Strategic Planning Today for the Delivery of Quality Health Care Research Paper

Strategic Planning Today for the Delivery of Quality Health Care - Research Paper Example As the paper declares in the case of the service industry, it is hard for customers to know the quality of service they will get, and, therefore, depend on history of a business before choosing it as a source of service. Consequently, it is crucial for an institution to have a history of offering outstanding services to increase its customer base. In addition, in the health services industry, quality goes together with safety and customers seek services from highly acclaimed institutions, especially those with high recovery rates and low mortality rates. An institution must create a culture of quality service by one of the two main approaches, quality assurance, and quality control; the former is more suitable since it signifies a commitment to improvement and not just adherence to laid-down standards. If the health care system is not visionary enough to anticipate later changes and modify their approach on patient care, then technological advancement will result in use of equipment that increases productivity without having improvements in the quality and safety of service. In this research paper, strategic planning will be linked to improvements in service delivery. The paper will achieve this by reviewing the literature on research done to improve service delivery, and the consequences of doing so. Finally, the report will summarize the strategy, and make recommendations for improvement if available. Research Sources There have been many research attempts; all aimed at identifying reasons, consequences, factors, and methodologies of implementing research findings to improve the quality of medical care to patients. The findings of these studies, if implemented, stand a high chance of improving the quality of healthcare. However, this implementation depends on various factors incl uding the

Economic Developments Essay Example for Free

Economic Developments Essay The current system of the world economy has emerged as a result of the historical trends and economic developments that occurred in the past particularly during the periods of World War I, World War II and the Cold War. To a significant extent, the current world order and the capitalist and industrial prosperity that is being experienced today are products of historical economic developments. This paper examines the economic developments from 1913 to the present including the history of self-determination in the world economy in relation to the current world economy. Consequently, the role of the United States from being an isolationist to an economic hegemon is analyzed. Economic Developments from 1913-Present The period from Post World War I up to the present can be considered to be a see-saw of economic prosperity and economic crises for most countries. For countries like the United States the war had brought about economic development but it also caused the economic downturn for countries like France and Germany. Capitalism began to ensue and trading had been more active. Hence, the period from 1920-1929 signaled the massive economic progress in the world economy- industries were established and the percentage of industries to agriculture rose. After this massive growth however, the unemployment rate and poverty that ensued from the period of 1929-1941 had led to the Great Depression- interest rates were high, hyperinflation ensued and the rise in debt had led to stock market collapse. The world economy had experienced a systemic recession leading the collapse of markets worldwide. In this era, the GDP and GNP of nations dropped and poverty ensued as world trade had been inactive. After the Great Depression, the World War II had created another economic era- post World War II had been considered to be a golden era for capitalism worldwide. This is because of the rapid rise in industries, the technological advancement, the prospering and stabilization of world trade, domestic and international institutions had been established in order to facilitate the world economy. Consequently, the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and the IMF were established in order to aid countries needing economic lift in order to aid in their industrialization. Backed by capitalism and foreign direct investments, this era can be considered the time when the world economy had boomed. However, after this period the time between 1970s-1980s, inflation and interest rates grew up and the fixed interest rates were deregulated in order to let the world economy repair itself. This era had however, contributed in terms of the massive plan to reorganize domestic economies through fiscal policies. The post Cold War on the other hand, marked the era when the US became the sole hegemon after the downfall of Russia. Before the Cold War, democratic countries can only trade with democratic countries and communist countries are only limited to trade with communist countries- the downfall of Russia opened the doors for all countries to be participants in the world economy. Hence, during the period of 1990 and up to the present times, despite some economic fluctuations, the world economy can be considered as stable and progressive. While there are ups and downs, the stability of the world economy in the present times cannot easily succumb to another depression. Self-Determination and in the World Economy Self-determination started after the World War I as a result of the Treaty of Versailles- it declared that the sovereignty of the states should take charge of the whole population. World War I led to the breakup of the Hapsburg and Ottoman empires and the birth of a new generation of nation-states. At Versailles, U. S. President Woodrow Wilsons famous Fourteen Pointsthe fifth of which declared that sovereignty should take full account of the interests of the populations concernedformed the basis for the treaty ending the war. After World Wars One and Two, self-determination inspired the demolition of empires and the formation of new sovereign states; the concept being thus extended in the 1940s and 1950s to apply in the context of the decolonisation process. In the 1960s and 1970s, the principle of self-determination clashes with the principle of territorial integrity and global leaders are increasingly seeing this angle to the problem. In fact, even the UN resolution 1514 adopted in 1960 which elevated the status of self-determination, had also emphasized territorial integrity: any attempt aimed at the partial or total disruption of national unity and territorial integrity of a country is incompatible with the Purposes and Principles of the Charter of the United Nations. The international system was caught up in the contradiction and had exhibited some degree of ambivalence at least after the post-war decolonisation. It can be observed that the further extension of the principle today, as it inspires the surge of ethnic politics and threatens the break-up of the established post-colonial order. The United States as the World’s Political and Economic Hegemon The United States before World War I cannot be considered to be an economic or a political superpower, it derived its wealth from World War I from selling ammunitions and exploiting the economic opportunities caused by the war. However, in World War II, the US emerged as one of the more powerful countries not only in terms of technology but also politically and economically after surviving the Great Depression. The Post World War II established the United States from a country in the middle to that of a global hegemon. For one, post World War I saw the US to be involved in trade, the importation and exportation of goods as well as in searching for new territories to expand its power and industries. Post World War II saw the United States cementing its economic and political hegemony- it had established itself as one of the most prosperous and progressive countries not only through its GDP and GNP but also in terms of its ability to impose upon other countries. The United States during this time served as one of the economic powers together with countries in Europe, Japan and the USSR. Upon entering the Cold War, the world became a division of the US and the USSR or democracy versus communism. During this era, the United States served as an international role model for democracies as well as the patron of democratic countries. The fall of the USSR catapulted the US to its role today as a global hegemon- except for North Korea, there had been no real threat to the supremacy of democracy and hence, the United States. During this time until the present times, the United States had been a major player in sanctioning countries that do not abide by international laws and regulations as well as being a forerunner in providing foreign aids as well as regulating trade activities. To be a partner with the US would be tantamount to economic growth. The power held by the US both politically and economically can be considered to spawn countries even in Asia and Third World countries. Needless to say, the United States can be considered to be the most important international player today.

After the Others by Bruce Weigl :: Book Reviews Poetry Essays

After the Others by Bruce Weigl With a new century approaching, Bruce Weigl's twelfth collection of poetry, After the Others, calls us to stand on the millennium's indeterminate edge. This book, opening with the last four lines of Milton's "Paradise Lost," parallels our departure from this century with Adam's fearful exit from Eden, beyond which is "all abyss, / Eternity, whose end no eye can reach" ("Paradise Lost"). Weigl posits that we stand at the century's uncertain gate naked, cold, and greedy; he refers often to a looming future, to give our collapsing present more urgency. We've forgotten, he says, how to love and live simply, how to write honestly and well. With all this forgetting, we've also forgotten that God gave Adam and Eve a chance to recreate a world mirroring the beauty and goodness of the lost one. Yet, as their heirs, we've constructed an earth where "we live inside a history that no longer remembers us." Weigl wonders if we reinvent history to give ourselves identity, rendering ourselves powerless because we're unconscious of our present. He examines human suffering, hedonism, and desire, wondering if we can re-learn how to love, be loved, and forgive. As a mature poet working at the height of his craft, Weigl writes that we must weed out "the snare of the devil in our hearts" to pass through the visible end of the twentieth century bravely, with grace. After the Others returns to themes of previous books. In Sweet Lorain (1996), forties America is depicted through life in charred, industrial Ohio, and in What Saves Us (1992) the speaker relies on religious epiphanies to rescue him from what he'll regret. Weigl's conversational language, as in previous books, comes unadorned: I didn't know what I didn't know. I didn't want a life of anything then, only a life. Weigl's line and stanzas vary: he uses couplets, tercets and quatrains, as well as undivided lines. He relies on internal and slant rhyme, but occasionally writes infelicitous lines: "She sang out loud about a cloud." His tone is generally ironic, as in "Cult of the Car": "somebody wanted a blow job / on a gorgeous freeway in America" but "it doesn't matter who / this near the millennium.

Audience Reactions and Attitudes to Much Ado About Nothing Essay

In â€Å"Much Ado About Nothing† Shakespeare captures many of the social standards in Elizabethan society whether they are fair or not. In Act 2 Scene 2 of the play, Don John plots to frame Hero and make it look like she has been unfaithful to her fiancà ©e the night before they are due to marry. This then sparks outrage from the male characters, which in turn shows a male bias in their society. The way Hero’s father takes a mans word over hers shows how strong trust and respect was for men compared to that shown towards women. Even though this play was written in a time when England was ruled by a woman (Queen Elizabeth) society was still dominated by men. Even Queen Elizabeth said she had the stomach of a man, implying that men are tougher than women purely because they are of a different gender. This left women with two roles in society; they were seen as prostitutes to be bought or wives to be owned. On top of this, women were also used as scapegoats for the faults of the world, this idea spawns from the beginning of time and Eve eating the apple and having mankind banished from the garden of Eden. This attitude is similar to the opinion of the Nazis towards the Jews, blaming the Jews for all the bad and evil in the world. At the start of act 4 scene 1, the arranged marriage between Claudio and Hero is about to take place, Claudio, Don Pedro and Don Pedro think that Hero has been unfaithful and is no longer a virgin. However, they have been misled and the other characters are not yet aware of their feelings. As Claudio turns down Hero at the altar and lets everyone know, men’s attitudes towards women become clear. The first person to speak on the subject is Claudio, he turns to Leonato and says â€Å"Give me this maid your Daughter?† He is making a statement because as far as he knows Hero is not a â€Å"Maid† (virgin), he is challenging Leonato because he has been given Hero like a gift but she is not what he expected. This quote is also interesting because is shows us that women are seen as possessions of their fathers. Claudio has to ask for permission from her father to â€Å"give† Hero to him, almost like a present. This would spark a  reaction with a modern day audience as women are now seen as equals and independent in society. However, in Elizabethan times this is what they were used to so they would probably not give it a second thought. Claudio then refers to Hero as â€Å"a rich and precious gift,† this confirms what I have already said that women were seen as possessions to be given to people. Claudio then goes on to say, â€Å"Give not this rotten orange to your friend.† He is using the orange as a metaphor for Hero, a rotten orange can appear fine until you peel it or taste it and see what is inside. He is saying that Hero appeared to be an innocent virgin but now he has seen that maybe that isn’t true. He is saying she is â€Å"spoilt goods.† However, this quote also shows us that Claudio is putting part of the responsibility of Hero’s actions onto Leonato, he is saying that Leonato should not have given a woman who isn’t a virgin to him. Because Leonato gave Hero to Claudio like a gift he is now responsible for any mishaps she may have with Claudio. This really shows how women were thought of as objects, that a woman could be compared to an orange, which is amongst the lowest forms of living things. I think this would have an impact on a modern audience as they would be more sensitive towards sexist treatment of women, and women being treated as objects. Claudio then uses Dian and Venus to show what he thinks of Hero. He says that Hero â€Å"seemed† like Dian, Dian was a true virgin so he is using this imagery to show that he feels Hero deceived his as being a virgin. He then uses Venus the adulteress as the other extreme, saying that Hero is more intemperate than Venus. These two extremes give us a scale on which to picture Hero he has given us the best (Dian) and the worst (Venus), he has then left us thinking that Hero is at the worst end of the scale with Venus. Claudio later says, â€Å"like a maid she blushes there,† he is saying she is deceitful, pretending to be a virgin when she isn’t. I think this would be effective both modern and Elizabethan audiences because of the frustration it makes an audience feel. The â€Å"dramatic irony† would be especially popular with an Elizabethan audience as it was a popular form of humour at the time and common in Shakespeare’s comedies. The audience really feel Hero’s frustration because they know that she is innocent and have to watch on helplessly as Claudio makes a huge mistake because the audience know more than his character does. One of the first real comments on the situation by Leonato is, â€Å"Hath no man’s dagger here a point for me?† This really shows the shame Leonato feels that his own daughter has done such a thing; it also shows how he feels it is all about him. He is not worried about his daughter but by how she has affected him, she has damaged his honour and pride, these things would have been very important in Elizabethan times and not something you can get back as easily as you can lose. This shows the importance in Elizabethan England of the family name and how you can be judged by your name. It also shows the responsibility Leonato has for giving his â€Å"wanton† daughter to Claudio, he wants to kill himself due to the shame and guilt she he has brought upon himself because of his daughter. Leonato next says, â€Å"death is the fairest cover for her shame,† he feels that she has brought such shame upon herself that it would be fair for her to die for it. This woul d have a large impact upon an audience, for them to hear a father saying his daughter should die before he even hears her side of the story or even before he really finds out what has happened. It is especially effective because the audience knows that she is innocent and the fact that she is being told she should die for her crime leads the audience to think that there is no justice. However, an Elizabethan audience may sympathise with Leonato as they would be likely to react in a similar way if it happened to them, as this play is a real reflection of Elizabethan society it would have happened therefore his situation would be very real to them. Leonato then has a long speech in which he seems to no longer love his daughter, where shortly before the wedding he could not have been happier for her. This really shows the strength of opinions on pre-marital sex and adultery in Elizabethan times. Probably one of the most shocking and effective statements made by Leonato in his speech is, â€Å"Myself would on the reward of reproaches strike at thy life.† If it was not shock enough to an audience to hear Leonato say he it was fair for his daughter to die, he is now saying that he is willing to kill her himself. Especially in modern times it is almost unthinkable for a mentally sane father to threaten his daughter with death when he cannot be 100% sure that she is guilty of what is a unthinkable crime. This shows us two things,  firstly it shows yet again how strong views were on adultery, but it also shows us how strong a man’s word was against a woman’s in Elizabethan England. Leonato is threatening to kill his daughter purely on the word of a few men who he does not know that well, he wont believe his daughter who he has raised and known all her life. It is like he has just switched of all his love and trust for his daughter, this shows that he values his respect and honour more than he values her. Friar Francis is interesting in this scene because as a vicar he is maybe expected to speak the side of the church, which we would expect to be very against what Hero has allegedly done. However, Friar Francis plays the middle man in the way that he does not condone what she has supposed to have done. But he sees that she may not be guilty of the accusations so he defends her when almost nobody else will. This may be to represent the church as a voice of reason and as a comfort in times of trouble, the belief that if she has done wrong then God will right it himself. The first thing Friar Francis says during the accusations is â€Å"have comfort lady,† the audience will be relieved that someone is seeing reason and will possibly warm to the character of the Friar. However, they might be slightly shocked to see this comfort coming from a man of the church as it does say in the bible â€Å"thou shalt not commit adultery.† After everyone has said what they think about Hero , Friar Francis interrupts with â€Å"hear me a little.† The effect of this is almost like a hero coming to the rescue, he has seen that Hero is defenceless and he now steps in to reason with everyone and protect her. He refers to her â€Å"maiden truth,† this shows us that he really has faith in her as a person while everyone else takes the word of the princes. By â€Å"maiden truth† he is saying that she is telling the truth when she says she is a virgin, this is interesting from an audience perspective because they would expect these words to come from her father. Friar Francis then makes a plan to save Hero’s dignity. He decides that they should pretend that she died with shock or shame and then Claudio would feel guilty and love her more than when she was alive. They can then reveal that she is still alive and they can happily marry again. At this point it becomes clear why Friar Francis has to be the one to save Hero, it is because he is a trusted man in society and seen as a respectable figure of the church. This puts him in a  position to advise people as Benedick says after the Friar’s speech, â€Å"Signior Leonato, let the Friar advise you.† It works as they all agree with his idea and the Friar has saved Hero from shame making himself almost the true Hero of the play. When you analyse Hero’s self defence and appeal of innocence it becomes less surprising that she was thought to be guilty and that the mans words were taken over hers. Her defence is weak and spoken with little passion or convincing tone, she says very little to her defence except that she is guilty but cannot prove it or offer any alternative solution to how the mistake came about. She says, â€Å"O God defend me,† this shows how helpless she is that she is calling upon God to help her because she cannot help herself. This may make an audience angry because she is so weak, especially in a modern audience where women are seen as stronger and more independent. Women were seen as the weaker gender in Elizabethan society but with Hero’s terrible defence and cry to God for help, she is causing herself to be treated weak because she is acting in that way. I think that audiences would also be amazed at the happy ending to the play when Hero appears to accept the mistakes that were made and forgive for the insults they made without a second thought. This really shows how weak she is and how she is expected to react as a female. An audience would be expecting her to make some kind of speech at the end along the lines of â€Å"I told you so† or something on the way she was appallingly treated by most of the men. However, she says nothing and is happily married to Claudio forgetting about anything that was previously said. I feel this would shock an audience because it gives the message that you can treat women like that and get away with it because they are in no position to argue back. An Elizabethan audience may expect her to be submissive because it is what they are used to, however, a modern audience would be disappointed in the message she is giving. They would be especially disappointed because they have seen Beatrice act strongly and independently against the stereotype placed on women, this makes Hero look even worse because if Beatrice has managed to be strong then there is no reason why Hero cant do the same. I found that what was most shocking in this play was not how the Hero was treated, but how she was representing women and just took all the mislead abuse without any kind of defence or anger. What I found interesting about this play is how it appears to have different appeals for a modern audience and an Elizabethan audience. I felt that a modern audience would be very sympathetic on Hero’s side but also slightly angry at her lack of defence and self respect. They would also feel shocked by the male characters and their treatment of Hero as a woman. However, an Elizabethan audience would sympathise with Hero because she is innocent but they would not be shocked by her lack of defence as that is what they would expect in their society. Similarly, they would sympathise with Leonato and the men where we would be angry, this is because they would be used to a similar reaction in their lives if a woman was thought to have been unfaithful. They would understand the shame Leonato feels in the play. This shows how amazingly Shakespeare can cross not just generation but centuries, his plays are made to entertain a wide range of people with different beliefs and social or religious views. I believe that it is because of this that Shakespeare is seen as one of the greatest playwrights of all time.

Things Fall Apart Tragic Hero

The role of a tragic hero within a story line is essential in a dramatic film or written work. The hero has the standards of becoming a great character that can take charge of the story through courageous action and bold dialogue. However, since the character is deemed a â€Å"tragic† hero, his flaws will ultimately be his downfall, usually leading to the characters own demise. Nowhere is this ideal of a tragic hero more relevant that in Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart. The story is set in late nineteenth-century in a small village in Nigeria. The tragic hero in this case is a young man named Okonkwo.He is a dynamic growing character but is doomed from the beginning of the story with two major flaws that in the end will destroy his character. Okonkwo cannot physically display any of his emotions because he thinks it is a sure sign of weakness. His second flaw is that if and when he does show any emotion, it is an uncontrollable rage. Both of these flaws will get Okonkwo into trouble that he cannot handle. Okonkwo has been taught from a very young age that showing his emotions is a feminine characteristic, a sign of weakness within his culture.This is brought about because when Okonkwo was a child his father was not very involved with the community or with the elder counsel. The community is the most important aspect of everyday life for Okonkwo’s people. The village does not have a centralized government, but it is does have democratic ruling through the elder males (Ohadike xxii). Since Okonkwo’s father was lazy and drank too much, he did not receive any respect from the majority of the community. Okonkwo did not want this for himself so he always displayed a tough exterior so that he could have respect. This characteristic is clearly shown throughout the story.One such example is when Okonkwo becomes very fond of a boy that is in his care. Even though he likes the boy, Ikemefuna, he still treated him â€Å"as he treated ev eryone else – with a heavy hand† (Achebe 20). Even to a person who was considered part of his own family, he could not show the emotion of affection or graceful attention. In addition to not being able to show any true emotions, Okonkwo has trouble controlling his temper. His anger and rough treatment of everyone around him, particularly his wives, once again springs from the fact that his father was segregated from the community.Also, his short-temper towards his wives may have been fueled by the fact that women were beneath men within the village’s social ranking. Okonkwo thinks that the only way he can gain the village’s respect is through being bold and strong. It was also very important to show strength during this time of need because there was much change going on in the community itself with the coming of the white man and new traditions. He must absolutely display only anger and strength â€Å"when the institutions he had fought so hard to sustai n collapse in the face of European colonialism† (Gikandi x).The most infamous scene of Okonkwo’s irrational anger and lack of respect is when he beats his wife for not preparing the meal for their children during the Week of Peace (Achebe 21). This is just a single case of Okonkwo beating one of his wives, but the village punishes him more severely because it is during their Week of Peace in which everyone should be nice and kind to their neighbor. The village was shocked because no one ever breaks the rules of that week. â€Å"Even the oldest men could only remember one or two other occasions somewhere in the dim past† (Achebe 22).Another instance where Okonkwo’s disorderly behavior takes control of his actions is when he kills the boy he was fond of, Ikemefuna. Okonkwo’s clansmen are attacking the boy, so Ikemefuna runs to seek help from Okonkwo. However, since Okonkwo â€Å"does not want to look weak in front of his fellow tribesmen, [he] cuts t he boy down† (Ward 1). He lets his rage and pride take over and kills the boy whom he considered his own son. The characteristics of a tragic hero are clearly visible within Okonkwo. If his ideals were prevalent in someone during this day and age in the United States, it would be quite interesting.It is almost shocking to say, but someone with those characteristics would be very successful in the competitive and fast-pace market of the United States. They could take charge of their business career as well as not buckling under pressure due to the lack of physical emotions. Okonkwo’s manners are instinctual in most humans, no matter how primitive or modern. Wall Street brokers and fast-talking businessmen can be compared to primitive African men whose attitudes have â€Å"been masculine-based even before the advent of the white man† (Mezu 1).In a country based on the powerful business ethic of â€Å"only the strong survive,† there is no doubt Okonkwo could make it far. It can be easily concluded that Okonkwo’s flaws were the leading means of his character’s destruction. His lack of emotions and uncontainable anger were definite components for the deterioration of his character. However, the meaning in Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart would have been lost without Okonkwo as the dominant character. The tragic hero is still and always will be the stable character of any deeply meaningful epic novel or movie.

Free Essays on Judging A Book By Its Cover

such as Ambiguous Gender, Transvestites and Homosexuality are introduced and force them to disregard our past misconceptions of gender and sexuality and redefine them. So what makes up a â€Å"Man† and what makes up a â€Å"Woman†? More importantly, are the two sexes as opposite as black and white or is there a gray area in-between which society has been ignoring this whole time? The Webster Dictionary defines a male as being the â€Å"sex that produces germ cells which fertilize the eggs of a female†. I don’t agree one bit. What about those men that have been dealt the unfortunate hand of cancer or some other situation that enables them to produce sperm? Are they any less then the man who impregnates several women a year? Likewise, a woman who cannot produce a mature egg is no less a woman then the one who has produced millions of eggs. Some think that perhaps it is the personality that determines if one is a man or woman; one who chooses to act like a woman is a woman. If that were true then an individual who may have a penis and testicles that choose to dress in a dress and be nurturing and emotional would be a woman†¦ that doesn’t seem Klaib 2 right either. Rather, it is combination of physical, emotional and spiritual factors that determines the sex. Society cannot determine what someone will identify himself or herself as. It is that individual that should determine whether society would identify them as a... Free Essays on Judging A Book By Its Cover Free Essays on Judging A Book By Its Cover Judging A Book By Its Cover Beginning as early as birth, children are taught to judge a book by its cover and yet they are told otherwise. They are taught that boys like blue and boys go pee- pee in the room with the stick figure wearing the pants. Whereas girls like pink and they wear the dresses. As they hit adolescents they learn that the Moms have breasts and the Dads have penises. However, as they begin to experience the â€Å"real world† they quickly realize that those lines aren’t so clear. Words such as Ambiguous Gender, Transvestites and Homosexuality are introduced and force them to disregard our past misconceptions of gender and sexuality and redefine them. So what makes up a â€Å"Man† and what makes up a â€Å"Woman†? More importantly, are the two sexes as opposite as black and white or is there a gray area in-between which society has been ignoring this whole time? The Webster Dictionary defines a male as being the â€Å"sex that produces germ cells which fertilize the eggs of a female†. I don’t agree one bit. What about those men that have been dealt the unfortunate hand of cancer or some other situation that enables them to produce sperm? Are they any less then the man who impregnates several women a year? Likewise, a woman who cannot produce a mature egg is no less a woman then the one who has produced millions of eggs. Some think that perhaps it is the personality that determines if one is a man or woman; one who chooses to act like a woman is a woman. If that were true then an individual who may have a penis and testicles that choose to dress in a dress and be nurturing and emotional would be a woman†¦ that doesn’t seem Klaib 2 right either. Rather, it is combination of physical, emotional and spiritual factors that determines the sex. Society cannot determine what someone will identify himself or herself as. It is that individual that should determine whether society would identify them as a...

LINKIN PARK essays

LINKIN PARK essays Linkin Park is a band who sings rock songs. They are good band as rock. Did you know what did Linkin Park did to become a band? Did you know about their music and songs? Did you know how many Albums are there of Linkin Park? Well follow along in this paper and know the answers to unlock your mind and know the truth. Linkin Park became in a Band in 1996, and Later On became a band. It took them time to become a band. Practice and practice on the instrument they play. Words got to rhyme with the music and if the word does not rhyme with the mucic, then people would not like their music. There are 6 people in the band. Chester and Mike are the main singer of the Band. One of the person is the producer of the band and rest of the people plays instrument. Drums, Scratch Record, and Electric Guiter. Moving on with Linkin Park history. Did you notice all of their songs. When they play a song, there is atleast one song in an Album that will make the people intrest. When they Came with the Hybrid Theory Album. People did not like all of their song, but there was one song that made the audiene intrest their music. The song name is called IN THE END. In that song, musice and the words makes the audience be in that song, even their video of this song. Also makes people no left out. Linkin Park came out with 7 Albums. Hybrid Theory, Hybrid Theory EP, One Step Closer, Reanimation, Meteora, Linkin Park Live in Texas and one of their albums was unknown. How ever people became intrested in their albums. Did you know Meteora made the highest sale in Rock Music, when ever it came out. Did you know that there is a DVD of Linkin Park Live in Texas as the album of Linkni Park Live In Texas. Linkin Park worked the same way as the artist Limp Bizkit worked to sell his album. Know think about it, that Linkin Park will now rock your world or not. Just listen to their songs for few times, no matter if you like rap ...

NATO - Member Countries and Overview

NATO - Member Countries and Overview On April 1, 2009, two countries were newly admitted into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Thus, there are now 28 member states. The U.S.-led military alliance was created in 1949 as a result of the Soviet blockade of Berlin. The original twelve members of NATO in 1949 were the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg. In 1952, Greece and Turkey joined. West Germany was admitted in 1955 and in 1982 Spain became the sixteenth member. On March 12, 1999, three new countries - the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland - brought the total number of NATO members to 19. On April 2, 2004, seven new countries joined the alliance. These countries are Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. The two newest countries that joined as NATO members on April 1, 2009 are Albania and Croatia. To retaliate against the formation of NATO, in 1955 the Communist countries banded together to form the now-defunct Warsaw Pact, which originally consisted of the Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, East Germany, Poland, and Romania. The Warsaw Pact ended in 1991, with the fall of Communism and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Most notably, Russia remains a non-member of NATO. Interestingly enough, in the military structure of NATO, a U.S. military officer is always commander-in-chief of NATO forces so that U.S. troops never come under the  control of a foreign power. The 28 Current NATO Members AlbaniaBelgiumBulgariaCanadaCroatiaCzech RepublicDenmarkEstoniaFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryIcelandItalyLatviaLithuaniaLuxembourgNetherlandsNorwayPolandPortugalRomaniaSlovakiaSloveniaSpainTurkeyUnited KingdomUnited States

Summary Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Summary - Case Study Example The research question of whether rules and regulations regarding ban on text messages while driving is of immense importance because text messaging has become a part and parcel of everyone’s life and people fail to avoid sending as well as receiving text messages while they are driving and this has resulted in an increase in the number of road accidents. The research is even important because ban on texting while driving can assist in lowering the rate of accidents caused due to texting while driving. The research is even helpful as it can assist policy makers in ensuring that bans are more effective (Abouk 189). The research question is quite hard to address because there are certain limitations of obtaining the data specifically in the area of kinds of bans and how drivers respond to these bans. One of the limitations experienced by the study was that there was a lack of rules and regulations that ban text messaging or there was a lack of rules and regulations that ban calling while driving. Due to this estimates were used in the study instead of real data which might hamper the credibility of the study (Abouk 186). In order to address the question, the researchers use data regarding implementation of bans on texting while driving and how these bans have impacted or changed driver’s behavior of texting while driving and they even use data regarding the intensity of the bans and how the level of intensity impacts the driver’s texting behaviors. The intensity of the ban was categorized as either weak or strong and the intensity was measured in accordance to the target population of the ban (Abouk 183). The researchers even try to answer the research questions by testing the impact of a particular law at different points in time. The researchers identified that accidents that are categorized as fatal or deadly are more likely to be reduced if the laws that restrict texting while driving

Social effects of Telecommuting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Social effects of Telecommuting - Essay Example This means that home is no longer seen to be a refuge from a hard day’s work, but an extension of the workplace. Such situations may be problematic for some individuals because it leads to an increase in work related stress and other psychological conditions. In addition, the traditional way through which people worked and interacted at the office is lost, since the close proximity and interpersonal interactions that could be achieved at the workplace is lost. Telecommuting encourages the isolation of an individual from any form of social life and this may be detrimental to such a person’s mental health (Burger, et al 39). However, despite this isolation, by telecommuting, individuals save plenty of time which they can use working, hence an increase in productivity. In addition, with the development of new information technologies every day, the aspect of complete isolation will be completely lost in a few years, since there will be a renewal of interaction between work ers through video technologies. Such technologies will ensure that workers are able to see each other without any need for physical interaction, meaning that most of the work related activities will still be able to be done in the comfort of one’s home (Dombrow 685).Moreover, telecommuting brings about changes in the working patterns of individuals, especially those who have other obligations besides work. Among these are parents, who, because of their ability to work at home, get to spend more time with their children., something that is often beneficial for the latter (Iscan and Naktiyok 53). In addition, telecommuting enables those individuals who would otherwise not have been allowed in the workforce, in most cases disabled people, to be able to work from the comfort of their own homes, and this ensures that their levels of self-esteem due to the work they are doing is high. Furthermore, the feeling of isolation that such individuals may have is often removed due to their not having to go through the cumbersome effort of having to get to the workplace. Instead, the easy access to video calls and other technologies enables them to be able to communicate easily with their fellow workers. Moreover, telecommuting gives individuals the opportunity to continue working way past the age when they would have thought of retiring, because they do not have to spend plenty of time getting to work, instead working from home. Therefore, it has ensured that many people past their retirement age have remained productive and they are not under any pressure to stop working. This has created a situation where the knowledge and skills of individuals with years of experience have been retained, not only for the benefit of the company for which they work, but also for the

English Composition Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

English Composition - Essay Example e the effects on both the brain and the body; could be stated less awkwardly and better connected to the second part of the statement, we can begin to investigate the implications their drug usage has on random individuals within a community. Structure of the first paragraph is essential to the successful conveyance of the thesis, and to setting the parameters for focus on the thesis. While the topic, as suggested by the title and subtitle of the paper, give insight as to the purpose of the paper, it is a good idea to make clear the purpose of the paper. A clear and concise statement of purpose can be included. Here, it might be included in the introduction, following the thesis. The purpose can be stated as such, by saying, â€Å"The purpose of this paper is.† Here, your statement of thesis and purpose seem inextricably connected and combined. It would serve to add focus and a disciplined set of structural parameters to separate the purpose from the thesis. The structure of the body of the paper might begin with a focus on the community, the problems that exist as a result of meth use and manufacture. As stated in the thesis, the goal for understanding the signs and symptoms of the meth user is to facilitate and mitigate the domino effect that use on the community. Therefore, the organization of the body of the paper might begin with a discussion of the community, then, logically, lead into the avenues by which the user of the drug has access to the drug, i.e., manufacture of the drug within the community; and, then, the signs and symptoms of meth use that might help those who are, or will be, impacted by its use – the community – to identify the signs and symptoms associated with use of the drug. The paper covers the full range of concepts, but could be better structured, as stated above, to deliver a better organization and to provide a comprehensive discussion of the discussion, then, its ultimate goal – understand the signs and symptoms, to

Summary of Reading Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Summary of Reading - Essay Example It can be said that this is a case of â€Å"virtual smoothness† that any Russian speaker feels upon hearing the new Russian anthem. It is considered an affirmation of the new anthem’s link to the original anthem. Overall, Daughtry’s article is a rationalization of a Russian national’s positive sentiments through the anthem’s emotional association with Soviet’s grand history. Signs of Imagination, Identity, and Experience: A Peircian Semiotic Theory for Music Charles Peirce’s concept of signs to discuss identity, emotion, and music is utilized in Turino’s analysis for the need of music. According to Peirce, the interpretant, object, and sign are elements in all semiotic processes. In the article, recognition of societal and individual identities and formation of emotional corollaries are music’s ability rooted in the reality that social signs are generally of the less mediated or direct type. Generally speaking, music work s without any mental intervention and directly at the physical and emotional levels. Turino’s main focus in his article is on the relationship of the sign and the object --- symbol, index, and icon, and its overall interpretation --- argument, dicent, and rheme. Works Cited Daughtry, J M. "Russia's New Anthem and the Negotiation of National Identity." Ethnomusicology.

How Changes in Technology Can Affect Service Organizations and Their Essay

How Changes in Technology Can Affect Service Organizations and Their Customers - Essay Example In the modern era of technology it often turns out, that an organization that manages its computer data base the most efficient way is the leading one in high quality customer service. Technology introduces both major problems and major opportunities. In general, technology can be broadly defined as a kind of system of knowledge-based activities employed in the conversion of an input into a useful output. (D'Souza, 1995) The influence of technology on service positioning, service design, service delivery and quality, customer satisfaction can hardly be overestimated. The very essence of service provision type of business results in significant influence of high-tech environment on both quality of service provided and level of customer satisfaction. Services are produced and consumed simultaneously; therefore, customers often personally contact the provider of the service, thus opening an opportunity for an inter-personal relationship. (Lovelock, 2001) Going even further then this, service industry involves multiple service encounters over a period of time, thus require an ongoing relationship with the consumer (auto repair) or an ongoing membership (banking, insurance systems). (Lovelock, 2001) Excellence in service delivery is largely dependent on interpersonal relationships with customer either on a short-term or on a long-term basis, whereas in recent years many processes that used to be manual now are mechanized. This shifts the dependence of customer satisfaction and service quality on workforce quality to the dependence on quality of techn ology management. All five dimensions of service quality outlined in a journal article by Subhash C. Kundu and Jay A. Vora (2004): reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles are directly correlated with technology management.The quality improvement movement that has been so popular within the last few years is mainly driven by technological innovations. Over years technology began to outweigh all other factors that traditionally have been major constitutes of service quality. Eventually the result might be that a service company, that is able to adjust to technological innovations and successfully implement them in service provision, will be the leading in the industry. It is stated far and wide, that the corporate success in the 21st century will largely depend on a company's ability to leverage feedback and to establish an ongoing dialogue with the consumer as a consequence. Technology will provide a basis for enduring customer relations that will be based on t rust and commitment. (Rosello, 1997) Lovelock (2001) introduced the idea of the four quadrants of service types three of which emphasize the relationship with the individual when delivering a service: services directed at people's bodies, physical possessions, and intangible assets. The final quadrant, quadrant 3, represents services directed at people's minds (education, radio, television) and in this case most of the times relationship is often with the organization instead of a usual individualistic approach. Technological innovation by bringing in new channels of product delivery makes this idea questionable. (Prescott, 2003) It should be emphasized, that the categorizing offered by Lovelock is actually much more complex. In

Artices summary Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Artices summary - Article Example The chosen article consists of a study conducted on women in order to identify their underlying causes for major depression. The personalities of over 2000 women were studied by doctors at the Medical College of Virginia where they tried to unearth the kind of feelings women were going through. The main aim for the purpose of this test was to figure out the levels of depression as well as neuroticism that most women felt. According to the background of the study conducted, it was stated that these two factors are the most common aspects of a person’s inner thinking and mind which helps to depict whether or not a person is going through feelings of depression or is facing a period of depression. After a proper analysis of the results, it was noted that neuroticism coupled with depression were mostly caused due to genetic factors first. It was comprehended from the test results that in order to find out a woman’s level of depression, it is easier to understand the same by doing a search of the feelings of anxiety and stress levels in a woman rather than looking at her self esteem. (Seth B. Roberts and Kenneth S. Kendler, 1999) The article chosen for the purpose of explanation of substance dependency is based on young boys in their early-late teenage years. A number of noted psychologists have stated that this age has been witnessing an increase in terms of substance users and abusers around the world. Dependence on alcohol or drugs takes place in the subconscious of an individual at first and therefore, it is a very psychological reaction faced by the person as he continues or increases his usage of substances to carry on with his lifestyle. The article notes that there are a number of offspring of substance users that fall into the trap as well, and due to such usage of drugs, narcotics and alcohol to lead a wayward life, they lose their ability to control emotions and fair very poorly thus, in ECF tests conducted. Such users have been said

How Changes in Technology Can Affect Service Organizations and Their Essay

How Changes in Technology Can Affect Service Organizations and Their Customers - Essay Example In the modern era of technology it often turns out, that an organization that manages its computer data base the most efficient way is the leading one in high quality customer service. Technology introduces both major problems and major opportunities. In general, technology can be broadly defined as a kind of system of knowledge-based activities employed in the conversion of an input into a useful output. (D'Souza, 1995) The influence of technology on service positioning, service design, service delivery and quality, customer satisfaction can hardly be overestimated. The very essence of service provision type of business results in significant influence of high-tech environment on both quality of service provided and level of customer satisfaction. Services are produced and consumed simultaneously; therefore, customers often personally contact the provider of the service, thus opening an opportunity for an inter-personal relationship. (Lovelock, 2001) Going even further then this, service industry involves multiple service encounters over a period of time, thus require an ongoing relationship with the consumer (auto repair) or an ongoing membership (banking, insurance systems). (Lovelock, 2001) Excellence in service delivery is largely dependent on interpersonal relationships with customer either on a short-term or on a long-term basis, whereas in recent years many processes that used to be manual now are mechanized. This shifts the dependence of customer satisfaction and service quality on workforce quality to the dependence on quality of techn ology management. All five dimensions of service quality outlined in a journal article by Subhash C. Kundu and Jay A. Vora (2004): reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles are directly correlated with technology management.The quality improvement movement that has been so popular within the last few years is mainly driven by technological innovations. Over years technology began to outweigh all other factors that traditionally have been major constitutes of service quality. Eventually the result might be that a service company, that is able to adjust to technological innovations and successfully implement them in service provision, will be the leading in the industry. It is stated far and wide, that the corporate success in the 21st century will largely depend on a company's ability to leverage feedback and to establish an ongoing dialogue with the consumer as a consequence. Technology will provide a basis for enduring customer relations that will be based on t rust and commitment. (Rosello, 1997) Lovelock (2001) introduced the idea of the four quadrants of service types three of which emphasize the relationship with the individual when delivering a service: services directed at people's bodies, physical possessions, and intangible assets. The final quadrant, quadrant 3, represents services directed at people's minds (education, radio, television) and in this case most of the times relationship is often with the organization instead of a usual individualistic approach. Technological innovation by bringing in new channels of product delivery makes this idea questionable. (Prescott, 2003) It should be emphasized, that the categorizing offered by Lovelock is actually much more complex. In

The USA expansion after the year 1800, changes between the years 1820 Essay

The USA expansion after the year 1800, changes between the years 1820 and 1850. Hamilton's financial program and the growth of industrial manufacturing - Essay Example 4," 2010). America refused, reminding the government of Mexico that the terms that had already been agreed to in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo made America responsible only for protection, not financial compensation for any losses that happened to people or territory belonging to Mexico ("Gadsden purchase, 1853-1854," 2010). Complicating matters was the fact that some developers desperately wanted a Southern transcontinental railroad to connect the West through a southerly route. The only available routes passed through portions of Mexican territory. Things came to a boil in 1853, when the Mexican government evicted Americans from their homes in the Mesilla Valley ("Gadsden purchase, 1853-1854," 2010). ... Though there were small outbreaks of tension from this point on between the United States and Mexico, this treaty did much to cool the foreign relations that had previously been tense between the two countries. The United States experienced many changes between the years 1820 and 1850, including economic, industrial, and socioeconomic changes, as well as the issue of slavery. Of these changes, which do you think had the greatest effect during this time? Explain your choice. I think that the industrial changes experienced in the United States during this time had the greatest effect on the country. Though the changes were fueled by an enormous population growth, with the American population expanding from four million in 1790 to ten million in 1820, and seventeen million in 1840, it was still industry that grew rapidly and influenced almost every other sector of American life (Brinkley 2004). The growth of industries influenced the growth of cities, which influenced the changes that c ame about due to the expanded number of people in those cities. The populations of cities accelerated quickly, as did the number of factories in New England, with water power being replaced by steam power and later coal power. What had begun as a â€Å"factory system† in New England for textile workers was quickly expanded into other industries, such as the shoe industry (Brinkley 2004). I also believe that industrial changes had the greatest impact on the country from 1820 to 1850 because the growth of industry fueled new inventions and gadgets that came into service for the first time. Perhaps the biggest was the railroad that would soon span the entire length of the United States. Before 1820, the main form of transportation

Current Strategic Potential Essay Example for Free

Current Strategic Potential Essay The strategic potential of an enterprise (SPE) depends on the ability of an enterprise to take into account and properly assess both the internal and external conditions of its activities (Ginevicius et al. 2010). This means to know the strategic potential of an organisation, in other words ‘what it can do’, one has to analyse how different environments can be more or less rich in opportunities or hostile and how organisational capabilities ( resources and competences) can enable or constrain strategies. This essay will examine which information tools are necessary to assess the current strategic potential of Lufthansa. A globally leading aviation group focusing on the core competencies of its five business areas: Passenger Airline Group, Logistics, MRO, Catering and IT Services. The ability to analyse and evaluate the external conditions (environment) internal conditions (capabilities) is a complex phenomenon and dependent of an organisation’s activities and usage of appropriate tools. The essay will argue that for an organisation like Lufthansa with global presence and complex operations, to assess external environment PESTEL whereas for diagnosing strategic capabilities Value chain Value network are the most appropriate tools. Due to the reason that Lufthansa is an internationally operating organisation it faces international challenges. These international challenges govern as well the internal organisation as the external environment. The external environment has huge impacts on the Lufthansa. To conduct external environment analysis of Lufthansa it is essential to have information about the company, its financials, operations, global network, Strategy statement, Markets customer segment research studies, information about alliances partnerships,  Flight Schedules/Routes, Environmental challenges / studies ( e.g. Noise pollution, energy consumption controls related information), Fleet information (type aging of fleets), Competitor comparison reports, Legislation and regulations ( e.g. preferential airport rights if any) and Customer satisfaction studies. When it comes to select the tools for external environment analysis, there are quite few tools / technique available but two major / widely used to ol / techniques are PESTEL Porter’s Five forces. However use of PESTEL provides a wide overview reveal threats and opportunities presented e.g. by technological changes (i.e. fuel efficient engines, airframes, internet) or shift in market demographic, legal issues such as restriction on mergers, political such as security controls etc. PESTEL analysis helps to uncover issues likely to have major impact upon the future of the industry, regions or markets. The identification of the key drivers in macro environment changes help focus on what is most important and can be used to construct scenarios of alternative possible future. PESTLE-analysis tries to make the future more comprehensible and predictable though we have to take into account that future is something which cannot be forecasted, as unpredictable events might occur.Porter’s five forces framework which helps identify the attractiveness of an industry in terms of five competitive forces is another option to analyse external environment. However to be used carefully as not necessarily complete even at the industrial level for example, * Defining the â€Å"right† industry, most industries can be analysed at different levels e.g. different markets and even different segments within them e.g. airline industry has different geographical markets (Europe, Middle East, China etc.) with different segments (leisure, business freight). The competitive forces are different for each of these markets so must be analysed separately * Converging industries, definition of industry is too difficult because of continuous change of boundaries e.g. high tech area is converging. * Complementary organisation, analysts argue that industry analyses needs to include ‘sixth force’ due to the organisation that are complementary rather than competitors. An example is Microsoft Windows software and McAfee each is better because of others. Complementarity implies a significance shift in perspective. While Porter’s five forces sees organisations as battling against other for share of industry value, whereas  complementors may cooperate to increase the total value available. Others tools / techniques for external environment analysis such as Strategic group analysis, market segment analysis and the strategy canvases. These tools / techniques covers only the inner layer of the environment and help identify strategic gaps or opportunities thus misses the wider view of external environment for a company such as Lufthansa, thus may not be considered for analysis of Lufthansa.Strategic capabilities of an organisation contribute to its long term survival or competitive advantage. Two components of Strategic capability are ‘resources’ (what an organisation has) which includes physical, financial and humans resources and ‘competence’ (what it does well) how well these resources are deployed. The tools / techniques available to diagnose organisational capabilities includes, * Benchmarking, means to understand the relative performance of organisation * The Value chain and Value network, to understand how value to a customer is created and can be developed * Activity mapping, means of identifying more detailed activities which underpin strategic capabilities * SWOT, summarises the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats likely to impact on strategy developmentTo diagnose Lufthansa’s capabilities (Resources competencies) ‘the Value chain Value network’ is more appropriate tool/ technique. As it helps to understand the Lufthansa’s primary and secondary activities and how company strive to achieve competitive advantage by delivering value to the customer. The value chain can be used to diagnose and create competitive advantages on both cost and differentiation. The value chain is also beneficial to understand the strategic position as ‘generic description of activities’ help managers understand if there is a cluster of activities providing benefit to customer located within particular area of value chain. It also support analyzing competitive position of the organisation using VRIN ( Value, Rarity, inimitability, Non substitutability) criteria, further value chain helps to anaylse the cost and value of the of the activities. Since Lufthansa is part of wider value network (i.e. inter-organizational links relationship to create a product or services) it will further helps to understand the strategic position of the organisation. Other tools / techniques available to assess the capabilities of Lufthansa / organisation may not be able to stand simply because the value chain can be used to diagnose and create  competitive advantages on both cost and differentiation. Whereas Benchmarking is limited to comparing input output or outcomes and dose not identify the reason for relative performance in terms of underlying capabilities. Benchmarking may also lead to measurement distortions which mean you get what you measure. Activity mapping useful it is the danger is that, in seeking to explain capabilities underpinning their strategy managers may identify capabilities as too abstract a level. SWOT on the other hand may produce long list of strength weakness opportunities and threat so prioritization remains an issue, it may be used as a summary not as a substitute of analysis, it also lacks of specificity thus making value chain value network analysis more authentic to produce the needed analysis. To understand what kind of information is essential to conduct such analysis it’s important to draw a value chain map of the organisation. Below table is a representation of the value chain of an airline and give fair idea of the information needed for such an analysis. Conclusion,To assess the strategic potential PESTEL (for external environment), Value chain Value network (to diagnose strategic capabilities) tools / techniques are the most appropriate. With PESTEL broad macro environment of the organisation in terms of political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factor is analysed. This leads to identification of key drivers in macro-environment which are used to construct alternative scenarios with regard to environmental changes. The strategic capabilities which provide competitive advantage on the basis of their value, rarity, inimitability and non-substitutability (VRIN) are diagnosed through Value chain Value network analysis. Thus considering international nature of Lufthansa operations and global presence both tools (PESTEL Value chain Value network) to be used to assess its strategic potential.| References, Johnson, G, Whittington, R, Scholes, Kevan 2011, Exploring Strategy,9th edn, Pearson Education Limited, England Richard J. Speed, 1989Oh Mr Porter! A Re-Appraisal of Competitive Strategy, Marketing Intelligence Planning, Vol. 7 Iss: 5 pp. 8 – 11 Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000001043 Rainer Feurer, Kazem Chaharbaghi, (1997),Strategy development: past, present and future, raining for Quality, Vol. 5 Iss: 2 pp. 58 70 Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09684879710167647 Joan Magretta, (2012),Michael Porter answers managers FAQs, Strategy Leadership, Vol. 40 Iss: 2 pp.11 – 15 Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/10878571211209305 G. Anand, Rambabu Kodali, (2008),Benchmarking the benchmarking models, Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 15 Iss: 3 pp. 257 291 Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14635770810876593 Brian Leavy, (2003),Assessing your strategic alternatives from both a market position and core competence perspective, Strategy Leadership, Vol. 31 Iss: 6 pp. 29 35 Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/10878570310505578 Ginevicius, R, Podvezko, V, Nototny, M Komka, A, 2012, Comprehensive quantitative evaluation of the strategic potential of an enterprize, Economic Computation Economic Cybernetics Studies Research, vol.46, no.1, pp. 65-84 Kavanah, P Hisrich, RD, 2010, The relationship between the quality of the idea and the strategic potential of a new venture; a longitudinal study of five Irish campus companies, Managing Global transitions: International research Journal, vol.8, no. 3, pp. 261-284 Steven T. Walsh Jonathan D. Linton (2001): The Competence Pyramid: A Framework for Identifying and Analysing Firm and Industry Competence, Technology Analysis Strategic Management, 13:2,165-177

Charles Dickens Hard Times Essay examples -- Charles Dickens Hard Tim

Charles Dickens' Hard Times The book "Hard Times" was written in 1854. It was written in weekly instalments in a magazine called Household Words. This is like a normal soap but was weekly. The magazine was owned by Charles Dickens as he was a journalist. The book was written at the time of the Industrial Revolution. This was when factories were being built near major towns and cities such as Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham. The Industrial Revolution was a time when there were big improvements in transport as there was vast expansion in the production of iron. The factories were in the towns so people from the countryside came to the towns for work and a house. They moved because their own mills weren't making enough items of clothing etc whereas the factories could mass produce. However, there weren't enough houses so many were hastily built. This meant they had no fresh water, no sewers and no toilets. This led to a poor quality of living where people got water from communal water pipes and put their waste in a big "pile" which was cleaned by a "waste disposal man". The poor quality of living was added to by the huge smoke clouds which hung over the cities. This "smog" made it hard to breathe and was so bad seeing things became harder. The book starts when Dickens introduces the characters; the first two chapters are short yet are scene-setters. Dickens explains that; Mr Gradgrind - a politician and schools owner, Mr McChoakumchild - a new teacher and Another man - we are not told who the man is or why he is present, are in a classroom full of children. Dickens describes Mr Gradgrind as being a square man and Mr McChoakumchild as a school teacher who was fresh for the factory which "mak... ...r those concerned. This is alike real life where people we meet can be different, alien like or how might we say normal. In "Hard Times" Dickens' does write realistically in a sense. However, in the first two chapters he writes in a more exaggerated way to arouse interest in the book. As this was written in weekly instalments he would have wanted to excite his readers with interesting first chapters so that they continue to buy the magazine. I think that after the first couple of chapter when Dickens' has an interested audience he starts to write in a more realistic fashion. In conclusion, life didn't turn out the way that was expected by many characters in "Hard Times." Those who strived to have perfect children didn't. And those who were looked down on proved to be essential characters in finding that there was more to life than what they were taught.

Argumentative Essay: Gun Control Laws Only Impact Law-abiding Citizens :: essays research papers fc

Tom is running full speed, maybe even for his life. It is a perfect summer night in San Jose, and Tom and his work partner just left work minutes before. They were walking through a â€Å"bad neighborhood† when some thugs started hassling them, and yelling obscenities at them. Tom and his friend walked by them quickly soon to be chased by the thugs. The thugs were threatening Tom and his friend’s life. Tom and his friend continue to run till the reach a busy intersection where Tom pulls out a semi-automatic handgun from his backpack and points it towards the thugs. As soon as the gun is leveled the thugs retreat leaving the two men alone. If there had been no gun Tom and his friend would have been seriously beaten or even killed. Tom did not have a permit for the gun, and might have not been able to get one without a special reason (Rauch 731). People like Tom need to be able to get gun permits, but it is so difficult because of all the criminal activity in America. Gun control laws are pointless and are only binding on the law-abiding citizens. The â€Å"waiting period† method of gun control is basically a two-step process. The first step in the procedure is that the person wanting a gun goes to the gun shop to buy a gun. Then, he/she must wait one to two weeks while the government performs a small background check for past criminal activities, disorderly conduct, or lack of mental/emotional stability. During this time, if the purchaser of the gun wanted the gun for a â€Å"quick crime† it is hoped that they will not still want to cause bodily harm after a few weeks of waiting around. Another dumb law is that is in effect in California is that if you want to carry a concealed handgun, â€Å"you have to prove that you have some special reason to carry†(Rauch 731). The problem with this method of gun control is that it stops the ordinary citizen from purchasing a gun quickly. It still does not stop criminals from buying guns. They purchase them through "dummy buyers" that have clean backgrounds. So when the criminal enters the law abiding citizens house with deadly intentions, the innocent victim can’t defend his family cause he can’t get a gun cause he was arrested for drinking and driving 10 years ago before he was even married, so therefore him and his family become victims.

Policy in Higher Education in USA Essay

Higher education in the USA has been receiving the highest enrolments for students in colleges and universities followed by the UK (Dill, 2007). Public research funding continues to increase annually to ensure that the students are comfortable and the enrolments should keep on increasing. The number of international students is also increasing and these overseas students are vital for institutional funding and without them the sector would be literary bankrupt whilst many of the science and technology departments would have few or no postgraduate students. Although the revenue position of USA universities has improved, there remains a large backlog of investment in infrastructure especially for teaching. The higher institutions will continue to be the subject of pressures from the government and employees to be more efficient and relevant and provide a better learning and social experience for the students’ money. Some literature review to the same reveal that services have ventured into synchronous forms of communication using chat technologies, enabling an interactive, real time connection (Alderman, & Brown, 2005).. Its main advantages include its instant gratification that education can now be assessed from everywhere and can be set into a 24/7 service (Dill, 2007). Yet much of the literature reports low uptake and dissatisfaction. Description of the policy issue To tackle the problem of the high numbers of students going for higher education then there should be an increase in the fee cap coupled by the reduction in generosity of the present student support regime (Alderman, & Brown, 2007). Raising the fees is likely to create gut effects for competition that will exacerbate the differences in funding and reputation between institutions and the social groups which they serve without any compensating gains in effectiveness or efficiency. The distorting influence of prestige in US means that the educational costs for elite universities provide a price umbrella to the rest of the system and present spending targets of less elite institutions that wish to compete by raising their prices (Brown, 2006). Competitive markets will encourage an academic arms race for prestige amongst all institutions, which rapidly increase the cost of higher education and devalue the improvement of student learning. Away of making the policy applicable is to have some cut off points for pursuing a certain level of education. Also particular courses which are in high demand, the cut off grade for pursuing the same should be high to standardize the quality of education offered. The state should dedicate funds in forms of loans and also avail an amble atmosphere for research work. It should also make sure that students have internship programs to enable them put into practice what they learn. Others the federals can offer them employment opportunities so that they work while pursuing their education. What the state should attempt to do and how The immediate response is likely to be an increase in inter-institutional collaboration in order to strengthen market position and to make better use of resources (Alderman, & Brown, 2005). This is likely to be in a number of ways: local collaboration with other higher education institutions within US, collaboration with institutions overseas so that students don’t have to come all the way to the USA to look for higher education when they can access the same services while in their home countries, and collaboration with partners outside the sector. Conclusions The presented policy may not be easy to achieve especially in teaching as older universities will fear to collaborate with new ones for fear of loosing prestige. Some newer universities on the other hand may not want to collaborate with competitors. However the state should see to it that the collaboration is not tampered with and all institutions work together for the benefit of all people who are in need of higher education (Dill, 2007). References Alderman, G & Brown, R (2005), Can Quality Assurance Survive The Market Accreditation and Audit at the Crossroads? Higher Education Quarterly Vol. 59, no. 4 Alderman, G & Brown, R (2007), American and British Higher Education: Common Problems, Common Responses. College and University Journal, vol. 82, no 3, 19-24. Brown, R. (2006) Higher Education and the Market. New York and London: Routledge Dill, D. (2007) â€Å"Will market competition assure academic quality? An analysis of the UK and US experience† in Westerheijden, D. , Stensaker, B. and Rosa, M. J. (Eds) Quality Assurance in Higher Education: Trends in Regulation, Translation and Transformation Dordrecht: Springer

In the Lake of the Woods

In the novel In the Lake of the Woods, O’Brien channels between his life in the present at the lake with his wife, and his life in the past, recalling memories from the war in Vietnam. The novel begins with a preview into the love life and marriage of John and Kathy Wade. While the novel progresses, their relationship begins to deteriorate and as the narrator jumps from his past to his present, the impact of his time in Vietnam becomes more apparent as a primary factor in the failure of their marriage. Throughout the book there are sections of hypotheses and evidence that observe a mixture of fiction and non fiction documents. Some are simply historical facts about the condition of soldiers after Vietnam, particularly the My Lai massacre, while others are fabricated interviews and statements from the characters in the story examining the strange behavior of John Wade himself. The way the chapters are arranged in a scattered format attest to how the jaded past of John Wade sporadically emerged into his life with his wife, the election, and his sanity. Like many stories, the novel is not presented in chronological order. Even as the narrator jumps from past to present to evidence to hypotheses, the sections are not always continuous individually. O’Brien utilizes this method because the story was not written to develop the life of John Wade, but rather to examine it as it relates to the past that he tried to conceal from the election and his wife. Each piece of evidence serves to further expand the elements that tainted John Wade and provide possibilities to the case of his missing wife. The hypotheses are an explanation of the story that also maintains the mystery in the novel because they never provide a concise ending. In the beginning, these chapters are confusing, but they help the reader see the main plot in greater depth. The significance of the events is more indicative than the order of the events. John Wade’s involvement in Vietnam is most associated with the My Lai massacre, an event where numerous American soldiers violently slaughtered innocent men, women, and children at a small village called Pinkville. It is a tragedy that has forever shamed America and especially the soldiers that contributed to the horrific event. John Wade is not introduced as a collaborator in the My Lai massacre until the middle of the novel. Although this is a crucial part of the story, if John Wade had been broadcasted as a participating factor in the massacre, the point of the novel would be lost. The reader would continue to hold a bias towards John Wade and therefore disregard any sort of empathy for his difficult situations. Since, however, the reader finds out he did contribute to the My Lai massacre later in the novel, an opinion and understanding of John Wade is already present, which helps provide some justification and sympathy for the narrator. O’Brien, a Vietnam veteran himself, employed this deferment of information to the reader because many see the My Lai massacre as a black and white atrocity, without ever considering the feelings and frustrations of the American soldiers themselves in fighting an â€Å"invisible enemy†. The structure of the novel is not only used to gradually inform the reader of the damaged mind of John Wade, but also to emphasize the difficulty of dealing with his experiences. As the narrator begins to distrust his own senses and memories, the reader knows less of what is fact and what is speculation. The evidence provides a look into the lives of people that dealt with John Wade and people or events that relate to his condition, including post traumatic stress excerpts and political figures’ approach to loss. The narrator combines his memories with these relatable findings that results in a union of fallacy and actuality as John Wade slowly slips into insanity. The issues that John Wade and his loved ones endure dealing with incorporating a guilt ridden event with his near perfect present life represents the hardship many Vietnam soldiers, including O’Brien, had to face when trying to live their lives normally again. The novel is a testament to the trifles of Vietnam veterans, not only during the war, but after; O’Brien writes about the character’s fragmented mind and life as it relates to every damaged soldier. The structure of the novel lends itself to comprehension and the revelation of John Wade. The rather intermittent sequence of events helps the reader increasingly comprehend the nature of dismantled soldiers and how the attempt to erase John Wade’s past ended in the destruction of his future. It also symbolizes the disorderly fashion that John Wade’s past interrupts his present life. The structure is perfectly suited to the subject matter.

Report on Web Programming

INTRODUCTION TO HTML What is HTML? The explosive growth of the World Wide Web is relatively unprecedented, although it resembles the desktop publishing revolution of the early and mid-1980s. As personal computers became more common in homes and offices, people began to learn to use them for document creation and page layout. Although early word processing programs were not terribly intuitive and often required memorizing bizarre codes, people still picked them up fairly easily and managed to create their own in-house publications.Suddenly, the same kind of growth is being seen as folks rush to create and publish pages of a different sort. To do this, they need to learn to use something called the Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML). HTML at a Crossroads HTML and the World Wide Web in general are currently in a stage of development similar to that of the desktop publishing revolution. Still working to reach maturity as a standard, HTML is feeling the same growing pains that early word p rocessing programs did-as more users flock to HTML, there is a growing need to standardize it and make it less complex to implement.These days, word processors are much more intuitive than they were 15 years ago. There are fewer codes and special keystrokes required to get something done. The applications have matured to the point where most of the low-level formatting is kept hidden from the user of the application. At the same time, the printed page is now more completely mirrored on the computer screen, with accurately represented fonts, emphasis, line breaks, margins, and paragraph breaks. Although programs are quickly being developed to offer similar features for HTML development, these tend to be less than ideal solutions.Currently then, anyone who decides to learn HTML is going to have to know some codes, memorize some syntax, and develop pages for the World Wide Web without the benefit of seeing all the fonts, emphasis, and paragraph breaks beforehand. But anyone who has had any success with word processing programs of ten or 15 years ago (or desktop publishing programs as recently as five years ago) will have little or no trouble learning HTML. Ultimately, you'll see that HTML's basic structure makes a lot of sense for this emerging medium-the World Wide Web.And, as with most things computer-oriented, you'll find that once you've spent a few moments with it, HTML isn't nearly as difficult as you might have originally imagined. A Short HTML History HTML developed a few years ago as a subset of SGML (Standard Generalized Mark-up Language) which is a higher-level mark-up language that has long been a favorite of the Department of Defense. Like HTML, it describes formatting and hypertext links, and it defines different components of a document.HTML is definitely the simpler of the two, and although they are related, there are few browsers that support both. Because HTML was conceived for transmission over the Internet (in the form of Web pages), it is muc h simpler than SGML, which is more of an application-oriented document format. While it's true that many programs can load, edit, create, and save files in the SGML format (just as many programs can create and save programs in the Microsoft Word format), SGML is not exactly ideal for transmission across the Internet to many different types of computers, users, and browser applications.HTML is more suited to this task. Designed with these considerations in mind, HTML lets you, the designer, create pages that you are reasonably sure can be read by the entire population of the Web. Even users who are unable to view your graphics, for instance, can experience the bulk of what you're communicating if you design your HTML pages properly. At the same time, HTML is a simple enough format (at least currently) that typical computer users can generate HTML documents without the benefit of a special application.Creating a WordPerfect-format document would be rather difficult by hand (including all of the required text size, fonts, page breaks, columns, margins, and other information), even if it weren't a â€Å"proprietary†-that is, nonpublic-document format. HTML is a public standard, and simple enough that you can get through a book like this one and have a very strong ability to create HTML documents from scratch. This simplicity is part of a trade-off, as HTML-format documents don't offer nearly the precision of control or depth of formatting options that a WordPerfect- or Adobe PageMaker-formatted document would. Marking Up TextThe most basic element of any HTML page (and, therefore, any page on the Web) is ASCII text. In fact, although it's slightly bad form, a single paragraph of regular text-generated in a text editor and saved as a text file-can be displayed in a Web browser with no additional codes or markings An example of this might simply be: Remember that HTML-formatted documents aren't that far removed from documents created by a word processing prog ram, which are also basically text. Marking up text, then, simply means you add certain commands, or tags, to your document in order to tell a Web browser how you want the document displayed.One of the most basic uses for HTML tags is to tell a browser that you want certain text to be emphasized on the page. The HTML document standard allows for a couple of different types of emphasis including explicit formatting, where you choose to make something italic as opposed to bold, or implicit formatting, where it's up to the browser to decide how to format the emphasized text. Using part of the example above, then, an HTML tag used for emphasis might look something like this: Welcome to my home on the World Wide Web.In this example, and are HTML tags that tell the Web browser which text (in this example, my home) is to be emphasized when displayed. The browser isn't just displaying regular text; it has also taken into account the way you want the text to be displayed according to the HTM L tags you've added. Tags are a lot like margin notes you might make with a red pen when editing or correcting term papers or corporate reports. After you've entered the basic text in a Web document, you add HTML mark-up elements to tell the browser how you want things organized and displayed on the page.In most word processing documents, the â€Å"mark up† that describes the emphasis and organization of text is hidden from the user. HTML, however, is a little more primitive than that, as it allows you to manually enter your text mark-up tags to determine how the text will appear. You can't do this with an MS Word document, but, then again, MS Word documents aren't the standard for all Web pages and browsers on the Internet! The World Wide Web and Web Servers Probably the most important thing to remember about the World Wide Web and the Internet in general is that they are global in scale and often a very cooperative venture.Information on the Web tends to be distributed arou nd the world, and it's just as easy for you to access a site in New Zealand or Japan as it is to access Web information in your own state. The basic reason for learning HTML is to create pages for the World Wide Web. Before you start, though, you'll want to know a little about how this whole process works. We'll begin by taking a look at Web browsing programs, then we'll talk about how the World Wide Web works, and we'll discuss some of the terms associated with surfing the Web.Finally, we'll round out the discussion by talking about the Internet in general and the different services available on the Internet and how they interact with the Web. What's the World Wide Web? The World Wide Web is an Internet service, based on a common set of protocols, which allows a particularly configured server computer to distribute documents across the Internet in a standard way. This Web standard allows programs on many different computer platforms (such as UNIX, Windows 95, and the Mac OS) to pro perly format and display the information served.These programs are called Web browsers. The Web is fairly unique among Internet services (which include Internet e-mail, Gopher, and FTP) in that its protocols allow for the Web server to send information of many different types (text, sound, graphics), as well as offer access to those other Internet services. Most Web browsers are just as capable of displaying UseNet newsgroup messages and Gopher sites as they are able to display Web pages written in HTML. This flexibility is part of what has fueled the success and popularity of the Web.Not only do the Web protocols allow more interactive, multimedia presentations of information, but the typical Web browser can also offer its user access to other Internet resources, making a Web browser perhaps a user's most valuable Internet application. The World Wide Web is the youngest and most unique of the Internet services. Its protocols allow it to transmit both text and multimedia file format s to users, while also enabling Web browsers to access other Internet services. The Web is based on a concept called hypertext, which means that text within the paragraphs on a Web page is designed to act as links to other Web pages.There is no hierarchy on the Web, which is only loosely organized by this system of links. Other services that can be accessed via the Web include Gopher, WAIS, UseNet, e-mail, and FTP. Each of these older Internet services has its own scheme for formulating addresses. Most of these services require a server computer of some sort to allow Internet applications to access their information. These server computers have specific addresses on the Web which you need to know in order to contact them. The World Wide Web is the youngest and most unique of the Internet services.Its protocols allow it to transmit both text and multimedia file formats to users, while also enabling Web browsers to access other Internet services. The Web is based on a concept called h ypertext, which means that text within the paragraphs on a Web page is designed to act as links to other Web pages. There is no hierarchy on the Web, which is only loosely organized by this system of links. Other services that can be accessed via the Web include Gopher, WAIS, UseNet, e-mail, and FTP. Each of these older Internet services has its own scheme for formulating addresses.Most of these services require a server computer of some sort to allow Internet applications to access their information. These server computers have specific addresses on the Web which you need to know in order to contact them. Creating Basic HTML Documents It is important to realize that an HTML document must be built on a very specific framework. This framework, in its simplest form, consists of three sets of matched container tags. A tag is a simple markup element, and always takes the form . A container is a pair of HTML tags of the form . You can think of the element as turning something on, while t he turns that same thing off.For example, consider this line of HTML: This is in Italics. But this isn't. The first HTML tag, , turns on italics. The second tag, , turns them off. When displayed on-screen, this line of text would look like this: This is in Italics. But this isn't. The tags themselves don't appear on-screen. They just tell the browser program how to display the elements they contain. The simplest possible HTML document is given in Listing 4. 1. The entire document is enclosed in the container tags. The first part of the document is encapsulated in the container, which itself contains a container.Finally, the body of the page is contained in a container. The Simplest HTML Document A Very Basic HTML Document My name is Ogbonnaya Stephen Success. The most fundamental of all the tags used to create an HTML document is, not surprisingly, the tag. This tag should be the first item in your document and the corresponding end tag, , should be the last. Together, these tags in dicate that the material contained between them represents a single HTML document (refer to Listing 4. 1). This is important because an HTML document is a plain text ASCII file.Without these tags, a browser or other program isn't able to identify the document format and interpret it correctly. Brief Introduction to PHP What is PHP? PHP stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor PHP is a server-side scripting language, like ASP PHP scripts are executed on the server PHP supports many databases (MySQL, Informix, Oracle, Sybase, Solid, PostgreSQL, Generic ODBC, etc. ) PHP is an open source software PHP is free to download and use Basic Requirements in Working with PHP Notepad++ Xampp server Web Browser 2. 5. 2 SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT TOOL NOTEPAD++; Notepad++ is a text editor and source code editor for Windows.Fig 2. 5. 2a Screen shot on Notepad++ XAMPP; is a free and open source cross-platform web server solution stack package, consisting mainly of the Apache HTTP Server, MySQL database, and interpreters for scripts written in the PHP and Perl programming languages. X (meaning cross-platform) Apache HTTP Server MySQL PHP Perl The program acts as a free web server capable of serving dynamic pages. XAMPP is available for Microsoft Windows, Linux, Solaris, and Mac OS X, and is mainly used for web development projects. This software is useful while you are creating dynamic webpages using programming languages like PHP, JSP, Servlets.Uses Officially, XAMPP's designers intended it for use only as a development tool, to allow website designers and programmers to test their work on their own computers without any access to the Internet. To make this as easy as possible, many important security features are disabled by default. In practice, however, XAMPP is sometimes used to actually serve web pages on the World Wide Web. A special tool is provided to password-protect the most important parts of the package. XAMPP also provides support for creating and manipulating databases i n MySQL and SQLite among others.Fig 2. 5. 2b XAMPP control Panel Application 2. 5. 3 Basic PHP Syntax A PHP scripting block always starts with . A PHP scripting block can be placed anywhere in the document. A PHP file normally contains HTML tags, just like an HTML file, and some PHP scripting code. Below, is an example of a simple PHP script which sends the text â€Å"Hello World† to the browser: Fig 2. 5. 2 A simple program in PHP using notepad++ The output of this will be gotten by making sure that my xampp server is running and putting in the right address in my web browser. Fig 2. 5. b showing webpage output displaying â€Å"Hello World†. Each code line in PHP must end with a semicolon. The semicolon is a separator and is used to distinguish one set of instructions from another. There are two basic statements to output text with PHP: echo and print. In the example above we have used the echo statement to output the text â€Å"Hello World†. 2. 5. 3 Comments i n PHP In PHP, we use // to make a single-line comment or /* and */ to make a large comment block. Below is a simple program showing single comment line and multiple comment line Fig 2. 5. showing comment line Below is a simple PHP code on PHONEBOOK. This program is able to Add and Delete Name and Phone number in a Phonebook. Fig 2. 5. 4 Output for Adding Data in a Phone Book. From the Output above adding contact name and Phone number, saves the data into the Phone book. While deleting contact also deletes Name and Phone Number in the Phone book. Fig 2. 5. 5; Output after adding Contact Name and Phone number in a Phonebook. The code shown below is a Code Behind file for the sample Phone Book Application that was developed using PHP/MYSQL. Code Behind File

Cons of Auto Bailout Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Cons of Auto Bailout - Article Example Consequently, that will implement fewer brands and dealers; along with that the taxpayers are bound fund failure. Also, an auto bailout only considers saving a single industry thus, the money may eventually go down the drain without having a chance on having a stronger and leaner industry otherwise. One of the major disadvantages of an auto bailout is that oil crisis would still be looming overhead, fuel would still go up. Hence, expensive cars like SUVs wouldn't sell as they call for more costly automobile fuels. Taking into account that the Big Three were already losing share of the market due to soaring costs, unimaginative designs and image problems an auto bailout surely cannot be of any help. Therefore, an auto bailout is not a practicle answer to the automotive industry as they will probably continue to produce hybrid or electric automobiles to get ahead in the comptetion which will not be advantagious in the long run.