Abstract for Conference paper about Energy Management 'Towards Essay

Abstract for Conference paper about Energy Management 'Towards Sustainable Energy for Developing Countries' - Essay Example By doing this, the water transmission and its various utilities will be at their best as excesses and irregularities are kept away. SSM is a strategic management tool whose goals is to improve on process eficiency and hence saves on money and other resources. This means that the SSM will creat an economical atmosphere that allows huge saving in water consumption. The water saved during transmission is used to bridge the shortage gap and hence people do not result to using ground water. In the wake of deregularization of the water transmission industry, the SSM policy becomes very important in sneaking back responsiveness of the industry. In this case, the SSM has become very crucial as it is the only remaining tool that can check on excesses and irregularities in the sector. Through implementation of the Policy Framework for SSM , the industry stands to increase its competitiveness in the market. The efficiency and check and balance in the water distribution will enhance proper management of water sources by reducing wastage as much as possible (Nwakanma& Mgbataogu, 2014). This paper deliberates on the enactment and implementation of the Policy Framework for SSM in water transmission that will ensure energy security in a country. By doing so, the paper will discuss how the policy framework will operate in the water energy sector regardless of the fact that the government has deregularized it, (Montanaro & Tonveronachi, 2012). Additionally, the projects seeks to recommend for a reduction of ground water abstraction to rates as low as 5MIG per day during the summer season. To do this, the article will establish effective methods of increasing the capacity for water storage to ensure long term water and power security especially during seasons of water shortage, (Niefer, 2014). In conclusion, this research will aim at setting the foundation of water supply to the entire country, devoid of inconveniences and

Why Nomadic People Developed Complex Civilization Essay

Why Nomadic People Developed Complex Civilization - Essay Example They would move to a place that they considered economically better than their current situation (Goldin et al 120). There were three categories of Nomadic people, hunters and gatherers, pastoral, and wandering Nomads. Hunters and gatherers nomads were communities moving from one location to another in search of wild meat, fruits, and vegetables. Pastoral nomads’ movement were influenced by the availability of water and pastures for their cattle, they were settling in places with good pasture for their animals, and when pastures and water were exhausted in these locations, they would move to another location with greener pasture and water. On account of their movement and interaction with various communities, modern day civilization was born that led to the development of different economic empires and rise of military structure. Another of factors made nomadic people settle, build and develop complex civilization. Firstly, the development of new methods agriculture as time passes by made nomads to settle in one place because there was a way to control drought through irrigating their land. Also, through improved irrigation system, pastoralist were able to store enough water for their animals and at the same time irrigate land reserved for pasture so that they do not run animal feeds.

Domestic Architecture In Northern Nigeria Cultural Studies Essay

Domestic Architecture In Northern Nigeria Cultural Studies Essay Vernacular architecture can only be described as architecture without architects. It is merely in response to a particular individual or community needs, in the sense that buildings designed and built by individuals who according to local climate and culture of a particular community. Study of vernacular architecture explores the characteristics of the local buildings in the district or area, and many factors are social and cultural development. Can the concept of African vernacular style of architecture through both historical trends and perspectives of the environment. While the Yoruba in southwestern Nigeria live in corrugated zinc roof of a mud wall and the unit is surrounded by thick mud walls, and high for reasons of protection against invasion of foreign enemies, normad shepherd from northern Nigeria, Mali, living in temporary grass round the house time. But in Nigeria, expressed in the form of vernacular architecture, cultural influences originating from Brazil and North Africa and Europe. This forms a basis for social organization and traditional culture in the Nigerian society and the interaction between him and other influences can crystallize in the local architecture Nigeria (Adeyemi 1975 to 1976). 2.0 Issue / problem statement: Theft of modern technology in our society construction and design skills of environmentally sensitive homes. Modern architecture became more and more environmentally friendly not only to the people, but also the environment, including use of excessive energy in cooling. That is why we must return to the vernacular architecture to see how the principles can save and use the vernacular in the field of sustainable architecture. There are also around after years of materials that are environmentally friendly and in bad faith for building materials and sustainable construction methods. Search Questions 3.0: Here are some questions I would like to discuss and debate about this in the vernacular architecture in northern Nigeria. How and vernacular architecture to be in Nigeria? What is the vernacular architecture, sustainable architecture? How the vernacular architecture of interaction with the environment? How does the modern style of vernacular architecture? Does the vernacular architecture of energy efficiency? 4.0 Goals / Objectives: The purpose of this study was to find out what determines the vernacular architecture and the study of how vernacular architecture has been developed over the years, and how modern architecture has adopted elements of vernacular architecture. This study will also explore and evaluate the elements of architecture and design principles that can be applied from vernacular architecture to achieve a more affordable and better provide good sustainable buildings. Objective 5.0: To explore the architectural design elements of vernacular architecture. To study the relationship between culture and vernacular architecture. To see if the vernacular architecture sustainable. 6.0 Scope: Will be based on this study on vernacular architecture in northern Nigeria, this paper will discuss the existence of vernacular architecture in Nigeria and the advantages and disadvantages. This study also brings light on the sustainability of vernacular architecture, and types of materials used in vernacular architecture, and how they interact with the culture and environment for those northern Nigeria. It will also discuss research on how the vernacular architecture influenced modern architectural style, and if the two can be combined to provide sustainable buildings is cheaper and better. 7.0 Methodology: It can describe the way in which research in terms of research philosophy that they take part, and the search strategy used and therefore the research tools used (and may be included) in order to achieve that goal the goal search (s) and trying to find a solution to this problem the research questions. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the philosophy of research in relation to other philosophies, put the search strategy, including research methodology was adopted, and displays the search tool has been developed and used in order to achieve the goal. Research will be conducted on the basis of qualitative research methods. Will combine the depth of vernacular architecture and the production of research-based information in certain cases. This approach is based on ethnographic data collection, which will work to find a particular culture environment, and how it reflects their culture in their buildings. And methods of gathering information to become a reflective journal, the study of literature, articles and analysis of documents and materials. 8.0 Literature review In practice, many scientists, when they talk about slang, meaning that age, in rural areas, and local levels. But this definition, when it set an important part of the world average, built, and also a lot of leaves outside. No vernacular architecture now? Are all the history? Are there any vernacular architecture in the city? What about the stores and warehouses, churches, warehouses, stables, workshops, and commercial areas and suburban areas, and other environments, a public place? Are not elements of natural language? Dell Upton and John Michael Flash, Common Places: Read the result in American domestic architecture (1986) Vernacular architecture is the most common term used to denote, and the tribes of farmers, indigenous, and traditional architecture. . . It can distinguish between the formal architecture, the design engineer, engineering, architectural vernacular, and between this and what can be called the Peoples Architecture. Paul Oliver, Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture in the world (1997) (1997), when we isolate from the world, many ignore the vernacular architecture and name it, we have prepared for analysis. In the long marks the transition from unknown to known. Henry Glassie, Vernacular Architecture (2000) From the Latin vernaculus means mother. Vernacular architecture is when all the exhibits the standards applicable to the original context, meaning that it can be accepted and recognized in any given society through the application of some special techniques, materials, and methods and social systems. Slang a term that referred to as a way of expression group or category (Dictionary, 2002). This is a group / class can be kind of like people, buildings and very different patterns of expression I mean, how it seems to us, and this expression pattern is different for each group or category. The language used and the mode of expression a group of people and slang for the first time to define the language in England in 1839. Refers to the colloquial dialect of the region or country and not the intellectual language and literature, or foreign. He worked in the native language and then intermittently, and receive a wider application in the 1950s (Oliver, 1997). Then came the idea in the history of architecture and mode of expression for a particular class of architecture. Architecture researchers are trying to crystallize the idea of à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹Ãƒ ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹vernacular slang in different ways. Some have tried to give a specific definition in order to distinguish between the vernacular architecture of other types of architecture. There are also some definitions, which primarily features the characteristics of vernacular architecture. We can mention the most important is the definition and description of the basic characteristics or for the purpose of vernacular architecture. With the help of this information in a combination of the basic characteristics can be written in colloquial definition of architecture as vernacular architecture refers to the built form has been built from local materials using the technology available in the technical and designed to meet the needs of ordinary people in their time and place Vernacular architecture concepts developed and used for centuries by various civilizations throughout the world through trial and error, and therefore the different architectural styles, and based on local conditions. Vernacular architecture in all parts of the world is rich with ancient techniques and indigenous peoples at the beginning used to protect themselves from different weather conditions. Population survived this early in themselves by sheltering in a traditional building that has been tried throughout the ages. In the vernacular architecture, the solution is not only the climate problem, but also considered aesthetics, and function of the physical and social housing which is why design is so different in all parts of Africa. Generation to generation, provided a comfortable life housing conditions as a result of the great architect. Examples can be drawn from Africa cross sections are very good that comes from the northern part of Africa, Libya to the southern part of Afric a, and South Africa. Design has been selected or the housing structure at the beginning or settlements that things like the climate and the environment, culture, and materials. Their homes and seem to live in harmony with their environment, in other words they are sustainable. Architect responsible for building modern, and can be regarded as the person responsible for the use of the construction industry of energy available is very rare. Architects more and more and be conscious of the problem, and make progress in the design concept green and sustainable. Which has a substantial interest in architecture and community development programs in areas of vernacular architecture. This has been reinstated as the need for architectural design that works well with the climate and environment, not against, and with it the need to create more sustainable buildings. This awareness means that the new design and any renewal must be maintained. Vernacular architecture produced in the past built environment and the demands of those who responded to the destruction of the environment. This paper discusses the concept of how we can use the principles of vernacular architecture to create sustainability in building design vernacular search in Africa. 9.0 The presence of local architecture in northern Nigeria Rooted in the vernacular architecture of the city in the United States since the century old city on 15. The most remarkable that the Hausa city company also organizes a row. Architecture, especially in the mud, and fortified with oil palm. Artisan system development structure using the structure of clay to the limit, also developed the practice of using abstract art decoration. Various construction materials, which reflects the location and status, and all kinds of modern materials including concrete, stone, glass, marble, granite and other steel products are usually available. For people in traditional areas and rural areas, and the poor, the most common materials used in construction are of clay or mud. And building construction in the form of mud dry mass of the sun, and wattle and daub, or using the building blocks are called private tubali armed with palm fronds. 9.1 Architecture and the local model According to the harmony (2000) in various forms of architectural structure is a complex phenomenon and no explanation, it is not enough. All explanations are possible, however, the differences in people, a subject with a very different attitude, and ambition to respond to a variety of natural environments, as it deems appropriate. In the context of vernacular architecture, this answer varies from one place to another due to changes and differences in the interaction between social factors and culture, ritual, and economic and physical. This may be the factors and responses to change, but gradually even in the same place over time, but the lack of rapid social and cultural change. People who live in cold climate warming wood burning themselves or dispose of the membership. Can be used and those who live in hot climates, moist air currents and to minimize the effects of moisture. Children who live in areas with hot climate, dry house with a high thermal mass due to the large difference in temperature between day and night, and humidity is very low. What they have in common, and they all have chosen the correct form, using local building materials, and they are to overcome the negative effects of weather conditions. Buildings must be protected from bad weather, for example in areas with high precipitation, and brick clay, must restore almost every year with a few thin clay plaster, to protect and preserve the brick. Culture also has a significant impact on the emergence of vernacular buildings. North often adorn the building, according to local customs and beliefs, as shown in Figure 2. With the way that the use of the sanctuary, is a substantial effect on the form of construction. Family size, which shared space, and how they provide food and nutrition, and how people interact and many other cultural considerations will affect the area and size of housing. Furnishings are in accordance with their customs and beliefs of others to express their faith by the decoration and others are not. North of the influence of Islamic architecture and Egypt. 10.0 of local architecture and environment Slang is not sustainable, and will not reduce local resource if done correctly. If it is not sustainable, and they are not suitable for the local context, and can not be colloquial. Oliver, in housing (2003), and claims that vernacular architecture affected by different aspects of human behavior and the environment, leading to different forms of construction of almost every different context; neighboring village even though it might have a different approach to build and use of their home, although they may initially appear the same. Despite these differences, every building is subject to the same laws of physics, which shows that vernacular architecture is not lost, and Frank Lloyd Wright showed in the definition vernacular architecture, and with the great similarities in the structure. Vernacular can be seen everywhere in the world in different forms as affected by the people, culture, climate and materials. Local environment and construction materials can be prepared, administered by a lot of vernacular architecture. Since northern Nigeria has two types of climate, the Mediterranean and desert climate, and architecture cost near-different from the rural areas. Architectural materials, for example, identifying and using mostly clay, wood, stone grass in parts of northern Nigeria in the mud while the interior. A mud brick wall of dried mud bricks and then plastered. Usually filled with mud roof reinforced with wood or palm and then plastered with clay because heat (p2101 Oliver 1997). In northern Nigeria because of the mud, and existing and local sources, this is because this is the same building materials. Vernacular architecture reflects the use of local materials and get the tools and skills to make them. Whether nomadic or settled, such as residential or economic development will remain largely dependent on climate, soil, plants, seasons and other natural resources and phenomena. In areas rich in trees and wooden vernacular, while the area is not much wood could use mud or stone. It is believed that traditional materials and techniques for a while, substandard, or second class, while modern materials and civilized, or a symbol of wealth. Paul Oliver in (built to meet the needs of) show that vernacular architecture suffer from apathy and ignorance of history or social value, are assigned a low status housing, and so few people have seen their home natural low status. Find show that people will build what they believe, and turn them back in the native language, and look more modern architecture and superior. Any change in perception has the potential to revive interest in vernacular architecture. This perception may be due to missionaries and colonial, built in a style that reflects the wealth and power. Local population and became convinced that the availability and cost of imported materials is a symbol of wealth, and that the vernacular style of the original materials are under the required level. So far, vernacular materials last longer if used properly. May be appropriate for the work of hay will last up to 25 years, and walls built of mud bricks can be up to 70 years or more. Need to focus on Africa of the vernacular style, with modern materials used in the campaign when you need to get as much or more stable structure. There is a need to seek to understand the different soil conditions, and comes with pregnancy accounts for pole structures, mud bricks. Like many African countries struggling to solve housing problems, vernacular architecture can be an answer for building materials and proved to be expensive. 11.0 Sustainability and local architecture According Mbina (2006), and development as a human activity is a deliberate attempt by man to improve his living conditions through the use of innovative resources and smart, either the transformation of human, material and financial backwardness of the society from the state a more prosperous good life. If this is true, and can be sustainable architecture Africa? The answer is positive, but it occurs, must be about four major issues are adequately addressed because they seem to create trouble for the development as follows: 11.1 Technology and Building Materials African housing technologies and techniques are very low and so far back behind their foreign counterparts. This technology to be viable and acceptable, there must be improvement in the context of technological progress 21. History has shown the importance and effectiveness of local building materials such as stone and mud / earth, and organic products (Jolaoso 2006). This has been used in construction work in the early centuries in places like Egypt and South Africa. Have been served at a reasonable cost relative. Thus, this provides a convenient platform for further research that can be taken into account as they related to the form of vernacular architecture, shape, size, and style. 11.2 African attitudes towards the local architecture There seems to be a relatively low position, much of Africa towards the acceptance of vernacular architecture. In fact, there is a screen aesthetic of African architecture and some African and foreign audiences. It is argued here that, whatever disadvantages may be felt in this context, can be turned to advantage if a complete perspective of the environment and to create a full intellectualisation not to be known only on the screen, but can be systematically ignored. One reason that some African intellectuals is not like that vernacular architecture is the slang and not harmful to the Amour propre, but they have lost, in fact a culture of intimacy that allows them to see immediately the importance of many of the vernacular architecture, and to focus on the intellect, in the same time, for any reason, and not interested to develop the ability to estimate through intellectualisation (Bokannen 2000). 11.3 AIDS They are relatively cheap to develop sustainable vernacular architecture. Although the license, and developers need government assistance through long-term loans to support large utilities, and pay back over a long period of time (10-25 years), without any unnecessary trouble. 11.4 climatic conditions Climatic conditions play an important role in influencing the shape and style and form in architecture. Some vernacular builders pay little attention when building a house because of the lack of government attention qualifying standards. 12.0 Conclusion Vernacular architecture there for several centuries, has grown over the years through trial and error. Has been approved as this knowledge from generation to generation and has been tried and tested over the years. It has survived several vernacular structures of all types of extreme weather conditions. Can not be a common vernacular house built using clay has a life expectancy of more than 70 years. Now, with the use of current knowledge of the earth or mud as a building material, building age is far more than 70 years. Vernacular architecture once the pride and heritage to the races and different cultures in Africa, but as a result of imperialism be seen as lower status homes by those who are capable of modern building materials. This study shows how Africa has come in the architecture, and where he will. Emerging challenges of sustainability requires a revolution in design philosophy, strategies, techniques and methods of building construction, and then look back on vernacular architecture, to see how we can build sustainable buildings

On Certainty :: Essays Papers

On Certainty In his essay â€Å"An Argument for Skepticism†, Peter Unger makes the case for the â€Å"universal form of the skeptical thesis†. He is arguing for the position that any type of knowledge is impossible for any person. His argument seems to be a simple one, derived from two very clear hypotheses, but that is not the case. This paper is an attempt to show that while philosophically interesting, Unger’s attack on knowledge is not nearly so damaging as he contends. I will argue that Unger mischaracterizes the nature of certainty as it is ordinarily used (something he says is important to his argument), and also that he has mischaracterized one of the sources he used to defend this definition. I will then present W.V.O. Quine’s psychologically based epistemology as presented in â€Å"Epistemology Naturalized† and â€Å"Two Dogmas of Empiricism†, and argue that this theory provides a more adequate account of the way knowledge and certainty are understood. I will also attempt to address the objections to Quine’s theory raised by Jaegwon Kim. So, how does one begin an attack on all knowledge? The answer, as it turns out, is quite simply. Unger’s argument consists of only two premises. The first of these states that â€Å"If someone knows something to be so, then it is all right for the person to be absolutely certain that it is so (238).† To this is added the second premise, that â€Å"It is never all right for anyone to be absolutely certain that anything is so (238).† Clearly, the conclusion â€Å"Nobody ever knows that anything is so†(238) follows. Unger next alters these premises slightly, adding the idea of overriding considerations. The first premise is the same except with the words â€Å"†¦providing only that no overriding consideration (or considerations) make it not all right (241).† Likewise, the second premise becomes It is not the case that it is all right for someone to be absolutely certain that something is so providing only that no overriding (consideration or) considerations make it all right. (242). I am perfectly willing to grant Unger the first premise. I think that there is no problem with allowing him this, in and of itself. Even the second premise is allowable in a certain, philosophically interesting sense, and in this sense, Unger’s argument is very strong. The philosophical ideal of absolute certainty is something that I think should be given up as a vain pursuit, and I think that Unger shows this nicely.

Analytical of Brent Staples Essay

In â€Å"Black Men and Public Space,† Brent Staples makes the most interesting idea that, people look – always – to black men as a threat, they see every dark skinned youth as an incoming danger, and that is what Staples implies in his essay. He also explains when he was young, people looked at him as a mugger or, a rapist or even worse. So, throughout his essay we can see Staples’ realization of the fact that, people – rarely – change their prospective about black guys. He is trying to bring discrimination problem into the spot light, a problem that should have disappeared hundreds of years ago. This problem still irritating the peace of this community and to find reasonable solutions for it, he is trying to make people sympathize with his cause by making them live his life in his own words. The literary elements Staples used played an important role to grab reader’s attention and feel his pain, and the problems he went through. His r ealization that he should deal with community with more understanding, and that appeared in his language and word choice along with the sarcastic tones, irony, and metaphors. At the beginning, Staples tries to visualize the first impact with the night walkers, he started with â€Å"my first victim† which is a sarcastic and yet very sad tone, because it carries in it a deep meaning of how people see him (188). The language indicates a good sense of understanding people around him, a sense of understanding in which he mentions specifically the distance between him and his â€Å"first victim† as â€Å"menacingly close† from her prospective even if it was from â€Å"discreet, inflammatory distance† in his prospective which, implicates a good understanding of the situation (188), even though the distant between the two of them was quite far his â€Å"first victim† considered dangerously close. Staples continues to analyze the situation that happened a â€Å"decade ago† with  more understanding. He explains why he felt bad when he was â€Å"a graduate student newly arrived at the University of Chicago† (188). He was able to change the surroundings, in a bad way, through only his presence among people as he looked â€Å"undistinguishable from muggers† (189). His tone is carrying a lot of sadness because his look may affect the reaction of others in a way that may have been hurting him. Staples also uses metaphors like â€Å"public space† to indicate the huge effect on the people around him (188), and â€Å"accomplice in tyranny† indicates irony because he never participated in such an action. On the contrary, people who treated him badly may have done it. â€Å"When fear and weapons meet† is another metaphor, and implies the danger of looking like a mugger for the people around you, and also sounds scary and dangerous. Staples also mentioned how he was helpless when people closed their door lock fearing him, he mentioned the sound which this act produces â€Å"thunk, thunk, thunk , thunk†. (189) He states how they are â€Å"hammering down† the door lock every time he is passing the stopped cars at night, which sounds horrifying not for them but for staples and this is a kind of irony because they are scared from him but their reaction scared him(189). Than staples mentions how when he moved to New York, the same stereotype remained and people also treated him the same when he used to walk at night, he describes the streets of Manhattan as â€Å"narrow and tightly spaced† and its buildings to â€Å"shut out the sky,† which is a symbolism that pictures the buildings as a barrier which close the sky (189). The situation could have been catastrophic for him when he passes people because they may fear the â€Å"worst of him† and take action according to that assumption and this could be fatal (189). Also, he mentions how people always â€Å"fear the worst of him† which is irony because the real fear comes from them as they may react violently thinking that they are protecting themselves not the opposite (189). Also, he mentioned how people â€Å"set their faces on neutral† when they see him this is another symbolism staples use to describe the reaction of people when they saw him, how uncomfortable they are around him. But, beside his sadness, Staples has a sense of understanding why people would do such a thing why they got scared when they see him, and that was clear when he said, â€Å"I understand, of course, that the danger they perceive is not a  hallucination† (189), which is an obvious tone of understanding. Staples also uses words like â€Å"aliena tion† which indicates his sadness and isolation because, it is his land but, feels as a stranger (189). Staples then explains that he is not a stranger from â€Å"Chester, Pennsylvak† and explains why he would never think like a mugger, or a rapist. He is saying that he â€Å"grew up like one of the good boys† which carries a lot of irony because, people thought that he is a bad person, but he was really one of good boys (189). He continues explaining why he grew up a good boy, how he buried his friends who really died young or as he said â€Å"they were babies† which is a metaphor that gives us a good idea of how those kids wasted their lives for nothing and died very young. That led Staples to be â€Å"a shadow†, a whose presence creates fear in people, and that is another irony because, how could the people get scared from such a nice guy? This nice guy is always misunderstood by people, always has been treated badly over the years. He mentioned how he could not prove who he is when he had a story to write and he is saying, â€Å"I had no way of proving who I was†, and the tone here is weakness, sadness, and bitty (190). He also mentions his experience in jewelry store, and how the lady back then thought He is a thief or something, and she got the dog â€Å"an enormous Doberman† (190), and that brings a picture to one’s mind about the dark ages when slavery took place, widely, all over The United States it shows the brutality, and discrimination that happens against African American youth as he mentions how â€Å"such episodes are not common. Black men trade tales like this all the time† (190). Staples mentions also that it is not only him who had been subjected to such discrimination but also several black guys who keep telling their stories as staples said, â€Å"black men trade tales like this all the time† (190) and that emphasizes the fact that this is a kind of discrimination against a group of people, in this case â€Å"the black men†. So to deal with that, staples â€Å"now take precautions† although it sounds as irony because, he is the victim of the community and yet he has to take precautions, and â€Å"make himself less threatening†? (190) Staples succeeded to grab people’s attention to his cause by showing his experiences and pain through several literary elements especially irony, metaphors and word choice, and that made the reader more sympathetic and understanding of his point of view and his situation. Staples also succeeded to bring this discrimination issue to the surface, and trying to find a solution for it, even if this solution was changing himself

Case Study for Final Exam Essay

Green Cabs is an environmentally friendly taxi company in New Zealand which was founded in late 2007 by Callum Brown and three other partners. Green Cabs now operates a multi-million dollar business in three main centres of New Zealand – Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. The company is also contemplating expanding into other areas with its distinctive bright green taxis. Callum Brown is the primary inspiration behind Green Cabs. However, you could argue that Al Gore provided the initial spark for Callum to start thinking about being more environmentally conscious personally. Callum is in his 30s and has spent 10 years working in information technology for various government departments and private sector companies as a business analyst. He grew up close to nature and enjoyed activities such as surfing and tramping. All these things kept Callum close to nature. Despite his love affair with nature, Callum was quite sceptical of climate change. He explains: I thought – how can you tell that there is global warming when we’ve only been taking recordings on temperature for the past whatever, how many years. Hence, it could be seen as fairly surprising that Callum founded a green business! This personal awakening was a direct result of watching Al Gore’s documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. Little did he know at this stage that a major business opportunity would come from his new environmental consciousness. The impetus for the business idea came when Callum was at work. He travelled extensively for work and consequently found himself catching a lot of taxis. It was on one such overnight trip to Auckland that he became aware of the huge amount of carbon emissions he was generating through travel. He elaborates: I sat there watching all the taxis come and drop people off and thought about the emissions and everything they were producing; there’s got to be a better way than this. Why is there no eco-friendly option and that was the light bulb moment, and saying, ah, why not? Following this light bulb moment, Callum contacted a former colleague who was  also a taxi driver. Together the pair set about establishing an environmentally conscious taxi service with two other partners. They struck the New Zealand taxi industry at what they called a lucky time. The government had just tightened legislation to make it consistent for all operators. The Land and Transport Authority was supportive and helpful in making sure everything the emerging Green Cabs did was in line with the new legislation. The Authority too was excited by what Green Cabs was hoping to achieve. Once started, Green Cabs experienced rapid growth and within six months had approximately 85 cabs and self-employed drivers and employed 15 support staff (mostly in its 24-hour call centre). Callum never had aspirations to become an entrepreneur, nor any experience in business ownership, but his extensive work background as a business analyst made him feel he was well equipped to investigate whether the Green Cabs idea would be successful. In fact, prior to coming up with the business idea Callum felt afraid of the risk involved in having his own business. However, once he had the idea, these risks vanished: I was so passionate about Green Cabs, once I had the idea, there were no perceivable risks for me. That was how strong the drive was to do it . . . It’s like I’ve never doubted for a moment that Green Cabs was going to succeed. It has. Any concerns Callum had about risk were dissipated when he took on a number of business partners to share the risk. These business partners all understood and were sympathetic to the worsening state of the environment and to Callum’s vision for the company. Callum’s vision resulted in a company which entered the taxi industry with the goal of achieving much more than a traditional taxi firm. Green Cabs wanted to force change, to preserve the environment and inform the public about climate change. This meant a whole new way of thinking about business and the principles of the business founders were intertwined with the business model. Green Cabs offers the same basic service as any other taxi company. The key difference is that it is an environmentally conscious company. The main means of the company being environmentally friendly is that its vehicles are hybrids (Toyota Prius). There are substantially fewer ongoing running costs in providing the service. Green Cabs passes these savings onto consumers and is therefore able to offer considerably lower prices than its competitors. It already is forcing change in the taxi industry with many competitors rapidly switching to hybrids  because they can see they will save on emissions a nd fuel costs. The difference between these competitors and Green Cabs is that those changing due to lower running costs do not necessarily have environmental concerns at the forefront of their decision making as does Green Cabs. Indeed, sceptics could argue that the competition is switching because it is losing market share to Green Cabs and is attempting to imitate the service. Therefore, Green Cabs has been successful in changing behaviour in the industry to being more environmentally friendly, but this has come at a cost to the business, as Callum explains: I have had such an impact on the market that I had planned, that they (competitors) are now switching. Now, from an environmental point of view, it’s fantastic that I could have that impact, but from a business point of view it’s not good. However, competitors are still failing to offset their carbon emissions whereas Green Cabs prides itself on being carbon neutral. To achieve this Green Cabs drives only the Toyota Prius, the car it considers to be the best option for lessening the impact on the environment. The remainder of its carbon emissions are ‘paid for’ by providing funding for trees to be planted (predominantly in the developing world). Green Cabs donates to ‘Trees for the Future’, an organisation that has already organised the planting of 50 million trees, which retrieve approximately a million tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere annually (www.greencabs.co.nz). Green Cabs also ‘pays off’ its carbon debt prior to its accrual. That is, it calculates its future carbon footprint (down to the number of squares of toilet paper used) for the next year and funds the planting of sufficient trees to offset this before it emits the carbon. Although this is one of the key environmental strategies Green Cabs carries out, it actually is sceptical of buying carbon credits. This is because this carbon strategy essentially dispatches the problem to someone else; it does not help reduce the carbon in the atmosphere. As such, Green Cabs aims to both reduce carbon and offset before it accumulates. The business model of Green Cabs is based on the premise that the customer has a greater connection with the product or service. By using Green Cabs customers will feel part of a greater commitment to the environment and they will choose Green Cabs product over the competitors. As Callum notes, the  business model is win-win for both consumers and the environment: It is cheaper, it’s eco-friendly, it’s quieter, you’ve got a pleasant driver, we do a whole lot of feel good stuff as well. Give me a reason why you wouldn’t take a Green Cab. Green Cabs target market is the corporate sector and government departments. However, they pay tribute to the ‘grassroots’ support they have received. This is from people who have seen what Green Cabs are doing and even if their company has no agreement with Green Cabs, when they take a taxi they want it to be a Green Cab. Callum has also noted that younger people are more environmentally aware and appreciate the choice they are being offered in Green Cabs. One future development is for Green Cabs to install roof signs on their vehicles to promote the environment. These will not be advertising signs for businesses but to say something individuals can do for the environment. Green Cabs intend to use advertising space on their vehicles to promote the environment, not fizzy drinks or the like! FINDING BALANCE BETWEEN THE ENVIRONMENT AND PROFIT ‘For me anyway, it’s not just about turning a profit.’ – Callum Brown Finding a balance between profit and the environment can be a difficult one. To be successful in Callum’s view, you have to understand and have faith that doing things and sticking closely to the set of values that the company started with is what is going to bring success. Too much compromise for business then you will compromise the overall success of the business. The business might still be profitable but will not captivate the public into changing their behaviour regarding the environment. These environmental values are held firm by Green Cabs and are an underlying part of their distinctive business model. Callum elaborates: If we compromise on those values then that put us at risk of just being like any other taxi company out there and doesn’t set us apart. Following through on their commitment to the environment easy for Green Cabs and they suggest that other should look at the environment differently in their businesses. For example, Callum is frustrated by talk about how much it costs to offset carbon emissions. He suggests people fail to see that the whole process is a cost saving exercise. In becoming sustainable, businesses look at ways of reducing  electricity, travel and so forth. All of these areas can reduce a company’s carbon footprint while also reducing their overall costs. Their commitment to the environment is one side of the equation in Green Cab’s business model. The business must be sustainable and there are investors, franchisees and employees who expect returns from their input into the business. Callum is conscious of this need to make a profit, but he has some boundaries: I want to make some money but at the end of the day, I don’t even need a million dollars a year to live on . . . I really like my life in New Zealand, I like the things that I do and the things that I do don’t cost a lot of money. Callum has found that as the business has grown, more investors (such as potential franchisees) are becoming better aligned with his personal views on the environment. However, that is not necessarily the case for all employees of the company, as Callum notes: I have people working for me who don’t have necessarily the same value set. I mean they’ve got good values and wouldn’t be here if they didn’t but to the degree where mine are – no, they’re not anywhere near there. In April 2009, Green Cabs has grown to 16 employees and 104 drivers. The business has many opportunities to grow their business into other location and other services (e.g. courier services). As the business continues to grow Green Cabs are looking towards carbon neutral certification, and implementing ISO 14001 and 14064 certifications. The ongoing financial success of the company is also attracting more interest from other investors who are not necessarily focused primarily on the environment, but see Green Cabs as a solid investment opportunity.

How to Make a Volcano Erupt With Smoke

How to Make a Volcano Erupt With Smoke Volcanic gases or smoke are associated with many volcanoes. Gases from a real volcano consist of water vapor, carbon dioxide, sulfur oxides, other gases, and sometimes ash. Do you want to add a touch of realism to your homemade volcano? Its easy to make it smoke. Heres what you do. Materials Basically, how this works is you start with any homemade volcano recipe and insert a container into the cone of the volcano to produce smoke. Model volcano (homemade or purchased)Eruption ingredients (e.g., baking soda and vinegar or yeast and peroxide)Small cup that fits inside the volcanoChunk of dry iceHot waterGloves or tongs How To Its helpful to start the smoke before adding the ingredient that starts your volcanic eruption. The smoke will appear either way, but its easier to handle the dry ice before the action starts. Add ingredients to your volcano, except the final one that starts the eruption. For example, a vinegar and baking soda volcano doesnt erupt until you pour vinegar into the volcano. A yeast and peroxide volcano doesnt erupt until you pour peroxide solution into the volcano. If you are simply making a model volcano smoke, you dont need to worry about this step.Set a cup inside the volcano.Add a chunk of dry ice or else several small pieces. If you cant buy dry ice, you can make it yourself.Pour hot water into the cup with the dry ice. This will cause the dry ice to sublimate from solid carbon dioxide into carbon dioxide gas. The gas is much colder than the surrounding air, so it will cause water vapor to condense, essentially forming fog.Now you have a smoking volcano! If you like, you can make it erupt now, too. Make Smoke Without Dry Ice If you dont have dry ice, you can still make smoke come out of a homemade volcano. For a non-erupting model volcano, you could use a smoke bomb to produce a lot of smoke. You have other options for a smoking erupting volcano, including: Safe and non-toxic water fogLiquid nitrogen fogGlycol fog Safety Information Dry ice is extremely cold and can cause frostbite if you pick it up with bare skin. Its best to use a glove or tongs to handle the dry ice.

Caladonia Products Integrative Problem Essays

Caladonia Products Integrative Problem Essays Caladonia Products Integrative Problem Essay Caladonia Products Integrative Problem Essay Caladonia Products Integrative Problem Tonia Tolliver, Suany Gonzalez, Teresa Powell, Victor Estrada, and Tracy Harriss FIN/370 November 8th, 2010 Joe Brennan Caladonia Products Integrative Problem Every new employee is faced with the challenge of proving him or herself before being trusted to complete a task on his or her own without supervision. The new financial analyst at Caladonia has been employed for two months and has proven to be a wise hiring decision based on the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) view however he is still hesitant to give the assistant any large responsibilities without supervision. The CEO has tasked the assistant with both the calculation of the cash flows associated with a new investment under consideration and the evaluation of several mutually exclusive projects (Keown, Martin, Perry, Scott, 2005). The lack of experience on the assistants part has also lead to the CEO requesting not only that the assistant provide a recommendation but also to respond to a number of questions aimed at judging the assistants understanding of the capital budgeting process (Keown, Martin, Perry, Scott, 2005). Financial Assistants Assignment The financial assistant received the important assignment by memorandum from the CEO. The memorandum stated that the company is considering the introduction of a new product (Keown, Martin, Perry, Scott, 2005). Caradonia is currently at a 34% marginal tax bracket with a 15% required rate of return or cost of capital (Keown, Martin, Perry, Scott, 2005). The new project is estimated to last five years and then be terminated because of being a fad project (Keown, Martin, Perry, Scott, 2005). The financial assistant must analyze two mutually exclusive projects. Each project has an 11% rate of return and a life span of five years (Keown, Martin, Perry, Scott, 2005). The following table (table one) shows the expected cash flows for each project. Table One Estimated Cash Flows of Caldonia Products Project A and Project B Year |Project A |Project B | |0 |-$100,000 |-$100,000 | |1 |$32,000 |0 | |2 |$32,000 |0 | |3 |$32,000 |0 | |4 |$32,000 |0 | |5 |$32,000 |$200,000 | Questions to Answer The financial analyst has been tasked with answering five questions. 1. What is each projects payback period? 2. What is each projects net present value? 3. What is each projects internal rate of return? 4. What has caused the ranking conflict? 5. Which project should be accepted? Why? Answers to Questions Question One – Payback Period Project A. T he payback period for Project A is 3. 125 years. To calculate the payback period for project A, the analyst used the following formula: 3+ (100,000/32,000) = 3. 125 Project B. The payback period for Project B is 4. 5 years. To calculate the payback period for project B, the analyst used the following formula: 4+ (100,000/200,000) = 4. 500 Based on the payback periods, the assistant determined that Project B assumes even cash flow throughout year 5. Question Two – Net Present Value Project A. Each of the cash inflows are discounted back to the present value. The Net Present Value is the sum of the present values. [pic] t The time of the cash flow (5 years) i The discount rate (11%) Rt The net cash flow (-$100,000, $32,000, $32,000, $32,000, $32,000, $32,000) amount of cash, inflow minus outflow) at time t. NPV- Project A | | | | |Year |Cash Flow |PV Factor @ 11% |PV | |0 |($100,000) |1 |($100,000) | |1 |$32,000 |0. 9009 |$28,829 | |2 |$32,000 |0. 8116 |$25,972 | |3 |$32,000 |0. 7312 |$23,398 | |4 |$32,000 |0. 587 |$21,079 | |5 |$32,000 |0. 5935 |$18,990 | |NPV- Project A |$18,268. 70 | | | Project B. Each of the cash inflows are discoun ted back to the present value. The Net Present Value is the sum of the present values. [pic] t The time of the cash flow (5 years) i The discount rate (11%) Rt The net cash flow (-$100,000, $0, $0, $0, $0, $200,000) amount of cash, inflow minus outflow) at time t. NPV- Project B | | | | |Year |Cash Flow |PV Factor @ 11% |PV | |0 |($100,000) |1 |($100,000) | |1 |$0 |0. 9009 |$0 | |2 |$0 |0. 8116 |$0 | |3 |$0 |0. 312 |$0 | |4 |$0 |0. 6587 |$0 | |5 |$200,000 |0. 5935 |$118,690 | |NPV- Project B |$18,690. 27 | | | Question Three – Internal Rate of Return The internal rate of return measures and compares the profitability of investments. The formula for IRR is IRR = n ? FCFt = 10 t=1 (1+IRR)^t |Year |Project A |Project B | |0 ($100,000) |($100,000) | |1 |$32,000 |$0 | |2 |$32,000 |$0 | |3 |$32,000 |$0 | |4 |$32,000 |$0 | |5 |$32,000 |$200,000 | | | | | |IRR |18. 03% |14. 7% | Question Four – Cause of the Ranking Conflict The causes of the ranking conflict are the differi ng reinvestment assumptions made by Net Present Value and the Internal Rate of return. Net Present Value criteria assumes that cash flows over the life of the project can be reinvested at the required rate of return or cost of capital, whereas the Internal Rate of Return criterion implicitly assumes that the cash flows over the life of the project can be reinvested at the internal rate of return. Question Five – Which project should be accepted and why? Multiple factors should be considered before choosing which product that should be accepted. Those factors are the internal rate of return (IRR) and the net present value (NPV). Looking at Project B, it is possible to conclude that it is the more viable project because the internal rate of return is shorter. Though the net values shown between the two are very close monetarily, Project B can produce its value at a much shorter time span, meaning a business would be able to reap the benefits from Project B faster than if they went with Project A. The time difference is about a year and a half with a return rate of about three percent difference in the two projects. If Project A was chosen, it would take about twice as long to see the financial benefits than that of Project B. With this being the case, Project B is the better choice because of its larger NPV that is preferable when a business wants to see more timely capital gains. Factors of Consideration for Leasing and Buying Caladonia should consider several factors when deciding whether to lease or to buy. One important factor in the decision should be the net advantages of leasing (NAL). Advantages to leasing an asset can occur even if the net present value (NPV) for the purchase is negative ((Keown, Martin, Perry, Scott, 2005). The cost savings a company may experience on a lease may offset the negative NPV of a purchase (Keown, Martin, Perry, Scott, 2005). To determine the NAL, Caladonia will calculate the net present value of the lease option and compare it to the NPV of purchasing the product. Based on this calculation, if the NAL is positive, the leasing option would be preferred, if the NAL is negative then the purchase option should be selected. In addition to NAL, Caladonia should consider options such as the possibility of selling the equipment at the end of the project and receiving cash that would not be available if the company chooses to lease the merchandise. Another factor to consider is if the company has the cash to purchase the item, and operating expenses that may exist in purchasing that would not be the if the item were leased. Conclusion The new financial assistant at Caladonia has been challenged to determine which of two mutually exclusive projects would be the best decision for the company. Both projects estimate a rate of return of 11% and an initial investment of $100,000. Through the assistants analysis of each projects payback period, net present value, internal rate of return the determination has been made to accept project B and reject project A. Project B has the largest Net Present Value. The Net Present Value makes the most acceptable assumptions for the wealth- maximizing of the firm. References Keown, A. J. , Martin, J. D. , Petty, J. W. , Scott, S. F. (2005). Financial management: Principles and applications (10th ed. ). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.

10 Steps of Glycolysis

10 Steps of Glycolysis Glycolysis literally means splitting sugars and is the process of releasing energy within sugars. In glycolysis, glucose (a six-carbon sugar) is split into two molecules of the three-carbon sugar pyruvate. This multistep process yields two molecules of ATP (free energy containing molecule), two molecules of pyruvate, and two high energy electron carrying molecules of NADH. Key Takeaways: Glycolysis Glycolysis is the process of breaking down glucose into two molecules of pyruvate. It produces ATP and is the first stage of cellular respiration. Glycolysis can occur with or without oxygen. In the presence of oxygen, glycolysis is the first stage of cellular respiration. In the absence of oxygen, glycolysis allows cells to make small amounts of ATP through the process of fermentation. Glycolysis takes place in the cytosol of the cells cytoplasm. However, the next stage of cellular respiration, known as the citric acid cycle, occurs in the matrix of cell mitochondria. Below are the 10 steps of glycolysis. Step 1 The enzyme hexokinase phosphorylates - adds a phosphate group to - glucose in the cells cytoplasm. In the process, a phosphate group from ATP is transferred to glucose producing glucose 6-phosphate. The equation is: Glucose (CStep 2 The enzyme phosphoglucoisomerase converts glucose 6-phosphate into its isomer fructose 6-phosphate. Isomers have the same molecular formula, but the atoms of each molecule are arranged differently. The equation for this step is: Glucose 6-phosphate (CStep 3 The enzyme phosphofructokinase uses another ATP molecule to transfer a phosphate group to fructose 6-phosphate to form fructose 1, 6-bisphosphate. The equation is: Fructose 6-phosphate (CStep 4 The enzyme aldolase splits fructose 1, 6-bisphosphate into two sugars that are isomers of each other. These two sugars are dihydroxyacetone phosphate and glyceraldehyde phosphate. The equation is: Fructose 1, 6-bisphosphate (CStep 5 The enzyme triose phosphate isomerase rapidly inter-converts the molecules dihydroxyacetone phosphate and glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate. Glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate is removed as soon as it is formed to be used in the next step of glycolysis. The two equations for this step are: Dihydroxyacetone phosphate (CNet result for step Nos. 4 and 5: Step 6 The enzyme triose phosphate dehydrogenase serves two functions in this step. First, the enzyme transfers a hydrogen (H-) from glyceraldehyde phosphate to the oxidizing agent nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) to form NADH. Next, triose phosphate dehydrogenase adds a phosphate (P) from the cytosol to the oxidized glyceraldehyde phosphate to form 1, 3-bisphosphoglycerate. This occurs for both molecules of glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate produced in step 5. The two equations for this step are: A. Triose phosphate dehydrogenase + 2 HB. Triose phosphate dehydrogenase + 2 P + 2 glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate (CStep 7 The enzyme phosphoglycerokinase transfers a P from 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate to a molecule of ADP to form ATP. This happens for each molecule of 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate. The process yields two 3-phosphoglycerate molecules and two ATP molecules. The equation is: 2 molecules of 1,3-bisphoshoglycerate (CStep 8 The enzyme phosphoglyceromutase relocates the P from 3-phosphoglycerate from the third carbon to the second carbon to form 2-phosphoglycerate. The equation is: 2 molecules of 3-Phosphoglycerate (CStep 9 The enzyme enolase removes a molecule of water from 2-phosphoglycerate to form phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP). This happens for each molecule of 2-phosphoglycerate. The equation is: 2 molecules of 2-Phosphoglycerate (CStep 10 The enzyme pyruvate kinase transfers a P from PEP to ADP to form pyruvate and ATP. This happens for each molecule of phosphoenolpyruvate. This reaction yields two molecules of pyruvate and two ATP molecules. The equation is: 2 molecules of phosphoenolpyruvate (CEnd Result MediaForMedica l /UIG / Getty Images A single glucose molecule in glycolysis produces a total of two molecules of pyruvate, two molecules of ATP, two molecules of NADH, and two molecules of water. Although two ATP molecules are used in step Nos. 1 through 3, two ATP molecules are generated in step No. 7 and two more in step No. 10. This gives a total of four ATP molecules produced. If you subtract the two ATP molecules used in step Nos. 1 through 3 from the four generated at the end of step No. 10, you end up with a net total of two ATP molecules produced.

BUSINESS ANALYSIS - JOHN LEWIS PARTNERSHIP Essay

BUSINESS ANALYSIS - JOHN LEWIS PARTNERSHIP - Essay Example Initially started as a draper store in Oxford Street London, the firm has been able to make critical progress over the period of time by making acquisitions of strategic nature. The very structure and organization of the firm therefore provides it a unique identity and organizational culture which has allowed it to develop and grow over the period of time. A closer analysis of the financial performance of the firm would suggest that it has been able to continuously register an increase in its profitability and revenues. Such consistent performance of the firm therefore indicates that it is one of the leading businesses with stable revenues and profitability. This report will analyse the strategic position of John Lewis Partnership, making direct reference to the key challenges and opportunities for the organistaion and the capabilities which John Lewis can utilise in addressing these issues besides critically evaluating the current strategy of John Lewis and comment on their appropri ateness to the competitive position. A Brief History of John Lewis Partnership John Lewis Partnership started as a draper store in Oxford Street, London in 1864 by John Lewis. The store later on went on to become the departmental store when Mr. Lewis started to purchase other stores and started to expand his business. The store thrived on the promise that the prices will be low as long as long as the prices of the neighborhood stores are low. This strategy seems to have worked for the store and store soon started to grow and generate higher levels of sales. In 1905 John Lewis purchased Peter Jones and made a change towards becoming a departmental store. It was during 1914 that John Lewis gave control of Peter Jones to his son who started the store on more modern footings and implemented new organizational changes including making employees as partners in the firm. 1 During 1955, firm opened first Waitrose store and the management also changed from Lewis family to Bernard Miller. How ever, after the retirement of Miller, the management of the firm was transferred back to the family. Management again changed during 1990s when Peter Lewis retired as Chairman of the firm. John Lewis’s major strategic change occurred with the launch of its online store during 2001 and the establishment of Ocado. Ocado was opened in order to deliver the grocessories purchased on Waitrose. (Wilson & Reynolds, 2006). John Lewis is now in the top 10 list of retailers in the country with more than 30 John Lewis Stores and 246 Waitrose supermarkets.2 SWOT Analysis SWOT Analysis of the firm is as follows: Strengths 1. Rich history of successfully operating for more than 200 years. 2. Overall organizational structure and democratic nature of the firm. 3. High level of employee motivation because of employee partnership in the business. (Russell, 2010). 4. Large and diversified network of stores and web stores. 5. Efficient and effective supply chain management system. 6. High brand r ecognition and value in the eyes of customers Weaknesses 1. Only caters to the mid and high end customers. 2. Privately owned partnership therefore restricting itself to procure cheaper funds from capital markets. 3. Largely concentrated into UK with no or very little presence abroad. 4. Too few departmental stores across the country i.e. less than 30 considering 200 years history of

Agility Business Evaluation Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Agility Business Evaluation - Research Paper Example The research brings forth the seriousness of research on the possibility of generating returns or dividends from the Agility Company. To accomplish the objective, financial statement analysis is used. The analysis entails the use of ratios. The ratios will indicate the relationship between tow financial statement variables. The ratios include the liquidity ratios, profitability ratios, and leverage ratios. The research includes the use of trend analysis forecasting tool to predict the future profitability of investing in the Agility Company (Daft 615). The profitability ratios indicate the Agility Company’s capacity to generate enough revenues in one accounting period needed to pay for its current expenses and costs of the same accounting period (Daft 615). The gross_profit margin_ratio was arrived at by dividing the company’s annual gross_profit by the company’s annual total_revenues. The ratio indicates the relationship between the company’s gross profit and the company’s net revenues. Table 1 shows that the company’s gross_profit margin_ratio for 2010 (0.323) is unfavorably lower than the company’s 2009 gross_profit margin_ratio, 0.389. Table 1 shows that the company’s gross_profit margin_ratio for 2011 (0.307) is unfavorably lower than the company’s 2010 gross_profit margin_ratio. Table 1 shows that the company’s gross_profit margin_ratio for 2012 (0.286) is unfavorably less than the company’s 2011 gross_profit margin_ratio (Agility, 2014). Further, the net_profit margin_ratio was arrived at by dividing the company’s net_profit by the company’s total_revenues (Agility, 2014). Table 1 shows that the company’s net_profit margin_ratio for 2010 (0.016) is unfavorably less than the company’s 2009 net_profit margin_ratio, 0.097. Table 1 shows that the company’s net_profit margin_ratio for 2011 (0.0.026) is favorably highe than the company’s 2010 net_profit margin_ratio. Table 1 shows that the company’s net_profit

The Situation of a Company Hanson Private Limited Assignment

The Situation of a Company Hanson Private Limited - Assignment Example The biggest issue HPL faces are regarding the size of the investment. The company has never made such a large investment in a single project at one go. This would practically stall investments into all other projects in the pipeline for the medium term. Hence, the company is not in a position to afford any failure in this project. The retail partner is willing to agree to a 3-year contract only. However, with such a large investment, there is a risk of not getting the money back within 3 years. It is possible that the products fail or are rendered obsolete at the end of 3 years. The company faces a risk of the debt trap. Right now, HPL maintains a highly favorable debt position. For adding new capacity, there are constraints in raising money through equity and almost all the financing will have to be done through debt. This raises the risk exposure of the company enormously. Hanson manufactures private label products in the personal care space where the competition is very intense. A large number of branded and non-branded companies are vying for a limited shelf space. Hanson already covers 28% of the private label market in personal care space. Therefore, there is a limit to the scope of further acquiring the market share. The personal care market volumes have increased less than 1% in the past 4 years. The marginal growth (1.7%) has been largely driven by the price increases. However, one of the biggest USPs of private label products has been their low prices as compared to the branded ones.

Designing a network for a client Research Paper

Designing a network for a client - Research Paper Example The other challenge facing network security is hacking, which can be done from different sources. Most hacking is from the internet, where hackers target a particular network. A well-protected network should restrict access from outside since a computer from the outside cannot access a network infrastructure directly from outside. A proper design should cater for security measures to eliminate masquerading. A new design, for this reason, has to be introduced, which has additional features to enhance security (Wong & Yeung, 2009). Techniques such as NAT (Network Address Translation) should be used to deny access to the computers of a network from a remote computer. This makes it extremely hard to hack a network infrastructure from outside. The network infrastructure is at risk if one of its devices is compromised. Hacking from a device of the network infrastructure is much dangerous since passwords or authentication information about the network can be obtained with much ease. For instance, when a router is compromised, routing decisions can be influenced, and packet misrouting attacks can be launched easily from the compromised router. Hacking from a source close to the network infrastructure is extremely dangerous. Security measures such as installation of firewalls should be considered. Firewalls are installed to the boundary to protect the inside of a network (Wong & Yeung, 2009). A flat network design is much vulnerable to masquerading. In a flat network design, all the network infrastructure devices and end computers are connected together and do not have a clear boundary. This means when one computer is compromised, all the network infrastructure can be accessed by an attacker. When an end computer is attacked, all kinds of attacks can be launched on the network infrastructure the attacks include HSRP (Hot Standby Router Protocol), STP (Spanning Tree Protocol), and DHCP(Dynamic Host Configuration

Security assignment IT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Security assignment IT - Essay Example information should retain its integrity both with time as well as user at that particular instance of time. Exposure to corruption, un-monitored changes and destructions disrupt the information to a corrupted or unauthentic state. Information can be corrupted while compilation or storage but in most of the cases it happens while transmission. Availability of information is that it is available for all the users at all the times, so that it can be reached by everyone and is received in an integral form. It also takes into context the positive as well as negative users of the information. This characteristic of information makes the information usability possible only for the purposes known to the data owner. Information is not protected from observation, it can be seen by everyone but it is usable only in the ways known to the author. Information systems have a basic characteristic of identification of the information requester. A system has this characteristic when it can identify the individual user while user sends the request for the information. When the process of identification and authentication is completed, it is checked that the requesting user has the authorization to the requested context and has been provided the authorization permissions from the proper authority. As if information is not confidential, a lot of important business decisions can leak from the strategic departments of the organization, which gives an organization’s strategic information to the competition, which is hazardous to any organization for its financial as well as strategic pursuits. Privacy, authentication and authorization are to make sure the integrity, availability and security of the system. In the lack of these characteristics, information is just a collection of content, which no one knows how to access and anyone can access it without any permissions taken from the owner of the

Ice Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Ice - Lab Report Example We kept the bottles in hot water until we heard the ice crack and it slid from the bottle. When ice slid from each bottle we immediately measured the height and diameter of each ice piece. Then we placed each piece of ice on a wire grate and noted which piece of ice had come from which bottle. We placed the wire grate with pieces of ice on it away from the wind and waited for the ice to melt and noted the time with the stop watch. Meanwhile we calculated the surface area of the cylindrical ice pieces using the formula 2rh + 2r2 ; where r is the radius and h is the height of each piece of ice. We have used the formula of a cylinder to find the surface area of all pieces of ice because all pieces of ice frozen in different medicinal bottles had assumed almost the same cylindrical shape but they all had different diameters. We then repeated the whole experiment three times using the same medicine bottles and noted the time taken for ice pieces to melt in each trial as follows Our experiment proved that the shape of a piece of ice affects its melting time. As can be seen in the table the greater the surface area of a piece of ice the smaller it's melting time.

Security assignment IT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Security assignment IT - Essay Example information should retain its integrity both with time as well as user at that particular instance of time. Exposure to corruption, un-monitored changes and destructions disrupt the information to a corrupted or unauthentic state. Information can be corrupted while compilation or storage but in most of the cases it happens while transmission. Availability of information is that it is available for all the users at all the times, so that it can be reached by everyone and is received in an integral form. It also takes into context the positive as well as negative users of the information. This characteristic of information makes the information usability possible only for the purposes known to the data owner. Information is not protected from observation, it can be seen by everyone but it is usable only in the ways known to the author. Information systems have a basic characteristic of identification of the information requester. A system has this characteristic when it can identify the individual user while user sends the request for the information. When the process of identification and authentication is completed, it is checked that the requesting user has the authorization to the requested context and has been provided the authorization permissions from the proper authority. As if information is not confidential, a lot of important business decisions can leak from the strategic departments of the organization, which gives an organization’s strategic information to the competition, which is hazardous to any organization for its financial as well as strategic pursuits. Privacy, authentication and authorization are to make sure the integrity, availability and security of the system. In the lack of these characteristics, information is just a collection of content, which no one knows how to access and anyone can access it without any permissions taken from the owner of the

Cultural Experience Essay Example for Free

Cultural Experience Essay A friend of mine is a close friend of an Indian family who lives in the same general area that my friend and I live in. My friend told Mrs. Suayna Patel about my assignment and we were both invited over to dinner at her and Mr. Rajesh Patel’s house for Saturday dinner. My friend and I were warmly invited into their two-story really large tan blockhouse. It is actually located just yards from a hotel they own called â€Å"Passport Inn. † They also occupy the two closest/adjoining rooms to the hotel’s lobby designed as a more modest second home they live out of when there are working as the hotel clerks. Their house was very elegantly decorated in a way with an obvious female touch. It had an incense smell to it, but enjoyable, not over-powering. I was initially invited into what I believe was their living room. The house had quite a few rooms downstairs so I’m not positive it was their living room. I think all of the family’s bedrooms were located on the second floor. Mrs. Suayna Patel invited me to sit on a sofa and then she proceeded to sit down on the other end. She was very soft-spoken and I really didn’t understand everything she said. She introduced me to her husband Rajesh. Rajesh, on the other hand, almost spoke as if he were a native of the U. S. although they both came here in 1997 after his uncle purchased two hotels. Their children, nine-year old son Siva and a twelve-year old daughter, Sanirika were born in the U. S. They pretty much acted like American children but possibly with more manners. I’m only stating this because we were to keenly observe things, but both children were over-weight probably like the majority of their American peers. The only communication barriers I had or I should say we had, was between Suayna and myself. Sometimes we didn’t understand one another but my friend would subtly and courteously intervene and help. They gradually lessened but her husband was quite a bit more extraverted than she was, so he talked to us while Suayna finished cooking the dinner. Suayna was definitely more passive and mild-mannered than the typical American woman and Mr. And Mrs. Patel did assume what we refer to as traditional male and female roles, although my American parents do also. I talked with the children because they were in the room. They had very little Indian accent and were more than willing to answer questions and talk to me. They were the most extraverted and talkative members of their family, possibly partially due to that they were raised here and have no communication differences from Americans. Suayna invited my friend and I to the table and had us sit down first and then the rest of the family sat down with Rajesh being the last one to be seated. I followed their lead at the table because I didn’t want to talk much at the table if it wasn’t something that was acceptable. However, they made me comfortable and just talked like any American family at the dinner table. Suayna served the best Chicken Curry with Rice, Naan bread (Dsouza, 2006), and lentil dish I have ever eaten in my life, by the way. I do think their family was more polite between one another and in talking with me than a typical American family. It could have been because of their company but I don’t think so. This isn’t always untypical of American families but I did notice Rajesh didn’t help out with the making of dinner. He did, however assist in removing the dinnerware and utensils from the table after dinner while neither of them allowed the company to help with the work. Unlike most families of my culture, I guess part of their behavioral language could be that they didn’t seem like had felt a need to occupy every second with words. There was no usage of divergence speaking or emotive language. I feel this is at least partly due to that they didn’t speak at all in a â€Å"self-important† manner whatsoever—even the children, at least while I was there. There was no usage of gestures when talking and there was no creativity or sense of humor in their conversation. They did use relative words when they were telling us why it was easier for them to visit their relatives in India then for their relatives to visit them in America. Overall, their language was cordial and to the point. They spoke pretty succinctly without being verbose. In fact, Mr. And Mrs. Patel spoke slower and less often than the families and friends I typically would eat with. It actually felt pretty peaceful. The children spoke a little more but they never spoke loudly at the table. As far as what I learned about the culture, because this was just one Indian-American family, I can’t make too many generalizations but I do feel they relate to one another in a quieter, probably a more gentle and peaceful manner than a typical American family. Their overall home and family had a more peaceful feel to it. It was a pleasant experience of India. Source Used Dsouza, Z. (2006). Veda: the essential Indian cookbook. Baltimore [Md. ]: PublishAmerica.

Causes And Effects Of Brain Drain In Economics

Causes And Effects Of Brain Drain In Economics Introduction: According to a definition, Brain Drain, academically also known as the human capital flight is the large scale migration of highly educated, skilled and talented people of less economically advanced countries to highly rich and developed countries of the world due to conflicted issues, political instability and lack of opportunities in the developing countries. Globally, relocation of intellectuals is as old as mankind. This terminology of Brain Drain originated in 1960, when most of the intellectuals like scientists and engineers who were the real assets or the future of any country, emigrated from United Kingdom to America. The unsolved issue of Brain Drain is happening all over the world for the sake of better working conditions including, the island nations of the Caribbean, the anterior colonies of Africa and mostly in federal economies like the Soviet Union previous Eastern Germany, where aptitudes were not monetarily salaried. This phenomena was not as severe till 1960s but with the huge capacity lopsidedly migrate to West Germany and North America from less developed regions. Substantial exoduses of skilled people were apparent at altered epochs of the economic growth of the countries of Europe and North America. However, with the progress in science and technological fields, only the intellectuals and highly qualified brains was of extraordinary mandate in highly developed countries. With the deficit in the core stream, the developed countries had to be dependent on the LDCs. Professionals migrated from developing countries to three Developing countries (USA, Canada and United Kingdom) in 1960s and by 1970s, the figure had mounted. If one were to investigate statistics of all Developed Countries, the records would be alarming. This drift has continued in Africa and loss of huge qualified manpower is happen immigrations to Europe and North America annually. The questions that is arise in the social, political, economic, academic and probably in every sector of developing world. According to question the phenomena happened there are countless questions, bu t I want to explain the main attractions towards the developed world and why do talented and outstanding brains leave their countries? What are the costs of such migrations paid by developing countries? What policies can be implemented to stem such movements from LDCs to DCs? The goal of this paper is to highlight the unsolved, conflicted issue of Brain Drain and the Scientific Diaspora and the cause and effect relationship in the global knowledge based societies and also to address the cancerous disease directing the developing countries to failure. I will highlight some major questions, giving some suggestions which help to make policies to fade the disparities and the exploitation of skilled and semi-skilled labour in the developed world who themselves benefited to create the legislative crime of Brain drain and to hijack the rights of Cos in the shape of Scientific diaspora communities. How and when Brain Drain happens and intensifies Since the beginning of 1960s, the phenomena of brain drain became a highlighted and critical issue. With the neo-liberal economy and the tsunami wave of globalization has given a golden chance to the opportunists and played a vital role towards better and quality life including all accessories in every sphere of life. Globalization has opened a window for the human capital to agglomerate and mobilize where the brain extract and yet best recognized and rewarded in the highly economically strong and advanced countries. To oppose the nation-state ideology by the global village, selective immigration policies in several OECD countries has gradually introduced, strengthened and became a selection centers to sort out the best minds to develop the innovative way of thoughts and utilization for the betterment of developed world, i.e. very alarming for LDCs. as human capital of a nation being the assets planned to be theft through legislative terms and conditions. The cost being paid by the LDCs left back in the race of progress and development. Aftermath of colonialism, such types of drains has happened between the LDCs and DCs. Australia and Canada in 1980s has emerged the international competition in all over the world to attract the highly skilled, and educated brains to catalyze the attraction and boost the greed of inferiority complex of developing areas to realize the complex of have not and to advertise the opportunities secured, healthy and peaceful societies like heaven at earth. The age of discovery, progress and the indicators of globalization, increased rate of import and export in the neo-liberal economy has multiplied during the last three decades. The result of the huge migration, rates to be much higher for great intellectuals. United Nation has supervised and produced countless research to find out the total capacity of brain drain in every region of the world including Sub Saharan countries, New Zealand, even the extraction from the semi-peripheral countries to the peripheral countries. Scientific Diaspora has been represented by the highly intellectuals enormous potential like the IT professionals, Engineers, Physicians Scientists, and the human capital flight of new post graduate students. Unfortunately the COs (country of origin) has been losing the patriotic , ethical , moral emotions because they are suffering with the pragmatic materialist thought and the lust of opportunities darken the future of developing world. To fulfil the interest of economically advanced countries and global knowledge based societies are struggling for the human capital. It is as natural as the nature of human being and as powerful as constructed politically to keep the self-interest. There is a lack of policy making in the academic world and on the governmental level in the developing world. Some main types of Brain drain are Brain Gain, Brain circulation, Brain waste etc. Causes of Increased Brain Drain in developing countries There are many factors which cause brain drain from the less developing countries to the highly developed countries. The regional, national and global flow of migrates are increasing every second. There are two main factors due to which people move from one place to another place. There are some major routes of human migration before 1950s but highlighted in 60s. The reasons can be different region to region; i.e. satisfactory facilities of goods and services, the reconnection of diverse cultural groups, in the time of conflict and war, political instability, health risks and the lack of opportunities. The mobility of intellectuals and skilled personnel or emigrants from the country of origin referred to as the PUSH FACTORS of their capital flight. And there are many parallel and inverse reasons for the immigrants called PULL FACTORS to attract towards host countries. Theoretical framework Brain drain is studied under the theoretical frame of migration theories under the two main factors as discussed below: Push factors: There are certain push factors causing brain drain, to leave the less developed country to developed countries as listed below: Substandard living conditions, dearth of conveyance, accommodation Under-utilization of skilled and semi- skilled personnel; lack of adequate working conditions; low panorama of specialized development Low and corroding wages Discrimination in recruitments and promotions Social unrest, Political instability, conflicts and wars Lack of research facilities, including support staff; meagreness of research funds, lack of professional apparatus and tools Lack of freedom and autonomy Deteriorating excellence of educational system, Why Academic intellectuals leave their Country of Origin: Challenging socio-economic conditions (poverty, unemployment, epidemics diseases, increased rate of crime, corruption, etc.) Poor libraries, ICT apparatus for research Lack of autonomy academic freedom to create literature at universities Political instability and harassment, human rights manipulations, wars Lack of pure democracy Deprived payments for intellectuals and skilled personnel Lack of self-determination and social equivalence Lack of quality education for children Lack of career opportunities Lack of entrepreneurial investments Why Students go abroad: Poor worth of national education from the Montessori level to post graduation level Unavailability of scholarships or financial assistance for the brilliant Miserable infrastructure of schools, colleges and universities Limited opportunities for higher studies students As a decided step towards emigration, they suffered with inferiority complex, due to all the above reasons and many more pushing factors resulted to leave their point of origin. Why Students Do Not Return: Limited employment opportunities restrict to come back in the homeland especially at PhD level, Course or research work not relevant to home countrys state of affairs convenience of grants for further exploration living conditions, insufficient earning and job satisfaction in developed world Need to send money home and support the family Getting married to a host countrys citizen to get the citizenship Although, they suffered with many crisis as alienated in the host country including the identity crisis, diaspora and make up their own imagined communities to prevent themselves with the socio-political and religious disparities. Pull Factors Similarly, numerous attractive pull factors at the destination states permitting the brain drain to occur at a higher leap: Sophisticated standard of living Employment opportunity greater income and Higher wages Extensive resources for research, unconventional and advanced technology, modern facilities of laboratory equipment; availability of experienced support workforce Healthier working conditions; employment and occupation opportunities with the proficient development Modern educational schemes; prestige of foreign training Political stability foreigner secured policies Meritocracy, transparency Scholarly Intellectual autonomy Appreciation rewards on governmental level Effects of Brain Drain in Developing Countries Aftermaths of Brain Drain in Exaggerated Regions of the globalized world: Negative effects: The phenomena of brain drain has left harmful effects in the region of poor countries like Africa, because of their great hope, talents and skills have immigrated to the richer countries. As seen pragmatically, develop and rich countries become richer and more developed and poor and developing countries become poorest and failure states. Consequently, some of the outcomes have produced the poorer rates of growth and development, highly unstable politically some are in the condition of cold war like Pakistan ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ ¦..fewer productive educational funds, and worse health care system and Loss of potential modernizers who might have paved the way to rejuvenation and up gradation through their advanced and creative abilities. Doctors, Engineers, scientists students leave for the industrialized world Africa loses the best brains it needs for its trade and industrial development African recruitment of thousands of expatriates from the industrialized West at a cost of billions every year increased deterioration of higher schooling Universities have to be close, extension of higher education not possible Poor people seriously affected by the epidemic, infectious diseases Universities unable to run and achieving Development Goals In the global knowledge economy, Africa becoming sidelined Due to the pitiable environment, Lack of skilled people. Crumbling poor middle class political instability religious persecution Corruption of income tax equal to less basic goods and services Economic instability leads to increased rate of unemployment and inflation Lack of industrial growth innovation. Positive Effects The brain drain may cause numerous positive effects for source countries. It is well documented that remittances of employees played a significant support to GNP of a country and are a viable spring of income in several developing countries. Remittances and transmittals intrude on family decisions in terms of professional choice, labor supply, education, investment migration, and fertility, with hypothetically essential aggregated special effects. Especially in the case of poor countries, where market inadequacies available to members of low-income classes reduce the set of possibilities. Brain Circulation equalizes Brain Drain Transnational corporation and increase in Foreign Direct Investment When possibility of migration is real. level of education in sending countries rises Amalgamation in global economies Incentives, law and policy making The irony of international migration today is that many of the people who migrate legally from poor to richer lands are the very ones that Third World countries can least afford to lose: the highly educated and skilled. Since the great majority of these migrants move on a permanent basis, this perverse brain drain not only represents a loss of valuable human resources but could prove to be a serious constraint on the future economic progress of Third World nations (Todaro, 7th Edition, 2001). Convention signed by the organization of economic corporation and development (OECD) among twenty countries in 1960s create a keen competition among all member countries to fascinate human possessions, they lack and to preserve those who might emigrate. Various countries edited their legislation and step forward for numerous amendments to legalize the foreigner qualified brains and somehow to cheap their labour in the developed world. The policy or the legislation to work allowed but not giving them the full work visas compelling to do illegal work on cheap labour benefited the state capital and a legal system of exploitation is running to pressurize the foreign labour to do work illegally for their survival in the most metropolitan areas of the world Most countries announced more flexibility in labour migration policies, while some propelled the definite recruitment packages to meet labour dearth. In France, UK, Denmark and some other countries, labour visas criteria has been tranquil including skilled, qualified people in the profession of bio-medicine, education and health care type of main occupations. Various types of labour visas and quota in different countries of the developed world are much confine with the immigration policies for the highly qualified and skilled like Scholarships, grants, loans etc. in the last decade, brain drain of human capital has increased forty percent in Japan and more than ten percent in Korea. New Zealand, Canada and Australia are the main flexible host countries laws making, and legislative attraction and relaxation to get the more and more brain gain, drain and circulation from the developing countries. The drastic ratio of emigration has been increased in every figure of peripheral countries under the legislative authority. Conclusion Recommendations for the developing countries: How the future of developing countries can preserve and what should be the recommendation? Establish recorded database of skilled, intellectual, students and specialists on the time of departure from LDCs. Reformation of the national education system and the infrastructure of schools, colleges and universities. High budget allocated for the higher education and use of funds purely for the education projects. Sufficient facilities for research projects in universities and establish the research cells. Encourage the distant learning and education for all. Pure democracy, encourage human rights and enforce the legislation, strictly keep an eye on the law and order situation to stable and regulate the factors like corruption, crime etc. On governmental level, the allocation of budgets to the science and technology organizations and from the health sector to control the infectious diseases. Introduce new policies and laws to reduce the conflict and war at the national and international level. Role of government should be the key role to avoid the issue of human capital flight. Government should spend heavy fund for the infrastructure, avoid load shedding like issues and provide the demanded power supply and drinking water and the efficient communication. Facilitate the education system through training, research, and education Government should advertised job opportunities on merit provide specific allowance and salary for the scientists, engineers, doctors and highly intellectuals State should reduce the rooted conflict to maintain peace Democratic governance is the best solution for the cancerous problem of brain drain. Engage the LDCs best organizations with DCs and encourage the collective training and work with DCs as partners If west needs some research they should request on the governmental level for research How western countries can help to reduce brain drain? Ensure through incentives and immigration policies, intellectual return back to their resource countries discourage labor recruitment through academics and qualified personals Discourage full time attendance for the foreigner graduate students Consideration of joint degrees with developing world universities Encourage riven PHDs instead of 100% attendance Support university association to progress LDCs (curriculum, quality and methodology of research) Collaboration through appropriate university association for e.g. (HEC, AAU, ACU, AUF IAN)

Teaching Philosophy Statement :: Education Teachers Classroom Essays

Teaching Philosophy Statement There are people in our lives who help shape and mold us to be a unique individual. These people help define who we are and sculpture us in becoming what we want to be. They inspire us to give all we have, and tell us not only to reach for the stars but the moon its self. These people are teachers. As early as grade school there have been teachers that have had positive concerns in my academic learning, and it had an influential effect on me creating a desire to do the same for others. They showed me what it’s like to care, give confidence and support to a student. My 7th grade Social Studies teacher made her classroom feel like time suspended and you were on another planet. She was so knowledgeable and excited about our lesson topics that it motivated me to excel in her class and she gave me a zeal for learning. Teaching is a dream and goal of mine. I want to be helpful in a child’s discovery that learning is power. I want to be a positive influence and an upstanding role model for my students. There are numerous reasons why I want a career as a teacher. The main reasons are: to help a child achieve their full potential, to give support that will strengthen a child’s confidence, and inspire them to fulfill their dreams that help them become productive citizens of society. A teacher can help shape a child's future with praise, challenge, guidance, encouragement, confidence, a smile, and an opportunity to learn and have a positive outlook on life. There is no greater reward than seeing a child's face light up when they realize that they have mastered a task by themselves. When a child feels the full potential they possess within themselves their confidence builds. They are able to see how the future can be if they apply their mind to any task. It’s an honor to help a child mold its future and for me there is no greater goal than being a teacher. I know that from my education classes I can learn from the great thinkers of the past.