Barack Obama’s Final Campaign Rally Essay

The final speech Barrack Obama made the night before the election. The artifact examined in this paper is the final speech of then-presidential candidate Barrack Obama in the state of Virginia at the night before the election. It is his last chance to address and persuade the people to vote for him in the coming election. †¢ The search model used: The Neo-Aristotelian approach of rhetorical criticism was used to analyze the artifact. The Neo-Aristotelian approach was used to analyze Barrack Obama’s speech in this paper. This approach covers all significant areas to determine the genre of the speech. This leads to the understanding of the presidential made by Barrack Obama in the campaign period. †¢ The thesis: â€Å"The speech Obama is analyzed to provide an understanding of the rhetorical style that successfully helped him be elected as the president of the U. S. † The thesis of the speech analysis on Barrack Obama’s last address to the public aims to understand its significance to his whole campaign as it made a conclusion on the series of speeches he made during the campaign period. Summary of Analysis: †¢ Rhetorical situation: The last speech Obama made before the election in Virginia, Republican state, is very significant to analyze the whole period of his campaign. This speech is said to have win him the election. It is evident that the analysis of this speech will make way to understanding of what is the approach the Obama did in his long campaign for it is the conclusion of all his speeches and it is the night before the election. †¢ How the search model was applied to analysis of the artifact: The speech analysis makes use of canons of rhetoric presented by Aristotle. The speech analysis makes use of the five canon of rhetoric in the Neo-Aristotelian approach to analyze the detail of the speech. The speech was analyzed using the canons like invention, arrangement, elocution, memory and delivery. And the speech was found to be outstanding in the five canons. Conclusion: †¢ Usefulness of the search model: The Neo-Aristotelian Approach gave way to a detail analysis of the speech that made Obama the 44th president of the United States. The approach use in this analysis clearly covers all components the speech has to measure its effectiveness to the public. It is found that Obama is very good oratorical speaker that awarded him an advantage in the election. †¢ Value of doing the paper: The analysis gave way to the understanding that the Obama I definitely won the public in his speeches. This analysis prove the claim that Obama touch the hearts on the American people by delivering such effective speeches that presented what he is and what he wanted to do in the future when he become president. His speeches instill such great impact to the public it probably influences the people to strive for the change. Supporting Material: †¢ Visual aid: The sign of a major event held by officers in roads covered in the rally. The Obama party uses sign boards that says a major event happening and that they have to expect heavy traffic somewhat affected people stuck in traffic to attend in the rally. †¢ Audio: The Stevie Wonder’s song Signed, Sealed, Delivered is a major factor which conveys meaning from the speech. The Stevie Wonder song at the end of the speech made a great impact to the listeners of the speech for it gives a message that Obama will do what he promise and that he mean what he said. †¢ Other: The â€Å"yes, we can† tagline and the â€Å"fired up, ready to go† chant. The meaning involve his tagline ensures the American that they can change anything if they want to. And the chant is use to make the people in the rally to remember what they just heard.

The Piercer

S w 908M57 The Piercer Colleen Sharen and Nicole Nolan wrote this case solely to provide material for class discussion. The authors do not intend to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a managerial situation. The authors may have disguised certain names and other identifying information to protect confidentiality. Ivey Management Services prohibits any form of reproduction, storage or transmittal without its written permission. Reproduction of this material is not covered under authorization by any reproduction rights organization.To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, contact Ivey Publishing, Ivey Management Services, c/o Richard Ivey School of Business, The University o f Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, N6A 3K7; phone (519) 661-3208; fax (519) 661-3882; e-mail [email  protected] uwo. ca. Copyright  © 2008, Ivey Management Services Version: (A) 2008-08-22 â€Å"Don’t forget, your business idea pitch is due in two weeks, † said Professor Sharen at the end of class. Jessica Pierce turned to look at her project team mate, Ashley Mound.Jessica and Ashley were fourth-year management and organizational studies students at Brescia University College, taking an introduction to entrepreneurship course. Ashley and Jessica had developed an idea for the assignment: a personal safety alarm that both shrieked and flashed lights when the person carrying it set off the alarm function. Given the concern that many people had over personal safety, it seemed like a great business idea. In order to present their idea, they needed to show that there was a market for this product and that they had a way to sell it to consumers.The problem was that they did not really know how or where to start to get the information that they needed. They had a lot of work to do to be ready to present their project in the next two weeks. THE ASSIGNMENT The business pitch assignment was challenging. Sharen had asked students to deve lop an interesting business idea and present it to a panel of potential investors. These investors included a successful serial entrepreneur, a business consultant who practised in the area of small- and medium-size enterprises, an owner of a marketing and advertising services business and a business professor.The students were asked to present an innovative idea, show why it would be successful in the market place, demonstrate potential markets, show the business model and sell themselves to the investors as entrepreneurs. The investors were instructed to view their investments as seed money to enable the students to further develop business plans and prototypes of their ideas. The students weren’t required to complete a financial analysis for this assignment. Purchased by Gaia Cuccarini (gaia. [email  protected] it) on March 21, 2013 Page 2 9B08M057The investors were asked to assess project ideas on the basis of the feasibility of the idea and whether they believed that t he entrepreneurs would be able to deliver. They could consider the appeal of the idea itself, the logistics and operations required to run the business, the effectiveness of the business plan, the longterm viability of the business or the size of the market. The assignment would be graded 50 per cent based on how much money the teams received from the investors and 50 per cent on the quality of their presentation by the professor. THE IDEA The Piercer was a small device that hung on a chain worn around the neck.When activated, The Piercer emitted a piercing sound that traveled for approximately 500 meters, as well as a bright flashing light. To deactivate The Piercer, the wearer had to push two buttons simultaneously. This was to prevent an attacker from being able to deactivate the device. The piercing noise and the bright flashing light were designed to scare away attackers and attract those who might assist the person being attacked. In the situation of imminent attack, a person would not have to rely on their voice or bring a whistle to their mouth to signal for help.Ashley and Jessica had researched costs and thought that by manufacturing in China, they could make The Piercer for $2 and sell it for $7. 50 wholesale, with a retail price of $14. 95. The idea made sense to Ashley and Jessica. It fit with recent social and demographic trends as aging baby boomers began to need assistance with injuries and falls, and with increased general concerns about health, safety and violence. WHAT NEXT? Jessica and Ashley thought that they had a good idea. Now they had to prove it. What were the target markets for this product? How big were they?Which ones should they choose? How should they sell to them? What proportion of the target market should they expect to capture? Where should they look for information to help them make these decisions? A SIMPLE GUIDE TO INFORMATION RESOURCES AND EVALUATION Ashley and Jessica must do secondary research to be able to evaluate and implement their idea. They will need to consider 1) how to evaluate resources, 2) how to develop effective search strategies and 3) how to identify proprietary resources that support the case for this business. 1. How to Evaluate ResourcesInformation is available everywhere, and for this reason, Jessica and Ashley need to be able to discriminate between good and poor quality information. Appropriate information usage for an academic project includes evaluating and assessing resources for reliability and credibility. Purchased by Gaia Cuccarini (gaia. [email  protected] it) on March 21, 2013 Page 3 9B08M057 Goals ? ? ? ? ? Ashley and Jessica should be able to locate and differentiate free versus proprietary web resources. They should be able to identify a quality website. They should be able to evaluate books and other print resources for quality and reliability.They should understand the difference between scholarly and non-scholarly articles and resources. They should be able to cite information properly. Free Versus Proprietary Web Resources Many students think that the World Wide Web has the answers for everything. While the web can have valuable information, students pay (through their tuition) to have access to quality proprietary information resources. Ashley and Jessica could examine some free web sites to help them. For example, associations, company information and government information can be very helpful, as long as the user knows how to determine the quality of a website.Quality Web Sites Anyone anywhere can make a website. Just because it is on the web, does not mean it is good quality or reliable. When Ashley and Jessica are evaluating websites, they need to consider: Who is providing the information? ? Is it a government institution, a university or a company? ? Does the url make sense (e. g. .org, . edu, . on. ca)? ? Does the owner of the website have anything to gain by providing the information? ? Does the owner of the website have good c redentials? ? Has anyone updated the website recently? Note that Wikipedia is not necessarily a reliable resource.Anyone anywhere can modify these pages. While it might be a place to find some resources or links, students should not cite Wikipedia as a reliable resource in an academic paper. The University of Alberta put together a good web evaluation checklist: http://www. library. ualberta. ca/instruction/science/evalweb. pdf For a more comprehensive list on evaluating web resources, see the bibliography on the topic: http://www. lib. vt. edu/help/instruct/evaluate/evalbiblio. html Purchased by Gaia Cuccarini (gaia. [email  protected] it) on March 21, 2013 Page 4 9B08M057Evaluating Other Resources Ashley and Jessica need to be critical of all the resources they use, not just websites. Ideally, they should be able to discriminate between proprietary and non-proprietary websites, scholarly and non-scholarly resources and evaluate the quality of any book used. Things for Ashley and Jessica to consider include: ? Who published the book or made the information available? ? How old is the information? ? Has the information been updated recently? ? Is the information peer reviewed? Does this matter? ? Did the library buy and recommend the resource? Is the author credible? Scholarly Versus Non-Scholarly Resources An academic library will provide access to both scholarly and non-scholarly resources. Scholarly work generally refers to published work that has been through a peer review process. Especially in the field of business, there are many practitioner resources. Therefore, Jessica and Ashley need to be aware of the type of information they are gathering. For example, industry trends, say from Standard and Poors NetAdvantage, is not a scholarly resource, yet the information within them could be valuable.Alternatively, ProQuest ABI Inform Global provides access to scholarly articles. Ashley and Jessica may also consider the relative value of evidence or fact ver sus opinion. Students should not read things and trust that what they are reading is accurate. Students should think about the rigor with which the argument is made and the evidence presented. ? Is there evidence to back up a claim? ? Has the evidence been collected in a reliable way? ? Is the author stating an opinion without backing up his or her ideas? Citing Work It is important that Ashley and Jessica cited their work properly, to avoid accidental plagiarism.Some of the more confusing things to cite include Statistics Canada data or online information. Statistics Canada has a website that describes systematically how to cite its tables, publications or other datasets: http://www. statcan. ca/english/freepub/12-591-XIE/12-591-XIE2006001. htm In addition, most academic libraries will have information about citation procedures, or will have copies of publication manuals available for borrowing. Any librarian can be asked about citation procedures. Purchased by Gaia Cuccarini (gaia . [email  protected] it) on March 21, 2013 Page 5 9B08M057 2. How to Develop Search StrategiesGoals ? ? ? ? Ashley and Jessica should know the difference between searching in different search fields, such as the abstract field and title field They should be able to use this technology to search the unique fields They should be able to use the â€Å"AND,† â€Å"OR,† or â€Å"NOT† features of a search engine to help narrow their search. They should understand what truncation and proximity search strategies are, and how that influences a search. Most search engines that index information have similar features. If Ashley and Jessica understand the concepts in searching, they can apply them to any search engine.Take Advantage of Search Fields For example, records in an index have many different fields such as keywords, title, author, publication title, document title, abstract, full document, date, author, etc. It is often possible to specify what part of the recor d to search in, which helps to be more specific with the search. Searching an entire text document may retrieve less meaningful records than a search of just abstracts. Use Boolean Search Strategies Using â€Å"AND† and â€Å"OR† can be helpful in expanding or narrowing a search. AND narrows a search and OR expands it. Using the term â€Å"NOT† can also be helpful, but should be limited.For example, searching for beer companies will retrieve companies on diamonds (DeBeers). Excluding the term â€Å"diamond† from a search on beer companies could be helpful in narrowing one’s search. Truncation and Proximity Many search engines allow for truncation and proximity searching. In ProQuest, an asterisk symbol will truncate. For example, if one types â€Å"leader*† into a search box, records with leader, leaders and leadership will be retrieved. This helps capture all variations of a word. Proximity searching refers to how close two words are togeth er in a document.Presumably, if two words are close together in a document, they are more likely to have something to do with each other. In ProQuest, a â€Å"w/1† or â€Å"w/2† (â€Å"w/3,† etc. ) facilitates proximity searching. For example, if Ashley or Jessica typed â€Å"organizational w/3 learning† in the search box, they will retrieve documents where the word â€Å"organizational† is within three words of â€Å"learning. † Find Creative Ways In There are many different ways to find information. Knowing a company name or a competitor’s name is convenient. Taking advantage of key words (or subject terms) also is a good way to search.Purchased by Gaia Cuccarini (gaia. [email  protected] it) on March 21, 2013 Page 6 9B08M057 It is also a good idea to brainstorm for synonyms prior to beginning a search. Being d eliberate about a search strategy and deciding on what concepts to combine can really help make the search go easier. Sea rching is iterative as well. One is advised to read some articles to learn the jargon of the topic, then go back and do the search again using the subject jargon. Most librarians will help on developing a search strategy! 3. How to Identify Proprietary Resources GoalsAshley and Jessica should be able to identify library resources and understand what type of information they can find in various types of resources. The following databases are some of the library databases that Ashley and Jessica could consider. They could also go to the library (or call or e-mail) and ask for assistance. Library staff will know what resources the library has, if there are any other resources that may be of use and how to access and use the resources. Finding Background Scholarly Articles ProQuest ABI Inform Global is a database that indexes business and management journal articles.Most of the articles are available in full text, and both scholarly and non-scholarly articles are available. The search b ox in ProQuest has a drop-down menu on the right that allows users to search in specific fields. For example, users can search the title, abstract, author, company or publication fields. Scopus is a database that indexes articles on the social sciences, life sciences, physical sciences and health sciences. For the purposes of a business or entrepreneurship project, searching only the social sciences category would be appropriate. This resource indexed scholarly articles.Google Scholar is a free resource that indexes scholarly information from the World Wide Web. There is an advanced search engine feature to help specify a search. Many academic institutions integrate access to full text articles with Google Scholar. This means that any article the student has access to via the library, is also available to them via Google Scholar. Because Google Scholar is integrated with library resources, the student will likely need to either be on campus, or logged into the off-campus proxy serve r to take advantage of these services.If they are off campus or not logged into the proxy server the student can still search Google Scholar, but access to full text resources may be limited. Finding News and Magazine Articles Factiva is a database that indexes newspapers and magazines. While this resource does not index scholarly articles, it is a broad resource that captures current global news and events. LexisNexis has a comprehensive database that indexes newspapers and magazines. significant Canadian content indexed there. Purchased by Gaia Cuccarini (gaia. [email  protected] it) on March 21, 2013 There is alsoPage 7 9B08M057 Finding Industry Trends Several databases including Standard & Poors NetAdvantage, Mintel and Marketline provide reports on industry trends. These databases provide regularly updated reports on broad industries. Each database tends to report on different industries, so students would have to do some trial and error research to find relevant reports. Stu dents may find their topic is too narrow for these reports. The Financial Post Investor Suite is a database that provides industry information from a Canadian perspective. Finding Company InformationCompany information may be important for a project such as The Piercer, especially for researching competitors. MarketLine provides company information, including financial information, company descriptions and a list of competitors. Similarly, Hoovers provides comprehensive company descriptions. Not all companies are in both resources, therefore checking both resources is recommended for company research. Marketing and Advertising The World Advertising Research Center (WARC) is a resource that provides access to information about marketing and advertising, as well as to case studies of winning ad campaigns.Such a resource could be helpful in this context to see if other, similar products have been marketed, and if so, how they have been marketed. There is scholarly and non-scholarly inf ormation in this resource. Technology Information Both eMarketer and Forrester have information about technology trends. There may be information about the Internet, emerging technologies or electronic marketing. Statistics and Demographics Statistics Canada provides access to demographic data. Many secondary educational institutions participate in the Data Liberation Initiative.This means that information a member of the public would have to pay for, can be retrieved for free by a student. Students, through the academic library website, can use data for research. For more information about accessing statistics, students can talk to their subject librarian. Some resources that Statistics Canada has that might be useful to find demographics include the Market Research Handbook, Canadian Business Patterns, CANSIM data, Census data, and Canadian Social Trends, among others. There are other resources available via www. statcan. ca such as Community Profiles.Data are available down to gr oupings of the population of about 2,000 to 7,000 people, meaning students can find demographic data for each 2,000- to 7,000-person neighbourhood across the country. Purchased by Gaia Cuccarini (gaia. [email  protected] it) on March 21, 2013 Page 8 9B08M057 Global Information Although global research may not be as important for a product such as The Piercer, other entrepreneurial projects may require researching the global market. Economic Intelligence Unit, Global Market Information Database and Business Monitor Online are three resources that provide global market and industry information.Other Helpful Resources Students are encouraged to use the World Wide Web to help them find good information. For example, city homepages often have information about setting up a business. Association websites also can have helpful information. Also, banks have entrepreneurial information on their websites. In addition, many books in the library explain how to develop small business plans or provide information on entrepreneurship. Purchased by Gaia Cuccarini (gaia. [email  protected] it) on March 21, 2013

Swot Au Bon Pain in Malaysia

Strengths * Au Bon Pain has the most successful overseas franchisee at Malaysia’s geographic neighbor Thailand. The similarity between these two countries might smooth the expansion of the business in Malaysia. * Au Bon Pain customized its menu in every operating Asian countries, this can be adapted to Malaysian market as well. (e. g. , poultry-based meat is favored by majorities). Like in Thailand and South Korea, beginning Au Bon Pain’s business plan with cafes in prime office locations (targeting foreign and local businessmen) might work as Kuala Lumpur is one of the economic centers in Asia-Pacific area. * Au Bon Pain has a tradition to support charities. Meanwhile, Malaysia has one of the highest Gini coefficients in Asia, poverty rates also vary significantly from state to state. Weaknesses Au Bon Pain is a new brand while Malaysians term to put a | Opportunities * Increasing consumer awareness in nutrition value and food fortification for healthcare * Malaysia's Economic Transition Plan calls for real GDP growth of 5-6% per year over the next ten years. * The service sector makes 44. 9% of GDP, Malaysia's development plan has a target of 35 million tourists in 2020 * Malaysia is the third largest producer of poultry meat in the Asia Pacific region.Malaysia is self-sufficient in poultry, pork and eggs * More and more hectic and stressful lifestyle in urbanized Malaysia contributed to the growing demand for convenient fast food * Malaysian consumers take to eating out more frequently, which boosts foodservice volume sales in 2011 * Increasing consumer awareness in nutrition value and food fortification for healthcare has created the demand for functional/healthy minimally processed fresh and organic food * Most of the respondents prefer to dine at western fast food restaurants than local fast food| Threats * Malaysia has a Muslim population of 60%.Most retailers, foodservice operators and food manufacturers are inclined to ask for halal certi ficates for non-meat based food products and ingredients. * Malaysia’s rising inflation rate dampened consumer spending in  Malaysia  during 2011. | SWOT: Au Bon Pain in Malaysia

Inferential Statistics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

Inferential Statistics - Essay Example The study aimed at establishing whether the Federal workers’ compensation cases referred to Navy physicians for medical opinions in any way had an influence on the final decision made by the Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCPs) (p.18). Some independent variables were claimant’s age and categories of the case (p.19). The dependent variable was â€Å"decision outcomes†. The study tested whether decision outcome in the compensation cases was dependent on the physician’s review report. The researchers used a descriptive epidemiological study to select the 325 worker’s compensation cases from the navy injury compensation programme administrators. The cases were sampled from all over the United States between 2006 and 2010. The filed selected cases were treated as participants in this study, although the owners were not directly interviewed. The particular bias inherent in the study was that the cases tested were the ones which the ICPAs analysed as unusual, and thus needed a support from a physician. If this was the case, the physicians would have rejected most of the cases, which did not require a physician to strengthen the claim (p.19). However, the researchers were alarmed by the fact that physicians recommended in favour of the claimant in most of the referred cases. Since the review was found to influence decision, the whole process might have had a degree of bias. In the study, the researchers used retrospective case study and descriptive analysis of the 258 physician opinion letters written between 2006 and 2010. They used analysis of variance (ANOVA) to test the significance of the relationship between the dependent and independent variables. One ethical concern is the disclosure of the medical records of the claimants without their consent. Given that they were not requested when their information was being tracked, neither were their physicians, this can

International commercial law coursework Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 7500 words

International commercial law coursework - Essay Example prohibits quantitative restrictions through the imposition of quota by any contracting party, and this principle is considered to be the cornerstone of the GATT system.1 Brazil has claimed that the quota restriction has been imposed on the ground that the solar plates emit radiation, and so, presumably the restriction has been taken as a measure to protect public health and environment. As per Article XX (b) of GATT 1994, Member states have the right take such measures necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or health, provided that such measures are not arbitrary or a disguised restriction on international trade, and relate to all obligations under GATT 1994 including Article XI paragraph 1 thereof.2 Consequently, Brazil’s imposition of quota restrictions on import of solar plates would be inconsistent with WTO law unless Brazil can demonstrate that the measure is covered by Article XX of GATT 1994. Brazil cannot place reliance on Article XX of GATT, 1994 to defend t he quota restriction placed on the import of solar plates for the following reasons: a). Requirement of scientific evidence and risk assessment: In order to claim the exception under Article XX of GATT 1994, there should be sufficient scientific evidence to conclude that there exists a risk for human life or health and that the measures taken by the particular Member State are necessary in relation to the objectives pursued.3 The elaborate rules for application of the provisions of Article XX of GATT 1994, including Article XX (b) thereof, are codified under the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (â€Å"SPS Agreement†).4 As per the SPS Agreement any measure designed to protect human, plant or animal health, should be based on scientific principles and should not be applied without sufficient scientific evidence.5 The SPS Agreement also requires Member States to ensure that any such measures are based on an assessment of the risks to human, plant or animal life, employing proper

ARE HERBAL REMEDIES SAFE AND EFFECTIVE Research Paper - 1

ARE HERBAL REMEDIES SAFE AND EFFECTIVE - Research Paper Example A herbal remedy that relieves inflammation and pain called Chinese Thunder God Vine weakens the immune system. The remedy is famous in for causing osteoporosis. Most of the herbs are ineffective unless their maintenance is in small quantities such as nutmeg and its cooking properties. When the nutmeg herbal is in large quantities, it cause liver failure and can at times lead to death. Many types of herbal remedies line the shelves of health food stores and pharmacies. Most people consider that any drug having the label â€Å"natural† as effective and safe. Herbal remedies have been in existence for a long time. Some of the remedies, even those carrying the natural label, can have serious and powerful negative drug effects in the body. The FDA regulates herbal supplements though not in the same manner it does with medicine of food. Herbal remedies form part of the dietary supplements. Regulations that apply to dietary supplements are not strict as those of drugs and food. Manufacturers of herbal drugs, for example, do no need the approval of the FDA before availing them to the markets. When the herbal remedy gets to the market, it is the duty of FDA to ensure its safety. FDA, however, lacks the capacity and funding to check the standards of the many new drugs. When FDA finds an herbal remedy that is not safe, it issues some requirements or orders to the distributor or manufacturer to remove it from the market (Harte 2-3). Soy provides dietary phytoestrogens that possess weak estrogenic activities. The soy herb treats menopausal symptoms and reduces the levels of cholesterol in the body. A review on the Soya’s effectiveness was done on nine clinical trials to examine the impacts of increasing dietary soy. Nine more trials were done to determine the efficiency of Soy extracts. The review gave a conclusion that neither Soy extracts nor increased

BMW Consumer Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

BMW Consumer Research - Essay Example Pg 1 - You say that your quotation in para 1 comes from BMW - where We need the publication details here. Has this first sentence come from the BMW web site If so, this should be referenced and critiqued - company web sites are not objective and valid sources of data this comes from BMW.com as stated in the reference page (BMW 2006). You are not 'supposed' to type a .com in a paragraph citation. BMW is listed in the reference page as BMW.com. That is why we have citation and then you look at the reference page. That is where this information is at. The scope of this research is to define factors that influence BMW's brand and image with an inference to create a program that increases customer value, satisfaction and loyalty towards the BMW brand and image. This will be done by examining the external environment in relation to Kotler and Keller's Marketing Management (2006), where: The societal marketing concept holds that the organization's task is to determine the needs, wants and interests of target markets and to deliver the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than competitors in a way that preserves or enhances the consumer's and the society's well-being. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a met... This can be achieved by understanding the factors that influence consumer behavior and by building a trustful and committed reputation for BMW that is in alignment with consumer needs (Little and Marandi 2003). To create a program that will effectively increase consumer satisfaction, the research proposed is secondary literary research and the applications to BMW's environment. This will allow BMW to define potential consumer's perceptions and lifestyles and the manner in which these factors are affected by external engagement. This research will deal with the people who purchase from BMW as well as the external factors that effect their purchase behaviors. 1.3 Research Justification While the application of such things as internet and email based surveys are quite wide-spread and appropriate in most areas of marketing research, we can assume that implementing a research program based solely on the application of primary research and conclusions of statistical inferences will not allow for a subjective review and will only be based on the consumers collective responses to a question (Craig and Douglas 2000) This does two things, first it removes the possibility of consumer interpretations towards marketing research and secondly it is only representation of a single sample, in this case BMW's previous research has been gathered around the current customers, but not inherently dependant on cultural factors that engage or disengage a consumer behaviour in relationship to external forces. Pg 3 - how do you know that BMW currently has primary information on consumers Where did you get this from How can you state that BMW is lacking in subjective and theoretical resear ch If this is true, it needs substantiating:

MGT599 - Strategic Management, Mod 4 Case Assignment Essay

MGT599 - Strategic Management, Mod 4 Case Assignment - Essay Example It should adopt such strategies which will help it in developing the business in accordance with the prevailing market conditions. The strategies will aid the company to retain more customers as well as provide improved quality services. Introduction Southwest Airlines is identified to be a carrier company in the United States of America which is known for its cheap fares. Headquarter of the airline company is learnt to be located in Dallas, Texas. It operates over 3,300 flights each day as well as engages over 37,000 employees in the company. It provides its services in almost 37 states. The company is famous for its cheap fares as well as quality services provided to the customers (Southwest Airlines, 2012). The company follows the strategy of offering efficient services to the customers at a cheap rate. It operates with a cost leadership strategy which enables the company to offer better services to its customers. Thesis Statement The purpose of this paper is to bring out the stra tegy adopted by the company for enhancing its profits as well as services. It will also help in comprehending the strategic choices that will further develop the performance of the company. Main Body The airline company practices the strategy of cost leadership which signifies that it provides quality carrier services at an economical rate. It aids the company in competing with its contenders in terms of low prices as well as the degree of quality of the provided services. The low or affordable fares facilitate the company to attain a competitive edge and maintain a dominant position in the industry in comparison to its competitors. This strategy also assists the company in earning more profits (BCIT School of Business faculty, n.d.). A SWOT analysis will be conducted to gain a comprehension regarding the effectiveness of cost leadership strategy with regard to the company. The SWOT analysis will aid in understanding the core competency of the strategy which has been primarily adopt ed for raising the degree of performance of the concerned company as well as for increasing its profits. Strengths: The airline company provides quality services at an affordable price which helps it to improve the performance as well as profits. This particular strategy makes it possible for the company to attain competitive advantage against its competitors. It is supposed to be quite a popular airline carrier in the relevant industry (Shahzad Trading & Consulting FZE, n.d.). Weaknesses: The company offers its services at reasonable prices which restrict it from developing innovative ideas with regard to improving its performance. In order to maintain low cost benefits, the company would require making investments on a continuous basis (Shahzad Trading & Consulting FZE, n.d.). Opportunities: Cost leadership acts as a vital opportunity for the company as it helps in earning increased profits and offer quality services. This strategy has aided the company in retaining increased cust omers as well as ensuring business growth (Shahzad Trading & Consulting FZE, n.d.). Threats: The cost leadership strategy adopted by the company may pose a threat by reducing the competitiveness of the company in comparison to the brand loyalty and recognition of its competitors. The company is also likely to face greater degree of threats from other airline companies which are also known

Evaluate returns predictability Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Evaluate returns predictability - Coursework Example This paper has two sections; in the first section it discusses empirical evidence on the predictability of excess of returns by the technical analysis method, the second section is devoted to evaluating whether return predictability is a good test for market efficiency. Gustafsson (2012) conducted a research on how the stock market performed relatively to the predictions by the technical analysis method in the Swedish stock market. According to technical analysis assumed that successive returns were related. In other words, positive returns in a given time period would be followed by equally positive returns in the same period of the subsequent year. On the basis of the above assumption, Gustafsson (2012) wanted to test the hypothesis that successes in the stock market were independent. Among other tests, the research summarized results from various trading rules to test whether a technical analysis would have been used to accurately predict recurring price patterns and hence returns. The research found out that the comparison between 2001-12-28 and 2011-12-30, the average daily return was 0.0184% for the buy and hold strategy, with a standard deviation of 0.016 and the total number of trading days was 2517. With this statistic, the t-statistic for the buy and hold strategy was 0.58. This study made reached some interesting conclusions from the data. Interestingly, it found out that the introduction of RSI and the RSIstoch that indicates the directional strength of price changes had an impact on the return predictability. Further, the findings lend to the support of the assumption that technical analysis can be used to predict future price movements. This is because; average daily buy-day returns were significantly larger than average daily-sell returns. As such, it meant that the technical trading rules also had a

Breast Feeding and Breast Cancer Prevention Research Proposal

Breast Feeding and Breast Cancer Prevention - Research Proposal Example Mid-wives and nurses have professional mandate to give information to mothers and pregnant women regarding their breast feeding choice? This information will also include how their respective choices will affect their general health. However, it is quite crucial that the information bases on evidence. Researchers have found evidence that breast feeding can protect women from breast cancer, but how that happens, they have not provided an elucidative explanation. Therefore, this study does not give an assurance of complete dependence on breast feeding as a protective measure against breast cancer. Contribution of breast feeding to breast cancer prevention remains imprecise despite there being enough evidence to make people believe that child bearing has protective effect against breast cancer. Earlier research indicates that women having their first babies after the age of 25, or those having lesser than four children are at a high risk of breast cancer. It also reveals that having a baby before 25 years of age, or having more children, offered protection against breast cancer, triggered by hormones. Carlson (2012) writes that currently, researchers are busy exploring the possibility of breast feeding being helpful to women carrying either one of the breast cancer faulty genes. A study earlier found that one of the breast cancer genes can be terminated by breast feeding. Though in this case, the mother was required to breast feed for more than a year. This was particular for BRCA1, which is one of the breast cancer faulty genes. The other one is BRCA2, and did not show any response to breast feeding, regardless of the length. Since the Swedish study, researchers have been giving contradicting results about breast cancer and breast feeding (Carlson, 2012). This means that research is ongoing to try and further elucidate whether it is a myth or a fact. Â  

The State Children's Health Insurance Program Essay

The State Children's Health Insurance Program - Essay Example Before the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) was enacted, Medicare and Medicaid was the only available, federally funded health insurance program offered by the government. Medicare was specifically designed to help the aged, the retirees, the survivors, and the disabled among others, pay for health care services like: inpatient hospitalization, home health care, hospice care, physician consult, outpatient hospital, prescription drugs, and the like (Klees, Wolfe, & Curtis, 2010). Medicaid, on the other hand, is the biggest source of government funding that covers medical, and other health-related services for the poorest people in the United States (Klees, Wolfe, & Curtis, 2010). However, Medicaid does not provide for all poor people; it covers only those who qualify for the inclusion criteria set by the legislators (Klees, Wolfe, & Curtis, 2010). The State Children’s Health Insurance Policy was established in 1997 to afford health care services to unins ured, low-income children; who were not eligible for Medicaid (American Academy of Pediatrics [AAP], 1997).

Automatic Railway Level Crossing Essay Example for Free

Automatic Railway Level Crossing Essay Abstract: In the rapidly flourishing country like ours, accidents in the unmanned level crossings are increasing day by day. No fruitful steps have been taken so far in these areas. The objective of our project is to provide an automatic railway gate at a level-crossing replacing the gates operated by the gatekeeper. It deals with two things. Firstly, it deals with the reduction of time for which the gate is being kept closed. And secondly, it provides safety to the road users by reducing the accidents. By employing the automatic railway gate control at the level crossing the arrival of the train is detected by the sensors placed near to the gate and transmits the information to the gate controller via wired or wireless. Hence, the time for which it is closed is less compared to the manually operated gates. The operation is automatic i. e. , error due to manual operation is prevented. By employing the automatic railway gate control at the level crossing the arrival of train is detected by the sensor placed on either side of the gate at about 3km from the level crossing. Hence, the time for which it is closed is less compared to the manually operated gates and also reduces the human labour. This type of gates can be employed in an unmanned level crossing where the chances of accidents are higher and reliable operation is required. Since, the operation is automatic error due to manual operation will be prevented. Once the arrival of the train is sensed, the sensed signal is sent to the microcontroller via, wired or wireless transmission and it checks for possible presence of vehicle between the gates. Subsequently, buzzer indication and light signals on either side are provided to the road users indicating the closure of gates. Once, no vehicle is sensed in between the gate the motor is activated and the gates are closed. But, for the worst case if any obstacle is sensed it is indicated to the train driver by signals (RED) placed at about 1km, so as to bring it to halt well before the level crossing. When no obstacle is sensed GREEN light is indicated, and the train is to free to move. The departure of the train is detected by sensors placed at about 1km from the ate. The signal about the departure is sent to the microcontroller, which in turn operates the motor in reverse way and opens the gate. Thus, the time for which the gate is closed is less compared to the manually operated gates. Also reliability is high as it is not subjected to manual errors. Components : IR sensors or Vibration sensors, Microcontroller, L293D(driver IC), Stepper motor, Wireless Transmitter and Receiver, power supply. HARDWARE IMPLEMENTATION Micro Controller Totally 40-pin DIP package manufactured with CMOS Technology. L293D (motor driver IC) Racially L293D 16DIP /ULN 2003 IC is used to drive the stepper motor. STEPPER MOTOR This is used to open and close the gates automatically when it is rotated clock wise or anticlockwise direction. Stepper motor requires 500m amps current, so use the L293D drivers to drive the stepper motor. SOFTWARE IMPLEMENTATION Keil By 1. B. BHARATH KUMAR REDDY – 113004045 2. P SAMBASIVA RAO – 113004161 3. T. RANGA VINOD KUMAR 113004207 4. T. SIVA NARAYANA REDDY 113004205

The role of culture in human society

The role of culture in human society Culture is the essential part of the humans society. Every person is spending his or her life within a certain cultural community. It frequently defines what kinds of person a man or woman is and what values will they have. Does the cultural environment have a direct effect on the values within a community for anthropology, psychology and sociology? Let us discuss this topic step by step. To understand it better, we can at first define what the cultural environment is and what influence it has on people within it. The very nature of the cultural environment is cultural and social aspects. It is could also be called a social context and sometimes milieu. It is a culture of a society or a group where a certain person is living or getting an education; it is institutions and people who interact with a certain human. By interaction we can mean not only different types of personal communication (like on a workplace, in class, with neighbors etc.); people could also communicate with each other by means of different communicational media (like phone, internet, newspapers, television etc). In spite of non personal type of the communication, people whom a man or a woman meets in internet can have an influence on his or her values and point of view. Also television and other mass media form our perception of life and other people little by little. This type of interaction we c an call one way or anonymous. It does not always imply the equality of the social status. Thus, the concept of a social environment is wider that the concept of a social circle or a social class. Nevertheless, it is common that those people who have the same social environment start having a sense of solidarity. They easily help and trust each other; also they tend to create a social group. As a result, those people will always have a similar way of thinking and similar patterns even if they make different conclusions. It shows us that people depend on society and culture around them very much whether they recognize this fact or not. Let us briefly define what culture itself is. It is going to help us understand what kind of effect it has on the values within a community for anthropology, psychology and sociology. There is plenty of information about culture and different consequences of it. It is impossible to transmit a culture through genealogy. Culture is not something innate; culture is something that everybody should learn. Different facets of it are interrelated; a culture is spread by those people within a group. Nowadays different cultures could easily exist within a country side by side (like it commonly happens in African countries). According to Hoebel (1960), the definition of a culture is following: The integrated sum total of learned behavioral traits that are manifest and shared by members of society. According Lawton (1975), culture includes age grading, religious rituals and athletic sport. According to Frow (1995) there are traditional differences in task and doing business were breaking down and this meant that standardization rather than adaptation is becoming increasingly prevalent. Probably, a culture is one of the most significant environmental variables that should be considered within a global marketing. Often a culture could not be freely overlooked; it often hiding from a view. Culture consists of some elements; they are language, aesthetics, religion, values and attitudes, education, social organization and material culture. It is necessary to discuss briefly every element of it. Material culture includes communications, power, transportations and others. Language is the next aspect of culture. It is a reflection of the values and nature of a certain society group. It could be sub-cultural languages, for example, dialects; in some countries it could be two or even more languages. Aesthetics includes art, dancing, arts-music. It concerns good taste, beauty, form and color of it. Education, as it is easy to see, includes the transmission of ideas, attitudes, skills and training in certain disciplines as well. Moreover, education serves as a transmitter of cultural and social values. Sometimes a child was introduced to the cultural value by school or later by university. Religion gives the humans behavior the best insight and as well it helps us to answer different questions, for example, why people behave n this way and not in another. We can see that culture is a complicate conception; it includes different aspects. What can we say about values conception? What is commonly meant by values? Shortly, by values a person may mean something that is really matter to him or her. It is beliefs and ideas somebody holds as special. Social and cultural environment forms ones values. Home, church school there are just some places where people could study values that are common for everybody within their cultural environment. Teachers, friends, parents are forming our personal system of values from day to day. As a result we have personal values. Arts et al. (2003) summarized that they consist of something that we accepted from people around as and that part that came with our own life experience. It is too compulsory to accept everything a person is hearing around him or her; nevertheless, values of cultural environment around us has its strong influence on our own system of values. Now, when we recognize what values, culture and cultural environment commonly mean we can examine the direct effect that the cultural environment has on the values within a community for anthropology, psychology and sociology. Before discussing the influence of a cultural environment on a person according to anthropology let us briefly mention the definition of the science. Saying shortly anthropology is the inquiry of humanity. Its origins throw back in the social sciences, natural science and humanities. The term itself is taken from the ancient Greek language and has two parts: man and study or discourse. The matters of anthropology are how do people behave, what are their physical traits, why we can see differences and variations between groups of people, and finally who was the ancestor of the modern humans. Anthropology is commonly divided in to four fields; they are cultural, or social, anthropology, linguistic anthropology, archaeology and biological, or physical, anthropology. We can see that anthropology itself is the science that studies social and cultural values, differences, origins, roots etc. Thus, it is important to talk about the influence of culture environment according to this certain science. According to anthropology, a culture could be seated deeply; unprepared person could take some type of a culture like something senseless, strange and even cruel. Let us give an example. According to the Muslim culture a woman must cover her face with yashmak and hide herself from any alien. Nilaweera Wijetunga (2005) emphasized that this custom could appear strange and senseless to any person from Europe, United States or numeral other countries where people flaunt a womans form openly. Here is another example of the opposite culture. In some African countries (like Congo, Kenya etc) women do not wear top cloths. Oyeshile (2004) explained this fact that according to their culture, their traditions and according to their hot climate they do not consider the top of the female body something that they should cover or hide. There are many other different examples of things and customs that are unacceptable and even criminal in one part of the world; at the same time at another part of it people consider it the culture and commonly do it. Summarizing this short extract we can see that cultural environment have a direct effect on the values within a community for anthropology. Continue the two examples above, a woman from the African country where there is not common or compulsory to cover her body with upper wear have values that are different from the values that are precious for a woman from a Muslim country. If those women could try to explain themselves their culture, values and reasons why they are keeping those culture values they would hardly understand each other. It is common that Muslim people condemn women from Europe and America. For them even the most modest and restrained American female seems to be a woman without culture values because she shows certain part of her body What can we say about the influence of the social environment on personal values for psychology? What is psychology? It is the science of the humans behavior and mind. This science is an attempt to understand humanity by exploring certain specific cases and by discovering some general principles as well. One of the main goals of psychology is to benefit the society. Scientists who involved in it we can divide in to some groups: cognitive scientists, social scientists and behavioral scientists. Among others, social behavior is among different subjects of psychology. The science of psychology explores following concepts: emotion, cognition, phenomenology, perception, attention, brain functioning, behavior, motivation, personality, unconscious mind and interpersonal relationships. As anthropology, the science of psychology is a social science and it has a strong connection with social environment. According to psychology, some type of behavior could be considered normal and other type c ould be considered abnormal. Commonly, humanity has the same nature. For example, murdering and cruelty is considered abnormal in every social group and community. Nevertheless, within some cultures the conception of cruelty may vary. Let us give an example. In American and European countries violation in any form is unacceptable even within a family. Thus people who keep doing it to others would consider psychologically abnormal. According to the culture of some eastern countries, especially countries with Muslim culture, a husband can beat his wife or punish her or in any other way if she does not satisfy him. What kind of misdeed could a wife do? She may cook a food that her husband does not like; she may say a word that her husband could consider unacceptable. People within the community with such culture are considered psychologically normal even if they commit violence every day. According to their culture cruelty is acceptable. A woman is expecting for it and she has no even right to complain. According to the example above we can see that psychological situation within a community could have a strong negative effect on personal values of a human. A person can look at low values of members of the community around him or her and subconsciously this person could understate those values that he or she had before. Psychologically people inclined to depend on society. That is why we can state that the cultural environment have a direct effect on the values within a community for psychology. Sociology is the last science that we are going to discuss. It studies the society using different methods of critical analysis and empirical investigations. This science refines and develops knowledge about the activity of human society. One of the aims of sociology is to achieve the social welfare with the mean of the knowledge. Mancheno-Smoak et al. (2009) stated that the field of interests in sociology varies from the micro level of interaction and agency to the macro level of social structures and systems. It is a very broad conception that is focused traditionally on social class, religion, social stratification, social mobility, secularization, deviance and law. It includes all spheres of peoples activity. It is interesting that sociology studies different types of interactions between people. We are living in the age of the world wide globalization when the whole planet is becoming one big house. Different cultural and social communities are not staying separate from each oth er like it was some hundreds years ago. People are moving, migrating and spreading their culture and different values among other societies. Why can we state that according to sociology, the cultural environment have a direct effect on the values within a community? First reason is that people like to communicate with each other. It means that they getting some new knowledge and values. Roniger (1995) declared that when representatives of different cultures are staying in contact for some time they will get used to new values. It will stop being new for them. New cultural values will become common and according to sociology people will start accepting it in their lives. In some time they would not remember that one or another culture or value was not imparted to them. And it is the second reason why the cultural environment has an effect on values of people for sociology. In other words, when people move from one place to another they create a new social group with mixed culture and values. In conclusion of all factors and aspects that we discussed above we can see that anthropology, sociology and psychology are connected between each other. These three sciences are all about the human nature, culture and community. They are examining interactions and cooperation between different people; we can state that the cultural environment have a direct effect on the values within a community for anthropology, psychology and sociology because according to these sciences it is up to peoples nature to take something new from others. According to religion, human society was created as one big family. Let us agree that this statement is right; thus, we need to accept that people within a social community have a direct effect on each other in the same way in which members within an ordinary family have. Every science that we discussed has one main aim to make our society better. We need to remember that it is up to everybody to help in achievement of this aim.

Reflective Account on Implementation of Change Process

Reflective Account on Implementation of Change Process This reflective account deals with implementation of a change management process at a workshop, where the author was employed for some years a few years ago. The workshop provides a range of electrical, mechanical and overhauling services to different departments of an industrial firm. It has separate departments for activities like electrical and mechanical work, fabrication, transmission and general repair and overhauling. The workshop was set up in the early 1980s and has its own accounting, administration and inventory functions. The conduct of an efficiency audit revealed numerous deficiencies in the working processes of the workshop and the emergent need to implement significant changes for enhancement of productivity and achievement of (a) swifter turnaround time, (b) reduction of labour and (c) cost savings in various areas. External consultants recommended the adoption of a sophisticated ERP system for coordination of various workshop activities and optimisation of its operations. The organisational management accepted these recommendations for the implementation of a modern ERP system and initiated processes for its introduction in the organisation. It was estimated that the adoption of the new system would lead to reduction of workshop strength by 30 employees, significant lowering of inventory levels, elimination of material shortages for workshop operations, and shrinking of turnaround time. The external consultants and the senior management of the company were convinced that the combined effect of these different advantages would result in substantial improvement in workshop productivity and profitability. The workshop manager was informed about the decision by the CEO and two board members and was asked to initiate and implement the change management process. He asked for some time to study the proposal and involved me and two other junior workshop managers in the exercise. We found in the course of our investigation of system features that whilst its introduction could certainly result in improvement of workshop productivity and efficiency, it would be very difficult for the existing workshop employees, many of whom had been with the department for years, to handle the complexities associated with operating the proposed system. It would be necessary to appoint some fresh individuals with expertise in handling such ERP systems and train other workshop employees in the operations and mechanisms of the new system. Concerns were also raised about the organisational implications of terminating 30 employees who had worked sincerely for the workshop for many years. The change management group, headed by the workshop manager and staffed by myself and two other members examined the various implications of introducing and implementing the system and came to the conclusion that it would be necessary to recruit at least 7 fresh employees with requisite knowledge to implement and operate the ERP system. We felt that in such circumstances it would be better to remove 37 departmental employees and induct 7 ERP specialists in order to meet organisational objectives, both in areas of system proficiency and in reduction of employee strength. The workshop manager and the rest of us in the change management team had some theoretical knowledge of Lewins and Kotters change management process. We decided to implement the change management process in specific phases comprising of (a) informing the workshop employees of the proposed change process and its implementation schedule, (b) the implications of the proposed change on the productivity and efficiency of the workshop, (c) the various inputs that would be provided by the company to facilitate the change, and finally (d) the imperative requirement to reduce existing employee strength by 37 people and induct 7 specialist employees (Gary, et al, 1995, p 114). Deliberating on the possible adverse repercussions of the decision to terminate employees, our group leader specifically sought a meeting with the CEO and asked him to accommodate the surplus employees in other areas of the company (Heller, 1998, p 37). The CEO understood our apprehensions and after discussions with the HR department was able to confirm alternative positions for 25 people on similar terms and conditions, but placed at different locations. Handsome severance packages were also worked out for the employees who would have to perforce be released (Heller, 1998, p 37). The first task of the change management team concerned dissemination of information about the proposed change to all workshop employees (Joseph, 2006, p 24). The announcement about the impending change and its implications were made at a general meeting where all employees were asked to be present (Joseph, 2006, p 24). The announcement at this meeting was followed up by detailed meetings with smaller groups where members of the change management team individually informed workshop employees about the need for the change process and the ensuing benefits (Joyce, 2000, p 73). It was decided by us that the existing system would continue for at least 3 months after the implementation of the ERP system (Joyce, 2000, p 73). The training of existing employees in the new system was delegated to external trainers and the change process was formally put into motion (Joyce, 2000, p 73). The proposed change however met with very severe resistance from a section of employees, most of whom had been shortlisted for termination of employment or transfer to other departments (Moss, et al, 1992, p 67). Whilst approximately 20% of the employees chosen for release were reasonably satisfied with the carefully formulated severance package, the other 30 employees became vocal in their opposition to the plan and asked to see the CEO in order to vent their concerns and apprehensions. With employee relations in the workshop being happy for many years, the internal workers union had been disbanded many years ago. The workers however began to feel betrayed and vulnerable and started discussing the idea of forming a new workshop union with national trade union organisations (Moss, et al, 1992, p 67). The CEO and the workshop manager had detailed discussions with the affected workshop employees but were unable to convince them to take up alternative postings, many of which were in distant places and required them to live separately from their families (Moss, et al, 1992, p 68). The breakdown in discussions between the workers and the management led to disruption in production schedules and made it very difficult for us to recruit new employees to operate the new ERP systems. Such difficulties led to significant delays in implementation and to disruption of workshop activity (Joyce, 2000, p 81). The organisational management was however firm in its decision and arranged for subcontractors to compensate for the drop in workshop productivity (Joyce, 2000, p 81). Many of the existing employees also started feeling demoralised and started looking elsewhere for alternative employment (Joyce, 2000, p 81). It finally took the organisation more than a year to complete the implementation of the new ERP system and stabilise workshop production (Joyce, 2000, p 81). Whilst the introduction of the system has resulted in significant improvement in workshop efficiencies, productivity and profitability, I do feel that the change management process could have been handled better (Buono Kerber, 2010, p 4). My theoretical knowledge of change management processes informs me that successful change management needs to be planned very carefully and is dependent upon the effectiveness of communication with the people most likely to be affected by the change process (Buono Kerber, 2010, p 4). I feel that the decision to introduce the system was pushed with too much haste and without allowing the employees to acclimatise to the change proposal (Frame, 2002, p 54). My colleagues in the change management team also agree with me that our communication of the various implications of the proposed change was possibly inadequate and did not instil feelings of the emergent need of bringing about the proposed change (Frame, 2002, p 54). Whilst the senior management of the company was committed to the change management process and extended all possible help, communication failures and hasty action at the operational level precipitated concern and crystallised resistance among employees, which eventually resulted in implementation delays, loss of productivity and incurrence of subcontracting costs (Doherty, 2002, p 89). I personally have learnt significantly from my experience and realise that theoretical knowledge of change management processes, whilst helpful for implementation of change, needs to be supported by strong management skills, clear and careful planning, preparation for contingencies and sound knowledge of employee behaviour for bringing about successful completion of change management initiatives. Situation 2: Reflective Account on Team Work and Leadership I have had the opportunity to participate in a diverse team, comprising of individuals from different ethnic and national backgrounds, which was given the specific tasks of preparing a promotional and marketing campaign for an NGO working in different areas of environmental conservation. The opportunity came about because of my interest in environmental issues and the acceptance of my request to volunteer with a well known international NGO. Teams comprise of groups of two or more individuals who work dynamically, adaptively and interdependently for the achievement of common goals and objectives (Arya, 1997, p 9). Members of such teams are usually provided with specific roles and responsibilities (Arya, 1997, p 9).Our team consisted of 7 members and we were given the task of working together for the creation of a marketing and promotional campaign for reduction of environmental pollution in and around airports in the UK. The significance of team work for achievement of specific outcomes is now widely accepted in modern day organisational behaviour theory (Buller Bell, 1986, p 305). Modern day organisations are increasingly making use of teams for improving organisational performance in increasingly complex and changing business environments (Buller Bell, 1986, p 305). Organisational experts however ironically argue that whilst team work is now widely accepted as an important instrument for enhancement of organisational productivity and efficiency, many organisations that have built their operations around teams have found that the use of such teams very often results in little positive effect on organisational productivity. In some cases their use actually results in loss of productivity (Rees, 2001, p 19). It has often been witnessed that teams with numerous high calibre individuals with demonstrated performance capabilities fail, even as teams of people with far more mediocre abilities often produce excellent results (Banker, et al, 1996, p 868). The modern day business environment is replete with examples of freshly started innovative and committed teams getting the better of large and established corporations with far greater resources (Banker, et al, 1996, p 868). My experience of participation in a diverse team of people in a not for profit NGO environment provided me with the opportunity of understanding and appreciating team work mechanisms. Our team was significantly diverse with regard to gender, nationality, academic training, work experience and personality. The team consisted of six members Larry, Martha, Nora, James, (myself), Peter and Sheila. Larry, the oldest member automatically assumed the role of leader. Organisational theory and literature specifies that diverse teams lead to the availability of a variety of skills and perspectives (Brett, et al, 2006, p 84). These, if utilised appropriately, can result in significantly greater creativity and flexibility in creation of concepts, ideas, options and solutions in comparison with more homogenous groups and thus result in significantly better performance (Brett, et al, 2006, p 84). Whilst teams with diverse members often have access to a wider range of skills, abilities and perspectives, they also face challenges on account of differences in attitudes, cultures, perceptions and languages of team participants (Brett, et al, 2006, p 86). Our team members came from the UK, Latin America, Africa and South East Asia. Their educational backgrounds varied from the performing arts to the liberal arts, sciences and management. Whilst three of the group, including myself had experience of organisational work, the other four were fresh from college. The leadership of the team devolved upon Larry, who was the oldest and most experienced team member (Olmstead, 2002, p 79). This development actually took place, without his actively seeking it, because other team members came to him on their own for advice and suggestion on the functioning of the group (Olmstead, 2002, p 79). Leadership is an extremely significant element of team work processes. Much of the credit for both successes and failures of teams is given to leaders and to their decisions (Olmstead, 2002, p 79). Leaders are required to communicate with clarity on the goals of the teams, provide team members with appropriate and specific roles, build environments of cooperation and collaboration, encourage communication between team members, generate commitment towards achievement of team objectives and create atmospheres of inclusiveness by involving team members in various discussions and asking them for comment, feedback and suggestions (Rees, 2001, p 42). Leaders often ap preciate the roles of team members in order to motivate them to perform better in their tasks (Rees, 2001, p 42). Whilst leadership devolved upon Larry without his asking for it, he certainly did not disregard his responsibilities and worked for the development of an efficient, cooperative and focused team that was committed to its objectives (Ephross Vassil, 2005, p 109). All of us were given specific responsibilities for the development of the marketing and promotional campaign on airport pollution. We were asked to meet on determined dates, provide updates on our progress and asked to contribute by way of suggestions on the work of other team members (Ephross Vassil, 2005, p 109). I was asked to research information on legal aspects of airport pollution, assess the work of other team members, and help them in achieving their objectives (Ephross Vassil, 2005, p 109). Our team activity required members to engage in extensive discussions and generate numerous ideas and concepts for the campaign. Some of these sessions led to disagreements and even quarrels, which resulted in some members refraining from talking to others for some time (Olmstead, 2002, p 92). Nora, who was otherwise very friendly and outgoing, could not stand being opposed and would become excessively argument if she was contradicted by others. Larry would on such occasions take her aside and explain to her the necessity of collaboration and pleasantness between team members for effective team effort (Olmstead, 2002, p 97). We were asked to prepare the campaign in a period of six weeks and were happy to find that the job was completed in time despite arguments and delays. The marketing campaign was presented to the board of the NGO on the predetermined date. Larry deliberately chose Nora to handle the presentation, even as all of us were present to answer questions on our areas of work. We were at the end of the exercise happy to know that we had succeeded in our team objectives despite our diversity and our different social and cultural backgrounds. The results of our team reiterated that teams with diverse members could excel in areas of creativity if they were led with sincerity, provided with transparent environments, and encouraged to communicate and collaborate with each other. Section 3: Reflective Account on Motivation and Reward This reflective narrative concerns my experiences of working with a HR consultancy organisation entrusted with the task of formulating a reward and remuneration programme for textile workers in Bangladesh. The client of the HR consultancy services operates a garment manufacturing factory that is situated on the outskirts of Jessore, a small town in western Bangladesh. The organisation creates garment designs in their London studio and produces the garments in Bangladesh in a subcontracted factory with local Bangladesh labour. The produced garments are subsequently sold to clothing retailers across the UK and in some towns in Germany. The recent stress on sustainability in business operations in the UK has resulted in substantial pressure from UK clothing retailers and consumers for ensuring of sustainable manufacturing practices at the workplaces of outsourced suppliers and manufacturers in developing countries (Marks, 2005, p 7). The organisation, in response to market demand, conducted an internal HR audit and found both working conditions and the remuneration of workers at the factory in Bangladesh to be significantly below acceptable norms. Workers, both male and female, were being paid salaries of approximately GBP 20 per month, which were 15% lesser than the minimum wages specified by the Bangladesh government. The factory operated in two shifts of 10 hours each, even as the maximum legal time of a shift was 8.5 hours. The HR audit also revealed deficiencies in working conditions in areas of sanitation, availability of water, separate washrooms for men and women and crà ¨che facilities for working mothers. The internal audit also revealed that some of the workers appeared to be a bit too young for taking up such strenuous work, even though HR records revealed that all workers were above 18 years in age. My organisation was given the brief of formulating suggestions for improvement of working conditions, rationalisation of remuneration and improvement of motivation of workers at the outsourced production centre in Bangladesh. I was a member of the small team of three that was entrusted with the responsibility for making a primary study on the issue and develop workable solutions that would serve sustainability objectives without placing undue financial pressure on the management of the company. Modern day HR theories are informed by the work and theories advanced by psychologists and behavioural experts like Maslow, Herzberg, Vroom and McGregor. Maslows well known theory of needs states that individuals essentially work to satisfy their needs, which progress from basic physiological needs like food, clothing and shelter to safety and security, love, status and esteem, and finally to self actualisation (Maslow, 1954, p 11). Herzbergs theory of motivation on the other hand states that individuals are influenced in their job choices by two distinct sets of conditions, namely hygiene factors and motivation factors. Hygiene factors represent issues like salary, security, workplace reputation and general working conditions (Herzberg, et al, 1993, p 21). Motivation factors on the other hand consist of issues like potential for learning and growth, scope for enhancement of responsibilities and official recognition for efforts of employees (Herzberg, et al, 1993, p 21). Our team found, whilst analysing the remuneration levels and working conditions at the clients factory in Bangladesh that the workers lived lives of basic subsistence and were just about able to meet their physiological needs with their existing salaries. Most of them lived in low quality slums and did not have the resources to buy liveable houses. The application of Maslows theory of needs in such circumstances led to the conclusion that the workers would be ready to put in significantly greater efforts in order to satisfy their physiological and security needs and work even harder to achieve their status and esteem needs. The application of Herzbergs theory revealed that the workers did not at the time of the study have access either to hygiene or to motivation factors. Their working conditions were poor, their salaries were low, and there was little scope for career progression, reward or recognition. Apart from such circumstances, it was also evident that the owners of the sub-contracted manufacturing facilities at Bangladesh were deliberately contravening governmental rules and regulations with regard to minimum wages, time of work and also possibly utilisation of underage labour. It did appear ironical to all of us that whilst people in the UK were concerned about the application of modern day HR theories and the work of Maslow, Herzberg and McGregor, people in the developing countries continued to work in extremely difficult conditions just to survive and meet the very basic needs of their families and their own selves. It was also very obvious that outsourcing by the client organisation to Bangladesh had been done primarily to exploit the low wages in the region. Any recommendation to improve the wages or the working conditions of the workers was bound to lead to greater costs, reduction of profitability and negation of the basic reasons for shipping the work abroad. Members of our team however understood that growing pressure from environmentally conscious buyers and final consumers was bound to create pressure on firms that shipped work to low wage regions to improve the working conditions of their workers (Latham, 2006, p 47). We thus formulated a detailed report recommending the improvement of wages to 20% higher than minimum wage levels and the construction of a scheme to reward sincere, efficient and productive workers. We recommended the establishment of washrooms, canteen facilities and crà ¨ches and the reduction of daily working hours to 8 hours a day, with overtime payments at established rates in case operations at the facilities had to be conducted for longer hours (Latham, 2006, p 47). We also recommended the establishment of a performance appraisal and management system for locating good performers who could be shortlisted for more responsible positions in future (Latham, 2006, p 47). We explained in detail in our report that the implementation of such measures would lead to significant organisational benefits, both in the market place and at the manufacturing facilities (Armstrong, 2006, p 5). Awareness of sustainable manufacturing practices among buyers and consumers would lead to improvement of reputation and increased demand for products (Armstrong, 2006, p 5). The implementation of the recommended measures at the workplace would also lead to improvement of productivity, reduction of wastage, lesser absenteeism and greater commitment among members of the workforce (Legge, 2004, p 16). Compliance with governmental regulations on the other hand would reduce the liability of prosecution and the levy of significant penalties (Legge, 2004, p 16). We were happy to find that the suggestions in our preliminary report were accepted with openness and appreciation by our clients. The clients called us for a detailed meeting wherein we explained of the likely benefits of adopting more worker-centric policies to organisations that shipped work to low wage regions. We provided the example of Nike and the extensive critical media reports on the company after the publication of exposes on the abysmal working conditions at its factories in South Asia (Dusen, 1998, p 1). The senior management of the company assured us that they would initiate plans to improve working conditions at their facilities in Bangladesh in line with our suggestions. I think of my experience in working on the project as one of the most rewarding and fulfilling episodes of my working career. It showed me how modern day HR theories can be used to good effect in different types of situations and workplaces. It not only gave me the opportunity to practically use my theoretical knowledge on motivation and reward but also gave me the chance to make a difference to the lives of people who work in difficult conditions for survival and subsistence.

American similarties to Rome :: essays research papers

American civilization could possible end up like the Roman Empire. The Romans did many of the same things that we are doing today right before they fell. We are probably not going to fall but we are not the best we could be. We should change our habits before they become worse.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Romans did many things that led to their destruction. They ruined their morals by focusing on the moment and not worrying about the future. They stole jobs by bringing in slaves to work at latifundias which caused homelessness which lowered public health and caused crime to go up. Bringing in slaves also made them not need to advance in technology which caused other nations to advance farther then the Romans. They also â€Å"sold† the seat of emperor to highest bidder.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In America we do many things that greatly need improving. We ignore major health risks such as AIDs, obesity, health care, nuclear wastes, and illegal drugs. We dump toxic waste in our environment, sprawl like crazy, and fill our televisions with violence and sexual content. We spend millions of dollars and kill thousands of lives from our own country in war and â€Å"conflicts.† We drop huge bombs that kill hundreds of innocence people.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In both nations there are a lot of similarities. They both have political corruption such as selling the emperor or giving high positions of power to people that have a personal relationship with a higher power. They also share a high unemployment rate whether it is because of outsourcing or slave labor. They both spend lots of money on the military because of unprotected borders or threats.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  America clearly does have some faults but most of them can and hopefully will be solved.

Physiological Changes Due to Risperdal Essay examples -- Psychology Me

Physiological Changes Due to Risperdal Hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, psychosis and thought disorder are all symptoms of Schizophrenia and people who suffer from these symptoms seek the treatment of atypical anti-psychotic medications. Those medicines include Risperidone (Risperdal), Clozapine (Clozaril) , Ziprasidone (Geodon) and Quetiapine(Seroquel). The purpose of these medications is to alleviate symptoms of Schizophrenia and lessen the chances of a recurrence. The basic function of Atypical Antipsychotics is to reduce the effects of blockage in the dopamine receptors and serotonin and allow communication between nerve cells. Dopamine is thought to be relevant in Schizophrenic symptoms and Antipsychotic medications act against these symptoms. While there may the reward of reducing Schizophrenic symptoms there are risks that come along with taking such drugs as Risperidone (Risperdal) and Quietiapine (Seroquel). Commons side effects that exist while taking Risperidone are dizziness, nausea, tiredness and hyperactivity. More serious conditions may include Orthostatic Hypotension which is an extreme drop in blood pressure. Patients may also experience Syncope which is related to Hypotension in that a person may experience a loss of consciousness or fainting. Quietiapine can also cause Hypotension, but with the long term use of this drug it can cause Tardive Dyskinesia which is involuntary movements of the lips, jaw and tongue. The features of this condition are tongue protrusion, lip smacking, rapid eye blinking and rapid arm movements. In the most extreme cases Risperidone has been said to cause galactorrhea which is breast growth in males and a secretion of br... ...he Young Mania Rating Scale (YMS) and assessment was measured by the change of YMS scores at the end of the study. The study showed the patients who took Risperidal improved in their YMS scores than those who took the placebo. However patients who took Risperdal reported experiencing nausea, dizziness, weight gain, and upset stomach (Titusville, N.J., Dec.10/ PRNewswire). References Retrieved: March 1, 2005 from http://www. Counseling resource.com/medication/drug- pages/risperidone.html Retrieved: March 2, 2005 from http://www. Maripoisoncenter.com/ctr/9611risperidone.html Clinical Toxicology Review Vol.19, No.2 November 1996 Retrieved: March 2, 2005 from http://www.priory.com/psych/catatonia.html Retrieved: March 3, 2005 Common use of Risperidal among Children http://www.risperdal-help.org/what_causes.php www.Schizophrenia.com

Brick-clad buildings

The dissertation will comprehensively discuss the effectivity of insulators in stabilizing indoor-temperature as an outcome of controlling heat gain and heat loss particularly with brick-clad structures that are constructed either with concrete form or timber frame materials for its walls. The objectives of the dissertation are as follows: a. To determine the insulation properties of bricks; b. To compare and contrast ICF wall construction over timber-framed construction; c. To measure the effectivity of insulators to control heat-gain or heat-loss.The dissertation will delve into the qualities of brick as a building material and at the same time discuss the manner by which cladding is installed. Why is the conventional method of brick laying more appreciated over the faster new system of installation? Through literature readings, we shall decipher why bricks continue to be the material of choice for many residences. Included in the literature review is the relevance of brick as a bu ilding material to the present trend in design and construction.The structural capacity of bricks will be analyzed and the proponent will discuss the reason behind its shelving in favor of the more robust reinforced concrete (pre-stressed and post-tensioning system) and structural steel. The dissertation will also discuss the concept of brick-cladding and rate its relevance to the construction of buildings. Moreover, we shall be determine whether application is better for ICF wall construction or best for timber-framed buildings. Also, we shall try to explore the different insulation presently used and the degree by which it affects the total thermal environment.Because of weather extremes, temperature plays a very important part in the development of materials that seek to solve the perennial problems of heat-gain in summer and heat-loss coefficients in winter. Vital segments of this dissertation include experiments conducted that would clarify the data presented in various handboo k and manuals. A statistical test method was adapted to quantify known data while results were interpreted based on scientific information. The first two objectives shall be resolved through the use of qualitative data only, which was obtained from available literature.The last objective of this dissertation will be resolved through an improvised scientific experiment with the data interpreted through statistical testing. Finally, recommendations were discussed on the resolve of nagging issues of energy conservation and the effects of the manufacture of construction materials to ecological balance and the global warming phenomenon. II. Review of Related Literature The Development of bricks In prehistoric times, man’s quest for durable shelter from weather elements leads them to find comfort inside caves.Once domesticated and agriculture-dependent for food, man built structures made from materials found within his turf. In areas where timber was plenty, wooden dwellings develo ped, mud bricks were likewise used where materials was rare. The Mesopotamians (c. 2000-700 B. C. ) were the first known civilization to use bricks in their dwellings. Brick made during this period was a mixture of clay or mud and straws (added for strength) and then sun-dried or kiln dried; a product that is purely endemic to the region, owing to the scarcity of stones, timber and other building materials (Fletcher, B.1961, p. 50). The Egyptians likewise had their share in the use of bricks as a suitable building material; as new advances were made in curing, texture, color and drying techniques. Different types of bricks were used to adorn structures, from Temples to Mastabas or even simple abodes (Fletcher, B. 1961, p. 13). Hebrew slaves were hired, cruelly dealt and oppressed so production of bricks and construction of monumental buildings could be achieved. In the end, the domination of the Egyptians culminated with the Hebrews departure to the Promised Land (Christian Communit y Bible, 1997, p.85). The later part of the 17th and the entire 18th century bricks were utilized as lining for timber framed residences, to serve as insulation against the cold weather, which was later called brick nogging (Friedman, D. 2006). Bricks were fitted in the cavities between the vertical and horizontal studs; mortar was applied as adhesive and finished off with plaster. Thus today, old buildings can be easily identified through its brick nogging on the wall and the year it was constructed could probably be determined (Friedman, D. 2006).Brick as a building material played a key-role in the development of Architecture and the building industry for a span of over 2,000 years. Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), the famous American Architect, found full artistic expression in natural materials—bricks included and exploited its potential by using it not only on residences but also on high-rise buildings. He is credited for the saying â€Å"in their hands the ordinary bri ck became worth its weight in gold†. Important landmarks in cities and urban centers are clad with bricks; some were imported if not available locally (Larkin Building, n.d. ). At the start of the 20th century modern architecture, the popularity of bricks waned. In its place, concrete and steel became the material of choice because of the demand for bigger and taller structures. Brick does not have the structural capabilities for these structures; besides, modernist’s (Architects) opted for simpler designs and faster construction application. So, buildings of concrete, steel and glass replaced brick structures (Beardmore, R. 2006). Overview on Brick Wall Cladding SystemsBrick or hardened clay is literally dull, uninteresting and devoid of radiant color, yet when placed to adorn buildings, residences or even lobby’s, it exudes an aura of sophistication, strength, stability and grandeur not evident in any other building material. Apart from stone, brick is probably the oldest and its resurgence as a choice material has baffled Architects since no comparable material comes close to its character, apart from being cost effective, durable and eco friendly (Wikipedia contributors, 2007a). On timber framesBrick-cladding on timber frames has been with us since the start of the 20th century and continues to be popular in the construction industry. That is why series of innovations have proliferated particularly in the installation process. Normally bricks are laid out on a stable masonry foundation and piled one over the other with mortar and joint pointing is done using the proprietary pumped system (Self Build Houses, n. d. ). At every strategic horizontal layer of brick, metal ties are integrated to keep the piles in place and normally these are anchored to timber studs.The metal ties hold the brick walls from collapsing over, especially during extreme thermal changes, extreme wind pressure or during earthquakes (Parker, H. 1968b, p. 28). On conc rete walls Brick-cladding on concrete or masonry walls is performed simultaneously with the block piling, or can be installed separately on existing walls. Bricks are piled together hand in hand with the concrete blocks and share the same foundation bed but is separated by an air gap that is totally independent of each other. It is like building two walls at the same time, one of concrete blocks the other made of bricks.At every 3rd layer of concrete block, steel ties are laid out connecting both the vertical reinforcement (concrete and brick) at widths not exceeding 600 mm, this should give structural stability to the installation (Baggeridge Brick Plc, 2003). In cases where walls are constructed prior to the installation of bricks, dowel provisions are made at wall points not exceeding 600 mm on center, both vertically and horizontally. Metal ties connected to the bricks vertical reinforcement are then welded to the wall dowels (Parker, H. 1968a, p. 91).If dowels are not provided, workers will drill-in anchor bolt to strengthen the installation. All metal ties are provided with slot for thermal movement because bricks expand over time while concrete does the contrary, shrinks (Parker, H 1968a, p. 256). New brick installation system In terms of brick installation, some methods have been developed to reduce construction cost and speed-up completion time. One system uses a galvanized steel backing plate that holds a specially designed brick (Baggeridge Brick Plc, 2003); another type employs inter-locking brick panels and eliminates the use of mortars (Self Build Houses, n. d.); there are still others who have designed options to promote ease in the installation system. This new trends in brick application, though practical and cheaper, have been used only in the mass housing business, because these types are not designed to endure strong quakes and will most likely collapse (Dunn, V. 2001). For most residents, if they can spare the cost, would still prefer the real thing—that is to install bricks the conventional way. This sentiment, as shared by many, drives up the resale values of real estate because buildings made the conventional way project an image of durability and a lasting antique appeal.New building technology The use of SIP’s, or the Structural Insulation Panel was developed as outer wall envelopes on timber-framed structures. It is actually a wall system combining an Oriented Strand Board (OSB) with an insulation panel. It speeds-up construction time, reduces timber framings and improves the energy performance of buildings (Wikipedia Contributors, 2007c). The ICF System or the Insulated Concrete Form Wall Construction is the counterpart of the SIP, but solely developed for concrete buildings.It utilizes lightweight blocks made from either Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) or Extruded Polystyrene (XPS) with a core 4, 6, 8 or 12 inches depending on the structural requirement. The blocks are arranged around the perimeter o f the building, structural bars are installed and concrete is pumped into the core, giving a continuous wall of concrete and insulation. Much like the SIP panels, ICF improves the insulation coefficient of buildings (Toolbase Services, 2006). Energy performance Bricks when subjected to direct sunlight absorb a lot of heat which normally takes 3 to 5 hours to dissipate.Thus, when not properly insulated, it affects the inside temperature of buildings or residences, thereby putting a lot of strain on the air-conditioning system to raise energy cost. This condition is most likely during the summer months but is preferred during the winter season because it helps stabilize room temperature up to about 8 or 9 in the evening (Claybricks & Tiles Sdn. Bhd. 2006). Bricks, the symbol of traditional culture, serve its purpose only as a decorative material. SIP panels on timber-framed structures reduce heat transfer coefficients both during winter and summer time.SIP panels stabilize humidity an d room temperatures. It is likewise the most energy efficient wall cladding devised for timber structures. This system of construction reduces timber dependence and helps our ecosystem (Wikipedia Contributors, 2007c). For the insulated concrete form (ICF) wall construction, conduction of heat between the brick and concrete panel is reduced since EPS or XPS insulating material envelopes the wall, both inside and outside, freeing buildings from the usual problems of energy efficiency.The thickness of the EPS or XPS barrier is usually 2 inches, while that of concrete varies from 4 inches to as much as much as 12 inches. If structural considerations suggest that thickness be over standard sizes, then special panels are manufactured (Amvic Inc, 2003). Normal brick cladding systems can be applied over the panels or for added protection, moisture barriers are installed before bricks are laid directly on the EPS and XPS panels (McMichael, C. 2006). Construction EfficiencyConstruction speed and efficiency in brick cladding is best observed in timber-framed buildings because the system of attachment is easier, thereby work schedule is accurately met (Self Build Houses, n. d. ). Before bricks are laid, an asphalt based felt-paper or vinyl-based building wrap is stapled to the wood studs on the perimeter of the building as moisture insulation and metal ties are simply anchored to hold the structure (brick wall). The same method is used for plastic shielded galvanized steel backing because it can be screwed on timber studs, so construction time is swifter (WIE, 2004).The contrary is observed in concrete construction. The system proves to be more complex and time consuming. Construction of concrete wall and brick cladding is started simultaneously with an air space between the panels; besides metal ties are harder to install to further delay construction time. On previously finished concrete walls, the installation is quite similar but metal ties are either welded or provid ed with anchor bolts. It is observed that construction costs are much higher in concrete structures compared to either timber or steel (REU, n. d. ).Brick cladding in concrete walls should be confined to manageable areas since both materials behave in opposite ways. As wall installation ages, brick walls tend to expand while concrete walls contract. For a thirty meters brick wall, total expansion is found to be at the rate of 11. 4 millimeters. Thus, when walls are not provided with expansion joints it buckles and no amount of metal fastener can hold it in place (REU, n. d. ). The brick wall will most likely crack or collapse if the moorings are abruptly released or the concrete wall where it is attached may suffer considerable damage (Dunn, V.2001). Every installation should be carefully studied and expansion and contraction joints thoroughly spaced so untoward damage can be prevented. Brick installations over two floors in height are now provided with slip joints to give them (bri ck clad walls) freedom of horizontal movement during earthquakes. Acoustic Absorption Brick as a material is porous so expect sound to pass through, it cannot be used to shield confined spaces from outside sounds, nor is it effective in containing inside sounds so that it becomes inaudible from the outside.But when bricks are used in the interiors, it helps control echo, reverberation and standing sound. In short, bricks improve the acoustic rating of a particular room (Acoustics, n. d. ). Brick clad timber framed structures have very poor sound containment coefficients, particularly in containing sounds coming from the outside. While concrete structures with brick cladding somehow fare well since sound transmission is muffled as it crosses through the panels (concrete), it remains a poor sound absorbing material so walls have to be treated with acoustic materials (Acoustics, n.d. ). Bricks are classified according to its degree of porosity, it could be a common brick, a compressed brick or perhaps a firebrick. Each type is designed to serve different requirements. Brick panels installed inside living areas or conference rooms not only enhance aesthetic appeal but also improve acoustic resonance. Brick walls absorb sound—whether standing sounds and reverberating sounds and to a degree correct echo and flutter echoes (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2007). Since bricks transmit sound readily, additional barriers should be introduced to contain sound.If a brick wall is made as partition between rooms, privacy will be totally lost, since others would be privy to conversation made on the other side of the room. Not so much with concrete walls, since concrete walls are naturally dense and when properly plastered is massive enough to mute sound transmission. However, it does not have the absorption quality of bricks, so its acoustic resonance is practically nil (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2007). The introduction of heavy drapes, carpeting and cushions could easily be a good remedy. Durability Without a doubt, brick is the most enduring of all man-made building materials.The specific proof of this are the Mastaba (burial mound) of the Egyptian’s that was built over two thousand years ago, recently unearthed, but the brickwork inside are still in excellent condition (Fletcher, B. 1961, p. 23). In fact brick walls can withstand harsh weather conditions, could be soaked in salt water indefinitely and above all the most potent of man-made chemicals do not seem to have an effect on it. Architecturally, the aesthetic appeal of bricks is enhanced over time as it ages, probably the same as wine since its taste also improves as it matures (WIE, 2004).The abject durability of a monolithic poured reinforced concrete could not be discounted. Proofs to these are the embankments made during the 2nd World War that continue to exist even without maintenance. In fact plain concrete is a product of the 20th century, although the main material cement was act ually invented by the ancient Roman Civilization. Cement during the Roman period was made out of volcanic ash mixed with lime and other substances and was used extensively for their buildings (forums, thermae, collosseums, circus, aqueducts and temples) that house different activities (Fletcher, B. 1961, p. 210).