Studying abroad Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Studying abroad - Essay Example Problems encountered by international students should be given attention and solutions to help foreigners cope with their new environment and perform well in their studies. This paper will discuss some of these problems such as homesickness and the multi-cultural experiences of international students. Perhaps the most common complaint among foreign students is homesickness. Studies show that â€Å"students in America experience homesickness due to culture shock† (Harrison and Brower). The culture in America is definitely different from most foreign students especially those coming from eastern countries. It is not just the language that is different but the divergences in food, clothing, customs and practices are also quite astonishing to foreign students. This makes them long for familiar environments and people they have been used to. From the studies of Harrison and Brower, this separation anxiety has a strong correlation to psychological hardiness- â€Å"a personality variable that seemingly impact students’ adjustment to their often challenging and bewildering host cultures† (Harrison and Bower). The research of the shows that those who are able to adjust and actively involve themselves in whatever challenges individuals are faced with, experience less h omesickness. In addition, those who are able to act strong and able in their new environment are less stressed and therefore are able to cope with the demands of their host culture. Those who are resilient to changes are also found to be stronger in times of emotional and psychological troubles among foreign students. In contrast to the negative effect of foreign studies, there is also a great advantage especially with those who have strong psychological hardiness and are open to challenging experiences. According to Christine Lee, David Therriault and Tracy Linderholm, â€Å"multicultural experiences such as studying abroad are quantitatively and qualitatively

Advancement of video games Essay Example for Free

Advancement of video games Essay In this paper I will show and explain how the advancement of video games consoles has changed Humanity in more ways than one. I will show how the inventors started their Empires by selling plain, simple playing cards all the way to online gaming linked all around the world. How Nintendo and Atari started as two of the giants in the gaming world and then how Nintendo almost died out when Sega came out with their console. I will also explain how the video game mindset changed overtime and evolved into something worldwide. Hanafuda (President) was the name of the very first 52 deck set of playing cards sold by Fusajiro Yamauchi and his Nintendo Koppai. Fusajiro had a bigger plan and dream. This lead to the first Beam Gun made by Nintendo in 1969 (See PIC. 1) A new employee to the company by the name of Gunpei was told that he should â€Å"Do something new† for Nintendo as the Christmas season was swiftly approaching. Within a few short days, Gunpei introduced the Ultra Hand which was an arm toy. This sold a whopping 1. 2 million copies. (Unknown Author, 2011) The Beam Gun was an Opto-Electronics and was the first of its kind. This was the beginning of Video Game Consoles. (Moby Games, 1999-2012) Even though the Beam Gun was a major success, the official â€Å"Video Game Craze† would not kick off until 1975, when Nintendo signed a contract to work alongside Mitsubishi and produce the first known Cabinet Micro-Computers also known as Arcade Systems. (Moby Games, 1999-2012) Around this same time two friend’s names Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney would also create their own version of a coin-operated arcade cabinet with a space like theme and called it Computer Space. Both Bushnell and Dabney would become Co-Founders of the Atari Company, Nintendo’s first biggest competition. With all the success of Nintendo, a second known Video Arcade company would step up to challenge Nintendo in sales. This company was Atari Co. Atari’s first break-through was signing a deal with Sears Roebuck Co. and having their â€Å"Atari Pong† featured in Sears Roebuck’s catalog. (See Pic2) The Atari Pong went on to sell over 150,000 units. This set the way for Atari’s most known and most popular creation, The Atari 2600. (Unknown, 2011) The Atari 2600 was released just before the Christmas season of 1977 at $199. 99. The Atari 2600 was the first console that introduced Pac-Man and went on to sell well over 30 million units before being discontinued in 1992. While Atari had the 2600 with Pac-Man to play on it, this pair was pretty much the â€Å"match made in heaven† but Nintendo didn’t cross their hands and let Atari win over the industry they created. Nintendo introduced the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System, see PIC. 4) The NES was released in July of 1983 and featured classic games such as Zelda, Tetris, Donkey Kong and the most popular game of them all, Mario Bros. Nintendo showed to be the stronger of the two as the NES went on to sell over 61 million units before Nintendo discontinued the system with the release of the Super Nintendo which was a 16bit unit as to the NES which was an 8bit unit. These two companies would be the only two standing video game companies until Sega Genesis came out in the early 90’s and promised to give Nintendo a good challenge. Sega came out with a bigger marketing scheme and also, a much faster system. By this time, more than 800,000 Nintendo NES units were sold worldwide making it difficult for any company to come anywhere near Nintendo’s sales numbers and simultaneously get the consumer to spend another $150 on a new console that had faster graphics and more life-like sports games. Sega spent a lot of money marketing their Sega Genesis system by bashing on Nintendo’s graphics. Sega Genesis made several commercials and a slogan stating â€Å"Sega does what NintenDON’T† (here is a link to one of the commercials, http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=zlulSyBI2aY). By the early 2000’s Sega had developed a system that connected to the internet. This would be the beginning to a whole new gaming world. (Unknown, 2007) Sega invented the Sega Dreamcast which had the feature of being able to log online from your console. This was great at first until consumers noticed that the unit kept crashing and slowing down while online. This was never corrected by Sega which lead to the downfall of the Dream Cast system. Nintendo and Sega would stay at the forefront in the gaming industry until Sony decided to invest into the â€Å"Gamers world† creating the first ever Sony Playstation in 1994 (See PIC6). Sony had perfected what the Dreamcast lacked in and featured faster online game play and up to 4 jacks for 4 player gaming. Sony decided to release the Playstation 2(See PIC7). I personally remember this system because at the time of its release in November, 2000. I was working for Montgomery Wards. The night before it was scheduled to hit shelves nationwide, there was people camping outside to be the first to buy the Sony Playstation. I remember stopping and staring for a while as hundreds of people lined up with camp tents and blankets to keep them warm on a freezing cold Chicago night just to be the first to purchase this Sony sequel to a very successful Playstation system. The PS2 went on to sell well over 154 million systems worldwide making it the most popular gaming unit and taking the historic sales that the NES had produced from the 80’s and early 90’s. I highly doubt that Mr. Fusajiro Yamauchi would have ever thought that his company would go from selling plain old playing cards to a gaming world never thought possible. Lets forward to 2012. To this date there are three major consoles out in the market. The PS3 made by Sony playstation, the X-BOX 360 made by Microsoft and the Nintendo WII (See PIC8, 910). The features on these units are incredible. For example, the PS3 has an integrated blu-ray reader so you can play your blu-ray, DVD and CD’s on the PS3 console. Both the PS3 and X-Box 360 have online gaming where the player can actually login online and play a game with someone on the other side of the planet. There are headsets where you can listen and speak to other gamers from anywhere in the world. The PS3 and Nintendo WII have taken it one step further. On these two consoles you can now download Netflix and watch an unlimited number of movies straight from your console. In this essay I have shown and explained the advancements of video game consoles and how they changed Humanity in more ways than one. In my opinion the advancements of Game Consoles have been a perfect example on how we as people progress and improve over time. Anything we did 20 or 30 years ago cannot compare to what we have now. We can be talking about cars, buildings, computers, the way we communicated from mail to email to facebook and video gaming is no exception to these constant improvements and progress. PIC. 1 this was the Beam Gun created by Nintendo PIC. 2. This was the Atari Pong featured in Sears Roebuck Co. Catalog PIC. 3. Atari’s biggest creation, the 2600. PIC4. Nintendo’s NES system PIC5. Sega Genesis Console. PIC6. Sony Playstation PIC7. Sony Playstation 2 PIC8. Microsoft X-BOX 360 PIC9. Sony PS3 PIC10. Nintendo WII Video Game Consoles Annotated Bibliography Unknown Author, 2011). The History of Nijtendo: 1960-1970. http://www. snesclassics. com/history/nintendo. php This article explains a history on how Gunpei designed Nintendo’s first hand held video game and opened the door to a new concept for the Nintendo Company. Moby Games (1999-2012). The fall of Nintendo: Nintendo’s Beginnings. http://www. mobygames. com/featured_article/feature,15/section,129/ : This article provides information on the beginnings of what eventually would become the largest manufacturer of Video game consoles, Nintendo Co. It explains how Fusajiro Yamauchi, began the company in a small town in Japan. The company manufactured playing cards known as Hanafuda. This was a 52 deck set of Japanese playing cards. The article explains how the company evolved from playing cards to manufacturing a system called the Beam Gun Series which used opto-electronics in 1969. In 1975 Nintendo signed a contract with Mitsubishi to produce the first ever electronic video recorder (EVR). This evolved into the cabinet micro-computers also known as coin operated arcade games in the 1970’s and kicked off the arcade game craze. Unknown Author(2011). Video Computer System: Atari 2600. http://www. atarimuseum.com/videogames/consoles/2600menu/2600menu. htm : This article explains how Atari’s first home video game console, the Atari 2600 was developed and sold in 1977. The initial selling price was $199. 99 which was a lot of money back in the 70’s. IT also explains how a merger with Nintendo was about to happen until Ray Kassar, Atari’s CEO was let go. This made Nintendo change their mind and went on to produce their console solo. Unknown Author (2011). Atari Consoles: Atari Pong. http://www. atarimuseum. com/videogames/dedicated/homepong. html : The Atari Pong was very popular in bar scene during the early 70’s. Atari arcade engineer Bob Brown designed a home version of Pong and got Sears Roebuck Co. to add it into their catalog. Sears was hoping to sell 50,000 units by Christmas of 1977 and ended up moving 150,000 units. Unknown Author (2007). Sega Genesis: Where were you when the 1980’s were about to end? http://www. digitpress. com/systems/genesis. htm : This article is great because it explains how the feeling was around the time when Sega Genesis came into the market to give Nintendo a run for their money with the creation of Sonic the Hedgehog and slogans such as â€Å"Sega does what Nintendon’t†.

The opt-out clause of the Working Hours Directive 1998. :: Business and Management Studies

The opt-out clause of the Working Hours Directive 1998. The European Working Time Directive (EWTD) was adopted in 1993, and came into force in the UK under the Working Time Regulations 1998 as a safety measure, because of the recognised negative effects on health and safety of excessively long working hours. It also provides for statutory minimum rest-break entitlements, annual leave and working arrangements for night workers. The EWTD is also designed to help work life balance by limiting long hours, which is both stressful and harmful to health. For example, some research has shown that driving while tired provided similar results to driving after having drunk alcohol. The EWTD regulations place a legal requirement on employers, which means that if it is not implemented, national governments will be liable for payment of heavy financial penalties and potentially sanctions from the European Union (EU). There are no rights to work long hours, but there is legal protection to protect workers’ rights to reasonable working environment and conditions, and to family life. The main features of the EWTD are; no more than 48 hours work per week; 11 hours continuous rest in 24 hours; 24 hours continuous rest in seven days (or 48 hours in 14 days); a 20 minute break in work periods of over 6 hours; four weeks annual leave; and for night workers, an average of no more than 8 hours work in 24 hours over the reference period. The EWTD was considered by the UK Government as an issue of working conditions, not as a health and safety issue. As a result, in 1993, the UK negotiated an opt-out clause, which allows Member States not to apply the limit to working hours under certain conditions, such as: prior agreement of the individual, no negative fall out from refusing to opt-out, and records kept of working hours of those that have opted out. The European Commission announced on 23rd September 2004 its controversial proposal to update the 1993 Working Time Directive. This will most likely mean the UK will have to abandon its opt-out clause. If this is the case, and working hours are restricted, there will be many advantages and disadvantages for both employees and employers. The advantages and disadvantages range from health and safety issues to financial issues. The advantages for employees are; firstly, no longer shall employees be pressured into signing a contract with an opt-out clause stating if required, they must work extra time. This will also stop a lot of employers blackmailing potential and/or current employees, which can be often the case. For example, an employer may say to a potential employee, that if they do not sign the opt-out clause contract then

Sexual Abuse and Eating Disorders Essay -- Health Violence Papers

Sexual Abuse and Eating Disorders The possible relationship between sexual abuse and the development of an eating disorder has gained attention over the last few years. Researchers have attempted to clarify this potential link using a variety of population samples and research methodologies. As will be shown, the results of these investigations are rather diverse and sometimes inconclusive. In the following review of the literature, the complex relationship between sexual abuse and eating disorders will be examined while also discussing the methodological limitations of the various designs. Anorexic Samples Steiger and Zanko (1990) compared rates of incestuous abuses (sexual contacts with family members) and extrafamilial abuses (sexual traumata involving other perpetrators) among eating disordered women who met DSM-III-R (American Psychiatric Association, 1987) criteria, women with psychiatric disturbances, and normal women. The authors’ interest in the psychological effects of abuse led them to examine psychological defenses which are believed to filter perceptions and affects. Defenses were of interest to the authors for two reasons: (1) incest victims often resort to maladaptive defenses with a self-victimizing quality, in which anger at others is expressed through self-sabotaging acts; and (2) the authors’ previous work suggests that eating disordered women use primitive defenses when compared to normal and psychiatrically disturbed women. This particular study was designed to determine the degree to which traumata like sexual abuse might have effects upon defense-sty le development. In order to compare rates across eating disorder subtypes, the eating disordered women were divided into the following groups: (1) ... ... Test: The BULIT-R. Psychological Assessment: A Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 3, 119-124. Walters, C., Smolak, L., & Sullins, E. (1987). Parent-child interactions and severity of child sexual abuse. Paper presented to the annual convention of the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore. Welch, S.L., & Fairburn, C.G. (1994). Sexual Abuse and Bulimia Nervosa: Three integrated case control comparisons. American Journal of Psychiatry, 151, 402-407. Wonderlich, S., Donaldson, M.A., Carson, D.K., Staton, D., Gertz, L., Leach, L.R., & Johnson, M. (1996). Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 11, 195-207. Zlotnick, C., Hohlstein, L.A., Shea, M.T., Pearlstein, T., Recupero, P., & Bidadi, K. 1996). The Relationship Between Sexual Abuse and Eating Pathology. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 20, 129-134.

Interoffice Memorandum Essay

The Tarasoff case involved a murder victim, Tatiana Tarasoff, who was killed by an alleged acquaintance Prosejit Poddar. Poddar was a client of a psychologist employed by the University of California, and during a therapy session he revealed his intent to murder Tatiana Tarasoff. The psychologist assessed Poddar as a danger and informed the campus police, and was held briefly and released. Shortly after Poddar was released he indeed murdered Tatiana. The parents of Tatiana Tarasoff, plaintiffs, sued the school, campus police, therapists and anyone else who had contact. The argument was over whether the third party had the right to be warned and had the right to be protected. The defendants maintained they owed no duty of care to the victim, and were immune from suit. The court stated that when a client presents a serious danger of violence to another there is an obligation, both legal and ethical, to use reasonable care to protect the intended victim against such danger. The therapist must take steps to determine or within their standard of profession determines the danger. This may call for the therapist to warn the intended victim or others likely to apprise the victim of the danger, to notify the police, or to take whatever other steps reasonably necessary under the circumstances. This ruling imposes a liability on all human service professionals to protect a victim from violent acts. There is a duty to protect and a duty to warn the potential third party victims to violence. This may cause implications with the confidentiality of the client-helper relationship and may also cause violent clients to avoid treatment. This indeed will change the environment for human services and confidentiality; as now helpers may need to divulge confidential information to third parties in certain circumstances. The professional necessity of keeping a client’s information private is rooted in the ethical codes as well as in statutory law. As professionals in the human services realm we also have a right to withhold confidential information in a court of law. To stay within the law and the code of ethics that govern us it is necessary to consider the situation from all points of view, develop a list of issues that represent multiple viewpoints, generate the possible decisions on whether to break client confidentiality, and what would the consequences of each decision. Each case in which the outcome of this case may implicate the duty to protect and warn, we must make sure we are addressing every avenue within a small amount of time in case of imminent danger that exists. This will be an adjustment with our client-helper relationships, and must be shared not only with each other but also shared with our clients.

U.S.s Involvment in WWI essays

U.S.'s Involvment in WWI essays At the start of the war, President Wilson had declared the neutrality of the United States. Most Americans opposed US involvement in the European war, but the sinking of the Lusitania and other actions made by Germany, American citizens drew America sympathies to the Allies. German military leaders believed that they could still win the war by cutting off British supplies. They expected their U-boats to starve Britain into surrendering within a few months, longer before the US had fully prepared for war. Germany's government had announced it was its purpose to put aside all restraints of law or of humanity and use its submarines to sink every vessel that sought to approach either the ports of Great Britain and Ireland or the western coasts of Europe or any of the ports controlled by the enemies of Germany within the Mediterranean. The new policy has swept every restriction aside. Vessels of every kind, whatever their flag, their character, their cargo, their destination, their errand, had been ruthlessly terminated without warning and without help or mercy for those on board, the vessels of friendly neutrals along with those of nations against them, even hospital ships and ships carrying relief to the people of Belgium It is a war against all nations. American ships had been sunk, American lives taken, and the ships and people of other neutral and friendly nations had been sunk and overwhelmed in the waters in the same way. There has been no discrimination. The U.S. thought that it would suffice to assert their neutral rights with arms, which turned out to be a useless attempt. This is one reason the U.S. decided to go to war. Tension between the US and Germany increased after the British intercepted and decoded a message from Germany's minister, Arthur Zimmermann, the German ambassador to Mexico. This message was known as the "Zimmermann note". It revealed a German plot to persuade Mexico to go to war against the Unit...

Operation Desert Storm essays

Operation Desert Storm essays In 1979 Saddam Hussien took control of Iraq, and immediately set the tone for his rule by killing 21 of his cabinet members. He wanted to make his country whole once again so in 1990 he invaded Kuwait and in less than 4 hours he had taken Kuwait and controlled 24% of the worlds oil supplies. It seemed like his next attack would be on Saudi Arabia. This was where the United States entered the war after a call for protection by Saudi Arabia. The United States set the deadline, January 15, 1991 for all Iraq forces to be out of Kuwait, but Saddam ignored the deadline. That triggered Operation Desert Shield, or the build up of troops in the region and eventually led to Desert Storm, an all out attack to free Kuwait. Due to the power and sophistication of the U.S. and her allies, Saddam and his tiny nation of 17 million people stood no chance against the military might of the United Nations. On the final night of the war, within hours of the cease-fire, two U.S. Air Force bombers dropped specially designed 5,000-pound bombs on a bunker that was supposed to hold President Hussien, to deliberately kill him. During the days and nights, Americans completely bombarded Kuwait and Iraq with Smart Bombs, highly sophisticated laser-guided weapons. During the war, they flew over 2000 sorties or missions, and had a 100-hour land battle after they had knocked out Iraqs airfields and anti-aircraft missiles completely. In official reports from the Pentagon, 24 percent of the 148 troops in action, were killed by friendly fire. 11 other Americans were killed when Allied munitions unexpectedly blew up. Most soldiers said the thousands of unexploded mines and bomb lets they encountered were more dangerous than enemy fire. Finally on March 3rd, 1991, Iraqi leaders formally accepted cease fire terms, and Iraq moved out of Kuwait, And on March 5, the 35 U.S. POWs ...

flame in the wind essays

flame in the wind essays Flame in the wind was a good movie that dealt with one mans struggle between the Christian faith and the Roman Catholic faith. It took place in a time when anyone not professing to be a Roman Catholic was burned at the stake or imprisoned for life. It all started when Carlos began reading the actual Bible. The Roman Catholics for bided the reading of the scripture but Carlos was infatuated with the scripture immediately. As he read he began to notice the discrepancies between the Romans and the Christians. Because of this he asked for permission to go to a monastery and study the faiths in a little more depth. While there the Holy Inquisition came and accused all of them as being heretics Carlos fled back to the city and was accused himself of being a heretic. He denied it and denied the Christian faith and clung to the Roman Catholic religion. They finally caught all those in the monastery and they were to be burned at the stake and the pope summonsed Carlos to set the first flame. As He walked and approached the stake he had a few words with Fernando and couldnt do it so he through the torch to the ground and rejected Catholicism and came to Christ. He Was tortured and still remained faithful to Christianity and then a friend of the family requested he be put in a cell were another could convince him of his errors and Carlos helped lead his father back onto the right trail and then he died and Carlos was burned the very next day. This was a good movie and made you feel lucky for not having to deal with the same type of persecution as the early christianias. ...

Chronic Bronchitis and Emphysema Pathophysiology Research Paper

Chronic Bronchitis and Emphysema Pathophysiology - Research Paper Example The exact prevalence of these lung diseases across the globe is not well known. In this article, both the diseases with be discussed by comparing and contrasting with each other. Definitions Chronic bronchitis is defined clinically as a condition in which the patient suffers from expectorant cough for a minimum of 3 months for 2 consecutive years (Celli, 2008). The diagnosis is mainly through clinical presentation. On the other hand, emphysema is defined as a condition in which the patient has permanent and abnormal enlargement of the air spaces distal to the terminal bronchioles and associated with destruction of the walls without any obvious fibrosis (Celli, 2008). Chest radiography and pulmonary function tests are needed to arrive at the diagnosis. Pathophysiology In chronic bronchitis, there is typical inflammation of the bronchi. The endothelium is damaged because of which the mucociliary response is impaired. This leads to improper clearance of bacteria and mucus. Thus, inflamm ation, along with inadequate clearance of mucus contributes to obstruction in the disease. There is histopathological evidence of goblet cell hyperplasia, mucus plugging, smooth muscle hyperplasia and fibrosis. Alveolar attachments that are supportive are lost, the airways are deformed and the air lumens are narrowed. The capillary pulmonary bed is undamaged. In emphysema, the airspaces distal to the terminal bronchioles are enlarged permanently, because of which alveolar surface area necessary for gas exchange is decreased. Loss of alveolar walls leads to decreased elastic recoil property of the alveoli, causing limitations to airflow. Decrease in the alveolar limiting structure causes narrowing of the airway, causing further limitation of airflow. There are 3 characteristic patterns of morphology in emphysema and they are centriacinar, panacinar and distal acinar. In centriacinar type, destruction is mainly in the central portions of the acini. In panacinar type, entire alveolus i s involved. In distal acinar type, only those acini in the distal portion of the airways in involved. (Maclay et al, 2009). Etiology and pathogenesis The most common etiological agent in both chronic bronchitis and emphysema is cigarette smoking. Smoking over a long duration of time triggers the macrophages to release chemotactic factors like elastases which destroy the tissues of the lung. Passive smoking and other environmental factors also can contribute to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Airway hyperresponsiveness is a risk factor for chronic bronchitis. Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, a genetic disorder, is an important risk factor for chronic pulmonary obstructive disease, especially emphysema. Intravenous drug abuse is another important risk factor for emphysema. The disease occurs because of the pulmonary vascular damage that occurs due to insoluble fillers present in the drugs. Immunodeficiency syndromes like HIV infection, vasculitis disorders, connective tissue dis orders and Salla disease are risk factors for both chronic bronchitis and emphysema (Celli, 2008). Prognosis As far as prognosis is concerned, both the conditions are associated with significant mortality and morbidity. The prognosis is worse in emphysema because of damage to pulmonary vascular bed. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is infact, the fourth leading cause of mortality in the United States. Both chronic bronch

Organizational Culture and Change Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Organizational Culture and Change - Coursework Example culture also refers to "a pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration† (Schein, 1992, p. 12). Because organizational culture is described by Schein (1992) to be a pattern, any significant change within the organization distorts the pattern. In the given organization, the kind of change that took place was a recruitment and placement change, which was necessitated by the fact that there had been an internal promotional process within the organization. In the given instance, it was clearly witnessed that the organizational change had a great influence on the organizational culture and the entire organizational climate. This is because the new employees who were introduced needed some time to fit into the culture that they came to meet. Some way and some how, they were also trying to influence the existing culture with their own versions of organizational processes from the places they worked before. This brought about a distorted organizational culture for a while. In such a situation, it is important that an orientation program that seeks to equip the new comers with the existing culture is relevant (Al-Ghorfa, 2009). This is because an absence of such culture could lead to a situation whereby an entirely new culture wo uld have to be created and this could be devastating for customers especially as the existing customers may not easily get adapted to

Religion in United States Political System Essay

Religion in United States Political System - Essay Example These years have been a time ÃŽ ¿f aggressive Christian politics, as evangelicals entered the political fray seeking to mold public policies that would conform to their own religious convictions. On issues ranging from abortion to prayer in the public schools, evangelicals sought to use the instruments ÃŽ ¿f the American political system to forward their interests and values. Since their agenda fit snugly with that ÃŽ ¿f conservative politicians, advocates for "public religion" were generally associated with conservative political causes. During the 1980s the Moral Majority targeted "liberal politicians" for defeat in congressional elections.In the 21st Century we are all taught to believe that the right political systems are those that exist in countries like America, Britain and other parts Europe. We are taught this in the reading ÃŽ ¿f books and the watching ÃŽ ¿f television programs from the west. All ÃŽ ¿f these sources have influenced and changed the way the rest ÃŽ ¿f the wor ld thinks. It is therefore better to look at each society while it was untouched by the ways ÃŽ ¿f another.f another. The best ways are by comparing different political systems f societies from different geographical locations. Since the traditional and cultural values f each society are different, the thinking and the way f life would be very different if compared to one another. Therefore, a political system to one society is likely to be different if compared to another. At the same time, western society might be unfamiliar to the ways f the eastern society and vise-versa. Sometimes as time passes, there develops new theories f new political systems by great thinkers. So we see one political system being changed to another. This proves that it's impossible to take just one time frame as different political systems developed at different time lines. III. Western Civilization & Topic In western society and other societies in the world, religion was a major factor and still is in some societies when it comes to their own politics. Some believe religion and politics should be separated in order to create a true political system and some says it should not. No matter which society it is, we will always have people with greed in it. And these types f people are the danger to any pure political system, as greed and wanting f power can only lead to corruption. Corruption can only lead to suffering. In each society they have adopted to a mutual understanding f what's right and what's wrong. So it can be said that what's right for one society might not be the same for the people living in another. What happens then is that one society who might not want to accept the ways f another, responds to it by labeling it as deviant. For example: Howard Becker suggests "social groups create deviance by making the rules whose infraction constitutes deviance, and by applying those rules to particular people and labeling them as outsiders." Therefore at times, we see revolutions that bring about a whole new political system, even though sometimes all the promises that was to come with the new system vanishes somewhere. An example would be communism. Politics cannot be pinned down to a single aspect f life, it occurs throughout society, it involves every aspect f our lives, but it is especially concentrated in the modern nation state. It is the nation state that "establishes sovereign jurisdiction within defined boundaries...the state commands ultimate power in that it stands above all other associations and

Final Questions 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Final Questions 3 - Essay Example For instance, some people believe Thomas Jefferson was right. Indeed, commonsense dictates that the dead should not dictate how the living should be governed. The experiences that influenced the Framers of the Constitution in writing the document may have a different interpretation with the passage of time. Thus it bows to commonsense and reason that each generation should draft their own constitution on how they should be governed. Rewriting the constitution for each generation asserts the freedom upon which the American nation is founded. A rigid constitution thrown by the Fathers on the children, rob the later of their freedom. Furthermore, events throughout American history show that the constitution needs to be rewritten for each generation. For instance, in times of severe economic hardship, the presidential form of democracy as presented in the U.S. Constitution could be an expensive institution to maintain. Thus there is need for an alternative cheap form of democracy that wi ll guarantee same freedom. This calls for rewriting the constitution. On the other hand, some group of persons believed James Madison was right. Rewriting the constitution for every generation could be an expensive endeavor both in terms of time and resources. Indeed, given that the political, social and economic status quo may not change every generation, it will be a waste of resources and time.

Causes of building collapes Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Causes of building collapes - Term Paper Example This means that as long as there are natural disasters, the risk of building collapse will continue to be recorded. This point is made against the backdrop that in most cases of natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis, almost all types of buildings collapse including short buildings and skyscrapers alike. What this teaches is that natural disasters perhaps have the worse effect or impact on building collapse. Having said this, it would also be appreciated that even when an ordinary building and skyscraper all fall, the impact that will be created in the two can never be said to be the same. This is because the extent of loss that will be recorded with the falling of a skyscraper in terms of lives and property will certainly be more than what will be recorded with a shorter building. What this teaches is that as far as natural disasters as cause of building collapse are concerned, it is important to ensure that areas that are noted to be disaster prone will not be clustered with skyscrapers and other tall buildings. Using the 27 February 2010 Chile tsunami as an example, Palermo et al (2013) made a new revelation on the extent of resilience that different buildings endure in the case of natural disasters such as tsunamis. The outcome of the tsunami revealed that there are two major types of buildings which are engineered buildings and non-engineered buildings. These categories are found in both high-rise buildings and shorter buildings. In the case of engineered residential buildings, natural disasters such as tsunamis are found to have very minimal impact. This is because such modern engineered buildings generally exhibit high levels of resilience to the disasters, being affected only in areas of non-structural components. On the other hand, not the same can be said of non-engineered buildings, especially residential buildings. This is because with such buildings, the impacts of natural disasters are not only experienced with

Final Questions 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Final Questions 3 - Essay Example For instance, some people believe Thomas Jefferson was right. Indeed, commonsense dictates that the dead should not dictate how the living should be governed. The experiences that influenced the Framers of the Constitution in writing the document may have a different interpretation with the passage of time. Thus it bows to commonsense and reason that each generation should draft their own constitution on how they should be governed. Rewriting the constitution for each generation asserts the freedom upon which the American nation is founded. A rigid constitution thrown by the Fathers on the children, rob the later of their freedom. Furthermore, events throughout American history show that the constitution needs to be rewritten for each generation. For instance, in times of severe economic hardship, the presidential form of democracy as presented in the U.S. Constitution could be an expensive institution to maintain. Thus there is need for an alternative cheap form of democracy that wi ll guarantee same freedom. This calls for rewriting the constitution. On the other hand, some group of persons believed James Madison was right. Rewriting the constitution for every generation could be an expensive endeavor both in terms of time and resources. Indeed, given that the political, social and economic status quo may not change every generation, it will be a waste of resources and time.

BRAZIL'S EMERGING ECONOMY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

BRAZIL'S EMERGING ECONOMY - Essay Example The country weathered the global financial recession, which had insignificant effects on Brazil economy; hence, it was one of the last to fall in to recession during 2008 and among the first to resume the growth in 2009. Brazil’s Gross Domestic Product has grown from 7.5% in 2010 to 2.7% 2011, and despite to the global hold back, the domestic market in Brazil have become strong, hence reducing vulnerability to the external crisis (The World Bank Group, 1). Therefore, the citizens of Brazil are benefiting from the stability of their economic growth, with relatively low inflation rate and improved social well-being. There are limits of potential growth and significant advances in the economy, which are attributed to institutional reforms, noninflationary growth that is derailed by barriers, regulation and insufficiency in infrastructure and poor business climate (Jimenez, Gà ³mez Sabaini and Podestà ¡, 38). Quality of Brazilian government services concerning the expenditure is relatively lower than other middle-income countries, and country launched a growth acceleration plan in 2007, which focused on increasing investment in infrastructure, and offering tax incentives to facilitate economic growth. The plan led to a 7.5 % growth in 2010, and resilience to the crisis experienced in 2009, and insignificant recession among developed and emerging economies in 2011 (OECD, 3). Nevertheless, the growth has facilitated challenges, whereby the country is anticipating hosting the World Cup in 2014 and Olympics Games, in 2016, hence this is requiring significant investment in urban and social development, and transport infrastructure. Moreover, Brazil has experienced substantial regional differences in the social indicators like health, infant mortality and nutrition (Sean, 1). There are richer south and southeast regions, which are experiencing reliable indicators than the poorer North and Northeast; thus, the poverty level

Dramatic Climax Essay Example for Free

Dramatic Climax Essay How Does Miller Create Interest in Act Three, the Dramatic Climax Of The Crucible?  In Act Three of Arthur Millers The Crucible, tension rises in the courtroom of Salem as John Proctor, Giles and Francis strive to save the lives and respect of their wives. As the trials progress, the audience concentrate more on certain individuals and how they struggle to maintain power and authority in the courtroom. Miller called his play The Crucible because a crucible is a container in which metals are heated to extract the pure element from dross or impurities. In Act 3, John Proctor is tested in a life threatening ordeal and his choice of death rather than betrayal of his conscience shows us that he too has come through the fire to be purified. This creates interest because the comparison of Proctors situation and going through fire to be purified is powerful. Going through fire emphasises on the pain he must suffer. The audience sympathise for his pain and suffering and so they are interested in Act 3 to see the consequences of the dramatic climax. The main focus of Act 3 has to do with determining who will define innocence and guilt. Proctor makes one audacious gamble for this authority by finally overcoming his desire to protect his reputation, exposing an inner secret sin. He hopes to replace his wifes blame with his own guilt and bring Abigail down as well in the process. He reveals his private life to examination, hoping to gain some authority, but he does not realise that the competition is high, people may show more energy in the delivery and presentation of their speech. Too many reputations are at stake and Proctors surprise comes too late to stop the avalanche. This also creates interest as Proctor is the protagonist who the audience are encouraged to focus on and sympathise with. Proctor making this audacious gamble interests the audience, builds up to whatever the outcome may be, the dramatic climax. Desperation and persuasion are emotions involved within this act. There is a great deal of climax and suspense displayed using many different dramatic devices. Dramatic devices are made to engender interest in the audience. The dramatic devices present in this act seem to follow an order of operation, of starting with the least dramatic to the most dramatic. As more devices build up, more interest is likely to develop. The development of interest is then switched to the climax (turning point). The act starts with a common device such as character interaction. Character interaction in Act 3 set in a courtroom is a lot different to usual character interaction:  GILES (beginning to plead): They be tellin lies about my wife, sir, I-  DANFORTH Do you take it upon yourself to determine what this court shall believe and what it shall set aside?  GILES Your Excellency, we mean no disrespect for-  DANFORTH Disrespect indeed! It is disruption, Mister. This is the highest court of the supreme government of this province, do you know it? The fact that Giles is cut off by Danforth before even managing to finish his sentence, shows that more power is on Danforths side whilst Giles is beginning to plead for freedom. It also shows that the pace of speech may be very quick as everyone is determined to get their message across. The effect that this gives is that questions and quick speeches build up suspense for answers. Also, Danforth interrogating Giles shows his authority and possession of power over him. The interrogation can also be seen as a dramatic device, it creates interest with the audience waiting for answers to the questions. Another dramatic device is the use of vocal variety. When characters interact in a different way of speech, it shows there is a change of behaviour. It grabs the attention and suspense of the audience and makes them wonder to where this may lead to. An example:  GILES VOICE (roaring) I have evidence for the court!  As Giles is roaring, there is a great sense of energy in Giles voice, as if he were roaring like a lion. This contributes to the idea of getting the message across to the rest of the court members and the energy makes the audience feel more alert, just like a lion would. This makes the situation more interesting as roaring isnt usually how Giles would react, so the audience are interested to know where the roaring would lead to. In Act 3, based on the courtroom scene, body language, gestures and even facial expressions play a key role of grabbing the audiences interest. These factors reveal the characters personalities depending on what their actions are like. If a characters actions are more open and broad, it may suggest that they are more confident and powerful. However, if a characters actions are reserved and tightened, it may suggest that they are under-confident and weaker:  PARRIS (sweating): These people should be summoned. (DANFORTH looks up at him questioningly.) For questioning. As Parris is sweating, this shows that he is anxious about his decision of the people being summoned, but then gains back his confidence when Danforth looks up at him, so he answers back at Danforths questioningly look. This interests the audience as there is a change of behaviour within a character.  Characters are at their upmost desperation for innocence and reputation, the matter of what is at stake and how do characters react really indulges itself into the drama. Death is at stake and characters are becoming more and more desperate progressing through the scene. Since the storyline is based upon witch hunting in Salem, the girls who are shown to be witches act out in an eccentric manner. The hysteria of the girls is shown dramatic as it displays what separates the sane from the insane and really engages the interest of the audience. Being set in a courtroom would mean that character interaction is shown from all angles. There is power to be shifted from someone who is higher in authority, and has more arguments to clear themselves from any kind misjudgement to someone who is unable yet desperate to defend themselves.

Deflection of Coil Tipped Catheter

Deflection of Coil Tipped Catheter It happens that most of it are remotely steerable catheters. In this paper, it becomes fit to the lines can be used for turning of the wall unto the pool of the inclination of the times, the rotation can be made, the counsel and the miniaturization capabilities. The deflection of the coil-tipped catheter has been studied and verified by the following experimental derived equation [9]. The above equation majorly depends on the magnetic field strength, current applied, the number of turns of the solenoid coil and stiffness of the catheter. The torque generated by the excitation of the deflection coil that allows the catheter tip to deflect or move in the desired direction has been counter balance by reinstating torque created mechanically by the catheter [9]. A linear relation has been observed between the number of turns of the solenoid coil and the mechanical angular bend of the tip, it has also been found that by increasing the magnetic field strength of the MRI Scanner like making it double from 1.5 Tesla to 3 Tesla effecting the deflection angle to be double over a broader spectrum of current values [9]. For better understanding in the clinical application, the catheter tip could get the deflection of about 90 degrees for a standard catheter which has the tip length around 7mm having the 100 turns of solenoid coil that will be energized with current of 300 mill iamps and the MRI gantry is at 1.5 Tesla [9]. It is important to note that the decrease in the tip length will result a reduction in the number of turns and by increasing the coil current can get the same result. It is worth noting that the catheter tip could be kept on hold for about a minute towards a defined target due to the magnetic force, this aspect is most useful for the application of Cardiac Ablation [9]. Since the time required to deflect the catheter tip is rapidly thats why charging the coil for few seconds could allow steering inside the vessels [9]. By using three different coils on the catheter tip arranged orthogonally, allows the tip movement in the 3D space means the tip can be navigated at any required direction [33]. Design and manufacturing of these coils are done by laser Lithography technique which is been smartly arranged on the catheter tip. Further studies show the limitation to acquire smaller diameter deflection of the tip due to the arranging of one coil over another, therefore an alternative design can be suggested to eliminate this issue in which the coils should spread along the length of the tip rather than overlapping each other [33]. The design of the ferromagnetic sphere approach has the advantage of allowing independent motion in all directions irrespective of the main magnetic field of MRI by using forces of the magnetic gradient [22]. As we have previously discussed in the design, that by using two ferromagnetic beads the deflection will increase twice as compared to the single bead configuration. Due to using two beads the bending occurred in catheter tip will make like S shape curve, where as its shape and amplitude will become more pronounced by increasing the beads distance. According to the studies, when the two beads having the distance of 4.5mm and tip length of 32.7mm then we get the largest lateral deflection of about 20.3 mm [22]. The deflection up to that extent will add up the weight of a second bead and casing dimensions at the catheter tip. Studies also reveals that with single bead or too closely spaced two beads, the catheter tip could deflect erratically in amplitude. Time required for the successful deflection depend on the time to energize the magnetic gradient [22]. The catheter tip containing material called as SMPs and SMAs allow a border spectrum of catheter navigation. Both materials having different properties of thermal conductivity and thermal expansion. Comparatively SMAs is more quick to regain its original shape from SMPs, numerically SMAs take only few milliseconds where as SMPs takes few seconds to restore their original shape [26]. To regain original shape by cooling in SMAs is very slow and the structure is so small that we cannot use forced cooling, SMAs show irregularity so its precision is quite doubtful [16]. A very small amount of SMP or SMA is required to provoke the movement because the size of the catheter tip is so small. The design of a catheter tip proposed with hydraulic or pneumatic approach would have an instantaneous response time to the pressure changes occurred due to gas or fluid [16]. The material of catheter is responsible for the flexibility of pressurizing lumens to pull wire catheter. The major problem of pneumatic and hydraulic actuator is precision and force control, shows nonlinearity because of the kinetic molecular properties of fluids [15]. Other parameter like temperature, shape, fatigue and friction is also changeable during procedure [15].

Humor and Tragedy in Virginia Woolfs Orlando Essay -- Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolfe's "Orlando" uses both humor and tragedy to observe humanity's often absurd and eccentric superficial constructions, both of class and gender. Woolfe creates the distinctions between male and female but continuously shatters them to reveal the illusions we create about gender. As George Meredith suggests, comedy is created when "The comic poet dares to show us men and women coming to this mutual likeness" (15). Woolfe, however, goes beyond simply bringing men and women together as equals; she blends them together as one androgynous individual, the effect of which causes us to laugh at the artificial way in which society attempts to define gender. After Orlando's matter-of-fact reaction to discovering he is a woman, the narrator with tongue-in-cheek explains how reasonable such a transformation is despite people's desire to define it as abnormal: "Many people, taking this into account, and holding that such a change of sex is against nature, have been at great pains to prove (1) that Orlando has always been a woman, (2) that Orlando is at this moment a man. Let b...

External/Internal Factors Essay -- Business, Technology, Innovation

In this modern business world that utilizes multitudes of technologies from powerful computers to hand held smart phones, one company has managed to secure it position. Google is now a household name in many parts of the world. The success that Google has enjoyed the past decade was not the result of pure luck. Rather it was a well organized business endeavor that incorporated sound business principles planning, organizing, leading, and controlling and timely quality products. In a number of ways Google is a benchmark company in regards to Technology, Innovation, Globalization, Diversity and Ethics. Google is a great modal of a modern technology company producing the software tools and toy that the world desires. Technology and Innovation Since its beginning in 1996, Google has always in the forefront with technology and innovation. Founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, collaborated on an idea that would amaze their peers and the world (Google history, 2010, figure 2). Larry and Sergey were faced with internal and external forces that would propel and inhibit the invention of Google. Their plan was to develop a search engine that their fellow college students could access for information. They were able to organize their thoughts and pool their talents to start formatting and formulating the search engine. One of the external forces that very quickly became a problem was that Google had outgrown the bandwidth it was using, and they had to find more room. Larry and Sergey began hiring the staff that would propel Google into the history books. They hired people who had the technological savvy and innovative ideas to lead Google into a market that they could only imagine at the time. In May 2000, Google rele... ..., 2011). Like every business owner, they strive to make their products and organization the best it can be. Instead of resulting, once again, to dishonest practices, they have kept their moral compass intact and have expanded globally hiring the best talent. These employees now constantly monitor the web through the use of Googlebots, ensuring that accurate and relevant information is provided quickly, every single time. In short, when it comes to controlling and adapting to change, Google is well ahead of the curve. Today the main component of the business is the search engine, although Google has added new innovations such as Google Earth, Universal Search, Realtime Search and Android. By staying informed and making conservative decisions, the leaders at Google will be able to maintain the quality of their produces and ensure their popularity for years to come.

Piezoelectricity as a Future Energy Source

Power Sector Reforms Issues And Challenges A Report On Piezoelectricity As a future energy source Submitted by: Nikhil Gupta (5th Sem) Mechanical Engg. Dept. , JEC,Jabalpur Abstract The Future Smart House is going to have a large number of sensors and microelectronic devices located throughout the house. These devices will need a clean, reliable source of energy that won’t need constant maintenance. The goal of this report is to get awareness about the piezoelectric energy sources to provide power to certain applications in the house. Initially the researchers were planning to create an energy scavenging floor that used piezoelectric transducers to harvest wasted energy in the foot strike of a human being. In consideration of the high cost and minimal power output of these piezo-sources, it seems more feasible to create small, localized energy sources rather than one large unified system. This idea has lead to several potential applications. The first is to combine a piezoelectric power source with sensors such that there would be no need to ever change the batteries in these sensors. The next application is to use piezoelectric cable throughout the floors of the house as a means of tracking. The final application is to combine piezoelectrics with a device to eliminate vibrations in household appliances. Introduction So generally Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting is based upon the piezoelectric effect. The essence of the piezoelectric effect works as follows: by applying a mechanical stress to a crystal, one can generate a voltage or potential energy difference, and thus a current. Also by applying a current to a piezoelectric one can stress or strain the material. The mechanical stress can be supplied by any source. But with so many people walking around from place to place, why not harness that kinetic energy to power stuff, right? Technical Overview Piezoelectric materials exhibit the unique property known as the piezoelectric effect. When these materials are subjected to a compressive or tensile stress, an electric field is generated across the material, creating a voltage gradient and a subsequent current flow. This effect stems from the asymmetric nature of their unit cell when a stress is applied. As seen in Figure 1, the unit cell contains a small positively charges particle in the center. When a stress is applied this particle becomes shifted in one direction which creates a charge distribution, and subsequent electric field. These materials come in several different forms. The most common is crystals, but they are also found as plastics and ceramics. [pic][pic] Fig. 1: Lead Zirconate Titanate unit cell Existing Technologies There are several companies and research institutes throughout the world who are focusing on finding useful applications for piezoelectric energy sources. Several years ago a project was done at MIT entitled, â€Å"Energy Scavenging with Shoe-Mounted Piezoelectrics. † In this project the researchers lined the bottom of a shoe with piezoelectric transducers and saw what kind of power they got out of it. They eventually attached an RF-transmitter to the shoe that was powered by the piezoelectrics. The two materials they used were polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and lead zirconate titanate (PZT). Their initial results were that the PVDF material produced 1. 3 mW per foot strike and the PZT produced around 8. 4 mW. They went back and tried numerous other approaches but they were confined to working with the limitation of a shoe. In this report they hinted at the fact that much great power output could be achieved if they were not confined to working with a shoe. Another company that is looking into using piezoelectric sources to power networks of wireless sensors is MicroStrain Inc. This company setup an experiment where piezoelectric transducers were attached to the support beams in a structure. As the structure was constantly under strain, the voltage created by the piezoelectrics was stored up in a capacitor. Once the capacitor voltage reached a certain level, the power was than transferred to a transmitter which sent a wireless signal to some receiver. It was reported that the cycle time was about 20 to 80 seconds to store up a charge of 9. 5 V on the capacitor given the size of the piezoelectric was 17 cm2. A German based company called EnOcean already has a commercially available product. The slogan for this company is â€Å"no batteries and no wires. † They create products that use piezoelectric transducers to power RF transmitters. One particular product is a light switch that requires no wiring at all. Behind the actual switch is a piezoelectric transducer. When the light switch is flipped, this motion is used by the transducer to power the RF transmitter, which signals the receiver on the actual light to turn on. This would be an interesting technology to demonstrate in the house because it enables you to have light switches on places you never could before such as on a window or outside in the middle of the yard. Two other companies, Ferro Solutions Inc. and Continuum Control Corp. make small ambient energy harvesting sources. Ferro Solutions makes a product called the Energy Harvester. This little device about the size of two AA batteries contains an electromagnetic generator inside. There are two magnets and in between them is a coil of wire. When vibrations cause the coil of wire to move around in the magnetic field, current is generated in the wire. This small energy source could be used in place of batt eries or as a means to recharge batteries. The device supplies about 1 to 10 mW of power and the company is looking to license this echnology to wireless sensor companies. Continuum Control Corp. makes two different products called the PiezoFlex and the iPower Generator. The PiezoFlex is a new type of piezoelectric material that is both flexible and robust. At the same time it also cheaper to manufacture than most other piezoelectric materials. The second product, the iPower Generator contains a piezoelectric transducer that converts mechanical input into electrical output. This product was used was used as a backup energy source in an Antarctic Expedition several years ago. The device has a crank and as you turn it, the mechanical energy is converted into electrical energy. At the MIT Media Lab, researchers in the Responsive Environments Group created a piezoelectric floor called the â€Å"Magic Carpet. † This floor contained a grid of piezoelectric cables spaced 4† apart. The goal of this project was to create a floor that could track the movements of the person walking across it. This technology was then combined with lights and sound such that depending on where you walked a different sound would play. Today you can find examples of the magic carpet in some of the museums at MIT. A similar project was done at Georgia Tech. At Georgia Tech they built a â€Å"Smart Floor† that used piezoelectrics as sensing devices to monitor and predict when people were walking across it. They could predict with about 90% accuracy what person was walking across the floor just given the way the piezoelectrics reacted to their foot strike. Application to Residential There are several ways to incorporate piezoelectric technology into a residential setting. The first would be to use small piezoelectric sources in the place of batteries. These piezoelectric sources could be used to power sensors throughout the house so that the batteries would never need to be changed. Another application was proposed by MIT researchers. Their idea was to use piezoelectric materials to cancel out vibrations in certain household appliances. They envisioned a device that could autonomously adapt the amount of dampening based on the magnitude of the vibrations. They proposed that first the device be built with a battery power source and eventually switch to an energy source that converted the vibrations into energy using either piezo or electromagnetic generators. Their second idea was the opposite of the first: rather than cancel the vibrations, you would enhance them. This idea originated from the fact that subwoofers only go down to about 20 Hz, yet the electrical signal coming from the actual media contains frequencies below 20 Hz. These signals are too low for us to hear, but they can be converted into vibrations. For example when there is an explosion in a movie, there are frequencies below 20 Hz, but the subwoofer can’t make a sound with that long of a wavelength. If you were to install proof mass actuators into the floor of the media room, whenever there was a signal below 20 Hz, these actuators would respond accordingly and literally shake the room.. The next set of applications would involve piezoelectric cable. Piezoelectric cable behaves much the same way as flat piezoelectric transducers only the cable is much cheaper. The cable resembles the standard coaxial cable that plugs into the TV, but the piezo cable has a layer of piezoelectric polymer wrapped into it. This cable could be used to create a grid across the floor that could generate power from people walking across it, or the more viable purpose would be for tracking. These cables come with varying degrees of sensitivity. The cable could be used to track both the location and the orientation of a person in the house. Based on the way they walk, the floor might also be able to identify who the person is. Design The major obstacle in designing your own piezoelectric circuit is finding a way to maximize the power output. The major components involved in this circuit would be an AC/DC rectifier, a filter capacitor, and a DC-DC converter. The AC/DC rectifier converts the AC signal from the piezo-source into DC current. The filter capacitor smoothes electrical flow and the DC-DC converter is what allows the battery to store the energy. Most of the power conversion comes into play in the DC-DC converter. Fig. 2: Adaptive Energy Harvesting Circuit Recently in a paper published in Power Electronics entitled â€Å"Adaptive Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Circuit for Wireless Remote Power Supply,† esearchers found a way to increase power output by roughly 400% compared to when a converter is not used. They used an adaptive control technique in the converter that adjusts itself to find the optimal power transfer options for every moment. Last year, MIT created a setup to demonstrate the power output you could achieve using the vibrations in a plane wing. They didn’t use piezoelectrics, but rathe r electromagnetic generators. Regardless, the circuit for capturing and storing the energy would still be the same. He still has the circuit and is willing to let us use it in designing a piezoelectric energy source. Simulation Results From the study of a project report undertaken in MIT a circuit was modeled. The circuit used a piezoelectric transducer as the voltage source which than fed into an op amp. The purpose of the circuit was to provide a voltage gain of 100. The simulation results proved that the op amp did in fact multiply the voltage from the piezo-transducer by a factor of 100. Unfortunately, in the program they could not find an actual piezo-transducer so they had to model it with an ideal voltage source with an estimated equivalent Thevenin resistance. They considered this project a success on the grounds that it proved that piezo-transducers can in fact act as voltage sources. It also showed that the voltage provided by the transducer can be multiplied by several orders of magnitude using certain circuits. This circuit essentially failed to answer the real question of what kind of maximum power one can get out of the piezo-transducer. A final word on piezoelectricity as a future energy source In the near future, the lights at your favorite coffee shop or the stereo system at your local bar could very well be powered by foot traffic. If we want to maintain a certain lifestyle in an increasingly competitive, resource strapped world, we need to think outside the box when it comes to energy production. There are a million sources of clean, environmentally conscious power all around us, we just have to explore and utilize these sources in the most efficient manner possible. Ambient energy capture will no doubt play a large part in the future of renewable energy, and there's no time like the present to work on developing new, innovative means of electricity generation. I feel confident in saying that the world of tomorrow looks pretty bright, both literally and figuratively.

Sontract enforceable Essay

Mr Potbelly is holding a garage sale because he has to move up north due to loosing his job. Mr Slim Jim offers to purchase two items: an art pottery and the house. The art pottery sales is a sales of used goods, whereas the house sales is a real estate sales. The art pottery is worth ten times ($2’500) what Mr Potbelly wants ($250), and Mr Slim Jim even offers less than that ($200). The house is worth twice ($140’000) what Mr Potbelly wants from it ($75’000), and Mr Slim Jim even offers less than that ($70’000). Mr Potbelly agrees with both offers verbally and starts packing the art pottery while waiting for Slim Jim’s bank check for the house. By the time Mr. Slim Jim returns with the money, Mr Potbelly has discovered that he could have earned much more money with his two sales and decides not to honour both sales contracts. Mr Slim Jim decides to sue Mr Potbelly in order to enforce both sales contracts. Issues: 1) Is the art pottery sale’s contract valid? Under what ground could Mr Potbelly decide to contest its’ validity? 2) Is the house sale’s contract valid? Under what ground could Mr Potbelly decide to contest its’ validity? Rules 1) In order to be enforceable, a contract has to gather different elements such as:   Mutual consent: both parties must have a clear understanding of what the contract is about. If one party thinks the contract is about an iron cup and the other thinks it is about a gold cup, then there is no mutual consent: each party consents to something different from the other.   Offer and acceptance: a contract involves that one party offers something and the other accepts it. ? Mutual Consideration: both parties must exchange something of value. The mutual consideration condition is not a way to escape the consequences of a bad negotiation. If a person agrees to sell an object for $50 and gets a better offer of $500 five minutes later, then the first sales contract will still be enforceable. ? Performance (delivery): in order to make the contract enforceable, the obligations to be performed under the agreement must have been executed. For example, in a sales of goods, one party must pay the price, and the other deliver the good. As long as the price hasn’t been paid, the delivery of the goods cannot be enforced. Good faith: both parties must act in good faith, which means that the object of the sales must be clear for each of the parties. ? No violation of public policy (not relevant in this case). Last, but not least, in case of an oral sales of goods contract, the burden of proving reality of the agreement lies with the person trying to enforce the contract. 2) The sales contract which comprise transfer of property of land does have to respect the same principles as for sales of goods, but it has to respect one more condition: it has to be in writing AND signed by all parties in order to be enforceable under Statute of Frauds Law. The existence of these conditions are criticised for enabling sellers to change their mind even as the contract is entered into (contract enforceable even if not in writing if ALL parties agree). Application 1) Mr Potbelly’s pottery sales’ contract is valid under mutual consent, offer and acceptance (both Potbelly and Slim Jim agreed on the object and the price), mutual consideration, and non violation of public policy. On the other hand, there might be a zone of discussion on performance as Mr Slim Jim has not yet paid the price, so the delivery of the goods might not be enforceable. There might also be a zone for discussion on good faith, as Mr Potbelly though he was selling a normal pottery and Mr Slim Jim knew he was buying a piece of art (but there might be a problem in proving that he knew). Therefore, although there is little chance Mr Potbelly will escape the consequences of his bad negotiation, there is still a slight chance depending on the elements he might bring up to trial. 2) The sales’ contract of the house has not yet been written and/or signed. Therefore, Mr Potbelly will escape having to sell his house to Mr. Slim Jim.

Education of Women and Girls Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Education of Women and Girls - Research Paper Example From the discussion it is clear that  80 percent of out-of-school girls in Yemen and 62 percent in Pakistan are unlikely even to enter school, compared with 36 percent of boys in Yemen and 27 percent in Pakistan. The situation is the most dramatic in sub-Saharan Africa, where 12 million girls are unlikely to enroll. In 2007, eighteen sub-Saharan countries had the gender parity index (GPI) of less than 0,90, which meant that they had not achieved the goal of gender parity in primary schooling, set by UNESCO for 2005.  This paper discusses that  there is a strong inverse relation between gender parity and school enrolment; in poor countries with a low enrolment ratio there is usually a large disparity between boys and girls out-of-school. Thus, several developing countries have included strategies to reach gender parity as part of their wider policies aimed to provide all children with universal primary education. The policy measures introduced in Yemen to increase the gender par ity index contributed significantly to the increase in enrolment from 2.3 million in 1999 to 3.2 million in 2005. The interventions targeted at out-of-school girls, such as providing girls in grades 1 to 6 with free textbooks and employing more female teachers in rural areas, enabled many girls to enroll, which lead to an increased number of all school children. Due to security concerns and household labor demands, few parents decide to enroll their daughters in schools far away from home.

Compare the travel journal to an online travel blog Essay

Compare the travel journal to an online travel blog - Essay Example In this "Compare the travel journal to an online travel blog" describes similarities and differences of these two tools of communication. Internet has helped people to share information that is often difficult to be acquired. Reference can be made, to blogs and other types of social media. The key difference between a travel journal and an online travel blog should be mentioned: a travel journal is a notebook, similar to a diary. The travel journal is differentiated from a diary at the level that ‘activities are not necessarily noted on a daily basis’ (Inbox Journal 2012). This means that in travel journal notes are kept in regard to a particular travel but the events of certain days may not be documented (Inbox Journal 2012). Notes kept in a travel journal can be changed later, before the publication of the journal, without anyone to notice the alteration of the text. The specific issue is particularly important for the following reasons: a) if a mistake has been made when documenting events, this mistake will not be identifiable by readers if the author of the journal make the necessary corrections before the publication; in online blogs such option is not available as it will be analytically described later; b) events that have been documented in a travel journal can be erased later, and before the publication of the journal; in online blogs the text is directly available to the public, the blog’s visitors; erasing parts of the text could prevent other people from reading these parts.

Business Law - Questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Business Law - Questions - Assignment Example The defendant informed the service provider that he was in no need of his services any longer and even rejected to compensate on 11th May. The service provider sued the defendant for breach of contract on 22nd May and the starting date of the contract was due on 1st June. The court ruled the decision in favouring the claimant as the defendant has breached the contract (Andrews, 2011, p.486). In case of tort law, a person is held responsible or is held accountable if he fails to exercise the duty of care in his operations. This means that a person is said to be tort liable if he has failed to rectify any foreseeable errors in his/her offerings. For example: In Willsher v Essex Area Health Authority case, an inexperienced doctor gave extra oxygen to a baby that was born prematurely, due to this, the baby lost one of his eye, the court held the doctor liable because the inexperienced doctor had to operate with same amount of care as an experienced doctor (Tuitt, 2004, p.44). In tort cas es, negligence holds great importance, if an individual wants to press charges against another individual, he should be able to prove that the individual was involved in conducting negligence. To succeed in a case of negligence, the person making the claim has to prove the defendant had a duty of care towards the person making the claim. ... Lastly, the person making the claim has to prove that due to the defendant’s negligence towards duty of care, the claimant experienced a loss. The claimant can only win the case only if he is able to prove that the loss was experienced due to defendant’s breach of duty and the loss could have been avoided if the defendant would have taken necessary actions. For example, in the case of Donoghue v Stevenson, Stevenson being the defendant was held responsible because of his negligence to carry out the duty of care, the person who made the claim, Mrs Donoghue, experienced health issues after drinking bottle of beer manufactured by the defendant and the decision even stated that the manufacturers duty is towards the ultimate consumer, thus, the ultimate consumer experienced loss and the manufacturer was considered responsible (Cooke, 2001, p.35). A business or an individual is said to be vicariously liable if he/she has a relationship according to law with the person or busi ness that has acted negligently and has caused harm. Such kinds of legal relationships include: relationship between and worker and the employer. Negligence included in vicarious liability is referred to as imputed negligence, one theory of liability pertaining to this kind of negligence is respondent superior, according to respondent superior employer is held responsible or liable for the acts of his/her employee as there is a relationship between the worker and the employer of agent and principle. This relationship refers to the relationship that states that an employee is acting on behalf of the employer and the employer will be held responsible if the employee

War and the media (focusing on the First Gulf War) Essay

War and the media (focusing on the First Gulf War) - Essay Example It is believed that although the main cause of the war was a very ancient conflict of Persians and Arabs. At that time and moment there was a great social and revolutionary change that was occurring in Iran. There was a whole lot of establishment of religious leadership. The reforms that were occurring in Iran were of quite a serious nature. The reforms were both social and political. Saddam Hussein judged the fact that this conflict would put Iran in a weaker position and hence make it easier for the Iraqi soldiers to get hold of the situation and thus invade Iran. The master mind behind this war was Saddam Hussein who believed, that if they attacked the Iranian at this point and time of conflict and turmoil, they will not be able to counter attack and hence face quite a lot of issues with their own security. He considered as the best time for the Iraqis to take over and establish their own supremacy over the whole area. They believed this as the most opportune moment. There was als o a fear of loss of power that had driven Saddam Hussein to consider the attacks. He believed that the Shiite uprising in Iran can ultimately affect the people living in Iraq too. Iraq has a dominant Shiite population and hence he feared that the Shiite Iraqis might feel motivated and rise against the Sunni establishment. It was this fear and the will to become the leader in the region that Saddam Hussein leapt into war. The reason that Saddam Hussein also felt fearless and jumped into war was that they had the support of Americans as well. Iran was undergoing a complete religious transformation and they had always considered Americans as the great Satan. They had declared openly their anti US feelings. This was what fueled the US and they sided with Iraq in this war to terrorize Iran and take control of it. Also, after the First World War , there was a demarcation that was made between the countries. The continued border disputes within both the countries also fueled the incident. If we consider the role of media, media has always been in the hands of those who are in power. In this case it was America who was quite at much stake. They had freshly lost a battle in Vietnam, which despite being a prolonged war turned out to be a gift of deaths alone for the Americans. It was highly important for them that they get a good name and reputation for themselves. Therefore, in this case they favored the Iraqi. The Iranians were very openly against the Americans and therefore, to be able to have their own say and hold in the Middle East and the Arabian Gulf they sided with Iraqis. Iraqis had the worst fear in the form of their own Shiite population who might rise up against them as they attacked the Iranians, whose majority population was Shiite. This was what made the war more of name saving game for the Americans. They very publicly showed their support for the Iraqis and provided them with help and guidance so as to be able to overcome Iran. The first two years of t he war proved to be difficult for Iran as they had a very weak army , and which had been further weakened by the constant uprising that was occurring in their state. They could do little to protect themselves, with the continuous infiltrations of the Mullahs in the army. Once they had been able to regain a bit of their control over the army their attack had turn to offensive instead of a defensive one. America just to prove that they were

Norteno Music Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Norteno Music - Essay Example There are a lot of regional styles in Norteno music. Much regional Mexican music entertained by radio and many Norteno artists also get popularity from Mexican-American community. Local radio stations are the Proclamatorysource in popularizing Norteno music. While exploring rural areas their way of entertainment people found that Norteno is originated from rural areas and also popular in urban areas. Norteno started to assemble by music lovers around 1860s and become popular. (LAST FM) Mexico people listened music deliberately from all over the world, by listening all forms of music they produce their own forms which they called traditional Mexican music which are modern music becomes popular with people of all ages and these Mexican traditional music are full of variety, style, colorful, passionate and derive from origins of Mexican culture; rich country. (TRADITIONAL MEXICAN MUSIC) American accordionist introduces Norteno music in Texas. In Tamaulipas and Tijuana derives from the C aribbean Norteno music. Sexophone is also use by different bands like Chihuahua and Zacatecas. Tejano or â€Å"Tex-Mex† is a new form of popular music derived from Norteno and influenced by swing and American Rock. Tejano includes English poetry and sounds are like American Rock but Norteno came first and Ramon Ayala is based on basics of Norteno music.Today Norteno music is popular because of Grupo Pesado who is the leader of Norteno music. Musical instruments of different types with some new music styles introduce by Czech and Bohemian famous people like accordion. This music style combined with the present Norteno music style and this style played by local bands. This is the start of the transformation and evolution of Norteno in which still accordion theme is present in it. The main instrument accordion and Bajo sexto distinguish Norteno. Rhythm is like in a steady motion and the pace of this rhythm is middle (normal) or fasts tempo depending on song’s type. Double bass instruments and guitar is used in Norteno type music. Two famous bands Banda and duranguense have only bass instruments instead of an accordions and guitars.However Banda and duranguense introduces and plays the same songs as Norteno bands musicians playedthem have the same beat and music levels same as Norteno.Many of the bands named as Mexican states or a general description of geographical and they basically played â€Å"Regional Mexican Music†.(HISTORY OF MEXICAN MUSIC) Two major forms of Norteno music is Corridos and Narcocorridos. Corridos entered the â€Å"Golden Age† in 1910-1920s where Mexican people play these Corridos in border. Corridos are basically based on narrative songs in a poetry form and they depend on history, peasant’s daily life,socially important and legendary importance.Around in 1980s started Narcocorridos when Los Alegres de Teran who sang a song about a Narco.Narcocorridos are the same as Corridos but are based on drug smugglers and the cartels. Music critics also compared Narcocorridos to â€Å"Gangster rap†. There are two types of Norteno which are Classical Norteno and Modern Norteno. Classical Norteno music becomes famous by very recognizable bands in which Ramon Ayala, Los Tigeres Del Norte, Los Tucanes de Tijuana. Modern Norteno having advance features from original â€Å"oldie† Norteno this type of Norteno first played by Narciso Martinez and his groups related to Narciso before 1950s. Modern percussion and Electric bass guitars are the

Telecommunications and Networking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words - 3

Telecommunications and Networking - Essay Example 'Cloud Computing’ matches a perception of an imaginary cloud that illustrates the Internet or most likely a corporate network environment that is represented by a cloud. The imaginary Internet cloud of a corporate network environment is trustworthy for data transportation. Moreover, it is incorporated with advanced cloud generalization. In order to extend the cloud-computing concept, there are services along with network components consisting of routers, switches, application servers, and data servers. The components of the network are installed to operate at the back-end for providing advanced services that are proficient to develop web application (What is cloud computing?). Moreover, cloud computing consists of applications that are represented as a service on the web and the provision of hardware / software services provided by companies operating data centers. Likewise, the services provided over the Internet are referred as (Software as a Service) ‘SaaS’. Fe w sellers use the term (Infrastructure as a service) IaaS and (Platform as a service) PaaS ’in order to demonstrate their products and services. However, these terms are avoided and not accepted globally, due to variation (ARMBRUST, FOX et al. 2010). The Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have illustrated some helpful definitions that focus on three concepts (Ryan, Loeffler 2010): The core components of a cloud are consists of the data center hardware and software. When these resources are made available to the public, they are referred as public clouds and the service provided by the cloud is called as utility computing. Moreover, private clouds are only available to private organizations and are not accessible by public. Accordingly, cloud computing is the combination of ‘SaaS’ and utility computing (ARMBRUST, FOX et al. 2010).  

African American Theatre 2 Essay Example for Free

African American Theatre 2 Essay African American Theater started out, hundreds of years ago, as a foundation of amusement for the black community. The theater was a place where African Americans, equally men and women, could work, study, and perfect their expertise. The beginning of African American theater set in motion back in the 1830’s, and it eventually became one of America’s most prevalent sources of entertainment Over the course of over one and a half decades, there has been an apparent transformation within the dominion of African American theater. For example, African Americans have prevailed over the intense burden of subjugation in forms such as political affairs, comfortable residency and most significantly, equal human rights. One of the most apparent leisure pursuits that were in remission from African-Americans came in the appearance of the performing arts, more particularly film. During this time, the society in general would not permit, for example, blacks to drink from the same water fountain, so to share the same onstage experiences or television effects was, without a doubt, not even simply prohibited but unheard of. However, as time went by, the potency of the hopeful African American actors and actresses weighed down the greater part of the general society, and society ceased being able to keep African Americans from appearing on stage and on television. For the longest time, the stage became and stayed the only way for African Americans to communicate the deep sorrow and oppression that the society, particularly the white population, had placed in front of them. Through acting, in addition to both singing and dancing, African Americans were able to, mentally and spiritually, go to a place that no tormenter could find them. With this new form of communication, African Americans found a new method of endurance, and acting was the fundamental technique. Even though the African American actors and actresses were forced to take the road of continued existence in the theater to gain self contentment, it was, as an understatement, not unproblematic. For the longest moments in time, African American actors and actresses were not permitted to step foot on stage. However, black actors were instead ridiculed by Caucasian actors in what they called black face. Black face was a performance where white actors and actresses would literally conceal their faces with black paint and makeup, so as to imitate an African American actor. From this falsification of the hopeful actors, derogatory names such as Tom, Mulatto, Mammy, Coon, and Buck resulted. Similar to Black Face, there was what is called Minstrel Shows. Minstrel shows, which consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, ridiculed and made fun of African Americans in the most disapproving ways. According to these shows, black people were looked upon as ignorant, lazy, and unreasonable, but also cheerful and melodious. Broadway, which is the heart of theater for Americans, had been closed to blacks for more than a decade. However, this was only until the African American musical â€Å"Shuffle Along† turned out to be a runaway success, which some historians believe was the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance. The first African American play to be produced on Broadway was The Chip Womans Fortune in 1923, written by Willis Richardson. In the year of 1959, Lorraine Hansberry, a famous playwright, became the first African American woman to have her play produced and performed on Broadway. Hansberry’s play, titled A Raisin in the Sun, became an outlet for a continual assembly of plays by African American playwrights who often brought their own individual occurrences in the great effort in opposition to racial discrimination to the theater plays that they produced. . By the revolving of this period, the minstrel show enjoyed but a shadow of its former popularity, having been replaced for the most part by vaudeville. It survived as professional entertainment until about 1910; amateur performances continued until the 1960s in high schools, fraternities, and local theaters. As blacks began to score legal and social victories against racism and to successfully assert political power, minstrelsy lost popularity. The typical minstrel performance followed a three-act structure. The troupe first danced onto stage then exchanged wisecracks and sang songs. The second part featured a variety of entertainments, including the pun-filled stump speech. The final act consisted of a slapstick musical plantation skit or a send-up of a popular play. Minstrel songs and sketches featured several stock characters, most popularly the slave and the dandy. These were further divided into sub-archetypes such as the mammy, her counterpart the old darky, the provocative mulatto wench, and the black soldier. Minstrels claimed that their songs and dances were authentically black, although the extent of the black influence remains debated. Spirituals (known as jubilees) entered the repertoire in the 1870s, marking the first undeniably black music to be used in minstrelsy. Blackface minstrelsy was the first distinctly American theatrical form. In the 1830s and 1840s, it was at the core of the rise of an American music industry, and for several decades it provided the lens through which white America saw black America. On the one hand, it had strong racist aspects; on the other, it afforded white Americans a singular and broad awareness of significant aspects of African American culture.

Stakeholder Analysis of Wal-Mart

Stakeholder Analysis of Wal-Mart A long-range strategic planning is so important to an organization because if you fail to plan, change in your business can be tough to handle and ultimately you are planning to fail. Strategic planning is one of the only ways a top management team can plan for economic, demographic, competitive, technological, and regulatory changes that affect the way your organization operates. The firm must engage in strategic planning that clearly defines objectives and assesses both the internal and external situation to formulate strategy, implement the strategy, evaluate the progress, and make adjustments as necessary to stay on track. TASK 1.A: IDENTIFY AN ORGANIZATION OF YOUR CHOICE WHICH YOU WILL DISCUSS AS AN EXAMPLE IN THIS ASSIGNMENT AND GIVE YOUR REASONS FOR CHOOSING THIS ORGANIZATION. Wal-Mart will be taken as the organization of my choice to discuss through the various aspects of this assignment. Wal-Mart is the leader in retailing industry with fiscal revenue of $244.52 billion in 2003 making it the worlds largest corporation. Mike reports that Wal-Mart as of 2002 had 1,283,000 employees growing at 11.2%. The above data explains that strategy of Wal-Mart is extraordinary which manages and operates over 4150 retail facilities globally. The key components of Wal-Mart (The Value Chain), which offers cheap prices than its competitors includes firm infrastructure like frugal culture, no regional offices and pleasant environment to work. Managements take lots of visits and it is learnt there are no rehearsals before any meeting which is usually scheduled on every Saturday. In any organization, human resource is the key to development and Wal-Mart efficiently manages its sources. Wal-Mart terms its employees as associates. Manager compensation is linked to the profit of store operated by him, within promotions, compensation offered to associates depending on companys profits and al so offered some incentives on their performances. The workforce at Wal-Mart is not unionized as the company takes all the measures of their benefits and provides them training on related issues. Technology plays a vital role in development of the organization and Wal-Mart is well equipped with technological innovations like POS, store performance tracking, real time market research, satellite system and UPC. Wal-Mart procurement measures like hard-nosed negotiations, partnerships with some vendors, centralized buying, planning packets, etc. helps at large the cause of providing the goods and services on cheap prices. The other factors that increase the margin of profit for Wal-Mart are inbound logistics with frequent replenishment, automated DCs cross docking, pick to flight, EDI, hub and spoke system. Wal-Mart strategy of operation is innovative with big stores in small towns with monopoly in the market at low rental costs, local prices, concentric expansion, merchandising in brand name, private labels, little space for inventory, store within store, etc. In relation to marketing and sales, merchandising is tailored from locals, spent less on advertising and the prices are fixed low and it depends on the store manager to fix the latitude of pricing. All the above factors combined together form the key components of Wal-Mart which not only increase the margin of profits through bulk sales but also boost the confidence of the customers with services like point of sale information system and everyday low prices. TASK 1.B: WHO ARE THE MAJOR STAKEHOLDERS OF YOUR ORGANIZATION AND WHAT CONSIDERATIONS SHOULD BE MADE TO ENSURE THEIR (STAKEHOLDER) PARTICIPATION IN DEVELOPING MANAGEMENT STRATEGY Stakeholder Analysis of Wal-Mart In determining the public affairs strategy of Wal-Mart, there are many groups and individuals who have a stake in what Wal-Mart does. These stakeholders can be divided into two groups: the market and non-market stakeholders. The market stakeholders are those groups and individuals who have an economic stake in what the company does. The non-market stakeholders are those groups and individuals who have a non-economic stake or political stake in what course the company takes. Market Stakeholders 1. The Stockholders The first group that has an economic stake in what Wal-Mart does is its shareholders. These are the people who actually own shares of Wal-Mart and therefore are interesting in seeing a return on their investment. They hope the value of their stock will rise and they will see dividends. According to the 2001 Annual Report, last year, Wal-Mart paid out $.24 per share in dividends (Annual Report 2001, 45). 2. The Wal-Mart Executives The top executives of Wal-Mart also have an economic stake in the company just as the regular stockholders do. Many of the top executives received stock options are part of their salary. Obviously, they want their stock value to rise because a large part of their compensation comes from how well the Wal-Mart stock is doing. 3. The Employees While some of the employees may have stock in the company, many of them have an economic stake in the company just because their job is their primary source of income. They want Wal-Mart to do well because then they will keep their job and their source of income. Their financial compensation from Wal-Mart sustains them. Wal-Mart employs more than 885,000 people nationwide (Reid, 1) 4. The Communities where Wal-Mart is located Each of the communities that have a Wal-Mart located in it has a stake in how well the company is doing. Many of these communities rely on Wal-Mart not only for jobs but also for a place to purchase many of their day to day necessities are a low price. Without Wal-Mart in these communities, there would be people without jobs and families paying higher prices for the goods that they need. 5. Consumers Consumers have a stake in how well Wal-Mart is doing. According to the 2001 Annual Report, Wal-Mart is the countrys largest grocery retailer (Annual Report 2001, 7) and therefore many people rely on Wal-Mart for their groceries. 6. Non-profit Organizations Many non-profit organizations have an economic or market stake in how well Wal-Mart is doing. The Wal-Mart foundation provides many non-profit organizations with funding and if the company is not doing well, the Foundation is not going to do as well either. According the Wal-Mart Good Works Foundation, 97 percent of their funding goes to non-profit organizations in the communities where their stores are located. The Wal-Mart Good Works Foundation provides funding to programs that deal with community, education, environment and children. Therefore, if a Wal-Mart is located in a certain community, the non-profit organizations can look to the Wal-Mart foundation as a possible source of funding. (www.walmartfoundation.org) 7. Other Retailers Other retailers have a stake in how well Wal-Mart is doing and how much they are expanding. If a Wal-Mart moves into a community, changes are the other retailers in that community, especially if they are privately owned are going to lose money and may even be forced to close down. Because Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the United States and number 1 on the Fortune 500 list, they have the ability to lower their prices and therefore can force other retailers out of business because they cannot match Wal-Marts low prices. 8. Online Retailers Like other retailers in communities where there is a Wal-Mart, online retailers also have a stake in how well Wal-Mart is doing. Wal-Mart totally revamped their website in 2000 in order to make it a more profitable part of their retail empire. Wal-Mart, unlike many other e-tailers closed down their website in September 2000 in order to revamp their site. While Wal-Marts online sales only represent a small portion of their overall sales, the website is a low cost way for Wal-Mart to deliver goods to consumer who lives in communities without Wal-Mart stores. (Business Week 11/6/00,2). 9. Gasoline Retailers In 1996, Wal-Mart made its first partnership with the gasoline industry. Today, Wal-Mart has contracts with companies such as Murphy Oil USA, Sunoco, and Tesoro Petroleum. Wal-Mart contracts with these companies and leases real estate on their lots in order for the company to offer gasoline at Wal-Mart stores. Both the oil companies who have contracts with Wal-Mart and local gas stations have a stake in this. The local gas stations often cannot compete with Wal-Mart in either price or convenience. Over the next year, the oil companies that contract with Wal-Mart plan to expand to offer cheap gasoline at more Wal-Mart locations. For example, Murphy plans to expand to 600 Wal-Mart sites by 2003 and the other gas retailers have similar plans. (Reid, 5) Non-Market Stakeholders 1. Labor Unions Labor unions have a political stake in Wal-Mart has a strict policy about not having their workers unionized. Wal-Mart takes the position that they are better able to take care of their employees and provide them with the best benefits and compensation plans. Wal-Mart does not want interference from unions. Recently, Wal-Mart was charged by the National Labor Relations Board with violating federal law by keeping employees from holding elections and joining the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. (NY Times, C2) 2. International Retail Stores One of Wal-Marts key policy issues has been to move into the international retail market and open stores in other countries. Last year, Wal-Marts International Divisions sales increased by 41 percent (Troy, 47). Currently, Wal-Mart has stores in Chine, Korea, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Canada and Mexico (Thau, 9). Wal-Mart must work closely with Public Relations firms in those countries in order to make sure there is no backlash against them moving into other countries. They must also be careful to follow the laws of each of those countries when they open new stores. Wal-Mart has been careful in moving into the international markets. They have acquired companies already well established in those countries and have made sure that 90 percent of their international products are locally sourced (Thau, 9). 3. Politicians Politicians have a non-market stake in Wal-Mart for several reasons. First of all, politicians may or may not want Wal-Mart opening in their district. On one hand, it may be good for the community. However, if it is a district with a large union presence, the politician may not want Wal-Mart is that area. Also, politicians may rely on Wal-Mart for campaign funding. Last cycle, Wal-Marts political action committee, Wal-Mart Stores Inc PAC for Responsible Government contributed $752,500 to various committees and candidates during the 2001 cycle. TASK 1.C: WHAT ARE THE KEY CRITERIA THAT SHOULD BE CONSIDERED WHEN REVIEWING MANAGEMENT STRATEGY OPTIONS? Key Points to make Planning Effective 1. The Success of planning depends upon the effectiveness with which the forecast has been made. If the forecast is accurate, there is every possibility that the plan will be success. 2. Flexibility must be introduced in the plan whenever necessary so that the employees can work with sustained interest and effort. The management shall not use pressure tactics and force employees to work for the sake of attaining the daily or weekly targets. 3. All the members concerned with the organization must be involved in the task of preparing the plan. The viewpoints of the employees, who are actually going to perform the tasks, must be secured and their ideas may be incorporated in the plans, if found suitable. 4. The plan should not be prepared to focus on the financial goals of the business alone. It must have something for the employees. There must be some provision in the plan to reward efficient workers. Some inducement is necessary in the plan to motivate the employees to work harder. 5. The plan must be realistic. It should take into account the capabilities of both the managers and the employees. Both shall not be required to work beyond their capacity. In other words, the plan must not expect too much out of every person. 6. The plan must be communicated effectively to all the subordinate staff. Their consent may also be obtained. The successful implementation of the plan depends on the extent to which subordinates participate willingly in the performance of the tasks. 7. A co-ordinated effort on the effort on the part of every department is required for the success of the plan. To achieve this, the departments concerned shall work with proper understanding. Additional steps that can be followed to avoid obstacles in planning. (There should be no ambiguity in the objectives that are laid out. They must be clear and achievable. Use of information should be put in place. Management Information System can be used. Managers should sport a dynamic outlook and they should have that mindset of moving towards achieving the objectives All plans designed can have some amount of flexibility built into it. All resourcing required for the plan should be done upfront leaving on surprises at the end. The importance of having a Cost-Benefit analysis cannot be ruled out. This must be done. TASK 1.D: DESCRIBE A SITUATION WITH YOUR CHOSEN ORGANIZATION WHERE A POTENTIAL STRATEGY MIGHT BE DEVELOPED TO RESOLVE AN ISSUE. PRODUCE AN APPROPRIATE STRATEGY AND INDICATE ITS RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS. A strategic goal of Wal-Mart is to expand. It has done so successfully. Looking at the facts and figures clearly shows the corporations dominance and power. Currently the corporation employs over 1.3 million employees, one million in the US alone. The company owns over 4000 stores worldwide. Over 1,200 units (stores) are in operation internationally. Domestically, Wal-Mart is the largest US retailer, employing around 1 million people. It has over 3,000 stores and outlets, and 77 distribution centers. The company serves more than 100 million customers weekly in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and several nations around the world. (www.walmart.com, Fact Sheet Wal-Mart at a Glance, 2002). Internationally, the retailer operates in Mexico, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, China, Korea, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Its expansion strategy internationally has been aggressive and powerful. The latest expansion strategy is for the company to gain entry into a nation by corporate takeover of a national retailer. Once the company is bought, Wal-Mart converts the stores into Wal-Mart stores. Three countries, all with no previous Wal-Mart stores, became part of the corporations international presence when domestic retail chains were overtaken. In 1994, Wal-Mart bought 122 Woolco stores in Canada; today there are 196 units in Canada. In 1998 Wal-Mart bought the Wertkauf store with 21 units, now there are 94 Wal-Marts in Germany. In 1999, Wal-Mart acquired the ASDA chain with 229 units in the UK. Today, the UK has 252 Wal-Mart stores. (www.walmart.com, Fact Sheet on International Operations, 2002) This particular strategy, of corporate takeover, puts the company at an advantage when it enters into a new market. In one stroke, a large competitor is eliminated, and at once, Wal-Mart has real estate and employees, and a massive presence in its targeted location. This is an effective use of the companys size and wealth, as few if any competitors are able to do this effectively. The company builds up brand familiarity, while retaining the old familiar outlets. Gradually, as the local Wal-Mart stores begin to make money, and local management assess their competition environment, the company begins to redesign the acquired stores to look like Wal-Marts, it then begins to build new and larger stores in that new market. Wal-Mart is now the largest retailer in Canada and the UK. TASK 2: DEVELOP VISION, MISSION, OBJECTIVES AND MEASURES TASK 2.A: FOR YOUR CHOSEN ORGANIZATION, LIST THE DOWN ITS ETHICAL, CULTURAL, ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL AND BUSINESS OBJECTIVES. HOW ARE THESE INFLUENCED BY THE CURRENT BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC CLIMATE Visioning Creating shared understanding of future possibilities A strategic vision is usually thought to be solely future oriented. A vision provides an organization a forward looking, idealized image of itself. Moves outside the usual assumptions. Concentrates on the end goal, not the means to reach the goal. Followers gain ownership by developing the means (action plan). An alternate view from the field of organizational learning expands this to shared vision, which also includes a present component. Vision is not a destination, but an intangible structure that surrounds us and guides our daily activities. From this perspective, a shared vision is a form of self-identity. This definition of vision is a collective belief in what the organization can become. In this way it is similar to a truly desired wish for the future. The difference, however, is in how we mold ourselves to adapt to the environment without expecting to be able to change the environment itself. Yes, there is an implicit assumption about the future. However, if the vision is sufficiently broad it will suffice for providing a framework for current decisions. Granted, all decisions are made in the present. Yet, to work toward something grander than the present employs some probability of future outcomes upon which to make decisions, all other things being equal. Regarding feedback loops for control, such feedback can be employed for both corrective action and vision revision (interesting combination of words). If the feedback indicates a problem in the implementation and nothing amiss in the expected vision then the strategy and/or tactics can be altered to get back on track toward the vision. And if there is an indication that the vision is no longer realistic there is no problem with a shift in vision to a more workable vision. Normal planning cycles allow for such a step on an annual basis, which is probably too long for planning within a dynamic environment. But this gets back to the dynamics of the planning process itself. This approach to using feedback is similar to the use of a tracking ratio to serve as a warning system for a forecast that is no longer adequate to the current reality. Implications What is unique about the organizations self-concept of itself? Something that would be missed if the organization were not to fulfill this vision. What issues might arise among different stakeholders as this vision is realized? Are organizational practices aligned with the vision? Are desired actions reinforced by performance metrics? Putting an organization mission vision in place requires working at all levels of the organization. Oftentimes, the effort is only made at the top of the organization with the expectation that employee commitment will follow. Instead, limited compliance is accomplished, at best. It is recommended that a specific change program be put in place to develop a shared vision and common understanding of the groups mission. Mission The mission is the ultimate purpose for why the organization exists. Essential components of a good mission statement include: Brief and easily understood by everyone. What goods and services (beyond the basics) For Whom market segmentation (geographic, sociological, financial, ethnically) How market strategy, distribution strategy. Present and future possibilities. Why basic reason the organization exists. Distinctive competency. Driving Forces. Driving Forces Products and/or services offered Market served Technology Low-cost capability Operations capability Method of distribution sale Use of resources Profit (return on resources) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ TASK 2.B: DESCRIBE THE ROLES OF VISION AND MISSION STATEMENT OF YOUR CHOSEN ORGANIZATION The corporate mission can be stated as follows: As Wal-Mart continues to grow into new areas and new mediums, our success will always be attributed to our culture. Whether you walk into a Wal-Mart store in your hometown or one across the country while youre on vacation, you can always be assured youre getting low prices and that genuine customer service youve come to expect from us. Youll feel at home in any department of any storethats our culture. The company has three Basic Beliefs or core philosophies Sam Walton built the company on. Those beliefs are: (1) Respect for the Individual, (2) Service to Our Customers, and (3) to Strive for Excellence. Respecting the individual is a call for treating their employees well and pushing them to excel in what they do. The commitment to their customers is a goal whereby the stores respect a pricing philosophy to always sell items as low as they can while providing excellent customer service. The third belief is to strive for excellence, that is to expand the store, innovate, reach further in to new markets and to grow. (H. Lee Scott, 2002, www.walmart.com) Other beliefs include, exceeding customer expectations with aggressive hospitality such as using door greeters. The store also features patriotic display and themes in its US stores. Another goal for the company is to support efforts in the local community via charitable contributions. Wal-Mart identifies several affiliations with charities such as the United Way and the Childrens Miracle Network (www.walmartfoundation.org). The Sundown Rule is a corporate directive whereby all Wal-Mart employees, be they store associates, management, or corporate staff, must reasonably answer a customers or supplier request or question within 24 hours. The Ten Foot Rule states that store employees must greet, smile, and attend to a customer in a store when within 10 feet of them. Its a type of aggressive hospitality policy. Wal-Mart also compels its staff to engage in morning cheers where they recite company sayings. A final, yet important rule, which is a strong part of the corporate culture is Sam Waltons Pricing Philosophy which underlines the company strategy of selling items for less then their competitors, always. (www.wal-mart.com, corporate culture). TASK 2.C: INDICATE HOW IT IS POSSIBLE FOR AN ORGANIZATION TO EVALUATE THE ACHIEVEMENT OF ITS OBJECTIVES Implementing: Every company will have its own strategy but it is the operation which puts in to practice. You cannot, after all, touch a strategy; you cannot even see it ; all you can see is how the operation behaves in practice. The implication of this role for the operations function is very significant. Support: It must develop its resources to provide the capabilities which are needed to allow the organization to achieve its goals. Example: If a manufacturer of personal computers has decided to compete by being the first in the market with every available new product innovation, then its operations function needs to be capable of copying with the changes which constant innovation will bring. It must develop or purchase processes which are flexible, enough to manufacture novel parts and products. Driving: The third role of the operations part of the business is to drive strategy by giving it a long-term competitive edge. The both short term and long term success can come directly from the operations functions. An operations function which is providing both long and short term advantage is driving business strategy by being the ultimate custodian of competiveness. Effective operations management: Operation plays these roles within the organization can be judged by considering the organizational aims or aspirations function. The model traces the progression of the operations function from which it is largely negative role of stage 1 operations to it becoming the central element of competitive strategy in excellent stage 4 operations. Stage 1: internal neutrality: This is the poorest level of contribution by the operations function. The other functions regard it as holding them back from competing effectively. Even good organizations can be let down by their operations function and the resulting publicity can be damaging. Stage 2: External neutrality: The first of breaking out of stage 1 is for the operations function to begin comparing itself with similar companies or organizations in the outside market. By taking the best ideas and norms of performance from the rest of its industry, it is trying to be externally neutral. Stage 3: Inernally supportive: These operations have probably reached the first division in their market. They may not be better than their competitors on every aspect of operations performance but they are broadly up with the best. Stage 4:externally supportive: The third stage is taken to be as the limit of the operations functions contribution. TASK 3: PLAN FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF THE STRATEGY TASK 3.A: DISCUSS HOW A TIMETABLE FOR STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION CAN BE DETERMINED. INCLUDE A SAMPLE TIMETABLE, TO INCLUDE KEY MILESTONES AND THEIR TIMINGS As an example, let us take the strategic planning and implementation of a university learning programs. Following is a sample table that gives detailed timeline in achieving a specific strategic goal that have been set. [pic] TASK 3.B: HOW MIGHT THE DISSEMINATION PROCESS BE USED TO HELP AN ORGANIZATION GAIN COMMITMENT TO ITS STRATEGY AND THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THIS Ten Elements of an Effective Dissemination Plan After you have developed your dissemination policy statements, you are ready to turn your attention to more specific dissemination planning. Remember that your dissemination planning should start at the beginning of your research activities, not at the end. While some details of the dissemination effort will be suggested in your original proposal and refined as you progress through your research, your dissemination plan goals and objectives should be clarified at the beginning of your research project in consultation with your NIDRR project officer. This approach will allow you to meet your dissemination challenge in a timely manner. 1. Goals: Determine and document the goals of your dissemination effort for your proposed project. 2. Objectives: Associate each goal with one or more objectives that clarifies what you are trying to accomplish through your dissemination activities. 3. Users: Describe the scope and characteristics of the potential users that your dissemination activities are designed to reach for each of your objectives. 4. Content: Identify, at least, the basic elements of the projected content you have to disseminate to each of the potential user groups identified. 5. Source(s): Identify the primary source or sources that each potential user group is already tied into or most respects as an information source. Consider ways to partner with these sources in your dissemination efforts. 6. Medium: Describe the medium or media through which the content of your message can best be best delivered to your potential users and describe the capabilities and resources that will be required of potential users to access the content for each medium to be used. 7. Success: Describe how you will know if your dissemination activities have been successful. If data is to be gathered, describe how, when, and who will gather it. 8. Access: Describe how you will promote access to your information and how you will archive information that may be requested at a later date. Consider that most people will use your project-related information when they perceive a need for it not necessarily when you have completed your research project. 9. Availability: Identify strategies for promoting awareness of the availability of your research-based information and the availability of alternate available formats. 10. Barriers: Identify potential barriers that may interfere with the targeted users access or utilization of your information and develop actions to reduce these barriers. The dissemination and implementation of the strategic plan is a great time to actualize organizational values and improve internal processes. Once a strategic plan is established, the organization must keep a close watch on its progress or the plan and the goals will collect dust. It is usually not enough to meet a few times a year unless there are very few goals or the goals are basically to maintain the status quo. In general, it is best that those responsible plan a regular meeting schedule in order to maintain momentum and discuss issues as they arise. The processes around monitoring the implementation of the plan, disseminating the plan, developing the Action Plan, and so forth should be designed with the organizations values as guiding principles. If possible, they should also incorporate solutions to any other organizational culture issues that were discussed during the strategic planning process. If solutions were not generated, the implementation processes should at least be designed with these issues in mind, with the intention of finding solutions at a point in the near future. A good strategic plan must involve an examination of your organizations values and internal process challenges (every organization has them). Often a strategic plan will expose problems that were hidden. This is a good thing. But only if you take control of them. The Action Plan must include steps to address mismatched organizational values and culture, starting with the implementation process. TASK 3.C: DESCRIBE THE IMPORTANCE OF MONITORING AND EVALUATION OF A NEW STRATEGY. OUTLINE HOW THIS MIGHT BE ACHIEVED Many strategic plans end up collecting dust on a shelf. Monitoring and evaluating the planning activities and status of implementation of the plan is for many organizations as important as identifying strategic issues and goals. One advantage of monitoring and evaluation is to ensure that the organization is following the direction established during strategic planning phase. Note that plans are guidelines. They arent rules. Its alright to deviate from a plan. But planners should be aware of the reason for the deviations and update the plan to reflect the new direction. Responsibilities for Monitoring and Evaluation The strategic plan document should specify who is responsible for the overall implementation of the plan, and also who is responsible for achieving each goal and objective. The document should also specify who is responsible to monitor the implementation of the plan and made decisions based on the results. For example, the board might expect the chief executive to regularly report to the full board about the status of implementation, including progress toward each of the overall strategic goals. In turn, the chief executive might expect regular status reports from middle managers regarding the status toward their achieving the goals and objectives assigned to them. Key Questions While Monitoring and Evaluating Status of Implementation of the Plan 1. Are goals and objectives being achieved or not? If they are, then acknowledge, reward and communicate the progress. If not, then consider the following questions. 2. Will the goals be achieved according to the timelines specified in the plan? If not, then why? 3. Should the deadlines for completion be changed (be careful about making these changes know why efforts are behind schedule before times are changed)? 4. Do personnel have adequate res