Production and Operation Managemne, Case of Mcdonald

This paper aims at examining the use of teams in production and operations management. Boone and Kurtz (2011) reported that ’’the purpose of production and operations management is to oversee the application of people and machinery in converting materials into finished goods and services’’ (p. 356). Dr. Deming has developed fourteen principles for production and operations management, originally presented in Out of the Crisis, that serve as management guidelines. Organizations that follow that guideline should have more efficient workplace, higher profits, and increased productivity. According to Zupanc ( 2007) ,Dr. Deming’s principles are: Create constancy of purpose, Adopt the new philosophy, cease inspection and require evidence,End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag, Improve constantly and forever the system and of production and service , Institute training on the job , Institute leadership , Drive out fear , Break down barriers between departments , Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force , Eliminate work standards (quotas) on the factory floor , Remove barriers to pride of workmanship , Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement, Everyone must undergo transformation continuously and indefinitely. (Total Quality Management, para. 5). This paper will focus on Dr. Deming 9th principle. He has advised his client to:’’ break down barriers between departments and staff area’’. In other words, he is encouraging organizations to use team work in production and operations management. It is very important for a company to use team work. Most organizations divide themselves to several departments so that work would end faster upon splitting up and distributing to several departments. This takes the organization to better management in quality and also other profit with better planning. Thesis Statement: In discussing the use of team work in production and operation management, we shall start by describing a major global corporation ( McDonald) , next we shall describe its production or operations management, then we will describe and evaluate the company’s use of teams in production and operations management, and finally we will analyze and evaluate the company’s ability to adjust to a major economic, environmental, or natural crisis (such as the real estate crash, financial crisis, nuclear meltdown, hurricane, flood, oil spill, etc. and communicate effectively with their employees and customers about issues caused by the crisis 1. Describe a major global corporation: (1) a leading manufacturer or (2) a major retail or restaurant business. Describe the type of business, market share, financials, size, and global presence. McDonald's is the world's # 1 fast-food company by sales, with more than 32,500 restaurants serving burgers and fries in 117 countries. (McDonald Corporation , 2009). Svoboda (2007) argued that, in 1991, McDonald owned $13 billion of the $93 billion fast food industry. The popular chain is well-known for its Big Macs, Quarter Pounders, and Chicken McNuggets. Most of the outlets are free-standing units offering dine-in and drive-through service, but McDonald's also has many eateries located in airports, retail areas, and other high-traffic locations. About 80% of the restaurants are run by franchisees or affiliates (p. 1). The sales increased by 5% in 2010, Operating income grew by 9% and the company is continuing to gain market share around the world. In addition, McDonald has returned $5. 1 billion to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends paid, and has provided a 27% return to investors for the year, ranking it third among the companies comprising the Dow Jones Industrial Average (McDonald, 2011). 2. Describe the company’s production or operations management. Operations management can be defined as the planning, scheduling, and control of the activities that transform inputs into finished goods and services (Sloan School of management, 2009). Production and operation managers oversee the work of people and machinery to convert inputs into finished goods and services. Boone and Kurtz (2011) argued that operation managers execute four majors task, first they plan the overall production process, next they determine the best layout for the firm facilities, then they implement the production plan, and finally they control the manufacturing process to maintain the highest possible quality( p . 365). The following paragraphs will have a look at how McDonald executes those four major operation management tasks. PRODUCT PLANNING: Production planning begins by choosing what goods or services to offer to customers. The main operation In McDonald’s Restaurants is product planning. In order to meet the needs of the customers, that are constantly changing, McDonald has to keep on adding new products to its menu. For instance, the increasing preference of consumers towards healthy food made the restaurant add healthier food items to its menu. Similarly it has to add new products for different seasons, for examples hot coffee in winter and milkshakes in summer. LAYOUT DESIGN: Boone and Kurtz (2011) believed that an efficient facility layout can reduce material handling, decrease cost, and improve product flow through facility layout (p. 366). In McDonalds Restaurant layout designing is a very important operation. A proper layout of the equipment in the kitchen is very essential to ensure preparation of quality food in less time. It also designs its layout keeping in mind the health and safety issues. McDonald layoutis design in such a way that needs of supervision is minimised. McDonalds also sets its premises in proper manner to handle any number of customers easily. The building design is standard worldwide but it may be havesome difference in size or in exterior according to the location. It enables them tosave time, satisfy their customers, comfortable environment for both employees and customers. McDonalds uses the same interior pattern as it’s used internationally. Itmay vary according to the premises size (Gondal, 2008, p. 8). IMPLEMENTING THE PRODUCTION PLAN: After planning the production process and determining the best layout. Organization starts implementing the production plan. According to Boone and Kurtz (2011), this activity involves; selecting the best suppliers, and controlling inventor (p. 367). Selecting best suppliers: When an organization has decided what input to purchase, it must choose the best vendors for it needs. Their choice of a vendor will be based on the quality, the price, the delivery, and the services offered. The McDonald’s supply chain is a complex web of direct and indirect suppliers. It manages this complex system by working with direct suppliers who share their values and their vision for sustainable supply. McDonald holds them to clear standards for quality, safety, efficiency and sustainability (McDonald, 2010). It expects them to extend those requirements to their suppliers. McDonald also partner with them to identify, understand and address industry-wide sustainability challenges and achieve continuous improvement. Svoboda (2007) argued that, McDonald often holds seminars and conference for suppliers to discuss their need (p. 3). Overall, McDonald’s and its suppliers are collectively focused on three responsibility areas: ethical, environmental and economic. Controlling Inventory According to Boone and Kurtz (2011) , production and operations managers’ responsibility for inventory control require them to balance the need to keep stocks on hand to meet the demand against the costs of carrying inventory ( p . 369 ). At McDonalds the inventory is managed on the basis of First-In-First-Out basis. This is because most of the inventory consists of perishable items. Therefore delivery of inventory happens twice or more times a week depending on the business of the restaurant. Moreover inventory is stored in freezer with proper packaging so as to ensure freshness of the food items. All this activities comes under inventory management of the organisation. According to Kennon (2007), between 1999 and 2000, McDonald's had an inventory turn rate of 96. 1549, incredible for even a high-turn industry such as fast food. This means that every 3. 79 days, McDonald's goes through its entire inventory. By tying up as little capital as possible in inventory, McDonald's can use the cash on hand to open more stores, increase its advertising budget, or buy back shares. It eases the strain on cash flow considerably, allowing management much more flexibility in planning for the long term (McDonald vs. Wendy’s, para. ) Just in time system seek to eliminate anything that does not add value in operations activities by providing the right part at the right place at just the right time (Boone and Kurtz, 2011, p. 370). McDonald's is also uses JIT system in the sense that it doesn’t begin to cook its orders until a customer has placed a specific order. CONTROLLING THE PRODUCTION PROCESS: The final task of production and operation management is controlling the production process to maintain the highest possible quality. McDonalds put an emphasis on themaintenance of the product quality, the human resources used within the organization, its location and layout designs. They train their employees of all departments regarding their job, so they can handletheir customer and work as well which helps to maintain their status quotas (Gondal, 2008, p. 10). McDonalds is among the companies which are partially involved in the production of goods and services, so a proper maintenance system within the organization strengthens the goodwill and reputation. In McDonalds restaurant , the operations manager develop and establishes the process of cooking food items so that food is prepared using that method which helps them to maintain the speed and the quality of the food. Moreover it also designs processes so that the health, safety and hygiene issues are taken into consideration. Also the managers keep on introducing latest equipment’s with the advancement of technology so as to bring pace, perfection and quality in the product. Overall operations management is very important for any organisations; it contributes to the strategy and therefore helps the organisation to gain competitive advantage. 3. Describe and evaluate the company’s use of teams in production and operations management. A team is a group of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, approach, and set of performance goal (Boone and Kurtz, 2011, p. 329). A good team is said to be one where the whole of the team is greater than the sum of its parts; and this signifies that the team members are working in teamwork with each other. Many teams have worked together and the output has been lesser than teams made up of less intelligent minds. So while a team does move towards a common goal, how well it achieves this goal depends solely on how well the team members work in collaboration with each other. According to Goldman (2008), McDonald’s owes is success to its team functionality rather than the efforts of one individual. McDonald’s does not have very highly integrated teamwork, but they would be unable to deliver their products and service without sufficient team unity and cooperation (Observation of Leadership, para . 5). Team members have one area that they focus on during their shift. If they leave their post or are not productive, other line members will not be able to accomplish their jobs and the production line will suffer. For example, when a customer enters the restaurant places an order with the cashier, the later inputs the order into the computer and the information is displayed in the kitchen at the sandwich and grill stations. The grill worker prepares the meat and then places the burger on a bun. The sandwich maker then assembles the sandwich according to the type of sandwich and any additional requests the customer has. If the sandwich maker leaves his post, another worker has to cover for him or the entire product delivery process shuts down. Without everyone working together and having sufficient motivation to provide good and quick quality service, all members of the team fail. As a result of one person losing motivation or failing to adequately perform his duties, customers may complain and business can be lost. Even though most employees are trained to perform multiple tasks at various stations, they are not usually able to perform all of these tasks simultaneously. 4. Analyze and evaluate the company’s ability to adjust to a major economic, environmental, or natural crisis (such as the real estate crash, financial crisis, nuclear meltdown, hurricane, flood, oil spill, etc. ) and communicate effectively with their employees and customers about issues caused by the crisis. Every major corporation faces external and internal challenges. External challenges faced by organizations can be economic, environmental, or natural. We will take a look at the environmental challenges that McDonald has encountered and how it has been able to find solutions to those challenges. Svoboda (2007) argued that, in 1989 McDonald was facing environmental protests in the form of demonstrations, letters, and customers mailing their polystyrene clamshells back to the company. In order to take care of those protest McDonald stepped up its recycling effort by creating a joint task force with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) (p . 5 ). Developing a strong company-wide environmental policy, declaring that McDonald is committed to protecting the environment for future generation, was one of the first result of the task force. McDonald has also been active in educating its customers about the company’s environmental activities and positions. There are brochures available in restaurants informing customers about McDonald position on such as ozone depletion, the rain forest, and packaging. McDonald has realized that in order to achieve its waste reduction goals, it must collaborate with its suppliers. In order to promote collaboration McDonald has developed an annual environmental conference intended to train suppliers and has included environmental issues in its annual supplier reviews and evaluations. According to Svoboda the following initiatives were proposed by the task force and had since been followed by McDonald: Source Reduction, Reuse, Recycling, and composting. Section 40196 of the California Public Resources Code defines source reduction as any action which causes a net reduction in the generation of solid waste. â€Å"Source Reduction† includes, but is not limited to, reducing the use of non-recyclable materials, replacing disposable materials and products with reusable materials and products, reducing packaging, reducing the amount of yard wastes generated, establishing garbage rate structures with incentives to reduce the amount of wastes that generators produce, and increasing the efficiency of the use of paper, cardboard, glass, metal, plastic, and other materials (Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, 2010 ) . Over the past twenty years , McDonald has made substantial progress in its source reduction efforts. Svoboda (2007) believed that, McDonald’s â€Å"average meal† in the 1970s — a Big Mac, fries and a shake — required 46 grams of packaging. Today, it requires 25 grams, a 46 percent reduction. McDonald’s has also reduced the weight of packaging in its sandwich wraps, hot cups, and napkins, removed corrugated dividers in some shipping cases, and switched to bulk containers wherever possible ( p . 4 ) . Re-use is using an object or material again, either for its original purpose or for a similar purpose, without significantly altering the physical form of the object or material (Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, 2010). McDonald reuse options include the reuse of plastic (rather than cardboard) disposables, shipping trays for bakery items, and plastic shipping pallets that last at least three times longer than wooden pallets (Svoboda, 2007, p. 5). Recycling can be defined as using waste as material to manufacture a new product. Recycling involves altering the physical form of an object or material and making a new object from the altered material. McDonald’s tries to use recycled materials whenever possible . According to Svoboda (2007), in April 1990, McDonald’s announced the McRecycle Program, a commitment to spend $100 million annually on the use of recycled materials, especially in the building and renovation of its restaurants. In 1991, it surpassed its goal, purchasing more than $200 million of recycled materials (p. 6). McDonald’s continued to work with suppliers to develop packaging that was consistent with curbside recycling programs, to support the recycling of material that leaves the restaurant via takeout orders. Composting is the biological decomposition of organic materials such as leaves, grass clippings, brush, and food waste into a soil amendment. Almost 50 percent of McDonald’s waste stream consists of paper packaging and food organics that could be composted. McDonald’s is reviewing the compostability of its packaging and studying materials such as the coatings used on its paper-based packaging to determine if they impair compostability. Where possible, it will replace materials that are not compostable with materials designed for compostability. Conclusion This paper has discussed the use of team work in production and operation management, we started by describing a major global corporation ( McDonald) , next described Macdonald’s production or operations management, then described and evaluate the MacDonald’s use of teams in production and operations management, and finally we analyzed and evaluate the McDonald’s ability to adjust to a major economic, environmental, or natural crisis (such as the real estate crash, financial crisis, nuclear meltdown, hurricane, flood, oil spill, etc. ) and communicate effectively with their employees and customers about issues caused by the crisis. References Department of Resources, Recycling and Recovery. (2010). Waste Prevention Terms and Definitions. Retrieved from Department of Resources, Recycling and Recovery website: http://www. calrecycle. ca. gov/reducewaste/define. htm Goldman. E. (2008, November) . Observation of Leadership ; Organizational Behavior at McDonald’s. Retrieved from: http://www. ericgoldman. name/non-technical/28-leadership/34-observation-of-leadership-a-organizational-behavior-at-mcdonalds Gondal. N. (2008). Operation Management Strategies ; Total Quality Management Strategies . Retrieved from: http://www. scribd. com/doc/17407126/POM-REPORT-on-McDonalds McDonald Corporation. ( n. d. ) . McDonald’s 2010 annual report . Retrieved from http://www. aboutmcdonalds. com/etc/medialib/aboutMcDonalds/investor_relations3. Par. 56096. File. at/2010%20Annual%20Report%20(print). pdf Kennon . J. (2007). McDonald's vs. Wendy's – A Case Study in Inventory on the Balance Sheet . Retrieved from: http://beginnersinvest. about. com/od/analyzingabalancesheet/a/mcdonalds-vs-wendys. htm Zupanc . H . ( 2007 ) . Total quality management. Retrieved from: http://www. qualitysolutions. ca/tqm. htm Sloan school of Management. ( n . d . ) What is operation management? Retrieved from the Sloan school of management website :http://sloan. mit. edu/omg/om-definition. php Svoboda . S . ( 2007 ). McDonald’s environment strategy. Retrieved from: http://www. umich. edu/~nppcpub/resources/compendia/CORPpdfs/CORPcaseA. pdf

Tadahiro Uesugi

Is an Illustrator and an animator, who works In Japan. He creates intuitive drawings of landscapes, characters, and scenery, using innovative colors and textures. He was born in 1966. HE graduated Setup Mode Seminar of Nagasaki Setup, a school focusing on fashion Illustration. After graduating, he worked as an assistant for Magna artist Juror Attaining for 7 years. He now is a freelance Illustrator, illustrating for magazine, advertisements, book covers, movie posters, and concept art and CD Jackets. He appreciates France, and French artists such as Immobile.As part of his works, he contributed to French Ell, and designed a one-sheet poster for Japanese theatrical release of the French feature film â€Å"Beautiful Dorchester†. He recently won an Annie Award for his work as a concept artist, and a production designer on the stop motion Feature Film â€Å"Coralline†. Not a lot about Glues Is shared to public, but he has been sharing his techniques and step-by-step process es of creating his work on Japanese magazines. It Is not rare that people do not notice that he Is work are computer graphic art. He sees Photos, and his custom brush tool to create his work.Firstly, he draws everything in grayscale with his graphics tablet. Then he changes the image into color by changing each different tones of grey Into a color. When that Is done. He adds texture to the image by overlaying the texture image onto the artwork. He explained In the Interview he did for a magazine, that he Is trying to make his pieces close to reality yet not too realistic and keep some bits abstract. He also talked that at the earlier stage of his career, he was trying to fit the target audience of the magazine and was trying to create a piece that fitted the purpose rather than freely expressing himself.Recently however, the types of Job that he gets got wider In range, so he has much more freedom to work with. â€Å"Before I mainly drew people, but it slowly changed to putting peo ple in sceneries and I started to notice that the people started to become smaller and smaller. On top of that, when I started to become more conscious of the â€Å"light†, the contrast of the screen grew stronger. In a whole the tone became darker. (Jokingly) If I think about it, his might be a bad tendency for Illustrating. His illustrations are very strange in a way that they look like paintings. In addition to toy 2 and most significantly natural. Only few of his pieces use very vibrant colors, so the illustrations give this monochromatic look, but there are still many different colors present. As he studied fashion illustration in the university, his main models are women. So many of the women in the illustrations are seen with high heels, pretty eyelashes and very skinny body. Although he creates so many illustrations, many of his actual artworks are untitled.

West African Theater Essay

African theatre is influenced by African dramatic traditions and Western theatre. The influence of Western styles originates from European presence, European education , and the artists training outside of Africa. The magnitude of foreign influence varies from country to country. This influence slowed the development of African theatre in Zimbabwe. For example, productions continued to exemplify Western theatre. The Afrocentricity in West Africa in the 1960s was a reaction to the oppression of French Directors. They left a mark on production styles. Examples of such oppression can be seen in the Daniel Surano Theatre in Senegal. This is where the productions of Aimà © Cà ©saire can be seen. The productions of Bernard Dadià © reflect French comic traditions and Jean Pliya is one the many of playwrights focused on the European historical events. The writing of Western playwrights has resulted in a literary style that appeals to a sophisticated and rare audience to which dance and mu sic productions have a minor role in the theatrical arts. Village theatre in Africa is based on the tried and true traditions of music, song, dance, and drama. This produced a fertile foundation for the development of urban contemporary theatrics. Theatric entrepreneurs built upon the traditional village storytelling and borrowed production styles from the European productions performed in West African urban areas in the 20s and ’30s. Concert productions traveled in Togo and Ghana. During the 50s the Ghanaian â€Å"Trios† appeared with Bob Cole and his company performing for audiences in Accra with hilarious dramatizations of the local events. The first professional theatres in Nigeria were produced by the local  actor-managers. The three most successful were Kola Ogunmola, Duro Ladipa, and Hubert Ogunde. They were all Yoruba and started work as teachers by making plays based on the Bible stories in African churches. Ogunde’s first production was The Garden of Eden (1944) in the Church of the Lord. Then in 1945 he mad e a satire called Strike and Hunger. It was based on the clash between Nigerian workers and the European bosses. Ogunde’s success had allowed him to create the Ogunde concert party. It had a style similar to the British concert parties of the time. They performed domestic comedies and political satires between the opening and the closing with interjections of song and dance unrelated to the plot. The popularity Nigerian independence in 1960 brought an explosion of productions in the urban arts focused on new African forms and the disapproval of European influences. This resulted in an imaginative presence in literary and popular theatre that was to be influential throughout Africa. Yoruba Opera companies, also known as traveling theatres, had hit the road. Ladipo produced spectacular productions based on themes from Yoruba mythology and history. His series on the kingdom of Oyo was published in 1964 as Three Yoruba Productions (Oba Koso [â€Å"The King Did Not Hang†], Oba Moro [â€Å"The King of Ghosts†], and Oba Waja [â€Å"The King Is Dead†]), had the power and mythology similar to a traditional Greek tradegy. Kola Ogunmola created comedies portraying himself as the amazing actor and mime. He modified the techniques of Ogunde by replacing the saxophones with the Yoruba drum. He wrote strictly structured lines without destroying the gentility of the social satires. His most commonly seen production is Ife Owo (1950; Love of Money). His greatest success was with Omuti Apa Kini (1963). Although Ogunmola and Ladipo died in the 70s, their legacy lived on as decorated trucks transported Yoruba Opera companies to one-night performances in towns and villages. The Yoruba musical drama Obaluaye (1970) was composed by Akin Euba and it had an impact on the work of literary playwrights such as Ola Rotimi. and Wole Soyinka. Ola and Wole spent many years as university playwrights/directors and their ability to stage their own works led them to have a strong theatric skill set. Wole Soyinka was a brilliant critic and satirist who was the first African to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 86 was regarded as Africa’s best writer. His art reflects the difficulties facing an African playwright writing in English. He moved from naturalistic treatment of his subjects to the Yoruba view of subjects. His early satires The Trials of Brother Jero (1960) and  Lion and the Jewel (1963) are popular with all English-speaking audiences. However the philosophical and verbal complexities in his later works are aimed at the select few. Death and the King’s Horseman (1975) and The Strong Breed (1963) are focused on the impact of cultural conflict. On the other hand, Soyinka’s political satires, such as Kongi’s Harvest (1965), are both raw and entertainment focused. A Dance of the Forests (1963) and The Road (1965) described the complicated dramatic paradoxes of African life through the Yoruba myths. Secondly, Soyinka criticized the myth of th e glorious African past by rejecting the African concept that the revival of African culture has to come from African cultural heritage to be made for and performed to celebrate the Nigerian independence of October 1960. His drama became pessimistic after the civil war in Nigeria. This can be seen in Madmen and Specialists (1970). He also used past historical events and new versions of old productions to create new productions. His rendition of the Bacchae of Euripides was observed by many in the National Theatre of London in 1973. The Opera Wonyosi was a version of The Beggar’s Opera that was seen in the University of Ife in 1977. Ola Rotimi created theatrical English imbedded with African proverbs and idioms. His style of directing made good use of active movement and resulted in enthusiastic responses from universities and popular audiences. Rotimi was best at historical tragedies such as Ovonramwen Nogbaisi (1971) and Kurunmi (1969) which dealt with the Yoruba wars. He also had a knack for satire. An example would be Our Husband Is Gone Mad Again (1966). In the field of directing, Soyinka and Rotimi both made imaginative use of dance and music. Intercultural exchange had strange results in Ghana. In the 60s Saka  Acquaye’s The Lost Fisherman is a musical based on the â€Å"highlife† and it was a popular success. Another success story was Efua Sutherland’s traveling theatre which produced productions based on the village storytelling and local village themes. Her productions in English used the Greek models. Ama Ata Aidoo was the most famous Ghanaian playwright in the post 60s period. The Dilemma of a Ghost (1964) showed the complicated cultural conflict occurring Ghanaian village when a young adult returned from his studies abroad and he brought his new African American wife along with him. Anowa (1970) is a play that deals with the role of Africa in the slave trade and the servant like treatment of women. Commonly, Hausa drama has a strong appeal and originates from the dramatic style of the old storytelling. It is centered on social problems. It is especially focused on the stories involving the Hausa family and its complications with polygamy. This idea has been contreversial in many productions such as Tabarmar Kunya (1969; â€Å"Matter of Shame†) by Dauda Kano and Adamu dan Gogo. Some productions satirize the uneducated people’s dependence on Muslim scholars. An example would be Umaru Balarme Ahmed’s Buleke (1970) and it shows characters who lead the hectic modern lifestyle and continued to hold onto the roots of the old country. The productions are commonly performed in schools and frequently broadcasted on television and radio. Kabbada is an important Ethiopian playwright who created the historically based production Hannibal and it was performed in Dakar, Senegal, in 1966. The most remarkable work of Mangistu LammÄ  is the play Yalaccha Gabbiccha (â€Å" Marriage of Unequals†) and it deals with social inequality. It was performed for the first time in the Addis Ababa in 1964. It is a production showing a family going through a transition from the ways of the old country to the soulless reality of city life. Somali theatre had been firmly grounded since the 50s and is very popular. Many have yet to be published to the mass public. Shabeelnagood (Leopard Among the Women) was written by Xasan Sheikh Mumin and it is a production about a heartless trickster who marries naà ¯ve and young women. It was originally published in Somali and translated to English in 1974. It had its first performance in Mogadishu in 1968 and it also had radio  serialization along with a successful tour. Somali theatre has been compared to the theatre of the Elizabethan era in England because of its unique combination of popular culture and sophisticated art and its capacity to generate interest for a large demographic section of the 20th century population. Personal Analysis Upon analyzing the information it is understood that the European empires injected their artistic theology into West African theater resulting in an entertaining composite style. In some ways this was a positive change for the artists in African theater; it was this change that created a modern African style with the ability to deliver traditional storytelling to a broader audience. Bibliography 1.Abiodun, Rowland, Henry John. Drewal, and John Pemberton. The Yoruba Artist: New Theoretical Perspectives on African Arts. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1994. 9 Sept. 2013. Web. 9 Dec. 2013. 2. Ann Wynne, Elizabeth Gunner, and Peggy Harper Jr. â€Å"African Theatre (art).† Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2013. Web. 09 Dec. 2013. 3.Ogunba, Oyin, and Abiola Irele. Theatre in Africa. Ibadan, Nigeria: Ibadan UP, 1978. Web. 9 Dec. 2013.

Language Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Language - Essay Example The question of life and choice of the way we want to exist is challenged by the option of language oppression. Ethnic minorities are often prevented from a proper existence and their usual way of life in case their languages are suppressed and assimilated in accordance with â€Å"white standards† of European languages. On the basis of essays on languages and challenges of its functioning on the borderlands, we will focus on the important social and epistemological role languages play in our lives. Authors’ views on language Navarro Scott Momaday in his essay â€Å"Personal reflections† (1987) intends to show Native Americans and their attitude for language and the role it plays in their lives. Europeans and Native Americans show different attitudes in their story telling and these reflections are seen in the way they use language. He tries to show different world perceptions between Europeans and Indians. For example, he shows the way Native Americans use the ve rb â€Å"to live†. Very often it is used in a metaphoric way. This writer grew up in the Indian reservation near Oklahoma State and he realizes the Indians perceive the world. Thus, when they say that the sun â€Å"comes back to the Earth† they underline that the Earth is their homeland. The concept of time is endless and illusive for Native Americans. There is an essential linguistic diversity between Native Americans and white people. There is a well-developed oral tradition among the American Indians. There is a great respect shown towards the speaker. Consequently, the listener should be very attentive and comprehend every word, which is uttered when the story is told to him. The words are means for carrying liberty and the language reflects the nature of deep respect in the life of Native Americans. Gloria Anzaldua in her essay â€Å"How to Tame a Wild Tongue† (1987) discusses cultural differences, which are reflected in language as well. She talks about bo rderlands, where two or more cultures exist. There are essential linguistic differences not only between Spanish English or Standard English, but also between different dialects. If the native speakers are prevented from an opportunity to speak their native languages, this can be considered as violence. The author describes numerous controversies, when she was made to speak American language otherwise she had to go back to Mexico, where she belonged. At Pan American University the student had to get rid of their accents and speak American English language. Mother tongue becomes dry and people forget their speech. Chicano Spanish, she claims, is considered by the purist and the most Latinos a mutilation of Spanish. It is impossible to remove Chicago Spanish language, because it occurred in a natural way. People are heterogeneous creatures and it is natural of them to speak different languages. Pachuco is positioned as the language of rebellion. These varieties of Spanish languages ar e full of anglicisms. Therefore, we can see a clear tendency of language interference. A poor Spanish is positioned as illegitimate and a bastard language. The author also talks about books and films, which are created by Spaniards or Mexicans. For example, she mentions the novel â€Å"City of Night† written by John Rechy. There is a clear mixture of Spanish and English words. Moreover, in the films of Mexicans or about Mexicans, she claims, there is a clear sense of alienation and at the same time she feels like coming home. There is a great ambiguous feeling about pop art of the Mexicans. At least, the glimpses of native language are pleasant for the Native Speakers. Les Chiconos are people, who have Indian roots and they have their own tongue. Toni

Module 3 SLP Assignment Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Module 3 SLP Assignment - Coursework Example This information is compiled in the form of a report. When the full record of the report has been compiled together, the decision of acquiring the inputs, their marketing, financial costs, tablets production and even how to handle competitors in the market place is determined. This is done through different approaches that are based on the costs, volume and profit margins so as to give greater focus on the features of the products that will meet the desires and need of most customers. These set of decisions will ensure that the company maximizes production of products that is mostly needed by the customers while at the same time minimizes cost as the profit margins are maximized. According the cost and profit aspects, the company decided to change the value of the brand so as to exercise a different strategy that will help the company to minimise the cost of manufacturing the products as the increase their profit margin. Following the need and desire of the potential customer, the company revised and set the values of each and every brand. The value of X5 was set at $300 while that of X6 and X7 was set at $450 and $ 200 respectively. This change of price will also reduce the R&D by about 10% that eventually will cause an increase in the volume of the products so that the profit margin to increase by the same value. These set of values can be very useful in the generation of the profits of the year 2016. To make effective strategies in marketing of the products, the department that is in char of marketing must make some improvement so that the strategies can be set in such a way that they ensure profitability. The table below shows the results of the revised strategies These decisions are majorly based on the cost, revenue and profits of the company. The main contributing factor will be profit margins as this is the unifying set of goals and objective

Operations Management - Just in Time and Material Resource Planning Essay

Operations Management - Just in Time and Material Resource Planning - Essay Example Let's look at an example of 2 Motorcycle manufacturers. The end product in this case is the motorcycle while the inventory required could vary from engine, engine components, wheel etc to nuts, bolts and spares. Manufacturer 1 stocks up inventory for all spares and components because he believes customer service could be better optimized with constant supply of materials. Accordingly, his relative requirement for working capital increases as he needs to invest more in procurement and storage of the components. Not having enough capital to invest, he also borrows capital and ends up paying interest for this purpose increasing his cost. Indeed he would in the this scenario like to pass o the burden to the consumer thereby scaling up the price of his product to cover his cost and still maintain his profit margin. To the contrary, Manufacturer 2 follows Just in Time inventory management system. He maintains excellent terms with his suppliers that they would as and when required immediately supply him with components required for his end product. Accordingly, his relative requirement for working capital is almost negligible as he does not have the requirement to block his capital for procurement and storage of the components.

Backchannel Responses in Japanese-English Encounters Essay - 1

Backchannel Responses in Japanese-English Encounters - Essay Example Given that the speaker and the listener belong to different backgrounds, the paper explores the evolving differences that present themselves, in responses across different language, gender, and cultural contexts. Â  Since communication takes root in feelings and ideas and manifests itself in behavior, the paper reviews existing research literature and examines if backchannel responses, in the intercultural context of English and Japanese encounters, have played any role explicitly or implicitly in improving communication between the two groups. Analyzing cross-cultural interactions, its value addition to intercultural communication is also studied. Â  The paper then critically scrutinizes convergence and divergence codes among the two groups and tests it in the background of the communication accommodation theory. Investigating into the speaking skills of the listener, the paper construes, that the non-native listener in a conversation with a native speaker, needs to use verbal and non-verbal backchannel responses, informatively and contextually to avoid misunderstanding brought-about by local and foreign interculturality. Â  Charles C. Fries, a renowned American lexicographer, and grammarian was one of the first known researchers to reveal backchannel responses in a published work. Later on, the study of backchannel responses was taken up by researchers from a variety of disciplines - communication studies, sociology, linguistics, and psychology. Â  Since each discipline approached the subject differently, they provided diverse terminologies for the concept of backchannel responses.

Effects of National Culture on the Marketing Strategies Dissertation

Effects of National Culture on the Marketing Strategies - Dissertation Example The paper tells that international business theory begins with trade. Daniels and Radebaugh identified and compared ten types of trading theories. The theories are mercantilism, neomercantilism, absolute advantage, country size, comparative advantage, factor-proportions, product lifecycle, country similarity, dependence, and strategic trade policy. In the factors-proportions theory, there are four defined factors related to each home country. The factors are land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship. The land is the natural resources associated with the physical boundaries of the country that are used to produce things. Countries without a strong and sufficient land base are forced to engage in international trade in order to obtain needed resources. Labor is the availability of unskilled and semiskilled workers within the country that can be mobilized for production purposes. Capital is the money, machinery, and infrastructure a country possesses. Countries abundant in these areas are considered more developed countries. Entrepreneurship is the creative management and ideas people use to solve problems and find new opportunities. The four factors explain the inherent resources a country possesses that make it attractive for trade, and therefore, international business. The theory is that "differences in a country's proportionate holdings of factors of production explain differences in the costs of the factors and that export advantages lie in the production of goods that use the most abundant factors."

The Underground War in Gaza Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

The Underground War in Gaza - Essay Example In this work, the author was targeting people with plans to encourage peace at Gaza and those who love current affairs. This work creates an understanding of what is happening in Rafah. For instance, it is revealed that depart their residents for worry of being destroyed by the Israelites who destroy houses to demolish tunnels and enemy hideouts. For the lovers of the current affairs, the work informs them on how Gaza war is ongoing. For example, one understands why Israel continues with the destruction of homes. The essay organization reflects what I am doing with the purpose. For example, the essay begins with an overview of the war at Gaza. Next, a thesis is developed as to why this war has continued despite the peace efforts from different countries. In the essay quotes have been used to strengthen the essay. For example, the word Israel has been quoted to imply that it is regarded as the main enemy in the Gaza war. This is because this assumption has been developed by the civili ans of Gaza and thus it has not been proved. Also, quotes have been used in indicating expert’s opinions regarding the Gaza war. The writer’s strategy of presenting his work as comic is what interested me. This is because the strategy helped in reaching different audiences who are convinced to read this work due to its comical nature. I have also addressed the author arrangements. For example, he came up with conclusions after conducting interviews and making comparisons with news.

Should the top executives of the major banks that received bail-out Term Paper

Should the top executives of the major banks that received bail-out money be allowed to receive large bonuses - Term Paper Example The act of providing additional capital to banks and other organizations when they face the danger of bankruptcy is called bailout. During the last few years, most of the major banks in America were provided with bailout money so that they would be saved from the danger of insolvency and thereby liquidation. Since banking sector is the growth engine of a nation’s economy, government must give great care to its maintenance. In addition, the regulators can also play a vital role in preventing the disastrous effects of bankruptcy by the effective application of various financial tools. This paper has been drafted with intent to explore the ethical range of paying large bonuses to top executives of major banks that received bailout money. Bailout and its impacts on economic sector The bank bailout has a far reaching impact on a nation’s economy as it is spent out of extra budgeted money. The general public of the nation largely suffers from the bank bailout since it leads t o the downturn of economy. Similarly, many investors and shareholders may lose money on their investment due to the economic collapse of banks; and therefore they hesitate to go with further dealings. The foreign investors and companies may also lose their interest in a weaker banking sector and it would adversely affect the financial viability of the nation as a whole. In the opinion of McKay (2010), the taxpayer money has been employed to meet the cash reserve needs of the banks. The money from the treasury is used to carry out fund operations, if the banks have not repaid the money (pp. 50-51). Therefore, the Federal Reserve is forced to pay more money to the banking industry at the time of depression and it breaks balanced financial structure of the various policy based operations. McKay also indicates that the banks generally utilize the cash deposits from the customers to ‘purchase mortgage-backed securities, collateralized debt, and loan obligations. In most cases, they are valued worthless and it would badly impinge on the rate of return on bank’s transactions. Likewise, it is reported that some major American banks had inflated their profit in order to attract more investors and creditors. As a result, many creditors have not been still reimbursed for their claims. â€Å"When banks fail, getting credit and loans becomes more difficult. This makes the process more difficult for the people looking to buy cars, homes, and property and perhaps for students trying to obtain educational loans† (McKay,2010, p.53). Similarly, the businessmen would not get adequate assistance from the banks and it would impede the industrial growth of the country. The failure of banks and subsequent bailout leads to incredible job losses within the country. Moreover, when the banks are compelled to withstand with the bailout money, they cannot implement new policies and programs. In short, the process of bailout will certainly cause the economic diminution of the whole country. Top executives of banks and their bonus payment Usually, banks pay high salaries to their top executives with intent to retain them in the organization since they are the skippers who lead the day to day activities. I am of the opinion that top executives of the banks that received bailout money should not be allowed to collect large bonuses. As the top executives are the decision takers of the organization regarding various matters, they are also responsible for the

Assessment of the Future Financial Health of the Company Essay Example for Free

Assessment of the Future Financial Health of the Company Essay

Electric Vehicles Essay Example for Free

Electric Vehicles Essay Skyrocketing fuel pricing along with depleting oil resources and increased environmental concerns have pushed mankind to consider alternative sources of fuel to power automobiles. Among all the alternate fuel ideas that include everything from excreta to biodiesel, electricity has also been considered as a best alternative to conventional fuels. Electric Vehicles (EVs) are a promising technology for drastically reducing the environmental burden of road transport. Electric Vehicles (EVs) have been around since mid 1800s. During early years, electric vehicles had many advantages over cars powered by internal combustion engines. Such as vehicles with internal combustion engines were started using a hand crank, whereas EVs could be started like regular cars today. EVs did not have gearboxes or the noise and vibration levels of a petrol-powered car. However, their expensive price tag and limited range led petrol powered car to prosper. However later, rising fuel prices, limited oil resources and environmental concerns brought the electric car back into mainstream production line for automobiles. Today, almost all mainstream car makers have been building electric concept cars as well as production version of electric and hybrid cars. Introduction: An automobile that is powered entirely or partially by electricity are electric vehicles. Electric cars are the cleanest, most efficient, and most cost-effective form of transportation around. Seriously, electric cars are high-performance vehicles that will continue to meet new challenges in the future. There are generally of three types: Battery Electric Vehicle: A battery electric vehicle runs entirely on an electric motor, powered by a battery. The battery is charged through an electrical outlet. One of it is Nissan Leaf . Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle: A plug-in hybrid vehicle has both an electric motor and a gasoline engine onboard. These vehicles generally run on the electric motor until the battery is depleted, at which point the gas engine can kick in, extending the car’s range. The main battery in a plug-in hybrid is charged through an electrical outlet. An example of a plug-in hybrid is the Chevrolet Volt. Hybrid Electric Vehicle: A typical hybrid electric vehicle is fuelled by gasoline and uses a battery-powered motor to improve efficiency, thus is not considered a plug-in electric vehicle. The battery in a gasoline hybrid is never plugged into an electrical outlet, but instead is powered by a combination of the gasoline engine and regenerative braking. The most well known hybrid electric vehicle is the Toyota Prius. WORKING OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A. Battery Electric Vehicles(BEV’s) Electric cars are zero-emission cars at the point of their usage. There are two types of charger plugs in BEV’s. One is quick charger plug which charges the battery at faster rate compared to the household charger plugs. On board chargers are used to convert AC power to DC power. The controller controls the amount of power to be transmitted to the motor, which in turn, converts the electrical power to the motive power. Nickel-Metal Hydride and Lithium-ion cells are the latest battery modes used nowadays. B. Hybrid Electric Vehicles Hybrid electric vehicles combines the best features of conventional as well as electrical cars. The underlying principle of hybrid cars comprises of the usage of temporary power storage which later on enables the major engine to be functioned at the close to its supreme efficiency. There are two types of hybrid drive generated series hybrids and parallel hybrids. In ‘series hybrid’, the combustion engine sends the power to the electrical generator. Electrical generator converts the mechanical energy into electrical energy which is converted into DC by the inverter to be stored in the battery. Power from the battery can be inverted back to AC so that the electric motor converts it into motive power. In parallel hybrid the car wheels are either powered by engine or from the battery powered electric drive-train. Planetary gear system is used to transmit the power into axle. Electric motors and planetary gear system work as a Continuously Variable Transmission(CVT). In both the hybrids, whenever the engine ignites slowly, the excess energy is stored for the later usage. In this way, these cars provide less emission and improved fuel economy. Conventional Cars Vs Electric Vehicles A. Fuel Efficiency In a conventional car: . * 87. 4 % of fuel energy is wasted * Only 12. 6 % of fuel energy is transferred to the wheels * 5. 8 % is turned to kinetic energy, consumed in the brake * 17. 2 % idling losses, engine on with no torque How Hybrids save fuel? 1. Engine is turned off at: -Stops -Lower speed (say less that 15 km/h), an electric motor drives the car until speed reaches a certain limit, then engine kicks in -When vehicle is stopping or going downhill, engine is turned off, and regenerative braking is applied. 2. When engine operates in an inefficient mode(e. g. at very high or very low engine speeds), the electric motor kicks in and assists engine. Engine is driven to its optimum operating zone 3. Engine can be made smaller, due to electric motor assistance B. Emissions: 1. In combustion engine, emissions occur during driving 2. In E-cars, emission occurs only during electricity production. C. Operating Cost 1. In combustion cars, take petrol at Rs. 73/lt, and a car that achieves 25kms/lt. Energy cost is Rs3/km. 2. Now take electricity at Rs. 6/kW-h, and a car that consumes 125 W-h/km. Energy cost is Rs. 0. 75/km D. Efficiency ratio: 1 Combustion engine: 25-30 percent 2. Electric motor: close to 90 percent TECHNOLOGICAL CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES: The main problem with the electric car is battery. Such as:- Time of battery charging is long. -Batteries are heavy. -Batteries are expensive. -Low performance in hot or cold temperatures also may damage the battery -Very sensitive to overcharge/undercharge(Battery life reduces dramatically) -Contain toxic heavy metals, disposal issue. All these provide scope for the further research and development in the field of electric vehicles. The RD are supported by the government and industries. POSSIBLE FUTURE TECHNOLOGIES: Over population and limited energy resources have pushed the need and the demand of the electric vehicles. In the future, we will have hybrids and battery electric vehicles everywhere in the markets, industries and highways. Some of the possible future technologies in this field are: 1. A photovoltaics-carport (solar service station) which is considered as a charging station of electric cars for the future. 2. Battery recharging which will employ a special chemical process, occurring on all energy-storage particles at once; in contrast to the traditional batteries, where only a fraction of the energy storage can be replenished at once . 3. Electrical outlet and electric cable will not be required in future anymore, because the electric car of the future refuels its power fully automatically and without contacting by induction while driving or parking. CONCLUSION: Electric vehicles (EVs) hold the potential of transforming the way the world moves. EVs can increase energy security by diversifying the fuel mix and decreasing dependence on petroleum, while also reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. Just as important, EVs can unlock innovation and create new advanced industries that spur job growth and enhance economic prosperity. However, the mass deployment of EVs will require transportation systems capable of integrating and fostering this new technology. To accelerate this transitition, cities and metropolitan regions around the world are creating EV-friendly ecosystems and building the foundation for widespread adoption.

Design of Spatial Decoupling Scheme

Design of Spatial Decoupling Scheme Design of Spatial Decoupling Scheme using Singular Value Decomposition for Multi-User Systems Abstract In this paper, we present the use of a polynomial singular value decomposition (PSVD) algorithm to examine a spatial decoupling based block transmission design for multiuser systems. This algorithm facilitates joint and optimal decomposition of matrices arising inherently in multiuser systems. Spatial decoupling allows complex multichannel problems of suitable dimensionality to be spectrally diagonalized by computing a reduced-order memoryless matrix through the use of the coordinated transmit precoding and receiver equalization matrices. A primary application of spatial decoupling based system can be useful in discrete multitone (DMT) systems to combat the induced crosstalk interference, as well as in OFDM with intersymbol interference. We present here simulation-based performance analysis results to justify the use of PSVD for the proposed algorithm. Index Terms-polynomial singular value decomposition, paraunitary systems, MIMO system. INTRODUCTION Block transmission based systems allows parallel, ideally noninterfering, virtual communication channels between multiuser channels. Minimally spatial decoupling channels are needed whenever more than two transmitting channels are communicate simultaneously. The channel of our interest here, is the multiple input multiple output channels, consisting of multiple MIMO capable source terminals and multiple capable destinations. This scenario arises, obviously, in multi-user channels. Since certain phases of relaying involves broadcasting, it also appears in MIMO relaying contexts. The phrase MIMO broadcast channel is frequently used in a loose sense in the literature, to include point-to-multipoint unicast (i.e. private) channels carrying different messages from a single source to each of the multiple destinations (e.g. in multi-user MIMO). Its use in this paper is more specific, and denotes the presence of at least one common virtual broadcast channel from the source to the destinations. The use of iterative and non-iterative spatial decoupling techniques in multiuser systems to achieve independent channels has been investigated, for instance in [1]-[9]. Their use for MIMO broadcasting, which requires common multipoint-to-multipoint MIMO channels is not much attractive, given the fact that the total number of private and common channels is limited by the number of antennas the source has. Wherever each receiver of a broadcast channel conveys what it receives orthogonally to the same destination, as in the case of pre-and post-processing block transmission, the whole system can be envisaged as a single point-to-point MIMO channel. Block transmission techniques have been demonstrated for point-to-point MIMO channels to benefit the system complexities. Other advantages includes: (i) channel interference is removed by creating $K$ independent subchannels; (ii) paraunitarity of precoder allows to control transmit power; (iii) paraunitarity of equalizer does not amplify the channel noise; (iv) spatial redundancy can be achieved by discarding the weakest subchannels. Though the technique outperform the conventional signal coding but had its own demerits.   Amongst many, it shown in cite{Ta2005,Ta2007} that an appropriate additional amount of additive samples  still require individual processing, e.g. per- tone equalisation, to remove ISI, and   the receiver does not exploit the case of structured noise. However, the choice of optimal relay gains, although known for certain cases (e.g. [10], [11]), is not straightforward with this approach. Since the individual equalization have no non-iterative means of decoding the signals, this approach cannot be used with decode-and-forward (DF), and code-and-forward (CF) relay processing schemes. The use of zero-forcing at the destination has been examined [12], [13] as a mean of coordinated beamforming, since it does not require transmitter processing. The scheme scales to any number of destinations, but requires each destination to have no less antennas than the source. Although not used as commonly as the singular value decomposition (SVD), generalized singular value decomposition (GSVD) [14, Thm. 8.7.4] is not unheard of in the wireless literature. It has been used in multi-user MIMO transmission [15], [16], MIMO secrecy communication [17], [18], and MIMO relaying [19]. Reference [19] uses GSVD in dual-hop AF relaying with arbitrary number of relays. Since it employs zero-forcing at the relay for the forward channel, its use of GSVD appears almost similar to the use of SVD in [1]. Despite GSVD being the natural generalization of SVD for two matrices, we are yet to see in the literature, a generalization of SVD-based beamforming to GSVD-based beamforming. Although the purpose and the use is somewhat different, the reference [17, p.1] appears to be the first to hint the possible use of GSVD for beamforming. In present work, we illustrate how GSVD can be used for coordinated beamforming in source-to-2 destination MIMO broadcasting; thus in AF, DF and CF MIMO relaying. We also present comparative, simulation-based performance analysis results to justify GSVD-based beamforming. The paper is organized as follows: Section II presents the mathematical framework, highlighting how and under which constraints GSVD can be used for beamforming. Section III examines how GSVD-based beamforming can be applied in certain simple MIMO and MIMO relaying configurations. Performance analysis is conducted in section IV on one of these applications. Section V concludes with some final remarks. Notations: Given a matrix A and a vector v, (i) A(i, j)  gives the ith element on the jth column of A; (ii) v(i)  {ˆ y1 }R(r+1,r+s) = ˜Π£{x }R(r+1,r+s) + _ UHn1 _ R(r+1,r+s) ,   {ˆ y2 }R(pà ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢t+r+1,pà ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢t+r+s) = ˜Άº{x }R(r+1,r+s) + _ VHn2 _ R(pà ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢t+r+1,pà ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢t+r+s) , {ˆ y1 }R(1,r) = {x }R(1,r) + _ UHn1 _ R(1,r) , {ˆ y2 }R(pà ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢t+r+s+1,p) = {x }R(r+s+1,t) + _ VHn2 _ R(pà ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢t+r+s+1,p) . (1)  gives the element of v at the ith position. {A}R(n) and  {A}C(n) denote the sub-matrices consisting respectively of the  first n rows, and the first n columns of A. Let {A}R(m,n)  denote the sub-matrix consisting of the rows m through n  of A. The expression A = diag (a1, . . . , an) indicates that  A is rectangular diagonal; and that first n elements on its  main diagonal are a1, . . . , an. rank (A) gives the rank of  A. The operators ( à £Ã†â€™Ã‚ » )H, and ( à £Ã†â€™Ã‚ »)à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢1 denote respectively the  conjugate transpose and the matrix inversion. C mÃÆ'-n is the  space spanned by mÃÆ'-n matrices containing possibly complex  elements. The channel between the wireless terminals T1 and  T2 in a MIMO system is designated T1 à ¢Ã¢â‚¬  Ã¢â‚¬â„¢T2.   II. MATHEMATICAL FRAMEWORK Let us examine GSVD to see how it can be used for  beamforming. There are two major variants of GSVD in the  literature (e.g. [20] vs. [21]). We use them both here to  elaborate the notion of GSVD-based beamforming. A. GSVD Van Loan definition Let us first look at GSVD as initially proposed by Van Loan [20, Thm. 2]. Definition 1: Consider two matrices, H à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€ C mÃÆ'-n with  m à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥n, and G à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€ C pÃÆ'-n, having the same number n of  columns. Let q = min (p, n). H and G can be jointly  decomposed as H = UÃŽÂ £Q, G = VΆºQ (2) where (i) U à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€ C mÃÆ'-m,V à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€ C pÃÆ'-p are unitary, (ii) Q à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€  C nÃÆ'-n non-singular, and (iii) ÃŽÂ £= diag (à Ã†â€™1, . . . , à Ã†â€™n) à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€  C mÃÆ'-n, à Ã†â€™i à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥0; Άº= diag (ÃŽÂ »1, . . . , ÃŽÂ »q) à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€ C pÃÆ'-n, ÃŽÂ »i à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥0. As a crude example, suppose that G and H above represent  channel matrices of MIMO subsystems S à ¢Ã¢â‚¬  Ã¢â‚¬â„¢D1 and S à ¢Ã¢â‚¬  Ã¢â‚¬â„¢D2  having a common source S. Assume perfect channel-stateinformation  (CSI) on G and H at all S,D1, and D2. With  a transmit precoding matrix Qà ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢1, and receiver reconstruction  matrices UH,VH we get q non-interfering virtual broadcast channels. The invertible factor Q in (2) facilitates jointprecoding  for the MIMO subsystems; while the factors U,V   allow receiver reconstruction without noise enhancement. Diagonal  elements 1 through q of ÃŽÂ £,Άºrepresent the gains  of these virtual channels. Since Q is non-unitary, precoding  would cause the instantaneous transmit power to fluctuate. This is a drawback not present in SVD-based beamforming. Transmit signal should be normalized to maintain the average  total transmit power at the desired level. This is the essence of GSVD-based beamforming for  a single source and two destinations. As would be shown  in Section III, this three-terminal configuration appears in  various MIMO subsystems making GSVD-based beamforming  applicable. B. GSVD Paige and Saunders definition Before moving on to applications, let us appreciate GSVDbased  beamforming in a more general sense, through another  form of GSVD proposed by Paige and Saunders [21, (3.1)]. This version of GSVD relaxes the constraint m à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥n present  in (2). Definition 2: Consider two matrices, H à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€ C mÃÆ'-n and  G à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€ C pÃÆ'-n, having the same number n of columns. Let CH = _ HH,GH _ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€ C nÃÆ'-(m+p), t = rank(C), r = t à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢rank (G) and s = rank(H) + rank (G) à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢t. H and G can be jointly decomposed as H = U (ÃŽÂ £ 01 )Q = UÃŽÂ £{Q}R(t) , G = V (Άº 02 )Q = VΆº{Q}R(t) , (3) where (i) U à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€ C mÃÆ'-m,V à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€ C pÃÆ'-p are unitary, (ii) Q à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€ C nÃÆ'-n non-singular, (iii) 01 à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€ C mÃÆ'-(nà ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢t), 02 à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€  C pÃÆ'-(nà ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢t) zero matrices, and (iv) ÃŽÂ £Ãƒ ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€ C mÃÆ'-t,ΆºÃƒ ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€  C pÃÆ'-t have structures ÃŽÂ £_ à ¢Ã… ½Ã¢â‚¬ º à ¢Ã… ½Ã‚  IH ˜Π£ 0H à ¢Ã… ½Ã… ¾ à ¢Ã… ½Ã‚   and Άº_ à ¢Ã… ½Ã¢â‚¬ º à ¢Ã… ½Ã‚  0G ˜Άº IG à ¢Ã… ½Ã… ¾ à ¢Ã… ½Ã‚  . IH à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€ C rÃÆ'-r and IG à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€ C (tà ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢rà ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s)ÃÆ'-(tà ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢rà ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s) are identity  matrices. 0H à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€ C (mà ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢rà ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s)ÃÆ'-(tà ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢rà ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s), and 0G à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€  C (pà ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢t+r)ÃÆ'-r are zero matrices possibly having no  rows or no columns. ˜Π£= diag (à Ã†â€™1, . . . , à Ã†â€™s) ,˜Άº= diag (ÃŽÂ »1, . . . , ÃŽÂ »s) à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€ C sÃÆ'-s such that 1 > à Ã†â€™1 à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥. . . à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥ à Ã†â€™s > 0, and à Ã†â€™2 i + ÃŽÂ »2i = 1 for i à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€  {1, . . . , s}. Let us examine (3) in the MIMO context. It is not difficult  to see that a common transmit precoding matrix _ Qà ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢1 _ C(t) and receiver reconstruction matrices UH,VH would jointly  diagonalize the channels represented by H and G.  For broadcasting, only the columns (r+1) through (r +s)  of ÃŽÂ £and Άºare of interest. Nevertheless, other (t à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s)  columns, when they are present, may be used by the source  S to privately communicate with the destinations D1 and configuration # common channels # private channels S à ¢Ã¢â‚¬  Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ {D1,D2} S à ¢Ã¢â‚¬  Ã¢â‚¬â„¢D1 S à ¢Ã¢â‚¬  Ã¢â‚¬â„¢D2 m > n,p à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¤n p n à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢p 0 m à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¤n, p > n m 0 n à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢m m à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥n, p à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥n n 0 0 m + p à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢n n à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢p n à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢m (m + p) > n n à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥(m + p) 0 m p TABLE I NUMBERS OF COMMON CHANNELS AND PRIVATE CHANNELS FOR  DIFFERENT CONFIGURATIONS D2. It is worthwhile to compare this fact with [22], and  appreciate the similarity and the conflicting objectives GSVDbased  beamforming for broadcasting has with MIMO secrecy  communication. Thus we can get ˆ y1 à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€ C mÃÆ'-1, ˆ y2 à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€ C pÃÆ'-1 as in (1) at  the detector input, when x à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€ C tÃÆ'-1 is the symbol vector  transmitted. It can also be observed from (1) that the private  channels always have unit gains; while the gains of common  channels are smaller. Since, à Ã†â€™is are in descending order, while the ÃŽÂ »is ascend  with i, selecting a subset of the available s broadcast channels  (say k à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¤s channels) is somewhat challenging. This highlights  the need to further our intuition on GSVD. C. GSVD-based beamforming Any two MIMO subsystems having a common source  and channel matrices H and G can be effectively reduced,  depending on their ranks, to a set of common (broadcast) and  private (unicast) virtual channels. The requirement for having  common channels is rank (H) + rank (G) > rank (C) where C = _ HH,GH _ H. When the matrices have full rank, which is the case with  most MIMO channels (key-hole channels being an exception),  this requirement boils down to having m +p > n . Table I  indicates how the numbers of common channels and private  channels vary in full-rank MIMO channels. It can be noted  that the cases (m > n,p à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¤n) and (m à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥n, p à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥n)  correspond to the form of GSVD discussed in the Subsection II-A. Further, the case n à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥(m + p) which produces only  private channels with unit gains, can be seen identical to zero  forcing at the transmitter. Thus, GSVD-based beamforming is  also a generalization of zero-forcing. Based on Table I, it can be concluded that the full-rank  min (n,m + p) of the combined channel always gets split  between the common and private channels. D. MATLAB implementation A general discussion on the computation of GSVD is found  in [23]. Let us focus here on what it needs for simulation:  namely its implementation in the MATLAB computational  environment, which extends [14, Thm. 8.7.4] and appears as  less restrictive as [21]. The command [V, U, X, Lambda, Sigma] = gsvd(G, H);  gives1 a decomposition similar to (3). Its main deviations  from (3) are,   1Reverse order of arguments in and out of gsvd function should be noted. ) ) D1 y1 , r1 S x ,w ( ( ) ) D2 y2 , r2 _ H1 __ n1 _ __ H2 n2 Fig. 1. Source-to-2 destination MIMO broadcast system  Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ QH = X à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€ C nÃÆ'-t is not square when t . Precoding  for such cases would require the use of the pseudo-inverse  operator. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ ÃŽÂ £has the same block structure as in (3). But the structure  of Άºhas the block 0G shifted to its bottom as follows: Άº_ à ¢Ã… ½Ã¢â‚¬ º à ¢Ã… ½Ã‚  ˜Άº IG 0G à ¢Ã… ½Ã… ¾ à ¢Ã… ½Ã‚  . This can be remedied by appropriately interchanging the  rows of Άºand the columns of V. However, restructuring  ÃƒÅ½Ã¢â‚¬ ºis not a necessity, since the column position of the  block ˜Άºwithin Άºis what matters in joint precoding.   Following MATLAB code snippet for example jointly  diagonalizes H,G to obtain the s common channels (3)  would have given. MATLAB code % channel matrices H = (randn(m,n)+i*randn(m,n))/sqrt(2); G = (randn(p,n)+i*randn(p,n))/sqrt(2); % D1, D2: diagonalized channels [V,U,X,Lambda,Sigma] = gsvd(G,H); w = X*inv(X*X); C = [H G]; t = rank(C); r = t rank(G); s = rank(H)+rank(G)-t; D1 = U(:,r+1:r+s)*H*w(:,r+1:r+s); D2 = V(:,1:s)*G*w(:,r+1:r+s); III. APPLICATIONS Let us look at some of the possible applications of GSVDbased beamforming. We assume the Van Loan form of GSVD  for simplicity, having taken for granted that the dimensions  are such that the constraints hold true. Nevertheless, the Paige  and Saunders form should be usable as well. A. Source-to-2 destination MIMO broadcast system   Consider the MIMO broadcast system shown in Fig. 1,  where the source S broadcasts to destinations D1 and D2.  MIMO subsystems S à ¢Ã¢â‚¬  Ã¢â‚¬â„¢D1 and S à ¢Ã¢â‚¬  Ã¢â‚¬â„¢D2 are modeled  to have channel matrices H1 ,H2 and additive complex   Gaussian noise vectors n1 , n2. Let x = [x1, . . . , xn]T ) ) R1 y1 , F1 ( ( S x ,w ( ( ) ) D y3 ,r1 y4 ,r2 ) ) R2 y2 , F2 ( ( _ ___ H3 _ n3 H1 ___ n1 _ ___ H2 n2 _ H4 ___ n4 Fig. 2. MIMO relay system with two 2-hop-branches  be the signal vector desired to be transmitted over n à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¤Ã‚  min (rank (H1 ) , rank (H2 )) virtual-channels. The source  employs a precoding matrix w. The input y1 , y2 and output ˆ y1 , ˆ y2 at the receiver filters   r1 , r2 at D1 and D2 are given by y1 = H1wx + n1 ; ˆ y1 = r1 y1 , y2 = H2wx + n2 ; ˆ y2 = r2 y2 . Applying GSVD we get H1 = U1 ÃŽÂ £1 V and H2 = U2 ÃŽÂ £2V. Choose the precoding matrix w = ÃŽÂ ± _ Và ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢1 _ C(n) ; and receiver reconstruction matrices r1 = _ U1 H _ R(n) _ , r2 = U2 H _ R(n) . The constant ÃŽÂ ± normalizes the total average transmit power. Then we get, ˆ y1(i) = ÃŽÂ ±ÃƒÅ½Ã‚ £1(i, i) x(i) + Ëœn1(i) , ˆ y2(i) = ÃŽÂ ±ÃƒÅ½Ã‚ £2(i, i) x(i) + Ëœn2(i), ià ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€  {1 . . . n}, where Ëœn1 , Ëœn2 have the same noise distributions as n1 , n2 .  B. MIMO relay system with two 2-hop-branches (3 time-slots) Fig. 2 shows a simple MIMO AF relay system where a  source S communicates a symbol vector x with a destination  D via two relays R1 and R2. MIMO channels S à ¢Ã¢â‚¬  Ã¢â‚¬â„¢R1, S à ¢Ã¢â‚¬  Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ R2, R1 à ¢Ã¢â‚¬  Ã¢â‚¬â„¢D and R2 à ¢Ã¢â‚¬  Ã¢â‚¬â„¢D are denoted: Hi , i à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€  {1, 2, 3, 4}. Corresponding channel outputs and additive complex Gaussian  noise vectors are yi , ni for i à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€  {1, 2, 3, 4}. Assume relay  operations to be linear, and modeled as matrices F1 and F2 . Assume orthogonal time-slots for transmission. The source  S uses w as the precoding matrix. Destination D uses  different reconstruction matrices r1 , r2 during the time slots  2 and 3. Then we have: Time slot 1: y1 = H1wx + n1 , y2 = H2wx + n2 Time slot 2: y3 = H3 F1 y1 + n3 Time slot 3: y4 = H4 F2 y2 + n4 Let ˆ y = r1 y3 +r2 y4 be the input to the detector. Suppose n à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¤min i (rank (Hi )) virtual-channels are in use. ) ) R y1 , F ( ( S x ,w ( ( ) ) D y2 ,r1 y3 ,r2 _ ___ H3 _ n3 H1 ___ n1 H2 _ n2 Fig. 3. MIMO relay system having a direct path and a relayed path  Applying GSVD on the broadcast channel matrices we get H1 = U1 ÃŽÂ £1 Q and H2 = U2 ÃŽÂ £2 Q. Through SVD we  obtain H3 = V1 Άº1 R1 H and H4 = V2 Άº2 R2 H. Choose w = ÃŽÂ ± _ Qà ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢1 _ C(n) ; F1 = R1U1 H; F2 = R2U2 H; r1 = _ V1 H _ R(n) ; r2 = _ V2 H _ R(n) . The constant ÃŽÂ ± normalizes  the total average transmit power. Then we get

C.S. Lewis Book, Mere Christianity :: essays research papers

C.S. Lewis' Book, â€Å"Mere Christianity† C.S. Lewis begins his book, â€Å"Mere Christianity†, by introducing the Law of Right and Wrong or the Laws of Nature. This, however, arises a question. What is the Law of Nature? The Law of Nature is the known difference between right and wrong. That is, mans distinction between what is right and what is wrong. â€Å"This law was called the Law of Nature because people thought that everyone knew it and did not need to be taught it†(18). Lewis relates the law to how we treat others. We treat others the way we want to be treated and if they treat us poorly in return we become agitated and annoyed with them. He states that we become a society of excuses when something goes wrong. He goes on to say that we want to behave in a certain way when in reality we do the opposite of what is right or what is wrong. We are humans and humans have primal instincts. We are all capable of using our instincts to do right or wrong. Lewis uses an example of a drowning man to prove this poi nt. When one sees a man in trouble two desires or instincts kick into play, to save the man or ignore him because the situation at hand could endanger you. However, there in another impulse that says help the man. With this comes a conflict of instincts. Do you run and forget about it or do you jump in and help. Most people will help even if the situation is going to endanger their life. This is just one way of seeing moral law. The right in a situation will mostly always prevail over the wrong. â€Å"Men ought to be unselfish, ought to be fair. Not that men are selfish, nor that they like being unselfish, but they ought to be†(30). We are creatures of habit and logic. Lewis believes that the moral law is not taught to us rather known by us instinctively. He also believes that the law is real. The law is our behaviors in life via good or bad. Lewis states, â€Å"there is something above and beyond the ordinary facts of men’s behavior†(30). This opens Lewis to be lieve that the natural law is both alive and active in mans life today. Lewis goes on to say that the law must be something above mans behavior. He begins to relate this to the creation of the world.

LSD AND THE CIA :: essays research papers

LSD was invented in Switzerland by Albert Hofmann, a researcher for Sandoz pharmaceuticals. It did not spontaneously appear among the youth of the Western world as a gift from the God of Gettin’ High. The CIA was on to acid long before the flower children. So, for that matter, were upstanding citizens like Time-Life magnate Henry Luce and his wife, Clare Boothe Luce, who openly sang the praises of their magical mystery tours during the early sixties. Henry, a staunch conservative with close connections to the CIA, once dropped acid on the golf course and then claimed he had enjoyed a little chat with God. While the cognoscenti had the benefit of tuned-in physicians, other psychedelic pioneers took their first trips as part of CIA-controlled research studies. At least one person committed suicide after becoming an unwitting subject of a CIA LSD test, crashing through a highstory plate-glass window in a New York hotel as his Agency guardian watched. (Or perhaps the guardian did more than watch. In June 1994 the victim’s family had his thirty-year-old corpse exhumed to check for signs that he may have been thrown out that window.) Numerous others lost their grip on reality. MK-ULTRA was the code name the CIA used for its program directed at gaining control over human behavior through â€Å"covert use of chemical and biological materials,† as proposed by Richard Helms. The name itself was a variation on ULTRA, the U.S. intelligence program behind Nazi lines in World War 11, of which the CIA's veteran spies were justly proud. Helms later became CIA director and gained a measure of notoriety for his 'Watergate "lying to Congress" conviction and a touch of immortality in Thomas Powers's aptly named biography, The Man Who Kept the Secrets. Helms founded the MK-ULTRA program and justified its notably unethical aspects with the rationale, â€Å"We are not Boy Scouts.† At the time, the spook scientists suspected that LSD had the potential to reprogram the human personality. In retrospect, they were probably right-Timothy Leary spoke in similar terms, though he saw unlimited potential for self-improvement in this â€Å"reprogramming.

Rain Forest :: essays research papers

Long ago, the Earth had a green belt of rain forests around its middle that covered almost twelve percent of the earth's land surface.(Miller & Berry 3) Today, the rain forest covers two percent of the earth's land surface and it is declining rapidly. The following will be a description of the rain forest, factors in its destruction, and if there are any answers to slow or halt the process. "Today, as we enter the last decade of the twentieth century, we have reached a turning point; we can no longer use the excuse of ignorance."(Hammond 2) People need to try harder to stop rain forest depletion. There are two major areas on earth where rain forests are located. One of these areas is called "The Old World Tropics," which includes Africa and Asia. In Africa, the rain forests are primarily located around the Zaire river. The other area in which rain forests are located is called "The New World Tropics," which contains Central and South America. The New World tropics are in lower altitudes as opposed to the Old World tropics, which are at higher altitudes. Rain forests are located around the equator. This location of the rain forests makes them warm and humid all year round. There are never cold winters in the rain forests. During winter in the rain forests, people comfortably are able to wear T-shirts and shorts. The rain forest has a rainy season which usually lasts most of the year. "The rain forests of the world are home to more than half of the animal species that live on earth."(CSIRO 1) Many of these creatures are some of the most beautiful and odd creatures in the world, Such as the large rodent Capybara, the Anteater, and many different colorful exotic birds. There are many beautiful creatures living in our Earth's rain forests. Many people are ignorant to the effects of rain forest depletion on our environment, and this ignorance is a major cause in the beginning of the destruction of the rain forests. "Eu ropean settlers exploited the rain forests for timber and cleared them for agricultural purposes."(Parish 4) "The name scrub, which was originally applied to the rain forest by European settlers, became a term for land seen as useless until subject to ax, fire, and plough."(Parish 4) People did not think of the affects on the environment because the little knowledge that was known about the affects was not very widespread.

Red, White, and Black by Gary Nash Essay

Gary Nash author of Red, White, and Black purpose to their readers is describing the early colonists, but also the relationships toward Europeans, the Indians, and the Africans. Nash successfully analyzes the impact of the colliding three cultures and interprets them to give an overall theme about the relationships between those who made America what it is today. He has shown another point of view to his reader that we grew up and was raise in a white people land; learning only the White people point of view through history. His purpose of writing Red, White & Black was to prove that Native Americans and Africans were not victims, but played as a active role to American history. Nash major theme that he covers in his book was about the three cultures in America and to interpret them overall. The theme is about the issue that Americans have towards the Native American and Africans. He wanted to examine and studied other culture history instead of only learning from the American side. He figures out that they were victims to the history and was just a role in the American history. His main point of time frame was from 1492-1796. The introduction to Nash research took place in Eastern and Northern America. Nash was against how the founding fathers came to America and affected the Natives and Africans. He was against how the founding fathers came to their land and changed their destiny of lives and culture because they took what belong to them first. Anthropologists call this process â€Å"transculturation† and historians call it â€Å"Social change. † His argument towards the historical terms is that we are studying a dynamic process of interaction that shaped the history of American Indians, Europeans, and Africans in the North America in the 17 & 18 centuries. Gary B. Nash was arguing of something different than what is written to us. He believes of what the founding father want us to know and was marked down through history. But reality during those times American Indians and Africans had a big destiny change when the European came along. They changed and affected their lives in there home land. Gary B. Nash written Red, White, and Black purpose was mainly to let people know that, what’s ever that was passed down from the founding father in history is only what their views were and marked down in papers. How the Americans European changed the lives of all Native American and African that was located at Eastern and Northern America.

The bard by john martin

History paintings ere then considered as the grand style of painting even though these paintings never really caught on in the British market, mainly due to their huge dimensions. On the contrary, landscape was considered a low genre. Despite these impediments, both of them had successful careers and raised landscape to the height of historical paintings. Another characteristic both painters shared was the inclusion of the Sublime in their art, which was very popular at the time. According to E. Burke's definition, the Sublime focuses on darkness, vastness, magnificence, loudness and denseness.I will analyze how when commenting on the painting The Bard. Turner's paintings had greatly Impressed Martin but their approach to historical paintings was quite different. They both portrayed grandiose representations of history and told stories about the Immensity of nature compared with the smallness of men. But when Turner was more interested in fate and how men were powerless in the immens ity of nature,John Martin oriented his works towards the Divine and the representation of grand biblical themes inspired by the Old Testament.John Martin's paintings were mainly based on religious and fantastic subjects. His most celebrated works were â€Å"Pallbearer's Feast†, â€Å"The Great day of his Wrath†, the â€Å"Destruction of Stood and Sonogram† or the Seven Plagues of Egypt†, amongst others. The Bard does not belong to this category but is still one representation of his conception of his art. It Is based on ancient British history. Martin's Bard was first exhibited In 1817 and Is an Illustration off poem, the Bard, written In 1757 by Thomas Gray.The mom tells the story of the last surviving bard In Wales who climbed above a swirling river after Edward I and the English troops defeated the country. Martin Is telling us almost word for word the same story. This is both a poetical painting as the bard was the official poet of the ruler and his co urt and a political painting portraying the king and his troops. This painting is huge in size (it is over 2 meters high). The story told is divided by the river which creates a chasm between the two halves of the minting, one with its chiaroscuro side with the bard overcoming the other side with the military.In the left foreground the dwarfed figures of the king and his soldiers overpowered by the castle which despite the defeat still stands erect. On the right- hand side, there are rocky cliffs, on top of which the bard stands erect immobile on his two feet, proudly holding his harp. His also being In the foreground but so much higher conveys the moral disparity between the two parties. His left hand points towards the sky, the bard Is the prophet who he Is telling the king that punishment ill come, not through human hands but through the Delve.There are hardly any warm tones, only some dark red on the figures, linking them, there is no doubt that atmosphere and adds to the traged y of the story told. Although the figures are important in order to tell the story, the landscape is the focus of the story, it is the drama that overpowers all other impressions. The wild, chaotic landscape with its spectacular effects, the vastness of the scale and the power of the noble bard give a full representation of the sublime.Also, we, as risers, are safe but, like the soldiers, we are compelled to look up at the Bard and the Divine could also destroy us. We have great admiration for the Bard who, we know, will commit suicide, but we also fear what fate has in store for us. Although John Martin's paintings gradually fell into oblivion after his death, his paintings have recently been exhibited and commented upon. His works have inspired many film makers and he is now considered a cinematic painter. One example is C. B. De Mille, Moses in his film â€Å"the Ten Commandments† has a striking resemblance with the Bard.

Management Consultancy Services Essay

Following the Enron case and others, the place and role of professional advisers within corporate governance was thrown into public focus and as a result the professional management bodies across the world revisited their policies on various regulatory mechanisms. The policies formulated by ‘Institute of Management Consultancy’, United Kingdom is taken as a reference in the discussions below. The general principles are summarized. – Self-regulation is best delivered through a modern, professional approach, i.e. through standards backed by disciplinary arrangements that are supported by external validation and a Code of Professional Conduct and Ethical Guidelines that apply to all members. – A framework is required at the organizational and individual level to ensure that clients are able to make an informed decision about their choice of consultancy advice. – A sector-wide definition of management consultancy should be developed that will assist in a number of ways, including the debate around self-regulation, and be sufficiently flexible to accommodate new providers of consultancy. – The sector-wide definition should be â€Å"Management consultancy is the provision to management of objective advice and assistance relating to the strategy, structure, management and operations of an organization in pursuit of its long-term purposes and objectives. Such assistance may include the identification of options with recommendations; the provision of an additional resource and/or the implementation of solutions.† – The definition of a management consultant should be â€Å"Management consultants are those organisations and/or individuals that participate in the process of management consultancy within a framework of appropriate and relevant professional disciplines and ethics designed for the activity of management consultancy.† – The principle of detailed technical regulation of management consultancy should be rejected and that the essential skills of consulting are primarily behavioral, stressing the importance of competences and ethical standards. – Any regulatory regime requires a significant element of independence from the profession in terms of membership and operation. – The option of a regulatory system that provides easily accessible information from clients on the performance of firms and individuals should be considered carefully. – The global nature of consultancy means that the complexities of jurisdiction and applicable law need to be taken into account and the dangers of regulatory systems being used as restraints on trade or for the furtherance of the interests of trade blocs recognized. – The question of the interaction of parallel regulatory systems needs to be explored thoroughly with a wide range of professional and trade bodies. – Management consultancy is immensely competitive. Any self-regulatory regime must not fetter the ability of management consultants to compete for business, with the opportunities for other companies that they may bring. – The Government does not have a formal role in regulating the profession of management consultancy. Its role is to encourage and support stakeholders in management consultancy, including clients and other institutes, to develop a system that protects users and enables the UK profession to compete in a global market. 2. PROFESSIONAL CONSULTANCY ORGANIZATIONS & CHALLENGES â€Å"Traditionally the state has awarded associations of professionals the privilege of self-regulation in return for an assurance that members abide by a set of standards and an ethical code of conduct to ensure protection of the public interest. As increasing levels of education and social awareness give rise to greater expectations†¦ traditional structures, rules and regulations are challenged and justification for privilege is questioned†. The position of trade and professional bodies is also made more complex by the increasing demand from members for such bodies to defend them from these pressures. This representational role has to be balanced carefully against the public protection responsibility. The regulatory function itself is not without its pitfalls. They are cent red on â€Å"†¦ensuring that everyone in the market is covered, how any regulations are to be enforced and also possibly ensuring that restrictive trade practices legislation is not used again st them. All such arrangements are potentially unstable and perhaps are held together predominantly by the fear of more onerous statutory regulation†. But these difficulties are compounded in an international environment. The increasing globalization that result in emergence of a single market mean that â€Å"†¦the developments of rules and regulations concerning two issues – competition amongst professionals and standardization of qualifications – are of particular concern†. But the profession is also global in nature and regulation has also to be seen in against a shifting pattern of international trading and political structures. One driver for change is seen as â€Å"..deregulation and privatization, combined with a gradual shifting of policy-making to the global level†. If regulation is the key, what form should it take? It can be introduced at a number of levels, i.e. the activity (technical regulation); individuals (standards and qualifications); firms (the trade association model) or the profession as a whole (ethics and principles). All of them have their difficulties. Some believe that the accounting profession in the USA had the wrong approach, i.e. â€Å"Based on strict adherence to rules, it inadvertently encouraged innovations of the worst kind; creative accounting†. 3. SHOULD MANAGEMENT CONSULTANCY BE REGULATED? There is, equally, the view that regulation is not needed at all. The market will regulate itself. This, of course, ignores that fact that business takes place within a societal framework and the view that the market is the ultimate regulator is, surely, flawed. It is based on the notion, sound in theory but questionable in practice, that the market is a perfect mechanism. Others suggest that the secret lies in the education of the client to make it an informed marketplace. It also has to balanced with the view that, if management consultancy wishes to be seen as professional, â€Å"Professional awareness and behavior come when the early juggling with a little knowledge gives way to skilled application of a generally accepted body of knowledge according to accepted standards of integrity†. It is also the case that the development of partnerships between clients and professional service firms (including investment by the latter in the former) may well limit the willingness of c lients to ‘shop around’. The key question then is what is regulation for. In essence of course it is to ensure that the customers or stakeholders receive the goods and services that they need and that the suppliers claim to provide. In the case of management consultancy this must mean that clients receive the best possible advice to help them in taking their organizations forward. In a market dominated by a few global brands, it is about extending the transparency and extent of choice to enable clients to choose on the basis of expertise, quality of delivery and cost. It is also about balancing the need to extend these principles down from the firm to the individual and the costs of any system. The government view has been that good self-regulation coupled with demanding industry and people standards help companies compete in a global marketplace. When combined with effective self-regulatory systems and where appropriate supporting mechanisms exist to encourage good practice and resolve cross-border disputes, this development will reduce barriers and realize a single market worldwide. 4. STEP 1 IN REGULATAION – WHO ARE MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS? A number of definitions have been developed in recent years. The following is a small selection: Management consultants are used first to provide wider additional expertise than is available within a single organization. Thus a change in production or marketing may require expertise in designing and implementing a new system. Secondly, management consultants are used to provide objective appraisals where it is often easier for the expert outsider to see the broader picture and recognize the long-term requirements. Thirdly, the management consultant may be needed to provide additional assistance where there is a temporary increase in the management workload. This may be to cope with a major change or new development in any area of management responsibility.† The rendering of independent advice and assistance on management issues. This typically includes identifying and investigating problems and/or opportunities, recommending appropriate action and helping to implement those solutions. Management consulting is an independent professional advisory service assisting mangers and organizations in achieving organizational purposes and objectives by solving management and business problems, identifying and seizing new opportunities, enhancing learning and implementing changes. The term â€Å"Management Consultancy† applies when a firm is engaged for a definitive duration to undertake specific enquiries, conduct studies, identify options and make recommendations or give advice of a strategic nature relating to the organization, management and operation of [the organization] for consideration/implementation. These definitions or descriptions have a number of threads in common. They are concerned with management issues of a significant, although not necessarily strategic, importance. Secondly, they are concerned with the role of the expert outsider. Finally, they extend the role of management consultants beyond advice and into implementation. Taking these threads into account the Institute believes that the sector-wide definition should be â€Å"Management consultancy is the provision to management of objective advice and assistance relating to the strategy, structure, management and operations of an organization in pursuit of its long-term purposes and objectives. Such assistance may include the identification of options with recommendations; the provision of an additional resource and/or the implementation of solutions.† Some have raised the issue of whether, if the professional activity is defined, the role of the individual management consultant also needs to be placed within a definitional framework. 5. REGULATION – WIDER ISSUES Conversely, it is likely to be the case that others, even if introduced for the best of reasons, may see any system of regulation, as a restraint of trade. The danger is that the introduction of any self-regulatory system may also require an accompanying increase in bureaucracy and industry overheads and that the perceived failure of any such system may provoke a call for statutory intervention. The potential costs of any regulatory regime, however light its touch, are also of concern when Government does not seem to appreciate the costs, whether financial or opportunity, that may arise. Additional administration for practices and activity by professional bodies require resourcing and, in many cases, it is practitioners who have to bear the burden. The reality is that management consultancy, like every other business, is immensely competitive. Any regulatory proposals must take into account the need for the consulting profession to retain flexibility to adapt to a new global and technology-driven world. While global practices dominate the market, internal consultancies within domestic companies are turning to external – and, hence, foreign – markets, for business and small practices in niche markets are also competing on a global stage. The key is responding to the needs of clients rather than a regulatory regime that will always be behind developments in the marketplace. 6. CODE OF ETHICS – INSTITUTE OF MGMT CONSULTANTS, USA All IMC USA members pledge in writing to abide by the Institute’s Code of Ethics. Their adherence to the Code signifies voluntary assumption of self-discipline. The Code specifies: Clients * Members will serve their clients with integrity, competence, and objectivity, using a professional approach at all times, and placing the best interests of the client above all others. * Members will establish realistic expectations of the benefits and results of their services. * Members will treat all client information that is not public knowledge as confidential, will prevent it from access by unauthorized people, and will not take advantage of proprietary or privileged information, either for use by them, their firm or another client, without the client’s permission. * Members will avoid conflicts of interest, or the appearance of such, and will disclose to a client any circumstances or interests that might influence their judgment and objectivity. * Members will refrain from inviting an employee of an current or previous client to consider alternative employment without prior discussion with the client. Engagements * Members will only accept assignments which they possess the expertise to perform, and will only assign staff with the requisite expertise. * Members will ensure that before accepting any engagement a mutual understanding of the objectives, scope, work plan, and fee arrangements has been established. * Members will offer to withdraw from a consulting engagement when their objectivity or integrity may be impaired. Fees * Members will agree in advance with a client on the basis for fees and expenses, and will charge fees and expenses that are reasonable, legitimate and commensurate with the services delivered and the responsibility accepted. * Members will disclose to their clients in advance any fees or commissions that they receive for equipment, supplies or services they could recommend to their clients. Profession * Members will respect the individual and corporate rights of clients and consulting colleagues, and will not use proprietary information or methodologies without permission. * Members will represent the profession with integrity and professionalism in their relations with their clients, colleagues and the general public. * Members will report violations of this Code to the Institute, and will ensure that other consultants working on behalf of the member abide by this Code. The Institute of Management Consultants USA, Inc. (IMC USA) adopted its first Code of Ethics in 1968. Since that time IMC USA has modified the wording of the Code for additional clarity and relevance to clients. The current Code was approved February 22, 2002. It is consistent with the International Code of Professional Conduct published by the International Council of Management Consulting Institute (ICMCI) of which IMC USA is a founding member. Members who apply for the CMC (Certified Management Consultant) designation must pass a written examination on the application of the IMC USA Code of Ethics to client service. The CMC mark is awarded to consultants who have met high standards of education, experience, competence and professionalism. 7. CODE OF ETHICS – THE GROUND REALITY This paper is based on an Ethics Survey conducted by the Institute of Management Consultants among American business consulting clients of IMC members who are Certified Management Consultants (CMCs). Results * Over-promising expected results and/or benefits (Nearly half of the respondents-46%) * Not serving the best interest of the client (32%) * Under-delivering results vs. commitment (31%) A high percentage of respondents–40%–indicated that they believe professional service firms would lie to protect themselves. Thirty-nine percent (39%) also indicated that they think employees would lie to protect themselves. Counterbalancing this, however, was the expression of 54% of the respondents who indicted that in a difficult situation, they believe employees will behave honorably. Half of the respondents also believe that professional service firms do place a high value on the welfare of the client’s organization. It can therefore be concluded that while business executives believe that both employees and professional service firms do have an interest in the success and welfare of the organization/enterprise, they also feel that both groups would be inclined to act to protect their own interest or enhance their own position-an action which could inevitably be to the detriment of the enterprise. Two additional issues in which professional service firms can be faulted by business executives included: * Allowing the project’s scope to expand/creep. (One-fourth of the respondents indicated this was happening frequently.) * Being imprecise or non-specific when setting expectations. (Only 19% indicated that this happens frequently, yet 68% indicated this occasionally happens.)