Standards of Training, Certification & Watchkeeping Convention Essay

Standards of Training, Certification & Watchkeeping Convention - Essay Example One of the many changes to 1978 convention, in 1995, was the requirement of obtaining a new STCW certificate. This was confusing and to some extent it still is as there were two certificates in circulation. The 1978 certificate and the 1995 certificate. The STCW 1978 certificate was there to certify that a sailor was working aboard a vessel prior to 01 Aug 98' and is yet required to fulfill some requirements. Therefore, a new mariner, after 01 Aug 98' cannot be issued a 1978 STCW certificate. New sailors, joining after the aforementioned date, are required to comply with convention requirements before they are eligible for 1995 certificate. 1978 certificate holders are required to go through a training process to close the gap before they can be issued with a 1995 certificate. The fact which gives rise to confusion is that both these certificates were created on the same date. In the US, after 31 Jan 03', no one can get a 1995 certificate by simply completing the training required for the big leap from 1978 to 1995. Each and every sailor is now required to fully comply with 1995 amendment requirements. As all the 1978 certificate holders could not complete all the formalities, the 31 Jan '03 was actually a relaxation of one year to the original date. Despite this relaxation US sailors were still required to get 1995 certification prior to entering waters of a foreign country. Why do we need standards STCW 1978 sets standards of qualification for seafarers on merchant ships. It was initially drafted in 1978 by conference at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in London. It took six years and finally in 1984 STCW was enforced. In 1995 significant changes were brought about. On an international scale 'STCW 1978' was the first to actually establish and enforce basic requirements for training, certification and watchkeeping for mariners. Prior to this such standards were set by individual governments without any reference to practices in the rest of the world. As expected, the outcome of this chaotic situation was widely varied standards, practices and procedures. STCW lays out minimum standards for training, certification and watchkeeping for seafarers and countries adhering to comply are independent in their choice to accept or exceed these standards. STCW also applies to ships of countries which have not yet accepted to comply with STCW standards (non-party States), in case they visit ports of party States. An article of the convention requires all party States to apply the control without any biasing or favor to party or non-party States. This can expose the vessels of non-party States to difficult and unexpected situations. As a result, majority of the states are now party States. Revisions to SWTC 1978 In December 1992 IMO's Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) agreed to a US proposal to review in detail the 1978 Convention in light of the involvement of human element in maritime accidents. Moreover, there also had been nurturing a feeling amongst some delegations that the Convention should be more people, and standards relating to people, orientated. Rather than emphasizing on construction of ships and equipment standards, areas relating to people, training and operational practices require more concentration. This resulted in MSC directing

Alcoholic beverage Essay Example for Free

Alcoholic beverage Essay Are children of alcoholics more likely to be alcoholics themselves? In answering the question, researchers sampled 451 people in Alcoholics Anonymous to see how many would say that one, or both, of their parents were alcoholics. People in AA used in the study currently attend AA somewhere in Ohio, Michigan, or Indiana and were asked by people in charge of the local AA programs to volunteer to fill out a survey. The research found that 77 percent of the respondents had at least one parent they classified as an alcoholic. The study also surveyed 451 people randomly from the same states who claim not to be heavy drinkers. Of the non-heavy drinkers, 23 percent would label at least one of their parents as alcoholic. 1. In your own words, please write the conclusion of this passage. – 3 points From this passage, it is concluded, that commonly, one or both parents of alcoholics are accounted as alcoholics too. Therefore, it means that usually, children of majority heavy drinkers are also become alcoholics. 2. Please identify the reasons used in this passage. – 3 points So, author gave several reasons in the form of facts such as questionnaire, for the conclusion above. They made two general surveys, where 451 alcoholics and 451 not alcoholic people were asked. For the first survey, results were justified expectations by 77% out of 100%. By this I mean, that approximately 347 of respondents from AA said that at least of their parents were alcoholics. However, for the next survey, only 23% of whole respondents, who were out from AA approved that one or both their parents were drinkers. 3. What are some weaknesses in the argument, in your opinion? – 5 points There are some weaknesses in this argument. First, all participants of this study were from only three states, there are Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana. It is not sufficient to claim, that it happens all around the world. Secondly, they wrote about non-heavy drinkers too, moreover, from the study, there are alcoholic parents in their family. Consequently, the argument against the fact. 4. What would be an appropriate title for this passage? – 3 points The basic reason of becoming alcoholics is alcoholic parents. 5. Do you think children of alcoholics are more likely to be alcoholics themselves? Explain why. – 6 points Sure, this might be possible claim, because, that kind of children ( with alcoholic parents) live with heavy drinkers from birth. Even, they would be brought up with alcoholics, or it is also possible that they will not have enough attention from their mothers and fathers, so it is more likely, that they will have a bad behavior from their childhood. Although, from my point of view, having a mother or father, who are drinks a lot is not sufficient cause of becoming alcoholic individual. There are other numerous reasons for being dependent on alcohol, such as impatience, being nervous, addicting to bad habits, mental or moral instability and so on. In addition to that, on the contrary, according to the survey, which is done for us, there are still many people who are not depend on their parents, and if their parents are heavy drinkers, it doesn’t affected on them. To conclude, we cannot label the person like alcoholics, just if their parents are alcoholics.

A Random Walk Down Wall Street Essay -- Stock Markets Investing Money

A Random Walk Down Wall Street There is a sense of complexity today that has led many to believe the individual investor has little chance of competing with professional brokers and investment firms. However, Malkiel states this is a major misconception as he explains in his book â€Å"A Random Walk Down Wall Street†. What does a random walk mean? The random walk means in terms of the stock market that, â€Å"short term changes in stock prices cannot be predicted†. So how does a rational investor determine which stocks to purchase to maximize returns? Chapter 1 begins by defining and determining the difference in investing and speculating. Investing defined by Malkiel is the method of â€Å"purchasing assets to gain profit in the form of reasonably predictable income or appreciation over the long term†. Speculating in a sense is predicting, but without sufficient data to support any kind of conclusion. What is investing? Investing in its simplest form is the expectation to receive greater valu e in the future than you have today by saving income rather than spending. For example a savings account will earn a particular interest rate as will a corporate bond. Investment returns therefore depend on the allocation of funds and future events. Traditionally there have been two approaches used by the investment community to determine asset valuation: â€Å"the firm-foundation theory† and the â€Å"castle in the air theory†. The firm foundation theory argues that each investment instrument has something called intrinsic value, which can be determined analyzing securities present conditions and future growth. The basis of this theory is to buy securities when they are temporarily undervalued and sell them when they are temporarily overvalued in comparison to there intrinsic value One of the main variables used in this theory is dividend income. A stocks intrinsic value is said to be â€Å"equal to the present value of all its future dividends†. This is done u sing a method called discounting. Another variable to consider is the growth rate of the dividends. The greater the growth rate the more valuable the stock. However it is difficult to determine how long growth rates will last. Other factors are risk and interest rates, which will be discussed later. Warren Buffet, the great investor of our time, used this technique in making his fortune. The second theory is known as the â€Å"castle in the ai... ... while using the beta approach as a guide. Returns may also rely on general market swings, changes in interest rates and inflation, to changes in national income and other economic factors. Chapter 11 closes our discussion with several insights into the efficient market theory. There have been many attempts to discredit the random walk theory, but none of the theories hold against empirical evidence. Any pattern that is noticed by investors will disappear as investors try to exploit it and the valuation methods of growth rate are far too difficult to predict. As we said before the random walk concludes that no patterns exist in the market, pricing is accurate and all information available is already incorporated into the stock price. Therefore the market is efficient. Even if errors do occur in short-run pricing, they will correct themselves in the long run. The random walk suggest that short-term prices cannot be predicted and to buy stocks for the long run. Malkiel concludes the best way to consistently be profitable is to buy and hold a broad based market index fund. As the market rises so will the investors returns since historically the market continues to rise as a whole.

Language and Meaning in Animal Farm by George Orwell Essay example --

Language and Meaning in Animal Farm by George Orwell In Animal Farm, his allegory of the Soviet Revolution, Orwell examines the use of language and the subversion of the meaning of words by showing how the powerful manipulate words for their own benefit. As a journalist, Orwell knew the power of words to serve whichever side the writer backed. In the novel, Snowball is a quick talker who can always explain his way out of any situation. When the birds object to the maxim, "Four legs good, two legs bad," that the pig teaches the sheep, he explains that the bird's wing "is an organ of propulsion and not of manipulation. It should therefore be regarded as a leg." The birds do not really understand this explanation, but they accept it. Orwell particularly comments on the abuse of language with his character Squealer, "a brilliant talker," who acts as an unofficial head of propaganda for the pigs. Like Joseph Goebbels, who bore the title of Nazi party minister of propaganda and national enlightenment during World War II, Squealer "could turn black into white." This is also reminiscent of the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Pravda, which was often used to rewrite the pas t. (Ironically, its title means "Truth.") When a bad winter forces a reduction in food rations to the animals, Squealer calls it a "readjustment." In a totalitarian state, language can be used to change even the past. Squealer explains to the animals "that Snowball had never—as many of them had believed hitherto—received the order of 'Animal Hero, First Class'." God and Religion In the novel religion is represented by Moses, the tame raven. The clergy is presented as a privileged class tolerated by those in power because of their... ...d the commandment, however, it is discovered that it reads, "No animal shall kill any other animal without cause." "Somehow or other," the narrator comments, "the last two words had slipped out of the animals' memory." Similarly, when the pigs get into a case of whiskey and get drunk, Muriel looks up at the barn wall where the Seven Commandments had been written and sees that the Fifth Commandment reads, "No animal shall drink alcohol to excess." She thinks the animals must have forgotten the last two words of this commandment as well. She comes to believe that the original event of the writing of the commandments on the wall did not happen the way she and other animals remember it. With this theme Orwell challenges the Soviet state's—and any totalitarian state's—method of controlling public opinion by manipulating the truth and, in particular, rewriting history. Language and Meaning in Animal Farm by George Orwell Essay example -- Language and Meaning in Animal Farm by George Orwell In Animal Farm, his allegory of the Soviet Revolution, Orwell examines the use of language and the subversion of the meaning of words by showing how the powerful manipulate words for their own benefit. As a journalist, Orwell knew the power of words to serve whichever side the writer backed. In the novel, Snowball is a quick talker who can always explain his way out of any situation. When the birds object to the maxim, "Four legs good, two legs bad," that the pig teaches the sheep, he explains that the bird's wing "is an organ of propulsion and not of manipulation. It should therefore be regarded as a leg." The birds do not really understand this explanation, but they accept it. Orwell particularly comments on the abuse of language with his character Squealer, "a brilliant talker," who acts as an unofficial head of propaganda for the pigs. Like Joseph Goebbels, who bore the title of Nazi party minister of propaganda and national enlightenment during World War II, Squealer "could turn black into white." This is also reminiscent of the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Pravda, which was often used to rewrite the pas t. (Ironically, its title means "Truth.") When a bad winter forces a reduction in food rations to the animals, Squealer calls it a "readjustment." In a totalitarian state, language can be used to change even the past. Squealer explains to the animals "that Snowball had never—as many of them had believed hitherto—received the order of 'Animal Hero, First Class'." God and Religion In the novel religion is represented by Moses, the tame raven. The clergy is presented as a privileged class tolerated by those in power because of their... ...d the commandment, however, it is discovered that it reads, "No animal shall kill any other animal without cause." "Somehow or other," the narrator comments, "the last two words had slipped out of the animals' memory." Similarly, when the pigs get into a case of whiskey and get drunk, Muriel looks up at the barn wall where the Seven Commandments had been written and sees that the Fifth Commandment reads, "No animal shall drink alcohol to excess." She thinks the animals must have forgotten the last two words of this commandment as well. She comes to believe that the original event of the writing of the commandments on the wall did not happen the way she and other animals remember it. With this theme Orwell challenges the Soviet state's—and any totalitarian state's—method of controlling public opinion by manipulating the truth and, in particular, rewriting history.

Columbus Dbq

In the year 1492, explorer Christopher Columbus sailed from Spain to what he believed to be India. That is a fact which cannot be disputed. However, it is often the case that historians are biased in their writing and add their own personal beliefs and interpretations into accounts of what happened. An example of this is historian Davis E. Stannard’s controversial book, American Holocaust: Columbus and the Conquest of the New World.Stannard uses facts to support his belief that Columbus and the explorers to follow in his footsteps are responsible for a mass genocide of the Indian peoples. Columbus’s captain’s log does much to contradict Stannard’s views. Columbus states that he wishes for â€Å"†¦the natives to develop a friendly attitude toward us [the Spanish explorers and settler]. † Columbus wants no harm to come to the Natives and makes sure that trade between the natives and his men is not unfair.He may have been a bit misguided with his attempts to covert the natives to Christianity, but he himself writes that â€Å"†¦they are a people who can be made free and converted to our Holy Faith more buy love than by force. † Columbus does not want to bring any sort of harm to the Natives, and believes â€Å"†¦that in all the world there cannot be better or more gentle people. † The impression one may have of Columbus solely from reading this document starkly differs from the view of Columbus that Stannard emphasizes.Bartolome de Las Casa’s History of the Indies sheds a light on the cruelties that the Spanish were not just capable of, but committed on a day to day basis. De Las Casa helps support Stannard’s thesis and showcases the horrible deeds performed by the Spaniards often. The Spanish soldiers would slaughter the Natives â€Å"†¦like sheep in a corral. † They would often place bets to measure their strength, such as who could cut a Native in half with a single blow, or slice of their heads the quickest.They has no mercy, and made sure to â€Å"†¦prevent Indians from daring to think of themselves as human beings or even having a minute to think at all. † The soldiers didn’t blink an eye at working entire tribe to death or just killing them for sport, strongly supporting Stannard’s claim of destructive genocide. Travels in Quivira by Francesco Coronado gives no support to Stannard’s thesis. In fact, the document serves to dispute Stannard completely. Coronado was exploring present day Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. He was searching for the legendary Seven Cities of Cibula.The natives had told him that these golden cities were located to the north and Coronado harmed them in no way. After finding no gold, Coronado’s guides revealed to him that they had, at the orders of the Natives, led him through uninhabited desserts in an attempt to starve him and his company to death. Stannard is firm in his constitu tion that it was the Spanish who were wrong, not the Natives. While this document is just one example of the Native’s wrongdoings, it showcases that both parties had their share of wrong doings as well as their share of kindness.The exploration and settlement of the New World was not handled as well as it should have been, but both the Natives and the Spanish had their share of heroes and villains. Columbus fell into neither of these categories. He truly believed that he treated the Natives justly, and, for the most part, he did. He did, however, open the door for other, crueler, people to come in. The Natives cannot be lumped into good or bad in this situation either. There were kind Natives, such as those who met with Columbus, but there were also cruel Natives, such as those who attempted to lead Francesco Coronado to his death.

History failures. When something went wrong

History failures. When something went wrong The greatest screw-ups in history Studies reveal it is almost impossible to pick one screw-up in history and name it the worst. Some say that it is the invention of the nuclear energy, but today, we are going to talk about the times when the said energy was not discovered and people had to think of other ways to screw themselves up to earn a place in the archives: Franz Ferdinand and his driver The turn that started World War I could not have been made, if the Archduke’s driver had not steered the wheel in the wrong direction. Some would say this is fate, others would call it bad luck, but the story is the following: on the day when the Archduke and his wife went for a walk in a personal automobile, there had been an assassination attempt in one of the streets. The driver successfully avoided the bomb†¦ only to encounter one of the assassins later, when Franz Ferdinand decided to pay a visit to the victims of the explosion in the hospital. An open gate of Constantinople If you think that Constantinople had no chance of withstanding Turkish attacks, you are utterly wrong. Byzantines did have one visible advantage, and that was the advanced defense system in one of the city’s walls, which secured the place from the enemy.The failure occurred, however, when one of the commanders in charge forgot to close the gates, and the opposing army sneaked in unnoticed, to the sheer horror and surprise of the Constantinople citizens. The capture of the capital continued with the Ottomans establishing a flag on one of the city’s buildings, which ensured their reign and victory for the decades to come. Napoleon invading Russia Napoleon gathered the largest army in continental Europe and thought it was enough to conquer Russians. The war campaign started in the month of summer, when it was hot and humid, and the emperor thought it would be only a few months before they take over Moscow and proclaim their reign.However, Russians held out surprisingly long and proved to be stronger than was originally believed. Napoleon’s army was forced to endure bitter Russian weather and eventually died of cold and freezing temperatures, occasionally helped out by the locals, whose hearts melted at the sight of the defeated foe. Interestingly, Hitler made the same mistake during World War II, when his army turned out to be completely unprepared for the Russian climate and was freezing to death as well. Battle at the Alamo Mexican General Antonio Là ³pez de Santa Anna led his troops to the American borders in the war against the States and was 99% sure he would be the one to win the battle. On his way to meet the Texan rebels, though, he decided that a small lesson of courtesy and social justice would not hurt, and stopped at the city of Alamo.He then proceeded to take over the city and caused a huge massacre where many locals perished. For all those wondering, General did win the battle, but the cost was too high. The ones hesitating whether to support revolution and the Texan rebels were now on the American side, and Mexicans lost all the key points they previously captured, which resulted in Texas becoming the part of the United States. The British Isles invasion A long time ago, Anglo-Saxon troops decided they did not have enough people to protect the British Isles, so they called mercenaries from the borders to help. Unfortunately, when the soldiers on hire arrived at the place to see thousands of defenseless men and women at their mercy, the thought of being paid to protect did not seem appealing. Their next move was to suppress the people and take over the Isles themselves instead of being financed by the government.When the Anglo-Saxons learned the truth about the mercenaries and the way they brought trouble to their own country, they had to deal with the consequences. It was too late, however, and the years of bloody conflict and violence began. This is the kind of failure that was caused by the inexperience of the war generals and the carelessness of the government, who thought that mercenaries were reliable enough to protect their lands. Another historical and accurate proof you should not trust a person who does things out of financi al reward alone. The Austrian army fighting itself The misunderstanding between the generals and the armies led to Austrian soldiers fighting themselves. This happened during the Battle of Karansebes, where the original scheme was to attack the Turks during the night.However, it was dark, and the armies did not communicate well with one another (they were previously divided in two), which led to one part violently attacking another and causing chaos. When the truth was finally revealed, it was already morning and more than 10, 000 soldiers were badly wounded or killed. The Turks did arrive in a few days, though, only to find their enemies unable to participate in any of the war moves and quickly overtook the parts of the land, which is now Romania.

A fortunate Life - Albert Facey essays

A fortunate Life - Albert Facey essays Personal Response A Fortunate Life by A.B. Facey Albert Faceys autobiography, A Fortunate Life, is the story of an ordinary man who survived against extraordinary odds. From becoming a farmhand at the age of eight, to boxing professionally, to returning from WWI after almost a year of combat and raising a family, Bert Facey has achieved some truly remarkable things in his life. In this essay, I will discuss Bert Faceys attitude to others, the similarities between my life and his, and some of the qualities he possesses. Bert Facey was a remarkable man who achieved many amazing things in his life. But I cannot honestly say that I enjoyed reading his life story. It lacked the descriptive writing that I have come to love in my favourite authors. It seemed as though it was a very fulfilling life, albeit very different to my own. I found that I was unable to relate to Bert, because we have lived such different lives. I didnt feel any sympathy for him because I did not enjoy his style of writing. I believe that we make our own luck and had Bert wanted to lead a different, perhaps better, life it would have been possible to change his stars. Bert Facey has many very admirable qualities. One of the most evident of these is his courage. Courage is defined as the ability to face danger or pain without fear. Bert Facey demonstrated this in many of the adventures he described in his book. One of the episodes in which he showed amazing courage was the well incident when he was working with Jock McKay and Bentley in Jubuck. The gangs task was to clean the buckets out of the bottom of a very deep well. Bert was assigned the task to go down to the bottom of the well and retrieve the buckets. While he was at the bottom of the one hundred and forty foot well, it began to collapse. Bert was trapped and thought for sure he was a goner. But he was courageous, and managed to find a way out of the well wh...

Creating 10x Visual Content With John T. Meyer Of Lemonly

Creating 10x Visual Content With John T. Meyer Of Lemonly Exclusive interviews continue from Garrett Moon’s book, The 10X Marketing Formula, which features top marketing professionals who uncover uncommon marketing mindsets, methods, and growth strategies. In this episode, we’re talking to John T. Meyer, CEO and co-founder of Lemonly, which is a visual marketing firm. John started Lemonly as a way to educate people about how digital media is a way to reach customers, and eventually the business ended up specializing in infographics. Lemonly helped build and pioneer the infographics industry, and it has evolved into visual storytelling the secret sauce. Humans are visual creatures bombarded by messages; infographics make the world less noisy and confusing Infographics transitioned from visualizing data to a storytelling formula, where there is a beginning, middle, and end Core types of stories offer familiarity and ability to predict what will happen Lemonly starts with content by creating an outline that features the goal, 3 main points, and summary/call to action Web of Content: Where will content live to connect and hook pieces on mediums Issues related to driving traffic through visuals on various social media mediums Visuals grab people’s attention, but you need a good story for ROI Other options available, but Lemonly offers person-to-person relationships Examples of 10X ROI results from visual content Infographics fail and don’t live up to full potential when delivery is blurry, squished; don’t do all that work, and then stumble at the end. Links: Lemonly 9 Clouds 10X-Marketing Formula by Garrett Moon Donald Miller’s StoryBrand Canva Infogram Piktochart Pablo by Buffer Write and send a review to receive a care package If you liked today’s show, please subscribe on iTunes to The Actionable Marketing Podcast! The podcast is also available on SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Quotes by John T. Meyer: â€Å"We’re going to help really build and pioneer this industry of infographics, and now it’s really evolved to what we call visual storytelling.† â€Å"When we say info, or data, or content, it doesn’t necessarily have to mean quantitative.† â€Å"How do you tell a story in six seconds? I think you can, but it’s a different beast.†

The Pantheon Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Pantheon - Essay Example The force of the presence of Pantheon as well as its environmental symbolism often works charismatically upon visitors who experience the beautiful reach of its canopied void while passing through its bronze door into the enclosing rotunda. The extensive and influential architectural effects of the Pantheon upon the subsequent buildings are incontrovertible, and documented widely for the design and various aspects of the architecture (Baker 30). The controversial designer of the architecture, Hadrian, had an in-depth architectural brilliance accompanied with deep interest in architecture. He demonstrated inexplicable impudence and superiority in his architectures. Literature reveals that the conception and design of the Pantheon was original. Notwithstanding the fair amount of data and information on the history of the building, the eventual meaning and impression of the building remains in its intricacy and mystery. The description of the Rome architecture, the Pantheon, is presente d with information on its history. The description will cover the interior and exterior descriptions. History of the Pantheon According to MacDonald, the architect of the Rome Pantheon is unidentified. MacDonald states that it is almost certain that Hadrian was not the architect of the Pantheon despite his name being widely suggested as the one. He argues that the construction of the building must have required a thorough going professional to create the drawings and models, calculate the design and construction details and supervise the complex and extracting work as it progressed. Whoever the architect of the Pantheon may have been, the architect stands in relation to the building of Hadrian as Justinian to the Hagia Sophia or Louis XIV to Versailles. Hadrian, the Pantheon as well as the cultural texture of the early second century are all interlinked inextricably. As a result, no doubt exists that Hadrian was the motivating personality behind the conception and design of the Pant heon (MacDonald 12). Hadrian was born in well established colonial family in Roman Spain during the reign of emperor Vespian in 76 A.D. Hadrian was made the emperor upon the death of Trajan who reigned between 98 and 117 A.D. Hadrian reigned between 117 and 138 A.D. The location where the Pantheon was built was earlier occupied by a rectangular sanctuary of similar dedication built by the great minister Agrippa of Augustus, and dedicated around 25 B.C. The building was burnt down twice prior to the accession of Hadrian, and replaced entirely by Hadrian with the current structure. Nevertheless, Hadrian reinstated the original inscriptions of Agrippa, â€Å"Marcus Agrippa the son of Lucius, three times consul, built this,† on his new building. This inscription has led to significant confusion. Up-to-date, the Pantheon is uncommonly said to have been constructed during the period of Augustus Caesar. This date is wide off the mark by approximately 150 years because the inscriptio n in bold bronze letters that spreads across the entablature of the great porch is modern (MacDonald 13). The appropriate date of building the Pantheon is approximated to be the first half of the reign of Hadrian. The architecture was not commenced prior to 117 A.D., and was most probably dedicated around 126 A.D. to 128 A.D. During the second century, the Roman brick makers stamped methodologically a

Low power reduction Electrical Engineering Essay

Low power reduction Electrical Engineering - Essay Example However, the key low-power breakthrough was the invention of the complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuit in 1963. Most integrated circuits, especially low-power ICs, use CMOS devices as their building blocks. The smaller the power dissipation of electronic systems, the lower the heat pumped into the rooms, the lower the electricity consumed and hence the lower the impact on global environment, the less the office noise (due to elimination of a fan from the desktop), and the less stringent the environment/office power delivery or heat removal requirements. The motivations for reducing power consumption differ from application to application. In the class of micro-powered battery-operated, portable applications, such as cellular phones and personal digital assistants, the goal is to keep the battery lifetime and weight reasonable and the packaging cost low. Power levels below 1-2 W, for instance, enable the use of inexpensive plastic packages. For high performance, portable computers, such as laptop and notebook computers, the goal is to reduce the power dissipation of the electronics portion of the system to a point, which is about half of the total power dissipation (including that of display and hard disk). Finally, for high performance, non battery operated systems, such as workstations, set-top computers and multimedia digital signal processors, the overall goal of power minimization is to reduce system cost (cooling, packaging and energy bill) while ensuring long-term device reliability. Driving Factors. A crucial driving factor is that excessive power consumption is becoming the limiting factor in integrating more transistors on a single chip or on a multiple-chip module. Unless power consumption is dramatically reduced, the resulting heat will limit the feasible packing and performance of VLSI circuits and systems. Consequently, there is also a clear financial advantage to reducing the power consumed in high performance systems. In addition to cost, there is the issue of reliability. High power systems often run hot, and high temperature tends to exacerbate several silicon failure mechanisms. Every 10-C increase in operating temperature roughly doubles a component's failure rate. In this context, peak power (maximum possible power dissipation) is a critical design factor as it determines the thermal and electrical limits of designs, impacts the system cost, size and weight, dictates specific battery type, component and system packaging and heat sinks, and aggravates the resistive and inductive voltage drop problems. It is therefore essential to have the peak power under control. Achieving low Resistance. [[ The low resistance is achieved through appropriate metallic films on the IC with copper being the preferred material because, other than silver, it has the lowest resistance of any metal. The capacitance issue is addressed through the use of insulators with lower dielectric constants than silicon dioxide, the material of choice in the past. The switch has non-zero "on" resistance, Ron, when it is closed and finite "off" resistance, R off, when it is open. This has important implications for low power operation, because R on leads to power dissipation in

Assessment item 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Assessment item 2 - Essay Example The data they will derive shall be organized and analyzed for measures of center, which will be represented on a bar chart of line plot. 4. They put in the data about the raisins on the worksheets to compare the guesses and estimates, and go around the pairs to collect data garnered by the whole class in order to get for the minimum, maximum and median and mode. If the graph plots values against their frequency in the data, then the values are displayed along the horizontal axis, while the height of each column indicates the number of data elements that have that value. The first task shows students how to go about guessing, estimating, and all the preliminary information necessary to gather, organize, and analyze the data and values derived. It also introduce students to representations of data namely the bar graph and the line plot. From the knowledge and skills they derive from this activity, they get to apply it to the second task. Whereas the first task offered grouped data since everyone used the same data sources, the second task offered ungrouped data where students can collect from various sources of their choice. The first task may be considered teacher-directed while the second task gives the students more leeway to conduct their own investigations.   First to Twenty One: The game First to 21 gives students opportunities to explore the differences between mathematical and social fairness. With the deck of cards, each player takes one and adds up the value of the cards they pick until they reach the value of 21 or over. The last player who picks that card reaching 21 or over wins. 3. Player 1 goes first and chooses the top card and says its value. Player 2 does the same and adds the value of his card to that of Player 1’s. The two players take turns taking a card and announcing its value, adding it to the combined

Delegation Example in a Health Care Setting Presentation Speech or

Delegation Example in a Health Care Setting - Speech or Presentation Example Fifthly it would focus on such stakeholders and aiders in the nursing process that would be impacted by changes in decision making. Sixthly out of the different stakeholders the project would focus on identifying the Right Stakeholder for Conducting and implementing the decision taken. Seventhly it would focus on choosing the right mode of communication to communicate the plan to the staff and stakeholders for solving the problem. Eighthly strategies are also needed to design the process of countering potential conflicts. Ninthly a model of gaining proper feedback from the participants needs to be formulated that in the tenth case would help in making effective evaluation of the problem-solving delegation model and also place needed recommendations where essential. Slide 3 The Delegation Model The Delegation Model chosen for nursing is based essentially on Five Rights. The Factors of Righteousness concerning Delegation can be conceptually underlined as follows. Firstly, it must be no ted that that the tasks assigned fall in the category of being rightly delegated to others and should not fall in the ambit of nursing practice. Secondly, in the process of delegation it is required to be understood that the person chosen to be delegated is competent and right enough to satisfy the requirements of the task chosen. Thirdly, evaluation must be conducted as to whether the decision taken pertaining to the assignment of the task enhances the right of nursing care rendered to patients and thereby involves the accomplishment of different steps to achieve a favorable outcome. In the process of delegation it is required to rightly communicate the process or steps involved in the plan to the different stakeholder groups elucidating and emphasizing the process of conducts and expectations thereof. Finally the fifth step focuses on gaining effective feedback from the participants or stakeholder groups in the task delegation process that in turn would help in enhancing the amoun t of benefits rendered to the patients. This step also includes rightly evaluating the model in helping in achieving the objectives for which it had been incorporated and thereby providing useful recommendations (Clark, 2008, p.186). Slide 4 The Healthcare Problem Quality of services rendered through healthcare is countering problems owing to the shift from standards or best practices involved pertaining to pathological timings. It is observed that in many cases the morning pathological functions concerning collection of blood, urine and stool samples and subjecting them to tests get disrupted owing to the loss of focus and unavailability of required staff. Owing to the above case the formulation of pathological reports counters a major problem thereby rendering threat to the process of medication and treatment involved pertaining to the patients (Harris, 2005, p.395-396). Slide 5 Stakeholders to the Delegation Process The stakeholders to the delegation of tasks pertaining to the ef fective operation of the morning laboratories would consist of the following parties: Doctors, Laboratory Staff, Nursing Aids, Patients Involved and Nursing Staff. These people are identified as stakeholders to the delegation process in healthcare for they have significant interests and also would be potentially affected pertaining to the level of outcomes resulting thereof. These groups of stakeholders consist of both external and

Assignment 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 3

Assignment 1 - Essay Example 230) states that it is wrong to â€Å"blur such distinctions as under vs. over or in vs. on;† and pictorial representations can be pretty helpful in addressing these issues while constructing a language based schema. Only when the researcher has progressed in it, there is the hope that he/she has mastered strategies that can assist in implementing Sowa-Sloman heuristics. Roughly, the Sowa-Sloman heuristics (Sowa 1984) consist of two major phases. At the first phase, this heuristic paradigm uses type and token distinction system. Subsequently, Aristotle’s idea of inheritable systems under a type (or assign category) is used. In the second phase, analysis is to be done. So first a schema is to be constructed, and then the sets of data in question would be ontologically mapped onto this schema. Sowa (1984) started with conceptual graphs, but then developed characteristics of diagrams in his graphs. It can be debated that whether he enriched or modified standard graph theory in mathematical sense, but without such a manipulation through Sowa-Sloman heuristics artificial intelligence cannot become comprehensive when tackling problems related to aesthetics rather than mathematics. The concept of picture is important for me. However, if I see a picture, or more precisely, a piece of art mounted on a wall, I will not be able to understand it without organising my thoughts. So if I implemented the Sowa-Sloman heuristics, I would first seek to understand that what kind of picture do I see? So I have to create a schema. Suppose this schema has three categories. The concept under category 1 would define oil paintings. Inheriting this characteristic from the super class of this category, I will then seek to know whether the artwork has been created by a professional artist or an amateur artist. If by a professional artist, then to which school of art does it belong? If by an amateur artist, then is the work in

Delegation Example in a Health Care Setting Presentation Speech or

Delegation Example in a Health Care Setting - Speech or Presentation Example Fifthly it would focus on such stakeholders and aiders in the nursing process that would be impacted by changes in decision making. Sixthly out of the different stakeholders the project would focus on identifying the Right Stakeholder for Conducting and implementing the decision taken. Seventhly it would focus on choosing the right mode of communication to communicate the plan to the staff and stakeholders for solving the problem. Eighthly strategies are also needed to design the process of countering potential conflicts. Ninthly a model of gaining proper feedback from the participants needs to be formulated that in the tenth case would help in making effective evaluation of the problem-solving delegation model and also place needed recommendations where essential. Slide 3 The Delegation Model The Delegation Model chosen for nursing is based essentially on Five Rights. The Factors of Righteousness concerning Delegation can be conceptually underlined as follows. Firstly, it must be no ted that that the tasks assigned fall in the category of being rightly delegated to others and should not fall in the ambit of nursing practice. Secondly, in the process of delegation it is required to be understood that the person chosen to be delegated is competent and right enough to satisfy the requirements of the task chosen. Thirdly, evaluation must be conducted as to whether the decision taken pertaining to the assignment of the task enhances the right of nursing care rendered to patients and thereby involves the accomplishment of different steps to achieve a favorable outcome. In the process of delegation it is required to rightly communicate the process or steps involved in the plan to the different stakeholder groups elucidating and emphasizing the process of conducts and expectations thereof. Finally the fifth step focuses on gaining effective feedback from the participants or stakeholder groups in the task delegation process that in turn would help in enhancing the amoun t of benefits rendered to the patients. This step also includes rightly evaluating the model in helping in achieving the objectives for which it had been incorporated and thereby providing useful recommendations (Clark, 2008, p.186). Slide 4 The Healthcare Problem Quality of services rendered through healthcare is countering problems owing to the shift from standards or best practices involved pertaining to pathological timings. It is observed that in many cases the morning pathological functions concerning collection of blood, urine and stool samples and subjecting them to tests get disrupted owing to the loss of focus and unavailability of required staff. Owing to the above case the formulation of pathological reports counters a major problem thereby rendering threat to the process of medication and treatment involved pertaining to the patients (Harris, 2005, p.395-396). Slide 5 Stakeholders to the Delegation Process The stakeholders to the delegation of tasks pertaining to the ef fective operation of the morning laboratories would consist of the following parties: Doctors, Laboratory Staff, Nursing Aids, Patients Involved and Nursing Staff. These people are identified as stakeholders to the delegation process in healthcare for they have significant interests and also would be potentially affected pertaining to the level of outcomes resulting thereof. These groups of stakeholders consist of both external and

A Casualty Clearing Station Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

A Casualty Clearing Station - Essay Example Dr. Hayward started by explaining how the conditions at war were not as one expected them to be but they were rather tougher and difficult to cope up with. To support this stand, he began his narrative by stating that he had worked for twenty years as a surgeon in the general hospitals in an area and he also had an exposure to war like situations as he had served as a surgeon at British Red Cross Hospital, Netley during the initial period of the War. But the author explains in his narrative that this familiarity with war like situations was in no way close to the experiences that he gained at the Casualty Clearing Station (C.C.S) at Crouay where he got posted upon his request in July 1918. This was because the C.C.S received patients directly from the war field and this was different from his working at the British Red Cross Hospital. Thus, Dr. Hayward provided an inside picture of the C.C.S by beginning his compilation from his normal days of work and ending it after his work at the C.C.S. The firsthand account of Dr. John A. Hayward is a text that provides historians with not only geographical evidence but also with historical and cultural evidence. From the geographical perspective, his writing narrates the war experiences of the different regions in France beginning with the Base Hospital at Trouville where he only dealt with minor injuries. This was followed by his work at the C.C.S at Crouay where he treated patients who were pouring in from the battlefield.  

The Eve of Waterloo Essay Example for Free

The Eve of Waterloo Essay There was sound of revelry by night: A ball was given at Brussels on the evening before the battle of Quatre Bras, which occurred two days before the Battle of Waterloo; Belgium’s capital had then gathered her beauty and chivalry while her lamps shone brightly over fair women and brave men. The thousand hearts beat happily when the music arose with its voluptuous swell and all went out merry as though summoned to church by the wedding bells. Then suddenly a deep sound struck like a rising knell. It might be that no everyone heard it for the rest thought it to be the powerful movement of the wind or the rattling of a car over the stony street. Yet the patriots moved on with the dance and did not confine their joy nor did they sleep till morning. When the youth and their pleasure met to chase the glowing hours with flying feet, suddenly the heavy sound broke in once more and the clouds repeated its echo. The sound was felt coming nearer and deadlier than before. Finally it became all clear that it was the arm of the cannon’s opening roar. The fated chieftain of Brunswick; Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick; sate: sat; within a windowed niche of the great high hall. He first heard the sound in the midst of the festival and immediately understood its tone to be caught up with death’s prophetic ear. When his people smiled because he deemed the roaring sound near, his heart knew more truly that pealed too well which stretched his father’s honor on a bloody bier. He also knew that it was only by rousing the vengeance blood alone that could quell his desire for ultimate justice. He rushed into the battlefield and died fighting in the forefront of the battle and unfortunately for his men who had to hurry to and fro. All his people gathered tears in their eyes and felt the trembling of distress with their cheeks all pale. Perhaps an hour ago, they blushed at the praise of their own loveliness when they had to experience the sudden partings like pressing the life out of young hearts and choking their sighs which might never be repeated. No one could guess if those mutual eyes should ever meet again, since upon the night that is so sweet should such an awful morning rise. There was mounting on horsebacks in great haste. The steed in mustering squadron: gathering army; and the clattering car charged forward with impetuous speed and swiftly forming themselves into ranks of war. The deep thunder of canons peal on peal far and near while the beat of the alarming drums roused up the soldiers before the morning star came up. The citizens thronged and were dumb-struck with terror and whispering with white lips that the foe was coming. The wild and high note of the Cameron’s gathering: the war song of the Cameron clan; rose even on behalf of Lochiel: the Cameron clan is from Lochiel in Scotland; which was heard in the Albyn hills too; Albyn: a poetic name for Scotland; to have her Saxon foes: the English (since they belonged to Saxon stock while the Scots were mainly of Celtic origin). At mid-day and mid-night the Pibroch: a kind of Highland bagpipe; thrills with shrill and savage notes, whose breath fills their mountain pipes and the mountaineers too with the fierce native daring courage which instills the stirring memories of a thousand years and Evan, Donald: Evan Cameron and Donald Cameron, two Scottish chieftains who supported the Stuarts; fame rings in each clansman’s ears.

Construction Productivity Measurement Techniques

Construction Productivity Measurement Techniques The construction industry remains one of the few most labour intensive industries in the developed world. It is therefore imperative to understand the measure of construction labour productivity. Furthermore, recent institutional and industrial calls for an increase in productivity suggest a desperate need to get the measurement of productivity levels right. The research reported in this paper forms part of an ongoing Ph.D. study into the issue of construction labour productivity. An earlier study highlighted that less than 50% of the industry actually actively measure and monitor productivity levels, with a majority of those companies that claim to measure go about measuring on the basis of the intuition of key site management personnel. This may seem alarming, however, it was argued that productivity measurement techniques could be perceived as theoretical, arduous and expensive for construction companies to adopt. This paper reviews the methods of productivity measurement availabl e and describes two case studies conducted during this research, with a view of reporting the problems and issues faced when attempting to establish productivity levels at a project level. Lessons learnt are then drawn from the experience. INTRODUCTION The quest for productivity improvements in the UK construction industry has been an especially important agenda over the last decade (Latham, 1994; Egan, 1998). However, what is found baffling is the fact that the measure of productivity is often conflated with the measure of performance. One only needs to turn to the Construction Productivity Network (CPN) to seek an instance of such misapprehension. Indeed, the very name of the network is misleading since it deals with such far wider issues as risk management and knowledge management. Clearly, the network might be more suited to have adopted the term Construction Performance Network as compared to the use of the term productivity, which traditionally refers to the quantifiable ratio between inputs and outputs in physical terms. Indeed, the industrial Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) rightly recognise the clear distinction by acknowledging the measure of productivity as a subset of the wider measure of business performance. However, in the pursuit of convincing the industry to take on board improvement programmes and initiatives, recommendations have tended to represent simplistically improvements through headline measures such as reduction in construction time, defects, accidents etc., for instance, in the case of the Movement for Innovation (M4I) demonstration projects. Productivity, interestingly, was measured by the M4I by taking the median of the company value added in monetary terms per employee. This value added approach mirrors the value-added approach conventionally applied at the industrial (macroeconomic) level (see e.g. Jonsson, 1996). While it is understandable, from a marketing perspective, to report headline indicators per se, given the fact that embarking on any initiative undoubtedly needs corporate buy-in by senior managers, it is felt that capturing productivity measurements at the strategic level may be insufficient to guarantee that improvements actually occur at the operational level. Therefore, it is firmly believed that going back to the basics of measuring productivity at the project site level would be necessary in facilitating improvements. This is because the construction industry is largely project-based. Groà ¡k, for instance, issued a stern warning that there is an inherent failure to recognise that the site was the defining locus of production organisation (1994: 288) for construction. However, there lies a problem here. Apart from the formal measures propounded by such initiatives as the M4I stated above, many construction companies just do not have formal measures in place at the project level. For example, Chan and Kaka (2003), in a questionnaire survey to 400 UK contractors, found that of the 77 respondents, more than half of them do not monitor productivity levels at the project level. Furthermore, a third of those who claim to do so base their judgement of productivity on gut feeling and experience of dealing with contract schedules. Similar findings were noted in a large study commissioned by the Investors in People in the UK, which was aimed at examining productivity measurements inter alia across sectors including manufacturing, transport, service and construction. The Investors in People (2001) noted that while 22% of the respondents did not measure productivity levels at all, 36% and 22% of the respondents used formal and informal techniques to establish productivity levels respectively. Yet, past research have shown that the very process of formalising on-site productivity measurements itself delivers project improvements. For example, Winch and Carr (2001) notably identified a growing competitive spirit among the workforce as they progressed in their study investigating the benchmarking of on-site productivity, thus reinforcing an earlier comment made about the importance of measuring productivity levels at the project site level. Nonetheless, Chans and Kakas (2003) and the Investors in People (2001) reports beg the question as to why there is reluctance for formal productivity measurements, and which forms the premise of this paper. The chief aim of this paper is to explore the pertinent issues that would explain some of the reasons behind what we would call industrial inertia towards productivity measurement at the project level. In so doing, we would tackle it from both theoretical and practical perspectives. The next section briefly reviews the key textbook approaches to measuring on-site productivity and highlights the limitations in terms of reliability and relevance of these approaches that restrict industrial adoption. Thereafter, we will report on the relevant findings of two live projects observed as part of a wider study into understanding the concept of construction labour productivity, revealing some of the practical issues encountered when measuring on-site productivity. Conclusions are then draw n from both the review and the case studies that lead to the recommendations for future research that would hopefully encourage the industry to measure on-site productivity. PRODUCTIVITY MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES Construction textbooks are awash with details of key productivity measurement techniques and it would be inappropriate to replicate the explanation of these techniques within the constraints of this paper. According to Noor (1998), productivity measurement techniques fall within a spectrum between two broad categories of observational methods, namely continuous observation (e.g. direct observation and work study) and intermittent observation (e.g. audio-visual methods, delay surveys and activity sampling). Noor recognised that while continuous observations such as direct observation and work study provide high levels of accuracy and detailed data for understanding productivity, these are often time-consuming, arduous and costly. Given the operational imperative of construction projects and the ever increasing time pressures exerted on project schedules, the cost of employing personnel to conduct such observations both in terms of the monetary cost of wages and the time value of observation that does not result in the physical growth of buildings (i.e. non value added) would deter companies from adopting such measurement techniques. Furthermore, the benefits of continuous observations are marred by the inexorable restriction of scope and thus, would make it difficult for large projects to pursue this approach. Where the use of technical equipment for audio-visual methods is concerned, Winch and Carr (2001) were especially cautious that the workers might feel that the surveillance was un necessarily intrusive. As such, they avoided the use of such methods to observe the workers and opted instead for direct observation where the researchers got to know the individual workers on a personal level. Therefore, while the absence of the workers uneasiness was achieved, the inability to observe the whole construction process became an evident trade-off. With respect to intermittent observations, Noor noted that these are prone to errors in determination since the data tends to be aggregated statistically through the observation of a representative sample. To add to this, Radosavljevic and Horner (2002) recently revisited formwork and masonry productivity data sets across eleven sites in the USA and the UK, only to confirm their suspicion that productivity is not normally distributed, thereby implying that some basic statistical diagnosticsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ may give misleading results and are not applicable (p. 3). Accordingly, this questions the dubious reliability of conventional productivity measurement techniques. Serendipitously, Radosavljevic and Horner made a brief comparison of the data with volatility studies in econometrics to reveal surprising similarity with Pareto distributions, which are typical of chaotic systems. They concluded therefore that using test statistics that rely on normality usually have been taken for grant ed, and consequently not much could have been done to achieve a better understanding of the ubiquitous complexity (p. 11) as they call for a paradigm shift to understand the complexities of construction labour productivity, possibly through chaos theory. However, it is felt that such complex methods of analysing productivity levels might further discourage companies to measure productivity since this would mean additional investment of statistical expertise. Another problem with many of the conventional productivity measurement techniques is the reductionistic approach in analysing work time (see e.g. Drewin, 1982). To put simply, much of the analysis of productivity data had been concerned with the binary relationship between productive (or value-adding) time and time loss. However, contenders such as Thomas et. al. (1990) challenged this underlying assumption the inverse relationship between productive and non-productive time, and that reducing time loss leads to productivity improvements as they claimed while these assumptions seem sensible and logical, they will be shown to be unsupportable for most construction operations (p. 712). In fact, a later study (Thomas, 1991) provided evidence that would cast doubts on the assumption of the binary relationship between productive and non-productive time, and hence on the productivity measurement techniques. A further limitation relates to the application of productivity measurement techniques in past research. A review of the literature revealed that measurement techniques were mainly concentrated, in past research, on a number of key construction operations: namely concrete works (Proverbs et. al., 1999; Winch and Carr, 2001), masonry projects (Thomas and Yiakoumis, 1987; Olomolaiye, 1990), structural steel (Thomas and Yiakoumis, 1987) and electrical works (Thomas, 2000). Evidently, with the exception of electrical works, much of the studies were concerned with the structural elements, i.e. elements that contribute to the structural frame of the building. This means there is an overwhelming lack of research aimed at studying such other aspects of the building process as architectural elements (e.g. plastering, internal fit-out, painting and decoration) or services installations (e.g. mechanical and sanitary installations). Indeed, the studies surrounding electrical works were related t o the effects of schedule acceleration, in part, due to the effects of productivity-related problems of the earlier structural phase of projects (see e.g. Noyce and Hanna, 1998; and Thomas, 2000). One of the possible reasons for this phenomenon is the lack of previous studies (unlike where areas such as bricklaying and concrete operations are concerned) or industrial productivity data for comparison. Notably, the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) in the US has been deeply keen in examining productivity issues ever since the late 1960s (Thomas et. al., 1990) and have been actively developing labour consumption curves (NECA, 1983) to inform the industry for possible applications on different project types (Thomas, 2000), offering perhaps an explanation as to why productivity on electrical projects are examined. Olomolaiye (1990) is one of the few who explains his decision to focus on bricklaying as he attributed his preference to the predominance of bricks as one of the main construction materials in the UK. He added a bulk of construction manpower still goes into bricklaying as it remains highly labour-intensive (p. 302). On the decision to focus on concrete operations, Winch and Carr (2001) cited Horners and Zakiehs (1996) claim that studies of estimating have shown that the largest items in the bill can be used to determine overall outputs very closely. Furthermore, they expounded that data on concrete deliveries by ready-mix trucks for any given period are easily obtained from site records, and because concrete is perishable, we can infer that deliveries on a day have been poured that day (p. 581). It is argued, however, that concentrating on the predominant or largest activity results in a reductionistic approach, which fails to take into account the entire construction process. Intere stingly, Kazaz and Ulubeyli (2004) in a recent study aimed at reconciling governmental statistics and real project data on productivity rates in Turkey elected to examine only 82 work items deemed to be used most in practice, thus affirming the researchers observation, although they acknowledged that these only constitute 6.11% of all possible work items. In this respect, conclusions made in past studies are limited in their scope in offering plausible recommendations for implementation for the improvement of construction labour productivity. The limitations of productivity measurement techniques discussed hitherto, to some extent, help to explain the low industrial uptake within construction. These encompass the issues of reliability and relevance of existing techniques that would inhibit the ability of companies to meaningfully analyse their project productivity so as to bring about improvements to the entire construction process. Furthermore, there are the investment constraints of time and expertise in implementing the existing productivity techniques. These emerging issues from the brief review explains some of the general difficulties claimed by the participants of the Investors in People (2001) study, particularly the difficulties in obtaining accurate information, the varied nature of individual job roles and the complex nature of productivity that is dependent on several intervening factors (p. 6). CASE STUDIES AND PRELIMINARY FINDINGS Having briefly discussed the theoretical issues surrounding existing productivity measurement techniques, this section now turns to the two projects, hereinafter known as projects A and B, observed during the course of the study. The purpose of the case studies is to explore the issues faced by practitioners when measuring project productivity. The two projects were selected because project participants had either attempted to measure productivity (project A) or claimed to have a formal method of measuring productivity in place (project B). Each case will begin with a brief synopsis of how the researchers got involved with the projects and an account of the observational process. This will then be followed by a succinct report of the key issues involved in the implementation of the productivity measurement techniques in the two projects. Project A: Multi-storey Car Park Background to project A Project A is the construction of a multi-storey car park for a Scottish airport. This was initially selected as a pilot study at the onset on the basis of convenience, access and geographic proximity as instructed in Yin (1994: 75). It is perhaps worthwhile, at this point, to provide an insight into how and why access was given to this project in the first place. A marketing flyer accompanied by a cover letter was sent to companies to seek collaboration and access to projects, people, data etc. at the start of the research. A positive response from the main contractor executing project A then resulted from this initial call for participation. The contractor was a fast growing company at that time that aimed both to penetrate the Scottish construction market and to succeed in gaining repeat business with British Airports Authority (B.A.A.). Because the company had not undertaken any on-site productivity measurement, they were therefore keen for the researchers to assist in the develop ment of on-site productivity measures. And so, access to the project was granted on a two-days-a-week basis and the project quantity surveyor of the company was involved with the researchers in developing the measurement technique. To overcome the problems discussed in the previous section regarding the isolation of construction activities in measuring productivity, a decision was made to measure productivity levels using the existing company worker timesheets. Timesheets were found to be extremely useful mainly because timesheets were used for the purpose of calculation of hourly wages and linking this to productivity measurement would probably show meaningfully the notion of a fair wage. Furthermore, measuring productivity on a daily basis was considered to be the most appropriate technique as corrective action could be taken as quickly as possible. For data collection purposes, foremen were instructed to complete time inputs and physical outputs for each worker under their charge within a set time sheet on a daily basis. Table 1 below shows a simplified example of a recording on the activity of pouring concrete by a gang of concrete labourers. Based on the data presented in table 1, a total of 66 man-hours w ere used to produce 232m3 of concrete, yielding a productivity rate of à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ » 3.5m3 of concrete per man-hour. Emerging issues A number of issues arose whilst attempting to measure on-site productivity levels for project A in this way. The desire for a speedy construction process meant that many proprietary systems, e.g. in the case of formwork, were used as part of the construction techniques. These were undertaken by specialist subcontractors (with whom access was not granted). What was observed was that the core labourers used by the main contractor were general operatives who were often mobile in terms of the task they did. So, for example, an operative could be involved in general housekeeping on day n, shifting what is known as tables (a proprietary form of the conventional birdcage scaffolding that is on wheels to support the formwork) on day n + 1, and putting stop ends along the perimeter of a plot prior to concreting to prevent the concrete from spilling over on day n +2 and so on. Perhaps the only stable groups of workers were those who were relatively more skilled, e.g. concretors and steelfixers , who tended to stick within the task of their trades. Even so, these workers moved to other projects in the vicinity when their tasks were not scheduled for project A. Therefore, while measuring productivity levels in this way appear to be more holistic and probably closer to reality than the methods highlighted in the previous section, the mammoth task of tracking workers posed an immense challenge. Moreover, although the data was collected at the gang level (through the foremen), the boundaries of the gang were found to be arbitrary because of the volatile movement of the workers. This resulted in high variability of the productivity data obtained, which supports Radosavljevics and Horners (2002) observations, but which implies that discerning the factors affecting productivity especially those related to the workforce issues was particularly problematic. Administering the measurement was also not without problems. To start with, foremen were not akin to filling out forms and throughout its implementation, the project quantity surveyor discovered that there was a need to constantly explain to the foremen the mechanisms of recording. Two reasons accounted for this. The first relates to the inevitable problem with determining output quantities given that construction operations are often associated with work-in-progress that can be difficult to ascertain. Rules of credit (see e.g. Thomas and Yiakoumis, 1987) may go some way to facilitate this process, although time and manpower is needed to maintain a database of such information for which the project quantity surveyor did not have. In fact, the project quantity surveyor resigned in the middle of the project and the measurement of productivity halted due to the absence of a willing successor. To exacerbate the problems of measurement, the project quantity surveyor had identified a compl ex list of more than 170 task descriptions, thus causing further confusion for the foremen in the recording process. This enormous list of task descriptions is believed to be due to the fact that many proprietary systems were used in the construction process. Still, as the predicted trend for the construction industry is towards greater outsourcing and use of innovative technology in the production of buildings (see e.g. CRISP, 2001), it would be sensible to take into account such complexities when measuring productivity. It is here that project B sheds some light. Project B: Headquarters of a Commercial Bank Background to project B Project B involves the construction of the headquarters of a commercial bank on a greenfield site just outside Edinburgh. Access was given to interview senior project managers and to conduct questionnaire surveys with the site operatives. During the interviews, the researchers were struck by the ability of the managers to report what they allege to be the precise number of man-hours expended on the project to date, a phenomenon that was non-existent in other projects observed during the study. Inquisitively, the researchers investigated how project participants captured this data through further probing during the interviews. According to the project managers, project B utilised what is known as The Last Planner system, a planning system that has gradually gained recognition and refinement since its inception in 1994. Much has been written about the system (see e.g. Ballard, 2000), although this is really related to planning and never intended to be used as a means of measuring on-site productivity. However, one of the KPIs resulting from this system, known as the Percent Plan Complete (PPC), was thought to be extremely valuable by the project participants for them to gain an informed view of the on-site productivity levels. Basically, the PPC refers to how much of the planned work on a weekly basis is actually completed. In a similar vein, this ostensibly is comparable to the earned value analysis used in project management (see Project Management Institute, 2000). Figure 1 above shows an extract from a weekly progress update, which enables project Bs participants to keep track of how productively the wo rk packages were performing to plan. To help improve the PPC, the progress meetings were used as a platform to understand what went wrong, i.e. what intervening events or factors resulted in a low PPC (e.g. weather, lack of materials etc.). Emerging issues While this paper is not aimed at analysing whether this system constitutes a credible means for measuring on-site productivity, it was felt that this system provided an effective way for managers to establish how progress was being made. Hence, this allowed project participants to get a feel of the productivity of the workers by complementing the measure of PPC with the number of man-hours expended. To show a simplistic example, using figure 1 above, let us assume that work package 1 utilises the same amount of man-hours throughout the project. Therefore, one can safely deduce that achieving 100% PPC in say week 13 and 76% PPC in week 14 would signify a dip in labour productivity. In other words, PPC can be viewed as an output in the productivity ratio and so alleviate the problems of complexities involved in construction operations and sub-contracted work packages experienced in project A above. Furthermore, such information should provide useful feedback to the workforce regarding their performance. Implementing this system for the project participants was also met with a number of challenges. For instance, the system is largely paper based and therefore archiving such information and managing it within a database would still require the deployment of manpower. Nonetheless, as compared with the attempts in project A, this is perceived to be relatively more straightforward. It would also be tempting to proclaim that running this system commenced from the first day of the project. In fact, the project managers had attempted to implement such a system on a previous project six years ago but faced immense resistance from the project workers as it was then thought to create a blame culture so that fault could be apportioned when things went wrong. Interestingly, another project observed, which involved the construction of an office block in central London and built by the same contractor running project B, had initially tried to adopt the system. However, it was abandoned as soon as it started on the same basis of resistance. Still, project B participants learnt from their previous experience from six years ago and thus, made a conscious effort to allay fears of a blame culture right from the very start of the project through constant reassurances given during early briefing sessions. CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, the paper raised the issue of the importance of, and lacklustre attitude of companies towards, measuring on-site productivity. Thereafter, a review of the limitations behind the key textbook approaches to measuring productivity was provided and these represent some of the problems, which contribute to the industrys reluctance to measuring productivity. We have then taken the reader on a journey through two projects observed and summarised here some of the practical issues faced in the implementation of an on-site productivity measurement system. These include the time and expertise needed in handling the complexities of productivity data and resistance from the workforce. In essence, the underlying theme throughout the experience is that a productivity measurement system has to be comprehensive enough to take into account the complexities of todays construction operations and ever increasing emphasis on sub-contract work packages as seen in project A; but simple enough to be effective as portrayed in The Last Planner system in project B. However, the reliability of using The Last Planner system to measure productivity was beyond the remit of this current study. Nonetheless, the experience of project participants in project B shows that it works in reality to help provide that informed view of on-site productivity levels needed to bring about improvements. Therefore, further work is required to establish the feasibility of using such a system in measuring productivity.

Essay --

Question Ferguson, N. (2013). The Great Degeneration: How Institutions Decay and Economies Die. .Honig, Bonnie. Emergency Politics: Paradox, Law, Democracy. Princeton: PrincetonUniversity Press, 2009. Ferguson highlights in his paper that the current generation is misusing resources and as a result pile up the debts and heap burden upon the future generation. To avert this amongst the many things he mentions is good leadership to enforce the regulations in place to avert the disaster pilling up. Hence therefore we are forced to assess what leadership is good for sustainable utilization of resources that takes into consideration the future generations. What Ferguson highlights is very relevant to the society today because politics and leadership of nations is really affecting the development of many nations. The way countries are being run directly reflects on the development progress in the countries. Study of leadership therefore becomes an interesting component for study so that we can be able to build up on the need for sober leadership for the development of nations. Of interest in Fergusons highlight is the fact that he highlights the negligence with which resources are being utilized without consideration for the future generations who are also heavily dependent on how well we preserve the resources for them. Compromise in terms of the implementation of regulations and policies as highlighted by Ferguson seems to be the core undoing of the leadership in place which leaves the nations vulnerable in terms of their economies and sustainability. The research therefore will strive to highlight the importance of leadership in nations with special reference to the resource allocations, utilization as well as sustainability. In the... ...p is a craft that is made and the way it is made determines the output. The fact that leaders learn and grow means that the leaders are made and not that a person id born with a leadership calling in him or her. Conclusion In as much as each and every leaders has a different approach to leadership, there are attributes that are commonly shared amongst all these leaders. Approaches might be different but the goals intended to be achieved are the same. All leaders have qualities that stand out and make them better in their leadership or management. Despite using different approaches to achieve the goals and objectives, the qualities they share remain constant across board and hence the similarity in their success as the unique end results of their roles. Resources utilization should be done sustainably under the watch of the leadership considering future generations.

Company strategic plan Essay

According to company strategic plans, the company aims to achieve a net profit before tax of $1,000,000. The chief risks to this goal are: ââ€" poor sales due to economic downturn ââ€" increases in expenses such as wage expenses. In addition to Australian operations, the company is considering manufacturing overseas to take advantage of reduced costs. The company is also considering diversifying its product range to reduce exposure to poor sales of one product. Role You are the manager of Sales Centre A, based in Adelaide. The centre has achieved great success over the last year and consistently outsells other sales centres. In fact, due to the large number of accounts managed by your sales team and larger staff, your centre is expected to sell as much volume as the other two sales centres put together. Naturally, you expect cost allocations to reflect the both the needs and importance to the business of Cost Centre A. Task A The Sales General Manager, Sam Gellar has asked you to review the master budget and cost centre budgets prepared by the Senior Accountant. She would like you to meet with her to discuss the whether the budget projections are achievable, accurate, understandable and fair. She would like you to look at the budget for your cost centre closely, note any changes you think are necessary, develop an argument for the changes and negotiate those changes with her. Information you are aware of includes: ââ€" Sales in the first quarter (Q1), second quarter (Q2), and the fourth quarter (Q4) are generally 30% less than Q2. ââ€" Sales in Q2 depend on completion of 90% of repair and maintenance. ââ€" Commission negotiated with members of the sales team is now at 2.5%.

A Lesson in Reinvention

A case study on the lesson in reinvention is what this paper will focus on and the paper will also try to establish the successes and major challenges that a company known as Hampton in Virginia City has faced over the last years since its inception.   Hampton organization is currently under major reforms that have led to changes in its organizational culture.There are a range of activities that were taking place with the most of the 1,300 city employees having participated in the available more than 115 task forces, committees, advisory groups, self-directed teams all who worked under different jobs that were not their usual jobs.For instance, the city’s assistant manager, Mary Bunting was preoccupied with the task of digging ditches with a city’s sewer crew, development of a new city park that was required by another agency was performed by a certain heavy construction team that worked under the public works department, the chief housing inspector Mr. Donald Gurley on the other hand was busy organizing for an exhibition that concerned the provision of city services for a college in the neighborhood which was also a training program that could be made available to the city’s residents, Kevin Gallagher who was in charge of the city’s recycling programs assisted the street crews in clearing ice and snow (Lane, 1999 p. 412-418).All these activities that were taking place mainly because of the change that Hampton’s city manager Bob O’Neil had initiated.   He wanted his assistants to integrate well with various agencies and this could only be achieved by making them to work in conjunction with various agencies so as to be able to know and understand how these organizations operated.As a result, this strategy led to various impacts on the employees of Hampton organization.   The assumptions and beliefs that the employees had about each other changed as the case of Mary Bunting’s assumption on sewer employees.   She found out that these employees were actually more flexible and skilled on their new responsibilities.   Motivation was also apparent on the employees under the heavy construction team.   Teamwork is evident and created a positive impact on employees and employers.For instance, Kevin Gallagher enjoyed the teamwork that was created as it connected him to other employees as well as understanding their roles and responsibilities.   This is informal connecting and creation of networking among the employees as a result of the collaboration that was among the employees of Hampton as they tried to achieve the organizational objectives (Lane, 1999 p. 412-418).This change as offered by city manager Bob O’Neil was essential for Hampton because of the existence of a non-competitive economic as well as fical development structure and the â€Å"inside the box â€Å"standardized issue of bureaucracy that was intense in the organization was causing a major stagnation to Hampton .In the past, the employees at Hampton did not portray much flexibility and bureaucracy was felt in the city government whose boss was the manager.   The departmental heads were directed on what to do by the assistant city managers and on the other hand these heads of departments guarded their hoarding decisions, their turf and information by commanding supervisors and middle managers who were responsible for controlling the everyday work of employees.Another issue concerning bureaucracy is that employees as well as managers were preoccupied with operational procedures that were mainly detailed and the chain of command was evident in communication processes in Hampton.   In other words the past Hampton organization greatly prized the aspects of stability, control, loyalty and certainty (Lane, 1999 p. 412-418).As a result, Hampton was slowly dying as noted by James Eason.   The impacts then were high population growth rate, high taxes, reduced per-capital income and home values were among the lowest in the region, a strain on the budget that was caused by debt-repayments and lastly there was business loss in the city to the neighboring communities.This therefore proved that Hampton was non-competitive hence the city council opted to find a suitable city government that could be quick to respond to the needs of the community, an innovative city government as well as action – oriented and flexible.The city council identified Bob O’Neill who had once worked as an intern in the city hence he clearly understood the bureaucracy right from the inside.   Bob O’Neil was given a performance contract that was written by the city council that contained clearly specific and spelled out for city government (Lane, 1999 p. 412-418).Upon his arrival to the Hampton organization, O’Neill instructed his assistant managers to work on long-term strategic policies rather than micromanaging their departments.   Moreover, he asked directors to full y control their agencies.He also worked with the city council through the method of â€Å"core† strategy in order to achieve the set goals.   He also put the heads of department under performance contracts which contained spelled out results that they were expected to attain and also included bonuses for any achievements made by these departmental heads (Lane, 1999 p. 412-418).

Global human power Essay

Most of the victims in the novel were Frankenstein’s family, William, Henry, Justine and Elizabeth. These people all suffered due to the creature’s anger from Frankenstein’s original neglect, which is what begun the hatred in the creature. It is not fair to view the creature as a human, as he was artificially created he has no human morals and has never been taught the difference between right and wrong, in the same sense that a court would never convict a baby. Although the creature did manage to master human language skills, it only pushed him further away from society as it allowed him to express his alien nature. We can see this in the novel when the creature put his hand into a fire, because the colours and heat of the fire attracted him † I thrust my hand into the live embers but quickly drew it out again with a cry of pain†. The creature was a victim in the way that he was uneducated of the world before he â€Å"stepped into it†. Elizabeth can easily be portrayed as a hero in the novel as she represented a â€Å"saintly soul† and a â€Å"living spirit of love†. This lets her down however, when she attempts to save Justine in a religiously Christian based way, which was not successful. Although viewed as a hero she doesn’t contain any power over other characters, just a good heart. There is controversy over whether Frankenstein could be viewed as a hero or not, as a cowardly attribute is certainly not a trait of a true hero. When the monster asked him to create a companion for him, he said no as this would enables the creatures to breed and possibly take over global human power. On the other hand he could have spared his family a lot of trouble if he had just created another being who could have possibly shown the love and understanding the creature needed. Frankenstein later realises this when he says â€Å"For the first time, I felt what the duties of a creator towards his creature were, and that I ought to render him happy before I complained of his wickedness†. Elizabeth, Frankenstein’s wife, was also a hero as she managed to bring up everyone’s spirits at sad times, and she continually believed in Justine’s innocence. This particular genre creates a need for both heroes and villains, as it is usually the case of good trying to overpower evil, or vice-versa. To conclude, I believe that there are heroes and villains, as well as victims in this novel. Most of the characters seem to change from villains, heroes and victims throughout the novel, especially the creature and Frankenstein. In my belief the creature was made to be the victim from the opening of the novel as he was neglected, uneducated and ostracised. I believe Frankenstein could have changed everything if he had befriended the creature in the first place. On the other hand Frankenstein was also an isolated individual, although his isolation from society was brought on himself. The novel shows the shallowness of people in society by showing what the monster had to endure because of his appearance, as well as the moral irresponsibility of Frankenstein as a scientist. Frankenstein was always the villain deep down as he attempted to play God, which I don’t think should be attempted by any human being. He was obsessed with the fact that he could create life, but never once to considered if it was the right thing to do. I think Shelley is basing the whole novel on, not what Frankenstein actually did, but what he fails to do.  The way the creature is portrayed in 3rd person narrative allows us to see the creature as a hero, villain and a victim. I believe that the creature viewed Frankenstein as a father figure and was mentally tortured when his own creator neglected him. He had nothing to live for, except revenge.

Journal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 14

Journal - Essay Example According to Okonkwo, his father, Unoka, was everything a man should not be. He was passionate about music and a merriment and lived a life devoid of care. Okonkwo, who did not share his father’s passion on music, thought of him as a hopeless idler. His belief was supported by the fact that his father hadn’t managed to take a single title from his clan, which essentially proved him an outcast in a society which positioned a man based on the number of titles he managed to take. Above all, Unoka also lived and died in debt. This gave enough reasons for Okonkwo to dread this kind of existence for the rest of his life. So most part of Okonkwo’s life sees him trying hard to convince himself and others that he was strong, unlike his father–(Achebe 3) Okonkwo’s son Nwoye was a cause of much distress to his father. As a 12-year old lad, he had inherited his grandfather’s gentle nature, passion for music and the love for a peaceful life. In Okonkwo’s perspective, he was turning out to be an incompetent man... But Okonkwo was firm in his belief that he could bring his son to the right path by beating and forcing him towards it. Nwoye himself was striving to please his father. Though he was still a child, he found secret pleasure in feigning masculinity and in the process, pleasing his father. He was forced to rebuke his mother’s gentle ways, thanks to his father’s violent commandments. But deep within, he was unsure of his thoughts and what he actually wanted. And more importantly, he lacked the freedom to think, thanks to his father’s tyrannical ways. He found much needed companionship and a role model in Ikemefuna, who came to stay with the family as a punishment to a crime committed by a member of the village he belonged to. But Nwoye’s joy was short-lived as the elders of the village decide to murder Ikemefuna, a wise, fine lad of 18, based on the command of the oracle. Not only does Okonkwo support the

Post Event Evaluation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Post Event Evaluation - Essay Example Businesses increasingly are supporting events to promote their services and products to the market and for charity activities. Different authors have defined events and theoretical constitutions of events. This enables us to classify the types of occasions are can be termed as events. According to Bowdin et al (2012), Governments now support and promote events as part of their strategies for economic development nation building and destination marketing. Other authors hold that events are more of social or staged activities. This means that events are composed of activities although mere activities ac not be categorised as events (Getz et al, 2007). This is because activities involve liveliness, energy and involvement but with events, there is a theme which accompanies those activities. The UK and various countries and cultures within it, have a rich tradition of rituals and ceremonies extending over thousands of years. These traditions, influenced by changes within society, have greatly influenced many events as they are celebrated today. Some of the events initiated in the UK in the traditional period still function religiously up to now. Example, King John initiated an event known as ‘The Lord Mayors Show’ in 1251 and which has continued to be pra cticed today. Currently, the lord mayor’s show is the largest parade of its kind in the world. LMS (2013) explains how the Lord Mayors Show has floated, rolled, trotted, marched and occasionally fought its way through 798 years of London history, surviving the Black Death and the blitz to arrive in the 21st century as one of the world’s best-loved pageants. While the ‘The Lord Mayors Show’ is categorized as a cultural celebration and a parade, it can be categorized as an event as it has been listed under the Getz et al (2007) ‘Typology of Events’. Getz et al (2007) provides further description towards these events as a joyful occasion and a day to observe

Website Review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Website Review - Essay Example The next section discusses the various chronological events discussed in the life of E.E. Cummings with all dates included. It provides various links to his works and related materials like poems, essays, paintings, other forms of work. The following are the contents and its evaluation: It takes in as input the date of birth, a month of birth, year of birth, sex, mode, BMI, smoking status and then calculates one death day and date. It is a tool which works on primary inputs and makes sure that BMI can be calculated and also lets the user know to calculate the death date, thereby calling it the death clock. It demonstrates itself into â€Å"Obituaries† which mention that all the people may how beautiful and famous they are they would perish away from this earth one day. The page â€Å"Your Will† is a FAQ page which lists the very questions one may have or usually do on an average. All the probable answers are written here to let the users know what they are thinking. The page â€Å"Dead letter office’ would make sure that all the user comments and archives The page â€Å"Testament† details the likes and dislikes of the site owner in accordance to various topics like â€Å"A game†, â€Å"Death Clock 2†, â€Å"Planet of the Apes†, â€Å"911†, â€Å"I hate my Cd burner† and much more. The last page â€Å"Your Prayer† details out the various communication techniques to reach the site owner for ay communication. The website would make sure that all the various compliances are met for the site owner and all the objectives are achieved through the website.

Two approaches to globalization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Two approaches to globalization - Essay Example From the foregoing discussion, one might expect that their products should not have successful. What happened, however, was entirely unexpected. The performance of Starbucks has become legendary. In just 20 years, the Seattle company has grown from 18 coffee shops to thousands making it a leading global brand.2 Starbucks hardly advertises but has experienced 20% bump in global brand value. According to the company fact sheet, as of November 2006, Starbucks had 7,102 company-operated outlets worldwide: 5,668 of them in the United States and 1,434 in other countries and U.S. territories. In addition, the company has 5,338 joint-venture and licensed outlets, 3,168 of them in the United States and 2,170 in other countries and U.S. territories. This brings the total locations (as of November, 2006) to 12,440 worldwide. The number of weekly customers is 30 million.3 The Roddicks' first Body Shop opened on March 26, 1976 in Brighton, United Kingdom with only about 25 natural handmade products. The rights to the name of the firm was bought from a San Francisco beauty store which still remains today as The Body Time.