History and Films Black Robe Essay

In the films Black Robe, The Crucible, The Patriot, The Alamo, and Cold Mountain, the authors created historical inaccuracies for the audience of the generation they were made for. This means they would change some details to fit their idea of what the people felt in that time in history, to grip the audience and give some insight to the characters. These inaccuracies also helped to develop a point, even though a few minor details were changed, the audience eventually saw the whole picture and knew the story. In The Crucible, the director would have been hesitant to address the actual age of Abigail, 11, and John, 60, because the age difference of these two people being involved in a sexual relationship would have been so unacceptable. While the author certainly knew this was going on, it wouldn’t have been talked about in his day. This is why the director chose characters closer in age, to develop a point and show that those type of scandals had been occurring between younger women and older men since Puritan times, making the film also more realistic to its viewers. One major example of these historical inaccuracies, which is also found in Re-Viewing the Past: The Crucible, is that he took the language taken directly from trial records, but would sometimes alter the lines, leaving the movie with a historical feel and providing proof of the satanic possession. For example, he changed the words in the Lord’s Prayer from â€Å"hollowed by the name† to â€Å"hallowed be thy name. † These differences of the text and the movie aren’t negative, but just present more of an understanding of these historic events for the audience. The inaccuracies of these films do not harm my understanding of past events because they didn’t change the huge event in history that they were trying to give a picture of, they just altered minor details. If anything, the changes made by the directors helped me appreciate and get to know these historical figures even more. While using the text to make the movie exactly right, word for word, would be good for students studying the subject, it wouldn’t show the emotion of the event occurring or how the people involved felt. In many cases, this is what helps people to understand what is going on better they would otherwise. While these movies are about historical events, they are still meant to entertain people, any small, left-out details could easily be found in history books; which should be used to learn or understand the past from the beginning.

Prevention of Teenage Pregnancy Policy in the UK

Introduction This essay will discuss the current policies in place to prevent teenage pregnancy in the United Kingdom. Firstly, it will introduce the key concept of teenage pregnancy and discuss it against the context of the problems it creates. The current teenage pregnancy policy will then be presented and critiqued. Finally, a number of recommendations and conclusion will be drawn. Definition and Background According to the World Health Organization (WHO), teenage pregnancy is defined as pregnancy in a woman aged 10 – 19, whilst Unicef (2008) define it as conception occurring in a woman aged 13 – 19 (Unicef, 2008). On the basis of this definition, Unicef calculated that the teenage pregnancy rate in the UK is the highest in Western Europe (Unicef, 2001), and aside from a slight decrease in the birth rate to teenage mothers during the 1970’s it has remained relatively constant since 1969 (DoH, 2003). In 1999, the Labour Government’s Social Exclusion Unit (SEU) presented its report to parliament acknowledging the scope and seriousness of the problem, particularly with reference to damage to the mother’s academic and career progression, and the health of the child. The National Teenage Pregnancy Strategy The SEU implored the Government to commit to reducing teenage conceptions by 50% by 2010, and to address the social exclusion of young mothers. To meet the first aim, the SEU championed improved sexual education, both inside and outside school and better access to contraceptives. To achieve the second, it recommended the implementation of multi-agency government programmes designed to provide support in housing, education and training. To implement the recommendations of the report, the Government set up the Teenage Pregnancy Unit (TPU), which was located in the Department of Health, but required local authorities (LA) to produce their own strategies to reduce teenage conception by 50% by 2010, with an interim target of 15% by 2004. The majority of prevention strategies focused on four key areas; the use of mass media to increase awareness of sexual health, sex and relationship education (SRE) in schools and community settings, easily available services and information on sexual health and better-quality support for young parents to drop social exclusion (DCFS 2009). In 2000, the Department for Children, Schools and Family (DCSF) issued directives to all schools to ensure that SRE in schools aimed to enable young people to make responsible and well-informed choices about their sexual lives and desist from risky behaviours which influence unintended pregnancy (DCSF 2009c). LA gave their strong backing to ensure incl usion of complete SRE programmes into personal and social education lessons in all schools (DfES 2006). The methods of administering SRE differed across LAs. For example, the services of sexual health specialists were stretched outside clinical environment to encompass schools and community settings. Programmes outside of the school environment were implemented to expose teenagers to the realities of parenting and the advantages of sensible sexual choices, and included Choose your Life, Body Tool Kit, Teens and Tots, and the Virtual Doll Plan. The varying needs of culturally diverse communities were measured, and programmes were tailored to meet them. In LA containing the most at-risk teenagers, advanced SRE plans involving parents, teachers, school nurses, teachers and vanguard staff were made. Southwark LA for example, sought to improve the information of young people on early gestations, direct them to making reliable choices and in turn decrease the rate of teenage pregnancies ((NHS Southwark 2007; Fullerton et al 1997). The actions taken were in line with the goals and purposes of the agenda; studies have demonstrated that teenagers value a forum to discuss sex and relationship issues, and such forums are beneficial as they decrease the chances of earlier sexual contact (Allen et al. 2007; Fullerton et al. 1997). Nevertheless, local differences occurred that hampered with the distribution of SRE in the schools in some areas. Not all schools embraced SRE in their teaching syllabus, some of the teachers were uncertain of the degree to teach and were either uncomfortable or awkward about young people’s sexual matters. Some schools had a syllabus that excluded social or emotional topics, which play an important role (Chambers, 2002). Some areas included mixed sex classes; these were less successful as some teenagers, particularly females, felt inhibited (Stephenson et al. 2004). Additionally, some parents refused to support the policy and withdrew their children from SRE classes (Lanek, 2005). I n reaction to these difficulties, the Health & Social Care Scrutiny Sub-Committee (2004) made further recommendations, emphasising the responsibility of schools (particularly faith schools) to include SRE in the curriculum. Post 2010, the policy aims and objectives were to build on the existing strategy, and enable young people to receive the knowledge, advice and support they need from parents, teachers and other specialist to deal with the pressure to have sex, enjoy positive and caring relationships and have good sexual health. Policy Type Birkland (1984) and Lowi et al. (1964) have argued that knowing the type of policy one is dealing with will enable one to predict what may arise after the policy has been implemented. However, Wilson (1973) has criticized categorising policies, as some are too complex to be so simply defined. This is a criticism that can be fiarly levelled at the policy under discussion, which is both preventive and self-regulatory. It aims to reduce and prevent pregancies to bridging health and education inequality gaps that teenage mothers face, reducing child poverty and reducing the cost of teenage pregnancy on public funds. It is both distributive and pragmatic; distributive in that it permits benefit to a particular group (Birkland, 1984), and pragmatic in that it was designed to be practical and workable (Maclure, 2009). The Political Context According to Leichter (1979) contextual factors that can affect policy production can be political, social, economic, cultural, national and international, with some factors becoming major contributors to the policy. Taking the example of international factors, Levine (2003) states that interdependency of nations with the same social problem can affect the policy of the adopting nation takes to solve their problem. In the UK, international influences such as the European Union, WHO and countries facing the same high teenage pregnancy rate have all impacted UK policy on the same issue (Baggott, 2007). As a member state of European Union, the regulation of our national law by the Union takes priority in informing and sharpening our policies (Mclean, 2006). Politically in Britain, the ‘teenage mother’ has come to symbolise social decline. This began with the Conservative government in the 1990’s, who first politicised the single mother by describing her as typifying the prevalent moral standards (particularly amongst the lower social classes) that threatened society (Macvarish, XX). Following the election of the Labour party in 1997, this political perception was altered in line with the New Labour vision; a more optimistic national mood teamed with traditional Labour views on social equality. Under this perspective, issues such as poverty and unemployment were viewed as symptoms of ‘social exclusion’ whereby individuals were unfairly excluded from participating fully in society. Such communities were to be viewed sympathetically instead of being blamed, and it was within this context that the strategy evolved: reducing teenage pregnancy was one way of making the excluded included (Macvarish XX). Against this backdrop of poitical ideology, the UK has a democratic system of government whereby decisions and policies are made based on the influence of the stakeholders. The teenage pregnancy strategy had pluralist influences including the director of public health, consultants in public health, the director of social services, specialist midwifes and parents of teenagers. These contributions were multi-level; nationally, regionally and locally. At a national level, financial support and endorsement was provided by senior ministers, guidance and monitoring was provided at a regional level, and participation by young people and their parents provided the local input. Policy implementation Implementation is the process of turning policy into practice (Buse, 2005). The implementation of the teenage pregnancy policy was two phase: the first launched in 1999 and depended on ‘better’ sex education both in and out of schools, and improved access to contraception. The second phase came 10 years later in 2008 and relied upon different government programs designed to assist teenage mothers with returning to education or training, gaining employment or providing support with other social factors such as housing. The implementation of teenage pregnancy policy was also top-down. The purpose of the policy was to reduce and prevent teenagers from becoming early parents through support and increasing implementation of preventative guidance by the government and to combat social exclusion of teenage mothers. The policy can be seen to be self-regulatory because it was behavioral and aimed to provide the individual with the skills to make informed decisons regarding their sexual health (Bartle & Vass, 1998). There are additional factors that help to facilitate the implementation of policy; actors in policy, and experts in the agenda. Actors generally are individuals with power that can be excercised through influencing policy. They may be lobby or pressure groups and can include politicians, civil servants, and members of an interest group (Buse, 2005). The involvement of experts in the agenda setting was clear from the outset. The National guidance allowed the local areas to enlarge the scope of the policy using guidance. The involvement of local actors and the use of data from the local areas helped to motivate local action. Taking advantage of local knowledge or information facilitates matching policy to the specific needs of the teenagers. Analysis of policy successStrategy implementation related successFollowing the publication of the policy, the earliest the strategy could begin to be implemented was early 2000, but this was highly dependent on the employment of local teenage pregnancy co-ordinators. By the third quarter of 2000, 75% of these posts were staffed, rising to virtually 100% in 2001 (TPSE, 2005). With regards the communication strategy, the percentage of local areas that used media campaigns to reinforce the messages of the national campaign grew steadily from 2% in 2000 to 40% in 2001 (TPSE, 2005). The number of areas with at least one sexual health service dedicated to young people increased consistently from 68% in 2000 to 84% in 2001, while support for young parents with emphasis on reintegration into work and training rose to 70% according to TPSE (2005). Over the course of the strategy, 10,000 teachers, support staff and nurses were trained to deliver Personal, Social and Health Education in schools (TPAIG, 2010).Prevention related successThe original ambition of the teenage pregnancy strategy was to achieve a 15% reduction in under-18 conception by 2004 and 50% reduction by 2010, accompanied by a downward trend in the under-16 conception rate (TPSE 2005). The first phase of the strategy came to an end after a period of ten years without achieving its entire target. In the early part of tits implementation, the policy appeared to have moderate success. By 2002, the conception rate for under-18s had fallen by 9%, reversing the upward trend seen prior to the strategy implementation, and contrary to the relatively static rates observed over the past 30 years (TPSE, 2005). Success varied across the UK, but a steeper decline in conception rates in socio-economically deprived areas suggested that it had targeted the most ‘at-risk’ areas. For example, Hackney council reported a decrease in the rates of repeated abortion from 49% to 27% in under-18s, and they report that the majority of under-16s report not having sex due to understanding of abstinence. How successful the policy had been depended greatly on how robustly it was implemented across various local areas. In general, there was a reduction in areas that have carried out proper implementation, with some areas able to report a 45% decline, while other areas performed poorly due to poor implementation, with no reduction, or in some cases, an increase (TPAIG, 2010). However, the follow-up report ‘Teenage Pregnancy Strategy: Beyond 2010 found that the overall conception rate had fallen by 13.3% since 1998, falling well short of the projected 50% reduction. However the DoH add that births to under-18s had fallen by 25% over this period (DoH, 2010).They also point to the increase in access to sexual health services, information and advice as an additional indicator of success. The new phase goes beyond the original 10-year target, adding more content added to the policy, following an incremental process according to TPSE (2005). Incrementalpolicy according to Lindblom (1993) is a major achievement that is attained as a result of small steps taken which guarded against policy disaster. However, the new phase exists within a climate of austerity. The current downtrend of conception rates in the under-18 age group will be difficult to maintain against a backdrop of disinvestment, which has already led to widespread closure of specialist sexual h ealth services for under-18s.Gaps in the policyIn applying teenage pregnancy policy to the present situation, it can be said that the policy did not really look inward into the situation that the country was facing. It looked at the success rate of other countries without tailoring their measures to curb the problems specific to Britain. The policy is a social policy and as such it focussed on the social aspect of the problem without looking at the health issues that come with teenage pregnancy. Addiitonally, the time frame given to meet its target of a 50% was too short. Teenage pregancy is inextricably linked to both poverty, a social issue too wide to tackle in one decade. It is also strongly related to culture, and specifically the need to foster a culture of openess regarding sexual behaviour and health. This again is too complex to challenge in 10 years. Recommendations In the first instance, the coalition Government must address the shortcomings currently seen in sexual relation education (SRE). The former Government elected to not make SRE part of the compulsory curriculum, and as a result provision of SRE across the country is patchy. The Government should pass legislation ensure good practice such as SRE becomes compulsory. Additionally, refinements to existing SRE need to be made. In particular this should include devising ethnic and faith-based SRE programmes, which will better address the diversity of beliefs held in a modern multi-cultural Britain. Also, the deliberation of same-sex SRE classes should be completed and implemented (Fullerton et al 2001). More use should be made of robust team-working within communities, health sectors and schools in encouraging SRE, and the creative use and further training of more peer-educators to deliver the strategy within schools should be considered. Secondly, an approach which combines measures to prevent teenage conception and support teenage mothers must be in tandem to wider measures to address poverty and social exclusion. The loss of the Education Maintenance Allowance and the closure of many Sure Start centres disproportionately disadvantage the socio-economically deprived, and widen the gap in attainment between the rich and poor. Thirdly, the coalition government must be invested in making reductions to teenage pregnancy rates a priority. Ring-fencing of funds for specialist sexual health services and training in SRE must be guaranteed in order to not lose the small, but significant reductions in teenage pregnancy rates seen to date. Relatedly, strategies to address teenage pregnancy should be integrated into all future policies. Finally, the patchy nature of strategy deliverance across local authorities must be addressed. Areas that neglect to implement the strategy effectively should be identified, and supported according. Sharing of good practice across local authorities should be made routine. Conclusions In conclusion, this essay has outlined the teenage pregnancy strategy devised in 1998, its background and political context. It went on to discuss the outcomes of the first ten-year phase. At this point, it is still too early to say whether the second phase will meet its overall target, especially in the current economic climate, although the strategy focused attention on the problem and provided materials to help local, regional and national implementation of the strategy. As Britain remains a culturally diverse country, addressing this with regards teenage sexual health should remain a priority. In particular, adequate training of all personnel that will help and support teenagers in and out of school, increasing parental involvement in sex and contraception, and ring fencing specialist sexual health services should all be seen as important and complimentary factors in continuing to address pregnancy in UK teenagers. References: Allen, E., Bonell, C., Strange, V., Copas, A., Stephenson, J., Johnson, A.M. & Oakley, A., (2007). Does the UK government’s teenage pregnancy strategy deal with the correct risk factorsFindings from a secondary analysis of data from a randomised trial of sex education and their implications for policy. Journal of epidemiology and community health, 61(1), 20-27. BERTHOUD, R. (2001).Teenage births to ethnic minority women. Population Trends, 6(104):12-17. BONELL, C., ALLEN, E., STRANGE, V., COPAS, A., OAKLEY, A., STEPHENSON, J. and JOHNSON, A. (2005). The effect of dislike of school on risk of teenage pregnancy: testing of hypotheses using longitudinal data from a randomised trial of sex education. Journal of epidemiology and community health, 59(3), 223-230. BONELL, C.P., STRANGE, V.J., STEPHENSON, J.M., OAKLEY, A.R., COPAS, A.J., FORREST, S.P., JOHNSON, A.M. and BLACK, S. (2003). Effect of social exclusion on the risk of teenage pregnancy: development of hypotheses using baseline data from a randomised trial of sex education. Journal of epidemiology and community health, 57(11), 871-876. BOS, R. (2006). Health impact assessment and health promotion. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 84(11), 914-915. BREEZE, C.H. & LOCK, K., (2001). Health impact assessment as part of strategic environment assessment. Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe. Buse, K., Mays, N. and Walt, G. (2005) Making health policy. Open University PressOxford English Dictionary. 1989. 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press. CAMERON, M. (2000).A short guide to health impact assessment. London: NHS Executive London. http://www.londonshealth.gov.uk/pdf/hiaguide/pdf (accessed 1 February 2010). Chambers, R., Boath, E. & Chambers, S. (2002).Young people’s and professionals’ views about ways to reduce teenage pregnancy rates: to agree or not agree. Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care, 28(2):85-90 DCSF. (2009). Sex and relationship education (SRE). http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/policy/health/sre/. (accessed January 30, 2010). DCSF. (2009). About Teenage Pregnancy Strategy http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/healthandwellbeing/teenagepregnancy/about/strategy/ (accessed January 10, 2010). DCSF. (2009). Teenage Conception Statistics for England 1998-2007. http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/resources-and-practice/IG00200/ (accessed January 17, 2010). DCSF, (2008). Teenage Pregnancy Independent Advisory Group. Annual report 2007-2008. http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/health/teenagepregnancy/tpiag (accessed December 27, 2009) DCSF. (2005). Teenage Pregnancy Strategy Evaluation. http://publications.dcsf.gov.uk/eOrderingDownload/RW38.pdf (accessed December 29, 2009). DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND SKILLS. (2006). Teenage pregnancy: Accelerating the strategy to 2010. London: Crown. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND SKILLS. (2003). Sex and Relationship Education Guidance. DfES 0116/2000, 1-35. Available at http://www.dfes.gov.uk (accessed December 29, 2009). DoH (2010). Teenage Pregnancy Strategy: beyond 2010. http:// http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/11277/1/4287_Teenage%20pregnancy%20strategy_aw8.pdf (accessed July 25th 2012). DoH. (2007). Health impact assessment: questions and guidance for impact assessment.http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Legislation/Healthassessment/Browsable/DH_075622 (accessed January 17, 2010). Fullerton, D., Dickson, R., Eastwood, A.J. & SHELDON, T.A., 1997. 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SCOTT-SAMUEL, A., BIRLEY, M., ARDERN, K., (2001). The Merseyside Guidelines for Health Impact Assessment. Second Edition, May 2001. SEAMARK, C.J. and LINGS, P, (2004). Positive experiences of teenage motherhood: a qualitative study. The British journal of general practice: the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 54(508), 813-818. Sexual health charity, FPA. (2010) Teenage pregnancy factsheet: [Online]. Available at: http://www.fpa.org.uk/professionals/Factsheets/teenagepreggnancy (Accessed on 30 May 2012). STEPHENSON, J.M., STRANGE, V., FORREST, S., OAKLEY, A., COPAS, A., ALLEN, E., BABIKER, A., BLACK, S., ALI, M., MONTEIRO, H., JOHNSON, A.M. and RIPPLE STUDY TEAM, (2004). Pupil-led sex education in England (RIPPLE study): cluster-randomized intervention trial. Lancet, 364(9431): 338-346 Teenage Pregnancy Independent Advisory Group (2010). Teenage Pregnancy: Past Successes – Future Challenges. [Online]. 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Modern Business Environment

In modern business environment, knowledge is the most important resource, information regarding competition mainly concerned their market share and offer, showed to be a satisfactory volume of information. Nowadays requires information about the competition. These information refer not only to competitors market share and their offer, but also to the level and structure of their expenses, products and services quality-price relations, sales volume, scope of activities, cash flows, liquidity, solvency and profitability. Building information system that supports the management and decision-making, and that can be a source of competitive edge, is not an easy task. Problem is how to get quality and useful information. In the present commercial center, there are tons of items and administrations accessible to satisfy the necessities of people and organizations. Your capacity to recognize and abuse the highlights and related advantages of your item or benefit and exhibit how it is unique or superior to anything the opposition will furnish you with a focused edge. The edge or preferred standpoint will furnish your firm with the instruments to: Increment deals and piece of the pie. Enhance overall revenues for a given timeframe in new or existing markets. Guarantee your survival in to a great degree focused markets. Grow hard-to-duplicate promoting blends. A COMPETITIVE EDGE : To begin, you should assemble every one of the information gathered about your objective market patterns, clients, items and contenders. Recorded various market plan elements is a framework of the different market design components you should survey to identify your competitive edge. Each organization must have no less than one favorable position to effectively contend in the market. On the off chance that an organization can't distinguish one or simply doesn't have it, contenders soon beat it and power the business to leave the market. There are numerous approaches to accomplish the favorable position however just two fundamental kinds of it: cost or separation advantage. An organization that can accomplish prevalence in cost or separation can offer shoppers the items at bring down expenses or with higher level of separation and above all, can contend with its rivals. 1.0 BACKGROUND: Firstly the identification of your firm's strengths and weaknesses is an important task that needs to be accomplished before any competitive edge can be developed. The aggressive edge your firm picks will rely upon the reasons your client will purchase a specific item or administration. A competitive advantage means you need to offer some things your competitors don't. You need to know what it is your competitors do well, and do not do well. For instance, if your opposition has one formula that numerous clients go to that eatery for, basically impersonating their formula won't add to your upper hand. Rather than endeavoring to duplicate your rival's points of interest, fortify your own particular to make a special arrangement of qualities that can't be imitated. There's no compelling reason to enlist somebody to do what you can do yourself, however consider utilizing research firms to discover data that isn't freely accessible. Here are a couple of instruments you can use to secure aggressive knowledge. Online scans are a fast technique for finding aggressive data. In any case, this hunt will just give data that has been made open. On location perceptions of the contender's parking area, client administration, volume and example of providers' conveyances, and so on can yield valuable data about the condition of the contender's business. Overviews and meetings can yield a lot of information about contenders and items. Research reviews and center gathering interviews for the most part give more inside and out points of view from a constrained example. Aggressive benchmarking is utilized to look at the association's activities against those of its rivals. In making particular correlations inside an industry, an association picks up data about regular advertising rehearses, accessible workforce, and providers. Problems to Gain Competitive Edge over your Competitor in Business: Rivalry is great. Indeed, a sound competition provokes you to work more brilliant with the assets you have. To do as such, use your group's interesting gifts and construct a business contenders wouldn't set out test. Regardless of whether different organizations in your industry endeavor to undermine your costs and take your clients, ponder ways they can enable your startup to develop.Maintaining a strategic distance from lack of concern. Sole providers in an industry rapidly quit advancing essentially in light of the fact that they never again have any need to. Unfortunately, they unwittingly focus on keeping up the present state of affairs. Contenders have a propensity for keeping you on your toes.Building brand clout. Make it your central goal to emerge as the main specialist in your space of ability. Your gathering of people will appreciate your idea authority and normally pick you over different sellers.Creating mindfulness. Adversaries constrain you to evaluate your qualities and shortcomings. Utilize your superpowers to make a more exceptional incentive to clients. Comprehend your weaknesses and discover approaches to defeat them.Empowering separation. Contenders will reliably attempt to offer better client benefit, item quality and promoting. In sound markets, purchasers will request the best answers for their particular needs. Separate your contributions with the objective of making huge incentive for the clients you serve.Abusing industry patterns. Rivalry signals solid customer request. It gives approval to what you are doing. In new markets, this is a chance to advance a developing pattern that will get purchasers and the media amped up for your work.Shaping startling associations. Make organizations together with similar organizations. Trade innovation and apparatuses, extend the general market, cross advance each other's items and team up on novel research to instruct buyers. Mayb e one day, you may converge with, or gain, your greatest rival.Shared learning. Watch the opposition deliberately. The learning and assets they have might be both preferred and distinctive over yours. Effectively gain from how they oversee and develop their task. Before long, you will find approaches to apply those lessons figured out how to your business.Narrowing down a specialty. Somebody will dependably be superior to you at something – and that is alright. Clients merit the best items and administrations to satisfy their individual needs. To manufacture a productive business, concentrate your endeavors on making a littler fragment of the general market exceptionally upbeat. By narrowing your specialty, you build up an aggressive edge that prevents promote rivalry.Arranging long haul. Without contenders, most firms lose all sense of direction in the everyday exercise of keeping up their business. As different organizations join the market, you should begin testing yoursel f to achieve more.Organizing client needs. Rather than concentrating your vitality on exceeding the opposition, put resources into turning into a client driven association.Along these lines, you will help purchaser dependability and effortlessly shield against forceful providers or merchants goal on taking your customers. By the day's end, it is your clients – not your rival – who have the ability to represent the deciding moment your business.

Should Handguns be Banned in San Francisco Essay

Should Handguns be Banned in San Francisco - Essay Example In a point by point counter argument Guy Smith quotes a wide range of validated research (based on the theories of Florida criminologist Gary Kleck) to point out that ï‚ § the victims of most gun crimes are known felons, ï‚ § that crimes of passion are statistically rare ï‚ § the New England Journal of Medicine research Supervisor Daly relies upon is known to be seriously flawed ï‚ § there is not necessarily a causal relationship between the availability of handguns and suicide rates ï‚ § there is research evidence to suggest that criminals are less likely to target someone they know to be armed ï‚ § the police force are unable to prevent crime effectively and in any event have no legal duty to protect a specific individual One wonders how useful it is to compare and contrast San Francisco with a country like Japan which has developed very differently in terms of defining a criminal and the status of handguns. For example one is aware that there is nothing like the personal honor code of the Japanese in the US. One cannot simply compare suicide rates in the way that Smith has done without examining why the Japanese commit suicide in the first place. All that can be deduced from the research on suicide that Smith quotes is that successful suicides do not require handguns - - they will find other means. The problem with these figures is that they are taken out of context. It is not clear what percentage of crime involves the use of firearms.

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

Review - Essay Example The Southern African region is showing a better graph whereas other regions like Central Asia and Eastern Europe are not doing very well in the reduction. The article highlights the fact that in South Asia there has been a fifty percent reduction amongst the younger age groups. This is because of the takeover of the new president, Jacob Zuma who upholds work against this disease and advocates testing against the disease as well as the provision of the drugs against the disease. According to the Unaids, there have been many contributory factors throughout the world for this reduction of the number of sufferers of this disease. This includes the change in the culture and the awareness with regard to sex education. The release of gay men from prisons in such areas has also been helpful. Also the targeting of high risk groups of the virus with education and prevention methods has been a reason for the better results. Strong campaigns in certain countries are also being carried out with I ran being an example where condoms are provided in the jails along with private times for the men to meet their wives to reduce the risk of acquiring AIDS.

The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison - Essay Example Perhaps, it is through such attributes of the story that make it qualify as The Invisible Man. Earlier on, before joining the Brotherhood, his early experiences describe him as a naà ¯ve inexperienced person with natural charisma. He is an individual who harbors good thoughts of others, optimistic that everyone he meets deserves an equal measured of respect. He is a law abiding citizen who does not participate in most vices and mischiefs that occur in his neighborhood. The author lets the reader perceive the struggle of the narrator, who represents the African American culture in their struggles during the era of pre-civil rights unions (Orozco 22). The narrator at the beginning the story thinks well of others despite having every reason to doubt their trustworthiness. The narrator is determined to make it in a society that is racially divide and one that has ignored his human rights. Despite the humiliation he is subjected to by the society, the narrator displays patience and succumbs to his fate (Orozco 64). While still at the South, the narrator proves to be hard working, portrayed by his great oratory skills in public speaking. As a result, he is honored to deliver the same speech to a group of important white men who visit the town. He is eventually rewarded by a briefcase containing a scholarship to a prestigious African American college but after enduring a humiliating near-death blindfolded fight with other black men in a boxing ring. The illiterate nature of the narrator also comes out as he tries hard to imagine and figure out what the writing in his letter of scholarship letter. The narrator is portrayed as ignorant following the event that takes place in college when he decides to take the Mr. Norton to have a drink at a black owned restaurant. Mr. Norton is wealthy white trustee of the college and the narrator is mandated with the task of chauffeuring him around the college campus (Ellison 57).

Human resources management at Foxconn - 2 Essay

Human resources management at Foxconn - 2 - Essay Example It has been estimated that Foxconn currently supplies nearly forty percent of all electronic components required worldwide (Duhigg & Bradsher, 2012). Additionally, Foxconn generates a revenue of around 3.5 billion USD each year and employs around 1.2 million people worldwide, making it the single largest global employer (Business Week, 2013). In recent years Foxconn’s employment practices have come under intense scrutiny given a number of untoward incidents with Foxconn employees. The suicide rate in Foxconn workers shot up following 2010 in China while there was an intense riot in the Mexican manufacturing plant (Daily Mail, 2006). Human Resource Management (HRM) Issues and Solutions HRM Problems Foxconn has been blamed for providing workers with low compensation compared to other establishments. However, it must be taken into account that Foxconn’s Chinese plants are in one of the country’s poorest regions and hence people are willing to work for the wages offe red (Daily Mail, 2006). As long as labour supply and demand economics remain unaltered, the minimum pay of the workers in Foxconn’s plants will remain the same. On another note, there have been massive complaints that Foxconn tends to skip out on overtime payments even though workers are forced to work overtime. In certain cases, Foxconn employees have not been paid wages for various reasons without much proper justification. Additionally, there have been instances where work place accidents were either ignored outright or paid little attention to (Williams, 2012). This indicates that management attitudes towards safety are relatively low if not lax altogether. There have also been allegations that work place accidents are common at Foxconn manufacturing plants and often such accidents go unreported. HRM Solutions A number of different HRM solutions can be presented in order to deal with Foxconn’s current problems. This paper will limit its focus to Goleman’s Em otional Intelligence model and the Managerial Grid model in order to solicit solutions for Foxconn’s employment problems. Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence Goleman (1998) has declared that emotional intelligence is essentially the â€Å"sine qua non† of any leadership mechanism (Goleman, 1998). Emotional intelligence can be seen as the ability to recognise, evaluate and manipulate the emotions and emotional states of oneself and of other individuals. Goleman’s model (1998) asserts that a leader needs to be able to identify emotional symptoms in order to manipulate the worker to submit to the leader’s settled direction. However, it must be kept in mind that Goleman’s model (1998) has come under intense scrutiny on a number of different accounts and needs to be evaluated accordingly to provide solutions for Foxconn’s problems. For one thing, Goleman’s model (1998) has been criticised for being too qualitative in nature and of bein g unfounded through actual HRM practice. Goleman’s model (1998) and its derivatives do boast of quantitative tools such as the Emotional Competency Inventory (ECI) and the Emotional and Social Competency Inventory (ESCI) but the use of such tools has not been approved of except in academic circles (Bradberry & Greaves, 2009). The application of Goleman’s model and its derivatives to the world’s largest private employer, Foxconn, would make little sense as

Is it a good idea to use the term 'knowledge management in Essay

Is it a good idea to use the term 'knowledge management in conversations with top managers in our days - Essay Example In order to get acquainted with the major postulates of knowledge management we turned to â€Å"An Illustrated Guide of Knowledge Management† issued by Wissensmanagement Forum in 2003. This guide offers a very detailed description of objectives and benefits, basic concepts and logistics, and gives a precise description of implementation of knowledge management in practice. It becomes clear from the contents already that the â€Å"new† science covers such field of management as information and communication technologies and expert systems. The guide provides psychological and philosophical bases for the importance and necessity of knowledge management, explaining facts that are either well-known and widely-discussed or obviously far-fetched. They start with declaring the significance of knowledge and organizational learning for the success of any enterprise (which has been exhaustively discussed in the vast literature on strategic, business and operations management, as well as in that devoted to management of technologies, intelligent systems and the like), happily informing us (as if nobody guessed before) that well-trained and clever personnel contributes to this success, and claiming that â€Å"effective knowledge management not only forms the basis of successful innovation processes, but also greatly enhances an organization’s ability to innovate† (p.1). There arises the first question of a puzzled audience: have they found some new method of turning usual employees into creative and invaluable workers? Further, they provide a detailed scheme of cognitive processes connected with knowledge and memory (it stays unclear what a top manager needs it for – general education?) and introduce some cleverly-sounding terms (the purpose is still unclear). They speak of tacit and explicit knowledge and write many other abstruse things (p.2-7). T.D.Wilson (2002) fairly wonders how knowledge of an individual can be managed at all (incre ased and

Hell angels the Motorcycle riders Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Hell angels the Motorcycle riders - Essay Example It was not long before other chapters throughout California were established and the group gained increasing prominence. During these early years the insignia and many membership elements were established (Winterhalder 2005). Today for an individual to become a member of the Hell’s Angels they must be a white male, have a driver’s license, an American made working motorcycle, and can never have applied to be a police officer or prison guard (Winterhalder 2005). Similar to the mafia there are a highly structured variety of stages an individual must progress through – including hang around, associate, and prospect stages – before becoming a fully-fledged member (Winterhalder 2005). Today there are over one hundred chapters of the Hell’s Angels. Surprisingly these chapters are not limited to the United States, but are spread out over 29 countries globally, with the first international chapter established in New Zealand in 1961 (Winterhalder 2005). While the members of Hell’s Angels contend they make great contributions to society, they have also been involved in a high number of criminal incidents. Perhaps the most seminal incident occurred at the 1969 Altamont Free Concert, a free Rolling Stones concert (Lavigne 2010). The Hell’s Angels were hired as security for the event, but during one incident greatly overstepped their bounds and killed one of the concertgoers. This incident is only the most publicized in a long-history of criminal incidents. In recent years the Hell’s Angels were involved in a shooting in Sparks, Nevada. Jeffrey Pettigrew, president of the San Jose chapter, was shot in the back two times by members of a rival gang (Lavigne 2010). In 2002 another incident occurred in Nevada. Referred to the River Run Riot the Hell’s Angels engaged in physical conflict on the casino floor (Lavigne 2010). This incident

Hip Hop Culture Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 10750 words

Hip Hop Culture - Research Paper Example In order to begin to explore the history of the development of hip hop, it would be appropriate to familiarize with such a direction in music, like rap, which is translated literally and means - rhythmic poetry (rap with a stick). First, it would be appropriate to discuss how all this happened in America – motherland of hip hop, and then look at this event in Russian culture. The history of hip hop began in 1969 in South Bronx - the black ghettos of New York. However, the word â€Å"hip hop† itself did not exist yet - DJ Africa Bambaataa invented it five years later when this culture had required a general title. And in 1969 another legendary DJ, Cool Herk, coined another word: â€Å"b-boys† - short for â€Å"break boys† – â€Å"the boys, dancing in the breaks.† So, Cool Herk invented the word â€Å"b-boys†. Its original content was innocent, but society, as always, deciphered it in its own way, assuming the young shoots disco as â€Å"bad boys† – â€Å"hooligans.† Their girlfriends were named as â€Å"flygirls† – â€Å"fly†, pretty, outdoor shots dressed girls. As always, young people proudly raised the banner of these names on - and the culture of hip hop hatch to the world. Cool Herk moved to the Bronx from Jamaica - and brought the tradition of the Kingston street dances to which the DJ turns on the plate with reggae, and poets start their recitative. But it was not music, but in the street, the independence of these events and the leading role of the DJ. Prior to this, the American DJ was a hired ‘horse’ in the big clubs and put what the owners wanted it off.

Linux Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Linux - Assignment Example The processor performs the instructed task, then sends the results back to the application via the operating system. Linux is utilized by both personal and business enterprises which makes it feasible for any organization. It is evident that Linux is still highly used in server side. The benefits of open source has been endless for organizations who attempt to save up server costs. Organizations such as IBM have been utilizing Linux for decades now. Around 30% of PCs run LINUX, and 60% of servers run linux. Before understanding Linux, it is crucial to look at how it was developed. In 1991, a gentleman known as Torvalds became curious about OS and invented this system in university of Helsinki. He began to work on his own operating system which eventually became the kernel. Additionally, developers worked to integrate GNU components with the Linux kernel, making a fully functional and free operating system. At that time, the notion of open source system was not fully developed. It was Torvald’s value of OS that lead to development of this. Linux can be downloaded from www.linux.org Linux, which began as only from server side, has also manifested itself as a desktop OS, can also be used on all of these devices.  One of the most unique elements about Linux is the fact that it has many Linux distributions, or "distros". These distros allow end users to manage a remote collection of system software and application software. Just as java has plug-ins and jars, these distros can be d ownloaded and act together as a component which is crucial to developers. Moreover, this allows users to adapt the operating system to their specific needs. These distros are maintained via volunteers and developers who continue to strive to make progress.   Linux can be used in super computers, which is a huge benefit. Linux is fairly easy to use even though it is not object-oriented programming. The  user interface, also known as shell or GUI in modern days is utilized by the

Alina Humanities Essay Example for Free

Alina Humanities Essay PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES Upon completion of the course, students should be able to accomplish the following. 1. Understand and appreciate outstanding cultural expressions of the humanistic tradition. 2. Interpret and analyze selected artistic and ideological expressions. 3. Compare and contrast selected artistic and ideological expressions. 4. Identify causal influences in the chronological development of arts and ideas. 5. Applywhattheyhavelearnedaboutonecultureorculturalexpressionwhenexamining another. 6. Demonstrate how selected artistic and ideological expressions do or do not illustrate a cultural period or a stylistic concept. 7. Defend personal opinions regarding the interpretations of selected artistic and ideological expressions. 8. Demonstrate rhetorically effective writing appropriate for the study of humanities and meeting all requirements for college level writing. ***Please advise instructor if you will be taking exams at DSS. *** CLASS PROCEDURE OBLIGATIONS Class sessions will consist primarily of PowerPoint presentations that include representative images, texts, and audio from the humanist tradition. Students will be responsible for viewing/reading the powerpoints and/or other material prescribed for each presentation. When 1  engaging literary texts, the students must read the assigned pages before classes, be ready to pass written quizzes on the readings and be ready to discuss each respective day’s assignment. *** Using laptop computers or other electronic devices is not allowed in class. For each incident, violators will be docked ten points on the following exam. Classroom Etiquette: 1. No talking during class. Private conversation cannot and will not be tolerated. 2. No reading the newspaper, or other outside material, or doing other homework during class. 3. Due to the abuse of using computers in class in the past, I ask that you do not use a laptop for  taking notes. 4. Arriving late and leaving early are disruptive. Please be considerate of your instructor and fellow students by arriving on time. If you should need to arrive late or leave early, please notify the instructor. 5. Turn off cell phones before entering the classroom. Attendance Policy Classroom attendance supplements and enriches text materials through films, slides, lectures, and discussions. In addition, class discussions suffer without each student present, since all viewpoints in discussion are important. Class attendance and punctuality are important. TCCs  Catalog states, â€Å"All students enrolled in the College are expected to attend all classes, since regular attendance and regular application constitute the two most significant factors that promote success in college work. Until midterm during fall, spring and summer C terms, any student absent from any class for more time than that class meets in any one week (i. e. , two classes) may be withdrawn by administrative action (AW grade). † Tardiness and/or leaving class early both disrupts the continuity of the class and reduces other students engagement with the material. Both, therefore, will be counted as absences.  Since late arrivals and early departures constitute class disturbances, each instance of tardiness to and early departure from this class will be counted as an absence from an entire class session. Consequently, STUDENTS WHO ARE TARDY OR WHO LEAVE EARLY FOR ANY REASON, INCLUSIVE OF BATHROOM USAGE ON MORE THAN A TOTAL OF FIVE OCCASIONS PRIOR TO THE WITHDRAWAL DEADLINE WILL BE SUBJECT TO ADMINISTRATIVE WITHDRAWAL. STUDENTS SHOULD ARRIVE ON TIME AND POWER OFF THEIR CELL PHONES BEFORE CLASS BEGINS. Eight absences will lower your final grade in this course one full letter grade. A student with nine absences will automatically fail the  course. There will be no distinction made between excused and unexcused absences, so plan your absences wisely. 2 STUDENTS SHOULD ARRIVE ON TIME AND POWER OFF THEIR CELL PHONES BEFORE CLASS BEGINS. OBLIGATIONS I. Exams Students will be responsible for performing well on three exams. The course will be divided into three units, and a non-cumulative examination will be administered at the conclusion of each unit. All three exams will be comprised of slide identification, multiple choice, matching, short answer, and true/false questions. Students should bring a #2 pencil on the dates of the exams. IF FOR ANY LEGITIMATE REASON A STUDENT IS UNABLE TO TAKE AN EXAM ON THE ASSIGNED DATE, HE/SHE MUST NOTIFY THE INSTRUCTOR BEFOREHAND. Otherwise, no make-up exam will be administered, and failing to take an exam will result in an â€Å"F† for the course. The key to doing well on the exams: attending class, taking notes, and studying diligently. Each exam will include 20% extra credit. II. Writing Assignments Students will be responsible for submitting a total of three essays (600-650 words each). Each one of the three essays corresponds with each one of the 3 exams, and each of the three essays  will be a response to prompts aligned with each unit/exam — that is, each of the three essay assignments must be related to the readings for each exam. Further instructions and the essays’ prompts will be posted on BlackBoard. The due dates are specified on the calendar at the conclusion of this syllabus. Note: Students must complete successfully a short grammar quiz before submitting each of the three essays. Essays may include MLA prescribed in-text citations. That is, if you quote or paraphrase from a source, you must parenthetically cite that source after the quote or paraphrase. Also, you will  need to include a Works Cited page. ***If you plagiarize, your essay will receive a zero, and your overall grade will drop to an F. Grading Each of the students three exams and the writing assignments will receive a letter grade: 100-90 = A; 89-80 = B; 79-70 = C; 69-54 = D; 53-0 = F. The three exam grades will each count 30%, totaling 90 percent of the student’s final course grade; and the three essay grades total 10 percent of the final course grade. *Failure to submit an exam or essay will result in an F for the course. * 3 A student’s excellent attendance, punctuality, Discussion Board participation, and attitude  (citizenship) can count up to 10%++ â€Å"extra credit† toward the final exam grade. Conversely, a student’s poor attendance, poor punctuality, and poor citizenship/attitude (which includes talking, texting, â€Å"acting out† in class) can affect negatively the final exam grade. Tardiness or leaving early will be counted as an absence and will therefore negate a student’s extra credit for that particular class. Academic Honesty Policy Plagiarism: Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary states: to plagiarize is â€Å"to steal or pass off ideas or words of another as one’s own†¦to use created productions without crediting  the source†¦to commit literary theft†¦to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source† (p. 1371). Academic dishonesty is not accepted at Tallahassee Community College, and I will pursue and prosecute any instances of such dishonesty. ***Do not plagiarize—that is, do not use the research, ideas, or words of others as your own without giving proper credit to your source. This policy especially includes copying or paraphrasing written materials from gallery brochures, play programs, books, periodicals, encyclopedias, CD-ROMs, the Internet, or someone else’s paper. ***Do not cheat. Students who cheat or plagiarize will receive an automatic zero on the assignment and will be referred to the academic dean for expulsion from TCC. By the act of submitting written work or an exam, the student acknowledges that she/he understands the definition of academic dishonesty and is willing to accept the consequences for any violation. COURSE WEB SITE: This course has been designated â€Å"WA† (â€Å"Web Assisted†) in the schedule of classes, and the â€Å"WA† designation means: â€Å"Some use of computer online technology required. † In this regard a course web site has been established for students in this class. The purpose of the web site is to allow students access to important course materials (syllabus, writing assignment, study guides, presentation assistants, images, et cetera). The materials are intended as supplemental to the classroom experience; they should not, in other words, be viewed as substitutes for in-class presentations. Students may also use the course web site to communicate with one another by means of the â€Å"Discussion Board,† which can be found by clicking on the tab labeled â€Å"Communication. † Via the Discussion Board, students can introduce themselves to one another,  ask questions about the material covered in class, and ask questions about the course writing assignments (be careful, though, not to copy the answers of another student). Activating Your TCC E-mail Account If you have not already done so, you will need to activate your TCC e-mail account. To activate your TCC e-mail account, go to the TCC homepage at http://www. tcc. fl. edu/, click on â€Å"Online Access,† click on Student NetMail Guide; click on â€Å"Activate your eAccount,† and follow the directions. You will be given â€Å"Student eAccount ID (or Name) and a Password (or PIN) that you need to record and store in a secure location. You will need your eAccount ID and Password to access both the course web site and your TCC e-mail account. If you have any problems, call 850-201-8535. Finding the Course Web Site 4 You may find the course web site by going to the TCC homepage at http://www. tcc. fl. edu/, clicking on â€Å"Online Access,† clicking on â€Å"Blackboard. † After logging in with your username and password, the next screen should display the name of the course in which you are enrolled. LIST OF CLAST SKILLS TAUGHT OR REINFORCED: The State of Florida requires each student to demonstrate proficiency in certain College Level Academic Skills (CLAST). The students of HUM 2210 will have the opportunity to practice and develop their reading and writing skills. As for their reading, students will engage their Literal and Critical Comprehension Skills; and, as for their writing, students will engage their English Language Skills: Content, Organization, and Grammar/Mechanics (i. e. , appropriate word usage, syntax, spelling, punctuation). Advising The Associate of Arts degree offered through TCC requires the completion of six credit hours in humanities with a grade of C or better. There are three different tracks through which those six hours may be obtained. The common track runs through both HUM 2210 and HUM 2230, Humanities of the World I and II. If students pass HUM 2210, then, to fulfill the humanities requirement, they must also pass HUM 2230 (and vice versa). Another track runs through HUM 2740 and 2741, Humanities Abroad I and II. If students pass HUM 2740, then, to fulfill the humanities requirement, they must also pass HUM 2741. The third track offers two humanities courses from four different categories. Those categories include courses relating to (1) Art History, (2) Literature, (3) Music, and (4) Philosophy and Religion. For the third track students  must pass two courses, and the two courses must fall into two different categories. Students cannot fulfill the humanities requirement by completing courses in different tracks. If, for example, students pass HUM 2210 and then pass REL 2300 (World Religions), they have not fulfilled the humanities requirement. ACADEMIC ALERT! Students enrolled in the same college-prep or college-level course for the third time shall pay one-hundred percent of the full cost of instruction (which is the equivalent of fees paid by out-of-state residents) except in approved cases of documented extenuating circumstances. Students may not withdraw on the third attempt and will receive a grade in courses taken the third time. An appeal to take a college-level course for the fourth time may be allowed based on academic goals. The appeal process is executed through the Counseling Department. If a fourth attempt is granted, a student will not be permitted to withdraw and will receive a grade for the course. The counting of attempts began in the fall of 1997 and includes only those attempts at the Florida college where one is currently enrolled. Take your course work seriously. Consult with your academic advisor, make an educational  plan, attend class, and take advantage of the skills’ labs available to you. * * * PRESENTATION TOPICS AND RECOMMENDED READING 5 Unit I: The Earliest Traces of Culture Ancient African Egyptian Culture Ancient Mesopotamian and Hebrew Culture Ancient Hindu and Buddhist Cultures Unit II: Ancient Greek Culture Ancient Roman Culture Early Christian and Byzantine Culture Unit III: Islamic Culture Japanese Culture: chs. 16, 23 (if time permits) Medieval European Culture Renaissance European Culture IMPORTANT DATES Classes Begin Holidays: Labor Day Veterans Day Thanksgiving Break Monday, August 25 Monday, September 01  Tuesday, November 11 Wednesday-Friday, November 26-28 Last day to cancel registration/drop courses and receive a refund; last day to change from credit to audit or audit to credit Last day to withdraw from a course(s); last day instructors may assign AW Friday, August 29 Monday, November 03 1st Exam 1st Essay due Sept. 18 (Slide ID) Sept. 23 (Multiple Choice, etc. ) Sept. 16 2nd Exam 2nd Essay Due Oct. 21 (Slide ID) Oct. 23 (Multiple Choice, etc. ) Oct 28 Last Day of Classes Friday, December 05 Final Exam 3rd Essay Due TBA Day of the Final Exam TBA Final Exam: TBA Twelve Ways to make sure You Pass Your College Classes  6 1. Study the text, lecture material, or additional assigned recommended reading. Superficially scanning the reading the night before the exam â€Å"doesn’t cut it. † 2. Observe due dates. Late work, no matter what the excuse, will be downgraded or not accepted. 3. Do not urge the instructor to â€Å"cut you some slack† or â€Å"give you a break. † If he or she did that for someone else and not you, what would your reaction be? 4. Attend class. While you may think class is boring, the teacher might just provide some insights that will help you better understand the content of the course. 5. Come to class on time. If you really want to get on the wrong side of the instructor, just make tardiness a habit. 6. Do not play with your cell phone, iPod, or other electronic device in class. Unless you have childcare problems or are a first-responder, these actions tell the instructor that something else is more important than what is being taught. 7. Do not copy from Wikipedia, a Google search, or someone else’s work without proper citations. Teachers usually can identify plagiarism and material that is not yours. 8. Do not sleep in class. We know that school interferes with your social life, but do not make it so obvious! 9. Do not try to con the teacher. Telling an instructor that this is the last course you need to graduate or transfer will not earn you any leniency. 10. Do not tell the teacher that this class is the only one with which you are struggling and you have â€Å"A’s and B’s† in all other classes. Don’t give the impression that your other teachers are too easy. 11. Do not tell the teacher that you must have a good grade or you will lose your eligibility for sports, scholarship, or grant; lose your G. I. Bill; or be on academic probation. 12. Take your course work seriously. Try your best to learn.

Principles-Based Accounting Advantages

Principles-Based Accounting Advantages The primary advantage of principles-based accounting rests in its broad guidelines that can be applied to numerous situations. Broad principles avoid the pitfalls associated with precise requirements that allow contracts to be written specifically to manipulate their intent. A 1981 study sponsored by FASB found evidence that managers purposefully try to structure leases as operating leases to avoid incurring additional liabilities. Providing broad guidelines may improve the representational faithfulness of financial statements. Principles-based accounting standards allow accountants to apply professional judgement in assessing the substance of a transaction. This approach is substantially different from the underlying box-ticking approach common in rules-based accounting standards. FASB Chair Robert Herz has stated that he believes the professionalism of financial statements would be enhanced if accountants are required to utilize their judgment instead of relying on detailed rules. A principles-based system would result in simpler standards. Herz has claimed that a principles-based system would lead to standards that would be less than 12 pages long, instead of over 100 pages (BusinessWeekÂÂ  online, 2002). Principles would be easier to comprehend and apply to a broad range of transactions. Harvey Pitt, former SEC chairman, explained this as follows: Because standards are developed based on rules they are insufficiently flexible to accommodate future developments in the marketplace. This has resulted in accounting for unanticipated transactions that is less transparent. The use of principles-based accounting standards may provide accounting statements that more accurately reflect a companys actual performance. It can be proved by the statement made by Australian Securities and Investments Commission Chair David Knott an increase in principles-based accounting standards would reduce manipulations of the rules (Nationwide News, 2002). Financial statements that are prepared under accounting standards that clearly state the accounting objectives, have few, if any, exceptions, and do not include bright-line tests should benefit users. They should be easier to understand, more meaningful and informative, are likely to result in similar transactions and events being accounted for similarly, and more likely to reflect the economic substance of a transaction, in part, because there will be less opportunity for financial engineering. (Heffes, Ellen M ,2004) http://www.allbusiness.com/accounting/258377-1.html Disadvantages: A lack of precise guidelines could create unreliable and inconsistent information in the application of standards across organizations and make it difficult to compare one entity to another. For example, companies are required to recognize both an expense and a liability for a contingent liability that is probable and estimable. On the other hand, a contingent liability that is reasonably possible is only reported in the footnotes. With no precise guidelines, how should companies determine if liabilities are probable or only reasonably possible? The lack of bright-light standards would reduce the financial statements comparability and consistency. For example, how much income willÂÂ  General ElectricÂÂ  actually recognize on a multiyear defense contract under the percentage of completion method of accounting? Will this be comparable to the income reported by its competitors? And most importantly, will the auditors, many of whom have been caught behaving badly recently, abuse their trust and fail to apply the principles in good faith consistent with the intent and spirit of the standards. Principles-based accounting system generally requires preparers and auditors to apply professional judgment to implement and interpret the standards in the absence of sufficient guidance to exercise that judgment. There is a danger because they can be used to manipulate financial results. Since they have often set low standards for themselves in this regard (even failing to meet those), it is a big question if they will rise to the occasion. Advantages and Disadvantages of Rules-based Accounting Standard: Advantages: Rule-based standards are generally considered easier to audit for compliance purposes, and may produce more consistent and comparable financial reports across entities. Requirements are set out in detail and compliance with the rules can be more easily monitored and enforced. Disadvantages: Entities may search for loopholes that meet the literal wording of the standard but violate the intent of the standards. Rules-based accounting has not worked in practice. Critics argue that the present U.S. system does not produce accurate reporting. It focuses on checking the boxes more than portraying an underlying economic reality. It filled with specific details in an attempt to address as many possible contingencies as possible. This has made standards longer and complicated, and has led to arbitrary criteria for accounting treatments that allows companies to structure transactions to circumvent unfavourable reporting. For instance, lease accounting contains hundreds of pages of rules and interpretations while almost no leased assets appear on corporate balance sheets. The system has created an industry of financial engineering and structured transactions designed to circumvent the rules. Many believe that rules closing structuring loopholes will only result in more elaborate ways to evade them. (Raymond Thompson, 2009) http://www.picpa.org/Content/40856.aspx

Production Planning Incorporate with Job Rotation and Work

Production Planning Incorporate with Job Rotation and Work Thesis/Project Title: Production Planning Incorporate with Job rotation and Work Injury by  Multi-Objective Criteria Courses Taken/Grades: Course Name Grade ME 460 Automation and Robotics in Manufacturing 84 ME 887 Introduction to Microsystems 85 ME 886 Advanced Engineering Design Methodology 88 BIOE 898 Special Topic 88 STAT 845 Statistical Methods for Research 90 GSR 960 Introduction to Ethics and Integrity CR Average Grade to Date:87% ME 990 Seminar:January 27th, 2016 Expected Completion Date:December, 2016 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.1. Background and Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.2. Research Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 LITERATURE REVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 3.1 Production Planning and Scheduling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 3.2 HUMAN FACTOR IN PRODUCTION PLANNING . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 3.2.1. Human Scheduling in Technical System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 3.2.2. Human Work Related Injuries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 3.2.3. Leading Factors for Work Injuries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 2.2.4. How We Reduce Work Injuries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 3.3 QUALITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3.3.1. Manufacturing Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3.3.2. Dimensions of Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3.4 JOB ROTATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3.4.1. Importance of Job Rotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 3.4.2. Outcomes of Job Rotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 3.4.3. Job Rotation as a Cost Effective Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 3.5 WORK FORCE AGING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 3.5.1. Aging Effect Worker Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 3.5.2. Workforce Aging Effect on Production Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 METHODOLOGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 CONCLUSION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 TIMELINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 REFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background and Motivation In the last few years, the question of human well-being at the working place has come afore as a key issues in production planning and scheduling. The manufacturing productivity is affected by both the human and machine factors. However, much of the previous research has been focused on the machine aspect but the human aspect. The previous work considers not only the productivity but also the production cost, worker safety and machine utilization. Particularly, (Xu, 2015) demonstrated the significance of work injury to the total production cost. His work also showed that the effect of work injury can be reduced by designing a production system. Due to the increasing cost of work injuries as well as concern of health work place, both the government and industry have made an effort on preventing work injury occurrences. In 2005, the government of Canada paid approximately $6.8 billion dollars in benefits through its Workersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸ Compensation Boards (WCBs) organization. It is being realized that the cost incurred by work injuries contributes a large portion to the total production cost, and strategies are urgently required to tackle the problem of work injury. In 2000 to 2012 period, the total costs of occupational injuries to the Canadian economy was estimated to be more than $19 billion annually. The factors other than the production system design, which lead to work injury, are: employee boredom, fatigue, lack of motivation, lack of training, and mismatch of job and workforce age. Besides design of production systems, to remove or solve the issues related to work injury, there are three kinds of techniques: Engineering solutions, Administrative solutions and Personal safety equipment (Tayyari Smith, 1997). Job rotation comes in the category of administrative solution. It is about the rotation of workers among a number of non-similar workstations, where each worker requires different skills or techniques and responsibilities to do job (Azizi, Zolfaghari Liang, 2010). It enables operators to become multi-skilled by providing them with a greater ability to handle increased demand and large product variability (Michalos et al., 2010). When many jobs of different requirements and workers of different capabilities are involved, the job rotation problem becomes very complex. Due to the complexity of job rotation, there are implications of job rotation as well. If not done properly job rotation can increase the cost of production and also reduce the quality of the manufacturing system. Cost is a factor which is widely understood and studied but Quality is one of the most important but the least understood attribute of a system. Without quality, a system cannot comply with required goals and standards. Conventionally, production planning is mainly about materials resource planning. The materials include both the material for products and the machine tools for production of the products (Krajewski et al., 2005). Many techniques have been established to improve the effectiveness of production planning, to make a plan which meets the customer demand, satisfaction and cost with other features such as continuity and resilience of a system as referred to by Zhang and Lin (2010). Zhang defines resilience as a systems post-damage property i.e. the systems ability to recover its function from some damage. In the context of enterprises, Guelfi et al. (2008) defined the resilience as the capacity of a business process to recover and reinforce itself when facing changes. This calls for a scientific approach to solving this problem. 1.2 Research Questions The following questions come up: Question 1: How may job rotation significantly affect the cost of production especially with its connection to work injury (particularly related to the worker aging)? Question 2: How to define and model the quality of the operation of a manufacturing or production system particularly in terms of resilience or system disruption? Question 3: How to define and model job rotation in production planning and scheduling so as to make a balanced improvement in terms of the cost and resilience? 2. Objectives and Scope Objective 1 To model the job rotation for incorporating them into the production planning and scheduling. The model should consider the influence of job rotation to work injury (due to aging). Objective 2 To develop a model for the resilience of a production system with planning and scheduling in place. The resilience may simply refer to operation disruption. It is assumed that by meeting the customer requirement for products or jobs, the quality of a production system is guaranteed. It is also assumed that the product delivery time is satisfied by an effective production plan and schedule. Objective 3 To develop a production planning model for achieving the lowest cost and highest resilience. In this model, besides the decision variables such as production quantity, the variable for job rotation will be included. 3. Literature Review 3.1 Production Planning and Scheduling Production planning is a planning of production and manufacturing modules in any organization or industry. It utilizes the allocation of resources (employees, material and machines) in order to achieve the organizational goals. On the other hand production scheduling differs from production planning in that a schedule includes the information such as what system components (machines and/or humans) do what jobs at what times. Ideally, one may want to be the best for all the foregoing goals but in reality this is not possible as there may be conflicts among them. For instance, low cost production may likely lead to poor product quality. Nevertheless, an optimal trade-off among these elements does make sense. In fact, from a mathematical point of view, the problem is inherently a multi-objective optimisation problem. In practice, the multi-objective optimization problem is modeled as a single objective optimization problem while the rest of elements are considered as constraints or only implicitly assumed. For instance, often the quality is assumed to be fine as long as the production meets the quantity, and the time is implicitly represented in a way that the customer demand for a period of time say T is divided into a series of time segments (ti), and then on each time segment (ti), there will be the product quantity say di. Based on the foregoing discussion, the quality, quantity, and time are modelled. This research will further consider cost and resilience. The cost goal is conventional in the mathematical model for production planning and scheduling (Cramer, 2011). Elements that incur the cost are: material cost, machine utilization cost, human cost, human work injury cost, inventory cost, penalty cost, overhead cost, and so forth (Phruksaphanrat, Ohsato Yenradee, 2006; Swamidass, 2000; Gallego, 2001; Xu, 2015; Sule, 2008). The resilience goal is less known to the literature especially a joint consideration of the cost goal and resilience goal. There are some works on job rotation, which are categorized into the human factors in planning and scheduling, and will be discussed later in this document. Broadly, according to (Laperrià ¨re et al., 2014) Production planning does not work alone, it normally approaches with other production activities (Fig. 1) such as aggregate production planning, production scheduling and production control. Aggregate Production Planning (APP) determines what, when and how much the work force levels, inventory status and production rate required to achieve the market or customer demand. APP falls between the broad decisions of long-range planning and the highly specific and detailed short-range planning decisions (Chakrabortty Hasin, 2013).Production Scheduling determines the sequence of production for planned products on daily and weekly basis (Pinedo, 2005); see also the previous discussion. Production Controldeals with the real time information from the processes such as workforce and inventory level to take decisions to remove or avoid the system from disruption (Pinedo, 2005). In this thesis research, the scope is production planning and schedu ling. 3.2 Human factors in production planning Technological developments in the production system allowed the automation of the manufacturing processes and assembly lines, but employees or human operators still remain a serious factor in every production system (Chryssolouris, 2006). Employees or workers are the most important resources of any organization. The way in which workers are allocated to tasks can meaningfully affect a companys performance or productivity (Tharmmaphornphilas Norman, 2007). Therefore non-compatibility or mismatch of humans to technical systems may even cause injuries in the humans, which is the main concern of human factor engineering in production planning. To solve this problem, job rotation is the best technique to overcome this issue and it helps to increase the production efficiency or productivity (McKay Wiers, 2006). 3.2.1 Human Scheduling in Technical System Presently, industries assign tasks to employees according to their competence, skills or experience. This method helps to increase the system productivity and quality but it can results in worker to be assigned same task every time (Tharmmaphornphilas Norman, 2007). Performing the repetitive tasks may reason for musculoskeletal disorders, accrue stress, induce boredom, create fatigue and may lead to occupational illness and injury (Hagberg et al. 1995). 3.2.2 Human Work Related Injuries The behavior of a worker can be affected by several factors such as: (Digiesi, et al. 2009). Work Environment: (physical: microclimate, ergonomics, noise; social: human relationships, communication among the group). Nature of the Task: (discrete vs. continuous, repetitive vs. non-repetitive, motor vs. cognitive). Personal factors: (psycho-physical attitude, personal skill, age, sex). 3.2.3 Leading Factors for Work Injuries It has been noticed that there are some major factors which contributes to work injuries are: Employee Boredom: It can be related with performance reduction, general dissatisfaction, and accidents (Azizi, Zolfaghari Liang, 2010). Fatigue: Accumulation of fatigue causesmusculoskeletal disorders(Asensio-Cuesta et al., 2012) Repetitive Motions: Monotonous repetitive work has been identified as a major cause of work load related disorders (Michalos et al., 2010) Workforce Aging: In very repetitive short cycle operations, work-related musculoskeletal disorders tend to be more dominant in workers aged from 40 to 60 (Boenzi, et al., 2015). 3.2.4 How We Reduce Work Injuries There are three ways to reduce or overcome the work injuries (Tayyari Smith, 1997) .These are as follows: Engineering Solutions: It includes to redesign the work place, redesign tools and redesign job. Administrative Solutions: It includes the reconsideration of work schedules, workers rotation and career changes. Personal Protective Equipment:It includes safety shoes, hats, safety glasses and safety clothes. 3.3 Quality Quality is important property of any systems and usually refers to the degree to which a system lives up to the expectation of satisfying its requirements (Ivan et al. 2014). The definition of quality, standardized by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the American Society for Quality Control (ASQC) in 1978, is the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bears on its ability to satisfy given needs. This definition suggests that we must be able to identify the features and characteristics of products and services that determine customer satisfaction and form the basis for measurement and control. 3.3.1 Manufacturing Quality In terms of manufacturing based quality, (Crosby, 1979) defined manufacturing quality as quality is about conformance to requirement. 3.3.2 Dimensions of Quality Garvin (1988) and Grady (1992) described the dimensions for quality analysis in their book are: Performance, Reliability, Conformance, Durability, Serviceability, Usability, Functionality and Supportability. Quality is often characterized in terms of attributes for system quality such as modifiability, durability, predictability (Ivan et al., 2014). 3.4 Job Rotation Job rotation is about the rotation of workers among a number of non-similar workstations where each worker requires different skills or techniques and responsibilities to do job (Azizi, Zolfaghari Liang, 2010). In other words job rotation can be defined as working at different operations or in different positions for particular set periods of time in a planned way (Jorgensen, 2005). 3.4.1 The Importance of Job Rotation Implementing Job Rotation as a manufacturing method is beneficial to increase production efficiency, operator satisfaction and helps to reduce Work-related musculoskeletal Disorders (WMSDs) and labor cost (Cramer, 2011). Job rotation using lateral transfers allows employees to gain a wide range of knowledge, skills and competencies (Jorgensen, 2005). It provides a benefit or increase the firms ability to deal with change (Kher et al., 1999). As a benefit of job rotation to workers, it may increase workers job satisfaction (Cunningham and Eberle, 1990). Job rotation also yields such benefits to workers as reducing the injuries due to performing repetitive tasks as well as the workers fatigue especially if the worker is exposed to various muscular loads during task operation in manufacturing (Hinnen et al., 1992; Henderson, 1992). Carnahan et al. (2000) studied several methods to integrate the safety criteria into scheduling algorithms to produce job rotation schedules that reduce the potential for work injury. Job design related applications began to take shape with a scientific management approach in the 1900s. The study of management scientists such as Taylor and Gilbreth on the subject of job design becomes a foundation for scientific management. Further, many models were developed, which are associated with job design, social information processing and job characteristics approach by Hackman and Oldman in 1976 (Hackman Oldham, 1976) and these models have enormously important effects on increasing the productivity of human resources. Job rotation prevents musculoskeletal disorders, eliminates boredom and increases job satisfaction and morale. As a result, an organization gains a skilled and motivated workforce, which leads to increases in productivity, employee loyalty and decreases in employee turnover (Asensio-Cuesta et al., 2012). Job rotation is considered as an appropriate organizational strategy to reduce physical workload (Paul et al., 1999; Boenzi et al., 2015) in human-based production systems and it is the most wide spread labor flexibility instrument in the case of repetitive assembly tasks (Paul et al., 1999). 3.4.2 Outcome of Job Rotation 3.4.3 Job Rotation as a Cost Effective Tool There are several appealing factors for job rotation but one major factor is the relatively low implementation cost. Job rotation policy is very effective tool to overcome or minimize the work injuries cost or helpful in reduction of repetitive tasks, which leads to work injuries. Job rotation itself cost effective to apply in any organization the cost which only related to job rotation is training cost. 3.5 Work Force Aging The phenomenon of population aging affects the ageing of work force which determines work force availability. Industrial and academic research are required to investigate the influence of workforce aging in formulating new working time models and job rotation planning solutions. Field investigations on the effect of workers aging on production performance were carried out at the BMW plant in Dingolfing, Bavaria (Loch CH et al., 2010). 3.5.1 Aging Effects on Worker According to (Tokarski, 2011) aging affects the workers performance in three aspects are: Physically: (physiological, perceptual and motor processes, and declines in abilities, such as dexterity, strength and endurance. Cognitive: (Decision making Skills, Learning skills and forgetting phenomena) Emotions:(Boredom, fatigue and lack of motivation) 3.5.2 Workforce Aging Effect on Production Performance Changes in workforce age structure may have an impact on production system performance or productivity. According to Sà ¼lzenbrà ¼ck et al. (2010) age-related impairments have a negative effect on working capacity and productivity. In assembly lines the higher the average age of the assemblers, the higher the risk they cannot meet all the requirements (Buck Dworschak, 2003). The effects of ageing on employees physical and cognitive performances negatively affects the flexibility of human based production system (Boenzi et al., 2015). The factors which may affect the performance of a worker with respect to ageing are: Muscular Strength. Dynamics Actions. Endurance (Aerobic Capacity). Reaction Time (Responses). Awkward Postures (Flexibility). 4. Proposed Methodology A mathematical model will be developed in terms of Production cost. Components of production cost will be work injury cost, work injury prevention cost, inventory cost and conventional production cost. Different Scenarios will be developed considering workers of different age groups and how they can be rotated between job positions, when there is a work related injury to one of them. When scenarios are made, mathematical model formulated in the earlier step will be applied on the scenarios. The mathematical model for each scenario will form the basis for the use of Multi Objective Genetic Algorithm (MOGA). This Aggregate production planning problem emphases on developing a Multi objective Genetic Algorithm (MOGA) method to find the optimum production plan for meeting forecasted customer demand by controlling the work injury during the production. Multi objective function will be inserted along with its constraints. A general description of steps for implementing MOGA are as follows: Step 1: Generate random population of n chromosomes (suitable solutions for the problem) Step 2: Evaluate simultaneously the Multiple fitness f(x) of each chromosome x in the population Step 3: Create a new population by repeating four steps (Selection, Crossover, Mutation and Acceptation) until the new population is complete. Step 4: Use new generated population for a further run of algorithm Step 5: If the stopping condition is satisfied, stop, and return the best solution in current population Step 6: If the stopping condition is not satisfied then go to step 2 follow loop. MOGA parameters will then be inserted. Assumptions No worker is working on full capacity. It is assumed that a worker only utilizes 60 percent of his/her work capacity to fulfil the job requirement. Material is always available during production. Trivial solutions will be ignored. No hiring and lay off during the planning horizon. It is assumed that age is not a contributing factor towards work injury. 5. Conclusion There has been some work done on the concept of production planning in terms of work injury cost. But upon doing literature review, I realized that there has been no work done when it comes to applying work injury cost and job rotation to make a production plan. My work will focus on developing a production model by considering work injury cost and job rotation. There are quite a few benefits of this approach. Firstly, it will give us a model where workers of different age can be used in an optimized way in a production based environment. Secondly, in case of any absentee or injuries, an organization can develop a plan in such a way that workers of older age (above 50) are minimally exposed to physically intensive work. Furthermore, a model for job rotation will be made considering age of the workers so as to reduce work injury by minimal exposure of aged work force to physically demanding work. Lastly, due to application of work injury and job rotation, a cost effective way to model and run a production line (in terms of manual labor) will be done. 6. Timeline MONTH ACTIVITY January (2016) Preparation of set of research objectives and scope. Literature review. Presentation preparation for Seminar ME 990. February (2016) Identification of appropriate decision variables and constraints for model. March (2016) Completion of research proposal. April- September (2016) Advisory committee Formulation of model. Validation of model. October-November (2016) Compiling the final results. Thesis preparation. December (2016) Defence of thesis 7. References Buck, H., Dworschak. B., (2003) Ageing and work in Europe. Strategies at company level and public policies in selected European countries, in: Demography and employment, IRB, DE. Carnahan, B.J., Redfern, M.S., Norman, B.A., 2000. Designing safe job rotation schedules using optimization and heuristic search. Ergonomics 43, 543-560. Chakrabortty, R., Hasin, M. (2013). Solving an aggregate production planning problem by using multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) approach. International Journal of Industrial Engineering Computations, 4(1), 1-12. Chryssolouris G (2006) Manufacturing Systems: Theory and Practice. Second edition. 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