Significance of Plastics

Significance * Plastic bags are not renewable, which means they cannot be easily recycled like paper bags. They are made of petrochemicals, which is what makes them non-renewable and a risk to the health of the planet. They last for hundreds of years, all the while doing damage to natural habitats and killing animals that mistake them for food. The more plastic bags people use, the greater the chances of environmental damage. Effects * If not carefully disposed of, plastic bags can be devastating to animal life. DEFRA (Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs) reported that 1,678,900 tons of plastic packaging was in the UK waste stream in 2001. Because plastic bags do not decay quickly, they stay in environments longer, causing more build-up on the natural landscape than a more degradable material like paper would. The Marrickville Council reports that over 100,000 whales, turtles and birds die every year as a result of plastic in their environment. Suffocation * Infants and young children have died as a result of playing with plastic bags. Every year, the Consumer Product Safety Commission receives about 25 reports of plastic bag-related infant death. Because of the thin, airtight material, infants can easily block their mouths and nostrils with the plastic bag and suffocate. Prevention/Solution * Abstaining from plastic bag use as much as possible will reduce the chances of accidental infant death, and it will reduce the amount of plastic waste in the environment. A plastic bag is also reusable, though. It does not necessarily have to be thrown away after a single use. Try to use each plastic bag for as long as possible. This will help reduce the number of plastic bags in circulation. Expert Insight * Some experts want to ban the use of plastic bags entirely. Los Angeles has passed recommendations that will make them illegal in supermarkets by 2012. The British government sees plastic bags as a symbol for a throwaway society. They claim, â€Å"[Plastic bags] are a significant cause of litter†¦. Most of the rest of the 13 billion bags used each year end up in landfills. † Alternatives to Plastic Bags * Canvas bags are a smart alternative to plastic. Canvas can be washed and reused, and lasts up to 10 years on average. Bringing a few canvas bags with you to the store will greatly reduce the number of plastic bags in the environment. Paper bags are not as beneficial for the environment as canvas bags, but they are recyclable. Infants cannot suffocate on paper bags either. If you're creative, you can make an old plastic bag into an arts-and-crafts project (see Resources). Read more: Disadvantages of Plastic Bags | eHow. com http://www. ehow. com/about_5072695_disadvantages-plastic-bags. html#ixzz1iCJusfTm

Abrasive Water Jet Cutting Report Engineering Essay

Up until about the mid twentieth Century the bulk of production relied on â€Å" two traditional procedures of forming and machining ( Tlusty, 2000 ) . Forming is the procedure of altering the form of the whole work piece, whereas machining removes merely certain, and desired countries. Whilst these cardinal procedures still form the really anchor of contemporary production, there has besides been the demand for new procedures to be developed. The traditional procedures, as highlighted above, have a figure of built-in restrictions which limit their application to industry. In the instance of conventional machining procedures, a crisp film editing tool is used to organize a bit from the work by shear distortion. This consequences in the formation of high forces together with the corresponding mechanical energies. Together with this are a figure of extra jobs that can originate. Due to sum of energy required to transport out the operation, a physique up of unwanted heat can happen, which frequently leads to deformation of the work piece and surface snap. In certain instances, the forces introduced by the procedure are highly high and in order to procure the work piece considerable clamping forces are required ; this excessively can take to deformation. Together with these restrictions, the development of stuffs with belongingss of high strength, high hardness and high stamina has driven the debut of untraditional machining methods. Nontraditional machining ( NTM ) methods have been developed since World War II in an effort to turn to machining demands which can non be carried out by conventional methods entirely ( DeGarmo, Black & A ; Kohser, 2003 ) . NTM methods provide the ability to machine: Complex geometries ; Components with an first-class surface coating ; Delicate constituents, which otherwise would non defy the clamping forces ; and Brittle stuffs or stuffs with really high hardness. There are four types of untraditional procedures ; classified harmonizing to the principle signifier of energy used to consequence stuff remotion. These include: mechanical, electrical, thermic and chemical. One procedure which falls into the mechanical class is scratchy H2O jet ( AWJ ) film editing, and will be the focal point of this study. First, and prior to discoursing AWJ, the procedure of H2O jet ( WJ ) film editing will be introduced.Water Jet Cutting ( WJC )Water jet film editing, which is besides known as waterjet machining and hydrodynamic machining, was foremost developed in 1968, followed by the first commercial system in 1971 ( Zhong & A ; Han, 2003 ) . Through the usage of a all right, hard-hitting, high-speed watercourse of H2O directed at the work piece ( surface ) , a cut is created, as illustrated in figure 1 below. In order to bring forth the all right watercourse of H2O, a nose with an gap ( opening ) typically in the order of 0.1 – 0.4mm is used ( Groover , 1996 ) . Together with this, runing force per unit areas of around 400MPa and above are used to supply sufficient energy for cutting to be carried out. Furthermore, the fluid of the jet can frequently make 900m/s and the cardinal procedure parametric quantities include: H2O force per unit area, opening diameter, H2O flow rate and the working or ‘standoff ‘ distance between the nose and the work piece. Figure 1 – Schematic of WJC Process ( Groover, 1996 ) As the typical film editing force per unit areas as mentioned are required, a hydraulic pump is used to supercharge the fluid. The fluid is so passed through a valve, which regulates the flow rate in order to accomplish the optimal cut. The concluding phase of the fluid is to go through through the nozzle opening and impact the work piece surface from a controlled tallness.Procedure ParametersThe stuff from which the nose is made is doubtless the most of import parametric quantity in footings of procedure control ( as this greatly determines the opening diameter ) . The nozzle unit comprises of a unstained steel holder, together with a gem ; normally sapphire, ruby or diamond. Of these stuffs, diamond lasts the longest but is the most expensive. Recent progresss in the production of man-made sapphire offer this stuff as non merely the most cost effectual solution, but besides due to other advantages excessively. Man-made sapphire can be machined moderately accurately and besides has a high opposition to have on. The most common causes of nozzle failure are due to sedimentations come ining the fluid watercourse, therefore underscoring the demand for high degrees of filtration of the fluid prior to pressurisation, to cut down nozzle wear. With proper nozzle design a tight, coherent waterjet can be produced and maintained really accurately. When transporting out the cutting procedure, both the opening diameter and the ‘standoff ‘ distance must be closely monitored to keep a changeless deepness of cut. As the nozzle wears, compensatory alterations in the draw tallness must be made. Although existent draw distances vary from beginning to beginning, distances in the order of millimeters are normal ; normally around 0.25 – 3.5mm.WJC: Advantages and DisadvantagesWJC offers many advantages over conventional machining methods. This machining procedure provides the ability to cut stuffs without firing or oppressing the work piece. Furthermore, no important heat is generated, therefore, deformation is minimised and in some instances, eliminated. Unlike machining or grinding, no dust is produced ensuing in small environmental pollution. Other advantages include minimum material loss and easiness of mechanization when used with numerical control and industrial automatons. Whilst such advantages exist, one of the chief disadvantages to H2O jet film editing is that there are merely a limited figure of stuffs that can be cut economically ( MTU, 2009 ) . Although it is possible to cut tool steels utilizing this procedure, the provender rates have to be greatly reduced and therefore the edged clip increased. This, in kernel, consequences in a high cost procedure. Such stuffs that can be cut utilizing the H2O jet procedure include: plastics, fabrics, complexs, floor tiles, rug, leather and composition board.Abrasive Water Jet Cutting ( AWJC )To allow the film editing of difficult stuffs such as ceramics, metals and glass, together with those softer stuffs, for illustration froth and gum elastic, the WJC procedure requires the add-on of scratchy atoms, therefore organizing the scratchy H2O jet ( AWJ ) cutting technique. In a similar mode to WJC, the procedure is carried out utilizing a high-pressure, high-speed watercourse of H2O ; nevertheless, the discrepancy being that an scratchy stuff is dra wn in by a vacuity, which is created by jet watercourse. Figure 2 – Schematic of AWJC Process ( Meier, Louis & A ; Pilot, 1995 ) Figure 2 illustrates a typical apparatus for transporting out scratchy H2O jet film editing. It can be seen that this follows closely the agreement of WJC equipment, nevertheless, with the add-on of a twosome of cardinal characteristics ; viz. the scratchy eating system and a ‘catcher ‘ , which is required to protect the environment from the high energy jet.Procedure ParametersAs antecedently highlighted, the WJC procedure depends on a figure of parametric quantities. Whilst many of these are movable to the AWJC procedure, there are besides add-ons to reflect the alteration in cutting method. Momber & A ; Kovacevic ( 1998 ) present a list of such parametric quantities, which can be seen in figure 3 below. Figure 3 – AWJC procedure parametric quantities ( Momber & A ; Kovacevic, 1998 ) Although it is by and large accepted by many writers including JankoviA†¡ ( 2008 ) that the nose or opening diameter is the cardinal film editing parametric quantity, in the instance of AWJC, the abradant besides has considerable influences on the quality of the cut achieved. A choice of the parametric quantities as listed above has been explored in the subsequent subdivision, followed by an overview of the entire system control in the subdivision thenceforth.Procedure Parameters: Overview of Observed InfluencesThe most of import parametric quantity, by far, is the orifice diameter. The deepness of cut is straight relative to the opening diameter ; nevertheless, making an optimal point at big diameters. Although related to pump force per unit area, figure 4 below clearly illustrates this point, demoing how the deepness of cut varies with opening diameter. Figure 4 – Influence of opening diameter on the deepness of cut ( HeI?ling, 1988 ) Another parametric quantity that is closely linked to the opening diameter is the focal point diameter. This component of the cutting equipment determines the strength of the watercourse, therefore holding a direct consequence on the material remotion rate as shown by figure 5 below. Figure 5 – Influence of focal point diameter on the volume remotion rate ( Blickwedel, 1990 ) The focal point diameter is of import non merely in footings of the volume remotion rate but besides the deepness of cut. Figure 6 below shows how the deepness of cut is besides determined by this parametric quantity ; diminishing as the focal point diameter additions. The lessening in deepness of cut following an optimal point is realised by Himmelreich ( 1992 ) and has been attributed to high grades of turbulency. On the other manus, a peculiarly little focal point diameter gives rise to particle hit and clash, giving an inefficient procedure. Figure 6 – Influence of focal point diameter on the deepness of cut ( HeI?ling, 1988 ) Of the cutting parametric quantities listed, the crossbeam rate can be said to hold the greatest influence on the film editing procedure, followed closely by the draw distance. Both of these parametric quantities are controlled by machine design and therefore are bound by the makers ‘ specification. Figures 7 and 8 overleaf illustrate the influence of both the crossbeam rate and draw distance. It can be clearly seen that the deepness of cut lessenings as the crossbeam rate additions, following closely that of a squared map. However, on the other manus, the relationship between the draw distance and the deepness of cut is moderately additive ; with the deepness of cut decreasing as the draw distance additions. A big figure of scratchy stuffs are available for usage in AWJC. Typically these are loosely categorised as either oxides or silicates and there are, in a similar manner to the whole procedure, many parametric quantities that determine the features of an abradant. Figure 7 – Influence of crossbeam rate ( left ) and standoff distance ( right ) on the deepness of cut ( Blickwedel, 1990 ) Whilst it is hard to state precisely which parametric quantity has the greatest influence on the procedure, it is clear that both the hardness of the stuff together with the atom form and size, need consideration. Typical hardness values vary from 30 HV for Cd up to 200 HV for B carbide ( Kriegel & A ; Palmour, 1961 ) . Figure 8 shows the influence of both the atom form and size, whereas figure 9 overleaf high spots the significance of the mass flow rate of abradant on the deepness of cut achieved. Figure 8 – Influence of abradant ( atom ) diameter and size on the deepness of cut( Ohlsen, 1997 ; Oweinah, 1989 )Figure 9 – Influence of scratchy mass flow on the deepness of cut( Oweinah, 1989 )Abrasive Water Jet Cutting: Associated ProblemsIt is clear from the old subdivision that there are many parametric quantities that have an consequence on the AWJC procedure. If such parametric quantities are non carefully controlled, so the efficiency of the procedure decreases along with the quality of the machined portion. Some of the associated jobs are presented in table 1.Problem and definitionParameter ( s ) affected byConsequence on constituentTaper. This characteristic arises due to a difference in the breadth of the cut at the top surface and the bottom surface and is given as a ratio ( besides flank angle ) . Abrasive mass flow rate Focus diameter Standoff distance Trave rate This characteristic determines the dimensional truth of the portion. Initial Damage Zone. Abrasive atoms impact the surface at normal angles doing craters and abrasive-wear paths. Standoff distance Focus diameter ( Abrasive atom size – composite stuffs ) Some fictile distortion can happen. Change ( debasement ) in surface roughness/waviness. Trave rate Focus diameter/length Abrasive mass flow rate Abrasive atom size/type Surface belongingss of stuff are non as desired. Decrease in fatigue life of cut stuff due to check formation. Abrasive atom size Fatigue life reduced. Onset of stress-corrosion snap. Surface indurating due to procedure. Abrasive stuff Variation of hardness at distance from cut. Micro-structural alterations: Surface checking Phase alterations Abrasive-particle fragment implanting Delamination in composite stuffs Burr formation Assorted Assorted Table 1 – Problems that can originate when transporting out AWJCAbrasive Water Jet Cutting: Control MethodsTo guarantee such issues as those mentioned in table 1 do non happen, accurate control mechanisms must be in topographic point. There are many supervising mechanisms in topographic point today, some of which have been briefly described below. These methods lead to the control of the cutting procedure ; nevertheless, this is non automated in these instances. Jet-Structure Monitoring – used to command focal point diameter. Diameter of entry to concentrate point monitored to reflect alterations of focal point diameter. Wear rate can be monitored utilizing this method. Acoustic Sensing – used to supervise overall focal point conditions. System based on the fact that a alteration in the focal point conditions ( orifice diameter and concentrate diameter ) affects the sound generated by the system. Figure 10 ( overleaf ) illustrates the difference between the acoustic form of a new and worn nose. Inductive Measurement – used to supervise scratchy H2O jet speed. Method requires magnetic scratchy atoms. Abrasive jet is encircled by two little spirals, which is connected to a detection system. When the atom passes through the spiral, a little electric signal is created and the velocity determined. Figure 11 shows the typical apparatus of equipment, in this instance. Besides, laser systems similar to the above, nevertheless utilizing light pulsations alternatively. Material-Removal Visualisation – used to supervise material remotion rate. In a similar mode to Acoustic Sensing, noise of cut is monitored. Frequency of signal indicates type of cut ( inter-granular/trans-granular failure ) and therefore determines the efficiency of the cut. Workpiece Reaction Force – used to supervise deepness of incursion and surface topography. Empirical expression that takes into history all input parametric quantities excepting the crossbeam rate. Can go a force-feedback system ; leting parametric quantities to be modified to cut down the force. Figure 10 – Acoustic form for new and worn nose ( Kovacevic & A ; Evizi, 1990 ) Figure 11 – Initiation monitoring system ( Swanson, Kilman & A ; Cerwin, 1987 ) The above systems offer a chiefly generic attack to system patterning and supply small or no feedback. Modern control of AWJC makes usage of an intelligent monitoring and control system, which has full feedback capablenesss. Such an illustration by Srinivasu & A ; Babu ( 2008 ) utilises two systems: machine-vision based monitoring and intelligent control. The vision based portion monitors the size of the concentrating nose and the control system, which uses unreal nervous webs, continually modifies each parametric quantity to accomplish the best cut. A full analysis of this system is nevertheless beyond the range of this study. Abrasive Water Jet Cutting: Overview of Applications The applications of AWJC are huge, covering industries such as aerospace, automotive and electronics. It is beyond the range of this study to cover any peculiar country in important item ; nevertheless a few illustrations have been given below. Traditional and perchance even simple procedures have been ignored, and alternatively this study concentrates on a few non-standard applications.Meat CutingOne application of AWJ cutting is in the meat processing industry. Harmonizing to Wang & A ; Shanmugam ( 2008 ) , meat film editing is an of import activity and factors such as the cost, the presentation and sliting all need consideration. In this instance, salt is used as an scratchy and really good quality cuts, when compared to conventional film editing and even plain H2O jet film editing, can be achieved.Crunching Wheel ProductionThis illustration is slightly different to all other applications of AWJC as in most instances a through cut is desired. Axinte et Al. ( 2009 ) present an turn ing application, whereby crunching wheels are shaped harmonizing to their specification. Whilst this is considered a niche market, the writers conclude that AWJC has non merely the economical but besides proficient advantage for fabrication of this constituent. Assorted determining operations can be carried out, ensuing in such merchandises as figure 12 below. Figure 12 – Examples of crunching wheels manufactured utilizing AWJC ( Axinte et al. , 2009 )Polishing of SteelAnother application of AWJC is smoothing, and in peculiar steel. Yan et Al. ( 2008 ) describe this application, foregrounding that electrical-discharge machining ( EDM ) is normally used for mold production. The writers province that EDM typically leaves a brickle recast bed ; taking to the application of this smoothing method. When compared to traditional methods, AWJC has a lower scratchy ingestion and recycling is improved. In this illustration the abradant is SiC and to help the procedure is covered in wax. This consequences in a much finer surface coating.Complexs ProcessingThere are many applications of AWJC in relation to complexs treating as in some instances traditional single-point film editing procedures can non be used. For illustration, Komanduri ( 1997 ) describes that it is non possible to machine SiC whisker-reinforced aluminum oxide with a single-poin t film editing tool ; nevertheless, that it may be possible to determine by crunching. Whilst some complexs can be approached in this manner, rapid tool wear is experienced and therefore the debut of AWJC is a much better method.DecisionThe old subdivision provides a figure of non-standard illustrations where AWJC is being used. Although these give a general overview, AWJC can besides be used for alternate machining procedures, such as: milling, turning, piercing, boring ( although non level bottomed holes ) and thread film editing ( Momber & A ; Kovacevic, 1998 ) . Although such procedures as above can be achieved, in a similar instance to before there are many parametric quantities that need to be monitored. This is possibly a downside to this untraditional method unless modern control methods are introduced. Further disadvantages of the procedure include the fact that degradable stuffs can non be cut and the surface coating of machined constituents relies to a great extent on the procedure. Possibly the most important consideration of using this procedure is the apparatus cost ; which can be highly high in certain instances. One other disadvantage is the noise created by this fabrication procedure. Although, as highlighted above, there are many factors that control the procedure its application to modern industry has grown significantly since its debut in the 1970 ‘s. This has been driven chiefly by technological promotions, therefore leting this procedure to be developed, but besides due to of all time germinating stuffs that serve technology applications of today.

Movie review (runaway jury) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Movie review (runaway jury) - Essay Example The hearing of any legal case takes place after the process of selecting a jury is successful. In the movie, ‘Runaway Jury, the process of selection is tampered with by a series of manipulations. Most importantly, the jury is asserted if it is discerned to be honest and does not deem of favoring the plaintiff or the defendant. However, the defendant’s attorney makes efforts to tamper with the process of selecting a consortium of jurors who will act in favor of the defendant’s position in the case. The law provides that a manipulated jury does not qualify to foresee or even issue any verdict before it is termed as clear from ill motives (Kovera, Margaret & Brian 35). In the movie, the sobriety and purity of the jury be opposed by the ill motives by one of the jurors, Nick Easter. According to the law, if either of the lawyers representing the plaintiff or defendant believes or speculates feasibility of the jurors to have prejudiced objectives vis-Ã  -vis the case, he or she ought to request the judge to dismiss the jury. In the movie, a similar situation arises. Consequently, the lawyer remains cornered by the challenge posed by Fitch, a jury consultant, concerning the stand to make. However, the law provides that only a manipulation free jury can issue a cognizant and acceptable verdict in a legal

David Oliver's Cancer Vlogs Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

David Oliver's Cancer Vlogs - Assignment Example s documentation of all disease factors that affect the well-being of an individual as well as helping the learners in pointing out emerging health problems that affects the quality of life such as depression, cancer and sexual dysfunction (P. 261). For this reason, new challenges to personal responses of the management of chronic illness such as denial and anxiety were correctly and broadly understood through class discussions and brain-storming. Demonstratively, it was brought to an understanding that, for the first diagnosis individuals with chronic illness develop a physical, psychological and social disequilibrium. Similarly, it was brought to an understanding that different individual’s response differently when exposed to different life conditions (P. 262). For instance, the denial concept as a defensive mechanism for the individuals affected with chronic diseases forces them to response slowly to chronic illness management strategies as well achieving a quality life standard. Nevertheless, I was able to develop a sense of understanding from being a dependent individual to self-dependant individual allowing me to carry out self-management initiatives against different chronic conditions (P. 262). However, I was able to reverse my imaginations from being narrowed to the causes, effects and the impacts of chronic diseases to developing a suitable knowledge that help in adjusting to my new lifestyle. In addition, I was able to understand that, anxiety and denial are among the essential symptoms evidenced in chronically affected individual who lack suitable chronic illness management strategies

Case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Case - Essay Example ionally, the salary ranges and fringe benefits awarded by the college are moderately lower than the payments offered at equivalent colleges in the area. Some of the colleges in the area pay full or at least half of the travel expenses, but Northwest College does not compensate for travel cost if candidates are not employed. The college provides travel expenses if the applicant is given a position and accepts full reimbursement for travel cost given. The recruiting policy of the college requires final applicant approval by the head of department, academic affairs vice president, and the college president. Additionally, the college has a policy demanding that a minimum of two applicants be summoned to the school before any applicant can be employed, for appropriate screening. Other applicants are contacted after two months’ waiting period between the first contact, application and college interview. The new recruiting system will include at least twenty or more full-time instructors in the business administration department, and the head of the department. This will promote quick candidate selection, contact and appointment into various positions needed. It will also distribute different job responsibilities and allow quick candidate

Mark Mazower's After the War was Over Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Mark Mazower's After the War was Over - Essay Example rience of its brief life as a nation-state’{p.21}) to restore justice and prosecute collaborators were undone by the resurrection of the anticommunist right wing faction. Eleni Haidia’s essay â€Å"The Punishment of Collaborators in Northern Greece, 1945-1946† (Chapter 2 of the book) is a composition of studies of trials of collaborators in Thessaloniki. It explores how at first there was widespread determination to mete out strong punishment, a determination that eventually broke down and vanished after encountering malignancies such as improper administration practices, corruption, lack of funding and the new, sudden and unforeseen political crisis that resulted after the civil war. Procopis Papastratis’ essay â€Å"Purging the University after Liberation† (Chapter 3 of the volume) explores the efforts carried out with the aim of cleansing Athens University of those persons who had collaborated with the Germans and the pre-war Metaxas regime. The University used academic and political tactics to successfully repulse the threat of purging it; in the process, ironically, the University also succeeded in expelling several of its professors who supported the EAM (National Liberation Front). Susanne-Sophia Spiliotis’ essay â€Å"An Affair of Politics, Not Justice: The Merten Trial (1957-1959) and Greek-German Relations† (Chapter 14 of the book) reveals how Max Merten, a Nazi official mainly responsible for the deportation of Thessaloniki’s Jews, escaped justice. She highlights this trial to show that not only collaborators, but even German war criminals escaped Greek justice, an evasion made possible by the late 1950s â€Å"mutual interest† move by the Greek and West German governments to turn a blind eye to past wartime events, and look ahead with a view to boost mutual political and economic relations. Polymeris Voglis’ essay â€Å"Between Negation and Self-Negation: Political Prisoners in Greece, 1945-1950† (Chapter 4 of the volume) is a valuable study

Counseling Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Counseling - Essay Example The main types are ‘anorexia nervosa and binge-eating and usually develop during adolescence or early adulthood’ (Natl. Inst. Of Mental Health). This disorder usually ‘co-occurs with psychiatric disorders like substance abuse, anxiety disorder and depression’ (American Psychiatric Association 2000). People with anorexia consider themselves as overweight although they are already the opposite. They tend to avoid food and meals, become picky and eat only in small quantities. They constantly check their body weight and engage in weight control techniques like too much exercise or ‘purging by means of vomiting and abuse of laxatives, enemas, and diuretics’ (American Psychiatric Association 2000). On the other hand, binge-eaters eat until over full, eat large amounts even though not hungry and don’t practice purging so they become overweight for their age and height. Some of the physiological myths about hunger and satiety include a common bel ief that our blood glucose levels affect our hunger and satiety. But research shows that this is untrue because ‘glucose levels remain fairly stable and do not fluctuate often’ (Stier 2009). Also, they say that our energy levels drop along with our blood glucose and this trigger hunger so we should eat again to restore our levels back to the standard energy level.

Conflict & group Facilitation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Conflict & group Facilitation - Essay Example on is necessary between the parties, with a skilled facilitator mediating the discussion so that the genuine concerns of both parties can be understood and a mutually acceptable solution found. (Estes et al, 2006). There is a strong conflict existing between David and Peter and it is likely to polarize the group along two different lines. Therefore, there is a need for mediation of a dispute, by getting the two parties to face each other in a non confrontational manner. A skilled facilitator may be used, or suitable members from the group itself may be used as mediators. Conflict resolution in schools between disputing students has been found to be improved through using peers to mediate the resolution of such disputes.(Schrumpf et al, 1991). In this case, the individuals selected to mediate must not offer any opinions or assume responsibility for solving the dispute. Their only function is to listen and enable both Peter and David to fully express themselves and their dissenting viewpoints. The process of mediation must first of all establish certain ground rules, such as not allowing any personal vilification and requiring the parties to address each other calmly, with consideration and respect for each others’ viewpoints. When one party is speaking, he must not be interrupted, but allowed to speak and to fully express his feelings on the matter. Since it is the underlying emotion that each party feels regarding parental and cultural issues which is the source of the conflict, they must learn how to deal with their feelings and keep them under control while interacting with others in the group. This would help to prevent escalation of the conflict. One each party has had their say; the conflict areas must be clearly defined. In the case of David and Peter, the specific areas on which they disagree and the reasons for such differing opinions must be clarified, so that the underlying causes of the conflict are clearly laid out, whether they are cultural,

Criminal Scenarios Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Criminal Scenarios - Essay Example Mens rea refers to the intention of the person behind committing the crime. A person can only be held to be liable for committing a crime if there is an explicitly stated or inferred criminal intent to commit the crime. Mens rea is an essential element of homicide and has to be present for liability to be determined. In the present case, Clark’s intention was to hunt deer and he mistook Andrew and Blake for a pair of deer due to his lack of experience as a hunter. This is despite the fact that Andrew and Blake had taken all reasonable precautions to avoid being mistaken for animals by wearing orange jackets. However, his action, or actus reus, led to the death of both brothers. Apart from that, there were no preliminary inchoate crimes that can lead one to believe that Clark intended to shoot and kill Andrew and Blake. There is no scope for Clark to claim a justification defence that could prove that while he committed the crime of homicide it was justified under the circumstances. Clark can be held liable under the felony murder rule. According to this rule, a death that is caused unintentionally during the course of committing a felony is a first-degree murder. If the felony murder rule is applied to the situation of Clark, it needs to be determined whether Clark was committing a felony at the time when he shot Andrew and Blake.

Health and Diet Essay Example for Free

Health and Diet Essay Pienso que llevo una vida sana, ya que mi dieta es sana y balanceada. Tambien hago deportes regularmente y no tengo problemas de salud. Tambien evito la comida grasosa. Me considero estar en buena forma, ya que practico deportes y siempre estoy activo y en forma. Ademas me encanta la education fisica en el colegio. Un habito que tengo es que, me muerdo las unas a veces me muerdo las unas pero solo cuando estoy nervioso. Normalmente, como bien y me gusta la comida casera que es sana, me gusta comer ensalada y pasta en el fin de semana y de vez en cuando bebo agua o leche pero generalmente bebo naranjada y tambien tomo sopa y me encanta el pescado especialmente para la cena o la comida. En mi opinion las comidas saludables son los alimentos frescos y nutritivos, como las legumbres que contienen vitaminas. No obstante la comida procesada no es saludable ya que es rica en grasa y sal que sube la presion arterial. Asi que comer bien es muy importante pra estar en forma y para mantenernos sanos. Me gusta hacer ejercicio. Juego al futbol regularmente y tambien hago pesas dos veces a la semana, ademas duermo bien y descanso lo suficiente y no veo mucho la tele. Recientemente jugue un partido de baloncesto y corri mucho ya que era un campeonato y por suerte ganamos. Creo que por esto no tengo muchos problemas para estresarme. En las proximas semanas me gustaria dejar de comer comida rapida espeicialmente las patatas fritas y empezare a comer frutas que son mas deliosas ademas, me gustaria ir al gimnasio mas a menudo y deberia de levantarme mas temperano. Para no llegar tarde al colegio. Quiero estar mas en forma ya que asi podria tener mas energia para usar usarla en mi colegio. Si mi colegio me ayuda a estar sano y en forma porque me ensena a comer bien y puedo practicar deportes como el futbol o el rugby. Tambien hay muchos profesores que me dicen que hacer cuando estoy enfermo. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Spanish section.

Developing Equality in Education

Developing Equality in Education Why we need to even out the school systems The educational gap with students nowadays is only broadening. That is to say that the quality of education among districts in a region varies immensely depending on the district. Wisconsin is a prime example of how more needs to be done, not only to allow for better opportunities for students to attend different, better districts but also to improve the schools in the â€Å"bad† districts. According to data gathered in a study by AOL’s Daily finance 3 of the top 25 worst performing schools in America (including 2 of the top 5) are in Milwaukee (Daily Finance). This is hard to believe considering last The Daily Beast ranks 55 Wisconsin schools among the top 500 in the nation in terms of highest average ACT scores, Average AP/IB/AICE scores and amount of students in these types of courses. This includes the high school I attended, in a suburb of Milwaukee called Brookfield, as the highest ranked school in Wisconsin at 230 (Daily Beast). Questions begin to arise as to wha t can be done to help improve the problem at hand. I propose a solution that will not be simple but perhaps, with time, it can be successful in instituting the change necessary to bring Milwaukee Schools out of the horrid state they’re currently in. By first imposing more programs for students to be able to receive the education they deserve we begin to solve the problem. This would only be a temporary solution as the real answer would be one that addresses improving the Milwaukee school systems. Open enrollment and systems like it allow for students to be able to overcome the hurdles put up for them in the lives they currently live poor Milwaukee neighborhoods. Currently in Milwaukee and other cities in the area there exists programs such as open enrollment policies, voucher programs and magnet schools in an attempt to help improve education in a statewide manner. Open enrollment is the option for parents to enroll their children in schools outside of their district. Voucher programs give low-income families grants for their children to be able to attend private schools. Magnet are those that specialize in certain classes so as to prepare those who attend the school for a certain line of work that they aspire to be in. All these are beneficial to those students who would otherwise not be able to get a good education because of where they live. Under privileged children from these areas could often be stellar students, but due to lack of opportunity, motivation and resources, they succumb to their surroundings. A study conducted by the What Works Clearing house in August of 2012 found that Milwaukee area students who were given vouchers for private schools significantly outperformed their counterparts who never left the public school from where they lived (What Works Clearing House 4). The reading levels on the WKCE of students in grades 7, 8 and 10 showed that the students were far ahead of those students of the same age in the Milwaukee Public school system (What Works Clearing House 1). Another study in Texas showed that grade 9 and 10 students showed better test scores and math as well as higher school attendance than the students of the same age that never left their neighborhoods (Maloney 12). So far (for the most part) only good things have come from program. The problem for these approaches comes in terms of implementation and funding. Funding for transportation is a very large draw back when considering these changes. Since there is no specific law, (state or otherwise) the burden of ferrying this children around falls upon the schools or the parents (Davis 16). A higher cost is a big deterrent for any schools wanting to open enrollment. It is also not helpful for parents because one of the reasons they are not able to send their children to better schools in better neighborhoods is because of monetary constraints they face. Also, although improvements are usually seen when older students switch schools, younger students seem to struggle readjusting to their new surroundings. It is theorized that the higher expectations of these new schools often hinder the children from succeeding when first introduced because of the low standards that they were previously held to (Maloney 12). Open enrollment and systems like it need to be available f or students beginning at a young age with better financial support provided for the families involved. Laws need to be put in place both at a state level and nationally to provide money where it is most needed. Of course just like with many subjects in education open enrollment has its critics. Mainly groups who wish to keep the less privileged out of where they live. For example, a group of Ohio taxpayers has band together to combat open enrollment. The Reynoldsburg Taxpayers Against Open-enrollment is a group of Ohioans trying to cease the backing of these types of programs because they prioritize their wants, needs and desires over those of their less fortunate fellow man. According to their Facebook page, â€Å"[they] believe that open enrollment would be a detriment to [their] schools, [their] community, and [their] home values† (Reynoldsburg Taxpayers Against Open-enrollment). That is to say they do not see the effects of these kids coming in as negative in terms of effecting others education but rather they believe that these outsiders coming into where they live would have undesirable effects on their way of life. Open-enrollment would mean higher taxes for these people to pa y as they are the ones who actually reside in the neighborhoods where these schools are. Their views are something they are completely entitled to although I may not agree with where they are coming from. I personally believe that they fail to see the bigger picture. The education is not for immediate advantage but instead an investment in the future. If more people are educated today it will lead to a better tomorrow. Open-enrollment and such programs are like trying to stop rupturing dam with duct tape. Eventually this dam will rupture and the problems will only get bigger and more overwhelming. The real solution is in trying to improve the schools where the low income students come. If they were able to get the kind of education they need to succeed in life near to their homes, there would be no need to leave. In Milwaukee a great part of the problem is due to the immense amount of segregation there is in such a small area. Milwaukee is only the 30th most populous city in the nation, yet it has the highest segregation around the country. All this segregation leads to a distribution of wealth that highly unequal. The high school I attended was in one of the wealthier cities in Wisconsin. Due to having a good amount of money to spend, the district was able to get better teachers, facilities, and create a better learning environment. All this lead to Brookfield East High School having 65.6% of all their students scoring proficient or advanced in all areas on the Wisconsin Student Assessment System (WISE Dash public portal). Although perhaps not seemingly all that impressive seen alone, when compared to the just 12.6% of Milwaukee Public School System High school students, the numbers seem staggering (WISE dash public portal). Currently Elmbrook School district (Brookfield East’s district) is doing its part to help by having open enrollment (although space is limited) but true solving of the problem won’t happen unless something is done about the troubled schools. As things stand now, not enough is being done to improve education. The laws that are currently in place only perpetuate vicious circle of lack of education in poorer regions. The No Child Left Behind Act for example gives more funding to schools that score better on statewide standardized tests. Since schools such as those in Milwaukee have been scoring poorly for so long, funding has been taken away from them leading to less opportunities and resources for improvement of any sort. No money equates to no way to pay for better teachers or amenities and in turn education suffers further. Works Cited Reynoldsburg Taxpayers Against Open-enrollment. Facebook. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2013. Davis, Jennifer, and Officers Council of Chief State School. School Choice In The States: A Policy Landscape. Council Of Chief State School Officers (2013): ERIC. Web. 7 Nov. 2013 The Daily Beast. 2013 Americas Best High Schools. Newsweek. The Daily Beast, n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2013 Daily Finance. 25 Worst Performing Public Schools in the U.S. DailyFinance.com. AOL Money and FInance, n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2013 Maloney, Catherine, et al. Evaluation Of New Texas Charter Schools: Final Report (2007-10). Executive Summary. Texas Center For Educational Research (2011): ERIC. Web. 7 Nov. 2013 What Works Clearinghouse, (ED). WWC Review Of The Report Milwaukee Parental Choice Program Longitudinal Educational Growth Study Fifth Year Report. What Works Clearinghouse (2012): ERIC. Web. 7 Nov. 2013. WISEdash Public Portal Wisconsin Dept of Public Instruction. WISEdash. Wisconsin Information System for Education, 2013. Web. 06 Nov. 2013.

interior with a book :: essays research papers

The painting I chose to critique is Interior with a Book. This painting was instantly appealing to me. The painting focuses on an empty chair in a room next to a table. On top of the table there is a cup closest to the chair. Next to that there is an open book, and on the right edge of the painting there is an empty plate on the table. If you look out the window, you will see a big green field. The reason this painting was so appealing to was because this field looks like a golf course to me. I can see a sand trap on the left edge of the painting close to the house the picture is taken from. Also, there is what appears to be a winding path coming down the center of the field which could be a cart path leading to a green.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The painting appears to be done in oils which would be a good choice for this painting. Painting with oils allows the painter to blend colors together and adds a lot of depth to the picture. This is imperative for many of the objects in this pai nting such as the field and the sky. Interior with a Book looks to be a representational painting but one could argue that there are some parts that are nonobjective or abstract. A person can see most of the images in the painting and they are forms in the natural world, thus making it a representational painting. However, there are two black spots that appear to be outside the window that I cannot make out exactly what they are, therefore maybe making this part nonobjective. On the other hand, with this picture looking so much like a golf course to me these two black spots could represent distorted golfers getting ready to chip in a ball, making this part abstract. One of the properties of this painting is that the field is made up of an analogous harmony. The field is made up of green, yellow-green, and yellow. The effect of this is that the field appears to have different shades of green grass, such as a rough, a fairway, and a green. Another property of this painting is the asymmetrical balance. The painting is heavier to the left because the chair, being the central image in the painting, is to the left of it.

Punk music in the 70s and 90s Essay -- essays research papers

Punk music has gone through an evolution ever since the punk explosion in the late seventies. Although todayà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s punk music retains most of the ideology and sound that defines the punk genre, there are some distinct differences between Nineties and Seventies punk. Most of the punk bands to emerge and gain popularity in the nineties mostly hailed from California (Green Day, the Offspring, etc.). Punk vanguards from the seventies hailed from the East Coast and from Great Britain (the Ramones, the Clash, etc.). The Sex Pistolsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ "Liar" and Blink182à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s "Whatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s My Age Again?" demonstrates how conditions à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬  social, political, and physical à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬  are reflected in the nature of the music produced by these punk bands. The Sex Pistols emerged in the late seventies as one of the first politically charged punk bands, advocating anarchy in most of their tunes. The band embraced and produced songs that reflected the punk ideology: rebellion and nihilism. The Sex Pistols also reacted to the stark social conditions that infected Great Britain in the late seventies à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" rising unemployment, a hard-line, conservative government, and a depressed post-industrial economy. With a hopeless future at the horizon, the restless youth in Britain had plenty of things to get angry about. The Sex Pistols embodied the eraà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s anger and restless ambition. Blink182 first gained popularity as a local band from San Diego. The Southern California environment was completely different from the harsh, cold urban environment of London. The environment from where Blink182 cultivated their style was sunny and suburban San Diego. The mid-nineties were economically good in the United States. The youths of Southern California did not face the same despair as the youths of Britain in the seventies. Moreover, Blink182 gained popularity by producing songs that reflected the "skater" and teen culture of Southern California. Their music is fun, carefree, rebellious, and filled with adolescent, bathroom humor. The harsh, dense noise that is the hallmark of every Sex Pistols song can be heard in "Liar." The distorted guitar is the centerpiece of most punk music. The guitarist, Steve Jones, plays with an incessant, down strumming of power chords, cre... ...rank phone calls / What the hell is caller ID? / My friends say I should act my age / Whatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s my age again?" Sung in the mellow style of Hoppus, the aloofness and sarcasm are evident in the lyrics. The song rejects immaturity and advises that "No one should take themselves so seriously." The themes evoked in the song reflect the carefree and mellow attitude of Southern California while at the same time reflect the rebellious attitude of traditional punk. Moreover, the themes, along with the goofy sense of humor of the band, relate to the teen/pop culture that emphasizes music that is fun to listen to. The punk revival in the Nineties retains the energy and freshness of Seventies punk. But as previously evidenced, the creative forces and inspiration that produced this music influenced and affected the message and sound of the songs. "Liar" is a song derived from the angry punk scene of Great Britain and "Whatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s My Age Again?" reflects the warm, mellow attitude of Southern California. The distinctions end there. Those looking for the raw sound and power of punk music can find it in both Nineties and Seventies punk.

Culture Difference Essay -- Essays Papers

Culture Difference The first culture difference that many Japanese find in America is their greeting customs. Although the greeting is one of the simplest human communications, both countries have different methods of greeting each other. Three differences include introduction, self-introduction, and departure. In addition, the main reason for the difference is that Americans use verbal greetings and the Japanese use nonverbal greetings. First, the order of introduction in the U.S. is the reverse of the Japanese way. In America, generally elderly people are introduced first. For example, one of my friends invited me to his house, and he introduced his father first, then his mother, his older brother, and his young sister. After that he introduced me to his family. In contrast, the traditional rule is the opposite in Japan. In other words, young people have to be introduced first in Japan. This rule is the sort of manner in Japan, and the people who do not follow this regulation are considered rude. The methodology of self-introduction varies between America and Japan. Ameri...

Favorite Dish Essay

My favorite food is Pakistani food and my favorite dish in Pakistani food is Biryani. I like to eat Pakistani food because I have been eating it since my childhood and I am fond of eating spicy food. I have been to many countries in this world and I have tried many things, but still I consider Pakistani food to be my favorite food. Some people like to eat things which are expensive and they feel that the things which they eat or like are recognized worldwide, but I have different opinion. I like to eat things which are delicious and the food which I have been eating since my childhood. I remember that once I was feeling very sad, and I did not want to eat anything at all but then as I saw Biryani I started feeling hungry. There are times when I am not even feeling hungry, and I start eating Biryani the moment I look at it. I feel very good after eating Biryani. It is so mouth-watering and scrumptious that sometimes I eat it in high quantity. Some people think that only girls should be the one who should be cooking, but I think boys should also know how to cook the food. I learnt making this dish and it was a unique kind of experience. I never thought that cooking was so fun, and now whenever I want to eat Biryani I prefer to make it myself. I believe that you should also try it out someday as most people in my country love it so much.

Nvq 3 Work

1/1 There are a number of factors that can impact individuals with sensory loss. People with sensory loss can miss out on important information that people with out sensory loss take in day to day with out even realising. Communication is an area in which people with sensory loss have many issues. they may also find it difficult to feed themselves, dressing, mobility, hobbies and interests can have a major negative impact on their lives. They could also feel scared and alone.There can also be positive factors that could impact on individuals lives, increased help, aids for support and a good support team could give them a better outlook on life. 1/2 Societal attitudes and beliefs can impact individuals with sensory loss in quite a negative way because people in society can be very judgmental towards people with disabilities, and put them in a group of people with below average intelligence and assume they can’t do or think the same way as other people without disabilities can. People in society can also be very prejudice and ignorant and think they are better than people with sensory loss, also thinking it gives them the right to make fun at them and making life difficult in the process. Although not all people think the same way there are many other people in society that are very open towards individuals with disabilities and sensory loss and can be very helpful and kind, this can have a positive impact on people’s lives. 1, 3,There are a range of factors that societal attitudes and beliefs impact on service provisions, discrimination is one of the biggest problem in today’s society , people with sensory loss are treated differently, and there a lot of barriers that need to be overcome, service provision is a term used to describe a wide range of activities, including the provision of assistive devices, rehabilitation services, occupational therapy and health services. 2/1 sight loss-clear speach Large print Braille earing loss hearing aid paper pen comunication boards sign language flipcharts Make sure you have the person's attention before trying to communicate with them Gently touching the top of hand arm Identify yourself clearly Check your best position to communicate Avoid background noise Speak clearly and a little slower, but don't shout Keep your face visible – don't smoke, eat, or cover your mouth Use gestures and facial expressions to support what you are saying If necessary repet yourself 2/2 /3 3/1 diabeties infections operations age i can say resident going blind if he or she falling over things high blood pressure 3/2 congenital sensory loss when someone is borh with sight hearing problems might be due to mother contracting an infection such as rubella acquied sensory loss is sight or hearing loss what coming with time in life due to diffrent factors 3/3 356,000 deafblind ppl in uk 4/1 Find lighting either: too bright or too dim. Holding books or reading material close to faceSquinting or tiltin g the head to see. Difficulty in recognizing people. Change in personal appearance. Moving about cautiously. Bumping into objects. Acting confused or disoriented. listen tv radio on high volume avoiding talking in groups dont undestand what ppl saying 4/2 get eyes hearing tested get doctor to check for any problems like high blood pressuer ask doctor to check is ear bloock with wax avoid loud noises find hearing support services 4/3

Ego-Centricity and Socio-Centricity

The Different Windows of Life We all see the world In different perspectives and that's how we, as humans, handle this Journey called life. Two of the many different views of life are ego- eccentricity and solo-centrally, they may seem new to you but actually they're already spread out In the minds of different Individuals. As seen In the structure of the two words, egocentricity and egocentricity, they are obviously two different words not only in structure but also in meaning.Let me elaborate on their difference in meaning based on their structure. Egocentricity comes from the Latin word â€Å"ego† meaning â€Å"l† and â€Å"centrists† meaning â€Å"centered upon†. From their etymology we can infer that the word meaner centered upon oneself. Egocentricity is having opinions or views in life which highlight oneself or give importance to the decisions of an individual. Ego centrists believe that they are the most Important living things on the earth more t han any plant or animal and their view on life Is mostly Influenced by oneself only.They believe that life Is colluded by Individuals and not by any social group or plant/animal. On the other hand Socio-eccentricity coming from the Latin word â€Å"socio† meaning companion and â€Å"centrists† meaning â€Å"centered upon† meaner having views or opinions based on one's membership in a social organization. Socio-eccentricity is having views that one is dominant because of his/her participation in any social organization or structure. Socio-centrists often associate themselves within their group and not as an individual not unlike the former.They also believe that life Is McCollum by societal groups and not Just by any individual. They believe that 2 heads are indeed better than one. No matter what flews/pollens you Imbibe wealth yourself, believe that the world Is McCollum by what we do and not what we think of ourselves or any human being. We can only solve the p roblems of the people if we do some action about it. We can never solve anything based only on our views. We can only bring an end to these if we do our part as human beings here on earth.

On literature review made by authors Essay

The authors asserted to have found a framework for the examination of customer-focused culture via the literature review made. It may be noted that the study included only a survey of 32 potential best organizations as identified by the reseachers and they may not necessarily represent the broader characteristics of other organizations in New Zealand and even in the world. They have indeed accepted a limitation of their study that benefits would have been gained if the study has extended to a larger international group. The limitation of the samples use is material into the validity of the survey on whether they represent the real value of customer focus culture to the organizations. In discussing the background of the study, Bartley, et al (2007) cited the the strong link between an organization’s culture and its performance which they claimed to have been widely recognised by practitioners where they cited the work of Basch (2002) and academics where they cited the work of Kotter and Heskett (1992). If organizations desire to have enduring relationship and loyal customers, they must be equipped with an effective customer-focused culture which will make it easier for these companies to have successful product and service delivery. To support their statements they cited the works of Macaukay Clark (1998) and Martin (1992). For the authors customer-focused culture was almost as good as survival in the long-term. These findings from literature review prompted the authors and the the 18 organization-members of the NZBC to asks for the componets and charateristics of a good customer-focused culture. For which reason, NZBC was formed by the Massey University’s Centre for Organizational Excellence Research (COER) in partnership witht the New Zealand Business Excellence Foundation to achieve the ambitious vision of becoming world-class performers of its members and to adopt excellent business practices within New Zealand. To measure the improvements by club members, they have agreed on a criteria for excellent performance on annual basis. See Figure 1 of their report and is made part of Appendix 1 of this paper. It appears that their agreement on criteria of performance excellence was just not a result of a tests or even a previous study. By merely agreeing and not conducting any test which are the factors there is basis the criteria may be just based on opinions. The results of their literature review resulted to their having identified six characteristics of organizations having performance of good to best practices. Bartley, B. et al. (2007) made use of same six characteristics as an analytical framework. They found the importance of leadership and used the works of Brooks, 1997; Whitely, 1991, Galreath and Rogers, 1999 which found that customers drive organizational direction and actions, to support the characteristic. They also included listening as characteristic where the views of customers are actively sought to have ease of contact/conduct of business where they cited the works of Scheuing (1999) and Plymie (1991). Bartley, B. et al (2007) also included analysis and understanding using the works of Brooks (1997) and Wikstrom (1996) which found that need to understand customer expectations. Further included is integration and deployment where the authors cited the work of Martin (1992) which could the need to act upon customers’ expectations. Still include is is people after citing the work of Kennedy, et al, (2002) which determined that customer-focused culture is understood and integrated in the whole the organization. They also included the need to review and improve where they cite the work of Alam and Perry (2002). The fact their literature review is supported by published works of other researchers on the basis of being mainly taken from academic journals and other published works, will lends some degree of validity of the summary of characteristics made as part of their analytical framework.

African American Children and Religion Research Proposal

African American Children and Religion - Research Proposal Example Others have limited their coverage of the research population, excluding young African-Americans for a variety of reasons. This researcher, however, believes that there is an urgent need for research that highlights the positive aspects of the social behavior of today’s generation of young African-Americans, using data involving a youth research population. It is hoped that such an investigation of an important and growing sector of contemporary American society would contribute to knowledge of African-American culture, more specifically on the aspect of psychology of religion. It is further hoped that the results would provide concrete strategies for action that would inspire present and future generations of African-American families and youth to perform their important role in strengthening a nation founded on and inspired by Christian ideals. Aims of the Study The aims of this study are as follows: 1. To determine the impact of religious practice or non-practice on the social attitudes and behavior of African-American children from the ages 8 to 19 residing in a specific community. 2. To examine the religion-based determinants of positive social attitudes and behavior. 3. To identify and describe the positive religious practice role models of the research population under study. Hypothesis The study will test the following hypotheses: 1. African-American children who engage in positive religious practices develop positive social attitudes and exhibit positive social behavior (H.1). 2. African-American children who do not engage in any type of religious practice do not develop positive social attitudes and exhibit negative social behavior (H.2). Review of Literature and Preliminary Discussions One of America's founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, stated that "religion will be a powerful regulator of our actions, give us peace and tranquility within our minds, and render us benevolent, useful and beneficial to others" (Isaacson, 2003, p. 87-88). Over the last quarter of a millennium, American society has undergone a seismic shift in several aspects, more notably in the role of religion and the belief that its practice has beneficial effects on society. Several studies (Paul, 2005; Inglehart and Baker, 2000; Idler and Kasl, 1992) have attempted to show the correlation between America's social problems and the negative effects of secularization on the practice of religion, and that such a development would have detrimental consequences to the future of democracy. Aral and Holmes (1996) and Hummer et al. (1999) also showed that this phenomenon is evident not only in America but also in other developed democracies such as Europe and Japan. On the contrary, they argue, democratic nations such as those in predominantly Catholic Latin America and in parts of Africa with societies influenced by Christianity (such as Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ethiopia) where the people are noted for religiosity often exhibit the worst forms of social behavior. In another study, Barro and McCleary (2003) used the term "spiritual capital" in reference to the social benefits that proceed with the practice of religion. They concluded that Americ a's deep social problems in a period of great economic prosperity and the highest expenditures for health care among

Organisational Learning and Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Organisational Learning and Development - Essay Example These new practices rely upon the idea that performance depends not only on hard and attenuating work of the personnel, but also on such essential characteristics as competence and ability to learn and develop. Despite seeming simplicity, the problem of effective learning and development of employees is exceptionally complex, and if a company fails to properly, effectively and continuously train and educate its human resources in the right areas of the business, at the right time and at the right cost, serious inefficiencies are likely to arise. This will inevitably result in considerable operational difficulties and sometimes may even lead to failure of the organisation (Buckle & Caple, 2004). Information, knowledge, and skills have already become the key aspects of new economic environment (Guest, 1987). As a result, modern organizational studies place increasingly distinct emphasis on issues associated with learning and development of personnel. An effective HRD programme should be built around three basic theoretical concepts: organizational development change, leadership development, and individual, group and organizational learning (Reid, Barrington & Brown, 2004). ... In the past, learning focused primarily on individuals: people worked in large bureaucracies or assembly lines and, consequently, the goal of learning under such circumstances was training of the skills required for their functioning. However, since approximately three decades ago the focus of learning in organisations started to shift from individuals to groups and, what was even more important, the meaning underlying the concepts of 'learning', 'training' and 'development' transformed dramatically. Scholars began to perceive these constructs as continuous rather than occasional while the purpose and the process of learning were also reformulated and recognised as vital for effective organizational performance (Harrison, 2005). The existing research in organizational learning available up to date demonstrates that there are at least three major things adult learners need to know: - What will be learned; - How the learning will be conducted; - Why the new knowledge will be of any value (Knowles, 1984). The need to know about these three aspects strongly affects employees' motivation to learn, outcomes of learning, and motivation to use new knowledge. Normally, five phases of organizational learning are identified in the literature: 1. Analysis The first phase involves full analysis of the organizational needs, identification of the goals which, when reached, will equip employees with knowledge and skills to meet the organization's needs (Buckley & Caple, 2004). The first questions to be asked in the analysis phase are "Is there a need for training" and "If something is wrong, is it caused by a performance problem that training will fix" In the analysis phase the responsibilities/duties required at a certain position are identified and

Freud's Defense Mechanisms Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Freud's Defense Mechanisms - Essay Example Freud believed that Ego reacts to the threat of the impulses of Id break in two ways: by blocking the revelation of impulses in conscientious behavior and by their distortion to such an extent that their initial intensity decreases or deviates. The major defense mechanisms are: denial, displacement, intellectualization, projection, rationalization, reaction formation, regression, repression, suppression, sublimation. All the defense mechanisms have two common characteristics: 1) they act at the unconscious level and so serve as the means of self-deception, and 2) they distort, deny or falsify one’s perception of the reality to make anxiety less threatening for an individual. As a rule, people seldom use only one defense mechanism, usually applying a combination of different mechanisms for the solution of the conflict and reduction of anxiety. Denial, displacement and repression are the three defense mechanisms representing special interest due to their ability to strongly dist ort the reality. In case of denial, an individual argues that the stimulus, provoking his anxiety, doesn’t exist. For instance, a father may deny the painful fact that his daughter is raped and murdered. He would behave as if nothing has happened (which protects him from the devastating grief ad depression). A wife may deny her husband’s unfaithfulness. Or imagine a child denying the death of his favorite cat and persistently continuing to believe that the cat is alive. Denial of reality takes place when people insist: â€Å"This cannot happen to me†, notwithstanding the evidences of the counter. This often occurs when people are informed that they have some mortal disease. According to Freud, denial is mostly common with small children and people of older age with low intellect. On the other hand, mature people with normally developed intellect may resort to it as well when they have traumatic experience. A wonderful example of denial is represented in a short story

I've attached the file Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

I've attached the file - Essay Example joyed as a result of concentrating activities near a certain facility for instance, a source of raw materials, transport facility, an institution of higher learning and many others. Localization aids in reducing an enterprise’s expenses such as transport cost and damage on raw materials resulting from long distance transportation. Spatial equilibrium assumption is the notion that firms and workers are different across space and the research on urban areas is distinct from that of nations. Basically, urban economists recognize the existence of agglomeration economies which arise when productivity increase with density; however, assessing the enormity of those economies is a real challenge. The assumption of the existence of a baseline spatial equilibrium provides a map to understanding the role of agglomeration on the economy. In essence, the assumption gives a projection of how workers and firms can cooperate to ensure maximum benefits. Additionally, one gets an overview of urban economics which assists in handling the economic issues at hand. Consequently, the assumption assists in identifying the empirical regularities in urban economics, for instance, people are more productive in dense population and that high wage in urban areas are usually counterbalanced by high cost of

Thomas Paine Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Thomas Paine - Research Proposal Example In July 1761, he returned to his native town of Thetford to work as a supernumerary officer for a bit more than one year. After that Paine moved to Lincolnshire and became an exciseman. His service continued until August 1765, when he was fired for "claiming to have inspected goods he did not inspect" (Conway, 1892). In 1767 Paine became a schoolteacher in London, but that occupation was also rather short: the next year he again took the position of exciseman Lewes, East Sussex. His service lasted for the next six years during which Paine serviced as exciseman and simultaneously managed a small tobacco shop. In 1771 he married Elizabeth Ollive and for the first time involved in the political issues: he joined the Society of Twelve, a local group of thinkers that periodically met to politics of the local authorities. In the beginning of 1774, Paine was again fired from his service and his tobacco shop collapsed so that he had to sell his household possessions to rid himself of debts. The second marriage was also childless and not happy. In 1774 he legally divorced Elizabeth Ollive and moved to London where he got acquainted with Benjamin Franklin, and in October same year upon receiving the letter of recommendation from Franklin who administered emigration to colonial America at that time, Thomas Paine traveled to Philadelphia (Ayer, 1990). The travel was very difficult and Paine barely survived it: it took him 6 weeks to fully recover. After recovery, he settled in Philadelphia, changed his birth name to 'Paine', and began to work as a journalist for the Pennsylvania Magazine (Conway, 1892). Strong eloquent style of Paine's articles and pamphlets immediately earned him a reputation of radical uncompromising fighter for the natural rights of man and freedom. On January 10, 1776, one Paine's most famous pamphlets known Common Sense was published. Some historians believe that the pamphlet became arguably the most essential piece of writing that had strong social and political influence on those day's developments that eventually led up to independence (Larkin, 2005). In particularly, Paine stated that: "Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one: for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a Government, which we might expect in a country without Government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of the bowers of paradise" (Paine, 1776). Such very sharp and radical stance was the distinct feature of Paine's writing. Thus, he dismissed the King as a fool (labeled King George III as "the Royal Brute of Great Britain" (Jensen, 1968, p. 668) claiming that heredity is not always and not necessarily related with natural ability, that Britain used the colonies solely for obtaining profits treating the colonists in unacceptable fashion. Paine also urged the colonies to unite as quickly as possible to effectively protect their rights and believed that the only possible way to do so was to become fully independent: "Until an independence is declared, the continent will feel itself like a man who continues

Female Circumcision Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Female Circumcision - Assignment Example Female circumcision is abusive and has a detrimental effect on the attitude and self-esteem for the females who practice it. 3. Patriarchy is a process or a system through which the males dominate and are in charge of social welfare of people within the society. For this reason, they are able to control the resources and set rules, norms and regulations that define a community. Patriarchy has played a big role in female circumcision especially through the ritual norms that must be performed in order to assume acceptance as a member of a certain society or community. This is because the institutions of males have dominance over the privileges of the female hence insubordination. 4. A lot of non-governmental organizations have teamed up to fight this practice. Groups like Maendeleo Ya Wanawake in Kenya have formed female groups which fight against this ritual. Most of the governments in Africa and Kenya to be precise have set rules that ban the practice terming it as child abuse. Most of the governments in Africa have also set tight penalties for societies or communities that engage in this old ritual. It is indeed right for us Westerners to meddle in traditions and practices that have no positive effect on the lives of Africans. Female circumcision is an abusive act that dehumanizes the female gender and must be fought by all members of the world and not westerners only. 5. In my opinion there has never been and there will never be any good reason to perform female genital mutilation to the female gender because it does not add any value but instead only ruins the self-esteem and leads to a lot of side effects like hemorrhage and conception difficulties and even death resulting from over bleeding during the process (Francis

Product Development and Pricing Strategies Assignment - 1

Product Development and Pricing Strategies - Assignment Example Increasing competition in today’s globalised economy has put the organization under the pressure of designing effective marketing strategy. Marketing is the process of developing and implementing the idea of pricing, promotion and distribution of products and services such that they create exchanges that generates satisfaction in the objective of the organization and individual (Ferrell and Hartline, 2010). Marketing strategy provides the best opinion to the organization regarding how it can use its resources and skills in the market place so that it can run the business profitably (McDonald, 2007). The marketing strategy is mainly concerned regarding the four P’s and the objective of the organization. Flexibility in the marketing strategy creates a positive influence on the performance of the organization (Pride and Ferrell, 2010). In a competitive economy successful marketing is all about customer focus, positioning and attaining competitive success (Lancaster and Mas singham, 2010). Classic Airlines is the fifth largest airline in the world. It has a fleet of over 375 jets that flies over 240 cities. Classic Airlines has about more than 2300 flights flying daily. It has been operating in the airline industry for more than 25 years. It has employee strength of more than 32,000. In the year 2004 the company has recorded earnings of $10 million and sales figure reached $8.7 billion. But being in a profitable business, Classic Airline has started facing some problem that has reduced its profit by significant numbers.

A Data Warehouse Appliance Can Have a Huge Positive Impact on Businesses and Organizations Essay Example for Free

A Data Warehouse Appliance Can Have a Huge Positive Impact on Businesses and Organizations Essay Businesses and organizations of all sizes are becoming increasingly dependent on data analytics, and data warehouses or business analytic infrastructure has become a business critical application for many (if not most) companies. Indeed, these companies have always searched for better ways to understand their customers, and anticipate their needs. They have longed to improve the speed and accuracy of operational decision-making. Equally important as timeliness is the depth of the data analysis. Generally, the companies want to decipher all secrets hidden within the massive amounts of ever-increasing data. A data warehouse appliance, which is an integrated collection of hardware and software designed for a specific purpose typically involving the high throughput of data and analytic functions, can be used by organizations to optimize various areas of data processing. Its main intent is to supplant conventional business intelligence functions, such as warehousing, extract-transform-load (ETL), analysis and reporting. Due to its cost-effectiveness and efficiency, the data warehouse appliance has become an important segment of the data warehousing market. In this paper, I will examine the data warehouse appliances and describe its positive impact on business enterprises. Introduction Since introduced in the early 1990s, data warehouse (DW) has proven to be the key platform for strategic and tactical decision support systems in the competitive business environment today. See more: Analysis of Starbucks coffee company employees essay It has become a major technology for building data management infrastructure, and resulted in many benefits for various organizations, including providing â€Å"a single version of the truth, better data analysis and time savings for users, reductions in head count, facilitation of the development of new applications, better data, and support for customer-focused business strategies† (Rahman, 2007). The technology has become extremely important in an environment where increasing competition, unpredictable market fluctuations, and changing regulatory environments are putting pressure on business organizations. Data warehouses are also becoming the central repositories of organization/company information for data, which is obtained from a variety of operational data sources. Business applications will find data warehouses more beneficial and rely on them as the main source of information as they progress. These applications are able to perform all sorts of data analysis, with increasing customer demands for having the most up-to-date information available in data warehouses. Improving data freshness within short time frames is essential to meeting such demands. According to Hong et al, virtually all Fortune 1000 companies, today, have data warehouses, and many medium and small sized firms are developing them. The desire to improve decision-making and organizational performance is the fundamental business driver behind data warehouses. DW help managers easily discover problems and opportunities sooner, and widen the scope of their analysis. Hong also mentions that data warehouse is user-driven, meaning that users are allowed to be in control of the data and will have the responsibility of determining and finding the data they need. But however, the data warehouses have to be designed and evaluated from the user perspective in order to motivate users to be responsible for finding the data they need. Data warehouse is said to be â€Å"one of the most powerful decision-support tools to have emerged in the last decade† (Ramamurthy, 2008). They are developed by firms to help managers answer important business questions which require analytics including data slicing and dicing, pivoting, drill-downs, roll-ups and aggregations. And these analytics are best supported by online-analytical processing (OLAP) tools. A data warehouse appliance, which is the main topic of discussion in this research, is referred to as an integrated collection of hardware and software designed for specific purposes involving the high throughput of data and analytic functions. Data warehouse appliance has become an important segment of the data warehousing market, due to its cost-effectiveness and efficiency. A business or organization can use a data warehouse appliance to optimize various areas of data processing. In general, the main purpose of the DW appliance is to supplant conventional business intelligence (BI) functions including warehousing, extract, transform, load (ETL), analysis, and reporting. A data warehouse appliance can have a huge positive impact on a business enterprise. Large organizations are able to staff their data warehouse more efficiently, while assisting mid-level companies in solving business intelligence challenges. Data warehouse is fundamentally changing the way the businesses operate, as they are increasingly adopted across various companies. The purpose of this paper is to present the data warehouse appliances and how they impact businesses and organizations. In the next sections, I present a brief overview of data warehousing and the current state of BI, then I define and discuss DW appliances including its benefits, after which I describe the positive impact of DW appliances on businesses. Data Warehousing A data warehouse can basically be defined a subject-oriented, integrated, non-volatile, and time-variant collection of data in support of managements decisions. Unlike the on-line transaction processing (OLTP) database systems, data warehouses are organized around subjects storing historical/summarized data for business requirement purposes. According to O’Brien and Marakas, a data warehouse is a central source of data which have been cleaned, transformed and cataloged so they are usable by managers/business professionals for data mining, online analytical processing, market research, and decision support. These stored data are usually extracted from various operational, external, and other database management system of an organization. DW can be sub-divided into data marts, holding subsets of data from the warehouse that focus on specific aspects, such as department, of a company. In general all data warehouse systems comprises of the following layers; data source, data extraction, staging area, ETL, data storage, data logic, data presentation, metadata, and system operations layer. But the four major components include the multi-dimensional database, ETL, OLAP, and metadata. The dimensional database applies the concept of standard star-schema including dimension and fact tables, hierarchies for drill-down, role models, aggregates and snow flaking. It optimizes database design for better performance. The ETL process involves the extraction, transformation and loading of data with appropriate ETL tools. Data integration is one of the most important aspects of data warehouse, whereby data is extracted from multiple heterogeneous source systems and placed in a staging area where it is cleaned, transformed, pruned, reformatted, standardized, combined, and summarized before loading into the warehouse. OLAP (online analytical processing) tool provides the front-end analytical capabilities including slice and dice, drill up, drill down, drill across, pivoting, and trend analysis across time. And metadata stores information (or data) about the data in the warehouse system. The components of a complete data warehouse architectural system are illustrated in Figure 1 below. Figure 1 An important characteristic about the data in a data warehouse is that they are static, unlike a typical database with constant changes. Once the data are gathered up, formatted for storage, and stored in the data warehouse, they will never change. The restriction is such that complex patterns or historical trends can be searched for, and analyzed, by queries. Data warehouses are also non-volatile in the sense that end-users cannot update the data directly, thereby being able to maintain a history of the data. A major use of the data warehouse databases is data mining, in which the data are analyzed to reveal hidden patterns and trends in historical business activity. Such analysis could be used to help managers make decisions about strategic changes in business operations in order to gain competitive advantages in the marketplace. Data warehousing is a relatively new technology that â€Å"brings the vision of an entirely new (customer-centric) way of conducting business to reality†, and can provide â€Å"environments promising a revolution in organizational creativity and innovation† (Ramamurthy, 2008). Ramamurthy also mentioned that data warehouse generally serves as an IT infrastructure technology, focused on data architecture, as it provides a foundation for integrating a diverse set of internal and external data sources, enabling enterprise-wide data access and sharing, enforcing data quality standards, providing answers to business questions, and promoting strategic thinking through CRM, data mining, and other front-end BI applications. Users of the data warehouses are from virtually every business unit, amongst which information systems, marketing and sales, finance, production and operations, are the heaviest users. Current State of Business Intelligence Business Intelligence are computer based techniques used in identifying, extracting and analyzing business data. Sales revenue by products, department, time, region or income are such examples. The BI technologies provide historical, current and predictive views of business operations. Some common functions of BI technologies include reporting, online analytical processing, analytics, data mining, text-mining and predictive analytics. As BI aims to support better business decision-making, they can also be referred to as a decision support system. BI applications often use data gathered from data warehouses or data marts, however, not all BI applications require a data warehouse. With sources from Wikipedia, business intelligence can be applied to business purposes in order to drive business value. Amongst these business purposes include measurement, analytics, reporting, collaboration, and knowledge management. BI is widely used today, mainly to describe analytic applications. According to Watson, BI is currently the top-most priority of many chief information officers. In a survey of 1,400 CIOs, from Gartner Group, it was discovered that BI projects were the number one technology priority for 2007. Watson further informs that the BI is a process which basically consists of two primary activities; â€Å"getting data in and getting data out†. Getting data in, also referred to as data ware housing, delivers limited value to a business enterprise. Organizations realize the full value of data from data warehouses only when users and applications access the data and use it to make decisions. Getting data out receives the most attention, as it consists of business users/applications accessing data from DW to perform enterprise reporting, OLAP, querying and analytics. The business intelligence framework is depicted in figure 2. Current BI infrastructure is a patchwork of hardware, software and storage that is growing ever more complex. Figure 2 – BI framework BI is continuing to evolve, and several recent developments are generating widespread interest, including real-time BI, business performance management, and pervasive BI. Data Warehousing Appliance A data warehouse is developed to support a broad range of organizational tasks. It can be referred to as an organized collection of large amounts of structured data, designed and intended to support decision making in organizations. The import of information and knowledge from a data warehouse is a complex process that requires understanding of the logical schema structure and the underlying business environment. According to Hinshaw, a data warehouse appliance, applied to business intelligence, â€Å"is a machine capable of retrieving valuable decision-aiding intelligence from terabytes of data in seconds or minutes versus hours or days†. The appliances represent the difference between decision-making using either stale data or the freshest information possible. With sources from Wikipedia, a more standard definition of the data warehouse appliance is an integrated collection of hardware and software designed for a specific purpose that typically involves the high throughput of data and analytic functions. It typically consists of integrated set of servers, operating systems, data storage facilities, database management systems (DBMS), and software that is pre-installed and pre-optimized for data warehousing. DW appliances provide solutions for the mid-to-large volume data warehouse market, offering low-cost performance usually on data volumes within the terabyte range. Due to its cost-effectiveness and efficiency, the data warehouse appliance has become a critical segment of the data warehousing market. A business or an organization can use a data warehouse appliance to optimize various areas of data processing. The main purpose of a DW appliance, in general, is to supplant conventional business intelligence functions, such as warehousing, extract, transform, load (ETL), analysis, and reporting. A true DW appliance is defined as one that does not require fine-tuning, indexing, partitioning, or aggregating, whereas, some other DW appliances use languages such as SQL to facilitate interaction with the appliance at a database request level. With reference to Wikipedia, most data warehouse appliance vendors use massive parallel processing (MPP) architectures to provide high query performance and platform scalability. The MPP architectures consist of independent processors or servers executing in parallel, implementing a â€Å"shared nothing architecture† which provides an effective way to combine multiple nodes within a highly parallel environment. A DW appliance is capable of deploying up to thousands of query processing nodes in one ppliance package, compared to traditional solutions where the cost and complexity of each additional node prevents a high level of hardware parallelism. Leveraging fully integrated data warehouse architecture, a data warehouse appliance can deliver a significant performance advantage, performing up to 100 times faster than general-purpose data warehousing systems. Maturation With reference to Hinshaw, data warehouse appliance is specifically designed for the streaming workload of business intelligence and is built based on commodity components. It integrates hardware, DBMS and storage into one opaque device and combines the best elements of SMP and massively parallel processing (MPP) approaches into one that allows a query to be processed in the best possible optimized way. A data warehouse appliance is fully compatible with existing BI applications, tools and data, through standard interfaces. It is simple to use and has an extremely low cost of ownership. The development of standardized interfaces, protocols and functionality is one of the most important trends in BI. In comparison to about a decade ago, there are a wealth of tools and applications using these standardized interfaces including MicroStrategy, Business Objects, Cognos, SAS and SPSS. And these are coupled with ETL tools having standardized interfaces such as Ab Initio, Ascential and Informatica. The appliances work seamlessly with these tools and other in-house applications. A data warehouse appliance is truly scalable. The bottlenecks are the speeds of the internal buses, internal networks, and disk transfer in BI, whereas in transactional workloads, scalability is limited primarily by CPU. Reliability, which is provided by the homogenous nature of an appliance – all parts of the system coming from a vendor, is also critical. A data warehouse appliance also provides simplicity for the administrators, in that it allows administrators spend a more productive time in troubleshooting complex database systems. And DBAs can be deployed to assist end users doing real-time BI. A data warehouse appliance offers the lowest cost of ownership as it has one source and one vendor, thereby reducing costs associated with support. Businesses and organizations will run more efficiently with the simple, efficient solution provided by a data warehouse appliance. Benefits Data warehouse appliances provide freedom to the business user. With patch-work systems, users are limited in the queries they can run due to the time required to run them. And with the time required to run a complex query reduced to seconds, users can not only run their old analysis with more iterations, but have the time to devise and run entirely new sets of analysis on granular data. With sources from Wikipedia, some researched benefits of DW appliance are briefly discussed as follows; Reduction in costs – As a data warehouse grows, the total cost of ownership of the data warehouse consists of initial entry costs, maintenance costs, and the cost of changing capacity. DW appliances offer low entry and maintenance cost. Parallel performance – DW appliances provide a compelling price/performance ratio. The vendors use several distribution and partitioning methods to provide parallel performance. With high performance on highly granular data, DW appliances can address analytics that could previously not meet performance requirements. Reduced Administration – DW appliances can provide a single vendor solution, taking ownership for optimizing the parts and software within the appliance, thereby eliminating the customers costs for integration and regression testing of the DBMS, OS and storage on a terabyte scale. DW appliance reduces administration via automated space-allocation, reduced index-maintenance and reduced tuning and performance analysis. Scalability – DW appliances scale for both capacity and performance. In massive parallel processing architectures, adding servers increases performance as well as capacity. Built-in high availability – Massive parallel processing DW appliance vendors provide built-in high availability via redundancy on components within the appliance. Warm-standby servers, dual networks, dual power-supplies, disk mirroring with fail-over and solutions for server failure are offered by many. Increasingly, business analytics are expected to be used to improve the current cycle, and DW appliances provide quick implementations without the need for regression and integration testing. Also, DW appliances provide solutions for many analytic application uses. Some of these applications include; enterprise data warehousing, super-sized sandboxes isolating power users with resource intensive queries, pilot projects, off-loading projects from the enterprise data warehouse, applications with specific performance or loading requirements, data marts that have outgrown their present environment, turnkey data warehouses, solutions for applications with high data growth and high performance requirements, and applications needing data warehouse encryption. Impact of Data Warehouse Appliances on Businesses and Organization Demand for data warehouse appliances is increasing, and businesses taking advantage of the benefits of this hardware range from a world-wide large-scale business to the smallest individual business. Data virtualization could be a useful partner to appliances, providing a single view of information across multiple appliances. Data virtualization is also useful because it provides a stable reporting layer during normal migration exercises, such as the circumstances during addition of data warehouse appliances to the information infrastructure. As businesses today continue to process extremely large volumes of data, there is always the need to keep data warehousing costs under control while ensuring a superior BI and application performance. Scalability, flexibility, and affordability are essential requirements for designing an infrastructure capable of supporting next-generation BI performance. When asked why the demand for data warehouse appliance is increasing, during an interview, Robert Eve (executive vice president of marketing for Composite Software Inc. ) stated that it is the confluence of three primary drivers at the macro level. The first is â€Å"the well-reported information explosion, and the technical challenges involved in making this information accessible in forms that business decision-makers can easily use†. Secondly, data warehouse appliances are more affordable and appealing, as the costs per terabyte and for support are coming down. And finally, recent advancements in analytics technology, notably in predictive analytics, promise to concur with the massive data volumes. Data warehouse appliances offer numerous advantages some of which are similar to benefits. Amongst the advantages include; more reporting and analytical capabilities – data warehouse appliance are able to handle bigger and more complex query workload, if it executes queries, Cost reductions – data warehouse appliance requires a minimal amount of tuning and optimization of the database server and database design. It is also able to run most queries with a quick speed, Flexibility – it will be easier to implement new user requests if less tuning and optimization is needed. With other database servers, a new query might lead to quite a number of technical changes, such as creating and dropping indexes, repartitioning tables, etc. Sometimes, decision is made not to implement the new request at all, due to the overwhelming work. The need for these additional technical changes is less with a data warehouse appliance. Data warehouse appliances helps support impressive BI deployments. With reference to Hinshaw, real world application examples of the positive impact of DW appliance on businesses are discussed. The rapid growth of call detail records, in the telecommunications industry, creates an imposing amount of data, which makes it difficult for companies to quickly and efficiently analyze customer and call plan information. And traditional approaches have been inefficient in processing queries on even a months data, seriously hampering an organizations ability to perform trend analysis to reduce customer churn and generate timely reports. However, with a DW appliance, the telecom user can analyze customer activity down to the call detail record level over a full years worth of detailed data. Another industry where data warehouse appliances have begun to prove their worth, and are poised to play a bigger role in the future, is the retail. Hinshaw states that Brick-and-mortar and online retailers are capturing great amounts of customer transaction and supply chain information, creating a data explosion that threatens to overwhelm an average retail organization and its current IT infrastructure. But data warehouse appliances enable these retailers to manage and analyze the terabytes of information in near-real time. They are able to use the information to effectively forecast buying patterns, quickly generate targeted promotions and optimize their inventory and supply chain. Business intelligence remains the foundation for the success of decision making in any company. And BI, itself, relies on the underlying database architecture. Eve also presents other real world examples of positive business impact among a broad range of industries. A leading worldwide convenience foods business uses data warehouse appliances and analytic applications to acquire major business benefits in two specific areas. One of which the company optimizes its international network of delivery routes, making the system more efficient and ensuring timely delivery of its products. Secondly, it continuously refines its merchandizing mix daily, on a retail basis, in order to maximize sales and margins. Major League Baseball captures information about every pitch, at-bat, and fielding play within a data warehouse appliance, using this data to predict players’ future on-field performance. This can help teams to evaluate current and free-agent talent, refine coaching and development methods, and determine salaries, hence maximizing their wins. Also, a global freight, transportation, and logistics company uses data warehouse appliances to identify behavioral patterns that indicate potential dissatisfaction within its existing customer base. The customer care group then proactively takes steps to improve satisfaction before they lose their customers. Currently, smaller data warehouse appliance vendors seem to be focusing on adding functionality to their products in order to compete with the mega-vendors. However, it is anticipated that all appliance vendors will be impacted by the trend toward an inexpensive, high-performance, and scalable virtualized data warehouse implementations which use regular hardware and open source software. Conclusion In general, data warehouse appliance is a combination hardware and software product specifically designed for analytical processing. In a traditional data warehouse implementation, the database administrator can spend a significant amount of time tuning and putting structures around the data to get the database to perform well for large sets of users. But with a data warehouse appliance, it is the vendor who is responsible for simplifying the physical database design layer and making sure that the software is tuned for the hardware. In this research, a comprehensive examination/review of the data warehouse appliances, their benefits, and how they positively impact businesses and organizations, was presented. Based on this research, the negative impact of DW appliances on businesses are negligible compared to its positive impact. And there is an increasing demand for DW appliances. I believe that, in the near future, the DW appliances will become the sole platform for all business intelligence applications and requirements. I gained much knowledge and insights from researching this topic, and I intend to further my research on future impacts of DW appliance on businesses.