Composers of the 20th Century Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Composers of the 20th Century - Essay Example The first and most important way by which Stravinsky did this is by introducing the changing face of his style of composition, while retaining essential and distinctive identity. Stravinsky also introduced the use of motivic development. This involved the use of repeatable musical figures in different guises either in a section of the composition, or in its entirety. Herein, notes are added or subtracted to a motif, without any regard to consequent changes that may take place in metre (20). It is against the backdrop of Stravinsky’s contributions that the idea and practice of pushing rhythms across the bar lines began to gain more notoriety. Consequently, because of Stravinsky’s input, the rhythmic structure in music gained a more fluid and spontaneous streak, especially in his work on The Rite of Spring. The same also made Stravinsky’s compositions take on a more offbeat, primitive and rhythmic drive and thereby making his work more unique. The veracity behind this is underscored by the fact that it is through this effort that Stravinsky is known in the history of music as the only composer who upgraded music to its artistic status. In equal length, Arnold Schoenberg also broke ranks with musical traditions of the past by the many inventions and contributions he made. Particularly, Schoenberg invented the dodecaphonic compositional method which is also known as the twelve-tone compositional method. In so doing, Schoenberg set the path for his students such as Anton Webern, Alban Berg and Hans Eisler who followed the dodecaphonic method of composition and made it famous. Byron points out that Schoenberg showed a departure from the musical traditions of the past by abandoning key centers in his musical composition, and thereby helping perpetuate the concept of free atonality which was relatively new by then (7). Also, Schoenberg’s work and procedures at it were organized in a dual manner, simultaneously. Schoenberg’s

Calamity Recuperation System

Calamity Recuperation System 1.Overview SanGrafix (party B) will give XXXX (party A) with the XXXX calamity recuperation system arranging and usage extend. The administration arrangement gave by party B contains the accompanying: IT the present state of affairs review Feasibility investigation of the calamity recuperation system design Technology investigation and arrangement definition Testing arranging and coordination of key advancements Implementation administration and support of the fiasco recuperation system Training and information exchange Following the Contract Law of State, party A and party B achieve a concurrence on the announcement of work (SOW) in view of the guideline of intentional shared balance and advantage. The SOW characterizes the administrations gave by party B to party A, deliverables, and obligations of both sides. Moreover, the SOW additionally ensures the smooth execution of the venture and records the limitations that must be centered on during the venture execution prepare. Unless generally expressed, terms in the SOW are characterized as takes after: Party A: Indicates XXXX. Party B: Indicates SanGrafix Co., Ltd. Both sides: Indicate XXXX and SanGrafix Co., Ltd. Principle contract: Indicates the interview benefit contract marked by both sides. SOW: Indicates the discussion benefit SOW marked by both sides. Administrations: Indicate the administrations that must be given by party B to finish the venture in light of the terms in the primary contract. 1.1Â  Purpose In light of the hazard examination and BIA, party B might break down disaster recovery prerequisites of party As data systems and detail appropriate and powerful disaster recovery approaches to direct the subsequent disaster recovery system development. The BIA is composed of the following steps: Arrangements for disaster recovery association development of information systems: As indicated by the advancement procedures and genuine states of party A, proposes an association design for reaction to crises of information systems, comprehends the position levels of proprietors, and gives rules to future arrangement improvement and crisis administration. Policies for disaster recovery ability development of information systems: By considering the BIA result and real states of party A, characterizes disaster recovery development levels of information systems in the generation focus and the range and asset pointers for building the intra-city disaster recovery focus and in addition gives rules to creating specialized arrangements. Policies for the disaster recovery procedures of information systems: As indicated by the aftereffects of BIA and hazard examination and in addition advancement procedures and genuine states of party A, decides the recovery needs, RTO, and RPO of information systems in case of a startling disaster or crisis and gives rules to future arrangement improvement and crisis administration. Policies for keeping up and dealing with the disaster recovery focus: By breaking down the improvement procedures and genuine states of party An and arrangements for disaster recovery system development, proposes an OM structure of the disaster recovery focus and gives rules to future OM system development in the disaster recovery focus. 1.2Â  Service Scope In this stage, the work substance incorporate definition of strategies for developing a disaster reinforcement system in the intra-city disaster recovery focus of party An, arrangements for crisis taking care of and disaster recovery procedures, and approaches for disaster recovery OM. 1.3 Responsibilities of Party A Provides proposals on disaster recovery strategies. Arranges and facilitates significant work force and gives records, methodology, and applicable documentation to party B. Provides comfort to party B to direct examinations and meetings. Facilitates and orchestrates the calendar of respondents and applicable faculty. Confirms the disaster recovery targets including the recovery scope, succession, RTO, and RPO of IT systems. Confirms the suggested disaster recovery development mode. Confirms the suggested advancements. Confirms the arrangement related issues that should be settled. 1.4 Responsibilities of Party B Understands the business conditions, future advancement arranging, disaster recovery arranging, and strategies of party A. Provides recommendations on the disaster recovery strategies to party A in light of the BIA result and national and mechanical controls. Outputs a disaster recovery arrangement report of information systems inside a predetermined period in light of the administrations in the agreement. Communicates with party A and affirms the proposals on disaster recovery arrangements. Modifies and enhances the arrangement archives in view of the survey remarks of party A. 2.System Description The main purpose of the BIA is to prepare sanGrafix for any kind of threat Business continuity policy is just another term for backup. Running a company without backup is not a smart move in business industry. Our business continuity plan should contain a comprehensive roadmap to restore any information during any disaster. Copies of the plan will be sent out to all important personals so that the services are never threatened. Complete analysis of all the possible threats to the company. Company response to the threat will because of both type of threat and extent of the threat. All SanGrafix sites and online storages are expected to implement preventive measures to minimize network failure. 2.1 Assignment of Service Responsibilities Service Content Service Description Responsibility of Party A Responsibility of Party B Discussion on disaster recovery policies Discusses the business status quo, future development planning, disaster recovery planning, and policies with party A. Providing assistance Taking the main responsibility Suggestions on disaster recovery policies Provides suggestions on the disaster recovery policies to party A based on the BIA result and national and industrial regulations. Providing assistance Taking the main responsibility Disaster recovery policy report output Outputs a disaster recovery policy report. Taking all responsibilities Report review Reviews and confirms the disaster recovery policy report. Taking all responsibilities 3Definition of a Disaster Recovery System Architecture and Technical Solution 3.1 Service Objectives To guarantee smooth development of the disaster reinforcement system of party A, specialists of party B might join necessity investigation result, disaster recovery strategies, and development wanting to help party An arrangement the design of the intra-city disaster recovery system and technical courses. In light of the technical courses affirmed by both sides and general engineering configuration, party B should refine the intra-city disaster recovery arrangement, give item designs, and compute harsh costs. 3.2Service Content Disaster recovery engineering outline and technical course detailing: By considering disaster recovery strategies, pointers, (for example, the RTO and RPO) in the development arranging, and current system states of party A, specialists of party B should outline an intra-city disaster recovery system engineering and examine, assess, and test standard advancements to plan itemized technical courses and approaches. The technical courses cover the information replication innovation, organize engineering, standby preparing system, and handling capacities. In the wake of talking about and affirming the general arranging and general technical course with party An, experts of party B might refine the intra-city disaster recovery arrangement. Technical arrangement refining: In light of the former arranging and technical courses, experts of party B might build up a propelled, proficient, and appropriate intra-city disaster recovery arrangement. The arrangement covers the IT system investigation, information replication system arrangement, reinforcement handling system arrangement, and reinforcement organize system arrangement. Requirements for reinforcement system preparing abilities: Involve classifications of administrations that can procedure exchanges, number of exchanges that are finished inside unit time, outer applications and their transmission capacity, branches and their transfer speed, exchange strategies and abilities of reproductions, effect on the exchange abilities of the generation system, and different capacities, for example, testing and information inquiry. Requirements for reinforcement system recovery capacities: Involve impromptu occasions that can be taken care of and their sorts, recovery benefit sorts, recovery strategies, honesty of recouped information, and time required for administration recovery. Requirements for reinforcement system security: Involve physical security, information security, and staff security. Requirements for routine administration of the reinforcement system: Involve checking modes, change operation modes, recovery operation modes, technical bolster modes, and abilities. Suggestions on basic items and designs: Involve brands of basic items, models, and nitty gritty setups of system gadgets, hosts, and capacity gadgets (that meet marker prerequisites in the technical arrangement arranging). 3.3 Service Scope The work substance of detailing an intra-city disaster recovery arrangement cover IT foundation getting ready for the disaster recovery focus and plan of the information replication and reinforcement system, standby handling system, standby system, and system security. 3.4 Responsibilities of Party A Specifies a venture supervisor and approves the venture chief with adequate human asset allotment rights. The venture director is in charge of affirming the execution of each undertaking and passing on messages in the venture usage handle. Arranges engineers who know about big business IT information system designs to take an interest in the discussion extend. The members must be proficient faculty in various fields, including system engineers, arrange engineers, application designers, and database heads of party A. Participates (technical work force of party A) in adequate exercises in the conference extend so that the arrangement can better meet client prerequisites and information can be exchanged. These exercises incorporate different trainings, dialogs, and gatherings. Attaches (pioneers of party A) significance to conference work and completely bolsters the meeting members. Reviews and affirms the arrangement of party B. 3.5 Responsibilities of Party B Designs a disaster recovery system engineering by examining necessities, strategies, and qualities of mechanical disaster recovery models. Formulates technical courses for disaster recovery by examining prerequisites for disaster recovery levels of use systems, disaster recovery pointers, and standard disaster recovery advances. Designs an asset setup answer for the disaster recovery focus in light of the technical courses and current IT asset arrangements of party A. Outputs the underlying draft of the disaster recovery arrangement, submits it to party A for audit, and updates it in light of survey remarks of party A. Business Continuity Sprint Business. (2017). Sprint Business. Retrieved 14 March 2017, from https://business.sprint.com/solutions/business-continuity/?ECID=sem%3Aggl%3A20170303%3ADWASearch%3ANB%3AB2B%3APhrase%3ABusinessContinuity Business Continuity Plan. Ready.Gov. Retrieved 14 March 2017, from https://www.ready.gov/sites/default/files/documents/files/BusinessContinuityPlan.pdf Shinder, D. (2017). 10 Things You Should Cover In Your Business Continuity Plan. TechRepublic. Retrieved from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10-things/10-things-you-should-cover-in-your-business-continuity-plan/

The Relationship between a Parent and Their Child in Khaled Hosseini´s

In Khaled Hosseini’s novel â€Å"The Kite Runner†, he illustrates how he develops the characters through their words and actions. Being the main character, Amir is faced with the challenge of gaining his father’s affection/approval because he is Baba’s son. However, how Amir obtains his father’s affection/approval was through immoral ways. Baba on the other hand, had trouble showing his fatherly affection to Amir which causes bitterness within their father/son relationship. In this novel, we will explore how the relationship between a parent and a child is shown through their yearning of affection and how it can affect how one would be in the future. Baba is the most important person to Amir because he is Amir’s role model and world. How Baba express his feelings of being a parent is shown through his interactions and speeches with Amir. In Baba’s eyes, he finds it hard to believe that Amir is his son because â€Å"if I hadn’t seen the doctor pull him †¦ never believe he’s my son† (23). Amir cannot defend himself and is often in the position of receiving assistance from Hassan. Growing up, Baba never had to rely on someone else when he got pushed around from the neighborhood kids. He always showed them up, but with Amir, he can’t even defend himself without Hassan’s help. Baba’s disappoint towards Amir not being able to defend himself furthers their already distant relationship. While creating his name, Baba had married a highly educated woman who was regarded as one of Kabul’s most respected, beautiful and virtuous lady. For Baba, it was fine to be married to a poet, â€Å"but fathering a son who preferred burying his face in poetry books to hunting †¦ well, that wasn’t how [he] had envisioned it,† (19-20). Baba doesn’t approve of Amir reading... ...the issue of winning Baba’s love because he was the legitimate son. The importance of having a healthy parent/child relationship is so that the child grows up to be in the right path and not regret anything. For Amir, that did not happen because Baba was hardly ever there for Amir. Hosseini displays the two developed characters emotions through their actions and words of how they express their father/son relationship. The relationship between a parent and a child is important because it helps develops the child’s character of how they will be in the future. The more care and affection that is given, the better the child understand that he/she is being loved. For Amir and Baba’s parent/child relationship, they had started off on the wrong foot, but eventually it had gotten better as the story progress. Therefore, making the child and parents relationship better.

The Blue Sword CHAPTER EIGHT

On the seventh day they left their valley. Harry felt a little sad, although she thought a bit of her nostalgia was apprehension for the future. Just before they mounted, Mathin came and stood before her, with a long piece of maroon silk in his hand. Harry was wearing a long side-slashed red tunic over long full trousers of the same color, and a dark blue surcoat; she was accustomed to Hill dress now, and comfortable in it, unlike her first evening in the king's camp. â€Å"Put this on, so,† said Mathin. He gestured to his own waist; he wore a dark green sash. She looked down at herself. Mathin tossed the maroon strip over his shoulder, and pushed her hands away from her sides. He untied the brown cord she had used as a belt and dropped it as if it were trash, and wound the maroon silk twice around her waist, and tucked the ends of it away in some invisible fashion. She looked up: Mathin was wearing the fierce grin she was accustomed to seeing when they crossed swords. â€Å"One of the Hills must have a sash when she goes to the laprun trials, where it will be proved that she deserves to wear it.† He turned away to mount Windrider. Harry stood where she was a moment longer, feeling where the sash seized her lower ribs as she breathed. Then she put her hands on the pommel and cantle of the saddle and vaulted onto Sungold's back as she could now do easily; she had begun to consider if she could learn Corlath's way of mounting, which did not seem to require the use of the hands. They jogged along steadily all that day, although the pack horse was inclined to complain. It had had a soft six weeks and was not entirely equal – even with its burdens much lighter than they had been six weeks before – to keeping pace with the flint-hard war-horses. Narknon loped along beside them, dashing off into the bushes occasionally on her private business, reappearing silently ahead of them, waiting by the trail for them to catch her up. They paused for lunch and a cold supper; but they continued on in the twilight. After the sunset was gone, Harry could see a glow in the northeast. â€Å"It is a great bonfire on the plain before the City, to mark the opening of the trials tomorrow at dawn,† Mathin told her. Harry wondered if any of the other trials riders were seeing things in the flames. Her mind wanted to feel nervous and restless that night, but her well-trained body and that extra whatever-it-was sent her off to sleep before she had time to argue. At dawn when the trials were beginning, they were in the saddle again, riding easily and listening to the breeze, Harry half expecting to hear the distant clash and yell of combat. Slowly they rode all that day, that they might not arrive tired. The pack horse had given up complaining, and marched on resignedly. They rode around the edge of a gaunt grey rockface at sunset and suddenly before her was a vast field, the Hills rising sharply at its perimeter. The plain was speckled with fires, and in the swiftly falling shadows she could make out the many-legged shapes of huddled horses and huddled men, and the angular silhouettes of tents. There were too many of them; her heart jumped out of its usual location and began beating frantically against the base of her throat. She raised her eyes to the watching Hills again: surely this great flat plain was not a natural phenomenon in this rugged land? And yet what labor could have flattened the Hills so? Mathin was staring across the fires as if he would recognize the owners of the dark featureless tents even from here. She thought with his long eyes he might succeed. â€Å"Mathin, do you know how this plain came to be – has it always been here?† Mathin, still looking out over the plain, said, â€Å"There is a story that Tor met the Northerners on this plain, and held them away from the City for nine days, and the heat of that battle melted the rocks of the Hills, which made a pool; and when the pool became hard again, it was this plain.† â€Å"What happened on the tenth day?† asked Harry. But Mathin put Windrider into a trot without answering. Sungold trotted obediently behind her, his ears pricked stiffly at the scene before him. He was ready for anything Harry might ask him to do; he gave her a little confidence. But the other riders here had known of the laprun trials perhaps all their lives; perhaps they had been training for them nearly as long. Mathin glanced back at her. â€Å"We are opposite the gate to the City; you cannot see it from here. You will see it after the trials.† â€Å"Mathin.† His head turned warily back to her, anticipating a question he would not wish to answer. She saw his eyes glint in a yellow gleam of firelight. â€Å"Are there other women at the trials?† He grunted; she recognized it as relief that she wasn't going to nag him further about Tor the Just, who probably wasn't that boring if he could hold off the Northerners for nine days and melt a hole in the Hills, and Aerin and her dragons. He said gruffly, â€Å"A few. There are always a few. Once there were more.† He put Windrider forward again, and in the click of hooves she had to strain to catch his last words: â€Å"It would be a great thing for us, and for our daughters – a damalur-sol.† Damalur-sol. Lady Hero. They set up their own small and travel-stained tents not far in from the ring of Hills they had just left. She felt the drifting shadows of other Hillfolk as she rubbed Tsornin down, and when she came back to the firelight of the small blaze she had – rather efficiently, she thought, with the first of Mathin's three methods of fire-making, which simply involved the correct application of a tinder-box – started in front of their tari, there were four such shadows sitting on their heels around it. Mathin came into the light as she did, carrying his saddle. He joined the four, and after a moment's hesitation, so did she. She walked, pretending to be bold, toward a gap between elbows; and the owners of the elbows made room for her as they would for a comrade. â€Å"How goes it, my brothers?† Mathin said, and she was startled by his voice speaking to someone other than herself. One shadow shrugged. â€Å"As well as a first day ever does.† Mathin had told her that the first day was reserved for those less highly trained, who did not seek to win their sashes; she had sighed. Mathin told her, â€Å"You would find it dull work, the first day. Believe me.† Harry, after a moment, recognized the shadow as Innath, and relaxed slightly. â€Å"And how does our prodigy?† Harry blinked. It had taken her a second to remember the word prodigy, and then she was alarmed and heartened simultaneously by the our. â€Å"Prodigiously,† said Mathin, and he grinned at her. She smiled faintly back. The shadows nodded and stood up; but each one touched her shoulder and then her head as he passed behind her. The last was Innath, and his hand lingered just long enough on her hair for him to have time to murmur, â€Å"Be of good courage, prodigy,† and he too was gone. The camp awoke before dawn; the tents were pulled down, and the fires, after heating the malak and the porridge, and singeing the breakfast bread – Someday, she thought, I will teach these people about toast – were tramped out. She gave Narknon less than her usual percentage of porridge, because she would doubtless need all of her strength, unenthusiastic as her appetite was at present. She mounted and waited to be sent to her fate. All over again she missed bridle and reins, and the scabbard of her sword looked strange to her, slung on the saddle, and the small shield banged awkwardly against her thigh. Mathin, with the pack horse reluctantly following, rode up beside her. â€Å"Your way lies there,† he said, nodding in the direction of the invisible City gate. â€Å"You will find a man dressed all in red, a kysin, riding a black horse with a red saddle. Tell him your name – Harimad-sol,† he added, as if she might need prompting. Maybe she did. â⠂¬Å"He'll know who you are.† She surreptitiously hitched the shield an inch or so forward, and wiped her hands on her thighs. The leather felt clammy. Who would the kysin think she was? She couldn't even tie her own sash without help. Mathin reached out to her, pulled her face toward him, and kissed her on the forehead. â€Å"The kiss of luck,† he said. â€Å"You have no sash-bearing father or mother to give it you. Go as the Daughter of the Riders. Go.† She turned away. Innath was sitting his big grey stallion just behind her. He smiled at her, a friend's smile. â€Å"Be of good courage, Daughter of the Riders.† The morning was already hot, and the plain offered no shade; the ring of Hills seemed to hold the heat like water in a bowl. Harry found the man in red, and gave him her name; she thought he looked at her sharply, but perhaps he looked at all the laprun candidates sharply. He nodded and gave her a white rag to tie around her arm, and sent her off toward a milling mob of nervous horseflesh and even more nervous riders. She looked at them critically; there were some fine horses here, but none could outmatch her own mount, and very few could come near him. There was one big dark bay that caught her eye; she was ridden by a boy in blue who carried his shoulders and head well. Harry wondered what the other riders thought of the one in the maroon sash on the big golden chestnut. There was little conversation. There were those who gave their names to the red man and joined the ever-increasing throng here at the City end of the plain; the rest – the audience, she supposed – crowded behind barriers she could not see, that stretched from the feet of the red man's horse to the far side of the plain. Around Harry, some of the trials riders moved their horses in fidgety circles, just to avoid standing still; some looked down at themselves often, as if checking to make sure they were all still there. Harry twisted strands of Sungold's mane between her damp fingers and tried to keep her teeth from chattering. There was the dull murmur of horses' hooves, and the rush of their breathing, and the squeak of leather, the hush of cloth; and the sun overhead gazing down. To try to take her mind off the trials for a minute, she looked up, searching for some sign of the City, some path to its gate, and saw nothing but rock. It's right before my eyes and I can't see it, she thought, and had a moment of panic. Tsornin, who could read many of her thoughts by this time, flicked one ear back at her: Stop that. She stopped. Shortly before midmorning the trials began. First their weapons were taken away from them and replaced with flat wooden swords; and Harry discovered that she was much fonder of her own sword than she had previously supposed. Everyone else was settling helms on heads, so she fumbled hers loose from its straps and tied it on. It felt heavier than usual, and she didn't seem able to see around its cheek pieces clearly. Then the riders were divided into twos, threes, fives, eights. In these little groups they galloped hard to the end of that highway between spectators, wheeled, and came back. They met twos, threes, fives, eights rushing to meet them, swerved and collided; riders rolled in the dust, and horses bolted. She was not one of the former, nor Tsornin the latter. Neither was the young man in blue on the bay mare. She had a little trouble holding Tsornin back to the pace of the others; he was not over-pleased with crowds, but he did as she asked since she asked it. Those that remai ned mounted at each sweep galloped down and back again and again; and with each charge another obstacle had appeared along the highway that must be leaped or climbed over: a wall of rolled-up tents, stacked together; a fence of tentpoles; a banked heap of small stones with scrub piled on top. The first flecks of sweat broke out on Tsornin's shoulders as he gave her the slight heave she needed to hook a boot around a neighboring ankle and toss a rider to the ground. There was a little troop of twenty left mounted when the last charge ended. Harry looked around her, wondering how many had been thrown or hurt; she guessed there had been several times twenty in the beginning. A few minutes passed while the uneasy twenty walked their horses, and breathed deep, and waited. Then it was the spectators who came toward them, huddled once again at the City end of the plain; some of them were mounted, and all were carrying long wooden poles. What? thought Harry; and then a pole descended on her helmeted head, and the horse in front of her stumbled and fell at Sungold's feet. Sungold leaped over the thrashing legs as carelessly as if they were blades of grass. Harry began laying about with her wooden sword. A pole thrust itself under her knee and attempted to remove her from her saddle. Sungold switched around on his forehand, giving her her balance, and she broke the offending pole with the hilt of her mock sword. She began to feel hot and annoyed. Sweat m atted her tunic to her body, and her leather vest squeaked with it. The burning sunlight tried to push her out of the saddle even as the poles in human hands did. What is this nonsense? She used the flat and butt of her silly wooden stick and Tsornin reared and stamped and hurled himself forward. She broke a few more poles. She felt Mathin's grin pulling at her own lips. Someone thumped her sharply in the shoulder with a pole, but once again, as she lurched, Sungold slid sideways to stay under her; and she gave that pole a back-handed chop and saw it spin away from its wielder. Tsornin leaped over another fallen horse. She saw abruptly that the audience hemmed the trials riders in; if one of them pushed too near the edge of the crush, he was set on with particular ferocity and turned back. She noticed this with interest, and began determinedly to get out; but there were several hundreds to twenty – and only a few of the original twenty were still mounted. She began to feel that tide of anger she remembered from the day she had unseated Mathin – she caught somebody by the collarbone and knocked him off his horse with his own pole – and she felt that she would escape. Tsornin was backing up, mostly on his hind legs. Then he spun round, came down – one more whack with her wretched wooden blade; the hilt gave an ominous creak, but it didn't matter; she was †¦ out. The red man gave a shout. It was over. The crowd dispersed instantly, as if the red man's shout had broken a cord that tied them all together. There were several loose horses standing clear, looking embarrassed for having behaved so poorly as to lose their riders; and several limping figures separated themselves from the others and went toward them. Harry sat where she was, the hot tide ebbing, leaving just a trace of headache behind, watching the others pass around her like grains of sand sifting around a boulder. She saw Mathin from a distance; he carried a pole across Windrider's withers and there was a shallow cut over one eye that had bled down his cheek. She saw none of the other Riders. She squinted up at the sky. The Hills were black with shadows, but the sky was hard blue and she could feel the heat beating up again from underfoot. In the quiet – for, as it had been this morning, no one spoke and even the horses seemed to step softly – the heat seemed almost audible. She set Tsornin to walk himself as cool as possible. She patted his neck and dismounted, that they might walk together; he was sweating but not distressed, and he shook his head at her. She reclaimed her sword from the kysin, who saluted her. He had not saluted the laprun rider just before her. Mathin reappeared and told her she could rest awhile. His cheek was washed clean and a bit of white cloth bound over his eyebrow. â€Å"The individual matches will go on all afternoon; you will be called late.† They found a spot of shade at the edge of the plain and pulled the saddles off the horses. Mathin gave her some bread and some wet white tasteless cheese. She sucked it slowly and let it trickle down her dry throat. She felt quite calm, and wondered what was the matter with her. â€Å"Mathin, are all the trials the same? Did you gallop and bash people with a wooden stick at your trials?† â€Å"No and yes. They test your horsemanship in different ways; those who watch always have some chance to help – or hinder; and weapons of wood are safer. But the afternoon's matches are always the same, one rider against another, each with his own sword. If a kysin declares that a trials rider did badly in the general trials, he will not be permitted to ride in the individual sets.† They watched the dust clouds from the matches and the bright notches of color spinning in them; but Mathin made no move to return to that end of the plain, and Harry waited beside him, leaning on her elbows in spite of her sore shoulder. The sun was halfway down the sky when they mounted again. Sungold, for the first time since she'd known him, refused to walk, and jigged along sideways, tossing his head. â€Å"Stop that, idiot,† she hissed at him in Homelander, and he halted in surprise. Mathin turned his head and looked at her impassively. They stood at the edge of the crowd now, and watched the combatants. There were five pairs, each the center of a private war; the red man had divided into ten red men on grey or black horses. There were two red men for each pair of fighters, and one man of each pair carried a small brass bell; when the bell rang out, that conflict was ended, and the horses fell apart, and riders and mounts panted the hot air. All the laprun riders were dressed in bright colors; there was very little white and no dreary dun or grey; with the scarlet kysin, it was a very vivid scene. A bell sang out, a long gay peal, and she looked over at the finished pair. One of the riders held his sword up and shook it so the sunlight nickered on it. The other rider sat quietly, his sword on the ground at his horse's forefeet and, she noticed with a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach, his sash neatly sliced from around his waist and lying, part on his horse's croup and part on the ground. Mathin said: â€Å"It is best to take your opponent's sash. The kysin mark each blow dealt, but to cut off the other rider's sash is best. This you will do.† â€Å"Oh,† said Harry. â€Å"You may, if you wish, unhorse him first,† Mathin added as an afterthought. â€Å"Thanks,† said Harry. â€Å"But you must not draw blood, for this is a sign of clumsiness. Baga, we call one who cuts his opponent during the laprun – baga, butcher. It is skill we look for. This is why no armor is allowed in the individual matches.† â€Å"Of course,† said Harry. Mathin grinned at her. â€Å"Of course. Is this not what I have been teaching you?† He watched the next pair of riders salute each other; and another bell from another pair rang; each of the five bells spoke a different note. â€Å"The trials go back many generations – once they were held every year, but there are no longer enough of us in the Hills to make up the number; we have them every three years now, since Corlath's father's day. â€Å"The sash-cutting – churakak – is a duel of honor that is as old as Damar; far older than the laprun trials themselves, although few meet the churakak outside the trials any more. â€Å"Aerin,† he added thoughtfully, â€Å"met the churakak several times. Her red hair no doubt made her quick-tempered.† â€Å"Harimad,† barked a kysin; and Tsornin jolted forward before Harry had registered her name. She was set facing a boy in a green robe and yellow sash; the kysin said, â€Å"Begin,† and Harry feinted Tsornin to the left, back, forward, and the boy's sword fell to the ground, and his yellow sash fluttered down to cover it. A bell rang. Harry was a bit taken aback. The kysin waved her aside. Tsornin flattened his ears; he was not interested in boys who did not know what they were doing. Next Harry removed a dark orange sash from around a sky-blue robe; and then a white sash from a purple robe. Harry began to feel as irritable as her horse, and with each cry of â€Å"Harimad† the two of them turned and stood and attacked and wondered when the real thing would begin. Harry began unhorsing her opponents before lopping off their sashes just to give herself something to do. The Hills' shadows began to creep toward the feet of the charging dancing horses, and the lowering sun flicked dangerous gleams from the shining sides of swords and into opponents' eyes. Tsornin was dark with sweat, and foam streaked his sides, but he slowed not a whit, and it seemed to Harry that they were galloping down a long hall of statues with swords held stiffly in raised hands, waiting for her to lean languidly over Sungold's neck and knock their loose sashes off. All five bells rang at once as the green sash fell off the point of Harry's sword to the ground, and she looked around and realized that she and her latest opponent were the last to finish. It was nearly twilight, and she was surprised that they had gone on so long. Now that she stopped to think about it, it was rather hard to see; it was as though dusk had fallen on them as soon as they stood still. Tsornin's nostrils were wide and red as he turned his head. She looked where he was looking. A big dark horse stood as if waiting for them. Harry blinked and stared; the other horse tossed its head. Was he bay or black? There seemed to be something wrong with her eyes; she raised one arm and rubbed them against her grimy sleeve, and looked again, but the horse and rider still shimmered in her sight, a shimmer of darkness instead of light. The tall rider was muffled in a shadowy cloak that fell over his mount's shoulders and past his boot tops; he shrugged it back to show a white tunic an d a red sash. The horse fidgeted sideways, and a bay glint showed along its dark flank. The lapruni and the audience moved to form a ring around them, the shadowy bay and Tsornin. The silence after the pounding hooves, the grunts and thumps and crashes, was unearthly; and the sun sank farther behind the Hills. The first breath of the evening wind crept out of the Hills; its cool finger tapped Harry's cheek, and it felt like fear. A torch appeared, held aloft by one of the ring, someone on horseback. Then another torch burst into fire, and another, and another. The beaten ground between Harry and the silent rider at the other end of the circle swam in the flickering light. Then the brass bells rang again, like the sound of Outlander cannon in Harry's ears, and Sungold came to life, and neighed, and the bay answered. Harry did not know if the match lasted a long time or a short time. She knew at once that this swordsman, behind the scarf wrapped around his head and face so that only his eyes showed, could have dismembered her whenever he liked. Instead he drew her to attack him, opening his defense to attract each of the many moves Mathin had taught her, as if he were a schoolmaster hearing her lessons. It was so easy for him that Harry began to feel angry, began to clear a tiny space in her mind to think of some plan of her own; and her anger rose, and gave her a headache till the torchlight was red with it, but she did not care, for she knew by now that it gave her strength. Strength she needed, for she was tired, and her horse was tired, and she could see that the bay was fresh, and could feel up her arm as the swords met that the rider did not exert himself to resist her. But her rising anger lifted her and invigorated Sungold, and she began to harass the bay stallion's rider – if only a little, still a little. She pressed forward and the bay gave way a step or two, and the crowd gasped; and with a quick and merry slash the tip of her sword caught the scarf bound round the rider's face and tore it up from the chin. She misjudged by the fraction of a hair; a single drop of blood welled up from the corner of his mouth. She stared at it, fascinated, as she felt her sash slip down her legs in two pieces and lie huddled on the ground, for the face belonged to Corlath.

Mpo Notes

Extrinsic motivation is related to rewards such as salary, job security, benefits, promotional prospects, the working environment and its conditions. Intrinsic motivation comes from within the individual. It relates to rewards which are psychological such as positive recognition and a sense of challenge and achievement. Vroom’s expectancy theory – Vroom believes that people will be motivated to do things to reach a goal if they believe in the worth of the goal and if they can see that what they do will help them to achieve it.Maslow Theory hierarchy of needs – self actualisation, esteem needs self esteem recognition status, social needs sense of belonging love, safety needs security protection, physiological needs hunger thirst. Herzberg two factor theory – hygiene factors (maintenance factors to avoid dissatisfaction but do not necessarily motivate employees) – Company policy and administration, Wages, salaries and other financial remuneration, Qua lity of supervision, Quality of inter-personal relations, Working conditions, Feelings of job security.Motivator factors – Status, Opportunity for advancement, Gaining recognition, Responsibility, Challenging / stimulating work, Sense of personal achievement & personal growth in a job. McGregor’s X and Y theory – Theory X = Individuals who dislike work and avoid it where possible, Individuals who lack ambition, dislike responsibility and prefer to be led, Individuals who desire security. Theory Y = Consider effort at work as just like rest or play, Ordinary people who do not dislike work.Depending on the working conditions, work could be considered a source of satisfaction or punishment, Individuals who seek responsibility (if they are motivated). Taylor’s scientific management theory – Man is a rational economic animal concerned with maximising his economic gain, People respond as individuals, not as groups, People can be treated in a standardised fashion, like machines. Porter and Lawler’s Expectancy Model is a further development of Vroom’s theory.It considers performance as a whole, pointing out that effort expended does not lead directly to performance but is influenced by the ability of the individual and his/her perceptions. They identify motivation, performance and satisfaction as individual and separate variables and attempt to explain the relationships between the three. Adam’s equity theory – focuses on the way people feel they have been treated in the workplace, looks at fairness of treatment between people, expectation – what people expect to receive in return for there hard work.People may try and get others to leave, they may start to compare themselves to someone who they think they are more like. Methods of removing inequity – increased pay, perks, better working conditions, transfer a member to another department. Locke’s goal theory – clarity, challeng e, commitment, feedback, task complexity. Teamwork is important for staff morale, work performance. Empowerment, quality circle and TQM. Improves productivity, improving quality, improvement in motivation and commitment.Organisations arrange their workforce into groups of people who work together for a common purpose or goal but who each have their own jobs to do. Teamwork creates synergy, in groups leadership is shared, empowerment is making people responsible for the quality of their own work, it enables all knowledge to be utilised, and people doing the work are those that know most about the job. Where group members share the same office this can lead towards group cohesiveness.Good teamwork – Commitment to the team’s success as well as the development of team member, The appropriate skills to do the tasks, The team has its own clear identity to both the members and others, Team members are positive and motivated, The team learns from mistakes and copes with setbac ks, The team is results focussed and produces real results. The authoritarian manager: Motivates by reward, Imposes decisions, Does not delegate, Has only a superficial trust in their staff, Occasionally involves staff in solving problems.The democratic manager: Shares opinions and ideas, Has complete confidence and trust in their staff, Allows staff to participate in making decisions, Motivates by reward for achieving goals set by participation. The autocratic manager: Threatens or bullies staff into action, never delegates, Always imposes decisions on others, Has no trust and confidence in staff, Has little communication and teamwork.

Economic Theories essays

Economic Theories essays In attempts to control the economy, the Government has to rely on theories and beliefs about what they feel will have the best outcomes. This leads to the problem that there is no absolute proven way in which to guarantee a successful economy, and thus leaves open the debate about which policies would have the best effects. Adam Smiths The Wealth of Nations favors a laissez-faire mentality from the government, while John Keynes, Keynesian theory, requires the government to play an active role in controlling the economy. Adam Smith once quoted, The uniform, constant and uninterrupted effort of every man to better his condition, the principle from which public and national, as well as private opulence is originally derived, is frequently powerful enough to maintain the natural progress of things toward improvement, in spite both of the extravagance of government, and of the greatest errors of administration. This is one of many instances in his book which reflects that human nature itself would propel an economy guided by each individuals Invisible hand. Smith noticed that when a business would become successful, others would notice and enter into the same field. As a direct result, growing consumer demand was satisfied while competition controlled rising prices. Adam Smith argued that an individual acting purely out of self interest would be a progressive force for the maximization of the total wealth of a nation. The role of the government should be permissive, creating a legal defensive setup sufficient to allow individual action. Interference with the free working of this natural order will reduce the growth of wealth and misdirect resources. Keynesian economics is based on a belief that the economy can possibly fall into a recession and not be able to pick itself up. Keynes felt that trends and fads could disrupt Smiths Invisible hand and lead it astr...

SLP internal analysis and SWOT Analysis

SLP internal analysis and SWOT Analysis Introduction Resource Based View is a modern day management tool that is used in crafting company’s strategy using the available resources and distinctive capabilities. One of the ways of achieving this is the use of Economic Values Added (EVA) or the Economic Rent (Connely, 2010). The EVA is gotten by subtracting the firm’s Net Operating Profit After tax (NOPAT) from the multiplication of the firm’s cost of capital by the firm’s capital i.e. NOPAT – (CAPITAL * COST OF CAPITAL).Advertising We will write a custom coursework sample on SLP internal analysis and SWOT Analysis specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More A firm’s competitive advantage is therefore determined by its ability to use the available resources and utilize the core competencies to achieve targeted objectives (Barney, 1991). This paper discusses the various resources and competencies that an organizational can use to achieve competitiv e advantage over other firms. Sources Ensuing are two sources that offer information about these resources and competencies that provide a foundation for the formulation of a firm’s strategy. https://www.marketingteacher.com/swots these internal factors are resources such as human capital, patents, skills, goodwill and physical resources such as equipment and buildings. The disadvantage of this source is that the firm only uses internal environment to formulate the strategy ignoring the external environment which presents conditions that a business operates in. https://fba.aiub.edu/Files/Uploads/MGT110043.pdf. In his book, Henry presents the resource based view as a management tool for strategy formulation. Distinctive capabilities are useful in a firm’s competitiveness since the competitors are unable to duplicate them. The limitations of this source are that it looks at the firm which is established and has heavily invested in research and developments thus have acqu ired competencies in the specific operation area. Small firms are therefore not able to use these types of resources. Resources Resources are the inputs that a company uses in all the functional areas of its operations to produce the desired output and thus achieve the set target (Comeford Callaghan, 2011). Financial resources ensure that a firm has adequate amount of liquid cash to carry out the operations as well as finance the expected investments. This keeps the firm’s value high since its equity is not composed of large amounts of debt.Advertising Looking for coursework on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Human resources are other important organizations physical resources that ensure that the firm’s operations are of high quality. A workforce that is highly competent will make sure that the firm’s products are of high quality and also the firm employs efficient producti on methods resulting in low production costs. Technical resources are intangible resources which enhance a firm’s products quality. Advanced technical knowledge in the production process ensures that the firm’s products are preferred over the competitors since they are of superior quality (Barney, 1991). This therefore acts as an important resource that will form a basis of customer loyalty hence boosting a firm’s profitability. Intellectual resources are resources that a firm has acquired through research and development. These include patents and copyrights. Patents ensure that a firm possesses the exclusive right over certain means of production (Barney, 1991). A firm considers patents as important assets since it is able to employ unique production methods to achieve better results than the competitors. Goodwill is resources which a firm bears that make provide a competitive advantage over others. It may be in form of location, first mover advantage or custo mer loyalty. Goodwill usually puts a firm at a better state than the competitors and usually results in customer loyalty. It is therefore important in formulation of the firm’s strategy since it will ensure that firm strategic location and actions that will make it favorable over the competitors. A firm’s reputation ensures that it bears goodwill and this acts to foster the customer loyalty on the products. Architecture is the ability of a firm to bear different structures and networks that ensure it is well positioned to take on the competition provided by the other market players. Innovation gives a firm the ability to come with new products that are more appealing to the ever changing consumer tastes and preferences. A firm that is able to come up with new products will always enjoy a competitive advantage since its products will address the consumers presents tastes and preference.Advertising We will write a custom coursework sample on SLP internal analysis and SWOT Analysis specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Conclusion The Resource Based View is therefore and important management tool that is used to formulate a company’s strategy using the internal environment analysis. An internal environment will always provide the controllable parameter that an organization can manipulate to achieve its set targets and objective. References Barney, J. B. (1991). Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage. Journal of Management , 99-120. Comeford, R., Callaghan, d. (2011). Environmental, industry, and internal analysis. London: Prentice Hall. Connely, D. (2010). Strategy for Internal Environment. Henry, A. (2007). The Internal Environment of an Organization. London: Oxford University Press.

Free ACT Practice Tests Massive Collection of Online Sources

Free ACT Practice Tests Massive Collection of Online Sources SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips When you’re trying to prepare for the ACT, the last thing you want to worry about is finding ACT practice tests. To help make the process a little less stressful for you, we’ve compiled this huge list of sources for free ACT practice tests and questions. Not all practice tests are created equal, though. For each test source, I’ll talk about how you can best use the practice material to best prepare for the ACT. Why Do You Need ACT Practice Tests? You, of course, understand that in order to prep for the ACT, you need practice material. Ultimately, though, you may need more practice tests (and more supplementary materials) than you’d expect. Let’s talk about the three key reasons why you’ll need an arsenal of tests and questions to go into the ACT 100% prepared. Real Practice One of the most stressful parts of taking any standardized test is sitting through potentially uncomfortable testing conditions. You have to stay focused and alert for several hours with few breaks, and you have to jump from section to section without breaking your stride. Taking officialACT practice tests under realistic testing conditions helps prepare you for test day. This means sitting through an entire test in one go while carefully timing how long you spend on each section For this type of preparation, you should really only use official ACT tests. Content Practice This component of ACT prep is about building your knowledge of all the content that’s actually tested on the exam. If you’re working on specific subject prep, you’ll need materials that test (and teach) understanding of subject-specific content. Official ACT practice questions are the ideal for this sort of practice, but they’re limited in number and should really be saved for â€Å"realistic† practice and/or strategy prep. Unofficial or supplementary materials can prepare you well when it comes to brushing up on content, even if they’re not in strict, official ACT format. Strategy Prep ACT questions follow a very particular set of rules when it comes to style and logic. Although unofficial practice tests try to recreate this with their practice questions, it’s rare to find an unofficial source that does a good job. Official practice tests are important when it comes to familiarizing yourself with strategy required to do well on the â€Å"real† ACT. The more comfortable you are with the various types of ACT questions, the more efficient and the more confident you’ll be on the actual test. Where to Find Official ACT Tests Now that you know why (and how) ACT practice materials are important, let’s talk about where you can find the gold standard of ACT prep material: official ACT tests. In this section, you’ll find both recent and older ACT tests. You should focus on the most current ACT recent for your practice although older tests will definitely be helpful if you need extra material. The good news is that the format of the ACT hasn’t changed that much over the past few decades, so older exams will still give you a good idea of what to expect on test day. I'm not kidding when I say that official practice materials are the gold standard in ACT prep. Free Official Tests These free ACT practice tests are great for officialpractice - those study sessions where you sit down under realistic testing conditions and finish an entire exam. I’d recommend using one as a diagnostic test towards the beginning of your study plan. Be careful not to use these up all at once - these are the only free official tests available. The newest official ACT(2015-2016) is the only one that reflects the test's most recent changes: paired reading passages and a new essay. Other than these updates, however, the ACT's overall content and format has remained pretty consistent. ACT Practice Test and Answers (2015-2016) – form number 72C ACT Practice Test and Answers (2014-2015) – form number 67C ACT Practice Test and Answers (20-2012) – form number 64E ACT Practice Test and Answers (2008-2009) – form number 61C ACT Practice Test and Answers (2005-2006) – form number 59F Free Official Practice Questions The ACT also publishes official practice questions (separate from the official practice tests) on its website. These questions are great for working on strategy and content prep. 75 ACT English questions 60 ACT Math questions 48 ACT Reading questions 40 ACT Science questions 1 ACT Writing prompt ACT Question of the Day Other Official Practice Materials There are other official ACT materials available for purchase: The Real ACT Prep Guidecontains five full official practice tests, which amounts to about 20 hours of study material. This book is awesome for strategy prep and officialpractice, but it will not be much help at all if you need to review test content. It costs about$15 on Amazon. The ACT Online Programcontains two full practice tests or about eight hours of study material. The â€Å"prep† that comes with the program isn’t particularly useful, though, so we advise you to skip that and just use the full tests. It costs about $40 on the ACT website. Where to Find (and How to Use) Unofficial ACTs As you may have noticed, there aren’t unlimited official ACT tests available for practice. If you’re planning on studying for 50+ hours, you’ll need to find supplementary sources. There are so many unofficial sources for ACT tests and practice questions, but these really vary in quality - you don’t want to use just any practice questions you find online without vetting them first. To help you find reliable sources for supplementary materials, I’ve compiled a list of resources here. There may be many other good sources out there, but this should get you off on the right track. Free Online Practice ACTs From Test Prep Companies You should be especially careful with using free prep from test companies since the quality of the material is often questionable. That being said, some companies offer practice tests or questions that may prove to be really helpful as supplementary materials. Just be especially mindful (if you choose to work with these materials) about not treating these practice questions as you would official prep - that means not relying too much on them for strategy or real test practice. Sophia.org Sophia.org offers 2-3practicetests each for ACT math, science, reading, English, and writing. Each practice test has about 60 questions and comes with an answer key and scoring guide. You need to make an account in order to access the (free) tests, and you need to opt in to making your profile private. The site encourages you to treat the practice tests like official practice, but (as you know by now) it's best to use these materials for content review. An example of a Sophia.org practice question Prepfactory.com You can access freematerials with this siteif you make an account. There's a social media-esque functionalitywhere you can test your skills against those of other students. I'd avoid this, however, and just focus on improving your own weak skill areas - it won't be helpful to compare yourself to others while you're studying. You can access practice questions through quizzes for different themed modules. The modules' content study material is a bit disjointed and cursory, so I would skip it and just focus on working through the practice questions. An example of a Prepfactory.com practice question Ivy Global Ivy Global offers both sample ACT questions and a full (unofficial) ACT practice test on its website. You can download their full ACT practice test without making an account or providing any personal information (a big plus). Ivy Global did make a real effort to put together a test that's very similar to the official ACT. I still wouldn't encourage you Ivyglobalfor official practice, but it might come in handy if you run through all of the free official ACT materials listed earlier in this article. An example of an Ivyglobal practice question Varsity Tutors Varsity Tutors has a ton of free material - it seems like there are thousands of practice questions available - but this company isn’t particularly careful about creating questions in the style of the ACT.You should be careful about not putting too much stock in the types of questions you use from this site. Another con - you really can't work through the questions until you register for an account, and you're pressured pretty hard to pay for their tutoring services. That being said, you might find Varsity Tutors helpful if you need access to a ton of material (i.e. if you plan on studying for 50+ hours), and/or if you're a high scorer and want toanalyze official ACT vs. non ACT questions. An example of a Varsity Tutors practice question Union Test Prep Union Test Prep offers one free practice test which is administered online. Each question is presented (and graded), which is very different from what you'll encounter on the actual ACT - the format of the exam reminds me more of the GRE than any college entrance exam, to be honest. You don't have to register with Union Test Prep to access these questions. An example of a Union Test Prep practice question Albert.io Albert.iooffers hundreds of practice questions for ACT Math, ACT Science and ACT Reading. You must create an account to answer questions, but you get 100 free credits, which you can use to answer up to 100 questions. The questions are all clearly tagged, so this can be a great resource for targetingspecific skills. An example of an Albertpractice question Kaplan If you register with Kaplan, you can sign up for a free ACT practice test. They have them scheduled in advance, so this will only work if one of their ACT test times fits within your schedule. I expect these practice tests to be similar to their prep book (which I'll get to shortly) - good for an introduction to the test, especially for low scorers, but not so helpful for students who are already familiar with the exam or are already getting relatively high marks. Princeton Review Princeton Review has a system that's pretty similar to Kaplan's - you can take a free ACT online demo and test if you register with the site. Princeton Review has a reputation for writing questions that are(conceptually) easier than what you'd see on the test, so this might not be the best option for high-scoring students who are looking to push up their scores. ACT Prep Books Unofficial ACT prep books can be helpful when it comes to content review and practice. The ACT is pretty transparent about what concepts they actually test on the exam - if you have weak areas, instructional books and practice questions (even if they’re not similar to ACT questions) can help you develop a better grasp of the material. One of the downsides to ACT prep books is that they aren’t free. You may be able to find these books at your public or school library if you’d rather not purchase the materials. If you’re looking for a more exhaustive list of the most helpful ACT books, especially for books by subject, check out our guide to the best ACT prep books. Best Non-Official ACT Book:The ACT Black Book A great book for strategy, the Black Book teaches you to think about the ACT as a predictable, standardized test. It offers alternative strategies for students who may not understand all concepts in the same way. If there's a downside to this prep book, it's that you have to be pretty self-motivated and self-driven in order to useit effectively. It costs about$17 on Amazon. Best Book for High Scorers:Barron's Barron’s books are very thorough and cover a lot of content. They’re good options if your score is already high, but you’re aiming for perfect (or close to perfect). Some of the questions can be unrealistically (and unhelpfully) difficult. It costs about$12 on Amazon. Best Book for Low Scorers:Kaplan This is an all-in-one book that covers all ACT sections. It includes practice tests and answer explanations in addition to basic ACT strategies. This book is not helpful if you’re pretty motivated to study and are serious about improving your score - this is really a bare-bones book It costs about$20 on Amazon. Making a Plan: How to Study for the ACT If you want to make the most of all these ACT materials, you’ll want to make a plan for using them strategically. The major steps you’ll need to take to make a plan are below, although you can get more detailed info if you check out our guide on how long you need to study for the ACT. These materials will be most helpful if you come up with a road map for using them before diving in. Get a Baseline: Start With a Diagnostic ACT Test Take one of the recent, official ACT tests to get a baseline score. Unofficial diagnostic tests won’t help you understand where you’d need to improve on the actual ACT. Checking out target schools (and their correlating target ACT scores) will give you a goal score range to aim for. Practice Strategy and Review Content With Supplementary Materials If you’re weak in strategy skills or content knowledge, you should primarily use unofficial supplementary materials to study and improve in those areas. You can use these practice questions to drill skills or test knowledge without worrying about wasting official prep material. Once you’ve spent some time learning new skills and content, you may want to really test your performance with the official ACT practice questions (not the full tests). Use Official ACTs As Full-Length Practice Tests You can always find more unofficial prep material, but there’s a limited number of official ACT practice tests. Use these official resources as full-length practice tests under real testing conditions. You shouldn’t stop there, though. Get everything you can out of those tests by carefully analyzing your answers and mistakes, so you know which skills and content areas you should focus on next. Remember to save one or two official tests for the end of your study program so you can familiarize yourself with a full-length exam before you take the actual ACT. What's Next? Now that you have a ton of material to work with, you might want to start thinking about putting together a (more detailed) study plan and ACT strategy. First, figure out how long you should plan on studying for the ACT. Next, determine what your own ACT score goal should be - what's a good score? A bad score? An excellentscore? If you don't have too much time to study but still want to prepare as best you can, download those official ACT tests and check out our guide to a 20 hour prep program. Want to improve your ACT score by 4+ points? Download our free guide to the top 5 strategies you need in your prep to improve your ACT score dramatically.

A patient requiring mechanical ventilation Essay

A patient requiring mechanical ventilation - Essay Example She was hospitalised for 4 weeks and needed the tracheostomy tube to be in place for 9-weeks following discharge. In general it is found that collaborations between the intensive care nurse and the intensive care specialist is vital for evaluating and managing the patient and to ensure that the outcomes are fruitful. In general, the mortalities for ARDS are high (40 to 50%), mainly due to the ineffective traditional methods of managing such patients that have been utilised in the past. However, with use of several evidence-based protocols, the outcomes can be improved. Some of the measures that were provided to Rita included include mechanical ventilation, tracheostomy, prone positioning (HOB elevation), antibiotic administration (as she had sepsis), ECMO (due to sudden drop in the partial pressure of oxygen), sedation protocols, supportive therapy, RBC packed cell and platelet transfusion and a conservative fluid strategy. Rita developed renal complications and aspiration pneumonia, which were effectively managed. A careful nursing plan requires to be chalked out to cater to the individual needs of the patient. Ideal treatment would ensure speedy recovery and early resumption of normal activities by the patient. Case Study of a Patient Suffering from ARDS and requiring Mechanical Ventilation and Nursing Care Introduction This case study is of a 38-year old female, by name Rita, who was suffering from acute distress respiratory syndrome (ARDS), due to sepsis and requiring mechanical ventilation and a nursing care plan. ARDS is a condition in which the lungs are unable to perform their usual function of absorbing oxygen (Ensure Care Plan 2011). ARDS usually may follow critical illnesses, serious injuries or developed after major surgeries. The condition is a form of pulmonary oedema not from a proper cardiac cause, which occurs due to a drop in pressure in the pulmonary arteries (ARDS Training 2010). In ARDS, there is leakage of fluids and proteins into the air sacs and the interstitial lung tissues leading to pulmonary oedema (caused from damage to the alveoli-capillary mechanism) (Austin CC 2012). There may be several mediators involved in the damage of the alveoli-capillary mechanism including microorganisms, toxins, allergens, neutrophils, TNF, etc. After injury, the symptoms can develop within en 24 to 72 hours, and the respiratory functions tend to deteriorate leading to decreased lung volumes and compliance (Ensure Nursing Plan 2011). Due to the damage to the pneumocytes type 2, the lungs collapse and there is a decrease in the volume of the lungs. Fibrocytes convert the intra-alveolar fluid to a fibrous tissue and leads to poor ventilation (causing hypoxemia). When ARDS progresses, the patient can develop respiratory failure and can lead to arrest of the cardiopulmonary functions (Ensure Nursing Plan 2011). Usually ARDS develops from an underlying cause or a lung disorder and may vary depending upon the geographical location, age g roup, etc. Some of the causes of ARDS include direct injuries (may be trauma, chemical, oxygen toxicity, damage from free radicals, thermal or burns, drug overdose, or sepsis), drowning (or near drowning) or hemorrhagic shock (ARDS Training 2010). The incidence of ARDS is about 140,000 to 150,000 cases each year, and about 40 to 50% of the affected cases develop mortalities (Ensure Care Plans 2011). This is a case

Development of mathematical model to calculate fuel consumption of Essay

Development of mathematical model to calculate fuel consumption of passenger cars - Essay Example The NEDC was simulated under laboratory conditions, and driving parameters together with the fuel consumption were measured. A few driving phases were identified so that any drive cycle may be composed by these phases; and mathematical relationships have been fitted on measured data for each of the phases. The world population is 6.5 billion at the moment and rising. Climate change has caused widespread greenhouse effects like global warming, higher acid levels in oceans and reduced ice cover at the poles (Harrabin, 2013). The major causes of greenhouse effect are the by-products of industrialization, and especially carbon dioxide (Samimi & Zarinabadi, 2011). The level of carbon dioxide, the main constituent of emission by vehicles, is linked to consumption of fuel by the vehicle. Due to this there is need to regulate the amount of greenhouse gases that are emitted into the atmosphere and this is effective by fuel economy. The fuel economy (FE) of any vehicle can be calculated as a r atio of distance travelled per unit volume of fuel consumed or as the ratio of fuel consumption per distance travelled (GFEI, 2013). Fuel economy standards can be of various forms such as litres of fuel consumed per hundred kilometres of distance travelled or distance travelled per unit volume of vehicle fuel (An, et al., 2011, p. 4). The regulations pertaining to fuel economy followed by the four largest automobile markets, namely, the US, the EU, Japan and China differ significantly from each other leading to a lack of global standards on the issue.

ENTERPRISE & SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

ENTERPRISE & SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT - Essay Example The external factors include culture, role models, work experience, education, and environment. It is important to look at all of these factors and their influence on entrepreneurial behaviour. The relationship between the entrepreneur, personality characteristics, values, and other dimensions helps explain why some become entrepreneurs and others do not. Entrepreneurship is often difficult and tricky, as many new ventures fail. In the context of the creation of for-profit enterprises, entrepreneur is often synonymous with founder. Most commonly, the term entrepreneur applies to someone who creates value by offering a product or service in order to obtain certain profit. While there is social entrepreneurship in most markets, business entrepreneurs often have strong beliefs about a market opportunity and are willing to accept a high level of personal, professional or financial risk to pursue that opportunity. Business entrepreneurs are viewed as fundamentally important in the capitalistic society. Some distinguish business entrepreneurs as either "political entrepreneurs" or "market entrepreneurs." There is also the concept of social entrepreneurship. Since the beginning of the history, people have been interested in studying the nature of entrepreneurship. They wanted to find the 'traits' that distinguished entrepreneurs from non-entrepreneurs and successful entrepreneurs from unsuccessful entrepreneurs. Some researchers believed that cognitive and psychological factors like intelligence, ambition and aggressiveness are the traits commonly found in entrepreneurs. However, there were also another set of researchers who believed that physical characteristics like height (especially more than average), large body structure and personal attractiveness are important traits of entrepreneurs. Most research studies on entrepreneurship suggest that there are certain factors that differentiate entrepreneurs from non - entrepreneurs. Some of these include initiative, desire to lead, integrity, self-confidence, analytical ability, and knowledge of the specific company, industry or technology. If in case the above mentioned factors are supplemented with traits such as charisma, creativity and flexibility, an individual is likely to be an effective leader. The presence of these characteristics in an individual does not guarantee that he will be an effective l

Contemporary issues in accounting and finance Case Study

Contemporary issues in accounting and finance - Case Study Example In brief, economists (Norton & Porter, pp. 56-63, 2009) have blamed organizations for considering short-term profits of the company to pay huge rewards and compensation to CEOs and directors that is a significant form of excessive amount of risk-taking by the organizations, causing long-term financial issues. Despite of different claims and blames, analysis of the studies (Saudagaran, pp. 21-25, 2009) has indicated that everything goes down to one end that is accounting and its principles. A huge number of studies (Sorkin, 2008) have indicated that there has been deficiency of ethical and professional accountants in the profession that were involved in manipulating accounting rules and metrics on short-term basis that resulted in a financial issue for the organizations, as well as the banki... Economists believe that this specific rule inclined accountants to exaggerate the financial matters in front of the national banks that contributed adversely in the promotion of economic recession. In addition, a number of experts (Manning & Nothwehr, pp. 1, 2008) from the banking sector consider the rule as a very dangerous principle that resulted in the representation of losses of billions of dollars, whereas, the organizations never lost it. In an article of the New York Times, author wrote, "FAS 157 represents the so-called fair value rule put into effect by the Federal Accounting Standards Board, the bookkeeping rule makers. It requires that certain assets held by financial companies, including tricky investments linked to mortgages and other kinds of debt, be marked to market. In other words, you have to value the assets at the price you could get for them if you sold them right now on the open market" (Sorkin, 2008). Besides FAS 157, a few experts have indicated similar objective of mark-to-market rule, FAS 115 that regulates the organizations to perform the following tasks. Although it is a good principle, but it allows companies to manipulate things in a tricky manner, and this possibility of manipulation indicates the intensifying capability of this accounting principle to encourage frauds and subsequently, recessionary period around the world. Experts (Sorkin, 2008) have indicated that big names like CitiGroup, Lehman Brothers, etc used this accounting principle to show their exposure at fifty percent, whereas, it was only near to fifteen percent. In this regard, besides unethical practices involving personal

Writer's choice Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 6

Writer's choice - Assignment Example It can also be used to assess whether or not high-priority objectives in the strategic plan are being achieved. In some cases, especially large organizations that have complex processes and relationships, a strategic audit can be employed in monitoring changes in the external environment and providing clues as to areas that need improvement. For some firms, a strategic audit is an instrument for fine-tuning effective corporate strategies with the intention that it continues supporting minor internal and external changes that can occur. Overall, a strategic audit is a vital and almost irreplaceable aspect of organizational strategy and success. If used correctly, it is a source of competitive advantage because it allows companies to understand their strategic orientation and measure it against its internal and external environment to provide a clear view of current and future operations (Gong, 2013). Previous and current research has shown that effective and efficient strategic audits are directly proportional to organizations’ understanding of their markets and competitors. As an enterprise expands, strategic audit becomes increasingly important as it becomes more interconnected with performance and market

Corporate Governance in Public Limited Companies in the UK Coursework

Corporate Governance in Public Limited Companies in the UK - Coursework Example The paper tells that in the past years, the increment in freedom has become eminent, in all aspects of business activities thereby creating more opportunities for entrepreneurs. There has been international market development, especially for UK based companies. Cross-borders business relationships have increased dramatically. The UK has also generated a lot of developments. The businesses have clearly indicated that they have the knowledge and the strength to explore new ventures abroad and also in the UK, and have thus helped increase the affluence. The business community wants to show that their enterprises are ready to shoulder this increased responsibly. Many business ventures have realized that by creating good relationships with the stakeholders, there would be more business opportunities that will come up. There should be mutual trust between a company and the public in order to have improved competitiveness and ultimately higher and better living standards of the people. Ensu ring that the business community is trustworthy can be done and achieved by improving relationships between the stakeholders, from the top management to the lowest shareholder. The corporate governance system in the UK has been very effective. Regulations that have been established have assisted enterprises in conducting relations between the stakeholders in companies. It was a firm belief among the UK business community that in order to obtain acceptable results, internal governance and supervision within the enterprises should be increased immensely. There was a lot at stake, and it was important that the initiative came from the business community itself and that it pointed out methods to alleviate the confidence of the stakeholders involved and that the public had the right to demand from enterprises.

Writer's choice Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 6

Writer's choice - Assignment Example It can also be used to assess whether or not high-priority objectives in the strategic plan are being achieved. In some cases, especially large organizations that have complex processes and relationships, a strategic audit can be employed in monitoring changes in the external environment and providing clues as to areas that need improvement. For some firms, a strategic audit is an instrument for fine-tuning effective corporate strategies with the intention that it continues supporting minor internal and external changes that can occur. Overall, a strategic audit is a vital and almost irreplaceable aspect of organizational strategy and success. If used correctly, it is a source of competitive advantage because it allows companies to understand their strategic orientation and measure it against its internal and external environment to provide a clear view of current and future operations (Gong, 2013). Previous and current research has shown that effective and efficient strategic audits are directly proportional to organizations’ understanding of their markets and competitors. As an enterprise expands, strategic audit becomes increasingly important as it becomes more interconnected with performance and market

Health Policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Health Policy - Essay Example Among these the social factor can be considered to be the most influential. This is because it is only the awareness of the public that makes to utilize the medical resources. Most of the people lack awareness. This could be possibly due to illiteracy. Hence those sections must be taught regarding various aspects of health and care. Modern public health is often concerned with the addressing determinants of health across a population, rather than advocating for individual behaviour change. There is a recognition that our health is affected by many factors including where we live, genetics, our income, our educational status and our social relationships - these are known as "social determinants of health." A social gradient in health runs through society, with those that are poorest generally suffering the worst health. However even those in the middle classes will generally have worse health outcomes than those of a higher social stratum (WHO, 2003). The new public health seeks to ad dress these health inequalities by advocating for population-based policies that improve the health of the whole population in an equitable fashion. (Wikipedia -the free online encyclopedia) Managed Health Care, a general classification used for a type of health insurance that provides comprehensive medical care based on a prepaid contract as opposed to traditional fee-for-service health insurance. Traditional health insurance pays a health-care provider each time a medical service is performed. Managed health-care plans, however, pay health-care providers a set monthly fee for each member of the plan, regardless of whether the member seeks medical care. Managed health-care plans are so-named because they attempt to manage or control the costs of health care by requiring participants in the plan to seek medical care from designated physicians. These physicians act as "gatekeepers" who determine if patients need to see more costly medical specialists. Most managed care systems encourage preventive medicine, operating with the philosophy that it is better for the patient and more cost-effective to focus on preventing illness or to treat an illness in its early stages than to treat an illness in advanced stages. Accordingly, managed health-care plans provide broad coverage for preventive care, such as immunizations and physical examinations, unlike traditional health insurance plans. Managed care plans are unique to the United States. They are usually offered through employers, although individuals and senior citizens who receive government-funded health insurance through Medicare can enroll directly in managed care plans. Most employer-sponsored plans allow an "open enrollment period" of one month when employees can decide whether they want a managed care plan or a traditional fee-for-service plan, also known as an indemnity plan. (See also Health Insurance.) There are three basic types of managed care plans: health maintenance organizations (HMOs), preferred provider organizations (PPOs), and point-of-service plans. II HEALTH MAINTENANCE ORGANIZATIONS HMOs provide comprehensive medical services in exchange for a monthly payment from the plan participant. HMOs developed in the early 1970s with the passage of the federal Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973. The law applied minimum, uniform standards in all 50 states for a health insurance organization to qualify as an

Automation in IT Industry: Uses and Benefits

Automation in IT Industry: Uses and Benefits Automate IT processes Abstract Here is the procedure to analyzing the errors or bugs related to the Project in the IT industry using the automation tools. From this analysis we are able to find the processes of errors caused due to soundness or for syntactical errors Due to this errors the organization is non profitable or losing its profit sales it also lead to downfall of the shareholder values What are the reasons for IT process Automation? This Analysis is very important to the each and every organization to discuss within the company in all aspects of benefits that are achieved through the Automation, key value characteristics should be considered throughout the workflow of automation, and it should be challenged experience to the automation process Overview Now a days IT industry is more Complex than before. Cumulating the number of Apps, Servers , composite scope of Systems, and huge Records: all of this need to be maintained And managed , which is very big difficult task for IT industry in all the aspects like money, manpower.etc.. So Organizations of different Size is looking for an alternative Source which is related to maintain it with more efficiently. In almost all Societies records could be preserved trustworthy and safely. This are all leads to the customized applications As the size of the data increase it implies to the increase on organization administration software and computerization to preserve a reliability in the IT organization with additional professionally to influence on Manpower and increase awareness and retaining of the problematic finish. Monitoring, Ticketing, and change and configuration management are some of the categories for system management product Introduction Why Automation It is used to Save time and manpower it is used to increase efficiency Decrease Mean Time to Repair and increase Mean Biome Between failures man can make a mistake but machine cannot All size of Organizations (Small and Big) are processing there work flow through Automation. It is the best Suitable techniques to increase the Business in all the fields For every Societies a special team of members is organized to maintain the Automation Process This shows the Automation in IT Industry The above scenario shows the infrastructure of IT industry necessary steps to be take part in the growth of Organization Aim To deliver a systematic management solution to the client to procedure with the smooth workflow of an Application Intentions 1. Systematizing the remediation of events and warnings Many of the IT industry have Adopted the advanced technology to have a keen observation on the performance of their growing in IT infrastructures compare to the Other orginisation.There will be a quick alert is produced when any incidents occurred to the infrastructure. When such incidents happened there will automatic solution then and there itself. In IT Automation process, you can automate the remediation of many incidents occurred through: self-initiated, automatic work flow can be done from monitoring tools or manual operator automatic workflow execution through the data center is more faster than the manual process Automatic remediation, like complex servers and infrastructures can be balanced through network load With this system IT infrastructures is secure and safe 2. Authorizing forefront IT professionals to determine additional events Research have been declared that in many of the organizations half of the incident occurred in the infrastructure are estimated beyond the frontline to the notice of the network administrators and management. This incident result to the less productivity and a conference calls to resolve this issue in the personal time as nights, and weekends It Automation process is used to help in transformation of manual big data effect in to sequence and standardized workflows. When an incident happened the workflow automatically imitated compile and execute to the better efficiency. A trigger is automatically starts when the estimated cross the frontline to the knowledge of level 3 administrator 3. Reducing alert abundances There is more chance of Alert happens when IT systems staff concentrate with the alert. They are more active in the alert due to lack the data to know which alert is more active and which is more and just noise. Even a little sound of alert makes the IT staff to be more productive and focus on the critical issue to reduce the noise. Like this IT process automatic initiated to monitor and ticketing product and reaches the frontline operator to take quick action on the alert. The following are the examples for the automation alert in management process: à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ·Monitoring tool to identify the incident and make a trigger. à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ · To make the workflow automatically when the trigger and take the appropriate action from the noise alert and create the ticket for the necessary action. Using the trigger frontline operator produce a ticket to resolve the action in this scenario work load is decreased by using this technology. 4. Create a reliable, repeatable procedure for coordinating modification Now a days IT Organizations is supporting large number of applications, servers and devices, as this number can rapidly grow. Among this some of the Organizations have a well format of documentation and consistently change in the process and some does not have a will documentation, and also produce without updating and changes of the previous due to the three will be consistently raise of issue which feel very difficult for frontline operators to resolve and reactive on the productive issue. For the above aspect IT process automation gives the significant and automatic changes in the configuration management process. The set of automation process is imitated by the IT system administrator to check the workflow of application and servers for the status and trigger, network and automation process for updating. This changes is updated to the thousands of application through the servers, create a document according to the requirements. It process tool is used to improve the overall cost efficiency for configuration management previously manual uses automation process for end-to-end changes in the system management product. This lead to the compact and responsiveness. Observing the previous action in the IT automation helps you to react more efficiently for changes in the business needs it also reduce the time of deployment of new infrastructure? An Organization can see a 70 percent of reduction for the new infrastructure 5. Develop relations between ITIL event administration and difficult management procedure It operators goes to a fire-fighting mode due to continuous receiving and resolving hundreds and thousands of alerts a day. They have to react as quickly as possible to the incident and respond to that alert to maintain critical application uptime. However ticket is not generated as soon as the relevant troubleshooting and resolving the alert. IT automation process can be linked to the incident management to the more effective problem management.IT automation let you to quickly react to the alert and trigger according to the action. For example software application can be checked by checking the server status, network status, application build status, and then database status and relocate to the cogent page for the slow productivity and alert, the record is noticed and repaired. If it is necessary the automation process is restarted for triggering. the data is redirected to the server due to insufficient of memory in the server or application issues. Perform data analysis for the input and output. 6. Capture instance determination review paths and generate procedure documentation It automation process create automatically a value according to the automation alert and incident resolving, due to this there will an increase in uptime and let them to focus on the strategic issues. It automation process also capture each and every information automatically for each step of flow. This information is secure and store in the database for the automation product. Automation process automatically create documentation from the automation flow. Each and every flow of step is described in the new created documentation from the created flow. As a result automation documentation is referred to save the time instead of manual document. In this document each and every step is clearly mentioned from alert triggered to the resolution 7. Incorporate role-based contact mechanism into our event determination procedure Many of the IT industry more struggle for exchange of information between2-3 level support. This exchange of information occurred in the middle of night without observing the capabilities of the current state of system If this is properly implemented, the following features in observed automatically: Role-based access control Capture of input and output data Role based access control is used to capture input, output data.so that automation workflow is done automatically as it is atomized as we discussed in the previously Automation process require credentials for the smooth flow of automation steps. Aping is required according to the credentials of the administrator service of proper credentials When this two features are used together as a result in fewer and more escalations. Automation escalation flows only when the frontline operator does not have a proper permissions or when it requires experts operators interest this are more easy as 2-3 level operators can be determined. 8. Capture structural information in a practical and supportable mode Each and every IT organizations is having a very big challenge to other IT industry in all the fields of business in a continue manner. The talent of IT is rated to the uncompleted document and outdated.so IT Organization completely rely on knowledge produced to the incident happened. When the professionals leave the industry they take away the core knowledge with them and leave the Organization to struggle the alerts. With the help of IT process automation, IT process and procedures are implied as automation flows. These flows are managed as current as they constantly execute repair actions. In IT automation process two way of communication is possible with the CMDB it is used to help to create record, discover changes and updated automatically in the infrastructure in this IT processor change automatically. 9. Systematized maintenance processes Automatic trigger should happen at a particular time or at any periodically interval of time. In addition to this key value pair should be matched to trigger the action. This process of trigger action is a time consuming action in manual process, so automation process is better to apply. Action and task are pre-loaded in the system to generate the ticket and resolve automatically Some are the best examples which suit this action: Shutdown, start, restart are scheduled action. Change of password for the security purpose at a regular interval of time Rebooting and configuring setting at a particular service time Refreshing of data at a scheduled time. Due to this intermittently action. You can atomize the section in IT industry as IT automation process. It is executed according to the workflow defined in the process We can trace back the situation happened which is used to generate the report to the operator. This process helps to growth of Organization in the critical scenario of business. 10. Incorporate distinct systems management implements and procedures Management system product is a mixer of partially deployed, and most of them are not well integrated worth the other network system products. Most of the industry runs on Non-homogeneous management products through multiple vendors. In this process IT industry need the support to maintain large size of data center and multiple network operator centers. It also needs the support of the heterogeneous enterprise to their system product. Due to the large size of data centers and network operators, system management product maintained large integrated business enterprise to automate the It process. The combination of management product and process integration leads to the efficient growth and proactive IT organization Conclusion The beginning is very easy. Now you can start up your Automation of data center operations by implementing IT process automation. In few key areas more focus to be applied, a related experienced in IT industry can efficiently achieve to retain the investment and reduce the industry complexity. This can reduce the investment. This also provide more security to the data Bibliography Books: Marshall, C. (2008) The Executive Guide To IT Process Automation: Opalis. Andrzej, C., Abdelsala, H., Marek, R. (1998) Workflow and Process Automation Concepts and Technology : Kluwer Academic Bruno, V., Thecle, A.(1998) Advanced in Production Management System : Springer Paul, H. (2001) Business Process Change A Manager’s Guide to Improving Redesigning and Automation Processes : Edward Wade Arthut, H., Wil, M., Michel, A., Russell, N. (1998) Modern Business Process Automation : Springer – Verlag Berlin Sanjay, M. (2009) Business Process Automation: PHI Learning Ltd Helmut, R., Norbert, P., Wolfgang, S.( (2012) ISSE 2012 Securing Electronic Business Processes : Springer Vieweg Singh, S.K. (2003) Industrial Instrumentation and Control : Tata McGraw Journal Richard, H. (2005) ‘Intellectual Preperty Key Processes for Managing Patent Automation Strategy Need Strengthening’, Report to Congress Committee, 9(1), pp. 22-34 Russell, R. (2001) ‘Reengineering Business Processes Can Improve Efficiency of State Department License Reviews’, Report to the Chairman and Ranking Minority Member US, pp. 10-17 Newspaper Article Naren, K. (2010) ‘ Role of Automation in the Indian IT Industry’, Deccan Chronicle, 30 May, p.11 Website https://www.netiq.com/products/aegis/ http://www.networkautomation.com/overview/ http://blogs.technet.com/b/servicemanager/archive/2009/12/17/demo-extending-service-manager-to-automate-it-processes.aspx http://www.sap.com/solution/lob/it/software/it-process-automation/index.html http://www.computerweekly.com/guides/A-guide-to-business-process-automation-software http://www.slideshare.net/Ayehu/it-processautomationsurvivalguidefreeebook http://kissflow.com/process_playbook/5-reasons-why-you-should-automate-your-business-process/ Terrorism: Definitions, origins, responses and interventions. Terrorism: Definitions, origins, responses and interventions. Chapter One: Defining Terrorism Part One What is Terrorism The Etymology of Terrorism The etymological meaning of the English world terrorism was first adopted in medieval Britain but was first coined in medieval France from the Latin word terrere meaning to frighten (Jeffery 2006: 24). The suffix of ism on the end of the word terror can be constructed as a systematic activity aiming to promote and advance a certain ideological stance. For instance, Marxism argues society can, and will, change when the material conditions are in place to precipitate this change (Marx and Engels 1848: 27). Therefore, because Marxs belief promotes a certain branch of communist philosophy the suffix ism is used to establish his particular ideological viewpoint. Conversely, if one chooses to ignore the political connotation associated with the phrase terrorism, the etymology of terrorism, one could say, is to simply promote the systematic advancement of fear. For example, the parents of a child may simply choose to apply the metaphor of terrorist to personify their expression that their c hild annoy so frequently and unexpectedly that one fears what could come next. Further to this, the etymology of terrorism brings fourth two observations. Firstly, terrorisms rooted meaning has undergone a transformation (the historical context of terrorism will be highlighted later in chapter two, but I will give you a brief outline). Terrorism was first used within the latter part of the ninetieth century as a regime or system of governance, wielded to establish a revolutionary State against the enemies of the people (Williamson 2009: 43). Terrorism, in modern society, is now more commonly used to describe terrorist acts committed by non-state or sub-national identities against the State. In 1848, terrorism in Europe and Russia was originated by its exponents as comprising a kind of action against tyrannical States. German radicalist, Karl Henizen, underpinned the policy of terrorism directed at tyrannical States as he argued while murder was forbidden in principle, this prohibition did not apply to politics, and the murder of political leaders might well be a physical necessity (Laqueur 1980: 27). Henizen was therefore, perhaps, the first scholar to provide a doctrine for modern terrorism. Moreover, when Jacobins used the term terrorism to describe their regime during the French Revolution (1789-1794), it had a positive connotation, whereas now most commentators agree that the term terrorism is inherently a negative, pejorative term (Crenshaw 1989, Barker 2002). Thus, it is evident that the term terrorism has undergone a transformation both in meaning and in perception. The second observation one identifies with in relation to the etymology of terrorism is that since its inception, the term terrorism has been linked to various ideals such as justice, liberty and morality. This idealism continued to be attached to terrorism into the mid-1800s, even though a transition had occurred in the meaning of the term (Kravchinsky 1884: 508). These idealistic principles upon the term terrorism continue today. For instance, many modern organisations, considered as terrorist organisations, have chosen for themselves names which suggest that they are idealistic. One example of this is the terrorist organisation Al Qaeda. The term Al Qaeda roughly translates into The Base which suggests a certain level of moral unity among its organisation. Additionally, the perception that exists between how terrorists see themselves and how the way that others, particularly target governments, see them, can be explained by the well-known phrase one mans terrorist is another mans freedom fight (I will explain different societal constructions of terrorism later on in this chapter as a critique towards defining the concept terrorism). This phrase, therefore, represents the idea that terrorism is a political term and therefore has to be noted that the political, ideological and religious objectives, which have been an integral aspect of terrorism since its inception is what differentiates terrorism from mere criminal violence which has no greater criminal goal in mind and which is carried out for instant gratification (Williamson 2009: 45). Thus, whereas Osama bin Laden is deemed as a crazed killer within western society, among the east, especially parts of Pakistan and the Saudi kingdom he is deemed as a martyr (Gupta 2008: 8). And so, because of this, we need to adopt a politically scientific approach in helping to understand the definition of terrorism. Applying Political Science to help Understand the Definition of Terrorism The modern political usage of the phrase terrorism can be traced back to 1795 (Laqueur 2001: 6). It is reported that Edmund Burke was the first person to use the word in English, in order to warn people about what he called those thousand of hell hounds called terrorist (McDowell and Langford 1992: 87). The word first appeared in 1798 in the supplement of the Dictionnaire of the Academie Francaise where it was politically defined as a systeme, regime de la terreur (a system, reign of terror). The entry that first appeared in the Academie Francaise conjures up numerous observations that suggest that the term terrorism is political in nature. Firstly, it is clear that to any native French speaker, in the phrase systeme, regime de la terreur fear and terror play a predominant role. Therefore, in this respect, the definition of the Academie Francaise is to be taken more or less as equivalent to terrorism in its broadest sense which we were previously speaking about. Secondly, the politic al context regime furthers the argument that the term terrorism is inherently political in nature. And finally, there seems to be a hint of another condition embedded within the phrase that was placed in Academie Francaise, namely that most terrorist activity is carried out by non-private individuals (thus systeme). Therefore, presumably, these individuals were, or aspired to become legitimate rulers of a recognised States. Moreover, it appears that the definition of Academie Francaise solely aims to define rebel or revolutionary violence, rather than terrorism in its contemporary sense. However, it has only been within the last thirty-five years that political science has enlightened us on terrorist campaigns, groups, activities, tactics, motives, finances, State support and trends (Enders and Sandler 2006: 9). This comparative approach towards defining terrorism has taught us much about what is common and what is different among terrorist activity. For example, a majority of political scientists have characterised many European terrorist organisations as fighting communist organisations with a focused Marxist-Lenin ideology, an anticapitalist orientation, a desire to limit casualties, and a need for external constituency (Alexander and Pluchinsky 1992: 27). Over the last few decades, political scientists have furthered these comparative approaches towards the definition terrorism in which they have identified the changing nature of terrorism for instance, the rise of State sponsorship in the early 1980s to the more modern increase in Islamic fundamentalism in post modern society. Political scientists have also analysed the effectiveness of antiterrorist policies in helping to define the term terrorism, but without the need to apply social statistics. Further to this, Wilkinson maintains that political science defines the phrase terrorism by dividing its definition into three distinctive typologies, these include; revolutionary terrorism, sub-revolutionary terrorism and repressive terrorism. The first typology defines the phrase terrorism as the use of systematic tactics of terroristic violence with the objective of bringing about political revolution (Wilkinson 1975: 74). Wilkinson furthers the typology of revolutionary terrorism by characterising it into four major attributes; (1) it is always a group, not an individual phenomenon, even though the groups may be very small; (2) both the revolution and the use of terror in its furtherance are always justified by some revolutionary ideology or programme; (3) there exists leaders capable of mobilising people for terrorism and (4) alternative institutional structures are created because the revolutionary movement must partake action in the political system and therefore must develop its own policy-making bodies and codification of behaviour (Wilkinson 1975: 79). To give a more detailed picture of Wilkinsons typology of revolutionary terrorism towards the political definition of terrorism we should add Hutchinsons list of essential properties, these are; (1) it is part of a revolutionary strategy; (2) it is manifested through acts of socially and politically unacceptable violence; (3) there is a pattern of symbolic or representative selection of victims or objects of acts of terrorism and (4) the revolutionary movement deliberately intends these actions to create a psychological effect on specific groups and thereby to change their political behaviour and attitudes (Hutchinson 1978: 18). The second category in Wilkinsons typology to define the political definition of terrorism is sub-revolutionary terrorism. Sub-revolutionary terrorism is defined as terror used for political motives other than revolution or governmental repression (Wilkinson 1975: 81). Whereas revolutionary terrorism seeks total change, Wilkinson argues that sub-revolutionary terrorism is aimed at more limited goals such as forcing the government to change its policy on some issues, warning or punishing specific public officials, or retaliating against government action seen as reprehensible by terrorist (Wilkinson 1975: 82). Therefore, in this respect, under the typology of sub-revolutionary terrorism pressure groups such as Fathers for Justice and Green Peace may be deemed as terrorist organisations. Wilkinsons third typology, repressive terrorism, is defined as the systematic use of terroristic acts of violence for the purpose of suppressing, putting down, quelling, or restraining certain groups, individuals or forms of behaviour deemed to be undesirable by the oppressor (Wilkinson 1975: 83). Therefore, the political definition of terrorism under the typology of repressive terrorism relies heavily upon the services of specialised agencies whose members are trained to torture, murder, and deceive. The terror apparatus is then deployed against specific opposition groups and can be later directed against much wider groups (Wilkinson 1975: 84). One example of this is Nazi Germany, where the Schutzstaffel (SS), the specialised agency, deployed terroristic apparatus against the opposition group, the Jews. Moreover, the main advantage of applying a politically scientific approach to defining terrorism has been its electric, multidisciplinary viewpoint encompassing historical, sociological, and psychological studies. Historical studies identify common features among terrorist campaigns and indicate how the phrase terrorism has evolved over time. In sociological studies, sociologists analyses societal norms and social structure within terrorist organisations. And, by using psychological studies, researchers have identified internal and external variables associated with the escalation of violence in a terrorist event (Enders and Sandler 2006: 10). Furthermore, some factors, for example, may induce an individual to become a suicide bomber, for example, include sociological the approval of a group and psychological factors personal mentality. Thus, certain fields may interlink to accompany political science in helping to define terrorism. Another field that has helped revolutionised the way we perceive the definition of terrorism is law and to illustrate this point one is about to examine the definition of terrorism under general international law. Defining Terrorism under General International Law Recent interest in the utility or propriety of a definition of terrorism under general international law has been driven by larger issues, such as the need to build international solidarity within the war of terrorism, and the opposing need felt by some of guarding any such possible definition of terrorism from any undue weightage likely to be given to the unilateral belief of any one State, and particularly the meaning likely to be or already given to the term terrorism in the foreign policy of any one State (Hor et al 2005: 37). Therefore, the need to define terrorism, comprehensively, under international law cannot be divorced from such over-riding political concerns which, together with some old diplomatic obstacles, continued to plague the negotiations towards the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism in 2005. The rationale behind such a comprehensive treaty to define the phrase terrorism was a response to calls beginning within the 1990s for a departure from a reg ime of variegated subject-specific treaties. The initiative for such a treaty to define terrorism derived from India (United Nations General Assembly 2005: 166). The treaty established the United Nations General Assembly resolution 51/210 of 17 December 1996, which had established an Ad Hoc Committee together with a United Nations Sixth (Legal) Committee, which was tasked with negotiating on the Draft Comprehensive Convention (Reichard 2002: 18). However, one would like to focus upon the question of whether a customary or general international legal definition of terrorism already exists, and if so, what does a customary definition look like. Legal guidance to define terrorism under general international law lies at least as much in international custom as it does under the Comprehensive Convention of International Terrorism treaty. This is partly due to the time-lag that occurred between the completed text-based treaty and widespread participation that took place within the new treaty regime. Moreover, it is due to the fact that much of the new comprehensive definition was not all that new, thus proving the United Nations are a long way off achieving essential combinations of (1) having a precise formation that would necessarily prove useful in defining terrorism and (2) at the same time, attracting the necessary widespread participation of States to make such a comprehensive regime a success (Lim and Elias 1997: 27). State-sponsored terrorism is a good exemplar over what terrorism might be taken to mean in the eyes of general international law. Professor Brownlie concurs with this statement as he maintains that State-sponsored terrorism is governed mainly, if not exclusively, by the available categories of international legal thought such as the prohibition of the use of force in international relations, the doctrine of imputability in establishing State responsibility for acts of the individual and the self-defence doctrine. He argues there is no category of the law on terrorism and the problems must be characterised in accordance with the applicable sectors of general international law: jurisdiction, international criminal justice, state responsibility, and so forth (Brownlie: 2004: 713). However, this may to true insofar as international law has not yet evolved to encompass an agreed definition of terrorism, the various subject-specific rules of international law which focus on individual criminal responsibility for different acts of terror such as hijacking, terrorist financing, and so on, can neither be insulated from nor absorbed wholly by the currently existing international law rules which may be brought to bear on State-sponsored terrorism. Several States leading up to the Rome statute, for example, viewed terrorism, under international law, as a distinct criminal event which imposes individual criminal responsibility for State-sponsored terrorism. In this respect, the definition of terrorism differs when defining the phrase terrorism under State-sponsored terrorism and from what the definition of terrorism means under the International Court of Justice. For example, in the Nicaragua case, Nicaragua had brought a claim against the United States for alleged covert support given by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to armed insurgents operating in Nicaraguan territory in response to the Sandinista Governments covert support of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front in El Salvador. The issue was that there were interstate in international law rules pertaining to breach of the United States legal responses owed to Nicaragua by allegedly financing, supporting, equipping, arming, training and providing strategic guidance to Nicaraguan rebels seeking to overthrow the Sandinista Government (McCoubrey and White 1995: 12). In short, the case of Nicaragua was about defining the phrase terrorism through state responsibility and not solely as a means of political violence. On the other hand, Professor Mani recently suggested that what we call terrorism today is, in fact, very much state-sponsored terrorism. This, he suggests, is a direct result of the prohibition in Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter of the use of the force in international relations, which would nonetheless attract individual responsibility for such acts. Therefore, the legal definition of terrorism may be seized by the figure of Osama bin Laden, and we may be startled that by the late twentieth century the only superpower in the world was required to go to war with a mere individual, but that does not change the fact that, for the most part, the definition of terrorism is closely linked to state-sponsorship (Murphy 1999: 161). The difference, therefore, between Professor Manis and Professor Brownlies viewponts is one that has marked debate among the social sciences for a number of years. For example, a majority of scholars adopt Brownlies viewpoint that the definition of terrorism, especially State-sponsored terrorism, is solely a product of individual extreme criminality. But we must not ignore Manis argument that the definition of terrorism under State-sponsorship, which has become an ongoing growing phenomenon, and has become a powerful focal-point for advocating the plight of the Palestinian people, for example. Therefore, in a world where we have learnt to view some States as rogue or parish, calling States such as Israel a terrorist State serves to highlight the Palestinian cause, and stigmatise the perceived wrongdoer all at the same time (Jansen 2001: 47). Thus, by defining the phrase terrorism under the use of general international law no one can pinpoint a precise definition of the phrase terrori sm as the word itself is unattainable. To further this discussion one will now begin to highlight the problems associated with defining the phrase terrorism in which one will begin by examining terrorism as a moral problem. Part Two Problems in Defining Terrorism Definition of Terrorism as a Moral Problem A major stumbling block towards defining terrorism is that, at base, terrorism is a moral problem. This is, therefore, one of the major reasons for the difficulty over defining of terrorism. Attempts at defining the phrase terrorism are often predicted on the assumption that some classes of political violence are justifiable whereas others are not. Many would label the latter as terrorism whilst being loathe to condemn the former with a term that is usually used as an epithet. So, in order, for a definition to be universally accepted it must transcend behavioural description to include individual motivation, social milieu, and political purpose (Wardlaw 1989: 4). The same behaviour will or will not, therefore, be viewed as terrorism by any particular observer according to differences in these other factors. However, if the definition is to be of use to a wider audience than the individual who constructs it, students of violence will have to try and divest themselves of the traditiona l ways of its definition. Just as an increasing number of commentators seem to be able to even-handedly apply the term terrorist to non-State and State actors they will have to apply it even-handedly to those groups with whose cause they agree and those with whose cause they conflict (Wardlaw 1989: 4). The difficulty here is, however, is that different groups of users of definitions find it more or less easy to utilise definitions which focus on behaviour and their effects as opposed to these factors tempered by considerations of motives and politics. Thus many academic students of terrorism seem to find it a little difficult in labelling an event as terrorist without making a moral judgement about the act. Furthermore, many politicians, law enforcement and governmental officials, and citizens find themselves unable to take such a detached view (Wardlaw 1985: 4). For this reason, it may not be too difficult to construct an acceptable definition within this given reference group, but the problem arises when each group attempts to engage into dialogue with each other. This communication problem is of more than academic importance. This is because it is one of the root causes of both the vacillations in policy which characterises the response of most individual states to terrorism and of the complete failure of the international community to launch any effective multi-lateral initiatives to combat the problem (Wardlaw 1989: 5). Therefore, those who study terrorism within any given community often cannot communicate with the policy-makers and law enforcers because the latter groups often reject the analytical techniques of the former as being of insufficient relevance to the real world. This is partly due to the latter groups seeing the lack of relevance as an inability to distinguish between right and wrong acts. Moreover, at an international level, political support given to sectional interests militates against a universal definition that could form the basis for international law and action (Wardlaw 1989: 5). Thus, for example, the Palestine Lib eration Organisation (PLO) is seen by some nations as a terrorist group having no political legitimacy and using morally unjustifiable methods of violence to achieve unacceptable ends. Conversely, other nations deem the actions of the PLO as acceptable legitimate representation of opposed people using necessary and justifiable violence (not terrorism, one needs to emphasise) to achieve a just and inevitable end. Therefore, the problem within defining the phrase terrorism rests upon moral justification. However, in order to further illustrate ones argument into the problems of defining terrorism one needs to seek to explain such a phenomenon, and not solely justify the problems in defining terrorism wholly on moral justification. And so, in this respect, we need to assess the identity of terrorism in order to seek the problem of its definition. Difficulties in Defining Terrorism Due to Identification Another factor that deserves to be noted within the process of identifying the problems associated with defining the concept of terrorism is identification. The reasoning for this is down to the fact that identification is key to its rhetorical success. Thus, an act will become to be seen as terrorist if people identify with the victim of the act. One example of this is the role of media in reporting terrorism. To explain, the media tend to portray terrorist acts as newsworthy because it acts as an instrument of legitimation. Other example of this happening are within areas of muggings, environment crime, and white-collar crime. Therefore, if the identification of the terrorist act, in the perpetrators eyes, is positive the implication for official regimes becomes positive. Take State-sponsored terrorism as an example, if such States are industrialised societies than industries are active participating actors within the official terrorist regime. Furthering the example, because State -sponsored terrorism usually involves bureaucracy (police, armed forces, intelligence agencies, secret police, immigration control, and information control) it becomes the administration of terror thus identifying the definition of terrorism as a positive outcome. Moreover, Thornton describes the identification of terrorism as a problem of its definition by suggesting its a process of disorientation, the most characteristic use of terror (Thornton 2002: 86). However, it is important to emphasise that in Thorntons quotation of terrorism he places emphasis on terrorisms extranormal quality. Firstly, one would like to highlight the use of terror in Thorntons quotation is solely placed within the upper levels of the continuum of political agitation and therefore is not representational of terrorism as a whole but only political motivated terrorism. Furthermore, Thornton is placed with the difficulty of defining extranormal a difficulty which is not resolved throughout his argument. One maintains that it would be more productive to seek other ways by which the identification of the definition of terrorism could be more distinguishable from other forms of crime, for example, muggings both of which have the effect of producing State terror in the v ictim. One way terrorism can be distinguishes from other forms of crime is that it has an audience wider than the primary victim, although, the same can be said about muggings. For instance, if a number of muggings take place in certain location, intense fear will be engendered in many other individuals who have cause to be or in the same places. The identifiable feature, that distinguishes terrorism to other forms of crime, therefore, is the design to create anxiety rather than the extranormality of the anxiety, which Thornton discussed. Terrorism is further characterised by its highly symbolic content. Thornton contends that the symbolic nature of terrorism contributes significantly to its relatively high efficacy. Thus; If the terrorist comprehends that he is seeking a demonstration effect, he will attack targets with a maximum symbolic value. The symbols of the State are particularly important, but perhaps even more are those referring to the normative structures and relationships that constitute the supporting framework of society. By showing the weakness of this framework, the insurgents demonstrate not only their own strength and the weakness of the incumbents but also the inability of the society to provide support for its members in a time of crises. (Thornton: 2002: 91) To further the claim that the problem in defining the phrase terrorism is down to identification we must strengthen Thorntons argument by introducing two terrorist approaches, these are enforcement terrorism and agitational terrorism. A Tale of Two Terrorist Approaches Enforcement Terror and Agitational Terror Within Thorntons broad definition of terrorism, he has distinguished two categories of how terrorism can be defined. These are through the uses of enforcement terror and agitational terror within terrorist activities. The first approach, enforcement terror, is used by those in power who wish to annihilate challenges to their authority, and the second approach, agitational terror, describes the terroristic activities of those who wish to disrupt the existing status quo and ascend to political power (Thornton 2002: 117). For instance, Nazi Germany and Stalin Russia can be said to inhabit examples of enforcement terror as each government would use fear tactics such as the murder of their citizens to shock them into not establishing a rebellion. Whereas, it could be argued that some socio-political groups such as the Irish Republic Army (IRA) use agitational terror such as the bombing of public places in order to achieve political power. Similarly, May (1974: 285) also observed a divide into the broad definition of terrorism, he theorises these as; the regime of terror and the siege of terror. The former, May refers to, is terrorism in service of establishing order, while the latter refers to terrorism in service of revolutionary movements. May accedes that the regime of terror is more important of the two but also notes how the siege of terror is also what grips societys attention, as May states revolutionary terrorism, derivative and reflexive though it may be, exposes a level of perception into the universe of killing and being killed that may be even more revealing than state terrorism (May 1974: 290). The argument May puts forth about the regime of terror versus the siege of terror is in fact one of the most interesting puzzles of anyone studying terrorism to come to grips with as most commentators and scholars often focus their attention on the insurgence of terrorism rather than the incumbent nature of terrorism. There are a number of apparent explanations for this. Firstly, one of the hallmarks of insurgence terrorism is that it is dramatic and thus newsworthy. The reason why insurgence terrorism is newsworthy is that it is atypical in nature, it can be addressed stereotypically, and it can be contrasted against a backdrop of normality which is largely overly-typical (Cohen and Young 1981: 52). Thus, when terrorism becomes institutionalised as a form of governance it makes headlines less often simply because it has less news value than a high jacking of an airliner. Another reason for the lack of attention paid toward what May called the regime of terror may be traced back to t he processes of constructing social realities. To explain, the portrayal of official terrorists as rational beings compared to the lunatic and out-of-control nature of the individual terrorist encourages the mass of society to see the threat to their physical and psychic integrity coming from the latter direction (Reddy 1998: 163). Many academics adopt this notion that while states that enforce a regime of terror may be undesirable, the immediate fear from society perhaps mostly from imagery projected into the public persona from the mass media is individual terrorism. It is this component of uncertainly that plays a large part here. For instance, state terrorist activities may be brutal and unjust (Chomsky 2005: 185), but, in general, one knows what activities not to indulge in in order to escape its immediate and person intrusion. Moreover, it also has to be noted that individual terrorism by contrast bears no necessary relation to ones own behaviour. It appears random and dangerous. Here again we hear the echoes of the impact the media has on reporting such events. Furthermore, it must be remembered that many states currently experiencing terrorism are authoritarian states that exert to some extent control over what the news reports. In said cases, therefore, the media can hardly castigate authoritarian go vernments for their excesses thus fearing reprisals such as license cancellation but they can, and do, bring the threat of terrorism by small groups and individuals into the homes of the masses. The view of terrorism therefore is fostered of a society plagued by dangerous extremists damaging the fabric of everyday life and threatening the sate whilst ignoring the greater damage that is being perpetrated as a result of government policies and action plans. However, it is of course much easier to focus greater emphasis on a specific perpetrator than on one amorphous system. There is, therefore, are some sensible practical reasons for the reluctance of scholars studying the phenomenon of state terrorism. For instance, Gloom noted; Historians find it difficult to think themselves into the mores of Robespierres or a Stalins regime of terror and it is dangerous to conduct field research in contemporary regime of terror. It is far easier to conceptualise the use of terror as a weapon to achieve a specific goal rather than a form of a regular and normal government (Gloom 1978: 73) Further to this, the only systematic effort develop general theory of terrorism based on an analysis o