Literary Analysis of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay

In Huckleberry Finn there are several themes. There are themes of racism and slavery, civilized society, survival, water imagery, and the one I will be discussing, superstition ( SparkNotes Editors). Superstition is a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation (â€Å"Merriam-Webster†). Superstition was a very popular theme in Huckleberry Finn that you saw throughout the story. Huck was somewhat superstitious, but Jim speaks a wide range of superstition and folk tales. In the story it makes Jim seem as if he is unintelligent, when really his superstitions and beliefs come true and shows he is a wise person. At first, Huck thinks Jim’s superstitions are foolish and silly, but he eventually starts to appreciate Jim’s outlook and knowledge on life. Jim’s superstition was accepted as social teachings as well as being the adult figure in Huck’s life (SparkNotes Editors). One of the first times I saw superstition in the story was Huck’s superstition of bad luck. â€Å"Pretty soon a spider went crawling up my shoulder, and I flipped it off and it lit in the candle; and before I could budge it was all shriveled up. I didn’t need anybody to tell me that was an awful bad sign and would fetch me some bad luck, so I was scared and most shook the clothes off me. I got up and turned around in my tracks three times and crossed my breast everytime; and then I tied up a little lock of my hair with a thread to keep witches away ( Twain 110). † Another time Huck’s superstition of bad luck was shown in the story was when he accidentally spilled salt at breakfast. â€Å"One morning I happened to turn over the salt cellar at breakfast. I reached for some of it as quick as I could, to throw over my left shoulder and keep off the bad luck, but Miss Watson was in the ahead of me, and crossed me off ( Twain 117). † Because Huck was not able to throw the salt over his shoulder, he was very worried and nervous all day because he knew he would encounter bad luck sooner or later. The first time Huck went to get superstitious advice from Jim is when he went to ask Jim when his father would be returning in his life. He had already seen his father’s tracks in the snow and knew he would be coming real soon. He wanted to know what his father was going to do and how long  was he going to stay. Huck heard Jim had a hair ball that was taken out of a stomach of an ox, that he used to do magic with. The hair ball supposedly had a spirit in it that knew everything. The hair ball told Jim about Huck’s father and Jim told Huck, â€Å" Yo’ ole father doan’ know, yit, what he’s a-gwyne to do. Sometimes he spec he’ll go ‘way, en den agin he spec he’ll stay. De bes’ way is to res’ easy en let de ole man take his own way ( Twain 119). † He then began to tell Huck his father had two angels over him. A white, shiny angel that tells him to do right and a dark angel that tells him to do wrong. He told Huck that he also has two angels over him that does the same, and that nobody knows which one is going to get you in the end. This part of the story showed me Jim wasn’t as foolish and stupid as everybody thought he was, he was actually wise. That night when Huck returned home his father was waiting for him in his bedroom. Once Huck ran away to the island and found Jim ran away too and they discovered the dead man, who happened to be Huck’s father, Huck wanted to discuss the dead man but Jim warned him it was bad luck for them to talk about a dead man. â€Å" He said it would fetch bad luck; and besides, he said, he might come and ha’nt us; he said a man that warn’t buried was more likely to go a-ha’nting around than one that was planted and comfortable ( Twain 139). † Huck thought Jim made sense and respected him enough not to bring it up again. Huck then brought up to Jim, when he found the snake-skin the other day, Jim said it was the worst bad luck to touch snake skin. Huck did not believe they would experience any bad luck because they had experienced so much good luck with finding the house with all the goods and money they came across. Jim told him not to speak of it and he said the bad luck would still come, and it did come later that week. Huck decided to play a trick on Jim and put a dead rattlesnake in Jim’s blanket to scare him. When Jim laid down that night the snake’s mate was in his blanket and bit Jim on the heel. Jim was sick in bed for four days and Huck never told him he was the one who played the trick on him. He swore to himself he would never pick up a snake skin again, and Jim said to Huck maybe he would believe him next time and there might still be some bad luck to come. The theme of superstition in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is related to hope and fear. Jim’s hope and fear was that he would finally be free and his fear was that he would be captured and forced back into slavery. Huck’s hope was that he would be able to live his life without having to be in fear of his father and also that he would not have to live a â€Å"sivilized† lifestyle with the widow and Miss Watson. Everybody has hope and fear about something, and deals with it differently. Jim and Huck dealed with it by believing in superstition. Work Cited Page Twain, Mark. â€Å"Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. † The Norton Anthology American Literature. Seventh Ed. Vol. C. Nina Baym. New York: W. W. Norton & Comapny, Inc. , 2007. Print. SparkNotes Editors. â€Å"SparkNote on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. † SparkNotes. com. SparkNotes LLC. 2002. Web. 5 Feb. 2011. â€Å"www. merriam-webster. com/dictionary/superstition. † Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, 2011. Web. 5 Feb 2011.

Becoming an Adolscent

Childhood to adolescences Eventually, everything has to change. Whether it is for the best or the worst is to be determined. In this short story Steven becomes more realistic about the nature of breaking up and he also learns to consider the feelings of others. Steven gains a deeper understanding of himself and figures out who he wants to become. In â€Å"breaking up† by Susan Beeby and Paul Lima, Steven experiences a transition from childhood to adolescences. Steven’s view of being in a relationship is not realistic because he does not know what commitment entails. He attended his girlfriend’s birthday party, where he made her a cake and gave her a special birthday gift. His girlfriend said â€Å"when he gave me a gold band for my birthday, I thought our relationship was solid. †(Beeby and Lima 1) Steven did not recognise the sentimental values a ring has for a girl. He did not think about the commitment he just made to her, resulting in a very immature choice. Steven is now seeing his ex-girlfriend not acting like she is upset or mad about him breaking up with her. She is not giving him the satisfaction that he craves for. Steven than proclaimed â€Å"and every time I saw her afterwards- laughing with her friends, but looking at me with icicle eyes- I almost gagged on what I said. †(Beeby and Lima 1) He is now taking more accountability for his actions. Steven is realizing he should have never made a commitment when he was not ready because it hurt him more in the end. He started out making immature decisions and he made progress through the story by taking more responsibility for the actions he chooses. In addition to that, Steven takes more steps to becoming more of an adult. Steven gets the opportunity to understand how to respect others feelings. His girlfriend was expressing how their relationship was not perfect. â€Å"the romance did have its weaknesses, Steven would sometimes break our date†(Beeby and Lima 1) said his girlfriend. Steven did not take into consideration that maybe his girlfriend was really looking forward to their date. He did not think about her feelings. More into the story, Steven’s girlfriend explained how he has changed. sometimes he brought me flowers and wrote me poems† (Beeby and Lima 1) his girlfriend expressed. He is now realizing he should respect his girlfriend’s feelings and he should make her feel special. By this time he is not just thinking about himself. Steven makes a transition from acting very immature to more mature, and is now actually treating his girlfriend with respect. With the ability to respect others, he f inds out who he wants to become. Steven has more of an understanding of himself. He is analyzing what he thinks a poet should do about love. love means commitment and real poets don’t commit themselves, not to no body. †(Beeby and Lima 1) Steven is relating himself to what a poet would do, not to what he thinks is best for himself. He also experiences a wide awakening of who he thought he was. Steven was questioning if he was really a poet. â€Å"but I should have known I wasn’t a poet because I was afraid of how far we could go on the name of poetry. †(Beeby and Lima 1) Steven made an adult decision realizing he was not a poet because he actually loved her. He finally understood that you can be your own version of a poet and do not have to follow all the guidelines of a poet. Steven takes a huge step from being a child to becoming an adult. He experienced the aftermath of a break up. Steven also now knows how to consider other people’s feelings not just his own. He realizes who he wants to become; Steven took some time to figure out his faults, but in the end it all worked out to better him. The only question is will he stay an adolescences or make his way back to becoming more of a child?

Central Heating

THE HISTORY OF CENTRAL HEATING Brittany Science, 4th, Mr. Leetch, History of an Invention 2/8/13 The History of Central Heating Systems By Brittany Hicken I. Who invented the central heating system? A. We don’t know exactly who invented the first one B. Ancient Romans created the hypocaust C. Greeks created their own version of the hypocaust D. Sergius Orata (80 B. C. ) E. Louis Savot- French (1600) F. Dalsme (1600) G. Dr. John Clarke (1652) H. Benjamin Thompson (1796) I. Count Rumford (1796) J. William Cook (1745) K. William Strutt (1805) L. Eliphalet Knott (1833) M. Isaac Orr (1836) N. Professor Warren Johnson (1873)O. Milton Fessler (1905-1908) II. What were the changes over time? A. It was first the hypocaust, we don’t know when it was invented B. Fixed central hearths date back to 2500 B. C. , they were excavated in Greece C. An under floor heating system was installed in the house of King Arzawa in Beycesutan, Turkey in 1300 B. C. D. The Romans brought technology to a high standard, by creating systems designed by Sergius Orata E. Crude fireplaces were made around 800 A. D. these were widespread in Europe in the 1300’s F. After the 14th century, the next important event was the chimney.Early chimneys were large, so to allow chimney sweepers to climb into them G. Masonry stoves became very common in the 1500’s H. Louis Savot invented the raised grate system and designed a circulating fireplace in the early 1600’s I. The way of stove heating soon had advanced. The first free standing stove, or not connected to anything so it’s not mounted to anything, was the Furnus Acapnos or the smokeless stove invented by Dalsme in France in the later days of 1600’s J. The earliest stove to be introduced to North America is the iron box stove invented by Dr. John Clarke in about 1652 K.William Cook was the first to propose the way of steam heating in 1745 L. M. Bonne constructed an actual hot water heating system instead o f the steam heating system in the late 1700’s M. William Strutt invented a warm air furnace that included of a riveted, wrought iron air chamber encased with bricks. The rivets help seal the air chamber to be air tight, in 1805. This chamber has ducts fed with heated air into rooms. Strutt’s hot air furnaces were referred to as cockle, belper, or derby stoves N. In 1833, Eliphalet Knott invented the stove with base burners O.In 1836, Isaac Orr invented the airtight stove so there would be no heat loss on the inside chamber P. Professor Warren Johnson taught at a school up in Wisconsin and back then the only way to change the temperature was to run downstairs and tell the janitor to turn the wheel in a way to let either more steam or less steam into the room. He later created and patented a thermostat that relied on compressed air to make the valves work. He then later created the Johnson Electric Service company Q. â€Å"Coal-less† Mondays were introduced in 191 7 saving coal and stimulating the use for oil and gas since there wasn’t much coal around.R. Milton Fessler invented residential oil burner in California so that residents could have their house easily heated without stoking coal ever hour between 1905-1908 S. By 1926, the Electric Refrigeration News began to publish, â€Å"heating had advanced from the campfire to something so silent, so automatic that we just take for granted and ‘just turn the heat on’ III. When did initially stop changing and industries stated introducing something different and not a huge improvement? A. From the mid 1920’s-1936 B. People started to take the silent heating system for granted C.People were inventing little accessories or little parts to go on to the latest thing but nothing much bigger or more important happened IV. Where did the inventions take place? A. Rome B. Greece C. France D. The United States E. Turkey F. Europe V. Why it was initially created? A. To heat bath water in the Roman Empire B. To heat homes so that people could live comfortably C. To heat specific rooms D. The thermostat was created to control the amount of wanted heat in any specific room, or house VI. What was the hypocaust and how did the hypocaust work? A. The word â€Å"hypocaust† refers to a subfloor radiant heating system B.The word hypocaust come from the Latin word â€Å"Hypocaustum† which meant burning underneath C. These were important to ancient romans because it heated their baths and as well as large rooms D. The small pillars of stacked bricks would have supported a fire proof floor that was heated by air circulation under the floor in a chamber with an external furnace E. The hot gases at the top of this hypocaust below the floor would have been up to about 400 degrees Fahrenheit F. Addition to the hypocaust, some romans had hollow walls to help keep even temperature and prevent condensationWorks Cited By Brittany Hicken A Brief History of Heatin g and Cooling America 0Homes. †Ã‚  Sustainable Dwelling. † William Furr, 10 Jan. 2011. Web. 27 Jan. 2013. â€Å"Archrnews. com. †Ã‚  Archrnews. com. N. p. , 12 Nov. 2001. Web. 4 Jan. 2013. http://www. achrnews. com/articles/an-early-history-of-comfort-heating â€Å"A Short History of Central Heating. †Ã‚  Taco. N. p. , 2012. Web. 20 Jan. 2013. â€Å"Hypocaust. †Ã‚  About. com. N. s. Gill, n. . Web. 11 Jan. 3013. Duffy, Catherine. â€Å"Who Invented the Central Heating System? †Ã‚  EHow. Demand Media, 04 Nov. 2009. Web. 20 Jan. 2013. This paragraph is a run though of the timeline events. Going all the way back to 3000 B. C. the first Hypocaust was born. Ancient Romans had invented the hypocaust. The hypocaust is an under floor heating system that is a chamber that collects heat and leaves it under there. Going up to 2500 B. C. the first fixed central hearths were first excavated in Greece. In 1300 B. C. King Arzawa had an under floor heatin g system installed into his palace in Turkey. Later in 80 B. C. Sergius Orata started to create designs for heating systems and brought technology to the Romans. Crude fireplaces were made around 800 A. D. and were later widely spread throughout Europe in the 1300’s. The chimney was invented around the 1400’s. They were large in diameter so that the Chimney Sweepers could fit up into them to clean them out. 100 years later in 1500, masonry stoves became the â€Å"new thing† to have.They also became very common. Louis Savot invented the raise gate system and designed a circulating fireplace. In early 1600’s, the first standing stove, or not connected to a wall or mounted to anything, was the Furnus Acapnos, or the smokeless stove, invented by Dalsme. He also introduced fresh fuel in the same opening as combustion air, directing all combustion products over already-burning fuel, a design that ensured complete combustion. The iron box stove, the earliest sto ve to be introduced into North America, was invented by Dr. John Clarke.William cook was the first to propose the way of using steam to heat up rooms, in 1745. In the late 1700’s, M Bonne invented an actual hot water heating system instead of William Cook’s steam heating system. In 1805, William Strutt invented a warm air furnace that had a riveted, wrought iron air chamber encased with bricks. This chamber had ducts that fed into rooms and blew heated air into the rooms. The way this chamber was built was to keep the hot air from escaping from the chamber and having heat loss. They were referred to as cockle, belper, or derby stoves.Isaac Orr invented the airtight stove so there would be no heat loss inside the chamber in 1836. Professor Warren Johnson taught at a school in Wisconsin, where the only means of room temperature control was to tell the janitor to go to the basement and adjust steam valves. Johnson developed an electric annunciator system in 1873 that was used to signal the janitor when heat needed adjusting. He continued experimenting and in 1885, patented a thermostat that relied on compressed air to operate steam valves. He then established the Johnson Electric Service Co. to manufacture and install his system.Johnson went on to invent the humidistat for control of the humidity in buildings in 1905. In 1905-1908, Milton Fessler invented a residential oil burner so that residents could have their own house heated easily without stoking coal in a fireplace every hour. Coal-less Mondays were introduced in 1917 to save coal and stimulate the use for oil and gas since there wasn’t much coal around or to be found regularly. In 1926, the Electric Refrigeration News began to publish that heating had advanced from the campfire in a cave, to something so silent, so unnoticeable.And in present day, thermostat controls air and ducts are fed in a way we can’t see the m and as well as fed to each room through a vent in which air i s blown out of. We take advantage of just â€Å"turning on the heat† every day that we don’t even bother to thing what had to happen way back when to heat thing up. The way of heating has been a system that not everyone thinks about. It has gone from the campfire, to the hypocaust, to stoves, to compressed valves, to thermostats, to an automatic heating with the push of a button. Over time, the way of heating has improved and impressed many along the way.It used to be having a chimney and stoking coals for five minutes ever hour just to keep the coals burning and hot and giving off heat. To progress this way of heating, there cannot be only one inventor. There are many who have created accessories, or major parts to different systems. The inventors go from ancient Roman empires and ancient Greek empires to people we have never heard of, but have improved life as we know it tremendously. This is the way of heating. Going into B. C. years, there were some unknown dates a nd some known dates. First was campfire.We all have heard off the story where cavemen are in a stark cold cave with a campfire. That’s just an obvious fact. Later on the hypocaust was made my ancient Romans and ancient Greeks. The word hypocaust refers to a subfloor radiant heating system: suspended floor with space for gases and hot smoke. The word hypocaust comes from the Latin  word Hypocaustum  which originally meant a ‘burning underneath'. Hypocausts were very important to Roman’s system of heating. The hypocaust heated baths and large rooms. Along with the hypocaust, there were sometimes hollow walls in ancient structures.These hollow walls would help maintain even temperatures as well as eliminate condensation. The small pillars of stacked bricks would have supported a fireproof floor that was heated by means of air circulation in the under floor chamber with an external furnace as heat source. The art and science of the hypocaust systems was lost afte r the fall of the Roman Empire. Western heating science had advanced very little in the period of the Dark Ages. Around 2500B. C fixed central hearths were excavated in Greece. In 80 B. C. Sergius Orata brought high art designs to Roman technology.At first Romans were only heating up their floors, but later used heated walls and some were designed as early as warm air heating systems. By this, introducing heated air through floor openings. This is the end of the B. C. heating ways. Now going into the A. D. times, from 1600-1800 specifically. In the late 1600’s, Dalsme invented the first freestanding stove, not mounted to a wall, called the Furnus Acapnos to the smokeless stove. He also introduced fresh fuel in the same combustion air directing all products over already burning fuel, a design that ensured itself. The smokeless stove was a great advance but, it was accepted slowly.The earliest stove introduced into North America was the cast iron box stove which was invented by Dr. John Clarke in 1652. This kind of stove was originally made in Holland and later imported into England after1600. Louis Savot invented a raised gate system and designed a circulating fireplace. He used a hollow iron bottom and back in a hearth, at which cold air entered the bottom, was warmed, and entered the room through openings, in early 1600’s. In 1653, Sir Hugh Platt proposed using hot water to dry gun powder and Sir Martin Triewald proposed warming greenhouses with hot water.This might be referred to as the hydronic system, which is the heating of an object by water. In 1735, John Desaguiliers designed the first modern heating blower which was turned by hand by an operator referred to as the ventilator for the British Houses of Parliament. The design of centrifugal, acting from or away from the center, blowers was continually improved in England and Europe during 18-19 century. The early fans were mostly operated by steam engines. In the late 1700’s, M. Bonn e in France constructed an actual hot water heating system using a boiler.The French idea was introduced into England by the Marquis de Chabannes later in 1816. By the 1790’s, the steam heating way had only progressed in England, being used to heat mills and factories. The advantage of steam heating is the avoidance of the expense of insurance. This is the end of the 16th and 17th century. Moving ahead to the 18th and 19th century, there were many important events, inventions, and inventors. In England at about 1805, William Strutt had invented at warm air furnace that included a riveted wrought iron air chamber that is encased with bricks.The design had a couple inches of space between the brick and iron chamber allows air to circulate. A large space on the outside is split horizontally on two sections, the lower for cool air and the upper for heated air. Cool air moves from the lower chamber through the openings and moved out through the upper openings into the heated air c hamber. As well as ducts were fed into rooms in which heated air is blown out of them. His hot air furnaces were referred to as cockle, belper, or derby stoves.December of 1815, Marquis de Chabannes obtained a patent for a method of conducting air, and regulating the temperatures in houses or buildings. Hot air systems were introduced in the U. S. before 1820. The fist building to be centrally heated was the Massachusetts Medical College in 1816. In 1831, Angier Perkins realized the drawbacks of bulky heating systems. So he designed a high pressure hot water system using a small diameter, thick walled wrought iron pipe that he patented. His system heated water in pipe coils placed in a furnace, then circulated hot water to coils of pipe in the rooms to be heated.In 1833, Eliphalet Knott invented the base burners for stoves, and in 1836, Isaac Orr invented the air tight stove so that there would be no heat loss. Joseph Nason and James Walworth introduced the Perkins method of high pr essure hot water heating system in the U. S†¦ But in that same year of 1842, the method was not used. The use of hot water systems had been limited till 1880’s when that had surprisingly become popular. Steam heating for residents had rapidly declined and hot water became the dominant method especially in the eastern part of the United States.Joseph and James installed steam systems afterward, using small diameter wrought iron pipes. They installed numerous amounts of steam systems in large buildings, including the White House and the Capitol building. In 1846, James and Nason installed the first fan type system for the United States Customs House in Boston. Later in 1849, F. P. Oliver had invented a stove with thermostatic draft control. By 1851, catalogs started to list cast iron registers, which are often 12-by-24-inch grills covering a large air-intake tube. Outflow vents vary in size depending on the room.A common size is 10 by 12 inches for most living spaces, avai lable in black, white, finished, gold, bronze, or just with nickel plating. They would package them with straw in a wooden crate. Packing was expensive. Stephen Gold was a Connecticut stove maker who began experimenting. The steam heating systems seemed too complicated and unsafe, but furnaces had seemed completely uncomplicated and very safe. Many people were uncomfortable in building heated by air because they had seamed scorched. Gold had overcome these issues and was granted a patent for improvement in warming houses by steam.Gold’s system was unique at the time. Large steam systems used coils or rows of pipe to heat rooms, while Gold used the first radiator, a device consisting of two dimpled iron sheets that were riveted together at dimples. The edges were rolled over with a piece of cord as a gasket, which is a rubber seal. Gold’s radiator came to be called â€Å"the mattress radiator† due to the way it looked, in 1854. In the same year, Gold invented a b oiler which was made of wrought iron and included a draft regulator along with a water valve.This system was later manufactured by Connecticut Steam Heating Company. Radiators date to 1863. Joseph Nason and a new face of Robert Briggs patented a new design including vertical wrought iron tubes screwed into a cast iron base. The golden age for warm air furnaces was after the Civil War. In 1869 a shoemaker by the name of Benjamin F. Sturtevant patented a combination fan and heat exchanger for two purposes: 1) for cooling 2) for heating. He established a company to manufacture and sell fans and heating systems. Here is a story that took place in 1873.Professor Warren Johnson taught at a school in Wisconsin where the only way to change the temperature was to run down to the janitor and have him turn the valves of air to change it to either warm or cool. Johnson developed an electric annunciator, which is electronic signaling device, system that was used to signal the janitor when heatin g need to be adjusted. In 1885, he created and patented a thermostat that relied on compressed air to operate the valves. He later established the Johnson Electric Service Company to manufacture and in install his systems. By 1874, Nelson Bundy invented the most popular cast iron radiator.In 1886, Albert Butz patented a thermostat that controlled damp drafts. The thermostat was electric, using battery to activate a spring loaded motor. In the 1890’s, the heating systems were quite sophisticated. Some included thermostatic and zone control, which is a forced air system. All of the early inventions of forced air systems had concerned themselves with large buildings. These combinations of the 1890’s of a fan and a heater were referred to as the plenum or the hot blast systems. In 1895, Charles Foster patented a damper type register. In 1899, Novelty Manufacturing Company was the first to make the steel register.The most successful hot blast system was the Vento sectional cast iron surface invented by John Spear in 1903, which was manufactured by American Radiator Company. Professor Warren Johnson went to invent the humidistat to control the humidity of a home in 1905. In that same year, manufacturers were frightened and formed the Federal Furnace League to elevate warm air heating to the rightfully deserved position. In 1905-1908, Milton Fessler invented a residential oil burner so that residents could have their own house heated easily without stoking coal in a fireplace every hour.During 1912, residents and homeowners had to wake up early to stoke the coal in the fire and replace the coal with fresh coal. Guesswork and experience helped tell how much coal to use. The first electric coal stoker that was controlled by a thermostat was invented in 1912, and by 1920 electric coal stokers could be found by anyone. During WWI, there was a coal shortage and the government had to find a way to conserve energy gave a slight nudge to the automatic systems. Lawrence Soule improved his idea of Aerofin heating surfaces. This Aerofin idea used spirally wrapped copper sheets to produce a light weight eat exchanger, during the 1920’s. After WWI, Butz Thermoelectric Regulator Company had pushed the idea of oil burner controls and had met with the Honeywell Heating Specialties in 1927 to form the Minneapolis Honeywell Regulator Company, or know to us today as Honeywell Incorporated. The heating systems of the 19th century operated with a low pressure, only using one to two pipes and a boiler or steam engine for the steam source. This is pretty much the last of the 18th-19th century events and inventions. This last paragraph explains the inventions and events in the 20th century.There are four main different types of modern central heating, consisting of gas and oil burners, solid fuel central heating, radiators, and electric heating. Gas and oil burners can be chimneys because they use gas to and oil to burn the wood to make a fire, wh ich warms up the room. Solid fuel central heating systems provide hot water, warm water, or any kind of heated liquid. Radiators  are heat exchangers used to transfer thermal energy from one medium to another for the purpose of cooling and heating. They distribute the heat by natural air circulation.The process of electric heating involves electrical energy being converted to heat through an electrical appliance. Other ways to heat homes are wood stoves, forced air systems, and by radiant heat. We also use thermostats that just â€Å"change† the temperature of rooms by the push of a button, that we often just take advantage of it. Houses often had ducts that come from a furnace that go to each room and blow air when you change the temperature on the thermostat. Some houses have a large panel of widows instead of a wall and the suns radiation waves go through the window and transfer into radiant heat to warm out the house.Another system houses have is called the forced air s ystem. Air is pushed by fans into a furnace and when it comes out, there are more fans after the furnace to push the air down the ducts and into the vents which lead into the room. This leads up to the year of 2013. So as it’s obvious, central heating has come a long way and improved much over the years. Many are impressed by this complicated technology and impressed by the intricate designs and inventions over the years. As spoiled people with high expectations of high quality technology, we have taken advantage of the heating systems.We just â€Å"turn on the heat† or â€Å"turn on the AC† and not even thinking about what has had to happen for this technology to come up to where it is. Heating is very important because without it we would not exist. We would freeze to death, literally. We owe a lot of thanks to all the inventors way back then who made this invention a lifestyle and a luxury. Heating has advanced so tremendously, from the campfire in a cave to something so silent so unnoticeable in life, from the hypocausts to the furnace, from the freestanding stoves to the chimneys.When we use heat or use a thermostat, we don’t tend to think about how heat has progressed. We think about the necessity of warmth, and how we are going to â€Å"freeze to death. † This paper and research has made me more aware of what happened for society to get heat, and has made me appreciate what I have. Fifty-four percent of the energy used in the average home is for heating and cooling rooms, and there are 114,199,622 households in the US as of the 2010 census. That’s a lot of energy used! The most simplistic way to put it is that we take advantage of things we have every day. I am thankful for heat, are you?

The United States on the World Stage Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The United States on the World Stage - Essay Example Successful as these programs were for America during its time, one cannot help but wonder as to whether things would have turned out for the better or worst for America if these programs had not been successfully implemented. Let's start with a look at the era of â€Å"Reaganomics† and what America might have been like had it not been implemented at all. Reaganomics was based on the program of governance that balance the national budget and created savings for the country by implementing 4 basic steps: â€Å"(1) Cut tax rates to restore incentives for economic growth , (2) Spending reductions , (3), Anti-inflation monetary policy restraining money supply growth compared to demand, to maintain a stronger, more stable dollar value. (4) Deregulation, which saved consumers an estimated $100 billion per year in lower prices. â€Å" (Ferrera,2011) The system worked in the 80's for the American population and the budget cuts resulted in a surplus of treasury savings which the Clint on administration inherited. It prevented the downward spiral of the economy and allowed the treasury time to recover and earn the taxes needed to cover the national debts (â€Å"The Second American Revolution: Reaganomics†). ... Life became harder for everyone under Reaganomics while before it was implemented, life was alright for most American families. There are those who believe that if Reaganomics had not been implemented, the United States would have gone one of two ways, died economically due to the cost of inflation and the eventual inability of the United States to pay its debts or, continued on its â€Å"life is still affordable† trend that the typical American family was experiencing. Maybe the time of single income families sending their kids off to affordable colleges and universities would still be norm these days instead of student loans and a generation of high school graduates who can't afford college. That is if the taxes were continuing to become higher in rates would eventually stop rising and increasing the costs of basic goods. So maybe, just maybe, the country is somehow better off than if Reaganomics did not exist. Otherwise, the public would not know that there is another way o f cutting the debt and balancing the national budget than the constantly increasing government revenue collections that the Obama administration strongly advocates. Then we have the â€Å"End of the Cold War† to consider. The end of the cold war marked a sort of unification in Europe that allowed tensions between the democratic and socialist European countries to find a platform of peace and camaraderie with one another (Mearshimer, 1990). However, it would seem that the unification of Europe under the Euro, which would not have happened had the cold war not ended, has resulted in more problems for the united European economy that expected. Pres. Ronald Reagan is viewed by the Americans as the man who brought peace to Europe and ended the cold war.

Current and potential power of the Chinese currency in a global Essay

Current and potential power of the Chinese currency in a global financial economy - Essay Example The present international economic hold back is having substantial unconstructive effects on China’s export industries, and sectors that rely on international direct investment flows. The degree of China’s contact with the ongoing international financial crisis especially from the struggle of the American sub-prime mortgage issue is not clear. However, china places various limitations on capital flows especially outflows, in part in order, to uphold its administered float monetary policy. These limitations restrict the capacity of Chinese residents and many companies to invest outside the country, forcing them to invest locally even though, some Chinese try to move funds outside the country illegitimately. Therefore, the disclosure of Chinese private sector companies and private investors to sub-prime American mortgages is expected to be small. For 25 years, globalization formed unprecedented degrees of both economic risk and economic growth. Monetary markets became fre e, which allowed governments and firms to invest more openly. Even so, as international trade grew larger, it also grew more complicated. Speedier-flowing capital became more unstable and economic danger became more difficult to track. Local regulators struggled to survive with changing financial practices, most of which they did not entirely understand. To make matters more complex, the state governments refuted the idea of ceding regulatory administration to an international system, restricting the degree of international misunderstanding over international markets (Peterson & Derby 2). International integration was based on a melange of normally ad hoc plans with coercive power and limited scope. One impact was an outburst of systematic banking crisis, with more than 120 occurring between 1970 and 2007. In 2008, policy makers who were discouraged by harsh impact of this crisis started expressing apprehension in regard to lack of effectual regulation of the international financial structure, which former American treasury secretary said had brought about over one chief crisis once every 3 years (Peterson & Derby 2). Furthermore, Chinese government firms like the State Administration of foreign trade, Chinese Investment Company, state-owned companies, state banks, might have been more disclosed to distressed American mortgage securities. Chinese companies account for the share of lion’s of China capital outflow, most of which comes from China’s big and developing foreign trade reserves. If china held distressed sub-prime mortgage supported securities, these institutions would possibly be incorporated in the company securities rank and some American equities which might have invested in real estates. Even so, these were a comparatively small section of China’s total American securities holdings (ORLIK 4). The government of china does not discharge comprehensive information on its holding of financial companies, even though some of its bank s have stated their level of disclosure to sub-prime American mortgages. Such companies have normally stated that their disclosure to distressed sub-prime American mortgages has been minor compared to their comprehensive investments, that they have cleared up such assets or have called off losses and that they carry on to earn high return margins. China has taken various steps to react to the international financial crisis. Other than the cut in interest rates and enhancing bank

Government Regulation of Climate Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Government Regulation of Climate Change - Essay Example n the atmosphere is believed to cause extreme climatic conditions such as droughts, torrential rains, floods and heat waves and these have catastrophic effects on human beings and animals. However, of growing concern is the fact that human activities as a result of industrialization are responsible for causing global warming which is a main contributor to climate change. As such, government regulation of climate change is imperative in order to address this dire situation which is a major threat to people’s lives in the near long run if left unabated. Gore (2006, p. 5) says: â€Å"In every corner of the globe- on land and in water, in melting ice and in disappearing snow, during heat waves and droughts, in eyes of hurricanes and in tears of refugees- the world is witnessing mounting and undeniable evidence that nature’s cycles are profoundly changing.† These extreme changes in climate are making some parts of the globe uninhabitable. Thus, a holistic approach should be taken in order to combat this threat to the climate. Whilst industrial development is necessary to our lives, it must be noted that environmental concerns should also be given priority since they can lead to catastrophic climate changes discussed above. Therefore, government regulation on climate change is imperative. This can significantly help in addressing some of the problems that are caused by human activities with regards to the impacts of global warming. The government being the overall authority in the country, it has the power effect measures that are designed to address the issue of climate change. The government can use command and control regulations where it promulgates policies that are meant to ensure that certain actions are prohibited. For instance, the government can put measures that are meant to minimise the use of substances that are responsible for emitting excessive quantities of greenhouse gas emissions such as coal. The government can also put stringent measures that

Organisational Change management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Organisational Change management - Essay Example changing into the new Strategic Direction are based on the fact that the Suffolk County Council requires radical changes that will reduce their costs. Currently, it has become too slow, complex, overelaborate, risk adverse, serves the regulator more than the customer, and too expensive considering the impeding financial crisis. This program will reshape the Council’ way of thinking and provide radical solutions to the financial problems affecting the council. It will also make the council leaner, smaller, cheaper, more creative, and more innovative by developing more commercial skills which will enable the council to understand its costs better so as to reduce them. The budget gap of the council is expected to rise to  £153 million by 2013. Attempts to reduce the staffing costs the budget gap by laying off promises no solution to the budget gap as it will save only  £55m out of the  £153m from the lost 400 jobs. Furthermore, the council has no capacity of running a big r edundancy programme for its staff. The program is focused on challenging spending and reducing costs so that the  £153m budget gap will not be realized. The program addresses the  £153m budget gap by reducing the demand for their services. This will entail addressing the root cause of social problems and solving them and also building social capital to strengthen communities to be able to solve their own problems. This proposal will include the description of the current situation; this section will address the current issues facing the Suffolk County Council and why changes should be implemented. Next will be the goals of the proposal; based on the assessment of the problems facing the Suffolk County Council, this section will provide the New Strategic Direction and the solution it offers to the council. This section will be followed by proposed Methodology; this section will address a step by step process of implementing the New Strategic Direction until its goals are realized. Time and cost

Presence and absence artist statement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Presence and absence artist statement - Essay Example However this duality in the nature does not imply an absence of harmony. Embedding the impressions of presence and absence, my creations stand at the culmination of the Environment, the Viewer and the Artwork. â€Å"It is futile for an artist to try to create an environment because you have an environment around you all the time. Any living organism has an environment, the only people who don’t have an environment are dead† said Carl Andre1, the American minimalist artist. Building up on this proposition, my creations embrace three elements of the environment – Atmospheric(s), Nature and the Response. Atomospheric(s) are installations that engender an ambience within the viewer’s perception; Nature is the surrounding environment that supports and informs the artwork; and the Response are ways of knowing how the audience reacts to my work. The second piece, the Viewer is a central participant in my works. Art brings out feelings and emotions in the viewer t hat transcend him/her to his/her own experiences by arousing nostalgia or connections with the past. These nostalgic feelings range from a beautiful landscape to even a television program. Expending these nostalgic moments, I attempt to create a sensational view of everyday life with my installations. The nature of Nostalgia has intrigued many artists and intellectuals in the past. Roberta Rubenstein called Nostalgia as something that â€Å"never actually existed, or never could have existed, in the form in which it is ‘remembered’† while photographer Hollis Frampton connected nostalgia with identity and culture formation2. Finally, the third piece of my creation is the artwork itself, a channel to connect the other two (environment and the viewer). In this exhibition I present a sculptural video installation that includes the nostalgic association to the contemporary notion of an urban place and a corresponding sculpture piece that is made of soil and plant, mir roring the idea of nostalgic discrepancy between the natural setting and a still inescapable urban context in which it is installed. Nostalgic discrepancy suggests presence and absence. The impressions of portraying presence and absence in art can be extensively seen in works of artists such as Sooja Kim, Olafur Eliasson, Popolotti Rist and Jaye Rhee, who have deeply inspired my style. Sooja Kim examines the balance between presence and absence through her performance of harmonized settings between nature and herself. Likewise, I am using nature and its movement as stimulus elements to balance between presence and absence of the nostalgic notion of people’s ideas of nature and urban landscape of places. Swiss artist Popolotti Rist liberally uses atmospheric installations in his artwork to arouse viewer’s emotions. At his exhibition at Moma, he cultivated a lounge-like atmosphere covering the floor with chocolate color carpet, a donut shaped sofa in the center of the ro om and accompanying music. Pour Your Body was a relaxingly inviting video installation. However, unlike Popolotti Rist’s work, I invite the viewer to respond to their feelings in a much more guided way. My projection strengthens the sense of enforcement and the individual loss that we encounter from nature’s needs. Perhaps my intention is closer to Olafur Eliasson’s creations in Multiple shadow house. His work explores boundaries between inside and outside, experimenting by positioning the viewer in his

DQ1 Case Lenovo Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

DQ1 Lenovo - Case Study Example Lenovo differentiated its products in the marketplace by providing a greater value proposition than the competition. Other important values of the company include customer focus, innovation, and trustworthiness. Customers often rely on subjective factors to determine whether to trust a company (Philosophe). Investing money in marketing can increase the customer awareness and level of trust towards a company. The company should advertise the ThinkPad product in a manner in which the customer knows that Lenovo is now responsible for the manufacturing of the product. This will give the customers confidence that other products developed by Lenovo are of high quality. The design, functionality, and features of the ThinkPad should stay the same to maintain consistency in the customer’s minds. Lenovo should position itself as a global corporation. The firm can no longer think domestically only since the Chinese market is limited in comparison with the global market. It is better to have a small market share of a big pie, than a big market share of a small pie. In 2011 there were 352.2 million computers sold worldwide (Plunkett Research,

Planning Assessment Essay Example for Free

Planning Assessment Essay When planning assessment you need to gauge a clear idea of what level the candidate is at to see if they are ready to complete your planned assessment. There are many ways of achieving this knowledge. One method is observation in performance or another by taking an initial assessment test which have seven levels with the basic entry level 1 being the first. Once this knowledge has been gained, further knowledge is needed to suit their needs. What is their preferred learning style, is it part of a group or on a one to one basis. You will need to find out their strengths and weaknesses to get the most out of their abilities but also to work around and improve on different area that need to be worked on. When this has all been achieved the learners will need to be given information about the planned assessment. First of all they will need to have an understanding of what they are about to study, explaining what they need to do to meet the criteria set by OFQUAL – the governing body of the qualifications. They will need to understand what is expected of them when attending the course by giving them the code of conduct for them to follow. It is important that the health and safety procedures are explained to ensure their safety throughout their assessment. After this has been completed, the learners will be given the folder to look through and their assessment plan to see how they will complete it. 3. 3 EXPLAIN HOW TO PLAN A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO ASSESSMENT By taking a holistic approach to assessment, it can provide the learner with a more in depth report on their progress by covering all the different methods – observations, session plans, witness testimonies, knowledge evidence and professional discussion across all the units in one go. This allows me to understand the different kind of approaches each individual learner feels comfortable with to achieve the highest possible grade. 3. 5 EXPLAIN HOW TO MINIMIZE RISKS THROUGH THE PLANNING PROCESS It is the responsibility of the assessor to minimise the risks by making sure all of the health and safety procedures are covered such as risk assessment of the facilities. The assessor needs to gather information that is personal from the learner in order to adapt and provide special needs that they might have. Also the assessor will need to treat all learners equally, ensuring that equality and diversity issue are met. Once this information has been gained, the assessor can then produce an action plan for the learner which is both realistic and achievable so they are comfortable to achieve the best possible results. 4. 1 EXPLAIN THE IMPORTANCE OF INVOLVING THE LEARNER AND OTHERS IN THE ASSESSMENT PROCESS Peer and Self Assessment is an effective way to get the learners involved and it gives a clear idea of what the learner is currently at and what action is needed to meet the standards and criteria. This can be done through feedback. Feedback is a vital part of the assessment process as it gives the assessor an idea of if the learner has met the criteria set and if they haven’t, what action is needed to achieve the criteria. If there is a disagreement with the assessments carried out then the learners can follow the organisational procedures that are set in place which include grievance procedures, systems for appeals and confidentiality procedures. 4. 2 SUMMARISE TYPES OF INFORMATION THAT SHOULD BE MADE AVAILABLE TO LEARNERS AND OTHERS INVOLVED IN THE ASSESSMENT PROCESS. The first thing that should be made available to the learners and those involved in the assessment process is what the reason is for assessment. The NVQ award is structured for a candidate to provide evidence through practical assignments and portfolio evidence that is gained throughout the qualification. They will also need to know how long they have to complete the course which is up to the assessor. By giving them information on deadlines then it will ensure tasks are not left until the last minute which could affect the standards of the work. One other type of information that they will need to know is what the criteria is for them to achieve the grade. Each qualification has a minimum requirement needed to be met and once they learner knows this, they can work towards meeting it and gaining the qualification. 4. 3 EXPLAIN HOW PEER AND SELF ASSESSMENT CAN BE USED EFFECTIVELY TO PROMOTE LEARNER INVOLVEMENT AND PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY IN THE ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING Peer and Self-Assessment can be used effectively within the learners when one of the group has difficulty within a task. Learners can interact with each other and help each other out which would be a lot less intimidating and in some situations embarrassing for shy and insecure learners than an assessor telling them they are right or wrong in front of the rest of the group. 6. 3 SUMMARISE THE PROCEDURES TO FOLLOW WHEN THERE ARE DISPUTES CONCERNING ASSESSMENT IN OWN AREA OF PRACTICE If there are disputes concerning assessment in own area of practice then the procedures to follow are as follows: First of all the assessor has to be available to discuss the problem as it could be sorted out quickly and effectively through discussion. If the learner feels they want to take it further then they can take the steps to show their disagreement which will be listed in their ‘Student Handbook’ given to them at the beginning of the course. This includes a formal written complaint to the assessor’s superior which they will then deal with in an efficient and non-discriminatory way, treating the claim with upmost confidentiality where they will decided whether to uphold or overturn the assessor’s original decision. 7. 2 EXPLAIN HOW FEEDBACK AND QUESTIONING CONTRIBUTE TO THE ASSESSMENT PROCESS Feedback and Questioning can help learners improve on a specific task. Feedback provides correction and improvement on a piece of work. Not only can it correct or improve the work but it can be used as encouragement or motivation to a learner especially when they are doing well or think they are not doing well.

Panama Canal Construction Problems

Panama Canal Construction Problems The canal of Panama is 77km long and it facilitates shipping in region by connecting the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean. This waterway has been a vital route for trade in international maritime. The US canal project commenced in 1904 and completed in 1914. Since its completion, it has witnessed an increase of traffic from approximately 1000 ships per year to 14,702 ships per year in 2008. This was one of the most complex and huge engineering project ever carried out. Its completion had a huge effect on navigation between the two water bodies since it aided to eliminate treacherous and long route through the Cape Horn and Drake Passage. The idea of a canal in the neighborhood of Panama was embarked from early 16th century. The primary effort to build a canal started in 1880 under French headship, although it was deserted after 21,900 workers were reported to have died. Many deaths were caused by landslides and diseases specifically yellow fever and malaria. The US started another at tempt to construct the same canal that resulted to 5,600 additional deaths although managed to open the canal in 1914. After completion, United States government took over authority of the canal and neighboring Zone of Canal. The control of Panama was placed under transition by the 1977 Torrijos-Carter Treaties and starting from 1979 until 1999, the water way was under joint control of Panama and US. However, starting from 31st December 1999, the management of the waterway was passed to Waterway Authority of Panama. Panama Canal construction raised several issues that resulted to change of the initial design. French Construction Issues The French government was inspired after it successfully completed the Suez Canal construction in 1869. This gave them confidence to pursue the project of same magnitude which was to join Pacific and Atlantic Ocean. The La Societe Internationale du Canal Interoceanique Company was established in 1876 to oversee the project and after two years from its creation it acquired a concession from the Government of Columbia, which at that time had the control of land, to construct a canal passing through Isthmus. The leader of the project was a Frenchman, Ferdinand de Lesseps, who oversaw the building of Suez waterway. Ferdinand managed to gain enthusiastic leadership accumulated from success of Suez Canal project. This kind of leadership allowed him to convince ordinary citizens and speculators to invest in the project to raise about US $400 million. Exceptionally, Ferdinand was not an engineer by profession although he succeeded in the previous scheme. The building of Panama water way was very distinct compared to Suez Canal that was simply digging a ditch in a level desert of sand, which represented few problems. The Central America terrain runs to a low spot at Panama, while still elevated to the altitudes of 110 meters from level of sea at the lowest areas. Lesseps suggestion of sea level canal would need enormous digging presenting a challenge as a result of differentiated rock hardness. French was faced with another challenge presented by rivers passing across the canal because their flows would increase substantially in wet seasons. The water would interfere with canal because it would raise a very serious danger to shipping. Therefore, the rivers cutting right across the canal course needed to be redirected. Another grave challenge that faced the French project was diseases in tropics, specifically yellow fever and malaria. This was aggravated even further by the lack of skills on how diseases spread and any prevention measure was futile. The legs of hospital beds used by French workers were put into containers full of water to prevent insects from infesting the bed, little did they tha t the tins provided suitable environment for mosquitoes breeding. The Panama project as proposed by Lesseps was dogged by deficiency of engineering professionalism from its initial stages. The meeting in Paris of international engineering congress in May 1879 comprised of 136 members with merely 42 professions in engineering and the rest comprising of non-professions. The building of the canal by French started in 1882 and a huge manpower was prepared in 1888. The labor force comprised of approximately 20,000 workers where 90% of them were afro-Caribbean men originating from West Indies. The status of project and well-paid French engineers fascinated professionals from French engineering schools but massive losses of workers from diseases lowered their attraction. In early 1885, it became apparent to many that a canal of sea level was impossible and that a raised ditch with locks was the only feasible solution. Nevertheless, Lesseps did not readily buy the idea until late 1887 when the design of lock canal was accepted. At the time of adopting the plan, the project was dogged with a lot of challenges such as mudslides, floods, death tolls, engineering problem and financial crisis. Additionally, the company was declared bankrupt in 1889 forcing it to abandon the project in 1889. Until the collapse of the project, money amounting US $ 234,795,000 had be used and project was only 40% done. The project was entirely abandoned in 1893 as a result of inadequate skills and other difficulties. U.S Construction US showed a huge interest in constructing the waterway through Isthmus and in 1902, the US government embarked on the project of Panama waterway. The then US president, Roosevelt Theodore, decided to purchase the excavation and machineries from French at a cost of US $ 40 million and the job was commenced in 1904. The head of Engineering between 1905 to 1907, John Stevens, opposed the plan of French to build a sea level canal. Fortunately, President Theodore bought the idea of chief engineer to built waterway with locks and dams. Engineer John Stevens managed to lay down infrastructures in panama that were vital for completion of the project. He improved the transport technology by restructuring Panama Railway and developing a way of collecting soil from the digging via rail. Additionally, he put in place good shelters for workers and encouraged funding to improve sanitation. He also gave attention to programmes of controlling mosquitoes in order to remove yellow fever and malaria fr om the region. The building of a raised waterway with locks started to be feasible after the considerable redesigning of the infrastructure and effective diseases control programmes were put in place. The US government saw the need to replace the deteriorating machineries of French with equipment designed for massive jobs to hasten the speed of construction. The Ellicott Dredges Company in US developed the cutter dredges utilized in building Panama waterway. The initial equipment to be build by the company was 900 HP steam engine with dredge of 20 inches. The completion of constructing Panama Canal was finished in 1914, much early than it was projected. The waterway was officially opened on August of the same year of completion. Panama Canal Technology The technology that was employed to construct Panama waterway by French was sea level design. This is because they had successfully employed the same technology in construction of Suez Canal. Unfortunately, the technique did not work in the Panama Canal project. With the development of technology in field of engineering, the United States ignored the design of French and continued with the design based on a huge lake raised with one and two lock combination on the side of pacific and three locks at the Atlantic side at Gatun. The technology employed in design of sea level suffered severely from the huge volume of digging needed and from flooding that would have happened on the Charges River. This river was usually frequented by flooding that would have put the waterway into peril and affect traffic flow. The engineering technology allowed US to built dam close to the Chagres River mouth in order to mitigate impacts of flood and reduce excavation. The locks were controlled by highly d esigned electro-mechanical control system that are still functioning since 1914.The issue of diseases that had cropped in French project was tackled by US through technological improvement in the field of science. A Doctor from Cuba, Dr. Reed Walter, had been able to discover that mosquito was the vector that transmitted malaria. In addition, technology saw US in the replacement of old ineffective equipments with machineries that were designed to handle huge work like the big hydraulic crusher. Conclusion French government embarked on the attempt of constructing Panama Canal in 1982 after gaining motivation from successful completion of Suez Canal. The French head of project was not an engineer by profession and he employed the design that was used to build Suez Canal although Panama terrain was different. A sea level design utilized by French was faced with high elevations and rivers passing across the canal. Workers during French project perished from floods and diseases because of lack of skills to deal with those challenges. Owing to lack of enough skills and other difficulties, the project was entirely abandoned in 1893. In 1902, the Government of US embarked on the construction of Panama Canal. Learning from failure of French, US opted to use different design that employed locks and dams. There was a considerable redesigning of the infrastructure and effective diseases control programmes. The engineering technology enabled US to built dam close to the Chagres River mouth in orde r to mitigate impacts of flood and reduce excavation. The technology that was used in1914 to operate locks is still in use today.

Importance of Making a Marketing Plan to Start-up Business

Importance of Making a Marketing Plan to Start-up Business The Importance of Making a Marketing Plan for a Company to Start-up Businesses Chapter 1 Overall Introduction A marketing plan is a document that is written when a company is being set up and which provides a clear analysis and assessment of the market. Whether you are opening a special restaurant, or establishing an Internet company, making a good marketing plan is the first step. The more accurate the plan, the more opportunities can be won. The marketing plan is not just for investors, but also for the company itself and its products. So, it is important to know where the market opportunities lie, how to design products, and how to make customers more willing to buy these products. A marketing plan needs to address several key questions, such as who are the competitors; how to beat these rivals; how to prepare enough resources about customer buying habits to enable enterprises to keep a steady stream of sales revenue; how to manage the company and how many staff to hire; how to assign jobs to them; how to set up departments. Making a marketing plan is a complex but useful activity for most companies, to say nothing of setting up a new business in the market. This paper does not mention all aspects about the marketing plan but it will give detailed explanations about the importance of making a marketing plan and some specific cases study to analyse it. Establishing a successful satisfying marketing plan will benefit some businesses. Moreover, it suits for all businesses, big or small, to converge effort toward or meet in a common purpose and determination, which will promote teamwork. At the same time, whatever a company wants to get from a business, the business can continue without clients. Marketing plan being based on understanding marketing value can help a company to appeal and hold more customers. Chapter 2 Rationales Introduction This chapter will give the reasonable reasons why it is important making a marketing plan for a company to start-up businesses. It focuses on the topic and outlines more explanations in details. Technology Innovation With the rapid development of technology, doing marketing plans could make full use of various materials. It was not known that how much influence the technology has made to marketing plans. For instance, if there is no advanced technology, it will be easy to be ignored that the plan was just written on paper for start-up businesses. This paper will give an explanation about the impact of technological development on marketing plans. Business Expansion Companies have always been looking for opportunities to increase profits. For different businesses, the role of marketing plan is not the same. Sometimes a good marketing plan may possibly help to promote sales of existing products and explore emerging markets. For example, the reason for doing a marketing plan can be to determine which market offers the best opportunities to rise for trades in a short term. Public Psychology There are generally unpredictable risks in start-up businesses. Public psychology is normally that they want to know the problems in advance and take some measures to avoid before happening. It is very necessary and effective for these people to make a well-prepared marketing plan. This paper aims to provide sufficient reasons for those who want to prepare in advance of starting a business. Chapter 3 Literature Review Introduction The purpose of this section is to provide different literature evaluations, which gives the definition of marketing planning and explains the importance of making a marketing plan for a company to start-up businesses. The main information was taken by these literature views in several books in DKIT library. Overview of Marketing Planning Global commerce, sophisticated technology, and markets are the main trend in society nowadays, which can be changed at the click of a mouse. Marketing is a dynamic function that companies needed. The gradual change is an important reason that marketers can rely upon what is presenting a new product or developing an active marketing strategy, which is the most cost-effective way to take advantage of an emerging occasion. The cases of Reflect.com and Achieva can be considered, which is that these two companies directors are also underlined that making a complete marketing plan is the key point to start up a new business. (Burk Wood, 2003) Proctor mentions that it is necessary to adopt a systematic way to arrange and carry out sales strategies. It bases on making a reasonable and effective plan. Besides, a full marketing plan includes several subsidiary plans which supplement some information detailed so as to targets having been determined can be achieved better. (Proctor, 2000) The Definition of Marketing Planning Burk Wood defined marketing planning as the organized procedure of exploring and making analysis about the marketing condition; emerging and recording marketing strategies, intentions, and platforms; and executing, assessing, and commanding events to complete the purposes. The consequence is the marketing plan, a paper in this organized method that explains what can be gained from the marketplace and shows what will be carried out for a company to reach its marketing objects. (Burk Wood, 2003) Whats more, Burk Wood presents what is the organized procedure to make a marketing plan, which makes a series of compatible marketing choices and movements for a certain company during a long term. (Burk Wood, 2013) Meanwhile, McDonald and Wilson give the definition in this process is the purpose of completing marketing objectives, which can make marketing plan to be the deliberate submission of marketing resources. Marketing plan is basically a reasonable structure and a variety of programs result in the environment of marketing objectives and the preparation of a plan to complete them. (McDonald Wilson, 2011) Making a marketing plan is the combinative and coordinative action, which concentrates on a companys activities. The calculated and deliberate resolutions should be made based on company and function levels. That can present systematic, logical and practical ideas in a marketing plan, which can lead to the right track when a company meet the barriers. (Drummond Ensor, 2001) The Advantage of Marketing Plan Burk Wood describes that the customers are primary kept focused on in marketing plan, which can lead you to decide what your company will do and what it wont do for customers, and supports you to inspect offerings in the background of competition and the marketing situation, and establish rationales to do the allocation of resources for realizing marketing proficiency and value. (Burk Wood, 2002) In addition, McDonald provides a result that marketing plan is vital in which a company need to control the gradually aggressive and difficult situation. The great mass of managers considers that marketing plan with some formal processes benefits improve this reasonableness in order to reduce the difficulties of business processes and offer practical measurements to the future development of company. Most corporations depend only upon estimation of sales and systems of budget due to the complexity and difficulty. (McDonald, 2002) The Importance of Marketing Plan There is little research experienced getting connection between the equality and achievement of plan system to evaluate if increase a market share or assess with reference of advanced cost-effectiveness. Moreover, from Capon, Farley and Hulberts study (1988), it shows that there is no positive correlation among a marketing plan and performance standard. However, a company making a structure plan has less change in profitability than other companies without it. Providing another study of Stasch and Lanktree (1980), it benefits from a sample of six companies, which found a common optimistic relationship existing among results of a marketing plan and various standards of performance evaluation. Most administrators consider that a marketing plan provides many invisible advantages while relating directly between a marketing plan and marketing performance improved is so difficult, such as carrying out serious ways for strategies development and make sure of considering outside environment. (Lehmann Winer, 2008) A large quantity of external and internal aspects influences the ability of accomplishing cost-effective transactions in a confusing way. There is little doubt that it is very important to make a marketing plan when a growing number of aggressive and complex situation are considered for a company. Furthermore, most administrators believe that a formalized marketing plan can improve the reasonableness in order to reduce difficulties of transaction operations and increase possibilities to achieve the aim for company future hopes. Due to the large difficulties, it is well-known that most companies would rather depend on estimation of sales and systems of budget. However, it relates to opportunities and problems a company will meet in the market. It is more necessary and difficult to record the chances and strategies in a marketing plan for a company. (McDonald Wilson, 2011) Chapter 4 Research Methods Introduction The main information of this chapter is to introduce the methodology which the writer indicates so that make accomplishment for the research objective. By the way, a specific method will be analysed with some practices in businesses. Moreover, it will give the purposes that why the researcher takes this method and presents findings based on these cases. we can therefore define research as something that people undertake in order to find out things in a systematic way, thereby increasing their knowledge. (Saunders, Lewis Thornhill, 2012) Qualitative Research Creswell (2002) describes that qualitative research is quite necessary in conditions where it is confusing what accurately is being found out in a research, so as to support the researcher consider what information is essential and what isnt. Denzin and Lincoln (2000) indicate that although quantitative research is normally known for what it should be observed previously a research starts. The research procedure can develop more detailed and make writer feel more clear about the topic of study with time progresses. Secondary Research This part mentions a supply of data, which are all provided from previous study papers, journalists, magazines and newsletter as well as daily commentary. Some cases are offered to give detailed analyses about the research topic. Dawson (2009) indicates that the secondary research method is very suitable for researcher who wants to save time and be economical. In addition, various information can be obtained quickly and conveniently, which is also accessible for public. However, there are few weaknesses which is impossible to be avoided for the secondary research method. For instances, if there was no enough investigation for current situation, some out of data would be substantively collected even without any value, which is not be related to researchers needs and not available. Online Data Describe Online comments will be collected from some website that presents various arguments by some social and business elite. If possible, the researcher will create a topic post on the business website that anyone can comment on. The post of online comments will be continued for 3 days. Temporarily, some realistic practices or business news will be offered from the internet. Example of Case This fragment will give the explanation about the importance of a marketing plan for a car company named Mustang in America. Chapter 5 Discoveries and Analyses Introduction This chapter refers to the writers findings and describe the result comprehensively standing the base of research process. Findings are taken from some cases and compare within different arguments about the topic from books being used in literature review finished in chapter 3. Due to these results, analyses are generally presented to help understanding the significance of making a marketing plan for a company. Chapter 6 Conclusion In conclusion, there are advantages and disadvantages to make a marketing plan for a company to start-up businesses. Through this research including to find and read several books relating the topic benefits for those who require to establish their own businesses. Chapter 7 References Burk Wood, M. (2003), The Marketing Plan: a Handbook. NJ: Prentice Hall. Proctor, T. (2000), Strategic Marketing: an introduction. London: Routledge. Burk Wood, M. (2013), Essential Guide to Marketing Planning. 3rd ed. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. McDonald, M. Wilson, H. (2011), Marketing Plans: how to prepare them, how to use them. 7th ed. Chichester: Wiley. Drummond, G. Ensor, J. (2001), Strategic Marketing: planning and control. 2nd ed. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann Lehmann, D. Winer, R. (2008), Analysis for Marketing Plan. 7th ed. International ed. Boston; London: McGraw-Hill. Saunders, M., Lewis, P. Thornhill, A. (2012), Research Methods for Business Students. 6th ed. Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall. Creswell, J. (2002), Research Design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method approaches. 2nd ed. London: SAGE. Denzin, N., Lincoln, Y. (2000), Handbook of Qualitative Research. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications Why Do I Need a Marketing Plan? (2016), The Australian Government Business, Australian, viewed 20 March 2017, [https://www.business.gov.au/info/plan-and-start/develop-your-business-plans/marketing/why-do-i-need-a-marketing-plan]. Dawson, C. (2009), Introduction to Research Methods: a practical guide for anyone undertaking a research project. 4th ed. Oxford: How To Books.

Shakespeares Othello - Loving Desdemona :: Othello essays

Loving Desdemona  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   William Shakespeare, in his tragic drama Othello, creates a most exquisite character in the person of Desdemona. Her many virtues clearly require that she be given detailed consideration by every Christian member of the audience.    David Bevington in William Shakespeare: Four Tragedies describes the depth of virtue within this tragic heroine:    We believe her [Desdemona] when she says that she does not even know what it means to be unfaithful; the word â€Å"whore† is not in her vocabulary. She is defenseless against the charges brought against her because she does not even comprehend them, cannot believe that anyone would imagine such things. Her love, both erotic and chaste, is of that transcendent wholesomeness common to several late Shakespearean heroines [. . .]. Her â€Å"preferring† Othello to her father, like Cordelia’s placing her duty to a husband before that to a father, is not ungrateful but natural and proper. (221)    Blanche Coles in Shakespeare’s Four Giants interprets the protagonist’s very meaningful four-word greeting to Desdemona which he utters upon disembarking in Cyprus:    Othello’s four words, â€Å"O, my soul’s joy,† tell us that this beautiful Venetian girl has brought great joy, felicity, bliss to the very depths of his soul. This exquisitely beautiful love that has come to a thoughtful, earnest man is indescribably impressive. For him it is   heaven on earth. And all the while, almost within arm’s length, stands Iago, the embodiment of evil, like the serpent in the Garden of Eden. (87)    In Act 1 Scene1, Iago persuades the rejected suitor of Desdemona, Roderigo, to accompany him to the home of Brabantio, Desdemona’s father, in the middle of the night. Once there the two awaken him with loud shouts about his daughter’s elopement with Othello. In response to Iago’s vulgar descriptions of Desdemona’s involvement with the general, Brabantio arises from bed and, with Roderigo’s help, gathers a search party to go and find Desdemona and bring her home. The father’s attitude is that life without his Desdemona will be much worse than before:    It is too true an evil: gone she is;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   And what's to come of my despised time   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Is nought but bitterness. (1.1)    So obviously the senator has great respect for his daughter, or at least for the comforts which she has afforded him up the beginning of the play.

A Persuasive Essay Against School Uniforms :: School Uniforms Argumentative

High school is typically a time when kids begin to distinguish themselves from one another. Students begin to develop their own sense of personal style, desperately trying to both fit in and stand out simultaneously. Being self-conscious and often lacking the confidence needed to assert themselves, teens are forced to use clothing and outward appearance as the means to manifest this individuality. Thus, students should not be forced to wear uniforms to school. Standard uniforms are unproven deterrents to student violence; are a "Band-Aid" to cover up the real problems faced by children and teens; and they violate students' right of self-expression, depriving them of their search for identity. There is something comforting about school children and teenagers dressed in pleats and plaid. Maybe it is a reminder of past times, or conjures up thoughts of order and safety. Whatever the reason, school uniforms are getting a lot of ?wear? these days, yet remain an unproven deterrent to school violence. No long-term, formal studies have been done with regards to the effectiveness of school uniforms, but many schools have kept their own informal statistics, such as the Long Beach School District. These statistics offered by Long Beach are often most cited as a proven deterrent to school violence, after adopting a mandatory uniform policy in 1994. According to Richard Van Der Laan, school crime has dropped over seventy-five percent, while attendance has reached an all-time high. One question we must ask ourselves is this, ?Is it the uniforms, or the induction of them that is solving the problem?? Maybe it is the school and parents showing some ?back-bone? which is affecting t he students, not the clothing. If you are a skeptic, get in line. There is no concrete evidence proving uniforms alone cause such dramatic reductions in crime, but rather, these policies appear to act as nothing more that a ?Band-Aid? that fails to address the real causes of youth violence. Although this violence, including sexual assault, can be linked to ?free-dress?, it is not dependent upon it, and points to deeper, more significant problems within the youth community. Violence is not learned by clothing, but rather through unfit home situations, negative friendships, and even popular culture (including emulation of television, media, music, and movies). A simple change in dress will not abolish these problems, but merely hide them for a time.

Mother to Son

Langston Hughes’s poem entitled â€Å"mother to Son† is a poem of nurturing, love, and discussion of thoughts. The mother as the narrator of the poem shares her thoughts about life. She said that life is not an easy journey.   She relates her life to a stair, which was not a crystal or a beautiful and genuine gem. As what she is trying to tell her son, life is a never-ending journey with full of mysteries, fear, struggle, pain, success, and meaning. The mother saw her child giving up on something so she told him not to think about the negativities for it was the challenge of living. From the beginning of the poem, the narrator already took place as the authority and judge. As she stated her case, she already concluded many things around her journey and life. However, every insight that was imposed as personal justifications by using the words â€Å"for me†. It means that the conclusion is an opinionated discussion. Everything is logical but deep. The narrator reaches her hand towards her son as she wanted him to become a better person like the way she treated her life during her childhood until she became an adult. Her transition from being a soft-spoken mother to an imposer and going back to a nurturing and loving mother is a also a significant idea within the poem as she used the word â€Å"son† in the beginning, â€Å"boy† in the middle and â€Å"honey† in the latter part of the poem. The word â€Å"son† showed her literal relationship with her child. As she used the word â€Å"boy† it shows that the narrator became an imposer, but as she went used the word â€Å"honey† she imposed a more intimate relationship with her child – her love, nurturance and acceptance of her son’s weakness. Through this, the relationship of mother and child became an educator and student relationship but soon goes to a more intimate relationship that moulds the mother and the son to be intact. In terms of the symbolisms, elements, and images within the poem, the author used the images that can be seen within the house such as carpet, stair, and floor. It shows the true essence of motherhood because literally or logically speaking, mothers are made to nurture the home and the family. By looking or analyzing the images alone, it can be seen that narrator is a woman or a mother to be specific because it embossed the responsibilities of a woman within the house. There are also ironies within the poem such as dark and light, climbin’ and landin’, and fall and climb. The author showed a balance justification of strength and weakness towards the mother’s personality showing that she was not a perfect person, but trying to become a better one for her child. The author succeeds his attempt to incorporate both negative and positive aspects of life, which is a sensitive issue especially if a child is part of the situation. His attack was simple but complete. He stated everything a mother and child should know within a short poem that distinguishes him to become an effective moralist poet. The passage â€Å"Life for me ain't been no crystal stair† was the main thesis of the poem. At the end of the narrator’s discussion, she showed in what she is trying to say about life by restating the main argument of the poem. This attack shows her responsibility to give her child a goof faith or belief how life is going to be as he went to his own journey. She pushed her son to climb the stair without thinking of the negative aspects of life but always on the positive side of everything because negativities are part of life but it was not the only reason for living. Work Cited Hughes, Langston. Mother to Son. (n.d.) 5 December 2007.

Discuss the Major Issues Associated With Expatriate Failure and Assess Some Strategies HR Can Formulate and Implement In Order To Increase the Rate of Successful Assignments

Introduction The importance of the management of expatriate’s has grown as the number of multinational companies has increased significantly over the last few decades, therefore increasing the need to be aware of potential problems which could cause high failure rates in expatriate assignments (Anderson,2005). Porter and Tansky (1999) write that an unsuccessful expatriate assignment is very costly for both an organisation and the expatriate themselves. But despite this very few companies have adequate processes for both selecting and training these expatriates. As Harzing (1995: 457) notes, virtually every writer measures expatriate failure as â€Å"the percentage of expatriates returning home before their assignment contract expires†. Brewster (1988) also defines failure as assignments where expatriates were brought home earlier than planned. Brewster and Scullion (1997) say that the fact that corporations have heavy cost pressures has led to the policies for employee movement acro ss countries being looked at. They also observe that it is becoming more noticeable that both the social and economic cost of failure in business abroad is more damaging than business done in home countries, especially in terms of market share and damage of customer trust (Zeira and Banai,1984). It is therefore pertinent for academic research to both look at the major issues associated with expatriate failure and why expatriates often ‘fail’ in their assignments. From reading the literature these can be identified mainly as a lack of thorough selection procedures from employers to identify which managers would be successful on assignments in foreign countries. This can range from not identifying what attributes certain candidates have that would make them more likely to succeed, to not identifying the family situations of potential expatriates which would also be conducive to successful assignments abroad. Once these factors have been identified it is then logical to assess what procedures could be put in place for the company to stop failure of expatriate assignments and how they can identify successful candidates for the roles. This is the format this essay will follow. Reasons for expatriate failure This study will first look at the issues associated with expatriate failure and what reasons and factors there are which lead to this end result. Enderwick and Hodgson (1993) observe that expatriate failure is caused by rash recruitment policies combined with preparation and training which is not thorough enough for the manager. This draws attention to the limited role of HR in the management of expatriates, and Halcrow (1999) also writes that HR are confined to administrative support as opposed to playing any meaningful role in any strategic aspects. It is this lack of attention to detail and impulsive selection practice for expatriates which causes many of the problems. It fails to identify different characteristics and traits which are likely to be conducive to success in expatriate projects. Klaus (1995) notes that in the majority of companies expatriate selection happens quickly and irrationally. Something which is inherent in many international businesses is the fact that their selection procedures for expatriate managers are rather informal and they do not possess thorough enough assessments (Brewster.1991). Mendenhall and Oddou (1985: 39) argue that companies often think that domestic performance success would equal overseas performance success, regarding the manager’s technical skills as being the most important factor to consider when looking at candidates to select for managing projects abroad. This shows a disregard for identifying the differences which can affect performances in different countries and cultures. The underlying assumption that companies who use this formula is that â€Å"Managing [a] company is a scientific art. The executive accomplishing the task in New York can surely perform as adequately in Hong Kong† (Baker & Ivancevich,1971: 40). Therefore a lot of multinational companies tend to send the manager and their family to the foreign countries without any cultural training. And when training is administered it is often far too broad or is not followed up with any reflection on how effective it was (Tung, 1981). Brewster and Scullion (1997) discuss these difficulties that International companies who do actually undertake training and development programmes for expatriates come across. The first of these is that the manager not only has to adjust to a new job but also to an entirely different culture which they are not familiar with (Mendenhall and Oddou, 1985). As well as this, there is the family to consider. Training programmes for families also needs to be addressed as this is considered a major factor behind expatriate failure, and this is often not addressed correctly or at all. There is however, evidence that managers themselves value cultural training an awful lot and see the benefits from this (Brewster and Pickard, 1994). Cross-cultural training has long been proven to enable effective cross cultural assignments, yet still a lot of firms do not utilise this (Black, 1988). Different training and developmental models for these managers working abroad have been worked on over the last decade. These tend to take into account the job and the individual as well as the culture before deciding the amount and type of personal development that is required (Tung, 1981). Mendenhall and Oddou (1986) have developed a ’cross- cultural training approach’, consisting of three varying levels. Information-giving approaches are those which consist of factual briefings and cultural awareness development. Affective approaches would usually consist of cultural development combined with different scenarios and role plays. Finally, immersion approaches. These are different styles of assessment centres and in the field experience and scenarios. According to this model the style of management training given should take into account on a number of factors dependent on the project and the manager. These could include the length of stay and the amount of integration required to fit in with the host culture.(Mendenhall and Oddou, 1986) Mendenhall et al. acknowledge there are many personal obstacles which could lead to many expatriates not completing their assignments and being branded a failure. These include factors such as â€Å"culture shock, differences in work-related norms, isolation, homesickness, differences in health care, housing, schooling, cuisine, and the cost of living, to name but a few† (1987: 331). These are all personal characteristics and attributes which would affect expatriate manager’s morale and ability to do an effective job. Porter and Tansky (1999) write that a high learning orientation is critical for an expatriate manager, this is because they will have continual experiences which are not similar to those they usually experience, and will need to be able to be resilient in the face of different challenges. Anderson (2005: 567) notes that although in the private sector the selection of expatriates is usually down to their technical competence, with â€Å"minimal attention being paid to the interpersonal skills and domestic situations of these potential expatriates†, that non-government organisations do actually utilise methods such as psychological testing and a variety of methods to ensure that the expatriates family is taken into consideration as well . These methods therefore usually lead to more effective expatriate assignments and less failures, in the next section of this report we will delve deeper into ways in which the likelihood of expatriate success can be increased. What can be done to improve expatriate failure rates? Currently the selection processes for expatriate candidates are not effective enough in predicting which managers will be successful in these assignments. It is necessary to focus on how these can be improved to address the rate of failures among expatriates. Halcrow (1999) has reported that less than two thirds of a survey of HR professionals identified personality as an important consideration when picking expatriate candidates, and 11 percent said it has little or no importance at all to the process. Family issues were also given the lowest of priorities, and 25 percent did not regard them as important. Here then, are the issues that need to be addressed, as can be seen from the previous section whereby these were identified as major factors in the success of expatriate projects. Effective selection, training and placement of expatriate managers is critical to international success argue Nicholson et al. (1990), and therefore the procedures put in place for this need to be effecti ve. Mendenhall et al.(1987: 333) state they have attempted to find the criteria which can predict productivity and acclimatisation in overseas assignments, and that a set of personality factors have been identified by numerous authors. They profess that these are â€Å"self-orientation, others-orientation and perceptual orientation† . Self-orientation includes factors such as how to reduce stress and how managers deal with being alone whilst abroad. ‘Others’ orientation includes factors such as how good the manager is at forming relationships and their ability to communicate with others. ‘Perceptual’ orientation includes different factors such as how flexible a person is and how open minded they can be. However, they indicate that US firm’s still appear to use only technical competence as their criteria for expatriate selection, and this is what needs to change as that is not a great predictor of expatriate manager success. The model proposed by Ay can (1997) also says that factors should be identified which are expected to account for a substantial amount of variance in expatriate adjustment. This is the fit between the expatriate and their environment which leads to less stress and better work productivity. This encompassed psychological, socio cultural and work adjustment. It is also required that organisational support and preparation is necessary. Porter and Tansky write about the possibility of a learning orientation which could be important for both assessment and training for expatriates. They suggest that employee’s with weaker learning orientation could result in low levels of judgement in challenging foreign circumstances and vice versa. They state that this learning orientation approach could â€Å"benefit employees and their families and can increase the organisation’s chance for international success† (1999: 48). Porter and Tansky (1999: 50) observe that to eliminate the risk of expatriate failure that more emphasis should be placed on: â€Å"better identification of employee’s who are likely to function effectively in different cultures, development activities to enhance functioning in the expatriate role, and systematic analysis of problems during the expatriate assignment.† Mendenhall et al (1997) observe the impact upon spouses and families is also not taken into account when sel ecting managers for expatriation. As can be seen in the previous half of this report, how their family copes with the relocation can impact greatly upon the morale of expatriate managers. Some academics also suggest that the families of expatriates should be assessed on similar criteria to the managers themselves. Stone (1986) observes that failing to identify this problem is the greatest failure in the selection process for expatriates. Therefore one would have to agree that, as the family is seen as a major factor in whether a expatriate manager succeeds or not then they should definitely be taken into account during the selection process. Guptara (1986) has written that there are a number of psychological tests that can be used in the recruitment processes for expatriates to test such psychological traits which could be conducive to successful expatriates, however this does not appear to be commonplace in corporate recruitment processes. Ioannou (1995) discusses the results of a National Foreign Trade Council of New York survey. Here it was shown that a variety companies did not use any form of psychological testing for possible expatriate managers. Tung (1982) finds that it is extremely rare that a company carries out a thorough assessment of a manager who is being considered to work in another part of the company abroad. Porter and Tansky (1999) advocate the application of a learning orientation to help this. They suggest questionnaire responses to show details on a managers beliefs about different traits and if they possess them. As well as task simulations to show if a person has different learning orientation beh aviours. For example who which people will look for new strategies rather than rescind from these strategies when things do not go as planned immediately (1999:52).Here can be seen the discrepancy between academic musings on the topic and that of the practitioners. Writers emphasise soft skills while actual research into company practice indicates an obvious reliance on technical competence for the selection. If this were to change then expatriate projects may achieve a greater success rate. Two major propositions can also be derived from Mendenhall and Oddou (1985) findings. The first would be that expatriate cultural adaptation is a multi dimensional process rather than a one dimensional one. This means that selection procedures of international companies for expatriates should be changed from their present one dimensional focus on technical competence as the most important criteria towards a more multi dimensional one. This should focus therefore focus on personal attributes which may be conducive to success working as an expatriate manager. Mendenhall and Oddou (1985) also recommend that training which deals with these factors needs putting in place, and which needs to be multi dimensional as opposed to one dimensional. Gudykunst, Hammer, and Wiseman (1977) combined a number of differing development approaches and compared the cultural adaptation abilities of managers who received the integrated training with managers who were the recipients of just one dimensional training. Integrated training produced much greater levels of culture adaptation. Along with other academics they again mention that both the selection and training processes must include the family of the expatriate. As well as this the culture adaptation training should be given to the expatriate’s family. As observed in the first half of this essay, it was shown that it was vital that not only the expatriate manager themselves, but also their family was happy as both had an effect on morale and performance. Corporate HR teams should have a clear direction to also hire a work fore who are internationally comfortable and experience too. Thus these would prove to be effective expatriate managers as they are relatively used to the process and overcoming the challenges they would face (Mendenhall and Oddou.1985). Conclusion In conclusion as many academics have identified there are serious problems with the way many corporations select and manage expatriate managers and their assignments. Many problems stem from the initial selection stage which is seen to be very lax and informal from many different businesses. These initial mistakes in the selection process mainly centre around focusing purely on technical competencies within managers for expatriate selection, and this has been proven to not be the most successful of indicators for success in international assignments of this manner. This is because it fails to take into account other factors which make a person more likely to be successful. This can include personality traits such as adaptability and how resilient they are. It also neglects the domestic and family situation of different managers, and indeed many HR teams have said that they do not even take this into consideration or treat it as important at all. Academics have also suggested solutions to these problems in the way of recruitment processes and training processes which would be incredibly useful for business’s to implement with their selection and training for expatriates. These vary from personality tests to assess the traits that people have and if these would be conducive to being successful as an expatriate manager abroad, to a variety of assessment centre styles testing out people in different scenarios and if they were the type of person likely to succeed. As well as this it would be recommended that companies look at the family of potential expatriate managers to see if these were also likely to be happy once moving abroad as this has a visible and proven impact on the morale of expatriate managers. Training also needs to be more effective and focus on broader issues as opposed to just technical competency and understanding company systems fully, but to train expatriate managers culturally as well. Overall the key problems are predominantly to do with the selection processes of corporations. They need to improve by taking a wider range of issues into consideration and not just a one dimensional view of ‘if it works in our country it will work in another culturally different county’ approach. But they need to consider the softer side of managers, such as their characteristics and family lives, this is something business leaders could learn from academics. Bibliography Anderson, B.A.(2005). Expatriate selection: good management or good luckThe international journal of human resource management. 16:4 567-583. Aycan. Z. (1997) Expatriate adjustment as a multifaceted phenomenon: individual and organizational level predictors, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 8:4, 434-456, Baker, J. C., & Ivancevich, J. M. (1971). The assignment of American executives abroad; Systematic, haphazard, or chaoticCalifornia Management Review, 13:3, 39-41. Birdseye M, Hill J. (1995). 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Porter G. and Tansky J. (1999) Expatriate success may depend on a learning orientation: Considerations for selection and training. Human Resource Management. Spring. 47-59 Tung, R. L. (1981) Selection and training of personnel for overseas assignments. Columbia Journal of World Business, 16:1, 68-78 Tung, R.L. (1982). Selection and training procedures of U.S., European, and Japanese multinationals. California Management Review, 25, 117–126 Zeira, Y. and Banai, M. (1984). ‘Present and desired methods of selecting expatriate managers for international assignments‘. Personnel Review, 13:3, 29-35.