Pulitzer Prize winning author Barbara Tuchman wrote a book in 1978 entitled “A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century”. In it she recounts how the 14th and the first half of the 15th centuries give us back two contradictory images. An “Indian summer” of the Middle Ages–a still glittering time of castles, cathedrals and chivalry, and a dark time of ferocity and spiritual agony, a world plunged into a chaos of war, fear, famine, and the Plague. The title is referencing how the catastrophes of that transitional time and the contemporary world of the 20th century (or in our case the 21st century) shows disturbing similarities. Here are several revealing excerpts from her work:

“When the gap between ideal and real becomes too wide, the system breaks down.”

“Human beings of any age need to approve of themselves; the bad times in history come when they cannot.”

“An event of great agony is bearable only in the belief that it will bring about a better world. When it does not, as in the aftermath of another vast calamity, disillusion is deep and moves on to self-doubt and self-disgust.”

“Disaster is rarely as pervasive as it seems from recorded accounts. The fact of being on the record makes it appear continuous and ubiquitous whereas it is more likely to have been sporadic both in time and place. Besides, persistence of the normal is usually greater than the effect of the disturbance, as we know from our own times. After absorbing the news of today, one expects to face a world consisting entirely of strikes, crimes, power failures, broken water mains, stalled trains, school shutdowns, muggers, drug addicts, neo-nazis, and rapists. [today we could add economic woes, political divisions, prevalence of poverty in much of the world, fears of terrorism, cyberattacks]. The fact is that one can come home in the evening–on a lucky day–without having encountered more than one or two of these phenomena. This has led me to formulate Tuchman’s Law, as follows: The fact of being reported multiplies the apparent extent of any deplorable development by five- to tenfold (or any figure the reader would care to supply).”

While using the above statements as a launching point for your essay engage in a discussion of the crisis thesis of the late Middle Ages. Write an essay explaining the significance of the various crisis—political, social, economic, and religious–facing Western Civilization in the 14th and 15th centuries. Be sure to cite details the textbook while giving arguments to support your answer.  

The essay should be 1,200-2,000 word essay. In the body of your work, try to answer at least THREE of the following questions with references from the textbook while demonstrating historical analysis. This list is meant to serve as a sort of outline and guide for the essay.

1. Describe the benefits and costs of the Mongol Empire.
2. How does living in and experiencing the Age of COVID inform our understanding of the 14th century Black Death–socially, economically, biologically, etc.
3. Revolts in Europe (Jacquerie, English Peasants, Ciompi Rebellion).
4. Why is it correct to consider this time an era of exploration and globalization?
5. What caused the rise of national monarchies in England and France in terms of the Hundred Years War? or discuss the emergence of Russia?
6. What was the condition and role of religion and the Church during the period under consideration (think about Avignon papacy, the rise of piety, heresies, spiritual crisis, etc.)?
7. What are the implications of the emergence of vernacular literature and culture in the Late Middle Ages? Think Chaucer and Dante, among others.

Your supervisor has asked you to create a training on homicide investigations for your coworkers. This training will be in two parts.

Part 1: Classification of Homicides

On one page, create a table to be a job aid comparing the different types of homicides. Your table should look something like this:

Classification of HomicidesDefinitionExampleCriminal (Felonious)  Murder (First, Second, or Third Degree)  Manslaughter (Voluntary or Involuntary)  Noncriminal (Non-Felonious)  Excusable Homicide  Justifiable Homicide  

Part 2: Case Analysis

In the second part of your training, you will analyze a closed homicide case in your community or as close to your community as possible. You should have selected a case from Nexis Uni in the Assignment Preparation activity last week. If you have not completed that activity, go back and complete it before continuing with this assignment.

In 3–4 pages, summarize the investigation into your selected case. Your analysis should:

• Describe the circumstances surrounding the case.
• Summarize the key factors that may have been used to classify the type of death and the finding.
  • Analyze the ways that various environmental factors may have influenced the medical examination and autopsy in this investigation.
• Identify the forensic methods that were reported in the investigation and their findings.
  • This may include methods like DNA, toxicology, hair and fiber evidence, fingerprints, or any other methods which contributed to the investigation. 
• Recommend one way that the investigators or forensic team could have strengthened their case based on your understanding of it.
• Cite three references.
  • One of your references will be the case record that you found from Nexis Uni.
  • Other references may be news articles that pertain to the case, and other court cases or rules that are referenced in the case.
• Clarity, writing mechanics, and formatting requirements.

This course requires the use of Strayer Writing Standards. For assistance and information, please refer to the Strayer Writing Standards link in the left-hand menu of your course. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.

The specific course learning outcome associated with this assignment is:

• Determine the procedures for conducting a preliminary death investigation.

Advanced human services professional practitioners are bound by laws (e.g., Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964), by the NOHS code of ethics, and by organizational policies and procedures that promote ethical behavior and cultural sensitivity. Practitioners may encounter challenges when the laws, code of ethics, and organizational policies and procedures conflict. For example, suppose a service user asks the practitioner to pray with them at an intake assessment because they are experiencing stress. The practitioner reluctantly agrees to pray to avoid exacerbating the service user’s stress, even though the organization’s policy prohibits discussing religion. Leaders created the policy to prevent practitioners from trying to convert service users to their religion. The practitioner’s supervisor ultimately decides to terminate the practitioner for violating the policy. Did the supervisor make the right decision? How might these and other violations be better addressed?

For this Discussion, you will explore a human services organization’s policies and procedures to determine how ethics training is addressed in relation to maintaining appropriate boundaries and cultural sensitivity. You will also use the NOHS code of ethics to evaluate the organization’s response to violations of policies and procedures.

To Prepare

• Identify a local human services organization with which you are familiar. This could be an organization in which you currently work or have previously worked, an organization in which a friend or family member works, or an organization that is well-known in your community.
• Go to the organization’s website and find the policies and procedures. Read the policies and procedures, paying particular attention to how the organization addresses ethics training in relation to maintaining appropriate boundaries and cultural sensitivity. In addition, consider the following questions:  
  • Are there professionals who come from the same cultural groups served?
  • Are professionals given training on self-reflection in order to be aware of potential bias or imposing their own values?
  • Are alternative healing practices needed and implemented?
  • How do the cultures in this community view mental health?
  • Are assessments biased in terms of worldview or linguistic accessibility?
  • Are interpreters available for all language groups?
  • Are there cultural differences in symptoms or disorders?
  • Are microaggressions evident?
  • Are services restricted based on religious principles?
  • Are there rules that may apply unequally between women and men?
• Identify at least one possible violation of the organization’s policies and procedures with respect to cultural sensitivity that occurred and consider how the organization responded.
• Review the Ethical Standards for Human Services Professionals. Identify specific standards that apply to the violation and consider how you would use the standards to address the situation differently. 

• Describe the human services organization you chose.
• Explain how this organization addresses the issues of ethics training in relation to maintaining appropriate boundaries and cultural sensitivity. Give an example of how the organization responded to a possible violation of their policies and procedures.
• Explain how you would have addressed the situation differently and why. Support your response using specific standards from the NOHS code of ethics.

Assignment 2: Expenses Worksheet in Excel

Before beginning this assignment, you should thoroughly review Excel Worksheets, Charts, Formulas, Functions, and Tables from your course textbook, Go! All in one: Computer concepts and applications.
 
For this assignment you will use Microsoft Excel to develop a worksheet that details your personal expenses in at least four categories from the last three months. Some of these expense categories might include, but are not limited to, Mortgage, Rent, Utilities, Phone, Food, Entertainment, Tuition, Childcare, Clothing, and Insurance. (These numbers may be fictitious.)

Part 1: The Spreadsheet

• Begin by opening a new Microsoft Excel file. (You may use the template found here.)
• Save it as LastnameFirstInitial_M3_A2
• Use Rows 1 and 2 for a title.
• Beginning in row 4, use column A to list your different expenses.
• Label the next three columns (B, C, D) for the past three months.
• Fill in the appropriate amount for each expense for each month.
• Beside the column with your third month’s entries, create another column for totals for each category.
  • Use a formula to calculate a total for each category of expense. 
• In the row below your last expense entry, create another row for the monthly totals of expenses.
  • Use a formula to calculate a total for each month of expenses.
• Beside the column add another column for calculating the percent of the budget for each expense category.
  • Use a formula to calculate the percent that each expense category is of the total expenditures.
• Format the worksheet by adjusting column widths and wrapping text, and by applying appropriate financial number formatting and cell styles. 

Please Note: While some calculations might be easy to do in your head or using a calculator—merely typing the answer into the appropriate cell—the point of this assignment is to get you accustomed to using formulas. In situations requiring frequently updated data or more complex calculations, Excel is a very powerful tool if you know how to use it. Your grade is based on your demonstrated ability to use the required formulas.

Part 2: The Chart

Below your table of monthly expenses, you will create a chart using the numbers from your spreadsheet similar to the example below.

• Open the Insert ribbon at the top of the screen.
• Click on a populated cell inside your spreadsheet, then, click on Column on the Insert ribbon. Select the style of column chart you like. 
• Click and drag your column chart into position below your spreadsheet.

Save your file as LastnameFirstinitial_M3_A2.xls. Submit this document to the Submissions Area by the due date assigned.

Suggested challenge for intermediate users: Add a row or rows detailing your income and subtract the total expenditures from the total income.

Suggested challenge for advanced users: Use a formula, function, or combination of both to show your net gain or loss (income minus expenses summed over time) for the three-month period.