Business plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 2

Business plan - Essay Example However, unless marked costume jewelry, the majority of all jewelry at the store will be upscale or certified fine-crafted gold and diamond jewelry, which will cater to a wide variety of potential customers. Second Street Recovery is owned and operated by Panayiotis Gavriel who will manage all of the business aspects of the company including administrative, bookkeeping, generic management, inventory and sales recording. This self-managed business philosophy will keep labour costs low and provide the owner with more flexibility in daily business operations. Second Street will require an initial capital infusion (long-term loan) in the amount of  £33,575 at start-up. These costs will cover initial insurance, rent deposits, legal expertise, and generic office expenses necessary to operate the company at start-up. The chart below identifies the start-up capital and justification for launch of Second Street. The chart below identifies the expected customer demographics for Second Street Recovery as well as projections for growth over a five-year period, based on expected population increases in the London region. The market analysis chart identifies the percentage of customers which maintain the buying potential to utilise Second Street services, presented in pie chart format. There are currently six to ten competitors in the local region which provide similar pawn services and jewelry resale, making this a very saturated marketplace. For this reason, Second Street Recovery must create a marketing-focused organisation to make Second Street products the foremost name in jewelry, furniture and pawn services. Prouness (2007) describes product positioning from a marketing perspective, which involves creating a connection between the product and the customer by appealing to their unique preferences and lifesyle choices. Product positioning allows a

Climate Change And Effects On Hospitality Industry Environmental Sciences Essay

Climate Change And Effects On Hospitality Industry Environmental Sciences Essay This report overall discuss about the global climate change or global warming and its serious impacts on the whole world. In detail it discusses about how global warming is caused, what is the main epidemic for the climate change, its direct effects on the hospitality industry. Further it tells about the latest IPCC report which tells how deep is everyone in water and discusses about the future projected changes. Later this report discuss about the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme proposed by Australian Government where it briefly tells about what is CPRS and its impacts specially on Australian tourism industry. This report also analysed one of the worlds leading 5 star properties in terms of how eco friendly is that property. In the end of the report it discuss about the recent conference held in Copenhagen regarding the global climate change and the new laws and issues that were raised by keeping tourism in focus. Climate change had begun a long time ago, but it knocked the unconsciousness of human mind a bit late when theses changes were at their peak. In other words people actually started to pay serious attention to these changes when they heard from the mouth of scientists, when they saw on T.V. that the meetings were been held all around the world and saw the consequences with their own naked eyes and believed that this is not a joke but is a matter of serious consideration. The change in climate started to occur more than 2 decades ago. Now the question that arises over here is who is responsible for all this and how to cope up with the situation like this? Further this report will discuss about the factors due to which the planet earth is facing devastating changes in its environment, its impact on the innocent people and also on the Australian hospitality industry. Global Warming and its impacts on the whole world This report basically discusses about the changes that are taking place in the earths environment. The term environment refers to features that lie outside the system under consideration and separated from the system by a boundary. The boundary acts as a control on the flows that take place from the system into the environment. This flow could be of anything, it could be the flow of money, pollution or information. But our major concern in this report is the flow of earths ecological system. Now the boundary of our ecological system has become totally semi permeable which was permeable before. Semi Permeable boundary simply means that the boundary is getting thick day by day that it is preventing all the green house gasses such as methane, nitrogen etc. and other invisible radiation to escape, which in turn increasing the temperature of earth constantly resulting in Global Warming. The term global warming is defined as a system of multipliers devised to enable warming effects of di fferent gases to be compared. Global warming is not just about warming of the planet, its also about the imbalance which gets created in the environment. For example over the past few years some irrelevant changes have been seen in few countries such as the place which is supposed to get good amount of rain faced severe drought and on the other hand the places which were meant to be dried got heavily flooded. From the latest research it has been found that the amount of carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere has crossed 300ppm which had never happened in 650,000 years. The limit has gone above more than 382ppm where 450ppm being the dangerous sign. The reason is fairly simple i.e. increased pollution in the earths ecological system which in turn has increased the green house effect as well and the increased human activities. Green house gases consists gases like carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and CFCs. One thing to be noticed over here is that the major contributor of gree n house gases is carbon and as discussed above the annual carbon emission has grew above 80%. Because of the green house effect the icebergs down in arctic are melting and rising the sea level all around the world, due to which the oceans are getting hotter and hotter by absorbing the huge amount of carbon radiation resulting into hurricanes, typhoons and tornados. The increase in the emission of GHGs is because of increasing human activities day by day. These activities involve the burning of fossil fuels such as crude oil, coal etc. that are limited in quantity and non renewable sources of energy. This means the more the, people more the burning of fossil fuels and more the pollution will be created. Human influences have very likely contributed to rise in sea level, likely contributed changes in the wind patterns leading to storms, typhoons, hurricanes etc. Not only human beings contribute to global warming, animals also contribute such as cows, sheeps etc. They release methane g as which when comes out becomes more poisonous because of the way their digestive system is created. According to recent IPCC report (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) the annual Arctic sea ice extent has shrunk from 2.7% to 8% per decade since 1978, which is an increase of 5.3% resulting in declination of snow and glaciers in both hemispheres. There is a medium confidence that the continuous change in climate is also affecting the agriculture at northern hemisphere such as early spring planting of crops and alternations in disturbance regimes of forests because of inability to adapt changes. As the earth is getting hotter and hotter the amount of water present on the earth is decreasing because of evaporation. Mount Everest which is the source of water for many countries such as India, Nepal, China etc. is losing the ice continuously which is not a good sign. Everything has some negative effects and some positive effects which can be proven by the simple example of melting of ice, good effect is that some countries get water to drink whereas the bad effect is that it also leads to rise in sea level. This is not only affecting human beings its also affecting the natural habitat. Due to global warming the bird babies and other babies are getting born immature and weak and also prior to their actual birth timings. This pollution has also decreased the protective layer which protects from mosquitoes and lots of other deadly infections, the major protective layer is the ozone layer. The depletion in the ozone layer has increased the chances of skin cancer. The movie Six Degrees tells that how does earth changes its form even if the overall temperature of earth just increases by 1 degree centigrade. The increase of 1 degree can result into bushfires that is one of the common things for Australia. Six degrees is the last stage and beyond that earth will no longer exist Future climate changes and its impacts As per the IPCC Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) in the next 20 years there will be 70% increase in global GHGs with no fossil fuels left. Furthermore there is projected warming of 0.5 degrees centigrade for next two decades even if all the GHGs are kept under control, a further warming of 0.2 degrees centigrade is expected. In the regional areas snow contraction and increase in thaw depth is likely to occur. Increase in frequency of hot extremes, tropical cyclones and increase in precipitation in high latitudes are some of the expected changes. Some of the systems and sectors that are very likely to be affected by the climate change would be terrestrial areas such as tundra, mediterranean type of ecosystems because of reduction in rainfall, coastal and marine areas due to multiple stresses, population living in low latitudes. The most vulnerable part of the world which will be affected would be Asia and Africa because of large population and high exposure to sea level ri se. Effects on Hospitality Industry The hospitality industry is an international industry emerging worldwide. This industry is extremely important for the economy. Climate change can now be seen as a fundamental issue with major influences on tourism. Hospitality industry does not cause any kind of environmental pollution nor does it consume large amounts of non renewable sources and therefore this industry is not in the front line of environmental concern. This industry is made up of vast majority of small operations which intakes minute amounts of energy, water, food, paper etc. but it does add small amount of pollution to the environment in terms of noise, smoke, chemical pollutants. The hotel industry damages the environment by releasing some carbon emissions and CFCs that comes out of the air conditioners and refrigerators, by wasting energy, food, water. These are some of the ways by which the hospitality industry ruins the environment a bit. Now because of this pollution the hospitality industry has also been a ffected. The hotels that rely on the nature itself for example snow, mountains, lakes or oceans etc. will no longer exist because as the temperature is increasing there will be no ice, sea etc. Climate change has a large potential to totally destroy the hospitality and tourism industry. Climate change will heavily have its impact on this industry by changing the destination patterns and by changing the decisions of the industry. Since tourism industry totally depends on natural environment certain types of tourism will get affected such as winter sports, lake and sea, mountain, fishing etc. The coral reef that are present under water have started to dry out, the sea animals have started to die and this will eventually result into less number of tourist which means less profit and less profit is equal to deep loss for the hotel. The reason is people actually want to see natural beauty, they dont to see just the empty ocean. If the local environment near the hotel will not be clean no one will go to that hotel. If a hotel is situated at a location where due to climate change that place is getting heavy rains that place could end up in flood, because of which the tourist would feel unsafe to go there even if the hotel is offering good incentives. Overall it has been seen that the industry is very much vulnerable to bad news or events, this is the only industry which contributes the maximum amount to the countrys GDP. Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Australia is a hot and dry country and has started to face the impacts at a very high speed. In last 12 years the country has experienced 11 hottest years and it is expected that by the end of this century the temperature will rise by 5 degrees, as a result the national treasures including Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu etc. that support the industry will be in danger. Carbon pollution reduction scheme will led industries to pay for the pollution they create from the carbon in other words putting tax on the usage of carbon and this will set a limit on Australias contribution to carbon pollution. This scheme is a cap and trade emissions model created to decline Australias emissions of green house gases. This scheme covers emissions from transport, industrial wastes, overall this scheme will cover 75% of Australias green house gases. This schemes main objective is to reduce green house emissions by between 5 and 15% below 2000 levels by the year 2020 and 60% from 2000 levels by the year 20 50 If all the industries in the country follow this scheme there will be a reduction of 15% for sure. This scheme is the lowest cost way to protect the interests of business and households, it will also motivate the major polluting industries to move towards the cleaner future. The CPRS affects the tourism industry in very much economical way. Tourism industry accounts a total of 3.7% of total GDP and it contributes around 10.5% of total exports of goods and services because of international relations. With the CPRS the real GDP will fall because the emissions price under this scheme act as a tax which as a result will reduce the economic efficiency and the tourism industry will slightly experience a contraction with the general shrinkage of the economy as whole. Moreover this scheme will push up the costs for tourism industry which could make Australia more expensive destination. As the Australian tourism industry is vulnerable to climate change it will influence all the natural assets on which the industry depends and the rise in price of travel and tourism caused by CPRS will further decline the tourist demand. Within this industry aviation is the one which will face a larger consequence from the CPRS as aviation is the core part of Australian tourism industry. The CPRS is going to increase the emission because of the increasing fuel prices. Furthermore the CPRS is expected to affect particularly leisure and regional routes which in turn limits the airlines to pass through cost of carbon. The CPRS will increase the potential for the substitution by increasing the price of domestic aviation. Therefore giving a negative impact on domestic tourism and providing incentives for outbound travel making Australia an importer of tourism and eventually resulting in high risk of carbon leakage. The CPRS will reduce real disposable incomes which will then reduce the do mestic tourism within Australia. Environmental analysis Sheraton Mirage in Port Douglas is one of the finest 5 star properties. This property is a resort type of property with natural beauty all around. This property is very serious in regards to environment. According to the primary research this hotel recycles the oil instead of draining it away, which could result into sea pollution. They simply recycle it every time and use it for future purposes. They use CFC free chemicals used to clean toilets, glasses and all. They also use solar energy throughout the hotel which helps them to save a lot of electricity. Since it is a golf resort they actually use electric golf carts instead of using the one which runs with petrol or diesel. From the secondary research it has been found that the water which gets waste, they recycle it and use it for watering the areas such as golf course. They offer guests to use bath towels in order to reduce the detergent amount. Electricity is also reduced by using the CFL bulbs and lights and guests are asked to turn off their lights when not in use. This hotel practise waste minimisation and separate glass, paper and plastic for recycling. Sheraton Mirage has a large swimming pool where it uses the sea water that directly comes there. Copenhagen Conference Recently there had been a conference in Copenhagen in Denmark regarding the global climate change in which all the countries around the world took part. In the conference a lot of suggestion were been given such as if petroleum based economy is converted into sun based economy. This will enable human kind by combining intellect and technology to enable advance human activities. A lot of issues were raised in relation to transport as it emits 870 million tonnes of carbon each year. The UNFCC decided to take necessary actions in two ways, one is by including emissions in national totals and taking it as a purely accounting measure and the other is by setting the target for the two sectors and mandating IMO and ICAO to agree on global sector policies within a limited timeframe. The shipping industry could rise their annual allowances by $ 25 billion. Conclusion The conclusion of this report that comes out is that the whole world is in danger as the global warming is at its peak point. But this is not the end of the world, it can still be controlled if everyone starts to think over it. This is not a joke, its the time to get serious. If the people will take serious action over it such as by adapting new policies which will then help them to cope up with the climate changes. The only recommendation that could be made at this point is that people should start measuring the amount of carbon they use and by recycling the stuff rather than to throw away and by saving the resources as much as they could.

Gene Therapy is Revolutionizing Medicine Essay -- Biology Health Essay

Gene Therapy is Revolutionizing Medicine "We used to think that our fate was in our stars, but now we know that, in large measure, our fate is in our genes, "quotes James Watson. This fate that Watson is talking about is contained in our genes, and deals with a new technique, gene therapy. Gene therapy is revolutionizing the world of medicine. Many physicians are predicting that in twenty years gene therapy may change the practice of medicine from a treatment-based to a prevention-based practice. Our future is l ocked away inside of our genes. Gene therapy is unlocking these doors. Researchers are starting to move away from developing new drugs, and towards finding an ultimate solution. That solution is to use gene therapy as a treatment for many genetic diseas es. Researchers hope that in the coming years, every genetic disease will have gene therapy as its treatment. Gene therapy could be the last therapy that the human race will ever need. What is Gene Therapy? So what is this mystical new wonder called gene therapy? Gene therapy is the introduction of genes into existing cells to prevent or cure a wide range of diseases. For example, suppose a brain tumor is forming by rapidly dividing cancer cells. The reason this tumor is forming is due to some defective or mutated gene. The therapy chosen for this case would be to use a herpes virus that has had its virulence removed, rendering it harmless. The virus is still abl e to insert its genetic material into the target cells. The virus is then taken and injected into mouse cells, where it makes additional copies of itself. These mouse cells, now containing the virus, are then injected into the brain containing the tumor . Once inside the brain, the virus seeks out t... ...over more genes and their functions, the potential of this treatment is limitless. Our genome is the blueprint of our body. The key to our future is locked in our genome. As researchers start to understand this blueprint, our lives will be forever changed. We now know our fate is indeed in our genes. Literature Cited Bloch, Hannah, Cray, Dan, and Sadlowski, Christine. 1996. Keys to the kingdom. Pp. 24-29. Time Magazine. Brody, JE. 1993 Sept. Gene therapy hold promise of medical miracles, but possible pitfalls cause worries. New York Times. Herman, R. 1991 Dec. Gene therapy. Pp. 89-91. Mirabella. Phillips, P. 1991. Gene therapy getting its chance. Pp. 46-47. Medical World News. Verma, IM. 1993. Gene therapy. Pp. 78-85. Scientific American Medicine: Special Issue. Weiss, R. 1994 Oct. Gene therapy at a crossroads. Pp. 13-15. Washington Post Health.

Coca Cola in India: Business Communications

Sanjiv Gupta, President and CEO of Coca Cola in India, is facing a crisis concerning pesticide levels in coke in the country of India. The Center for Science and Environment (CSE), an activist group in India focused on environmental sustainability issues issued a press release stating: â€Å"12 major cold drink brands sold in and around Delhi contain a deadly cocktail of pesticide residues† (Argenti, p. 284). Recommendations for Coke’s communications strategies include accepting and adhering to higher standards of social responsibility in India and forming an alliance with the government to set these higher safer standards.Coca Cola should choose to emerge and set itself apart from its biggest competitor, Pepsi, by accepting a more socially responsible. In order to accomplish this, Coke can align itself with the CSE goals for an environmentally safe and industrialized India. Coke should recognize the enormous reputational benefits that could come from such a partnership in correcting the pollution problem in India. Taking on social responsibilities has a number of positive outcomes for corporate leaders.Once the world community learns of Coke’s environmentally responsible goal in India, the company will project a positive interest in India and to the rest of the world (Argenti, p. 65 ). The people of India have shown that they want a company that is concerned about their health, welfare, and environment as â€Å"sales down over 30-40%1 in only two weeks on the heels of a 75% five-year growth trajectory and 25-30%2 year-to-date growth† (Argenti, p. 285 ) A positive reputation can help companies weather crises more effective (Argenti, p. 91) The next step would be for Coke to enhance its relationship with the government.Companies have begun to realize that instead of fighting regulation, it should advocate its position to political decision makers (Argenti, p. 238). Businesses use a number of tactics to further the position of their bu siness with the influential group of economic decision makers (Adams & Brock, 1986). With the influence in the government, Coke can be involved with the developing of the new standards the government has demanded. Strong government relations are important in India (in any country) and will provide an opportunity to communicate all the benefits and investments Coke has provided to the economy in India including almost 7000 jobs.By working with the government to set standards and clean up pollution, Coke will have influence of the government. Influence over the government has proven to be a benefit for business (Irin, 2010). When business has an â€Å"influence in government, unless you’re right there to limit it, it can intrude in just about any industry,† In conclusion, leaders of successful organizations with a consistent in their message and image has ensured everyone involved of an initiative or change, what it is intended to achieve, as well as the route that will be taken is going to continue to be successful (Clutterbuck 2001).A company with an international image and reputation is going to weather this crisis. They can also take a socially responsible approach, and lead change in India. This will distinguish the corporation from its competitors, and as Proverbs tells us, â€Å"defend the rights of the poor and needy† (Proverbs 31:9). A constituent is someone who is on the receiving end of a message, in the words of Aristotle â€Å"person †¦ to whom the end or object of the speech refers† (1975). The key constituents are those that are receiving the message of the communication.In this case, the constituency would be the government of India and the Coke-drinking public, particularly those in India. The message will be sent out all over the world that Coca Cola aided in the environment of India. With use of the internet, messages of companies reach the far corners of the world within a matter of minutes (Argenti, p. 172). Biblical Integration: God wants us to help our fellow brother, not to ignore them. The Bible tells us â€Å"Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. † Psalm 82:3-4

Axis I and II Disorders in Children

Axis I Disorders include the following: â€Å"adjustment disorders, anxiety disorders, dissociative disorders, eating disorders, impulse-control disorders, mood disorders, personality disorders, psychotic disorders, sleep disorders, as well as, somatoform disorders† (American Psychiatric Association et. al., 2000, pp. 345 – 730).â€Å"Axis II†, on the other hand, covers the following conditions: â€Å"personality disorders, mental retardation, as well as, autism† (American Psychiatric Association et. al., 2000, pp. 27 – 134 & 679 – 730).Furthermore, â€Å"Axis II† disorders may already emerge during an individual’s childhood life while â€Å"Axis I† disorders usually present itself during the stage of adulthood (American Psychiatric Association et. al., 2000, pp. 1 – 744).Moreover, â€Å"Axis II’s† symptoms linger awhile longer than the clinical manifestations of â€Å"Axis I† and that â€Å"A xis II† disorders may negatively impact ones’ life since interaction may be more difficult as compared with â€Å"Axis I† (American Psychiatric Association et. al., 2000, pp. 1 – 744).In addition to that, â€Å"medical attention is necessitated when it comes to principal disorders† which are covered in â€Å"Axis I† (American Psychiatric Association et. al., 2000, pp. 1 – 744). â€Å"Axis II† on the other hand, are those â€Å"shaping the current response to the Axis I problem† (American Psychiatric Association et. al., 2000, pp. 1 – 744). It may also influence the individual to the â€Å"Axis I† dilemma (American Psychiatric Association et. al., 2000, pp. 1 – 744).Differences in Treatment ApproachesThe differences in treatment approaches are as follows: â€Å"Anxiety and phobic disorders† may be treated through the following techniques: â€Å"desensitization, flooding, relaxation† (De J ongh et. al., 1999, pp. 69 – 85). â€Å"Obsessive-compulsive disorder† may be address through the following techniques: â€Å"relaxation and relapse-prevention† (McKay, 1997, pp. 367 – 369). â€Å"Depressive disorders† are treated the â€Å"cognitive behavioral technique, as well as, relaxation† (Ackerson, 1998, pp. 685 – 690).â€Å"Conduct disorders† are addressed through â€Å"positive reinforcement† and â€Å"extinction† (Bailey, 1996, pp. 352 – 356). â€Å"Hyperactivity syndromes† are treated by the following techniques: â€Å"time out, positive reinforcement, and extinction† (Quay, 1997, n.p.). â€Å"Pervasive developmental disorders† are addressed by the following techniques as well: â€Å"time out, positive reinforcement, and extinction† as well as, â€Å"aversive techniques† (Bristol-Power et al., 1999, pp. 435 – 438).â€Å"Encopresis/enuresis† is tre ated through â€Å"positive reinforcement† (Boon et. al., 1991, pp. 355 – 371). The treatments for â€Å"Mental Retardation† are the following: â€Å"positive reinforcement, extinction and time-out, prompting and shaping, as well as, aversive techniques† (Jones, 2006, pp. 115 – 121). â€Å"Tics† are treated by massed practice (Sand et. al., 1973, pp. 665 – 670).Working with Different Children from Axis I, Axis II, or BothIn case I would need to address a child’s case wherein Axis I and Axis II Disorders both occur at the same time, I will make sure to consider the â€Å"development of cognitive, social, and motor skills† (American Psychiatric Association et. al., 2000, pp. 1 – 744). In addition, â€Å"the one that initiated evaluation or clinical is regarded as the principal diagnosis† (American Psychiatric Association et. al., 2000, pp. 1 – 744).Most Important Things to Consider when Working with Ch ildrenThe most important things to take into consideration when working with children are the following: first of all, the ethical and professional issues that emerges in mental health work with children; second, the culture that the child and his or her family believes / practices / grew up in; third, the proper treatment/intervention; fourth include the following contemporary structure of â€Å"services, evidence-based practice, and psychopharmacology† (American Psychiatric Association et. al., 2000, pp. 1 – 744).ReferencesAckerson, J. et. al., (1998). Cognitive Bibliotherapy for Mild and Moderate AdolescentDepressive Symptomatology. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 66: 685 – 690.American Psychiatric Association, American Psychiatric Association, American PsychiatricAssociation Task Force on DSM-IV. (2000). Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-IV-TR. VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.Bailey, V.F.A. (1996). Intensive Interven tions in Conduct Disorders. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 74: 352 – 356.

Research Report on Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” Essays

Research Report on Jonathan Swift’s â€Å"A Modest Proposal† Essays Research Report on Jonathan Swift’s â€Å"A Modest Proposal† Paper Research Report on Jonathan Swift’s â€Å"A Modest Proposal† Paper A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift was written in 1729 using diction and political and social references from that time period, which may provide a challenge for a student reader in a 2011 classroom. The full title of Swift’s essay is â€Å"A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burden to their Parents, or the Country, and for making them Beneficial to the Publick. This satirical essay is attempting to find a simple method for converting the starving children of Ireland into useful members of society. 1. 1 Background Information Through irony, satire and exaggeration Swift explains that across the country poor children, mainly Catholics are living in filth because their families are too meager to keep them fed and clothed. The author continuous on to state that the problem of poverty in Ireland can best be fixed by selling the children of the lower class as food to the wealthy. . 2Structure Swift originally published A Modest Proposal using the popularize pamphlet form using the standard essay format with an introductory paragraph stating the thesis, body paragraphs and a conclusion. What differentiated this essay from others, and made it superior to most was Swifts successful use of Historical Content, direct connection with the Audience, Satire/Humour, perfectly executed Irony, and the use of Logos vs. Pathos vs. Ethos. 2. Historical Content . 1 English-Irish Political relationships Years before A Modest Proposal was written British groups began invading Ireland for need of land for there growing kingdom, and had established there own laws and created their own parliament in Ireland. Penal Laws were created specifically designed to reduce the Catholics as the dominant religion in Ireland, laws like Catholics banned from public office or parliament, and Catholics banned from intermarriage with Protestants. In 1714 the Georgian Era begins when George I took the throne of the United Kingdom (so called when England swallowed Scotland in 1702, which Swift refers to â€Å"QUOTE†). He continues to strengthen the parliament and in 1720, the British parliament passed the Sixth of George I Act allowing it to pass legislation in Ireland without the agreement of the Irish parliament. 2. 2 Protestant – Catholic religious conflict The People of Ireland in the 1700’s are broken into three groups; the Original Irish: The Celtic people of Ireland who received Christianity during the 600s A. D, The Old English: the Normans from England who invaded Ireland during the late 1100s and governed for some centuries, and the English and Scottish settlers: Protestants from England and Scotland were settled on lands confiscated from the Irish by the Tudors in the 1500s. By 1714 only 7% of land in Ireland was held by Catholics, despite the fact that Catholics constituted 75% of the population. (www. irishhistorylinks. net)

pythagorean essays

pythagorean essays Pythagorean Philosophy and its influence on Musical Instrumentation and "Music is the harmonization of opposites, the unification of disparate things, and the conciliation of warring elements... Music is the basis of agreement among things in nature and of the best government in the universe. As a rule it assumes the guise of harmony in the universe, of lawful government in a state, and of a sensible way of life in the home. It brings together and unites." - The Pythagoreans Every school student will recognize his name as the originator of that theorem which offers many cheerful facts about the square on the hypotenuse. Many European philosophers will call him the father of philosophy. Many scientists will call him the father of science. To musicians, nonetheless, Pythagoras is the father of music. According to Johnston, it was a much told story that one day the young Pythagoras was passing a blacksmith's shop and his ear was caught by the regular intervals of sounds from the anvil. When he discovered that the hammers were of different weights, it occured to him that the intervals might be related to those weights. Pythagoras was correct. Pythagorean philosophy maintained that all things are numbers. Based on the belief that numbers were the building blocks of everything, Pythagoras began linking numbers and music. Revolutionizing music, Pythagoras' findings generated theorems and standards for musical scales, relationships, instruments, and creative formation. Musical scales became defined, and taught. Instrument makers began a precision approach to device construction. Composers developed new attitudes of composition that encompassed a foundation of numeric value in addition to melody. All three approaches were based on Pythagorean philosophy. Thus, Pythagoras' relationship between numbers and music had a profound influence on future musical education, i...

The Battle of Atlanta in the American Civil War

The Battle of Atlanta in the American Civil War The Battle of Atlanta was fought July 22, 1864, during the  American Civil War  (1861-1865) and saw Union forces under Major General William T. Sherman win a near-run victory. The second in a series of battles around the city, the fighting centered on a Confederate attempt to defeat Major General James B. McPhersons Army of the Tennessee east of Atlanta. While the attack did achieve some success, including killing McPherson, it was ultimately repulsed by Union forces. Following the battle, Sherman shifted his efforts to the western side of the city. Strategic Background Late July 1864 found Major General William T. Shermans forces approaching Atlanta. Nearing the city, he pushed  Major General George H. Thomas Army of the Cumberland toward Atlanta from the north, while  Major General John Schofields Army of the Ohio neared from the northeast. His final command, Major General James B. McPhersons Army of the Tennessee, moved towards the city from Decatur in the east. Opposing the Union forces was the Confederate Army of Tennessee which was badly outnumbered and undergoing a change in command. Major General William T. Sherman. Photograph Courtesy of the National Archives Records Administration Throughout the campaign, General Joseph E. Johnston had pursued a defensive approach as his sought to slow Sherman with his smaller army. Though he had been repeatedly flanked out of several positions by Shermans armies, he had also forced his counterpart of fight bloody battles at Resaca and Kennesaw Mountain. Increasingly frustrated by Johnstons passive approach, President Jefferson Davis relieved him on July 17 and gave command of the army to Lieutenant General John Bell Hood. An offensive-minded commander, Hood had served in General Robert E. Lees Army of Northern Virginia and had seen action in many of its campaigns including the fighting at Antietam and Gettysburg. At the time of the change in command, Johnston had been planning an attack against Thomas Army of the Cumberland. Due to the imminent nature of the strike, Hood and several other Confederate generals requested that the command change be delayed until after the battle but they were denied by Davis. Lieutenant General John B. Hood. Photograph Courtesy of the National Archives Records Administration Assuming command, Hood elected to move forward with the operation and he struck at Thomas men at the  Battle of Peachtree Creek  on July 20. In heavy fighting, the Union troops mounted a determined defense and turned back Hoods assaults. Though unhappy with the result, it did not deter Hood from remaining on the offensive. Fast Facts: Battle of Atlanta Conflict: Civil War (1861-1865)Dates: July 22, 1863Armies Commanders:United StatesMajor General William T. ShermanMajor General James B. McPhersonapprox. 35,000 menConfederacyGeneral John Bell Hoodapprox. 40,000 menCasualties:United States: 3,641Confederacy: 5,500 A New Plan Receiving reports that McPhersons left flank was exposed, Hood commenced planning an ambitious strike against the Army of the Tennessee. Pulling two of his corps back into Atlantas inner defenses, he ordered Lieutenant General William Hardees corps and  Major General Joseph Wheelers cavalry to move out on the evening of July 21. Hoods attack plan called for the Confederate troops to swing around the Union flank to reach Decatur on July 22. Once in the Union rear, Hardee was to advance west and take McPherson from the rear while Wheeler attacked the Army of the Tennessees wagon trains. This would be supported by a frontal assault on McPhersons army by  Major General Benjamin Cheathams corps. As the Confederate troops began their march, McPhersons men had entrenched along a north-south line east of the city. Union Plans On the morning of July 22, Sherman initially received reports that the Confederates had abandoned the city as Hardees men had been seen on the march. These quickly proved to be false and he resolved to begin cutting the rail links into Atlanta. To accomplish this, he sent orders to McPherson instructing him to send Major General Grenville Dodges XVI Corps back to Decatur to tear up the Georgia Railroad. Having received reports of Confederate activity to the south, McPherson was reluctant to obey these orders and questioned Sherman. Though he believed his subordinate was being overly cautious, Sherman agreed to postpone the mission until 1:00 p.m. Major General James B. McPherson. Photograph Courtesy of the Library of Congress McPherson Killed Around noon, with no enemy attack having materialized, Sherman directed McPherson to send Brigadier General John Fullers division to Decatur while Brigadier General Thomas Sweenys division would be allowed to remain in position on the flank. McPherson drafted the necessary orders for Dodge, but before they were received the sound of firing was heard to the southeast. To the southeast, Hardees men were badly behind schedule due to a late start, poor road conditions, and a lack of guidance from Wheelers cavalrymen. Due to this, Hardee turned north too soon and his lead divisions, under Major Generals William Walker and William Bate, encountered Dodges two divisions which were deployed on an east-west line to cover the Union flank. While Bates advance on the right was hampered by swampy terrain, Walker was killed by a Union sharpshooter as he formed his men. As a result, the Confederate assault in this area lacked cohesion and was turned back by Dodges men. On the Confederate left, Major General Patrick Cleburnes division quickly found a large gap between Dodges right and the left of Major General Francis P. Blairs XVII Corps. Riding south to the sound of the guns, McPherson also entered this gap and encountered the advancing Confederates. Ordered to halt, he was shot and killed while trying to escape (Map). Major General Patrick Cleburne. Photograph Courtesy of the Library of Congress The Union Holds Driving on, Cleburne was able to attack the flank and rear of XVII Corps. These efforts were supported by Brigadier General George Maneys division (Cheathams Division) which assaulted the Union front. These Confederate attacks were not coordinated which allowed the Union troops to repel them in turn by rushing from one side of their entrenchments to the other. After two hours of fighting, Maney and Cleburne finally attacked in conjunction forcing Union forces to fall back. Swinging his left back in an L-shape, Blair centered his defense on Bald Hill which dominated the battlefield. In an effort to aid Confederate efforts against XVI Corps, Hood ordered Cheatham to attack Major General John Logans XV Corps to the north. Sitting astride the Georgia Railroad, XV Corps front was briefly penetrated through an undefended railroad cut. Personally leading the counterattack, Logan soon restored his lines with the aid of artillery fire directed by Sherman. For the remainder of the day, Hardee continued to assault the bald hill with little success. The position soon became known as Leggetts Hill for Brigadier General Mortimer Leggett whose troops held it. Fighting died off after dark though both armies remained in place. To the east, Wheeler succeeded in occupying Decatur but was prevented from getting at McPhersons wagon trains by a skillful delaying action conducted by Colonel John W. Sprague and his brigade. For his actions in saving the wagon trains of the XV, XVI, XVII, and XX Corps, Sprague received the Medal of Honor. With the failure of Hardees assault, Wheelers position in Decatur became untenable and he withdrew to Atlanta that night.   Aftermath The Battle of Atlanta cost Union forces 3,641 casualties while Confederate losses totaled around 5,500. For the second time in two days, Hood had failed to destroy a wing of Shermans command. Though a problem earlier in the campaign, McPhersons cautious nature proved fortuitous as Shermans initial orders would have left the Union flank completely exposed. In the wake of the fighting, Sherman gave command of the Army of the Tennessee to Major General Oliver O. Howard. This greatly angered XX Corps commander Major General Joseph Hooker who felt entitled to the post and blamed Howard for his defeat at the Battle of Chancellorsville. On July 27, Sherman resumed operations against the city by shifting to the west side to cut the Macon Western Railroad. Several additional battles occurred outside of the city before Atlantas fall on September 2.

South China Sea petro-politics Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

South China Sea petro-politics - Term Paper Example South China Sea is a vast area in the Pacific Ocean that stretches from Singapore to Taiwan and borders mainland china to the North, Philippines to the west, Malaysia to the north east and Indonesia and Vietnam to the south east. South China Sea has remained a major maritime heart of the entire South East Asia region and its strategic location has particularly made it one of the busiest international sea lanes. The geopolitics of the region has been particularly characterized by disputes that dates back to the end of the World War 11 when the bordering states such as Vietnam, mainland China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia began to scramble to occupy the various islands in the region (Burgess, 2003). Historically the South China Sea region has for a long time been considered to a major flashpoint for regional tensions in the Southeast Asia. Although the conflicts have primarily been territorial and political disputes, the main cause of these political challenges is the scramble for the energy resources in the region. This is particularly because the region is estimated to have as high s 213 billion barrels of oil and this is a huge prize. On the other hand, the region also has n abundant natural gas reserves estimated to be around 266 trillion cubic feet and this is nearly 70% of the regions total petroleum resources. Since the 1990s, the disputes in the volatile region have increasingly transformed from a purely territorial conflict to a chain of interconnected conflicts involving competitive claims of oil and gas energy reserves as well as the other ocean resources such as fishing. With an estimated oil and gas energy reserves of nearly 28billion barrels according to American experts, the sensitivity of the regions conflicts has significantly impeded any effort to harness these petro energy resources as well as the effective determination of their economic feasibility of the resources in the region. This paper critically discusses the current petro-politics in the South China Sea with particular focus on the background of events as well as the interplay of the factors that have contributed to the current conflicts in the regions. Geopolitical and territorial disputes in the South China Sea The South China petro-politics has largely been characterized by an interstate dispute over territory and s overeignty of the vast resources found in the area particularly in the two islands of Spratlys and Paracels that are claimed by a number of countries in the region. For instance, according to Shen(2002), China claims almost the entire region stretching hundreds of miles arguing that it has a historical right over the area since it has always been an integral part of China for more than 2000 years. On the other hand, Vietnam has been increasingly disputing China’s historical account and the Asia country maintains that China only began to claim sovereignty over the two islands and the surrounding regions in the 1940s. According to Vietnam, both the chains of Islands and their surrounding regions are entirely within its territory and the country has documents to prove that it has been actively ruling Spratys and Paracels islands since the 17th century. The other major claimant of the energy rich region is Philippines which justifies its claims by its close geographical proximity to the two island chains. Both China and Philippines also claim another island known as Huangyan Island which is 100miles away from the Philippines and 500 miles from china(Manning, 2000). Additionally Malaysia and Brunei are now claiming a significant chunk of the South China Sea territory arguing that the region falls within their economic exclusion zones as defined by the UN convention on the law of the sea which was ratified in 1982.Brunei however does not claim any of the Islands that are currently under dispute. History of the conflict In 1947, the then Chinese government

War and The Role of Photography and the Media Essay

War and The Role of Photography and the Media - Essay Example The Spanish Civil War offered one of the most enduring images of all, caught by the camera of the legendary Robert Capa - a Republican soldier at the instant of death, the moment of truth, the bitterest truth of all. And now we see again how potent a picture can be. Not long ago it seemed certain that the lasting image of war in Iraq would be Saddam's toppled statue. Instead, for millions, it is now a grinning 21-year-old girl holding a dog lead attached to the neck of a naked, cowering Iraqi. That the mass media grew in importance during the twentieth century cannot be doubted. The late Victorian period witnessed an enormous expansion of the press, stimulated by improved technology and by the mid-century removal of the so-called 'taxes on knowledge', the stamp and paper duties which had raised the price of newspapers. By 1901 there were 21 major daily newspapers being produced in London. Although this number was to fall in the next few decades, as a result of closures and mergers, the press would remain a power in the land, courted and feared by politicians of all parties. After the First World War new media came to rival the press in their capacity to reach a mass audience. The cinema came into its own in the inter-war period, providing newsreel images which enabled the public at large to gain its first visual appreciation of the country's political leaders. The establishment in the 1920 of the BBC made possible the supply of radio, followed later by television, directly to voters' homes. From 1955, with the emergence of independent television, the BBC's monopoly of broadcasting was challenged by the rise of commercial channels. The appearance of satellite and cable television from the late 1980s further extended the variety of media available to the public. The role of the media in politics remains an area of intense debate. Although the press and broadcasting have rarely, if ever, been direct causes of political change, arguably they have done more than merely reflect their environment. The historians James

First American Physicist Benjamin Franklin Research Paper

First American Physicist Benjamin Franklin - Research Paper Example Ben Franklin’s life shows that only those people who dare to risk securities of home, have a strong desire to learn continuously and have a great sense of humor, can lead a happy, content and meaningful life. Hence, for anyone who desires to lead a meaningful and joyful life, and desires to live every moment of life to the fullest, the characters and life of Ben Franklin can be great inspiration, as he is an epitome of qualities that lead to success and happiness in both, the personal and the professional life. Early Years Ben Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 17, 1706 (Glass, 2004, p. 4). Franklin had sixteen siblings and he was the fifteenth child of his parents (Glass, 2004, p. 4). He went to school at the age of eight but left the school at the age of 10 to become an apprentice to his father (Glass, 2004, p. 4). He was exposed to work life very early. However, he was very fond of reading books and never stopped learning new things (Glass, 2004, p. 5). His mind was active, sharp and curious. Ben learned how to make soaps and candles in his father’s shop (Nettleton, 2004, p. 5). However, he never liked making it and enjoyed reading better (Glass, 2004, p. 6). Even though he was able to attend the school only for two years, his interest in reading books remained intact (Nettleton, 2004, p. 6). ... 6). The interest in reading and gaining knowledge from books developed his skills and business acumen. Moreover, he learnt how to be â€Å"good, just and prudent in the conduct of life† from his father (Russell, 1926, p.5). While working under his father, Ben developed interest in different tools of making artifacts by watching â€Å"joiners, bricklayers, turners, braziers and other artificers at work† (Russell, 1926, p.5). This helped him later in life in making his own tools to conduct different experiments in his laboratory (Russell, 1926, p.5). However, Ben never liked his father’s business and also did not intend to become a clergy, as his father wanted him to be (Russell, 1926, p.7). After some time, he joined his brother in printing shop (Glass, 2004, p. 6). However, Ben soon realized that he will have to make a separate way for himself, as his relationship with his brother was not going smooth. Independent Path Benjamin Franklin’s brother James was a printer (Glass, 2004, p. 6). Ben joined his brother as an apprentice and started learning how to make new papers at his printing shop (Nettleton, 2004, p. 11). At the time he joined his brother as apprentice, Ben was just 12 years old (Russell, 1926, p.4). James used to print newspaper articles written by Ben without knowing that Ben had written them as Ben used to write them under female name (Nettleton, 2004, p. 11). When he learnt that it was Ben who was writing it, he stopped publishing them (Nettleton, 2004, p. 11). Ben was not able to carry on working with James as he argued with him a lot (Nettleton, 2004, p. 11). James was abusive (American Physics Society, n.d., para. 3) and never showed appreciation towards what Ben did. Hence, Ben ran away to Philadelphia when he was 17

Practical lab writeups - see pdf files Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Practical lab writeups - see pdf files - Essay Example The presence of 3 1H peaks indicates that it is not a dinitrate product but a mononitrate product. The presence of the 1H singlet and two doublets indicates that one H is apart and the other two are on neighbouring C atoms, so NO2 is at position 4. So the product is 1,2-dimethoxy-4-nitrobenzene, consistent with the melting point. The melting point of the semicarbazide derivative of compound A was found to be 224-225 Â ºC, which means that compound A is likely to be o-chloro-benzaldehyde or p-hydroxy-benzaldehyde. According to the 1HNMR spectrum, with benzene proton peaks around 7 ppm and aldehyde proton singlet, the second functional group should also contain one proton, showing up as a singlet. Therefore, the second functional group is a hydroxy-group, so compound A is p-hydroxy-benzaldehyde. This hydroxyl-group also gives the possibility to from the bicyclic structure of compound B. The H atom of NH will exchange with solvent, so if D2O is added it may be replaced with D. This only influences the peak of the H of NH, which will become a doublet with the second peak (of D) at lower intensity and at higher field (lower

Camille Saint Saens Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Camille Saint Saens - Essay Example His intelligence wasn’t just limited to music, for he excelled in such fields as geology, astronomy, and mathematics. Some of Saint-Saens famous works include the â€Å"Piano Concerto No. 2, Symphony No. 3 ("Organ"), and most noteworthy The Carnival of The Animals which he dedicated to close friend Franz Liszt (Cummings). Throughout his life, he produced a variety of expressive and dramatic works including poems, operas, and symphonies. In 1908 Saint-Saens had the honor of being the first composer to write a musical piece for the motion picture The Assassination of the Duke of Guise (Cummings). Inspired by French Classicism, he was especially brilliant at composing piano music like the Variations on a Theme by Beethoven and the Scherzo. His married life proved to be a great tragedy with the death of both of his children. During this lonesome period he produced some of his best works like Danse macabre in 1875 and Samson et Dalila in 1878 (Cummings). Saint-Saens was also very close to his mother and upon her death succumbed to an even lonelier and depressed stage of his life. After this he took to traveling and writing music about exotic places like Algeria and Egypt producing works like Africa and his Piano Concerto No. 5, the "Egyptian" (Cummings).

The summary of the article for business within two weeks' newspaper

The summary of the for business within two weeks' newspaper - Article Example Without the knowledge of the customers, however, the money was transferred to the accounts of the owners and managers of the online gambling site, who were themselves were seasoned and prominent poker players. On behalf of the players who were cheated out of their money, federal prosecutors filed a civil complaint against the company, for an amount that could well reach $390 million, the amount allegedly acquired by the unscrupulous online game from its unsuspecting clientele. According to the federal prosecutors handling the case, the Full Tilt website was actually not a legitimate poker firm, but an elaborate Ponzi scheme the intention of which was actually to defraud those people whom the managers can entice to sign up with them. The fraud was revealed when the prosecutors had several poker sites shut down in the course of investigating two other poker web sites, which were based abroad. Because the site of Full Tilt Poker was also shut down, customers began asking for their money back, money which was supposed to have been held by Full Tile for safekeeping. When the reimbursements did not come, federal authorities were alerted, and the illegal scheme was discovered. Full Tilt is an online gambling business that exists de facto but the exact legal personality of which has not been determined. It has its headquarters in Ireland. Among those said to have profited from Full Tilt’s operations are Howard Lederer who is said to have received $42 million, and Christ Ferguson who got $25 million and has receivables of $60 million more. Both are considered luminaries in the world of poker. Former patrons of the website said that in the past, they were paid in a timely fashion and there appeared to be no problems if they withdrew money from their account anytime. When the crisis came and players began withdrawing their money all at the same time, Full Tilt’s reimbursements slowed and then stopped altogether, indicating the possibility of embezzlement of money which should have been held in individual accounts for the players. Reaction It is particularly ironic that people who go out of their way to gamble are themselves cheated out of their gambling money – a vice for a vice. During these hard times, gambling should be viewed as particularly wasteful and inconsiderate of others’ plight; in a sense, there is some poetic justice in being cheated out of money they were about to lose anyway. It is determined that the chances of consistently winning in a game of chance are skewed against the customer, and in favour of the gambling operator (Ethier 338). Other than this, there are serious problems about litigation and recovery. Full Tilt being a foreign de facto entity, and the embezzlement being committed in the U.S., there will be difficulty bringing the illicit corporation under the jurisprudence of the tribunal in the U.S. It may also prove difficult to trace the money trail to see who benefitted from the stolen funds a s the internet by its nature protects anonymity. There will therefore be serious problems between the actual embezzlers, and those whose names were merely used to enhance the site’s appeal. The very act of gambling online is against U.S. law, so there may naturally be no international agreements that may have been entered to provide basis of claim between two countries. It

Camille Saint Saens Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Camille Saint Saens - Essay Example His intelligence wasn’t just limited to music, for he excelled in such fields as geology, astronomy, and mathematics. Some of Saint-Saens famous works include the â€Å"Piano Concerto No. 2, Symphony No. 3 ("Organ"), and most noteworthy The Carnival of The Animals which he dedicated to close friend Franz Liszt (Cummings). Throughout his life, he produced a variety of expressive and dramatic works including poems, operas, and symphonies. In 1908 Saint-Saens had the honor of being the first composer to write a musical piece for the motion picture The Assassination of the Duke of Guise (Cummings). Inspired by French Classicism, he was especially brilliant at composing piano music like the Variations on a Theme by Beethoven and the Scherzo. His married life proved to be a great tragedy with the death of both of his children. During this lonesome period he produced some of his best works like Danse macabre in 1875 and Samson et Dalila in 1878 (Cummings). Saint-Saens was also very close to his mother and upon her death succumbed to an even lonelier and depressed stage of his life. After this he took to traveling and writing music about exotic places like Algeria and Egypt producing works like Africa and his Piano Concerto No. 5, the "Egyptian" (Cummings).

Torture and Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Torture and Ethics - Essay Example Hence, even with prisoners, there can be no excuse to place an individual in a situation wherein his / her rights are violated since the act of penalizing someone is nowhere close to the act of overlooking ones basic rights. As early as 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stipulates, in unqualified terms, that â€Å"no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment† (Evans, R, 2005, The Ethics of Torture). In the following year 1949 â€Å"the Geneva convention not only stipulated the provision for protection of enemy combatants and civilians but also instruct that unlawful combatants must be â€Å"treated with humanity and shall not be deprived of the rights of fair and regular trial† (Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 5) (Evans, R, 2005, The Ethics of Torture) . It must be noted that arguments regarding the act of torture that are pro and against it can be presented. â€Å"There is an old Jewish joke about two Y eshiva students who go to the rabbi to settle a heated legal dispute over which they have been arguing all day. Max, the first student, offers cogent theoretical and pragmatic arguments that forcefully make his point. The rabbi listens carefully and declares, ‘Max you are surely right!’ Next the second student, Joshua, presents his side with vigor. He makes clear and concise counter-arguments and demonstrates how his position is supported by precedent. He argues with such passion and persuasion that the Rabbi, after listening closely, says, ‘Brilliant arguments Joshua – you are clearly correct!’ After the students leave, the rabbi’s wife, who was listening in on the exchange, says to her husband, ‘Are you crazy? Max and Joshua had conflicting arguments, how can you say both of them are right? When one is right the other must be wrong!’ The rabbi thinks long and hard on this and finally says to his wife, ‘You know what? You t oo are right!’† (Wijze. S. d., 2005, The Torture Debate in America) Both arguing sides are sure to have valid reasons to support their arguments but what is important that a society understands the moral worth of such an act, the moral duty of every member of the society, as well as result of such an act to society. If a society where to gauge the moral worth of its actions by the consequences that it produces, then the act of torture might be viewed as something acceptable. For instance, torturing a captured alleged terrorist for information that can ultimately lead to the alleviation of terrible events, can be a worthwhile reason to justify the act of torture. Take for example the captured Al-Qaeda members. â€Å"the goal of American officials was chiefly to acquire information that could be used to prevent a future terrorist attack. In particular, the capture of high-ranking al-Qaeda members such as Abu Zubaida, Mohamed al-Kahtani, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed raised the possibility that American officials may have custody of individuals with extremely valuable "actionable intelligence," in the lingo of military intelligence officials. Intelligence personnel naturally made it a high priority to get these detainees to talk. Because many suspected militants had proven to be skilled at resisting traditional, noncoercive interrogation techniques such as promises of leniency in exchange for cooperation, American officials sought advice to see whether it would be legally permissible to use certain coercive techniques on "high value"

Total quality management Literature review

Total quality management Literature review Literature review The world experienced the quality revolution in the early 1990s. From that instance organisations were improving in overall quality of the organisation. The companies around the world competed with their quality of products and services, price and delivery. Organisations believed that by improving the quality, they can achieve lower cost, fewer failures and better marketability. In this period total quality management became popular. TQM is applied in organisations to improve its effectiveness, flexibility and competitiveness, by improving the overall quality of the organisation. It is focused mainly on continuous improvement. TQM is nothing but a philosophy and guide to organisations, which helps them in ways towards continuous improvement. TQM is a combination of system of systems. All the companies have not achieved competitive advantage or benefits using TQM is because of implementation and usage in the organisation. To be successful with TQM the indicators which are to be achieved by an organisation are the leadership, continuous improvements, internal or external co- operation, customer focus, learning, employee fulfilment and process management. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/ViewContentServlet?contentType=ArticleFilename=Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Articles/0291030201.html http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/ViewContentServlet?contentType=ArticleFilename=Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Articles/1060120604.html http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/ViewContentServlet?contentType=ArticleFilename=Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Articles/0400140507.html http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/ViewContentServlet?contentType=ArticleFilename=/published/emeraldfulltextarticle/pdf/1760030104.pdf According to Hansson and Klefsjà ¶ (2003) TQM can be defined as a management system, which consists of three interdependent units, namely core values, techniques and tools. But the definitions for total quality management are vague. The aim of TQM is Zero defect and it mainly emphasis on quality. The core values of TQM which will lead to better quality in the organisation is summarised from the authors (Boulter and Bendell, 2002, Ehresman, 1995, Ghobadian and Gallear 1995, Hansson and Klefsjà ¶ 2003, 2006 ) it is divided into three parts, first the whole organisation has to committed and work towards common goal i.e. continuous improvement. Secondly the customers are to be focused, through better satisfaction in the products and services. The decisions made with regard to customers are to be given the highest priority by top level management. Thirdly the decisions must be taken with trusted facts and figures. http://demo1.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/ViewContentServlet;jsessionid=5FBEA684473F22B9FAE30638F23D3534?contentType=ArticleFilename=Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Articles/1060150201.html Boulter, L., Bendell, T. (2002), How can ISO 9000:2000 help companies achieve excellence? What the company think, Measuring Business Excellence, Vol. 6 No.2, pp.37-41. Ehresman, T. (1995), Small Business Success through TQM, ASQC Quality Press, Milwaukee, WI. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=MImg_imagekey=B6VC4-3VW1BRW-8-2_cdi=5944_user=138221_orig=search_coverDate=02%2F29%2F1996_sk=999759998view=cwchp=dGLbVlz-zSkzkmd5=a2afeab00d66a4e64f8e3a30e84385dfie=/sdarticle.pdf http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=MImg_imagekey=B6VCT-4MHPHMF-C-5_cdi=5963_user=138221_orig=search_coverDate=12%2F01%2F2007_sk=998169997view=cwchp=dGLbVzb-zSkWzmd5=e471fdc0aece7732196abd9705804b37ie=/sdarticle.pdf http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/ViewContentServlet?contentType=ArticleFilename=Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Articles/0291080901.html From the definition and study it is stated that the environmental management is a part of quality management. When the organisation is moving towards total improvement in performance, the environmental performance has its presence. Governments and agencies around the world created quality systems to help the organisations to achieve their quality objectives through quality management systems and environmental performance in environmental management systems. The QM and EMS share a common aim and values. QM and EMS are integrated now. According to Wilkinson and Dale, 1998 and Karapetrovic and Willborn, 1998 integration can be carried out in many different ways but, the results differ in terms of applying it and it is also called as system of systems. Wilkinson, G., Dale, B.G. (1998), System integration: the views and activities of certification bodies, The TQM Magazine, Vol. 10 No.4, pp.288-92 Karapetrovic, S., Willborn, W. (1998), Integration of quality and environmental management systems, The TQM Magazine, Vol. 10 No.3, pp.204-13. For example the ISO has developed management systems separately for quality management and environmental management i.e. ISO9000 for quality and ISO14000 for environmental management. Integration was done by the technical committee in 2004 between quality and environment systems. They had explored the common factors between two systems and modified ISO 14000-2004 to enable organisations to use both systems at once. This resulted in superior performance in many organisations. They introduced the PDCA which is common for both systems. Bernardo et al, 2008 http://demo1.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/ViewContentServlet?contentType=ArticleFilename=Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Articles/0510200405.html#idb31 Environmental management and quality management are parallel to each other. They have common factors like zero defects and no wastage and the process of implementation with corrective and preventive actions. But some basic value does not integrate, exactly with each other. QMS mainly concentrates on consumer requirements and on the other had EMS focuses on the environment. According to Chinn a new concept was formed in late 90s which was named as QEMS which means quality and environment management system. It has stated the common elements they worked upon. They are planning, objectives, management responsibility, communication, training, control of records and many others. So when an organisation need to equipped with total quality system, the EMS will also must be in place to monitor the environmental sustainability measures from the organisation. What is Benchmarking? In the present business scenario, quality has become a major criterion in all aspects of the organisation, so the managers have taken up quality improvement tools such as total quality management, quality function development and continuous improvement. The exertion of these tools is to discover the flaws in the organisational process. The next step is to convert these flaws and improving the component. Here the question rises of how to fix these inadequacies? Benchmarking is the way to fix them. As benchmarking is a quality improvement process. It is a systematic process of searching and monitoring the best practices in the sector. Benchmarking has been the concept of imitating the best practices in the industry. Organizations have to achieve cost benefits, better operations and better environment by which it induces the company to learn quickly and cheaply from adopting the best practices and performance standards from other companies in order to get better competitive advantage over its competitors. This can be extended anywhere because the ultimate goal is to be best in class. Benchmarking is commonly used tool in the organisations. This technique can be implemented in all sectors and it is due to increasing competitiveness. Benchmark means to a unit on a scale for measurement. It was a fashionable concept for the large manufacturing companies which predominantly uses quantitative economic parameters, such as inventory turnover, set-up times, lead time, direct labour time or working time, return on sales, return on equity are measured.(Miller et al.,1992). Nowadays benchmarking is used everywhere and it is used to measure any process, activity, procedure in an organisation which may be of products or services. Many authors and literatures have given many different forms of definitions for benchmarking. Definitions from Sarkis, Andersen and pettersen and Marosszeky and Karim are benchmarking means comparing the practices, operations, results of an organisation with the best organisation in the sector and adopt and practice the techniques used in there to improve ones own organisation. And it focuses on continuous improvement, in quality and helps to learn from the competitors. Through which the faults and breakthroughs in the organisation can be easily identified and systematically dealt with. It also helps in improving the overall quality and business environment carried out through learning from each other. It forms a continuous and systematic improvement in an organisations processes, products and services which are being monitored and adopted from the best practices globally or nation wide or in a particular sector. Benchmarking is used to achieve and maintain high level of competitiveness. It monitors the continuous improvement by the process of measuring the products, services and business practices against the best practices in the industry. The organisations strengths and weakness can be easily identified and measured with the best and toughest competitors in the industry. Best practices is finding and using the best ways to achieve the desired objectives in the organisation. It is done by imitating the practices and processes of the organisation who are leaders in the sector and measuring the ways it worked with. Benchmarking can be done in five steps for an organisation. Firstly the required data are collected in a planned manner from the organisation and the data is converted into a report format, which make it easy for analyzing the situation. After creating a report the gaps are to be detected and corrective action has to be implemented to fill the gaps. When the gaps in the organisation are corrected, review has to be done in regular intervals and reported. It is compared with best practice in the industry. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/04/02091848/1 Many organisations are not aware of what needed to be benchmarked. because of the lack of management knowledge. A key issue is that what to benchmark in business or an organisation. It is mainly used to compare and measure of business and product performance and how it is extended to the business processes. Determining the issues to be benchmarked is a critical issue. The following questions can aid to the question of what to benchmark with environment (Cassell et. al.., 2001) To find the critical factors which are of organisations success To find the process causing the trouble in the system To find the process which contribute to maximum customer satisfaction and in which the performance is not to the expectation Examine and define the competitive pressures impacting the organisation What the processes which have the greatest potential for differentiating in the business competitiveness? Environmental benchmarking The environmental benchmarking is derived from benchmarking and it mainly focuses on the natural environment. It helps the organisation to become green and eco efficient by adopting the practices from the leaders in industry. It is also a quality improvement tool and has become very essential to an organisation. They are used to achieve environmental performance in the organisation i.e. it helps the organisation to manipulate on the natural environment. It is adapted in many organisations due to the pressure from stake holders, public and authorises. According to Greeno and Robinson 1992, Demands on companies to measure, document and disclose information about environmental performance will become invasive.and environmental performance will become a critical factor to scrutinize. It is been predicted a decade ago, and the governments has now made it mandatory and bought it to the legislations that organisations must be environmental conscious and friendly. According to Szekely, et. al.., 1996, Makrinou et al 2008 and Mandaraka, et. al 2003 Environmental benchmarking is used by various organisation in their practices, process and in business operation to achieve environmental efficiency and environmental performance. The tool framed to rigorously concentrate on every activity of the organisation and examines and compares the process to achieve its objectives. The process is the elimination and rectification of weak activities and processes in the organisation and the objective is to identify and access the abilities and attributes in business to achieve maximum environmental performance. Most of the weak activities cause heavy pollution and burden to the environment. The weak process and activities are very dangerous to the environment and life. The world in has seen many industrial disasters in last two decades due to unhealthy practices and operations by the environment. The best examples are the Efficient and maximum usage of virgin materials in the organisation, recycling of waste, waste, treatment plant to neutralise end pipe discharge, maximum utilization of assets and machinery and power saving equipments and minimum usage of non renewable resource. Minor modifications in the process of operations in the organisations, will lead to lesser impact on the environment and can avoid these kinds of disasters in future. The improved process, practices and operations can be identified from the best practices. Benchmarking tools helps in finding the best practices in national and international level. Environmental benchmarking is an integral part of environmental management systems. This helps in setting up of goals and targets for an organization towards environmental efficiency. It also helps in monitoring the performance of the targets which are to be achieved towards better environment. It is one of the tools used in management systems like EMS (Bolli and Emtairah 2001). Environmental management system EMS is a management type system which aims in managing the environmental aspects of the organisation in a pro active way, and it directly relates to the organisations overall performance. It relates to the process, practices, products and services and day to day operations. The main objective of Ems is to continually improve the environmental performance of the organisation with overall performance. Ems is a collection of policies, statements, assessments, plan and actions which directly or indirectly affects the organisation and its performance. Organisations achieve environmental performance with Ems in a systematic manner. It is a continuous cycle which plans, implements, reviews and improves the practices and processes of the organisation for continuous improvement towards environmental sustainability. Ems mainly focuses on minimizing the environmental impacts of the organisation on the natural environment. The main objectives of Ems for the SMEs are It induces the organisation to have an environmental management system. It assists the SMEs in understanding the concepts of Ems in their operations, in order to help the management to adopt precisely. This reduces the impacts on natural environment and it is easy to comply with the regulation. This helps in cost savings and increased productivity. The third objective is developing a awareness with the SMEs entrepreneurs, regarding the importance of environment and the organisations impact on them. It helps the SMEs in creating a strong foundation to implement the international standards like ISO and EMAS in organisations. According to British standards institute, Ems is defined as the organisational structure, responsibilities, practices, procedures, processes and resources for determining and implementing environmental policy. According to BSI is nothing but an environmental policy which outlines the organisations commitment to the environmental performance. Many organisation in different countries follow and adopt the environmental management system such as BS8555, ISO 14000 series, EMAS, Green dragon. But in common it works on the Deming Cycle. Plan, what you are going to do, do what you planned to do, check to ensure that you did what you planned to do and act to make improvements. SMEs adopt EMS EMS is an unobserved quality. It can be examined only by the drivers, practices. The organisations are motivated to use EMS and its environmental strategies to increase their efficiency and legitimacy. It is very controversial because from the study of states those SMEs are not only motivated by the rewards and befits such as environmental performance, organisational/business performance and export orientation but they are pressurized to adopt EMS by their stake holders and institutional pressures. According to Khanna and Anton 2002 EMS becomes complete when they are more environmental practices is undertaken in the organisation. The environmental practices are the environmental policy, evaluation, training for employees, regular audits of internal and external in nature, environmental performance and benchmarking with the best practices, goals and targets and public report. Motivation and EMS Motivation is the driving force behind for an organisation to implement a management techniques or tool or system in their operations and business process. The factors and statistics which can be used to motivate the organisations to implement EMS in their organisation and in the same time become environmentally sustainable and reduce the impact on natural environment. The factors are the organisation can achieve compliance with the regulations of the government, it creates an eco friendly image to the stake holders and better marketability options and it also reduces cost with greater organisational performance. Export orientation In the globalised world export and import has taken the centre stage. Export orientation becomes imperative when organisation operates within or depends on the foreign markets. When the goods are carried out of national borders EMS becomes essential to meet the demands of the importing country and the needs of diverse customers. Buyers gain trust of exporters by looking into the operations and eco friendly procedures and facilities implemented in the organisation. EMS and organisational Performance A management system is framed and practiced in the business is to gain from the management practices. The gain or benefit can be in the form of monetary benefit or non monetary benefit. EMS and environmental performance EMS and pressure on SMEs SMEs are exposed to stakeholders pressure to adopt environmental management system. The stakeholders are person, group, organisation or the government which has a direct or indirect stake in the organisation and can or would be affected by the organisations policy, decision and operations. The stake holders for an SME are Regulatory pressure The regulatory pressure is created from the regulators, governments, insurers on the organisation to curb their pollution levels and employ eco friendly operations and which doesnt impact the natural environment. If the organisations fail, it is imposed with fines, penalties, strategic actions or even closure of firms. The regulatory pressure creates an opportunity for the organisation to become more competitive and capitalize of the situation. But when the regulation becomes stricter, the SMEs are compelled to implement costly pollution control technologies. Better pollution control leads to lesser insurance premiums and better credit options from the bank and financial agencies. Market pressure In this competitive world the organisations are concerned about the market share. Customers have become concerned about the natural environment and they have started to use the products and services of the organisations which are eco efficient and sustainable towards the environment. When organisation adopts EMS it increases organisations reputation. The market pressures drive the managers to adopt EMS to survive in the business and to stay competitive. Social pressure An organisation must have a better public image to survive and competitive in the market. To gain the image the organisation need to become environmental friendly and work towards continual improvement. The word social include the environmental organisation, community groups, labour unions and association which regards to trade. There is been a increase in awareness towards the natural environment in recent times because of industrial accident like Bhopal disaster and Exxon oil spill which shock the world. When an organisation does not implement EMS in their organisation the worst scenario of boycott of goods and it may damage the image in the business environment. Ownership pressure This pressure is imposed on the organisation by their share holders. In SMEs the share holders are in the form of partnership within the company. The pressure is on the organisation to adopt EMS with wide-range of tools and techniques to create an environmental friendly organisation. Organisation is prone to financial liabilities when it has a poor reputation in terms of environment and performance. Internal and external barriers to SMEs in adopting EMS Internal barriers are of resources, understanding and perception, implementation and attitudes and company culture. SMEs are lack of time from the management and staff, to concentrate on EMS implementation and maintenance. Staffs in SMEs lack managerial skill and it is not possible for SMEs to give training due to the constraint of limited resources. When there is an inexperienced or unskilled staff force it becomes difficult to implement EMS, because lack of understanding of the procedures, policies and legal compliances. Implementation of EMS is very cumbersome. Minor breaches in the implementation would cause a heavy loss of resources to the organisation and possible deregistration from the standards. SMEs have to concentrate on continual improvement and it is very difficult to adopt in every stage on the process. The external barriers are the obstacles and hindrances which arise from the external environment of the organisation. High costs of recruiting a consultant and verification/ certification is a major barrier to the SMEs. They are limited number of verifiers in each country and it becomes more expensive to hire. SMEs are not beneficial with EMS because of change in economic climate and Uncertainty which prevails within the market for the value of EMS standard. Benefits and disbenefits of SMEs adopting EMS Small and medium scale enterprises around the world share common characteristics. According to - SMEs around the world contribute 70 percent of pollution ie the SMEs cause great impact to the natural environment. So the EMS model was adapted to SMEs from large scales enterprises. SMEs adapting EMS face disbenefits or non materialization benefits from EMS in their organisation. They are being classified into three (i) resources (ii) surprises (iii) lack of rewards. SMEs characteristics are it lacks professionalism, lack of knowledge, is has started with a minimum capital, lack of skills and time. They also have the barrier of specialized staff and skills to co ordinate the EMS activities in the organisation. The SME has to rely completely on consultants for the certification and adaption on EMS. It is evident that, some may misguide and it results in negative results and wastage of resources for the organisation. SMEs have to incur cost of certification and implementation which is of high capital expenditure to the organisation. which is beyond reach for many organisations. The EMS surprises the SMEs with resources and time spent to implement system which are complex in nature. The other surprises are it is difficult to meet the expectations of all stake holders, it difficult to synchronise with other management

Breastfeeding Essay -- Health, Nutrition

Through the years there has been a debate about whether babies should be fed exclusively on breastfeeding or not. One of the most difficult decisions for new mothers is to decide which diet to follow with her babies. Decisions include relying on the natural choices of breastfeeding or following the advice given by relatives, doctors, pediatricians and infant formula manufacturers. Controversies continue over the years. As many more mothers now want to nurse their babies, formula advocates claim that formula is equivalent to the real thing. Furthermore, supporters of supplemented infant formulas claim their products include the same elements present in mother’s milk plus and even will improve babies’ vision and cognitive behavior. This review aims to expose the benefits of breast milk over formula even for babies with special nutritional requirements. The World Health Organization (WHO) (2011a) and the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) (2008) recommends that breastfeeding continue throughout the first year of life a recommends mothers to of developed and undeveloped countries to exclusively breastfeed infants for the child's first six months. Their recommendation seeks to achieve optimal growth, development and health for babies. After six months of age, the WHO recommends to complement breastfeeding with nutritionally adequate and safe complementary foods for up to two years of age or more. As well, the American Academy of Family Physicians (2008) promotes the promotion of breastfeeding among their members independently of their specialization. Moreover, the American Academy of Pediatrics (2005) acknowledged the health and developmental benefits for the child and the mother, advising the mothers to continue breastfeedi... ...is more, Freudenheim (1994) reported that women who were breastfed as infants (even for short time), showed an approximate 25% lower risk of developing premenopausal or postmenopausal breast cancer, compared to women who were bottle-fed as an infant. In order to take advantage of all the benefits of breastfeeding babies for longer periods of time, women should become educated of the advantages of breastfeeding. As well a good education about lactation will warrantee baby and mother will enjoy a longer and healthier breastfeeding period. Lately the World Health Organization (2011) concludes exclusive breastfeeding from birth is possible except for a few medical conditions, and unrestricted exclusive breastfeeding results in ample milk production. As well benefits for the breastfed infant continue even though lactation period is longer than the time recommended.

HOLOCAUST Essay -- Essays Papers

HOLOCAUST As tensions mounted up until the point of World War II and the war stormed through Europe, another battle silently raged. Not only did Hitler and the Nazi party wage war on countries throughout Europe, they also assaulted and purged entire innocent groups. The Holocaust began in 1933 and reached its height in WW II, while coming to an end with the war in 1945. Hitler used the Holocaust as a mechanism to rid his "racially superior" German state of any "inferior" groups (especially Jews) that would be of some threat or sign of inferiority to Germany. As a result of the Holocaust, millions of men, women, and children of various national, ethnic, and social backgrounds died or had their lives impacted forever. In 1933 Adolph Hitler became the Chancellor of the German government, and he and his Nazi regime came into power. At this time, Hitler also instated the Nazi racial ideology. These ideas emphasized that the Germans or Aryan race was superior to the non-Aryan peoples who were not part of the German heritage. Those who were not racially pure were on different levels. Most Slavic individuals were considered "subhuman" as were those who led unconventional lifestyles or were physically or mentally impaired. At the bottom of the list were the Jews who were considered to be a non- human race. The Holocaust began in the year of 1933. Although it effected diverse groups, the Jews received most of the abuse from the Holocaust. In 1933, there were approximately nine million Jews living in the 21 countries that would be occupied by Hitler and the Nazis during WW II ( The Holocaust). Hitler s... ...gled them into neutral territory. By the end of World War II approximately six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, along with hundreds of thousands of Slavs and 250,000 mentally and physically handicapped. The Holocaust left many innocent slaughtered and those who escaped with a lasting imprint of oppression and murder. The impressions of the Holocaust continue to effect these groups and our societal outlook even today. WORKS CITED - Bartoszewski, W. The Warsaw Ghetto. Boston: Beacon Press, 1987. - Bauer, Y. A History of the Holocaust. New York: Franklin, 1976. - Fleming, G. Hitler and the Final Solution. Berkley: University California Press, 1982. - The Holocaust: An Historical Summary. http://www.ushmm.org/misc- bin/add. (28 February 1998).

Comparitive Life Cycle Costing for of a Gasoline and a Hybrid Car

COMPARITIVE LIFE CYCLE COSTING FOR OF A GASOLINE AND A HYBRID CAR Digvesh khot , Narendran Neelagandan ABSTRACT The depletion of the fossil fuels is emerging as a concern for the whole world. The major sources for the consumption of this fossil fuel are our vehicles that use much of the oil for their operation. The need has been felt to devise the alternative fuel for our vehicles which should be the sustainable option so that it does not contribute to the environmental impacts rigorously. The objective of the comparative analysis is to know the feasibility of the hybrid car against the petrol car. The procedure adopted for the comparative analysis is to do life cycle costing of both the engines by considering the cost, benefits, maintenance and repairs for both the engines. The weight scoring model was also developed to analyze the feasibility of both the engines on the grounds of terms like safety, comfort, emissions and incentives. After completing the comparative analysis the life cycle costing model and the weight scoring model yield the results which were analyzed and the necessary recommendations were made. The results of the comparative analysis revealed that though the Hybrid cars initially cost more, but if they are run for more than 20,000 miles than the total cost per mile is less than the petrol cars. Also weighing model for both the cars gives more weightage to hybrid cars in terms of emissions and incentives. KEYWORDS: Life Cycle costing, alternative fuels, hybrid vehicles, petrol engines. LITERATURE REVIEW Today the major problem the whole world is facing is the depletion of fossil fuels. Most of the vehicles run on these fossil fuels. It is estimated that if the consumption of these fossil fuels continues at the same rate then by the end of 2030 the fossil fuels will get reduced by 50% of the current value and the prices will increase by $10/ gallon (Kibert, 2008). To overcome this problem a lot of automobile companies are working on the new design of engine which will work on some other source of energy other than fossil fuels. So hybrid model cars were developed keeping in mind of these problems. The first hybrid car model was developed by Dr Ferdinand Porsche in 1902 using a petrol engine, rotating at a constant speed to drive a ynamo, which charged the accumulators (www. wikipedia. com; 10, 2008). These accumulators fed current to electric motors contained within the hubs of the front wheels. Before this several advancements were made in non-gasoline motors, mainly electric cars (www. wikipedia. com). Such non-gasoline car was invented somewhere around years from 1832 and 1839, by Robert Anderson of Scotland a nd his electric carriage (www. wikipedia. com; 10, 2008). After that several car manufactures have been working on different technology for a long time and recently hybrid cars were developed (www. wikipedia. com; 10, 2008). Hybrid cars are vehicles driven by hybrid engines, which are any engine that combines two or more sources of power, generally gasoline and electricity (Lipman, et. al, 2003). There are two types of gasoline-electric hybrid cars; the parallel hybrid, and the series hybrid. Both of these use gasoline-electric hybrid technology (Lipman, et. al, 2003). In parallel hybrid cars, the gasoline and electric motors work together to move the car forward. In series, the gasoline engine either directly powers an electric motor which in turn powers the vehicle or charges the battery that will in turn power the motor(Lipman, et. l, 2003). Both these type of hybrid cars use another technology called Regenerative braking which stores the kinetic energy that is created while braking. This energy is stored in a battery which runs the electric motor. (Lipman, et. al, 2003) PROJECT SUMMARY This project was based on the life cycle costing and the comparative analysis of the hybrid engines and the petrol e ngines. The goal of the project was to calculate the total cost of both the engines during their life cycle and to analyze their performance and the impacts of environments. The first objective was to develop the life cycle cost model for studying their performance with respect to the annual mileage and the total cost per year spent on both type of cars. The second objective was to develop the weight scoring model for both types of cars to analyze them on the grounds of safety, comfort, emissions, and incentives. Life cycle model for both the cars were developed using the cost components like depreciation, fees and taxes, finance, fuel, insurance, maintenance , and repairs. All the data for these cost components for both types of engines were collected from the company websites and the EPA website. After the collection of these data, the life cycle cost model has been used for calculating the total life cycle cost for hybrid as well as petrol engines. The results were analyzed for both the alternatives and the conclusions were made. Weight scoring model was also developed for the comparative analysis which included the components like safety, comfort, emissions, and the incentives. The relative weights for these components were assigned according to the priorities from the consumer point of view. The rating points were also assigned and both the cars were rated according to the aforesaid components. The sources for the data were the company websites and the EPA websites for the emission data was also cited. The results of the Weight scoring model were then analyzed and the final conclusions were made. The comparative study for both the cars revealed that the hybrid cars are more efficient in terms of long term usage than the petrol cars. CASE STUDY DESCRIPTION Many car manufactures are working on this hybrid technology to improve the fuel consumption and decrease the emission levels and Honda is one of the leading car manufacturers who have released different hybrid models into the market (www. onda. com; 11, 2008). One of the models of Honda is â€Å"The Civic Hybrid 2008† which is the latest model which uses hybrid technology for propulsion, which is taken into study (www. honda. com; 11, 2008). The Civic Hybrid 2008 uses gasoline and electric power train for the propulsion. The engine is a 1399cc, 4 cylinder aluminum-alloy engine which supplies a power of [email  pro tected] (www. honda. com; 11, 2008). The electric motor supplies a maximum of 158 volts (www. honda. com; 11, 2008). The functioning of the system at various stages is different and is explained below. STARTING: The car uses an IMA (Integrated motor assist) system motor to start. If the IMA battery-pack charge is too low or if it’s very cold outside, the system has a separate battery and starter motor to back it up. (www. honda. com; 11, 2008) ACCELERATION: When extra acceleration is needed, while passing or climbing up an inclined region, the IMA System’s electric motor adds its torque automatically to the engine’s to give extra power. (www. honda. com; 11, 2008) CITY CRUISING: At steady speeds below 35 mph on level roads and under light throttle, fuel injection is ceased and the car is propelled olely by the electric motor. (www. honda. com; 11, 2008) HIGHWAY: At higher cruising speeds, the gasoline engine provides the motive power. The motor has been developed in such a way that it reduces the fuel consumption to particular levels. (www. honda. com; 11, 2008) BRAKING: The cars IMA System tap’s the kinetic energy that is produced in the vehicle, when b rakes are applied. During that period, the system’s motor turns itself into a generator, and helps in slowing down the car while at the same time it builds up the energy stored in the batteries. www. honda. com; 11, 2008) AT A STOP: When stopped, the gasoline engine automatically shuts off. When we lift our foot off the brake, and the engine restarts automatically. (www. honda. com; 11, 2008) These setups have been made to increase the vehicle performance and make them fuel efficient. The benefits of the refined gasoline electric power train are fuel economy and environment friendly emissions. This vehicle is certified by Environment protection agency (EPA) and passes all the regulation of EPA 2008 for environment. This car is also equipped with the rating of Advanced Technology of Partial Zero Emission Vehicle (AT-PZEV) which is the most stringent emission standards of United States which in turn is certified by California Air Resource Board (CARB). The technology being new is expensive and the initial cost for hybrid car is high as compared to the petrol engine cars. But if compared the life cycle cost is considerably less as compared to petrol engine due to the benefits of low emissions and fuel economy of the hybrid cars. (www. honda. om; 11, 2008) The petrol version of 2008 Honda civic sedan which is currently out in the market, is a normal car that runs on a gasoline engine. The engine is a 1799cc aluminum-alloy which produces [email  protected] (www. honda. com; 11, 2008). Gasoline or petrol engines are basic internal combustion engines which run on volatile fuels. They use air and fuel mixed together and a spark plug which produces the fire for combustion. The energy that is created i s used to run the drive shaft which in-turn runs the wheel (www. wikipedia. com; 10, 2008). Petrol engines were developed by the engineers Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz (both from Germany) in 1885 who both together started the Daimler-Benz car plant (www. wikipedia. com; 10, 2008). Gasoline engines are the widely used internal combustion engines which have been under constant improvisation to improve their efficiency and to reduce the emission levels from them (www. wikipedia. com; 10, 2008). Different industries have been working towards that and Honda is one of the industries who have taken serious steps to reduce the emission levels from normal gasoline engines. www. honda. com; 11, 2008) These are the two products for which the life-cycle cost model analysis is going to be created. LIFE CYCLE COST MODEL DESCRIPTION The Life Cycle Cost (LCC) model for comparative analysis of hybrid and the petrol cars was based on following cost components: †¢Depreciation †¢Insurance †¢Financing †¢Taxes and fees †¢Fuel †¢Maintenance †¢Repairs The sourc e for developing the model was (Shtub, et. al; 2005). LCCcars = LCCdepreciation + LCCinsurance+ LCCfinancing+ LCCtaxes and fees+ LCCfuel + LCCmaintenance+ LCCrepairs. The LCC model for car is the summation of the all the cost components which will yield the total life cycle cost (Shtub, et. al; 2005). The assumptions that have been made are in terms of time frame and the cost components are as follows: 1. Time frame: The time frame for calculation has been taken as 5 years. All the data for the cost components are based on 5 years. 2. Depreciation: it is the value of the vehicle which declines as the vehicle gets older. The age of the vehicle is related to the number of miles it has travelled. For both the cars it the average of 15, 000 miles per year is being considered. 3. Insurance: It is the average annual insurance that has been taken into account. The premium charged per year for the insurance of the car has been taken from the website of Honda company for the Louisiana state. 4. Financing: This is the interest expense on a loan in the amount of true market value purchase price + destination charge + base sales tax & initial fees (www. honda. com; 11, 2008). The values for these expenses are considered for Louisiana region assuming the 10% down payment and a loan term of 60 months. 5. Taxes and fees: we have included base sales taxes, license and registration fees in Louisiana region (www. dmunds. com, 11/2008). 6. Fuel: Assuming 45% driving on freeways and 55% driving in city we have collected the data for the fuel from www. epa. gov. 7. Maintenance: We have considered both the scheduled and the unscheduled maintenance in this cost components. 8. Repairs: the estimated expenses for repairs that do not come under the manufacturer’s warranty for five years, is taken as repairs. (www. edmund. com;11, 2008) The life cycle costing has been done for three conditions and they are: †¢Condition 1: cost component data for USA †¢Condition 2: cost component data for Louisiana. Condition 3: distance travelled is 10, 000 miles with a 55% driving in city and 45% driving on freeways. CHECK LIST MODEL DESCRIPTION The weighing model that has been created has taken into consideration of few factors which are not taken into account by many car owners. Factors like safety, comfort, and emissions do not play a significant factor for many people who plan to buy a car. This motivated us to create the scoring model for these factors. For the Honda civic Dx (2008 model) and Honda civic hybrid (2008, model) safety, comfort, and emissions are taken into account and the relative weights are given. The safety features are good for the in the midsize segment with disc for the front, 4 wheel ABC and the airbags for the head, and side (www. honda. com; 11, 2008). But these can be improved to the next level by adding the disc brakes to all the wheels and by increasing the number of airbags. The comfort level is taken into consideration as some people spend more time in the car driving around, so the comfort level plays an important part. The next criteria are the emission levels of the car which is taken into consideration for analyzing the environmental impact of them. The last criteria is the incentives that are being offered for the buying a hybrid cars. The source for developing the weighing model was (Shtub, et. al; 2005). On the basis of the above criteria the weighing model has been developed and the results were analyzed to make conclusions. RESULTS Life cycle costing Model 1: Honda Civic Dx 4 door Sedan Condition 1: cost component data for USA Maximum or manufacturer’s suggestion retail price: $ 15, 810. Owner ship: 1-5 years. Cost componentsCost ($) Depreciation 10,112 Fees and taxes 730 Finance 2331 Fuel9945 Insurance8348 Maintenance1720 Repairs643 Total life cycle cost37645 Note: The miles driven are kept constant and the values are tabulated for USA Source: www. autochannel. com, www. honda. com, and www. edmunds. com for cost component data except for the fuel data. www. epa. gov – fuel data. Condition 2: cost component data for Louisiana. Maximum or manufacturer’s suggestion retail price: $ 15, 810. Owner ship: 1-5 years. Cost componentsCost ($) Depreciation 9002 Fees and taxes 1407 Finance 2963 Fuel8478 Insurance10119 Maintenance2934 Repairs625 Total life cycle cost35528 Note: the above values are taken for Louisiana region Source: www. utochannel. com, www. honda. com, and www. edmunds. com for cost component data except for the fuel data. www. epa. gov- Fuel data. Condition 3: distance travelled is 10, 000 miles with a 55% driving in city and 45% driving on freeways. Maximum or manufacturer’s suggestion retail price: $ 15, 810. The car has driven for 10,000 miles (55% city and 45% freeways) Owner shi p: 1-5 years. Cost componentsCost ($) Depreciation 8851 Fees and taxes 1194 Finance 2405 Fuel6568 Insurance6759 Maintenance1176 Repairs564 Opportunity cost2999 Total life cycle cost30, 518 Note: the cost per mile for 10,000 miles is $. 1, for 15,000 miles is $. 48, and for 20,000 miles $0. 46. Source: www. autochannel. com, www. honda. com, and www. edmunds. com for cost component data except for the fuel data. www. epa. gov- Fuel data. Model 2: Honda Civic hybrid 4 door Sedan Condition 1: cost component data for USA Maximum or manufacturer’s suggestion retail price: $ 22, 600. Owner ship: 1-5 years. Cost componentsCost ($) Depreciation 11993 Fees and taxes 1974 Finance 4117 Fuel6155 Insurance10622 Maintenance2932 Repairs625 Total life cycle cost38478 Note: The miles driven are kept constant and the values are tabulated for USA Source: www. utochannel. com, www. honda. com, and www. edmunds. com for cost component data except for the fuel data. www. epa. gov – Fuel dat a. Condition 2: cost component data for Louisiana. Maximum or manufacturer’s suggestion retail price: $ 22,600. Owner ship: 1-5 years. Cost componentsCost ($) Depreciation 13128 Fees and taxes 511 Finance 3331 Fuel6846 Insurance9252 Maintenance1920 Opportunity cost3857 Repairs679 Total life cycle cost39525 Note: the above values are taken for Louisiana region Source: www. autochannel. com, www. honda. com, and www. edmunds. com for cost component data except for the fuel data. ww. epa. gov – fuel data. Condition 3: Distance travelled is 10, 000 miles with a 55% driving in city and 45% driving on freeways. Maximum or manufacturer’s suggestion retail price: $ 22, 600. The car has driven for 10,000 miles (55% city and 45% freeways) Owner ship: 1-5 years. Cost componentsCost ($) Depreciation 12189 Fees and taxes 1157 Finance 3615 Fuel4536 Insurance7491 Maintenance1402 Repairs596 Opportunity cost3212 Total life cycle cost34198 Note: the cost per mile for 10,000 miles is $. 68, for 15,000 miles is $. 51, and for 20,000 miles $0. 47. Source: www. autochannel. om, www. honda. com, and www. edmunds. com for cost component data except for the fuel data. www. epa. gov – Fuel data. Sensitivity analysis The data used for sensitivity analysis was miles per year travelled and the increment taken for it was 5000. For Model 1: Honda Civic Dx 4 door Sedan No of milesCost per mile($)Data source 100000. 61www. epa. gov 150000. 48www. epa. gov 200000. 46www. epa. gov 250000. 47www. epa. gov For Model 2: Honda Civic hybrid 4 door Sedan No of milesCost per mile($)Data source 100000. 68www. epa. gov 150000. 51www. epa. gov 200000. 47www. epa. gov 50000. 45www. epa. gov The initial cost for the petrol engine may be less than the hybrid cars but after 20000 miles of running hybrid cars are more fuel efficient than the petrol engines. After performing the sensitivity analysis we observed that initially the cost per mile for petrol is less than the hybrid cars , but as you increase the number of miles after 20,000 miles hybrid cars become more fuel efficient. The breakeven point on the sensitivity graph shows the changing nature of fuel efficiency for hybrid cars and petrol cars. Weight scoring method (Shtub, et. al; 2005). Weighing model for Honda civic DX 2008: For all criteria and the relative weight the values are assumed according to the priority of consumer. CriteriaRelative weightExcellent 30(assumed)Good 20(assumed)Fair 10(assumed)Poor 0(assumed)Factor score safety. 3v6 Comfort. 2v2 emissions. 4v2 incentives. 1v0 total1. 0010 Source: www. autochannel. com, www. honda. com, and www. edmunds. com for criteria data except the fuel data and www. epa. gov for fuel data. Weighing model for Honda civic hybrid 2008: For all criteria and the relative weight the values are assumed according to the priority of consumer. CriteriaRelative weightExcellent 30(assumed)Good 20(assumed)Fair 10(assumed)Poor 0(assumed)Factor score safety. 3v6 Comfort. 2v4 emissions. 412 incentives. 1v3 total1. 00v25 Source: www. autochannel. com, www. honda. com, and www. edmunds. com for criteria data except the fuel data and www. epa. gov for fuel data. The weighing score model shows that for hybrid cars the factor score is more than the petrol car and the reason is the hybrid cars are more emission free than the petrol car, also the criteria of the incentive for hybrid car makes it more preferable for the customers. The hybrid cars have a 25-100% federal tax credit which could move people towards buying the hybrid cars which are environmentally friendly as compared to petrol (www. honda. com; 11/2008) . Conclusions After carrying out the life cycle costing, sensitivity analysis, and the weight scoring the following conclusions can be reached: †¢Though the petrol cars are cheaper than the hybrid cars but the life cycle cost of hybrid cars after 20,000 miles makes it the better option. †¢Due to the depletion of fossil fuels, petrol cars do not serve to be the best option. Hybrid cars produced less emission than the petrol engines so they are environmentally friendly cars which makes them a sustainable product. †¢The incentives offered by the federal state government for buying the hybrid car may serve as a good step towards motivating people to go for hybrid option Bibliography autochannel. (2008). comparison of hybrid cars and petrol engine cars for miles travelled. Retrieved 11 24 , 2008, from www. autochannel. com. Avraham Shtub, j. F. (2005). Project management process, methodology and economics. pper saddle river, new jersey: pearson, prantice hall. edmund. 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