Leadership and Management: a Comparative Essay Essay

Over the years there has been a lot of debate on the similarities and differences between management and leadership. Weathersby (1999) argued that â€Å"management is the allocation of scarce resources against an organization’s objective, the setting of priorities, the design of work and the achievement of results† whereas leadership â€Å"focuses on the creation of a common vision†. Schruijer and Vansina (1999) proposed that management is about â€Å"doing things right† and leadership is â€Å"doing the right things†. Both studies appear to view the management function as an administrative role while placing the leadership function as a visionary role. Locander, Luechauer, and Pope (2007) support this notion by arguing that leadership is like theater and that the leader is the visible manifestation of an organization’s or project’s success or failure. Therefore, he or she must engage the followers to believe in and achieve a desired outcome â€Å"By paying attention to what people want and expect, and by searching for solutions to problems, the leader can act appropriately and fulfill the desired role† (Locander, et. al, 2007). Lichtenstein, Bien, Marion, Seers, Orton, and Schreiber (2006) added a relational dimension to their definition of leadership stating that â€Å"leadership is an emergent event, an outcome of relational interactions among agents†¦leadership emerges through dynamic interactions†. Having a background in Communication Studies, I also look at how relationships affect the definition of both leadership and management. Effective leadership and management results in the achievement of goals; quality leadership and management builds and sustains working relationships in the process of achieving those goals. Having this understanding, I define leadership as creating and maintaining relationships in such a way that it motivates people to achieve personal and shared goals. Management, in turn, nurtures those relationships and bridges the vertical gap in organizational structure. â€Å"The critical resource of most businesses is no longer capital but the people a company hires, motivates and develops† (Karp, 2006). Good leaders should inspire people to want to better themselves first and then use that esteem to better their external environment (i.e. the organization or the task at hand). Chen (2006) states â€Å"Business is often a roller coaster of highs and lows. Therefore it is to be expected that high performance leaders are more skilled at motivating themselves and others in challenging situations†. Here, Chen alludes to a key factor in good leadership and that is the leader’s self esteem. Malhotra, Majchrzak, and Rosen (2007) propose that a leader is responsible for â€Å"articulating a vision for the team, communicating the vision with passion, setting an execution plan so the vision can be accomplished, forming coalitions of believers, aligning others behind the vision, and shaping a team culture by articulating operating values†. In order for a leader to do the above-referenced items, he or she must have high moral standards and a positive self-image to exact such duties. The Bible affirms that good leadership is rooted in high moral standards. Peter 3:8-11 reads â€Å"Finally, [be ye] all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, [be] pitiful, [be] courteous: Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it†. REFERENCES Chen, J. (2006). International Corporate Highfliers: What Makes Them Tick. British Journal of Administrative Management, 52, 26-27. Karp, T. (2006). Transforming Organisations For Organic Growth: The DNA of Change Leadership. Journal of Change Management, 6, 3-20. Lichtenstein, B., Uhl-Bien, M., Marion, R., Seers, A., Orson, J., & Schreiber, C. (2006). Complexity Leadership Theory: An Interactive Perspective On Leading In Complex Adaptive Systems. Emergence: Complexity & Organization, 8, 2-12. Locander, W., Luechauer, D., & Pope, J. (2007). Leadership Is Like Theater. Marketing Management, 16, 45-47. Malhotra, A., Majchrzak, A., & Rosen, B. (2007). Leading Virtual Teams. Academy of Management Perspectives, 21, 60-70. Schruijer, S. and Vansina, L. (1999). Leadership and Organization Change: An Introduction. European Journal of Work & Organizational Psychology, 8, 1-8. Weathersby, G. (1999). Leadership vs. Management. Management Review, 88, 5.

Cars enslave us rather than liberate us Essay

Cars have been in use since the year 1870. Since then the number of cars on the roads has increased many times over. Cars now seem to have made our live easier and more convenient. Nevertheless, in my opinion, more cars give us much more problems than their benefits.First of all, people must work much harder in order to afford a car. This also means that they have to earn a considerable amount of money. The prices of new cars are so high that they usually need to take a credit to buy one. Moreover, cars are not only expensive to buy, but also cost very much to run. In fact, the gas price gets higher and the cost of maintenance is overpriced. Therefore, you have to work more hours if you want to have a car and still be able to live a decent life. one has to work overtime if he or she wants to have a car and keep their car still useful. Second, the quality of life in our cities is made worse because of cars. There are many traffic jams every day and the number of accidents is on the in crease. Consequently, people almost are getting more stress when they drive on street and feel risky every time. Futhermore, cars have had an adverse impact on the environment, causing an alarming rise in the levels of pollution worldwide. In addition, the toxic gases that cars eliminate pollute the air we breathe and this seems to threaten our lives every day. To make the matter worse, the main reason that develops the number of lung cancer is the air pollution. There are many people who die from lung cancer every year. Thirdly, I think that people who own cars are worried about them, especially when their cars being stolen or damaged. In order to cope with this worry, they have to install expensive alarm systems and, to make matters worse, car-owners have to avoid areas of the city where cars get broken into or stolen. Finally, there are a lot of advantages of the cars. For example, you can set off to any place you want no matter what time of the day and if there is any public transport to there. Another advantage in my view that cars are very helpful in carrying things from one place to another. To conclude, it is clear that cars seem to have made our live easier and more convenient. In conclusion, cars have many advantages but enslave us even more. Cars take us much affordability, threaten our life and worry us about making the car safe.

Smart materials

The primary characteristic of a â€Å"smart material† is that it has the ability to respond to external stimuli in a technically useful and technically controlled way. The words â€Å"technically useful† and â€Å"technically controlled† are emphasized since all materials respond to external stimuli of some sort or other (as a simple example, all materials respond to temperature by changing their volume), however, to be considered a â€Å"smart material† the response must be one that is useful in an engineering application.Thus, any discussion of smart materials must include a consideration of the application of these materials. Animals and plants could be considered as consisting of a large number of smart materials, however, the scope of this article will be restricted to inorganic and organic materials that are used in a more traditional engineering sense. ) The term smart material often also has a historical context, only being applied to relatively ne w materials. For example, consider the simple bimetallic strip.Bimetallic strips have been around for centuries and consist of two metals Joined so that the difference in the coefficient of thermal expansion causes the strip to bend in response to a change in temperature. This can be used, eg, to open or close a echanical valve or electrical circuit. The stimuli may either be provided by the natural environment or engineered into a structure that the material is part of. However, bimetallic strips are often not thought of as smart materials because they have been around and used for a long time.Smart materials are also often characterized by the fact that they transform energy from one mode to another, eg, from electrical energy to mechanical energy. Smart materials are also often incorporated in so-called Smart Structures, which are structures that, as well as being the structural support of a building or vehicle, also have a further function. For example, a load-bearing structure that also measures the load that it is carrying is an example of a smart structure. 2.Classification Schemes How a material is considered or classified depends to some extent on the scientific or technical discipline that is considering the material. For example, a material scientist is interested in the internal structure and how this may change under the influence of an external stimulus, whereas an application engineer may be more concerned with the function of the material and what it can be used for. 2. 1 . Classification According to Function. Smart materials can be classified according to the intended primary function, eg, as a sensor, actuator, or energy generator.Piezoelectric material is an example of a class of smart materials that can be used in all three of these functions. When subjected to stress these materials generate an electrical voltage that can be used as a response signal and also to generate power. Alternatively, when subjected to a voltage these materials ge nerate a mechanical stress. The interchangeable nature of stimulus and response is a common, but not universal, characteristic ot 1 Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology. Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. vol. O smart materials. Materials that exhibit this interchangeable nature are often good candidates for smart structures with minimal external support requirements: one smart material both sensing and generating power and also capable of providing a mechanical or other response. Active Sensing Materials. The primary action of these materials is to transform one form of energy to another form of energy for, in most cases, a further device or material used to then generate a response. Active sensing materials may often be used to generate energy.For example, the voltage developed by electric polarization of a material can be used to accumulate charge, and the solar cell both detects the presence of incident light and generates a significant voltage and current. Passive Sensing Materials. These materials have a passive response to external stimuli, ie, do not transform an energy source to another energy. Thus these devices need an external source of power to operate. They are not really â€Å"smart†, but are included here for completeness since they do appear as sensors in larger smart systems.An example of a passive response is a change in electrical conductivity due o, eg, a change in pH of a solution. Actuating Materials. The primary function is to transform one form of energy to another form as a response to some external stimuli and to perform an action. 2. 2. Classification According to Smartness. Another possible classification is according to the degree of independence of operation that the smart material needs to operate in a smart structure. In this case, materials that require the least external support (eg, external power or processing capability) being considered smarter.A common example of a totally independen t smart material is that used in photochromic sunglasses. In this case, the energy required to drive the response, darkening of the sunglasses is provided directly by the stimulus, the incident light. 2. 3. Classification According to Material Properties. A further way to look at smart materials is to consider the primary physical-chemical property of the material that is used in smart applications. This is particularly useful in studying and understanding the operation of smart materials.Crystal Structure Modification. A number of classes of smart materials have crystal structural properties that can be used directly for smart actuating or sensing applications. These include materials that undergo a crystallographic phase change (eg, shape memory alloys), materials that have an electrical polarization natural to the crystal structure that responds to external stress (eg, piezoelectric materials) and materials that undergo realignment ot internal domains, such as electro- and magnet ostrictive materials.Energy Absorption-Emission. This includes materials that absorb incident energy by an internal excitation process (eg, promotion of electrons, on absorption of a photon, to a higher energy band). These often have a de-excitation process that involves the emission of energy. Examples include semiconductor devices as light sensors and energy harvesting devices. Macroscopic Ordering. Includes (generally) mixtures of materials where the large scale ordering of the particles in the mixture induces a change in properties of the mixture.Examples include electro- and magnetorheological fluids, 3 where an applied field induces particles in the fluid to align resulting in a change in viscosity. The Liquid Crystal Display can also be considered in this category. Chemical Interaction. Includes materials with sensitized surfaces that interact with target chemical or biological species. Examples include conducting polymers with functional groups that bind to chemical species and change the resistance of the polymer, and antigen coatings on microbalance mass detectors. Indicator chemicals that change color with, eg, pH, are another form of chemical sensor. . Smart Materials Overview Table 1 is a summary ofa number of materials that can be used in smart applications, ‘e, classified as to function. The following sections consider a number of these materials in more detail. Some sections deal with a particular type of smart material, whereas others deal with a class of material types. Inevitably, there are verlaps between these two, however, consideration of smart materials in this way is beneficial since, as discussed above, the view of the subject is colored by the point of view of the discussion.Smart materials include such a wide range of materials and possibilities it is worthwhile viewing the subject from a number of angles. The following is not an exhaustive list of smart materials, but serves as examples of the more common smart materials. Man y of the materials in Table 1 can be described as â€Å"responsive† rather than truly smart, ie, these materials can form one part of a smart system, either the sensor or ctuator, but require another responsive material for the actuator or sensor, respectively, to make up a complete smart system.Only a few materials, eg, the photochromic sunglasses mentioned in the section classification schemes, are both sensor and actuator. Even materials that can be used as an actuator and sensor often cannot be engineered to perform both functions effectively at the same time. Thus, most smart materials are used in combinations to form smart systems. An example of a possible system is an antivibration device that uses a piezoelectric sensor to detect the vibration and a magnetorheological fluid as the damper.The reterence section includes a number ot Internet web sites tor turtner practical information and as examples of the use and current availability of some smart materials. A number o f these references are to commercial web sites as useful sites regarding the application and maturity of some of the technologies, but this in no way is an implied endorsement of the particular companies. 4. Piezoelectric and Related Phenomena Piezoelectric materials are materials that exhibit a linear relationship between electric and mechanical variables.The electric polarization is proportional to the mechanical stress. Piezoelectric materials are â€Å"two-way'; (a) they convert mechanical stress into an electric field (Fig. la), and this effect is employed in piezoelectric sensors; (b) application of an electric field produces a mechanical 4 stress (Fig. 1b, c), and this behavior is utilized in actuator and power generator- harvesting devices. Only materials with an electrically poled, anisotropic crystal stucture can form piezoelectrics; ‘e, there must be an intrinsic electric field maintained in a particular direction throughout the material.Thus the material must be p yroelectric. A feature of a pyroelectric material is the disappearance of this pontaneous electric field above the Curie point temperature. Piezoelectric devices are formed by raising the material above the Curie point temperature and then cooling in the presence of a strong electric field. The common term for this action is to say that the material is â€Å"poled† in the presence of the electric field. This results in partial or complete alignment of the spontaneous electric field within the material. A related material property is the ferroelectric effect.All ferroelectric materials are necessarily both pyroelectric and piezoelectric. The ferroelectric effect is the electric olarization brought about by the complete or partial realignment of the spontaneous polarization resulting in a static electric field at the surfaces of the materials. (But note, a net field is not normally detected because the surface charge is rapidly neutralized by ambient charged particles. ) There are two principal types of materials that can function as piezoelectrics: the ceramics and polymers. 1 .Ceramics: The most widely used materials are the piezoceramics based on the lead zirconate titanate (PZT) formations, mixed sodium and potassium niobates, lithium niobate, and quartz. The advantages of these piezoceramics are that they have a high piezoelectric activity and they can be fabricated in many different shapes. 2. Polymers: Poly(vinylidene fluoride), PVDF, is the most widely used polymer piezoelectric material. It has the advantages over ceramic devices of flexibility, formability and can be simply cut to shape. Polymer piezoelectric materials have lower authority (force and displacement) than ceramic devices.The PVDF structure is a good example of the spontaneous electric field seen in these types of material (Fig. A limitation of piezoelectric materials is that they exhibit small dimensional changes but with high applied force). Composite structures consisting of a le ngth of piezoelectric bonded to a nonpiezoelectric substrate can be used to convert the lateral change in dimension of the piezoelectric to a bending force. In this way, larger actuation strokes can be achieved. Piezoelectric materials are used in many different types of sensing and actuating devices and also for power harvesting.Examples include Sensors: vibration, sound, accelerometers, pressure, ultrasonics, strain, power generation. Actuators: print heads, vibration suppression, speakers and buzzers, spark generators, ultrasonic ransducers, micropositioning and translation. Electrical components: filters and resonators. 5 5. Shape Memory Alloys and Polymers Metal shape memory alloys (SMAs) exhibit the properties of pseudo-elasticity and the shape memory effect. These alloys undergo thermomechanical changes passing from a martensitic phase at low temperature to an austenitic phase at higher temperature (Fig. a). 5. 1 . Shape Memory Effect. In the martensite phase, the alloy is so fter and easily manipulated through large strains with a little change in stress, ie, it can be easily deformed. As the temperature of the alloy is increased above the critical transformation) temperature, it changes into the austentic phase. In the austentic phase, the alloy regains its high strength and high modulus and also reverts back to its original shape. Thus a SMA can be formed into shape above the transformation temperature, cooled below the transformation temperature, and formed into different shape.On heating, the SMA will revert to the shape that it was formed into above the transformation temperature (Fig. 3b). 5. 2. Pseudo-Elasticity. This occurs when the alloy is completely composed of austenite (‘e, the temperature is above the transformation temperature). If the temperature is kept constant and the material is loaded, then at some point there will be a transformation to the martensite phase simply due to loading. The load is absorbed by deformation of the sof ter martensite phase, but upon unloading the martensite starts to transform back into austenite and the materials springs back into its original shape (Fig. c). Shape memory alloys (SMAs) can be divided into three functional groups: one-way SMAs, two-way SMAs, and magnetically controlled SMAs. The magnetically controlled SMAS show great potential as actuator materials for smart tructures because they could provide rapid strokes with large amplitudes under precise control. The most extensively used conventional shape memory alloys are the nickel-titanium, copper-zinc-aluminium, and copper- aluminium-nickel alloys. Due to their low cost, iron-based shape memory alloys are becoming more popular in smart structure applications.Iron-manganese- silicon steels alloyed with chromium, nickel, and cobalt, and iron-manganese- silicon steels alloyed with nitrogen all fit into this category. As previously mentioned, the nickel-titanium alloys have been the most widely used shape memory alloys. T his family of nickel-titanium alloys is known as Nitinol (Nickel Titanium Naval Ordnance Laboratory in honor of the place where this material behavior was first observed). Nitinol can be used in robotics actuators and micromanipulators that simulate human muscle motion.The ability of Nitinol to exert a smooth, controlled force when activated is an advantage of this material family. SMAS have been used for military, medical, safety, and robotics applications. Specific usages include hydraulic lines, medical tweezers, anchors for attaching tendons to bones, eyeglass frames, control of hot house windows, underwire brassieres, and ntiscalding valves used in water taps, and shower heads. 5. 3. Shape Memory Polymers. Shape memory polymers (SMP) are polymers (polyurethane based thermoplastics) that can be heated (above the glass transition temperature), deformed, and cooled to retain the deformed 6 shape.Upon heating above the transition temperature, the material softens and returns to the shape that it had prior to deformation. Advantages of SMPs over metallic SMAS include light weight, high recoverable strains (up to 400%), injection moulding (to form complex shapes), low cost and SMPs have shape recovery temperatures selectable between A30 and 708C. The SMAs, however, have superior force characteristics and can operate at higher temperatures. 6. Electrostrictive Materials Electrostrictive materials are materials that exhibit a quadratic relationship between mechanical stress and an applied electric polarization (Fig. ). Electrostriction can occur in any material. Whenever an electric field is applied, the induced charges in the material attract each other resulting in a compressive force. This attraction is independent of the sign of the electric field. The strain in the material lies along the axis of the induced polarization, which is preferably the direction of the applied lectric field. Electrostriction is a small effect and, in contrast to piezoelectric mater ials, electrostrictive materials show a large effect near the Curie temperature, especially for ferroelectric substances, such as members of the perovskite family.Typical electrostrictive materials include such compounds as lead manganese niobate:lead titanate (PMN:PT) and lead lanthanium zirconate titanate (PLZT). Electrostriction is used in actuators for accurate and fine positioning. Electrostrictive translators are less stable than piezoelectric devices with greater sensitivity to temperature. The one advantage they offer is lower hysteresis than piezoelectric materials at temperatures typically >1 7. Magnetostrictive Materials The same type of material response as that seen in electrostrictive materials discussed above can be observed when the stimulus is a magnetic field.Shape changes are the largest in ferromagnetic and ferrimagnetic solids. The repositioning of domain walls that occur when these solids are placed in magnetic field leads to hysteresis between magnetization an d an applied magnetic field. All of these effects disappear when the ferromagnetic material is heated above its Curie temperature. Ferrimagnetic materials have macroscopic properties similar to ferromagnetics; however, their microscopic properties are different. The magnetic dipoles of a ferromagnetic solid are aligned parallel to each other; whereas in a ferrimagnetic the alignment can be either parallel or in other directions.Materials that have shown a response to a magnetic stimuli are primarily inorganic: alloys of iron, nickel, and cobalt doped with rare earths. TERFENOLD, an alloy of terbium, dysprosium, and iron, TbxDy1 †¦xFey with x between 0. 27 and 0. 30 and y between 1. 90 and 1. 95, is the most effective magnetostrictive material and has been escribed as the â€Å"200 lb† gorilla of magnetostrictive materials. The name TERFENOL is an acronym for two of the elements present in the alloy and NOL refers to the Naval Ordinance Laboratory where this type 7 of mat erial behavior was developed.Magnetostriction occurs at its fullest potential in crystalline materials. Cost still appears to be one of the hindrances to magnetostrictive materials becoming commercially important. Piezoelectric materials are generally more compact and require less energy to operate than magnetostrictive materials. Magnetostrictive materials (‘e, TERFENOL-D) are useful where high force, igh power, and a long stroke are required or where the high drive voltages typical of the piezoelectric materials cannot be tolerated. 8.Electro- and Magnetorheological Materials Electrorheological and magnetorheological materials are fluids that exhibit a dramatic change in viscosity with an applied electric or magnetic field. The fluid can change from a thick oily consistency to virtually a solid substance within a millisecond. There are a wide assortment of electrorheological and magnetorheological fluids, which are usually a uniform dispersion or suspension of particles with in a fluid. A typical example of an electrorheological fluid is a mixture of cornstarch in a silicone oil. The mechanism of how electrorheological fluids work is simple.When there is no electric field the particles in the fluid are distributed randomly and are free to move in the fluid. In an applied electric field the particles orient themselves in ?ber-like structures (fibrils) that are much harder to move and impede the flow of the fluid, dramatically increasing the viscosity of the fluid-particle mixture (Fig. 5). Typical magnetorheological fluids consist of tiny iron particles uspended in oil and have a similar behavior to the electrorheological fluids except initiated by the application of a magnetic field. 8. 1 . Electrorheological Materials.Electrorheological fluids are nonNewtonian fluids, ‘e, the relationship between shear stress and strain rate is nonlinear. The changes in viscous properties of electrorheological fluids are only obtained at relatively high electric fields, in the order of 1 kV/mm. The practical applications of electrorheological fluids center around their abilities to transfer shear stresses and of acting as a variable damping material in an electric field. They have been demonstrated in shock absorbers, brake systems, clutches, vibration damping, control valves, and actuators.An illustrative application of electrorheological fluids is their use as a smart space material. In this application, a single-link flexible-beam was constructed in a sandwich confguration with ER fluids distributed along its length. When the beam is to be rapidly moved back and forth, the ER fluid is not energized, providing flexibility during the transient response period of the maneuver (for speed). At the end point of the maneuver the beam is made rigid (for stability). . 2. Magnetorheological Materials.Magnetorheological fluids are the magnetic equivalent of electrorheological fluids. An advantage over the ER fluids is that high voltages are not req uired to actuate the MR fluids. These fluids are under development for use in shock absorbers, vibration damping, exercise equipment and surface polishing of machine parts. 8 9. Photoresponsive and Sensitive Materials There are several different types of material families that exhibit different types of light transmission-absorption or other responses to a stimulus.These include lectrochromism (a change in color as a function of an electrical field); thermochromism (color change with heat); photochromic materials (reversible lightsensitive materials); photographic materials (irreversible light-sensitive materials); photostrictive materials (shape changes due to light usually caused by changes in electronic structure); fluorescence (emission of light (photons) at a different wavelength to the incident light).An interesting material with both electro- and thermochromism behavior, V02, was evaluated for a smart window application. Materials are being developed to exhibit both photochro mic and photographic ehaviors and one such system is based on a substituted indolinospirobenzopyrene embedded in a polystyrene matrix. This system acts as a photochromic system at low exposure in the ultraviolet (uv) range and at high exposure it functions as a photographic system. The image can be devisualized by heat and can be restored many times witn uv irradiation.Another interesting application is the use ot polymers that fluoresce or change color in the presence of particular metal ions. This is being tested as a corrosion sensor with optical fibers coated with an appropriate polymer r with the polymer incorporated in a composite structure. The system is optically excited and the presence of light at the fluorescence wavelength indicates metal ions (and thus corrosion). Thermochromic materials find use in security devices and in thermal mapping applications.All semiconductor materials exhibit an electrical response to incident light due to the electron absorption of photons, of sufficient energy, and promotion of the electrons to the conduction band (change in resistance) and across doping gradients, as in diodes (generation of current and voltage) in solar cells. Of particular interest in this rea is the development of non-silicon systems, which may results in cheap, flexible, robust, and easy to transport and deploy solar energy collectors. 0. Chemical and Biochemically Sensitive Materials The most widely known classes of chemically sensitive materials are the pHsensitive materials that include the acids, bases, and indicators. The most interesting of these for smart applications are the indicators. These materials change colors as a function of pH and are usually totally reversible. Indicators have also been used in the development of novel chemical indicating systems.Devices based on the ermeability of organic vapors through polymeric films or porous polymeric plugs, and subsequent reaction with an indicator, are used for monitoring the condition of time and/or temperature sensitive items, eg, pharmaceutics, foods and other perishables. The system is activated by crushing the vial releasing the volatile component, which then slowly permeates through the film reacting with the indicator to give a visible color change. This change is 9 dependent on both time and temperature.Other examples of pH-sensitive materials include the smart hydrogels and smart polymers (see below in EAPs). There is increasing interest in the detection of other chemicals, particularly in the detection of chemical warfare agents, environmentally noxious chemicals, and the control and monitoring of (engine) emissions. Semiconductor film sensors based on metal oxides (eg, Sn02, ZnO, Ti02, W03) are used to measure the concentration of toxic and flammable gases.These devices operate at several hundreds of degrees and a chemical reaction between the gas and the metal oxide changes the electrical conductivity of the oxide. The conductivity is a function of the t emperature and gas concentration. Higher temperature devices (to $10008C) have been demonstrated using Sic and SrTi03 systems. At low temperatures, the gases interact with the metal oxide by a chemisorption mechanism. The chemically adsorbed particles receive a partial charge and the opposite charge is made available to the oxide as a tree electron to increase its conductivity.Metal oxide sensors (MOS) are finding applications in the automotive industry monitoring the composition of exhaust gases. Many actions in organic systems are governed by highly selective reactions that are in effect molecular recognition mechanisms. The molecules responsible for these rocesses are highly selective in the molecules that they bind to (‘e, recognize) and can be used in engineered devices as sensors. An example of this is coating piezoelectric material with a selective material and then detecting the increase in mass of the coating as the target molecule binds to the coating.Being organic i n nature means that a wide range of ways to modify these molecules are available, eg, light stimulated regions that change their fluorescence frequency in the presence of the target molecule. Conducting polymers can also be tailored to respond (by a change in resistance) to ifferent chemicals. In this case, the response is rather broad (ie, not very selective), however, systems have been developed with a number of polymers treated to react to different types of chemicals to obtain â€Å"fingerprints† that are specific to particular chemicals.These systems generally have a limited lifetime and increasing the life and stability of the conducting polymers is the main challenge facing their acceptance as sensors. A novel proposal for chemical detection is the use of molecularly imprinted plastics (MIPs). In this case, target molecules are imbedded in a (porous) plastic matrix that is pplied to some sensing-transducer device. The target molecule is then dissolved away leaving a ph ysical imprint in the plastic matrix.On exposure to the molecule in a gas or liquid the physical imprints left in the plastic are selective for the target molecule and collect it, altering the properties (eg, mass) of the plastic. 1 1 . Electroactive Polymers (Actuators) An electroactive polymer (EAP) is a polymer that exhibits a response to an applied electrical stimulation and often also develops an electrical response to a mechanical stimulation. Some of these materials have been touched on in previous sections.

Historical cost accounting and fair value acounting Essay - 1

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Health Care Delivery in the US - Essay Example Think of a machine whose parts are working together and running smoothly and efficiently. This is how health care delivery in the United States should be. Ludwig von Bertalanffy's Systems Theory shows there is more than just one part involved in the process. It takes all the parts involved to make the machine work properly. Getting these parts to fit, however, can be a challenge. Unfortunately, the uninsured does not always have access to good quality medical care, and/or services. Lack of education, when it comes to paperwork, multiple physicians, and understanding exactly what the disease and its treatment process becomes extremely confusing leading to errors and unneeded care. health care has had to go through many tests before being incorporated in the industry. Testing and proving the benefits of such programs, such as HomeMed or EHR, depends entirely on the ones doing the testing. If it is perceived by health consumers to provide benefits and has real time advantages, it will be accepted, if not it will be rejected. The incorporation of technology, and the acceptance of the internet, has seen many organizations implementing telemedicine. This will lead to more efficient care and access to remote areas.Conducting cardio-pulmonary resuscitation on a dummy leaves a lot to the imagination. The true sense of performing this life saving technique is lost. Roger's Diffusion of Innovation theory deals with the idea of accepting a new way of doing things.In today's health care setting, with many new

Business 1800 2day Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Business 1800 2day - Essay Example This paper will also highlight the lessons learned by the furniture retailers. The paper is broken down into introduction, body, conclusions, recommendations, references and recommendations. On the other hand, consumer behavior involves one’s decisions with respect to acquirement, consumption, and disposition of activities, goods and services, experiences and ideas, and people by decision-making elements (Hoyer, and Macinnis, 2008:3). In relation to consumer behavior, decision-making involves choosing to achieve the best good, service, activity, or experiences. Bradford family really had a hard moment in terms of decision-making. They wanted to get themselves the best home, with enough accommodation for their growing family future. They were highly challenged due to lack of capital and neither of them; either the husband or the wife was able to decide the best way to work out the problem. In my opinion, I feel the only way Mr. and Mrs. Bradford was to first postpone the purcha se of the new home in order to allow accumulation of enough capital just for several months or years, then purchase all what they needed in their new home after getting enough funds with them. This decision through delaying would result to realization of more accumulated funds, enough for the said purchase. Family decision-making Family decision-making involves a series of domestic discussions at family level, to achieve common ideas that are to do with whole-family life, in contrast to ideas concerned with individual family members. These decisions normally affect several people or members of the family (Butler, Robinson, and Scanlan, 2005: 8). In our case, the Bradford’s family intents to move from a two bedroom flat that has no garden, to a three-bedroom house, which possibly has a small garden. Bradford family's planned move was because they had a son and therefore they needed more space for their growing family. This being their first time to buy a home, Bradford visited IKEA to survey what they can afford. The decision implementation needed millions of dollars to be accomplished, but the budget does not allow Mr. and Mrs. Bradford to make rental payments, purchase furniture for their new home and more, the living area for entertaining their friends (visitors). This has actually created a decision-making. In my opinion, the Bradford postponed the purchase of the new home to first accumulate money for several months or years due to shortage of capital. Taking a tour in the theoretical foundations in decision-making, there are three typical risk measures on which consequent decision-making is based on. These risk measures include; individual risk, societal risk, and specific adverse risk (Kizine, 2004: 2). Each alternative in decision-making has an array of consequences and therefore, the decision maker runs to pick the best out of the set. One of the theories of decision-making, the â€Å"Gardenfors-Sahlin’s decision-making theory† urg es that the quantity and quality of decision-makers’ information relating to possible outcomes and states of the decision situation in most cases is a vital factor when making the decision. This is because the decision situation or state has different degrees of epistemic reliability. The

History - Malthusian Demographics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

History - Malthusian Demographics - Essay Example This he said will be due to the fact that resources will no longer be able to sustain the expanded population (Elwell 133). For the balance of the population and the resources to be reached, Malthus proposed certain natural calamities to be vital in this; he said that countries going to war and mass killing being realized were one way of reducing the enormous number of the population that was creating tension on the limited available resources. He also proposed other natural catastrophes like volcanic eruption to be helpful in the checking the population growth rate. The Malthus prediction can be said to have failed since its inception, but that is not all, the problem facing the developing countries currently will certainly lead to the population explosion (Ehrlich, Paul, and Anne 156). In the developing countries, there are massive and unchecked population growth while in the same time the recourses created can not support the population. The rate of population growth in the develo ping countries has immensely contributed to the widespread abject poverty in the region. Even without directly experiencing Malthus projection we can say that the effect of unchecked population is impacting negatively in some parts of the world. One of the salient features of the high population growth rate is the cause of political instability in the countries that are victims of these. In the third world countries, resource distribution is acutely skewed towards the a few individuals that wield political power and have great influence in the country and can marshal resources in their favor to lead opulence life while their subjects are surviving from hand to mouth (Smith 199). This has led to public outcry and has in some unfortunate circumstances led to mass actions in a bid to topple and impeach the existing government for not caring about the common man. It has also led to the formation of the insurgents who antagonizes the government creating political instability. Malthus pro posal may not be realized today but in other ways it can be seen as having come to reality. Haphazard population increase has led reduce wages in the work environment and this has perpetuated poverty in such areas. The relationship between population increase and poverty is very imminent in light of scramble for the few opportunities available. Increase in population numbers provides alternatives manpower since there is more supply than demand and this can only work on reducing the wages of the workers (Malthus 112). The state of population explosion can also lead to high level of unemployment and this impact negatively on the younger generation in which the youths are involved in the law breaking due to frustration a situation refereed to as juvenile delinquency. In his publication ‘Additions to an essay on the principle of population’, Malthus intrinsically evaluated the connection between the global population increase and employment opportunities vis a vis wages com pensation (Malthus 213). In regard to this he did made a hypothesis that the increase in the world population will catalyze poverty introduction as well as low income through wages to the workers. This is because of the readily available workforce. This came to be widely known as ‘The Iron Law of Wages’ (Malthus 246). The exponential population incr

Decision of the High Court of Australia in Dasreef Pty Ltd v Hawchar Essay

Decision of the High Court of Australia in Dasreef Pty Ltd v Hawchar - Essay Example Sections76-80 of the Evidence Act 1995 NSW deal with opinion evidence (Evidence Act 1995). Section 79 provides for expert evidence as opinion based on specialised knowledge although there is no expression of the term ‘expert’ (Ying, 2005, p 76). Section 177 of the Act provides for an expert evidence to be given in the form of certificate with the expert’s name and address and his signature affirming that he possesses specialised knowledge acquired through study, training or experience as mentioned in the certificate. The certificate should claim that his expert opinion contained therein is based on such knowledge through study, experience or training. This could serve as admissible evidence without the expert attending the court unless the opposing party requires him to tender evidence in person at the court and be subjected to cross-examination. If , after tendering of the evidence by the expert in person , the court feels that there was no need for his personal appearance to tender evidence, costs may be imposed on the party who made such a request for being awarded to the expert (Ying,2005,p78). In fact, the expert evidence is one of the exceptions to the opinion rule as evinced by the section 76. Evidence law does not allow opinion of a witness unless he/ she is an expert in the relevant field. Other witnesses may only testify to the facts as to their existence without being qualified by their opinion. It is for the court to form an opinion based on the facts testified. This is the position with common law as well (Ying, 2005, p78). According to Phipson (2000), common law rule is that no opinions, inferences or beliefs of individuals are admissible in evidence as proof of material facts. Cross (2004) says that the purpose was to exclude â€Å"uncertain and unreliable knowledge†. Apart from section 79, sections 77 and 78 permit lay opinions of witnesses. The decision in Dasreef Pty Ltd v Hawchar (LegalOnline, 2011) questioned the admissibility of what was claimed to be expert evidence under section 79. Although the so called expert was allowed to tender evidence, he did not meet the criteria laid down in section 79 and 177 stated above. Nawaf Hawchar, with a history of employment as stonemason for five and half years from 1999 to 2005 with Dasreef Pty Ltd, claimed to have developed silicosis due to the nature of his job having risk of exposure to silica dust. He was under si milar employment in Lebanon earlier to 1996 for one year. In addition, he did private stonemasonry work during the period from 2002 to 2005. Since in May 2006 Hawchar was diagnosed with early stage silicosis and earlier in 2004 for Sclereroderma, he filed claim for damages for injury of contracting scleroderma and silicosis against his employer Dasreef in Dust Diseases Tribunal of New South Wales (LegalOnline, 2011). Alleging that his employer Dasareef had exposed him to unsafe levels of silica dust whist under his employment, Hawchar produced during the trial, an expert evidence of Dr Kenneth Basden as a competent person to give an expert opinion about his Silicosis condition by virtue of his qualifications as a chartered chemist,

Wealth Inequality in China Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Wealth Inequality in China - Essay Example For instance, as the People’s Republic of China releases new specific each and every year the show and increased average annual income, this figure is ultimately skewed as a result of the fact that extraordinarily wealthy individuals within Chinese society are impacting upon the way in which such measurements are made and revealing a situation that is not quite the case. As a function of seeking to understand the wealth gap China to a more effective degree, the following analysis will discuss some of them made and causal factors for this wealth disparity; as well as some of the recommended changes that could ultimately seek to promote economic well-being and sustainment of a greater number of individuals within Chinese society. One of the first, perhaps the most important, factor has to do with the fact that China is ultimately struggling to build a middle class. For decades, the People’s Republic of China has begun moving away from hard-line communist ideology is more was society. However, as a direct result of this shift, those individuals that are best positioned to reap the benefits of this change are necessarily those that have close connections to the government for those that were already wealthy at the time in which a level of privatization to be developed. Furthermore, individuals within the lower class of relatively little if any upward mobility that provide access to the middle class is the upper class at a later date. However, it should not be understood that nepotism and/4 corruption with respect to privatization is the largest reason for why China continues to exhibit a particularly horrific wealth gap. Another relevant issue is with respect to culture. Ultimately, Chinese culture is one that places a very high on saving. Accordingly, as money is half down from generation to generation, the compounding impact of this, especially with regard to wealthier families, is an economic dynamic by which the very wealthy leave extraordinarily

National Achievement Test Essay Example for Free

National Achievement Test Essay This study tried to analyze the Mathematics achievement of the second year high school students of Hermano Miguel Integrated School as revealed in the National Achievement Test (NAT). The relationship between the achievement in Mathematics and their profile was also determined. The results were utilized in developing and evaluating the proposed expanded remediation module. What is the profile of the students as regards age and gender? Gender. In terms of age, it can be seen from table 1 that out of 37 second year high school students used in the study, nine or 24. 32 percent are males and 28 or 75. 8 percent are females. It can be deduce that majority of the students are females. It may also be inferred that there is one male student for every 3 females as the males represents almost 1/3 of the population. Age. As can be viewed in table 2, there are 21 or 56. 76 percent who are 13 years old while 15 or 40. 54 percent are 14 years old. The mean age is 13. 38. this implies that generally, the students are in the normal age range of a second year high school student. How did the second year high school students perform in the National Achievement Test (NAT) in Mathematics? The National Achievement Test (NAT) is an examination given by the Department of Education to all second year high school students in the country. For school year 2009-2010, it was given last March 2010. In Hermano Miguel Integrated School. There were 37 all in all who took the said achievement test in Mathematics. Mathematics is divided into seven topics or areas. There are seven levels of mastery based on the raw scores that were set by the Department of Education. Performance as Regards Systems of Linear Equations and Inequalities. Most of the students numbering to 17 or 45. 5 percent had low mastery while two of them were described to have absolutely no mastery of the Linear Equations and Inequalities. Only 13 or 35. 14 percent scored 35 – 65 having received average mastery level. The mean score of the students in this area is 30. 22 equivalents to low mastery level. These data tend to show that generally, the students failed to master the necessary skills in solving linear equations and inequalities. When interviewed, the students said that they really have difficulties in understanding this particular lesson especially inequalities where symbols oftentimes confuse them. They also could not formulate accurately the required equations to the given word problems. The teachers also said that there are times when the students can solve equations but when a word problem is given, they could not make the appropriate equations. Performance as Regards Systems of Quadratic Equations. The students have low master in quadratic equations. This is revealed by the mean score of 33. 62. This means that the students have difficulties understanding this particular topic in Mathematics II. Analyzing further the result will reveal that three or 8. 1 percent have some understanding of this topic as they were described to be moving towards mastery. However, three of them were found to be absolutely no knowledge of quadratic equations. Most of the students obtained scores between 35 – 65 which indicates that they have average mastery. This means that some of them may have the ability to cope up with the lesson on quadratic equations. Performance as Regards Systems of Rational Algebraic Expressions. The students got a mean of 29. 73 in the area of Rational Algebraic Expressions. This indicates that generally they are of low mastery. This implies that the students could not understand well the lesson on rational algebraic expressions which is quite difficult since it involves letters that tend to be abstract to the students. More than half of the students or 51. 35 percent have low mastery level while three of them are totally ignorant of the topic since they scored only 0-4 equivalent to absolutely no mastery. Apparently, the students failed to master the skills in simplifying rational algebraic equations, performing operations on rational algebraic expressions, solving rational expressions and in solving problems involving ational algebraic expressions. As the students said, they are confused when symbols and not numbers are involved in the equation. Some of them believed that Algebra is too abstract. This is a challenge to the teachers to make problems real life so that the students could relate with it and see its importance to their life. With this, the students may become interested to learn Algebra. Performance as Regards Variations. It can be observed that the students are generally average learners in this topic as their scores fall in the average mastery level. This implies that a lot of them could understand the lesson on variations. It may also be inferred that they have averagely developed the competency on identifying relationship between two quantities in real life that are direct, direct square, inverse and joint; represent the relationship as equations that varies directly as the square of a given value; and solving problems on variations: direct, and inverse. It reveals that 16 or 43. 24 percent have average mastery of this topic while no one was found to have absolutely no knowledge of variations. The lowest score was between 5 – 14 which means very low mastery. Performance as Regards Integral Exponents. It is revealed also in this particular lesson the students’ mean score is 23. 49 which indicates that they have low master of integral exponents. This may mean that generally, the students could not perform well the operations of exponential expressions where the exponents are whole numbers and fractions that may be positive or negative. The students said that they could hardly understand integral exponents especially when it is applied in a word problem. There are 16 or 43. 24 percent who showed, low mastery while 13 or 35. 14 percent were found to be possessing absolutely no mastery as their scores fall between 0 – 4. On the other hand, two of them or 5. 41 percent are moving towards mastery as their scores belonged to 66 – 85 bracket. As displayed in the table, the average score is 19. 80 implying that generally the students showed low mastery of this lesson. More than majority (62. 16 percent) exhibited low mastery with six of them or 16. 22 percent showing absolutely no mastery. It may be inferred that the students are likely to fail in the test on radical expressions as they claimed that they tend to be confused when numbers and letters are involved in the equation. Some of them admitted that they do not favor much Mathematics especially Algebra that appears to be so abstract to them. Impliedly the students have not mastered fully the competencies on simplifying radical expressions, perform operations on radical expressions and solving radical equations that were tested in the National Achievement Test. Performance as Regards Searching for Patterns and Sequences. It can be seen in table 9 that the mean score of the students in this lesson or topic is 30. 30 that is tantamount to low mastery level. This implies that generally, the students have not developed the skills required in searching for patterns and sequences. The table also reveals that most of them showed average mastery and low mastery but one of them has absolutely no knowledge on how to solve a problem where patterns and sequences have to be identified. This may mean that the students failed to master the skills on finding the common differences and the nth term arithmetic geometry and in solving arithmetic and geometric problems. Comparison of Students’ Performance in the Areas of Mathematics 2. Table 10 presents that the students are generally of low mastery level in Mathematics as their over-all mean is 29. 88. This means that out of 100 items in the test, the students could only get almost 30 correct answers. This also implies that most of the students find it difficult to understand Algebra. This gives the teachers some challenges to make the learning of Algebra enjoyable by applying it to real life situations so that it will not appear to be too abstract to the learners. According to the recent Basic Education Review prepared by the Department of Education, the mean percentage scores revealed in the National Achievement Test from School year 2004-2008 is 59. 53% and the weakest among the five core subjects taken in the tests was Mathematics, with a 4-year average of 52. 59% (DepEd, 2009). Looking closely at the table, it can be observed that the students scored highest on the topic on â€Å"Variations†. This is the only topic where students may find it understandable to them as they were found to have average mastery level. On the other hand, they were found to be of low mastery level in all the other six areas of Mathematics 2. They scored lowest on the topics â€Å"Radical Expressions, Integral Exponents, and Rational Algebraic Expressions. † These are the topics that need to be given so much emphasis by the teacher when discussing them to the class. They need to make use of varied teaching strategies, varied exercises and detailed explanation. These are also the topics that were included in the proposed remediation module prepared by the researcher. What significant relationship exists between the students’ Mathematics achievement and their profile? Using Yates Correction Formula, the coefficient of correlation was determined. This helped in identifying the relationship between Mathematics achievement and profile that includes age and gender. The data are provided in table 11. Since the computed values of 1. 88 and 0. 00 are both less than the tabular value of 3. 841 then it can be said that at 0. 5 level no significant relationship exists between the students’ Mathematics achievement and age as well as gender. This means that the Mathematics performance of the students is independent of the age and gender. The null hypothesis therefore is accepted. This implies that regardless of age and gender, the students may or may not perform well in the class. It can also be said that the learning Mathematics is not due to age or gender but maybe due to other factors not covered in the study such as interest, teaching competency of the teachers and availability of instructional materials. What remediation module can be proposed? Based from the results of the two examinations, the researcher came up with the remediation module whose main objective is to help the students master the necessary Mathematics skills. The topics covered in the module were â€Å"Radical Expressions, Integral Exponents, and Rational Algebraic Expressions† as these are the ones where the students scored lower compared to other topics. The remediation module was then subjected to evaluation of the five Mathematics teachers form the same school. The complete module can be found in the succeeding pages. According to Liban (2006) school administration should provide supplementary materials for the teachers that would help enrich their socio-technological needs of the present time. Castanos-Agpaoa (2006) said that a module is a new teaching strategy for arranging learning experiences in education and it has been receiving much attention. The strategy of learning modules has become a part of all level of teaching. A learning module is a self-learning package dealing with one specific subject matter unit. It can be used in any setting convenient to the learner and may be completed at the learner’s own pace. It may be used individually or in small groups What is the assessment of the teachers of the proposed remediation module? As can be seen in table, the over-all rating given by the evaluators is 4. 95 which indicates that the proposed remediation module is an excellent material that can help the students improve their Mathematics performance. The evaluators rated the remediation module as excellent in all the criteria except on the criterion related to inclusion of objectives that are of psychomotor domain that was rated as very satisfactory. Conclusions In the light of the findings, the following conclusions were drawn: 1. In the second year, there are 3 females for every one male student. 2. The students are in the normal age of a second year high school. 3. The students can get only 30 correct answers out of 100 items. They are seemingly low in understanding Mathematics. 4. The students need to improve in the areas of Radical Expressions, Integral Exponents and in Rational Algebraic Expressions. 5. In the preparation of the remediation module topics on Radical Expressions, Integral Exponents and in Rational Algebraic Expressions. 6. The students’ ability to learn Mathematics is not directly affected by their age and gender. 7. The proposed remediation module meets excellently the evaluation criteria and therefore it can be used in the classroom. Recommendations Based from the findings and conclusions of the study, the following recommendations are hereby offered: 1. The home environment and parents are still important for the behaviors and choices of adolescents. Adolescents  who have a good relationship with their parents are less likely to engage in various risk behaviors, and on top of all there is a need for the respondents for closer guidance in terms of study habits by making follow-ups on daily lessons, accomplishing project and the like. 2. The respondents should be exposed to interesting and challenging learning activities in Mathematics to sustain their interest and momentum in studying Mathematics. 3. Mathematics teachers may use the proposed remediation module in order to help the students improve their Mathematics achievement. However, the module needs to be evaluated periodically to see its functionality and effectiveness. 4. The teachers may give more exercises in every lesson so that students can master the necessary compe tencies required in a particular topic or lesson. 5. Varied teaching strategies may be adapted by the teacher to see which one may work better in helping the students improve their Mathematics performance. 6. Topics for further study.

Differences Between Unitary Government And Federal Government Politics Essay

Differences Between Unitary Government And Federal Government Politics Essay In a unitary government, the power is held by one central authority but in a federal government, the power is divided between national government or federal government and local governments or states government. Federal government has multiple hierarchy levels, with both the central authority and the states (or provinces) both being sovereign. Furthermore, the central or national rules override the state rules. It also has balance between them for example the United State. It is shared between  national  and  local  levels. In a federal form of government, the term federal is also used to refer to the national level of government. However, for unitary government there is no hierarchy of sovereign powers. It is a state which has no authority to make their own laws and the government can only order the states to do anything. For example is Japan. Japan is a federal government which has a huge percentage of power. The advantages and disadvantages of Unitary Government Advantages The advantages of unitary government are it is single and decisive legislative. It has a simple management of an economy and the government is smaller.  It is uniformity of policies, laws, enforcement and administration of laws, government and others. Its also less duplication of services and a fewer conflicts between national and local government will occur. Disadvantages The disadvantages of using this type of system are it has slow government response. For example, there is no state National Guard that could be dispatched in emergency, troops would have to be mobilized from national authority. It is also easily looses track of local issues. Other than that, it is incredibly disruptive form of government where everyone is forced to compete with everyone else for priority. Since it is trying to take the place of federal and state governments, the unitary governments typical get distended and bogged down. Finally, it has huge system of government that is even larger than what this country has. The Advantages and the disadvantages of Federalism Advantages Every province has political, social and economic problems unusual to the region itself. Provincial government representatives live in close immediacy to the people and are most of the times from the same group of people so that they are in a better situation to understand these problems and offer distinctive solutions for them. For example, traffic jam in Oahu, Hawaii is a problem that can be best solved by the local government, keeping general factors in mind, rather than by somebody living in New York. Federalism offers depiction to different populations. Citizens of a range of provinces may have different aspirations, ethnicity and follow different cultures. The central government can sometimes fail to notice these differences and assume policies which cater to the majority. This is where the regional government steps in. While formulating policies, local needs, tastes and opinions are given due consideration by the state governments. Rights of the minorities are protected too. For example, in states like Arizona where there is a large Hispanic population and therefore, a large number of schools provide bilingual education. State governments have the freedom to adopt policies which may not be followed nationally or by any other state. For example, same sex marriages are not recognized by the federal government of USA but they are given legal status within the states of Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont and Massachusetts. Division of work between the central and the regional governments leads to optimum exploitation of resources. The central government can concentrate more on global affairs and defense of the country while the provincial government can provide to the local needs.   Federalism has room for improvement and testing. Two local governments can have two different approaches to bring reforms in any area of public area, be it taxes or education. The comparison of the results of these policies can give a clear suggestion of which policy is better and thus, can be adopted in the upcoming. Disadvantages Sharing of power between the Center and the states includes both advantages and disadvantages of federation. Sometimes there can be overlap of work and a following misunderstanding regarding who is responsible for what. For example, when typhoon Katrina hit Greater New Orleans, USA, in 2005, there was interruption in the salvage work as there was confusion between the state governments and the federal government on who is responsible for which disaster management work. This resulted in the loss of many lives. The federal system of government is very expensive as more people are chosen to office, both at the state and the center, than necessary. Thus, it is often said that only wealthy countries can afford it. Too many chosen representatives with overlapping roles may also lead to corruption. Other than that, it leads to unnecessary rivalry between different regions. There can be a rising by a regional government against the national government too. Both scenarios pose a threat to the countries reliability.   It is also promotes regional inequalities. Natural resources, industries, employment opportunities differ from region to region. Hence earnings and wealth are unevenly circulated Rich states offer more opportunities and benefits to its citizens than poor states can. Thus, the gap between rich and poor states widens.   It also can make the state governments selfish and concerned only about their own regions progress. They can formulate policies which might be harmful to other regions. For example, pollution from a province which is promoting industrialization in a big way can affect another region which depends exclusively on agriculture and cause crop damage. Finally, it does not eliminate poverty. Even in New York, there are poor neighborhoods like Harlem with a majority of black population. The reason for this may be that during policy framing, it is the intellectuals and not the masses who are invited by the local government.

Fraud :: Free Essay Writer

Fraud Cut-off Fraud Fraud involves purposeful attempts to deceive, not good-faith disagreements on accounting treatments. One of the five basic methods companies used to boost up their profits is fraud in timing, which is also called cut-off fraud. This is done by recognizing profits early and liabilities and expenses late. â€Å"According to GAAP, revenue is recognized when the earnings process is complete and the rights of ownership have passed from seller to buyer.† There are three categories in revenue recognition fraud: 1) playing with time, 2) recording revenue when services are still due, 3) shipping merchandise before the sale is final. Playing with time is the most common way to commit revenue recognition fraud. It involves holding the books open past the end of the accounting period to accumulate more sales. For example, one such company actually set to stop there clock at the end of each quarter until targets sales are made. And all the sales would be counted as in the accounting period to boost up their sales. Another method for recognizing revenue early is booking the entire revenue amount when service is not completely rendered. Many companies ignore the percentage-of-completion contracts by taking the cash payments into income, fail to record offsetting accruals for services paid for in advance, and record refundable deposits as income. The last category is shipping merchandise before the sale is final. Consignment merchandi se is counted as being sold. A few companies also shipped merchandise to private warehouse for storage and counted it as being sold. If one person handle the same transaction from beginning to end, premature revenue recognition is easier to accomplish. The responsibilities of order entry, shipping, billing, accounts receivable detail and general ledge should be distributed among different employees. With several different employees handling the process, it’ll be more difficult to commit fraud.

American Colonies :: American America History

American Colonies When settlers from England came to America, they envisioned a Utopia, where they would have a say in what the government can and cannot do. Before they could live in such a society they would have to take many small steps to break the hold England had on them. The settlers of America had to end a monarchy and start their own, unique, form of government. They also had to find a way that they would have some kind of decision making power. The most important change that the colonies in America had to make was to become a society quite different from that in England. By 1763 although some colonies still maintained established churches, other colonies had accomplished a virtual revolution for religious toleration and separation of church and state. During the mid-1600's England was a Christian dominated nation; the colonies, however, were mainly Puritans. When Sir Edmond Andros took over a Puritan church in Boston for Anglican worship, the Puritans believed this was done to break their power and authority. The Puritan church in New England was almost entirely separated from the state, except that they taxed the residents for the church's support. The churches in New England had no temporal power, unlike the church of England. Many seaport towns like Marble head and Gloucester, became more religious as time pasted. This show of religious freedom was a way in which the colonies had religious toleration and differed from the Christian church in England. Unlike the well-defined social classes of England, the colonies had a streamline class structure, which gave individuals the chance to rise on the social latter. New settlers living on the coast could become rich by fishing and selling what they caught. If fishing was not a settler's strong point, then they could try their hand at farming. Getting the land to farm on was the easy part. The 'head right' system gave each male 50 acres, and 50 acres to each indentured servant he might bring over. England could not do this because England so defined the social classes and they did not have enough land that they could give to every male and his indentured servant. In a similar economic revolution, the colonies out grew their mercantile relationship with England and developed their own expanding capitalist system. The idea of a set amount of wealth in the world and that if one were to become wealthy, he or she had to take from someone who is already wealthy, is basically what mercantilism means.

stats Essay -- essays research papers

Number of Ours Students Study Per Week A Term Paper Presented to Department of Business Administration College of Business Administration In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirement for ECO 331: Business Statistics II By Friday April 11, 2003 Table of Contents Abstract†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..1 Introduction†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦....2 Methodology†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..2   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Frequency Distribution†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..3   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Descriptive Measures†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.3 Results†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦4   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Tables & Figures†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦4-5 Reference†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦6   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Abstract   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Given the data provided by the students from Alabama A&M University and Alabama State University, the following research was conducted. The number of hours students studied per week was gathered by questionnaires from a sample size of 20 students. The objective of this paper is to interpret all of the necessary qualitative and quantitative data and present in accurate mathematical computations and graphics. In order to do this we include all of the necessary analyses.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This report will perform the following statistical analyses: Ø  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Summarize the variables under study graphically (frequency distribution, histogram, etc). Ø  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Test the variables under study using descriptive statistics. Ø  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Test of Hypothesis Ø  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  For each classified group separately summarize the variable under study using the descriptive measures. Ø  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Compare the descriptive measures of the groups. Ø  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Interpret and draw conclusions from each analysis. Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In this research paper, two data sets have been taken from a statistical database and have been converted into tables and charts in order to relate the data in simpler form. The first set of variables that was gathered from the database was the number of hours an ASU students study. The database separated all of the information into four different set of number based on the number hours studied per-week. The second set of numbers that were gathered from ... ...;  Ã‚  Ã‚  25 18  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  22 0  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  5 4  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  3 7  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  5 4  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  3 7  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  8 9  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  5 9  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  3 4  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  15 22  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  31 30  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  28 16  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  15 19  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  16 20  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  18 17  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  19 Table - 2. Z-Test: Two Sample for Means z-Test: Two Sample for Means  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  ASU  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A&MU Mean  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  11.78  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  13.10 Known Variance  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  1  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  3 Observations  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  20  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  20 Hypothesized Mean Difference  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  0  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   z  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  18.7  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   P(Z

Bangladesh Rmg Sector

For example, with the removal of the Multi- Fiber Agreement (MFC) in 2005, fear of imminent doom stroked in the hearts of the garments owners. Despite the adverse predictions of different studies, the ARM sector of Bangladesh managed to pull through the abolishment of the MFC unscathed. Bangladesh later secured a position under the Generalized System of Preference (SSP), which allowed the country to enjoy privileged trade links with the Western producers. However, after the most recent tragedy of Ran Plaza where more than 1200 garments workers lost their lives, the US government suspended the SP of Bangladesh.Even though EX. promised not to withdraw SSP for Bangladesh it comes with stipulations attached. In this circumstance, the question that everyone is compelled to ask themselves is- â€Å"Will the ARM sector of Bangladesh collapse with the recent crisis it is faced with, or will it be able to hold its ground? † The Evolutionary Path of the ARM Sector Before delving further into the recent crisis and its impacts, let's first identify the contribution of ARM sector in Bangladesh economy and its strengths that led to its immense growth over the last few decades.ARM sector is the highest foreign exchange generating sector of Bangladesh, constituting 79% of total export and around 22 percent of total GAP in FYI 2012-13. It is evident from graph 1 that the sector's contribution to total export and economy as a whole has only increased over time. Currently it employs 44 million worker 80% of which are women. Therefore, it would not be wrong to say that ARM sector has become the lifeline of Bangladesh economy.Graph: ARM export and Total Export hourly wage rate of ARM Sector source: BAGGAGE Graph 2: Minimum Source: ILL The global hegemony of Bangladesh in ARM sector can be ascribed to the fact that it enjoys a competitive advantage in terms of low wages and lax regulation that transformed into competitive global prices. With a minimum wage of USED 0. 26 per h our, the rate is one of lowest in the world (see Graph 2). The biggest earner of foreign exchange in Bangladesh has also been showered with favorable incentives such as back-to-back LLC, import and customs duty rebates and short and long term interest rates discount.Harnessing on its cheap labor, Bangladesh ARM sector has found a strong foothold to sustain on its own. For example, the MFC quota system which had initially acted in favor of the Bangladesh ARM sector was phased out in allowing the abolishment. According to the McKinney report 2011, Bangladesh has all the potential of becoming the no. 1 apparel sourcing hotshot replacing China. Buyers at the cost of labor wages According to Doug Miller, professor emeritus of supply chain ethics, â€Å"In Bangladesh, you have a glut of buyers in search of a cheap product wanting to place enormous orders, and the capacity is built hurriedly. With a clause of deferred payment in letter of credit (L/C) I. E. The formal loan agreement for p urchases, merchants in Bangladesh get products shipped out and release payments to manufacturers after months of delay of as much as 6 months. With payment being deferred, Bangladesh manufacturers are actually forced to subsidize the buyers. Garment-makers take loan, free of interest for 90 days, against the L/C in executing orders. So, for the period beyond 90 days, manufacturers have to fork out 1 PC interest.Moreover, an order worth a dollar that a buyer places actually does not add up to a dollar. On different pretexts and through underhand dealings, they take back almost 25 cents, leaving the manufacturers to complete the Job with the remaining 75 cents with which the manufacturer buy fabrics and accessories, make clothes, pay establishment costs, ship out clothes, and are expected to pay workers reasonably and make good profit as well. Factory installations are shoddy, workers' lock in and lead times are too tight- all in order to minimize costs and attend to stringent deadlin es.Since victims fear veering off foreign buyers, the central bank and garment owners' association has not yet initiated a reform. The Current Crisis Today there is a vast network of some 5,000 garment factories in Bangladesh, far more than any other low-wage country. They aim at churning out clothing quickly and cheaply without bothering to comply with rules and worker safety standards. Faced with a government imposed minimum wage of USED 38, the average factory owner seeks cost minimization by tweaking other variables such as infrastructure, power and freight.Such hard core profit seeking behavior has resulted in a regulatory disaster. According to Bangladesh institute of labor studies, at least 730 workers were killed and 4,700 garment workers have been injured in ARM accidents between years 1990 to 2012. Five deadly incidents from November 2012 through May 2013 brought rocker safety and labor violations in Bangladesh to world attention. However, the biggest, deadliest disaster s o far has been the collapse of the factory building in Saver which has led to the death of over 1100 workers.The fatal accidents occurring in regular interval have put the bright future of Bangladesh ARM sector in Jeopardy. One of the five criteria that buyers look into while evaluating a destination/country as a major sourcing market is risk (as outlined in a report by McKinney, 2011). Taking that into account, recent incidents in Bangladesh point out that there has been a age surge in the risk factor surrounding the readmes garments (ARM) sector in Bangladesh. Following the collapse of Ran Plaza, the Western companies are now already seeking new sources of ready-made garments.Well known companies already contemplating a move out, fearing that association with Bangladesh factories would damage their reputations. Low wage that once has been the main attraction circumstance it is only natural that competitors like China, India and Vietnam will snatch business away from Bangladesh. Re gulations The regulatory disaster that the Bangladesh ARM sector is facing now is a result of ears of negligence and malfeasance. Laws ensuring the rights of workers are in place, but are scattered, outdated and not enforced properly. A National Labor Law Commission was formed in 1992 to enact a Labor Code.The National Trade Union Leaders of The Labor Law Review Committee was reconstituted in 1998. However, workers' rights are highly violated and trade unions are very weak. In 2008, the government had enacted the Dacha Metropolitan Building (Construction, Development, Conservation and Demolition) Rules aimed at ensuring construction of any structure in the capital Dacha in compliance with the prevailing construction deadlines. However RAJAH, the Capital Development Authority, has failed to enforce the law seriously which further adds to the flimsy regulatory framework governing workers' safety.Regulatory Capture The failure by the governmental bodies in Bangladesh to ensure the prop er enactment of safety standards reflects â€Å"regulatory capture† that occurs when policymakers or regulatory bodies favor special interest groups rather than working in interest the public.. The perfect example would be the sanction of building permit of Ran Plaza in Saver. The design of the building was not architecturally sound but as granted by an RAJAH office that wasn't authorized to issue such permits to begin with but he did it anyway in exchange of bribe; thus serving the interest of the building owner.The regulatory agencies such as Ministry of Labor and RAJAH, created to act in public interest, instead advance the commercial or special concerns of interest groups that dominate the industry or sector it is charged with regulating. Understandably the authority seems to turn a blind eye on this very matter as at least 10 percent of Bangladesh parliament members are direct owners of about 5000 garment factories in Bangladesh.The apparent inter-involvement reflects in the way there have been no convictions on any of the major disasters that had resulted in hundreds of death and injuries prior to the collapse of the Ran Plaza building in Saver in May 2013. The businessmen-UCM-politicians fear the pullout of Western buyers responsible for their profit margins as well as Arm's contribution to the economy should the costs of implementing the regulations properly cause higher prices.Stakeholders' Response Since the collapse of the building Ran Plaza and the corresponding international attention it has received, the reputation of Bangladesh ARM sector and its international buyers are in Jeopardy. Companies like Disney, Orion etc have terminated import from Bangladesh while major US importers like Walter have not made any concrete commitment to improve the working conditions of the factories from which they import clothes for its outlets. Most of the big global companies have decided to stay and try to improve safety in their contractors' factories and build inspection of some factories under which millions work.The most severe blow that the Bangladesh ARM sector has faced after the Tragic Ran Plaza incident is the suspension of Generalized System of Preference (SSP) facility provided by the US overspent. This action comes as a result of Bangladesh government's failure to improve working conditions and ensure worker safety inside the country. In the short run, the suspension from US SSP is projected to reduce export by a meager 0. 8 % as ARM products (which make up most of the US import from Bangladesh) are not included in the list of duty-free products in SSP.However, the cancellation of SSP will translate to major export loss for industries like ceramic products, processed and frozen prawn, tobacco, etc as these products used to enjoy duty free entry in US market. Most importantly, Bangladesh image as a trade partner of the USA is tainted. Therefore, the prospect of future export growth of Bangladesh in US market seems dimmer a s this may discourage US and other foreign investors, new and old, from venturing into Bangladesh. Nonetheless, the US government has assured that the suspension is temporary and accordance with the provided guideline will result in reinstatement of the facility.The key points of the guidelines are * Fast track registration of unions * Increase the number of government labor inspector * Proper implementation of Factory standard and stricter punishment for failure to imply * Assess architectural soundness and fire safety of all apparel units * Close or relocate risky factories * A hotlist for workers to unanimously report fire, building safety and rights violation * Amend PEG law to match international standard * Prevent harassment and violation against labor activists and resolve ongoing dispute The repercussion of SSP suspension will be much more severe if adopted by European Union (ELI) since unlike USA, garments products enjoy SSP facility in ELI. EX. had previously threatened to remove preferential access of Bangladesh ARM reduces in EX. market if the government did not take measures to improve the working condition in Bangladesh factories. They have called for immediate safety improvements, and said they were considering changes in Bangladesh duty-free and quota-free status to encourage more responsible management by the country's garment industry.The United Nations labor agency, International Labor Organization (ILL) had also sent an inspecting team a week following the building collapse, and has called for greater commitment and social dialogue for the overall regulation of the ARM industry. ILL has welcomed an agreement signed by some international fashion brands and retailers, and trade unions to prevent workplace disasters. Thus there is increasing oversight by the international community to oversee the safety of the industry drivers. Response of Bangladesh Government and Regulatory Bodies Back home, the government of Bangladesh is working to amend t he Labor law to make it time-befitting as well as protect the interest, rights and security of workers. RAJAH has also started an inspection of unauthorized factory buildings.Moreover the Anti Corruption Commission (AC) will look into the alleged irregularities in the Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BAGGAGE) have also issued a list of tests and standards that must be met by all the factories. This list includes: reports of soil tests and structural design to assess the suitability of the building to be used as a factory, to remove generators from the roof to the ground floor, to install equipments that would aid in a disaster and so forth. These were requested of all factories and are to be submitted by the end of May, 2013. For the owners, the course of action is to initiate compliance with the international standards and assist BAGGAGE in all activities y providing the reports asked of in time.They also need to educate and train their workforce on the steps to take in the event of a disaster and also conduct regular fire drills. Response of Civil Society The civil society has also raised a voice and become increasingly involved in the brewing demand for regulatory reform. Not only have individuals and organizations offered assistance to the collapsed building victims but many have also offered corrective measures. Sir Faze Abed, founder of BRACE, has asserted that instead of Western buyers pulling out, the buyers should invest in ensuring workers' safety assure while the workers must also coalesce into unions and engage in collective bargaining.The government must also end neglecting worker safety issues and ensure Justice for the owners' criminal negligence. Nobel Laureate Dry. Muhammad Yuan's has recommended two proposals: one is for the Bangladesh government and foreign buyers to Jointly fix a minimum international wage level, and work on increasing labor productivity, specialized labor skills, and build buyers' trust in order to remain competiti ve. The second is to set up a Workers' Welfare Trust Fund, so that he international buying company will pay 10% of the amount it has agree to pay the garment factory owners to work in the welfare of the workers. A citizen action group can also be created in order to accelerate the positive changes taking place in business.Conclusion The ARM sector as the biggest foreign exchange earner in Bangladesh, is considered a â€Å"national treasure†, therefore a tacit bi-partisan agreement between the politicians and businessmen to protect it was an outcome, albeit blindly. However the failure of regulations and prevailing of criminal negligence can be mitigated by stricter law enforcement and by the presence of a proper non-partisan regulatory body or watchdog to ensure transparency, mitigated corruption and the assurance of worker safety. For the government, the most important action is to ensure enforceability of the steps that need to be undertaken. More often than not, it is seen that there is a flurry of activity right after an accident, which dies out soon with no significant changes that would prevent such an accident from being repeated.Trade unions and labor activism must not be shut down by the new Industrial Police to ensure transparency and accountability of the workers and their rights. The workers must be allowed to organize themselves and be allowed to function as gracious counterpart of the existing ARM owners' associations, not simply as appendages The ARM sector to demolish the entire sector if not addressed immediately. These include: poor infrastructure, low compliance to international standards, weak supplier performance and workforce supply, overconfidence on imported raw materials and lastly poor economic and political stability. The government must act swiftly to avert the impending doom one of the most important industries in the Bangladesh

Personal Development Plan Essay

1. Introduction The aim of this assessment is to build a Personal Development Plan and evaluate my current skills and knowledge. The primary objective of PDP is to improve my knowledge and plan my educational development according to my background and personal experience so far. 2. What is PDP According to the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education in UK (QAA 2004) defined PDP as: ‘a structured and supported process undertaken by an individual to reflect upon their own learning, performance and/or achievement and to plan for their personal, educational and career development. The primary objective for PDP is to improve the capacity of individuals to understand what and how they are learning, and to review, plan and take responsibility for their own learning.’ 2.1 The benefits of PDP The theoretical benefits of PDP can be summarizes as follow according to Quality Assurance Agency (QAA 2009): ï‚ · plan, integrate and take responsibility for their personal development, identifying learning opportunities ï‚ · recognise, value and evidence their learning and development both inside and outside the curriculum ï‚ · be more effective in monitoring and reviewing their own progress ï‚ · evaluate and recognise their own strengths and weaknesses and identify ways in which perceived weaknesses might be improved and strengths enhanced Page | ii 3. Skill Audit The personal development plan for me is a chance to know myself better. Using the SWOT and SKA analysis in my PDP report will help me realize what I want to achieve, my short term and long term aspirations. I am going to focus on what my strengths and weaknesses are and how to use my strengths to develop my weaknesses to become strengths. After completing my postgraduate degree in Informatics and Communications I started teaching computers in a private institute and a local college. Working in the field of education help me to improve my leadership skills and become more responsible as a person. After almost 5 years of teaching I decided to change my career direction in accounting field and that helps me to improve my skills in other areas. I  become more adaptable and able to work as a team member and improved time management as I have to meet deadlines in my current job. When I become a member of the company I work for, I start thinking that an undergraduate degree alone is not enough in today’s competitive environment with so many graduates competing for the same job. I study the different master courses around in local universities and I decided to make the application for the MA in Management from University of Wolverhampton and got accepted. I believe that the combination gained in undergraduate degree and the valuable business knowledge and management skills I will be able to gain from this postgraduate degree will help me improve my career expectations. With the assistant of SWOT and SKA analysis I will understand better my strengths and weaknesses and based on my knowledge so far I will try to improve the most I can. 3.1 SWOT analysis SWOT analysis is one of the most popular strategic planning tools used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats involved in any situation that needs a decision. According to Cowan (2000), a SWOT analysis may be used by individuals to recognize their strengths and weaknesses and ultimately their opportunities and threats. Based on this, below is a summary of my personal SWOT analysis. 3.2 SKA model The ingredients of SKA came from Vinke’s (2002) definition of the competency as â€Å"the ability of an individual to select and use the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are necessary for effective behaviour in a specific professional, social or learning situation.† 3.2.1 What are skills, knowledge and attitude? ï‚ · According to Winterton (et al., 2005) Knowledge is sometimes viewed as if it was a concrete manifestation of abstract intelligence, but it is actually the result of an interaction between intelligence and situation. Proctor and Dutta (1995) define skills as goal-directed, well-organized behaviour that is acquired through practice and performed with economy of effort. Attitude can be defined as a â€Å"learned tendency to act in a consistent way to a particular object or situation† (Fishbein). Attitudes have affective, cognitive and behavioural intention components. Skills Know how Attitude Know why Knowledge Know what Page | v 3.3 My SWOT Analysis STRENGTHS Patient Sense of humour Outgoing and competitive Friendly and approachable Hardworking and committed Responsible High technological skills Leadership skills Good presentation skills WEAKNESSES Sensitivity Perfectionist Poor time management Poor organisational skills in personal life Team work OPPORTUNITIES New challenges Wider career prospects Starting a new business – self employment Show off the skills i have learned throughout the Master course THREATS No management experience Competition – other students graduating with the same degree globally Strengths Working as a teacher help me improve my leadership skills and my ability to encourage and motivate my students to pass their exams and gain good grades. Moreover, I become more responsible and patient as a person because of my work. Also according to my working experience I demonstrated good presentation skills as I had made lots of lectures to small audience. Weaknesses My weaknesses I believe are part of my character. I would call myself  perfectionist, as I spend much time to make everything perfect and I stuck in details so I lose valuable time. As I had many things to do at the same time I lost my time control and is difficult to control and combined my personal and professional life. Before i enrol to this Master’s Degree program i wasn’t sure if i could handle to study and work together, as i am not the most organise person. Starting lessons help me manage my time and realise that if we want something very much we can achieve the best of it. Opportunities After completing my Master Degree I strongly believe I will be able to approach new challenges in my career and in my life. Based on the knowledge I gained from the course I will be able to use my managerial skills, marketing, business and strategic planning to build my own business and be my own boss. Threats Upon completion of my MA degree I will be theoretical capable to use my knowledge and skills I learned from my master degree, hence I won’t be full able to use it in practise as I have no managerial experience yet. Another negative aspect is the competition that grows from the fact that other students graduating with the same degree globally. 4. Setting my goals According to Denis Watley Quotation ‘The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them.’ Some goals are short term and others are long term. Some goals are easy and others are difficult. The whole point is our goals to be effective. Effective goals are set in a SMART way. A goal is SMART if it’s Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time related. 4.2 Short term and Long term goals Master Degree is very demanding course and i have to study very hard to achieve my short term goal, which is to finish my studies and gain high grades in my assignments. I will spend more time on reading articles and make research on field of management. On the issue of time management I am planning to make a daily schedule to make sure I am not behind the time and at the same time I will improve my organizational skills as well. Also my team working skills have improved, because of the group activities and assignments we have in classroom. My long term goal is to cultivate skills that will develop and improve my experience in business and management world so I could fulfil my dream to make my own business in few years. 5. Conclusion In the end of this assignment, I feel that I have identified my strengths so I have to focus on them and develop them even more. My personal SWOT analysis helps me evaluate and recognize my strengths and weaknesses. By knowing my strengths I can focus my efforts on the things I am good at and by understanding my weaknesses I can realize what I have to avoid and what I have to improve. To conclude, by the end of my Master in Management course I hope to be prepared for the difficulties of continuing professional and personal development. References Chapman, A. (2007). SWOT analysis. Retrieved 25 March 2012, from http://www.businessballs.com/swotanalysisfreetemplate.htm Cowan, J. (2005) Reflections-Wise and Otherwise- Learning as Much from what went wrong as what went well. Seda Seminar: London. D. Vinke, Industrial design at TU/e: the student as a junior employee, Interim report, retrieved 25 March 2012 from the website: www.industrialdesign.tue.nl/education/downloadableFiles/theStudentAsAJuniorEm ployee.doc Denis Waitley quotes (American motivational Speaker and Author of self-help books. b.1933) http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Denis_Watley, 1 April 2012 Fishbein, M. and Ajzan,I., Belief Attitude Intention and Behavior: and Introduction to Theory and Research, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Ma. Meyer, Paul J (2003). â€Å"What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail? Creating S.M.A.R.T. Goals†. Attitude Is Everything: If You Want to Succeed Above and Beyond. Meyer Resource Group, Incorporated, The. ISBN 9780898113044 Proctor, R.W. and Dutta, A. 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