Monday, December 30, 2019

Behavior Goals for Individual Education Plans

Behavioral Goals may be placed in an IEP when it is accompanied by a Functional Behavioral Analysis (FBA) and Behavior Improvement Plan (BIP). An IEP that has behavioral goals should also have a behavioral section in the present levels, indicating that behavior is an educational need. If the behavior is one that could be handled by changing the environment or by establishing procedures, you need to attempt other interventions before you alter an IEP. With RTI (Response to Intervention) entering the area of behavior, your school may have a procedure for being sure that you attempt interventions before you add a behavioral goal to an IEP. Why Avoid Behavioral Goals? Behavioral goals will automatically withdraw a student from the progressive discipline plan in place in your school, as you have identified behavior as a part of the students disability.An IEP that has a BIP attached often labels a student when he or she is moved to another teacher, either to a new classroom or to a new schedule in middle school or high school.A BIP must be followed across all educational environments and can create new challenges not only to the teacher of record but also for specials, general education classroom teachers. It will not make you popular. It is best to attempt behavioral interventions such as learning contracts  before you move to a full FBA, BIP and behavioral goals.​ What Makes a Good Behavioral Goal? In order for a behavioral goal to legally be an appropriate part of an IEP, it should: Be stated in a positive manner. Describe the behavior you want to see, not the behavior you dont want. i.e.: Dont write: John wont hit or terrorize his classmates. Do Write: John will keep hands and feet to himself. Be measurable. Avoid subjective phrases like will be responsible, will make appropriate choices during lunch and recess, will act in a cooperative manner. (These last two were in my predecessors article on behavioral goals. PLEEZZ!) You should describe the topography of the behavior (what does it look like?) Examples: Tom will remain in his seat during instruction 80 percent of observed 5 minute intervals. or James will stand in line during class transitions with hands at his side, 6 out of 8 daily transitions. Should define the environments where the behavior is to be seen: In the classroom, Across all school environments, In specials, such as art and gym. A behavior goal should be easy for any teacher to understand and support, by knowing exactly what the behavior should look like as well as the behavior it replaces. Proviso We do not expect everyone to be quiet all the time. Many teachers who have a rule No talking in class usually do not enforce it. What they actually mean is No talking during instruction or directions. We are often not clear about when that is happening. Cueing systems, are invaluable to help students know when they can talk quietly and when they must remain in their seats and be silent. Examples of Common Behavior Challenges and Goals to Meet Them. Aggression: When John is angry he will throw a table, scream at the teacher, or hit other students. A Behavior Improvement Plan would include teaching John to identify when he needs to go to the cool down spot, self- calming strategies and social rewards for using his words when he is frustrated instead of expressing it physically. In his general education classroom, John will use a time out ticket to remove himself to the in class cool down spot, reducing aggression (throwing furniture, shouting profanities, hitting peers) to two episodes a week as recorded by his teacher in a frequency chart. Out of Seat Behavior: Shauna has difficulty spending much time in her seat. During instruction she will crawl around her classmates legs, get up and go to the classroom sink for a drink, she will rock her chair until she falls over, and she will throw her pencil or scissors so she needs to leave her seat. Her behavior is not a reflection only of her ADHD but also functions to get her the teacher and her peers attention. Her behavior plan will include social rewards such as being line leader for earning stars during instruction. The environment will be structured with visual cues which will make it clear when an instruction is happening, and breaks will be built into the schedule so Shauna can sit on the pilates ball or take a message to the office. During instruction, Shauna will remain in her seat for 80 percent of five minute intervals during 3 of 4 consecutive 90 minute data collection periods.

Sunday, December 22, 2019

Chapter 1â€Communication Skills as Career Filters - 8514 Words

Chapter 1—Communication Skills as Career Filters MULTIPLE CHOICE 1. Communication skills a. are not as important as technical skills for career success. b. are not necessary in todays competitive job market. c. are ranked by recruiters at the top of qualities they most desire in job seekers. d. cannot be learned; they are innate. ANS: C Studies confirm that recruiters rank communication skills at the top of qualities they most desire in job seekers. Your ability to communicate will make you marketable and continue to be your ticket to success regardless of the current economic climate. The good news is that effective communication can be learned. PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 2 OBJ: Blooms Taxonomy: Comprehension NAT: AACSB: Tier†¦show more content†¦a. The number of telecommuting employees is expected to decline in the future. b. All companies assign offices for employees. c. Many employees today no longer need an office; they can work anytime and anywhere. d. Workers today spend more time in offices than workers in the past. ANS: C Technology advances allow todays employees to work anytime and anywhere with just a mobile phone and a wireless computer, causing the number of telecommuting employees to increase. PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 7 OBJ: Blooms Taxonomy: Comprehension NAT: AACSB: Tier 1---Reflective Thinking; Tier 2---Conclusion | AACSB: Tier 1---Information Technology; Tier 2---Communication Evolution TOP: Communication Skills: Your Ticket to Success 7. Which of the following statements is correct? a. Ethics is a priority for many businesses. b. Because of economic concerns, American companies are relying on local markets. c. Most companies encourage workers to work independently. d. Todays businesses are expanding their hierarchies to meet the demands of their workers and their competition. ANS: A After recent scandals, many businesses have a renewed interest in ethics and a dedication to regain public trust. In addition, these companies have expanded to global markets and have reduced layers of management to remain competitive. Companies also expect employees to work in teams more than ever. PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 6-7 OBJ:Show MoreRelatedChapter 1 Review Questions Business Communications Essay1171 Words   |  5 PagesBUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS—CHAPTER 1—CHAPTER REVIEW 6. | In what ways do communication skills act as a career filter? Page 2 | Your ability to communicate will make you marketable and continue to be your ticket to success regardless of the economic climate. | 7. | Do business professionals think that college graduates today are well prepared for the communication and writing tasks in the workplace? Page 2-3 | No. It is said that many college graduates failed the writing test because thereRead MoreThe Role Of Mentee And The Mentor Recognize Their Abilities And Limitations2489 Words   |  10 Pages1.Mentoring helps both the mentee and the mentor recognize their abilities and limitations, thus highlighting areas for future development. It helps prompt thought about career development and come to a realistic conclusion about their career potential. It can help increase the motivation of both the mentee and the mentor. The mentee gains a new direction or perspective while the mentor feels a sense of achievement when their mentee succeeds. It will develop communication skills. As well as the obviousRead MoreWhat Does It Mean For A New Business Environment?1112 Words   |  5 PagesEvolution is upon us in the business industry. Like the caterpillar who morphs into a beautiful butterfly, many companies are â€Å"Going Teal,† adapting to a new business environment that will help the or ganization thrive and move forward to the next chapter. What does it mean to go Teal? â€Å"Life is a journey, not a destination.† This statement applies to business organizations because it is difficult to have pre-planned goals and set the direction of a business in an ever changing environment in whichRead MoreHow to Improve Presentation Skill3884 Words   |  16 PagesChapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Definition of research problem Your presentations skills are just as important as the information you are presenting. Presentation skills are important for every individual when you have the need to present yourself. It is not only essential for your studying but also for future career. When you are applying for a job, you have to present yourself as a sincere applicant who is ready to improvise the organisation using his or her technical and non-technicalRead MoreRape Is Not On The Top Of My Safety Concerns1557 Words   |  7 Pages1.(a) STI Risk Scale, Staying Safe from Rape, Evaluating Sexually Harassing Behaviors, and What Turns You On? (b)STI Risk Scale. I have very low risk of receiving an STI from a potential partner. I am a cautious person in general, especially when it comes to my health. The only thing I noted as a 4 were the two statements asking about comfortability discussing sex and STIs with doctors or health professionals and sexual partner. I honestly do not know how I would feel talking about those issuesRead MoreStudent Record System3355 Words   |  14 PagesCHAPTER 1: THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTINGS 1.1: INTRODUCTION Education had been industrialized for the past centuries. From teaching and learning under a tree to developing the minds and skills of students through effective, efficient and modern way. Educational Institutions nowadays are focusing their mission and vision in the quality of education. To do this, they are equipped with numbers of professionals who will be the best asset in the course of education, the FacultyRead MoreThe Industrial Attachment Report7144 Words   |  29 Pages2012TABLE OF CONTENTSDeclaration †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ | | Dedication †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ | 4 | Abstract †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. | 5 | Acknowledgement†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. | 6 | CHAPTER ONE†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.INTRODUCTION†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.1.0Purpose†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦1.1 Scope†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã ¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..1.2 Location Of University†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Read MoreFundamentals of Hrm263904 Words   |  1056 Pagescom/go/permissions. To order books or for customer service please, call 1-800-CALL WILEY (225-5945). DeCenzo, David A, Robbins, Stephen P. Fundamentals of Human Resource Management—10th ed. ISBN-13 978-0470-16968-1 Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Brief Contents PA RT 1 Chapter 1 Chapter 2 UNDERSTANDING HRM The Dynamic Environment of HRM 2 Fundamentals of Strategic HRM 28 PART 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 THE LEGAL AND ETHICAL CONTEXT OF HRM Equal Employment OpportunityRead MoreOverview of Hrm93778 Words   |  376 Pageswork in HRM or not, most of these elements will affect you at some point in your career. Either you will be working with some organizations or having people working for you, in both cases you will be dealing with people. To be understandable and lively means that we need to communicate you. We start every chapter with learning objectives. The most important thing you will get out of this course are the basic skills required to succeed in today’s environment which are, you must be able to communicateRead MoreAn Effective Performance Management System1991 Words   |  8 PagesSection 1: Introduction The theme of this paper is to formulate an effective performance management system, incorporate the HR concepts needed to manage that system, identify any strengths or weaknesses with the plan provide recommendations to implement the performance management plan. The references used will come from Chapt er 8-10 of the textbook and several other web based sources. Section 2: Content. The subject of my research paper and performance management system will be an organization

Saturday, December 14, 2019

Project Management-Mb0049 Free Essays

Master of Business Administration-MBA Semester 2 Project Management – MB0049 – 4 Credits (Book ID: B1138) Assignment Set- 1 (60 Marks) Note: Each question carries 10 Marks. Answer all the questions. Q. We will write a custom essay sample on Project Management-Mb0049 or any similar topic only for you Order Now 1 Comment on the following a. Importance of DMAIS in project management cycle b. Knowledge areas of project management Q. 2 Write few words on: a. Project Characteristics b. WBS c. PMIS d. Project Management strategies-Internal external Q. 3 What are the various SCMo soft wares available in project management?Explain each in brief. Q. 4 List the various steps for Risk management. Also explain GDM and its key features. Q. 5 Answer the two parts: a. Importance of data management in project management-Comment. b. What is the significance of reviewing ROI? Q. 6 XYZ Company implements CMMI level-03. To make further changes it decides on starting a new division in the organization. It decides to advance the existing project management. What are the steps to be followed by the organization to drive project management to a new horizon?Fall 2010(July-Dec) Master of Business Administration-MBA Semester 2 Project Management – MB0049 – 4 Credits (Book ID: B1138) Assignment Set- 2 (60 Marks) Note: Each question carries 10 Marks. Answer all the questions. Q. 1 Q. 2 Providing adequate resource is key to productivity-Comment. Compare the following: a. Traditional Vs. Projectised Organization. b. Bottom-up Vs. Top-down estimation Q. 3 Q. 4 Q. 5 List out the macro issues in project management and explain each. Describe the traits of a professional manager in details?List the major participants of project review process. Also highlight roles and responsibilities of each. Q. 6 ABC organization has been in software business since last 20 years. The senior management feels that although they are making profits, but the profit on an average is the same each year. They decide that they would make some additions to the business and decided to go ahead with development of some high technology for better profits. Can you suggest some guidelines, which the management should follow in this venture? How to cite Project Management-Mb0049, Papers

Thursday, December 5, 2019

Management Strategy & Decision Making-Free-Samples for Students

Question: Discuss about a Workshop Case. Answer: AIR ASIA Case Study The case study involves; The strategies and decisions that led to diversification of AirAsia and the Tune Group across many countries. The strategies the management use to maintain the lowest cost operation in their airline. Strategies they use to manage their profits and operate in airline and also engage in external engagements by sponsoring organizations and several firms. The strategies and decision made for a continuous profit making leading to the best airline in Asia During the launch of AirAsia the management had spasmodic issues as they tried to venture and diversify the Air Asia, some of the issues included; Application of the latest technology as it needed a very huge investment for easy links identification across similar or different geographical markets. Fuel price increase which lead to an increase in operational cost bringing in the urge for appropriate use of resources to help diversification in the air line. The number of staff was less due to low cost operation in the company having a low corporate level strategy led to creation of joint interdependence between business units. Trouble creation during the peak hours due to less number of employees in order to minimize cost in the process of diversification. Pressure to handle tough competition from other airlines before decisions are arrived to pursue a defensive or offensive strategies for value achievements Finding possible means to achieve safety in their airline as they there were sudden accidents to achieve best performance under their ownership. The means to let the passengers get experience on their airline by letting them know its the safest mean of transport where the Air Asia corporate level strategies select strategic positions to increase the airline value. Transfer of core corporate level as they got more experience and critical knowledge to business success thus posting them into new management positions.

Thursday, November 28, 2019

Inferno. Book 2. Last Days Review Essay Example

Inferno. Book 2. Last Days Review Paper Essay on Inferno. Book 2. Last Days Strange things are happening on the streets of New York. The population behaves sometimes quite inexplicable. From the windows of apartments are thrown furniture and luxury goods, more and more people become detached and wild, black water flowing out of the fire hydrants, nooks and crannies of the city littered with garbage mountains. Everywhere swarming pack of rats and stray cats whimsical, capping the fear of everyone who passes by. Metro was the most horrible place in the city, which is trying to get round. There, in the deep and dark underground tunnels lurking something terrible. An ancient evil tries to break out and destroy all life. Only the power of the new army to fight him. But the creation of this army requires an enormous amount of human victims. Civilization is threatened, coming epidemic, mysterious and inevitable. In this rapidly evolving chaos of a group of young people decided to create a musical group. Passion for the music takes over and forces the children to take risks, no matter what the obstacles. They combine their talents and create a wonderful, magical rocking music. Their tunes live, attractive, charming. In them is hidden a mysterious force that can cause unfathomable consequences, which a group of young artists did not even think. Whether their music end of the world to prevent? Or cause it Continued Novels Westerfeld The Last Days can be considered as an independent work only with a slight hint of the first part. New characters, new story, new perspective on what is happening. If the Army of the Night was permeated with rationality and scientific approach that reflects the characteristic of the parasite, particularly strain and its causes, the Last Days Vesterfeld feeds the feelings of the reader, rather than logic. The whole plot is tied to the relationship between music and the band We will write a custom essay sample on Inferno. Book 2. Last Days Review specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Inferno. Book 2. Last Days Review specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Inferno. Book 2. Last Days Review specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Vesterfeld create interesting and colorful characters:. Bogatatenkaya, brilliant keyboard player The girl, a couple of cronies guitarists, is not completely healthy, but talented girl drummer playing on buckets of paint, and the lead singer, whose singing causes a loading dose of emotions. It is worth mentioning that some of the group members are not quite human, or rather people with improper for human abilities. The novel The Last Days has an interesting structure and narrative style. All the chapters of this book are the names of musical groups, a brief description of which the author cites in the end. Each new chapter is told from the face of one of the five main characters members of the newly founded group. This fully gives an idea of ​​their characters. Such a method of storytelling helps to consider in detail the attitudes, emotions, feelings of each storyteller. In summary, we can say that Vesterfeld wrote entertaining apocalyptic teenage fiction with vivid characters and inviting music.

Monday, November 25, 2019

Family in the Media Today Essay Example

Family in the Media Today Essay Example Family in the Media Today Essay Example Family in the Media Today Essay Example The media has been credited with spreading numerous ideologies that have shaped the definition of life both in the United States and beyond. This means that the media in one way or another is a reflection of the societal norms as perceived and believed by the people. While some people would argue that the media shapes the thoughts of the people, it is evidently arguable that the society is reflected upon by the media. The media has to be able to sell and to do this; they must appeal to the audience by being relevant in whatever they do. Television Illustrating Family The fact that the media industry has grown in leaps and bounds over the decades implies that they have so far been doing the right thing. This only ascertains that the media is a reflection of the society such that whatever ideas are prevailing in the media must be the ideas that prevail within a given society. Over the years, the American media has undergone a number of changes with regards to their presentation of the family. Initially, families comprised of loving parents and obedient children. The father figures back then may have been, in some cases, unorthodox so to speak, but they loved and provided for their families to the best of their abilities. The mothers, on the other hand, were always the loving and caring kind, with unlimited patience and enough good advice to go around. Today, however, the typical family as represented in the American media is flawed with all sorts of challenges. Most programs even go ahead to show broken homes with divorced parents and fights about child support and custody among other things. The question thus stands is whether it is the society that has changed or simply the media has adapted a different perspective on the concept of the family. This paper will argue that the society has changed and that today’s families are not like those that our parents were brought up in. The media thus simply reflects on what the society has become, and the evident changes with regards to how families are presented can actually be traced back to the real life settings in today’s families. This paper will be based on a number of secondary sources on how the media has been representing families over the past couple of decades. The Media as a Reflection of the Society In â€Å"The Changing Face of the American Family†, Tim Stanley explores the phases that the American media has taken the definition of family. At first, the family as shown in The Cosby Show was a situation in which the father was the head of the family and had to remain unchallenged by the rest of the members. In this show, the media clearly stepped out of the societal norm of love and acceptance regardless of the actions or circumstances into a zone where the father knew best and was thus always right. While it could be argued that the media instilled this type of parenting in the American population, it would be insincere to say that the attitude came from the media. It was a strict form of parenting that did exist but was considered traditional since the media was showing more of liberal methods of parenting and definitions of the family as a shelter of love and acceptance. The family in this 1984 sitcom is a loving family headed by a working father who wants the best for his family (Stanley 9). This is in more ways than one a perfect family, where everyone lives by the rules, and in the end, they are all happy. â€Å"When Is Mommy Coming Home? A Content Analysis of Spillover in Parenthood† by Barbara Prince considers the effects of modern day parenting on the children and on the parents as well. In the article, the author cites that as children watch more TV and parents spend more time at work, the life as shown in the media is becoming more realistic than not. The study uses the TV series Parenthood to prove this fact, with the help of real research on working parents and their families. In this study, it is established that the story in Parenthood actually happens in the lives of the American people today. This simply means that while parents are out working, the children have to be entertained with stories that they can actually relate to. The media thus plays to the experiences of their audiences just so they can make profits and get good ratings. Basically, the media in this case is useful in mirroring the society and giving the people a version of the truth as they know it (Pri nce 32). Parenthood is a TV series that shows just how parents live their lives, trying to balance work and family and often failing at one if not both. This show presents a modern day family where parenting is inadequate in all senses of the word. â€Å"A Modern Family: The Performance of Family and Familialism in Contemporary Television Series† by Jennifer M. Fogel speaks of a devotion to protect the conservative image of the family even when the definition does not work so well in real life. The media is seen to bring out the undertones of conservativeness, unconditional love and comfort within the nuclear family as well as some kind of restricted mannerism that indicates an inclination towards perfection. While this author argues that the media today represents the consciousness of the society with regards to how people would like a family to be, she also contends to the idea that the TV shows often bend towards reality by giving the story as it should be (Fogel). This could possibly be because the shows need to appeal to the audience by being relevant to their experiences, and they should be able to somehow relate to the actors. This article argues that while the families in today’s media are mostly flawed wi th too much drama and conflicts, they have some subconscious undertones of the old-time families. This may be a way of showing that even in the changing face of the social construction of a family, the initial foundations of unconditional love, comfort and some level of conservativeness remain intact, even if only with a light touch. In Beneath Family Role Portrayals: An Additional Measure of Communication Influence Using Time Series Analyses of Turn at Talk on a Popular Television Program by James Honeycutt, Lynn Wellman and Mary Larson, the authors contend that the TV programs are used to teach families about communication among other things. The authors argue that while these programs have to be appealing and relevant to the audience, if they are to get good ratings, they are often used in such a way that they are also informative and educative to the audience by applying a lot of relevant techniques. This function of the media is found in the fact that families spend more time watching TV than having actual conversations, and thus it is important for them to find some useful lessons in the media. This article brings out the possibility that the media shapes the lives of the people, but it can also be understood to imply that the media is tailored to suit the needs of the audience (Honeycutt, Lynn and Larson 5 4). In a case where the media is used to teach communication to the families, it must have been that the families have been found wanting in the way that they communicate with each other. This would imply that the needs of the family are established before the media is used to meet these needs. In this way, the needs of the society shape the actions of the media. All these articles and studies agree to the idea that the media is only a reflection of the society with regards to what people believe, or want to believe. The media thrives on the ability to make sales and impress the audience, and it is thus compelled to be relevant to the audience in whatever subject they choose to pursue. In one way or another, the media is defined by the society such that whatever is seen in the media and accepted by the masses is a true reflection of what the society considers as normal and right. The thoughts and opinions reflected in the American TV shows are thus a representation of the attitudes of people with regards to the subject in question. Family in the Media In the past, the family was defined as a haven of perfection. It was all about keeping up appearances, obeying the elders and basically playing by the rules. The children were expected to do right by their parents while parents were always right. Generally, the society created a notion that family equaled perfection, and it is no wonder that it was considered as a pivotal aspect in defining individuals. In one way or another, the family was a great place to be, and every member of the society was groomed to be a part of this once they became adults. Rather than striving to attain happiness, people lived to start families and be ‘perfect’ as families had come to be defined (Neuhaus 770). Perfection was the key aspect, and no one wanted to be left out. At the same time, however, people had to deal with other pressures including working and being parents. As a result, these pressures, especially amongst the working families, may have contributed to the change in the family configuration. Gradually, families became conflicting with numerous flaws and kinks that tainted the notion of perfection and thus the ideal family crumbled to pieces. As the idea of perfection was swept away by the constraints of modern living along with the need to adopt modernist attitudes, the family was strained with family ties being put to the test and often crumbling under extreme pressures. The masses stopped associating families with perfection and rather began to accept the challenges that were experienced in daily living. This is what the new definition of a family became: a unit that has flaws and challenges but often stuck together at the end of it, all due to understanding and loyalty. This new definition was thus embraced and propagated by the media too as it suited all the different circumstances that families had to go through. There were instances of betrayal by family, conflicting loyalties, forgiveness and sometimes lifelong rifts that became irreconcilable. These experiences eventually dictated the definition of a normal family in the American society. Initially, family shows were those like The Cosby Show, with perfect families where the father was a good provider struggling to make ends meet, the mother a homemaker with a social life and the children all trying to be rebellious and yet respectful and obedient to their parents. However, as this situation changed, the shows also changed. From the perfect families, TV shows started embracing the changes in reality too by presenting families that in any way could not be considered perfect. There came shows such as My Wife and Kids, The War at Home, The Modern Family among others. All these shows present an image that can be considered more realistic based on the family setting today. While often sticking to the concept of a nuclear family, these shows bring out the conflicts in both the nuclear and extended settings. In The War at Home, the nuclear family has numerous challenges, and the children are in their teenage years. Then there is a younger aunt who adds on to the drama and co nflicts in the story (Kosovski and Smith 854). Generally, the story revolves around the drama that a normal family goes through, implying that normalcy in a family setting is all about being true to oneself and often communicating in such a way that one is transparent and yet accommodating of the other members. Considering the media as a mirror of the society, it can be stated that the image of a family as portrayed in the media today is a result of the social constructs on the family as developed gradually over the years. The more parents became drawn away from their families in search of financial stability and successful career paths, the more the fabric of the family unit as defined by the society became torn and in some cases irreparable (Brancato 55). In addition, for some reason, there came a time when the number of children born out of wedlock, often to unwed mothers, spiked. These single-parent families further contributed to the questioning of the definition of a family. As different opinions on the subject surfaced, more and more changes became evident with regards to the social norms. People started seeing the family in a more realistic light where the parents may not always be present, they would not always be on good terms, and the children would not always be as obedient. The se became the norms of family life as defined by the society, implying that the even the moral fabric was changing and that it was okay for parents to have differences and for children to stand up for themselves from time to time. The media as we know it today is a means through which the society speaks out, expressing the various opinions and attitudes towards a variety of issues. In an ideal world, the media is an exact reflection of the people and their thoughts and beliefs. The world may be far from ideal today, but the media remains steadfast in its role as a mirror of society. Even with the manipulation of the corporate sector, the media still has to conform to the ideals of the society in order to get good ratings and sell their brands. This is why most media houses strive to air programs that are relevant and informative to their audiences without being boring. The entertainment is fused with education and realistic representation with the purpose of reflecting what the society would consider as acceptable. Initially, the family was a picture-perfect setting, but there came too much pressure with modernization and globalization that changed this picture. People thus needed to see programs that reflecte d the real family settings and spoke to their situations. Their experiences needed to be reflected by the media houses, and these houses saw the need and met it. It is for this reason that the TV shows also had to change and embrace a more realistic outlook that is both modernist and constructionist with regards to the norms and values as dictated by the society.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

New Historicist Reading of Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market Research Paper

New Historicist Reading of Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market - Research Paper Example Examining the different parts of the story and creating a relationship to society and the Victorian Era then establishes a stronger understanding of what was occurring during this time frame. The poem is one which not only develops historical understanding of the time, but also is associated with contradictions and perspectives that were deeply rooted in the Victorian Era. History of Goblin Market The poem of â€Å"Goblin Market† was written from 1830 – 1894 as a part of the Victorian Era. During this time frame, there were several changes which were occurring in society, specifically in relation to building a modern style society. The society was influenced with new developments in science, industry and technology. These new developments led to associations with politics, specifically with countries that were trying to expand and dominate by opening the countries to global trade and expansion. The politics were based on creating a sense of imperialism, domination and c olonialism over other countries while creating a power structure that was identified with the sense of domination. As this occurred, many began to be influenced by imperialist and bourgeois thought, including changing social status through differences in wealth, gender, ethnicity and overall identity. The main influences during the Victorian Era were then noted with contrasts to the literature of the time (Mcgann, pg. 237). The several changes which were occurring in the Victorian Era led to the main approach which was taken by Rossetti in writing the poem. The focus was to target two types of readers. One was defined by children and the other adults. The poem was able to be read from these two perspectives, one which worked like a fairy tale to tell a moral of a story. The second perspective was based on the viewpoints of adults who had sold into and bought the fruit of the men, or goblins of the time. From this perspective, the goblins became a representation of the social class d ivisions, imperialist nature and other aspects that were related to the dangers of the time. These various approaches to the poem were able to show a specific representation to the culture of the time while both audiences which read the poem were able to carry a different viewpoint and ideal which was associated directly with the time frame and the historical changes which were occurring (Kooistra, pg. 249). Economic History in Goblin’s Market The several approaches which are a part of the reading of â€Å"Goblin’s Market† are not only associated with the general political history and attitudes during the time. There is also a relationship to society and the basic perspectives which were considered during this time. A main concept which was approached was based on the social viewpoint toward economy and wealth as well as how this created division within the Victorian society. The ideal of consumer power comes through the two sisters and their desire to have the fruit and to continue to have the goblin fruits. This was associated with the economy of desire which was created at the time, specifically with the introductions of industry, economy and the taking over of other nations. The morality of economic space as well as the basis of capitalist production which came from the goblins was the two main components which were associated with this. The idea of falling into temptation with the consumption and the need to continue to h

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Discuss the treatment of the sacrament of confession in Essay

Discuss the treatment of the sacrament of confession in Boccaccioâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s tale of Ser Ciappelletto, The Summoning of Everyman, and Hesseâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Narcissus and Goldmund - Essay Example In the spirit of a culture beginning to question the superficiality of dogma, Boccaccio transcends the cynical humor of Ciappelletto’s confession, and the friar’s absolution, reminding us that there is a divine immanence beyond and above the temporal, sometimes absurd practices of the medieval church. After Ciappelletto’s false confession, the narration muses that he may have, at the last, received forgiveness for his many sins, having â€Å"made so complete an act of contrition that perchance God had mercy on him†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Boccaccio 89). But considering the evidence of his transgressions, eternal punishment is a much more likely fate. In other words, he may have fooled the friar and ultimately received canonization, but true justice is another matter Saint or no, Ciappelletto faces a verdict from which he cannot escape through bluff and deception. It is not given to us to know the final disposition of Ciappelletto’s soul but if eternal damnation is his lot, then it is a â€Å" manifest token of the superabundance of the goodness of God to usward, inasmuch as he regards not our error but the sincerity of our faith, and hearkens unto us when, mistaking one who is at enmity with Him for a friend, we have recourse to him, as to one holy indeed, as our intercessor for His grace† (Boccaccio 90). Confession has enabled Ciappelletto to â€Å"work the system,† to play on notions of holiness, seen through the prism of a worldly church, in order to receive absolution and achieve sainthood. His confession typifies the comparative spiritual impotency of the medieval church, itself a wan reflection of the true spirit it purports to embody. Flouting the sacrament, he has effectively lied his way to sainthood. But Boccaccio assures us that, for all his fabrications, Ciappelletto’s punishment surely must be all the worse in the next world for having â€Å"gotten away with it† in this

Monday, November 18, 2019

Managing Hospitality Resources Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Managing Hospitality Resources - Essay Example The premeditated use of technology in marketing services has created many opportunities in the hospitality and tourism industry. Consequently customers are always not satisfied with what they receive and desire innovative alternatives. Since the 1980s, the information communication technology has transformed dramatically, the management and outlook of many hospitality industries resulting into computer reservation systems, which later transformed into global distribution systems in the early 1980s and finally the currently used internet. The invention of the internet has caused a shift in many operations changing operational practices and a general paradigm shift in the market (Moutinho 2011, pp 108). It is in this regards that many hotels are developing computer systems to meet the demand of their customers. The Royal Garden Hotel is a five star hotel that need improvement in technology since technology is a driving force towards growth of many economies. In addition, technological advancement in a hotel facilitates efficient internal operations and improvement in service quality. Body When the Royal Garden Hotel develops technology and systems in their operations many services are likely to be improved. To start, the management will be able, to create automated guest histories. By having the guest history available, defining the customer mix to come up with the services salient for each customer will not be a challenging factor. From this perspective customer satisfaction gets enhanced, this leads to retention and in turn maintaining loyalty. Secondly, the development of the E- business strategy at the Royal Garden Hotel will provide transaction centric solutions (Shin 2003, pp 76). This leads to efficiency and proficiency in administrative procedures (property management systems) and internal operations. The core function behind the improvement of management is in the provision of guest folio, a factor important in the provision of services to the guest. In as much as this is not a primary goal of introduction of technology in Royal Garden Hotel, it is an indirec t benefit, which accrues to the net yield of the hotel. One means of using technology to reach customers is by websites. This is because customers are increasingly applying voice recognition mechanisms and call routing technologies. They access hotels through websites where they speak to computers routing their calls to relevant departments. A website proposal for the hotel, therefore, would target various audiences. For instance, various company executives can access the website and check various services offered by the Hotel. This is because company executives often have meetings in hostels with partners from overseas of internal customers (Leong 2001, pp 201). Tourists also remain a central segment of the targeted audiences who book online through various websites before arriving at their destinations. To prevent customers who access the site from being bombarded with run-of-the-mill products the website developed by the hotel, must meet all requirements as well as expectations o f customers to gain the competitive advantage. It is from this perspective that Royal Garden hotel management should employ the automated system, which can impart

Friday, November 15, 2019

Complexity Measures in Design and Development

Complexity Measures in Design and Development Albert Einstein once said â€Å"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler†. These simple words coming out of a genius’s mind carry a lot of meaning and depth in them. The last two decades saw an exponential rise in different branches of engineering and sciences; and with these developments came in a crowd of very advanced yet very complicated technologies. Are these complexities intended? The answer is very simple NO; the very word advanced is almost always inherited by complexity. No one would want to design and manufacture something very complex, but the more advanced a technology is, the more complex it gets. Even the works done by the man who said those words are far too complex for a common man; and actually that is exactly what he meant. Everyone tries to make things as simple as possible, but no simpler than that, they just can’t and the simplest product design possible can become very complex in some regards. With increasing complexity, there is always a danger of system being destabilized, reduction in overall performance, higher cost, higher maintenance, etc. The way to keep control over complexity is to have measure of it, so that management and manufactures know what exactly to-do and how to change their operational strategy. In this dissertation I am presenting a detailed overview of complexity, it’s different meanings and interpretations in various industries and a host of measures that were developed to measure and evaluate complexity. There are also a few methods of minimizing complexity presented along with case studies illustrating the means in which these measures were applied to real-time manufacturing and designing processes. Complexity: â€Å"What is complexity?† could be one of the most complex questions tube answered. The very definition of complexity from dictionary would suggest the following: Æ’ËÅ" Consisting of interconnected or interwoven parts Æ’ËÅ" Composed of two or more units Æ’ËÅ" Offers great difficulty in understanding, solving, or explaining Æ’ËÅ" The interlacing of parts so as to make it nearly impossible to follow or grasp them separately Æ’ËÅ" Extreme complication and often disorder; complication and entanglement that make solution or understanding improbable The first two meanings are not too related to our present context so I will ignore them, but the rest suggest the exact meaning of what complexity is. As we can see, if I do not understand something properly or am not capable enough to understand it, ‘that’ thing is complex tome. Does this mean it is really complex? The answer again is very simple, NO and that is the very reason why complexity is so hard to define. Complexity of anything is dependent on many factors and one very important factor is human understanding. A subject complex to me could be a piece of cake for someone else and this very behaviour of complexity makes it very hard to measure and evaluate it. An important and interesting question that may arise in reader’s minds, â€Å"Does the very same meaning of complexity stand in industry standards too?† The answer could be both a YES and a NO. It does stand the same thing in some cases, but in rest, the definition of complexity is completely modified. A best example would be industries involved in computer sciences and engineering. There complexity of a code does not really mean it is hard to understand, it rather means that it takes a lot of time for computer to calculate and give the results. In most of the mechanical and electronic designs, complexity would mean systems with multiple interacting parts, the behaviour of which cannot be related with respect to individual parts. That is their collectivebehavior is completely different and /or unpredictable from their individual behaviour. Again this unpredictability can be related to just the static structure of these components or dynamic nature, thus the differentiation between static complexity and dynamic complexity. Now Avery good question to answer is â€Å"What exactly are these static and dynamic complexities?† Static Complexity: Given a particular system (could be any system like manufacturing plant with different manual and automated equipment or just a small network with multiple servers/ clients ), there is always some complexity involved with the static structure of these components, could be just their physical shapes/ sizes or their alignment with other objects or with environment. This complexity which is made up as a function of various parameters like physical shapes, structures, connectivity, variety and strengths of components is called static complexity. Dynamic complexity: Dynamic complexity is more related towards the behaviour of these components as a unit. As mentioned earlier, the pattern of behaviour for a group of components is almost always different than the pattern for individual components; this behaviour measured over a period of time is a major parameter in dynamic complexity. A very important form of complexity that is normally taken as constant or zero while evaluating static or dynamic complexities is complexity arising because of control; that is, given a particular system, there could be many ways in which it can controlled and each one of these methods can result in a different static / dynamic complexity measure, thus to really evaluate a system, we should also consider this parameter and measure a control complexity too. But for most practical purposes, it is assumed that there is only one way to control, thus ignoring control complexity. Measuring and evaluating dynamic complexity is highly dependent on the industry and its specific design, thus forming generic measures for dynamic complexity is not only complicated but also inapplicable invest majority of other designs. Thus research is more focused towards static complexity and its measures. Though there are papers which concentrate only on dynamic complexity, they are very much oriented towards a specific industry and its related fields. Does this mean that static complexity is similar for all industries and designs? No, but a particular measure calculated for static complexity could be easily expanded to other designs too, which is not the same for dynamic complexity. In this paper, I will give measurements of both static and dynamic complexities with respect to manufacturing environment. Before we go any further into measurement of complexity, it is a good idea to understand why and how complexity arises in systems? There is general belief that complexity arises due to many random factors. It could be true in some sense, but that only indicates a very bad design. For systems which are well designed, manufactured and maintained, randomness is not a major factor; it is rather the fact that the system cannot be easily described which causes more complexity. According to Axelrod and Cohen describe systems as comprising of agents and artifacts. The artefacts are just physical (or virtual) objects that comprise the system where as the agents who have attributes like location, memory, ability to interact with other agents, ability to manipulate and change functions, control these objects. The agents may not have to be people alone; they can be computer programs, groups, political entities etc. that may affect the system directly or indirectly. Another important and very interesting concept of complexity comes from Wolfram, in which he states that complexity in a system comes from randomness produced because of three sources. Æ’ËÅ" The first source is the environment and its intervention, either directly or indirectly, on the system. Æ’ËÅ" The second source is the initial conditions that the system was in, before being used. These initial conditions could be random thus adding more weight to the complexity. Æ’ËÅ" The third and most important one is the internal or intrinsic complexity of the system. That is the complexity of the system when there is no external influence or affect. With all these different views of complexity, we are now ready to go ahead and describe what complexity in design is? But before that, let us see what exactly design means. Design and Why is it done? In this section, let us see what exactly design means and as in every case, let us start with the exact dictionary definition of design. Æ’ËÅ" To conceive or fashion in the mind; invent Æ’ËÅ" To formulate a plan for; devise Æ’ËÅ" To plan out in systematic, usually graphic form Æ’ËÅ" To create or contrive for a particular purpose or effect Æ’ËÅ" To have as a goal or purpose; intend Æ’ËÅ" To create or execute in an artistic or highly skilled manner These, may be with little twists here and there, are the exact definitions of ‘Design’ that you see in dictionaries and they almost suggest what precisely designing means in industry standards. Basically designing involves â€Å"making things better and more useful to customers (or people)†. Almost every single thing that we use is (/was)designed at some point of time; things that we take for granted were once designed and engineered. Design is an integral part of us and our society and is united in almost everything and anything we do and we use. Designing anything starts with an idea, any idea good or bad. The main job of designers is to reform this idea so that it is understandable for the people who need to work on it and manufacture it, sort of able print. Whether it is a multibillion dollar dam or a small fashion hair pin, the process of creating them is all the same and involves almost the same basic general steps. Before we discuss these steps, it’s important for us to understand why designing is done on the first place? Designing is a very important and basic step in any product. To deliver product, there are many steps involved. There are scientists who invent new technologies, engineers who use these technologies to develop various components, manufactures that use these components in manufacturing different products and finally marketers who take the prime role behind delivering the product. But who is going to coordinate their efforts to produce a desirable and successful product, no one else but the designers. They are the people who understand what the customer want and deliver a mechanism to make it happen. Designing is not just what we read in magazines which depict it as mostly involved with fashion industry. No that is not at all the case it involves a lot of insight into the way customer thinks and wants his product. As I mentioned earlier, everything that we use was designed at some point of time. There are some very important things that every design is supposed to follow, a brief list of which is as follows: Æ’ËÅ" User requirements: The very first and most important aspect designer has to consider is user. In this world where the number of competitors for a product is more than the product itself, there are very few designs which are being accepted into user community. The main reason behind their success being complete satisfaction of customers. The very first step of any design process is to know â€Å"what exactly customers want?† Æ’ËÅ" Creativity: Next comes creativity. When the designer knows what the customer wants, he has to create something new; he just can’t give the same old stuff which just satisfies the needs. If I am buying a camera, being a picky customer I wouldn’t buy any camera that can take a snap of me, NO, I want so many other things which may be I will not even dream of using, but still I want them in my camera. That is how customers think and that is what exactly designers provide. Innovation has to be there in a product without which t here is no value to it.Designers explore all the different combinations in which a product can be designed and seek new methods in doing so. The stranger it is the better. Now that there are so many simulation tools and other devices that provide so much insight into the product even before it is made, this work is simplified a lot. Æ’ËÅ" Business process: the other very important consideration a designer has to go through is the business process both from company perspective and user perspective. The overall price of the product may depend on the design and considering this is a very important thing. The best examples are the products from Microsoft, take for example PowerPoint, though costing only 50-100 dollars, it’s overall revenue may be grater than some very big software companies whose products cost millions of dollars. Why? The design was so done that there are millions of satisfied customers to PowerPoint or excel who can afford it easily than to products that co st millions of dollars. Æ’ËÅ" Manufacturing overview: it is also very important for a designer tube thoroughly aware of what exactly his company is capable of and at what capacity. I can design a magnificent product in a technology that my company is not even aware of, there is no use to it. A designer should be completely knowledgeable in the manufacturing processes and principles of his company so that whatever he does is not counter tithe existing mechanism, but only increase its productivity by using it in a better way. Now that we considered the basic aspects of design, let us now look at the design process. Being a designer is not such a simple job, you will have to consider so many discrete and varied things, a small list of which was provided above. There is a lot of trial and error involved. Till you get the right one, there could be thousand rejected designs. Though most of the design process is done by designers, there is a lot of contribution from most of the other departments involved in getting that product out like manufacturing people, engineers, business analysts, managers etc. The following are the basic but general steps I mentioned earlier that any designer follows: Æ’ËÅ" Understanding and evaluating Requirements: The very first step involved in design process is to understand and evaluate the user requirements. This involves defining the objectives, setting deadlines, targets and parameters. The design team is involved right from the beginning to the end as they have to understand the business process both from the company’s point of view and the customer’s point of view. The idea being creating an ideal project which will satisfy both the business processes and optimize them. A very important question to answer at this level is why are we creating / modifying this product? Once this question is properly answered, the rest of the process becomes simpler and logical. Æ’ËÅ" Research: Research is one of the most important aspects of the whole process. This is an ever going process, especially in the case of longer project. Research typically includes a variety of areas like Technology, Economy, User Satisfaction, Competitor products, trends, risks etc. Every one among them will affect the product and its design. A simple example would be the conversion from analogy to digital. May bee decade or two ago, there were some systems which were still concentrating on analogy devices. Now they are hardly seen. When such drastic change is happening (a decade would not be drastic for us, but for large scale manufacturing plants to change their whole technology from analogy to digital would cost millions of dollars even though it is spread over multiple years), it would be highly beneficial to a company to be well informed beforehand rather than changing at the spur of moment. Research is more concentrated on the customer / user than anything else. Whatever user wants has to be done and it would be much more preferable to know the user choices beforehand doing our own research, rather than getting a dissatisfied comment from him. Æ’ËÅ" Planning: planning is another significant part of the whole process. As I mentioned earlier, it is always good for the designers to know the internal business processes of the company beforehand rather than knowing them later on and trying to modify the design. Planning takes care of this step. With participation from wide variety of areas all across the board, it becomes simpler for the designer to know and understand different views and angles about a manufacturing process so that the overall design is acceptable and enjoyable by everyone. Æ’ËÅ" Communication: In a business process, there are always instances when the customer thinks of something, the designer understand something else and the manufacturing guys create something completely different. Why does this happen? Lack of communication. Whose mistake is this? Nobody’s. It is very important for a designer and his team to keep inconstant touch with both the customers and the manufacturing guys at the same time. Designers are the only bridge between customers and manufacturers and they should be completely aware of the business process from both the sides. It is client’s responsibility that he conveys the proper requirements to the designers so that they care-convey them to their manufacturing guys, a small leak here and there can result in disaster. But does the client do this always? NO. So it becomes an additional burden on the designer to keep in constant touch with the customer and keep him posted of what is going on with the product, so that if there is some discrepancy, then the message is obtained instantly, same is the case with manufacturing people. Æ’ËÅ" Implementation: the last step is implementation, mostly done by the manufacturing people but involves a little contribution from design team too. First of all, they may have to monitor the whole process and may be even test it thoroughly. Being the only people with complete knowledge of client’s business requirements, they are also responsible for quality. This is how a generic design process goes, let me stress the word generic again. Depending on industry, this process may change here and there, but the changes would be nominal. Now let us consider the different contexts of complexity in different industries and their detailed analysis, the major difference between the following topic and the one presented earlier being that the following one is description of complexity from design perspective. Different Contexts of complexity in different industries: I already mentioned while explaining the definition of complexity that its basic meaning may change from industry to industry. In this section let me highlight some key industries and illustrate the meaning of complexity with respect to that particular industry. In the very same process let us also try to combine the design process into the contexts that we can start concentrating more on complexity in design more than complexity in general. Let us start with the software industry where the definition of complexity is very fundamental but very useful. Complexity in Design for Software industries: What exactly does complexity in software design mean? IEEE standard 729gives the following definition for complexity in software, â€Å"The degree of complication of a system or system component, determined by such factors as the number and intricacy of interfaces, the number and intricacy of conditional branches, the degree of nesting, the types of data structures, and other system characteristics. Though very extensive, this definition still doesn’t cover all the aspects ofcompelxity in software. There are many things to be considered while stating complexity in software a few of which are the operating system, programming language , database, interface being used etc. and etc. Now popular question could be, â€Å"Does all this matter, a complexity has tube related to the way you design an algorithm more than the way you program it?†. Actually it does. There is a popular notion of measuring complexity in software industry where in they compare a particular language (for example) with another one and decide what is more complex. Though theoretically perfect, practically this is totally wrong. How can one compare an algorithm written in Java to the same algorithm written in C, their applications and usages are completely different. Similarly you cannot compare a program using Oracle as its database to a program using Microsoft Access. Now can we measure complexity taking all these into consideration? Not really. For measurement purposes again everything falls back to algorithm level. Whatever be the programming basis you are using, underneath it there is only a single algorithm being used. Thus in this context measurmentof complexity has to be done with a lot of risk. Later in the dissertation Aim going to suggest some popular methods of complexity measurements used in software industry. In general, complexity in software comprises mainly of the following components (apart from the algorithm): Æ’ËÅ" Component Reuse (so called Object Oriented Programming): This is Avery important component of complexity measurement these days. Given a particular algorithm, if you can reuse a piece of code again and again, thus avoiding redundancy, the complexity would decrease by a lot. Hence this factor is a very important component of software complexity. Æ’ËÅ" Control Flow: This takes into consideration the whole control structure of the program. Æ’ËÅ" Data Structures: The number of data structures being used and their size (in bits and bytes) Æ’ËÅ" Size: the overall length of the code (also including the commented lines and documentation as even they are considered in compilation process) From the above description, we can conclude that software complexity depends a lot on the algorithm being used, but many other factors contribute a lot too. Thus a good designer would first of all consider the algorithm and once the algorithm is decided, he / she would spend more time looking into various other considerations, trying to decrease the length of code, number of hits to the database, number of requests from the server etc. Complexity in Manufacturing: Let me clarify what I mean by Manufacturing before I go any further, it includes almost every single sector of consumer product industry starting from auto industry to small electronic components. Why am I including them of all into a single concept? Because the way they function is almost similar with the difference in size. Thus in this section, I will try to distinguish them whenever necessary, but otherwise they are all the same. Majority of these industries involve many moving parts and each one of these parts are again designed and manufactured, either in the same company of in a different one. Thus there is complexity involved in designing each one of them, and then comes the complexity of assembling them into one single system, normally carried out by various automated and / or manual methods. Consider for example an auto industry. With thousands of components going into the assembly line, the whole process becomes highly complex; similar is a case with electronic devices wherein minute parts has to placed and soldered on a PCB with utmost precision. Normally complexity of a manufacturing process is dependent on many parameters, a brief list of which is as follows: Æ’ËÅ" Similarity in processing requirements: the complexity of manufacturing process is highly dependent on the processing requirements and their similarity. Any process would be much simpler when it has similar methods being used across various modules. Thus with variance in processing requirements, the complexity increases. Complexity also increases due to changing consumer demand, which directly affects the whole setup. Æ’ËÅ" Yield: Manufacturing yield is another important factor that determines the complexity. There is always a constant effort to increase the yield but without proper planning and automation, this could result in huge complexities. Æ’ËÅ" Miniaturization: With the latest trend of miniaturization, all the components are being made as small as possible thus increasing their overall complexity. We can easily say that a laptop or as a matter of fact a palm top is much more complex than a desktop. A similar trend is being observed in many of the electronic sectors and thus enhancing the complexity of design. Æ’ËÅ" Energy Efficiency: More applicable in automobile than anywhere else, this parameter is affecting the complexity a lot. With modern vehicles(hybrid electrical and gasoline based engines), the energy efficiency is being increased a lot, but along with it, the complexity is also increasing at a similar rate. Why do we need Complexity Measures? Till now I discussed the basic definitions and detailed meanings of complexity and design. Now let me consider on measurement of complexity. The very first question to be answered in this regard is, Why do we need complexity Measures for? The answer for this question cannot be given in all technical fashion; we need some philosophy for this. As can be seen from the trends in the past two decades, the population is rising at a huge rate and along with it the technology is improving at an exponential rate. We are living in the period where Moore’s law is still being maintained and the devices that we use daily are being made more and more sophisticated and user friendly. But what if someone wants to understand the concepts behind any of these devices, though the modern communication is fast and very knowledgeable, it is vast too. Most of the information provided is random, not relevant, redundant and sometime inaccurate. This provides more confusion than clarity. As Simon says in his paper Creativity, Innovation, and Quality, â€Å"Today, complexity is a word that is much in fashion. We have learned very well that many of the systems that we are trying to deal with in our contemporary science and engineering are very complex indeed. They are so complex that it is not obvious that the powerful tricks and procedures that served us for four centuries or more in the development of modern science and engineering will enable us to understand and deal with them. We are learning that we need a science of complex systems, and we are beginning to construct it†, it is becoming more and more painful for common men to understand or evaluate systems becaus e of their complexity. This complexity is increasing day by day rather than taking a downward step. Not only in manufacturing processes but also in other industries like software, electronics, even social, political, religious, medical, biological hectare also vastly affected. The only way out of this confusion is to do proper designing so as to minimize the complexity involved, (note the work minimize. It is impossible to eliminate complexity). Are these the only reasons of measuring complexity? No way. None of the industrialists would ever invest in research for complexity measures for the above mentioned reasons. There is a huge economic advantage by doing proper complexity measurement and then taking proper steps to minimize it. I will mention a small list of these benefits here, and then explain them in detail as we go on to subsequent sections. List of advantages for measuring, evaluating and finally minimizing complexity from financial point of view: Æ’ËÅ" The operational strategy could be improved a lot. Æ’ËÅ" Processing speed and thus information transfer is much faster and smoother. Æ’ËÅ" System performance is better. Æ’ËÅ" Increased autonomy. Æ’ËÅ" More customer satisfaction and thus higher profit. Æ’ËÅ" Easier to maintain, modify or redesign. Statistics involved in Complexity measurement: Before we can go ahead and derive some formulae for complexity measures, it is a good idea to brush up some basic concepts of information theory and other related statistical engineering subjects. So this section is dedicated for a brief overview of some of these important concepts. Ensemble: An ensemble X is a random variable x with a set of possible outcomes, Vex = {v1,v2,..vi, †¦ VI), having probabilities {p1,p2,†¦pi,..pie} with P(x=vi)=pi, pi >0 and Conditional Probability: Product rule: Sum rule: Bayes’ Theorem: Stationary Process: A random process where the various statistical qualities or properties do not vary with time is called a stationary random process. That is for a stationary process, the parameters like Mean, Variance, Standard Deviation etc. are constant across time.(Example White Noise) Erotic Process: Random process in which the time series produced are the same in statistical properties. That is a set of random processes are considered as time shifts of an original stationary process. Entropy: A very popular term in Information Theory, entropy means the lowest amount of bit rate needed for representing a particular symbol. The exact value of Entropy is . It is also called as uncertainty of x. With this definition of Entropy and following the probability rules defined earlier, joint and conditional entropies can be defined as follows: Joint Entropy: Conditional Entropy: This information should be sufficient for us to go ahead and derive our formulae; if anything is needed I will provide it at that instant. Different methods of Complexity Measures, their Evaluation and Analysis: As indicated above, different industries use the term ‘Complexity’ indifferent aspects, thus there are varied meanings and definitions of it. With so many differences involved in just defining complexity, we can imagine how difficult it would be to measure and find methods to reduce complexity for all these manufacturing units. Taking into consideration this vastness, normally research is done only in those fields where there is some sort of existing mathematical background, using which new complexity measures and evaluations can be done. Ones these are formed, then the same measures could be used for relating complexity of any related industry. A popular area where there is a lot of mathematical background existing is algorithmic complexity, mostly for software related industries but applied in general to a vast area of other industries too. For beginners, let me start with describing few methods in software industry and we shall proceed to manufacturing plants later on. Fan-In Fan-out complexity: One of the most basic complexity formulae to be derived is Fan-Infant-Out complexity formed by Sallie Henry and Dennis kauri. Let us define the following parameters, L = length of the code in lines Fanon = the number of functions that call a particular function Fan-out= how many functions are called by a given function is calledfanout. Then the complexity of the code by this method is given as Complexity = L* (Fanon*Fan-out)2 In overall essence what exactly this formula does is, it counts the number of data counts from a particular unit of code and number of data counts into that unit or into a data structure to measure the complexity. Not so useful in real time applications with millions of lines of code and very complex algorithms. Software Science: This method was started by Maurice H. Halstead. Again this is a very simple and quite useless sort of algorithm to calculate complexity of program code. The formula for complexity that Halstead proposed was as follows: N=n1logn1 + n2logn2 Where N is the implementation length of the code, n1 is the number of unique distinct operators appearing in the implementation, n2 is the number of unique distinct operands appearing in the implementation. Now he defines the program volume as V =N log(n1 + n2) Where log is logarithm to the base of 2. Then he suggests that more the volume of the program code, more complexity is. As I said the above two measures were quite useless for modern programs involving very complicated algorithms. McCabe’s Cyclamate Complexity: To measure the amount of decision logic that is loops like for loop, while loop etc. or breaks like if, case etc., for a simple software module, we can use McCabe’s Cyclamate Complexity. An example formula that

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

What is an American :: essays research papers

What is an American? Finally someone says it right !!! You probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American. So an Australian dentist wrote the following to let everyone know what an American is, so they would know when they found one. An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani, or Afghan. An American may also be a Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans. An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses. An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God. An American is from the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God given right of each person's pursuit of happiness. An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need. When Afghanistan was overrun by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country. As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan. Americans welcome the best, the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best athletes. But they also welcome the least. The national symbol of America, The Statue of Liberty, welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America. Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2002 earning a better life for their families.