Carribean Adventures

I am Sandra Gaskins, born in California. I have completed MBA from Anderson School of Management in 2008, did graduation in commerce streams from University of American inter Continental and schooling from Belmont Senior high school. During my MBA course, I did summer internship in American express as a Management Trainee, where my job profile was to work with the travel counselor and prepare the project report on delivery of quality services to the customers. During this program I realized my strengths, which are better communication skill, handling the queries of customers and working in teams. About my family background – my father is running a privately owned business of textiles and mother is a home maker. I have one sibling pursuing BBA. I am keen to work with the Carribean Adventures, since the profile of Travel Counselor requires the skill of customer service and ability to work under pressure and I am familiar with the workings and dealings of travel counselors as I worked in the same field during internship. I had a great learning during internship. There I learnt about the customer values, needs and what quality means to them. Along with this, I had a selling experience and learnt how to coordinate in teams, which ultimately enhanced my problem solving capabilities and all these qualities form the core in order to become the travel counselor. Apart from this, I possess a sound knowledge of geographical locations, as it was one of my hobbies to gather the information related to the diversities in the places and study the human psychology. Therefore, based on the above mentioned qualities and my sheer determination towards the work that is assigned to me, I can say that I will be the suitable candidate for this post. Â   Â  

Galapagos Island Essay

Galapagos island is located at the Pacific Ocean placed along the equator which is about 1,000 km from the coast of South America. It is composed of 13 main islands, 6 small islands and â€Å"107 islets and rocks. † A province of Ecuador, Galapagos islands’ capital is Puerto Baquerizo Moreno which is mostly inhabited by an estimated 18,000 people. Some of the islands were formerly active volcanoes but some are still active (Galapagos Conservation Trust, 2008, â€Å"Explore Galapagos†). Biodiversity in Galapagos Island Galapagos Island’s seclusion and controlled population contributed to its rich and extensive biodiversity. Because of these factors, the pace of evolutionary changes have accelerated that resulted to diversification and the formation of new species called speciation. The geographical isolation of the island wherein the â€Å"archipelago is isolated from the continent, the islands from each other by different distances, and the habitat types by their climatic differences,† aided in the promotion of different evolutionary tracks resulting to varying terrain, vegetation, animal and plant life between every islands (Charles Darwin Foundation, 2006, â€Å"Galapagos Land Ecosystems†). Vegetation in Galapagos is influenced by land habitat and climate but is â€Å"strongly zoned by altitude. † There are four vegetations zones in Galapagos namely: Littoral Zone which is affected by the salt spray alongside the coast; Dry Zone has the biggest scope in the island; Transition Zone is a vegetation of woodland; and Humidi Zone is characterized by highland grasslands and Miconia scrub (Charles Darwin Foundation, 2006, â€Å"Galapagos Land Ecosystems†). A variety of animal and plant life also forms the abundant biodiversity of Galapagos. There are many animals living in the island, in which most of them roam freely because of the absence of predators. Reptiles, terrestrial mammals, birds and fishes are all endemic creatures and consider Galapagos as their home (Galapagos Conservation Trust, 2008, â€Å"Explore Galapagos†). One of the famous specie in this island is a giant pre-historic tortoise called Lonesome George. Galapagos tortoises are part of the species â€Å"Geochelone elephantopus. † These animals have undergone fourteen forms depending on their location at the Galapagos. But bad news for Lonesome George, if experts cant’ produce or obtain a mate for him soon, his species will become extinct. In addition, a wide array of animals have gained popularity within and outside the islands including the marine turtle, marine and land iguanas, lava lizards and others (Galapaguide, â€Å"Galapagos Animals†). Meanwhile, plant life is also as diverse and one of a kind as the animal life. There are many theories on how vegetation started in Galapagos. One possible scenario is when spores and seeds were transported by the wind or through the â€Å"feet, plummage and digestive system of migratory birds† or probably because of the force of the marine current (Galapagos Voyage, â€Å"Galapagos Island Animal, Flora & Fauna†). Depending on the vegetation, various species of plants, flowers and trees are present in every island. Some can only be solely found in Galapagos such as passion flower, tomato, guava and cotton. Numerous plant species have changed into an assortment of endemic species which scientists explained as ‘adaptive radiation’ (Galapagos Conservation Trust, 2008, â€Å"Explore Galapagos†). All of these species though diverse have a symbiotic relationship with each other. Galapagos’ rare but exquisite ecosystem had produced a lavish and fertile marine, aquatic, terrestrial, avian and flora and fauna life all over the islands. Furthermore, the distinctiveness and the detachment of the islands from the hustle and bustle of civilization gave Galapagos a unique feature that it can clearly claim for its own. No other place in the world comes close to being as diverse and extraordinary as the Galapagos islands. Conservation and Preservation of Galapagos Island Galapagos Island is one of the best kept secrets of the world. Its captivating beauty and enigmatic charm have lured numerous people ranging from tourists, scientists, fishermen and others. Because of this, the Galapagos have been put on the list of sites that are in danger by the World Heritage. The influx of humans in the islands have caused a domino effect that have immensely affected the plant and animal life and the whole ecosystem as well (People & the Planet, 2007, â€Å"Galapagos Islands put on danger list†). The ecological degradation is caused by the development trends that are in contrasts with the conservation efforts in the islands. Three main factors that affected Galapagos’ ecology were the growth in human population, increase of transportation from the main island to Galapagos and the intensified fishing (Bensted-Smith, 1999, â€Å"A Biodiversity Vision for the Galapagos Islands†) . The â€Å"accelerating cycle of economic and population growth pushed by external markets† have elevated the danger to local biodiversity. The increase in demand for â€Å"tourism and marine resources† have caused the emergence of invasive species, too much harvesting of marine life, and pollution. As a consequence, the islands have suffered from social, economical and political stresses due to the amplified desire to use Galapagos’ natural wealth and public services. This was manifested because of tourism mismanagement in the islands. Tourism brought economic growth, however, Galapagos being a fragile ecosystem, was not able to adapt to the changes causing major damages in the biodiversity (Galapagos Conservation Trust, 2008, â€Å"Explore Galapagos†). Human intrusion to the delicate biodiversity of Galapagos is very much evident in the modern age but civil groups and the government are drafting efforts to ensure that most or all of forms of life in the islands are conserved and preserved. The presence of marine reserves and the Galapagos national park are the initial drives to protect the endemic species and the pristine environment (Galapagos Conservation Trust, 2008, â€Å"Issues in Galapagos†). More so, the Ecuadorian government have set up significant initiatives the following: 1) migration to the islands was regulated; 2) quarantine inspection system was installed; 3) public funds for ecoparks were increased; and 4) additional monetary support were yielded for conservation projects (Bensted-Smith, 1999, â€Å"A Biodiversity Vision for the Galapagos Islands†). To further the enterprise for preservation and conservation, there should be numerous researches to be conducted regarding social and biological sciences to help intensify the information drive on Galapagos biodiversity. Through this, environmental awareness will be increase thus reducing the possibility of disruption of the ecosystem. Also, there should be local and national agencies that would consolidate all conservation forces in the islands and ensure its effective management . Another solution would be putting up â€Å"sustainable and equitable businesses† to make sure that humans don’t abuse the natural resources and Galapagos’ ecology (Galapagos Conservation Trust, 2008, â€Å"Explore Galapagos†). Meanwhile collective efforts are very powerful in conserving and preserving, however as an individual, you can also contribute by donating to institutions that help foster the growth of Galapagos biodiversity. Also, in today’s technological era, you could use the internet to raise awareness about the environmental problems plaguing Galapagos to awaken the senses of millions and millions of people all over the world. Another contribution for the advancement of conservation and preservation is by joining organizations whose objectives are to save the animal and plant life of Galapagos. Galapagos island is indeed a place where all living species exist in peace but the constant threat of human intervention can increase the possibility of Galapagos having a tragic death. If things will not be controlled and modulated, this pristine archipelago will soon be extinct. The existence of endemic plants and centuries old animals in Galapagos are the most crucial elements that can’t be replaced and renewed once they have been exterminated. These environmental gems are the key to future development of other living organisms. Without them, things will not be the same and we would be depriving future generations the chance to experience and study these unique and bountiful ecosystem. So to prevent this from happening, we must start within ourselves by promoting and practicing preservation and conservation of our natural resources and this will have a chain effect wherein every living being would experience existing in a sustainable environment. References Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands. (2006). Galapagos Land Ecosystems. Retrieved March 11, 2008, from http://www. darwinfoundation. org/en/galapagos/land Bensted-Smith, R. (Ed). 2002. A biodiversity vision for the Galapagos Islands. CDF: Galapagos. Galapaguide. Galapagos Animals. Retrieved March 11, 2008, from http://www. galapaguide. com/islas_galapagos_fauna. htm Galapagos Conservation Trust. (2008). Explore Galapagos. Retrieved March 11, 2008, from http://www. gct. org/intro. html Galapagos Conservation Trust. (2008). Issues in Galapagos. Retrieved March 11, 2008, from http://www. gct. org/issues. html Galapagos Voyage. Galapagos Island Animal, Flora & Fauna. Retrieved March 11, 2008, from http://www. galapagosvoyage. com/page_content. asp? id_page=149 People & the Planet. (2007, July 07). Galapagos Islands put on danger list. Retrieved March 11, 2008, from http://peopleandplanet. net/doc. php? id=3061

Atomic

Atomic Essay BombThen a tremendous flash of light cut across the sky . Mr. Tanimotohas a distinct recollection that it traveled from east to west, from the citytoward the hills. It seemed like a sheet of sun. à John Hersey, fromHiroshima, pp.8 On August 6, 1945, the world changed forever. On that day theUnited States of America detonated an atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima. Never before had mankind seen anything like. Here was something that wasslightly bigger than an ordinary bomb, yet could cause infinitely moredestruction. It could rip through walls and tear down houses like the devilswrecking ball. In Hiroshima it killed 100,000 people, most non-militarycivilians. Three days later in Nagasaki it killed roughly 40,000 . The immediateeffects of these bombings were simple. The Japanese government surrendered,unconditionally, to the United States. The rest of the world rejoiced as themost destructive war in the history of mankind came to an end . All while thesurvivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki tried to piece together what was left oftheir lives, families and homes. Over the course of the next forty years, thesetwo bombings, and the nuclear arms race that followed them, would come to have adirect or indirect effect on almost every man, woman and child on this Earth,including people in the United States. The atomic bomb would penetrate everyfabric of Ame rican existence. From our politics to our educational system. Ourindustry and our art. Historians have gone so far as to call this period in ourhistory the Ã’atomic ageÓ for the way it has shaped and guided worldpolitics, relations and culture. The entire history behind the bomb itself isrooted in Twentieth Century physics. At the time of the bombing the science ofphysics had been undergoing a revolution for the past thirty-odd years. Scientists now had a clear picture of what the atomic world was like. They newthe structure and particle makeup of atoms, as well as how they behaved. Duringthe 1930Õs it became apparent that there was a immense amount of energythat would be released atoms of Gioielli 2certain elements were split, or takenapart. Scientists began to realize that if harnessed, this energy could besomething of a magnitude not before seen to human eyes. They also saw that thisenergy could possibly be harnessed into a weapon of amazing power. And with theadvent of World War Two, this became an ever increasing concern. In the earlyfall of 1939, the same time that the Germans invaded Poland, President Rooseveltreceived a letter from Albert Einstein, informing him about the certainpossibilities of creating a controlled nuclear chain reaction, and thatharnessing such a reaction could produce a bomb of formidable strength. Hewrote: This new phenomena would lead also lead to the construction of bombs, andit is conceivable, though much less certain-that extremely powerful bombs of anew type may thus be constructed (Clark 556-557).The letter goes on to encouragethe president to increase government and military involvement in suchexperiments, and to encourage the experimental work of the scientists with theallocation of funds, facilities and equipment that might be necessary. Thisletter ultimately led to the Manhattan Project, the effort that involvedbillions of dollars and tens of thousands of people to produce the atomic bomb. During the time after the war, until just recently the American psyche has beenbranded with the threat of a nuclear holocaust. Here was something so powerful,yet so diminutive. A bomb that could obliterate our nations capital, and thatwas as big as somebodies backyard grill. For the first time in the history ofhuman existence here was something capable of wiping us off the face of theEarth. And most people had no control over that destiny. It seemed like peopleslives, the life of everything on this planet, was resting in the hands of acouple men in Northern Virginia and some guys over in Russia. The atomic bomband the amazing power it held over us had a tremendous influence on AmericanCulture, including a profound effect on American Literature. After the war, thefirst real piece of literature about the bombings came in 1946. The workHiroshima, by Jon Hersey, from which the opening quote is taken, first appearedas a long article in the New Yorker, then shortly after in book form. The bookis a non-fiction account of the bombing of Hiroshima and the immediateaftermath. It is told from the point-of-view of six hibakusha, or Ã’survivorsÓof the atomic blast. In four chapters Hersey traces how the these peoplesurvived the blast, and what they did in following weeks and months to pulltheir lives together Gioielli 3and save their families. The book takes on a toneof sympathy and of miraculous survival à that these people were luckyenough to survive the blast. He focuses not on the suffering of the victims buton their courage (Stone, 7). The following passage from the first chapter showsthis:A hundred thousand people were killed by the bomb, and these six were amongthe survivors. They still wonder why they lived when so many others died. Eachof the counts many small items of chance or volitionà a step taken in time,a decision to go indoors, catching one streetcar instead of the nextà thatspared him. And each that in the act of survival he lived a dozen lives and sawmore death than he ever thought he would see. At the time, none of them knewanything (4). Hersey was attempting to chronicle what had happened at Hiroshima,and to do so fairly. And in emphasizing the survival instead of the suffering hedoes not make his book anti-American or something that condemns the dropping ofthe bomb. He simply gives these peoples accounts of how they survived in a tonethat is more journalistic than sensationalistic. The book empathizes with theirplight while it also gives an American explanation for the bombing (Stone, 7). That it was an act of war to end the war as quickly and as easily as possible,and to save more lives in the long run. Hersey did all this to provide what heconsidered an evenhanded portrayal of the event, but he also did not want tocause much controversy. Although it could be criticized for not giving a moredetailed account of the suffering that occurred, and that it reads more like ahistory book than a piece of literature, HerseyÕs book was the first ofits kind when it was published. Up until then all accounts of the Hiroshimabombing writings about it took the slant that Japanese had Ã’deserved whatwe had given themÓ, and that we were good people for doing so. Theseaccounts were extremely prejudicial and racist. (Stone, 4) Hersey was the firstto take the point of view of those who had actually experienced the event. Andhis work was the transition between works that glorified thedropping of theatomic bomb, to those that focused on its amazing destructive powers, and whatth ey could do to our world. During the period immediately after the war, notmuch information was available to general public concerning what kind ofdestruction the atomic bombs had actually caused in Japan. But starting withHerseyÕs book and continuing with other non-fiction works, such as DavidBradleys No Place To Hide, which concerned the Bikini Island nuclear tests,Americans really began to get a picture of the awesome power and destructivenessof nuclear weapons. They saw that these really Gioielli 4were doomsday devices. Weapons that could change everything in an instant, and turn things into nothingin a moment. It was this realization that had a startling effect on Americanculture and literature. Some Americans began to say Ã’At any time we couldall be shadows in the blast wave, so whatÕs the point?Ó. Thisviewpoint manifested itself in literature in something called the Ã’apocalyptictemperÓ; an attitude or a tone dealing with a forthcoming end to theworld. Also, many people, because of this realization of our impending death,were beginning to say that maybe their was something inherently wrong with allof this. That nuclear weapons are dangerous to everyone, no matter what yourpolitical views or where you live, and that we should do away with all of them. They have no value to society and should be destroyed. This apocalyptic temperand social activism was effected greatly in the early Sixties by the CubanMissile Crisis. When Americans saw, on television, that they could be undernuclear attack in under twenty minutes, a new anxiety about the cold warsurfaced that had not been present since the days of McCarthy. And this newanxiety was evidenced in works that took on a much more satirical tone. And oneof the works that shows this satiric apocalyptic temper and cynicism is KurtVonneguts Cats Cradle. Vonnegut, considered by many to be one of Americasforemost living authors, was himself a veteran of World War Two. He, as aprisoner of war, was one of the few survivors of the fire-bombing of Dresden. InDresden he saw what many believe was a more horrible tragedy than Hiroshima. Theallied bombs destroyed the entire city and killed as many people, if not more,than were killed in Hiroshima. He would eventually write about this experiencein the semi-autobiographical Slaughterhouse-Five. This novel, like Cats Cradle,takes a very strong anti-war stance. But along with being an Anti-war book, CatsCradle is an excellent satire of the Atomic Age. It is essentially the story ofone man, an author by the name of John (or Jonah) and the research he is doingfor a book on the day the bomb exploded in Hiroshima. This involves him withmembers of the Dr. Felix Hoenikker familyà the genius who helped build thebombà and their adventures. In the book Vonnegut paints an imaginary worldwhere things might not seem to make any Gioielli 5sense. But there is in fact anamazing amount of symbolism, as well as satire. Dr. Hoenikker is an extremelyeccentric scientist who spends most of his time in the lab at his company. He isinterested in very few things, his children not among them. His children arealmost afraid of him. One of the few times he does try to play with his childrenis when he tries to teach the game of cats cradle to his youngest s on, Newt. READ: The Harrapan Civilization EssayWhen he is trying to show newt the game Newt gets very confused. In the book,this is what Newt remembered of the incident:Ã’And then he sang, ÔRockabyecatsy, in the tree topÕ;he sang, Ô when the wind blows, the cray-dullwill fall. Down will come cray-dull, catsy and all.Õ Ã’I burst intotears. I jumped up and ran out of the house as fast as I could.Ó(18)WhatNewt doesnÕt remember is what he said to his Father. Later in the book wefind this out from Newts sister, Angela that newt jumped of his fatherÕslap screaming Ã’ No cat! No cradle! No cat! No cradle!Ó(53) With thisscene, Vonnegut is trying to show a couple of things. Dr. Hoenikker symbolizesall the scientists who created the atomic bomb. And the cats cradle is the worldand all of humankind combined. Dr. Hoenikker is simply playing, like he has allhis life, that game just happens to involve the fate of the rest of the world. And little Newt, having a childs un-blinded perception, doesnÕt understandthe game. He doesnÕt see a cat or a cradle. Like all the gamesDr.Hoenikker plays, including the ones with nuclear weapons, this one ismislabeled. This is just one of the many episodes in the book that characterizesDr. Hoenikker as a player of games. He recognizes this in himself when he giveshis Nobel Prize speech:I stand before you now because I never stopped dawdlinglike an eight year on a spring morning on his way to school. Anything can makeme stop and wonder, and sometimes learn (17). And the Doctors farewell to theworld is a game he has played, with himself. One day a Marine General asked himif he could make something that would eliminate mud, so that marines wouldnÕthave to deal with mud anymore. So Dr. Hoenikker thinks up ice-nine, an imaginarysubstance that when it comes in contact with any other kind of water, itcrystallizes it. And this crystallization spreads to all the water moleculesth is piece of water is in contact with. So to crystallize the mud in an entirearmed division of marines, it would only take a minuscule amount of ice-nine. Dr. Gioielli 6Hoenikkers colleagues see this as just another example of hisimagination at work. But he actually does create a small chink of ice-nine, andwhen he dies, each of his children get a small piece of it. They carry it aroundwith themselves in thermos containers the rest of their lives. At the end ofbook one small piece of ice-nine gets out , by mere accident, and ends upcrystallizing the whole world. The game Dr. Hoenikker was playing with himselfdestroyed the whole world. The accident that caused the ice-nine to get outcould be much like the accident that could cause World War III. One small thingthat sets off an amazing series of events, like piece of ice-nine just fallingout of the thermos. And Dr. Hoenikker, like the scientists of the world, wasplaying game and caused it all. Here is a description of the world after theice-nine has wreaked its havoc:There were no smells. There was no movement. Every step I took made a gravelly squeak in blue-white frost. And every squeakwas echoed loudly. The season of locking was over. The Earth was locked up tight(179).This description eerily resembles what many have said the Earth will looklike during a nuclear winter (Stone, 62). In addition to Dr. Hoenikker and hisdoomsday games, Vonnegut provides an interesting analysis of atomic age societywith the Bokonon religion. This religion, completely made up by Vonnegut andused in this novel, is the religion of every single inhabitant of San Lorenzo,the books imaginary banana republic. This is the island where Jonah eventuallyends up, and where the ice-nine holocaust originates. (It also, being aCaribbean nation, strangely resembles Cuba.) Bokonon is a strange religion. Itwas created by one of the leaders of San Lorenzo, a long time ago. Essentially,Bokonon is the only hope for all inhabitants of San Lorenzo. Their existence onthe island is so horrible that they have to find harmony with som ething. Bokononism gives them that. It is based on untruths, to give San Lorenzans asense of security, since the truth provides none. This concept can be summed upin this Bokononist quotation: Ã’Live by thefoma* that makes you brave andkind and healthy and happy. *Harmless untruths (4)Ó The inhabitants of SanLorenzo do not care what is going on in their real lives because they have thefoma of Bokonon to keep them secure and happy. And Vonnegut is trying to saythat is what is happening to the rest of us. Americans, and the rest of theworld for that matter, have this false sense of security that we are safe andsecure. That in our homes in Indiana with our dogs and Gioielli 7our lawnmowers,we think we are invincible. Everything will be okay because we are protected byare government. This is the foma of real life, because we are trying to denywhat is really going on. WeÕre in imminent danger of being annihilated atany second, but to deny this very real danger we are creating a false w orld sothat we may live in peace, however false that sense of peace may be. Throughoutthe entire novel Vonnegut gives little snippets of Ã’calypsosÓ :Bokonon proverbs written by Bokonon. Verse like:I wanted all things To seem tomake some sense,So we could all be happy, yes,Instead of tense.And I made upliesSo that they all fit niceAnd made this sad worldA par-a-dise (90).Thiscalypso expresses the purpose of Bokonon and why it, with its harmless untruths,exists. The following one is about the outlawing of Bokonon. To make thereligion more appealing to the people, the leaders had it banned, with itspractice punishable by death. They hoped that a renegade religion with a rebelleader would appeal to the people more.So I said good-bye to government,and Igave my reason:That a really good religionIs a form of treason (118)Thesecalypsos, and the rest of the book, express the points Vonnegut in a moreabstract , symbolic manner. They only add to the impact of the books messageexpressin g it in a very short, satirical way. The black humor used when talkingabout the end of the worldà the nuclear endà was pioneered by Vonnegut. But what many consider to be the the climax of this pop culture phenomena isStanley Kubricks movie, Dr. Strangelove(Stone 69). Subtitled Or How I learnedto Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb , this movie was Kubricks viewpoint on howmad the entire Cold War and arms race had become. Based a little known book byEnglish science fiction writer Peter George, Red Alert, the movie is about howone maverick Air Force general, who is obviously suffering a severe mentalillness, concocts a plan to save the world from the Gioielli 8Communists. Hemanages to order the strategic bombers under his command to proceed to theirtargets in the Soviet Union. They all believe it is World War Three, and theGeneral, Jack Ripper, is the only one that can call the planes back. Kubrickscharacters: Dr. Strangelove, President Mertin Muffley, Premier Kissof andothers, go through a series a misadventures to try and turn the planes around. READ: Human Sexuality EssayBut the one, plane piloted by Major Ã’KingÓ Kong, does get through,and it drops its bombload. This is where Kubrick tries to show the futility ofeverything. The governments of both the worlds superpowers have thousands ofsafeguards and security precautions for their nuclear weapons. But one manmanages to get a nuclear warhead to be hit its target. And this warhead hits theÃ’Doomsday DeviceÓ. The Doomsday device is the ultimate deterrent,because if you try to disarm it it will go off. It has the capability to destroyevery living human and animal on Earth, and it does So it is all pointless. Wehave these weapons, and no matter how hard we try to control them everyone stilldies. And so to make ourselves feel better about all this impending doom,Kubrick, like Vonnegut, satirizes the entire system. By making such moroniccharacters, like the wimpish President Mertin Muffley, Kubrick is saying,similar to Vonnegut with Dr. Hoenikker, that we are ev en worse off because theseweapons are controlled by people that are almost buffoonish and childish. General Ripper, the man who causes the end of the world, is a portrait of aMcCarthy era paranoid gone mad. He thinks the communists are infiltrating andtrying to destroy are country. And he says the most heinous communist plotagainst democracy is fluoridation of water:Like I was saying, Group Captain,fluoridation of water is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communistplot we have ever had to face . . . They pollute our precious bodily fluids!(George 97)And General Rippers personal prevention of the contamination of hisbodily fluids is equally perplexing. He drinks only Ã’ . . . distilledwater, or rain water, and only grain alcohol . . .Ó Kubrick uses this kindof absurd reasoning in his movie to show the absurd reasoning behind nuclearweapons. Both him and Vonnegut were part of the satirical side of theapocalyptic temper in the early Sixties. They laughed at our governments, ourleaders, the Cold War and the arms race, and tried to show how stupid it allreally was. Bu t as time moved on, the writers, and the entire country, startedto take a less narrow minded view of things. The counterculture of the Gioielli9sixties prompted people to take a closer look at themselves. As thinkers,teachers, lovers, parents, friends and human beings. And people concerned withnuclear weapons started to see things in a broader context as well. Nuclearweapons were something that affected our whole consciousness. The way we grewup, our relationships with others and what we did with our lives. One of theauthors who put this new perspective on things was the activist, social thinkerand poet Allen Ginsberg. Ginsberg first made a name for himself in the 1950Õsas one of the foremost of the Beat writers. The Beats in the Fifties were aforerunner of the more widespread counterculture of the late Sixties and earlySeventies. And Ginsberg evolved into this. He became a devoted leader in thecounterculture, who set many precedents for the Hippie generation. He lived invarious communes, delved deeply into eastern religions and experimented withnumerous hallucinogenic drugs. In the earlier part of his life Ginsberg had beena rebel against society. He was still a rebel but now he was taking the form ofactivist. By the Seventies he was involved in many causes that promoted peaceand world harmony. What separated Ginsberg from other activists is that he wasone of the first and original members of many of these movements. Now he was thefather figure to many in the non-mainstream world. While teaching at his schoolof poetry in Naropa, Colorado, Ginsberg became involved in protests against thenearby Rock Flats Nuclear Weapons Factory. During the Summer of 1978 he wasarrested for preventing a shipment nuclear waste from reaching its destinationand for numerous other protests against the facility (Miles 474). From theseexperiences came two poems Ã’Nagasaki DaysÓ and Ã’ Plutonium OdeÓ. Both these poems exhibit Ginsbergs more mature style of writing (Miles 475). The poems are more scholarly, containing many mythological and religiousallusions. But both these characteristics show how post war apocalypticliterature had evolved. By the Seventies many writers, instead of taking thedefeatist, satirical view like Vonnegut, were beginning to take a make activiststandpoint, like Ginsberg. Apocalyptic literature also took on a more mature,scholarly tone, and was more worldly and had a broader viewpoint. This stanzafrom Ã’Nagasaki DaysÓ shows how Ginsberg is putting nuclear weaponsinto the context of the universal:2,000,000 killed in Vietnam13,000,000 refugeesin Indochina 200,000,000 years for the Galaxy to revolve on its core 24,000 theBabylonian great year24,000 half life of plutoniumGioielli 102,000 the most Iever got for a poetry reading80,000 dolphins killed in the dragnet4,000,000,000years earth been born (701)The half life of plutonium is brought together withdolphins and Indochinese refugees. Also, Ginsberg makes a reference to theBabyl onian great year, which coincides with the half life of plutonium. Thiscosmic link intrigued Ginsberg immensely. That fact alone inspired him to rightÃ’Plutonium OdeÓ. The whole poem expands on this connection toplutonium as a living part of our universe, albeit a very dangerous one. Here hementions the Great Year:Before the Year began turning its twelve signs, ereconstellations wheeled for twenty-four thousand sunny yearsslowly round theiraxis in Sagittarius, one hundred sixty-seven thousand times returning to thisnight. (702) Ginsberg is also relating the great year, and the half life ofplutonium, to the life of the Earth. The life of the Earth is approximately fourbillion years, which is 24,000 times 167,000 (Ginsberg 796) In Ã’PlutoniumOdeÓ, Ginsberg talks to plutonium. By establishing a dialogue he gives theplutonium almost human characteristics. It is something, and is near us everyday, and is deadly. In this passage he is asking how long before it kills usall:I enter your secret places with my mind, I speak with your presence, I roamyour lion roar with mortal mouth.One microgram inspired to one lung, ten poundsof heavy metal dust, adrift slowly motion over gray Alpsthe breadth of theplanet, how long before your radiance speeds blight and death to sentientbeings. (703) In putting his nuclear fears and worries on the table, and sayingthat these things have pertinence to us because they affect how we live ourlives and the entire the universe, Ginsberg is showing how intrigued he is withplutonium in this poem. By the time Ginsberg was publishing these poems in late1978, post war literature had evolved immensely. At first people had no ideaabout the bomb and its capabilities. Then, as more information came out aboutwhat the bomb could do, they began to began to start to live in real fear ofnuclear weapons. The power of it, a creation by man that could destroy theworld, that was terrifying. Then some artists and writers began to see theabsurdity of it all. They saw that we were under control by people we did not,or should not, trust, and were a constant state of nuclear Gioielli 11fear. Sothey satirized the system unmercifully, and were very apocalyptic in their tone. But then things evolved from these narrow minded viewpoints, and people began toenvision nuclear weapons in the context of our world and our lives. The atomicbomb and nuclear proliferation affected all facets of our lifestyle, includingwhat we read. Literature is a reflection of a countryÕs culture andfeelings. And literature affected Americans curiosity, horror, anxiety, cynicismand hope concerning nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons raised questions that noone had dare ever asked before, and had given them answers that they were afraidto hear. They have made us think about our place in the universe, and what itall means. BibliographyBartter, Martha A. The Way to Ground Zero. New York: Greenwood Press, 1988. Dewey, Joseph. In a Dark Time. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 1990.Dr. Strangelove. Dir. Stanley Kubrick. With Peter Sellers, George C. Scott and SlimPickens. Highland Films Ltd., 1966.(This is a novelization of the movie. Allqoutations from the movie were transribed form this book) Einstein, Albert. Ã’SirÓ (a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt) Einstein: TheLife and Times. Ronald W. Clark. New York: World Publishing, 1971. 556-557.George, Peter. Dr. Strangelove. Boston: Gregg Press, 1979.Ginsberg,Allen. Ã’Nagasaki DaysÓ and Ã’Plutonium Ode.Ó CollectedPoems: 1947à 1980. Ed. Allen Ginsberg. New York: Harper and Row, 1984. 699-705. Gleick, James. Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman. NewYork :Vintage Books, 1992.Hersey, John. Hiroshima. New York: Alfred A. Knopf,1985.Miles, Barry. Ginsberg: A Biography. New York: Harper Perennial,1989.Stone, Albert E. Literary Aftershocks: American Writers, Readers and theBomb. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1994.Vonnegut, Kurt. CatÕs Cradle. NewYork:Dell, 1963.

Jobs Roles In Latin America Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

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Individual Case Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Individual Case Study - Essay Example To maintain ethics in the society, there needs orders and legal protections to protect kids and avoid harm. Greater power is needed in the government to help control ethical egoism in firms to help curb cigarette smoking among young adults as it is an unhealthy lifestyle. Joe Camel case created a lot of controversy as issues related to smoking and health continued increasing. Maintaining integrity and goods morals in business is important. Businesses should accountable to the society by ensuring that their operations are ethical. The normative standards ethical model would have been the best as it would have helped Joe Camel from getting into trouble with the law. They would have been accountable and avoided making their advertisements personal especially among children. Social responsibility school of thought that was being used allowed the business to make profit and be responsive to the society. The invisible hand school of thought would have been the best as it would have allowed the government too set standards for the firm to operate

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Film Project Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Film Project - Movie Review Example Reputation, on the part of the media, the corporation or the personal, has been at stake; problematic and crucial. Cases have been filed. Conflicts escalated together with securing one’s beloved. Wigand, who has been fired, reluctantly hesitates to expose yet managed to submit to the call of a journalist who has valued integrity, objectivity and professionalism to deliver high calibre news for the public to know and scrutinize. Publicity in exchange of privacy becomes intriguing and trivialized. Lies and truth interacts. Defamation and scrutiny has been rampant. The conflict unfolds as the story proceeds; integrating the reality and fantasy. Based on a life story, the discourse of politics becomes crucial as ideology complicates the complex scenario. Biased or Unbiased? Just or Unjust? Critical engagement becomes a crucial matter when public is at stake. Right are violated and uphold but does it really matter? Corporate interest has a political inclination that cannot be disregarded. In the film, it can be seen that in certain cases and scenarios like showing the clip of the CEO of denying the truth about the purpose of nicotine. 1 This already implicates the condition that the corporations have been after their personal interest as an institution without any regard to the effects expatriated towards the public. Manipulation happens in this case since the corporation tries its best to intervene with the decision of Dr. Wigand; especially about not exposing the complexities and technicalities that surround the operations of the company. 2 On a more personal level, there is already an intense conflict between which decision must be taken into account: Dr. Wigand has the option to say or not to say the secrets about the company as it might become a breach of contract with the corporation or a possible neglect of duty of ensuring the

Synthesis and analysis on Total quailty control book by Armand V Essay

Synthesis and analysis on Total quailty control book by Armand V. Feigenbaum - Essay Example According Basu (2006), quality is never â€Å"optional† for the organization but necessary that ensures the continuity of a business. They believe that through total quality management the business is able to increase the quality of their service delivery and that of products. However, Armand (2008) believes that there need for â€Å"total† approach to quality and in specific points out to total quality control as the way forward to satisfy the customer needs. According to ISO 8402 total quality management can be defined as an approach of a company, that is intended to focus on quality delivery. Farther the ISO definition states that quality should be the duty of all the members of staff and not the managers alone and this is in line to Armands believe to quality delivery. Thus total quality management involves the employees, and other members of staff in coming up with ways of satisfying the quality of a product, process quality and organizational quality. Armand thus believes that with total quality control everybody in the organizations works hard to achieve the goals of the organization and works towards customer satisfaction. Previously, research had proposed on the need of quality for the success of any business organization (Beckford, 2005). However, Armand (2008) came up with the idea of total quality control in the success of a business. He believed that through total quality management in organizations was the way forward in realizing the quality of a product during the manufacturing process and, hence satisfying the need of consumers as they are the main reasons of being in business. This idea meant that all processes and the units used in the manufacturing of a product need to be focused on the final delivery of a high quality product. The organization should therefore be the one responsible for the high quality product. The organization according to him consists of the management, the employees and all other

Weaning And Nursering Protocol Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

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Critically Evaluate How ICT Is Applied To the Tourism and Hospitality Essay

Critically Evaluate How ICT Is Applied To the Tourism and Hospitality Industries - Essay Example rating in the tourism and hospitality industries also face immense competition amid themselves owing to the increasing numbers of entrants and established brands offering similar products and services. Companies possess the need to develop effective strategies to deal with such scenarios. They need to perform effectively in every aspect of their business so that they can outdo the performance of their competitors and obtain greater advantages that can suffice their long-run sustainability needs. It is often argued in this regard that proper execution of the plans and decisions of the business is the ultimate approach that can substantiate effective performance demanded by a modern day organisation (Pride & et. al., 2010). In this regard, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) performs a key role in the proper execution of organisational operations, keeping in mind the needs of modern companies, which can be explicitly observed in the context of tourism and hospitality industries. ICT is often considered as one of the extensive constituents of Information Technology (IT). However, unlike IT, the concept of ICT stretches more on the aspect of communication. The concept of ICT in any form of industry including the tourism and hospitality industries commonly involves the execution of activities such as incorporation of telecommunications technology with computers and other essential software, which further allows the user companies to access, store as well as share information among their various operational departments. It would not be erroneous to depict in this regard that ICT has its influences in various sections of the business and it acts as a major driving force in deciding the performanc e of the business operations of companies functioning in any sector including tourism and hospitality sectors. The significance of ICT for companies operating in any sector can be affirmed from the fact that it is actively implemented in certain specific and vital

Determinisms Relation to Free

Determinisms Relation to Free Will Essay The stereotypical definition of determinism, to the layman, goes something like this: All events are predetermined so we have no free will. Actually, this is more or less the definition of hard determinism. Determinism, however, according to professor of philosophy Sandra LaFave, can co-exist with free will in the form of soft determinism, the philosophical theory that all events indeed have causes but that humans can still act voluntarily. Soft determinism provides a more widely-acceptable definition of determinism that agrees more with common usage of the words free will and cause. Hard determinism states that all events have causes and that we cannot be free as a result. Soft determinism, however, responds to this pessimistic conclusion by asserting that we can indeed have free will and still exist by the deterministic model in which all events have causes. Hard determinism correlates cause with force or compulsion and free with total control, whereas soft determinism correlates free with voluntary or not forced. Thus soft determinisms definitions of words more strongly agree with average, everyday usage. If I were forced to open my safe of personal savings at gunpoint, for example, soft determinism would suggest that I am not acting freely in this situation as I am being coerced by an external force to do something I otherwise wouldnt. If I were to open the safe voluntarily (no one is forcing me), then I am exerting my free will. This distinction may seem obvious, but its validity proves why we cant support hard determinism hard determinism would suggest that both actions are not done out of free will since both actions have causes. Therefore, our usage of the word free will cannot co-exist with hard determinism, but only soft determinism. In conclusion, determinism can co-exist with free will in an effective manner. I must admit, however, that soft determinisms validity rests on an agreement with what cause and free will, as defined above, mean. Still, hard determinism also relies on its own definitions of cause and free will, so this linguistic criticism does not undermine soft determinisms validity. Still, many more arguments regarding determinism and free will exist that are beyond the scope of my knowledge.

Consistency concerning Essay Example for Free

Consistency concerning Essay In my StrengthsFinder 2. 0 evaluation, I found a lot of patterns about myself which I believe to be true. My top five themes are Consistency, Relator, Arranger, Harmony, and Significance. Since I am an extrovert, I find the description under Consistency concerning the need to treat people equally to be especially true. I enjoy being around a lot of people, especially a large group of friends and I enjoy doing group projects and find them to be completed much more efficiently than if I was doing them by myself and alone. In fact, since I am good at delegating tasks, I find that group projects can be completed far more efficiently if I am in the role as leader. In this way, I can treat everyone equally and be especially fair in equal task performance. Also, since I feel comfortable making sure everyone is treated fairly, I tend to notice when people are being treated with bias. Being a Relator definitely ties in with my extroversion. I love people and I love being around people. I identify with the characteristics described in my Relator profile, because I really do enjoy getting close to people and I tend to spend a lot of time focusing on personal intimate activities which would help us share closer bonds. In fact, one of my driving forces is to develop air-tight relationships with my friends and lifelong bonds. I am still close friends with people I knew in grade school, and I tend to strive toward that goal with others even today. The Arranger theme specifies that not only am I an organizer, but that I have the flexibility to arrange all of the pieces of my life for maximum potential. I especially find this to be so during a group activity. Rather than delineating tasks to random people, I enjoy knowing and applying their different strengths to each task. I tend to categorize people and specify tasks to order, so that everyone is not only doing something which they are good at, but which they also enjoy. I feel that this builds a group focus, where everyone is appreciated for their strengths and where everyone gets an equal voice. I enjoy building group harmony, so that we can grow together, rather than away from each other and separately. This kind of leads into the next strength I have: Harmony. Not only do I enjoy a wide variety of people, but I really enjoy finding common ground between them and mixing them together. In fact, I get a real kick out of making friends between two people who ordinarily would never cross paths. I have a little bit of a reputation among my friends as the arbitrator of our groups, because I really like to focus on how we can all just along peaceably and enjoyably. Though it may seem like I enjoy conflict because I am constantly putting widely different people together, the truth is, I only enjoy doing this if I believe that I can bring some balance between them and if I think that they have enough in common to get along. My category of Significance: This leads back to my extroversion and leadership roles among groups. I enjoy taking credit for a job well done, and even though I enjoy for everyone to get equal credit, I really like being the center of the spotlight sometimes. Also, because I am so often around a group of people, one of the ways I enjoy gaining and retaining significance is by being the arbitrator between people. I enjoy it when other people ask me for advice and help with their personal or social problems. Not only do I feel qualified and adept at handling these problems, but I get a rush from being the one who they ask to assist them. I like being the one who everyone runs to for help, I guess because I feel needed and wanted, and also because it means that my attempts to draw closer to their personal lives were successful. I feel like I am an accepted part of the group if I remain qualified to help each individual with their lives.

Poultry Farm: Internal and External Analysis

Poultry Farm: Internal and External Analysis Contents (Jump to) Introduction History of Poultry Farm Vision and Mission of Poultry Farm Porters Five Forces Analysis of Poultry Farm PESTLE Analysis of Poultry Farm SWOT Analysis of Poultry Farm Strategic Objectives of Poultry Farm Implementations and Control Conclusion and Recommendations References Executive Summary: Al-Ain Poultry Farm was formed in 1981 and at present it is United Arab Emirates number 1 chicken supplying company. The headquarters of the company is situated in Al-Ain while shops that sell their product are spread all over the country. Other main offices are in Abu-Dhabi and in Dubai.the company deals in chicken and egg products and the consumption of chicken products and other poultry products are very high in urban areas. In external environment, the service of the supplier is quite satisfactory. There are various competitors presents for the Al Ain poultry farm. The names of competitor are like al Rawdah, al Khazana, and Tasil etc. There is also big threat of new entrant in the industry. Sometimes the customers try to do bargaining but the Al Ain poultry farm mostly prefer fixed pricing method so there is no chances for doing bargaining. There is huge impact of the political, legal, and economic, social, ethical and technological issued on the company. Internally, there is a facility for communication with the customer like getting information about the quality of the product; packing information etc. The leadership is managed by the general management in the Al Ain poultry farm company. The image and reputation of the Al Ain poultry farm among the customers is good. So the customers are widely attached with this farm company. If there are any new entrances then it is not severely affected. There is lesser impact of the import product on this company. The company faces a throat cut competition. There are two kinds of risk which is faced by the poultry farm: Production risk and price risk. The strategic objective of the company comprises of deciding the scope of the farm, and gives the knowledge to the members of the farm Talking about the grand strategy, the Company wants to make stability in its growth and profits and thus the company adopts stability strategy. Also For making growth, the company has diversified itself. Introduction: Strategic management is nothing but drafting, implementing and cross checking of various decisions which shall help the company in achieving its long term goals. It specifies the aims and objectives of the organization. It helps in formulating various policies for achieving the companys objectives. Strategic Management is an ongoing process. It is used to evaluate the business as a whole and to assess its various individual processes. Strategic management includes assessing processes on a regular basis. Al-Ain Poultry Farm- History Development Growth: Al-Ain Poultry Farm was formed in 1981 and at present it is United Arab Emirates number 1 chicken supplying company. It is famous for providing the highest quality meat and eggs in the United Arab Emirates as of now. It strives to provide the best and the most healthy chicken at the best possible price to the people of United Arab Emirates. The company has always been committed to this cause and they will always continue to be committed to it. Al-Ain Poultry Farms many types of chicken and they are also providing various varieties of eggs. The headquarters of the company is situated in Al-Ain while shops that sell their product are spread all over the country. Other main offices are in Abu-Dhabi and in Dubai. All key issues are decided upon by the chairman and by the board. Operational issues, managerial works and financial issues are take care by the general manager. A lot of technical machines are being used in the poultry farms for the best results. All such machines come under th e head technical manager. Moreover there are many individual departments which take care of topics like sales and maintenance etc. There is a separate consumer care department which is also basically responsible for the sales and sales related issues. Financial departments are divided region wise throughout the country. The general manager is basically responsible for day to day working of the company. (farm A. A., 2010) In the last two decades there has been tremendous growth and development in the United Arab Emirates. Due to this there has been tremendous growth in the poultry sector of United Arab Emirates. The eating habit has changed a lot in United Arab Emirates. More than 3/4th population of United Arab Emirates is currently residing in urban areas. The consumption of chicken products and other poultry products is very high in such urban areas. There was a time when most eggs and chicken products were imported in the United Arab Emirates. It was somewhere in the mid 90s that local producers of United Arab Emirates were finally able to meet the chicken and poultry requirements of the country. At present there is hardly any import of eggs or any other poultry products. Al Ain poultry aims to be the leading poultry product suppliers in the United Arab Emirates; they aim at increasing their shareholders worth and serving the society by providing high quality chicken and related products. People a t Al Ain have made public health their first priority. At Al-Ain it is believed that success can be achieved through innovation and by maintaining quality of products. Al Ain has a highly trained inspection force which ensures the quality of the product is maintained while production. (2010) Vision and Mission The Al Ain poultry Farm Company the number one company in UAE. It is located in Dubai, Al Ain and Abu Dhabi. Before the establishment of any poultry farms in UAE all frozen chickens and eggs were imported. Then number of poultry farm came into the market. This makes UAE self dependence country and it is estimated that the value of eggs and the fresh chickens consumed in the year 2003 were stood at 400 million circa Dhs. During 1996 the Al Ain took an importance place among the poultry farm market in above mentioned location. It has various competitors like al Rawdah, al Khazana, and Tasil etc. (farm A. A., 2010) Their main mission is supply of the best quality and service with the growth of the shareholder value. But with this they serve the best quality of chickens to the customer because they do not want to play with the health of the customer. Their mission is also to bring satisfaction among the workers. For this purpose, the leadership in the company is held by the Mr. Abdullah Khamis Amer (general manager) he has the quality of dealing with looses and success and also the ability to motivate the employees. To provide best quality of food, the appointed a technical manager named as Dr. Khalid Mohd Abd El Monem. He is responsible for the developing and maintenance of the technology for example the freezer facility for the storage etc. Companys mission is also to earn more profit on lesser cost, to provide all necessary information to the customer, and also take their feedback. This is done by sales and marketing team whose responsibility is given to Mr. Fathi Belail. Thus they want to achieve the belief of the customer with superior quality, product innovation and operation and service efficiency. Their mission and vision are:- Public health on their first preference High inspection in the company Give assurance about their working policy to the customer Make relationship between the Al Ain poultry farm and their customer Maintaining and developing the relation with their processors Supply of only superior quality of product Giving the facility of education, training and development to all employees. A good leader who can develop motivation and can give support to the employees so they can achieve their potential. The employees who can make coordination with the ethical standard and can take responsibility for their work. (AlA101) External environmental analysis The growth of Al Ain poultry farm depends heavily on the external environment in the last two decades. The five force model of the company is as given below:- Porters five force model: Bargaining power of suppliers: The service of the supplier is quite satisfactory. They do not import any chickens from out of the country. So its give benefits in getting discount due to be domestic suppliers. Delivery on time, good quality of chicks and eggs, helps the Al Ain poultry farm company in winning the trust of the customer. Competitor There are various competitors presents for the Al Ain poultry farm. The names of competitor are like al Rawdah, al Khazana, and Tasil etc. Not only the domestic competitors but the company also faces competition from the abroad. Brazil is the aggressive player in UAE chicken markets. The main markets of Brazil are Yemen, UAE, and Saudi Arabia etc. All competitors have adopted approximately same price policy and quality of product so to compete with them is todays time has become more difficult. Threat of new entrants As we see that there is a lot of scope for growing poultry Farm Company. So there is also big threat of new entrant in the industry. The recent new entrances in market are Ain Quide, Al Surk etc. There business is also expended and they are also keen to establish themselves as the best company. Threat of substitute product It is not compulsory that the customer will only prefer chickens in their food, there are lots of substitute for the products of the company. If people are conscious about their health and they can choose vegetarian food and in non vegetarian then can prefer fish, mutton or any others. Bargaining power of customers The customers are also main factor in the external environment. They are educated, so they want to take all information before getting the delivery. In Al Ain poultry farm there is communication network so that they can communicate with the customers. Sometimes the customers try to do bargaining but the Al Ain poultry farm mostly prefer fixed pricing method so there is no chances for doing bargaining. PESTLE analysis: (P)olitical environment The political system is prevailing in a countrys policies and control of business. An honest, efficient and stable political system is become essential factor for the development of any country. In UAE there are three main vital institutions: executive or government, legislature and judiciary. Among the there the legislature is the most crucial political factor which impacts the al ain poultry farm because it includes powers such as policy-making, law making, budget approving mirror of public opinion. (E)conomic environment The three economic factors which effect al ain poultry farm are capitalism, socialism and communism widely. The al ain poultry always want to be in competition with others. Their profit and wages system are based on the ability and willingness to work. There is also a policy so that any owners can divest his capital form the profits. The workers are also free to select an employer and site. Like workers al ain poultry farm select the managers on the basis of their ability. They are also free to make any decision. There are also a limited competition and profits, wages etc fairly in relation to efforts. The company also encourages workers for employment. Generally economic environment consist those factor which bear the functioning of a business. In case of al ain poultry farm the economic system comprise price and distribution controls, per capita and national income, population, financial and fiscal sectors, infrastructure etc (S)ocio-cultural environment There are certain social factors which are beyond the companys gate. These factors include attitude to exalt, family, marriage religion, education attitude to people toward the work and ethics. Some time due to this factors the demand of the al ain poultry farm grew and sometime its falls. (T)echnological environment Technology environment exerts significant influence on business. The impact of technology on the business can be seen as companys product, services, markets, suppliers, competitors, distributors, manufacture etc. Due to technology environment the al ain poultry farm got the continuous growth from last few years. It is also helpful in increasing quality products. The al ain poultry farm has more capital demand, rise of productivity, more emphasis on R&D, and pressure to become more professional etc. (L)egal: The company is also largely affected by industrial and animal related laws. The company is also prone to any sue in commercial court regarding quality of food material. (E)thical: Ethical factors are concerned with the social responsibility part of the company. The poultry farm has some ethical rules to follow regarding maintenance of animals. For example, the company has to maintain proper safety and neatness level in farm etc. Value chain: The value chain consists of the process of value addition in the products of the company. In Al Ain poultry, the value is been added at every stage of production. The company has large farms and number of hens producing eggs. The company maintains large farms and thus feed the animals so that they can produce eggs and meet which are the key products of the company. The company also adds quality to its products by the mean of proper and regular quality check of the products produced by the farm. At each stage of production, proper documentation is done in order to maintain proper accountability of the system. The company is also planning to go for ISO 9001 implementation to increase the quality of the products and to add more value in it. Internal analysis The internal factors consists the factors which are inside the company. The internal factors of the Al Ain poultry farm are:- Products and service This includes inventory management, product modification, and product transportation of Al Ain poultry Farm Company according to the customer needs. Not only the products, this also includes the Al Ain poultry farm companys sales services, promotional for the product, packing, handling of return product and customization. Communication flow There is a facility for communication with the customer like getting information about the quality of the product, packing information etc. Payments system This includes billing for the customer, caring of special customer orders, order frequency, credit cheques and others. Leadership The leadership is managed by the general management in the Al Ain poultry farm company. The general manager looks for various operations like: general, technical, marketing and financial management performance etc. Employees The employees are the backbone of the company and so only skilled labors work here. A satisfactory environment for the working, facility for the coach, support and motivation, giving education to employees, co-operation between the employees and the Al Ain poultry farm company, giving promotion for their work etc are also available in the company. SWOT analysis If we want to analysis any company then the simplest method will be the SWOT analysis. This stood for strength, weakness, opportunities and threats. The information provided by the SWOT is helpful in matching the resource and capability of the firm in the todays competitive advantages. The Al Ain poultry farms SWOT analysis is as following:- (S)trengths The strength part shows that how the company is capable in using its resource as per their capability. The strength of Al Ain poultry farm is: The Al Ain poultry farm company is the 1st poultry farm company in the whole UAE. The image and reputation of the Al Ain poultry farm among the customers is good. So the customers are widely attached with this farm company. If there are any new entrances then it is not severely affected. They used different cost for the different products so that every kind of customer is attached with the company. They have used versatile technology. They used new technologys freezer for the storage of the chickens, water resource, method of disposal for the dead birds, preventing them from the dieses and their communication network is so strong so that they can communicate with the customer in easy way. There is lesser impact of the import product on this company. (W)eakness Every company is not capable to its goals because there always remains some weakness in the company. The weaknesses of Al Ain poultry farm are:- They faced a throat cut competition. Its true that they are the 1st poultry farm company in whole UAE but due the competitive environment any little mistake can bring a big problem. The whole business depends only on the chicken products. There is a little bit work in egg products but more than 80 part deals in chickens. The distribution channels are also weak. Sometimes its happened that the delivery of chickens did not reach at the right time and the company bears both cost and morale loses. (O)pportunities In simple language the opportunities shows the future, means what will be condition of future for our company. It answers that is there any chances for getting profit or losses. The opportunities for the Al Ain poultry farm are:- The main reason for growth of any poultry farm is because chickens are considered to be healthy protein diet. There is an increment in the standard of living of the customer and if we look the environment of the UAE then there is also growth in non vegetarian people day to day. As a result the demand of chickens is also increased. Day to day new technology is developed, so now they can store more and more chickens, can bring new quality of food with taste. Competition is increased and so the company has became more conscious about the quality and will try to reduce the cost. This will be beneficial for the both Al Ain poultry farm and the customers. They can get more skilled labor that will create a good environment within the company and can make cooperation with their leaders. (T)hreats The threats refer to the current problem which they are facing. The Al Ain poultrys farm threats are:- There are two kinds of risk which is faced by the poultry farm: Production risk and price risk. Now a days bird flu is spread in the birds, so in this kind of environment it is more difficult to make a quality product. There are lots of competitors, both domestic and foreign; they are facing competition from the other country also. There are lots of substitutes. Due to the substitutes the competition has increased. Thus the SWOT analysis shows the positive and negative side of the Al Ain poultry farm. Strategic objectives Strategy means making long term direction, taking decision, and allocation of resource. Basically we take three kinds of decision in strategic objectives. What, for whom and how can we do so the companys objectives are decided in strategy. Practically speaking, now days the poultry farming has became successful in global market. Thats why the Al Ain poultry farm access to market and specialized inputs with the financial support. So the key strategy of the company is to maintain the supply and ownership of the birds, the whole processing and wholesaling should be the as per the meat hygiene act. The standard of this act are: The transport of meat as per the human consumption Hygienic production Premises processing meat according to the human consumption As we know that this farm also deals with eggs so it operates it under the regulated system and it is the responsibility of managers for the finding markets for their food. The strategic objectives are:- To decide the scope of the farm, and give the knowledge to the members of the farm. All practices are done after the considerations of birds welfare. The poultry covers the topic like lighting, ventilation, health, food protection and management practices. To give assurance about the safety of managers, workers and visitors. Monitoring of various nutrient, impact problems and after that remedial action is taken. Possible business model of the company with the consideration of neighborhood competitors. Effect of the import of chickens on the domestic production. Increasement in the value of domestic product and reduce the import dependency. The poultry farms importance in the customers with more diversified and reasonable price. Knowing the link between productivity and income generation. To reduce impact of the uses of meat and to insure that there is no impact on the natural cycle. (Hill, 2009) Generic strategic There are three kinds of generic strategies for the maintenance and achievement of competitive advantages: Cost leadership, differentiation, focuses strategy. If we see at the Al Ain poultry farm then conclusion is that Al Ain poultry farm has adopted a differentiation strategy. Because as we know the Al Ain poultry farm focuses on the different kinds of chickens product and each products has its attribute so it charge the price according to the products feature. The reasons for adapting to this strategy are By this they make brand loyalty among the customer form the rivals. There are all kinds of products according to the customer need so every customer is attached with the particular product. Not only for the feature there is also differentiating in the pricing so that every level of the customers is attached. For managing the supplier also. Why? Because if any supplier charges higher value for the material then it can be managed in any other product and this is possible only when the farm is diversified in chicken products. There is also a benefit from the side of the customers. There will be large number of buyers and we know that if there is large number of buyers then their power for negotiation will be low due to price fixation and low alternatives. If there is any new entry then there will be negligible impact on the customer loyalty. Thus for all above the reason the company has adopted the differentiate strategy. But the company also deals in eggs with the chickens so for that company follows the cost leadership strategy which brings the ability to compete with competitors and bring attraction of the customers and reduces the defect rate. (farm A. A., 2010) Grand strategic A record production in poultry and meat industry last year shows that various poultry farms have work harder for the growing consumption need. For the production of chickens the poultry farm has adopted grand strategy by the trade organization. A grand strategy involves the essential action for the long term plan and to achieve its major objectives. So we will analyze the Al Ain poultry farm companys grand strategy on the bases of market, diversification, product, organizational development, strategic etc. After the analysis of its corporate and generic strategies, we will discuss the grand strategy on the three levels Growth strategy Retrenchment strategic Stability strategy For making growth, the company has diversified itself. For that it does innovation, changes its received and takes the feedback of the customer and also they provide different variety of chickens. If there is any failure in the receipt then they adopt accordingly. This strategy built willingness in the company to try new things. The company is also trying for the new market for its product. (farm A. A., 2010) The company wants to make stability in its growth and profits and thus the company adopts stability strategy. The Al Ain poultry farm company do the research only on the new product. The research is done on the quality and the price. They do not change the existing products and price policy. There is no retrenchment strategy followed by the farm company because they do not want to make any reduction in their business activity. Implementation and control After all this analysis about the external and internal environment and the various strategies, objectives of the Al Ain poultry farm in UAE we can say that the poultry farms in UAE are growing day by day. The company has implanted all those objectives and strategy, keeping in mind things like the impact on the environment, what is the government strategy for the poultry farm, the customer view and the cooperation of the staff and top management. Thats why the production increased by 25 % in comparison to last year and the market share of Al Ain poultry farm is also increased by 20 % in UAE. The various implementations and way they are controlled by the both management and government are mentioned in following:- Water supply The chickens are preceded in adequate water supply, clean and cool with the better quality. The water is needed in the farm for fire protection and shed cooling. Except this the hatched chicks should also access water within the 72 hour. The Al Ain poultry farm has a reserve capacity minimum of one day. Vehicular access The transportation policy of the farm is made after the consideration of traffic, delivery vehicles, road works etc. The funding of transportation needs the negotiation of developer, local council and transport development. Noise, electricity supply The supply of the electricity is at minimum cost and as per the requirement. But due to the large level of a poultry farm they get three phase of electricity supply. There is noise when the farm is established and due the various birds and this is controlled by the environment protection policy. Buffer distances Sometimes it happens that due to water quality, dust and noise, odor and management policies, some places are affected. So there should be a buffer distances maintained between the farm and impact area. All activity is done for the omission of this kind of practices and dourness. The control on the disease is also an issue. So there is a distance between every poultry farm which is approx 100 meter. Site selection and development They have selected the site after the consideration of distance of the market, environment and the government regulation. Water management Water management includes Disposal of dead birds: there is an arrangement of disposal of dead birds without any harm to the natural environment. Sometime they face the problem of contamination of surface water and ground, odour problems and fly infestation. But they follow the EPA recommendations like freezing of dead birds so that ordure problem can be reduced, and the disposal is done in the licensed water etc. Disposal of waste eggs: the eggs are disposal by the composting, rendering the byproduct plan which are environmentally sound. Recommendations and conclusion After the analysis about the various parts of the Al Ain poultry farms we can be say that no one is perfect and neither the farm under consideration. In SWOT analysis we have discussed the problem faced by the company. So there should be actions against them. According to us the following action should be taken by the Al Ain poultry farm:- As we see that the company mostly deals in cash, so there can be credit facility available to the customers. The company should allow the credit card etc for the payment. The Al Ain poultry farm company deals only in two products Chickens and eggs. So the company needs to diversify itself. It can diversify by the two ways: expansion and launching new products. As we see that the business of the Al Ain is only in the three major cities of the UAE so it should established its business in more cities and it should also launch vegetarian food along with this chickens and eggs. As many times its been seen that due to lack of inspection and monitoring the birds gets spoil, and they used them without checking them. So there should be regular and proper inspection. It will be good if there is a monitoring system on daily bases. The Al Ain poultry farm disposes the dead bird in the nearest places, which is also harmful so the disposal of dead bird should be approx 1000 meter far from the company sites. The quality of chickens should be checked. The uncooked chicken should be store in the refrigerators. There should be prevention action from the various dieses like the flu etc. References: Al Ain farm. 2010. Welcome to Al Ain poultry farm. [Online](Updated on Jan 2010) Available at http://www.alainpoultry.com/ [Accessed on April 30th, 2010]. Al Ain farm. 2010. Mission and Values. [Online](Updated on Jan 2010) Available at http://www.alainpoultry.com/main.asp?id=3 [Accessed on April 30th, 2010]. Al Ain farm. 2010. Shops and maps. [Online](Updated on Jan 2010) Available at http://www.alainpoultry.com/main.asp?id=5 [Accessed on April 30th, 2010]. Hill, Charles Jones, Gareth. 2009. Strategic Management Theory: An Integrated Approach. 9th Edition : Cengage Learning Hemodynamics: Blood Flow Hemodynamics: Blood Flow Introduction Hemodynamics is the study of blood flow across the body and forces affecting it, often measured using various methods that are either invasive or noninvasive. Hemodynamic monitoring is necessary for making timely patient assessment, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment decisions in case of cardiovascular malfunctions and imbalances caused in the amount of blood ejected by the heart. There are several invasive methods for monitoring blood flow like Thermodilution, Dye dilution and Fick methods. These methods are usually confined to hospitals and clinics with people having specific skills perform, also, these methods are associated with complications like infections, hemorrhage, arrhythmia etc. Impedance Plethysmography techniques which use the changes in electrical impedance over body surface for measurement of changes in the tissue volumes can be used to study hemodynamics. Impedance Cardiography (ICG) is a noninvasive and flexible method of calculating cardiac stroke volume providing information that is similar to invasive monitoring at low cost and risk. While invasive monitoring is done in pre-operative situations on patients already suffering from cardiovascular problems which involves catheter insertion, ICG can be performed on people any time for monitoring hemodynamic parameters that will help in diagnosis of problems occurring in near future. There are multiple ways of monitoring hemodynamics through ICG of which Thoracic Electrical Bioimpedance (TEB) is a basic variant that involves placement of electrodes on the root of the neck and at the cartilaginous section at the lower end of the sternum which is not attached to any ribs. The volume of blood flow varies during every cardiac cycle almost periodically. This changes the electrical impedance in thorax region. Negative time derivative of the measured impedance is called impedance cardiogram. Research in the field of Impedance Cardiography started with the study of flow of fluids in body, especially in cardiac area using Impedace Plethysmography techniques since 1940s [1Bonjer]. By early 1970s Using ICG for calculation of cardiac parameters like cardiac stroke volume came on track [2Cooley]. Several comparative studies are done in the field between non-invasive ICG and invasive methods like Thermodilution which shown promising results in favour of ICG [3 Nechwatal, 4Denniston].In [5Quesnay] they discussed the implementation of ICG on subjects with heart diseases and while they were performing exercise. Results have shown that cardiac parameters measured during these tests are reliable and mostly accurate. With improvement in technology in ICG, wearable devices or garments are being designed for facilitating long term recordings and provide comfort to the patients or test subjects [6JUAN]. Since the inception of impedance cardiography there has been an increase in the reli ability of the technique and improvement in measurement of cardiac parameters [7Greenfield 13Dilek]. Measurement of ICG requires the subjects to lay in a supine position without any movement to cancel out the artifacts that are caused due to other body signals which lead to unwanted changes of the signal recorded and make the patient uncomfortable. Presence of these artifacts makes it difficult for the people reading the signals and also affect the diagnosis leading to results that are inaccurate. These artifacts have to be removed before monitoring the signals to take correct decisions through filtering. Most of these artifacts are non-stationary in nature and cannot be predicted. Artifacts that are prominent in TEB include those varying with the changes that occur in surroundings like power line interference which makes base line of the original signal to change and with the movement of patient. Some artifacts occur from inside our body like Respiratory artifact that is prominent in ICG .Often patients are required to hold their breath to cancel out this artifact, but it is shown in [5Quesnay] that this may affect the stroke volume parameter. There are also others like Motion artifacts and Electrode artifacts which bring changes to the signals that are unwanted. Filtering methods for processing the artifacts are either adaptive or non-adaptive. Since the artifacts that are to be processed in the signals obtained are ever changing in nature, non-adaptive filters that have linear transfer functions doesn’t provide good results in the process. Whereas time varying potentials can be detected using adaptive filtering techniques whose filter specifications change at every step. In [14Huang] they used LMS algorithm based adaptive filter for cancellation fo motion artifacts and got satisfactory results. In [15Allan] Allan et.al used a scaled fourier linear combined (SFLC) technique is proposed for filtering noncorrelated noise in ICG. They have succeeded in proving that their proposed method could remove noises that are not in synchronization with heart rate. In [16Dormer] used SFLC-RLS filter which shows improvement in performance compared to SFLC-LMS filter used in [15Allan]. [17Pandey] used LMS based adaptive filtering to remove respirator y artifacts in Impedance cardiogram signal. In this paper we discussed application of Least Mean Square (LMS) algorithm and its variants Normalized LMS (NLMS), Time varying step size (TVSLMS) Adaptive step size (ASLMS) and Constrained stability LMS (CSLMS) in ICG signals for artifact removal. Along with these algorithms, signed regressor form of these variants which decreases the number of computations are also used. The artifacts that are considered in this paper are Power Line Interference (PLI), Respiratory artifacts, Motion artifacts (MA), Muscle artifacts. Section II describes the filtering techniques that are used on ICG signals in brief. Section III provides the information on data acquisition using VU-AMS device. The results and discussions of the techniques used are given in section IV followed by conclusions. Adaptive Filtering Techniques LMS Invented by Widrow and Hoff in 1960, Least mean squares algorithm is a category of adaptive filters that adapt based on current value of error signal. Input to the LMS algorithm is a signal that needs filtering and a desired signal as reference, LMS is an iterative technique that minimizes the Mean Square Error (MSE) between these two signals. Low complexity is a significant feature of LMS algorithm which made it as a benchmark for other adaptive filtering algorithms. The process of filtering using LMS involves the following steps, Compute the output from the filter using inputs. Estimating the error between the output signal and desired signal. Changing the tap weights of the filter according to the error obtained above and a constant step size. The above steps are executed iteratively to reduce the error between filter output and desired signal. Filter will be of length L, each time L samples from the input signal will be processed at a time in each step until entire samples are processed. Let x(n) be the input of the filter and d(n) be the reference signal. Input is taken from a sliding window over the input. For every step the window slides over required number of samples. Let y(n) be the output from the filter and w(n) is the weights of the taps, these weights can be different for every tap. u is the step size which is a constant. LMS algorithm can be summarized in the equations below that are in accordance with the steps above, For the first iteration arbitrary tap weights are assumed and filtering is started. After a few iterations the weights adapt in accordance with the error signal to give desired signal as output. Step size is a main factor that influences weight update equation. If the step size is too small, the convergence of the signal will be too slow and filter requires more memory. If the step size is too high, convergence rate will be faster but there will be information loss. NLMS The convergence of output towards desired signal depends on weight update equation. Tap weights that are updated are directly proportional to the present inputs. If the future inputs to the filter vary greatly with the present inputs of the filter, there will be an increase in the error signal. To solve this problem the step size in weight update equation is normalized with squared Euclidian form of input vector. The weight update equation of NLMS technique is written as, Here b is a small constant added to avoid difficulties in case of small x(n) values. NLMS method can achieve faster convergence when compared to LMS. Since the step size of these filters does not change much, these are considered as linear filters which give linear output for linear input. CSLMS This method is an improvement of NLMS algorithm to achieve faster stability conditions. Constrained Stability LMS method is described by the equations that follow, Where and . A positive constant of small value in the denominator helps preventing problems when value of x(n) is too small. Here the value of error and input in weight update equation not only depend on present value but also previous value, unlike LMS and NLMS where the dependency of weight update equation is more on present values than all the past values combined. TVSLMS Step size in the weight update equation decides the convergence rate of the filter. It is fixed for the filter depending on the input signal, desired signal and required convergence rate. If the input signal is varying with time in an undetermined way, it is difficult to set the value of step size. So, time varying step size method of LMS is proposed. The time variance of step size is determined by a decaying factor. TVSLMS method is described by the following equations, The step size at each step can be varied according to the following function, Where is the decaying factor and C, a and b are positive constants that will determine the value of decaying factor. At each step the decaying factor is multiplied with initial step size. This method can achieve faster convergence rate compared to LMS algorithm with constant step size and also can remove the artifacts effectively. ASLMS In an environment that is not stationary a gradient noise is added to the signal. In such case the value of tap weights change in random fashion instead of terminating on Weiner solution. To overcome this problem Adaptive step size algorithm is proposed where a fourth step is added to the LMS method which resembles the weight update equation. Step size of the filter is updated at each step as, Here is a small positive constant and y(n) is defined as the partial derivative of tap weight vector with respect to step size parameter at a sample or iteration. ASLMS attains faster convergence rate since the step size of next iteration depends on the input and error at current iteration, unlike TVSLMS algorithm where step size of present iteration depends on the initial step size. Signed Regressor form In the methods discussed in this section, from LMS to ASLMS the performance of filters increased with decrease in convergence rate but the computational complexity increased gradually. This will result in delay of attaining desired results. To regulate the problem we use signum function to find the polarity of input signal in weight update equation [21Eweda]. By using signum function to input signal we take into consideration only the sign of input signal as shown below, The signum function is given as, The methods discussed above in their signed regressor form have slightly inferior convergence rate and steady state error. But as the mean square error drops the filter speeds up with reduced computations. Simulation and results ICG signals are acquired through VU-AMS (Vrije Universiteit Ambulatory Monitoring System) device under supervision of expert handlers. This device is used for recording ICG signals many a times and provided reliable outputs [18Gonneke- 20Annebet]. Signals are acquired from 19 subjects for a period of 30 minutes. Digitized signals are recorded at 360 samples per second. First 4000 samples of each ICG recording are used for simulation. References Bonjer FH, van den Berg JW, Dirken MNJ. The origin of the variations of body impedance occurring during the cardiac cycle. Circulation. 1952; 6:415-420. 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