Catholicism Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Catholicism - Assignment Example Therefore, to discover more about the traditions, theological characteristics and the way the Orthodox worship, I visited the Holy Orthodox Trinity Cathedral in San Francisco on November 15 at 6 pm. Because I do not identify with any religion, the purpose of the visit was purely to discover about the traditions and the practices of the Orthodox Christians. Upon entering the church service, I was amazed to discover that the Orthodox Christians have certain customs and traditions, which form a critical part of their worship. In fact, I was told that some are cultural in nature while others are just sanctimonious customs. The first most important tradition that came to my attention was the lighting of the candles. Just before the church service could begin, one of the bishops would light candles of different colors, including red and white (Holy Trinity Cathedral, 2014). The lighting candles would then be placed strategically at the altar. One of the congregants informed me that the lighting of the candles is an important part of the prayer since it acts as an offering that accompanies the prayers of the congregants. However, midway through the prayers, the candles were blown out and taken away. When I inquired why that was happening, a congregant who sat beside me, informed me that the there are instances when the candle is not supposed to be lit. These instances include when the Gospel and Epistle is being read, during sermons, when the congregants are standing, as well as during Great Entrances. The Orthodox Church is also very particular on the attire that a congregant is expected to wear when attending a church service. Although the Orthodox believes that God would accept mankind regardless of what one wears, the church encourages decent dressing. Accordingly, the Orthodox discourages to impress others. Instead, the church encourages all the faithful to dress respectfully in a manner that pleases God (Holy Trinity Cathedral, 2014).

UltraSound - Current Disruptive Innovation and Theories Essay

UltraSound - Current Disruptive Innovation and Theories - Essay Example However, disruptive technologies generally refer to mechanisms and equipment by which simpler and cheaper products are created. Disruptive technologies assist in the creation of new markets and product value networks, in the process interfering with the established or existing markets and value networks. That is, with the emergence of a disruptive technology, a given market or value of a product is changed in a manner the market does not expect (Scott et al., 2008). For instance, a disruptive technology could create a new class of customers through processes that lower product prices. Disruptive technology thus opposes sustaining technologies, which do not create new value networks or markets. Although most disruptive technologies may be cited to relate to computers and the associated products, such as desktop publishing, microcomputers, gps, smartphones, and the social media, other industries such as education and health care are also awash with disruptive technologies, which have c reated new markets, value networks, and customer classes. Ultrasound as Disruptive Technology The market disrupted by the ultrasound technology is the radiography, in which the X-ray imaging technology has been disrupted. One of the features of the disruptive technology that ultrasound has is its creation of a new market, interfering with the market advantages enjoyed by X-ray companies, which never participated in ultrasound until much later, after they acquired some major ultrasound equipment manufacturing firms (Tribikram, 2004). According to Professor Clayton Christensen of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, the emergence of ultrasound in clinical applications is a good example of disruptive technologies that address certain inefficiencies in modern health care standards. For instance, comparatively, ultrasound is simpler, less expensive, and more convenient than other modern imaging systems. Therefore, according to Christensen, healthcare should be more dis ruptive, flexible, and simpler to meet the divergent needs of patients. Similar to the case of other disruptive technologies, ultrasound entered the healthcare market and immediately won a big chunk of customers who had hitherto used other technologies. Although other technologies such as CT, MRI and PET imaging earlier introduced had displaced the X-ray, ultrasound is obviously more disruptive than the CT, MRI, and PET (Christensen, 1997). Moreover, ultrasound allows mere caregivers and technologists to take imaging to patients rather than the more expensive specialists. Interestingly, those behind the ultrasound invention and manufacture are small companies such as the Ultrasonix, which are rather new to the industry, and not the long-established healthcare multinationals. In fact, Ultrasonix designs, develops, and manufactures different diagnostic ultrasound systems that make ultrasound technology easier to apply in several areas of patient care (Christensen, 1997). With their la rge monitors and image quality, these ultrasound systems are quite ideal for guiding interventional procedures. According to Adner and Snow (2010), disruptive technologies such as the ultrasound are met with skepticism from some stakeholders who, instead of embracing a new technology, would rather continue with, or