Domestic Circumstances, Domestic Violence, Child Care...

†¢ ‘Domestic circumstances, domestic violence, child care issues and single parents †¢ Personal circumstances, mental health issues, low self-esteem, eating disorders and substance misuse †¢ Socio economic, poverty, isolation and unemployment’ (Corston Report, 2007, pg2) Baroness Corston insists that just one or a combination of these categories, will ultimately lead to ‘crisis point’ and the individual in question will no doubt end up within the Criminal Jus-tice System. This was mirrored throughout her report and was met by other contributing fac-tors. Baroness Corston also believed that women and men are different and, if equal out-comes are required, acknowledged that different treatments should be targetted. The brunt of the report†¦show more content†¦Following the Corston report, there were 43 recommendations made, relating to issues of im-provement to prison conditions, sanitation etc and efforts to help women, who are at high risk of reoffending. These covered general support needed for women offenders; improvement to their health services; community sentences to be used as the norm instead of automatic imprisonment; the specific development of a wider support networks. These recommenda-tions will be further discussed within the discussion section of this dissertation. This will be done in the context of a follow-up report that was issued five years after Baroness Corston’s original report was published. Fawcett Society In 2004 the Fawcett Society was established to help seek broad equality for women within society. During 2004 they also formed a commission to help develop an understanding of the status of women within the Criminal Justice System. This dissertation will analyse the infor-mation provided from the second annual report, which gave aspects of the Judicial System that clearly identified women offenders as being far more vulnerable than men. From 1995-2005 there has been more severe sentencing by courts which has had a detri-mentally disproportionate effect on numbers of women being

The Vietnam War And The Cold War - 1709 Words

Good evening and thanks for tuning in to the ABC, I am your host for this evening Josh Jacquet, and on today’s show we will be continuing our series on the topic of the Cold war but today we will be exploring the Vietnam War into detail. The topic that will be discussed tonight is that towards the end of the twentieth century the amount of democratic countries had quintupled. This was not expected at the beginning of the twentieth century. Now the question is Did the US use the cold war to further spread democracy to other countries and also contain the spread of communism? We will be exploring how the Vietnam War had an effect on this. Just in case you don’t know what the Vietnam war is, the Vietnam war is a military conflict that spanned from 1954-1975 and was between the Communist forces of North Vietnam which was led by the communist leader named ho chi minh who wanted to unite north and south to be ruled as a communist ruled democratic republic. He was supported by China and the Soviet Union. The non-Communist forces of South Vietnam led by Ngà ´ Ä Ãƒ ¬nh Diá »â€¡m were supported by the United States. Tonight on the show I have brought in two very different special guests to help us understand more about our topic and the Vietnam War. The reason we have brought in these two very different people is so that we can get a view on the two different sides towards the following questions. The main questions we will be exploring are what started the war, what reasons did the US give toShow MoreRelatedThe Vietnam War And The Cold War1494 Words   |  6 Pages When examining the Vietnam War you must first understand the involvement of the events surrounding the Cold War. The ‘Vietnam War’ as it is known is a product of the cold war era, by this I mean that events in the Cold War led to the US’s involvement and creation of issues causing the conflict. â€Å"The Vietnam War was a long, costly armed conflict that pitted the communist regime of North Vietnam and its southern allies, known as the Viet Cong, against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the UnitedRead MoreThe Vietnam War And The Cold War946 Words   |  4 Pagesthe masculinity of America, white prowess, and the professional look, in a sense plagued America and beyond. Also, the United State s government was war hungry, after WW2 we put ourselves in conflicts: the Korean War, Vietnam War, and the Cold War. These were truly scary times for the people. Fast forward to the 70 s, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War is still taking a toll on our country. Everyone w as sick of this and the youth did not want a fight for simply just adding toll numbers to death. ThisRead MoreThe Vietnam War Of The Cold War1419 Words   |  6 PagesThe Vietnam war started as a U.S. strategy of authority in times of the cold war, which was directed to prevent the advancement of communism in the world. The War had begun in 1954, after the rise of power with Ho Chi Minh and his communist Viet Minh party in North Vietnam, and continued against the backdrop of an intense Cold War against the United States and the Soviet Union. More than 3 million people were killed, including 58,000 Americans. In 1975, communist forces took control of SaigonRead MoreThe Vietnam War During The Cold War928 Words   |  4 PagesIntro The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, occurred from November 1, 1955 to April 30, 1975. The war was during the cold war era. This brutal 19 year war was fought mainly between North Vietnam, supported by the soviet union, and South Vietnam, supported by The United States of America. The U.S. government s goal of the war was to prevent South Vietnam to be labeled as a communist country. However, North Vietnam had their reasons for the war as well. Vietnam believed they shouldRead MoreCommunism Of The Vietnam War And The Cold War1181 Words   |  5 PagesCommunism is an ideology that has a very long history more than one-third of the globe. This ideology is followed by Russia, Cuba, Laos, China, North Korea, and Vietnam. This ideology is the source of many revolutions and conflicts throughout the history likes the English Civil War, the Bolshevik Revolution, the Vietnam War, the Korea War and the Cold War. However, what makes Communism different from other ideologi es is its origin, its policy, and its effects on the poor and the working class. CommunismRead More Vietnam and The Cold War Essay1299 Words   |  6 PagesVietnam and The Cold War It is impossible to accurately describe the major events that occurred during the cold war without mentioning the war in Vietnam. 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(Taus -Bolstad, 2006) A geographical division of resourcesRead MoreVietnam War : A Cold War Era Conflict2301 Words   |  10 PagesVietnam Conflict The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era conflict that started in 1946 and ended in 1974, taking nearly 30 years to resolve. The war was fundamentally a conflict between North Vietnam and South Vietnam, where the North was communist and South was not. The United States, France, the United Kingdom and other non-communist allies supported the non-communist South Vietnam. China, Russia (USSR), Cuba, Cambodia and other Communist allies supported the regime in the north. North Vietnam saw theRead MoreThe Vietnam War and its Subsequent Ties to the Cold War Essay2491 Words   |  10 PagesThe Cold War was a prolonged period of political and military tension between countries on the side of democracy and those on the side of communism, the major players being the United States belonging to the former and the Soviet Union belonging to the latter (Westad). While the Cold War was known as such because there were no direct wars between the two major powers, there was large scale fighting in Vietnam. The Vietnam War (1954-75) is thought of as a historical consequence of the Cold War andRead MoreWhat Did The Vietnam And Cold War Influence The Lyrics Of Emerging Music?2047 Words   |  9 Pageswhat extent did the Vietnam and Cold War influence the lyrics of emerging music? The highlighted focus of the investigation will be directed towards the cause and consequences of the wars and lyrics sung by Canadian artists within the Sixties. This investigation will be supported through the analyzation of the following documents; Canada’s Humans Right History: The Sixties (History of Rights) and; Vietnam War and Cold War (TheCanadianEncyclopedia). Subsequently, the lyrics and wars will be analyzed

Outer Space free essay sample

The 21st century witnesses the flourishing of space science and technology. More and more countries have come to realize the need for international cooperation to explore outer space, even though considering the complexity, high cost and tremendous risk involved in outer space activities. The human world and outer space are now increasingly inseparable. The use of outer space has formulated a major part of our lives, such using outer space for telecommunications, navigation, meteorology and remote sensing, to name just a few. According to incomplete statistics, there are about 3500 satellites operating in orbit and they are increasing by the years coping to human demands. Human beings are increasingly dependent on outer space in their pursuit of economic, cultural and social development and in scientific research and even security. In the 21st century, outer space will become all the more important to mankind. However, while enjoying the fruits of peaceful uses of outer space and indulging in the dream of a still brighter future, we are also faced with a daunting challenge, and are still living in the shadow of a possible militarization and arms race in outer space. We will write a custom essay sample on Outer Space or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Just like nuclear energy, which can be used either as clean and effective source of energy or in producing weapons of mass destruction, outer space may also be used to the benefit of all countries, or for military confrontation or other hostile purposes, which would threaten the security of mankind. Due to the development in technology, considerable progress has been made in outer space-related weapons research and military technology. It will not take long before proposal or ideas of space weapons and weapon systems be turned into lethal combat instruments in outer space. If such a scenario should become reality it would be impossible for mankind to continue their anticipated exploration, development and utilization of outer space, and other activities in connection with the utilization of outer space, would be severely interrupted.

Performance Measurement Essay Example

Performance Measurement Essay The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www. emeraldinsight. com/0263-7472. htm Performance measurement in facilities management: driving innovation? Michael Pitt and Matthew Tucker School of the Built Environment, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK Abstract Purpose – This paper aims to examine the state of knowledge of performance measurement in facilities management, in particular regarding the concepts underlying benchmarking in relation to its ability to drive innovation in the industry. Design/methodology/approach – An evaluation of the key issues surrounding performance measurement and the effective application of benchmarking systems are examined, exploring the possibility of applying a benchmarking technique to measure facilities performance. Findings – The paper suggests that a fully developed performance measurement solution via effective benchmarking can deliver as a business tool in facilities management (FM), whilst acting as a driver in the innovation process. Practical implications – With the nature of performance measurement having changed over the past few decades, the paper acts as a catalyst to how performance measurement systems and techniques operate within FM and stimulate innovation. Originality/value – By adopting the notion of innovation to performance measurement, the paper highlights new areas of thought to facilities management and how performance measurement is strategically applied to the industry. Keywords Performance measures, Benchmarking, Facilities, Innovation Paper type Research paper We will write a custom essay sample on Performance Measurement specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Performance Measurement specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Performance Measurement specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Performance measurement in FM 241 Received October 2005 Revised August 2007 Accepted May 2008 Introduction Performance measurement is an area to which companies have paid much attention recently. Performance is regarded as a major competitive issue (Tran? eld and Akhaghi, 1995). In facilities management (FM), there is a wide range of choices in measuring FM performance, re? ecting the varied nature of the ? eld. The focus on FM skills and techniques should be in the areas that contribute to the overall management of a business, ? nancial and ersonal criteria (Barrett, 1992). This paper aims to review the state of knowledge of performance measurement in FM and seeks to explore how measuring service performance is linked to innovation processes within the organisation. Benchmarking is a key performance measurement tool that allows organisations to achieve added value and â€Å"superior performance† (Camp, 1989). The discussion focuses on the proposition of adopting benchmarking techniques in measuring facilities performance, driving a framework of an FM performance measurement solution. It is important to stress however that by researching such an approach, with the emphasis on benchmarking, it does not contend that benchmarking should be the only performance instrument implemented to organisational performance measurement Property Management Vol. 26 No. 4, 2008 pp. 241-254 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0263-7472 DOI 10. 1108/02637470810894885 PM 26,4 systems. It merely identi? es the importance of benchmarking as a stimulant to achieving innovation in performance measurement. Facilities management overview FM is a relatively new discipline. It has developed since around 1978 where the Herman Miller Corporation, the worlds leading furniture manufacturer, staged a conference on â€Å"Facilities Impact on Productivity†. This might be seen as the beginning of FM. FM as a discipline emerged out of practice, just as the great established professions. It emerged with the integration of three main strands of activity: property management, property operations and maintenance and of? ce administration (Kincaid, 1994). More signi? antly it established a focus on the management and delivery of the business â€Å"outputs† of both of these entities; namely the productive use of building assets as workplaces (Varcoe, 2000). The International Facility Management Association (IFMA) and the British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM) adopt the following de? nition, â€Å"the practise of coordinating the physical workplace with the people and work of th e organisation: it integrates the principles of business administration/architecture/behaviour/ engineering science† (US Library of Congress). FM can be de? ned as the integration and alignment of the non-core ervices, including those relating to premises, required to operate and maintain a business to fully support the core objectives of the organisation. Over the years, FM has been growing as a business ? eld and also as a scienti? c discipline, slowly ? nding and anchoring its position among organisations’ business processes. Nowadays, the dedication of FM organisations to new developments and continuous innovation processes seems to be the way to stay in business, constantly exceeding customers’ expectations and adding value to the core business of the client organisation (Mudrak et al. , 2004). Performance measurement principles and revolution The traditional view determined by Teague and Eilon (1973) of performance measurement is that it has three broad purposes: (1) to ensure the achievement of goals and objectives; (2) to evaluate, control and improve procedures and processes; and (3) to compare and assess the performance of different organisations, teams and individuals. An early attempt at developing ? nancial measures was made by Du Pont (Walters, 1997). Du Pont is widely acknowledged as being the founder of ? nancial performance measurement, by introducing a pyramid of ? ancial ratios as early as 1903. However, in the late 1970s and 1980s, numerous authors expressed a general dissatisfaction with traditional backward looking or lag accounting based performance measurement systems. In the 1990s, attention on performance measurement shifted to quality and consumer satisfaction. A broader conceptualisation of business performance emerged, as the emphasis on operational performance (i. e. non-? nancial performance) was added to indicators to measure business performance (Venkatraman and Ramanujam, 1986). 42 Traditionally the use of ? nancial indicators has determined the way in which businesses operate – if the cost is low, and the pro? t is high then they are happy. With the considerable in? uence of the changing business marketplace however, this philosophy is no longer sustainable, and the emergence of non-? nancial or qualitative indicators, speci? cally focused on process, structure and change, instead of traditional cost, pro? t, and output, has drastically changed the way in which businesses perceive performance. Drucker (1993) described traditional measures as not adequate for business evaluation and fail to meet new business needs as they are lagging indicators. By this, they mean that traditional indicators are not able to provide real time performance, they are always set on past periods. This was reiterated by Varcoe (1996) terming traditional indicators as being â€Å"past their sell by date†. Kaplan and Norton (1996) contended that â€Å"companies were in the midst of a revolutionary transformation† as they shifted from industrial age competition to information age competition. By this, they urged that it was no longer feasible to gain â€Å"competitive advantage† within business merely through the deployment of new technology (Kaplan and Norton, 1996). To this, a shift has occurred, as Kaplan and Norton (2001) claim that ? nancial measures are historical in nature, they report only on outcomes and the consequences of past actions. Amartunga and Baldry (2003) summarised the views advanced in the debate on traditional performance measurement as follows: . Criticism of traditional management control (Brown and Laverick, 1994; Stone, 1996; Letza, 1996; Rangone, 1997; Neely, 1998). Need to represent non-? nancial measures (Olve et al. , 1999; Ernst Young, 1998). . Lack of prescription on how to implement the measures (Olve et al. , 1999; McFadzean, 1995). . Lack of strategic focus (Hally, 1994). The debate and the criticism on traditional performance measurement show that ? nancial performance measures are not a solution to the measurement of business p erformance. Therefore the principles of performance measurement become revolution, as contemporary ideas and practices of how to strategically measure business performance change. For Nani et al. (1990) performance measurement systems were developed as a means of monitoring and maintaining organisational control: Organisational control may be de? ned as the process of ensuring that an organisation pursues strategies that lead to the achievement of overall goals and objectives. Performance measurement in FM 243 Hronec’s (1993) work emphasises this, de? ning performance measures as a vital sign of the organisation, showing how well activities within a process or the outputs of a process achieve a speci? c goal. According to Zairi (1994) performance measurement is the systematic assignment of a number of activities. Kanter (1995) claims that in today’s dynamic business environment the emphasis has shifted to the â€Å"three C’s† – concepts, competence, and connections, which drives from investments in innovation, education and collaboration. As cited in Wilson (2000), the roles of performance measurement have been intertwined with the premise that organisations achieve PM 26,4 244 success (meet their objectives) by delivering services with greater ef? ciency and effectiveness than their competitors (Ghobadian and Ashworth, 1994). Further themes emerging in contemporary academic literature that relate to adding value to performance measurement systems have been determined and analysed by Wilson (2000). The themes are: . Measurement for improvement, which states that measurement systems are service functions and only have the right to exist if they add value to the organisation (Van Schalkwyk, 1998). . The integration of broad measures, which see the challenge for performance measurement systems as being the ability to balance multiple measures (i. e. cost, quality and time) across multiple levels (i. e. he organisation, the process and the people) (Hronec, 1993). . Clear communication and dissemination, where, if information is poorly presented, it may be misunderstood, poorly assimilated or at the extreme completely ignored (Harvey, 1984). Research by Amartunga and Baldry (2003) described performance measurement as a process of assessing progress towards achieving pre-determined goals, including information o n the ef? ciency by which resources are transformed into goods and services, the quality of these outputs and outcomes, and the effectiveness of organisational objectives. Therefore, the basic foundations of performance measurement are the quali? cations of elements, which impact on organisational objectives, management control and evaluation. Fitzgerald et al. (1991) examined performance measurement in service businesses. They highlighted the complexity of measuring performance within the service sector, as opposed to that of the manufacturing sector, as services are intangible in nature. For example, Fitzgerald et al. (1991) talk about air travel where there are many intangible factors such as the helpfulness of the cabin crew, but also more tangible factors, such as the measure of luggage with passengers. Fitzgerald et al. (1991) contended therefore that â€Å"a range of measures† is required, which act as a â€Å"contingency theory† to the uniqueness of performance measurement within the service sector. Fitzgerald et al. (1991) stressed however that the selection of a range of performance measures should be made according to the strategic intentions of the organisation. What this means in essence is that measures should have a balance so that one dimension is not dominating the performance system and consequently skewing the strategic goals of the organisation. Facilities performance and innovation The objectives and roles of performance measurement to achieve organisation goals have been expounded as FM is growing and enhancing into this business. However, as business performance becomes revolution, the need for learning, growth, and innovation becomes crucial. There are as many de? nitions of innovation as there are of FM. Innovation can be de? ned as a continuous process of bringing new ideas into practical uses (Tidd et al. , 2001). A broad de? nition as cited in Mudrak et al. 2004) is that innovation is: a management process, involving multiple activities, performed by multiple actors from one or several organisations, during which new combinations of means and/or ends, which are new for creating and/or adopting a unit, are developed and/or produced and/or implemented and/or transferred to old and/or new market-partners. Performance measurement in FM 245 According to Tidd et al. (2001) the innovation processes in product and service de velopment are similar in principle; however, they vary in speci? routines and activities performed, by which the innovation processes are enabled. One of the more common debates concerning the de? nition of innovation asks whether innovation should be regarded as a process or a discrete event (Cooper, 1998). Either a process or discrete event, innovation is a synergised element to organisation growth and competition in the market. According to Cooper (1998) understanding of learning processes is a key requirement for the facilitation and optimisation of improvement and innovation in business processes. By understanding and optimising learning processes, managers in organisations will be able to achieve behavioural change leading to performance measurement. With respect to performance measurement and the innovation process in organisations’ it shows that performance measurement is the driver. Buckler (1998) explained the link between learning and performance improvement and stated that by understanding and optimising learning process, managers will be able to achieve behaviour change leading to performance improvement (Figure 1). Therefore the growth in performance measurement within the FM discipline seems to relate and directly impact on the organisations performance and actual innovation of that performance. Facilities performance measurement The focus of facilities management skills and techniques should be in the area that contributes to the overall management of a business by relating accommodation and support infrastructure issues to business, ? nancial and personal criteria (Barrett, 1992). Therefore the issue of measuring facility performance is a critical task to the facilities manager. However, why should FM organisations want to measure performance? From a classical management perspective there is a need to assess performance in order to guide management decision-making, and as FM is a subset of general management, performance measurement applies to management in the FM context (Amaratunga et al. , 2000). Further, performance measurement is a driver to an innovation process in an organisation. Alexander (1996) identi? es measurement of performance as one of the â€Å"three essential issues for the effective implementation of a facilities strategy†. Thus Figure 1. The link between learning and performance improvement PM 26,4 246 performance measurement has become increasingly important both for reasons of justi? cation to general management and to support management and practise within FM organisations. The measurement of facilities has three main components, namely, physical, functional, and ? nancial (Williams, 1996). Physical performance relates to the behaviour of the building fabric and embraces physical properties such as structural integrity, heating, lighting, energy ef? ciency, maintainability, and durability. Functional performance concerns the relationship of the building with its occupiers and embraces issues such as space, layout, ergonomics, image, ambience, communication, health and safety, and ? exibility. Finally, ? nancial performance arises from the physical and functional performances of the building and comprises capital and recurrent (life-cycle) expenditures, depreciation and ef? ciency of use etc. According to Amartunga and Baldry (2003), the contribution made by FM will be judged by organisations’ stakeholders over a wide range of performance criteria, including the hard metrics of ? ance and economics. FM is seen to be able to contribute to the performance of an organisation in many ways, including strategy, culture, control of resources, service delivery, supply chain management, and perhaps most importantly, the management of change. Quality, value and the management of risk also emerge as signi? cant factors. Thus it is important to have systems to measure the ef fect of the FM functions on an organisations core business, together with systems to measure FM’s own performance. There is a wide range of choices in measuring FM performance re? ecting the varied nature of the ? eld, and is regarded as a major competitive issue (Kincaid, 1994). Facilities managers must understand the nature and the business of the organisation and their work process in order to derive the effective and ef? cient measurement tools. Besides this, the facilities manager may also have to clarify the purposes of measurement before deciding on the technique to be applied for assessing facilities management performance. Measuring facilities performance: a practical insight The key determinant in achieving effective performance measurement is to view FM strategically, where FM is aligned to support the core objectives of the organisation. To exemplify how this may operate practically, let us take one element of FM, the reception service. The reception service is at the front-line of the business. Often it is the ? rst service that the customer comes in contact with, and consequently has a signi? cant impact on their initial perception of the organisation. One could assume therefore that the most ef? ient method to measure the performance of the reception service is through customer satisfaction indicators. However, is this comparable for all organisations? Here is where FM performance measurement must be viewed from a strategic context. This can be further exempli? ed by comparing three different organisations delivering a reception service. Firstly, the reception service within a telecommunications of? ce. Primarily, the core business objectives within the telecommunications industry are centred on the customer through the delivery of a product. All business operations must meet the needs of the customer in order to generate mass customer satisfaction and stimulate market sales. Hence, when measuring the ef? ciency of the reception service within a telecommunications of? ce, the primary indicators will be focussed on customer satisfaction, such as the helpfulness of staff, the ability of staff to deal with a query, and the comfort of the waiting area. Second, the reception service within an international bank. Again, primarily core objectives if an international bank are centred on the customer, in this case however through the delivery of ? ancial support and management. Here, the core business objectives differ slightly, as the bank is still primarily selling services to the customer and therefore needs to promote high levels of customer satisfaction, but also has an important security element involved due to the nature of the core business. When measuring the ef? ciency of the reception service within the bank, the indica tors will be different, focussed around two key factors – ensuring high levels of customer satisfaction, and ensuring security measures are in place when dealing with customers. This is likely to involve ensuring that standard identi? cation checks are taking place, such as cross-checking personal details within a database. Third, the reception service within a government security building. Here, the core business objectives differ dramatically to the previous two examples, as the primary focus is centred on security. In this instance, measuring the levels of customer satisfaction of the reception service fall much further down the list of priority indicators, and are overtaken with robust security measures ranging from ensuring that standard identi? ation checks are taking place, to more sophisticated measures involving rigorous scanning and checking of visitors entering and exiting the building. Through using the example of one element of FM, it illustrates the importance of how the practical application of performance measurement must be centred on the core business objectives of that organisation. FM performance measurement however is often too internall y focussed. Measures can therefore be benchmarked in order to understand how an organisation is performing compared to industry overall. However, the scope of benchmarking data depends heavily on the diversity and depth of the particular sector in which the organisation functions. From the examples above, benchmarking reception performance is much more accessible in the ? rst two examples. However, obtaining benchmarking data on high level security buildings is more dif? cult. The paper now seeks to understand how benchmarking can be used as a tool to measure facilities performance, and what impact this can have on driving innovation in FM performance measurement. Using benchmarking as a tool to measure facilities performance Benchmarking is essentially a cost reduction method (McDougall and Hinks, 2000). The principle of benchmarking evolved out of the total quality management movement and allows managers to place their performance measurement in context (Camp, 1989). It is the most powerful technique for gaining and maintaining competitive advantage (Codling, 1992). Sarkis (2001) outlines that from a managers perspective, benchmarking has been de? ed as a continuous, systematic process for evaluating the products, services and work processes of organisations that are recognised as representing best practices, for the purposes of the organisations’ improvement. For Camp (1989), benchmarking in the ? rst instance is about practices, not metrics. Many immediately consider benchmarking as a set of outputs, just like many confuse innovation as a one off invention instead of a process. Benchmarking is not as simple as gathering indicators t ogether so an organisation can evidence that they are measuring something. Because what are they measuring, and how relevant is it to their overall objectives? Hence, there must be a meaning before the measurement, a process Performance measurement in FM 247 PM 26,4 before the output, or in Camp’s case, a practice before the metric. To this, Camp de? nes benchmarking as follows: Benchmarking is the search for industry best practices that lead to superior performance. 248 In order to achieve this, Camp identi? es four basic steps that are fundamental to benchmarking success: (1) Know your operation – evaluate internal operation strengths and weaknesses. 2) Know the industry leaders or competitors – know the strengths and weaknesses of the competition. (3) Incorporate the best – emulate the strengths of the leaders in competition. (4) Gain superiority – go beyond the best practices installed and be the best of the best Hence, benchmarking techniques can signi? cantly help FM organisations to gain â€Å"superiority†, a nd can signi? cantly drive innovation in their performance measurement systems. Benchmarking within FM began to take shape in 1984, where the IFMA started to collect data on facilities trends and demographics. This was expanded in 1987 to include occupancy costs, which coincided with the initial interest in such data in the UK (Varcoe, 1996). In FM, benchmarking as a performance measurement technique is now well known however, and the application of benchmarking to FM performance criteria is now apparent within large organisations (McDougall and Hinks, 2000). It is the ideal tool for setting corporate goals and transforming them into tangibles which are delivered to the end customer and it is the tool that enables the senior manager to answer questions such as: where are we now? Where do we need to be? How do we get there? How could we remain there? The desired standards of performance are therefore to optimise process performance in order to deliver total quality and 100 per cent value to the end customer (Zairi, 1994). Gilleard and Yat-Lung (2004) stated that FM benchmarking issues are typically driven by ? nancial, organisational, change management, and customer-related needs. They may be either internally focussed or external driven. Therefore it has put pressure on FM teams that value customer-driven issues such as delivery of quality and timely services. It also fails to take into account how an organisation performs at a strategic level, whether from the worker or the workplace perspective. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI, 1993) produced an executive guide and point out the importance of benchmarking against: . The best you can ? nd whether within your industry or outside. . What is relevant to your customers view of what is important. . That thing that affects ? nancial performance. From an FM context, many people think that benchmarking is only about comparing cost levels. However Wauters (2005) revealed there are other aspects of FM that can be benchmarked. The most prominent of these aspects are: . Space use: Benchmarking the space use is a prime aspect as it drives all of the premises costs. The ? oor areas need to be known for the purpose of comparing costs of maintenance, cleaning etc; . . FM management: Benchmarking the effectiveness and cost of the facilities management operation on a strategic/tactical level; and Computer-aided FM systems: Benchmarking of the costs and effectiveness of the help desk. Performance measurement in FM 249 In addition, Hinks and McNay (1999) emphasise the need to measure performance gaps between service delivery and customer satisfaction. Hence, Hinks and McNay stress the need to rank benchmarking criteria, linking these to performance and service in such a way that their overall in? uence may be evaluated against business-driven imperatives. Further, Hinks and McNay suggest that the application of a manage-by-variance tool. The tool identi? es business and facility key performance indicators (KPI), helping to create a rank order among the benchmarking criteria. Further literature on benchmarking techniques focused within the FM discipline has come from Wauters (2005), Gilleard and Yat-Lung (2004), Loosemore and Hsin (2001), Massheder and Finch (1998), Akhlagi (1997) and Varcoe (1996). According to Wauters (2005) benchmarking is one of the techniques that has been used by many organisations and if applied correctly will lead to effective value management of facilities services. By this Wauters means that to use benchmarking effectively, you must identify the â€Å"ideal performance†, and hen emulate it. Benchmarking and service performance in FM Most services are provided through facilities (Brackertz and Kenley, 2002) and it has been suggested that the measurement of facilities should relate to the core business objectives such as customer satisfaction or service delivery (e. g. Walters, 1999; Tucker and Smith, 2008). As an integrated approach in managing the workplace, service is one of the key components facilities managers put for ward and seriously consider in achieving the set-up goals of the organisation. In service provision, FM is wide in scope, concerned with the major strategic decisions to the very detailed decisions such as posting the signs to the ladies’ toilet in a restaurant (Looy et al. , 2003). Therefore, in order to achieve organisational objectives, measuring service performance is crucial to the facilities manager. However, applied models that link facilities performance measurement to organisational strategy have to date, been limited (Brackertz and Kenley, 2002). It has been noted that in service ? ms, the importance of the physical setting depends on the nature of the job as well as the consumption experience. Consequently, she presented a typology of service environments or â€Å"servicescapes†, being those categories of a service based on who is performance in the servicescape (the customer, employees, or both) as well as the complexity of the servicescape. According to Looy et al. (2003), the customer perceives the servicescape holistically. They sug gest the environmental dimensions where customers value the service. Environmental dimensions comprise ambient conditions, spatial layout and process, and sign, symbols and artefacts (Figure 2). Ambient conditions refer largely to background characteristics such as noise, temperature and scent. In short, all the elements of our human environment affect the human ? ve senses. Spatial layout and process includes elements of the environment that are closely related to the core elements of service delivery. These dimensions refer to the way of arrangement and the physical and psychological effects on the customer. PM 26,4 250 Figure 2. Servicescape environment The other dimension relates to sign, symbols and artefacts. It is the item in the physical environment that serves as explicit or implicit communications to its users about the place. Tucker and Smith (2008) explored the importance of user perceptions within an organisational context, and how their perceptions can be evidenced and applied within FM. Tucker and Smith contended that there is a â€Å"logical customer performance ladder† (LCPL) that organisations should aspire to climb in order to achieve optimum levels of service delivery (Figure 3). The ladder acknowledges the importance of the initial user input to determine innovative ways of delivering what is important; to the internal business processes that will enable this delivery to be successful; to the strategic direction of the performance measures in line with their core business objectives; and to the consequent added value by increased customer satisfaction. Figure 3. Logical customer performance ladder Performance measurement is integral to the effective implementation of continuous improvement and added value within business (Tucker and Pitt, 2008a) and can act as a key driver for embedding innovation into the mindset. Tucker and Pitt (2008a) illustrate the importance of incorporating a performance-focused strategic concept in FM (Figure 4), emphasising that in order to achieve strategic FM, organisations should incorporate performance measurement through a balance of competitive service delivery and the application of best value principles, which will in turn feed directly into the core objectives of the organisation. Research in benchmarking and innovation in FM Generally the review of the literature has determined the area of proliferation in measuring FM performance. Measuring facilities performance contributes to the organisational successfulness to the innovation process. Benchmarking is among the accepted approaches involved in measuring â€Å"hard† and â€Å"soft† issues in facilities performance without denying the weaknesses of the technique itself. Hence, the innovation process of performance measurement systems, can be signi? cantly enhanced via the application of effective benchmarkin

Love from the Inside Essays

Love from the Inside Essays Love from the Inside Essay Love from the Inside Essay Shakespeare’s sonnet 130 My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; is a sonnet written for the common man. It is written in such a simplistic way that anyone can understand the idea Shakespeare is trying to convey. Despite its simple outer appearance, sonnet 130’s internal mechanisms are used perfectly to further illustrate Shakespeare’s point. By using the traditional format of a Shakespearean sonnet, focusing on the renaissances’ popular topic of love, and satirizing this ideal, Shakespeare enforces the theme-outward appearances are insignificant-in all aspects of his sonnet.Sonnet 130 is easily identified as a shakespearean sonnet because it contains all of the crucial aspects of one. It has 14 lines arranged in three quatrains and a couplet, an abab cdcd efef gg rhyme scheme written in iambic pentameter, as well as many examples of assonance and similes. The first line’s simile, My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; (line 1) sets the whole mood of the piece by saying something the reader is definitely not expecting to hear. This isn’t the only simile used.Although this is the only line that has a like in it, there are other similes used throughout the sonnet where like or as are implied. Coral is far more red than her lips’ red, (line 2) is just one example of this. I have seen roses damask’d, red and white/ But no such roses see I in her cheeks, (Lines 5-6) is the only metaphor in the sonnet, every other comparison is an implied simile. Many of these similes also contained examples of assonance. Nothing like the sun, (Line 1) is a simple example of this.This sonnet is structured exactly how you would expect it to be, however the subject is addressed in such an unconventional way that it will throw you off. Just because all of the numbers look right on paper does not mean that the piece is just like any other sonnet written in this format. It may share the same format with all of Shakespeare’s other sonnets, but the way it is written is quite different from all of them. It is satirical not serious. In the renaissance many authors and poets began to obsess on the idea of love. They viewed it as this perfect thing.So many ideas and opinions about love were thrown out in the form of plays, poems, songs, stories, etc. , that it became an unachievable dream due to the high expectations of the lovers. True love was between two perfect people, who looked and acted as such. It was not between two common people who were flawed in their appearance and stature. Shakespeare focuses on love in this sonnet just as much as those writers and poets did in theirs; the difference is that Shakespeare plays on their perfect ideals to create a satiric portrayal of true love.He says the opposite of what he knows his reader expects to hear in the classic love poem. Instead of long luscious locks cascading down her back, black wires grow on her head (line 4). His mistress didn’t float across the ground like a goddess. She instead treads on the ground (line 12). Shakespeare doesn’t puff up the notion of love like so many of his colleagues do. He lays the truth out right in front of the reader. The image of love he puts in the reader’s mind is not one of beauty.In fact, Shakespeare challenged the ways of the common Renaissance love writer in this sonnet by creating a detailed image of a very unattractive woman. A quick glance at the poem may cause you to interpret it as very unkind and degrading, but when you study it more closely you find that it is actually very heartfelt and sincere. After the lover in this poem goes on and on for 12 lines about how ugly his mistress is, he sums up the true meaning of his rant in the final couplet, And yet, by, heaven, I think my love as rare/ As any she belied with false compare. (Lines 13-14) In two lines he summarized true love. Everyone feels that the person they love is most rare no matter how wiry their hair might be or how unrosey their cheeks are. There is so much more to love than simply looking the part on the outside, you have to feel it on the inside. Shakespeare wrote it down in this sonnet to show everyone that love is not this lofty expectation that only the best of the best can achieve, it is an emotion shared by everyone no matter what you look like, or from what walk of life you come from. There is a lot to be learned from this sonnet.Not only do the words express a theme of loving inner beauty, but the format it is written in supports this lesson fully. Love in the Renaissance is explored in a unique way and leads to a moral that we can directly apply to our lives. Love is not a foreign concept to most people, understanding that the important part is on the inside is the only way for anyone to embrace love fully. By studying how the structure and format of the sonnet support Shakespeare’s idea that outward appearances are insignificant, we can learn to embrace love fully.

The Difference Between a Control Variable and Control Group

The Difference Between a Control Variable and Control Group In experiments, controls are factors that you hold constant or dont expose to the condition you are testing. By creating a control, you make it possible to determine whether the variables alone are responsible for an outcome. Although control variables and the control group serve the same purpose, the terms refer to two different types of controls which are used for different kinds of experiments. Why Experimental Controls Are Necessary A student places a seedling in a dark closet, and the seedling dies. The student now knows what happened to the seedling, but he doesnt know why. Perhaps the seedling died from lack of light, but it might also have died because it was already sickly, or because  of a chemical kept in the closet, or for any number of other reasons.   In order to determine why the seedling died, it is necessary to compare that seedlings outcomes to another identical seedling outside the closet. If the closeted seedling died while the seedling kept in sunshine stayed alive, its reasonable to hypothesize that darkness killed the closeted seedling.   Even if the closeted seedling died while the seedling placed in sunshine lived, the student would still have unresolved questions about her experiment. Might there be something about the particular seedlings that caused the results she saw? For example, might one seedling have been healthier than the other to start with? To answer all of her questions, the student might choose to put several identical seedlings in a closet and several in the sunshine. If at the end of a week, all of the closeted seedlings are dead while all of the seedlings kept in​ the sunshine are alive, it is reasonable to conclude that the darkness killed the seedlings. Definition of a Control Variable A control variable is any factor you control or hold constant during an experiment. A control variable is also called a controlled variable or constant variable.   If you are studying the effect of the amount of water on seed germination, control variables might include temperature, light, and type of seed. In contrast, there may be variables you cant easily control, such as humidity, noise, vibration, and magnetic fields. Ideally, a researcher wants to control every variable, but this isnt always possible. Its a good idea to note all recognizable variables in a lab notebook for reference. Definition of a Control Group A control group is a set of experimental samples or subjects that are kept separate and arent exposed to the independent variable. In an experiment to determine whether zinc helps people recover faster from a cold, the experimental group would be people taking zinc, while the control group would be people taking a placebo (not exposed to extra zinc, the independent variable). A controlled experiment is one in which every parameter is held constant except for the experimental (independent) variable. Usually, controlled experiments have control groups. Sometimes a controlled experiment compares a variable against a standard.

Bussiness modelling Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Bussiness modelling - Essay Example In the same manner the information system being developed should not be the automation of the current operational bad habits in the organization. Information System development should also include transforming the operation of the organization from being person or people centric to process and procedure centric as defined by its operating policies and business goals. In information system development before starting the actual design of the system, we need to analyze and understand the requirement and the process of the organization and also the people that will be affected by the system. The system can either contribute to the organization’s success or it could also be the reason for the demise of an organization in case of its failure. To illustrate, the losses in terms of money and time, In 1980s, the Department of Social Security in the UK implemented a failed system called Camelot that was designed to computerize welfare benefits the lost amounted to  £6 million. Sometimes it is not only money that is put at risk life and limbs can also be put in harm’s way if there is failure in implementation similar to what happened to the London Ambulance service LASCAD in 1992 (Chua, 2009). According to a Standish Group survey only 16% of Information System projects are completed on time and within budget, 53% are over budget and on-time, and 31% of all projects are cancelled (Hamil, 2010). Timmers in 1998 presented this definition â€Å"The business model is ‘an architecture of the product, service and information flows, including description of the various business actors and their roles; a description of the potential benefits for the various business actors; a description of the sources of revenues’† (Zott et al, 2010). Business modeling therefore provides the overall perspective of how the business operates as defined by its processes. The

The 2nd Amendment and the Right to Bear Arms Essay

The 2nd Amendment and the Right to Bear Arms - Essay Example Guns were even provided to those who could not afford weapons. (Gerber 2011) The debate over the second amendment today is that those in favor of gun control laws fear that a weapon for defense can become a weapon of offence either accidentally or intentionally. For that matter, the first part of the provision of this amendment, â€Å"well-regulated militia† is advocated by pro gun control laws. This provision is interpreted as that gun possession is only applied to official defensive forces such as the National Guard. On the other hand, gun lovers support the interpretation grown out the second part of the amendment which states that, â€Å"the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.† This means that citizens can have guns and the government has no power over confiscating this right away from them. (Gerber 2011). Whether the prospects of the second amendment’s enforcement in the Bill of Rights would bring a positive or negative change i n the American society? The second amendment was made to the Constitution of the United States in 1791 stating that, â€Å"A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.† ( http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/billofrights) . This amendment has two perspectives. Its first section inculcates that the states can enforce their militias with arms for collective security while the second part diverts towards individual security. Thus, it is raising a contradiction in the fundamentality of the amendment. This amendment is unique of all the amendments in the sense that it is the only among the others that is not enforced yet. There is no unanimity in the decision of the justices because there is no clarity about its purpose. A civil right in American Constitution is defined as â€Å"a right or rights belonging to a person by reason of citizenship including especially the fundamenta l freedoms and privileges guaranteed by the 13th and 14th amendments and subsequent acts of Congress including the right to legal, social and economic equality. This makes gun ownership as much of a civil right as freedom of speech, religion and freedom of the press.† Gun possession is vital for certain reasons like for sports competitions. For instance, target shooting, a game played popularly in the United States is incomplete without guns. Hunting is another sport, hobby and tempting pastime of Americans. (http://www.saf.org/default.asp?p=gunrights_faq) The right to bear arms is a necessity in today’s criminal world. The United States is a country with the most high crime rate in the world. The amendment’s second half empowers the individual with freedom of carrying arms for self-defense. A simple yet very basic argument of gun possession is self-defense. Criminals are easily deterred this way. Instead of waiting for the regular police to respond to the victim ’s calls, the victim should have the capacity to tackle the matter on his own. This will help decrease the level of crimes. In the United States 46% of Americans claim possession of arms for the purpose of protection against criminals. (Heston 2008) Richard Henry Lee, Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress and member of the first Continental Congress which passed the Bill of Rights said that, â€Å""To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use

Evolution of Affirmative Action in America Essay Example for Free

Evolution of Affirmative Action in America Essay Affirmative action in America refers to policies that take ethnicity, race, and gender into consideration in an effort to encourage equal opportunity. It started as a device to deal with the enduring discriminations among African-Americans in the 1960s. Focusing particularly on jobs and education, affirmative action policies mandated that active measures should be taken to make sure that blacks and other minorities benefited from equal opportunities for financial aid, scholarships, school admissions, career advancement, salary increase, and promotions that had been practically the whites’ exclusive province. The thrust towards affirmative action is twofold; including the rectification as a result of involuntary, institutional, or blatant discrimination, and the maximization of the advantages of diversity in every levels of society. In 1964, the landmark legislation of Civil Rights Act was signed into law, which prohibited employment discrimination by large employers, regardless of their previous contracts with the government. President Johnson developed and enforced for the first time the country’s affirmative action through the Executive Order 11246 of 1965 and amended it in 1967 through Executive Order 11246 requiring every government contractors and subcontractors to observe affirmative action so as to expand employment opportunities for ethnic minorities and women. However, the 1978 decision of the United States Supreme Court in the University of California v. Bakke, 438 U. S. 912 ruled illegal the practice of the University Medical School of setting aside 18 seats for minority students in every incoming class of 100, but upheld the use of race as one aspect in selecting qualified applicants for admission. Opposition to affirmative action has resulted to numerous legal challenges, which required local and states governments to draw on more comprehensive evidence of inequalities to validate the need for the programs. In 1998, both the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives prevented efforts to abolish particular programs of affirmative action. Amendments to eliminate the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program sponsored through the Transportation Bill were rejected by both houses, and the upper house rejected an endeavor to abolish the use of affirmative action in higher education admissions programs supported through the Higher Education Act. Throughout these periods, affirmative action has been both ridiculed and praised as a response to racial inequalities. The opinions of the Supreme Court justices in affirmative action cases have been generally divided partly because of conflicting political beliefs but moreover because the issue is basically so complicated. But in 2003, the landmark case involving the affirmative action policies of University of Michigan, which became one of the most imperative rulings on the issue in 25 years, the Supreme Court finally and positively supported higher education’s right of affirmative action. The Court held as constitutional the use of race, among other aspects, of the University of Michigan in its law school admissions program given that the program advanced a compelling interest in achieving an educational advantage that flows from the diversity of student body. At present, statistics proved that affirmative action has helped strengthen the black professionals’ ranks, yet African-American in general has been left behind. Notwithstanding all the discussions of the establishment of a black middle class, the position of the black community to white American has relatively remained the same. As such, affirmative action must be continually asserted to put in place mandatory and voluntary efforts by local, state, and federal governments, schools, and private employers to combat inequalities and encourage fair hiring and promotions of qualified individuals.

Child Abuse: Frank and Ileana Fuster :: essays research papers fc

The term child abuse was once as rarely heard as that of pink elephants. However rare the term has once been, it is now a term used consistently throughout the news and various other publications today. Along with the progressing decline in society's morals, has come the rapid increase of crime. One such crime is child abuse. Although child abuse is common, the act is defiling. As a result of the abuse, children who fall victim to this often need psychological treatment and counseling. Often, the child is never the same as he or she once was before. The dictionary defines child abuse as: "the physical, or emotional, or sexual mistreatment of children" (Dictionary.com). Everyday thousands of children are the victims of this abuse. The abusers range from parents, friends, total strangers, to even day-care workers. One case involving the abuse of children in their care is that of Frank and Ileana Fuster. The two were accused in 1984 of molesting children in their home. Frank was a 36-year-old Cuban immigrant and was married to 17-year-old Ileana who was Honduran. Frank and Ileana Fuster were residents of Country Walk, Florida where they held a home-based babysitting service (Pendergrast). The case was then known as "Country Walk" because of the city in which the two, Frank and Ileana resided. "The case began when a 3-year-old boy asked his mother to "kiss my body" when she was giving him a bath. He said, "Ileana kisses all the babies' bodies." The mother became concerned and reported the comments to the Dade County child protection authorities ("A Summary of the Frank Fuster..." NP). Fuster seemed to be living the American dream before the accusations were presented against him. Frank and Ileana were newly weds, owned a new home in the suburbs and a landscaping business that was doing well. However, Frank was not living the American dream. He was still on probation for a 1982 child molestation conviction for fondling a nine-year-old girl and manglaughter, for shooting a man after a traffic accident ("Debunking Frontline's Did Daddy Do It?" NP). Frank had been "arrested on September 21, 1982 for lewd and lascivious assault on a minor - a nine-year-old girl whose breasts and genitals Fuster fondled while driving her home. The jury heard from the girl, who was cross-examined at length. They found her credible and convicted Fuster" ("Fuster's Manslaughter Conviction" NP). Child Abuse: Frank and Ileana Fuster :: essays research papers fc The term child abuse was once as rarely heard as that of pink elephants. However rare the term has once been, it is now a term used consistently throughout the news and various other publications today. Along with the progressing decline in society's morals, has come the rapid increase of crime. One such crime is child abuse. Although child abuse is common, the act is defiling. As a result of the abuse, children who fall victim to this often need psychological treatment and counseling. Often, the child is never the same as he or she once was before. The dictionary defines child abuse as: "the physical, or emotional, or sexual mistreatment of children" (Dictionary.com). Everyday thousands of children are the victims of this abuse. The abusers range from parents, friends, total strangers, to even day-care workers. One case involving the abuse of children in their care is that of Frank and Ileana Fuster. The two were accused in 1984 of molesting children in their home. Frank was a 36-year-old Cuban immigrant and was married to 17-year-old Ileana who was Honduran. Frank and Ileana Fuster were residents of Country Walk, Florida where they held a home-based babysitting service (Pendergrast). The case was then known as "Country Walk" because of the city in which the two, Frank and Ileana resided. "The case began when a 3-year-old boy asked his mother to "kiss my body" when she was giving him a bath. He said, "Ileana kisses all the babies' bodies." The mother became concerned and reported the comments to the Dade County child protection authorities ("A Summary of the Frank Fuster..." NP). Fuster seemed to be living the American dream before the accusations were presented against him. Frank and Ileana were newly weds, owned a new home in the suburbs and a landscaping business that was doing well. However, Frank was not living the American dream. He was still on probation for a 1982 child molestation conviction for fondling a nine-year-old girl and manglaughter, for shooting a man after a traffic accident ("Debunking Frontline's Did Daddy Do It?" NP). Frank had been "arrested on September 21, 1982 for lewd and lascivious assault on a minor - a nine-year-old girl whose breasts and genitals Fuster fondled while driving her home. The jury heard from the girl, who was cross-examined at length. They found her credible and convicted Fuster" ("Fuster's Manslaughter Conviction" NP).

ASsignment in Science

Epiglottis It's a flap that covers the opening to your lungs while you're swallowing so you don't inhale food. . Coughing When you cough you are either releasing mucous or germs or some other Irritant In the lungs. E. Incomplete rings of Trachea Prevent the trachea and bronchioles from collapsing and closing up. F. Fat and protein film lining the Inner wall of the alveoli Surfactant In the alveoli causes them to effectively stay open during the whole respiration/breathing process.When there is lack of surfactant the alveoli can collapse on themselves causing less surface area for gas exchange, hence causing breathing difficulties/shortness of breath due to the decreased ability for oxygen exchange. G. Pleura& lymph between he two layers They play a critical role In immunological responses in both local and systemic diseases. It is positioned to respond to inflammatory changes in the lung permanency. The pleura functions not only as a mechanical barrier, but also as an Immunological a nd metabolically responsive membrane that is Involved in maintaining a dynamic homeostasis in the pleural space. . Rib cage The rib cage are a set of bones radiating from the Thoracic region of the vertebral column (not to be confused with the vertebral cord which is located inside the vertebral column). These bones are the ribs and sternum (or breast bone). They form a cage like structure around the very delicate organs such as the heart and the lungs. Not only do they protect these organs, but they also support them, keeping them In place. Without the rib cage, your organs would all fall out of place. 2014 Grade and Section: Aphrodite Instructor: Mr. Eugene Vernal 1 OFF 2.How does the internal respiration differ from the external respiration? External respiration is the exchange of gases between the alveoli and lung capillaries. Oxygen diffuses from the alveoli into the blood, while carbon dioxide moves from the blood in the alveoli. Internal respiration, in contrast, is the excha nge of gases in body tissues 3. What is a Third Hand Smoke? Third hand smoke is generally considered to be residual nicotine and other chemicals left on a variety of indoor surfaces by tobacco smoke. 4.What are some of the diseases caused by smoking? Cardiovascular Diseases- the main cause of death due to smoking. Hardening of the arteries is a process that develops over years, when cholesterol and other fats deposit in the arteries, leaving them narrow, blocked or rigid. When the arteries narrow (atherosclerosis), blood clots are likely to form. Cancer- Smokers are more keel to get cancer than non-smokers. This is particularly true of lung cancer, throat cancer and mouth cancer, which hardly ever affect non-smokers.Lung Diseases- Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COOP) is a collective term for a group of conditions that block airflow and make breathing more difficult. 5. Explain the mechanisms of breathing in human. Mechanisms of breathing inspiration When you breathe in: inte rcessor muscles between the ribs contract, pulling the chest walls up and teethe diaphragm muscle below the lungs contracts and flattens, increasing the size of the chest the lungs increase in size, so the pressure inside hem falls. This causes air to rush in through the nose or mouth.Mechanisms of breathing expiration When you breathe out: Intercessor muscles between the ribs relax so that the chest walls move in and down. The diaphragm muscle below the lungs relaxes and bulges up, reducing the size of the chest. The lungs decrease in size, so the pressure inside increases and air is pushed up the trachea and out through the nose or mouth. 2014 Grade and Section: 9-Aphrodite 6. Why are lungs considered as both respiratory as well as excretory organs? Lungs are the main organ of the respiratory system where gas exchange takes place. F something. . Name 2 Respiratory Diseases. How can they be prevented, detected and treated Names of the Respiratory Diseases How can they Prevented How can they Detected (What are the symptoms) How can they be Treated a. Lung Cancer -Don't smoke. -Stop smoking -Avoid second hand smoke Test -Avoid carcinogens at work -Eat a diet full of fruits and vegetables. -a cough that doesn't go away after two or three weeks. -a long-standing cough that gets worse. -persistent chest infections. -coughing up blood. -an ache or pain when breathing or coughing. -persistent breathlessness. 1 .Non small cell lung cancer can be treated with surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy or a combination of these, depending on the stage when the cancer is diagnosed. Some people with advanced lung cancer may have biological therapy. There is information below about the treatment of non-small cell cancer by stage. B. Asthma -Learn about your asthma and ways to control it. – Use medicines as your doctor prescribes. -Get regular check-ups for your asthma. Asthma symptoms, which include coughing, wheezing, and chest tightness, are common in an asthma attack. -Medicines -Follow an Asthma Action Plan -Record Your Symptoms

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Walt Disney Company

In organizations where there seems to be an increasing focus on unethical behavior within public companies from senior managers, it is vital that organizations establish policies and processes to ensure that it is complying with the rules and regulations put in place by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Walt Disney Company is able to meet its reporting requirements for the Security and Exchange Commission by using the following resources. The availability of technology, internal disclosure controls, internal controls over financial reporting, and independent accounting auditors who verify that these controls are in place and working as intended. The SEC requires that Disney posts all Interactive Data Files. These files are required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T during the preceding 12 months. Viewing the Investor Relations tab of The Walt Disney Company corporate website shows that historical SEC filings are listed by category for a variety of required reports, including forms 10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, 11-K, S-8, 425, S-4, and proxy statements. Disney uses internal disclosure controls by their policy that all SEC filings be signed by a senior member of the management. These people are President, CFO, Managing VP and Internal Counsel helps ensure that the filings are correct, comply with reporting requirements, and are communicated to the other stakeholders in the management of Disney. These are Board of Directors and other Senior Members of the management team. In an era where CEOs and CFOs are continually being called before US Congress to testify on the financial situation within their firms, this policy adds a layer of accountability to senior management. Internal Controls over Financial Reporting. Company management explicitly acknowledges their accountability for being able to create accurate, reliable, sufficiently detailed, and timely external financial reports Independent Accounting Auditors. Disney makes use of PricewaterhouseCoopers as an independent auditing firm to provide a third party analysis of their internal controls over financial reporting. In addition, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ own report to the Board of Directors and Shareholders of The Walt Disney Company is included in the Annual Report and discusses the process by which Disney’s internal controls over financial reporting are tested and audited to provide a reasonable level of assurance that the controls are working and that external financial reports are being reported based on generally accepted accounting principles as required by U. S. Law. By following all of the procedures that Disney has put into place they can be positive that they are following the SEC rules and regulations.

How Do Traditional Culture Impact on the Business Culture Essays

How Do Traditional Culture Impact on the Business Culture Essays How Do Traditional Culture Impact on the Business Culture Essay How Do Traditional Culture Impact on the Business Culture Essay Additionally, business owners treat the businesses as extensions of themselves and tenant to want to Keep ten Dustless Walton ten Tamely even winner prudence Allocates that the business will be best managed by professional non-family members. Family members in turn are in many cases unable to differentiate between the finances/ property of the business and that of the family. 1. 2. 2. Ethnic Affiliations: the culture f ethnicity fostered by our collective history has created a culture of mutual suspicion among members of different ethnic groups. This has translated to unwelcome competition and a tendency to protect our own within a company. It is not unusual for staff to be hired along ethnic lines and even where objective recruitment criteria are introduced; there is usually external pressure on managers to disregard such criteria in favor of members of their ethnic group. Increasingly businesses are forming the habit of outsourcing recruitment functions to consultancy rims in order to ensure that staff are employed solely on merit. In the work place, employees expect their kinsmen in positions of authority to protect their interests especially with regards to staff promotion and disciplinary issues. In turn, such employees act as the boss spy bearing unsolicited information and thus creating a culture of rumor mongering in our companies. 1. 2. 3. Respect for elders (seniority): this is an integral part of the Nigeria value system, which has its pros and cons with respect to its impact on our business culture. It has led to a culture of vertical decision making. There is usually one leader within the company and its various business units. While this culture ensures optimal discipline, it is counterproductive where a task demands the presence of many leaders and kills initiative from lower ranking members of the company. 5 Page 1. 2. 4. Flowing from the above is the culture of centralization and control in Nigerian businesses and while this is desirable in most cases, it has created the undesirable sub-culture of respect for the boss decisions even if they are patently wrong and an unwillingness to exercise initiative so as not to offend the boss. Secondly, discipline is easily maintained in an organization as everyone respects the companys hierarchy. On the downside, some tasks may be left undone on the ground that it is the boss duty and he has not delegated it. 1. 2. 5. Punctuality: there is a culture of African time in Nigeria, which is a name given to our tendency never to arrive early or on time to the work place, a meeting or an event. To tackle this attitude, managers have introduced (in addition to existing company recommended punishment for tardiness) monetary fines in the work place as a deterrent to offenders. This is increasingly becoming a feature of every business in Nigeria. 1. 2. 6. Religion: Nigerian pride themselves on being highly religious people especially adherents of Christianity and Islam. Accordingly, every business in Nigeria begins the day, meetings and other gatherings with prayers. In majority of companies, prayers are said collectively, while in the others Christians and Moslems pray separately. Adherents of traditional forms of worship are required to participate in such prayers. N By Ana large, It must De pollute out Tanat ten Dustless culture In Nigeria has been affected to a large extent by our traditional values and customs. In the foregoing report, we haves only been able to examine those that have had significant influence in building the culture of businesses. I wish to note that the business culture is also most times determined by the personal culture of the particular entrepreneur. 6 | Page PART 2 2. 1. INTRODUCTION In this report, the organization in focus is Oceanic Bank International Pl, until recently one of the top seven banks in Insignias 24-banks banking industry. Oceanic Bank was established in 1989 but commenced business in 1990. The bank witnessed astronomical growth in all indices from 2005 necessitating the opening of more branches (up to 400 branches) to accommodate increasing business. The increase in branches also underscored the need to restructure the banks business units for effective management. Accordingly, in April 2008, the entire country comprising 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Baja, was split up into four directorates headed by an Executive Director each. Each directorate comprises zonal offices each made up of between ten to fifteen branches and headed by a zonal head. The number of zonal offices within a directorate was determined by the number of branches in the directorate. The FACT directorate for example comprised 41 branches, which were divided into three zonal offices. Regulatory Intervention On August 14, 2009, the Central Bank of Nigeria (Insignias banking watchdog) announced the sack of the Executive Managements of five banks namely Intercontinental Bank Pl, Oceanic Bank International Pl, Africans Pl, Fibbing Pl and Union Bank of Nigeria Pl for financial mismanagement and reckless credit practices.

How I Got Noticed on Wattpad (and Won the Wattys)

How I Got Noticed on Wattpad (and Won the Wattys) Winning the World’s Largest Online Writing Contest – A Reedsy Success Story Author Rhà ³n is brand new to the writing world, but his Frontier Fantasy novel Oakwood Grange was recently selected out of 75,000 entries for a Wattys award - an annual international contest of authors held by Wattpad. The story also earned him a â€Å"Featured† spot on the website’s homepage for a monthly audience of 45 million, and later ranked in the top 40 of the Fantasy genre (top 40 of over 200 million stories). Here he shares some tidbits about how that success came to be, how other authors might do the same and get noticed on Wattpad.â€Å"Have you heard of Wattpad?†Three years ago I met a dude named Taran Matharu who asked me this while we were riding in a tour bus up the coast of northeastern Australia. Taran was in his early twenties at the time, traveling for adventure, as I was, and typing something on a laptop that - little did we know - within months would snowball several million online readers and earn him a top-tier agent, a six-figure adva nce from a major publisher, and a position on the New York Times Best Sellers list.â€Å"It’s this website where you post your stories and people read them and leave comments,† he explained.â€Å"Ah.†I had no idea what he was talking about, for back then it had not occurred to me to â€Å"post† my writing anywhere at all. To me, as far as writing was concerned, the well-trodden path was still the best to follow (albeit steeply uphill and exhausting): first, you finish the manuscript, then you query agents and get published. That’s what authors did if they wanted to go pro.Paths are not always as clear-cut as they first appear.In the years that followed I wrote my novel Oakwood Grange, my first, basically a stewpot of strange fantasy and Western grit - a Coraline meets Little House on the Prairie kind of tale, and when I finished it I recalled that old tour bus conversation and the website Wattpad.The latter seemed like a good place to start. I wan ted to get some eyeballs on my novel in order to find out what the global public thought of my ability to tell a story. It turns out they thought quite a bit. Within months I’d gone from absolute obscurity to winning a Wattys â€Å"Hidden Gems† award and attracting over 40,000 reads.Here’s how it was done, and how you might do the same†¦A Leaf in the Wattpad Forest: How to Get NoticedFor those using Wattpad for the first time, the initial steps are simple: sign up and create a profile, write some text (or, in my case, paste some text already written), click a button that says â€Å"Publish†, and presto - an audience of 45 million instantly have access to your story.The next steps are more daunting. As I write this, there are over 200 million independent story uploads on the site, every genre you can think of, with thousands more uploading every day. It’s a virtual avalanche of fiction, and most who venture there are buried from the start.So, to get noticed, my early strategy was to look for stories that were already immensely popular. This was easy. Wattpad categorizes all works by their respective genre, and each genre has its own â€Å"Hot† list ranking all that genre’s stories by their current level of readership. Leaving an insightful comment on a top-ranking author’s story encourages them to read your own story, and hopefully vote for it as well - reads and votes which automatically re-post as notifications to that author’s followers on a public feed.Another thing I did was socialize with Wattpad’s community at large. The website has a high-traffic forums section with various discussion â€Å"Clubs† (e.g. Romance, Fantasy, Teen Fiction, Horror, Classics, etc.), places where you can post questions or responses to the other users, occasionally mentioning what you’ve written. To me, the forums proved the best place to raise awareness of my story. I created threads that I could easily tie to some aspect of  Oakwood Grange, responded considerately to what others posted in reply, and also provided useful feedback to younger authors still cutting their teeth on concepts like â€Å"inciting incident† and â€Å"theme† and â€Å"active voice.†Write masterfully. Aim for Tolkien or Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Austen, Rowling, or Dickens - not the soon-to-be-forgotten E. L. what’s-her-face or others of her ilk. People notice quality and pass it on to other people.Edit. Nobody likes typos. Revise and then revise again. If you can afford an editor, on Reedsy, for example, all the better.Make sure that your book cover is fantastic . . . or at least make sure it doesn’t suck. I did the cover to Oakwood Grange myself. It’s okay, functional by Wattpad standards, but not what I would call amazing, and admittedly not good enough for the larger publishing industry.Post your full completed manuscript. Wattpad’s system a llows stories to be serialized, but common sense will tell you that most readers don’t want to begin reading something that’s half-finished.Add tags. Tags help people find your work by searching for relevant keywords. The more specific to the story, the better.Communicate with the community. At its core, Wattpad is a social site. So socialize. If you read someone else’s work, or comment or vote on it, they’re much more likely to reciprocate. Likewise, if you make an effort to engage new readers, or keep in contact with the readers you already have, more readers will be interested.Don’t get discouraged. A common complaint among new Wattpad authors is that no one reads their work. The good news is that wattpad readers are voracious. They want something fresh and good to feed their endless cravings, and they’re always prowling for that next delicious meal. If your story is enticing, trust me - they will sniff it out.Send Wattpad a request to m ake your story 'Featured'. Obviously, a website with 200 million stories cannot put all of them on its homepage, so there is an application and review process, and of course many disappointed authors. Nevertheless, the 'Featured' list is free, and highly visible, and it can bring your story thousands of new readers every week.The Sunlight in the CanopyAt this point, you might be wondering what value an author can get from Wattpad, or what makes it worth the cost of time and effort. Indeed, the sad truth is that the website offers no direct means for its authors to make money on their work, no Amazon-esque payment system, and that means that despite the legions who have read my story I still have not yet made a penny on it. Does that bother me? Nah. Awareness is my intention here - helping people realize that my work exists and it is work worth reading. In due course I expect that all of this awareness will pay off in the form of a publishing contract, as it did for Taran, as it has for many others. And even if that doesn’t happen, my author platform is steadily rising to a good place from which to dive into self-publishing.Meanwhile, Reedsy has been exceptionally useful in connecting me with an editor, Aja Pollock, who helped refine my story’s prose to prepare it for the greater wilderness beyond Wattpad. I came here for a level of professional expertise, wordsmithing, and attention to detail not easily found in other spheres, and I was not disappointed. After all, contests are admirable, but polishing a story until every facet shines and sparkles perfectly- that’s the real gem.You can read Rhà ³n's stories on Wattpad here!  Have you tried putting your stories up on Wattpad? Have you had any success from it? Let us know your thoughts and experiences, or any question for Rhà ³n, in the comments below!

Health Care Reform Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Health Care Reform - Essay Example This type awareness is must for people in the society. Irrespective of their race, religion & class women were not seen as women in the society in the beginning of this century. The woman, often conceived and the childbirth have become dangerous. There was no birth control system in yester-years. The abortion was treated as an unlawful thing. They did not follow any contraceptive methods, as the same were not available or discovered. The system of divorce was so complexes and was not within the reach of the poor in yesteryears. The women were not encouraged to learn education. In the society, no compromise is possible in the case of abortion and further action should be taken only after reviewing legal and ethical issues. People who respect moral values more than anything consider legalization of abortions, as an equivalent to murder should not be tolerated, as they would become a disease to the society. Supporters of abortion argue that a world should respect the right to women’s privacy to take decision about her body. And they also argue that any government interference or public violence or any violation of a womans right to privacy and autonomy should be strictly condemned. The history of the women is the product of time of century old women. It is the growth of the women for the last 25 years, which focused on their memories, testimonies and pointing out women’s experience. Abortion is an issue to reasonable people who disagree vehemently the legalization process, which they consider to be a hindrance to the moral norms of the society. Most dramatically, a few pro-life supporters or rather extremists took the extreme step of killing the doctors who make abortions. Thus an argument goes to save one life can another life be taken, is this step supports the society’s moral values? Supporters of abortion look this situation a perfect launch pad to show the society that women too

Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Law - Essay Example It also gets distributed through e-mails, text messages through a mobile phone and from other electronic devices. However, this law was named after a nine year old girl namely Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped and assassinated in 1996, Texas. It all started in January 13, 1996 when Amber Hagerman got kidnapped, raped and than was killed by the kidnapper. She was riding her bicycle in Arlington, and was abducted soon afterwards. A neighbor saw and called up the police officials, presented them the description of the suspected car and also described the kidnapper. Police of Arlington, including the FBI, investigated around the neighborhood and searched for the vehicle which was suspected. However, her body was found after four days by a resident who was walking his dog. The body was laid on the bottom of the creek bed, in north Arlington. Unfortunately, she was dead as her throat had been slit. (Siegel, Larry J., 2006). The people of her community discovered that the local officials had the information about it and it might have helped to trace her after she was kidnapped, but they didn’t had any way to spread this information around the city. However, the plan was directed mainly on the radio, which was used to distribute information about the abductions. Throughout the alert, the police authorities got orders to fax the information about the kidnapping to two other radio stations. Those two radio stations than in turn verified the faxed information and then alert other radio stations through the following fax shows. It was an effective way to spread the news, but was very time consuming. Amber alert was first implemented by the Child Alert Foundation in 1998. This charity organization established an automatic Alert Notification System or ANS to spread the news in the near-by communities where the child was reported to be missing. Moreover, alerts were sent to the radio stations and were in cluded to the

Management and Organizational Behavior Case Study

Management and Organizational Behavior - Case Study Example r higher positions before sourcing from outside the company as evidenced by the promotion of Aaron Nelson and Kyle Christiansen from state billing office manager to the VP of Technology and director of the new unit of Medical Billing respectively (Case Study: Growth Pains at Mountain States Healthcare 1). Mountain States Healthcare was facing issues of high turnover in the recently consolidated medical billing directorate and was anticipating failing cash flow. These issues were drawing largely from the inflexibility of the leadership of Kyle Christiansen. Christiansen was instigating changes that were causing undesirable results especially on the employees working in his unit. Christiansen made promises to his employees when he rose to power but after two months, he was not delivering on these promises, and this made his juniors doubt his ability. The employees were aggravated over the cut-down of their work roles and flextime. Those in the offices that were being closed down were living for jobs in other companies. The software in the directorate was failing due to overloading. The postponement of issues addressed to Christiansen, his oversimplification of some, and excessive exertion of his authority demonstrated the ineffectiveness of his leadership (Case Study: Growth Pains at M ountain States Healthcare 3). The decision by the Board of Directors of Mountain States Healthcare to expand operations to states beyond Utah was a desirable aspect of the company’s management process. This is because the growth in profits would have led to the company outgrowing the potential of its initial market share. Additionally, the fact that this expansion would increase the profitability of the company’s shareholders showed that the board emphasized social responsibility. The decision to outsource consultancy services on the concern of how to cut on unnecessary administrative costs showed that the board’s management process aspired for objectivity (Case Study: Growth

The Science Of Artificial Neural Networks Psychology Essay

The Science Of Artificial Neural Networks Psychology Essay The science of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), commonly referred as Neural Networks, stills a new and promising area of research. The concept of creation of neural networks exists for many decades. Nevertheless neural networks have become known and have been developed in international levels only in the recent years. It is noteworthy, scientist showing interest in neural networks, come from different scientific areas such as chemistry, medicine, physics, mathematics, engineering and the list goes on. That shows Neural Networks is a new challenge in science. No other science today combines and needs direct knowledge from such diverse areas. One of the main differences of the Artificial Neural Networks from the biological is that while ANNs learn through training and experience just like the biological ones but they follow different rules from regular computers. A Neural Network is a parallel data processing system consisted by multitude of artificial neurons, organized in structure s similar with the ones in human brain. They function as parallel computing devices made by many highly interconnected simple processors. Artificial Neurons are mainly organized in layers. The first of those layers called the input layer and is used to insert the data. Input layers are unable to proceed to any sort of computation as its elements do not comprise input weights or bias (threshold). The axon: mean of transfer of neural signals from the neuron. Its length can be tens of thousands of times the diameter of its body and it is characterized by high electrical resistance and very large capacitance. Every neuron has only one axon, however it can branch and thus enabling communication with many target cells or other neurons. The dendrite: short highly branched cell projections (filaments). Most neurons have many dendrites, attached on the soma and increase the surface area. There are approximately 10^3 to 10^4 dendrites per neuron, to receive information from other neurons through synapses they are covered with and transmit electrochemical stimulation to the soma. The axon terminal: located in the end of the axon and is responsible for transmitting signals on to other neurons. On axon terminals are attached the terminal buttons, that store the information in synaptic vesicles and secreting them in neurotransmitters. As mentioned above, the connection between neurons happens through the synapses. Neural synapses are a silent exchange of information. The electrical nerve impulses travel along neurons and transmitted by chemical transmitters (neurotransmitters) in the next neuron across a tiny gap, the synapses and are located between the neuron and the neighboring cell (target cell). Therefore dendrites are very close to each other but never in touch. It is estimated that there are approximately 10 billion neurons in the human cortex, and 60 trillion synapses or connections (Shepherd and Koch, 1990). A number of neurons and their connections form a neural network. The entire system of neural networks in the human body forms the Central Nervous System. This system goes through the whole human body with central points the brain and the spine. During lifetime, synapses are in constant dynamic equilibrium, new are created and old are destroyed. The creation of new synapse happens when the brain acquires more experiences from the surrounding environment, learns, recognizes and understands. On the other side, diseases cause the devastation of neurons and therefore the devastation of synapses. In comparison to other cells, neurons might not replaced by new ones, if destroyed. That means after the birth of a new individual, its neural system is fully developed within the first few months of its life. A neuron can be either active or inactive. When it is activated, it produces an electric signal. This signal has intensity of only a few mVolt. The way those electric signals are produced is pretty similar with the way a capacitor works. Between the external and internal surface of the cell of the neuron there is a dynamic difference. Although the mass of the human brain is only the 2% of human body mass, consumes more than the 20% of the oxygen that goes in the organism. The energy consumption in the brain is about 20 Watt in comparison to a computer that needs a lot more. The computational power of brain is measured by three possible approaches: The number of synapses (Kandel, 1985), the computational power of the retina and multiply it by their brain-to-retina ratio (Moravec, 1998b), and the total useful energy used by the brain per second by the amount of energy used for each basic operation to give the maximum operation per second (Merkle, 1989) From the three approaches above, is concluded that the estimated computational power of human brain is about 10^14 operations per second (Ng, 2009). It is interesting to mention how the electric pulses are created to stimulate neurons. On the membrane of the cell it is appeared to be an electric potential difference between its external and internal surface just like a capacitor. Most of the times the negative charges found in the internal surface as they cant penetrate the membrane and leave the cell. The membrane has many openings that allow ions and atoms to go through each element from its own channel. The endings of the channels are secured by gates which directing the flow of those elements. Proteins that act like pumps force the elements to travel in the opposite direction from their natural and thus neurons consume larger amounts of energy. Eventually the balanced movement of the elements along the surface of the membrane produces an electric current which is the corresponding electrical pulse that stimulates the neuron. Once the neuron has fired it returns to a state of potential equilibrium and in this state it cant be fired again until it recovers. Each neuron has a specific threshold or weight. When electric signals reach that point, sum up and if their weight value is same or larger than the one of the threshold the neuron stimulates. If the sum of the signals is smaller than the required value of the threshold, then the neuron stays inactive. Add images. Models of artificial neurons As mentioned earlier, ANNs are parallel data processing systems, consisting out of large numbers of artificial neurons, inspired by the biological neurons. A neuron is an information-processing unit that is fundamental to the operation of a neural network (Haykin, 1999, pg-10). A neuron may have many inputs, an internal structure consisting out of multiple layers but it always has a single output. Every single neuron accepts variable input signals x0, x1, x2 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦xn. This corresponds to the electric pulses of the biological brain. Every input signal is multiplied by the synaptic weights of the neuron, wi, where i=1,2,3..n, the input nodes. The weights represent the biological synapses and indicate the strength of the bond (the connection) between them. The range of value of a weight can be positive or negative depending on if the function of synapse suspend or propagate (transmit) the stimuli from other neurons, unlike the biological synapses that do not take negative values. This is because external bias, b, are applied when the weights added. Bias or threshold, is the standard value of the internal potential energy of the neuron that the sum of the combined output must be reached in order the activation (or squashing) function to be activated. An important element of the neuronal body is the adder .At the adder, all the input signals, influenced by weight vectors are summing up together and produce a resultant combined output u. When the sum of weight is big (0 Therefore, the product u is given by the relationship: The result of combined output u, pass through the activation function, denoted with the letter  Ã¢â‚¬  ( ). The activation function is a non linear function where the resultant combined output u takes its final value y. The calculated activation output signal of the neuron is shown as: and where Therefore, Activation functions There are several activation functions, however three of the most basic types are the following 🙠 they slightly vary from book to book) The threshold activation function, which gives as an output 1, if the adder produce a value greater than the one of the threshold. This is expressed as: The Piecewise-Linear function, where the unity is assumed to be the amplification factor inside the linear region of operation (Haykin, 1999, pg:14) The Sigmoid function, which is expressed as: Where  Ã‚ ¡ is is the slope parameter of the sigmoid function. This function is one of the most important and most commonly used as it provides non-linearity to the neuron. Some other activation functions are, the rump function, the bipolar sigmoid function, and the signum function. The signum function gives a positive or negative output, with values usually ranging from 1 to -1 depending on the value of the summation of the weights on the threshold. This can be applied to the activation functions mentioned above and more specifically to the threshold faction giving: Add images and graphs A simple neural network In this paragraph, neural networks will be introduced, starting from their simplest form. Every neural network consists out of hundreds or thousands of tiny units, the neurons. Each neuron has an input where the electric signals are received. A neuron may have more than one input but no matter how many layers of neurons and synaptic connections are in between (the body), there is always one output value. The neurons of a layer between each input and output are not connected to each other however each layer is interconnected with the layer of the next and the previous level. In its simplest form, a neuron has no layers but is limited only to an input and an output. Every signal that leaves an output and enters an input has a value, the weights. The weights represent the importance of each signal reaching the threshold of an input. Depending on the value of weight (wn), the contribution of the electric signal can be great or small for the function of the system. Artificial intelligence and neural networks Historical background (The study of the brain and the biological neurons has started thousands of years ago.) However, as artificial neural networks started to be developing the past century, the historical background still not as broad as in other sciences. The first union of mathematical logic and neuropsychology, commenced in 1943 by Warren S. McCulloch and Walter Pitts. McCulloch was a pioneer neuroanatomist and psychiatrist. Pitts was a young mathematical prodigy, who joined McCulloch in 1942. (Haykin, 1999, pg: 38). Together they created the first model a neural network that was represented by a great number of interconnected neurons. In their well-known paper, A logical calculus of the ideas immanent in nervous activity, (1943), came up with theorems that describe the function of neurons and the neural networks. As a result of those theorems, neural networks and artificial intelligence ideas established a new era of research began. The paper of McCulloch and Pitts, triggered the interest of many scientists like von Neumann, Wiener and Uttley in their effort to extract information of the function of biological neurons and create corresponding artificial ones. In 1949 another idea appeared by D. Hebb who published the book The Organisation of Behavior. Although his book had greater influence on the psychological rather than the engineering community, he introduced the concept of postulate and learning and the synaptic modification rule, which suggests that the connectivity of the brain changes continually thorough its entire life in the process of learning new tasks. From 1950 to 1979, a number of remarkable books were written about neural networks developing the ideas of neurons abilities, such as learning and memorising. Some of these books are the Design for a Brain: The origin of Adaptive Behaviors, (1952) by Ashby, that still exciting to read nowadays, and the Learning Machines, (1965) by Nilsson, one of the best-written expositions about linearly separable patterns in hypersurfaces. (Haykin, 1999, pg: 40). A novel model, the perceptron, introduced in 1958 by F. Rosenblatt. The perceptron is a very simple model of supervised learning, which has only one input and one output built around a nonlinear neuron (Haykin pg 135). Although this model appeared to have many limitations the idea of training the neurons encouraged many scientists for building larger neural networks. In 1969, Minsky and Papert in their book Perceptron they make a complete evaluation of the features and uses of the perceptrons. It proved with mathematics that there were fundamental limitations on the computational ability of single-layered perceptrons and therefore those limitations assumed to carry on in the multilayered levels of perceptrons. A period followed were scientists start losing hope about neural networks and turned to other knowledge based systems. In 1982, neural networks make an interesting come back when John Hopfield proved in a strict mathematical way that by time a neural network can be adjusted to use the minimum energy to function just like human brain does. In addition, Hopfield proved that a simple neural network can be used as storage devise. Such networks are called the Hopfield networks. A very important work was published in 1986 by Rumelhart and McClelland. The two-volume book, Parallel Distributed Processing: Explorations in the Microstructures of Cognitions, shows new methods of training neural networks and introduces the idea of parallel data processor. This theory had a great influence in the use of back-propagation learning as and allowed the development of multilayered networks (perceptrons). The books published by McCulloch- Pitts (1943), Hopfield (1982) and Rumelhart-McClelland (1986), are the most influential in the revolution of neural networks. Since 1980 to nowadays, Neural Networks have been established as a new independent science branch. Conferences and magazines appeared with complete interest on artificial neural networks while the first commercial companies dedicated to the improvement of them, created, supported by thousands of members worldwide especially in America, Europe and Japan. Learning processes/ training Fundamental ideas The present, looking to future Ann applications areas Anns in civil engineering Can it be applied in? Benefits/disadvantages Program Observations comments summary references