Tackling Problem Behaviour in Classrooms | Case Study

Tackling Problem Behaviour in Classrooms | Case Study Single Subject Design Abstract The following addresses the case study level C, case 2. It concludes on how to tackle problem behavior faced by teachers in class rooms through single subject research designs and offers a few solutions on how to counter act them. Dependent Variable The dependent variables (DV) in this case are two specific behaviors demonstrated by Rachel, which are: Not raising her hand before answering a question Unnecessarily communicating with her peers during class lecture Independent Variable The independent variable (IV) will be the response of the teachers to Rachel’s problematic behavior, that is how they reprimand her and the corrective measures they take to correct her behavior in class so that she learns to follow the class room norms and maintain discipline and abides by the rules similar to her peers. Behavior Which Needs To Be Changed Rachel demonstrates two sets of behavior related to disturbing classroom discipline which she needs to rectify in order to maintain the decorum of the class room. Firstly, Rachel needs to learn to raise her hand before answering questions asked by her teachers during comprehension and reading activities like everyone else instead of just blurting out answers without being called upon or waiting her turn. Secondly, she must learn not to pass notes to her friends or talk to her peers during class unnecessarily and pay attention to the lecture and focus on what is being taught. Single Subject Research Designs (SSRD) In SSRD, basically, the participant is passed through a non-treatment (baseline) and a treatment (experimental condition) phase and his performance is identified during each phase. Since Rachel is the only one in her class demonstrating problem behavior, she will be the only test subject and will act as her own control group. In this type of design a non-treatment stage is first initiated till the performance in question validates steadiness. When the behavior becomes steady, the treatment stage is started. Since Rachel’s obtrusive behavior is already very consistent we can move on to the next phase in our research design. Based on the data collected through direct observation of Rachel’s behavior, in Mr. Smith and Mrs. Patel’s biology class during reading and comprehension activities, and the personal insight of the observer a treatment plan for Rachel will be developed as a corrective measure for her behavior. The behavior in demand, the dependent variable in the experiment, that is, Rachel not raising her hand before answering a question and passing notes to her friends in class and talking to her peers will be measured through appropriate data collection methods. In this scenario event recording (frequency of the target behavior is noted with each one having a specific beginning and end) and interval recording (observation of an individual during specified observation periods divided into equal time intervals) will be most appropriate. The observer has to be discrete while collecting data so that the subject remains unaware that he/she is being observed as this might cause them to bec ome cautious and change their pattern of behavior causing distortion in the data collected leading to incorrect results. It is always wiser to assess a group of students than a single individual as to ward off suspicion. (Sachse-Lee) The event recording chart shows on which specific occasions Rachel has spoken out of turn in class and on which ones she waited to be called on. A written record provides an actual proof of her behavior and provides a justification for taking corrective measures against her actions. The interval recording chart shows how many times the problem behavior has occurred over a specific period of time. If the frequency of occurrence of problem behavior is greater than what otherwise might be considered normal, it calls for corrective measures to be taken to correct the situation, which is the case for Rachel. The results of a single subject experiment are classically understood by mentioning to the behavioral chart in which the data is shown graphically. For example, the ‘number of lectures’ can be plotted on the x-axis and the ‘number of times hand raised before answering a question’ can be plotted on the y-axis. The effectiveness of IV can be measured by the direction of the behavior before and after the experimental condition was implemented. Statistics are not usually used to understand the outcomes of single subject experiments but if the slope of curve moves upwards and becomes steeper it means that Rachel raised her hand before answering a question a greater number of times after the implementation of experimental conditions than she did under the baseline conditions. A distinct slope is stronger indication that the behavior is varying than if the slope is a gentle one. (Strain) ABA Change Format An ABA design is such type of single subject research design in which contributors are first presented to a baseline state (A). In the baseline state, no treatment or experimental variable is presented. After this the participants obtain the experimental state or treatment (B), after which they arrive to the baseline condition (A). The ABA design enables the experimenters to detect behavior before treatment, throughout treatment and after the treatment. To establish a course of action or experimental conditions to rectify Rachel’s behavior is important to first establish goals, that is, what is hopped to be accomplished after the experiment or what kind of short term and long term behavioral changes are expected to be demonstrated by Rachel. Short term Rachel raises her hand to answer and awaits her turn to speak in class. Rachel stops talking to her peers unnecessarily during lectures or pass notes to her friends. Rachel concentrates more on what is being taught and improves her grades. Long term Rachel discontinues all problem behavior and learns to follow the discipline and norms of any institute that she may attend after graduating and develops a sense of responsibility and maturity. Teachers are faced with challenges even before they begin to educate students. Not only are teachers responsible for teaching the core academic subjects such as reading, math, science, and social studies, but teachers are also presented with nonacademic challenges that influence their instruction (Lassen, Steele, Sailor, 2006). First of all, in the face of discretion Rachel cannot be made to feel the center of attention or that steps to rectify her behavior are being taken. As this can cause her to rebel and worsen the condition by making her behavior more extreme. Secondly, sending Rachel to the office every time she demonstrates any kind of problem behavior must be terminated. It only makes her feel like she is being bullied or unfairly targets. Under both these scenarios Rachel’s behavior cannot be improved or rectified. A more group focused approach is required for positive results. The entire class should be told what kind of behavior constitutes as acceptable or unacceptable in class with a set of rules mandatory for all to follow under the pretense that problem behavior will lead to negative marking which will affect their grades. Another approach can be to reinforce positive behavior instead of punishing negative behavior. Students who behave in a desirable or exemplary manner in class can be rewarded via a small token of appreciation, which be wither verbal appreciation, a piece of candy or deciding which chapter to be quizzed on. The teachers can be as creative as they like. Bibliography Sachse-Lee, C. (n.d.). A Meta-Analysis of Single-Subject. Retrieved March Sunday, 2014, from http://ldx.sagepub.com/content/33/2/114.short Strain, S. L. (n.d.). Evidence-Based Practice in Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education: Single-Subject Design Research. Retrieved March Sunday, 2014, from http://jei.sagepub.com/content/25/2/151.short How Can a Midwife Support the Family? How Can a Midwife Support the Family? Title: Describe the positive and negative aspects of being in the NUCLEAR FAMILY. How can the midwife support the NUCLEAR FAMILY. Undergraduate Degree Level Essay 2,500 words Essay The family unit is an entity which is defined by environment and culture as much as behaviour. Different civilisations and cultures will define â€Å"the family† in different ways. Economic considerations are often paramount in the transition from an extended family to the nuclear family and social commentators often refer to the difficulties in establishing a new household base (in areas of high rent or commercial property value) as being one of the major obstacles to the emergence of the nuclear family as the common features of society. To quote Margaret Mead: Nobody has ever before asked the nuclear family to live all by itself in a box the way we do. With no relatives, no support, weve put it in an impossible situation. It is not surprising perhaps that members of the nuclear family can find themselves in emotional and practical turmoil. (Mead M 1972) Cultural factors may also be significant such as the Hindu â€Å"joint family† where a marriage will being two family groups together as one family unit. (Bengtson V L 2001) The first task in this essay is to describe and define the nuclear family. It first appeared in the scientific literature just after the war and was used to describe the family structure of a mother, father and their children. A formal definition could be: The nuclear family is a social group characterised by common residence, economic cooperation and reproduction. It contains adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a socially approved sexual relationship, and one or more children, own or adopted, of the sexually cohabiting adults. (Murdock, G P 1949). In modern social literature it is also sometimes used in the context of stable single parent families or families where the parents are a non-conjugal couple. In this essay we shall consider the nuclear family to be in the original Murdock tradition. In the context of the implications for midwifery, we should also consider the implications of a being nuclear family. The literature often describes its positive features as including being a haven which encourages intimacy, love and trust where individuals may escape the competition of dehumanising forces in modern society†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ a place for escape from the rough and tumble industrialised world, and as a place where warmth, tenderness and understanding can be expected from a loving mother and protection from the world can be expected from the father. (Popenoe D 1997) The family life was famously pilloried by Nancy Mitford in her autobiography: â€Å"The great advantage of living in a large family is that early lesson of lifes essential unfairness.† (Acton H 1999) Although this was clearly intended as a flippant comment, one can suggest that the concept of the family as a haven is still both admitted and encouraged by social scientists, but in modern UK society the mechanisms of social protection and support that are currently available to most somewhat reduces the role of the father as â€Å"protector† and some commentators now add the concept of facilitating the ideal of personal fulfilment (or family fulfilment) as being the major role of the family unit The media would have us believe that society is decaying (The Guardian 2004) and cite the suggestion that the move towards self sufficiency, personal gratification and the move away from the extended family unit is evidence of that degeneration. The transfer of responsibility for the elderly from the family to the state and, to a lesser extent, the responsibility for childcare being assumed by the state is often put forward as further evidence of that decline. Such considerations are of peripheral importance to this essay and therefore will not be discussed further. We can examine the factors which are relevant to the change in prevalence of the nuclear family however, and these are often cited as Increase in sole occupancy dwellings and smaller family sizes Average age of marriage being older Average number of children decreasing and first birth at later age The historical pattern of fertility. >From baby boom to baby bust (instability) The ageing population. The trend towards greater life expectancy. Rising divorce rates and people who will never marry. (after Kidd K E et al. 2000) Clearly many of these factors have a resonance in the field of midwifery and we shall discuss them further. We should note however, that despite comments being made about the move away from the nuclear family structure that in the UK it is still the most prevalent stable family structure accounting for in excess of 70% of all households. If we consider briefly how the nuclear family developed, we can look back to the days of the industrial revolution when social scientists point to the move from the extended family unit to a mobility dictated by the absence of a welfare state and family members moving to live with others who were in employment. Such changes were seen as an influence to extend and modify the family unit as a whole. As the welfare state evolved, the economic pressures referred to above became less of a compelling factor and the nuclear family emerged. Some commentators use the term â€Å"dispersed extended family† due to the fact that a nuclear family is now able to keep in functional contact with other family members through the medium of telephone, fast easy travel and now email (Shaw M et al. 2002) Other factors that have changed and that are relevant to our considerations here are the relationships between parents and their children. In the past it was comparatively common to find that parents had children for economic reasons and were typically very authoritarian. The advent of social prosperity and the social support mechanisms available to UK households now mean that the economic necessity for having children is no longer viable. Parent / child relationships are said to be more loving and warmer and children are typically allowed a longer period of childhood in modern day life. There is also a considerable body of evidence to show that children are dependent on their parents for much longer than they used to be.(Wilkinson R et al. 1998) We should not suggest that this comparatively rosy assessment of the nuclear family is the only consequence of social evolution. We can point to evidence that the traditional order of life events marriage, sex and children is becoming progressively reordered. Marriage is progressively less likely to come first and progressively more likely not to happen at all. In the last three decades the levels of cohabitation has trebled and the number of babies born outside marriage has increased fivefold. In the same period the number of single parent families has increased by a factor of three. Other significant statistics are that over the last 30 years the divorce rate has doubled which currently has the effect of finding that 50% of children under the age of 16 have had to live through their parent’s divorce. The midwife is often central to the portal of support systems to the newly pregnant mother and thereby to the family. The possibilities of interaction between the midwife and the family are virtually endless and the opportunities for support and guidance at a vulnerable time in life are legion. (Pennebaker J W et al. 2002). We shall therefore use a few examples by way of illustration. One of the prime reasons cited for relationship breakdown is depression in one or both partners. This is a well recognised sequel of childbirth and the midwife can clearly play a major role in spotting the early signs, enlisting prompt intervention and offering support to the whole family unit in such circumstances. (Davidson L 2000) One recent paper examined the role of the midwife in actually preventing (or minimising) the onset and severity of post natal depression with the simple expedient of holding â€Å"debriefing† sessions. (Small R et al. 2000). The aim was to allow the mother to verbalise her experiences and to gain support and empathy from the midwife. The paper was both long and involved but, in essence, it examined the practice of debriefing, which has been successfully employed in other fields of healthcare as a means of reducing the burden of psychological morbidity, in its application to the field of midwifery. The authors point to the fact that there has only been one other qualitative trial in this area in the field of reproductive medicine and that was after spontaneous abortion when it was found to have a marked beneficial effect. (Bland J M et al. 2000) This particular paper emphasises the role that the midwife can play in providing support. The significance is that the debriefing process, as such, does not measurably reduce the incidence of maternal depression but that the support that was provided was found to reduce the psychological distress felt by the mothers. The downside of such an intervention is that it can be seen as causing introspection and medicalising of the patient’s symptomatology. Empathetic handling and a sympathetic approach would clearly be part of the midwife’s clinical acumen (Lavender T et al. 1998) and nearly all of the women who underwent the debriefing sessions said that they found then helpful. In terms of bonding and fostering the loving relationships that were commented on earlier, one could postulate that the role of the midwife in the promotion of breastfeeding activities is fundamentally important. The literature does not show any good evidence base for this hypothesis, mainly because of the fact that it would be both hard to quantify and measure, but the trial from Graffy (J et al. 2004) does support the fact that positive help and advice from healthcare professionals in the immediate postnatal period helps to promote maternal bonding which, in turn is associated with and increase in bonding in later life (Hamlyn B et al. 2000). Curiously enough the trial did not find that the intervention significantly increased the rate of breast feeding, which may be a reflection of the fact that the modern mother in the UK is bombarded with promotional messages about breast feeding from many different sources and the intervention of the midwife is not fundamentally critical to achieving this goal. The mothers interviewed afterwards who were successful in their attempts at breast feeding commented on the fact that they felt emotionally satisfied with a greater frequency than those who were not able to do so. >From the point of view of our considerations here we should note that there were a significant number of women (26% in this trial) who positively refused any help or support from any of the healthcare professionals, and this group may well benefit from careful handling and empathetic intervention in the pregnancy when the midwife is the main healthcare professional in contact with the expectant mother. The midwife has a number of constraints upon her professional involvement and, generally by virtue of time constraints she has little time to act as a councillor to the family’s problems. We should therefore consider the effect of the modern concept of the seamless interface of care and multidisciplinary team working. (Kvamme O J et al. 2001). If the midwife is working in the hospital setting and becomes aware of family difficulties she should consider it part of her professional remit to pass on her concerns and knowledge to other appropriate professionals in the healthcare team whether that is at the level of the primary healthcare team or to a specific councillor or other related agency. Clearly this is easier if the midwife is already working in the community setting (Haggerty J L et al. 2003) as both continuity and coordination are more easily controlled The thrust of this essay is to suggest that a role of the midwife is to support the newborn child as it begins its presumptive relationship with its new family and this can sometimes best be achieved by supporting the family unit during and after the birth of the child. In this regard we could finish this examination of the nuclear family with a comment from Pearl S. Buck who criticized the current system on part of emotional security aspects. He said The lack of emotional security of our young people is due, I believe, to their isolation from the larger family unit. No two people no mere father and mother as I have often said, are enough to provide emotional security for a child. He needs to feel himself one in a world of kinfolk, persons of variety in age and temperament, and yet allied to himself by an indissoluble bond which he cannot break if he could, for nature has welded him into it before he was born. (ODQ 2004) References Acton H 1999 Nancy Mitford: A Biography (Paperback) Macmillan : London 1999 Bengtson V L 2001 Journal of Marriage and Family ; Feb 2001 ; 63 , 1; Bland J M , J. Lumley, and R. Small 2000 Midwife led debriefing to reduce maternal depression BMJ, December 9, 2000 ; 321 (7274) : 1470 1470. Davidson L 2000 Psycho-social interventions in maternity care; the need for evaluation BMJ, 22 Dec 2000 Pg 24-7 Graffy J, Jane Taylor, Anthony Williams, and Sandra Eldridge 2004 Randomised controlled trial of support from volunteer counsellors for mothers considering breast feeding BMJ, Jan 2004 ; 328 : 26 ; Greif, Avner (2005). Family structure, institutions and growth: The origins and implications of Western corporatism Health Bull 2005 ; 39 : 166-72. Haggerty J L, Robert J Reid, George K Freeman, Barbara H Starfield, Carol E Adair, and Rachael McKendry 2003 Continuity of care: a multidisciplinary review BMJ, Nov 2003 ; 327 : 1219 1221 ; Hamlyn B, Brooker S, Oleinikova K, Wands S. 2000 Infant feeding 2000. London: Stationery Office, 2002. Kidd K E, Altman D G. 2000 Adherence in social context. Control Clin Trials 2000 ; 21( suppl 1) : S184 7. Kvamme O J , F Olesen, and M Samuelsson 2001 Improving the interface between primary and secondary care: a statement from the European Working Party on Quality in Family Practice (EQuiP) Qual. Health Care, Mar 2001 ; 10 : 33 39. Lavender T, Walkinshaw S A. 1998 Can midwives reduce postpartum psychological morbidity? A randomized trial. Birth 1998 ; 25 : 215 221 Mead, Margaret. 1972 Blackberry Winter: My Earlier Years. New York : William Morrow Company, Inc., 1972. Murdock, George Peter (1949). Social Structure. New York: The MacMillan Company. 1949 ODQ 2004. Hamlyn : London 2004 Pennebaker J W, A. L Teixeira Jr, H. Alvarenga-Silva, and A F Schilte 2000 Somatisation in primary care BMJ, March 2, 2002 ; 324 (7336) : 544 544. Popenoe D 1999 Can The Nuclear Family Be Revived? Society Volume 36, Number 5 / July 01, 1999 Pages: 28 30 Shaw M, Dorling D, Mitchell R. 2002 Health, place and society. Harlow: Pearson Education, 2002. Small R, Judith Lumley, Lisa Donohue, Anne Potter, and Ulla Waldenstrà ¶m 2000 Randomised controlled trial of midwife led debriefing to reduce maternal depression after operative childbirth BMJ, Oct 2000 ; 321 : 1043 1047. The Guardian Saturday September 25, 2004 Wilkinson R, Marmot M, ed. 1998 Social determinants of health. The solid facts. Copenhagen: WHO, 1998 : 308. ################################################################ 8.12.06 Word count 2,576 PDG

A Game of Thrones Chapter Thirty-two

Arya The one-eared black tom arched his back and hissed at her. Arya padded down the alley, balanced lightly on the balls of her bare feet, listening to the flutter of her heart, breathing slow deep breaths. Quiet as a shadow, she told herself, light as a feather. The tomcat watched her come, his eyes wary. Catching cats was hard. Her hands were covered with half-healed scratches, and both knees were scabbed over where she had scraped them raw in tumbles. At first even the cook's huge fat kitchen cat had been able to elude her, but Syrio had kept her at it day and night. When she'd run to him with her hands bleeding, he had said, â€Å"So slow? Be quicker, girl. Your enemies will give you more than scratches.† He had dabbed her wounds with Myrish fire, which burned so bad she had had to bite her lip to keep from screaming. Then he sent her out after more cats. The Red Keep was full of cats: lazy old cats dozing in the sun, cold-eyed mousers twitching their tails, quick little kittens with claws like needles, ladies' cats all combed and trusting, ragged shadows prowling the midden heaps. One by one Arya had chased them down and snatched them up and brought them proudly to Syrio Forel . . . all but this one, this one-eared black devil of a tomcat. â€Å"That's the real king of this castle right there,† one of the gold cloaks had told her. â€Å"Older than sin and twice as mean. One time, the king was feasting the queen's father, and that black bastard hopped up on the table and snatched a roast quail right out of Lord Tywin's fingers. Robert laughed so hard he like to burst. You stay away from that one, child.† He had run her halfway across the castle; twice around the Tower of the Hand, across the inner bailey, through the stables, down the serpentine steps, past the small kitchen and the pig yard and the barracks of the gold cloaks, along the base of the river wall and up more steps and back and forth over Traitor's Walk, and then down again and through a gate and around a well and in and out of strange buildings until Arya didn't know where she was. Now at last she had him. High walls pressed close on either side, and ahead was a blank windowless mass of stone. Quiet as a shadow, she repeated, sliding forward, light as a feather. When she was three steps away from him, the tomcat bolted. Left, then right, he went; and right, then left, went Arya, cutting off his escape. He hissed again and tried to dart between her legs. Quick as a snake, she thought. Her hands closed around him. She hugged him to her chest, whirling and laughing aloud as his claws raked at the front of her leather jerkin. Ever so fast, she kissed him right between the eyes, and jerked her head back an instant before his claws would have found her face. The tomcat yowled and spit. â€Å"What's he doing to that cat?† Startled, Arya dropped the cat and whirled toward the voice. The tom bounded off in the blink of an eye. At the end of the alley stood a girl with a mass of golden curls, dressed as pretty as a doll in blue satin. Beside her was a plump little blond boy with a prancing stag sewn in pearls across the front of his doublet and a miniature sword at his belt. Princess Myrcella and Prince Tommen, Arya thought. A septa as large as a draft horse hovered over them, and behind her two big men in crimson cloaks, Lannister house guards. â€Å"What were you doing to that cat, boy?† Myrcella asked again, sternly. To her brother she said, â€Å"He's a ragged boy, isn't he? Look at him.† She giggled. â€Å"A ragged dirty smelly boy,† Tommen agreed. They don't know me, Arya realized. They don't even know I'm a girl. Small wonder; she was barefoot and dirty, her hair tangled from the long run through the castle, clad in a jerkin ripped by cat claws and brown roughspun pants hacked off above her scabby knees. You don't wear skirts and silks when you're catching cats. Quickly she lowered her head and dropped to one knee. Maybe they wouldn't recognize her. If they did, she would never hear the end of it. Septa Mordane would be mortified, and Sansa would never speak to her again from the shame. The old fat septa moved forward. â€Å"Boy, how did you come here? You have no business in this part of the castle.† â€Å"You can't keep this sort out,† one of the red cloaks said. â€Å"Like trying to keep out rats.† â€Å"Who do you belong to, boy?† the septa demanded. â€Å"Answer me. What's wrong with you, are you mute?† Arya's voice caught in her throat. If she answered, Tommen and Myrcella would know her for certain. â€Å"Godwyn, bring him here,† the septa said. The taller of the guardsmen started down the alley. Panic gripped her throat like a giant's hand. Arya could not have spoken if her life had hung on it. Calm as still water, she mouthed silently. As Godwyn reached for her, Arya moved. Quick as a snake. She leaned to her left, letting his fingers brush her arm, spinning around him. Smooth as summer silk. By the time he got himself turned, she was sprinting down the alley. Swift as a deer. The septa was screeching at her. Arya slid between legs as thick and white as marble columns, bounded to her feet, bowled into Prince Tommen and hopped over him when he sat down hard and said â€Å"Oof,† spun away from the second guard, and then she was past them all, running full out. She heard shouts, then pounding footsteps, closing behind her. She dropped and rolled. The red cloak went careening past her, stumbling. Arya sprang back to her feet. She saw a window above her, high and narrow, scarcely more than an arrow slit. Arya leapt, caught the sill, pulled herself up. She held her breath as she wriggled through. Slippery as an eel. Dropping to the floor in front of a startled scrubwoman, she hopped up, brushed the rushes off her clothes, and was off again, out the door and along a long hall, down a stair, across a hidden courtyard, around a corner and over a wall and through a low narrow window into a pitch-dark cellar. The sounds grew more and more distant behind her. Arya was out of breath and quite thoroughly lost. She was in for it now if they had recognized her, but she didn't think they had. She'd moved too fast. Swift as a deer. She hunkered down in the dark against a damp stone wall and listened for the pursuit, but the only sound was the beating of her own heart and a distant drip of water. Quiet as a shadow, she told herself. She wondered where she was. When they had first come to King's Landing, she used to have bad dreams about getting lost in the castle. Father said the Red Keep was smaller than Winterfell, but in her dreams it had been immense, an endless stone maze with walls that seemed to shift and change behind her. She would find herself wandering down gloomy halls past faded tapestries, descending endless circular stairs, darting through courtyards or over bridges, her shouts echoing unanswered. In some of the rooms the red stone walls would seem to drip blood, and nowhere could she find a window. Sometimes she would hear her father's voice, but always from a long way off, and no matter how hard she ran after it, it would grow fainter and fainter, until it faded to nothing and Arya was alone in the dark. It was very dark right now, she realized. She hugged her bare knees tight against her chest and shivered. She would wait quietly and count to ten thousand. By then it would be safe for her to come creeping back out and find her way home. By the time she had reached eighty-seven, the room had begun to lighten as her eyes adjusted to the blackness. Slowly the shapes around her took on form. Huge empty eyes stared at her hungrily through the gloom, and dimly she saw the jagged shadows of long teeth. She had lost the count. She closed her eyes and bit her lip and sent the fear away. When she looked again, the monsters would be gone. Would never have been. She pretended that Syrio was beside her in the dark, whispering in her ear. Calm as still water, she told herself. Strong as a bear. Fierce as a wolverine. She opened her eyes again. The monsters were still there, but the fear was gone. Arya got to her feet, moving warily. The heads were all around her. She touched one, curious, wondering if it was real. Her fingertips brushed a massive jaw. It felt real enough. The bone was smooth beneath her hand, cold and hard to the touch. She ran her fingers down a tooth, black and sharp, a dagger made of darkness. It made her shiver. â€Å"It's dead,† she said aloud. â€Å"It's just a skull, it can't hurt me.† Yet somehow the monster seemed to know she was there. She could feel its empty eyes watching her through the gloom, and there was something in that dim, cavernous room that did not love her. She edged away from the skull and backed into a second, larger than the first. For an instant she could feel its teeth digging into her shoulder, as if it wanted a bite of her flesh. Arya whirled, felt leather catch and tear as a huge fang nipped at her jerkin, and then she was running. Another skull loomed ahead, the biggest monster of all, but Arya did not even slow. She leapt over a ridge of black teeth as tall as swords, dashed through hungry jaws, and threw herself against the door. Her hands found a heavy iron ring set in the wood, and she yanked at it. The door resisted a moment, before it slowly began to swing inward, with a creak so loud Arya was certain it could be heard all through the city. She opened the door just far enough to slip through, into the hallway beyond. If the room with the monsters had been dark, the hall was the blackest pit in the seven hells. Calm as still water, Arya told herself, but even when she gave her eyes a moment to adjust, there was nothing to see but the vague grey outline of the door she had come through. She wiggled her fingers in front of her face, felt the air move, saw nothing. She was blind. A water dancer sees with all her senses, she reminded herself. She closed her eyes and steadied her breathing one two three, drank in the quiet, reached out with her hands. Her fingers brushed against rough unfinished stone to her left. She followed the wall, her hand skimming along the surface, taking small gliding steps through the darkness. All halls lead somewhere. Where there is a way in, there is a way out. Fear cuts deeper than swords. Arya would not be afraid. It seemed as if she had been walking a long ways when the wall ended abruptly and a draft of cold air blew past her cheek. Loose hairs stirred faintly against her skin. From somewhere far below her, she heard noises. The scrape of boots, the distant sound of voices. A flickering light brushed the wall ever so faintly, and she saw that she stood at the top of a great black well, a shaft twenty feet across plunging deep into the earth. Huge stones had been set into the curving walls as steps, circling down and down, dark as the steps to hell that Old Nan used to tell them of. And something was coming up out of the darkness, out of the bowels of the earth . . . Arya peered over the edge and felt the cold black breath on her face. Far below, she saw the light of a single torch, small as the flame of a candle. Two men, she made out. Their shadows writhed against the sides of the well, tall as giants. She could hear their voices, echoing up the shaft. † . . . found one bastard,† one said. â€Å"The rest will come soon. A day, two days, a fortnight . . . â€Å" â€Å"And when he learns the truth, what will he do?† a second voice asked in the liquid accents of the Free Cities. â€Å"The gods alone know,† the first voice said. Arya could see a wisp of grey smoke drifting up off the torch, writhing like a snake as it rose. â€Å"The fools tried to kill his son, and what's worse, they made a mummer's farce of it. He's not a man to put that aside. I warn you, the wolf and lion will soon be at each other's throats, whether we will it or no.† â€Å"Too soon, too soon,† the voice with the accent complained. â€Å"What good is war now? We are not ready. Delay.† â€Å"As well bid me stop time. Do you take me for a wizard?† The other chuckled. â€Å"No less.† Flames licked at the cold air. The tall shadows were almost on top of her. An instant later the man holding the torch climbed into her sight, his companion beside him. Arya crept back away from the well, dropped to her stomach, and flattened herself against the wall. She held her breath as the men reached the top of the steps. â€Å"What would you have me do?† asked the torchbearer, a stout man in a leather half cape. Even in heavy boots, his feet seemed to glide soundlessly over the ground. A round scarred face and a stubble of dark beard showed under his steel cap, and he wore mail over boiled leather, and a dirk and shortsword at his belt. It seemed to Arya there was something oddly familiar about him. â€Å"If one Hand can die, why not a second?† replied the man with the accent and the forked yellow beard. â€Å"You have danced the dance before, my friend.† He was no one Arya had ever seen before, she was certain of it. Grossly fat, yet he seemed to walk lightly, carrying his weight on the balls of his feet as a water dancer might. His rings glimmered in the torchlight, red-gold and pale silver, crusted with rubies, sapphires, slitted yellow tiger eyes. Every finger wore a ring; some had two. â€Å"Before is not now, and this Hand is not the other,† the scarred man said as they stepped out into the hall. Still as stone, Arya told herself, quiet as a shadow. Blinded by the blaze of their own torch, they did not see her pressed flat against the stone, only a few feet away. â€Å"Perhaps so,† the forked beard replied, pausing to catch his breath after the long climb. â€Å"Nonetheless, we must have time. The princess is with child. The khal will not bestir himself until his son is born. You know how they are, these savages.† The man with the torch pushed at something. Arya heard a deep rumbling. A huge slab of rock, red in the torchlight, slid down out of the ceiling with a resounding crash that almost made her cry out. Where the entry to the well had been was nothing but stone, solid and unbroken. â€Å"If he does not bestir himself soon, it may be too late,† the stout man in the steel cap said. â€Å"This is no longer a game for two players, if ever it was. Stannis Baratheon and Lysa Arryn have fled beyond my reach, and the whispers say they are gathering swords around them. The Knight of Flowers writes Highgarden, urging his lord father to send his sister to court. The girl is a maid of fourteen, sweet and beautiful and tractable, and Lord Renly and Ser Loras intend that Robert should bed her, wed her, and make a new queen. Littlefinger . . . the gods only know what game Littlefinger is playing. Yet Lord Stark's the one who troubles my sleep. He has the bastard, he has the book, and soon enough he'll have the truth. And now his wife has abducted Tyrion Lannister, thanks to Littlefinger's meddling. Lord Tywin will take that for an outrage, and Jaime has a queer affection for the Imp. If the Lannisters move north, that will bring the Tullys in as well. Delay, you say. Make haste, I reply. Even the finest of jugglers cannot keep a hundred balls in the air forever.† â€Å"You are more than a juggler, old friend. You are a true sorcerer. All I ask is that you work your magic awhile longer.† They started down the hall in the direction Arya had come, past the room with the monsters. â€Å"What I can do, I will,† the one with the torch said softly. â€Å"I must have gold, and another fifty birds.† She let them get a long way ahead, then went creeping after them. Quiet as a shadow. â€Å"So many?† The voices were fainter as the light dwindled ahead of her. â€Å"The ones you need are hard to find . . . so young, to know their letters . . . perhaps older . . . not die so easy . . . † â€Å"No. The younger are safer . . . treat them gently . . . â€Å" † . . . .if they kept their tongues . . . â€Å" † . . . the risk . . . â€Å" Long after their voices had faded away, Arya could still see the light of the torch, a smoking star that bid her follow. Twice it seemed to disappear, but she kept on straight, and both times she found herself at the top of steep, narrow stairs, the torch glimmering far below her. She hurried after it, down and down. Once she stumbled over a rock and fell against the wall, and her hand found raw earth supported by timbers, whereas before the tunnel had been dressed stone. She must have crept after them for miles. Finally they were gone, but there was no place to go but forward. She found the wall again and followed, blind and lost, pretending that Nymeria was padding along beside her in the darkness. At the end she was knee-deep in foul-smelling water, wishing she could dance upon it as Syrio might have, and wondering if she'd ever see light again. It was full dark when finally Arya emerged into the night air. She found herself standing at the mouth of a sewer where it emptied into the river. She stank so badly that she stripped right there, dropping her soiled clothing on the riverbank as she dove into the deep black waters. She swam until she felt clean, and crawled out shivering. Some riders went past along the river road as Arya was washing her clothes, but if they saw the scrawny naked girl scrubbing her rags in the moonlight, they took no notice. She was miles from the castle, but from anywhere in King's Landing you needed only to look up to see the Red Keep high on Aegon's Hill, so there was no danger of losing her way. Her clothes were almost dry by the time she reached the gatehouse. The portcullis was down and the gates barred, so she turned aside to a postern door. The gold cloaks who had the watch sneered when she told them to let her in. â€Å"Off with you,† one said. â€Å"The kitchen scraps are gone, and we'll have no begging after dark.† â€Å"I'm not a beggar,† she said. â€Å"I live here.† â€Å"I said, off with you. Do you need a clout on the ear to help your hearing?† â€Å"I want to see my father.† The guards exchanged a glance. â€Å"I want to fuck the queen myself, for all the good it does me,† the younger one said. The older scowled. â€Å"Who's this father of yours, boy, the city ratcatcher?† â€Å"The Hand of the King,† Arya told him. Both men laughed, but then the older one swung his fist at her, casually, as a man would swat a dog. Arya saw the blow coming even before it began. She danced back out of the way, untouched. â€Å"I'm not a boy,† she spat at them. â€Å"I'm Arya Stark of Winterfell, and if you lay a hand on me my lord father will have both your heads on spikes. If you don't believe me, fetch Jory Cassel or Vayon Poole from the Tower of the Hand.† She put her hands on her hips. â€Å"Now are you going to open the gate, or do you need a clout on the ear to help your hearing?† Her father was alone in the solar when Harwin and Fat Tom marched her in, an oil lamp glowing softly at his elbow. He was bent over the biggest book Arya had ever seen, a great thick tome with cracked yellow pages of crabbed script, bound between faded leather covers, but he closed it to listen to Harwin's report. His face was stern as he sent the men away with thanks. â€Å"You realize I had half my guard out searching for you?† Eddard Stark said when they were alone. â€Å"Septa Mordane is beside herself with fear. She's in the sept praying for your safe return. Arya, you know you are never to go beyond the castle gates without my leave.† â€Å"I didn't go out the gates,† she blurted. â€Å"Well, I didn't mean to. I was down in the dungeons, only they turned into this tunnel. It was all dark, and I didn't have a torch or a candle to see by, so I had to follow. I couldn't go back the way I came on account of the monsters. Father, they were talking about killing you! Not the monsters, the two men. They didn't see me, I was being still as stone and quiet as a shadow, but I heard them. They said you had a book and a bastard and if one Hand could die, why not a second? Is that the book? Jon's the bastard, I bet.† â€Å"Jon? Arya, what are you talking about? Who said this?† â€Å"They did,† she told him. â€Å"There was a fat one with rings and a forked yellow beard, and another in mail and a steel cap, and the fat one said they had to delay but the other one told him he couldn't keep juggling and the wolf and the lion were going to eat each other and it was a mummer's farce.† She tried to remember the rest. She hadn't quite understood everything she'd heard, and now it was all mixed up in her head. â€Å"The fat one said the princess was with child. The one in the steel cap, he had the torch, he said that they had to hurry. I think he was a wizard.† â€Å"A wizard,† said Ned, unsmiling. â€Å"Did he have a long white beard and tall pointed hat speckled with stars?† â€Å"No! It wasn't like Old Nan's stories. He didn't look like a wizard, but the fat one said he was.† â€Å"I warn you, Arya, if you're spinning this thread of air—† â€Å"No, I told you, it was in the dungeons, by the place with the secret wall. I was chasing cats, and well . . . † She screwed up her face. If she admitted knocking over Prince Tommen, he would be really angry with her. † . . . well, I went in this window. That's where I found the monsters.† â€Å"Monsters and wizards,† her father said. â€Å"It would seem you've had quite an adventure. These men you heard, you say they spoke of juggling and mummery?† â€Å"Yes,† Arya admitted, â€Å"only—† â€Å"Arya, they were mummers,† her father told her. â€Å"There must be a dozen troupes in King's Landing right now, come to make some coin off the tourney crowds. I'm not certain what these two were doing in the castle, but perhaps the king has asked for a show.† â€Å"No.† She shook her head stubbornly. â€Å"They weren't—† â€Å"You shouldn't be following people about and spying on them in any case. Nor do I cherish the notion of my daughter climbing in strange windows after stray cats. Look at you, sweetling. Your arms are covered with scratches. This has gone on long enough. Tell Syrio Forel that I want a word with hirn—† He was interrupted by a short, sudden knock. â€Å"Lord Eddard, pardons,† Desmond called out, opening the door a crack, â€Å"but there's a black brother here begging audience. He says the matter is urgent. I thought you would want to know.† â€Å"My door is always open to the Night's Watch,† Father said. Desmond ushered the man inside. He was stooped and ugly, with an unkempt beard and unwashed clothes, yet Father greeted him pleasantly and asked his name. â€Å"Yoren, as it please m'lord. My pardons for the hour.† He bowed to Arya. â€Å"And this must be your son. He has your look.† â€Å"I'm a girl,† Arya said, exasperated. If the old man was down from the Wall, he must have come by way of Winterfell. â€Å"Do you know my brothers?† she asked excitedly. â€Å"Robb and Bran are at Winterfell, and Jon's on the Wall. Jon Snow, he's in the Night's Watch too, you must know him, he has a direwolf, a white one with red eyes. Is Jon a ranger yet? I'm Arya Stark.† The old man in his smelly black clothes was looking at her oddly, but Arya could not seem to stop talking. â€Å"When you ride back to the Wall, would you bring Jon a letter if I wrote one?† She wished Jon were here right now. He'd believe her about the dungeons and the fat man with the forked beard and the wizard in the steel cap. â€Å"My daughter often forgets her courtesies,† Eddard Stark said with a faint smile that softened his words. â€Å"I beg your forgiveness, Yoren. Did my brother Benjen send you?† â€Å"No one sent me, m'lord, saving old Mormont. I'm here to find men for the Wall, and when Robert next holds court, I'll bend the knee and cry our need, see if the king and his Hand have some scum in the dungeons they'd be well rid of. You might say as Benjen Stark is why we're talking, though. His blood ran black. Made him my brother as much as yours. It's for his sake I'm come. Rode hard, I did, near killed my horse the way I drove her, but I left the others well behind.† â€Å"The others?† Yoren spat. â€Å"Sellswords and freeriders and like trash. That inn was full o' them, and I saw them take the scent. The scent of blood or the scent of gold, they smell the same in the end. Not all o' them made for King's Landing, either. Some went galloping for Casterly Rock, and the Rock lies closer. Lord Tywin will have gotten the word by now, you can count on it.† Father frowned. â€Å"What word is this?† Yoren eyed Arya. â€Å"One best spoken in private, m'lord, begging your pardons.† â€Å"As you say. Desmond, see my daughter to her chambers.† He kissed her on the brow. â€Å"We'll finish our talk on the morrow.† Arya stood rooted to the spot. â€Å"Nothing bad's happened to Jon, has it?† she asked Yoren. â€Å"Or Uncle Benjen?† â€Å"Well, as to Stark, I can't say. The Snow boy was well enough when I left the Wall. It's not them as concerns me.† Desmond took her hand. â€Å"Come along, milady. You heard your lord father.† Arya had no choice but to go with him, wishing it had been Fat Tom. With Tom, she might have been able to linger at the door on some excuse and hear what Yoren was saying, but Desmond was too single-minded to trick. â€Å"How many guards does my father have?† she asked him as they descended to her bedchamber. â€Å"Here at King's Landing? Fifty.† â€Å"You wouldn't let anyone kill him, would you?† she asked. Desmond laughed. â€Å"No fear on that count, little lady. Lord Eddard's guarded night and day. He'll come to no harm.† â€Å"The Lannisters have more than fifty men,† Arya pointed out. â€Å"So they do, but every northerner is worth ten of these southron swords, so you can sleep easy.† â€Å"What if a wizard was sent to kill him?† â€Å"Well, as to that,† Desmond replied, drawing his longsword, â€Å"wizards die the same as other men, once you cut their heads off.†

Human Cloning: Morally Wrong, Sinful, and Dangerous Essay

Sheep, cattle and further animals have now been replicated by the cloning method which is known as somatic cell nuclear transfer. The process is that an unfertilized egg has its nucleus removed or inactivated, and swapped with the nucleus from an animal’s body cell. This nucleus, enclosing the animal’s complete genetic code, is moved to interact through the egg, and a new embryo created that is genetically equal to the animal providing the body cell. (William, 2000) According to the scientists, the technique may be helpful for animal breeding and medical research, whereas the Catholic Church does not object, providing the norms in opposition to mistreating animals in research are respected. However the question still remains: is human cloning morally wrong, sinful, and dangerous? Cloning as a danger to Life Cloning possibly will appear like a new means to generate human life, not destroy it. However a closer look exposes its darker side. Animal trials show that any attempt to use human cloning for reproduction will have several sufferers. About over 90 percent of cloned embryos miscarry or are stillborn. The first successful cloned sheep Dolly was the sole survivor out of 277 attempts. Those hardly any who endure to birth have severe medical problems. Dolly, such as, developed early arthritis and lived only half a normal life period. In a nutshell, human reproductive cloning is a dangerous and immoral research on everyone. A lot of scientists are in opposition to reproductive cloning for these reasons; however still support cloning for research. However the major difference among the two is this: In reproductive cloning, the majority of the cloned humans will die at very young age; in cloning for research, all of them will die, since they will be intentionally killed as means to someone else’s idea of medical progress. The reality is that this killing might occur at a very early stage makes no difference, for our ethical tradition regards human life at each stage as justified admiration and safety. Cloning for study presents a new evil which not found even in the practice of abortion: creating new human lives exclusively in order to destroy them. This is the crucial reduction of human life to an object, to a product that has no worth but for the use someone else chooses for it. Pope John Paul II has underscored the grave evil of such researches, calling them atrocities that are unworthy of man. (Michael, 2001) Cloning and Human Dignity Human cloning is the last step along this course of depersonalized reproduction. It absorbs no gathering of male and female at all, actually, a child produced by this means has no mother or father in the normal sense, however only a pattern or model. Rather than openness to existence, it involves control over life, for a technician manufactures the new embryo in a laboratory, along with even controls his or her genetic makeup to be equal to that of somebody else. The method of cloning has the nature of a manufacturing process, suited to a product somewhat than a human kind. It dehumanizes in the act of generating. Human cloning would create a human being who deserves to be treated as our equal, but would do so in a way that undermines this equal dignity. It is not a worthy way for humans to bring other humans into the world. (Leon, 2002) Is cloning Sinful? Cloning encourages humans to treat their creations as less than themselves, as less than human. However it moreover tempts them to think of themselves as better than human, as gods with the power to produce life. So that, certainly, the first and supreme temptation presented to human beings, to Adam and Eve: â€Å"You will be like gods† (Gn 3:5). (Michael, 2001) If this seems an exaggeration, we have only to look at statements by cloning proponents. Cloning is an opening technology to efforts to persuade the human species, for 2 reasons. First, genetic engineering is such a hit-and-miss method that one should be able to copy one’s rare successes. Next, if scientists can make a new being who is accurately as same as another, they can purify their method to create that new being the same except for one or 2 superior traits, and then build on this. The human species itself would be the laboratory bench and the investigate animal for such experiments. Unfortunately, a lot of scientists became blind to the paradox in this magnificent scheme. When the true God creates people in His image and reproduction, He produces an infinite variety of people who reproduce special facets of His endless goodness. (John, 2000) When we simple humans attempt to do the same, we only replicate one narrow set of traits previously provided to us in the history? And when we attempt to get better on that inheritance, all we can apply are our own narrow, prejudiced and defective ideas of an enhanced human. By striking those biases on our issue, we would still treat them as objects we can manage and govern, still if we are trying to create a better product. These new powers for controlling the species are not a net increase of power for humankind; they are ways for a small number of imperfect humans to exercise control over a lot of other humans and the expectations of humankind. (Leon, 2002) To imagine we are prepared for such power above all humans is to commit the ultimate sin of arrogant satisfaction that the Greeks called hubris, the pride of grasping at what belongs only to gods. Although some sensible person can notice the destructiveness of such pride, Christians know especially that the road to human development is paved in its place by humble service to others. Jesus’ sacrifice blazed the right path for us long ago. From this point of view, human cloning and the attitude that accepts and uses it is offend to God. References William E. May, Huntington (2000) â€Å"Catholic Bioethics and the Gift of Human Life†, Ind. : Our Sunday Visitor Books John F. Kilner, et al. (eds. ), (2000) â€Å"Cutting-Edge Bioethics: A Christian Exploration of Technologies and Trends†. Grand Rapids, Mich. : Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub Michael C. Brannigan (ed. ), (2001) Ethical Issues in Human Cloning. New York: Seven Bridges Press Leon R. Kass, M. D (2002) â€Å"Life, Liberty and the Defense of Dignity: The Challenge for Bioethics†, San Francisco: Encounter Books

Año fiscal en EE.UU. y efectos migratorios

En Estados Unidos, el aà ±o fiscal del gobierno federal son los 12 meses comprendidos entre el 1 de octubre de un aà ±o y el 30 de septiembre del siguiente. Se le denomina FY por sus siglas en inglà ©s. Las fechas de inicio y final del aà ±o fiscal federal se fijaron en 1976 con el objeto de que el gobierno tuviese tiempo suficiente para presentar su presupuesto para el aà ±o siguiente y obtener su aprobacià ³n. Puntos Clave: Aà ±o fiscal Aà ±o fiscal federal : 1 de octubre al 30 de septiembre del aà ±o siguiente.Los estados establecen las fechas de sus aà ±os fiscalesLas empresas pueden decidir cuà ¡les son los 12 meses de su aà ±o fiscal.El aà ±o fiscal federal afecta a visas, loterà ­as y green card. Aà ±o fiscal de los estados en EE.UU. Los 50 estados y los territorios de Estados Unidos pueden fijar las fechas de sus propios aà ±os fiscales para los asuntos dentro de sus competencias. En la actualidad, solo en el aà ±o fiscal Alabama y Michigan coincide con el federal de 1 de octubre a 31 de septiembre del aà ±o siguiente. Por otro lado, 46 estados inician su aà ±o fiscal el 1 de julio y lo finalizan el 30 de junio del aà ±o siguiente al igual que el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico. Finalmente, en Nueva York el aà ±o fiscal corre del 1 de abril al 31 de marzo y en Texas del 1 de septiembre al 1 de agosto. Aà ±o fiscal (fiscal year) y aà ±o impositivo (tax year) Para los negocios, el Servicio de Ingresos Internos (IRS, por sus siglas en inglà ©s) distingue entre aà ±o fiscal y aà ±o impositivo. El aà ±o fiscal para las empresas son 12 meses consecutivos cuyo dà ­a final coincide con el fin de un trimestre, es decir, 31 de marzo, 30 de junio, 30 de septiembre o 31 de diciembre. En la mayorà ­a de los casos es la propia empresa la que decide cuà ¡ndo empieza y finaliza su aà ±o fiscal y lo utiliza en su propia contabilidad. El aà ±o impositivo o de pago de impuestos (tax year) de una empresa puede coincidir con su aà ±o fiscal o con el aà ±o de calendario, es decir, del 1 al 31 de diciembre. Por otro lado, las fechas para presentar las planillas de impuestos (IRS filing) son las que fija el gobierno para todas las empresas, segà ºn su tipologà ­a. Aà ±o fiscal y estadà ­sticas migratorias Inmigracià ³n es una competencia del gobierno federal de Estados Unidos, por esta razà ³n todas las estadà ­sticas se computan teniendo en cuenta su aà ±o fiscal. Por ejemplo, en el FY18 se aprobaron 236.526 visas de inmigrante en la categorà ­a de familiares inmediatos. Esto quiere decir que entre el 1 de octubre de 2017 y el 30 de septiembre de 2018 la cantidad citada de cà ³nyuges, padres, madres e hijos solteros menores de 21 aà ±os de ciudadanos estadounidenses obtuvieron la tarjeta de residente permanente por peticià ³n del ciudadano. El aà ±o fiscal se puede dividir en trimestres (Q, por su sigla en inglà ©s). El primer trimestre (Q1) comprende desde el 1 de octubre al 31 de diciembre y asà ­ sucesivamente hasta llegar al cuarto (Q4) de 1 de julio a 30 de septiembre. Por ejemplo en Q1FY18 las autoridades migratorias aprobaron 140.467 ajustes de estatus. Eso quiere decir que de 1 de octubre a 31 de diciembre de 2017 ese nà ºmero de extranjeros obtuvieron la tarjeta de residencia permanente por ese trà ¡mite. Aà ±o fiscal: là ­mites y retrasos en categorà ­as de visas El aà ±o fiscal tiene un gran impacto en los casos en los que se concede un nà ºmero fijo de una determinada categorà ­a de visas por aà ±o fiscal. Es lo que se conoce en inglà ©s como annual cap. Este problema del annual cap afecta tanto a algunas visas no inmigrantes como a algunos tipos de visas inmigrantes, por ejemplo: Visa H-1B para profesionales y modelos. Si bien hay importantes excepcionesVisas U para và ­ctimas de la violenciaVisado T para và ­ctimas de trà ¡fico humanoH-2A y H-2B para trabajos en agricultura y no cualificadosPeticiones de green card de ciudadanos para hijos solteros mayores de 21 aà ±os, hijos casados y hermanos y de residentes permanentes para sus cà ³nyuges e hijos solterosVisa EB-5 para inversionistasConcesià ³n de estatus de asilado o refugiado polà ­ticoLoterà ­a de visas de diversidad En los casos en los que el nà ºmero de solicitudes en una determinada categorà ­a de visa es superior al là ­mite fijado por aà ±o fiscal se pueden producir dos situaciones diferentes. En primer lugar, se producen retrasos, que pueden llegar a ser enormes por acumularse aà ±o tras aà ±o mà ¡s peticiones que visas disponibles, como es el caso de la visa U que tiene asignado un mà ¡ximo de 10.000 visas por aà ±o fiscal y que lleva en estos momentos un retraso superior a tres aà ±os y medio para que USCIS decida sobre los primeros pasos de si aprueba el permiso de trabajo. Otro ejemplo de retrasos por esta causa se da en las peticiones familiares en las categorà ­as con là ­mites anuales. Las demoras pueden verificarse mes a mes en el boletà ­n de visas. En segundo lugar, se celebra una loterà ­a entre las solicitudes y se procesa la visa para quien gana. Es el caso, por ejemplo, de la visa H-1B para profesionales. En general funciona de la siguiente manera: Existe un là ­mite anual por aà ±o fiscal de 20.000 visas para los profesionales que estudiaron la maestrà ­a en EE.UU., otra de 65.000 visas para profesionales en general y, finalmente un cupo de 6.500 visas para à ºnicamente ciudadanos de Chile y Singapur. El 1 de abril se abre el plazo de presentacià ³n de solicitudes. Los seis aà ±os anteriores, a los cinco dà ­as ya habà ­a mà ¡s peticiones que visas disponibles y se cerrà ³ el plazo. A los pocos dà ­as se celebrà ³ la loterà ­a y quienes no la ganaron deben presentar de nuevo la solicitud, si asà ­ lo desean, al aà ±o siguiente. Cabe destacar que no todas las H-1B està ¡n sujetas a là ­mites. Por ejemplo, cuando el patrocinador es un instituto investigador o educativo puede pedir las que necesite a lo largo del aà ±o. Ademà ¡s, la administracià ³n del presidente Donald Trump està ¡ elaborando nuevas directrices y es posible que se anuncie la obligatoriedad de pre-registrarse. Aà ±o fiscal y fechas para presentarse a H1-B y loterà ­a de visas Con respecto a la visa H1-B la normativa vigente dice que las solicitudes pueden presentarse seis meses antes del inicio del aà ±o fiscal para el que se aplica. Excepto en los casos ya nombrados de excepciones en los que los solicitantes no està ¡n sujetos al là ­mite anual, està ¡ ocurriendo que hay mà ¡s solicitantes de visa que nà ºmero de visas y asà ­ durante meses no se puede emitir ninguna nueva, hay que esperar al nuevo cupo con el nuevo aà ±o fiscal. Esto quiere decir que si un extranjero que aspira a una visa H-1B que no està ¡ exenta del là ­mite anual debe esperar al 1 de octubre, es decir, al inicio del aà ±o fiscal. Sin embargo, para obtenerla la empresa patrocinadora debe presentar los papeles 6 meses antes. Por ejemplo, para una visa del FY20 debe presentarse la solicitud el 1 de abril de 2019. Con respecto a la loterà ­a de visas para obtener la tarjeta de residencia, tambià ©n conocida como green card, el plazo para registrarse gratuitamente se inicia al comienzo del aà ±o fiscal, generalmente en torno al 3 o 4 de octubre, y finaliza un mes despuà ©s. Por ejemplo, para participar en la loterà ­a de visas (DV por sus siglas en inglà ©s) del aà ±o fiscal 2021 (DV21), el solicitante debe registrarse en la pà ¡gina oficial en octubre de 2019 hasta principios de noviembre de ese mismo aà ±o. Todo el proceso se demora para los ganadores hasta el 30 de septiembre de 2020 y ya podrà ­an disfrutar de su green card a partir del 1 de octubre de 2020, esto es, el aà ±o fiscal 2021. Este artà ­culo es meramente informativo. No es asesorà ­a legal para ningà ºn caso concreto.