Lehigh’s 1993 product mix Essay

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The objective of this memo is to recommend you a product mix for Lehigh in the year of 1993 based on profit calculations and other business considerations. Recommendation: 1993 product mix should include only High Speed Based on an approach resultant from the combination of ABC plus Theory of Constraints (TOC), I recommend that the company include only the High Speed (machine coil) in its mix. The table bellow contains the unitary cost for Standard and ABC and the throughput per unit of the constrained resource ($/min), calculated diving the unitary ABC cost ($/lb) by the machine time for the rolling process (lb/min): The following paragraphs present a deeper analysis to allow comprehension of the logical steps that led to this recommendation. Rationale: ABC and TOC combined approach The major idea behind combining ABC and TOC approaches is to come up with a fourth method of calculating profits that overcomes the shortcomings of the other three methods (Standard, ABC and TOC). Based on the ABC model (see description of this model in the next section of this report: Alternatives Rejected), I calculated the unitary operating profit per product. This operating profit eliminates the major issue concerning the Standard Costing system: to average uneven resource consumption across products. The next step was to incorporate the concept of time as a factor used in Lehigh’s decision-making. First, by obtaining information from the operations staff, I defined the CRM as the constraint of the plant. Then, I calculated the  throughput per unit of the constrained process (Rolling – CRM) by diving the unitary ABC cost ($/lb) by the machine time for the rolling process (lb/min). Exhibit 1 presents the results for these calculations. According to this approach, alloys, roller wires and chipper knives present losses, while only high speeds and round bars showed profits: respectively $4.84 and $0.08 per minute of rolling machine (CRM) used. However, considering this small profit per minute for round bars and that Die Steel market is broad and requires that its participants offer a full product line to maintain share (this means that Chipper Knives should also be produced), I recommend that Die Steel products be removed from product mix. Consequently, high speeds are the only products that I recommend be kept in Lehigh’s product mix in 1993. It is important to mention that with demand recovering in 1993 and Lehigh’s superior product performance, it may be possible that the company command a price premium for its alloys high enough to turn it profitable in this method and, consequently, to include it in its product mix. Alternatives rejected: Standard, ABC costing and TOC approach Analyzing the scenario, Lehigh had 3 other possibilities for calculating its profit per product: Standard costing The product weight was considered the primary driver of resource consumption, so the indirect manufacturing and administrative costs were allocated to products based on pounds produced. As a result, this approach considers that each of the five products uses manufacturing and administrative overhead equally (their unitary costs are all $0.64 per pound). Moreover, direct manufacturing costs were allocated based on machine hours and materials and direct labor were allocated based on the bill of materials and routings. The calculations for this first alternative are presented in exhibit 2. According to this approach, all products but alloys present operating losses. However, standard costing is averaging the diverse resource use by products and that one it points as the most profitable (alloys) is already promoted by marketing and sales teams, but Lehigh is not showing profits during this period. Therefore, this alternative is not recommended. ABC costing In this second approach, I considered Utilities, Maintenance and Depreciation as direct manufacturing costs and allocated them based on machine hours. Number of skus was considered driver for Technical Support. The product weight was considered driver of resource consumption only for General & Administrative costs. Moreover, materials and direct labor were allocated based on the bill of materials and routings (exactly the way they were allocated in Standard Costing system). Finally, Material Handling & Setup, Order Processing and Production Planning were driven to products using number of orders. Consequently, ABC solves the major issue regarding the Standard Costing system: the assumption that all overhead costs can be included into one cost pool. All the drivers are summarized in exhibit 3. Exhibits 4 and 5 present respectively the ABC drivers and allocation rates. The calculations for this alternative are presented in exhibit 6. According to this approach, alloys, roller wires and chipper knives present operating losses, while only high speeds and round bars showed operating profits: $0.15 and $0.01 per pound. However, ABC does not take into consideration how smoothly material flowed through the plant and product profitability should reflect this kind of difference in resource consumption. This is the reason why this alternative was not selected. TOC approach In this third approach, it was proposed a simple operational measure to orientate the decision-making process within the company: Throughput. It was calculated as sales less material cost (â€Å"contribution margin†) per unit of the constrained resource. As already mentioned, the rolling process (CRM) is the bottleneck of the plant. TOC approach considers that the efficient management of the constrained resource is the key factor to increase profitability. The calculations for this alternative are presented in exhibit 7. According to this approach, high speeds and alloys were the products that showed higher â€Å"contribution margins†: $25.00 and $17.70 per minute of rolling machine (CRM) used. However, TOC approach only takes into consideration the material costs, leaving aside all the other relevant costs that could be allocated to each product according to ABC approach. In other words, TOC method does not reflect the real operating profits. Considering  this point, this alternative was discarded.

A Separate Peace Essay

In the novel, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles the question is presented â€Å"what is a true friend?† The author challenges the question by manifesting two main characters, Finny and Gene, to have a type of rivalry relationship. Finny is a self-confident, outgoing, and athletic person. Awhile on the other hand Gene is quiet, competitive, and intelligent person. Gene gains jealous thoughts which in the end lead their friendship too gradually to fall apart. The author creates a challenge that frustrates both Finny and Gene to test both side of their relationship. As an example the author shows Finny’s fall in the climax of the book is due to Gene being jealous of him which then leads to Finny’s tragic injury.†I was not of the same quality as he. I couldn’t stand this†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Knowles 52). Gene was surrounded with depression and major guilt. I feel that, with friendship there is always going to be envious feelings towards the other party no matt er what, but not to a point of possibly injuring them or hurting them really bad. Another incident is when Gene wears Finny’s clothes while he is recovering from his injury. This brings out the thought that Gene missed Finny and he had a feeling of loneness, but however he is also replacing him in his athletics.†Listen, pal, if I can’t play sports, you’re going to play for me† (Knowles 76). Due the past altercations, Gene will play for Finny, not only because he was the second best player but Finny was injured. So I guess you can say he qualifies for his replacement. This shows that in a friendship or relationship, when two friends have had an argument in the past that has lead to loneliness, an empty feeling, and non communication, but in the end this is the factors that makes a friendship stronger when they finally talk again for the first time in a long period of time and they both feel the love and welcoming type of feeling. The last incident that occurs shows the true feelings of friendship illustrated by the author is, this is when Finny falls down the stairs and  he breaks his leg for the second time. But sadly in the end e eventually dies in surgery when the doctor begins his procedure on Finny’s leg to try to fix it. The doctor then explains that the marrow of the bone escaped and went throughout his bloodstream leading to his heart killing him. Gene didn’t cry for one reason, when he was at Finny’s funeral, he felt as if this was his own.†I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral, and you do not cry in that case†(Knowles 184). Gene is mad at himself for endangering Finny’s life by bouncing and unbalancing the tree branch as Finny leaped out towards the water and in the end unintentionally ending his Finney’s life. John Knowles wrote the sad story of when friends obtain the feelings of envy or jealousy, on their journey to discover the true meaning of what they thought was a true friend. Their jealous cravings lead them to their tragedy and this is the major factor that brought their friendship to a end. The question â€Å"What is a true friend?† can only be answered in your opinion for there is no true definition of true friends because everyone is different and therefore think differently and has a different opinion on the subject. A Separate Peace Essay The book, A Separate Peace was written by John Knowles. It was first published in 1959. It tells the story Gene Forrester, a former student at a prep school in New Hampshire, who returns to the school after he graduates. While he is there, He remembers the summer of 1942. When he walks up to a tree by the river, he remembers his friend and roommate Phineas. Phineas was the best athlete in the entire school. From then on the story moves back to 1942 at the school named Devon. Phineas’ athleticism inspires Gene to become one of the smartest kids in the school. He starts to do well in school until he failed a test because of a trip to the beach with Phineas. When this happens, he blames Phineas for him failing. He begins to get angry with Phineas and tries to stay focused until one day when Phineas persuades Gene to go and jump from a tree into the river. Gene thinks this is just another attempt to pull him from his studies so when he and Phineas are standing on the tree limb, Gene Jounces the limb to cause Phineas to lose his balance and fall to the river bank. Phineas shatters his leg and this accident cost him his athletic career. Gene felt guilty about the incident and tries to confess to Phineas. Phineas refused to believe what happened and continued to think that it was just an accident. Once Phineas returns to the school, he convinced Gene to train for the 1944 Olympics. Gene tried to explain that this would be impossible with World War II going on so Phineas persuaded him to believe that the war is fake. Gene accepted his explanation and began to train for the Olympics. Then one day, Brinker Hadley brings the boys and some of their friends together for a mock trial to accuse Gene for being responsible for the accident. When another boy shares his view of the story saying that he saw Gene Jounce the limb, Phineas leaves the room in anger. While walking down the stairs, he fell and broke his leg again. While talking to Phineas in the hospital, Gene insists that he didn’t mean to hurt him. Phineas accepts his apology and they remain friends. The next day in surgery, marrow from Phineas’ leg leaked into his blood stream making its way to his heart and killing him. Gene looked back after the war and realized that his real enemy was his own jealousy of Phineas. A Separate Peace Essay In chapter four the doppelganger is starting to form. Gene is starting to believe that there is a deadly rivalry between Finny and him. Gene is striving to win the valedictorian which means he has to study hard. Gene thinks that when he wins valedictorian that Finny and him will finally be even. Gene asks Finny if he minds that Gene is trying to win valedictorian, Finny replies, â€Å"I’d kill myself out of jealous envy† (52). Gene believes this. Gene has a lot of bitterness towards Finny since Finny is a star athlete and can talk his way out of any trouble he gets in to. To help deal with the bitterness Gene starts to tell himself that Finny is also jealous of Gene’s academic abilities. This bitterness towards Finny helps Gene advance in classes to bother Finny. Gene starts to think that Finny purposely tries to ruin his study times. Gene is starting to realize that Finny was never trying to compete with Gene with him. Gene then goes into deeper bitterness than he was in before, Gene believes that Finny is superior. This foreshadows when Gene shakes the tree limb. When Finny falls off the tree, this is the climax of the story since Gene and Finny are doppelgangers and only one of them can exist, and the one that is trying to hurt the other Gene. Finny was never trying to hurt Gene in any way but it was all in Gene’s mind. The doppelganger is a conflict that goes on through out the whole book, Gene is always trying to get rid of Finny and compete with him meanwhile, Finny never means to harm anyone. When Finny dies, Gene shed no tears because Finny and him were one, and he couldn’t cry at his own funeral. A Separate Peace Essay It is important to confront reality, no matter how harsh it is. People will always face difficult situations, but avoiding them is often more dangerous than the situation itself. In his novel, A Separate Peace, Knowles explores what can happen when a person or even an institution tries to avoid painful circumstances. In the story, Gene, the protagonist, and his friends are students at the Devon boarding school; and the troubling issues they face are wars, the external, World War II, and the intimate conflicts that often arise between close friends. Knowles uses the motif of the transformation of Devon, Finny, and Gene to show the importance of confronting head-on the wars within and around them. Devon boarding school shields Gene and his classmates from the hardships of World War II. Gene’s class, the â€Å"Upper Middlers,† are too young for the draft. This causes the teachers at Devon to see them as the last evidence of â€Å"the life the war was being fought to preserve† (29). The teachers are afraid to expose the boys to the terror of war and so they hide it from them. While throughout the country, others participate in the war effort, Gene and his classmates remain apart and spend their time â€Å"calmly reading Virgil† (24). Because of this separation, the war becomes â€Å"completely unreal† (24) to the Upper Middlers. The entire world appears to be churning in the upheaval of the war, but Devon tries to remain the same, shielding the boys from its hardships. Unfortunately, when the effects of the war inevitably come to Devon, its attempts at avoidance result in a negative transformation with bitter and unintended consequences. In its efforts to deny the war’s existence, Devon changes from idyllic and relaxed in the Summer Session to rigid and uncompromising in the Winter Session. In the summer at Devon, the boys play games on the â€Å"healthy green turf brushed with dew† to the calming sounds of â€Å"cricket noises and the bird cries of dusk† (24). Such imagery makes Devon seem like a peaceful oasis for the Upper Middlers. However, this relaxed atmosphere of the Summer Session ends with Finny’s fall from the tree at Devon River. Jumping from the tree was an activity originally designed to prepare soldiers for war and Finny’s injury from it represents the boys’ first experience with the pain that war brings. To Devon, Finny’s fall proves that the relaxed atmosphere of the Summer Session could not protect the boys from the reality of war. As a result, Devon rejects the carefree environment of the Summer Session and changes into a strict school where â€Å"continuity is stressed† (73) in the Winter Session. This transformation proves negative as evidenced by Knowles stark change in his description of the Winter Session. For example, while in the Summer Session the boys freely roamed the â€Å"healthy green turf† of Devon’s fields, they crowd into the dark â€Å"Butt Room† a smoking room that Gene compares to a â€Å"dirty dungeon†¦ in the bowels of the dormitory† (88). Where once the boys played in beautiful fields, they are now confined in close, dark rooms. Gene further classifies the transformation as negative by immediately remarking that â€Å"peace [has] deserted Devon† (72) when he returns for the Winter Session. In attempting to avoid the effects of the war, Devon sacrifices its status as a haven for the boys. When the reality that the world is at war inevitably strikes Devon, its transformation makes it less able to deal with the effects of the war. Gene compares the inexorable arrival of the war to the snow that blankets the school grounds. He calls the snowflakes â€Å"invaders† that cover the â€Å"carefully pruned shrubbery bordering the crosswalks† and likens them to the â€Å"invasion of the war on the school† (93). In making this comparison, Gene seems to show that just as Devon’s â€Å"carefully pruned shrubbery† cannot escape the snowfall, its structured atmosphere cannot escape the war. In fact, it is that structured atmosphere that makes the war seem all the more attractive to the very boys Devon tried so desperately to protect. Representing this is the Upper Middlers’ decision to clear snow from train tracks designed to transport troops. This is their first serious contribution to the war effort and requires that they travel away from Devon, symbolizing their desire to leave their school and participate in the war effort. As they work, the boys see a train car of soldiers whom they view as â€Å"elite† in comparison to their â€Å"drab ranks† (101). Directly after seeing the troops, all they boys can discuss is the â€Å"futility of Devon and how [they] would never have war stories to tell [their] grandchildren† (102). The boys see Devon’s strict unchanging atmosphere as inadequate amidst the upheaval of the war. As a result, the Upper Middlers slowly reject Devon, resigning from clubs, leaving the school to enlist in the war, and losing their academic vigor. They resent Devon for keeping them from the war and remain forever distant from it. Gene exhibits this distance when he describes Devon after graduating. Gene calls Devon a â€Å"hard and shiny† (11) museum; he feels no connection to it. He finally concludes that â€Å"The more things stay the same, the more they change after all† (14). In trying to remain untouched by the war, Devon changed to a school that pushed its students to the very war it tried to avoid. Like Devon, Finny does not accept the hardships or existence of war in his life. Throughout the story, Finny embraces the glorified aspects of war, but refuses to accept its atrocities. For example, Finny wears his pink shirt to celebrate the Americans bombing of Central Europe. However, when he realizes that the bombing killed women and children, he tells Gene that he doesn’t think the bombing took place. He does not want to believe that innocent people are often casualties of war. Eventually, Finny decides that the war cannot exist because it causes too much suffering. Similarly, Finny calls Gene his â€Å"best pal† (48) and openly displays his affection for him. However, when Gene confesses to deliberately jouncing him from the limb out of jealousy, Finny refuses to listen. He cannot accept that a friend could become an enemy. Eventually, Finny’s denial of the conflicts in his life lead to a negative transformation. In trying to retain his rejection of the war, Finny changes from a confident, athletic leader into an embittered invalid. In the summer, Finny excels, becoming a natural leader of the boys and easily winning over teachers. Finny is also physically impressive as evidenced by Gene’s description of him playing in the Devon River. Gene says that Finny is in â€Å"exaltation,† with glowing skin and muscles â€Å"aligned in perfection† (34). In this description, Finny seems like an ideal, almost God like figure, completely in control and confident. Finny’s injury at the end of Summer Session, however, signals a dark transformation. Gene shakes the limb Finny is standing on while about to jump off the tree at Devon River and Finny falls and breaks his leg. Because Gene deliberately jounced Finny out of a tree used to prepare the seniors for war, Finny’s fall and subsequent injury symbolizes a forced confrontation with the potential pain of World War II and the war between Gene and himself. Rather than working through the hardship and pain, Finny rejects his former status as an athlete and leader and lets his injury define him as an isolated invalid. Instead of using his athletic abilities to overcome his injury, Finny seems to remain permanently maimed. Although his leg heals and his cast becomes so small that an â€Å"ordinary person could have managed it with hardly a limp noticeable† (157), Finny’s gait is permanantely changed. His inability to heal completely from his injury symbolizes his inability to confront and move on from the conflicts that caused it. Similarly, Finny loses his place as a leader among the Upper Middlers. When Finny returns to Devon for the Winter Session, he finds that the war dominates the Upper Middlers’ conversations. Finny does not believe the war exists and so he isolates himself and stops spending as much time with his peers. Where once he was a natural leader, he becomes an outcast to preserve his disbelief in the war. Finny’s negative transformation makes him more vulnerable to the wars in his life. At the end of the Winter Session, Brinker conducts a mock trial and convicts Gene of his role in Finny’s injury. Finny is again forced to face the reality of Gene’s jealousy. Furthermore, during the trial, Finny speaks to Leper for the first time after his return from the army. Leper’s insanity, induced by the war, forces Finny to confront its painful implications. Because of Finny’s transformation, he is even more susceptible to these implications. Symbolizing this are the events following the mock trial. After Brinker convicts Gene, Finny falls while trying to run away. He re-breaks his leg, reopening the wound of the summer and revisiting the pain of the wars in his life. Where before the injury only crippled Finny, this time, Finny eventually dies from it. Just as his invalid state made him more vulnerable to re-injuring his leg, Finny’s transformation in response to the war made him more vulnerable to it. Unlike Devon and Finny, Gene faces the reality of the war around him and his inner struggle with Finny. While Gene enjoys the peaceful atmosphere of Devon in the Summer Session, he recognizes its inadequacies. Gene explains, â€Å"Perhaps I alone knew†¦ Devon had slipped through their [the professors’] fingers during the warm over looked months† (73). Gene realizes that the Summer Session, and the realities it avoided, would be the undoing of Devon. Furthermore, while the other Upper Middlers deny the existence of the war, Gene understands it at a deep level. Gene explicitly says, â€Å"The war was and is reality for me† (32). He embraces the war instead of masking it. Similarly, Gene recognizes the inner war with Finny. Gene knows that he deliberately jounced the limb of the tree so that Finny would fall. He repeatedly tries to confess this to Finny, openly and inwardly confronting his jealousy. Finally, when Leper goes to war and is discharged for mental instability, Gene is the only student who visits him in his home and sees him in his worst state. Gene is able to witness the shock and horror of the war. Because of his ability to face the wars around and within him, Gene undergoes a positive transformation. Gene confronts the conflicts in his life and uses them to mature from a fearful, insecure boy to a balanced and strong man. Initially, Gene identifies the presence of fear in his life. As an adult reflecting on his childhood, Gene can see â€Å"with great clarity the fear [he] had lived in† (10). Gene is also initially in-athletic. While Finny garners many athletic awards, Gene does not often participate in sports and focuses on his studies. This makes Gene feel inferior to Finny and so he often succumbs to Finny’s desires, often at the expense of his own academic success. Gene feels inadequate and insecure in the Summer Session, but the Winter Session signals a change within him. Before returning to Devon for the Winter Session, Gene visits Finny and confesses his guilt. After confronting his jealousy and confessing to Finny, Gene returns to Devon and becomes increasingly independent and secure. Symbolizing this is Gene’s experience in the Naguamsett River. On his first day back to Devon, Gene falls into the â€Å"ugly, saline,† (79) waters of the Nagaumasett. Incidentally, Gene calls this encounter with the filthy waters a â€Å"baptism.. on the first day of this winter session† (79). This use of the word baptism, a term associated with initiation or rebirth, seems to convey that Gene is beginning a new life. Just as he emerges renewed from the gritty disgusting waters of the Nagaumasett, he emerges renewed from his painful, uncomfortable confrontation of his inner war with Finny. Directly following Gene’s â€Å"baptism,† Finny returns to Devon as an invalid and he and Gene’s roles reverse. Now, It is Finny who needs Gene, both physically and emotionally, to help him deal with his injury and his functioning at Devon. Gene’s sudden athletic prowess represents this role reversal. Since Finny cannot participate in sports, he trains Gene. As he excels in his training, Gene notices that Finny seems â€Å"older†¦. nd smaller too† (121). He then realizes that he is actually bigger and Finny is only smaller by comparison. Gene has used the conflict in his life to leave behind his insecurities and become a strong, independent man. Gene’s transformation proves positive as it enables him to grow from the conflicts in his life. The results of the mock trial do no break Gene like the do Finny. He has already confronted his jealousy and guilt, and is secure enough to withstand the pain. Likewise, when Gene finally graduates from Devon and enlists in the army, he endures the war without losing his sanity like Leper. Gene is able to do this because he â€Å"already fought [his] war† (204) at Devon. He learned to confront harsh realities, and therefore can overcome them. As an adult, Gene is able to return to Devon content and secure, having made his â€Å"escape from† (10) the fear that plagued his childhood. His ability to confront his wars enable him to mature through them. Devon, Finny, and Gene all transform throughout the story. However, Devon and Finny changed to avoid the war, but Gene changed to grow from it. These transformations and stark difference in their outcomes powerfully convey the importance of unflinchingly confronting wars without and within. A Separate Peace Essay One of the main focuses in the novel A Separate Peace is the friendship of Gene Forrester and Phineas. One would assume that two completely opposite people wouldn’t have such a strong relationship. They both have different views of the world. Where one would find strength the other finds weakness. With having two opposing personalities as the main characters, it’s easy for the reader to identify with one more than the other. It also gives the reader a chance to admire, as well as pity, both Gene and Phineas. One of the most important differences between Gene and Finny is their views of the world. Gene has a more cynical world view. On the other hand, Finny’s view of the world is very pure and naive. Finny truly believes that everyone is good in the world. Another thing that sets Gene apart from Finny is their strengths and weaknesses. Gene is one of the top students of his class, while Finny just gets by with below average grades. But what Finny lacks in academic achievements, he makes up for in athletics. Read more:  Write about a person you admire essay Finny also has the natural ability to lead others and has a non conforming attitude, whereas Gene is follower and has a more conforming attitude. As well as many other novels, A Separate Peace includes easily relatable characters. While reading the novel, I discovered that there are certain qualities of both Gene and Finny that I can identify with. After careful consideration, I realized that I most identify with Gene rather than Finny. He and I both are drawn to people with larger than life personalities. I can also relate to his insecure feelings that come with having friendships with those types of personalities. His strength in academics is another trait of his that I can identify with. Even though I identify more with Gene, I also pity him. I pity that his jealousy pushed him to do something so harmful to his supposed best friend. I also pity that fact that he doesn’t have enough self confidence to tell Finny the truth. That being said, the person I admire would be Finny. He has this natural ability for being a leader, and it’s said several times that he can get away with anything. I also admire that instead of him moping about his leg, he twisted his own reality just to be happy. In conclusion, the main relationship in A Separate Peace involves two people with opposing personalities. They both view the world differently. Gene has more of a pessimistic view of the world, while Phineas’s view of the world is very innocent. Where Phineas finds strength, Gene finds weakness. While I indentify more with the character Gene, I also pity him for the outcome of his poor decisions. Instead, I admire Phineas. I admire his self confidence and attitude towards life. A Separate Peace Essay In the book, A Separate Peace, the author, John Knowles, writes to us a novel about war, but happens to focus more on the war within the human heart. This novel tells a story of two boys’ co-dependency during World War Two, and explores the difficulties with understanding the self during adolescence. Identity is complicated enough as the narrator, Gene Forrester, enters adulthood in a time of war, but a difficult friendship with a fellow student and rival leads to a further confusion of identity. Early in the book, the boys’ relationship is charged by Gene’s jealousy and hate of Phineas’ leadership. However, after Phineas falls from the tree, Gene ejects his darker feelings from himself and turns their relationship in a new direction where co-dependency, instead of envy, drives it. The central relationship between Gene and Finny, involves a troublesome search to authorize identity outside of co-dependency. Gene Forrester is a boy with many conflicts that he must face throughout his high school year. The most significant of these troubles is, without a doubt, Gene’s struggle with his own identity. At first Gene is displeased with his personality, or lack thereof. He envies his best friend, Phineas’ (Finny’s), wit, charm, and leadership. Throughout the book, Gene repeatedly finds himself acting like his friend, a transformation occurring that Gene is unaware of. There are a number of significant transformations within this story. Phineas is transformed from an active athlete into a cripple after his accident and then sets out to transform Gene in his place. This change is the beginning process by which Gene’s identity begins to blur into Finny’s, a transformation symbolized by Gene’s putting on Finny’s clothes one evening soon after the accident. â€Å"I washed the traces off me and then put on a pair of chocolate brown slacks, a pair in which Phineas had been particularly critical of when he wasn’t wearing them, and a blue flannel shirt† (78). This is the first time in the book that we notice just how much Gene is codependent on Phineas, even when he is gone. From this point on, Gene and Phineas come to depend on each other for psychological support. Gene playing sports because Phineas cannot, â€Å"Listen, pal, if I can’t play sports, you’re going to play them for me†¦Ã¢â‚¬  this allows Finny to train Gene to be the athlete that Finny himself cannot be. This training seems to be a path for Phineas simply to live vicariously through Gene. But Gene actively welcomes his attempt, for just as Finny acquires inner strength through Gene, Gene also finds happiness in losing the person he dislikes, himself, into the person he truly likes, Phineas. †¦and I lost part of myself to him then, and a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become part of Phineas. † (77) In this way, the boys’ relationship becomes a perfect illustration of co-dependency, with each feeling off of and becoming fulfilled by, the other. This newfound co-dependency begins the evolution of the boys’ individual identities. Finny knows himself throughout the book, and is comfortable in his own skin, at least at first. After his fall, he becomes more withdrawn and tends to hide his true feelings. He seems to lose himself as the book progresses. The innocence and general good nature that defined him early on is lost in later chapters, as he continually deludes himself as to Gene’s true intentions. Gene, on the other hand, hides his true identity from Phineas and the others through most of the novel. Yet Gene truly reveals himself at several key points such as pushing Finny from the tree. The boys are living in their own secret illusions that World War Two is a mere conspiracy created by old men and continuing to believe that Gene, Finny through him, will go to the Olympics and that the world can’t change their dreams. The boys are refusing to develop their own goals and responsibilities without each other. Not even Finny’s death, though it separates them physically, can truly disentangle Gene’s identity from Phineas’. Gene feels as though Finny’s funeral is his own. In a way, the funeral is indeed Gene’s own. So much of Gene is intermixed with Phineas that it is difficult to imagine one boy existing without the other. The entire novel becomes Gene’s recollection of building his own identity, culminating in his return to Devon years later, where he is finally able to come to terms with what he’s done. During the time I was with him, Phineas created an atmosphere in which I continued now to live, a way of sizing up the world with erratic and entirely personal reservations, letting it’s rocklike facts sift through and be accepted only a little at a time, only as much as he could assimilate without a sense of chaos and loss† (194). It is perhaps only his understanding that Phineas alone has no enemy that allows the older Gene to reestablish a separate identity. One that is inferior to Phineas’. A Separate Peace Essay One of the most asked questions for A Separate Peace is: who exactly is the protagonist and antagonist? Most would agree that Gene is the protagonist, however is it Gene or Phineas that is the enemy? I believe that the real ‘bad guy’ in this book is Gene. He envied Phineas from the very beginning but didn’t admit it until a little later on. Whether it was getting away from trouble, having a natural athletic ability, or simply being modest and humble about things, Phineas seemed to have been better at almost everything. In this novel, many events occur between Gene and Finny that foreshadow the inner conflict Gene faces. For example, Gene and Finny are rebellious and often end up in trouble with the teachers. However, because of Finny’s smooth words, he is able to get the both of them away from punishment almost every single time. After getting out of trouble multiple times, Gene admits that he couldn’t help but envy Finny â€Å"just a little bit.† Small events like those happened often, and the reader can sense a feeling of jealousy growing inside of Gene. As Finny continued to be absolutely great at everything, Gene began to envy him more. Due to Gene’s inner conflict, their friendship dramatically changes. Gene plays the main character also known as the protagonist. He’s the narrator and brings the readers back fifteen years before as he tells his story of his life at Devon School. His actions and discoveries are what create the plot. For example, because Gene becomes a bitter and jealous person, he ends up creating a theory that Phineas is his rivalry (discovery). The darkness inside himself subconsciously forces him to jounce the limb, making Phineas fall (plot). Although Gene is the protagonist, I believe he is also the antagonist. In the book, Gene and Phineas have a good friendship; there were no arguments and they got along just fine. Gene, however, begins to envy Finny with things as simple as smooth words and athletic ability. As time progressed, the darkness inside of Gene grew and eventually it was full on competition. An antagonist is someone who opposes the main character, and oddly enough Gene opposes himself. He creates this fake assumption that Phineas is trying to be the better person. Unfortunately he got his theory mixed up with reality causing his friendship with Finny to fall down hill. â€Å"I found a single sustaining thought; you and Phineas were even. You are both coldly driving ahead for yourselves alone.† When it all comes down, Phineas is both the protagonist and antagonist. He is the main character yet he is his own enemy. His inner conflicts and insecure thoughts caused him to ruin his best friend along with their friendship. This book can teach the readers a great lesson about friendship and consequences when you start losing yourself to jealousy and envy; it certainly taught me something! A Separate Peace Essay In John Knowles’ novel A Separate Peace, it begins with the protagonist, Gene Forrester coming back to his alma mater the Devon School in New Hampshire. Wandering through the campus, Gene makes his way to a tall tree by the river; the reason for his return. From here he takes the reader back to the year 1942 during World War II when he was in high school. During the summer session of 1942, he becomes close friends with his daredevil roommate Finny. Finny is able to convince Gene into making a dangerous jump out of a tree into a river, and the two start a secret society based on this ritual. Gene slowly begins to envy Finny’s athletic capabilities and his innocence, and thinks that Finny envies him in return. Gene finally realizes that there was never any rivalry between them when, one day, Finny expresses a genuine desire to see Gene succeed. While still in shock, he goes with Finny to the tree for their jumping ritual. When Finny reaches the edge of the branch, Gene’s knees bend, shaking the branch and causing Finny to fall to the bank and shatter his leg. He goes to see Finny and begins to admit what happened, but the doctor interrupts him, and Finny is sent home before Gene gets another chance to confess. On his way back to school from vacation, he stops by Finny’s house and tries to tell him the truth about what happened. Finny refuses to listen to him, and Gene rescinds his confession and continues on to school. World War II is in full swing and the boys at Devon are all eager to enlist in the military. Brinker Hadley, a prominent class politician, tells Gene that they enlist together, and Gene agrees. But later that night, he finds Finny has returned to school. Both Gene and Brinker decide not to enlist. Brinker organizes a meeting with their classmates and has Gene and Finny come without notice. The boys question the two about the fall. Finny does not say much because he cannot remember clearly, and Gene claims that he doesn’t remember the details of it. The boys now bring in Leper, who was sighted earlier in the day skulking about the bushes, and Leper begins to implicate Gene. Finny declares that he does not care about the facts and rushes out of the room. Hurrying on the stairs, he falls and breaks his leg again. Gene sneaks over to the school’s infirmary that night to see Finny, who angrily sends him away. The next morning, he goes to see Finny again, takes full blame for the tragedy and apologizes. Finny accepts these statements and the two are reconciled. Later, during an operation on Finny’s leg, something goes wrong, killing him. Gene receives the news with  relative calmness; he feels that he has become a part of Finny and will always be with him. At the end of the novel Gene reflects on the constant enmity that plagues the human heart—a curse from which he believes that only Finny was immune. I believe that John Knowles titled his novel A Separate Peace because Gene gains a separate peace with himself. Even though he hurt Finny and had lots of conflict with him and troubling finding himself, at the end he is able to feel at peace. It was a different peace than he was expecting. The novel focused on the inner wars we wage with ourselves. Even in the midst of a world war, Gene battles his inner demons and defeats his worst enemy inside himself and thus creates a different, a separate peace for himself. The four main characters in A Separate Peace are the protagonist, Gene Forrester, the antagonist, Brinker Hadley, and two of their classmates Finny and Elwin â€Å"Leper† Lepellier. If I were to describe Gene in five words, I would say that he is insecure, envious, loyal, competitive, and honest. I would describe Brinker as authoritative, demanding, intelligent, responsible, and mature. Finny is outgoing, free-spirited, mischievous, vulnerable, and charismatic. And Leper is gentle, contemplative, quiet, bright, and bold. My first impression of the protagonist, Gene was that he very much a follower and not a leader. Right from the start he â€Å"let Finny talk [him] into stupid things† (17) and felt that â€Å"he was getting some kind of hold over [him]† (17). But he still jumped from the tree anyway. Another time I was able to see this was when Finny suggested that they go to the beach and Gene had thought of all the risks such as â€Å"expulsion, destroyed . . . studying [he] was going to do for an important test the next morning, blasted the reasonable amount of order [he] wanted to maintain in [his] life, and . . . the kind of long, labored bicycle ride [he] hated† (46). But his response was still â€Å"’ [a]all right’† (46). These actions of continuing to follow what others do, specifically Phineas is on Phineas’ first day back after his fall. Finny tells Gene for the first time that he was working towards the 1944 Olympics, but with his broken leg, he can no longer achieve that goal, which gives him the idea to train Gene for them instead. â€Å"And not believing him, not forgetting that troops were being shuttled toward battlefields all over the world, [he] went along, as [he] always did† (117). Gene does not only show this willingness to go along with just Finny, but Brinker as well. My first impression of  the antagonist, Brinker Hadley was that he is very authoritative and that he is definitely a leader. The first time I was able to see this was after their long day of service to the war effort when a group of boys including Brinker and Gene were in the butt room, and Brinker had told everyone that â€Å"[he was] giving it up† (100) and that he would enlist the next day. I saw it as him taking advantage of his leadership position among the boys and to lead the way into serving in the war. A more obvious way of seeing his leadership is the way that he is described as â€Å"the hub of the class† (87). Hub is a synonym for the center of something, or the heart and core. If someone is described as the hub of the class, then it means that they are the person that keeps the class together. The final way I was able to see Brinker’s leadership was towards t he end of the book. Even though he had transformed to a more rebellious way, there was still a sign of his authority when he had arranged the trial in the Assembly Hall. His wanting to know the truth that was hidden from him drove him to hold the meeting in order to find it. Gene is definitely a dynamic and round character unlike Brinker who is a static and flat character. Gene changes very significantly in the story. He struggled a lot with finding himself and his identity, so much that he believes that he is a part of Phineas. Oddly enough, this sort of makes sense. One way to think about it is the guilt – Gene was so disgusted with himself for having caused Finny’s accident that he can’t bear to be himself, so he becomes someone else: Phineas. Another explanation is that because the struggle to define him is so difficult, he’s simply borrowed someone else’s identity instead of creating one for himself. But once Finny is gone, Gene has to rely on himself to make decisions and make up his own rules. At the end of the novel as Gene is reflecting fifteen years later, he says that â€Å"[his war ended before [he] ever put on a uniform . . . [because he] killed [his] enemy there† (204). I believe that the enemy he defeated was the part of Phineas that was in him, and by doing that he was able to gain peace. Brinker really does not transform much throughout th e story. His main change is when he steps down from his position in the Golden Fleece Debating Society and his behavior at the winter festival, but his strong and authoritative personality remains. â€Å"It wasn’t the cider which made me surpass myself, it was this liberation we had torn from the gray encroachments of 1943, the escape we had concocted, this  afternoon of momentary, illusory, special and separate peace.† (136,137) This passage stood out to me because in the midst of a raging war, these schoolboys were able to find their own peace with each other by having fun and seeing that the little things in life like a winter carnival could create such an escape for them. It was their idea of freedom that gave them such peace within themselves, and it was as if the war was not even going on. There were many themes in this novel, but the one that stood out the most to me was the difference between creating your own identity and dependence on someone else to â€Å"borrow† theirs. When Phineas told Gene that he would be participating in sports in his place, Gene had a realization that what he had been longing for was to be a part of Finny. This is very different than the end of the novel where Gene is looking back to that time and realizing that the part of Phineas that was in him had died when Phineas died. And because of that death, he had to rely on himself in order to craft his own identity and to finally gain peace. I think that one of the biggest decisions Gene had to make was to tell Finny the truth on his way back to school after the summer session. Even though Finny did not listen to him, the courage that it took Gene to do that was immense. I think that it was wise because it showed that he cared enough about Finny to tell him the truth. I also think that it helped him get rid of some of the guilt by just having Finny know what actually happened, whether he believed it or not. If I were in Gene’s position I probably would do the same thing just because I know from previous experience that if you lie, it can really hurt you in the end, and it is a pain to have it harboring over you all the time. Iâ€⠄¢ve learned two life lessons from this novel. One is to enjoy life, and not be so worried about what is going to happen next. I should not be completely apathetic to the future, but to live to the fullest and have fun. Another more serious lesson is the importance of forgiveness and love. If someone has wronged me, I should not keep a grudge against them or make them feel terrible about it, but instead I should do what Christ calls us to do which is to love one another as yourself, and to forgive. A Separate Peace has really reminded me how important these lessons, especially the latter are as I continue to mature. There really was not anything that I disliked about this book except for one quote. Gene is telling the reader one of Finny’s most important rules, and one of them was â€Å"[a]lways say your prayers  at night because it might turn out that there is a God† (35). I did not like this quote just because of what I believe in and what I know as truth. I believe that there is a God and that I should always pray no matter what. But other than this one quote, there was nothing I really disliked about it.

Causes of Ketamine Addiction

Causes of Ketamine Addiction Psychology of Drug Addictions Stephanie Boaz ABSTRACT Ketamine was first discovered in 1961 but not synthesized until 1962 by a man of the name of Calvin Stevens that worked with Parke Davis Labs ( http://azarius.net/encyclopedia/39/Ketamine ). Stevens discovered Ketamine when searching for a replacement for PCP anesthetics. It was not until 1965 that Ketamine was later used as a relational drug which was discovered by Edward Domino ( http://azarius.net/encyclopedia/39/Ketamine ). Ketamine is considered to be a fast acting, dissociative anesthetic ( http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showwiki.php?title=Ketamine ). Ketamine is not like your customary anesthetics it works by blocking the brains activity from the body. Without stimulation the brain’s perceptions increase causing the brain to start a hallucinogenic state of mine also known as the emergence phenomena ( http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showwiki.php?title=Ketamine ). Ketamine has the chemical name: 2-(2-chlorophen yl)-2-(methylamino)-cyclohexanone ( http://azarius.net/encylopedia/39/Ketamine ). How Does a Person Get Hooked on Ketamine Ketamine is used in many different ways. It is used an anesthetic on humans it is primarily used on children or the elderly and people of third world countries due to the emergence phenomena ( http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showwiki.php?title=Ketamine ). When using Ketamine as a recreational drug is comes in many forms such as powder, tablet, or in a liquid form which are taken orally, anally, snorting, or injected in the muscle or veins. Once administered intramuscularly it takes roughly two minutes to take effect (Julien, Advokat, & Comaty, 2011, pg.530). If snorted it takes about 5-10 minutes to take effect, peak times are different according to the way the drug is administered ( http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showwiki.php?title=Ketamine ). With the use of Ketamine it has psychic sensations that may occur such as mood state and body images, floating sens ations, vivid dreams or illusions and the occasional frank delirium ( http://ceaccp.oxfordjournals.org/content/7/2/59.full ). Ketamine is also known as Special K on the streets. It has the similar effects as to what PCP would have on a person. Once the drug is ingested the body can feel the effects for up to 24 hours after ( http://casapalmera.com/uses-symptoms-and-effects-of-ketamine ). Special K is also a drug that is very well known for its use in date rape. This drug is both odorless and has no taste at all. There are many street names for this drug that include: ( http://casapalmera.com/uses-symptoms-and-effects-of-ketamine) . Special K K Super Acid Kit kat Vitamin K Jet Honey oil Purple Cat Valium Ketamine or Special K has many signs and symptoms that accompany the use of this drug which consist of and are not limited to ( http://casapalmera.com/uses-symptoms-and-effects-of-ketamine ): Hallucinations Poor vision Amnesia Strange heart rate patterns Nausea Identity confusion Elevated heart rate Numbness Out of body experiences Delirium Rash Confusion of time Depression Poor coordination Seizures Realistic dreams There are many long term side effects from the use of Ketamine/Special K ( http://casapalmera.com/uses-symptoms-and-effects-of-ketamine ): Permanent memory loss Anxiety Respiratory complication Neuroses Inability to pay attention Poor learning ability Night terrors Mental disorders PTSD Increase in blood pressure Flashbacks Loss of consciousness Depression Insomnia Once Ketamine /Special K is used on a regular basis the drug begins to build up in the person body thus forming a tolerance to the drug. Once this is done it requires that more and more of the drug be utilized in order to feel the high that the person is seeking. Once the drug has been used for a long period of time the effects may take many years to overcome. In order to completely overcome the addiction it requires the use of drug rehabilitation ( http://casapalmera.com/uses-symptoms-and-effects-of-ketamine ).

History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 8

History - Essay Example tates, by virtue of any treaty which may be negotiated between them, and to the use by the Executive of the moneys herein appropriated, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory, except for crime, whereof the party shall first be duly convicted." Although this was famous, it was vanquished by the U.S. Senate adjournment. He was also a member of the peace convention. The compromise of 1850 involved Henry Clay. Clay took an active part and presented eight resolutions to the senate. The compromise aroused due to the spread of slavery that emerged out from the Mexican –American war around the territories of United States. Such territories include Texas, California and Mexico. The compromise was balanced between the expectations of these territories. The compromise for these territories differed accordingly; it was U.S paying the debts for Texas, which in turn allowed New Mexico to become a separate territory, California admitted as a state free of slavery. New Mexico determined its territory as â€Å"popular sovereignty† claiming that their state’s population would vote for a slave free notion, and the implementation of the New Fugitive Law of 1850. However, the compromises were not accepted by any political figures of the time such as Jefferson Davis, who felt that the compromise made for California might perturb the authority of Senates in South and North regions of United States. William Henry Seward, a famous representative of the Northern Whigs claimed that the Compromises of the 1850 and the old Fugitive Slave might lose the slaves as fugitives, which in turn would become a supporting. factor for the land claims of the people of Texas. Stephen Douglas was a lawyer and a politician He also qualified himself as a senator for fourteen years and then as a presidential candidate. Douglas’ the arguments concerning slavery with Abraham Lincoln took him to a popular phase. He then became the chairperson of the

Chocolate Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Chocolate - Research Paper Example It played an essential role in the Aztec and Maya religious and royal events. Cocoa seeds in native America were used as an offering to deities, as well as serving chocolate drinks in sacred occasions. The American settlers from Europe fattened and sweetened it through the addition of milk and refined sugar, two ingredients that were not known to the Native Americans. In contrast, they did not infuse it into their diet, although, later, it was integrated into their desserts and sweets (Drowne & Patrick 27). It was in the 18th century that John Cadbury came up with the process of emulsification to create solid chocolate, which was the beginning of the modern chocolate bar. While cocoa was, originally from the Americas, West Africa, today, produces more than 65% of the cocoa in the world, half of which is planted in Cote divorce. The chocolate industry in the United States forms part of the largest food and beverage companies. They are in charge of the manufacture of cacao beans, the s ale of raw chocolate, and the manufacture of other chocolate related products (Allen 67). The chocolate industry has undergone numerous changes in both production and market trends over the years, which affect the industry in either a positive and negative manner. Production Based on the cocoa grinding reports released for cocoa traders, which was produced by the NCA in cooperation with the New York Board of trade, the grinding in the first quarter amounted to 119,022 metric tons - a decrease of 4.04 percent (5,006 mt) over 2011. The Unites States market on chocolate or candy stands in a shaky position. In North America, there has been a 2% decrease since quarter 3 in 2011 (124,621 metric tons) (Taylor & Akila 43). There is a rather decreased demand for chocolate in the market currently which means the producers need to correct where the problem lies. Cocoa, which originated in South America, was first planted in the US state of Hawaii by William Hillenbrand, a German physician, in 1850. While cocoa was long considered, as a crop to be grown in the plantations, the biggest challenge in the American market has been making money from it (Taylor & Akila 50). The plant is suited to the climate in Hawaii, although it is tricky to grow, requiring a lot of expertise in chocolate processing. Competition with low-cost producers in South America, Africa, and other countries is not easy because Hawaii has high costs of labor and land. However, Hawaii cocoa has been proven as a gourmet product for which a buyer can pay premium prices. Local cocoa farmers can also gain added value through the creation of farm tours around the popularly romanticized product (Taylor & Akila 50). Currently, dried cocoa seed sales, also referred to as cocoa beans, is estimated at a cost of $200,000 every year based on production per acre estimated for fifty acres, as well as a price of $2.47 dry bean price a pound (Taylor & Akila 52). Much higher sales can be derived by those planters who proc ess their product into chocolate at prices of approximately $40 a pound for retail. Industry growth, in the absence of expansion on a plantation scale, over the last few years, has been from small farms with a few of these farms having processing plants for their cocoa. Advances over the last ten years have increased the economic sense in the processing of chocolate from cocoa on a small scale sans specialized

Decision Making paper research Term Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Decision Making research - Term Paper Example Furthermore, the researcher investigates how skill is developed and what are the types of skills every individual has. 1.1 Statement of the problem The researcher wishes to resolve the issue whether a skill is learned or not. Based on the testimonies of many individuals, a skill is not learned because it is something that is being acquired during birth. On the contrary, many believe that, like other talents (e.g singing, dancing, playing musical instrument), skill needs to be enhanced to become an ability, and in the long run would form part as a habit. 1.2 Scope of the Problem In this paper, the researcher limits the investigation to the cliff of the data gathered, analyzed and used. However, since the researcher seeks to resolve the issue aforementioned, there would be series of comparison and analysis to test the validity of the hypothesis. 1.3 Hypothesis A skill is learned through time. The ability of an individual to use his knowledge on, for example, painting, and circus exhibi tion, writing and speaking becomes a skill once mastered, or least, familiarized, and eventually becomes a habit. Types of Skill The combination of ability and knowledge that enables a man to do a task and take it to higher level is called skill; while ability refers to skills and qualities that allow a man to perform a work or task (â€Å"Abilities and Skills†). There are types of skills namely: Cognitive, Perceptual and Motor skills. A. Cognitive Skill This type of skill involves the thought processes. It is often referred as intellectual skills. According to Vanlehn, an individual is said to have acquired cognitive skill if he solve problems in intellectual tasks relying on his knowledge rather than entirely depending on his physical prowess (n.p.). In addition, commonly performed task like dealing with algebraic equations, word problems, electronic troubleshooting, computer programming, working on medical diagnosis and even simple college physics and chemistry solving cou ld enhance the skill. Basically, Cognitive skill acquisition could be traced on the path of history by which problem solving has been the study of many researchers. Moreover, Vanlehn states that in the midst of 1960, researchers studied how an individual would use his knowledge and respond to a problem-solving task; the subjects were tasked to move a pyramidal stack of disks from one peg to another by moving one disk at a time according to certain restrictions. In the course of their research, they have found out that when it comes to strategies and ways in dealing the task, an individual would tend to turn from one intermediate state to another until he gets the solution. In the example above, the subject was able to solve the puzzle by moving disks until it appeared correct. Hence, the subject has learned that in order to solve small and great problems, it takes proper analysis of the problem, comprehensive gathering of information needed as an alternative, judgment and critical t hinking. It has become a skill. B. Perceptual Skill Unlike other skills, perceptual skill carries with its name the word perception--means the ability to interpret and know certain information (Walkley 18). It is the conscious recognition and interpretation of sensory stimuli that serve as a basis for understanding, learning, and knowing or for motivating a particular action or reaction (â€Å"

The Yellow Wallpaper Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Yellow Wallpaper - Movie Review Example When one of his scams (perhaps involving back-alley plastic surgery and/or low-dollar sex change operations) goes terribly wrong, ending in a patient's death, man and wife find themselves in a high speed chase with police. It is at this point that the movie will begin and these first two characters will be introduced. The chase should be realistic (absolutely no C.G.I. stunts) and should end with John and Charlotte having a spectacular (yet believably survivable) crash. [Car has landed upside down, smoke emanates across a ground littered with broken glass, and JOHN, blood trickling down the side of his head, drags himself from the wreckage as police close in with guns drawn. He throws up his hands and falls face down to the to the pavement] JOHN: It wasn't me! It wasn't me! I was just a hostage! She's crazy!! [Camera change to the unconscious and blood-soaked face of CHARLOTTE. Fade to black with John's screams of innocence. Maintain black screen as red-colored text appears: SIX MONTHS LATER. Fade from black to scene. Setting is a prison visitation window] CHARLOTTE: You have to tell them (we see Charlotte, wearing a bright yellow prisoner's jumpsuit. Her face still bears small scars from the accident, the most obvious of which is a discolored, almost yellowish scar on her forehead). CHARLOTTE and YELLOW WOMAN: DON'T YOU WALK AWAY FROM ME, YOU SON OF A BITCH... [JOHN shows no emotion in his face as he hangs up the phone, stands up, gathers his things, and walks away. Again, next line should be spoken simultaneously] CHARLOTTE and YELLOW WOMAN: DON'T YOU WALK AWAY FROM ME, YOU SON OF A BITCH!!! You know I wasn't the one responsible for this! I'm NOT CRAZY JOHN! We KNOW it! [Prison guards start to restrain her as her rant continues. At the mention of "we," however, JOHN stops in his tracks] JOHN: And just who are "we," exactly Was there ever a "we" Are you even talking about you and me CHARLOTTE: (Breathing heavily and speaking/growling through gnashed teeth) One day, John One day we'll get out of here. We'll get out and you'll find out who we are. From this scene, the audience will be introduced to Charlotte's cell in solitary confinement. The cell should have faded yellow wallpaper or yellow painted walls. Charlotte and the Yellow lady will devise a plan to escape and take revenge on John, who has now re-married a wealthy young heiress and taken custody of his and Charlotte's young child. After escaping, Charlotte and the Yellow Woman will exact a plan of revenge on John and his new wife. The baby, however, remains something that the Yellow Woman refuses to allow Charlotte to acknowledge the existence of, which will be the source of several instances of conflict between the

Compare and Contrast Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X Essay

Compare and Contrast Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X - Essay Example The Martin Luther king’s dream was wide; it included poverty and what he called â€Å"militarism†. Today, Luther King is known for his tremendous efforts against racial discrimination. As much as King fought against racial discrimination, it is vast and complex, and cannot be treated as a single subject. This is because it included the social, education, political and economic discrimination of Black people in America. In 1962, King, On behalf of the Black community, made an appeal to President Kennedy to complete his work of giving freedom to the Black community (Schlueter 60). However, because Martin Luther King came from a background of loving parents and later Christian leader, he preached peaceful demonstrations in all the campaigns he was involved in. America will remember Dr. Luther, for his peaceful movements such as Black Civil Rights Bill enforcement as well as Supreme Court Ruling against the laws of Jim Crow. His major strategy was peaceful protesting; mostl y inspired by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. In this various speeches, Luther, created an image of an activist of peace across the United States (Schlueter 70 -77). Malcolm X was a frustrated person from his childhood age until his times of changing America’s ideology about African-Americans. Malcolm sought refuge in Islamic nations and used the same to protest in his campaign against racism. In his protest, he did not preach for peaceful demonstration, but, taught the Black people to use anything in their power to reject racism. Unlike Luther King, Malcolm X disliked white people because of their oppressiveness especially the poor Black poor people in the ‘ghetto’ (Ladenburg 31). However, Malcolm X, just like Luther King, wanted to end racism and the best for the Black community. Before Martin Luther began his journey to fleeing his fellow Black from racial segregation, ‘Negros’ had no rights to vote or register

Welcome Letter Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Welcome Letter - Essay Example Foreigners are welcome in the United States. Due to the diverse ethnic and racial composition of the student population on campus few will actually realize that you are foreign students. Learning the basics about the United States culture is important. In the United States we eat three times a day. Eating at fast food restaurants is a common occurrence. I recommend that as you start meeting people inside and outside of class inviting them to enjoy a meal during lunchtime at the cafeteria or at fast food restaurants is a good way to enjoy time with other people while sharing a meal together. Sports are a major part of our culture. Our school has several sporting teams. Students at our university enjoy going to these sporting events. Most of them are free of charge for students. There are many extracurricular activities going on at our campus everyday. To enjoy the full college experience it would be good for you guys to attend the art expositions, theater events, music shows, and seminars by professionals that occur every semester at our university. Social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace are a hot trend among young people in America. If you donâ€℠¢t have one you should open an account immediately particularly one in Facebook which is the industry leader in social networks. Facebook has 750 million users worldwide (Facebook, 2011). This is a great way to meet friends. You should invite your classmates to be your friends on Facebook or any other social network. As students that are enrolled at our university I know you have high educational goals. You should visit the educational counselors of our school to share with them your aspirations and goals. They can help you create a long term plan for your future. This university is not a walk in the park from an academic perspective. All curriculums are very hard and it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to succeed academically. If you need help don’t hesitate

Is regulation really necessary, or can all the benefits claimed for it Essay

Is regulation really necessary, or can all the benefits claimed for it be achieved through the promotion of competition alone - Essay Example National governments may regulate for a variety of reasons, including re-election and influence from economically powerful houses (Baldwin, Cave, and Lodge, 2012:16). Governments may also technically justify regulations, thus the general assumption that the regulation was in the context of public interest. However, most rationales presented are instances of market failure, thus regulation is initiated, as the uncontrollable market will produce results or behaviors against public interest. Other scenarios may present issues of market absence, or an ineffective market. One of the advancing and developing industries in the global economy is information and communication technology (ICT). The rapid growth of ICT presents concern over regulation and the possibilities of eliminating market failures, thus the rise of such regulatory bodies like the Federal Communication Commission in the US. In summary, regulation is better than competition in safeguarding public interest. Among the theory favoring regulation, include public interest theory, private interest theory, and interest groups theory. According to the public interest theory as argued by Baldwin, Cave, and Lodge, in their 2012 publication, the rationale behind regulation is to benefit and protect the public at large. The theory capitalizes on potential market failures such as monopolistic powers, externalities, asymmetric information, and strategic behaviors. It thus creates the ideology that consumers need protection from market failures and business abuses, with the assumption that regulation serves the best interests of the public through restricting potentially harmful business behaviors (Baldwin, Cave, and Lodge, 2012:164). The interest groups theory suggests that there is need for regulation for the interests of stakeholders, while the private interest theory seeks to safeguard the interest of private inte rest groups in regulation.

Extension 2 English Proposal Essay Example for Free

Extension 2 English Proposal Essay The audience of my major work will be firstly experienced English teachers for marking. The story itself will be aimed however at an audience of teen years and above, preferably interested in modern history. Any readers of a younger age may lack the necessary understanding of the context of my piece, and thus may not be able to understand the decisions and feelings of characters in the piece. The story will aim to incite passionate questions of the actions and experiences of my characters in the mind of the reader, as well as an emotional response based on the life and personal experiences of the reader. For instance, if they have experienced the death of a family member, they may identify with the emotions of my characters. Purpose/Statement of Intent After much deliberation, I propose to compose a prose fiction short story based on the experiences of fictional guard in Dachau concentration camp during WWII. I came across this idea when studying for the text Romulus, My father from the English Advanced course. Part of this text describes the main character Romulus and his lover Christina living in Nazi Germany, and I was reading through articles on the Internet regarding various leaders of the regime. This led me to reading letters between various concentration camp officials and Heinrich Himmler, the then leader of the SS, and high-ranking Nazi general. The writing is so simply put that it somewhat masks the cruel and indifferent intention of the letters. After reading through these letters, I came to ask myself How does a human being come to take these attitudes, and how could a person become seemingly so cruel and twisted, without any apparent conscience? What sort of life has this person lived, and what are their thoughts? Did they ever face struggle in their minds for the decisions they made? From this, I devised a perspective for a piece; the perspective of a male guard in a concentration camp. But not just any ruthless guard. I want to write about a rather troubled guard. A complex character that over the course of the piece actually begins to question the morality of his actions and thoughts. I want the reader to feel both anger towards the actions of this beast, but also at different times sympathy for his predicament. I want the reader to question their understanding of morality, and to put themselves in the shoes of this man. Concept The form will be fictional short story, in prose. However, I plan to include real correspondence between military officials of the camp from the time. I wanted to use this idea to give the story some real meaning, and to remind the audience that people just like my character did exist. Most of the piece will be in third person, but I will include monologues of the characters thought processes. During scenes of increased tension, for example when the man is ordered to shoot a prisoner, I will include in between the dialogue the thoughts of the guard himself. This will hopefully engage the reader in the scene, rather than the reader being a fly on the wall, which would leave a wall between the reader and the characters. I would like to vary the style of language used, from short and punchy for tension and emotion to long and reflective for the monologues. Inspiration I chose to write a story on the holocaust because it is something that I would enjoy researching in detail, absorbing every scrap of information, and also I think it would be challenging to confront on my own terms. Reading the information I have already come across, I cant help but feel so lucky to live in a free country, and in such a privileged life. A life where I am free to do what I choose, including writing this piece. I visited Dachau concentration camp in 2003, and this experience had a great effect on me. The feelings of disgust and general confusion as to how this could happen has probably lead me to be so interested in studying the topic today. I will use this experience to describe the surrounds of the setting, and some of the experiences of the prisoners. The following is an extract of a speech given by Himmler regarding the extermination of the Jews. Reading it today, I find it strange and foreign. To better understand why Himmler would take this approach to the extermination of a whole race, I will have to research the culture and attitudes of his time in-depth. Also, the ideas held by this quote is what I want to base my characters questioning on. I also want to mention a very difficult subject before you here, completely openly. It should be discussed amongst us, and yet, nevertheless, we will never speak about it in public. I am talking about the Jewish evacuation: the extermination of the Jewish people. It is one of those things that is easily said. The Jewish people are being exterminated, every Party member will tell you: Perfectly clear, its part of our plans, were eliminating the Jews, exterminating them, ha! , a small matter. -Heinrich Himmler, 4 October 1943 Links to Advanced Extension The idea for my piece came from researching the text Romulus, my father, in the Advanced course. The piece will specifically tie-in with the concept of belonging in many ways. For example, my main character will be in a position where he is forced to belong to the regime, and to his position and rank. If he chooses to disagree with his superiors, or the regime itself, he will be shot. Also, nature of the holocaust relates directly to belonging, as anyone who belonged to the Jewish religion, was a gypsy or was disabled was persecuted and often killed by the Nazi regime. The regime aimed to wipe-out all those who, in the eyes of the officials, did not fit the requirements of a pure society based on the Aryan legend. However, the piece does not necessarily link to the topic of crime writing in the Extension 1 course in any way. Research I have read many articles and letters on various websites, which have been very detailed and very helpful in giving me a broad account of events and people surrounding the Nazi regime. However, I will need to continue to research further in-depth into the holocaust and in particular the events and nature of the Dachau camp. I also plan to read Anne Franks Diary of a girl, to further understand the experience of life in a concentration camp. This text should provide the experience of a prisoner, with which I can use to contrast the ideals and experience of the guard. Over the holidays I will make a visit to the state library to find historical diaries and personal accounts of experiences in concentration camps.

Development of Digital Television Technology

Development of Digital Television Technology Digital TV broadcasting and HDTV Introduction While Gugliemo Marconi is known as the inventor of wireless telegraphy in 1897 (Winston, 1998, p. 70), the inventor of television becomes a little more complicated as it entailed an evolution of over ten years to move from its concept to an actual picture transmission and reception. The patent for the electronic scanning tube, termed iconoscope, was held by Vladimir Zworykin, an Russian born inventor who worked for Westinghouse in 1923, however, Westinghouse did not see the utility in his invention and ordered Zworykin onto other projects (Bogart, 1956, p. 8, 348). Philo Farnsworth (Horvitz, 2002. p. 9, 92) advanced the concept, and it was John Logie Baird who accomplished the first transmissions of face shapes in 1924, who is also credited with the first television broadcast in 1926 (Horvitz, 2002, p. 101). From there, the development of television escalated with analog broadcasting representing the transmission method utilized in television until 2000 began the age of digital telev ision and radio broadcasting (Huff, 2001, pp. 4,8,69). To understand digital television, one needs a basic understanding of the manner in with analog television works. In the analog system a video camera takes pictures at 30 frames per second, which are then rasterized into rows of individual dots, termed pixels that are assigned specific color and intensity (howstuffworks.com, 2007a). Next, these pixel rows are then combined with synchronization signals termed horizontal and vertical sync, which permits the receiving television set understand how these rows should be displayed (howstuffworks.com, 2007a). The final signal that contains the preceding represents the composite video signal, which is separate from the sound (howstuffworks.com, 2007a). The difference between analog television and digital is that the analog system as a 4:3 aspect ration, which means the television screen is four units wide by three units high, thus a 25 inch analog television measured diagonally is 15 inches in height by 20 inches in width, with the aspect rat io for a digital television is represented by a 16:9 aspect ratio (Metallinos, 1996, pp. 27, 206 207). Digital broadcasting, as is the case in all broadcast formats, including radio, utilize part of the electromagnetic spectrum (Montgomery and Powell, 1985, pp. 20, 237). Electromagnetic wave frequencies consist of radio, infrared, light that is visible, ultraviolet, x-ray, gamma and then cosmic rays, in order of the lowest to the highest (Weber, 1961, pp. 105, 184). In reality, digital television broadcasting is a subset of digital radio broadcasting, under the ‘one-way digital radio standards’, which not only includes digital radio and television broadcasting, but digital terrestrial television, DVB-T, ISDB-t, ATSC, T-DMB, mobile TV, Satellite TV, radio pagers, as well as the Eureka 147 standard (DAB) to name a few (Levy, 2001, pp. 7,10,11,33). This examination shall delve into an understanding of digital television broadcasting, DAB, DVB-T, HDTV, and its deployment in Europe as well as the United States. Television’s New Age The advantages of digital television is that it offers a broader array of viewing options for both the consumer as well as broadcast stations in that it provides a clear picture and sharper sound, along with the ability of broadcasters to offer multiple sub-channels as a result of its formats (Levy, 2001, p. 71). The three formats, consisting of 1. 480i, which is 704X480 pixels that is broadcast at 60 interlaced frames a second representing 30 complete frames each second, and 480p which is 704X480 pixels that is broadcast at 60 complete frames each second, 2. 720p, whereby the picture is at 1280X720 pixels that is broadcast at 60 complete frames a second, and thirdly, 1080i where the picture is at 1920X1080 pixels that is sent at 60 interlaced frames each second representing 30 complete frames each second, and 1080p whereby the picture is broadcast at 1920X1080 pixels that is broadcast at 60 complete frames each second (howstuffworks.com, 2007b). Note: The above indicates the 525 horizontal line scans whereby each contains approximately 680 pixels. Each pixel represents one element of the picture and contains three areas of red, green and blue phosphor, which may be either rectangular or dots. The electron gun send out electron beams that strike the phosphors causing them to glow, with electromagnets located near the guns directing the beams in sequence to each pixel, with the broadcast signal providing information on how bright the phosphors should be made, at what time and in what sequence. As digital television broadcasting and digital audio broadcasting, DAB, are both based upon the electromagnetic wave principle, they work in the same manner, with DAB providing a broader range of digital channels that are not available on FM, as well as less hiss and interference, tuning to a station format or name and the support of scrolling radio text, MP3 playback and pause and rewind features (Scott, 1998, p. 9, 210). DVB-T represents the Euopean standard for broadcast of digital terrestrial television. DVB-T, or Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial, is a new system whereby the digital audio and video data stream is compressed by use of a OFDM modulation that utilizes concatenated channel coding (Levy, 2001, pp. 3-21). Al-Askary et al (2005) advise that OFDM utilizes convolutional coding that does not have capability to adapt to variations of fading properties of individual sub-channels, thus providing clear distortion freer signals and reception. In the DVB-T method when utilized by broadcasters the signals transmitted are sent from one aerial antenna to another using a signal blaster to the home receivers (White, 2007). The broadcast is transmitted utilizing a digital audio-video stream that is compressed, based on the MPEG-2 standard, which is the result of the combination of one or more ‘Pactetised Elementary Streams’ (Chiariglione, 2000). Note: In summary, the source coding are multiplexed into programme streams, with one or more of these joined to create a MPEG-2 Transpot Stream that is transmitted to set top boxes in the home. It can accommodate six to eightMHz wide channels. Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), which is also termed ‘Eureka 147’ represents the technology employed for the broadcasting of audio through the use of digital radio transmmision (Huff, 2001, pp. 67-78). In order to achieve the sound reproduction quality attributable to DAB, the bit rate levels must be high enough for the audio codec in the MPEG Layer 2 to provide the quality inherent in the system, as well as high enough to enable the error correction coding (digitalradiotech.co.uk, 2007). Both the DAB as well as the DVB-T systems utilize ‘orthogonal frequency division multiplexing’ (OFDM) modulation, with each system being able to handle 1536 sub-carriers (digitalradiotech.co.uk, 2007). The DAB and DVB-T also use the QPSK singal constellation to modulate the subcarriers, and also use 2 bits per symbol which the signal constellations can transmit on each of the subcarriers (digitalradiotech.co.uk, 2007). DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) is particularly suited to utilization in multimedia transmission systems, such as sound, moving pictures and text along with data (Levy, 2001, p. 177). As a radio frequency signal, DAB’s ability in being picked up by radio receivers represents an advantage over DVB-T, whose mobile reception signal â€Å"†¦ is significantly affected by †¦Ã¢â‚¬  the fast changing nature of the transmission channel, thus it is needed to utilize two antennas on the received along with a more complex and â€Å"†¦ elaborate signal processing for †¦ channel tracking† (Lauterjung, 1999). And while DVB-T was developed orginally for stationary reception utilizing a roof-top directional antenna as well as a non-directional antenna contained on a portable receiver, it has been adapted for moble reception as indicated (Lauterjung, 1999). Recent developments in tests conducted in Germany as well as Singapore have shown that DBV-T can be utilized in mobile reception, however the drawback is battery life as a result of power consumption (dvb.org, 2004). HDTV, high-definition television, utilizes approximaetly ten times the amount of pixels as a standard analog television set, representing a high end 1920 X 1080 pixels, against an analog television set’s 704 X 480 pixels (Huf, 2001, pp. 140-141). The high resolution of HDTV requires greater bandwidth thus making broadcast operators make a major financial commitment to deploy the new standard (Brown and Picard, 2005, pp. 47-49). The deployment problem means that in order to make the system work with their current infrastructure, operators would have to reduce the number of channels being offered, a marketing and customer problem in that operators have built their competitive systems on offering a greater number of channel selections. Brown and Picard (2005, p. 336) advise â€Å"The significance of the SDTV/HDTV issue is that, because the transmission of HDTV requires much more spectrum than SDTV, a trade-off is involved for any DTV system between a greater number of SDTV channels and a smaller number of HDTV channels (currently 4 to 6 SDTV channels can be transmitted within the amount of spectrum required for one HDTV channel)†. In addition to the foregoing, there is a lack of uniform standards in â€Å"Standardization, compatibility, interoperability and application portability are essential pillars in the erection of a successful and competitive European digital television system† (Nolan, 1997, p. 610). The National Association of Broadcasters’ estimate that the cost of the new equipment to carry HDTV and retain the number of stations will be between $10 to $40 million based on the station size (Pommier, 1995). Deployment will represent a problem in that the wider TV format will be cut off on standard square type televisions thus necessitating consumers to switch to wide screen television receivers in addition to the special HDTV receiver need to watch high definition broadcasts which can be received over cable or satellite (Brown and Picard, 2005, pp. 110-115). The HD receiver being sold at  £299 by UK broadcaster BSkyB, along with an added  £10 for the service on top of the basic subscr iption charge are another example of the inhibiting factors in deployment O’Brien, 2006). HDTV basically represents what Dietrich Westerkamp who is the worldwide director of broadcast standards at the electronics giant Thomson, which is the largest European manufacturer of HD satellite receivers, calls â€Å"†¦ a chicken and egg situation† (O’Brien, 2006). The situation has been the case with HDTV in the United States as well as Europe, with broadcasters waiting to see enough purchasers of the new television sets before making the financial commitment concerning equipment changes, and consumers waiting to see stations available before making the financial commitment for the new HDTV sets. The answer could be coming from television manufacturers who are starting to turn out HD compatible sets. One such example is Samsung, who has announced that two-thirds of its flat panel production will be HD compatible (O’Brien, 2006). Something will be needed to help jump-start the HDTV situation as presently the size of the potential viewing audience is to sm all to justify the conversion expense, explains Rudi Kuffner, spokesperson for Germany’s largest broadcaster ARD (O’Brien, 2006). Conclusion Since the first television broadcast of face shapes by John Baird in 1924, and the first television broadcast in 1926 (Horvitz, 2002, p. 101) television has come a long way. The introduction of digital television and radio broadcasting in 2000 has increased the viewing experience in providing a broader array of channels, signal clarity and sound as well as giving broadcasters an expanded marketing option of more to offer consumers in a highly competitive market. The new flat panel television sets and digital broadcasting have expanded the ways in which consumers as well as broadcasters view the market. With mobile television systems and the new digital radio channels offering playback and other features, entertainment is getting another big boost. With the biggest new development, that has been around for over four years set to enhance broadcasting and viewing pleasure, when the financial justifications reach the investment levels. HDTV represents the next quantum leap in television despite all of its problems. Technology keeps improving the sphere of entertainment, and it is ultimately consumers who benefit. Bibliography Al-Askary, O., Sidiropoulos, L., Kunz, L., Vouzas, C., Nassif, C. (2005) Adaptive Coding for OFDM Based Systems using Generalized Concatenated Codes. Radio Communications Systems, Stockholm, Sweden Bogart, L. (1956) The Age of Television: A Study of Beijing Habits and the Impact of Television on American Life. Frederick Ugar Publishing. New York, United States Brown, A., Picard, R. (2005) Digital Terrestrial Television in Europe. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Mahwah, N.J., United States Chiariglione, L. (2000) MPEG-2. Retrieved on 2 April 2007 from http://www.chiariglione.org/mpeg/standards/mpeg-2/mpeg-2.htm digitalradiotech.co.uk (2007) Comparison of the DAB, DMB DvB-H Systems. Retrieved on 2 April 2007 from http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/dvb-h_dab_dmb.htm dvdaust.com (2007) Aspect Ratios. Retrieved on 30 March 2007 from http://www.dvdaust.com/aspect.htm dvb.org (2004) DVB-H Handheld. Retrieved on 2 April 2007 from http://www.dvb.org/documents/white-papers/wp07.DVB-H.final.pdf Horvitz, L. (2002) Eureka! Stories of Scientific Discovery. Wiley, New York, United States howstuffworks.com (2007b) How Digital Television Works. Retrieved on 31 March 2007 from http://www.howstuffworks.com/dtv3.htm howstuffworks.com (2007a) Understanding Analog TV. Retrieved on 30 March 2007 from http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/dtv1.htm Huff, A. (2001) Regulating the Future: Broadcasting Technology and Governmental Control. Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, United States Kiiski, A. (2004) Mobile Virtual Network Operators. Research Seminar on Telecommunications Business, Helsinki University of Technology Levy, D. (2001) Europe’s Digital Revolution: Broadcasting Regulation, the EU and Nation State. Routledge, London, United Kingdom Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (2004) Electromagnetic Spectrum. Retrieved on 2 April 2007 from http://www.lbl.gov/MicroWorlds/ALSTool/EMSpec/EMSpec2.html Lauterjung, J. (1999) An enhanced testbed for mobile DVB-T receivers. Retrieved on 2 April 2007 from http://www.rohde-schwarz.com/www/dev_center.nsf/frameset?OpenAgentwebsite=comcontent=/www/dev_center.nsf/html/artikeldvb-t Metallinos, N. (1996) Television Aesthetics: Perceptual, Cognitive, and Compositional Bases. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Mahwah, New Jersey, United States Montgomery, H., Powell, J. (1985) International Broadcasting by Satellite: Issues of Regulation, Barriers to Communication. Quorum Books, Westport, CT., United States Nolan, D. (1997) Bottlenecks in pay TV: Impact on market development in Europe. Vol. 21, No. 7. Telecommunications Policy O’Brien (2006) Broadcasters shrink from taking HDTV leap. 30 August 2006 PBS.org. (2006b) Electronic TV. Retrieved on 30 March 2007 from http://www.pbs.org/opb/crashcourse/tv_grows_up/electronictv.html PBS.org (2006a) Mechanical TV. Retrieved on 30 March 2007 from http://www.pbs.org/opb/crashcourse/tv_grows_up/mechanicaltv.html PBS.org (2006b) Widescreen. Retrieved on 2 April 2007 from http://www.pbs.org/opb/crashcourse/aspect_ratio/widescreen.html Pommier, G. (1995) High Definition Television (HDTV). Retrieved on 3 April 2007 from http://gabriel.franciscan.edu/com326/gpommier.html Scott, R. (1998) Human Resource Management in the Electronic Media. Quorum Books, Westport, CT, United States University of Toledo (2005) Television. Retrieved on 2 April 2007 from http://www.physics.utoledo.edu/~lsa/_color/31_tv.htm Weber, J. (1961) General Relativity and Gravitational Waves. Interscience Publishers, New York, United States White, D. (2007) What is DVB-T? Retrieved on 1 April 2007 from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-dvb-t.htm Winston, B. (1998) Media Technology and Society: A History From the Telegraph to the Internet. Routledge, London, United Kingdom

Project report on construction

Project report on construction CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.0 BACKGROUND INFORMATION The performance of the construction industry has a major influence on the economic, infrastructure, agricultural and technological development of a country (R. Chudley, 1995). Construction is increasingly becoming highly technical and sophisticated with high standard of quality and specification. These coupled with clients demand for value-for-money requires the efficient employment of equipment which can largely improve productivity in the construction industry. The general aim of every construction is to produce a structure that can provide the required functions at the most reasonable cost, within a given time frame and at the required level of quality. Mechanization is one of the ways by which these could be achieved. The fast developing construction industry now heavily depends on equipment to achieve the high demands of quality project delivery. Equipment implies the machinery, tools (other than craftsmens personal tools) used in the contractors yard, workshop or site. Generally, equipment are introduced to contracts to increase the rate of output, reduce overall building cost, achieve high output standards often required by present day designs and specifications, eliminate heavy manual work thus reducing fatigue and carry out activities which cannot be done manually or do them more economically ( R. Chudley, 1995). The introduction of equipment to a contract does not however necessarily result in economic savings unless the contract work is so organized that machines are fully utilized or operate for continuous periods at full capacity that is about 85% of its on-site time, their use will not be economical. To be economic, equipment must be fully utilized and not left standing idle since equipment, whether hired or owned, will have to be paid for even if it is non-productive (R. Chudley, 1995). Heavy equipment will be needed for excavation, haulage, lifting and transportation of materials and people during the construction of a project in order to meet all the clients specifications. Contractors stand to gain from the use of equipment in the form of increased output per employee, increased productivity from equipment leading to overall profits. Unfortunately, performance of construction firms in the industry has been affected by several constraints with lack of access to finance arguably the most critical of these constraints. At least, it prevents contractors from procuring all necessary resources for their construction works including equipment (Eyiah A and Cook P, 2003). It is against this background that this investigation has been conducted to find the equipment acquisition methods being used by Ghanaian contractors as well as the problems the contractors encounter when acquiring equipment for their construction. 1.1 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM The highly technical and standardized nature of current construction designs and high demands in terms of quality coupled with often short contract durations undeniably demands the use of equipment. They play an increasingly important role in building as well as civil engineering operations and both time and a lot of money can be saved by acquiring and using them. Heavy equipment are needed for excavation, haulage, lifting and transportation of materials and people during the construction of a project thus performing an operation faster, more economically, safely and with a better quality and finish. Notwithstanding such great achievable benefits, it requires substantial capital to procure equipment, set up plant management departments and even use the equipment. It often requires very large bank guarantees, collaterals, high interest rates on bank loans, sometimes cumbersome bureaucratic procedures to acquire funds to purchase plant or equipment. This is probably why most Ghanaian contractors still depend heavily on manual labour to execute their projects. On large and complex projects of long durations, it may be practical to purchase plant or equipment for a specific job and resell at the end of the contract. The problem here is that fluctuations in prices on our current market may make it difficult to forecast costs with certainty. Equipment holding firms often do not offer favorable and attractive conditions for the acquisition of equipment to encourage contractors to use equipment on the projects. Very few of the contractors can meet the required conditions before procuring most needed equipment. Again, equipment holding firms are usually found in the urban areas of our country which are almost always far away from most of the construction sites warranting high haulage costs from the plant depot. Purchasing a plant or equipment could also tell greatly on the finances of the firm as a very large sum of money may be locked up in purchasing the plant which then has to be worked at a good utilization level to recoup investments made into it. Finally, purchasing equipment is sound investment if there is enough work ahead to keep it fully employed. Some estimates suggest the equipment must be working regularly for three to five years to recover the capital outlay. However the situation in Ghana is that of many contractors competing for very few projects. Construction firms cannot be assured of regular projects to fully utilize their investment in equipment therefore they rather do not invest in it all or when they do, it is very minimal. All the aforementioned problems collectively contribute to the reason why most of the contractors are unable to acquire the necessary equipment for construction works and thus leaving construction in Ghana still very labour intensive. 1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES The main aim of this study is to investigate the existing equipment acquisition methods in use in the Ghanaian construction industry as well as the problems that the contractors encounter when acquiring equipment with the view to recommending better and more effective practices in the construction industry. Specific objectives of the investigation are to: * Find out existing equipment acquisition options used by the Ghanaian contractor. * Identify problems faced by the Ghanaian contractor in acquiring equipment for construction works. * Examine existing arrangements (if any) made between equipment hire and manufacturing companies and the construction companies. * Recommending better acquisition options as well as solutions to some of the major problems the contractors face when they try to acquire equipment. 1.3 SCOPE OF WORK A number of firms within the D1 and D2 of contractors by the Ministry of Water, Works and Housing and the Ministry of Roads and Transport in the Kumasi Metropolis will be identified, selected and studied. The equipment items that will be covered under the study will include general equipments, earth moving, lifting, transporting and excavation equipments. CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 INTRODUCTION: CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT Equipment plays an increasingly important role in building as well as civil engineering operations, and both time and money can be saved by the efficient use of mechanical aids. Equipment implies the machinery, tools (other than craftsmens personal tools) and other equipment used in the contractors yard, workshop or site. These may range from small hand held power tools to larger and more expensive equipment such as mechanical excavators and cranes. The aim of any construction activity or project is to produce a structure of the right quality and standard at an optimum cost within an acceptable time frame. The use of equipment for construction becomes necessary where using manual labour will not help achieve the projects objectives. Generally, equipment are introduced to contracts for one of the following reasons: * Increased production. * Reduction in overall construction costs. * Carry out activities which cannot be carried out by the traditional manual methods in the context of economics. * Eliminate heavy manual work thus reducing fatigue and as a consequence increasing productivity. * Replacing labour where there is a shortage of personnel with the necessary skills. * Maintain the high standards required particularly in the context of structural engineering works (R. Chudley, 1997). 2.1.2 SOME COMMON CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT USED DURING CONSTRUCTION. Presented here is a brief description of some of the important construction equipment that may be used during the construction of a building project. 2.1.2.1 EARTH MOVING MACHINES The equipment described here include the bulldozers, graders, scrappers etc that are used to move massive volumes of excavated materials during construction. BULLDOZER The primary earth-moving machine is the heavy-duty tractor, which when fitted with tracks to grip the ground and with a large movable blade attached in front, is called a bulldozer. The bulldozer as shown in fig 2.1 below may be used to clear brush, small trees, debris, remove boulders, and level ground. They may even be used as towing tractor or a pusher to a scrapper. They consist essentially of a track or wheel mounted power unit with a mould blade at the front. Many bulldozers have the capacity to adjust the mould blade to form an angledozer which can tilt the mould blade about a central swivel point. They become even very useful especially in civil engineering projects, which often require the moving of millions of cubic meters of earth. These bulldozers are however not appropriate for final leveling and cannot be used for loading thus requiring other equipment to load. TRACTOR SHOVEL These are sometimes called loaders or loader shovels and primary function is to scoop up loose materials in the front mounted bucket, elevate the bucket and deposit the material into an attendant transport vehicle. Tractor shovels are driven towards the pile of loose material with the lowered bucket. The speed and the power of the machine will then enable the bucket to be filled. To increase their versatility, the tractor shovels can be fitted with a 4 in 1 bucket enabling them to carry out bulldozing, excavating, lifting and loading activities. Like the scrapper, the tractor shovel is not suitable for work in rocks and waterlogged areas and will require a crawler tractor to work in the latter condition. GRADERS Somewhat similar to scrapers are graders which are self-propelled, wheeled machines with a long, inclined or vertically adjustable steel blade. Graders are primarily finishing equipment; they level earth already moved into position by bulldozers and scrapers. They are similar to the bulldozers in that they have a long slender adjustable mould blade, which is usually slung under the centre of the machine. The mould blade can be suitably adjusted in both the horizontal and vertical planes through an angle of 300 the latter enabling it to be used for grading sloping banks. This John Deere grader seen in Fig 2.2a below has a laser leveling unit mounted on its blade which constantly adjusts the height of the blade to ensure that the ground is made precisely flat. The low motive power of a grader does not generally allow for use in excavations. A grader cannot load nor move spoils of significant quantity over a long distance. It is bulky in size and therefore not suitable for work in small and/or confined areas and corners. SCRAPERS A scraper is a machine that may be pulled by a tractor or may be self-powered and consists of a blade and a bowl or container. The bowl is lowered to cut and collect soil where site stripping and leveling operations are required involving large volume of earth. The soil may then be released so as to form an even layer of a predetermined thickness or be carried off for disposal elsewhere. To obtain maximum efficiency, scrappers should operate downhill and as much as possible have smooth haul roads and hard surfaces broken up before scraping. Scrappers are not suitable for use in waterlogged areas and in rocky grounds. They cannot be used in loading and also would need transportation between sites. [Microsoft Encarta 2006; R. Chudley, 1997] 2.1.2.2 EXCAVATORS These form part of the main equipment items that are often used in construction. They are primarily used to excavate as well as load different types of soil. Each different type of excavator has specific soil conditions where it works best. Below is a brief description of some of the common excavating equipment found in construction. All of them can easily be classified under one of the following categories: Multipurpose, General or Universal and Purpose Made excavators. MULTI-PURPOSE EXCAVATOR Multi-purpose excavators like the one shown if fig. 2.4 are fitted with a loading and excavating front bucket and a rear backactor bucket. When in operation using the backactor bucket, the machine is raised off its axels by rear mounted hydraulic outriggers or jacks and in some models by placing the front bucket on the ground. TRENCHER A trencher is designed to excavate trenches at constant width with a high degree of accuracy and speed. It can cut trenches of widths between 250 and 450mm and up to 4.00m deep. It consists of a number of excavating buckets mounted on a continuous mechanism on a vertical boom. The boom is lowered into the ground to the required depth to be excavated. The spoil is then transferred along a cross conveyor to deposit the spoil along the side of the trench. A trencher as shown in fig 2.5 is most suitable for long and deep trench excavation and it also gives a fairly accurate and clean trench width and would therefore not require further trimmings to sides of trenches it excavates. A trencher cannot load materials it excavates and also unable to work in rock. SKIMMER Skimmers are used for surface stripping and shallow excavation work up to 300mm deep where a high degree of accuracy is required. They usually requires attendant haulage vehicles to remove the spoil and they also have to be transported between sites on a low-loader. The restricted nature of the bucket movement does not allow high output rates as compared with other over site excavating equipment. A skimmer requires a large operational area and is therefore not recommended for work in small and restricted areas. BACKACTOR Backactors are about the most common excavating equipment used in construction. They are suitable for trench, foundation and basement excavations especially in restricted areas. They can be used with or without attendant haulage vehicles since the spoil can be placed alongside the excavation for use in backfilling. Unlike the face shovel, they excavate by moving the bucket towards the chassis of the machine. It then raises the bucket in a tucked position to discharge the excavated material through the front open bucket. They can also be used to load hard but broken down materials. They require a low-loader transportation between sites and trenches excavated using the backactor may need other equipment for trimming to obtain desired smooth edges. Shown below in fig 2.6a and b are pictures of a John Deere and CAT backactors respectively. FACE SHOVEL The primary function of this machine is to excavate against a face or a bank above its own track or wheel level. It is suitable for clay and can be used in excavating and even rock which needs to be loosened, usually by blasting prior to the excavation. A face shovel has the added advantage of loading materials excavated into dump trucks. It can also be used extensively for relocating spoils within a given radius or short distance and for heaping spoils for future use. Face shovels like the one shown in fig. 2.7 above usually require attendant haulage vehicles for the removal of the spoil and a low-loader transportation between sites most especially in developed areas. They are also not suitable for deep excavations. 2.1.2.3 TRANSPORTING EQUIPMENT These are mainly used for the transportation of personnel, materials, machines and equipment from one site to the other or from one location to the other within a relatively large site. They range from conventional saloon car to the large low loader lorries designed to transport other items of builders equipment between construction sites and the equipment yard or depot. VANS These transport vehicles range from the small two person plus a limited amount of materials to the large vans with purpose designed bodies such as those designed to carry sheets of glass. The vans can be supplied with an uncovered tipping or non-tipping container mounted behind the passenger cab for use as a pick-up truck. LORRIES Lorries which are usually referred to as haul vehicles are available as road or site only vehicles. The road haulage vehicles have to comply with all the requirements of the concerning vehicle usage which among other requirements limits size and axle loads. The site only vehicles are not so restricted and can be designed to carry two to three times the axle load allowed on the public highways. They are also designed to withstand the rough terrain encountered on many construction sites. Lorries specifically designed for the transportation of large items of equipment are called low loaders and are usually fitted with integral or removal ramps to facilitate loading equipment onto the carrier platform. PASSENGER VEHICLES These can range from a simple framed cabin which can be placed in the container of a small lorry or pick-up truck to a conventional bus or coach. These vans can also be designed to carry a limited number of seated passengers by having fixed or removable seating together with windows fitted in the van sides thus giving the vehicle a dual function. DUMPERS Dumpers are used for horizontal transportation of materials ranging from aggregates to wet concrete on and off construction sites generally by means of an integral tipping skip. Highways dumpers or dumper trucks are similar but larger design and can be used to carry materials such as excavated spoil along the roads. A wide range of dumpers are available with variuos carrying capacities with hydraulic control for either a side, front or elevted tipping. They are designed to traverse rough terrain but they are not desinged to carry passengers. Shown above in fig. 2.8a and 2.8b are shown a standard site dumper and a dumper truck respectively. FORK LIFTS These are used for horizontal and limited vertical transportation of mterials positioned on pallets or banded together such as brick packs. They are generally suitable for construction sites where the building height does not exceed three storeys. They are available in three basic forms namely staright mast, overhead and telescopic boom (shown in fig. 2.9a-c) with various height, reach and lifting capacities. HOISTS Hoists are designed for vertical transportation of materials, passengers or both. Material hoists are usually mobile and they can be dismantled, folded onto the chassis and moved to another position or site under their own power or towed by a haulage vehicle. Passenger hoists are designed to carry passenger passengers although they most can be capable of carrying the load of passengers as well as materials. 2.1.2.4 CRANES Cranes are lifting devices designed to raise materials by means of rope operation and move the load horizontally. Crane types can range from simple rope and pulley to complex tower cranes but most can be placed within one of three groups namely: static (operate from a fixed position), mobile (operating position can be changed by cran under its own power) and tower (can be operated from a fixed position or rail mounted to become mobile) cranes. Several forms of cranes can be identified. Some of these are listed below: * Self propelled cranes * Lorry Mounted cranes * Track mounted cranes * Gantry/Portal cranes * Tower cranes Below in fig. 2.10 is shown the different types of cranes used in the construction industry. 2.1.2.5 Concreting equipment these equipment perhaps fall among the group of equipment that may be readily found on most constrction sites since concrete usually forms a large propotion of the materials used in construction.Concreting equipment can simply as classified under the following headings: mixing, transportation and placing. CONCRETE MIXERS These are used in mixing concrete especially in large volumes. Apart from the very large output mixers most concrete mixers in general use have a rotating drum designed to produce concrete without segregation of the mix. Most small batch mixers are of tilting drum type with outputs up to 200 lit/batch. They are generally hand loaded which makes the quality control of successive mixes difficult to regulate.Medium batch mixers can achieve outputs up to about 750lit/batch and may be designed with a tilting drum mixer or as a non-tilting drum mixer with a reversable drum. These mixers usually have integral weight bacthing loading hoppers, scrapper shovels and water tank thus giving better qualtity control than the small batch mixers. The pictures shown in fig. 2.11 and 2.12 are the very common 10/7 concrete mixer and 6m3 capacity ready mix concrete machine. EQUIPMENT FOR TRANSPORTING CONCRETE. Wheel barrows are the most common form of transporting concrete in small volumes. However for large volumes of up to about 600 litres, dumpers are more appropriate. Ready mixed concrete trucks are used to transport mixed concrete of volumes between 4-6m3 from a mixing equipment or depot to the site. Discharge can be direct into placing position via a chute or into some form of site dumper such as a dumper, crane skip or dumper. VIBRATOR After placing concrete in its formwork, excavated area or mould, the concrete must be properly worked around any insets or reinforcement and finally compacting the concrete to the required consolidation. This can be done to some degree satisfaction using tamping boards or rods but most appropritely using vibrators. Poker vibrators consist of a hollow steel tube casing in which is a rotating impellar which generates vibrations as its heard comes into contact with the casing. [Microsoft Encarta 2006; R. Chudley, 1997] 2.2 EQUIPMENT ACQUISITION Generally, a construction company has two options in acquiring equipment: it may either own machinery and equipment or hire it. Management must decide early on whether the equipment needed on site is to be hired or purchased outright, if it is not already available within the company. Purchasing equipment is sound investment if there is enough work ahead to keep it fully employed. Some estimates suggest the equipment must be working regularly for three to five years to recover the capital outlay [J.E. Johnston, 1981]. The decision to purchase will invariably have important financial consequences for the firm, since considerable capital sums will be locked up in plant, which must then be operated at an economic utilization level to produce a profitable rate of return on the investment .In recent years however, the growth of the independent equipment hire sector of the construction industry has greatly facilitated this latter option and approximately 50-60% of equipment presently used on projects is hired. Many firms however prefer to hire only those items of equipment which are required to meet peak demand or specialized duties [F. Harris and R. McCaffer, 2001]. 2.2.1 ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS The introduction of equipment to a project does not necessarily result in economic savings since extra temporary site works such as road works, foundations, hard standings and anchorages may have to be provided at a cost which may be in excess of the savings made by using the equipment. The site layout and circulation may have to be planned around equipment positions and accommodation. The full advantage of employing the equipment can only be realized if the equipment is well managed, both on and off the site, and this requires a thorough understanding of the economic aspects of using equipment and vehicles. For example, a crane will become expensive if the design does not allow a fairly continuous programme of work whilst it is on the site. To be economic, plant must be fully utilized and not left standing idle since equipment, whether hired or owned, will have to be paid for even if it is non-productive. Full utilisation of equipment is usually considered to be in the region of 85% of on site time, thus making an allowance for routine daily and planned maintenance which needs to be carried out to avoid as far as practicable equipment breakdowns which could disrupt the construction programme. Many pieces of equipment work in conjunction with other items of equipment such as excavators and their attendant haulage vehicles therefore a correct balance of such equipment items must be obtained to achieve an economic result (R. Chudley, 1995; R.E Calvert et al, 1996). 2.2.3 EQUIPMENT POLICY 2.2.3.1 OWN ALL EQUIPMENT The policy practiced by many enterprises is to purchase, or lease long term, most of the equipment needs and thereby provide availability at all times, with the added advantage of the prestige attached to demonstrating the use of owned equipment. However, much capital will be locked up in the equipment, which must become capable of generating a sufficient rate of return. A major disadvantage of this strategy is the problem of maintaining adequate levels of utilisation. Equipment holdings are usually built up to service a growing demand, and will become a heavy liability in the case of an economic recession. Any available work may then subsequently need to be undertaken to sustain the fleet, since equipment cannot easily be sold in a declining market. 2.2.3.2 HIRE ALL EQUIPMENT Many specialist hire/rental firms offer the supply of equipment now on the open market. To take advantage of this facility avoids both the responsibility of maintenance and the tying up of capital. The equipment may be hired for a specified period and often times the equipment operator also is provided by the equipment supplier. The main disadvantage of hiring is that the hire rate depends on market forces and suppliers are largely beyond the control of the hire, except for limited negotiation between competing firms. 2.2.3.3 A COMBINATION OF HIRE AND OWN A mixed policy of owning and hiring equipment may be the preferred option. For example, regularly required items might be purchased and hiring adopted only to smooth out demand (Edwards D.J, 2003). F.T. Edum-Fotwe (1990) writes that serious consideration should also be given to the extent to which the equipment is to be operated before an acquisition decision is made. He outlines the following factors concerning the level of operation of a equipment: 1. Acquire equipment new and operate to a down value and sell it. 2. Acquire second-hand equipment and operate to scrap value. 3. Acquire equipment new and operate to scrap value. 4. Acquire a second-hand equipment and operate to a down value and resell. 2.2.4 FINANCING OF EQUIPMENT A firm, having decided to buy a equipment instead of hiring, has the following methods of paying for the equipment. 1. Cash or outright purchase 2. Hire Purchase 3. Credit Sales 4. Leasing 5. Hiring 2.2.4.1 CASH OR OUTRIGHT PURCHASE When using this option, the buyer pays cash or immediately at the time of purchase, thereby providing tangible asset on the balance sheet. Obviously, this option is only possible if cash is available and therefore presupposes that profits have been built up from investors such as shareholder, bank loans, etc. Also, some large or technically unusual contracts sometimes include monies to permit the contractor to purchase the necessary equipment at the start of the project [F. Harris and R. McCaffer, 2001]. R. Chudley, 1997 simply identifies some of the advantages of outright purchase as: 1. Equipment availability is totally within the control of the contractor. 2. Hourly cost of equipment is generally less than hired equipment. 3. Owner has choice of costing method used. J.E. Johnston, 1981 however advices that besides the purchase price of a equipment, consideration should be given to the following points: 1. Capital outlay and interest charges 2. The cost of maintenance and repairs 3. The cost of transporting equipment between sites 4. Insurance premium and 5. Standing time on site. When examining the need to own equipment, the following points must be considered: 1. Will the item of equipment generate sufficient turnover to provide an adequate rate of return on the capital employed? 2. Is ownership of the equipment, rather than obtaining it by some other method, absolutely necessary for the business? 3. Is outright purchase the only way of acquiring the equipment? [F. Harris and R. McCaffer, 2001] 2.2.4.1.1 COST OF OWNING AN EQUIPMENT The cost of owning and operating construction equipment is affected by factors such as the cost of the equipment delivered to the owner, the severity of the conditions under which it is used, the cares with which the owner maintains and repairs it and the demand for used equipment when it is sold which will affect the salvage value. In his report, Effects of equipment breakdown on civil and building construction works, Markus S. Clarke (2001) identified the costs involved in owning and operating equipment as: i. Depreciation When a unit of equipment is placed in operation, it begins to wear out. Regardless of the care in maintaining and repairing it, the equipment will wear out or become obsolete and has to be replaced. The owner of the equipment has to provide a reserve fund to replace it when it is worn out. Where the contractor fails to include an appropriate allowance for depreciation of his equipment in his estimate, there will be no funds available to replace the equipment when they become aged or obsolete. ii. Maintenance and repairs The cost of maintenance and repairs varies considerably with the type of equipment, the service to which it is assigned and the care it receives. The annual costs of maintenance and repairs is expressed as a percentage of the annual cost of depreciation or independent of depreciation and it must also be sufficient to cover the cost of keeping the equipment operating.