Monday, September 30, 2019

A Memory For All Seasonings Essay

Memory is one of the most important functions of the mind. Without our memories, we would have no identity, no individuality. The following article is about a mnemonist, a person with an extraordinary power of remembering. The title includes a pun, a form of humor based on a play on words. The usual phrase to describe something constant and dependable is â€Å"for all seasons†; here the phrase is changed to â€Å"for all seasonings.† (Seasonings is another word for spices, such as salt, pepper, and curry.) What hint does this give you about the mnemonist? (Early in the article you will find out.) One evening two years ago, Peter Poison, a member of the psychology department at the University of Colorado, took his son and daughter to dinner at Bananas, a fashionable restaurant in Boulder. When the waiter took their orders, Poison noticed that the young man didn’t write anything down. He just listened, made small talk, told them that his name was John Conrad, and left. Poison didn’t think this was exceptional: There were, after all, only three of them at the table. Yet he found himself watching Conrad closely when he returned to take the orders at a nearby table of eight. Again the waiter listened, chatted, and wrote nothing down. When he brought Poison and his children their dinners, the professor couldn’t resist introducing himself and telling Conrad that he’d been observing him. The young man was pleased. He wanted customers to notice that, unlike other waiters, he didn’t use a pen and paper. Sometimes, when they did notice, they left him q uite a large tip. He had once handled a table of nineteen complete dinner orders without a single error. At Bananas, a party of nineteen (a bill of roughly $200) would normally leave the waiter a $35 tip. They had left Conrad $85. Poison was impressed enough to ask the waiter whether he would like to come to the university’s psychology lab and let them run some tests on him. Anders Ericsson, a young Swedish psychologist recently involved in memory research, would be joining the university faculty soon, and Poison thought that he would be interested in exploring memory methods with the waiter. Conrad said he would be glad to cooperate. He was always on the lookout for ways to increase his income, and Poison  told him he would receive $5 an hour to be a guinea pig. Conrad, of course, was not the first person with an extraordinary memory to attract attention from researchers. Alexander R. Luria, the distinguished Soviet psychologist, studied a Russian newspaper reporter named Shereshevskii for many years and wrote about him in The Mind of a Mnemonist (Basic Books, 1968). Luria says that Shereshevskii was able to hear a series of fifty words spoken once and recite them back in perfect order fifteen years later. Another famous example of extraordinary memory, the conductor Arturo Toscanini, was known to have memorized every note for every instrument in 250 symphonies and 100 operas. For decades the common belief among psychologists was that memory was a fixed quantity; an exceptional memory, or a poor one, was something with which a person was born. This point of view has come under attack in recent years; expert memory is no longer universally considered the exclusive gift of the genius, or the abnormal. â€Å"People with astonishing memory for pictures, musical scores, chess positions, business transactions, dramatic scripts, or faces are by no means unique,† wrote Cornell psychologist Ulric Neisser in Memory Observed (1981). â€Å"They may not even be very rare.† Some university researchers, including Poison and Ericsson, go a step further than Neisser. They believe that there are no physiological differences at all between the memory of a Shereshevskii or a Toscanini and that of the average person. The only real difference, they believe, is that Toscanini trained his memory, exercised it regularly, and wanted to improve it. Like many people with his capacity to remember, Toscanini may also have used memory tricks called mnemonics. Shereshevskii, for example, employed a technique known as loci. As soon as he heard a series of words, he mentally â€Å"distributed† them along Gorky Street in Moscow. If one of the words was â€Å"orange,† he might visualize a man stepping on an orange at a precise location on the familiar street. Later, in order to retrieve â€Å"orange,† he would take an imaginary walk down Gorky Street and see the image from which it could easily be recalled. Did the waiter at Bananas have such a system? What was his secret? John Conrad would be the subject of Anders Ericsson’s second in-depth study of the machinations of memory. As a research associate at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Ericsson had spent the previous three years working with William Chase on an extensive study of Steve Faloon, an undergraduate whose memory and intellectual skills were  considered average. When Ericsson and Chase began testing Faloon, he could remember no more than seven random digits after hearing them spoken once. According to generally accepted research, almost everyone is capable of storing five to nine random digits in short-term memory. After twenty months of working with Chase and Ericsson, Faloon could memorize and retrieve eighty digits. â€Å"The important thing about our testing Faloon is that researchers usually study experts,† Chase says. â€Å"We studied a novice and watched him grow into an expert. Initially, we were just running tests to see whether his digit span could be expanded. For four days he could not go beyond seven digits. On the fifth day he discovered his mnemonic system and then began to improve rapidly.† Faloon’s intellectual abilities didn’t change, the researchers say. Nor did the storage capacity of his short-term memory. Chase and Ericsson believe that short-term memory is a more or less fixed quantity. It reaches saturation quickly, and to overcome its limitations one must learn to link new data with material that is permanently stored in long-term memory. Once the associations have been made, the short-term memory is free to absorb new information. Shereshevskii transferred material from short-term to long-term memory by placing words along Gorky Street in Moscow. Faloon’s hobby was long-distance running, and he discovered that he could break down a spoken list of eighty digits into units of three or four and associate most of these with running times. To Faloon, a series like 4 , 0 , 1 ,2 would translate as four mi nutes, one and two-tenths seconds, or â€Å"near a four-minute mile†; 2, 1, 4, 7 would be encoded as two hours fourteen minutes seven seconds, or â€Å"an excellent marathon time.† When running didn’t provide the link to his long-term memory, ages and dates did; 1, 9, 4, 4 is not relevant to running, but it is â€Å"near the end of World War II.† Chase and Ericsson see individual differences in memory performance as resulting from previous experience and mental training. â€Å"In sum,† they write, â€Å"adult memory performance can be adequately described by a single model of memory.† Not every student of psychology agrees with Chase and Ericsson, of course. â€Å"I’m very suspicious of saying that everyone has the same kind of memory,† says Matthew Erdelyi, a psychologist at Brooklyn College. â€Å"In my research,† he says, â€Å"I find that people have very different memory levels. They can all improve, but some levels remain high and some remain low. There are dramatic individual  differences.† It is unlikely that there will be any agreement among psychologists on the conclusions that they have thus f ar drawn from their research. The debate about exceptional memory will continue. But in the meantime it is interesting to look deeper into the mind of a contemporary mnemonist. Ericsson and Poison, both of whom have tested Conrad over the past two years, believe that there is nothing intellectually outstanding about him. When they began testing Conrad’s memory, his digit span was normal: about seven numbers. His grades in college were average. Conrad himself says that he is unexceptional mentally, but he has compared his earliest memories with others’ and has found that he can recall things that many people can’t. His first distinct memory is of lying on his back and raising his legs so that his mother could change his diapers. As a high-school student he didn’t take notes in class—he says he preferred watching the girls take notes—and he has never made a list in his life. â€Å"By never writing down a list of things to do, and letting it think for me,† he says, â€Å"I’ve forced my memory to improve.† Conrad does believe that his powers of observation, including his ability to listen, are keener than most people’s. Memory, he says, is just one part of the whole process of observation. â€Å"I’m not extraordinary, but sometimes people make me feel that way. I watch them and realize how many of them have disorganized minds and memories and that makes me feel unusual. A good memory is nothing more than an organized one.’ One of the first things Conrad observed at Bananas was that the headwaiter, his boss, was â€Å"a very unpleasant woman.† He disliked being her subordinate, and he wanted her job. The only way he could get it was by being a superior waiter. He stayed up nights trying to figure out how to do this; the idea of memorizing orders eventually came to him. Within a year he was the headwaiter. â€Å"One of the most interesting things we’ve found,† says Ericsson, â€Å"is that just trying to memorize things does not insure that your memory will improve. It’s the active decision to get better and the number of hours you push yourself to improve that make the difference. Motivation is much more important than innate ability.† Conrad began his memory training by trying to memorize the orders for a table of two, then progressed to memorizing larger orders. He starts by associating the entree with the customer’s face. He might see a large, heavy-set man and hear â€Å"I’d like a big Boulder Steak.† Sometimes, Peter Poison says, â€Å"John  thinks a person looks like a turkey and that customer orders a turkey sandwich. Then it’s easy.† In memorizing how long meat should be cooked, the different salad dressings, and starches, Conrad relies on patterns of repetition and variation. â€Å"John breaks things up into chunks of four,† Ericsson says. â€Å"If he hears ‘rare, rare, medium, well-done,’ he instantly sees a pattern in their relationship. Sometimes he makes a mental graph. An easy progression—rare, medium-rare, medium, well-done—would take the shape of a steadily ascending line on his graph. A more difficult order—medium, well-done, rare, medium—would resemble a mountain range.† The simplest part of Conrad’s system is his encoding of salad dressings. He uses letters: B for blue cheese; /-/for the house dressing; 0 for oil and vinegar; F for French; T for Thousand Island. A series of orders, always arranged according to entree, might spell a word, like B-O-O-T, or a near-word, like B-O-O-F, or make a phonetic pattern: F-O-F-O. As Ericsson says, Conrad remembers orders, regardless of their size, in chunks of four, This is similar to the way Faloon stores digits, and it seems to support Chase and Ericsson’s contention that short-term memory is limited and that people are most comfortable working with small units of information. One of the most intriguing things about Conrad is the number of ways he can associate material. Another is the speed with which he is able to call it up from memory. Ericsson and Poison have also tested him with animals, units of time, flowers, and metals. At first, his recall was slow and uncertain. But with relatively little practice, he could retrieve these â€Å"orders† almost as quickly as he could food. â€Å"The difference between someone like John, who has a trained memory, and the average person,† says Ericsson, â€Å"is that he can encode material in his memory fast and effortlessly. It’s similar to the way you can understand English when you hear it spoken. In our tests in the lab, he just gets better and faster.† â€Å"What John Conrad has,† says Poison, â€Å"is not unlike an athletic skiil. With two or three hundred hours of practice, you can develop these skills in the same way you can learn to play tennis.† (1945 words) I Comprehension Quiz Choose the best way of finishing each statement, based on what you have just  read. 1. The psychology professor discovered John Conrad’s incredible ability to memorize: a. in school b. on a test c. in a restaurant 2. Conrad agreed to let the professor study his memory because: a. Conrad was interested in psychology b. Conrad wanted to increase his income c. Conrad needed to improve his memory 3. The famous Russian mnemonist Shereshevskii used a memory trick called loci to remember objects by: a. associating them with events in Russian history b. imagining them placed along a street in Moscow c. picturing each one in his mind in a different color 4. The memory trick used by Steve Faloon was the association of certain numbers with: a. running times b. important dates c. both the above d. none of the above 5. Conrad had been: a. a gifted student b. a below-average student c. an average student 6. Part of Conrad’s motivation for developing memory tricks to aid him as a waiter was: a. his desire to get his boss’s job b. his great admiration for the headwaiter c. his fear of not finding any work 7. Imagine that four customers have requested that their steaks be cooked in the following way: well-done, medium, medium-rare, rare. According to John Conrad’s â€Å"mental graph† technique, this order would be remembered as: a. a steadily ascending line b. a steadily descending line c. a mountain range 8. From this article a careful reader should infer that: a. everyone has about the same memory capacity and can develop a superior memory through practice and motivation b. a good or bad memory is an ability that a person is born with and cannot change to any great degree c. there is still no conclusive evidence as to whether outstanding memories are inborn or developed II Finding Support For or Against a Hypothesis As the article points out, some psychologists today believe that extraordinary memories are simply the result of development through hard work and the application of a system. According to them, an average person could achieve a superior memory if he or she tried hard enough. Find evidence from the article to support this hypothesis. Then find evidence from the article that goes against this hypothesis. What is your opinion of this controversial question?

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Compare Japanese and British industrialization

â€Å"Compare political, economic, and social effects of the Industrial Revolution on Britain and Japanese society between 1850 – 1914† An Industrial Revolution is when production advances to machines instead of by hands. Industrial Revolution, which started in the early 19th century in Britain, spread throughout the world and reached Japan around 1868. However, industrialization of each nation was different because of geographical location and cultural influence and thus resulted in similar economic outcome but quite diverse political and social results.One of the major reasons that caused Industrial Revolution to begin in Britain and Japan is because of geographical similarities. Both Japan and Britain are isolated islands nearby the continent, with limited but enough raw materials to start industrialization. In the case of Britain, it possessed coal, iron, and wool, which Japan had to import from other countries. The economic outcome of both nations was the same: bot h countries became rich and powerful.Another similar effect of industrialization between Japan and Britain was their development of technology and military weapons. Driven by the need for raw materials, they both conquered countries in Africa and Asia. Workers in both Britain and Japan suffered a great deal: low wages, long working hours, poor working conditions, living in slums, and perhaps, child labor. The way Industrial Revolution began in both nations was considerably different.Britain pioneered industrialization in a more natural way; politically Britain had been very stable, free of civil wars and domestic chaos. Economically the country had low tariff which encouraged more trading and production. The British started inventing steam engines, water frames, spinning jenny that helped start Industrial Revolution. They were more motivated to move forward from hand production, unlike the Japanese, they had a modern way of thinking. Japan was â€Å"forced† to industrialize b ecause of foreign pressure.China was colonized not too long before American Matthew Perry arrived in Japan to open the country for trade. From the middle of the 19th century to 1945, the British Empire was so huge that people said the sun never set. In this case of Japan, it defeated first China in 1895, and 10 years later, Russia in 1905. Colonies such as India exported cotton to Britain, and Manchuria and Korea to provide iron and copper for Japan. The population percentage was larger in Britain than it was in Japan. Compare Japanese and British industrialization â€Å"Compare political, economic, and social effects of the Industrial Revolution on Britain and Japanese society between 1850 – 1914† An Industrial Revolution is when production advances to machines instead of by hands. Industrial Revolution, which started in the early 19th century in Britain, spread throughout the world and reached Japan around 1868. However, industrialization of each nation was different because of geographical location and cultural influence and thus resulted in similar economic outcome but quite diverse political and social results.One of the major reasons that caused Industrial Revolution to begin in Britain and Japan is because of geographical similarities. Both Japan and Britain are isolated islands nearby the continent, with limited but enough raw materials to start industrialization. In the case of Britain, it possessed coal, iron, and wool, which Japan had to import from other countries. The economic outcome of both nations was the same: bot h countries became rich and powerful.Another similar effect of industrialization between Japan and Britain was their development of technology and military weapons. Driven by the need for raw materials, they both conquered countries in Africa and Asia. Workers in both Britain and Japan suffered a great deal: low wages, long working hours, poor working conditions, living in slums, and perhaps, child labor. The way Industrial Revolution began in both nations was considerably different.Britain pioneered industrialization in a more natural way; politically Britain had been very stable, free of civil wars and domestic chaos. Economically the country had low tariff which encouraged more trading and production. The British started inventing steam engines, water frames, spinning jenny that helped start Industrial Revolution. They were more motivated to move forward from hand production, unlike the Japanese, they had a modern way of thinking. Japan was â€Å"forced† to industrialize b ecause of foreign pressure.China was colonized not too long before American Matthew Perry arrived in Japan to open the country for trade. From the middle of the 19th century to 1945, the British Empire was so huge that people said the sun never set. In this case of Japan, it defeated first China in 1895, and 10 years later, Russia in 1905. Colonies such as India exported cotton to Britain, and Manchuria and Korea to provide iron and copper for Japan. The population percentage was larger in Britain than it was in Japan.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Attributes of the employees

Attributes of the employees Attributes of the employees Employees are the most critical part of an organization as they provide their skills for an organization’s operations and they are the one who can drag the organizational performance because of these reasons the employers wants to hire the people having the best attributes. In the following I have selected out the attributes of the employees valued by the employer through from different websites and different books also address the same attributes. 1. Communications Skills By far, the one skill mentioned most often by employers is the ability to listen, write, and speak effectively. Successful communication is critical in business. It saves time, minimizes mistakes & reduces conflicts. 2. Analytical, Research Skills Deals with ability to assess a situation, seek multiple perspectives, gather more information if necessary, and identify key issues that need to be addressed. 3. Computer, Technical Literacy Almost all jobs now require some basic under standing of computer hardware and software, especially word processing, spreadsheets, printers, telephone and email. 4. Flexibility, Adaptability, Managing Multiple Priorities Deals with ability to manage multiple assignments and tasks, set priorities, and adapt to changing conditions and work assignments. 5. Interpersonal Abilities The ability to relate to co-workers, inspire others to participate, and mitigate conflict with co-workers is essential given the amount of time spent at work each day. 6. Leadership, Management Skills While there is some debate about whether leadership is something people are born with, these skills deal with ability to take charge and manage co-workers. 7. Multicultural Sensitivity, Awareness There is possibly no bigger issue in the workplace than diversity, and job-seekers must demonstrate a sensitivity and awareness to other people and cultures. 8. Planning, Organizing Deals with ability to design, plan, organize, and implement projects and tasks within an allotted timeframe. Also involves goal-setting. 9. Problem-Solving, Reasoning, Creativity Involves the ability to find solutions to problems using creativity, reasoning, and past experiences along with the available information and resources. 10. Teamwork Because so many jobs involve working in one or more work-groups, employee must have the ability to work with others in a professional manner while attempting to achieve a common goal. 11. Personal Values Employers Seek in Employees Of equal importance to skills are the values, personality traits, and personal characteristics that employers seek. 12. Honesty, Integrity, Morality Employers probably respect personal integrity more than any other value, especially in light of the many recent corporate scandals. 13. Dedication, Hard-Working, Work Ethic, Tenacity Employers seek job-seekers who love what they do and will keep at it until they solve the problem and get the job done. 14. Dependability, Reliability, Responsib ility There’s no question that all employers desire employees who will arrive to work every day – on time – and ready to work, and who will take responsibility for their actions. 15. Loyalty Employers want employees who will have a strong devotion to the company — even at times when the company is not necessarily loyal to its employees. 16. Positive Attitude, Motivation, Energy, Passion The job-seekers who get hired and the employees who get promoted are the ones with drive and passion — and who demonstrate this enthusiasm through their words and actions.

Friday, September 27, 2019

Select an organisation in the U.K. and critically assess the Essay

Select an organisation in the U.K. and critically assess the operational methods and strategies adopted to provide satisfactory products (or services) to custom - Essay Example The Department which I was involved in was the procurement department. The Purpose of this department was to ensure that there were adequate products in the store to fulfil customer requirements at that time. The role of the procurement section was to act as an intermediary between the process of selling and suppliers who dealt with the store. This department has to ascertain that there was back up stock in case there were any eventualities that occurred in the supply chain. Besides this, it also has to guard against overstocking. This is because of the fact that too much of a certain item could cause losses to the organisation. Their function contributes to customer satisfaction because the department ensures that customers get what they want whenever they want. (Tesco, 2007) The organisation has two categories of customers' i.e. external customers and internal customers. Slack et al (2007) describes internal customers as those who are found within the organisation. These are the various sections in the organisation that deal with the department under consideration. This comes from the concept of treating other parts of the organisation as separate entities or organisations. This means that the organisation ought to communicate effectively with its internal customers to maximise productivity. Some of the internal customers which the procurement section of Tesco has to deal include; accounting department, supplying department, personnel department, financial department. These internal customers will be examined in detail below; Marketing as an internal customer is one of the most crucial departments in Tesco. Their main objective is to promote and increase sales for Tesco. Basically, they are supposed to attract customers and come up with strategies that will keep them coming back. The marketing section expected four things from output in the organisation The numbers of products or services present are sufficient to satisfy consumer's demands i.e. should not be below optimum That products are available on time and customers do not have to wait for long periods of time before they can access them The type of products displayed is of reasonable quality i.e. they are in good condition The way products are displayed is attractive for consumers If the operation section of Tesco can fulfil all the above requirements, then marketers can coordinate between promotions and service delivery. (Ruffian et al 2000) It is quite essential for marketers to advertise only hat the Company can deliver otherwise their tasks will be rendered ineffective. The next internal customer with reference to output is the personnel section. This department deals with the coordination of human resource with the main aim of ensuring that all people in the organisation perform to their maximum level. This will therefore lead to achievement of the organisation's goals and objectives. The personnel section expects that output is sufficient in terms of quality and quantity. Their function is to ensure that everyone is performing and this also applies to the output section. (Tesco, 2007) The financial department or accounting section is another area that depends on the output sectio

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Assessing the potential impact of institutional investors on corporate Dissertation

Assessing the potential impact of institutional investors on corporate governance in China - Dissertation Example .................................................................... p.10 Literature review ..................................................................... p.10 Conclusions ..................................................................... p.31 References ..................................................................... p.37 ABSTRACT Examples are given pertaining to the development and present situation of Western institutional investors. Also under discussion is the practice of Western/Anglo institutional investors towards an increasing participation in the corporate governance in a proactive way. The methods and procedures of institutional investors participation in corporate governance is described, with American and British examples – and how these institutions pertain to China. Analysis is given describing the development of the corporate culture that leads to a more active role in governance, and how the assumptions thereof have evolved over time. Both the p ositive and the negative of institutional investors on corporate governance are described, with respect to a term corporate interests. Challenges relating to foreign investments in China are described in this context. The current status of investors and the losses they have suffered due to transitional effects in the Chinese economy are extrapolated based upon a shifting legal and financial landscape as China modernizes its economy. Recommendations to alleviate these concerns are proposed. INTRODUCTION The advent of high finance and its utilization in the operations of Incorporated business organizations created a situation many decades ago in which it was recognized that owners and shareholders need not always see eye to eye. The directors that oversee functional operations over day-to-day matters do not always have the same vested interests as the shareholding owners of the corporation. The interests of operational control may not match the objectives of other individuals interest ed in a slow and steady growth of assets and equity. But the considerable benefits of ownership by way of investment have been recognized for nearly the entirety of the 20th century, thus investors by necessity must gain certain rights and privileges. The role of these investors is an evolving understanding that balances the nuances of organizational agility against long-term growth. Theories of corporate governance must be developed to define the responsibilities of investors and the degree to which they can influence operations without stressing corporate resources beyond their ability to perform. (Davis, 2002) Possible examples might include the director/executive officer, who may have founded the business wanting to maintain control possibly for sentimental reasons – the business might have been in his family for many years. Or, the business might be a valuable source of jobs for a particular local community. But the investors that can help a business rise to the world st age might feel that their interests are best served through mergers or takeovers that permit a favorable return on investments based upon various stock options and projected share values. Certain individuals may perceive a loss of livelihood, and thus oppose measures that will increase the profits of those that have injected vast amounts of capital to make the business what it is. Arbitration and compromise are necessities. OVERVIEW Over three decades institutional investors have superseded private individual shareholders in the world's most important capital

Macroeconomics - Quantitative Easing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Macroeconomics - Quantitative Easing - Essay Example Expansionary policies involve the purchase of short term monetary government bonds by the central bank in order to lower the market interest rate. However, when the interest rates are minimal or at zero, traditional monetary policies cannot lower the interest rate any further. In quantitative easing, the economy is boosted by other methods. Short-term as well as long-term bonds are purchased and the yield has a high probability of increasing. (Krishnamurthy and Vissing-Jorgensen, 2011) Quantitative easing is supposed to keep the inflation in check. However, the goods in the market to be sold have a fixed quantity and therefore, even a flooding of capital will not lead to an increase in the amount of goods and thus, it could actually lead to more inflation (Trefgarne, 2009). The interest rate of the economy is targeted by open market operations, which are the buying and selling of bonds (short-term government bonds) from banks and other financial institutions. The central bank gives o ut the bonds and collects money from this process, and this in turn also affects the money supply and the interbank interest rate (Wieland, 2009). When a central bank cannot change the interest rate, they face a liquidity trap, and quantitative easing changes the economy’s scenario without affecting the interest rate. It is only related to the money supply when the interest rate cannot be further lowered. Therefore, it is also a policy that is used as a last resort measure rather than as a first resort one (Wieland, 2009). Also, even though central banks cannot affect the interest rate further, they are the ones who carry out quantitative easing because their money is the one which is acceptable by everyone. However, in some cases, central banks cannot carry out their own quantitative easing and are dependent on other central banks to carry it out for them (Wieland, 2009). b) UK has a unique method of employing quantitative easing in order to spur growth in the economy and ch ange the money supply and keep the inflation rate in check at about 2%. Their first policy was to buy gilt-edged securities from institutions that are not banks. These also include bonds that are issued by national governments, also referred to as debt securities. Secondly, they conduct Open Market Operations, which were open to their gilt counterparts as well (Congdon, 2009). The lowest bids started being acceptable by banks, the standard of comparison being the market prices. Lastly, the HM treasury condemned APF (Asset Purchase Facility) which was initiated in 2009, when the commercial paper was financed primarily by T-bills and gilts. There are not only short-term gilts that are used, but also long-term gilts in this process of quantitative easing. They also borrow money from insurance companies and pension funds. People can also keep more money in their bank accounts than they did before, as one of the ways to boost money in the economy. This way banks, apart from the central b ank, will have more money in order to lend more (Congdon, 2009). The two main outcomes of assessing the situation were assessing the portfolios and the events that occurred. Portfolio rebalancing may cause UK investor to demand to go on a hike and gilt’s yield has decreased by a hundred points since this policy has been implemented. However, it is hard to tell the

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 9

Philosophy - Essay Example Accordingly, in order to attain a happy life, people should avoid the primary sources of unhappiness which are the fear of death and the fear of gods. According to Epicurus, fear of death and fear of the gods are the chief sources of unhappiness in life. The definition of unhappiness seems to be simple though and that is the absence of happiness. But, for Epicurus, Happiness is the outcome pleasure. Basically pleasure is good and pain is bad. The absence of pain in the body and trouble in the soul can describe pleasure. Gods do not really castigate humans nor reward which makes sense in thinking that a happy life comprises of being free from the fear of gods and death (Boeree, 2000). A tranquil life, coined as ‘ataraxia’ and ‘aponia’, significantly means being free from fear and not experiencing pain. â€Å"Ataraxia† is like the real happiness of a person and surpassing the material world who embraces the principles of philosophy. And ‘aponia’ caters to the belief that happiness is the main goal of the human life. The two terms is apparent to a tranquil life where trouble in the soul c an be taken away as well as the inhibition of physical pain. Pleasure is good and this state can be maximized through the absence of pain in physical and mental senses. For Epicurus, fear of gods and fear of death are the primary sources of unhappiness that greatly affect the views of a person. Some people choose pain over pleasure because of thinking that this might lead to a greater pleasure. Epicurus insists that living a quiet and private life could be the best in order to live a happy life (Epicurus, 2000). This is because he rejects the popular perspective of the time. Pointless or the unnecessary desire can cause mental disquiet which should be avoided. Accordingly, human should look into the desires in different perspectives like the natural ones and the unjustified ones. Thus, specific grounds for happiness or achieving the necessary desires should be

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Ipads in schools Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ipads in schools - Research Paper Example cation is not a bad idea but important because it combines the technology to proper understanding of advanced software tools that gives perfect content and instruction. The Ipads are expensive to purchase and maintain since their breakage rates are high mostly rate at 10% per year and their value depreciates heavy. Most of the students using the devices are not well trained in using them and it is expensive employing information technology staff in schools. Pushing ipads into schools without clear plans leave the teachers jagged about the technology. In the olden days, computers in education were received with great joy but most teachers and the students have been discouraged because of failure in delivery. The use of Ipads in the classroom has increased the rate of laziness by most students because they want to do things in the easier way by application of technology. Most students do not accomplish their assignments in time because of engaging in the online social networking sites spending most of their time chatting. Some students spend most of their time watching bad material online such as spending time on pornographic sites wasting their precious study time. Because of the advanced technology most students take advantage to use Ipads to commit malpractices during the examination time. Some teachers also develop laziness and do not deliver well in class lecturers. They force the student to do intensive research online for the study materials that is quite tiresome and messy showing neglect of duty. Ipads technology in the classroom can be a powerful tool for learning and comprehension. It provides a good experience for the elementary school student engaged in their application. Ipads have some great advantages in classrooms since it help most of the parent in saving the much they spend in purchasing books. Lecturers and parents should not worry about replacing lost and damaged books. Ipads keep the attention of students to technology and sometime increase

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Law. Offer and Acceptance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Law. Offer and Acceptance - Essay Example When the party accepts the offer it is generally assumed that all negotiations have been done and the part unconditionally accepts the offer. Hence, there is no halfway through, either there is a contract or there is no contract at all. In this case, Anthony is the offeror who made the offer and Joyce is the offeree; to whom the offer is made. An offer must give a clear indication that the offeror intends to be bound by those terms as soon as they are accepted by the offeree. An offer may remain open until the specified time has been completed. Anthony told Joyce to respond to the offer within a specified time which was Wednesday mid-day. After that time, the offer would have been terminated. According to the English legal system, other circumstances in which the offer will terminate are rejection of the offer, a counter offer made by the offeree, death of the offeror or offeree and withdrawal of the offer (Schulze, 2007, p. 321). In this case, Anthony has withdrawn from the offer th rough sending a letter which Joyce received after posting the acceptance. Under the law, withdrawal of the offer must be communicated to the offeree. The withdrawal of an offer is known as the revocation of the offer. The case of Payne v Cave (1789) established the principle that an offer could be withdrawn anytime before it is accepted. There are many rules that apply to the withdrawal of offers. One of the main rule is that the withdrawal must be communicated which means that the offerors must notify the offeree that the offer is revoked (Young, 2009, p. 87). This rule was established in the case of Byrne & Co v Leon Van Tienhoven (1880) in which the defendants were a company based in Cardiff. They posted a letter on 1st October to New York making an offer to sell 1,000 boxes of tinplates to the plaintiffs. When the plaintiffs received the letter, they accepted it by telegram. However, in the meantime, the defendants wrote another letter to revoke their offer but the letter was re ceived by the plaintiffs later. The court held that a binding contract existed between the two parties as revocation would only take place on communication but acceptances take place as soon as they are posted. Anthony posted his revocation by post and it was received by Joyce after posting the acceptance. This means that the offer had not been revoked and Anthony was still under the circumstances of the offer and must be fulfilling his promise despite the losses it would cause to him. Thus, the offer has not been revoked because acceptance was already posted. If the acceptance would not have been posted by Joyce, the offer could have been revoked because the specified time given for the offer was still valid. Thus, an offer has been made and accepted as well. An offer is revoked only if the revocation is communicated to the offeree but the acceptance is made as soon as it is posted. The contract law establishes that acceptance of an offer is when the offeree has unconditionally acc epted to all terms of the offer. Acceptance can be oral or in writing, but at times acceptance can be done by an act such as delivering goods in a response to the offer. Acceptance does not take effect until it is communicated by reasonable means. Lord Denning explained this principle in Entores Ltd v Miles Far East Corporation (1955) that if A shouts an offer to B over a river and just as B shouts back in acceptance, a noisy aircraft flies over and prevents A from hearing B’s acceptance, no legally binding contract is made. This means that A must hear the acceptance of B only then will it be called communicated (Schulze, 2007, p. 321). However, there are some exceptions to this communication rule. One of the

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Prose Text Assignment Of Mice and Men Essay Example for Free

Prose Text Assignment Of Mice and Men Essay Of Mice and Men is about two basic needs the need for companionship and the need to have something to look forward to. I agree the above statement, all of the characters in the story all experience some form of loneliness. Every one of the characters has a different dream in each one is trying to fulfil it in a different way. The story of Of Mice and Men was set in the period of American history called the Depression. This period of history lasted from roughly from 1930 to the start of World War 2 (1939). In this period nearly all the companies and banks went bust the stock market crashed and peoples savings disappeared when the banks closed. People very suddenly where very poor. Most people where unemployed, and with unemployment came poverty, hunger and homelessness. It was very difficult to buy food or pay the rent. In America during the Depression men travelled in order to find work. Few travelling men could form lasting friendships because they had to keep moving on. A man travelling alone was more vulnerable to being attacked imprisoned or just very lonely. Of Mice and Men is a story based on two men who travel America together looking for work. George travels with his mentally handicapped friend called Lennie. The pair of them has nothing of their own, only the clothes they stand in and each other. Together they share a dream, that one day they will own some land of their own. They find work in a ranch in Satinas Valley, California. They meet of few people on the ranch but find it hard to make new friends. Their dream is soon ruined as Lennie misunderstands the difference between love and cruelty and becomes a victim of his own strength and power. He becomes friends with the only women on the ranch and forms a good friendship with Curleys Wife. Their friendship soon turns to love and they start to develop a physical relationship, Lennie doesnt know his own strength and grabs hold of her to hard and strangles her. Everyone finds out and Lennie is threatened with the prospect of being locked up in a mental institution or being executed by the government, so George saves him from this by shooting him. Crookes works as the sable buck hand on the ranch. He first appears in the story on pages 66-82. He is a crippled old man who gets his name from the way his spines bends (crooked). He has deep eyes and looks intense with his face, which is lean and wrinkled. On the ranch he is of a minority as he is the only black person on the ranch, which means he suffers a lot of prejudice remarks from other people. He is a very lonely man, and can often be bitter towards people he doesnt trust. Particularly white people, as hes not sure he can trust them. Crookes has is own room on the ranch, as none of the other men want him to stop in the bunkhouse. The only person Crookes can talk to is Lennie, although Lennie doesnt understand what he is saying as he is mentally handicapped. Crookes seems to like tormenting Lennie and sometimes says some very nasty things to him. Crookes however has more possessions than the other men has he has been on the ranch nearly all his life. He has little money but still has managed to gather some things of his own e.g. books and a dictionary. He is a very proud man and doesnt like to ask anyone for anything, even though he is crippled he still manages to keep his room neatly swept and is quite aloof. Crookes suffers from a lot of loneliness, as he is the only black person on the ranch. However he often has the chance to avoid loneliness but rejects it, Lennie tries to speak to him and befriend him but instead of trying to make friends he wallows in self-pity. He is very critical of other people an their dreams and hopes. He tells Candy he will help him fulfil his dreams, but afterwards when he has built his hopes up he tells him he was messing around and wont help him at all. He has probably spent all of his life on the ranch and thinks there is no way for him to leave, so he has given up hope and lost ambition. George along with Lennie is the main character in the story. He is a short man but is very quick. He is dark of the face and has eyes, which appear very restless. He is described as sharp and strong with body parts that are small and strong. His arms are slender and strong and he has a thin boney nose. George wears the same clothes as his companion Lennie; black hats, denim trousers and coat, and carries a blanket over his shoulder. George is rather a unsung hero of the story, he certainly lacks no courage. He has looked after Lennie for a long time, and spares his friend from loneliness. He stops Lennie from being locked up in a mental institution or being executed by the state government. He shoots Lennie but for his own good. Some people may think he did it for selfish reasons as h has looked after Lennie for a long time and is fed up of him. He did it because he cares about Lennie and didnt want him to suffer loneliness and depression. He cares about Lennie and saved him from what he knows would be worse than death. George would have probably been able to make a good life for himself if it wasnt for Lennie. George is an intelligent good thinking man, who is very sensible and used to taking charge. He cares a lot about Lennie and is always looking out for him, he is very cautious and warns Lennie about drinking the dirty pond water and tells him to be careful of the bedding at the bunkhouse in case he catches lice. George accepted the burden of looking after Lennie when Lennie Aunt Clara asked him. Without Lennie George would be very lonely, he and Lennie share a big brother-little brother kind of relationship. George has loyally stuck by Lennie throughout everything and having someone to look after and that depends on him makes George feel a better person. Georges longs for independence and would love to be his own boss. George is a kind hearted and compassionate person he sometimes gets frustrated but doesnt have a bad temper. He is very careful on who he trusts and is very careful when he meets people. He has to be a good judge of character and know who to trust and who not to, because of his and Lennies past. George is kind to everyone but he hates Curley he knows that he is nothing more than a bully. He tells Lennie to keep away from him as they cant afford to loose their jobs. However he encourages Lennie to stand up for himself against him. The only thing in life holding him back is Lennie. Lennie is a big man; he has a shapeless face and big pale eyes. He walks slowly but heavily, emphasising how slow his mind is. He has very strong instincts and has bad feeling about staying at the ranch and pleads with George for them to leave. He shows a cunning side and often uses it in getting his own way with George. In the first part of the story Lennie shows us this by using emotional blackmail. George looses his temper so Lennie tells him he is going to live in the woods alone, so George feels sorry for him so he tells him to come back. Lennie has a lot of animal-like qualities, which shows us his strength. He looks up to George like a father or big brother and often copies his ways. As Lennie is mentally handicapped he is unaware of the he is a victim of prejudice remarks and is unable to elate to many people, this often makes his behaviour childlike. Lennie would rather have the company of animals. However is his made to be a likeable character, Candy likes him and even Crookes warms to him. Lennie doesnt understand he needs to be careful with fragile things and is very heavy handed and doesnt learn from his mistakes. He reacts very much like a child and often panics. Lennies major problem is that he doesnt know the consequences of his own strength. Lennie doesnt understand loneliness but if he knew what it meant then he would probably be very lonely but because he is mentally handicapped he has no understanding of this feeling. He understands the need to have something important to look forward to. Lennies dream is very important to him; he nearly knows it all his self. He his always-getting George to tell it him over and over again like a child who loves to be told a bedtime story. At the end of the story Lennie has two hallucinations, one with his Aunt Clara in and the other with a giant rabbit in. This could be the authors way of outlining the abuse Lennie has suffered through his life. Or it could be Lennie conscience telling him that he has done wrong, even though he doesnt understand how it was wrong. Curleys wife is an important character in the story, but the author is showing ho little the men think of her by giving her no name. She is seen to be nothing more than one of Curleys possessions. When we are first introduced she is dressed up as if she is going out somewhere important when in fact all she is doing is staying on the ranch. She has large lips which are emphasised by the red lipstick she wears, she wears lots of make-up, red nail varnish, red shoes, red ostrich feathers and has her hair fastened back in curls. She wears a lot of the colour red, which shows a lot about her. Red is a colour, which is associated with lots of different things, mainly blood that is a clue, her death is near. It is also associated with danger, which is telling you do not get involved with this person she is bad news. Red is commonly regarded as a sexy colour, she is probably trying to show her self to the men as in the story she is displayed as a Scarlet Women. Often she pretends to be looking for her husband but the men know that she is just looking for an excuse, as she is looking for company, as she is lonely, although the men see it as she is just flirting with them. She is the only woman on the ranch, which is a disadvantage, and often gets little attention from anyone including her husband. Many people may think she has it all a husband and a house, but she is just as lonely if not more than any worker on the ranch. She doesnt think a lot of her husband, which probably means she just married him for the sake of it, the only things they have in common is that their both very selfish. Slim is one of the only people to be kind to her, George feels sorry for her but is worried on the effect she has on Lennie. However her and Lennie get on well and start to develop a physical relationship. Lennie who doesnt know how to be careful with fragile things takes things to far and ends up strangling her. Candy is the first person George and Lennie meet when they arrive at the ranch. He is the swamper, which is like a cleaner, the lowliest job on the ranch. His name is even belittles him, its a girls name. He is a tall man who only has one hand. He is a victim also of prejudice remarks because of his age and disability. He is careful of everyone because he doesnt want people to tease him. He never sticks up for himself, the only time he did was with Curleys wife. He has a lot of dignity, which shows the kind of person he once was. Candy has lots of gossip on everyone, which could be seen as getting is own back on people who has upset him by making comments about people behind their back. He always tells the newcomers the gossip on everyone. He is a lonely person and the only companion he has is an old dog. The animal is old and probably needs to be out down but means a lot to candy as he is so lonely. Candy would love to leave the ranch and when he finds out about George and Lennies plan he wants to help, and offer to give them his savings, which would easily cover the cost of over half the farm. George, Lennie and Candy thought that in only a couple of weeks their dream to leave the ranch and own a farm would come true. All of the characters in this story are lonely the person I think is the most lonely is George. He has no real friends the only person he has to talk to is Lennie but he doesnt fully understand what he is saying.

Friday, September 20, 2019

Description of a Maintenance Organisation

Description of a Maintenance Organisation Description of a Maintenance Organisation with Suggested Developments to Improve Cost Effectiveness    Table 1: Key Terms and Abbreviations Term / Abbreviation Definition CM Corrective Maintenance CMMS Computerised Maintenance Management System DCC Dublin City Centre FM Facilities Manager FT Facilities Technician GO General Operator HR Human Resources IFM Integrated Facilities Management IR Industrial Relations IT Information Technology KPI Key Performance Indicator NSC National Services Centre OCS One Complete Solution or Outsourced Client Solutions PM Preventive Maintenance RIME Ranking Index for Maintenance Expenditures TUPE Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) WIOF Water Industry Operating Framework WO Work Order This report provides analysis of the Ervia Facilities department and investigates options for improving cost effectiveness. Ervia is Irelands biggest utility provider and has 2,000 office based employees in 19 locations across the country. Ervia has availed of the Integrated Facilities Management (IFM) model for delivery of maintenance with OCS Management Services being the chosen provider. The cost to Ervia of this service is  £3,000,000 per annum. This 3 year contract is set to expire at the end of 2017. Industrial relations (IR) Mention overall savings expected.  £500,000 in total with a  £100,000 reduction of the IFM contract value. The Maintenance Organisation that I have chosen to base this report on exists within the facilities department of Ervia. Ervia is Irelands biggest utility provider. It is a semi-state body, formed in 2014 and is the parent company of Irish Water and Gas Networks Ireland. Through its business, Aurora Telecom, it is also a provider of dark fibre broadband infrastructure. A Shared Services business unit was created within Ervia that comprises of Facilities, Human Resources (HR), Information Technology (IT), Accounts Payable, Procurement and Major Projects departments. Shared Services would count Irish Water and Gas Networks Ireland as de facto customers. The Facilities department are responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of 19 offices throughout Ireland. There are some 2,000 employees working from these offices. Site security, cleaning, catering, capital projects and fleet management also fall within the remit of the department but for this report, we will focus solely on the maintenance of the office buildings. The maintenance or hard services of the offices is outsourced to the IFM company, OCS Management Services as part of a 3 year contract that is due to expire at the end of 2017. OCS Management Services is part of the wider OCS group. The acronym was originally defined as Office Cleaning Services but is now interchangeably explained as being either One Complete Solution or Outsourced Client Solutions. It has a truly global reach with operations in over 50 countries and provides a full range of facilities related services. For simplicity, we will refer to the OCS Management Services team as OCS for the remainder of this report. The changes I suggest will be recommended for implementation at the beginning of the next IFM contract in January, 2018 and will involve structural overhaul of both Ervia and OCSs facilities maintenance teams. This next IFM contract is set to last 5 years. 2.1 Office Locations One of the main challenges for managing maintenance on the Ervia contract is the geographical spread with offices dotted throughout the country. See Figure 1 for all office locations. It would be far easier to deliver Facilities service if the office staff were more centrally located but being a national utility, Ervia must tie in with the multitude of county and city councils spread throughout the country. Figure 1: Ervia Offices Locations Figure 1 shows the locations of Ervia offices throughout Ireland. 2.2 Contract Value The hard services maintenance contract comes at a cost of  £3,000,000 per year to Ervia. It is based on a Cost Plus model i.e. all Preventive Maintenance (PM) is delivered as part of the contract value with Corrective Maintenance (CM) activities charged as additional costs. Additional costs can accumulate up to a value of  £500,000 per year. 2.3 Work Quantities and Types Facilities maintenance differs from industrial maintenance in that items that require attention may be observed by either office or maintenance staff. Office staff will generally tend to report less serious matters, while maintenance staff typically report the issues which require more urgent attention. In order to separate the noise of often trivial matters observed by office staff from the technical issues observed by maintenance staff, Ervia has developed an Incident Management process. Issues are raised by the office staff using an online incident management system. The raised incidents are dealt with by the maintenance staff along the following lines: If the item involves a non-technical fix e.g. increase in room temperature or lubricating a squeaking door hinge, the incident can be closed once this action is completed. If the item requires a technical fix e.g. a water leak or failed light fitting, the incident is escalated by raising a CM Work Order (WO) in the Computerised Maintenance Management System (CMMS). Equipment running issues or breakdowns are raised directly as CM WOs in the CMMS by Facilities staff. In terms of PM, there are 903 schedules across the Ervia office portfolio. These in turn generate multiples of weekly and monthly PM WOs. The following charts break out the annual mix of maintenance activities by types, quantities and whether they are actioned through self-delivery or out-sourcing. Figure 2: Quantities of Maintenance Activities by Type Figure 2 shows the various types and approximate quantities of Maintenance Activities that are raised annually within the Ervia Facilities department. Figure 3: Self Delivered v Outsourced Maintenance Activities Figure 3 shows the percentage split in terms of delivery of Maintenance Activities. Figure 4: Ervia Organisation Chart Figure 4 displays the Ervia maintenance team Organisation Chart. The 6 employees in the above chart are the Ervia staff in the Facilities department that have responsibility over the maintenance function. There are other staff in the department but we will only consider the above for this report. The Systems Engineer, despite the implication in the job title, sits at a middle management level and is considered to be a peer of the Facilities Managers. The General Operator (GO) stands out as being the only person of that rank that is a member of the Ervia team. The GO in question is a long serving staff member of Gas Networks Ireland and chose not to transfer to OCS when the first IFM contract was awarded. This situation presents a complication as the GO will not take direction from OCS staff and instead all orders have to be channelled through the NSC Regional Sites Facilities Manager. Figure 5: OCS Organisation Chart Figure 5 displays the OCS maintenance team Organisation Chart (based on the Ervia FM contract). The 24 employees in the above chart are the OCS staff that are embedded on the Ervia IFM contract. All roles are subject to Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (TUPE) regulations and will move to the new service provider should OCS not be successful in their efforts at contract renewal in 2018. As with Ervia, the OCS Systems Engineer sits at a middle management level and is considered to be a peer of the Facilities Managers. We can see from the above chart that the DCC Facilities Manager has a far bigger team at his disposal than the other mangers. This is because over half of the Ervia office staff are situated in the buildings within his remit. In isolation, the Ervia and OCS organisation charts seem to represent an acceptable scenario. However when we combine them in Figure 6, we can instantly see that improvement steps need to be taken. There is obvious duplication of roles at Facilities Manager and Systems Engineer level. Dual reporting is also apparent with the OCS Facilities Managers and Systems Engineers having to answer to both Ervia and OCS management. Figure 6: Combined Ervia and OCS Organisation Chart Figure 6 displays the Combined Ervia and OCS maintenance team Organisation Chart. The above Organisation Chart may in parts seem both confusing and utterly unbelievable, especially when linking the OCS structure to Ervia. The aim of Table 2 is to further explain the duality of the reporting structure. Table 2: OCS to Ervia Reporting Structure OCS Staff Members Report To OCS Senior Key Account Manager Ervia National Facilities Operations Manager NSC Facilities Manager OCS Senior Key Account Manager Ervia NSC Regional Sites Facilities Manager Regional Sites Facilities Manager OCS Senior Key Account Manager Ervia NSC Regional Sites Facilities Manager DCC Facilities Manager OCS Senior Key Account Manager Ervia DCC Facilities Manager Southern Region Facilities Manager OCS Senior Key Account Manager Ervia Southern Region Facilities Manager Systems Engineer OCS Senior Key Account Manager Ervia Systems Engineer The most remarkable fact about this combined structure is that, somehow, it actually works. It can be safely said that it is both collaborative and operationally effective. Even though each mid-level manager has two persons to report to, somehow the contract proceeds with very little conflict to the extent that at times the relationship between Ervia and OCS has been described as incestuous! However it is clear that it could not be effective from a cost perspective. For instance there are more managers than technicians. The superfluous layer of middle management will be the initial focus when it comes to suggesting improvements in cost effectiveness. From the above we can also conclude, with certainty, that operational efficiency requires improvement. For example, if any of the OCS Facilities Managers or Systems Engineer needs approval to take an action, they will have to seek this from two persons. This can turn into a game of ping-pong as the approving managers may not initially agree on the same course of action. Usually in this scenario, the Ervia approving managers opinion will prevail due to the customer is always right philosophy. The structure as portrayed in Figure 4 is not unknown in the Irish semi-state/public sectors where there have long been accusations by print and broadcast media of wasteful spending (McConnell, 2015). It is a fair question to ask as to how this situation developed. Among the reasons are: As Ervia came into being by virtue of decisions made at government level, the result was the virtual overnight creation of the biggest utility company in Ireland that had rapidly expanding responsibilities. Employees transferred from the Gas Networks Ireland Facilities department to Ervia without an assessment being made on whether they were required or not. Because of the above, it was more pressing at the time to simply get a Facilities department up and running without considering the most efficient means of doing so. 6.1 Phase 1 Development Losing Fat in the Midsection Figure 7: Proposed Phase 1 Combined Ervia and OCS Organisation Chart Figure 7 displays the Proposed Combined Ervia and OCS maintenance team Organisation Chart at the Phase 1 level of development. We can see in Figure 7 that the structure looks less convoluted and is starting to develop a balance. The first task in this development will be to remove the duplicate layer of middle management. The second task will be to change who the Ervia GO reports to. The following two actions will have to be taken to enable this: The Ervia Facilities Managers and Systems Engineer roles will have to be made redundant. The Ervia GO will have to transfer to OCS. 6.2 Phase 2 Development The Rise of the Systems Engineer Figure 8: Proposed Phase 2 Combined Ervia and OCS Organisation Chart Figure 8 displays the Proposed Combined Ervia and OCS maintenance team Organisation Chart at the Phase 2 level of development. We can see in Figure 8 that the maintenance organisation now looks to be much more ordered and has a well-balanced structure. Duplication of roles and dual reporting has been removed. To enable this change, the role of the Systems Engineer will have to be considerably expanded. Up to this point the focus of this role was to collate asset data, install both a CMMS and an incident management system. The Systems Engineer can now fully take the reins regarding a systematic approach to improving work management. To do this, the support of an administrator will be required once the system becomes operational. Once fully realised, this system will negate the need for the 3 administrators that report to the Facilities managers. The reduction in administrators is possible because the new CMMS is configured for paperless WOs and much increased automation of reporting. The maintenance staff will now carry tablet computers to execute completion of WOs. From this point onwards, the Systems Engineers office will become the nerve centre of maintenance activities for the Facilities department with the following items featured prominently: Planning and scheduling of maintenance activities will be managed from there in conjunction with the site based technical staff. This is detailed further in Section 7. The CMMS will be fully managed from there with PM WOs for all sites generated by the administrator on a weekly basis. Reports from the Incident Management systems and CMMS will also be compiled at this office. These will be channelled directly to senior management at OCS and Ervia. The Systems Engineer will chair a monthly meeting with the Facilities Managers and cover upcoming works and resources requirements/availability. Implementation of work prioritisation. Again this is drilled into further in Section 7. 6.3 Phase 3 Development Breaking Down the Barriers Something that is not visible from the above organisation charts is the discreet walls that exist between the various site teams. It could even be said that they operate almost as autonomous groups. It is hoped that Systems Engineers increasing prominence will organically bring about change in this area and pull the teams together. There is much to be gained by sharing both knowledge and resources when possible. For instance one of the Facilities Technicians in the Dublin City Centre (DCC) sites is a qualified refrigeration engineer, he could provide technical assistance and advice regarding air conditioning equipment to the other sites. In the longer term, once the maintenance organisation has settled following the period of enforced change, consideration should be given to reviewing how maintenance activities are performed. There are likely to be opportunities for improvement of cost effectiveness in this area also. 7.1 Ranking Index for Maintenance Expenditure (RIME) It is envisaged that a system for prioritisation of maintenance activities will be introduced to the Facilities organisation. In RIME, expenditure refers to both time and cost. RIME works by assigning scores for the following factors: Asset criticality. WO criticality. Amount of time a WO is open. These scores are then multiplied which will, if the system is configured properly, ensure the most important work gets the highest total score. The newly installed CMMS at Ervia supports RIME and automatically provides total scores for WOs. This will allow maintenance staff to see a list of activities assigned to them in high-to-low order of priority. 7.2 Developing the Planning Function Sound planning practices are essential for any maintenance organisation and implementation of such is considered best practice. In the Ervia Facilities department, the OCS Systems Engineer will lead the charge in rolling out planning across the maintenance team. As detailed earlier, The Systems Engineer will chair a monthly meeting with the Facilities Managers and work planning will take centre stage at this meeting. A further aim of these meetings will be to knock down the discreet walls that exist between the different site teams. There should be opportunities to share both learning and indeed resources but proper lines of communication need to be established first. The changes that can be implemented have now been suggested but what are they going to achieve in terms of improving cost effectiveness? The bullet points below will attempt to quantify expected savings: Removing Layer of Middle Management The Facilities Managers and System Engineer each come at a cost of  £100,000 to Ervia. Removing the 4 as proposed, will bring a saving of  £400,000. Reducing Number of Administrators Each administrator comes at a cost of  £50,000 to Ervia. Removing 3 as proposed, while transferring 1 to support the Systems Engineer will bring a saving of  £100,000. Introducing RIME Any savings to be generated here are difficult to quantify at this juncture but a system for prioritising work can only be a good thing and will surely result in at least some cost avoidance by getting the important work done at the right time. Developing Work Planning Again any savings garnered by taking this measure are difficult to quantify at present but will help ensure maintenance best practice is followed. It is worth noting however that the rule of thumb in industry is unplanned maintenance can cost at least 3 times as much as planned maintenance (Strawn, n.d.). Points to note In terms of staff resources, savings are calculated based on the cost to Ervia which takes into account such items as Pay Related Social Insurance and Management Fees charged by OCS as part of the IFM contract. Detailed resource costs are tabulated in Appendix A. It must be noted that only the savings in relation to reducing the number of administrators will impact the IFM contract costs. The removal of the Ervia middle management does not impact the IFM contract value. To quote Jack Welch (2001), the person regarded by many as the greatest company leader of his generation Change before you have to. Ervia needs to get its house in order if there are external changes introduced such as reduced budgets and/or an increase in the number of sites to maintain. At present there is much volatility in Irish political circles with funding of public/semi state companies a constant hot topic. Ervia could be faced with the possibility of having its funding slashed at government level and in tough times the maintenance department of any organisation is often seen as a soft target. Since there is an IFM contract renewal coming at the beginning of 2018, this could be used as an opportunity to begin the implementation of changes. It would mean that the proposed structures could be built in to the new contract which would avoid having to use the change control process that applies during contract run time. Again, to draw from the famed former head of General Electric (GE), Jack Welch, Willingness to change is a strength, even if it means plunging part of the company into total confusion for a while (Slater, 1998). Lets consider, in the following sub-sections, the two main points of impact as a result of implementing the proposed changes. We will also consider on how to mitigate the effects. 10.1 Staff Reductions and Transfers These decisions will not be easy to implement. There will be considerable resistance from the Ervia Facilities Managers and Systems Engineer. Should the situation become intractable, it may be necessary to remove the layer of middle management from OCS instead. The Ervia staff would then transfer to OCS and report to the Senior Key Account Manager. The path of least resistance may have to be followed. It could well turn out that the Facilities Managers and Systems Engineer team are made up out of a combination of OCS and former Ervia staff that have transferred. The Ervia GO may take umbrage at having to transfer to OCS. The last time these attempts were made resulted in failure. The shakeup at administration level could also cause rancour. Because the Systems Engineer is based in one of the Cork offices, the administrator that supports this role will likely come as a transfer from the Southern Regional Sites Facilities Managers team. The two Dublin based administrators will have to be made redundant. Willing to make changes is one thing but successfully managing the change will be crucial. A rocky road will have to be travelled with the possibility of staff morale taking a hit. Potential resentment from the soon-to-be unemployed staff towards retained staff is also likely during the transition phase. The strength that Welch speaks of will have to come from senior management in both Ervia and OCS. Considerable resolve will have to be displayed when communicating to employees that they no longer have a job. A silver lining can be added to the cloud by ensuring favourable severance packages for those made redundant and committing to TUPE regulations for any employee that transfers to OCS. 10.2 Introduction of Work Management Systems It could be perceived by the Facilities Mangers that a power grab is taking place by the Systems Engineer. The onus will be on the Senior Key Account Manager to sell the benefits of the changes in practice. Over time, the benefits should then start to become self-evident as management of work improves, shared learnings disseminate and client contentment increases as a result of a better run contract. 10.3 Industrial Relations Concerns The changes proposed above will not be encumbered by IR action. Neither Ervia nor OCS staff are union affiliated so as long as the employees legally held rights are observed, there should be no issue. The Facilities department could be presented with a dramatic widening of its scope in the next number of years. It is envisaged that Ervia, through Irish Water, will eventually absorb all county and city council staff that are currently involved in maintaining the water services infrastructure. This could involve the transfer of up to an additional 2,500 staff. The knock-on effects for the maintenance team within the Facilities department would be considerable. The multitude of premises that house all these employees would then be in scope for upkeep and repair. There is currently a team charged with developing a plan to allow for the transfer of these staff and premises to the Ervia parent utility group. The Water Industry Operating Framework (WIOF) will contain the new obligations that the Facilities department will be required to meet. Both Ervia and OCS, should they retain the IFM contract, will have to ready themselves for the huge challenges coming down the tracks. The best way to achieve this is to allow for scalability in the systems that are designed and built. While extra staff will no doubt have to be recruited, duplication of roles as per the current situation will have to be avoided. The time is right at present to ensure a solid foundation is laid to accommodate this forecasted expansion. In the predicted scenario, additional costs are going to be incurred. The measures proposed in this report, if implemented, will serve to keep these extra costs to a minimum. At a higher level, there are additional changes that could be made to improve cost effectiveness. As mentioned earlier, the current IFM contract with OCS falls under the Cost Plus model. Detailed below is an alternative to this contract type known as Fixed Price/Output Based. The author of this report has previous experience of this type of IFM contract. The bullet points below show advantages and potential shortcomings: Headline Information (based on example): 10% up-front savings guaranteed over costs incurred by client to deliver maintenance. Built in glide path which consisted of a 1% year-on-year reduction in cost of overall contract. IFM absorbed costs of up to  £5,000 per breakdown. IFM had full authority on staff numbers and how maintenance was delivered. Contract was 5 + 5 i.e. initial duration of 5 years with option by client to extend for a further 5 years without re-tendering. Advantages: Costs for client are tied down. Incentive for IFM provider to implement cost effective maintenance. Disadvantages: Instead of what Emmet and Wheelhouse (2011) describe as collaborative, the relationship can instead become transactional and often even adversarial. Risk that IFM may cut corners regarding maintenance in order to deliver on-budget. Race to the bottom mentality can pervade during tendering where prospective service providers will submit unrealistically low pricing in order to win the contract. Requirements to make it work: Watertight contract with relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to accurately monitor IFM contract compliance. Condition of equipment in contract scope needs to be thoroughly evaluated during the tender process and the client must have an open book policy regarding historical failure data. Enough financial head room in the contract to allow the IFM provider to make a profit. If this is not present, the contract will inevitably collapse with possible adverse consequences for business continuity. In the example above, the contract was terminated by the client after 2 years due to poor service delivery and repeated KPI failures. The main cause of this, in the authors opinion, would be that the IFM provider submitted such a low price at tendering that they could not meet the agreed contract conditions while generating a profit. To open the conclusion, its fair to say the above analysis may seem cold but it is approached from a business perspective with a view to achieving a sustainable maintenance organisation that is capable of surviving more stringent cost controls that may lie ahead. On the face of it, it would seem that the maintenance organisation within the Ervia Facilities department is ripe for change. And to sustain the analogy, there may even be some low hanging fruit! Listed below are the positives that will come with introducing change: Staff reductions alone will bring  £500,000 in savings and if all goes according to plan, there will no reduction in the level of service to the wider organisation. The introduction of advanced Work Management systems should also improve cost effectiveness but its hard to quantify the level of such at present. Ultimately what is required is to achieve the same level of performance for reduced expenditure or in the utopian situation, an increas

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Andrina by George Mackay Brown Essay -- Critical Essay Short Story Eng

"Andrina" by George Mackay Brown A short story in which an element of mystery plays an important part is "Andrina" by George Mackay Brown, a celebrated author from Orkney. "Andrina" like many of his other works has a spiritual aspect with common themes such as the cycle of the seasons, betrayal, hope and regeneration. "Andrina" is set in Orkney, a perfect location for this tale because of its mystical atmosphere. The haunting, spiritual atmosphere created through the language Geroge Mackay Brown uses adds to the overall effect of the story. In the short story an old seaman receives regular visits from a young lady, Andrina. Then one day she does not come. The same day the narrator falls ill. He soon recovers and goes in search of Andrina whom he has missed during his illness. He can find no one in the village who knows anything about her. This increases the mystery surrounding her character. It is not until the end of the story that he discovers that Andrina is the ghost of his grand-daughter. This news come in a letter which had remained unopened since his illness. The short story has a very unusual narrative structure with an embedded narrative surrounded by an outer frame narrative. The embedded narrative takes us back in time and introduces us to the sea captains past. He narrates the main body of the story in past tense. But the exposition, narrative hook and resolution are all delivered in past tense. This is significant as it represents the cyclical nature of Mackay Browns work. This may also be significant as the reader could take it to mean that all throughout the story the old sea captain knows the ending as the tense change would suggest he does. The authors use of foreshadowing gives the read... ...he news which came in the letter allows the old sea captain to let go of his past and appreciated the physical elements of his life; "where she was dust, a new time was brightening earth and sea". This line demonstrates how the old sea captain is letting go of the troubles which haunt him and the relationship with Andrina. This is very effective in giving resolution both to the old seaman and the reader. The short story has a suitably ambiguous ending as we do not know if Andrina's presence was real or merely a figment of the lonely captains imagination. Nevertheless she certainly brightened up his winter. In conclusion, the development of the mystery surrounding Andrina in the narrative creates suspense and makes Mackay Brown's short story extremely satisfying. He successfully maintains a ghostly and mysterious atmosphere in this unnerving short story.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

things fall apart :: essays research papers fc

Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is a story that describes the effects of a new Christian religion in a tribal village of Africa, called Umuofia. The novel is set during the late 1800s to early 1900s when the British were expanding their influence in Africa, economically, culturally, religiously, and politically. The book shows the colonization of Umuofia by the British and the negative and violent changes this brought about in the lives of the tribe members. Along with colonization was the arrival of the missionaries whose main aim was to spread the message of Christianity and to convert people to their religion. The conversion to Christianity of tribal peoples destroyed an intricate and traditional age-old way of life in the village. This is best seen in the rise and fall of the protagonist, Okonkwo, who could be understood to represent the best and worst of his culture. Eventually, Okonkwo can be seen as the symbol of the disintegration. In the late 1800, Western society did not rest the case of imperialism and colonization solely on conquest. They developed an idea based on Darwinian racial struggle, that it was the responsibility of the more â€Å"civilized† whites to help the more primitive, non-whites. This sort of assistance also included the spread of Christianity- the â€Å"true† religion. So when the white missionaries went to Umuofia, in their own minds they were justified in their cause. Upon their arrival, one of their first victims is Okonkwo’s family. His son, Nwoye is immediately attracted to the new religion (148). In Christianity, Nwoye finds comfort for things that have long disturbed him, but the religion also provides a way to rebel against his father and his ideas of masculinity. Okonkwo believes that a weak man will never be able to survive in the village, and fears his son may turn out to be like his own father. A man who was always in debt and without the proper qualities of a real man. But, for the most part, Okonkwo's idea of manliness is not the clan's. He associates masculinity with aggression and feels that anger is the only emotion that he should display. Achebe’s Things Fall Apart was published in 1958 in the midst of the Nigerian renaissance.

Columbus?s Arrival :: Christopher Columbus Essays

Columbus’s Arrival A lot of people would agree that Christopher Columbus was the founder of and first to discover America. On the other hand, people have come to the conclusion that Christopher Columbus was the worst thing that could have ever happened to America. This is the question were trying to find, would it have been better if he never even discovered this unexplored continent? Through all of my research and interviews I’ve come to this conclusion. There are to many good and bad arguments dealing with Columbus, too many to even make my own decision but here are a few things that other people in my generation have to say. Before Christopher Columbus came, life in this unexplored territory was vast and extremely empty except for the native Americans that inhabited a few separated acres of this continent. They were here before anybody they had discovered Cuba, the west coast and even the Pacific Coast of California. Life was plain and simple for the Natives, they had adequate amounts of food and water they had treatments for almost all diseases they were just fine and dandy except for the occasional tribal war over land. Soon that life was about to change and all credit is given by most to Christopher Columbus.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"First of all he never even reached America, he landed in Cuba. Second he, not personally, was the reason for thousands of Native Americans deaths†. Indigo Rodriguez. â€Å"He brought over so many diseases that there really was no chance for the natives to survive.† Cort Zimmerman. His arrival brought so many horrific things but the one that really caught my attention from what people said was that of the forcing of the Christian religion on the natives. The Spanish (Columbus), came over with a mentality of, our religion is the only one that will lead you to heaven so either you convert or we’ll kill you.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"I’m sorry to say this but if things didn’t happen the way they did, society and religion wouldn’t be as prosperous as it is today. We could still be learning how electricity works if it weren’t for him†¦ This county might not even of turned out Democratic, the Russians could of got here first and actually of prospered with a communist society.† Dimitri Boyd. I asked people of what they thought of science and evolution and the response from a majority was that of â€Å"I’m all for it, I wouldn’t have such a cool car if it wasn’t for science. Columbus?s Arrival :: Christopher Columbus Essays Columbus’s Arrival A lot of people would agree that Christopher Columbus was the founder of and first to discover America. On the other hand, people have come to the conclusion that Christopher Columbus was the worst thing that could have ever happened to America. This is the question were trying to find, would it have been better if he never even discovered this unexplored continent? Through all of my research and interviews I’ve come to this conclusion. There are to many good and bad arguments dealing with Columbus, too many to even make my own decision but here are a few things that other people in my generation have to say. Before Christopher Columbus came, life in this unexplored territory was vast and extremely empty except for the native Americans that inhabited a few separated acres of this continent. They were here before anybody they had discovered Cuba, the west coast and even the Pacific Coast of California. Life was plain and simple for the Natives, they had adequate amounts of food and water they had treatments for almost all diseases they were just fine and dandy except for the occasional tribal war over land. Soon that life was about to change and all credit is given by most to Christopher Columbus.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"First of all he never even reached America, he landed in Cuba. Second he, not personally, was the reason for thousands of Native Americans deaths†. Indigo Rodriguez. â€Å"He brought over so many diseases that there really was no chance for the natives to survive.† Cort Zimmerman. His arrival brought so many horrific things but the one that really caught my attention from what people said was that of the forcing of the Christian religion on the natives. The Spanish (Columbus), came over with a mentality of, our religion is the only one that will lead you to heaven so either you convert or we’ll kill you.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"I’m sorry to say this but if things didn’t happen the way they did, society and religion wouldn’t be as prosperous as it is today. We could still be learning how electricity works if it weren’t for him†¦ This county might not even of turned out Democratic, the Russians could of got here first and actually of prospered with a communist society.† Dimitri Boyd. I asked people of what they thought of science and evolution and the response from a majority was that of â€Å"I’m all for it, I wouldn’t have such a cool car if it wasn’t for science.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

What is Hip-Hop?

Decades ago, hip-hop was associated and characterized with baggy pants and loose shirts. Hip-hop connoted one’s identity and is also considered as a form of self expression. However, that connotation has evolved through time. These days, hip-hop is not just mainly a self-articulation; it is now more of a culture and a movement that focuses on music, fashion and self-articulation. During the 1970s, only several black radio stations played disco music which gave negative implication on African Americans. Because of this, they reacted and responded by hosting â€Å"block parties,† which is usually comprised of disc jockey (DJ)–a person who plays funk, disco and soul music–within their communities. A little later, hip-hop started to emerge in Bronx when a DJ named Clive â€Å"Kool Herc† Campbell utilized percussion break beats to craft songs derived from Jamaican dance hall music. Hip-hop, thus, started to flourish. Performers who spoke in sync with beat became known as emcees (MCs). Few of the famous groups in this field are Afrika Bombaataa and the Zulu Nation (Coger, 2009). Afrika Bombaataa was the one who coined the term hip-hop and gave rise to the emerging popularity of the genre. According to Afrika Bombaataa, hip-hop was derived from Lovebug Starski, a South Bronx disc jockey wherein he always says, â€Å"hip hop you don’t stop that makes your body rock. † Bombaataa started using the term by pertaining to ghetto-culture that emerged on the streets. Moreover, his concept of hip-hop covered urban street expression and attitude such as gestures, language and stylized clothes that were attributed with street culture (Reyes 47-49, 98). Nowadays, hip-hop has extended its meanings, definitions and characterizations. Hiphop, a word usually spelled as hip-hop, Hip-hop, Hip-Hop or Hiphop (â€Å"HipHop†), is a cultural movement than began in urban youth in New York, from primarily African American which further extended around the world (â€Å"Hip Hop†). Its emergence represents black youth organization, an illustration of a particular species of social movement. Hip-hop, as a movement, needs to be discussed carefully because its depiction is occupied with style, performance, opposition, leisure, consumption, representation and entrepreneurship (Watkins 65). On the other hand, hip-hop is also exemplified as a form of music. It is a billion dollar industry and one of the most renowned music genres in the world (Coger). It encompasses four elements namely MCing, DJing, graffiti art and break dancing. Others consider beat boxing as its fifth element (â€Å"Hip Hop†). Since its acceptance and creation, hip-hop has conjured up its wonder by commemorating its origins and by maintaining its expression of social, political and personal struggles (Rentas 2009). The aforementioned definitions of hip-hop can be traced from Bombaataa; however it is not anymore applicable to the hip-hop acts of today because several famous artists do not anymore embrace hip-hop as a self-expressive message; instead they frequently produce music for the sole reason and purpose of selling a commodity (Berky and Greer). Hip-hop, in another sense, is more than just a form of music. It is also considered as a state of being, a form of expression, spoken words, a mindset and a lifestyle. It is also a manner of articulating one’s self by way of dress, language, writing, personality, attitude and behavior (Leslie). Hip-hop is a culture that materialized as a worldview among adults and youth born after 1965. It covers shared beliefs, practices and language, all of which are bound together by a common appreciation for urban aesthetic. Hip-hop as a culture and worldview possesses two essential characteristics: the urban youth aesthetics and urban youth experience (Ginwright 31). Hip-hop as an urban youth aesthetic is most distinguishable through its physical features that are articulated through music, language, clothing and art. It pertains to the visual and artistic expression. On the contrary, hip-hop as an urban youth experience is molded by economic seclusion, poverty and struggle â€Å"to make it out† of the paraphernalia of ghettos. It validates and legitimizes the experiences of pain, hostility, fear, hope and love that have been overlooked in mainstream America for the urban youth. Thus, the relationship between black youth identity and hip-hop cannot be separated (Ginwright 31-32). Furthermore, hip-hop is regarded as a social movement. Social movement is generally characterized by sociologists as collective efforts that endeavor social change. However, hip-hop as a social movement follows different pattern because of three important considerations. First is its emergence as a movement which belongs in the field of pop culture, is a discipline not commonly considered as political and not generally recognized as capable of producing social change. Second is the fact that it is founded and patronized by youth and creative people, who are not ordinarily looked upon as interested in implementing social change. Lastly, it allows the participants to see themselves as part of a bigger society. Thus, it creates a sense of collective identity and organization. Hip-hop as a movement represents a different mode of intervention in the social realm (Watkins 65). If hip-hop is not acknowledged then as a movement that can make a change in the world, on the other hand, it is essential to look at it from another side. Today, hip-hop has revolutionized new genres of music, such as reggaeton, and has influenced the political system. One good example is when Kilopatrick, from a hip-hop generation, defeated the Detroit’s current mayor Gil Hill. It is because the youths from the hip-hop generation have already grown and have already obtained the right and freedom to vote. Their voices have already begun to be heard in the political spectrum. During that time, the election is divided by generation gap that the candidates represented for. The victory of Kilopatrick illustrates the hip-hop’s power over the political arena in order to craft political changes, which for them are very important (qtd. Berky and Greer). Hip-hop is hailed for creating impacts on the society, especially to women of color. Hip-hop, hence, gives a space and outline for their lives. It can be sifted in their hair style, as well as in the way they run, pose, turn, talk and walk. Women has now influenced and affected most elements of hip-hop such as break dancing, poetry, MC, DJ, graffiti artists, beat boxing and pop locking. Hip-hop has also made its way on beauty pageants and top models just like how Tyra Bank’s UPN show, America’s Next Top Model, chooses two hip-hop fashion models in the previous two years (Leslie). On the other hand, hip-hop has been one of the sources of controversies. As such, it has already been blamed and accused of elevating violence, misogyny and homophobia (â€Å"Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes†). Critics have also said that it promotes rebellion and prostitution. Several hip-hop artists exploit women of color through their song lyrics which depict contempt of women (Leslie). Hip-hop is not just a style of fashion where the youth wears baggy clothes, tattoos or ghetto attires (Leslie). Hip-hop comes in many forms. It is a social movement because its members are youth of a particular community who expresses and articulates their voices and ideas through MCing, DJing, graffiti art and poetry. Even some of hip-hop forms have inculcated political activism within its tenets. Hip-hop is also a cultural movement because it mirrors the culture of a particular group during a particular time. It transpires in a community setting where youth creates a collective identity of the group and of the hip-hop culture itself. Nonetheless, hip-hop is a form of music. Nowadays, it is considered as one of the most well-known genres by marking a history in the music industry. Moreover, hip-hop is indeed an expression of one’s self – a form of articulating and expressing one’s nature and character through hair styles, fashion, music, language and representation.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Family Assessment Essay

As a nurse practicing in today’s health care environment it is always important to be very attentive for the needs of the patient and the patient’s family. In order to realize the needs of the patient and the patients loved ones it is often helpful to conduct a family assessment. This assessment was carried out on an urban family which is in the middle income group. Some of the factors which were inferred from the assessment were as follows. In terms of values, health and nutrition, it was found that the members paid much emphasis to this. As s matter of fact, the initial family expenditure was on these three. Health is taken as a vital requirement and all the individuals need to have it. This is the same case with rest. Since most of the members are quite busy all through the day, the family spends some time together in the evening before retiring to bed. Most of the free time is spent having the family together in a relaxed atmosphere (Ritchie, 2012). The family is very concerned for the patient’s needs and overall well-being. They are so concerned about elimination, though the need for exercise and activity is highly acknowledged. The members appreciate and know the need for physical fitness. As such, they try to make sure that they attain it. Nevertheless, they have such tight schedules that they do not get enough time to be engaged in these. This is quite unfortunate. On the cognitive factors, the family is highly receptive. The level attained in the family is based on the importance it attaches to the cognitive development. The children have gone through learning institutions and are still in pursuit of knowledge and education. This is the same case with the parents. They work with the notion that information is power. As it pertains to health care sometimes simple common sense comes into play. Sensory perception is taken as a defining factor of the common sense. However, there is a saying that common sense is not common to all. Nevertheless, this family has greatly attained this sensory perception. Everyone is aware of their surroundings and they are willing to work towards making the family even better. Their self-esteem is also quiet high. Based on the findings from the interview, they have high regard of each other due to the accomplishments they have seen in their lives. Their high esteem is based on the fact that they do not compare themselves with others. Rather, they believe in who they are. This also helps to streamline their roles relationship since everyone understands his/her position in the family and does as is appropriate to their role (IFNA, 2012). Sexuality is a very touchy issue for many people but it is something that often needs to be addressed. The issue of sexuality is a major concern for many, since people tend to have different sexual orientations. This family remains open to the issue of sexuality and everyone has the freedom to choose or decide the path he wants to follow. However, this has to fall in line with the family values which they hold dearly. Lastly, there is the aspect of coping. This family, just like many others, encounters daily challenges. However, it has managed to come through all of them. The reason cited by the members is because they believe in the harmony and unity of a family. Therefore, the problem of one is a problem for all. The family works with the philosophy of one for all and all for one. This is what has made the family stand all along besides the challenges they face (Ritchie, 2012). As it pertains to diagnosis assessment can be very helpful. In diagnosing this family, there are two main nursing diagnoses that can be reached at. These are in line with the International Family Nursing Organization (2012). These two are emotional readiness as well as the status and function. These two seem to be very consistent in this family. They are as indicated in the paragraphs below. The emotional well-being of a person goes a long way in terms of having good physical health. On the emotional status, IFNA (2012) talks of the emotional readiness where the people are ready to change or take up traits that can help the family to function normally. The emotional status has it that a family is ready to take up the health options available. On this aspect, the family proved to be ready for the changes that would benefit it. Most of the members agreed that they were ready to adopt healthier practices that could improve their health. For instance, they acknowledged that they needed to be more vigilant in exercising and physical activity. This was a good status of mind. Sometimes if a person displays destructive behavior there needs to be a willingness to improve and change. Despite the willingness to change, a challenge that faces this family is the status and function. According to the IFNA (2012), this diagnoses has it that a family or individual should have the will to change. However, the circumstances are not favorable. This is the same case that applies with the family. All the members are ready and willing to change and adopt the healthy options. However, they do not have the time in which they can undertake these activities. All they have is the willingness to change but the factors around them do not allow them to. In conclusion, this essay has looked at the family health assessment. It has defined how a family diagnosis can be done and the factors affecting it. This has been followed up by a case study looking at a real family and performing a health analysis on it. From the discussion, it has come out quiet clearly that family assessment should be based on the health and functionality of the family as a unit. For this reason, the family health model comes in handy as an assessment method. This was as seen in the case study which reveals the need for a comprehensive family assessment. It leads to the realization of all factors affecting a family’s health and functionality; hence coming up with proper intervention strategies.