Saturday, August 31, 2019

Andrew Carnegie: One of the Pioneers of the Big Business

Big Business Report University of Phoenix Ursula Murgado Introduction One of the pioneers of the Big Business I chose to research is Andrew Carnegie. In this paper I will include how was his business and how did Mr. Carnegie started his business. I will also talk about how his business grew to the level it did. The good and bad effects of the business in the 19th century, How Mr. Carnegie business affected society today, what were the pros and cons of this business, if this cons and pros still exist. Andrew Carnegie was an industrialist and philanthropist.Andrew Carnegie was born in November 25, 1835 in Dunfermline, Scotland. He was the son of a handloom weaver. Andrew’s Carnegie parents decide to move to North America in 1848 because of the conditions that they were living. Andrew’s father settled his family in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. Carnegie starting working at an early age in a factory getting pay $1. 20 a week. Then at the following year he found a job as a telegr aph messenger. By the year 1851 Carnegie became a telegraph operator because of his efforts to get ahead in life.After two years working as a telegraph messenger Carnegie decides to work at the Pennsylvania Railroad, he was the assistant and telegrapher of Thomas Scott, one of the railroad’s main officials. This job help Carnegie to learn about the railroad industry and also in business. After three years he was promoted to superintendent. Carnegie business was the steel company but he started his investment before he open his own steel company. He started investing in the years 1863 or 1864 and during the war years too. His profits were very high.First, his share of he† Woodruff Sleeping Car Company , he also invested in the Western Union Telegraph Company, The Iron City Forge, The Columbia Oil Company and the Third National Bank of Pittsburgh†. He also made other investments, that helped him own shares in more than twelve different companies. He was making aroun d $39,000 in investments plus his salary of $2400 dollars a year. He left the Pennsylvania Railroad before the Civil war started. His determination in investing during tough times help him grow his business to the level it did.Carnegie business in his Steel Industry help him revolutionize the production of steel in the United States. Carnegie was able to construct many steel plants around the United States with the a technology that made the manufacture of steel faster, easier and more productive. Carnegie owned everything he needed in order to become the â€Å"King of Steelâ€Å". Some of the negative effects of big business in the 19th century was the atmosphere and working conditions of the workers at the time repeatedly change. Technology is another negative effect because the products were not being complete made by an individual.Immigration was another effect. The positive effect was that more money for this country. A positive effect that Carnegie’s business had on s ociety were his donations to build libraries in the United States and in other English speaking countries. Carnegie funded about 3,000 libraries in 47 US states and other countries. In 1901 he gave two million dollars to create the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburg and the following year he donated the same amount to Washington D. C to found the Carnegie Institution. In my opinion Carnegie did a lot positive things for society.He was able to accomplish the American dream, as we know he was an Scotland immigrant. One of the negative things was the Homestead Mill strike because it â€Å"broke his reputation as a friend of the workers†. The pros of the big business in the 19th century were the benefits that industrialization gave to the people, like how the life of Americans improve and how their wages climbed. The cons was that everything comes with a price. The fact the workers bargain for better wages and better conditions at work was one of them. In my opinion th ese pros and cons do still exist in some way at this time.   Maybe not at the extent of the 19th century but they still exist .References Kent, Zachary. Andrew Carnegie, Steel King and Friend to Libraries, Historical America Biographies, 1999. Davidson-Gienapp-Heyrman-Lytle-Stoff:, Nation of Nations: A Concise Narrative of the American Republic, Fourth Edition IV. Global Essay: The United States in an Industrial Age19. The New Industrial Order (1870? 1900) The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2005. American Experience, The Richest Man in the World Andrew Carnegie. The film and more. http://www. pbs. org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/peopleevents/index. html

Friday, August 30, 2019

Comparison of Conrad’s and Achebe’s Presentation of Africans

Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, both take place in the heart of Africa and center around the idea of colonialism held by the European powers in 19th century. The differences between the two novels are ironically as apparent as â€Å"black† and â€Å"white†. As we begin to think about why Conrad and Achebe have used so different tones on such a similar subject, we feel like we are solving a mystery plot. While reading Heart of Darkness we feel as if we are led through a never ending, dark, damp, gloomy and stinky corridor and the novel ends in an atmosphere which is darker, gloomier and filled with hostile people or maybe creatures. After reading Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, immediately our minds revert to a nearby region in Africa, to Umuofia, and we begin to think whether Nigeria is on the same continent as Congo, and if these dark creatures staring at the boat from the riverbank, are really related to Obierika, or even to the never smiling Okonkwo, who are in our minds sharing palm-wine and breaking kola seeds. Conrad’s and Achebe’s different approach to the themes of â€Å"voice of Africans†, â€Å"presentation of colonizers† and the â€Å"effects of colonialism† distinguish the two works from each other. The voice and presence of Africans differ clearly in two works because Conrad is looking through the perspective of the colonizer and Achebe, from that of the colonized. As stated in the introduction, Conrad has been dreaming of seeing the â€Å"dark continent† since childhood and has managed to go to Congo with the ambition to explore it. Marlow, just like Conrad, has always had the interest in maps and he decides to go to this journey after seeing Congo’s map on a shop window. As Marlow says when he is telling his story, â€Å"It had ceased to be a blank space of delightful mystery- a white patch for a boy to dream gloriously over. It had become a place of darkness,† (p 22) we can realize that the mysterious land he was expecting to see didn’t end up being enjoyable and frightened him. We know that when Conrad first travelled to Congo, he was actually shocked with what he saw; but although he was surprised and horrified, he thought all the savage acts of white men as a part of reality and a necessity to keep this colony functioning. The way he refers to natives as â€Å"black things†, â€Å"criminals† or â€Å"unhappy savages† with no indication of pain in his feelings shows that, as a â€Å"civilized† European who is a stranger to this new land, he convinces himself very easily to the idea that the Africans should be treated as â€Å"savages†. When he sees a young African reclining against a tree with sunken eyes, waiting for his death, it is not his condition that strikes him the most but he is more interested in where he might have found the white thread tied around his neck. Also when he admits to himself that the accountant had â€Å"verily accomplished something difficult† (p 37) by teaching a native woman to do the station tasks, we once again understand that he doesn’t see them as of his equal and in some sense regard them as primitive beings with no intellect. Even if Conrad, as a writer who has become a citizen of Great Britain, one of the leader countries of colonialism, regards all the atrocities in Congo as dark memories, he does not help the African voice to be heard and does not provide any chance for an African to express himself properly, except a native’s words, â€Å"Mistah Kurtz, he dead! † (p 112) On the other hand, Achebe is no stranger to this land. He is in fact one of the dark mysterious figures, watching Marlow's boat, sailing up the river. Naturally he has a very different story to tell. In Heart of Darkness, we are given a surreal view about the Africans. On the contrary, Achebe's success, is presenting them as human beings, with names, no different in characters and in feelings than other people living in any part of the world. Although their customs might sometimes seem inexplicable to us, such as the oracle ordering Ikemefuna to be killed for no reason and villagers following his order, they still carry the same feelings any person would. After Ikemefuna’s death, Okonkwo who has loved him like his own child, cannot taste anything for two days because of his sorrow. Similarly, after Okonkwo is exiled from the clan, Okonkwo’s friends destroy Okonkwo’s barn and hut as part of a tradition with no hatred in their hearts. But later on Obierika, Okonkwo’s best friend who was among those people, questions his friend’s punishment. Even though the Africans presented in Things Fall Apart identify themselves with their culture and have to follow the rules set by their ancestors, they always show the reactions expected from any person. These people share the same concerns, affections and flaws as every â€Å"human being† whereas Conrad, chooses to present them as primitive creatures or rather dark threats. As the boat sails on the river in Heart of Darkness, we are reminded of Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth where in similar dark surroundings, the scientists encounter extinct creatures whereas in Things Fall Apart, we get a chance to observe the richness of the Ibo culture and look at Africans from an objective point of view. The comparison of how the colonizers are presented in two novels portrays clearly the recurring opposition between â€Å"civilization and wilderness†. This time, Conrad, openly displays the sinister intentions of the colonizers, their greed more openly than Achebe. When the reader is told about how experienced agent Kurtz is in collecting ivory, how cruelly the Africans are used as labor force and are forced to work until they become exhausted, wear out and starve to death, it is seen that the so-called â€Å"civilizing† mission of the colonizers is actually destroying the Africans. We understand clearly that the colonizers are after wealth, which in fact does not belong to them. Moreover, in both works, there is the irony about the colonizers, who are supposed to be representing â€Å"civilization† but instead acting way more primitively than the colonized Africans who are considered as â€Å"savages†. In Heart of Darkness, Mr. Kurtz who is admired and even worshipped by the Europeans, is collecting the heads of the natives and performing very brutal actions to acquire his ivory. Company Doctor’s comment stating that any change the men undergo in Congo is internal (p 27), is a foreshadowing to the transition Kurtz goes through in the jungle. â€Å"Wilderness† has changed him; he is no longer a member of a civilized society having lived together with the natives in wilderness. Also, when the Manager claims that Kurtz’s â€Å"methods are unsound† (p 101), we start questioning the accuracy of the Manager’s own methods. The company responsible for extracting ivory is operating under a hierarchy, with many business principles so since Kurtz is a part of this chain, it can be argued that the methods of the colonizers are also as â€Å"unsound† as Kurtz’s. When Marlow agrees with the Manager and says that he sees no method at all in Kurtz’s actions, we can understand how Kurtz, as a colonizer has separated himself from civilized methods. Therefore, there is the contrast in between his reputation as a remarkable agent among colonizers, and his denial to play the game by the rules of a civilized society. On the other hand, the colonizers in Achebe's Things Fall Apart, are given a more humane approach. They, like the natives are described as ordinary people whom you can meet on the street, in your everyday life. Their most apparent feature are their arrogance and in fact their lack of knowledge and understanding. Achebe also emphasizes the irony about Africans turning out to be more civilized than the colonizers in many ways. When there is a confrontation between missionaries and Africans caused by Mr.  Smith, the new intolerant leader of the church, Ajofia’s words, â€Å"We cannot leave the matter in his hands because he does not understand our customs, just as we do not understand his. We say he is foolish because he does not know our ways, and perhaps he says we are foolish because we do not know his,† (p191) show that in fact the villagers are wiser, more mature and more â€Å"civilized† in way of thinking than the colonizers. Africans can accept to be wrong in certain points, whereas the colonizers disregard anything outside their own agenda. Even if Heart of Darkness gives us a better opinion about the cruel and uncivilized characters of the colonizers, Achebe also portrays the destruction of African villages so dramatically that in general, we can say that both works demonstrate the corrupted souls of the colonizers effectively. The destructive effects of colonialism are presented both by Achebe and Conrad, but Conrad does not bring up the criticism of colonizing a country, whereas Achebe underlines its tragic results clearly. At the time Heart of Darkness was published, there were many people in the world who thought that there was nothing wrong with colonialism and in fact it was the right move to take for a powerful country. It was believed by many that the natives were nothing but savages. Therefore, what Conrad says about colonialism, is well ahead of his time, but still the argument of whether he had to go along with the idea of seeing natives as â€Å"dark savages† , is of course questionable. From the beginning of the novel, Conrad shows the suffering caused by colonization through Marlow’s observations. We see natives each having an iron collar on their neck, all connected together by chains, empty paths that were used to belong to villages in which the population had cleared out. All these unpleasant images show the devastating results of colonialism but since Marlow, who experiences these brutalities with his own eyes, does not reach to the conclusion that all these are a result of human greed, it is not possible to say that Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is a direct critique of colonialism. However Achebe, having lived in a colonized country, knows what it feels like to have lived under the command of others. He intentionally emphasizes the presence of a government, besides the church and shows that the white man, does not only want to convert the natives to Christianity or take away their ivory and gold but also wants to rule them. Achebe does not hesitate to show how Okonkwo’s own people, although they might not be from his own clan, have joined the colonizers and are serving them as their messengers. When the messengers tell the villagers that they should pay a fine of two hundred and fifty cowries to release the several arrested men from the clan including Okonkwo, they plan to keep the fifty cowries for themselves and give the rest to the district commissioner who had initially decided on the fine as two hundred cowries. As it is seen, colonialism has not only caused the suffering of many Africans but also it created such a corruption that the people of the same land ended up betraying and fighting against each other. Even if both writers have based their story on the terrible outcomes of colonization, Achebe, as a representative of the African voice emphasizes the moral tragedy that leads to the formation of a chain of never-ending treasons between Africans. Colonization may work for the benefits of the colonizers, but for those who are being colonized, it gives only suffering, death, loss of identities, in short destruction and humiliation. The general attitude displayed by the colonizers, in justifying their actions, is their claims of bringing civilization to savages, faith and order to cannibals, technology or health care to the poor or ignorant. The fact that Heart of Darkness, begins on the river Thames, right in the heart of London, the river described as calm and beautiful, and moves into Congo river, its waters rough, full of dangers, dark, threatening, offering nothing but unexpected and unknown menaces, shows us the exact mentality of the colonizers, as they view Europe and Africa. It is a clear account of how they believe that, their civilization is superior, giving them the right to expand their interests to wherever they see fit. A boat trip on the Congo River, according to them, is a measuring device which will reveal how primitive the Africans are. The further you travel, the degree of primitivism rises. Just as Thames River is the antithesis of Congo River or Africa, with Conrad, Achebe's characters show that the Africans are not subhuman or part of a different species, but are members of the human race with their flaws and virtues. Achebe's last words in Things Fall Apart are â€Å"The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger†, the name of the commissioner’s book, is the very cliche colonial powers live by. It is in fact the most tragic ending to these sad stories of shattered lives, erased cultures and a whole continent torn apart, by colonialism.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

FEA program Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

FEA program - Assignment Example FEA is an exceptional reality of the wide-ranging technique with polynomial estimation functions (Ferrari, 2007). The solution method is founded on removing the spatial derivatives from the partial differential equations. It approaches the partial differential equations with a structure of algebraic equations for steady state systems, and a structure of ordinary differential equations for transient systems. 3. These equation arrangements are linear if the basic partial differential equations are corresponding. Arithmetical equation arrangements are resolved expending arithmetic linear algebra approaches. Ordinary differential equations leads to a rise in passing systems are then mathematically combined utilizing regular methodologies, for example, Euler’s technique. FEM permits comprehensive conception of where constructions arc or twist, and specifies the dissemination of stresses and dislocations. FEA applications provide a wide array of simulation opportunities for scheming the complexity of both meshing and analysis of a real life problem. Also, the expected accuracy required and related computational time necessary can be coped in same time to resolve many manufacturing practices. FEA permits whole projects to be built, great, and adjusted before the project produced. 4. Basic Principles of FEA 5. ... Every node is designed for six degrees of freedom enumerated as three transformational degrees, and three revolution degrees. Boundary condition is a method that a defined node in a FEM model is fixed to the zero state and several additional nodes in the model. A range of boundary conditions are obtainable containing: unbending or fixed, flexible spring, etc. Boundary conditions can be stated to be steady in some or complete six degrees of freedom. One must do two dimensional or three dimensional geometry which ties the existing member that is preferred to be analyzed. It can be generated contained by the preprocessor of the FEA application or beforehand produced geometry can be introduced from a computer aided designing application known as a concrete modeler. Boundary conditions (BC) can also be utilized to specify fluidic, dynamic, thermal, and electrostatic networks. In engineering analysis, linear solution points to an investigation of FEA modeled part where linear preprocessor of the item being assessed and its materials are understood to be exposed. In linear solutions, the part being assessed will not be subjected out of the elastic range of its materials. Non-linear denote to structural design of character modeled with arch. The part ingredients and boundary conditions will be laid open to non-linear actions. Specific materials display non-linear strain & stress performance and which is called as material non-linearity. If great diversions are existent, this is resulting in geometric non-linearity. Lastly, if boundary conditions change for different load ranges this is mentioned as boundary non-linearity. Static denotes to a part

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Is Leadership Culturally Bound Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Is Leadership Culturally Bound - Essay Example Consequently, the association between cultural factors and leadership is of such a complex nature that not only does it extend to the understandings of organizational culture but it is also vividly observable in a country’s national culture. As MNEs continue to dominate international markets and the world continues to evolve into a global village the question which arises as a consequence of these changes asks whether leadership is culturally bound? As indicated by the wealth of literature that is available on the subject, it can be stated that the phenomenon of leadership in indeed bounded by culture. Not only is this observation evidenced in prior research but it can also be noted by an assessment of real world examples. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to advocate the presence of cultural implications with regards to the phenomenon of leadership, in doing so the research employs the findings of prior researches and cases from the world of organizational management. Furthe rmore, the research paper also explores counterarguments in relation to the topic under consideration in order to present a thorough, comprehensive and well-informed argument. According to House et al. (2002) the objectives behind the initiation of the GLOBE (Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness) program comprised of several aspects that are related to leadership and its cultural implications. The outcome of the program suggested that national culture can be examined on the basis of nine dimensions which essentially describe the characteristics of a country and its people. After conducting extensive large-scale surveys over a range of industries, the second stage of the GLOBE research program revealed that it is possible to compare and contrast the dimensions of culture with the attributes of leadership that can be deemed appropriate in the context of a particular culture. For example, in his analysis of the GLOBE framework Robbins (2001) notes that there exis ts a stark difference between the leadership preferences and expectations of individuals which is largely in accordance with and attributable to their culture. Robbins (2001) asserts that a humane approach and collectivism are defining features of Indian culture which are greatly respected and appreciated amongst the masses despite of the recent emergence of urbanites that prefer individualism. Therefore, an Indian employee’s notion of an effective leader is best reflected in heroic and charismatic leadership which also shows concern for the well-being of subordinates while, taking initiatives for employee development. On the other hand, employees belonging to France tend to associate the notion of leadership with that of a bureaucratic setup due to which their perception of a leader is of an individual who does not abide by a humane approach when managing the affairs of the organization’s employees and leading them towards the achievement of organizational objectives (Robbins 2001). The practical application of this understanding is that within the context of Indian culture, a leader would be able to achieve desired and ideal results by the adoption of consideration as

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

To analyze the production of M. Butterfly and how it represents Asia Essay

To analyze the production of M. Butterfly and how it represents Asia through the story, scenic design, costume design, movement, sound, and lights - Essay Example M Butterfly play is one of the most popular plays and which was a highly applauded Asian American plays during the late 20th century. The importance of this play and the new visibility of Asian American theater reveal the growing attention given to cultural, political and intellectual issues. The intellectual issue includes ethnicity, gender, race, and sexualities (David pg. 12). The main strategies of understanding the play depend on the background of political histories between North America, China and Europe as well as on the cultural political of Orientalism. Critical reading of M butterfly varies from debates over the re3prewsentation of sexualities and ethnicity, theories of performance, politics of Orientalism, and the notion of the masquerade. This paper intends to look at how M. Butterfly represents Asia through several things. The image of a woman of Asia as both dangerous and sensual is important. The clash in this combination of need for fear of Oriental women gives some light on the manner in which inter-racial relationship get viewed in America (David pg 24). The plot of an Inter-racial romance that is seen in this play about a European American mans fateful love affair with a lady from another culture and race, almost ended in the nonwhite tragic pregnancy of a woman or her final sacrifice. It depicts the best of the two worlds like Gina Machetti states while apparently confirming a complete separation of the races; it also gives way for the possibility of assimilation through adopting mixed-raced child. This kind of unfortunate love between white men and Asian women becomes an efficient cultural means of accepting the interracial relationships; it is a method that emphasizes the splendor of love as an ideology and, concurrently, introduces the transitory and the tragic nature of inter-racial love. T he symbol of Butterfly serves well the cultural trends of her time: she reflects the persistent fantasy on the submissive,

Monday, August 26, 2019

Management in context Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Management in context - Essay Example The simulation game required framing the marketing, financial as well as human resource strategies for the organization or the new venture. The simulation game involved actual applicability of the business strategies that also involved financial implication for each of the decisions. The simulation game also involved running promotional activities including cost and benefit analysis. The game also showed financial results for each of the strategies that also included profit and loss figures indicating the implications of the strategies on the financial health of the company. The business selected was that of a billboard advertising agency. Part A Overview of Decisions & Outcomes of the Business Simulation The initial decisions in the simulation game involved a market research which formed the basis for forecasting demand and sales targets. The next stage involved initial book keeping activities as well as adoption of the marketing mix that included design of the product and other spe cifications. This phase also created the strategy with regards to the suppliers. Considering the initial phase and the overall costs of the activities the company suffered a net loss of 696 pounds in Feb 2011. In the nest month marketing and sales activities which included the design of a web page. These activities also led to a loss of 3097 pounds. Realising the importance of the market conditions the next step involved a detailed market analysis as well as training and development activities. Losses amounted to 1793 pounds in this month. The next stage was crucial as it involved setting up a limited liability firm to ensure further expansion. Nine out of the total orders were contracted as manpower seemed to be less as compared to the total task. The next significant step involved an overdraft facility as well as increasing the price of the product. This led to a net profit of 2502 pounds which represented an increased from 2106 pounds profit of the previous month. The nest stage involves increasing discounts on products, salary hike, price hike which resulted in an overall cumulative profit of 12569 pounds. The nest quarter focussed on business enhancement which mainly included participation in exhibitions, and increased focus on marketing especially the online channels. These activities again led to a loss of 3581 pounds which resulted in salary cuts and database management. The next significant phase included an overhaul of the distribution strategy as well as giving advertisements on television. The firm also entered into a strategic tie up with RAD. This coupled with contracting of orders and increasing the upscale selling activities led to a jump in the overall cumulative profit margins to 51799 pounds. The company’s strategies of dealing with the suppliers as well as promotional activities helped in generating good orders for the firm. This was significant as it was largely realised that long term sustainability required generation of large sca le profits for the organization. Part B Summary of Personal Capabilities to be successful in SimVenture SimVenture is a popular online business simulation game that helps an individual to test his/her entrepreneurial and decision making skills in real life situations. The game basically creates a situation in

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Patterns of international trade Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Patterns of international trade - Essay Example China, which experienced rapid development over the last fifty years which catapulted it into the position of the second most powerful economy, continues to cultivate a strong relationship with Latin American countries in the 21st century. Globalisation avails numerous challenges as well as opportunities for countries that wish to develop greater trading experiences even if they are located in different parts of the world. Globalisation has also brought about the phenomenon of economic interdependence which encourages nations from all over the world to seek for trading ties with each other. While seeking to further develop their cooperative relationship, both Latin American countries and China are faced with different challenges and have to find strategic ways of overcoming these issues in order to mutually benefit from their trading relationships. Even though the Latin American region is culturally as well as geographically disparate from China, their governments have been successful in establishing trading relationships with each other since the days of yore. The first recorded exchange between Latin America and China is said to have taken place in the mid-16th century. This exchange resulted in the creation of a trade route, identified as ‘the Sea Silk Road’, which ran across the Pacific Ocean. This route would pass through the Philippines (Rosales and Kuwayama 2012). This route was used by the Chinese merchants to ferry commodities like textiles, embroidery, and flatware to Latin America, which was then identified as being part of the New World. The Chinese would then be rewarded with goods such as maize, silvers, and tobacco by nations like Peru and Mexico. These were loaded in carracks which were then given to the Chinese. In 1840, at the end of the Opium War, there were numerous Chinese labourers who were r elocated to Latin America for work purposes. These labourers would contribute significantly to the region’s cultural as

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Long-Term Care Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Long-Term Care - Essay Example In this particular scenario, as the demand for services by the population increases, and when the reimbursement is available, the providers for services will also increase. For a long time, Medicare and Medicaid were the most significant buyers of long-term care services. However, with the introduction of Managed Care Organizations (MCO), the pressure and the competition has increased. MCOs have the option to choose which providers they will do business with since many of them do not cover long-term care. This directly increases the amount of providers looking to provide the services, resulting in opening up the opportunity for competition between the providers (Pratt, 2010, p. 215). Our system allows competition due to a firm belief that the customer will benefit from competition as better quality will be offered in order to gain more customers. Since the customers are also better informed due to higher education and ability to compare services, their expectations are higher and the y give their ‘businesses’ to only those health care organizations that meet their needs. The health care facilities are also susceptible to pressure from payers and regulatory agencies to provide quality and cost-effective services. The providers that follow the requirements will be given incentives on top of their reimbursements. These institutions are the most favorable to increase their customer base, to have a solid financial relationship with managed care organizations (MCO), and with the Federal and State agencies. 2. Explain, using examples, the differences between licensure and accreditation. The health care industry is highly regulated. It is natural for them to be so as they deal with life and death situations. It is not like other industries where mistakes can be rectified or losses can be repaid. With the health care industry, the mistakes cost lives and hence, they must be prevented at any cost. For that purpose we have two types of external controls. One d eals with governmental regulations, licensing of facilities and individuals (public), and the other deals with voluntary accreditation and certifications (private) (Study Notes, p. 6). One of the most important differences between public and private agencies is that â€Å"public agencies have a dual purpose—to control both quality and costs—while the private organizations have a single purpose—to measure, evaluate, and ensure the quality of care† (Pratt, 2010, p. 258). Another difference is that the â€Å"government programs seek to ensure a minimum level of quality or competency, while the private organization set standards that measure and ensure more of an optimum level† (Pratt, 2010, p.p. 258-259). Licensure is provided by the State and it is basically a â€Å"permission to a qualified individual or entity to perform certain specified activities that would be illegal without a license† (Pozgar, 2006, p.273). For example, in the health ca re industry we find practitioners like Registered Nurses (RN), Licensed Practical Nurses (LPN), Physicians (MD), Registered Dietician (RD), Licensed Physical Therapist (PT), and many others who, in order to practice their profession, need a license from the State. The exam for

Friday, August 23, 2019

The World Into Which Christianity Came Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The World Into Which Christianity Came - Essay Example 20, 2007) and about 6 million are considered practicing or doing the mandates of the religion, including attendance to regular mass, doing the sacraments, and participating in missionary works. Although they trace to the same founder, Christians are classified into different congregations each having their own sets of ideals, fundamental beliefs, and practices, which are either solely based on the Scriptures or with tradition. The largest Christian group is the Roman Catholics. Other groups include: The Amish, Baptist churches, Church of England, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Church of Scotland, Eastern Orthodox Church, Jehovah's Witnesses, Methodist Church, Pentecostalism, Catholic Church, Seventh-day Adventists among others that existed throughout the world. The popularity of the Christian movement and its rapid acceptance in the early centuries of its development is a manifestation of the need of the peoples during those times. The society in which this interest group had started must have something that served as a driving force to accept the teachings of Christianity. Understanding the need of these generations would provide a good picture and vivid perceptive why such ideals evolved into a widely received trend and values. The Society Upon Which Christianity Christianity emerged in the 1st century and was congregated by Jews and their non-Jewish converts who accepted the beliefs of Jewish Christians. Initially though, the teachings inherent in the Christian societies are meant for the Jewish people, but the message became universal, which means Jewish and non-Jewish alike benefit from the teachings and are accepted into the society. There were several precursors to the growth and strengthening of the Christian movement. Among which is the growing need for independence of the Jewish people, and the collapse of Judaism in the Roman society. A society of the oppressed Why do we consider the Jews hunger for independent life Basically Christianity traced its roots from Judaism with its founder, Jesus Christ belonging to a sect of the Judaism religion. Before Christianity appeared as a religion, all Jews could either be classified as Pharisees, Sadducees, or Essenes (C. George Boeree's "A Brief History of Judaism"). The entry point of Christianity was based on the conditions of the Jewish people under the rule of the Roman Empire. The Jews, claiming to be God's people had been in bondage for a long time and was very desperate for freedom. About a hundred years before Jesus was born, the Romans granted them control over their kingdom but internal divisions weakened the Jewish kingdom that prompted the Romans to take control over once again in 63 BCE (BBC Team's "History of Judaism"). Oppression were felt by the lowly Jewish not only from the Romans but also from other Jewish who ruled them under Roman controls. The priests or Sadducees were allied to the rulers and lost favor with the people, who turned increasingly to the Pharisees or Scribes, from whose group Rabbis or teachers arose. Jesus was considered one among those messianic teachers who emerged from the oppressed Jewish society. Under the circumstances of the Jewish race, the people

Consumer Personality Theories Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Consumer Personality Theories - Essay Example Horney classified individuals, on the context of child-parent relationship, as either:- Compliant Personality - one who desires to be loved, wanted, and appreciated by others. Aggressive Personality - one who moves against or competes with others, desires to excel and win admiration. Detached Personality - one who seeks emotional & behavioural freedom from others, desires independence, self-sufficiency and freedom from obligations. Cohen's Extension Study - In further extending Horney's classification, Cohen posited the relationship between the 3 orientations and consumer behavior. In the study, Cohen implemented a CAD scale (a Likert-type instrument of thirty-five items) measuring 15 items based on product usage, brand usage, and media preferences (Berkman and Gilson). Cohen's Hypothesis - Cohen propounded that consumers can be classified into:- Compliant - likely inclined to respond favorably to products enhancing social relations Aggressive - inclined towards products associated with status and successful images Detached - inclined towards products appealing to their independent nature 2.C. Trait Theory Trait theory proposes the use of traits - Allport defines traits as the attributes that make a person functional and identify the given person (Berkman and Gilson) - as the factors that construct personality and by which behavior is influenced. Berkman and Gilson indicated that there is no consensus as to a set of traits applicable to all individuals. The three assumptions of this theory: a. Assumes that individuals possess relatively stable behavioral tendencies b. People differ in... Social-psychological theorists assert that social factors ought to be considered the key determinants of personality (Engel and Blackwell). Karen Horney, a proponent of the social-psychological theory, further developed the theory through her taxonomy of personality orientation. Horney classified individuals, on the context of child-parent relationship, as either:- Cohen's Extension Study - In further extending Horney's classification, Cohen posited the relationship between the 3 orientations and consumer behavior. In the study, Cohen implemented a CAD scale (a Likert-type instrument of thirty-five items) measuring 15 items based on product usage, brand usage, and media preferences (Berkman and Gilson). Trait theory proposes the use of traits - Allport defines traits as the attributes that make a person functional and identify the given person (Berkman and Gilson) - as the factors that construct personality and by which behavior is influenced. Berkman and Gilson indicated that there is no consensus as to a set of traits applicable to all individuals. The three assumptions of this theory: With the adoption of the Big Five factor model of personality in recent years, congruity in regards to a set of common t

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Is Time Real Essay Example for Free

Is Time Real Essay Is Time Real The aspects of time that we can understand are only based on what we can perceive, observe, and calculate. Every day we look at our watches or clocks. We plan our day around different times of the day. Time tells us when to eat, when to sleep, and how long to do things for. Is time real? To answer this question, let me explain what time is first. Time is defined as a measured or measurable period, a continuum that lacks spatial dimensions. This broad definition lacks the simple explanation that humans are searching for. There are many scientists, philosophers, and thinkers who have tried to put time into understanding terms. In the following paragraph, I will discuss the meaning of time perceived and theorized by two of the greatest minds of human kind ? Einstein and Kant. Albert Einsteins theory of relativity (study guide, 53) came up with the idea that both space and time were relative to the observer, or the state of motion of the observer (Broadcast). If there are two chairs, and you see someone sitting in one, when you turn away, you can not be sure that he or she is still there. You also can not be sure that they are not in two chairs at the same time, or what point in time they are in them. This all leads up to Einsteins theory that time is relative. What Einsteins theory seemed to tell us was that time is not absolute and universal. It can be changed by motion. Each observer carries around his own personal scale of time and it does not absolutely agree with anybody elses. However, some philosophers have argued that all time is unreal. Kant, for example, claimed that time both the subjective time we experience as flowing, and objective time as the fixed series of all events ? is a construct of the human mind (Manuel Velasquez, 244). For Kant space and time are not real things, but are modes of experience. Kants solution was to say that there is something in our mind, that makes everything that we experience to our sense be located in time so that the physical world is simply bound to be temporal because of the way our minds works (Broadcast). From my point of view, time is definitely real, only our experience of time is subjective. For example, we see a train with blue color followed by yellow color followed by blue and so on. We will at first be able to distinguish the blue from the yellow as the train starts moving. After a while, the train moves very fast that the sequence appears to be simultaneous to our eyes and mind and we see green. We can see time is real because blue follows yellow, but our perception of time is subjective because we dont see a sequence of blue following yellow, but something else entirely. In conclusion, time is not easily explained or understood by anyone. Einstein and Kant have expanded their minds by coming up with possible theories for the unknown. We can theorize, and calculate our own, but I think it will always be an unknown. The mysteries of the universe will in my opinion be just that, a mystery. Resources: Manuel Velasquez. Introduction: What is philosophy Philosophy: A text with Readings. New York: Wadsworth, 2005. 244.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Effects of Excessive Petroleum Use

Effects of Excessive Petroleum Use Researches shown that in 2014, the world’s oil consumptions would reach 90, 78 million barrels per day. This indicates the importance of the oil in every country, both developing and developed countries. But in the same research, the supply of oil in one day in the world’s only estimated about 89, 74 million barrels per day, which means the supply will soon can’t afford the usage of oil in the world. This lack of supply can easily cause the exhaustion of petroleum and then it may lead to the power crisis. Petroleum supply exhaustion is one of the biggest problems in every country in the world, governments and scientists are trying to find ways to solve this issue. Amongst some effort that have been done to solve the supply exhaustion problem, this essay will argue about the degradation of the oil’s quality in some area and improve the quality is one of the best way to put an end to the hardness. Litten by oil was shown to have been used in the ancient Chinese. In the 8th century, the oil production had appeared in Iraq where people use pitches, a waste of petroleum to cover the streets. The first oil drilling was said to be around Baku, Azerbaijan. But it was not until the beginning of the 19th century that oil exploitation was strongly developed. At that time, the main fuel was the spermaceti but it was too expensive, none can afford it except the rich people. Although the price was very high but it had a very bad smell so that people want to find a replacement. In the middle of the 19th century, scientists found many ways to exploit the crude oil efficiently. The first modern drilling was in 1859 in Pennsylvania and it put a start to our current petroleum industry. As the crude oil is becoming one of the most important thing for our lives, it is being overexploited that lead to the supply exhaustion, one of the biggest and the most significant problem in petroleum industry. Over two centuries, trillion of oil barrels have been exploited, this number is not decrease but it increase significantly in the last two centuries and it’s becoming more and more. In some researches, scientists have pointed out that people used 30 billion barrels of oil per year; this horrible number shows that people are using too much oil but the supply and the reserves do not enough for us to use. According to the chart posted by Michael Morrison, the world supply and demand change repidly from 2008 to the first quarter of 2012, in 2008 and 2009, the demand and supply are very similar, but from the first quarter of 2010 to the first quarter of 2012, the demand always higher than the supply, even in some times, the differences reach 3 million barrels per day. With those evidences, the exhaustion of petroleum is becoming more and more serious. It is said that the lack of petroleum supplement is becoming more and more severe, and the causes of this problem is observable. Supply exhaustion come from both subjective and objective reasons. One of the reason why the petroleum supplies deficiency than the need is the usage of everybody in the world. As we have known, oil is used in most aspect of our life. People use petroleum or at least its waste to process it into products such as all leather foot, aspirin, waxen, chewing gums, and the most important apply of oil is fuel and gas; two of the most important power resources in the world. Since oil has become so important and the products which made of oil are becoming more useful, its high usage is understandable. We all know that it is easier to use than make, so that the supply always have to follow the need. The next main reason is about the use of the low quality crude oil. Low quality oil contains a great amount of sulfur, a toxic. According to Greg Karras, low quality oil can increase the greenhouse gas emission by as much as 17 %-40 %( Environ. Sci. Technol, 2010, 44). Some statistics have shown that Middle East is the region which has the most oil reserves in the world, but in some others statistics; the Middle East’s oil has the worst quality (G. Houlton, 2010). Most of the imported oil in the world comes from Middle East, which means we are using the low quality oil; this can cause significantly bad effects to our health and our environment. This can cause severe damage to the supplement of oil. Petroleum industry is not the only one that suffers from this, industries, people, social and even some governments also have trouble with this hardness. The aspect which will be affected the most serious is the economics. The most adverse effect is price of petroleum will have to be increased. If the price of petroleum is increased, since some industries have to use the products of petroleum as its materials, those industries will be in difficulty and with the higher and higher prices of crude oil, the producer’s prices raised significantly. It is followed by every other product must increase their price which lead to the restructuring of the economics and damage directly to the life of the social groups, products excess and even economics crisis ( Kiseok Lee, Shawn Ni, 2002). Plus, the countries those who focus on export petroleum such as Russia, Arabia, UAE, etc†¦ will be suffered from the raise of the price of petroleum for some countries can’t afford it. Furthermore, some countries have the intensifying unemployment rates and the taxes collected from citizens are lower because of the low employment and with the raise of the petroleum, those countries now have to face a very pernicious problem. To sum up, the lack of supply of petroleum has many causes. Although the impact of this problem at the present is not so serious and some solutions have been given out. However, people have to overcome this soon to prevent the problem from being severely. In the case of the lack of supply, people have to take action to control this problem, not only during the event but also after it. These are the most fundamental solutions. First, the government should control the usage of petroleum in each country. There are four main ways I want to suggest to reduce the usage of petroleum. Petroleum is known to have been the most used fuel in the world and most of the products of petroleum are used to make fuel. In the event of the number of the vehicles are rising, the world need more and more fuel to run those vehicles, which lead to the explosion of the oil demand. In order to solve this, the scientists have found some replacements for the petroleum such as biofuel, power source from sticks; carrots; †¦ (R.J.Kopp, 2006). Apply those replacements in the real life will surely ease the pressure on the petroleum supplement. The next way to reduce the usage of petroleum in life is the change in people’s using habits. People have used some organic, green products instead of products made from oil. Avoid using personal vehicles to travel from place to place and replace it by cycle or public transport, using packaged without plastic products; recycle and re-use bottles, etc†¦ (J. Lucie, 2010). Plus, some industries which use petroleum as its raw materials should decrease the usage of petroleum and manipulate some others resources as the main raw materials (NASEO). It will followed by the lowered of the demand. In addition, to reduce the use of petroleum in the world, scientists should find alternatives to petroleum products. There are many sources that can replace the petroleum and petroleum-based products like electric, natural gas, hybrid gas, bio-diesel; a little known replacement to diesel fuel which is made out of used vegetable oil and can be burned in diesel cars and in home oil burners (Baltimore Monthly Meeting of Friends, Story Run, 5116 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21210). I would add that photovoltaic, passive solar, wind turbines and some others renewable fuels can be used to replace fuel. These are some alternatives for petroleum fuel which people can use it to reduce the usage of petroleum. However, most of those alternatives are little-known ones, only a little people know about it, then how can they use it There should be some propaganda campaigns that help the people know about the situation of the petroleum supplement then show them the advantages of using the alternati ves for oil, this could help people reduce using petroleum as their most important power source. Last but not least, a very effective way to reduce the use of petroleum in people and teen is some programs that the government should set up such as â€Å"weekend without oil†. This is a program which was set up by dosomething.org, an organization help young people to tackle against some impact from their own behaviors and habits. These programs should aim to helps people to recognize the ways that their daily routines help increase the oil consumption and provide the people how to avoid it (C. Tackett, 2010). This is not only help to reduce the use of oil but also make the people to be more active with some outdoor activities such as walk or ride a bike,†¦ Although all these solutions are very effective, but it’s also have some disadvantages. There’s one most optimal solution that I have given, and it is:† people should use alternatives fuel†. This is the most effective way to restrict the usage of petroleum; it’s also the best way to improve the quality of our environment which is being severely damage by the over-using of petroleum. In this solution, people can reduce their petroleum usage by using others kind of power source such as solar energy, power of the wind, biofuel, biodiesel†¦ and especially fuel for driving vehicles. As most of the amount of petroleum is used as the fuel to run the vehicles, changing the fuel of the vehicles is the best ways to reduce the petroleum usage, which biodiesel and solar energy can be the best one. Using these alternative can help reduce the reliance on petroleum of most of the country in the world. Plus, some alternatives are renewable resources while petroleum is non-renewable resources, which mean we can use as much as we can without worry about the exhaustion of those resources. Furthermore, those alternatives’s bad effects are extremely small while petroleum can cause huge damage for our environment, every year; using and exploiting petroleum emit 381.740.601lbs of toxic air pollution, 3.3 trillion lbs of CO2 (J.Sandry,2013). Using alternatives for petroleum is very useful and it’s also the easiest way to reduce our reliance on petroleum so that we can solve the petroleum-exhaustion problem, and even the environment problems. Biofuels is an example, these are result from the photosynthesis of plants which convert solar energy into chemical energy, its green and renewable though their slightly less energy than oil and gasoline but much cleaner (ecoreps). Some researches shown that using solar energy instead of petroleum in 25 years can help reduce 199.679lbs of CO2, 2316 trees can be planted with the surplus and help the drivers saving 208.166 miles driven (RGS energy,2014). This way is not being limited in any country but for every country in the world, everyone can use these replacements, it’s even cheaper than the cost of the petroleum, then why shouldn’t people use these alternatives, for both themselves and the world. However, the only downfall of this solution is that it can’t be spread through some dev eloping countries, people should find some way to widespread these alternatives to developing countries to help them. In order to reduce petroleum usage and saving our environment, replace petroleum in most of aspect in our lives is the best way to achieve our goal. In conclusion, supply exhaustion in petroleum is a significant problem in every phase of petroleum industry, but this is a most severe time when the surplus between supply and demand is at the highest ever. Industries, power, products, etc†¦ now have to rely too much on petroleum and its waste which is the most fundamental reason for this problem. This reliance does not damage the petroleum industry with the depletion of supply but also damage the economics with the raise of the cost of petroleum. However, the most significant effect is the damage our environment with the use and the waste of petroleum. In that consequence, people have to reduce their use of petroleum to save them from the reliance on petroleum. The best way to reduce the use is using alternatives, solar energy; wind energy; biofuels†¦ are very effective alternatives that people should consider to use them instead of using too much petroleum. This is not only to save the petroleum industry but also our envi ronment. Everyone should join hand to solve this problem.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Google And Yahoo Search Engine

Google And Yahoo Search Engine Web search engines are keys to the immense treasure of information. Dependency on the search engines is increasing drastically for both personal and professional use. It has become essential for the users to understand the differences between the search engines in order to attain a higher satisfaction. There is a great assortment of search engines which offer various options to the web user. Thus, it is significant to evaluate and compare search engines in the quest of a single search engine that would satisfy all the needs of the user. The main problem is facing by people, which search engine is very useful for finding reliable, relevant and fresh results. There are plenty of search engine are available for searching but, this dissertation will cover which technology are running behind Google and Yahoo!! search engine. Google and Yahoo! have their own algorithm for indexing the website. Introduction of Search Engine: In simple words a Search engine is software that searches through a database of web pages or web resources for a piece of information, keywords, concepts etcà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ There are many types of Different Search Engine available in Market. for example msn, Google, Yahoo!, ask etcà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ C:UsersJIMIT DOSHIDesktopnew dwnlddifferent-types-of-search-engines_4823.gif.jpg Figure: 1 Different Search Engine To define the concepts more descriptively we can say that Search engine is a computer program that searches for documents containing words or phrases of interest to users .The search engine itself is a virtually powerful workstation-class machine that searches a database of information collected from the Internet. Primarily software program called robots or spiders that crawl through all the files on the Internet and download them into a searchable database .These works as indexes to the literature available on the network. In the context of the Internet, Search engines usually refer to the World Wide Web and not other protocols or areas. Search engine is helpful for identifying sources, establishing notability, checking facts, and discussing what names to use for different things. There are a number of search engines available on the web. Most of the Search engines provide website reviews and homepage services in addition to keyword searches. But, in this present study two most popular search engines have been studied in terms of its available web resources with reference to Physics-India in Google and Yahoo!. Introduction of Google Google is one type of web search engine. When user wants to find something around the world using internet at that time Google comes into the picture. Google Search is the most-used search engine on the World Wide Web. So Google provide the entire information base on keyword which is put by the user in to search box of Google search engine. When user entry any keyword for search Google display all the related result of the keyword. Introduction of Yahoo! Yahoo! is one of the best known and most popular Internet portals. Originally a subject directory of sites, it now is a search engine, directory, and portal. To go to the Yahoo!! portal and main starting point, use www.Yahoo!.com. For direct access to the search engine, usesearch.yahoo.com and for the directory use www.dir.yahoo.com. This review primarily coves the search engine features. Use the table of contents on the left to navigate this review. Literature review and proposed overview: Search engine technology has had to scale dramatically to keep up with the growth of the web. In 1994, one of the first web search engines, the World Wide Web Worm (WWWW) [McBryan 94] had an index of 110,000 web pages and web accessible documents. As of November, 1997, the top search engines claim to index from 2 million (WebCrawler) to 100 million web documents (from Search Engine Watch). It is foreseeable that by the year 2000, a comprehensive index of the Web will contain over a billion documents. At the same time, the number of queries search engines handle has grown incredibly too. [1] In March and April 1994, the World Wide Web Worm received an average of about 1500 queries per day. In November 1997, AltaVista claimed it handled roughly 20 million queries per day. With the increasing number of users on the web, and automated systems which query search engines, it is likely that top search engines will handle hundreds of millions of queries per day by the year 2000. The goal of our system is to address many of the problems, both in quality and scalability, introduced by scaling search engine technology to such extraordinary numbers.[2] With the explosive growth of World-Wide-Web (WWW), publishing document on Internet has become more popular.But how to locate what we need in the ocean of information is an increasingly important and urgent problem. To simplify the problem of getting relevant results based on the search query, the Internet search engines were created that allowed searching a lot of information from the World-Wide-Web in the form of Web pages [3]. Search engines are among the most successful application on the Web today. They act as a system for searching the information available on the Web by automatically searching the contents of other systems and creating a database of the results [4]. The most famous search engines include AltaVista, Infoseek, Google, and MSN. They provide good searching ability by indexing more pages on the Web and maintaining the updated indices in their databases. Despite so many search engines are available to help user in finding the information of their interest, searching on the Web is not an easy task. The problem is due to the vast amount of data on the Web and its rapid updating and growth[5]. History of Search Engine The first Web search engine was Wandex, developed by the World Wide Web Wanderer in 1993. Another very early search engine, Aliweb, also appeared in 1993 and still runs today. One of the first engines to later become a major commercial endeavor was Lycos, which started at Carnegie Mellon University as a research project in 1994. Soon after, many search engines appeared and vied for popularity. These included WebCrawler, Hotbot, Excite, Info seek, Inktomi, and AltaVista. In some ways they competed with popular directories such as Yahoo!!. Later, the directories integrated or added on search engine technology for greater functionality. In 2002, Yahoo!! Acquired Inktomi and in 2003, Yahoo!! Acquired Overture, which owned AlltheWeb and AltaVista. In 2004, Yahoo!! Launched its own search engine based on the combined technologies of its acquisitions and providing a service that gave pre-eminence to the Web search engine over the directory. Before the advent of the Web, there were search engines for other protocols or uses, such as the Archie search engine for anonymous FTP sites and the Veronica search engine for the Gopher protocol. Recent additions to the list of search engines include a9.com, AlltheWeb, Ask Jeeves, Clusty, Gigablast, Ez2Find, Teoma, WiseNut, GoHook, Walhello, Kartoo, Snap and Mamma . Market Cover of different Search Engine :C:UsersJIMIT DOSHIDesktopnew dwnlduse of search engine chart.gif Figure: 2 search engine market As per above figure: 2 Google and Yahoo! cover most of the market of the world. Both have more popularity then other search engine. Google beat the Yahoo! at some level History of Google Search Engine: Google was co-founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were doing their Ph. D. at Stanford University in 1998 and was officially launched in the fall of 1999. This is a straightforward engine that does not support advanced search syntax making it very easy to use and retrieves pages ranked on the basis of number of sites linking to them and how often they are visited, indicating their popularity (ibid). It claims that 97% of the users find what they are looking for. C:UsersJIMIT DOSHIDesktopnew dwnldgoogle snapshot.png Figure:3 Google home page overview Its success was based in part on the concept of link popularity and PageRank. How many other web sites and web pages link to a given page is taken into consideration with PageRank, on the premise that good or desirable pages are linked to more than others. The PageRank of linking pages and the number of links on these pages contribute to the PageRank of the linked page. This makes it possible for Google to order its results by how many web sites link to each found page. Googles minimalist user interface was very popular with users, and has since spawned a number of imitators. Google has been estimated to run over one million servers in data centers around the world, and process over one billion search requests and about twenty-four petabytes of user-generated data every day Instead of ranking pages, this technology uses an algorithm that follows links on a webpage to find other pages that link back to the first one and so on from page to page. Features: Google includes the following most important features: Cached page archives. Result clustered by indention. Result displayed option, from 10-100. Google Search Supports: Implied Boolean (+)sign, (-) sign. Double quotes () for phrases. Stop words. Other Search Options Available with Google: I m Feeling Lucky (goes directly to top ranked site in query) Google scout (bring up list of related sites) Uncle Sam (Searches govt. and Milsites) Search within results option Field searching with link only. History of Yahoo! Search Engine: Yahoo! was co-founded by Stanford University Graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo in January of 1994.Yahoo! is a subject Directory and also a commercial portal compiled by human. It is oldest as well as largest directory on the web. C:UsersJIMIT DOSHIDesktopnew dwnldsnapshot of yahoo.gif Figure: 4 Yahoo! search engine Yahoo! allows the user to put a search query, its strength lies in the categories and each that can lead a user step-by-step to the desired subject category. Structure: Yahoo! is hierarchically organized with subject catalogue or directory of the web which is browseable and searchable. Links to various services are accomplished in two ways such as by users submissions and through robots that retrieve new links from known pages. Yahoo! indexes web pages, UseNet and e-mail address. Features: Topic and region specific Yahoo! Automatic truncation. No case sensitivity. The syntax that Yahoo! follows for searching is fairly standard among all search engines. Search Option: Users can browse Yahoo!! Simply by clicking on the various categories listed on each page, or can search Yahoo!! By entering a word into the search box that appears on every page in the directory. Again one can combine the two strategies and can browse and then search or search and then browse. Other Search Options: Yahoo!! News User may combine any of the query syntax as long as the syntax is combined in the proper order, which is +, -, t: , and *. If Yahoo! does not find any matching entries, pertaining to a query, in its main database, the query will automatically be transferred to the Inktomi database, a search engine that automatically crawls the text of the entire web. Inktomi database contains results for literally millions of individual web pages. Yahoo! thus looks for information in: Yahoo!! Categories. Websites listed in Yahoo!. WebPages indexed by Inktomi. Working of Google Search Engine: google_search_strategy1_thumb.png Figure: 5 how work Google search engine Google Search (or Google Web Search) is a web search engine owned by Google Inc. Google Search is the most-used search engine on the World Wide Web, receiving several hundred million queries each day through its various services. The order of search results on Googles search-results pages is based, in part, on a priority rank called a PageRank. Google Search provides many options for customized search, using Boolean operators such as: exclusion (-xx), alternatives (xx OR yy), and wildcards (x * x). The main purpose of Google Search is to hunt for text in Web pages, as opposed to other data, such as with Google Image Search. Google Search provides at least 22 special features beyond the original word-search capability. These include synonyms, weather forecasts, time zones, stock quotes, maps, earthquake data, movie showtimes, airports, home listings, and sports scores. There are special features for dates, including range, prices, temperatures, money/unit conversions, calculation, package tracking, patents, area codes and language translation of displayed pages. Data about the frequency of use of search terms on Google (available through Google Adwords, Google Trends, and Google Insights for Search) have been shown to correlate with flu outbreaks and unemployment levels and provide the information faster than traditional reporting methods and government surveys. PageRank Googles rise to success was in large part due to a patented algorithm called PageRank that helps rank web pages that match a given search string. When Google was a Stanford research project, it was nicknamed BackRub because the technology checks backlinks to determine a sites importance. Previous keyword-based methods of ranking search results, used by many search engines that were once more popular than Google, would rank pages by how often the search terms occurred in the page, or how strongly associated the search terms were within each resulting page. The PageRank algorithm instead analyzes human-generated links assuming that web pages linked from many important pages are themselves likely to be important. The algorithm computes a recursive score for pages, based on the weighted sum of the PageRanks of the pages linking to them. PageRank is thought to correlate well with human concepts of importance. In addition to PageRank, Search Results: The exact percentage of the total of web pages that Google indexes is not known, as it is very difficult to accurately calculate. Google presents a two-line summary and also a preview of each search result, which includes a link to a cached (stored), usually older version of the page. Googles cache link in its search results provides a way of retrieving information from websites that have recently gone down and a way of retrieving data more quickly than by clicking the direct link. This feature is still available, but many users are not aware of this because it has been moved to the previews of the search results presented next to these. Non-index able data: Despite its immense index, there is also a considerable amount of data available in online databases which are accessible by means of queries but not by links. This so-called invisible or deep Web is minimally covered by Google and other search engines. The deep Web contains library catalogs, official legislative documents of governments, phone books, and other content which is dynamically prepared to respond to a query. Google Optimization: Since Google is the most popular search engine, many webmasters have become eager to influence their websites Google rankings. An industry of consultants has arisen to help websites increase their rankings on Google and on other search engines. This field, called search engine optimization, attempts to discern patterns in search engine listings, and then develop a methodology for improving rankings to draw more searchers to their clients sites. Search engine optimization encompasses both on page factors and Off Page Optimization factors (like anchor text and PageRank). The general idea is to affect Googles relevance algorithm by incorporating the keywords being targeted in various places on page, in particular the title element and the body copy (note: the higher up in the page, presumably the better its keyword prominence and thus the ranking). Too many occurrences of the keyword, however, cause the page to look suspect to Googles spam checking algorithms. Google has published guidelines for website owners who would like to raise their rankings when using legitimate optimization consultants. Functionality: Google search consists of a series of localized websites. The largest of those, the Google.com site, is the top most-visited website in the world. Some of its features include a definition link for most searches including dictionary words, the number of results you got on your search, links to other searches (e.g. for words that Google believes to be misspelled, it provides a link to the search results using its proposed spelling), and many more. Search Syntax: Googles search engine normally accepts queries as a simple text, and breaks up the users text into a sequence of search terms, which will usually be words that are to occur in the results, but one can also use Boolean operators, such as: quotations marks () for a phrase, a prefix such as + , - for qualified term or one of several advanced operators, such as site:. The WebPages of Google Search Basics describe each of these additional queries and options . Query expansion: Google applies query expansion to the submitted search query, transforming it into the query that will actually be used to retrieve results. As with page ranking, the exact details of the algorithm Google uses are deliberately obscure, but certainly the following transformations are among those that occur: Term reordering: in information retrieval this is a standard technique to reduce the work involved in retrieving results. Stemming is used to increase search quality by keeping small syntactic variants of search terms. There is a limited facility to fix possible misspellings in queries. Working of Yahoo! Search Engine: Yahoo!! Search is a web search engine, owned by Yahoo!! Inc. and was as of 2009, the 2nd largest search directory on the web. Yahoo!! Search, originally referred to as Yahoo!! provided Search interface, would send queries to a searchable index of pages supplemented with its directory of sites. Yahoo! does not use Web Crawling for retrieving the results. It uses Inktomi for getting results of keywords which are not found by the Yahoo! In 2009, Microsoft and Yahoo! announced a deal in which Bing would power Yahoo!! Search. Search Technology Acquisition: Seeking to provide its own search engine results, Yahoo!! acquired their own search technology. In 2002, they bought Inktomi, a behind the scenes or search engine provider, whose results are shown on other companies websites and powered Yahoo!! in its earlier days. They purchased Overture Services Inc., which owned the AlltheWeb and AltaVista search engines. Initially, even though Yahoo!! owned multiple search engines, they didnt use them on the main Yahoo!.com website, but kept using Googles search engine for its results. In 2003, Yahoo!! Search became its own web crawler-based search engine, with a reinvented crawler called Yahoo!! Slurp. Yahoo!! Search combined the capabilities of all the search engine companies they had acquired, with its existing research, and put them into a single search engine. The new search engine results were included in all of Yahoo!!s sites that had a web search function. Yahoo!! also started to sell the search engine results to other companies, to show on their own web sites. In 2007, Yahoo!! Search was updated with a more modern appearance in line with the redesigned Yahoo!! home page. In addition, Search Assisst was added; which provides real-time query suggestions and related concepts as they are typed. In 2008, Yahoo!! Search announced the introduction of a new service called Build Your Own Search Service, or BOSS. This service opens the doors for developers to use Yahoo!!s system for indexing information and images and create their own custom search engine. Study of Web Resources of Google Search Engine: Below Table gives a description of Web resources on Physics India retrieved through the Google Search out of 100 links. The following figure shows the Graphical representation of Web resources. Result: The analysis of the data available with the below table shows that most of the Web resources under the search term Physics India retrieves the pointer pages (links to websites on the same subject) and achieves 67% among all the other kinds of resources. Secondly, relates to the journal articles by 26% of retrieved output. And the lowest percentage of search results deals with research news, news clips, databases and conference papers .Above table shows the graphical representation of the retrieved output through Google. Table of Web resources v/s. frequency of their occurrence per search Figure: 6 number of Google search result Figure: 7 Google web resources versus frequency distribution for Google Study of Web Resources of Yahoo! Search Engine: Below Table shows the ratio of Web resources on Physics India retrieved through the Yahoo! Search. The Figure provides the graphical representation of the frequency of occurrence of various kinds of Web resources. Result: The analysis and interpretation of the data available in the table reflects that most of the retrieved results provides pointer pages with a percentage of 27% and second comes the web directories as 18% and it provides lowest percentage of retrieval rates of Journal articles. Table of Web resources v/s. frequency of their occurrence per search Figure: 8 number of search of Yahoo! Figure: 9 Yahoo! web resources vs frequency distribution. Study of Domains of Google Search Engine: Similar to the above classification of domains and the frequency of occurrence of the sources, the Table shows the major domains and the frequency of occurrence of the resources on those things. Figure: 10 Serial number of search of Google Result: The data from the above table reflects that most of the resources on the physics are available in commercial domains and secondly on organizational domains of India. And very lowest percentage indicates to the government sites. Figure provides the graphical representation of the frequency of occurrences Study of Domains of Yahoo! Search Engine: Similar to the above classification of domains and the frequency of occurrence of the sources, the Table 6.4 shows the major domains and the frequency of occurrence of the resources on those things. Figure: 11 serial number of search of Yahoo! Result: The data from the above table reflects that most of the resources on the physics are available in commercial domains and secondly on organizational domains of India. And very lowest percentage indicates to the government sites. Figure provides the graphical representation of the frequency of occurrences. Figure: 12 domain frequency of Yahoo! Study of File Formats of Google Search Engine: While carrying out the study we found that there are two main file formats on which almost all of the resources on Physics are available on the web retrieved through Google and Yahoo!. Thus Table indicates the file formats and the frequency of the resources on that and Figure shows the graphical representation of the frequency distribution. Figure: 13 file format and frequency distribution of Google Result: Above data indicates that maximum resources on physics retrieved through the Google are available in PDF (Portable Document Format). Study of File Formats of Yahoo! Search Engine: Table indicates the file formats and the frequency of the resources on that and Figure shows the graphical representation of the frequency distribution. Figure: 14 Yahoo! search serial number Figure: 15 Yahoo! search engine frequency Result: Here from the above data it is clear that most of the web resources on Physics India retrieved through Yahoo! search is on HTML format. Comparison of Google and Yahoo! Search Engine: Title g1.jpg yahoo-logo_2.gif Rating Rating: 3.9/5 (232 votes) Rating: 3.6/5 (200 votes) Mail Yes (unlimited storage) Yes (unlimited storage) Stock price $677.14 (17th Aug 12) $16.03.4 (17th Aug12) Search Yes Yes Slogan Don`t be evil Do you Yahoo!? Website www.Google.com www.search.Yahoo!.com Founded 1998 1995 About Google is an American public corporation, which is specialize in search engine, and today it is worlds no. 1 search engine. Yahoo! is an American public corporation and the internet service provider for news, emails, Yahoo! directory, search engine etc Founder Google was co-founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were doing their Ph D at Stanford University Yahoo!! was founded by Stanford University graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo in January of 1994 CEO Larry Page Marissa Mayer Industry Internet, Computer Software Internet, Computer Software Search Engine Ranking No. 1 in US (with market share of 58.5% in Oct07 as per comScore research) No. 2 in US (with market share of 23% in Oct07 as per comScore research) User generated video Yes (Google Video and YouTube) No Products Google AdWords, Google Search engine, Youtube video service, Google forum, Gmail, Orkut, Google earth, Google labs etc. Google maps, Picasa, Google books, Google Scholar, Google Docs Yahoo!! mail, Yahoo!! directory, Yahoo!! answers, Yahoo!! search, Yahoo!! messenger, Yahoo!! 360 °, Yahoo!! sports, Yahoo!! finance, Flickr, Yahoo!! Cricket, Yahoo!! News Site No Yes ( Hot Jobs) Headquarters Mountain view, California, USA 701 First Avenue, Sunnyvale, California, USA Table: 1 Google Yahoo! Comparison (A.) Similarities of Google and Yahoo! Search Engine Several similarities of Google and Yahoo! Search engines are found after visiting both websites and testing with a query. First of all, both search engines give great advantages for users; they provide optional tips or techniques to help users search efficiently. Some similar tips are found. The first technique is using specific and unique words to describe what we are looking for. If the keywords are more general or ambiguous words, the large number of irrelevant feedback documents will be retrieved. Another technique is using quotation marks around keywords so that the searchers can find the exact words and narrow the number of search results. There are several techniques to narrow the search results, including (1) limiting sites/domain as .com, .edu, or .gov, (2) specifying types of files to .htm/.html, .pdf, .doc, and .txt, (3) using operator (-) before the word that we do not need it appears in the search results, (4) using operator (+) before the word that we do need it in the search results, and (5) using Boolean operators like AND, OR, and NOT to specify searching terms. The other techniques are using additional options to get more relevant search results. For instance, users can specify updated files, countries, languages, and number of results per page. These techniques from both search engines are very helpful for users to retrieve more precise results. For example, giving the query like swine flu + unt , both search engines returned many web pages about swine flu with the word unt, which is the University of North Texas. This can reduce not only the time process the search engines, but also the time to fine the best precise search results. The second similarity of these search engines is that they provide many categories for the search results, such as web, images, videos, shopping, news, and sports. With selecting a specific category like images, a user can retrieve only images on the webs. Users can also define specific type of file like .pdf, .doc, and .jpg, which helps users to get more precise and reduce time process. Third, when typing the keywords, Yahoo! suggests the full key words as well as Google. This helps users to select the full query as fast as possible. Suggesting the full keyword is a smart task for both search engines because it is an Artificial Intelligent part, which tries to guess users what the next word of the query is. For example, when typing swine, both search engines suggested the word flu as the next word. Next, the search results of both engines are quite similar patterns, which show the title in the first line, the brief description of webpage in the next several lines, and the URL or webpage s address. This snippet for each web result is enough information that a user can quickly scan and move to find information from other web pages in the ranked results. Last but not least, after submitted a query, both search engines immediately returned the relevant results, along with the large total number of websites retrieved. This shows the ability and efficiency of both search engines. Obviously, with these advance tips for both search engines provided on their web interface, they become the most top-two popular use over the others in the world. These are the great search engines that people use to find enormous information on the Internet since they provide the ways to retrieve more relevant search results. (B.)Contrast between Google and Yahoo! Search Engine Interface, Design, and Layout : The most obvious difference between these two Web sites is about the Interface, Layout, and Design of the pages. Google offers a very Clean and simplistic interface, whereas Yahoo!!s is busy and cluttered. Simple design should always be used to avoid complexity and confusion to the user. When a user is not required excessive text and images, they will feel more at ease and comfortable while using your Web site. Ultimately, a simplified interface means that the Web site will be accessible to all types of people with different skill levels, thus increasing the potential for a significant user return. Another key aspect of Design and usability is defining or understanding the purpose of the Website. Due to the simplistic nature of the Google Web site, it is quickly apparent to the user that the

Monday, August 19, 2019

Essay --

Electronic game is a famous entertainment among human no matter in which ages, the transformation design of video games and computer games had gone through a lot of changes since the first ever invented. The difference between the video and computer games is not much but the physical appearance. Video game is built through devices with a console that require a television to be played with. Compare to computer game that required a computer to run the games and with features of online gaming which video game doesn’t support. Computer game allow players to interactive to each other when play online while video game only allow interaction between friends and family. Over the years, computer games become popular compare to video games because of the variety games supported by computer where video games only support by one system and only applicable on their own game creation. Video game is an electronic gaming that display on a video display or television screen or the latest devices such as PSP and Nintendo. In the early 40s, the world first video games called â€Å"Cathode-Ray Tube Amusement† had been invented by Thomas T. goldsmith Jr. and Estle R. Mann that made a starting point to video games. The evolution of video game had been transform from graphic paper till the 2D graphic and better 3D graphic such as Microsoft XBOX, Wii and Sony Play Station. On the other hand, computer game known as PC game had not much different than video game which computer game is design to be use on a computer but not a video display television screen with keyboard as the controller. The first computer game was invented on 1952 called â€Å"TicTacToe† by A.S. Douglas on an EDSAC vacuum-tube computer. Recently in the past few years, this gaming field had be... ...t game presence positive impact on students. They conduct the research with a computer based game call â€Å"Fire Captain† that allow student to comprehend the role as a fire fighter. The result had brought out a conclusion where students who played the game beneficially learned problem solving skills, increase critical thinking and better understanding as a role of fire fighter. In addition, educational gaming guide students to a better management skills and earlier age of leadership practice through the game. On the other hand, video and computer games powerfully changed the world trend where children nowadays cannot live without a technological devices or computers game. This issue had become concerned among parents and societies where games might consists potential harmful materials such as violence, aggressive and over fascinating towards games.

Sunday, August 18, 2019

NHS Balanced scorecard Essay -- British Health Care, Politics

This part of the assignment will discuss balanced scorecard that has been implemented by UK National Health Service (NHS), how it has influenced and impacted upon the performance measures of this organisation. ‘Since its launch in 1948, the NHS has grown to become the world’s largest publicly funded health service. NHS employs more than 1.7m people and deals on average with 1m patients every 36 hours. It is also one of the most efficient, most egalitarian and most comprehensive. Even though NHS services in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are managed separately and each might have some system differences, they remain similar in most respects and belong to a single, unified system. The NHS core principle is that good healthcare should be available to all, regardless of wealth.’ (NHS, 2010) Success of NHS depends on how well the organisation balance quality and customer (patient) satisfaction with adequate financing and long-range goals. Health care organisations such as NHS must deal with government oversight, managed care, new technologies, and increasing pharmaceutical prices. The NHS has adopted a performance measurement system that is based on the concept of balanced scorecard in order to obtain a broader view of performance within the organisation (Department of Health, 2001). Although, measuring performance evaluation of health care system could be difficult, it can on the other hand serve several purposes and can help facilitate change and improvements in the effectiveness and quality of health care. It seems peculiar to focus on performance measures in organisation such as NHS, but even NHS is facing increasing competitive pressures when considering ageing populations increasing demand, improved treatment... ...t in public/patient accountability, service efficiency and staff involvement to a highly prominent level. Government has developed ‘Star Ratings’ system which monitors improvements in accountability measures. The experience of the ‘Star Ratings’ system in respect of service efficiency indicates that it is prudent to act pro-actively rather than re-actively. It is vital to consider that the Government is expecting demonstrable improvements in health services rather than rhetoric alone (Radnor and Lovell, 2003). ‘Though it is intricate to demonstrably prove in quantitative terms that the balanced scorecard can deliver efficiency improvements at the start of its implementation, it can be shown in quantitative terms that a well designed fully cascaded balanced scorecard system should address the needs of a health care system. ’ (Radnor and Lovell, 2003, p. 105)

A good man is hard to find :: essays research papers

â€Å"I just know you’re a good man! You’re not at all common!†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Just some of the last pleading words of the grandmother in the story, â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find† by Flannery O’Connor. In the story, the author uses colloquialism, point-of-view, foreshadowing, and irony, as well as other rhetorical devices, to portray the satire of southern beliefs and religion throughout the entire piece.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Flannery O’Connor lived most of her life in the southern state of Georgia. When once asked what the most influential things in her life were, she responded â€Å"Being a Catholic and a Southerner and a writer.† (1) She uses her knowledge of southern religion and popular beliefs to her advantage throughout the story. Not only does she thoroughly depict the southern dialect, she uses it more convincingly than other authors have previously attempted such as Charles Dickens and Zora Neale Hurston. In other works, the authors frequently use colloquialism so â€Å"local† that a reader not familiar with those slang terms, as well as accents, may have difficulty understanding or grasping the meaning of the particular passage. O’Connor not only depicts a genuine southern accent, she allows the characters to maintain some aspect of intelligence, which allows the audience to focus on the meaning of the passage, rather than the overbearing burden o f interpreting a rather â€Å"foreign language.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another device not frequently used before O’Connor is the transition between third-person to first-person point-of-view, the first-person being through the grandmother. In the beginning of the story, she describes how the each of the characters feel towards taking a trip to Florida, as well as hint at the relationships they hold for one another. Then the narrator goes on to describe the grandmother’s personal thoughts and feelings throughout the trip, as well as how she thinks towards the end of the story. We first see the first-person point-of-view when the narrator tells how the grandmother did not want to leave the cat at home alone because he would miss her too much and she feared he would accidentally asphyxiate himself with the burners on the stove. The reason this particular part of the story is considered first-person narration is because it goes directly into the mind of the grandmother, telling why she brought the cat along with her. We als o see this first-person narration when Baily’s wife is consistently referred to as the children’s mother, rather than by her name or as Baily’s wife.

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Educational Change

Topic: Analyse a story about an educational reform happened in a secondary school and comment its effectiveness based on the organizational theories. ————————————————- 1. Introduction The Education Commission Report No. 7 released in September of 1997 suggested to build a quality culture in schools(EDB, 1997) . Since that, schools and education institutions of all levels experienced changes and reforms in various scale and kinds. Schools are no longer stable and predictable places.Schools and school systems had gradually turned into a mode of modern organization: departmentalized and bureaucratized in last century. However, in last two decades, the reform in education has been launched in all over the world. It is clearly because of the needs of new millennium – we are moving or even already in the postmodern age now. The postmodern age world is fast, compressed, com plex and uncertain(Hargreaves, 1994). Schools are places for preparing the generations of the future, therefore, changes are essential to all educational organizations.In this paper, the story about the culture reform happened in a one-through school will be told to provide a case-study of how an evolution occurred in an educational system. The dimensions, type and effectiveness of reform will be discussed. 2. Literature Review We know change is essential to postmodern education system. But change for change is not help and not what we want. An educational change, is assumed to help schools to achieve their goals more effectively, theoretically. It is important to bear in mind that change is a process, not an event(Fullan & Stiegelbauer, 1991)Literature provides the category for the change. Superficial changes , like changes in content, structure or policy, which induces improvement on something currently doing, are classified as first order change. Those changes occur on those fund amental, for example, goals and roles, are classified as second order change. (Cuban, 1988) â€Å"Educational change depends on what teachers do and think-it's as simple and complex as that†(Fullan, 1991, P. 117). While what the teachers do and think is a reflection of their basic assumption and belief or the change is just superficial.It is vital to understand the culture of the organization and how it affects the norms and behaviors. (Stoll & Fink, 1996). There are fundamental relationship between culture and effectiveness(Rossman et al. , 1988). Though school culture is powerful, schools are more comfortable to first order change than second order change (Cuban, 1988; Fullan & Stiegelbauer, 1991). But first order change would not be internalized without second order change(Leithwood, Aitken, & Jantzi, 2001). 3. A Story about Changing the School School X was a band three secondary school in a very new developed district in Hong Kong.Included School X, there were two seconda ry schools in the district, which with population of around 60,000. In the fifth year of school X being set up, a vice-principal of another school (for convenience, we called him/her W) of the same sponsoring body was sent to this school. At this time, school X was obviously in adverse position compared with another school in the district. Almost all higher banding students chose another school, over 80% of students of School X is in band 3 while over half of these students were in territorial bottom 10%.Most of the middle managers were not functioned. Teachers with negative attitude were majority. Some teachers had passion and willing to pay effort for students, but because of the norm and culture, what their effect was confined. Students lacked of interest and motivation in their learning, not mentioned to have any confidence and expectation on their own academic performance. The impression of School X was terrible in the community. â€Å"Fortunately†, the number of classes and teaching group of school X were small and still expanding with he increase of population size of the district. W already knew she would be vice-principal of school X for only one year and then would be promoted to be principal in the next year. W took the year of being vice-principal of school X to familiarize with the setting, the norm, the culture and social relationships in this school. The story of change began in the next year, W became principal of School X†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 4. Analysis of the changes Changes is a process, most researchers stated there are three broad phases involved: Initiation, Implementation and Continuation.Fullan (1991) added the idea of outcome to the process to give a come complete picture. Since the progress of educational reform occurred in School X involved numerous innovations each affected different domains of the school (Surely, this is common to all educational changes), the followed analysis will be written according to the framework shown in F igure 4. 1 . This framework is modified from the simplified overview of Fullan(1991), the titles of the points I will highlight for each phase are added to the box below each phase.Figure 4. 1 A simiplified overview for the process of change in School X No doubt, the new principal took a critical role in the initiation of change. But any educational change in school should involve all parties in school, therefore, the innovations are always not only from the principal but should be from all a stakeholders, especially from teachers and students. A group of teachers with similar belief with W were selected to act as a workforce to improve the performance and effectiveness of the school.Three teachers from this group became the new leaders for the academic, discipline and guidance department. The replacement was a quite severe step in school system. But it was also an effective way to remove the potential resistance to the change. The concept of workforce group was a successful startup . It involved teachers, the staff that would execute the change, as McGregor (1957) argued about the Theory Y of management, innovations and motivation are present in people, the manager only needed to make it possible for eople to recognize and develop. On the other hand, only small group of teachers were included in the workforce. Huberman and Miles (1984) argued that large-scale participation at the initiation phase is not productive and too much energy would be exhausted for pre-action discussion. The new department leaders, with W, leaded the group of workforce to review the rules and regulations, and drew up some new practice, then discussed these practice with the whole teaching team.Actually, the changes in rules and regulation were small, the focus was on the execution of these rules and regulations should be uniform and coherent. Though at this time the scale and degree of change on school was small, but it just like a pilot step for the consequence wave of reforming. Befo re these practices were introduced, W shared the bad news about the terrible intake of S1 in that year, over 70% of new comers are from the group of territory bottom 10%, with all teaching staff in the meeting. She also showed the data about the trend of population and development of the district in the meeting.What she pointed out was : more and more secondary schools were setting up in the district, all of them would be competitors of their school; the worst thing was, though the student population was going up that time, but it was not a long story, the population would decline after several year; they would finally face the crisis of shrink in number of classes, even being forced to close. W had capitalized on propitious moments for the change. The circumstances that call for change was dramatized to win the support and cooperation of teachers (Trice & Beyer, 1993). The results of pilot trial were satisfied.Though everything still had great room for improvement, but all of them seemed to be in progress. W celebrated the success with all staff (both of teaching and non-teaching). In the next year, some changes induced ‘externally† happened: Regional/national level: The ECR no. 7 recommended the idea of using performance indicators to assess the quality of school. This aroused the concern about effectiveness and quality of schooling in society. Local level: * School X moved to a brand-new campus equipped with extra facilities. * School X was changed from a traditional secondary school to a one-through school.School X now had its first class of primary one. These â€Å"external factors† provided good ground to fertilize the consequence changes,. Among various of innovations, the setting up of first quality circle took a critical role in the reform of School X. The quality circle was formed by a group of ten young and passionate teachers. Teachers in the circle were assigned to be the class teachers of S2 classes (the form with terrible S1 i ntake). They were empowered to design and execute the setting and rules (academic and discipline aspects) work on the whole form.Recalled the organization Y described by McGregor (1957), this was another example about â€Å"using† the motivation and potential for development already in people to direct behavior toward the organizational goal. The outcome of implementation of quality circle was inspiring. The success of the quality circle was originated from it decentralized the power to and enlarged the job of some staff in relative low position of the school hierarchy (by experience, status and responsibility), and caused a sense of satisfaction in their social and egoistic needs. The success of quality circle created a dramatic change in the belief of teachers.After that, quality circles were set up for each form. It was institutionalized as a school policy and long term practice. After years of implementation, the behavior and academic performance of students had obvious i mprovement. The job satisfaction of teachers was greatly improved. Most items in the APASO and KPM, especially those related with the teacher and students relationship, have index better than the territory norm. Now, School X is categorized in band 2. Fullan(1991) listed 9 critical factors organized into 3 main categories affecting implementation. Figure 4. shows the interactive relationship of them: In the case of School X, for the characteristic of change: the need of change was obvious, the goal of change was clearly explained to all staff, the individual complexity on most staff was not too high to create resistance. In addition, as most rules and regulations remained the same, the practicality was acceptable. For the local characteristics, though the district and community factors could not be examined, but the principal and teachers showed positive attitude to the implementation, especially after the success of trial done in the first year.By cultural perspective, Rossman et a l. (1988) identified the culture change processes to three types: Evolutionary, Additive and Transformative, depended on the degree of explicit, conscious focus on cultural change. The change in School X involved explicitly implementation of policies and practices, it should belonged to additive or transformative. While as the cultural norm was changed in a quite big scale with some severe means (replaced the heads, restructured the school system, etc. ), the reform of School X was classified as transformative.The developmental age of School X affected the cultural change in it as well. Stoll and Fink (1996) described the mechanisms likely to bring about change in three developmental age of school: Birth and early growth, Midlife, Maturity and /or stagnation and decline. School X should belong to Midlife stage, and the description about change through explosion of myths, quality circle was an exact example of this. The idea about creating new myth also echoed by(Trice & Beyer, 1993) , the effectiveness of myth to change cultures was affirmed in his article. 5. Comment on its effectiveness 5. Classical theory vs. Human resources theory The definitions of effectiveness of the change/reform were varied. The implementation of change in School X relied on application of human resources theory mostly. Compared with the classical theory, human resources theory took much more time and sometimes the outcome may be misled to be deflected from the organizational goal as it emphasized on the managing by objective instead of control with assumption about people had motivation already inside(McGregor, 1957). However, for the setting of school, human resources theory is much more appropriate.Though in earlier of this paper, the characteristic of schools in postmodern age was subjected to change; on the other hand, schools should be stable enough to let the teachers and students feel safe and secure. The scientific management emphasizes on selecting themost qualified employees to perform the job, this may not fit for the situation of school. Furthermore, the classical theory also included sense of bureaucracy. Bureaucracy was a common practiced in modern school for many years. However, this perspective may not suitable for the postmodern age school nowadays.Bureaucratic schools are close-ended, static and balkanized, in contrast, what we need now are open-ended, evolving and collaborative learning organizations. 5. 2 Cultural perspective Rossman(1988) argued culture defines effectiveness. In this part, I will comment on the effectiveness of the change in School X by cultural perspective. 5. 2. 1The classification of change by levels of culture The culture can be distinguished to three levels , on the base of basic assumptions, values and behaviours are observable manifestations (Schein, 1985). In Table 5. 1, the change of School X in each level of culture was described.Table 5. 1. Description on the change of School X by levels of culture. Level| Descrip tion| Artifacts and creations| The appearance of students was improved. The behavior of students inside and outside the classroom was improved. The academic performance of students improved. The intake of the school improved. | Values| The senses of belonging of students increase. The self-esteem and confidence of students improved. The satisfaction of teachers about the job improved. | Basic assumptions| The impression of community on School X changed to be more positive. The mission and goal of the school became clear and evolving.Senses of collaboration and cooperation were developed among teachers and students. Teachers’ belief migrated from â€Å"students cannot be changed† to â€Å"students can be changed through education, it just needs time and effort†. | 5. 2. 2Assessing Amounts of Change To understand the amount of change, the process can be described along four dimensions: Pervasiveness, Magnitude, Innovativeness, and Duration (Trice & Beyer, 1993). T he pervasiveness in change of culture was high. All the main business within the school was affected. The behavior of majority of teachers and students were changed.Surely, some of them tried to ignore the change, but the proportion was small. The magnitude of the change was high. The old negative values and belief evolved to much more positive ones. The innovativeness was not very varied in this case. Actually, the change in rules, rites and regulation were limited. The practices implemented were also common in other schools. But the idea of decentralization of power with quality circle was innovative among Hong Kong schools. Finally, the duration, it was high and actually, School X is still evolving even now, as a culture of evolving was developed. 5. 2. 3Definitions of effectivenessAccording to the research work of Rossman et al. (1988), from the cultural perspective, the definitions of effectiveness changes refer to the norms, beliefs and values of organizations. Took Rossman â €˜s suggestion, I tried to analysed the effectiveness of reform in School X by five criteria. Firstly, the definition should be multisided; Both of the academic and the non-academic achievement should be considered. The academic performance of School X was improved and the band of it was promoted. On the other hand , the sports teams and volunteer team had outstanding performance in region. Second,  the  concern  for  order  is  essential to  all  schools.Ordered environment facilitate learning and teaching, it also brought about the sense of respect. The behavior of students was improved. The lesson time spent on dealing with the problem of classroom management was greatly reduced. It brings about the achievement of the third criterion – the quality of teaching; as teachers had more time for preparing teaching activities with higher quality. The focuses of professional training activities included the new teachers training programs and school-based trainin g activities were migrated from classroom management to some more academic purpose.The fourth one is to establish appropriate expectations for intellectual outcomes. Except the first two years of implementation, the main concerns of School X in the followed six years all about enhancing the learning and teaching effectiveness. The performances of students in public examination also have been evaluated and discussed both in the meeting at subject levels and school level. Finally, value the diversity. School X developed teams for students with different education needs, for example, special education needs, non-native Chinese speakers, gifted, etc. 6. 2. Three perspective of culture The culture strength can be described by three perspectives: Integration, Differentiation and Fragmentation(Martin, 1992). Before the implementation of change, School X should be described as differentiation, teachers , those willing to pay effort and those not, worked on their own style, belief and goal. Conflicts between colleagues happened frequently. The reform caused the culture of School X evolved much more coherent, but the characteristics of sub-groups were still kept, so it is much more likely to be fragmentation rather than integration. . 2. 5Limitations of the cultural perspective on evaluating the effectiveness of change Culture is powerful, it affects the whole setting and every members of the organization. But the cultural perspective is only a way to give better insight of the organizational culture and also about the change. It never gives any fast and promising way for change. One can have a better planning and more precise expectation on the response of the members of organization to the implementation of change. 6. End of story? Never ended†¦.As we said in the start of this paper, schools nowadays are providing training to people who will deal with the fast, complex and mercurial life in the postmodern age. Schools that keep static and satisfy with their past achievement are no longer good schools. The senses of changes should be rooted within every stakeholder of the schools and education system. The cycle of planning, implementation and evaluation now was very familiarized by each educators in every levels of institutions, it is not just for documentary purpose and dealing with school external review, it is also a key for the keeping the schools change to right way.References Cuban, L. (1988). A Fundamental Puzzle of School-Reform. Phi Delta Kappan, 69(5), 341-344. EDB. (1997). Education Commission Report No. 7. Fullan, Michael, & Stiegelbauer, Suzanne M. (1991). The new meaning of educational change (2nd ed. ). Toronto? New York, NY: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education : Teachers College Press, Teachers College, Columbia University. Hargreaves, Andy. (1994). Changing teachers, changing times : teachers' work and culture in the postmodern age. London: Cassell. Huberman, A. M. , & Miles, Matthew B. 1984). Innovation up close : ho w school improvement works. New York: Plenum Press. Leithwood, Kenneth A. , Aitken, Robert, & Jantzi, Doris. (2001). Making schools smarter : a system for monitoring school and district progress (2nd ed. ). Thousand Oaks, Calif. : Corwin Press. Martin, Joanne. (1992). Cultures in organizations : three perspectives. New York: Oxford University Press. McGregor, Douglas Murray. (1957). The Human Side of Enterprise (4th ed. ). Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers. Rossman, Gretchen B. , Corbett, H.Dickson, & Firestone, William A. (1988). Change and effectiveness in schools : a cultural perspective. Albany: State University of New York Press. Schein, Edgar H. (1985). Defining Organizational Culture (4th ed. ). Belmont: Wadsworth Pub. Co. Stoll, Louise, & Fink, Dean. (1996). Changing our schools : linking school effectiveness and school improvement. Buckingham England ; Philadelphia: Open University Press. Trice, Harrison m. , & Beyer, Janice M. (1993). Changing Organizational Cu lture (4th ed. ). Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers.