Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Luminol Chemiluminescence Test for Blood

The luminol chemiluminescence reaction is responsible for the glow of lightsticks. The reaction is used by criminalists to detect traces of blood at crime scenes. In this test, luminol powder (C8H7O3N3) is mixed with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and a hydroxide (e.g., KOH) in a spray bottle. The luminol solution is sprayed where blood might be found. The iron from the hemoglobin in the blood serves as a catalyst for the chemiluminescence reaction that causes luminol to glow, so a blue glow is produced when the solution is sprayed where there is blood. Only a tiny amount of iron is required to catalyze the reaction. The blue glow lasts for about 30 seconds before it fades, which is enough time to take photographs of the areas so they can be investigated more thoroughly. Heres how you can detect blood yourself or demonstrate how to do it: Luminol Materials luminol stock solution (2 g luminol 15 g potassium hydroxide 250 mL water)3% hydrogen peroxide in water (common over-the-counter concentration)potassium ferricyanide or a sterile blood lancet and sterile alcohol pad Performing the Test or Demonstration In a clear test tube or cup, mix 10 ml of the luminol solution and 10 ml of the peroxide solution.You can activate the glow either by adding ~0.1 g of potassium ferricyanide to the solution or with a drop of blood. The blood must be on the alcohol pad. The forensic test is for dried or latent blood, so the reaction between the alcohol and fresh blood is necessary. Notes About the Luminol Test In addition to iron and iron compounds, other substances can catalyze the luminol reaction. Copper and its compounds, horseradish, and bleach also cause the solution to glow. So, you could substitute any of these materials for the drop of blood or potassium ferricyanide in the demonstration. Similarly, the presence of these chemicals at a crime scene affects testing for blood. If a crime scene was washed in bleach, for example, the whole area would glow when sprayed with luminol, making it necessary to use a different test to find traces of blood.If you are doing the reaction as a chemiluminescence demonstration, you can kick the display up a notch by dissolving the potassium ferricyanide in the peroxide solution and using a fractionating column or glass spiral to react the solutions rather than a test tube. You could pour a small amount of fluorescein in the bottom of a flask, pour the potassium ferricyanide solution through the spiral into the flask, and (in a darkened room) finish by adding the luminol solution. The spiral will glow blue as it passes through the column, but the glow will change to bright green once the luminol touches the fluorescein in the flask.Dont drink the luminol solution. Dont get it on your skin or in your eyes. If you prepare a spray bottle of luminol solution to check for traces of blood, keep in mind the solution might be damaging to some surfaces. Thats not a big factor at a crime scene, but its something to keep in mind at home or in class. Dont spray upholstery or clothing or people.The quantities of chemicals yield a super-bright demonstration, but you  can use much less luminol (~50 mg) and still achieve enough luminescence for a demonstration or for crime work. How the Luminol Test Works The iron in the hemoglobin found in blood catalyzes an oxidation reaction in which the luminol gains oxygen atoms while losing nitrogen and hydrogen. This produces a compound called 3-aminophthalate. The electrons in the 3-aminophthalate are in an excited state. Blue light is emitted as energy is released when the electrons return to the ground state. Learn More The luminol test is only one method used to detect blood. The Kastle-Meyer test is a chemical test used to detect extremely small quantities of blood. If you have leftover potassium ferricyanide, you can use it to grow naturally red crystals. Although the chemical name sounds scary, with the cyanide word in it, its actually a very safe chemical to use.

Sunday, December 22, 2019

Dna Evidence Of A Dna Unit Within A Crime Lab - 1551 Words

Today in the crime world, DNA evidence is strongly accepted in solving crime cases. This is all based in part by allowing a crime laboratory to have a designated unit whose main goal is to analyze DNA evidence to aid investigators with positive outcomes in crime case solving. With that being said we are going to discuss the functions of a DNA unit within a crime lab as well as address the vital role these units play in solving crime. Let’s start by defining what in fact is DNA analysis. According to the FBI’s crime lab, the DNA analysis process can take place when bodily fluid stains and other biological tissues are found on physical evidence collected from a crime scene (FBI DNA Casework Unit, 2016). The DNA testing results obtained from evidence samples are compared to DNA from reference samples collected from known individuals. Such analyses may be able to associate victims and suspects with each other, with evidence items, or with a crime scene (FBI DNA Casework Unit, 2016). The FBI and other national crime labs can conduct nuclear, Y-chromosome, and or mitochondrial DNA testing depending on the technology and funds appropriated to the unit. Smaller fielded units would probably not be able to do some testing which would result in them forwarding evidence or using other assets with greater capabilities. DNA is the genetic material that makes up the characteristics of all living organisms. While all human DNA is very similar in nature, there is just enough differences inShow MoreRelatedThe Louisiana State Police Crime Laboratory1045 Words   |  5 PagesThe Louisiana State Police Crime Laboratory was developed to provide the highest quality of professional forensic services to the State of Louisiana. The commitment of the agency includes applying sound scientific principles in all analyses, being responsive to our customers, conducting our operations in a fair and objective manner, and being a leader in advancing forensic science. The mission of the laboratory is to assist all of the local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies in LouisianaRead MoreDNA in Forensics Essays785 Words   |  4 PagesThe origins of DNA were first discovered during 1857 by Gregor Mendel the Father of Genetics†, whom was performing an experiment of genetics with pea plants, and would provide a basic foundation towards DNA and Genetics. Friedrich Miescher and Richard Altmann in 1869 were also part of the first people to discover DNA. While testing some sperm of a salmon, they discover a strange substance that they would name as nuclein, which is known as DNA. This new form of nuclein (DNA) would be found toRead MoreWhat physical evidence does in a criminal trial and the vast impact it can make1678 Words   |  7 Pagesand justice lies within cases that include physical evidence. Physical evidence, whether fibers, fingerprints, or DNA, can give a jury proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Physical evidence can convict a criminal, or it can free an innocent man. It can bring closure to families and to the law enforcement that work the cases. The following cases will show what physical evidence does in a criminal trial and the vast impact it can make. For each case I will examine how the physical evidence was important toRead MoreCrime Scene Analysis: Personal Experience1537 W ords   |  7 Pages Unit 9 Unit 9 Assignment CJ328-01: Forensic Fingerprint Analysis Kaplan University Abstract Little is known about the decision-making processes of homicide detectives or crime scene investigators. Within the lines of this paper I will be responding to a homicide scene at a convenience store/gas station at 3 a.m. Within this store I will find a deceased victim with an apparent gunshot wound in the chest along with eight different visible items where I have to address the different processRead MoreForensic Scientists And Innovative Technology Impacting The World1621 Words   |  7 PagesIn 2015, about 1,190,704 crimes estimated, of murders was 15,696 with fire arms and an estimated 90,185 rapes. What if you cross under the barrier tape to find a male victim of a suicide investigation? The body is sitting silently on the couch in his living room. Empty cans of liquor spread around the body and a knife are settled on the victim’s lap. While examining the body, you discover a stab wound under the cartilage of his rib and cut beneath the throat. An officer asks â€Å"Do you think it isRead MoreThe Success And Failures Of The Modern Police Operations1260 Words   |  6 PagesIntroduction When it comes to issues within any organization, it is always important and critical to examine the origins, the successes and failures in order to grow and improve. The Modern Police Operations is not excluded from that process. In this body of work, the history of law enforcement operations as well as the key law enforcement agencies that are responsible for enforcing law, the explanation of one major change to law enforcement operations and the reason why the change was necessaryRead MoreInvestigation Of A Crime Scene2039 Words   |  9 Pagesthe area roped off, and if there is evidence on the ground or anywhere, that specialist must make a two-point measurement, which means, take two unmovable objects of that area like a door or an outlet and measure how far they are to the evidence. The sketcher must also draw everything else in the crime scene in order for the computer in the forensics lab to get the most accurate measurement. If there is a crime in a small town that doesn ’t have a crime scene unit then a detective will have to carryRead MoreThe Role of Dna Technology in Crime Investigation5441 Words   |  22 PagesDNA profiling DNA profiling (also called DNA testing, DNA typing, or genetic fingerprinting) is a technique employed by forensic scientists to assist in the identification of individuals on the basis of their respective DNA profiles. DNA profiles are encrypted sets of numbers that reflect a persons DNA makeup, which can also be used as the persons identifier. DNA profiling should not be confused with full genome sequencing. It is used in, for example, parental testing and rape investigationRead MoreImportance Of Forensic Chemistry1647 Words   |  7 Pagesincluding Forensic Files, CSI, and Bones. Forensic chemistry is important because without it we wouldn’t know the outcome of a crime. The forensic chemist’s job is to examine evidence given to them from a crime scene, when it happened, and even who committed the crime at times. Forensic chemistry deals with the chemical analysis of a variety of types of physical evidence. These include glass fragments, suspected accelerants f rom arson debris, gunshot residue on the hands of a shooter, blood stainsRead MoreThe Crime Scene Investigation Training1735 Words   |  7 PagesThe Crime Scene Investigation Training Report includes a brief outline of two training modules: Hair and Crime Scene Training-Blood Crime Scene Training. These modules provide Crime Scene Investigation trainees with the adequate information they need to prepare them to know what to look for when looking for blood and hair samples at a crime scene. This also instructs the trainee the significance of how to avoid tampering with evidence and how to properly collect a sample. The men and women

Saturday, December 14, 2019

China Global Imbalances, Reserve Currency and Global Economic Free Essays

Global imbalances, Reserve currency, and Global economic governance The accepted hypotheses for the root cause of global economic imbalances are: 1)East Asian economies’ export-led growth: recently the integration with international markets leads to an import and export expansion making the trade surpluses in EA dramatically increase. It had a great success in EA producing higher living standards and poverty rates declining. This cannot be the main cause for the emergence of large global imbalances in 2000 and thereafter since before 2000 EA economies’ TB were roughly balances. We will write a custom essay sample on China Global Imbalances, Reserve Currency and Global Economic or any similar topic only for you Order Now )Self-insurance motivation for foreign currency reserve accumulation: after the financial crises in the late 1990s, emerging market economies in EA increased their CA surpluses substantially, and they experienced rising international reserves. After 2005 Chinese surpluses and reserves are too large to be justified by the self-insurance motivation. 3)China’s exchange rate policy: the g. i. started to grow in 2002 and China has been accused of causing the imbalance sustaining a large undervaluation of its real exchange rate since 2003, but it is not true because: †¢China trade surplus did not become large until 2005 RMB appreciated against US$ by 20% in 2005-2008 but the global imbalances continued to grow †¢Most other developing countries also increased their CA surpluses in the same period (if exchange rate was the cause, the other countries that compete with China would have experience declining trade surpluses and reserves) The need for an alternative hypothesis: these hypotheses imply that the EA economies are driving the g. i. but is not consistent with the basic statistics. While the US trade deficits with China did increase substantially, the share of the US trade deficit due to EA economies as a region actually declined significantly. The three hypotheses surely contributed but they cannot be the main cause of the global imbalances. An alternative hypothesis consistent with the data: it views the g. i. as a result of the status of the US $ as the major global reserve currency, combined with: †¢The lack of appropriate financial sector regulation due to deregulation in the 1980s. The federal reserve’s low interest rate policy following the burst of the â€Å"dotcom† bubble in 2001. These policy changes led to excessive risk-taking and higher leverage, producing excess liquidity and â€Å"bubbles† in the US markets, which enabled the US overconsumption that increased the US CA deficit. As China had become the major producer of labor-intensive processed consumer goods by 2000, the US ran a large deficit with China, which ran trad e deficits with the EA economies that provided intermediate products to China. The excess liquidity also led to the large outflow of capital to developing countries, which enhance their investment and consequently in large trade surpluses in capital-goods exporting countries and natural resources exporting countries. Since the US is the reserve currency issuing country, the foreign reserves accumulated through trade/capital account surpluses in other countries would return to the US leading to the US CA surplus. Why did China stand out in the global imbalances? : the large CA surplus in China reflects high domestic savings. There are several commonly accepted hypotheses about China’s high households saving rate: such as the lack of well-developed social safety net and the demographics of an aging population. But the uniqueness of China’s savings is the large share of corporate savings, which are driven by the excessive concentration of the financial system that serves the big firms, low taxation on natural resources, and monopolies in some sectors. Reforms are required for removing these distortions and increasing consumption. The role of the reserve currency in global imbalances: the status of the $ as the major global reserve currency, combined with the financial deregulation of the 1980s and the low interest rate policy of the 2000s, led to the emergence of global imbalances. To prevent their recurrence, the ultimate solution is to replace national currencies as global reserve currencies with a new global currency, but US is unlikely to give up its reserve-issuing privilege to a global body (IMF). A more likely scenario is the emergence of a basket of reserve currencies with some changes in the basket’s consumption and weights. A win-win solution for the global recovery: the most urgent challenges are high unemployment and the large excess capacity in high-income industrialized countries. Win-win solutions for the global recovery and long-term growth could be based on new international financial arrangements along with structural reforms in both high-income and developing countries. On the financial front it could be created a global recovery fund (supported by hard-currency countries and large-reserve countries and managed by multilateral development banks) to finance investments to release bottlenecks and enhance productivity in developing countries. These investments would increase the demand for capital goods produced in high-income countries, reduce their unemployment now, and enhance the developing countries’ growth in the future. The fund could be complemented by structural reforms in high-income and developing countries to create space for investment and to improve the efficiency of investment. 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Friday, December 6, 2019

Instant Noodle Market An Economic Indicator in the Philippines Essay Example For Students

Instant Noodle Market: An Economic Indicator in the Philippines Essay Introduction Background of the Study With the Philippines’ declining economic system. people are going more concerned with their outgos and are switching their ingestion to cheaper options. Such an option for nutrient is instant because these instant noodles are non merely tasty and filling. but besides really inexpensive. These three qualities have made it really popular among consumers who are fastening their budget. This paper aims to demo that the increasing popularity and gross revenues of this instant noodles are straight related to the declining status of the Philippines’ economic system. When consumers experience lower income and lower degree of passing power they tend to replace cheaper. lower quality goods for comparatively more expensive. higher quality goods. In this visible radiation. instant noodles are going an index of the country’s economic public presentation. Additionally. this increased ingestion of instant noodles brings about many wellness and economic deductions. Statement of the Problem In the current deteriorating province of the Filipino economic system. instant noodles. because of their affordability and convenience. are easy replacing traditional nutrient basics and at the same clip. going an economic index. In this research. the writer focal point on how instant noodles are deriving popularity in the Philippines in relation to this product’s features and the influences of the economic system and income per capita. The paper would besides work out the undermentioned inquiries: how the ingestion degree of instant noodles is declarative of the country’s economic activity? What are the deductions that the turning ingestion of instant noodles may hold on the Filipino economic system and the wellness of the population? Importance of the survey More cognition on this subject could turn out utile to understanding how the instant noodle market could go an effectual gage of a country’s public presentation and the province of life. In add-on. by diging into the topic. more information may be made available and would let future surveies to look more closely on how instant noodles may be improved to further profit the general population. Besides. the turning industry may be turn out to be utile as a mechanism of supplying labour and other signifiers of economic benefits for the state. As poorness continues to be rampant and resources remain scarce. instant noodles may turn out to be a solution to some of the jobs faced by the Philippines today. Scope and Limitation of the Study The research will concentrate on the consumer activity of families with comparatively low income and how it would associate to the economic system. The study for this paper will be conducted with 30 respondents at Brgy. 617. a comparatively destitute urban community situated in Sampaloc. Manila. The interview will besides take topographic point in the said barangay. Capable: AccountingSubject of Subject: Instantaneous NoodlesSubject: The effects of noodles to those household who has low income Purpose: The intent of this research is to farther increase the apprehension of how the economic province of a state affects its consumers’ behaviours towards instant noodles or even similar merchandises. Title: Instantaneous Noodles Becoming a Replacement for Traditional Food Staples in Brgy. 617 Sampaloc. Manila and an Index of the Filipino Economy.

Friday, November 29, 2019

11 Habits of Successful People

11 Habits of Successful People Ever wonder what all those rich and powerful people have in common? Ever wonder how they got where they were? Or whether you have what it takes to end up among them? Or maybe you have a bad idea of what it means to be powerful and worry that you’re too nice a person for the job. Well, rest assured. Nice guys can finish first. Here are 11 habits of successful people. Start cultivating them now, and see how far you can go.1. Don’t wait to be promoted to be a leaderLeadership is not about the title on your business card. So don’t wait to get that title before you start actually leading. Power and authority are not the same thing. Try leading without being a boss.2. Be graciously disruptiveDon’t just accept the status quo because no one else seems to be questioning it. Don’t be afraid to ask the question that comes to you. Ask â€Å"what if†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and â€Å"why not†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Think outside the box and gently express your best ideas, and you could think your way to real innovation and improvement. Plus, you’ll impress your colleagues in the process.3. Think for yourselfForm your own opinions based on fact and what you know, rather than what you think- or have been accustomed to thinking. Always keep an open mind and be willing to change your mind when you have good reason to. Do this, and you can trust the little voice inside your head when it really matters.4. Focus on the big stuffDon’t get distracted by the small and trivial stuff. Cut through the noise and focus on what matters most, and what is most important. Speak up when you have something truly meaningful to say. Do the big thing first and best. You’ll build a reputation for insight and trustworthiness, at the least.5. Master conflictConflict happens. The only thing we can change or anticipate is our reaction to it when it does. Rather than shirking away from conflict, or seeking it out, try the middle path. When it hits, react to it withou t emotional entanglement. Face the situation directly and humbly, without being defensive or hysterical. You’ll find conflict can actually be incredibly productive, when you face it this maturely.6. Cause conversationThis is a hard one to practice, but if you have the talent for making people listen (and saying things worth listening to), then you can be the kind of influencer who opens her mouth and inspires.7. Know thyselfTrue power means not being blind to your own weaknesses. Position yourself to wield your strengths in the best possible way, and that means also owning your weaknesses and finding out how to grow from them.8. NetworkDon’t be the mercenary networker who drops contacts like a hot potato when they prove no longer useful. True power comes from building a solid and strong community. Develop and grow your network. Keep up contact with your connections’ connections. Treat everyone with respect and dignity and then you can all help each other work to gether to succeed.9. Ask for helpAsking for help is almost never a sign of weakness- quite the contrary. True leaders know when to delegate, when to ask for expert advice, when to take a step back for better perspective. Ironically, you’ll prove your lack of insecurity by putting the project ahead of your own ego.10. Believe in yourselfThis doesn’t mean neglecting to do all the hard work, but it does mean believing in your own power to achieve your dreams. Keep yourself driven and inspired and you’ll stand a good chance of actually meeting your biggest goals.11. Do it todayIf you have the mind set, the training, the inspiration, and the passion, why wait? The perfect opportunity to show off your leadership skills and start growing your power may never be handed to you on a silver platter. Start now. Strengthen your power muscles any chance you get, and actively seek out the opportunities to show them off.

Monday, November 25, 2019

Free Essays on Occupational Risk

Occupational Risk Thesis Whatever the profession, or trade, one may be involved in, a person deserves the right to a safe workplace, and the right to know about the dangers they may encounter during the course their work. These dangers includes, but are not limited to, providing information regarding faulty tools, irregular working conditions, malfunctioning equipment, hazardous chemicals, or everyday precautionary methods that must be taken in order to guarantee safety. In the same sense, workers should have the right to refuse unsafe work, or work in unsafe conditions. Workers should also be granted the right to participate in decisions that affect workplace health and safety. Finally, training courses should be held in order to educate employees on the dangers of the workplace, and so they may receive instructions on how to handle hazardous situations, or materials, properly. Right to a Safe Workplace What is the right to a safe workplace? This is merely being provided working conditions that are free of recognizable hazards. Working in unsafe conditions threatens a person’s survival, and ability to provide for themselves and their family. Without the right to a safe workplace, â€Å"all other rights lose their significance.† Right to know, Right to Refuse Unsafe Conditions The right to know, and to refuse unsafe working conditions, is different from the right to a safe workplace. The right to know is actually a compilation of several rights that extend from duties of the employer. The duties are as follows: â€Å"1) the duty to reveal information already possessed, 2) the duty to communicate information about hazards through labeling, written communication, and training programs, 3) the duty to seek out existing information from the scientific literature and other sources, and 4)the duty to produce new information relevant to employee health.† In order for an employee to refuse work they believe to be haza... Free Essays on Occupational Risk Free Essays on Occupational Risk Occupational Risk Thesis Whatever the profession, or trade, one may be involved in, a person deserves the right to a safe workplace, and the right to know about the dangers they may encounter during the course their work. These dangers includes, but are not limited to, providing information regarding faulty tools, irregular working conditions, malfunctioning equipment, hazardous chemicals, or everyday precautionary methods that must be taken in order to guarantee safety. In the same sense, workers should have the right to refuse unsafe work, or work in unsafe conditions. Workers should also be granted the right to participate in decisions that affect workplace health and safety. Finally, training courses should be held in order to educate employees on the dangers of the workplace, and so they may receive instructions on how to handle hazardous situations, or materials, properly. Right to a Safe Workplace What is the right to a safe workplace? This is merely being provided working conditions that are free of recognizable hazards. Working in unsafe conditions threatens a person’s survival, and ability to provide for themselves and their family. Without the right to a safe workplace, â€Å"all other rights lose their significance.† Right to know, Right to Refuse Unsafe Conditions The right to know, and to refuse unsafe working conditions, is different from the right to a safe workplace. The right to know is actually a compilation of several rights that extend from duties of the employer. The duties are as follows: â€Å"1) the duty to reveal information already possessed, 2) the duty to communicate information about hazards through labeling, written communication, and training programs, 3) the duty to seek out existing information from the scientific literature and other sources, and 4)the duty to produce new information relevant to employee health.† In order for an employee to refuse work they believe to be haza...

Thursday, November 21, 2019

EU Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

EU Law - Essay Example Charles clearly falls under this head. The next step would be for him to establish that the Directive is â€Å"clear, negative, unconditional, containing no reservation on the part of the Member State and not dependent on any national implementing measure,: Alfons Là ¼tticke GmbH v. Hauptzollamt Saarlouis [1966] relied on in Van Duyn v Home Office [1974]. Whilst we do not know the precise wording of the Directive we can deduce the phrase â€Å"prohibit discrimination in the workplace on the grounds of age† meets the criteria for the Directive to be directly applicable. However this is not true for Dilshad who is employed by a private company. As seen in Marshall v Southampton and South-West Hampshire Area Health Authority (Teaching) [1986] the Court of Justice does not allow the direct horizontal enforcement of Directives. However, in Marleasing SA v La Comercial Internacionale de Alimentacion SA [1990] two private individuals sought a remedy which was not included in the Directive. The Court held that a non implemented Directive could be relied upon in a case between individuals. The House of Lords confirmed this view in Webb v EMO Cargo [1994] in a case dealing with sexual discrimination. [†¦] interpret their national law in the light of the wording and the purpose of the Directive in order to achieve the result referred to in the third paragraph of Article [249]. Von Coulson and Kamann v Land Nordrhein-Westfalen [1984] 2 This is known as indirect effect. Both Charles and Dilshad could seek redress with a view to having the national court declare age discrimination in the workplace unlawful in the UK. The national court would be at liberty to provide an adequate and effective remedy. An advantage of this approach is that unlike direct effect the provisions in question do not have to be clear, precise, unconditional and require no further implementation. Assuming the worst case scenario that both Charles and Dilshad are denied a remedy through

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Macroeconomics Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 6

Macroeconomics - Assignment Example From this discussion it is clear that public goods are characterized by non-rivalry, which means that after consumption, there are still in plenty for others to enjoy it. In addition, non-excludability is a characteristic that occurs when it is impossible to produce a good without the possibility of others enjoying it. On the other hand, private goods have a rivalry that after the consumption, it is unavailable to others. It is in this respect that they are possible to produce goods with the possibility of enjoyment of others. The non-rivalry and non-excludability feature characterize the public and private goods. The citizenship can enjoy both the two levels of goods with satisfaction.As the study highlights there is a free-rider problem in public good because of non-excludable. It refers to the ability where one cannot stop the other from consuming it. Non-rival also means that consuming the good does not lower its availability. An example for this outfit is the local police who ar e considered as a public good because of their non-rivalry. Local TV services are private as people usually pay for them. The variations based on rivalry index on goods makes them a concern for consumption and hence worth understanding.  A price index is a consideration that a manager ought to keep a keen focus on especially in determining the best product to optimize. I take a consideration of the two products A and B and subject them to the system, which shows that the marginal utility of dollar (z) MUA is 2 while MUB is 0.53.

Monday, November 18, 2019

Strategic Management Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Strategic Management Analysis - Essay Example .................6 Sociological Factors..........................................................6 Technological Factors........................................................7 Industry Analysis...............................................................8 Threat of New Entrants......................................................8 Threats of Substitutes.........................................................8 Bargaining Power of Buyers..............................................8 Bargaining Power of Suppliers..........................................9 Competitive Rivalry...........................................................9 Section B: Starbucks Strategic Analysis........................................10 Internal Environments........................................................10 Resources & Competencies of Starbucks...........................10 Current Strategy of Starbucks.............................................12 Value Chain Analysis.......................... ................................12 Financial & Competitive Position of Starbucks..................13 Section C: Strategic Fit †¦..............................................................15 Strengths of Starbucks.........................................................15 Weaknesses of Starbucks.....................................................15 Opportunities from the External Environment....................16 Threats †¦........................................................... .......19 Introduction Starbucks corporation is a worldwide coffee chain company that has its headquarters in Seattle, Washington State (Schultz and Howard, 2011). It is the largest company of its kind and as of March 2009, it had 16,680 stores with 38 years of experience in the coffee business (Clark, 2009). Starbucks has a presence in over 61 countries and has the core of its operations in the United States (Schultz and Howard, 2011). The US operations include over 13,000 stores which offer various forms of services to the American public. The Mission of Starbucks is â€Å"to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighbourhood at a time.† (Starbucks Mission Statement, 2012). The vision of the company is to provide the best quality coffee to customers through ethically sourcing for the best beans. They aim at embracing diversity to create a good work and business environment in which they would engage fully and connect with customers by pro viding perfect beverage (Starbucks Mission Statement, 2012). Starbucks also aims at providing the highest levels of returns to their shareholders whilst they remain responsible to their stakeholders, viz customers, partners and the wider community (Starbucks Mission Statement, 2012). This paper provides a strategic fit analysis of this global coffee company. The components of Starbucks Corporation is analysed in this paper to provide an overview of the strategic elements of the company. Section A: Market Analysis In this section, we will examine the macroeconomic elements and the microeconomic environments to identify the business sphere within which Starbucks' US unit operate within. External Environment Macro-environmental analysis can be done through what is known as PEST analysis, which involves

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Leadership Style And Power Tactics Of Gandhi History Essay

Leadership Style And Power Tactics Of Gandhi History Essay With the aid of leadership theory and specific examples, this paper reflects upon and analyses the leadership style and power and influence tactics of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi as portrayed in the movie Gandhi. The analysis is primarily based on Gandhis personal identity and behaviour in relation to others and the external environment. More so, the relationship shared between him and his followers is embedded throughout the paper to further support the analysis. Lastly, this paper makes a short comparison between the leadership style of Gandhi and Jinnah. Gandhi is popularly referred to as Mahatma Gandhi, meaning great soul, and is commonly called bapu in India, meaning father. He is officially honoured in India as the father of the nation, as it was under his leadership and guidance than the freedom movement in India gained momentum, ultimately leading to Indias independence in 1947. Gandhi was a national leader, a freedom fighter, a visionary, a humanist, and a socialist reformer. He has been a source of inspiration and role-model for not only the common man, but various other leaders such as Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela as well. Defining Leadership According to Yukl (2010), Leadership is the process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done and how to do it, and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives. Gandhis Leadership Style Gandhi was not a born leader, but he certainly had traits of one (Exhibit 1). He was a simple man leading a simple life, but strongly believed in and practiced the values of unity, equality, truth, non-violence, justice, and honesty. His values and personality were instrumental in fighting the might of the British. He was patient but persistent, as he knew it was no simple task attaining Indias independence. While he was defiant, resistant, daring and provocative at times, he always remained calm, caring, humble and polite. He exhibited distinct characteristics, qualities and behaviours of a charismatic leader, transformational leader and level 5 leader, which are analysed below. Charismatic Leadership According to Weber (1947), charismatic leaders are more likely to emerge in crisis situations. As depicted in the movie, India was suffering from the atrocities of the British rule for decades, causing widespread distress. People were desperate to end the suffering, but were unable to find a solution. Gandhi provided the vision of Independent India, and led various movements from the front. Indias social crisis provided Gandhi with the perfect stage to rise from amongst the masses and lead India to independence. Most importantly, his actions were highly unconventional. He fought the British using the methodology of truth, non-violence, non-cooperation and peaceful resistance, rather than using violent means. These unconventional means of protest impressed and inspired his followers, who saw him as extraordinary and charismatic. Yukl (2010) states that leaders are more likely to be viewed as charismatic if they make self-sacrifices, take personal risks, and incur high costs to achieve the vision they espouse. In the movie, there were various instances when Gandhi made personal sacrifices and took personal risks. For example, he stopped wearing western clothes and donned a simple dhoti to blend with the masses; he was jailed on numerous occasions for lengthy durations; he led a simple life without materialistic pleasures; and even got beaten on occasion. Gandhi was highly trusted by his followers, given the fact that he was not motivated to free India for personal self-interest, but for the betterment and concern of the people. He drew vast admiration due to his noble intentions, high moral values and ethical standards. During his funeral procession in the movie, the commentator rightly stated, The object of this massive tribute died as he had always lived. A private man without wealth, without property, without official title or office. Mahatma Gandhi was not the commander of armies, nor a ruler of vast lands. He could not boast of any scientific achievement or artistic gift. Yet men, governments, dignitaries from all over the world have joined hands today to pay homage to this little brown man in the loincloth who led his country to freedom. Gandhi was highly self-confident, and strongly believed that India would gain independence. It was his belief that it was just a matter of when and in what form. It was his confidence and enthusiasm to free India that united his followers to jointly accomplish what seemed impossible to achieve. Gandhis vision, inspiration, confidence and positive attitude motivated and enhanced the collective efficacy of the people, inspiring the belief that unity is critical in order to free India. This collective belief fuelled the determination of his followers to willingly put in additional effort, and persist the long, hard road to freedom. Gandhi was by no means an impressive leader by appearance either. Despite being old, short, and slim-built, he had the ability and charisma to appeal to the masses through his public speaking and interpersonal skills, which had a widespread effect. In short, he was a crowd-puller. Meindl (1990) explains this spontaneous spread of emotional and behavioural reactions among the people through the process of social contagion. The people of India were emotionally and physically prepared to make self-sacrifices in order to gain independence. Gandhi activated this social identity amongst the people, at a time when their survival was being threatened. For example, the movie shows how the people of Champaran were facing a social crisis, and how Gandhi travelled there to see, hear and feel their pain. Gandhis mere presence in Champaran led to his arrest, and what followed was extraordinary. Being a crowd-puller, rioting ensued in the region, and the people swarmed the court room at his hearing . Without any heroics, Gandhi was able to pressurize the British to make changes. However, his followers viewed him as heroic and exceptional, and this feeling began to spread spontaneously among the people, stirring the whole nation. There is little doubt that Gandhi was a positive charismatic, and that he had a socialized power orientation. According to Yukl (2010), leaders with socialized power orientation exhibit the following characteristics, as did Gandhi: Strong self-control Motivated to satisfy the need for power in socially acceptable ways More emotionally mature Exercise power for the benefit of others Hesitant about using power in a manipulative manner Less egoistic and defensive Accumulate fewer material possessions Have a longer-range view His leadership influence emphasized internalization rather than personal identification. He was self-sacrificing and led from the front to communicate his commitment to the freedom struggle. Gandhi once stated, You must be the change you want to see in the world. Gandhis followers were responsive to his ideologies and appeals, and became increasingly involved in this socialized charismatic relationship. According to Yukl (2010), the affective reaction charismatic leaders arouse often polarizes people into opposing camps of loyal supporters and hostile opponents, and the intense negative reaction by some people to charismatic leaders explains why they are often targets for assassination. Nathuram Godse, a Hindu fanatic, assassinated Mahatma Gandhi on 30th January, 1948, as he felt Gandhi was personally responsible for the partition of India as well as for the deaths of thousands of Hindus. Transformational Leadership According to Bass (1985), transformational leaders possess unique charismatic behaviours that include sacrificing personal gains for the benefits of the group, setting a personal example for followers and demonstrating high ethical standards. Gandhis leadership style clearly showcases the essence of transformational leadership. For example, his followers were motivated by him, trusted him, admired him, were loyal to him, and respected him. Transformational leaders also appeal to higher values like liberty, justice, peace and equality. Gandhi lived for such causes, and fought his entire life to stand by them. Gandhis transformational leadership encouraged his followers to transcend their own self-interest and fight in unity. Thousands of Gandhis followers went to jail, and at times were violently beaten as well (e.g. Hundreds of Gandhis followers willingly gathered at the Dharasana Salt Works and stood together while being beaten with sticks by the British officials. Nevertheless, they not once resorted to violence because they respected Gandhis sentiments). In fact, according to Dirks and Ferrin (2002), transformational leadership is highly correlated with trust in the leader. According to Bass (1985), transformational leaders exhibit the following behaviours: Idealized Influence This behaviour arouses strong follower emotions and identification with the leader. Gandhi was able to influence the masses because he was a man of his words, and always practiced what he preached. He was a role model for the masses, and won their respect and trust through his actions. He demonstrated high ethical conduct (non-violence), self-sacrifice (voluntary poverty and non-materialism), dedication and persistence in order to attain Indias independence. Intellectual Stimulation This behaviour increases follower awareness of problems and influences followers to view problems from a new perspective. Gandhi was always supportive of his followers, and encouraged them to think openly, ask questions, and solve problems. He was willing to accept wrong-doing and mistakes, and was not ashamed to discard a strategy that didnt work as planned. For example, he called off the non-violent campaign despite opposition from his subordinates because there were some people who used violent means. Individualized Consideration This behaviour includes providing support, encouragement and coaching to followers. Gandhi was always supportive of his followers. For example, he patiently listened to the grievances and concerns of the poor with regards to their inability to maintain a livelihood due to British policies. Gandhi was also extremely supportive of other leaders such as Jawaharlal Nehru and Vallabhbhai Patel. He nurtured them, encouraged them to share ideas, and even empowered them to make decisions, never making them feel dependent on him. Inspirational Motivation This behaviour includes communicating an appealing vision, and using symbols to focus subordinate effort. Gandhi stood by his personal values, and consistently communicated his vision of independence. By openly communicating his vision, and using symbols such as the Salt Satyagraha movement, he provided his followers with a sense of meaning, which in turn inspired them to remain optimistic and increase their effort. Level 5 Leader Jim Collins (2005) states that a Level 5 Leader is someone who has genuine personal humility blended with intense professional will. Gandhi exhibited distinct characteristics of such a leader (Exhibit 2). He was extremely humble and modest, and lived a life on the principle of simple living and high thinking. He wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, which was woven from yarn spun by hand using a charkha. He was humble and appreciative, and never hesitated in saying Thank You. However, he was extremely persistent in his resolve to gain Indias independence. Despite facing various challenges and set backs in the pursuit of independence, he never gave up. Leader Member Exchange (LMX) Theory Gandhi developed and shared a high-exchange relationship with his subordinates, followers and other leaders. This relationship grew stronger over time, resulting in a high degree of mutual dependence, loyalty, trust, respect, support and affection. According to Graen and Uhl-Bien (1995), high-quality leader-follower relationships are positively associated with transformational leadership behaviours. Even Deluga (1992) found a significant relationship between the transformational leadership behaviours of charisma and individualized consideration and high-quality LMX. While Gandhi provided the vision and inspiration, most of the ground work was carried out by his subordinates and followers, who were highly committed to the freedom struggle. They also took considerable initiative on their part to carry out the planning. For example, Nehru used his contacts in the press to take Gandhis message to the masses. It can also be stated that the exchange relationship Gandhi shared with his subordinates was favourable. Gandhi was highly supportive of his subordinates, and used to frequently consult them. He acted more as a mentor to them. He was non-dominating in conversations, and had to be highly persuasive with Jinnah on multiple occasions. His subordinates began demonstrating organizational citizenship behaviour, as their trust in Gandhi grew stronger. Dirks Ferrin (2002) validate this by stating that a favourable exchange relationship is highly correlated with subordinate trust. Gandhis Power and Influence Tactics A leader needs to be influential, and so was Gandhi. In the movie, Gandhi primarily used the process of internalization to influence his followers. According to Kelman (1958), under the internalization process, the target person becomes committed to support and implement proposals espoused by the agent because they appear to be intrinsically desirable and correct in relation to the targets values, beliefs, and self-image. Gandhi was able to influence the masses by invigorating their values of freedom, justice and self-respect to fight against the British. To a certain extent, personal identification was also depicted. Kelman (1958) states that under personal identification, the target person imitates the agents behaviour or adopts the same attitudes to please the agent and to be like the agent. In the movie, Jawaharlal Nehru was initially shown as wearing western clothes. But after Gandhis influence on him, he chose to wear clothes made of Indian fabric (khadi), thereby adopting the same attitude of Gandhi. Similarly, millions of Indians boycotted English garments in their support of Gandhis view that we should wear khadi. According to Yukl (2010), power is the capacity to influence the attitudes and behaviour of people in the desired direction. Gandhi was shown as exhibiting the use of referent power in the movie. According to French and Raven (1959), referent power is derived from the desire of others to please an agent toward whom they have strong feelings of affection, admiration and loyalty. Gandhis friendly, attractive, charming and trustworthy character empowered him with high referent power. He was able to increase this power by showing concern towards to needs of the people, by demonstrating trust and respect, and by treating people fairly and equally. Moreover, his high levels of personal integrity and consistent values allowed him to maintain this referent power. According to Yukl (2010), most power studies have found that referent power is positively correlated with subordinate satisfaction and performance, and that effective leaders rely more of referent power to influence subordinates. He further states that people are more likely to cooperate with an agent who has strong referent power. This partly explains the effective leadership of Gandhi, and reasons why his followers were highly attracted to him. Comparison Between Leadership Style of M.K. Gandhi and M.A. Jinnah Gandhi and Jinnah, as portrayed in the movie, seem to be very different in their traits, behaviour, appearance, lifestyle and leadership style. Jinnah is shown to lead a comfortable, sophisticated and lavish lifestyle, and in certain ways emulates the British. Gandhi led a lifestyle quite opposite to that. While Gandhi was the leader of the masses, Jinnah by no means came close. While Gandhi has been portrayed as warm and affectionate, Jinnah appears to be intimidating, arrogant, stubborn, manipulative, and at times sarcastic. In terms of leadership style, Jinnah exhibits characteristics of a negative charismatic. Negative charismatics have a personalized power orientation. In the movie, it can be noticed that while Jinnahs original ideology was that of an independent India, by gaining power over time, his ideologies changed. He later personally advocated creating a separate Muslim state Pakistan. While his concerns were valid, they seemed to be highly exaggerated. More so, even though Gandhi persuaded and tried to reason with Jinnah, he remained stubborn. It is only when Gandhi told him he could become the 1st Prime Minister of India with full freedom to choose his cabinet that he seemed content. Hence, it seems that Jinnah had a greater concern for self-glorification and maintaining power. In contrast, Gandhi was never in the chase for power, which is supported by the fact that he never held an official title or office. Conclusion Gandhi has been a role-model and source of inspiration for many generations. His unconventional means to fight injustice (truth, non-violence, non-cooperation and peaceful resistance) have earned him high admiration and respect. He led from the front to attain Indias independence, and influenced millions of followers to fight for a moral and just cause. He epitomised life based on moral conduct, and showed its strength to the world. While laying the foundation for democracy in India, he has also showed how unity and humanity can fight the strongest of forces. While it is highly unlikely to witness another Gandhi in our lifetime, humanity has critical lessons to learn from his leadership and life.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Effective Diversity in Learning Essays -- Education Schools

Our schools are full of a variety of children who are diverse in their own ways. What comes to mind when you hear the word diversity within schools? Many people think of race or culture, but diversity in our schools is more than that. Diversity can include race, religion, culture, and even learning styles in a classroom. In the past classrooms where not that diverse consisting of white protestant students. Currently diversity in classrooms is on the rise big time. Today’s classrooms are more effective in diversity, learning styles, and influences than past years. Learning styles is one of the ways schools have changed over the past couple of years in regards to diversity. The varieties of learning styles of students have become more aware to educators. There are three main learning styles; visual learning, kinesthetic learning, and auditory learning. Visual learners take up about half of student learners using textbooks, charts, course outlines, and graphs are useful instructional aides (Sadker, p. 47). Kinesthetic learning is also known as tactile learning. These students learn by hands on learning. Planning for student to have movement in class will help these learners. Our last learning style is the less of the three called auditory learning. These students learn best by hearing; they can remember the details of conversations and lectures and many have strong language skills (Sadker, p. 47). By providing a time for these students to recite the lesson themselves can support this form of learning. To be an effective teacher for all the lear ning style diversities means being able to be flexible and incorporate a variety of teaching techniques. Is Gender a learning style? Absolutely gender is a learning style and teachers ... ...ated a more effective education system. It is expected that diversity in the classroom continue to change and therefore change how teachers educate their students. Works Cited Gorski, P. (2010). Multicultural Educaion Reform. Retrieved January 15, 2011, from EdChange: http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/curriculum.html Radovancev, E. (2005, December). MULTICULTURAL DIVERSITY. Retrieved January 15, 2011, from ewu.edu: http://web.ewu.edu/groups/library/MulticulturalDiversity05.pdf Rowe, K. (n.d.). Diversity In The Classroom: Understanding Difference in a Global Society. Retrieved january 15, 2011, from AZBN Education Department: http://www.azbn.gov/documents/news/diversity%20in%20the%20classroom.pdf Sadker. Custom book for Ashford: SOC 312 Teachers, Schools and Society: A Brief Introduction to Education. McGraw-Hill Primis Custom Publishing, 38503.

Monday, November 11, 2019

What Do You Look Forward?

I look forward to getting the best out of this program and come out a better nurse equipped and seasoned with sound knowledge and skills necessary to meet up with challenges in the healthcare system. However my greatest fear is time management Time management is very important in any area of life as success and failures are built upon it. It is my fear here as I have to juggle School, Work, family at the same time and meet up with the demands of each, allotting quality time to each section.Language barrier on the other hand possess a little bit of challenge to me as I have to advance my writings from undergraduate level to graduate level. My plan to overcome this fear is to be organized from day one which entails knowing my schedule, plan and stream line my activities via time table format. Make effort to follow my time table, remove procrastination from it but allow flexible time for any unforeseen circumstances that might come up along the way.Specific educational experience I enco untered was when I started school here in a traditional class room, it was very difficult for me to comprehend what my instructors was teaching and also for them to understand me because of my accent. My fear was how to succeed in my education when I don’t understand the classroom lectures. I am even too afraid to ask questions fearing that they will not understand me or even laugh at me. I am fine studying my textbook at home but it is not enough as major and important points are highlighted in the lecture notes.So my first step in addressing this fear was to meet with my instructors after class and tell them my problem. Second step was to use the learning resources available at the college and attended series of passport classes for international students. This tutoring classes and one on one session with most of my instructors took all my spare and family time but it did pay off at the end of the semester with good grades. These resources helped me to overcome my fear, und erstand my instructors, and ask questions in class, improved on note taking skills and above all good grades. Read also: Time Management – Work File

Friday, November 8, 2019

how to be a singer essays

how to be a singer essays Can fame and stardom come without struggles and hardships? When the word fame or stardom comes up, people usually think of movie celebrities, sports stars, and especially musicians. Musicians fill the world with the great sounds of rhythmic beats and melodies. Though the world is filled with musicians of all kinds, singers possess the true inborn gift, vocal talent, which can only be obtained at birth. Singers are seen living the good life with nice cars, luxurious mansions, and a constant cash flow. Those are all great images of a musician but they are the benefits that can only be received AFTER they are established. On the road to a record deal, there are numerous amounts of steps to overcome. The first and most important thing to have is the true talent to sing. This is key because this is the main thing that is looked for. If there is no ability to sing then no record company is going to want to sign you. There is not one record company willing to sign someone a label contract that did not have the raw talent to sing. A bad voice does not make many people want to jump up and buy the CD. Record companies are all about money, they need a sure thing. Profits must be made and if a CD cannot sell, why invest and lose money on it. Once you have established your singing ability, it is on to the next step. The next step is to find an entertainment lawyer (also known as a manager or an agent) who is familiar with the industry and willing to work with you. Usually a manager can be found in many different resources like the yellow pages, references from vocal coaches, or even searching on the Internet. Another untapped resource is the radio. The radio usually airs commercials about different events, in your local area, that are going on to support those who feel they have the talent and ability to compete with professionals in the music industry. These affairs basically serve as scouting events ...

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

victomolgy essays

victomolgy essays For as long as I can remember I have always been fascinated with the procedures of law. I would watch Judge Wapner everyday after school. When I graduated high school I was not sure what I wanted to do. It was not until I read about the school shootings out west, and I was shocked and horrified to learn the ages of the kids who brought the guns to school. It seemed to me that there were an increasing number of young kids committing violent crimes. I was so curious and wanted to know what was causing this problem. That is when I decided to go into the field of Criminal Justice. I have written many papers and gave several speeches regarding juveniles and violent crimes. I feel as if we are missing the big picture, our laws that are supposed to protect our children are actually hurting them more. I have criticized several politicians such as Bill Mc Collum on the way they speak about these kids and I think our entire juvenile justice system needs a makeover. One that benefits the children, not lawmakers. This assignment has given me the opportunity to speak to a former juvenile prosecutor, in which I was able to see things from the other side. I asked 5 questions that I thought would best explain the other side of my views on juveniles and crimes. 1. What is your opinion regarding juveniles who commit crimes? She said the kids that she saw really deserved their punishment. That if anything the judges were too lenient. That she saw about 80% of these young offenders again and again. That they never learned their lesson the first or second time. I was surprised to hear the judges were too lenient. I have always heard the opposite. 2. Do you believe in the death penalty for juveniles? She does believe in the death penalty for children 16 and 17. I am totally against that. I feel like a person that age still has a chance to become a productive citizen. So we really disagreed on this question. But I respect h...

Monday, November 4, 2019

Soul and Justice in the works of Plato, Aristotle and Epicurus Essay

Soul and Justice in the works of Plato, Aristotle and Epicurus - Essay Example This essay discusses that Plato (428-347 BC) defined the soul’s parts as appetite, spirit, and reason. A just society would also have this structure: the productive (worker) class (appetite part of the soul); the protective (warrior) class (spirit part of the soul); and the governing (ruling) class (reason part of the soul). Individual justice would consist of the appetite part of the soul obeying the reason part, with the aid of the spirit part of the soul. Any deviation from this order would result in an unjust individual or society. Justice to Plato meant harmony with each fulfilling his role. Plato’s ideal city was meant as a model for an individual to set up the government of their soul. Aristotle (384-322 BC), a student of Plato, presents his theory of the soul in â€Å"De Anima†. Soul is the incorporeal essence or life-force of a living thing, inseparable from the body and existing as the cause of the body’s movement and of its end. Souls have diffe rent parts that different kinds of souls may contain. Plants have souls providing them with nourishment and reproduction. Animals have souls that also enable motion and differing numbers of senses. Humans have all this plus rational soul, which has two parts: the possible intellect, holding all the possible thoughts; and the agent intellect, bringing actual thoughts into act. The mind (agent intellect part of the soul) is immaterial and cannot be corrupted; therefore the mind is immortal. Justice to Aristotle was a character trait or virtue (Aristotle, trans. 1934, Book V). Just people are those who seek their fair share and follow the law. Aristotle distinguished between two types of justice: distributive justice, where resources must be distributed equally; and rectificatory justice, where personal transactions must be fair and equal. Whereas Plato based his ideas of justice on the ideal city and good, Aristotle viewed justice more practically as being equality in transactions. Pl ato offered us one ideal vision of a perfect city and justice; in contrast, Aristotle thought some rules of justice were ordained by nature, but those made by men varied between places. Both Aristotle and Plato viewed justice as harmony in societal interactions. Epicurus (341-270 BC) takes the soul and everything except the void to be made of atoms moving in an infinite universe. His â€Å"Letter to Herodotus† (Epicurus, trans. 1996) explains mental function as a result of movement of specialized neural atoms. The soul is corporeal; nothing is incorporeal except empty space. Epicurus taught that the soul ends with death of the body and no longer has sentience. To Epicurus, justice is an agreement to neither harm nor be harmed, an agreement that people deem useful. Usefulness,

Saturday, November 2, 2019

Pick a time in your life that was greatly significant to you, one that Essay

Pick a time in your life that was greatly significant to you, one that marked a change in your life and perspective and one tha - Essay Example This mass shooting incident churned my insides because for the first time I experienced the meaning of death and the sense of loss executed by it. Before that ominous day of December, I attached no value to the idea of life being a hotheaded nonconformist that I was. I was engaged in an endless search for happiness and sense of purpose. That search took me to different places but I never got any answer. But after 14th December 2012, I realized that sometimes answers to fundamentally important questions of life can be embedded in witnessing the tragic demise of someone you dearly love. Yes, that is true. I realized the importance of my life after experiencing the tragic death of someone I had stayed close to for 5 long years. The person who died after the mass shooting occurred at the hospital because of fatal wounds was the little brother of my dearest friend. It seems like I have known this family forever and after I arrived in the US from Asia about 6 years ago, my friend’s family has been my family in its most literal sense. I have known these people forever and I adore them as fiercely as my own family. In my friend’s mother, I see the unbelievable generosity of my mother and in his little brother’s innocent tricks, I used to witness the youthful cheekiness of my own little brother living in Asia. I several times played the role of a big brother for that little man accompanying him to super stores whenever my friend was unavailable or assisting him in other chores. When I first heard the news of the tragic incident, I was sitting hopelessly bored at a cafe thinking about what interesting task could I engage in to make my life a little worthwhile. After I was told that my friend’s little brother had also got severely wounded amidst shooting, I acutely remember the whole scene literally darkened for some moments. And after his death, everything happened so quickly, watching my friend and his mother shell-shocked over their irrecove rable loss inculcated an overpowering respect for life in my heart in that same instant. I acknowledged the unique power of life and dark loss of death due to that unfortunate social event which depressed the entire society beyond possibility and is still making headlines. That event changed me as a person forever. Before that, I had minimal respect for life and the associations shared by me with significant others struck no chord in my heart for long. Now, I have a thriving passion for life and essentially attach considerable importance to every moment I spend with the people I love because one never knows what tomorrow might bring. That time of my life also compelled me to think about certain serious issues of the society in which I had no interest before due to lack of awareness. But, such an intense experience helped me to understand the validity of the anti-gun sentiments in the US. Considering myriad lives and families destroyed by such deadly mass shootings, I believe now tha t every college’s administration in every state should go all the way through to prohibit students from bringing guns. My perspective about the whole issue is also same as that of the majority’s according to which guns simply do not belong in a college classroom. Research also stresses that gun control is strongly related to sound societal values (Wilson 9) and inability of colleges to become major front in fight over carrying

Thursday, October 31, 2019

Build team effectiveness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Build team effectiveness - Essay Example Ineffective teams have low unity of purpose; the group members show a great deal of indifference, disagreements are dealt with ineffectively. To build team in a new team that has never worked each team member must engage themselves in a number of team building activities that will assess the strengths and improvement opportunities of the new members of a team, and thereafter formulate and implement plans designed to increase the overall effectiveness of a team (Parker and Kropp, viii). According to Heinemann and Zeiss (79), conflict is considered to be part of group development. Without effective conflict management mechanisms, conflicts between the members of a group can result in hostility, anger and misunderstandings. The members of a team are encouraged to not suppress their discomfort as suppressed or unresolved conflict can serve to increase hostility in team in addition to greatly polarizing the team members. Team leaders on the other hand should ensure that they create an atmosphere where the team members can be able to express their discomfort or give their opinion. The leaders can also employ the use of some of the conflict management styles such as accommodating, compromising and competing method where suitable to resolve conflict in the team. For a team to be highly effective, it must first set goals that are designed to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bond. As much as possible, all the team members should be allowed to make their input during the designing and wording of these goals. Individual team members should consistently communicate with each other to ensure that all the members are able to receive and understand similar information pertaining to the group. The team leader should work to ensure that the team is well staffed, each members understands the purpose of the group as well as their respective roles within the group. In addition to this the group leader should be able to

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Learning and Motivation by Edward Chace Tolman Essay Example for Free

Learning and Motivation by Edward Chace Tolman Essay Experts in psychology have multiple definitions, at times contentious, of both motivation and learning as well as indistinct explanation of how the two correlate to each other. In this field of educational psychology, there have been several introspections into how an individual is driven to learn about new things. The drive behind every quest to gain knowledge of a new phenomenon has been attributed to motivation. Motivation can simply be defined as an inner situation or circumstance, often portrayed like a necessity yearning or wish, which act as catalyst to set in motion some action and provide it with a course. Scholars in motivation believe that this stimulus plays a central role in learning given the fact that to gain knowledge of a thing or phenomenon cannot happen by itself but requires a kind of incentive (Benjamin, 2007). The point of divergence between psychologists revolves around the issue if motivation is principal or lesser player in determining and shaping how individuals conduct themselves. Edward Tolman is revered for his numerous and important inputs to the psychology discipline.   He is credited for conceptualizing a cognitive supposition of erudition, his area of expertise. Tolman postulates that learning is gradually built upon smidgens of acquaintance and the psychological result of perception and reasoning with reference to the surrounding and ways in which individuals make a logical or causal connection. It seems to oppose earlier theorists who consider erudition as an austere action-result association. He asserts that individuals engage in a concealed type of learning on a regular basis as they go about their duties and that real learning is attained in times of necessity. He further says that an intention compels an individual pending a modification of an inner condition and before that occur, an individual carry on to act similarly (Benjamin, 2007). This information can be applied to schools and vocational training to motivate learners to be more serious in their studies. A scheme of rewards and reprimand can be established in school curriculum such that an excellent performance by learners is recognized and honored while a dismal output is shunned. This can also be extended to other stakeholders of the school. The end effect would be that people are bound to do what is right and excellently because their efforts are rewarded. The opposite is also true. Reference Benjamin T. L. (2007). A brief history of modern psychology: Blackwell brief histories of Psychology. New York: Wiley-Blackwell.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Concepts and Definitions in Operational Management

Concepts and Definitions in Operational Management Question 1: Answer: OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT Operational management refers to managing the operations of an organization. Managing the operations means to manage the resources and follow the policies and procedures of any organization. The basic and most important operation of management is to process the inputs into outputs to get desired results. The meaning of operational management contains words i.e. resources, systems, conversion or transformation and outputs. (Business) These words can be explained as :- RESOURCESResources are the man, material and money in the organization. Man or staff is the major or key requirement in an organization. Material is also very important because without availability of material production cannot be possible. And money or capital is required for hiring staff and for purchasing the raw material so that the raw material can be converted into finished products through production. SYSTEMS There is a system which every company has to follow. Every organization has some policies and procedures which helps the organization to achieve their goals and helps in profit maximization. If the work done in an organization is according to the plan then it helps in attaining the goal of the company. Planning is the first and important step of management. Without planning no other function can be performed in an organization. CONVERSION Conversion means converted the inputs (i.e. the raw material) into outputs (i.e. finished goods). In an organization raw material can be converted into work in progress and then into finished goods. When the material is transformated from inputs to outputs then this process is known as productivity. OUTPUTS Outputs are the final results which each organization gets after conversion of inputs into finished products. If the value of outputs is greater than the cost of inputs used then we can say that the value is added to product hence the output helps in increasing profits of company. (outputs) THE STRATEGIC ROLE OF OPERATIONS :- CUSTOMER SATISFACTIONThe basic objective of operating systems is to satisfy the customers by giving them better products at low cost and by giving them better services than other companies . Consumers can be satisfied if the products are not too costly and available on time. (Understanding operations management) RESOURCE UTILISATIONAnother major objective of operating systems is to utilize resources for the satisfaction of customer wants effectively. Customer service must be provided with the achievement of effective operations through efficient use of resources. Inefficient use of resources or inadequate customer service leads to commercial failure of an operating system. EFFICIENCY Another objective of operational management is efficiency. Efficiency is must in every organization .Higher efficiency helps in less wastage of resources. If the resources are not wasted then it will lead to less per unit cost of production. Efficiency helps in specialization of staff. QUALITY Quality is also another important objective of operational management. Every customer wants a product which is very good in quality and also with less cost. Quality helps in satisfying the customers and if the customer is satisfied then effective relation can be build between consumers and organization. ADAPTABILITY if the quantity and quality of the product is upto the mark and also the price of the product is affordable then that product is survived in long run that means the product helps for future survival of the company. Question 2: Answer:   Production means step-by-step conversion of raw material into work in progress and from work in progress into finished goods. Production is an important and essential function of any organization. Without doing production no organization can survive or remain existing. CLASSIFICATION OF PRODUCTION SYSTEMProduction systems can be classified as Job-shop, Batch, Mass and Continuous production systems. Job-Shop Production: When only one product or a few quantity of products are manufactured and the product which are produced is as per the specification given by the customers then that type of production is known as Job shop production. (products-services) Advantages: It helps in availability of more variety of products. It helps in improving the skills of the employees. More creative ideas of employees can be used in this method of production system. Limitations More staff is required as the productiin is few. High time consumed in less production. Production planning is complicated. More wastage of resources resulting in higher per unit cost of production. Batch Production : When the production is done in lots or batches then this productionis known as batch production. In this type of production the lots are not producing continuously but in limited quantity. (production-system) Advantages Cost per unit is low. Batch production helps in job satisfaction.   It helps in better utilization of resources. It requires low investments for production as the production is not done in bulk quantity. Limitations Handling of material is very difficult. More material is required hence more wastage of resources. Mass Production : When the production is done in bulk quantity and continuous then that type of production is known as mass production. In this type of production the machines are arranged in a line. Advantages Per unit cost of every production is low. Less time is consumed in producing bulk quantity. With less material quantity higher production can be done. Mass production helps in less wastage of resources.   Limitations Mass production requires higher investments and resources. If the machine used in producing bulk quantity is damaged or breakdown then whole production line will be stopped. Continuous Production : When the production is done continuously   i.e. the production starts from using the raw material and ends with finished products. This type of production is done when the handling of material is fully automated. (continuous-production-system) Advantages Less time is consumed in producing more units. It helps in more utilization of available resources. It helps in less wastage of resources. Per unit cost is low in continuous production. Disadvantages It requires very high investment. If manufacturer want to do any change in any product then it is not posdible. Question 3: After critically evaluating the key operational levers, discuss which can be applied to management of service operations of Ryanair for the proactive management of customer experience. [ 15 Marks] Answer:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   What is a lever? levers are initiatives that a client can undertake in order to drive the desired impact.   There is usually a limitless number of things a company can consider trying in order to improve their business. (Industry week) Five key levers to productivity improvement every day There are Five key levers for every day improvement. These levers can be explained as : 1. Cost structure Cost structure is a method of determine how much it will cost a company to manufacture a product and how much profit will be recognized from manufacturing a product. It is very important to structure or manage the cost. So that the per unit cost of a product decreases and profit from that product increases. If the cost of the final output is more than the cost of the input then it can be said that the value is added to the product. 2. Organization of work In any organization if the working of the organization is according to the plans and policies then this also helps in better utilization of resources and helps in achieving of organizational goals. This helps in restructuring of an organization. (aggregate-sales-and-operations-planning) 3. Business processes Business process is a collection of related structured activities that produce a specific product for a particular customer. This lever contains work as a team and if the employees of the company are worked together without any chaos then it helps in improving the position of business because it is very important for every organization to work in cordinating with the employees. 4. Knowledge management Knowledge management means managing the knowledge and information of an organization. Knowledge management helps in improving the performance of the company. With this lever an organization can do more innovations results in providing better products to consumers than their competitives. It also helps in continuous improvement of the organization. 5. Information Technology (IT) It is the application of computers to store,study and manipulate the data or information of the business. Business need to take charge of this lever and starts IT in its process. IT helps in storing and saving the data or information of any enterprise and that information can be used whenever it is required. This will help in reducing paper work in the organization. CONCLUSION There are several levers which helps in improving everyday business works. These levers has to be integrated into business as soon as possible to drive the desired impact. These levers helps in achieving of organization objectives efficiently and effectively and improves the working of the organization. References aggregate-sales-and-operations-planning. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://museum-madness.blogspot.co.nz/2011/12/aggregate-sales-and-operations-planning.html Business. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.boundless.com/business/textbooks/boundless-business-textbook/operations-management-10/introduction-to-operations-management-69/a-study-of-process-328-7195/: https://www.boundless.com/business/textbooks/boundless-business-textbook/operations-management-10/introduction-to-operations-management-69/a-study-of-process-328-7195/ continuous-production-system. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://kalyan-city.blogspot.co.nz/2012/02/types-of-continuous-production-system.html Industry week. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.industryweek.com/growth-strategies/levers-mastering-margins outputs. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.open.edu/openlearn/money-management/management/leadership-and-management/understanding-operations-management/content-section-3.3 production-system. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://kalyan-city.blogspot.co.nz/2012/02/what-is-production-system-definition.html products-services. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.archives.gov/preservation/products/definitions/products-services.html Understanding operations management. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.open.edu/openlearn/money-management/management/leadership-and-management/understanding-operations-management/content-section-3.4

Friday, October 25, 2019

The Sociological and Political Subtleties of Woodstock Essay -- Explor

The Sociological and Political Subtleties of Woodstock The Woodstock festival descended on Bethel, New York promising three days of peace and music. Event organizers anticipated 15,000 people would attend but were overwhelmed by the 300,000 people that flooded this rural area of New York state from August 15 -17, 1969. While these facts are well known and indisputable, the festival itself has proven to be a controversial endeavor. What began as a small business venture was soon brimming with the controversy of an entire decade. It becomes clear when examining the strikingly different accounts of the festival that reactions varied depending on the fundamental values and personal circumstances specific to each observer and to the underlying motives of the historian describing the event. Joel Makower's Woodstock: The Oral History was particularly effective in examining Woodstock as it was experienced by the producers of the festival. The book's approach is atypical in the sense that it spends considerable time addressing exactly why and how the festival came into existence instead of droning on about drug use and mud slides. The ordeal began when John Roberts and Joel Rosenman, wealthy young entrepreneurs, placed an ad in The Wall Street Journal declaring, "Young men with unlimited capital looking for interesting and legitimate business ideas."[1] Michael Lang and Artie Kornfeld, representing only one of the thousands of replies that Roberts and Rosenman received, proposed building a recording studio for musicians in Woodstock, New York.[2] This original idea was obviously modified and resulted in the Woodstock festival as it is known today. The book effectively details everything from the initial catalyst to the re... ...8 August 1969, p. 25. "The Message of History's Biggest Happening," Time, 29 August 1969, 32. Notes [1] Joel Makower, Woodstock: The Oral History (NY: Tilden Press Inc., 1989), 24. [2] Makower, 28-29. [3] Makower, 1. [4] "Amazon.com," search for "Joel Makower". (17 February 2002). [5] Alfonso A. Narvaez, â€Å"Bethel Farmer Call Fair a Plot ‘to Avoid the Law’,† The New York Times, 20 August 1969, p. 37. [6] "Episcopal Archives," (17 February 2002). [7] Michael T. Kaufman, "Generation Gap Bridged as Monticello Residents Aid Courteous Festival Patrons," The New York Times, 18 August 1969, p. 25. [8] Narvaez, 37. [9] "The Message of History's Biggest Happening," Time, 29 August 1969, 32. [10] Time, 32. [11] Time, 33.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Stock Options

Stock options increasingly dominate CEO pay packages. This column outlines when economic theory suggests that options-heavy compensation is in shareholders’ interests. The answer is that boards of directors are likely giving too many executive stock options. As boards of directors have sought to align the interests of managers and stockholders, executive stock options have become an ever-larger fraction of the typical CEO’s total compensation (Murphy 1999). Occasionally this practice has led to aggregate compensation payments that are so large as to mock the very connection they are supposed to encourage. What does economic theory have to say about executive compensation in a dynamic context? From a conceptual perspective, how effective is the granting of stock options in promoting the correct managerial decisions? How confident can we be that when a large fraction of a manager’s compensation assumes this form he or she will be led to undertake the same labor hiring and capital investment decisions that the shareholders would themselves want to undertake if they were similarly informed? Managerial incentives and the design of compensation contracts are the systemic implications of executive remuneration are taken into account, that is, in a general equilibrium context; one finds that for a contract to induce managers to take the correct business decisions in the above sense, it must naturally have the following three features. A significant portion of a manager’s remuneration must be based, in one way or another depending on the context, on her own firm’s performance. This concurs with the general message of a wealth of microeconomics studies. But this is not sufficient. The general contract characteristics must also be such that the manager is not, as a consequence of this first requirement, enjoying an income stream with time series properties that are too different from the time series properties of the income stream enjoyed by shareholders. This later restriction arises because, as is well known, the income and consumption position of a manager will determine his or her willingness to undertake risky projects. Optimal delegation requires that this risk attitude is not too different from shareholders’ own. The second feature may have to be modified if the manager’s risk tolerance is inherently different from that of the shareholders. The typical motivation for stock options (as opposed to pure equity positions) is precisely that the (recurrent) lack of income diversification of a manager may make her excessively prudent (in pursuit of a â€Å"quiet life†). This is the idea behind setting executive compensation according to a â€Å"highly convex† contract, i. e. ne where the upside is really good, but the downside is not so bad. This asymmetry is necessary induce risk averse managers to make the right investment decisions from the perspective of well-diversified stockholders. Are options-dominated contracts warranted? Shareholders receive both wage and dividend income, with the wage or salary component being, on average, the larger of the two. This is an implicati on of National Income Accounting. In the typical modern economy, about 2/3rds of GDP is composed of wages, with capital’s income account for only 1/3. Points 1 and 2 above therefore imply that an optimal contract will have both a salary (with properties close to those of the wage bill) and an incentive component (with properties naturally linked to the income accruing to capital owners) with the former being about twice as large as the latter. The incentive component may take the form of a non-tradable equity position (giving the right to regular dividend payments) or it may be more closely tied to the firm’s stock price itself. Furthermore, both of these components enter linearly into the manager’s compensation function. In today’s business world, the salary component appears to be too small relative to the incentive component. Hall and Murphy (2002) report that the grant date value of stock options represented 47% of average CEO pay in 1999. Equilar, Inc. , an executive compensation advisory firm, reports that stock options awards represented 81% of CEO compensation for the largest 150 Silicon Valley firms in 2006. What happens to incentives if the salary component is too small relative to the incentive component? Such an imbalance between the components of a manager’s compensation will lead to excessive smoothing of the firm’s output from the shareholders’ perspective. They typically prefer a highly pro-cyclical investment policy whereas, without further inducement, the manager will be much more reluctant to exploit the good opportunities and instead select a mildly pro-cyclical or, even, possibly an anti-cyclical investment strategy. This problem is well recognized, and it is the main justification for using highly convex managerial compensation contracts (i. e. options). Convex contracts overcome this possibility by reducing the personal (expected) cost to the manager of increasing the firm’s investment when times are good. If the manager’s preferences are well represented by a logarithmic utility function of consumption, however, then this latter argument does not apply; the manager’s actions will be insensitive to contract convexity. That is, even a compensation contract that is heavily laden with options will not induce managers to alter their behavior one whit. A straightforward application of this logic produces an even more striking result. If the manager happens to be more risk averse than would be dictated by log utility – an entirely plausible configuration – the only way to induce optimal managerial behavior is by using a highly unconventional remuneration package in which the manager’s compensation is inversely related to the firm’s operating results. This would mean a contract that pays high compensation when profits are low and vice versa. In this situation an options laden compensation package will induce the manager to behave in a manner directly opposite to what the shareholders would like. More generally, the degree of contract convexity must be related to the relative risk aversion of the manager as compared to the shareholders and if these quantities are not precisely estimated large welfare losses will ensue. From a theoretical macroeconomic perspective, the circumstances under which a highly convex compensation contract, for example, one that has a large component of options, will properly guide the manager in making the correct hiring and investment decisions are very narrowly defined. It would be surprising if these circumstances were fulfilled in the typical contract case.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Where to Buy Sodium Hydroxide

Where to Buy Sodium Hydroxide Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) or lye is a common ingredient in many science projects, particularly chemistry experiments, and to make homemade soap and wine. Its also a caustic chemical, so its not as easy to find in stores as it used to be. Some shops carry it as Red Devil lye with laundry supplies. Its also found, usually in impure form, in solid drain cleaners. Craft stores carry lye for soapmaking. There is also food-grade sodium hydroxide, sold in some specialty cooking stores.You can find sodium hydroxide online. You can purchase it at Amazon as sodium hydroxide or lye. Pure lye drain opener, caustic soda, and pure or food grade sodium hydroxide. Depending on your project, you may be able to substitute potassium hydroxide (KOH), which has similar chemical properties and is easier to find. However, these two chemicals arent the same, so if make the substitution, expect slightly different results. How to Make Sodium Hydroxide If you cant purchase sodium hydroxide, you can use a chemical reaction to make it. You will need: Table salt (sodium chloride, non-iodized)2 Carbon electrodes (from zinc-carbon batteries or graphite pencil leads)Alligator clipsWaterPower supply (e.g., 9-volt battery) In a glass container, stir salt into water until it dissolves. Do not use an aluminum container or aluminum utensils because sodium hydroxide will react with them and damage them.Place the two carbon rods in the container (not touching).Use alligator clips to connect each rod to a terminal of the battery. Let the reaction proceed about 7 hours. Place the set-up in a well-ventilated space, as hydrogen and chlorine gas will be produced. The reaction produces a sodium hydroxide solution. You can use it as such or can evaporate off the water to concentrate the solution or obtain solid lye. This is an electrolysis reaction, which proceeds according to the chemical equation: 2 NaCl(aq) 2 H2O(l) → H2(g) Cl2(g) 2 NaOH(aq) Another way to make lye is from ashes. To do this, boil ashes from a hardwood fire in a small amount of distilled water for about half an hour. To get a large amount of lye requires a lot of ashes. Hardwood ash (e.g., oak) is preferable to softwood ash (e.g., pine) because softer woods contain a lot of resin.Let the ashes sink to the bottom of the container.Skim lye solution from the top. Evaporate the liquid to concentrate the solution. Note that lye from ashes is relatively impure but should be good enough for many science projects or to make soap. To make a crude soap from homemade lye, all you need to do is combine lye with fat. Sodium Hydroxide Projects Once you have lye, you can use it in a variety of science projects. You can make a sodium hydroxide solution to use as a base, make homemade soap, make water glass for homemade magic rocks, or try the gold and silver magic pennies experiments.