to be built. These are key components for agreements to be made around protocols and reflection upon new professional identities (Frost and Lloyd, 2006). Partnership working may involve travelling to meetings, some of which may be long distances; this requires a lot of time (Atkinson, 2007). Currently my practice learning level three is based within the Adult Community Care Team (ACCT) which implements care plans for clients with presenting eligible needs. To ensure that clients needs are met there is a process which involves various professionals within the information gathering and care planning stages; for example social worker, health, brokerage, finance team and carer assessors. ACCT works daily with other professionals; some are within the same location such as occupational therapists and some are offsite, like doctors based in hospitals. There is a wide range or partnership working; some work more successfully than others. I have found those on site tend to be more successful as information exchange is more effective and there is a better understanding of each others roles. One particular experience I would like to focus on is during one unified assessment (UA) when I worked collaboratively with an assessor nurse. Assessor nurses are based within the local health board in another location. The reason for our partnership working was to identify if this particular client was in need of a nursing home rather than a residential home. The expertise of the nurse was vital to complete the assessment. However there were some issues within this process. Firstly we have different ICT systems so we both have access to different information; Health could only see medical records whereas I could only see Social Service records. Having two separate ICT systems also made it difficult to complete the UA and there was a duplication of work. I had to use the Social Service UA documentation and the nursing assessor had to use the health UA documentation. If there was one ICT system only one UA form would have needed to be completed. This would have saved both of us having to complete two different lots of paperwork, which essentially had the same outcomes. There was another issue of understanding specialist language and abbreviations used within Health. I found myself regularly asking for clarification. There was also a reluctance to explore continuing health care from the assessor nurse even though there were triggers. This could be down to the sheer amount of time needed to complete the decision support tool and perhaps budget restraints. There are a few examples of good partnership working that I have experienced on placement but the majority had difficulty around budgets, communication, different ICT systems, difference in languages and a lack of understating other roles. Overall this essay has highlighted the increasing focus on partnership working from a UK wide perspective and a Welsh specific context. Some policies reflect upon the issues mentioned within this essay. There appears to be a faster pace to improve partnership working within a policy context. For partnership working to be positive, there is a need for collaboration from professionals to overcome particular issues and great outcomes can be achieved. Word Count:2,377

Mexico Essays -- Geography Mexico Mexican History Essays

Mexico   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Southward from its 1,500 mile long border with the United States lies the Estados Unidos Mexicanos. A country with slightly more than 750,000 square miles in area, Mexico has a vast array of mineral resources, limited agricultural land, and a rapidly growing population. These factors are the basis for many of the country's present problems as well as opportunities for future development. The nation is struggling to modernize its economy. With more than 80 million people in the mid-1980s, Mexico's overall population density exceeds 110 per square mile. More than half of its inhabitants live in the country's central core, while the arid north and the tropical south are sparsely settled.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The stereotype of Mexico is that it is a country with a population consisting mainly of subsistence farmers has little validity. Petroleum and tourism dominate the economy, and industrialization is increasing in many parts of the nation. Internal migration from the countryside has caused urban centers to grow dramatically: more than two thirds of all Mexicans now live in cities. Mexico City, with a metropolitan area population of approximately 16 million people, is the largest city in the world. While still low by United States standards, the nation's gross national product per capita rose significantly during the 1970s. Despite impressive social and economic gains, since 1981 Mexico has been wracked by severe inflation and an enormous foreign debt brought on in large part by precipitous declines in the value of petroleum products.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Geologically, Mexico is located in one of the Earth's most dynamic areas. It is a part of the "Ring of Fire," a region around the Pacific Ocean highlighted by active volcanism and frequent seismic activity. Within the context of plate tectonics, a theory developed to explain the creation of major landform features around the world, Mexico is situated on the western, or leading, edge of the huge North American Plate. Its interaction with the Pacific, Cocos, and Caribbean plates has given rise over geologic time to the Earth- building processes that created most of Mexico. Towering peaks, like Citlaltepetl at some 18,000 feet, are extremely young in geologic terms and are examples of the volcanic forces that built much of central Mexico. The spectacular eruption of the volcano Chinchon in 1981 w... ...ch of central and southern Mexico and had established their capital at Tula in the Mesa Central. They also built the city of Teotihuacan near present-day Mexico City. At about the same time, the Zapotecs controlled the Oaxaca Valley and parts of the Southern Highlands. The cities they built at Mitla and Monte Alban remain, though they were taken over by the Mixtecs prior to the arrival of the Spanish. When the Spanish arrived in central Mexico, the Aztecs controlled most of the Mesa Central through a state tribute system that extracted taxes and political servility from conquered tribal groups. The Aztecs migrated into the Mesa Central from the north and fulfilled a tribal prophesy by establishing a city where an eagle with a snake in its beak rested on a cactus. This became the national symbol of Mexico and adorns the country's flag and official seal. The Aztecs founded the city of Tenochtitlan in the early 1300s, and it became the capital of their empire. The Tlaxcalans to the east, the Tarascans on the west, and the Chichimecs in the north were outside the Aztec domain and frequently warred with them. The nation's name derives from the Aztecs' war god, Mexitli.

Identifying and defining problems Essay

Leaders are at the forefront of every organization. They are looked upon by their subordinates in initiating the plans and goals of the organization. In essence, leaders are the guiding light of every organization whenever the latter is experiencing financial and economic woes, turmoil within the organization or disruption in the organization’s work processes. A leader has the power to lift an organization out from the ashes of ruins and into the world of success. But with great power comes great responsibility, hence a leader should have, within him, the element of skill in identifying and defining problems. Whenever an organization, say a company or a corporation, loses its edge in competing in the market wherein it is situated, there is a need for it to innovate and change. Therefore, it is the leader’s duty to instill discipline among the employees, so as to push the whole organization into motion. Although â€Å"it’s difficult to put together a group with enough power to guide the effort or to convince key individuals to spend the time necessary to create and communicate a change vision†, (Kotter, p.36) a leader should have a sense of empathy with the organization’s employees, so as to let him be aware of what the whole organization is feeling about the whole effort of innovating and changing the organization. For problems to be identified and defined there is a need for the cooperation of both the managerial leaders and the rank and file employees. In undertaking a change within an organization, people often â€Å"underestimate the enormity of the task; the work requires great cooperation, initiative, and willingness to make sacrifices from many people. † (Kotter, p. 35) Empathy comes into play here. When the people within the organization know that there leader is to be trusted, they would not hesitate to cooperate in the leader’s efforts. Innovation and change will come eventually. The absence of a major visible crisis, low overall performance standards or a lack of sufficient performance feedback contribute to complacency which, in turn, contributes to laxity in doing the work processes below quality standards. Leaders should be adept at noticing or recognizing these sources of complacency so as to remove any hindrance to an organization’s effort to innovate and change. Add to this, as requirement for a leader, the skill of good listening; for through this, misinformation within the organization would be greatly decreased. It is said that opportunity is problem turned inside out; hence organizational problems often open many windows for innovation and change. The first step in managerial problem solving is problem and opportunity identification. Tushman and O’Reilly (2002, p. 40) said that just as physicians first focus on their patients presenting symptoms, managers must identify their organization’s critical problems. This done, they can then diagnose the causes of these problems and, in turn, take action to address them—while avoiding unexpected side effects. Similarly, once opportunities are identified, managers can analyze those aspects of the current organization that will get in the way of achieving the unit’s aspirations. With the authors’ idea in mind, a leader should know the actual assessment of the organization so that he can properly implement the right strategy to a particular unit in an organization. In doing this, a leader or â€Å"manager (and his or her team) needs to be clear about the strategy, objectives and vision of the unit. Such clarity is the bedrock of managing innovation and change. Only when strategy, objectives, and vision are defined can managers move on to an honest appraisal of the current performance of their organization. † (Tushman & O’Reilly, p. 41) After the mission and goals have been set and are clear in the minds of the unit members within the organization, efforts should be made in determining how the proposed strategies will fare considering the current performance of the organization. This will provide a situation wherein the management can gauge whether the mission and goals of the organization are realistic or not. As Tushman and O’Reilly have stated, organizational performance gaps are the differences between desired and real performance. These performance gaps can be termed as opportunity gaps. When we arrive at knowing these gaps, we would really be able to clearly formulate a clear and definite strategy to use in a particular situation. But strategies won’t materialize on their own; it needs painstaking efforts to be able to arrive at these strategies. What can a leader do about this? A good leader knows that he cannot steer the whole organization, especially if it is a big one, towards its goals on his own. He needs the help of all his subordinates. It is needed for the leader to encourage the management and the rank and file employees to join him in formulating and implementing these strategies for innovation and change to be realized. It is a fact that â€Å"creative thinkers tap into their imaginations by combining and recombining ideas or concepts to make new connections. Creative thinking is really about discovering new connections through the use of the imagination, diverse stimuli, and ‘creative-connections power tools’. † (Dundon, p. 42) In addition to these approaches for identifying and defining problems and opportunities for innovation and change in an organization, Dundon stated (2002, p. 64) that a preferred method for idea generation is having an â€Å"Innovation Group† which, because of its comprehensiveness and rigorous design, goes beyond the more common brainstorming method. This allows discussing and formulating ideas at a higher level within the group. Once these approaches have been taken, what a leader should do now is to carefully evaluate how the organization reacts to these implemented strategies so as for him to make necessary corrections when the need arises. ABSTRACT There are many approaches to identify and define problems that confront a particular organization. These problems would not be addressed and be made visible without the guidance or skill of a good leader. Hence, it is needed that a leader is knowledgeable of the processes of an organization, empathic and, best of all, a great innovator himself who believes in positive results that innovation and change bring to an organization. Sources: 1) Dundon, Elaine (2002). The Seeds of Innovation. New York, American Management Association 2) Kotter, John P. (1996). Leading Change. Massachusetts, Harvard Business School Press 3) Tushman, Michael L. , & O’Reilly, Charles A. (2002). Winning Through Innovation. Massachusetts, Harvard Business School Press.

Cell Membrane Transport

The purposes for these experiments is to be able to understand osmosis and its relationship to tonicity of solutions, and the transportation of molecules across cell membranes. It's also used to understand, and how temperature affects diffusion. You also learn how to test for presences of starches and sugars in solutions. In the first exercise I will be testing for diffusion through an artificial membranes. This one has forty five steps to it. I will not go into it step by step but I'm going to say just the important ones. You need a cup to put 150mL of distilled water in cup number one.Then you soak the dialysis tubing in this cup for five minutes. Then you add in the graduated cylinder, 4mL of distilled water, 2 mL of starch solution, and 2 mL of the glucose solution, then pour it into cup number two. Then use the glass stirring rod to stir the solution in cup two. Then remove the dialysis tubing from cup one, set the cup aside for later, tie up one end tightly. Then test the tubin g with distilled water for any leaks, then pour out the water. Place a funnel at the end of the tubing and then pour the glucose-starch solution into the dialysis tubing from cup two.Then get all of the air out of the tubing and then tie that end securely. Rinse the outside of the tubing to remove what contents could have gotten on the outside of it. Then record the color of solution inside the dialysis tubing. Then use the IKI dropping pipet to slowly add IKI solution to the 150 mL in cup one until it looks like the color of strong tea, stirring with the glass rod while adding the drops. Then record the color of the contents in cup one in before dialysis. Put the dialysis tubing inside cup one, and you let sit for an hour. After the hour, record the color of the dialysis tubing under after dialysis.Then clean cup two and label it dialysis tubing contents. Hold the dialysis tubing over cup two and cut the tubing to release the contents, but save the contents of cup one for later. Th en prepare a hot-water bath, and marking the test tubes numbers one through three. In test tube one add 2 cm of the solution from cup one, and then add 1 cm of Benedict's reagent. In test tube number 2 add the solution from cup two and then add 1 cm of Benedict's reagent. In test tube three add 2 cm of distilled water and then add 1 cm of Benedict's reagent. Record the color of each tube in the before heating column.Place the test tubes in the test tube rack that is inside the hot-water bath, and leave them for about ten minutes. After the ten minutes, use the test tube clamp to remove one at a time and record any color change in the column after heating. This is how you test for diffusion through an artificial membrane. The second test is about diffusion at different temperature using potassium crystals. THe first step is to label three styrofoam cups hot, cold, and ambient. In the cold water cup add two pieces of ice and then fill the cup 3/4 full with tap water.The ambient cup ad d 3/4 water to this cup, and hot water cup add 3/4 full of hot tap water. You let each stand for about five minutes, and then add the temp of each cup to the table. Then label three test tubes and put into test tube rack, using tweezers add about five grains of potassium to each test tube, remember to add the same amount to each one. After this you add 7 mL of water from each cup into a seperate test tube. Remember not to stir when adding water, observe the color of the water in each test tube and record these finding under the 0 minutes in the table. Then place the test tubes inside the cups.After five minutes check the test tubes for the colors of them and then record them in the table. This experiment is to check how the temperature affects the rate of diffusion. In this third experiment we are going to check for tonicity and diffusion. The first step you will add 10mL of distilled water in the graduated cylinder and then one gram of salt to make a sodium chloride solution, then mix well. Mark two test tubes and one and two, filling the first one with distilled water two-thirds full. The second tube add the sodium chloride two-thirds full.After this you will need to cut two pieces of potato about 0.5 cm wide and 7 cm long. Measure each piece and record in the table. Place a piece of potato in each test tube, and wait for an hour. After that hour empty out the water and sodium chloride. The on a paper towel put the piece of potato from the first test tube, distilled water, on the left side of a paper towel, and on the right side place the potato from the sodium chloride solution. Check and see which one is hard and soft. The table makes it easier to keep up with the results of each experiments. In the first experiment there are two tables one for before and after dialysis and the other one is before and after heating.The first table is for recording the changes during dialysis and the second table is for Benedict's Reagent results. These tables help keep tra ck of which one is positive and which one is negative. In the second experiment the table is used for the study of diffusion at different temperatures. You write down the color of the solutions in each tube at the beginning and the second thing is you write the color after five minutes. This one gives the results of how diffusion reacts at different temperatures by color. The third experiment table is to determine the results for tonicity and diffusion.First you write down the dimensions of the slices potatoes before you begin the experiment, in the distilled water column and the sodium chloride solution. Then after the allotted time you take out the slices of potatoes and measure them, and write it down in the after column. Then you determine which is one of the following: tonicity, hypertonic, isotonic, or hypotonic. The observations that I had for the first was how a cell membrane works. The changing of the color in the dialysis tubing was pretty amazing to watch. It was interest ing how the clear solution turned into a dark purple, almost black.Then after the second part of the experiment how they all change from a light blue to either the same color to a yellowish brown. The second experiment is when we use temperature a chemicals to determine diffusion in different states. It just amazes me that so far the main thing that we use is distilled water, except in this one, I used tap water. Sometimes I can smell the chemicals and sometimes I don't. I like this experiment because I don't have to use the stove, I just use the hot water, cold water with ice, and room temperature water. The third experiment is to define tonicity and diffusion.This one was very interesting for me. Even though I had to wait for an hour for the results it was worth it. After you follow the procedure step by step, you get to see the results. After you take the potatoes out of the test tubes, you lay the on a paper towel and you get to feel them. For me this was a more hands on because you got to feel the difference between the two and determine what each one means. In the first experiment there was eight questions to answer starting out with the first one, What is the purpose of this exercise and what is being tested?The answer to this is the purpose is to demonstrate how the dialysis tubing represents the cell membrane, and the discovery of which contains starch. The second question is What color change did you observe in the dialysis tubing and what does that change indicate? It went from a clear liquid to a dark blue almost black and that indicates there is starch present. Another question is Was there a color change in the water around the tubing and if so explain? There was no color change in the surrounding water. What does the Benedict's reagant detect? This detects sugars in the solutions.What does the IKI solution detect? The IKI solution detects starches. The seventh question asks about the similarities of the dialysis tubing and a cell membrane. They both are thin and do not allow molecules to flow through areas they do not belong in. The last question is the transport mechanism in the model cell passive or active and why? I say it is active because it has to constantly not let any molecules pass through. In the second experiment there was only two questions. The first being How does temperature affect the rate of diffusion? With the cold water the potassium just settles at the bottom.The ambient water is a little darker, like a medium pink, and darker on the bottom. While the hot water is dark pink all the way, it is a even color. The third experiment has six questions with the first one being What is the condition of each potato strip after soaking in the test tubes for an hour, and which one in limp and which is crispy? The sizes changed on both, the one that soaked in just distilled water, grew a little bit and was crispy, which means it soaked up water. The sodium chloride got a little smaller, and was limp which means it i s hypertonic.The second question is How would you explain the difference in the conditions of the potato strips using the concept of tonicity? One of them soaked up some water and the other one did not. What was the tonicity of the fresh water solution with respect of the potato cells? It soaked up the water but with it having soaked up just water it didn't soak up any chemicals. What is the tonicity of the salt water solution with respect of the potato cell? In this one it soaked up salt and this made the potato limp. How does the changes in the conditions of the potato strips relate to the wilting of plants?It all depends on what the roots and the plant itself is soaking up, such as chemicals. The last question is How does keeping vegetables cool slow them from wilting? The coolness slows down the process of tonicity and it doesn't soak up moisture from the air. In the first experiment I learned how a cell membrane works and if it can contain starch without contaminating the surro unding areas. The second experiment taught me how different temperatures affect how chemicals react. The third experiment showed me how salt affects the state of the potato and that it can affect other things, too.