Mise-en-scne Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Mise-en-scne - Essay Example The movie has gained worldwide recognition due to it being able to address a large audience on a global scale that has been able to relate with every aspect of it. This paper thus helps to provide an insight into the technical factors of the movie including things like its acting, storyline, cinematography (done by Eric Steelberg) as well as style and direction; in other words, talks about the mis en scene associated with the film. Juno has a very basic story line as well as concept attached to the tale; it is about a young girl trying to explore the nooks and crannies of intimacy and relationships without understanding the implications that might arise along with the same. The film has been directed in a very concise manner making use of pencil stylized ‘rotoscoped’ images right from the credits in the beginning, making use of animation in order to help the audience understand the maturity level of the girl and the kind of colourful life that she always wanted to live f or herself. This entire sequence took a period of seven to eight months to be mastered as each and every shot that follows Juno on her way to the medical pharmacy was taken in short screenings. The set design is incredible, assisting in providing the film with a touch of wonder. The film helps teenagers to explore the kind of curiosity that reigns within them, and how the same should be understood not by simply jumping in and trying things out with friends, but by reading about things and comprehending the facts about life from one’s parents first. It helps children and young adults to understand how friends might not be the best option when it comes to understanding such information about pregnancy and intercourse. These aspects of life are crucial to one’s existence and they must be understood well by every individual so that he is able to make his own decisions without falling into trouble or having unplanned circumstances crop up in his life. (Sciretta, Peter) Thus , the film achieved mass appeal because of the story telling as well as how the girl managed to learn her lesson without panicking much about the situation. The various characters within the movie have been portrayed in a very interesting manner. The director has taken his time to choose the main protagonists and provide them with a different twist. Juno is a young teenage girl who comes off a little strong on the first meeting with everyone. Full of sarcasm, she helps to put an indie spin on the movie and gives a very intense performance with her dominating nature and need to control everything that might not even be in her reach. However, she understands where she went wrong by getting pregnant but decides to bring about a change in a couple’s life with the help of her baby who she is willing to give up in order to make someone else happy. There was a vast amount of dramatisation in the film played by the other characters, namely Juno’s parents which helped to calm t he situation by making her understand what she had gone through, and helping her come out with a solution rather than screaming at her and making her feel the pain of the implications and consequences that she was already suffering. The two characters acted in an excellent manner, almost very real and lifelike, helping parents all around to understand how to cope with their children if they befall such a similar situation in their future. Juno herself wonderfully shows the kind of solid and sincere relationship she

Strengthen the weaknesses of line managers in HR system

Strengthen the weaknesses of line managers in HR system Introduction In Guests (1987) four components of concept of integration in HRM, line managers were argued that they must undertake their responsibilities in terms of HR work by using supports from specialists, which was commented as critical for succeeding in business management. Indeed, line managers play a significant role in organisational strategy, converting HRM to performance and connecting them by individual response (Boaden et al, 2008). In Purcell and Hutchinsons (2007) casual chain theory, line managers were also defined as a role devolving intended HR practices into actuality. Although positing a crucial status in implemental sense, line managers were found a weak link in the devolvement of HR practices. This essay is divided into two parts: Firstly, reviewing previous literatures and empirically analysing the weakness of line managers on the theoretical basis of Marchington and Wilkinsons (2008) view. Secondly, exemplifying ways of strengthening line managements contribution in organisations, by trying to address the problems presented in the first part. Literature Review A large number of previous literatures argue that line managers are the weak link in devolving HR intention into implementation. In Marchington and Wilkinsons (2008) view the weaknesses of line managers can be primarily put into four components: lack of relevant HR skills, disdain for HR work, competing priorities and increased workload, inconsistencies in application of HR functions. In the past, these four weaknesses were also discovered and demonstrated by many researches. From McGovern et als (1997) case study of seven organisations from different sectors, in which semi-structured interviews were conducted after the collection of empirical materials, the fact the low educational and technical skills severely constrained the conversion of HR to line management was exposed in a single case study. According to Maxwell and Watsons (2006) survey in UK Hilton hotels on the level of both line managers and HR specialists, some barriers to line managers involving in HR was examined and the results showed that opinions from HR specialists majorly reckoned lacking of skills in terms of time management, delegation, supporting learning and communication constrained HR to be devolved to line management. While the result also indicated that line managers did not agree with their counterparts in HR departments. Different from McGovern et als (1997) study, the employees views, which were more likely to be objective and reliant, were not collecting in Maxwell and Watso ns (2006) survey. Nonetheless, in the deep interviews with 40 line managers, the involved interviewees did not see themselves as HR experts and thought doing HR work was difficult for them (Renwick, 2003). Also, in Whittaker and Marchingtons (2003) study, it was also argued less skilled and competent line managers were less likely to perform effectively in HR aspects without support from personnel practitioners. In a pilot case study in NHS Trust conducted by Renwick (2000), one clinical director from the line held an old view of HR that they were slow inefficient and made mistakes, surprisingly, a strong hostile description was made as they were awful, just absolutely awful. Regretfully, in this study there was only one case, and, evidence of line managers disdain for HR work was merely from one individual. However, in his research two years later, in all the negative aspects found though interviewing 40 line managers from 3 organisations, line managers admitted that they sometimes slack in completing HR work (Renwick, 2003). Also, an interesting phenomenon in Maxwell and Watsons (2006) survey was the response rate of questionnaire from HR was notably higher than line managers, which more or less indicated line managers were less interested and enthusiastic in HR issues. Many line managers also reckon that the converting too many HR work on them might prevent them from undertaking their own duties (Whittaker and Marchington, 2003). From the investigation in non-clinical managers in NHS Trust the conflicting work priorities exposed that HRM concerns were low on the list of priorities (Boaden et al, 2008). Generally, the competing priorities on the line managers side means they concern more on capturing immediate outcomes. From three groups of organisational constraints in McGovern et als (1997) study, a short-termism was discovered in line management and line managers were less interested in using their time to do activities without an immediate return. Consequently, the greater workload and pressure was generated if line managers were devolved HR functions (Cunningham and Hyman, 1995; Maxwell and Watson, 2006). In Bowens (2004) study, consistency was regarded as a strength of HRM system. However, in practice inconsistencies such as role ambiguity, low efficiency and conflict between line managers and HR specialists often happened. Interesting findings can be extracted in Cunningham and Hymans (1999) research, in which semi-structured interviews and postal questionnaires were conducted in four cases from different industries. The line managers on the one hand were satisfied with the general background suggestions about administrative issues from HR counterparts; on the other hand they commented the HR functional supports from HR specialists in terms of leadership, training and development were poor and even unnecessary. Obviously, due to the inconsistencies, the line managers preferred to be less involved in HR works. Strengthen line management in HR sense As the devolvement of HR functions to line managers is becoming increasingly recognised as important for the raising organisational performance (Guest, 1987; Purcell and Hutchinson, 2007; Boaden et al, 2008), it is essential to strengthen the weaknesses of line managers in HR system mentioned above, which can be regarded as suit the remedy to the case, while the remedy is not particular designed to single weakness but comprehensive as the weaknesses themselves are interacting. From my personal perspective, the central core of strengthening line management in HR sense is to make line managers realise they are responsible for HR and their duties are important. If line managers cannot realise their responsibilities or even disdain for HR work, the direct result might be that they are not inclined to get involved, and therefore difficult to gain their participation (Boaden et al, 2008). However, in many circumstances we found a reason that line managers neglecting such responsibilities as a result of their bad impression on HR work as well as supports HR specialists, which can be categorised as a kind of inconsistency in Marchington and Wilkinsons (2008) classification of line managers weaknesses. Actually, sometimes it is not line managers do not want supports from HR specialists but the supports are poor in their opinions (Cunningham and Hyman, 1999). Therefore, the ways of strengthening the contribution of line managers in HR system, which will be exemplif ied in terms of recruitment and selection, performance management and employee involvement and participation (EIP) in the following paragraphs, can be discussed with HR specialists involved as well. As for recruitment and selection, on the one hand, the internal recruitment for line management roles might be an effective and efficient way to strengthen the contribution of line managers in HR sense. Nowadays, although the ideal situation is that HR functions can be consistently devolved in line management, it seems not so practical for line managers to spend too much time in doing these. The phase time-consuming was used by clinical director from the line to describe new system introduced by HR (Renwick, 2000). The line manager involved in Boaden et als (2008) research might represent a usual notion, I am realistic enough to know where the priority is going to lie at the end of the day. Actually, not only line managers are confronted with short-termism (McGovern et al, 1997) problem, but HR specialists also facing difficulties needing to be addressed soon. In Legges (2005) vicious circle theory, problems happened without getting HR involved, and HR was asked to assist in tacklin g them and give instantly effective supports, which might lead to potential negative impacts in the future. After this process, HR specialists were more likely to be blamed and given less trust in making important decisions. Therefore, the feasible approach introduced here is recruiting and selecting people within the organisations. Specifically, selecting those who have HR working experience or HR special knowledge and skills beforehand, and moving them to the line management work. By doing this, two difficulties may be eased to a large extent in a short time: the disdain for HR work and the deficiency of HR skills. On the other hand, line managers contribution can be enlarged in the conducting recruitment and selection of employees for organisations. That is, clear division of work and responsibilities between line managers and HR specialists. What is more, line managers should be allocated with components related to operational work and special skills of candidates, avoiding spec ialised HR functions that they are difficult to drive. Performance management is an important aspect in which line managers role in HR system should be consolidated, as shown in Cunningham and Hymans (1995) finding that appraisal of subordinates posited the first place in all the main responsibilities of line managers in managing human resources. Example of Selfridge in Purcell and Hutchinsons (2007) can be used to demonstrate the way of improving performance appraisal in line management. In the survey of employees attitudes in Selfridge, the gap between intention and implementation also existed there and over 40 percent of respondents dissatisfied with the performance appraisal system. The comments and suggestions raised by employees, such as consistent approach and regular appraisal for every employee, more recognition from management, getting employees involved and listening to their voice, working closer to employees, brought companys attention. Therefore, measures such as involving company culture into management, refining the line managers role to be more integrated and consistent to the HR system, especially, associating performance appraisal more to career development and opportunities. In Thornhill and Saunders (1998) case study in Newco, a part of large scale organisation in public sector, evidence accumulated exposed that involving and communicating with employees could enhance employees commitment. Therefore, getting employees involved may be an effective way to improve line mangers decision and practices relating to HR. From my personal experience, it was also proved to be making sense. One of my college classmates, who works as a line manager in China Mobile, the most powerful telecommunication company in China, complained to me that the policies and objectives made by managers were always failed to be achieved by employees two months ago. However, last week he told me the situation was better after adopting my suggestion that asking for employees advice and concerning their voice all the time. On the other side, negative effects were generated if integration within management level was insufficient (Thornhill and Saunders, 1998). To resolve this problem, the leader-member exchange (LMX) theory seems to be an appropriate model, in which the inconsistence between line managers and HR specialists are likely to be somewhat eased. Example can be used from Gerstner and Days (1997) meta-analysis, that the LMX was demonstrated to be positively associated with employees performance, to illustrate the effectiveness of this model. Conclusion As demonstrated by many empirical collections, the devolvement of HR functions to line management is significantly affecting the performance of organisations. While line manager was regarded as weak link in HR system, and, the weaknesses can be found in many previous researches and literatures, in categories of Marchington and Wilkinsons (2008) view. Arguably, the line managers role in HR sense can be strengthened and they should be conscious that their new role and new responsibilities are crucial. The internal recruitment and selection of line manager from workers with HR background may reduce the prejudice and technical weakness of line management, and clear division of duties in recruiting and selecting can alleviate the inconsistence between line and HR. Furthermore, example from Selfridge researched by Purcell and Hutchinson (2007) demonstrated how the role of line manager can be consolidated in terms of performance management. Also, the significance and effectiveness of EIP wa s exemplified, and, the LMX model was introduced to consolidate the communication within management level. References 1. Boaden, R et al. (2008) Improving Health through Human Resource Management: The Process of Engagement and Alignment, CIPD. 2. Boselie, P, Dietz, G and Boon, C. (2005) Commonalities and Contradictions in Research on Human Resource Management and Performance, Human Resource Management Journal, 15, 3, 67-94. 3. Bowen, D and Ostroff, C (2004) Understanding HRM-firm performance linkages: the role of the strength of the HRM system, Academy of Management Review, 29, 2, 203-221. 4. Caldwell, R (2003) The Changing Roles of Personnel Managers: Old Ambiguities, New Uncertainties, Journal of Management Studies, 40, 4, 983-1004. 5. Cunningham, I and Hyman, J. (1995) Transforming the HRM Vision into Reality: The Role of Line Managers and Supervisors in Implementing Change, Employee Relations, 17, 8, 5-20. 6. Cunningham, I and Hyman, J. (1999) Devolving Human Resource Responsibilities to the Line: Beginning of the End or a New Beginning for Personnel?, Personnel Review, 28, 1/2, 9-27. 7. Currie G and Procter S. (2001) Exploring the Relationship between HR and Middle Managers, Human Resource Management Journal, 11, 3, 53-69. 8. Francis, H and Keegan, A. (2006) The Changing face of HRM: in Search of Balance, Human Resource Management Journal, 16(3), 231-249. 9. Gerstner, C and Day, D. (1997) Meta-analytic Review of Leader-Member Exchange Theory: Correlates and Construct Issues, Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 6, 827-844. 10. Guest, D. (1987) Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations, Journal of Management Studies, 24, 5, 503-521. 11. Guest D et al. (2003) Human Resource Management and Corporate Performance in the UK, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 41, 2, 291-314. 12. Harris, L. (2001) Rewarding Employee Performance: Line Managers Values, Beliefs and Perspectives, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 12, 7, 1182-1192. 13. Huselid M. (1995) The Impact of Human Resource Management Practices on Turnover, Productivity and Corporate Financial Performance, Academy of Management Journal, 38, 3, 635-672. 14. Kang, D and Stewart, J. (2007) Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Theory of Leadership and HRD: Development of Units of Theory and Laws of Interaction, Leadership Organisation Development Journal, 28, 6, 531-551. 15. Khilji, S. and Wang, X. (2006) Intended and Implemented HRM: the Missing Linchpin in Strategic HRM Research, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 17, 7, 1171-1189. 16. Legge, K. (2005) Human Resource Management: Rhetorics and Realities. Palgrave Macmillan. 17. Marchington M and Wilkinson A. (2008) Human Resource Management at Work, 4th edition. CIPD. 18. Maxwell, G and Watson, S. (2006) Perspectives on Line Managers in Human Resource Management: Hilton Internationals UK Hotels, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 17, 6, 1152-1170. 19. McGovern, P. et al (1997) Human Resource Management on the Line?, Human Resource Management Journal, 7, 4, 12-29. 20. Perry, E and Kulik, C. (2008) The Devolution of HR to the Line: Implications for Perceptions of People Management Effectiveness, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 19, 2, 262-273. 21. Purcell, J. and Hutchinson, S. (2007) Front-line Managers as Agents in the HRM-performance Causal Chain: Theory, Analysis and Evidence, Human Resource Management Journal, 17, 1, 3-20. 22. Renwick, D. (2000) HR-Line Work Relations: A Review, Pilot Case and Research Agenda, Employee Relations, 22, 2, 179-205. 23. Renwick, D. (2003) Line Manager Involvement in HRM: An inside View, Employee Relations, 25, 3, 262-280. 24. Thornhill, A and Saunders, M. (1998) What if Line Managers dont Realize Theyre Responsible for HR?, Personnel Review, 27, 6, 460-476. 25. Wall, T and Wood, S. (2005) The Romance of HRM and Business Performance, and the Case for Big Science, Human Relations, 58, 4, 429-462. 26. West M et al. (2002) The Link between the Management of Employees and Patient Mortality in Acute Hospitals, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 13, 8, 1299-1310. 27. Whittaker S and Marchington M. (2003) Devolving HR Responsibility to the Line: Threat, Opportunity or Partnership, Employee Relations, 25, 3, 245-261.

Free Essay: Restructuring Relationships Shakespeares King Lear :: King Lear essays

Restructuring Relationships in King Lear The play of "King Lear" is about a search for personal identity. In the historical period in which this play is set, the social structure was set in order of things closest to Heaven. Therefore, on Earth, the king was at the top, followed by his noblemen and going all the way down to the basest of objects such as rocks and dirt. This structure was set up by the people, and by going by the premise that anything that is man made is imperfect, this system cannot exist for long without conflict. Through tattered clothes small vices do appear; Robes and furred gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold, And the strong lance of justice hurtles breaks; (IV, vi). The chaos that occurs in "King Lear" is due the reshaping of bonds within the society. Thus naturally, bonds must be broken, kept and most importantly, formed. This rearrangement of bonds is necessary to Lear understanding his personal identity. Bonds that are broken include those relations between King Lear and his two eldest daughters (Regan and Goneril), between Glouster and Edmund and also between Edmund and Edgar. Lear and Cordelia; Lear and Kent; Glouster and Edgar include those bonds that are existent at both the beginning and conclusion of the play. By the ending of the play, Lear is able to come to terms with himself and with nature. For the rearrangement of the bonds, it is necessary that those based on money, power, land, and deception be to abandoned. In the case of Lear and Goneril and Regan, his two daughters have deceived their father for their personal gain. Furthermore, they had not intended to keep the bond with their father once they had what they wanted. Goneril states "We must do something, and i' th' heat." (I, i, 355), meaning that they wish to take more power upon themselves while they can. By his two of his daughters betraying him, Lear was able to gain insight that he is not as respected as he perceives himself to be. The relationship broken between Edmund his half- bother, Edgar and father, Glouster is similarly deteriorated in the interest of material items. By the end of the play, Edgar has recognized who is brother really is and when he has confronted him says "the more th' hast wronged me...

Integration of faith no name

The Merriam Webster cautionary defines character as, â€Å"the good qualities of a person that usually include moral or emotional strength, honesty, and fairness†. From the beginning of time, people have had the example of negative and positive character. The lesson comes from the Bible in Hebrews 13:18 Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly. These qualities, as stated in Hebrews make a successful leader. A successful leader has a victorious team which will produce quality products and attract loyal customers.Kettle and Keller state the vital role for any COM is to instill a customer viewpoint and create a loyal clientele (Kettle & Keller 2012). This is done through marketing and includes everyone in the company to reach to consumers. Within the marketing management the holistic marketing approach of 4 elements carries the workload that all employees should know the needs, wants, and interests of their market. This leads to value and satisfaction. If corners are cut to make a cheaper product the customer will not be happy with the quality.Building or providing high quality goods and services are a sign of character, being honest with good conscience. What would the employee or company do when no one is looking? Would they do the right thing and be honest? Or would they lie, cheat, and steal to close a deal with a customer or client? The best companies will be the ones that give back to the community and help those in need that may be down on their luck. A well known restaurant chain of having a good honest character is Chick-fill-a.As of last year 2014, Chick-fill-a has given over $68 million to education and various charities, working closely with the community. They have successfully built a loyal market. They also value family time and allow their employees a day off, Sunday. By being an example of giving to the community and creating a firm foundation in character, people are attracted to the value s and passion of this restaurant. A mission statement, ‘this is where you breathe real life into the lungs of your organization† (Ramsey 201 1).

Bad School System Essay

What are schools doing for us? If nothing then what can we do to improve them? I think they aren’t doing anything. I have never really thought about this idea until I started research. I think that I am fairly smart, but it is more of after school rather than school itself. I was watching a TED TALK from Ken Robinson and he was talking about how schools kill creativity. He talks about how schools are good at making people who do their jobs successfully. He also says that those same people are doing that job because they don’t have any other choice. By showing this he is trying to show that school kills creativity. Salman Khan the founder of Khan Academy talks about how students don’t get to work on their own pace. Dave Eggers the founder of 826 Valencia talks about how students need 1-1 attention to learn their talents. Ken Robinson has many different videos on school all talking about how school has problems that need to be solved. The one that I watched was â€Å"Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity†. He talks about how school trains you in a way that creates a fear of making mistakes. He says, â€Å"If you’re not prepared to be wrong, then you will never be original†. We are being educated out of creativity. Teachers are not ready to have things be wrong. When grading test or any kind of work there is no such thing as maybe, it is just right or wrong. There are always those kids who are over the top smart and there are those kids that are very creative but not as smart. In this scenario you know that the kid who has the brains is going to get the popularity. Nobody is going to go to the creative kid for help even though he/she might have something worth saying. Then those creative kids will also have to adapt to the school system and eventually lose their creativity. Salman Khan has one very important video on TED and it talks about how students do really get to learn on their own pace in school. The TED TALK is called â€Å"Let’s use video to reinvent education†. In this video he talks about his website www.Khanacademy.com. In this website he has different topics for which he has videos for. He also has sort of an online learning system on the same website. In that learning system they want you to master different concepts that you are having trouble with. So they show you videos on how to do the problem then set you on your own. If you still don’t have perfection then they allow you to repeat. They want you to master the concept by letting you do the whole process as many times as you like. By this you are allowed to learn at your own pace. In school you learn a chapter take a test then move on. Even if you didn’t understand you move on, also the students who get like 90 to 99.9% they still might have some problems that they didn’t understand. I also experienced Khan Academy, I have an account and I am always using it when I need help on something. Dave Eggers has one video on TED and it talks about why students are happier to go to tutoring rather than school itself. In his TED TALK â€Å"Once Upon a School† he shows the audience of a place that he created called 826 Valencia. This is a shop that he founded in which he connected a newspaper editor center, a pirate shop, and a after school tutoring center. He says that students come there running after school to do homework. That’s not really something that you think of. The students get help on any HW especially their English homework. He has his Newspaper crew and volunteers help students 1-1 on HW. He has students write books and then publishes the books. He says that students need 1-1 time with whomever they are working with. In school students don’t really get 1-1 time during school to talk about things that they are having trouble with and stuff like that. In a year he has over 1,400 volunteers helping run 826 Valencia. He thinks that if students are able to have 1-1 time with teachers on their work then they would be more creative. They students would never know if they were doing well or if they needed to improve in certain areas. If you haven’t watched this TED TALK them I recommend every one the watch it. All three of these guys show great ways to improve the School system. These guys are already doing it outside of school, which shows that our School System isn’t really great. There are many problems with our School System we just never think about them as students. You would never think that School would kill your creativity, but when you think about it†¦

Jackson And His Importance.

Jackson And His Importance. Jackson and his Importance.Andrew Jackson's election in 1828, represented the forceful movement west. Andrew Jackson was from Tennessee and was firm in his beliefs agenst the Indians. He was the leader of their displacement to places less wanted for instance, Oklahoma which at the time he considered "God forsaken"‚ . Under his presidency Andrew Jackson was able to push westward past the Mississippi adding several new states as he went. The increase in land lead to an agricultural boom this gave the American economy a large boost, up until 1819 when the great scare came about and dropped land prices from 69$ and acre to 2$.Andrew Jackson was a symbol of the common man. He used this view to gain votes. It has been said that he was illiterate. It was this type of perception that gave him an advantage. People saw him as a successful version of themselves, and from this they inferred that their voice would be heard.78 year old Andrew JacksonIn reality Andrew Jackson was a wealthy m an and by no means a good representation of the average man.With the growing amount of product being produced and the demand from European countries such as France (who were in need of food and supplies because of war) there was a large push to evolve their current forms of transportation and shipping. In 1819 it became apparent to people that they need to be more stable in their trading, like the European counter parts. This feeling was aided buy industrialization and rapid changes in transportation from canals to steam boats, to trains.Also the growing number of children lead to a desire for better schools. Under Jackson the schools change from one room all ages to schools that are state funded (not yet federally funded) to schools that...

Summary of Human Systems

Summary of Human Systems SummaryCirculatory SystemThe circulatory system is made up of the heart, blood and blood vessels known as arteries, capillaries and veins. The heart pumps blood throughout your body through the blood vessels. Blood delivers oxygen and nutrients to cells and carries away carbon dioxide and other waste materials.The heart looks like an upside-down pear. It is about the size of your closed fist. It is almost in the middle of your chest. The heart is made of muscle divided into four parts called chambers. The chambers are hollow inside. The two chambers on top are called atria. The chambers on the bottom are called ventricles. The heart also has four valves that let blood in and out of the chambers.The blood vessels are the arteries, veins and capillaries. Arteries are blood vessels that convey blood from the heart to the tissues of the body. Two arteries have direct connection with the heart: (1) the aorta, which, with its branches, conveys oxygenated blood from the left ventricle to ev ery part of the body; and (2) the pulmonary artery, which conveys blood from the right ventricle to the lungs, whence it is returned bearing oxygen to the left side of the heart.Blood circulation: Red = oxygenated Blue = deoxyge...The arteries expand and then constrict with each beat of the heart, a rhythmic movement that may be felt as the pulse. Veins, on the other hand, returns blood to the heart from other parts of the body. This false-color electron micrograph shows red blood cells packed into a capillary, the smallest type of blood vessel. Blood flows from the capillaries into veins after oxygen has been exchanged. Lastly, the Capillary forms the connection between the arteries and the veins. These tiny vessels vary in diameter from 0.0127 to about 0.2032 mm (0.0005 to about 0.008 in)...

Abolitionist Pamphlet Campaign

Abolitionist Pamphlet Campaign In the summer of 1835 the growing abolitionist movement attempted to influence public opinion in the slave states by mailing thousands of anti-slavery pamphlets to addresses in the South. The material inflamed southerners, who broke into post offices, seized bags of mail containing the pamphlets, and made a spectacle of burning the pamphlets in the streets as mobs cheered. The interference with the postal system created a crisis at the federal level. And the battle over use of the mails  illuminated how the issue of slavery was splitting the nation decades before the Civil War. In the North, calls to censor the mails were naturally seen as a violation of Constitutional rights. In the slave states of the South, the literature produced by the American Anti-Slavery Society was viewed as a dire threat to southern society. On a practical level, the local postmaster in Charleston, South Carolina, requested guidance from the postmaster general in Washington, who essentially dodged the issue. After a spasm of demonstrations in the South, in which effigies representing abolitionist leaders were burned as anti-slavery pamphlets were thrown into bonfires, the battleground moved on to the halls of Congress. President Andrew Jackson  even mentioned the mailing of the pamphlets in his annual message to Congress (the forerunner of the State of the Union Address). Jackson advocated suppressing the literature by having federal authorities censor the mails. Yet his approach was challenged by an eternal rival, Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, who advocated for local censorship of federal mail. In the end, the campaign of the abolitionists to mail pamphlets southward was essentially abandoned as being impractical. So the immediate issue of censoring the mails died out. And the abolitionists  changed tactics and began to concentrate on sending petitions to Congress to advocate for the end of slavery. Strategy of the Pamphlet Campaign The idea of mailing thousands of anti-slavery pamphlets into the slave states began to take hold in the early 1830s. The abolitionists couldnt send human agents to preach against slavery, as they would be risking their lives. And, thanks for the financial backing of the Tappan brothers, wealthy New York City merchants who had become devoted to the abolitionist cause, the most modern printing technology was made available to spread the message. The material produced, which included pamphlets and broadsides (large sheets designed to be passed around or hung as posters), tended to have woodcut illustrations depicting the horrors of slavery. The material may look crude to modern eyes, but in the 1830s it would have been considered fairly professional printed material. And the illustrations were particularly inflammatory to southerners. As slaves tended to be illiterate (as was generally mandated by law), the existence of printed material showing slaves being whipped and beaten was seen as particularly inflammatory. Southerners claimed the printed material from the American Anti-Slavery Society was intended to provoke slave uprisings. And knowing the abolitionists had the funding and personnel to turn out printed material of substantial quality was disturbing to pro-slavery Americans. End of the Campaign The controversy over censoring the mails essentially ended the pamphlet campaign. Legislation to open and search the mails failed in Congress, but local postmasters, with the tacit approval of their superiors in the federal government, still suppressed the pamphlets. Ultimately, the American Anti-Slavery Society came to realize that a point had been made. And the movement began to concentrate on other initiatives, most prominently the campaign to create strong anti-slavery action in the House of Representatives. The pamphlet campaign, within about a year, was essentially abandoned.

Effects of the tragedy in Japan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Effects of the tragedy in Japan - Essay Example Nearly four weeks into the tragedy, efforts on still on by the local and international disaster management teams to search for the missing and identify the dead persons. The damage caused to the government and private properties and businesses is so huge that it strains one’s imagination if it can ever be reconstructed or compensated adequately. If the task of clearing the debris on and off the vast areas of coastline is daunting in itself, the massive relief and rehabilitation of a devastated population coping with the loss of loved ones can test to the limits, even the most prepared and efficient nation on earth. Compounding the tragedy is the damage to the nuclear facility at Fukushima, which has already caused unacceptable increase in radioactive contamination levels in the 20 to30 km. radial area around the plant – on land and in the sea – and this tragedy has by no means played itself out till date. To conclude, it is increasingly evident that if an earthquake/tsunami is likely to happen it would certainly happen with unpredictable ferocity. History can not be a comfortable guide to predict and design human habitations and business facilities. Rather, it should only be used to avoid unacceptable risks. Ed. â€Å"Magnitude 9.0 – Near the east coast of Honshu, Japan†. USGS Earthquake hazards program. March 11, 2011, April 8, 2011, web.

Profile of a Theorist (Edward T. Hall) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Profile of a Theorist (Edward T. Hall) - Essay Example olars, among them the famous Marshall McLuhan who came out with the mantra, â€Å" the medium is the message†, and with whom Hall had a long and fruitful correspondence. Hall is universally acknowledged to be the founding father of studies on intercultural communication, because it all started with his early work in the 1950s for the United States State Department in order to coach foreign service personnel survival skills in intercultural communication. He realized that a majority of the communication gaps between people from different cultures could be because of different perceptions they had about the same thing, based on their cultural background. Intercultural communication is usually defined as any direct communicative interaction between individuals or groups of individuals belonging to different cultures. In other words, the term denotes interpersonal communication between "strangers" on the micro-level of face-to-face interaction. In a wider sense, however, the term is also but less frequently used to refer to direct or indirect interactions or contacts between ethnic groups, nations or cultures, thus denoting culture contact and cultural exchange on the meso- or macro-level. ( Roth, Klaus, 1999, p.206 ) The formal beginnings of intercultural communication are usually traced to the 1959 publication of â€Å"The Silent Language† by Hall. In this book, he defined culture as a concept, and described its role in setting expectations during the process of communication. He contradicted the prevalent natural assumption that communication styles and core values can be universal for all cultures. Instead, he proposed that a majority of human communication is actually non-verbal, mostly subconscious, and is determined to a large extent by cultural and linguistic backgrounds. In this book, he came up with the theory that not only does peoples cultural background act as a medium of communication, it also forms a subconscious part of the communication method.His

US HISTORY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

US HISTORY - Essay Example With the beginning of this acute financial crisis, banks failed, companies shut down and the result was unemployment, loss of personal assets like land, house and other valuables. People who were well-off before the Depression lost everything and lived off from begging (Uys). The great depression completely disoriented the lives of the Americans forcing children and teenagers to give up studies and either take to begging or perform menial labour. Lack of fund resources, scarcity of food and water, and homeless existence affected social life resulting in broken homes, battered relationships and wavering convictions. Unemployment was at its peak with a record of 13 million people going jobless and living fringe life. A lot of people started moving down to the West which was not as badly affected. People could not pay fares and travelled illegally which came to be known as hobo. Hoboing and train hopping were common phenomena as more and more people travelled up and down in search of better life. Homelessness was another significant phenomenon of the time and was termed as Hoovervilles to condemn President Hoover. People could not provide to stay in proper houses and lived in shacks made of cardboard boxes, metal sheets, leftover wood, piano boxes, and rusted car bodies (Uys). The Great Depression taught people valuable lessons like self-reliance, compassion, frugality and love for freedom and one’s country (Uys). These values acted as the bedrocks on which developed a stronger and more resilient

There is no place in a modern constitution for prerogative powers Essay

There is no place in a modern constitution for prerogative powers. They have received no democratic seal of approval, Their amenability to judicial review is - Essay Example In other words, the Constitution does not operate usually in abnormal times, and both the existence of a "wartime" constitution and the potential for "constitutional dictatorship" follow from that relevant fact. In spite of sporadic rhetoric, in contrast to statutes and decisions, very little has really changed in two centuries from the way presidents have invariably acted during a dire emergency. In answering Lincoln's question, raised in 1861, constitutional democracy can be very strong to keep up its own existence without undermining the liberties of the people it has been formed to protect. But the nation's political leadership must be so liable and at the same time be willing to stick to constitutional constraints. Saying that, let me now spell out the content and issues that follow for discussion: 1) the president must possess emergency powers capable of operating in abnormal times; 2) prerogative powers innately belong to the president in his capacity as political head of the nation and definitive guardian of the Constitution; 3) the Bush administration is making many of the same mistakes in its war on terror as the Johnson and Nixon administrations made with regard to the earlier Vietnam misadventure; 4) Congress, while salvaging its capacity to work out real legislative supervision over the presidential use of war powers in 1973-76, finds itself reluctant or unable to say no to the President since September 11, 2001; 5) legislation enacted since the terrorist attack in New York and anywhere else has engorged not only the President's ability to take the nation into war but has revolutionized the whole concept of separation of powers/checks and balances; and 6) emergency/prerogative power mu st be used in a terrible emergency only, and when the initial emergency situation comes to an end so should the unregulated use of outstanding presidential power. In Federalist No. 23, Alexander Hamilton, writing about the idea of crisis government and the need for indeterminate power in the national government, announced that the war powers "should exist without restraint, because it is impossible to anticipate or define the degree and variety of national emergencies, and the correspondent extent and variety of the means which may be indispensable to please them." (4) The period of civil war permanently transformed our understanding of the war powers. Lincoln's imaginative combining of the commander-in-chief, take care, and executive power clauses into a notion of presidential war power independent of legislative authority--where ends justified means--laid to rest the earlier, limited meaning of commander-in-chief. Lincoln's assertion of this independent, virtually unlimited war power, held together by Locke's "prerogative" theory, (5) was legitimized and sanctioned by the Supreme Court within two years. (6) This transformation set the stage for the modern presidential office, applied the notion of constitutional dictatorship in the United States, and began the development of the "wartime" constitution. Earlier in the development of the Republic, generally that period from Abraham Lincoln to Franklin Roosevelt, presidents would act illegally and then depend upon Congress to ratify their actions after the

In networking communications, packet switching is more flexible than Research Paper

In networking communications, packet switching is more flexible than circuit switching because of the full potential bandwidth, error free data transfer and multiple communication sessions - Research Paper Example In circuit switching, one path exists which is dedicated to facilitating communication between two stations. This communication path consists of connected links (in a sequence) between different network nodes. Communication that takes place through circuit switching occurs in three phases: Data Transfer, Circuit Establishment and Circuit Disconnect (Furukawa, et al., 2010). Circuit establishment takes place on a link-by-link basis. It involves the connection of routes and allocation of resources. On the other hand, the circuit disconnect phase involves the withdrawal of the resources previously allocated. The switches have to know how they would find the route that would lead them to the destination. Further, the switches must determine a method of allocating the bandwidth that would help in the establishment of a connection. Another name for the bandwidth is Channel (Shao, Jones & Melhem, 2009). One of the properties of circuit switching makes it less preferable to packet switching is that circuit switching is inefficient. The channel assigns and dedicates the whole of its capacity during the entire time of a connection (Furukawa, et al., 2010). This means that in the even that there is no data going through the channel, the capacity of the channel goes to waste. This makes circuit switching to perform below the desired efficiency levels. The second property is the delay associated with circuit switching. Circuit switching has a long initial delay (Sun, et al, 2013). The time that this type of switching takes to establish a circuit to start the process of communication is long. In addition to that, even after the establishment of a circuit, circuit switching has delays in data transmission. After the establishment of the circuit, the transmission of information takes place at a fixed rate. Because the rate of data transmission is

Rommels Leadership in the Battle of El Alamein Essay

Rommels Leadership in the Battle of El Alamein - Essay Example Despite Rommel’s many talents, he was soundly defeated. That meant the end of the German campaign in North Africa. Rommel had many successes during his North African battles, even at the ill-fated battle of El Alamein. Rommel has been regarded as a brilliant military commander in both tactical and strategic levels, as much as his sphere of command can control. Rommel was aware that the forces under his command were numerically inferior against the British forces based in North Africa. They were also lacking in sufficient supplies. Despite such disadvantage, Rommel caused a lot of mayhem with a disproportionately small number of tanks and supplies. As Greene (2006) observed: What was most devastating about this offensive was the novel way Rommel fought. He used the desert as if it were an ocean. Despite supply problems and difficult terrain, he kept his tanks in perpetual motion. The British could not let up their guard for a moment and this mentally exhausted them†¦ Instead of pushing forward and to punch holes in the enemy lines, he would send out his weakest tanks, then have them retreat at first contact; the British tanks would invariably swallow the bait and go in pursuit, kicking up so much of their own dust in the process that they would not see they were running straight into a line of German antitank guns. (pp.190-191) Rommel relied on speed and surprise to make his strategy work to his advantage. He used small forces to outmaneuver and outsmart his numerous British opponents. Rommel would ride ahead, risking death so that he could make rapid decisions on the move. He devoured information about the enemy, made himself an expert on tank technology, memorized maps, and personalized his relationship with his men (Greene, 2006, p.38). Rommel also never allowed any of Hitler’s political directives to undermine his command. When Hitler ordered that Jews among the German military be shot, Rommel

In networking communications, packet switching is more flexible than Research Paper

In networking communications, packet switching is more flexible than circuit switching because of the full potential bandwidth, error free data transfer and multiple communication sessions - Research Paper Example In circuit switching, one path exists which is dedicated to facilitating communication between two stations. This communication path consists of connected links (in a sequence) between different network nodes. Communication that takes place through circuit switching occurs in three phases: Data Transfer, Circuit Establishment and Circuit Disconnect (Furukawa, et al., 2010). Circuit establishment takes place on a link-by-link basis. It involves the connection of routes and allocation of resources. On the other hand, the circuit disconnect phase involves the withdrawal of the resources previously allocated. The switches have to know how they would find the route that would lead them to the destination. Further, the switches must determine a method of allocating the bandwidth that would help in the establishment of a connection. Another name for the bandwidth is Channel (Shao, Jones & Melhem, 2009). One of the properties of circuit switching makes it less preferable to packet switching is that circuit switching is inefficient. The channel assigns and dedicates the whole of its capacity during the entire time of a connection (Furukawa, et al., 2010). This means that in the even that there is no data going through the channel, the capacity of the channel goes to waste. This makes circuit switching to perform below the desired efficiency levels. The second property is the delay associated with circuit switching. Circuit switching has a long initial delay (Sun, et al, 2013). The time that this type of switching takes to establish a circuit to start the process of communication is long. In addition to that, even after the establishment of a circuit, circuit switching has delays in data transmission. After the establishment of the circuit, the transmission of information takes place at a fixed rate. Because the rate of data transmission is

Law of evidence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Law of evidence - Essay Example One example is the case of R v Cannings [2004], where the convictions for the murder of the defendant's sons were quashed on the basis of new medical evidence which discredited the expert witness at trial.2 Although the expert witness (a doctor) was a recognised professional in his field at the time, evidence later showed that his account of what he thought took place was actually fabricated and not backed by the evidence.3 Although the test at the time was passed, the actual quality of the evidence was controversial, so even in this case where the doctor was seemingly an expert at the time, his testimony proved to be damaging at trial. "The better and now more widely accepted view is that so long as a field is sufficiently well-established to pass the ordinary tests of relevance and reliability, then no enhanced test for admissibility should be applied, but the weight of the evidence should be established by the same adversarial forensic techniques applicable elsewhere."4 This test is the current common-law test in order to determine if expert testimony should be submitted. The case involved lip reading evidence being questioned as it is not an exact science or profession; the court held that this passed the test for relevance and reliability which is all that was needed to be allowed. Here, although the validity of the expert evidence was questioned, it proved to be accurate and sufficient. Another case which operated along these lines is that of R v Dallagher (Mark Anthony) [2002], which involved the admission of an ear-print expert who was brought in to analyse and compare an ear-print found at the crime scene with that of the defendant; the court held that although the field is relatively small, the expert was part of a group which were recognised within the field.5 Expected opinion evidence is used in order to assist the court and jury on matters which lie outside the experience or understanding of ordinary jurors or justices.6 If jurors or justices can be expected to understand evidence from their own view on any issue without such expert assistance, then expert testimony is not to be received, as was held in the case of Folkes v Chadd [1782].7 Trials operate on the premise that "courts and juries do not need psychiatrists to tell them how ordinary folk who are not suffering from mental illness are likely to react to the stresses of life."8 The case of R v Henry; R v Manning [1968] held that low IQ is not a mental illness and expert evidence was not admissible to explain behaviour where no mental illness exists.9 Expert evidence will ordinarily be considered necessary and admissible on matters of science, medicine, authenticity or questions of foreign law.10 There are also dangers with expert

What Is A Carbon Footprint Environmental Sciences Essay

What Is A Carbon Footprint Environmental Sciences Essay there are many definitions used by different organizations; a carbon footprint is The total amount of greenhouse gases produced to directly and indirectly support human activities, usually expressed in equivalent tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) (timeforchange.org); The total set of greenhouse gas emissions caused directly and indirectly by an [individual, event, organisation, product] expressed as CO2.'(carbon trust). Some organisations such as direct.gov and the carbon trust provide online calculators which allow individuals and businesses to calculate their individual carbon footprint and how you can go on to minimise and/or offset it. Government campaigns and initiatives such as Act on CO2 encourage and provide information on how the CO2 output can be reduced (which is the main contributor to greenhouse effect) by making changes to their lifestyle and daily routine. For households this includes switching to energy efficient light bulbs, switching of appliances when not in use and red ucing the temperature of laundry washes. For businesses there are incentives and aids such as online help for reducing co2 emissions and costs, carbon surveys and 0% interest loans for energy efficient equipment upgrades (carbon trust). Companies such as carbon trust set up by the government are providing  £50 million in interest free loans to help the public sector save energy. It is clear that an incentive for both individuals and businesses is that reducing their carbon footprint will inevitably save them money; replacing an old boiler (10-15 yrs old) with and energy efficient boiler could save a household  £90 each year. (direct) Savings such as these are enough of a driver to encourage those people to consider reducing their carbon footprint. However it is important to consider if initial costs are relatively small and how easy and practical it is to make these changes. ( exoand on this) There is a need to reduce the CO2 emissions contribution to greenhouse gases (GHG) compared to other GHG as the actions of humans mostly contributes to Co2 . Since the last industrial revolution there has been a rise to tens of billions of tons per year from human greenhouse gas emmisions. Figure 1 shows human produced greenhouse gases. Figure 1 Currently over 30 billion tonnes of CO2 is emitted each year by the burning of fossil fuels which releases co2 directly into the atmosphere. 7 billion tonnes is emitted from land use changes such as deforestation which changes the natural process of trees removing Co2 from the atmosphere. (actonco2) different activities which contribute include; Industry: more than 40%, Buildings (homes, offices and the like: about 31%, transportations: around 22% and Agriculture; about 4%. (robert henderson) The contribution from other GHG to global warming can be calculated by converting them into their carbon equivalent (carbonfootprint.com) The previous bullet point describes the carbon emissions of different sectors and countries. There is an increasing need for businesses in the private and public sector and local authorities to reduce carbon emissions as well as individuals. The UK government is introducing new legislation in order to meet the target of reducing emissions by 80% by 2050. This legislation includes charging businesses if their energy usage is greater than 6000MWh per year. (reference). If these requirements are not met then the result is being placed in a low league table (carbon footprint-crc) and the possibility of facing other penalties. EU and UK legislation regarding reducing carbon emissions and energy in the UK is discussed in sectionxxxx of this report. Local authorities are encouraged to be fore frontiers of combating global warming in their areas and societies; encouraging others to make changes in order to reduce carbon emissions. Local authorities will need to calculate the carbon emissions of their buildings and services yearly and report them to DEFRA. Under new regulations they are encouraged to raise awareness of reducing carbon footprints in the local area ( carbonfootprint.com). The Carbon emissions of LAs will be published annually. There are also a number of campaigns such as Act on Co2 being advertised to the public to highlight the problem of carbon emissions. The Government is putting pressure on tenants, buyers and the public for making their buildings more energy efficient. Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) were introduced in 2008 (carbon foot) and are required when a building is constructed, sold or rented out. It rates the energy performance of a building; informing buyers, possible occupants if the building is energy efficient. A recommendation report is always produced along with the certificate listing the potential opportunities to increase the buildings energy efficiency. Landlords are open to Heavy penalties of 12.5% of the rateable value of the building if an EPC is not presented when requested by a tenant/buyer. The equivalent for public buildings are Display Energy Certificates; where the building is rated on its operational efficiency every 10 years, with the result certificate displayed in a publically visible place (cfprint) How is a carbon footprint calculated? Online calculators provided by organistations including direct.gov, carbon trust and carbon footprint allow both businesses and households to calculate their carbon footprint. In order to get an accurate idea of a carbon footprint it is important to use calculators regulated by Government bodies. For households, data which is usually sort for calculation of the footprint are statistics such as gas and electricity bills, motor vehicle mileage and Miles per Gallon (MPG) the products contained in homes and the main source of heating the home gas or electricity (act on co2),. For businesses this can includes all of the above as well as employee travel and fuel usuage for example. A carbon footprint is made up pf the sum of a primary footprint and a secondary footprint These are defined by Carbon Footprint Ltd. below 1. The primary footprint is a measure of our direct emissions of CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels including domestic energy consumption and transportation (e.g. car and plane). We have direct control of these. 2. The secondary footprint is a measure of the indirect CO2 emissions from the whole lifecycle of products we use those associated with their manufacture and eventual breakdown. To put it very simply the more we buy the more emissions will be caused on our behalf. The graph below shows the main elements of an individuals lifestyle which contributes to a carbon footprint. The pie chart above shows the main elements which make up the total of an typical persons carbon footprint in the developed world. This is different for residents of other countries; on average a UK resident has an annual carbon footprint if 11.6 tonnes; 40% manufacture/construction, food 5%, services 6% housing 20%. Compared to a US resident of 25.9 tonnes 38% manufacture/construction, food 45%, services 6%, housing 18%, personal travel 34% and resident of Africa resident 0.9% from services solely ( robert henderson book) How to reduce a carbon footprint When considering reducing and how to reduce a carbon footprint it is important to consider the persons lifestyle and for a company; the type of business. Everyone leads different lives and will be able to make differences depending on their lifestyle. Some people require travelling abroad for instance so it may be difficult to minimise travel co2 emissions. In almost all instances reducing co2 emissions inevitably results in reducing costs in the long term. Changes can be made in all aspects of life in order to reduce a carbon footprint; this includes in the home, changing transport and travel, shopping and recycling. Initial costs outweigh benefit At home switching to low energy light bulbs, and investing in attic insulation can reduce the energy lost in a home resulting in less energy and money required to heat it. Some utility companies also allow customers to specify that some or all of the power supplied to your home is from renewable sources (roberthenderson). This works by the company putting energy into the grid in an amount equal to your consumption. Households could also switch to renewable energies such as photovoltaics and wind turbines. The benefits and reality of such technologies smaller households will be discussed in sectionxxx Businesses Table xxx shows methods to help reduce an indivuals carbon footprint Home Travel shopping Business-buildings product Loft insulation Switch to cycling and walking Consider the materials used and transport mechanism for products Turning elcetircla equipment off at night Deisng for environmentally friendly products Double glazing Making fewer and shorter journeys by car uses a lot if energy Choose local products, and farmers market products and organic products Invest in energy saving plant/ technology Draught excluders Choose energy efficient vehicles-hybrid Buying in vulk and ingeredients instead of ready made foods Install movement sensitive lights in lower used areas such as toilets Cavity wall insulation Plan route, save fuel, time and money getting lost Improve insulation and lowering the thermostat temperature Carbon offsetting Carbon offsetting is the process of compensating for carbon emissions which are generally unavoidable (i.e lifestyle essentials) by funding an equivalent co2 saving project somewhere else. carbon credits are awarded in order to balance to emissions from defined activities measured in carbon dioxide equivalent (co2e) (qas). It is highly stressed (act n co2) that carbon offsetting is not an alternative to reducing an individuals/organisations carbon emissions to combat climate change but provide a mechanism to reduce GHG emissions in the most cost-effective and economically-efficient manner (carbonfootprint.com) carbon offsetting is defined as (offsetting.decc.goc.uk) Offsetting is also used by global corporations such as HSBC (get some more) Some online travel services and airlines also offer customers the possibility to offset their air travel emissions. The UK Governments Quality assurance Scheme (QAS)- for carbon offsetting introduced in xxx. It has been created to help individuals and companies choose approved quality offsets. The QAS effectively vouches for the quality of offsets provided with a quality mark. The aim of the scheme is to tackle public confusion and distrust of carbon offsetting whilst providing better information and high quality standards for customers of carbon offsetting. The main process of carbon offsetting (carbon neutral) is (directgov offset) calculating the emissions produced- this can be done using QAS offset providers which have carbon calculators -choose which activity/activities you would like to offset Buy an equivalent amount of carbon credits from projects- which use the fee paid to fund the projects Some projects include: harnessing river hydropower  in Fiji establishing the first wind energy plant in Cyprus collecting methane to generate electricity from landfill sites in Durban, South Africa (offsetting .decc.gov.uk) QAS offsetting providers include: -Energy Saving Ttust Crabon Trust The offsetting argument Offsetting fees are not regulated they do vary over time- however there are plans to set these costs from European emissions trading which are measured in cost per tonne. Therefore I is currently difficult to say if consumers and businesses are getting their monies worth of carbon offsets. Projects such as tree planting are slightly controversial as there is evidence to show that there may be longer lasting ways to beat climate change (henderson). When trees die most of its stored carbon is restored to the atmosphere anyway and It may be more important to protect the rainforests which are still remaining from deforestation. The actual deforestation of forests is a very large source of greenhouse emissions- the burning of trees contributes to around a fifth of co2 produced emissions (Henderson) Now with governmental standards it should make it easier to pick offsets which actually work. It can take years to see the environmental benefits of tree planting to take affect and It also difficult to measure exactly how much carbon dioxide is saved preventing projects such as these from receiving the QAS mark (offsetting.decc.goc.uk). There are many different types of offsetting projects,  generally involving energy efficiency or renewable energy. Here are some examples of the kind of projects that could produce a credit used for offsetting: providing people in Aceh, Indonesia with solar cookers and heat retention containers for cooking, heating, sterilising water and preserving food introducing energy efficiency measures at a resort hotel in India harnessing river hydropower  in Fiji establishing the first wind energy plant in Cyprus However carbon footprint offsetting does allow people to start making the effort to combating co2 and for some (due to busy lifestyles which require releasing larger amounts of co2 9e.g-needing to travel) it is easier to do this than invest in renewable energies in the home/office. It can take decades for the carbon produced to be offset by projects such as tree planting. Whilst investing in lower energy light bulbs and insulating a loft can lead to benefits in a year.

BMW Essay -- essays research papers

BMW Strengths   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  BMW is a well-known company with a high status branding that has a very high recognition factor. The company has been strengths in both research and development and design as well as in marketing. For example when it comes to marketing it was a BMW advertisement that was the first e-advertisement that made it to Campaigns 'Pick of the Week' (Doman). However, in a long-term purchase such as these, there is a need for more substance than just marketing, otherwise the life of the company would be relatively short due to the nature of the purchase. It is in these longer-term systems and strategies that we can see many of the strengths of BMW, we can consider these by starting with the market position of the company.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  BMW as well as Mercedes' and a few other companies have managed too successfully attain a market position where they have a focus on a narrow range of exclusive cars. These can be seen as aimed at the market place that is not also sensitive to price, and as such we must argue that the market positioning may be seen as a strength as there will not be such a reaction if the economic conditions change. The customers that are in the target group are happy to pay a premium price for what they perceive as a premium product (Thompson).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This may not be so true of the subsidiary companies that have had different problems, such as the ill-fated Rover group. However, the core product has remained strong (Thompson). This may be seen as diversification, and some of the diversification may also be seen as a strength, for example the purchase of Rolls Royce where there is a similar strategy, however the range and target market are even more focussed and exclusive.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The strategy of BMW is designed to be defensive against other car manufactures, and as we will see when it comes to the section on threats this is a defensive strategy that BMW have adopted after learning the need for defensive as well as aggressive marketing and strategies. These strategies can be seen as follows;  Customers may choose any color that the wish from the entire range, this is only matched by Rolls Royce and Aston Martin, other companies offer a choice of color but only wi... ....   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The position of BMW is relatively strong; they have made mistakes, but appear to be learning form them. Their relatively small size can be seen as justified in such a competitive market by their own market position. Therefore as long as the company retains it focus and is not tempted into too great a level of diversification then it should have a bright future. Work Cited European Car, (no author cited), (2001, May), Hydrogen-powered BMW 750hL, European Car, v32 i5 p14 The Economist (UK), (no author cited), (2000, April 1), Milberg's mission. (Strategy of BMW, The Economist (UK), p70 (2) Lorenz Andrew, (2000, Dec 20), Rover and out. (BMW's sale of Rover, automobiles) Autocar, v226 i12 p62 (4) Mintzberg H Quinn J B, Ghoshal S (1998), The Strategy Process, London. Prentice Hall. Thompson J (1998) Strategic Management; Awareness and Change, London, Thomson Business Press Wells Melanie, (2001, April 16), Giving an Old Brand New Mystique. Forbes, p198s02 Foundry Management & Technology, (no author cited), (2000, July), BMW, Ford Motor Sign Definitive Agreement for Land Rover, Foundry Management & Technology, v128 i7 p8

The Behavior of Cult Leaders and Members Explained by using Psychologic

This essay will examine and describe the behavior of cult leaders and cult members by using and applying psychological principles. I will specifically highlight the behavior of Jim Jones and his followers and explain what factors that caused them to believe wholeheartedly in the doctrine of Jim Jones. I will also explain what psychological tactics were used to influence his believers to be participants in mass suicide and the psychological factors that contributed to the belief that this was their only option. What is a cult? According to (Pratkanis & Aronson, 2001,p.307) the term cult is used to described to describe a pattern of social relations within a group† and that cults can be â€Å"centered on a range of issues, including race, politics, therapy, self-help as well as spirituality and religion.† Another distinctive feature of cults or new religious moments are that they have â€Å"distinctive religious rituals and beliefs related to its god or a person, they also practice isolation from the surrounding culture and have a charismatic leader† (Myers, 2011, p.197). Cults are by no means new phenomena; they have been around since before the beginning of written history. Some of the earliest cults were recorded by the ancient Mesopotamian, Greek and Egyptian civilizations. There were also early Christian cults, such as the Essenes and the Gnostics. There are also the examples of modern cults, such as The Children of God, Heaven’s Gate and the Branch Davidians. In addition to cults, there are also modern new age organizations and movements. These groups tread a fine line between being an authentic religious organization and have some of the same characteristics of being a cult. In these types of organizations; it is often di... ...al psychological principals for his own purposes. I firmly believe that in the very end Jones used the power of informational social influence to gain obedience and conformity. This was the decisive factor that caused his followers to drink the cyanide laced Kool- aide and commit what Jones called a â€Å"revolutionary suicide.† Works Cited The Ford Foundation. (96-10). PBS,The American Experience . Jonestown the Life and Death of Peoples Temple. Retrieved 4/6/2012, from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/jonestown-california/. Myers, D. G. (2002). Exploring psychology (5th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Myers, D. G. (2012). Exploring social psychology (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Pratkanis, A. (2002). Age of propaganda: the everyday use and abuse of persuasion. New York: W.H. Freeman.

Keep Fit Essay

To keep fit and healthy, follow a healthy and balanced diet everyday. Make sure that your everyday diet includes lots of fruits, vegetables, and protein. You should cut down on red meat, junk foods, caffeine, and sugar intake. Avoid soft drinks or canned fruit juices. Instead, opt for a variety of fresh fruits, vegetable salads, freshly made fruit juices, milk, nutritious energy drinks, etc. You need to be more active in order to keep fit and healthy. Modern life has become very sedentary, with fewer scopes for physical activities. You need to exercise in order to burn those calories. Minimum physical activity slows down your metabolism rate. So, you can put on weight even when you eat less. On the other hand, exercise and a more active life will burn up the calories, even when you eat a little more. You can simply go for a brisk walk, or jog, or you can join a gym. The important thing is that you must include some physical exercise in your everyday life, because fitness and health cannot be achieved without some physical exercise. For a healthy life sufficient sleep is important. Lack of sleep can make you feel tired the next day. So work hard, but make sure that you have enough sleep; so that your body gets the time to replenish itself. Do not skip your breakfast, no matter how busy you are. Breakfast is the first and most important meal of the day. It works as a fuel for your body and keeps you going for the rest of day. If you skip breakfast, you will feel hungrier in the latter part of the day, and you may end up eating more! So, you may run a risk of gaining weight, if you skip your breakfast frequently. If you are not a healthy eater and find it difficult to improve your food habits due to busy, erratic, work schedules, then you may be depriving your body of the essential nutrients that are important for good health. In the long run, unhealthy food habits can lead you to serious health hazards. An easy solution to this problem is to include multi-vitamin supplements in your daily food intake. Multi-vitamins can be taken to replenish the nutritional deficiencies in your daily diet.

Features of Private Payer and Consumer Essay

A HMO is accredited by the state. For its more abject costs, the HMO has the most rigorous guidelines and the minutest alternative of suppliers. Its extremities are allotted to principal care doctors and must utilize network suppliers to be addressed, omit within exigencies. HMO were primitively planned to address all canonical services for a yearly bounty and visit co-pays. A health maintenance organization is coordinated throughout a business model. The model is based on how the terms of the correspondence link the supplier and the plan. Within all, nevertheless, enrollers must see health maintenance organization suppliers within order to be addressed. A group HMO foreshortens with more than one doctor group. Within some plans, health maintenance organizations members receive medical services within health maintenance organization owned facilities from suppliers who cultivate only for that HMO. Within others, members inflict the supplier’s facilities, and the suppliers can a lso treat nonmember patients. IPA (Independent or Individual Practice Association) type of health maintenance organization is an affiliation made by doctors with individually owned practices who foreshorten united to supply care for HMO members. A health maintenance organization compensates managed fees for medical services to the Independent Practice Association. The IPA in turn compensates its doctor members, either through a fee or capitates rate. Suppliers may link more than one IPA and generally see nonmember patients. A point-of-service plan is intercrossed of PPO and HMO networks. Members may prefer from a primary or secondary network. The primary network is HMO-like and the secondary network is generally a PPO network. Like HMOs, POS plans appoint a yearly premium and co-pay for office inflicts. A point-of –service may be integrated as a tiered plan, for exemplar, with dissimilar rates for particularly assigned suppliers, veritable participating suppliers, and out-of-network suppliers. Indemnity (insurance) call for deductible, premium, and coinsurance defrayments. They generally address seventy to eighty percent of costs for comprehended benefits after deductibles are assembled. Many have some managed care ch aracteristics since remunerators contend for employer’s contracts and attempt to assure costs. CDHP (consumer-driven or consumer-directed health plans) aggregate two elements which are (1) a-high deductible health plan and (2) one or more tax-preferable savings accounts that the patient; which is the consumer  addresses. The two plans cultivate together: The high-deductible health plans addresses tragedy losses, and the savings account devotes out of the pocket or unveiled disburses. CDHP authorize consumers to deal their usage of healthcare services and products. CDHPs decimate most co-pays coverage and agitate responsibility for managing the dollars within the savings account to mortars. CDHPs promote individuals to seek routine well-care gains. For the CDHP approach to cultivate, then, consumers must be capable to detect precise healthcare data. A health reimbursement account is a medical reimbursement plan set up and funded through an employer. Health Reimbursement Account are generally offered to employees with health plans that have high deductibles. Employees may submit claims to the HRA to be compensated back for out of pocket medical disbursements. Some troupes extend FSA, which is known as Flexible Savings (Spending) Accounts that augment employees other health insurance coverage. Employees have the alternative of putting pretax dollars from their remunerators within the FSA; they can then utilize the fund to compensate for sure dependent and medical care expenses. The FSA might be utilized within one of two ways. Within some companies, the employer has to file a claim with the plan after compensating a bill. The weakness of an FSA as equated with an HAS is that fresh dollars go back to the employer underneath the â€Å"use it or lose it† rule at the conclusion of the year. Employees must attempt to anticipate their years disbursements to avert either underfunding or overfunding the account. References: Valerius, J., Bayes, N., Newby, C., & Seggern, J. (2008).Medical insurance: An integrated claims process approach (3rd ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill. U.S. Treasurer’s Office. http://www.treasury.gov.resource-center/faqs/Taxes/Pages/Health-Savings-Accounts.aspx The Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon. http://www.regence.com/

Advertising Makes You Buy Things You Do Not Need!

Aim of this paper is to discuss the question whether advertising manipulates us to buy things we don't actually need. In other words, we would like to debate the issue of the impact of marketing and advertisement on our rational thinking and decision making process. Based on various examples, we would like to show that the statement can be proven to be true. We believe the statement can be denied only by either using different definition (understanding of advertising) or by argument that advertising manipulates only several groups of people that are vulnerable to be manipulated.Nevertheless, the previous statement only supports the validity of the statement. Man can argue that the behavior of the people depends on the individual personality, economic condition and the way a company advertises their product Ana ten Locknut offers given to ten product. Our point Is, Tanat tenure are various advertising techniques with various targets. Another big question is how can we Judge what kind of goods and services are necessary, and which good is bought only to show-off among their friends and relatives?What is a need, and what is Just a will? This paper will argue the manipulation via marketing exists and the advertisement is making us to buy things we do not actually need. We want to support the statement by using real examples, that are divided based on the common psychological effect or methods used to manipulate people's mind. We would like to stress the importance of psychology which is seen as a main tool used by advertising companies. Only via careful use of psychology are marketers able to create touching advertisements.

Polychlorinated Biphenyl Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 188

Polychlorinated Biphenyl - Assignment Example Therefore, when we were digging through the building walls contaminated with PCBs, we had to be careful with how we were going to make the overhead bay extension in the Aluminum Casting plant. Basically, we first took precaution by wearing protective gears before going to the area. Next, to avoid any physical contact with humans, we used the help of an excavator which was manually controlled by a specialist. Basically, as we did the excavation, we managed to decontaminate the building wall by use of diesel fuel plus rags. The very purpose of the exercise was not to produce any liquid so that no one in that area could get exposure through breathing. After the exercise, we were left with two issues. How to dispose of the contaminated rags? and How to decontaminate the excavator?. These were challenging for us, but we opted to place the rages in containers and labeled with symbols that said hazardous. The very purpose of labeling the containers as hazardous was to avoid people from mistaking it from other containers while transporting and disposal. The containers had to be sealed tightly to ensure that in the event of the containers dropping off, they would not cause the contaminated rags to fall off. Another precaution that was used was the decontamination of the excavator which had been exposed as it bore through the contaminated building wall that had PCBs. The process of decontamination of the excavator had to be done by chemical means. In this process, we had to use chemical agents that caused dechlorination of the compound. Basically, the chemicals acted by breaking down the compound into chlorine and biphenyl. Furthermore, to ensure completed decontamination, we had to ensure that the excavator had been successfully removed from the warm zone so as not to contaminate the excavator again.

Sexual Deviance Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Sexual Deviance - Term Paper Example This essay will examine each of these, as well as looking at one particular deviancy, voyeurism, and determine how this is assessed. Assessing Sexual Deviance One way to assess sexual deviancy is a method known as penile plethysmograph (Simon et al. 1991). This is a way of measuring tumescence in response to fantasy or laboratory stimuli. According to Simon (1991), this method assumes a somewhat controversial theoretical explanation of sexual deviance. And this theoretical explanation for sexual deviance is that if there is a penile arousal, then there would be corresponding overt sexual acts. As noted above, however, this method is considered to be controversial because many sexual deviants actually are not able to obtain erection – for instance, many pedophiles are actually impotent, and sometimes there are exhibitionists who also cannot get an erection. However, this is one method of assessment, so it should be examined further (Simon, 1991). According to Simon (1991), phal lometric measures are commonly obtained by using a strain gauge or mercury in rubber gauge. Penile volume measures, by design, assess volume changes in terms of penis diameter and length. The patient, who is the alleged sexual deviant, is then showed different erotic cues and the degree of sexual arousal is measured. The stimuli might include movies, erotic stories, nudes and audiotaped narratives. Among the stimuli are materials which are considered to be inappropriate in some way. For instance, a pedophile may be assessed by showing the individual pictures of children who are nude and gauging the penile reaction to this. Moreover, in addition to the actual tumescence of the penis, another factor is how long the stimulus is presented. The man is then scored according to how much he was aroused in looking at different inappropriate stimuli (Simon, 1991). This is one way to assess sexual deviancy. There are other ways, and these are described by Hanson and Thornton (2000). They descr ibe ways to conduct risk assessment of pedophiles, and these assessments are used to predict the danger of future recidivism. Hanson and Thornton (2000) describe three different kind of actuarial scales which are used to predict future behavior of pedophiles. One is the Rapid Risk Assessment for Sex Offense Recidivism (RRASOR). This is a test that uses variables which are easily scored – the seven items on this scale are prior sex offenses, prior nonsex offenses, any male victims, any stranger victims, any unrelated victims, marital status and age. The variables are then correlated and calculated into seven different datasets, then averaged using meta-analytic techniques. Another is the Structured Anchored Clinical Judgment (SACJ). This is an assessment technique that uses a stepwise approach – the first step is classifying the person into low, medium or high risk, and this assessment is based upon the offenders convictions; then, in the next steps, the offenders are r eclassified according to protective or aggravating factors. In other words, the offender may be initially considered high risk, but may be reclassified as a lower risk, depending upon different factors. A third type of assessment is known as the Static-99. This is a scale that uses the previous two, and the Static-99 adds together the items from the other two assessments, by using the static factors (Hanson & Thornton, 2000). Another way of assessing sexual deviancy is through the Abel

Topic Proposal on Should Testimonies of Lay Witnesses be Allowed in Coursework

Topic Proposal on Should Testimonies of Lay Witnesses be Allowed in Court - Coursework Example The law in some cases permits the witnesses to give their opinion evidence that can be categorized into expert opinion and lay opinion. â€Å"While the courts have made concessions in certain recurring situations, necessity as a standard for permitting opinions and conclusions has proved too elusive and too unadaptable to particular situations for purposes of satisfactory judicial administration† (Legal Information Institute, 2011). Lay witnesses give their opinions when they are based rationally on their perceptions, prove helpful in determining facts in the issue, and when they are not based on technical, scientific, and other kinds of knowledge in the expert testimony scope. Lay witnesses are permitted to give their opinion to help determine the weight, height, dimensions, quantity and such other features of things despite the lack of precision of their testimony. By definition, lay witnesses cannot be considered as experts on a specific matter. Even lay witnesses themselve s are not willing to appear as witnesses when they are given subpoena from the court. â€Å"For most inexperienced witnesses, the prospect of testifying in a deposition or courtroom fills them with dread† (Heaney and Koonan, 2007, p. 1). When lay witnesses meet other witnesses before appearing in the court, it reduces the chances of collusion and fabrication (Slovenko, 2004). This imparts the need to study to what extent the parties involved in the judicial cases are optimistic about the reliance of lay witnesses for evidence. Research in this field is very limited. By studying whether testimonies of the lay witnesses should or should not be allowed in court, this research would fill gap in the literature. This research would identify the response to the question; whether testimonies of lay witnesses should be allowed in court or not. Answer to this question would be obtained from different categories of people

Lipids Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Lipids - Essay Example Many of these important molecules are vital to our very existence, and without them we would not be able to survive. At the same time however, to many lipids has recently been proven to give rise to bad health conditions, so it is important to keep a proper balance of these molecules, as to few or to many of these vital molecules can be extremely harmful, even deadly. Our bodies need these fats in their system, and we also need them in our diet. Without these important fats, our body would not be able to function; our cells would not have the right layers needed for most of their processes, and we would eventually die. Lipids are extremely important molecules, that are vital to our existence, and we need to make sure to keep a proper amount of them in our body. Lipids are just one of the many molecules that help our body tick. Often unseen or unknown by the majority of the community, most people take these highly important molecules for granted, not even knowing what they are as they keep their body working properly. The lipid molecule is vital to human life, and without it we would not be able to function. Understanding this complex molecule is also important, so one can know exactly how this versatile molecule helps keep our body working, and how they help our body partake in many of its important life functions and reactions. By a scientific definition, lipids are â€Å"an amphiphilic class of hydrocarbon-containing organic compounds†( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipids). They have several important qualities that give rise to their importance in the human body and cellular construction. One of these qualities is the importance of the structure of lipids. Lipids have a long hydrocarbon tail, which is hydrophobic and does not like water. On the other end of the lipids however, is a hydrophilic head, which does like water.

Sociolinguistic analysis of language and culture Assignment

Sociolinguistic analysis of language and culture - Assignment Example On social status, S1, S2, and S3 most probably belong to the typical middle class --- taking hourly jobs to earn extra cash, etc. They also worry about taxes and prices of sandwiches, etc. On race/ethnicity, S1, S2, and S3 obviously are not native English speakers. S3 could be Chinese, because she mentioned at some point that â€Å"im supposed to be able to speak Chinese.† S1s ethnicity is still vague, but for sure she is not a native speaker because she uses the word â€Å"bathroom† when referring to the toilet. S2 could be more fluent compared to S1 and S3, but still a non-native English speaker because she uses phrases such as â€Å"its coming out of the same pot,† which is easy to understand but not a common idiomatic expression in English. S4s ethnicity is somewhat hard to determine because of the limited interaction of the other speakers with him. His gender is obviously male, because he was called by his name (Jeremy) the moment he arrived. S1 displays instrumental, regulatory, and personal (Bonvillain, 2008, p.182) communicative styles. Instrumental because she is sees to not have qualms in satisfying needs: â€Å"you guys i_ i have to go_ i have to go leave. i have to go to the bathroom.† Regulatory because she is assertive in speaking what she thinks she wants done: â€Å"yo- you wanna put our forms all together, (in this)† and â€Å"w- should we go up and like testing testing .† Personal because all throughout the interaction, she expresses her thoughts without hesitation, sometimes even to the point of interrupting the current speaker. S2 displays interactional and heuristic (Bonvillain, 2008, p.182) communicative styles. Interactional because she tries to maintain the balance in the interaction by allowing each speaker to say their thoughts without interruption for the most part. Her usual verbal nods are â€Å"uhuh† and â€Å"mhm.† This shows that even if she does not ask a

Fascism Essay Example for Free

Fascism Essay Fascism is â€Å"a form of extreme right-wing ideology† (Lyons, 2007) that promotes nationalism or the staging of own race as the superior in the world. It urges the people of a country to unite for nation-building after times of downfall and destruction, and scrap traces of individualism, materialistic attitudes, and foreigners. It especially believes in the capability of violence to change the landscape of the country and let it grow for the better. This form of government was established by Benito Mussolini of Italy, and later influencing Adolf Hitler of Germany. King Victor Emmauel III of Italy feared the occurrence of civil war in the country if the next prime minister was not a Socialist or a Fascist. This was the reason why Mussolini was given seat in the government to be the head of the Council Ministers. However, after two years, he established himself as the new â€Å"head of the government† taking over several ministries and headed on his way to start dictatorship. He kept power in his hands and prevented resistance by starting a police state. He created an imaginary free press by not allowing people who did not have certificate of approval from the Fascist Party to practice journalism, and that all editors were personally chosen by himself. He privatized several institutions to keep up with his financiers. He also commenced the invasion of some countries of the world, especially the Mediterranean region. Hitler, on the other hand, gained respect and salutation from many politicians including the then President Paul von Hinderburg. He appealed largely to the farmers, war veterans and the rest of middle class for a reconstruction of the economy and military components of the country, and simultaneously promoting nationalism and anti-communism, like what Mussolini did. Though lost in presidential election in 1932, he established himself as a good alternative for a new and more stable government, clamoured by the people. It was in 1933 when he was appointed by the President as the new Chancellor of the country. When the President died in 1934, all the roles and tasks of the head of the state was transferred to him. This made him supreme and do whatever he wanted. With the continuing growth in the number of believers of fascism, they had moved up to be the controller of their country during their time. Both have used the common people to start a massive base of supporters. Both of them were also endorsed and seated to their high positions by higher ranking officials: the King of Italy for Mussolini; while the President of Germany for Hitler. With their hold on the primary ministries of their respective countries, they were able to deploy their military components to bring war against Britain and France, which also declared war against them when they tried to get additional states for their country. When Hitler annexed Austria to Germany, and defeated several other countries, Mussolini was convinced to campaign for war against the Allied Powers of France and Britain. Their team-up led to further outrage by the other powerful nations in the world like the United States of America and the Soviet Union. Both of their dreams of expanding their territories led to failures because they chose to stage war against more powerful countries. Mussolini failed on making Italy self-sustaining because the country lacks the basic resources. Hitler failed in building the country he dreamed of because of the multiple counts of human rights violation, most notably exemplified in the Holocaust.

Outsourced Delivery Services Of Ikea

Outsourced Delivery Services Of Ikea The purpose of our thesis is to find out the factors that affecting the customers satisfaction on outsourcing. The importance of Supply Chain Management (SCM) is being a vital part of a company; however, a well SCM is not as mature as some old function like Human Relation Management, Accounting, etc. Thus, companies may outsource SCM or particular function among SCM to the 3rd party services provider. Meanwhile, the quality and effect on outsourcing would be a concern to companies. Customers make the sales, profit of a company. If the part which being outsourced may contact customers directly, is there any precaution and measurement to ensure the services provide will not be affecting during outsourcing, or how to minimize the influence to companies. Todays Supply Chain Management Many companies today are strengthening their connections with partners all along the supply chain. They no longer just treat suppliers as vendors and distributors as customers. They treat both as partners in delivering customers value. Most business nowadays are customer-oriented, e.g., Sales, CS Business, Insurance, Banking/Finance, Beauty Care/Health, etc. Background of Outsourcing In a global marketplace an increasingly huge competition forces companies striving to find strategies that give them competitive advantage over the competitors (Christopher, M., 1998). Outsourcing has been treated as one of the most important business and economic concepts for achieving competitive advantages. Outsourcing can be defined as the transfer of the production of goods or services that had been performed internally to an external party (Van Weele, A., 2005). Company can focus on their core business if the companies transfer its operations to another company to produce goods or services some 3rd party services provider. The basic reason for outsourcing is the increased trend of globalization (Enarsson, L., 2008, p.33). The reasons behind outsourcing may lower the cost on delivery, utilize local firms resources thus avoid capital investment on fixed asset for developing non core products, and to gain access technology, performance through effective partnership. Problems discussion Outsourcing, regardless a powerful economic and business strategy, does not always ensure success to the outsourcesr involved in the entire process. There are many drawbacks in outsourcing operations. It might help a company on cost saving, focus on core business; enhance capacity for innovation, wider experience and knowledge, etc. However, there are some arguments on guaranteeing quality of service, qualifications of outsourcee, standpoint of labor. Once a company determined which projects will be outsourced, they have to know why outsource and when to be carry out, how to prevent from mistakes while outsourcing. CONCEPTUAL STUDIES In this part we will explain the concept of supply chain management and outsourcing as well as their relationship from the point of view of different available and established theories and literatures. In this section our goal is to elaborate more about outsourcing in a theoretical frame. Supply Chain Management (SCM) A customer focused definition is given by Hines Supply chain strategies require a total systems view of the linkages in the chain that work together efficiently to create customer satisfaction at the end point of delivery to the consumer. As a consequence costs must be lowered throughout the chain by driving out unnecessary costs and focusing attention on adding value. Throughput efficiency must be increased, bottlenecks removed and performance measurement must focus on total systems efficiency and equitable reward distribution to those in the supply chain adding value. The supply chain system must be responsive to customer requirements. SCM describles a longer channel, stretching from raw materials to components to final products to final buyers. To implement an efficiency and effective supply chain systems take lots of time to design and manage, and so many companies nowadays decided to outsource parts of logistic function to a 3rd party services provider. Then they can allocate more resource and pay more effort on their core business. The Trend of Outsourcing There are no constrains to any functions which can be outsourced or not to be outsourced. To enhance the levels of competition, many organizations have started to consider in developing and maintaining the range of expertise and skills needed to compete effectively. This need has led many companies to engage with various kinds of sourcing; like outsourcing (Oshri, I., Kotlarsky, J., Willcocks, L.P., 2009) Definition of Outsourcing Different authors have defined the outsourcing that covers a wide scope of the concept of outsourcing. The word of outsourcing can be split as out and source which means sourcing externally. Some simple definitions of outsourcing are given as follows contracting with a third service provider for the management and completion of a certain amount of work, for a specified length of time, cost, and level of service (Oshri, I., Kotlarsky, J., Willcocks, L.P., 2009, p 4) A contract is the means by which the planning, responsibility, knowledge, and administration of processes is transferred to an external party (McCarthy Anagnostou, 2004, Blumberg, 1998) According to Franceschini, F. et al., 2003, Outsourcing is a managerial approach usually taken for delegating the responsibility to an external source for carrying out the operation of production process or services of an enterprise. In these contexts, it can be summarized that, outsourcing is an agreement between buyer and supplier(s) to avail processes or services that the buyer is providing internally at present; with an intention to reduce cost, increase focus on core business, improve quality of products and services and to ensure more flexibility. Evaluation Process for Outsourcing An organization needs to maintain an operational cycle to conduct the outsourcing operation. There are the outsourcing life cycle brought up by M.J., Desouza, K.C., Bonifazi, C. (Source: Power, M.J., Desouza, K.C., Bonifazi, C., 2006) Strategic assessment As the first stage of the outsourcing process, strategic assessment is the crucial activity in the whole life cycle of outsourcing. The organization should identifie a certain business case and assesses the potential benefit of adopting the outsourcing as a strategy. Needs analysis After completion of the strategic assessment, the next step for the organization is to define the needs and more specifically areas of the needs that are needed to be focused on. Vendor assessment Organization goes for soliciting, evaluating and choosing the vendor for its outsourcing needs. Contract and negotiation management To be engaged in negotiations (and renegotiations) until an agreement is reached about the details of outsourcing work. Project initiation and transition This is the most influential stages of the outsourcing relationship. The client organization slowly starts to hand over the control of the work to the outsourcee. Outsourcer should always pay attention to deal with emergent issues and smooth out any problems that occur. This stage marks the foundation of the continued relationship. Relationship management To keep up to date with the outsourcing relationship Continuance modification or exit strategy Organization must evaluate its current outsourcing contract to see if its best interest lies in continuing, modifying or exiting the relationship. Motives for Outsourcing Cost Efficiencies: Cost reduction has been the prime motive for outsourcing (Ford, D., et al., 1993). To develop a complete product is always expensive for a company as it needs huge investment to improve products and production process through continuous research and technology development. Outsourcing reduces the cost of the client company in this area as the service providers invest in this area to meet up the demand of the buyers in a large scale. In this way, a company can achieve the competitive advantages in the market reducing the cost through outsourcing process. Focus on Core Business: Every company has some activities that are not as essential as compared to its core business functions. By sourcing non-core business activities a company can focus on its core business in a better way. So, the efficiency of a company is likely to increase as more time and resources are focused only on the core business functions (Davis, J., 2002). In addition, there are some other driving factors that encourage the buyer company to adopt the outsourcing strategy. Such as operational expertise, enhance the capacity for innovation, capacity management where the risk in providing the excess capacity is borne by the supplier. EMPIRICAL STUDIES IKEA Hong Kongs Concept and History They offers a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them. This is the idea at the core of everything IKEA does, from product development and purchases to how they sell their products in retail stores. IKEA can make a good-quality product for a high price, or a poor-quality product for a low price. But to make good products at low prices, they need to develop methods that are both cost-effective and innovative. This has been the focus of IKEA since its beginnings in Smà ¥land, Sweden. Maximizing the use of raw materials and production adaptation to meet peoples needs and preferences has meant that their costs are low. The IKEA way of doing things is to pass these cost savings on to customers. Importance of Select Reliable Outsourcee Under our investigation, IKEA Hong Kong has outsourced the home delivery and assembly services to an independent contractor. Basically, with return or exchange, home delivery and assembly services would be the final stage for company to provide services to customers. From ordering to delivery, IKEA takes at least three workings, even the staff give excellent customer services at retails store, the experience in store almost fade out after placing order. As the period from waiting order delivery to complete can replace the experience in store, services provide during these period of time is essential to decide will this customer return or not. No customers, no business, no sales. Those satisfied ones turns to be a loyal customers, otherwise, unsatisfied customers will bad month our company. Word of mouth is a reference to the passing of information from person to person. The influence of word of mouth is not measurable and difficult to rebuild company image. The dimensions of reliability; responsiveness; assurance; empathy; tangibility and cost in the service quality approach can be used in identifying critical factors that may suggest some ideas on selection of logistic services provider (LSP) (Kong Mayo, 1993; Bienstock, et al., 1997). Reliability Responsiveness Assurance Transit time Service Consistency Document Accuracy Responsiveness Variety of Services Express Delivery Global coverage Updated rates Track and Trace Containerization Consolidation Reputation No Goods Damages Empathy Tangibility Cost CRM Employee Courtesy Location Modern Equipments Own CFS E-services EDI Price Discount Credit term Case Study I: Apple Computer and TNT Express (See Appendix I) Apple Computer has been outsourced its delivery services to TNT Express. There would be a list of complaint about the services of TNT Express. The complaints are regarding to package missing, long delivery time, with recomfirm to package receiver. FINDINGS Apple Computer outsourcing its delivery services to TNT, every one who place the order from Apple store knew this. Once the order is placed, there are an implication of customers are agreed to let TNT Express to take over the duty of product delivery. Unlike IKEA Hong Kong, the delivery materials of contractors like trucks, boxes are printed in IKEA logo. It is difficult for customer to identify they are not the staff of IKEA. In order to protect the image or reputation, IKEA should ensure the contractor can perform like an IKEA staff, i.e., the delivery worker should have basic product knowledge, especially for solving the enquiries during the process of services delivery. That is unreasonable to say we are contractor rather than direct staff of IKEA. Customer service is any contact between a customer and a company, which can cause a negative or positive perception by a customer during services delivery. As an outsourcer, they may state clear of relationship between outsourcer and outsourcee may reduce complaints caused by misunderstanding. The case of Apple, sometimes online checking system of TNT Express does not show the actual product delivery status. Those complainers about product delivery did focus on the services provider TNT Express instead of complaining the Apples decision making on contractor selection. Case Study II: Survey on Outsourcing of Government Activities on 2002 and 2004 (See Appendix II) The Efficiency Unit of HKSAR has been conducted a survey about outsourcing of governemt activities as at 2002 and 2004 since 2000. In this two reports, it showed, over 80% of bureaux and departments have beed outsourced at least one function to an indepentend contractor. FINDINGS According to the report on 2004, those functions which occupied the most expenditure were capital works constraction, building property management and environmental hygiene are the top three outsourced functions. By analyzing the pattern of annual expenditure, the fluctuation of transport services is the most serious among the listed functions. The ratio of reducing expenditure is the most significant as well. In 2000, the expenditure was around $1 billion and then it dropped to $0.1 billion in 2002. Unlike other services categories, transport services were doubling up the expenditure on 2004. The focus of outsourced function of IKEA Hong Kong is the delivery services, it may categorize as transport services among the government functions. Reference to the expenditure on different services categories, transport services it is did not donminated the propular function of being outsourced. Reference to the page 6 of survey on 2004, there are current satisfaction of outsourcees performance. Around half of the outsourcee full met the requirement of outsourcer. Yet there is also another half that only partially fulfill. CONCLUSION IKEA is now the worlds largest furniture retailer; they have a fixed group of partners on manufacturing, purchasing and supply functions, design and development of products in the IKEA range. For distribution they have their own logistics center Europe is located in Dortmund, Germany and Asian logistic center is located in Singapore along with its IT base. To retaining customers, they have the customer relation system of IKEA Family. IKEA perform well in Europe no matter for SCM, marketing and customer retention. In Hong Kong region, they also have a good SCM, even they outsourced parts of service to an independent services provide. Yet the seldom to hear so negative comment to those outsourced services. Furthermore, under our investigation, we found that only one contractor took over the job of delivery, assembly services. The part that would appreciate is even the delivery services are being outsourced, IKEA Hong Kong still having a backup delivery term in-house. Once there are any conflicts or under peak seasons of ordering, IKEA can take over part of the order themselves. However, it is difficult to understand why they have not launch the loyalty card in Hong Kong. To strength the loyalty of customer, which is important to understand the purchase pattern of customers, in order to give related promotion and information to encourage them repeating purchase. There are no absolute anwser for good to be outsoure or not to be.Companies should adopt a planned approach towards outsourcing taking into account the interests of employees and customers alike and come up with a balanced advance. The cycle of evaluation process for outsourcing is a good model for a company which would interest in outsourcing a/some particular function to a 3rd party services provider. For those companies which have been outsourced, a regular evaluation on before and after outsourcing is important. In todays dynamic marketplace, there are no rules can last till the end. The one who wants to be dominant of the market, they should keep track on of market trend, find out the competitive advantage and having a periodical review companys performance from time to time. APPENDICE http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2537721start=0tstart=0 APPENDICE http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/tnt-shipping-c41785.html APPENDICE Some links of complaint about TNT Express when taking over the order from Apple Computer. http://www.uwants.com/archiver/?tid-10549683.html (a brief survey hold by some forum members) http://www1.17t17p.com/viewthread.php?tid=452427 http://boardreader.com/thread/Apple_HK_TNT_FRUSTRATION_9udfX1jc6j.html http://discussions.info.apple.com/click.jspa?searchID=-1messageID=12054701