Thursday, October 31, 2019

Samsung Group Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Samsung Group - Research Paper Example The company was founded in 1938 by Lee Byung-chull in Daegu City. The company’s first name of incorporation was Samsung Sanghoe. The company started off small with forty employees. It was initially a trading company whose dealings involved locally grown groceries and noodles. After the progress of the enterprise and its flourishing, the owner of the business decided to move Samsung Sanghoe to Seoul. Byung-chull had to move the company to Busan during the Korean War, and the company started trading in a woolen mill. The company then diversified to different regions in the world and begun to trade in various commodities. The company became Samsung Group in 1947 after the two founders of Samsung Trading Corporation went into conflict. Samsung Group went into the electronics business in the 1960s. There were several electronic divisions’ formation from the company. The first product from Samsung Electronics was a black and white television. The company entered the telecommunications market in the 1980s(SG, 2011). The earliest products from the company were switchboards. The company rose to become an international company in the 1990s exporting their products to Europe and America. They were the world’s largest producers of memory chips in 1992. The company is notable in being able to survive the 1997 Asian market crisis. The company eventually moved to Digital television and Smartphones in the 2000s. It was possible for them as they opened a computer programming lab in Warsaw, Poland. It is the largest producer of smartphones in terms of unit sales.

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Hunting and mindset Essay Example for Free

Hunting and mindset Essay I believe if you have a fixed mindset it’s never too late to change and adapt to a growth mindset. The growth mindset will lead you to try new things but a fixed mindset will stop you in your tracks causing you only to fail. The type of mindset you have is very important because it will influence your life in many ways. What is the difference between a growth and fixed mindset? Well a growth or positive mindset leads to a desire to learn and therefore a tendency to embrace challenges, persist in the face of setbacks, see effort as the path to mastery, and learn from criticism, and find lessons in the success of others. As a result you will reach even higher levels of achievement. A fixed or negative mindset leads to a tendency to look smart at any cost. Therefore a tendency to avoid challenges, give up easily, see effort as fruitless or worse, ignore useful negative feedback, and feel threatened by the success of others. As a result you will plateau early and achieve less than your full potential. Some of the ways a positive mind set affected my life happened early in my life. For example when I was ten years old I went to camp seven hills and took on archery. It was really hard but I learned it very quickly and never gave up. When I got home from camp I asked my dad if I could go hunting with him once I was old enough and he told me girls cant hunt we are too weak. Because I had a growth mindset I never gave up I practiced without my father every day for three years. I got my hunting license when I was thirteen and went with my friend mike and his parents to their cabin in Olean NY. It was really cold out that day I remember shaking while perched up in my tree I wanted to give up so bad but I wanted to prove my dad wrong and show him that girls can hunt. Finally a 8 point buck walks in my range I got my bow ready and breathing slowly I pull back the arrow aim for the kill spot let go WAMM right threw his lungs. I was so excited knowing I just proved to my father that I can do anything I put my mind to. After I turned fifteen I started to develop more of a fixed mindset towards school which affected my life in many ways. It all started with failing one test and my life spiraled downhill from there. It was 2003 and I thought I was on top of the world I could pass any test without studying and I thought I knew everything, but what I didn’t know is how this stuck up attitude was going to change my life in a huge way. I walked into my class head in the clouds sad down and looked at my test â€Å"spelling ha this is going to be easy† I muttered. I flew through the test handed it in and walked out. The next day I got to class and my teacher handed me my test my jaw dropped â€Å"this has to be a mistake I couldn’t of got only a 63% on my test you had to grade it wrong† I yelled to the teacher. She gave me detention for yelling at her in class but I didn’t bother going I was so mad. I started skipping school and going to parties because at this point I started not to care anymore. When I got home one day my dad grounded me because the school called him and mentioned my behavior to him. I was so mad I ran away from home and started drinking and doing drugs. This caused me to get put in a detention center when I was sixteen and when I got out I moved in with my mother because she didn’t care what I did. Now twenty-three I have started to work at getting back into a positive mindset so I can be a good role model for my daughter. In order for someone to adopt a growth mindset, they would have to care about what their mindset is, understand why they act the way they do, and understand that they can change, and the reason for change, which would be to become a better person, which they would also have to care about. Our mindset will affect us in many ways and it can also affect the people around us which are why we should try to keep a growth mindset.

Sunday, October 27, 2019

How The Internet Changed Our Lives

How The Internet Changed Our Lives Electronic communication system is an array of systems that can help us transmit the information over long distances, in electronic format, i.e., in the form of flow of electronic current. Electronic communication can include the types of various forms of the communication types. They can be radio communication, internet communication, mobile phone communication, landline phone communication etc. The electronic communication is now an integral part of the human life and the scope of this communication is beyond limits. Electronic communication has brought the world too near and no corner is beyond the reach of one or the other communication forms. From Letters to e-mails and web communications, the progress is noteworthy. Television and radio communication have enabled the spread of mass media to a very large extent. The revolution of the electronic communication started with the invention of the telegraph. The only limiting factor in the case was the need of copper wires for transmission, which proved costly. But the advent of radio communication proved a boon in the case for far away and distant communications. After the expansion of the radio spectrums, the possibilities in the fields of the wireless communications have given various potentials for communication systems. The essence of making each and everything accessible, communicable, and reachable within a few clicks has been made possible by something known as INTERNET. This is the keyword of the topic of the term paper, and as such, much of the emphasis would be given on this topic, over the other forms of electronic communication systems. Internet has led to an economic prosperity, and the development of intelligent search engines has enabled man to search for any information within a few clicks and in a matter of micro seconds. The World Wide Web, which is known as www, is growing exuberantly. It already has billions of pages, and is growing at the rate of millions of pages per day. Hardly is there any sort of topic which has no finding on the internet. Computers are already an integral part of our life, and as such, the internet has enabled the users to connect on a worldwide level. Communication System A communication system has various channels which are staged in such a way that communication is carried out with the most possible efficiency. A typical communication system has the following channels: Transmitter Medium Receiver Transmitter: this unit mainly functions for the conversion of a signal into the form which can be transmitted over further distances. This may include Transducers, amplifiers, modulators etc. Medium: this is the channel in which the signal propagates. This is mostly air in wireless communications. While radio waves can propagate in any medium, including vacuum. This is sometimes referred to as PROPAGATION channel, or PHYSICAL channel. The most recent development is in the form of OFCs, the optic fibre cable, which as a high efficiency, and enormous speed. Receiver: this unit receives the signal, converts it to the desired form for reception, and presents it to the receiving end. This unit includes antenna assembly, amplifiers, demodulators, receiver units etc. There are some important aspects in the electronic communication systems which can be highlighted: Modulation: the process of imposition of weak signal over a strong carrier signal is known as modulation. Modulation generally requires the use of high frequency signals, as the low frequency signals cannot be transmitted over long distances. Modulation also helps in conversion of the digital signals to analog forms for transmission over a distance. AM, FM and PM are the forms of modulation. FM is the most used forms of modulations in the general forms of communications. Analog and Digital signals: these are the properties of signals which distinguish them b/w continuous of discrete signals. Analog signals are continuous signals, which are defined at each and every instant of time, while the digital signals are discrete signals. They are defined only after a particular interval of time. Here, the blue continuous lines represent the analog signal, while the red dotted patterns show the digital or discrete values of the signals. Types of modulation: Amplitude Modulation- AM works by varying the strength of the transmitted signal in relation to the information being sent. Frequency Modulation-It is the process of conveying the information over a carrier wave by varying its instantaneous frequency . Phase modulation-Phase modulation (PM) is a form of modulation that represents information as variations in the instantaneous phase of a carrier wave. Internet in our daily Life Now, I would start to emphasise on the main topic of the term paper, Use of internet in our daily life. Around 10 years ago, hardly the 20% of the population of India would have heard about this word. Yet a lesser quantity would have used the internet even once. But now, imagining the life without internet is something which is really beyond our scope. It is the internet which has revolutionized the each and every sphere of our day to day life. How internet works? This is the diagram which tells us how the internet communication takes place. The key factor here is the ISP which helps to link between the user and the Main internet. Major ISPs in India: An ISP or the Internet Service Provider is some agency which links a user, who can be an individual or a group. An ISP may provide internet access through a dedicated line, a telephone line or the Wireless modems. A list of major ISPs in India is as below: BSNL MTNL Bharti Airtel Connect Idea InfoTech SIFY Reliance Tata Indicom BSNL and MTNL are the government sector companies; they together occupy 56% of the total market share. Airtel is the leader amongst others. Channels of internet access: Narrow-band telephone line- This is a particularly dial up type connection which provides a low bandwidth connection. The speed of the internet communication is a maximum of 56 kbps in this type of connection. This type of system uses a PSTN or PUBLIC SWITCHED TELEPHONE NETWORK. The user has to dial a number from the computer to get connected. A dial up modem in the computer encodes and decodes the packet signals, which are known as Internet Packet signals. This is a type of dial up modem which is used in the computers for dial up connections. This type of modem is generally internally fitted in the computers. All telephone lines work at a maximum signal speed of 64 kbps. 8 kbps has to be excluded out for the transfer guard band. As a result, the maximum possible speed in a dial up network can be 56kbps. But the major factor in this regard is that if there are a number of users, there would be traffic in the telephone exchange. As a result the speed would gradually decrease. It was often noticed in earlier days that during peak hours, the speed used to be around 10-15kbps while in non-peak hours; the speed could reach to around 40kbps. But it hardly reached to the top notch of 50+. The major drawback in this system that lead to its failure was not only the speed. This type of connection was billed in the terms of duration of connection. That means, whether it is transmitting or not, it will cost the user, regardless of the speed and amount of data transfer. The user was charged for net connection, as well as the telephone cost as a result, it would cause a high rise in the telephone bills of the users. Costs to the users: Till date, only BSNL and Connect have provided the dial up connection to the users. BSNL charges Rs. 6 per hour for the connection, and rupees 2 per 15 minutes of call connection. This implies that for one hour, a person is charged rupees 14. If the average speed is 40 kbps, the person can download 18 MB of data in an hour. But speed hardly reaches till 40 kbps. As a result, the fluctuation in the bandwidth would result it to be too expensive to the user. Present Scenario: At present, only BSNL is providing a dial up service. But this service has a limited number of users, mostly in the areas where the broadband has not reached, or the users who do not want to buy broadband due to very less usage. A majority of the user group has upgraded to the broadband internet. Future: The only dial up connection provider BSNL has decided to continue the dial up networking till the broadband reaches to the most remote areas. There is no scope of improvement in this channel of internet communication as it has already reached its limits. There is no chance of defying these limits. Advantages: This channel has practically no advantages over other channels of internet transmission, if we compare it to other types. This was the first form of internet communication to the public. This paved the ways for other types of internet. Wired Broadband Internet: This is the most used form of internet in the world. This type of internet is the most versatile and the most wide channel one, which can be transmitted over a wide variety of lines. They include the telephone lines, the television cable, dedicated lines etc. A broadband connection is the one which has a minimum bandwidth of 256 kbps. It is the high speed channel of internet communication. The major advantage of this network is that the number of users in this type of networks generally does not affect the speed. Also, the phone lines through which the line has been connected can be used both for phone as well as the internet connection simultaneously. It does not affect the quality in each of the channels as both of them work on completely different bandwidths. How Broadband Works A broadband connection works on the Digital Subscriber Line system. In this system, the internet signals are sent through the telephone cable on a completely higher frequency. Indian ISPs mostly use ADSL (Asymmetric DSL) system. In this type of system, the uplink and downlink bandwidths are different. The downlink is always much more than the uplink one. Bandwidths: Indian service providers give a bandwidth with starts from 256 kbps and at the most they give it to 4 Mbps. This bandwidth is very low as compared to the other developed countries where the bandwidth goes to around 7-50 Mbps. In Sri Lanka itself, the minimum broadband bandwidth is 8 Mbps. India has a lot to go in this context. Modems: Currently, Indian markets have two types of modems: Type-1 ADSL Modems: These are the LAN cable connection modems. These types of modems are used for wired connections. These modems modulate and demodulate the internet packet signals at the uplink and downlink frequency. These modems are connected to the computers through an 8-wire LAN cable. These modems have a strong security system. The reason is that these modems can be connected only through a cable. As such, the unauthorised access can be prevented. Most of the ISPs provide the modems with the service. The chief brands of Type-1 modems available in the market are: Huawei- Its a Chinese brand, the cheapest and the least reliable. It costs in the range of around Rs 1200. This is not a good brand, YET BSNL is providing these modems to maximise its profit. D-Link- This is a Taiwan made brand, comparatively better. It has some added security features like PSK. The cost is around Rs. 1400. UT STARCOM- this is one of the best brands of this type of modems available here. It is totally user customisable, has an upgradable firmware system and the host security features. It costs around Rs. 1500. Type-2 ADSL Modems- These types of modems are the WLAN enabled modems. These modems are comparatively less secure as the other counterparts, but are more easy to use as well as they comprise a wireless broadband network. They are sometimes also called as Wi-Fi routers. They have a range of around 100 metres of wireless LAN communication. They can connect a maximum of 20 computers to the maximum. The chief brands available are: D-Link- as discussed earlier, this type of modem has better security features. Costs around 2000 Rs. UT STARCOM- This is the best brand. Costs around 2400 Rs. Has a totally upgradable firmware system. Plus, this is the only modem in the category which gives a 3-level security. These levels are: Admin level: Admin can access, edit, reset, change, and control all the other terminals. User Level: They can just access the main security module, but can change, edit or reset their own module only. Support Level: it has equal privileges of an Admin, but only with his permission. WIRELESS BROADBAND: This is the newest entry in the segment of public sector broadband connection. In this type of broadband, the ISPs provide the broadband over the mobile telephone frequency channels. A SIM card is given to the user, which can be inserted in the simcard slot of the laptop of the user, or he can purchase a USB modem which is configured for the purpose. Currently Reliance, Aritel, Tata Photon and BSNL are in this market. This type of broadband is mostly costly, and the speeds vary from 256 kbps-1Mbps at the most. This is usually not value for money. Reason being a typical plan costs from Rs. 700-3000, which is too costly for a normal user. The costs of USB modems are also very high. As per 18/10/10, the prices are: BSNL- Rs.3400 for modem, and plans start from Rs.300 Reliance- 2800 for the modem and plans start from 500. Tata- 2400 for the modem, plans start from 350. Airtel- 3000 for the modem, plans start from Rs. 900. So, we can imagine that the plans are too costly for the reach of common man. This is the main reason why this segment is not so popular with the people. 3G communication in mobile pioneered by BSNL has brought a cheaper version of mobile broadband. This has achieved a bandwidth of maximum of 512 kbps and still has a scope of improvement. The best advantage is that the Plans start from just Rs. 25. THE FUTURE- OPTICAL FIBRES This channel of the internet communication is still not available in the public domain. Optical fibres work on the principal of the modulation of signal with the carrier frequencies of that of the spectrum of light. Light travels at the speed of 3108 m/s. as such, the data transfer in this case would be at a very high speed. This channel of transmission has not even been utilised to calculate its limits. The reason behing this is that we do not have such equipments that can transmit at such a high speed. Till date, data has been transferred through this channel at a maximum speed of 4 Gbps (gigabits per second). This is still a fraction of its limit. A single OFC can transmit thousands of channels without a single noise. Also, this channel has a negligible resistance. As such, data loss rates are very very low. It has been estimated that the OFCs can transmit internet at the speed of around 40 Tbps (tera bits per second). This is still an estimate. The original figure may go even higher. Currently, no public sector company in India is providing the OFC internet. Only the defence forces (Indian Army and Air Force) are using it. Limiting factors in the use of OFC: The reason that the OFC internet communication system is still in the pipleine is that the technology needed to harness this channel speed to the maximum is still not available. Light travels at a speed of 300000000 m/s. if the signals are modulated to the suitable carrier, then the signal travelling at such a fast speed would practically give a really fast communication. How internet has changed our lives? Today we are living in 21st century i.e. In science era. Science and technology has modernised our lives and has made our life full of comforts. Means of Telecommunication and means of transportation are really a god gift for us..we cant imagine our lives without internet, television, etc. Internet has brought us together. It has united the wider gulfs across the oceans. we can have our access to any other part of world by just sitting at our home. It provides us various facilities. A student can have its access to internet as well as a person working can also use this internet in its own way. It is beneficial for all. Communication: We used to write letters to stay in touch with those far away, and if our correspondent was very special, we would use our trusty film camera to take some photos before taking the resultant film to the camera shop for developing waiting anywhere from an hour to a week to get the prints. Wed then hand over the cash, go home, put everything in the envelope, stick a stamp on it and post it off. Nowadays, we grab our digital camera, take as many shots as we want, upload them directly on to our PCs, attach a copy to an e-mail and send it off into the ether. We can store, share, and order prints for our photographs from the same service. Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter and countless other websites have made social networking as easy as it could be. One cannot be too far away from his near and dear ones. People from all age groups spend time over these sites. Not only this, celebrities, VIP dignitaries, government officials etc. have their own portals on sites like twitter. Blogging is the trend of the new generation and with the help of your blog, you can share your likes and dislikes with the world . Reservation , banking : Now Internet can be also used for banking , reservation purposes . You can operate your bank account from your pc, view the account reports, report etc. by just sitting at your home . Even Railway and Airline reservation can be done with the help of   a click . Now there is no need to stand in queues and wait . Just open the site, click and book and your work is done.   Even shopping can be done by sitting at a desktop. Business: Internet is also used for expanding your business by the help of a website . Now you can target a large variety of consumers from around the world for your business if you have a properly maintained website. Various sites provide the online shopping facilities like www.ebay.in, www.tradus.in etc. Just a matter of click, and we can buy all what we want.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Intertextuality in Robert Kroetschs Seed Catalogue Essay -- Kroetsch

Intertextuality in Robert Kroetsch's Seed Catalogue The late poet John Donne said, "No man is an island." Donne passed away in the earliest part of the seventeenth century, and yet he recognized an idea upon which much of modern philosophy and literary criticism is built. Donne said, in effect, that any individual man is nothing outside the body of mankind; Donne thereby supports a theory of cultural subjectivism. In the field of literary criticism, particularly modern and postmodern criticism, the term intertextuality refers to the phenomenon of interconnectedness that exists specifically within literature. Just as Donne believes man to be nothing outside the context of his culture, so too does modern literary criticism support the idea that a text is nothing outside of the whole body of a culture's literature. In this way, it is fair to say that no text is an island. As in any discussion of theoretical topics, it is vitally important for those involved in a discussion of intertextuality to fully understand the definition of the word before any meaningful discussion of the term or its application can occur. According to M. H. Abrams: The term intertextuality, popularized by Julie Kristeva, is used to signify the multiple ways in which one literary text is made up of other texts, by means of its open or covert citations and allusions, its repetitions and transformations of the formal and substantive features of earlier texts, or simply its unavoidable participation in the common stock of linguistic and literary conventions and procedures that are "always already" in place and constitute the discourses into which we are born. In Kristeva's formulation, accordingly, any text is in fact an "intertext"-the site of... ... virtue of their unique relationship. The metaphor of seeds may not be limited to what constitutes the seeds of a prairie town or the seeds of a poet but rather to what constitutes the seeds of a poem. Just as plants grow to maturity and create the seeds for a new generation of plants, the texts of one's life become the beginning of new texts to be created. The seeds catalogued within Seed Catalogue are texts. Works Cited Abrams, M. H. "Text and Writing (Écriture)." A Glossary of Literary Terms. 7th ed. Boston: Heinle & Heinle, 1999. Garret-Petts, W. F. "Novelist as Radical Pedagogue." College English 54.5 (1992): 554-572. Herk, Aretha van. "Robert Kroetsch Biocritical Essay." The Robert Kroetsch Papers: first accession. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 1986. Kroetsch, Robert. Seed Catalogue. Winnipeg: Turnstone Press, 2001.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

ACME and Omega case study Essay

1. Using the mechanistic and organic structure arguments develop in Chapter 2, compare and contrast the management styles at Acme and Omega. Acme’s managerial style consists of a mechanistic structure, while Omega’s managerial style is based on an organic structure. Acme’s vertical differentiation, which consists of four levels of control, constitutes the dispersion of authority between the organizational hierarchy levels and gears to give the organization more control over its projects and activities. Acme is highly centralized, managers of the top of the hierarchy have all the power to make most of the decisions for the company, and subordinates are expected to follow orders. Although, I think that Acme has established a high level of standardization and formalization, they experienced difficulty abiding to their own rules. Employees at Acme exercise individual specialization, where employees specialize in one specific area and work individually. 2. On the other hand, Omega is a decentralized organization,they appointed new president in that post. where managers and subordinates delegate important decisions about new organizational projects. Omega’s management believes in mutual adjustment, which is the practice of using judgment on problem solving and also creates an informal way of communicating with each other rather that using standardization or written rules. Joint specialization at Omega gives their employees and opportunity to work in teams and balance their actions to find the most effective and efficient way of accomplishing an assignment. Omega’s organic structure gives the employees more flexibility to innovative thinking, and creates a unity within the organization, where managers and employees share their knowledge and skills to achieve optimal performance. 3. Which firm should have won the final contract – Acme or Omega? Discuss. The paradoxical twins describes two organizations, Acme and Omega Electronics that are competing for the same contract for manufacturing a memory unit to be used in a photocopier. Omega, having an organic structure, wins the race because they are able to produce higher quality memory unit. On the other hand, Acme having mechanistic structure seems less competent and less reliable because of its low quality memory unit which they are unable to produce in time and some of its prototypes fail to work. Omega even corrects a design error in the original blueprint, which  improves product quality. But, both the company is given half the order, and they were encouraged to find the way to reduce the cost and Acme takes advantage of this opportunity to experiment to find ways to reduce its costs, whereas Omega does not. Finally Acme discovers the way to reduce the cost by 20% and they own the contract. Omega may have won the battle, but Acme has won the war because its mechanistic structure fosters a concern for technical efficiency and cost reduction in what is a routine manufacturing environment. In this particular case, Acme decides to run a â€Å"tight ship† (mechanistic structure) in order to increase productivity and efficiency, and to decrease costs. The advantage of this strategy is that they can undersell their competition (Omega) by selling at a lower cost. Omega, on the other hand, is nearly too opposite. They run a more organic structure, which relies heavily upon communication, delegation and teamwork. This strategy allows Omega to effectively compete with Acme by stressing reliability and by placing emphasis on quality. Omega’s decentralized, organic approach allowed for the building of prototypes 10 days faster than Acme, correction of errors, and a highly reliable prototype—much more reliable than Acme’s, which had a 10 percent failure rate. Omega was more effective when evaluated by these criteria, although Acme’s prices were lower than Omega’s because of that Acme won the competition and which was fair result in my opinion. Its mechanistic structure provided it with the management system and incentives needed to improve and reduce its manufacturing process, so that Acme won the final race over Omega. 4. What changes would you recommend to Acme and Omega if they are to survive in the future in this increasingly competitive industry? I wish to modify their organizational design. I think that in order for these two companies to survive they need to have a combination of organic and mechanistic structure. Once they do this change they will create a better organizational culture, which is the set of shared values and norms that controls organizational member’s interactions with each other . Although, Omega’s employees are working together, I think they have too much freedom. Therefore, I think that Omega’s management needs to be more formalize. Acme’s management are hightec pressure, they don’t give enough flexibility  to their employees. This is affecting Acme because there are missing some of the new ideas that their employees may have, and they are also forcing their workers to do the work which the top mangment as instructed. A combination of organic and mechanistic structure would give them better control and coordination of their employees and it will also motivate them and inspire a better behavior. Another recommendation for Acme Corporation would be to balance differentiation and integration For these two companies to survive and be successful I recommend that if they are going to combine organic and mechanistic structures then they should have a balance between centralization and decentralization. I think that all decision making shouldn’t be left entirely to employees or to management, rather it should be in between. Finally, these two companies should have a mixture of standardization and mutual understanding. Sometimes having too much of each may create an problem in corporate culture, therefore I would recommend to use a combination. Management needs pay close attention to make sure that their organizational design fits with the corporate culture and the organizational environment that they are trying to create.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

To The Grils Who Are Going to College Tone Essay

â€Å"To Girls Who Are Going to College† by Helen Keller, Keller uses an overarching passionate tone that shifts from reminiscent to Instructive In order to strengthen college women's confidence. Through repetition of the word â€Å"you†, Keller comes across as sentimental, almost as if she is trying to recall her own memories in the eyes of the reader. By trying to reenact her memories in the form of writing, Keller succeeds in drawing the audience together to sympathize with college women.On the other hand, women visualize themselves through her memories and become reassured that everything will work out fine. Seller's reflective tone is mainly seen in the beginning of the essay, but her nostalgia carries on throughout the whole passage. As the nostalgia starts to fade away towards the end of the reading, Keller transitions into a more commanding, motherly type role and takes advantage of the use of imperative words to convince college women to follow her, while not s ounding o hostile.Sentences start off with authoritative verbs and turn into pieces of advice, such as â€Å"do not forget†, â€Å"Learn from your books†, and â€Å"Rebel against the hardness and injustice†. Keller asserts her ideas in a more friendly and loving way, which enables the audience to obey her advice without thinking she is too authoritative. In return, college women feel empowered by her insights and gain strength leading up to the school year. Helen Keller manages to speak to the audience through her passion by petition and verb usage.By connecting her own memories with the future, Keller enables women to see things through her own eyes. She helps them realize, through use of an overarching passionate tone, that most things will not be expected, but to still push through either way. To The Grills Who Are Going to College Tone Essay By Nikolas passionate tone that shifts from reminiscent to instructive in order to strengthen college women's confiden ce. Through repetition of the word â€Å"you†.

Statement Of Purpose Essays

Statement Of Purpose Essays Statement Of Purpose Essay Statement Of Purpose Essay STATEMENT OF PURPOSE It is after a good deal of self-evaluation that I have decided to pursue graduate studies in computer science. This decision followed after carefully appraising my academic performance, my areas of interest, my ultimate ambition, which is to pursue a research career. The urge to obtain an in-depth understanding and specialized knowledge in my areas of interest, has made me apply for an MS program. My bachelors program in Information technology discipline at N. I. S. T(Nimra Institute of Science and Technology), one of the premier engineering colleges affiliated to the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University O. N. T. U. ) Hyderabad has given me a substantial knowledge of the basic areas of computer science and electronics. I have striven to develop a clear understanding of the basic concepts and acquire an insight into the Computer Science.. I have been greatly motivated towards Graduate studies during my undergraduate study. The curriculum at SRTIST exposed me to the broad areas of computer science and gave me plenty of opportunities to develop my interest in a particular area. The basic undergraduate courses like Data Structures, Computer Architecture, Advanced Computer Architecture and Operating Systems have given me a sound foundation in the Computer Science domain. The advanced electives like Computer Networks, Computer graphics, Data Base Systems and Discrete Mathematics and Graph Theory have exposed me to some key research problems in Computer science. My research interest lies mainly in Computer Networks . This area of specialization requires excellent computer lab facilities and highly qualified, research oriented faculty and as your Grad school is much more heavily biased. I should consider myself as privileged if I get admission into your prestigious Over the years the festival has managed to build a rock solid reputation as the only DU Festival which embraces and incorporates the corporate aspect seamlessly with fun and frolic that is usually associated with such events. If selected I assure you that I will work to my utmost potential to make our college’s annual fest Crescendo 2011 a successful event. I will work with total dedication and commitment to ensure that the event is even more successful than the previous editions.

Sunday, October 20, 2019

The Miranda Debate essays

The Miranda Debate essays Miranda is one of the best-known cases in the history of the Supreme Court. It represents the Court's determination to treat even the lowliest of criminals with the same dignity and respect as the wealthiest celebrity. This case established the Fifth Amendment right of the accused to be informed of their right to counsel and their right not to answer questions. In The Ethical and Policy Debate Regarding Miranda, Section II questions: First, can Mirandas approach to regulating the interrogation process be justified as a reading of the Fifth Amendment, on either constitutional or policy grounds?.. In summarizing this question, there are several considerations supporting the recommendation that the Miranda should be overruled. First, if the Miranda is continued, it violates the constitutional separation of powers and basic principles of federalism. In its current state, it sets a code of procedure for interrogations based on fictions and arguments. Secondly, Miranda impairs the ability of the Government to protect the public by impeding the prosecution of crime. Using the Miranda reduces the willingness of suspects to respond to police questioning. In most criminal cases, the defendants statements are necessary in prosecution, without these statements, criminals can go free. Third, the Miranda is damaging to public confidence, as well as, resulting in injustices to crime victims. It can result in cases where known criminals are released and the victims of these crimes can go through years of pain and insecurity. The Miranda system has handcuffed the judicial system and not allowed a better way of dealing with criminals to be implemented. In my opinion, the Miranda would be unnecessary as long as we abide by the Fifth Amendment rules. ...Second, what would replace Miranda if it were overruled?... It is recommended that the department of jus ...

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Paraphrase..rewrttin Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Paraphrase..rewrttin - Essay Example However, cancer treatments are conducted by two radiation methods i.e. ionizing and non-ionizing radiations. The ionizing radiation includes X-rays and Gamma rays, as (Yale 2001) identified a disadvantage of passing ionization radiation process from the body. The ionization radiations are absorbed by thick tissues in the body that enables them to be chemically reactive resulting in a cell damage. The study concluded restrictions for using ionization radiation to a minimal as it can raise issues related to human health. Disclosure to ionization radiation is another factor that needs consideration, as there are evidences available that has linked disclosure of low-level ionization radiation by the doses, which are given for the development of cancer by medical imaging. An inclusive review of biological and epidemiological data associated with health risk of ionization radiation exposure was conducted by the ‘National Academy of Sciences’ National Research Council. Moreover , the review is recently published in the form of a report named as the Biological Effects of Ionization Radiation (BEIR) VII Phase 2. In the report, the epidemiologic data demonstrated the survivors of the atomic bomb along with the population living near the facilities that are equipped with nuclear technology throughout the releases of Chernobyl, which is a radioactive material. Moreover, report also includes the workers who are exposed by occupations and populations, who faced exposure with the aid of therapeutic and diagnostic medical studies. Commonly used CT examinations that includes radiation doses that are received by humans, amplify the risk of cancer. For instance, increased risk of cancers is identified within the survivors of Hiroshima, as Nagasaki atomic bombs affects on these people were exposed by the ranges of 10 to 100 milli-sieverts (mSv). This value is equivalent to a single CT scan radiation exposure and patients do conduct CT scans multiple times during the tr eatment. (Smith-Bindman et al 2009) Risks involved in the use of Ionizing radiation The first hard tumour that was found, resulted from the ionization radiation effects. Consequently, securing from the ionization radiation methods that facilitates medical procedures has grabbed significant concerns. Predominantly, the rise in various medical procedures incorporating ionization radiation(Davros et al 2007). In order to protect people from this kind of radiation, an establishment of an International Commission for Radiation Protection took place in 1928. "The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) estimates that the average person has an approximately 4-5% increased relative risk of fatal cancer after a whole-body dose of 1 Sv. However, other studies on multiple cohorts of radiation workers have largely failed to establish statistically significant cancer risks. When multiple occupational cohorts were combined and evaluated in a somewhat systematic way, a combined excess relative risk of cancer death of just less than 1% was estimated" (Cardis et al 2005). In between years 1950s and 1960s, many traces become visible conclusion that the ionization radiation is dangerous for humans. Likewise, experimentations were conducted on rats by passing X-rays has also concluded the contribution of ionization radiation at low levels causing imminent deaths. Similarly, there are many proofs to conclude that the frequent use of radiation can cause

Friday, October 18, 2019

Fundamentals of Finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Fundamentals of Finance - Essay Example The company’s current drill and platform was purchased 3 years ago for  £10M. The firm depreciates the machine using MACRS over a 5 year recovery period when the assets are replaced due to very high maintenance costs. The company’s management estimates that after removal costs are taken into consideration, this platform can be sold for  £3.5M. The company can also buy a new high specification platform at a cost of  £14M plus installation costs of  £1M and still has an estimated life of 5 years. If they decide to go ahead with this purchase then the company’s working capital needs will change; accounts receivable will increase to  £1.5M, accounts payable will also increase to  £1M and inventory will increase to  £2M. Swindon is expected to be able to sell the new, proposed machine at the end of the 5-year period for  £4M while the present machine at the end of the same period is expected to generate  £2.5M. All else equal, the company expects to recover their Net Working Capital Investment at the end of the same period. The company’s tax rate is at 40%. The existing machine is expected to net  £3,500,000 each year for the next 5 years. Along with the C.F.O, the Operations Officer has also laid down the estimated cash flows of the company from the new drilling platform as follows: 1) DEBT: the company can raise an unlimited amount of debt by selling  £1,000 par value, 6.5% coupon interest rate, 10 year bonds on which annual interest payments will be made. To sell the issue, an average discount of  £20 per bond needs to be given. There also is an associated flotation cost of 2% of par value. 2) PREFERRED STOCK: the company can raise an unlimited amount of preferred stock under the following terms; (a) the security has a par value of  £100/share, (b) the annual dividend rate is 6% of the par value, (c) the flotation cost is expected to be  £4 per share. The preferred stock is expected to sell for  £102 before cost considerations.

Right to Confrontation Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Right to Confrontation - Article Example They didnt call the examiners as witnesses. The respondent ought to have the capacity to get his conviction upset dependent upon Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, the decision from last June, which held, by a 5-to-4 vote, that utilizing lab reports without calling the experts maltreats the Sixth Amendment. The revisions encounter provision ensures litigants the right to see indictment witnesses in individual and to interrogate them, unless they are genuinely inaccessible. In cases that include medicates, and numerous that dont, lab examiners work could be a discriminating some piece of the indictments case. On the off chance that the prosecutors need to utilize the reports, they ought to be obliged to call the examiners as witnesses. It is not clear why the Supreme Court is racing to reexamine this issue. There are a few contrasts in the guidelines on witnesses between Virginia and Massachusetts. In any case it may be that with Justice Sonia Sotomayor having supplanted Justice David Souter, the nonconformists accept they have a fifth vote to disintegrate or undiscovered last Junes decision. As a previous associate area lawyer, some court examiners contend, she may be more thoughtful to the trouble on prosecutors. As a circuit court judge, Justice Sotomayor did regularly run for the administration in criminal cases, however making forecasts of this sort is hazardous. In the event that the court changes the tenet, it might be a noteworthy setback for common freedoms, and not simply in cases including lab confirmation. Prosecutors may utilize the choice to legitimize offering various kinds of affirmations, recorded proclamations and other confirmation from missing

Principles of Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Principles of Marketing - Essay Example More than 50% of Indian consumers use ordinary toilet soaps to clean their hair and usage of shampoo among majority of the populace is still restricted to social occasions as weddings and parties. While per capita consumption of shampoos is only 13ml in India it is 160ml and 330ml in Indonesia and Thailand respectively. The bigger players in Indian shampoo market are HLL, P&G, CavinKare, Dabur and Ayur (equitymaster.com 2007). Segmentation Companies divide markets into groups of consumers or segments with distinct needs and wants and identify which market segments it can serve effectively. To develop the best marketing plans managers need to understand what makes each segment unique and different. Marketing theory categories preferences into three different sub-categories (Anderson 2008): Homogenous preferences: When all consumers have roughly the same preferences and the market does not exhibit any natural segments. Diffused preferences: When consumers vary greatly in their preferen ces and if there are different brands in the market they are likely to position themselves throughout the available space and show real differences to match differences in consumer preferences. In shampoo market marketers almost always face a situation of diffused preferences as each category has specific requirements and expectation from the products they use. Clustered preferences: When natural market segments emerge from groups of consumers with shared preferences. Shampoo market is segmented primarily according to usage benefits. Some shampoos claim to serve the cosmetic benefits of providing strong, healthy and shining hair. Others claim to remove dandruff completely while the third category claims to deliver all the benefits related to herbal ingredients. The anti-dandruff segment is the fastest growing among the three segments with an annual growth rate of approximately 12% per annum (equitymaster.com 2007). There is also another small segment that is steadily gaining ground. This segment offers specialized shampoos as those that can be safely used in colored hair without removing the color. But this segment has not grown enough in size to warrant a separate analysis. Marketers also segment the market according to following criteria (Czepiel 1992): Geographic Segmentation: It divides the market into different geographical units such as nations, states, regions, cities or neighborhoods. In shampoo market, however, such variations do not matter that much as targeted consumers in every region or nation would have same, or nearly same, perceptions about beautiful hair. Demographic Segmentation: It divides the market into groups on the basis of age, family size, family life cycle, gender, income, occupation, education, religion, nationality and social class. Marketers of shampoo concentrate on ladies, irrespective of their age, and their income while marketing their products. Though in some situations religion, especially Islam might also have to be taken in to account. Marketers can now reach women very easily through television. Psychographic Segmentation: Buyers are divided into different groups on the basis of psychological/personality traits, lifestyles or values. People within the same demographic group can exhibit very different psychographic traits. Marketers of sh

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Political Science Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Political Science - Assignment Example The Congress used the commerce power in the U.S constitution to enact the provision that the Supreme Court subsequently upheld (Schwinn, 2015). The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the provision. Indeed, the Supreme Court noted that the provision could apply in small local hotels since they bought most of their raw materials from other states thus amounting to interstate commerce that falls under the regulation of the commerce clause (Cornell University Law School, 2015). The provision is an effective business measure that eliminated the eminent negative image on interstate commerce since it criminalized the behavior of denying the minority groups access to accommodation and catering services. Ideally, racial discrimination has substantial effect on interstate commerce and hence the provision seeks to regulate this effect (Cornell University Law School, 2015). The provision has control over non-state businesses unlike the Fourteenth Amendment that only applied to state actors. The Fourteenth Amendment only illegalized state-sponsored dis ­crimination but did not address private discrimination. The provision developed a private right of action that allowed the federal government to charge non-state actors with Equal Protection violations (Schwinn, 2015). Apparently, most businesses serve interstate travellers and hence the significance of the provision. As such, I agree with the provision in the 1964 Civil Rights Act that illegalizes racial discrimi nation in businesses that provide accommodations to interstate travelers. Schwinn, S. (2015). Civil Rights Act of 1964: Enduring and Revolutionary. Retrieved from

Euthanasia, is it murder or mercy Research Paper

Euthanasia, is it murder or mercy - Research Paper Example Finally, I have evaluated the one of the case studies according to the ethics theories of Immanuel Kant and Utilitarianism. I chose this topic because my grandmother in Ukraine suffered from bad health and was hospitalized for eight years before she died naturally. I saw how painful it was for her to live and for my father and his sister to took care of her alone at home. Being a Christian Catholick, I was against euthanasia before i did this research. This research taught me that euthanasia is often mercy rather than murder since it saves the patient agony and the relatives their time, energy and money. The other day, I was interviewing one of my class fellows’ parents. I had heard from my class fellow, Bob, that he had lately lost a younger sister, Maria, after she was badly injured in a car accident. I approached her parents for the interview. They said that as soon as Maria was driven over by the car, she was bleeding heavily. She was immediately hospitalized. Although the operation had been performed, there was little hope that she would survive. Maria was apparently in comma, but the doctors expressed no hope for her survival even if she temporarily recovered from the comma. Three weeks had passed since the accident. Maria’s family kept visiting her regularly. ... However, they decided not to donate. A day after that, Maria died. Overwhelmed with the grief of losing their daughter, Maria’s parents asked the doctor if her organs would still be needed, but the doctors expressed that her organs were dead and were no more useful for Gene. Besides, the law forbade them to retrieve organs from a dead body. The news that Gene had first lost her vision and then died of the kidney malfunction only added to their grief. They felt like they had not lost one daughter, but two! The parents were in shock. I also observed my two friends who work as nurses in the Brooklyn hospitals Coney Island and Maimonides. When I asked their opinion about euthanasia, both of them spoke in its favor. They said they worked with terminally ill people on a daily basis. Their condition is miserable. There are a lot of patients that have been hospitalized for years and years. In the start, their children used to come to see them, but many of them have been abandoned with the passage of time. The quality of medical care, the environment and the room that a patient receives accords with the fee that the patients’ relatives pay. Thus, many patients have been hospitalized by their children in the cheapest rooms available in an attempt to minimize the hospital expenses. The nurses also told me that in some cases, they were left with no option but to transfer the patients to the old house for the children broke all contact with the doctors and never showed up again. I also personally went to the hospitals and talked to some terminally ill patients. The dryness of their speech and look reflected their intrinsic desire for death. Two patients burst into tears as soon as I started to speak to them. I saw numerous patients in comma that had

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Principles of Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Principles of Marketing - Essay Example More than 50% of Indian consumers use ordinary toilet soaps to clean their hair and usage of shampoo among majority of the populace is still restricted to social occasions as weddings and parties. While per capita consumption of shampoos is only 13ml in India it is 160ml and 330ml in Indonesia and Thailand respectively. The bigger players in Indian shampoo market are HLL, P&G, CavinKare, Dabur and Ayur (equitymaster.com 2007). Segmentation Companies divide markets into groups of consumers or segments with distinct needs and wants and identify which market segments it can serve effectively. To develop the best marketing plans managers need to understand what makes each segment unique and different. Marketing theory categories preferences into three different sub-categories (Anderson 2008): Homogenous preferences: When all consumers have roughly the same preferences and the market does not exhibit any natural segments. Diffused preferences: When consumers vary greatly in their preferen ces and if there are different brands in the market they are likely to position themselves throughout the available space and show real differences to match differences in consumer preferences. In shampoo market marketers almost always face a situation of diffused preferences as each category has specific requirements and expectation from the products they use. Clustered preferences: When natural market segments emerge from groups of consumers with shared preferences. Shampoo market is segmented primarily according to usage benefits. Some shampoos claim to serve the cosmetic benefits of providing strong, healthy and shining hair. Others claim to remove dandruff completely while the third category claims to deliver all the benefits related to herbal ingredients. The anti-dandruff segment is the fastest growing among the three segments with an annual growth rate of approximately 12% per annum (equitymaster.com 2007). There is also another small segment that is steadily gaining ground. This segment offers specialized shampoos as those that can be safely used in colored hair without removing the color. But this segment has not grown enough in size to warrant a separate analysis. Marketers also segment the market according to following criteria (Czepiel 1992): Geographic Segmentation: It divides the market into different geographical units such as nations, states, regions, cities or neighborhoods. In shampoo market, however, such variations do not matter that much as targeted consumers in every region or nation would have same, or nearly same, perceptions about beautiful hair. Demographic Segmentation: It divides the market into groups on the basis of age, family size, family life cycle, gender, income, occupation, education, religion, nationality and social class. Marketers of shampoo concentrate on ladies, irrespective of their age, and their income while marketing their products. Though in some situations religion, especially Islam might also have to be taken in to account. Marketers can now reach women very easily through television. Psychographic Segmentation: Buyers are divided into different groups on the basis of psychological/personality traits, lifestyles or values. People within the same demographic group can exhibit very different psychographic traits. Marketers of sh

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Euthanasia, is it murder or mercy Research Paper

Euthanasia, is it murder or mercy - Research Paper Example Finally, I have evaluated the one of the case studies according to the ethics theories of Immanuel Kant and Utilitarianism. I chose this topic because my grandmother in Ukraine suffered from bad health and was hospitalized for eight years before she died naturally. I saw how painful it was for her to live and for my father and his sister to took care of her alone at home. Being a Christian Catholick, I was against euthanasia before i did this research. This research taught me that euthanasia is often mercy rather than murder since it saves the patient agony and the relatives their time, energy and money. The other day, I was interviewing one of my class fellows’ parents. I had heard from my class fellow, Bob, that he had lately lost a younger sister, Maria, after she was badly injured in a car accident. I approached her parents for the interview. They said that as soon as Maria was driven over by the car, she was bleeding heavily. She was immediately hospitalized. Although the operation had been performed, there was little hope that she would survive. Maria was apparently in comma, but the doctors expressed no hope for her survival even if she temporarily recovered from the comma. Three weeks had passed since the accident. Maria’s family kept visiting her regularly. ... However, they decided not to donate. A day after that, Maria died. Overwhelmed with the grief of losing their daughter, Maria’s parents asked the doctor if her organs would still be needed, but the doctors expressed that her organs were dead and were no more useful for Gene. Besides, the law forbade them to retrieve organs from a dead body. The news that Gene had first lost her vision and then died of the kidney malfunction only added to their grief. They felt like they had not lost one daughter, but two! The parents were in shock. I also observed my two friends who work as nurses in the Brooklyn hospitals Coney Island and Maimonides. When I asked their opinion about euthanasia, both of them spoke in its favor. They said they worked with terminally ill people on a daily basis. Their condition is miserable. There are a lot of patients that have been hospitalized for years and years. In the start, their children used to come to see them, but many of them have been abandoned with the passage of time. The quality of medical care, the environment and the room that a patient receives accords with the fee that the patients’ relatives pay. Thus, many patients have been hospitalized by their children in the cheapest rooms available in an attempt to minimize the hospital expenses. The nurses also told me that in some cases, they were left with no option but to transfer the patients to the old house for the children broke all contact with the doctors and never showed up again. I also personally went to the hospitals and talked to some terminally ill patients. The dryness of their speech and look reflected their intrinsic desire for death. Two patients burst into tears as soon as I started to speak to them. I saw numerous patients in comma that had

Ethics of Compliance Southwest Essay Example for Free

Ethics of Compliance Southwest Essay The purpose of this paper is to present, discuss, and examine the topic of ethical and social responsibility. It will discuss Southwest Airlines failure to comply with the Federal Aviation Administrations rules on inspecting aircraft and what violations occurred. On March 6, 2008, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspectors submitted documents to the United States Congress, alleging that Southwest allowed 117 of its aircraft to fly carrying passengers despite the fact that the planes were not airworthy according to air safety investigators. In some cases, the planes were allowed to fly for up to 30 months after the inspection deadlines had passed, rendering them unfit to fly. Records indicate that thousands of passengers were flown on aircraft deemed unsafe by federal standards. Clearly, this is an issue tied to social responsibility and ethics at the highest level, ignoring the safety inspections put peoples lives in jeopardy. This situation actually began in 1988, when an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 suffered an accident that killed a flight attendant. The top of the planes fuselage tore off, opening up a large section of the planes roof, killing the flight attendant. The accident occurred because of cracks in the planes fuselage. Since then, the FAA has required regular inspections of 737 fuselages to ensure an accident like this does not occur again. In 2007, two FAA inspectors began to question documentation and inspections at Southwest Airlines. They had reason to be concerned, because they felt their concerns were being ignored, and their supervisor was not investigating their complaints. FAA inspectors Bobby Boutris and Douglas Peters testified before Congress about their experiences, and asked for whistleblower status, meaning they could not be fired from their jobs because of their testimony. Boutris was the first to question records kept by Southwest about airplane inspections. In 2003, he was in charge of inspecting engines for the 737, and he could validate the Southwests reports. He told an NPR Radio reporter, I had found a lot of inconsistencies with the records, Boutris says. They were different from aircraft to aircraft; it was very hard to determine compliance' (Goodwyn, 2008). He notes that he complained to his supervisor, Douglas Gawadzinski, but he ignored Boutris complaints. In 2006, Boutris took over safety responsibility for the entire 737-700 series aircraft, and when he reviewed Southwest, he found the same recordkeeping problems he had uncovered in 2003. He notified his supervisor and wanted to send a letter of investigation, again his supervisor G awadzinski refused to acknowledge his concerns. Boutris believes it is because Gawadzinski had a close friendship with Paul Comeau, a former FAA employee who went to work for Southwest as their manager for regulatory compliance. Anything to do with Southwest and the FAA went through these two men, and Boutris believes they routinely covered up inspection irregularities or lack of inspections. Boutris continued to complain, and Southwest asked for him to be removed from their inspections. Reporter Goodwyn continues, At first, Gawadzinski refused to remove Boutris. But it wasnt long before the supervisory maintenance inspector told Boutris he was out and that his career was in jeopardy because there had been undisclosed complaints from anonymous Southwest officials (Goodwyn, 2008). At this point, Douglas Peters, another FAA inspector, were brought in to review Boutris investigation into Southwests compliance. Goodwyn notes, The more he looked into the matter, the more he agreed with Boutris that the flying public was in danger. Peters says the situation defied logic. That something so critical would be not addressed I cant explain it. Its a mystery' (Goodwyn, 2008). People from Southwest began to contact Gawadzinski directly, instead of going through Peters. Another reporter states, The whistle-blowers complained repeatedly in memos written in 2007 that their concerns about Southwest were not being taken seriously. The underlying safety concern — the airline was unable to keep up with mandatory inspections — had been raised as early as 2003, one charged (Levin, 2008). Finally, in March 2007, Southwest admitted to flying 47 737s without completing the problem fuselage inspections, which triggered a Congressional investigation. Even more disturbing, the airline continued to fly the planes even after disclosing they had not been inspected – it took almost a week to ground the planes. The two men testified before Congress in April 2008, and the FAA fined Southwest $10. 2 million for the blunders. Reporter Levin continues, Last month, nearly a year after the initial problems were discovered, the FAA levied a $10. 2 million fine against Southwest. The vast majority of the fine was imposed because Southwest had certified that it stopped flying the planes as soon as it learned of the missed inspections, FAA officials said (Levin, 2008). These are the basic facts and timeline of the case. The major overriding issue in this case is that the FAA and Southwest conspired to cover up inspection information, and they did so at passengers and crewmembers expense. The inspections were mandated because the FAA knew this particular plane had critical safety issues. By not inspecting planes and allowing them to continue flying, they were putting everyone on those planes in jeopardy, and they knew it. That is perhaps the biggest ethical concern of this case, that the company knew they had not completed checks, but continued to fly the planes anyway. One of the whistleblowers was told they did not ground the planes because it would disrupt Southwests service and flight schedule (Goodwyn, 2008). Every airline has a social responsibility to keep their passengers and crews as safe as possible. Flying is a relatively safe form of travel, however accidents do occur. Maintaining high maintenance and safety standards is simply the right thing to do in the transportation industry; it is the ethical, moral, and socially responsible choice. For an airline to lower those standards, especially because of worries about disruption of service, is simply incomprehensible. For example, the entire airline would be in jeopardy if one of the planes had crashed, and it was found to have been because of a crack that was not detected because of a missed inspection. Indeed, inspections on the aircraft did turn up cracks in some of the planes in question, cracks that had to be repaired before the airplanes took flight again (Wilber, 2008). Thus, Southwest put people in danger, and that is a major ethical violation that has not thoroughly been addressed in the media or by the airline itself. In addition, the FAA was compliant in this ethical transgression, because they allowed it to happen, calling into question the integrity of the organization that is supposed to be primarily concerned with airline safety and maintenance. If the agency doing the oversight is questionable, it brings the entire system into question. This issue should be studied further because it raises so many moral and ethical questions, and it should be studied because it seems, since there seem to be no lasting ramifications for the FAA, that it could happen again, which is even more disturbing. The stakeholders in this case are the people who fly on Southwest Airlines. Southwest damaged their reputation by letting down their stakeholders, and that is extremely disturbing. They put passenger safety in jeopardy over worries about income and disrupted flights, when their first concern should have been safety and only safety. This calls into question the entire integrity of the company. This is more than just the classical interpretation of right and wrong, it is a moral dilemma that should have had an extremely simple solution. Ground the planes, inspect them as quickly as possible, and get them back in the air. The fact that there was any other solution seen to the problem indicates just how unethical and morally irresponsible Southwest was, and the stakeholders should demand compensation for the threat this decision made to their safety. Southwest simply got lucky that one of the affected planes did not develop more serious issues, and the $10. 2 million dollar fine seems quite low in retrospect, considering the damage that could have occurred to people and property had a plane crashed. The economic responsibility of this situation is clear; Southwest had to pay a large fine and ground the planes, losing revenue anyway. Their reputation suffered, although it did not seem to make a dent in their passenger. Most people did not even seem to care that Southwest had endangered them and only a few spoke out in blogs or in other areas when the news broke. Southwest has a serious responsibility to keep its passengers and crews safe, and they lost the trust of at least some people because of their callous disregard for safety. That is a huge moral responsibility, and Southwest has never really acknowledged their failure, which is an even larger ethical concern, it seems. In a statement before Congress, Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said, Our compliance with certain specific Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) airworthiness directives has been called into question. We have committed to a thorough review and to make any changes necessary to ensure that we are in full compliance with FAA airworthiness directives and our own maintenance programs, policies, and procedures (Kelly, 2008). However, in previous testimony before Congress, Kelly and Southwest Executive Chairman Herb Kelleher both maintained that Southwest did comply with all FAA requirements, and the safety of passengers was never in question (Kelly, 2008). Thus, Southwest maintains they complied with all FAA regulations and did inspect the aircraft, only under a different maintenance directive than the one the two whistleblowers charged had not been done. It seems like a technicality, and that Southwest is not taking true moral or ethical responsibility for the incidents. They also stated that they did not think they would be fined for the maintenance issues, and it seems as if in their testimony, they were attempting to lay groundwork to fight a fine. However, they did eventually back down and stop contesting the fine, probably because they felt they looked bad enough already. Some recommendations for this case have already been completed. The FAA inspector, Gawadzinski, was transferred to another division, without contact with Southwest. Southwest placed several maintenance and safety personnel on leave, and developed new maintenance and safety guidelines. The two top executives maintain they did not know about the 2007 maintenance charges until March 2008, and as soon as they learned of them, they implemented stronger maintenance and communication directives so they would be notified and aware of any problems. These would have been at least some of the recommendations made in this case. Another would be for Southwest to undergo a major campaign to gain back the publics trust, as many people would seem to have trust issues in flying on Southwest planes. This would include a media campaign that would address trust issues, and perhaps even a campaign including top executives flying on their own planes. This would not be too costly or difficult to administer, and it would let people know that the company is actually sorry about its actions and is going to be more responsible in the future. It also seems as if the company should apologize to their stakeholders and their crewmembers, not in front of Congress, but in front of them, and with humility. Frankly, their testimony and apology to Congress sounded defensive and insincere, and a true measure of humility might be to offer anyone who flew on those planes some type of compensation or personal apology to make the situation even a little bit more palatable. Of course, that would entail a large expense, but it would make their intentions a bit more acceptable. Finally, they have to be open and above board with their maintenance issues and they have to make quite certain there is nothing questionable about any of their practices. Their maintenance and safety department must be impeccable, and it must always be open to scrutiny not only by the FAA, but by the public, as well. They owe that, at the very least, to the people that choose to fly on Southwest Airlines. In conclusion, this case indicates how deeply ethical issues can affect a business. Allowing planes to fly uninspected is a terrible disservice to the passengers and crews of this airline. It indicates a deep-seated lack of respect for the public, the employees, and the agency created to maintain air travel safety. It also indicates an arrogance that the company can flaunt the system and win. Southwest Airlines has deeper issues than maintenance and safety. It has to take a strong look at its ethics and principles, and alter them to create a more socially responsible organization that respects and values the people it serves. Without a change, the organization will certainly suffer more ethical violations in the future.

Monday, October 14, 2019

Linking observation of children to developmental theory and policy

Linking observation of children to developmental theory and policy Written Report Linking Observation of Children to Developmental Theory and Policy Watching and listening to children is an important part of a Nursery Practitioners role. This is how we learn what stage of development a child has reached. Bowlby states â€Å"a further principle of the theory of learning is that an individual cannot learn a skill unless he has a friendly feeling towards his teacher.† (pg65) Observations enable you to compare to the expected development milestones which are the basis of our Social policy they are Practice Guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stage and the Every Child Matters documents. As all children develop at their own pace, there are influences that affect the rate at which a child develops, and these are environmental and also genetic. A childs surroundings, their family, and culture are very important in placing particular emphasis on some aspects rather than others. Rousseau proposed† that development proceeds according to an inner, biological timetable; we have a picture of development unfolding fairly independently from environmental influences. Children are no longer simply shaped by external forces, such as adult teachings and social reinforcements. They grow and learn largely on their own, according to natures plan. We call this method â€Å"Biological Maturation.† Within the first week of a child starting in the nursery setting, an initial child profile checklist is carried out. This profile gives the basis for the key person to discover at what stage of Early Years Foundation Development the child has currently reached; it also aids the key person in planning activities to assist in the childs development in moving on to the next stage. Practitioners will also be able to see any child development concerns. This can assist the key person in devising an individual educational plan if necessary. The methods of observations used for this report are a Sociogram and a Developmental Checklist. However these observations are only a snap shot of the overall development of the child. The aim of this Sociogram is to discover what child As interests are; who she interacts with; and what stages of development she has reached. Art Area Painting Choosing painting Putting apron on correctly Asking for help Painting lines and circle Writing L for name Speaks to child B Home Corner Dresses doll Speaks to doll Has conversation with child C explains what she is doing Book Area Talks to staff about rules Speaks to child D and E about rules Reads story to two children. The checklist focuss on the physical and intellectual development of child A as we can see from the checklist, the childs physical development is on line with the milestones stated. Also intellectual assessment is on line with Early Years Foundation Stage and Mary D Sheridan From birth to Five Years. E. Y. F. S. Personal, Social, Emotional Making Relationships 30-50 months Form friendships with other children. Demonstrate flexibility and adapt their behaviour to different events. 40-60 months Value and contribute to own well-being and self-control. Early LearningGoal 40-60+ months. Form good relationships with adults and peers. Sheridan 4 years Inclined to verbal impertinence with adults and quarrelling with playmates when wishes crossed. Bandura said â€Å"in social settings, we learn a great deal through imitation, and imitation involves cognitive processes.† (Cited Theories of Development). Dispositions and Attitudes 30-50 months Shows confidence in linking up with others for support and guidance. E.Y.F.S Communication, Language, Literacy Language for Communication 30-50 months Use intonation, rhythm and phrasing to make their meaning clear to others. Responds to simple instructions. 40-60 months Have confidence to speak to others about their own wants and interests. Linking sounds and letters 40-60 months Hear and say the initial sound in words and know which letters represent some of the sounds. Vygotsky states the acquisition of speech is of a major importance to the growing child, it enables the child to participate in the social life of his or her group. ` Sheridan 3years Hearing and Speech Large vocabulary intelligible even to strangers, but speech still shows many infantile phonetic substitutions and unconventional grammatical forms. Speech modulating in loudness and range of pitch. 4 years Matches and names four primary colours correctly. Reading 30-50 months Handle books carefully. Begin to be aware of the way stories are structured. Know information can be relayed in the form of print. Hold books the correct way up and turn pages. Writing 30-50 Sometimes give meaning to the marks they make. Montessori claims â€Å"four year olds usually master writing before reading. This is because writing is the more concrete and sensory activity and therefore better suits the young childs style of learning.†(Cited Theories of Development). Handwriting 30-50 months Use one handed tools. Draw lines and circles using gross motor skills. 40-60 months Begin to form recognisable letters. Sheridan 4 years Holds and uses a pencil with good control in adult fashion. Montessori says first, the child is shown how to hold a pencil and then practices drawing by staying within outlines. (CitedTheories and Development). E.Y.F.S Knowledge, Understanding of the World Exploration and investigation 22-36months Use others as sources of information and learning. Brunner believed children can do more if they have guidance and help from another person who is more experienced than themselves whether it is peer or an adult. His scaffold approach, giving the child more support at first then reducing that support as the child becomes secure (Brunner 1973). Time 30-50 months Remember and talk about significant events in their own experience E.Y.F.S Creative Development Developing Imaginative play 40-60 months Play alongside other children who are engaged in the same theme E.Y.F.S Physical Development Using Equipment and Materials 30-50 months Engage in activities requiring hand eye co-ordination. Show increasing control over clothing and fastenings. Sheridan 4 years Posture and Large Movement Walks or runs alone up and down stairs using one foot to a stair. Advantages and Disadvantages The methods of observations used had advantages and disadvantages the Sociogram disadvantages:- Subject to considerable distortion. Another child may need your attention; therefore you may have to stop and start again. Also another member of staff can not take over form you. A lot of language can take place which is not obvious in the Sociogram. Not explanatory for parents. Advantages:- 1. Shows how many contacts a child has during the time observed. â€Å"Interesting to test out the theories that young children are more likely to have changing friends† states(Sharman C et al) Checklist disadvantages:- Children dont always perform to order. A lot of language can take place which is not obvious in the checklist. Parents can miss interpret results. Information is closed data. Advantages:- You can put checklist down and return to it later. Quick and easy way to record. Any colleague can take over from you. You are able to identify a need while you are doing this. Does not require completion in one day. Does not require to be filled in the order given. Its an on going profile for the Early Years Foundation Stage Development. Evaluation The milestones for a four year old (Sheridan) states â€Å"walks up and down stairs alone one foot to a stair and matches and names four primary colours correctly† (pg 55); child A is 3 years 3months. This shows us that she is above her milestone development. Child A interacts well with staff and relates well to her peers; she thoroughly enjoys books and taking the lead and reading stories to her peers; a lot of the time from memory. The information gathered does not give a holistic view of the child but of her performance on the day the observations were carried out. Conclusion As we have assessed child As milestones through the observations we now know that she has reached the milestones relevant for her age range. We also note that she has reached several developmental milestones in the next stage of her development. Other methods of observation used in the setting are Target child and Time sample along with photographic observations. We know that childrens development is not straight forward and that they all develop at a different speed, so for the practitioners to be able to monitor these milestones they need to have the knowledge and social policies in place to be able refer to them. Sharman, Cross and Vennis say â€Å"The most appropriate way to monitor progress and compare it with what we are learning, or know, about the way children and young people mature and develop, is to understand observation.† ( Sharmon C, viii 2006 ).

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Internet - Ethics of Hacking Essays -- Exploratory Essays Research Pap

Privacy Risks of Internet Wiretapping      Ã‚  Ã‚   Abstract: In recent months, the FBI has taken steps to implement an Internet wiretapping scheme called Carnivore.   This paper discusses the possible risks of this system with respect to personal privacy, analyzes the technical flaws of the system that produce these risks, and discusses recent US Legislation to relax the statutory restrictions on its deployment and use.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   On September 11, 2001, a group of terrorists carried out a methodically planned and almost perfectly executed attack on major sites in the United States, toppling two of the nation's highest buildings.   Two days later, on September 13, the US Senate unanimously approved legislation that may serve to topple one of its greatest freedoms: the right to privacy.   This legislation, which its drafters Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) dubbed the "Combating Terrorism Act of 2001," would loosen restrictions on FBI wiretaps, including its nascent "Carnivore" Internet surveillance system [1].   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Carnivore is a system introduced by the FBI to provide it with "a 'surgical' ability to intercept and collect the communications which are the subject of a lawful order while ignoring those communications which [it is] not authorized to intercept" [2].   It works in a manner similar to a network packet sniffer, which intercepts and copies all bits of information that pass through a network.   It differs from a normal packet sniffer, however, in that it is designed to distinguish from the noise those bits of information which apply to a specific court order [2].     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There is nothing new about the FBI conducting surveillance; what disinguishes Carnivore from past methods of surveillance... ...Answers."   http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20000713.html, 13 July 2000. 4. Wingfield, Nick, et al.   "Earthlink Just Says No to FBI's Carnivore."   http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2603945,00.html, 14 July 2000. 5. http://www.aclu.org/action/carnivore107.html: An "Action Alert" from the American Civil Liberties Union urging people to speak out against Carnivore. 6. http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=6534&cid=933650: A comment from a semi-anonymous reader of the open-source advocacy site Slashdot.org. 7. http://www.senate.gov/legislative/vote1071/vote_00279.html: An official record of the voting that took place on the "Combating Terrorism Act of 2001," legislation that was introduced into the Senate. 8. http://www.fbi.gov/hq/lab/carnivore/letter3.htm: A letter to the Los Angeles Post from John E. Collingwood, an FBI spokesman

Saturday, October 12, 2019

the unbearable lightness of being Essay -- essays research papers

The Unheard Voice of Commitment   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What the reader understands of the infidelity of Milan Kundera’s characters in The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a mere distraction from the real substance of the story and of the character’s real purpose. Kundera offers the reader a red herring and only through close examination can one dissect and abstract the true essence of each character’s thread that links them to one another in this story. For it is not clearly seen: in fact, it can not be seen at all. It is the fierce absence of the word commitment that is so blatantly seen in each individual, yet the word itself is buried so deeply inside of Tomas and Tereza that it takes an animal’s steadfast and unconditional love to make the meaning and understanding of commitment penetrate the surface.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Tomas and Tereza’s marriage was fragile and based on Tomas’s sympathy for his wife’s irrevocable urge to fully complete him, mentally and physically. In this Tomas did only what he could do; go from woman to woman while carrying the scent of female genitalia with him. Tereza carried her grief and regret in solitude yet she remained undaunted by an unexplainable force. Their dog Karenin seemed to be the only connection the couple shared. This animal gave them earnest trust and in return they committed their love. â€Å"It is a completely selfless love,† Kundera writes, â€Å" Tereza did not want anything of Karenin; she did not ever ask him to lov... the unbearable lightness of being Essay -- essays research papers The Unheard Voice of Commitment   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What the reader understands of the infidelity of Milan Kundera’s characters in The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a mere distraction from the real substance of the story and of the character’s real purpose. Kundera offers the reader a red herring and only through close examination can one dissect and abstract the true essence of each character’s thread that links them to one another in this story. For it is not clearly seen: in fact, it can not be seen at all. It is the fierce absence of the word commitment that is so blatantly seen in each individual, yet the word itself is buried so deeply inside of Tomas and Tereza that it takes an animal’s steadfast and unconditional love to make the meaning and understanding of commitment penetrate the surface.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Tomas and Tereza’s marriage was fragile and based on Tomas’s sympathy for his wife’s irrevocable urge to fully complete him, mentally and physically. In this Tomas did only what he could do; go from woman to woman while carrying the scent of female genitalia with him. Tereza carried her grief and regret in solitude yet she remained undaunted by an unexplainable force. Their dog Karenin seemed to be the only connection the couple shared. This animal gave them earnest trust and in return they committed their love. â€Å"It is a completely selfless love,† Kundera writes, â€Å" Tereza did not want anything of Karenin; she did not ever ask him to lov...

Friday, October 11, 2019

Communication Management Challenges in Construction Project Execution

Go Up to Table of Contents| | Go To Chapter 2 (Organizing for Project Management)| The Owners' Perspective Introduction The Project Life Cycle Major Types of Construction Selection of Professional Services Construction Contractors Financing of Constructed Facilities Legal and Regulatory Requirements The Changing Environment of the Construction Industry   Ã‚  Ã‚   The Role of Project Managers References Footnotes| | | 1. The Owners' Perspective 1. 1 Introduction Like the five blind men encountering different parts of an elephant, each of the numerous participants in the process of planning, designing, financing, constructing and operating physical facilities has a different perspective on project management for construction. Specialized knowledge can be very beneficial, particularly in large and complicated projects, since experts in various specialties can provide valuable services. However, it is advantageous to understand how the different parts of the process fit together. Waste, excessive cost and delays can result from poor coordination and communication among specialists. It is particularly in the interest of owners to insure that such problems do not occur. And it behooves all participants in the process to heed the interests of owners because, in the end, it is the owners who provide the resources and call the shots. By adopting the viewpoint of the owners, we can focus our attention on the complete process of project management for constructed facilities rather than the historical roles of various specialists such as planners, architects, engineering designers, constructors, fabricators, material suppliers, financial analysts and others. To be sure, each specialty has made important advances in developing new techniques and tools for efficient implementation of construction projects. However, it is through the understanding of the entire process of project management that these specialists can respond more effectively to the owner's desires for their services, in marketing their specialties, and in improving the productivity and quality of their work. The introduction of innovative and more effective project management for construction is not an academic exercise. As reported by the â€Å"Construction Industry Cost Effectiveness Project† of the Business Roundtable: [1] By common consensus and every available measure, the United States no longer gets it's money's worth in construction, the nation's largest industry †¦ The creeping erosion of construction efficiency and productivity is bad news for the entire U. S. economy. Construction is a particularly seminal industry. The price of every factory, office building, hotel or power plant that is built affects the price that must be charged for the goods or services produced in it or by it. And that effect generally persists for decades †¦ Too much of the industry remains tethered to the past, partly by inertia and partly by historic divisions†¦ Improvement of project management not only can aid the construction industry, but may also be the engine for the national and world economy. However, if we are to make meaningful improvements, we must first understand the construction industry, its operating environment and the institutional constraints affecting its activities as well as the nature of project management. Back to top 1. 2 The Project Life Cycle The acquisition of a constructed facility usually represents a major capital investment, whether its owner happens to be an individual, a private corporation or a public agency. Since the commitment of resources for such an investment is motivated by market demands or perceived needs, the facility is expected to satisfy certain objectives within the constraints specified by the owner and relevant regulations. With the exception of the speculative housing market, where the residential units may be sold as built by the real estate developer, most constructed facilities are custom made in consultation with the owners. A real estate developer may be regarded as the sponsor of building projects, as much as a government agency may be the sponsor of a public project and turns it over to another government unit upon its completion. From the viewpoint of project management, the terms â€Å"owner† and â€Å"sponsor† are synonymous because both have the ultimate authority to make all important decisions. Since an owner is essentially acquiring a facility on a promise in some form of agreement, it will be wise for any owner to have a clear understanding of the acquisition process in order to maintain firm control of the quality, timeliness and cost of the completed facility. From the perspective of an owner, the project life cycle for a constructed facility may be illustrated schematically in Figure 1-1. Essentially, a project is conceived to meet market demands or needs in a timely fashion. Various possibilities may be considered in the conceptual planning stage, and the technological and economic feasibility of each alternative will be assessed and compared in order to select the best possible project. The financing schemes for the proposed alternatives must also be examined, and the project will be programmed with respect to the timing for its completion and for available cash flows. After the scope of the project is clearly defined, detailed engineering design will provide the blueprint for construction, and the definitive cost estimate will serve as the baseline for cost control. In the procurement and construction stage, the delivery of materials and the erection of the project on site must be carefully planned and controlled. After the construction is completed, there is usually a brief period of start-up or shake-down of the constructed facility when it is first occupied. Finally, the management of the facility is turned over to the owner for full occupancy until the facility lives out its useful life and is designated for demolition or conversion. Figure 1-1:   The Project Life Cycle of a Constructed Facility Of course, the stages of development in Figure 1-1 may not be strictly sequential. Some of the stages require iteration, and others may be carried out in parallel or with overlapping time frames, depending on the nature, size and urgency of the project. Furthermore, an owner may have in-house capacities to handle the work in every stage of the entire process, or it may seek professional advice and services for the work in all stages. Understandably, most owners choose to handle some of the work in-house and to contract outside professional services for other components of the work as needed. By examining the project life cycle from an owner's perspective we can focus on the proper roles of various activities and participants in all stages regardless of the contractual arrangements for different types of work. In the United States, for example, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers has in-house capabilities to deal with planning, budgeting, design, construction and operation of waterway and flood control structures. Other public agencies, such as state transportation departments, are also deeply involved in all phases of a construction project. In the private sector, many large firms such as DuPont, Exxon, and IBM are adequately staffed to carry out most activities for plant expansion. All these owners, both public and private, use outside agents to a greater or lesser degree when it becomes more advantageous to do so. The project life cycle may be viewed as a process through which a project is implemented from cradle to grave. This process is often very complex; however, it can be decomposed into several stages as indicated by the general outline in Figure 1-1. The solutions at various stages are then integrated to obtain the final outcome. Although each stage requires different expertise, it usually includes both technical and managerial activities in the knowledge domain of the specialist. The owner may choose to decompose the entire process into more or less stages based on the size and nature of the project, and thus obtain the most efficient result in implementation. Very often, the owner retains direct control of work in the planning and programming stages, but increasingly outside planners and financial experts are used as consultants because of the complexities of projects. Since operation and maintenance of a facility will go on long after the completion and acceptance of a project, it is usually treated as a separate problem except in the consideration of the life cycle cost of a facility. All stages from conceptual planning and feasibility studies to the acceptance of a facility for occupancy may be broadly lumped together and referred to as the Design/Construct process, while the procurement and construction alone are traditionally regarded as the province of the construction industry. Owners must recognize that there is no single best approach in organizing project management throughout a project's life cycle. All organizational approaches have advantages and disadvantages, depending on the knowledge of the owner in construction management as well as the type, size and location of the project. It is important for the owner to be aware of the approach which is most appropriate and beneficial for a particular project. In making choices, owners should be concerned with the life cycle costs of constructed facilities rather than simply the initial construction costs. Saving small amounts of money during construction may not be worthwhile if the result is much larger operating costs or not meeting the functional requirements for the new facility satisfactorily. Thus, owners must be very concerned with the quality of the finished product as well as the cost of construction itself. Since facility operation and maintenance is a part of the project life cycle, the owners' expectation to satisfy investment objectives during the project life cycle will require consideration of the cost of operation and maintenance. Therefore, the facility's operating management should also be considered as early as possible, just as the construction process should be kept in mind at the early stages of planning and programming. Back to top 1. 3 Major Types of Construction Since most owners are generally interested in acquiring only a specific type of constructed facility, they should be aware of the common industrial practices for the type of construction pertinent to them. Likewise, the construction industry is a conglomeration of quite diverse segments and products. Some owners may procure a constructed facility only once in a long while and tend to look for short term advantages. However, many owners require periodic acquisition of new facilities and/or rehabilitation of existing facilities. It is to their advantage to keep the construction industry healthy and productive. Collectively, the owners have more power to influence the construction industry than they realize because, by their individual actions, they can provide incentives or disincentives for innovation, efficiency and quality in construction. It is to the interest of all parties that the owners take an active interest in the construction and exercise beneficial influence on the performance of the industry. In planning for various types of construction, the methods of procuring professional services, awarding construction contracts, and financing the constructed facility can be quite different. For the purpose of discussion, the broad spectrum of constructed facilities may be classified into four major categories, each with its own characteristics. Residential Housing Construction Residential housing construction includes single-family houses, multi-family dwellings, and high-rise apartments. During the development and construction of such projects, the developers or sponsors who are familiar with the construction industry usually serve as surrogate owners and take charge, making necessary contractual agreements for design and construction, and arranging the financing and sale of the completed structures. Residential housing designs are usually performed by architects and engineers, and the construction executed by builders who hire subcontractors for the structural, mechanical, electrical and other specialty work. An exception to this pattern is for single-family houses which may be designed by the builders as well. The residential housing market is heavily affected by general economic conditions, tax laws, and the monetary and fiscal policies of the government. Often, a slight increase in total demand will cause a substantial investment in construction, since many housing projects can be started at different locations by different individuals and developers at the same time. Because of the relative ease of entry, at least at the lower end of the market, many new builders are attracted to the residential housing construction. Hence, this market is highly competitive, with potentially high risks as well as high rewards. Figure 1-2:   Residential Housing Construction (courtesy of Caterpillar, Inc. ) Institutional and Commercial Building Construction Institutional and commercial building construction encompasses a great variety of project types and sizes, such as schools and universities, medical clinics and hospitals, recreational facilities and sports stadiums, retail chain stores and large shopping centers, warehouses and light manufacturing plants, and skyscrapers for offices and hotels. The owners of such buildings may or may not be familiar with construction industry practices, but they usually are able to select competent professional consultants and arrange the financing of the constructed facilities themselves. Specialty architects and engineers are often engaged for designing a specific type of building, while the builders or general contractors undertaking such projects may also be specialized in only that type of building. Because of the higher costs and greater sophistication of institutional and commercial buildings in comparison with residential housing, this market segment is shared by fewer competitors. Since the construction of some of these buildings is a long process which once started will take some time to proceed until completion, the demand is less sensitive to general economic conditions than that for speculative housing. Consequently, the owners may confront an oligopoly of general contractors who compete in the same market. In an oligopoly situation, only a limited number of competitors exist, and a firm's price for services may be based in part on its competitive strategies in the local market. Figure 1-3:   Construction of the PPG Building in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (courtesy of PPG Industries, Inc. Specialized Industrial Construction Specialized industrial construction usually involves very large scale projects with a high degree of technological complexity, such as oil refineries, steel mills, chemical processing plants and coal-fired or nuclear power plants. The owners usually are deeply involved in the development of a project, and prefer to work with designers-bu ilders such that the total time for the completion of the project can be shortened. They also want to pick a team of designers and builders with whom the owner has developed good working relations over the years. Although the initiation of such projects is also affected by the state of the economy, long range demand forecasting is the most important factor since such projects are capital intensive and require considerable amount of planning and construction time. Governmental regulation such as the rulings of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the United States can also profoundly influence decisions on these projects. Figure 1-4:   Construction of a Benzene Plant in Lima, Ohio (courtesy of Manitowoc Company, Inc. ) Infrastructure and Heavy Construction Infrastructure and heavy construction includes projects such as highways, mass transit systems, tunnels, bridges, pipelines, drainage systems and sewage treatment plants. Most of these projects are publicly owned and therefore financed either through bonds or taxes. This category of construction is characterized by a high degree of mechanization, which has gradually replaced some labor intensive operations. The engineers and builders engaged in infrastructure construction are usually highly specialized since each segment of the market requires different types of skills. However, demands for different segments of infrastructure and heavy construction may shift with saturation in some segments. For example, as the available highway construction projects are declining, some heavy construction contractors quickly move their work force and equipment into the field of mining where jobs are available. Figure 1-5:   Construction of the Dame Point Bridge in Jacksonville, Florida (courtesy of Mary Lou Maher) Back to top 1. 4 Selection of Professional Services When an owner decides to seek professional services for the design and construction of a facility, he is confronted with a broad variety of choices. The type of services selected depends to a large degree on the type of construction and the experience of the owner in dealing with various professionals in the previous projects undertaken by the firm. Generally, several common types of professional services may be engaged either separately or in some combination by the owners. Financial Planning Consultants At the early stage of strategic planning for a capital project, an owner often seeks the services of financial planning consultants such as certified public accounting (CPA) firms to evaluate the economic and financial feasibility of the constructed facility, particularly with respect to arious provisions of federal, state and local tax laws which may affect the investment decision. Investment banks may also be consulted on various options for financing the facility in order to analyze their long-term effects on the financial health of the owner organization. Architectural and Engineering Firms Traditionally, the owner engages a n architectural and engineering (A/E) firm or consortium as technical consultant in developing a preliminary design. After the engineering design and financing arrangements for the project are completed, the owner will enter into a construction contract with a general contractor either through competitive bidding or negotiation. The general contractor will act as a constructor and/or a coordinator of a large number of subcontractors who perform various specialties for the completion of the project. The A/E firm completes the design and may also provide on site quality inspection during construction. Thus, the A/E firm acts as the prime professional on behalf of the owner and supervises the construction to insure satisfactory results. This practice is most common in building construction. In the past two decades, this traditional approach has become less popular for a number of reasons, particularly for large scale projects. The A/E firms, which are engaged by the owner as the prime professionals for design and inspection, have become more isolated from the construction process. This has occurred because of pressures to reduce fees to A/E firms, the threat of litigation regarding construction defects, and lack of knowledge of new construction techniques on the part of architect and engineering professionals. Instead of preparing a construction plan along with the design, many A/E firms are no longer responsible for the details of construction nor do they provide periodic field inspection in many cases. As a matter of fact, such firms will place a prominent disclaimer of responsibilities on any shop drawings they may check, and they will often regard their representatives in the field as observers instead of inspectors. Thus, the A/E firm and the general contractor on a project often become antagonists who are looking after their own competing interests. As a result, even the constructibility of some engineering designs may become an issue of contention. To carry this protective attitude to the extreme, the specifications prepared by an A/E firm for the general contractor often protects the interest of the A/E firm at the expense of the interests of the owner and the contractor. In order to reduce the cost of construction, some owners introduce value engineering, which seeks to reduce the cost of construction by soliciting a second design that might cost less than the original design produced by the A/E firm. In practice, the second design is submitted by the contractor after receiving a construction contract at a stipulated sum, and the saving in cost resulting from the redesign is shared by the contractor and the owner. The contractor is able to absorb the cost of redesign from the profit in construction or to reduce the construction cost as a result of the re-design. If the owner had been willing to pay a higher fee to the A/E firm or to better direct the design process, the A/E firm might have produced an improved design which would cost less in the first place. Regardless of the merit of value engineering, this practice has undermined the role of the A/E firm as the prime professional acting on behalf of the owner to supervise the contractor. Design/Construct Firms A common trend in industrial construction, particularly for large projects, is to engage the services of a design/construct firm. By integrating design and construction management in a single organization, many of the conflicts between designers and constructors might be avoided. In particular, designs will be closely scrutinized for their constructibility. However, an owner engaging a design/construct firm must insure that the quality of the constructed facility is not sacrificed by the desire to reduce the time or the cost for completing the project. Also, it is difficult to make use of competitive bidding in this type of design/construct process. As a result, owners must be relatively sophisticated in negotiating realistic and cost-effective construction contracts. One of the most obvious advantages of the integrated design/construct process is the use of phased construction for a large project. In this process, the project is divided up into several phases, each of which can be designed and constructed in a staggered manner. After the completion of the design of the first phase, construction can begin without waiting for the completion of the design of the second phase, etc. If proper coordination is exercised. the total project duration can be greatly reduced. Another advantage is to exploit the possibility of using the turnkey approach whereby an owner can delegate all responsibility to the esign/construct firm which will deliver to the owner a completed facility that meets the performance specifications at the specified price. Professional Construction Managers In recent years, a new breed of construction managers (CM) offers professional services from the inception to the completion of a construction project. These construction managers mostly come from the ranks of A/E firms or general contractors who may or may not retain dual roles in the service of the owners. In any case, the owner can rely on the service of a single prime professional to manage the entire process of a construction project. However, like the A/E firms of several decades ago, the construction managers are appreciated by some owners but not by others. Before long, some owners find that the construction managers too may try to protect their own interest instead of that of the owners when the stakes are high. It should be obvious to all involved in the construction process that the party which is required to take higher risk demands larger rewards. If an owner wants to engage an A/E firm on the basis of low fees instead of established qualifications, it often gets what it deserves; or if the owner wants the general contractor to bear the cost of uncertainties in construction such as foundation conditions, the contract price will be higher even if competitive bidding is used in reaching a contractual agreement. Without mutual respect and trust, an owner cannot expect that construction managers can produce better results than other professionals. Hence, an owner must understand its own responsibility and the risk it wishes to assign to itself and to other participants in the process. Operation and Maintenance Managers Although many owners keep a permanent staff for the operation and maintenance of constructed facilities, others may prefer to contract such tasks to professional managers. Understandably, it is common to find in-house staff for operation and maintenance in specialized industrial plants and infrastructure facilities, and the use of outside managers under contracts for the operation and maintenance of rental properties such as apartments and office buildings. However, there are exceptions to these common practices. For example, maintenance of public roadways can be contracted to private firms. In any case, managers can provide a spectrum of operation and maintenance services for a specified time period in accordance to the terms of contractual agreements. Thus, the owners can be spared the provision of in-house expertise to operate and maintain the facilities. Facilities Management As a logical extension for obtaining the best services throughout the project life cycle of a constructed facility, some owners and developers are receptive to adding strategic planning at the beginning and facility maintenance as a follow-up to reduce space-related costs in their real estate holdings. Consequently, some architectural/engineering firms and construction management firms with computer-based expertise, together with interior design firms, are offering such front-end and follow-up services in addition to the more traditional services in design and construction. This spectrum of services is described in Engineering News-Record (now ENR) as follows: [2] Facilities management is the discipline of planning, designing, constructing and managing space — in every type of structure from office buildings to process plants. It involves developing corporate facilities policy, long-range forecasts, real estate, space inventories, projects (through design, construction and renovation), building operation and maintenance plans and furniture and equipment inventories. A common denominator of all firms entering into these new services is that they all have strong computer capabilities and heavy computer investments. In addition to the use of computers for aiding design and monitoring construction, the service includes the compilation of a computer record of building plans that can be turned over at the end of construction to the facilities management group of the owner. A computer data base of facilities information makes it possible for planners in the owner's organization to obtain overview information for long range space forecasts, while the line managers can use as-built information such as lease/tenant records, utility costs, etc. for day-to-day operations. Back to top 1. 5 Construction Contractors Builders who supervise the execution of construction projects are traditionally referred to as contractors, or more appropriately called constructors. The general contractor coordinates various tasks for a project while the specialty contractors such as mechanical or electrical contractors perform the work in their specialties. Material and equipment suppliers often act as installation contractors; they play a significant role in a construction project since the conditions of delivery of materials and equipment affect the quality, cost, and timely completion of the project. It is essential to understand the operation of these contractors in order to deal with them effectively. General Contractors The function of a general contractor is to coordinate all tasks in a construction project. Unless the owner performs this function or engages a professional construction manager to do so, a good general contractor who has worked with a team of superintendents, specialty contractors or subcontractors together for a number of projects in the past can be most effective in inspiring loyalty and cooperation. The general contractor is also knowledgeable about the labor force employed in construction. The labor force may or may not be unionized depending on the size and location of the projects. In some projects, no member of the work force belongs to a labor union; in other cases, both union and non-union craftsmen work together in what is called an open shop, or all craftsmen must be affiliated with labor unions in a closed shop. Since labor unions provide hiring halls staffed with skilled journeyman who have gone through apprentice programs for the projects as well as serving as collective bargain units, an experienced general contractor will make good use of the benefits and avoid the pitfalls in dealing with organized labor. Specialty Contractors Specialty contractors include mechanical, electrical, foundation, excavation, and demolition contractors among others. They usually serve as subcontractors to the general contractor of a project. In some cases, legal statutes may require an owner to deal with various specialty contractors directly. In the State of New York, for example, specialty contractors, such as mechanical and electrical contractors, are not subjected to the supervision of the general contractor of a construction project and must be given separate prime contracts on public works. With the exception of such special cases, an owner will hold the general contractor responsible for negotiating and fulfilling the contractual agreements with the subcontractors. Material and Equipment Suppliers Major material suppliers include specialty contractors in structural steel fabrication and erection, sheet metal, ready mixed concrete delivery, reinforcing steel bar detailers, roofing, glazing etc. Major equipment suppliers for industrial construction include manufacturers of generators, boilers and piping and other equipment. Many suppliers handle on-site installation to insure that the requirements and contractual specifications are met. As more and larger structural units are prefabricated off-site, the distribution between specialty contractors and material suppliers becomes even less obvious. Back to top 1. 6 Financing of Constructed Facilities A major construction project requires an enormous amount of capital that is often supplied by lenders who want to be assured that the project will offer a fair return on the investment. The direct costs associated with a major construction project may be broadly classified into two categories: (1) the construction expenses paid to the general contractor for erecting the facility on site and (2) the expenses for land acquisition, legal fees, architect/engineer fees, construction management fees, interest on construction loans and the opportunity cost of carrying empty space in the facility until it is fully occupied. The direct construction costs in the first category represent approximately 60 to 80 percent of the total costs in most construction projects. Since the costs of construction are ultimately borne by the owner, careful financial planning for the facility must be made prior to construction. Construction Financing Construction loans to contractors are usually provided by banks or savings and loan associations for construction financing. Upon the completion of the facility, construction loans will be terminated and the post-construction facility financing will be arranged by the owner. Construction loans provided for different types of construction vary. In the case of residential housing, construction loans and long-term mortgages can be obtained from savings and loans associations or commercial banks. For institutional and commercial buildings, construction loans are usually obtained from commercial banks. Since the value of specialized industrial buildings as collateral for loans is limited, construction loans in this domain are rare, and construction financing can be done from the pool of general corporate funds. For infrastructure construction owned by government, the property cannot be used as security for a private loan, but there are many possible ways to finance the construction, such as general appropriation from taxation or special bonds issued for the project. Traditionally, banks serve as construction lenders in a three-party agreement among the contractor, the owner and the bank. The stipulated loan will be paid to the contractor on an agreed schedule upon the verification of completion of various portions of the project. Generally, a payment request together with a standard progress report will be submitted each month by the contractor to the owner which in turn submits a draw request to the bank. Provided that the work to date has been performed satisfactorily, the disbursement is made on that basis during the construction period. Under such circumstances, the bank has been primarily concerned with the completion of the facility on time and within the budget. The economic life of the facility after its completion is not a concern because of the transfer of risk to the owner or an institutional lender. Facility Financing Many private corporations maintain a pool of general funds resulting from retained earnings and long-term borrowing on the strength of corporate assets, which can be used for facility financing. Similarly, for public agencies, the long-term funding may be obtained from the commitment of general tax revenues from the federal, state and/or local governments. Both private corporations and public agencies may issue special bonds for the constructed facilities which may obtain lower interest rates than other forms of borrowing. Short-term borrowing may also be used for bridging the gaps in long-term financing. Some corporate bonds are convertible to stocks under circumstances specified in the bond agreement. For public facilities, the assessment of user fees to repay the bond funds merits consideration for certain types of facilities such as toll roads and sewage treatment plants. [3] The use of mortgages is primarily confined to rental properties such as apartments and office buildings. Because of the sudden surge of interest rates in the late 1970's, many financial institutions offer, in addition to he traditional fixed rate long-term mortgage commitments, other arrangements such as a combination of debt and a percentage of ownership in exchange for a long-term mortgage or the use of adjustable rate mortgages. In some cases, the construction loan may be granted on an open-ended basis without a long-term financing commitment. For example, the plan might be issued for the construction period with an option to extend it for a period of up to three years in order to give the owner more time to seek alternative long-term financing on the completed facility. The bank will be drawn into situations involving financial risk if it chooses to be a lender without long-term guarantees. For international projects, the currency used for financing agreements becomes important. If financial agreements are written in terms of local currencies, then fluctuations in the currency exchange rate can significantly affect the cost and ultimately profit of a project. In some cases, payments might also be made in particular commodities such as petroleum or the output from the facility itself. Again, these arrangements result in greater uncertainty in the financing scheme because the price of these commodities may vary. Back to top 1. 7 Legal and Regulatory Requirements The owners of facilities naturally want legal protection for all the activities involved in the construction. It is equally obvious that they should seek competent legal advice. However, there are certain principles that should be recognized by owners in order to avoid unnecessary pitfalls. Legal Responsibilities Activities in construction often involve risks, both physical and financial. An owner generally tries to shift the risks to other parties to the degree possible when entering into contractual agreements with them. However, such action is not without cost or risk. For example, a contractor who is assigned the risks may either ask for a higher contract price to compensate for the higher risks, or end up in non-performance or bankruptcy as an act of desperation. Such consequences can be avoided if the owner is reasonable in risk allocation. When risks are allocated to different parties, the owner must understand the implications and spell them out clearly. Sometimes there are statutory limitations on the allocation of liabilities among various groups, such as prohibition against the allocation of negligence in design to the contractor. An owner must realize its superior power in bargaining and hence the responsibilities associated with this power in making contractual agreements. Mitigation of Conflicts It is important for the owner to use legal counselors as advisors to mitigate conflicts before they happen rather than to wield conflicts as weapons against other parties. There are enough problems in design and construction due to uncertainty rather than bad intentions. The owner should recognize the more enlightened approaches for mitigating conflicts, such as using owner-controlled wrap-up insurance which will provide protection for all parties involved in the construction process for unforeseen risks, or using arbitration, mediation and other extra-judicial solutions for disputes among various parties. However, these compromise solutions are not without pitfalls and should be adopted only on the merit of individual cases. Government Regulation To protect public safety and welfare, legislatures and various government agencies periodically issue regulations which influence the construction process, the operation of constructed facilities, and their ultimate disposal. For example, building codes promulgated by local authorities have provided guidelines for design and construction practices for a very long time. Since the 1970's, many federal regulations that are related directly or indirectly to construction have been established in the United States. Among them are safety standards for workers issued by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, environmental standards on pollutants and toxic wastes issued by the Environmental Protection Agency, and design and operation procedures for nuclear power plants issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Owners must be aware of the impacts of these regulations on the costs and durations of various types of construction projects as well as possibilities of litigation due to various contentions. For example, owners acquiring sites for new construction may be strictly liable for any hazardous wastes already on the site or removed from the site under the U. S. Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability (CERCL) Act of 1980. For large scale projects involving new technologies, the construction costs often escalate with the uncertainty associated with such restrictions. Back to top 1. 8 The Changing Environment of the Construction Industry The construction industry is a conglomeration of diverse fields and participants that have been loosely lumped together as a sector of the economy. The construction industry plays a central role in national welfare, including the development of residential housing, office buildings and industrial plants, and the restoration of the nation's infrastructure and other public facilities. The importance of the construction industry lies in the function of its products which provide the foundation for industrial production, and its impacts on the national economy cannot be measured by the value of its output or the number of persons employed in its activities alone. To be more specific, construction refers to all types of activities usually associated with the erection and repair of immobile facilities. Contract construction consists of a large number of firms that perform construction work for others, and is estimated to be approximately 85% of all construction activities. The remaining 15% of construction is performed by owners of the facilities, and is referred to as force-account construction. Although the number of contractors in the United States exceeds a million, over 60% of all contractor construction is performed by the top 400 contractors. The value of new construction in the United States (expressed in constant dollars) and the value of construction as a percentage of the gross national products from 1950 to 1985 are shown in Figures 1-6 and 1-7. It can be seen that construction is a significant factor in the Gross National Product although its importance has been declining in recent years. [4] Not to be ignored is the fact that as the nation's constructed facilities become older, the total expenditure on rehabilitation and maintenance may increase relative to the value of new construction. Figure 1-6:   Value of New Construction in the United States, 1975-1995 Figure 1-7:   Construction as Percentage of Gross Domestic Product in the United States, 1975-1995 Owners who pay close attention to the peculiar characteristics of the construction industry and its changing operating environment will be able to take advantage of the favorable conditions and to avoid the pitfalls. Several factors are particularly noteworthy because of their significant impacts on the quality, cost and time of construction. New Technologies In recent years, technological innovation in design, materials and construction methods have resulted in significant changes in construction costs. Computer-aids have improved capabilities for generating quality designs as well as reducing the time required to produce alternative designs. New materials not only have enhanced the quality of construction but also have shortened the time for shop fabrication and field erection. Construction methods have gone through various stages of mechanization and automation, including the latest development of construction robotics. The most dramatic new technology applied to construction has been the Internet and its private, corporate Intranet versions. The Internet is widely used as a means to foster collaboration among professionals on a project, to communicate for bids and results, and to procure necessary goods and services. Real time video from specific construction sites is widely used to illustrate construction progress to interested parties. The result has been more effective collaboration, communication and procurement. The effects of many new technologies on construction costs have been mixed because of the high development costs for new technologies. However, it is unmistakable that design professionals and construction contractors who have not adapted to changing technologies have been forced out of the mainstream of design and construction activities. Ultimately, construction quality and cost can be improved with the adoption of new technologies which are proved to be efficient from both the viewpoints of performance and economy. Labor Productivity The term productivity is generally defined as a ratio of the production output volume to the input volume of resources. Since both output and input can be quantified in a number of ways, there is no single measure of productivity that is universally applicable, particularly in the construction industry where the products are often unique and there is no standard for specifying the levels for aggregation of data. However, since labor constitutes a large part of the cost of construction, labor productivity in terms of output volume (constant dollar value or functional units) per person-hour is a useful measure. Labor productivity measured in this way does not necessarily indicate the efficiency of labor alone but rather measures the combined effects of labor, equipment and other factors contributing to the output. While aggregate construction industry productivity is important as a measure of national economy, owners are more concerned about the labor productivity of basic units of work produced by various crafts on site. Thus, an owner can compare the labor performance at different geographic locations, under different working conditions, and for different types and sizes of projects. Construction costs usually run parallel to material prices and labor wages. Actually, over the years, labor productivity has increased in some traditional types of construction and thus provides a leveling or compensating effect when hourly rates for labor increase faster than other costs in construction. However, labor productivity has been stagnant or even declined in unconventional or large scale projects. Public Scrutiny Under the present litigious climate in the United States, the public is increasingly vocal in the scrutiny of construction project activities. Sometimes it may result in considerable difficulty in siting new facilities as well as additional expenses during the construction process itself. Owners must be prepared to manage such crises before they get out of control. Figure 1-8 can serve to indicate public attitudes towards the siting of new facilities. It represents the cumulative percentage of individuals who would be willing to accept a new industrial facility at various distances from their homes. For example, over fifty percent of the people surveyed would accept a ten-story office building within five miles of their home, but only twenty-five percent would accept a large factory or coal fired power plant at a similar distance. An even lower percentage would accept a hazardous waste disposal site or a nuclear power plant. Even at a distance of one hundred miles, a significant fraction of the public would be unwilling to accept hazardous waste facilities or nuclear power plants. Figure 1-8:   Public Acceptance Towards New Facilities (Reprinted from Environmental Quality – 1980, the Eleventh Annual Report of the Council on Environmental Quality, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, December 1980. ) This objection to new facilities is a widespread public attitude, representing considerable skepticism about the external benefits and costs which new facilities will impose. It is this public attitude which is likely to make public scrutiny and regulation a continuing concern for the construction industry. International Competition A final trend which deserves note is the increasing level of international competition in the construction industry. Owners are likely to find non-traditional firms bidding for construction work, particularly on large projects. Separate bids from numerous European, North American, and Asian construction firms are not unusual. In the United States, overseas firms are becoming increasingly visible and important. In this environment of heightened competition, good project management and improved productivity are more and more important. A bidding competition for a major new offshore drilling platform illustrates the competitive environment in construction. As described in the Wall Street Journal: [5] Through most of the postwar years, the nation's biggest builders of offshore oil platforms enjoyed an unusually cozy relationship with the Big Oil Companies they served. Their top officials developed personal friendships with oil executives, entertained them at opulent hunting camps- and won contracts to build nearly every major offshore oil platform in the world†¦. But this summer, the good-old boy network fell apart. Shell [Oil Co. awarded the main contract for [a new] platform – taller than Chicago's Sears Tower, four times heavier than the Brooklyn Bridge – to a tiny upstart. The winning bidder arranged overseas fabrication of the rig, kept overhead costs low, and proposed a novel assembly procedure by which construction equipment was mounted on completed sections of the platform in order to speed the completion of the entire structure. The result was lower costs than those estimated and bid by traditional firms. Of course, U. S. firms including A/E firms, contractors and construction managers are also competing in foreign countries. Their success or failure in the international arena may also affect their capacities and vitality to provide services in the domestic U. S. market. Contractor Financed Projects Increasingly, some owners look to contractors or joint ventures as a resource to design, to build and to finance a constructed facility. For example, a utility company may seek a consortium consisting of a design/construct firm and a financial investment firm to assume total liability during construction and thereby eliminate the risks of cost escalation to ratepayers, stockholders and the management. On the other hand, a local sanitation district may seek such a consortium to provide private ownership for a proposed new sewage treatment plant. In the former case, the owner may take over the completed facility and service the debt on construction through long-term financing arrangements; in the latter case, the private owner may operate the completed facility and recover its investment through user fees. The activities of joint ventures among design, construction and investment firms are sometimes referred to as financial engineering. This type of joint venture has become more important in the international construction market where aggressive contractors often win contracts by offering a more attractive financing package rather than superior technology. With a deepening shadow of international debts in recent years, many developing countries are not in a position to undertake any new project without contractor-backed financing. Thus, the contractors or joint ventures in overseas projects are forced into very risky positions if they intend to stay in the competition. Lean Construction Lean manufacturing† had a revolutionary effect on many industries, especially automotive assembly companies. Characteristics of this approach include: * Improvement in quality and reduction of waste everywhere. Rather than increasing costs, reducing defects and waste proved to improve quality and reduce costs. * Empowering workers to be responsible for satisfying customer needs. In construction, for example, craftsman should ma ke sure their work satisfied the design intent. * Continuous improvement of processes involving the entire workforce. Lean construction s intended to spread these practices within the construction industry. Of course, well managed construction projects already have many aspects of lean construction. For example, just-in-time delivery of materials is commonplace to avoid the waste of large inventory stockpiles. Green building projects attempt to re-use or recycle all construction wastes. But the systematic attention to continuous improvement and zero accidents and defects is new. Back to top 1. 9 The Role of Project Managers In the project life cycle, the most influential factors affecting the outcome of the project often reside at the early stages. At this point, decisions should be based on competent economic evaluation with due consideration for adequate financing, the prevalent social and regulatory environment, and technological considerations. Architects and engineers might specialize in planning, in construction field management, or in operation, but as project managers, they must have some familiarity with all such aspects in order to understand properly their role and be able to make competent decisions. Since the 1970's, many large-scale projects have run into serious problems of management, such as cost overruns and long schedule delays. Actually, the management of megaprojects or superprojects is not a practice peculiar to our time. Witness the construction of transcontinental railroads in the Civil War era and the construction of the Panama Canal at the turn of this century. Although the megaprojects of this generation may appear in greater frequency and present a new set of challenge, the problems are organizational rather than technical. As noted by Hardy Cross: [6] It is customary to think of engineering as a part of a trilogy, pure science, applied science and engineering. It needs emphasis that this trilogy is only one of a triad of trilogies into which engineering fits. This first is pure science, applied science and engineering; the second is economic theory, finance and engineering; and the third is social relations, industrial relations and engineering. Many engineering problems are as closely allied to social problems as they are to pure science. As engineers advance professionally, they often spend as much or more time on planning, management and other economic or social problems as on the traditional engineering design and analysis problems which form the core of most educational programs. It is upon the ability of engineers to tackle all such problems that their performance will ultimately be judged. The greatest stumbling block to effective management in construction is the inertia and historic divisions among planners, designers and constructors. While technical competence in design and innovation remains the foundation of engineering practice, the social, economic and organizational factors that are pervasive in influencing the success and failure of construction projects must also be dealt with effectively by design and construction organizations. Of course, engineers are not expected to know every detail of management techniques, but they must be knowledgeable enough to anticipate the problems of management so that they can work harmoniously with professionals in related fields to overcome the inertia and historic divisions. Paradoxically, engineers who are creative in engineering design are often innovative in planning and management since both types of activities involve problem solving. In fact, they can reinforce each other if both are included in the education process, provided that creativity and innovation instead of routine practice are emphasized. A project manager who is well educated in the fundamental principles of engineering design and management can usefully apply such principles once he or she has acquired basic understanding of a new application area. A project manager who has been trained by rote learning for a specific type of project may merely gain one year of experience repeated twenty times even if he or she has been in the field for twenty years. A broadly educated project manager can reasonably hope to become a leader in the profession; a narrowly trained project manager is often relegated to the role of his or her first job level permanently. The owners have much at stake in selecting a competent project manager and in providing her or him with the authority to assume responsibility at various stages of the project regardless of the types of contractual agreements for implementing the project. Of course, the project manager must also possess the leadership quality and the ability to handle effectively intricate interpersonal relationships within an organization. The ultimate test of the education and experience of a project manager for construction lies in her or his ability to apply fundamental principles to solving problems in the new and unfamiliar situations which have become the hallmarks of the changing environment in the construction industry. Back to top 1. 10 References 1. Au, T. and C. Hendrickson, â€Å"Education in Engineering Planning and Management,† Proceedings of the ASCE Conference on Civil Engineering Education, Columbus, Ohio, 1985. 2. Barrie, D. S. editor), Directions in Managing Construction, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1981. 3. Lean Construction Institute, http://www. leanconstruction. org/ 4. Bonny, J. B. and J. P. Frein, Handbook of Construction Management and Organization, 2nd Edition, Van Nostrand Reinhold Co. , New York, 1980. 5. Hasagawa, Fumio et. al. , â€Å"Built by Japan,† John Wiley ; Sons, 1988. 6. Lang, J. E. and D. Q. Mills, The Construction Industry, Lexington Books, Lexington, MA, 1979. 7. Walker, N. , E. N. Walker and T. K. Rohdenburg, Legal Pitfalls in Architecture, Engineering and Building Construction, 2nd Edition, McGraw-Hill Book Co. , New York, 1979. Back to top 1. 11 Footnotes 1. The Business Roundtable, More Construction for the Money, Summary Report of the Construction Industry Cost Effectiveness Project, January 1983, p. 11. Back 2. â€Å"Hot New Market Lures A-E Players to Cutting Edges,† Engineering News-Record, April 4, 1985, pp. 30-37. Back 3. See Hendrickson, C. , â€Å"Financing Civil Works with User Fees,† Civil Engineering, Vol. 53, No. , February 1983, pp. 71-72. Back 4. The graph is derived from data in â€Å"Value of New Construction Put in Place, 1960-1983†, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 105th Edition, U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Census, 1985, pp. 722-723, as well as the information in earlier editions. Back 5. See Petzinger, Thomas Jr. , â€Å"Upstart's Winning Bid for Offshore Platform Stuns its Older Rivals,† Wall Street Journ al, p. 1, c. 6, Nov. 20, 1985. Back 6. See H. Cross, Engineers and Ivory Towers, McGraw-Hill Book Co. Inc. , New York, 1952. Back Table of Contents| || Next Chapter| Go Up to Table of Contents| | Go To Chapter 2 (Organizing for Project Management)| The Owners' Perspective Introduction The Project Life Cycle Major Types of Construction Selection of Professional Services Construction Contractors Financing of Constructed Facilities Legal and Regulatory Requirements The Changing Environment of the Construction Industry   Ã‚  Ã‚   The Role of Project Managers References Footnotes| | | 1. The Owners' Perspective 1. 1 Introduction Like the five blind men encountering different parts of an elephant, each of the numerous participants in the process of planning, designing, financing, constructing and operating physical facilities has a different perspective on project management for construction. Specialized knowledge can be very beneficial, particularly in large and complicated projects, since experts in various specialties can provide valuable services. However, it is advantageous to understand how the different parts of the process fit together. Waste, excessive cost and delays can result from poor coordination and communication among specialists. It is particularly in the interest of owners to insure that such problems do not occur. And it behooves all participants in the process to heed the interests of owners because, in the end, it is the owners who provide the resources and call the shots. By adopting the viewpoint of the owners, we can focus our attention on the complete process of project management for constructed facilities rather than the historical roles of various specialists such as planners, architects, engineering designers, constructors, fabricators, material suppliers, financial analysts and others. To be sure, each specialty has made important advances in developing new techniques and tools for efficient implementation of construction projects. However, it is through the understanding of the entire process of project management that these specialists can respond more effectively to the owner's desires for their services, in marketing their specialties, and in improving the productivity and quality of their work. The introduction of innovative and more effective project management for construction is not an academic exercise. As reported by the â€Å"Construction Industry Cost Effectiveness Project† of the Business Roundtable: [1] By common consensus and every available measure, the United States no longer gets it's money's worth in construction, the nation's largest industry †¦ The creeping erosion of construction efficiency and productivity is bad news for the entire U. S. economy. Construction is a particularly seminal industry. The price of every factory, office building, hotel or power plant that is built affects the price that must be charged for the goods or services produced in it or by it. And that effect generally persists for decades †¦ Too much of the industry remains tethered to the past, partly by inertia and partly by historic divisions†¦ Improvement of project management not only can aid the construction industry, but may also be the engine for the national and world economy. However, if we are to make meaningful improvements, we must first understand the construction industry, its operating environment and the institutional constraints affecting its activities as well as the nature of project management. Back to top 1. 2 The Project Life Cycle The acquisition of a constructed facility usually represents a major capital investment, whether its owner happens to be an individual, a private corporation or a public agency. Since the commitment of resources for such an investment is motivated by market demands or perceived needs, the facility is expected to satisfy certain objectives within the constraints specified by the owner and relevant regulations. With the exception of the speculative housing market, where the residential units may be sold as built by the real estate developer, most constructed facilities are custom made in consultation with the owners. A real estate developer may be regarded as the sponsor of building projects, as much as a government agency may be the sponsor of a public project and turns it over to another government unit upon its completion. From the viewpoint of project management, the terms â€Å"owner† and â€Å"sponsor† are synonymous because both have the ultimate authority to make all important decisions. Since an owner is essentially acquiring a facility on a promise in some form of agreement, it will be wise for any owner to have a clear understanding of the acquisition process in order to maintain firm control of the quality, timeliness and cost of the completed facility. From the perspective of an owner, the project life cycle for a constructed facility may be illustrated schematically in Figure 1-1. Essentially, a project is conceived to meet market demands or needs in a timely fashion. Various possibilities may be considered in the conceptual planning stage, and the technological and economic feasibility of each alternative will be assessed and compared in order to select the best possible project. The financing schemes for the proposed alternatives must also be examined, and the project will be programmed with respect to the timing for its completion and for available cash flows. After the scope of the project is clearly defined, detailed engineering design will provide the blueprint for construction, and the definitive cost estimate will serve as the baseline for cost control. In the procurement and construction stage, the delivery of materials and the erection of the project on site must be carefully planned and controlled. After the construction is completed, there is usually a brief period of start-up or shake-down of the constructed facility when it is first occupied. Finally, the management of the facility is turned over to the owner for full occupancy until the facility lives out its useful life and is designated for demolition or conversion. Figure 1-1:   The Project Life Cycle of a Constructed Facility Of course, the stages of development in Figure 1-1 may not be strictly sequential. Some of the stages require iteration, and others may be carried out in parallel or with overlapping time frames, depending on the nature, size and urgency of the project. Furthermore, an owner may have in-house capacities to handle the work in every stage of the entire process, or it may seek professional advice and services for the work in all stages. Understandably, most owners choose to handle some of the work in-house and to contract outside professional services for other components of the work as needed. By examining the project life cycle from an owner's perspective we can focus on the proper roles of various activities and participants in all stages regardless of the contractual arrangements for different types of work. In the United States, for example, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers has in-house capabilities to deal with planning, budgeting, design, construction and operation of waterway and flood control structures. Other public agencies, such as state transportation departments, are also deeply involved in all phases of a construction project. In the private sector, many large firms such as DuPont, Exxon, and IBM are adequately staffe