Research into impro system and human resource organizer system Dissertation

Research into impro system and human resource organizer system - Dissertation Example One of the changes that are to be expected from installation of the IMPRO system to the mobile works organization is an increase in performance, which shall be brought about by the renewed element of management. This allows the organization to gain control over the employees as well as data and the maintenance of customer relations, thus the efficacy of the system. The works hit sectors when it comes to the use of technology is the SME industry, largely due to limited finances. The industry is a huge paper pusher and as a result drags along in productivity due to limitations in management (Mitchel, 2008, p. 281). The effect of lagging denies the industry the opportunities associated with better performances especially relating to customer organization relations. Background An information system (IS) is a set of interconnected components working together to process collect, store, retrieve, and distribute information in order to facilitate the analysis, planning, control, decision-mak ing and coordination in companies and other organizations (Burnham, 2001, p. 192). A shift towards the IT sector, IS integration, is the SME industry is hindered by the low productivity levels associated with the organisations and the nonexistence of competitive advantages between the [players in the sector. This compared to the larger organizations in business is a challenge to efficiency and efficacy of the business models. However, the largest backdrop to the lack of a proper IT system with the SMEs is the financial constraints that are involved in business start up, which often culminate to starting the business without the IT frontier. Technological improvement exhibits the necessity of intertwining the business models with IS technology, since communication plays a huge role in the success of the sector as it is a requirement to pass down or on information from one terminal to another. The IS technology offers the business model the advantage of unlimited geographic coverage w hich facilitates globalization of the industry as management of the business sector can be achieved under the channels provided by the IS technology. Specific to the increased communication is the networks, which allows sharing of data within or with other companies. The Intranet technologies are one of the inventions in this field where communication between terminals is enabled by the use of IP (Internet Protocols) in data sharing, and the computerized and operational activities of the company that are a necessitate to the organization. Networks are also responsible for initiating ecommerce. The online intranets as well as the internet has enabled the business operant the advantage of being able to conduct business through the networks via data sharing and collaborations between the consumers and the producers, which proves effective in the field. The websites are mere instruments, which are used in conveyance of the

Why the suicide rate is high for teenagers Essay

Why the suicide rate is high for teenagers - Essay Example However, despite suicide being one of the leading causes of deaths there has been little effort to address the menace as used in other causes such as heart diseases, cancer, HIV/Aids and so on (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention 1). Although suicide is preventable, either there is little understanding or loss of concern about its causes and the prevention measures to be applied. This document examines the major causes and the interventions appropriate to reduce the prevalence of suicide among the teenagers. There are various issues responsible for the prevalence of suicide among the teenagers that respective stakeholders need to understand and address clearly in order to reduce the suicide. Depression and other mental disorders are some of the major causes of suicide among teenagers. The mental disorders and depression are caused by various factors especially among the young generation (Huisman, Pirkis and Robinson 282). For example, abuse of drugs, social rejection, domestic conflicts, sexual abuse, academic failure, etc. When teenagers encounter challenges that make them feel demoralized, they are most likely to suffer depression and other mental disorders (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention 1). Depression and mental disorders can result in suicide as teenagers seek for a solution to their problems. In every successful suicide, there are between 8 and 25 attempted suicides (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention 1). The teenagers who undergo treatment after attempted suic ide respond positively to antidepressants. Therefore, it is essential for the people relatives, friends and neighbors to recognize any behavioral change that could result in depression and other mental disorders and address them before they cause teenagers to commit suicide. In American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the use of antidepressants has been reported to lower the rate of suicide among the teenagers (1). Most of

Increase In Natural Disasters Health And Social Care Essay

Increase In Natural Disasters Health And Social Care Essay Extreme weather temperatures and increase in natural disasters in recent years have finally made the policy makers think earnestly about Climate change and Natural disasters. The stern review and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes fourth (revised) assessment report in 2008  [A]  had clearly stated that increase in natural disasters due to climate change will have adverse affects on social and economic sectors. The report which had declared that climate change will cause increase in natural disasters in coming years, has lived up to its prediction. According to UNISDR from year 2008-2011 natural disasters have been responsible for economic damages worth 730 Billion USD, have adversely affected 843 million people and killed about 598,000 people around the world. There has been an increase of more than 50% in the number of floods in the last decade in comparison to the 1990s and similarly the occurrence of total natural disasters has also increased over the last decade. [Error: Reference source not found] The increase in both the intensity and frequency of floods over the last decade has raised concerns within development agencies, governments and regional co-operations; natural disaster management has gained priority among all stakeholders. In 2005 U.N created The Hyogo Framework for Action  [B]  ; a global blueprint for disaster risk reduction efforts with a ten-year plan, the framework was adopted in January 2005 by 168 governments at the U.N World Conference on Disaster Reduction. [2]Although all 168 countries did accept the framework in principle, however there has been little done to reduce greenhouse emissions or adapt disaster risk reduction strategies across the board. Similarly in response to the December 2004 tsunami and the earthquake of December 2005 in South Asia, a Special Session of the SAARC Environment Ministers (Malà ©, 25 June 2005) adopted the Malà © Declaration on a collective response to large scale natural disasters. A SAARC Disaster Management Centre (SD MC) was established in New Delhi in October 2006, the SDMC was created to provide policy advice and facilitate capacity building including strategic learning, research, training, system development, expertise promotion and exchange of information for effective disaster risk reduction and management. [3] Policy making has also been activated at the state level, for example the government of Queensland in Australia has taken initiative on a state level of creating a policy framework to reduce and tackle natural disasters. The framework called the Disaster Management Strategy Policy framework includes Research, Policy and Governance, Risk Assessment, Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, Relief and Recovery, Post-Disaster Assessment. [4] One might be of the opinion that disaster events are probabilistic events and their occurrence can only be calculated on a probability basis and there is no escape from their destruction. However it is important to understand the consequences of the occurrence and what can be done to help the affected populace overcome the calamity natural disasters cause. Research has shown despite the scale of the disaster, a combination of national and international policy can help ward off disease and death in countries with functioning governments. This literature review investigates previous studies conducted on the socio economic impact of floods in context to Gender. The 2010 floods in Pakistan The geological department of the Australian government defines floods as the covering of normally dry land by water that has escaped or been released from the normal confines of: any lake, or any river, creek or other natural watercourse, whether or not altered or modified; or any reservoir, canal, or dam. [4]Floods primarily impact the human community either directly through contact with the water or indirectly through the damage the water does to the natural and human built environment. [5] Localized floods can have a significant impact on peoples physical and mental health. [6] The 2010 monsoon floods were one of the largest floods in the history of Pakistan causing unprecedented damage and killing more than 1,700 people. The floods affected over, 20 million people, inundated almost one fifth of the countrys land and caused loss of billions of dollars through damages to infrastructure, housing, agriculture and livestock, and other family assets. [8]The World Bank and Asian Development Bank estimated that the flooding had caused the economy $9.7 billion in losses. [9] Cases of malnutrition, gastroenteritis, diarrhea, skin infections, cholera, typhoid, malaria, and hepatitis were reported. Food prices dramatically increased after the flooding, putting an economic strain on the entire population. The southern province of Sindh was hit quite heavily by the floods, it was reported that nearly Seven million people were affected by floods in the province; thousands were trapped by flood waters and had been in need of assistance. Our study region the southern district of Thatta was affected in a catastrophic manner by the floods, as the flow of the flood waters touched 9,50,000 cusecs the feeble dykes built to protect the districts populace overflowed causing both banks of the Indus River to flood causing enormous amount of destruction. At the time of flooding the state machinery which included both the provincial and federal government along with many international and national NGOs led the relief efforts and was able to avoid the occurrence of any larger catastrophe such as far spread hunger or famine. However in recent years continuous acts of terrorism have kept the government preoccupied with matters of public safety and security, this has diverted the governments attention from institutional reform to matters of ad-hoc nature. The presence of situational challenges has reduced state capacity to productively provide basic services for which resources had already been deficient. This has limited governments response to natural disasters mostly to needs assessment and immediate relief operations. The assessments have typically focused on direct damages of capital assets which includes number of deaths and injuries, damages to buildings and public infrastructure, loss of crop and livestock. Assessments of disaster impacts on social sectors such as health and education are also limited to the measurement of damages to school and hospital buildings, the assessments tend to ignore the long term affects on the health and education levels of the affected populace. Long term assessments of social sectors is critical even more so for a country like Pakistan as it already struggles with low social development indicators, ranking 145 out of 187  [C]  countries in the Human Development Index and a Gender Development Index (GDI) ranking of 120 out of 146  [D]  countries. Approaches to measure impact of natural disasters Researchers across the world have used diverse approaches to determine the impact of floods. In Pakistan the EU has previously employed the EMMA (Emergency Market Mapping and Analysis), which is a rapid market analysis designed to be used in the short term aftermath of a sudden-onset crisis. A better understanding of the most critical markets in an emergency situation enables decision makers (donors, NGOs, government, other humanitarian actors) to consider a broader range of responses. The aim of the approach is to gauge and understand the structure and functioning of key markets in the short term so that immediate recovery programs are in consistent to the on the ground situation. Although the research is useful in providing immediate relief, however the approach does not take into consideration the long term effects of the disaster. [10] Likewise another approach which can help donors target their recuperation efforts is ECLAC, ECLACs methodology is related to post disaster evaluation; it focuses on rehabilitation and recuperation. It advocates using a dynamic and sectoral perspective that enables the researchers to calculate future losses derived by the destruction of productive structures and forfeitures of business opportunities and its middle/long term effects in different terms. The methodology aims to enable its users to try to define if and which type of international cooperation the community affected needs. Although precise knowledge of various sectoral damages and losses, present and future, suffered by the communities enables the disaster relief agencies to execute more specific rehabilitation projects, however usage of a macro-perspective to gauge the damages and provides losses in monetary terms leaves out the impact on social sectors and chiefly focuses on economic costs. [11] In a Flood-site project report on the Mulde River in Germany the researchers have taken the bottom up perspective to analyze social vulnerability posed by floods. The methodology seeks to categorize the circumstances that make an individual or a community vulnerable and investigate how some groups in these circumstances might be more vulnerable than others. The researchers who define social vulnerability as the characteristics of a person or group in terms of their capacity to anticipate, cope with, resist, and recover from the impact of a natural hazard primarily focus on how communities and social groups are able to deal with the impacts of a natural hazard. The approach provides valuable insight into the dynamics of social capital, but lacks detail of sectoral assessments. [12] Along with well targeted programs it is important that recovery programs are sustainable. In Sudan, AIACC has employed a research method based upon the sustainable livelihood conceptual framework; the research method aims to evaluate the performance of sustainable livelihood and environmental management measures. International Institute for Sustainable Development defines sustainable livelihoods as being concerned with peoples capacities to generate and maintain their means of living, enhance their well-being, and that of future generations. Sustainable livelihood assessment is intended to generate an understanding of the role and impact of a project on enhancing and securing local peoples livelihoods. It primarily relies on a range of data collection methods, a combination of qualitative and quantitative data indicators and, to varying degrees, application of a sustainable livelihoods framework. The model focuses on five types of capital namely; natural, physical human, social and f inancial. The framework employs the Livelihood Assessment Tracking (LAST) System to measure changes in coping and adaptive capacity. Quantitative and qualitative indicators are combined with the LAST system for its use; the LAST system is developed through creation of development indicators by the help of the local community. [13] All the above mentioned frameworks, even with their short-comings provide valuable inputs into the assessment methods of disaster impacts. However, the above discussed frameworks which focus on immediate needs assessment, macro-economic impacts, social capital, and sustainable livelihoods do not seem to be gender sensitive and lack concentration on social sectors in a gender sensitive manner. It has been time and again noted that women are most adversely affected by natural disasters. Sara-Bradshaw in her paper socio-economic impacts of natural disasters advocates the use of a gender approach; the paper states that the first step to ensuring that the specific basic needs of women are addressed over the short and long term is to collect data broken by sex and age segments immediately after the occurrence of a disaster. This is important because breaking up of data helps realize the affects of the flood on women in particular and assists in highlighting the specific requirements of the gender. For example in many cases in a Muslim country women might opt not to visit a male doctor, hence if the researchers have the number of women who need medical attention they can arrange female doctors accordingly. [14] Gender Aspects of Natural Disasters International Enarson et al 1998, Fordham 1998, Morrow 1999 and Tapsell et al 2000 are of the view that floods and other disasters can impact upon men and women in different and distinct ways. Similarly It is believed that men and women will be faced with different vulnerabilities to climate change impacts due to existing inequalities such as, their role and position in society, access to resources and power relations that may affect the ability to respond to the effects of climate change (WEDO 2007; Commission on the Status of Women 2008; Carvajal et al 2008; Bridge, 2008). [15][16] [17] [18] [19] It is a basic fact that majority of the women in developing countries and particularly in the South Asian region are at a disadvantage when compared to their male counterparts. International Literature such as Tapsell et al 2003 illustrates that women suffer markedly more than men at the worst time of flooding. Research has shown that due to socially constructed roles and responsibilities, women seem to bear the most burdens resulting from climate variability impacts. Due to the traditional gender roles in many developing countries, it is seen that women are in charge of the house and responsible for household needs such as cooking, washing, hygiene, children and raising small livestock. Children, in particular girls share these responsibilities. In Africa, women do 90% of the work of collecting water and wood, for the household and food preparation. It is noted that women have to work extra workloads when faced with natural catastrophes as they try to manage their everyday tasks during an emergency situation. [20] [21] Qualitative research suggests that this is because women have the main responsibility for, and probably, a greater emotional investment in the home than men. They also usually have the key responsibility for the care of children and the elderly in the home, for example even in a post flood situation it is the central responsibility of the woman for getting the home back to normal after the flood. [22] In many developing countries and especially in the south Asian region, food hierarchies favor male nutritional requirements and often women nutrition and health requirements are ignored. In Bangladesh it has been reported that Given the already precarious nutritional state of large numbers of girls and women in Bangladeshà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦any further increase in discrimination would have serious consequences. In poor households, throughout the world, women go without food for the benefit of their children or male family members. [30][31] Moreover an ADB report in 2001 found that in Bangladesh of the 20-30% female headed households, 95% are living below poverty line. Even in developed countries such as the U.K, lone parent and single pensioner households-the majority of which are female headed are most likely to be living in poverty. It is noted that in some instances pressure on families has been so severe that there have been reports of children being offered for domestic employment, a nd of female children being sold. The evidence informs us that women headed households already tend to have limited economic resources and hence a natural disaster can have a greater impact on their livelihoods in comparison to others. Other than the over-all poverty rates, health and education are two sectors where women in the region still lag behind men. The poor nutritional status of women makes them more susceptible to disease infection, particularly in developing countries where there is little social provision and limited or no access to proper medical care. Poor nutrition also makes women more vulnerable to disasters, and makes the physically strenuous tasks of water and fuel collection more difficult. Research in India has found that girls nutrition suffers most during periods of low consumption and rising food prices , which is common during disaster situations [36][37]. Fewtrell and Kay (2006) provide evidence of floods causing Bacterial, fungal, respiratory disease, and gastrointestinal infection along with earache and skin rashes among others. It is widely acknowledged in health research that some groups, such as women (especially pregnant women), the young, the elderly and immune compromised people are more vulnerable to health impacts (especially infection) than other people (e.g. Flynn and Nelson, 1998; White et al., 2002; WHO 2004). [28] Moreover floods can also have an impact on the mental health of the affectees. It has been suggested that women may suffer more mental strain in certain situations, due to cultural norms. Women in poor health prior to the flood are more likely to experience the flooding as traumatic. When whole families move to urban slums or relief camps the women face challenges adapting to the new environment. Problems include harassment, lack of security, unreliable water supplies which increases their workload, and gender insensitive conditions such as lack of privacy also have a tolling effect. Long journeys to the relief camps can cause both physical and mental stresses when coupled with experiences of sexual harassment on these journeys. Womens dramatically expanded care giving roles following a disaster, and putting family needs before their own, may explain overall decline in emotional well being. [29] Gender Aspects of Natural Disasters Pakistan The international literature on women in relation to climate change clearly highlights the severe vulnerability and adverse exposure natural disasters pose to women in particular. Similarly research studies have been conducted by different development organizations to gauge the impact of the severe floods that hit Pakistan recently. The research results are in line with international research literature. As Pakistani women particularly tend to mainly have reproductive and domestic roles in the households and are barely visible in the public spheres, particularly in rural areas, these characteristics make way for a greater impact on their socio-economic conditions from natural disasters. The existing situation of women in Pakistan cannot be fully valued without an understanding of the ways in which religion, culture and traditions have organized social relations and fractured society along class, racial, ethnic and gender lines. Pakistan therefore, presents a distinctive situation fro m a socio-economic perspective. In Pakistan Men and boys are given more weightage over the family resources in comparison to women and girls. A survey conducted by OCHA as a Needs Assessment study on the 2011 floods in Sindh found that 37% of households had reduced or skipped food intake; practice adopted by women and girls in the household to meet the ration requirements, which is similar to findings mentioned earlier from Bangladesh. [32] Nazish brohi et al have analyzed emerging trends and data, relying primarily on the Gender Needs Assessment (GNA), the Multià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ cluster Rapid Assessment Mechanism (McRAM), case studies and emerging secondary information. Their study includes case studies based on the various experiences of women to floods. The women respondents in the study have insisted that they had no prior information about the floods and many were taken back by surprise. The unexpectedness of the floods magnified its impact and also increased the exposure of the flood victims. The study present insights into the experiences of women through case studies, for example in Mianwali, a thirty year old woman, Jawwahi, rushed out with her family in waist high water and saw her house crumble before her; in Charsadda, women awoke to cries and found water rushing into their houses. Similarly the study also illustrates how women hygiene had been affected due to floods. For example in Kalabagh district, Baghat Bi bi, a sixty year old woman with her three daughters and three daughters in law visited the river every few days and submerged themselves in the water to clean themselves and their clothes, and then dry themselves while wearing the same clothes it is reported that the they had been doing it for over three weeks. As women in rural areas are not used to moving about in public spaces other than their villages; girls and women are often embarrassed to be seen accessing lavatories and hence do so during nightfall or early morning. Such overwhelming circumstances coupled with cases of harassment can have profound impacts on mental health. [35] The Preliminary Gender Needs Assessment report by UNIFEM  [E]  reports that the women were under severe stress as the devastation caused by the floods destroyed their limited assets, worsened their personal security situation, and changed their responsibilities as they were forced to respond to emergency conditions. The report stresses upon the fact that even though womens health is vital to the well-being of their families, after disasters, traditionally as caregivers, they tend to place their needs last. It also affirms that in certain provinces, cultural norms such as purdah limit women from being able to express their needs, additionally women also tend to have a chance of going unnoticed in the compensation process as their economic contributions are usually unseen. Similarly the women interviewed by IDMC in Sindh alleged that access to income-earning opportunities has been their biggest challenge and a major concern for women heads of household. The slow pace of recovery from the extensive damage the floods caused to the agricultural sector was expected to have a major impact on womens employment. Women also lacked the documentation to prove their property rights. As a result, widows and women heads of household interviewed by IDMC reported great difficulty in claiming inheritances, land and possessions left at home when they fled. [23] A March 2011 report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) found that internally displaced women and girls across the country could not venture out to receive emergency food aid without being threatened for violating purdah. [24] Women complained that most health services available in the aftermath of the floods concentrated on primary health care with little specialized focus on reproductive health for women. [25] A 2010 assessment by the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) quoted women as reporting sexual harassment in flood displacement camps where different tribes, families and villages were placed together. [26] Hence it is essential that researchers while assessing the effects of flood take both long term and short term health impacts into account. It is important for the research study to describe the characteristic impacts of floods on health outcomes, describe the factors that influence human health as a result of floods, describe the direct health impacts of floods and develop a conceptual framework to aid in the management and evaluation of flood related health management. The literacy rates of women in developing countries are much lower than their male counterparts. A study by UNICEF in the aftermath of the 2010 floods showed that there are gender disparities in supply side factors in Sindh including availability of schools for girls and boys. Pre flood institution break up by gender, level and sector shows that at the primary level there are 60% mixed schools in the public sector and 42% mixed schools at the middle level. At the primary level parents are more comfortable with sending their girl child to mix school; however there is reluctance when it comes to middle school when the girl attains puberty, the dropout rates are also highest at that point and majority of the dropouts occur when girls move from primary to middle level. Similarly the study provides evidence of gender disparities existing in Thatta; the study demonstrates the trends in pre and post flood situations in primary enrollment. [38] Lack of access to education isnt always related to scarcity of schools however the unavailability of this supply side factor can play a major role in decreasing access to education along with the unavailability of female teachers as well. Economic costs, social traditions, and religious and cultural beliefs also limit girls educational opportunities particularly when it comes to middle and high level schooling. As these social development indicators become worse due to the affects of climate change it is important for the authorities to not only measure them but also address them with sustainable development programs. Given that men and women in the study area are poverty-stricken with dependency on agriculture and natural resources for their livelihoods, natural disasters pose a high risk for them. As evident by the literature reviewed vulnerability seems to be higher for women as they do not have alternative means of employment and most of all employed women in the study area are employed by the agriculture sector. More and more researchers have concluded that it is important to opt for a gendered analysis when researching on flood impacts, Sarah Bradshaw in her study Socio-economic impacts of natural disasters: a gender analysis states The first step towards ensuring that the specific basic needs of women are addressed over the short and long term is to collect data broken down by sex and age segment immediately after a disaster. The breaking up of data helps researchers understand women specific needs better, which in turn can help policy makers design and implement women specific strategies a nd programs. [27] Even though the evidence provided above from both international and local research literature clearly advocates the case for greater vulnerability of women from natural disasters; not much has been done to assess the post disaster impact of floods on women. Research studies have remained limited to rapid assessments or need assessments, post disaster impact have not been concentrated upon. In order to design long term sustainable gender sensitive recovery programs it is crucial to understand the post disaster impact of floods on women, keeping this in mind the present study Social-Economic Impact of Flood in District Thatta: A Gendered Analysis is a pioneering work in Pakistan in which SPDCs researchers have gone a step ahead from other studies and have tried to assess the post disaster impact of one of the worst floods of the century. Furthermore, research has shown that despite obstacles faced by women, they are already developing effective coping strategies which include adapting their farming practices. Literature such as (WEDO, 2003; Gurung et al., 2006; Mitchell et al., 2007) pointed out that women are very knowledgeable and experienced with regards to coping with climate related impacts. They are aware of their needs and are very innovative in the face of change. Communities on the frontline in adapting to the effects of natural disasters need but so far often lack, adequate information about climate change and adaptation strategies. Due to the womens lower literacy levels in many regions, and other barriers to accessing information, such as culture, it is vital that womens needs are addressed in efforts to provide necessary information. [43] Ariyabandu and Wickramasighe (2005:26) suggest that although women are often more vulnerable to disasters than men (owing to conventional gender responsibilities and relations) however they are not just helpless victims as often represented. Women have valuable knowledge and experience in coping with disasters. Yet these strengths and capabilities of women are often ignored in policy decisions and in mitigation, thereby, allowing these valuable resources to go to waste and sometimes creating dependency situations. Ignorance of gender differences in the past has led to insensitive and ineffective relief operations that have not been able to target womens needs and their potential to assist in mitigation and relief work. [44] Hence this research is also important because not all is gloomy, as international research has suggested that in developing countries already experiencing negative effects of climate change, women have been identified as particularly adaptive and innovative, there fore the current research study shall play a valuable role in making policy makers better understand the long term issues of Pakistani women in particular and identify their strengths and weaknesses. Taking the above into consideration, SPDC has designed a gender sensitive research study to determine the impact of the 2010 flood of Thatta. A gender sensitive primary survey is vital in helping identify Gender gaps, hence SPDC researchers created separate questionnaires for men and women. The study helps understand the differences in the socio-economic impact of the flood on women, men, girls and boys. This includes gathering gender sensitive data on the sectors of education, health, economic, flood coping capability and the overall impact of the flood. In order to assess and evaluate the effect of flood on the household welfare and behavior, the study collects individual and household information from both male and female respondents separately, making use of gender sensitive approaches which in the past have been limited to needs assessments or rapid assessment studies.

Going Beyond Pain in Chris Crutchers Stotan Essay -- Crutcher Stotan

Going Beyond Pain in Chris Crutcher's Stotan High school buddies and members of the swim team Walker, Nortie, Lion and Jeff accept the challenge to participate in Stotan week, a week of rigorous swim training that pushes them beyond physical pain and tests their moral fiber, changing their lives forever.   In the novel Stotan   by Chris Crutcher a team of teenagers and best friends brace themselves for what’s going to be the hardest week of their lives mentally, physically, and emotionally.   A â€Å"Stotan† is a cross between a stoic and a Spartan.   Through this time of hardship they learn about friendships, relationships, dealing with cancer, racism, and physical abuse.   Each of the four best friends learn more and more about each other and help each other when they need help.   They come together as a group, team, and family.   Each of them have a tremendous conflict that can not be resolved with just one persons help.   They all help each other repair the emotional scars if one of them were suffering.   They all have one thing in common which was that they all want to be the best they can be and being so determined.   In Stotan By Chris Crutcher four boys Walker, Jeff, Nortie, and Lion experience a time of emotional and physical turmoil with the only way to overcome these barriers is to come together as a team with determination in mind.     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   One of the team mates with a conflict that needed to be resolved is Lion.   Lion lives alone in a tiny apartment with a hot plate.   He gets lonely sometimes and the only things that stop him from getting depressed are swimming and being with his best friends Walker, Jeff, and Nortie.   They never talk about Lion’s life but he knows that they life him for who he is not becau... ...cause of this amazing unity of the team Nortie is still alive.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In Stotan By Chris Crutcher four boys Walker, Jeff, Nortie, and Lion experience a time of emotional and physical turmoil with the only way to overcome these barriers is to come together as a team with determination in mind.   Lion was suffering from depression, Jeff was dying, Nortie was suffering mentally, and walker was suffering emotionally but as a team they all came together and resolved eatch others problems.   The unity the team had was unbelievable and helped save a life and helped solve problems.   Determination also helped the high school seniors by not letting them slip or fall climbing the mountain of success.   The four team members got through a week of grueling pain mentally and physically by coming together as a team with determination in mind to push themselves to maximum.  

Films semiotic analysis Essay

In every day life we are surrounded with imaginative constructs about gender: magazines, billboards, books, games, TV. They teach us what is natural every day. Which tells us how men and women differ in so many different ways. Creating myths like â€Å" You are not normal, if you won’t find anyone†, â€Å"You can’t be good without man†, many variations of â€Å"Beauty myths†. This essay will focus first on the film The Ugly Truth (Luketic, 2009) arguing about gender issues, furthermore the films The Princess Diaries (Marshall, 2001) and Legally Blond (Luketic, 2001) will be analyzed to support the argument in which the heroines portrayed as pathetic beings, not able to do anything without men, even they work on high positions in law, on television and being Princess. Essay will use Gender perspective and will answer questions like what is to be an woman and what is to be an man. The Ugly Truth film (Luketic, 2009) offers us whole range of different myth and stereotypes. The movie indicates huge difference between main hero-Mike and heroine-Abby. They are presented as a black and white. Abby – not confident, truly believe in love, excited about everything, naà ¯ve. Mike –very confident, doesn’t believe in relationship, very skeptic, and extremely arrogant, pretty straight forward. â€Å"Many aspects of masculinity myths are concerned with the assertion of toughness, stoicism, courage, and the distinguishing of this form a ‘soft’ feminity that belongs to woman†(Horrocks, 1995, p. 18) (Paraphrase) Mike is very successful, gets promoted and changes jobs few times through the movie. Whereas Abby stays at the same job at all the time. Even though she has a high position, her boss is a man. The entire film supports the idea of how important his role is and how Abby’s role is insignificant. Firstly He comments: â€Å"You are here to make sure I am ok†. Secondly at the senior management meeting, she tries to introduce her boyfriend. Meanwhile the men are completely oblivious to her and continue to talk about more important things like they support Mike for bringing two girlfriends at the dinner. Another example is there are two newscasters wife and husband, main hero claims that wife emasculating the husband by earning more money. â€Å"In relation to masculinity, it might lead us to expect that the pervasive images of men would be dominance, arrogance, and power.†( Dunlap & Johnson, 2013, p. 4)(Paraphrase) One of the popular myths is â€Å" You are not normal, if you won’t find anyone†.  These myth show the density of messages, many of them are inconsistent, that face women about work and relationships. Hersey claims that Females ambitions at work presented in films are just as important as relationships (2007). She exemplify: â€Å"In Legally Blond, sorority girl Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) enrolls in Harvard Law School to win back her boyfriend, only to discover that she would rather be a lawyer than a society wife. â€Å"(Hersey, 2007) But at the end of the film she is dating another lawyer and gets engaged to him. Lets parallel it to The Ugly Truth (Luketic, 2009). The heroine has a very important job, she is a producer, but there is a scene where she waits for her boyfriend to go on a date but then her boss shows up saying they have a very important meeting. Abby answers: †I can’t, I have a date with Collin†. She puts relationships as her priority. However Kosut says that women are portrayed as desperate for romance. (2012, p.111) Furthermore according to Kosut, women intend to do anything to be in a relationship, because love is represented as the greatest delineation of success. (2012, p.111). Going back to Legally Blond (Luketic, 2001), Elle Wood changes her whole life to get her boyfriend back. Mia chooses to go to the beach with a guy, leaving her friends when they need her help, because love is more important. These films reinforcing the ideology that women have to find a partner otherwise you are abnormal. † Implicit in third myth is that each woman should strive to become the chosen one; and if she does not achieve this, she is considered in some way inherently deficient.† (Worell, 2001, p.190) Romantic comedies genre pushes the ideology of finding someone, Fairytale myth of the couple ending up together and of course final kiss reapets again and again: The Ugly truth (Luketic, 2009), The Princess Diaries (Marshall, 2001), Brigit Jones’s Diary (Maguire, 2001), Pretty Woman (Marshall, 1990), Life As We Know It (Berlanti, 2010). This list can go on and on. There is no doubt that to find someone, you need to be good-looking. It is bringing up the Beauty myths, which tells us we are never perfect. Hersey has a different opinion; she thinks that the makeover moment in the films helps heroines to find their true identities rather than an effort to attract men. (2007). However Mia in The Princess Diaries (Marshall, 2001) wants to be attracted by Josh, in The Ugly Truth (Luketic, 2009) Abby agrees to make over just to get attracted by Collin. In the Pretty Women (Marshall, 1990), heroine gets makeover to be socially accepted. Signifiers of the Beauty myth: from the beginning of the films like Pretty Woman (Marshall, 1990), The Ugly Truth (Luketic, 2009), The Princess Diaries (Marshall, 2001), heroines are beautiful but social constructions tells us it would be never enough. Interesting fact is that all makeovers ruled by males. â€Å"Hollywood romantic dramas reinforce the ideology that woman entirely dependent on their male lovers.† (Gill, 2007, p. 79)(Leave quote as is) In the film The Ugly Truth (Luketic, 2009) Abby is shown as ‘a looser’, because she can’t find a boyfriend, she ruins everything on each date she goes. That’s why there is Mike fearless, confident male, who knows everything about relationships helps Abby to get her a boyfriend. But, it is also interesting to note that these women were also portrayed as dependent â€Å"submissive, less intelligent, and were usually cast in the role of homemakers† (Lovdal, 1989, p. 722) (Paraphrase) These women also managed to attend to the cooking, cleaning, house keeping, and other needs of their children and husbands†¦these tasks were perfomed while remaining immaculately attired, usually and most often in a dress, hells, and perfect make-up. (Toth & Aldoory, 2001, p. 224) (Paraphrase) For instance Abby is the main character in The Ugly truth (Luketic, 2009), waiting for her boyfriend in the most sexiest outfit, when boyfriend shows up, asking what was she doing, her answer is: â€Å"Doing the dishes† â€Å"All the beauty myths promote the idea that beauty is the most vital aspect of woman’s being. (Worell, 2001, p.190) Men will do important jobs, will help you with everything. All you have to do is to be beautiful. All gender myths are firmly connected to each other and one myth is the continuation of another one. A part of beauty myth is presentation of women as sexual objects. Again Hersey doesn’t agree with this â€Å"Yvonne Tasker argues that working women in the â€Å"New Hollywood† are often linked to sexual availability and prostitution, but these heroines’ work in journalism, international diplomacy, criminal justice and law does not make them more sexually  available to men†(2007) They are portrayed in the movies as sexual objects, for example the film The Ugly Truth (Luketic, 2009), the main hero Mike coaches the heroine Abby into thinking that if she wants to be attractive to man she has to be sexually available †show your breasts and say good bye†(at the end of her date with a guy she wants to be her boyfriend), at the make over moment the Mike says to Abby : â€Å"a man needs something to grab on other than your ass†, †you have to be two people a librarian and a stripper †, †what’s wrong with comfort and efficiency?- nothing, except no one wants to fuck it †, †we need a bra for my friend that they can stand up and say hello† In addition Hersey says â€Å"Elle is more obviously sexual, but her sexuality is always dignified even when Warner’s fiancà ©e tricks her into attending a party wearing a Playboy Bunny outfit†(2007). Legally Blond (Luketic, 2001) is filled with sexuality, the entire movie is banter over what is it to be a woman. Worell certifies there are â€Å"Media stereotypes that suggest there are expected roles for women including women as sexual objects, women as submissive and less knowledgeable.† (2001, p.703)(Paraphrase) The myth is that women are not able to do anything except be a sexy doll-Barbie. Moreover clothing and hair color are key signifiers, with Elle choosing the colour pink for her clothes and her hair is blonde. Elle is portrayed as ditzy and scatty and that her being selected for Harvard because she is hot and pretty. â€Å"Beauty myths give meaning to women’s beauty as they serve to upholds the importance of attractiveness in women’s lives.† (Worell, 2001, p.190)(Paraphrase) â€Å"Ultimately, this conflation of beauty and being fosters the social control of women.† (Worell, 2001, p.190) (Paraphrase) Many people in daily life watch TV or go to the Cinema to relax and escape from every day routines. Nevertheless the entertainment sends countless messages about gender. One could argue that use of myths create ideology that affect the people in certain ways. Why? Because we see these myths repeating again and again, most of the myths became a clichà ©. â€Å"Film makers consistently place women in secondary roles, or in positions that emphasize their sexuality, weaknesses, desperation. Men, on the other hand, typically assume roles of great importance and depict characters who are adventurous, charming, and strong. Although exceptions to these patterns exist, for the  most part Hollywood films continue to support traditional ideas of gender and cultivate similar ideologies.† (Kosut, 2012, p.113) (Paraphrase) Reference list: Berlanti, G. (2010). Life As We Know It [Film]. USA: Warner Bros. Pictures Dunlap, R. & Johnson, W.C. (2013). Consuming contradiction: Media, masculinity and (hetero) sexual identity. Leisure : Journal of the Canadian Association for Leisure, 37(1), 69. Gill, R. (2007). Gender and the media. Cambridge, UK: Polity. Hersey, E. (2007). Love and microphones: Romantic comedy heroines as public speakers. Journal of Popular Film & Television, 34(4), 149-158. Horrocks, R. (1995). Male myths and icons: Masculinity in popular culture. Basingstoke, Hants: St. Martins Press. Kosut, M. (2012). Encyclopedia of gender in media. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE Publications. Lovdal, L. T. (1989). Sex role messages in television commercials: An update. Sex Roles, 21(11/12), 715-724. doi:10.1007/BF00289804 Luketic, R. (2009). The Ugly Truth [Film]. USA: Columbia Pictures. Luketic, R. (2001). Legally Bloned [Film]. USA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Maguire, S. (2001). Briget Jones’s Diary [Film]. UK: Miramax Films. Marshall, G. (2001). The Princess Diaries [Film]. USA: Buena Vista Pictures. Marshall, G. (1990). Pretty Woman [Film]. USA: Buena Vista Pictures. Toth, E. L., & Aldoory, L. (2001). The gender challenge to media: Diverse voices from the field. Cresskill, N.J: Hampton Press. Worell, J. (2001). Encyclopedia of women and gender: Sex similarities and differences and the impact of society on gender. San Diego, Calif: Academic Press.

Golf Logix Case Analysis

Group 3 THE GAME OF GOLF †¢ †¢ †¢ Invented in Scotland in 15 th Century Brought to the United States in late 19 th Century Clubs used to hit small hard balls into a cup on each of the 18 different holes on the golf course The players use a club to drive the ball onto the fairway. Starting point on each hole is from tee box Players drive the ball with the use of a club onto the fairway, hit an approach shot onto the green, and putt the ball into the cup Holes: range in length from over 100 to 500 yards or more †¢ Par 3, par 4 or par 5 †¢ 18 holes par was 72Along way hazards – ponds, sand traps, and high grass Swing: called â€Å"stroke†, counted towards the players total score Lowest score wins TYPES OF CLUBS Woods Club Driver †¢ 200-300 yards Iron Club 3-iron 7-iron †¢ 120-150 yards Wedges Pitching wedge †¢ 120 yards or less Putter 5-wood 9-iron Sand wedge Typically 14 different types of clubs are used CRITICAL ELEMENTS TO ACHIEVI NG LOW SCORE ? Hit the ball straight so as to avoid the various hazards around the course ? Advance the ball in desired direction ? Distance to target ?How far player could hit the ball with each golf club? ? Ability to putt the ball well Golf market: †¢ 2000: 26. 7 million Americans played 586 million round of golf (on 17,000 courses) †¢ 200,000-400,000 new golfers a year. The prototypical golfer was still male over 40 years old with an income over 70,000. The golfer: segmented in 3 different ways 1. frequency of play: 25% considered â€Å"avid† played 25 rounds or more per year. 50% considered â€Å"core† played 8-24 rounds per years. The remainder were considered â€Å"occasional† golfers. 2. xpertise: typically measured by a golfer handicap (historical average of how many strokes a golfer took, relative to par, for an entire round) 3. type of courses â€Å"public vs. private: 80% of golfers played on public courses Expenses: 1999, golfers spent ov er 22 billion, 50% of this were by avid golfers. †¢ Golf clubs was the single largest expense aside from the courses fees, 1,000 for a high-quality set of clubs, 2,000 or more for some top of the line sets (depending on how many times golfer played, good set could last anywhere from 5-20 years) Golf courses: as of 2000, there was around 17,000 golf courses in the U.S. Golf courses Number of courses 7,000 4,000 2,000 4,000 Charging fees Average of rounds per course/year Municipal and lower-end public high-end public courses resort courses private courses charging 20-50 per round 40,000 50-100 per round 30,000 100-200 a range 20,00-100,000 and annual 20,000-25,000 membership fee of 5,000-10,000 ? May afternoon, 2002 – all 6 employees of GolfLogix held conference in Scotsdale, Arizona ? $2 million in investments ? Purpose of meeting – to discuss merits and demerits of direct-to-consumer version of the Distance Only xCaddie ?Thinking ? Outsource production ? Market di rectly to players under GolfLogix name ? Likely retail for $300 ? Diane DiCioccio, Chief Marketing Officer – disagreed ? Jeff Saltz, CEO – agreed COMPANY STARTUP ? The GolfLogix concept came about in 1998 ? During a round of Golf between Todd Kuta and Scott Lambrecht ? Basis of problem – judging the distance to the green and choosing the right club for that distance ? Solution to problem – GPS device ? Permission – USGA (United States Golf Association) ? Founded in May 1999 ? $2 million spending – executive alaries, facilities rental, development of xCaddie software, and GlofLogix website GOLFLOGIX Product Leasing: Difficult initially First 4 months of 2002, they had leased 15 systems Additional courses requested a 30-day trial Marketting TV infomercials Internet Mass merchandiser’s Consumer Electronic Firms Golf Outlet Stores Walmart Best Buy COMPANY STARTUP (CONTD. ) ? Future operating expenses – $50,000 to $75,000 per month for at least 3 years ? Selling xCaddie till date – Pete Charleston and Saltz ? Future selling to Distributors ? First – Steve Goodwin ? 1500 per month for Distance Only ? $2000 per month for entire system ? Recent leases suggest 20-30% distributor markup GPS TECHNOLOGY Objective: GolfLogix use of GPS technology to aid golfers Use of customized handheld GPS receiver called â€Å"xCaddie† Manufactured by Garmin International †¢Provides the distance to the green to which the golfer was hitting †¢Accuracy designed to be within two yards and being sold by Garmin to GolfLogix for about $200 per unit Golfer will be able to determine which golf †¢Records golfer’s progress around the course. lub to use to reach the distance provided Recording the beginning and ending of every shot and club used to make that shot by the xCaddie Information can be downloaded Information forwarded to Website to retain the records so that golfer can track progress over time †¢Provide the golfer with statistics that will improve the accuracy of the shots GPS TECHNOLOGY GPS originally developed by the U. S. Department of Defense to help determine the position of military troops, ships, vehicles, and missiles Consisted of 24 satellites, the system could pinpoint a GPS receiver anywhere on the globe with an accuracy of several feet to several yardsLocation determined by â€Å"triangulation† which involved simultaneously measuring the distance and direction of the GPS receiver from four or more of the satellites GPS gradually became available to civilians free of charge in 1980 By 2000 estimated 1 million GPS receivers per year were being manufactured for commercial use in devices ranging from on-board map systems for cars (OnStar System) to marine navigation systems to handheld devices for hikers and campers GOLFLOGIX SYSTEMS GOLFLOGIX SYSTEMS COMPLETE SYSTEM ? ? More time consuming in terms of use.Involved the use of three key items; Xcad die device, GolfLogix touch screen kiosk connected to the internet and a high quality printer. The system needed to know the locations and dimensions of the tee boxes, fairways, greens and any hazards on the course. Involved a detailed aerial photograph of the course and 3 people taking 20-30 GPS location reading for each of the 18 holes. This took about 4 hours. Xcaddie unit ? ? ? A technician located at a GolfLogix office would then combine these data’s and produce a digital map with precise GPS coordinates for the entire course Lambrecht estimated time to map a complete system to be 20 man hours.The kiosk and printer had a combined cost of about $5000. The GolfLogix webiste maintenance cost was estimated to be $100,000 per annum. Kiosk connect ed to internet High quality printer ? ? ? DEVICE FEATURES AND OPERATION Complete System Distance Only System ? ? Xcaddie Kiosk High quality printer More explaining on the part of the pro shop employee, about 5 minutes. Golfer needed to register his name and email using the touch screen kiosk. ? Has a scrolling feature no more complex than that of a cellular phone. ? ?As the distance type, Xcaddie determined distance to the green Golfer would select the appropriate club on the Xcaddie device and press enter which would give a location reading for the golf ball. Golfer stows away Xcaddie device and proceeded to hit the ball as he normally would. Upon finishing his round, the golfer would connect his Xcaddie via a cable to the kiosk and received a three-page full color printout of his round. A golfer could track his progress overtime through the information forwarded to a dedicated website (golflogix. com). ? The player would scroll to the hole that he was laying and the device would give exact yardage to the green. ? ? ? A pro shop employee could adequately explain how the device worked in about 2 minutes to first time players. ? LOW TECH DISTANCE SOLUTIONS ? Yardage markers – were unreliable the farther a way the golfer was from the center of the fairway ? Sprinkler heads – golfers still needed to pace off distances between their ball and the nearest sprinkler ? Yardage booklets – limited availability to resort and high end public courses ? Range finders – illegal under the rules of USGA and not accepted by erious golfers. High Tech Distance Solutions Cart mounted systems ProShot, ProLink, UpLink. Systems were expensive to outfit. More than $250000 to outfit 80 golf carts. PDA based systems – SkyGolf GPS, Golf GPS. GPS adapters came in a form of attachments to PDA systems, at additional cost. PERFORMANCE TRACKING SOLUTIONS Booklets for manual recording and PDA software; both proved to be tedious, time consuming and distracting USGA handicap system was predominantly used to track scores, but provided no account for performance factors. THANK YOU†¦

Free Essays on Honesty Is The Best Policy

Honesty is the Best Policy Can you think of the thing that can completely ruin a person’s reputation? Would you guess this thing also can save someone’s life? Yes, this thing is a lie. There are actually too many categories of lies to name them all, but I have chosen the three most told lies in my opinion: little white lies, lies that can get you out of trouble, and of course, the lie that can hurt feelings. Some will not admit this, but everyone tells little white lies. It does not matter if you are two years old or if you are 85, you have told a white lie. It is my belief that white lies are not bad, as long as you are not compulsive about it. In fact, I believe that it is named the â€Å"white lie† for the reason that the color white represents Heaven, meaning you will still get into Heaven if you tell this lie. For example, a white lie would be when your mother calls you at your house from her work place and asks if you have done your chores yet. Of course you have not, but you tell your mother, â€Å"Oh yea, I finished it like an hour ago.† You only tell her this fib to make her happy, and so you will not be scolded. Even though this lie seems to be the most told, it causes the lesser amount of damage. Ah, the most common lie amongst us teenagers: the Lie That Gets You Out of Trouble. â€Å"Allison Kay, what in God’s name made you get home at this hour of the night?† Naturally, any teenager knows that when a parent hollers the first AND middle name, it is time to whip out the Lie That Gets You Out of Trouble. â€Å"Momma, you see, my friend got stuck in a ditch, and we all had to, uh, go pull her out, and we were all muddy, and uh, then we were thirsty after all that labor, so we umm, went to Shop Rite and bought us a Dr. Pepper.† And, believe it or not, but I am beginning to realize that my mother is not stupid, and catches on when I tell her this particular lie. Actually, this lie is the humorous ... Free Essays on Honesty Is The Best Policy Free Essays on Honesty Is The Best Policy Honesty is the Best Policy Can you think of the thing that can completely ruin a person’s reputation? Would you guess this thing also can save someone’s life? Yes, this thing is a lie. There are actually too many categories of lies to name them all, but I have chosen the three most told lies in my opinion: little white lies, lies that can get you out of trouble, and of course, the lie that can hurt feelings. Some will not admit this, but everyone tells little white lies. It does not matter if you are two years old or if you are 85, you have told a white lie. It is my belief that white lies are not bad, as long as you are not compulsive about it. In fact, I believe that it is named the â€Å"white lie† for the reason that the color white represents Heaven, meaning you will still get into Heaven if you tell this lie. For example, a white lie would be when your mother calls you at your house from her work place and asks if you have done your chores yet. Of course you have not, but you tell your mother, â€Å"Oh yea, I finished it like an hour ago.† You only tell her this fib to make her happy, and so you will not be scolded. Even though this lie seems to be the most told, it causes the lesser amount of damage. Ah, the most common lie amongst us teenagers: the Lie That Gets You Out of Trouble. â€Å"Allison Kay, what in God’s name made you get home at this hour of the night?† Naturally, any teenager knows that when a parent hollers the first AND middle name, it is time to whip out the Lie That Gets You Out of Trouble. â€Å"Momma, you see, my friend got stuck in a ditch, and we all had to, uh, go pull her out, and we were all muddy, and uh, then we were thirsty after all that labor, so we umm, went to Shop Rite and bought us a Dr. Pepper.† And, believe it or not, but I am beginning to realize that my mother is not stupid, and catches on when I tell her this particular lie. Actually, this lie is the humorous ...

Battle of Makin in World War II

Battle of Makin in World War II The Battle of Makin was fought November 20-24, 1943, during World War II (1939-1945). With the end of the fighting on Guadalcanal, Allied forces began planning for a march across the Pacific. Selecting the Gilbert Islands as the first target, planning moved forward for landings on several islands including Tarawa and Makin Atoll. Moving forward in November 1943, American troops landed on the island and succeeded in overwhelming the Japanese garrison. Though the landing force sustained relatively light casualties, the cost of taking Makin increased when the escort carrier USS Liscome Bay was torpedoed and lost with 644 of its crew. Background On December 10, 1941, three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese forces occupied Makin Atoll in the Gilbert Islands. Meeting no resistance, they secured the atoll and commenced construction of a seaplane base on the main island of Butaritari. Due to its location, Makin was well positioned for such an installation as it would extend Japanese reconnaissance abilities closer to American-held islands. Construction progressed over the next nine months and Makins small garrison remained largely ignored by Allied forces. This changed on August 17, 1942, when the Butaritari came under attack from Colonel Evans Carlsons 2nd Marine Raider Battalion (Map). Landing from two submarines, Carlsons 211-man force killed 83 of Makins garrison and destroyed the islands installations before withdrawing. In the wake of the attack, the Japanese leadership made moves to reinforce the Gilbert Islands. This saw the arrival on Makin of a company from the 5th Special Base Force and the construction of more formidable defenses. Overseen by Lieutenant (j.g.) Seizo Ishikawa, the garrison numbered around 800 men of which about half were combat personnel. Working through the next two months, the seaplane base was completed as were anti-tank ditches towards the eastern and western ends of Butaritari. Within the perimeter defined by the ditches, numerous strong points were established and coastal defense guns mounted (Map). Allied Planning Having won the Battle of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz desired to make a thrust into the central Pacific. Lacking the resources to strike directly at the Marshall Islands in the heart of the Japanese defenses, he instead began making plans for attacks in the Gilberts. These would be the opening steps of an island hopping strategy to advance towards Japan. Another advantage of campaigning in the Gilberts was the islands were within range of U.S. Army Air Forces B-24 Liberators based in the Ellice Islands. On July 20, plans for invasions of Tarawa, Abemama, and Nauru were approved under the code name Operation Galvanic (Map). As planning for the campaign moved forward, Major General Ralph C. Smiths 27th Infantry Division received orders to prepare for the invasion of Nauru. In September, these orders were changed as Nimitz grew concerned about being able to provide the needed naval and air support at Nauru. As such, the 27ths objective was changed to Makin. To take the atoll, Smith planned two sets of landings on Butaritari. The first waves would land at Red Beach on the islands western end with the hope of drawing the garrison in that direction. This effort would be followed a short time later by landings at Yellow Beach to the east. It was Smiths plan that the Yellow Beach forces could destroy the Japanese by attacking their rear (Map). Battle of Makin Conflict: World War II (1939-1945)Dates: November 20-23, 1943Forces Commanders:AlliesMajor General Ralph C. SmithRear Admiral Richmond K. Turner6,470 menJapaneseLieutenant (j.g.) Seizo Ishikawa400 soldiers, 400 Korean laborersCasualties:Japanese: approx. 395 killedAllies: 66 killed, 185 wounded/injured Allied Forces Arrive Departing Pearl Harbor on November 10, Smiths division was carried on the attack transports USS Neville, USS Leonard Wood, USS Calvert, USS Pierce, and USS Alcyone. These sailed as part of Rear Admiral Richmond K. Turners Task Force 52 which included the escort carriers USS Coral Sea, USS Liscome Bay, and USS Corregidor. Three days later, USAAF B-24s commenced attacks on Makin flying from bases in the Ellice Islands. As Turners task force arrived in the area, the bombers were joined by FM-1 Wildcats, SBD Dauntlesses, and TBF Avengers flying from the carriers. At 8:30 AM on November 20, Smiths men commenced their landings on Red Beach with forces centered on the 165th Infantry Regiment. M3 Stuart light tanks on Makin, November, 1943. US Army Fighting for the Island Meeting little resistance, American troops quickly pressed inland. Though encountering a few snipers, these efforts failed to draw Ishikawas men from their defenses as planned. Approximately two hours later, the first troops approached Yellow Beach and soon came under fire from Japanese forces. While some came ashore without issue, other landing craft grounded offshore forcing their occupants to wade 250 yards to reach the beach. Led by the 165ths 2nd Battalion and supported by M3 Stuart light tanks from the 193rd Tank Battalion, the Yellow Beach forces began engaging the islands defenders. Unwilling to emerge from their defenses, the Japanese forced Smiths men to systematically reduce the islands strong points one by one over the next two days. USS Liscome Bay (CVE-56), September 1943. Public Domain Aftermath On the morning of November 23, Smith reported that Makin had been cleared and secured. In the fighting, his ground forces sustained 66 killed and 185 wounded/injured while inflicting around 395 killed on the Japanese. A relatively smooth operation, the invasion of Makin proved far less costly than the battle on Tarawa which occurred over the same time span. The victory at Makin lost a bit of its luster on November 24 when Liscome Bay was torpedoed by I-175. Striking a supply of bombs, the torpedo caused the ship to explode and killed 644 sailors. These deaths, plus casualties from a turret fire on USS Mississippi (BB-41), caused U.S. Navy losses to total 697 killed and 291 wounded.

Big Brother Is Watching Essay Research Paper

Large Brother Is Watching Essay, Research Paper # 8220 ; Big Brother is Watching # 8221 ; Privacy in the Information Age. Vladimira Love May 13, 2001 Have you sat down to eat dinner, merely as you put that first seize with teeth into your oral cavity the phone rings. You know better than to reply it, but you do any manner. To your discouragement you find out that you were right Tele-marketers? As you hang up you inquire how did they acquire my figure? How do they cognize what are your involvements, likes, disfavors? You manus the teller a fictile card with a magnetic strip which contains your name and reference. All of your purchases are recorded and a few yearss subsequently you receive price reduction vouchers for a new merchandise you might wish in the mail. You think that targeted selling in the information age truly works! A adult female feels she may be anticipating, she goes to the pharmaceutics to buy a place gestation trial. Without thought, she hands her # 8220 ; bonus card # 8221 ; to the teller and a few yearss subsequently she receives mail from baby merchandise industries. She is believing that she is populating in an information age incubus. Information engineering, and peculiarly the cyberspace and the World Wide Web, can supply benefits that were merely dreamed of a decennary ago. These new chances, nevertheless, raise inquiries about possible menaces to personal privateness that are merely now get downing to be understood. Consumers, for illustration, like # 8220 ; one on one selling # 8221 ; at Miscellaneous Web sites which allows them to shop assorted choices recommended based on old purchases and their personal profile. They are much less certain about the site # 8217 ; s developing existent clip profiles of users based on demographics or psychographics. Similarly, workaholics are attracted to internet dating services that promise to happen high winners their ideal mate ; They lief spend 30 proceedingss finishing the extended introductory questionnaire. They are less thrilled when they subsequently find that # 8220 ; E-Mate # 8221 ; has been acquired by another company specifically for its extended informations base of personal information. Our concern is the privateness of personal information in a digitally networked universe where personal informations can be input, stored, sorted, analyzed, mined, transmitted and exchanged globally with increasing easiness and diminishing cost. There is turning concern about informations privateness, particularly on the Net which is accompanied by pronounced dissensions about what can, and should be done. These differences are exacerbated by really existent cross-cultural and cross-national differences in values, history and economic doctrines. Where national boundary lines are non even rush bumps on the information expressway. We argue that while the protection of personal informations in a networked universe requires multinational solutions, blunt differences exist in basic privateness values among states and civilizations. These differences, which flow from basic cultural traits such as individuality and changing political-economic doctrines, are really existent and can non be # 8220 ; papered over. # 8221 ; This circle must be squared: planetary solutions must cover with local differences. The information privateness issue serves as a metaphor for more general jobs of administration of the universe economic system given the world of basic, implicit in cross-border societal, cultural and political differences. Data privateness is a concern on the Net. A recent E-Trust study found that over 80 % of consumers are more concerned about privateness on the Net than with the telephone or mail. A widely cited Business Week/Harris canvass reported that 61 % of respondents who use the Net citation privateness as their primary concern. An OECD workshop concluded that unless consumers gained more assurance that their privateness would be protected, the growing of Electronic Commerce ( E-Commerce ) would be hindered. Consumers should be concerned. While the state of affairs may hold improved slightly in the meantime, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission reported that while over 85 % of Web sites collected personal information, merely 14 % provide any notice about their privateness patterns and merely 2 % provide a comprehensive privateness policy. Concern about privateness was about long before the Net and Web. The New York Police Department was tapping phones within a decennary or two of Bell # 8217 ; s first call. Party lines and operators were ill-famed for listen ining. More late the widespread usage of recognition cards and the development of recognition agencies have raised serious concerns about control over personal information. It is sensible to inquire is anything truly new? I believe the reply is # 8220 ; yes, # 8221 ; that the detonation of interrelated digital webs makes a important difference in the econo mics and feasibleness of utilizing â€Å"private† information. More of what we do is ( or can be ) input in to a computing machine system than of all time before: debit card purchases and ATM backdowns ; phone calls ; the location of your cell phone ; supermarket purchases ; where your Web browser is indicating ; where you are when you fill your auto with gas ; the toll booth you merely passed through ; and the extended information you provided when using for insurance, a new auto or a mortgage on the Web. As of import, the cost of geting, hive awaying, screening, analysing, excavation, conveying and interchanging information is falling dramatically. Most of import is the inter-operability or interconnectivity. We live in a universe of decentralized but interconnected computing machine webs. Once entered digitally, personal information potentially is available to anyone connected to the net, irrespective of where it resides. The differentiation between authorities or public and private informations is going meaningless in a universe of distributed webs. Newer informations excavation techniques allow a huge sum of information about any of us to be collected and analyzed by a broad assortment of terminal users. It is just to surmise that the Net is inherently invasive ; that the assemblage of personal information, profiling and targeted selling, which bring benefits every bit good as costs, are portion and package of E-Commerce. Internet does non map on geographic infinite. National and cultural boundary lines are irrelevant ; more of import, so is the really construct of geographic legal power. The EU recognizes that in prohibitions of informations transportations to 3rd universe states that do non run into the Directive # 8217 ; s criterions. Even go forthing aside the catastrophe that an EU-U.S. confrontation over this issue would imply, it is clear that the EU merely can non construct a wall around its boundary lines to implement its informations protection Torahs. What about American or Asiatic visitants who want to utilize thei r recognition cards in a Gallic caf? ; would every cheque with an external recognition informations base be a misdemeanor of the jurisprudence. Much more problematically, would every Web site, irrespective of where in the universe it is # 8220 ; located # 8221 ; that is accessed from Europe be capable to European jurisprudence? At least one authorization believes that to be the instance. Does that intend every Web site is capable to the Everyone # 8217 ; s jurisprudence? To no 1 # 8217 ; s jurisprudence? That every clip a European logs on to any American web site that does non run into the criterions of the EU Directive that the proprietor of that Web site is in misdemeanor? The protection of the privateness of personal information on the Web is non conformable to national or even regional solutions. The Web is a complex interconnected planetary web. At a lower limit, some grade of harmonisation of national attempts in the consequence of the jurisprudence is required. The quandary we face is the demand for planetary solutions in the face of a really existent, and really deep-rooted local differences in a political civilization, values and history. Any meaningful solution to the job of protection of personal privateness must square this circle. Absolutist places on both sides are counterproductive: Americans can non go on to reason that anything but a market based solution will drive us back into the technological dark ages and Europeans must travel beyond imitations of the American privateness environment as the # 8220 ; wild west. # 8221 ; Any effectual solution requires understanding other universe positions and more of import, credence of their cogency. We believe that and acceptable international informations privateness government will hold to concentrate on results instead than the engineering. On facts on the land instead than political orientation. On whether, at the terminal of the twenty-four hours, the net consequence is an acceptable degree of protection of privateness to the person instead than the specific agencies of achieving that aim. While this is non the topographic point for particular, elaborate recommendations, we believe that this will imply some combination of self-regulation and ordinance, possibly reinforced by privateness enabling engineerings. The privateness job is a metaphor for a more general set of jobs of administration in the age of a digital planetary economic system. Any figure of issues, including the demand for a new # 8220 ; fiscal architecture, # 8221 ; accomplishing a much needed many-sided understanding on investing, protecting the environment, human rights and worker rights require multinational solutions in the face of stark, and at times, diametrically opposed, local differences in values, belief systems and history. Again, this circle must be squared: # 8220 ; planetary # 8221 ; solutions must be found that accommodate and esteem local differences. Possibly even in this planetary age, Tip O # 8217 ; Neal, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, advice still holds: # 8220 ; all political relations is local. # 8221 ; 335

VARK analysis paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

VARK analysis paper - Essay Example It means that the student is able to recall images more than listening to class lectures alone. Aside from the use of proper gestures when teaching, the student learns well if the teacher uses pictures, posters, slides, and diagrams like flow charts or graphs throughout the class discussion (Vark Learn, 2012c). The student’s preferred learning strategy is totally different when compared to other learning styles. Instead of using pictures, posters, slides, and diagrams like flow charts or graphs, the use of aural learning strategy is more focused on receiving inputs out of hearing. In most cases, students who prefer the use of aural learning strategy learns best each time they attend classes, discussions, and tutorials, participating in group discussion, or using a tape recorder (Vark Learn, 2012d). In case the only available teaching and learning materials is a manuscript or notes, the student should read the text aloud so they can easily recall what they have read. Students who prefer the use of read/write learning strategy learns better when they read dictionaries, books, journals, notes, essays, and manuals. It is also possible for this group of learners to learn better each time they write down technical terms on a piece of paper or convert diagrams or charts into words (Vark Learn, 2012e). Unlike the use of visual, aural, and read/write, kinesthetic approach in learning is all about learning by doing (Gardner, Jewler, & Barefoot, 2008, p. 44). Basically, figure I shows the test results after completing the VARK Questionnaire entitled â€Å"How Do I Learn Best?† The fact that the VARK Questionnaire results show scores between 10 to 15 strongly suggest that as a learner, the student is very flexible. Regardless of the kind of teaching modality used in class, the VARK test strongly suggest that the student can easily cope with whatever teaching modality the teacher decides to use in class. The test results strongly suggest that the student

Enabling healthcare through ICT Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 8

Enabling healthcare through ICT - Assignment Example In addition, one can tell whether the information is valid and accurate by checking whether there is supporting evidence from scientific studies (Kuo, et al, 2013). However, the surest way is by seeking health officer’s advice on such information. They are better placed to pinpoint accurate and inaccurate information. Â  Community resources are funded by people in a particular local area. The main purpose of such resources is to improve standards of living rather than waiting for the federal and state programs. Most of the community resources entail the provision of services in healthcare and education. However, the state and federal governments are required to offer these services to the community. For instance, federal resources include those that are basic to the community. Programs such as Medicaid and Medicare as well as supporting and funding other programs fall under the federal government. This is aimed at bringing services closer to the people. Nevertheless, the state is accorded greater authority of the federal funding in order to monitor and regulate federal governments spending.

Minimum wages and unemployment level Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Minimum wages and unemployment level - Essay Example in the amount of minimum wage brings about reduction in the employment levels evidently seen with employment elasticity ranging from -0.1 to -0.2 amongst the teenagers and from -0.15 to -0.2 for the youths (Charles, 2002, p 89). Employers in a firm are bounded with the minimum wage law which is meant to prevent the employers from paying their employees rate below the minimum wage. This law is widely used in the present day countries. In UK and the USA, this law was only applicable to the women and the children. The extended use of the law was influenced by the period of the great depression. If the objective of the minimum wage was to ensure that employed achieved a worthy standard of living, then some provisions had to be made for those who are retrenched (Flinn, 2010, p58-62). During the imposition of the minimum wage by the responsible bodies, firms within that jurisdiction would not be permitted to pay less than what the responsible body mandates, for any service that they have received. For instance, this is when the governing body passes legislation that is meant to raise the wage bill from its initial of $6.72 per hour to $8.0 per hour. In line with the above minimum wages, at $8.0, supply of the labour service was 70,000 hours, but only 50,000 hours was what was in demand by the firms. Within a market with voluntary trade, the decisions of firms to hire its employees cannot be influenced with an external body, reason being the quantity of labour needed is normally established through the desire of the firm to buy but not the desire of the workers to sell (Joshua, 1999, p 123). Through the above discussion there is an assumption that, increasing the amount of minimum wage in a country, the number of employed individual would increase. In addition, there is an emerging possibility that everyone would be able to get a job. However, the number of hours that they initially worked would be reduced. Putting this case into consideration, there would be rise in

SIDS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

SIDS - Essay Example This incident was noticed at around noon (Bedsole, 2012). One can assume that the baby was sleeping on its tummy, on an adult soft bed, or accidentally suffocated with pillows surrounding the baby. These are the most common factors related to SIDS. After further investigation, the police came to a conclusion that there was no foul play or any wrongdoing by the parents. However, another case involved in SIDS was ruled a homicide. Vanessa Clark, a Texas woman, was charged with killing her newborn baby while sleeping with it in the same bed. The baby was found unexpectedly not breathing. This was not the first time this had happen with Clark. Her first child died the same way and was ruled an accident. Therefore, police did a further investigation and found reasonable evidence to indicate that Clark put the baby at a high risk by putting the newborn baby in imminent danger and acted upon criminal negligence. The Angelina County jurors found Clark guilty of child endangerment(Held, 2012). She is facing up to twenty years in prison. In the event that a possible SIDS death takes place, the police must investigate and interview all parties involved. â€Å"By law, police and other officials at hand, such as a coroner and detectives, are required to determine the cause of death† (Hooker, 2011).The information exchanged between these officials is crucial in order to solve the case (Ortmeier, 2006). Several questions must answered be in order to determine if such act was done deliberately or inadvertently. Family members are briefed about an investigation that must take place because of the infant’s death. In addition, child protective services as well as other special support groups should be involve assisting the family members after their loss. It would give great help and allow the police to detach themselves from the situation and allow them to focus on

Jesus Christ as viewed by the Muslims, Christians and the Jews Essay

Jesus Christ as viewed by the Muslims, Christians and the Jews - Essay Example Christianity, Islam and Judaism are three types of religions in which Jesus plays a different role as perceived by the believers. All the three religions know Jesus very well but they have a very different way of referring to Him. Likewise, the role that Jesus portrays in each of the religion is very much different, although all such roles are important. Let us view the theme how each religion views Jesus Christ according to their religious beliefs. Christianity, Islam, and Judaism are three types of religions in which Jesus plays a different role as perceived by the believers. All the three religions know Jesus very well but they have a very different way of referring to Him. Likewise, the role that Jesus portrays in each of the religion is very much different, although all such roles are important. Let us view the theme how each religion views Jesus Christ according to their religious beliefs.

Minimum wages and unemployment level Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Minimum wages and unemployment level - Essay Example in the amount of minimum wage brings about reduction in the employment levels evidently seen with employment elasticity ranging from -0.1 to -0.2 amongst the teenagers and from -0.15 to -0.2 for the youths (Charles, 2002, p 89). Employers in a firm are bounded with the minimum wage law which is meant to prevent the employers from paying their employees rate below the minimum wage. This law is widely used in the present day countries. In UK and the USA, this law was only applicable to the women and the children. The extended use of the law was influenced by the period of the great depression. If the objective of the minimum wage was to ensure that employed achieved a worthy standard of living, then some provisions had to be made for those who are retrenched (Flinn, 2010, p58-62). During the imposition of the minimum wage by the responsible bodies, firms within that jurisdiction would not be permitted to pay less than what the responsible body mandates, for any service that they have received. For instance, this is when the governing body passes legislation that is meant to raise the wage bill from its initial of $6.72 per hour to $8.0 per hour. In line with the above minimum wages, at $8.0, supply of the labour service was 70,000 hours, but only 50,000 hours was what was in demand by the firms. Within a market with voluntary trade, the decisions of firms to hire its employees cannot be influenced with an external body, reason being the quantity of labour needed is normally established through the desire of the firm to buy but not the desire of the workers to sell (Joshua, 1999, p 123). Through the above discussion there is an assumption that, increasing the amount of minimum wage in a country, the number of employed individual would increase. In addition, there is an emerging possibility that everyone would be able to get a job. However, the number of hours that they initially worked would be reduced. Putting this case into consideration, there would be rise in

Jesus Christ as viewed by the Muslims, Christians and the Jews Essay

Jesus Christ as viewed by the Muslims, Christians and the Jews - Essay Example Christianity, Islam and Judaism are three types of religions in which Jesus plays a different role as perceived by the believers. All the three religions know Jesus very well but they have a very different way of referring to Him. Likewise, the role that Jesus portrays in each of the religion is very much different, although all such roles are important. Let us view the theme how each religion views Jesus Christ according to their religious beliefs. Christianity, Islam, and Judaism are three types of religions in which Jesus plays a different role as perceived by the believers. All the three religions know Jesus very well but they have a very different way of referring to Him. Likewise, the role that Jesus portrays in each of the religion is very much different, although all such roles are important. Let us view the theme how each religion views Jesus Christ according to their religious beliefs.

Matter and Materials Physics Assignment Essay Example for Free

Matter and Materials Physics Assignment Essay Matter and Materials Part 1 Here is a list of definitions of important terms, with the sources of information in brackets: Tensile Stress (1) Tensile stress is the tensional force acting on a solid per unit cross-sectional area. It is represented by the symbol ? and is measured in N m-2 or Pa. (They are the same thing). Formula: ? = F / A Strain (1) The tensile strain is calculated by dividing the extension produced in a solid (i.e. a wire) under tension, by its original length. It is represented by the symbol ? and has no units. (It is a length divided by a length). Formula: ? = e / l The Young Modulus (1) The Young Modulus is a means by which we can measure a materials relative resistance to tensional force. If a material obeys Hookes Law (as most of them do, at least to an extent) then the tensile stress is proportional to the tensile strain, and the ratio of stress to strain is a constant, which is characteristic of a material. This is called the Young Modulus, and it is calculated by dividing tensile stress by tensile strain. It is represented by the symbol E, and is measured in N m-2 or Pa, as we divide a measurement in Pa by one with no units. Formula: E = ? / ? , or E = F l / A e. Density (1) Density, a characteristic of a material, is defined as mass per unit volume, and is a measure of relative massiveness of a material. Density is represented by the symbol ? and is measured in kg m-3. Formula: ? = m / V Stiff (1) The stiffer a material is, the more difficult it is to be deformed (have its shape or size changed) by a force. Plastic (1) A material is said to be plastic if, when you deform it, it stays in the new shape after the force is released. Elastic (1) If a material is elastic, then it will return to its original shape after being deformed. This is the opposite of plastic. Brittle (1) A brittle material does not change shape at all when a deforming force is applied. It eventually breaks without warning, and the pieces can be fitted back together. Ductile (1) A material is ductile when it can be deformed by a large, steadily applied force. Most economic metals are ductile- they can be drawn out into wire, for example. Tensile Strength (2) The Tensile Strength, or Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS) of a material, is the amount of tensile stress a material can take just before snapping. It is measured in N m-2 or Pa. Yield Stress (1) The Yield Stress is the amount of tensile stress required for a material to yield. Certain materials, for example mild steel, when under sufficient stress, begin to extend at a very fast rate without additional pressure being applied. This is caused by the materials internal structure losing its integrity. The crystal planes within the metal can slide past each other, and the material becomes completely plastic for a time, but then breaks if any more force is applied. Information Sources 1: A students review notes, found on the college intranet. Address: https://195.195.14.1/intranet/physics/mod_3/12_2_solids/matter/matter.htm 2: Microsoft Encarta 99 Encyclopedia Tensile Strength All of my evidence is in Appendix 1 of the assignment. Information about a metal Aluminium is a very light metal, with a melting point of 660à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½C and a boiling point of 2467à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½C. It is highly electropositive and reactive, and it is this property that makes it extremely resistant to corrosion- on contact with air it rapidly forms a skin of aluminium oxide, which resists any further chemical corrosion. Aluminium is the most abundant metal in the Earths crust, but most of it is contained within complex silicate minerals, from which it is far too expensive to extract. The main source of Aluminium is Bauxite, which is an impure aluminium oxide ore. Part 2 I have been given data for the force and extension from stretching a wire, and the original length and diameter as constants. The formula for the Young Modulus is E = F l / A e , so I will have to manipulate the formula into a graph. If I made a graph of F against e, the gradient would be equal to F / e. Multiplying this by the l / A would give me the Young Modulus. Calculation for the Area A = ? d2 / 4 A = ? (1.0010-3)2 / 4 = 7.8510-7 m2 Therefore l / A = 3.00 / 7.8510-7 = 3.82106 m-1 Below is the spreadsheet data I downloaded. To the right is the graph I constructed from the data.

Open Loop Control Method For Conveyor Belt Transmission Engineering Essay

Open Loop Control Method For Conveyor Belt Transmission Engineering Essay Before the advent of modern automation techniques, factory workers often had to travel from project to project. The cumulative effect of all this physical motion was additional stress and inefficient use of the workers time. The development of conveyor belts allowed the project to come to the worker, instead of the worker to the project. Parts could then be transported by other conveyor belts to additional workers, and eventually to the shipping docks for delivery. Many conveyor belts work on the principle of variable speed control. If a particular belt moves too slowly, workers may find themselves waiting for parts. If a conveyor belt moves too quickly, parts may be damaged or workers may become overwhelmed. Much of a factory supervisors time is spent adjusting conveyor belts for maximum efficiency. This is especially important in food production factories, where conveyor belt speed and proper cooking time work hand in hand. Project objectives Modeling of a open-loop control method for conveyor belt transmission Modeling of a close-loop speed control method for conveyor belt transmission Research on the performance comparison for variable mass material input 1.2 Organization of thesis Chapter 2: This chapter thoroughly introduce what conveyor transmission system is and provides a brief history about it. Six categories of typical conveyor transmission system have been introduced. It also explains the sources and types of breakdowns in conveyor belt, as well as the effect of those breakdowns cause in the transmission line. Then, this chapter also discusses about the importance to have speed control for the conveyor belt transmission system. Chapter 3: This chapter mainly focus on different types of motors. It specifically explains about the AC asynchronous motor which is the most widely used in heavy industry. The different speed control methods of AC asynchronous motors have been compared in several aspects. Chapter 4: In this chapter, PID controller is discussed in details for process control, including its definition, history, applications, tuning method and implementation. Unlike other kinds of papers concerning PID control approach, the weakness and bad behaviour were brought about as well so that an objective picture of PID method could be completed. Chapter 5: At the outset, this chapter gives some key modeling process, and then provides the complete models for simulation both of open-loop control and close-loop speed control. With these models, simulation results can be get to make some comparisons. The close-loop results show the performance of different controller parameters on the transmission system with a variable mass material input on several discrete speed value, corresponding to the open-loop curves those seem not to be quite good. Chapter 6: This chapter summarizes discussion and conclusion about the performance of speed control on the transmission system, and then gives out some recommendations and future works that can be done in speed control for conveyor belt transmission system. 2.0 CONVEYOR BELT TRANSMISSION SYSTEM Conveyor belts are generally endless loops which move parts or materials from one location to another. Conveyor belts are often driven by variable speed electric motors or by other moving parts in a complex system. They are commonly found in factories, grocery stores, warehouses and public transportation centers. Further refinement of conveyor belts allowed factory managers to create automated or semi-automated production lines. Individual parts could be moved through automated machinery for routine processing, leaving workers free for quality control tasks or other higher responsibilities. Conveyor belts also proved useful for transporting heavy or hazardous products, reducing worker injuries. The use of conveyor belts is not restricted to factories. Bakeries and pizza shops often use a slow-moving wire conveyor belt to move their products through an oven. Grocery stores use conveyor belts in their check-out lines to bring items to the clerk and bagger. Airports and other public transportation systems use conveyor belts to deliver checked baggage to customers. Warehouses use long conveyor belts to offload products from incoming trucks or to load outgoing ones. Escalators found in department stores could also be considered conveyor belts, as are people movers in larger airports. 2.1 History Primitive conveyor belts were used since the 19th century. In 1892, Thomas Robins began a series of inventions which led to the development of a conveyor belt used for carrying coal, ores and other products.[6] In 1901, Sandvik invented and started the production of steel conveyor belts. In 1905 Richard Sutcliffe invented the first conveyor belts for use in coal mines which revolutionized the mining industry. In 1913, Henry Ford introduced conveyor-belt assembly lines at Ford Motor Companys Highland Park, Michigan factory.[7] In 1972, the French society REI created in New Caledonia the then longest straight-belt conveyor in the world, at a length of 13.8 km. Hyacynthe Marcel Bocchetti was the concept designer. In 1957, the B. F. Goodrich Company patented a conveyor belt that it went on to produce as the Turnover Conveyor Belt System. Incorporating a half-twist, it had the advantage over conventional belts of a longer life because it could expose all of its surface area to wear and te ar.Mà ¶bius strip belts are no longer manufactured because untwisted modern belts can be made more durable by constructing them from several layers of different materials.[8]. In 1970, Intralox, a Louisiana based company, registered the first patent for all plastic, modular belting. In 1963-64, First Indian Small Scale Industrial Unit with Japanese Plant for Rubber Belts for Conveyor / Elevator / Transmission was installed near National Capital Territory of Delhi and its MrBelts Conveyor Belting has been widely used in Steel, Cement, Fertilizer, Thermal Power, Sponge Iron Plants and Coal/Mineral establishments, Port Trusts and similar material handling applications of Industry for the last over 4 decades 2.2 Types of Conveyor System 2.2.1 Wheel Conveyor System A wheel conveyor systems setup consists of skate wheels that are mounted on an axle placed in a row. Depending on the weight of the material being transported, adjustment of both the wheel spacing and the slope for load movement is provided. Being simpler in construction, the system is flexible, scalable and more economical with light-duty applications as compared to a roller conveyor system. 2.2.2 Roller Conveyor System A roller conveyor system has two variants, but both utilize a minimum of three rollers that provide support to the smallest load all the time. Then there are tapered rollers that orient the load around a curved path. The gravity-type system is alternative to the wheel conveyor system that is used for heavy-duty applications. It utilizes a slope for load movement to facilitate the accumulation process. The powered variant utilizes a belt or chain drive for force-sensitive power transmission useful in merging and/or sorting applications. 2.2.3 Chain Conveyor System A chain conveyor system has one or more endless chains that directly carry the load. These chains are placed in a parallel chain manner that can be used in transporting pallets. One variant is the vertical chain conveyor that is used for transferring loads continuously in a vertical direction at high speeds. 2.2.4 Slat Conveyor System A slat conveyor system uses slats placed at discrete positions, and these slats are connected to a chain. Through drives that control orientation and positioning of the load, the transported unit is able to retain its position while being conveyed. The system is used in applications transporting heavy loads that might otherwise damage the belt as in bottling and canning plants. 2.2.5 Vibrating Conveyor System In vibrating conveyor systems, the main component is an elongated load-carrying structure called a trough, bed or tube, based on the application it is used for. A vibrating mechanism produces small amplitude vibrations at a high frequency. This conveys the individual product units and bulk materials. Due to its unique operational manner, it can be used to transport almost all kinds of granular as well as free-flowing materials. 2.2.6 Pneumatic Conveyor System A pneumatic conveyor system uses pipes or ducts known as transportation lines. These ducts carry material mixture along with an air stream. The load gets transported to various locations through pipe lines propelled by the high velocity air streams. 2.3 Components and Breakdowns The belt conveyor system (BCS) consists of (fig. 3): à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ drive unit (electric motor, coupling multistage gearbox), à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ pulleys (drive pulley and other), à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ belts (textile or with steel cords) with their joints, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ idlers, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ other (belt cleaning systems, control system, etc.) Fig 2.3.1 Belt conveyor transmission system components In this section we will consider the type of faults that may appear in belt conveyor systems with reference to conveyor component s. The drive unit consist of electric motor, damping coupling, two or three stage gear-box and coupling that connect output shaft with pulley (fig. 8). A crucial object in this subsystem is gearbox. According to Matuszewski [5] in a considered lignite open cast mine even 14% of gearboxes may be replaced each year due to unexpected failures. These failures are related to the geared wheel wear or damages (broken tooth) and bearings (mainly over limit backlash due to environmental impact, also typical failures like outer/inner race, rolling element). The mining pulley consist of two bearings, shaft, shell and coating (special material in order to improve belt-pulley contact). The most frequent failures for pulleys are: bearings and shells. For gearboxes number of failures related to geared wheels is 50%. Other critical failure is the damage of input shafts (probably because of overloading) . It may be surprising that bearing faults are not so frequent in gearboxes. The failure analysis of idlers and belts are a bit different issue [7, 8, 11]. Idlers are used for supporting belts with transported materials. In some sense, idlers are similar to pulleys and consist of bearings and shells. One may expect similar types of failures. The support system for belt consists of three idlers. Because of different load for each idler usually side idlers are more subjected to damage. It needs to be added that in CM context of idlers change of condition is not the only one. Worn bearings in idlers will significantly increase external load for drive units so power consumption will increase. Damaged idlers and pulleys may be the reason of damage for belts. Depends on application, belts used in conveyor systems may be divided into two groups: textile belts and steel cords belts. In underground mines usually the textile belts are used. In lignite mines both types may be applied. Expected problems for belts are related to belt (tear, puncture, cut of belt and abrasion of bottom/top covers) and its joints (connected using glue, vulcanized or mechanical joint) [10, 11]. Because of dimension and weight of a belt it needs to be transported in rolls, pieces up to 100-400 m long, depends on a belt type. In order to replace damaged a gearbox or pulley heavy machinery is required. In some cases due to environmental impact (for example rain) it takes a few times longer time. If one consider the impact of damaged idlers it is another story. The idlers are quite small in comparison to pulleys; however, number of idlers is huge. Damaged idlers may cause failure of belt (the cut of a belt) or even may start fire (belt slipping on damaged idler may increase temperature up to 400 °C, 450 °C is the limit for so called difficult-to-burn belt) and as it was mentioned energy consumption is arising dramatically. Any of mentioned failure generates cost of breakdown of machines working in series. It as to be mentioned that a conveyor system, that with random material to be transferred the smoothness and stability of the conveyor belt transmisssion system should be guaranteed to extend all the components lifetime. 2.4 Significance of Research The belt conveyor is one of key components for most of manufacturing systems. Intelligent control of the conveyor leads to the feasibility of a Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS). For most of the assembly lines in manufacturing systems, different processing works applied to products mainly come from workers who is sitting along the conveyor. The products are conveyed by the belt conveyor from one working area to the next. If the average number of products entering one working area is greater than the average number leaving that area, the manufacturing process stagnates. It means that conveying speed is too fast so that more products are conveyed to workers in that working area than the quantity they can handle. Therefore, the conveying speed of belt conveyor needs to be adaptively changed based on the stagnation condition at each working area. On the other hand, if the defective rate of products monitored at outlet of conveyor is too large even though no stagnation has occurred at e ach working area, the conveyor still needs to be adaptively slowed down so that workers have more time to give their processing works with more cares In the long run, maximum number of manufactured products conveyed to the outlet of conveyor is hoped to be achieved if the speed of belt conveyor can be intelligently controlled Since the conveyor is driven by a servo motor, adaptive control algorithm can be designed to control the motor speed based on stagnation conditions at working areas or the defective rate monitored at the conveyor outlet. In addition, belt conveyor is one of main electromechanical systems in heavy industry, especially in the coal transport system, its safe operation plays an important role in the whole coal output systems.Safety is an important aspect in our life, and coal mine still is a high-risk industry in the world. As one of main components in the coal transport system, the safe operation of belt conveyor plays an important role in the whole coal output systems. As the belt conveyors get longer, quicker and bulkier, it is often occurred that the belt rupture, coal vibration, belt slip on the drive pulley, uncontrolled running of the belt conveyor, belt fire and other safety accidents, which bring huge economical losses and threat miner life. In order to insure the miner safety and the normal production, it is significant to carry on safety investigation of the belt conveyor. Higher productivity and reliability are common goals for conveyor systems in mining operations. Key objectives include opt imized mass flows, reduced energy costs and a well-coordinated workflow between the conveying and transport processes.And the key to this problem is to make sure that the transmission system should be operating at a smooth and steady speed. In a word, the steady speed of the conveyor belt transmission system is vitally important.[wiki] 3.0 MOTORS FOR CONVEYOR 3.1 General Motors An electric motor is an electromechanical device that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy.Electric motors are found in applications as diverse as industrial fans, blowers and pumps, machine tools, household appliances, power tools, and disk drives. Electric motors may be classified by the source of electric power, by their internal construction, by their application, or by the type of motion they give. 3.1 Conveyor Motor Types For a conveyor transmission system, the drive unit develops with time. And the motors still using in this era come to the 4 main types: brushed DC motor; brushed DC motor; . The working mechanism of the 4 kinds are discussed as well as their merits and drawbacks. 3.2.1 Brushed DC motors A brushed DC motor has a set of rotating windings wound on an armature mounted on a rotating shaft. The shaft also carries the commutatora long-lasting rotary electrical switch that periodically reverses the flow of current in the rotor windings as the shaft rotates. The magnets field produced by the armature interacts with a stationary magnetic field produced by either permanent magnets or another winding a field coil, as part of the motor frame. The force between the two magnetic fields tends to rotate the motor shaft. Many of the limitations of the classic commutator DC motor are due to the need for brushes to press against the commutator. This creates friction. Sparks are created by the brushes making and breaking circuits through the rotor coils as the brushes cross the insulating gaps between commutator sections. Depending on the commutator design, this may include the brushes shorting together adjacent sections and hence coil ends momentarily while crossing the gaps. Furthermore, the inductance of the rotor coils causes the voltage across each to rise when its circuit is opened, increasing the sparking of the brushes. This sparking limits the maximum speed of the machine, as too-rapid sparking will overheat, erode, or even melt the commutator. The current density per unit area of the brushes, in combination with their resistivity, limits the output of the motor. The making and breaking of electric contact also generates electrical noise; sparking generates RFI. Brushes eventually wear out an d require replacement, and the commutator itself is subject to wear and maintenance (on larger motors) or replacement (on small motors). The commutator assembly on a large motor is a costly element, requiring precision assembly of many parts. On small motors, the commutator is usually permanently integrated into the rotor, so replacing it usually requires replacing the whole rotor. Therefore, DC motor brush design entails a trade-off between output power, speed, and efficiency/wear. 3.2.2 brushed DC motor In this motor, the mechanical rotating switch or commutator/brush gear assembly is replaced by an external electronic switch synchronized to the rotors position. Brushless motors are typically 85-90% efficient or more whereas DC motors with brush are typically 75-80% efficient. Brushless DC motors are commonly used where precise speed control is necessary. They have several advantages over conventional motors:they are very efficient, running much cooler than the other equivalent motors; without a commutator to wear out, the life of a DC brushless motor can be significantly longer compared to a DC motor using brushes and a commutator; brushless motors have no chance of sparking, unlike brushed motors, making them better suited to environments with volatile chemicals and fuels. Also, sparking generates ozone which can accumulate in poorly ventilated buildings risking harm to occupants health. Modern DC brushless motors range in power from a fraction of a watt to many kilowatts. Larger brushless motors up to about 100 kW rating are used in electric vehicles. There are numerous applications using a Brush DC Motor that could instead utilize the Brushless DC Motor. However a few factors might prevent the changeover. The first factor is start-up cost. Although the Brushless DC Motor is lower-maintenance than the Brush DC Motor, initial cost is more expensive, due to its advantageous construction. Second is complexity. A controller is required in order to operate a Brushless DC Motor, and is usually more convoluted than most controllers. A Brushless DC Motor also requires additional system wiring, in order to power the electronic commutation circuitry. 3.2.3 asynchronous AC motor An asynchronous AC motor is an induction motor where power is transferred to the rotor by electromagnetic induction, much like transformer action. . Polyphase induction motors are widely used in industry.The simple design of AC motor is simply a series of three windings in the exterior (stator) section with a simple rotating section (rotor). The changing field caused by the 50 or 60 Hertz AC line voltage causes the rotor to rotate around the axis of the ac motor. The AC motor has the advantage of being the lowest cost motor for applications which require more than about 1/2 hp (325 watts) of power. This is due to the simple design of ac motor. Meanwhile, the simple design of the AC motor results in extremely reliable, low maintenance operation. Unlike the DC motor, there are no brushes to replace for ac motors. If run in the appropriate environment for its enclosure, AC motor can expect to need new bearings after several years of operation. In fact if the application is well designed , an AC motor may not need new bearings for more than a decade. Although the most common and simple industrial motor is the three phase AC induction motor, there are still disadvantages of ac motor. Expensive speed control The electronics required to handle an AC inverter drive are considerably more expensive than those required to handle a DC motor. However, if performance requirements can be met meaning that the required speed range is over 1/3rd of base speed AC inverters and AC motors are usually more cost-effective than DC motors and DC drives for applications larger than about 10 horsepower, because of cost savings in the AC motor. Inability to operate at low speeds Standard AC motors should not be operated at speeds less than about 1/3rd of base speed. This is due to thermal considerations. In fact a DC motor should be considered for these applications. Poor positioning control Positioning control is also expensive and crude. Even a vector drive is very crude when controlling a standard AC motor. Servo motors are more appropriate for these applications. 3.2.4 Synchronous Electric Motor A synchronous electric motor is an AC motor distinguished by a rotor spinning with coils passing magnets at the same rate as the alternating current and resulting magnetic field which drives it. Another way of saying this is that it has zero slip under usual operating conditions. Contrast this with an induction motor, which must slip to produce torque. These motors can be made to operate at leading power factor and thereby improve the pf of an industrial plant from one that is normally lagging to one that is close to unity. And the key feature of a synchronous AC motor is it operates at a constant speed, irrespective of load, from no-load to full load. As well, electromagnetic power varies linearly with the applied voltage. These motors can be constructed with wider air gapes than induction motors making them mechanically better.Whats more, efficiency of operation is usually high, especially in the low speed and unity power factor ranges. However, the disadvantages are also quite obvious. These motors cannot be used for variable speed jobs as there is no possibility of speed adjustment. And it requires external source for supplying dc excitation, cannot be started under load, the starting torque being zero, may fall out of synchronism and stop when over-loaded and so on. In addition, for some applications these motors are not desirable as for driving shafts in small work-shops having no power available for starting and in cases where frequent starting or strong starting torque is required. 3.3 AC Motor for Conveyor Through the comparisons above, transmission system with AC motors are simple to make and can be reliable.And for the low cost, AC motors are overwhelmingly preferred for fixed speed applications in our industrial applications and for commercial and domestic applications where AC line power can be easily attached. In fact over 90% of all motors are AC induction motors. AC induction motors are found in air conditioners, washers, dryers, industrial machinery, fans, blowers, vacuum cleaners, and many, many other applications. Using an AC drive for conveyor control allows the speed to be adjusted to changing needs. A partly loaded conveyor with a higher speed than necessary wastes energy and causes unnecessary wear. In controlling conveyors, AC drives also improve process control by enabling the collection of measurement and supervision information. The soft start of the conveyor with AC drives reduces the stress on gearboxes when the conveyor is started. This paper mainly deals with the AC asynchronous motors, because for industry like coal mine, the asynchronous ones are the mainstream with many successful applications.In the design of the induction motor, operational characteristics can be determined through a series of calculations. Performing these calculations can help the engineer provide a motor that is best suited to a particular application. 3.3.1 SYNCHRONOUS SPEED The speed with which the stator magnetic field rotates, which will determine the speed of the rotor, is called the Synchronous Speed (SS). The SS is a function of the frequency of the power source and the number of poles (pole pairs) in the motor. The relationship to calculate the SS of an induction motor is: Where: SS = Synchronous Speed (RPM) f = frequency (cycles / second) = 60 P = number of poles (pole pairs) 3.3.2 MOTOR SLIP The rotor in an induction motor can not turn at the synchronous speed. In order to induce an EMF in the rotor, the rotor must move slower than the SS. If the rotor were to somehow turn at SS, the EMF could not be induced in the rotor and therefore the rotor would stop. However, if the rotor stopped or even if it slowed significantly, an EMF would once again be induced in the rotor bars and it would begin rotating at a speed less than the SS. The relationship between the rotor speed and the SS is called the Slip. Typically, the Slip is expressed as a percentage of the SS. The equation for the motor Slip is: Where: %S = Percent Slip SS = Synchronous Speed (RPM) RS = Rotor Speed (RPM) 3.3.3 EQUIVALENT CIRCUIT To analyze the operating and performance characteristics of an induction motor, an Equivalent Circuit can be drawn. We will consider a 3-phase, Y connected machine, the Equivalent Circuit for the stator is as shown below: Fig 3.3.1 Equivalent Circuit Where: V1 = Stator Terminal Voltage I1 = Stator Current R1 = Stator Effective Resistance X1 = Stator Leakage Reactance Z1 = Stator Impedance (R1 + jX1) IX = Exciting Current (this is comprised of the core loss component = Ig, and a magnetizing current = Ib) E2 = Counter EMF (generated by the air gap flux) 3.4 Speed Control of AC Asynchronous Motor With respect to the use of AC asynchronous motor, when used with a load that has a torque curve that increases with speed, the motor will operate at the speed where the torque developed by the motor is equal to the load torque. Reducing the load will cause the motor to speed up, and increasing the load will cause the motor to slow down until the load and motor torque are equal. Operated in this manner, the slip losses are dissipated in the secondary resistors and can be very significant. So the speed control of an AC asynchronous motor in the industry world is quite important. From Equ.1 we can get the speed torque characteristic of the machine as Fig. 3.3.2. The curve is rather steep and goes from zero torque at synchronous speed to the stall torque at a value of %S. Normally Slip may be such that stall torque is about three times that of the rated operating torque of the machine, and hence may be about 0.3 or less. This means that in the entire loading range of the machine, the speed change is quite small. The machine speed is quite stiff with respect to load changes. The entire speed variation is only in the range SS to (1à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢%S)SS, SS being dependent on supply frequency and number of poles. Fig 3.3.2 Relationship between torque and speed of induction motor The coming discussion shows that the several speed control methods for induction machine, when operating from mains is essentially a constant speed machine. Many industrial drives, typically for conveyor in a belt transmission system, have typically constant speed requirements and hence the induction machine is ideally suited for these. However,the induction machine, especially the squirrel cage type, is quite rugged and has a simple construction. Therefore it is good candidate for variable speed applications if it can be achieved. 3.4.1 Applied voltage control One may note that if the applied voltage is reduced, the voltage across the magnetizing branch also comes down. This in turn means that the magnetizing current and hence flux level are reduced. Reduction in the flux level in the machine impairs torque production. If, however, the machine is running under lightly loaded conditions, then operating under rated flux levels is not required. Under such conditions, reduction in magnetizing current improves the power factor of operation. Some amount of energy saving may also be achieved.Voltage control may be achieved by adding series resistors (a lossy, inefficient proposition),or a series inductor/autotransformer (a bulky solution) ora more modern solution using semiconductor devices. A typical solid state circuit used for this purpose is the AC voltage controller or AC chopper. Another use of voltage control is in the so-called soft-start of the machine. 3.4.2 Rotor resistance control Clearly, the rotator speed is dependent on the rotor resistance. Further, the maximum value is independent of the rotor resistance. The slip at maximum torque is dependent on the rotor resistance. Therefore, we may expect that if the rotor resistance is changed, the maximum torque point shifts to higher slip values, while retaining a constant torque. Note that while the maximum torque and synchronous speed remain constant, the slip at which maximum torque occurs increases with increase in rotor resistance, and so does the starting torque. whether the load is of constant torque type or fan-type, it is evident that the speed control range is more with this method. Further, rotor resistance control could also be used as a means of generating high starting torque.For all its advantages, the scheme has two serious drawbacks. Firstly, in order to vary the rotor resistance, it is necessary to connect external variable resistors (winding resistance itself cannot be changed). This, therefore necessitates a slip-ring machine, since only in that case rotor terminals are available outside. For cage rotor machines, there are no rotor terminals. Secondly, the method is not very efficient since the additional resistance and operation at high slips entails dissipation.The resistors connected to the slip-ring brushes should have good power dissip ation capability. 3.4.3 Cascade control The power drawn from the rotor terminals could be spent more usefully. Apart from using the heat generated in meaning full ways, the slip ring output could be connected to another induction machine. The stator of the second machine would carry slip frequency currents of the first machine which would generate some useful mechanical power. A still better option would be to mechanically couple the shafts of the two machines together. This sort of a connection is called cascade connection and it gives some measure of speed control as shown below. Let the frequency of supply given to the first machine be f1, its number poles b