Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Importance to the play Essay

Write a letter from the director to the actor playing a character you have studied, in which you advise him/her about the role he/she will be playing and it’s importance to the play. Congratulations for your excellent audition for the role of the inspector in the production ‘An inspector calls’. You have been chosen to play this role because out of all the actors we auditioned, your performance showed certain qualities needed to play the part of the inspector. For example the inspector must have a strong and domineering character to show that he is in control of the others throughout the section of the play where he is at the house. The inspector must also come across as quite eerie and ghostlike at times. J. B. priestly was born 13 September 1894, Bradford, West riding of Yorkshire and he died August 14th 1984 aged 89. He wrote many books and also had his only radio broadcast during the war. He wanted this particular production to be set in 1912, this is because it fits in with certain things that are mentioned in the play, for instance at the beginning when Birling is delivering his speech displaying his narrow-minded opinion of the war, Titanic and other political views. If a modern version of the play was to be performed, then he wouldn’t be able to do this and therefore we wouldn’t have that particular information on Birling which really shows his character and how he is a capitalist and believes that he should look out for himself and his family and considers as and okay thing to do to pay his workers as little as possible because they can’t walk out or argue with him as they have nowhere else to work. This is important in the play, because ‘The Inspector’ is the person that tries to make Birling change and possibly become more socialist and realise that there are other people in the world and I think that the way that the Inspector arrives immediately after he has delivered this speech to the rest of the Birling family, that the ‘Eva/Daisy’ story could possibly have just been a story until he refused to change his ways. I think that the point of the play was that the Inspector had come to the Birling’s house to try to change them and make them better people, and they were told about Eva/Daisy and then they were given the option to change. I think that if Birling and Mrs Birling and Gerald had also realised that they needed to change (like Sheila and Eric) then they wouldn’t have received the second phone call. Capitalism is a social and economic system which means that a person believes in class and social groups and believes that they should be distinguished from one another, and believes that if you want to make yourself richer then you can, also these people will not want to negotiate themselves with people poorer or people from a lower-class background than themselves. The characters in the play that have been chosen to represent this are Mr & Mrs Birling and Gerald.

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Gender and Stereotype in Sitcom Essay

In both sitcoms, Black Books and Men Behaving Badly, comedy is generated and dependant on the representation of stereotypes shown through characters. Some follow stereotypes and others don’t, but throughout both sitcoms, this is where the humor comes from, and this is extremely visible in the two episodes chosen for each sitcom. In Men Behaving Badly, the two main characters, Tong and Gary have fixed views on gender and couldn’t be closer to the modern day stereotype of a youngish male. They are two men who are lager swilling and football crazy, and even though both in their thirties, adult life hasn’t dawned on either just quite yet. The mise – en – scene of their flat is very boyish and the pub is dark and dingy. They never change throughout the sitcom and seem extremely content with their laidback lifestyles. Much of the humor is generated from this because the middle aged male audience can relate, and wish they were in that situation. The audience will understand their jokes and think of the times when they were probably the same. This behavior also allows them to get away with much more, for example in this episode neither gets back from the pub until the early hours and Gary misses Dorothy specially prepared romantic meal but avoids confrontation. They also both have female companions. Dorothy is Gary’s on/off girlfriend who is always extremely forgiving, and could be considered as the female stereotype in many aspects. She says she wants a proper relationship, but knows it’s unlikely with Gary. She cooks him romantic meals and is always working hard to please him. Deborah on the other hand is not in a relationship with Tony, but knows she can use him for a bit of fun whenever she likes. An example is at the end of this episode when she tells him to wait outside for her naked in the shed in the early hours of the morning, for the second time in a matter of weeks. Tony obviously falls for it, with him being the sex crazed stereotypical man that he is portrayed to be, and comedy is generated from this. Deborah on the other hand, is the stereotype of the attractive and sophisticated girl upstairs, the one who is definitely most likely to take advantage of men. Women can relate to these characters, with the struggles they go through and the laughs they have mocking their men, and this is how the audience is formed. The whole audience is able to relate through the portrayal of stereotype in this sitcom, and humor is generated along the way. Men will find the parts played by the men funny, and the women watching vice versa, but it can be viewed by all in confidence that laughs will arise from any episode. The women mock the men, but the men get their own back with their loutish, get away with anything attitudes, and by the end everyone is satisfied. On the other hand, in Black Books, most of the comedy is generated due to characters deviating from their stereotypes. Bernard is the only main character who does not. He is a stereotypical Irishman, who is an incredibly easygoing, drinking smoking lout, whose witty humor generates from him ordering about his only employee and best friend Manny. Manny is the other half to this relationship, and the much more the feminine personality wise. His appearance is of a hippy, and for much of the time he is acting as the forgiving wife to Bernard’s demanding husband role. Bernard tells Manny that he hasn’t washed his things, and Manny replies politely, ‘I want a herb garden’. In their relationship though they both conform to stereotypes, Bernard of the bad husband and Manny of the forgiving wife. Bernard is forever ungrateful for Manny’s effort for example he says after Manny has spent time cooking a meal, ‘What kind of filth is spewing out of your hatch tonight?’. Manny is used to it though, and just ignores his petulance. Bernard also mocks Manny’s female ways in saying that, ‘Ill wait until you put your teeth in dear’, before speaking to Manny. In the episode watched, much of the comedy derives from this repeated bickering between the two, and contrasting stereotyp es. They both eventually go and see a psychiatrist who almost changes roles around, but eventually, as with every episode, the equilibrium is restored by the end, and Manny’s subordinate role is re-established. The third main character in the sitcom is Fran, and she is much the glue between the two males as she can relate to both ways of life and confront their problems. She derives greatly from her stereotype though, and acts as an extremely masculine female, smoking and drinking, and is told by her friend she smells. In this particular episode Fran even tries to make a menz to her ways by stopping drinking and smoking and taking up yoga, but this vision is not long lived. When her friend Eva and she are together the mise – en scene is bright, light and modern, but by the end of the episode she is back as being considered one of the boys in the way. She returns to the dingy bookshop and has the last line in this particular episode, a belch, which sums her up in a way. By the end of the episode the unity of the group is definitely restored, and so are all normal ways of living. Manny and Fran’s deviations from stereotype are back in place and Bernard’s was never in doub t. This particular sitcom provides a different type of comedy to Men Behaving Badly; in that stereotypes do not have to be adhered to in order to produce comedy. A different type of humor is created, whereby the audience is laughing at the characters rather than relating to them. All in all, the humor created by both situation comedies comes back to the portrayal of stereotype, or deviation of it by characters, but Black Books just shows a different edge to how it can depend on the stereotypical representation of gender in situation comedies.

Monday, July 29, 2019

Secondary prevention in coronary heart disease (CHD) Essay

Secondary prevention in coronary heart disease (CHD) - Essay Example A health survey done in England in 2006 suggests that the prevalence of CHD in men was 6.5 percent and in women was only 4 percent; however, these rates are increasing with age (British Heart Foundation Statistics Website, 2010). In Scotland, the prevalence of CHD is much higher with percentage rate of 4.6 than the 4.3 percent reported cases in Wales and 3.5 percent in England (British Heart Foundation Statistics Website, 2010). From the aforementioned data, it can be observed that the variation of prevalence of CHD is wide within the United Kingdom. On the other hand, the prevalence of CHD in England alone ranges from 2.3 percent in London to 4.9 in North East of England. In Scotland only, the prevalence rate of CHD is higher compared to that in England where 3.9 percent cases were observed in Lothian and Orkney and 8.4 percent in Shetland (British Heart Foundation Statistics Website, 2010). The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (2007) noted that death rate from CHD in the UK is more than 103,000 deaths per year and considered to be one of the highest in Europe, and this rate varies with age, gender, socio – economic status, ethnicity and geographic location in the UK. Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (2007) and the British Heart Foundation (2008) noted that various types of aetiology with a number of potentially modifiable risk factors are identified with cardiovascular diseases. These are: Among the aforementioned risk factors of acquiring CHD and peripheral vascular disease, smoking is believed to be the principal risk factor causing it. During the increasing myocardial demand, smoking have shown to be associated with impaired coronary blood flow responses, and in patients having coronary artery diseases, smoking is noted to contribute to myocardial ischemia. Libby and Theroux (2005) and Leon 2009 stated that atherogenesis, which is considered to be the most important cause and the underlying foundation of coronary heart

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Booker T. Washington Self-Made Man Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Booker T. Washington Self-Made Man - Essay Example â€Å"No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.†Ã‚  (Washington, Booker T) Washington was able to help those that were discriminated, especially in regaining their rights to vote. He was known as the ‘Tuskegee Machine’ by those that opposed his actions and resented power to the blacks because according to such people, blacks were only meant to be slaves for their thinking was too narrow to allow more communities of people to live in harmony with one another. However, through his speeches and lectures, he was able to help a large number of people understand the ill associated with slavery and thus gain the support of white people belonging to affluent families, black people engaged in the business or working class in society, religious and educational institutions and leaders belonging to the two sects. By mustering so much support, he gained power and was able to inspire many African Americans into ca rrying out new jobs, taking to entrepreneurship, assisting them in mainly climbing the social and financial ladder by emerging out of the depression that slavery had created in their lives by creating happiness for them and thus educating them about the power of being self-reliant instead of depending on others for their livelihoods. He was of the impression that race discrimination mainly existed because of the lack of education among African Americans; they were completely stripped of their rights because of pressure from white people to work as slaves and earn very little or no amount money to sustain their lives as well as those of their families’. Washington was able to gather support as well as philanthropic donations and funds from influential people and set up many societies in the agricultural as well as production sector, helping the slaves to rise from their positions. He helped in educating them so that they could lead a better lifestyle and earn money rather than being dominated and treated like servants. His main aim was to help them from the drudgery that they were stuck in and bring them to par with the white people; his personal life story, as depicted in his book, was thus a wonderful example for people to follow and live by, as a story of hard work and diligence and thus is known as a ‘self-made’ man. Another well-known figure in the past of American philanthropy and sociological thinking is Jane Addams, responsible for reforming America during the Progressive Era and pioneering work in the field of women’s rights including their right to vote and to be able to gain access to a healthier standard of life, especially for mothers and their children. Addams did state that women and men alike needed to be self-reliant and self-made and not dependent on other people for their living, however she was skeptical regarding Washington’s demands because according to her people belonging to the lower rungs of society co uld not just rise out of the blue. They needed financial as well as other forms of social

Saturday, July 27, 2019

2.Critically evaluate the suggestion that individuals can use leisure Essay

2.Critically evaluate the suggestion that individuals can use leisure and tourism to form and express their identity - Essay Example â€Å"The issue of identity is omnipresent in discourses on tourism - not only in academically informed discourses on tourism, but also in discourses from inside the tourism system, i.e. the local participants - as the contributions by Bras, Schlehe, Senft, and Venbrux exemplify.† (Dahles H, Meijl T, 1999) Everyone has the right to rest on a daily, weekly and yearly basis, and the right to the leisure time that enables them to develop every aspect of their personality and their social integration. Clearly, everyone is entitled to exercise this right to personal development. The right to tourism is a concrete expression of this general right, and social tourism is underpinned by the desire to ensure that it is universally accessible in practice. Studies of leisure and tourism can be located within the social sciences – we can understand tourism and leisure from psychological and sociological approaches. Psychology seeks to understand the individual – in tourism most studies surround the issue of motivation. Sociology seeks to understand societal influences on individual behaviour. Two main strands of sociology - structuralism (consensus and conflict theories) and social action theory (interactionism, phenomenology). Rise of consumption society - leisure and tourism as forms of consumption. An emic primacy given to lifestyle in participant accounts: Some would look at me as a bum; I would feel a bit sorry for them if they look at me like that. What’s really developed in my real lifestyle. (Max, English, 40, 17 years lifestyle travel [LT]) Travelling was so much introduced to me as a baby that it became much more of an option as a way of life. There’s no year in my life that hasn’t involved travel. This type of movement and constant change is very much a part of me and my lifestyle. (Tamara, Canadian/Indian, 34, 17 years LT) â€Å"Young people’s increased leisure opportunities can actually keep them in their parents’ house because they spend

Pressure Ulcers Risk Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Pressure Ulcers Risk Management - Essay Example Apart from being static in a position there are some other reasons responsible for this like fragility of skin, chronic problems like diabetes, lack of nourishment, mental disability, incontinence or old age. Pressure ulcer management has definitely changed dramatically over the last 3 decades or so. Earlier, pressure ulcers did not receive much attention and they were treated with betadine, maalox, heat lamps and there were no low air loss beds. After the works of Braden and Bergstrom, pressure ulcers began to receive the attention deserved. Still lot of work is yet to be done to get the word out. That is why this project needs to be taken up. In year 2000-2002, there were 474,692 new cases of pressure ulcer( Patient safety in American Hospitals, Health Grades 2004) it is about 0.17% incidence rate. Out of this 13.13% of pressure ulcer cases resulted in death. 34,320 deaths due to pressure ulcer were attributable to patient safety. It also has a cost factor to it. In the year 200-2002 in US, $2,574.02 million were spent to treat pressure ulcers. At the same time $2.57 were spent to prevent pressure ulcer. (WD) Regulatory agencies such as CMS, JCAHO & the State Departments of Health consider pressure ulcers to be preventable and so nosocomial pressure ulcers are the fault of the facility or agency in which they occur. Nursing Homes receive citations, fines and even criminal charges for these types of wounds. Patients sue facilities and nurses and win. This is such a hot topic that all the agencies that deal with this problem are busy updating information, preventative measures and heightened awareness. If a streamlined process can be developed that addresses education and a nursing focused approach, perhaps we will see a drop in pressure ulcers. The National Pressure Ulcer Advisor Panel (NPUAP) has recently (Feb 2007) released some updates. The staging system was updated to both clarify the four stages AND name deep tissue injury into the staging system. They have also added the definition of pressure redistribution to replace the old pressure reduction and pressure relief definitions. Thi s was mainly due to new findings associated with shearing injuries.CMS is changing reimbursement on nosocomial pressure ulcers. Basically, CMS will reimburse to acute care facilities for pressure ulcers if the patient was admitted with the pressure ulcer, but if it is a nosocomial pressure ulcer then CMS will not pay. JCAHO has added pressure ulcers to the 2008 National Patient Safety Goal list for long term care:- "Goal 14 Prevent health care-associated pressure ulcers (decubitus ulcers). 14A Assess and periodically reassess each resident's risk for developing a pressure ulcer (decubitus ulcer) and take action to address any identified risks." Braden scale Braden Scale is a clinically validated tool used in the medical profession to get a reliable score of the risk level for developing pressure ulcers in a patient. With its help even those nurses who do not have uniform level of experience and capacity of judgment, can have consistency in identifying the risk level of the patient. This also helps them to monitor their patient care in a busy schedule. It also helps them to pay appropriate attention to the six specific risk factors.

Friday, July 26, 2019

E-Logistics Ning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

E-Logistics Ning - Essay Example In practice, it has been proved that the actual benefits and drawbacks of each organizational strategy take a long time to appear; this is a problem when the change on a firm’s traditional policies is attempted since the value of the proposed strategies is difficult to be proved in advance or even in the short term. However, the elements of this strategy and its expected performance – as it can be measured using figures related to the firm’s performance within a particular period of time – can be important indicators regarding the potential value of a strategy in case that it is established in a particular organization. Current paper aims to explore the benefits and drawbacks of the global supply chain strategies of VF Brands, a firm well known in the global Apparel industry. Particular reference is made to the firm’s new global supply chain strategy, the Third Way, and its potential contribution in the improvement of the firm’s relationship with its global suppliers, thus its growth in the global market. 2. Global Supply Chain strategy in VF Brands – critical analysis and evaluation 2.1 Global supply chain strategy in the literature The literature developed in the specific field is based on a wide range of criteria; there are views, which promote a narrow perspective of supply chain management – in terms of the potentials of the specific organizational sector to be changed following the differentiations in the market trends. Moreover, different perceptions seem to exist regarding the elements of a successful supply chain management strategy: in accordance with Mangan et al. (2008) the criterion on which the value of a supply chain management strategy is decided is the level at which this strategy promotes the use of knowledge related to all organizational activities. However, Branch (2008) notes that key priority of supply chain management in modern market is the identification of practices that will mini mize the cost of production. It is further noted that in the context of the global market, the challenges for supply chain are significantly increased; global supply chain management strategies need to address all issues related to a firm’s production needs in the global market – a fact that results necessarily to the increase of complexity of the particular strategies (Branch 2008). Under these terms, the criteria on which the choice of a supplier in the global market will be based cannot be standardized; usually, ‘the differentiation from other players in the marketplace and the existence of a separate identity’ (Branch 2008, p.13) are used as criteria for choosing a supplier in the international market. However, other criteria can be also set in accordance with the needs of each organization and its potentials to respond to the demands of each supplier – demand for specific price, location, time for producing a specific volume of products with â €˜pre-arranged’ characteristics. Also, the level at which a firm accepts its potential dependency on another firm – in the context of the supply chain – can be differentiated. Supply chain, which has been defined as ‘

Thursday, July 25, 2019

Marketing Management Consulting Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Marketing Management Consulting Report - Essay Example Weird Products is a slimming pills company, which provides an opportunity where people can positively improve their lives. The company will deal in producing healthy food supplements, which help provide people loose weight the healthy way. The tablets have been tested and are safe with a number of through studies to back up the effectiveness and the benefits of the food supplements. Weird Product slimming pills use simple and natural products to develop the slimming and beauty pills and these ingredients are mainly from unroasted coffee, which have been studied to be very effective for slimming. The ingredients of the products have been carefully thought out and the potential harms of coffee due to high consumption have bee reduced. The amounts of caffeine that are contained within the pills are less than a quarter cup of coffee, hence ensuring that the product is free of harmful ingredients like cafestol and kahweol (which could in a number of ways be dangerous for the human body). Weird Products at present is available only in the UK. The company has just been developed and the launched in the United Kingdoms and has developed an e- Commerce website. This website caters to mostly Europe. The company at present has a number of different strategies that are being used in terms of marketing. However, the main source of marketing for the company is online and via the web. Since Weird Products has most of its business online mostly, hence this is the best mode of marketing for the company at present. However the business does also sell the products to pharmacies across Europe. The various sources that are currently being used for the company is mainly, e Mail marketing, pay per clicks, banner ads and link building, all these along with a strong emphasis on search engine optimization as well (Jobber, 2004). These are the main marketing media that are being used by the company. The current marketing of the company

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Principal barrier to nurseconsumer partnerships Essay

Principal barrier to nurseconsumer partnerships - Essay Example The elderly patients on the whole require more compassion, concentration and patience from the nursing staff to get their message across. There are many factors that increase the difficulty in communication between the nurses and the elderly. Patients perceive good communication as critical to the delivery of health care. (Adiar, 1994, Young, 1995) The common patient barriers to communication involve impaired hearing and vision, difference in the way of acting and verbal expression from the younger generation, cognitive and memory problems, physical problems, and environmental factors such as noise or poor lightening. (Park and Song, 2004) Whereas the common nurse related barriers have been assessed to be stereotyping, poor articulation, and excessive use of medical terminologies. (Lubinski and Wellan, 1997) Many strategies have been described by nurses as being helpful in communication with patients who have verbal difficulties. The cases like of May usually require non verbal communication techniques along with verbal communication. Non verbal communication comprise mainly of seven indices. These are facial movements, gaze, touch, gesticulation, interpersonal spacing, posture and odor. (Barker, 1963, McBride, 1964, Scheflen, 1973, Henley, 1977, Argyle, 1994) Nurses report looking at the patient and picking up clues such as facial expressions, eye gaze, and body language are extremely helpful. Another system is the yes and no system, where by the patient answers to the questions via head nods, eye blinks and foot taps etc. (Hemsley et al, 2001) Watching for expressions on the face of patients such as relief expressions, repeating the questions to ascertain the yes or no response, rephrasing questions, adding animation or signs, and using pen and paper and pictures to communicate ideas have also been regarded as very helpful in achieving communication. (Hemsley et al, 2001) Communication between the nurses and the patients can be improved significantly if nurses were trained to pick them in their surroundings. Nurses should develop an interest in caring for the elderly, since this will improve the overall attitude of the nurse towards providing care. Nurses should provide confidence to the patients so as to allow "disclosure" of patient's weaknesses. (Park and Song, 2005) The removal of physical environmental barriers will also help in better communication development. Many of the older patients do not respond well to the hospital environment. This problem can be alleviated if the nurses introduce and explain the hospital environment, so as to increase familiarity. (Park and Song, 2005) The problem of generation gap can be minimized by educating the nurses of the perceptions of the patients and giving individual nurse care to the patients. (Park and Song, 2005) References Adair L. (1994) The patient's agenda. Nursing Standard 9, 2023. Argyle M,1994 Bodily Communication,2nd Edition, Methuen, London. Barker, RG,1963.The Stream of Behavior, Appleton-Century-Croft, New York Hemsley, Sigafoos, Balandin, Forbes, Taylor, Green, Parmenter, 2001 Nursing the patient with severe communication impairment Journal of Advanced Nursing 35(6), 827835 Henley NM, 1977 Body Politics, Power, Sex and Non verbal Communication. Prenctice Hall,

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Discussion Essay Qustion Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Discussion Qustion - Essay Example These winds are also known to change their directions every now and then, especially during the night. Sea and land winds are the ones we encounter on a daily basis. These winds are not much strong when compared with Santa Ana winds (Kissell, 2011). Santa Ana winds on the other hand flows at a distance relatively high from the surface of the earth. These winds are dry and extremely strong. Santa Ana winds are known to originate from the inland. Noticeable effects of these winds have been seen in the coastal regions of Southern California. Geologists have further provided that Santa Ana winds do not take any specific direction (Kissell, 2011). When a wind firm wants to put a new turbine, for electricity generation, they must put into consideration the direction of the wind. For the case of land and mountain winds, the turbine should be set in a manner that allows flexibility based on the direction of the wind at that specific moment. A fixed turbine may be put in place when considering Santa Ana winds as they do not have a specific direction. Situating turbines on mountainous locations may pose the problem of power evacuation and maintenance. Sea and land winds are believed to be important since they are available on flat ground/terrains (Chiras Sagrillo & Woofenden, 2010). They are thereby used in generation of electrical energy. Implementation of the local grid is also easier on flat

Monday, July 22, 2019

Environmental Issues Essay Example for Free

Environmental Issues Essay The environmental issues in India become more serious every day and she is turning into a bit of a mess on this front but with over 1 Billion people most of which in dire poverty, its hardly surprising. The recent boom in its industries, little or no environmental education, infrastructure nearly at bursting point not to mention the huge deforestation thats going on. If you think your country has some problems then you are about to be a bit of a shock because Im sure nothing compares to some of the environmental issues in India. A whopping 65% of the land in here is degraded in some way, shape or form and the endless government policies do little to curb the damage. In fact, there is no shortage at all of government legislation protecting the environment but unfortunately it is never enforced due to flagrant abuse of power, corruption and lack of resources. If you have ever been to India you have undoubtedly noticed the serious little problem that they have in India. No, its not like here in the UK where a can of coke and crisp packet on the floor are a litter problem. Indias litter problem is almost a bit disturbing. The attitude is to just throw it on the floor, there are no bins, just drop it. Thats 1 Billion people disposing of their rubbish on the floor, every day. The scope of the problem is almost unimaginable and of course, it takes generations to change a habit like that but no one is starting. What they need here is education and that is what is seriously missing. With regards to environmental issues in India, India appears to be digging its own grave deeper and quicker than the rest of us, nearly 30% of Indias gross agricultural output is lost every year due to soil degradation, poor land management and counter productive irrigation. The wetlands and lakes are also being hit hard. Mainly by the industrial boom that hit India a decade ago, the main problems being improper disposal of industrial waste like chemicals etc. Indias 7516 km of coastline have also come under attack from this environmental sabotage, overfishing remains a huge problem due to lack of legislation enforcement. Raw sewage from an awful lot of people is pumped endlessly into the ocean along with other industrial waste and chemicals. Hundreds of miles of coral and other sea life are slowly being destroyed due to offshore drilling. Tourist centres such as Goa suffer due to badly managed development and excessive tourism, again resulting from the lack of legislation and policy enforcement. The main environmental issues in India The Environmental issues in India are huge. Whether its the rapidly dropping water tables, mass deforestation, land degradation or river contamination, India has it all and on a massive scale. Water resources Perhaps the largest of the environmental issues in India facing the people of India is inadequate or lack of access to vital fresh water resources. As Indias industries get bigger so will the amount of water they require and the amounts are already beginning to spiral. As an example I use the Coca cola factory which was accused for years of messing up an entire eco system. By simply diverting all the water to their factory, millions of people went without. The company are also accused of causing huge droughts and contamination to a massive area by exploiting an excessive amount of ground water and then replacing it with toxic discharge. Of course, Coca Cola is a big famous company and that is why this came to news but I have no doubt that there are a million examples of similar things happening all over India. Years of exploitation and extraction of groundwater in India has caused the national water table to suddenly and very dramatically drop. Considering that 85% of rural drinking water and 55% of urban water comes from underground sources, this seems to me a very urgent problem as literally hundreds of millions of people could be left without water does it even bear thinking about! The rivers are on the front line of pollution in India. Millions of people depend on them for their livelihoods but they are slowly being polluted and destroyed by sewage, chemicals and other agricultural and industrial waste. These are some of the most polluted rivers in the world but little seems to be to stem the incessant destruction. Deforestation The story of deforestation is another of the highly serious environmental issues in India. It is predicted that almost 5. 3 Million hectares of forest have been destroyed since the independence. Most of it being chopped down for housing, industrialisation and river projects. It is estimated that the number of Mangrove Forests have more than halved in the last 20 years. The government soon recognised the importance that these forests hold for the conservation of soil and put forward a range of polices trying to curb the destruction; of course, nothing has really changed and thousands of acres are destroyed every year with nothing in the way of replacement. Poor management and abuse of power are again the increasingly sad cause behind the mass deforestation of India, some call it greed. Protected areas are largely declassified so that commercial activities can take place but new areas are not reclassified. Poaching is another factor, people actually coming in and steeling trees and one of the final blows to the forest of India who already seem to have lost the battle is the invasion of foreign tree species such as Eucalyptus etc. Air Pollution India now has one of the worst qualities of air in the world. Without a doubt the main contributor of air pollution in India is the transport system. In the big cities like Delhi and Mumbai, millions of old and very dirty diesel engines churn out millions of tonnes more sulphur than their western equivalents partly because of being old and partly because of the diesel. As a result, the asthma rate for children in some of the larger cities is now at %50 and rising fast. Because of the varied causes and consequences surrounding this topic, Ive devoted a whole page to India air pollution. Plastics and other waste I have already touched on the massive problem of waste disposal but I intend to go into it more here. It seems that some areas are simply fed up with the lack of Government intervention and are using there initiatives. As an example I use some of the towns and villages in Kerala who are seeing a return to the old paper bags from plastic ones. As I am sure you know, plastic isnt in any urgency to degrade but the people of India dont seem to recognise this as they throw every unwanted item onto the floor wherever they are. Of course, the victims of this environmental issue in India are the future generations and the animals. The holy cows that are so integral to Indian life are slowly being killed from the huge amount of plastic bags they consume that eventually rap around their insides.

Critical Thinking Essay Essay Example for Free

Critical Thinking Essay Essay Critical thinking includes the component skills of analyzing arguments, making inferences using inductive or deductive reasoning, judging or evaluating, and making decisions or solving problems when evaluating academic content. Background knowledge is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for enabling critical thought within a given subject. Critical thinking involves both cognitive skills and dispositions. These dispositions, which can be seen as attitudes or habits of mind, include open- and fair-mindedness, inquisitiveness, flexibility, a propensity to seek reason, a desire to be well-informed, and a respect for and willingness to entertain diverse viewpoints. There are both general- and domain-specific aspects of critical thinking. Empirical research suggests that people begin developing critical thinking competencies at a very young age. Although adults often exhibit deficient reasoning, in theory all people can be taught to think critically. Instructors are urged to provide explicit instruction in critical thinking, to teach how to transfer to new contexts, and to use cooperative or collaborative learning methods and constructivist approaches that place students at the center of the learning process. In constructing assessments of critical thinking, educators should use open-ended tasks, real-world or â€Å"authentic† problem contexts, and ill-structured problems that require students to go beyond recalling or restating previously learned information. Such tasks should have more than one defensible solution and embed adequate collateral materials to support multiple perspectives. Finally, such assessment tasks should make student reasoning visible by requiring students to provide evidence or logical arguments in support of judgments, choices, claims, or assertions. Critical thinking is an important element of all professional fields and academic disciplines when evaluating academic content. Within the framework of scientific skepticism, the process of critical thinking involves the careful acquisition and interpretation of information and use of it to reach a well-justified conclusion. The concepts and principles of critical thinking can be applied to any context or case but only by reflecting upon the nature of that application. Critical thinking forms, therefore, a system of related, and overlapping, modes of thought such as anthropological  thinking, sociological thinking, historical thinking, political thinking, psychological thinking, philosophical thinking, mathematical thinking, chemical thinking, biological thinking, ecological thinking, legal thinking, ethical thinking, musical thinking, thinking like a painter, sculptor, engineer, business person, etc. In other words, though critical thinking principles are universal, their applicat ion to disciplines requires a process of reflective contextualization. Critical thinking is considered important in the academic fields because it enables one to analyze, evaluate, explain, and restructure their thinking, thereby decreasing the risk of adopting, acting on, or thinking with, a false belief. However, even with knowledge of the methods of logical inquiry and reasoning, mistakes can happen due to a thinkers inability to apply the methods or because of character traits such as egocentrism. Critical thinking includes identification of prejudice, bias, propaganda, self-deception, distortion, misinformation, etc. Given research in cognitive psychology, some educators believe that schools should focus on teaching their students critical thinking skills and cultivation of intellectual traits. Socratic method is defined as a prolonged series of questions and answers which refutes a moral assertion by leading an opponent to draw a conclusion that contradicts his own viewpoint. Critical thinking skills through Socratic method taught in schools help create leaders. Instructors that promote critical thinking skills can benefit the students by increasing their confidence and creating a repeatable thought process to question and confidently approach a solution. Students also accomplish follower-ship skills that can be used to probe the leaders foundations. Critical thinking skills through Socratic method serve to produce professionals that are self-governing. However, Socratic method for critical thinking skills can become confusing if an instructor or leader uses the method too rigidly, the student may not know what the instructor or leader wants from him. An instructor or leader may disillusion the students if he uses particular style of questioning. Instructors must reveal their reasoning behind the questions in order to guide the students in the right direction. Socratic method can serve twenty-first-century leaders to instruct students, mentor protà ©gà ©s, motivate followers, advise other leaders, and influence peers. In conclusion, â€Å"critical thinking is the disciplined art of ensuring that you use the best  thinking you are capable of in any set of circumstances when evaluating academic content. The general goal of thinking is to figure out some situation, solve some problems, answer some questions, or resolve some issue It also is a process in which a person pursuits reliable and pertinent information about the world. Critical thinking is often described as reasonable, ruminative, trustworthy, and a well practiced form of thinking that assists people with deciding what they should believe in and what actions should be taken. A practiced critical thinker will ask good questions, collects pertinent data, categorizes common characteristics, logically reasons with the new data and then he or she will come to a trustworthy and dependable conclusion. Critical thinking makes use of many processes and procedures. Some processes include but is not limited to asking questions, making judgments, and identifying assumptions.

Sunday, July 21, 2019

Dentitic Cell and Immune Networks Algorithm Comparison

Dentitic Cell and Immune Networks Algorithm Comparison A Comparative study of Dentitic cell and immune networks algorithm for Artificial immune networks. Jaspreet kaur, Kamal Kumar Abstract – Artificial immune systems are the systems used for advanced computational systems for the need of robust and secure functioning of computer systems. They are the systems inspired by the human immune systems in the human immunity save the body from external threats. We in this paper would be working on the networking branch of the AIS which is called Artificial immune networks which builds up an immunity in the network against the attacks. The accuracy, time analysis and a few other parameters are to be studied using two algorithms of Artificial immune networks. The two algorithms which we are taking in action will be immune networks algorithm and Dentritic cell algorithm. 1 INTRODUCTION An immune system, one of the most intricate biological sys-tems, has been used as a metaphor for intelligent computation in a variety of domains. Artificial Immune System (AIS) has been considered as a family of techniques originated from the community of immunology. As an important constituent of the AIS, the artificial immune networks are based on the principles of the behaviors of both B cells and T cells in the biological immune system. B cell is an integral part of the immune system. Through a process of recognition and stimulation, the B cells can clone and mutate to produce a diverse set of antibodies in an attempt to remove the infection from the body. T cell has two types. One regulates and con-trols the strength of the immune response, and the other di-rectly destroys the cells that have specific antigens. Both the B cells and T cells have been widely employed to solve a wide range of engineering problems, such as anomaly detection and data mining. This paper aims at giving a concise overview on the artificial immune network models including their theory, structures, and applications. Functions, principles and models, which can be applied to real world problems. According to the mechanis of DCs, the Dendritic cell Algorithm (DCA) has been put forward by Greensmith and successfully applied to a range of problems, particularly in the area of anomaly detection Compared with the classical AIS algorithms , the DCA has advantages of small calculations, strong recognition ability and few training samples, but it also hasthe defect that it will have promising detection accuracy onlyin ordered data sets, with the increasing of the disorder degree in data sets, the accuracy will reduce and the false positives and the false negatives will increase obviously. Experiments show that except some noise data most of the mistakes occur during the transition phases, this is because during a transition phase there is a small degree of confusion regarding temporally and spatially clustered antigens and DC may sample multiple antigens in different types of context. The Dendritic Cell Algorithm (DCA) is a second generation Artificial Immune System (AIS) algorithm. It is based on an abstract model of the function of dendritic cells and their ability to discriminate between healthy and infected tissue . As a context-aware anomaly detection algorithm, the DCA performs well in malware detection. Current research with this algorithm have suggested that the DCA shows not only excellent performance on detection rate, but also promise in assisting in reducing the number of false positive errors shown with similar systems. However, as the defenses evolve, so does the malware. The DCA distinguishes between normal and potentially malicious antigens on the basis of the concentration of danger signals they cause and neighboring antigens. This feature cabe exploited by crafty malware via mimicry attacks (such as blending with normal activities or mimicking normal behavior) to evade detection by the DCA . For example, some stealthy malware communicate with remote servers only when they detect user activities (such as requesting web pages). This reduces both the frequency and significance of malicious behavior, making the malware less active and more likely to avoid detection by the DCA. In , Gu et al. proposed an improvement for the DCA namely antigen multiplier to overcome the problem of ‘antigen deficiency’. As an additional function of the DCA, antigen multiplier can make several copies of each individual antigen which can be fed to multiple dendritic cells (DCs). Then the classification deci sion is averaged over the replicated population. The experimental results showed that antigen multiplier helped in improving the classification accuracy. But, as antigen multiplier copies every antigen it meets indifferently, it may show less resistance to mimicry attacks since the concentration of potentially malicious antigens is not increased. Similar to the inefficient detection to hidden and inactive malware by the DCA, biological immune system (BIS) also shows inefficiency when responds to some antigens. 2 LITERATURE REVIEW In this research paper [1] the author has analysed the immune theory and hopfied neural network (HNN), them proposing a new algorithm for multidimensional functionality. A group of solutions are collected for analyses using k means algorithm. Then later on the cluster is taken which is cluster centurions by k means algorithm. In this paper, by making use of the advantages of clustering analysis algorithm, HNN and ia, a new algorithm is proposed to solve the optimal problems of multimodal function with high dimensions. Simulation experiment proves that the new algorithm has much higher accuracy and shorter running time, compared with ia. Especially, at high dimensional function, the new algorithm has clearly advantage. In this paper[2], a novel multi-modal optimization algorithm, namely Dcopt-aiNet is proposed, which is based on biological immune network mechanism for global numerical optimization. Different from de Castro’s opt-aiNet algorithm, Dcopt-aiNet models cloning operation using dynamic cloning operation which is adopted from biological immune network mechanism. Based on the multi-modal benchmarks, experiments were carried out to compare the performance of Dcopt-aiNet with that of opt-aiNet. Experiment results show that when compared with the opt-aiNet method, the new algorithm is capable of improving search performance significantly in successful rate and convergence speed. In this paper [3] the author has proposed the the use of DCA for malwre detection. Artificial adjuvants increase immunogenicity of stealthy malware which speeds up the immunigenicity of them. This is how they improve the malware detection with help of DCA. Future work proposed in this paper is that the experiments need to evaluate their effects on enhancing the detection performance of dca. Further we need to better understand the mechanisms of immunological adjuvants can be beneficial to design more biologically. Lastly to make more diverse and more general algorithms. In this research paper[4] the algorithm is posed to only good in ordered data set but the results in the other cases are not considered to be great. In instances of different antigens, each instance is accesed and finally all the asessments made are taken into account. Proposed algorithm i.e. Mmdca brings up the nature of each multiplier and also it can be inferred that the false positives is higher, this is because the dca weights matrix used to calculate the semi and mat tends to mat. With the intrinsic properties of multimodal optimization problems, a multi-population artificial immune network algorithm (mopt-aiNet) is proposed to improve the performance of static and time-varing multimodal optimization problems by making use of biologic immune mechanism in this paper[5]. Compared with other immune network search methods, several novel operations such as multi-population dynamic hypermutation, asynchronous colony evolution, dynamic memory solutions management and a hill-valley exploring are designed which can speed up  searching the environment in an optimal way. Two other immune network algorithms are compared against mopt-aiNet by using static and dynamic benchmarks. Comparative analysis illustrates mopt-aiNet’s potential value. A bi-objective optimization model of power and power changes generated by a wind turbine is discussed in this paper[6]. The model involves two objectives, power maximization and power ramp rate (PRR) minimization. A new constraint for power maximization based on physics and process control theory is introduced. Data-mining algorithms were used to identify the model of power generation from the industrial data collected at a wind farm. The models and constraints derived from the data were integrated to optimize the power itself and the power variability, expressed as the power ramp rate. Due to the nonlinearity and complexity of the optimization model, an artificial immune network algorithm was used to solve it. The optimization results, such as computed operation strategies and the corresponding outputs, are demonstrated and discussed. In this paper [7] , the problem of finding the optimal collision free path, path planning for the case of a controllable mobile robot moving in a static environment filled with obstacles with known shape and size is studied. A path planner based on a hybrid memetic algorithm, Genetic Artificial Immune Network (GAIN), which provides near optimal collision free path is proposed. Genetic Artificial Immune Network is a hybrid memetic algorithm based on Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Artificial Immune Network (AIN) algorithm. The network cell structures are simple which makes the operators simple and results in a fast calculation with smaller number of cells. The results obtained from GAIN is compared with that of GA and GAIN is found to outperform. GA in terms of convergence speed and result obtained, making it a promising algorithm for solving the mobile robot path planning problem. 3 PROBLEM FORMULATION Adaptive immunity is directed towards specific invaders; either seen before or not previously encountered and gets modified by exposure to invaders. It mainly consists of lymphocytes (white blood cells, more specifically B and T type) that aid the process of recognizing and destroying specific substances, and are antigen-specific. Clonal Selection: Clonal selection theory was proposed by Burnet. The theory is used to explain basic response of adaptive immune system to antigenic stimulus. It establishes the idea that only those cells capable of recognizing an antigen will proliferate while other cells are selected against. Clonal selection operates on both B and T cells. B cells, when their antibodies bind with an antigen, are activated and differentiated into plasma or memory cells. Prior to this process, clones of B cells are produced and undergo somatic hyper mutation. As a result, diversity is introduced into the B cell population. Plasma cells produce antigen-specific antibodies that are work against antigen. Memory cells remain with the host and promote a rapid secondary response. Negative Selection :Negative selection is a mechanism to protect body against self-reactive lymphocytes. It utilizes the immune systems ability to detect unknown antigens while not reacting to the self cells. During the generation of T-cells, receptors are made through a pseudo-random genetic rearrangement process. Then, they undergo a censoring process in the thymus, called the negative selection. In this process, T-cells that react against self-proteins are destroyed and only those that do not bind to self-proteins are allowed to leave the thymus. These matured T-cells then circulate throughout the body performing immunological functions and protecting the body against foreign antigens. 4 OBJECTIVES 1. To study intuitively and understand the working of dentritic cell and immune networks technique in artificial immune systems. 2. To analyse the two above mentioned techniques on the basis of the following parameters:- A. Accuracy B. Response time C. Fittest cell level D. Immune memory strength. 3. Mathematical and graphical comparison between dentritic cell and immune networks. 5 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ALGORITHM DESIGN ( Dentritic Cell ) Its principle is taken up from the original dentritic cell mechanism in the human body with which our human immune system works. It generally takes advantage of the remembering power of our body in which if our body if exposed to a certain infection remembers it prevents it from harming us in at least near future, it also may cause permanent prevention. ALGORITHM DESIGN ( Immune Networks ) Its principle is taken up from the immune network mechanism which does not have fixed idea for prevention of particular disease in all senses. It undoubted takes up a more robust way of finding the right vaccine or the attack example for actual prevention. 6 RESULTS AND CONCLUSION Bar graph for less no of attacks Bar for all attacks Plot for less no. of attacks. Plot for all attacks. POINTS OF CONCLUSION The accuracy varies with no. of attacks. More the no. of attacks in DCT more is the accuracy. Accuracy in INT is not dependent on no. of attacks. Though the accuracy of the DCT is more but the response time of INT takes lead on DCT. In terms of response time INT is much better than DCT. DCT has time consuming behavior because of all internal processes which take place in it like updating memory cells and informing t cell etc. Memory strength of DCT improves with no. of attacks and it is status quo in INT. Fittest cell level show only local behavior of a part of the system having most immunity. In short term goals INT is preferable because its less time consuming and can act quick. Also its cheaper as no internal processes prevail. In long term goals DCT is preferred because of its stability. We need to have a really fast system to implement DCT because of its time consumption DCT is a central system because t cells keep record of all previous attacks and which is accessible to every part or ip in the network which makes DCT a central system. 7 REFERENCES [1] Ruiying Zhou, Qiuhong Fan, Mingjun Wei, â€Å"Solving for Multimodal Function with High Dimensions Base on Hopfield Neural Network and Immune Algorithm†, IEEE 2011 International Conference on Electronic Mechanical Engineering and Information Technology, Print ISBN- 978-1-61284-008-8, pp.3905-3908, 12-14 August 2011. [2] Shi Xu-hua, Zhu Yu-guang, â€Å"Dynamic Cloning based immune network Algorithm for multi-modal Optimization†, IEEE, Seventh International Conference on Natural Computation, 2011, Print ISBN- 978-1-4244-9953-3, pp.522-525. [3] Jun Fu, Huan Yang, â€Å"Introducing Adjuvants to Dendritic Cell Algorithm for Stealthy Malware Detection†, IEEE, Fifth International Symposium on Computational Intelligence and Design, 2012, Print ISBN- 978-0-7695-4811-1, DOI-10.1109/ISCID.2012.156, pp.18-22 [4] Song Yuan, Qi-juan Chen, â€Å"Dendritic Cell Algorithm for Anomaly Detection in Unordered Data Set†, 4th International Conference on Intelligent Human-Machine Systems and Cybernetics, 2012, Print ISBN- 978-0-7695-4721-3, DOI-10.1109/IHMSC.2012.69, pp.249-252 [5] Shi Xuhua, Qian Fenq, â€Å"An Optimization Algorithm Based on Multi-population Artificial Immune Network†, IEEE, Fifth International Conference on Natural Computation, 2009, Print ISBN- 978-0-7695-3736-8, DOI-10.1109/ICNC.2009.574, pp.379-383 [6] Andrew Kusiak, Zijun Zhang, â€Å"Optimization of Power and its Variability with an Artificial Immune Network Algorithm†, IEEE, Print ISBN- 978-1-61284-788-7 [7] Antariksha Bhaduri, â€Å"A Mobile Robot Path Planning Using Genetic Artificial Immune Network Algorithm†, IEEE, World Congress on Nature and Biologically Inspired Computing, 2009, Print ISBN- 978-1-4244-5612-3, pp.1536-1539 [8] Yong Sun, Weigou Zhang, Meng Zhang, Dan Li, â€Å"Design on Neural Network Gain Scheduling Flight Control Law using a Modified PSO Algorithm based on Immune Clone Principle†, IEEE, Second International Conference on Intelligent Computation Technology and Automation, 2009, Print ISBN- 978-0-7695-3804-4, DOI-10.1109/ICICTA.2009.70, pp.259-263 [9] Chung-Ming Ou, C.R. Ou, â€Å"Immunity Inspired Host-Based Intrusion Detection Systems†, IEEE, Fifth International Conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Computing, 2011, Print ISBN- 978-0-7695-4449-6, DOI-10.1109/ICGEC.2011.70, pp.283-286 [10] Maizura Mokhtar, Ran Bi, Jon Timmis, Andy M. Tyrrell, â€Å"A Modified Dendritic Cell Algorithm for On-line Error Detection in Robotic Systems†, IEEE, Congress on Evolutionary Computation, 2009, Print ISBN- 978-1-4244-2959-2, pp.2055-2062 [11] Yunfeng Zhao, Yixin Yin, Dongmei Fu, Zhun Zhou, Ping Yin, Jia Wang, â€Å"Application of Improved Artificial Immune Network Algorithm to Optimization†, IEEE, 2008, Print ISBN- 978-1-4244-2386-6. [12] Zhonghua Li, Jianming Li, Jieyeing Zhou, â€Å"An improved artificial immune network for multimodal function optimization†, IEEE, The 26th Chinese Control and Decision Conference, 2014, Print ISBN- 978-1-4799-3707-3, DOI-10.1109/CCDC.2014.6852268, pp.766-771, May 31st – June 2nd 2014.

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Earthquakes Essay -- Natural Science

Earthquakes Throughout history, man has made many advancements. These advancements have been made to make life easier. The one thing man can't do is to control Mother Nature. Mother Nature can cause many things such as earthquakes. The causes of earthquakes have been theorized in many ways. According to the book Predicting Earthquakes by Gregory Vogt, the Greeks, "blamed the earthquakes on Poseidon, god of the sea"(25). The Hindu believed that "the earth was a platform that rested on the back of eight great elephants. When one of the elephants grew weary, it lowered and shook its head causing the ground above to tremble"(Vogt 25). Margaret Poynter writes "many primitive people thought that the earth rested upon the back of some sort of animal. When that animal became restless, great cracks appeared in the ground, and tall trees swayed and fell. In South America, the animal was a whale. In Japan, it was a great black spider or giant catfish. One ancient tribe thought that four bulls supported the earth on their horns. To amuse themselves, they sometimes tossed it from one to another"(6). In the same book, Poynter says "The Chinese believed that monsters lived in the caves inside the earth. When the creatures fought, the surface of the earth trembled (6)." "In Greece, it was not an animal, but a titan named Atlas who was condemned to support the world upon his shoulders. Later, about the third century B.C., a Greek philosopher, Aristotle, had a more scientific explanation. He thought that earthquakes occurred only when hot air masses tried to escape from the center of the earth. Two centuries later, Lucretius, a Roman, wrote that underground landslides caused the earth's surface to move"(Poynter 7).2 Today, scientists have found a more logical reason to earthquakes. Scientists say almost 600 million years ago, all the continents were connected to form a huge super continent called Pangaea. At about 220 million years ago, Pangaea began to break up into sub-blocks. According to the book Volcanoes, Earthquakes, and the Formation of Continents, these sub-blocks were called "Gondwana (which corresponds approximately to the continents of the present southern hemisphere) and Laurasia (the northern hemisphere)" (Kohler 15). According to Pierre Kohler, "The earth's surface is divided into 13 plates: seven large ones (the largest corresponding to the Pa... ...te long-term predictions of where earthquakes will occur. They know, for example, that about 80 percent of the world's major earthquakes happen along a belt encircling the Pacific Ocean. This belt is sometimes called the Ring of Fire because it has many volcanoes, earthquakes, and other geologic activity" (Earthquakes; Karen C. McNally 38). WORKS CITED Aylesworth, Thomas G. Geological Disasters "Franklin Watts" 1979: 14-15. The New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia "Grolier Electronic Publishing Inc." 1993: No Johnson, Thomas P. When Nature Runs Wild "Creative Education Press" 1986: 12-14. Kohler, Pierre Volcanoes Earthquakes and the Formation of Continents "Barron's Educational Series, Inc." 1987: 14-22. Marcus, Rebecca B. The First Book of Volcanoes & Earthquakes "Franklin Watts, Inc." 1972: 62-64. Poynter, Margaret Earthquakes "Enslow Publishers, Inc." 1990: 6-7. Putnam, William C. Geology "Oxford University Press" 1964: 439-450. Vogt, Gregory Predicting Earthquakes "Franklin Watts" 1989: 24-25. Walker, Bryce Earthquakes "Time Life Books" 1982: 94-100. Karen C. McNally Earthquakes World Book Encyclopedia "World Book Inc." 1994: 38-39.

Friday, July 19, 2019

National Westminster Bank Essay -- Business and Management Studies:

National Westminster Bank 1. Introduction The purpose of this report is to analyse the case â€Å"National Westminster Bank† (David Woodgate and Nigel Slack, 1992), in order to identify any existing and potential problems, then after careful consideration recommend possible courses of action to rectify them. During the review of the organisation described in the case, the key issues will be identified and then related to relevant theory. Analysis will then be made of all relevant factors and recommendations will be made after consideration of all factors. Overview of the Case The case study to be analysed focuses on the St James’s Square branch of the National Westminster Bank in London’s West End. The case gives a clear and concise representation of the bank’s structure giving detailed descriptions of the all the employees roles and functions and an organisation chart. The focus is then applied to the Records Section and account opening procedure, which is where the problems are found and complaints have been registered. The results of a survey are summarised in the case to show the apparent level of customer dissatisfaction with the account opening procedure, the importance of such factors are then highlighted with a brief description of the level of competition within the banking industry. The views of are also considered and suggest areas where current systems may be failing the organisation. 2. Problem Key Issues The location of the bank in St James’s square is both a blessing and a burden to the organisation. The sophisticated clientele resulted in the bank being the most profitable in its region, yet they also expected an extremely high level of customer service. This high level of expectation from the customers resulted in any lapses in service being highly scrutinised. The key issues to be addressed within this branch occur in or around the process of opening accounts which is the responsibility of the Records Section, they are as follows:  · Customers joining the wrong queue and requiring redirection because the enquiries desk was â€Å"neither well positioned or signposted†.  · Competition is â€Å"tough† within the banking industry, particularly in this branch’s immediate vicinity.  · 36 per cent of customers felt formalities were not properly explained.  · 76 per cent had not received the sta... ...nt a new system in the Records Section. After consideration of alternatives it is apparent that it would be possible and practical for the organisation to do this without major disruption to the organisational structure. 5. Recommendations The main recommendation from the findings in this report is for the St James's Square branch to implement a cell layout in order for the Records Section to handle its workload. This would enable them to carry out all their tasks much more efficiently and fulfil its duties while maintaining customer satisfaction. To implement such a system the bank will need to employ a process of windows in which customers are able to come in and open accounts or to arrange appointments on the phone. Possible drawbacks with such a service would be that customers would not be able to open accounts at their convenience and may become dissatisfied with this process but the quality of product they would receive is likely to be much improved. --------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] Statistics derived from a survey the branch carried out in 1989 on customer's views of their account opening procedures.