Thursday, October 31, 2019

The Strategy Adopted By the Capsim Company Lab Report

The Strategy Adopted By the Capsim Company - Lab Report Example The researcher states that the adoption of the niche cost leader (low technology) strategy has enabled the company to become effective in the achievement of its strategic and operational goals. Activity ratios are used in measuring the effectiveness of company goals. The company recorded a high accounts payable turnover ratio of 14.64, meaning that it takes around 15 days for the company to pay its suppliers. The Capsim Company has been paying its suppliers at a faster rate, a clear indication of how effective it has been in its operational strategies and goals. High accounts receivable turnover of 24.33 recorded by the company is also an indication of how effective the company has been it its operational strategies. The high accounts receivable turnover ratio shows how effective the company has been in debt collection and has also been efficient in turning its inventory into sales, hence its effectiveness in the achievement of its strategic and operational goals. For the Capsim Comp any to increase and improve its operations in the future, it should change its strategy to adopt a more advanced strategy such as a cost leader with product lifecycle focus strategy. The change in its strategy will enable the company reaps from sales of high products of each and every new product introduced into the segment. The increased sales from the high-end products will then enable the company to improve its profitability. The company can also change its strategy to niche differentiator (high technology) that will enable it shifts from low technology to high technology products in the low-end segments. This will enable the company to reap more sales and profits from each of the new high technology product it introduces into the segment.

Monday, October 28, 2019

Ancient Greece and Greek Red-figure Vase Essay Example for Free

Ancient Greece and Greek Red-figure Vase Essay In ancient Greece, most jobs were done by slaves instead of free people. This was because the Greeks had no money to pay workers with (until the Archaic period), and because they had no clocks (to measure how long somebody had worked). But it was also because it is cheaper to force people to work for you than it is to pay them. Most people who were slaves in Greece had been born free. They were sold into slavery by their parents when they were children, because their parents were too poor to take care of them. Or they were captured by kidnappers or as prisoners of war and sold as slaves. A few slaves were the children of other slaves. Some slaves were Greek and some were Persians or Egyptians or Scythians. There were a lot of jobs, and so about a third of the people living in ancient Greece were slaves. Slaves were owned by other people, and had to work for their owners. They could not decide to go work for somebody else. If they refused to work, their owner hit them. People who were slaves could not marry or raise children without their owner’s permission. And slaves could be sold at any time. Most of the slaves worked in the fields, plowing and planting seeds and harvesting wheat and barley and olives. Some slaves worked for small farms, maybe just one or two slaves working alongside their boss. Other slaves worked on huge farms with hundreds of other slaves, and never saw their owner. Slaves who worked in the fields were almost all men. Other slaves, both men and women, worked in factories or small shops, making shoes or shields or pottery or leather or weaving cloth. Some slaves cut hair in barbershops, and others worked in the public baths. Some were prostitutes. Slaves who could read and write were often teachers or accountants. Or slaves who had skills might be musicians or dancers. Skilled slaves were often freed when they got too old to work, though we’re not sure whether this was good or bad for them. A smaller number of slaves worked as servants in the houses of their owners. Women worked as wet-nurses, or as nannies, or as cleaning women or cooks. They went to get water from the public fountains. Men worked taking care of the horses, or accompanying free children to school, or as handymen or gardeners. Men went to the market to do the shopping every day. These slaves, too, were often freed when they got old and couldn’t work anymore. Some poor slaves worked rowing trading ships. They were kept down in the bottom of the ship and never saw the sun, and they were given only bread and water to eat, and were often beaten to make them pull the oars harder. Most men who worked as rowers didn’t live very long. But the slaves that were the worst off were the men who worked in the silver mines. The silver in the mines was mixed with lead. So the men who worked in these mines gradually died of lead poisoning. Nobody lived more than two or three years. Their owners knew that the slaves were being poisoned, but they didn’t care. Some of these slaves were criminals, murderers or thieves who were being punished by working as slaves. Others were slaves who had tried to run away from other jobs, or had refused to work. But many slaves went to the mines for no reason at all, just because people were needed to work in the mines, and free people didn’t want that kind of work

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Methods Of Minimizing Delays Construction Essay

Methods Of Minimizing Delays Construction Essay A successful construction project is accomplished when the project is completed and hand over to the owner within time, costs, specifications and quality required and to the satisfaction of stakeholders. Thus, completing a construction project on time is vital as it secure the rights of the participating parties on the project. When a project is delayed, it will cause the resources employed to be exceeded as what has been planned. This extra use of resources will lead to disputes and claims arise as extra costs will be incurred to complete the project by the participating parties. Abd El-Razek et al. (2008) identified that delay in construction project is considered one of the most common problems causing a multitude negative effect on the project and its participating parties. Delays are insidious often resulting in time overrun, cost overrun, disputes, litigation, and complete abandonment of projects (Sambasivan and Yau, 2007). Many projects are of such a nature that the client will suffer hardship, expense, or loss of revenue if the work is delayed beyond the time specified in the contract. Then, again, delay has cost consequences for the contractor: standby costs of non-productive workers, supervisors, and equipment, expenses caused by disrupted construction and material delivery schedules and additional overhead costs (Clough, 1986). Delay on project will affect the parties to the contract involved. Issues regarding entitlement to extra costs or prolongation of time for the project may arise as consequences to the project delay. Questions arise as to the causes of delay and the assigning of fault often evolves into disputes and litigation (Bolton, 1990). Thus, it is very important to find out the methods with relevant to its causal factors of delay so that the effects of the delay on the project can be reduced. This is because the project delay itself and also the resolution of disputes are both a waste of resources. It is important to predict and identify problems in the early stages of construction and diagnose the cause to find and implement the most appropriate and economical solutions (Abdul-Rahman and Berawi, 2002). Several researches had been carried out to studied and recommended on methods to minimize delay in construction industry in their studies of investigating causes or causes and effects of delays in either specific types of construction projects or in general, representing the overall construction industry. 3.2 Methods of Minimizing Construction Delays Assaf et al. (1995) in the literature review of his study of investigating the causes of delay in large building projects in Saudi Arabia, noted that studied by Chalabi and Camp (1984) suggested that in developing countries, where workers are relatively unskilled, adequate planning at the very early stages of the project was important for minimizing delay and cost overruns in most projects. Chan and Kumaraswamy (1997) conducted a study to survey the causes of construction delays in Hong Kong as seen by clients, contractor and consultants, and examined the factors affecting productivity. This study also suggests some useful pointers towards minimizing the problems causing delays on construction site. Following are the recommendations: The relationship between success on site and strong management teams underlines the need for effective site management and supervision by contractors and consultants. Manpower, at both the technical and the managerial levels, should have their own knowledge updated by continuous professional development schemes. This may be in the form of short training programmes or day release courses in educational establishments. Insufficient knowledge of the sites causes many delays in projects. The investigation of site conditions, together with the design of groundworks and foundations, should be thorough, complete and clearly presented before commencement of construction so as to reduce the impact of any unforeseen ground conditions. Effective data communication between various groups and levels involved in a project, emphasizes the need for efficient methods of information processing in the construction industry. To accelerate the communications and decision making among all parties, appropriate overall organizational structures and communication systems linking all project teams should be developed throughout the whole life of the project. The roles and responsibilities of those involved in the project team should be clearly defined, and the designated decision-makers should also be clearly identified. Comprehensive strategies need to be formulated to minimize variations, whether client-initiated or consultant-initiated, wherever possible. A clear and thorough client brief is considered the most useful strategy for reducing variations. Contingency allowances may be incorporated for inevitable variations. These allowances may be better quantified by using risk analysis techniques. Strategies should also be formulated to mitigate the impact of such inevitable variations after obtaining the consultants advice, together with the contractors inputs, on their cost and time implications. Value management techniques may be useful both when developing the design from the brief at the conceptual design stage, as well as in limiting any variations to those that are absolutely essential. The differentials in perception between the different groups of participants in the industry should be noted and discussed in suitable fora, with a view to bridging the gaps and avoiding or resolving some of the avoidable problems that have been highlighted herein. The results of the foregoing survey should be taken into consideration in developing a construction time prediction model for local building and civil engineering construction industries, as has been planned in the next phase of this research programme in Hong Kong. Noulmanee et al. (1999) investigated causes of delays in highway construction in Thailand. They suggested that delay can be minimized by discussions that lead to understanding Aibinu and Jagboro (2002) conducted a study to survey the problem of construction delays in Nigeria. The study was carried out to examine the effects of delays on the delivery of the projects in Nigeria and some recommendations were made to minimize the effects of the projects delays. A questionnaire survey was done over 61 construction projects to determine and assessed the impact of the delay projects on its delivery. Time and cost overruns were found to be the common effects of construction delays. The recommendations made to reduce the impact of the construction delays were: Acceleration of site activities coupled with improved clients project management procedures; and Inclusion of the contingency allowance in the pre-contract estimate. Chan and Kumaraswamy (2002), in their study of compressing construction duration in Hong Kong explored strategies used to compress construction durations for various types of building projects. The paper sought out the critical factors that contribute to the faster construction procedures in Hong Kong. The authors recommended specific technological and managerial strategies to be used to reduce the construction durations. Odeh and Battaineh (2002) in the study of causes of construction delay in traditional contracts suggested that to improve the situation of delays, a joint effort by all participants in the construction industry is needed by: Enforcing liquidated damage clauses and offering incentives for early completion. Developing human resources in the construction industry through proper training and classifying of craftsmen. This calls for providing incentives such as offering a tax deduction on money spent on training, and for authorizing trade unions or other agencies to regulate, follow-up on training, and classify trades. Developing human resources also applies to construction engineers who usually lack adequate managerial skills. There is an urgent need for offering training courses in scheduling, time and cost control, information systems, and management of human resources. Adopting a new approach to contract award procedure by giving less weight to prices and more weight to the capabilities and past performance of contractors. Adopting new approaches to contracting, such as design-build and construction management (CM) types of contracts. Such contracts reduce delays by limiting owner interference, improving the design, and improving the contractual relationships among all parties to the project. Frimpong et al. (2003) give some recommendations minimize delays in the study of causes of delay and cost overruns in the construction of groundwater construction projects in Ghana. Their recommendations are as follows: Appropriate funding levels should always be determined at the planning stage of the project so that regular payment should be paid to contractors for work done. In order to improve contractors managerial skills there is need for continuous work-training programs for personnel in the industry to update their knowledge and be familiar with project management techniques and process. Effective and efficient material procurement systems should be established within projects. Material procurement has the potential to cause major delays to construction projects. Therefore, material procurement process should be executed properly by improving procurement process in order to avoid supply delays. Developing effective and efficient technical performances in the groundwater industry through different types of training programs. The training should cover project planning, scheduling, time and cost control, and the information systems. There should be adequate contingency allowance in order to cover increase in material cost due to inflation. Nguyen et al. (2004) studied the project success factors in large construction projects in Vietnam. Factor analysis was employed to categorize these success factors perceived by 109 respondents from 42 construction-related organizations. The success factors identified in this study were: Clear objectives and scope; Commitment to project; Top management support; Timely, valuable information from different parties; Effective strategic planning; Awarding bids to the right designer/contractor; Continuing involvement of stakeholders in the project; Frequent progress meeting; Adequate funding throughout the project; Availability of resources; Absence of bureaucracy; Community involvement; Clear information and communications channels; Accurate initial cost estimates; Systematic control mechanisms; Competent project manager; Multidisciplinary/competent project team; Comprehensive contract documentation; Up to date technology utilization; and proper emphasis on past experience. Five critical success factors were identified: Competent project manager; Adequate funding until project completion; Multidisciplinary/competent project team; Commitment to project; and Availability of resources. Obviously, the factors shown are mostly human-related factors. This implies that people play a decisive role regarding the success or failure of a project. Further, factor analysis uncovered that most of the success factors can be grouped under four categories, here titled the four COMs: Comfort concerns ensuring that resources, efforts and leadership are well aligned for the implementation of the project. It includes adequate funding throughout the project, comprehensive contract document, availability of resources, continuing involvement of stakeholders, and competent project managers. Competence requires having appropriate technology, experience, and specialties available for the project. It includes up to date technology utilization, proper emphasis on past experience, multidisciplinary/competent project team, and awarding bids to the right designer/contractor. Commitment ensures that all parties concerned with the project and all levels in the management hierarchy of each participating organization are willing to manage, plan, design, construct and operate the facility harmoniously. It includes commitment to project, clear objectives and scope, and top management support. Communication helps clarify and disseminate all necessary project information and status to all internal and external project stakeholders. The project will then have the opportunity to avoid failure and reach for success through the achievement of team-spirit and a sense of ownership. It includes community involvement, clear information/communications channels, and frequent progress meeting. Koushki et al. (2005) recommended some suggestions which could be used to minimize time delays and cost overruns in the study of investigating the delays and cost increases in the construction of private residential projects in Kuwait. They suggested that the owner of a new residential project in Kuwait to: Ensure adequate and available source of finance; Perform a preconstruction planning of project tasks and resource needs; Allocate sufficient time and money on the design phase; If cost-effective (depending on the size of the residential project), hire an independent supervising engineer to monitor the progress of the work and ensure timely delivery of materials; and finally, the most important factor of all, Select a competent consultant and a reliable contractor to carry out the work. Assaf and Al-Hejji (2006) suggested some recommendations that pointed out by all parties which are the contractors, consultants and owner to minimize and control delays in construction projects. Owners should give special attention to the following factors: Pay progress payment to the contractor on time because it impairs the contractors ability to finance the work. Minimize change orders during construction to avoid delays. Avoid delay in reviewing and approving of design documents than the anticipated. Check for resources and capabilities before awarding the contract to the lowest bidder. Contractors should consider the following factors: Shortage and low productivity of labour: enough number of labours should be assigned and be motivated to improve productivity. Financial and cash flow problems: contractor should manage his financial resources and plan cash flow by utilizing progress payment. Planning and scheduling: they are continuing processes during construction and match with the resources and time to develop the work to avoid cost overrun and disputes. Site management and supervision: administrative and technical staff should be assigned as soon as project is awarded to make arrangements to achieve completion within specified time with the required quality, and estimated cost. Consultants should look to the following points: Reviewing and approving design documents: any delay caused by the consultant engineer in checking, reviewing and approving the design submittals prior to construction phase, could delay the progress of the work; Inflexibility: consultants should be flexible in evaluating contractor works. Compromising between the cost and high quality should be considered. Finally; Architect/design engineer should focus on the following issues: Producing design documents on time: Architect/engineer should set a schedule to complete design documents on time, otherwise result in a delay of work completion. Mistakes and discrepancies in design documents: they are common reasons for redoing designs and drawings and may take a long time to make necessary corrections. Ibnu Abbas Majib (2006) in his study of causes and effects of delay in Aceh construction industry, Indonesia suggest some methods which can be employed to minimize construction delays. A total of thirty five methods of minimizing delays were identified in his study. The most effective methods of minimizing delays identified are to: Ensure adequate and available source of finance until project completion; Competent project manager; Availability of resources; Frequent progress meeting; Awarding bids to the right/experience consultant and contractor; Use of experienced subcontractors and suppliers; Multidisciplinary/competent project team; Accurate initial cost estimates; Competent and capable of clients representative; Use of appropriate construction methods; Perform a preconstruction planning of project task and resources needs; and Project management assistance. Abd El-Razek et al. (2008) conducted a similar study of causes of delay in building construction projects in Egypt from the point of view of contractors, consultants, and owners suggested that in order to significantly reduce delay a joint effort based on teamwork is required. Fugar and Agyakwah-Baah (2010) emphasized in their study of delays in building construction projects in Ghana from the perspective of clients, consultants and contractors that the adequate and timely provision of financial resources in building construction project management cannot be over emphasized. This is because the finance is the hub around which everything else revolves. Everybody and everything connected with construction is adversely affected by lack of sufficient cash flow. They made the some recommendations as follows: Construction clients must ensure that funds are available or adequate arrangements for funds are made before projects are started. The long and bureaucratic processes involved in honouring payments to contractors in Ghana must be shortened for efficiency and contractors payments must be honoured as and when they due in strict compliance with the provisions of the contract. Contract provisions which allow contractors to claim interest on delayed payments must be strictly enforced to serve as deterrent to clients. The idea of establishing a commercial bank for building and construction is worth revisiting so that contractors can have access to credit in times of liquidity difficulties. On the other hand, to overcome some contractors ineptitude which correlates directly with delay factors such as underestimation of cost, time of completion and complexity of projects, poor scheduling and control and poor site management, the researchers recommend the following actions. The Civil Engineering and Building Contractors Association of Ghana must institute measures to ensure that its members go through continual education so that the technical and managerial competences of contractors who belong to it can be improved. The acquisition of a certain number of credit hours in continual education should be a criterion for membership renewal. The Ministry of Works and Water Resources, the body responsible for the registration and classification of contractors wishing to execute public projects, must insist on its requirement that contractors must have in their employment certain key technical staff as a condition for registration. Above all, effective ways must be designed to verify the list of staff produced by contractors in support of their application and to ensure also that these key staff positions are continually filled by technically competent individuals. Summary 53 methods of minimizing delays were identified from the review of literature above. These methods will be used to develop questionnaire for surveying purposes. Followings were the methods identified: Perform a preconstruction planning of project tasks and resources. Continuous update manpower, both technical and managerial. Thorough and complete investigation of site conditions. Clear information and communications channels. Clear and thorough client brief. Include of the contingency allowance in the pre-contract estimate. Use value management techniques when developing the design from the brief at the conceptual design stage, as well as in limiting any variations to those that are absolutely essential. Accelerate site activities. Improve clients project management procedures. Enforce liquidated damage clauses. Offer incentives for early completion. Adopt a new approach to contract award procedure by giving less weight to prices and more weight to the capabilities and past performance of contractors. Adopt new approaches to contracting, such as design-build and construction management (CM) types of contracts. Determine appropriate funding levels at the planning stage of the project. Effective and efficient material procurement systems. Competent project manager. Multidisciplinary/competent project team. Commitment to project. Allocate sufficient time and money on the design phase. Hire an independent supervising engineer to monitor the progress of the work. Pay progress payment to the contractor on time. Minimize change orders. Avoid delay in reviewing and approving of design documents. Check for resources and capabilities before awarding the contract to the lowest bidder. Number of labours assigned should be enough and be motivated to improve productivity. Contractor should manage his financial resources and plan cash flow by utilizing progress payment. Continuous planning and scheduling during construction. Site management and supervision: administrative and technical staff should be assigned as soon as project is awarded to make arrangements. Produce design documents on time. Avoid making mistakes and discrepancies in design documents. Consultants should be flexible in evaluating contractor works. Compromising between the cost and high quality should be considered. Clear objectives and scope. Frequent progress meeting. Top management support. Timely, valuable information from different parties. Effective strategic planning. Award bids to the right/experience consultant and contractor. Continuous involvement of stakeholders in the project. Availability of resources. Absence of bureaucracy. Community involvement. Systematic control mechanisms. Comprehensive contract documentation. Up to date technology utilization. Proper emphasis on past experience. Use of experienced subcontractors and suppliers. Accurate initial cost estimates. Competent and capable clients representative. Use of appropriate construction methods. Project management assistance. Idea of enforce contract provisions which allow contractors to claim interest on delayed payments must be strictly to serve as deterrent to clients. Establishing a commercial bank for building and construction so that contractors can have access to credit in times of liquidity difficulties. Design effective ways to verify the list of staff produced by contractors in support of their application and to ensure also that these key staff positions are continually filled by technically competent individuals.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Tale Of Two Cities :: History

Tale Of Two Cities â€Å"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,† Dickens writes in the opening lines of A Tale of Two Cities as he paints a picture of life in England and France. The year is late 1775, and Jarvis Lorry travels from London to Paris on a secret mission for his employer, Tellson’s Bank. Joining him on his journey is Lucie Manette, a 17-year-old woman who is stunned to learn that her father, Doctor Alexandre Manette, is alive and has recently been released after having been secretly imprisoned in Paris for 18 years. When Mr. Lorry and Lucie arrive in Paris, they find the Doctor’s former servant, Ernest Defarge, caring for the him. Defarge now runs a wine-shop with his wife in the poverty-stricken quarter of Saint Antoine. Defarge takes Mr. Lorry and Lucie to the garret room where he is keeping Doctor Manette, warning them that the Doctor’s years in prison have greatly changed him. Thin and pale, Doctor Manette sits at a shoemaker’s bench intently making shoes. He barely responds to questions from Defarge and Mr. Lorry, but when Lucie approaches him, he remembers his wife and begins to weep. Lucie comforts him, and that night Mr. Lorry and Lucie take him to England. Five years later, the porter for Tellson’s Bank, Jerry Cruncher, takes a message to Mr. Lorry who is at a courthouse. Mr. Lorry has been called as a witness for the trial of Charles Darnay, a Frenchman accused of being a spy for France and the United States. Also at the trial are Doctor Manette and Lucie, who are witnesses for the prosecution. Doctor Manette has fully recovered and has formed a close bond with his daughter. If found guilty of treason, Darnay will suffer a gruesome death, and the testimony of an acquaintance, John Barsad, and a former servant, Roger Cly, seems sure to result in a guilty verdict. Questions from Darnay’s attorney, Mr. Stryver, indicate that Cly and Barsad are the real spies, but the turning point in the trial occurs when Sydney Carton, Stryver’s assistant, points out that Carton and Darnay look alike enough to be doubles. This revelation throws into doubt a positive identification of Darnay as the person seen passing secrets, and the court acquits Darnay. After the trial, Darnay, Carton, and Stryver begin spending time at the Manette home, obviously attracted to Lucie’s beauty and kind nature.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Mathematics in Daily Life Essay

People use math in their daily life. When you go to the grocery story you have to find out if you have enough money. When there are sales how much money it is and how much you save!! People use math every day. You use math whenever money, time, weight, height, calories or distance are involved for starters. Money You are going to book a hotel room for a trip. You have a coupon for a 15% discount. The rate is $120 before your discount. What is your rate ($102) and is it better than the internet rate, of $99.95? You will also want to consider the 10% hotel tax rate and the fees charged by the internet travel site (tax + $5.00.) With tax the room with the coupon is now $112.20, but with taxes and fees the rate for the internet room is $114.95. Good thing we know math. Time You get home at 4:15pm and you have a friend coming to pick you up to go to a party at 8:30. If you need to switch the laundry (10min), walk the dog (20min), take out the trash (15min), cook and eat dinner (60min) and do the dishes (20 min). How much time do you have to pick out clothes (?), shower (10min), iron clothes (10min), do your hair (?), do makeup (?), find shoes (?) and if you do the laundry first will there be enough time to use a piece of clothing that you put in the dryer earlier? Weight Your child is 4 and weighs 35lb and has tended to be of average weight/height. You want to buy something for your child that will hold up to 75lb. How many other kids can play on the item also? If 11 year olds weigh about 77lbs how long will he be able to use the item? Height If you have a 9ft ceilings,your tree topper is 7†³ tall and your tree stand adds 9†³ in height, what is the tallest Christmas tree you can fit? What if you get an artificial tree with it’s own stand that adds 0†³ to the height? Calories If you are serving a 600 calorie meal and you want to serve spaghetti, garlic bread, salad, wine and desert you will need to know how much they all are. 1 serving of spaghetti (5oz) is about 182c and sauce adds another 93c. Salad is only 17c a serving but dressing adds calories. If you let people add their own they tend to use two servings. Ranch adds 73c per serving , Italian only has 43c. Garlic bread is 170c per piece. You want to serve either tiramisu or poached pears for dessert. Tiramisu is about 450c per serving and the pears would be about 112xc per pear. The wine adds about 120c per glass and most people will have 2 glasses. What dessert should you serve? Does changing the dressing or adding it to the salad (so you limit the amount people get) change anything? What if you only serve wine with dinner (1 glass) and coffee (black = 0c, cream + 39c, whole milk + 18c, skim milk + 11c, sugar + 18c) with dessert? What if you serve smaller portions? Distance If you average 50mph on a day long trip and you need to go about 420 miles to visit your grandparents, how long will you be driving. If you stop for 30min for lunch and have two buy gas/use restroom/walk around breaks that are about 10-15min long, what time will you arrive if you leave at 7am? If you need to be there by 3pm, what time do you need to get going?

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Azeotrope Definition and Examples

Azeotrope Definition and Examples An azeotrope is a mixture of liquids that maintains its composition and boiling point during distillation. It is also known as an azeotropic mixture or constant boiling point mixture. Azeotropy occurs when a mixture is boiled to produce a vapor that has the same composition as the liquid. The term is derived by combining the prefix a, meaning no, and the Greek words for boiling and turning. The word was first used in a publication by English chemists John Wade (1864–1912) and Richard William Merriman in 1911. In contrast, mixtures of liquids that do not form an azeotrope under any conditions are called zeotropic. Types of Azeotropes Azeotropes may be categorized according to their number of constituents, miscibility, or boiling points: Number of Constituents: If an azeotrope consists of two liquids, it is known as a binary azeotrope. An azeotrope consisting of three liquids is a ternary azeotropes. There are also azeotropes made of more than three constituents.Heterogeneous or Homogeneous: Homogeneous azeotropes consist of liquids that are miscible. They form a solution. Heterogeneous azeotropes are incompletely miscible and form two liquid phases.Positive or Negative: A positive azeotrope or minimum-boiling azeotrope forms when the boiling point of the mixture is lower than that of any of its constituents. A negative azeotrope or maximum-boiling azeotrope forms when the boiling point of the mixture is higher than that of any of its constituents. Examples Boiling a 95% ethanol solution in water will produce a vapor that is 95% ethanol. Distillation cannot be used to obtain higher percentages of ethanol. Alcohol and water are miscible, so any quantity of ethanol can be mixed with any quantity to prepare a homogeneous solution that behaves like an azeotrope. Chloroform and water, on the other hand, form a heteroazeotrope. A mixture of these two liquids will separate, forming a top layer consisting mostly of water with a small amount of dissolved chloroform and a bottom layer consisting mostly of chloroform with a small amount of dissolved water. If the two layers are boiled together, the liquid will boil at a lower temperature than either the boiling point of water or of chloroform. The resulting vapor will consist of 97% chloroform and 3% water, regardless of the ratio in the liquids. Condensing this vapor will result in layers that exhibit a fixed composition. The top layer of the condensate will account for 4.4% of the volume, while the bottom layer will account for 95.6% of the mixture. Azeotrope Separation Since fractional distillation cannot be used to separate components of an azeotrope, other methods must be employed: Pressure swing distillation applies pressure changes to change the composition of a mixture to enrich the distillate with the desired component.Another technique involves the addition of an entrainer, a substance that alters the volatility of one of the azeotrope components. In some cases, the entrainer reacts with a component to form a nonvolatile compound. Distillation using an entrainer is called azeotropic distillation.Pervaporation involves separating components using a membrane that is more permeable to one constituent than the other. Vapor permeation is a related technique, using a membrane more permeable to the vapor phase of one component than another. Source Wade, John, and Richard William Merriman. CIV.- Influence of Water on the Boiling Point of Ethyl Alcohol at Pressures above and Below the Atmospheric Pressure. Journal of the Chemical Society, Transactions 99.0 (1911): 997–1011. Print.

Monday, October 21, 2019

Free speech in music essays

Free speech in music essays I think that every American citizen will agree with me when I say that freedom of speech is an essential part of democracy. This right encompasses many different areas of American life including but not limited to actual speech, clothing, what we read, what we see on television, and also what we hear in out music. But where do we draw the line on what we can and cannot say in music? I say that anything goes. It is after all only music. When I say its only music, I dont want to make it seem like I think music is not an important thing. Far from it. My life would be completely different and far less enjoyable without it. What I mean is that it really isnt something that people need to get all worked up about. If one group or one parent has something against one kind of music or what kind of message that it is supposedly conveying, then I think it is their responsibility to ignore it or boycott it as they see fit, but it is ridiculous that everyone should have to suffer because one person is easily offended. And how does one group decide that music is profane or offensive without knowing anything about it? It is impossible for someone who does not listen to heavy metal or any other similar tasteless style of music to understand what is trying to be said. I believe that half of the time these fogies are letting the loud sound impair their judgment. If these people would turn their hearing aids down and open their eyes they might see the truth rather than what they want to hear all the time. Another thing that I find amusing is that while many times people are trying to stop this music from getting out into the public, a lot of times all the fuss only serves to help record sales of these so called offensive musicians. If people would just calm down and let everyone make their own decisions on what is right and wrong musically, the country would be a lot better off. First off, why ...

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Bata Case Study Essay Example

Bata Case Study Essay Example Bata Case Study Essay Bata Case Study Essay The restructuring and re-engineering of the Company was largely possible due to the continuous and sustained efforts put in by Mr. Villagran. He glanced through the report he had presented to his team a year ago. â€Å"Operational Restructuring† was the title he had given it. Closing cash drain stores, renovating few existing ones and large scale expansion was suggested. Mr. Villagran could sense the changing market. He knew he had to do something to give a boost to this 80year old company. The outcome of this decision was its opening of 69 new stores and renovation of 40 of its existing ones. The company also closed 73 stores that were not performing well. Now the count was 1250 stores. In the quarter ended June 2010, the company’s net sales increased by 13. 4 per cent and net profit by 41. 1 per cent over the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The operating margins also improved to 13. 4 per cent from 11 per cent. The team was delighted with the results but Mr. Villagran just smiled. He knew it was just the beginning. There is a lot more to be done. The competition in the Indian market had grown exponentially. The Indian customer was getting very demanding in terms of style and availability. The customer had more options. He sipped his coffee as he contemplated on how this success could be sustained. Indian Footwear Retail Industry Footwear is a necessity to every person and at the same time is now a lifestyle as also a performance enhancement product; and is thus a segment with vast potential. The Indian footwear market is estimated to be worth Rs. 14,000 crores (approximately) and constitutes just about one percent of Indian retail. About 37. percent of retail footwear is in the organized segment, which qualifies it as the second most organized retail category in India, next only to Watches. Footwear is expected to comprise about 60% of the total leather exports by 2011 from over 38% in 2006-07. Presently, the Indian footwear market is dominated by Mens footwear market that accounts for nearly 58% of the total Indian footwear retail market. By products, the Indian footwear market is domi nated by casual footwear market that makes up for nearly two-third of the total footwear retail market. As footwear retailing in India remain focused on mens shoes, there exists a plethora of opportunities in the exclusive ladies and kids footwear segment with no organized retailing chain having a national presence in either of these categories. The Indian footwear market scores over other footwear markets as it gives benefits like low cost of production, abundant raw material, and has huge consumption market. The footwear component industry also has enormous opportunity for growth to cater to increasing production of footwear of various types, both for export and domestic market. BATA-GLOBAL Bata Ltd. is a privately owned global shoe manufacturer and retailer headquartered in Ontario, Canada. Bata is organized into four business units. Bata Canada, based in Toronto, serves the Canadian market with 250 stores. Based in Paris, Bata Europe serves the European market with 500 stores. With supervision located in Singapore, Bata International boasts 3,000 stores to serve markets in Africa, the Pacific, and Asia, Finally, Bata Latin America, operating out of Mexico City, sells footwear throughout Latin America. All told, Bata owns more than 4,700 retail stores and 46 production facilities. Total employment for the company exceeds 50,000. The Bata Shoe Organisation consists of 96 independently run companies in 90 countries throughout the world. BATA-INDIA Bata India Limited was incorporated at Calcutta in 1931. The Company manufactures and markets of all types of footwear, footwear components, leather and products allied to footwear trade. Bata was originally promoted as Bata Shoe Co Pvt Ltd. It became a public limited company in 1973 and the name was changed to Bata India Ltd. A retail network of over 1250 stores gives Bata a reach unmatched by any other company. The Bata Shoe Store is amongst the most recognizable and favoured landmark in any major market in India. Bata continues with its strategy of retail expansion, with 60 new Bata Shoe Stores opened every year, and existing stores being renovated during the year. The focus is on growing its Retail business continued with the opening of almost 2 new/renovated Bata Shoe Stores every week. All the new stores are in large format, with an average size of 3000 sq. feet and offer an unparalleled footwear shopping experience to the customer. An extensive retail network of owned and franchised stores enables the Company to reach out to consumers across the length and breadth of the country. Being a part of the Bata Shoe Organization gives the Company access to new designs, brands and production technologies. India is a very large market and offers good demand potential for footwear which is an item of mass consumption . A continuous focus on consistent quality and a constant endeavour to provide quality products at affordable prices is been one of the strength’s for the company. The Company has been in existence for more than seven decades and faces a challenge in switching to new production technologies. The Company faces competition from the unorganized market which is able to sell footwear at low cost due to lower overheads and manufacturing costs. Opening of the Indian market to imports has resulted in the Company facing competition from cheap imports. It is also a fact that the need for the product differentiation in the current market has become very important. There is an immense growth in the need of new fashioned footwear and the women are becoming more fashion oriented in India. So a need arises to satisfy them with a lower cost product with unique features. All the new stores are in large format, with an average size of 3000 sq. ft. and with a growing focus on training of store staff, the new Bata Shoe Store delivers the best footwear shopping experience to the customers. The layout of Bata stores is as per Bata international standards and is designed to offer the most effective display and provide the maximum convenience to the customers. Bata’s Wholesale Division It consists of 14 depots located across the country selling Bata products through 150 distributors and over 20,000 independent shoe dealers. The focus is on selling volume products catering to complete family needs. Bata Industrials is a specialized division of Bata India Limited catering to footwear needs of various industries. Whilst safety and durability are essential properties of these footwear, Bata also provides special features like impact resistance, heat resistance, oil resistance, lightweight etc. depending upon specific industry requirements like steel, oil gas, cement, automobile, heavy engineering etc. Bata Institutional Sales Division It focuses on direct sales to various institutions such as hospitality, airlines, retail, hospitals, etc. For corporate offices, it offers a selected range of regular wear occupational shoes for management level people working in an industry or construction environment. In addition, it provides excellent quality canvas shoes, hunter shoes, miners shoes etc. to meet specific requirements of army, police forces and mining industry. Branding Division is a new division and it consists of 15 distributors located in major metros selling footwear under Hush Puppies and Dr Scholls brands to departmental stores, footwear chains, specialty stores and high street dealers. Milestones (post 1985) In 1988 an agreement was arrived at with Adidas of West Germany for manufacture and marketing of sports and special application footwear, sports goods and sportswear in India and the products were launched in December, 1989 for sales through wholesalers and independent retailers. In 1990 a highly versatile sample 18-station bicolour injection moulding plant was installed in the Bangalore factory for production of `State-of-the-art injection moulded shoes with synthetic and textile uppers and specially developed PVC compounds as sole material. In 1992 the workers at Batanagar factory went on strike from 3rd January, to 23rd May, which resulted in a substantial loss of production during the initial 6 months of the year. The Company undertook to set up a green field export oriented unit at Hosur in Tamilnadu with the State-of-the-art technology. Over the years, the Company with the collaboration of Bata Development, Ltd. , London, U. K. , and its association with Bata Ltd. , Toronto, also built up its own well-equipped and up-to-date RD organisation. 1993 the Company undertook to expand and modernise its existing plants to optimize capacity and to become cost efficient on a global basis. Apart from this it also undertook expansion and up gradation of its retail stores. In 1995 they resolved their labour issues by signing The Long Term Agreement with the Bata Mazdoor Union representing employees of Batanagar and Calcutta Offices at bipartite level satisfactorily without any disruption of work. As a result of all these efforts, Indias largest shoe company Bata India (BIL) performed admirably to stage a remarkable turnaround for the year ended December 1996. The companys debt-equity ratio also improved dramatically to 0. 60:1 from 1. 90:1 in December 1996, and 2. 06:1 in December 1996. Bata also entered into a marketing tie-up with Nike wherein the latter’s products were offered from select Bata outlets. In 1998, every Bata outlet, 1,000 owned and over 600 joint ventures started selling Hush Puppies, Marie Claire and Adidas. In 1999 they decided to launch new products on a regular basis by expanding its womens range, and move into the premium segments it had vacated. Also, Batas Faridabad factory workers union finally reached an agreement with the company management, ending the nearly eight-month-old lock-out at the unit the same year. In 1999 Bata India aimed to achieve a 15 per cent growth in turnover and profits, to reach the target set out in the Vision 2001 plan drawn up by Compass, the international board of the Bata Shoe Organisation (BSO). By 2000, Bata India (Bata) emerged as the largest footwear manufacturer and produces a wide range of footwear such as canvas, rubber, leather, plastic and so on. In 2000, Bata India becomes India’s largest footwear manufacturer. In 2003, Bata repositions itself as a marketing firm. Bata faced some major issues. One, a major reason for the rise in costs and fall in sales is because of Batas recurring labour problems. Second, while Bata continued to be a dominant organised player in the domestic footwear market, it faces competition from the unorganised sector. This, to a large extent, was on accou nt of the fact that Batas target market is also catered to by the unorganised sector. This sector appeared more competitive as it had the benefit of being unorganised and, thus, does not have to pay tax. This threatened Batas margins. The industry, especially the lower middle-class target market, was highly price-sensitive. High margins were virtually impossible as rising costs exert pressure on them. Turnaround Story Things started looking up in 2005, when old loyalist Marcelo Villagran was made MD. New collections, a tiered store structure, specialised manufacturing bases and stores kept time with mall culture. They started focussing on concept-based designs, and paid attention to the smallest of things: keeping stores open till late and displaying all our shoes in pairs. New designers and changing collections also helped. No-frills school shoes gave way to chic high-heeled numbers and the customers returned. Bata planned to open 70 stores that year and was expecting a 10 per cent increase in sales. The Company initiated a retail restructuring program, which enabled the Company to keep the shops open for longer hours and seven days a week. With voluntary retirement schemes in place to reduce excess manpower, closing down of 70 unviable shops, lucrative incentives to staff and better stock management helped Bata to turnaround fast. By 2006, sales started picking up and so had the bottomline. It started generating enough cash from operations to plonk down small sums on fixed asset expansion. Sensibly enough, it had also quickly moved in to reduce it borrowings. To cope with the expansion in volumes, the companys distribution network and computerised distribution and inventory systems were revamped. Inventory build-up was a problem, and the periodic sales in select outlets were a strategy to clear slow-moving articles. STP Segmentation: Bata has segmented the market on the basis of segmentation variables like Demographic –They have segmented the market on the basis of Age, Sex, Income and Occupation by providing products catering to the needs of customers across this segment. Psychographic –Readiness stage: Life style, Personality, Benefits sought, User status, Usage rate, Loyalty status. With the changing customer mindset, Bata is trying to bring in newer designs for the new generation customers who are style conscious and consider footwear as a style statement. Earlier Bata was seen as a durable and value for money brand and had little to worry about the design and style. But now people seek style and functionality together. Target Customers Bata had traditionally been targeting the middle strata of the society in India. In precise terms they were focused more on the lower middle and middle classes. Due to the changing market dynamics the competition had started undercutting their prices and Bata was thinking of shifting its focus towards the higher premium end of the market as well. This basically resulted in it pursuing practices, through which it could not focus its efforts. As of now they have a variety of products wherein they have casual and formal shoes, slippers and sandals. This is available for kids, men and women. The price range is from Rs 130 to more than Rs 3500. Value Proposition for the Customers If analyzed for the value that Bata was providing to its customers their value proposition may be categorized as follows. ?Reasonable quality at low or reasonable price ?Footwear for the entire family ?Footwear catering to various functional needs e. g. sports, casual footwear, formal-semi formal ? Conveniently accessible outlets in various parts of the country ? Prior to entry of local players and the Chinese imports, some sort of social visibility could also be associated with Bata, as it was one of the two major brands in the country then. 4Ps Product: Bata footwear is trusted for quality. Product Variety, Quality, Features, Options, Style, Brand Name, Packaging, Sizes etc are things which are Bata known for. Bata is trying to concentrate on customer buying experience now. As a part of this initiative Bata has introduced the concept of flagship stores to provide complete and unique shopping experience at par with their stores abroad. Bata’s brand new collection of highly fashionable international range of ladies footwear under the Marie Claire brand will be one of the major attractions at this flagship store These retail stores will also showcase top-of-the-line brands including the latest international collection from Weinbrenner, Hush Puppies, Bubble Gummer, Dr Scholls and Bata Tech shoes. Brands like Nike, Reebok and Adidas will also be available. Place: International trends, relaxed ambience, great products, and courteous staff at the new-look Flagship store are all a part of Bata’s new marketing strategy. These stores will additionally offer trendy accessories like caps, T-shirts and other lifestyle products making it a complete one-stop shopping experience for its customers. Earlier Bata concentrated on mass marketing and its nation-wide distribution network is the one factor which contributed to its popularity and accessibility for its customers. Promotion: Bata has tried to promote the brand by stressing on comfort and toughness. Recently there have been efforts to position it as a youth brand by bringing in shoes for girls and advertisements depicting youngsters and fun. Bata has gift vouchers in convenient denominations, redeemable on all Bata products, acceptable over 800 stores all over India and with 6 months validity Price: The price range of Bata footwear products varies from Rs. 130 to Rs. 3500. The product caters to lower middle class, middle class and upper middle class segments. But the range of upper middle class customers of Bata are less as it does not attract the young affluent population. Porters Value Chain BATA Factories-a network of almost 40 shoe production facilities, tanneries and engineering workshops in 25 countries. Procurement- B. I. P. C (Bata International Procurement Centre) has been established to satisfy the procurement needs of individual companies for finished products and components. Through strict controls of the supply chain management process, B. I. P. C ensures exclusive products and shoe production line development with superior quality and comfort at very competitive prices. Operations and Reach – Opening of new stores and shutting down of unprofitable stores. Widest network with 1250 stores spread across the nation Marketing and Sales- All BATA showrooms had well trained employees in uniforms to assist sales. The sales process was made more professional to reach out the the expectations of the new customer. Services – Exclusive outlets with an avg, space of greater than 3000 square feet. Good ambience. Improved online presence and e-commerce. Porter’s five force COMPETITOR ANALYSIS ADIDAS: Adidas ltd is a German sports apparel manufacturer and part of the Adidas group, which consists of Reebok sportswear company, Taylor Made-Adidas golf company, and Rockport. Adidas is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe and the second largest sportswear manufacturer in the world. The elements of the strategy are to target the brand to urban youth with brand proposition from ‘competition to lifestyle’ using the authentic sports platform and build and reinforce credibility through relevant brand ambassadors and grassroots sports marketing programs. Further, it would target principal consumption centres, namely metros and build significant stand-alone exclusive store presence in significant locations. Liberty: Liberty shoes ltd. is a leading leather shoes brand and is engaged in the manufacturing, supplying and exporting of the footwear’s. It is the only Indian leather shoe brand that occupies fifth ranking among the top shoes manufacturing companies in the world. Liberty’s strategy over the years is to create multi-brands under one umbrella label, plug existing gaps in consumer demographic profiles, and broad base pricing to a large extent. Force 10, Libertys first sub-brand, was born in August 1990. While theres Force 10 for casual sports, theres Geo Sport in the performance shoe slot. Windsor and Fortune are mens formals, Senorita and Tiptop comprise the womens range, Footfun is for kids, and sandals and chappals fall under the Gliders and Coolers labels. Although the prices are mass-oriented, it has image of a fairly upmarket imagery. Relaxo: Relaxo entered into footwear industry in 1976. It started off with the manufacturing of Hawaii slippers and subsequently diversified into manufacturing casuals, joggers, school and leather shoes. Relaxo has the capacity to manufacture over 100 million pairs, per annum. It has the customer base of around 100 million Nike: Nike, Inc. is the biggest manufacturer worldwide of both athletic footwear and apparel in terms of sales. It specializes in the production and sale of athletic footwear, apparel and equipment. For the fiscal year 2009 it announces revenues of about $19. 2 billion. Net income in the third quarter of 2010 is almost double in the net income in the same period of the previous year bringing it up to $496 million. Nike’s strategy in this front is to develop a premium brand associated with high quality product that satisfies customer needs. Nike’s brand is associated with an aggressive attitude portrayed by, â€Å"you don’t win silver, you lose gold,† which clearly suggests that winning is vital. Nike built its brand around sports, attitude and lifestyle. COMPARISON OF COMPANIES: Average Growth Rate (2005- 08) Nike 10. 5% Adidas 22. 46% Bata 7. 8% Liberty 11. 16% MARKET SHARE OVER YEARS Ansoff Model Bata in India caters to a large segment of the population. Earlier, before the markets opened, it was seen as a good quality, value for money brand with shoes that catered to various segments. Earlier it focused on good quality leather chappals and sandals that the middle class Indian could wear, be it to work or at home. Over a period of time it has diversified into the sport shoes segment, colourful sandals for the youth and the high range formal leather shoes. Bata has used all the 4 ways possible in the Ansoff matrix to grow over a period of time. In the early 90’s it used the market penetration strategy where they offered high quality leather products at a cheap rate. Lately, it has opened various new outlets all over the country with a special focus on tier 2 and tier 3 cities. It has also brought in a wide variety of brands from slippers, sandals, sports shoes and formal shoes. They also sell shoes for school kids. They basically cater to all the different kinds of footwear that is available in the India market. SWOT Strength Worldwide presence Offers customer best value and great possible service Manages retail presence in 50 countries High demand in foreign market Weakness Losing competition because of the other big players like adidas, nike, woodland etc Not too much stylist so it is losing the attraction of the customer, specially in the youth segment They don’t have any powerful brand ambassador to promote their brand They haven’t promoted themselves thoroughly, invested very less in their add campaign Opportunity Bata India Limited has undertaken initiatives to improve the companys cost structure and margins. The company has initiated a financial restructuring exercise to down its interest cost Financial re-engineering: The Company has tightened controls on costs in all areas of and is looking at global sourcing for raw materials and other inputs Bata India is also exploring third-party manufacturing units in Assam and Jammu Kashmir as these enjoy tax holidays Bata Shoe Organization (BSO) has decided to give a breather to its 51 per cent subsidiary. Threat Introduction of new brands in the market. Lagging behind in terms of technological factors. Young generation is attracted to the other branded shoes like adidas, nike, woodland etc. Final inferences and recommendations BATA shifted its focus from lower middle class to upper middle class and premium though it is still catering to the lower segment. Its exclusive retail outlets are doing well in attracting the upper middle segment but it is not friendly and inviting to the lower segments. This segment still prefers the shop type format as against the mall. The main competition for BATA in catering to this segment is the unorganized sectors which are easier to walk in and are located in the prime local market area. However, BATA’s strength has been a strong lower segment and it enjoyed strong loyalty from this segment. This shift in focus might lead to a loosening the grip of BATA in this market. The new Indian consumer with growing economy has become more informed, style and quality conscious. He is willing to pay a higher premium for the latest internationally styled footwear. Urban women who believe in changing their footwear with the changing season demand variety in style at affordable rates. BATA can leverage on their good distribution in the country and collaborate with more international brands and sell them via exclusive outlets only in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. Their strategy of these collaborations with Hush Puppies and like is actually a good move and might help them grab the attention of urban style conscious customers. However, they should maintain their small entry level shops to cater to the lower middle class. Even for the lower segment it is facing stiff competition from unorganized players because of the variety they offer. To maintain their foot hold they should come up more varieties and change their basic style to suit the needs of the new customer. BATA in the minds of the customer is still affordable price, low variety brand with no frill stores catering more to school children and men. This image can be changed only by advertising more about its international brands and new footwear categories. The store ambience should also meet the expectations of customers walking in to buy these brands from a BATA outlet. It should focus on more customer friendly store services, better feedback mechanisms and trained and knowledgeable sales personnel to assist sales. References thehindubusinessline. com/iw/2009/04/19/stories/2009041950421100. htm moneycontrol. com/company-facts/bataindia/history/BI01 http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Bata_Shoes

Saturday, October 19, 2019

RESEARCHING CRIME Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

RESEARCHING CRIME - Essay Example ific, the proposed dissertation will discuss different aspects of youth incarceration, especially in the context of Youth Justice System of the United Kingdom, and will endeavor to analyze available options of tackling youth offenders. It is a fact that every government has been giving noteworthy importance to youth crime, in order to get rid of anti-social agents from the society from its roots; however, none has been able to achieve such objective due to a number of factors, such as unemployment, poverty, etc. (Delanty & Strydom, 2003, pp. 39-42). On contrary, youth prison population has increased noticeably that has resulted in extreme criticism, as effects of youth imprisonment do not affect young offenders only, but families and communities as well. (Omaji, 2003, pp. 40-41) In this regard, it has now become very significant and important to carry out comprehensive research, in order to acquire factual realities that will help the system in dealing with these young lawbreakers effectively. According to the UK government, (Home Office, 2008) hard-hitting penalties for young offenders cannot be avoided, as it is essential for a safe and healthy society; however, studies have observed that these tough and punitive penalties and custodies have resulted in opposing results, rather than allowing offenders to recuperate and break their offending cycle. Although steps are being taken to prevent young individuals from falling into this black hole; however, youth imprisonment presently seems to be the only option that is taken as effective, regardless its adversities. (HM Government, 2008, pp. 58-61) Policymakers believe that guiltless public stays protected by custody and imprisonment sentences to young offenders; however, it is a satisfying fact that punishment confronted by young offenders in prisons results in segregation from society that is adverse for children according to a number of child psychologists. (Delanty & Strydom, 2003, pp. 55-59) Studies (Muncie,

Friday, October 18, 2019

Information Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Information - Essay Example Another aspect of the black female writers’ problem is gender. As reiterated in yellow wallpaper, The American society in the context of the black community placed much pressure on women due to their gender and this considerably resulted to people overlooking their potential and even seriousness in their works as explained by the black literary scholars. The finally part of their hurdle is the idea of color. It is evident that most of the black-American female writers’ works was not particularly representative of the blacks. They were considered mere fiction without real life connection as they seemed to focus on the middle class and elite readers. The central theme of women oppression comes out in the yellow wallpaper as John seems to define everything that the narrator must do. Even when the narrator is sick, John is portrayed as a patriarch who is self-centered and takes little consideration of the narrator’s feeling due to her gender. The literary work on the yellow wallpaper is a reflection of the gender-based discrimination that women suffer every day in their efforts to disobey odds and express their ideas. Chapter five is a confirmatory test of the continued socio-economic challenges female artists, poets and novelists have to overcome. This can be supported by Alice Walker and Maya Angelou’s experiences with fictional writing in the female fraternity. Their assertions on the obstacles that continue to haunt women is clearly resonated by the narrator in the yellow

REFERENCE Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

REFERENCE - Article Example His clients also have the utmost esteem for Mr X. They consider Mr X the consummate professional, an exemplar of the vocation, and they are struck by his affability and graciousness during what must be a time of considerable stress. Mr X is extremely liberal with his valuable time. For example, he has attended at my pharmacy once a week for over six years. Considering the enormous distances he must travel to do so it heartens me that he always treats both my customers and myself with enthusiasm and vigour; more so as he does this without any monetary recompense whatsoever, such is his enthusiasm to return to the register. Mr X is fervent in his desire to gain valuable experience under my tutelage – something that I actively encourage. Mr X, while obviously on restricted duties, performs a variety of valuable tasks while working in the pharmacy. These include providing homeopathic remedies as well as dispensing conventional medicines. Mr X also enjoys working at the counter as it allows him to interact with patients as well as allowing him to keep up to date with changes in regulations regarding many over the counter medicines. Mr X is very active in preventive care. He encourages customers to engage in healthy lifestyle pursuits - advising patients about the potential dangers associated with cigarette smoking for example – and is fully versed in all the smoking cessation programs that our pharmacy offers. Indeed, Mr X’s customer service is outstanding. He is always engaging and energetic when dealing with patients. Moreover, Mr X explains in clear simple English exactly what each prescription does, whether there will be any complications or potential side-effects, and whether there are any better or cheaper generic medications available. Overall, Mr X’s customer service skills are exemplary. I rely on Mr X’s discretion and professionalism at all

Proposal- a training programme for Wing Yip Dissertation

Proposal- a training programme for Wing Yip - Dissertation Example In terms of the classical Chinese concepts of family and business, Wing Yip strives to build long term relationships with its suppliers, its staff, its customers and tenants. Further long term goals are to ensure that the company’s passion – the supply of excellent food products – strengthens the awareness of Chinese food culture in Britain, to mirror the important role of food in Chinese history and society (Wing Yip*, 2011). At all four branches of Wing Yip, vacancies have been advertised for cashiers, shop floor assistants and store manager’s assistants (Wing Yip**, 2011). Toward the achievement of the long-term goals of Wing Yip, it is essential that the training provided for the existing staff – as they move into positions of leadership within the stores – and the newly employed staff – as they begin their association with the culture and traditions of Wing Yip – be trained and developed as individuals proud to be associate d with the company and its values. Service delivery must be refined and enhanced through training in best practice, already found in the organisation. Objectives To promote a common culture of service, innovation, pride in delivery and lifelong learning among Wing Yip employees To enable upward mobility toward leadership within the organization, in line with succession-planning strategies To promote the company culture of the classical Chinese approach to family and business, and the passion for food (Wing Yip*, 2011) among all employees To ensure appropriate skills and competencies according to job description among Wing Yip employees, hence promoting the empowerment of the individual Approach A dual approach will be maintained in the courses offered: Induction training for new employees, to familiarise new people with roles and responsibilities, the culture of the business, and with colleagues; development for existing employees to emphasise the employees’ potential to lear n new skills and develop more capabilities (The Times 100 website: Training and Development Theory, 2011). Adults learn best through goal-oriented instruction (Craig, 1987) and thus trainers will employ structures and methodologies with this in mind. The possibilities for advancement in the company and personal development will be emphasised throughout. Also the first and compulsory-for-all-course – Course A – will disseminate the company culture and promote the taking of personal responsibility as well as initiative and innovation, hence persuading the delegates that the company’s values are sound. The company’s objectives in presenting the training must be concisely and regularly reinforced throughout the training. Assumptions In order to improve the output and success of a business it has been claimed that an organization in which everyone shares the same vision and where they trust and value each other’s contribution develops a â€Å"high perf ormance culture† (The Times 100 website: Siemens Case Study, 2011). Further, allowing people to take responsibility and trusting in their abilities motivates them, and allied with a shared vision and goals, individuals feel that they are contributing in a worthwhile way to the business. They also then feel more empowered in their

Thursday, October 17, 2019

The value of the internet in an organisation Essay

The value of the internet in an organisation - Essay Example This paper will present detailed and comprehensive overview of the Internet with respect to different organizations. Internet mostly acknowledged basically â€Å"the Net,† the Internet is a universal structure of computer networks-a networks, in which users at any one computer can receive information from any other computer (as well as they can communicate straightforwardly to users at different computers in different locations). Nowadays, the Internet is a, supportive, public, self-financing facility available to hundreds of millions of users internationally. Actually, the Internet makes use of a part of the whole resources of the presently accessible public telecommunication networks. In principle, what differentiable the Internet its usage of a collection of protocols known as TCP/IP (Turban, Leidner, McLean, & Wetherbe, 2005, p. 71). The appearance and growth of the Internet has made business markets more workable and competitive than over before. With the Internet, every organization (small, medium, and large) in the world is potentially a local competitor. At the present, all the busi ness marketers understand that the Internet is a precious instrument or technology for extending reach to international markets and dealing customers in a superior way (Summers, Gardiner, Lamb, hair, & Mcdaniel, 2003, p. 67). Various features of the way individuals or organizations carry out their activities and survive in the twenty-first century will be measured via the huge web of electronic networks that was referred to normally as the information thruway however at the present is generally acknowledged as the Internet (Turban, Leidner, McLean, & Wetherbe, 2005). The Internet is a wide-reaching collection of networks that connects the millions of businesses, government agencies, educational institutions, and individuals (Shelly, Cashman, & Vermaat, 2005, pp. 11-12). More than one-half billion people all over the world

ANALYSIS OF THE MOVIE TABLOD Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

ANALYSIS OF THE TABLOD - Movie Review Example the old style of interviewing or reporting, where the audience has the same feeling of listening the story as the filmmaker experiences while listening it. The fact that I like about the documentary is that Morris trains the Camera on McKinney. In this way, McKinney tells her story on her own. She highlights different aspects of the case, yet she can be observed not telling the truth or hiding things at some places as she forces so intently to believe her story (Tabloid). Morris has used different strategies to gain audience’s attention such as he has added a bit of tabloidism himself to make it more appealing. He has also used different clips of the movie named ‘The Godmakers’ that gives the better insight about the role of Mormons and their work. He has made use of attractive headlines one after another in order to keep audience interest  in  the movie such as different journalists  and reporters resembled  the chained up position of Kirk Anderson as ‘Spread-Eagle’. In that way, the phrase flashes on the screen each time he does

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Proposal- a training programme for Wing Yip Dissertation

Proposal- a training programme for Wing Yip - Dissertation Example In terms of the classical Chinese concepts of family and business, Wing Yip strives to build long term relationships with its suppliers, its staff, its customers and tenants. Further long term goals are to ensure that the company’s passion – the supply of excellent food products – strengthens the awareness of Chinese food culture in Britain, to mirror the important role of food in Chinese history and society (Wing Yip*, 2011). At all four branches of Wing Yip, vacancies have been advertised for cashiers, shop floor assistants and store manager’s assistants (Wing Yip**, 2011). Toward the achievement of the long-term goals of Wing Yip, it is essential that the training provided for the existing staff – as they move into positions of leadership within the stores – and the newly employed staff – as they begin their association with the culture and traditions of Wing Yip – be trained and developed as individuals proud to be associate d with the company and its values. Service delivery must be refined and enhanced through training in best practice, already found in the organisation. Objectives To promote a common culture of service, innovation, pride in delivery and lifelong learning among Wing Yip employees To enable upward mobility toward leadership within the organization, in line with succession-planning strategies To promote the company culture of the classical Chinese approach to family and business, and the passion for food (Wing Yip*, 2011) among all employees To ensure appropriate skills and competencies according to job description among Wing Yip employees, hence promoting the empowerment of the individual Approach A dual approach will be maintained in the courses offered: Induction training for new employees, to familiarise new people with roles and responsibilities, the culture of the business, and with colleagues; development for existing employees to emphasise the employees’ potential to lear n new skills and develop more capabilities (The Times 100 website: Training and Development Theory, 2011). Adults learn best through goal-oriented instruction (Craig, 1987) and thus trainers will employ structures and methodologies with this in mind. The possibilities for advancement in the company and personal development will be emphasised throughout. Also the first and compulsory-for-all-course – Course A – will disseminate the company culture and promote the taking of personal responsibility as well as initiative and innovation, hence persuading the delegates that the company’s values are sound. The company’s objectives in presenting the training must be concisely and regularly reinforced throughout the training. Assumptions In order to improve the output and success of a business it has been claimed that an organization in which everyone shares the same vision and where they trust and value each other’s contribution develops a â€Å"high perf ormance culture† (The Times 100 website: Siemens Case Study, 2011). Further, allowing people to take responsibility and trusting in their abilities motivates them, and allied with a shared vision and goals, individuals feel that they are contributing in a worthwhile way to the business. They also then feel more empowered in their

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

ANALYSIS OF THE MOVIE TABLOD Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

ANALYSIS OF THE TABLOD - Movie Review Example the old style of interviewing or reporting, where the audience has the same feeling of listening the story as the filmmaker experiences while listening it. The fact that I like about the documentary is that Morris trains the Camera on McKinney. In this way, McKinney tells her story on her own. She highlights different aspects of the case, yet she can be observed not telling the truth or hiding things at some places as she forces so intently to believe her story (Tabloid). Morris has used different strategies to gain audience’s attention such as he has added a bit of tabloidism himself to make it more appealing. He has also used different clips of the movie named ‘The Godmakers’ that gives the better insight about the role of Mormons and their work. He has made use of attractive headlines one after another in order to keep audience interest  in  the movie such as different journalists  and reporters resembled  the chained up position of Kirk Anderson as ‘Spread-Eagle’. In that way, the phrase flashes on the screen each time he does

How does an LDAP directory differ from a relational database system Essay Example for Free

How does an LDAP directory differ from a relational database system Essay 5. How does an LDAP directory differ from a relational database system? †¢You cannot write a stored procedure or trigger to help maintain LDAP data. †¢The â€Å"D† in â€Å"LDAP† stands for â€Å"directory†, not â€Å"database† †¢The â€Å"P† in â€Å"LDAP† clearly indicates that LDAP is, in fact, a â€Å"protocol†. †¢LDAP has no notion of rows, tables, or other database elements. †¢LDAP has no notion of relational integrity †¢LDAP data is a hierarchical collection of objects, not a linked collection of relations. 6. What is the basic unit of information in an LDAP directory? What is the structure of an attribute? An entry is the basic unit of information in an LDAP directory. Each attribute has a name (an attribute type or description) and one or more values. 10. Where is the LDAP device object class defined? Which of its attributes are mandatory and which are optional? The device object class is defined in the /etc/ldap/schema/core.ldif file. Its mandatory attribute is cn. Its optional attributes are serial Number, See Also, owner, ou, o, l, and description. 11. How would you determine the longer name for the l (lowercase â€Å"l†) LDAP object class? $ grep \l\ /etc/openldap/schema/*.ldif/etc/openldap/schema/core.ldif:olcAttributeTypes: (2.5.4.7 NAME ( l localityName ) 1. Which two daemons are part of the Samba suite? What does each do? SMBD: The smbd program provides Samba’s file and printer services, using one TCP/IP stream and one daemon per client. It is controlled from the default configuration file, samba_dir/lib/smb.conf, and can be overridden by command-line options. NMBD: The nmbd program is Samba’s NetBIOS name and browsing daemon. It replies to broadcast NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NBT) name-service requests from SMB clients and optionally to Microsoft’s Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) requests. Both of these are versions of the name-to-address lookup required by SMB clients. The broadcast version uses UDP/IP broadcast on the local subnet only, while WINS uses TCP/IP, which may be routed. If running as a WINS server, nmbd keeps a current name and address database in the file wins.dat in the samba_dir/var/locks directory. 2. What steps are required for mapping a Windows user to a Linux user? Set the username map parameter in smb.conf to point to the map file, frequently /etc/samba/smbusers, and assign a Samba password to the user 3. How can a system administrator add a Samba password for a new user? smbpasswd username 4. What is the purpose of the [homes] share? Should this share be browseable? Why? The [homes] share implicitly shares the home directory of each user without having to define specific shares. 5. Describe how Samba’s handling of users differs from that of NFS. NFS directory hierarchies are mounted by root and NFS maps users on the client to users on the server. A nonroot user mounts a Samba share and all accesses to that share occur in that users name.

Monday, October 14, 2019

Risks and Challenges to Young People on the Internet

Risks and Challenges to Young People on the Internet Children on the Internet Overview: Nowadays, the internet has become a fundamental facial expression of our lives over recent epoch years and its becoming integral part of our life also its considered as an increasing role of todays culture , especially for children and teenagers, opening us up to a whole globe of knowledge. For whom school work, online gaming, social networking, entertainment and communication are among the most popular activities. However, the lack of common concord about the right overture to educating and protecting children adds further challenges to kid’s online experience and reflection. Additionally, cultural and geographical differences in legal and social norms reflect the fact that there is no universally accepted view of what defines a person as a child or what is appropriate for children, making inappropriate content and behavior difficult to recognize. â€Å"While some online crimes are cross-border in nature and so require global attention, at a national level, policy approaches to regulating content have so far predominantly employed a range of filtering techniques to limit access to or block Internet content[1]. The Internet can be a risky spot for the unwary, particularly children, containing undesired contact includes harassment, cyberbullying, stalking etc. In the meantime, most of the parents are worried about the dangers their children could face on the internet. The most important challenge for all parents is to teach themselves and their youngsters about how to utilize the Internet securely. On the other hand, to help kids maximizing the Internets benefits and minimizing the risks parents should teach their kids to stay safe online and should only make contact with people they already know and not reveal personal information about themselves online without a parent’s permission, includes their full name, email address, postal address, phone number, photo, school address etc.In addition, parents should remain in near touch with their children as they explore the internet to keep them safe and one of the most popular solutions is to install safety software on the parents computer so that they can restrict their child’s online activities to approved websites. History and Background: Almost 40 years ago, the US Defense Department first set the stage for the Internet with a network that was called ARPANET. This was a research program that was begun to discover new ways to link different networks together for government and scientific use[2]. What they hoped to develop was a method of communicating information packets among many computers at the same time. By years this networks get larger with more developed methods and protocols and the networks that resulted became known by the shortened form, the â€Å"Internet†. Now a days, internet is available everywhere and its one of the important things that life cant complete without it makes our life more easier and fast. But in the other hand, everything have the dark side and problems. In this case we are interested in the children and the effect of the internet on them. Children use Internet for many needs such as educational, entertainment and social media needs. Many organizations been published for serving safe internet for children for example: Childrens Internet Protection Act (CIPA) that been signed into law on December 21, 2000[3], they use Internet filters and implement other measures to protect children from harmful online content. Issue selection: Availability of not appropriate material on internet. Contact with Strangers people (who seek to abuse children) Privacy risks from game sites Availability of not appropriate material on internet: Firstly, the meaning of children: are the people under the age of fifteen years old and here we mean by the Not appropriate materials: is a material which is unsuitable for children generally. From multiple points of view the Internet is similar to a huge library, both have substance to teach and entertain, Furthermore, like the substance in a library, not all Internets content is appropriate for children. Libraries create children’s and youthful adults’ sections in order to help youths and their parents to distinguish which materials are fitting for them. However, on the internet, all of the not appropriate content may be equally accessible for all different ages. Arguments: There is a general opinion refers to benefit of governments action of filtering internet of inappropriate material: â€Å"Researchers at the Oxford Internet Institute recognition of the benefits of the control of information on the Internet and Web is certainly feasible, and technological advances do not therefore guarantee greater freedom of speech.(UNESCO,2010)[4] These some opinions support the previous opinion: â€Å"Governments should filter and censor explicit or profane websites, since there is currently very little that prevents children from accessing these sites. ( Efrain). Childrens Internet Protection Act (CIPA): requires that K-12 schools and libraries in the United States use Internet filters and implement other measures to protect children from harmful online content as a condition for federal funding(United States Supreme Court on June 23, 2003). Counter arguments: There is a general opinion advocated for eliminate of governments action of filtering internet of inappropriate material: Father of the Internet Vint Cerf stated that he sees government control of the Internet failing because the Web is almost entirely privately owned (November, 2007)[4] These some opinions support the previous opinion: Human rights denied it is simply a basic human right guaranteed bill of rights to every citizen. The government should not censor the Internet no matter the content because it infringes upon free speech. Analyses: Social Contract Theory: Action: Governments is filtering the internet of inappropriate content. Agents: Citizens, governments. Rights: Free of speech right. Analysis: is it logically acceptable? No the government cant catch everything on internet, people have the right to free speech, government could block non-pornographic web pages that contain scientific facts just because of using similar words. its violating one of the rights so, (The action is wrong.) Rule Utilitarianism: Proposed Rule: Every government is filtering the internet of inappropriate content. Benefit: Less number of children will be exposed to unwanted or harmful materials. More parents will be relief if their childs use the internet. Harms: Some of the non-pornographic sites is filtered Conclusion: The weights of benefits exceed the harms. So the action right. Our opinion In this issue we prefer that government establish a filtering to inappropriate material. Because we see this as the right action that could protect many children and childhood around the world. Contact with Strangers people (who seek to abuse children): Firstly, the meaning of Strangers : is who is neither a friend nor an acquaintance. Abuse and neglect are forms of maltreatment of a child. Somebody may abuse or neglect a child by inflicting harm or by failing to act to prevent harm. Children may be abused by those known to them or more rarely, by a stranger for example, via the internet. They may be abused by an adult or adults, or another child or children. [3] Arguments: This application support contacting children with strangers: whatsApp application don’t ask about the age, as Koum said: We designed our system to be as anonymous as possible. Were not advertisement-driven so we dont need personal databases so they don’t give attention to children that may be abused from strangers [7] Counter arguments: Application advocated for eliminate of contacting children with strangers many social application in App Store take into account the age of the user , as the apple review guidelines mentions :Apps may ask for date of birth (or use other age-gating mechanisms) only for the purpose of complying with applicable childrens privacy statutes, but must include some useful functionality or entertainment value regardless of the users age [8] Analyses: Kantianism Theory: 1st Formulation: Action: social applications ask the user about his/her age to protect children from strangers. Proposed Rule: every social application ask the user about his/her age. Analysis: is logically acceptable? Yes, parents will feel secure to let their children use internet without being abused. And its not annoying thing for singles. (The action is right) 2nd Formulation: Goal (end): Protecting children from strangers. Mean: there is no mean to end. Analysis: as long there is no mean to end. (The action is right). Social Contract Theory: Agents: user, application provider Rights: asking about the user age doesnt conflict the user privacy as long as its not asking about real name, ID and another detail information. (The action is right) Our opinion: it is Moral for social applications to ask the user about his/her age to protect children from strangers because in the end our first care and matter is to serve a save internet environment that is clean from abusing and neglect children. Privacy risks from game sites: Online gaming has attracted lots of children over the past years. People spend allot of time in front of their computers playing their favorite games. Therefore, Privacy considered as one of the most complex legal issues that faceour society, many sites, such as sties that is interested in a gaming and playing games have little interest in actively profiling their users or discovering personal information about them However, these sites will often collect significant amounts of personal data that may trigger liability risks. Moreover, A lot of choices exist in today’s online gaming environment, most allow players to create online identities as game identifier and most of the game sites take the advantage of these information in real world for example selling these personal information in market. Arguments: Online Gaming has become a major source of entertainment and revenue generation by inventing a fishing ground for online predators and malicious hackers to gain more illicit profit from targeting the children (Hayes, 2008).[5] â€Å"A survey conducted by Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 1998 supporting that 89% of websites targeted children to collect personal information (Sandwig, 2003).[5] Counter arguments: Children should also be encouraged to interact and discuss with their parents, the various issues they face while accessing internet and especially while giving private information to any personal or organization[6] and parent should also take the full responsibility of using their children the game sites that require filling personal information. Analyses: Kantianism Theory: 1st Formulation: Action: Games sites sell the chilled personal information to third-party partners. Proposed Rule: Every online games sties ask children for extensive personal and family information for marketing purposes. Analysis: is it logically acceptable? No, its totally not acceptable because these websites are taking the advantage of naivety of children to collect their personal information without their parent permeation, so the action is wrong. 2nd Formulation: Goal (end): Profiteering from the personal information of the children. Mean: yes, they use the child naivety as a means to their end which is selling the personal information and take benefit from it. Social Contract Theory: Agent: Game site creator- children. Right: They violated the privacy right which is considered as prudential right, so the action is wrong. Our opinion: In this issue is that we consider it as not moral because no one have the right to expose someone personal information or use it in any way. Summary and Conclusion: As conclusion, we believe that everything in world has good and bad side but its also deepened on the way that how people use it or how people can take the maximum advantages form it. When considering potential benefits and harms of children using the internet, the parents will be the most responsible to be on the positive impacts on children’s learning and take the ability and teach their children how to take responsibility and use the internet in way that will return benefit to them. Finally, we agree that using the internet can benefit children’s education and social development, but children sometimes will be in risk of exposing to inappropriate material that is hateful, or violent in nature, or encourages activities that are dangerous or illegal, However, can we arrange to have benefits without risks of using children the internet, like we mention above its all depend on the parents in the first place and how they will going to take the full responsibility their children. References: [1] internetsociety . (Feb 8, 2014).Children and the Internet.Available: http://www.internetsociety.org/sites/default/files/bp-childrenandtheinternet-20129017-en.pdf [2] The kid’s wendo. (Sept 2000) history of the internet. Available:  http://www.thekidswindow.co.uk/News/Internet_History.htm [3]  Wikipedia . (Paris, 2011). Childrens Internet Protection Act.Available:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childrens_Internet_Protection_Act [4] Wikipedia . (Jaeger, 2009).Internet censorship.Available:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship#cite_note-UNESCO-2011-3 [5] North Yorkshire Safeguarding Children Board (May, 2014).What is child abuse.Available:  http://www.safeguardingchildren.co.uk/section-1.html [6] UKessays. (April, 2012).Children On The Internet Media Essay.  Available:  http://www.ukessays.com/essays/media/children-on-the-internet-media-essay.php [7] Epic (Federal Trade Commission March 6, 2014) In the Matter of WhatsApp, Inc. .Available:  https://epic.org/privacy/ftc/whatsapp/WhatsApp-Complaint.pdf [8] Apple . (April, 2014). Available:  https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/

Sunday, October 13, 2019

My Personal Support Group (Cheerleading) :: essays research papers

My Personal Support Group Honors I am often sorry that my parents did not take it upon themselves to enroll me in any recreational activities in my preadolescent years. I believe that sports are an integral part of growing up. They provide an opportunity to meet and interact with peers. Numerous occasions I can recall feeling excluded from the group because of my lack of involvement. Although I have to admit, I am not a tough girl. Most likely I would not excel in any contact sport.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cheerleading tryouts proved to be a revelation. I knew it was the activity for me. Although I was not confident in my coordination, I vowed that it would improve with practice. I had regularly admired those spirited girls, being that my sister had once traveled that path. I faithfully attended all high school games, not to watch the players, but the cheerleaders. I was convinced that this was my calling.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The week of tryouts was non-stop practice. I lived, ate, and breathed cheerleading. My mother began to worry that I would not have the energy by the end of the week to try out. When te big day finally arrived I was a tight ball of nerves. I could hardly contain myself. I was brimming with 100 watts of nervous energy. The kind that gives one piercing pains throughout their body at the least expected moments. Waiting for the results my anxiety turned into burning tears. When my name was announced as a member of the squad I thought I would burst.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  My freshman year of cheering was exceptional. I became fast friends with my entire squad. For the most part, we got along great. I imagine that we had more fun than the players, or fans. Faster than expected our season came to an end. It was time for tryouts once again.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Now that I knew the ropes, I was praying this tryout would be a breeze. I could not have been farther from the truth. I faithfully practiced every evening until the eagerly anticipated day. The same nervous energy overwhelmed my body as I walked onto the floor that afternoon. It seemed that within a second, the tryout was completed. Once again, I was forced to calmly wait for the crucial results. Finally the outcome was announced. â€Å"Varsity- Kristin Callaway, Jill Jackson, Katie Manley†¦Ã¢â‚¬  I had made the Varsity squad as a sophomore.