Saturday, August 31, 2019

Friedrich Nietzsche’s “God is Dead” Essay

It is a bright sunny morning with the students rushing to go to their classrooms. Inside the Philosophy classroom of Mrs. Beckham, college students are starting to stack their books out of their bags and on to their table. Mrs. Beckham arrives and without saying anything, writes on the board in big bold letters â€Å"God is Dead. † Everybody fell silent and remembered the research task assigned to them two weeks ago. Mrs. Beckham: (sits down on her chair) God is Dead. Of course, Catholics and believers consider God to be dead as He no longer exists on Earth. Several stories have their own representations of how God died a long time ago through crucifixion. All of us have seen that. Do you think God is dead? A student raises his hand from the back of the room†¦ Mrs. Beckham: (points towards the said direction) Any thoughts worthy of the class’s attention, Ms. Fuller? Andrea Fuller: I believe the phrase written on the board is from a well-known German philosopher who introduced great ideas into the 19th century (Baird 2006). He is well known for several works and is referred to as Friedrich Nietzsche. Mrs. Beckham: Indeed, you are right, Andrea. This gives insights with regard to the background of the quote and from whom this is taken from. I wanted to hear your thoughts regarding the death of God from your personal point of view and another one in consideration of how it is perceived by Nietzsche. Another student is acknowledged by Mrs. Beckham, one sitting right in front of her†¦ George Riley: For me, God remains to exist even in our fast-paced time. He has proven himself to be present in the different corners of the globe as exemplified by the establishment of churches in each of the smallest unit of territory that could be distinguished for a country. Likewise, technology and science made its corresponding contribution that enables the churches to be more accessible to the people. This serves as a constant reminder and incessantly strengthens the belief of the people that God remains to exist today. As for what Nietzsche stated, God is dead and the people are the murderers. It is a statement that really has the tendency to provoke reactions from people (Zizek 2006). There is indeed a time wherein people have made several commentaries and this statement even enjoyed comparable attention during the time when it is sensationalized through different mediums (Zizek 2006). To a certain extent, it can be seen that the reaction earned from the people considers the topic of whether God is alive or dead to be a concern for a significant number of people. Mrs. Beckham: That is quite an interesting thought. But I still believe that God today has died. There are more things that are not seen than simply the establishment of churches and the access to such. Andrea Fuller: (reads from her book and scans the pages) Indeed, in the few last quotes from Nietzsche, Kaufmann (1974) cites the statement that â€Å"What after all are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of God? † (97). God has died a long time ago within the hearts of people. In the heart of each and every person is where God exists. Not physically for His biological death occurred a long time ago. In spirit, it is where God could remain in the hearts of the people but with the sins and crimes that are committed, God slowly died and vanished. It is all attributed to the thoughts and deeds of the people through time. Michael Dutton: So can we refer to Nietzsche as a member of the movement that is directed towards bringing about an antichrist movement? Seemingly, the arguments are leading towards the fact that Nietzsche proposed that God no longer exists, He is no longer alive, and that the people are left on their own. Anne Morris: As it is seen that this statement could easily provoke a sense of uncertainty and doubts with regard to the existence of God. In fact, in Europe, the impact of such is considered by many to have brought about a wider set of horizon for the people especially with the nonexistence of a Supreme Being that oversees everything (O’Flaherty & Doniger 1995). I quote O’Flaherty & Doniger (1995) in this book that states â€Å"for the demythologized, Nietzsche was right and Plato was wrong; when the gods died, they left behind an empty myth, a play in search of characters, a Hamlet without Hamlet† (160). With the death of God, there is seen to be an uncertainty of some sort. The important element that exists in a particular portrait, for example the subject, is missing and that the background is the only one left. That is what I understand from what is given in the previous statement. God has died a long time ago with the confusion and ignorance of people about the things that keep Him alive. Nietzsche has only emphasized this but there is a space left which could say that he may be simply describing the picture he is seeing. John Grahm: Indeed, we could consider that impact that it has over the European society where during the time when Nietzsche launched the idea, Skirbekk and Gilje (2001) proposed that â€Å"the belief in the Christian God has become unworthy of belief† (354). This represents that the statements of Nietzsche has led to the destruction, in part, of the belief that is bestowed upon the existence of Christ. Nietzsche, in making this assertion, can not be condemned as an anti-Christ per se. This is because of the fact that the context upon which the statement is made also deserves attention. He is trying to propose another thought and this is seen to be more important. Mrs. Beckham: What is this thought, then? John Grahm: That God continued to exist even after his physical death placed upon Him by people. Where we are not contented with this, we have even let him die in spirit and in thoughts. We have lost the meaning and the belief of having a God. It is the people who are to blame and this requires reclamation of our beliefs. However, this is not happening right now and Nietzsche only wanted to provoke the emotions of people and catch their attention. Mrs. Beckham: (stands up and starts to erase the phrase in the blackboard) We had a pretty much good discussion and debate that shared the ideas and research that you have done for this assignment. We have seen both the importance of critically assessing the arguments of other people and making a response thereto based on the facts we have gathered from different sources. Just the same as Nietzsche has provoked the thoughts of others in his statement, you also made your own share and provoked other people to take part in this discussion; something that is definitely helpful for us. As for me, God remain to be alive. Despite his death, there are still people, I believe, who would continuously give Him honor and carry his life within them. It is all up to us whether we would let God die in our hearts or not. References Baird, R. M. (2006) â€Å"Friedrich Nietzsche† Microsoft ® Student 2007 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation [1 November 2008]. Kaufmann, W. A. (1974) Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist, 4th Ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. O’Flagerty, W. & Doniger, W. (1995) Other Peoples’ Myths: The Cave of Echoes. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Skirbekk, G. & Gilje, N. (2001) History of Western Thought: From Ancient Greece to the Twentieth Century. London: Routledge. Zizek, S. (2006) The Parallax View. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Friday, August 30, 2019

A Lady with the Little Dog Essay

1.â€Å"The lady with the little dog â€Å"- Analyzing literature questions 1. Gurov’s character represents as a man who dislikes the company of man of his age. He finds their company uninterested and boring. In addition, he finds his wife to be unintelligent, narrow, and inelegant and he did not like to stay home at all and had been unfaithful to his wife as well. He also refers to woman’s race in a â€Å"the lower race. † Nevertheless, he seems to enjoy the company of women, which only associates with women. He believes, with woman’s company he finds himself free, knows exactly what to say and how to behave with them. He also believes that he has a charm, which attracts women to attract towards him. His character starts to develop when he chats with other women’s and there he finds Anna and starts talking to her. The main contribution to the development of Gurov’s character is caused through Anna. For most of the reason, because, he finds Anna attractive and Since, the day they both had a conversation, from that time, Gurov starts indulging himself to her even more. Later, he starts insisting her to meet every day. 2. The narrator describes Gurov’s wife as a tall, erect woman with dark eyebrows, staid and dignified and she says ‘intellectual to herself’. It can easily be notified that Gurov’s wife does not give that much effort to be familiar with his environment. She seems to take less care of her husband. ‘It seems like she does not want to do anything with her husband. So, which makes it much easier for reader to interpret that why Gurov gets in an affair with other woman. Even, though he has a family of his own and a wife as well. Of course, Gurov will have an affair with another woman since his wife does not seem to care about any of his activities or anything related to him. 3. In the story, Gurov and Anna love story begins in Yalta. Both of them starts talking to each other, and then starts meeting every other day. Then, both of them start falling in love. They, start meeting each other secretly. Their love story takes place continuous. One day, Anna had to go back to Petersburg, back to her original life- to her husband. Then , in Moscow, Gurov tries to forget Anna but he fails to do so. He keeps trying and trying but it doesn’t work. So then, flashback appears in his mind of all the memories he spent with Anna in Yalta. Then he finally decides to go to Petersburg to meet her and clear things out. After he meets her, she tells him she will visit him in Moscow. Then again both of them starts meeting each other secretly. Finally, both of them realizes they are doing wrong by meeting each other in secretly. Also, in Moscow he realizes for the first time he fall in love. Although, he seems a bit older, but for the first time he falls in love. Basically, in Moscow, both of them from their fantasy world goes back to their original world. But realization occurs, and they decides to plan out how they will try to sort things out. Also, Moscow’s cold weather symbolizes the realization of things. It also tells us shows the memories of moments spent before the winter.  It shows lonliness, cold, and unaware of things, uninterested and easily get bored. 4. When first coming into contact with her, Gurov notices that she is walking a dog. The kind of dog that she is walking, a white Pomeranian, symbolizes Anna’s innocence. She is a married woman, alone on vacation while her husband is back at home sick. It is evident that there was something special about Anna that drew in Gurov because the story says, â€Å"a romance with an unknown woman†¦ suddenly took possession of him. † Although, shortly after having sexual intercourse with Anna Gurov â€Å"felt bored already†¦ He was irritated by the naive tone. †

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Importance of Early Childhood Education Essay

With the economy currently in such a terrible position now it is’s no wonder why that people everywhere are being laid off, and companies around both the country and the world are jobs are laying off and choosing to keep staff to a minimum. Unfortunately, the positions that are kept are held by those who have the educational background that has essentially securedd their position from the beginning. There once was a time where an individual could apply for a job and their lack of educational experience was not held against them, but. N now, it seems as if there are extremely few reputable jobs are ooffered where only a high school diploma and some college is sufficient. But However, the economy is not who shouldto be blamed. The question instead that we should be asking that should be asked is, â€Å"where does it start? † Although it is understood that education is needed to surpass stay ahead throughout our lifeves, the importance of early education is frequently overlooked. Childhood education, as in Pre-Kindergarten thru fifth grade, is not about learning the simple or basic parts of education, but instead rather itsis about introducing young children’s minds to new and more complex things that will prepare them for a successful future. Some may choose to believe that pushing a child to learn a multitude of things at a young age would be considered cruel. Some may also believe that spending too much time learning would take away a child’s â€Å"childhood,† and that children should be allowed to stay children for as long as possible. , and should be allowed to play as much as possible. On theWhile the importance of imaginative play is alsovery important,contrary, if you were to analyzeing the circumstances it makes it would be clear as to why so many children have chosen a path of uncertainty in education. For example, take a five year old child who is being introduced to school for the first time. He or she would learn the basics; counting, coloring, reciting the ABC’s. Now take a child who has been introduced to a pre school program (normally around the age of four) as similar to that ofin First Step or Head Start. By the time that child will have entered into Kindergarten he/ or she will have already been introduced to a level of learning that is above any child that has not take advantage advantage of early learning programs. Thise will enable them to excel above their classmates. Children’s minds are truly like sponges; when a child is still young their mind’s this should be the time when their minds sshould be â€Å"crammed† with an abundance of knowledge. Sean Brotherson, a family science specialist, gives the example of a child’s brain being like a house that has just been built. He says, the walls are up and the doors are hung. You bring supplies to the new house and set them on the floor, but they will not work until everything is wired and hooked up. He goes on to explains, â€Å"wWhileexplain, â€Å"while learning later is possible, it usually is slower and more difficult. Some improvement in most skills is possible throughout life. However, providing children with the best opportunity for learning and growth during the periods when their minds are most ready to absorb new information is important†. From the time a child is born he/she is learning. A disinterest in learning at an early age is something that may follow him or her throughoutu their school age life, and is something that can haunt them for their entire lives and may hinder their ability to succeed in the real world. If a child shows no interest in adding and subtracting from the very beginning, it’s is often likely that child will continue thru school disliking Mmath throughout school. . and that This is something that can hold a child back from their potential. It also started at a young age. Children need to believe that learning is fun and, at the right age, is something that can help them progress farther. in life. In most Pre-Kindergarten classes in the United States, children are being taught to button their clothes, tie their shoes, or count to ten, and introduced to letters and shapes for the first time. These are all good tools to learn, just not in school. If you were to look at schools in other countries, they are far beyond what the U. S. is teaching our Preschoolers. Elaine Wu, with The Kapi’o Newspress, did an article on the failing education in the U. S. She found that according to a study done by UNICEF, the U. S. was failing when it came to international education rankings. Studies showed that other nations in the â€Å"developed† world had a more effective education systemsmore effective education systems. How wrong could it be to give our children a little more to think about, or giving them a problem that may take a little longer to solve?. Being that the children that attended my hHigh sSchool were approximately 75% mMilitary â€Å"brats,† it wasn’t not rare to have a new kid transfer in. There were kids from all places over the world but the ones that stood out were the ones from different countries. I took special interest in where they came from, but what interested me more was the fact that they were being placed into mostly advanceds classes. So with that curiosity I would start a conversation, usually beginning with â€Å"where are you from†? aAnd usually often times they were from another country or from somewhere where education was an important factor in their community. I am now 26 years old and am finally deciding to finish school. Things like what I just described makes me wonder about the course my life has taken. ifIf I had beenwere pushed into the books and encouraged to learn when I was younger would my outcome in school be different?. Here is another example. I look at my I have a fourteen year old nephew who is now in 9th grade. He is a straight A student and plays basketball (coincidently at my same high school). His grades are monitored by his parents but the transition wasn’t was not always easy. He came from New Orleans, Louisiana, where he lived with his mother. New , whichOrleans has one of the worst school systems in America so his early education was a struggle. When he moved to Hampton, trying to get him to open a book and study was next to impossible but. Wwith a lot of perseverance he now knows how important school is and where it can take you. But imagine if he had beenwas excited to learn from the beginning. If he had been given the opportunity, the transition may have been easier. I am now 26 years old and am finally deciding to finish school. Things like what I just described makes me wonder about the course my life has taken. If I had been pushed into the books and encouraged to learn when I was younger, would my outcome in school be different? I don’t expect society’s children to be building rocket ships at the age of eight. But putting more thought in to teaching children things that broaden their minds wouldn’t be such a bad thing. WWork Cited Brotherson, Sean. â€Å"Growth of the Mind†. Online posting. August 2001. www. nbsu. com Wu, Elaine. â€Å"Failing America†. Kapi’o Newspress. 25 April 2001 .

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Fruit Juices Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Fruit Juices Marketing - Essay Example The product Fruit juices, in general, has a huge distribution channel and is easily available at any store or shop. The product is placed on a priority list by the vendors according to its popularity. The product uses mass marketing because the target market is not segmented. This is due to the popularity and attributes of the product. Places that have hot climate are ideal for placing fruit juices, as cold fruit juices are essential to re-establish the lost energy in hot and humid climates. The ideal placements of the product in a shop are the top shelves of the fridge so that the people coming in and going out can see the product easily. While studying the market and segment potential we realized that the middle and upper class had the most potential for our product because a fruit juice holding the qualities of both an energy drink and a fruit juice is currently not present in these segments of the market. The major decisions to be made in this phase are the marketing coverage tha t the product will have for example whether it would follow inclusive exclusive or selective distribution, transportation decisions would be made, Inventory management will involve all the aspects of the inventory, for example, a specific level of inventory that needs to be maintained. The vendors of the product also need to be decided. By inclusive coverage what we mean here is that the whole country would be covered to distribute the fruit juices to the vendors this is suitable when the product has a mass marketing strategy.... The concessions and discount offers are dependent on the factor that whether the company wants to capture the share of the market or whether they are just introducing the product or want to earn profits from the beginning. Place The product Fruit juices in general has a huge distribution channel and is easily available at any store or shop. The product is placed in a priority list by the vendors according to its popularity. The product uses mass marketing because the target market is not segmented. This is due to the popularity and attributes of the product. Places that have hot climate are ideal for placing fruit juices, as cold fruit juices are essential to re-establish the lost energy in hot and humid climates. The ideal placements of the product in a shop are the top shelves of the fridge so that the people coming in and going out can see the product easily. While studying the market and segment potential we realized that the middle and upper class had the most potential for our product because a fruit juice holding the qualities of both a energy drink and a fruit juice is currently not present in these segments of the market. The major decisions to be made in this phase are the marketing coverage that t he product will have for example whether it would follow inclusive exclusive or selective distribution, transportation decisions would be made, Inventory management will involve all the aspects of the inventory for example specific level of inventory that needs to be maintained. The vendors of the product also need to be decided. By inclusive coverage what we mean here is that the whole country would be covered to distribute the fruit juices to the vendors this is suitable when the product has a mass marketing strategy

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Assignment Example It has a melancholic touch along with inspiration of moving on; in it. However, the author’s aim has been to depict how life moves on and requires the people to do the same. Sexiest discrimination within the same ethnicity, human needs as women, consequences of sex, forced sex turning into rape were the moving topics of it. Through which, Shange painted a true picture of life lived by black women and the treatment they receive from black male members of their own ethnicity. Their pains as diseases, attachment and detachment, all a play of emotions. Shange’s viewpoint was to highlight the sentimental dependence and enslavement of black women without identity and the true hidden colors of brightness in these women, which are often neglected. Shange through different colors portrayed different challenges faced by black women like love, sex, abortion, rape and moment of realization (un acceptance of giving up to the people and circumstances) and finally realizing the happin ess, within oneself when one confronts the feeling of disappointment. Thus, the experience of sharing challenges collectively shows the power of community and sisterhood. Shange’s aim was to show the universal truth about life and its relevance. On the other hand, Tyler Perry’s version lacked the true essence of the plot. It was viewed from a typical angle and directed in the similar manner. It has lacked the beauty of up heaving the audience; limited expression of actresses and enforced chunks of direction put together; was unable to justify the classical work of art. Alterations in the sequence of the poems and additions according to his melodramatic views, somehow managed to depict the opposing image of Shange’s approach of sensation intermingled with the beauty of acceptance. Although the rape scene did some justice to the play, as it showed the actress looking at the clock, which depicted the moments; one wants to speed away rather than freeze and make suff ering more long and unforgettable. Shange’s version had 6 women, nameless identified only through the colors of rainbow and the seventh of brown color; showed as a dark patch in a woman’s life. Blue lady struggled with the dilemma of abortion and red faced domestic violence. The ending however, enlightens the power of womanhood and sisterhood and showed the optimistic version of downfall lives of African American Women. On the other hand Perry’s version mainly showed the pessimistic side and the ending was horrific, which showed the drastic ending of all the eight black women. Through the use of 14 original poems from Shange’s version, he clipped most of them according to his own version, which wasn’t exactly ravishing and inspiring. The typical lines of Perry’s version said by Janet Jackson were, â€Å"I know I have issues with trust† (For colored girls, 2011). Tyler Perry’s describes his adaption of â€Å"for the colored gir ls†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.† As a picture of surrender which completely negated Shange’s idea of acceptance and call of recognition.   Whoopi Goldberg, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Jurnee Smollett, Macy Gray, Phylicia Rashad, Kimberly Elise and Kerry Washington , were the leading black women, who depicted the ladies of Shange’s rainbow color women. However, these ladies were unable to do the justice with poetic

Monday, August 26, 2019

Evaluating Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Evaluating Research - Essay Example Yes, since the research problem concerns with the influence of stimulating tasks on motivation and reading comprehension, then the findings of the study must therefore be quantified using a quantitative approach. Yes, in fact, the author stipulated the following line at the end of the study: â€Å"finally, researchers should continue to explore reading comprehension and reading interest to identify their reciprocal relationships† (Guthrie et al., 2006, p 244). Yes, the research study definitely employed the APA Referencing Style in their in-text citations and references’ page. In fact, here is an example of the entry in their reference page that typified the use of APA: Yes, the authors stated the purpose of their study, which is to give light to one particular research inquiry that receives little attention, that is, the use of stimulating tasks to arouse reading interest (Guthrie et al., 2006, p. 233). Yes, the assumptions and hypotheses were both expressed in the study. The assumptions regarding the stimulating tasks were written prior to the statement of hypotheses. Moreover, the hypotheses of the study are as follows: (a) Students who were given a high number of stimulating tasks related to reading would have higher reading comprehension scores than would students given a low number of stimulating tasks related to reading, controlling for prior comprehension and quality of task performance; (b) Students who were given a high number of stimulating tasks related to reading would have higher reading motivation scores than would students who were given a lower number of stimulating tasks; and Yes, the authors were able to identify and provide an explanation prior to presenting their hypotheses. In this regard, the phrase ‘stimulating task’ was employed to embody their theoretical framework, which was proposed by Nolen and Nichols (1994) that refers to classroom activity that elicits

Philosophy of African culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Philosophy of African culture - Essay Example The African culture has a special concern and regard for the cosmos and the humanity’s place in the cosmos. Most of the African stories are crafted concerning nature, animals , tricksters ad other themes with the common aim being explaining the existence of some occurrences that are perceived by the humanity to be controlled by the divine, and beyond the humanity control. Family values are very important in the Asian stories, with families occupying a special place in the lives of all members. How the tortoise got its rough shell is one of the stories that define the relations between cosmos and humanity in the African culture. Though the story is a trickster, it has a good lesson on the role of humanity in the universe as characterized by the animals. This story is a characterization of animals that were going to the heavens to see God Eke in appeasing him to send forth rains to quench the scorched earth, and bring about produce. From the story, the tortoise had to attend but had no wings to fly, so the birds accepted to donate each a feather to help the tortoise (Uche, 2). As the story narrates, the animals agree on brotherhood and so should help one another (Uche,3). The animals agree to sacrifice in order to appease Eke to send rain and end starvation that had claimed many lives (Uche, 4). The story explains of selfishness (Uche, 7) where the eagle remarks that the tortoise stands better to be sacrificed and the tortoise shows his selfishness by tricking others into eating all the food offered (Uche, 8). From the story above the aspect of humanity in the universe is evident. ... Hard work with no visible goals leads Temba to recount his 30 years of hard work in his daily labor with nothing to show of it (Achebe and Innes, 67). Again in this story, the sun has scorched the earth and humans are hungry again as Temba’s family still count on him to deliver failure to which they might die. The presence of a deity or god who provides in times of difficulty and despair is clear as Temba is provided with a meal for the family after hunger bites hard with no fish to catch (Achebe & Innes, 68). As Temba monologue continues, he wishes that the humanity on earth appease the Gods to send forth rains to end the suffering. This narrative portrays a good relation between God, man and the interdependence of man on God, in times of despair. The strong faith in African culture is evident that enables Temba to get food form God to feed his family. Drought is seen as a punishment from God. Wake, is another African story that spells of despair and desperation in times of n eeds. The story is about the shootings of Soweto in South Africa and largely narrates of the ordeal of death and how it is viewed in the African culture. The signing choirs explain a religious nature of the African people and the respect that the dead are given in their last send off (Achebe and Innes, 33). Death is viewed with a lot of respect in the African culture with multitudes paying their last respects and God appeased through songs for the sake of the dead. The sanctity and belief in respecting the human life is clear (35) as the narrator curses the whites who she accuses of being responsible for the death of their daughters and sons. All the above stories portray a strongly

Sunday, August 25, 2019

In light of the discussions around British EU membership, discuss Essay - 1

In light of the discussions around British EU membership, discuss whether a British exit from the EU would be advantageous or disadvantageous from a business point of view - Essay Example Moreover, the crisis has even shifted the attention given to the British membership, as there are matters more important at hand. Decisively, the few people discussing the matter propose that by fully accepting the membership the results would be beneficial on a political and economic basis. In terms of business, the European Union is the core and most influential body in Europe with a budget of 129 billion euros every year (Miliband 2014). Nonetheless, the member states like Britain contribute to the factor of business power making the European Union more significant than any other country. The exit of Britain from the European Union would be a disadvantage as the state is among the few nations that have a great financial impact on its function; for instance, Britain makes a contribution of up to 55 million euros a day making it twenty billion euros every year (EU Business 2014 &O’Leary 2014). Furthermore, Britain is a lead investor- it is the hub of major business investments and there are others conducted across borders; largely, British membership also holds the fate of the United Kingdom on matters regulations applied in the single market. Definitely, the EU directly benefits from the single market that Britain is a part of; however, there are other benefits resulting from the states membership (Western Morning News 2014). For instance, employed citizens of the European Union get the opportunity to train a variety of new recruits with British taking full advantage of this by providing employment opportunities to many citizens. Moreover, the trainees and recruits tackle the shortage of skills in the United Kingdom as a potential and determined workforce (Mansfield 2014). From a different point of view, the exit of membership would also be as shortcoming for Britain, as well as the European Union that holds the biggest part

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Risk Management Policy (NHS) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Risk Management Policy (NHS) - Essay Example This industry is susceptible to many types of risk. For example three percent of America’s $1.7 trillion annual healthcare expenditure is lost due to fraud and over charging (Lexisnexis, 2007). This paper analyzes the risk management policy of a company in the healthcare industry called NHS Greater Glasgow. The focus of the analysis is on the impact of the risk management policy on the managerial team and regular staff of employees. Risk management is taken very seriously at NHS Greater Glasgow. For this company the risk management function is an effort that is accomplished by the cooperation of all the employees working for the firm. The current risk management policy in place in this company was establish in 2005 after the policy underwent a rigorous evaluation process that obtain input from a lot of decision makers in this enterprise working in different division of the company dispersed across the entire country. The application of the policy involves both the regular staff and the managerial staff. The workers in this company were trained in the risk management policy of the company. The function of the non-managerial staff is to actively report incidents and accidents of occurrences, near misses and to make recommendations on how to improve the internal system of the unit they work for. The company has a corporate culture that encourages participation from all employees and any feedback from any member of the organization is analyzed to make continuous improvement of the system. The functions of the managerial staff regarding the application of its risk management policy are: managing risk, performance monitoring, gathering accurate risk information, incorporating effective communication systems and promoting continuous improvements. At the executive managerial level the staff keeps close relationships with its partners and uses a philosophy of mutual cooperation in order to

Friday, August 23, 2019

Describe the development of ancient Greek burial customs through time Essay

Describe the development of ancient Greek burial customs through time - Essay Example The Archaic and Classical Periods continued the worship of the dead. Central to all of the periods was that honor was of central importance in burial (Morris 49). Valor on the battlefield and the ability to produce offspring were more valued than anything else in the Greek society, since they provided continuity to the ancient Greek bloodlines and society. Greek territory is located at the Aegean sea, and spread across many islands (Martin 1). Mainland is covered by mountains (Martin 1). Only 20 – 30 percent of Greek mainland and a few islands were arable in the time of ancient Greece (Martin 2). Sea was their main transport route (Martin 2). Greeks traded with merchants from the Near East, Egypt and other eastern Mediterranean parts (Martin 2). Despite the shared culture, Greeks never constituted one state. Ancient Greeks lived in different communities, ranging from oligarchies to monarchies and tyrannies, with some such as Athens reaching democracy (Martin). However, they all shared â€Å"a cultural identity because they spoke dialects of the same language† (Martin 4). They worshipped the same gods and gathered at celebrations of their gods (Martin 4). Two prominent cultures in the Bronze Age were the Mycenaean on the mainland and Minoan on Crete. Around 2,200 B.C., the Minoan culture developed (Martin 24). Palaces sprang up in the Minoan culture. Females were highly valued as represented on the palace frescoes and figurines of â€Å"bosomy goddesses†, but burial customs reveal that males held highest positions in running the society (Martin 26). Martial prowess was highly valued, as the wealth of weaponry found in graves of Minoan males indicated (Martin 26). It is safe to assume than Minoan palaces were run by male kings or princes, and that the society was already highly specialized (Martin 26). The first Greek speaking culture whose burial grounds have been uncovered come from the Mycenaean

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Marketing Across Culture Success or Dilemma Essay Example for Free

Marketing Across Culture Success or Dilemma Essay Marketing across culture is one of the biggest issues which multinational companies have been confronting nowadays. Since marketing is an important factor for the propagation of a particular product or company, marketing plan should also be effective simultaneously. Every organization has to pay attention towards all the aspects which can make a marketing plan successful and ethical aspect is one of them. Since global marketing is a complex process, ethical issues like cultural diversity is one of the major reasons that can cause failure of marketing plan. Marketing across culture is basically defined as product or service promulgation beyond the borders. Since beyond borders, culture, lifestyle and audience get changed, the attitude of the people also gets changed simultaneously. (Hutterer 2006) So, it can be regarded an ethical dilemma to market the products on international level and for dealing with such situation, company needs to scrutinize interests, traditions and culture of the indigenous people. However, different organizations have developed dissimilar strategies in order to cope with such ethical issues. Reasons of this dilemma Cultural diversity is generated by dissimilarity between native culture and the culture beyond the borders. Since every society has its own culture, its audience also possesses dissimilar concerns, ideologies, concepts, principles and keeping all these dynamics under consideration, a marketing plan is developed so that it can come up with the requirements of that respective culture. (Hall Hall, 1990) If the organizations neglect this aspect without considering the emotions and affiliations of its audience important, the result appears in the form of negative consequences. Since the main reason of this dilemma is dynamic nature of traditions, the organizations usually employ strategic plan keeping the regional aspects under consideration. However, in such cases, the organizations which assume theory of relativism are considered successful because it enables them to come up with regional cultural requirements. Since there are no absolute criteria for universal morality in this regard, this ethical dilemma has been solved using the utilitarian approach and the example can be taken from IKEA Inc. In Saudi Arabia, they have kept ethical and moral concerns in limelight while marketing their services and their apology for using female images in marketing transmedia can be taken as evidence in this regard. (Quinn 2012) Another reason why this thing is considered a dilemma is that marketing across culture makes it complex for the organizations to comply with the needs of customers since not only traditions, culture and thoughts of the audience change with the boundaries, but their taste and priorities also change simultaneously. For instance, McDonalds in India markets its products keeping the vegetarian audience under consideration while in other regions like USA, UK and Canada, they market their products through promulgating other additional factors. Hence, through this way, McDonalds not only keeps the cultural but also religious needs of its audience under consideration and this ethical aspect of its marketing plan makes it outstanding in one way or other. However, with the expansion of the business on global level and with the advancement in technology, marketing has become rather a technical yet interesting task and the reason behind this fact is the propagation of social media and similar other sources. These sources have made it ample easy to approach targeted audience yet the cross-culture issue is still persistent since these sources do not give any remarkable evidence regarding the cultural diversity and marketing plan. Comparatively, there are different other organizations like Air Asia which have been struggling with the ethical issue of marketing across culture. Though it has assumed different ethical approaches like absolutism, egoism etc in order to deal with its audience yet there is no remarkable progress in making its service a world popular one. However, there can be several strategic options available to deal with this issue of marketing across culture. Proposed solution: Different solutions for dealing with the issue of marketing across culture are as followed: Pluralism: The first solution in this regard can be given in the form of pluralism since it enables the organization to have an in-between path of utilitarianism and absolutism. (Hinman 2011) Some organizations use absolute ethics for marketing its products and some consider utilitarianism as the best source of marketing across culture but both of them might cause failure since no absolute policy or theory works when the regions are diverse and discriminate from each other. So, only an organization, who assumes theory of pluralism in order to deal with this global dilemma, can get successful position in global market. For this purpose, the organization can also do cultural analysis before marketing its product. Cultural analysis before marketing: This solution can be regarded one of the most significant steps in order to deal with the dilemma of marketing across culture. The reason behind this claim is that understanding the culture of the native people would not harm their feelings in any way. Suppose, if McDonalds never does cultural analysis in India and launches its products without differentiating vegetarian and non-vegetarian food, the result would appear in the form of violation of ethical code of that country. In such case, this organization would face severe opposition and there would be no profitability as well. So, another best solution to deal with this issue would be cultural analysis of the organization and before marketing a specific product or service in any region of the world, it is mandatory for it to analyze the potential market from cultural perspective. Change management strategy: Apart from assuming above given both solutions, the organization would also need to have caliber to adopt change management strategy since marketing across culture would need a severe change in the core marketing plan of the company. In such case, the company would have to deal with the internal issues as well and it can deal with this global ethical dilemma only if it would be able to deal with the internal issues of the organization. Through assuming all these three solutions, all the organizations aiming at expanding its services beyond borders can deal with the ethical dilemma of marketing across culture. Hence, only through dealing with ethical issues, the organizations can get successful marketing promotions throughout then world. References: Hall, E. T. Hall, M. R., (1990) Understanding cultural differences. Yarmouth, Me.: Intercultural Press. Hinman, L. M. (2011) Ethics: A Pluralistic Approach to Moral Theory. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Pub. Hutterer, R. (2006) Marketing Across Cultures Qoo an International Success Story? NY: GRIN Verlag Quinn, Ben. Ikea Apologises over Removal of Women from Saudi Arabia Catalogue. The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 01 Oct. 2012. Web. 05 Jan. 2013. .

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Keynes Theory of Income and Employment Essay Example for Free

Keynes Theory of Income and Employment Essay The term ‘classical economists’ was firstly used by Karl Marx to describe economic thought of Ricardo and his predecessors including Adam Smith. However, by ‘classical economists’, Keynes meant the followers of David Ricardo including John Stuart Mill, Alfred Marshal and Pigou. According to Keynes, the term ‘classical economics’ refers to the traditional or orthodox principles of economics, which had come to be accepted, by and large, by the well known economists by then. Being the follower of Marshal, Keynes had himself accepted and taught these classical principles. But he repudiated the doctrine of laissez-faire. The two broad features of classical theory of employment were: (a) The assumption of full employment of labour and other productive resources, and (b) The flexibility of prices and wages to bring about the full employment (a) Full employment:- According to classical economists, the labour and the other resources are always fully employed. Moreover, the general over-production and general unemployment are assumed to be impossible. If there is any unemployment in the country, it is assumed to be temporary or abnormal. According to classical views of employment, the unemployment cannot be persisted for a long time, and there is always a tendency of full employment in the country. (b) Flexibility of prices and wages:- The second assumption of full employment theory is the flexibility of prices and wages. It is the flexibility of prices and wages which automatically brings about full employment. If there is general over-production resulting in depression and unemployment, prices would fall as a result of which demand would increase, prices would rise and productive activity will be stimulated and unemployment would tend to disappear. Similarly, the unemployment could be cured by cutting down wages which would increase the demand for labour and would stimulate activity. Thus, if the prices and wages are allowed to move freely, unemployment would disappear and full employment level would be restored. Say’s Law:- 1. Say’s Law is the foundation of classical economics. Assumption of full employment as a normal condition of a free market economy is justified by classical economists by a law known as ‘Say’s Law of Markets’. 2. It was the theory on the basis of which classical economists thought that general over-production and general unemployment are not possible. . According to the French economist J. B. Say, supply creates its own demand. According to him, it is production which creates market for goods. More of production, more of creating demand for other goods. There can be no problem of over-production. 4. Say denies the possibility of the deficiency of aggregate demand. 5. The c onceived Say’s Law describes an important fact about the working of free-exchange of economy that the main source of demand is the sum of incomes earned by the various productive factors from the process of production itself. A new productive process, by paying out income to its employed factors, generates demand at the same time that it adds to supply. It is thus production which creates market for goods, or supply creates its own demand not only at the same time but also to an equal extent. 6. According to Say, the aggregate supply of commodities in the economy would be exactly equal to aggregate demand. If there is any deficiency in the demand, it would be temporary and it would be ultimately equal to aggregate supply. Therefore, the employment of more resources will always be profitable and will take to the point of full employment. 7. According to Say’s Law, there will always be a sufficient rate of total spending so as to keep all resources fully employed. Most of the income is spent on consumer goods and a par of it is saved. 8. The classical economists are of the view that all the savings are spent automatically on investment goods. Savings and investments are interchangeable words and are equal to each other. 9. Since saving is another form of spending, according to classical theory, all income is spent partly for consumption and partly for investment. 10. If there is any gap between saving and investment, the rate of interest brings about equality between the two. Basic Assumptions of Say’s Law:- (a) Perfectly competitive market and free exchange economy. (b) Free flow of money incomes. All the savings must be immediately invested and all the income must be immediately spent. (c) Savings are equal to investment and equality must bring about by flexible interest rate. (d) No intervention of government in market operations, i. e. , a laissez faire economy, and there is no government expenditure, taxation and subsidies. (e) Market size is limited by the volume of production and aggregate demand is equal to aggregate supply. (f) It is a closed economy. The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s. It was the longest, most widespread, and deepest depression of the 20th century. In the 21st century, the Great Depression is commonly used as an example of how far the worlds economy can decline. The depression originated in the U. S. , starting with the fall in stock prices that began around September 4, 1929 and became worldwide news with the stock market crash of October 29, 1929. From there, it quickly spread to almost every country in the world. The Great Depression had devastating effects in virtually every country, rich and poor. Personal income, tax revenue, profits and prices dropped. Unemployment in the U. S. rose to 25%, and in some countries rose as high as 33%. British economist John Maynard Keynes argued in General Theory of Employment Interest and Money that lower aggregate expenditures in the economy contributed to a massive decline in income and to employment that was well below the average. In such a situation, the economy reached equilibrium at low levels of economic activity and high unemployment. Keynes basic idea was simple: to keep people fully employed, governments have to run deficits when the economy is slowing, as the private sector would not invest enough to keep production at the normal level and bring the economy out of recession. Keynesian economists called on governments during times of economic crisis to pick up the slack by increasing government spending and/or cutting taxes. Criticism of Keynes on Classical Theory:- The law of J.B Say was finally falsified and laid to rest with the writings of Lord J.M. Keynes. He in his book, General Theory, has severally citicized the Say’s La on the following grounds. †¢ Posibility of defficiency of affective demand:- He says that in a compatative market it is not necessory that all income earned is automatically spend on cosumption and investment. A part of Income may be saved and may go to increase individual holdings. There may, thus appear a deficiency in aggregate demand causing overproduction and unemployment in the country. †¢ Pigou’s view on wage cuts:- Keynes criticized the view that a general cut in real wages in times of depression is a cure for unemployment. Keynes is of the view that a general cut in real wages may reduce the aggrigate demand for goods and deepen depression. †¢ Saving investment equality:- The Say’s Law assumes that micro economic analysis can profitably by by applied to the economy as a whole. Keynes rejects this view and says that for the explanation of the general theory of income and employment, the macro economic analysis is required. †¢ Saving investment equality:- Keynes was never convinced of the classical version that interest elasticity can equate savings ad investment. According to him, It is the income not the rate of interest which is the equilibrium force between saving and investment. †¢ Monopoly element:- Say’s Law assumes perfect competition in the economy. Keynes says It is the imperfect completion which in practice prevails in the product and factor market. †¢ Role of Trade unions:- In the contemporary capitalistic world, The trade unions bargain with the employers for the fixation of wages. The state also fixes minimum wages in certain industries. †¢ Short run economics:- Keynes says that, the lenth of long run is not clear in Say’s law. Keynes Theory Of Income And Employment John Maynard Keynes wrote his esteemed book â€Å"General Theory of Employment† in 1936. Keynes has strongly criticised the classical theory in his book. His theory of employment is widely accepted by modern economists. Keynesian economics is also known as ‘new economics’ and ‘economic revolution’. Definition:- â€Å"In short period, level of national income and so of employment is determined by aggregate demand and aggregate supply in the country.† â€Å"Volume of employment depends on the level of national income and output. Increase in national income means increase in employment† The equilibrium of national income occurs where aggregate demand is equal to aggregate supply. This equilibrium is also called effective demand point.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Code-based Plagiarism Detection Techniques

Code-based Plagiarism Detection Techniques Biraj Upadhyaya and Dr. Samarjeet Borah Abstract- The copying of programming assignments by students specially at the undergraduate as well as postgraduate level is a common practice. Efficient mechanisms for detecting plagiarised code is therefore needed. Text based plagiarism detection techniques do not work well with source codes. In this paper we are going to analyse a code- based plagiarism detection technique which is employed by various plagiarism detection tools like JPlag, MOSS, CodeMatch etc. Introduction The word Plagiarism is derived from the Latin word plagiarie which means to kidnap or to abduct. In academicia or industry plagiarism refers to the act of copying materials without actually acknowledging the original source[1]. Plagiarism is considered as an ethical offence which may incur serious disciplinary actions such as sharp reduction in marks and even expulsion from the university in severe cases. Student plagiarism primarily falls into two categories: text-based plagiarism and code-based plagiarism. Instances of text based plagiarism includes word to word copy, paraphrasing, plagiarism of secondary sources, plagiarism of ideas, plagiarism of secondary sources, plagiarism of ideas, blunt plagiarism or authorship plagiarism etc. Plagiarism is considered code based when a student copies or modifies a program required to be submitted for a programming assignment. Code based plagiarism includes verbatim copying, changing comments, changing white space and formatting, renaming ide ntifiers, reordering code blocks, changing the order of operators/ operands in expression, changing data types, adding redundant statement or variables, replacing control structures with equivalent structures etc[2]. Background Text based plagiarism detection techniques do not work well with a coded input or a program. Experiments have suggested that text based systems ignore coding syntax, an indispensable part of any programming construct thus posing a serious drawback. To overcome this problem code-based plagiarism detection techniques were developed. Code-based plagiarism detection techniques can be classified into two categories viz. Attributed oriented plagiarism detection and Structure oriented plagiarism detection. Attribute oriented plagiarism detection systems measure properties of assignment submissions[3]. The following attributes are considered: Number of unique operators Number of unique operands Total number of occurrences of operators Total number of occurrences of operands Based on the above attributes, the degree of similarity of two programs can be considered. Structure oriented plagiarism detection systems deliberately ignore easily modifiable programming elements such as comments, additional white spaces and variable names. This makes this system less susceptible to addition of redundant information as compared to attribute oriented plagiarism detection systems. A student who is aware of this kind of plagiarism detection system being deployed at his institution would rather complete the assignment by himself/herself instead of working on a tedious and time consuming modification task. Scalable Plagiarism Detection Steven Burrows in his paper Efficient and Effective Plagiarism Detection for Large Code Repositories[3] provided an algorithm for code -based plagiarism detection. The algorithm comprises of the following steps: Tokenization Figure: 1.0 Let us consider a simple C program: #include int main( ) { int var; for (var=0; var { printf(%dn, var); } return 0; } Table 1.0: Token list for program in Figure 1.0. Here ALPHANAME refers to any function name, variable name or variable value. STRING refers to double enclosed character(s). The corresponding token stream for the program in Figure 1.0 is given as SNABjSNRANKNNJNNDDBjNA5ENBlgNl Now the above token is converted to N-gram representation. In our case the value of N is chosen as 4. The corresponding tokenization of the above token stream is shown below: SNAB NABj ABjS BjSN jSNR SNRA NRAN RANK ANKN NKNN KNNJ NNJN NJNN JNND NNDD NDDB DDBj DBjN BjNA jNA5 NA5E A5EN 5ENB ENBl NBlg BlgN lgNl These 4-grams are generated using the sliding window technique. The sliding window technique generates N-grams by moving a â€Å"window† of size N across all parts of the string from left to right of the token stream. The use of N-grams is an appropriate method of performing structural plagiarism detection because any change to the source code will only affect a few neighbouring N-grams. The modified version of the program will have a large percentage of unchanged N-grams, hence it will be easy to detect plagiarism in this program . Index Construction The second step is to create an inverted index of these N-grams . An inverted index consists of a lexicon and an inverted list. It is shown below: Table 2.0: Inverted Index Referring to above inverted index for mango, we can conclude that mango occurs in three documents in the collection. It occurs once in document no. 31, thrice in document no. 33 and twice in document no. 15. Similarly we can represent our 4-gram representation of Figure 1.0 with the help of an inverted index. The inverted index for any five 4-grams is shown below in Table 3.0. Table 3.0: Inverted Index Querying The next step is to query the index. It is understandable that each query is an N-gram representation of a program. For a token stream of t tokens, we require (t − n + 1) N-grams where n is the length of the N-gram . Each query returns the ten most similar programs matching the query program and these are organised from most similar to least similar. If the query program is one of the indexed programs, we would expect this result to produce the highest score. We assign a similarity score of 100% to the exact or top match[3]. All other programs are given a similarity score relative to the top score . Burrows experiment compared against an index of 296 programs shown in Table 4.0 presents the top ten results of one N-gram program file (0020.c). In this example, it is seen that the file scored against itself generates the highest relative score of 100.00%. This score is ignored, but it is used to generate a relative similarity score for all other results. We can also see that the program 0103.c is very similar to program 0020.c with a score of 93.34% . Rank Query Index Raw Similarity File File Score Score Table 4.0: Results of the program 0020.c compared to an index of 296 programs. Comparison of various Plagiarism Detection Tools 4.1 JPlag: The salient features of this tool are presented below: JPlag was developed in 1996 by Guido Malpohl It currently supports C, C++, C#, Java, Scheme and natural language text It is a free plagiarism detection tool It is use to detect software plagiarism among multiple set of source code files. JPlag uses Greedy String Tiling algorithm which produces matches ranked by average and maximum similarity. It is used to compare programs which have a large variation in size which is probably the result of inserting a dead code into the program to disguise the origin. Obtained results are displayed as a set of HTML pages in a form of a histogram which presents the statistics for analyzed files CodeMatch The salient features of this tool are presented below: It was developed by in 2003 by Bob Zeidman and under the licence of SAFE Corporation This program is available as a standalone application. It supports 26 different programming languages including C, C++, C#, Delphi, Flash ActionScript, Java, JavaScript, SQL etc It has a free version which allows only one trial comparison where the total of all files being examined doesn’t exceed the amount of 1 megabyte of data It is mostly used as forensic software in copyright infringement cases It determines the most highly correlated files placed in multiple directories and subdirectories by comparing their source code . Four types of matching algorithms are used: Statement Matching, Comment Matching, Instruction Sequence Matching and Identifier Matching . The results come in a form of HTML basic report that lists the most highly correlated pairs of files. MOSS The salient features of this plagiarism detection tool are as follows: The full form of MOSS is Measure of Software Similarity It was developed by Alex Aiken in 1994 It is provided as a free Internet service hosted by Stanford University and it can be used only if a user creates an account The program can analyze source code written in 26 programming languages including C, C++, Java, C#, Python, Pascal, Visual Basic, Perl etc. Files are submitted through the command line and the processing is performed on the Internet server The current form of a program is available only for the UNIX platforms MOSS uses Winnowing algorithm based on code-sequence matching and it analyses the syntax or the structure of the observed files MOSS maintains a database that stores an internal representation of programs and then looks for similarities between them Comparative Analysis Table Conclusion In this paper we learnt a structured code-based plagiarism technique known as Scalable Plagiarism Detection. Various processes like tokenization, indexing and query-indexing were also studied. We also studied various salient features of various code-based plagiarism detection tools like JPlag, CodeMatch and MOSS. References Gerry McAllister, Karen Fraser, Anne Morris, Stephen Hagen, Hazel White http://www.ics.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/assessment/plagiarism/ Georgina Cosma , â€Å"An Approach to Source-Code Plagiarism Detection and Investigation Using Latent Semantic Analysis †, University of Warwick, Department of Computer Science, July 2008 Steven Burrows, â€Å"Efficient and Effective Plagiarism Detection for Large Code Repositories†, School of Computer Science and Information Technology , Melbourne, Australia, October 2004 Vedran Juric, Tereza Juric and Marija Tkalec ,†Performance Evaluation of Plagiarism Detection Method Based on the Intermediate Language †, University of Zagreb

Pull and Push Factors for American Immigrants :: essays research papers

America in the early 1900?s was a giant melting pot of cultures. More than 1 million people per year relocated to ?The Promised Land?, for a chance to start over, escape poverty, war and many other push factors. But soon upon arriving, they realized that America was not the same land they expected. They faced many hardships and living conditions were bad. Often, immigrants left their native countries because of push factors such as war, famine, hard times & epidemics and the government (Docs.1 and 2). These immigrants listened and heard about stories of America. Propaganda led some people to believe that the streets were paved with gold and anyone who went to America can become rich. Millions of immigrants, mostly from European countries, packed their bags and traveled to this unknown place in search of jobs, a better education, and a new life. (Doc. 3) With increased immigration, open hostility towards these foreigners was shown more often. (Doc.4) Approximately 70% of the workforce was occupied by immigrants around this decade. This led to protests and a temporary immigrant quota. Nativism is an example of one of the many hardships immigrants had to overcome. Because America was a developing industrial nation around the early 1900s, people from everywhere flocked to cities. As these cities became urbanized, there wasn?t enough living area to accommodate the millions of people. Several families lived together in tiny tenements that were often dangerous and lacked sunlight and air (Doc 5). Living conditions were bad, diseases spread like wildfire and the crime rate was high. Language was a major barrier for these foreigners. Many were not given equal opportunities because they were immigrants and had accents. Learning was expensive for these immigrants who received verly little pay. They worked with dangerous conditions and for long hours (Doc. 6) Children worked as well, from selling newspapers to working in factories.

Monday, August 19, 2019

Leaf-cutting Ants Essay examples -- essays research papers fc

One of the most little known species of ants in North America is the leaf-cutter ant. This is mainly because it lives in tropical environments and it is not aggressive to animals or humans if not disturbed. The leaf cutting ant is a social insect. Alone the ant is virtually helpless but with the colony it can be a thing feared by animal and human alike. The leaf-cutting ants have a very important role in the tropical forest. They create and manipulate the environment around them. They also can do major damage. The leaf-cutting or fungus-growing ants are distributed from northern Texas to central Argentina. These ants are injurious since they cut the green vegetation from trees, shrubs and crops, and carry it into the nest, where they cultivate fungi on it. They have been known to denude a tree or ornamental plants in one night. It has been estimated they do $1 billion damage per year in North and South America today, these ants still cause millions of dollars in crop losses in many South American countries. Although primarily an agricultural pest, this insect on occasion may invade the home for cereals. In the United States, the Texas leaf-cutting ant, Atta texana , occurs in Texas and Louisiana. This ant is believed to cause a total yearly loss of $5 million in the United States (unison services. 1998).There are about 9,500 named species of ants. These ants are divided into 16 sub families and 300 genera, all which belong to the family called Formicidae, the family of ants (Hoyt. 1996). The leaf cutting ant belongs to the genus called Atta. There are fifteen different species of Atta and all are limited to the new world (Holldobler & Wilson, 1994). The leaf-cutter ant looks pretty much like a regular ant in North America except that it is a little bigger than most ants. Looking at the ant in the untrained eye a person usually perceives that it is a primitive organism. Looks can be deceiving. The leaf-cutter ant is a complex superorganism unique social, environmental, and food gathering behavior.The anatomy of the leaf-cutter ant is pretty simple. It has a one segment "waist" (pedicel) between thorax and abdomen. Sharp spines on waist and backward from head. Antennae 11-segmented very long and elbowed without distinct club. The legs are very long. This ant can be light to dark reddish brown (Smith. 1997).The leaf-cutter at is just li... ...vailable : <a href="http://entowww.tamu.edu/extension/bulletins/uc/uc-033.html">http://entowww.tamu.edu/extension/bulletins/uc/uc-033.htmlUnison Services. "The Leaf Cutting Ant or Fungus-Growing Ants." 4 Jan. 1998. Available : <a href="http://www.unisonservices.com/leafcuttingant.html">http://www.unisonservices.com/leafcuttingant.html.Vasconcelos, H.L. 1997. Foraging activity of an Amazonian leaf-cutting ant: responses to changes in the availability of woody plants and to previous plant damage. Oecologia 112: 370-378Vasconcelos, H., and Cherrett J. 1997. Leaf-cutting ants and early forest regeneration in central Amazonia: effects of herbivory on tree seedling establishment, Journal of Tropical Ecology 13: 357-370Weber, V.A. (1972) Gardening Ants, the Attines. American Philosphical Society. Philadelphia.Whitehouse, M., and Jaffe, K. 1996. Ant wars: combat strategies, territory and nest defense in the leaf- cutting ant Atta Laevigata. Anima l Behavior 51: 1207-1217Wirth, R., Beyschlag, W., and Ryel, J. 1997. Annual foraging of the leaf-cutting ant Atta colombica in a semideciduous rain forest in Panama. Journal of Tropical Ecology 13: 741-757

Sunday, August 18, 2019

Intelligence Customers :: essays research papers

INTELLIGENCE CUSTOMERS The collapse of the Soviet Union has finally brought the cold war to a conclusion in the 1980’s. This collapse brought about a transfer in the global power structure. Threats such as terrorism, nuclear proliferation, narcotics trafficking and organized crime e became more prominent. The United States’ national security policies were revolutionized to be successful against the new risks towards the Nation. It may be assumed that the best group to handle the new pressures of the world would be the U.S. Intelligence Community, but the unique threats do not harbor the traditional roles that were designed for the U.S. Intelligence Community. Biological hazards such as Anthrax and Small pox, which are both remarkable threats to global and national security, have been collected, analyzed and dealt with by civilian government agencies and academic circles. The Intelligence Community should only use its technology to collect non-traditional intelligence that may infringe on only national and global security issues. There are hundreds of intelligence customers, but there are 14 primaries that come together for national security purposes.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To gain a better understanding of intelligence, the term must be defined. Intelligence is when data is collected, organized and becomes useful information. The information is then analyzed and becomes intelligence. The U.S. Intelligence Community supports the President of the United States, the cabinet, Congress, and down to the tactical level of deployed military forces. Each customer is equally as important as the other. The members of the Intelligence Community, also known as intelligence customers are comprised of 14 members: The Defense Intelligence Agency is a major producer and manager of foreign military intelligence. They provide military intelligence to warfighters, defense policymakers and force planners, the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community in order to support U.S. military planning, operations, and weapon systems acquisition. The National Security Agency is the Nation's cryptologic organization. They coordinate, direct, and perform highly specialized activities to protect U.S. information systems and produce foreign intelligence information. The NSA is one of the most important centers of foreign language analysis and research within the Government. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is the principal investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice. The FBI is to uphold the law through the investigation of violations of federal criminal law; to protect the United States from foreign intelligence and terrorist activities; to provide leadership and law enforcement assistance to federal, state, local, and international agencies; and to perform these responsibilities in a manner that is responsive to the needs of the public and is faithful to the Constitution of the United States.

Saturday, August 17, 2019

My First Job and First Salary Essay

I had the best feeling of my life when i got my first job and that i put as my most happiest and memorable moment of my life. I do still remember the date and time. For a middle class family girl getting a job is a big thing in life. After i got my offer letter from the i called my MOM first and she was so happy with the news, that was the day when i made my parents proud. I was more happy and satisfied that day and feeling of joblessness and insecurity gone from my mind. Those days i was so doubtful regarding job since me and my classmates were struggling for job. Everyone of us were trying hard but Biotechnology jobs are comparatively lesser than IT jobs. From my childhood i was very passionate about lifescience { May be i was so poor in Maths that i didnt have any other choice } Then came my first day at office, It was really different feeling again. From college to company. In college we wont have much tensions or pressure or deadline and you are totally independent of your ways. But professional life was very different. It was more or work, meeting deadlines and continuous learning and implementing those. There was lot to learn in professional life. Though it took few weeks for me to get adjusted with company culture and learning the work i need to do and mingling with my colleagues, but it was good experience. then came a day for which all employee waits â€Å"The Salary Day†. My first salary.. Though i bought materialistic things for my family with mhy first salary but it was real satisfaction for me and for them too. I was then INDEPNDENT girl. Though it seem simple but these experience are great and memorable.

Friday, August 16, 2019

Analyzing Communication: Mercedes Benz Commercial

Marshall Chen COM 101 – L1 Jordan Henry Essay 1 March 4th Analyzing Communication: Mercedes Benz Commercial During the half time of the Super Bowl this year, many commercials were shown to the audience for their very first time. One of the most successful commercials among them is the Mercedes-Benz’s â€Å"Soul† commercial because of its choice of communication method, and the use of several communication techniques and features like Aristotle’s â€Å"Rhetoric,† intrapersonal communication, and nonverbal codes.This commercial, â€Å"Soul† (Mercedes-Benz 2013 Super Bowl Commercial: â€Å"Soul†), is an around-two-minute video, starring Usher, Kate Upton, Sebastian Beacon and Willem Dafoe. It was posted on YouTube after the Super Bowl via â€Å"mbusa†. In this clip, the man (Sebastian Beacon) considers selling his soul to the devil (Willem Dafoe) to get the new Benz CLA, but then he realizes that he does not have to, because he can afford it. Since this video is on YouTube, the audience is so broad that the video uploader, â€Å"mbusa†, the official YouTube channel of Mercedes Benz, U.S. A. , cannot communicate with every audience who watches the video or even who leaves a comment at the link. Thus, this commercial belongs to mass communication (Adler and Rodman 336-26). Also, this mass communication process can be portrayed through the transactional communication model (Adler and Rodman 336-26). As â€Å"mbusa† made this video and posted it on YouTube, the sender sent this message to receivers through the Internet channel.After receiving this message, the audience of this video would start to respond to it by giving direct comment at the link, and also, the feedback of the receivers would be revealed in either the increase or the decrease of the sales volume of this car too. â€Å"Receivers† in the last paragraph are also the target audience of this commercial. To be more specific, the t arget audience of this video is people who want to buy a (new) car. However, because this CLA series is affordable as the maker of this video tries to imply, this commercial may appeal to people who do not want to by a car too.Moreover, since Benz put this video on Super Bowl halftime and YouTube, which both have millions of audience members in the world, the actual target audience can be astonishingly numerous. Commercial, as a sort of advertisement, is to present new products, to attract consumers and to inspire them to buy the product of this company. This commercial â€Å"Soul† is no exception. Mercedes-Benz made this video to introduce their brand new CLA saloon car series, and by demonstrating the starting price of this series, to tell people this series is actually affordable.In order to achieve these goals, the maker of this video uses the following two communication features and makes this commercial outstanding. First, this commercial utilizes intrapersonal communic ation (Adler and Rodman 336-26): after the devil seduces the man to sign the contract, saying, â€Å"You can have a deal with me kid and you can have the car and everything that goes along with it,† (Willem Dafoe, â€Å"Soul†) the man starts to imagine what will happen to him after he signs the contract and gets the car, the things that will come along with this car – fame, fortune, and sex.At the same time, audience may wonder what will happen if the man really signs the contract and may start to imagine what life will be like if they also have this car because they put themselves in the man’s shoes and follow the plot. People are rotten with perfection (Vigil) – who does not want a beautiful car like this? If fame and fortune and all those come along with this car, then why not buy one (especially when the price of the car at last turns out to be less than 30,000 dollars)? Second, this commercial shows a perfect application of Aristotle’s â€Å"Rhetoric†.By showing the car running, the maker of the video demonstrates the beauty (appearance and sound) of the car – ethos – â€Å"the nature of the source† (Richmond and McCrosky 336-9), or the car in this case. Next, by having the man imagine the life after he has the car, the video makes the audience imagine what their lives will be like after owning the car, and converges the emotion to that of the audience – pathos – â€Å"the emotions of the audience† (Richmond and McCrosky 336-9). Last, by revealing the minimum price of the car, the maker of the video presents the most important message in this video to the audience that this car is ffordable – logos – â€Å"the nature of the message presented by the source† (Richmond and McCrosky 336-9). According to Aristotle, these three are the methods of persuasion. Persuasion, in other words, is also the purpose of this video. To sum up, these two techniques , which the maker of the video uses fulfills the purpose of the commercial perfectly. In addition to the effectiveness of this commercial, there are two strengths in the video as well. The first strength of this commercial is the nonverbal codes used by the devil.When the devil starts to seduce the man, he looks at the man with a typical villain expression in his eyes, smiles treacherously, and speaks with a low tone. The devil is wearing a masonic ring, indicating his true evilness. These nonverbal codes make the beginning of the video so attractive that the audience would want to continue watching the commercial and see what will the devil do to the man. Also the background music goes along with the video and assists the â€Å"plot†, which makes the video more like a movie. The second strength is that Benz chooses some of the most effective advertising platforms to put this commercial on.This commercial was on the Super Bowl halftime show, YouTube, and TV. According to Inte rnational Business Times, â€Å"Over 108 million Americans watched the Baltimore Ravens beat the San Francisco 49ers 34-31 in Super Bowl XLVII. † (Anthony) Also, active YouTube users and people who watch TV are countless, so in total, there are a huge amount of audience who can see this commercial. As the number of actual audience of this commercial goes up, the number of people who think about buying or who really buy this car after watching this video goes up too. Despite the strengths, this commercial has two weaknesses.First of all, this video is not appropriate for kids to watch because of the sex and the devil topics involved. It may be difficult to explain to kids some of the sections in this video. Next, conspiracy theorists may use this commercial as a proof to disseminate their theories. A lot of symbols implying evil are used in the video, like the masonic ring, the double triangles in the background of the ball, the signature symbol on the contract. These symbols all allude Mason, Setan, or Illuminati. So the theorists may use these symbols as proof to argue for and disseminate their conspiracy theories, hich certainly have negative effects to the society. However, generally, the drawbacks in this commercial do not undermine its strengths and effectiveness. Through perfect application of nonverbal codes, intrapersonal communication, mass communication, and Aristotle’s â€Å"Rhetoric†, Mercedes-Benz and the maker of this video have made a commercial that is remarkable and effective. Work Cited Mbusa, , dir. Mercedes-Benz 2013 Super Bowl Commercial: â€Å"Soul†. 2013. Filmstrip. 6 Mar 2013. . Adler, Ronald, and George Rodman. â€Å"Human Communication What and Why. † Trans.Array Introduction to the World of Communication. Tammy Vigil. Revised 1st ed. Cognella, 2013. 336-26. Print. Vigil, Tammy. â€Å"Human Communication What and Why. † COM 101. Boston University. Massachusetts, Boston. 2013. Lecture. Richmond , Virginia, and James McCrosky. â€Å"Human Communication Theory and Research. † Trans. Array Introduction to the World of Communication. Tammy Vigil. Revised 1st ed. Cognella, 2013. 336-9. Print. Anthony, Riccobono. â€Å"Super Bowl 2013: How Many People Watched The Baltimore Ravens Over The San Francisco 49ers?. † International Business Times. (2013): n. page. Web. 6 Mar. 2013.

Thursday, August 15, 2019

Mcdonald’s: Serving Fast Food Essay

Ray Kroc opened the first McDonald’s restaurant in 1955. He offered a limited menu of high quality, moderately priced food served fast in spotless surroundings. McDonald’s QSC&V (Quality, Service, Cleanliness, and Value) was a hit. The chain expanded into every state in nation. By 1983, it had over 6000 restaurants in United States. In 1967, McDonald’s opened its first restaurant outside the United States, in Canada. By 1985 international sales represented about one-fifth of McDonald’s total revenue. Yet fast food had barely touched many cultures. While 90% of Japanese in Tokyo had never eaten McDonald’s Hamburger, in Europe, McDonald’s maintained a very small percentage of restaurant sales but command a large share of fast food market. It took the company 14 years of planning before it opened a restaurant in Moscow. But the planning paid off. People stand in line up to 2 hours for a Hamburger. After waiting for such a long time they had to pay $14. 40 (at the official rate) for a Big Mac and French Fries. Despite the high prices, McDonald’s restaurant in Moscow attracts more visitors on the average 27,000 daily the Lenin mausoleum (about 9000 people), which used to visit the place. The taste of American Fast Food is growing more rapidly in countries abroad than at home. McDonald’s international sales have been increasing by a large percentage every year. Every day more than 18 million people in over 40 countries eat at McDonald’s. Its traditional menu has been surprisingly successful. People with diverse dining habits have adopted burgers and fries wholeheartedly. Before McDonald’s introduced the Japanese to French Fries, potatoes were used in Japan only to make starch. The Germans thought Hamburgers were people from the city of Hamburg. Now, McDonald’s also serves chicken, sausages, and salads and sandwiches. The fast, family oriented service, the cleanliness and the value accounted for much of McDonald’s success. McDonald’s was one of the first restaurants in Europe to welcome families with children. Not only are children welcomed, but in many restaurants they are also entertained with crayons and papers, a play land or may be even Ronald McDonald’s who can speak twenty languages. McDonald’s golden arches promise the same basic menu and QSC&V in every restaurant. Its products, handling and cooking procedures, and kitchen layout are standardized and strictly controlled. McDonald’s revoked the first French franchise because the franchisee failed to meet its standards for fast service and cleanliness, even though their restaurants were highly profitable. This may have delayed its expansion in France. The restaurant is run by the local manager and crews. Owners and managers must attend the Hamburger University near Chicago to learn how to operate a McDonald’s restaurant and maintain QSC&V. The main campus library and modern electronic class room (which include simultaneous translation system) are the envy of many universities. When McDonalds’s opened in Moscow, a one page advertisement resulted in 30,000 inquiries about the job; 4000 people were invited, and some 300 were hired. The pay is about 50 % higher than the average soviet salary. McDonald’s ensures consistent products by controlling every stage of distribution. Regional distribution centers purchase products and distribute them to individual restaurants. The centers will buy from local suppliers if the suppliers meet the detailed specifications. McDonald’s has had to make some concessions to available products. For example, it is difficult to introduce the Idaho potato in Europe. McDonald’s uses essentially the same competitive strategy in every country: Be first in the market, and establish your brand as rapidly as possible by advertising very heavily. New restaurants are opened with a bang. So many people attended the opening of the Tokyo restaurant that the police closed the street vehicles. The strategy has helped McDonald’s develop a strong share in the fast food market, even though its US competitors and new local competitors likely enter the market. The advertising campaigns are based on local themes and reflect the different environments. In Japan, where burgers are snacks, McDonald’s competes against confectionaries and new â€Å"fast sushi† restaurants. Many of the charitable causes McDonald’s supports abroad have been recommended by the local restaurants. McDonald’s have been willing to relinquish the most control to its Far Eastern operations, where many restaurants are joint ventures with local entrepreneurs, owning 50% or more of the restaurant. European and South American restaurants are generally company-operated or franchised (although there are many facilities- joint venture-in France). Like the U. S. Franchises, restaurants abroad are allowed to experiment with their menus. In Japan, Hamburgers are smaller because they are considered a snack. The Quarter Pounder did not make much sense to people on a metric system, so it is called a Double Burger. Some of the German restaurants serve beer; some French restaurants serve wine. Some of the eastern restaurants offer oriental noodles. But these new items must not disrupt existing operations. Despite success, McDonald’s faces tough competitors such as Burger King, Wendy’s, and Kentucky Fried Chicken, and now also Pizza Hut. Fast food in reheat able containers is now also sold in super markets, delicatessens and convenience stores, and even gas stations. McDonald’s has done very well, with a great percentage of profits coming now from international operations. Aiming to be the world’s best quick service restaurant, McDonald’s opened first store in Pakistan in September 1998. Since then they have opened seventeen new stores throughout Pakistan. Today millions of Pakistanis place their trust in McDonald’s everyday to provide them with food of a very high standard as well as good service. In the past five years, the response to McDonalds coming to Pakistan has been overwhelming. Today Lakson Group of Companies has taken over McDonalds Corporation, USA and a local partner making it a 100% owned and operated Pakistani company. McDonalds located in Pakistan are currently employing about 1,000 Pakistanis and each store is managed by Pakistani managers. They have also contributed in other ways than food service. McDonalds has investment of over Rs. 300crore in the country and payment of taxes and duties amounting to more than Rs. 100crore. McDonald’s is operating, presently in 6 cities of Pakistan Karachi, Hyderabad, Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi and Islamabad, in future, very soon planning to expand in many cities in Pakistan. Instructions †¢ Read the case carefully (you may not understand it first time so read again and again) †¢ It’s better to take out prints and highlight the important information †¢ Read and understand the question carefully. †¢ After understanding question, read the case again and find the important information which is relevant †¢ Your answer should not exceed 300 words †¢ To count your words select the paragraph, then in tools menu select word count †¢ Irrelevant, extra material and long answers (more than 300 words) will be awarded zero †¢ Copied material from any source will be graded zero Question What opportunities and threats did McDonald’s face? How did it handle them?

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Us Constitution

From 1781 to 1789 the Articles of Confederation failed to provide the United States with an effective government. It acted as though a loose confederation, or â€Å"firm league of friendship. † The Articles of Confederation created a weak central government that linked the thirteen states in common problems such as foreign affairs, and a judicial arm. Although, there was no executive branch, which meant no leader to enforce laws. Also, the Congress was weak (it was designed that way), and therefore the government could merely advocate and appeal.The United States faced two main problems: the lack of the central government’s power, and its inability to collect and/or create revenue. Each state was in fact not very coherent with the central government. Nor were the states coherent with each other. The states possessed more control than the central government, as the Articles of Confederation forbade the government to command, coerce, or control. It could not act directly upon the individual citizens of sovereign states. Also, the government could only recommend laws, taxes, and other pieces of legislation to a state.Most often, when the government advocated for a law to be passed in a certain state, the state would reject the recommendation, like Rhode Island had done in 1782 (Doc. A). Moreover, the central government had no power to regulate commerce. This is due to how reluctant the states were to hand over control of taxation and commerce, after they had just won it from Great Britain. Without a central power to control these two aspects of the economy, the states were free to establish different, and often conflicting laws regarding tariffs and navigation. This led states to become only farther apart from each other, rather than more unified.Additionally, despite the weak, unsuccessful government, to make any change to the Articles of Confederation required unanimous ratification. Unanimity was near impossible, meaning that the Articles could ne ver be amended. With a government this weak, people would lose confidence in it, and won’t realize the benefit of the liberty they won from the British (Doc. G). Next, the Articles of Confederation failed to allow the central government to collect revenue. In addition to the central government already being weak, it could not effectively collect taxes.Congress, dealing with a large war debt, could not even pay its own soldiers their promised money (Doc. C). Congress needed some form of revenue to get out of debt, so it established a tax quota for each of the states. It then asked each of them to contribute to their share on a voluntary basis. The government, lacking a president (executive branch), had no way to enforce this tax. Congress was lucky if they received one-fourth of their desired tax amount. Furthermore, Congress could not tax trade or any commerce; as for they did not set the regulations for it.Despite not fully â€Å"paying federal taxes†, states still sc rambled to get money, and some ended up having to foreclose farms of debtors. Events like this in Massachusetts (along with the high taxes issued by the state), caused Shays’s Rebellion. This was occurred when a group of debtors demanded that the state issue paper money, lighten taxes, and suspend property takeovers. Even though the rebellion was crushed, it was a sign that in order for the United States to survive, a new constitution with a stronger federal government must be created.With a government so weak and ineffective, it is clear that the United States could not survive without a new constitution. This is evident through the lack of the central government’s power, and its inability to generate revenue. As time went by, more and more people began to realize this, which soon began the pursuit of the U. S. Constitution. Therefore, it is obvious that from 1781 to 1789 the Articles of Confederation did not provide the United States with an effective government. (Am erican Pageant was textbook used)

Areas That Need Improvement Literature review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Areas That Need Improvement - Literature review Example In addition, I would improve my presentation skills in order to come up with an exceptional paper. I would polish on my referencing and fluency of the content. I would also work on the structure of the content and ensure that the ideas flow throughout the paper. In order to achieve good grades at this level, there are certain skills that in need to hone. Perfecting my skills in searching online journals, referencing and planning and managing an academic dissertation can really help to boost my grades. Having proficient skills in searching online journals will enable me to effectively carry out extensive literature searches. Research at Masters Level requires students to use specialized information sources and the ability to easily search for them is of paramount importance (Kim 2008). Online journals are some of the sources that are used at this level and therefore, students must have the necessary search skills in order to be able to access these materials and use them in writing their research papers. Skills in referencing and avoiding plagiarism are very important at this level since students are expected to conduct research and write properly referenced papers. These papers should be free of plagiarism and acknowledge the author. Good referencing and avoiding plagiarism earns students good grades. It is important to polish my skills in paraphrasing and quoting in order to avoid plagiarism in my papers. Plagiarizing is regarded as cheating and it automatically leads to failure. At Masters Level, writing dissertations is mandatory. Therefore, skills in planning and managing an academic dissertation are very important. A proper dissertation will require skills in choosing a good topic, developing research questions, conducting an organized and methodical research and proper reporting of the research (Kim 2008).

Tuesday, August 13, 2019

IRC 1031 Property Exchange Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

IRC 1031 Property Exchange - Research Paper Example Following that you have basically done a replacement to evade the tax burden. The property at hand is involving one state which is California. These means that this will just be treated as just deferral not a major one. Following that there is an investor willing to buy the building at a price of $850,000 then this shows that there will be a gain. The decision to buy a house via cooperative shares is a tricky decision that needs a lot of research to avoid losses which maybe associated. You are required therefore to fill a form by the Franchise tax board (FTB). â€Å"Form FTB 3840 must be filled for the year in which the exchange was completed and for each successive year until the California source deferred gain is noted.† (Federal laws, section 1031). The initial cost as per your report was $500,000, the depreciation deduction total $120,000 which attracts a corporate tax of 30% (California tax rates). This means that the net present value is $380,000 ($500,000-$120,000). Corporation tax will be charged. Generally the average is 30%. The charged amount is only to the corporation which will. Your two shares of $42,000 m. Stock in trade or other property held primarily for sale shall not tax excepted (IRS report Sec 1031, 2014). Secondly, other property and flip taxes will be charged (Jay Romano, 1995). For instance in real estate, taxes are part of the expenses in San Diego. It varies between different states in America. Under California state law (Prop 13) Real property is reassessed only when there is a change of ownership. In our case the investor will attract an insurance tax rate of 1% plus any bonds, fees or special charges. There is an acquisition of asset too by you meaning that a tax rate shall be charged (California state law, Prop 13. Fiscal year begins July 1 and April 10 is the deadline for the second payment as per the law. These are important vital dates you need to

Monday, August 12, 2019

Project Management Methodology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Project Management Methodology - Essay Example This is captured significantly in Project Methodology Framework. For this reason, process groups and knowledge areas are essential. This paper seeks to address why project management methodology is a practical way of implementing organizational change. It exposes the reason why organizational change in itself is a project. A part from dealing with the nine project knowledge areas it illuminates the role of process groups in project implementation processes. It also seeks to relate the Project Implementation Methodology to Kotter’s eight-steps in leading change. Project Management Methodology Framework in Implementing Organizational Change Why Organizational Change is viewed as a project Evidently, Project Management Methodology is relevant in implementing organizational change. Organizational change should be viewed as a project and therefore applying project management methodology would be appropriate. The reasons why organizational change qualifies as a project are many. On the whole, often times, the design of the organization doubles up as one of a project’s particular goal. For instance, there may be a need for reducing the number of employees needed, or introduction of new technology or part of a business change procedure. Specifically, numerous issues that relate to the organizational change management are supposed to be dealt with when a project is starting (Richman 2006). This ensures that needed activities become part of plan to pave way for assigning roles and responsibilities. Further, this may mean that issues such as sponsors change and their effectiveness, participatory methods, and change of communication in view of the targets are examined. When changing work culture, project management framework helps to break down the project into logical and more manageable steps. Organizational culture consists of the beliefs, values, and norms that are shared by people within an organization. The process of changing culture can be a costly an d time consuming project that involves implementing many of the processes, groups and bodies of knowledge that project management methodology consist of. Richman (2006) reckons this when he asserts that organizational policies may require change in its formal and informal culture that affects a project. According to him, this could be in quality management which would involve continued project improvement and auditing, or changing employee’s performance evaluation frameworks and dismissal guides. It could also involve streamlining of work reporting time and contract provisions (Richman, 2006) Process Groups and Knowledge Areas in Relation To Kotter’s Leading Change Model Because of the reasons aforementioned, project management methodology is a good tool for implementing an organizational change because it is proven to be a structured and a logical methodology for managing projects. In a way it maps well with John Kotter’s model of Leading Change. Kotter’ s model of eight-stage process, offers a more practical strategy to leading the implementation process of, and not merely managing change. Richman (2006) notes that, essentially, a successful project originates from an effectively planned and executed project management methodology which is ‘‘a system of interrelated phases, procedures, activities and tasks that define the project