Khobar Towers Bombing

The following document will look at the operations that took place in the bombing as well as how they got the money to fund the implementation of the bombing, as well as the association of the terrorist with the governments that funded them. It will also look at how the government of America responded. Introduction Khobar Towers bombing is an attack that was organized by Islamic terrorists and it is said to have taken place in the city of Khobar situated in Saudi Arabia.This is a building that provided housing to the Americans who had come to work in Saudi Arabia. The group that is said to be responsible for the attacks was the Saudi Arabia Hezbollah (Risen et al). The amount of money that was needed to carry out the operation was 1. 2 million dollars (Burrough). They got this money from collaborating with the Iranian government that gave them the gasoline and the explosives that were needed. Al Qaeda is also said to have funded the group to carry out the operations.The members of He zbollah were affiliated with Al Qaeda and the government of Iraq. There was no training that was carried out since the group was already well trained. The government provides the necessary funds for the operations; this is because after the Gulf war, they wanted the Americans to get out of their land. The government of US reacted by evacuating the other Americans that were in the country and moving them in their own country. Investigations were carried out and there were some people who were arrested and charged for the crime.Before the crime the housing complex and its surroundings was under tight security that it could not have been imagined that such attacks would be carried out (CNN). References Bryan Burrough (November 6, 2005). â€Å"‘My FBI': Heroes and Villains†. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2006-06-11. Risen, James, Jane Perlez (June 23, 2001). â€Å"Terrorism and Iran: Washington's Policy Performs a Gingerly Balancing Act†, The New York Times. Both sides decry new Ruby Ridge charges†. CNN (August 21, 1997). Retrieved on 2008-12-11.

Personal or Narrative Essay: My Environmental Practices Essay

Now it’s your turn to write a personal or narrative essay. For this kind of personal writing, you are using the first person perspective. Keep your writing informal. You can make connections to your readings, referring to specific relevant details from the â€Å"Ten Things† article, or anything else you have read on how to reduce your negative impact on the environment. In your composition, feel free to share how you feel now about your own environmental practices, any insights you have gained, and ideas you have for the future. Write a five paragraph personal essay or narrative about the connection between your lifestyle choices and how they impact the broader environment. There are three steps to this assignment: Step A: In the first hour after waking up in the morning, make note of everything you use, and the country where it was made. Makes notes also on your connection to these places, and the people in these places, through the things you use. Step B: Make notes on what your best environmental practice might look like, related to the use of these items. In your opinion, is what you are doing right now enough? How might you do more? What is stopping you? For ideas on what else you could be doing to improve your own environmental practices, refer to your answers from Lesson A: Activity 1: â€Å"Ten Things You Can Do. † Step C: Choose to write either a personal essay, or a narrative. Note that personal essays almost always involve some form of narrative, while narrative essays, often written in first person, tell a story from beginning to end; though this does not mean they merely entertain—they explain something to the reader as well. Recall the following characteristics of the narrative and personal essay: Narrative Essay: A narrative essay is a story that describes a sequence of events, in this case, nonfiction. Remember the following elements of narrative essays: makes a point, introduced in the first paragraph has a beginning, middle, and end events are chosen to support the essay’s point includes the devices of story: plot, character, setting, climax, and ending has a consistent point of view (the authors’ –i. e. yours! ) includes feelings about events starts as close to the inciting incident (the event that begins the story) as possible includes only what is necessary to advance the action Personal Essay: The personal essay constitutes a struggle for emotional and intellectual honesty. In writing a personal essay, you show a vulnerability and the courage to admit self-contradictions in the search for truth. Remember the following elements of the personal essay: almost always written in first person makes a point, introduced in the first paragraph, expressed in a thesis statement almost always some autobiographical content or component constructed of personal opinions, hopes, beliefs, doubts, confusions intimate, personal tone—admit the reader into your inner thoughts, musings—as if your reader is â€Å"eavesdropping on a mind in solitude† voice is conversational in style and tone, as though you are addressing a small audience approach is contemplative, but can be humourous, not of very strong emotions, such as rage or bitterness returns to the point in the concluding paragraph with a new perspective Personal/Narrative Essay Checklist: 1. Have you chosen a topic you can be sincere about? Manufactured sincerity doesn’t fly in a personal essay or first person narrative. 2. Have you included some autobiographical component? 3. Are you seeking out a truth in your essay? 4. Do you contemplate more than one answer? This is useful in a personal essay. 5. Did you write in the first person, with a conversational tone? 6. Is your essay of sufficient length to pursue your question? For the purposes of this assignment, you need to include: an introductory paragraph

Beijing

I’m going to look at how Beijing’s (while mentioning China) climate will be affected and change if the average temperature will rise, creating global warming around the world. An overview of how Beijing’s weather and climate is currently. Average temperature in January is -7o to -4o C, while average temperatures in July are at 25o to 26  °C. Highest temperature ever recorded is 42 °C and lowest recorded is -27 °C. Annual precipitation is over 600 mm, with 75% of that in summer. Beijing is located in a high pressure area. Under the scorching sun in summer, heavy rainstorms also sees to occur late in the season. The citys climate is a monsoon-influenced humid continental climate characterized by hot, humid summers due to the East Asian monsoons, and generally cold, windy winters that reflect the influence of the vast Siberian anticyclone. Frequent typhoons coming from the Pacific Ocean also influence the city but in a minor scale, most of the typhoons make their direction for Japan and never really reaches into Beijing. Springtime weather in Asia produces intense wind storm events that can pass over the Gobi Desert along the northern China / Mongolia. These prevailing westerly winds brings dust from the desert and trough suspension carries the sand dust via Beijing and further on. This threatens Beijing by a rolling tide of sand advancing on the capital from the Gobi Desert that is responsible for the massive dust storms every spring. If we then assume that the average temperature is rising, I think that the long term warming will cause a bit more spreading (in number) of natural hazards such as monsoons, (droughts), typhoons leading to more severe rainfall. Since the typhoons never really reaches the city but foremost Japan (due to the coriolis force/effect) the size and number may increase and then there will be more rain. Mostly this happens if the ocean currents are warm. The precipitation from both the monsoons and typhoons but also through convectional rainfall will eventually increase leading to e. g. floods (in coastal areas) and agricultural crops may die or grow (depending of what type of crops and its surrounding) more because of the intense rainfall. The temperature rises heating the land more which makes moist, warm air which becomes less dense and is forced to rise as strong convectional currents. In this picture below you can see were most of the precipitation occurs due to e. g. monsoons in the southern China, in the summer when there is strong solar radiation and the rain period is at its highest in Beijing. If we would see a similar picture but in present time or in about 10 years from now I would say that the color of amount precipitation in Beijing would be more in the blue scale. Because the winds bring more moist and rain clouds since the earth is moving. The climatic change may even change or disrupt the monsoonal pattern. In winter the temperature can be very low but if the global temperature rises I think so will the cold temperatures. It will not be as cold in the future as it is now. The Gobi Deserts sand dunes are already slowly expanding with winds blowing the sand towards the capital. In their wake, these massive dust storms have left entire towns abandoned and refugees left in a high number. The dust storms have probably also brought some weather effects due to the high altitude transportation of the sand. These winds are capable of generating huge yellow clouds of suspended dust which based on the direction of the prevailing wind can be sent out to sea to North America. And even have an impact on the visibility across different regions in the south western United States Part of the reason for why these dust storms are so severe, is maybe because the soil is so loose and fine. In addition to the fact that sandstorms cause such inconvenience in people’s lives, they also influence agricultural production, transportation and shipping, and other industries, and cause serious economic damage. The problem is overgrazing and deforestation which causes many land areas in China to become a desert. Due to this desert spreading that is getting closer to Beijing the government is planning to plant a â€Å"green wall† of millions of trees between Beijing and the sands. The plants should be planted to bind the soil more effectively. Some of the smaller rivers or lakes could even disappear due to the desert spreading cutting of water supply. And the larger rivers that transports some of the melting glaciers from the Himalayas could expand and lead to flooding in some cases. The air pollution from the city results in damage to air and water quality, agriculture and human health, with acid rain falling down. The climatic change will also have a great impact on the economy since they have to prevent some hazard from spreading far too much but the economy will also lose a lot of money if the agricultural farming is reduced every year. But if the rainfall changes the agricultural problem will give the economy a profit. Many people would have to leave their homes to try to find another place to grow their crops or move into the main city to try and find a job. Due to arable agriculture and overgrazing wind removes the soil so that soil erosion occurs. Then, during times of erosive rainfall or windstorms, soil may be detached, transported, and (possibly travelling a long distance) deposited. It has impacts which are both on-site (at the place where the soil is detached) and off-site (wherever the eroded soil ends up). As a conclusion Beijing will probably have more rainfall due to the monsoons and typhoons. The desert will increase or decrease (not expand as much) depending on how much it will rain and if the soil is nutrient enough to let vegetation grow. But if it increases Beijing will suffer from more dust storms as a thick layer of haze that can reduce direct solar radiation, it can have a dramatic impact on the visibility. It will also get warmer in the city since the air pollution is very high making a sort of cover over the area, thereby trapping the sun radiation from going back out into the atmosphere, making it more humid. The temperature will get higher during all seasons but in a slow process. The economic development may decrease because of manly the loss of agricultural land to soil erosion.

Consumers' surplus Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Consumers' surplus - Essay Example The first major insight that students obtain from the study of microeconomics is the theory of demand and supply. Nevertheless, the demand is the willingness and ability of individuals of consumers to acquire certain goods and services. Therefore, when prices increase (assuming determinants of demand constant) the quantity demanded decreases and vice versa, thereby resulting in a downward sloping demand curve due to negative price – quantity relationship. In contrast, the supply refers to willingness and ability of sellers to produce and sell certain goods and services. Hence, when prices increase (assuming determinants of supply constant) the quantity supplied also increases because of increase in profit margin of producers and vice versa. In simple words, the supply curve slopes upward due to positive price – quantity relationship. In this paper, I would elucidate on Consumer Surplus – a theory contributed by Alfred Marshall in 1920s (and derived by using the d ownward sloping demand curve) that initially received various serious criticism by then economists and academicians. Dooley (1983, p. 26) has summarized the following major criticisms raised at that time - â€Å"First, whether an additive utility function adequately explains consumer behavior; second, whether the marginal utility of money can be treated as a constant; third, whether the quantity demanded of one commodity can be treated as a function of its price alone; and fourth, whether it is possible make interpersonal comparisons†. The researcher will first explain what Consumer Surplus theory is after which an analysis will be presented on the credibility of this theory. The researcher will conclude this paper by providing a personal opinion and will finally provide 2 recommendations to the economists and pundits. 2. Analysis / Body Consumer Surplus is a concept studied in microeconomics and it refers to the estimation of consumer utility. In simple words, consumer surpl us is the surplus portion calculated by subtracting the maximum price consumer wants to pay for acquiring a good or service with the equilibrium market price. This could also be defined as the difference between the actual paid market price and the highest price at which demand of a product exists. As illustrated in Figure 1, the equilibrium quantity and price are P1 and Q1 respectively; however, the demand of a product also exists at higher prices. Therefore, the blue portion represents consumer surplus. Figure 1 In order to fully comprehend the theory of Consumer Surplus, I would like to present an example of demand of DVDs (video games) relative to their price. In this case, let us consider that a  consumer enters in a Computer shop to buy video games. The consumer buys 10 DVDs of $50 in total but he is inclined to pay $95 for one DVD so the consumer’s surplus for 1 unit will be $45, for 2 units will be $40, for 4 units will be $30, for 6 units will be $20, for 8 units w ill be $10 and for 9th unit will be $5 only. The figure 2 illustrates the consumer surplus in green, which is below the market demand curve and above the equilibrium market price. Figure 2 Samuelson & Nordhaus (2005, p. 96) highlights the following: â€Å"Consumer Surplus is the gap between the total utility of a good and its total market value†

Cargo Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Cargo - Essay Example This report will discuss the opportunities that Etihad cargo needs to adopt in order to continue with its outstanding performance and to ensure that the cargo business is growing. It is believed that the current Etihad Cargo warehouse is worn out since it is not operating toward achieving the goal of the company. The company needs to look at various issues that are leading to this situation this is because, the cargo business is said to increase tremendously. Plans are underway to ensure that the company acquires new freighters and open new destinations so as to increase its opportunities of making more profits. New freighters will imply that the company opens up a modern warehouse with the capacity to handle large cargos. The current warehouse is small and in poor state to handle large cargoes in that it is ill equipped to an extent that it cannot sustain live animals for more than six hours. The racks in the warehouse are damaged which leads to unavailability of space. The new warehouse is required to handle cargoes that come in and out from all corners of the world. This will mean that the company has new facility which will open opportunity to present new business lines. It is vital for the company to change its managerial style since imports and exports have increased which makes products management more intricate. Warehouse management will foresee some benefits to Etihad Cargo such as enhanced order fulfillment expediency, potentiality to meet specific requirements made by customers and increase inventory accuracy. Despite the fact that warehouse management will be costly to cargo department, the benefits surpass the losses since the management will reduce errors and manage the warehouse keeping in mind that our cargo business in growing. The cargo sales department is given the responsibility of looking for business opportunities in places like Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Etihad Company ought to increase its shares in UAE

Sharing your Results Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Sharing your Results - Assignment Example The methodology used in the research entailed a practical approach whereby raw results were used to formulate the hypothesis. In addition, evaluation of the companies’ profits in view of their production capacity indicated the need for companies to develop an effective marketing plan that will be able to capture either the entire market or a specific niche of customers. The research indicated that the two companies used marketing as a means to capture the target population for their products and services. It was also established that initial market research would provide the best alternative for the companies to obtain an in depth understanding of the market and buying trends. Another important aspect in controlling consumer behavior included the need to attract new customers and to retain them. Given that the companies sell similar products such as coffee, it is important for them to have an effective marketing plan that will create a diversified customer base. Starbucks is a coffeehouse chain and a global coffee company located in Seattle, Washington. The company was started in 1971 as a coffee bean roster and retailer and has grown rapidly over the time. It is one of the largest coffee companies in the world, with 13,049 in the USA while in other countries as China, Canada, Japan and the UK there are 1,909, 1,555, 1,089, and 927 stores respectively. Overseas stores constitute up to one third of the entire company indicating its wider geographical range to potential customers (Michelli, 2007). The company serves both hot and cold beverages including Whole-bean coffee, full-leaf teas, micro-ground instant coffee, pastries and snacks. Also, their evening locations offer a wide variety of beers, appetizers and wines after 4 pm. On the other hand, Costa Coffee is a multinational coffeehouse company based in Dunstable, United Kingdom. It is also a worldwide

Littleton Manufacturing (A) Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Littleton Manufacturing (A) - Case Study Example Winslow identified that the company did not: Strategy is an important tool in the input parts any open systems framework. The management of Littleton lacked the expertise to draw the best strategy for the company that could help solve the above issues. The paper shall consider the top three problems the company faced (Whiteside, 2001). Low organizational unity. Such unity is important in improving the organization’s effectiveness. Additionally, the management could find it easy to solve the problem. It is a short time process. Solving this problem will affect positively the stakeholders’ interests (Whiteside, 2001). The stakeholders of Littleton are not focusing on the company’s priorities. It is evident the company failed due to lack of commitment from the stakeholders. The company has enough resources to address the problem. Additionally, the management had adequate information about the problem, hence easy to address (Whiteside,

Case 4-1 McDonald's Great Britain -The Turnaround Study

4-1 McDonald's Great Britain -The Turnaround - Case Study Example There was a further fall in McDonald’s UK’s sales in 2005 alongside those of other European McDonald’s outlets. In 2007, the company’s sales went up by 4.6 percent and it increased its market share. Inadequate localization, negative perception, and competition are some of the reasons for McDonald’s UK lagging behind. The most critical problem confronting McDonald’s UK is inadequate localization. This manifests in the way its Britain customers were repulsed by its use of the red color on its company logo. The second most critical problem facing McDonald’s UK is negative perception and the Greenpeace lawsuit, low quality food, lack of variety on its menu and the low pay that the company offers its employees are responsible for the company’s negative perception. The least critical problem facing McDonald’s UK is competition. Some emerging coffee shops are competing with McDonald’s UK and other fast food businesses are offering more variety for what is considered healthy foods by Britain’s customers (Krishna & Chaudhuri 658). Question 2: Some problems you identified in Question 1 may require a â€Å"quick fix† in the short run, while others may require a major shift in company strategy. Assuming that you cannot focus on all the problems at once, suggest the order in which the issues should be addressed and suggest an approach to solving each problem. The problem of competition that is confronting McDonald’s UK is one that needs a quick fix. McDonald’s UK has the capacity to liaise with its parent firm to offer coffee as a primary item in its menu. Its initiative to introduce freshly ground Kenco beans suffices to introduce a coffee brand that is unique. The problem of negative perception should be the second problem that McDonald’s UK should address. The company can address this problem by making peace with Greenpeace activists in order to reassure the Britons that it takes responsibility for its mistakes. The problem of

Coursework 5 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

5 - Coursework Example The fourth proposition establishes that equity-holders are indifferent about the firm’s financial policy (Gitman, 2009). Given a fixed amount of total capital, the allocation of capital between debt and equity is irrelevant because the weighted average of the two costs of capital to the firm is the same for all possible combinations of the two. In the context of the modern theory of finance, it represents one of the first formal uses of a no arbitrage argument though the â€Å"law of one price† is longstanding. It structured the debate on why irrelevance fails around the Theorem’s assumptions: by neutral taxes; by no capital market frictions (i.e., no transaction costs, asset trade restrictions or bankruptcy costs); by symmetric access to credit markets (i.e., firms and investors can borrow or lend at the same rate); and by the firm financial policy reveals no information (Eiteman, 2007). Discuss the different ways in which a corporation can distribute cash to it s shareholders. Dividends and stock repurchases are the two major ways that corporations can distribute cash to their shareholders.

Oral Communication in Business Essay Example for Free

Oral Communication in Business Essay Business communication is done through various avenues including the written word (via Email, letters and reports), the face to face meeting and telephone conversations. It is particularly important when using speech to communicate with others, whether client or employee, that what you say is what you mean, both in tone of voice and words chosen. The most obvious reason to use the spoken word is to give information to another. How effectively this is done depends on imparting pertinent key points to the listener and giving him or her a clear idea of what the expected result should be. The client wants to know the status of his order and the employee wants to know the deadline to fill it. Oral communication can also be used to persuade or motive others to accomplish a specific task. By showing confidence through your tone of voice and using open-ended statements and questions, your listener is exhorted to action. This is particularly effective when speaking with employees regarding a change in the organization. Make sure they are aware of the benefits and ask them to relate how this will help them in their jobs. The way oral communication is approached can mean the difference between boring your listener to tears or actively engaging their thought processes. Failure to communicate well can be seen as inability to communicate well (Gabbin, 1996). Keeping your listeners entertained is one way to keep them listening. You do not have to memorize a joke of the day, but simply avoid droning on about numbers or statistics or other â€Å"dry† subjects. A company that holds annual employee rallies to boost morale should incorporate both the entertainment and motivation aspects of speech. Reviewing the company’s fiscal state of affairs and thanking employees for their contribution while causing them to think of further ways to improve the future bottom line would create an atmosphere of trust and good will. Motivate, entertain, and leave them looking forward to the next rally!

Childhood adolescence and adulthood development

Childhood adolescence and adulthood development What are the major milestones related to physical developments in early and middle childhood? Briefly describe these milestones? There are several milestones connected to physical developments in early as well as middle childhood. Physical developmental change might take place as an outcome of genetically-controlled courses known as maturation, or even as a product of varied environmental factors and learning. However, developmental change most frequently involves an interface between the two. Age-linked development periods and cases in point of defined intervals include: ages 0-1 month (newborn); ages 1 month 1 year (infant); toddler (ages 1-3 years); ages 4-6years (preschooler); ages 6-13 years (school-aged child) and (ages 13-20) adolescent (Kail, 2006). Aging which is also a physical development appears to concurrently occur in two major separate domains throughout all of the adulthood stages which include: primary aging and secondary aging. According to Stoker (2008), primary aging entails the ordinary, innate body progression from early maturity till death; but, secondary aging comprise progression linked with health habits, disease and/or environmental influences. During middle age aging begins to be considered in decline and loss in lieu of maturation and growth (Stoker, 2008). Nonetheless, Stoker states that some neurological and physiological advancement associated with it which never passes till early maturity. For example, reaction blockage in the frontal lobes as synchronized by the limbic system is never entirely developed till young adulthood, as well as (VO2 max) heart and lung power which does never get to optimal heights until the young adult years. Stoker (2008) hints that immune functioning related to B cell and T ce ll also counts young adults aging. In the middle mature age secondary aging starts to have an important effect on the functioning of body neurology and physiology. A case in point is where both behavior and lifestyle choices, like alcoholism and depression, can impact significantly on neurological structure as well as cognitive ability (Stoker, 2008). During later adulthood, it is realized that the deprivation of dendrite redundancy, do correspond to a fall in synaptic plasticity, which in turn starts to effect concrete real-world reaction times. In addition, presbyopia and presbycusis is far-off more superior during the later adult years. According to Stoker (2008) this is partly due to blood flow loss to the areas affected and collective environmental factors, like time of working in very noisy factories, etc The physical developments which come about during adolescence period are brought about through the introduction of gonadotrophic hormones. This hormone is released by the pituitary gland of the endocrine glands, particularly during the onset and the entire duration of puberty (Boyd Bee, 2006). According to Boyd and Bee (2006), the release of hormones such as testosterone in boys and estrogen in girls do cause the manifestation of both principal and secondary sex uniqueness by about the age of adolescent. Indeed during the first few years of puberty, the male and female reproductive organs matures up and are capable of respectively producing sperm in boys and ovum in girls. In the early adolescence stage, young women do begin their menarche (menstrual cycle). Moreover, the cerebral cortex does thicken for the duration of adolescence and by extension some parts of the brain is myelinated; and brings with it supplementary effectiveness in the neural pathways (Boyd Bee, 2006). Physically, there is also a notable heave in both lung and heart size and a decline in the rate of heart beat. In addition, at adolescence the bones situated in the forelimbs mature to nearly adult levels, with maturity startlingly occurring more rapidly in girls than boys. This hand bone maturity gives a timely boost in coordination. On the other hand, boys do outpace girls in development as well as thickening of the muscle during the adolescent ages, resulting into a surge in the strength of boys. What are the major milestones related to cognitive developments in early and middle childhood? How does cognitive changes from early to middle childhood? Physical development in a child attracts corresponding augment in cognitive abilities of the cerebral cortex and by extension neural pathways. It is highly believed that correlation exists between physical development and cognitive development. For instance, a French speaking Swiss psychologist, Jean Piaget did trust that the cerebral expansion spurts which occur during adolescence stage of human growth brings with a novel stage of cognitive development which he referred to as the formal operational stage. According to Piaget, during this formal operational stage an adolescent duly begins to grasp both abstract logic and reasoning (Patterson, 2008). Besides, it is during adolescence stage that the aptitude to control memory as well as cognitive activities begins to bear fruits in the areas such as memorization, text learning and even face recognition. Further still, amplifications in working memory competence give the adolescent the capacity to comprehend figurative language, proverb s and metaphors. Whats more, advances in supposed logic permits an adolescent to guess the perceived effect of some actions and even behaviors. According to Patterson (2008), these advances allow for the accomplishment of invented audiences (mainly built from an apparent peer group). In This manner the adolescent has the rare ability to theorize and memorize about other individuals perceptions and by extension impressions of themselves; while, a little child only manages to view situations, circumstances and behaviors from their personal perspective. Patterson (2008) further hints that cognitive developmental advances are also directly connected to both experience and learning. That this applies mainly to higher-level cognitive abilities like abstraction that relies to a considerable degree on formal education. What role does Piagets Cognitive Development Theory and Vygotskys Social Constructivist Approach play in understanding cognitive development in early and middle childhood? Vygotsky was a theorist who posited that children gain knowledge via hands-on experience, just as Jean Piaget promptly suggested. However, as opposed to Jean Piaget, he did argue that prompt as well as responsive involvement by the mature adults once a child is on the periphery of learning a new task might duly assist the child learn new tasks. He called this Social Constructivist Approach which deals with the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). His Social Constructivist Approach helps understand and builds upon the knowledge already children have with the new knowledge that the adults can aid the child to learn (Vygotsky, 1998). A very good example where a parent can assist a child is when the parent â€Å"helps† a child to clap or merely roll its hands till it can clap and roll its hands alone (Cultural, Communication, and Cognition: Vygotskian Perspectives, 1985). Vygotskys principal focus was on the cultural role in influencing the pattern of the development of the child. Vygotsky claimed that any single function in the cultural development child does appear twice: initially, at the social phase (between people), and later, at the personality stage (inside the child). Vygotsky also posited that cognitive development was a gradual process which saw era of predicament in child growth during which time there is a valuable transformation in the mental functioning of a child (Vygotsky, 1998). On the other hand, Swiss theorist Jean Piaget did pose reliably that a child learns aggressively via the play process. That it has to interact with the environment. He suggested on that regard that the role of mature adult in helping out the child get knowledge was merely to facilitate and if need be provide suitable learning materials to enable the child to interact with the surrounding and at the same time construct. Piaget actually applied Socratic questioning to engage the child to reflect and reproduce on what initially they were doing. He would attempt to get the child to see inconsistencies in their explanations. He further developed developmental stages. Piagets approach is applied in school curriculum sequencing and by extension in the preschool centers of pedagogy. What are the major milestones related to socioemotional development in early and middle childhood? What types of changes occur in peer relationships from early to middle childhood? According to Stoker Coy (Sunday, October 4, 2009), there exists 3 levels which bare 2 sub-stages each to give details regarding moral development all through an individuals lifetimes: 1) Conventional level-Stage i: interpersonal conformity, mutual interpersonal expectations and relationships; Stage ii: conscience and Social system (known as the Law and Order). 2) Preconventional level-Stage i: punishment and obedience orientation; Stage ii: Instrumental purpose, exchange and individualism and finally the Postconventional level-Stage i: Social contract or utility and individual rights; Stage ii: Universal ethical principles. Stoker writes that these progresses in moral reasoning do overlap, concurrently exist, and further begin and end over a lifetime. Nevertheless, he hints that certain general rules applicable are that children never reason usually over stages (i) or (ii) of level 2, and that nearly all adults reason at stages (i) and (ii) of level 1, the Conventional level. It is t he third stage, the postconventional moral reasoning stage which is in the immeasurable minority including the adult population. However, it constitutes those who believe that there exist a set of moral pronouncements that surpass all other concerns. Peer friendships turn out to be greatly important and quite central to social world of a child in the adolescent years. Stoker Coy (Sunday, October 4, 2009) writes that adolescents do highly price virtues like loyalty and faithfulness while in peer relationships and even tend to obtain friends with whom they share same beliefs on things like drug use, academic, sex, smoking, achievement, relational status, as well as echelon of social skills. Additionally, peer group conformity climaxes at about the age13 years and apparently fades when an adolescent develops enough self-esteem and consequently begins to build a concrete and substantial idea of self (Stoker Coy (Sunday, October 4, 2009). To recognize Kohlbergs justice and also Eisenbergs empathy Stoker states that the development of emotion as well as moral rationale like role-taking skills, do assist with the control of anger and the evasion of unsociable behavior. In that regard Stoker hints that if an adolescent for instance is able to be taught to see clearly a certain situations from another individuals perspective, then such a person is a lot more likely to evade delinquent behavior. How can families impact the development of young children? Monumentally, families nurture, shape and model children into who they later become. For that matter, good influence can be encouraging whereas bad influence can be motivating. Both types of influences can bare positive and/or negative impact. For instance, a child brought up in an abusive and alcoholic home might grow into a doctor focusing on victims of abuse, or they may perhaps become an abuser or alcoholic themselves. In this case, it can go either way. However, either way it is duly influenced by their family and general background. Besides, if a family have good manner then chances are high the child will emulate and practice it in the future since the child have stages of growth and they grasp ideas swiftly. Without a family, a child never actually knows what is expected of him and/or what to expect from others. Devoid of order and kind, solid discipline, the child might fail to develop self-discipline. As a result, he could become unmotivated, out of control, and crave excit ement. His life may well be another roller-coaster journey. Cadigan (April 25, 2008) writes that the attributes that children obtain directly from parents or other mature family members are fourfold. They include personality, physical and cognitive abilities, behavioral health as well as race and/or ethnicity. She suggests that family is obliged to provide both formal and informal support to the child. The child also grasps and eventually acquires physical and cognitive abilities of family members including the members behavioral health. Since child forms the basis of learning and apparently children generally learn very first, they acquire learn and get the economic status of the member of their family (Cadigan April 25, 2008). The members of a family should therefore practice desired attributes they would like to be depicted in their infants. References: Boyd, D. and Bee, H. (2006). Lifespan development. 4th Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Allyn Bacon. Cadigan Karen. (April 25, 2008). Early Childhood Policies from Ecological and Family Impact Perspectives. Retrieved May 23, 2010. Cultural, Communication, and Cognition: Vygotskian Perspectives. (1985). Cambridge University Press. Retrieved May 23, 2010. Kail, R.E (2006). Children and Their Development. 4 Ed. Prentice Hall. Retrieved May 23, 2010. Patterson C (2008). Child Development. New York: McGraw-Hill. Stoker Coy. (Sunday, October 4, 2009). Adolescence and Adulthood Developmental Stages Vygotsky, L.S. (1998). Child psychology. The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky: Vol. 5. Problems of the theory and history of psychology. New York: Plenum.

Parthenogenesis Essay -- Asexual Reproduction, Honeybees

Parthenogenesis is a natural form of asexual reproduction found most commonly in lower organisms and plants. Sometimes known as virgin birth, parthenogenesis, involves the growth of an individual without fertilization. Discovered in the 18th century by naturalist and philosopher, Charles Bonnet, parthenogenesis is a progressive evolutionary strategy that some organisms have employed to maintain a colony. Just as there are benefits to organisms that utilize parthenogenesis, like reproduction without the need of male gametes, there are costs, such as a decrease in genetic variation. In the intricate eusocial organization of honeybees, there are three social classes –queen bee, worker bees and drone bees. The queen bee, as the name entails, holds the superior position in the colony. The queen bee lays all the eggs in the colony, being the only bee with a set of completely developed ovaries and having life-long fertility (Back Yard Beekeepers Association n.d.). After only one mating flight were the queen mates with a couple male drone bees, she stores the sperm to later fertilizes some of the eggs. The eggs that get fertilized develop into female worker bees and the eggs that develop without fertilization produce male drone bees. Due to the high maintenance of both the colony and its products, i.e. honey, most of the bees in a hive are female worker bees. These worker bees carry on a magnitude of different tasks, not including reproduction, which is reserved only for the queen. The male drone bees are reserved for mating with the queen bee. Following copula tion, the drone dies because of their barbed sex organ (Back Yard Beekeepers Association n.d.). Scientists have been puzzled at how this multifaceted organization is maintained bu... ...nd genetic factors play a part in sex-determination (Slobodchikoff and Daly 1971). However in some other hymenopterans, parthenogenesis occurs via thelytoky parthenogenesis. There is a subspecies of honeybee, the Cape bee (Apis mellifera capensis), which is known to exhibit thelytoky, the production of diploid females from unfertilized eggs, eliminating the paternal genome (Heimpel and de Boer 2008). In the case of the Cape bee, the queen bee determines whether the eggs are haploid or diploid (Oldroyd et al. 2008). By thelytoky parthenogenesis, the Cape queen be can produce clones of herself (Oldroyd et al. 2008). Undergoing a different form of parthenogenesis gives Cape bees the advantage of creating males that could mate with other queens (Oldroyd et al. 2008), involving one individual for reproduction, and a decrease in gene loss (Slobodchikoff and Daly 1971).

Autism and Implications of Evidence Based Research on Therapeutic Inter

Autism and Implications of Evidence Based Research on Therapeutic Interventions in Youth The field of Autism continues to be an evolving and dynamic theme of exploration and research for professionals in the medical, educational, behavioral, and social science disciplines. The research around evidenced based therapies in these realms guides professional practice, interventions, programs, and long-term care for individuals with Autism. A review of the research studies published within the past five years on the use of positive behavioral interventions and supports in the management of behaviors for students with Autism within the educational setting will occur within this paper. The review of each research study will address the focus of the study, the questions the research study aims to answer, the sample the research study investigates, the experimental or research design used in the study, and finally the statistical tests used to derive the research results. The Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (2009) published the article, Updating a meta-analysis of intervention research with challenging behaviour: Treatment validity and standards of practice, which reviews the previous research pertaining to best practice and the success rate of different strategies to address challenging behavior in children with developmental disabilities. Authors Shane Harvey, Diana Boer, Luanna Meyer, Ian Evan sought to conduct an extensive systematic meta-analysis of the literature published on research studies in regards to problem behaviors in children with developmental disabilities. Harvey, Boer, Meyer, and Evans attempt to replicate as closely as possible a research study first published approximately two decades ago on a ... ...y, S. T., Boer, D., Meyer, L. H., & Evans, I. M. (2009). Updating a meta-analysis of intervention research with challenging behaviour: Treatment validity and standards of practice [Abstract]. Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, 34(1), 67-80. doi:10.1080/13668250802690922 Kraemer, B. R., Cook, C. R., Browning-Wright, D., Mayer, G. R., & Wallace, M. D. (2008). Effects of Training on the Use of the Behavior Support Plan Quality Evaluation Guide with Autism Educators: A Preliminary Investigation Examining Positive Behavior Support Plans. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 10(3), 179-189. doi:10.1177/1098300708318796 National Autism Center (2009). National Standards Project-Addressing the Need for Evidence-Based Practice Guideline for Autism Spectrum Disorders (978-0-9836494-2-7). Retrieved May 26, 2012, from http://nationalautismcenter.org

Dynamic Characters In A Tale O :: essays research papers

Dynamic Characters in A Tale of Two Cities   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The English novelist, Charles Dickens, is one of the most popular writers in the history of literature. During his life, he wrote many books, one of them being A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens uses many dynamic characters in this novel. Dynamic characters or, characters that drastically change, play a very important role in the novel A Tale of Two Cities.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Towards the beginning of the novel, Jerry Cruncher’s actions are rather disturbing. Mrs. Cruncher is very religious and is always praying. Jerry constantly refers to her praying as flopping and unnatural, even though she says her prayers â€Å"only come from the heart. . . . they are worth no more than that †(49). He does not put up with her flopping and even abuses and criticizes her when she chooses to pray. â€Å"I won’t be prayed agin, I tell you. I can’t afford it. I’m not a going to be made unlucky by your sneaking. If you must go flopping yourself down, flop in favour of your husband and child, and not in opposition to ’em† (49). Jerry Cruncher has a secret second occupation that no one knows about. He is a body snatcher and hides this from his family and everyone else. When Mr. Lorry finds out about this, he is very disappointed and says, â€Å"My mind misgives me much, that you have used the respectable an d great house of Tellson’s as a blind, and that you have had an unlawful occupation of an infamous description† (286). At the end of the story, Jerry Cruncher makes two vows to Miss Pross. One of them is that he will never interfere with his wife’s praying. He says, â€Å"and let my words be [taken] down and [taken] to Mrs. Cruncher through yourself—that wot my opinions respectin’ flopping have undergone a change, and that wot I only hope with all my heart as Mrs. Cruncher may be a flopping at the present time† (340). The other promise he made to Miss Pross is that he will give up body snatching. Another dynamic character in A Tale of Two Cities is Dr. Alexander Manette. Before Dr. Manette went to the Bastille, he is a â€Å"young physician, originally an expert surgeon, who within the last year or two has made a rising reputation in Paris† (298). When the reader met Dr. Manette for the first time, much of is memory is forgotten and he is very weak.

Journal of Consumer Behavior Essay

Consumer complaints and recovery through guaranteeing self-service technology NICHOLA ROBERTSON1*, LISA MCQUILKEN1 and JAY KANDAMPULLY2 1 Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, Victoria 3125, Australia 2 Ohio State University, 266 Campbell Hall, 1787 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA ABSTRACT Self-service technologies are shaping the future of consumer behaviour, yet consumers often experience service failure in this context. This conceptual paper focuses on self-service technology failure and recovery. A consumer perspective is taken. Recovering from self-service technology failure is fraught with difficulty, mainly because of the absence of service personnel. The aim of this paper is to present a theoretical framework and associated research propositions in respect to the positive role that service guarantees can play in the context of self-service technology failure and recovery. It contributes to the consumer behaviour domain by unifying the theory pertaining to consumer complaint behaviour, service recovery, specifically consumers’ perceptions of justice, and service guarantees, which are set in a distinctive self-service technology context. It is advanced that service guarantees, specifically multiple attribute-specific guarantees, are associated with consumer voice complaints following self-service technology failure, which is contingent on the attribution of blame in the light of consumers’ production role. Service guarantees are argued to be associated with consumers’ perceptions of just recovery in the selfservice technology context when they promise to fix the problem, compensate only when the problem cannot be remedied, offer a choice of compensation that is contingent on failure severity, afford ease of invocation and collection, and provide a personalised response to failures. Previous classifications of SSTs are used to highlight the applicability of guarantees for different types of SSTs. Managerial implications based on the theoretical framework are presented, along with future research directions. Copyright  © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. INTRODUCTION The growing application of technology in services has  transformed the way that organisations interact with consumers (Liljander et al., 2006). Self-service technologies (SSTs) are technological interfaces that enable consumers to generate benefits for themselves, without the presence of the organisation’s personnel (Meuter et al., 2000). They enable consumers to take an active role in the production of their service experience. As SSTs are a major force shaping consumer behaviour (Beatson et al., 2006), the implications for both consumers and organisations need to be considered. The failure of SSTs is commonplace (Forbes, 2008; Robertson and Shaw, 2009). SST failure, or consumers’ perception that one or more aspects of SST delivery have not met their expectations, is attributed to poor service and failing technology (Meuter et al., 2000). Failures are inevitable with all services, especially SSTs that introduce new types of failures, such as consumer failures (Forbes, 2008; Meuter et al., 2000). However, SST recovery, e.g., fixing the problem and providing compensation, is generally reported to be poor (Forbes, 2008). While consumers demand a superior response to SST failure, complaints are largely ineffectively handled in this context (Collier and Bienstock, 2006). This is despite the fact that SST failure intensifies the need for recovery because consumers are often remote from service personnel (Collier and Bienstock, 2006). SST providers have ignored consumers, denied responsibility for failure, blamed consumers for the problem, *Correspondence to: Nichola Robertson, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, Victoria 3125, Australia. E-mail: nichola.robertson@deakin.edu.au  and provided a generic complaint response (Forbes, 2008; Holloway and Beatty, 2003). Unsurprisingly, consumers might not bother voicing because they believe that it will be useless (Holloway and Beatty, 2003; Snellman and Vihtkari, 2003). If consumers are dissatisfied with an SST encounter and service recovery is perceived to be inept, they will switch and/or spread negative word of mouth and/or mouse (Collier and Bienstock, 2006; Dong et al., 2008; Harris et al., 2006a). In the interpersonal service context, it has been argued, albeit rarely, that service guarantees, or explicit promises made by organisations to deliver a certain level of service to satisfy consumers and to remunerate them if the service fails (Hogreve and Gremler, 2009), are an effective recovery tool (Bjà ¶rlin-Lidà ©n and Skà ¥là ©n,  2003; Kashyap, 2001; McColl et al., 2005). In a recovery encounter, service guarantees have been found to provide benefits, such as reducing consumer dissatisfaction, negative word of mouth, and switching (Wirtz, 1998). We argue that in the context of SST failure, service guarantees could act as a surrogate for service personnel who, in the interpersonal service context, encourage consumer complaints and facilitate recovery. Following our extensive review of service guarantees employed in the SST context, it was revealed that guarantees are uncommon in practice for non-Internet SSTs, such as kiosks and interactive voice response (IVR). However, in the Internet context, they appear to be more widespread. For example, guarantees are often used in the context of online banking, where online security, in particular, is guaranteed. They are also prevalent in the hotel context, typically in the form of online price matching guarantees. Therefore, the ‘real-life’ examples of SST guarantees provided throughout this paper are skewed toward Internet SSTs. However, in  N. Robertson et al. guarantees also have the ability to enhance consumers’ perceptions of fairness following failure. SST guarantees indicate justice in a context that is mostly devoid of interpersonal and other external cues, thereby encouraging consumer voice, facilitating service recovery, and, ultimately, retaining the organ isation’s reputation and its consumers. Our paper contributes to the consumer behaviour domain by adding to the underdeveloped literature on consumer complaints, consumer recovery perceptions, and service guarantees in the SST context, in addition to bringing these independent streams of literature together. As SST recovery in practice is reported to be deficient from the consumer perspective, further exploration of this topic is warranted. The remainder of this paper justifies a conceptual framework that describes how guarantees applied to different types of SSTs can encourage consumers to voice following failure and enable organisations to provide just recovery for consumers. We close with theoretical contributions, managerial implications, and an agenda for  future research. developing our propositions, we apply the SST classification schemes developed by Dabholkar (1994) and Meuter et al. (2000) in respect to technology type, purpose, and location. These schemes will be used to highlight the SST contexts that best fit the application of guarantees, which is beyond Internet SSTs. There are two key types of guarantees commonly offered in interpersonal services, unconditional and attributespecific, that also appear to be relevant in the SST setting. An unconditional guarantee covers the core service offering, and consumers are free to invoke it whenever they are dissatisfied (Wirtz et al., 2000). The attribute-specific guarantee is narrower in breadth, covering either a single or multiple service attributes (Van Looy et al., 2003). It is directed to areas within an organisation where consumers perceive that the guarantee adds value (Hart et al., 1992). The attribute-specific guarantee is the type most common in interpersonal services (Van Looy et al., 2003 ). Our review revealed that this also applies to SSTs. For example, Hertz car rental offers its consumers online check-in for rentals. It guarantees that online check-in enables consumers to pick up a rental vehicle within 10 minutes or less. If it fails to fulfil this specific promise, consumers are credited $50. In another example, match.com, an online dating service, guarantees via its ‘Make Love Happen Guarantee’, that if consumers do not find someone special in six months of using its site, it will provide them with six months free service. In the interpersonal service context, consumers have been found to prefer attribute-specific guarantees when they consider invoking the guarantee, ‘. . . probably for their clarity and manifest nature’ (McDougall et al., 1998: 289). We further argue that in the SST context, generally devoid of service personnel and, therefore, with reduced opportunities for consumer monitoring, the clarity of an attribute-specific guara ntee is less likely to attract consumer abuse (McCollough and Gremler, 2004). Therefore, we advocate and assume for the remainder of this paper an attribute-specific guarantee. This can cover multiple SST attributes, which is referred to as a multiple attribute-specific guarantee. For example, BestPrintingOnline.com, an online printing service, guarantees both the quality of its product and on-time  delivery. This type of guarantee provides consumers with the opportunity to complain about several SST problems via guarantee invocation (Bjà ¶rlin-Lidà ©n and Skà ¥là ©n, 2003). In the context of service recovery, the examination of service guarantees has been scarce, and the use of service guarantees in the SST context has not been examined before. This is confirmed by Hogreve and Gremler (2009) in their review of the past 20years of service guarantee research. To begin to address these gaps, our paper conceptualises the role of service guarantees in the SST failure and recovery context from the consumer perspective. We consider different types of SSTs in developing our propositions. We argue that SST guarantees encourage consumers to voice their complaints via guarantee invocation in the absence of service personnel. In line with the call for research examining the justice dimensions (i.e., distributive, procedural, and interactional justice) of service recovery in the SST context (Forbes et al., 2005), we propose that SST Copyright  © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK The conceptual framework proposed (see Figure 1) is grounded in the theory pertaining to service guarantees, consumer voice, attribution theory, and justice theory. In justifying the framework, the distinctive characteristics of the SST context were considered, including the requirement of consumer co-production that is independent of service personnel, a lack of interpersonal interaction with service personnel, and consumers being obliged to interface and interact with technology (Robertson and Shaw, 2009). When studying SSTs, it is important to distinguish meaningfully between their types (Meuter et al., 2000). In terms of categorising SSTs, two key classification schemes can be drawn. The most cited classification scheme is that proposed by Dabholkar (1994). Her classification scheme considers the following variables: (i) who delivers the service (degree and level of consumer participation); (ii) where the service is delivered (location of the SST, i.e. remote, such as IVR or onsite, such as kiosks); and (iii) how the service is delivered (technology type, i.e. Internet and non-Internet, such as kiosks and IVR). More recently, Meuter et al. (2000) proposed a similar classification of SSTs. As per Dabholkar’s (1994) scheme, they included the different types of technologies that organisations use to interface with consumers (i.e.,  Internet and non-Internet) and the purpose of the technology from the viewpoint of consumers, that is, what consumers accomplish from using the technology (i.e., transactions and/or customer service).

A Brief History of Christianity before Jesus Christ

Damascus Document Notes from the Damascus Document 1. The document opens by pointing out that during the time before the exile to Babylon when unfaithfulness was prevalent, causing God to bring about his wrath upon the people. 2. Then there came twenty years in which a remnant of the people knew their own guilt and tried to find a way to the path of righteousness, until God provided them with a â€Å"Teacher of Righteousness† who revealed the will of God. 3.The teacher of righteousness was opposed by the Man of Mockery who brought about persecution to the group led some of them into all sorts of unrighteous acts and sinfulness. The Man of Mockery led some of the people to sin through the defilement of the temple and causing the people â€Å"to wonder in a pathless wilderness†¦abolishing the ways of righteousness†¦Ã¢â‚¬  4. The teacher of righteousness was â€Å"passed away† at some point and the writer pointed out that the incident marked the beginning of th e end of all the fighters who deserted to the Liar.The writer also pointed out that period lasted about forty years. It seems as though the writer is saying that â€Å"passing away† of the teacher of righteousness (perhaps killed) by the Man of Mockery, was began the forty year long war which ended all wars. 5. The righteous members of the group became the â€Å"the Separatists† when they left the Holy City. 6. The writer of the document foretells the coming of two Messiahs out to the â€Å"House of Aaron and Israel. † Perhaps this may have been a reference to the John the Baptist (House of Aaron) and to Jesus the Christ (House of Israel).The exception to this theory is that technically Jesus was from the House of Judah, but collectively he Judah was Israel’s son, hence, the house of Israel would suffice. 7. The writer of the document explains the administrative hierarchy for members of the covenant. The one above all was the Overseer of the assembly. The document instructs that the Overseer shall teach the groups the ordinances of God and make decisions as to who can join the group and determine the rank that each will have. The Overseer â€Å"shall be from thirty to fifty years old and will have final say on all the group’s activities. The Overseer was the ultimate authority that settled disputes between members. 8. The Document also stated that congregation shall be divided into groups of ten and every group of ten members required a priest that rules the group of ten. Each group of ten was to be registered by name and the first one to be enrolled was the priest; followed by the Levites; and then came the regular Israelites with the proselytes being the last. The same order followed when members were settled during meals and assembly meetings. Each of the members was assigned a rank. 9.From here the documents provides a long succession of rules that governed the members including: keeping the Sabbath (even a restriction f rom assisting an animal to give birth or pull it out of pit if the animal falls on the Sabbath); prohibitions against sleeping with a woman in the City of the Sanctuary; rules for bathing; restrictions against selling of clean animals or birds to gentiles in case they would offer them in sacrifices; rules to members with children that require them to force their children to take an oath to the covenant upon the age of enrollment; directives to the members to contribute two days of every month’s incomes to the poor and needy; rules demanding all new members to study for a full year under the Overseer before partial membership if granted; and rules prohibiting any membership for lunatics, the maimed, madmen, the deaf, the blind, simpletons, the lame, and the underage.

Harry Potter and Brittish Culture Essay

Since the release of the first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (titled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the United States) in 1997, the books have gained an immense popularity and commercial success worldwide. They have collectively sold more than 300 million copies and have been translated into more than 63 languages. Harry has succeeded to seduced children and teenagers as well as adults. In 2001, the first book has been adapted on screen, making a benefit of 976 million dollars. Joanne Rowling, who has become the richest writer in literary history, insisted that the entire cast must be British or Irish, to keep the cultural integrity of the novels. Apart commercial success, Harry has created a huge cultural movement. Harry Potter is studied at school and incites children to read. Fan websites, forums, books and ‘Harry Potter societies’ are everywhere. Harry has a huge impact on its readers, and it is not uncommon to find testimonies on the web relating how Harry Potter has changed one’s life. Harry potter is a seemingly ordinary English little boy. Orphan, he is raised by her aunt in an English suburb in Surrey. At the age of eleven he is told he is a wizard and that he has survived an attempted murder by the evil sorcerer Lord Voldermort. From this time, Harry is going To the Witchcraft and Wizardry School of Hogwarts, a medieval castle hidden from the non magical world, supposedly located in a mountainous and secluded region in Scotland. There, Harry and his friends will get through different adventures and will try to defeat Lord Voldemort. English author J. K. Rowling has set her story in Great Britain, and behind the very well written story of a little boy looking for his identity and fighting evil, it is a whole culture that is being dissected. The books, as well as the movies, are completely impregnated in British culture. Food, family, institutions, globalisation, politics, architecture, internationalism, English values, gender, clichà ©s, history and many other aspects are pictured and criticised. Analysing the different aspects of British culture in the books, only considering the text itself would be a mistake. In ‘Harry Potter and British Culture’ I consider ‘Harry Potter’ as a story with a rich literary background, as a schoolboy, as an English and worldwide phenomenon, as the friend of millions of people, as a commercial success, and an educational model. There is as much cultural aspects in the books and films than outside them. Studying the effect of Harry on people, either fans or religious detractors can teach us a lot about English culture and its disparities. My study will take into account Harry Potter’s British literary heritage: children literature, boarding school story, fantasy, mythology, fairy tale, Rowling’s work has a very rich literary background. I will as well provide an analysis of Rowling’s use of the books to picture and criticise British society. In addition to this, I will study the reception of the books in the Anglophone world. Bibliography: Primary texts: Rowling, Joanne K., Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (London: Bloomsbury, 1997) Rowling, Joanne K., Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (London: Bloomsbury, 1998) Rowling, Joanne K., Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (London: Bloomsbury, 1999) Rowling, Joanne K., Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (London: Bloomsbury, 2000) Rowling, Joanne K., Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (London: Bloomsbury, 2003) Rowling, Joanne K., Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (London: Bloomsbury, 2005) Rowling, Joanne K., Fantastic beasts and where to find them (London: Bloomsbury, 2001) Films: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone, dir. Chris Columbus (Warner Brothers, 2001) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, dir. Chris Columbus (Warner Brothers, 2002) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban, dir. Alfonso Cuaron (Warner Brothers, 2004) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, dir. Mike Newell (Warner Brother, 2005) Secondary Sources: Abanes, Richard, Harry Potter and the Bible: the menace beyond the magic (Camp Hill, Pa: Horizon Books, 2001) Analysis of the religious aspects in the books and of the controversy around them. Abrams, Philip, Work, urbanism and inequality: UK society today, ed. P Abrams (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1978) Study of modern British society: social classes and inequalities. Anatol, Giselle Liza (Ed), Reading Harry Potter: Critical Essays (Westport, Conn. : Praeger, 2003) Gathering of critical essays about the Harry Potter books. Analysis of different literary and cultural aspects. Blake, Andrew, The Irresistible Rise of Harry Potter (London: Verso, 2002) Study of the Harry Potter phenomenon in Britain and the world, as well as cultural aspects within the book. Butts, Dennis, Stories and Society : Children’s Literature in its Social Context (Basingstoke : Macmillan, 1992) Study of the influence of the society on children’s literature. Gupta Suman, Re-reading Harry Potter (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.) Explanation of the Potter phenomenon. Text-based analysis of its social and political implications.

Action Inquiry

The pay for teacher in Ohio will have a partial consideration based on how their students scored on their tests. The pay consideration was the result of legislation signed by Republican Gov. John Kasich. Modifications can still be made prior to this law going into effect. The current protocol for teachers pay requires that Ohio public school districts give each teacher an evaluation and grade prior to beginning the 2013-14 school year. Fifty percent of the grade the teacher receives will base on students test scores.There are mixed emotions in regards to merit pay in the Chesapeake School district especially those that are new to the district or just graduated from college. The district’s goal for implementation of merit pay is that it gives others the opportunity to learn from their colleagues. The other downfall of merit pay is that teachers will be penalized if they fail to meet the goals of merit pay and this could be cumbersome for those just embarking on a new teaching c areer. The positive aspect of merit pay is that it rewards teachers for their performance and it provides job security for keeping their student scores high in their classrooms.Motivation is also a key aspect to merit pay, because several teachers in the district feel this is a better evaluation on their performance versus the traditional evaluations they have had in the past. Recruitment has also plagued the district and merit pay can be an alluring factor to qualified teachers looking to move into the district. Retention of qualified teachers has also presented issues with the district so the incentive of a bonus entices many teachers to remain in their positions.The profession of teaching has had the black cloud over its head due to the low salary that many of our teachers face in the public school systems; merit pay can entice many college students to choose the teaching profession. Why is merit pay such a controversial issues for teachers and teachers unions? When the President got involved in the issue of teacher’s merit pay, it created even more hype about merit pay. Those that oppose merit pay feel that there is very little evidence that merit pay will improve a teacher’s classroom performance. (Steiny, J 2009). There is a federal fund that is set up to attract qualified teachers.It is a six hundred million dollar fund that is set up to attract good teachers to good schools. What questions should be asked prior to implementing? How can school administration implement merit pay to provide a positive impact to the Chesapeake School district? What will be the criteria to earning the incentive of merit pay? How will the school evaluate the effectiveness of merit pay? The school district feels that merit pay will make teachers accountable for their progress with students by having merit pay as a source of evaluation that could either adversely affect their pay.Merit pay in regards to evaluation can weed out bad teachers that plagued our school district. The positive impact it could have on the district is that merit pay will attract high performing teachers to seek positions in a school district that has areas that could use qualified teachers to bring their test scores up in the district. What research can be utilized to measure the effect merit pay has on the school district? There will be several methods used for evaluation of merit pay. Surveys for teachers, students and parents, principal reports and observations will provide a qualitative date resource for the district.The design of the research is for experimental purposes and once the research is reviewed, a decision will be made as to implementing the merit pay system into the district. There will be further research conducted after the school begins the merit pay system to check for satisfaction and teacher performance. It also should reflect the economic impact it had on the school district’s budget. The â€Å"after† effects of merit pay could be nefit from have committees formed by the school board and school administration. The Chesapeake School District utilizes emails and texts to inform parents of important meeting and dates that involve the school.These emails and texts also involve the teaching staff. A meeting could be held that involved forming groups or committees to study the impact the merit pay system is having on the school district. This would provide a checks and balance system. The committees would consist of teachers and parents. The committee will conduct their own research via surveys from parents, students and teachers within the district. The other committee would consist of principals and other school administration. The goal of the groups is to conduct their own research and to meet to discuss any issues that face the newly implanted system.Each committee can bring valuable research to the table in order to make effective changes that could make the system that would be fair to all that is involved an d bring a sense of security to the district. I had heard various opinions on merit pay from many of the teachers at Chesapeake and for the most part many are comfortable with the system. I believe that it could provide a positive impact to the school and provide better retention rates for the school. It also is an effective method of revealing what teachers are ineffective in the classroom, that could either learn from other teacher or relieving those teachers from their duties.Chesapeake district for the most part employ qualified teachers but at times have found themselves in difficult situations in recruiting teachers for subject areas, particularly in special education, math and science. I feel that the merit system will attract highly qualified teachers to fill these positions and retain them. Rural area schools are many times plagued with poor test scores due to the lack of qualified teachers in the school system and having a merit system in place could employ a staff of teach ers that could educate these students and for the district to see a rise in their standardized test scores

Fast food Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Fast food - Research Paper Example They carried out this study to understand the perceptions among Latino parents on their role(s) in countering the alarming obesity cases among children (Glassman, Figueroa and Irigoyen, 4-13). This study had a sample representation of twenty-six parents and was conducted in New York City with preschool parents. The parents unanimously agreed that they had a critical role in preventing the obesity problem among their children through proper dietary practices. However, there were also some hindrances to the effectiveness of their fight against obesity through issues of societal pressures, family history and interparental / intergenerational issues as well as the adolescence issues. Therefore, the study would reveal the importance of empowering the parents to fight the obesity menace among the children through such mechanisms as family based interventions which are culturally effective and helping them overcome the hindrances outlined above. From such a study as this, it is clear that t hough the problem has a lot to blame on the actual food taken and thus by extension to the fast food industry, the most to blame over the condition are the particular persons taking the food. For instance, the fast food outlets would not be blamed over the increasing obesity conditions among the kids but rather the parents who take the active role of funding the children to get the food or better still taking them to these outlets for meals. Diet is the major cause of obesity as a fact as illustrated from the above excerpt. Nevertheless, genetic structure within families as well as developmental stages of human beings such as the adolescence has critical contribution to the occurrence of such a condition. It is therefore a justified concern to evaluate the role that fast food, as part of regular diet to many people in the modern society, has played in raising the cases of obesity. The fast foods are blamed on having high levels of saturated fats and calories which are interpreted to contribute greatly to adding weight uncontrollably (Sheehan, para 2). This therefore confirms the fears and blames that people often level on fast food on occurrences of obesity. Research has equally played a major role in supporting the claims on causes of obesity where many such study findings support poor dietary practices to be the major cause of the condition. This however does not totally disregard other influential factors that would equally be blamed on the rising cases of obesity among people, especially the Americans. They are therefore justified to level accusations and blame on fast food as a cause to their weight problems; obesity is such an example. Although it is a well-known fact that fast food is commonly unhealthy, the obesity epidemic in America is not caused by the fast food industry, but rather the individuals that make the conscious choice to dine at these restaurants. Discussion Parents and guardians have a most influential role to pay on the habits that the children pick up as they grow, with diet and eating habits being among them. Good parentage entails setting good examples to the young on such aspects as healthy eating and best joints to hang out in among other responsibilities. In this argument, I stand to refute that the availability fast food joints at the proximity of

Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 18

Personal Statement Example It is through family that I have learnt to invest in simple things such as happiness and respect, prerequisites to every good life. Playing Persian drums requires both physical and mental skills. Physically, one need to develop a listening ear, it is through listening that one learns how and what to play. Any missed part means a lost rhythm which waters down the efforts of other instrumentalists and that of the lead singer or singers. Secondly, one needs a sense of rhythm and timing, one has to identify a rhythm fast enough to be able to play and aid the other performers. This also means that as a Persian drummer you have to have a fast response in order to coordinate well with the rest. The last physical skill is hands and feet coordination. One has to be able to coordinate their hands and feet to create the required rhythm. This level of coordination should be top notch to ensure a stable rhythm through out a performance. Physical skills and engagements may spell one’s prowess on the drums; however, it is the mental skills that allow one to develop the requisite physical skills. The most important mental skills are: a positive mindset, self-discipline and patience. A positive mindset helps one’s patience and resilience as they learn how to play drums. This is because it is a process and without a positive mindset then one will undoubtedly give up. Self-discipline is also another skill this is greatly informed by a positive mindset. Self-discipline ensures that a drummer becomes committed to his act and manages his time well to provide adequate time for practice. Just like in any other engaging activity, patience is paramount. One has to continually resist the urge to walk before one can crawl, a drummer must learn to make the small steps which ultimately build up the necessary skills. As evident, playing Persian drums is an involving engagement. Taking the learning process and being able to stay focused has required a lot of determination. Thankfully,

Short Response Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Short Response Paper - Essay Example Connie tries a split personality with hope that, she will fit both at hope and elsewhere. She does this by having a selected smile, walking style, hairstyle, and even laughter style one meant for home and the other meant for elsewhere. The short story is from a potential victim’s view where Connie is a victim while Arnold Friend is a killer who seduces Connie and gives her promises of security (Oates 1-7). Indeed, Arnold Friend depicts a strange and mismatched appearance that represents danger (Oates 4). He also seems to conceal threat by depicting a calm voice, gentle coaxing, and convincing voice (Oates 3-7). When Arnold visits her home in her parents’ absence, he is a hard character for Connie to define, he lies somewhere between young and old, human and non-human, calm and strange. She is unable to figure him out and his intentions. The author asserts, â€Å"She couldnt decide if she liked him or if he was just a jerk, and so she dawdled in the doorway and wouldnt come down or go back inside (Oates 3).† Connie’s teenage rejects the role of daughter to her mother, sister to June, and â€Å"nice† girl to the family to cultivate her sexual persona, which flourishes only when she is away from her home and family. The music Connie listens to draws her into the world of fantasies. It paints an ideal love world and love life, which makes her daydream about boys (Oates 5-7). The author does not make it clear however whether Connie is just day dreaming busking in the sun while listening to her music from the radio or Arnold was at her home in reality. This aspect of the story leave the reader with no clarity of Arnold and Connie escapade. Did it happen in reality or was she

Leadership styles in the public service (public service for example Essay

Leadership styles in the public service (public service for example police, fire service, etc) - Essay Example (SWAITHE, 2001, 26-27). Successful tactical management / leadership turn out to be more important as the pressures for larger implementation and restructuring required of law enforcement organisations, as police leadership entails an innovative approach to these demands. The law enforcement officers normally are under the direction of paramilitary and bureaucratic models of leadership, which models are represented by the extremely centralised and managed theories that police function is quantifiable and controllable. In this respect to deal with growing environmental and technological ambiguities, several agencies transformed to a specialized or post-bureaucratic model of leadership. This style of leadership involves an outstanding methodology to conceptualising organisational public management. Contemporary manners of law enforcement leadership facilitate a decentralisation of commitment, authority, power, and decision-making, together with community concern and assessment. (ROGERS, 2008, 38-39). A better-suggested style of leadership that can possibly help law enforcement agencies as they progress in an environment transformation is Spiritual Leadership Style. This is a fundamental leadership concept for organisational change planned to generate an inherently stimulated, learning organisation. The principle of Spiritual Leadership is to initiate vision and value similarity across the strategic, empowered team and levels of individual and, finally, to promote advanced stages of organisational dedication and efficiency. Spiritual Leadership consists of the values, attitudes, and behaviours that one must assume to inherently motivate oneself and others in order that both have a feeling of spiritual endurance through calling and membership. Furthermore, the Spiritual Leadership paradigm offers an integrating Framework for a police department's transformation struggle, specifically as it associates to growing stages of inherent motivation, dedication, productivity, and employee well-being. Leadership style pertains to the prototype of behaviour a leader applies across the full diversity of leadership circumstances. Evaluating all the variables which influence the efficiency of the work environment and the optional effort prioritized by the group, Leadership Style demonstrates the greatest influence. The extensiveness of a leader's collection of styles establishes his or her efficiency. Leaders descend toward styles that are considered natural to them, and may limit themselves to only those styles that appear naturally. What feels natural is principally determined by the leader's individual proficiencies. In Leadership Style, there is no accurate or erroneous as the most successful style relies on, and differs according to the mission, people, and circumstance to deal with. These styles are comparatively successful depending on the characteristics of the circumstance, such as: 1) experience of the team; 2) employee strengths and weaknesses; 3) intricacy of the mission; 4) time pressures; 5) risk associated with deviation from performance; and resources available (time and people). (THIBAULT ET AL, 2004, 53-54). Whilst managers deal a limitless range of leadership circumstances, research has revealed that there are basically six

Operations and Human Resource Management Assignment

Operations and Human Resource Management - Assignment Example Working effectively with agencies is, therefore, a key consideration for institutions that require their services. A comprehensive analysis of Proposals should, therefore, be done where the institution’s aim will be to identify the best agency to provide for its requirements. The incompetence of agencies will have consequential negative effects on the institutions that hire them and therefore scrutiny is crucial. The component aspects of a good agency range from their credibility to their ability and efficiency. An efficient agency begins with good management. Those in the positions of managers should be conscious of the fact that they are dealing with demanding employees as well as corporate organizations. It is therefore important for them to lay down clear objectives and goals that play the role of guiding the stakeholders as well as striking a balance among their interests. It then leads down to the ability of employees and their motivation to ensuring they give their all towards the attainment of the laid down foals and objectives (Caldwell, 2007). The other aspect is that of risk management. In the agency, an organization is faced with many risks and challenges. The best way to manage these risks is by insuring themselves against any feasible causes that may lead to losses. The other credible way is risk sharing. Agencies may spread their risks with other partners in the same industry such that in the occurrence of losses, they will not bear the whole burden. The other very important activity is budget development and management activity. Just like any other organization, an agency needs to properly plan for its finances. This is best done through the formulation of a budget. A budget stipulates ways in which finances are to be earned and also how they are to be spent (Grey, 1999). A deficit in  the budget may be translated as insolvency of the business which is quite a risky position to beat. A surplus, on the other hand, would mean that the organization is well placed financially and is actually making profits. The budget, therefore, is an important tool for agencies since it is able to evaluate just how much the agency should spend and in what activities.  

Prejudice Vs. Tolerance, God And Religion, Violence And Creulty Themes Essay

Prejudice Vs. Tolerance, God And Religion, Violence And Creulty Themes in A Good Man is Hard to Find - Essay Example "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," the title selection of O'Connor's 1955 collection, has received a great deal of critical attention. The story serves as an excellent introduction to O'Connor's fiction because it contains all the elements that typify O'Connor's work: a combination of humor and horror, grotesque characters, and an opportunity for characters to accept God's grace. Here the author narrates the story in juxtaposition with predominantly three prime themes viz. Prejudice vs. tolerance, God and religion and over all violence in relation to cruelty. To deal with the story it should be remembered that first the circumstantial evidences prevailing at the point of time. The socio-economic context is the most important scenario to understand the narrative of the story. The Civil Rights Movement Fueled with the speeches of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and with the deaths of several African-American activists, the civil rights movement was at its peak in 1955. (Brinkmeyer, 18-22). The story unfolds in this context. O'Connor's story is told by a third-person narrator, but the focus is on the Grandmother's perspective of events. The first and very important theme of this story is the conflict between prejudices vs. tolerance. The Grandmother proclaims "Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people. Just you read it. I wouldn't take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn't answer to my conscience if I did." (O'Connor, 137) on a different occasion she is dressed up "in case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady" (O'Connor, 138) shows the conservative nature of the woman which is nothing but an extended ego of her prejudices. Time and again her exclamations and statements narrates that she is not color blind in any sense. But once confronted with Misfit she appears more open and avant-garde with dialogues like "you shouldn't call yourself The Misfit because I know you're a good man at heart. I can just look a t you and tell" (O'Connor, 147) or when she tells him "I just know you're a good man, you're not a bit common!" (O'Connor, 148) This is a nice gesture to overcome her prejudice and convey herself as an open minded lady who is in the heart a tolerant person by nature. The second theme of this story is the underlying faith in God and religion. The theological discussion at the end of the story, between the grandmother and The Misfit, has gotten a lot of attention from critics. Is she serious about him being her child Does he really believe in Jesus' miracles, since he believes there is no pleasure in life Religious beliefs, invoked only at a moment of dire need are nothing like the beliefs that people live by--or are sudden realizations the actual crux of religious belief There might not be any direct answers to these questions, but there is plenty of room for discussion. The "good man" of the title reverberates off the "good woman" of the last lines. The grandmother would have been a good woman, but during the earlier course of the story, the term "good man" is used quite loosely: the grandmother calls just about anyone she wants to please a "good man." She bemoans, with others, the lack of any real respect or goodness in the present day--people make this complaint all the time. (Gordon, 87) At the same time, she lies, and manipulates, and is generally a pain to everyone--she gets her entire family killed. At the same time, The Misfit does have some points: do punishments fit crimes What is "good" And what did Jesus really do, exactly Dialogues between Grandma and Misfit reveal in entirety the friction between them in terms if faith and a subdued inclination towards religion like "Pray, pray," the grandmother began, "pray, pray . . ." To this Misfit relies "I never was a bad boy that I

Honeybees Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Honeybees - Essay Example Large farms even hire beekeepers to increase the number of bees that will make pollination faster. Another importance of honeybees is that they produce wax which are used in candle and polish making. These facts are not new discovery though. In old walls and caves, pictures of bees were found painted believed to be done thousand years ago (USDOA). Amusingly, while honeybees play important roles in agriculture industry of the United States, they were brought to United States by European colonizers during the early days and not really native of the country. Honey bee is a highly adaptable insect that can live to a wide range of climate and geographic location. It is indigenous and able to adjust to a wide variety of climes and geographic regions. The natural territory of honeybees is the area of Southern Africa to somewhere in Southern Scandinavia, and from continental Europe to West Asia(USDOA). It is the southwestern part of United States and northern Mexico where honeybees are most likely abundant and of different variety. Carl Hayden from Bee Research Center in Tucson, Arizona said that are about 1000 to 1200 species of bees within a one hundred mile radius of Tucson. However, it was found out that neither one is native honeybee. Identified are around 25,000 species of bees and almost 40,000 are in waiting to be listed down. Placing them to specific genus takes time for the entomologists. Unluckily, out of 25,000, 8 to 10 species believed to be honey bees. This number is still growing though because there are lot of identified species already (USDOA). Interestingly, honey bees are classified by strain and not through genus and species. If we say strain, it means place of origin. Most common strains of honey bees currently found in the United States are the Apis mellifera ligustica, the Italian bees, and the Apis mellifera carnica, the Carniolan bees. But science learns to discover on how to interbreed. This practice is brought about by the need to produce more honey and enhance pollination. One considered as most famous attempt at creating such a hybridized line was the crossing of the European lines and the African lines (USDOA). Mating the unassuming but high honey producing European bees to the aggressive African counterparts is the goal of crossing the lines of African and European. It was in 1956 when the test was done by Brazilian researchers hoping that a more hardworking bee will be the result. However they did not succeed. Test result showed that the aggressive traits dominated and in essence veiled the characteristics of the European bees. The conducted test became popular when a worker in the laboratory where the bees were located accidentally removed the screens which kept the queens in their hives (USDOA). Accordingly, around 26 group of the Africanized bees flew. Ever since, the descendants have been moving northward. After 40 years later, African honey bees are found in the southwestern United States. This is causing concerns due to their aggressive nature and capacity to replace the well-known colonies of productive European lines (USDOA). There is a caste system among colonies of bees. The queen ranks at the top of the caste which primary duties are to populate the colony by mating with male honey bees. Directing activities to the workers is another duty of the queen. The queen

Financial Review and Comparison Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Financial Review and Comparison - Research Paper Example For the purpose of this assignment I have chosen PepsiCo Inc and the Coca-Cola Company. Both are globally well recognized brands in beverage industry. Besides beverage brands, both the companies are offering additional products. Pepsi incorporation has established itself as a supplier of quality snacks products such as Lays and Cheetos on the other hand the Coca-Cola Company is offering brand in mineral water such as Kinley in competition to Aquafina, a mineral water product by Pepsi, fruit juices such as Pulpy Orange, coffee and other alcohol-free beverages. The performance of both competitors in the year 2012 has been analyzed with the help of the key ratios. Net profit margin is computed as net profit to sales, and sometimes also profit after tax to sales. It is always measured in terms of percentage. This ratio represents the ability of the management to provide the investors with a reasonable return on their investments (Mohapatra). A higher net profit ratio indicates the efficiency of the management to control the cost. When comparing both the companies on the basis of net profit ratio the Coca-Cola Company has generated 2.64% addition net profit than Pepsi which indicate better slightly tight control over costs. Gross profit can be defined as the profit remaining after all the directly related cost of sales or services have been deducted from the revenue. Directly attributable cost include only those cost which are necessary to produce the goods. It is also represented in terms of percentage. The higher the ratio the better is for the company (Gildersleeve). It is an important profitability ratio which indicates the margin between the revenue and the cost of the product. On the basis of gross profit margin Pepsi is much better than Coca-Cola. The GP ratio of Pepsi is 52.49% in comparison to the 44.09% in case of Coca-Cola. This reveals an important fact that the Pepsi Company is better in controlling manufacturing cost and the Coca-Cola Company

Business operational Essay Example for Free

Business operational Essay To provide learners with an understanding of the role and importance of operations management (OM) in the efficient and effective production of goods and services. Scenario: WH Smith is a major, well-known and publically-quoted book retailer and newsagent in the UK. Recently it was reported how Kate Swann, the former CEO for the last 10 years, has turned the company around from ? 135m losses to ? 106m profit in a decade. (source: www. theguardian. com/business/blog/2013/jan/23/wh-smith-kate-swann-profit, accessed 1 October 2013) (Also see copy attached) This is an example of how the principles of operations management can be used to reactivate a firm. How did she do it? Using the above as a starting point, together with other information sources, which you should research yourself, on WH Smith, you are asked to address the Tasks below regarding operations management. Task 1 (this meets LO 1, ACs 1. 1, 1. 2 and 1. 3) Based on the Scenario, produce a document explaining the nature and importance of Operation Management and its key elements. Your document for this Task must include the following elements (among others as you wish): I. A definition of OM and an explanation of its importance; II. The key elements of OM; III. The need to produce goods or services on time and to cost, with the right quality and within the law; IV. The role of OM in achieving strategic objectives; and V. Produce systems and sub-systems diagrams for any WH Smith operations processes, including a brief explanation of your diagrams. Task 2 (this meets LO 2 ACs 2. 1, 2. 2 and 2. 3) Based on the Scenario, produce a document explaining the relationship between OM and strategic planning. Your document for this Task must include the following elements (among others as you wish): I. II. III. Explain the implementation of the â€Å"3Es† in WH Smith; Critically review the tension between cost minimisation and quality maximisation in the context of WH Smith; and Assess the importance of the five performance objectives that underpin operations management. Task 3 (this meets LOs 3 and 4 in full) Base on the Scenario, produce a document explaining how to organise and apply relevant techniques in a typical production process. Your document for this Task must include the following elements (among others as you wish): I. II. III. IV. Comment briefly on the importance of operational planning and control. Explain what linear programming is, and give an example in relation to any part of the operations of WH Smith; Produce a network plan and indicate the resultant critical path for any operation in WH Smith. (for this task, you should include a set of operational outcomes, which are clearly defined). Explain how quality can be defined and maintained. Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria In order to Pass this unit, the evidence that the learner presents for assessment needs to demonstrate that they can meet all the Learning Outcomes for the unit. The Assessment Criteria determine the standard required to Pass this unit. The Assessment Criteria will act as a guide to help you put into context your answers to fulfill the Learning Outcomes. Learning Outcome Assessment Criteria 1. 1 explain the importance of operational management 1. 2 explain the need to produce safely; on time; to cost; to LO 1Understand the quality and within the law nature and importance 1. 3 explain the link between operations management and of operational strategic planning management 1. 4 produce a systems diagram to illustrate a typical business 2. 1 explain the ‘Three Es’ (economy, efficiency and effectiveness) LO2 Understand the link between operations 2. 2 explain the tension between cost minimisation and management and quality maximisation strategic planning 2. 3 evaluate the significance of the five performance objectives that underpin operations management 3. 1 explain linear programming LO3 Understand how 3. 2 evaluate critical path analysis and network planning to organise a typical 3. 3 explain the need for operational planning and control production process LO4 Be able to apply relevant techniques to the production of an operational plan for a typical business 4. 1 produce a set of clearly defined operational outcomes 4. 2 produce a network plan and indicate the resultant critical path 4. 3 explain how quality could be defined and maintained. INSTRUCTIONS AND INFORMATION FOR LEARNERS This assessment and the Tasks above are designed to assess your achievement of all four of the Learning Outcomes and associated Assessment Criteria for a Pass in the ‘Employability Skills’ unit of the qualification you are undertaking. Your tutor/ deliverer will advise you when you should start work on the assignment, the date when you must hand in your completed work and when you can expect to get your mark and feedback on your work. Guidance on this subject is provided on page 1 of this assignment brief. You should make sure that you plan your work carefully, to ensure that you cover all four learning outcomes of the assignment, and complete it within the time limit specified. There is no official guideline wordcount or percentage marking (other than Pass/ Merit/ Distinction/ Refer). By way of guidance only for this particular assignment, it is recommended that you write a minimum of 2000-2500 words total and match the weighting of your efforts to the wordcount indicated. Your statements in answer to the Learning Outcomes need to be prefixed with the specific Learning Outcome title or at least the Learning Outcome number. This will help you keep on track and should ensure you address the details. You must make sure that you acknowledge any sources you have used to complete this assignment, listing reference material and web sites used. The assignment result will be published on BITE’s Moodle online education materials platform, normally within 6 weeks of the submission date. If your assignment is assessed as referred, you will be notified with an indication of the areas to be addressed. You may resubmit an assignment, or submit a new assignment, on a further two occasions during your period of registration as an Institute learner with Edexcel. If there is anything in these instructions or in the assignment itself which you do not understand, please seek guidance from your tutor/ deliverer. Merit grade Descriptors For learners to achieve a Merit they must: Identify and apply strategies to find appropriate solutions Indicative characteristics Learners must demonstrate that: An effective approach to assignment planning, study and research is in evidence Evaluations and judgements, using evidence, have been made Problems with a number of variables have been considered Select/design and apply appropriate methods/techniques A range of relevant theories have been included Relevant theories and techniques have been applied to the case study A range of different sources of information have been used The selection of methods/techniques of analysis and use of source material have been justified Information/ data has been synthesised and processed Present and communicate appropriate findings The written assessment is coherent, shows logical development and a sound understanding of theories, concepts and research evidence The written assessment demonstrates that an appropriate structure and approach has been used The written assignment demonstrates a writing style appropriate for audiences both familiar and unfamiliar with the subject. The written work is clearly written and technical language has been accurately used Distinction grade Distinction descriptors For learners to achieve a Distinction they must: Indicative characteristics Learners must demonstrate that: Use critical reflection to evaluate own work and justify valid conclusions. Conclusions have been arrived at through synthesis of ideas and evaluation of research evidence and have been justified The validity of results has been evaluated using defined criteria Realistic and informed recommendations have been proposed against defined characteristics for success Take responsibility for managing and organising activities. The written assignment shows excellent planning, is organised coherently and is clearly expressed Independence of thought and gathering of research material has been demonstrated Material used has been clearly understood and well organised The importance of individual and group behaviour in organisations and its management has been recognised and addressed Demonstrate convergent/lateral/creative thinking. There is evidence of self-generated ideas with evaluation Convergent and lateral thinking are evident in the written assignment Creative thinking is evidenced with unfamiliar material. Problem-solving is in evidence Innovation and creative thought are in evidence Receptiveness to new ideas is evident Ideas have been generated, evaluated and informed decisions/ recommendations are made. Case Study: WHSmith †¢ WH Smith: Kate Swann turns ? 135m losses into ? 106m profit in a decade One of the UKs most highly regarded – and highly paid – retailers achieved success by going against the grain WH Smith chief executive Kate Swann favours the old retail adage: sales are vanity, profits are sanity. Photograph: PA When Kate Swann arrived at WH Smith in 2003, there was a widely held view that the chains days were numbered. A decade on, she has turned losses of ? 135m into a profit of probably ? 106m this year, and shares that were languishing at 250p are now changing hands at 650p. Swann is now one of the UKs most highly regarded – and highly paid – retailers. Yet she has achieved this remarkable feat by breaking many of the rules of running a successful high street retail business. When Swann announced she was pulling out of selling music and DVDs because the profit margins were thin and getting thinner, rivals thought she had taken leave of her senses – she was instantly kissing goodbye to about 30% of Smiths turnover. On a same-store basis on the high street, WHS now sells roughly ? 65 of goods for every ? 100 of custom seven years ago. The demise of Zavvi and HMV in the face of online competition shows it was a brave – and correct – decision. Swann favours the old retail adage: sales are vanity, profits are sanity. By focusing on profitable sales and cutting costs relentlessly, she has boosted profit margins – according to analyst Nick Bubb by an almost incredible 15 percentage points. While other retailers have been pouring resources into the digital world, Smiths big online strategy is its Funky Pigeon card site. Instead, Swann plans to open more shops, even though they are, to be frank, deeply unpleasant places to shop, stuffed with stock and screaming promotional banners. While the supermarkets have to tread carefully in the products they offer and have been targeted for displaying sweets at the checkout, Smiths has sold stationery aimed at teenagers and young women adorned with the Playboy bunny motif and Swanns checkout assistants attempt to force-feed the nation giant bars of Galaxy and chocolate oranges. Her secret? Maybe its the low profile. While many rivals enjoy the limelight, holding forth on the woes of the economy, the lack of women in the boardroom and political issues such as the in-out debate, Swann says nothing. She doesnt give interviews. On Wednesday, at Smiths AGM, a shareholder stood to offer thanks for her transformation. Asked to respond, she merely said: Thank you, lets move on. No doubt she will. There will be a queue for her services.