Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find”

They say that God’s way are inscrutable, and this saying characterizes the concept of Flannery O’Connor’s story A Good Man is Hard to Find . The theme of living an empty life and the possibility of revelation for everybody is the main idea of the author. Through telling a simple, sometimes even comical story about common people, their stereotypes and narrow-mindedness she discloses the lack of spirituality in human life. This makes up the theme, which the author intended to raise. Speaking about the setting, it is important to mention that it by genre it can be referred to the so-called road story, which presupposes travel from one place to another – on the special level. But there is always a hidden message behind, which constitutes the figurative level of the narration. We know perfectly that a road is a popular metaphor of life and naturally a person who is moving along this road undergoes a kind of mental and spiritual change. The same is true about Flannery O’Connor’s piece of writing. The journey is from Georgia to Florida with a background of beautiful scenery: â€Å"Stone Mountain; the blue granite that in some places came up to both sides of the highway; the brilliant red clay banks slightly streaked with purple; and the various crops that made rows of green lace-work on the ground. The trees were full of silver-white sunlight and the meanest of them sparkled†.   A family of the Grandmother, her son Bailey with his wife and children make a trip by car a picturesque nature, paying no attention at it at all. The only person who is interested is the elderly lady but for some specific reasons – nostalgia about â€Å"the things as they used to be† and because travel can be educational for kids. Is it the road to heaven or to hell? I will try to answer this question further on. The plot, which forms the external texture of the story seems to be a case of fatal misfortune. The family goes travelling, get into a road accident in a remote area and are caught by a band of serial killer the Misfit who kills the whole family. Therefore, the external movement is from life to death. Internally, however, the direction is the opposite one, from death to life. This implication is embodied first of all in the character of the Grandmother, who has no name in the story. This fact of namelessness proves her to be a typical product of the contemporary society, deprived of any significant individuality. She is selfish, manipulative and full of herself as we meet her first. She is devoted to the past believing that â€Å"People are certainly not nice like they used to be†, the phrase which is not only her life credo but also reflects her attitude to herself. She considers herself to be good and right and does not notice that her values are false. Meeting with the Misfit, feeling herself at the brink of death causes dramatic change within the old woman. There is an irony in the fat that revelation to her is brought in such an unconventional way – through a religious talk with serial killer. But at the same time this is done by the author deliberately to signify some higher wisdom. The Misfit is a peculiar character, his name symbolizing all people’s loneliness and loss and emptiness. They don’t belong to the world God created for them, they mis-fit. And the problem is not like the Grandmother considered that people are not as nice as they used to be. The world we live in is our own reflection. As a matter of fact, the killer and the decent elderly woman who dresses up neatly because she wants to look like a lady in case of being killed in an accident, are not so far away from each other as they might seem to be. They were both brought up in the atmosphere devoid of spirituality and both of them have no God in their soul. The difference is that the Misfit recognizes the fact but the Grandmother doesn’t. She hides herself behind the conventional stereotypes of religion, which lies in habitual going to the church, praying on a regular basis, stealing nothing from the respectable citizens and so on. In a tough situation she first tries to appeal to the religious feelings of the killer but she fails because she is herself being superficial in her faith. That’s why when she tries to pray to Jesus, asking for help, her words come out differently: â€Å"Finally she found herself saying, â€Å"Jesus. Jesus,† meaning, Jesus will help you, but the way she was saying it, it sounded as if she might be cursing†. At this point she realizes that her faith was fake and at this very moment a new opportunity is given to her. Surprisingly, it is the Misfit who opened her eyes and her soul. He himself recognizes he doesn’t believe in God, the only thing which is definite is death. That’s why he thinks that Jesus broke balance when he raised the death. There would have been nothing certain left in the world, even death, if it were true. The misfit expresses an idea, which is very important: without spirituality one might as well â€Å"enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can — by killing somebody or burning down his house or doing some other meanness to him.† He means that if you are not willing to accept God’s love, the sin remains the same whether you are doing it small crimes or in big ones. The lives of the Misfit and the Grandmother were equally empty because they rejected salvation, which is possible through love. These seconds are so vitally important and enlightening for the woman that her soul gets completely transformed. She is suddenly filled with that divine love. Looking at the criminal who has killed her family and is going to kill herself, she exclaims: â€Å"†Why, you're one of my babies!† She realizes that her son and her grandchildren are so empty because she didn’t give them the love she had to, that’s why she realizes that the Misfit is her child in this sense. At the end, when the Misfit kills the old lady, he makes an interesting conclusion, which reveals the idea of the whole story: â€Å"She would of been a good woman,† The Misfit said, â€Å"if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.† The sentence raises an important issue: is it necessary for a person to be on the brink of life and death to realize what was wrong in his or her life? Do the true values reveal themselves from delusions only when you are about to die? Aren’t we too much involved in day-by-day repetition of events to stop and see the truth? Probably we are just too afraid to be nobody, to feel the emptiness? These important questions arise after reading the story. So, is it the road to heaven or to hell? Who knows. Many people believe that a person who has no moral laws inside is free in what he does and feels no remorse about he deeds. At the example of the Misfit we see that the truth is more complex than that. Probably he doesn’t feel remorse, as he has no faith and no God to lean on but the problem is he feels nothing at all. His crimes were intended to be a kind of rebellion against God whom he never had in his life but it is a bitter rebellion. At the end of the story we find out that he feels no fun and no pride challenging God. â€Å"There is no real pleasure in life,† he says.

Leadership Imperatives in the Arab-American University Essay

Leadership in a school of higher and advanced learning such as the Arab-American University requires collaborative and confrontational challenges with a number of issues, typical but not limited to that of any educational institution. Such issues as cultural diversity, inclusivity, intellectual activities such as research and instruction, social involvements such as community extension services, students affairs, finance, marketing, strategic business models, organizational theories, profitability and shareholder value, political and social congruencies and differences, among others, often create deep chasms to and between the various school sectors that are ironically bound by a common purpose – quality education. This is made more demanding when Arab and American views are integrated in a single community. What unique leadership and management model therefore would apply under such a sensitive configuration? What risk management intervention would constantly prevail? What residual risks or synergy, if any, would be evident? Leadership and management in an educational institution are perhaps among the most formal, sensitive and confrontational roles a professional can assume. Business organizations established for profit are far easier managed and led as there is that environment and mandate of compliance required of every employee based on employment contracts and agreements. This compliance system gives the manager the elbow room to adopt an organizational approach under a theory x or y scenario. Admittedly, discipline under an entrepreneurial undertaking is demanded primarily to meet shareholder value targets and for survival secondarily. Universities are considered more complex than most organizational systems as they demand the most professional processes than any other institution. Schools are assumed to be the fount and cradle of learning, hence a strong exemplary modeling of instructors and administrators are always the subject of intensive scrutiny among other sectors. Would this university therefore require a business-like management style or an organization leadership mix that is as fluid as the socio-cultural and political dimensions? . In an age where socio-cultural and political diversities are characterized with the widest spectra and extremes, the establishment of an Arab-American intellectual Mecca can be expected to require the most intense professional and socio-cultural leadership anywhere. This study would be interested in identifying areas of collaboration while addressing confrontational issues and risks along the process. Similarly, the relevance of this study along multicultural settings in complex and diverse forms and in highly professional environment would transcend, even revolutionize all assumptions, hypothesis and even all forms of propositions about multicultural biases. Brief history of the Arab-American University The Arab-American University (AAU) was established in 1973 as non-sectarian, non-profit and non-government institution of higher learning. Its primary purpose is to address the educational needs of Arab-Americans starting from preschool to basic, secondary, higher education, to graduate and post-graduate levels. Among its goals and objectives include providing full scholarships to families of indigent but intellectually capable members of the Arab-American community in a specific area with a relatively high density of Arab-American families. While the university accepts Muslim students, it also caters to students from other religious and cultural denominations and groups.. The university is primarily a combination of a business college strongly oriented towards information technology and engineering courses, both technical and baccalaureate degrees. The university is composed of seven schools: the Schools of Business Management, Hospitality Management, Accountancy, Nursing and Midwifery, Medicine, Arts, Political and the Social Sciences, Polytechnic Institute composed of the Departments of Architecture, Computer Science, Electronic Communications Engineering, Civil and Mechanical Engineering and Fine Arts, its flagship programs includes Accountancy where it ranks among the top 50 business schools in the United States, Electronics Communications Engineering, Nursing, Hospitality Management and Mechanical Engineering. All seven schools are verticalized with their respective graduate schools. As of the year 2008, the university boasted a population of 30,000 highly selected students and scholars from 25 states and 15 countries mostly from the Middle East and Asian countries. Its student population increases by an average of 15 per cent and expected to hit 50,000 by 2012. Presently, it maintains two campuses – the Chicago and Urbana Campuses, each with its own charter and separate sets of faculty. All courses are offered in both campuses. For the last three years, AAU has garnered a number of academic awards, including twelve top researches awards in Accountancy, Computer Sciences, Nursing, Electronic Communications Engineering Awards. As of December 31, 2008, the school started to become consistent in its passing rate for the Accountancy, Nursing and Engineering courses all averaging about 80 per cent against the national norm of 40 per cent. For nursing, AAU has started to register a 100 per cent passing rate in the Nursing Board Examinations. All colleges and schools in the university are headed by a Dean of the College and are assisted by a Vice Dean with a pool of Academic Chairs for each of the courses or majors within the college. A Faculty secretary is the administrative officer of each college or school and must be a holder of a doctor’s degree in any of the courses in the college where he or she is assigned. The faculty secretary is the point person of every college but maintains a built-in six units of academic load in addition to his full-time administrative work. The university boasts of complete state of the art facilities for all of its laboratory classes including its basic education department. Its library is one of the most complete, up-to-date libraries in the world with the most comprehensive collection of traditional and electronic materials. During the last five years, the university has been the recipient of awards for excellence in community involvement and extension services. Its research center laboratory enjoys an endowment fund from where it trains and maintains its pool of researchers from the ranks of the faculty. Leadership Efficiency and Effectiveness and the primary key concepts adopted in the university Just like any school of advanced learning, the university is a complex organization that adheres to the mission, vision, goals and objectives it has demanded from itself and its academic and non-academic employees the highest standards of professionalism, responsiveness, community involvement, strong, visible and dynamic research-orientations and the disciplinary but compassionate relationship maintained with the students of all levels. To be effective and efficient, the university periodically asserted its need to formalize and communicate its strategic, tactical and operational plan in the same other successful organizations do. (Robbins, 2003). Looking ahead and beyond the current situations in the industry, (in this case the education sector) brings uncertainties and risks into the open and allows the organization a clear means of managing, confronting and even avoiding those uncertainties and risks. (Shaw,2003). The university makes sure that it conducts its strategic planning session annually before the onset of the succeeding year in time for translating the strategic level into the tactical component as well as operationalizing the tactical level. (Anthony & Govindarajan, 2001). Similarly, AAU never fails to conduct an evaluation and assessment of its preset plans as means of determining where it is and what constraining and enabling factors it is experiencing. (Atkinson et al, 2003). This evaluation additionally renders the university an effective means of addressing change (Koller as cited by Robbins, 2003). These planning and change management processes articulates AAUs assertion of leadership under inherent socio-cultural complexities through clear visioning and communication initiatives to all its stakeholders that for many years, have been encouraged to actively participate in the planning sessions. This has greatly contributed to the overwhelming atmosphere of professionalism in the university. The senior administrators of AAU may not have formal training on complexity management, but their organizational leadership styles enable the attainment of an enviable cohesiveness as a team with a common purpose of being; that of addressing ignorance and mediocrity where they are needed. AAU’s uniqueness stems from its capability to harness its management with the leadership character to instill regulatory and policy compliance without having to assert authority and power in between (House cited by Robbins, 2003). It is surprising that even under intense pressure to compete and manage the scarce resources provided endowment; the AAU is able to integrate the sensitive and complex balance scorecard approach in its strategic decision making. (Kaplan & Norton, 2004). The university attributes this success factor on its priority for choosing its leaders under the trait theory that focuses on the personal qualities along charisma, exemplary modeling, attitude, enthusiasm and even personal traits common to both cultures as courage and determination. (Robbins,2003). Despite rigorous studies on identifying leadership traits for its management, supervisory and staff positions, the university correlates traits such as drive and ambition, integrity which includes honesty and sincerity, competence along knowledge and skills and even sense of sacrifice. (Robbins,2003). The university however, continues to experience a dearth of this type of managers with the leadership dimension due to the expansion and establishment of similar institutions outside of the United States. Thus, aware of this constraint, AAU emphasizes its executive and management development training programs to prepare the transition of its key people towards the great demand for exemplary modeling (DelaTorre, 2006); that is, managers and leaders who took initiatives to address the personal needs of the employees as means of making them more productive in the process. (Robbins, 2003). The university seldom experiences the risks of the groupthink factor (Shafritz & Ott on Janis,1992) as it respects the need for all decision makers to be extremely knowledgeable and skilled in the decision making processes. Being a part of its strategic objectives, the annual development programs encourage AAU employees to be continuously motivated, through the behavioral theory approach, effectively deciding as a team in addressing organizational objectives. This motivational drive expands the employees horizons and capabilities towards job satisfaction and sustainable learning and growth of its human capital (Kaplan & Norton, 2003). As a result, AAU has achieved in just 25 years what other universities tried to accomplish in a century and under the most challenging multicultural scenarios. On one hand, the leadership and management mix being adopted in the university guarantees and assure empowerment of units and people towards autonomy and self-regulation. This is granted after intensive training on decision making and university processes that includes appreciation and utilization of marketing researches and theories in support of policy formulation and implementation. The immense authorities and power given especially to the respective heads of offices, primarily the Deans of Colleges and Schools, are always tempered with management control systems to guide all decisions towards achievement of goals every inch of the way. The resultant good governance, control and transparency outcomes of this empowerment initiatives unburdens the senior management with operational concerns, thus allowing this level a clear focus on the strategic direction of the university and strengthening its social and political influence through good governance and risk management processes (Shaw,2003) On the other hand, the administrative efficiency has been excellently adopted through specialization and responsibility accounting that enables units to address issues at every level strengthening the span of control while focusing tasks towards a specific class of clients, concerns and even the university campus designated purposely for the educational services. (Shafrits & Ott on Simon, 1992). The leadership styles and practices exercised by the AAU stakeholder group are creating new levels of efficiency and effectiveness in the hierarchy and creating precedents as well as new theories to emerge in the realm of university value-based (Koller, 1994) management and organizational leadership. These new learning and growth perspectives have revolutionized the balanced scorecard (Horngren et al, 2000) and stakeholder principles (DelaTorre, 2006) with an exemplary mix of leadership innovations. Despite the control risks that mix might be spawned by the staff turnovers experienced during the last few years, the university has maintained a loyalty index of more than ten years among its people. This is a sustainability plus factor in human resource management of the school. Other key principles and concepts adopted In the area of instruction, research and extension services for example, excellence in the classroom is primarily driven by a strongly motivated select members of the faculty pool whose training and development focus is based on aligning the needs of the teachers with the needs of the university. This congruency theory in objectives (DelaTorre, 2006) allows for mutual and beneficial relationship between faculty providers and students. The intervention theory (Shafrits & Ott on Argyris, 1992) in organizations demands a strong psychotherapy approach (Rogers & Roethlisberger, 2000) to communications. The theory presupposes the presence of a special relationship between people to enable openness and transparency among constituents. Teachers display this practice in terms of open and complementary student advising and counseling sessions not only as part of the intervention process but a critical part of the formation process in education. Students need and demand attention in the form of interventions especially in difficult and complex scenarios they find themselves in the process of earning a degree. Thus this psychotherapy theory helps in providing a strong motivational environment in the classroom opens avenues for students to be creative and enthusiastic about their career plans. Secondarily, this special attention given to student clientele becomes a strong promotional and marketing tool for the university in attracting students even from those school already established. The need for any intensive advertising and marketing efforts to project the identity of the schools are addressed by the students themselves who become informal marketing and testimonial proofs of quality education. This has expanded the market of the university even to those non-Arab-Americans who appreciate the philosophy that the school articulates and manifests through its graduates. Managing and leading a university in the current socio-economic environment becomes problematic even under the various principles of organization (Shafritz and Ott on Cohen and March, 1992). These anarchic ambiguities of purpose, power, experience and success can render even the most competent university president to fail in some circumstances in due time. Thus the management and organizational leadership mix is both critical and mandatory. This allows the president to grab the appropriate management and leadership tool at a given situation and scenario and exert and even allow certain precedent-setting decisions to effect changes with the least minimum resistance or optimum cooperation. Thus, inability along this line runs the risk of getting confused with his leadership character or manager authority or some hybrid in between. For AAU, the consultation process with the constituents and stakeholders becomes the medium by which decision critical to every office head’s functions are articulated. This explores the best idea possible while addressing and dissipating potential resistance to any innovations and measures not easily understood or appreciated.

Compare wong’s pragmatic classroom kagan kyle and scott win win discipline and morrish’s real discipline Essay

Clear guidelines on how to prepare are defined for each time of the day. Procedures are divided into periods to facilitate implementation in class. Teachers are also directed on preparation in the summer before classes start for the year. Procedures will stay the same this reduces behavior problems and keeps the focus on learning and educating. Teachers understand the boundaries of their control; the teacher can focus on being proactive to prevent problems rather than wasting time reacting to problems she could anticipate. Any teacher can implement the theory of the practical classroom without concern for over- or under-reaching with students. students’ accomplishments are pretentious by the procedures used. †¢ This philosophy has a solid positions that are shared with the students †¢ A Comparison of Discipline Models Wong’s Pragmatic Classroom Kagan, Kyle, and Scott’s win-win discipline Morrish’s Real Discipline Compare and Contrast †¢ Students are given the choose to what they feel is good for them to do. †¢ Students, teacher and parents are involved in the rule making. †¢ Help students understand each other’s responsibilities along with what the teacher’s responsibilities are. †¢ Discipline is something that the win-win problem does not do to students. †¢ Corrects the situation, which allows the students to come up better actions, which will result in acceptable behavior. †¢ According to Morrish’s real discipline children can only learn SELF DISCIPLINE through experience. †¢ Morrish further states that when children enter school they do not have the knowledge on behaving properly. †¢ With the Three theories they all have the similarity that the teachers and students are involved in the learning process of the required discipline. Strengths †¢ Students, Teachers and parents all work together to establish the rules to have a better school experience. †¢ Teachers help students behave which is acceptable behavior to their teacher. †¢ Win-win discipline is to help students develop log-term, self-managed responsibility. †¢ Morrish rewards occasionally the students for behaving correctly. †¢ Morrish gives students courage that they may not have when working through issues that are sensitive. †¢Weakness †¢ There is too much compromise between teacher and student when establishing the classroom rules. †¢ Teachers are too limited on what they can do to prevent disruptions. †¢ The program is most effective if it is implemented from the first day of school until the last day of school. †¢ Morrish overstates the role of the teacher. â€Å"The because I said so† response. †¢ Morrish believes that teachers who praise children to build up their self-esteem actually do more harm than good. †¢ Morris is against giving students the freedom to choose

Assignment Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 4

Assignment - Research Paper Example ish to preserve changes done to a FILE while Save as is a command used to preserve changes to a FILE and at the same time specify the location in the COMPUTER system where the FILE should be stored. e) Folder and FILE: a folder is a storage location given a specific name where FILEs can be stored while a FILE is an entity containing data and information of a specific program and is stored in a COMPUTER system. f) Windows XP and office XP: windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft windows to run on COMPUTERs while office XP is an application programs suite developed by Microsoft to run various common user applications such as word processing and presentations. g) BIOS boot and Soft boot: BIOS boot happens when the computer is started or restarted by pressing the restart/start button on the hardware while soft boot is initiated using computer software (operating system). i) DVI and HDMI:DVI can be used to connect a computer monitor to other graphical output devices. It only carries video/visual signals. HDMI can be used to carry both audio and video signals from a computer system to other output devices separate from the computer. 9. Main memory is that part of a computer where instructions and data of programs being executed are loaded. The computer’s CPU fetches instructions and data from this memory and loads them in its internal registers for execution to take place. Temporary data and output from the executing processes is also stored in this

Marketing Strategy Formulation Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Marketing Strategy Formulation Assignment - Essay Example It is intended to help the disable people to perform their daily activities, similar to any other normal person. These robotic legs have been invented in a manner that permits effective and comfortable bending and moving of limbs to desirable directions. Apparently, targeted to a noble cause, the degree of influence created by social responsibilities of Parker Hannifin increases substantially also affecting its marketing strategies to a certain extent (Tita, 2014). Correspondingly, this essay intends to assess the marketing strategies adopted by Parker Hannifin when launching its robotic legs, with due consideration to its basic price strategies and overall promotional strategies. Pricing strategies is the most crucial factor to boost sales volume of any marketable devices, which is no exclusion in the case of Parker Hannifin. In the words of the head of its Human Motion and Control Unit. Mr. Achilleas Dorotheou, â€Å"There’s a graveyard of great technologies out there. You need to prove to the payers in dollars and cents that the device saves MONEY†, which apparently signifies the importance of pricing strategies for the device. Accordingly, its pricing strategies have been based on the value of the product addressing the target customers’ basic needs. When introduced, Parker Hannifin’s Indego was marketed through the price skimming method, whereby the price of the device was fixed at between $69,000 to $100,000. Hence, the price of the product was fixed at a higher rate but along with insurance facilities to cover damages and other risks to be borne by its users. This further sufficed the conditions of cost plus pricing strategi es by the company (Kotler, 2002). Besides, the company also considered that offering different kinds of discounts and innovative schemes will help to attract a larger volume of consumer towards the product, further helping the company to penetrate its markets by lowering its prices in the near future to

End of Life Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

End of Life Paper - Essay Example (Morgan, 2009). The parents, siblings and the health care providers are only left to grieve the loss of such a young life. The primary philosophy behind palliative care is to assist the patients and their families in achieving the best quality of life and to die peacefully and comfortably with dignity. For children, it is the active total care of the child’s body, mind, and spirit, as well as a means of providing support to the family. Part one of this paper will address the kind of nursing care needed for children who are dying and things to be taken into consideration for dying children. There are common diagnoses that affect the length of life of children including prematurity, chromosomal defects, cancer, AIDS, congenital anomalies among others. However among the diseases considered to be life-limiting, the one ignored most and considered not to be palliative care is the wound care. Though contradictory, child patients nearing their death can benefit from the curative aspects of wound healing. A wound can have a devastating effect on the child patient’s quality of dying thus one kind of care that I would engage as a nurse. Dying is a natural part of life and is usually filled with mixed emotions and times of reflection for both the dying person and the caregiver. However when a child dies, it seems like a massive failure that such a young life had to be lost. Seated next to her bed, my niece could barely talk. It was difficult to accept the fate of our beloved child; letting go of the hopes for a long-term future with her. As a nurse and her caregiver, I had to accept what was happening including my role as a caregiver with new demands and duties; making her comfortable. It became obvious that taking care of a child or teenager with such a life-limiting condition is a daunting and challenging task emotionally and practically as it requires specific support and skills, unlike for an adult suffering from such conditions.

Communication observations from in class movie, THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE Assignment

Communication observations from in class movie, THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE (2009) - Assignment Example was like going to the same journey the actors went through where their sincere search to understand other people’s outlook in life brought them to their own realization. There was a somewhat strong connection between the audience and the actors portraying the role. However, this could be considered indirect communication since there was no personal interaction between the two elements. Second, it was the connection pattern between the two brothers to the people they met along their journey. It was true in its essence that a person should put himself to someone else’s shoe to truly understand the condition of others. What gave the main characters the most powerful realization they had at the end of the story was their personal â€Å"experience† living with the people who had less in terms of material possession yet abundant with reasons to be happy and grateful with life. This was more interpersonal in approach. Finally, it was the intrapersonal communication pattern. The most compelling message of the movie was the question the audience would end up asking themselves. Therefore, one could only find genuine happiness and satisfaction by searching within. What was good about the people others tend to see as less fortunate was that tend to be more grateful and they treasured the greatest blessing given to them despite material lack- ‘life†, itself. Inner joy and peace is that every individual could find within is also the greatest reason for anyone to have a deeper understanding and appreciation of life. It only needs to take a few minutes to ask ourselves and reflect on

Contemporary Employee Relations - Evaluate the recent Employment Essay

Contemporary Employee Relations - Evaluate the recent Employment Relations experiences within the teaching industry in the UK - Essay Example In other words, employee relation can be defined as the policies that are connected with the management and the guidelines of relationships prevailing within the organisations and the staffs either in groups or individual within the work place (University of Cape Town, 2013). The employee relationship concept within the teaching industry in the UK serves mainly on the basis of dedication and inspiration of all the staff members, safe working environment and effective instrument for communication and participation. In the United Kingdom, it has often been observed that almost all the teaching places have engaged a team or a group of staff who look after the issues relating to employee relationship. ... re required to understand various decisive aspects such as labour laws, knowledge associated with employment law and must possess certain qualities such as communication and arbitration skills among others (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2005). In this essay, the major focus would be evaluating the current status of employment relations related experiences within the teaching industry of the UK and suggesting certain suitable employment relations initiatives that would meet the concerns of both the employer and employee. An Evaluation of the Current Employee Relationship within Teaching Industry in the UK Up to the year 2010, the status of employment relations in the UK teaching industry was in a complete disaster form, even though the government had laid down various labour laws in the nation. Specially mentioning, the individuals who have been entitled with the rights of applying labour laws did very little to deal with the problems that faced by the employers al ong with the employees of the teaching industry in the UK. But after the year 2010, several measures have been taken by both the concerned and government authorities to develop the employee relationship within the teaching industry in the UK. It has been viewed that the school authorities are taking keen interest in the maintenance of proper employee relationship within the teaching industry. The decline of trade unions in the UK has provided employee relation of the teaching industry with lots of significances. The local state government of the UK has adopted an inductive approach, ensuring that the employee relation of the teaching industries of the nation is typically based on realistic assumptions. The major focus of employee relation within the UK teaching industry lies on direction of

Business Environment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Business Environment - Assignment Example In addition, the current economic, political, social and environmental factors significantly determine the organizational structure as well as financial performance of businesses. In order to address the needs of all the supply chain partners including the producers, manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, employees and customers among others, companies have embarked on creating an environment that enables the participation of all the stakeholders. This paper keenly analyzes how the current economic situations have shaped the operations of Coca-Cola and Body Shop Companies in the local and international markets. Coca-Cola Company Coca-Cola Company is an American based firm that is headquartered in Atlanta. Being the market leader in the soft drinks industry, Coca-Cola specializes in the production of wide range of non-alcoholic beverages. The company operates in more than 200 countries. In order to meet the demands of all its customers, Coca-Cola has wide range of products that include Coke, Nestea, Fanta, C2 Cola, Dasani water and Sprite among others. The purpose of Coca Cola is outlined in its mission that include creating customers value and making a difference, refreshing the world as well as generating moments of happiness and optimism in the contemporary world. In the same way, the company aims at involving its partners including the bottling companies in its global operations. Ownership of Coca-Cola Company Coca-Cola is a public limited company. This means that for an individual to own a share of the company he or she should buy the company’s stock. In its effort to strengthen its capital base, Coca-Cola shares are quoted in various stock exchanges that include New York Stock Exchange, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston as well as Pacific (George 9). Responsibilities The responsibility of Coca-Cola is to instigate healthy living among its consumers and members of the public in general. In order to achieve its objectives, the company has undertaken various corporate social responsibilities including sponsoring of Olympic Games in Canada and Vancouver among other places. In addition, the company is focused at improving the environment through adoption of various initiatives such as the use of recyclable bottles and reduction of footprints within its premises and surrounding environment. Organizational structure In order to effectively serve its large number of customers, Coca-Cola has established various market segments which include Latin America Group, Far East and Middle Groups, North America Groups, Europe Groups, Minute Maid Company and the African Group (Aaker 26). The well experienced human resources under the leadership of Muhtar Kent, the company CEO has led to high sales and increased profitability in the international market. The corporate human resource is responsible for designing of procedures and policies that are followed by the company. On the other hand, the duty of local human resources department is to implement the various human resources systems that are put in place by the company. Shareholders and Shareholders objectives Being a limited company, Coca-Cola does not restrict members of the public from being its shareholder. As mentioned earlier, the company stocks are sold in various exchange ma rkets thus allowing high number of investors to be part of the company ownership. The main objective of the Coca-Cola shareholders is to attain high returns on their investments. Similarly, the shareholders aim at increasing their quarterly dividend. In order to meet the objectives of the shareholders, Coca-Cola uses the services of

Chapter question Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Chapter question - Essay Example age, compatibility, complexibility, trialability, observability, impact on social relations, reversibility, communicability, time, risk and uncertainty, commitment and modifiability† (Edberg, p. 59). Relative advantage defines the measure of effectiveness and efficiency of a proposed innovation with respect to the old technology. A significant relative advantage will therefore motivate a faster adoption of the theory. Complexibility refers to the level of ease of applying a proposed technology. While a complex technology may delay implementation due to lack of implementation resources and determination of certainty over the technology, a less complex technology can be immediately implemented (Edberg, p. 59). Triability however defines the ability to test the technology, practically, before its adoption. Where such practical tests are possible, decision can be made on whether to adopt the technology or not. In cases where such tests are not possible, alternative approaches must be devised and this may delay adoption of the proposed technology. The impacts that the technology can have on the society are also important in determining how fast it can be implemented. This is because social responsibility measures must first be put in place before implementation of the technology. The other factors can also either speed up or delay implementation (Edberg, p.

Causes and Effects of the English Language Essay Example for Free

Causes and Effects of the English Language Essay In America, English is the national language. However, with many different cultures and ways of life, everyone doesn’t speak the same English. In the north, people tend to speak clearly and to some this is correct. In the south, people tend to tie their words together and to some this is incorrect. Ultimately, the question is, is what is good language what is bad and what causes the two. In Orewell’s piece, he criticizes the English language starting from the teachers who teach us on to the authors who entertain us. He emphasizes how bad language begins with those to people and their bad habits. He also stresses that if we â€Å"remain strong in this fight against bad English† then we will soon overcome the bad habits and whatnot. Orewell talks about dying metaphors and usage of words that aren’t in layman term. He suggests that when authors use common metaphors and uncommon scientific words, they are writing incorrectly. Consequently, readers and other writers are reading, writing, and learning incorrectly. In my opinion, Orewell’s essay was not efficient in any way. He was nothing short of a hypocrite doing what they do best. He speaks of creative writing and original methapors, but he uses neither. He speaks of using cumbersome words that nobody relates to, yet the majority of his essay was written as if he spoke old English. He doesn’t follow any of the rules that he strongly suggests will bring us out of this fight of bad English. He’s setting no example for the so-called unrightfully successful authors and novice writers. The English language has many different meanings, expressions, causes and effects. So many, that there can no be one specific person determining which are the most perfect. As stated before different regions of the U.S. determine how those people talk, so unconsciously people read and write the way they speak. Many authors use metaphors to allow the audience to better relate to the message their relaying. Many authors use scientific and uncommon words to help broaden their readers vocabulary and to expose them to more than they knew before reading their piece. These critical readers  pick up dictionaries and thesauruses and begin to further explore the language they’re so familiar with. Orewell is neither the most qualified nor perfect person to suggest how authors should write. After all, no on is criticizing his piece and how it negatively drew the audience in. If he is criticizing the way English is taught then he’s ultimately criticizing the way people interpret. Many people are doing just fine without Orewell’s negative views of the English language.

The Elements of Argument Essay Essay Example for Free

The Elements of Argument Essay Essay In an argument essay, a writer simply argues a point or shall we say defend a side to a controversial issue. He defends his points by stating evidences and with logical reasoning. Many essays are basically argument essays. Most of the time we write essays to give out our opinion on something so that we may also persuade other people to have the same opinions. There are two basic elements to an Argument: a thesis and statement of evidence. The thesis of an argument is what a writer defends. An example of a thesis may be: Smoking is very hazardous. The strength of your argument will depend greatly on the strength of your thesis statement. The next element of an argument would be evidence. No argument will be complete without evidence supporting it. Most of time, reasoning alone will not suffice to strengthen your argument because a counter argument may easily be made to invalidate your claim. This is why evidence is very crucial to your argument. There are quite a lot of sources to find evidence for your argument, to name a few, experiences, books, surveys, polls, published articles, etc. Without these two elements in your argument your work will not be very persuasive to other people and so your essay will be no good. So it is very essential to find a good thesis statement and gather enough evidence to back you up. Argument used in The Declaration of Independence It is clearly seen how Thomas Jefferson uses argument in The Declaration of Independence and that the elements of an argument essay can easily be found. In the second paragraph we can find the thesis of the argument which is that all men are created equal and are all with unalienable rights. The main argument is that the King of Britain is clearly using his power to deny people of their rights. On most parts of the declaration we can find the second element to argumentative essays, evidence. Thomas Jefferson states a number of cases where the King of Britain is in clear violation of human and civil rights. These undeniable facts are what makes this essay very strong. The thesis is very well supported. Here we can see how the elements of an argumentative essay effects how good the work will be. The better use of a thesis and evidence makes your point very clear thus making your work more persuasive which is the overall goal of an argument, persuading people to share your idea.

Special Needs Students: Learning Life Skills

Special Needs Students: Learning Life Skills All children must learn life skills at one time or another in their lives. Most average children will not only learn life skills at home but will also learn them at school. Special needs children may not have the ability to learn the normal life skills at school as they are generally segregated from the average students. What are life skills, you ask? According to Wikipedia, Life skills are a set of human skills acquired via teaching or direct experience that are used to handle problems and questions commonly encountered in daily human life. .(Wikipedia.org) Unicef states, Life Skills, this term refers to a large group of psycho-social and interpersonal skills which can help people make informed decisions, communicate effectively, and develop coping and self-management skills that may help them lead a healthy and productive life. Life skills may be directed toward personal actions and actions toward others, as well as actions to change the surrounding environment to make it conduciv e to health. (Unicef.org) Life skills are learned by watching others or being taught by another. Average children learn the life skills needed to become successful adults in society without any problems. Most do not even realize they are learning a life skill at the time. How are special needs children supposed to learn these life skills if they are continually segregated from general education students? Inclusion of special needs students into at least elective style classes to learn life skills is a very important step for education. Segregation of special needs students has always been an issue in the education world. One special educator stated, When I started teaching, it was expected that students with significant special needs would be placed in segregated special education classrooms. I noted at that time that these students didnt have access to the same opportunities as the students who participated in the regular education classrooms. Their curriculum was watered down and did not provide exposure to the real world. Their school environment was isolating, and they had only each other as role models and peers. (Lipsitt, A 1998) In following what she wrote, I see a strong problem with trying to teach a special needs student life skills when the ones they are modeling do not have life skills themselves. This is where inclusion helps to change that problem. Inclusion into elective classrooms is a great first step into getting your special needs students into the mainstream of your school. All students deserve the time to socialize with their peers and to learn how to become social accepted. Elective classrooms are a more relaxed and have a less regulated curriculum than core classes. Elective classes pose a more positive situation for the special needs student to feel more relaxed and not so pressured to fit in academically. It is not just a special needs students that need to learn how to fit in, average students also need to learn how to handle being around a special needs student. As an average student of the 80s I do not remember ever having a special needs student in any of my classes. I am not sure we even had that many special needs students at our school, those that were there, were never seen in the regular areas of the school. Today that is something that needs to be changed. It is time to make things equal for all. Everyone deserves to be treated the same regardless of their condition. A person with a disability is not a disabled person. (Lipsitt, A. 1998) This is so true when it comes to a special needs student. Some special needs students are students that just need a bit more help with comprehension, some are physically not able to get around, but are able to understand what is going on around them. Some special needs students are labeled non-communicative. That is wrong on so many levels. A student that does not communicate by normal means is labeled that way, yet they do communicate just not the way you or I would. Each has their own way of communicating what they need or want. Why should we segregate them because we cant understand what they are saying. Maybe we should be segregated for not understanding, and then maybe we would understand what they go through on a daily basis. Inclusion is such a wonderful solution to such a horrific problem of discrimination. One day I hope to see all students sharing all classrooms. Teachers being able to work together to teach all students, the life skills that are necessary to become very successful adults in society in each ones special way is the goal we are after. River Thames Flood Barrier | Review River Thames Flood Barrier | Review Thames Barrier Flood ABSTRACT This is a paper regarding the Thames Barrier. I am trying to present a report on Thames Barrier which is a kind of barrier on the River Thames for flood control. It was constructed between 1974 and 1984. As situated at Woolwich Reach, this barrier is considered to be a remarkable construction. After its construction it was first used defensively in 1983. After that there was no looking back. From 1983 onwards it has been used over 100 times defensively. Till March 19th, 2008 it has got no competitor in its way. Being the worlds second largest movable flood barrier the Thames Barrier stands with all pride and superiority. In this paper I am going to present some of the important things related to this great construction. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Thames Barrier located in the downstream of central London, United Kingdom. It is a magnificently well built mega-structure of the world. The purpose of this barrier is to prevent London being flooded. London in general faces seasonal high tide moving up from the sea all these exceptionally high tides are exacerbated by a storm surge. The Thames Barrier is raised for the duration of the high tide in order to prevent it from getting inside the city. As for the dealings with the low tide the Thames Barrier can be opened and as such it release water flowing down the Thames and in general circumstances backs up behind it. The functionality of this Thames Barrier is very unique and is of great use to the people of London. It has been built across a 523 metre wide over the stretched width of the river, this barrier divides the river into four 61m and two 31m navigable spans. Along with these it also divided it into 4 smaller non-navigable channels between nine concrete piers and two abutments. Huge in structure and worth in construction, this is an amazing barrier ranking itself in the second position. THE REPORT The Thames Barrier is for me a remarkable construction and with its gigantic structure it has saved London for 100 times. In this paper I am going to explore all those aspects of this barrier that has made it world’s second largest barrier. I am also trying to find out how appropriately it has been built and how worth is its construction. The roles played by the government and the engineers and the contractors are also my concern. As the paper proceeds I discover certain things that need some kind of discussion and thus the target of my paper. The Thames Barrier took a span of ten years to get constructed. It was started in 1974 and was finished in the year 1984. Its target was to control and to limit the damages that cause by the seasonal flood of London. It is at the Woolwich Reach and from the day of its launch it has protected London from 1oos of disasters. There are of course some amounts of variations too and that is what the main objective of this paper is. The construction is not only unique but is very innovative among its contemporaries. It is the kind of flood gates that gets across the openings in very stylish circular segments in cross section. The engineering of it is also very remarkable and the operation thus has been constructed in a very circular and rotating manner. The water gets raised by hydraulics. The raising of water causes from the horizontal sill on the riverbed and as such there is the appearance of a steel and concrete barrier to check the tidal water. This act of rising gets elongated further and the ration continues allowing underspill operations to control the upstream levels and a complete 180 degree rotation for maintenance of the water levels. The barrier makes a shield of 40mm thickness and the gates fill with water when submerged. It then let it go empty as the water emerges from the river in a huge tidal form. The construction id full proof as there are additional four central gated of 61 mtrs long and 10. 5 mtrs high; along with two outer gates that are of 31.5mtrs. There are four radial gates of 31,5mtrs long by the riverbanks and are flexible enough to be lowered down. These gates are left opening for the ships and at the same time can be rotated and closed to stop water travelling towards London. There is no doubt to the fact that this barrier is a very strong step towards the protection of the city from flood. TECHNICAL UNCERTAINITIES AND INNOVATION It was Charles Draper who came up with the idea of rotating gates and that is the factor that differentiated Thames Barrier from other contemporary constructions. The trio of Rendel, Palmer and Tritton were the actual engineers behind the construction of this particular unique barrier. The selection of the site was also very important and as such it was decided that Woolwich will be the most suitable site as it is the relative straightness of the banks. It was also discovered that in this site the underlying river chalk will act as a strong support the barrier. The construction was initiated by Costain/Hollandsche Beton Maatschappij/Tarmac Construction consortium. The strategically structured things related to the flood defences were made for 11 miles down river and all these equipments were properly raised and strengthened. The amount that was invested in this whole construction was around  £534 million (at 2001 prices). Added to this budget was the additional  £100 million investment was done specifically for the purpose of river defences. The target was for a span of 1000 years. This was undoubtedly a long term thought and investment. There was a clear understanding of land and water before these declarations are made. All these assessments now seem very irrelevant as the estimations are failing as per the predictions. The main reasons behind these diversifications are the increasing factors of global warming and the simultaneous rise of the sea level. The barrier was made in order to cope with the projected sea level that will continuously keep on rising till 2030–2050. Not only these are the possibilities, but there are the suspicions that whether the barrier will be able to complete its promised term. The technical aspects came into being when there was a high tides forecast in the North Sea. The threat was developed more with the declaration that the high river flows at the tidal limit at Teddington weir is the scientifically proven indicator for the measurement of the water levels that was supposed to exceed 4.87 m in central London. The re was the creation and opening of this estuary from the Teddington. At low tide it is a successful effort that can make greater flow rates. With this increase in the rate of flow the further one goes downstream. In the time of upstream flows there gets the act of creating great reservoirs protecting the flood water from rolling down to the city. POLITICS The political roles as has been played are very dramatic and worth all discussion. It was in 2005, that there came up a very interesting suggestion that to supersede the Thames Barrier. The target was huge and there was the application for a 16 km (10 mi) long barrier across the Thames Estuary. It was a very long extension from Sheerness in Kent to Southend in Essex was. After the completion of this the whole got exposed to the public for wider speculations and popularity. The political agreements came into being after the disastrous flood of February 1953, when the sea level was raised by 2 metres at Southend. The disastrous flood covered an area of 64,750 hectares 24,000 houses, and a major set back came into being with 200 major industrial premises, along with a number of 320 kilo-metres of railway. The affects were tremendous over twelve gasworks and two electric power stations that resulted in a heavy loss to the state as a whole. Depressingly enough there were almost 300 people drowned as well as much livestock. The estimations were done about the higher water levels that were supposed to reach 1 in 50 in a year. All these disastrous aspects and the upcoming threats made the governor get more concerned about the consequences. There came up a much stronger political pressure over the government. As such it appointed a departmental committee, the Waverley Committee, to examine the upcoming threats and the relevant solutions to them. As per the report submitted by the committee in 1954, the implementation of a barrier needs to be examined and has to be applied. Initially various sites we re suggested, but finally it was Woolwich Reach. As the construction proceeded there came up a serious concern from the Port of London Authority. According to this concern there will be a single unobstructed opening of not less than 1,400 feet in the barrier that was supposed to be constructed. This was a very turning point towards the added complications of the designing strategies. However in 1965, there came up another high surge tide and this time the Waverley Committee recommendation had got nowhere and the whole importance lied on the construction of the barrier as soon as possible. COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT There were heavy sufferances towards the outbreak of these seasonal floods. The more precautions are taken, the quicker the water runs into the sewers and then the rivers, and the faster they rise. The area most affected last summer was Severn Trent. It has been estimated that up to ‘4% of the land in its region is converted to hard surfaces each year’. The floodwater runs off land faster than ever with fewer places to go. There are these assessments made about the queries that whether this critical infrastructure sites have adequate defences. There are many questions coming up towards the success of this particular Thames Barrier. The floods in England are devastating and how far is it possible to make the Thames Barrier secured for the purpose is still a question. According to the inspections made by the BBC, the flood alerts as has been applied in England and Netherlands are not much effective and fears of storm-driven tidal surges have not materialised. According t the latest assessments and findings these alerts however are saving much life than 1953. It was in that year about 2,000 people in the two countries faced the devastating affects of the flood. In 1953, in a span of a night thousands of people were evacuated in England and surge barriers closed at the Dutch port of Rotterdam. The rush was heavy and the losses were severe. There were great losses faced by England. In Germany and Denmark, several oil platforms were closed off the Norwegian coast and gales are forecast. These types of scenarios were like lifelong threats to the people of Britain. As a solution to this there was no other option than the application and dependence over the Thames Barrier. The role as has been played by the government way very vital. The only solution that the government could initiate with is the barrier. It was regarded as the modern solution. It was a joint assessment as has been made by the government and the Greater London Council. A barrier was closed without any possibility of failure which was again much supported by public in general. However the acceptability was not granted by the Hydraulic Research Station assessment. As for them it is very complicate business and will not succeed. Against all the opposition the Thames Barrier still stands very firm and is protecting London with all its efforts. There came up this Barrier Act that holds the responsibility for the barrier within the government. It was thus was readily accepted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF). As it was more concerned about the flooding upon the farming section the approval was due. As consequence to this there was a government grant of 75 per cent that was obtained under MAFF. Added to this was the contribution made by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, the alternative possibility, would have had difficulty in allocating a grant for anything over 40 per cent of the project budget. If the flood in London gets neglected than there are the possibility of thousands of homes, shops, factories, businesses and buildings would be affected. The monetary and financial set backs are sure to happen. If all these get activated than there could be such instances that will make London take moths in functioning again. The financial cost of a major flood could be enormous, possibly topping  £30,000m without counting the cost in human suffering and potential loss of life. SCHEDULE DURATION AND URGENCY After 1953, there were regular assessment being made in order to check the timing and the particular season for the tidal affects. In accordance to the declarations made there were proper evacuations and proper resettlements of the community. The role as played by Thames Barrier here is that it is the protecting shield for the same and there is no such way to make London safer. This barrier needs regular maintenance and that has been well bestowed. Global warming is the main cause behind all these disasters. Even the Thames Barrier which was supposed to stand or 1000 years is hardly going to meet the deadline. The drastic change in the climate has made things tougher. People are more concerned about the threats and their property than anything else. These are many agencies and corporations who are working for the same. According to the assessment as forwarded by the UK Environment Agency; there supposed to have extreme danger to life and property if the Thames Barrier is not maintained well enough. FINANCIAL, LEGAL AND CONTRACTUAL MATTERS The financial cost of a major flood has got the topping of an estimated amount of £30,000m without counting the cost in human suffering. This also excludes the potential losses that had happened. The solution was towards the construction of the Thames Barrier. It was a huge construction and as such was very keenly associated with the works of highly sophisticated engineering. As per the estimations the final cost of the flood defences within the Environment Agencys Thames Region was approximately  £535 million. From the contributions of the taxpayers the expenditure was met by 75% of the approved costs and ratepayers were responsible for the remainder. As undertaken by GLC Department of Public Health Engineering the programme got multifaceted exposure and support from all squares of the population. There were these trio of consultant engineers Rendel,Palmer and Tritton who were in charge of the whole responsibility. All expenditure on which grant aid was claimed was subject to a further detailed check by the engineers and accountants of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. As a condition of grant aid, all variations over  £50,000 had to have prior approval by the ministry. There was an estimation that states that over 80 staff operate and maintain the Barrier and the associated flood defences. The declarations for any threat could be made before 36 hours in advance and as such the evacuation can happen. However the risks are less due to the Thames Barrier and as such there was hardly any matter to get the threat. The tidal flood risk to London must be seen in the context of the whole estuary or else the Thames Barrier will be a result of heavier investment losses. The tidal Thames seems to be higher than the Thames Barrier and as such the re needs to be some assumptions made over the sustainability of the Barrier. As when it comes to the planning for the future there comes up the negotiation between the Environment Agency, government, local authorities, environmental organisations and others. The objective that all these organisational units hold is to provide long term-answers on flood risk management in the greater Thames Estuary. A severe flood in London most of the time affects the central part of the London. The causes are devastating and the damages were made by the river. The attention should also be given to the fresh water and sewer systems and needs to mend them for the disrupt power, gas, telephone and vital data services. This results n heavy financial losses and as such there are many things that needs to be given extra attentions. CONCLUSION Sir Hermann Bondi, an eminent mathematician, astronomer and government scientist made a revision over the flood threat in 1966. According to the assessment as forwarded by Professor Bondi, there will be a serious flood in London. He further added that this flood would be A disaster of [a] singular and immense kind and that it must not be allowed, particularly since the ability to prevent it existed’. His idea was for the application of a containerisation that was supposed to be reduced the traffic to the Port of London dramatically. This idea was however not accepted and there came up this mega-structure for the proper and specific measures for the protection of flood. The political awareness led the UK Environment Agency to make the futuristic assessments towards the upcoming threats of the flood in London. According to their assessments, there is sure to be an encounter with an extreme danger to life and property. The areas that it specifies are the parts of Norfolk, Suffolk, Kent and Essex. Not only that the UK Environment Agency had issued eight severe flood alerts for the precautionary measures to happen. Added to these alerts there were the declarations made by the Met Office. It announced there is this tremendous gust of up to 145km/h (90mph) that covered the areas of Orkney and Shetland Islands in Scotland. As a result there was a sufferance of around 500 people. All these people were compelled to spend the night at refuge centres set up at local schools and on the upper floors of their houses. The government was having great concern towards it and the sufferance had no other solution than the Thames Barrier. REFERENCES Environment Agency, n.d., http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/regions/thames/323150/335688/341764/341785/?version=1lang=_e [retrieved on 17.06.08] Reliability of the Thames Barrier, n.d., http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=0AU5Ics8LL8Cpg=PA208dq=bondi+h+1967+thames+barrierei=sfs4SLGGIpyUywTI_5XqDwsig=2eF6CA7we7I5swksvsQVWuPxJUU#PPA199,M1 [retrieved on 17.06.08] Thames Barrier, n.d., http://www.jasa.net.au/london/thames.htm [retrieved on 17.06.08] The penalties of ignoring the risks, n.d., http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/regions/thames/323150/335688/341764/341770/?lang=_e[retrieved on 17.06.08] RECOMMENDATIONS London By Sarah Johnstone, Tom Masters, Published 2006, Lonely Planet,London (England),ISBN:1740598318

The Ebola Virus :: Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever (Ebola HF)

The Ebola Virus 10 out of 10 people infected with it will die with die with it. It is airborne. It is 100 times more contagious than AIDS. It has no known origin, vaccination or cure. It kills you in such a way that even highly trained professionals get sick from just hearing about the effects. It is real and it has started its attack on the human race. Mrs. Landau and fellow classmates. The symptoms I have just described to you are real. These are symptoms to a real and fatal virus. The virus's name is Ebola and it has started its burn into our society. Like the AIDS virus, nothing really is known about it except its effect on people. Like the AIDS virus, there is no cure, treatment or vaccination. Unlike the AIDS virus which can take up to 8 to 10 years to kill you, this virus can take as little as to 8 to 10 hours to result fatally. It starts off with a fever and symptoms of the flu. Then the muscles in your face stop moving freezing your face into a mask. Just before death, you start to bleed from every opening in your body starting from your nose and mouth to your gums. Your internal organs liquefy and you vomit them up. In reality, the virus has attempted to turn its host into a virus. You are dead before you have even started to show signs of this virus. It is believed that it is some sort of mutated form of AIDS because it started in the original spot as AIDS did, Kinshasa and moved along the highway ripping its way through Northern Africa. As of now there are an estimated 150 000 people who have died from this virus. This figure is in Africa alone. In October 1989, monkeys were dying by the hundreds in a building 2 miles away from the White House. They were diagnosed as dying from Ebola. Except that this strain of Ebola was not harmful to humans. It only killed monkeys. If a virus can change its metabolism into a virus which only kills monkeys, it could change its metabolism into a virus which only kills people.

Economies of Scale Essay -- Economics Economy Essays

Economies of Scale Economics Test 1. Define and explain all Internal Economies of Scale:  · Internal Economies of Scale:Are reductions in long-run average cost as the size and output of a firm increases. In other words, they are advantages that large firms have because they are large. As they grow larger in the long-run they manage to raise their output faster than the rise in their total costs. The result is lower long-run average cost. - Marketing economies- Both in buying materials and selling its finished goods a large firm is n a better position than a smaller one. In buying the products it needs, the large firm often pays less for raw materials, machinery and so on because suppliers are sure they are going to get large orders and do not want to lose a big customer. E.g. A producer of shoelaces will sell its products for à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¤1 per packet to Nike because it has an order of 1000 packets per week. But for Adidas it will sell them à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¤2 because it has only an order of 100 packets per week. So Nike has a lower cost per packet compare to Adidas. In selling its products, Nike can afford to pay for expensive and professionally made advertisements or employ specialist salesmen much easier than Adidas. The large total cost of advertising can be spread over a large output that is sold. Therefore, the average cost of advertising will be low. - Financial economies- If Nike is going to borrow money because it is a well known firm, it is considered more reliable, and less risky is easier to borrow than Adidas. So Nike can borrow a large amount of money with a lower interest rate compared to Adidas. E.g. If Nike borrows à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¤1, 000000 it will pay an 8% interest rate while if Adidas borrows à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¤1,000 it wil... ...At OQ the firm is enjoying Internal Economies of Scale and its average cost falls. Beyond this point, further growth would make the firm less efficient. Instead of producing with a low average cost, extra production would cause the average cost of each unit of output to rise. 8. Why do small firms still exist? - New firms - Firms do not start large. In other words. Many firms are small because they are new. Those that will be successful are expected to become large over the years. - Desire to remain in control- Sometimes owners of small firms may not want the firm to grow too large in case they lose personal control. - Lack of Finance- Small firms find it difficult to expand because they cannot raise finance. Large companies have huge retained profits and also can sell shares to the general public. Small firms can neither of these.

The Dani 1962 :: essays research papers

Balien Valley, New Guinea   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Dani tribe lives in the Balien Valley of New Guinea. The Valley is very green and full of tropical life. The tribe is spread among a network of small villages. Each village consists of ten to thirty individuals of the same or closely related family. Villagers live in huts made of local grasses and sticks. The women farm while the men the weave and protect the tribe from enemy raids.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Dani are in constant warfare with a neighboring tribe. They believe that if someone dies from enemy hands then they have to be avenged. Wars are mostly fought to avenge deaths, to settle quarrels between the tribes, and just because some enjoyed fighting. Wars are fought with bow and arrows and spears with barbs, the barbs attach themselves in the enemy’s flesh, making it very painful to remove. Warfare is very structured and full of rules to which both sides comply. Battles do not begin until both sides have all their men present. No wars or raids take place at night.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ghosts control the people by fear. The ghosts come from discontent or neglected spirits of the dead. Ghosts dominate the night. They strike fear into all. During the night they hide along the paths and wait to eat whoever passes. The ghosts also eat the people’s food, the bananas in the forest and the crops in the gardens. Since the ghosts are so feared the people take preventative steps to make sure that their tribe’s spirits are always content. When a tribe member is killed, the tribe must avenge that death or they go through spiritual decline. The dead are bathed with pig fat or else their spirit would feel neglected. A Wyantonafe, Pig Treasure Ceremony, renews their spiritual self and strengthens the community’s spirits.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the mourning the men go to their towers to watch for enemy advancements, during this time the men also weave. Women do not weave, most of the older women wouldn’t be able to because fingers are cut off after a death of a close family member. If the men see no sign of the enemy they set a fire telling the women that it’s safe to go to their farms. The men only do the farms hardest work. The women do work around the huts and in the farm.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The children learn the their roles in the tribe by imitating those older than them.

Decision Making Stages Essay

Decision making (decision from Latin decidere â€Å"to decide, determine,† literally â€Å"to cut off,† from de- â€Å"off† and caedere â€Å"to cut†) can be regarded as the mental processes (cognitive process) resulting in the selection of a course of action among several alternative scenarios. Every decision making process produces a final choice.[1] The output can be an action or an opinion of choice. * | Decision making stages Developed by B. Aubrey Fisher, there are four stages that should be involved in all group decision making. These stages, or sometimes called phases, are important for the decision making process to begin Orientation stage – This phase is where members meet for the first time and start to get to know each other. Conflict stage – Once group members become familiar with each other, disputes, little fights and arguments occur. Group members eventually work it out. Emergence stage – The group begins to clear up vague opinions by talking about them. Reinforcement stage – Members finally make a decision, while justifying themselves that it was the right decision. It is said that critical norms in a group improves the quality of decisions, while the majority of opinions (called consensus norms) do not. This is due to collaboration between one another, and when group members get used to, and familiar with, each other, they will tend to argue and create more of a di spute to agree upon one decision. This does not mean that all group members fully agree — they may not want argue further just to be liked by other group members or to â€Å"fit in†.[12] Q2 A management information system (MIS) is a system that provides information needed to manage organizations effectively. Management information systems are regarded to be a subset of the overall internal controls procedures in a business, which cover the application of people, documents, technologies, and procedures used by management accountants to solve business problems such as costing a product, service or a business-wide strategy. Applications of MIS ———With computers being as ubiquitous as they are today, there’s hardly any large business that does not rely extensively on their IT systems. However, there are several specific fields in which MIS has become invaluable. Strategy Support While computers cannot create business strategies by themselves they can assist management in understanding the effects of their strategies, and help enable effective decision-making. ï  ¶ MIS systems can be used to transform data into information useful for decision ma king. Computers can provide financial statements and performance reports to assist in the planning, monitoring and implementation of strategy. MIS systems provide a valuable function in that they can collate into coherent reports unmanageable volumes of data that would otherwise be broadly useless to decision makers. By studying these reports decision-makers can identify patterns and trends that would have remained unseen if the raw data were consulted manually. ï  ¶ MIS systems can also use these raw data to run simulations – hypothetical scenarios that answer a range of ‘what if’ questions regarding alterations in strategy. For instance, MIS systems can provide predictions about the effect on sales that an alteration in price would have on a product. These Decision Support Systems (DSS) enable more informed decision making within an enterprise than would be possible without MIS systems. Q3 Information Resources Management (IRM) is an emerging discipline that helps managers assess and exploit their information assets for business development. It draws on the techniques of information science (libraries) and information systems (IT related). It an important foundation for knowledge management, in that deals systematically with explicit knowledge. Knowledge centres often play an important part in introducing IRM into an organization. Identification:- * Identifies gaps and duplication of information * Clarifies roles and responsibilities of owners and users of information * Provide costs saving in the procurement and handling of information * Identifies cost/benefits of different information resources * Actively supports management decision processes with quality information Development :- 1. Understand the role of Information. Information can add value to your products and services. Improved information flows can improve the quality of decision making and internal operations. Yet many managers do not fully understand the real impact of information – the cost of a lost opportunity, of a poor product, of a strategic mistake – all risks that can be reduced by using the appropriate information. 2. Assign Responsibility for Leading your IRM Initiative. Developing value from information resources is often a responsibility that falls between the cracks of several departments – the user departments in different business units, and corporate planning, MIS units or librarians.. 3. Develop Clear Policies on Information Resources Policies for ascertaining information needs, acquiring and managing information throughout its life cycle. Pay particular attention to ownership, information integrity and sharing. Make the policies consistent with your organisational culture. 4. Conduct an Information Audit (Knowledge Inventory). Identify current knowledge and information resources (or entities), their users, usage and importance. Identify sources, cost and value. Classify information and knowledge by its key attributes. Develop knowledge maps. As knowledge management gains prominence, this is sometimes called a knowledge inventory â€Å"knowing what you know†. 5. Link to Management Processes. Make sure that key decision and business process are supported with high leverage information. Assess each process for its information needs. 6. Systematic scanning. Systematically scan your business environment. This includes the wider environment – legal and regulatory, political, social, economic and technological – as well as the inner environment of your industry, markets, customers and competitors. Provide selective and tailored dissemination of vital signs to key executives. This goes beyond the daily abstracting service provided by many suppliers. 7. Mix hard/soft, internal/external. True patterns and insights emerge when internal and external data is juxtaposed, when hard data is evaluated against qualitative analysis. Tweak your MkIS system to do these comparisons. 7. Optimize your information purchases. You don’t have to control purchasing, but most organisations do not know how much they are really spending on external information. By treating consultancy, market research, library expenses, report and databases as separate categories, many organisations are confusing media with content. 8. Introduce mining and refining processes. Good information management involves ‘data mining’, ‘information refining’ and ‘knowledge editing’. You can use technology such as intelligent agents, to help, but ultimately subject matter experts are needed to repackage relevant material in a user friendly format. One useful technique is content analysis, whose methods have been developed by Trend Monitor International in their Information Refinery, and are used in our analysis services. The classifying, synthesising and refining of information combines the crafts of the information scientist, librarian, business analyst and market researcher/analyst. Yet many organisations do not integrate these disciplines. 9. Develop Appropriate Technological Systems Continual advances in technology increase the opportunities available for competitive advantage through effective information management. In particular, intranets, groupware and other collaborative technologies make it possible for more widespread sharing and collaborative use of information. Advances in text retrieval, document management and a host of other trends in knowledge management technologies have all created new opportunities for providers and users alike. 10. Exploit technology convergence. Telecommunications, office systems, publishing, documentation are converging. Exploit this convergence through open networking, using facilities such as the World Wide Web, not just for external information dissemination but for sharing information internally. 11. Encourage a Sharing Culture Information acquires value when turned into intelligence. Market Intelligence Systems (MkIS) are human expert-centred. Raw information needs interpretation, discussing and analysing teams of experts, offering different perspectives. This know-how sharing is a hall-mark of successful organisations. Q4 Mis use in financial management: Management Information Systems (MIS) in Finance have been widely adopted both by corporations as well as governments. They are information systems with capacity to maintain large data bases enabling organizations to store, organize and access financial information easily. 1. General Ledger * The main use of a management information System (MIS) in finance is that it automatically updates all the transactions in the General Ledger. The General Ledger is the core component of all financial information systems. Financial transactions are simultaneously posted on the various accounts that comprise the organization’s â€Å"Chart of Accounts†. Simultaneous updating of accounts such as sales, inventory and accounts receivable, reduces errors. It also provides an accurate and permanent record of all historical transactions. Cash Management * Cash flow management is an important use of MIS in Finance. Cash Management refers to the control, monitoring and forecasting of cash for financing needs. Use of MIS in Finance helps companies track the flow of cash through accounts receivable and accounts payable accurately. Accurate records also help in monitoring cost of goods sold. This can help pin point areas that eat up cash flow such as inventory costs, high raw material costs or unreliable sales. * Sponsored Links * CFP Certification course ICICIdirect experts help you become a Certified Financial Planner.Apply www.icicidirect.com/CFP Budget Planning * Financial budget planning uses proforma or projected financial statements that serve as as formal documents of management’s expectations regarding sales, expenses and other financial transactions. Thus financial budgets are tools used both for planning as well as control. MIS in finance helps organizations evaluate â€Å"what if† scenarios. By modifying the financial ratios, management can foresee the effects of various scenarios on the financial statements. MIS thus serves as a decision making tool, helping in choosing appropriate financial goals. Financial Reporting * The use of MIS systems in Finance enables companies to generate multiple financial reports accurately and consistently. Generation of financial statements both for internal reports as well as for shareholder information takes less effort because of the automatic updating of the General Ledger. Compliance with Government regulations as well as auditing requirements is also easier because the records are accurate and provide a permanent historical map of transactions that can be verified. Financial Modeling * A financial model is a system that incorporates mathematics, logic and data in the form of a large database. The model is used to manipulate the financial variables that affect earnings thus enabling planners to view the implications of their planning decisions. MIS in Finance enables organizations to store a large amount of data. This helps managers develop accurate models of the external environment and thus incorporate realistic â€Å"what if† scenarios into their long-range planning goal. PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT: Production means transformation of Raw materials into finished products for sale. According to E. L. Brech, â€Å" Production Management is the process of effective planning and regulating the operations of that section of an enterprise which is responsible for the actual transformation of materials into finished products†. 1.Statergic planning 2 tactical planning 3 operational procedure. Q5 computer programs that are derived from a branch of computer science research called Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI’s scientific goal is to understand intelligence by building computer programs that exhibit intelligent behavior. It is concerned with the concepts and methods of symbolic inference, or reasoning, by a computer, and how the knowledge used to make those inferences will be represented inside the machine. Of course, the term intelligence covers many cognitive skills, including the ability to solve problems, learn, and understand language; AI addresses all of those. The Building Blocks of Expert Systems Every expert system consists of two principal parts: the knowledge base; and the reasoning, or inference, engine. The knowledge base of expert systems contains both factual and heuristic knowledge. Factual knowledge is that knowledge of the task domain that is widely shared, typically found in textbooks or journals, and commonly agreed upon by those knowledgeable in the particular field. Heuristic knowledge is the less rigorous, more experiential, more judgmental knowledge of performance. In contrast to factual knowledge, heuristic knowledge is rarely discussed, and is largely individualistic. It is the knowledge of good practice, good judgment, and plausible reasoning in the field. It is the knowledge that underlies the â€Å"art of good guessing.† Knowledge representation formalizes and organizes the knowledge. One widely used representation is the production rule, or simply rule. A rule consists of an IF part and a THEN part (also called a condition and an action). Example: Robotics Use of robots: for example, in industry, health, warfare, airlines, space, underwater exploration Q6 An integral part of any eBusiness system is its database. However, an advanced study of implementing databases is beyond the scope of this course. Here, for now, we are concerned with understanding the role that a database plays in an ebusiness system and in gaining an appreciation for the relational approach to managing data. A relational database turns raw data into persistent structured collections of information. In addition to managing information a database defines the relationships within an ebusiness system. The MIS is supported by database in its endeavor to support the management in decision making. The database models be it the NDBM, the HDBM or the RDBM, play the same role in the MIS. With the latest computer hardware and software capabilities the RDBMS have become popular. The concept of the end user computing can be implemented easily with the database approach to the information system. With the database approach, considerable data processing efforts, which were spent in the approach of the conventional system, are saved. The data is made independent of its application. The MIS designs have become more dependable due to the database and the SQL. The rigidity of the design is replaced by the flexibility of the design. It is now possible to review the applications more frequently from the point of view of utility and have them modified, if necessary. The database has strengthened the foundations of the MIS due to the following: * The database can be evolved to the new needs of the MIS. * The multiple needs can be met with easily. * The data design and the output design is flexible * Open system design of the MIS is possible. * The query handling becomes easier due to the Standard SQL. * User-friendly end user computing is possible. * The data is freed from its ownership and its use has become universal. * The Information Technology provides tools to handle distributed multiple databases making the MIS richer.

Health Society Essay

1. What would be an argument in support of sin taxes on fast-food meals?Considering that fast-food meals are usually less expensive than healthier options and provide food quickly for underpaid and overworked Americans, how might sin taxes unintentionally reproduce class difference? A good argument on the issue of taxing fast food is that it could help the health of our society. Most people tend to buy fast food because of time or just not wanting to cook and because most of the healthier food is more difficult to gain financially. Taxing this type of food may help in some way in reducing the high percentage of people who prefer junk food over healthier, however, not only people who do not have the ability financially to buy food buy food healthier fast, most people are poor or rich, at least once in their life bought fast food. So I think that on one hand the rise of fast food taxes may help, but may also have little effect. So, I think there is no argument that safe enough for this problem. besides, I think if implemented taxes on fast food are placed I think not much difference between social classes because most people can buy fast food without being too rich, I do not think there is a difference but it can be seen as people who often eat fast food very often buy more healthy food, because if taxes are raised on fast food may have almost the same price as the food healthier and that will think twice when people buy food choices. 2. How could the social construction of illness help us understand hypochondria? The social construction of illness can help us to understand hypochondria by telling us what is this disease about and why it is developed. First, it may help us by telling us what are the causes of this disease and the main factors that influence in order to develop this kind of disease. Also it may help us by telling us if there is any social beliefs about this disease and how it may be seen by people. Then, social construction will help us to understand this disease by making experiments, polls, and surveys in order to develop a diagnose or create a treatment. This will also help us to understand how to live and deal with this kind of disease and to know the reactions and other kind of factors and effects to consider. Finally medical  knowledge about illness and disease is given to us to understand it correctly to manage a severe disease like hypochondria. I believe that social construction of illness can help us in many ways to understand all kinds of diseases and Social constructionism also provides an important interpretation to medicine’s largely deterministic information about disease and illness, and it can help us to make the right decisions.

Does Technology Make a Difference? Essay

In Port Jackson, the first British colony of New South Wales arrived. When the colony arrived in January 1788, they came across Aboriginal people who were known to fish around Port Jackson. As of today, there is said to be over 580 species that live in the waters around Port Jackson. The Aboriginal people had been fishing in these areas long enough to make fish a part of their diet. When the British brought their colony to Port Jackson, they learned to also make fish part of their diet. Aboriginal people used the resources around them to make equipment and transportation to fish. They made spears for people who would fish from the shore, and made small canoes and fishhooks out of shells for those who wanted the challenge of catching bigger fish. When the British saw how these people would catch their food, they brought over fishhooks made of metal, nets and boats that were much larger than the canoes. Introducing new and better technology in an environment is never easy. This article discusses the important issues to understand, the good and the bad of technology. Introducing a new technology to an older method made the business of fishing boom, which was good for both sides. With the British bringing in their methods helped bring more fish for the people to eat, with the addition of what the Aboriginals would bring in at the end of the day. Also having the new technology, there was a broader variety of new fish that couldn’t be caught with the old methods. It also helped the Aboriginals convert to using the methods that the British used after seeing how much more fish they could catch in a day. But like everything new to people, it caused the Aboriginals kind of give up on their methods all the way, just to keep up with the British. After a while the Aboriginals would start working on the British boats to earn a percentage of the fish they would all catch each day. The British would also trade some of the fish they had caught for equipment from the Aboriginals. And after a couple years of mass fishing, both parties would fall into the issue of overfishing and pollution from commercial fisheries. As a whole, I thought this whole article was interesting to me, but there was a few things that stuck out more than others. It is mind blowing to hear that just alone, Port Jackson has over 580 species. I always knew that there is quite a few different species of fish, but to think that there is over 580 at Port Jackson and then think about how we can’t swim to the bottom of the ocean to discover what lives only down there makes you wonder if any of the legends we’ve heard as children could be true. There could be all sorts of ancestors of fish or other living things deep down there; they may have lived through ancient history. The other interesting thing I read was about all the fish bones. I know that when things die they leave behind bones, but to think about fish bones lasting that long is crazy. When we cook fish and eat them, you see their bones and how small and fragile they are, and to think that some fish bones can last for thousands of years it’s amazin g. Even though I thought this article was very interesting, there were a few things that were a little difficult for me while reading. I really enjoy learning about the ways of archaeologists and anthropologists, but when I read articles like this I have a hard time following what the author is saying because of all of the weird, scientific names they give to fish, animals or even people. I know that it is just how things are named in the science world, I’m just not familiar with all the terms yet, and so I get confused sometimes. Also I get stumped non-stop about how they found out so much information about a certain thing when we didn’t live back then. I think it is amazing how they find so much information from something so small, like a fish bone, but at the same time its mind boggling because its not like bones, rocks, trees, or other things that they study come with instructions. And I think these things are the reason I am so fascinated with this line of work. For archaeology, this is a very important article to explain that what they do is very important. Archaeology to me is a very important part of our lives. If it wasn’t from them, I wouldn’t have been able to learn things about our past from this article. We learn so much about our pasts and that helps us with our future because of the studies that archaeologists do, like in the article. It’s because of them that we are able to know that the Aboriginal people have to convert to a new method of technology because of the British. It also helps us understand what the living was like at Port Jackson during that time period, which also helps understand what type of plants and animals and fish lived during that time. Which has an end result to help explain the transformation how the fish we know about today are different in some way from the past fish, but know that today’s fish came from the past. It’s the same thing with humans, they study and do tests o f human remains from thousands and thousands of years to get a better understand of where we came from, and what we used to look like or how we came to the features that we have today. In conclusion, this article has given me a lot of new information that helps me understand our pasts a little better. At the same time, it also helps you open your eyes a little more because in today’s world, we have technology change all the time and we are just all so use to it that we don’t really see how much it really changes us or even how it effects us all. Back in the 1780’s I understand and realize how scary change can be for people or colonies. It would be pretty scary for a colony to move to a place you’ve lived and bring these new methods that help and hurt your lifestyle at the same time. And today we don’t usually have those feelings or worries because we are so use to change that we act like it’s nothing. It is also amazing how we are able to look at artifacts or bones from the past, like fish and we know what type of fish they are and long ago they had died. Reading articles like this just is amazing to me because you always wonder how we got to where we are today, or where did we actually come from and why do we have similar features from a bunch of different mammals.