Why banning the use of cell phones while driving should be mandatory Essay - 1

Why banning the use of cell phones while driving should be mandatory nationwide - Essay Example Lawmakers should ban cell phone use while driving because a human life is more important than a simple phone call. Even if a driver is using a phone for something important, such as work, they are still putting others at risk. Another persons life is more important than a phone call and there really can be no comparison between the two. Second, driving and talking on the phone should be outlawed because most phone calls are not emergencies. A person would not talk on the phone while in a business meeting, so why should they when they are driving? Discounting work or emergency calls, most calls are either personal or social. If a call is not the matter of a life or death situation then it can wait until the driver can safely stop their vehicle. Finally, drivers need their full attention on the road, so by law they should not be able to use a cell phone while driving. Drivers are required to sit license tests before being able to drive, so this proves that driver have to be skilful. Talking on the phone takes away from these skills. Also, it is just common sense not to talk on the phone while driving, the same way that people would think it is silly to drive and read a book at the same time. To sum up, drivers should not be allowed to use cell phones for all of the reasons listed previously. Not only is a human life more important than a phone call, but also the majority of phone calls are not emergencies and drivers need to be fully focused on the road ahead of

Geology of Shanghai Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Geology of Shanghai - Term Paper Example Upon further study, it has been discovered that â€Å"In the Shanghai area, unconsolidated materials, about 300 meters thick, of alternating marine and continental [material] were deposited on the bedrock during the Quaternary Period† (Jiangang, 2007, p. 21). This provides for quite an array of soil and rock formations present in Shanghai and the surrounding areas. There is, for example, 150 meters of clay soil alone along the delta region. This data also provides the researcher with a living history of the structure of the entire region that explains how life has evolved in the region over time. All of the clay and soil formations have caused at least five aquifers to be created over time. These aquifers are quite flat and thick. They provide for an extensive flow of ground water that continues to this day. These aquifers cover all areas of Shanghai, except for certain parts of the Eastern coast and localized areas along the Whangpoo River (Xu, 2009, p. 481). In essence, nearly every area of Shanghai, if properly resourced and developed, has access to a continual and ground water supply. For the most part, as mentioned, it is difficult to pinpoint the exact date that landforms around Shanghai were created. Because the area is so flat, there are not many rock formations to speak of, other than spots of bedrock. The main geographical feature of the region lies in its system of tributaries and natural canals. This is what has sustained life in the area around Shanghai for thousands of years.

Customer Relationship Management Marketing Macro Environment Economics Essay

Customer Relationship Management Marketing Macro Environment Economics Essay A business and its forces in its micro environment operate in larger macro environment of forces that shape opportunities and pose threats to the business. It refers the major external and uncontrollable factors that influence an organizations decision making, and affect its performance and strategies.   This involves factors outside of the direct control of the business. These macro-factors such as the economy, government policy and social change can have a significant effect on a firms success but the relationship is fairly one way. A change in the exchange rate can affect the ability of a firm to sell abroad; for example, the pound rose in value to nearly 2 dollars in 2007 making UK exports expensive in America or Chinese government support on continued devaluation of their Yuan currency made them penetrate and sell more and cheaper in worldwide market. The increasing interest in healthy eating has boosted organic sales. The ageing population in some economies has increased demand for healthcare resources. However, whilst these macro factors can fundamentally change the environment of an organization one individual business can rarely do much on its own to shape them. Any one firm is unlikely to be able to influence government taxation policy or new legislation, for example. The macro-environment can be analysis using PESTEL analysis which is outlined below. PESTEL analysis of the macro-environment There are many factors in the macro-environment that will affect the decisions of the managers of any organization. Tax changes, new laws, trade barriers, demographic change and government policy changes are all examples of macro change. To help analyse these we managers can categorize them using the PESTEL model. This classification distinguishes between: A] Political Factors : Political and Governmental Environment : These refer to government policy such as the degree of intervention in the economy. What goods and services does a government want to provide? To what extent does it believe in subsidising firms? What are its priorities in terms of business support? Political decisions can impact on many vital areas for business such as the education of the workforce, the health of the nation, international business and the quality of the infrastructure of the economy such as the road and rail system as few examples of areas affected. Political factors often impact on business of every type and size : Some examples are the worldwide movement towards privatization of former government-owned utilities and businesses and the shift away from protection of workers rights. Firms need to be able to respond to the prevailing political climate and adjust the marketing policy accordingly. For example, British Telecom, Deutsche Telekom and Telstra of Australia have all had to make major readjustments to their marketing approaches since being privatized, and in particular since seeing an upswing in competitive levels. Almost all the firms activities have been affected, from cutting the lead time between ordering and obtaining a new telephone, through to price competition in response to competitors cut-price long-distance and international calls. British Telecom was the UKs fifth biggest spender on advertising during 2003 The political Factors includes laws, government agencies, and pressure groups that influence and limit various organizations and individuals in a given society. Various forms of legislation regulate business. 1). Governments develop public policy to guide commerce, sets of laws and regulations limiting business for the good of society as a whole. 2). Almost every marketing activity is subject to a wide range of laws and regulations. Some trends in the political environment include: Increasing legislation to: a). Protect companies from each other. b). Protecting consumers from unfair business practices. c). Protecting interests of society against unrestrained business behavior. Changing government agency enforcement. New laws and their enforcement will continue or increase. Increased emphasis on ethics and socially responsible actions. Socially responsible firms actively seek out ways to protect the long-run interests of their consumers and the environment. a). Enlightened companies encourage their managers to look beyond regulation and do the right thing. b). Recent scandals have increased concern about ethics and social responsibility. c). The boom in e-commerce and Internet marketing has created a new set of social and ethical issues. Concerns are Privacy, Security, Access by vulnerable or unauthorized groups. B] Economic factors : These include interest rates, taxation changes, economic growth, inflation and exchange rates .It encompass such areas as the boom/bust cycle, and the growth in unemployment in some parts of the country as a result of the closing of traditional industries. Macro-economic factors deal with the management of demand in the economy; the main mechanisms governments use for this are interest rate controls, taxation policy and government expenditure. If the government increases expenditure (or reduces taxation), there will be more money in the economy and demand will rise; if taxation is increased (or expenditure cut), there will be less money for consumers to spend, so demand will shrink. Rises in interest rates tend to reduce demand, as home loans become more expensive and credit card charges rise. Economic environment of business has reference to the board characteristics of the economic system in which the business operates. The business sector has economic relation with the government, capital market; household sector and global sector. These sectors together influence the trends and structure of the economy. The form and functioning of the economy vary widely. The importance external factors that affect the economic environment of a business are; (i) Economic Conditions: The general Economic conditions prevailing in the country viz. national income, per capita income, economic resources, distribution of income and assets, economic development etc. are important determinants of the business strategies. Business cycles and economic growth of the economy are important factors defining the economic environment. (ii) The economic system operating in the country also affects the business enterprise to a very great extent. The economic system of a country may be capitalist, socialist, communist or mixed. (iii) Economic Policies: The government decides the economic environment of business through Budges, Industrial regulations, Economic planning, Import and Export regulations, Business laws, Industrial policy, Control on prices and wages, Trade and transport policies, the size of the national Income, Demand supply of various goods etc. (iv) Economic Growth: The stage of economic growth of the economy has direct impact on the business strategies. Increased economic growth rate and increase in consumption expenditure, lower the general pressure within an industry and offers more opportunities then threats. (v) The rate of interest affects the demand for the products in the economy, particularly when general goods are to be purchased through borrowed finance. Low interest rated provides opportunities to the industries to expand whereas rising interest rates pose a threat to these institutions. (vi) Currency Exchange: Current exchange rates have direct impact on the business environment. When the rupee was devalued in 1991, it was to make Indian products cheaper in the world market and consequently boost Indias exports.   C] Socio-cultural factors : Socio-cultural factors are those areas that involve the shared beliefs and attitudes of the population. People learn to behave in particular ways as a result of feedback from the rest of society; behaviour and attitudes that are regarded as inappropriate or rude are quickly modified, and also people develop expectations about how other people should behave. In the marketing context, people come to believe (for example) that shop assistants should be polite and helpful, that fastfood restaurants should be brightly lit and clean, that shops should have advertised items in stock. These beliefs are not laws of nature, but merely a consensus view of what should happen. There have certainly been many times (and many countries) where these standards have not applied. These prevailing beliefs and attitudes change over a period of time owing to changes in the world environment, changes in ethnic mix and changes in technology. These changes usually happen over fairly long periods of time. Since 1970 in most Western countries there has been a development towards a more diverse, individualistic society; a large increase in the number of couples living together without being married; and a marked increase in the acceptance (and frequency)of single-parent families. Socio-cultural Environment: Changes in social trends can impact on the demand for a firms products and the availability and willingness of individuals to work. Social class and caste of a person goes a long way in deciding the business activities in relation to its production and marketing activities. Tradition, customs and social attitudes have changed the attitude and beliefs of the persons which have their effect on organizational environment. Class and caste are influencing the purchasing pattern. Socio-cultural environment may include expectations of the society from business, attitudes of society towards business and its management, views towards achievement of work, views towards structure, responsibility and organizational positions, views towards customs, traditional and conventional, class structure and labour mobility and level of education.   A very few cultural changes come about as the result of marketing activities: a recent example in the UK is the gradual replacement of Guy Fawkes night as a family occasion with Halloween, an American import which has children dressing up in costumes and going from house to house trick or treat-ing. In replacement of celebrations involve letting off fireworks, which is a dangerous activity for amateurs, but much of the change has been driven by a desire by marketers to sell costumes, and by the influx of US-made films and TV programs which show Halloween celebrations D] Technological factors : Technological advances in recent years have been rapid, and have affected almost all areas of life. Whole new industries have appeared: for example, satellite TV stations, cable networks, the Internet, CD recordings and virtual reality, and computer- aided design systems. All of these industries were unknown even twenty years ago. It seems likely that technological change will continue to increase, and that more new industries will appear in future. The corollary, of course, is that some old industries will disappear, or at the very least will face competition from entirely unexpected directions. Identifying these trends in advance is extremely difficult, but not impossible. The macro-environment also contains the remainder of the organizations publics: Governmental publics are the local, national and international agencies that restrict the companys activities by passing legislation, setting interest rates, and fixing exchange rates. Governmental publics can be influenced by lobbying and by trade associations. Media publics: Press, television, and radio services carry news, features and advertising that can aid the firms marketing, or conversely can damage a firms reputation. Public relations departments go to great lengths to ensure that positive images of the firm are conveyed to (and by) the media publics. For example, a company might issue a press release to publicise its sponsorship of a major sporting event. This could generate positive responses from the public, and a positive image of the company when the sporting event is broadcast. Citizen action publics are the pressure groups such as Greenpeace or consumers rights groups who lobby manufacturers and others in order to improve life for the public at large. Some pressure groups are informally organised; recent years have seen an upsurge in local pressure groups and protesters. New technologies create new products and new processes. MP3 players, computer games, online gambling and high definition TVs are all new markets created by technological advances. Online shopping, bar coding and computer aided design are all improvements to the way we do business as a result of better technology. Technology can reduce costs, improve quality and lead to innovation. These developments can benefit consumers as well as the organisations providing the products. E] Environmental factors : Environmental factors have come to the forefront of thinking in the past fifteen years or so. The increasing scarcity of raw materials, the problems of disposing of waste materials, and the difficulty of finding appropriate locations for industrial complexes (particularly those with a major environmental impact) are all factors that are seriously affecting the business decision-making framework. In a marketing context, firms are having to take account of public views on these issues and are often subjected to pressure from organized groups as well as individuals. Often the most effective way to deal with these issues is to begin by consulting the pressure groups concerned, so that disagreements can be resolved before the company has committed too many resources; firms adopting the societal marketing concept would do this as a matter of course. Environmental factors include the weather and climate change. Changes in temperature can impact on many industries including farming, tourism and insurance. With major climate changes occurring due to global warming and with greater environmental awareness this external factor is becoming a significant issue for firms to consider. The growing desire to protect the environment is having an impact on many industries such as the travel and transportation industries (for example, more taxes being placed on air travel and the success of hybrid cars) and the general move towards more environmentally friendly products and processes is affecting demand patterns and creating business opportunities. F] Legal factors : These are related to the legal environment in which firms operate. In recent years in the UK there have been many significant legal changes that have affected firms behaviour. The introduction of age discrimination and disability discrimination legislation, an increase in the minimum wage and greater requirements for firms to recycle are examples of relatively recent laws that affect an organisations actions. Legal changes can affect a firms costs (e.g. if new systems and procedures have to be developed) and demand (e.g. if the law affects the likelihood of customers buying the good or using the service). Legal factors follow on from political factors, in that governments often pass laws which affect business. Sometimes judges decide cases in a way that re-interprets legislation, however, and this in itself can affect the business position. A further complication within Europe arises as a result of EU legislation, which takes precedence over national law, and which can seriously affect the way firms do business in Europe. Case law and EU law are not dependent on the politics of the national governments, and are therefore less easy to predict. Clearly businesses must stay within the law, but it is increasingly difficult to be sure what the law says, and to know what changes in the law might be imminent.

Susan Glaspell’s Jury of Her Peers Essay -- A Jury of Her Peers Essays

â€Å"Jury of Her Peers† is a short story that combines murder, lies and sexism while exposing the reader to the truth about women’s abilities and skills. Aside from being a murder mystery about the investigation of the sudden death of John Wright, the story’s theme is more about respect for women and making decisions based on one’s own beliefs and morals rather than allowing others to control them. Glaspell is a firm believer in women’s rights, and she dedicates most of her writing, including this piece, to displaying to society that women are indeed as smart and capable as men are to perform the duties and jobs of everyday life (internet*). The setting is in rural Dickson County, USA, just prior to 1920. This was a period in America’s history when women were seen as household workers only, that men were the only ones capable of making important judgment calls and decisions. Although one of the main characters, Mrs. Peters, lives her life by what the men make her to be, in the end she undergoes a movement that changes her into an independent person of society. The female characters in â€Å"Jury of Her Peers† include Mrs. Peters, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Wright. These are the women who, at different points in their lives, turned the degrading things men did into motivation to go through with actions they never thought possible. For Mrs. Hale, this happened when she was only a girl, and a young boy slaughtered her young kitten in front of her own eyes. As she described it, she felt from that experience that â€Å"If they had not held me back I would have†¦hurt him.† (Glaspell, 277) Likewise, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Wright go through a similar situation regarding how their husbands treat them. Mr. Hale and the Sheriff, Mr. Peter... ...y, Mr. Hale describes Mrs. Peters as being â€Å"married to the law† (Glaspell, 280). In many ways, this statement is true for Mrs. Peters. However, after hearing this, she undergoes a transformation that leads her to conceal the evidence she and Mrs. Hale discover. It is a bold move that shows her ability to stand for what she believes is right, and what she believes the men deserve. Glaspell’s ideas about women in society were, at the time of their release, very controversial. As time has progressed, women have risen to the challenge and become the very figures she described in â€Å"Jury of Her Peers.† Not necessarily people who are willing to kill, but people who stand for something and will openly express their feelings and beliefs without sensing a biased for men. That is what this story is about, and that is what the author wanted everyone to realize.

Overpopulation Is Caused by Poverty Essay

Bangladesh is one of the poor countries with one of the highest population of the world. Is the country poor because of the huge number of people or the poverty itself is the reason behind the overpopulation? To answer this question, I have looked at the overall development condition and population of the world and tried to find the missing links between the two. First I presented some facts about world population and demography. Then I analyzed the Malthusian and Marxist views on population. I talked about the existing views that considered population growth as the main reason behind poverty. Then I discussed my arguments about those view and discussed how population growth is not the primary cause of low standard of living, gross inequalities or limited freedom choice that characterize much of the developing world. I tried to find the main reasons behind the impoverishment of the poor countries and how those lead to overpopulation. Background: Human race came into existence around 2 billion years ago. Agricultural Revolution took place about 10,000 years ago when people used to hunt and gather food. At that time the estimated world population was about 4 million. The population started to grow significantly after the agricultural revolution. However, the most dramatic population growth occurred after the Industrial Revolution in 1750s. The world population was approaching one billion people and was increasing by more than two million every year. This dramatic population growth is termed population explosion because within less than 300 years the number of people mushroomed to more than 6 billion whereas before this, world population grew very slowly for millions of years. At this very moment, nearly 7 billion people are sharing this planet. By 2050, the population is expected to reach 9 billion. The world population is very unevenly distributed by geographic region, fertility and mortality levels and age structure. Here we also have to consider the term demographic transition: transition from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates. Most of the developing countries are in stage two and the developed countries in stage three. So in the developing countries, though death rate has dropped significantly due to improvement in medicine and health care, fertility rate remains high. So population growth is highest in the developing and poor countries. Existing literature: Now the question is why birth rates are so high in the developing countries? In 1798, Thomas Malthus proposed a theory that determines the relationship between population growth and economic development. According to him, the poor countries are poor because of the population growth. Eliminate the population problem and the problem of poverty will be solved by itself. To eliminate the extra people, positive and preventive checks are necessary. Positive checks are famine, natural disasters, war etc which according to him is a good way to get rid of the unnecessary people who are burden to the society. Preventive checks would be only moral restrain because birth controls were considered as sins according to the Catholic Church. Malthus was not aware of the technological progress that would occur and thus he came up with the theory that food production will not be able to keep up with the population growth. Thus the solution was to get rid of the poor people. Karl Marx saw the Malthusian point of view as an outrage against humanity. Marx pinpointed the fact that with technological progress, there would be more production. So capital would be increasing too. However, the few capitalist who own all the resources exploit the poor workers and keep them poor. So poverty is the result of a poorly organized capitalist society where there is no equal distribution of wealth. From the Marxist point of view, overpopulation is not the reason behind slow economic growth and development. Though the theory of Malthus is much criticized and controversial, his ideas are still remaining in the present world. Many theorists and economists see the reduction of population growth through severe measures as the easiest way of ensuring economic prosperity in a developing country. According to them, unrestrained population increase is the main reason behind low standard of living, malnutrition, ill health, environmental degradation, and many other economic and so cial problems. There is a theory known as ‘population-poverty cycle’. This theory states that overpopulation makes the economic, social, and psychological problems more complicated. As more children are born every day, there is less savings rate per person in the household and national level. Because of the uncontrolled population growth, the government fails to provide the basic necessities for the additional people. This leads to low living standard of the existing generation and eventually poverty is transferred to the next generation. At present China is the most populous country in the world with a number of 1.34 billion. This country has undertaken one of the most harsh and coercive population control policies in the early 1980s- one child per family policy. Though this policy dramatically reduced the growth rate, is caused many socio-economic problems and controversies. However, the decline in the fertility rate in China through one child policy is less successful than approaches based on women empowerment and education in some parts of India, such as the state of Kerala. This shows us that population no longer remains a problem even though there is slow economic growth by focusing on empowering people, especially women. Defending my thesis: My thesis is that poverty causes overpopulation and to solve both the problems, other issues are needed to be taken care of. One of the main causes that keep poor countries and poor people poor is unequal distribution of wealth and natural resources. The developed countries consist of one quarter of the world’s population but consume almost 80% of the world resources. In 2005, the wealthiest 20% of the world accounted for 76.6% of total private consumption. The poorest 20% consumed just 1.5%. When one child is born in a developed country, the amount of money and resources spend behind it is equivalent to 16 children in the developing countries. Therefore the developed countries should cut back their very high consumption instead of asking developing countries to control their population growth. However they do not do that in an attempt to hold down the development of the poor countries to continue dominance over them and to maintain the very expensive living style. So they mad e population growth the main reason behind poverty to distract everyone from the real reasons. They pressurize the poor nations to adopt aggressive population control programs even though they themselves went through a period of sizable population increase that accelerated their own development processes. So as the LDCs are kept poor, no or less development occurs and thus generates overpopulation. Also a huge amount of resources are hold idle. For example, only 12% of all the potential arable land is under cultivation. So the land actually being cultivated amounts only a fraction of its potential. According to one web resource- ‘Enough arable land exists in India to give each person in the country approximately half an acre. In famine-ravaged Ethiopia, each person could have three-quarters of an acre of arable land. Africa, the poorest continent, has 20.2% of the world’s land area, and only 13% of its population. North America has a whopping 2.1 acres of arable land per person!’ So many areas with potential resources are under populated and many small areas (urban areas in the LDCs) are concentrated with too many people. This unequal distribution of people in terms of land causes poverty rather than the population growth. Underdevelopment itself is a huge problem. If the governments of the developing countries adopt correct strategies that promote higher levels of living, greater self-esteem and expanded freedom, population will take care of itself. If people are healthy and better educated, they will themselves be aware of the fact that smaller families are better than larger families. On the other case, if they are uneducated and physically and psychologically weak, the large family will be the only real source of social security. So the birth control programs and severe child control policies will be unsuccessful if there is no motivation to empower and enlighten the people, especially the women. If the women have equal roles and status like the men and have access to birth control, fertility rate will fall by itself. However, the richest people of the developing countries consume most of the resources and deprive the rest of the people of their daily necessities. As the poor people are kept poor they fail to get educated and empowered which leads to low quality of life and overpopulation. Conclusion: Overpopulation is not the main cause behind poverty. It is the other way around. However, fast population growth is not desirable too. So in order to develop, countries like Bangladesh need to adopt policies that focus on making people aware of the ways to keep the family small. The consequences of rapid population should neither be exaggerated nor minimized. However, it is pretty clear problem of population is not simply a problem of huge number. It is about quality of life and material well being. So if there is not equal distribution of wealth, idle resources, and subordination of women, poor countries and poor people would remain poor and this will lead to the problem of overpopulation. References: Todaro, Michael P. and Smith, Stephen C. (2009). Economic Development. Ninth Edition. Addison-Wesley. Weeks, J.R. (2012). Population: An Introduction to Concepts and Issues. 11th edition. California: Wadsworth Publishing. http://www.henrygeorge.org/popsup.htm http://www.globalissues.org/issue/2/causes-of-poverty https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2119rank.html

The Village

The Village Essay The film ‘The Village' by M Night Shaman, looks at a series of images which form the basis for portraying and shaping the story. M Night uses subtle symbols throughout the film resulting In the audience making up their own mind about certain events that take place. Using color as a main centre piece for the film is an effective way of communicating to the audience visually. The powerful imagery is another tool in which engages and speaks to the audience allowing them to interpret the film as they will.This essay will examine the way in which these Images and humbly get the message across without the use of excessive dialogue. It will also look at what the Images and symbols actually represent. Color Is an Important symbol throughout the film. The symbolic colors that are used are yellow and red. The auteur links two simple primary colors to represent the communities perceptions of good and evil. The elders create the Illusion that the red color attracts the mo nsters and the color yellow is the safe color which protects them from any danger.This gives the film a strong visual element. These two colors are bright as seen throughout the film and all other colors appear dull adding a greater emphasis to the colors red and yellow. This shows us that M Night does not rely on verbal conversation to bring about the symbols. The red flower is an indication of this, When we see the two girls sweeping and they see the flower they quickly bury the bad color in the ground. This also happens when Noah, who doesn't really understand the concept of color, picks the red berries from the woods putting them in his pocket.Later on Noah then offers the berries and places them in Ivy hand, she does not understand at first, obviously due to the fact that she is blind, until Luscious warns her. [â€Å"Oh. Berries! What a splendid present! † â€Å"Be cautious. You are holding the bad color. † â€Å"This color attracts those we don't speak of, you must bury It. You ought not pick that color berry anymore. † Ivy, Luscious This confirms that M Night is using the colors as a powerful symbol alerting viewers to the fact that colors are symbolic and represent the difference between good and evil.An Important Image to examine In the film Is when a monster has been spotted within the villages boundaries, Ivy is waiting for Luscious outside on the porch, Ivy holds UT her hand whilst in the background we can see a faint monster appearing from the darkness. This conveys to the audience the trusting nature of Ivy, she places an enormous amount of trust on Luscious hoping that he will be there. This also represents an element of bravery because the audience knows that the monster, at any moment, could come and attack her.However, we know that lb' Is not like other women from the village, she is not affected from her blindness. Instead she uses her other senses like sound and touch to compensate for It. [â€Å"Are you not angry you have OFF This shows us that Ivy does view the village differently when compared with the others in the community, however can still see the world, Just in a different light. She places trust in the hands of her friends and family to guide her. Symbolism occurs regularly throughout the film, M Night uses many symbols to illustrate not only his ideas but the storyline as well.The black boxes which are placed in the houses of the elders all contain secrets from their past. This symbolisms that The Village is essentially made up on a lie because all the elders have hidden secrets that they want to protect so they can keep the community safe from the outside world and all the violence in it. Luscious Hunt quickly catches on to the idea that there are secrets within The Village and knows that they are contained in the black boxes. [â€Å"There are secrets in every corner of this village, do you not feel it?Do you not see it? † Luscious Hunt 23:54-24:04] Once again M Night is addin g a visual element to the story thus creating the black boxes into a symbol for secrets. Another symbolic element to this film is the rocking chairs which are positioned on the front arch at every house. The rocking chairs represent strength in hard times, strength of the human spirit, whenever the characters of the village are feeling weak or anxious they will go and sit in the chair gathering strength which will then help them face the issues they have. â€Å"The moment I heard my daughters vision had finally failed her and that she would forever be blind I was sitting in that very chair† Edward Walker This confirms that the village characters draw strength through the use of the chair which now alerts the audience to the fact that the chairs present strength. The boundaries which surrounds the village are also symbolic. The boundaries represent the protection that the elders enforce to keep the village innocent.The elders are trying to protect the community from the violen ce and crime that takes place in the outside world, or so they would have you believe. U have kindness in your voice, I did not expect that. † 1:34:46-1 :34:53] This shows the audience that the outside world is far different from how the elders have concluded it to be, Ivy was surprised that the man was kind because she had been raised to live that the towns were full of hatred and crime.This film is heavily based on images and symbolism resulting in not as much need for an in depth narrative. M Night tends not to convey the story by using plain dialogue but instead uses strong images and symbols to get the point across in a visual sense. Color is the main symbol used in the film, using colors to represent good and bad gets the viewers to think and make assumptions based on certain colors. He also uses powerful images to convey scenes without any dialogue however still manages to get the message across.

Free Essays on Gas Tungsten Arc Welding

1 FUSION WELDING Fusion welding is a joining process in which the coalescence of metals is accomplished by fusion. The major fusion welding processes are listed below: Gas welding Oxyacetylene gas welding (OAW) Arc welding Shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) Gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) Plasma arc welding (PAW) Gas metal arc welding (GMAW) Submerged arc welding (SAW) Electroslag welding (ESW) High-energy beam welding Electro beam welding (EBW) Laser beam welding (LBW) 1.1 Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW) 1.1.1 Description of the Process GTAW consists of an AC/DC arc burning between a non-consumable electrode and the work piece to melt the joint area. The area of the arc is enveloped in a protective gas shield which protects the weld pool and electrode from contamination while allowing a stable arc to be maintained. The filler wire is added either by hand, or in the mechanized process, by feed rollers attached to the torch. 1.1.2 Application Common applications consists of high quality welding on stainless steels; aluminium and its alloys; copper; nickel alloys and rare materials such as titanium and zirconium. Mild steels are welded when full penetration welds are required within certain tolerances, both in size and x-ray quality. Used widely in the aerospace, chemical and nuclear industries. 1.1.3 Electrical Conditions DC (direct current) - most normally used for GTAW welding of stainless steels and heat resisting steels, mild and low alloy steels, copper, nickel alloys, lead, silver, titanium and other metals that do not contain aluminium, magnesium or their alloys. The electrode must be connected to the negative terminal, where one third of the heat is generated. Two thirds of the heat of the arc is generated at the positive pole. A tungsten electrode connected to the positive pole would overheat and melt causing... Free Essays on Gas Tungsten Arc Welding Free Essays on Gas Tungsten Arc Welding 1 FUSION WELDING Fusion welding is a joining process in which the coalescence of metals is accomplished by fusion. The major fusion welding processes are listed below: Gas welding Oxyacetylene gas welding (OAW) Arc welding Shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) Gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) Plasma arc welding (PAW) Gas metal arc welding (GMAW) Submerged arc welding (SAW) Electroslag welding (ESW) High-energy beam welding Electro beam welding (EBW) Laser beam welding (LBW) 1.1 Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW) 1.1.1 Description of the Process GTAW consists of an AC/DC arc burning between a non-consumable electrode and the work piece to melt the joint area. The area of the arc is enveloped in a protective gas shield which protects the weld pool and electrode from contamination while allowing a stable arc to be maintained. The filler wire is added either by hand, or in the mechanized process, by feed rollers attached to the torch. 1.1.2 Application Common applications consists of high quality welding on stainless steels; aluminium and its alloys; copper; nickel alloys and rare materials such as titanium and zirconium. Mild steels are welded when full penetration welds are required within certain tolerances, both in size and x-ray quality. Used widely in the aerospace, chemical and nuclear industries. 1.1.3 Electrical Conditions DC (direct current) - most normally used for GTAW welding of stainless steels and heat resisting steels, mild and low alloy steels, copper, nickel alloys, lead, silver, titanium and other metals that do not contain aluminium, magnesium or their alloys. The electrode must be connected to the negative terminal, where one third of the heat is generated. Two thirds of the heat of the arc is generated at the positive pole. A tungsten electrode connected to the positive pole would overheat and melt causing...

Biography - Bill Gates essays

Biography - Bill Gates essays We are living in the information age. Everything nowadays revolves around computers and electronics. A person in California can play another competitor in Iran a game of chess without leaving their home by the use of computers. Computers have become a lot smaller and much more famous around the world. One individual has played a big role in the computer industry. He is an American business executive, chairman and chief executive officer of the Microsoft Corporation, and a multibillionaire: Bill Gates. Gates, William Henry, III (1955- ) was born in Seattle, Washington. Gates grew up in a very competitive family. His father, William H. Gates II, was an attorney. His mother, Mary, was a University of Washington regent and director of First Interstate Bank. His parents placed him in Lakeside, an academic and rigorous private school in Seattle. He met Paul Allen in high school. Gates was fascinated with computers since the age of 12 and has been programming projects throughout high school career. While attending Harvard in 1975, Gates and Allen made a version of the BASIC, a computer programming language compiler for the MITS Altair microprocessor, the first personal computer. Working on BASIC for the Altair, Gates dropped out of Harvard, in 1977, to pursue his full-time vision of, "a computer on every desk and in every home." In the early 1980's, Gates help lead Microsoft from a developer of programming languages to a diverse computer software company that produced computer operating systems, applications software and programming tools. Gates has made MS-DOS, in 1981, a computer operating system for the new IBM Personal Computer. He has also driven Microsoft toward the introduction of application software such as the Microsoft Word (word processing software). Gates has challenged many companies with there related products. He has challenged Digital Research, the maker of ...

Profile of Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize Winning Novelist

Profile of Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize Winning Novelist Toni Morrison (February 18, 1931, to August 5, 2019) was an American novelist, editor, and educator whose novels focused on the experience of black Americans, particularly emphasizing black womens experience in an unjust society and the search for cultural identity. In her writing, she artfully used fantasy and mythical elements along with realistic depictions of racial, gender and class conflict. In 1993, she became the first African American woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Fast Facts: Toni Morrison Known For: American novelist, editor, and educatorAlso Known As: Chloe Anthony Wofford (given name at birth)Born: February 18, 1931 in Lorain, OhioDied: August 5, 2019 in The Bronx, New York City (pneumonia)Parents: Ramah and George WoffordEducation: Howard University (BA), Cornell University (MA)Noted Works: The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Beloved, Jazz, ParadiseKey Awards: Pulitzer Prize for fiction (1987), Nobel Prize in Literature (1993), Presidential Medal of Freedom (2012)Spouse: Harold MorrisonChildren: sons Harold Ford Morrison, Slade MorrisonNotable Quote: â€Å"If you’re going to hold someone down you’re going to have to hold on by the other end of the chain. You are confined by your own repression.† Along with the Nobel Prize, Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award in 1988 for her 1987 novel Beloved, and in 1996, she was selected for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. government’s highest honor for achievement in the humanities. On May 29, 2012, she was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. Early Life, Education, and Teaching Career Toni Morrison was born Chloe Anthony Wofford in Lorain, Ohio, on February 18, 1931, to Ramah and George Wofford. Growing up during the economic hardship of the Great Depression, Morrison’s father, a former sharecropper, worked at three jobs to support the family. It was from her family that Morrison inherited her deep appreciation for all aspects of black culture. Morrison earned Bachelor of Arts degrees from Howard University in 1952 and a Masters degree from Cornell University in 1955. After college, she changed her first name to Toni and taught at Texas Southern University until 1957. From 1957 to 1964, she taught at Howard University, where she married Jamaican architect Harold Morrison. Before divorcing in 1964, the couple had two sons together, Harold Ford Morrison and Slade Morrison. Among her students at Howard were future Civil Rights Movement leader Stokely Carmichael and Claude Brown, author of Manchild in the Promised Land. In 1965, Toni Morrison went to work as an editor at book publisher Random House, becoming the first black woman senior editor in the fiction department in 1967. After returning to teaching at State University of New York at Albany from 1984 to 1989, she taught at Princeton University until she retired in 2006. Writing Career While working as a senior editor at Random House, Morrison also started sending her own manuscripts to publishers. Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970 when Morrison was 39. Bluest Eye told the story of a victimized young black girl whose obsession with her idea of white beauty drove her longing for blue eyes. Her second novel, Sula, depicting the friendship between two black women, was published in 1973, while she was teaching at State University of New York. While teaching at Yale in 1977, Morrison’s third novel, Song of Solomon, was published. The book gained critical and popular acclaim, winning the 1977 National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. Her next novel, Tar Baby, exploring the conflicts of race, class, and sex, was published in 1981 and led to her being accepted as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Morrison’s first play, Dreaming Emmett, about the 1955 lynching of black teenager Emmett Till, premiered in 1986. The Beloved Trilogy Published in 1987, Morrison’s most celebrated novel, Beloved, was inspired by the life story of Margaret Garner, an enslaved African American woman. Remaining on the New York Times bestseller list for 25 weeks, Beloved won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. In 1998, Beloved was made into a feature film starring Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover.   The second book in what Morrison called her â€Å"Beloved trilogy,† Jazz, came out in 1992. Written in a style imitating the rhythms of jazz music, Jazz depicts a love triangle during New York City’s Harlem Renaissance period of the 1920s. Critical acclaim from Jazz resulted in Morrison becoming the first African American woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. Published in 1997, the third book of Morrison’s Beloved trilogy, Paradise, focuses on the citizens of a fictional all-black town. In suggesting that Beloved, Jazz, and Paradise should be read together as a trilogy, Morrison explained, â€Å"The conceptual connection is the search for the beloved- the part of the self that is you, and loves you, and is always there for you.† In her 1993 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Morrison explained the source of her inspiration to depict the black experience by telling the story of an old, blind, black woman who is confronted by a group of black teenagers who ask her, â€Å"Is there no context for our lives? No song, no literature, no poem full of vitamins, no history connected to experience that you can pass along to help us start strong? †¦ Think of our lives and tell us your particularized world. Make up a story.† Final Years and the Writing of Home In her later life, Morrison wrote children’s books with her younger son, Slade Morrison, a painter and a musician. When Slade died of pancreatic cancer in December 2010, one of Morrison’s final novels, Home, was half-completed. She said at the time, â€Å"I stopped writing until I began to think, he would be really put out if he thought that he had caused me to stop. ‘Please, Mom, Im dead, could you keep going . . . ?’† Morrison did â€Å"keep on going† and finished Home, dedicating it to Slade. Published in 2012, Home tells the story of a black Korean War veteran living in the segregated United States of the 1950s, who fights to save his sister from brutal medical experiments performed on her by a racist white doctor. In a 2008 interview with NPR’s Michel Martin, Morrison addressed the future of racism: â€Å"Racism will disappear when [it is] no longer profitable and no longer psychologically useful. When that happens, it’ll be gone.† Today, Oberlin College, in Oberlin, Ohio, is the home of the Toni Morrison Society, an international literary society dedicated to teaching, reading, and researching the works of Toni Morrison. Toni Morrison died at age 88 from complications of pneumonia at the Montefiore Medical Center in The Bronx, New York City, on August 5, 2019. Updated by Robert Longley Sources and Further Reference .†Toni Morrison Fast Factsâ€Å" CNN Library. (August 6, 2019).Duvall, John N. (2000). â€Å".†The Identifying Fictions of Toni Morrison: Modernist Authenticity and Postmodern Blackness Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-312-23402-7.Fox, Margalit (August 6, 2019). â€Å".†Toni Morrison, Towering Novelist of the Black Experience, Dies at 88 The New York Times.Ghansah, Rachel Kaadzi (April 8, 2015). â€Å".†The Radical Vision of Toni Morrison The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331..†Ghosts in the House: How Toni Morrison Fostered a Generation of Black Writersâ€Å" The New Yorker. October 27, 2003.

Unique Marketing Model of Aldi Company Case Study - 135

Unique Marketing Model of Aldi Company - Case Study Example The international expansion of Aldi stores made a large impact on leading global retailers (Steen & Lane1). Giving customers first priority by owing them respect played a major role in the competitive environment. Production of superior and new brands than the competitors would play a significant role in sustaining the competitive advantage to Aldi. International expansion of the stores would also play a major role in sustaining competitive advantage (Tichy & DeRose Web). Lowering the prices and increasing the quality level of production to customers. Provision of unique and superior brands created loyalty to most of the suppliers of Aldi for long period of time and some customers believed that the products were national brands from a foreign country (Tichy & DeRose Web). Lowering the prices brings in more customers since all can purchase their choices with the little they own. Further, since the majority are always after quality products, more customers would come in to enjoy their respective preferences. Aldi greatly believed that quality is affordable to meet the growing demand by successfully entering new markets in Houston, Florida and New York and introducing of new product such as organic foods. Aldi’s financials are average. The company does not seem to get more revenues from other competitions such as Walmart. The company’s financial position is however very strong. The company generally has healthy financial statements with ever increasing in revenue collected almost on a yearly basis. According to the Aldi and Walmart data of (2012), the global revenue of Aldi ranges at $66 billion compared to that of Walmart that ranges from $444 billion.(Steen & Lane10) This is a clear indication that Aldi level is low compared to Walmart. Walmart also had the number of stores in the U.S compared to Aldi each owning 1,188 and 3211 respectively.  

Referring to the 5 main problems of philosophy, show how each of the Essay

Referring to the 5 main problems of philosophy, show how each of the readings (Plato through Descartes.) - Essay Example Analysis of Knowledge The philosopher defined knowledge with level of doubt which is basically the contrast of certainity (Jerry 33). The philosopher Plato argues about mathematics denoting the logic. His work considerably influenced logic, linguistics, mathematics, set theory, and philosophy, particularly philosophy of language, metaphysics and epistemology. The true belief is already mobilized to resemble a modal logic and possibility of including world’s semantics. Epistemology has received greatest attention although it still lacks formal representation (Jerry 16). The concept of scientific inventions are currently dwelling much on metaphysics which is far much beyond human perception as the concern gets deeper relying on three main factors, for instance, God mind and soul, which are unique to an extent that man kind is not able to understand. Descartes embraces the principle deployed in order to be certain (doubtless). However, the philosopher acknowledge that everything within the earth shall be over and they an existing by their nature. This affirms that Descartes fears and recognized that God is Omni present. In metaphysics, and is determined to derive the ultimate reality in the existence between man, nature, mind and all matters that ad related to ultimate reality personal view on Meta physics (Jerry 19). Despite the human perception on God’s creation, people do think that they have the ability to let God’s work change. This is totally a perception which still requires a lot of argument both physically and through the bible to determine the reasons ass to why man in working with perception instead of ajusti9ng to the requirements. The religion philosopher clearly indicates that our God is not far from Earth, his prayers for many (Jerry 23). Ethically, the slave trade that erupted in the USA, which lead to death of thousands

Bipolar and Personality Disorders & Dehydration and Diarrhea Research Paper

Bipolar and Personality Disorders & Dehydration and Diarrhea - Research Paper Example This concern is due to the vulnerability these disorders pose (Lesley, 2009). Symptoms Varied research indicates that close to 20% percent of patients with Borderline Personality Disorder might have experienced Bipolar Disorder at certain intervals (Goodwin, 2009). Like Borderline Personality Disorder on the instability of temper as well as the reluctant effect noted on the conduct of a patient can be found on Bipolar Disorder through inconsistent character of temperamental. Most cases of Borderline Personality Disorder and Bipolar Disorder portend incidents of Manic and Hypomanic states. This causes a person to feel very animated and superior or in circumstances of mania the affected person might feel very low and depressed during the episode. Relative NANDA research reports provided that at least 10% of persons affected by other psychological disorders indicated to have bipolar disorder concurrently (Lesley, 2009). For instance, persons suffering from BPD experience grave degrees o f irritability and varied emotions while those affected with Bipolar Disorder exhibit impulsiveness. However, this evidence might not be accurate according to other results and therefore requires that substantial facts be provided in future (Lesley, 2009). Pharmacological intervention Evidence indicates that environmental aspects have significant roles in the development and course of Borderline Personality Disorder and Bipolar Disorder. Defectiveness in the structure and or performance in certain brain circuits could be a cause Borderline Personality Disorders and Bipolar Disorder (Lesley, 2009). National Depressive and Manic Depressive Association (MD MDA) argue that persons experiencing Borderline Personality Disorder Bipolar Disorder exhibit worry and confusion episodes. Such episodes might magnify the sate of Borderline Personality Disorder and Bipolar Disorder based on the pattern and length of episodes experienced. For example, aggravation of both ailments might occur in case s where the episode frequency is longer in duration (Lesley, 2009). Treatment A condition of Borderline Personality Disorder and Bipolar Disorder are easily treatable due to major advances in contemporary medicine (Lesley, 2009). Applying benefit versus risk for treatment plans. Lithium drug has been identified and certified as an effective medicine that would help patients Borderline Personality Disorder and Bipolar Disorder to overcome their conditions. Experts argue that this drug basically has the capacity to regulate mood disorder caused by frequent episodes. However, there are those who observe that 40% of people who use do not get cured of Borderline Personality Disorder and Bipolar Disorder. It is claimed that the drug causes grave side-effects that can damage the ability of its users to cope up with pain (Ketter, 2010). Anticonvulsant medicines are best applicable to people who are not contented with the use of Lithium as medication of Borderline Personality Disorder and Bi polar Disorder. Conditions of extreme Mania from the two are treatable by neuropeltic medications (Goodwin, 2009). There is an option of administering Benzodiazpenes neuroleptics. This drug has a lower damaging side effect for patients of Borderline Personality Disorder and Bipolar Disorder. Teaching patient Interrelations of Borderline Personality Disorder and Bipolar Disorder patient require attention from psychoeducational that

Examine a foreign currency TUR for Turkey and provide an analysis of Essay

Examine a foreign currency TUR for Turkey and provide an analysis of that currency against the US Dollar over the 5-year period ending with 2010 - Essay Example In order to understand Exchange trade fund properly, a comparison between currency of two nations namely Turkey and USA has to be carried out. The reason for the comparison is because both are developed countries and have almost similar expenditure values. The comparison will be done based on a five year period that ends in 2010. USA and Turkey are both developed countries but have different economy. The difference in economy can be reviewed through the use of Exchange-traded fund (ETF) .Additionally, various forms of ETFs which include Dow Jones Istanbul 20 (DJIST), Non-Financial Istanbul 20 (NFIST), Smaller Companies Istanbul 25 (SMIST), and Istanbul GOLD ETF (GODIST) will be considered while trying to understand ETF in the two countries. The authorized participants, comprising of large broker-dealers that have ensued various agreements with exchange-traded funds distributor, are basically engaged in buying or selling of ETF shares directly to or from the ETF. Turkey and the USA buys or sells the ETF either directly from the fund company or through the use of a broker. This can also occur in creation units, â€Å"which comprise of large segments of several ETF shares that are normally exchanged duly with baskets of underlying securities† (Wiandt and Will 37). This means that the eligible participants may opt for long-term investment in ETF shares mainly due to its high return rates and global recognition. Indeed, they play a bigger role in the open markets during the process of market making. This is mainly through the utilization of their ability towards exchanging the creation segments with their varying forms of securities. This hence provides a wide range of ETF liquidity in terms of its shares, thus assis ting in ensuring that the net asset value of all the underlying assets are approximates of their intraday market pricing values. Trading can be rated in terms of

Personal Career Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Career - Personal Statement Example a nurse one day so I can help ill people with care and affection and looking after them will also make me happy as I believe that it will give me peace and satisfaction and life to me is helping others and becoming a nurse will not only earn me prosperity and respect among others but it will also be a great way to please God. I am a responsible person and I believe that I will be able to look after patients in an organized and proper way once I become a nurse. I know that it is not easy to become a nurse as it requires passion determination hard work and last but not the least devotion which is also an important element but I am firm and satisfied with my decision as it will provide me a chance to help people in pain, help people who are sick and it will also make me feel more for humanity .becoming a nurse will bring a sense of responsibility in my life which will also affect my personal life also in a positive way. According to me a modern nurse should be good at communication and handling patients and his relatives. Communication is very important as patients who are ill needs care and communicating with them in a proper way by means of encouraging them will provide them with lots of hope .Moreover a nurse should be a good listener as it let their patients to develop trust on her. She should be confident and should owe the ability to tackle hard situations as one come across many hard situations when working as a medical employee. Nurses should be available for night duties and should not hesitate as they are performing a noble job. They should share a good understanding with their assigned doctors, pharmacists and dieticians and they should keep an eye on patient and his intake of recommended medicines as prescribed by the doctor. Nurses are responsible for dealing with ill patients not only by providing them with medicines but also by understanding their priorities and state of mind and sho wing affection to them. Nurses are basic representatives of healthy

Business Models and Planning Chapter Questions Assignment

Business Models and Planning Chapter Questions - Assignment Example Typically, business models undergo significant adaptation to immediate business environments. This means that managers can employ an appropriate business model to counteract changes brought by actions of competitors and other market forces. Technically, business models strive towards maximizing profits by optimizing interrelatedness of production inputs. Practically, outcomes of adopting a given business model remains uncertain. Some model innovations may yield successful outcomes while others may lead to failure. Based on chapter 4 on business model innovation, it is undeniable that companies use different approaches in trying to increase profitability. Despite the immense competitive pressure exerted by active model innovations, most changes in those models are still radical as opposed to being specific2. In many cases, a firm may adopt a correct model but lacks technical framework of articulating the model’s principles into its marketing lines. One definite relation between model innovation and profitability features in the aspect of value proposition. Value proposition becomes instrumental whenever product and service firms understand essential behaviors of consumers in potential markets. All model innovation processes adopts the notion that value proposition plays a significant role in influencing consumers’ purchase decisions3. Inclusion of a concise and appealing proposition statement will not only attracts customers’ attention but also convince a new consumer into purchasing a product or service. In order to appreciate the importance of value proposition in marketing, one should acknowledge the influence exerted by service-profit chain. This chain establishes the relationship between customer satisfaction and profitability. Supposedly, model innovation aims at enhancing corporate profitability by addressing the needs of stakeholders, which in this context comprise

Personal Career Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Career - Personal Statement Example a nurse one day so I can help ill people with care and affection and looking after them will also make me happy as I believe that it will give me peace and satisfaction and life to me is helping others and becoming a nurse will not only earn me prosperity and respect among others but it will also be a great way to please God. I am a responsible person and I believe that I will be able to look after patients in an organized and proper way once I become a nurse. I know that it is not easy to become a nurse as it requires passion determination hard work and last but not the least devotion which is also an important element but I am firm and satisfied with my decision as it will provide me a chance to help people in pain, help people who are sick and it will also make me feel more for humanity .becoming a nurse will bring a sense of responsibility in my life which will also affect my personal life also in a positive way. According to me a modern nurse should be good at communication and handling patients and his relatives. Communication is very important as patients who are ill needs care and communicating with them in a proper way by means of encouraging them will provide them with lots of hope .Moreover a nurse should be a good listener as it let their patients to develop trust on her. She should be confident and should owe the ability to tackle hard situations as one come across many hard situations when working as a medical employee. Nurses should be available for night duties and should not hesitate as they are performing a noble job. They should share a good understanding with their assigned doctors, pharmacists and dieticians and they should keep an eye on patient and his intake of recommended medicines as prescribed by the doctor. Nurses are responsible for dealing with ill patients not only by providing them with medicines but also by understanding their priorities and state of mind and sho wing affection to them. Nurses are basic representatives of healthy

Elements Of Design In A Play Essay Example for Free

Elements Of Design In A Play Essay There are many things which can both attribute and take away from the overall production of a performance or play such as a Shakespeare play. Such things include costumes, props, lighting, set, and sound. All of these factors are vital in the ending effect that the performance has on the viewing audience. Firstly, when attending a play, their are several things that one will notice; all of which will contribute to the sufficiency or insufficiency of the performance. Among these many things include costumes. Costumes are considered to be one of the most influential and important factors or aspects of the play itself. For example, the colors of the costume help to set the mode and theme of the play. If the play is considered to be a somber or tragic and sorrowful play, then the colors of the costume may be dark and morbid. The darkness of the costumes will add to the morbidness of the play. This is a considered to be a vital aspect by many to any play or performance. However, if a play is uplifting and happy and the costumes should also represent the same thing. They too should be uplifting and bright. Thus, the colors of the costumes should be bright and colorful. Therefore, a happy play representing colorful costumes on their actors is vital in the overall production of the play because it adds to the joyfulness and bright aura that is to be represented through the performance. Another important factor which importantly attributes to the success of a play is the sound or the music. Without the proper music, the play will not appropriately fit with the story-line as it should. For example, with a tragedy, such as Romeo and Juliet, much of the music is somber and sad. Without the emotion emanating from this music, the final influence of the production would not be the same as if the music were cheerful and happy throughout the entire play. Also, with a play that is cheerful and happy, the music must be cheerful and bright. Sound is vital in any performance and play. Without it, the play will be dull and unfitting with the plot of the story. The music adds to the emotion and the effect of the play. Next, the set itself is also extremely important in contributing to the overall success of the play or performance. It must be carefully detailed and match with the era or time that the play is supposed to be taken place in. For example, if you were having a play that was supposed to have taken place before electricity was invented and the set included objects such as light bulbs and television sets, this would conflict with the entire plot, because it would not make any sense. Thus, the set is extremely important. Another extremely and vitally important aspect that attributes to the success or failure of plays and productions are props. Props are anything from pots and pans to furniture and food. Whichever props are used in a play should be affiliated with the time period that the play was supposed to take place in, just as the set should be. Finally, our last and equally important attributing aspect for plays is lighting. Without the proper lighting a play can be a complete and utter failure. However, with the necessary lighting that is require to see each and every prop, background, and costume, the play should certainly be a success if all of the other aspects are followed through properly. SOURCES: Musical: Cats (Broadway)

A Study On Agricultural Biotechnology Education Essay

A Study On Agricultural Biotechnology Education Essay For the past 10,000 years humans associated with domesticate plants, selecting seeds of favoured forms, pick out unwanted types to produce each following generation. Plants constitute the main food resource for humans and animals. So it is necessary to improve crop quality and yield to feed the hunger world. Today this came to a big problem due to environmental damages and population explosion [1]. There has been a drastic increase in population ever since and it is around 6.5 billion in the starting of 2010. Each year millions of people are dying due to starvation and nutritional deficiencies. So many Asian and African countries are not getting the benefits of the green revolution and gene revolution. The polluted agricultural lands and the consequences of global warming affected the agricultural production. The yield lost in each year due to pests, insects and diseases is around 30% of the total production [2, 3]. So biotechnology promises to reduce the world hunger by creating new array of transgenic plants which are resistant to pests and diseases and provide more nutrition [3]. The food and agricultural organization (FAO) recognized that the genetic engineering has the ability to increase the agricultural production. Biotechnology offers a wide range of environmental benefits such as reduce pollution, development of perfect crops which has higher nutrition, reduced or nil pesticides, resistance to insects, more yield etc.[4]. The transformation of agriculture started during the end of first half of twentieth century and it referred as Green revolution. The green revolution started in 1945 during this time Mexico imported wheat. After this Mexican government started working on the agricultural techniques. In 1964 they exported half million tons of wheat, the modern biotechnological techniques made Mexicans foot stable and this is also happened in so many other countries [5]. The green revolution decreased the world poverty in some extent. Now undeveloped countries need more applications of biotechnology, countries like India and China are still researching on new technologies but in the developed European countries are avoiding these techniques and considering as unnatural [3]. During the twentieth century conversional method produced and producing so many hybrids, which can provide more yield, stability of harvesting and farm income. But these conversional techniques dont preserve the gene pool. In the last 20 years biotechnology developed more and discovered new techniques for the stability and production. In animal biotechnology bovine somatatropin (BST) used to increase the milk production. In plant biotechnology so many new techniques arrived [5]. Conversional agricultural techniques are associated with modern genetic engineering. The plant tissue culture is the one of the major contribution of biotechnology in plant breeding. Via tissue culture we will able to produce many copies from a single plant part within a short time. The meristem culture will able to produce virus free plants. The plant tissue culture method helped for the conservation of so many medicinal plants. Another application of tissue culture is the selection of somoclonal variants with improved virus resistance [6]. The new molecular DNA technologies modify plants in different ways. Molecular level studies helped to produce agriculturally important virus resistant and virus free plants [7]. The cloning methods also gave a new phase to biotechnology. The new technologies in cloning help to prevent plant disease by deactivating the gene action. The findings suggest that the genetically modified micro organisms have the capacity to prevent the disease caused by the pathogens [7]. The genetic engineering methods are also employed in various animal species. Now it is possible to create animals with useful dairy product, meet, or fibre production. Most of the animal based experiments are primarily introduced in mouse and drosophila. Now these have been extended to the domestic farm animals. Genetic engineering is mainly used for the manipulation of fertilised egg and utters and manipulation of sperm and embryonic tissue. This facilitates the introduction of novel genes to the animals and provides more yield. Transgenic poultries, pig, sheep and cow are the examples for transgenic animals [8, 9]. The ability to alter the genome of animals by gene transfer is the major achievement of biotechnology. The animals having altered are known as transgenic animals. The transgenic animals are created by the introduction of small piece of known DNA in to the embryos. This will help the rapid introduction of new genes in to the livestock without any cross breeding [8] Transgenic methodology has so many potential advantages. The practical applications in livestocks are improved milk production and composition, increased growth rate. It is important that the production capability of transgenic animals realised only when their true genital potential is attained. The molecular study of Agrobacterium tumefaciens helped to produce transgenic plants. Using this technique many important genes were transferred to plants and it helped to get the high yield [10]. The different tools of genetic engineering made the gene transfer uncomplicated and plant manipulation easier. Gene banks and DNA libraries helped for the conservation and selection of variety of genes which facilitate special characters. Different microbes were used as vectors for the gene transfer [11]. In advanced industrial countries conventional agriculture system is following for the production. This allows the wide knowledge about the production techniques to grow crops, livestock and poultry. This method also helps to reduce the production cost and provide more yield to farmers [12]. There are some environmental problems associated with conventional agriculture method, but now they are trying to solve by using genetic engineering by the development of new methods for the diffusion of disease, insect resistant plants, drought resistant plants etc. And also biotechnology is working on to produce bio pesticides [12]. The environmental problems created by the chemical substance such as pesticides, herbicides, hormones and insecticides which used in the modern farming leads to the new thoughts in the production of bio pesticides and genetically modified plants. But their productions are restricted and under control. According to US food, agriculture and trade act in 1990 it should; (a) satisfy food and fibre needs of humans, (b) enhance the quality of the environment and natural resources depends on the agriculture economy, (c) efficient use of non renewable resource and on farm resource, (d) sustain the economic viability of farm operations and (e) enhance the quality of life for the farmers and the society as a whole [13]. The modern agricultural biotechnology focusing on genetically modified crops. So many researches are currently undergoing based on this. The genetically modified foods are the products of transgenic plants. These plants contains one or more genes from the another organism which is transferred by genetic engineering technologies [14]. According to Huttner et al biotechnology is being used in almost food production system, and it offers more opportunities in agriculture than medicine [4]. Apart from the food production biotechnology has been used to for the plant breeding and disease resistant. Most advanced commercially available plasticised are biotech products. The problem of pesticides is the introduction of super weeds and it will be difficult to control [2]. Genetically modified organisms are also used to control the pest and insects. Introduction of Bt-genes is the one of them and 17% of the total globally planted crops are Bt crops and its amount is very high in US. It is found that about 80% of the biotechnology researches are focused on non food based agricultural products such as cotton, tobacco, ornamental plants and medicinal plants [4]. It is found that use of biotech plants can reduce the plowing for control the weeds and this will lead to reduced use of diesel and decrease the pollution. This is also better for conservation of soil and water; reduce soil erosion and soil composition. The survey shows that the use of biotech crops saved around 441 million gallon of fuel which may result in the elimination of 10 billion pound carbon dioxide and this elimination is equal to removal of four million cars from the road. Thus the biotech crops has significant role in reducing the environmental pollution associated with agriculture production [2]. The genetically modified crops such as corn, soybean, and cotton are used for feeding livestock. The GM crops were introduced 15 years ago. GM crops indicate the genetic modification of plants to make it resistant to biotic stresses provide more yield. The main biotic stresses are pest and pathogens. Each year these factors reduce around 30% of the yield and in developing countries this may be higher due to climatic conditions. Weeds in the field compete with the crops for their nutrition and it will affect the yield. For this reason new GM crops were introduced to resist them. To avoid the insect attack and reduce the chemical insecticides GM technology introduced insect resistant plant. It is also help to reduce the environmental pollution [15]. In 2007- 90% of the agriculture area planted GM crops in six countries of north and south America and it is around 80% is in US, Brazil and Argentina. But in India and china they planted less than 3% only. But in the 27 countries of European Union they planted only 0.21% GM crops [16]. Present agricultural biotechnology status in Asia is amazing. Several Asian countries are currently following the uses of biotechnology in agriculture. The Chinese government gives high priority to biotechnology for improving food production and its quality in environmentally sustainable method. They are adopting the new genetic engineering methods for the crop production. Chinese introduced and planted new verities of wheat, rice, tomato, pepper, potato, papaya and tobacco and these crops are resistant to pest, herbicides and diseases. They approved around 50 verities of GM plants in last years. India government is supporting the development of infrastructures in biotechnology. In 1980 they formed Department of biotechnology to promote the advantages of biotechnology in agriculture and medicine. The RD of India developing a new generation of citrus, coffee, mangrove, and vanilla. The organisations in India such as M S Swaminathan research foundation have developed bio-village for th e growth of new incoming technologies in agriculture [17] The Indonesian government has developed three National biotechnology centers to coordinate R D in agriculture and medicine. In 1985 Pakistan started crop improvement using modern biotechnology. Now they are mainly concentrated on the improvement of rice and cotton. Philippines started the use of modern biotechnology by the creation of national institute of molecular biology and biotechnology. There also an increased use of modern biotechnology started in Thailand, Bangladesh, Singapore, Sri lanka and Vietnam. There are so many international agricultural research centres for the development of the new crops. International agricultural research canter (IARCs), international rice research institute (IRRI) are some of them [17]. Every technology can bring benefits and risks. This is also happened in the case of biotechnology. The risk of agricultural biotechnology got more publicity even biotechnology is also been used as a part of medicine and industry. The introduction of GMO has created a lot of controversy even it is not used for the production wide range of products. Then also the GMO technology is using widely. The argument is mainly focused on the herbicide and insecticide resistant plants which are more beneficial for farmers, seed producers and chemical companies. The insecticide resistant plants guaranteed 100% success, but in case the partial dosage in some insects may results in the formation of new mutants which will able to resist particular dosage. The pollination between the GM crops and wild crops may lead to the arrival of new genera, and wild verities may disappear from the environment. The introduction of antibiotic marker gene may result in the gene transfer. It is also noted that in the meat industry the routine feeding of animals lead to the high levels of antibiotics on them. It is observed that currently the biotechnology applications does not cause any harm to environment. But on the other hand it is worried about the GMO. The increased use of GMO may lead to higher amount of pesticide residues, genetic pollution, damage to beneficial insects, creation of super weeds and super pests, mutant viruses and bacteria [17, 12, 18, 4]. The 21st century being known as the century of biology and biology based industries promises to be powerful tools for the economy. It will become more powerful in industrialised countries and might be challenged by developing countries. Advanced biotechnology will revolutionise the agriculture and food industry. It is expecting that the consequences of genomics in the bio industry will be under control and biotechnology can reduce the world hunger in future. REFERENCES [1] Dominique Job, plant biotechnology in agriculture, Laboratoire mixte CNRS/INRA/Bayer CropScience (UMR 1932), Bayer CropScience, 14-20, rue Pierre-Baizet, 69269, Lyon cedex 9, France [2] www.bio.org, agricultural biotechnology- delivering benefits to farmers consumers and the environment. [3] www.cei.org, agricultural biotechnology [4] Jeremy Hall, Sarah Crowther, Biotechnology: the ultimate cleaner production technology, Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9RF, UK [5] Norman E. Borlaug, the green revolution revisited and the road ahead Nobel peace prize lecture [6] Low cost opening for tissue culture technology in developing countries. Proceedings of a Technical Meeting organized by the Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture [7] Graham S. Warren, Pious Thomas, Maria-Teresa Herrera, S.J. Lindsey Hilland Robert F. Terry .The use of plant cell cultures for studying virus resistance, and enhancing the production of virus-resistant and virus-free plants, 26-30 ,August 1991 [8] http://www.bio.org/foodag/animals/biotechanimalagoverview_ip.pdf [9] http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10418page=34 [10] K.P pauls, plant biotechnology for crop improvement Department of Crop Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada, N1G 2JV1 [11] http://www.scitopics.com/Advances_in_plant_genetic_engineering.html [12] Thomas A. Lyson, Advanced agriculture technologies and sustainable agriculture, TRENDS in biotechnology, vol.20, May 2002 [13] Biotechnology Information Center, National Agricultural Library,Beltsville, Maryland USA, http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/AgrEnv/Biotech/Bibliographies/ sustain.ag [14] http://www.greenpeace.org.uk [15] Environmental impact of genetically modified crops Ferry. N, Gatehouse A.M.R, Newcastle University, UK [16] http://www.foei.org/en/resources/publications/food-sovereignty/2009/gmcrops2009full.pdf [17] Agricultural biotechnology, poverty reduction and food security , Published and printed by the Asian Development Bank ,P.O. Box 789, 0980 Manila, Philippines [18] Christine McCollum, PhD, Charles Benbrook, PhD, Lori Knowles, llb, bcl, ma, llm, Susan Roberts, jd, ms, rd, ld Application of Modern Biotechnology to Food and Agriculture: Food Systems Perspective

A Wack On The Side Of The Head Essay examples -- essays research paper

Acute Ambiguity Roger von Oech, the author of A Whack on the Side of the Head, makes an unusual offer that thinking at random will increase the efficiency at which ideas become more abundant. This particular concept is certainly an original way to come up with new, fresh problem solving techniques. Ambiguity in the world can help new ideas flow for anyone when looked at in a creative way.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Chapter seven begins by explaining an example that would make the case against using ambiguity. In fact, the title of chapter seven is â€Å"Avoid Ambiguity†. While it is true that vague statements leave questions unanswered, the traditional idea behind gathering information is to find specific details and clear communicated information. Ambiguous communication can be dangerous in some situations where the consequences of not understanding the complete picture can cause harm. Therefore, communication of specific information is needed in some situations, however, the author then goes on to explain how the ambiguous statement or event can lead to more accurate and applicable solutions.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the event that a problem would arise in a company or social gathering that would call for a creative solution, random thinking techniques would be incredibly applicable. The author gives great examples of creative solutions and brainstorming techniques from the simple event such as a fundraiser all the way to complicated matters such as national defe...

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1 INTRODUCTION: Haptics is a recent enhancement to virtual environments allowing users to â€Å"touch† and feel the simulated objects with which they interact. Haptics is the science of touch. The word derives from the Greek haptikos meaning â€Å"being able to come into contact with†. The study of haptics emerged from advances in virtual reality. Virtual reality is a form of human-computer interaction (as opposed to keyboard, mouse and monitor) providing a virtual environment that one can explore through direct interaction with our senses. To be able to interact with an environment, there must be feedback. For example, the user should be able to touch a virtual object and feel a response from it. This type of feedback is called haptic feedback .In human-computer interaction; haptic feedback means both tactile and force feedback. Tactile, or touch feedback is the term applied to sensations felt by the skin. Tactile feedback allows users to feel things such as the texture of surfaces, temperature and vibration. Force feedback reproduces directional forces that can result from solid boundaries, the weight of grasped virtual objects, and mechanical compliance of object and inertia. Tactile feedback, as a component of virtual reality simulations, was pioneered at MIT. The term haptics in its broadest sense relates to the study of touch and the faculty by which external objects or forces are perceived through contact with the body. The word itself derives from the Greek haptikos, â€Å"able to touch†. Haptics can be found in wide range of devices. In the extreme with respect to precision, surgical simulators use haptics to provide realistic forces that emulate the feel of a real medical procedure. In the extreme with respect to the magnitude of t... ...lications Design and implement a few haptic related projects for the benefit of physically challenged people. This proposal develops an approach for haptic exploration of unknown objects by robotic fingers. Because haptic exploration is coupled with manipulation and exploration using a sequence of phases is presented. With specialized fingers and sensors and appropriate planning and control robots can also be enabled to explore the worlds through touch. Haptic exploration has applications in many areas including planetary exploration, undersea salvage, operations in remote and hazardous conditions. Application of the human haptic interaction, multi sensory perception, action and multimodal feedback can be applied in the fields of education, rehabilitation, medicine, computer aided design, skill training, computer games, driver controls, simulation and visualization.

Factors Influencing Employer-Employee Relationship in Strategy Execution in Non-Govermental Organizations in Nairobi Kenya

FACTORS INFLUENCING EMPLOYER-EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIP IN STRATEGY EXECUTION IN NON-GOVERMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS IN NAIROBI KENYA TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE3 1. 0 INTRODUCTION3 1. 1 Background of the Study3 1. 2 Statement of the Problem7 1. 3 Objectives of the Study8 1. 4 Research Questions8 1. 5 Importance of the Study9 1. 6 Limitations of the Study10 1. 7 Definition of Operational Terms10 1. 8 Chapter Summary10 CHAPTER TWO12 2. 0 LITERATURE REVIEW12 2. 1 Introduction12 2. 2 Approaches of Performance Appraisal12 2. 3 Effect of Performance Appraisal Accuracy on Staff Performance18 2. Effects of Employee Appraisal Feedback Management on Staff Performance24 2. 5 Effects of Appraisers’ Competence on Employee Performance26 2. 6 Conceptual Framework29 CHAPTER THREE31 3. 0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY31 3. 1 Introduction31 3. 2 Research Design31 3. 3 Population and Sampling Design32 3. 4 Data Collection Methods34 3. 5 Research Procedures34 3. 6 Data Analysis Methods35 3. 7 Chapter Summary35 REF ERENCES37 CHAPTER ONE 1. 0INTRODUCTION 1. 1 Background of the Study Performance appraisals can mean different things to different people.In general, a Performance appraisal is defined as an evaluation of an employee’s job performance to measure how effectively this employee is performing at their job (Becton, Portis, & Schraeder, 2007). The traditional format of a performance appraisal is an employee meeting with their supervisor annually or twice a year to go over how well the employee is doing their job. Usually the company the employee is working for provides a form for the supervisor to fill out and go over with the employee. This form list goals and objectives of the company and how well the employee is meeting these.In modern times performance appraisal systems are increasingly being used in both public and private sector to evaluate the performance of employees. Appraisal, according to Smith, (2000), involves the identification of cause and effect relationships on whic h employment and labour policies are based or can be based and are a routine process that organizations use to evaluate their employees. It is a systematic assessment that is as objective as possible of an ongoing programme or policy, its design, implementation and results.Its aim is to appraise the relevance and fulfillment of objectives, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability. The appraisal systems usually involves evaluating performance based on the judgements and opinions of subordinates, peers, supervisors, other managers and even workers themselves (Jackson & Schuler 2003). An employee appraisal, performance review, or career development discussion is a method by which the job performance of an employee is evaluated in terms of quality, quantity, cost and time.Performance appraisal is also part of career development. Performance appraisals are regular reviews of employee performance within organizations. Performance appraisal as a process is seen as a key contrib utor to successful human resource management, as it is strongly related to organisational performance (Erdogan, 2002). Murphy and Cleveland (1995) believe that performance appraisals can help organizations in four ways. First, they can enhance the quality of organizational decisions, ranging from promotions, layoffs, compensation and transfers.Second, they can enhance the quality of individual decisions, ranging from career choices to decisions about where to direct one's time and effort. Third, they provide a set of tools for organizational diagnosis and development. Finally, performance appraisals can affect employees' views of and attachment to their organization. Performance appraisal is a tool of management that can lead to better communication, motivation and feedback (Stivers and Joyce, 2000). A common process for managing employees is the traditional practice of annual performance reviews.While these annual reviews have their shortcomings, companies around the globe continue to use them. However, to increase accuracy and to get a comprehensive and balanced feedback about employee performance, 360-degree feedback system is becoming more popular. In this system peers, subordinates and customers also do the appraisal. This is particularly relevant in the light of research, which has empirically proved that 360-degree feedback system improves employee performance significantly (Rai & Singh 2005).Performance appraisal is centrally managed by the human resource department in National Cereals and Produce Board. The aims of a performance appraisal are to give feedback on performance of employees, identify employee training needs, allocate rewards, forms a basis for personal decisions; salary increases, promotions, disciplinary actions, provide the opportunity for organizational diagnosis and development, facilitate communication between employee and administration and validate selection techniques and human resource policies to meet equal employment opportunit y requirements.Performance appraisal is an ongoing communication process between employees and supervisors. Supervisors should set expectations, monitor performance, and provide feedback to employees. By having this information, they will direct and develop employee performance by identifying training and development needs, correcting, and determining raises and promotions (Seldon, Ingraham, & Jacobson, 2001). Performance appraisal is evaluating employee’s current and past performance relative to his or her performance standards.Therefore, if performance appraisal is successfully carried out in an organization, the employees would be able to know how well they are performing and what is expected of them in future in terms of effort and task direction through an established plan for performance improvement Dessler (2005). To appreciate the purpose of performance appraisal one has to look at it from the different viewpoints of the employee and the organization.From the employee s view point, the purpose of performance appraisal is to enable the employee be guided on what is to be done and that he or she should receive a comprehensive feedback on how he or she performed. The employee also requires that the manager should help him or her improve on areas where gaps were identified in his or her performance and finally, expect to have appropriate recognition for good performance (NCPB Human Resource Policies and Procedures Issue 2010).From the organizations view point, one of the most important reasons for having a system of performance appraisal is to establish and uphold the principle of accountability. For decades, it has been known that one of the chief causes of organizational failure is non-alignment of responsibility and accountability. Non-alignment occurs where employees are given responsibilities and duties, but are not held accountable for the way in which the responsibilities and duties are performed (NCPB Human Resource Policies and Procedures Is sue 2010).The National Cereals and Produce Board which is the organization selected for this study is a body corporate that was established in 1985 under Cap. 338 of the Laws of Kenya. However, this organization has been in existence since 1939 when it was established by the then Colonial Government. The Board previously operated under diverse names which included West Kenya Maize Marketing Board, Maize Marketing and Control Board, Maize and Produce Board. It acquired its current name after the amalgamation of the Maize and Produce Board with the defunct Wheat Board in 1980 (NCPB Act, Cap 338).The Board’s main function over time has been to provide grain farmers with a marketing outlet, while at the same time it is charged with undertaking the food supply functions of the State. The Board trades in maize, wheat, beans and other scheduled produce such as millet, sorghum and rice. It also offers services like drying, grading, cleaning, pest control and storage of grain as well as weighing. Additionally, the Board offers for sale, such items like weighing scales, gunny bags, pesticides and tarpaulins.More recently the Board had engaged in the trading in farm inputs more specifically fertilizer with the aim of reducing the cost of production for the farmer and also diversify its products range to make it more profitable (NCPB Strategic Plan, 2009-2013). The organization has a network of 110 stations spread all over Kenya; in both the high potential agricultural areas like most parts of Rift Valley, Western and Central Provinces, as well as the low potential (food deficit) areas like North Eastern and parts of Eastern Provinces.The network is divided into six administrative regions which are Nairobi/Eastern, Northern, Coast, North Rift, South Rift, South Rift and Lake/Western (NCPB Strategic Plan 2009-13). The Board has since the early 1990’s been undergoing major restructuring and rationalization of its operations under the Civil Service Reform Progr amme. This included the downsizing of work force, with the objective of reducing its bloated staff strength to retain a leaner workforce, which could deliver the required services more efficiently and effectively.In a period of ten years (1993-2003), the Board released more than 70% of its total workforce through a Staff Voluntary Early Retirement Scheme and other methods of leaving. This reduced its staff strength from approximately 4,500 it had at the beginning of the retrenchment exercise to a mere 930 at the end of the exercise. The Board currently has an establishment of about 1020 employees falling under four broad categories, namely Senior Management (Job Group M and above), Middle Level Management (Job Group K-L), Supervisory Management (Job Group G-J) and Operatives (Job Group A-F) (NCPB Staff Establishment Audit Report, 2004).The organization has a fully-fledged Human Resource Department, which uses a detailed Resource Manual that contains policies and procedures that basi cally defines the relationship of the organization. The Board recognizes that human resource constitute its most assets, because people grow and develop over time and without them all the other resources (materials, money, methods and machines) will not be effectively utilized.According to the manual, Board’s Human Resources Management function is primarily concerned with the human relationship fields. It aims at bringing together and developing the human resource cohesive and an effective unit to complement all the other functions in the Board, while regard to the well being of the individual and groups of workers enabling them to make maximum contribution towards the successful attainment and sustenance of the Board’s corporate goals and objectives (NCPB Human Resource Policies and Procedures Issue, 2010).National Cereals and Produce Board has two forms of performance appraisals with the main one being carried out annually and involves the appraiser and the appraisee sitting together to review the latter’s performance in the preceding one year. They evaluate the extent to which the employee met the targets agreed upon at the beginning of the appraisal period.The other type of performance appraisal target employees on probation and those appointed to various higher capacities on trial basis and is conducted to determine their suitability or otherwise for confirmation on their respective positions (NCPB Human Resource Policies and Procedures Issue, 2010). 1. 2Statement of the Problem At an organizational level, the performance appraisal system impacts other HR systems as well as organizational strategy.Latham and Wexley (2001) assert that the effectiveness of an organization's performance appraisal system is a prerequisite for ensuring the success of its selection, training, and employee motivation practices. At a strategic level, the need for rapid and effective organizational change in today's dynamic social, economic, and political envi ronment requires that employees continually re-align their performance with the evolving goals and objectives of the organization (O'Donnell and Shields, 2002).The need to continually re-align performance characterizes many organizational departments which continue to struggle with getting their members to embrace the philosophy and practices that are geared at enhancing performance (Scrivner, 1995; Vinzant and Crothers, 1994). The organization since early 1990’s has been undergoing major restructuring and rationalization of its operations under the Civil Service Reform Programme. This included the downsizing of work force, with the objective of reducing its bloated staff strength to retain a leaner workforce, which could deliver the required services more efficiently and effectively.The Board has in a period of ten years (1993-2003), released more than 70% of its total workforce through a Staff Voluntary Early Retirement Scheme and other methods of leaving. This has reduced its staff strength from approximately 4,500 it had at the beginning of the retrenchment exercise to a mere 1020 at present. The organization has frozen recruitment except for professionals and replacement of essential employees which has led to the re-allocation of the duties that were earlier being performed by higher number of employees to fewer people.In order to enhance employee performance the Board introduced employee appraisal system was introduced in 2010. At National cereal and Produce board, performance appraisals have been conducted but they have faced many challenges. Instead of boosting staff performance, they have ended up frustrating staff until some have ended up leaving because of the high level of disatisfaction. NCPB has offices in several locations including Nairobi, Nakuru, Eldoret, Moisbridge, Kitale among other major town.In order to improve the effectiveness of performance appraisals, the organization has tried to apply different approaches of performance app raisals but the result has not been any different. The study seeks to investigate the effects of performance appraisal system on staff performance at National Cereals and Produce Board. 1. 3Objectives of the Study 1. 3. 1Broad Objective of the Study The broad objective of the study is to investigate the effects of performance appraisal systems on staff performance at the National Cereals and Produce Board. . Specific objectives 1. 3. 2. 1To determine the types of performance appraisal approaches used at the Kenya National Cereals and Produce Board. 1. 3. 2. 2To determine the effect of performance appraisal accuracy on staff performance at the National Cereals and Produce Board. 3. To establish the effects of employee appraisal feedback management on staff performance at the National Cereals and Produce Board. 4. To assess the effects of appraisers’ competence on employee performance at the National Cereals and Produce Board. . 4 Research Questions 1. What are the types of per formance appraisal approaches used at the Kenya National Cereals and Produce Board? 2. What are the effects of performance appraisal accuracy on staff performance at the National Cereals and Produce Board? 3. How does employee appraisal feedback management affect staff performance at the National Cereals and Produce Board? 4. How does appraisers’ competence affect employee performance at the National Cereals and Produce Board? Methods Population/SampleThe population in this research is all employees’ program participants, their supervisors, and management team. The sample for this research will be forty employees participants, 20 supervisors participants and 10 management participants and performance appraisal evaluators. Data Collection A survey will be used to collect all of the information for the research project. Surveys will be handed out to performance appraisal evaluators and turned in when the performance appraisal is complete to the researcher.Also, employees ’ participants and their supervisors’ participants and managers’ participants will complete surveys at semi-annual performance reviews. The surveys will be filled out at the end of the performance appraisal session and turned in to the research evaluator. Data Analysis Qualitative analysis will be used to analyze the open-ended questions on the survey. Common subjects and similarities will be examined to draw conclusions about the strengths and weaknesses of the performance appraisal. 1. 5Importance of the Study 1. 5. 1National Cereals and Produce BoardThe research will be of importance to the Board as it will advocate for the importance of performance appraisal in the organization and will enable the management of NCPB to come up with a streamlined performance appraisal system and at the same time communicate to employees what they are expected to do in order to achieve the organization corporate goals. 1. 5. 2Human Resource Department The results of the resear ch will enable the Human Resource Department to examine the existing performance appraisal system, highlight the main deficiencies affecting the system and point out possible ways of improvement.The system would then transform the employees into a hardworking and highly committed workforce that will enable the organization achieve its objectives efficiently and effectively and thus create a competitive advantage. 1. 5. 3Other Organizations Parastatals within the Ministry of Agriculture and other stakeholders in the grain sub-sector will use the research findings to improve their employee performance appraisal systems and the use of performance appraisal system as a management tool. The performance appraisal system will be a useful tool in complementing performance contracting currently used in all Government ffiliated offices. 1. 5. 4Future Researchers Future researchers will also be able to use the research findings as a benchmark to their research on performance appraisal system a nd its effects on staff performance. In addition, the findings of this study will serve as a source of reference in future research. The study will also suggest other areas where future researchers can further their knowledge. 1. 5Scope of Study The study will be carried out within the National Cereals and Produce Board Headquarters, Industrial Area, Nairobi. 1. 6Limitations of the Study 1. 6. Non response because of fear to reveal detailed information concerning the organization due to fear of exposing the weaknesses the organization is facing and the confidentiality of such information in terms of business practices. The researcher foresees a challenge in collecting the required data from the respondents. The respondents may fear giving information stating that the information requested may be used against them. To limit the effects of this limitation, the researcher will carry with her an introduction letter from the University confirming that the data requested will be used for academic purposes only. . 6. 2Lack of co-operation from some of the respondents for fear of victimization from their supervisors. 1. 6. 3 The researcher also foresees a challenge where the respondents are likely to give the ideal scenario instead of providing the situation they way it is now. This may affect research finding as it will distort the study findings. 1. 7 Definition of Operational Terms Respondents- the persons from whom information were sought in the study Public sector-the civil service and organizations operating under the State Corporations Act Appraisal-to evaluate or assess the worth of somethingPerformance -is the act of carrying out something Research-to make a detailed study or investigation of something 1. 8Chapter Summary This chapter covered introduction of the study where it discussed the key concepts in the study including performance appraisal and employee performance and how they relate to one another. It then provided statement of the problem where it d iscussed the importance of performance appraisals to organizations, what the situation is at the Kenya National Cereal and Produce Board and what the research gap for the study is.The chapter then presents the study objectives including main and specific before presenting the research questions. The chapter then presented the importance of the study, limitations of the study, definition of terms and chapter summary. REFERENCES Aswathapa, K. (2006). Human Resource Management and Personnel Management, 4th Edition, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited. Armstrong, M. (2006). A Handbook of Personnel Management Practice, 8th Edition, British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data, USA. Armstrong, M. and Stephens, T. (2005).A Handbook of Employee Reward Management and Practice, Kigan Page Limited, USA. Bannister, B. D. (1986) Performance Outcome Feedback and Attribution Feedback: Interactive Effects on Recipient Responses, Journal of Applied Psychology, Volume 71. Baron, R. A. (198 8) Negative Effects of Destructive Criticism: Impact on Conflict, Self-Efficacy, and Task Performance, Journal of Applied Psychology, Volume 73. Byars L. and Rue Leslie, W. (1997). Human Resource Management, 2nd Edition, Irwin/McGraw Hill Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data, USA. Byars L. Lloyd and Rue W. Leslie, (2000).Human Resource Management, 6th Edition, New York: McGraw Hill. Casio W. (2003) Managing Human Resources: Productivity, Quality of Work Life, Profits, 6th Edition. New York: McGraw Hill. Cash M. (1993) Effective Management, CCH International Sydney. Cardy R. L. & Dobbins G. H. (1994) Performance Appraisal: Alternative Perspectives, South Western Publishing Company. Cincinnati, OH. Corbridge Marjorie and Pilbeam (1998) Employment Resourcing, London: Financial Times Management. Department of Human Resources of University, West Virginia (2004) Human Resources Policies and Administrative Procedures.Dessler, G. (2005) Human Resource Management. New Delhi: P rentice Hall. Dulewicz, V. (1989) Performance Appraisal and Counselling, John Wiley and Sons Limited, New York, USA. Erdogan B. (2002) Antecedents and consequences of Justice perceptions in performance appraisals. Human Resource Management Review, 12 (4). Flippo B. Edwin (1984). Essentials of Human Resource Management, MacGraw-Hill Company, New York. Graham H. T. (1989) Human Resource Management (sixth Edition), UK: Pitman Publishing Longman Group. Harris, D. M. & DeSimone. R. L. (1994) Human Resource Development, Dryden Press, Forth Worth.Jackson S. E. & Schuler R. S. (2003) Managing Human Resources through Strategic Partnerships (8th Edition) Manson, Ohio: Thomson –Southwestern. J. Mullins (2002) Organization Behaviour and Management, Seventh Edition, Prentice Hall; Publications, New Delhi India. Javitch David G. (2005) Appraising Employee Performance, in The Entrepreneur, March 2005. Lawrie, J. (1990) Prepare for Performance Appraisal, Personnel Journal, Volume 69. Longene cker, C. O. (1989) Truth or Consequences: Politics and Performance Appraisal, Business Horizons, Volume 32.Mugenda G. Abel and Mugenda M. Olive, (2003). Research Methods – Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches, 2nd Edition, Acts Press, Kenya. Nemoroff, W. F. & Wexley, K. N. (1979) An Exploration of the Relationships Between the Performance Feedback Interview Characteristics and Interview Outcomes as Perceived by Managers and Subordinates, Journal of Occupational Psychology, Volume 52. North, Archer. (2004) Performance Appraisal: Complete Online Guide, Archer North and Associates. Oberg W (2005). Making Performance Appraisal Relevant, 2nd Edition.Penny Hackett. (1979) Success in Management: Personnel, Kingston, Surrey: Kingston Polytechnic. Rai H. & Singh M. (2005) Mediating effects in the relationship between 360-degree Feedback and Employee Performance. Working Paper No. 2005-04-06. Rao P. Subba and Rao V. S. P. (1990) Personnel/Human Resource Management, New Delhi: Konark Publishers PVT Limited. Saleemi N. A. (2005). Personnel Management, 2nd Edition, N. A. Saleemi Printers, Nairobi, Kenya. San Joaquin County, Human Resources Division. (2002) Human Resources Handbook. Tripathi P. C. 1989) Personnel Management and Industrial Relations, India: Sultan Chand and Sons. To determine the types of performance appraisal approaches used at the Kenya National Cereals and Produce Board. To determine the effect of performance appraisal accuracy on staff performance at the National Cereals and Produce Board. To establish the effects of employee appraisal feedback management on staff performance at the National Cereals and Produce Board. To assess the effects of appraisers’ competence on employee performance at the National Cereals and Produce Board.