Effective emerging leader Essay

It is very important for an effective emerging leader such as me, to become stronger in a stimulating, educationally-rich environment. To become great, a student leader must have many great examples of leadership, teaching and truth. The University of South Florida embodies all of these traits for me, and that is why this university appeals to me in every way. I have had the opportunity not only to practice leadership in middle school as the student body President, but also be the Relay for Life Captain for three years, Yearbook Club Editor, Cross Country Captain and senior Student Government President to finish my high school years. Another advantage I have is the fact that my Aunt Graduated from USF and my mother will be attending USF’s School of Education in a couple of years. My Aunt has introduced me to the campus, and through her I have heard about the awesome opportunities and great times that await me. Leadership has always been the role I was meant to assume and effective degree-holding leaders are crucial in our fast paced, ever evolving world. I believe The University of South Florida will teach me how to become such a leader with its world class faculty and all the opportunities Greek life and volunteering affords. In conclusion, leadership traits I have learned from experience, mentors and teachers over the years will truly benefit my USF life and other USF Bulls as well! Whether it is through volunteer opportunities such as Relay for Life, or running for a position on the student Senate, I intend to be a very effective leader at the University of South Florida and leave an everlasting mark of greatness on its campus.

The Return: Midnight Chapter 31

Elena woke up feeling stiff and cramped. But that wasn't surprising. Three other people seemed to be on top of her. Elena? Can you hear me? Stefan? Yes! You're awake? I'm all cramped†¦and hot. A different voice interrupted. Just give us a moment and you won't be cramped anymore. Elena felt Damon move away. Bonnie rol ed into his place. But Stefan clung to her for a moment. Elena, I'm sorry. I never even realized what condition you were in. Thank God for Damon. Can you forgive me? Despite the heat, Elena cuddled closer to him. If you can forgive me for putting the whole party in danger. I did that, didn't I? I don't know. I don't care. All I know is that I love you. It was several minutes before Bonnie woke up. Then she said feebly, â€Å"Hey! Whachoo doin'in my bed?† â€Å"Getting out of it,†Elena said, and tried to rol over and get up. The world was wobbly. She was wobbly – and bruised. But Stefan was never more than a few inches away, holding her, righting her when she started to fal . He helped her get dressed without making her feel like a baby. He examined her backpack, which fortunately hadn't gone into the water, and then he took out anything heavy inside. He put the heavy things in his own pack. Elena felt much better after being given some food, and after seeing the thurgs – both of them – eating too; either stretching their great double trunks up to break off pieces of wood from the barren trees, or scooping away snow to find dry grass underneath. They clearly were not going to die after al . Elena knew everyone was watching her to gauge whether or not she was up to any more that day. She hurried to finish drinking the tea heated over a dung fire, trying to conceal the fact that her hands shook. After forcing some jerky down, she said in her most cheerful voice, â€Å"So what next?† How do you feel? Stefan asked her. â€Å"Little sore, but I'l be fine. I guess everyone expects me to have pneumonia, but I don't even have any cough.† Damon, after one heavy-lidded glance at Stefan, took both her hands and stared at her. She couldn't – she didn't dare – meet his eyes, so she focused on Stefan, who was looking at her comfortingly. At last Damon dropped Elena's hands abruptly. â€Å"I went in as far as I could. You should know how far that is,†he added to Stefan. â€Å"She's sound, her nose is wet, and her coat is shiny.† Stefan looked as if he were going to smack him one, but Elena took his hand soothingly. â€Å"I'm healthy,†she said. â€Å"So that's two votes for me going on to save Fel ‘s Church.† â€Å"I've always believed in you,†Stefan said. â€Å"If you think you can go on, you can go on.† Bonnie sniffled. â€Å"Just don't take any more chances, okay?†she said. â€Å"You scared me.† â€Å"I'm real y sorry,†Elena said gently, feeling the void of Meredith's absence. Meredith would be a great help to both of them now. â€Å"So, shal we continue? And where are we heading? I'm al turned around.† Damon stood. â€Å"I think we just keep in a straight line. The path is narrow after this – and who knows what the next trial is?† The path was narrow – and misty. Just as before, it started in filmy veils and ended up blinding them. Elena let Stefan, with his catlike reflexes, go first, and she held on to his pack. Behind her, Bonnie clung like a burr. Just when Elena thought she was going to scream if she had to keep traveling through the white blanket any farther, it cleared. They were near the top of some mountain. Elena took off after Bonnie, who had hurried ahead at the sight of transparent air. She was just fast enough to grab on to Bonnie's pack and pul her backward as she reached the place where the land stopped. â€Å"No way!†Bonnie cried, setting up a clamoring echo from below. â€Å"There is no way I'm going across that!† That was a chasm with a very thin bridge spanning it. The chasm was frosty white on either side at the top, but when Elena gripped the bridge's ice-cold metal poles and leaned a little forward she could see glacial blues and greens at the very bottom. A chil wind hit her face. The gap between this bit of the world and the next bit directly in front of them was about a hundred yards long. Elena looked from the shadowy depths to the slender bridge, which was made of wooden slats and just wide enough for one person to walk on. It was supported here and there by ropes which ran to the sides of the chasm and were sunk with metal posts into barren, icy rock. It also swooped magnificently down and then back up again. Even looking at it gave the eye a sort of mini?Cthril ride. The only problem was that it didn't include a safety belt, a seat, two handrails, and a uniformed guide saying, â€Å"Hands and feet must be kept inside the attraction at alltimes!†It did have a single, thin, creeper-woven rope to hold on to on the left. â€Å"Look,†Stefan was saying, as quietly and intently as Elena had ever heard him speak, â€Å"we can hold onto each other. We can go go one by one, very slowly – â€Å" â€Å"NOOO!† Bonnie put into that one word a psychic shriek that almost defeaned Elena. â€Å"No, no, no, no, NO! You don't understand! I can't DO IT!† She flung her backpack down. Then she began laughing and crying at the same time in a ful -blown attack of hysterics. Elena had an impulse to dash water in her face. She had a stronger impulse to throw herself down beside Bonnie and shriek, â€Å"And neither can I! It's insane!†But what good would that do? A few minutes later Damon was talking quietly to Bonnie, unaffected by the outburst. Stefan was pacing in circles. Elena was trying to think of Plan A, while a little voice chanted inside her head, You can't do it, you can't do it, you can't do it, either. This was al just a phobia. They could probably train Bonnie out of it – if, say, they had a year or two. Stefan, on one of his circular trips near her, said, â€Å"And how are you about heights, love?† Elena decided to put a brave face on it. â€Å"I don't know. I think I can do it.† Stefan looked pleased. â€Å"To save your hometown.† â€Å"Yes†¦but it's too bad nothing works here. I could try to use my Wings for flying, but I can't control them – â€Å" And that kind of magic is simply not available here, Stefan's voice said in her mind. But telepathy is. You can hear me, too, can't you? They thought of the answer simultaneously, and Elena saw the light of the idea breaking on Stefan's face even as she began to speak. â€Å"Influence Bonnie! Make her think she's a tightrope walker – a performer since she was a toddler. But don't make her too playful so she doesn't bounce the rest of us off!† With that light in his face, Stefan looked†¦too good. He seized both Elena's hands, whirled her around once as if she weighed nothing, picked her up, and kissed her. And kissed her. And kissed her until Elena felt her soul dripping off her fingertips. They shouldn't have done it in front of Damon. But Elena's euphoria was clouding her judgment, and she couldn't control herself. Neither of them had been trying for a deep mind probe. But telepathy was al they had left, and it was warm and wonderful and it left them for an instant in the circle of each other's arms, laughing, panting – with electricity flashing between them. Elena's whole body felt as if she'd just gotten a sizable jolt. Then she pul ed herself out of his arms, but it was too late. Their shared gaze had gone on much too long, and Elena felt her heart pounding in fear. She could feel Damon's eyes on her. She barely managed to whisper, â€Å"Wil you tel them?† â€Å"Yes,†Stefan said softly. â€Å"I'l tel them.†But he didn't move until she actual y turned her back on Bonnie and Damon. After that she peeked over her shoulder and listened. Stefan sat down by the sobbing girl and said, â€Å"Bonnie, can you look at me? That's al I want. I promise you, you don't have to go across that bridge if you don't want to. You don't even have to stop crying, but try to look me in the eye. Can you do that? Good. Now†¦Ã¢â‚¬ His voice and even his face changed subtly, becoming more forceful – mesmerizing. â€Å"You're not afraid of heights at all, are you? You're an acrobat who could walk a tightrope across the Grand Canyon and never turn a hair. You're the very best of al your family, the flying McCul oughs, and they're the best in the world. And right now, you're going to choose whether to cross over that wooden bridge. If so, you'l lead us. You'l be our leader.† Slowly, while listening to Stefan, Bonnie's face had changed. With swol en eyes fixed on Stefan's, she seemed to be listening intently to something in her own head. And final y, as Stefan said the last sentence, she jumped up and looked at the bridge. â€Å"Okay, let's go!†she cried, picking up her backpack, while Elena sat staring after her. â€Å"Can you make it?†Stefan asked, looking at Elena. â€Å"We'l let her go first – there's real y no way she can fal off. I'l go after her. Elena can come after me and hold on to my belt, and I'm counting on you, Damon, to hold on to her. Especial y if she starts to faint.† â€Å"I'l hold her,†Damon said quietly. Elena wanted to ask Stefan to Influence her, too, but everything was happening so fast. Bonnie was already on the bridge, only pausing when cal ed back by Stefan. Stefan was looking behind him at Elena, saying, â€Å"Can you get a good grip?†Damon was behind Elena, putting a strong hand on her shoulder, and saying, â€Å"Look straight ahead, not down. Don't worry about fainting; I'l catch you.† But it was such a frail wooden bridge, and Elena found that she was always looking down and her stomach floated up outside her body and above her head. She had a death-grip on Stefan's belt with one hand, and on the woven creeper with the other. They came to a place where a slat had detached and the slats on either side looked as if they might go at any moment. â€Å"Careful with these!†Bonnie said, laughing and leaping over al three. Stefan stepped over the first chancy slat, over the missing one, and put his foot on the next. Crack! Elena didn't scream – she was beyond screaming. She couldn't look. The sound had shut her eyes. And she couldn't move. Not a finger. Certainly not a foot. She felt Damon's arms around her waist. Both of them. She wanted to let him support her weight as he had many times before. But Damon was whispering to her, words like spel s that allowed her legs to stop shaking and cramping and even let her stop breathing so fast that she might faint. And then he was lifting her and Stefan's arms were going around her and for a moment they were both holding her firmly. Then Stefan took her weight and gently put her feet down on firm slats. Elena wanted to cling to him like a koala, but she knew that she mustn't. She would make them both fal . So somewhere, from inner depths she didn't know she had, she found the courage to take her own weight on her feet and fumbled for the creeper. Then she lifted her head and whispered as loudly as she could, â€Å"Go on. We need to give Damon room.† â€Å"Yes,†Stefan whispered back. But he kissed her on the forehead, a quick protective kiss, before he turned and stepped toward the impatient Bonnie. Behind her, Elena heard – and felt – Damon jumping catlike over the gap. Elena raised her eyes to stare at the back of Stefan's head again. She couldn't compass al the emotions she was feeling at that moment: love, terror, awe, excitement – and, of course, gratitude, al at once. She didn't dare turn her head to look at Damon behind her, but she felt exactly the same things for him. â€Å"A few more steps,†he kept saying. â€Å"A few more steps.† A brief eternity later, they were on solid ground, facing a medium-sized cavern, and Elena fel to her knees. She was sick and faint, but she tried to thank Damon as he passed by her on the snowy mountain trail. â€Å"You were in my way,†he said shortly and as coldly as the wind. â€Å"If you had fal en you might have upset the entire bridge. And I don't happen to feel like dying today.† â€Å"What are you saying to her? What did you just say?†Stefan, who had been out of earshot, came hurrying back. â€Å"What did he say to you?† Damon, examining his palm for creeper thorns, said without looking up, â€Å"I told her the truth, that's al . So far she's zero for two on this quest. Let's hope that as long as you make it through they let you in the Gatehouse, because if they're grading on performance we've flunked. Or should I say, one of us has flunked?† â€Å"Shut up or I'll shut you up,† Stefan said in a different voice than Elena had ever heard him use before. She stared. It was as if he'd grown ten years in one second. â€Å"Don't you ever talk to her or about her that way again, Damon!† Damon stared at him for a moment, pupils contracted. Then he said, â€Å"Whatever,†and strol ed away. Stefan bent down to hold Elena until her shaking stopped. And that's that, Elena thought. An ice-cold rage gripped her. Damon had no respect for her at all; he had none for anyone but himself. She couldn't protect Bonnie from Bonnie's own feelings – or stop him from insulting her. She couldn't stop Bonnie for forgiving. But she, Elena, was done with Damon. This last insult was the end. The fog came in again as they walked through the cavern.

Purpose of copyright Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Purpose of copyright - Essay Example One of the primary aims of 'copyright' is to ensure society is rich with creative works. Without copyright, those who create different works would not create new works. When the government or the supposed agency provides laws that regulate the use of an artist’s work, it becomes easier and mandatory for any other potential author, musician, or producer to come up with his or her creation (Nadel, 2004:790). This ensures that the society continues to receive new creative works purposefully because a writer has no claim over other’s personal creation. Profoundly, the society gets to enjoy fresh talent in terms of music creation, production, broadcasting, and writing since there are laws, which govern, regulate, and protect previous work done by somebody else (Collins, 2010:4). This makes it hard for the interested author, scholar, or any type of artist to take someone else work and claim it as own (Netanel, 1996:5). The copyright law has a purpose of promoting the progress of substantial science and arts by safeguarding the exclusive rights of the author and the patent ownership of an inventor (Seville, 2006:22). According to the stipulations set out by the copyright agencies, this aspect of protecting the patent rights of an inventor or author helps creators of certain works benefit from their authorship works (Collins, 2010:5). An author is, therefore, to maintain his or her daily activities mainly because he or she is receiving benefits from his creative work. Musicians, actors, and producers, for instance, pocket substantial amounts of financial gains frequently majorly from their creative works (Nadel, 2004:796). Musicians are able to perform their own songs in different functions where they receive money in exchange for entertainment through their works of creation. With reference to the contemporary world, entertainers are taking over the world of riches by being the most paid individuals on the planet. The US Copyright Act (1976) indicates that copyright protects all creative works including but not limited to unpublished work, which is in a tangible form, published works, and work kept in a record form among others (Macmillan, 2005:77). This means that, even writers whose works are in a tangible and fixed state are able to receive protection from the copyright law. In the United States as well as in many other countries, the federal government or any other responsible arm of the government regulates the copyright law by registering all the copyrighted works via the Official Copyright Agency (Netanel, 1996:8). It also ensures regulation of the copyright law by enforcing copyright laws in the court of law. Maintaining the works of an artist by keeping original and owned by the same

Social Networking Sites Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Social Networking Sites - Essay Example With the increasing use of technology, it has become more acceptable for individuals across the globe who share common interests to interact online and discuss their subject of interest. I love collecting stamps, but most of the friends within my inner circle before I joined Facebook were not similarly inclined. Although they would pass on stamps to me to add to my collection, they were not in the least interested in discussing them. When I joined Facebook however, I was able to contact other people who were also interested in stamp collection and were as passionate about it as I was. My contact with them was not restricted by my geographical location, because the world wide web allowed me the opportunity to make contacts with people I would never have been able to connect with otherwise. The best part of it was that I could interact with these people free of cost, without needing to pay large sums of money to travel long distances for meetings. Facebook also provided me a forum to e xchange stamps and get new ones I did not have in my collection. My friends on Facebook were quite willing to send me their extra stamps in exchange for some of mine and this was a mutually beneficial arrangement. Entering into new relationships on social networking sites however, also has its negative aspects. One example of this is online dating sites. They provide the opportunity to make lots of contacts, hence there is an excellent chance to connect with a love interest, but there are also some significant disadvantages. At the outset, most dating sites are paid ones, therefore they are expensive to use. Secondly, there are also safety concerns that are associated with using such social networking sites. The online interaction with the individual in question occurs on the basis of photographs exchanged over the web, which might not necessarily represent what

Knife crime in the uk Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Knife crime in the uk - Essay Example When one compares the crime statistics of UK with that of the world statistics, it can be seen that the country constitute a meager portion of similar killings but it is considered as a national crisis. Reports state that there was an increase from 12 killings in 2006 to 37 killings nationally in 2007 in which the victim and assassin were under 18, clears the doubts related to the alarming problem of knife crimes, especially among the teenaged. A government Bill which is currently in the House of Lords features Legislature to prohibit the sale of knife or other sharp instrument to those who are under 18. Here, Mick Hume points out: "Total murders in London were down in 2007 for the fifth year in succession, from 222 in 2003 to 160 last year. Within those figures, the numbers of teenagers killed did rise - by 'over 50 per cent' as some reports put it. In hard numbers, however, that was an increase from 17 deaths to 26." (Hume 2008). When the total rate of crimes in London shows a decr easing tendency, the numbers of teenagers killed is at an increasing rate. In older days, holding a knife for self defence was not considered as a serious offence. But now the situation is becoming more and more complicated and laws in countries worldwide limits the rights of citizens. When a teenager commits a crime by using a knife, there are some limitations to the hard laws. The punishment is decided according to the seriousness, circumstance, seriousness of the injury, etc of the person who committed the crime. So, illegal carriage of knife will result in imprisonment up to 2 years. There are Borstal schools and Juvenile homes for the teenagers who had committed the crime. Here, W. J. Forsythe points out that, decision to construct these sorts of schools and houses for the teenage criminals is to transform their character. As Forsythe states, "They had come into being as a result of assumptions that young offenders were contaminated by prolonged contact with older prisoners, that they lost their dread of prison if sent there at an early age for length y periods and that, because of youthful plasticity of personality and susceptibility to environmental influence, they would respond to a regime of training and education." (Forsythe 1990, p. 45). At these schools and homes, the teenagers are provided with training and education for their future life. The punishment is for the crime committed, not against the person. The psychological and mental torture suffered by the person who committed the crime must be considered. Rod Morgan and Malcolm D. Evans observe: "This view implicitly underpins the suggestion that torture is almost universally proscribed and deprecated and is engaged in only by aberrant individuals or regimes, mostly in far-away places: that is, a phenomenon that need not much concern us in Europe." (Morgan and Evans 1998, p. x). By generalizing the problem of torturing the teenaged criminals, the right as a human being is limited. Moreover, violence is considered as an important topic in British law and the punishment i s decided according to the seriousness of the crime committed. According to J. Carter Wood, the study of the history of crime states that extend of crime had risen or declined according to social change: "Violence has become a distinct topic in English historiography through the histories of crime, the

Director's Concept Anne in The Tropics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Director's Concept Anne in The Tropics - Essay Example The introduction of the Lector in the late 1920 amidst the Cuban-Americans working at a cigar factor does somewhat similar functions. He arrives to mitigate their inner darkness of the workers in the designated establishment and that he does through literature that illumines the inner world of the individual. He tries to mitigate their personal miseries. Exposure to enlightening literature makes one proud of one’s heritage and provides strength and meaning to lead a purposeful existence. A cultural void exists within the minds of the workers in a cigar factory, as most of the workers are from Cuba, who migrated to USA, out of economic necessity and not because of love for the land of USA. They carry the burden of great psychological strain and problems related to adjustments in a new environment. Recollection of the past, sweet or sour is a great intellectually gratifying experience. These cigar-factory workers love literature, the books of Anna Karenina, in particular, and they compare the events of their own life with that of Karenina. The issues refer to personal failings of human beings on the one hand and about the secular issues related to adjustment in the new environment in America. They left Cuba out of compulsion, and would like to remain in touch with their own customs and traditions and the arrival of lector amidst them serves this purpose. For, he doesn’t own any responsibility of producing goods and delivering the prescribed output at the end of the day. He regales and educates the workers in style and humor is his asset, even when he explains profound issues related to life through select book readings. The happiness of his arrival is comparable to the arrival of a baby in a joint family. He provides the means to adjust to the life in America and yet remain Cuban at heart! He provides them the confidence to retain the Cuban cultural identity. The important concept of â€Å"Anna in the Tropics,† is how to remain truly human

Project Management Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Project Management - Coursework Example It will also correlate the process with necessary stakeholder, risks, and Pestle analysis as strategic tools in understanding the market where the Firm is targeting its business operation. A Gannt Chart is provided to sequentially schedule the desired time frame for Firm’s activities. Introduction There is nothing significant for an organization but to see its operational system working systematically to achieve plans. The Firm needs to adopt a mechanism in hiring employees to safeguard its interest and to ascertain that its human resource will be performing their respective tasks in compliance and in contribution to the achievement to its corporate goals. The management, on the other hand, must provide strategic direction to its employees by comprehensively understanding the risks and developments in the market. Strategic planning will help the company leverage itself from competitors and from the odds of dynamic market. Purpose This paper will explicate the process of recrui ting and selecting employees for a firm to enable enjoyment of optimum performance and achievement of goals. It is also aimed at providing appropriate systematic framework for recruitment strategy to acquire quality workers that could perform tasks and roles (Walter, 2008). Scope The scope of this study is limited only to its application to the firm’s recruitment process for either fix or contractual position. Objective This paper aims to explicate the hiring and selection process as significant in human resource management for the Firm and to correlate the matter to Firm’s performance management using optimized business analyses and strategic management. Recruitment and selection process The recruitment process will include the following steps (Walter, 2008). a. Setting and crafting of hiring and recruitment policy by the human resource department in partnership with the management; b. The management must determine the rationale of the hiring; the job’s purpose , duties, and responsibilities. It must also discuss the relation of the job to the management using job analysis (Gan & Kleiner, 2005). c. determination of positions that will be publicized for hiring; d. Identifying strategic areas where information on hiring are posted, advertised or announced. The posted information must clearly indicate the position available; the requirements needed from applicants; the skills needed; and the exact location of the office (Walter, 2008). e. Set actual date of examination and interview; f. Those who academically or skillfully qualify will be subjected for training and coaching (Guest &Conway, 1997; Harrison, 1997; Salman, Arnesson, & Shukur, 2009). g. Signing of contract for hired employees. This is the logical process about how the recruitment and selection procedures be enforced. The hiring policy will be the legal basis in laying down the contractual relations and the terms of employment. It’s often assumed that this is in consonance t o existing labor policy of the location where business is in operation. The publication or advertisement is the process of popularizing the vacancy to gain attention from possible applicants. The management must have thoroughly evaluated the hiring using job analysis to determine the relation of employee to the management. The examination will test the analytical capacity of the applicants and the interview will also help

Business Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 2

Business Ethics - Essay Example Other research on lobbying behaviour and the effect of a proposed financial accounting standard on pro forma net income provides mixed results. For example, Watts and Zimmerman (1978) report that economic self-interests motivate a large firm to lobby for an accounting standard that reduces pro forma net income. Yet, other studies (Martens and Stevens, 1993; Dechow et al., 1996) find no relationship between lobbying behaviour and the effect of the proposed standard on net income. The present study extends prior research by examining whether economic self-interests affect corporate lobbying on disclosure, especially on Prior to the 1993 Exposure Draft (ED) on FAS 123, Accounting for Stock-Based Compensation, corporations provided relatively little information on the value of stock-based compensation (SBC) held by top management. Essentially, corporations reported the SBC for only the top five executives and only in annual proxy statements as required by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The ED proposed recognizing for the first time in annual reports the amount of SBC for all employees. Comment letters to the FASB on FAS 123 almost exclusively opposed recognition of SBC. However, as Walker and Robinson (1993) note, a careful analysis of the substance of comment letters (i.e., analysis beyond simply counting ‘yes/no’ votes on recognition) can provide additional insights into the politics of the standard-setting process. The current analysis of the comment letters reveals that managers supported varying venues and formats of disclosure. Thus, the varying responses to the FASB on the ED for FAS 123 provide a unique opportunity to examine whether economic self-interest motivates lobbying on venues and formats of disclosure of information (Breton Wall Street Journal, 5 November 1993). The results of this study indicate that differences in corporate lobbying positions on disclosure are related to the value of corporate SBC. In

Identify a development or industrial project or a suburban area Essay

Identify a development or industrial project or a suburban area - Essay Example The location of the project is shown in the figure below: Thinning trees is believed necessary to facilitate stand growth, enhance tree vigor and contain tree mortality due to more competition for resources among trees. However, root root (Pheilinus Weirii) was found rampant across all units and as many as 20% of the roots were found to be infected. Such diseased root stands run the risk of infecting nearby healthy trees and cause massive root decays in the adjoining areas. Further, reduced trees render the area vulnerable to winds which also aids in the transmission of the root disease to new areas. Other potential threats include increased susceptibility to forest fires and winter storms. Move to favour conifer species over Douglas fir tree types to improve plant diversity in the region (increased seed supply, improve resiliency to diseases and provide cover against diseases and insects) Analysis of the water resources is an important consideration for the present case study. It is used to assess any potential increases in new inflows, any changes in the channel morphologies, increase in turbidity and sediments. The key focal point of this issue is the Gunner lake’s drainage area which lies in the region undergoing the thinning project. The current conditions in the channel area have been a result of widespread road building and logging activities since the past 70-80 years. Once again, the focal point for the analysis of fish species and related habitat is the Gunner’s lake and its associated streams. It has been estimated that prior to human activities like rail and road construction, timber harvesting and settlement, the quality of fish habitat in the lake was far more complex and diverse and their population was much larger in comparison to current levels. The primary consideration of the section is to examine the major concerns on the soil resources in the area and analyze the effects of the proposed project (namely road building,

Google's Prospects in Terms of the Criteria 'Suitability, Essay

Google's Prospects in Terms of the Criteria 'Suitability, Acceptability and Feasibility' (FSA) - Essay Example would be embarked on to understand its strategic position based on the feasibility, acceptability and suitability of its present strategy. Evaluation would be helpful to determine if â€Å"Google Inc.: Running Amuck?† as stated by many, is true or to what extent the company is exposing itself to risks by expanding and diversifying? This report attempts to clearly understand Google Inc.’s strategic position with its innovative product and service launches in the recent past. Products and services Google has products and services for both online internet users and the mobile users. The company has products and services based on three types of technologies: web search technology, advertising technology and large-scale systems technology (shown in Appendix A). It has a large portfolio of products and services with a core product: web search, as its major revenue generating service. It has various different classifications of its products based on the kind of service it prov ides. â€Å"Google.com, web and content search, communication and collaboration, downloadable applications, mobile, labs, Google AdWords, Google AdSense and Google Enterprise, all of which are nevertheless marketed as categories of products relevant to: search, explore and innovate, communicate, show and share, go mobile and make your computer work better† (Case study- Google Inc., 2011). The company also is committed to always giving users an experience that they would vouch for, and its motto is the guiding force. The company has a strategy for investment where it invests in three different levels, popularly known as 70-20-10 investment strategy. It invests in three kinds of product markets: core search and advertising products, products related to core products and experimental products (Case study- Google Inc., 2011). It also has a product serving according to the specific region or country laws as witnessed in EU and China where the company has adapted to the legal requi rements of serving restricted or customized services through locally located servers delivering filtered web pages (Martin, 2006). A list of patents for Google is shown in Appendix B. Appendix C and Appendix D list the free and for profit products offered by Google. Opportunities Google provides search engine web content services through simple user interfaces and uses low cost web servers. It provides content in about 88 languages and is an established brand which has gained users trust. Leveraging on this end user trust, the company has the potential to build on its sponsored advertisement links by tracking user searches and providing relevant and updated content with user permissions (Google Inc.: SWOT analysis, 2008). As the sponsored links are relegated to a corner of the page at the moment, it can nevertheless be moved to a full-fledged revenue generating service offering like AdSense and AdWords. The company’s product offering, Google Video is another link that provide s

Life Is a Journey Speech Essay Example for Free

Life Is a Journey Speech Essay Sometime you can just feel a person’s spirit around you. In many ways, we can see that the death of something does often leave some kind of impact, and as a result of this impact something about us inevitably changes. I’m sure we’ve all had to deal with a close relative or a friend passing away, and it’s not the easiest thing, but there’s so much to learn from it. I’ve never really had a reason to until my good friend Dominique passed away earlier last year. Its nuts that one-day we’re all sitting together sharing a few laughs, and the next day a member of our group is no longer with us. Dominique was one of the smartest and most compassionate people I knew. He’d always make sure others were comfortable and never put himself before others. And that’s part of the reason why his death affected me so much; it’s saddening to know that a person that has done so much good can pass away at such a young age. Granted it is saddening, we can only learn from the good he has accomplished. It was hard seeing someone go that moved through life with you like water (simile). But I learned a lot from it. About embracing moments. About taking chances. About never giving up. About gratitude. About me (alliteration). Life is a journey (metaphor). And I never really understood what that meant until Dominique passed. As an active member of his community and a student at University of Maryland, Dominique always had something to offer to others. He always counted his blessings and paid it forward. Which continually blew my mind; why is someone so young worried about giving back to others when he has so much life left to live? Especially after Dominique’s death, I’ve realized that we can go so unexpectedly. When most people hear this, they think of all of the things that they have not done yet, the places they want to go, the crazy stories they want to tell, but because of my friend Dominique, I am able to see there are far more important things to live your life by; like establishing good character, and having the ability to be selfless. I’m not saying this is easy, but it is something I believe everyone should strive for in life. We all go through struggles on a daily basis but should we give up or continue to bite our teeth and fight on. Every setback happens for a reason, and this is the best time to learn from our mistakes, correct them, and hopefully not make the same mistakes in the future. Learn something new and strengthen yourself. My favorite quality of Dominique’s was that he never expected, demanded, or assumed anything. He always gave people the benefit of the doubt, did his best, and controlled the elements that he could control. We’ve all heard the quote; â€Å"Things that don’t kill you will only make you stronger.† After every setback, bounce back and become stronger. He always fought like the courageous man he was (simile). We often don’t realize that our attitude determines our unhappiness or misery. He always taught me to become determined to stay positive. Circumstances will direct you, correct you, and perfect you over time; so whatever you do, hold on to hope. The last thing Dominique really opened my eyes to was that he was never afraid to get out of his comfort zone. He was never shy and always put himself out there. Sometimes, when you are too comfortable in your journey to success, you will not improve, and tend to become okay with where you stand. Dominique was a great example of someone who kept moving forward and wasn’t afraid of what he may run into. We’ve all taken the first step of getting out our comfort zone by signing up for SP CM 212. But we must keep in mind that it’s a work in progress and that nothing comes easy. Dom always tried to persuade me into doing something I wouldn’t normally do and to give everything a chance. Thanks to him we were able to share a few memories by going on multiple trips together. By following the same old routine we begin to bore those around us and even ourselves. I guess I never really understood why it was such a big deal that every minute lost was never coming back to us. Your minutes are the only thing on this earth that there’s a limited amount of. We tend to take death pretty hard and question why they had to go at such a young age. But maybe we’re doing it all wrong and should be remembering the great things that person accomplished and what they left us with. If you’re looking for a happy ending and can’t seem to find one, maybe it’s time to remember the great things. When I look back at my life I can see how perfect all has been for me to be right where I am today. And I’m sure that goes to for many of us here. Life is a mystery unfolding every moment! (metaphor). Some of the strongest people out there are the ones who laugh the hardest with a genuine smile and have gone through the hardest of hardships.

The History Of Limnology

The History Of Limnology Limnology is an interdisciplinary field of study that has been around since the 16th century, however, as a distinct field of science, has existed less than 60 years. The word Limnology in Greek means lake knowledge and is defined as the study of inland waters with reference to the biological, chemical, physical, geological, and other attributes to inland waters (running and standing waters, both fresh or saline, natural or man-made) (Wikipedia definition, 2010), hence the multidisciplinary status. Limnology is essentially a synthetic science composed of elements some of which extend beyond the limits of biology as ordinarily conceived. Beginnings of knowledge concerning fresh water life, like those of marine life, arose in the remote past, possibly before the days of Aristole (384-322 B.C). These early beginnings, often strange mixtures of fact and fancy, have no scientific value (Welch, 1952). As time went on and mans knowledge of his surroundings slowly increased, certain unusual fresh water phenomena were observed and recorded in simple fashion, often with increasing accuracy. However, aside from the historical interest involved, no significant contributions of a strictly limnological nature were made for at least nineteen hundred years after the time of Aristole, although, certain facts about the habitats of fishes, emergencies of aquatic insects, aquatic plants, and so on, easily observable happenings had been described. The study around limnology has attracted many scientists, usually ecologists simply for reasons of aesthetic appeal of being by a lake. Since the early studies of lakes and other water bodies, one of the main points of study was biological aspect of what was found in the lakes and finding relationships between animals and their environment with regard to the population and community level of organization and their experimental testing. In addition to being intellectually stimulating, limnology is of great practical importance in that the limited supply of fresh water must be shared by an ever growing human population, thus becoming subject to pollution, misuse, and depletion. While Peter Erasmus Muller is sometimes credited with laying the foundation of limnological research with his plankton discoveries in fresh water, and while it appears that Anton Fritsch began lacustrine investigations in the Bohemian Forest as early as 1871, it remained for F. A. Forel (1841-1912), a professor at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, to recognise the real biological opportunity in lake investigations and, by his work, to become the founder of modern limnology. Limnology first came to be in 1901 through the publication of the first ever text on the subject which led to world-wide recognition. Before this time since 1650, the progression and development of limnology was rather slow and steady, however the work that was done was influential and set a platform for other scientists to build on methodology and application. Such an influential figure emerged as one, Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723), a Dutch tradesman and scientist from Delft, Netherlands. He is commonly known as the father of microbiology, and considered to be the first microbiologist (Wikipedia 2010). He created his own microscopes and was the first person to observe single celled organisms. In 1674 he first described filamentous green alga (Spirogyra) from a Dutch lake and an early recognition of seasonal differences in algal populations as well as descriptions of rotifers. Limnology slowly progressed further and in 1787, Clark was the first to determine depths of some English lakes which for its time was a huge stepping stone for lake science. In 1865, development of the Secchi disk used for measuring water transparency in oceans and lakes was created by Professor Pietro Angelo Secchi, priest/scientist on the SS Immacolata Concezione, a steam corvet of -the papal navy travelling in the Adriatic Sea (Kalff 2002). A major trend in the studies around this time was found to be more of an ecological nature (studies revolved around ecology), as expressed in the 1867 distribution and ecology of crustacean zooplankton in Danish lakes by E. Muller, however, these studies had not been recognised by the wider community and limnology was still left in the shadows. It was the efforts of Francois Alphonse Forel (1841-1912) and his early studies on Lac Leman (Lake of Geneva) which would get world wide recognition and response and saw this form of science accelerate and change throughout the years, surviving two world wars, depressions, revolutions, and many other social, political, and economical occurrences that shaped and defined a period in history. In 1869 appeared his Instruction à ¡ là ©tude de la fauna profonde du Lac Là ©man; in 1892-1879, Matà ©riaux pour server à ¡ là ¨tude de la fauna profonde du Là ¨man; in 1892-1904 he published his monumental and epoch-making work Le Là ¨man. Monographie limnologique, in three volumes, which was not only the first comprehensive limnological treatise but which also opened up a whole new field of biological research. In 1885 appeared his La fauna profonde des lacs Suisses for which he was awarded a prize. Then in 1901, he published the Handbuch der Seenkunde. Allgemeine Limnologie, a book whic h is the first general presentation of limnology from the modern standpoint. It could even be said to be the first textbook foe the study of limnology. The integrative nature of limnology was stressed even before Forel coined the term limnology. In a prescient article published in 1887, Stephen Forbes described lakes as microcosms, or little worlds (CGER 1996). Although the term ecosystem was not introduced for another half century (Tansley, 1935), Forbes defined an approach that presaged this concept. He proposed that lake studies should focus on many of the processes that today define the field of ecosystem ecology: mineral cycling, production and decomposition of organic matter, food web interactions and their impacts on the structure of biological communities, and the effects of physical conditions on biological communities. Forbes viewed these topics as essential to understanding lakes as functioning, integrated systems. Shortly after the publication of the first limnology text in 1901, came another study in 1904 (following pioneering work in 1897) delivered another aspect to this form of science, hydrology. Hydrology had been practised before, but was not of central focus and studies conducted were basic principles of stream inflows (B. Varenius 1650), water balance in determining lake size, salinity, and sediment retention (J. P. Jackson, GB), and the like. Description of internal waves or thermocline seiches in Loch Ness was carried out by E. E. Watson following work by Lord Kelvin (GB). Then in 1908 the establishment of the first limnological journal, Internationale revue der gesamten Hydrobiologie und Hydrographie, encompassing limnology and hydrology was created. Also a systematic attempt to use a component of the biota (diatoms) as indicators of (stream) water quality was done by R. Kolkwitz and M. Marsson (DE). The period in history believed to be the catalyst for such a strong revival and explosive development was due to the hiatus produced by World War 1, and saw a new generation of limnologists eager to recover lost momentum. Limnology developed rapidly between the two World Wars , mostly in Europe, north America and Japan, because of its emphasis on fundamental research, the more applied components of limnology (fisheries, waste-water biology hydrology) went their own way. One of the key reasons for the acceleration of limnology can be put simply to the sheer number of practitioners, meaning there was a lot of relevant work going on around the world, such that, by the end of this period at least some of the limnologists had figured out, what by todays standards is considered fundamental limnology. Most of the work done around this time was on estimations of the input and output of materials in lakes, measured primary production, and recognized that changes in the nutrient supply brought about changes in the biota and affected the geo chemistry of iron (Kalff, 2002). Limnology continued to develop as a field of study and expand its geographic base during the first half of the twentieth century. Limnologists of the 1920s and 1930s founded many field stations, used them to collect a wealth of information on individual lakes, and synthesized this information at the regional scale. As practiced during these decades, limnology was essentially an observational science: knowledge gained was largely from sample collection and analysis of the resulting data rather than from controlled experiments (CGER 1996). August Thienemann (1882-1960) and Einar C. L. Naumann (1891-1934) were two prominent young scientists, ecologists of better description, from Europe. Naumann divided lakes on the basis of their implied nutrient content, and in the process acknowledged them to be open systems linked to their catchments or drainage basins through the supply of nutrients from the land. He came up with the use of glass slides to study the attaching organisms in nature in 1915 which was a huge success. Thienemann was considered a very good scientist (ecologist) and was the major player in the development of research not only on individual insects (autecology) but also on functional groupings (producers, consumers, and reducers) which, as early as 1914, laid the foundations for later research on energy flow in aquatic systems (Vollenwieder and Kerekes 1980) and anticipated the ecosystem concept (Rhode 1979). Between 1910 and 1914, he was involved with studies on the volcanic Eifel Maar lakes in Germany, which provided the basis for his organization of lakes in terms of bottom-dwelling invertebrate communities and their relationships to chemical conditions, in particular the oxygen content, of bottom waters of lakes. A. Thienemann and E Naumann were among the most highly regarded limnologists who led a 30 year effort, largely between the two World Wars, to classify lakes, they also aided the development of limnology through the establishment of the International Association for Theoretical and Applied Limnology in 1922, an organisation with strong educational programs and communication networks linking professional limnologists. Limnologists in the United States were organized as the Committee on Aquaculture in 1925 and as the Limnological Society of America in 1936. It joined with oceanographers to become the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography in 1948; its journal, Limnology and Oceanography, one of the premier research periodicals on lake limnology in the world, was launched in 1955. Birge and Juday are usually included among the founders of limnology (Wetzle 1996). Their contribution to the study of progressive limnology began the foundation of knowledge among the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of lakes. Fig 1. Edward Birge and Chancey Juday with plankton trap on Lake Mendota in Madison, Wisconsin, circa 1917. SOURCE: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Visual and Sound Archives. Edward A. Birge (1851-1950) and Chancey Juday (1871-1944) were two scientists studying out of the University of Wisconsin studied many different types of lakes that differed in morphometry and size and in geologically varying basins and were generally sceptical about the possibility of constructing new data points from the relatively few non-humic lakes and some of those lakes were accessible to Thienemann and colleagues in northern Germany. By investigating many of these lakes, they were able to distinguish between what they called autotrophic lakes and allotrophic lakes, among others (Kalff 2002). They also recognised differences between lakes without stream inflows or surface outflows (seepage lakes), which receive most of their water and nutrients directly from the atmosphere or from groundwater, and lakes with a larger catchment area able to nourish in and outflowing streams (drainage lakes) that in-turn provide much of the water and nutrients originating from land. Birge and Ju day were considered ahead of their time by the fact that they were able to recognize the existence of both internally autochthonous and externally allochthonous derived carbon sources underpinning lake food chains. Characterization of lake types along environmental gradients was hugely rewarding for Birge and Juday, however, the descriptive phase ended mainly because of the rise to superiority after World War 2 of G. E. Hutchinson (US). G. Evelyn Hutchinson (1903-1991) dominated limnology stimulating a great deal of research between 1945 and 1980 about, among other topic, understanding the behaviour of whole ecosystems through assembling work on biological components (species) and their interactions with each other and their environment , the backbone of the field of ecology. He was a pioneer in the development of innovative experimental techniques (CGER 1996), using radioisotopes of phosphorus in lakes as early as the 1940s and bioassays of nutrient effects on phytoplankton population dynamics as early as 1941. The post war period heralded an unprecedented rapid growth of limnology starting in the mid to late 1950s. Its growth was fuelled in the western world by increased funding, the opening of new universities and research centers, and the development of much better analytical (electronic) and sampling equipment that was the result of technical advances made during the war. In the period from 1960 1980, there were major changes in the way limnological research was carried out (Kalff 2002). Until this time, all projects done had been related and research almost exclusively by single scientists alone, sometimes assisted by one or more graduate students or a technician. During the decades of 1960 and 1980 and aided by funding from the International Biological Programme multidisciplinary teams were established in economically strong countries. This now meant that limnologists could answer bigger questions, were able to locate, observe and record data of not only entire lake systems, but of virtually any body of water from the biology to the morphometry. The 1960s and 1970s saw the beginning of research funding shifts away from fundamental or basic research, where direction and questions are chosen by the scientist. These days research is conducted through government, therefore focussing on important issues or perhaps problems which took a large portion of the funding away from the basic research previously conducted. During the past few decades, limnological research has led to impressive conceptual and practical advances on all types of inland aquatic ecosystems (CGER 1996). Within the past 15 years, three new North American societies have formed, each resulting from the expanding activities in a particular aspect of limnology and its related aquatic sciences: -The North American Benthological Society (NABS) 1974. -The North American Lake Management Society (NALMS) 1980. -The Society of Wetland Scientists (SWS) 1980. These days North America and Europe, particularly north America is where limnology has become more frequent, such that, courses for limnology are provided at many research institutes across these countries, and graduate training in limnology is offered at many of these institutions, even though only a few universities have distinct degrees or programs called limnology. Limnology has grown and evolved over the years into a multidisciplinary mode of science practiced throughout the world and attractive to young scientists and amateur scientists alike. The limnological timeline has seen certain periods in history shape and influence different science techniques and created a myriad of methodologies, ideas, and approaches to applying knowledge to the field of limnology. Many people played a part in the success and rapid development of this brand of science that has helped people understand our surroundings with how they work and why, and also acknowledge what can be found in these water-based environments and how they are important in certain dynamics through the roles they play. Limnology continues to develop from strength to strength and initiate a level of interest throughout the world that will ensure its popularity. An example of this is the international limnology society, Societas Internationalis Limnologiae (SIL), known in English as the Intern ational Association for Theoretical and Applied Limnology, that was founded in Germany under the kindly endorsement and guidence of Thienemann and Naumann. Limnologists in the United States were organized as the Committee on Aquaculture in 1925 and as the Limnological Society of America in 1936. From a starting base of 221 members in 1936, the American society grew to include 4,000 scientists today. The rapid development of applied limnology, starting in the 1960s and 1970s, continues to contribute much to fundamental limnology, but has naturally stimulated much healthy argument about the true goals of science. References: Books Limnology : inland water ecosystems / Jacob Klaff. 2002. Limnology. Paul S. Welch, Professor of Zoology , University of Michigan. Second Edition, 1952. Fresh water Ecosystems: Revitalising Educational Programs in Limnology (1996). Commission on Geosciences, Environment and Resources (CGER). Training of Aquatic Ecosystem Scientists. Robert G. Wetzel, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alabama. Ecosystems and human well-being: A Framework for Assessment. Arthur Tansley 1935. Websites: . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonie_van_Leeuwenhoek. August 23 2010.

Development of Fantasy Football Website

Development of Fantasy Football Website Chapter 1. Introduction Project Overview Last year a project was completed for Mr. Starkey (hereinafter referred to as Client) to design a family website. The website was centered on a fantasy football league created for family and friends from around the world. Many other features were involved in the creation of this website including games, events, family news and many more. With all these and an advanced fantasy football competition, more than just a website site was created. In fact a quote from the Client stated â€Å"The website has brought everyone together into a kind of ‘Family Intranet or in other words, a ‘Virtual Community has been created† (Starkey A.J. 2006). Chapter 2. Design Project Aims With the success of the project, the Client has asked for improvements to be made to the fantasy football feature of the website. For next seasons competition the Client would like the entrants to be able to register on-line. The Clients reasons for this are numerous:- To aid in the ease of entering the competition To save on postage for managers in different countries To have one official route for applications, instead of entries coming in from different ways and therefore getting lost and misled To allow alterations to be made by the entrant without contacting the Client To improve the quality of the website and to continuously bring the website forward with new and innovative ideas Project Objectives To fulfil this project and create the on-line fantasy football application I will have to meet several objectives. 1. To enable the entrant to:- Create a user name and password Log in with correct details View fantasy football rules Scroll through the players in different classes i.e. defence, midfield and forwards Pick and list their selected team Process their chosen team E-mail their application to the relevant address Error messages to be given in these circumstances:- Wrong log-in details are supplied Selected team breaks any fantasy football rules Follow the CSS guidelines set in the website structure, and to consider all HCI aspects throughout the design and implementation. To have the new system installed by 11Dec 2006. Project Considerations During all aspects of designing and building this feature the following considerations will be taken into account:- Superstructure Graphics Colour Content Readability Page Layout Links Project Methodology There were several possible methodologies to help with this project. The ones considered were:- 5 STEPS (Steps to Ensure Project Success) where it helps an individual deliver the project on time within budget. The focus is on developing a realistic schedule for a project and then managing it. AIS (Administrative Information System) which uses 7 structured components. PRINCE (Projects IN Controlled Environments) this was produced by the Central Computing and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) for the development and implementation of IS/IT projects. WebE Process â€Å"WebApps are often delivered incrementally. That is, framework activities will occur repeatedly as each increment is engineered and delivered† (Pressman RS 2005, p 507). Using the WebE Process represents an incremental design structure. The project is split up into increments to be tried and tested individually. This process model is adaptable to fit most tasks or implements. The one I have decided to go with is a methodology called PROMPT (Project Resource Organisation Management Planning Techniques) which although is the predecessor to PRINCE, it is the methodology more suited to my project than the others. PROMPT was designed in an attempt to set down guidelines for a computer project to avoid serious over-running of time limits, which I feel is vital in this project to keep me from falling behind. Even though the WebE process is specifically designed for web applications our project is not incremental. The stage flow guidelines are as follows:- Feasibility Study to determine whether the project should be done/can be done/will work if it is done. Initial stage where the project organisation is set up. Specification Stage in which the user specification was detailed. Design Stage where the logical and from this the physical design of the computer system was designed in detail. Development Stage the system is built and tested. Installation stage the user accepts a working system. Operation Stage when the system is tuned for the work in hand. Interface designs The overall design of the interface has to run along the same lines as the original website, while the log-in and selection pages can follow different routes. There are several different ways of approaching the interface. One option is a simple one click system where you click on a player and it appears in your team. Another option, and the one which will be applied to the feature, is a drag and drop system. Both options are simple for the users to work but the drag and drop system brings little extra to the process. It doesnt have to be just the name that is dragged it can be an icon. This will create a real manager feel to the program. Fig 2 shows an example of this drag and drop procedure. The icon being a players face. User Case The two use case diagrams show how the system will function. Diagram 1 shows how the Entrant will create his account, while Diagram 2 shows what option will be available to the registered manager. Storyboard Storyboarding not only improves your site navigation system but also helps design your website properly. Interface html/css design and layouts The majority of the pages in this section of the website will follow the same guidelines, with the slight exception of the team selection, seen below. Database Design There are several pieces of information required on each player for the database. Each subject data needs to be sorted properly to aid in the running of the database. â€Å"Normalisation is part of successful database design. Without normalisation, database systems can be inaccurate, slow and inefficient and they might not produce the data you expect† (databasedev.co.uk). To enable us to follow the normalisation rules to need to find a piece of information that uniquely identifies that player. As team name, player name player position etc can quite easily be duplicate a player ID has been created for each player. The creation of this ID will be automatically created by the database software (mysql) so does not need to be of a concern. The information held an each player are as follows: Field Example ID 1001 Team Name Arsenal Position Goalkeeper Player Name Lehmann Cost 7.5m Further developments The program has been designed so that any future enhancements that are required can be easily implemented. The program is reusable for the fantasy football competition every year. All that needs to be changed each year is the player information. As the database doesnt carry very much data there is plenty of room for extensions or other ideas and new innovations. The program can in future be used for any other fantasy games the client has in mind for future events. Reflection I found that the project, although not impossible to complete in the time limit, the ideas I had to solve the project objectives were over ambitious. The reasons for this soon became clear: My knowledge of PHP was not satisfactory at the start of the project to complete my ambitious objectives. The plan to keep to the main website theme, instead of aiding in the building of the fantasy football section made the project harder to complete. This was that I could not express myself for this project and therefore were limited in the way I could develop it. Considering this, the objectives and aims did not change as I feel that I still completed them moderately. The problem was that the php was very basic in the whole. Although this doesnt help with the time limit available, I can still improve this in the future as I improve my php knowledge. A good example of this is the team selection process. Diagram 6 shows one example of how I would have liked it to have been done. Chapter 3. Project Tracking Project Risks Due to the small size of this project, the risks are few, although I have included a few extra. These need to be considered even though the probability is very low, as they applied to the original project and so also concern the current one. Risk Identity Risk Probability Risk Impact Assessment of risk Risk mitigation management 1. Budget Unlikely Important Domain and monthly web server costs exceed expectations keep within budget where possible 2. Schedule Possible Important Mismanagement of workload Keep with schedule planed in the Gantt chart 3. Design Unlikely Marginal Unable to design to specification and considerations Research thoroughly and seek aid if required 4. Implementation Possible Marginal Software and hardware problems Prepare for this by having a second pc and alternative software available 5. Personnel Unlikely Serious Illness to myself that halts the procedure Seek extensions if required Reflection Project Risks As already reflected on earlier, concerning the objectives that were unfulfilled this also comes under the project risk category. The risk identity here was â€Å"schedule†. Risk Identity Risk Probability Risk Impact Assessment of risk Risk mitigation management 2. Schedule Possible Important Mismanagement of workload Keep with schedule planed in the Gantt chart Here although it says that the assessment of the risk is â€Å"Mismanagement of workload† I would be inclined to say that it was â€Å"Misinterpretation of expectations† Project Methodology The Project Proposal stated that the methodology WebE was going to be used. This was changed when it became clear that that Methodology wasnt completely suited for this project. The WebE is used for incremental applications, while the PROMPT although outdated was more suited this time. Chapter 4. Testing â€Å"Software testing is fundamentally concerned with demonstrating that observed (actual) program behaviour corresponds with specified (expected) program behaviour† (Jorgensen. P. 2002). What this means is that you build your test conditions to match what the expected outcomes of the software are. The best way of doing is to split your software into manageable sections. This is called Unit testing. This does not cover all the testing required, as our software needs to meet accessibility requirements and also pass a validation test. For all these and more we need to decide on a test strategy. Test Strategy The test strategy will include four different types of testing as described below. Sight testing This test will be used throughout the development and implementation of the website, and will be ongoing over short periods. This will spot simple errors before they become bigger. Usability testing This will be used to test every aspect of the website as defined in the website considerations. The tests and results can be seen in the Test plan. The website will then be put through the W3c Mark-up Validation Service test. Accessibility testing Accessibility testing involves measuring the ease with which users with special needs can complete common tasks on your website. The tests and results can be seen in the Test plan. Acceptance testing The Client will then be involved and asked to test all the features of the website to ensure that everything is designed to the clients expectations. This testing may result in further refinements. Usability Testing Using the list from the project consideration, we will test the web site thoroughly. These tests will be completed using different computers, browsers and internet speeds. Below is the test plan, which gives a table of the tests that were carried out, their expected results and their actual results. Test Plan Test No. Test Expected Results Actual Results Superstructure: 1 Is the site layout easy to understand? Yes Yes 2 Is the navigation around the site easy Yes Yes 3 Is the loading time quick and efficient Yes Yes 4 Is the site accessible to users with inferior hardware Yes Yes 5 Is the site accessible to users with inferior software Yes Yes 6 is the site accessible for short-sighted people Yes Yes Graphics: 7 Are they clear and attractive Yes Yes 8 Are they necessary Yes Yes 9 Do they contribute or just a distraction Contribute Contribute 10 Will they unjustifiable add to excessive loading time No Yes 11 Consider alternatives for people with lower spec browsers and software Yes Yes Colour: 12 Is there an attractive mix of colours Yes Yes 13 Do they add to the appearance of the site Yes Yes 14 Do the colours follow web standards Yes Yes 15 Have I considered colour blindness Yes Yes, See Accessibility test. Content: 16 Is the content interesting and of use to the user Yes Yes 17 Is the spelling correct Yes Yes 18 Is interaction possible Yes Yes Readability: 19 Are the pages readable Yes Yes 20 Does the site load correctly using different browsers Yes No! See note 102 Page Layout: 21 Is each page in the site consistent Yes No! See note 101 22 Use of Cascading style sheets Yes Yes Links: 23 Are the links easy to spot Yes Yes 24 Do they work correctly Yes Yes 25 If they follow the links can they return easily Yes Yes 26 Is there a site map, breadcrumbs or similar Yes, example Yes, Site map Program: Registration 27 Accept names and username Yes Yes 28 Accept Correct E-mail Yes Yes 29 Incorrect E-mail Error Error 30 Passwords Encrypt Yes Yes

Nathaniel Hawthornes Scarlet Letter - Effects of Sin Upon Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale :: Scarlet Letter essays

The Effects of Sin Upon Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter Hawthorn shows sins of several different kinds in numerous people, as well as the consequences and remedies of their sins. Three main characters; Hester Prynne, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth bare the most of these sins. Arthur Dimmesdale, however, bares the most brutal effects of such sin. This is due to several reasons. The most observable reason for his eventual breakdown is the fact that he keeps his sin a secret. Arthur Dimmesdale's sin was the same as Hester's, except he never confessed. "As God's servant, it is his nature to tell the truth, so the years of pretending and hypocrisy were especially hard on him." (Bloom 28) Dimmesdale also believes that his sin has taken the meaning out of his life. His life's work has been dedicated to God, and now his sin has tainted it. He feels that he is a fraud and is not fit to lead the people of the town to salvation. His secret guilt a much heavier burden than Hester's since he must hold it all within himself. This also reveals Dimmesdale weakness. Arthur wanted desperately to admit his sin to the world, which is shown throughout the book. The earliest incident was when he was asked to question Hester on the scaffold as to who the father of her child was: "I charge thee to speak out the name of the thy fellow-sinner and fellow sufferer! Be not silent for any mistaken pity and tenderness for him; for, believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart throughout life." (Hawthorne 67) In this speech Dimmesdale is pleading for her to tell the name of the father, and fellow sinner, not just for the other leaders sake, but for his own. He is to weak minded to do it himself, and he believes it would be better to lose his place of power in the church than to "hide his guilty heart." Since he was not revealed, this is exactly what he does, hides his guilty heart. In view of the fact that there was no external punishment for Arthur, he creates it within himself. Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter - Effects of Sin Upon Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale :: Scarlet Letter essays The Effects of Sin Upon Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter Hawthorn shows sins of several different kinds in numerous people, as well as the consequences and remedies of their sins. Three main characters; Hester Prynne, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth bare the most of these sins. Arthur Dimmesdale, however, bares the most brutal effects of such sin. This is due to several reasons. The most observable reason for his eventual breakdown is the fact that he keeps his sin a secret. Arthur Dimmesdale's sin was the same as Hester's, except he never confessed. "As God's servant, it is his nature to tell the truth, so the years of pretending and hypocrisy were especially hard on him." (Bloom 28) Dimmesdale also believes that his sin has taken the meaning out of his life. His life's work has been dedicated to God, and now his sin has tainted it. He feels that he is a fraud and is not fit to lead the people of the town to salvation. His secret guilt a much heavier burden than Hester's since he must hold it all within himself. This also reveals Dimmesdale weakness. Arthur wanted desperately to admit his sin to the world, which is shown throughout the book. The earliest incident was when he was asked to question Hester on the scaffold as to who the father of her child was: "I charge thee to speak out the name of the thy fellow-sinner and fellow sufferer! Be not silent for any mistaken pity and tenderness for him; for, believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart throughout life." (Hawthorne 67) In this speech Dimmesdale is pleading for her to tell the name of the father, and fellow sinner, not just for the other leaders sake, but for his own. He is to weak minded to do it himself, and he believes it would be better to lose his place of power in the church than to "hide his guilty heart." Since he was not revealed, this is exactly what he does, hides his guilty heart. In view of the fact that there was no external punishment for Arthur, he creates it within himself.

One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest Essay -- essays research papers fc

As medical advances are being made, it makes the treating of diseases easier and easier. Mental hospitals have changed the way the treat a patient’s illness considerably compared to the hospital described in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. â€Å" Please understand: We do not impose certain rules and restrictions on you with out a great deal of thought about their therapeutic value. A good many of you are in here because you could not adjust to the rules of society in the Outside World, because you refused to face up to them, because you tried to circumvent them and avoid them. At some time – perhaps in your childhood – you may have been allowed to get away with flouting the rules of society. When you broke a rule you knew it. You wanted to be dealt with, needed it, but the punishment did not come. That foolish lenience on the part of your parents may have been the germ that grew in to your present illness. I tell you this hoping you will understand that it is entirely for your own good that we enforce discipline and order.† (Kesey 188).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This comment made by the â€Å" Big Nurse† in the story implies that she is telling the patients that the reason they have this disease is that they want to receive punishment when they did wrong or to attract attention to themselves. In no way is this the case with schizophrenia. The patients did not develop this illness because of lack of discipline from their parents or because the wanted attention. This dreaded disease is one that is unexplained and a cure is has yet to be found, although there are ways to treat the illness at the present time. Every year one hundred thousand young Americans are diagnosed with the disease schizophrenia (Carman Research). Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that is associated with unnatural behavior or thinking . The disease usually affects people during the late adolescence stage or early adulthood, typically during this time they develop the symptoms linked to the disease. The most typical symptoms of schizophrenia are things such as, hearing things that others cannot, such as voice of people whispering, having a feeling that someone is going out of their way to make sure they harm you, having visions of things that people around you cannot see, receiving special messages from the television, radio, and other appliances, felling that you posses special powers that ca... ...ending on the size and tolerances of the patients, the voltages could have ranged anywhere form 70 to 130 volts. As a direct effect from the large amounts of electricity being imposed into the patient’s body they will lose consciousness almost immediately. The shocks sent them in to convulsions or seizures and therefore increased their insulin levels. After a patient regains consciousness, he or she will not remember any of the events of being shocked. (Noyes and Kolb). As the treat for this disease improves the people effected by it will have a better chance to live a normal life with out the fear of being seen as a out cast. Works Cited Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The Viking Press. New York. 1973. Page 188. Noyes, Arthur P. M.D. and Kolb, Lawrence C. M.D. Shock and Other Physical Therapies. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Text and Criticism: The Viking Press. New York. 1973. Page 499. Long, Phillip W. M.D. â€Å"Schizophrenia: Youth’s Greatest Disabler.† British Columbia Schizophrenic Society. 8th edition. April 12, 2000. www.Mentalhealth.com. â€Å"Schizophrenia.† Carman Research. September 17, 2000. http://www.carmanresearch.com/schizophrenia.html.

conifers :: essays research papers

While I was in Woodland Cemetery, some organisms that I noticed there were conifer trees. Such as the White Pine (Strobus pinus), Junipers (Juniperus), Doughlasfir (Pseudotsuga taxifolia), Hemlocks (Tsuga), Norway Spruce (Picea), White Cedar (Thuja), and Birch trees (Betula) The white Pine tree can be detected by looking at its pine needles. Its needles only come in a bundle of five. Pine needles are consumed by some species of grouse and by several browsers. The white pine tree is also valuable as cover for wildlife. Young trees with foliage spreading near the ground make good all-year cover for game birds, squirrel, deer, and other ground animals. White pines are usually found around well-drained sandy soils, sometimes in pure sand. Juniper grows in pastures, fenced rows, and other open places. Hoofed browsers often eat their twigs and foliage, but the main attraction to wildlife is the bluish-black berry like fruit it produces. The cedar waxwing is one of the principal users of juniper berries, but other animals make these fruit apart of their diet. Junipers also provide important protective and nesting cover for birds and field mice. Doughlasfirs are commonly found on moist, well-drained mountain slopes and in valleys through out the Rockies and in the Pacific Northwest. The ones found here can often exceed 200 feet in height. Western squirrels and other rodents use the small, winged seeds of this conifer. The foliage and twigs are important to several kinds of browsers. Doughlasfir needles, which are tightly compressed with some of the staminate cones, constitute a top rank winter food for blue grouse. Hemlocks are tall straight-trunk conifers and are usually found around moist, cool slopes, mainly in the northern latitudes or on higher mountains. The dense, low foliage of young plants makes excellent winter coverage for ruffed grouse, wild turkey, deer, and other wildlife. The small, winged seeds are important food for the pine siskin, crossbills, chickadees, blue grouse and several other rodents including the red squirrel. Norway Spruce is v-shaped in size and grows on high mountains where the climate is cool and considerable rain falls. Rabbits and deer browse the foliage and twigs in the winter. The small, winged seeds of spruce are valuable food of the white winged crossbill and are eaten by several other kinds of birds, as well as by squirrels and chipmunks.

Software Development Life Cycle

SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE SUMMARY SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE is basically a framework which describes the activities performed at each stage of a software development Project. These activities involve stages like the requirements, design, implementation, testing, installation and maintenance. In the information technology industry, SDLC plays a big role. No software development process will ever be completed efficiently and also meeting the budget client requirements without SDLC. This is because SDLC involves a structural framework which describes the phases involved in information system development. SDLC in management is an important factor which needs to be taken into consideration if you want a software development project to be resounding success. The phases of SDLC can vary somewhat but generally include the following: Conceptualization Requirements and cost/benefits analysis Detailed specification of the software requirements Software design Programming Testing User and technical training; and Maintenance The following are some basic popular models that are adopted by many software development firms System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) Model Prototyping Model Rapid Application Development Model Component Assembly Model As part of my research project I would be studying the core principles of SDLC. I would also perform research on available SDLC models in the information technology industry. System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) Model This is also known as Classic Life Cycle Model (or) Linear Sequential Model (or) Waterfall Method. This model has the following. Most software teams still use a waterfall process for development projects. Taking an extreme waterfall approach means that you complete a number of phases in a strictly ordered sequence: requirements analysis, design, implementation/integration, and then testingg activities. 1. System/Information Engineering and Modeling As software is always of a large system (or business), work begins by establishing the requirements for all system elements and then allocating some subset of these requirements to software. This system view is essential when the software must interface with other elements such as hardware, people and other resources. System is the basic and very critical requirement for the existence of software in any entity. So if the system is not in place, the system should be engineered and put in place. In some cases, to extract the maximum output, the system should be re-engineered and spruced up. Once the ideal system is engineered or tuned, the development team studies the software requirement for the system. 2. Software Requirement Analysis This process is also known as feasibility study. In this phase, the development team visits the customer and studies their system. They investigate the need for possible software automation in the given system. By the end of the feasibility study, the team furnishes a document that holds the different specific recommendations for the candidate system. It also includes the personnel assignments, costs, project schedule, target dates etc†¦. The requirement gathering process is intensified and focussed specially on software. To understand the nature of the program(s) to be built, the system engineer or â€Å"Analyst† must understand the information domain for the software, as well as required function, behavior, performance and interfacing. The essential purpose of this phase is to find the need and to define the problem that needs to be solved . 3. System Analysis and Design In this phase, the software development process, the software's overall structure and its nuances are defined. In terms of the client/server technology, the number of tiers needed for the package architecture, the database design, the data structure design etc†¦ are all defined in this phase. A software development model is thus created. Analysis and Design are very crucial in the whole development cycle. Any glitch in the design phase could be very expensive to solve in the later stage of the software development. Much care is taken during this phase. The logical system of the product is developed in this phase. 4. Code Generation The design must be translated into a machine-readable form. The code generation step performs this task. If the design is performed in a detailed manner, code generation can be accomplished without much complication. Programming tools like compilers, interpreters, debuggers etc†¦ are used to generate the code. Different high level programming languages like C, C++, Pascal, Java are used for coding. With respect to the type of application, the right programming language is chosen. 5. Testing Agile software development refers to a group of software development methodologies based on iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional teams. Agile methods generally promote a disciplined project management process that encourages frequent inspection and adaptation, a leadership philosophy that encourages teamwork, self-organization and accountability, a set of engineering best practices intended to allow for rapid delivery of high-quality software, and a business approach that aligns development with customer needs and company goals. Agile methods have much in common with the â€Å"Rapid Application Development† techniqu

Supported by the lines

The first thing that can take immediately one’s attention about the poem is its rhythm. The lines contained therein would be appealing for children to read, but they would have difficulty in interpreting its meaning. I, for one, distinguished the meaning of the poem as something like a tiger stalking through the forest in the dead of the night. Yet, I also imagined that the poem talks about a constellation of stars resembling the shape of a tiger in â€Å"the distant deeps or skies.†The first paragraph is clear that the tiger is walking along through the forest, perhaps hunting for its prey. This is supported by the lines â€Å"In the forest of the night, what immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry. † The would-be-prey in this poem could be a human being. The man fearing the tiger because of the lines â€Å"and when thy heart began to beat, what dread hand? And what dread feet? in what furnace as thy brain? what the anvil?What dread grasps dare it s deadly terror clasp? † The poem was always in an â€Å"inquiring mode. † Meaning, it asks so many questions; literally, the poem is littered with question marks. The reader would find it sometimes difficult to read the poem with ease and fluidity, because what he unconsciously does is to pause after a line, then tries to answer the question for each line. Nevertheless, the poem did manage to create a sense of beauty surrounding the mystery of the tiger hunting in the night.After reading the poem, I arrived at the conclusion that the poem will appeal to children because of its rhythm and the subject of the poem, yet it would appeal also to inquiring adults because of the intricacies posed by the questions in the poem. Three questions for other students; 1) What does the word â€Å"Lamb† in the poem stand for? 2) â€Å"On what wings dare he aspire? † what does this line mean? 3) Why did William Blake describe â€Å"Tyger† as burning bright?

Comprehensive Balance Sheet and Income Statement

Course Project Comprehensive Balance Sheet December 31st 2012 Assets Current Assets Cash $42,485 Account Receivable$165,824 Allowance for Doubtful accounts 1,850 Net Accounts Receivable 163,974 Inventories 499,493 Securities (available for sale/at fair market value) 28,250 Notes Receivable (due next year) 23,000 Prepaid Expenses 16,252 Total Current Assets†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦$773,454 Non-Current Assets Investments in Warren Co. $87,500 Land 125,000 Building$975,800 Accumulated Depreciation 341,200 Net building 634,600 Goodwill 100,000 Patents 125,000Copyrights 105,000 Trademarks 80,000 Deposits with Vendors 50,000 Total Noncurrent Assets†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢ € ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ $1,307,100 Total Assets $2,080,554 Liabilities and Stockholder’s Equity Liabilities Current Liabilities Accounts Payable $197,532 Income Taxes Payable 62,520 Salaries Payable52,000 Notes Payable to Banks50,000 Mortgage Payable-current portion18,000 Accrued Liabilities 9,500 Accrued Interest on Notes payable 500 Customer Deposits (expected to be paid next year) 420 Total Current Liabilities†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. $390,472Non-Current Liabilities Mortgage Payable $290,000 Twenty-year, 12% Bonds, due 1/01/13500,000 Total Non-current Liabilities†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. $790,000 Total Liabilities$1,180,472 Stockholder’s equity Preferred Stock, 7%$300,000 Common Stock 400,000 Additional Paid-in Capital 37,500 Retained Earnings 162,582 Total Stockholders’ equity†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ $900,000 Total Liabilities and stockholders’ equity$2,080,554 Income Statement For the Year ending December 31st 2012 Sales Revenue$2,000,000 Sales Discounts 120,000 Net Sales Revenue $1,880,000 Costs of Goods Sold 1,000,000Gross Profit $880,000 Less: Operating Expenses Selling Expenses Selling Expenses$300,000 Depreciation Expenses 60,000 Total Selling Expenses†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã ¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 360,000 Administrative Expenses Administration Expenses$350,000 Depreciation Expenses 40,000 Total Admin Expenses†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 390,000 Total Operating Expenses 750,000 Total Operating Income $130,000 Other Operating Income Rental Income$50,000 Dividend Income 30,000 Interest Revenue 25,000 105,000 Earnings before taxes $235,000 Income Tax expense 82,250 Net income $152,750

Review Low Back Pain Treatment Health And Social Care Essay

In publically provided health care systems, limited resources coupled with limitless demands result in determinations holding to be made about the efficient allotment of scarce resources. This rationing of the services raises inquiries of how services should be provided ( for illustration, how should patients with alone wellness conditions such as nephritic failure/cancer be treated? Should centralised clinics with increased expertness, but increased travel clip for patients, be introduced? ) . Should we prioritize certain wellness conditions more than others based on quality added life old ages? Given the deficiency of a market for wellness attention ( Free wellness attention in UK ) , economic rating techniques try to inform such determinations. This essay aims to critically research the Outcome rating techniques such as QALY ‘s, Contingent Valuation ( Willingness to pay ) and distinct pick experiment for the intervention of Low back hurting and dementedness.Low Back hurting & A ; Dementia:Low back hurting is a common ailment and although non dangerous, it causes great uncomfortableness and has significant economical impact. In Netherlands, the entire costs of low back hurting have been estimated at 1.7 % of the Gross National Product. It has been estimated that the costs of production losingss account for approximately 84 % to 96 % of the entire costs for low back hurting in Western societies. In the UK, an estimated 16 % of the grownup population consult their general practician for aid with back hurting in a 12-month period. The one-year cost of lower dorsum hurting to the NHS has been estimated at approx ?480 million and the load of lower dorsum hurting is estimated at over approx ?10 billion per twelvemonth in foo tings of lost productiveness and illness benefits. The major societal and economic loss due to moo back hurting indicates the demand to find the most cost-efficient intercession for these patients. Low back hurting is a slackly coined term as it encompasses multiple and complex conditions which requires a varied direction attack. The direction of the status is based on its anatomy, physiology and continuance of the symptoms and hence the cost of handling it varies. Therefore accurate economic rating of low back hurting may be end far in front. However for the intents of this essay Low back hurting is dealt as one status for economic rating techniques. â€Å" Dementia is a progressive and mostly irreversible clinical syndrome that is characterised by a widespread damage of mental map † ( NICE 2006 ) . Although many people with dementedness retain positive personality traits and personal properties, as their status progresses they can see some or all of the undermentioned: memory loss, linguistic communication damage, freak out, alterations in personality, troubles with activities of day-to-day life, self-neglect, psychiatric symptoms ( for illustration, apathy, depression or psychosis ) and out-of-character behavior ( for illustration, aggression, sleep perturbation. Dementia is associated with complex demands and, particularly in the ulterior phases, high degrees of dependence and morbidity. This attention needs frequently challenge the accomplishments and capacity of carers and services. As the status progresses, people with dementedness can show carers and societal attention staff with complex jobs including aggressive behavior, restlessness and roving, eating jobs, incontinency, psychotic beliefs and hallucinations, and mobility troubles that can take to falls and breaks. The impact of dementedness on an person may be compounded by personal fortunes such as alterations in fiscal position and adjustment, or mourning. These two conditions are distinguishable in nature as the affected age groups vary between these two conditions and hence the economic impact on society. Furthermore direction of dementedness involves an integrated attention between wellness and societal systems.Quality Adjusted Life Year ‘s ( QALY ‘s ) :â€Å" A quality-adjusted life-year ( QALY ) takes into history both the measure and quality of life generated by healthcare intercessions. It is the arithmetic merchandise of life anticipation and a step of the quality of the staying life-years. â€Å" ( NICE, 2008 ) A QALY places a weight on clip in different wellness provinces. A twelvemonth of perfect wellness is deserving 1 and a twelvemonth of less than perfect wellness is worth less than 1. Death is considered to be tantamount to 0 ; nevertheless, some wellness provinces may be considered worse than decease and have negative tonss. QALYs provide a common currency to measure the extent of the benefits gained from a assortment of intercessions in footings of wellness related quality of life and endurance for the patient. When combined with the costs of supplying the intercessions, cost-utility ratios result ; these indicate the extra costs required to bring forth a twelvemonth of perfect wellness ( one QALY ) . Comparisons can be made between intercessions, and precedences can be established based on those intercessions that are comparatively cheap ( low cost per QALY ) and those that are comparatively expensive ( high cost per QALY ) . However, the usage of QALYs in resource allotment determinations does intend that picks between patient groups viing for medical attention are made expressed and commissioners are given an penetration into the likely benefits from puting in new engineerings and therapies. While QALYs provide an indicant of the benefits gained from a assortment of intervention processs, in footings of quality of life and endurance for patients, they are far from perfect as a step of result ( NICE, 2008 ) . For illustration, the usage of QALYs as a individual result step for economic rating means that of import wellness effects are excluded. QALYs besides suffer from a deficiency of sensitiveness when comparing the efficaciousness of two viing but similar drugs and in the intervention of less terrible wellness jobs. Chronic diseases, where quality of life is a major issue and survival less of an issue, are hard to suit in the QALY context, and there is a inclination to fall back to the usage of disease-specific steps of quality of life ( Philips, 2009 ) Similarly, preventative steps, where the impact on wellness results may non happen for many old ages, may be hard to quantify utilizing QALYs because the importance attached to each of the wellness dimensions is extremel y dependent on age, life context and life duties. For illustration, it is really hard to compare the wellness position of a possible title-holder who suffers a hamstring pang in the warm-up session with that of an aged individual who has been restored to some step of mobility as a consequence of an intercession. Further unfavorable judgments have surrounded the unequal weight attached to emotional and mental wellness jobs, and the deficiency of consideration of the impact of wellness jobs on the quality of life of carers and other household members, while much argument environments who should be involved in puting values on wellness provinces ( Nord et al 1999 ) . Discussion has besides focused on how much society should be prepared to pay for a QALY. While there is a grade of consensus that it should by and large be between ?20,000 and ?30,000, considerable argument has arisen in relation to, for illustration, interventions used at the terminal of life or for ultra-orphan condition s, where higher thresholds have been advocated and used. However, the usage of QALYs in resource allotment determinations does intend that picks between patient groups viing for medical attention are made expressed. Commissioners are progressively faced with resource restraints and have to prioritize their outgo against an ceaseless flow of new engineerings and therapies that all claim to heighten the wellness position of peculiar patient groups. QALYs and cost-utility analysis provide extra information for decision-makers as they grapple with turn toing the healthcare quandary of where to apportion resources to bring forth the maximal wellness benefits for their communities and society as a whole ( Philips 2009 ) . Although the usage of QALYs is backed by a strong research docket, of import methodological issues still remain to be resolved. For illustration, different rating techniques give rise to incompatibilities in public-service corporation values for similar wellness provinces, doing serious dependability jobs. Another good known but unsolved issue concerns the difference between the public-service corporation of a wellness province expected by healthy individuals and the public-service corporation of this wellness province really experienced by patients, frequently confounded by version to disablement and disease. This raises farther concerns about the content cogency of derived QALYs.Low back Pain- QALY ‘s as Outcome Measure:Management of Low back pain chiefly constitutes of Physiotherapy, Osteopath, stylostixis and other curative modes with lesser medical/surgical intercessions. This displacement of direction attack has added benefit in economic footings. A assortment of these in tercessions are available for low back hurting but the effectivity for most intercessions has non yet been assessed. Recent literature indicates that exercising therapy, behavioral therapy, and back school plans are the most promising intercessions. Several cost-effectiveness analyses of exercising therapy was performed. However, the analyses were hard to compare due to heterogeneousness in the survey population and therapies to which the intercessions were compared. Goossens et Al, 1998 found no statistically important differences in cost effectivity between behavioral therapies. A cost-effectiveness survey of back schools showed that a low strength back school was more cost effectual than usual attention and a high strength back school. Two surveies found a important decrease in absenteeism for a ranked activity plan in occupational wellness attention. Van Der Roer et Al, 2008 studies the consequences of an economic rating performed alongside a randomized controlled test comparing an intensive group developing protocol to physiotherapy guideline attention. They studied the cost effectivity of an intensive group developing protocol versus guideline physical therapy in patients with nonspecific chronic low back hurting. The direct wellness attention costs were significantly higher for patients in the protocol group, due to the comparatively high costs of the protocol itself. No important differences were found for functional position, hurting strength, general perceived consequence, and quality of life. As there were no important differences in entire costs, they concluded that the intensive group developing protocol was non cost effectual compared with guideline physical therapy. A restriction of this survey is the limited figure of patients who participated in the test. Particularly for observing relevant differences in costs, big Numberss of patients are required, because cost informations have a typically skewed distribution. A matter-of-fact survey by Duncan et Al, 2007 compared the effectivity and cost-effectiveness of three sorts of physical therapy normally used to cut down disablement in chronic low back hurting. This survey used QALY as one of the result step to inform the economic benefits of these intercessions. Economic analysis is still unusual in rehabilitation surveies ; yet in this test, it reveals of import differences between intercessions that are non evident from clinical result steps. Promoting self-help is an of import purpose in back hurting direction and economic analysis is a agency of quantifying how successfully this has been achieved. Because low back hurting has such high societal and wellness service costs, including an economic analysis in future rehabilitation tests helps policy-makers to make up one's mind how to pass limited health care resources. This highlights the benefits of usage of QALY ‘s in Low Back hurting surveies.QALY ‘s in Dementia:Using QALY ‘s as an economic rating tool for measuring dementedness has invited immense unfavorable judgments by medical opposite numbers every bit good as the pharmacological medicine industry. One of the statements is that Dementia is a multifaceted job which spans across wellness and societal attention and QALY ‘s are non sensitive plenty to pick up these issues. The value set by NICE for per QALY twelvemonth is non sufficient in dementedness as primary intervention involves drug intervention and value added life for a aged individual is non reflected good plenty utilizing a QALY. Furthermore, the effort to utilize a individual QALY criterion on all patients has non been without contention. The recent determination by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence ( NICE ) , to curtail usage of Alzheimer ‘s disease ( AD ) drugs in all but the most earnestly sick patients, those with advanced phases of the disease, was met with a whirlpool of unfavorable judgment by patient protago nism groups, doctors, and industry administrations. The controversial NICE determination was based on the judgement that the four available AD drugs ( donepezil, rivastigmine, galantamine, and memantine ) were non â€Å" cost-efficient † ( NICE 2006 ) . Due to this complex wellness and societal attention impact caused by dementedness the result rating utilizing QALY ‘s does non reflect the existent demand whereas a WTP and Discrete pick experiment might be an more appropriate tool. Furthermore QALY ‘s does non measure the impact of the wellness status on the carers and relations which will be the instance with dementedness whereas a WTP or a DCE will take this into history.Discrete Choice Experiment ( DCE ) :Discrete pick experiments are an property based step of benefit that is based on the premises that foremost, healthcare intercessions, services, or policies can be described by their features ( or attributes ) and secondly, an person ‘s rating depends on the degrees of these features ( Ryan et al 1997 ) . Discrete pick experiments were introduced into wellness economic sciences as a technique to travel beyond the quality adjusted life twelvemonth ( QALY ) paradigm. Users were concerned with many facets of wellness attention beyond wellness results. Such factors included waiting clip, location of intervention, type of attention ( for illustration, surgical or medical ) , and staff supplying attention ( adviser or specializer nurse ) and were referred to as procedure properties. Discrete pick experiments allow probe of the tradeoffs between such procedure and wellness results attributes ( Ryan et al 2003 ) . Applications of distinct pick experiments have been extended to see supplier penchants such as strength of infirmary advisers ‘ penchants for assorted facets of their work. More late the technique has been used to value wellness results in the proviso of attention ( frequently beyond those valued within the QALY ) . At the methodological degree, surveies find that respondents will finish distinct pick experiments in an internally valid and consistent mode ( Viney et al 2002 ) . An of import inquiry in the usage of any study technique is that of external validity-that is, do persons act in world as they province in a conjectural context? Although limited research has been conducted in this country and future research is clearly of import ( which is the instance for all economic rating techniques, including those used in the QALY model ) , experience from other countries such as the rating of environmental goods and services implies that we can be optimistic. Given the function of the NICE in doing recommendations refering optimum interventions, can it do usage of DCE? The institute is under increasing force per unit area to take history of patients ‘ penchants. To day of the month systematic consideration of such penchants has been limited. Typically public penchants are required to arouse quality weights in the QALY paradigm. This is non adequate since patients may value outcomes otherwise to the populace and have penchants over facets of attention beyond QALYs. NICE plans to hold a patient centred rating of engineerings in add-on to the current appraisals of clinical and cost effectivity. Using the attack of distinct pick experiments allows the integrating of patients ‘ values on all facets of attention in one step. We will be able to see how patients trade different wellness results every bit good as procedure type attributes, aboard each other. Evaluation of procedure and wellness results from the patients ‘ positio n may good take to decisions that struggle with the recommendations of the cost per QALY attack. This is more likely to be the instance in comparings of engineerings that differ with regard to outcomes beyond those measured in a QALY, every bit good as procedure properties. However DCE external cogency is problematic in wellness context as opposed to QALY. Hence in footings of dementedness DCE is a better attack to QALY and in instance of Low back hurting QALY is a better attack than DCE.Willingness to Pay ( WTP ) :Willingness to pay is the conjectural step where a person is willing to pay a pecuniary value for a intervention or merchandise and it can besides be expressed as the sum of trade off a individual is prepared to see for one intervention to another due to budgetary restraints. The suggestion is that wellness economic sciences lags behind other countries of economic sciences that have embraced these methods, in peculiar environmental economic sciences. Two chief methods hav e been employed in WTP: the ‘contingent rating method ‘ ( CVM ) and ‘choice experiments ‘ ( CE ) – the method once known as conjoint analysis. These methods have by and large been used to put a pecuniary value on a bundle of wellness and/or non-health benefits in the context of a specific intercession. Yet economic rating within the wellness attention field remains dominated by cost-effectiveness and cost-per-QALY analysis. Health attention remunerators have been loath to encompass cost-benefit analysis based on WTP methods ( Cookson, 2003 ) . And most wellness economic experts have preferred to polish the cost effectivity attack instead than to develop new WTP methods ( Cookson 2003 ) . Why is this? Advocates of WTP methods suggest it may be partially due to a common but erroneous perceptual experience that WTP surveies are ‘somehow supportive of policies aimed at taking the proviso of state-supplied wellness services ‘ ( Hanley et al 2003 ) . It may besides be due to the fact that stated penchant WTP methods suffer from two serious ( and perchance related ) measuring biases that render them unattractive to wellness attention determination shapers. First, WTP responses tend to be under sensitive – although non needfully wholly insensitive – to the magnitude of benefit ( Bateman et al 1997 ) . This includes both ‘scope effects ‘ , affecting different measures of the same good, and ‘nesting effects ‘ ( or 'embedding effects ‘ or ‘part-whole prejudice ‘ ) , affecting one good incorporated within a larger package of goods ( Bateman et al 1997 ) . Scope effects are peculiarly strong in relation to wellness hazards. Using high quality contingent rating study designs, and strict experimental methods, research workers have found that people tend to province a similar sum – approximately ?50 – for any given magnitude of decrease in the hazard of decease or hurt ( Beattie et al 1998 ) . This has the consequence of overstating implied pecuniary values for life and wellness for comparatively little hazard decreases. More by and large, under-sensitivity to the magnitude of benefit tends to blow up ratings of intercessions that yield comparatively little benefits. Second, WTP methods tend to blow up ratings of the specific intercession that respondents are asked about, comparative to intercessions that respondents are non asked about. Asking respondents to concentrate on one specific intercession in isolation Acts of the Apostless as a sort of amplifying glass for stated WTP, When asked to see an intercession in isolation, people are willing to pay amounts of money far in surplus of what they are willing to pay when asked to see the same intercession in relation to a scope of other intercessions. This is sometimes known as ‘budget restraint prejudice ‘ ( Mitchell et al 1989 ) . Unlike the rational economic adult male of standar d economic theory, study respondents may be unable to budget at the same time for the full scope of possible public and private goods and services they require. So valuing each point in isolation can take to sum sums of WTP in surplus of the available budget. WTP methods therefore tend to be biased in favor of ( 1 ) intercessions that deliver comparatively little benefits, and ( 2 ) the peculiar intercession being evaluated, as opposed to other 1s non being evaluated. These are serious defects in a wellness attention context, where the majority of economic rating activity is directed towards informing reimbursement determinations about dearly-won new wellness attention engineerings. These engineerings tend to offer incontrovertible but comparatively little wellness benefits. WTP methods take history of chance costs more exhaustively than cost-effectiveness analysis ( Oliver et al 2002 ) . Cost-effectiveness analysis takes history of chance costs utilizing an incremental cost-effectiveness threshold, which represents an expressed premise about the cost-effectiveness of a ‘typical ‘ alternate intercession. By contrast, WTP methods take history of chance costs by giving respondents the Willingness to pay and DCE in footings of Low back hurting is hard to quantify as it usually consequences in a conjectural value and QALY ‘s inform wellness related results in a better mode. However in instance of complex Low back pain a combination of these economic rating techniques will be more efficient instead than utilizing a QALY ‘s in isolation. With respects to dementia DCE and WTP tends to turn to the tradeoff every bit good as the Complex demands placed on the wellness and societal attention.DecisionEconomic rating techniques are important for the hereafter wellness attention resource allotment as rationing of these resources are acquiring harder due to fiscal restraints. Each of the economic rating techniques has its strengths and failings. However applied on the right context and in appropriate conditions makes it more efficient. Low back hurting and dementedness are alone wellness conditions with complex multifaceted jobs necessitating different economic rat ings to be efficient. However a combination of these techniques is important to turn to the inefficiencies of these techniques. Further research in these countries is indispensable to find the economic ratings of the wellness attention industry.