Strategic Quality and Systems Management Essay Example

Strategic Quality and Systems Management Paper Contents SI. No. TaskPage No. 1. Executive Summary Introduction3 3 2. Task 1 (AC :1. a) (AC :1. b) 4 4 6 3. Task 2 (AC :2. a) (AC :2. b)7 7 8 4. Task 3 (AC :3. a) (AC :3. b) (AC :3. c) (AC :3. d)9 9 11 13 14 5. Task4 (AC :4. a) (AC :4. b)16 16 17 6. Task 5 (AC :5. a) (AC :5. b)19 19 20 7. Conclusion 21 8Bibliography21 Executive summary: Through this report we will understand the important role of effective operations and quality management systems in determining the organizational success and effectiveness. We’ll also see how these two systems helps an organization to achieve their strategic objectives and goals. This report will also pave the light on the effectiveness of operations management and quality systems management with respect to a relevant quality change in an organization, in fair details. Introduction: Operations management is very importance in managing every operations in an organization. Operations refers to production, controlling, manufacturing of products and services, delivering them, etc. Operations management of an organization always aims at improvement of operations and addition of activities with great values, in to several specific techniques. It is not merely focusssing on the production and assembling of products in an organization, but it will take concern about each of the strategic business units in an organization, whether it is large or small. Quality management deals with determining and improving the quality of the operations, products and services, in an organization. Through operations and quality management, the value and the reputation of an organization will enhnace. (Pfeifer, 2002). For analyzing these concepts in an organization’s scenario, I am choosing The Ford Motor Company, one among the three leading automotive manufacturing company in United States of America. We will write a custom essay sample on Strategic Quality and Systems Management specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Strategic Quality and Systems Management specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Strategic Quality and Systems Management specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer It was founded by Henry Ford in 1903, in Michigan. (Cotteleer, 1997). By the end of 1996, its revenue had reached up to $ 150 billion. More than 3800000 employees are working under this company. In the year 1970, due to the entry of foreign manufacturers such as Toyota, Honda etc in to the international automotive industry, the major Auto giants such as General Motors, Ford and Chrysler etc have lost their market. Ford responded seriously to this crunching, by acquiring Swedish Volvo model for successfully competing in the foreign market and also for expanding their market, worldwide. In 2000, Ford motors had started a complete organization re-engineering business process (BPR), plan known as, ‘Ford 2000’, which aims at reestablishment of the company’s infrastructure as a whole. This BPR focuses mainly on the reduction in their Vehicle Centres (VC), in to five centres for covering the operations spreading in more than 200 nations. It also aims at cutting redundancies and enhancing the information technologies for driving Ford towards success. IT acts as the link between Ford Company and its centres in the world. (ezinearticles. com). Task 1 🙠 AC: 1. a) )Operations management could be defined as a process of designing, developing and supplying, the products and services of an organization. It will also carefully ensures and manage the entire process dealing with the productions as well as the distribution of the goods and services associated with an organization. It will help to ensure the complete and effective utilization of the import ant resources available for the organization, for achieving its strategic objectives. Operations management will also ensure the quality of products and services offered by an organization, as per the demands of the customers. mitsloan. mit. edu). Operations management will define the actual expectations of the people, design and develop the products and services according to the demands, manage the inventory process, Analyses the efficacy of every processes in an organizations. Through OM, we could identify the actual capacity of the existing operations; improve the processes for enhancing the lifecycle of the products and services offered by them. OM also plays an important role in properly managing the technologies associated with each operation in an organization. (www. jpcmediallc. om) In Ford Motor Company, the operations management department is the major one that determines the perfection of all operations that transform their resources and raw materials in to finished goods and products. The key functions of OM department in Ford include: Choosing the products and processes Designing the methods for development and manufacturing Control the operations associated with determining the performances, quality and quantity of products and services Inculcate necessary changes and improvements for the existing operations for enhancing productivity, performance and quality standards. Determine the standards of the operations and improve it to global standard levels Update and review the whole processes and procedures running within the organization. (www. jpcmediallc. com). (www. qec. co. uK) TASK (AC: 1. b) b)The effectiveness of the OM process of every organization could be analyzed and measured using several variables, including the performance, productivity and profitability of the organization. Ford Company is following two processes, namely, lean manufacturing and outsourcing for enhancing the OM. Through these two processes the company had achieved compete production and operation management as well as enhancement of whole business processes. Lean manufacturing ensures a streamlined flow of value for the stakeholders by minimizing the wastage of resources and inventory. Through outsourcing Ford ensures, lower as and competitive cost for the products sold. Through these two characteristics of OM on Ford they have achieved competitive pricing which brought them sustained competitive advantage in the competitive automotive industry. It enhances the productivity and profitability of the organization. (www. ventureoutsource. com). For the perfection of the processes, an improved process combining the lean manufacturing and outsourcing known as, Lean management outsourcing has been introduced to Ford, in recent years. Through the lean thinking operations Ford has achieved perfect production of products with unmatched quality standards. The integrated JIT system and time based management system also helped them a lot for remain competitive and sustain that competitiveness in the industry. bizcovering. com) Task 2 (AC: 2. a) a)Quality management systems play an important role in ensuring the effectiveness and perfection of products and services along with high standards of quality. Operations and quality management are just like the two sides of a same coin. Both these systems are critical in determining the accomplishment of organizational objectives and targets. According to the Quality Guru, Juran, the quality man agement consists of a trilogy of functions including, Planning, assurance and control of quality. But in addition to this trilogy, quality improvement is another major aspect of Quality and system management. Thee quality system in Ford is quite good through which they accurately identifies the quality requirements for its products and adopt different methods for achieving high quality. (Rose, 2005) These QS helped Ford to accomplish its vision, ‘to become the most trusted brand in the automotive industry’. Through high levels of quality products, Ford achieved trust and loyalty from its customers. This will generate competitive advantage and helps to sustain it for a long time. The loyal customers are invaluable assets to an organization. Through high quality products and services, Ford retains its existing customers and attracts new customers towards the company. The QS of Ford focuses mainly on its customers, for enhancing the customer satisfaction through which they could achieve the market leader position. For ensuring the quality Ford has introduced the six sigma strategy in all the operations. They have developed a well trained group of people headed by efficient managers called Black belts. (Pfeifer, 2002). The six sigma strategy focuses mainly on the customers, their demands, the philosophy and the perfection. This six sigma strategy has been considered as the best practice in quality and systems management, which could be followed by many organizations. Task 2(AC: 2. b) b) Through the six sigma strategy introduction in to the QS of Ford they have achieved high quality products and services, which ensure high levels of customer as well as employee satisfaction. All these led to the enhancements in profitability and increased revenue for the company as a whole. Through introduction of enhanced systems for quality management, they have reduced the wastage of resources which helped them to develop competitive pricing strategies for their high quality products and services with a certain margin of profit. Through quality systems and development of quality circles in the organization, they have achieved highly motivated employees who work as a team for the achievement of organizational objectives. (www. ehow. com). They also have introduced different approaches or ensuring quality such as, DMIAC, DFSS along with the six sigma strategy. Several quality tools such as, Pareto diagram, tree diagram, process mapping, root cause analysis etc, were followed in Ford ensuring high quality of products and services as well as operations. (www. corporate. ford. com). The quality system management in Ford focuses on three factors: Customer: all the processes in QSM focused for developing customer satisfaction through delivering products and services of high quality overcoming their expectations. Processes: they analyzed every operation in the perspective of the customers and identified the essential improvements for ensuring high levels of quality. Employees; only through employee satisfaction, company could generate customer satisfaction. Before introduction of Six sigma strategy all the employees were given proper training and development for ensuring high levels of quality The six sigma strategy: Critical to Quality:Attributes most important to the customer Defect:Failing to deliver what the customer wants Process Capability:What your process can deliver Variation:What the customer sees and feels Stable Operations:Ensuring consistent, predictable processes to improve what the customer sees and feels Design for Six Sigma:Designing to meet customer needs and process capability Through the introduction of this six sigma strategy, Ford has achieved world class quality for its products and services, which helped them to achieve their strategic objectives. (www. corporate. ford. com) Task 3(AC: 3. a) a)Strategic Quality Plan: This plan ensures high quality of products and services along with enhanced organization performance. The formulation and execution of the strategic quality plan is not an easy task. It is a tough job for all professionals and managers in the OM and QSM department to critically analyze and identify the issues existing related to the quality and introduce methods and techniques for overcoming these issues. The strategic quality planning process could be divided in to several steps: Finding out the quality initiatives Identifying the expectations and demands of the customers Ensures the involvement of the employees in maintaining quality. Facilitates benchmarking Setting up of the long term goal and vision Developing new standards for quality Ensuring the effectiveness of the operations Evaluation and monitoring the strategy with the help of several tools and techniques. (www. bia. ca) In Ford, for the proper introduction and management of quality change, they have developed a strategic quality plan, based upon the famous ABCDE model. This model describes a step by step approach for the development of the plan that will ensure high quality standards throughout the organization. Assessment: this step involves the thorough analysis of the external and internal environment, the availability of resources, the gathering of information, analysis of existing situations, SWOT analysis for revealing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Baseline: this step comprises of analysis if the past to identify where were we? , detailed analysis of present situation, to understand our current status with respect to quality, and forecasting for future, to realize the future requirements of quality and formulate the plans for achieving it. All the existing gaps were identified and plans were developed for filling these gaps in this step. Components: all the important resources, values and mission of the organization should be analyzed and the strategic vision and targets are developed Down –to-specific: in this step the actual plan for the achievement of set targets, incorporation of several performance measurement systems etc are developed Evaluation: the entire process will be monitored and evaluated on a regular basis, for measuring the progress. Introduction of several techniques including, Balance scorecard, 360 degree feedback etc could be adopted. While developing the goals, care should be taken that the developed target should have all the essential features to be a SMART objective. Specific: the objective should be specific and should help in the management of other organizational objectives. Measurable: through executing this change in strategy, the achieved results should be measurable for the organization, in order to understand whether the organization achieved the expected target pr not. Achievable: all the strategies and the processes should be formulated in such a way to achieve the set targets. Then only the organization could achieve enhancements in quality and operations management. Realistic: all the changes in the quality system should be realistic. If the set outcome is not realistic, it will affect the quality management process of the entire organization. Time bound: all these developed targets should be achieved within a set time frame. The quality change process and the implementation for the new quality plan should have a definite time period to achieve the tasks. After the successful achievement of one goal, the organization will focus on the next. (Gitlow, Oppenheim, Oppenheim, Levine, 2007) Task 3 (AC: 3. b) b)Resource implications: All these functional activities including OM and QSM in Ford are based upon the availability of resources. The important resource implications will be: Human resources: The human resources of the organization are considered to be the most potential resource capable of bringing about any significant change in to the organization, in an expected manner. The employees are the actual agents of the quality change in Ford. Before introduction of the quality change, the introduction of Six Sigma strategy in 2000, all the employees were given proper training and development for meeting the required standards. (Landale, 1999) They are needed to be motivated continuously for enhancing their performance. Financial resources: This is another major resource essential for the smooth running of the organizational functions including quality management. The quality management processes and strategies were determined and formulated on the basis of available financial resources in Ford. Tools and techniques: Several tools and techniques are being used in Ford Company for bringing about the quality change, introducing it, and for evaluating it. The success and progress of the whole process has been evaluated using various tools. The model of continuous development has been used as a powerful tool for management of quality change. Systems: There are various internal systems available in Ford for monitoring the performance and progress of the whole process. All these systems are specially designed for continuously monitoring and measuring the QSM processes within the organization. Task 3(AC: 3. c) c)Wider implications of the planned strategy: There are several implications of the strategy from both internal and external environment of the Ford Motor Company. Financial performance: We could analyse the improvements in performance of an organization by simply looking at its financial stability and performance. Financial performance is a good indicator of the organizational performance. If the organizations are unstable in their financial aspects, they could not enhance their efficiency of business. For implementing a quality change and for achieving successful implementation, an organization should have a thorough financial status and stability. Customer satisfaction: Through enhanced customer service, Ford could easily achieve increased levels of customer satisfaction. This could be achieved through improved customer services, which helped Ford to understand the actual needs, demands and expectations of its customers, which is crucial for the development of the organization. (Gitlow, Oppenheim, Oppenheim, Levine, 2007). Satisfaction of the employees; Only satisfied employees could deliver their maximum services to the customers for developing customer satisfaction. Therefore, the employee satisfaction could be reflected on the results and outcomes of the organization. For achieving this, the organization should find out the causes of failure and should correct them accordingly. Always improve the process and procedures for enhancing quality. Research about the internal and external factors and environment and gathering the information and analyze the data carefully. For the successful implementation of the quality change, flexibility of the employees and the organization is an essential factor. (Landale, 1999) Task 3(AC: 3. d) )It is more important to continuously evaluate and monitor the quality management process and change, after implementation, for the successful implementation of the quality change in an organization. Formulation of a good strategic quality change plan could be achieved by many organizations, while they fail to monitor the progress of the process and the strategy, in a regular basis. This ends up in the failure of the enti re processes. Ford followed the Total Quality Management system for monitoring the whole process. They are following the Plan – Do- Check –Act model of TQM for achieving this. PDCA (www. emeraldinsight. om) Through PDCA model, formulation of accurate PQM strategy, implementation of the strategy, rechecking of the effectiveness of the TQM process and further actions for improvement are achieved in Ford for proper quality management (www. brighthub. com) PDCA (www. qualityintegration. biz) Several other processes are also used for evaluation: Increasing connectivity: Through facilitating employee empowerment, work outs and increasing the communication among the employees, management and the strategy, gathering of feedbacks etc is achieved through enhancements in connectivity Change Acceleration Program: This is an action plan for driving the quality change throughout the organization, successfully. This is achieved by training and developing the employees’ right from the top managerial level to the bottom level. Performance appraisals: Several techniques for performance measurements, Benchmarking, assessments and reassessments etc are conducted in Ford Company, in a regular basis. (www. 1000ventures. com) Stakeholder involvement: Facilitate the participation of the employees for ensuring successful change in Ford. Task 4(AC: 4. a) a)Monitoring the change in Ford: The implementation of the monitoring and evaluation strategies for reviewing the process of change management in Ford was more difficult than executing the actually quality change strategies in the organization. The most commonly used methods for monitoring the change management are discussed below: Surveys: Several types of surveys such as customer surveys, stakeholder’s survey etc will help to monitor the effectiveness of the quality change in Ford. The customer and stakeholder survey are also aimed at enhancing the relationship and facilitating their involvement and participation in the change process. The customers and the stakeholders could give a correct evaluation of the process of change, including the improvements and disadvantages of the quality management system of Ford. Step-by-step evaluation: Ford follows the step by step method of reviewing the quality process. Through this process Ford could easily identify the quality of its products and services in each stage and identify the issues at each stage. This will enhances the accuracy of the QSM process in Ford. Action Planning: Through this process, Ford become more intentional as they progress through the quality change process. This process is a step by step process involving development of quality change objectives, development and execution of the plan for achieving those targets, gathering the feedbacks and evaluation, improvements in the process if necessary. (Jackson, 2009). Task 4(AC: 4. b) b)Quality culture: Quality culture will ensure a standard of quality which is incorporated in to the entire operations of the organization, which leads to the development of quality environment inside s well as outside the organization. Quality culture focuses at enhancing the employee satisfaction as well as customer satisfaction. In Ford prior to the introduction of the Quality culture, a change was happened in the management levels for ensuring success of the process. (www. blurtit. com). The quality culture of Ford has been developed based upon 6 principles, which are explained below in fair details: Togetherness in work for the accomplishment of the common target: The employees, suppliers, customers and the company as a whole will work together for the successful implementation of the quality change in Ford. Ford treats all its stakeholders, customers and employees as the contributors for implementing the quality management process within the organization. Each and every employee of Ford will have a personal identification and commitment towards the company, which will facilitate the success of the company as a whole. (Dowd, Tilson, Carlton, 2002). Lack of subsidiaries and superiors : In Ford, all the stakeholders are treated as equal. No priorities are given to anyone, as they all have got equal rights in the organization and have equal participation in the whole process. The qualities and potentials of the stakeholders especially of that of its employees were correctly identified, developed and utilized in the organization, which will contribute towards the success of the entire organization. (Gitlow, Oppenheim, Oppenheim, Levine, 2007) Facilitate effective communication: Another important principle of quality culture of Ford is excellent communication among the employees, management and the stakeholders. This will generate principle which is another basic principle of the organization. Through communication and interaction the company will listen to the opinions and ideas of the stakeholders and could incorporate them in to the organizational processes. Free access to all information: All the stakeholders are free to get all the information relating to every operational process in the organization. Focussing on operations: It is the various operations in Ford that will in turn determine the actual quality standard of the products and services offered by the company. Therefore all management systems should be focused on the processes for sustaining an excellent quality culture within the organization. Take every success/failure as experiences: They won’t focus on the intensity of the success and failures happening in the organization. Rather than that, they will take all these success and failures as some experiences which helped them to judge the corresponding strategy or process in the organization. They are developing their quality culture through experience. Task 5(AC: 5. a) a)Continuous improvements of quality management and operations management systems are essential for maintaining the high quality and operation standards in the organization. Changes have to be made in these processes and strategies based upon the changes happening in the external and internal environment of the organization. the major improvements I expect to happen in Ford company after the quality change are as follows: Enhancements in customer satisfaction: as the quality of the products and services increases, the customers will become more satisfied leading to the development of loyalty, which generates a sustained competitive advantage for Ford. Improved employee satisfaction: as the quality of products and services increases the employees will feel enthusiastic and become more satisfied. This will enhance their confidence for delivering maximum performances. Enhanced CSR: Ford is aiming at enhancing the value of its stakeholders through, which is their major objective of Corporate Social Responsibility. This will be accomplished through the advancements in the QSM and OM of Ford. Enhancements in profit and revenue: After the introduction of six sigma strategy and TQM measures in Ford, it financial stability rises and its profitability increases to several folds. Also their market position is also improved. Task 5(AC: 5. b) b)Many more advancements and improvements could be introduced in to the QSM as well as OM of Ford. As they follow the best practice of Quality management, continuous improvement is inculcated within the strategy. The existing quality systems in Ford could be further improved by following these steps: Introducing advanced, continuous monitoring systems: through real time monitoring systems, continuous evaluation of the entire quality management systems and processes, operations management systems etc are achieved. Facilitate action learning: this unique method of collaborative learning should be introduced in Ford for building up team of learner’s were developed known as Action learning Set. These groups were met in a regular basis to share the ideas, opinions, feedbacks, and issues related to quality and operations management. Through action learning, people will face the problem and then learn to solve them. (www. cipd. co. uk) Employee empowerment: facilitation of motivation and employee empowerment will enhance the quality management system, as the employees feel more committed due to their increased involvement. Performance measurement: the performance of the quality systems are analyzed during each stages and feedbacks were collected accordingly for further improvement of the processes Continuous improvement of quality and quality systems. Conclusion: Operations and quality system management are considered as the two inevitable factors in determining the success of an organization as a whole. In this report we have discussed about the effectiveness and importance of OM and QSM with respect to the chosen organization, Ford Motor Company. E have also developed a quality change plan and identified the major resource implications for implementation of the plan. E have also discussed about the six sigma strategy and the Total Quality Management following in Ford. We have looked in to the evaluation techniques and further improvements in the quality systems with respect to the quality management in Ford. Every organization should understand the importance of OM and QSM and should pay more attention to these departments as they contribute a lot for the organization’s achievement of objectives. Bibliography (n. d. ). Retrieved july 10, 2011, from ezinearticles. com: http://ezinearticles. com/? Ford-Motor-CompanyCase-Studyid=1420478 (n. d. ). Retrieved april 20, 2011, from mitsloan. mit. edu: http://mitsloan. mit. edu/omg/om-definition. php (n. d. ). Retrieved APRIL 21, 2011, from www. qec. co. uK: http://www. qec. co. uk/iso9k2k4. html (n. d. ). Retrieved april 21, 2011, from www. ventureoutsource. com: http://www. ventureoutsource. com/news_articles/Olsen_LeanManufacturing_Aug_06. html (n. d. ). Retrieved april 21, 2011, from bizcovering. com: http://bizcovering. com/major-companies/operations-management-at-toyota/ (n. d. ). Retrieved may 04, 2011, from www. gepower. com: http://www. gepower. com/commitment/en/quality. htm (n. d. ). Retrieved may 04, 2011, from www. ge. com: http://www. ge. com/sixsigma/gecommitment. html (n. d. ). Retrieved APRIL 21, 2011, from www. ehow. com: http://www. ehow. com/about_5377881_importance-quality-management. html (n. d. ). Retrieved may 5, 2011, from www. ge. com: http://www. ge. om/sixsigma/glossary. html (n. d. ). Retrieved may 4, 2011, from www. ge. com: http://www. ge. com/sixsigma/sixsigstrategy. html (n. d. ). Retrieved may 4, 2011, from www. ge. com: http://www. ge. com/sixsigma/sixsigstrategy. html (n. d. ). Retrieved july 10, 2011, from www. corporate. ford. com: http://corporate. ford. com/ (n. d. ). Retrieved april 21, 2011, from www. bia. ca: http://www. bia. ca/creating-strategic-quality-plan. htm (n. d. ). Retrieved MAY 05, 2 011, from www. emeraldinsight. com: http://www. emeraldinsight. om/content_images/fig/0240220503003. png (n. d. ). Retrieved april 21, 2011, from www. brighthub. com: http:/http://www. brighthub. com/office/project-management/articles/47485. aspx/office/project-management/articles/47485. aspx (n. d. ). Retrieved MAY 05, 2011, from www. qualityintegration. biz: http://www. qualityintegration. biz/img/PDCA. gif (n. d. ). Retrieved may 5, 2011, from www. 1000ventures. com: http://www. 1000ventures. com/business_guide/cs_inex_ge. html (n. d. ). Retrieved april 21, 2011, from www. kent. ac. uk.

Saving Private Ryan Essays - English-language Films, Free Essays

Saving Private Ryan Essays - English-language Films, Free Essays Saving Private Ryan This movie is about World War 2. It starts out on D-Day where their storming the beach. When they open up the doors to their boats most are killed and if you jumped into the water you sank because your packs were to heavy. We won the beach, and when we were walking up the beach they found a house were the enemy was and they opened the door and shot a flame thrower into it and on the other side were all of our men and they jumped out through this crack in the top of the building and were on fire, and one of our generals said "Don't fire, let them burn." Then later on the army had been putting brothers on the same platoons and when the platoon died the parents would get a notice that all of their sons had died on the same day, so they started trying not to let brothers on the same platoon. Well some family named Ryan had had 3 of their sons killed already so the army said that they would get the last brother out. So they got Tom Hanks to round up a group and their mission was to save p rivate Ryan.So they went off and they were walking through this city and this guy was telling them to take his child so she wouldn't die. One of them wanted to but the leader said no. Then a sniper started shooting at them, and when they found the sniper our sniper shot at him and it went through his scope and into his eye. Then they find a general and they ask if he has a private Ryan. He says he does so he goes and gets him. Tom Hanks trys to tell him why he's coming to get him, because his brothers all died. The guy starts crying and he asks how they died. He told him he died in enemy fire. He starts crying again and says they were only in like 3rd grade. So it was the wrong guy. So they keep going and they get to a pasture and they see a big machine gun and they decide to take it out so the next platoon doesn't die because of it. While trying to do this their doctor gets hit and dies. One of the Germans is still alive so they make him dig a grave for the doctor. After he's done they were going to kill him but the translator said its not right he's a prisoner of war they should let him go find the next group and turn him self in so they do. Then they find private Ryan and tell him and he doesn't want to go home. He wants to fight with his men. So they say well kill these tanks that are coming up but then we have to go. So he agrees and when all the Germans get there they have the bridge wired to explode and all these tar bombs its a bunch of C-4 in your sock with tar on the our side and you stick it to stuff and light the fuse. The translator is a coward and one of his guys is getting attacked by a knife buy one of the enemy's he just cries on the stares while the guy kills his friend and he had a gun and every thing so he was just being a baby. Later on the translator is laying on some rocks and the Germans are on the other side of the pile of rocks and he has a gun still bu t he doesn't pop up and kill them again he acts like a baby. The General of the guys who kills Tom Hanks ,the guys on the other side of the rocks is the prisoner he made them let go, so that guy is responsible for 2 of his own men deaths, all because he is a freakin baby. They end up winning the battle and private Ryan gets to go home. All this was Private Ryan remembering this on veterans day at Tom Hanks grave.

Conditions under which Exchange Rate may overshoot Even in the Research Paper

Conditions under which Exchange Rate may overshoot Even in the Presence of Rational Expectations - Research Paper Example    John F. Muth of Indiana University coined the theory of rational expectations in the early sixties. He used the term to describe economic situations under which, the outcome depends on peoples' expectations. For example, as discussed by Sargent J. Thomas (Rational Expectations) "The price of an agricultural commodity depends on how many acres farmers plants, which in turn depends on the price that farmers expect to realize when they harvest and sell their crops". The theory greatly applies to the stock markets around the world, as, if investors expect the price of common stock of a particular company to come down they go on a selling spree and the result is obvious, and when they expect it to go up they buy heavily and hence, the prices spirally. To conclude the cornerstone of the theory, we can suggest that, people behave or take decisions in order to maximize the value of an outcome and they keep getting feedback from the transactions, as to what they expected and what they ac tually received. In this way, their expectations over a period of time tend to stabilize because of the result of the past outcomes. In other words, their expectations become rational. To put the theory in mathematical perspective, let us assume that P* is the equilibrium price (a price at which demand equals supply) in a market, then according to the rational expectations theory (Pe) will be the function of P* + e, where (Pe) is the expected price and e is the random error term, which is independent of P*. (Sargent J. Thomas, Rational Expectations). The theory of rational expectations is often put into practice in many economic as well as finance models. One such execution of the model is related to The Efficient Markets Theory of Stock Prices, which states that there are three forms of the efficient-market hypothesis, namely, weak form, semi-strong form, and strong form (Fischer Donald and Jordan Ronald 540). Weak form, which is also known as the Random-walk theory suggests that there is no purpose of examining the charts as the share pieces fully reflect the historical sequences. Semi-strong form, on the other hand, suggests that current market prices not only reflect the historical chart patterns, but also reflect all the publicly available knowledge, so this kind of information is almost always useless for the analysts and the investors. The theory maintains that as soon as the information is made public, the price plays catch-up and soon starts to reflect the new announcement. Finally, strong form suggests that not only pub licly available information is useless, but also all the information concerning the company is useless, as that will have no impact over the stock price.  

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Did the central character experience an epiphany in this story - Essay Example Through this protagonist, O’Connor poses a deep reflection about the misunderstanding people may have about their values but also warns about the danger of stereotyping others based on their social status or race. O’Connor’s â€Å"Revelation† contains great moral lessons that address the perception people have about their own values. Through Mrs. Turpin, the author exposes the conflict that exists between the assumptions they have about the expression of their Christian values in contrast to the reality. Indeed, Mrs. Turpin’s deep conviction about these moral values she embodies makes her walk confidently into the waiting room and challenge the integrity of the others. The narrator informs: â€Å"The doctor’s waiting room, which was very small, was almost full when the Turpins entered and Mrs. Turpin who was large, made it look even smaller by her presence. She stood looming at the head of the magazine table set in the center† (O’Connor 341). This physical domination reflects the woman’s state of mind as she tries to overpower everybody by displaying her character and her values. Her efforts to make a good impression on people and then c onvey her good manners and social standing make her always draw attention on her. Moreover, Mrs. Turpin’s judgmental attitude towards the others informs about her personality and the disdain she feels for them. The physical, behavioral and even social judgment she operates on those around her expresses her intolerance and lack of compassion. She severely scrutinizes those around her and measures their values and worth according to her own standards of success or behavior. The narrator informs: â€Å"The girl’s face was blue with acne and Mrs. Turpin thought how pitiful it was to have a face like that at that age. She gave the girl friendly smile but the girl only scowled the harder† (O’Connor 343). This cruel thought about a teenager and this hypocritical

S it more accurate to say that presidents adapt to the critical events Essay

S it more accurate to say that presidents adapt to the critical events that happen during their time in power, or are they more - Essay Example The United States, which is both the greatest economy and democracy in the world, has influenced the course of history of the world. It therefore provides a definite relationship between presidents and the historical occurrences. Among iconic presidents of the United States was Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States who served until his untimely assassination in 1865. The events in his tenure including his assassination depicted the influence that the presidents had in shaping the history of their times. He served during some of the most tumultuous times in the country. He led the country through the most historic constitutional, moral and military crisis. His contribution and time in office thus makes him the best president whose analysis may easily depict the role of presidents in influencing the history of their tenures (Burkhimer, 2003). Additionally, he provides an effective basis of comparison with some of the recent presidents such as the incumbent presi dent Barack Obama and George Bush among many others who also served during some of the most tumultuous times in the history of the country. Presidents are always at the help of politics. They are influential people who readily access all the power brokers in a country. The American politics consists of a set of members of parliaments and senators all of who are influential in managing the domestic politics in the different states. The presidents on the other hand has influence over such and enjoy vast constitutional power to institute policies but with the consent of such politicians. Born and raised in a poor American family at a time that capitalism and slave trade was at the pick, Abraham Lincoln educated himself and later joined politics. He lost a senate seat in 1858 for maintaining a hard line rejection for the plan to expand slavery. He was determined to end slavery in the country. Though not a Member of Parliament, the president influenced the lawmakers during his tenure as the president of the United States thus succeeding in emancipating the African Americans. The liberation of the black society in the United States was one of the greatest historical occurrence in the country that earned Abraham Lincoln both friends and foes in equal measure thus possibly leading to his assassination. His role in liberating the African Americans and safeguarding the rights of the marginalized society to take part in election in the country’s constitution was a self-depiction of the influence that presidents have over the historical occurrences. Slave trade had employed millions of American capitalism merchants; it had necessitated the agrarian revolution thus developing the country’s economy. Vouching for the abolition of slave trade and developing an equal American society in which the African Americans would enjoy equal rights as their white counterparts was therefore a major historical occurrence. The success to end slavery was not a timely occurrenc e; it was not any time coming. President Abraham Lincoln worked hard and tried all he could to convince and black mail some of the members of parliament to accept and pass the bill that would change the country’s constitution. The desire to free the society had cost him his political career in the past but his determination finally bore fruits thus possibly resulting in his assassination. The life and works of president Abraham Lincoln portrays the influence tha

E Learning System For Autism Children Education Essay

E Learning System For Autism Children Education Essay Abstract:    In this paper, we focus our research on the Autism students learning environment before primary school. In our system, we presented a E-Learning System for Autism Children. We utilize the e-learning model to design an appropriate Teaching Platform for the Autism students and their teachers. Further fore, we also design the E-Learning System Application courses to more facilities for the teacher and student. Finally, we would promote the sharing of the Learning Platform toward the external environment and internal teaching resources. We also upgrade the teaching efficiency and open a great chance for the Autism student Keywords Autism, e-learning , ASD , alphabet ,children INTRODUCTION Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) are a group of neurodevelopment disorders characterized by core deficits in three domains: social interaction, communication, and repetitive or stereotypic behavior.[1] Any autistic child suffers from abnormal cerebral structure , and because of that the pattern of his/her thinking is quite different from a normal child in the same age. While autism can give rise to problems in social interaction, communication, and cognitive and motor difficulties, theres so much that assistive technology can do to help people with autism live functional lives. Temple Grandin, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Colorado State University ,said that he was an autism child ,and gave an interesting teaching tips for autism children . One of the points was Many autistic children have problems with motor control in their hands. Neat handwriting is sometimes very hard. This can totally frustrate the child. To reduce frustration and help the child to enjoy writing, let him type on the computer. Typing is often much easier [2] This is a very good point to start with teaching autism children. Beside that children with ASD have strong attraction to objects , pictures and colors. The language they understand is objects and visible things not words ,but each one of them differs from others in the object that he/she most interest with . Plus all mentioned points , we must not forget that most students with ASD prefer routine and predictability , in fact creating a schedule to them helps them manage their anxiety , and of course we must not forget that these children do not like noisy environments . By putting all these points together, we reached to a confidence that designing an e-learning system for children at early childhood learning age can help very much in many ways . Here we trying to introduce an e-learning school-base system for autism children for early children education age (between 4-6 years) ,which we hope it will be an assistance tool for teachers dealing with this field. Getting such a child into structured behavior learning system can affect very much in improving his/her condition and skills. Also such system will help teachers to divide their time among a larger number of students and schedule each child learning according to his/her own database within the system , system will include a medical background for children and also will be available for parents by using a special password for their child ,so they can keep tracking to their childs learning progress as well as they can cooperate with school by adding notes to database about their child s . RELATED WORKS Several previous studies and attempts were proposed within the field of teaching ASD children with the help of computers , but still they were not a school-based system to help teachers within their work . One of the most interested designed systems was trying to improve the intelligibility skill in the speech of autism children by designing special interactive e-learning game for them which rewarding them for improving such skills.[1] Another designed system , designed courses for Autism students by using multimedia skills . courses have independent units with simple content using clear audio to teach students topics of daily life , which is called environmental teaching mode. [3] E-LEARNING SYSTEM FOR AUTISM CHILDREN Figure 1 : E-learning system interface E-learning system for autism children is proposed to help children with ASD at early school age (4-6)years , to leach the alphabet with the help of visual objects in an interactive way. Repeating the sound of letters to the child with their shape accompanied with pictures , and also giving him/her a chance to practice writing these letters under the supervision of expert teachers , who should know the level of each child by a background database .All these points are put in together to increase the possibility of learning for the ASD children and also will be as a tool for teachers to document each child progress in the childs database . Figure 2: Letter a with a properate object This system is designed to be an e-learning assistance tool for teachers , as it will be a school -based system . A teacher can divide his/her time among three ASD children instead of one-to-one teaching all the time , which is required for such children. The system in present form has been divided into three levels to cover the twenty six English alphabetic letters, every level with eight or nine letters to teach for a child with a repetitive capability for hearing and write practicing for each letter . Also the teacher can show the child within this system how each letter it can be written by hand . This step is given to the child after he/she had recognize the shape of a given letter. The child has the ability for move forward and backward to display the rest of letters and how they are written , if he/she wishes to do that. Figure 3: Teaching alphabetical handwriting The system has been designed to give a simple text for a child after each level if the teacher decide to do . A childs learning capabilities and improvement can be noticed and marked by teacher in the database corresponding child information . This will help the teacher , even if another teacher take in charge this task , to decide whether or not go to the next level for this child . Figure 4: a database table of children information This system can be a hopeful tool for parents as well. They can have access to the system and see the progress of their child , plus the ability of adding their own remarks and recommendation to the database of their child to be considered by teachers , just by giving a password related to their child . ASD children will learn more easily and quickly with the aid of this system, because they are not forced to draw the letters on a paper, which most of them face difficulties to do. Instead they just press the corresponding button of the required letter they are learning it , to appear on the screen and see , which will encourage them to proceed with learning other letters and words . As teachers have control over the system, they could decide to give the child a selected behavior by teaching movies accompany within the system or upload other movies , whenever it is necessary to do this . This can be represented to the child as an entertainment and also a teaching material , maybe , between one letter and another or after each finishing each level or after passing the exam , and so on, according to teacher decision which is based on background knowledge of each childs condition. Figure 5:Teaching behavior movie SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION System has been developed E-learning System for Autism Children with using Java Script with My SQL because of the strength of these two languages in the development of web pages. When you browse the our system, which consists of two main parts, the first part special teacher and the second part the student and all of the parts are implemented by the teacher supervisor. When you are entering the button the teacher must enter a user name and password your teacher. Figure 6: user name and password for teacher. The  cause  for  the  is  that it  There may be a  more of teacher in the Class, or when you change the teacher, after going to page the teacher and student consisting of (home, management student, exam, logout). Figure 7: Page of teacher. Upon entry to the button called management, which consists of (add, update, delete, view data). Figure 8: Table of data. After this exam button is selected by the teacher to determine the test levels through the implementation of the level or not implemented. Figure 9: Table for exam. Upon entry to the home page and select a button from the student by the teacher or supervisor of the students family for the purpose of the audit of the student in the house must enter the name of the student and the students PIN number. After entering the student to the button. Figure 10 : User name and password for student. We will show the special education programs in our system which consists of lessons on the alphabet that contains lessons. Learning letters subdivided into three levels (a z) where it is to hear the characters with an illustration for each letter with the shape of each character and when you go to the display of the alphabet and writing lessons and when selected will show us introduce the alphabet and writing lessons and when you choose all the presentations we will show the characters and how to write and Show audio formats with special characters to learn. Figure 11: writing lesson and view all alphabet. When you choose writing instruction will open a new spoken alphabet and after listening to a character you should test the student to write the letter and when the answer is correct will be the voice encouragement In the case of the wrong answer there will be a voice request retry. When you press the button on the exam the test will be on four stages. the first phase show his characters as well as hear the sound and when. Figure 12: sound exam. Answer is trying to student choose the correct letter of the notation on those characters in the next stages of change ways examinations, which shows a sound only by writing that letter and when to pass examinations Is successfully transferred to the next level automatically during the clarification in the database. Figure 13: alphabet exam. In addition to the foregoing there is a button in our so-called behavior where the Video tutorial to guide the student for the purpose of all aspects of the customs and culture through the daily life of student. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK In this paper, an educational system that is designed for people with special needs and focused on learning the letters and spelled also written the most important features provided by this system is an abbreviation for the number of teachers as the autism class who suffer from autism or two every student needs a teacher. The development of this system in the future includes many applications such as learning numbers as well as start games help students unite in learning addition to securing the development of this system and introducing it into primary school as it leads to good results and develop the skills of children who suffer from autism as well as creates them good opportunities in The future in order to get a job and start a new life for them

Educational Goals and Philosophy :: Teaching Education Careers Essays

Educational Goals and Philosophy There is only one incentive that makes me want to be a teacher, but that one incentive comes along with so many everlasting rewards that I have enough motivation to teach for a lifetime. I have always felt a strong desire to help people, so when I began my college career I decided to major in Psychology. Unfortunately, the yearning I felt to help people was not being fulfilled. I wanted to interact with people young and old, male and female, and of all different ethnicities. I needed to be able to touch someone’s life and allow them to touch mine in the same way. The opportunity to help students, parents, other faculty members, and the community is my incentive to teach. One of the most important factors of teaching is being able to understand the nature of students. It is my personal belief that no two students are alike. You will find students that share similar interests, have values that are alike, and some students that even use the same learning techniques, but the point is, no two students are exactly the same. The diversity of a classroom allows for more than just textbook knowledge to be learned. It is my opinion that students who learn respect for each others cultures, values, and individual traits will become more knowledgeable than those who can regurgitate their curriculum in their sleep. My personal educational philosophy directly ties into this; I am a firm believer in Progressivism. I feel that schools and curriculum both should be directly tied with the matters, interests, and real-world experiences of students. The nature of a student’s knowledge should be constructed, dependent, discovered, and true regardless of any person, place, or thing. I once had a teacher tell me that there was no such thing as a stupid question. I have never heard such a true statement. The curriculum that we teach to our students should be structured and dependent on each child’s individual needs, abilities, and skill levels. At the same time we need to allocate students enough liberty so that their knowledge can also become true, regardless of when, where, or how they reach the information. As a progressive teacher I hope to assist learning by aiding students to form their own significant inquiries and discover the paths to solve those matters. Educational Goals and Philosophy :: Teaching Education Careers Essays Educational Goals and Philosophy There is only one incentive that makes me want to be a teacher, but that one incentive comes along with so many everlasting rewards that I have enough motivation to teach for a lifetime. I have always felt a strong desire to help people, so when I began my college career I decided to major in Psychology. Unfortunately, the yearning I felt to help people was not being fulfilled. I wanted to interact with people young and old, male and female, and of all different ethnicities. I needed to be able to touch someone’s life and allow them to touch mine in the same way. The opportunity to help students, parents, other faculty members, and the community is my incentive to teach. One of the most important factors of teaching is being able to understand the nature of students. It is my personal belief that no two students are alike. You will find students that share similar interests, have values that are alike, and some students that even use the same learning techniques, but the point is, no two students are exactly the same. The diversity of a classroom allows for more than just textbook knowledge to be learned. It is my opinion that students who learn respect for each others cultures, values, and individual traits will become more knowledgeable than those who can regurgitate their curriculum in their sleep. My personal educational philosophy directly ties into this; I am a firm believer in Progressivism. I feel that schools and curriculum both should be directly tied with the matters, interests, and real-world experiences of students. The nature of a student’s knowledge should be constructed, dependent, discovered, and true regardless of any person, place, or thing. I once had a teacher tell me that there was no such thing as a stupid question. I have never heard such a true statement. The curriculum that we teach to our students should be structured and dependent on each child’s individual needs, abilities, and skill levels. At the same time we need to allocate students enough liberty so that their knowledge can also become true, regardless of when, where, or how they reach the information. As a progressive teacher I hope to assist learning by aiding students to form their own significant inquiries and discover the paths to solve those matters.

Ancient Egyptians

Table of Contents Thesis Statement†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 1 Time period†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 2 Geography/Location†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 3 Political Characteristics†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦5 Economy†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 8 Religious Beliefs†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 12 Social Structure†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 15 Achievements/Accomplishments†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦18 Decline of Ancient Egypt†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦20 Personal Observations†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 22 Bibliography†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 23 Thesis Statement Ancient Egypt has made incredible achievements at all aspects of a civilization. Over the years, Ancient Egypt has had many cultural accomplishments in art, architecture, and different philosophies which are still cherished today. Egypt is located in the northeastern corner of Africa, bordering on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the east. Religiously speaking the ancient Egyptians are polytheistic and believe in multiple deities or gods. They overall believe that there are divine forces that rule the Earth and the afterlife. The ancient Egyptians have gone through a long and interesting line of rulers. In our modern time period today, we can look back, learn and cherish the ancient Egyptians. Time Period †¢3100 BC – Hieroglyphics developed and King Menes united the Upper and Lower Kingdoms. †¢2700 BC – Pyramid building began, also the beginning of the Old Kingdom †¢2200 BC – The collapse of the Sixth Dynasty and the Old Kingdom; beginning of the Middle Kingdom †¢1700 BC – Earliest evidence of diagnostic medicine in Egypt and foreign invaders occupied the delta region; the fall of the Middle Kingdom †¢1550 BC – The rise of the New Kingdom 1503 BC – Woman ruler exercised all the rights of a pharaoh †¢1200 BC – Ramses became the most powerful pharaoh †¢1100 BC – The collapse of the New Kingdom †¢670 BC – The Assyrians attacked Egypt †¢525 BC – The Persians conquered Egypt †¢330 BC – Alexander the Great conquered Egypt †¢30 BC – The Romans conquered Egypt The ancient Egyptians went through many turning points from the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms. The most important events were when the Egyptians were getting invaded and taken over by many different people, including the Persians, Alexander the Great and his men, and for the longest period of time, The Romans. During these times ancient Egypt was stripped down from some of their freedoms and traditions and also some cultural diffusion was forced upon them. 2 Geography/Location As you read in the â€Å"Thesis Statement†, Egypt is located in the northeastern corner of Africa, bordering on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the east. The Egyptians most important natural resource was the Nile River, which flows from the Mediterranean Sea. They believed that they were blessed by the Nile and believed that the river was a gift from the Gods. The ancient Egyptians geographically ivided their land into two types, the â€Å"black land† and the â€Å"red land†. The â€Å"black land† was considered the fertile land on the banks of the Nile. Ancient Egyptians used this land for growing crops. This was the only land in Egypt that could be farmed because a layer of rich, black silt was spread on the land every year after the Nile flooded. The â€Å"red lan d† was the barren desert that protected Egypt on two sides. These deserts 3 protected ancient Egypt from nearby countries and invading armies. They also provided the ancient Egyptians with a source for different kinds of metals and stones. Egypt’s proximity to the Nile River enabled the Egyptians the trade, farm, make clothing, and ultimately use the river to its fullest. The ancient Egyptians use to sing a hymn of praise to the Nile for nourishing their land, these are the lyrics†¦ â€Å"If the Nile smiles, the Earth is joyous, Every stomach is full of rejoicing, Every spine is happy, Every jawbone crushes its food†. 4 Political Characteristics The Ancient Egyptian Government was dominated by a single man, the Pharaoh. The Egyptians believed that the ruler was more a man, but that he was a god. This gave the Pharaoh absolute control over affairs of the Empire and its people. Ancient Egypt was also considered as a theocracy, which was controlled by the clergy. The Pharaoh’s advisors and ministers were almost all priests, who were considered the only ones worthy and able to carry out the god-king’s commands. In most of the religious ancient societies, priest has a special status above the rest of the citizens. The governmental officials included the prime minister, the chief treasurer, the tax collector, the minister of public works, and the army commander. These officials were directly responsible to the Pharaoh. The land itself was divided up into provinces called nomes. Each nome had a governor, and was appointed by the Pharaoh, and responsible to the prime minister. Taxes were paid in goods and labor. Citizens were drafted into the army and forced labor for periods of time to pay the labor tax. Slaves, mercenaries, and draftees were often used in the army. It is believed, 5 however, that Egyptian slaves were not used to construct sacred monuments, such as the Pyramids. Egyptologist were led to this conclusion by recent finding of worker burial grounds near such monuments. The workers received proper Egyptian burials, where as slaves did not. The majority of Egyptian people were peasants who worked he land along the fertile Nile flood basin. These people had no voice in the government, and accepted the fact because it was backed by their religion. This aspect of the Egyptian’s religion helped keep Egypt so powerful and centralized during its high points. One of the most powerful rulers of ancient Egypt was the mighty Ramses II. Ramses was very ambitious and looked to expand the Egyptian empire northward as far as Syria. He constructed many temples and monuments and boasted of his conquest. In a battle against the Hittites, Ramses had outstanding bravery and prevented himself from a crushing defeat. Ramses was well respected and went in history for his achievements. His tomb is located in the Valley of the Kings, and his mummy is thought to be one of the most best-preserved mummies ever found. 6 Another greatly respected pharaoh of Egypt was King Menes. Menes was actually known as the first true leader of Egypt. He accomplished much, including the unification of the Upper and Lower Kingdoms of early Egypt. After Menes united the Kingdoms the Egyptian monarchy lasted in a recognizable form for over three thousand years. 7 Economy There were many aspects to the Ancient Egyptian economy. The Egyptians traded, educated, and farmed. The Egyptians had a large range of resources at their disposal varying from food and cloth, to metals and gems. Some of Egypt’s agricultural products were grain, vegetables, fruit, fish, attle, goats, pigs and fowl which were the primary food resources and flax was also grown to be spun into linen. A large proportion of grain was used for beer production. In ancient Egypt there was a good variety of metals, but only a small number were used including copper, bronze, and iron. Gems for the upper classes and the pharaoh and much stone were used for the construction of temples and of course the pyramids. The majority of the population more than nine tenths lived on the land in mostly village 8 communities. The land they worked in belonged in theory to the gods and in particularly the gods â€Å"Osiris† and â€Å"Horus† and his earthly incarnation or â€Å"avatar†, the pharaoh. The ancient Egyptian economic system was called a â€Å"command economy†. Administrators, priests, traders, and craftsmen lived mostly in the cities along the Nile. Some of the most commercial cities or capitals of ancient Egypt were Zawiyet el-Mayitin, Abydos, Naqada, el-Kula, Edfu, Seila and the island of Elephantine in the Nile River at modern Aswan. These provincial capitals were popular religious and economic centers serving the surrounding countryside. In ancient Egypt, a major part of the taxes imposed on the 9 people were used to keep the society running smoothly. Grain was one of the most taxed resources as it could be stored relatively easy and was very vital in years of bad harvests. Three thousand years of development pointed out just how effective this economy was. With the help from transportation by the Nile River, the Egyptians sold their products sold on the market. The Egyptians set up trade routes to reach distant countries. They often visited the countries along the Mediterranean Sea and the near the Upper Nile River because they were immediately adjacent to Egypt and contained materials that the Egyptians desired. These visited countries included Cyprus, Crete, Greece, Syro-Palestine, Punt, and Nubia. Some of the items that the Egyptians would bring back to Egypt would be leopard skins, giraffe tails, monkeys, cattle, ivory, ostrich feathers/eggs, and gold. When the Egyptians visited Punt, there a major source for incense, also Syro-Palestine provided ceder, oils, unguents, and horses. Horses were originally used in 10 ancient Egypt, and then the domesticated camel was introduced at around 500 BC. The economy in ancient Egypt was overall mainly very stable and structured over the years. 11 Religious Beliefs Religion was very important to the Ancient Egyptians. Their religion was strongly influenced by tradition, which caused them to resist change. Egyptians did not question the beliefs which had been handed down to them; they did not desire change in their society. Their main aim throughout their history was to emulate the conditions which they believed had existed at the dawn of creation. The Egyptians were polytheistic people that believed in multiple gods/deities. The god represented various forces of nature, thought patterns and power, and expressed by the means of complex and varied archetypes. These deities were worshipped with offerings and prayers in local household shrines, as well as in formal temples managed by priests. Different gods were prominent at different periods of Egyptian history, and the myths associated with them hanged over time, so Egypt never had a coherent 12 hierarchy of deities or a unified mythology. The religion of the Egyptians, however, contained many overarching beliefs. Among these were the divinity of the pharaoh, which helped to politically unify the country, and the complex beliefs about an afterlife, which gave the Egyptians’ elaborate burial customs concluding the process of mummification. Ancient Egyptians had many deities, here are some examples of the most important and famous ones.. Amun – The Egyptians believed that this god created himself in the beginning of time. They also believed him to be the father of the pharaohs. This god looks like a man with a beard, feathered crown, and shown as a ram or a ram-headed man. His name means the hidden one. Geb – Geb was a bearded god with a goose on his head. He was known as the healer and provider of crops. The Egyptians believed that when that Geb laughed that’s what caused the earthquakes. Egyptians had feared he might imprison the dead. 13 Mut – Mut is Egyptian goddess, also known as the mother of all living things. Her hieroglyphic symbol is the vulture. She is a woman wearing a vulture headdress sometimes. She also sometimes wears a double crown to represent lower and upper Egypt. Osiris – Orsiris was a strong element in Egyptian mythology. He was one of the five children born from the god of earth and the goddess of skies. He was inherirted to the throne of Egypt. Ra – The God Ra is the Egyptian god of the sun, light, heat, and the supreme judge. Also he was known as â€Å"Re- Horakhty†, which means Horus of the Horizon. A god with a sun disk around his head, he is worshipped all along Egypt. Egyptians believed he created the world, and the rising sun is the symbol of creation. The sun rising and setting meant renewal. He is ultimately known as the master of life. 14 Social Structure In the ancient times of Egypt the top of the social importance was the pharaoh, then the government officials such as the nobles priests, next were the soldiers, then scribes, merchants, artisans, farmers, and lastly slaves/ servants. The pyramid has been used as a visual metaphor to describe the social structures of ancient Egypt. The position of an individual in the social pyramid was determined by birth circumstances such as class, gender, race, and the relationship among social groups were determined by their occupations. Ancient Egypt was ruled by a very small rich upper class who enjoyed power and wealth while the large masses of Egyptian workers and peasants struggles to subsist. The ruling class depending on a social system of administrators, who organized the work force, managed resourced and taxed the surplus production. For their services, these government officials received favors and could rise to the highest ranks in the administration. 15 The upper class of Egypt despised the lower classes as inferiors, and many instances of abuse were committed, but peasant and farmers were not slaves. They had property rights and servants could inherit their master’s possessions when is they died without children. Other members of the working class, artisans, were their own masters. They owned property and land, and could freely buy and sell their products in the market. Education in ancient Egypt was not very advanced. At a young age children were mainly taught by their parents. Most parents would try to instill in their kids various educational principles, moral attitudes, and views of life from a tender age. For girls, they would always stay with their mothers. Very few careers were open to most women. While most woman trained for motherhood and how to be a good wife, some girls could train to be dancers, entertainers, weavers, or bakers. Only the daughters of wealthy nobles received an education in reading or writing. The boys were mainly raised by their fathers. Son usually followed the same trade that their fathers practices. Some of the boys at this time attended a general village school while others attended a school 16 designed for a specific career such as a priest or a noble. Schools taught writing, reading, math, and sports as well as morals and manors. At the age of fourteen, the sons of farmers or craftsmen joined their dads in their profession. Those children whose parents had higher status careers continued their education at special school usually attached to temples or government centers. The educational experiences in ancient Egypt had both similarities and differences compared to the present education in the U. S. A. It was similar because most parents like in ancient Egypt teach their kids moral values and educational principles. Unlike Egypt, in America it is a law that all American children must go to school and get an education. The selective school in Egypt taught similar subjects to the children, but it America present time , there is a lot more variety and opportunities for the future. 17 Achievements/Accomplishments There were many achievements of the ancient Egyptians including the quarrying, surveying and constructional techniques that facilitated the building of monumental pyramids, temple, and obelisks. They also established a system of mathematics, a practical and effective system of medicine, irrigation systems and agricultural production techniques. They had the first known ships, Egyptian faience and glass technology, new forms of literature, and the earliest known peace treaty. Egypt truly left a lasting legacy. Their art and architecture were widely copied, and sent around the world today. Egypt’s monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of travelers and writers for centuries. In the mathematical area, Egyptians used a numbering system based on ten. They used vertical tally marks to represent the numbers one through nine, then they used symbols for larger numbers. For example, a heel stood for 10, a crook was 100, a flower was 1000, a finger was a 10,000, and a tadpole represented 100,000. 18 In the science department, the Egyptians believed that â€Å"Thoth†, in the form of an ibis, was the inventor of astrology and mathematics, he was known as the god of wisdom and magic. The Egyptians had many outstanding cultural achievements concluding mainly art and architecture. The Egyptian art was highly symbolic and a painting or sculpture was not meant to be a record of as the result of subtle changes, not as altered conception of arts or its role in society. The pyramids of Egypt are the most famous and mind-blowing structures built by the Egyptians. The Egyptian also had some literature mostly written on papyrus, also contains elements of art. The writings included hymns to the gods, mythological and magical texts, and mortuary texts. 19 Decline Egypt was once one of the most powerful civilizations on the planet. The decline of Egypt started at around 1000 BC when there was struggle for power by priests and nobles and the country started to spilt up. Rich people wanted to take over Egypt and hired men to conquer certain areas of Egypt. As there was a struggle for power, enemies from other countries invaded Egypt. The Cushites ruled Egypt from about 767 BC until they were defeated by the Assyrians in 671 BC and then Egypt took back their country in 525 BC. In 343 BC, the Persians took over Egypt as a part of their conquest. Later, a man named Alexander the Great conquered most of Europe and Africa including Egypt. Alexander became the Pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire and he was loved by the Egyptian people. He was committed to the well being of people so he chose not to change their ways. After Alexander died, his generals each ruled areas he conquered, this period of Alexander lasted for 20 300 years until the Romans took it over. The Romans ruled Egypt for seven centuries, Egypt was a great source of wealth to the Romans. The Romans brought Christianity to Egypt. The Roman period of Egypt was peaceful even though the ancient religion of Egypt was taken over by the fast spread of Christianity. The period of ancient Egypt lasted from 3000 BC – 639 AD, was at the end when Arabs brought the religion of Islam to Egypt. The fall of this rich civilization is probably one of the most interesting parts, in not just Egyptian history, but ancient history in general, since Egypt was the most powerful civilization in the world at the time. 21 Personal Observations I truly think Egypt is one of the most amazing ancient civilizations of all time. I choose Egypt for my research paper because I believe that they have so much unique culture and mind-blowing accomplishments. From this research paper I have learned many new things about ancient Egypt that I never knew before. I thought that all the monuments and pyramids were very impressive. Also the architectural design of the Egyptians is truly creative and inspiring. I hope that people in our modern time can learn how to appreciate the integrity of the Egyptians, and hopefully by reading this research paper it well help. 22 Bibliography Books – The school textbook of world history, â€Å"Egyptian art† by Cryril Aldred, â€Å"Egypt† by DK Publishing Websites – www. wsu. edu, www. ancientegypt. co. uk, www. kingtutone. com, www. reshafim, www. ancient-egypt. org 23

Footballs governing bodies Essay Example

Footballs governing bodies Essay Example Footballs governing bodies Paper Footballs governing bodies Paper All sports have at least one governing body. This governing body has many responsibilities, including setting rules, setting punishments, controlling draws for competitions and tournaments, etc.  The governing body for football in England is the Football Association. They control football at all levels, from grass roots to the premier league. One of their jobs is to make sure that football is being played using the correct rules and regulations so that each game is fair. They do this by making all referees and officials take a course that teaches them the correct rules of the game, and tests them to make sure they know them. They handle such things as international relations, ethics and sports equity, elite player development and coaching.  The FA has also done many great things that have helped the game in England. An important thing for the future of English football is that we keep producing good young footballing talent. The FA has overseen this by setting up coaching academies and national football centres of excellence. These centres of excellence are where the best young footballers are sent to learn from the best coaches and trainers in England. This helps them progress, and lets them play with and against the best players in their age group. They also make sure that they are educated well, so that if they dont make it in football, they do have a backup plan and other options. : The FA controls the England national team, and also appoints the manager. They have a say in who can and cant be selected for various reasons.  One of the most recent, and high profile cases of the FA refusing to allow a player to be selected for the national team, is when they banned Rio Ferdinand from playing for England. Ferdinand was at the time being charged for failing to take a drugs test. Against the wishes of the England manager Sven Goran Eriksson, the FA refused to allow him to be selected whilst the case was pending. The FA, through its extensive training programme for coaches, has always had as a priority improving the technical quality of coaches across the country. This in turn improves the quality of players, as better coaches mean better players.  The first step to become a coach is to enrol on a FA Coaching Course. By getting on the coaching ladder individuals have the opportunity to progress up through the various FA Coaching qualifications and to enhance their skills and knowledge in coaching. The FA is also involved in running campaigns for the good of the game not only in England, but worldwide. Campaigns such as kick it out have been a huge success. Kick it out is a campaign aimed at eliminating racism from the game in any shape or form. It wants to remove racism from stands, pitches and from football in general. Due to the FAs funding, the campaign has done a great job of achieving its goals, and is teaching the next generation of youngsters not to be racist. Sean Halsey, P.E. homework, Ms Price  Footballs governing bodies  Just as the FA controls football in England, it in turn is controlled by European and worldwide governing bodies.  UEFA is the governing body for European football. It controls tournaments such as the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA cup. Its job is to make sure football is run properly over the whole of Europe, and it has a hand in decisions that affect football worldwide along with FIFA.  FIFA is the governing body for International football. Its decisions affect all international football teams and it has a hand in setting new rules and regulations for football as a whole.

Spelling and Pronunciation

Spelling and Pronunciation Spelling and Pronunciation Spelling and Pronunciation By Maeve Maddox Posts on the topic of pronunciation usually provoke a lot of attention, often drawing heated defenses of one pronunciation over another and suggesting that only one can ever be â€Å"correct.† In fact, â€Å"correct† pronunciation differs from century to century and from region to region. Words are affected by pronunciation changes of two kinds: 1. Changes that have taken centuries to develop, the kind that have transformed Old English into the English spoken today. 2. Changes that began as a deliberate alteration of the established pronunciation for some purpose or other. According to Ida A. Ward (The Phonetics of English), the latter type of change arises through some person who deliberately adopts a new pronunciation because he thinks it better; it is an affectation on his part. At first it is probably regarded as a false refinement by those who do not use it, but gradually by frequent repetition, the new pronunciation spreads, and a succeeding generation acquires it as its natural pronunciation. This type of deliberate change probably dates from the 16th- 18th centuries when scholars busied themselves with the â€Å"refinement† of English spelling to make it reflect Latin or Greek origins. One change was to introduce an extra consonant sound into words that did not have them. For example, our word perfect entered English from Norman French as parfet or parfit, as in Chaucer’s â€Å"He was a veray parfit gentil knight.† The modern form perfect acquired its c to show the derivation from Latin perfectio. The English pronunciation eventually changed to reflect the /k/ sound represented by the c. The same thing happened to Norman French verdit when the spelling was changed to verdict. On the other hand, Norman French endite, spelled indict in modern English, is still pronounced without a k sound in spite of the c: /in-DITE/. The word victual, pronounced vittle by many speakers, is another holdout against spelling pronunciation. The consonant d was added to the word aventure to produce modern adventure. In 1701, an observer listed several words that were spelled with d’s and t’s that were not pronounced in speech at that time: of(t)en Chris(t)mas cos(t)ly ghos(t)ly mos(t)ly roas(t) beef husban(d) pagean(t) We(d) nesday wris(t)band Wil(t)shire frien(d) ly han(d)maid fon(d)le can(d)le han(d)le chil(d)ren Modern speakers pronounce the d or t in most of these words, but not in all. The pronunciation of at least two of the words- often and Wednesday- is hotly contested in comment columns on sites such as this one. So far, native speakers don’t try to pronounce the t in castle or listen, but some preachers have been heard to insert it into apostle and epistle. Speakers who become really put out with people who pronounce the l in palm, calm, and almond, probably think nothing of pronouncing the l in fault, falter, vault, Walter, falcon, almanac and cauldron- all words that had the l inserted after they’d been adopted into English without it. Spelling pronunciations that are well established in the language, regardless of their â€Å"original† form, are no longer contested. More recent innovations, like restoring the t in often or pronouncing the l in almond, remain the stuff of blogging controversy. Related posts: How Do You Pronounce â€Å"Often†? L Words in English Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:60 Synonyms for â€Å"Walk†50 Idioms About Arms, Hands, and FingersWoof or Weft?

Thorntons PLC Strategic Analysis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Thorntons PLC Strategic Analysis - Assignment Example Thornton's PLC has 230,000 employees world-wide and operates 520 factories in 82 countries. Thornton's PLC fundamental social impact is to improved standards of living among millions of people through creation of productive, sustainable economic development. Thornton's PLC brands showed the strongest growth, currently posting sales close to 700 million liters in over 20 countries. Thornton's PLC leadership is concentrated in Europe (regions where economic risk is limited, incomes are high and growth prospects are robust) through the development of strong brands, the HOD business, and acquisitions that offer real opportunities for synergy. In 1999 Thornton's PLC operated from 509 factories worldwide, 424 are in special chocolates and toffee products. Special chocolates accounted for 28% of 1999 revenues; 26%; chocolate and confectionery, 54% are in toffee. With a net profit of 4.724 million, up 12.3 percent over last year, and with significant, broad-based improvement in all major performance indicators, Thorntons PLC looks back on a record year 1999. The net profit margin reached 6.3 percent (5.9 percent in 1998) on consolidated sales of 74 660 million (1998: 71 747 million). The trading profit of 7 914 million increased by 11.8 percent, a margin of 10.6 percent of sales (9.9 percent in 1998). EBITA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes and Amortization) improved by 12.4 percent to 8 298 million (1998: 7 382 million). These substantial improvements reflect a series of measures taken over the past years, touching virtually all activities (Mitchell, 2002). Streamlining the business portfolio, increasing operational efficiency, industrial restructuring and progress in purchasing and supply chain management enabled the Group to achieve higher profits, margins and return on invested capital. Thornton's PLC also made the necessary investments to ensure future top-line growth by investing in new products and strengthening its brands and market shares. During the first half of 2000, Thorntons PLC achieved a significant increase in both sales and profit margins. Table shows that consolidated sales grew by 9.9 percent to 38.8 billion, with real internal growth accelerating to 4.5 percent, compared to 2.1 percent in the same period of 1999. Trading profit amounted to 4296 million. This represents 11.1 percent of sales against 9.8 percent for the 1st half of 1999. Net profit increased to 2798 million or CHF 72.7 per share, resulting in a net profit margin of 7.2 percent (5.9 percent in the first half of 1999). The strong sales performance reflects the Group's emphasis on internal growth. The margin improvements result from progress achieved in enhancing operational efficiency, the streamlining of the Group's product portfolio, industrial restructuring and some lower raw material prices which were able to offset higher packaging costs. Internal Growth and Currencies Push Up Sales Consolidated sales, at 38.8 billion, were up 9.9 percent. At comparable structure (excluding acquisitions and divestitures) and at constant exchange rates, sales rose by 4.9 percent (see table 1). Table 1. Thornton's PLC Figures for 1999-2002 Thornton's PLC Annual Report 2002 2001 2000(e) 1999(f) In millions of CHF (except for per share data) Consolidated sales 89 160 84 698 81 422 74 660 71 747 EBITA 10 940 9 987 9 911 8 700 7 606 as % of

The Influence of Aldo Leopold on Modern Resource Management and Essay

The Influence of Aldo Leopold on Modern Resource Management and Conservation - Essay Example They include the materials and energy that serves the needs of man in the society (McKinney, Schoch, & Yonavjak, 153). The naturally occurring materials like trees, soil, and water are all resources that are valued by man. There are those resources that can be replaced within a short duration and those that cannot be replaced within the short duration. These are referred to as renewable and non-renewable resources respectively (McKinney, Schoch, & Yonavjak, 153). Some of the non-renewable resources like coal may take thousands or millions of years to be replaced. An important point to note for the resources is that the rate at which they are consumed often exceeds the rate of renewal and posing a challenge on their scarcity. On the other hand, there are some resources that are in large supply but the problem is how to harness and use it appropriately e.g. the solar energy (McKinney, Schoch, & Yonavjak, 153). The increasing size of human population is becoming a threat to the natural resources with a possibility of overexploitation of the resources. There is, therefore, a need to provide an alternative to this excess exploitation of natural resources (McKinney, Schoch, & Yonavjak, 153). This brings in the concept of resource management. Resource management entails a controlled exploitation of the natural resources. It arises due to the fact the exploitation of natural resources has both costs and benefits. The big deal is to perform a cost-benefit analysis and develop a mechanism for proper use of the resources. Aldo Leopold was a philosopher, forester, and conservationist who played a key role in the establishment of wildlife management system in the United States. He was born towards the end of the nineteenth century and was brought up in Burlington (Austin College, para.9) He had an early interest in the natural resources and this would influence his future careers and profession. He pursued forest related careers at various institutions