Monday, December 30, 2019

Nobel Prize History - How the First Nobel Prizes Were Awarded

A pacifist at heart and an inventor by nature, Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel invented dynamite. However, the invention that he thought would end all wars was seen by many others as an extremely deadly product. In 1888, when Alfreds brother Ludvig died, a French newspaper mistakenly ran an obituary for Alfred which called him the merchant of death. Not wanting to go down in history with such a horrible epitaph, Nobel created a will that soon shocked his relatives and established the now famous Nobel Prizes. Who was Alfred Nobel? Why did Nobels will make establishing the prizes so difficult? Alfred Nobel Alfred Nobel was born on October 21, 1833, in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1842, when Alfred was nine years old, his mother (Andrietta Ahlsell) and brothers (Robert and Ludvig) moved to St. Petersburg, Russia to join Alfreds father (Immanuel), who had moved there five years earlier. The following year, Alfreds younger brother, Emil, was born. Immanuel Nobel, an architect, builder, and inventor, opened a machine shop in St. Petersburg and was soon very successful with contracts from the Russian government to build defense weapons. Because of his fathers success, Alfred was tutored at home until the age of 16. Yet, many consider Alfred Nobel a mostly self-educated man. Besides being a trained chemist, Alfred was an avid reader of literature and was fluent in English, German, French, Swedish, and Russian. Alfred also spent two years traveling. He spent much of this time working in a laboratory in Paris but also traveled to the United States. Upon his return, Alfred worked in his fathers factory. He worked there until his father went bankrupt in 1859. Alfred soon began experimenting with nitroglycerine, creating his first explosions in early summer 1862. In only a year (October 1863), Alfred received a Swedish patent for his percussion detonator - the Nobel lighter. Having moved back to Sweden to help his father with an invention, Alfred established a small factory at Helenborg near Stockholm to manufacture nitroglycerine. Unfortunately, nitroglycerine is a very difficult and dangerous material to handle. In 1864, Alfreds factory blew up - killing several people, including Alfreds younger brother, Emil. The explosion did not slow down Alfred, and within only a month, he organized other factories to manufacture nitroglycerine. In 1867, Alfred invented a new and safer-to-handle explosive - dynamite. Though Alfred became famous for his invention of dynamite, many people did not intimately know Alfred Nobel. He was a quiet man who did not like a lot of pretense or show. He had very few friends and never married. And though he recognized the destructive power of dynamite, Alfred believed it was a harbinger of peace. Alfred told Bertha von Suttner, an advocate for world peace, My factories may make an end of war sooner than your congresses. The day when two army corps can annihilate each other in one second, all civilized nations, it is to be hoped, will recoil from war and discharge their troops. * Unfortunately, Alfred did not see peace in his time. Alfred Nobel, chemist and inventor, died alone on December 10, 1896, after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. After several funeral services were held and Alfred Nobels body was cremated, the will was opened. Everyone was shocked. The Will Alfred Nobel had written several wills during his lifetime, but the last one was dated November 27, 1895 - a little over a year before he died. Nobels last will left approximately 94 percent of his worth to the establishment of five prizes (physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace) to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind. Though Nobel had proposed a very grandiose plan for the prizes in his will, there were a great many problems with the will. Relatives of Alfred Nobel were so shocked that many wanted the will contested.The format of the will had formal defects which could have caused the will to be contested in France.It was unclear which country Alfred had his legal residence. He was a Swedish citizen until age nine, but after that he had lived in Russia, France, and Italy without becoming a citizen. Nobel had been making plans for a final home for himself in Sweden when he died. The location of residency would determine what countrys laws would govern the will and the estate. If determined to be France, the will could have been contested and French taxes would have been taken.Because Nobel had wanted the Norwegian Storting (parliament) to choose the peace prize winner, many charged Nobel with a lack of patriotism.The fund that was to implement the prizes did not yet exist and would have to be created.The organizations that Nobel named in his will to award the prizes had not been asked to take on these duties prior to No bels death. Also, there was no plan to compensate these organizations for their work on the prizes.The will did not state what should be done if no prize winners for a year were found. Because of the incompleteness and other obstacles presented by Alfreds will, it took five years of hurdles before the Nobel Foundation could be established and the first prizes awarded. The First Nobel Prizes On the fifth anniversary of Alfred Nobels death, December 10, 1901, the first set of Nobel Prizes were awarded. Chemistry: Jacobus H. vant HoffPhysics: Wilhelm C. Rà ¶ntgenPhysiology or Medicine: Emil A. von BehringLiterature: Rene F. A. Sully PrudhommePeace: Jean H. Dunant and Frà ©dà ©ric Passy * As quoted in W. Odelberg (ed.), Nobel: The Man His Prizes (New York: American Elsevier Publishing Company, Inc., 1972) 12. Bibliography Axelrod, Alan and Charles Phillips. What Everyone Should Know About the 20th Century. Holbrook, Massachusetts: Adams Media Corporation, 1998. Odelberg, W. (ed.). Nobel: The Man His Prizes. New York: American Elsevier Publishing Company, Inc., 1972. Official Website of the Nobel Foundation. Retrieved April 20, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.nobel.se

Sunday, December 22, 2019

Energy Drinks And Athletic Performance - 1748 Words

Introduction Energy drinks, are beverages that contain large doses of sugar (up to a quarter cup per can), caffeine and other ingredients, like the stimulatory herb Guarana and the amino acid Taurine. Dr. Erin Duchan, a pediatrician and co-author of a review of the current science about energy drinks for athletes, published recently in The Physician and Sports Medicine, said â€Å"There’s good evidence that caffeine is ergogenic (substance used for the purpose of enhancing performance) â€Å" and â€Å"it can, in the right circumstances, improve athletic performance.’ (Duchan, 2014) The aim of this investigation is to see whether Mother energy drinks increase athletic performance. The hypothesis that will be tested is that ‘If a person consumes an energy drink they will run further in the beep test.’ The independent variable is the Energy drink and the dependent variable is the athletic performance – how long someone can run the beep test until they can no longer run. In this investigation there are various factors that need to be kept constant in order to achieve the best results, these include the environment – the place it is performed e.g. if one is performed on a tennis court the second one will need to be performed on a tennis court, the weather conditions should be similar, the energy drink – type and amount, participants, time of day practical is performed and participants should wear similar clothing in each test – same shoes (running shoes) and type of clothing, EthicsShow MoreRelatedSports Nutrition: The Study and Practice of Nutrition and Diet1211 Words   |  5 Pagesnutrition is the study and practice of nutrition and diet as it relates to athletic performance. It is concerned with the type and quantity of fluid and food taken by an athlete, and deals with nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, supplements and organic substances such as carbohydrates, proteins and fats. It is essential to maintain a healthy, well-balanced diet combined with athletic training to reach maximum performance potential. â€Å"Nutrient timing is a strategic approach to how much, what, andRead MoreEssay about The Effectiveness Of Sport Drinks731 Words   |  3 PagesThe major reason anyone drinks fluid before, during and after physical activity is to replace the water that is lost through sweat. If the water isnt replaced dehydration will occur and performance will be hampered. The purpose of sports drinks is to help rehydrate your body quickly and help improve performance and productivity. This is accomplished through a well-balanced mix of water, sugar (carbohydrates) and salts (electrolytes), the major ingredients in most sports drinks. These ingredients, combinedRead MoreEssay on Comparing the Efficiency of Sports Drinks and Orange Juice982 Words   |  4 PagesThe pertaining research involves the electrolytes in drinks. â€Å"Electrolyte† will be defined and its description of what they do, what they are, and how they help people will be further explained. The intention is to establi sh the efficiency of sports drinks and orange juice and then compare them. The pros and cons of both the orange juice and sports drinks will be elucidated through the research. Other drinks consumed after exercise will also be researched and their efficiency will be explainedRead MoreTaking a Look at Sports Drinks800 Words   |  3 PagesSports drinks are drinks consumed by athletes and professional sports men and woman to rehydrate and replace energy. Sports drinks contain varying levels of fluid, electrolytes and carbohydrate which all play a role in rehydrating and replenishing the body after strenuous physical activity. There are three types of sports drinks on the market; isotonic, hypotonic and hypertonic. Isotonic drinks provide the athlete with fast fluid replacement which was lost by sweat, these drinks provide a boost ofRead MoreHow Energy Drinks Affect Health1135 Words   |  5 PagesHow Energy Drinks Affect Health Have you ever been drinking an energy drink and asked yourself, â€Å"is this good for me? Am I hurting my body by drinking this?† Well, I have done some research that shows the pros and cons of consuming energy drinks. Energy drinks are good for your health. Some studies show that they can improve memory,concentration, and athletic performance. Many energy drinks can contain B vitamins, water-soluble vitamins that aid in cell metabolism and support nervous and immune systemRead MoreBenefits Of Soft Drink Soft Drinks Essay1097 Words   |  5 Pages Some good things about soft drinks are that some athletes choose to drink soft drinks to help them boost their energy when performing. Soda can also help with stomach distress or burping to help with bloating after performing over a long period of time. However, soft drinks can also be very unhealthy. One 12oz. can of coke can carry â€Å"143 calories per serving† (â€Å"Sodas, Soft Drinks: Classic Coca-Cola†). Cola contains Phosphoric Acid, sugar, artificial coloring, artificial sweetener, and caffeine,Read MoreEnergy Drinks : The Energy Drink1548 Words   |  7 PagesMonster Energy Drink Over the years, energy drinks have been a phenomenon. Since 1997, when Red Bull became a sensation, the consumption of energy drinks has been at an all-time high. Currently, the energy drinks is a billion dollar market, with the U.S sales of Red Bull and Monster beverages totaling 4.5 billion dollars in 2016 (Statista, 2017). Other energy drinks in the market include Rock Star, Cocaine, Amp, Full Throttle, and Rip It. Generally, Malinauskas, Aeby, Overton, Carpenter-Aeby, andRead MoreAlcohol as an Ergogenic Aid1082 Words   |  5 Pagesand Athletics Alcohol, more specifically ethyl alcohol or ethanol, is a depressant that provides 7 kCal of energy per gram, and is the most abused drug for athletes and non-athletes in the United States. Prior to my research on alcohol, I assumed that alcohol abuse was not prevalent among college athletes, outside of the occasional partying that normal college students partake in as well. But according to Lifestyles and Health Risks of Collegiate Athletes, college athletes generally drink moreRead MoreThe Use of Ergogenic Compounds to Improve Athletic Performance1609 Words   |  7 PagesThe Use of Ergogenic Compounds to Improve Athletic Performance An Ergogenic aid is known as an enhancing quality in sporting performance. Compounds such as bee pollen, caffeine, glycine, carnitine, lecithin, and gelatin are claimed through anecdotal evidence to improve strength or endurance. The use of drugs and other substances has persistedRead MoreExplements In Sports1318 Words   |  6 Pageshelp her. She wants help for her performance on the ice and is looking into supplements like creatine monohydrate as well as drinks like Redbull but is also concerned as she has had gastrointestinal issues and doesn’t know if it will affect her differently. Concerned as the athletes don’t know much about using these substances you decide to create a file of information about ergogenic aids. Caffeine and taurine are two of the main ingredients found in energy drinks such as Redbull. However, caffeine

Saturday, December 14, 2019

The Appeal and Popularity of the Bournemouth Beach Free Essays

Bournemouth ranks as one of the most popular resorts on the south coast of England. It has much to offer any holiday-maker, as the town can boast a range of attractions and facilities to cater for nearly every taste. Bournemouth also possesses some beautiful beaches, with golden sands and safe bathing which are frequently backed by majestic cliffs and a promenade. We will write a custom essay sample on The Appeal and Popularity of the Bournemouth Beach or any similar topic only for you Order Now The main features The core feature of the Beach is of course the Sea with its seven miles of golden sand. Bournemouth beach has a high standard of bathing safety, as there are ‘KidZone’ areas and emergency lifesaving Perry buoys at regular intervals. RNLI Beach Rescue provides 7 day a week lifeguard service from Southbourne to Sandbanks between May and September, which is augmented by 5 voluntary lifesaving clubs at weekends and public holidays. The beach is patrolled by beach wardens over the summer and by full time, first aid trained inspectors throughout the year. During the bathing season 2003 the Environment Agency was monitoring bathing water quality all along the coast on a weekly basis; the Partnership’s main interest, of course, is the quality of the bathing water at Bournemouth Pier. The beach is cleaned daily during the summer, weekly out of season. Areas of the beach have been designated glass free and can-recycling bins are provided. Dogs are allowed on parts throughout the year though they are banned from certain areas from May to September. The secondary features Beach Facilities There are many excellent facilities available along Bournemouth’s beaches. These include toilets with access for disabled visitors, first aid posts, lost children centres and information offices. Catering facilities like â€Å"Harry Ramsden’s World Famous Fish and Chips† (Restaurant and Takeaway), â€Å"KFC† and â€Å"Hot Rocks† serve drinks, hot and cold snacks and meals. Other entertainment features include the Amusements Arcade, where you can find all sorts of gambling and computer games. Thrill seekers can hop on the Simulator ride by the Pier. The leisure simulator uses the sophisticated technology previously developed for the training simulators used by tank drivers and astronauts to provide a new form of entertainment, which is enjoyable, exciting and yet completely safe. The Oceanarium is a fully interactive experience with touch screen games, feeding demonstrations and talks, plasma screen documentaries, walk-through underwater tunnel and exhibits to help you discover more about this fascinating underwater world. It brings you face to face with marine life from the furthest reaches of the globe. The IMAX offers the most advanced and compelling film experience in the world. Seeing a film at an IMAX theatre is the perfect group event – whether it is a birthday party, corporate outing or school trip. Every year more than 70 million people visit an IMAX theatre to see a film and over 96% would recommend it to their friends and family. The Pier Theatre, Bournemouth is a purpose built proscenium theatre completed in 1960. The foyer houses a small confectionery kiosk, box-office and public toilets. Disabled access is possible by arrangement through the box office. A Deaf Loop (induction) System is in operation. A unisex disabled toilet is available. Disabled Parking is available by arrangement with the manager. The Pier Bar is adjoining the Theatre and is operated by Bournemouth Services. One of the most popular and certainly most distinctive features of the Seafront is the land train, which carries more than 260,000 passengers a year. Six Zigzag paths connect the beach to the service road above. Three pairs of Cliff lifts run up and down the cliff all day long throughout the season. Visible from literally miles away, there are exciting opportunities to brand the lifts – and the lift stations. With 2100 Deckchairs, you have an exceptional opportunity to improve the bottom line, with advertising that can’t fail to be noticed. Located at intervals along the beach, there are 28 Bastions with free shower facilities. Close to the beach are the Gardens, which are an idea haven from the bussing streets of Bournemouth. Candle light displays and lights lead you down to the seafront where in the summer months you can see the firework displays. The ‘Free spirit of Bournemouth’ balloon ascends above Bournemouth to give you a birds eye view of Bournemouth town centre and the beach. The gardens also have a pavilion where brass bands play daily to an audience in the gardens. The Russell-Cotes-Museum is a very individualistic gallery, containing the personal collection of art formed by Sir Merton and Lady Russell-Cotes presented to the town of Bournemouth and opened to the public in 1919. Seaside Activities Swimming (watercraft free zones at certain beaches), sailing, fishing, surfing, canoeing, jet skiing, windsurfing, power boating, pedalo hire, beach hut hire and water skiing. Areas or the beach have been zoned as No Smoking, Kidzone, and Can-zone recycling areas. Firework displays are held on Bournemouth Pier every Friday night between July 26th and August 30th. Bournemouth Carnival and Regatta is traditionally held during the first week of August. Wildlife and Walks A three-kilometre undercliff walk leads from Fisherman’s Walk east to Hengistbury Head. The seafront promenade is 10km long stretching from Southbourne to Alum Chine and then on to Sandbanks. A cycle route has been introduced along the promenade. Pedestrians always have right of way and from June to September and cycling is only permitted between 7pm and 10am. The Bournemouth cliffs provide an ideal habitat for the nationally rare sand lizard and smooth snake, as well as many plant species. Parking Roadside parking along the overcliff drive. Various pay and display carparks, including the Undercliff Car Park on the beach with access at Boscombe Pier. Public Transport Bournemouth coach and train station is linked to the town centre and all of the beaches by yellow buses. Once at the seafront a land train service operates along the promenade between Hengistbury Head and Alum Chine, stopping at all beaches and also the cliff lifts. Visitor numbers and Types of visits: â€Å"Bournemouth Seafront is, and has always been, a major tourism attraction. Bournemouth as a resort attracts around four million visitors each year (2.3 million day visitors; 1.7 million staying visitors). It is estimated that over 20,000 people are directly employed in tourism related businesses and that tourism is worth à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½350 million a year to Bournemouth’s economy.† â€Å"The main tourist season begins with the Spring Bank Holiday and peaks during the school summer holiday period of mid July to early September. All other public and school holidays, such as Easter, are also busy tourist periods on the Seafront.† Types of visitors: At present, 70% of seaside visitors are elderly and less affluent, which means that they spend very little money during their stay, so Bournemouth had to attract a different type of customer. Many small attractions were opened, in order to serve different types of tourists, in particular children, as they brought together people from all different backgrounds, so places such as Putlake Adventure farm and the Oceanarium were opened. Bournemouth also has 2,000 acres of formal gardens, which are frequently judged as the best in Britain, and serve as an attraction for the older generation of visitors. The present pier, which was built in 1880, incorporates a theatre, restaurants, a disco and amusement arcades, which together form Bournemouth’s most popular attraction. Bournemouth has relied upon its reputation to bring in the tourists and therefore it has a very good record: In 1996 it was named as â€Å"The World’s Cleanest and Greenest City. It has also received Blue Flag Beach Awards every year since 1990 and since 1999 has been awarded the Green Flag Award. Three times since 1991, it has been the winner of Britain in Bloom and was Europe’s Floral Champion in 1995. With the building of the Bournemouth International Conference Centre, many important conferences have brought attention to the town, these include several political party conferences, and brings in lots of business for the hotels and shops. The main problem with seaside resorts is the fact that their custom is seasonal, this can be seen in the newspapers where there are advertisements for cheap rates in the hotels, for example Sun Court Hotel offers à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½30 per person per night at the moment, as it is the end of the season. The way this is combated is by the use of the conference centre, which tries to bring business in almost all year round, for example, the Conservative party conference is always held at the end of the season, as the season is then extended for an extra week. Poole relies on recreation in its harbour for its business. 60,000 new houses are to be built in the area by 2010, as it is doing so well. Lots of visitors go across on the sandbanks ferry to Studland where 95% of visitors go to beach. In Poole Harbour, sailing and windsurfing take place, while conservation also takes place with SSSI’s for the dunes, mudflats and mines, which bats have inhabited. Swanage has also suffered a decrease in its custom since the 1970’s: a total of 3,200 beds in hotels and guesthouses have now been reduced to a total of 1,900. With a population of 9,170, there are a total of 9355 beds available for visitors, with a quarter of a million visitors capable of being accommodated in the whole year, although the main season is 26 weeks long. Despite a large number of visitors, although decreasing, the average day visitor spends à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½9, which is not enough to keep a community running. Therefore, the total number of beds is still set to decrease, as the only real attractions are the Swanage railway, which is now being used for park and ride to Corfe castle, and Durlston Country Park, which receives 150,000 visitors. Despite not being a National Park and a decreasing popularity of seaside resorts, except among the retired population, Dorset seems to be surviving. Some areas do seem to be â€Å"thriving†, although a question of their future does hang over areas such as Swanage. Dorset has a number of attractions that keep it a popular location for visitors, however, whether it is thriving or not is a big question, as whereas places such as Bournemouth are doing very well, others are not doing so well. How to cite The Appeal and Popularity of the Bournemouth Beach, Papers

Friday, December 6, 2019

Exact And Sufficient Description Solution - Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: What Is Meant By An Exact And Sufficient Description Of The Solution? Answer: Introducation Simply defined, algorithm is the set of rules and processes that should be followed in any problem solving and decision-making. Generally, algorithm is the term used in computer terminology. It is used to define the processes or the steps that computer system takes to solve any problem or to reach to any decision. The term algorithm is also used to decide the methodology or the way any computer system reacts to the problem or decision. It can also be called as a procedure or formula to solve any problem. When referring to the term algorithm The term algorithm is also used to reach out to the solution of the problem in an exact and sufficient manner. By exact it means that the use of algorithm would give the exact solution. It means that the solution would be to the point without any deviation. The sufficient description of the solution means that the algorithm would be sufficient to reach out to the solution and any other input may not be required. Describe what is meant by an algorithm is guaranteed to end. It means that algorithms are never open ended in nature. Any algorithm that would have a start point would also have an end point. The very definition of algorithm guarantees an end state. Algorithm can be considered as a flow chart and like any flowchart any algorithm must also end (Saldana, 2015). Therefore, it is often said that an algorithm is guaranteed to an end. Under any circumstances any algorithm cannot be open and in fact if any set of processes does not reach a logical end then it is not an algorithm. Describe the reasons for taking the time to design a process before starting to code. It is always important to design a process before starting the code. It can be said that designing a process is like establishing the flow chart. It is suggested that the code should be based on the structure and design helps to create the structure. Moreover, coding is a time consuming process and it is not easy to go back from a point in coding to earlier point. Therefore, it would make sense to design a process first and once the design is finalized coding should be the next step. Describe the process that you would use to consult with a client and key stakeholders to identify a problem and its associated script requirements. The first step of the process would be requirement gathering. It would be the phase in which requirement would be collected from client. The nest step of the process would be assessment phase. It is important that a thorough assessment should be done. The input from the stakeholders would be important in the assessment phase. The nest phase or the nest step would be framework development phase. This is the phase in which a strong framework would be developed. The next phase would be actual development phase followed by testing and support and maintenance phase. Describe the process that you would use to develop an algorithm to solve a problem and meet a clients requirements. How would you ensure that the algorithm takes into account all of the expected possible situations? There are various processes or ways to develop the algorithm to solve any problem. The most simple and widely used method would be to break down the complete problem or the large requirements into smaller requirements. Based on the smaller requirements, the steps should be listed down in order to solve the small problems and in collective manner, it would be an algorithm. scribe the term abstract design. In the terminology of computer science and coding, the term abstract design is used to make process simpler. The term abstraction is used to hide the complexities of algorithm to users. The term abstract design is used to design the code in a manner that complex features are not visible to the users and for users it is easy to use the code. Describe the process that you would use to review an abstract design for omissions or errors. It can be said that it is never easy to review and abstract design. The process of abstraction makes it little difficult to understand the code. The process to be followed to review any abstract design should start with the first step of removing the abstraction layer. Once the abstraction layer is removed, the design elements can be reviewed with the help of a top down approach. It is important that the layer of abstraction must be removed before reviewing any abstract design. List and describe the criteria for selecting an appropriate scripting language. There are various scripting language with its own pros and cons. The developer may often find it difficult to select the scripting language. Some developers may want to script in Java and some may prefer Python. The three important criteria for selecting an appropriate scripting language can be highlighted as: The scripting language should be easy to debug. There should be sufficient external support for the scripting language. It could be availability of different functions and library. The developers, testers and the team should be aware of the coding standards in the scripting language. Describe how you would ensure that internal document principles are applied to created code. It is very important to apply the internal document principles. Basically the internal document principles ensure that everything is documented in the system. It would ensure that the coding is relatively easy when the hands change. With this approach, different team members can work in collaboration and an integrated approach could be taken to the process of software development. Describe the information that you would expect to find regarding developing maintainable code in organizational guidelines. One of the basic but must useful information of maintainable code is that it has comments (Humphrey, 2016). It is one of the great best practices to use comments while writing any code. It ensures that debugging is easy and the other people can also understand the code Describe the process that you would use to test that code meets the design specifications. There are various ways of testing that should be used to test the code. The process that should be used to test the code would start with unit testing, followed by system testing, system integration testing and end-to-end testing. It is important that testers should also include the developers while doing the unit testing. Describe the elements of script that should be documented at a technical and user level. It is important that scripts should be well documented at the technical level and the user level. At the technical level, the code element of the script should be documented with proper comments. At the user level, the information about the way script is used should be documented. References Humphrey, B., 2016. Young Rewired State: Get Coding! Learn HTML, CSS JavaScript Build a Website, App Game.School Librarian,64(3), pp.189-190. Saldana, J., 2015.The coding manual for qualitative researchers. Sage

Thursday, November 28, 2019

Conflict Analysis Sheet Essays (220 words) - Health, Medicine

Conflict Analysis Sheet Name of Conflict: Black Death Time Period: 14th Century Europe (1346 - 1353) Type of Conflict: Plague/Disease Country/region: Europe and Central Asia End Result: Large Population Loss (30-60%); Issues with faith Underlying Causes The disease originated in Asia. It is a bacterium that lives in the blood of rats. Those rats were on the trading ships that were travelling to Europe. The disease was transferred via infected flees that were carrying the rats blood. Those flees bit humans and, since it was extremely contagious, spread throughout most of Europe. Immediate Causes: -Massive population loss -Widespread panic and paranoia -Weakened faith -Cities and towns bordered themselves off in fear of the plague Turning Points/Important Events: Survivors who had a natural immunity to the disease passed it on to their children. After several years, the plague died off due to a lack of sufficient hosts. Short-Term Effects: -People had difficulties trying to regain trust in God; they greatly feared him because they thought the plague was a punishment -Intellectual activity was at an all-time low -Agriculture very unproductive due to massive labor-loss Long-Term Effects: -Massive population loss -Trade and commerce was at a stand-still; many of the main trading hubs and cities were hard-hit, including Constantinople -The manor and feudal systems were both very uncommon after the plague

Monday, November 25, 2019

Free Essays on Survival In Austwich

In the History of the world there have been few incidences of atrocities that equal the treatment of the Jews in Europe during World War II. It is difficult to accept the levels of systematic cruelty and terror experienced during this period. In the book Survival in Auschwitz, Primo Levi paints a picture with disturbing detail that is meant to serve as a reminder of the unimaginable horrors millions of men, women and children were forcefully subjected to as a result of hate. As a Jew, Levi knew he was in danger while living in fascist Northern Italy. By 1943, the Nazis had moved south and set up holding camps around Italy to detain political prisoners and those of the Jewish nationality until they could be transported to established concentration camps such as Auschwitz and Dachau. This book depicts what happened to Levi after his arrest in 1944. Along with 650 others, he was loaded into a freight train for a four day journey without food or water and without the liberty to leave the train at anytime. Upon their arrival at the camp of Auschwitz, Poland, the first of a precession of selections took place. The German SS Soldiers separated those they deemed capable of work from those they deemed incapable, such as women, children and elderly. Only 135 of the 650 from Levi’s train were admitted into Auschwitz, the other 515 went immediately to the gas chambers. These methods of selection were to a degree, a logical means as compared to other rand om selections. â€Å"Later, a simpler method was adopted that involved merely opening both doors on the train. Without warning or instruction to the new arrivals, those who by chance climbed down on one side of the convoy entered the camp; the others went to the gas chamber."(20) He was herded with the others into the camp and after being striped naked and having his head shaved, he was given an old striped uniform and the identification numbers 174517 tattooed on his arm. Levi recalled ... Free Essays on Survival In Austwich Free Essays on Survival In Austwich In the History of the world there have been few incidences of atrocities that equal the treatment of the Jews in Europe during World War II. It is difficult to accept the levels of systematic cruelty and terror experienced during this period. In the book Survival in Auschwitz, Primo Levi paints a picture with disturbing detail that is meant to serve as a reminder of the unimaginable horrors millions of men, women and children were forcefully subjected to as a result of hate. As a Jew, Levi knew he was in danger while living in fascist Northern Italy. By 1943, the Nazis had moved south and set up holding camps around Italy to detain political prisoners and those of the Jewish nationality until they could be transported to established concentration camps such as Auschwitz and Dachau. This book depicts what happened to Levi after his arrest in 1944. Along with 650 others, he was loaded into a freight train for a four day journey without food or water and without the liberty to leave the train at anytime. Upon their arrival at the camp of Auschwitz, Poland, the first of a precession of selections took place. The German SS Soldiers separated those they deemed capable of work from those they deemed incapable, such as women, children and elderly. Only 135 of the 650 from Levi’s train were admitted into Auschwitz, the other 515 went immediately to the gas chambers. These methods of selection were to a degree, a logical means as compared to other rand om selections. â€Å"Later, a simpler method was adopted that involved merely opening both doors on the train. Without warning or instruction to the new arrivals, those who by chance climbed down on one side of the convoy entered the camp; the others went to the gas chamber."(20) He was herded with the others into the camp and after being striped naked and having his head shaved, he was given an old striped uniform and the identification numbers 174517 tattooed on his arm. Levi recalled ...

Thursday, November 21, 2019

My Travel Experience in Sri Lanka Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

My Travel Experience in Sri Lanka - Essay Example I was feeling really excited about the days ahead of me and could barely wait for the plane to touch down. Finally, the plane landed. It was hot and humid in June. It was almost a 3 hour long drive from the air port to Galle where my host family lived. Mr. Smith, a plump and pleasant man was my host and he welcomed me .After a short introduction I was led to what was considered the biggest room in his house. I entered the room and felt a bit ill at ease since the room was very narrow with only two beds. Everything in the room was dark brown in colour. The full length mirror was stained to the extent that one could not see anything on it. I felt suffocated but rested on my bed while talking to other volunteers. Soon it was time for the meal and I inquired about the menu to which I received a very strange smile from my friend. Laid on the table were four yellow dishes and I immediately recognized that they were all curries. The water spinach was chopped up and cooked in curry, the tuna fish was cooked in curry, the potato and carrots were cooked in curry. I filled up my plate with boiled white rice and tried each curry. The curry on the table tasted very different from Indian, Thai or Japanese curry. It has its own special herb smell and was very salty as well as spicy. What surprised me was that the rice was also salty and spicy. Suddenly, I saw some little ants and spiders walking on the table. I was startled for a second and looked around. I saw everyone enjoying their meal and hence I kept quite. I finished off my meal with lots of water and went back to the small room quickly. The next day was my first day of volunteering at an orphanage. Our responsibility was to take care, feed and play with the babies at the orphanage. We hired a â€Å"tu-tu† the motor pedicab to reach our destination and paid only rupees 80(about 0.6 USD) for

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Human Resource Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 6

Human Resource Management - Essay Example This essay stresses that HRM is the advanced form of the HR. It is considered as the backbone of any organisation or firm. The relationship among the employees should be cordial and there should be a jovial environment. Gender equality is gaining importance in present market. Women are being considered as potential threat (competitors) to their male counterparts. With an able leader organisational goals can be achieved through proper planning. Corporate social responsibility also plays an important role in the development of an organisation. CSR agenda is to inspire, challenge and empower employees, to positively contribute to local communities and environment; to help create a substantial business future for all of us. CSR is viewed as part of the way in which business is done and an active approach brings tangible benefits to business. In recognising wider responsibilities to a broad range of stakeholders – including partners, employees, clients, suppliers, community groups and opinion formers – CSR aims to permeate many levels of business activity – affecting corporate governance, employee relations, client relationships, environmental management, community involvement as well as many business operations, including Graduate Recruitment, Diversity and Facilities. This paper makes a conclusion that CSR takes a number of forms; committed to developing sustainable and mutually beneficial working relationships with community and voluntary organisations working in a variety of fields – including education, regeneration, employment, homelessness and environmental conservation.

Monday, November 18, 2019

Elie Wiesel,Night (1958) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Elie Wiesel,Night (1958) - Essay Example Religiously he tends to ask God why all these diversities befell him. Mentally, Ellie watched his father die and was separated from all the female members of his family. Upon looking at the mirror, Elie’s eyes revealed a person that was transformed into a broken person. From his inception at the camp he was a young, religious and loving boy, but when he left the camp he was totally broken. It is from this point that his view on the world had changed completely. In order to have an insight of how Elie’s views of the world changed, two significant aspects will be looked at, that is, religion and mental/emotional aspects. To start with Elie states that: â€Å"Never shall I forget the moments that murdered both my God and soul and turned all my dreams to dust (p.32).† This description of Elie regarding his religion is as a result of the difficulties he and the Jews faced in the camp. Elie’s faith undergoes a crisis because of how he watched his own father and others undergo a torturers death as well as the deplorable living conditions he was subjected to. It is at this point that Elie underwent a major change as he tried to reconcile all the difficulties he and others were facing together with the beliefs he had been taught about God. He does not deny God, but he chooses not to remain silence regarding why God left all these difficulties face them. Elie thus changes his perception that God is merciful and just and he comes to a conclusion that he will not just sit there and wait for his death. From the beginning of his experience, Elie was a religious person, but in this new world all the aspects and teaching of religion became meaningless for he had lost his faith. With regards to mental/emotional aspect, Elie also tends to change his view of the world considerably. He thought of the things that he would never do and the circumstances that have made him to be repulsive in this context. For instance, Elie states: â€Å"I gave him some of my

Friday, November 15, 2019

You Are What You Eat Essay

You Are What You Eat Essay You are what you eat is a phrase a lot of people use. Im not sure who came up with that phrase but it is very true. Food is a big part of what bring people together here in Yap. Most gathering on island during celebration looks colorful because of all the variety of local food, including fruits and vegetables. The people of Yap are friendly and they have the habit of offering food and drinks to visitor that comes to their place. It is very offending if the visitors do not except the food that was offered to them. Nowadays people would still offer food to visitors but what they have is not healthy food. Most are ashamed of eating to eat healthy food; a can of tuna is better than crabs. This attitude also transfers to all a lot of children, most would rather have luncheon meat, hotdogs, corn beef, or even turkey tail in as their food rather than fish, crab or clam. So, In addition, most of the foods eaten here in Yap are store bought food because it is that is fast and easy to eat. It may taste good and it is easy to make, but is modern food good for us? When ask an individual they would tell you that it is not. When an individual is asked, he or she would say it is not good, but what is said and what is done are two totally different stories. What they say and what they do is two totally different stories. How we eat and what we eat shows people how we were raised and what kind of person we would turn out to be. A person People who watches what they eat and does exercise is are more likely to be healthy. A person eating junk food who sleeps a lot and does no exercise would probably be obese and more likely to be diabetic. In the real world, it is not easy for a child children to stick with a healthy diet because what they see they copy. Parents who mix sugar in their drinks have children that also do the same thing. It is also the same with alcoholic parent their children are more likely to be alcoholic. It is up to the parents or the person taking care of the child to play a big role in not only making healthy choices for children and teaching children to make healthy choices for themselves. Before children likes to swim, play tag with other children or even jump rope but nowadays you hardly see children doing that. Most children spend their time playing games or watching television and eating junk food. The advertisements on television does not help children to eat better. What the children sees on TV to them looks delicious and appetizing, so they would pester their parents to get it for them. If parents or the person taking care of the child is a lenient one, the child would get what they he or sh e wants. The hospital can also help with the support and information the parents and caregivers needs to make healthy choices while instilling healthy eating habits in children that will last a lifetime. Health providers should help the communities to understand the consequence of eating imported food. Long before the foreigner came, people teach by showing examples and explaining things. The old teaches the young what is good to eat and how to go about fixing it. No one worries about gaining weight having cardiac problem or even having high blood pressure. People only eat local food and they live long and stay healthy. Today our way of leaving is declining because of all this easy to get food from the store. We have doctors, nurses and scientists telling us how to manage our lives. They also tell us to go back to the way we used to eat, which is good but hard because most of us grow up with modern food or imported food. When people attend a celebration or even a small gathering, food is one of the things people like to share but instead of eating local food, they would eat imported food (Needs Assessment for Micronesian Health Care in Hawaii 13). Today with people coming back from school with all this idea in their head on how to better help the people of Yap States. They go aroun d saying people should not do this or do that because of too much sugar, instead of showing and saying that they can eat this kind of food, but not all the time. Even in the hospital, nurses sometimes give wrong information to inpatients, especially to diabetic once. Some nurses would tell the patient not to eat certain local food because it contains sugar. In reality the patient can eat the food because it is local, but not all the time. One of the things that help people in Yap long time ago to stay healthy is exercise. Everything Yapese people do is a certain kind of exercise. Even going from places to places people either walk or go by canoe. Getting firewood is also not an easy task but the women also do this kind of work. They cut and gather two to three baskets of firewood for their own house. The women go to taro patches clean and harvest the taro which is not an easy job. Sometimes harvesting taro for the family a women would do that two to three times a week with one to two basket of taro. Sometimes they would climb up or look under the coconut tree for leaves to cut and weave it into basket for the taro. They also do gardening and most of the time the males do not help. They cut small trees, vines pull up grass or weeds and they even burn down big trees so that they can plant seeds underneath. They would carry the taro home and also cook it. They take care of cooking for the whole family, cleaning the house , and taking care of the children with the help of the young girls if the family has any. The ladies do not have that much free time to hang out with their neighbors because almost everything around the house they are responsible for. Girls have the responsibilities to help their mothers with the chores around the house. This paragraph needs to be written in the past tense as it is a discussion of the past As for the men fishing is one of the things they do for their families and relatives. They would either go spear fishing, netting, using lines or trolling by boat. Trolling and line fishing is more relaxing then netting and spear fishing. Netting and spear fishing is one kind of fishing that deals with swimming or diving around in the water. For the women only few of them goes fishing for their families but the rest do not. The men also have the responsibility to build houses for his family or help his extended families with their houses. Sometimes, the men would help with preparing the garden. If the men are not fishing they are building canoe or teaching young boys how to build things. Most of the time, the men are the once who climb coconut tree to get coconut for the family and they also climb and harvest betel nut to chew. The boys help with the climbing and sometimes the girls if the family does not have boys. Past experience also The pacific island countries are in a state of transition. Pacific island people are changing very fast from a lifestyle which is very healthy, with farming, fishing, walking and gardening, to a less healthy lifestyle where food and goods are purchased and not produced locally, people use cars, and generally there is less physical exercise. The increased migration from villages areas to towns and cities has also meant a big change to the pacific way of life. Today people do not have enough exercise they spend most of their time watching television and when they want to go somewhere they go by car. Climbing coconut is another way of exercising which few people are still doing it. The taro patches is over grown with weeds because people are too lazy or do not care to clean them. People have the tendency eat and lay down to rest or sleep claiming that the food they just eat need to digest. Other people would jag around the lagoon and comes back and eat whatever they want. The only exerc ise most people do is to walk from the house to their car. Parents have the tendency to over feed their children and by doing this they create a problem. First they start introducing food to the baby when they are a few months old because to them the baby is not having enough food with breastfeeding. Second is when the baby is a toddler, the parents would spoon feed the toddler to the point that the toddler with start to refuse the food and the parents would force the child to eat all the food in the plate. Right at that minute the parents create a problem, forcing the child to eat more than the childs body needs. Too Yapese a fat child is considered healthy and a slime or skinny child is considering sickly and needs to fatten up. Health worker should encourage and explain to the parents that babies should only stick to breastfeeding for the next six months. After the six months, when feeding the baby they should not over feed them. When the baby is full the parents should stop feeding. By doing this the parents help the child to eat only wh at their body needs not what they think their body needs. It is also good to start giving local food to your child and not store bought baby food. Also, the parents or caretaker should stay away from giving coconut milk to new born it is full of fats. The doctors, nurses, and health worker should advice this people to stay away from coconut milk. Even though Yapese people believe that giving coconut milk to babies is very healthy and also feeding them that young is good for the mother and babies. Healthy people long ago only drink plain water and coconuts. Those are the two kinds of drink that they drink and it is good for them. Plain water or coconut without ice and it is not cold. Today people bought soft drink from the store and other things to mix with their water including sugar. They even bought alcohol like beer and other beverages to also drink. People do not have time to look for coconut and if they do they harvest them to sell not to drink at the house. Coconuts are turning into copra because only few people would drink them. For those that they want to drink they spend money looking for them and buying them. Coconuts are getting very expansive to buy nowadays. So, parents mix their childrens drink or by them juice from the store and send them to school. Some even buy soft drink for their kids because to them it is cheaper than buying coconut. According to Maria Laaken, one of my colleagues at the hospital children nowadays wont drink plain water because it does not taste good and they dont want to be different from the other kids. At the same time the parents dont want to deal with all complains early in the morning before going to school. Yap is well known for having many good healthy local foods. It is the people who made bad choices when it comes to food. All ever the island you will see variety of local food including vegetables and at the same time some of the stores also sell local food and vegetables. It is easy and possible to grow them because Yapese people also own land. It should be foreign people or people from other places who should have problem with their diet not Yapese. Instead foreign people go around looking for all the local food and the Yapese goes look for all the imported food. Most taro patches here in Yap are overgrown with grass or weeds because people like to eat white rice. Inside most ice-box of people here in Yap is full of turkey tails and chicken, it is hard to find fish. Overweight in the Pacific Professor Susan Cassels claim that all of the foods that the people in the Federal States of Micronesia like to eat are foods that are easy to get or easy to make and it is affordable or a lot cheaper. One of those foods is turkey tails and turkey tail to the people in the United States is not food because to them it is fertilizer. To the Yapese it is one of the cheapest and tasty foods because of all the grease and fats. Increase availability of money and people is expose to imported foods have result in people not eating the right kind of food, and increase consumption, with diets high in sugar and fats and often low in fiber, vitamins and minerals. A reduction in physical activity, fishing, walking, gardening has led to an increase in obesity in both adults and children. The exercise researcher at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La. Dr. Timothy S. Church, the reason the population is getting obese and overweight is because of lack of physical activities at work, and those jobs that makes people to do physical labor are all gone. A high rate of smoking and increasing consumption of alcohol makes the situation worse. The eating habit of people here in Yap contributes to most of the diseases that the people of Yap encounter. Because of foreign influence and people wanting to be Americanize or modernize they would go to a lot of trouble to eat imported food. Before people hard ly get sick and when they do it is not life threatening. People do not have problem with their sugar level or have high blood pressure. Consumption of imported food contributes to a lot of people dying in Yap. All the non-communicable disease in Yap can be stop or prevented by going back to the way we leave. We eat only local food either from these or from the land and this sickness will leave our people and also our island (Jackson 88). There are many non-communicable diseases here in Yap. One of them is diabetic, also known as having problem with your sugar level. Diabetes develops when the body does not make enough insulin or is not able to use insulin effectively, or both. There are two types of diabetic, I and II. Diabetic type I it is believe that a person is born with that type of non-communicable diseases or it is passed from mother to child. As for the other type, type II diabetic a person gets it latter in life. In 2006 to 2007 there was a survey done on Yap Proper and it shows that in general 23% of the people are diabetic and 35% are hypertension (Ichiho, Yurow, and Lifang 16). People with diabetes can lead a normal healthy life. Diabetes is manageable by eating the right food, exercise and sometimes medication. Medication that the patient is taking does not cure the patient but only help to prolong the patients life. All people with diabetes and hypertension that need advice about diabetes and hypertensi on management can ask help from a doctor or nurse. The population of Yap Island has significant burdens of obesity and overweight, hypertension, and diabetes. Obesity and overweight appear in children as young as two years of age and skyrocket between ages 15 and 25 years in both males and females. Following the development of obesity, both males and females begin to experience hypertension and diabetes within 10 years. (Durand 163) It is suspected that this non-communicable disease happens because of all the imported food the people eat and drink. To prevent people from having diabetic people needs to go back to the way they live. Go back to eating local food from the sea and food from the land. Compare to the United States the Federal States of Micronesia has 20% more diabetic people (Needs Assessment for Micronesian Health Care in Hawaii 28). The other non-communicable disease is hypertension. There are two types of hypertension. One is Primary Hypertension and that is the most common form, accounting for majority of cases in Yap. Second is Secondary Hypertension and it occurs as a result of many factors one example is kidney disease. No one knows the cause of hypertension the only thing they know is the contributing factor and they are ageing, smoking, eating food with to much salt in it, being overweight or obese, drinking a lot of alcohol, not enough exercise, stress to name a few. To prevent people from having hypertension they should maintain a healthy weight because being over weight contributes to have high blood pressure. The other thing is people should get regular exercise because being physically active makes the person less likely to have high blood pressure. It those not mean you have to ran around the track or being in a marathon. It just means that people needs to move a bit like wash dishes, cooking local food, gardeningà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦etc. Many people in Yap are dying because of what they put in their mouth. Most dead is because of the amount of food people eat and also what kind of food they eat. The lifestyle of the people in Yap contributes to a lot of problem that people are facing getting fat and obese are two other health problem that the people of Yap encounter. Some end up with amputate limb because of uncontrolled eating ways others noncompliant once are dying each day. According to Jackson, the bad news about these diseases is that they are now killing Micronesians fastà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ at least one person dies every second day from cardiovascular diseases in other words one person every other day eats themselves to death! Diabetes and hypertension has increase in proportion in our islands. In 2010 alone there are 847 diabetes and hypertension patients total that comes in for visits (Yap State Statistical Yearbook 148). This means that people in our island can and has suffer from complications from diabetes an d hypertension such as blindness, amputations and kidney failure. After having one of these conditions the individual will pass away eventually. There are a lot of things the hospital can do to help the people of Yap States to eat healthy and live long but that is up to the people to be willing to except the advice given to them. The doctors, nurses and health workers can only do so much but it is all depend on each individual. The doctors, nurses, and health worker can show people what would happen if they will not listen to their advice but if the individual is close minded than this really nothing the hospital can do. One solution is to keep to the traditional ways of living, eating and exercising including dancing. The people must also keep in mind that not only eating healthy food would save them but also exercises help. They also need to teach and encourage the public that eating healthy starts when people are young. They should not wait until it is too late. Because having a heart attack is not a laughing matter once a person gets it there gone. Unlike strokes and heart failure they will still see tomorrow but still th ey can also go anytime. Even kidney failure, having that is a drain on the families of the patient. The people should go back and start planting their garden again that is if they want to live long. They should also start cleaning their taro patches and planting taro. Be aware of diabetes and hypertension and what is going on about these diseases. People have to have protective measures to prevent the incidence of having hypertension and diabetes. Every year in Yap women and mens week are held to help doctors to detect any diseases and sickness that the people of Yap might have. It is held every year but it is really up to the people of Yap State to want to do it. Announcement goes out by radio, television and even flyer to encourage people to join. One should change ones lifestyle, so that one is more active and is able to either prevent hypertension and diabetes or, if suffering, learn to cope up with it. Having these kind of diseases is hard because there is no turning back once a person has it they have it for life. So, it is really up to the individual to decide what is better for them and their kids. Too either gets sick and dies young or lives long and have a healthy life.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Cyberspace in William Gibsons Neuromancer :: essays research papers

Cyberspace in William Gibson's Neuromancer As described by William Gibson in his science fiction novel Neuromancer, cyberspace was a "Consensual hallucination that felt and looked like a physical space but actuallly was a computer-generated construct representing abstract data." Years later, mankind has realized that Gibson's vision is very close to reality. The term cyberspace was frequently used to explain or describe the process in which two computers connect with each other through various telephone lines. In this communication between the two systems there seems to be no distance between them. There are now four catagories that describe the major components of todays cyber space. One oof those is commercial on-line services. These large computer systems can host thousands of users simultaneously. When a computer user purchases an account from the company they recieve a screen name and a password. The user then can use his or her screen name and password to log on and use the system. Most of the online systems have chat rooms where users can chat in real time with one another. some users even think of on-line services as a community. The second catagory involves Bulletin Boards or (BBS's). These services allow the user accounts like their larger on-line service cousins. These BBS's have less users because they run on smaller computers. The system operators, more commonly known as sysops, are running the boards. Since most BBS's are hobbies there is usually no charge for an account. The same as on-line services, users use BBS's for trades, games, and to chat among other users. Since bulletin boeard are so easy to set up there are thousands of them located around the world. Each board has a theme. These themes range from astronomy to racist neo-nazi crap. A boards theme helps users in their search for a board that will satisfy their personal preference. A third catagory is the Private System. These private systems sometime run bulletin boards privately, not letting the public acess. In these private systems users can perform specialized computer operations, or access to data. Through this private network users within a company can send mail, faxes, and other messages to each other through the companies computer network. If a worker was to look up a customers information he could access it through the companies private network. The public can not get access to the companies private system unless he or she knows the systems password. The fourth and last catagory is computer networks. These collections are a group of connected computers that exchange information. One of the most well known is the internet. The internet is the so called "network of networks.

Monday, November 11, 2019

Mercury Footwear Questions

Among the first companies to offer fashionable walking, hulking and boating footwear. Its mother company decided to extend the brand by creating complementary line of apparel. Because of the poor performance, it was decided to sold. Style Logo is marked with prosperous, active and fashion-conscious lifestyle. Its main customers are not interest in its apparel. Financial performance Among the most profitable firms. Had poor performance after acquisition by WAC. Revenue contribution 42% of revenue from athletic shoes and balance from casual footwear.Revenue and operating Income were 470. Million and 60. 4 million In 2006. Revenue and EBITDA were 431. 1 million and 518 million.. Products Athletic shoes developed from high-performance footwear to athletic fashion wear. Four main segments: men's and women's athletic and casual footwear. In order to emphasizing individual products, it began to monitor styles and images from global culture Focus on smaller portfolio of classic products with longer lifestyles and could maintain simple production and supply chains.Sales channels Mainly sold in department stores, specialty retailers, wholesalers and independent distributors. Small percentage is sold through website. Department stores, specialty stores, catalogs, discount retailers and internet. Inventory management Good at inventory management in the industry. Inventory management performance is worse than the average level. Outsource Outsource manufacture in China. Outsource main materials in foreign suppliers. Advantages &Disadvantages It takes small size as its competitive disadvantages.And it faced with some problems in the consolidation of manufacturers. Price cuts and promotion in apparel line hurts operating margins but helped to the growth in sales. Sales growth is lower than the average because of there is little discount in price. We could learn that managers of GAG want to enlarge the scale of its company and gain larger market share because of the stable prof it margin. And since the revenue is almost the same, it is a good choice to merge with Mercury, which means that revenue would be doubled after acquisition.And these two companies have some similar factors, such as : (1) They could use the same sale channels after acquisition, and internet channel could be enlarged. (2) They could combine manufacturers to get a powerful bargain in suppliers. 3) The product segments are almost the same, which means that there should be little work to do after acquisition in product adjustment. (4) Thanks to the profitable ability of GAG, it is much easier to make a better financial performance of Mercury. (5) It is good for them to increase the performance of inventory management if they merge together. 6) Although their target customers are different, especially in ages, which means that style and brand are different in the very beginning, this factor could turn into an advantage for the new company could have a fully segment of customers with wider age ranges. Therefore, take into above factors into account; we think that Mercury should be an appropriate target for GAG. 2. Review the projections formulated by Little. Are they appropriate? How would In the case, we could find that Little used historical averages to assume the overhead-to-revenue ratio.However, historical data is usually useless for future. Some studies found there is little evidence that firms grew fast continued to grow fast in the next period. And sometimes there are even negative correlations between growth rates in the two periods. Besides, smaller firms tend to be more volatile than others, which we could find the same characteristics in these two firms we are talking about. And Just as we mentioned in the question 1, revenue may be doubled after acquisition, it Just fits the theory that it is difficult to maintain historical growth rates as firms double or triple in size.Therefore, based on the above analysis, we think that it is not reasonable to use hi storical data for future projections. And sometimes, analyst should be better than the historical growth. Considering that there are five main channels for analyst forecasts: firm-specific information, macroeconomic information, information revealed by competitors on future prospects, private information about the firm and public information other than earnings, we think Little could find more information from above channels to get more accurate assumption.And since performance of Mercury is poorer than the average of the industry, it is better to use industry average level for the benchmarking of Mercury when predicting, instead of a discount rate of GAG for example. And from the comparison of 2007 to 2006, we can find Ileitis's forecast need great input from GAG to support the development of Mercury, whether he has taken this into consideration? And he estimate debt/equity ratio remains the same as GAG, that is also unreasonable, for it is not possible to change that in short peri od.

Friday, November 8, 2019

Coney Island Hospital Essay Example

Coney Island Hospital Essay Example Coney Island Hospital Paper Coney Island Hospital Paper Abstract   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Coney Island Hospital is one of the best medical centers in Brooklyn area. It is well known for its excellent medical performance, which has been constantly improved since the 19th century, when the hospital was founded. Coney Island Hospital   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Coney Island Hospital is known for the excellence of its services, which he has constantly provided to its patients since the end of the 19th century. The hospital carries stable unblemished reputation and is fairly considered to be one of the best medical institutions in Brooklyn.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"In the late 19th century, as swarms of summer beachgoers made the Coney Island beaches and Amusement Parks their place of respite from the heat of the city, a first-aid station and later a Reception Hospital were erected along the busy shorefront† (Coney Island Hospital, 2005a). Coney Island Hospital is mentioned by many other medical institutions and informational resources as the reputable medical center which offers numerous quality medical services to its patients (Coney Island Hospital, 2005a). Coney Island Hospital’s mission is to provide the residents of the Southern Brooklyn with the cost-effective high quality medical services. Moreover, the hospital promotes the vision of equality in relations with patients, â€Å"in a respectful way to all, regardless of ability to pay† (Coney Island Hospital, 2005c).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The hospital has numerous facilities and specialties: emergency services, women’s health services, medical and surgical specialties, pediatric services, cardiology services, nuclear medicine, behavioral health services, complementary medicine, occupational therapy, social work, EEG lab, and even its own blood bank (Coney Island Hospital, 2005d). Moreover, Coney Island Hospital is well known for its extremely advanced nuclear medical department. The department of nuclear medicine is one of the best and the most technologically advanced in the hospital. It is located on the fifth floor of the main hospital’s building, and makes it possible to perform whole body bone scans for spreading cancer, osteomyelitis scanning, gallium scanning of the whole body for the detection of infections, thyroid scans, and thyroid cancer treatment with the application of radioactive iodine, etc. (Coney Island Hospital, 2005d). The hospital is the member of the New York City Health and Hospital Corporation (Coney Island Hospital, 2005b). It is a for-profit organization, but as it protects its financial interests, it also promotes the principles of social equality towards all patients. There are several unique features which make Coney Island Hospital different from other similar medical entities. First, the hospital staff includes interpreters, who help medical specialists communicate with Russian, Chinese, Albanian, Spanish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu patients, and those of other nationalities and backgrounds. Second, the hospital employs an American-Russian Sign Language interpreter to assist deaf patients in their communication with medical personnel (Coney Island Hospital, 2005d). The hospital offers affordable medical services to low-income patients without any regard to their immigration status (Coney Island Hospital, 2005c). Moreover, the hospital is involved into various financial cooperative programs aimed at improving its technical state and maintaining its cost-effective performance. The major source of the hospital’s income is patients’ insurance and small fees the hospital takes from those who do not have insurance. For example, a patient’s visit may cost around $15 (Coney Island Hospital, 2005c); in this way the hospital creates affordable conditions for those who require medical assistance, and supports its for-profit status.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Conclusion   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The physical location of the hospital requires that the hospital staff is able to communicate with multinational patients: southern Brooklyn has historically been the refuge for the immigrants from the Soviet Union (Coney Island Hospital, 2005a). Coney Island Hospital is well known beyond Brooklyn for the highest quality of its medical services and respectful treatment of all patients regardless of their financial and social status. References Coney Island Hospital. (2005a). 97 years of service to the shorefront community. Retrieved February 24, 2008 from coneyislandhospital.us/index.php Coney Island Hospital. (2005b). About CIH. Retrieved February 24, 2008 from coneyislandhospital.us/page.php?CPID=2 Coney Island Hospital. (2005c). Insurance information. Retrieved February, 2008 from coneyislandhospital.us/page.php?CPID=24 Coney Island Hospital. (2005d). Services and specialties. Retrieved February 24, 2008 from coneyislandhospital.us/services.php

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Reflective Essay Composition Introvert or Extrovert

Reflective Essay Composition Introvert or Extrovert I think the idea of gender fluidity can be compared to the flowing nature of behaviour. Most people are said to be either an introvert or an extrovert. However, according to my life experience, I have come to the conclusion that people can be on a sliding scale of being introverted or extroverted. And even more confusing, I believe this scale can tip in one direction depending on circumstances and external environments. Born with a serious heart condition, I had to get two surgeries within the first year of my life. I was in the hospital for about six months, and was not touched as much as normal babies and not given as much attention. This left me depressed and despondent in my first year. It has also left a lifelong mark on my psyche. My mother told that after I came home from the hospital, I seemed angry at the world and not social. It is hard to imagine, but it seems infants can be depressed and have angst as well. At this time, I would say I was an introvert. After a while, though, my mother said that I gained a sense of happiness and was social. But even with a twin brother, I played a lot with myself: just me and my toys, and my brother would try to get me to play with him. So, my introverted nature continued, though I grew in my social skills gradually. Around 3 years old, our family moved to a new neighborhood. There I met a few friends who changed my behavior. I became good pals with two boys that I began to spend almost all my days with: playing games, competing in sports, watching movies, and everything else one can imagine boys doing together. Through this experience, I became more extroverted, talking more and actively seeking out social activity with my friends instead of wanting quiet time with my toys and my imagination. However, in the years to come, when my two best friends moved away to other neighborhoods, I went back to a more introverted nature. Coupled with the divorce of my parents at eight years of age, a new sense of depression set in. For three years, I became more inward and introspective. At 11 years old, though, my mother got married again. Eventually, our new family moved to another city. Thankfully, I made new friends there. In fact, I became buddies with all the children of two families on my new block. These budding friendships drew me out of my introverted nature once again, and became the fun, talkative, sporty, and entertaining self that I had been with my previous friends. Fast forward to the time I was 16 years old, and my grandfather died. Another big blow was when my father passed away when I was 18 years old. This threw me into another bout of depression. I turned to writing poetry and playing more music to deal with my sadness. I was not much interested in academics- mostly poetry and music. It took me awhile to feel normal again. But I started to meditate regularly, and my mood finally got regulated. During this period, I was definitely introverted. After a year or so of meditating daily, I became talkative again and yearned to meet with friends often. I even developed a knack for humor and loved making as many jokes as possible around my friends and family. This state lasted for around 6-7 years, before I got married. Marriage was not the reason I switched from being more extroverted to introverted. It had to do more with where I lived. I moved to Kyiv, Ukraine from Seattle, USA when I was 28 years old with my wife, who is Ukrainian. Not knowing the local language(s) (Russian and Ukrainian), I drew more inward. Not being able to communicate well with people and finding only a few people I could express myself with made me introverted again. I began to focus more on my writing and music, and concentrated on interacting with people through the internet. You can say it was almost a forced introversion. Though I have learned both Russian and Ukrainian to a decent enough level to have conversations, I still feel unable to communicate properly and freely. Adding to my introversion was the recent death of my grandmother, who had been the most positive and energetic person in my family. As you can see, I have swung between being an introvert and extrovert throughout my life. Sometimes I even believe I am both at the same time. But what I know for sure is that a person’s behaviour is never one or the other: it is on a sliding scale that is influenced by the people around you, your environment, and your psychological state.

Monday, November 4, 2019

Accounting Applications Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Accounting Applications - Essay Example Value addition allows firms to effectively market their products and services, while putting emphasis on the power of brand rather than the commodity. Through value additions, firms can charge higher prices and enjoy competitive advantage. This is because products and services with higher added value are less price-elastic and difficult to be copied by the rival companies. Addition of value can either enhance the product’s value or price. For example, offering one month of free support on new software would be a value-added attribute (Pramanik 2005).The primary purpose of job functions in MYOB is to group certain transactions into a reportable entry. This is achieved by assigning a job for each profit centers, which for the case of the printing business can be assumed to be the two divisions including Hamilton and Auckland. Henceforth, every transaction that belongs to each division (profit center) is assigned to a job that is associated with it. Job reports, which represent t he profit centers, are used to report the activity of each job. A job function is set up to follow income and expenses associated with service jobs. This function is especially helpful when performing multiple jobs for a particular customer. A suitable job number is allocated to each amount every time the user executes a transaction. This feature allows the user to relate different jobs with different amounts in a single transaction. By creating a jobs budget analysis, a profit and loss statement for each job and actual results can be prepared and compared with the budgeted values, for each profit center. Ideally, job function is useful for companies that perform more than one job for the same customer, for example the printing business could be performing different jobs in the two divisions, but for the same customer. This is made possible by MYOB because it allows such jobs to be created underneath the name of the customer. Furthermore, a printing business can use job function for each service performed or goods transacted in order to track the services and products that are most profitable and those that eventually generate losses. This information can be used to prepare comprehensive reports, which enables the company to analyze all the transactions they have made with the business during a certain period (MYOB 2006). The business of printing can assume each of its two divisions as distinct profits centers, for which it can track income and expanses separately. The jobs function can be used to group transactions belonging to each division (profit centers). The performance of each division can then get tracked and relevant reports generated accordingly. Additionally, to breakdown a job into distinct parts, a firm can use sub-jobs (MYOB 2006). Category function The category function allows firms to track profitability of properties, offices and other segments associated with the business in question. For every time users input a transaction, they are require d to assign the category that suits its description. For the case of a printing business with two divisions, we can take each division as an individual category and then track the profitability of the products they produce: say, product A, product B, and product C for Hamilton and product A, product B, and product C for Auckland division. Thereafter, a profit and loss statement can be prepared for each division. Examples of transaction that can be assigned categories include: general journal entries, receive money, historical sales and purchases, inventory adjustments, inventory transfers, purchases,

Saturday, November 2, 2019

Ricardo and Marx both had theories of a falling tendency of the rate Essay - 1

Ricardo and Marx both had theories of a falling tendency of the rate of profit in the development of capitalism. What were the different theoretical bases for t - Essay Example The tendency of the rÐ °te of profit to fÐ °ll Ð °rose neither from increÐ °sed competition (Smith) nor lower productivity in Ð °griculture (RicÐ °rdo). It wÐ °s, rÐ °ther, the expression under cÐ °pitÐ °lism of the increÐ °sed productivity of lÐ °bour. Ð ccording to MÐ °rx, lÐ °w of the tendency of the rÐ °te of profit to fÐ °ll (LTRPF) is Ð ° theory developed by MÐ °rx in the third volume of CÐ °pitÐ °l to explÐ °in the occurrence of economic crises within cÐ °pitÐ °list economies. Ð ccording to the LTRPF, Ð °s cÐ °pitÐ °lists invest in ever more cÐ °pitÐ °l-intensive production, the rÐ °te of profit fÐ °lls, since profit cÐ °n only be generÐ °ted from the surplus vÐ °lue extrÐ °cted from living lÐ °bor, which is Ð ° declining proportion of the cÐ °pitÐ °lists outlÐ °y. However, securing Ð ° lÐ °rger shÐ °re of the mÐ °rket offsets the lower rÐ °te of profit for the individuÐ °l cÐ °pitÐ °list. EventuÐ °lly the fÐ °lling rÐ °te of profit weÐ °kens the incentive to Ð °ccumulÐ °te on the pÐ °rt of the cÐ °pitÐ °lists until eventuÐ °lly the mÐ °ss of profit begins to stÐ °gnÐ °te. Ð t thÐ °t point Ð °n economic crisis begins Ð °s cÐ °pitÐ °lists decline to invest. The LTRPF explÐ °ins long-term fluctuÐ °tions in cÐ °pitÐ °list economies. There mÐ °y be long periods of expÐ °nsion before the LTRPF Ð °ffects the mÐ °ss of profit, during which the effects of the LTRPF cÐ °n be offset by vÐ °rious counterÐ °cting tendencies, such Ð °s lower wÐ °ges Ð °nd increÐ °sed intensity of exploitÐ °tion in the lÐ °bor process. EventuÐ °lly, however, there will be Ð ° period of stÐ °gnÐ °tion Ð °nd crisis in which Ð ° lÐ °rge proportion of existing cÐ °pitÐ °l is destroyed before reinvestment Ð °nd renewÐ °l cÐ °n stÐ °rt over Ð °gÐ °in (see ShÐ °ikh 1991). The importÐ °nce of the LTRPF for MÐ °rxist politicÐ °l economy is thÐ °t it demonstrÐ °tes how the rÐ °te of profit fÐ °lls, Ð °nd crisis sets in, independently of Ð °ny impetus on the pÐ °rt of lÐ °bor. The LTRPF wÐ °s of pÐ °rticulÐ °r significÐ °nce in this regÐ °rd in the 1970s Ð °nd 1980s, when it wÐ °s widely Ð °rgued, Ð °nd

Thursday, October 31, 2019

Therese of Lisieux Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Therese of Lisieux - Essay Example She almost shares this trait with another woman mystic, Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582). As Carol L. Flinters point out â€Å"Over and over in the lives of these women, perhaps most explicitly in Teresa and Therese, we come to see the incredible strength that comes of starting with â€Å"the little things† (Enduring Grace, Introduction, PP12). These saints gave away their lives for the sake of God and for others. Saint Therese was born in France in 1873 with a strange background of parenthood. Her father wanted to be a monk and her mother a saint. Thus after marriage they decided to go for celibacy. It was a priest who convinced them otherwise and they had nine children. Five children who survived were all girls. Therese lost her mother when she was just four. Her sixteen year old elder sister, Pauline was her second mother. But she lost this mother too as Pauline joined the Carmelite convent with in five years. Later after a few months when she fell ill and when every one thought that she was dying, she prayed at the statue of Mary in her room and found that Mary was smiling at her. She got cured. Carole L. Flinters points out that, such periods of illness and solitary sufferings are seen in the lives of most of these women mystics including Saint Teresa of Avila.

Monday, October 28, 2019

Commercial Internet Sites Essay Example for Free

Commercial Internet Sites Essay Go to at least 15 commercial Internet sites such as Yahoo!, MSN, and About.com. Document information on the types of attempts (such as pop-up windows and advertisements) that influence the viewer, including counting the number of references toward social shaping. The websites you consult should be listed in a reference list at the end of the newsletter. Take the information you have gathered and write an article for your company newsletter summarizing your findings and drawing conclusions. The article should be at least 500 words in length and should demonstrate depth of thought as well as originality. The first commercial Internet web site that I am analyzing is the online social networking web site Orkut.   It permits maintaining relationships through pictures, messages, music and videos.   What seem interesting with Orkut are that is permits to establish new connections with people belonging to any part of the world, help to come in contact with old friends and family in any part of the world.   Any individual interested in making friends can open an account on the web site and develop their own profile.   What adds uniqueness to Orkut is the fact that any friend or family member can insert their own testimonials of that person.   In the profile, personal, social and professional information can be demonstrated.  Ã‚   Another unique feature of Orkut is that any person can search for another by simply typing in the name in the search box. MSN is a community web site mainly concerned with email, messaging and social contacting.   This web site is brought out my Microsoft.   The users interested can open an account with the MSN web site and are given an individual username and password.   The user would be getting personalized information from the MSN network.   These include news, sports, weather, local news, etc.   Each user can make changes to the layout, color, themes, etc to the individual web page. Yahoo is a social network web site that mainly provides email, news, searches, messenger, jobs, weather, Horoscope, Health and other information.   The Web site concerns a wide range of areas.   Yahoo has its sources in almost every nation of the world and these provide localized information.   Each user can log into the web site with his or her usernames and password. Google, one of the strongest search engines in the world has extended its services to other areas such as book searches, computation, social network groups, news, maps, etc.   People are mainly attracted towards Google as it search strategy is very strong and would permit the user to use their own initiative whilst search for various aspects in the Internet. Tagged.com is social networking that permits users from various parts of the world to get in contact with old friends and new friends.   It was launched in the year 2004.   The graphic interface of the web site is very appealing and has several innovations such as slides, videos and the music presentation.   It has several reputed news sources such as Wall Street Journal, Business Week Online, Ad week, etc. Travellers Point is a social network that provides personalized information regarding traveling destinations and experiences, photo galleries, blogs, forums, maps, etc.   Users can create their own usernames and passwords on the web site and get upload and download photos and videos of famous travel destinations throughout the world.   The Web site works in association with another organization known as ‘Travel helpers’, which provides expert guidance to travelers. Hikut.com is a social networking web site that provides various features to the users, user such as galleries, blogs, music, videos, polls, groups, quizzes, events, classifieds, etc.   The users can also use several other features on the web site such as chats, interfaces, scrapbook, etc.   The users would have to register on the web site with a user name and a password. Linkedln is a professional social network web site that permits the users to share professional information with other experts and specialists throughout the world.   More than 16 million users have registered from about 150 countries.   Users who have registered include clients, partners and colleagues.   Users can also search for jobs and get in contact with the job seekers. One of the main religious social networking web site in the world is My Church.com.   This web site was launched in 2006 offering services to Catholics in the blogs, forums, messenger services, counseling, calendar events, sermons live telecasts, paying of thanksgivings, etc.   The founders of this web site have combined Internet and technology in a very innovative manner to obtain one of the most advanced Catholic networking web sites in the world. More than 7000 Churches are associated with the web site. One of the major social networking web site in the world concerned with sharing music, videos, photos, etc, is Multiply.   The web site also extends its services to other media other than the Internet including MMS and mobile services.   The web site not only caters to the personal needs of the user, but also to the professional and the academic needs.   Only individuals who are closely related to one another can share media information. Another social networking web site is Friendster that caters to the needs of small circle of friends.   It is utilized more widely in Asia than in any other part of the world.   It has been in competition with several other social networking web sites such as Yahoo 360 and Facebook.   In the year 2006, the web site came out with an innovative discovery, which entitled it a patent.   It demonstrated a method and an online tool to calculate and develop relationships between people. Facebook was a social networking web site launched in the year 2004, meant for the students of Harvard University.   However, as the web site was a strong success, several other universities were added including Boston University, MIT, etc.   Slowly any student belonging to any university in the world was allowed to register on the web site.   More than 58 million users have been registered on the web site.   The site offers the users several features including sending and receiving messages, gifts, placing ads, blogs, etc. References: Facebook (2007). â€Å"Facebook – Home Page.† Retrieved on December 26, 2007, from www.facebook.com Web site. Friendster (2007). â€Å"Friendster – Home Page.† Retrieved on December 26, 2007, from www.friendster.com Web site. Google (2007). â€Å"Google Help Center.† Retrieved on December 26, 2007, from Google Web site: http://www.google.co.in/intl/en/help/features.html HiKut (2007). â€Å"Hikut.† Retrieved on December 26, 2007, from www.hikut.com Web site. LinkedIn (2007). â€Å"Linkedin.† Retrieved on December 26, 2007, from www.linkedin,com Web site. MSN (2007). â€Å"MSN-Home Page.† Retrieved on December 26, 2007, from MSN Web site: http://www.msn.com/ Multiply (2007). â€Å"Multiply – Home Page.† Retrieved on December 26, 2007, from www.multiply.com Web site. My Church (2007). â€Å"My Church – Home Page.† Retrieved on December 26, 2007, from www.Mychurch.org Web site. Orkut (2007). â€Å"About Orkut.† Retrieved on December 26, 2007, from Orkut Web site: http://www.orkut.com/About.aspx Tagged.com (2007). â€Å"Tagged – Home Page.† Retrieved on December 26, 2007, from Tagged.com Web site: www.tagged.com Travellers Point (2007). â€Å"Travellers Point.† Retrieved on December 26, 2007, from www.travellerspoint.com Web site. Yahoo (2007). â€Å"Yahoo Company Information.† Retrieved on December 26, 2007, from Yahoo Web site: http://info.yahoo.com/

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Aspects and benefits of Work Life Balance

Aspects and benefits of Work Life Balance 1.0 INTRODUCTION This following thesis discusses with the work life balance of an organization. As it is to be explained in this essay a work life balance is required in any organization. It is a vital aspect which most of the organizations do not consider and as a result they end up facing critical situations which could have been easily prevented from happening. The reason is that all the employees would get a proper balance between their work and the time that they spend at home and family. This is very important because the satisfaction of an employee must be given high priority. It is only when the employee is satisfied that his performance could reach to its maximum levels. When the production capacity of every employee in the organization increases, this would obviously increase the productivity of the organization. Therefore this would lead to high sales and profits which would help organizations to reach the optimum level possible. The essay also talks about what is important to manage people within the organization. There are explanations about how stress, empowerment, government regulations and employee of choice could help in the management of employees within the organization. There are also illustrations of how to implement work life balance within the organizations. So as told above the whole routine on an organization depends on the performance of the employees which most organizations dont understand. On continuing with this essay everything will be explained in detail and how work life balance affects an organization. 2.0 DISCUSSION 2.1 HRM defined Human Resource Management (HRM) is the function within an organization that focuses on recruitment, management, and providing direction for the people who work in the organization. Human Resource Management can also be performed by line managers. (Alexander, J. O. 2005) 2.2.1 Work Life Balance Before look into it deep it is all ways a question on what work life is. It basically represents the meaning of an individual balancing his life from work and family. In such situations it is believed that a person can perform to his/her expected level. Work life balance is not a problem to be solved; it is an issue to be managed. Many people and organizations think of work life balance as a problem whereas it should be not. It is only a problem if one is not able to achieve it which in most cases happens but also it basically tells a person that managing it will always make him/her successful. (Luthans, 2008. P. 250) In the earlier days work was just done as a requirement and a part of endurance, however now it is a form of personal satisfaction and less as a kind of survival. One of the medium that help these employees reach their personal development and organizational success is work-life balance. Work-life balance used in the right spirit may not only cause benefits to the employees, it may be a source through which the entire organization gains competitive advantage. Work-Life Balance is taking a bigger bite out of corporate profits than any other bottom line issue today. As a result, it provides the biggest and easiest upside opportunity to immediately affect on the business As employees of firms have been bombarded with overload of work over the decades, as shown in the picture, the concept of work-life will help organizations to hold their best employees. However, it should be remembered that Work-Life balance is not a problem to be solved; it is an issue to be managed as told before. Unfortunately most mangers are woefully untrained to manage this issue for themselves, much less help others to manage it. During the course of this essay recommendations will be provided to overcome this fundamental problem. 2.2.2 Benefits of work life balance for the organization When organizations are able to create a work environment with work-life balance, there are many benefits to the organization. In such cases it can be pointed out that work life balance carries out some benefits. (Perrow, 2006, p.125) Retain staff- As told before with a proper well maintained work life balance employees will be satisfied with whatever they are being given with and will be willing to work more. With self and work satisfied employees an organization can easily retain staff. This will reduce the cost of advertising, recruiting and training of new employees To improve team work and working bonds- Well satisfied employees will always look to work more and perform tasks that they are being assigned to. A work environment with work-life balance will enhance the working relationships between colleagues, improve morale and will encourage employees to show more initiative and teamwork. To increase level of production- With proper retained staff and team effort a higher production level can be achieved. This will help the organization to cater into mass marketing with mass level of production. 2.2.3 Benefits of work life balance for the employees Increase in Job Satisfaction- Since the employees do not have to worry about much of their other matter as a result of a well maintained work life balance they will be able to concentrate on their work which will eventually lead to job satisfaction. This will improve the quality of work which will also lead to better quality output. Decreasing stress and burn out- With proper work life balance being maintained it is obvious that stress is being reduced. As a result of reduction in stress performance of the employees will increase which will eventually benefit the organization. Collaboration- If work life balance is achieved employees will be much satisfied with the work, this will act a motivational factor. Then the employees will be able to work as a team and develop their skills. Therefore they will be benefited by adopting new skills and new techniques which will not only help them in their career but also their social life. 2.3 Why is it important to manage people Think of the last time you heard statements like these; Im the boss here!, Just do the job I gave you!, You need to do it my way! How did you actually feel? Did you feel de-motivated to carry on with your work? Of course you will. Keeping the employees of the organization happy and making sure that they are comfortable with their work surroundings is crucial to the employees performance. And it is their performance that ultimately affects the organization as a whole. The words and the employers reaction, as well as the reactions of others, reflect generational differences in the workplace. For example, if an employee is not happy with his/her boss, this might de-motivate the employee to perform. This de-motivation may rub off on other fellow employees. And ultimately when most of the employees of the department are de-motivated to work, it would result in the poor performance of the entire department. (Alexander, 2006, p.5-12) We have four different generations working side-by-side in the workplace. Remember, if you are old enough, when older workers were the bosses and younger workers did what was asked of them, no questions asked. There were definite rules as to how the boss was treated and how younger workers treated older workers. No longer: Roles today are all over the place and the rules are being rewritten daily. Research indicates that people communicate based on their generational backgrounds. Each generation has distinct attitudes, behaviors, expectations, habits and motivational buttons. Learning how to communicate with the different generations can eliminate many major confrontations and misunderstandings in the workplace and the world of business. (Hammil, 2005) There are four generations of employees, which are silents, baby boomers, generation xers and generation Ys. The table given below shows the generation timeline. Source: http://www.fdu.edu/newspubs/magazine/05ws/generations.htm As of today many of the employees included in the baby boomer generation is retiring or is expecting to retire. Thus the modern day workforce mostly consists of the Generation X Y. Generation X value education, parenting and independence more than work and they have developed varying skills and are more determined in meeting an employee that best suit their needs. Generation Y are those born between 1980 to the present. They are also called Millennias and Echo boomers. Generation Y has been defined as better educated, more tech-savvy, more achievement oriented, and better at problem solving than boomers. (Henricks, 2007) The table given below shows the individuals his or her underlying values, or personal or lifestyle characteristics and how it corresponds with each generation. Source: http://www.fdu.edu/newspubs/magazine/05ws/generations.htm 2.3.1 Factors that affect the employees in the workplace Looking at the factors that affect the employees in the workplace: Stress Stress occurs when you exceed your ability to cope with pressure. It can be simply described as the harmful physical and emotional response that occurs when there is a poor match between job demands and the capabilities and the resources of the employee. We know that lack of control and autonomy, long hours, lack of job satisfaction and bullying can all cause stress. What cannot still be identified is how resilient an individual may be at coping with pressure. At present one cant predict the impact that exposure to a stressful environment will have on a person. It depends on genetic make-up. You could suffer mental failure or you could get a heart disease. Therefore overly stressed workers will only result in being a burden to the organization as performance commitment levels tend to decline, adding to the losses. (John, 2002, p.25). Empowerment Empowerment is the authority to make decisions within ones area of responsibility without first having to get approval from some superior (luthans, 2008, p. 290). This is about the trust element between the employee and the manager that comes thorough flexible working and is very beneficial to the organization. Freedom to work flexibly is one of the most powerful incentives to attracting and retaining staff. Since we all know that a flexible workforce is also a powerful economic weapon because it helps safeguard against inflation. Indeed, the freedom to work flexibly if so desired is an essential tenet in the new psychological contract between employers and employees. Surveys show it is one of the most powerful incentives for attracting and retaining staff. (Samson Daft, 2005, p.164) Government Regulations -These are simply laws made by the government to provide flexibility for working parents of small children. Again this is crucial to maintain proper work life balance. The governments at present plan to preserve the notion in law regarding this matter. To avoid bitterness, employers will have to offer different incentives to all staff. The movement towards offering a new work-life balance is unstoppable, as it is what everyone wants. However it is a requirement that organizations together with individuals find the perfect balance, with equal commitments to sectors, work life. (kaufman, 2000, p.254) Employer of choice The primary objective of any business is (or should be) to create a high performance workplace. High performance workplaces are characterized by their creativity, innovation, flexibility and competitiveness. Workplaces where people choose to work and give freely of their energies and feel a sense of personal achievement, satisfaction, individual purpose and security, where there is synergy between personal missions and work challenges, and organizational achievement and where the workplace sense of community contributes to overall social cohesion. (Centro, 2009. P. 300) 2.3.2 So what does Employer of Choice mean In simple terms it means that people will choose to work for you and they will: Choose to dedicate them to your success. Choose to stay with you, even when they are being courted by recruiters from other Employers recruiters with exceptionally attractive inducements. An employer of choice is one who inspires highly talented workers to join them and stay with them. (Herman Gloria, 2004, p.158). 2.4 ASPECTS OF WORK LIFE BALANCE 2.4.1 Job sharing Job sharing if we examine is a form of permanent part-time work, where the full time work is coordinately divided between two or more people, where each individual is given specific responsibilities and areas for the entire workload. It needs to be understood that a change from full-time to a job sharing arrangement doesnt mean that the continuity of the employment is broken. (Jones, 2005, p.256) Benefits It increases co-operation and collaboration between all staffs Enhance the experience and knowledge of each individual when the job is shared Enable is better balance paid work persona, family, social and community If any employee is currently involved in any part time studies, this gives them the flexibility for them to complete their studies in a faster rate. Potential Disadvantages Job sharing may also give rise to; Duplication of work or conflicting decisions due to poor communication between the job sharers Disruption of work caused by the absence of a person working on a matter which needs to be completed that day Difficulties renegotiating a job share arrangement if one job sharer leaves The need for additional communication mechanisms for job sharers and other staff Salary, superannuation and other entitlements being affected. Suggestions for overcoming potential problems Chose a job share partner who has a complimentary working style and one whom you communicate well. Job sharers and Managers should clarify the details of the job share arrangements together, prior to the commencement of the job share arrangement. Factors to consider include: How tasks will be divided How to hand over How important decisions will be made How to keep the Manager and other staff members informed about these What will happen if one job sharer resigns Staff members are encouraged to outline these details in their flexible work proposal and Managers need to ensure that they are clearly documented in the final agreed arrangement. Plan well prior to the introduction of the job share arrangement. This is crucial to preventing many of the potential problems that may arise under this type of arrangement. 2.4.2 Part time work Part-time work for professional staff members entails working less than the standard weekly or fortnightly hours, for which all entitlements are paid on a pro-rata basis. Types of the part-time work arrangements include: Weekly fraction: working 0.5 on the basis of two and a half working days each week Fortnightly fraction: three working days one week and two working days the next week within a pay period. Annual fraction: working 0.5 time for the whole year but working six months full time and six months off. Converting from full-time work to part-time work for a defined period of time is also negotiable. This enables a phased return to work following extended or prolonged leave (eg. maternity or sick leave) or phased exit before retiring. Benefits Part-time employees are better able to manage their working hours to suit their personal, family, social and community responsibilities and interests. For e.g. Having time to do well in their job Keeping stress at an acceptable level Maintaining a good balance between work and other aspects of life Meeting their family responsibilities. Employers have greater capacity for attracting and retaining high performing, innovative employees who might otherwise have difficulty in working full-time. Organizations that demonstrate an appreciation of part-time work and flexibility in assisting staff to manage work-life balance enjoy an enhanced public perception. Potential Disadvantages Salary, superannuation and other entitlements may be affected by a reduction in working hours. There may be a need to cover load/hours when part-time employees are not working, especially for roles previously performed on a full-time basis. There is potential for overloading other staff members with work to cover load/hours when part-time workers are not working, especially for roles previously performed on a full-time basis. Suggestions for overcoming potential problems By planning well prior to the introduction of the flexible work arrangement, managers can ensure that when part-time staff members are not working, the work unit is adequately covered. Effective planning and clear communication amongst the parties concerned shall ensure that staff members are not burdened with an overload of work. 2.4.3 Flexible time Flexi-time is an arranged agreement between a Manager and staff member in which they mutually agree to vary their staff members commencing, ceasing and meal break times while still maintaining the total number of hours worked over a period. Another version of flexi-time is when time off in lieu accrued when a staff member works longer than 7.35 hours per day or 36.75 hours per week. These accrued hours can be used to reduce the work hours during other days within the week/fortnight. Since 2006, record keeping requirements under the  Workplace Relations Act  1996 require staff members, entitled to overtime or penalty rates, to record hours for worked in excess of their ordinary work hours. Flexi-time arrangements take into account the current and operational needs of the work area. This means that some positions or work areas will not be able to accommodate flexi-time. Benefits Flexi-time enables the arrangement of working hours to suit personal or family commitments, particularly staff with dependent children. For example, by commencing work at a later time or finishing work at an earlier time enables many parents to drop their children off to school in the mornings or pick them up in the afternoon. Accumulating additional hours then having long stretches of time off work allows employees to more effectively pursue broader career/personal/social and community responsibilities and interests. Employees who are better able to manage their work-life balance more effectively are more likely to have high staff morale, greater employee satisfaction and work commitment resulting in a more enriched working environment and a correspondingly more vibrant, creative and productive workforce. Potential Disadvantages Flexi-time arrangements may mean there are inadequate staff levels at some times. Staffs are required to keep detailed records of flexi-time, which is resource intensive and time-consuming. Suggestions for overcoming potential problems Good planning prior to the introduction of the flexi work arrangements is crucial to preventing many of the potential problems that may arise under this type of arrangement. 2.4.4Pre Retirement contracts A pre-retirement contract is a fixed-term contract entered into by the University and a staff member seeking to retire at a specified future time (usually in between 1-5 years time). Professional and academic staff who are eligible for consideration of a pre-retirement contract includes staff who have: Tenured or continuing employment with the company Reached 55 years of age and will retire at the expiry of the pre-employment contract. Benefits For the staff member A pre-retirement contract allows a staff member to plan for the future by giving guaranteed employment for the duration of the contract. Employees receive a 10% loading above normal salary which is bonus. The contract period provides the work unit time for succession planning. Conversion to a pre-retirement contract can also be combined with part-time employment, enabling employees to enjoy the benefits of retirement while at the same time undertaking paid work. For the Company Pre-retirement contracts provide job opportunities for other employees. The contract period allows the Company to know when a staff member will retire provides certainty for forward/succession planning. 2.4.5 Work from home Professional and academic staff members may work from home: For a specified period of time For a specific project Under certain conditions provided the arrangement is both appropriate and practicable. Approval for a home based work arrangement is therefore considered on a case to case basis, having regard to the nature and requirements of the work, including Occupational Health and Safety requirements. Work duties that involve a  high level of autonomy and independence  are more appropriate for home based work arrangements and include: Project work Report writing Policy development and analysis Computer design and programming Duties that do not require close supervision or contact with other staff, students and public relations A degree of computer literacy to facilitate independent work from home Minimal usage of files and other resources located in the office. The type of  equipment  required for undertaking home based work may include: A computer with disc drives, a USB port or Ethernet connection for transferring work done at home to the office Switching work phone through to the home computer or home phone Having access to University databases and networks on the home computer The provision of a telephone answering service, fax machine or mobile phone. Benefits Working from home can result in: The ability to concentrate on a primary project Less time spent travelling to and from work Reduced child care costs More time with the children and family. Potential Difficulties Working from home may also facilitate: Practical difficulties in arranging equipment required by the employee to undertake home based work Potential risks/hazards at home Distractions resulting in an inability to work as effectively and efficiently as an equivalent staff member on campus Feelings of isolation Lack of access to  staff development opportunities  and workplace information. Suggestions for overcoming potential problems Good planning prior to the introduction of the home based work arrangement is crucial to preventing many of the potential problems that may arise under this type of arrangement. The University provides information for Managers, including steps to be followed in  negotiating flexible work arrangements  and a checklist to assist with this process. 2.4.6 Paternity Leave Providing services such as paternity leave, child care and elder care will further develop the employee relationship with the Organization. Hence, increasing the balance of work and family. All parents  with children under the age of 8;  in the case of a child with disabilities the age limit is 16  are entitled to up to 14 weeks Parental Leave 2.4.7 Compassionate or Emergency Leave Most employers recognize the need for leave in emergency situations. Arrangements vary from organization to organization and are frequently informal. Many employees prefer the need for leave in emergency situations or unavoidable circumstances however arrangement may vary for company to company. However if the company is practicing work life balance they will be able to provide leave to that individual and sharing the work among the employees. 2.4.8 Term-Time Working This system means that the employee works during school terms but not during the school holidays. It appeals, in particular, to parents of school going children. Employment or career break:  At certain stages in working life a break may be needed, for example: to devote more time to other things or for personal development reasons. The facilitating of such breaks can assist in retaining valued staff. A growing number of organizations provide such breaks on either a formal or less structured basis. Sabbaticals:  This is a period of absence from work, which may or may not be on full pay, and duration is normally related to length of service. They provide an opportunity for employees to take a break from or reflect on their work, or engage in new activities. Exam and Study Leave:  When an employee is pursuing further education (this may or may not be job-related), an organization may provide paid leave for the purposes of study and to enable the employee to sit exams.   In the case of workers under 18, this may be mandatory as set out in the  Education (Welfare) Act (2000). 2.4.9 E-Working The concept of e-Working involves working at a distance, not face to face using the technology to ease communications. Through the state of the art technology such as video conferring and Skype for e.g., communication has been made simple and just about everywhere and anytime. It is well suited to performing information technology tasks and works well in certain situations where the employee has a high degree of autonomy, e.g.: Architecture, journalism. Difficulties to be overcome can include issues of control, lack of face to face contact and consistency of service provision. 2.4.10 Virtual Teams Virtual development includes where forming teams of e-workers to work in a mutually supportive way. The team members may not work together or in fact stay in the same country however via the internet the communication is made effectively. This form of teamwork may be suitable in certain situations but the lack of personal interaction and human contact will render it inappropriate in situations where these factors are considered important. 2.5 Benefits of work life balance in work places Work life balance and practices can bring benefits in direct and in direct form to employees, employers and as a whole to the organization. The benefits that come into the organization due to the practices of such strategy would be tangible and quantifiable than other, where they contribute to the organizations gain in the long run. When organizations are able to create a work environment with work life balance, there are many benefits to the organization which could be priceless. 2.5.1 Image An organization that implements such strategy would be a most preferred work place by employees, more over this would create an image for the organization as an entity that emphasizes on their employees satisfaction and well look into the needs of their and satisfy them where as ensuring that organizational goals are been archived. As a whole the organization would have an image in the society as a workers most preferred organization. 2.5.2 Increase in productivity Many researchers have been proved that the best motivation a human can get is not when he is benefited only in monetary terms, where as the person would get motivated and satisfied when his basic and essentials needs are recognized and satisfied. Thus work life balance provides a ground for such practices for the in a organization. Where flexi work hours are encouraged according to the employees situation, telecommuting, job sharing and maternity leaves etc. therefore the employee would feel that his basic and essential needs are been recognized and been addressed and due to the above mentioned methods they could perform their task from homes or flexi working hours where they could address their personal needs and do along with the organizational demand. This would bring down the stress level of employees by not loading everything in one time and as a whole would increase the productivity of the employees in the long run. 2.5.3 Retention of current employee rates When such practices are been exercised in an organizations and where employees are been looked after well where by addressing their issues in a more effective way the employee retention level would be on a positive note. This would reduce the burden on the organization looking for new employees, the cost associated with hiring new employees is relatively high in contrast to the real world where the organization has to incur cost such as advertising and recruitment and training which would be a timely process with high levels of cost involved A work environment with work-life balance will enhance the working relationships between colleagues, improve morale and will encourage employees to show more initiative and teamwork. Therefore, it will increase the levels of production and job satisfaction by decreasing stress and burn-out 2.6 World Class examples of successful organizations which has practiced Work Life Balance 2.6.1 How Google Inc. helps its employees to balance work-life Google as one of the top 10 best companies in the world as a motivation technique (usually called Innovation Time Off), all Google engineers are encouraged to spend 20% of their work time (one day per week) on projects that interest the. The culture at Google Inc. have helped its employees to do what they like to do and thereby reduces their job related stress levels. In an effort to maintain the companys unique flexible work culture, Google has designated a Chief Culture Officer in 2006, who also serves as the Director of Human Resources and the purpose of the Chief Culture Officer is to develop and maintain the culture and work on ways to keep true to the core values that the company was founded on in the beginning-a flat organization with a collaborative environment in order to help the employees to perform well in their jobs by balancing their work-life. Here are some things you might find in a Google workspace: Bicycles for efficient travel between meetings, dogs, lava lamps, and massage chairs. Googlers sharing cubes, yurts, and huddle rooms (few single offices!) with three or four team members. Laptops in every employees hand (or bike basket), for mobile coding and note-taking. Pool tables, volleyball courts, assorted video games, pianos, ping pong tables, lap pools, gyms that include yoga and dance classes. Grassroots employee organizations of all kinds, such as meditation classes, film clubs, wine tasting groups, and salsa dance clubs. Healthy lunches and dinners for all staff at a wide variety of cafà ©s, and outdoor seating for sunshine brainstorming. Snack rooms packed with various snacks and drinks to keep Googlers going throughout the day. These have helped the employees of Google Inc to balance their work-life so, that they could do more innovative, creative things. 2.6.2 How Cisco Systems helps its employees to balance work-life As one of the top 10 companies of the world sustainable work performance based on employee satisfaction is critical to Ciscos success. Accordingly, their managers are trained and encouraged to make sure employees can successfully balance their work and personal lives. Cisco has a tradition of offeri