Psychological Case Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Psychological Case Study - Essay Example Background of The Case Jen was referred for psychological counseling by her teachers. Jen was a disciplined student and was very good at her studies. She never missed her school and was always prompt in doing her home work. Her performance at school was progressing day by day. She was quiet and docile by nature. However, at the same time, the social aspect of her personality was not flowering. Her parents had realized that her quiet nature and her habit of being alone had increased in past few months. With every passing day, Jen was becoming more and more private. Her friend circle was becoming smaller and she refused to mix with people. Her relationship with her siblings was also getting affected. She avoided playing with her siblings giving a reason of home work and studies. When the family had guests or relatives coming, Jen used to get worried. She avoided coming in front of people and gave one word answers when she was asked something. This behavior became consistent and Jen sta rted getting into a cocoon. Initially, her parents did not pay much attention as her performance in studies and at school was consistently good. However, they found that her social interactions and her interaction with the family members were decreasing day by day. Jen’s mother was worried as the number of phone calls from her friends started decreasing and her behavior with her siblings had changed a lot. Jen’s mother decided to take help of her teachers before Jen’s social behavior worsened. Hence, she contacted Jen’s teachers to discuss the changes in Jen’s behavior and personality. Jen’s teachers told Jen’s mother that even they had recognized a change in her behavior pattern. Even though Jen was consistent in her studies, her social behavior was changing dramatically. They told her mother that she has stopped participating in games and extra curricular activities. Her interactions with teachers and students in the class had also decreased to a great extend. She had become shy and aloof. The teachers also said that Jen used to ask lots of questions regarding her studies in the class. However, lately she had stopped even that. After talking to her mother, Jen’s teacher realized that Jen’s behavior was becoming threat to her progress and growth. Hence, after consulting her mother, Jen’s teacher referred her to the school counselor. Deeper study of Jen’s behavior and personality pattern revealed that Jen’s problem was related to her social life. Her fears related to social interaction were turning her into an introvert person. Diagnosis Assessment Interview is one of the most effective and result oriented tool for diagnosis and assessment of mental disorder. Interview not only allows a proper flow of information regarding the client but also gives an opportunity to the counselor to gain client’s confidence and trust. Hence, in Jen’s case, the ‘Anxiety Disor der Interview Schedule for Children’ (ADIS-C) was utilized to understand the nature of the disorder (Kearney, 2005, p. 72). The questions were structured around Jen’s social behavior, her thoughts regarding her social relationships and interactions, her emotional and physical response to social presence and overall behavior pattern when she is in presence of other people. (Kearney, 2005, p.73). Another reason why ADIS-C was used for assessment was that it also included a version for parent interview (Kearney, 2005, p.

Wild Swan Dies of Bird Flu in UK Essay Example for Free

Wild Swan Dies of Bird Flu in UK Essay On Thursday 6 April 2006 the tabloid newspaper the Sun and the broadsheet newspaper the Daily Telegraph both featured front page articles on the first wild bird dying from bird flu in the UK. On the following, day, Friday 7 April, both papers once again featured follow up articles on their front pages. On Thursday 6 April the Sun has a small story of the suspected bird flu in the bottom left corner of the page, while a story of Eminems impending divorce dominates nearly all of the bottom half of the page. The rest of the front page is taken up with a large colourful advert for holidays abroad from i 15, and a large photograph of a young lady with a caption Girls Alewd. The Suns masthead is in sans serif white lettering on a block of bright red which implies modern clean lines. The profusion of eye catching colour in the holiday advertisement with the offer of a cheap holiday would attract the young working class family and the main feature story on a popular rap singers divorce would appeal to the younger generation who seem to have a fascination with any news relating to celebrities. The image the Sun seems to portray, with its attention grapping headlines, is to provide an upbeat lively entertainment paper. The sixty word article on the Suns front page has the following headline underlined and in bold print, UK swan is hit by bird flu, with a small picture of two swans captioned with, Fear. swan is Britains first wild bird flu case. Instead of using the words, swan catches bird flu, the Sun chooses to create more of an impact by using the word, hit, which is associated with violence, and the word, Fear, in the caption evokes an element of alarm, perhaps implying the readers should now be fearful for their own health. The article mentions anonymous experts rushing to the scene to carry out tests, and this portrays a feeling of urgency. The article then directs the readers to page four for the full story. (Appendix 1) On page four of the Sun the bird flu article takes up nearly a third of the page, sharing the rest of the page with an advert for purchasing property overseas, another celebrity taking their clothes off, and a row over a wage dispute at a Butlins camp. The relationship between the overseas property and trouble at a Butlins camp with the report of bird flu in Britain is perhaps insinuating readers should consider a trip overseas, away from the bird flu. (Appendix 2) The headline, BIRD FLU ZONE IS SEALED OFF, is blazoned across the top of the page with a small picture to the left showing two swans standing next to a dead bird with the caption, Deadly bird flu killed this swan in Germany last month. The Suns deliberate use of the word, Deadly, and, killed, in the one caption is aimed specifically to add to the overall tone of creating fear and apprehension. The picture is from the archives and has not been taken in the UK, yet the Sun is anticipating its readers will make the association of similar events happening in the UK. The opening paragraph, in a bold font, tells us that, Experts have put a 3km protection zone around the site were a dead swan was found, yet we are not told who the experts are and the Sun has made a conscious choice not to inform the reader exactly where in Britain the protection zone is leading to speculation and apprehension that it could be near where they live. The readers are told, if the H5N1 virus is confirmed a massive public protection operation will, swing into action, and that, this could include people having to leave their homes and a restriction on where they can travel. At this stage no tests have confirmed it is the virus yet the Sun are already creating scenarios that strike at the heart of what its readers value, their homes and their freedom to travel, and reinforcing the intended tone of alarm and trepidation. The location of the dead swan, in a small coastal village in Fife, Scotland, was hidden well into the article in an attempt by the Sun to keep the reader speculating and adding to the mood of alarm. The rest of the article quotes unnamed officials all reciting various warnings to the public and reinforcing the Suns initial warning headlines of fear and death. The Daily Telegraphs front page for Thursday 6 April has three main stories, one on how Brown will backdate wealth tax, another with a large colour picture of the writer JK Rowling and her condemnation of thin models and the third covers the alert of bird flu in Scotland. Immediately underneath the Daily Telegraphs masthead are two colourful adverts, one advertising a free golf guide to the Masters 2006 and the other on an interview with Boris Johnson. (Appendix 3) The style of the Daily Telegraphs masthead is in a conservative black ornate font with serifs, in complete contrast to the Suns bright eye catching simple font. The Daily Telegraphs style suggests tradition and is likely to attract the more conservative reader who is looking for news that is factual without the drama and sensationalism that the red top tabloids seem to adhere to. The Daily Telegraph has retained its original broadsheet size, unlike its rival the Times, who downsized to the more seemingly popular tabloid size. The front page of the Daily Telegraph is quite colourful which suggests a move to a more modern approach and, the inclusion of the picture of JK Rowling, might appeal to a wider range of people, although the articles on wealth tax and the advert on the Masters golf guide certainly will narrow the interest down to a more middle class readership. There is also far less advertising in the Daily Telegraph and this is probably due to the price of 65p against the Suns price of 35p. So, although there is far less advertising in the Daily Telegraph the Suns cheaper price might attract those on lower incomes. In contrast to the Sun, the Daily Telegraph has placed the bird flu article on the left of the middle section of the page and its headline, Alert as wild swan dies of avian flu in Scotland, immediately tells the reader where the outbreak has occurred, unlike the Suns report. The Daily Telegraph quotes specific experts by their names and their professional position and this creates an impression of credibility. Where the Governments chief veterinary officer is quoted as saying, I have every confidence , or a professor of virology saying, still a big step away from a domestic chicken or even a human being infected, both quotes intending to create a feeling of security and confidence in the authorities to handle the outbreak. It also mentions, The H5N1 strain has killed more than 100 people, mostly Asian, since 2003, but then it balances this statement with, However, it has not mutated to be able to transfer between humans. The entire article is well balanced without emotive language and with a tone which is focused to create a feeling of reassurance to the reader by setting out the contingency plans. (Appendix 3) On the following day, 7 April, the Suns main story, which dominates two thirds of the front page, is of the murder of a nurse and the top part advertises a free sweepstake kit for the Grand National. The story of bird flu features again on the front page with the headline, Bird flu search widens, but it is only a small article of fifty words and placed once again in the bottom corner on the left of the page. Even in such a small article, the words, search widens, and deadly are used to capture the readers attention and direct them to read the, Full story pages 4 5. A small photograph at the top of the article shows a dead swan with the caption, Bug alert.. dead swan. and is probably aimed at eliciting feelings of both sadness for the dead swan, fear of more deaths and, plays on the fact that the British are a nation of animal lovers. (Appendix 4) In contrast to the small and quite subdued front page article both page four and five are dedicated entirely to the bird flu story with, FORBIDDEN ZONE in a 5cm font splashed across the centre of both pages with the word, ZONE in red. Across the top of both pages the headline announces, BIRD FLU BRITAIN: THE DAY WE ALL DREADED and both these headlines are shouting warnings and danger with the words, DREADED and FORBIDDEN, clearly set to elicit alarm. A large picture on page four shows two men in protective white suits handling, what we presume to be a dead swan, wearing protective suits, supporting the headlines with the fear of contamination. (Appendix 5) The main article begins in bold print and points out police road blocks being thrown into place, but no mention of where this is taking place, implying by its absence that its nationally. Throughout the article certain words are highlighted in bold print to create more emphasis and draw the readers eye to the negative aspects An example of this is, a SECOND observation zone, NOT been contaminated abroad, both of which create an impression that the contamination zone is larger than first reported and that the swan didnt catch the bird flu from abroad. An interesting aspect is the contrast from the Suns previous days article when it was reported that, experts rushed to the scene, to the article on the 7 April where the Sun reports DEFRA officials were, blasted, after it took them, EIGHT DAYS, to perform tests on the carcass and how it took, 16 hours, to collect the dead bird after it had been reported to them. The tone of the whole article has been written to create an impression of incompetence by the various agencies dealing with the bird flu outbreak and undermines their ability to manage it. Two thirds of page five is given over to three pictures, one is a map of Scotland pointing to where the dead swan was found, a policeman, On guard, at the harbour and, a picture of the dead bird with the caption, Still there. . Pictures intended to reinforce the incompetence of DEFRA and the implication of danger by the police guard. Unlike the Suns small front page article, the Daily Telegraph on 7 April has nearly half of its front page given over to a striking picture of Scotland with the large bold white headlines, BRITAINS FIRST BIRD FLU ZONE, on a black background. Two other main stories on the lower section, one covering the murder of a nurse and the other covering a religious document by Judas, seem less important as they are overwhelmed by the dramatic bird flu picture and accompanying article. It may be that the Daily Telegraph decided to use the bird flu as its main headline, unlike the other daily newspapers, to capture those readers more interested in the bird flu than a story of another murder. (Appendix 6) The front page article describes the current situation in a very clear and factual tone and this is carried over onto the lower part of page two and various named experts reassuring the public that the risk to public health is still very low. At the top of page two is the identical picture used in the Sun with the caption, Vets remove the carcasses of dead swans from a field in County Antrim. The second picture is a time line recording the number of bird flu cases and deaths over the last few years with a map of Europe showing where outbreaks have occurred. The centre of page two concentrates on the speculation of how the swan in Scotland could have caught the bird flu and the headline, Threat to public health is very low indeed, generates reassurance to the readers and this again is a balanced factual account with reassuring quotes from various named experts and with practical advice to the public if they find a dead bird. (Appendix 7) Most of page three covers the impact the finding of the dead swan has had on the village and the headlines, Seaside village weathers the media storm, proposes that its the media attention and, not the finding of a swan killed by bird flu, that is disrupting the village life. The article seek to reassure once again that if the residents of this village dont fear catching bird flu then the rest of the country should not be anxious. To contribute to this, the top third of page three has a colour picture of a resident walking his dog on the beach, a perfect picture of normality. (Appendix 8) The Daily Telegraph has designated an enormous amount of space to the bird flu and this clearly shows it isnt underplaying the seriousness of the situation. What it has done is to document all the available facts in a clear unemotional approach which suggests that by giving the readers all existing knowledge they will be intelligent enough to form their own opinions. The Sun on the other hand, talks of roadblocks, the impact it could have on domestic birds and the incompetence of the various agencies involved, all contributing to the inference that bird flu is going to have a major impact on the man in the street.

Creating A Database For Student Information System Computer Science Essay

Creating A Database For Student Information System Computer Science Essay A database brings convenient to todays working area such as large business company. The main purpose of a database is just similar to handling and keep large amount of files and documents in a large cabinet. However this method takes a large space and will be complicated to control and organized. This is why a database is introduced to keep these data organized to allow users to access, retrieve, and use of the data without any hassle. DBMS or Database Management System is software that used to set up a database, creating a database requires planning and gets to know what kind of data will be imputed. Creating a database will be easier after a simple table is constructed. In this assignment, a Student Information System is used as an example to keep student information in a database. Moreover Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Access are example software provided by database vendor that used to create a database. Other than Student Information System as stated above, this software allows changes in database such as adding student entity relationship to expand the database. Microsoft Access is used to create Student Information System Entity Relationship(ER) because it has user-friendly interface compared to oracle and yet it is still a powerful tool to create a simple database. Define Question 1 1.0 What is Database and why is it needed? A database is a collection of various types of stored data so it can be used for operation purposes. These data can be organized in different modal such as hierarchical, network and relational models depend which one is suitable for that particular operation. A database plays an important role in many fields such as large companies, colleges as well as super markets we visit daily. Most of databases are being used in large business company which they often record their purchases, sales and keep track with employees information. Database record, store and process data to generate a variety of information for decision-making at the various levels in an organization or business company. However large number of information cannot be handle by just human alone this is why a database is used to complete these tasks accurate, relevant and timely. There are many advantages when database is used because: It helps reduces data redundancy. Has high processing speed to manage data in a very short time. It allows data sharing among different users. Maintain data independence to keep database safe even if one data is corrupted. Have better security because of different levels of access privileges controlled. It avoids data inconsistency. Reduces storage requirements. A database will not run on its own without software. Similar to computer, a computer will be useless without an operating system. This is why DBMS (Database Management System) is required in order running and allows manipulation in database. DBMS is software that uses SQL (Structured Query Language) that is a programming language that manages data in a database. SQL Manager for Oracle 1.1.0 Database of a Student Information System The concept of a database can be easily understood because it is similar if we create a table that stores different kind of information. It is encouraged to plan the database by making a simple table so that it will be easier when creating in DBMS. In this case Student Information System is created to store all students related information such as their index numbers, home addresses, gender and so on. The concept is started with record, which is a collection of related fields of an entity. Each record consists of several data Index Number First Name Last Name Age Gender Address Course Grade S0001 Julia Yasmin 17 F 13 Hibiscus Road BM A Student Information System in a College Index Number First Name Last Name Age Gender Address Course Grade Fee Paid S0001 Julia Yasmin 17 F 13 Hibiscus Road BM A Yes S0002 Nicholas Wong 18 M 24 Metro Street IT A Yes S0003 Niko Bellic 18 M 53 Hove Beach IT B No S0004 David Kim 17 M 4 Lake Garden IT B No S0005 Carl Johnson 18 M 77 Park Lane BM C No S0006 John Kay 17 M 22 Lin Seng Park BM B Yes S0007 Jasmine Stewart 17 F 16 Park Lane BM B Yes S0008 Tony Murphy 19 M 55 Brooker Road IT C Yes S0009 Tina Shaw 18 F 31 Hibiscus Road BM A No S0010 David Ford 18 M 28 Lake Garden IT C No Keyword: BM = Business Management, IT = Information Technology The table above shows that all student information is recorded in detail of a college. Index Number is created to identify each student. All different single line of records are grouped together to form a 10 records table. The table is also known as file, which is a collection of related records and these data will be stored in colleges main database. Primary Key A primary key is similar to Internet search engine (Google), for example when you search for the word food, immediately all food related websites and pictures would display. Each file may need a primary key in a database, which is an important key name for searching a particular record in the file as well as identify each record uniquely within relation. Primary key can be consists of index number or name because they have their unique name or integers. However primary key cannot be address because the name is long. When a database grows larger, these primary keys will be very important to help user to find particular data they needed. 1.2.0 The Relationship between Tables Since the database is related to student information, this table may be shared in several departments such as casher, lecturers, class and students overall examination grade. This relationship is known as Relation Model, which is basically consists of a set of interrelated tables. Data in a relational model are stored in two-dimensional tables. Each department will have different privilege to access different type of data and only display the information they need. Below is the shared information in several departments. 1.2.1 Casher Colleges Casher Index Number Casher Index First Name Last Name Age Gender Course Fee Paid S0001 C101 Julia Yasmin 17 F BM Yes S0002 C102 Nicholas Wong 18 M IT Yes S0003 C103 Niko Bellic 18 M IT No S0004 C104 David Kim 17 M IT No S0005 C105 Carl Johnson 18 M BM No S0006 C106 John Kay 17 M BM Yes S0007 C107 Jasmine Stewart 17 F BM Yes S0008 C108 Tony Murphy 19 M IT Yes S0009 C109 Tina Shaw 18 F BM No S0010 C110 David Ford 18 M IT No Primary Key: Casher Index The table shows that all necessary information required in casher such as fee paid and casher index to track students that are not yet paid their tuition fee. While students addresses and examination grade are hidden to reduce complexity because it is not necessary. This is called as external view because it allows user to have own view of the database. 1.2.2 Student list in a particular course Lecturers will have their own student list depend on which course they in charge. Since in real colleges database may consist over hundred of students, working with a large table can be troublesome and complicated. To make it easy, this large table will be needed to break up into two related table, which are Business Management and Information Technology classes. This concept is called data normalization. Normalization makes data more manageable and allows many data to be shared in just one database. This is because it removes data inconsistency as data is modified in one place as well as reduces storage requirement and data redundancy. Business Management Course (BM) Index Number Examination ID First Name Last Name Age Gender Course S0001 E1001 Julia Yasmin 17 F BM S0005 E1005 Carl Johnson 18 M BM S0006 E1006 John Kay 17 M BM S0007 E1007 Jasmine Stewart 17 F BM S0009 E1009 Tina Shaw 18 F BM Primary Key: Index Number Information Technology Course (IT) Index Number Examination ID First Name Last Name Age Gender Course S0002 E1002 Nicholas Wong 18 M IT S0003 E1003 Niko Bellic 18 M IT S0004 E1004 David Kim 17 M IT S0008 E1008 Tony Murphy 19 M IT S0010 E1010 David Ford 18 M IT Primary Key: Index Number The tables show that two different tables, which are Business Management Course and Information Technology Course. Students and their course can be easily indentified after the table is separated into two. We can clearly know that IT students are all male and both courses have equally five students each. 1.2.3 Students Examination Grade Index Number Examination ID First Name Last Name Course Grade S0001 E1001 Julia Yasmin BM A S0002 E1002 Nicholas Wong IT A S0003 E1003 Niko Bellic IT B S0004 E1004 David Kim IT B S0005 E1005 Carl Johnson BM C S0006 E1006 John Kay BM B S0007 E1007 Jasmine Stewart BM B S0008 E1008 Tony Murphy IT C S0009 E1009 Tina Shaw BM A S0010 E1010 David Ford IT C Primary Key: Examination ID The above table shows all students examination grade in the entire college and it is stored in Students examination database. This table is required for students certificate printout and act as a primary place for tracking student examination grade. Overall, all the tables had mentioned are the examples on how Students Information System is recorded in a college. This is a basic and very important step for a new user before data is record in Database Management software. Define Question 2 2.0.0 Student Information System Entity Relationship(ER) model We already know all the relationship between previous tables of Student Information System. However create a table only helps to know the concept of a database creation. In order to make these tables and their relationship more efficient and easy organized, database software is required. Therefore these tables are needed to transfer to Microsoft Access. With Microsoft Access, information in each column can be easily created. Creating relational tables will be faster because column of data can be copied from one table to others. 2.1.0 Relationship between tables in Microsoft Access 2.1.1 Primary Key Before tables can relate each other, a primary key is needed to declare in each table. The image above shows that primary key is declared in Students in Design View. A small key symbol (marked as small red circle) shows that Index Number has declared to primary key with primary key tool clicked (marked as large red circle). A particular field that needed to become primary key is highlighted and then Primary Key tool is clicked. 2.1.2 Relationship Chart Creating relationship between tables is easy because Microsoft Access has user-friendly interface, simply drag a data from one table to others and the relation line will appears Tables must link correctly in order to view their relationship. Primary Keys are linked to another tables, for example if we compare Students table with Casher table, Casher Index will become primary key while Index Number becomes foreign key. Note that small key symbol represents which data is primary key. Moreover, tables like Students and Examination Grade are having more than one matching table, which is called as parent table while the table they linked to are child tables. This relationship is called as One-to-Many relationship between different records or tables. 2.1.3 Relationship between Students and Casher Students The Student Information System is recorded into Microsoft Access as shown in image above. These information consists of students index number, which is an unique code that identifies each students. Other information such as First name, Last name, Age, Gender, Addresses and so on are also recorded inside this table. Casher The data in Casher table has created to record students fee paid. Some field such as Index Number and Course are shared together with Student table. Relationship between Students and Casher The table above shows the relationship between Students and Casher. From the first record we can clearly see Julia Yasmins casher index, course and her fee payment. While the last record we can identify that David Ford is in IT course and he is not yet pay his fee. The dropdown table will only appear when the relationship is linked correctly with relevant primary key from each table. 2.1.4 Relationship between Students Course and Students Examination Business Management Class Information Technology Class Business Management and Information Technology classes are separated into two different tables. These tables are also linked together with Students Examination Grade, which is to reveal their examination grade when it is opened. A drop down table from the tables above show that students examination grade is revealed. Two different dropdown tables is shown (marked as red colour border), when we look at the Information Technology Class. We can easily identify Nicholas Wongs examination ID, which is E1002 and gets grade A in examination. Similar to Tony Murphy, which has examination ID of E1008 and gets grade C in the examination. Students Examination Grade The table above shows the entire examination grade among every student, which exactly contains the same record from the table we had created from Question 1 (Page 9). As mentioned before, Students Examination Grade is linked to Students Course and this allows records also appear in Information Technology and Business Management Course. Overall, the tables in Microsoft Access made Student Information System organized in good manner and made user easily retrieve, access and view all students information in short time. Conclusion and Recommendation Information is an important resource in any organization and it must be properly managed. Database plays an important role because it allows information to be stored and organized in good manner. To handle large amount of information such as Student Information System, creating several tables is required to store different data such as name, index numbers, age and so on. Creating a database also requires knowledge on how data relate each other and their model. Learning Microsoft Access will be a good start for a beginner to learn and practice how database works even though it is not powerful enough compared to other database management software. Since nowadays jobs are relying on technology, having computer knowledge is very important to keep ourselves not to be outdated. Similarly, people with knowledge of database will have better job opportunity because most large business and manufacturing company will hire them. Bibliography Oppel Andy, 2009, Database a Beginners Guide, Second Edition, McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing, USA Anderson Virginia, 2001, How to do everything with Access 2002, McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing, USA MacMillan, Andy Huff, Brian, Transforming Info glut! A Pragmatic Strategy for Oracle Enterprise Content Management, 2008, McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing, USA P.Sellappan, 2002, Information Technology in Business, Fourth edition, Federal Publication Sdn Berhad, Malaysia James L. Johnson, 1997, Database Models, Languages, Design, , Oxford University Press Inc, USA Shelly Vermaat, 2009, Discovering Computer 2009, Complete Edition, Shelly Cashman Series, United States of America SQL Manager for Oracle 2007, View from File Transit, SQL Manager for Oracle, online, retrieved 12 October 2010, from http://www.filetransit.com/images/screen/2935188e684b1f718eecbf92de0bdfd6_EMS_SQL_Manager_for_Oracle.gif Primary Definition, 2010, online, retrieved 12 October 2010, from http://databases.about.com/cs/administration/g/primarykey.htm

Death in Dickinsons I heard a Fly Buzz When I died Essay -- Emily Dic

Death in Dickinson's I heard a fly buzz when I died Emily Dickinson’s poem â€Å"I heard a fly buzz when I died† is a reflection on what happens when one dies. In the poem, the speaker is waiting to die. It seems as though they are expecting something spectacular to happen at the moment of their death. This spectacular event they are expecting does not happen. I heard a fly buzz when I died By Emily Dickinson I heard a fly buzz when I died; The stillness round my form Was like the stillness in the air Between the heaves of storm. The eyes beside had wrung them dry. And breaths were gathering sure For that last onset, when the king Be witnessed in his power. I willed my keepsakes, signed away What portion of me I Could make assignable,--and then There interposed a fly, With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz, Between the light and me; And then the windows failed, and then I could not see to see. The speaker describes their situation on their deathbed. The sense of stillness in the air means that the speaker thinks something important is about to happen when they die. Their mood is very solemn, and the still air brings a feeling of tension. There is not yet a mention of the afterlife, just the speaker waiting for death. The stillness is described as â€Å"between the heaves of storm,† referring to the calm that sometimes occurs between storms. This is a very quite almost peaceful stillness, but there is a sign of more things to come. In this case, death is the storm they are waiting for after the calm. The speaker is expecting a big event to happen. As the speakers loved ones begin to mourn, there is a feeling that they too were gathering around to witness some spectacular event that would ... ...There is no large flash of light, no loud noises, just the simple buzzing of a fly. Seeing death as a natural passing places man back in nature. There is no amazing flash of light, or deafening noise, or grand revelation. The choice of a fly as the interrupting entity reinforces the anti-climactic nature of death. Man passes into death the same as anything else in nature. The â€Å"blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz† of the fly implies that not even the buzz of the fly was meant to recognize the death of the speaker. The fly buzzes by because that is the nature of the fly. It did not stop its life for the death of the speaker. This can be seen as nature (the fly) realizing that death is not some incredible event, but a natural passing. Nature moves on, accepting the dead back into the earth. This reinforces that death, even the death of a human, is a simple passing.

Holden Caulfield in “Catcher in the Rye” Essay

Holden Caulfield, in The Catcher in the Rye, is much like the typical teenager of today. Throughout the novel, Holden goes through problems that many modern teenagers can relate to. Holden is a lonely teenager who struggles to find direction in life. His actions are very similar to those of teenagers today. Some important characteristics Holden shares with modern teenagers are his longing to be free and independent, his struggle between childhood and adulthood, and the fact that he is lost and does not know what he wants to do in life. Also, like many teenagers today, he has to deal with things such as sex, violence, and alcohol. A big problem Holden goes through is his struggle between childhood and adulthood. He is sixteen years old, which is the age when a person is almost an adult, yet still a child. A child who is innocent, supported by his parents, and is not yet ready or possesses the maturity to go out into the world and fend for himself. This struggle is symbolized by Holden’s gray hair. This is something many teenagers face today. Like many modern teenagers, Holden wants to be independent. He wants to make his own decisions and live on his own. He has lived in schools most of his life, away from his parents. When Holden gets kicked out of Pencey, and he knows that his parents will find out, he decided to go back home after they do, in order for his parents to have dealt with the news. This shows how Holden does not look for help from his parents. He wants to deal with the problem himself by applying himself his next year in school. Another example of Holden’s need to be independent is when he suggests to Sally that they go away somewhere and live together. On page 132, Holden says â€Å"How would you like to get the hell out of here? Here’s my idea. I know this guy down in Greenwich Village that we can borrow his car for a couple of weeks. He used to go to the same school I did and he still owes me ten bucks. What we could do is, tomorrow morning we could drive up to Massachusetts and Vermont, and all around there, see. It’s beautiful as hell up there. It really is.†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ We’ll stay in these cabin camps and stuff like that till the dough runs out. Then, when the dough runs out, I could get a job somewhere and we could live somewhere with a brook and all and, later on, we could get married or something. I could chop all our own wood in the wintertime and  all.† Holden longs to go away and be independent. Like teenagers today, Holder had to deal with alcohol, sex, and violence. Like any male teenager today, Holden thinks about sex. He wants to experience it and says that he had had many opportunities to do so, although he never had sex. Holden, wanting comfort and affection, invites a prostitute to his room, but never has sex with her. A big problem among teenagers nowadays is violence. This is a problem that is very difficult to solve and sometimes cannot be avoided. There are times in the novel when Holden faces violence, like when he gets in a fight with Stradlater. Throughout the novel, Holden turns to alcohol when he gets depressed. He obtains it very easily, and gets drunk at one point. This occurs frequently among teenagers today. They feel that alcohol will make them older and give them maturity. These are the ways in which Holden is very similar to the typical teenager of today. His characteristics, feelings, and actions are those that many teenagers can relate to. Problems that Holden deals with throughout the novel are problems that many teenagers face in their everyday lives. Feelings that Holden has are like those of modern teenagers, who are in many ways, just like Holden.

Commentary- Blessing by Imtiaz Dharker Essay

Imtiaz Dharker’s poem describes rain as its blessing to a dry place, as the short direct sentences in the first stanza suggests there was no hope on that land: â€Å"There never is enough water.† The line shows the desperateness of rain as it sets a negative tone to start the poem. However, as the poem progress, there was an increase in hope and energy, seen from the energetic and positive language such as, â€Å"rush†, â€Å"bursts†, â€Å"crashes† and â€Å"roar†. These are used to associate with the action and the liveliness brought by the rain. The poet is trying to compare rain to a god-like blessing as it says from the title, and also from the word â€Å"congregation† as the word is related to religious. It described rain as a god-gifted blessing to the land without hope, describing the echo of rain to: â€Å"the voice of a kindly god.† We can see the importance of water to the people from the land as water is described as precious items such as â€Å"silver†, â€Å"fortune† and â€Å"liquid sun†, suggesting it’s importance to these people. We can see further illustration of this idea through the celebration as children celebrates and â€Å"sings† after being given water. The excitement of people can also be seen from the structure of the poem, seen from the enjambment which ran from the third stanza until the end of the poem, we can see the tone being very exciting that there wasn’t a pause, contrasting with the first stanza where the short and slow lines reflects the lack of energy. The most noticeable example is: â€Å"every man woman child for streets around butts in† We would expect commas being used between man woman child, but there isn’t, showing the excitement and the hurry. The poet also cleverly uses the stanza length to reflect the amount of water and excitement, with the 3rd stanza being the pinnacle of the event, there are and it differs from the short 1st stanza which suggests The use of onomatopoeia and oxymoron also highlights the importance of water: â€Å"Imagine the drip of it, the small splash, echo† The poet describes a small drip of water having a echo, which is usually associated with large items, and it gives us an idea of how a small amount of water can be seen as a huge importance to these people.

Zheng Hes Treasure Ships of the Ming Dynasty

Zheng Hes Treasure Ships of the Ming Dynasty Between 1405 and 1433, Ming China under the rule of Zhu Di, sent out enormous armadas of ships into the Indian Ocean commanded by the eunuch admiral Zheng He. The flagship and other largest treasure junks dwarfed European ships of that century; even  Christopher Columbuss flagship, the Santa Maria, was between 1/4 and 1/5 the size of Zheng Hes. Drastically changing the face of Indian Ocean trade and power, these fleets embarked on seven epic voyages under Zheng Hes guidance, resulting in a rapid expansion of Ming Chinas control in the region, but also of their struggle to maintain it in years to come due to the financial burden of such endeavors. Sizes According to Ming Chinese Measurements All of the measurements in the remaining Ming Chinese records of the Treasure Fleet are in a unit called zhang, which is made up of ten chi or Chinese feet. Although the exact length of a zhang and chi has varied over time, the Ming chi was probably about 12.2 inches (31.1 centimeters) according to Edward Dreyer. For ease of comparison, the measurements below are given in English feet. One English foot is equivalent to 30.48 centimeters. Incredibly, the largest ships in the fleet (called baoshan, or treasure ships) were likely between 440 and 538 feet long by 210 feet wide. The 4-decked baoshan had an estimated displacement of 20-30,000 tons, roughly 1/3 to 1/2 the displacement of modern American aircraft carriers. Each had nine masts on its deck, rigged with square sails that could be adjusted in series to maximize efficiency in different wind conditions. The Yongle Emperor ordered the construction of an amazing 62 or 63 such ships for Zheng Hes first voyage, in 1405. Extant records show that another 48 were ordered in 1408, plus 41 more in 1419, along with 185 smaller ships throughout that time. Zheng Hes Smaller Ships Along with dozens of baoshan, each armada included hundreds of smaller ships. The eight-masted ships, called machuan or horse ships, were about 2/3 the size of the baoshan  measuring approximately 340 feet by 138 feet. As indicated by the name, the machuan carried horses along with timber for repairs and tribute goods. Seven-masted liangchuan or grain ships carried rice and other food for the crew and soldiers in the fleet. Liangchuan was about 257 feet by 115 feet in size. The next ships in descending order of size were the zuochuan, or troopships, at 220 by 84 feet with each transport ship having six masts. Finally, the small, five-masted warships or zhanchuan, each about 165 feet long, were designed to be maneuverable in battle. Though tiny compared with the baochuan, the zhanchuan were more than twice as long as Christopher Columbuss flagship, the Santa Maria. The Treasure Fleets Crew Why did Zheng He need so many huge ships? One reason, of course, was shock and awe. The sight of these enormous ships appearing on the horizon one by one must have been truly incredible for the people all along the Indian Oceans rim and would have enhanced Ming Chinas prestige immeasurably. The other reason was that Zheng He traveled with an estimated 27,000 to 28,000 sailors, marines, translators and other crew members. Along with their horses, rice, drinking water, and trade goods, that number of people required a staggering amount of room aboard the ship. In addition, they had to make space for the emissaries, tribute goods and wild animals that went back to China.

Free Essays on Immigrants

Many immigrants came and still continue to come to America. People came to America because of its freedom and all the opportunity. Many immigrants left their country because they couldn’t get a job, didn’t like the rules that they were forced to live under, or because they were being persecuted. Immigrants came to America to get away from all their difficulties and to start a new life in when they arrived in the US; unfortunately they also found a new set of difficulties. Many genres of literature and films have immigration as their main topic. An example is in the two poems â€Å"Immigrants† one by Pat Mora and the May Flower circulation poem by Robert Frost. Pat Mora’s poem is about how immigrants who came over and try to make their children as American as they can. They are so anxious for them to be a part of the American society. For example the first two lines are: â€Å"wrap their babies in the American flag, feed them mashed hot dogs an apple pie.† She used these lines in her poem to express that immigrant parents fed their children American food and taught them to love the country. Even though the parents wanted there kids to be just like normal Americans, they still wanted them to know their own culture. This is shown in line 9, â€Å"whisper in Spanish or Polish†. This shows that even though parents wanted their children to be adapted to American culture, they still spoke in their native language so their kids do not forget their nationality. Another example of a piece of literature that has immigrants, as the main topic is a poem by Robert Frost also called â€Å"Immigrants†. This poem is about how immigrants kept coming over to America. For example the second line is â€Å" have gathered people to us more and more†. This means that the US attracted more and more people, so more people emigrated over. Another line of the poem reads: â€Å"but Pilgrim manned the May Flower in a dream†. This tells us that ... Free Essays on Immigrants Free Essays on Immigrants Many immigrants came and still continue to come to America. People came to America because of its freedom and all the opportunity. Many immigrants left their country because they couldn’t get a job, didn’t like the rules that they were forced to live under, or because they were being persecuted. Immigrants came to America to get away from all their difficulties and to start a new life in when they arrived in the US; unfortunately they also found a new set of difficulties. Many genres of literature and films have immigration as their main topic. An example is in the two poems â€Å"Immigrants† one by Pat Mora and the May Flower circulation poem by Robert Frost. Pat Mora’s poem is about how immigrants who came over and try to make their children as American as they can. They are so anxious for them to be a part of the American society. For example the first two lines are: â€Å"wrap their babies in the American flag, feed them mashed hot dogs an apple pie.† She used these lines in her poem to express that immigrant parents fed their children American food and taught them to love the country. Even though the parents wanted there kids to be just like normal Americans, they still wanted them to know their own culture. This is shown in line 9, â€Å"whisper in Spanish or Polish†. This shows that even though parents wanted their children to be adapted to American culture, they still spoke in their native language so their kids do not forget their nationality. Another example of a piece of literature that has immigrants, as the main topic is a poem by Robert Frost also called â€Å"Immigrants†. This poem is about how immigrants kept coming over to America. For example the second line is â€Å" have gathered people to us more and more†. This means that the US attracted more and more people, so more people emigrated over. Another line of the poem reads: â€Å"but Pilgrim manned the May Flower in a dream†. This tells us that ...

Clam system Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Clam system - Term Paper Example A clan is an extensive type of lineage that is characterized by blood relations whereby all relatives from either the mother’s or father’s lineage, together with all the ancestors and their offspring in that lineage are considered as members. The main features of a clan include being an exogamous group, having a common ancestor and being unilateral. Being unilateral means that a clan was/is made up families from the father’s or the mother’s side (Middleton and David 38). Clans were and are not made up of a combination of lineages of both the mother and the father. Almost all communities had unilateral clan systems which was either patrilineal or matrilineal lineage. Clans were also exogamous groups because all members of a clan were believed to be descendants of a common ancestor, hence most communities discouraged intra-clan marriages. Some clans had ancestors that some scholars term as mythical, while others had real ancestors. They were also small and they were led by elders who were in charge of making all crucial decisions affecting their clans and that of the community at large, but in conjunction with other clan elders from a community. Unlike the modern type of state governance whereby government officials make decisions purported to be representing the will of the citizens, clans were based on the â€Å"we feeling,† an aspect that made decisions made to be more representative. Almost all clans across the globe had teams of elders or the so-called council of elders who were in charge of making decisions affecting the clan and the community (Hudson, Thomas and Robbie 42). Councils of elders from different clans, but who are from the same tribe or community could come together and make decisions affecting the community at large. In case two or more communities were involved in disputes, clan leaders would select the best representatives to negotiate with leaders from the other communities in order to come up

Teaching Method Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Teaching Method - Essay Example He does not experience but take inspirations. He does not try to understand but believe in what the teacher says. The student knows that density is mass per unit volume but he does not know what is density; what mass is indicated And what volume are they talking about. The present educational programs are not as good as they should be. Presently the teachers are not fulfilling their task of educating the students properly. Thus a proper system should be developed by the teachers which pave a way for the students to prosper. This article would further give a review about how the students should be taught in a proper manner. Nowadays the college in which I am studying does not focus on building up the students own views. Instead the teachers focus on the views portrayed by them only. For e.g. the teachers give their view in such a way that the students cannot put in their own thoughts into the subject. This type of educational system is ruining the student's future as in the future these students are not capable to put in their own thoughts if any future situation arises. As described by Paulo Friere the present teaching system does not enlighten the students about their studies. It just describes the teachers own feelings and views. The professors nowadays are not giving in different views on the subjects, instead they are just telling one side of the story. This therefore leads the students to have a particular belief derived from their teacher's views. While the teaching system which should be developed all over should include the overall concepts of teaching, it is the duty of the teachers to give i n both the perspective on a particular topic. They should focus on enlightening the students rather then making the students store the views of the teachers themselves. The teachers are using their designation wrongly and are posing the students a threat. This threat is very dangerous if seen from a student's perspective. The teachers are wrongly using their power to influence the students about one particular topic even if it is wrong or right. This clearly can be seen in a recent incident which happened in the University of Wisconsin when Kevin Barret a professor in the University gave his views on the 9/11 attacks. The views given in by the professors were not proved and rather one sided supported by his own thoughts and perspectives. As the professor had influence on some of the students of the University they took it as reality. This shows that how biased one teacher can be when presenting a topic. The students interviewed during this research clearly showed that their views an d perspectives were similar to that of the teachers. When interviewed they were not fully aware of the facts on one given thought. This shows that the teachers are not providing the students with both the ground facts on one topic, but are rather emphasizing on a one sided story. Thus it is necessary for the teaching system to improve in such a way that it is beneficial for the students. For the teaching system to enhance it is necessary that the teachers provide the students with adequate discussion in the class on a particular topic. Students should be allowed to put in their own personal views when addressing a topic. They should be provided with proper guidance by the teachers so they can pursue a topic. Nowadays the professors are indoctrinating their students rather than educating them. However this

Business Intelligence in Action Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Business Intelligence in Action - Assignment Example The data that companies will try to seek is the preferences of many things that Facebook users have towards products and services. This information will enable the business make more money as they will strive to provide this. Most of the information that companies target are the private information and tastes of individuals. Individual browsing history will be tracked (Vitt, Luckevich, & Misner , 2010). From the information, Facebook is considered to be bad. One way in which this is taken is that Facebook does not inform the users that they are using their private information. Another thing is that Facebook shares Facebook users’ profile information without the consent of the users (Vitt, Luckevich, & Misner , 2010). BI puts our privacy at risk than before. We are no longer safe with the information we give on Facebook. We do not know who else will get access to this information. Information we give might be used to incriminate us because we do not know who else will get this

Artist and manager Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Artist and manager - Essay Example A year later, he worked in partnership with rapper B.o.B on Nothin’ on You and core-wrote Travis McCoy’s Billionaire. These two debut hit songs were Top Ten hits. Bruno turned this impetus in his favor launching a solo profession with his debut album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans. I met Bruno Mars by booking a hotel room where the he was staying (Bruno Mars 1). Being a musician tremendous, it is virtually felony that people are permitted to ply music for a living. But like felony, music does not normally pay. To get the gigs that pay, and keep getting them, musicians require to exude a high level of professionalism that is frequently a lot less alluring than the sexy life of a celebrity. Bruno Mars follows directions well Since most musicians make a living playing music for other people, they have to excel at what those individuals want. Whether the artist is hired to play a wedding, be studio musician, they have to excel at taking directions. More often than not, those directi ons are defectively communicated by individuals that do not understand music, but an expert musician understands how to translate any sort of instruction rapidly, without getting frustrated, and make the patron satisfied and happy. Bruno Mars is well organized In a nutshell, a professional musician keeps a calendar and learns how to tell time. There is nothing more annoying that tardiness. Furthermore, an artist possibly needs to keep track of huge quantity of material. Many sidemen play in manifold bands and have to learn unique music by song-composers than hire them, and cover for concerts. Bruno Mars has good communication skills When handling with individuals that do not understand anything about music and not much about the trade, an artist should be capable to lead most of the conversation. Offers recommendations, draw up contracts, and understand how to say what they want without coming off as impatient or greedy (Allen 13-21) SWOT analysis for music industry The beginning of just about every marketing strategy is history begins with what is understood s a SWOT Analysis. Even if I don’t always do it properly, a SWOT analysis is the best way to deal with Bruno Mars’ current status in a market and what the next steps must be. Having one in handle will assist me to establish what the steps of my client’s marketing plan must be and how best to approach the 2-3 months of marketing for Mars’ brand. SWOT analyses are separated into two classifications: internal and external. The strengths and weakness of Bruno Mars brand are things the band can regulate and the chances and threats are things that are outside my control. It is essential to acknowledge this fact when attempting to decide which steps to take moving forward. As Bruno Mar’s manager I like to utilize the SWOT analysis to take a hard look at a band’s present status. The analysis does not to have to be long, but I want to understand that real strengths, weakne sses, opportunities, and threats the musician has. This specific SWOT analysis is done based on Bruno Mars’ new album release (Macy 23-45). Strengths Twitter following: 17, 374, 406 YouTube view count of 100, 000 views each video release for the last 2 months Local press has positively covered the artist in the past Weaknesses The artist has not tour sponsors Not sufficient money to pay for national publicity campaign Live performances have not been set up in a touring route. This makes

Feedback after reading the banking concept of education by Paulo Essay

Feedback after reading the banking concept of education by Paulo Freire - Essay Example In this regard, this paper gives a response to the article "the banking concept of education" by Paulo Freire, clearly and analytically discussing this system of education. Although it is true that students especially in the contemporary world, flourish academically as a result of their ability to master what their teachers have taught them in class, it is worthy also to note that such memory is very instrumental in many fields of study and ought to be nurtured. Generally, the system of formal education has inculcated in the schools through teachers that the students who have the exceptional ability to memorize and master harvested concepts, vocabularies, and outlines are the best academically. While this could be true to some extent, there is a significant need to be cautious in relating this to the academic potential of the concerned students, as sometimes the opposite is true. The banking concept of education is not only harmful to the education sector as a whole but also to the students who merely act as the recipients of knowledge rather than contributors to knowledge. In addition, this system of education normally turns out to be ineffective majorly due to the fact that some of the so called ‘A’ students do not normally perform well in institutions of higher learning and even in the professional world. This is because there is no direct correlation between the ability for one to memorize others’ opinions and the application of the same in real world situations. Such scenario only means that the teachers only use this method of education to assist students pass their examinations and proceed to the next level. Since there is not a single person who has the monopoly of knowledge, it is not a good idea for the teacher to pose as one by being the narrator. The students, who due to their naivety humbly submit to

Managing Financial Resources in the health and Social Care Essay

Managing Financial Resources in the health and Social Care - Essay Example They will also provide residential support, transition program, visual therapy, special needs education etc for young people and children. This organization also has to manage its financial resources to provide such kind of services consistently. There are few principles of costing which significantly exist in the financial management. Care Tech Holdings PLC has to follow and apply such principles in their costing activities. If they are unable to reduce the cost or to control the cost then they never will face the financially healthy situation within the organization. For this reason they cannot take better initiatives in their activities and cannot help more adults and children. These principles are generally helping any organization to plan their activities in a systematic way. Break even analysis is one of the important principles among the costing method (Brayley and McLean, 2008). By applying this method the organization can get information that at which level the company meet all its costs and expenditure and started to earn profit for further investment or expansion of business. This is generally indicating a point at which the company can recover all its fixed and variable expenses. Minimum cost analysis is another principle to control the business activities. It is generally based on the assumption and prediction before starting a business or before starting any new financial year or before taking any kind of new initiative by the organization. What will be the minimum fixed and variable cost that has to be analyzed and how much revenue can be generated from those particular business activities that also have to be analyzed. If the revenue will be higher than the anticipated cost then the initiative will be granted. This method is generally used as a guideline to operate activities in an efficient way. If the mentioned company will follow these principles then it will never face any kind losses and always can maintain

Artist and manager Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Artist and manager - Essay Example A year later, he worked in partnership with rapper B.o.B on Nothin’ on You and core-wrote Travis McCoy’s Billionaire. These two debut hit songs were Top Ten hits. Bruno turned this impetus in his favor launching a solo profession with his debut album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans. I met Bruno Mars by booking a hotel room where the he was staying (Bruno Mars 1). Being a musician tremendous, it is virtually felony that people are permitted to ply music for a living. But like felony, music does not normally pay. To get the gigs that pay, and keep getting them, musicians require to exude a high level of professionalism that is frequently a lot less alluring than the sexy life of a celebrity. Bruno Mars follows directions well Since most musicians make a living playing music for other people, they have to excel at what those individuals want. Whether the artist is hired to play a wedding, be studio musician, they have to excel at taking directions. More often than not, those directi ons are defectively communicated by individuals that do not understand music, but an expert musician understands how to translate any sort of instruction rapidly, without getting frustrated, and make the patron satisfied and happy. Bruno Mars is well organized In a nutshell, a professional musician keeps a calendar and learns how to tell time. There is nothing more annoying that tardiness. Furthermore, an artist possibly needs to keep track of huge quantity of material. Many sidemen play in manifold bands and have to learn unique music by song-composers than hire them, and cover for concerts. Bruno Mars has good communication skills When handling with individuals that do not understand anything about music and not much about the trade, an artist should be capable to lead most of the conversation. Offers recommendations, draw up contracts, and understand how to say what they want without coming off as impatient or greedy (Allen 13-21) SWOT analysis for music industry The beginning of just about every marketing strategy is history begins with what is understood s a SWOT Analysis. Even if I don’t always do it properly, a SWOT analysis is the best way to deal with Bruno Mars’ current status in a market and what the next steps must be. Having one in handle will assist me to establish what the steps of my client’s marketing plan must be and how best to approach the 2-3 months of marketing for Mars’ brand. SWOT analyses are separated into two classifications: internal and external. The strengths and weakness of Bruno Mars brand are things the band can regulate and the chances and threats are things that are outside my control. It is essential to acknowledge this fact when attempting to decide which steps to take moving forward. As Bruno Mar’s manager I like to utilize the SWOT analysis to take a hard look at a band’s present status. The analysis does not to have to be long, but I want to understand that real strengths, weakne sses, opportunities, and threats the musician has. This specific SWOT analysis is done based on Bruno Mars’ new album release (Macy 23-45). Strengths Twitter following: 17, 374, 406 YouTube view count of 100, 000 views each video release for the last 2 months Local press has positively covered the artist in the past Weaknesses The artist has not tour sponsors Not sufficient money to pay for national publicity campaign Live performances have not been set up in a touring route. This makes

Managing Financial Resources in the health and Social Care Essay

Managing Financial Resources in the health and Social Care - Essay Example They will also provide residential support, transition program, visual therapy, special needs education etc for young people and children. This organization also has to manage its financial resources to provide such kind of services consistently. There are few principles of costing which significantly exist in the financial management. Care Tech Holdings PLC has to follow and apply such principles in their costing activities. If they are unable to reduce the cost or to control the cost then they never will face the financially healthy situation within the organization. For this reason they cannot take better initiatives in their activities and cannot help more adults and children. These principles are generally helping any organization to plan their activities in a systematic way. Break even analysis is one of the important principles among the costing method (Brayley and McLean, 2008). By applying this method the organization can get information that at which level the company meet all its costs and expenditure and started to earn profit for further investment or expansion of business. This is generally indicating a point at which the company can recover all its fixed and variable expenses. Minimum cost analysis is another principle to control the business activities. It is generally based on the assumption and prediction before starting a business or before starting any new financial year or before taking any kind of new initiative by the organization. What will be the minimum fixed and variable cost that has to be analyzed and how much revenue can be generated from those particular business activities that also have to be analyzed. If the revenue will be higher than the anticipated cost then the initiative will be granted. This method is generally used as a guideline to operate activities in an efficient way. If the mentioned company will follow these principles then it will never face any kind losses and always can maintain

Adoption of new technology systems Essay Example for Free

Adoption of new technology systems Essay Health can be described as the state of physical or emotional well-being without necessarily the absence of a disease or any given ailments. Electronic Health Record, thereby, covers a wide scope in ensuring the electronic procedures through which the factors that lead to the health of individuals are ensured. This indicates that this practice involves the incorporation of technology such as the use of computers to ensure its implementation.                  In this research paper, therefore, one ought to undertake the role of a head nurse, and carry out the programs that will ensure the use of electronic health records system is incorporated in a facility. In addition, one ought to put his or her base of discussion in line with the Rodgers qualities that lead to the adoption of new technologies, especially in an organizational set up. This can, therefore, be discussed as follows:                  How to approach the present the Electronic Health Records to the nurses to win their approval            Nurses often play a greater role in ensuring the health care delivery to the patients, who in most cases seek medical attention. This owes to the fact that they put into consideration the patients’ issues from the moment they are registered to undertake treatment in a given facility. Furthermore, they are the individuals who make sure that the patients get proper and adequate treatment up to when they are discharged from the hospital.               Therefore, one way of presenting the Electronic Health Records system to them is by critically defining the roles they are to carry out. These run from the registration of the patients, admission procedures as in the case of patients’ illnesses, writing down of the nursing procedures. Other functions of the nurses include drug admission, dosage and their storage, carrying out of the minor surgeries and dressing of wounds.                As the Head Nurse in charge, I would clearly outline to the nurses their roles, and how the incorporation of the new electronic health record system would improve their daily activities in the delivery of healthcare. However, despite the advantages that are associated with the new technology, several cases of resistance can be noticed among the nurses. These can be in the whereby they mention that they lack the knowledge and the skills to use the methods and that it may consume their time, and lead t earlier retirement or even retrenchment of their jobs.               In such a given case, as a head nurse, I will ensure that they have adequate training on the use of the newly adopted system, and assure them that the only time they would be retrenched or dismissed from their duties would be on attainment of the retirement age. Moreover, I will ensure that new goals and objectives are set forth with the introduction of the systems to ensure a quality health delivery service. Furthermore, I would also provide some room for negotiation so that we come up with a system that will be favorable to all.               Applications as per Rodger’s theory, in the health facility setup.               The theory looks into the modes via which individuals can choose to adapt into a new system of technology, basing on the qualities that they possess. These include relative advantage/the benefits, compatibility with the current practices and the values, simplicity, trialability, and the results that are observed (the observable results). The relative advantage               In order to prepare the nurses for the implementation that is upcoming, I would ensure that the system will lay several benefits that will facilitate in the improvement of the existing one. An explanation that can be given to this is that, initially, the storage of the health records were done in a manual manner. Therefore, a lot of time would be taken to retrieve the information about the patients from the filing area, thereby leading to subsequent delays, and infectivity in the delivery of health care. Moreover, the loss of the files would be easier owing to their inadequate storage and management.               However, by the incorporation of the new technology, time taken to retrieve the information about the patients would be reduced due to their accessibility and efficient storage. This would in turn lead to faster and efficient treatment. These would also ensure that they are properly diagnosed with the diseases that they suffer from and reduce the excess costs incurred for example in the purchasing of their files. Compatibility with the existing values and practices               In the health setup, proper values need to be ensured so that the rights of the patients are not infringed on. These can be in line with the Nightingale Promises or laws, as in this case, for the nurses. Practices such as laboratory experiments and the observational routines, for example, recording of temperature, blood pressure tests, post natal and antenatal care too should be considered. As a result, in order for the nurses to adapt to the new systems, they need to understand how the technologies would be implemented as per the values and the practices. Simplicity               In the facility, several forms of resistance may arise due to the difficulty of the nurses to use the new methods as most of them may be computer illiterate. Therefore, there is need to use the simple models that they can be easily trained on and understand. An example of these may include the data entry forms like the use of Microsoft Office (Word and Excel) basically, before getting to the more complex ones. Others may include the measurements of the temperature and pressure of the patients using equipment that can easily detect the variables from one patient to the next.                TrialabilityThese can be carried out as part of the training procedures that are given to the nurses. Therefore, they can be granted some extra time to familiarize themselves with the machines, make several trials and mistakes, and eventually come to terms with the proper modes of handlement. Observable results                  In most cases, these will be evident from the institutions that have successfully installed and used the systems in place, and the progresses that they have made in relation to the admission of an adequate healthcare. Thus, these can be the referral and the national hospitals from where a variety of diseases are handled. The role of nurses as change agents in facilitating the adoption of a new technology                Nurses aid in the adoption of the new forms of technology by ensuring digitalization in the admission of healthcare. These can be in the form of the mobile clinics that reach far and wide, within and outside the country. Moreover, it gives them a wider scope to classify diseases according to the signs and symptoms thus they can relate to patients through mediums such as webcam or even Skype for those who may not be able to get to the facilities in good time.                      These can therefore help to reduce the costs that can be incurred as in the case of distant travels by the patients who are critically ill, for example the aircraft ambulatory modes, and reduce more damages that would be caused to the patients by the use of roads. Additionally, several modes of treatment too can be sought out for by the nurses in line with the researches that they carry out through the internet, thereby improving the lives of individuals. References Archer, N., Cocosila, M. (2011). A Comparison of Physician Pre-Adoption and Adoption Views on Electronic Health Records in Canadian Medical Practices. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 13(3), 65.Devkota, B., Devkota, A. (2014). Electronic health records: advantages of use and barriers to adoption. Health Renaissance, 11(3), 78.Mihalko, M. (2011). Cognitive Informatics and Nursing: Considerations for Increasing Electronic Health Records Adoption Rates. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 26(3), 264-266. Peden, A. H. (2009). Factors affecting adoption of electronic health record (EHR) systems in United States Hospitals. New York: Mac Millan. Rogers, E. M. (1983). Diffusion of innovations (3rd ed.). New York: Free Press ;. Source document

Utilizing Superelastic Shape Memory Alloy Strand

Utilizing Superelastic Shape Memory Alloy Strand I tried to maintain the story in following order: General background on steel MFRs before Northridge earthquake What happened after Northridge Earthquake and still what are the problems remaining? What are the approaches taken to solve the problem? Concept of Post tensioned connection Studies on PT connection with steel Alternative to steel strand (previous studies on SMA strand). Objective of this study. Feasibility study of utilizing superelastic shape memory alloy strand in post tensioned steel beam column connections for improved seismic performance Introduction: During the 1960s, welded steel beam-column connections were considered to be the most ductile system against earthquake. Therefore, a number of industrial and commercial buildings were constructed in the western part of united states at that time.   However, the Northridge earthquake of January 14, 1994, indicated that welded connections are susceptible to brittle fracture at the beam-to-column joints. This failure mode was observed even for structures subjected to a moderate level of ground shaking. Although, these buildings didnt collapse (which is desired by the building code), the connection behavior was not as expected. Further investigation revealed that similar damage was observed in a limited number of buildings during 1992 Landers, 1992 Big Bear and 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake (FEMA-350). Studies have been carried out to investigate the reasons behind it. Based on the investigation, significant design changes was implemented to the pre-Northridge moment resisting frame des igns (Engelhardt and Sabol, 1997). Post-Northridge structures are designed in such a way that it is still expected to sustain damage during severe earthquake but without affecting the life safety limit (Chancellor et al. 2014). Residual deformation that may exist after the earthquake can require expensive repair works and in some cases the demolition of total structures. Depending on the scenario, the total cost of demolition or repair work can be a burden to the overall economy of a country. An example can be the earthquake of magnitude 6.5 that occurred in Christchurch, New Zealand in May 2014. The repair works required 40$ billion (New Zealands dollar) which was approximately 20% of the total GDP of the country. In another study, McCormick et al. (2008) showed that the repair of structures with residual drift greater than 0.005 rad is not economically feasible. Conventional moment resisting frames are designed to resist collapse by using the inelastic properties of nonreplaceable elements. Therefore, these systems can dissipate energy during large inelastic deformation but unable to recover the residual deformation. In this regard, research has been done to improve the performance by introducing reduced beam section (RBS) (Tremblay and Filiatrault, 1997), connection reinforced with cover plates (Engelhardt and Sabol, 1997), haunches (Uang et al. 2000), and side plates (Shiravand and Deylami, 2010). However, the existence of residual deformation after severe earthquake is still possible. To address this above mentioned issues, a new class of lateral force resisting system has been developed which can sustain severe earthquake with little or no residual deformation. This smart structure can return to its plumb position after load removal (herein referred to as a full self-centering), without any residual deformation. This new system is termed as post tensioned (PT) steel moment resisting frames. In this system, beams are post tensioned to the columns, which run parallel to the beams and pass through the column flanges, are used to provide self-centering to the moment resisting frames (Moradi and Alam, 2015). The reduction of residual displacement in PT connection is controlled by a gap opening mechanism.   Due to the gap opening between steel column and beams, a significant reduction in stiffness occurs, which is desirable. As the decrease in stiffness attracts less force to the connection (i.e. softening occurs without structural damage) by lengthening the structur al period (Chancellor et al. 2014). Past few years, several researchers have investigated and still investigating the seismic performance of self-centering steel moment resisting frames. Ricles et al. (2002), experimentally investigated the self-centering behavior of steel PT connection on five cruciform shaped specimens. The results showed that steel PT connection sustain small residual deformation compared to the conventional welded connection. Further study based on several affecting parameters such as flange reinforcing plate, shim plate, number of PT strand, angle size, and gage length are considered by Garlock et al. 2003, 2005. The effect of floor diaphragm on the self-centering behavior of steel moment resisting frames were investigated by Garlock et al. (2007). A performance based design guideline for self-centering PT connection was also outlined. In design procedure, the interaction between the floor system and the self-centering PT connection was considered. Dobossy et al. (2006) proposed a method for asses sing structural limit state probabilities for a self-centering frame (with top-and-seat angles). Monte Carlo simulation was used for generating demand curves. The possibility of exceeding a limit state at each floor of the structure was determined based on the demand and capacity curves.   Herning et al. (2011) used a reliability based method to evaluate the likelihood of reaching the limit state of PT strand yielding. A predictive relationship between the beam-column relative rotation and the story drift was proposed. Based on the results, the response of three nonlinear models of prototype self-centering frames was found to be adequate to thousands of synthetic ground motions. The probability of reaching the limit state of strand yielding ranged from 0 to 15%. The self-centering capability of PT connection can also be improved by using smart materials such as shape memory alloys (SMAs). Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) is a class of equiatomic metal showing mechanical properties not present in materials usually employed in engineering application (Fugazza, 2003). In most cases NiTi is referred to as a shape memory alloy. But some other alloys show the same characteristics of NiTi alloy. If not stated otherwise, NiTi will be used as SMA throughout this paper. The importance of Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) in civil engineering application is increasing rapidly due to its capability of large strain recovery, absence of residual strain upon unloading and high energy dissipation ability. This exceptional property can be used in post tensioned steel beam column connection. The idea of implementing shape memory alloy on post tensioned connection has already been investigated by a number of previous studies. Ocel et al. 2004 considered two partially restraine d (PR) connection to investigate their performance during static and cyclic loading. Martensitic phase (Shape memory effect) was used in both connection. The tested connection was capable of dissipating large energy without any strength degradation up to a drift level of 4%. Using SMA tendons, about 54% and 76% of the beam tip displacement was recovered with or without simulated dead loads, respectively. Ma et al. (2007) presented a highly ductile steel beam column connection by using shape memory alloy bolt. The bolts shanks are 1.2 times longer than the conventional steel bolt. These bolts provide the ductility to the connection by absorbing inelastic deformation. After the deformation phase, it can regain its original shape by recovering 94% of the total deformation. Desroches et al. (2010) studied the behavior of shape memory alloy (SMA) on both austenite and martensite phase. The superelastic SMA bars were found to be responsible for reducing the residual deformation and marten sitic bars were efficient in controlling peak deformations. Ellingwood et al. (2010) evaluated the performance of steel frames with or without SMA connections based on probabilistic framework. Four interior steel beam column connection incorporating different types of SMA (i.e. martensitic NiTi and austenite NiTi) and steel tendon, were investigated by Speicher et al. (2011).   The connection incorporating superelastic NiTi alloy was able to recover up to 85% of its deformation after being loaded upto 5% drift. The objective of this study can be categorized in two phase. In phase one, an attempt has been made to reduce the strand length of existing PT connection without affecting the performance of the connection. In parallel to this study, the objective of phase two was to use shape memory alloy with reduced length. A recent study done by Chowdhury et al. (2017) show that the reduction of PT strand length directly affect the stiffness, strength and moment capacity. Besides, PT connection loses self-centering capability due to the yielding of steel strand. This is due to the high stress concentration in steel and its low strain capacity. In this regard, shape memory alloy can be an efficient alternative due to its large strain capability (recoverable strain up to 8% for NiTi). The cost of NiTi alloy is a major concern during its application. Therefore, reduced strand length will reduce the cost without affecting performance.

The Golden Girls Essay -- essays research papers

The Golden Girls   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I am going to be writing about the lifetime television show, â€Å" The Golden Girls†. There are many different episodes and I have probably seen them all, at least twice. I first started watching the show with my mom. My curfew when I was in high school was 11:00 or 11:30. While I was going into detail about the many things that had happened that night, â€Å"The Golden Girls† would be on. At first I did not enjoy them, but as I got to know the characters I was addicted.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  First, and most important there is Blanch Devereaux, played by Rue McClananan, born 1935, in Healdton, Oklahoma. She is the Southern Belle, and also, the homeowner. Blanch worries very much about her looks and how people think of her. She has the reputation of a â€Å"Slut†, but in a few episodes she claims that some (or most) of her sexual stories are more of a fantasy than actual life. Blanch never tells anyone her real age, she always wants people to think of her as young. For example, Blanch has her granddaughter come to stay with her for a week, and when they go to the dock she had her tell the sailors that Blanch is her sister. Blanch also works part-time in a museum.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Secondly, there is Rose Nylund, Played by Betty White. Betty White was born 1922, in Oak Park, Illinois; she is the oldest of all the girls (in real life). Personally, Rose is my favorite character. She always finds a way to make the audience, and her roommates laugh. There is something you need to understand about Rose; she comes from St. Olive, Minnesota. In the television show St. Olive is considered an idiot town. She always has a pointless story to tell about people from her hometown with weird names. Nobody ever pays any attention to Rose and they always seem to be annoyed by her.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Thirdly, there is Dorothy Zbornak, she is played by Beatrice Arthur, â€Å"Bea† was born 1923, in New York City. Dorothy is the intelligent one of the bunch; she is a substitute history teacher. She never has a date, and she is the one that seems to keep everyone on track. She has a very firm outlook on life, and tries to keep the â€Å"girls† in order. But even Dorothy screws up sometimes. When she first got married, years ago to another character, Dorothy’s ex-husband, Stan, she got pregnant. Her mother always harasses her... ..., including Best Comedy Series each year, winning ten Emmys, three Golden Globe Awards and many other prestigious honors. On top of a successful series and an exceptional cast, â€Å"The Golden Girls† attracted very talented and popular guest stars, including Bob Hope, Mickey Rooney, Julio Iglesias, Debbie Reynolds, Brenda Vaccaro, Jack Gilford, and Burt Reynolds.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"The Golden Girls† is a Witt-Thomas-Harris Production in associations with Touchstone Television, and was created by Susan Harris. Paul Witt, Tony Thomas, and Susan Harris served as executive producers. The show was distributed by Buena Vista Television, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As you can see, this television show is about four old ladies, and situation that arise in any home; jealousy, love, compassion, deceit, forgiveness, etc. But, most important friendship. I am not quite sure what audience the producers were trying to reach or attract, but I know that I love the show and I am only 18. So, in conclusion, I think .everyone should sit down and watch an episode of the Golden Girls, you never know, you might like it.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  

The Current Situation at AcuScan Essay -- Business Management Budget C

The Current Situation at AcuScan This memorandum reports on the current situation at AcuScan regarding the short-term budget crisis and development of the iScanner for use in the retail setting. It will summarize the situation, discussing key points in the decision-making process and recommending actions that can be taken to address the problems described. The underlying problem is we have failed to continuously improve market share through the development of new products. The overall 40% market share is declining. The company faces declining revenues because the price of the iScanner has dropped as it becomes a market commodity. AcuScan, despite making tremendous cost-cutting efforts (letting go 500 employees) is still in a short-term budget crisis. To recapture our pos... The Current Situation at AcuScan Essay -- Business Management Budget C The Current Situation at AcuScan This memorandum reports on the current situation at AcuScan regarding the short-term budget crisis and development of the iScanner for use in the retail setting. It will summarize the situation, discussing key points in the decision-making process and recommending actions that can be taken to address the problems described. The underlying problem is we have failed to continuously improve market share through the development of new products. The overall 40% market share is declining. The company faces declining revenues because the price of the iScanner has dropped as it becomes a market commodity. AcuScan, despite making tremendous cost-cutting efforts (letting go 500 employees) is still in a short-term budget crisis. To recapture our pos...

Customer Profitability Analysis Essay

Activity Based Costing (ABC) is best known for its appilcation in computing product costs, but firms also find it useful in determining the cost of serving customers and as a basis for evaluating the profitabilty of a specific customer or group of customers. Why is this important? Most managers agree that 80% of their profits come from the top 20% of their customers and most important, the bottom 20% of their customers are unprofitable. For example, to compete with Walmart,Best Buy works hard to attract profitable customers and equally hard to discourage the unprofitable customers which those that are price shopping and looking for discounts and promotions and comparing prices to Walmart. Best Buy studies demographic and sales data for each store location to identify profitable and unprofitable customers. Customer profitabilty analysis idetifies customer service activities and cost drivers and determines the profitability of each customer or customer group. Here, customer service include all activities to complete the sale and satisfy the customer including advertising, sales calls, delivery, billing, collection, service calls, inquiries and other forms of customer service. Customer profitability analysis allow managers to: Identify most profitable customers Manage each customer’s cost-to-serve Introduce profitable new products and services Discontinue unprofitable products, services or customers Shift a costomer’s purchase mix toward higher-margin products and service lines Offer discounts to gain more volume with low costs-to-serve customers Choose types of after-sale services to provide How to calculate Customer Profitability Analysis The first step of CPA is to create a simple model of revenue by customer on the one hand, and total business unit costs and overheads on the other. Second, subtract the direct product and service costs from each customer (costs of good sold/cost of sales) to arrive at a gross margin per customer. Third, it should be possible to identify other costs specific to the customer such as a particular sales campaign or servicing and retention  costs. Orders of magnitude will do rather than getting hung up on 100% accuracy. Be consistent if applying any proxy. Fourth, sort customers by net profit and draw a cumulative profitability curve staring with the most profitable to the least. This is an effective way to visualize the relative profitability of customers and it soon becomes apparent which customers are critical to the business. Fifth, before taking any decision on non-profitable customers, make sure that you have strong retention activities in place to secure your most valuable customers. Sixth, get behind the real reasons why some customers are unprofitable and determine the appropriate strategies and tactics to enhance the profitability of your customer portfolio. Thought about sacking customers, should be put to one side until you have gained a clear understanding of the reasons. As we’ve seen there are lots of reasons for being unprofitable, and it is important to think ahead to potential value over time, not just recent history. (Six step to Customer Profitability Analysis, 2007) A good understanding of the profitabilty of a firm’s current and potential customers can help firms improve overall profits and become more competitive. This begins with an analysis of the cost to serve the customer. Customer Cost Analysis Not all customers require similar activities either before or after sales. Examples of customer-specific activities include: Order processing costs Billing, collection and payment processing costs Account receivable and carrying costs Customer service costs Selling and marketing costs Customer cost analysis is the process of identifying the activities and cost drivers related to servicing customers. Traditionally these costs are hidden in the customer support, marketing and sales function. Activity based costing can help managers to understand their costs to serve costomers. Different activities often have different cost drivers. Based on the activities and cost drivers involved in services performed to acquire and compelete a transaction, customer costs can be classified into the following  categories: Customer unit-level cost – resources consumed for each unit sold to a customer. Examples include sales commission based on the number of units sold or sales dollars, shipping cost when the freight charge is based on the number of units shipped and cost of restocking each returned unit. Customer batch-level cost – resources consumed for each sales transaction. Examples include order-processing costs, invoicing costs and recording of sales returns or allowances every time a return or allowance is granted. Customer-sustaining cost – resources consumed to service a customer regardless of the number of units or batches sold. Examples are salespersons’ travel costs to visit customers, monthly statement processing costs and collecti on costs for late payments. Distribution-channel cost – resources consumed in each distribution channel the firm uses to service customers. Examples are operating costs of regional warehouses that serve major customers and centralized distribution centers that serve small retail outlets. Sales-sustaining cost – resources consumed to sustain sales and service activities that cannot be traced to an individual unit, batch, customer or distribution channel. Examples are general corporate expenditures for sales activity and the salary, fringe benefits and onus of the general sales manager. Customers profitability analysis provides valuable information to the assessment of customer value. In addition, firm must weigh other relevant factors before determining the action appropriate for each customers. The folllowing are among these relevant factors: Growth potential of the customer, the customer’s industry and its cross selling potential Possible reactions of the customers to changes in sales terms or sevices Importance of having the firm as a customer for future sales references especially when the customer could play a vital role in bringing in additional business. Customer Lifetime Value Many companies now see the impotance of looking at the long term value of the customers, the expected contribution to profit during the full period the company retains the customers. This concept is called customer lifetime value ( CLV), and it is calculated as the net present value of estimated future profits from the customer for a specified time, which may be three or five years. Present value is used because the profits from the customer are expected to occur over a number of years. To provide a more comprehensive  and strategically relevant measure of the value of the customer, CLV takes into account the company’s expectations about the future potential growth in profits for a customer. CLV can be used to measure the value of a customer or group of customers and to determine how marketing and support services should be allocated to these customers to improve the firm’s overall profitability. Since there is a significant level of judgment involved in estimating th e variables in the calculation. It is also important to compare different calculations of CLV made with different assumptions about profit forecasts and discount rates. It have three types of potentially unprofitable customer who might be retained: New and growing customers, who promise profitable business in the future and may provide a stepping stone for penetratig lucrative new markets Customers providing qualitative rather than financial benefits including customers at the edge in the development of new markets who provide valuable insights into likely trend movements in consumer demand Customers providing increased capability because of their status as recognised leaders in their markets or field of expertise. Thus, where customer profitability analysis reveals that a particular customer is unprofitable, it does not necessarily follow that this customer should be eliminated. Nor does it follow that the customer must be persuaded to accept terms and cindition will rwduce the customer’s level of satisfaction. Negotiations with customers might well reveals that less frequent deliveris would actually benefit the customers without causing cos tky stockpiles. Clearly, there is scope for negotiating with customers to influence their behaviour without compromising the customer’s level of satisfaction. Some aspects of improved negotiation might include: Non-cash incentives from sunk-cost investments for example sponsoring a season of a major cultural events primarily yields advertising benefits however seats in the accompanying corporate boxes might also yield enticing customer incentives. Similarly, a company’s accumulated frequent-flyer points may perhaps be spent on customers new or existing Restructure of delivery runs to create a more timely but less frequent service for the customer Capacity maximization on delivery runs that are required for profitable customers by offering a more frequent service for the potentially unprofitable customers with unpredictable demands Purchase of equipment on behalf of customers which they can use rent-free, in lieu of discounts or agent’s commissions. The  cash saved on reduced discounts potentially should exceed the cost of the assets. Additionally, ownership is retained and a stronger bond is forged with the customer thereby generating greater negotiating power in future Free short-term financial advice which will create efficiencies for the customer leading to reduced internal workload and consumption of resources New products at no cost in return for reduced discounts to serve a dual purpose, improving customer profitability while providing a useful vehicle for the promotion of new products A trade-off between quantity discounts and settlement discounts that minimizes the costs of cash overdraft and maixmizes long-run production scheduling The overriding consideration with a customer profitabilty analysis is that management will at least be armed with information about unprofitable customers and can focus attention on developing those innovations or strategoes that might reduce the lack of profits of a particular customer wi thout reducing that customer’s satisfaction. Alternatively provided a shift of thinking is possible, management can restructure the manufacturing process that will ultimately lead to a shift in the rsults of a customer’s profitability. The role of mechanics of activity based costing in developing a customer profitabilty analysis should not be underestimated with activity based costing, a general ledger amounts are dissected, making the assignment of costs to customer easier. In particular, the associated on costs of employing sales staff and motor vehicles would be analysed in detail and be readily available. This would embrace vehicle operating costs as well as fringe benefits and payroll tax, holiday and long service leave entitlements, worker’s compensation insurance, mobile telephone and training costs. Several of these items might conveniently be omitted from non avtivity based costing customer profitability analysis because of the complex analysis required to divide the general ledger amounts between the activities of different salesperson. Why Calculate Customer Profitability? The reasons why we calculate customer profitability is to help the company to improve its cost performance and also for manager to make decision about which customer or market channel to focus on. Besides, to improve the profitability by eliminating non-profitable customers and maximizing sales or services to profitable customers. Also act as an understanding of the  true costs of each segments including taking into account non-production costs when determine profitability. Definition and concept Customer profitability analysis based on the recognition that each customer is different. Therefore each dollar of revenue or each dollar of cost generated by the customers does not contribute equally to a company’s profitability. The general approach to customer profitability is based on the segmenting that customer base to determine the revenues and costs contribute to each segment. This is often combined with an Activity Based Costing (ABC) approach. ABC is a costing methodology that identifies activities in an organization and assigns the cost of each activities with resources to all products and services according to the actual consumption by each. Traditional cost accounting often supports a 20-80 rule that 20% of the largest customers, who purchase the most products, contribute 80% of the profits. Using ABC, analysis have often found that 20% of the customers generated 300% of the profits. The remaining 80% of the customers are actually unprofitable and can result in loss of 200% of the profits (Good Practice Guideline 2002, pg 21). Once the profitability and non-profitability segments are identified, profitability segments are maximized while non-profitability segment are reduced or eliminate. Based on the diagram above, basically there are two basic approaches to customer segmentation, for example demographic which could be categories into geographic area, customer age, gender, and income level. Second approach is psychographic which include customer values, attitude and customer interest, Once customer segmentation have been identified, the annual revenue is being calculated per segment. How this is done will depend on the product or service offered by the company, Discount, service fee should be included to determine the true amount of the revenue generated, Next, annual cost is calculated per segment. This will involve directly attributable product or services cost including overhead cost and ABC approach is the most effective way to allocate the cost. Profitable customer is equal to annual revenue exceed annual cost. And non-profitable customer is equal to annual cost exceed annual revenue. However, this will involve more accurate analysis to determine this. As for pr ofitable customer, it  need more detail planning to develop long term customer relationship to increase the revenue. Therefore, customer retention and loyalty program are needed The ability to determine customer profitability on an individual basis can add value to the company customer relationship. The customer can be helped to reduce its costs and the company can become more profitable. (Good Practice Guideline 2002, pg 22). However, for least profitable or non-profitable customer, there are two options of action: Eliminate – ceasing to supply these customer. This can be done by no longer marketing or raising the price, or even change the product. Re-engineering – turning the least profitable or non-profitable customer into profitable customer by decreasing the costs and increasing revenue. For example, using differential prices. With a new understanding of which customers were profitable and which were not, Kanthal become dedicated to turning unprofitable customers into profitable ones. The company developed ways to retain the customers and decrease their administrative and selling costs (Kaplan and Cooper 1998:188). In short terms Kanthal tried the following: reduce the size of its product lines, accept orders only for stocked items use external distributors to reduce the cost of small accounts, change compensation to salesmen to emphasis profit rather than only sales volume, and engineer to reduce set-up times and improve operational efficiencies. (Good Proactice Guideline 2002, pg 21) Last step is to implement new strategies, example changes in pricing, cost reduction should be reviewed to determine the impact on customer profitability. Recently, many companies have learn to understand the causal relationsip between employess and customers and the impact on revenue growth and firm profitability (Epstein, 2000). Customer performance measure is measurement used by organization to measure the revenue growth and firm profitability through market share, customer acqui sition, retention, satisfaction and customer profitability. CUSTOMER MEASURE DEFINITION Market share Reflects the proportion of business in a given market (in terms of number of customers, dollars spent, or unit volume sold) that a business unit sells. Customer acquisition Measures in absolute or relative terms, the rate at which a business unit attracts or wins new customers or business. Customer retention Tracks in absolute or relative terms the rate at which a business unit retains or maintains ongoing relationship with its customers. Customer satisfaction Assesses the satisfaction level of customers along specific performance criteria within te value proposition. Customer profitability Measures the net profit of a customer, or a segment, after allowing for the unique expenses required to support that customer (Epstein, 2000) Market share can be defined as the percentage of all sales within a market that is held by one brand / product or company. Market share can be measured in several ways. However, the two most important measures are by sales revenue and sales volume (the number of units sold). These are to analyze the impact of their own actions on market shares, as well as their profit implications. Lacking such knowledge, one might be tempted to oversimplify the cause-and-effect relationships between market shares and marketing variables, or to equate market shares to profitability (a not unusual tendency even among seasoned businessmen). Many individuals in business indeed keep a close watch over day-by-day changes in market shares, so much so that market-share movement to them is almost synonymous to market information (Cooper, 2010). By comparing the profit obtained from various market share the organization may identify which market share gives more profit and should be focus on those customer desire and wich customer gives less profit and the organization may choose either to improve their product/ service or lowering te product/ service on that market share. Characteristics of new, loyal and lost customers are particularly important for companies to understand. Marketing analysts group customers into segments of recent new purchasers, high-volume purchasers and non-purchasers using customer transaction data, and analyze the resulting segments to identify their common characteristics. Attributes of new customers provide a good appearance of a company’s likely acquisition target market. Similarly, characteristics of lost customers may define less desirable market segments, or may reveal problems in customer service or product satisfaction. Improvements in retention programs are saving companies significant time and money – keeping existing customers buying is much less expensive than  acquiring new customers (Customer Acquisition, Retention and Attrition Analysis, 2014) Measurement that will show the situation of business are : The number of new customers per quarter of year Total sales to new customers per quarter of year Sales to new customer as a proportion of total sales When business is good marketers can afford to take an evolutionary approach to customer acquisition and retention by continually optimizing branding, creative, advertising mix, and offer strategy. But during challenging business situations, an evolutionary approach is bound to yield underwhelming results (Customer Acquisition & Retention, 2014). The difference in sales in a market share from year to year, will act as indicator to the organization regarding percentage of new customers obtained or lost customers. Customer retention is the ongoing customer relationship that yields revenues from the sale of additional products or services. The revenues become more profitable as the customer becomes easier to serve. Since the customer is buying again it is assumed that less sales effort is required, customer service costs decrease, and the costs of acquiring customers decline. Customer loyalty encompass customer retention but also includes the customers’ recommendation of the produ ct or service to other potential customer. As for example, word of mouth recommendation is important to Southwest Airlines, whose reservation system has never been accessible to travel agents. It has relied on advertising and customer loyalty to spread its message to potential customers. The airlines which began flying in 1971, has consistently been profitable. Convinced that customer loyalty is a important factor in increasing profitability than is market share, Southwest Airlines strives to build customer loyalty by providing at low fares dependable, frequent service over relatively short routes, delivered by friendly employees (Epstein, 2000). Measures of customer loyalty were selected because they reflected both length (retention) and depth (cross sell) of the bank-customer relationship. Length of relationship is reported by both division-reported customer retention rates (percentage of customers who remained customers during 1993) and mean customer-reported relationship tenure. Relationship depth is measured by division cross-sell rates, which record the percentage of customer  households with multiple accounts (account cross sell) or multiple services (service cros s sell) (Hallowell, 1996). Companies are very aware that acquiring a new customer is more expensive than retaining an existing one, so companies cannot afford to lose customers due to poor service at the contact center level. The contact center must be viewed as an essential extension of the company, and an important part of the brand experience. Therefore, ensuring that the experience is pleasant, efficient, and satisfies the customer’s need is crucial to success. The most common method for measuring customer satisfaction is through surveys, either during or after the call. While this method provides some intelligence around the customer experience, it doesn’t offer the most accurate view of customer satisfaction. This is due to the small sample size and the fact that the only questions asked are those deemed important by the enterprise. Surveys also lack detail, such as which of a customer’s experience with your company caused the review, which agent handled the interaction and what was the root cause of a dissatisfied call. Lacking this critical information, enacting meaningful change is extremely challenging. Without the use of speech analytics, contact center operators are left w ith an incomplete view of customer satisfaction and a disconnect between the scores they receive and the actions that caused the scores. Speech analytics uncovers the reality of what happened during a call, enabling companies to improve the business processes and agent behaviors most affecting the customer’s experience. Nexidia’s Managed Analytic Services team uses speech analytics technology to locate the agent behaviors and business process that have the greatest impact on the customer. As example, the team first begins by identifying the calls which contain sentiments of dissatisfaction. By building searches that contain words such as â€Å"unhappy,† â€Å"speak to a manager† or â€Å"frustrating,† the team creates a category of calls in which the customer seemed upset, or the call escalated. More refined searches such as â€Å"this is the xth time I’ve called,† or â€Å"my hold time was excessive† will yield further insight. The team drills into this category of calls to create sub-categories. These sub-categories show which types of calls most often contain frustration, such as billing calls or calls for technical assistance. The team also identifies which agents have the most dissatisfied calls and compares the percentage of these calls to total volume. The second step in evaluating  customer satisfaction begins by identifying behaviors and processes that typically cause customers to become upset. These include excessive transfers, requests for call backs, and long non-talk times. The team creates call categories which contain these issues, providing a foundation for performing root cause analysis. Studying the root cause arms companies with the information needed to understand why these â€Å"trigger† events occur, and what steps can be taken to prevent them. As behaviors and processes are modified, monitoring customer satisfaction becomes a continuous cycle, thus ensuring maximum return on investment. (Nexidia Managed Analytic Services, 2010) The relationship of customer loyalty and customer satisfaction can be seen in the following categorization of customers; it is important to understand fully the environment which the customer is working, as extrinsic factors may drive them from one category to another: Apostles. Customer who are loyal and satisfied and recommend the service to others. Mercenaries. Customers who may switch service suppliers to obtain lower price, but are highly satisfied. Hostages. Customer who are highly dissatisfied but have few or no alternative. Terrorists. Customers who have alternatives and use them, and also try to convert other customers by expressing their dissatisfaction (Epstein, 2000). Customer profitability of a various group of customer may be identify by measuring the profit gain by a group of customer from year to year. Profitability measures were determined based on their hypothesized relationship to customer satisfaction and loyalty. Both of the measures used, ROA and NIE/Rev (non-interest expense as a percentage of total revenue), reflect profit at the individual division. See Roth (1993) for an analysis of similar performance measures in service firms. Given the intent of this study, NIE/Rev is preferred to ROA as a more appropriate measure of profitability. Retail bank profit can be separated into, first, the results of operations (revenue-enhancing as well as cost-incurring) which influence expenses and revenues that are not sensitive to interest rates, and second, treasury activities, which influence interest-sensitive costs and revenues. This paper addresses primarily non-interest-sensitive components of profitability, hypothesized to relate to customer loyalty. ROA contains both interest-sensitive and non-interest-sensitive components, while NIE/Rev is generated only from non-interest-sensitive costs (the revenue portion of NIE/Rev may be somewhat  related to customer-relevant interest rates). Appendix 1 discusses ROA, NIE/Rev and the other measures used in more detail (Hallowell, 1996). By comparing the profit of different group of customer, the difference amount of profit will act as indicator which group of customer that gives high profit and low profit. Other than that, customer profitability may be determined by other tools of measuring customer performance such as market share, customer acquisition, retention,and customer satisfaction. Five reasons why customers can be unprofitable. They are: (Six step to Customer Profitability Analysis, 2007) 1. The sales force is under continual pressure to close deals and offers discounts to secure business within the sales period. 2. Pricing errors due to incorrect estimates of time. 3. A one-size-fits-all approach to serving customers leading to over servicing where the business levels does not justify it. 4. Loss leaders are offered to customers who always shop around for a deal, in the expectation that profit will be recovered over the lifetime of the customer. 5. The connection between customers and costs is not made and over time some become a greater drain on resources. Conclusion Customer profitability analysis provides a method to help firms see and understand the profitability of their customers. It takes effort and management sponsorship to make it feasible and worthwhile. It is a method and not an end in itself, but without it that investment in slick technology might not be such a good idea, if it only speeds up your ability to attract the wrong customers. Your allocation of resources to customers may also be based on erroneous information. If you have this understanding it uncovers new options for profitable growth and can help you work out which customers to attract, which to really hang on to at maybe greater cost. To help decide which to grow, CPA must be augmented with an understanding of potential lifetime value. It is recommended that Customer Profitability Analysis (CPA) be measured through Activity Based Costing. There are various group of customer, therefore it would be better to differentiate them through segmenting b demographic or goegraphic or so on, to make it easier to recognised which group of customer that gives high/low profit, and which of  the customers should be focus on, eliminate or re-engineering. Other than that, CPA may be measured by analyzing the customer performance measure of market share, Customer acquisition, retention, and customer satisfaction. Increase in Customer Profitability might be caused by increase in market share, customer retention which wil lead to increase in customer acquisition and probably increase in customer satisfaction. REFERENCES Cooper, L. G. (2010). Market Share Analysis , 1. Customer Acquisition & Retention. (2014). Retrieved October 23, 2014, from Lenati: http://www.lenati.com/our-expertise/customer-acquisition-retention Customer Acquisition, Retention and Attrition Analysis. (2014). Retrieved October 23, 2104, from Microstrategy: Best in Business Intelligence: http://www2.microstrategy.com/download/files/Solutions/byDepartment/CRM/Customer_Acquisition.pdf Dikoli, M. S. (1995). Customer Profitabilit Analysis: An ABC Approach. 5. Epstein, M. J. (2000). Management Accounting Guideline. Customer profitability analysis , 8. Faculty of Finance and Management. (2002). Customer Profitability Analysis , 36. Nexidia Managed Analytic Services. (2010). Customer Satisfaction Analysis , 2. Six step to Customer Profitability Analysis. (2007, May 7). Retrieved October 23, 2014, from Accounting Web: http://www.accountingweb.com/topic/six-steps-customer-profitability-analysis