Explain Each of the Terms Essay

Explain Each of the Terms: Speech, Language, Communication and Speech Language and Communication Needs. Explain each of the terms speech, language, communication, speech, language and communication needs. EYMP5 (1. 1) The dictionary explanation of speech is â€Å"The expression of or the ability to express thoughts and feelings by articulate sounds† or â€Å"A person’s style of speaking† To speak is to physically be able to produce the individual sounds and sound patterns of our language, or articulate, to be able to produce speech with appropriate rhythm, and free of stuttering behaviour, and to produce speech with an appropriate vocal quality for age and sex. While speech involves the physical motor ability to talk, language is a symbolic, rule governed system used to convey a message. In English, the symbols can be words, either spoken or written. We also have gestural symbols, like shrugging our shoulders to indicate â€Å"I don’t know† or waving to indicate â€Å"Bye Bye† or the raising of our eye brows to show that we are surprised by something. Language can be defined as being made up of socially shared rules that include the following: †¢What words mean (e. g. , â€Å"star† can refer to a bright object in the night sky or a celebrity) †¢How to make new words (e. g. , friend, friendly, unfriendly) †¢How to put words together (e. g. , â€Å"Peg walked to the new store† rather than â€Å"Peg walk store new†) What word combinations are best in what situations (â€Å"Would you mind moving your foot? could quickly change to â€Å"Get off my foot, please! † if the first request did not produce results) You can have language without having speech. Though speech and language are related, you do not have to have speech to have a language. How? The best example of this is the use of Sign Language. Communication is the process of conveying a message or meaning to establish a shared understanding to others. You don’t need speech or a shared language to communicate. How? Let’s say you decide on a trip to Rome, but you don’t speak one word of Italian. You get off your plane, and you want to pick up your†¦ [continues]

An Inspector Calls Essay Questions Example For Students

An Inspector Calls Essay Questions Mr Birling is a pompous and an arrogant person. He is pompous because he wants to let people know that he mixes with upper class people. He was pleased to let the Inspector know that his daughter has just become engaged to, Mr Gerald Croft son of Sir George Croft you know, Crofts limited. He is also complacent because he doesnt like to worry about what other people are saying. I say there isnt a chance of war, he says to his family, these are all silly little war scares. Mr Birling refuses to believe the scaremongers that are predicting war. Hes living in his own protective world and doesnt realise whats really going on. Mr Birling shows that the upper classes gets on very well with the police. When Mr Birling and the inspector are talking about the chief inspector Mr Birling announces to Inspector Goole that, perhaps I ought to warn you that hes an old friend of mine, and that I see him fairly frequently. We play golf together up at the West Brumley. The upper class also love talking about their achievements. When Mr Birling is talking to Gerald he boasts that, there is a fair chance that I might find myself into the next honours list. Just a knighthood, of course. This shows that Mr Birling is proud of him self and loves to brag to others of his successes, so that others will respect him more for these outward signs of success. Mr Birling shows us in the play that he is a hypocrite and very worried about his reputation. Mr Birling shows us that he is a hypocrite trying to tell the future. When he is talking to Gerald about the fact that he might be getting a knighthood he says, I gather there is a very good chance if a knighthood so long as we behave ourselves, dont get into the police court or start a scandal. This shows that he is very worried about his reputation because if he does something wrong then hell lose his chance of a knighthood. Mr Birling doesnt believe in the inspectors quote, we are all members of one body. He thinks that we should just fight our own battles and not look after or help others. When talking to Gerald and Eric, Mr Birling says, but the way some of these cranks talk and write now, youd think everybody has to look after everybody else, as if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive community and all that nonsense. And, I cant accept any responsibility. If we were all responsible for everything that happened to everybody wed had anything to do with, it would be very awkward, wouldnt it? Mr Birling aims to make as much money as possible to enable him to live his upper class life. When discussing business with Gerald, his daughters fianci , Mr Birling says lower costs, higher prices. Mr Birling wants the highest prices for the goods produced in his factory but is determined to pay the lowest wages to the lower class that work for him. At the beginning Sheila is exactly like her mother and father: pompous, spoilt, and arrogant. She expects a lot because of her wealth and social class. Sheila always dresses well in elegant and posh clothes; she speaks extremely well and reveals her background when speaking to others of her class, for instance her mother and father. When speaking to her mother she says, yes, go on mummy, you must drink to our health. She also says, Milwards? We go there, in fact, I was there this morning. And, she was lucky to get taken on at Milwards. When these sentences are put together it shows that she shops at very exclusive shops. This is proving that she has a lot of money because she shops at Milwards. Her attitude at the beginning is snobbish here because she believes that only the best should shop and work there and the employees of Milwards should respect the clients.

A System Approach To Small Group Interaction Essay

A System Approach To Small Group Interaction - Essay Example It is essential for group members to communicate openly and freely with all the other group members. Once that in place the group will be able to develop norms about matters to be discussed and members will be in a position to develop rules which will intern affect the group interaction. There must be a common goal or purpose being pursued, and they must work together to achieve that goal. This is because; the goal will bring the group together and will hold it through tensions and conflict moments (Stewart, 162). Sharing of ideas is very important since one is able to learn new things and expound on his or her knowledge as well as making appropriate decisions that are wisely discussed for the benefit of the organization. Communication is a very complex ongoing process that brings people into contact globally. Often, it is perceived as a straight forward exchange of massages between the speaker and the listener, i.e. the most important channel of passing information. There are various types of communication and social factors that influence the entire process. Some of them are: Intentional and unintentional, verbal and nonverbal, defensive and supportive among others (Stewart, 164). Most people would prefer to receive information that is cognitive with their personal indulgent as opposed to cognitive dissonance which is totally inconsistent to one’s understanding of the ideas. Groups can either be big or small depending on the task bestowed on it as well as the nature of the organization that formed such a group. For any group to be more productive and achieve its objective, it is very important that all members work jointly, rather than being independent (Stewart, 168). Despite having different backgrounds, personalities, values, thoughts, and knowledge, it is better for everyone to make sure that he or she makes a significant contribution to the group. A well-structured group aimed at achieving its goal should be able to allow its members to voice their opinions and mind without undermining or criticizing their opinions.  

Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 6

Assignment Example The total liabilities amount is $ 8,300 during the same accounting period. The total Capital end is $ 32,810 during the same accounting year (Black, 2009; Crosson, 2009). The balance sheet is based on the accrual basis of accounting. The accrual basis accounting states that the records its revenues or sales during the accounting period they were earned, not on the day they were paid by the customers. Consequently, the sales made to current and future customers on account are debited to Accounts receivable or Notes receivable. In like manner, the Sales or Revenue account is credited. On the other hand, the cash basis accounting records revenues or sales only during the time when the sales amounts are paid by the customers, not when the revenues or sales were earned. Similarly, the accrual basis of accounting records expenses during the accounting period when they are incurred (Nikolai, 2009). ... ted to sell the same products or services, receive payments from customers, pay its creditors, and do other business transactions until the next several years (Nikolai, 2009). Savannah Enterprise Income statements                      Savannah Enterprise       Income Statement       For the year ended December 31, 2012 (thousands)             Sales 75.00       cost of sales       inv beg       Purchases 43.84       Goods for sale 43.84       inv end 1.60 42.24       Gross Profit 32.76       Selling & Admin Expenses       Advertising expense 2.40       Depreciation Expense (Delivery Equipment) 5.00       Depreciation Expense (Computer) 1.00       Utilities expense 4.50       Commission expense 1.50       Miscellaneous expense 4.90       Taxes & Licenses (Business rates) 1.50       Repairs & Maintenance expense 2.80       Postage & Packing expense 0.95 24.55       Net Profit 8.21                      The above income statement is based on the matching concept of accounting. Under the matching concept of accounting, the costs of producing the products shall be deducted during the accounting period when the products were sold or revenues were earned (Nikolai, 2009). Under the matching principle of accounting, the cost of sales amount is deducted from the sales account. Consequently, the cost of sales $ 42,240 is deducted from the $75,000 revenue. The result of the mathematical computation is $ 32,760 gross profit under the matching principle of accounting (Weetman, 2009). In order to arrive at the accounting period’s net profit, the operating expenses are deducted from the gross profit figure. The operating expenses include the marketing expenses and the administration expenses. The marketing expenses include the advertising expense and the commission expense. On the

Result of Survey About Consumer's Buying Preferences towards Essay

Result of Survey About Consumer's Buying Preferences towards Technological Goods Produced using Sustainable Business Practices - Essay Example II. Introduction Knowing the preference of a market or determining how will consumer respond towards a certain good is critical to a business success especially when it is about to introduce a product in the market. The information regarding the market’s preference, behaviour or response towards a certain product is critical because this will give the company an idea whether to push through with the product or not and if ever it will push through with the product, on how will it position itself in the market that would optimize its success. In the case of this paper, the research will determine the consumer buying preference towards technological goods produced using sustainable business practices. Albeit it is ideal to produce products using sustainable business practices, it is not yet known whether there will be a business incentive in terms of market acceptance in the market of Dubai towards green products. This paper will attempt to determine Consumer buying preferences t owards technological goods produced using sustainable business practices and if they are, what particular consumer demographics are susceptible to it so that a company can focus on a particular segment of the market to optimize its success. III. Description of methodology The information used in research paper came from primary data through the form of a survey. The survey had 40 respondents from the Dubai market. The demographics of the market are consumers age 30-60 above, who have a source of income of USD 20,000 to USD 59,000 that ranged from single people to couples with family. Suffice to say that the respondents were a fair representative of consumers of technological goods. The purpose of the survey however was to determine their preference towards technological goods produced using sustainable business practices. Albeit it is the ideal business practice, it is yet to be determined if sustainable business practice can translate to sales and ultimately profit. The survey came in the form of a questionnaire which requires respondents to indicate their age, gender, approximate annual income and civil status. The questionnaires were designed to be simple to easily determine consumer response towards technological goods produced using sustainable business practices. IV. Analysis of the data from the survey The result of the survey was an eye opener as well as encouraging. For one, there are already segments in the market who particularly conscious about the company’s business practice and in fact has a bearing in their purchase decisions. Survey result showed that the age group 35 to 39 and 40 to 44 strongly agreed that consumer should completely stop buying products that are unsustainable to the environment. This indicates that a particular segment in the market has a strong opinion about the environment friendliness of a product. This is being supported by another statistical data that these age groups are responsive to the environmentally sustaina ble practice of a company. Age group 35 to 39, 40 to 44 and 45 to 49 proved to be willing to pay extra as long as the product/s is/are environmentally friendly. They would also ask or inquire about the business practice of a company of which they deemed to be important in the decision making process of purchasing their electronic goods. Consumers also do not merely associate environment friendliness to energy consumption because respondents on all age group did

The effects of digital marketing on the buying behaviour of the Dissertation

The effects of digital marketing on the buying behaviour of the consumers - Dissertation Example The research was conducted on the effects of digital marketing on the buying behaviour of the consumers. The research reveals that in today’s fast-paced technological environment, the digital media is playing a pivotal role in influencing the young adults of UAE. This is because the have now started purchasing online and thus are more knowledgeable about global markets. Today the consumer can make smart choices by instant comparison of prices and product features online and thus is not easily fooled. Moreover he is more aware of the prices and promotions that take place. Thus digital media has made the buyer savvier. The research was conducted on young adults having a mobile and familiar with Internet. A total of 1000 subjects were approached in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. However, only 884 of them gave valid responses. The research was conducted using the questionnaire as a research tool. The findings reveal that the consumers consider the online shopping and digital media as a parallel medium and traditional shopping and marketing is not entirely replaced and the results indicate that it may not be replaced in the near future. Though online buying has its advantages yet consumers hesitate because of security issues, inability to interact with the product before purchase and delivery time. Recommendations like making credit card shopping more secure, incorporating online marketing and purchase an essential part of the UAE culture, more online exclusive discounts should be given and lastly he media firms should increase awareness of digital media and marketing. Table of Contents Chapter 1-Introduction 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 Research background 1 1.3 Purpose of the research 1 1.4 Research methodology 2 1.5 Aims and Objectives 3 1.6 Report Layout 4 1.7 Limits of Validity 5 2.1 Introduction 6 2.2 Literature review 6 2.2 Human Needs and Wants 7 2.3 Theory of Reasoned Action 7 2.4 Consumer Characteristics 8 2.4.1 Cultural Characteristics 8 2.4.1.1 Culture 8 2.4.1.2 Subculture 8 2.4.1.3 Social Class 9 2.4.2 Social Characteristics 10 2.4.2.1 Reference Group 10 2.4.2.2 Family 10 2.4.2.3 Roles and Status 10 2.4.3 Personal characteristics 11 2.4.3.1 The Age and Life-Cycle Stage 11 2.4.3.2 Occupation 11 2.4.3.3 The Economic Situation 11 2.4.3.4 Lifestyle 12 2.4.3.5 Personality 12 2.4.4 Psychological Characteristics 12 2.5 Online Consumer Characteristics 13 2.5.1 Cultural Characteristics of an Online Buyer 13 2.5.2 Social Characteristics of an Online Buyer 13 2.5.3 Personal Characteristics of an Online Buyer 13 2.5.4 Psychological Online Characteristics 14 2.5.4.1 Perception 14 2.5.4.2 Personality 15 2.5.4.3 Attitude 15 2.5.4.4 Emotions 15 2.6 SWOT ANALYSIS 15 2.6.1 Strengths 15 2.6.2 Weaknesses 17 2.6.3 Opportunities 18 2.6.4 Threats 18 2.7 Psychological Characteristics of Online Buyers 18 2.7.1 Egocentric 19 2.7.2 Impatient 20 2.7.3 Impulsive 20 2.7.4 Educated 20 2.7.5 Informed 20 2.7.6 Thrifty 21 2.7.7 Private 21 2.7.8 Cautious 21 2.7.9 Pleasure-driven 21 2.8 Online Shopping Cart Abandonment 22 2.9 Global Trends in Online Shopping: A Nielsen Global Consumer Report - June 2010 24 2.9.1 Online Shopping Around the World - Regional round up: Middle East, Africa and Pakistan: 25 Chapter 3-Methodology 26 3.1 Introduction 26 3.2 Role of the researcher 27 3.3 The design of the research 28 3.4 Sampling 30 3.5 Conducting the research 30 3.6 Research tool-the questionnaire design 32 3.7 Questionnaire method 33 3.8 Type of data collected 33 3.9 Procedure of collecting the data 34 3.10 Trustworthiness of the methodology used 34 3.10.1 Reliability 34 3.10.2 Validity 35 3.10.3 Ethical Validity 35 3.10.4 Generalized validity 35 Chapter 4- Data analysis 4.1 Introduction 37 4.2 The change brought about by digital marketing in the buying behaviour 37 4.3 The way digital marketing influences buyers 41 4.4 To understand consumer’s attitude towards interactive digital marketing 44 5.Conclusion 53 5.1Introduction 53 5.2 Conclusio n 53 5.2 Scope of the research 56 5.3 Recommendations 57 5.3.1 Safety issues 57

Personal reflection on design Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Personal reflection on design - Essay Example ve teaching design to pass information across to the target group will aid in the learning process as pupils will be able to grab much of what they are being told (Agostinho, 2006). Moreover, teachers will be able to pursue their careers with much ease as they provide quality education without investing a lot of time. The core purpose of a teacher is to offer quality education to his/her students. This can only be measured through the outcomes of an assessment exercise (McAndrew, Goodyear and Dalziel, 2006, p. 216). I believe that a concerned teacher will offer an assessment exercise to her/his pupils after a lesson to assess how much the pupils have understood what has been presented. Consequently, the teacher’s satisfaction will be attained if only he/she will find out that the pupils have extensively comprehended what was taught. Waters and Gibbons (2004, p. 57) state that a teaching design can be conducted in order to: illustrate the tasks assigned to the pupils, the resources available to the students to assist them in carrying out those tasks and how as their teacher, you are going to offer them support. As a primary teacher I have had to go through a lot of challenges in my teaching career. While in college we were taught on how to prepare prior to conducting lessons (Goodyear, 2005, p. 85). Among the things you have to do before undertaking a lesson is to prepare a simple lesson plan. A lesson plan is to give a teacher a guideline on the sequence of events during the lesson and what he/she has to accomplish at the end of a lesson. During the early years of my teaching career I had problems with preparing a lesson plan because I considered it to be time wasting. With five years of practice in the teaching field, I understand only too well the essential role of a lesson plan (Waters and Gibbons, 2004, p. 61). Dealing with a young mind I have to be very careful with what I do or say. According to Goodyear (2005, p. 101) children in primary schools

Commentary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Commentary - Essay Example He has argued that the modern day media has been inspired from radio serials of the past, which were under influence of sixteenth century play serials whose authors faced great criticism regarding the morality of their products. This way, media is continuing to affect the moral standards of its viewers. Professionals today must study history, and historians must understand the importance of modern day studies regarding media and communication. Dumas has concentrated upon the technicalities of how content is generated over the internet and is received by the access points. His net neutrality debate lucidly clarifies how net neutrality has become a public debate over the years. He has numbered a myriad of net neutrality drawbacks of modern times, which gives the reader an insight of how the whole process has prospered over the years. Both the texts are lucid in their own style, giving the readers an insight into how technology progresses over time and what are the pros and cons of mani fold technological and media

Pearl harbor Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Pearl harbor - Essay Example In 1940, the United States of America stopped the export of all aviation fuel, scrap iron, and other military imperative supplies to Japan. This was an effort to stop Japan’s interference in Southwest Asia without war. In fact, the United States never intended to declare war at all, and was looking for more peaceful solutions. Japan, however, refused to back down. In the summer of 1941, the United States, Netherlands, and Britain joined in a combined effort to freeze Japan’s assets. This was done in order to prevent the purchase of oil. The United States also moved their Pearl Harbor base to Hawaii, from San Diego. Feeling pressured by the demands of the United States, Japan’s military force felt that the movement of Pearl Harbor from San Diego to Hawaii was a threat to their expansion throughout Asia and the Pacific. With no settlements made on either side, the decision was made by Japan to attack the base in Pearl Harbor. Two centuries of tension between two countries, and a lack of communication, were the main reasons why Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Neither side had the communication technology that we have today, and so telegrams and messages were understandably delayed. The result was a catastrophic attack that Japan felt was in their right. To this day there are still numerous other theories as to why the attack on Pearl Harbor took place, and hundreds of years from now there will likely still be

“The Time Machine” by H.G. Wells Essay Example for Free

â€Å"The Time Machine† by H.G. Wells Essay In â€Å"The Time Machine† by H.G. Wells, the Time Traveler confronts a future that has apparently developed into a communist utopia, a belief system that Wells, a socialist, might well have supported.   The Traveler’s immediate reaction to the Eloi and his initial assumption that society has devolved into a classless cooperative reveals Wells’ bias towards a classless society. He also depicts the future as a beautiful, fruit-filled land instead of the dirty, smog-ridden reality that was Victorian era London. It is clear even in the opening chapters of the novel, that the Time Traveler shares many of Wells’ own biases and belief systems.   Though he believes that the Eloi have â€Å"devolved† due to the fact that they no longer need to work or improve their minds, the Time Traveler believes that this society is better than the one he came from where the poor were routinely mistreated and often malnourished. In many ways, the Time Traveler is the ultimate egalitarian: he believes that an Eloi society where the community works together to find its food and to live as equals is superior to his own society. It is not until the Traveler becomes aware of the presence of the Morlocks that he begins to question his initial impression. The fact that the Morlocks have become cannibalistic, Eloi-herders as a way of life is incredible depressing to the Traveler and he sets about to document these changes. Wells writes eventually that the Traveler is wrong in his theory about how the Morlocks and the Eloi come to be, but never discusses what the real cause of the evolution might be. From a philosophical standpoint, Wells development of the Eloi and Morlocks in his story is a remarkable commentary on his observations regarding the nature of man and how society might evolve. It is clear that in the Traveler’s initial opinion, the Eloi have developed from the upper class, from those who were too soft for manual labor and to enamored of recreational pursuits to challenge their minds. Likewise, the Morlocks are clearly supposed to have developed from the underclass and have resorted to violence and death as their way of life, never evolving to the point of problem solving or higher thought. In these most basic descriptions, Wells reveals his own bias towards the class warfare of Victorian England. Indeed, the Morlocks’ propensity for flesh-eating might well have developed out of the satirical writings of Jonathon Swift and his â€Å"A Modest Proposal.†Ã‚   Though in Swift’s essay it is the rich who eat the poor as a form of population control,   his commentary on the classes is very clearly echoed in â€Å"The Time Machine.†Ã‚   Both men argue effectively that class differences in the British Isles will likely lead to one class eating the other. By the subtle change from Swift’s â€Å"Proposal† to Wells’ Morlocks, we find that Wells’ believes it is likely the working class that will become cannabalistic and that the upper class has no redeeming qualities other than the ability to stuff their faces. Another philosophical issue facing the Time Traveler is the impact his travel will have on the world around him. This issue is central to the most recent film adaptation of the movie. In it, the Traveler attempts repeatedly to change the course of time to save his ill-fated fiancà © from certain death.   In both the film and the novel, the Time Traveler is forced to eventually face that he is unable to change the natural progression of time. The most interesting question here is whether he should have attempted to change time in the first place. Having seen the existence of the Eloi and the Morlocks and the eventual destruction of the planet, does the Traveler have any right to unwind, rewind or otherwise twist the fabric of time?   This question is largely unresolved in the novel, as the Traveler simply discovers that if he changes one event in the past, other events adapt to end with the same conclusion. The other question that this demands an answer to is the theory of time itself and of predetermination. If the Traveler is unable to change destiny by changing a specific event and if time adapts so that what is supposed to happen does, in one fashion or another, is there truly any conception of self-determination or is everything predestined. In his novel, Wells’ makes an effective argument for the concept that things happen as they are ordained to happen and man’s impact on them is infinitesimal. He argues through the repeated deaths of the Time Traveler’s fiancà © that fate is fate and cannot be changed. The joy of Wells’ novel is that on the surface it is simply a fantastical voyage into a future that might be, but that once one begins to scratch the surface, he finds a commentary on social justice, industrialization and even religion, as some religions argue that man is pre-destined to live his life in a certain manner. By never resolving the issues within the book, Wells allows the reader to determine for themselves whether they believe in predetermination or if they believe the future can be changed. He allows the reader to make his own judgments regarding the   battle between nature and industrialization and he allows the reader to decide how the battle between the classes will end. The novel allows the reader to take as much or as little from it as they desire and as such it is a classic of English literature.

The Concept of Probability in Mathematics

The Concept of Probability in Mathematics Probability is a way of expressing knowledge or belief that an event will occur or has occurred. The concept has been given an exact mathematical meaning in probability theory, which is used extensively in such areas of study as mathematics, statistics, finance, gambling, science, and philosophy to draw conclusions about the likelihood of potential events and the underlying mechanics of complex systems. The word probability does not have a consistent direct definition. In fact, there are two broad categories of probability interpretations, whose adherents possess different views about the fundamental nature of probability. The word Probability derives from Latin word probabilitas that can also mean probity, a measure of the authority of a witness in a legal case in Europe, and often correlated with the witnesss nobility. In a sense, this differs much from the modern meaning of probability, which, in contrast, is used as a measure of the weight of empirical evidence, and is arrived at from inductive reasoning and statistical inference. History: The scientific study of probability is a modern development. Gambling shows that there has been an interest in quantifying the ideas of probability for millennia, but exact mathematical descriptions of use in those problems only arose much later. According to Richard Jeffrey, Before the middle of the seventeenth century, the term probable meant approvable, and was applied in that sense, univocally, to opinion and to action. A probable action or opinion was one such as sensible people would undertake or hold, in the circumstances.[4] However, in legal contexts especially, probable could also apply to propositions for which there was good evidence. Aside from some elementary considerations made by Girolamo Cardano in the 16th century, the doctrine of probabilities dates to the correspondence of Pierre de Fermat and Blaise Pascal (1654). Christiaan Huygens (1657) gave the earliest known scientific treatment of the subject. Jakob Bernoullis and Abraham de Moivres Doctrine of Chances (1718) treated the subject as a branch of mathematics. See Ian Hackings The Emergence of Probability and James Franklins The Science of Conjecture for histories of the early development of the very concept of mathematical probability. The theory of errors may be traced back to Roger Cotes but a memoir prepared by Thomas Simpson in 1755 (printed 1756) first applied the theory to the discussion of errors of observation. The reprint (1757) of this memoir lays down the axioms that positive and negative errors are equally probable, and that there are certain assignable limits within which all errors may be supposed to fall; continuous errors are discussed and a probability curve is given. Pierre-Simon Laplace (1774) made the first attempt to deduce a rule for the combination of observations from the principles of the theory of probabilities. He represented the law of probability of errors by a curve y = à Ã¢â‚¬  (x), x being any error and y its probability.He also gave (1781) a formula for the law of facility of error (a term due to Lagrange, 1774), but one which led to unmanageable equations. Daniel Bernoulli (1778) introduced the principle of the maximum product of the probabilities of a system of concurrent errors. The method of least squares is due to Adrien-Marie Legendre (1805), who introduced it in his New Methods for Determining the Orbits of Comets. In ignorance of Legendres contribution, an Irish-American writer, Robert Adrain, editor of The Analyst (1808), first deduced the law of facility of error, h being a constant depending on precision of observation, and c a scale factor ensuring that the area under the curve equals 1. He gave two proofs, the second being essentially the same as John Herschels (1850). Gauss gave the first proof which seems to have been known in Europe (the third after Adrains) in 1809. Further proofs were given by Laplace (1810, 1812), Gauss (1823), James Ivory (1825, 1826), Hagen (1837), Friedrich Bessel (1838), W. F. Donkin (1844, 1856), and Morgan Crofton (1870). Other contributors were Ellis (1844), De Morgan (1864), Glaisher (1872), and Giovanni Schiaparelli (1875). Peterss (1856) formula for r, the probable error of a single observation, is well known. In the nineteenth century authors on the general theory included Laplace, Sylvestre Lacroix (1816), Littrow (1833), Adolphe Quetelet (1853), Richard Dedekind (1860), Helmert (1872), Hermann Laurent (1873), Liagre, Didion, and Karl Pearson. Augustus De Morgan and George Boole improved the exposition of the theory. Andrey Markov introduced the notion of Markov chains (1906) playing an important role in theory of stochastic processes and its applications. The modern theory of probability based on the measure theory was developed by Andrey Kolmogorov (1931). On the geometric side, contributors to The Educational Times were influential. Types of probability: There are basically four types of probabilities, each with its limitations. None of these approaches to probability is wrong, but some are more useful or more general than others. Classical Probability: The classical interpretation owes its name to its early and august pedigree. Championed by Laplace, and found even in the works of Pascal, Bernoulli, Huygens, and Leibniz, it assigns probabilities in the absence of any evidence, or in the presence of symmetrically balanced evidence. The classical theory of probability applies to equally probable events, such as the outcomes of tossing a coin or throwing dice; such events were known as equipossible. probability = number of favourable equipossibilies / total number of relevant equipossibilities. Logical probability: Logical theories of probability retain the classical interpretations idea that probabilities can be determined a priori by an examination of the space of possibilities. Subjective probability: A probability derived from an individuals personal judgment about whether a specific outcome is likely to occur. Subjective probabilities contain no formal calculations and only reflect the subjects opinions and past experience. Subjective probabilities differ from person to person. Because the probability is subjective, it contains a high degree of personal bias. An example of subjective probability could be asking New York Yankees fans, before the baseball season starts, the chances of New York winning the world series. While there is no absolute mathematical proof behind the answer to the example, fans might still reply in actual percentage terms, such as the Yankees having a 25% chance of winning the world series. In everyday speech, we express our beliefs about likelihoods of events using the same terminology as in probability theory. Often, this has nothing to do with any formal definition of probability, rather it is an intuitive idea guided by our experience, and in some cases statistics. Some Of the Examples Of Probability: X says Dont buy the avocados here; about half the time, theyre rotten. X is expressing his belief about the probability of an event that an avocado will be rotten based on his personal experience. Y says I am 95% certain the capital of Spain is Barcelona. Here, the belief Y is expressing is only a probability from his point of view, because only he does not know that the capital of Spain is Madrid (from our point of view, the probability is 100%). However, we can still view this as a subjective probability because it expresses a measure of uncertainty. It is as though Y is saying in 95% of cases where I feel as sure as I do about this, I turn out to be right. Z says There is a lower chance of being shot in Omaha than in Detroit. Z is expressing a belief based (presumably) on statistics. Dr. A says to Christina, There is a 75% chance that you will live. Dr. A is basing this off of his research. Probability can also be expressed in vague terms. For example, someone might say it will probably rain tomorrow. This is subjective, but implies that the speaker believes the probability is greater than 50%. Subjective probabilities have been extensively studied, especially with regards to gambling and securities markets. While this type of probability is important, it is not the subject of this book. There are two standard approaches to conceptually interpreting probabilities. The first is known as the long run (or the relative frequency approach) and the subjective belief (or confidence approach). In the Frequency Theory of Probability, probability is the limit of the relative frequency with which an event occurs in repeated trials (note that trials must be independent). Frequentists talk about probabilities only when dealing with experiments that are random and well-defined. The probability of a random event denotes the relative frequency of occurrence of an experiments outcome, when repeating the experiment. Frequentists consider probability to be the relative frequency in the long run of outcomes. Physical probabilities, which are also called objective or frequency probabilities, are associated with random physical systems such as roulette wheels, rolling dice and radioactive atoms. In such systems, a given type of event (such as the dice yielding a six) tends to occur at a persistent rate, or relative frequency, in a long run of trials. Physical probabilities either explain, or are invoked to explain, these stable frequencies. Thus talk about physical probability makes sense only when dealing with well defined random experiments. The two main kinds of theory of physical probability are frequentist accounts and propensity accounts. Relative frequencies are always between 0% (the event essentially never happens) and 100% (the event essentially always happens), so in this theory as well, probabilities are between 0% and 100%. According to the Frequency Theory of Probability, what it means to say that the probability that A occurs is p% is that if you repeat the experiment over and over again, independently and under essentially identical conditions, the percentage of the time that A occurs will converge to p. For example, under the Frequency Theory, to say that the chance that a coin lands heads is 50% means that if you toss the coin over and over again, independently, the ratio of the number of times the coin lands heads to the total number of tosses approaches a limiting value of 50% as the number of tosses grows. Because the ratio of heads to tosses is always between 0% and 100%, when the probability exists it must be between 0% and 100%. In the Subjective Theory of Probability, probability measures the speakers degree of belief that the event will occur, on a scale of 0% (complete disbelief that the event will happen) to 100% (certainty that the event will happen). According to the Subjective Theory, what it means for me to say that the probability that A occurs is 2/3 is that I believe that A will happen twice as strongly as I believe that A will not happen. The Subjective Theory is particularly useful in assigning meaning to the probability of events that in principle can occur only once. For example, how might one assign meaning to a statement like there is a 25% chance of an earthquake on the San Andreas fault with magnitude 8 or larger before 2050? It is very hard to use either the Theory of Equally Likely Outcomes or the Frequency Theory to make sense of the assertion. Bayesians, however, assign probabilities to any statement whatsoever, even when no random process is involved. Probability, for a Bayesian, is a way to represent an individuals degree of belief in a statement, given the evidence. Evidential probability, also called Bayesian probability, can be assigned to any statement whatsoever, even when no random process is involved, as a way to represent its subjective plausibility, or the degree to which the statement is supported by the available evidence. On most accounts, evidential probabilities are considered to be degrees of belief, defined in terms of dispositions to gamble at certain odds. The four main evidential interpretations are the classical interpretation, the subjective interpretation, the epistemic or inductive interpretation, and the logical interpretation. Theory: Like other theories, the theory of probability is a representation of probabilistic concepts in formal terms-that is, in terms that can be considered separately from their meaning. These formal terms are manipulated by the rules of mathematics and logic, and any results are then interpreted or translated back into the problem domain. There have been at least two successful attempts to formalize probability, namely the Kolmogorov formulation and the Cox formulation. In Kolmogorovs formulation, sets are interpreted as events and probability itself as a measure on a class of sets. In Coxs theorem, probability is taken as a primitive and the emphasis is on constructing a consistent assignment of probability values to propositions. In both cases, the laws of probability are the same, except for technical details. There are other methods for quantifying uncertainty, such as the Dempster-Shafer theory or possibility theory, but those are essentially different and not compatible with the laws of probability as they are usually understood. Mathematical Treatment: In mathematics, a probability of an event A is represented by a real number in the range from 0 to 1 and written as P(A), p(A) or Pr(A). An impossible event has a probability of 0, and a certain event has a probability of 1. However, the converses are not always true: probability 0 events are not always impossible, nor probability 1 events certain. The opposite or complement of an event A is the event (that is, the event of A not occurring); its probability is given by P(not A) = 1 P(A). As an example, the chance of not rolling a six on a six-sided die is 1 (chance of rolling a six) . If both the events A and B occur on a single performance of an experiment this is called the intersection or joint probability of A and B, denoted as . If two events, A and B are independent then the joint probability is For example: if two coins are flipped the chance of both being heads is If either event A or event B or both events occur on a single performance of an experiment this is called the union of the events A and B denoted as . If two events are mutually exclusive then the probability of either occurring is For example, the chance of rolling a 1 or 2 on a six-sided die is If the events are not mutually exclusive then Conditional probability is the probability of some event A, given the occurrence of some other event B. Conditional probability is written P(A|B), and is read the probability of A, given B. It is defined by If P(B) = 0 then is undefined. Applications: Two major applications of probability theory in everyday life are in risk assessment and in trade on commodity markets. Governments typically apply probabilistic methods in environmental regulation where it is called pathway analysis, often measuring well-being using methods that are stochastic in nature, and choosing projects to undertake based on statistical analyses of their probable effect on the population as a whole. A good example is the effect of the perceived probability of any widespread Middle East conflict on oil prices which have ripple effects in the economy as a whole. An assessment by a commodity trader that a war is more likely vs. less likely sends prices up or down, and signals other traders of that opinion. Accordingly, the probabilities are not assessed independently nor necessarily very rationally. The theory of behavioural finance emerged to describe the effect of such groupthink on pricing, on policy, and on peace and conflict. It can reasonably be said that the discovery of rigorous methods to assess and combine probability assessments has had a profound effect on modern society. Accordingly, it may be of some importance to most citizens to understand how odds and probability assessments are made, and how they contribute to reputations and to decisions, especially in a democracy. Another significant application of probability theory in everyday life is reliability. Many consumer products, such as automobiles and consumer electronics, utilize reliability theory in the design of the product in order to reduce the probability of failure. The probability of failure may be closely associated with the products warranty. Probability Of Winning A Lottery: Everyone knows that the probability of winning the lottery is a pretty big long shot. How long, however, you probably never really thought about. Your actual odds of winning the lottery depend on where you play, but single state lotteries usually have odds of about 18 million to 1 while multiple state lotteries have odds as high as 120 million to 1. If you have ever thought youd win the lottery, youre not alone. About one out of every three people in the United States think that winning the lottery is the only way to become financially secure in their life. This is a frightening statistic when you sit down and consider what the above odds really mean. Its time to take a long hard look at the chances of you winning the lottery. While winning the lottery may be something that you want, to show you your chances well take a look at a number of remote occurrences that you probably wouldnt like to have happen to you and probably dont think will ever happen to you but are still much more likely to happen to you than winning the lottery. How about the classic odds of being struck by lightning? The actual probability of this happening varies from year to year, but as a good estimate, the National Safety Council says between 70 and 120 people a year die in the US by lightning so lets take 100 as our base. With the US population being approximately 265 million people, that means that the chances of being killed by lightning are roughly 2,650,000 to 1. Not very likely. However you are still 6 to 45 times more likely to die from a lightning strike than you would be to win the lottery. Now nobody really wants to die from flesh eating bacteria, and with odds at about 1 million to 1, the chances that you will die that way are pretty slim. Then again, you are 18 to 120 times more likely to die this way than to win the lottery. What are the chances that if youre playing with a group of four that two of you will get a hole-in-one on the exact same hole? At 17 million to 1, theyre better than the chances of you winning the lottery. What about dying from a snake bite or bee sting? It probably isnt a way that you have imagined that you would leave the earth. Youre a whopping 180 to 1,200 times more likely to die from one of these incidents than win the lottery. Thats because the probability of dying from a snake bite or bee sting is about 100,000 to 1. Now I know that you are not a bad person and you dont imagine finding yourself on death row for a crime you committed anytime soon. Still, its a lot more likely that you will be legally executed than win the lottery. In fact, you are 30,000% to 200,000% more likely to die in a legal execution than to win the lottery. If none of the above has convinced you to stop playing the lottery, then Ill bring out my favorite lottery fact. If you drive 10 miles to purchase your lottery ticket, its three to twenty times more likely for you to be killed in a car accident along the way than to win the jackpot. Flipping Of Coin: Coin flipping or coin tossing is the practice of throwing a coin in the air to choose between two alternatives, sometimes to resolve a dispute between two parties. It is a form of sortition which inherently has only two possible and equally likely outcomes. Experimental and theoretical analysis of coin tossing has shown that the outcome is predictable. During coin flipping the coin is tossed into the air such that it rotates end-over-end several times. Either beforehand or when the coin is in the air, an interested party calls heads or tails, indicating which side of the coin that party is choosing. The other party is assigned the opposite side. Depending on custom, the coin may be caught, caught and inverted, or allowed to land on the ground. When the coin comes to rest, the toss is complete and the party who called or was assigned the face-up side is declared the winner. If the outcome is unclear the toss is repeated; for example the coin may, very rarely, land on edge, or fall down a drain. The coin may be any type as long as it has two distinct sides; it need not be a coin as such. Human intuition about conditional probability is often very poor and can give rise to some seemingly surprising observations. For example, if the successive tosses of a coin are recorded as a string of H and T, then for any trial of tosses, it is twice as likely that the triplet TTH will occur before THT than after it. It is three times as likely that THH will precede HHT. Are we likely to be struck by lightning? In the United States, an average of 80 people are killed by lightning each year. Considering being killed by lightning to be our favorable outcome (not such a favorable outcome!), the sample space contains the entire population of the United States (about 250 million). If we assume that all the people in our sample space are equally likely to be killed by lightning (so people who never go outside have the same chance of being killed by lightning as those who stand by flagpoles in large open fields during thunderstorms), the chance of being killed by lightning in the United States is equal to 80/250 million, or a probability of about .000032%. Clearly, you are much more likely to die in a car accident than by being struck by lightning. Probability in Our Lives: A basic understanding of probability makes it possible to understand everything from batting averages to the weather report or your chances of being struck by lightning! Probability is an important topic in mathematics because the probability of certain events happening or not happening can be important to us in the real world. Weather forecasting: Suppose a person wants to go on a picnic this afternoon, and the weather report says that the chance of rain is 70%? Will he ever wonder where that 70% came from? Forecasts like these can be calculated by the people who work for the National Weather Service when they look at all other days in their historical database that have the same weather characteristics (temperature, pressure, humidity, etc.) and determine that on 70% of similar days in the past, it rained. As weve seen, to find basic probability we divide the number of favorable outcomes by the total number of possible outcomes in our sample space. If were looking for the chance it will rain, this will be the number of days in our database that it rained divided by the total number of similar days in our database. If our meteorologist has data for 100 days with similar weather conditions (the sample space and therefore the denominator of our fraction), and on 70 of these days it rained (a favorable outcome), the probability of rain on the next similar day is 70/100 or 70%. Since a 50% probability means that an event is as likely to occur as not, 70%, which is greater than 50%, means that it is more likely to rain than not. But what is the probability that it wont rain? Remember that because the favourable outcomes represent all the possible ways that an event can occur, the sum of the various probabilities must equal 1 or 100%, so 100% 70% = 30%, and the probability that it wont rain is 30%. Bernoulli Trials On Probability: It happens very often in real life that an event may have only two outcomes that matter. For example, either you pass an exam or you do not pass an exam, either you get the job you applied for or you do not get the job, either your flight is delayed or it departs on time, etc. The probability theory abstraction of all such situations is a Bernoulli trial. Bernoulli trial is an experiment with only two possible outcomes that have positive probabilities p and q such that p + q = 1. The outcomes are said to be success and failure, and are commonly denoted as S and F or, say, 1 and 0. For example, when rolling a die, we may be only interested whether 1 shows up, in which case,naturally, P(S) = 1/6 and P(F) = 5/6. If, when rolling two dice, we are only interested whether the sum on two dice is 11, P(S) = 1/18, P(F) = 17/18. The Bernoulli process is a succession of independent Bernoulli trials with the same probability of success. Uses Of Probability In Our Daily Lives: I think we use probability routinely in our daily lives. When you get into a car and drive on public roads, we often assume that we have a low probability of being hit by another car. When you pull out onto a busy street crossing 2 lanes of traffic, you judge the speed of the traffic in those lanes. You assume you have a high probability of judging that speed correctly when you cross those lanes. If you did not make that assumption, you probably would not attempt to cross the lanes for fear of being hit by another car. We assume that we have a low probability of being hit by lightning or a meteor. When you eat with your hands, you assume your probability of getting sick from germs on your hands is low. Or you wouldnt eat with your hands. You could say the same of eating in a restaurant with reference to food you didnt prepare yourself. Within assuming many probabilities, I think wed constantly live in fear of what horrible things might happen to us. Summary of probabilities: Event Probability A not A A or B A and B A given B Other Cases Where Probability Can Be Observed: Youve seen it happen many times-a player in a dice game claims she is due for doubles; strangers discover that they have a mutual acquaintance and think that this must be more than a chance meeting; a friend plays the lottery obsessively or enters online contests with a persistent dream of winning. All these behaviors reflect how people perceive probability in daily life. People who lack an accurate sense of probability are easily drawn in by false claims and pseudoscience, are vulnerable to get-rich-quick schemes, and exhibit many of the behaviors mentioned above. The modeling and measurement of probabilities are fundamentals of mathematics that can be applied to the world around us. Every event, every measurement, every game, every accident, and even the nature of matter itself is understood through probabilistic models, yet few people have a good grasp of the nature of probability. Frequentists talk about probabilities only when dealing with experiments that are random and well-defined. The probability of a random event denotes the relative frequency of occurrence of an experiments outcome, when repeating the experiment. Frequentists consider probability to be the relative frequency in the long run of outcomes.[1] Bayesians, however, assign probabilities to any statement whatsoever, even when no random process is involved. Probability, for a Bayesian, is a way to represent an individuals degree of belief in a statement, or an objective degree of rational belief, given the evidence. Relation to randomness: In a deterministic universe, based on Newtonian concepts, there is no probability if all conditions are known. In the case of a roulette wheel, if the force of the hand and the period of that force are known, then the number on which the ball will stop would be a certainty. Of course, this also assumes knowledge of inertia and friction of the wheel, weight, smoothness and roundness of the ball, variations in hand speed during the turning and so forth. A probabilistic description can thus be more useful than Newtonian mechanics for analyzing the pattern of outcomes of repeated rolls of roulette wheel. Physicists face the same situation in kinetic theory of gases, where the system, while deterministic in principle, is so complex (with the number of molecules typically the order of magnitude of Avogadro constant 6.02 ·1023) that only statistical description of its properties is feasible. A revolutionary discovery of 20th century physics was the random character of all physical processes that occur at sub-atomic scales and are governed by the laws of quantum mechanics. The wave function itself evolves deterministically as long as no observation is made, but, according to the prevailing Copenhagen interpretation, the randomness caused by the wave function collapsing when an observation is made, is fundamental. This means that probability theory is required to describe nature. Others never came to terms with the loss of determinism. Albert Einstein famously remarked in a letter to Max Born: I am convinced that God does not play dice. Although alternative viewpoints exist, such as that of quantum de-coherence being the cause of an apparent random collapse, at present there is a firm consensus among physicists that probability theory is necessary to describe quantum phenomena.

Structural and Optical Properties of Pulsed Laser

Structural and Optical Properties of Pulsed Laser Structural and Optical Properties of Pulsed Laser Deposited ZnO/TiO2 and TiO2/ZnO Thin Films R. K. Jain, Praveen K. Jain Abstract. ZnO/TiO2 and TiO2/ZnO thin films have been deposited on single crystal Si (100) substrate using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique in order to improve structural and optical properties of ZnO and TiO2 thin films. It was observed that the deposition of TiO2 film prior to ZnO, exhibited higher crystallinity along (002) diffraction peak, small compressive strain and stress and thereby rendering better optical properties as compared to ZnO films deposited directly on Si substrates. On the other hand, TiO2 thin film deposited on Si substrate exhibited pure anatase phase while the use of ZnO buffer was found to improve the crystallinity of TiO2 thin film. The photoluminescence spectra showed that TiO2 and ZnO buffer layers enhanced ultraviolet emissions of the ZnO and TiO2 thin films to a larger extent, respectively. Keywords: ZnO, TiO2, Optical properties, Photoluminescence PACS: 78.66.Hf, 78.55.Et, 68.37.Ps Introduction ZnO is suitable for the production of light emitting devices and a promising candidate for the next generation of electronic devicesdue to its wide band gap (3.37 eV) and large exciton binding energy (60 meV)[1]. ZnO thin films play an important role in solid-state display devices, solar cells and exciting acoustic waves at microwave frequencies[2]. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is one of the most important semiconductors with high photocatalytic activity, non-toxicity, stability in aqueous solution, and is relatively inexpensive. The excellent photocatalytic property of TiO2 is due to its wide band gap and long lifetime of photogenerated holes and electrons [3-4]. It has been reported that the deposition of ZnO or TiO2 thin films on Si substrates at elevated temperature leads to increase in oxygen vacancies as the surface Si atoms easily capture oxygen atom from ZnO or TiO2, which deteriorates the quality of the these films [5]. So it is required to improve various properties of ZnO and T iO2 films for their potential applications. In the present study, a systematic investigation has been performed in order to improve the structural and optical properties of these films using buffer layers. ZnO and TiO2 are chosen as a buffer layer material on the basis of following considerations: (a) Both are wide-band-gap materials, (b) both exhibit high chemical and thermal stability, (c) both have high refractive indices, high transmittance in the visible region and intense absorption in the ultraviolet band and (d) both are low cost material. EXPERIMENTAL DETAILs ZnO and TiO2 thin films have been deposited on Si (100) substrate by ablating high purity (99.9%) ZnO and TiO2 ceramic target using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. The KrF excimer laser with wavelength of 248 nm was used for deposition. The pulse repetition rate was 10Hz with laser fluence of about 2–3Jcm−2. The target to substrate distance, working O2 pressure and deposition temperature were kept 35mm, 50 mTorr, and 500Â °C respectively. The thickness of the film and buffer layer was measured using cross section FE-SEM and found to be ~200 nm and 50 nm, respectively. The phase and orientation of as-grown thin films were characterized by X-ray diffractometry (Bruker AXS D-8 Advance Diffarctometer) using CuKÃŽ ± (ÃŽ »=1.5407 Ã…) radiation. The surface morphology was examined using atomic force microscope (NTMDT: NTEGRA model). Absorption spectra have been taken using UV-VIS-NIR spectrophotometer (Varian Cary 5000) and PL study was performed using photolumines cence spectrometer (Perkin Almer LS-55). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION XRD pattern reveled that ZnO thin film grown on Si (100) substrate was preferentially oriented along the c-axis with a hexagonal wurtzite structure and the use of TiO2 buffer layer increases crystallinity along (002) diffraction peak as shown in Figure 1. On the other hand, TiO2 thin film exhibit pure anatase phase and crystallinity was improved along (004) plane by inserting the ZnO buffer layer between substrate and TiO2 thin film. The improved crystallinity of thin film using buffer layer resulted from the mismatch in thermal expansion coefficient between ZnO and TiO2, which is smaller than that of between ZnO and Si or TiO2 and Si. The lattice mismatch between ZnO and Si (1 0 0) are 40%, whereas for their counterparts i.e. between ZnO and anatase-structured TiO2 are 14% [6]. Therefore, the decrease of lattice mismatch is another reason for the improved crystallinity. The crystallite size calculated using Scherer’s formula is shown in Table 1. The strain along the c axis, zz is given by the following equation [7]: (1) where c is the lattice parameter of the strained ZnO films calculated from x-ray diffraction data and c0 is the unstrained lattice parameter of ZnO. The lattice mismatch between film and substrates can result in varying degrees of stress during the growth process of thin films. The results show that the compressive strain is present in all fabricated ZnO and TiO2 films, which is derived from lattice mismatch between substrates and films owing to increase in crystallite size, and the stress is decreased with the buffer layer. Figure 2 shows the AFM image of the deposited thin films. The grain size and average surface roughness increases when buffer layer is used due to enhancement in crystallinity. Figure 3 shows the room temperature PL spectra of ZnO and TiO2 thin films grown on Si substrate with and without buffer layer. The ZnO film deposited on Si (100) substrate exhibits strong ultraviolet emission peak along with weak green–yellow emission band. The ultraviolet emission of ZnO films is generally considered to be resulted from recombination of free exciton, whereas the green emission is mainly resulting from oxygen vacancies [8]. The PL spectra of TiO2 thin film deposited on Si (100) substrate shows a broad emission band from 390 to 450nm and there are two emission peaks superimposed on the broad emission band. The peak before 350nm (~3.5eV) is ascribed to direct electron-hole recombination which should be equal to or slightly bigger than the TiO2band gap. The emission band from 390 to 450nm (corresponding to 3.2–2.75eV) arises from indirect band gap and surface recombination processes. Further observation indicates that there are two small peaks at the wavel ength range from 460 to 500 nm. These PL signals are attributed to excitonic PL, which mainly result from surface oxygen vacancies and defects of the films. It is observed that ZnO thin film deposited on the TiO2 buffer layer shows stronger ultraviolet emission, as compared to ZnO thin film grown without buffer layer, with no visible emission. The absence of visible emission shows the defect free formation of film. Similarly, the use of ZnO buffer layer also removes the oxygen defects emission peak of TiO2 thin film. The enhanced ultraviolet emission from ZnO thin films grown on TiO2 buffer layer is also probably connected with fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between ZnO and TiO2. After the excitation of electron–hole pairs in TiO2 layer, the energy is easily transferred to ZnO films due to resonance effect [9] as a result, the band gap emission of ZnO is enhanced. From optical absorption spectra of ZnO and TiO2 thin films, It is observed that ultraviolet absorption edge of ZnO and TiO2 film with buffer layer has a red-shift, compared with ZnO and TiO2 thin film grown on bare Si (100) substrate. The value of direct band gap was found to be 3.29 and 3.24 eV for ZnO thin films grown on Si substrate without and with TiO2 buffer layer, respectively. On the other hand, the value of indirect band gap was found to be 3.24 and 3.19 eV for TiO2 thin films deposited on Si (100) substrate without and with ZnO buffer layer. The decrease in optical band gap of the films could be related to the enhancement in crystallite (grain) size leading to a smaller number of grain boundaries. On the other hand the compressed lattice will provide a wider band gap because of the increased repulsion between the oxygen 2p and the zinc 4s bands [10]. CONCLUSISON ZnO, TiO2, ZnO/TiO2 and TiO2/ZnO thin films on Si (100) substrate were prepared by pulsed laser deposition technique. XRD and AFM result demonstrate that the crystallinity of ZnO and TiO2 thin films are considerably improved by using TiO2 and ZnO buffer layer, respectively. Compared with PL of ZnO thin film, UV intensity of ZnO grown on TiO2 buffer layer has increased about two fold. Similarly, the ZnO buffer layer improved the UV emission of TiO2 thin film. The band gap of ZnO and TiO2 thin film grown on buffer layer found to decrease due to improved crystallinity. REFERENCES [1] X. Teng, H. Fan, S. Pan, C. Ye, G. Li, Materials Letters 61 (2007) 201–204. [2] G. C. Yi, C. R. Wang, W. I. Park, Semicond. Sci. Technol 20 (2005) S22. [3]X. Zhang, F. Zhang, K. Y. Chan, Material Chemistry Physics 97 (2006) 384. [4]A. B. Bodade, A. M. Bende, G. N. Chaudhari, Vaccum 82 (2008) 588. [5] X. M. Fan, J. S. Lian, Z. X. Guo, H. J. Lu, Appl. Surf. Sci. 239 (2005) 176 [6] L. Xu, L. Shi , X. Li , Applied Surface Science 255 (2008) 3230–3234 [7] H. C. Ong, A. X. E. Zhu, and G. T. Du, Applied Physics Letter 80 (2002) 941. [8] Y. Zhang, B. Lin, Z. Fu, C. Liu, W. Han, Optical Materials 28 (2006) 1192. [9] H.Y. Lin, Y. Y. Chou, C. L. Cheng, Y. F. Chen, Optical Express 15 (2007) 13832. [10] R. Ghosh, D. Basak, S. Fujihara, Journal Applied Physics 96 (2004) 2689.

Divisibility Argument :: essays research papers

DIVISIBILITY ARGUMENT This paper will discuss the dualism’s Divisibility Argument. This argument relies on Leibniz’s Law and uses a different property to prove the distinctness of brain states of mental states. Mary, who is a materialist, presents several objections to that argument. Her main objection corresponds to the first/third-person approach. She believes that Dave presents that argument only from the first-person approach, which is introspection, and totally disregards the third-person approach, which is observation of another mind. Mary’s objections will follow by the Dave’s response on them from the dualist’s point of view. The purpose of the Divisibility Argument is to prove that mental states are different from the brain states. My body, which includes my brain, is divisible. However, I cannot conceive of my mind as divisible. Therefore, my mind is distinct from any part of my body. Descartes was the first who established the Divisibility Argument. He held that the two components which constitute man had an independent origin and are of a fundamentally different nature. The body is divisible, since it can be separated for example, my leg or my hand can be cut off; my brain can be cut on half. However, the idea of the divisible mind is inconceivable. This argument relies on the Leibniz’s Law. It is a principle about identity, which says, â€Å"if an object or event X is identical with an object or event Y, then X and Y have all of the same properties.† So if X and Y have any different properties, then X can not be identical with Y. Divisibility Argument uses a different property to prove the distinctness of brain states and mental states: the property of being indivisible. In this case, the mind has a property and brain lacks it. The body can be divided, however, it cannot be done with the mind. Mary has several objections to this argument. First, she believes that the mind is an entity, which is composed of several mental states: thoughts, beliefs, memories, desires, etc. Mary strongly disagrees with Descartes’ claim that the mind employs itself in its different properties: willing, desiring, understanding, and so on. Secondly, she clarifies the meaning of the word â€Å"conceive† in the Dave’s argument. The term â€Å"conceive† might mean either â€Å"imagine† or â€Å"understand.† Imagining literally involves â€Å"forming an image of† or â€Å"picturing† in one’s mind, whereas understanding is more â€Å"conceptual† and does not require the ability to picture something.

Danger Underground: Nuclear Waste Disposal in Yucca Mountain Essay

Danger Underground: Nuclear Waste Disposal in Yucca Mountain Introduction The U.S. Department of Energy has proposed plans to deposit 70,000 tons of highly radioactive waste underground Yucca Mountain in Nevada. While many environmental questions and concerns have been raised about the safety of the waste disposal plan for the next 10,000 years, there appears to be no alternative. Waste from nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants are a serious environmental problem that will be present for generations to come. It should be society's responsibility to come up with more efficient sources of energy, despite the costs, to prevent the production of more hazardous waste in the future. The "nuclear age" produced 52,000 tons of spent fuel from commercial, military, and research reactors, along with 91 million gallons of radioactive waste from plutonium processing (Long 12). More than 90% of the waste that needs to be stored is from commercial nuclear power plants, and 10% is from defense programs (Environmental Protection Agency/ Yucca Mtn. Standards). The waste from defense programs primarily accumulated during the arms race of the Cold War. Waste produced from commercial nuclear power plants is currently stored in 131 separate facilities in 43 different states, most of which are east of the Mississippi (Wheelwright 2002). Several government departments are responsible for taking care of all this waste. The Department of Energy (DOE) runs the nuclear facilities and supervises cleanup performed by commercial contractors. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for setting health and environmental waste standards for the long-term storage of waste produced by these facilities. The Department of Transportati... ... 2002. www.sacredland.org/yucca_mountain.html The Yucca Mountain Project. 2002. Referenced on 7 October 2002. www.ymp.gov/ U.S. Department of Energy: Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. 2002. Referenced on 11 Nov. 2002. www.eren.doe.gov/RE/solar.html U.S. Environmental Protection Agency/ Yucca Mtn. Standards. 2002. Referenced on 7 October 2002. www.epa.gov/radiation/yucca/about.htm Watson, Roland. "Nevada Outraged by Eternal Dump for Nuclear Waste." The Times 24 Sept. 2002 Newspaper Source. Palni Site Search. Goshen College Good Library. 7 Oct. 2002. Wheelright, Jeff. "Once There Was A Mountain in the Desert of Nevada." Discover 23 (Sept. 2002): 66-76. Academic Search Elite. Palni Site Search. Goshen College Good Library. 3 Nov.2002. Why Not Yucca Mountain? 2002. Referenced on 7 October 2002. www.nvantinuclear.org/

Plague - Bacillus Yersinia Pestis Essay -- Biology Medical Biomedical

Identification and Prevention of What Makes Life â€Å"Nasty, Brutish, and Short† Plague is caused by the bacterium bacillus Yersinia pestis, and is carried by rodents, fleas, and mammals. Plague takes three forms: bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic. Bubonic plague affects the lymph glands, while the pneumonic and septicemic forms affect the lungs and the blood. Today, plague can be prevented by antibiotics and strict public health measures. Three methods of controlling carriers involve sanitizing the environment, educating the public on how to prevent exposure, and using prophylactic antibiotics. â€Å"O happy posterity, who will not experience such abysmal woe and will look upon our testimony as a fable,† wrote the Florentian Renaissance author Francesco Petrarch to a friend in the midst of the Black Plague (Benedictow 3). Indeed, the Black Plague and its timeless infamy define when life was nasty, brutish, and short. Between 1346 and 1353, the Black Plague cast its dismal shadow over Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Western Asia. The plague also recurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in huge pandemics in Asia, and continues to be a threat today. The agent of plague, the bacterium bacillus Yersinia pestis, is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected fleas. Yersinia pestis is carried in the circulatory systems of chipmunks, prairie dogs, ground squirrels, mice, and other mammals. The plague is spread among humans by the inhalation of coughs of plague pneumonia. Although it is tempting to dismiss this pathogen as only active in outbreaks like the Black Death, and despite that the medical community found solutions to plague, plague continues to threaten those who live in areas of poor housing and sanitati... ...f Person-to-Person Transmission of Pneumonic Plague.† Healthcare Epidemiology. 27 July, 2006. 15 April, 2005. . Kopp, Elizabeth, and Medzhitov, Ruslan. â€Å"A Plague on Host Defense.† The Journal of Experimental Medicine. . â€Å"Plague Fact Sheet.† Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Department of Health and Human Services. 30 March, 2005. 26 July, 2006. . â€Å"Plague Prevention and Control.† Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Department of Health and Human Services. 30 March, 2005. 26 July, 2006. . VeriMed Healthcare Network. â€Å"Plague.† Medline Plus. 17 June, 2005. 26 July, 2006. .

Masculinity and World War Ii

Masculinity and World War II The image of Man has changed throughout time. Dominant constructions of masculinity, which are basically attempts to stabilize gender identity, are developed within the dynamics of shifting cultures and societies. The male stereotype, which is still prevails nowadays, started rising at the end of eighteenth – beginning nineteenth century in Europe with a great concentration on the male’s body. The stereotype made the world look at man more like a type rather than an individual.Masculinity was strengthened due to the positive stereotyping, however for those that did not conform to this label or fit in with the ideal, were negatively stereotyped. Being an outsider who was born in a different country made it especially interesting to penetrate the American culture and research about American masculinity. Truly, much of the progress of any country has been defined around the lives and accomplishments of great men. One cannot begin understanding the history of America without understanding manhood and the influence of the male. In every generation in America, manhood has been in the center of life and progress.It constantly strives to uphold its own traditions while trying to redefine itself. I have done a lot of research about American masculinity and how it has been changed throughout the history. While going through different literature about the nature of masculinity, I came to the conclusion that for many men, the idea of masculinity is deeply tied to military prowess and adventure. One cannot but agree that war, the most violent and decisive of human acts, is the paradigmatic masculine enterprise. Military service is one of the rites of manhood; it makes men men.Moreover, war makes nations masculine, too. This paper examines the nature of masculinity and the role of masculinity in America. My main focus is on the changes in definitions of masculinity during the WWII Era and goes on to discuss the psychological and emo tional effects of the war and the subsequent readjustment efforts in the same era. In this work I will try to explore different author’s conclusions about masculinity, its changes and/or problems during the WWII and in its post-period. War, more than any other action, offers the ultimate test and demonstration of manhood.Indeed, it has been suggested that the sole cause of war is masculinity. War requires masculine energy and communal effort. It engages man in the age-old conflict between courage cowardice, right and wrong, aggression and compassion. In his book Manhood in America: A Cultural History, Michael Kimmel concentrates his attention on a large set of questions about the importance of masculinity: â€Å"I do believe that a comprehensive historical account of the American experience can no longer ignore the importance of masculinity – and especially of men’s efforts to prove their manhood – in the making of America† (5).For the soldier who fought during the WWII, the country conveyed upon him the gift of manhood. It was a war which redefined American masculinity. Although it led men to brutality on a very personal level, it served the hero archetype well. To embody courage under the most gruesome circumstances, the soldier has to repress his fear. To embody strength, he had to repress his feelings of vulnerability. In fact, what war required is manliness: â€Å"The men who were the best soldiers were, in effect, the best men† (Gagen 23).Elizabeth A. Gagen in her article â€Å"Homespun Manhood and the War Against Masculinity: Community Leisure on the US home front, 1917-19,† discussing the war and its influence on masculinity, states that â€Å"military masculinity became more entrenched in myths of heroism as sacrifice as citizenship was masculinised and masculinity was militarized† (27). Even though the author’s concentration is mostly on the WW I, Ganger discusses a lot about masculinity and the effect of wars on American cultures.Gagen locates the early-century crisis of masculinity in the loss of control men were experiencing: the authority of white, middle-class men was being threatened by the increasing presence of women in the public sphere. While on the one hand it was great opportunity for economic success, it also destabilized traditional gender and class hierarchy. All this placed a lot of pressure on the soul of American manhood. As it started happening, across America men returned to an increasingly protected wilderness in the hope that rehearsing primitive blood sports might revive in them their primal instincts.As Ganger goes on, she brings a very interesting point of view, where she connects the image of fighter with the image of hero and explains the men’s necessity to participate in the war: While blood sports and boxing could go some way towards providing a satisfactory venue for cultivating masculinity, there was something peculiar to war th at was uniquely desirable. When all around them masculinity seemed to be failing, war appeared as the last frontier of manliness: a crucible in which masculinity could be reborn. (27) A military service man was not just an aggressive heroic individual, he was a unique blend of masculinity.Therefore, for American man the war became a great opportunity to show their aggression, strength, courage and endurance. All these are the qualities of manhood. Similar to Gagen, Christina Jarvis, a psychologist and a professor at the State University of New York, in her discourse â€Å"If He Comes Home Nervous: U. S. World War II Neuropsychiatric Casualties and Post War Masculinities,† illustrates the traditional masculinity ideology. She uses the analogy of medieval knightly chivalric code. The chivalric code was the guiding principle that highlighted the designated features of medieval warrior class as unyielding, heroic, and tough.The chivalric code, as Jarvis notes, would in turn have a significant influence in developing the ideals of traditional masculinity in the earlier 20th Century World War years. During the same period, the perceived notion of masculinity gender superiority was prevalent in then overly patriarchal society that existed at that time. The society depicted military masculinity as invincible. The common notion was that since men are physically more capable than women are and that only the toughest got into the military, then masculinity ultimately surpassed shallow emotional vulnerability.The United States came out of the conflict viewing itself as a masculine nation. The postwar generation of American men grew up revering a hero image, but, as it turned out, there was one major problem. The heroes too often didn’t see everything the same way as the other people did. What they brought back from the war were oppressive memories that wouldn’t go away. What they brought back from the war was emotional trauma and enormous challenges i n reintegrating with domestic life. While they were recruiting in anticipation of war, American soldiers trained vigorously pledging their undying dedication to protect and defend their country.Jarvis asserts that it was a sacred duty for all soldiers to uphold bravery, resilience and courage, which were among the core military ideals. As it turned out, the perceived masculinity resilience ideal was actually overrated. Besides sustaining bodily and physical harm in the course of the war, American servicemen apprehended severe psychiatric and emotional injury as well. These soldiers witnessed atrocities and inhumane acts of war and saw the physical torture of many as well as demise of others in the battlefield.This in turn caused some of them to apprehend psychiatric harm in form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Similarly, the servicemen who sustained severe bodily harm that left them physically handicapped suffered from acute mental and emotional disorders. As such, physical and m ental injuries are inseparable. As Christian Hoge in his work â€Å"Combat Duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mental Health Problems, and Barriers to Care† explains, the course of World War II altered the preconceived notion that masculinity was beyond emotional vulnerability.In his discourse on mental harm during the World Wars and the Iraqi war on terror, Hoge asserts that the war shattered the spirit of American soldiers given that they had to watch their helpless colleagues die of intensive injuries, disease and starvation. Some lost close friends and relatives in the event of war. This, as a result, undermined the traditional masculinity ideals while people began to appreciate that despite their bravery, soldiers were human beings with emotions and feelings and not as invincible as everybody initially thought. Numerous soldiers came under immense stress while in the battlefield.Some of them began to re-evaluate their dedication to defend the integrity of their country amid a situation where it seemed that everyone had forsaken them. At this point, fighting for personal survival went beyond defending the national integrity. The war exposed the emotional dimension of men as they began worrying about their families back at home and the hitherto ardent masculinity ideology began to wither. As soon as the mainstream news periodicals reported on the psychological harm imposed on soldiers by the war, literary advice in form of medical opinions on remasculinisation of war veterans began to emerge in late 1944.In his discourse on the early years post-war scenario When Johnny Comes Marching Home, David Wecter wrote that â€Å"the rebuilding of a war neurotic, sent home for treatment, must begin by convincing him that he is not a coward or a failure, but a battle casualty just as truly as the man who lost a leg† (547). His sentiments reflected the mainstream thoughts of the American people at the time. There was a widespread public outcry concerning the psy chological welfare of the soldiers who had dedicated their unrelenting efforts to preserve the integrity of America. Jarvis in her work depicts the same problem soldiers faced during and after war.But, she states that early in the war, soldiers and sailors who â€Å"broke down† under the pressure of combat or military life were generally discharged instead of treated. According to military psychiatrists Malcolm Farrel and John Appel, as Jarvis goes on , â€Å"these early discharges stemmed from the idea that initially the military thought it was possible to contemplate an Army made up of the cream of American manhood† (100). Given the military’s initial assumptions that only servicemen with weak egos broke down, early psychiatric casualties were stigmatized – especially when soldiers were labeled as â€Å"psychoneurotic. This term associated with both the â€Å"feminine† and â€Å"insane. † As a result the armed forces began a program of pr ompt treatment. The term â€Å"combat exhaustion† has been invented by psychiatrists: Despite the fact that labels such as â€Å"battle fatigue,† â€Å"combat exhaustion,† and â€Å"old sergeant syndrome† actually represented approximately one quarter of the war’s total neuropsychiatric admissions, military personnel and the public readily embraced the terms because they destigmatized psychiatric wounds by conveying a sense of masculine toughness rather than weakness. 101) Seeing as the traditional masculinity ideology had significantly shrivelled in the course of WWII, America dedicated its efforts towards a physical and psychological readjustment cause. Apart from the provision of intensive care for the psychiatric casualties, America’s special medical consultants sought to de-stigmatize psychiatric conditions. Psychiatrist George Pratt in his book Soldier to Civilian: Problems of Readjustment reassures the casualties that the term psychia try does not necessarily connote insanity.He says that on the contrary, the terms psychiatry and neurology as used in this post-war context implied â€Å"a departure from average personality traits or temperament †¦ that render a soldier unsuitable for military service† (14). In bid to clarify the paradigm shift and divergence of the post war psychological discourses, Pratt explains that these psychiatric discharges resulted from what he terms ‘situational stressors’ and not due to flawed personality or ego.Pratt’s efforts in de-stigmatizing psychiatric war injuries oversaw a rapid psychological recovery of the casualties. He notes as well that the condition was in all likelihood temporary save for a few cases of acute neuropsychiatric disturbances. Through his profound medical expertise, Pratt recommends the post war psychiatric casualties to share their war experiences with their families as well as medical experts.He reckoned that this would help i n the gradual healing process and the ultimate restoration of the traditional masculinity ideals. What we know about manhood and masculinity now gives us an extraordinary opportunity to become relevant in our own time. The old models of manhood provide a too-limiting definition for the complex sense of manliness. As we can see through examples from history, men are more than just unemotional beasts, who are ready to die for their nation and their country any time they are needed.Man can be a soldier, man can be a warrior. No matter in what situation the society puts our men, we shouldn’t forget that they are just human beings and nothing human is alien to them. It might sound very sad but the war in some way helped a soldier to figure out what true manliness is. One of the friends of Jess, who is the main character of the book Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg, once said that everyone gets scared once there is a danger, but to be courageous means to go ahead in spite of be ing scared.Men should realize that for all of us they are already heroes because they didn’t hesitate to go and fight for their country and their people. Manhood and masculinity in America are expressions of many different ideas and sentiments. This review touched the idea that there is no single definition of man. And war, as one of the most important factors, showed us how far away from the reality the society’s prospective about masculinity might be.

The Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship: The American Dream

I have always been fascinated by the concept of the â€Å"American Dream†. Even if, nowadays, this concept is more and more criticize because some people believe that the structure of American society doesn’t follow anymore the idealistic goal of the â€Å"American Dream†, providing example such as inequality in class or race which suggest that the â€Å"American Dream† is not attainable for all. But to me the term â€Å"American Dream† stays unchanged: all people can succeed through hard work, and all people have the potential to live happy and successful lives. And in my mind, the entrepreneurship is one of the most famous way to achieve this â€Å"American Dream†. Steven BUYERS who is the founder and owner of EnergyLogic –a fast-growing company in Northern Colorado, appears to me as a very good example of this â€Å"American Dream† which is about hope and the potential for change. In fact, I feel this at the same time through the very innovative and sustainable development oriented concept of his company, and the take of initiative he seems able to show without having a precise idea of where it will lead him. In this paper, I’m going to discuss two major topics which seems relevant to me given Steven BUYERS’ experience, they are: the self-made man and the capacity to see opportunity. Self-made man The first thing I would like to precise is about the vision I have of a self-made man. Obviously when I use this term I’m not saying that Steven BUYERS is the only one responsible of the success of his company, because it would mean that nobody have accompanied him in this project and it wouldn’t be fair not to think about his employees or his wife who has apparently plays a huge role in his success. But I rather mean that he had managed to create and manage a success business starting from like nothing. The concept of the self-made man is necessarily connected with the â€Å"American dream† that I have mentioned before. The self-made man comes from unpromising circumstances, is not born into privilege and wealth, and manages to become a great success in life by his own efforts. The story of the self-made man embodies the goal of every man: â€Å"to become the captain of his own destiny. Actually this is really close to the reasons that people become entrepreneurs and starts their own firms, that is to say: â€Å"be their own boss, pursue their own ideas and pursue financial rewards. † A self-made man is anyone who attains far greater success which was not predictable. The background that Steven BUYERS told us about isn’t exactly what we can call a â€Å"predestinated background†. Indeed, he went through many different jobs and life’s experiences (from the army to a bookstore) before he found his way which tends to prove us that he is one of whose are able to create their own greatness. Finally I would say that being a self-made man, as being an entrepreneurship, is the result of a difference in your character and a willingness to do whatever it takes to be the best and achieve your dreams, just as the concessions made by Steven BUYERS at the beginning of his project. Capacity to see opportunity â€Å"An opportunity is a favorable set of circumstances that creates a need for a new product, service or business. † When we know that homes represent 20% of the energy use in USA –whereas transport â€Å"only† represents 27%, it appears logical to focus on this problem. But at the time that Steven BUYERS started his business, that is to say in 1998, nobody cared about saving energy. He came with this really simple question: â€Å"How to be more efficient with houses’ energy? †, and his project was to provide people with a solution. As far as the opportunity recognition is concerned, Steven BUYERS has done a really good job. Indeed, he identified a product/service that people need and are willing to buy. Everybody isn’t able to see opportunity, because opportunity isn’t just an idea you come with thinking it could work. And this is a crucial point which will determine if the business is going to work, or not. An opportunity has to perform four essential qualities: attractive, durable, timely and anchored to a product. That was the case for Steven’s idea. It was attractive because it allows people to save money; it was durable because it lasts a life-time; it was timely because sustainable development was beginning to develop; and finally it was anchored to a product because it deals with houses and isolation. What is even more impressive in this recognition of opportunity is that Steven BUYERS hasn’t done any real market study or business plan before launching his company. To me the way to identify an opportunity which fit the best to Steven BUYERS is the personal characteristics of entrepreneur. This capacity to see opportunity is an essential trait in my mind which is related to creativity. To conclude I would cite the philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson: â€Å"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. † Being an entrepreneur means being able to go where nobody else went before you, being able to take risks, being able to see opportunities where nobody has looked before you†¦ In my mind there is different ways to succeed in your job. Steven BUYERS succeed by seeing opportunities and managing his own success story as many self-made men have done before him. But no matter what is your background as far as you take your chance to develop successfully your business idea. Unfortunately, nowadays, entrepreneurs are more and more assimilated to capitalism and all the unfairness it can raise. As a result, famous self-made men such as Rockefeller are not as well-recognized as they were in the past –and sometimes even criticized. So we can wonder if the â€Å"American Dream† is still an example to follow or a goal to reach for the majority of American people.

Improve Efficiency Essay

A very high percentage of the items selected (picked) in the distribution centers and re-stocked in the stores were in quantities of 1 case. This company’s roots were as a high volume, limited assortment retailer and distributor. Over time the business had shifted allowing the stores to reorder a higher mix of items at lower volumes. Given the companies market position as a low-price leader, this reduced profit margins. The two root causes of this shift were identified as: 1. Stock-keeping-unit (SKU) count growth outpacing sales growth, and 2. Allowing minimum order quantities from the stores to the distribution centers to drop to a quantity of one This white paper will study how this company quantified the impact of allowing its stores to order in one case quantity and then recalculated minimum order quantities for higher volume items. (For details of how SKUs were reduced see White Paper â€Å"SKU Reduction – Biggest SKLUsers†) A Supply Velocity Consultant led a team of employees through this 5 week project. The Supply Velocity consultant facilitated, but the employees did most of the analysis and therefore owned the improvements. nfo@supplyvelocity. com Copyright: Supply Velocity, Inc. 2 Project Outline ? Evaluated all SKUs and the case quantity they are most frequently ordered at, to establish baseline data for how stores are ordering ? Time studied retail store shelf restocking and distribution center order selection labor to determine the negative labor productivity impact of the current ordering policy o Graphed the results in a trend chart o Determined that the greatest labor productivity improvement happens when the order quantity increases from just 1 to 2 cases ? Recalculated minimum order quantity for all items using Multi-Variable Pareto analysis based on: o Item unit movement o Pack-out (number of units that fit on the shelf space allocated in stores) o Shelf life ? About 20% of all SKUs had a re-calculated minimum order quantity greater than 1 case o The most conservative methods were used to ensure this project didn’t just push inventory out to stores, resulting in shrink (throwing away items that go beyond their shelf-life limit or are damaged) ? Communicated all items on the minimum order quantity to all stores through a comprehensive communication plan o Communication plan included data to show stores how increasing minimum order quantity on select items would improve their labor productivity ? Created a control plan to ensure new items, SKU reduction and sales history will be used to update the minimum order quantity on a twice yearly basis info@supplyvelocity. com Copyright: Supply Velocity, Inc. 3 Time Study Analysis To quantify the problem, we time studied order selection in the distribution centers and shelf restocking in retail stores. We conducted a few snapshot analyses of different distribution centers to understand the current state of â€Å"order quantities†. The graph below shows that out of the approximately 2800 items, a majority are ordered in quantities of 1 case. The time study data also showed that the second case selected or stocked is essentially â€Å"free† and the same movement is used for two cases as for one case. At the outset of this project the team was worried that any increase in minimum order quantity would be viewed by store managers as an attempt to push inventory out from the distribution centers to the stores. This data showed that increasing minimum order quantity from one case to just two, gave us the greatest percentage of labor productivity improvement. However, we didn’t just want to increase all items to a 2 case minimum order quantity. Instead, a statistical tool, Multi-Variable Pareto was used to calculate the proper minimum order quantity based on a mix of inputs. nfo@supplyvelocity. com Copyright: Supply Velocity, Inc. 4 Distribution Center Order Selection Quantity (# of items picked per quantity) 57% of the items in distribution centers were selected at a 1 case quantity info@supplyvelocity. com Copyright: Supply Velocity, Inc. 5 â€Å"Time to Select per Case Quantity† in the Distribution Centers – Based on case count per selection When selecting 2 cas es of an item, the time per case drops by 45% from 1 case. info@supplyvelocity. com Copyright: Supply Velocity, Inc. 6 Time to Re-Stock SKUs on Shelves in Stores – Based on case count When restocking 2 cases of an item, the time per case drops by 61% from 1 case. This shows that the greatest productivity improvement occurs when going from 1 to 2 cases, which is easier to â€Å"sell† to the stores than making large increases in minimum order quantity. They can reduce labor by 37 seconds per case by ordering and stocking 2 cases of an item versus 1. info@supplyvelocity. com Copyright: Supply Velocity, Inc. 7 Multi Variable Pareto Analysis ? Recalculated minimum order quantity for all items using Multi-Variable Pareto analysis based on: o Item unit movement o Pack-out (number of units that fit on the shelf space allocated in stores) o Shelf life ? About 20% of all SKUs had a re-calculated minimum order quantity greater than 1 case o The most conservative methods were used to ensure this project didn’t just push inventory out to stores, resulting in shrink Multi-Variable Pareto is a method that uses more than one â€Å"measure† to sort SKUs from highest to lowest performing. Normal Pareto Analysis has been used to develop guidelines such as the 80/20 rule (20% of customers generate 80% of sales). When using multiple variables, there has to be a way to normalize the data so all variables are part of the analysis. We used three variables to determine the correct minimum order quantity for an item. ? Cases sold per week on average for each item ? The number of cases that fit in the given shelf space ? Product shelf-life Each of these variables are positively correlated to Minimum Order Quantity. ? The higher the cases sold equals higher Order Quantity ? The greater the shelf space (pack-out) equals higher Order Quantity ? The longer the item’s shelf-life equals higher Order Quantity The team of subject matter experts used retail experience to determine each of these factors and their impact on minimum order quantity. Results of this analysis are shown below. The calculation was very conservative, as the results have shown. Only 466 of 2800 items have a minimum order quantity greater than 1 case. This was largely driven by two factors. Item shelf-life limited our ability to make any shelf-life sensitive item greater than 1 case. Our calculation took this limiting factor into account, to ensure we weren’t causing shrink (throwing away items that go beyond their shelf-life limit or are damaged) at the stores. In addition, lower case movement drove many items to a 1 case minimum, even if they didn’t have shelf life limitations. The lower case movement is due to SKU proliferation and was addressed by the SKU Reduction (Biggest SKLUsers) project. info@supplyvelocity. com Copyright: Supply Velocity, Inc. 8 Results of Minimum Order Quantity Calculation info@supplyvelocity. om Copyright: Supply Velocity, Inc. 9 Communication & Control Plan ? Communicated with all retail stores about how the minimum order quantity analysis was conducted and the resulting new plan o Communication plan included data to show stores that increasing minimum order quantity on select items would improve their labor productivity ? Created a control plan so new items, SKU reduction and sales history will update the minimum order quantity on a twice yearly basis It was critical that this project was presented as a positive for our retail store-customers. We created a communication plan that showed two key aspects of this change: ? The conservative nature of the change o only 466 of 2800 items are receiving a minimum order quantity increase ? This change is good for the stores and will improve their labor productivity To ensure that this process endures and does not get reversed over time we included a control plan. This is shown in the graphic below. As Category Marketing Managers evaluate items, adding and reducing SKUs, changes will be reflected in new pack-out quantities. This quantity will get fed to Distribution Technology who will recalculate this items’ minimum order quantity using the same Multi-Variable Pareto calculation. A control group, made up of Merchandising, Distribution and Retail Directors will review the list, make changes in the ordering system and communicate changes to store customers. info@supplyvelocity. com Copyright: Supply Velocity, Inc. 10 Results By taking the higher sales volume SKUs and increasing the store minimum order quantity, we decreased the time per case to stock shelves in the stores and select items in the distribution centers. Using only the 1 to 2 case increase in minimum order quantity for the 466 SKUs reduced the labor time per case resulting in a labor savings of $1. 2 million. The expectation for this process is to slowly grow the number items with a minimum order quantity greater than 1 case beyond 20%. By rationalizing and reducing SKUs we should increase the shelf pack-out of remaining items, thereby increasing the minimum order quantity.