Final Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 4

Final Project - Essay Example Research has shown that this disorder has been successfully treated with medication and therapy, especially for those suffering from unipolar depression, or single episode experience. For those with mixed or maniac episodes, an ongoing treatment would be necessary to stabilize their depressive moods. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fourth Edition) manual, published by the American Psychiatric Association (1994), and referred to as DSM-IV, described Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) as a serious mental disorder that profoundly disrupted the lives of those affected by the disorder. Major Depressive Disorder is classified in the DSM-IV as Axis II: Developmental Disorders and Personality Disorders. In this classification, those who fall under criteria A for a single episode of MDD, exhibited at least five of nine symptoms: 1) depressed mood of sadness or irritability; 2) gradual diminished interest or pleasure in social or personal activities; 3) significant weight loss or gain, or increased or decreased appetite; 4) insomnia or hypersomnia; 5) psychomotor agitation or retardation; 6) fatigue or loss of energy; 7) feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt; 8) diminished ability to think or concentrate, or indecisiveness; and 9) recurrent thoughts of death, or suicidal thoughts. Research has shown that MDD can be caused by chemical imbalances in the brain, brought about by stress and personal loss, or by some traumatic experiences (AllPsych Online-The Virtual Psychology Classroom). MDD may also be developed through certain medical illnesses such as cancer, stroke, diabetes, and myocardial infarction (All About Depression). About 20% to 25% of those suffering from these illnesses were likely to develop this disorder. It was also found that other mental activities. He was absent in his club meetings at Mid-Ohio Raceway for the past two months. He exhibited loss of energy, when he stopped visiting his favorite

Contingency Theory of Leadership Essay Example for Free

Contingency Theory of Leadership Essay At my workplace we have sales goals that we have to meet and part of my job is to ensure that the staff is achieving their goals and if they are falling behind, I help them find ways to better their selling skills and recognize opportunities. In the table below, categorize different leadership approaches that could be used in the work environment you have described. Provide different suggestions for each of the four approaches to leadership. Directive approachSupportive approach The company has weekly product knowledge training so that the employees know about the products that they are selling. The employees are also rewarded incentives that relate directly to their goals and are aware of their job duties (Jones, 2007) and new procedures shared in our weekly meetings. The individual goals also relate to work schedules the full time employees goals are higher than the part-time employees. The supportive approach to leadership of this group the management is open and very approachable (Jones, 2007). The management also has goals to meet and are always willing to offer advice and additional training to employees. They also meet with employees individually and find out what motivates that specific employee because everyone is different. Participative approachAchievement-oriented approach The employees participate in creating individual goals for themselves (Jones, 2007) and for the branch. They create in-branch promotions and try to make sales fun. Employee suggestions for improvement are put into action and employees are commended for their work ethics and participation with branch promotions. The goals that are set for the employees are realistic, not outrageous (Jones, 2007). By observing the amount of branch traffic, and amount of customers that do not currently have a specific product we can set goals that are achievable.

The Apprenticeship Of Duddy Kravitz Essay -- essays research papers

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler is the tale of a young greedy boy who feels that money is his path to happiness and pride. Duddy simply stomps all over his friends and his family as well (to a certain extent). Richler feels unreserved sympathy towards Duddy because, in essence, Duddy is Richler written down and diversified. Duddy is a character based on Mordecai’s own personality. Duddy Kravitz is a crook, a blackmailer and a cheat. However, Duddy Kravitz is Richler’ s crook and Duddy will never be abandoned. In The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, everyone but the Richler himself shuns Duddy. The entire concept of the novel was for Duddy to learn an important lesson, what makes someone significant. The following is an instance where Richler does force pity on the reader through his writing: â€Å"We betrayed you I suppose.† â€Å"Yes you did.† He had spoken with such quiet and certainty that she began to doubt herself. â€Å"You’ll come crawling,† he said. â€Å" I want you to know something. I’d sue you. I’d even get Irwin Shubert to take the case. But Virgil won’t let me. He doesn’t even want to hear about it any more.† â€Å"You hate me,† Duddy dais. â€Å"Is that possible?† â€Å"I think you’re rotten. I wish you were dead.† â€Å"You don’t understand, Yvette. Why can’t I make you understand? Listen, Yvette, I—â€Å" But she turned away from him. The paragraph above does show how the readers’ emotions are in turmoil because of the sort of double standard created when the story is t... The Apprenticeship Of Duddy Kravitz Essay -- essays research papers The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler is the tale of a young greedy boy who feels that money is his path to happiness and pride. Duddy simply stomps all over his friends and his family as well (to a certain extent). Richler feels unreserved sympathy towards Duddy because, in essence, Duddy is Richler written down and diversified. Duddy is a character based on Mordecai’s own personality. Duddy Kravitz is a crook, a blackmailer and a cheat. However, Duddy Kravitz is Richler’ s crook and Duddy will never be abandoned. In The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, everyone but the Richler himself shuns Duddy. The entire concept of the novel was for Duddy to learn an important lesson, what makes someone significant. The following is an instance where Richler does force pity on the reader through his writing: â€Å"We betrayed you I suppose.† â€Å"Yes you did.† He had spoken with such quiet and certainty that she began to doubt herself. â€Å"You’ll come crawling,† he said. â€Å" I want you to know something. I’d sue you. I’d even get Irwin Shubert to take the case. But Virgil won’t let me. He doesn’t even want to hear about it any more.† â€Å"You hate me,† Duddy dais. â€Å"Is that possible?† â€Å"I think you’re rotten. I wish you were dead.† â€Å"You don’t understand, Yvette. Why can’t I make you understand? Listen, Yvette, I—â€Å" But she turned away from him. The paragraph above does show how the readers’ emotions are in turmoil because of the sort of double standard created when the story is t...

Global sourcing Essay

1) What is global sourcing? Global sourcing is defined as the process of identifying, developing, and utilizing the source of supply for the enterprise through expanding purchasing activities internationally. It is a part of post reengineering activities which is an useful measure of cutting cost. Global sourcing is a typical example of foreign construction outsourcing firms which process construction by distributing each process of construction work to vendors instead of running on its own. Such construction method not only does reduce costs in terms of managing construction sites such as labor cost and equipment cost including vehicles, but also is being adopted by various companies for value-adding construction management (CM) project. For instance, global sourcing was utilized when building Daewoo Business Center at Warszawa, Poland, on March, 1997. The process of erecting the center was alloted to vendors; construction was executed by VOICE(England), design through RTKL(U.S.), facility management was duty of Dongwoo which is a department of Daewoo Group, hotel management by Hilton hotel(U.S.). 2) Global sourcing factors Global sourcing factors that must be understood and balanced can be segmented into 5 categories. First factor is material cost. The bottom line of execution of global sourcing is reduce cost by minimizing material cost. Another category is transportation cost. Various costs including inventory delivery cost can be dwindled through global sourcing. Moreover, significant amount of transportation expense can be reduced when marketing products at outsourcing regions. Cross-border taxes, tariffs, and duty costs are third factor which form global sourcing. Instead of relying on domestic production but rather outsource each process internationally, costs can be reduce by avoiding trade barriers which include cross-border tax, tariff and duty cost. Next factor is supply and operational performance. With effective resource management and cheap labor cost, supply and operational performance can be efficiently managed which enables global sourcing companies to manufacture high quality-low price merchandises. The last category of global sourcing is supply and operational risks. Cultural and geographical disparities can yield additional costs such as labor cost and transportation cost. If not managed thoroughly, they can militate as huge risks in terms of conducting sourcing. 3) Advantages of global sourcing There are three major merits of performing global sourcing; gumption to changes, reduction of cost, and trade barriers avoidance. To begin with, global sourcing allows a firm to develop capacity to cope with changes in market condition. Importing numerous raw materials and resources economically and steadily can be done through global sourcing. With such abundant resources, a firm can flexibly adopt to environmental alterations when confronting unexpected economic crisis. Secondly, average 20% of cost saving is possible. Components of products or raw materials procured from abroad is advantageous in terms of price. Furthermore, many countries such as American and Europe are sourcing materials to cut cost in terms of distribution industries. As a result, China has become the hub of production base for global sourcing. Even in case of Korea, sourcing products from China are 30%~40% cheaper than Korean domestic goods. In particular, simple functional merchandizes whose design and quality are relatively less considered are largely influenced by global sourcing. Consequently, over 70% of commodities and clothes are imported from China. Last merit of global sourcing is evasion of trade barriers. In case of global sourced goods, the price is lower, leading to economical purchase, by avoiding trade barriers such tariffs and cross-border taxes. On top of that, firms are able to acquire restricted raw materials and resource. Thus, unique and competitive products can be created. 2. Case-Study (Li&Fung) 1) Introduction Li&Fung is a professional trading company which specializes in global sourcing and was founded in 1906. It functioned as a broker between Asian manufacturers and foreign traders and expanded as a trading company later on. Today, Li&Fung acts as a professional sourcing and distribution firm focusing on toys and textile. Becoming an intermediary, it reconstructed the business by forming it as a connection and manager of diverse supply chains. Li&Fung is the representative of ‘smokeless factory’ without owning any equipment and factories regarding production process from raw material to final goods and distribution of final products. 2) Business area / Present condition Li&Fung won the rewards in ‘Fabulous 50†² selectied by Forbes Asia, ’50 for 2012’ from Morgan Stanley, and ‘The most influential companies 25’ from Business week. The sales of Li&Fung in 2007 was 92.4 billion in Hong Kong dollars, approximately 36% increase in sales compared to that of 2006. Net income reached 30 billion dollars(2007) and Li&Fung Co. Ltd. succeed in gaining 19.8% increase in sales (110.7 billion Hongkong dollars)than that of previous year. After 1998, foreign companies such as The Limited, Gymboree, American Eagle, Warner Brothers, Abercrombie & Fitch, Bed, Bath& Beyond, Tesco, Avon Products, Levi-Strauss, Reebok have become major customers of Li&Fung, and Royal Ahold, Guess Jeans, Bebe also joined as major customers of Li&Fung in 2000. As a result, Li&Fung currently has 68 offices in the 38 countries, and shareholders numbers 17,900. In addition, it consists of 107,000 employees engaged in the business associated with Li&Fung, especially 40,000 related businesses only in the United States. Thus, it can be said that Li&Fung has entered plateau stage as a company settling new form of SCM rather than just being a simple trading firm. 3) Platform / Operation System Li&Fung is one of the enterprises which effectively employ platform strategy. In terms of strategy, Li&Fung adequately balances SRM and CRM strategy to manage producers and customers. Li&Fung distributes textile component orders to vendors as soon as receiving orders from textile industries. It makes most of 15,000 subcontractors which are located around the globe. When producing a jacket, for example, Li&Fung procures materials from diverse vendors; outshell is from Korea, Zipper from Japan, lining is done from Thailand, and trademarks and thread from Hongkong. Fabric is dyed in Southern Asia, China sews, and finally quality inspection and packaging are done in Hongkong. Then, headquarter in Hongkong generally manages cash flow and value-added process. 4) Success Factors Success factors of Li&Fung can be categorized into three elements. The first factor is IT evolution. Through IT development, product lead time dwindled through forming network among producers and customers, and even efficiently manage vendors. Another facet is SRM and CRM, especially have strength on SRM. Li&Fung analyze customer’s needs and scrutinize supply chain to meet the desires. Since firms tend to focus on maximizing their capability instead of in accordance with needs, Li&Fung can otherwise strive to fortify supply chain or value chain for customers. In other words, the key role of Li&Fung is to direct manufacturers of supply chain to the intended direction. For that specific purpose, it establishes education to producers on scattered network management rather than having strict control system for managing vendors, and emphasizes on trust and active empowerment. Lastly, Li&Fung follows 30/70 rule, which is to set a standard(from 30% to 70% of total production) on production quota to Li&Fung. This enables Li&Fung to have loose liaison among subcontractors. Minimum 30% of total production allows Li&Fung to possess minimum supply from each subcontractors and prevention vendors from being subordinates can be done by setting maximum 70%. The core objective of this principle is to assure vendors of gaining huge profit from being a member of the network and on the other hand guaranteeing flexibility of business and availability of a room for growth. Other vendors also benefit from the principle by being expose to opportunities to work with others, which help them to learn and come up with innovative ideas. Such principle demonstrates value of Li&Fung on making supply chain more dynamic and lively. Thus, change in partners frequently happens in supply chain of Li&Fung. In conclusion, Li&Fung shows contradictory management of pursuing stable and long-term partnership whereas also demanding loose network instead to forming strict organization. 3. Problem & Solution 1) Wage stagnation / Pricing pressure The first problem of Li&Fung is wage stagnation of China. China accounts for 60% of total global sourcing of Li&Fung, which means that shift in China impact Li&Fung heavily. After the economic liberalization of China, China has been able to attract world companies as the most suitable production base due to cheap and abundant labor. As a consequence of substantial growth, China’s wage has been increasing 16% annually. As labor cost takes up the largest portion of garment industry’s costs, Li & Fung’s first half of 2011 net income dwindled 18%. Therefore, there is high necessity for finding a new production base(a new partners) and gain price competitiveness through such measure. Second problem is overseas buyers’ desire to lower supply pricing due to high uncertainty from global recession. As shown in the ‘average import price of textile in the U.S.’ graph on the right, the average import price has been continually decreasing, from $3.18 in 20 06 to $3 in 2009. Heavy pressure on supply pricing is having negative impact on net income of Li&Fung. 2) China & U.S Trade conflict Third adversity is potential trade disputes between the United States and China. This trade conflict, which is referred to as protectionism, is noteworthy of a notice as 69% of total production of Li&Fung is sold to the United States. The United States has criticized China on the currency exchange rate manipulation, along with accusation of exchange dumping. In addition, Section 421 is an article which can be executed in a situation where increased import of Chinese products acts as a severe damage to American domestic industries. Accordingly, it is inevitable to exclude potential trade conflict between two countries on account of high possibility of implementing additional countervailing duty by executing section 421. 3) Expanding partners in Southern Asia In preparation for deterioration of China’s production environment and falling competitiveness of China as a sourcing region, Southern Asia is evaluated as the most practical alternative for strategic sourcing of Li&Fung. In terms of percentage change in world textile industry sourcing, diminution of China is noticeable, as –7%, whereas Vietnam and Bangladesh show growth, respectively displaying 1% and 20% of sourcing uprising rate. To demonstrate suitability of sourcing to Banladesh, environment of Bangladesh such as social infrastructure and facilities, and educational level should be thoroughly examined. Nevertheless, wage of Bangladesh is much cheaper than that of China, Bangladesh being one third that of China, in terms of only considering unit labor cost. Furthermore, Bangladesh is likely to be significantly equipped with garment-industry infrastructure judging from the large number of textile industries sourcing to Bangladesh. Therefore, it is no hasty conclusion that Bangladesh is the most appropriate region for new production base of Li&Fung. 4) Quality management system Controlling over 15,000 vendors is demanding and the possible drawback is failure of consistency in quality. Since quality is prerequisite these days, stricter vendor’s quality management system should be made. One of the tools that Li&Fung can utilize and apply stricter is ‘Vendor compliance index’. There are six indexes Li&Fung should keep attention to; efficient operation, productivity, process innovation, ensuring the quality, purchase the appropriate law material, and good working condition of labor. By balancing and fulfilling following vendor compliance indexes, Li&Fung will be able to afford products to customer with coherent quality. 4. Conclusion The concept having used by Li&Fung is highly familiar to us as global sourcing is also deployed by domestic companies such as Samsung and LG. Global sourcing can be divided into two factors; risk element and opportunity element. These two elements are in trade-off relation which means that change in one element accompanies the other, while endeavoring to maximize opportunity element. Thus, taking advantage of opportunity and risk element in a timely manner is the premise for successful global sourcing and in-depth analysis on local region and strategy should be followed when implementing global sourcing.

Aloha Products

Aloha Products is a United States-based coffee-processor company that has been providing non-specialty and low-priced coffee for over a hundred years. It purchases the raw materials or what buyers and sellers refer to as â€Å"green coffee† from brokers and trade firms then processes the coffee and sells the final product to customers. Large companies such as Nestle and P&G directly import the unprocessed or green coffee beans from coffee plantations in tropical countries such as Brazil and Colombia while companies with smaller levels of business such as such as Aloha buy the green coffee beans from brokers or trade firms.Aloha Products is managed by the owners and its headquarters is located in Ohio, United States. It has three plants located in Midwestern United States, each plant being responsible for its own profit and loss. Each plants performance is measured by each plant managers gross margin generated per plant. The raw materials or green coffee beans are handled by th e company’s purchasing unit that is located in New York City. Each plant receives a production schedule that is determined from the center and receives raw materials as well as pay in accordance with the production requirements of each plant.Aloha’s Top management is regulated by the members of the founding family. Company uses centralized control system where all main decisions regarding purchases, production, sales, marketing and promotion are made on corporate level while plant managers are only responsible for their profit and loss. Also there is centralized preparation of overall financial statement at home offices. This organization has led plant managers to a lack of adequate control over the activities of the managed plant; however, they are still assessed on the performance.This method has been done until in the 1990s, when the plant managers started to speak out on their dissatisfaction on the computation of their bonuses since they do not have authority to d etermine the prices of raw materials, production schedules and output prices from the manufacturer. External factors such as the steady decline in Americans consumption of coffee from 1965 to 1990 affected the sales and profits of coffee processors as well.Because of this, the company president hired a consulting firm to evaluate the current control systems in the three major departments: Plant Operations, Sales and Marketing and the Purchasing groups. 2. Case Question No-1: Evaluate the current control systems for the manufacturing, marketing, and purchasing departments of Aloha Products Answer is: From the case we can see that Aloha products have a centralized control system. What this means is that the main office or headquarters handled the purchasing, marketing and sales activities of each of the three plants.Based on the current control system evaluating three major departments of Aloha Products are described as follows†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Evaluation of Manufacturing Departments: Th ere are three production plants within AP’s manufacturing department; each plant is responsible for their own profits and losses. Unfortunately, the managers have no control over the any of the major activities in their respective production facilities. the vice president of manufacturing oversees all of the roasting, grinding, and packaging processes. Production schedules are provided to each plant manager for the current and following month.The plant managers also have no control over the green beans purchase, production schedule, production mix, or the costs of their inputs, as the purchasing department assigns the costs based on the specific contract for that shipment. If the inputs exceed the plant’s requirements, they are sold at the spot rate in the market, and could very well result in a loss. Evaluation of Purchasing Departments: The purchasing department is responsible for obtaining the required quantities and types of green coffee to be roasted in the produc tion plants.The level of sophistication and expertise needed makes this department a necessity; proper staffing is vital based on the complexity of the green coffee market. This department relies on relationships with growers and brokers; for smaller firms, an important feature of this department is their ability to foresee demand and required inventory and subsequently enter into forward contracts with brokers, anywhere from three to twelvemonths in advance. The costs of each shipment are based on the specific contracts for those green coffee beans, which can vary based on the various price drivers previously mentioned.This can create a diversified and volatile cost of inventory. Required inventory demand is based on communication between marketing (sales) and the purchasing department, any discrepancies at the current date is met by purchases through the spot market, which incurs significantly higher costs. The costs associated with running this purchasing department are charged t o the headquarters of AP. Currently, there is no communication between the purchasing and manufacturing department. Furthermore, purchasing department does not need to report to head office or meet any performance measurement standard.Ultimately, the power resides with upper management of the purchasing unit. Evaluation of Marketing (SALES) Departments: Under the current structure, this department is centralized. The president of AP and vice president of sales are in charge of advertising and promotion of the final products. The marketing department also determines the budgeted sales, which are then passed onto the purchasing department. Case Question No-2: Considering the company’s competitive strategy, what changes, if any, would you make to the control systems of the three departments?Answer is: The changes to the current control systems involve establishing accountability and effective communication among the three departments and providing key measures to evaluate the ma nagers’ performance objectively. Recommendations for the current management control system of Aloha Products are as follows†¦. Recommendation for Manufacturing Departments: The manufacturing department is currently a profit center. However, the plants do not have control over the costs of the green coffee.Thus, the main concern of this department as a whole should be efficiency; how well they can control the costs to roast green coffee. As such, were commend that the manufacturing department’s plants be accountable for the costs incurred to roast and package the green coffee. The performance measure for the manufacturing department at AP should be evaluated based solely on the roasting, grinding, and packaging of AP’s coffees. Conceptually, it’s unfair to evaluate manufacturing as a profit center, when in reality it has little to no control over product costs or sales.Since control over purchasing and selling will not be transferred to the manufactur ing department in this proposal, it is logical to assess based on controllable factors such as cost/pound only. This is in contrast to a measure such as using manufacturing costs as a percentage of net sales. Instead of being assessed for the performance of the purchasing and marketing departments, plant managers will now have an incentive to ensure their costs do not vary from the standard. It would still be possible to evaluate roasting plants based on gross margin as well.However, to ensure that plant managers are not penalized for fluctuations in the cost of green coffee contracts, a standard cost for green coffee would have to be established and used in the computation of gross margin. Recommendation for Purchasing Department: The purchasing department’s costs are being charged to central office. Due to this, the purchasing department is not being held accountable for the contracts it is entering into. The purchasing department’s main concern should be actual cont ract costs.Thus, we recommend that the purchasing department be accountable for the difference between the actual costs per signed contracts and the standard cost of green coffee raw materials. The actual costs should be measured in a similar manner to the current practice. Contract costs related to buying and selling in the spot market should not be included in the computed price per bag. A reasonable standard cost for green coffee contracts will have to be established based on discussions between management and executives in the purchasing department.The standard cost could potentially be based on the average of the spot price over the past 6 months. We recommend that this standard cost be updated every quarter, in order to provide accurate standard costs of green coffee raw materials. Recommendation for Marketing Departments: The marketing department focuses its efforts on advertising and promotion, however, it is not held responsible for the costs it incurs or how accurate their sales forecasts/budgets are. There is a large cost associated with differences between the forecasted requirements and actual requirements.The difference results in purchases or sales at the spot price for green coffee, which tends to cost more than forward contract prices. It is not reasonable for the marketing department to perfectly forecast sales and therefore there should be leniency in developing a method of accountability for this department. We must keep in mind that our goal is not only to hold each group accountable, but also to make sure managers feel they are being evaluated fairly and motivated to improve performance. In keeping with this, actual sales volume should be compared to forecasted sales volume.This will not only help to keep the marketing department accountable for their activities, but will also allow for forecast methodology to be reviewed and continuously improved. Overall, we believe that we also need to establish goal congruence between the three depart ments. This can be achieved through emphasizing communication between departments; this would encourage the forecasts of purchases/sales to be more accurate. In order to increase goal congruence and communication we recommend that the departments also beevaluated based on an overall measure for the firm. This measure would be economic value added (EVA), as when it is applied, managers will not just be focused on their own department profitability, but also that of the company as a whole. The EVA approach promotes the same profit objectives across the different departments. Thus, by keeping the same structural organization and only changing the way each department is evaluated, the incentive plan for each department more accurately reflects what each department can control.

Social Constructionism Definition

Social Constructionism Definition Social constructionism is the theory that people develop knowledge of the world in a social context, and that much of what we perceive as reality depends on shared assumptions. From a social constructionist perspective, many things we take for granted and believe are objective reality are actually socially constructed, and thus, can change as society changes. Key Takeaways: Social Constructionism The theory of social constructionism states that meaning and knowledge are socially created.Social constructionists believe that things that are generally viewed as natural or normal in society, such as understandings of gender, race, class, and disability, are socially constructed, and consequently aren’t an accurate reflection of reality.Social constructs are often created within specific institutions and cultures and come to prominence in certain historical periods. Social constructs’ dependence of historical, political, and economic conditions can lead them to evolve and change. Origins The theory of social constructionism was introduced in the 1966 book The Social Construction of Reality, by sociologists Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckman. Berger and Luckman’s ideas were inspired by a number of thinkers, including Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and George Herbert Mead. In particular, Meads theory symbolic interactionism, which suggests that social interaction is responsible for the construction of identity, was highly influential. In the late 1960s, three separate intellectual movements came together to form the foundation of social constructionism. The first was an ideological movement that questioned social realities and put a spotlight on the political agenda behind such realities. The second was a literary/rhetorical drive to deconstruct language and the way it impacts our knowledge of reality. And the third was a critique of scientific practice, led by Thomas Kuhn, who argued that scientific findings are influenced by, and thus representative of, the specific communities where theyre produced- rather than objective reality. Social Constructionism Definition The theory of social constructionism asserts that all meaning is socially created. Social constructs might be so ingrained that they feel natural, but they are not. Instead, they are an invention of a given society and thus do not accurately reflect reality. Social constructionists typically agree on three key points: Knowledge Is Socially Constructed Social constructionists believe that knowledge arises out of human relationships. Thus, what we take to be true and objective is the result of social processes that take place in historical and cultural contexts. In the realm of the sciences, this means that although truth can be achieved within the confines of a given discipline, there is no over-arching truth that is more legitimate than any other. Language Is Central to Social Construction Language abides by specific rules, and these rules of language shape how we understand the world. As a result, language isn’t neutral. It emphasizes certain things while ignoring others. Thus, language constrains what we can express as well as our perceptions of what we experience and what we know. Knowledge Construction Is Politically-Driven The knowledge created in a community has social, cultural, and political consequences. People in a community accept and sustain the community’s understanding of particular truths, values, and realities. When new members of a community accept such knowledge, it extends even further. When a community’s accepted knowledge becomes policy, ideas about power and privilege in the community become codified. These socially constructed ideas then create social reality, and- if they aren’t examined- begin to seem fixed and unchangeable. This can lead to antagonistic relationships between communities that don’t share the same understanding of social reality. Social Constructionism vs. Other Theories Social constructionism is often placed in contrast with biological determinism. Biological determinism suggests that an individuals traits and behavior are determined exclusively by biological factors. Social constructionism, on the other hand, emphasizes the influence of environmental factors on human behavior and suggests that relationships among people create reality. In addition, social constructionism should not be confused with constructivism. Social constructivism is the idea that an individuals interactions with her environment create the cognitive structures that enable her to understand the world. This idea is often traced back to developmental psychologist Jean Piaget. While the two terms spring from different scholarly traditions, they are increasingly used interchangeably. Critiques Some scholars believe that, by asserting that knowledge is socially constructed and not the result of observations of reality, social constructionism is anti-realist. Social constructionism is also criticized on grounds of relativism. By arguing that no objective truth exists and that all social constructions of the same phenomena are equally legitimate, no construct can be more legitimate than another. This is especially problematic in the context of scientific research. If an unscientific account about a phenomenon is considered as legitimate as empirical research about that phenomenon, there is no clear path forward for research to make a meaningful impact on society. Sources Andrews, Tom. â€Å"What is Social Constructionism?† Grounded Theory Review: An International Journal, vol. 11, no. 1, 2012. http://groundedtheoryreview.com/2012/06/01/what-is-social-constructionism/Berger, Peter L. and Thomas Luckman. The Social Construction of Reality. Doubleday/Anchor, 1966.Chu, Hyejin Iris. â€Å"Social Constructionism.† International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Encyclopedia.com. 2008. https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/sociology-and-social-reform/sociology-general-terms-and-concepts/social-constructionismGalbin, Alexandra. â€Å"An Introduction to Social Constructionism.† Social Research Reports, vol. 26, 2014, pp. 82-92. https://www.researchreports.ro/an-introduction-to-social-constructionismGergen, Kenneth J. â€Å"The Self as Social Construction.† Psychological Studies, vol. 56, no. 1, 2011, pp. 108-116. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12646-011-0066-1Hare, Rachel T. and Jeanne Marecek. â€Å"Abnormal and Cli nical Psychology: The Politics of Madness.† Critical Psychology: An Introduction, edited by Dennis Fox and Isaac Prilleltensky, Sage Publications, 1999, pp. 104-120. Kang, Miliann, Donovan Lessard, Laura Heston, and Sonny Nordmarken. Introduction to Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries, 2017. https://press.rebus.community/introwgss/front-matter/287-2/â€Å"Social Constructionism.† Oxford Reference. oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100515181

How to Write a Linkedin Profile That Lets the You Shine Through

How to Write a Linkedin Profile That Lets the You Shine Through Are you job hunting or on the verge of doing so? If you answered yes and you havent spent considerable time and effort on your LinkedIn profile, youre missing out on a valuable opportunity to get the job of your dreams through this highly useful, career-oriented social media platform. In fact, a recent study found that 122 million people received an interview through LinkedIn, with 35.5 million having been hired by a person they connected with on the site.Added to that, the most current statistics show that 95 percent of recruiters use LinkedIn as a major sourcing tool to help them find qualified candidates for companies seeking top-tier talent.95% of recruiters use LinkedIn to find and vet potential candidates.If those numbers arent staggering enough, heres one that should definitely catch your interest. According to the latest numbers, there are 20 million jobs being actively advertised on LinkedIn.Convinced yet?Hopefully, by now youre convinced that its well worth your time and at tention to create a complete, eye-catching LinkedIn profile- especially if you are in the process of job hunting. LinkedIn does a great job in helping you along and measures the completeness of your profile, informing you of whats left to be added. It even offers suggestions for helping you make your profile stronger and more attractive to recruiters.Make it customIf you want to set yourself apart from the pack in a job search, set your LinkedIn profile apart, as well. One way to do this is to create a custom URL. Heres how to do that step by step:In the top right of your LinkedIn control panel, simply go to the me button and click view profile.Immediately beneath your control panel in the top-right corner, click Edit public profile and URL.You should now be taken to a page that shows your public profile settings.At the top right-hand corner, youll see Edit your custom URL.Beneath that, youll find your profiles URL, along with another pencil icon to the right.Click that pencil icon and change your profiles URL to something easy and memorable.Once you create a custom URL for your LinkedIn profile, you should now be able to include this on your resume or business card. It will be far easier for potential employers or recruiters to access than the random numbers and letters generated by LinkedIn when you first set up your profile.Use the right photoIf you havent had a professional headshot taken, now is the time to fix that. First impressions count, and your LinkedIn profile photo will be the first thing a potential employer or recruiter notices when they access your LinkedIn profile.Here are a few DOs and DONTs when it comes to your LinkedIn profile photo:DOSmile! Potential employers want to know that you are approachable and friendly, and a smile is the best way to show this. (And yes, that means showing teeth.)Have a muted, uncluttered background.Make sure lighting is professional and colors are not overly saturated.Dress for the job you want.DONTCrop your pho to from a group shot.Upload a photo of you participating in a hobby.Upload an obvious selfie.Use a photograph that is cluttered with objects or a full-body shot.Take the cheap route on your headshot; remember- first impressions are important!Wordcloud your target job descriptionThe headline, summary, and experience sections of your LinkedIn profile should contain targeted words that will attract recruiters and potential employers to your page. Heres an easy, creative way to determine which words you should target:Determine the job title you want in your job search.Locate at least three job offerings for that title, along with the job descriptions for each.Copy and paste the job descriptions into a Wordcloud simulator, such as Wordclouds.com.Produce the Wordcloud to pull out target words that appear often in the job category- these are words to include in prominent places on your LinkedIn headline, summary, and experience sections.Keep your summary succinct, quantifiable, and easy to readIdeally, your LinkedIn summary should contain the following:Three to five paragraphsA bulleted list of your key skills and qualificationsHighlights of your success stories, preferably communicated in quantifiable factors (numbers of clients, statistics, dollars, etc.).Your LinkedIn profile should highlight your successes in quantifiable numbers. Photo by Stephen Dawson on Unsplash.Lets look at the specific reasons for each of these.First, the reason to keep your summary within three to five paragraphs is the simple understanding that everyones time is valuable, especially recruiters and employers who are inundated with dozens (sometimes hundreds or thousands) of resumes to sift through daily. Your three-to-five-paragraph summary shows that you not only value their time- youre also able to prioritize whats most important in showcasing your talent and abilities.Second, showing your key skills and qualifications in a bulleted, easy-to-read format not only helps save time for your reader (see the first point); it also demonstrates that you understand the principles of written communications, among which is presentation. As any magazine or newspaper editor will tell you, bulleted lists and white space around words helps writing become more easily digestible to the reader and speeds along the process of reading comprehension.Third, using quantifiable evidence to showcase your success is the quickest and most convincing way to attract the admiration of your recruiter or potential employer. For example, quantifiable evidence (such as I increased department sales revenue by $1 million during my time at XYz Corporation) can be easily checked and assessed with a few simple questions; whereas, an unquantifiable statement (I am a successful at sales) leaves a lot of room for interpretation and potentially false representation.Use first person and get personalWhen creating your LinkedIn profile, write it in first person and do your best to walk the thin line between pr ofessional and personal.If that sounds like conflicting advice, let me explain. When you submit your resume to a company, that resume lists your professional accomplishments. It should be the epitome of your professional life and project complete professionalism.However, the interesting (and potentially powerful) thing about social media sites like LinkedIn is that they present your professional side with a small dose of whats personal. To put it simply- recruiters and potential employers want to get a glimpse inside your personal life before they hire you, as well, because they understand that your personal life will indeed affect your professional one.In the same sense that you want to keep your strictly personal social media profiles (such as Facebook) private to avoid invasive searches into your personal affairs, you also need to understand that your LinkedIn profile should contain a healthy dose of both your professional and personal lives to show that you are a well-rounded po tential employee.What this means is you should absolutely focus on your professional profile in your LinkedIn summary, highlighting all of the qualifications you can bring to an organization. But in the same sense, you should take the opportunity to demonstrate that you are an active, healthy, personable individual, who has hobbies and interests outside of work- someone who knows how to blend the two seamlessly and make the best of both.What better place to do this than through your LinkedIn profile?Include your hobbies and multimediaThis means that if you are a mountain climber and have a blog about your mountain climbing exploits, add that to your LinkedIn page. It will only make your professional profile stand out to potential employers because it shows that you have a healthy life outside of work, and that you pursue challenging goals on a personal level.If youve achieved awards or medals in sports or hobbies extending beyond your line of work, by all means, include these in you r profile. Each one shows that you exhibit qualities employers look for, such as competitiveness, strength, determination, community involvement, and resilience.If you know foreign languages or have participated in cultural experiences outside of your own, list these. If you have multimedia (video, blog posts, photos, etc.) demonstrating your participating, add it to your profile. Consider each addition to be a notch in your belt for employers who are looking for culturally aware, active, and inspired employees who know how to have a healthy work life/personal life balance.Showcase your writing skillsIn her bestselling novel Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content, author Ann Handley notes, In an online world, our online words are our emissaries; they tell the world who we are.LinkedIn offers an invaluable opportunity to publish- take advantage of it. Writing thoughtful, error-free posts with pertinent information geared toward your industry is the p erfect bait for recruiters looking for thought leaders and people who can shake up the industry with their truth and insight. It also demonstrates your ability to communicate with potential clients.Build your references monthlyAs a final thought, if you are using LinkedIn to find the job of your dreams, hopefully youve already asked for multiple references. If you havent, now is the time to start building them on your profile. If youve worked across multiple industries but are job hunting in only one, put references from that industry in the top prominent spot. Then, continue to add to your references monthly to collect as many as possible.

What to Do When Your Green Card is Lost in the Mail

What to Do When Your Green Card is Lost in the Mail You aced your interview and received a note saying that youve been approved for permanent residence and your green card has been mailed. But now its a month later and you still havent received your green card. What do you do? If your green card has been lost in the mail, you will need to apply for a replacement card. This sounds simple, if a bit of a pain, until you learn that you may also have to pay another filing fee for the application and biometrics (rates can vary). This fee is in addition to what you paid for the initial green card application. Its enough to push even the most patient person over the edge. The rule is, if you do not receive the green card in the mail and USCIS mailed it to the address you provided but the card isnt returned to USCIS, then you must pay the full filing fee. (You can read this on the I-90 instructions, What is the Filing Fee?) If the undelivered card is returned to USCIS, you still need to file for a replacement card but the filing fee is waived. Here are some tips to consider when your green card is lost in the mail. Make Sure Youve Been Approved Sounds silly, but you want to be sure that youve actually been approved before you start rattling any cages. Have you received the approval letter or email? Has the card been mailed out? If you cant confirm this with the information you have, make an Infopass appointment at your local field office to find out the details. Wait 30 Days USCIS advises that you wait 30 days before assuming the card has been lost in the mail. This allows for time for the card to be mailed and returned to USCIS if undeliverable. Check With Your Post Office The Post Office is supposed to return the undelivered card to USCIS but just in case they havent, go to your local USPS office and ask if they have any undelivered mail in your name. Make an Infopass Appointment Even if you verified the details with by calling the 1-800 number for the National Customer Service Center, Id suggest double-checking the information at your local field office. Make an Infopass appointment and have them verify the address that the card was sent to and the date it was mailed. If the USCIS officer can confirm that it was sent to the correct address, its been more than 30 days since the card was mailed and the card has not been returned to USCIS, its time to move on. Contact Your Congressperson If youre lucky, your local Congressperson will agree with you that paying an additional fee for a replacement card is absurd, and offer to work with you to help USCIS see it in the same way. Ive read a few success stories from people in the same situation; it all depends on who you get. Find your House or Senate representative to learn how best to contact them. Most district offices will have caseworkers who help with federal agency problems. There is no guarantee that they will get the fees waived for you, but it has helped some people so its worth a try. File I-90 Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card Whether or not the card has been returned to USCIS, the only way to get a new card is to file Form I-90 Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card. If you need confirmation of your status to work or travel while its processing, make an Infopass appointment to get a temporary I-551 stamp until your new card arrives.

An investigation into service quality and satisfaction level in 4 star Essay

An investigation into service quality and satisfaction level in 4 star UK hotel industry - Essay Example Hotels are an important part of the tourism industry and with the trend to globalization, there have been an increasing number of hotels cropping up, offering a wide range of facilities to customers. Four and Five star hotels cater to the affluent public as well as members of the business community and stand out from the other hotels in that they are associated with quality products and superior levels of services. This is why customers are also prepared to pay higher rates at such hotels, on the basis of brand recognition and expectations of a superior level of service. Within the UK, the hospitality industry is highly competitive and service levels are a vital factor in ensuring a steady supply of customers to enhance productivity of these hotels. Travel and tourism are booming today and several studies have already been carried out on the levels of passenger and hotel resident satisfaction across the globe. The impact of services and facilities available at hotels and their impact upon tourist satisfaction have also been assessed in other studies; however the number of studies that have examined the impact of these services in terms of customer perception specifically at four star hotels in the UK are fewer. This study could therefore help to provide more insight into this area and add to the pool of existing research. Hotels play an important role in tourism business [Medik and Ingram, 2000], since they serve as a venue for the conducting of important business transactions as well as tourist and holiday destinations, providing an area where monies are spent. The quality of the accommodation offered at the hotels plays a vital role in their selection by people who use them [Cooper et al, 1996]. ]. In the atmosphere of fierce global competition that exists in today’s world, adopting the best practices in respect to the management and execution of business has assumed importance in terms of enhancing productivity

Inventory management and materials requirement planning Assignment

Inventory management and materials requirement planning - Assignment Example Introduction Inventory management can be defined as the practice of managing the inventory of an organisation so as to ensure that it does not go out of stock and that the needs of the organisation are continually met (Pillsbury, 2005). Inventory management is carried out in order to protect the organisation against stock-outs when there is variability in terms of demand. Inventory management and materials planning in a military setting is very much different from the business setting due to the nature and sensitivity of the inventory itself. The fact that there is always need to provide the right materials to the military personnel at the right time especially during war has resulted in a situation where the inventory management practices adopted are very risk averse leading to the holding of a lot of inventory at a time in their stores. This is due to the fact that there is need to consider the risk of lacking particular materials when they are needed by the personnel on the ground (Hillier and Lieberman, 2001). Royal Air force of Oman Inventory system The Royal Air force of Oman is no exception to the inventory management practices adopted by the military. ... Some of the items in the inventory have been there for many years and the military is now being faced with the risk of obsoleteness as new technology development has resulted in new more advanced military equipments (Max, 2005). Military organisations all over the world have traditionally focused on keeping high levels of inventory in order to be able to deliver the needed services and equipments to their personnel. This has therefore led to a situation where the military organisations have to take a risk averse position and adopt inventory management practices which allow the storage of high levels of inventory for readiness purposes. This is a practice that most military logistics personnel adopt and has resulted in a common believe that holding more inventory is better when it comes to being ready for warfare and being ahead of other military forces. It is however important that these military organisations adopt better inventory management practices so as to reduce the costs of s torage and the risk of obsoleteness. This will help them manage their inventory levels in a more cost effective manner thus lowering some of the heavy costs they have been incurring over time (Melcher and Ferrari, 2004). Inventory Management Systems There are several inventory management systems that can be used by an organisation to manage their inventory. These are; reorder point systems, periodic review systems and material requirements planning. The inventory management system adopted by military organisations such as the Royal Air force of Oman is based on the material requirements planning system. This is due to the fact that most of the materials purchased by the military are based on needs and therefore

Unit 6 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Unit 6 - Assignment Example Imbalances in wage structure arise when there is a deviation from the optimum wage set by the self-regulating system in the economy. I feel there are imbalances in the wage structure in our economy. The labor market comprise of different types of workers differing from one another in a number of ways with the job differing in characteristics both in terms of wage and in terms of other nonmonetary attributes (Mankiw, 2011). In order to protect employees from exploitation by their employers, the government sets a minimum wage limit. This has been of help raising the wages of the less skilled compared to what they would have earned in a labor market that is unregulated. However, despite this, the wages of some workers have been set above the equilibrium level arising to disequilibrium in the labor market (Mankiw, 2011). We can also attribute this to compensating differentials which refers to the difference in wages which arises from other nonmonetary characteristics of various types of jobs which is quite prevalent in our economy. An example would be employees with similar qualifications but since one works during a night shift earns more. Employees deployed to work in hardship conditions may be compensated more compared to employees with similar qualifications but working under friendly environments. Human capital is the accumulation of investment in people with the most explication of it being education. The perspective of demand and supply postulates that there exists a correlation between high wages and the level of education. Additionally, firms demanding for labor tend to be more willing to pay more for the highly educated employees since they tend to have higher marginal productivity due to their proficiency (Mankiw, 2011). On the other hand, the suppliers of labor tend to also be more willing to pay the costs of becoming educated only if there is a reward for that. Thus the difference in wages between the highly educated

Traits of a Leader Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Traits of a Leader - Essay Example The creation of an image can be learned, and should be part of your constant education. Your actions also show what type of leader you are; if you are effective you're your message, and whether or not your peers and employees with stand with you. Unwillingness to "walk the talk" portrays a dictatorship and your employees' resistance will be seen. Leading by doing is a more effective, powerful way in expressing what needs to be done in the company, and that you are not afraid of doing it yourself. While not every management position provides this opportunity, your people should know you would do whatever it takes to do the job right. The image portrayed will be one of strong character and dedication. Your company will gain respect, new customers, and stronger appeal for investors. The image of the leader of an organization is the image of the company. Is your image the one you want the world to see If not, change what needs to be changed. Do you know who you are as a leader What actions are you willing to take What actions are you willing to avoid If you lead, would you follow where you were going Creating a leadership image is the ability to ask yourself these questions. How you speak, act, direct, advise, and ask for advice demonstrates the leader you are (or are not). Elizabeth I essentially judge... She created the life she wanted, the leader she wanted to be, and the Queen a country followed. You must create the image you want or someone will create it for you. Learning from mentors, both in person and through reading, cause you to think, act, and become the leader you want to become. The greatest tribute to competent, effective leaders with legacies is duplicate their actions within your own life. Incorporating the best of their legacy into your own life causes better decisions and reduces the mistakes. It will also offers a frame of reference on how to advise a peer, direct an employee, and lead your organization, the same as asking someone in person. Do not be afraid to ask for assistance when you need it, and demand it from the best. Vulnerability in leadership causes personal and professional growth. When unclear of your decision's impact, ask for advice from someone you trust. Affects of Change Evolution, great for adaptations in nature, is also beneficial in business and leadership. Change and growth are advantageous when they are evolutionary and not radical. Utilizing the procedures and protocols that work and adapting or altering the processes that do not, can push your company forward by leaps and bounds. However, change management as a fix is risky, given that you are radically removing and replacing a lot of what does not work in an organization. Internally you will feel resistance and resentment instead of easing into transition. As a leader you want your people to work with you not against your every decision. Realization of what you already have working for you and integration of the new is less traumatic and foreign to people, and adjustments will be smooth. Elizabeth I

Class Grading System Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Class Grading System - Assignment Example This ensures that any emergency that may prevent students from timely submission does not hamper the over all grade. All assignments shall be due 9am on Monday; a grace time of 3 hours shall be given, and accordingly, from 12 noon onwards, no assignments shall be considered for submission, consequently, the student would get a '0' in that assignment. Class Quizzes: Quizzes shall be given through out the semester/term, and graded out of 10. For each 5 quizzes, best 4 shall be chosen for instance if 10 quizzes are conducted then 8 best (individual scores) would be counted towards the final calculations. This again ensures a safe cushion i.e. a bad day does not spoil the students' final grade. Term Project: This would represent the learning of the entire course and would carry 10% of the grade (or more depending on class understanding and project extensiveness). Projects would have assigned milestones (with milestone deadlines). Milestone deadline shall serve as a DEADline and a submission late by every 3 hours would lose one point for instance a 6 hour late submission would attain a maximum of 8 marks. Collection & Grading: All assignments and deliverables shall be due on the first working day of the next week to ensure that the students get ample time over the weekend to have their work up to the mark. The grading shall take place by the instructor or his/her assistant over the week and return for correction of any errors within 3 days, and the final grades shall be communicated over the weekend through email, notice-board, and/or grade-sheet circulation in the class. Rule of Absences: No more than 2 weeks absences shall be allowed to any student during the term. These absences are marked considering that any inability causing the student not to attend classes (such as any sickness or personal issues) do not, on a general note, exceed 2 weeks. For cooping up with the loss work, students would be provided extra counseling sessions, which may vary in number depending on student's ability to grasp the missed out work. References Linn R., and Gronlund N. (2000) Measurement and Assessment in Teaching. (7th edition) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice

Traits of a Leader Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Traits of a Leader - Essay Example The creation of an image can be learned, and should be part of your constant education. Your actions also show what type of leader you are; if you are effective you're your message, and whether or not your peers and employees with stand with you. Unwillingness to "walk the talk" portrays a dictatorship and your employees' resistance will be seen. Leading by doing is a more effective, powerful way in expressing what needs to be done in the company, and that you are not afraid of doing it yourself. While not every management position provides this opportunity, your people should know you would do whatever it takes to do the job right. The image portrayed will be one of strong character and dedication. Your company will gain respect, new customers, and stronger appeal for investors. The image of the leader of an organization is the image of the company. Is your image the one you want the world to see If not, change what needs to be changed. Do you know who you are as a leader What actions are you willing to take What actions are you willing to avoid If you lead, would you follow where you were going Creating a leadership image is the ability to ask yourself these questions. How you speak, act, direct, advise, and ask for advice demonstrates the leader you are (or are not). Elizabeth I essentially judge... She created the life she wanted, the leader she wanted to be, and the Queen a country followed. You must create the image you want or someone will create it for you. Learning from mentors, both in person and through reading, cause you to think, act, and become the leader you want to become. The greatest tribute to competent, effective leaders with legacies is duplicate their actions within your own life. Incorporating the best of their legacy into your own life causes better decisions and reduces the mistakes. It will also offers a frame of reference on how to advise a peer, direct an employee, and lead your organization, the same as asking someone in person. Do not be afraid to ask for assistance when you need it, and demand it from the best. Vulnerability in leadership causes personal and professional growth. When unclear of your decision's impact, ask for advice from someone you trust. Affects of Change Evolution, great for adaptations in nature, is also beneficial in business and leadership. Change and growth are advantageous when they are evolutionary and not radical. Utilizing the procedures and protocols that work and adapting or altering the processes that do not, can push your company forward by leaps and bounds. However, change management as a fix is risky, given that you are radically removing and replacing a lot of what does not work in an organization. Internally you will feel resistance and resentment instead of easing into transition. As a leader you want your people to work with you not against your every decision. Realization of what you already have working for you and integration of the new is less traumatic and foreign to people, and adjustments will be smooth. Elizabeth I

Unit VI Assessment#2 Particulate Matter Monitors Essay

Unit VI Assessment#2 Particulate Matter Monitors - Essay Example Working Principle: This monitor is an example of a high speed counter with a resolution of 1 count/liter. The monitor collects aerosols on a removable 47 mm Teflon filter allowing for future analysis. The particulate monitor can also analyze aerosols using 1.177 GRIMM Software program on a computer screen. The monitor has a random sampling head for collecting particles and leading them directly into an optical chamber that has a laser. The chamber counts each particle and classifies them by size. The concentration of the particles relates to the duration of collection. The monitor can also give results continuously up to one minute intervals (Peters, Ott, & Patrick, 2006).  Ã‚   Key Features:   The Model 1.108 can conduct real-time monitoring and the same times analyze the particles later. The monitor can measure particle size ranges from 0.30  µm to 20  µm and can auto zeros and self-diagnose itself. The monitor has software that is fully compatible with most Windows operating systems Peters, M., Ott, D., & Patrick, T. (2006). Comparison of the Grimm 1.108 and 1.109 Portable Aerosol Spectrometer to the TSI 3321 Aerodynamic Particle Sizer for Dry Partciles. Annals of Occupational Hygiene Advance Access ,

Uncertainty & Sam Shepard Essay Example for Free

Uncertainty Sam Shepard Essay ‘Coalinga 1/2 way’ by Sam Shepard is an interesting portrayal of the nature of writing that is characteristic for this author. Part of a book that contains a series of similar stories, this short narrative is an emblem of the phenomena of uncertainty. It not only talks about this state for one person, but actually, for life in general. A feeling of intense solitude and pessimism is a distinguishing feature in the story. It primarily features the emotional state of a person, who has just left his wife and child for his lover; the latter on the other hand is to leave with her husband – something that is disclosed only at the end. The story depicts the immense emotional challenge of being at a crossroad in life, and having to choose between two ways that go completely opposite. Initially, the dilemma of the wife of the lead character is shown, accompanied by his unsure nature. He only resorts to telling her that he has left after he has left the house and is half way to his second destiny. This in turn tells us that not only he lacks sense of decision, but also the courage to disclose what he really feels. A similar trait is reflected when the wife insists that the child be told about this venture by the father himself. So it turns out that the gentlemen did not muster up the required nerves to disclose it to his family members in person. This also depicts the shallow and under confident nature of the person. Though it is a decision that he has taken which is anybody’s right, but he seems afraid of facing the consequences and hence he has restrained himself from explaining this to his wife on her face. He was uncertain about the reaction of the wife and hence he thought of doing it on the telephone. A hidden feeling of insecurity is also visible through this act. For if it were to be assumed that his act is the best way to go forward, then he should have not considered it right to do it in a sort of hideout. The story then takes its turn towards its end when we realize that the lady for whom he has left his family, is not willing to do the same with him; she already has plans with her husband. Here, he is left hanging, and asks the symbolic last question, â€Å"Where am I supposed to go? † The overall defeatist attitude, and the ultimate failure of this person speaks of how the author tends to portray the nature of his actions. It seems that the scriber does not agree with the decision that he has made, and thus ultimately punishes him to be left standing nowhere. With a negative impression overall, and dejected members of the story in total, the all encompassing picture presented in the story is that of not being sure as to which way life is going to turn the next moment. It seems that the author has projected his own feelings of uncertainty upon his main character, and has voiced through his emotions and words, his own question towards life; why do things not happen as per our plans? Though answers are not given for this question in the story, it is stated vehemently that our decisions can not be fulfilled as per our desires. Whether the wish is constructive or otherwise, what is important is that things did not turn out as were planned, leaving him at an unknown juncture in his life. With a mixture his lack of conviction, failure to decide convincingly and inability to face the music, the only grounds that he finds himself are uncertain ones. One is left with the feeling at the end, that if at such a crucial crossroad in life, things cannot go as we want them to, then what really is the true purpose and meaning of life. In all, nothing in life, seems for sure!

Challenges for Supply Chain Management

Challenges for Supply Chain Management introduction The biggest challenge facing the Vancouver manufacturing plant was that for the rest of Hewlett Packard, there was no problem; When it comes to real dollars, inventory costs do not enter into the P L statements, but losses hurt our revenues. Dont talk to us about inventory-service trade-offs. Period. Vancouver was held up as a model of efficiency (Kanban) and the DeskJet printer range was a runaway success. A culture of territorialism and poor communication exacerbated the lack of urgency. Damaging internal rivalry was rife as a result of disjointed an myopic decision-making in the absence of any truly global approach to the supply chain key performance indicators (KPIs); the bullwhip effect was writ large all over the firms supply chain. The problems brewing were real and mounting and we argue that the best solution would require a fundamental overhaul of HPs production and supply chain resulting in the need to establish a new manufacturing plant in Europe. The consumer electronics industry is the very embodiment of [key] aspects of supply chain management and related risks, (Sohdi, 2004), due to the short product lifecycles, tough competition, and global nature of the business. The DeskJet printer business presented a new challenge for HP as the firms expertise was in highly customized, low volume, and long lead-time manufacturing and supply chain. In DeskJet, high volume, short product lifecycles, and high obsolescence risk were the name of the game. Printers were in transition from an innovative product to a functional product but the supply chain did not reflect this. HP used OEMs to source components and then did their own assembly. HP made high margins on the cartridges, and the printer was the conduit. HPs success in Europe was beginning to rival the home market in sales, adding further complications due to the need to modify power sources and languages for local markets. In Europe, product option AB had the highest monthly mean demand, and demand was more dispersed over the options than in North America, where virtually the entire sales were in option A. Monthly standard deviation in demand for the popular options was quite high at +- 30%. Even more importantly, the company was holding large and expensive safety stock due to the long shipping lead times and the prohibitive cost of air freight. The success of HPs DeskJet printer range in spite of an un-optimized supply chain suggests that there were significant potential gains in profitability if the right solution were found. In addition, despite high inventory levels, stock-outs were still occurring, threatening the most precious asset of all in the highly competitive printer market: customer loyalty and sentiment. Questions of internal efficiency and customer fulfilment had to be evaluated against the backdrop of a rapidly growing printer market, which was exploding along with the proliferation of desktop PCs. Despite organizational inertia and competing priorities, a number of avenues were open to HP at the time, including inventory management-the benefits of postponing final assembly-product design, and the introduction of JITD. We examine each and delve deeper into the business and customer benefits of launching a production site in Europe to fully capitalize on the surge of the printer market. The market is evolving rapidly and needs a strategic realignment of its supply chain. Creating a European manufacturing facility, plus integrated financial performance and risk management (Hahn Kuhn, 2009) will also improve shareholder returns (by improving inventory management and hence cash flows) and will mitigate risk. Postponement strategy To be successful the DeskJet supply chain must match customer demand. It must be in the zone of strategic fit, with a better match in Europe between responsiveness and uncertainty. It must integrate sales, manufacturing, distribution, and operations. Postponement is a solution to support future DeskJet expansion in Europe and to meet European demand. A successful postponement strategy requires significant degrees of cohesion; departmental barriers will need to be brought down, processes restructured and products redesigned. However, the rewards of implementing a successful postponement strategy are great. HP is not without challenges to implement a successful postponement strategy. Significant organisational change and coordination would be required. As Pagh and Cooper state (1998), The notion of postponement is to maintain the product in a neutral and noncommittal status as long as possible in the manufacturing process. In order to support this, characteristics of the DeskJet that have to be localised should be added at the last moment. Standardising the DeskJet would make inventory management and forecasting easier. It is also a way to allow cost-effective end user customisation. By creating customisation, additional lines can be introduced and consumer needs are met more easily. Customisation will assist HP in differentiating itself and in capturing the market. Based on Cooper (1993), we propose the use of the deferred packaging postponement strategy. The DeskJet peripherals are not common to all markets whilst the formulation is common. Postponement requires tight integration of processes and the formation of a holistic view. In the case of DeskJet printing, redesigning the product to make it more modular will increase manufacturing costs, but would lower the total supply chain costs. A modular design will standardise the design and thus standardise procurement processes. Making the DeskJet design more modular will also limit the inclusion of components that differentiate the product until the latest possible moment. Other benefits of modularity are identified by Feitzinger and Hau (1997), including the ability to manufacture modules separately or in parallel, thereby reducing production time and assisting with problem diagnostics in identifying quality problems. When considering a supply chain strategy, all elements from the design, procurement, manufacture, sales and distribution must be considered in unison. For example, making the DeskJet power supplies universal voltage may be more expensive, but it would provide HP with a more flexible use of inventory and would reduce forecasting errors. Marketing must be involved in the design process to validate that product variety and customisation meet market requirements. Finance must be engaged to provide activity-based costing, (ABC) statistics to support scenario analysis. All stakeholders and their differing viewpoints must be considered in order to build a holistic model of the revised supply chain. Successful postponement requires that organisational boundaries are traversed. HP should work with resellers and distributors to provide some product localisation and customisation tasks. In many cases resellers will require significant support, training, and systems to carry out these tasks. The long term value outweighs the short term investment. In all cases, postponement partnerships must be made on the basis of empirical evidence and having considered the interdependencies of the model. The decision to build European manufacturing capability and interfacing this capability with European distribution is crucial to support DeskJet sales in Europe. We support establishing a European plant as a strategy given European demand. However, in addition to the plant, distribution centres across Europe should be capable of managing product localisation and replenishment of all localisation materials. Opening a new facility in Europe Companies becoming global and enjoying growing revenue and expanding market shares across geographies face an important challenge: inertia. Being agile and being able to react quickly to changing conditions sometimes requires risky decision in volatile, uncertain environments, and sometimes mandates direct investment in foreign locales. The company must admit that what sustained past success will no longer work and must be adapted. This is the challenge Hewlett Packard faced when the Vancouver facility, which served the U.S. market, at the time HPs largest, could no longer meet the needs of growing overseas markets which were becoming progressively more important in terms of units sold. (Monthly mean of 23,108 units in Europe vs. 26, 611 units in North America). Hewlett realized that in terms of lead time, inventory optimization, transportation costs, and localization/customization, trying to serve European clients with its U.S. manufacturing facility was no longer viable despite var ious attempts at technology innovation and optimization, changes in product design, and shifts in its logistic processes; the problem could not be solved. (Transit time by sea takes up to five weeks.) As the European market matured, it needed one or more manufacturing locations geographically close to local suppliers and to end customers. However, selecting the correct locations in which to put one or many distribution centers and manufacturing facilities required performing scenario analysis (Sodhi, 2003) and considering several important criteria in a holistic framework for value-based performance and risk management in [robust] supply chains (Hahn Kuhn, 2009): Customer and supplier location, concentration and importance: the ideal location is a center of gravity based on weight clustering, transportation cost, the geographical location and relative importance of difference suppliers and customers. Order delivery time is a critical unifying dimension (Tempelmeier, 2001) when selecting a location that serves downstream needs. However, the center of gravity has to be modified by introducing additional constraints as listed below. In other words, optimization under many constraints must be performed. And this has to be done dynamically, including current data and future projections. Labor: The skills, training, and demographics of the workforce, unemployment trends, productivity, cost of labor, unionization, work regulation, work culture all vary widely across Europe and have to be considered. Cost and availability of land: The real estate environment of the area under consideration has to be analyzed: sites, building availability, construction cost, regulation, including environmental regulations, the availability and reliability of utilities, local construction companies, and maintenance providers. Corporate taxes and incentives: taxes are another layer of costs that have to be taken into account. Local authorities and governments may be competing to attract foreign direct investment and job-creating investments, offering tax and other financial incentives which can contribute to returns and lower risks. Logistical infrastructure: HP needs to evaluate connections to highways, rail transport, and the proximity to airports and seaports, all of which have to be reliable and cost effective. They also have to find credible logistic/transportation partners. Other criteria include the local climate and exposure to natural disasters. Finally, the company must provide expatriate personnel to manage the operation and its labor so quality of life issues must factor into the selection of the location. The process of selecting the optimal location is a multi-stage, top-down one, where initial screening produces a short list of countries or regions and then additional and more demanding criteria are added to narrow down the initial list through several iterations until one or two final locations are selected. The benefits of a manufacturing facility in Europe are significant and affect every step in the supply chain which now has a better strategic fit. Physical, financial, and information flows are better aligned. The market is as large as the U.S. but more diverse and will be better served. Raw materials procurement becomes more streamlined. Inventory days fall because one benefit of standardization (with local customization) is that inventory can be moved from one region to another so as to avoid piling up inventory in one region and stock-outs in another. The chain has moved to more of a push-pull system. Lead times are shorter. Finished product also does not pile up. The cost of manufacturing goes down and since printers were rapidly becoming a commodity product, economies of scale and cost savings are vital since customers choosing between two inkjet printers of equal speed and quality will make their decision based on cost and reliability. From a management perspective, handling th e supply chain becomes easier since it is optimized to regional needs but still integrated in a global framework that captures the benefits of HPs scale in buying power. The supply chain better serves customer needs and enables the company to grow more effectively in Europe and also is a model for other regions as they develop. The company can better manage its risks; it has reduced its exposure to inventory and transportation risk and improved its ability to manage supply chain supply and demand uncertainties in Europe. (Uncertainty metrics like margins, forecast error, stockout rates are all lower.) Finally, the improved supply chain should improve shareholder returns since operating margins, asset turns, and cash flow are positively affected. Other Improvement Opportunities As HPs management moves forward, it should take into account the following additional recommendations: A clear, overarching strategy for Europe needs to be defined and implemented across HPs corporate headquarters. Conflicting and competing corporate interests need to be reconciled with a clearly delineated command and communication structure. A clear company-wide and bottoms-up consensus should be reached about the framework necessary to achieve lasting success in Europe. HP needs to adopt improved corporate communication and defined spheres of responsibility and accountability across the organization. The case reveals that some of the companys most important technological advancements have been discovered by happenstance. Enhancing its technological advancement process with a more rigorous collaboration and innovation model would render technological and supply chain process improvements less susceptible to chance. For example, common global KPIs on inventory would be a good starting point. HP should remove organizational barriers to reduce lead time. (Billington Lee, 1992). The company should establish a dedicated European Localization Management Team to assess current local market trends as well as the viability of the suggestions above. The company should explore further trade opportunities within the European Union and in Eastern Europe, beyond just the tax and other cost-savings options. HP should exploit e-commerce, using the internet to take orders and organize distribution. The company should develop a supply chain risk-management framework to anticipate and mitigate any disruptions. A new or enhanced supply chain is an opportunity to integrate currency risks, cyber attacks, failed communication with suppliersterrorismnon-compliance. (Bosman, 2006). HP should modify its local marketing strategies based on national and cultural consumer demographics. The marketing and PR teams should also utilize available resources to identify such opportunities and participate within the European supply chain community. There are green opportunities within the supply chain that could be exploited. Technology Information processing: JITD New systems and better forecasting will make the problem visible but not solve it. The greatest gains are fundamental: Streamline design of the product to facilitate manufacture at the DCs and build capability at the DCs. However, there are still technical gains that can be made. Conclusion The HP case is an example of how effective supply chain management requires both a revised management paradigm (strategic change) and more sophisticated tools and techniques (optimization). The postponement strategy is a better strategic fit between the supply chain and HPs product life cycle across the key strategic and competitive variables: innovation, customer service, and cost leadership since printers are rapidly transitioning to maturity. Establishing a manufacturing plant in Europe, a major change in HPs printer supply chain, will improve the companys performance in four critical areas: costs, customer satisfaction, shareholder returns, and risk management. The companys physical flows, financial flows, and information flows will all be more aligned and efficient. After the initial capital cost of establishing the plant, the company should experience substantial cost savings from lower material costs, better predictability, improved supply assurances (no shortages), and lower inventory carrying costs. There is a tight linkage between sales, inventory, and product availability, (Raman et al, 2009), and so customer satisfaction, as measured by lower lead times, reduced variability in demand, fewer stock-outs, and enhanced ability to customize by region, should improve. The company will also position itself for future growth. HP should see the benefit of improved customer satisfaction in rising sales and market share in Europe. Shareholder value will be enhanced by the positive impact the supply chain changes will have on inventory and working capital and hence on operational value drivers like operating margins, asset utilization, and cash flow. Finally, the company will enjoy significant improvements in risk management. (Hahn Kuhn, 2009, referring to others). Certain risks, like being out of stock of a key component or product, will be entirely eliminated. Others can be mitigated through improved ability to contingency-plan and catch problems earlier. Th e company will be able to offload other risks or share them with suppliers and customers. And it will be able to consciously select risks, rather than passively absorbing them. Overall, the revised supply chain and the new manufacturing plant in Europe will be a catalyst for dramatic improvements in HPs operating and financial performance, not just on the Continent, but around the world. Bibliography Billington, Corey, Lee, Hau L. (1992, Spring). Managing Supply Chain Inventory: Pitfalls and Opportunities. Sloan Management Review, Volume 33, Number 3. Bosman, Ruud. (2006, April). The New Supply Chain Challenge: Risk Management in a Global Economy. FM Global. Cooper, James C. (1993). Logistics Strategies for Global Businesses. International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, Vol. 23, No. 4, pp. 12-23. Feitzinger, Edward, Lee, Hau L. (1997, January-February). Mass Customization at Hewlett Packard: The Power of Postponement. Harvard Business Review, pp. 116-121. Hahn, Gerd Jurgen, Kuhn, Henirich. (2009, October 30). Value-Based Performance and Risk Management in Supply Chains: A Robust Optimization Approach. Working Paper. Department of Production and Operations Management-Catholic University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt, Germany. Intermarine USA. (2009, December). Heavy-lift Air Transport Faces Capacity Loss, Competition. Intermarine Industry News. Lee, Hau L. (1995, Sept.-Oct.). The Evolution of Supply-Chain-Management Models and Practice at Hewlett Packard. Interfaces, Vol. 25, pp. 42-63. Raman, Ananth, DeHoratius, Nicole, Kanji, Zahra, (2009, June 12). Supply Chain Management at Hugo Boss (B)-the M Ratio. HBS Case No. 609-055, Harvard Business School Technology Operations Mgt. Unit, University of Portland and HBS. Sodhi, ManMohan S., (2003, Fall). How to Do Strategic Supply Chain Planning. Cass Business School Research Paper. Sloan Management Review. Vol. 45, No. 1, pp. 69-75. Sodhi, ManMohan S., Lee, Seongha. (2004, October 1). Global Supply-Chain Risks in the Consumer Electronics Industry. City University London, Sir John Cass Business School, Cass Business School Research Paper. Tempelmeier, Horst. (2001, December 31). Inventory Service-Levels in the Customer Supply Chain. OR Spektrum, Vol. 22 No. 3, pp. 361-380.

The Underground Railroad Essay -- UGRR Slavery

Introduction Imagine yourself a slave, hungry, beaten, and sick with grief at having had your freedom, family and all that makes you human stripped from you. But then, you get word of a way out of it all. It will separate you from all whom you love, it will endanger your life, but that is the price for freedom from the slavery of the south. Fellow slaves begin acting strangely, gathering tools, clothing, and food. You look around, and all you see is a freshly washed quilt hanging out to dry. Then you begin to realize that there is a new quilt every few days, each with a new pattern, and with each quilt, your fellow slaves correspondingly perform more and more preparative tasks. So you join them, realizing this is your only chance to become human again, your chance to dupe the system and win your freedom as the ultimate prize. Finally, now that you’ve caught on to the messages contained in the quilts and spiritual songs, you see that long awaited pattern, â€Å"tumbling boxes,† and you don’t look back. From here on out, it is all relying on your instincts, and your wit. There are people that will help you, but twice as many that want to kill you. Good luck and god-speed, you have just joined the Underground Railroad, see you in Canada! The Underground Railroad was neither a railroad nor underground. It was a complex network of freed slaves, black sympathizers, and northern abolitionists. Famous names that adorned the railroad were Harriet Tubman, William Still, and Frederick Douglass, to name a few. In the heart of the South, there was an informal, yet highly complex system evolving. The institution of slavery had wrenched the hearts of too many, and now they were quietly rebelling. Named during the steam engin... ...W. Norton & Company, 1996 Siebert, Wilber H. The Undergound Railroad from Slavery to Freedom New York: Russell & Russell, 1898 Tobin, Jacquline L. Hidden in Plain View New York: Doubleday, 1999 Internet Sources: http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground/ http://afroamhistory.about.com/ http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/Diversity/Specific/Race/Specific/African_American_Resources/Bibliographies/ugrrbib.html http://www.cr.nps.gov/aahistory/ http://www.geneseo.edu/~brl1/Photos.html http://jfg.girlscouts.org/Talk/whoami/Culture/AfricanAmerican/FreedomSquares2.htm#Crossroads http://www.histori.ca/search.do?config=htdig-en&words=underground+railroad http://www.state.vt.us/vhs/educate/urbiblio.htm http://www.ugrr.org

Winning the Micro-War: Prevention and New Drugs

Humans are engaged in a â€Å"micro-war† with bacteria, and we are losing.   Bacteria represent one of the most adaptable organisms on the planet primarily due to their propensity for adopting genetic mutations.As with all evolutionary mechanisms, most mutations are either harmful or neutral; they do not provide a comparative advantage to the mutated organism.   Other times, however, a mutation will counteract a new and damaging environmental pressure and the organism will become well-equipped to survive and pass on its genes.This is precisely the problem with antibiotic resistance in bacteria: human antibiotics present a new environmental pressure to the highly-adaptable micro-organisms, and some develop an ability to survive through mutation.   That threat is magnified by the horizontal spreading of resistance through plasmid transfer and replication (â€Å"Extending the Cure†).   To mitigate the threat of antibiotic resistant bacteria, three paths must be pur sued: prevention and development of new drugs.Because antibiotic resistance arises primarily as an evolutionary response to environmental pressure, antibiotic resistance can be avoided by minimizing the introduction of antibiotics and using them only when truly needed.   When antibiotics were first introduced, they were seen as a panacea—and rightly so, as they quickly and effectively treated diseases that had previously been deadly and widespread (Lewis, FDA).Unfortunately, however, this enthusiastic adoption of antibiotics has led to a dangerous over-reliance on their use.   For example, many dermatologists not only prescribe antibiotics for mild acne, but they also make the mistake of frequently rotating between antibiotic types.   As the data show on the Essential Biology website, rotation does not decrease the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (Essential Biology).   In fact, 10.7% of patients in the resistant group were found to be housing resistant bac teria, as compared to 7.7% in the control group—indicating that antibiotic rotation may actually exacerbate the problem rather than solve it (Essential Biology).   Furthermore, this method may be particularly harmful because it raises the possibility that a colony of bacteria may develop into a so-called â€Å"superbug† by gaining resistant properties against multiple antibiotics (â€Å"Breeding the Superbug†).Conversely, reducing the number of antibiotic prescriptions is effective in limiting the number of antibiotic-resistant strains.   Finnish researchers proved this correlation in a study where they tracked the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria while they reduced their prescriptions of Erythromycin (Essential Biology).As the data in the bar graphs demonstrate, prevention through reduced prescription of antibiotics seems to stem the tide of resistant bacteria: by prescribing fewer antibiotics, doctors were able to more than have the percentage o f resistant colonies from a peak of 19.0% in 1993 to a low 8.6% in 1996—a dramatic reversal (Essential Biology).However, preventative measures will only slow down the development of resistance and will not in fact solve the larger problem.   To really gain ground in mitigating the effects of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, researchers will continually need to develop new antibiotics that are capable of killing off resistant strains of bacteria.This is where careful regulation of antibiotics could save lives: if these â€Å"last lines of defense† are prescribed for everyday usage, the effectiveness of a doctor’s arsenal will be reduced and modern medicine may be powerless to stop treatable illnesses from becoming killers (â€Å"Extending the Cure†).If, on the other hand, doctors limit the usage of antibiotics to times when they are truly needed and researchers continue to develop new, more effective antibiotics, we will be able to minimize the ill-effects of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and win the â€Å"micro-war.†Ã‚   Our health depends on it.Works Cited:â€Å"Breeding the Superbug.† Allianz Knowledge Online (Ed. Valdis Wish). Electronic article.http://knowledge.allianz.com/en/globalissues/safety_security/health_pandemics/hospial_infections_mrsa.html. Accessed 3 November 2008.Essential Biology. â€Å"You Decide: What Can We Do About Antibiotic-resistant Bacteria?†Online interactive lab. Pearson Education.http://wps.aw.com/bc_campbell_essentials_3/47/12139/3107664.cw/index.html.Accessed 3-6 November 2008.â€Å"Extending the Cure: Policy Responses to the Growing Threat of Antibiotic Resistance.†Executive summary. â€Å"Extending the Cure† online publication.http://www.extendingthecure.org/downloads/ETC_EXSUM.pdf. Accessed 5November 2008.Lewis, Ricki. â€Å"The Rise of Antibiotic Resistant Infections.† Electronic article. United StatesFood and Drug Administration. http://www.fda.gov/Fdac/fea tures/795_antibio.html.Accessed 4 November 2008.