NHS Computer System Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

NHS Computer System - Research Paper Example Project management is further explained in five processes including initiation, planning, execution, controlling and closure. Moreover, it involves other knowledge areas such as time, scope, expenditure, risks involved, quality, commucation, procurement and even, integration at times (Milosevic 2003). The activities managed by the project team include identifying requirements, managing the expectations of stakeholders, and competing for time, scope, risk, cost, and quality. Projects are always marred by deviations from the scope, objectives and execution, and this has pushed project managers to link and harmonise change management, project control and risk management. This is because risks usually arise from inefficiency in management and inadequate documentation of changes (Heldman & Heldman 2007). Frame (2003) explains the importance of readiness by the project team to deal with changes and that it is risky to ignore a project’s environmental impacts and adequate information in the planning stage. According to Kerzner (2006), change and risk management is important as it reduces the number and level of surprises. He further he explains that risks and changes are â€Å"hand in hand† as risks are usually created by changes. NHS computer system NHS computer system was created under the functioning of UK Department of Health, and the system was produced to deliver the NHS National Programme which falls under IT (NPfIT). NPfIT was, however, initiated by the Department of Health of England which was given the task of shifting England`s National Health Service (NHS) to an integrated, electronic care record which can be centrally managed for patients, also which has the capacity... The NHS program has recently come under criticism especially with Department of Health refusing to give solid information about its progress to external observers. This has even led to academics in computer related fields to write a letter to the Health Select Committee raising concern about the program. The government has also been under fire for its apparent reluctance to evaluate and audit the program, and in case the development of the policy gets failed, i.e. the ICT policy proposed tends to cost less and benefit more, much evidence regarding technology is lacking.In 2009, the Public Accounts Committee reported that, the risks to the deployment system are getting higher and further termed in as being â€Å"as serious as ever,† whereby they further continued to say that the base of the project is now almost â€Å"way off the pace†, at this point further indicating the revision date which has already been extended i.e. the completion due date of 2014-2015 is still in doubt especially in the aftermath of the Fujitsu's contract being terminated, which had to cover the South. Moreover, it was concluded that there is already delay in essential systems, thus even if an effort to deploy the system is made, the clinical staff has high expectations which will not be possible to comply with. Furthermore, considering the current cost of the program, along with the managerial issues going on and also with the four IT providers being sacked, there has been an increase in the criticism going on about the project.

Death of a Salesman and Fences Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Death of a Salesman and Fences - Essay Example There indeed is a highly valid reason for stating so. In both the plays, these characters, Willy in â€Å"Death of a Salesman† and Troy of â€Å"Fences† have negative shades, for they not just are obsessed with the past at the cost of neglecting the present, but they (father characters) also share a highly hostile relationship with their respective sons. It is not just that; both Willy and Troy denote as being impediments in terms of the goals of their sons. (1) In fact, in â€Å"Death of a Salesman† Willy’s obsession with the past is so high that he reaches the stage where, he is unable to draw a line between reality and fantasy. Perhaps, the most prominent common feature of the characters (of fathers) is that, both do not have a respectable position in the society. (1) After that, it indeed would be worthwhile in having a look at the characters of sons: Biff in â€Å"Death of a Salesman† and Cory in â€Å"Fences†. As mentioned earlier, both Biff and Cory are the victims of the day-dreaming of their respective fathers. It also has to be noted that, solely because of the false approach adopted by Willy and Troy, even Biff and Cory have been subjected to severe mental conflict. As a matter of fact, Biff is redeemed of this mental turmoil only after he musters the needed courage to rebel against Willy’s dominant approach. However, it is observed that, notwithstanding all the unpleasant experiences, Biff still has a soft corner for his father. This is evident from the words that he speaks at the funeral of his father â€Å"there were a lot of nice days†. Also, Biff adds that the intentions of Willy were good, and it is just that the dreams were erroneous. (1) When the play â€Å"Fences† is taken, the unpleasant relationship shared by Cory with his father is clear by the words spoken by the former â€Å"You ain't never gave me nothing! You ain't never done nothing but hold me back. Afraid I was gonna b e better than you. All you ever did was try and make me scared of you.† Cory is aware that, apart from creating fear in his mind, Troy has done nothing else for him! Despite the fact that Cory has lot of talent for playing baseball, Troy never permits him to make a mark for himself in this game. And similar to â€Å"Death of a Salesman† even in â€Å"Fences† the son gets his total freedom only after his father’s death. (1) When the characters of the sons are considered in both the plays, one surely notes a key difference. In the play â€Å"Death of a Salesman† Biff thinks about his father in a positive manner, after the latter’s death. But when â€Å"Fences† is considered, Cory expresses no such sentiments. On the contrary, it is seen that he is highly reluctant to even attend the funeral. Owing to these points, it can conveniently be inferred that, when both Willy and Troy are compared, it is only the former who is having at least a f ew positives. That is why his son was able to pay respects at the funeral. On the other hand, Cory has nothing but utter dislike for his father. (1) Now, the focus needs to shift on to examining the characters of Linda, wife of Willy, and Rose, the spouse of Troy. To begin with, it has to be stated that Willy and Troy do not have a sound relationship not only with the sons, but also with their respective spouses. Also, both of them (Willy and Troy) indulge in adultery. In â€Å"Death of a Salesman† though Linda is unaware about the extra-marital affair of her husband, yet; his adulterous acts tell upon their relationship. This can be understood by an example. When Willy

Manifestation of Anorexia Nervosa in East-Asian Culture

Manifestation of Anorexia Nervosa in East-Asian Culture Tharushi Kaluarachchi Mental illnesses do not exist independent of their social and historical context. Although it is generally accepted that sociocultural factors are key in the development of Anorexia Nervosa (AN), presently, it is bound by Western notions of disease as its criterion is focused on the obsession with thinness for women with the disorder. However with its evolution being mirrored in East-Asia, it has been hypothesised that an increased risk for eating disorders in those countries arises from a greater exposure to Western popular culture, diets and values. However this in itself does not explain the spread of the disorder as a more complex historical view is needed to explain its conception in East-Asia. Being complex in aetiology, there is much debate centred on the motivation behind food refusal in being the most challenging factor to interpret (Keel Klump, 2003). In Western countries, the promotion of thinness as the ideal female form today has forged a template for the diagnosis of AN as eating disorders have become more common among younger females with a period of icons of the American beauty becoming thinner during the late twentieth Century (Keel Klump, 2003). As a result of this campaign, Lee (1995) claims that modern biomedical views of AN have attributed the avoidance of food purely to a fear of fatness while the sufferer becomes emaciated. The essential criteria for Anorexia Nervosa includes an intense fear of weight gain even with a significantly low weight (The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM–5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Hence it is insisted that the resolution of this fat phobia needs to presuppose recovery. However this explanation is inadequate as East-Asian cultures have a historically unique evolution essentially apart from modern Western culture (Keel and Klump, 2003). Hence in East-Asian countries AN was previously noted to be unknown with the fear of fatness noted to be frequently absent among these rare anorexics. A culturally sensitive study of AN in Hong Kong revealed that although they bore a convincing resemblance to Western Anorectics in terms of physicality, a large portion, 59%, did not exhibit any fat phobia, instead rationalising their food refusal through bloating and oesophageal blockages (Lee, Ho Hsu, 1993) . Hence these East-Asian Anorexics resulted to organic causes for self-starvation, endorsing the body as a social response to illness (Watters, 2010). Thus, an individual’s distress is culturally defined, as these bodily sensations indicate psychological distress carrying as much meaning and impact as a Western complaint of anxiety or depression (Lee, 1995) . Regarding a case study by Lee (1995), a thirty-one year old patient from Hong Kong began complaining of abdominal discomfort and reduced her food intake due to her boyfriend deserting her. Despite seeing doctors, her weight continued to decrease with her attributing it to abdominal problems, denying any fear of fatness or intentionally restricting diet. Clearly this patient did not fit the diagnostic criteria for AN according to the DSM due to the discrepancy between the biomedical explanation of fat phobia and the patient’s personal explanations (Watters, 2010). Aetiological explanations that were sought through Chinese herbalists attributed the self-starvation to imbalances with bodily organs being devoid of normal hunger sensations, yet was found to be ineffective in treatment. As a result, what was needed was a more local understanding of the personal and cultural forces at play instead of relying on a global template driven by the use of Western diagnostic categories as n either Western nor Eastern healing modalities were having an impact. It is imperative to document that cultural forces are often mediated throughout history to mould the contextual factors which result in the mental illnesses of that time. Hence in pursuing an aetiological explanation for atypical Anorexics, hysteria is of particular interest as its symptoms tend to be shaped by the surrounding culture which is constantly changing in accordance with what is deemed to be female by society. (Shorter, 1986:1). Although the patient’s condition cannot be explained through modern conceptualisations of AN, the symptoms exhibited can be traced back to nineteenth century hysteria. This was an extremely popular form of illness manifesting in a variety of symptoms such as convulsive fits, paralysis and muscle contractions, which the patient believed was physical in origin and perceived as being beyond the control of their conscious mind (Shorter, 1986). Lasà ¨gue (1873 as cited in Malson, 1998) presented hysterical anorexia as a form of hysteria caused by the ‘mental perverseness’ of the patient regarded as an illness of female nervousness. Lasà ¨gue (1873 as cited in Malson, 1998) constructs the typical patient to be a young woman who is mentally weak, aged fifteen to twenty years suffering from a personal trauma who is unable to voluntarily resist ascending to the illness. Hence in failing to differentiate between a typical patient and other young girls, he pathologized all young girls, depicting them as being incapable of controlling their symptoms. Hence his report inadvertently enabled a dialogue between the medical society and Victorian middle class females (Brumberg, 1985). Sir William Gull (1873) who shortly succeeded Lasà ¨gue drew the conclusion subsequent to observing similarities across a number of cases, due to the consistent absence of gastric dysfunction which he used as evidence to attribute the loss of appetite to a morbid mental state. Hence Gull defined the loss of appetite as Anorexia Nervosa with the motive for self-starvation being as a result of mental wilfulness differentiated form hysteria which had an organic cause (Gull, 1873). In constructing a weak minded, young nervous girl, Gull (1873) and Lasà ¨gue (1873) presented AN to be viewed as a characteristic or archetype of all young women (Malson, 1998). The ensuing public debate established AN as a distinct disease entity reifying it as a common female disorder which was typified by an aversion to eating food with the patient reporting abdominal pains (Mackenzie, 1888 as cited in Malson, 1998). Yet, as found with the case of atypical East-Asian anorexics, it was repeatedly asserted that careful examinations found no sign of any organic causes that could be attributed to the disorder (Marshall, 1895 as cited in Malson, 1998). Hence a phobia of gaining weight is not the reason for extreme self-starvation, as gastric discomfort was legitimized by physicians, instead attributing anorectic patients’ starvation as the wish not to eat or loss of appetite with the behaviour being as destructive as patients today with anorexia nervosa (Shorter, 1985 as cited in Lee, 1995). Hence non-fat phobia anorexia displays no particular cultural features as it was found in early conceptions of hysteria and atypical anorexics in East-Asia. Oppenheim (1991 as cited in Watters, 2010) documents the influence of hysteria in Victorian culture in the early twentieth century that led to the rise of the disorder as it was mentioned in not only medical literature but also in popular magazines and newspapers that were easily accessible to lay people. Hysteria was encountered everywhere in the public, seen in an ad in Modern Mechanix – Physical Culture that promoted devices such as body braces to remedy â€Å"female weakness, backache, stomach trouble†¦the result of incorrect posture, misplaced organs† (Stop Suffering, 1934). Further an ad in Photoplay generalised woman as having â€Å"no control of herself† with â€Å"constant headache, backache and dizzy spells† prescribing tablets that would give women back their youth, beauty and health (These Hysterical Woman, 1932). Hence this reification of disease by medical professionals and consequently the media can have an unconscious yet powerful effe ct on people as the psychosomatic symptoms of anorexia nervosa were shaped by their beliefs of what constitutes a disease (Shorter, 1986 as cited in Watters, 2010). Shorter (1986) claims that as these expectations change, it targets a specific population and provides patients with a model of how to behave and which symptoms to present. Hence as seen with hysteria, this rapid increase in incidence of a pattern of symptoms coming into vogue through a public interest in medical discourse presents with a problem of incidences of diseases rising (Shorter, 1986). As a result the illness manifested in the population at large and the incidence of the disease drastically rose as self-starvation which was once a rare symptom became common. Shorter (1994:268 as cited in Malt, 1996) postulated that the medical society stimulated the eating disorder behaviour as it influences patients’ ways of communicating their distress to be more recognized and accepted as it offers a person who can no longer cope with their situation to be free of blame through a non-stigmatic label corresponding to medical diagnostics. Hence this rise in hysteria symptoms in early nineteenth century can be matched with atypical anorexics in East-Asian countries in the late twentieth century, with the speculation that the lack of public awareness in East-Asia correlated with the rarity of the disorder, as distressed individuals were less likely to select AN as the illness of choice (Watters, 2010). In the late 1990’s the cultural and individual differences in diagnosis became blurred as the influence of the Western diagnostic manual grew and wouldn’t be confirmed as AN unless the patient fulfilled the DSM criteria which presents a large problem in treating them (Watters, 2010). Although increasing industrialisation and fraying of traditional forms of family occurred in the 1990’s, this Westernisation is inadequate in describing the rise in the incidence of eating disorders in Asian countries (Pike Borovy, 2004). This clash between traditional and modernism formed a belief system suspended between East-Asian and Western conceptions at the point where modern attitudes have fragmented families yet not enough to overturn the traditional familism (Chan Lee, 1995). As a result, Cummins, Simmons and Zane (2005) criticise DSM as a diagnostic tool as it requires endorsing specific symptoms, yet it presents as less relevant to East-Asian populations as they may exhibit a different pattern of symptom presentation. However Rogler (1992 as cited in Aderibigbe and Pandurangi, 1995) claim that when translating international instruments such as the DSM, they should be culturally sensitive to ensure an accurate assessment of symptoms as they should be described freely without any Westernised prejudice. Further, Aderibigbe and Pandurangi (1995) call for more flexibly structured diagnostic systems where the diagnostic inclusion and exclusion criteria is applied in the context of the local culture as diagnosis would be improved if there are alternate classifications of disorders that were more suitable to East-Asian countries. Western conceptualisations often neglect the conception of AN in contemporary East-Asia is affected by the dominant cultural expectations for young woman as traditional notions of love, marriage and adulthood create a context which offers financial stability whilst simultaneously limiting their social lives (Pike Borovy, 2004). As a result of this culture, Pike and Borovy (2004) suggest that eating disorders may reflect the individual’s distress in negotiating these constraints which still values women in their traditional roles of domesticity. This is contrasted with Western cultural valuation of women where the tension arises from a result of striving for achievement and autonomy in being required to negotiate the demands of competitive worlds with a devaluation of traditional dependency work (Pike Borovy, 2004). Western societal standards of beauty often overvalue size and weight, expressed through a general distorted body image and fat phobia of the population. Although this pursuit of thinness has been absorbed by East-Asian culture, it is not the central causing factor of East-Asian AN. Instead there is a need to recognise that this fear manifests as a loss of control, which is the more critical factor in developing AN (Lee, 2001 as cited in Pike Borovy, 2004). This is where the culture acts as a guide for the individual by providing a range of symptoms to express distress as it provides a range of physical symptoms for the unconscious mind to physically express the psychological conflict (Shorter, 1986:1). Hence it is important that the aetiological model of AN integrates the local East-Asian culture and the universal need to express distress and global Westernisation. The rise in incidence of fat phobia anorexics can be ascribed to the popularisation of the DSM essential criteria of a fear of fatness in Hong Kong through the media. Instances such as the death of a young anorexic girl, Charlene Hsu Chi-Ying sparked the attention of the media with newspaper headlines from local Chinese-language daily papers such as â€Å"Schoolgirl Falls Dead on Street: Thinner than a yellow Flower† (Watters, 2010). With little local professional knowledge, Western experts were quoted, ascribing her demise to weight loss and dieting (Watters, 2010). Hence this media attention not only generated public interest resulting in the rise of this disorder, but especially a rise in the Westernised form of AN in a different subpopulation, modelling DSM symptoms. A newspaper article in The Nation claimed that eating disorders were estimated to afflict â€Å"one in 100 young Japanese women† (Effron, 1997:14) similar to the incidence rate in the United States. The extent of Western acculturation in Asian countries can be seen as Effron claims that â€Å"a weight-loss craze has swept the developed countries of Asia, sending women†¦scurrying to exercise studios and slimming salons† (Effron, 1997:14 as appearance and figures became very important to young people. Hence raising awareness of AN in Asian culture inadvertently became a double-edged sword as it could draw a susceptible reader in, with Shaw (2006) finding that adolescents tend to respond more to fashion images. Further, vulnerable adolescents who were dissatisfied with their body and perceived the pressure to fit in were adversely affected by exposure to images of thin models (Stice, Spangler and Agras, 2001). Therefore, there is a need to change the perception of AN portrayed in the media as it has become a culturally manipulated syndrome in East-Asian societies, leading to mimic anorexics as they regard the process of self-starvation with veneration rather than pain (Brumberg, 1985). Hence this proliferation of the promotion of starvation as glamorizing the disease for girls who seek it as an outlet of distress can encourage imitation. As a result, Psychiatry today in East-Asian cultures are treating the subpopulation affected by Western manifestations of AN which is inadequate a s it dismisses the genuine atypical anorexics. In summation, it is important to consider AN as cultural artefact which has been refined over time, as well as integrating a biomedical and personal subjective models. Hence there is no single adequate suggestion that media and advertising or society alone have increased the incidence of AN. It is rather that culture is a layered process of history and social expectations which put modern adolescents at a greater risk for developing the disease such that a deeper historical view, as pursued here, can be sought to explain how expectations of AN have changed. However, the mediation of factors such as media, which help form a dialogue between the disease and the public need to be controlled and take into account the local culture in order to aid in treating and restricting the rise of the incidence of AN in East-Asian countries.

Carl Gauss Essay -- Biographies Gauss Mathematician Essays

Carl Gauss Carl Gauss was a man who is known for making a great deal breakthroughs in the wide variety of his work in both mathematics and physics. He is responsible for immeasurable contributions to the fields of number theory, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, magnetism, astronomy, and optics, as well as many more. The concepts that he himself created have had an immense influence in many areas of the mathematic and scientific world. Carl Gauss was born Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss, on the thirtieth of April, 1777, in Brunswick, Duchy of Brunswick (now Germany). Gauss was born into an impoverished family, raised as the only son of a bricklayer. Despite the hard living conditions, Gauss's brilliance shone through at a young age. At the age of only two years, the young Carl gradually learned from his parents how to pronounce the letters of the alphabet. Carl then set to teaching himself how to read by sounding out the combinations of the letters. Around the time that Carl was teaching himself to read aloud, he also taught himself the meanings of number symbols and learned to do arithmetical calculations. When Carl Gauss reached the age of seven, he began elementary school. His potential for brilliance was recognized immediately. Gauss's teacher Herr Buttner, had assigned the class a difficult problem of addition in which the students were to find the sum of the integers from one to one hundred. While his classmates toiled over the addition, Carl sat and pondered the question. He invented the shortcut formula on the spot, and wrote down the correct answer. Carl came to the conclusion that the sum of the integers was 50 pairs of numbers each pair summing to one hundred and one, thus simple multiplication followed and the answer could be found. This act of sheer genius was so astounding to Herr Buttner that the teacher took the young Gauss under his wing and taught him fervently on the subject of arithmetic. He paid for the best textbooks obtainable out of his own pocket and presented them to Gauss, who reportedly flashed through them. In 1788 Gauss began his education at the Gymnasium, with the assistance of his past teacher Buttner, where he learned High German and Latin. After receiving a scholarship from the Duke of Brunswick, Gauss entered Brunswick Collegium Carolinum in 1792. During his time spent at the academy Gauss independent... ...a great deal of concrete results. The Magnetischer Verein and its journal were conceived, and the atlas of geomagnetism was published. From 1850 onwards Gauss's work was that of nearly all practical nature. He disputed over a modified Foucalt pendulum in 1854, and was also able to attend the opening of the new railway link between Hanover and Gottingen, but this outing proved to be his last. The health of Carl Gauss deteriorated slowly and he died in his sleep early in the morning of February 23, 1855. Carl Gauss's influence in the worlds of science and mathematics has been immeasurable. His abstract findings have changed the way in which we study our world. In Gauss's lifetime he did work on a number of concepts for which he never published, because he felt them to be incomplete. Every one of these ideas (including complex variable, non-Euclidean geometry, and the mathematical foundations of physics) was later discovered by other mathematicians. Although he was not awarded the credit for these particular discoveries, he found his reward with the pursuit of such research, and finding the truth for its own sake. He is a great man and his achievements will not be forgotten.

Analysis of Chopin’s use of linguistic features in her literary works

From the Victorian era, Chopin startled critics with her paradigmatic tale of a woman’s abortive struggle towards independence in an oppressive society. By using women as her protagonist, Chopin highlights their sexist roles in literature whilst restricting them from the expansion necessary to deal with their realisation. It thus seemed conducive to transform the novel into a series of letters in the form of English Sonnets, establishing the undeveloped characterisation of Edna with Robert, whilst they are separated from each other. The transformation aims to elucidate Edna’s role in society, by satirizing the narrow and stereotypical way in which woman are commonly portrayed in literature. The novel as a form does not offer the opportunity for character development in the same way a series of letters/sonnets do. For example, Edna openly declares her love for Robert, at the time of her death: â€Å"I’m the person who deserves your love.† The continuous sense of the author’s evaluation of the moral choices that her characters make is lost; they seem more autonomous throughout the sonnets because they speak for themselves without Chopin’s explicit authorial presence. The sonnet form successfully mimics letter writing as both forms are addressed to someone, whilst informing and shedding light on their own thoughts. Moreover, when the two characters reveal their feelings to each other or reminisce of their time together at Grand Isle, the meter is tight, mirroring the natural sound of a heart beating. For example, Robert declares: â€Å"The bonds we made grew deeper than the sea.† This foreshadows events, making it clear to the reader the context of which the letter/sonnets are written, in the novel. As the final sonnet concludes, the iambic pentameter in the rhyming couplets deliberately fails, creating the sound of a dying and irregular heartbeat, phonetically indicating Edna’s death. Both lines thirteen and fourteen consist of eleven syllables, breaking the strict rule of including five iambs with one unstressed and stressed syllable, to make up the meter. Unlike the rest of the sonnets, the final is in past tense which suggests that she has already died and is looking back on her words to Robert. The fact that she dies simultaneously as the sonnet concludes, highlights the end of their communication and hence concludes the transformation through her tragic death. Phallogocentrism is a key attitude conveyed in Robert’s sonnets, particularly after he discovers that Edna only likes him to gain attention from her husband, whom she believes to be having an affair. For example, conventional values of gender roles are implied through this simile: â€Å"like a deceived husband not knowing you,† which aims to make Edna feel sympathy towards her husband, in an attempt to reduce her emotional desire for Robert, which contrastingly accentuates through the discourse of the transformation. In conclusion, the third sonnet uses juxtaposition of Edna’s beauty to highlight her cunning and manipulative ways as a female protagonist. This is revealed through the line: â€Å"For there can live no hatred on your face,† which highlights Edna’s surfaced, innocent faà §ade, concealing her inner desires, highlighting her non feminist attitude.

Angels Demons Chapter 82-85

82 At CERN, secretary Sylvie Baudeloque was hungry, wishing she could go home. To her dismay, Kohler had apparently survived his trip to the infirmary; he had phoned and demanded – not asked, demanded – that Sylvie stay late this evening. No explanation. Over the years, Sylvie had programmed herself to ignore Kohler's bizarre mood swings and eccentricities – his silent treatments, his unnerving propensity to secretly film meetings with his wheelchair's porta-video. She secretly hoped one day he would shoot himself during his weekly visit to CERN's recreational pistol range, but apparently he was a pretty good shot. Now, sitting alone at her desk, Sylvie heard her stomach growling. Kohler had not yet returned, nor had he given her any additional work for the evening. To hell with sitting here bored and starving, she decided. She left Kohler a note and headed for the staff dining commons to grab a quick bite. She never made it. As she passed CERN's recreational â€Å"suites de loisir† – a long hallway of lounges with televisions – she noticed the rooms were overflowing with employees who had apparently abandoned dinner to watch the news. Something big was going on. Sylvie entered the first suite. It was packed with byte-heads – wild young computer programmers. When she saw the headlines on the TV, she gasped. Terror at the Vatican Sylvie listened to the report, unable to believe her ears. Some ancient brotherhood killing cardinals? What did that prove? Their hatred? Their dominance? Their ignorance? And yet, incredibly, the mood in this suite seemed anything but somber. Two young techies ran by waving T-shirts that bore a picture of Bill Gates and the message: And the Geek shall inherit the Earth! â€Å"Illuminati!† one shouted. â€Å"I told you these guys were real!† â€Å"Incredible! I thought it was just a game!† â€Å"They killed the Pope, man! The Pope!† â€Å"Jeez! I wonder how many points you get for that?† They ran off laughing. Sylvie stood in stunned amazement. As a Catholic working among scientists, she occasionally endured the antireligious whisperings, but the party these kids seemed to be having was all-out euphoria over the church's loss. How could they be so callous? Why the hatred? For Sylvie, the church had always been an innocuous entity†¦ a place of fellowship and introspection†¦ sometimes just a place to sing out loud without people staring at her. The church recorded the benchmarks of her life – funerals, weddings, baptisms, holidays – and it asked for nothing in return. Even the monetary dues were voluntary. Her children emerged from Sunday School every week uplifted, filled with ideas about helping others and being kinder. What could possibly be wrong with that? It never ceased to amaze her that so many of CERN's so-called â€Å"brilliant minds† failed to comprehend the importance of the church. Did they really believe quarks and mesons inspired the average human being? Or that equations could replace someone's need for faith in the divine? Dazed, Sylvie moved down the hallway past the other lounges. All the TV rooms were packed. She began wondering now about the call Kohler had gotten from the Vatican earlier. Coincidence? Perhaps. The Vatican called CERN from time to time as a â€Å"courtesy† before issuing scathing statements condemning CERN's research – most recently for CERN's breakthroughs in nanotechnology, a field the church denounced because of its implications for genetic engineering. CERN never cared. Invariably, within minutes after a Vatican salvo, Kohler's phone would ring off the hook with tech-investment companies wanting to license the new discovery. â€Å"No such thing as bad press,† Kohler would always say. Sylvie wondered if she should page Kohler, wherever the hell he was, and tell him to turn on the news. Did he care? Had he heard? Of course, he'd heard. He was probably videotaping the entire report with his freaky little camcorder, smiling for the first time in a year. As Sylvie continued down the hall, she finally found a lounge where the mood was subdued†¦ almost melancholy. Here the scientists watching the report were some of CERN's oldest and most respected. They did not even look up as Sylvie slipped in and took a seat. On the other side of CERN, in Leonardo Vetra's frigid apartment, Maximilian Kohler had finished reading the leather-bound journal he'd taken from Vetra's bedside table. Now he was watching the television reports. After a few minutes, he replaced Vetra's journal, turned off the television, and left the apartment. Far away, in Vatican City, Cardinal Mortati carried another tray of ballots to the Sistine Chapel chimney. He burned them, and the smoke was black. Two ballotings. No Pope. 83 Flashlights were no match for the voluminous blackness of St. Peter's Basilica. The void overhead pressed down like a starless night, and Vittoria felt the emptiness spread out around her like a desolate ocean. She stayed close as the Swiss Guards and the camerlegno pushed on. High above, a dove cooed and fluttered away. As if sensing her discomfort, the camerlegno dropped back and lay a hand on her shoulder. A tangible strength transferred in the touch, as if the man were magically infusing her with the calm she needed to do what they were about to do. What are we about to do? she thought. This is madness! And yet, Vittoria knew, for all its impiety and inevitable horror, the task at hand was inescapable. The grave decisions facing the camerlegno required information†¦ information entombed in a sarcophagus in the Vatican Grottoes. She wondered what they would find. Did the Illuminati murder the Pope? Did their power really reach so far? Am I really about to perform the first papal autopsy? Vittoria found it ironic that she felt more apprehensive in this unlit church than she would swimming at night with barracuda. Nature was her refuge. She understood nature. But it was matters of man and spirit that left her mystified. Killer fish gathering in the dark conjured images of the press gathering outside. TV footage of branded bodies reminded her of her father's corpse†¦ and the killer's harsh laugh. The killer was out there somewhere. Vittoria felt the anger drowning her fear. As they circled past a pillar – thicker in girth than any redwood she could imagine – Vittoria saw an orange glow up ahead. The light seemed to emanate from beneath the floor in the center of the basilica. As they came closer, she realized what she was seeing. It was the famous sunken sanctuary beneath the main altar – the sumptuous underground chamber that held the Vatican's most sacred relics. As they drew even with the gate surrounding the hollow, Vittoria gazed down at the golden coffer surrounded by scores of glowing oil lamps. â€Å"St. Peter's bones?† she asked, knowing full well that they were. Everyone who came to St. Peter's knew what was in the golden casket. â€Å"Actually, no,† the camerlegno said. â€Å"A common misconception. That's not a reliquary. The box holds palliums – woven sashes that the Pope gives to newly elected cardinals.† â€Å"But I thought – â€Å" â€Å"As does everyone. The guidebooks label this as St. Peter's tomb, but his true grave is two stories beneath us, buried in the earth. The Vatican excavated it in the forties. Nobody is allowed down there.† Vittoria was shocked. As they moved away from the glowing recession into the darkness again, she thought of the stories she'd heard of pilgrims traveling thousands of miles to look at that golden box, thinking they were in the presence of St. Peter. â€Å"Shouldn't the Vatican tell people?† â€Å"We all benefit from a sense of contact with divinity†¦ even if it is only imagined.† Vittoria, as a scientist, could not argue the logic. She had read countless studies of the placebo effect – aspirins curing cancer in people who believed they were using a miracle drug. What was faith, after all? â€Å"Change,† the camerlegno said, â€Å"is not something we do well within Vatican City. Admitting our past faults, modernization, are things we historically eschew. His Holiness was trying to change that.† He paused. â€Å"Reaching to the modern world. Searching for new paths to God.† Vittoria nodded in the dark. â€Å"Like science?† â€Å"To be honest, science seems irrelevant.† â€Å"Irrelevant?† Vittoria could think of a lot of words to describe science, but in the modern world â€Å"irrelevant† did not seem like one of them. â€Å"Science can heal, or science can kill. It depends on the soul of the man using the science. It is the soul that interests me.† â€Å"When did you hear your call?† â€Å"Before I was born.† Vittoria looked at him. â€Å"I'm sorry, that always seems like a strange question. What I mean is that I've always known I would serve God. From the moment I could first think. It wasn't until I was a young man, though, in the military, that I truly understood my purpose.† Vittoria was surprised. â€Å"You were in the military?† â€Å"Two years. I refused to fire a weapon, so they made me fly instead. Medevac helicopters. In fact, I still fly from time to time.† Vittoria tried to picture the young priest flying a helicopter. Oddly, she could see him perfectly behind the controls. Camerlegno Ventresca possessed a grit that seemed to accentuate his conviction rather than cloud it. â€Å"Did you ever fly the Pope?† â€Å"Heavens no. We left that precious cargo to the professionals. His Holiness let me take the helicopter to our retreat in Gandolfo sometimes.† He paused, looking at her. â€Å"Ms. Vetra, thank you for your help here today. I am very sorry about your father. Truly.† â€Å"Thank you.† â€Å"I never knew my father. He died before I was born. I lost my mother when I was ten.† Vittoria looked up. â€Å"You were orphaned?† She felt a sudden kinship. â€Å"I survived an accident. An accident that took my mother.† â€Å"Who took care of you?† â€Å"God,† the camerlegno said. â€Å"He quite literally sent me another father. A bishop from Palermo appeared at my hospital bed and took me in. At the time I was not surprised. I had sensed God's watchful hand over me even as a boy. The bishop's appearance simply confirmed what I had already suspected, that God had somehow chosen me to serve him.† â€Å"You believed God chose you?† â€Å"I did. And I do.† There was no trace of conceit in the camerlegno's voice, only gratitude. â€Å"I worked under the bishop's tutelage for many years. He eventually became a cardinal. Still, he never forgot me. He is the father I remember.† A beam of a flashlight caught the camerlegno's face, and Vittoria sensed a loneliness in his eyes. The group arrived beneath a towering pillar, and their lights converged on an opening in the floor. Vittoria looked down at the staircase descending into the void and suddenly wanted to turn back. The guards were already helping the camerlegno onto the stairs. They helped her next. â€Å"What became of him?† she asked, descending, trying to keep her voice steady. â€Å"The cardinal who took you in?† â€Å"He left the College of Cardinals for another position.† Vittoria was surprised. â€Å"And then, I'm sorry to say, he passed on.† â€Å"Le mie condoglianze,† Vittoria said. â€Å"Recently?† The camerlegno turned, shadows accentuating the pain on his face. â€Å"Exactly fifteen days ago. We are going to see him right now.† 84 The dark lights glowed hot inside the archival vault. This vault was much smaller than the previous one Langdon had been in. Less air. Less time. He wished he'd asked Olivetti to turn on the recirculating fans. Langdon quickly located the section of assets containing the ledgers cataloging Belle Arti. The section was impossible to miss. It occupied almost eight full stacks. The Catholic church owned millions of individual pieces worldwide. Langdon scanned the shelves searching for Gianlorenzo Bernini. He began his search about midway down the first stack, at about the spot he thought the B's would begin. After a moment of panic fearing the ledger was missing, he realized, to his greater dismay, that the ledgers were not arranged alphabetically. Why am I not surprised? It was not until Langdon circled back to the beginning of the collection and climbed a rolling ladder to the top shelf that he understood the vault's organization. Perched precariously on the upper stacks he found the fattest ledgers of all – those belonging to the masters of the Renaissance – Michelangelo, Raphael, da Vinci, Botticelli. Langdon now realized, appropriate to a vault called â€Å"Vatican Assets,† the ledgers were arranged by the overall monetary value of each artist's collection. Sandwiched between Raphael and Michelangelo, Langdon found the ledger marked Bernini. It was over five inches thick. Already short of breath and struggling with the cumbersome volume, Langdon descended the ladder. Then, like a kid with a comic book, he spread himself out on the floor and opened the cover. The book was cloth-bound and very solid. The ledger was handwritten in Italian. Each page cataloged a single work, including a short description, date, location, cost of materials, and sometimes a rough sketch of the piece. Langdon fanned through the pages†¦ over eight hundred in all. Bernini had been a busy man. As a young student of art, Langdon had wondered how single artists could create so much work in their lifetimes. Later he learned, much to his disappointment, that famous artists actually created very little of their own work. They ran studios where they trained young artists to carry out their designs. Sculptors like Bernini created miniatures in clay and hired others to enlarge them into marble. Langdon knew that if Bernini had been required to personally complete all of his commissions, he would still be working today. â€Å"Index,† he said aloud, trying to ward off the mental cobwebs. He flipped to the back of the book, intending to look under the letter F for titles containing the word fuco – fire – but the F's were not together. Langdon swore under his breath. What the hell do these people have against alphabetizing? The entries had apparently been logged chronologically, one by one, as Bernini created each new work. Everything was listed by date. No help at all. As Langdon stared at the list, another disheartening thought occurred to him. The title of the sculpture he was looking for might not even contain the word Fire. The previous two works – Habakkuk and the Angel and West Ponente – had not contained specific references to Earth or Air. He spent a minute or two flipping randomly through the ledger in hopes that an illustration might jump out at him. Nothing did. He saw dozens of obscure works he had never heard of, but he also saw plenty he recognized†¦ Daniel and the Lion, Apollo and Daphne, as well as a half dozen fountains. When he saw the fountains, his thoughts skipped momentarily ahead. Water. He wondered if the fourth altar of science was a fountain. A fountain seemed a perfect tribute to water. Langdon hoped they could catch the killer before he had to consider Water – Bernini had carved dozens of fountains in Rome, most of them in front of churches. Langdon turned back to the matter at hand. Fire. As he looked through the book, Vittoria's words encouraged him. You were familiar with the first two sculptures†¦ you probably know this one too. As he turned to the index again, he scanned for titles he knew. Some were familiar, but none jumped out. Langdon now realized he would never complete his search before passing out, so he decided, against his better judgment, that he would have to take the book outside the vault. It's only a ledger, he told himself. It's not like I'm removing an original Galilean folio. Langdon recalled the folio in his breast pocket and reminded himself to return it before leaving. Hurrying now, he reached down to lift the volume, but as he did, he saw something that gave him pause. Although there were numerous notations throughout the index, the one that had just caught his eye seemed odd. The note indicated that the famous Bernini sculpture, The Ecstasy of St. Teresa, shortly after its unveiling, had been moved from its original location inside the Vatican. This in itself was not what had caught Langdon's eye. He was already familiar with the sculpture's checkered past. Though some thought it a masterpiece, Pope Urban VIII had rejected The Ecstasy of St. Teresa as too sexually explicit for the Vatican. He had banished it to some obscure chapel across town. What had caught Langdon's eye was that the work had apparently been placed in one of the five churches on his list. What was more, the note indicated it had been moved there per suggerimento del artista. By suggestion of the artist? Langdon was confused. It made no sense that Bernini had suggested his masterpiece be hidden in some obscure location. All artists wanted their work displayed prominently, not in some remote – Langdon hesitated. Unless†¦ He was fearful even to entertain the notion. Was it possible? Had Bernini intentionally created a work so explicit that it forced the Vatican to hide it in some out-of-the-way spot? A location perhaps that Bernini himself could suggest? Maybe a remote church on a direct line with West Ponente's breath? As Langdon's excitement mounted, his vague familiarity with the statue intervened, insisting the work had nothing to do with fire. The sculpture, as anyone who had seen it could attest, was anything but scientific – pornographic maybe, but certainly not scientific. An English critic had once condemned The Ecstasy of St. Teresa as â€Å"the most unfit ornament ever to be placed in a Christian Church.† Langdon certainly understood the controversy. Though brilliantly rendered, the statue depicted St. Teresa on her back in the throes of a toe-curling orgasm. Hardly Vatican fare. Langdon hurriedly flipped to the ledger's description of the work. When he saw the sketch, he felt an instantaneous and unexpected tingle of hope. In the sketch, St. Teresa did indeed appear to be enjoying herself, but there was another figure in the statue who Langdon had forgotten was there. An angel. The sordid legend suddenly came back†¦ St. Teresa was a nun sainted after she claimed an angel had paid her a blissful visit in her sleep. Critics later decided her encounter had probably been more sexual than spiritual. Scrawled at the bottom of the ledger, Langdon saw a familiar excerpt. St. Teresa's own words left little to the imagination: †¦ his great golden spear†¦ filled with fire†¦ plunged into me several times†¦ penetrated to my entrails†¦ a sweetness so extreme that one could not possibly wish it to stop. Langdon smiled. If that's not a metaphor for some serious sex, I don't know what is. He was smiling also because of the ledger's description of the work. Although the paragraph was in Italian, the word fuco appeared a half dozen times: †¦ angel's spear tipped with point of fire†¦ †¦ angel's head emanating rays of fire†¦ †¦ woman inflamed by passion's fire†¦ Langdon was not entirely convinced until he glanced up at the sketch again. The angel's fiery spear was raised like a beacon, pointing the way. Let angels guide you on your lofty quest. Even the type of angel Bernini had selected seemed significant. It's a seraphim, Langdon realized. Seraphim literally means â€Å"the fiery one.† Robert Langdon was not a man who had ever looked for confirmation from above, but when he read the name of the church where the sculpture now resided, he decided he might become a believer after all. Santa Maria della Vittoria. Vittoria, he thought, grinning. Perfect. Staggering to his feet, Langdon felt a rush of dizziness. He glanced up the ladder, wondering if he should replace the book. The hell with it, he thought. Father Jaqui can do it. He closed the book and left it neatly at the bottom of the shelf. As he made his way toward the glowing button on the vault's electronic exit, he was breathing in shallow gasps. Nonetheless, he felt rejuvenated by his good fortune. His good fortune, however, ran out before he reached the exit. Without warning, the vault let out a pained sigh. The lights dimmed, and the exit button went dead. Then, like an enormous expiring beast, the archival complex went totally black. Someone had just killed power. 85 The Holy Vatican Grottoes are located beneath the main floor of St. Peter's Basilica. They are the burial place of deceased Popes. Vittoria reached the bottom of the spiral staircase and entered the grotto. The darkened tunnel reminded her of CERN's Large Hadron Collider – black and cold. Lit now only by the flashlights of the Swiss Guards, the tunnel carried a distinctly incorporeal feel. On both sides, hollow niches lined the walls. Recessed in the alcoves, as far as the lights let them see, the hulking shadows of sarcophagi loomed. An iciness raked her flesh. It's the cold, she told herself, knowing that was only partially true. She had the sense they were being watched, not by anyone in the flesh, but by specters in the dark. On top of each tomb, in full papal vestments, lay life-sized semblances of each Pope, shown in death, arms folded across their chests. The prostrate bodies seemed to emerge from within the tombs, pressing upward against the marble lids as if trying to escape their mortal restraints. The flashlight procession moved on, and the papal silhouettes rose and fell against the walls, stretching and vanishing in a macabre shadowbox dance. A silence had fallen across the group, and Vittoria couldn't tell whether it was one of respect or apprehension. She sensed both. The camerlegno moved with his eyes closed, as if he knew every step by heart. Vittoria suspected he had made this eerie promenade many times since the Pope's death†¦ perhaps to pray at his tomb for guidance. I worked under the cardinal's tutelage for many years, the camerlegno had said. He was like a father to me. Vittoria recalled the camerlegno speaking those words in reference to the cardinal who had â€Å"saved† him from the army. Now, however, Vittoria understood the rest of the story. That very cardinal who had taken the camerlegno under his wing had apparently later risen to the papacy and brought with him his young protege to serve as chamberlain. That explains a lot, Vittoria thought. She had always possessed a well-tuned perception for others' inner emotions, and something about the camerlegno had been nagging her all day. Since meeting him, she had sensed an anguish more soulful and private than the overwhelming crisis he now faced. Behind his pious calm, she saw a man tormented by personal demons. Now she knew her instincts had been correct. Not only was he facing the most devastating threat in Vatican history, but he was doing it without his mentor and friend†¦ flying solo. The guards slowed now, as if unsure where exactly in the darkness the most recent Pope was buried. The camerlegno continued assuredly and stopped before a marble tomb that seemed to glisten brighter than the others. Lying atop was a carved figure of the late Pope. When Vittoria recognized his face from television, a shot of fear gripped her. What are we doing? â€Å"I realize we do not have much time,† the camerlegno said. â€Å"I still ask we take a moment of prayer.† The Swiss Guard all bowed their heads where they were standing. Vittoria followed suit, her heart pounding in the silence. The camerlegno knelt before the tomb and prayed in Italian. As Vittoria listened to his words, an unexpected grief surfaced as tears†¦ tears for her own mentor†¦ her own holy father. The camerlegno's words seemed as appropriate for her father as they did for the Pope. â€Å"Supreme father, counselor, friend.† The camerlegno's voice echoed dully around the ring. â€Å"You told me when I was young that the voice in my heart was that of God. You told me I must follow it no matter what painful places it leads. I hear that voice now, asking of me impossible tasks. Give me strength. Bestow on me forgiveness. What I do†¦ I do in the name of everything you believe. Amen.† â€Å"Amen,† the guards whispered. Amen, Father. Vittoria wiped her eyes. The camerlegno stood slowly and stepped away from the tomb. â€Å"Push the covering aside.† The Swiss Guards hesitated. â€Å"Signore,† one said, â€Å"by law we are at your command.† He paused. â€Å"We will do as you say†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The camerlegno seemed to read the young man's mind. â€Å"Someday I will ask your forgiveness for placing you in this position. Today I ask for your obedience. Vatican laws are established to protect this church. It is in that very spirit that I command you to break them now.† There was a moment of silence and then the lead guard gave the order. The three men set down their flashlights on the floor, and their shadows leapt overhead. Lit now from beneath, the men advanced toward the tomb. Bracing their hands against the marble covering near the head of the tomb, they planted their feet and prepared to push. On signal, they all thrust, straining against the enormous slab. When the lid did not move at all, Vittoria found herself almost hoping it was too heavy. She was suddenly fearful of what they would find inside. The men pushed harder, and still the stone did not move. â€Å"Ancora,† the camerlegno said, rolling up the sleeves of his cassock and preparing to push along with them. â€Å"Ora!† Everyone heaved. Vittoria was about to offer her own help, but just then, the lid began to slide. The men dug in again, and with an almost primal growl of stone on stone, the lid rotated off the top of the tomb and came to rest at an angle – the Pope's carved head now pushed back into the niche and his feet extended out into the hallway. Everyone stepped back. Tentatively, a guard bent and retrieved his flashlight. Then he aimed it into the tomb. The beam seemed to tremble a moment, and then the guard held it steady. The other guards gathered one by one. Even in the darkness Vittoria sensed them recoil. In succession, they crossed themselves. The camerlegno shuddered when he looked into the tomb, his shoulders dropping like weights. He stood a long moment before turning away. Vittoria had feared the corpse's mouth might be clenched tight with rigor mortis and that she would have to suggest breaking the jaw to see the tongue. She now saw it would be unnecessary. The cheeks had collapsed, and the Pope's mouth gaped wide. His tongue was black as death.