The Day Then It End

The year that women decided to stand up for their right’s was the year that the case Roe vs. Wade came about. The author of the article that I chose was a writer for a newspaper, and is reliable for this aspect. The author could have chosen to write this article because he or she felt strongly about the women’s rights that were at jeopardy at the time. The article takes place in a town in Texas where a woman was denied the choice of having an abortion. The article then continues to give you facts about the court case, the different opinions of the jury, and the final ruling.The article that I chose was over the case and covered many aspects about the rights of women and their right to choose. The biggest part of this article is the author’s choice to use pathos as an explanation as to why the case happened. This is evident throughout the entire article, as it is written over a very touchy subject. Some words that we see repeated throughout the article are â€Å" privacy† and â€Å"choice†. These relate to pathos because they make you see just what was at jeopardy for not only Roe, but women all across the United States.When the word privacy is continually used, it evokes the emotion that women were being violated in the means of privacy. This is also used to evoke an emotion that in no way is abortion a right to privacy, which is seen in the portion of the article titled â€Å"Dissenting Opinion†. The word choice is seen multiple times throughout the article and can evoke two different kinds of emotions as well. On one hand, the word choice is used to really hit home to you in the way that a person’s right to choose what they do with their body was at stake, and on the other hand, you feel the emotion that the fetus’ right to choose to live was at stake.These are both very sensitive subjects and can evoke emotion no matter the opinion on the issue. Evoking emotion through stating both emotional views and op inions has the largest effect on people throughout this article. The next appeal that this article has is that of ethos. The entire article from start to finish is filled with ethos appeals, since it is a newspaper article about a court ruling. Throughout the article, we can see the ethos appeals within the different court and medical terms.Some of these words and phrases that are repeated throughout the article are â€Å"the court has ruled (and small variations)† and â€Å"Amendment†. These words increase the trustworthiness of the author of the article by making her seem like she was involved with the law and understands it to a point. Even though we can tell that the author is just a writer for a newspaper, but we can tell by the use of these words that she is understanding of the court terms in general. These terms also come from actual quotes and speeches from within the Roe vs.Wade case, which is apparent in the sections of the article titled â€Å"Majority Opi nion† and â€Å"Dissenting Opinion†. The effect that these appeals have on people is that it gives them a better feeling of the author’s credentials, knowing that what they are reading was written by an author that knows what they are talking about. The final appeal that is apparent throughout the article is that of logos. Although not as frequently used, the appeal of logos is still there. One specific example of a logos appeal is when the article states,†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ -judge federal court ruled that Texas abortion law unconstitutional, and the case was the appealed directly to the U. S. Supreme Court†. This is a logos appeal because it applied to the logical side of the article in the way that it made the law maker go back and be more specific about what they were talking about. Finally, we take a look at how the author wrote this article. While the author uses the logos, ethos, and pathos appeals, the author uses a certain word choice, tone, and syntax t hroughout the article to also get their point across.Throughout the article, we see the author using very sophisticated and professional word choice, such as â€Å"Amendments† and â€Å"Constitutional†. These words also influence her tone, making the piece sound very serious; this is how it should be. The article is over abortion which is a very serious topic for women everywhere. We also get a trustworthy feeling out of the article because of these factors. Included in word choice is the repetition of certain words and phrases. These phrases open your eyes to what happens to women almost every day, still, even after the Roe vs.Wade case was over. Also, the author used no figurative language at all, which made it seem even more professional than a speech or anything other than something based strictly on facts and stuck to an objective tone throughout. In conclusion, this article is very professional and appeals to many groups of people through the logos, pathos, and e thos appeals about abortion and the Roe vs. Wade case. Although it had a lot of emotional appeal, it also had a huge professional feel, making it seem like a trustworthy article.

Honeywell International Success Essay

This paper introduces the reader to Honeywell International Inc. Honeywell is a world leader in the application of lean manufacturing and its Six Sigma Plus processes. With the use of carefully monitored cost standards, net present value in investment decisions, and the transparency of the company’s financial statements are all methods that Honeywell has successfully implemented and utilized to reach and maintain their status as a world-wide competitor. The company has continued its growth, despite the market downturn that began in 2007, and continues to prove its resilience and pioneering spirit by continually improving their product lines, globally expanding their market, and, monitoring and maintaining financial stability. Its forward thinking and willingness to take risk will provide Honeywell the capacity to maintain its role as a major competitor and contributor to the growth and recovery of our economy. Table of Contents Page Abstract2 Company Overview4 Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing8 The Use of Standard Costs11 The Use of Net Present Value14 Summary15 References18 Honeywell International Inc. is an American based advanced-technology company that manufactures aerospace and automotive products; residential, commercial, and industrial control systems; specialty chemicals and plastics; and engineered materials. Its assent into history can be traced back to 1885, spanning 125 years of history. Honeywell International is a $38 billion diversified technology and manufacturing leader, with 132,000 employees in over 100 countries and it a Fortune 75 Company. It is a diverse and global-wide organization and is a leading supplier of avionics and electronics, consumable hardware, engine controls, environmental controls, landing systems, power systems, propulsion engines, aerospace services and space products, and systems for the aerospace industry, as well as Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) of commercial, regional, business and military aircraft and spacecraft. Today, its main competitors in the aerospace defense product and service industry are BorgWarner Inc. , Johnson Controls Inc. and United Technologies Corp. State-of-the-art technology, world known brands and global solutions have placed Honeywell in the unique position as one of the premier worldwide suppliers in the aerospace industry, offering solutions of systems, products and services to the largest aerospace and airline companies in the industry. Throughout their 125 years in business, Honeywell has helped revolutionize the aerospace industry with its dedication to research and development and its enthusiasm to advance technology in their various markets. Honeywell’s reliable and efficient aerospace services and support programs deliver the right level of engineering expertise, maintenance services and asset availability solutions to simplify operations while keeping systems and equipment at peak operational performance. It has proven to be successful in its quest for growth and global expansion from the time of inception. Their quest to acquire and expand began in 1927; the original company, Minneapolis Heat Regulator Company, and Honeywell Heating Specialty Co. merged to form the Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator Co. From the merger, the name Honeywell was adopted and has remained the same since. In the course of its acquisitions, Honeywell purchased other businesses whose focus was in the controls area; among those acquisitions, was Brown Instrument Co. who was a wide-reaching leader in the field of industrial controls and indicators. This acquisition further increased their already successful market to a wider range of customers, as Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator Co. had already established an overseas trading agreement with Japanese distributors such as Yamatake Trading Company. It was no surprise that, in 1934, Honeywell pursued and eventually acquired Time-O-Stat Controls Corporation. With the acquisition of Time-O-Stat, Honeywell further expanded its global presence, establishing offices in Toronto, Canada and The Netherlands; a few years later, they had offices in London and Stockholm. By 1941, Honeywell had expanded into markets in Chile, Panama, Trinidad, New Zealand, Argentina, and South Africa. By 1972, it operated 25 wholly-owned subsidiaries, 142 branch offices, and joint ventures in five countries outside the U. S. True to its reputation as a risk taker, Honeywell ventured into the computer industry. This venture was brief and by 1991 Honeywell was on longer in the computer business. Even though the venture was short lived, it proved to be of great value; Honeywell used the knowledge gained from their digital computer experience and applied it to the traditional field of automation control, integrating sensors, and activators. In 1986, Honeywell purchased Sperry Aerospace, and markedly enhanced its position in the aerospace industry. Edson Spencer, Honeywell chairman and chief executive officer, said the purchase was among the most important his company had made, †It is an outstanding opportunity for Honeywell that positions us for the long term in a market that is expected to have significant growth for the next 10 years – commercial and military aviation† (Arnold, 2012). This purchase made Honeywell the world’s leading integrator of avionics systems, incorporation flight controls, space vehicles, and the first FAA-certified wind shear warning system. It continued to expand, and by 1993, the company continued its world-wide expansion by opening affiliates in Abu Dhabi, China, Oman, Romania, and the Ukraine. In a span of 26 years, Honeywell had operations in 95 countries through 83 wholly-owned subsidiaries and 13 joint ventures. One of the most noted and discussed mergers occurred in 1999 when AlliedSignal, a diverse manufacturer, bought Honeywell for $13. 8 billion in stock. AlliedSignal kept the Honeywell name, merging offices, and closed its Morristown, New Jersey headquarters. The merger resulted in a major restructuring for Honeywell which added to its product line and services. The deal created a company with $25 billion in annual sales and a market capitalization in excess of $45 billion. The merger gave the combined company the marketing edge, providing their airline customers to take advantage of new technology that would boost cost savings for both parties. In an unexpected turn, the early part of 2001 brought difficulties for Honeywell when the European Commission rejected the purchase of Honeywell by General Electric (GE). In October 2001, Honeywell and GE, the largest corporation in the world and the number one producer of jet engines, announced the intent to embark on one of the largest industrial mergers in history. The plan was for GE to acquire Honeywell, the largest worldwide supplier of non-engine aerospace equipment. During negotiations it was anticipated that there would be no antitrust problem; as GE and Honeywell were not competitors and not part of the same supply chain. The merger was intended to bring together complementary products that were component parts of large jet aircraft. The deal would have been the largest industrial merger in history. Instead, it became recognized as the first, and so far only, merger between US companies to be derailed solely by the European anti-trust authorities, while being cleared by the US Department of Justice (DoJ). On July 3, 2001, in an unprecedented act, the EU officially rejected the planned $42 billion acquisition of Honeywell International Inc. , by GE. The merger was denied by the EU after concluding that the merger would create or strengthen dominant positions on several markets and that the remedies proposed by G.E. were insufficient to resolve the competition concerns resulting from the proposed acquisition of Honeywell. †The merger between G. E. and Honeywell, as it was notified, would have severely reduced competition in the aerospace industry and resulted ultimately in higher prices for customers, particularly airlines† (Pellegrini, 2001). Despite the fact that the GE buyout failure was a stumbling block, Honeywell used the experience to strengthen its core businesses by continuing to develop and introduce new products. The company started an aggressive acquisition strategy with the goal to increase revenues and decrease cost in a strategy that, â€Å"†¦divested small, underperforming operations, reduced the number of suppliers, and streamlined operations in small ways elsewhere† Honeywell History, n. a. ) The results paid off for Honeywell, as they continued to win a large percentage of their contract bids, sales were ahead of budget, and the rate of turnover in managers did not significantly increase from the same period in the prior year, and customer satisfaction was up. Honeywell faced some challenges after the GE debacle, however, by making changes it displayed that tenacity, hard work and a willingness to take risk, can result in huge payoffs. Honeywell continued to streamline and improve their lean manufacturing processes, i. e. Six Sigma Plus, implement and ensure compliance of the company code of conduct and maintain its dominance as a government contractor. Honeywell began its Six Sigma process and concept of self-managed teams in 1995 to â€Å"drive data-based decision making, ensure quality levels, and improve customer satisfaction† (Crager, 2007). Through training, leadership, and senior management support, Honeywell successfully developed their Six Sigma program. In late 2001 Honeywell combined the concepts of lean manufacturing and Six Sigma in a program called Six Sigma Plus to create a more robust program. The program was designed to align improvement objectives directly with business needs by integrating top talent and generating bottom-line results. Six Sigma Plus is an overall strategy to accelerate improvements in all processes, products and services, and reduce the punitive cost of poor quality through elimination of waste and reduction of defects and variations. One of the ultimate aims documented in the Six Sigma Plus strategy is providing maximum value to customers by applying a logical and structured approach to all business processes. One of the pluses of Six Sigma is that it empowered employees, allowing them to make decisions that impacted how their unit or line was performing. This provided Honeywell an excellent tool that is a highly respected measure of excellence. (M. Calderon, personal communication, May 1, 2012) Honeywell took the basic concept of Six Sigma and created its own version which is known as Six Sigma Plus. It is currently used across all businesses and brands to drive growth and productivity. â€Å"The standard operates by providing a measurement of how effective the organization is in eliminating defects and variations from processes. To meet its requirements, a process must operate at 3. 4 defects or less per million opportunities. This equates to 99. 9997% error free† (Six Sigma Plus, n. d. ). Conscious application of the Six Sigma methodology to all business processes delivers greater value to its customers and makes Honeywell a more desirable business partner. The implementation of lean manufacturing processes has enabled Honeywell to maintain tight controls in all aspects of the managerial accounting processes. With the use of managerial accounting, Honeywell has ensured that their productions and service is well planned and controlled. With the budget cuts facing government, private sector job loss, and tightened markets, it is impressive that Honeywell has continued to maintain its sales growth in the United States. The diversity of Honeywell’s world-wide enterprise, exemplifies the importance of a creative corporate marketing approach. Honeywell consists of unique business units, with each, offering a variety of products and services. Strategies and implementation of those strategies must be developed and executed at the corporate, business unit, and product levels. Overall, strategy and long-term planning are guided by the company’s vision and stated mission. At the business level, planning begins with an examination of the current situation, including technological changes and competitive effects. By using this type of analysis, Honeywell is better equipped to address and identify threats and new business opportunities. Decisions to pursue new opportunities are followed by establishing a set of objectives, often stated in terms of market share, sales volume, or profitability. Subsequently, business and marketing strategies are developed to achieve those objectives. Effective execution of strategy in implementation must then occur for objectives to be realized. Effective financial statement analysis will be a primary indicator that indicates the progress and demonstrates whether company goals are being met. Honeywell has been a leader in their industry in planning and control and have used financial analysis in depth to evaluate and control their growth and profitability. It continues to be effective in identifying opportunities to improve the organization’s efficiency and in developing strategic plans to realize those opportunities. By using a diversity of analytical tools Honeywell is better prepared in making operating decisions, such as how and where products are to be manufactured and serviced, whether insourcing or outsourcing is more equitable, and whether to expand and the area to expand to. Timely and accurate financial statement preparation is critical to the success or failure of a business. The financial officer, owner, partner or members management team of a business must review the business financial statements and have a good understanding of them. Financial statements are critical to Honeywell’s ability to make solid, informed decisions. Such decisions are needed in order for Honeywell to meet one of its primary goals, which is to realize a high rate of return on their investments. The measurement and success of this initiative is arrived at by measuring it against other industry averages. This information helps Honeywell understand that current initiatives do show a market response. In view of the fact that the industry average can be general in nature the industry average should be used as a guide. A failure to use the data appropriately can mislead investors and have a disastrous affect on Honeywell’s reputation and marketability. Achieving their strategic plan will not only involve Honeywell’s internal planning and controlling, but it will also involve the support of creditors and investors. Both are key players in providing capital needs to support new initiatives and milestones; the use of financial statements in this process will no doubt be the backbone of the decision making process. It is difficult to know the health and direction of a company if financial statements are not reviewed in a timely manner. In its pursuit of investors, or the success in the results of an external audit, the financial statements are the ultimate representation of company’s financial position. In general accounting practices, Honeywell uses process costing for its furnace thermostats (home products division) and job costing for customized aerospace contracting products. When thinking in terms of standard costs and whether they would be beneficial, one factor to consider is the fact that Honeywell is a world-wide producer with operations in many countries outside of the United States (US). There are ramifications when doing business overseas as well as doing business in the US and each scenario has its own benefits and consequences that are unique to specified circumstances. Honeywell, like their competitors has migrated to low cost countries because of the labor rate differential. The move to overseas production creates additional concerns and dynamics. World-class manufacturing in today’s competitive environment demands more than a single-minded focus on eliminating defects. Since the introduction of Six Sigma and Lean tools to their operations over a decade ago, Honeywell has delivered significant results for customers in terms of the quality, delivery and value of our products and services. To achieve competitive advantage in today’s environment, Honeywell has continued to build on its Six Sigma and Lean foundation, and identify new ways to differentiate themselves. Benchmark companies such as Toyota and Nissan use Six Sigma and Lean tools. Like Honeywell, they also have a disciplined management system that standardizes work and engage employees in improving work processes. In doing this, organizations have achieved tremendous performance improvements. The Honeywell Operating System is a comprehensive, integrated approach to managing their organization. It is characterized by a consistent focus on results for the benefit of our customers, not on the use of specific tools. The objective is to simplify and standardize processes everywhere, to remove variation across operations, and to drive significant and sustainable improvements in safety, quality, delivery and cost. Employees are encouraged use tools such as Six Sigma, in achieving a common purpose: global wide use of an operating system that consistently yields excellent results for the customers and the company. Implementing standardized cost standards is not an easy task and it will take time. Honeywell maintains that standardization will evolve to fit different business environments and changing customer needs and will become an essential part of the process that will bind their company across business and geographic boundaries. Honeywell’s workforce consists of residents of the country they are in to satisfy requirements imposed by foreign nations. It is almost mandatory to have overseas operations to reduce labor and material costs; however, these operations come with high risk. Foreign workers are not always equipped with the necessary skills to perform the manufacturing duties required by a highly technical company. The expense of employing and developing such a workforce can create additional costs. In determining what the additional costs, standard costs prove beneficial because they would provide Honeywell the ability to budget costs with a great understanding and degree of confidence. A standard cost system allows a company to factor in methods that would absorb the periods in which higher costs are identified due to foreign employment development and when costs are low or minimal due to workforce stabilization. In its foreign production, Honeywell will have to set attainable standards in order maintain its performing baseline. Another factor in foreign operations is the volatile condition of the world. The United States is not always welcomed in other countries. It is not uncommon for a common protest to turn into a major world crisis. Such examples are those of the uprisings in Israel and Libya. Honeywell hosts operations in Israel, where relations between the government and the general population are volatile and unpredictable. In addition, we have seen several instances where regimes have changed power and attitudes toward the US in a matter of days. Standard costing is paramount as an aide for monitoring and managing the risk of unpredictability. It is a healthy practice that can protect Honeywell from severe monetary damage if a foreign tragedy should affect the business. The information obtained from standard costing aides Honeywell against the volatility of today’s markets and the strategy of its competitors. Honeywell is continuously improving its processes, products and management style to maintain their competitive edge. To be competitive, Honeywell will continue to use their standard cost system to help them execute planning and control of their strategic priorities. Tracking costs will also help Honeywell identify weakness and variances in their production system. Undetected problems in the areas of materials and labor can eventually raise variance to a point of hindering Honeywell from maintaining their core competencies. Consequently, today’s market provides no room for error, but every opportunity for a competitor to gain the lead. In many respects, some of the rationale that goes into using standard costs also applies to formulating the right strategy to gain a positive Net Present Value. Honeywell’s reach is global and therefore its investment opportunities are also global. Due to the unique factors involved with global markets, it is necessary for Honeywell to perform critical planning for investment decisions. Honeywell has a reputation as an organization that is willing to take risks to make money. It has done that by acquiring other business or expanding its existing facilities for future business. Such expansions are expensive and these expansions require additional staff which adds to the cost of investment. Large expenditures are a challenge to control the net present value (NPV) and require clear identification of cost and risks in order to be a success. Strategic moves, such as partnering with the national government, can leverage the way to a positive NPV. In this approach, there are tradeoff between the corporation and the government in which both interests can be mutually met. Corporation’s like Honeywell utilize these paths in order to reduce investment costs and have accurate projections for calculating and incorporating NPV baselines. Because of the ongoing activity of many investments occurring at one time, it is critical that Honeywell has complete knowledge of their NPV and ensure profitable investments are achieved. Failing to do this can result in major losses, especially when an unplanned shortfall occurs. Although the investment sounds promising, it is critical that NPV is properly measured. It is also advisable from an NPV and program management position that Honeywell phase its investment into NPV milestones which help determine if they should move forward to the next phase of the investment. This process would provide a safeguard while allowing the innovation to prove itself. While the actual rate of return (IRR) that  a given project ends up generating will often differ from its estimated IRR rate, a project with a substantially higher IRR value than other available options would still provide a much better chance of strong growth. IRRs can also be compared against prevailing rates of return in the securities market. If a firm can’t find any projects with IRRs greater than the returns that can be generated in the financial markets, it may simply choose to invest its retained earnings into the market. The need for Honeywell to practice continuous NPV drills in a market with circumstances such as those faced in China by US companies, is critical. While both countries maintain a civil business partnership, there is an unspoken adversarial relationship which creates instability. China is strategically positioning itself as a global power therefore, the relationship between both countries is precarious and any misstep by Honeywell could severely damage the existing business relationship. Another potential concern for Honeywell is that China is currently the largest lender to the US. At the point that China reaches the economic capacity to sustain its prosperity internally, we have to ask ourselves if they will request repayment by the US prior to maturity dates. As we have seen in several European countries, a request of that magnitude could destabilize an already fragile US economy. In consideration of this scenario, and other contributing factors, Honeywell should be careful in investment planning, and phase its activities so that the NPV is not contingent upon results that will take a long period to realize a return. In summary, Honeywell has proven itself as a world leader of technology. This corporation is known world-wide and is a household name. Honeywell leads the way in advanced switching and sensing technology in their home division, and its aerospace division. In spite of the GE failure, it has kept its mark on the global economy through market highs and lows and has maintained its dominant position in an extremely competitive industry. As a long-time survivor and global competitor on the world stage, Honeywell continues to make its mark in history by developing innovative safety products, driving the modernization of global air traffic management, revolutionizing combat technology and their commitment to improving operational efficiencies. Honeywell continues to display their dominance with its diversity and profitable risk taking ventures. Perhaps Honeywell’s greatest strength has been the fact that it has adapted to a world that is ever changing and has embraced the challenge that other companies find daunting. With the continued vision to improve processes for safety, quality and cost, reducing waste, and using integrated strategies Honeywell continues to be a standard for their industry. They continue to be innovative and competitive and have a strong commitment to bringing profitable products that their customers need and want. Due to the diversity and competitive market that Honeywell has chosen to operate in, it is of extreme importance that the company maintains sound financial practices that will support the moral fiber and marketability of the company. As Honeywell moves into the future I believe they will continue to perfect their processes to produce the right financial statements, useful in calculating their position in the market, and providing the best advice for investment decisions. The proper use of standard costs and net present value are an example of the critical tools that ensure Honeywell continues to thrive in today’s unknown global conditions. Also critical to the success of Honeywell is the continued utilization of strong and proper ethical practices as the company is well known, world-wide competitor and a representative of the American business ethics and values. Whether it is in the Middle Eastern or the Far East, Honeywell is known and recognized; such a position makes it important for Honeywell to be transparent in its fiscal disclosures. Sound financial practices are essential to Honeywell in order for the company to continue its success and market dominance. Primary emphasis on these practices will serve to maintain Honeywell’s status and help them make the most profitable investment decisions for their investors and the company. As recent as April 23, 2012, Honeywell declared a â€Å"regular quarterly dividend of $0. 3725 per share on the company’s outstanding common stock. The dividend is payable on June 8, 2012 to shareowners of record at the close of business on May 18, 2012† (Honeywell Declares Quarterly Dividend, 2012). If this is any indication, Honeywell will continue to be a viable global competitor and financial contributor to our financial and job market. Honeywell is an excellent example of an organization that is forward thinking and proactive. It has operated with a strong ethical code of conduct, strong financial discipline and an ever present focus on the future. This methodology and ideology will ensure their continued financial growth and market expansion. It is apparent that their cost standards, lean processes, and disciplined managerial financial management has enabled them to overcome obstacles, secure their position as a global competitor and a viable contender in today’s competitive, technology-oriented world.

Work and Non-Work Relationship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Work and Non-Work Relationship - Essay Example From the discussion it is clear that  for the purposes of explaining the relationship between job responsibilities and family responsibilities, various kinds of conceptual models have been proposed in this regard, and these conceptual models symbolize the diverse viewpoints on how we carry out our respective job responsibilities and family responsibilities. Although, various conceptual models have been introduced for the purpose of explaining the relationship between job responsibilities and family responsibilities, but the five major conceptual models which have been introduced in this regard, includes, segmentation model, spillover model, compensation model, instrumental model and conflict model.  This paper declares that  different methodologies have been used by the researchers for the purpose of assessing the relationship between enhanced work loads of dismissed survivors and their respective work-life balance and work and life contentment. As per a research, employees who face extremely heavy workload, have to face heavy overall role overload as well, and this eventually creates a negative influence on their work-life balance.   Another research was carried out for the purpose of discovering the fact that whether contented employees maintain an effective work-life balance or not, and in this research, the researchers found that flexible functioning approach facilitates employees to stay aggravated, which eventually helps them to accomplish their respective professional and personal goals effectively and efficiently.

Critical analysis worksheet Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Critical analysis worksheet - Essay Example In this article the author looks at the information presented during the Iraq War. As the author alludes to, the American military is full of people with conflict of interests, not the least retired military officers. These officers are often sought for their opinion by national television networks. The reason why these ex-military men are wanted for expert opinion is because they may have operational insights or at least understand how the military works. The issue about using such experts is that they often present a view that has already been distorted by the American military. It can sometimes even be the case that these experts are duped themselves by misinformation. I would ask the author about why this fascination for publicly funded sports stadiums has recently come into focus. What were the factors that resulted in an upswing for sports stadiums being funded by the public? Another question I would ask the author has to do the effect that a sports team has on a city. Is a professional sports team necessary for a small city because it gives everyone a "feel-good" factor or has this explanation been blown out of proportion? I would ask the author why the military feels that it needs to feed information to the media, either through press releases or ex-military officers, in order to justify military efforts. Is it because the information is distorted or does the American public need convincing? Also, do the network cable channels need to take some responsibility for the appearance of these military experts? Whose job is it to vet these people or establish some basic facts before getting some opinions about an issue? I do agree with the main premise of the reading. The reason why I feel these authors are onto something is because while the benefits of having publicly funded sports stadiums are prominently displayed in the media and by local politicians, to my knowledge there has not been many

The Common Cold Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Common Cold - Essay Example Aching may also occur in the affected parts of the body during the disease. Typically, three to five days are taken by this disease in the normal human body. However, it has been observed by many studies that approximately three weeks are taken by residual coughing in the patient. In this regard, the most common of all the human diseases is the common cold. In light of a number of studies and researches, it has been analyzed that an average rate or two to four infections occur in the adults per year. Whereas, school-aged children are affected by this viral disease at a higher extent, that is, twelve times per year. In some populations, it is common to have more than three infections of the common cold in a person during a whole year. However, a higher risk is taken by children and their parents, as schools are found to be high in density in most of the countries. Secondly, as we mentioned above, it is a viral disease; therefore, family members are transmitted to this disease very easily and efficiently by the common cold bacterias. The upper respiratory tract infections is belonging the disease of common cold. However, influenza is found to be different from the common cold, as respiratory tract is infected more severely during influenza, as compared to the common cold disease. ... However, when it becomes complicated, it results in the form of pneumonia, which can even take the life of a patient. In this regard, sometimes, people relate the common cold disease with pneumonia and influenza, due to non-availability of valid and updated scientific research in specific areas. Contrary to popular belief, it has been found by a number of scientists that very young and elderly people are more likely to be at risk due to new strains of this virus in the human body. However, the occurring of death is quite rare in this disease, and death is suffered in only one out of one million subjects related to the disease of common cold. The vulnerability of this cold disease has been found most common in the young children, who go to school and socialize with their classmates and other staff of the school. Secondly, patients are also found to having common cold who have been into any kind of surgery. In these cases, the death rate was around one case out of fifty thousand cases. However, it is very important to know that chimps were used to carry out these kinds of experiments. Nevertheless, scientists believe that the humans will react with these experiments similarly, as compared to the experimented chimps. Therefore, we may say that the occurrence of the disease of viral and infectious common cold can be related to the animals. Causes A number of viruses are considered as primary causes and factors of the common cold in the human body. Mainly, corona viruses, coxsackie viruses, rhinoviruses, etc. are some of the main viruses that cause the common cold, and the upper inspiratory system is infected and affected in the outcomes of the disease. Scientists have found and described hundreds of viruses that cause

Application questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Application questions - Essay Example I used the experience to make new friends, learn all about their culture, language, and environment. More importantly, living in Togo humbled me as a human being. You might said that I had an epiphany while I was there. This was how it unfolded: It was one more day with surge of Sub Saharan heat, when Simon, one of the orphans, brought me noodles with a sprinkle of chicken pieces, saying that he earned some money and bought noodles with it. I asked, â€Å"Where is yours?† The boy replied, â€Å"I have more in the kitchen, don’t worry.† I was stupid to believe him. I ate everything at the speed of light and then brought the bowl to the kitchen to be washed. I saw Simon there and stopped to say thank you once again for the hearty snack. Then I saw what he was eating, a mere bowl of porridge. I never felt more ashamed of myself in my whole life. I should have known better. I should have known that being the stranger in town, they would give me the shirt off their backs in a show of hospitality. That was when I vowed to make a difference in their lives pf those living in the Third World countries as soon as I was able to. A. I worked in the regional public hospital as an assistant to the doctors, nurses, and other medical practitioners who needed an extra hand. Sometimes, I even found myself working in the ER. While I was there, I experienced the problems that their kind of hospital often encountered and I had a chance to speak to their patients, doctors, and nurses regarding their ill effective national health systems which did nothing to help their society prevent even the most common illnesses from becoming epidemics in their area. B. I will never forget the poverty that I witnessed in this hospital. Having come from a better off country, I was aghast to see that the African health care system was so destitute that they could not even provide the most basic medical supplies, equipment, and even slightly competent doctors

SDL-VALUE & VALUE CO-CREATION Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words - 2

SDL-VALUE & VALUE CO-CREATION - Essay Example Shared services, on the other hand is defined by process ownership and partnering as key characteristics. The efficiency and productivity of doing business is entirely reliant on the kind and degree of elements of global business services and global shared services that might be employed within organizations. One fundamental aspect of Global Business Services is the 80/15/5 rule. According to this rule 80 percent of a business process can be standardized in accordance with global basis. The other 15 percent of the process can be standardized in line with regional structures. The remaining 5 of the process is then standardized on a localized scale. This aspect represents the sweeping scope of (GBS). Another defining aspect of GBS is the integrated suite which illustrates the component of inter-connectivity of systems that manifest within the substance of the GBS. The concept of inter-connectivity is, in fact, an important feature that distinguishes GBS from Global Shared Services. Another important feature of GBS is the virtual centers that act as the locale for expertise which aids in the task of the dissemination of the subject matter. What this implies is the fact that the sphere of operation of the GBS might not be physically verifiable but its effects are significant. Subsidiary aspects of GBS are numerous but are commonly centered on the global ownership of the process as the singular aspect of global control. In shared services, goals and accountabilities are distributed among business units and organizations that engage in the services. In this manner there is little chance for the occurrence of loss of control between the parent organizations from where the particular services originated. The concept of shared services is anchored on the giving out of some core functions by some services, which has always led to the misconception that

Market Segmentation for the Coffee Market Research Paper

Market Segmentation for the Coffee Market - Research Paper Example The following diagram shows the income distribution (media per capita income in 2009) of Baton Rouge, Louisiana area. (Source: â€Å"Baton Rouge..†) As per the media per capita income distribution in Baton Rouge in 2009, the Whites have high inflow of income as compared to other groups. The chart indicates that the Hispanic is ranked just below Whites in case of media per capita income distribution. The 2010 census reflects that the Baton Rouge’s population comprises of 50.02% African American, 45.7% Whites, 2.62% Asian, 0.18% Native American, and 0.49% other races (Louisiana’s report†¦). The historical trend figures point that the percentage of Whites in the city’s population gradually increases over the last two decades. The White’s population growth together with improvements in living standards offers potential advantages for the coffee market. This type of market segmentation assists the coffee industry to easily identify the purchase powe r of consumers and to design cost-effective promotional tactics for different market segments. A number of surveys have indicated that as compared to blacks, whites like coffee more. Hence, the Whites may turn out to be the potential market segment for the company. However, majority of the African Americans and Asians are also regular users of coffee. Targeting strategy While developing a targeting strategy for the coffee market, it is necessary to analyze the coffee consumption culture of the population. (Source: â€Å"2008 National Cofee Drinking†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ) The given figure indicates the graphical representation of the outcomes of the â€Å"2008 National Coffee Drinking Trends Study†. This study focused on the coffee consumption trends in different age groups and published a comprehensive report detailing coffee trends over the last eight years. From the above chart, it is clear that the percent of coffee drinking in the United States is directly proportional to the ag e of the population. The graph clearly illustrates that people over the age 60 are more likely to drink a lot of coffee as compared to other age groups. Likewise, youngsters between the age of 18 and 24 are less likely to drink coffee as they are heavily attracted to modern beverages. It is advisable for the company to target people over the age 30, because the trends study shows that youngsters very rarely take coffee. However, a growing coffee consumption trends is seen among the age group 25-39; therefore, it is also advisable for the company to give more focus on this group of consumers as potential prospects. Target segment descriptions As we discussed earlier, a major proportion of the Baton Rouge’s population represents Whites and African Americans even though the city is an agglomeration of different cultures. The demographical information show that the city’s 35.8% of the total households are married couples whereas 40.8% are non-families (â€Å"Private hard money†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). The 2010 census data reveal that the Baton Rouge’s average household size is 2.42 while its average family size is 3.12. The percent of people living under the age groups of below 18 is; 18-24; 25-44; 45-64 and 65 and above is 24.4%, 17.5%, 27.2%, 19.4%, and 11.4% respectively (BatonRouge). The population trend indicates that there are only 90.5 males for every 100

Research paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 16

Research paper - Essay Example Business administrators therefore believe that if advertisement is carried in the right way, at the right place, via the appropriate media as well as within a particular time limit, it can also attract new customers. As a result, advertising assists in capturing the market as well as increasing the advertiser’s sales. Secondly advertising is critical in the promotion of services, ideas, goods as well as events. This implies goods such as cosmetics, stationary, cosmetics .Services that can be promoted include banking, hospitality, consultancy etc. Promotion of ideas leads to encouragement of the general public by the entrepreneur to invest in his/her idea. Events that can be promoted include exhibitions, festivals, rallies as well as ceremonies (Christina & Demand, 2013). Advertising is also responsible for increasing or boosting sales. This is because advertising creates awareness in masses regarding the advertised products or services .This awareness is responsible for creation of demand in the market which leads to increased or higher sales. According to business administrators, the advertisers will thus fulfill his key objective in advertising. For such impressive results to be maintained, a business ought to sustain excellent price-quality ratio alongside constant and continued advertisement campaigns. Advertising is also used by businesses to create consumer awareness-business professionals are of the perception that constant advertising generates awareness basically by informing potential customers and consumers. Awareness is created amongst consumers by bringing to their attention the availability of a particular service or product in the market. Advertising tries to pass to them why a particular service or product is superior to the other available alternatives. Customers are also informed mostly about different benefits, features, prices as well

The privacy of your medical records Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The privacy of your medical records - Essay Example However, many have come to accept that their employer has the right to essentially do the same thing by monitoring emails. Is wrong always wrong or do employers have a widely agreed upon caveat to intrude on the privacy of American citizens? Some believe that because the Constitution forbids illegal searches which are the precedent for disallowing the wiretapping of citizens, this should apply to businesses as well. Computer networks are especially susceptible to employer scrutiny. According to a Privacy Foundation study (Privacy Foundation, 2001), 14 million U.S. employees are subject to this type of surveillance on a constant basis. Employers use specially designed software for this purpose. They are able to scrutinize employee e-mail by randomly reading communications or by selecting key ‘damaging’ words or phrases in order to flag e-mail. The software evaluates a company’s e-mail messages by selected term of phrase and makes a determination regarding whether a message is genuine and non-threatening corporate business. These programs are becoming ever more sophisticated using algorithms to evaluate communications patterns and relay this information to employers. Many employers are always just a click or two away from viewing every e-mail message that employees send or receive on computers included on the network. These employers give a variety of justifications for spying on their employees’ communications including the protection of trade secrets, the prevention of internal problems or excess e-mails clogging networks by using too much bandwidth. Another popular reason given for monitoring personal e-mails is to prevent employees from using company time for personal communications. Checking for quality of work would violate few people’s idea of crossing the privacy boundary but that is seldom a reason given for such monitoring. According to the American Management Study (2001), close to â€Å"two-thirds of all companies

Love Is Sacrifice Essay Example for Free

Love Is Sacrifice Essay I left work today realizing just how fortunate I am to be on the track towards a successful career. And on top of that, the fact that I actually enjoy my job makes it even better! Its definitely been a long road. I think about how I had to deal with rude and ignorant customers as a convenient store cashier during junior high, the strenuous labor working alongside my mother at the dry cleaners in high school, and then finally those dreaded double shifts waiting tables for three years during college. And yet I look at what I have today and realize that I havent obtained these things for myself. All of it has been provided by the hands of the good Lord, and the sacrifice of my parents. Its truly amazing what a parents love for his/her child can accomplish. How much they are willing to sacrifice for the sake of their children. I must say without a doubt that is one of the most important lessons my parents have taught me. Love is sacrifice. My parents immigrated to the U.S. in 1979. My mother came to this country first in January of that year, along with her parents and her siblings. She left behind her husband and her two daughters in search of a better life for all of us. Being away from your child even for a minute is the hardest thing to do as a mother. Not a day went by during our separation that she didnt think of us, did not long to hold us in her arms and to sing us to sleep with sweet lullabies. She fought back tears and endured heartache every day, but she knew that in the long run, this would all be worth it. My dad tells me that during this time while I was in Korea under his sole care, I would look up at all the airplanes that flew by and cry out, Um-ma, Um-ma (mother in Korean). My father would shake his head and tell me that it wasnt my mother and I would burst into tears. My father and my aunts (his sisters) told me they had never seen an infant cry as much as I did during the time my mother was gone. Finally, almost a year later in December of 1979, we were reunited with my mother at the Chicago OHare International Airport. My father likes to tell me how our reunion was delayed, because I had to use the bathroom and couldnt hold it in. So the flight was delayed twenty minutes for its departure to the good old USA because of little moi and her weak bladder (oops!). When I finally saw my mother, I immediately ran into her arms. I must have been the happiest little girl in the world at that very moment. But my sister (who was not even one at the time my mother left) didnt recognize her and clung to my father refusing to go into my mothers arms. I cant imagine the heartache my mother must have felt when her own child didnt recognize her. Even as my mother retold the story to us, she choked with emotion recalling the alienation she sensed at that moment. What a sacrifice she made. But a child never forgets the womb from which she was conceived and in no time at all, my sister was Moms little baby girl again. My mother is my role model of strength and courage. My parents had heard such wonderful stories about life in America. But life wasnt wonderful in the beginning. My grandparents, two uncles, my aunt, and my parents all lived together in a small apartment in Maryland. They could hardly speak the native language. They had no money to their name. They were starting off from scratch. They began as cashiers at local convenient stores, worked in dry cleaners, and basically took whatever job they could get. Here they were, educated and skilled, yet working these blue-collar jobs in the hopes that one day their children wouldnt have to. My parents both worked long hours. We hardly saw them and soon found ourselves becoming latch-key kids. My sister, brother, and I basically grew up taking care of ourselves. My father was also attending seminary at the same time studying to be a pastor, which I think ended up being one of the greatest sacrifices he made. Theres no money in ministry. No glory. Very little benefits. But I learned quickly that the treasures on Earth fade away just as quickly as the sun rises and the sun sets. My father saw the eternal reward and was willing to sacrifice everything he had for it including a comfortable life for himself and his family. I find myself awestruck at how my father even raised a family of five on his salary. I make more than double what he ever made as a pastor. And Im having a hard enough time managing my finances as a single person, much less raising a family. Yet my father knew this was his calling in life and he knew it would not be an easy road for any of us. My father is my role model of sacrifice and incredible faith. My sister and I had to work our way through college, studying diligently when we werent working odd jobs to pay off our tuition and rent. Though those years were hard and we found ourselves ready to give up at certain points of our college career, we made it through. But I remember the moments where I felt I just couldnt go on living like this. I remember vividly one night during my sophomore year in college when I came home after a horrible night at the restaurant and found myself weeping quietly in the corner of my room (hoping my roommates wouldnt hear). I stayed there the rest of the night, wishing with all my heart that my life were different. Yet it was the hope and dreams of something better down the road that got me through those hard days. Although my parents couldnt give us much in terms of material things, they gave us so much more. My sister, brother, and I have a deep appreciation and understanding of hard work and sacrifice. Having experienced the hardships ourselves, we are only that much more grateful for what our parents did for us. The chance they took to go to a different country where everything was foreign to them so that they could give their children a better life than they had known for themselves. To sacrifice their own dreams and ambitions so that we could see ours come true. Now as college graduates with promising careers, my parents proudly see that their sacrifice was well worth it. Mere words cannot say thank you enough.

Child Development Theories Natural vs Social Process

Child Development Theories Natural vs Social Process To what extent has childhood been viewed as a social and cultural process rather than a natural process? Illustrate your discussion with reference to Book 1, Chapter 1, Children and development. Childhood is such a fundamental and integral part of humanity that on first considerations, we may take it for granted as an entirely natural process. The biological journey of maturation is a universal shared experience.   Yet even if childhood is recognised only in these limited biological terms, it is still influenced by social factors i.e. the health and life choices of the mother during pregnancy. In the civilised world, there are very few who would be prepared to argue that childhood should be viewed as an entirely natural process. Contemporary developmental theorists recognise the child as an active agent whom is developing both physically and psychologically; the individual experience of childhood is dependent upon how they interact with their environment and how that society understands their specific nature and needs. The attitudes to children and views of childhood vary dramatically between different periods in history and different cultures, and are also actively evolvi ng within our own culture; therefore it is, currently, more accurate to view childhood as a social and cultural process rather than a natural one: â€Å"The immaturity of children is a biological fact but the ways in which that immaturity is understood is a fact of culture†¦.childhood is †¦.constructed and reconstructed both for and by children† (James and Prout, 1997, p.15) Woodhead (2005) illustrates that historically, throughout Western culture, childhood has been viewed as both a natural process and as a social and cultural process. It has also been viewed as an interactive process between the two. These changeable and evolving attitudes confirm James and Prout’s assertion that â€Å"childhood is constructed and reconstructed†. By comparing and contrasting the origins of the four main Psychological perspectives of Child Development and acknowledging their legacies to modern day practices, I intend to conclude that childhood has probably been viewed to a greater extent as a social and cultural process than it has a natural process. It has been proposed that ‘childhood’ is in itself a recent invention. Philippe Aries (1962) is chiefly accredited with underlining the socially constructed character of childhood. He studied the history of literature and paintings and concluded that in mediaeval times childhood didn’t exist. Obviously younger members of the species existed but they were not granted any special or distinctive status.   Once weaned, they were thrust into adult society. Aries claimed that the awareness of children’s distinctive nature did not emerge until the end of the fifteenth century. This can de illustrated in the emergence and gradual rise of schooling and paediatrics. Aries has been criticised for making general conclusions which rely on limited sources. The largest group of children would have been the poor, and they would not have been represented. However the broad framework of his argument (the socially constructed nature of childhood) is the foundation of subsequent studies: â€Å"The idea of childhood must be seen as a particular cultural phrasing of the early part of the life course, historically and politically contingent and subject to change†. (James and James, 2001) There are four main perspectives of child development. These theories stem from three opposing philosophies which attempt to define the essential nature of humanity as embodied in the newborn child. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) believed children to be inherently sinful. He believed that development should be shaped by control and discipline. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) believed children to be inherently innocent; his supporters advocate that development is shaped by following children’s natural stages. The theories of Hobbes and Rousseau are classified as nativist theories; maintaining that childhood is a natural process. John Locke (1632-1704) didn’t view children as either inherently sinful or innocent, but rather a ‘tabua rasa’ (blank slate) to be written on by experience; those influenced by him maintain the chief factor of development is experience.   Locke’s Theory is classified as empiricist; advocating that childhood is a social and cult ural process. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) believed children to be born with mental structures specifically designed to interpret information from the environment; the essence of development being interaction. Kant sets the tone for the ‘transactional models’ of development; not viewing childhood as exclusively a natural or exclusively a social process, but a combination of the two. Thomas Hobbes believed that all human beings were born with original sin, therefore all children were born evil and had to be ‘saved’. The prime factors of development were control and discipline. He was an important influence to the formation of the Methodist church. The theory that children were inherently sinful was very desirable and easily identifiable from an Armenian perspective; people believed that children learned obedience to God through obedience to their parents. Childhood was a time of strict parenting and harsh discipline: â€Å"Severe beatings of children in the name of discipline were common occurrences. Heaven was sometimes described to children in Sunday school as a place where children are never beaten†. (Newman and Smith, 1999) This view was apparent in the early nineteenth century in Hannah More’s evangelical writings on child rearing. She too argued that it was a fundamental error to view children as inherently innocent and it should be down to society to curb their evil dispositions. The omnipresence of God and Satan in every person’s life was an unchallenged premise: â€Å"The hard line view of infants as limbs of Satan persisted throughout the eighteenth century†. (Ezell, M.J.M, 1984) This harsh and unsentimental view of children was not just religiously, but also demographically and economically motivated. Infant mortalities were extremely high; between twenty and fifty percent of babies died within their first year. Many parents referred to their child as â€Å"it† until they reached an age when survival was probable.   Although it is problematic to speculate, it seems plausible that parents were consciously detached from their children as a coping mechanism, should they not survive into adulthood. Although Hobbes advocated a nativist perspective on the essential nature of children, the religious attitudes which he and his contemporaries would have taken for granted as truth are now dormant in the majority of Western societies (apart from some remaining puritan cultures).   Any who did share the popular religious view would not have been recorded.   This validates James and Prouts assertion that childhood is â€Å"constructed and reconstructed†. Hobbesian views of childhood did not unfold naturally, but were constructed through social discourse. Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed the exact opposite to Hobbes; that children are not inherently sinful, but are inherently innocent, and would develop naturally in positive ways if allowed to do so. He referred to children as ‘noble savages’, this romantic notion supposes that all humanity is born pure and good until corrupted by civilisation. The environment does not have a positive, but has a negative affect on development: â€Å"Everything is good in leaving the hands of the Creator of Things; everything degenerates at the hands of man†. (Rousseau, 1762) During the eighteenth century, views of childhood began to change; children were seen as innocent and in need of protection, (not unlike the way we see them today) consequently though, they were also viewed as weak and susceptible to temptation. Along with the notion of protection came the notion of discipline, as parents taught their children to avoid the enticements of their social world. Until the late 1800s, child labour was commonly practiced and accepted. It is reported that up to half of all workers in northern factories were children under the age of eleven. Children worked as long and as hard as adults. Because of their small size, they were sometimes given difficult and hazardous jobs, like cleaning out the insides of narrow factory chimneys. In poor urban families, parents often forced their children to engage in scavenging and street peddling.   Rousseau’s observations were not surprising given that the desire to protect children was coupled with their seemingly inevitable exploitation. Although chiefly belonging to the realms of Romanticism, Rousseau’s theory did have practical psychological applications. He is attributed with presenting the first truly developmental account of childhood, through his emphasis on maturation and stages of development. His book; â€Å"Emile† (On Education)(1762) suggests children should be allowed an ‘Age of Nature’ covering the period from birth to twelve years. This should be a time in which children be allowed to play and have their natural innocence respected.    It is Rousseau’s emphasis in allowing the child to indulge their natural stages of development which is his legacy to child development. Fredrich Froebel (1782-1852): the pioneer of the kindergarten movement and designer of toy building blocks shared Rousseau’s vision: â€Å"The child, the boy, man indeed should know no other endeavour but to be at every stage of development wholly what this stage calls for† (Froebel 1885). The idea of natural stages of development sets the tone for contemporary teaching templates by setting guidelines for what is considered ‘developmentally appropriate’ practice, especially the balance of play and teaching within early years education. Although Rousseau’s legacy can be illustrated in modern day views of childhood, it is his practical advice about nurturing the Childs natural development, and not his nativist perspective which persists.   John Locke’s theory contrasts both Hobbes and Rousseau’s. He didn’t believe that children were born inherently evil or innocent, but rather a blank slate. He saw the character of childhood as extremely malleable; experience being the sole factor of development. He recommended parents as tutors, responsible for providing the right environment and offering moral guidance in which to shape and nurture their children into mature, rational adults.   Locke was the pioneer of the Educationalist movement. His essay,† Some thoughts concerning education† (1693)asserts that; â€Å"a Childs mind must be educated before he is instructed†.   Although some of his critics accused Locke of â€Å"despiritulising† childhood, his theory permeated throughout society: â€Å"The root of all corruption is poor Education† (Osborne London Journal, 1732.) Locke’s theories echo contemporary debates concerning modern family values. The infamous ‘Back to Basics’ conservative campaign of the early 1990’s suggested that a breakdown in traditional family values was responsible for a degenerating Britain. In May 2002, Patricia Amos was jailed for sixty days because of her daughter’s persistent truancy. Most recently, in response to a spate of teenage shootings in East London in February 2007, leader of the opposition; David Cameron controversially proposed that absent fathers are responsible for an emerging class of feral children.   These attitudes don’t assume that children are passive receivers of their environment as Locke believed, but do demonstrate the huge onus of social responsibility he proposed. Immanuel Kant viewed the key influence on development to be interaction. He agreed with Locke that experience plays a crucial role in learning but argued that knowledge could not arise from what is taken in by the senses alone. Kant acknowledges the child as an active agent in their own development. He deems it unreasonable to assume that children are just passive receivers of external stimuli or blind followers of a pre-determined biological pattern. The precipitator of development becomes the continuous interaction between the two. Both nature and the environment are equally significant. Kant creates the framework for the transactional models of development which assume the child to be an active autonomous agent in their own development and attempt to explain this relationship of cause and effect that they have with their environment.   This is the most popular start point for modern child development theories, such as social constructivist theories.   The religiously dictated views of Hobbes and Romanticism motivated views of Rousseau are unconvincing to a modern audience. Their legacies are derivative of their child rearing advice and not their rigid perspectives. James and Prouts assertion that â€Å"childhood is constructed and reconstructed is convincing enough to dispel these solely nativist theories. Locke’s emphasis on education (although not to the extent he proposed) is echoed by today’s politicians.   It seems reasonable to assume that the real character of childhood is an interactive process between the two as proposed by Kant. .   In the civilised world, the onus of social responsibility to our children has always been great and is growing. Underlining the socially constructed character of childhood has had a great influence on our attitudes; therefore childhood has probably been viewed to a greater extent as a social and cultural process than it has been viewed as a ‘natural process’.

Project Schedule And Budgeting

Project Schedule And Budgeting Project management provides an integrated framework for project organisation, planning and control which is designed to ensure the timely and cost effective productions of all products and services and maintain high quality standard of products and services to satisfy all stakeholders interest. A process approach to project management define step by step procedures that a project manager need to take to effectively manage the project and satisfy all stakeholders interest. For instance, the Risk Management Process will tell how to identify, analyse and monitor project risks more effectively. It also describes the roles and responsibilities of each team member, when taking part in project risk management. A process approach starts with initiations and then goes through planning, implementation, monitoring and control and then finalisation of the project. So a project has a life where it starts and then after a finite period of time it ends. Some projects are small that only matter from some hours whereas some last for years. Because need for specialisation, most of the projects needs multidisciplinary teams. These teams members are most of the time belong to the parent organisation but some of the work are being done by subcontractors, consultants or partners. Organisations that are involved in the projects are sometime find it very difficult to coordinate with each others and this is the big challenge for the project manager to cope with this problem. Time pressure , limited budgets , tight cash flows and uncertainty always require project manager to make trade-offs between these factors with the implicit goals of balancing risks and benefits. Skyscraper (Burj khalifa) World Tallest building in Dubai Burj khalifa is the world tallest building in Dubai with 164 floors. This is an iconic building with the end of the world architecture design and wonder of steel building. With 900 rooms and home of many indoor entertainments, this project was a big challenge. After 6 years, this dream comes true with the silver tower shaped stick standing in the heart of U.A.E. A Process Approach A process is a group of activities that are designed to transform an input into an output. This transformation consists of the data and information, decision making and implementation and control. Firstly, design of a process must address about the data. What can be the data resources, how the data should be collected, stored, retrieved and presented to decision makers. Secondly, the presentation required to decision makers should be clear and transparent. When a real problem is too complicated to solve or some information is missing, simplifying assumption are made and model is developed. Lastly, data and model integration should be used. Data from the database should be integrated with the help of model and then information generated from the model by using data of data based should be presented to the decision makers. A Project process have different stages involve in it.Those are (1) Initiation (2) planning and control (3) closure (2) 3.1 Initiation Every project has a start point. Before start of the project, interest of certain stakeholders is discussed and need for project is finalised. There will be a variety of ideas and opinions about the purpose and scope of the project, what the final product of the project will be, and how the project will be carried out. The Project Initiation Stage is concerned with taking these ideas and intentions and developing them into a formal, planned, resourced and funded project. Burj khalifa was decided by the ruler of Dubai Sheik Muhammad. It was just a theme in the mind of His Highness Mr.Muhammad.Later that theme was discussed and decided to build that building(project).Project is not started yet. But these are the interest of certain stakeholders (3) 3.2 Planning This stage starts with the handing over of project to the organisation or individual who will manage it. Step 1: Project Kick Off The project was kicked off with the handover of assignment to EMAAR (Abu Dahbis biggest construction Company) Step 2: Project Objective Scope In order to define a project in this way, it is first necessary to clearly and explicitly define what the project is intended to achieve and what its scope of interest will be. By defining this first, a benchmark is created for assessing the quality of what is actually produced at the end of the project. So this project was discussed with the members of the government to Dubai to the part of recognition of Dubai as an international business city. The Scope of the project was high as this was $1.5 billion and it was supposed to be an icon for Dubai. The objective of the project was to present Dubai as an international city in front of world. It is also necessary to develop a process by which the project objectives can be achieved. Work Breakdown Structure is a technique to draw the structure of the process that needs to be done in the project. A WBS diagram expresses the project scope in simple graphic terms. The diagram starts with a single box or other graphic at the top to represen t the entire project. The project is then divided into components, with related activities listed under them. Generally, the upper components are the deliverables and the lower level elements are the activities that create the deliverables. (4) (2) http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/pmbok.html (3) http://burj-khalifa.eu/featured/tall-order (4) htttp://www.brighthub.com/office/project-management/articles/2645.aspx Step 3: Project Schedule and Budgeting Project was scheduled to complete in 4 years but it finished in 6 years. Starting time was January 2004 and it was planned to finished in 2008.Its budget was $1.5 billion. There are different tools and technique that can be used to manage schedule and budgeting. One is Gantt chart that is around for many years. These are excellent models for scheduling and for budgeting, and for reporting and presenting and communicating project plans and progress easily and quickly, but as a rule Gantt Charts are not as good as a Critical Path Analysis Flow Diagram for identifying and showing interdependent factors, or for mapping a plan from and/or into all of its detailed causal or contributing elements. Critical Path Analysis is another technique that is being used for the scheduling of the project. This method calculates the minimum completion time for a project along with the possible start and finish times for the project activities. Indeed, many texts and managers regard critical path schedul ing as the only usable and practical scheduling procedure. Computer programs and algorithms for critical path scheduling are widely available and can efficiently handle projects with thousands of activities. (5) Step 4: Project Organization A South Korean company South Korean company, Samsung Engineering Construction, which also did work on the PETRONAS twin towers and Taipei 101. Step 5: Project Control Procedures Control of every stage of the process is important as this will affect the next stage. This process will typically involve carrying out a number of tasks and producing a number of products during the course of the project. The tasks produce the products. For clarity of purpose and for control reasons it is useful to arrange these tasks in a top down structure, which progressively specify the required work in more detail. Burj khalifa tower project was divided into several small chunks and then each stage was control with a different procedure. Step 6: Project Initiation Stage Assessment Initial stage also defines what resources and associated time commitment are required to carry out the project. The work breakdown structure provides a basis from which this estimation can be carried out. The resource and time commitment can be used to calculate an end date for the project and an estimate of its cost. Resources needed for Burj khalifa was important to manage the flow of work. Steel was used in a very big amount which was imported from India. As the land of Dubai is mostly sand and for the safety purpose, the basement was filled with the soil from other part of the world. The overall project schedule is not in detail to enable the allocation of actual resources to tasks, or to control progress. It is very important to produce a more detailed plan for these purposes. This detailed plan is only produced for the next stage of the project, usually covering an elapsed time of two to four months. (5)http://pmbook.ce.cmu.edu/10_Fundamental_Scheduling_Procedures.html The way the project is managed and executed is the key to its success. The involvement of the right people for data capture and decision making is also very important. It is necessary to recruit these people at the start of the project and to define the project organization structure. It is also necessary to establish the procedures that will be used by the people in the Project Organization Structure to carry out and control the project work. Step 7: Business Case Finally, in order to establish a resourced and funded project, it is necessary to establish a clear and convincing business case for the project. This business case should be reviewed, and hopefully accepted by management. The business case will identify the projected benefits of meeting the objectives of the project, and balance these against the costs and risks associated with realizing these benefits. The business case can also be used as a benchmark to compare against actual results, costs and benefits in order to assess the ultimate success of the project. The Project Initiation stage is described here as a sequence of steps. In reality, once the objective and scope have been defined, many of these steps occur in parallel, and the step products are developed iteratively, since there are many dependencies between the steps. It is necessary to plan the Project Initiation stage, albeit in an informal manner. Therefore it is important to create a Project Initiation Kick off Plan sch eduling the activities and resources. (6) 3.3 Execution During this stage of the project, the focus should be on carrying out the work planned for the stage there are many project management activities that need to be carried out in addition to the project work itself .These activities are arranged into a series of steps. A step to initiate the stage, steps that are carried out on an on-going basis throughout the stage, steps that are carried out at the end of the stage and a step that is only carried out in an exception situation. To control the follow of the process and to manage activities during the process stages, project manager should monitor and control project progress, through the use of regular checkpoints involving the project team and formal reviews with project board. Also, quality of the product and changes in the baselined products are also managed. There can be many issues that arose during the processes and those issues should be removed. The constructions of Burj Khalifa was not easy as the building moves on, the filling of concrete into the walls was a problem. The vertical method was used to put the concrete from the top. It was a risky as well as technical challenge. Also, the use of heavy machinery from the top and how to fix that machinery on the top was also an issue of safety. Several of the activities will result in changes to the stage schedule. The Stage Manager should ensure that these changes are made smoothly, and that these changes are communicated to all concerned. Any changes made to individual work assignments should be confirmed in the regular checkpoint meetings. If there as any issue arises during any stage then stage plan will be changed to manage that deviation. (6)http://dijest.com/tools/pmworkbench/pmtemplates/pmoredocs/pmprocess.htm 3.4 Monitoring and Control The documents of all the processed and stages should be managed and update regularly. Electronic and hardcopy file structures are set up to consistently maintain and administer project management and development products. All documentation procedures for the stage should be established and the team should understand what these are for, how they are used, and what their individual responsibilities are. Emaar establish a database for the Burj Khalifa project to monitor all the process and to discuss it with all the management involved in the process to show what is going on. This enables the project manager and other staff to communicate each other more precisely and take appropriate action if there is any deviation. The whole project was broken down into small projects and whole team was divided into small project teams who control these small projects. A Project Board of Burj Khalifa is the executive authority of a project. It authorizes the project to proceed, approve any change or if possible stop the project. It enters in to a contract with the Project Manager through the Project Initiation, Project and Stage Plans, to provide the executive support and resources required to execute a project which will deliver the specified products to schedule and budget. The Project Board should view the project as an investment intended to yield gain business benefits. Failure to achieve those benefits reflects as much upon the control exercised by the Project Board as it does on the execution of responsibilities by the Project Manager and Project Team. The Project Board meet at the end of each stage, including Project Initiation, to review the achievements of the concluded stage and authorize proceeding to the next. Project Manager schedule standing Project Board meetings at the beginning of the project. Confirm the logistics of the next mee ting, namely date, time and conference room. Also, project manager report to the Project Board the results of the Post Implementation Review.This assess the performance of the new system against the objectives planned. It also identifies and captures metrics and factors that will improve the development process.PERT analysis is used to monitor the activities along with Gantt chart and CPA (Critical Path analysis) 3.5 Project Closure Every project has a life. It starts and then after some time it ends. All good things must come to an end. Projects are designed to end at some point that is the nature of project work. Burj Khalifa project started in Jan 2004 and it finished in Jan 2010.To gain maximum benefit from a project, the project went through a formal close down.There may be some outstanding work that needs to be carried out on the products of the project.The project will have been using several lists and tracking mechanisms, such as the change request log and the issues log.These need to be formally closed.The members of the Project Organization will have learnt how to carry out this type of project better in the future, and will have a better idea of how long the various activities on this type of project will take to do.These learnings should be captured for future use.There will be a lot of information generated during a project, and this will have been stored with varying degrees of formality by the me mbers of the Project Organization.This information needs to be formally filed away for possible future use.By this time in the project,all project work should have been completed, and the products of the project should have been accepted by the customers.It is possible however, that the final products do not fully meet the original objectives and requirements.Before the project is completely finished, any outages in the products should be identified and evaluated.If it is decided that the outages need to be fixed, it will be necessary to set up a mechanism to carry this out.This may be by a new project,or a maintenance program.Make sure that the evaluation includes an evaluation against the Business Success Criteria that were defined during the Project Initiation Stage.However, it is also important to evaluate the overall quality of the final product in respect of its ability to meet current requirements.Review the changes that are recommended to the process used on the project. Exa mine each change and decide if it is likely to apply to future projects of this type.Change the standard process based on these reasons.(7) Project in which Scheduling is not important As all the projects have an integral part i.e. scheduling. Scheduling is an important part of any project as this break down the work in small chunks that are easy to manage. But there are some projects in which scheduling are not important. For example the project of US war with Afghanistan. War is started but there is not set schedule of procedding.Plans are changing within an hours or days but no clear schedule .There are no stages involve as everything happening as the change of weather. Although this project has a starting point and there will be an ending point but there is not set process for that. Work Breakdown Structure A challenging project is made manageable by first breaking it down into individual components in the work breakdown structure, or the WBS.This is a hierarchical structure that shows that main part and then its subparts.This is divided into small chunks that can easily be managed by the management as compared to whole big project. Such a structure defines tasks that can be completed independently of other tasks, facilitating resource allocation, assigning responsibilities to different people, and measurement and control of the project. Each organization uses its own terminology for Work Breakdown Structure components according to their own needs. For example, some organizations refer to different levels as main tasks, sub-tasks, and work packages, as shown below. Others use the different terms phases, entries, and activities. The WBS may be organized around deliverables or phases of the project life cycle. Higher levels in the structure generally are performed by groups. The lowest level in the hierarchy often comprises activities performed by individuals, though a WBS that emphasizes deliverables does not necessarily specify activities. (7) http://theconstructor.org/structures/burj-khalifa-dubai-opening-ceremony/1003/ The breaking down of a project into its component parts facilitates resource allocation and the assignment of individual responsibilities. Care should be taken to use a proper level of detail when creating the WBS. On the one extreme, a very high level of detail is likely to result in micro-management. On the other extreme, the tasks may become too large to manage effectively. Defining tasks so that their duration is between several days and a few months works well for most projects.(8) Below is the work breakdown structure used in construction and related to Burj khalifa 8 (8)http://www.netmba.com/operations/project/wbs/ (9)Case study about scope-cost-time integrated model with work breakdown structure http://cife.stanford.edu/online.publications/WP115.pdf Gantt charts Gantt Charts are very useful project management tools that is used mostly in scheduling and budgeting. The Gantt chart is named after US engineer and consultant Henry Gantt (1861-1919) who devised the technique in the 1910s. Gantt charts are excellent models for scheduling and for budgeting, and for reporting and presenting and communicating project plans and progress quickly. Gantt chart can be constructed by using MS Excel. Every activity has a separate bar. Create a time-line for the duration of the project.Colour can be used to show the time blocks to denote type of activity (for example, digging, piling, concreting, finishing, etc.). A Gantt chart can be used to keep track of progress for each activity and how the costs are running. In Burj khalifa project, Gantt chart helps to manage step by step activity. The time blocks around can be moved to report on actuals versus planned, and to re-schedule, and to create new plan updates. Costs columns can show plan and actuals and variances, and calculate whatever totals, averages, ratios, etc., that you need. Gantt Charts are probably the most flexible and useful of all project management tools, but remember they do not very easily or obviously show the im portance and inter-dependence of related parallel activities, and they wont obviously show the necessity to complete one task before another can begin. Project planning tools naturally become used also for subsequent project reporting, presentations, etc., and you will make life easier for everyone if you use formats that people recognize and find familiar. (10) Critical Path Analysis Critical path analysis / method are an effective way to analyse complex projects.CPA represents the critical set of activities to complete a project. Critical path helps us to focus on important activities which are critical to run the project. Once the critical activities are identified, we can devote good resources and prioritize the same accordingly. CPA also gives us a very good basis for scheduling and monitoring for progress.One of the most important thing it does is allows the project manager to concentrate on important activities. This method takes the longest time then the other methods. (10) http://www.businessballs.com/project.htm (11) Mind Mapping Case Study to Support Gantt chart method http://www.matchware.com/en/forms/mindview2%20case%20studies/case_history_form.pdf CPM models the activities and events of a project as a network. Activities are presented as nodes on the network and events that signify the beginning or ending of activities are presented with lines between the nodes. The above is an example of a CPM network diagram. (13) Success of Burj Khalifa Project Burj Khalifa was not just a project. Its a milestone in the history of Dubai which enhances the projection of Dubai in the modern world. As we land on Dubai airport, this tower welcomes you with its shinning image from Arabian Sea. Its a design of human intelligence which satisfied all its stakeholders with nothing below then positivity. As this is the tallest tower, the gravity was an issue which was solved with the design. The success of the project is that it is the only highest man made tower on the earth which was completed finally in 2010. Secondly, the world famous designer ARMANI opens its store in the tower. Also, the world famous business is going to open their offices in that tower. Summary Project management of a powerful field with its knowledge of managing from a small activity to massive project.This field is very interesting in the sense that it provides step by step approach to finish a particular job. I researched many case studies from a construction to the Deli Olympics, from Football World cup to Cricket World cup events. I did not mention these events in my assignments but I try to find similarities of managing these projects. Although there are not much difference between the methods used in these events but there are certain requirements that are required for a particular projects. I am working as a manager in a retain chain and I observe these methods of project in my work indirectly. I am very much interested in project manager in my future and I found these approaches useful for the implications of my job role. I understand from this module that as a project manager how can I initiate, plane, control, monitor and close my projects. Before this module, I was not aware of the role of project manager. I was taking this job as a normal person job that just purchases material and give it to employees and just look around. But after understanding this module and its different aspects, I come to the point that project management is an important field in every aspects of human life from inside a living house to an international consignment. The interest in this role to me is the different stages those are involved in this field. As a project manager the changes that I will make in my approach are Documents all the activities Work Break down into small chunks (12) Case Study of baking a loaf of bread to support Critical path analysis http://tutor2u.net/business/production/critical-path-analysis.htm (13)http://www.netmba.com/operations/project/cpm/ Manage each stage separately Communicate my plan with my staff effectively Evaluate each activity Monitor each activity Control of the workflow Reference http://www.gizmag.com/go/3555/picture/7485/ http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/pmbok.html http://burj-khalifa.eu/featured/tall-order http://www.brighthub.com/office/project-management/articles/2645.aspx http://pmbook.ce.cmu.edu/10_Fundamental_Scheduling_Procedures.html http://dijest.com/tools/pmworkbench/pmtemplates/pmoredocs/pmprocess.htm http://theconstructor.org/structures/burj-khalifa-dubai-opening-ceremony/1003/ http://www.netmba.com/operations/project/wbs/ Case study about scope-cost-time integrated model with work breakdown structure http://cife.stanford.edu/online.publications/WP115.pdf http://www.businessballs.com/project.htm Mind Mapping Case Study http://www.matchware.com/en/forms/mindview2%20case%20studies/case_history_form.pdf Baking a Loaf of Bread Case Study http://tutor2u.net/business/production/critical-path-analysis.htm http://www.netmba.com/operations/project/cpm/

The Lottery :: essays research papers

In the days of Jesus through the mid 1900’s, people had many different superstitions, or beliefs, about life. People believed if they were to do certain things, they would have good luck. Like Indians used to do a dance, called the â€Å"Indian rain dance†, when they wanted it to rain so it would help their crops or even their heritage. It was a dance people still believe in today, but those people don’t know that the reason they said it worked was because the Indians didn’t quit dancing until it rained. There are many superstitions in today’s time as well. I know that in the game of baseball many different players have different superstitions. Just like David Wells, when he used to pitch for the New York Yankees, believed if he listened to Metallica before every game he pitched he would have a good game. But regardless if David Wells listened to Metallica or not, he would still pitch the same if he didn’t listen to them. All I am saying is that Shirley Jackson, when she wrote The Lottery, in 1948, was trying to show everyone about the different superstitions, or beliefs, each culture, town, or village had and how bad they were. Even the kids in the village got ready for the lottery, it didn’t faze them, and all they knew was that it was just an event that happened every year. After all, villages, tribes, or cultures have many different traditions they all tend to put their full trust in. The lottery is a drawing that takes place on June 27th of every year, right before the crop season. Everyone who lives in the village, even the children, draws a piece of paper from the black box and doesn’t look at it until everyone draws theirs. When everyone finishes drawing, you turn your piece of paper over and the one with the mark on in, which is marked with coal, is the one who wins the lottery. But if you this lottery it isn’t a good thing. The person who wins the lottery, the one with the marked sheet of paper, gets stoned to death. The villagers believe that if they have a lottery before cropping season they will have a good season. This is one of those beliefs, or superstitions, they have that makes everyone think that everything is going to become good.

White Collar Crime Essay -- corporate crime computer criminal essays p

In this paper the exciting criminal phenomenon known as white-collar crime will be discussed. Corporate Crime and Computer Crime will be discussed in detail. Crime preventative agencies such as the NCPC (National Crime Prevention Council) will also be researched. White Collar Crime The late Professor Edwin Sutherland coined the term white-collar crime about 1941. Sutherland defined white-collar crime as "a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation" (Siegel 337) White-collar crime includes, by way of example, such acts as promulgating false or misleading advertising, illegal exploitation of employees, mislabeling of goods, violation of weights and measures statutes, conspiring to fix prices, evading corporate taxes, computer crimes, and so on. White-collar crime is most distinctively defined in terms of attitudes toward those who commit it. These crimes are punishable by law; however it is generally regarded by the courts and by sections of the general public as much less reprehensible than crimes usually punished by the courts. The other types of crime are blue-collar offenses, which are predominately crimes of the under-privileged. White-collar crimes are punished far less harshly than blue-collar crimes, which shows societies attitudes towards the two sections of society. White-collar crime is attractive to criminals because it brings material rewards with little or no loss of status. (Taft & England 201) For some, white-collar crime is not viewed as a "crime" at all, because of its non-violent nature. Violent crime has an immediate and observable impact on its victim which raises the ire of the public, whereas white-collar crime frequently goes undetected or is viewed as a bending of the rules. Yet white-collar crime can create the greater havoc. The victim of an assault will recover; however, the impact of a fraud can last a lifetime. This is especially true when the elderly are victimized, as they have little or no hope of re-establishing themselves in financial terms. Contrary to the popular belief, white-collar criminals are thieves and the methods used to conceal their offenses are both artful and ingenious. Concealment of the crime is always an objective of the offender, and it becomes an element of the crime itself. Because it is an artful form of deceit, which is skillfully disguised, the ... ...ovide financial resources, they provide management skills, marketing expertise, and creative synergy to all of NCPC's programs. In October of 1994, RadioShack joined forces with NCPC and the National Sheriffs' Association to form United Against Crime, a public-private alliance which offers a multi-year, free education program on crime prevention. The partnership is one of the largest public-private sector crime prevention initiatives ever undertaken and was formed to empower people to take action that will result in less crime, stronger families, and more active communities. RadioShack has underwritten the cost of the alliance's program and is devoting space in each of its 7,200 electronic retail stores to showcase crime prevention information centers. Since August 1995, RadioShack has provided resources and introduced quarterly satellite crime prevention trainings for law enforcement, community leaders, and the public in over 150 sites. United Against Crime has been recognized b y the Public Relations Society of New York with the Big Apple Award for Community Relations and by the International Association of Business Communications with the ACE Award for Community Relations. White Collar Crime Essay -- corporate crime computer criminal essays p In this paper the exciting criminal phenomenon known as white-collar crime will be discussed. Corporate Crime and Computer Crime will be discussed in detail. Crime preventative agencies such as the NCPC (National Crime Prevention Council) will also be researched. White Collar Crime The late Professor Edwin Sutherland coined the term white-collar crime about 1941. Sutherland defined white-collar crime as "a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation" (Siegel 337) White-collar crime includes, by way of example, such acts as promulgating false or misleading advertising, illegal exploitation of employees, mislabeling of goods, violation of weights and measures statutes, conspiring to fix prices, evading corporate taxes, computer crimes, and so on. White-collar crime is most distinctively defined in terms of attitudes toward those who commit it. These crimes are punishable by law; however it is generally regarded by the courts and by sections of the general public as much less reprehensible than crimes usually punished by the courts. The other types of crime are blue-collar offenses, which are predominately crimes of the under-privileged. White-collar crimes are punished far less harshly than blue-collar crimes, which shows societies attitudes towards the two sections of society. White-collar crime is attractive to criminals because it brings material rewards with little or no loss of status. (Taft & England 201) For some, white-collar crime is not viewed as a "crime" at all, because of its non-violent nature. Violent crime has an immediate and observable impact on its victim which raises the ire of the public, whereas white-collar crime frequently goes undetected or is viewed as a bending of the rules. Yet white-collar crime can create the greater havoc. The victim of an assault will recover; however, the impact of a fraud can last a lifetime. This is especially true when the elderly are victimized, as they have little or no hope of re-establishing themselves in financial terms. Contrary to the popular belief, white-collar criminals are thieves and the methods used to conceal their offenses are both artful and ingenious. Concealment of the crime is always an objective of the offender, and it becomes an element of the crime itself. Because it is an artful form of deceit, which is skillfully disguised, the ... ...ovide financial resources, they provide management skills, marketing expertise, and creative synergy to all of NCPC's programs. In October of 1994, RadioShack joined forces with NCPC and the National Sheriffs' Association to form United Against Crime, a public-private alliance which offers a multi-year, free education program on crime prevention. The partnership is one of the largest public-private sector crime prevention initiatives ever undertaken and was formed to empower people to take action that will result in less crime, stronger families, and more active communities. RadioShack has underwritten the cost of the alliance's program and is devoting space in each of its 7,200 electronic retail stores to showcase crime prevention information centers. Since August 1995, RadioShack has provided resources and introduced quarterly satellite crime prevention trainings for law enforcement, community leaders, and the public in over 150 sites. United Against Crime has been recognized b y the Public Relations Society of New York with the Big Apple Award for Community Relations and by the International Association of Business Communications with the ACE Award for Community Relations.