Physics of Neurons Essay -- physics neuron

The human nervous system is divided into two parts, the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. The central nervous system, CNS, is just the brain and spinal cord. The peripheral nervous system, PNS, includes the nerves and neurons that extend outwards from CNS, to transmit information to your limbs and organs for example. Communication between your cells is extremely important, neurons are the messengers that relay information to and from your brain. Nerve cells generate electrical signals to transmit information. Neurons are not necessarily intrinsically great electrical conductors, however, they have evolved specialized mechanisms for propagating signals based on the flow of ions across their membranes. In their inactive state neurons have a negative potential, called the resting membrane potential. Action potentials changes the transmembrane potential from negative to positive. Action potentials are carried along axons, and are the basis for "information transportation" from one cell in the nervous system to another. Other types of electrical signals are possible, but we'll focus on action potentials. These electrical signals arise from ion fluxes produced by nerve cell membranes that are selectively permeable to different ions. Neurons and glia (cells that support neurons) are specialized cells for electrical signaling over long distances. Understanding neuronal structure is important for understanding neuronal function. The number of synaptic inputs recieved by each nerve cell in our (human) nervous system varies from 1-100,000! This wide range reflects the fundamental purpose of nerve cells, to integrate info from other neurons. Cellular organization of neurons resembles that of other ce... ...ive current flow. Another way to improve the passive flow is to insulate the axonal membrane with myelin. This reduces the amount of current that would otherwise leak out of the axon and increases the distance that the current can flow passively. Myelination, aka axon insulation, increases action potential conduction up to 150m/s compared to 0.5-10m/s conduction velocities of unmyelnated axons! Speedy delivery of current (information) along axons is also due to the nodes of Ranvier. Nodes of Ranvier are gaps between insulated portions of the axon. The gaps create a place where the current can flow out of the axon so an action potential can be generated. Action potentials are started at one end of the node, flow passively through the myelinated axon, and pop out the other side to jump to the next node. This jumping of action potentials is called saltatory.

Aging Workforce in Singapore Essay

Populations in many developed countries are ageing, and Singapore is no exception. The first batch of post-war baby boomers will reach 65 years of age by 2012. The number of seniors will increase from 8.4% in 2005 to 18.7% in 2030 (refer to Table 1). According to the 2010 Population Report,  The proportion of residents (i.e. citizens and PRs) aged 65 and above increased from 7.0% of the resident population in 1999 to 8.8% in 2009. Correspondingly, the number of younger residents aged 15-64 for every resident aged 65 and above (i.e. the old-age support ratio) fell from 10.1 in 1999 to 8.3 in 2009 (refer to Table 2). (Singapore Department of Statistics, 2010, p. 4) Today, one out of every 12 Singaporeans is aged 65 or above. By 2030, this ratio will become one out of five. On January 2011, the parliament has passed down the new employment law of changing to retirement age from 62 to the age of 65 from January 2012. This is a good news to many Singaporeans who felt that they are still capable of working beyond the retirement age of 62 (Nayak, 2011, para. 3). An ageing population brings both challenges and opportunities, having tremendous effect on all parts of our society – individuals, families, communities, businesses and government. Therefore, we ought to prepare early for the challenges of an ageing population to ensure the well-being of our seniors and their families to provide the first line of support. At the same time, we must be ready to seize the economic opportunities that will emerge from the demographic shift. Aging Workforce in the Hotel Industry With relevance to the major demographic trends, aging population, this revolution will change the face of our labour market. Correspondingly, the workforce is not only ageing, but also growing at a much slower pace. Increasingly, companies are facing problems in recruiting replacements for retiring employees. This is a reality that companies have to grapple with and adapt to. Nevertheless, not all companies are being affected equally nor are they moving at the same rate to identify and address how the ageing trend will be impacting their businesses. Impacts In the hospitality industry, service is the factor that differentiates hotels from its competitors. Therefore with a large amount of aging workforce in the frontline, it will bring down the image of the hotel in terms of appearance; a younger worker would look fresher and have a better appeal to guests. As a guest of a hotel overseas, he or she would be preferred to be served by younger workers than people of an old age. As older employees are naturally more prone to illnesses, they would tend to take more medical leaves thus decreasing the manpower. When one gets sick, it affects the employees’ mood to work and thus less concentration when working. This in turn reduces the efficiency of the operations of hotels. In addition, the needs and interest changes with aging workforce. According to the study by Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practices (TAFEP) (2010), â€Å"rising health and insurance costs, concern about physical abilities, and adaptability/willingness were ranked as the top three challenges† (p. 3). With the ever changing preferences and needs of the society, hotels have to constantly upgrade their standard of services. However, older employees may not be equipped with latest skills and knowledge needed to achieve the hotel’s competitive advantage. Thus, there is a need to constantly upgrade the skills of their older employees. Older employees are more resistant to changes and improvements. This may be mainly due to their thinking of already having the appropriate experience and knowledge and there is no need for further training, especially in the situation of â€Å"leapfrogging†, where a younger worker is put in charge of a more experienced worker. Many hotels will have an advantage by having a large pool of elderly employees. It is mainly because there are many job positions which young employees would be unwilling to take up. Most time, foreigners would be hired to fill up the rest of the job vacancies that do not appeal to the young employees; however, hotels can have another avenue of recruitment – the elderly workforce. This will give hotels a great advantage to handpick the best candidates out of the pool of elderly workforce. In hotels, there are certain positions that elderly employees occupy, for example managerial positions. Being loyal to the company, they would not want to leave their positions easily as compared to the younger workforce who usually job hops for a better pay. This relieves the hotel’s need to constantly recruit and train new workers, thus helping to cut the costs during the process of recruitment and training. Challenges A) The Human Resource (HR) unit has a challenge to allocate the older employees in suitable positions that is beneficial for both the hotel and the aging workforce. The HR unit also has to ensure that the hotel would maintain a good image and increases their productivity. There is also a need for the HR unit to create a supportive culture for the older workers in order to manage such diverse workforce. B) Keeping older employees motivated at work along with the right attitude is important when serving their customers. In addition, with the older employees being more prone to illnesses, hotels have to struggle with ways to keep their costs low and at the same time provide adequate medical benefits for them. During such periods it is more crucial for managers and supervisors to show them care and patience. C) Values tend to change from one generation to another as well as during different life stages. The thinking of the older generation is more conservative than those of the younger generation. It would thus be a challenge for the hotels wanting the older employees to improve their values in their job scope. With a more conservative mindset and thinking, they would be afraid to try new things and be more innovative. In turn, the hotel will lose its competitiveness if new changes are adopted. Hence, the HR unit in a hotel has to place their older employees in the most relevant training to help them prepare for changes in their current jobs. Besides that, older employees would normally take a longer time to adapt to changes, thus the management has to work out appropriate schedules to help their employees to have a proper balance with their job and trainings. D) Older employees tend to have more skills and knowledge in the industry due to the experiences they have gone through. Retaining this skills and knowledge is critical for hotels to ensure that the younger generation will also have these basic skills and knowledge as a platform for them to have an advantage over their competitors. E) Although there is a need to retain these skills and knowledge, there will definitely be a time when one has to retire. However, the aging workforce is usually reluctant to leave their positions as they are emotionally attached to the hotel. This would be a challenge for the hotel to find ways to recruit younger employees, without resulting in excess manpower and high costs, especially for positions in the higher management. If the hotel were to retain most of the older employees, they may miss opportunities on recruiting young employees who can be a more valuable asset to the hotels which helps to bring their standards to a higher level. Solutions It is time for employers to start responding to the potential consequences of the ageing workforce on their businesses. If not well-prepared, employers may find themselves suddenly faced with labour loss, experience and expertise that will be difficult to offset, given the relatively small pool of new employees. With many companies facing the same problem, competition for new talents is likely to surface. A) Hotels can have interviews to know which areas older employees would prefer to work in and the languages they can speak. With the information gathered, hotels will be able to know their strengths and weaknesses which help to determine where to allocate each individual. With the proper job assignment, hotels will be able to maintain a good image, by reassigning the older employees with language barriers to the backhouse such as room attendant. This allows them to be in their comfort zone and after getting used to their task, the productivity will be maximized in both the frontline and backhouse. B) In order to keep older employees engaged and motivated, it is vital for the HR department to maintain constant communication with the older employees and understand any problems, issues and concerns that they are encountering. By treating their employees like family members, it may be a major job happiness-driver for them and thus motivating them to do better for the hotel. Besides that, communication and treating each other with respect ensures that the spirit of their employees is always high. Through job empowerment, employees will have more decision making responsibilities and hence they will feel more respected as an employee as they are given a chance to handle more difficult situation on their own. As for medical benefits, hotels can pay a certain percentage of their medical fees. For example, the hotels will pay 50% of their employee’s medical fees while the other 50% is paid by the employees. C) Facing the challenge that older generation is more conservative, companies can focus on creating a positive work environment for older employees by allowing flexible hours, more communication and constantly motivating them. Some of the actions can be allowing the older employees to have an option to consider different jobs and different sets of responsibilities. Some older employees may wish to devote their later career years to jobs that allow them to develop new competencies. Others may want jobs that are less demanding, these older employees may be interested in making transitions to different jobs within the company or make lateral moves or even to lower positions with a pay reduction. Other than that, the hotel can allow them to have a choice over the number of hours worked and provide them with flexible schedule for trainings. For example, older employees work on reduced-hours such as part-time or job sharing, so as to schedule the rest of their time for trainings that are a rranged for them. D) To retain the skills and knowledge, the older employees can train and guide the younger employees before they retire to ensure that the skills and knowledge are passed down. After retirement, they can come back and help out by overlooking and having workshops to give further training that is needed. E) To attract the younger people, creative ways are needed. For example, the hotel can come up with a program like the popular show â€Å"The Apprentice† by Donald Trump to search for the best employee. However, we must ensure there is no excessive pool of manpower and costs are kept low. The hotels can allow their older employees to be on-call workers or have flexible work schedules. On-call workers are employees who are called to work only when needed, although they can be scheduled for work for several days or weeks in a row. In days when the hotels need a massive number of employees, the on-call workers will be called back. By providing flexible work schedules, older employees are allowed to plan their work schedules with the choice over the number of hours worked. This will prolong the retirement period for older employees by allowing them to work but at a lesser duration, so that younger employees have the chance to excel and there will not be a surplus or shortage in th e manpower. Case Study: Royal Plaza on Scott The Royal Plaza on Scott is a 5-star leading hotel in Singapore. 50% of the hotel 300 employees are classified under the mature and older category. The company recognized the importance of mature employees and has sets out strategy as Singapore faces human capital challenge of managing a mature and older workforce. According to Fiat (2010), The mature employees are valuable assets to the organization as they are able to share their wealth of experience with the younger employees. The hotel taps on their expertise by pairing the mature employees with the younger generation of new hires to provide guidance and encourage cohesiveness. The hotel also implemented a buddy system where a new mature employee is paired with a younger co-worker or vice versa to work together and learn from each other. For example, younger employees may learn from mature and older employees on how to handle difficult customers while guiding their older colleagues on the effective usage of technology at the workplace. (TAFEP, p. 45) Royal Plaza on Scott has developed recruitment strategies like implementing Flexible Working Arrangements (FWA), where there is a flexible work arrangement which includes flexi-time, part time, job shares and compressed workweeks. Health benefits and programmes will also be implemented including regular health screening, health talk, yoga courses, sushi-making classes and others. This is to encourage for a healthy work life balance. Another great strategy used is to set up a Recreational Committee that was assigned to take care of the well being of co-worker. This committee will be in charge of organizing health awareness events, initiatives to create awareness of healthy lifestyle as well as to bond employees of difference generations (TAFEP, 2010, p.46).

Describe something in my home - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 897 Downloads: 6 Date added: 2017/09/17 Category People Essay Type Argumentative essay Tags: Home Essay Did you like this example? English Description Essay In this essay I will describe something in my home; I have chosen to describe a Cheez-It box. Many people own Cheez-It snacks in their homes. The color of the Cheez-It box is red, white, orange, yellow, and black. The front of the box has a big label reading Cheez-It. Above the label it shows the company’s name which is Sunshine. It has a picture of a little fat chef on the left of the company sunshine’s name. Directly underneath the Cheez-It label it declares that Cheez-It’s are baked snack crackers. Underneath the Cheez-It label and the baked snack cracker label is a large photo of the Cheez-It crackers piled next to a large wedge of cheese. To the left of the wedge of cheese is an advertisement for a car. The advertisement reads â€Å"You could INSTANTLY WIN A NEW RIDE† underneath it shows a 2011 Ford Edge and says to see back for details. Underneath the advertisement it says â€Å"Contains 100% real Cheese† w ith a picture of a wedge of cheese in the middle of the words. The Color of the front of the box is a red background, the words of the Cheez-It label are white, the sunshine company name is yellow background with red letters, the backed snack cracker label is yellow, the picture of the cheese crackers and wedge of cheese is orange, the advertisement is yellow words with picture of a red car, and the â€Å"containing 100% real cheese† label is black with orange wording. The Left side of the box is red with a large white Cheez-It label. It has a yellow and red Sunshine label at the top left hand corner. It has a yellow baked snack crackers label underneath the large Cheez-It label. It also has two pictures of the Cheez-It crackers on both sides of the Cheez-It label. On the left side of the Cheez-It box it has the Cheez-It label at the top. With the yellow and red sunshine label above it and the yellow baked snack crackers label underneath it. A large white Nutrition Fact s box takes up most of the right side of the box. The Nutrition Facts box says the serving size is 27 crackers and there are 13 servings in every box. It says there is 150 calories per serving and 70 calories from fat. It says total fat is 8g which is 12% of your daily value. Its Saturated fat it 2g which is 10% of your daily value. Its Trans fat is 0g, its polyunsaturated fat is 4g, and its Monounsaturated fat is 2g. Its Cholesterol is 0mg which is 0% of your daily value. Its Sodium is 230mg which is 10% of your daily value. Its total Carbohydrates is 17g which is 6% of your daily value. Its Dietary fiber is less than 1g which is 3% of your daily value. Its sugars are 0g and its protein is 3g. Its vitamin A is 2% and its vitamin C is 0%. Its calcium is 4% and its iron is 6%. The chart says the percent daily values are based on a 2000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs. It then says all the ingredients which are enriched flou r, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid, vegetable oil, cheese made with skim milk, enzymes, annatto extract for color, contains two percent or less of salt, paprika, yeast, paprika oleoresin for color, and soy lecithin. The back of the Cheez-It box is a picture of a family eating in their car, and it describes the details of the car giveaway portrayed on the front. Says at the top â€Å" Look inside for your chance to win a new ride and other great tailgate prizes! † and under the picture towards the bottom it reads grand prize: 2011 ford edge, first prize: meet Kirk Herbstreit, second prize: cooler for all your tailgate favorites. If you get tired of that same old taste of the original flavor of Cheez-Its then don’t worry! There are many different flavors to choose from. There are a total of 18 Cheez-It flavors which include Sunshine Cheez-It Cheddar Jack crackers, Sunshine Cheez-It Disney Pixar Toy Story crackers, Sunshine Cheez-It Hot Spicy crackers, Sunshine Cheez-It Italian Four Cheese, Sunshine Cheez-It Nickelodeon SpongeBob SquarePantsâ„ ¢ crackers, Sunshine Cheez-It Original snack crackers, Sunshine Cheez-It Parmesan Garlic, Sunshine Cheez-It Pepper Jack, Sunshine Cheez-It Reduced Fat crackers, Sunshine Cheez-It Reduced Fat White Cheddar crackers, Sunshine Cheez-It Scrabble Junior, Sunshine Cheez-It White Cheddar crackers, Sunshine Cheez-It Whole Grain crackers. There are also party mixes and variety packs which include Duoz: Sunshine Cheez-It Duoz Sharp Cheddar and Parmesan, Sunshine Cheez-It Duoz Smoked Cheddar Monterey Jack. Gripz: Sunshine Gripz Cheez-It crackers. Party Mix: Sunshine Cheez-It Party Mix. Snack Mix: Sunshine Cheez-It Baked Snack Mix, Sunshine Cheez-It Double Cheese Snack Mix. Next I will tell you the history of Cheez-Its. According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office trademark records, the first Cheez-It Cheese Crackers were sold by Green Green Company of Dayton , Ohio in May 1921. The Green Green Company was acquired by The Sunshine Biscuit Company, founded in 1902 as the Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company. The Keebler Company acquired Sunshine in 1996, and Keebler was also acquired by Kellogg in 2001. Cheez-It crackers are still sold under the Sunshine label. That is all I could find on the history of Cheez-Its. And this is all I know about Cheez-Its! CHEEZ-ITS RULE! Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Describe something in my home" essay for you Create order

What Is the Skewness of an Exponential Distribution

Common parameters for probability distribution include the mean and standard deviation. The mean gives a measurement of the center and the standard deviation tells how spread out the distribution is. In addition to these well-known parameters, there are others that draw attention to features other than the spread or the center. One such measurement is that of skewness. Skewness gives a way to attach a numerical value to the asymmetry of a distribution.​ One important distribution that we will examine is the exponential distribution. We will see how to prove that the skewness of an exponential distribution is 2. Exponential Probability Density Function We begin by stating the probability density function for an exponential distribution. These distributions each have a parameter, which is related to the parameter from the related Poisson process. We denote this distribution as Exp(A), where A is the parameter. The probability density function for this distribution is: f(x) e-x/A/A, where x is nonnegative. Here e is the mathematical constant e that is approximately 2.718281828. The mean and standard deviation of the exponential distribution Exp(A) are both related to the parameter A. In fact, the mean and standard deviation are both equal to A. Definition of Skewness Skewness is defined by an expression related to the third moment about the mean. This expression is the expected value: E[(X – ÃŽ ¼)3/ÏÆ'3] (E[X3] – 3ÃŽ ¼ E[X2] 3ÃŽ ¼2E[X] – ÃŽ ¼3)/ÏÆ'3 (E[X3] – 3ÃŽ ¼(ÏÆ'2 – ÃŽ ¼3)/ÏÆ'3. We replace ÃŽ ¼ and ÏÆ' with A, and the result is that the skewness is E[X3] / A3 – 4. All that remains is to calculate the third moment about the origin. For this we need to integrate the following: ∠«Ã¢Ë†Å¾0 x 3 f(x) dx. This integral has an infinity for one of its limits. Thus it can be evaluated as a type I improper integral. We also must determine what integration technique to use. Since the function to integrate is the product of a polynomial and exponential function, we would need to use integration by parts. This integration technique is applied several times. The end result is that: E[X3] 6A3 We then combine this with our previous equation for the skewness. We see that the skewness is 6 – 4 2. Implications It is important to note that the result is independent of the specific exponential distribution that we start with. The skewness of the exponential distribution does not rely upon the value of the parameter A. Furthermore, we see that the result is a positive skewness. This means that the distribution is skewed to the right. This should come as no surprise as we think about the shape of the graph of the probability density function. All such distributions have y-intercept as 1//theta and a tail that goes to the far right of the graph, corresponding to high values of the variable x. Alternate Calculation Of course, we should also mention that there is another way to calculate skewness. We can utilize the moment generating function for the exponential distribution. The first derivative of the moment generating function evaluated at 0 gives us E[X]. Similarly, the third derivative of the moment generating function when evaluated at 0 gives us E(X3].

The Myth Of Individual Success - 1430 Words

Across oceans and seas, in every village, city or town, an apple falls at 9.8 meters per second squared. This fact has remained unchanged since it was discovered, and the myth of individual opportunity and the myth of gender in the United States have also stayed true to its original meaning since the beginning of the myths, only with a few minor changes. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word myth as â€Å"an idea or story defined by many people but is not true. These myths, in particular the myth of individual success and the myth of gender can give us unrealistic beliefs about the society we live in and cause psychological harm due to society’s preset gender roles that are pounded in our heads and reinforced by our peers, our families and the media. Through educating people about the realities that underlie these myths and finding ways to break free of gender roles as well as encouraging others to do the same we can start a movement to end the chains that tightly s ecure us to behave based on expectations. The traits that are thought of to bring success have changed over time, but the general meaning of the myth of individual opportunity has remained the same. The myth of individual opportunity is the belief that everyone has the same chance to wealth and class. The route to success in the 1800s was based in virtues such as honesty, modesty, and bravery. Horatio Alger, a popular writer in the 1800s wrote stories about men going from rags to riches. His stories exemplifyShow MoreRelatedMoney And Success : The Myth Of Individual Opportunity By Gary Colombo Essay1661 Words   |  7 Pagesdreamt of. This means that there is plenty of competition between people chasing the same dream. In â€Å"Money and Success: The Myth of Individual Opportunity† Gary Colombo discusses how many people live in the myth of an American dream. People assume the American Dream will make them happy by having the dream job and being like everyone else. While Colombo talks about how the American dream is a myth of having money and being successful, Diana Kendall discusses in â€Å"Framing Class, Vicarious Living, and ConspicuousRead MoreFulfilling the Promise of the American Dream Essay661 Words   |  3 Pagesexpect to achieve success. A number of factors must be taken into consideration: natural talent, class, and most importantly, the ability to assimilate. The American economy today does not allow every citizen to be satisfied with his position. There is a clear distinction between the classes in America. The pursuit of happiness is limited to those who adapt and conform, as well as requiring a set of skills in order to remain competitive in the job market. In â€Å"Class in America: Myths and RealitiesRead MoreIs Gender The Same Element As Sex? Essay1323 Words   |  6 Pageselement as Sex? This topic is complicated for the reason that countless people confuse these two as the same, but they are two absolutely different concepts. There are several Cultural Myths about Gender and Sex. Gary Colombo, who wrote: â€Å"Thinking Critically, Challenging Cultural Myths† who explains that a cultural myth is a shared set of customs, values, ideas, and beliefs, as well as a common language. In â€Å"Sisterhood is Complicated† by Ruth Padawer who is a contributing writer at The New York TimesRead MoreThe Myth Of Individual Opportunity1306 Words   |  6 PagesThe Myth of Individual Opportunity America is often referenced with the idea of the â€Å"American Dream† and the â€Å"Land of Opportunity.† For centuries, people have flocked to America in hopes of a better life and greater opportunity. However, if they are searching for equal opportunity, America is not the country that they will find it in. Success in the United States is limited to the opportunities available to the individual, and without equal distribution of opportunity, financial success is not reachableRead MoreThe Myth Of The Latin Woman889 Words   |  4 PagesThe role of outward appearance has always been a large component in the process of how a person is viewed. The way an individual looks to others highly influences how the individual is perceived by the world around them. This concept is supported in the essays The Myth Of a Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria by Judith Ortiz Cofer and The Ugly Tourist by Jamaica Kincaid. Both of these authors faced persecution because of their outward appearance. Cofer accounts being misjudged because of herRead MoreTax Revenue Is The Source Of Funding For Public Education1176 Words   |  5 Pagesdoes. The federal income tax structure is an example of a progressive tax. A Regressive tax is one in which the tax rate is uniform and therefore, the regressive tax takes a larger percentage of available funds from lower-income individuals than from higher-income individuals. Sales tax is an example of a regressive tax. There are five local sources of income that schools rely on for revenue, and there are advantages and disadvantages to each with respect to equity, yield, and acceptance. PropertyRead MoreThe Clock Building, Not Time Telling, By James C. Collins And Jerry I1053 Words   |  5 Pagescreation, â€Å"the company itself and what it stands for,† (Collins and Porras 23) must stand above and beyond anything else. This is the crucial claim discovered by Collins and Porras by investigating key factors. Through exploring two entrenched business myths, they revealed that visionary companies were built upon something greater and grander than originally thought. They began to evaluate various companies’ roots and leadership, finding astonishing correlations that change the landscape and mindset ofRead MoreIntroduction to Rereading America901 Words   |  4 Pagespower of cultural myths, the editors tell that cultural myths hold people together and influence in the way we relate t o others. Greek mythology is maintained by the editors to compare it with American culture. Both Greek and American culture can benefit the society but they can also restrain the society in modern life. Although both give understanding in society about how they should react, their definition of success is different. According to the editors definition of success, America is distinguishedRead MoreRagged Dick, by Hoatio Alger1532 Words   |  7 Pagesfeel as though it’s a myth as oppose to others thinking it’s great guidelines or a great blueprint to success. In a selection of the money and success chapter in â€Å"Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing†, a professor at Yale Law School, Harlon L. Dalton critiques the story of Horatio Alger â€Å"Ragged Dick† calling it a myth. Dalton says that you can’t just overlook the fact that people still are based upon race and class. The Horatio Alger myth conveys three basic messagesRead MoreMyths: Education and Family1664 Words   |  7 PagesInterpreting and understanding myths depend on an individual’s personal views, beliefs, and ideas. With that in mind, the myth regarding the nuclear family and the myth of education and empowerment are all interpreted differently and argued, for and against, in many ways. Both have been perceived negatively by society, yet they have not always been a harmful folktale. Rather, the myth that education can improve someone’s life has been used, year after year, to motivate the youth in order to improve

Infrastructure Emerging Technologies in It free essay sample

Chapter 5: IT Infrastructure Emerging Technologies I. Define IT infrastructure and identify its components. a. IT infrastructure= the shared technology resources that provide the platform for the firm’s specific information system applications. i. Includes investment in hardware, software, and services (such as consulting, education, training) that are shared across the entire firm or business. ii. Provides the foundation for serving customers, working with vendors, and managing internal firm business processes. b. IT components iii. Computer hardware platforms 1. Used to provide computing services that connect employees, customers, suppliers into a coherent digital environment 2. Ex: large mainframes, desktop laptop computers, internet appliances, etc. 3. Blade servers= ultrathin computers consisting of a circuit board w/ processors, memory, network connections that are stored in racks. iv. Enterprise software platforms 4. Application software services that provide enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, supply chain management, knowledge management systems that are shared by all business units v. Networking telecommunications platforms 5. Provide data, voice, video connectivity to employees, customers, suppliers vi. Database management platforms 6. Store manage corporate data provide capabilities for analyzing the data 7. Storage area networks (SANs)= connect multiple storage devices on a separate high-speed network dedicated to storage. 1) Creates a large central pool of storage that can be rapidly accessed shared by multiple servers. vii. Internet platforms iii. Consulting services systems integrators II. Identify changes in IT infrastructure c. 5 stages of IT infrastructure evolution 1) Mainframe Era (1959 to Present) -The introduction of IBM 1401 7090 machines in 1959 marked the beginning. -a period of highly centralized computing under the control of professional programmers systems operators, w/ most elements of infrastructure provided by a single vendor, the manufacturer, the software. 2) Personal Computer Era (1981 to Present) The appearance of the IBM PC in 1981 considered beginning of PC era b/c this machine was the first to be widely adopted by American businesses. -Wintel PC computer- Windows operating system software on a computer w/ an Intel microprocessor -95% of the world’s billions of computers use the Wintel standard. 3) Client/ Server Era (1983 to Present) -In client/ server computing: desktop or laptop computers called clients are networked to powerful server computers that provide the client computers w/ a variety of services capabilities. Computer processing work is split between these 2 types of machines†¦ -Client= user point of entry -Server= typically processes stores shared data, serves up Web pages, or manages network actvities. -multitiered (often called N-tier) client/ server architectures= the work of the entire network is balanced over several different levels of servers, depending on the kind of service being requested. -Web server= will serve a Web page to client in response for a request for serv ice. -Web server software is responsible for locating managing stored Web pages. application server- this software handles all application operations between a user an organization’s back-end business systems. -**Client/ server computing enables businesses to distribute computing work across a series of smaller, inexpensive machines that cost much less than minicomputers or centralized mainframe systems. -**The result is an explosion in computing power applications throughout the firm. 4) Enterprise Computing Era (1992 to Present) -business firms began seriously using the Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) networking standard to tie disparate networks together. it links different pieces of computer hardware smaller networks into an enterprise-wide network so that information can flow freely across the organization between the firm other organizations. 5) Cloud Computing Era (2000 to Present) -cloud computing= refers to a model of computing where f irms individuals obtain computing power software applications over the Internet, rather than purchasing their own hardware software. -ex: over 500,000 firms in 2009 will use Google Apps, a suite of internet-based desktop software applications such as word processing, spreadsheets, calendars. *Moore’s Law Microprocessing Power** -assertion that the number of components on a chip doubles each year. III. Consider current trends in computing hardware software platforms. d. Current trends in computing hardware ix. Mobile digital computing platform 8. Cell phones smartphones (Blackberry iPhone) 9. Netbooks 10. Digital E-Books x. Grid computing 11. Involves connecting geographically remote computers into a single network to create a computational grid that combines the computing power of all the computers on the network w/ which to attack large computing problems. i. On-demand cloud computing 12. Model of computing where firms individuals obtain computing power software ap plications over the Internet, rather than purchasing installing the hardware or software on their own computers. xii. Virtualization 13. Organizes computing resources so that their use is not restricted by physical configuration or geographic location. 14. Server virtualization- enables companies to run a more than one operating system at the same time on the same computer. (i. e. run an older version of an operating system on the same server as newer applications) 15. Multicore processor- a microprocessor to which two or more processors have been attached for enhanced performance, reduced power consumption, more efficient simultaneous processing of multiple tasks. e. Current trends in computing software xiii. Growing use of Linux 16. A powerful, resilient open source operating system that can run on multiple hardware platforms is used widely to run Web servers. 17. Linux applications are embedded into cell phones, smartphones, netbooks, and other handheld devices. xiv. Open-source software 18. Produced maintained by a global community of programmers is downloadable for free. 19. Particularly Linux, enables cost reduction, reliability resilience, integration b/c Linux works on all the major hardware platforms from mainframes to servers to clients. xv. Java and Ajax 20. Java= an operating-system- and hardware-independent programming language that is the leading interactive programming environment for the Web. 21. Ajax= (Asynchronous Javascript XML) another Web development technique for creating Web applications. xvi. Web services 22. Loosely coupled software components based on open Web standards that are not product-specific can work w/ any application software operating system. 23. They can be used as components of Web-based applications linking the systems of two different organizations or to link disparate systems of a single company. 24. Service-oriented architecture (SOA)= set of self-contained services that communicate w/ each other to create a working software application. xvii. Mashups widgets 25. The building blocks of new software applications services based on the cloud computing model. 6. Mashups= composite software applications that depend on high-speed networks, universal communication standards, open-source code. 27. Widgets= small software program that can be added to a Web page or placed on a desktop to provide additional functionality xviii. Software outsourcing 28. Companies are purchasing their new software applications from outside sources, including software packages, by outsourcing cu stom application development to an external vendor (that may be offshore), or by renting Software as a Service (SaaS). 29. In order to manage their relationship w/ an outsourcer or technology service provider, firms will need a contract that includes a service level agreement (SLA). 2) SLA is a formal contract between customers their service providers that defines the specific responsibilities of the service provider the level of service expected by the customer. 3) Usually include: i. Nature level of services provided ii. Criteria for performance iii. Measurement iv. Support options v. Provisions for security or disaster recovery vi. Hardware software ownerships upgrades vii. Customer support viii. Billing ix. Conditions for terminating the agreement IV. Understand the challenges in managing maintaining IT infrastructure in an organization f. Dealing w/ platform infrastructure change xix. As firms grow they can quickly outgrow their infrastructure or as firms shrink, they can get stuck w/ excessive infrastructure purchased in better times. xx. Scalability- the ability of a computer, product, or system to expand to serve large number of users without breaking down. . Infrastructure management governance h. Making wise infrastructure investments **Solution guidelines: -using a competitive forces model to determine how much to spend on IT infrastructure -where to make strategic infrastructure investments -establishing the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of information technology assets **Total cost of owning technology resources includes: -original cost of computer hardware software -costs for hardware software upgrades -maintenance -technical support -training

Walmart Failure in Germany free essay sample

Many companies’ ambitions to position themselves (profitably) in foreign markets or to establish themselves as â€Å"global players† have been thwarted by their inability to fully understand and to adapt to the specific conditions of doing business in other countries, exposing their profound lack of intercultural competence and management skills. This is exactly what happened to Wal-Mart Germany. To begin with, it appointed four CEOs during its first four years of operation. The first was Rob Tiarks, a US citizen and a Wal-Mart, Inc. senior vice president who had previously supervised around 200 US Supercenters from the company headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. Not only did he not speak any German. Due to his unwillingness to learn the language – a view shared by most of the other US managers that were redeployed to Germany to assist him –, English was soon decreed as the official company language at the management level. What is more, he displayed an astounding degree of ignorance with regard to the manifold complexities and the legal and institutional framework of the German retail market, ignoring any strategic advice presented to him by former Wertkauf executives – thereby encouraging the top three of them to leave within six months. We will write a custom essay sample on Walmart Failure in Germany or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page After Wal-Mart’s 1998 acquisition of UK retailer ASDA, Tiarks was replaced by Englishman Allan Leighton. In terms of his specific market knowledge as well as linguistically as inexperienced as Tiarks, he preferred to head the company from his Leeds, UK, office and was replaced as little as six month later by Volker Barth. 59 The first German ever to be entrusted with the top job, and one of the few remaining ex-Wertkauf managers still aboard, he too failed to integrate Spar – a rather loose organization of largely independent regional units – into Wertkauf – formerly a highly centralized owner-controlled firm – and to blend their vastly different corporate cultures with Wal-Mart’s. Since May 1st, 2001, Kay Hafner, supported by a group of native Germans, has been at the company’s helm. However, the jury is still out as to whether he is indeed the badly needed integrator. 60 According to headhunters Wal-Mart Germany’s is widely considered to be a very unattractive employer, with around one third of its executives – from store managers upwards – actively seeking job offers from other companies. The nderlying causes are said to include widespread dissatisfaction with their relatively low pay, Wal-Mart’s practice to transfer store managers after one or two years, and the (allegedly) â€Å"low American quality standards† of most merchandise currently in store. 61 Others complained about the company’s frugal internal regulations for business trips, in particular the decree that executives have to share rooms – a rule unheard of in any other major German or European company (and, in our view, unenforceable were it ever imposed). In the US, Wal-Mart is a strictly non-union employer; only 12 of its more than one million US employees – workers in the meat department of its Jacksonville, Texas, store – are known to be union members. 62 In Germany, like in most other parts of Continental Europe however, unions, despite decreasing membership, still wield enormous influence – both in the political sphere and on the shop floor. The unions’ enthusiasm, prompted by Wal-Mart’s decision to hire more staff immediately after its entry in Germany to provide â€Å"excellent customer service†, quickly faded away. Soon faced with rapidly mounting losses, Wal-Mart’s management resorted to staff cuts and closures to reduce its above-average personnel costs. Due to strict worker protection regulations, however, making surplus workers redundant can be a complicated, lengthy and costly affair in Germany – a cumbersome fact of life for its German competitors, but, obviously, terra incognita for Wal-Mart Germany’s (mostly) American executives. What is more, the company refused to formally acknowledge the outcome of the sector-specific centralized wage-bargaining process (which is the standard procedure for determining wages in Germany) ver. di, the relevant union, and the retailers’ employers’ association had agreed upon. Although it voluntarily paid its staff 0. 5 per cent on top of the general raise, to the company’s management complete surprise, ver. di retaliated by organizing walkouts at 30 stores throughout the country – resulting not only in lost sales but in bad publicity for â€Å"union-bashing† Wal-Mart. 3 As will be discussed in more detail below, the ver. di–Wal-Mart controversy is escalating after the union sued the company for breaching Germany’s financial information disclosure regulations. Neither everyday low prices nor excellent service Traditionally, Wal-Mart has inflicted a full-scale price war on incumbents on every single market it has so far entered in order to credibly communicate its legendary â€Å"every day low price†-pledge to local consumers. While extremely successful almost everywhere else, this strategy badly backfired in Germany – largely due to the afore-mentioned ignorance, lack of experience, and hubris of Wal-Mart Germany’s original top management team led by Rob Tiarks: †¢ To his complete surprise, all affected German competitors, first and foremost Aldi – which throughout its existence successfully defended its position as Germany’s undisputed cost and price leader – Lidl, Rewe and Edeka, not only matched all of Wal-Mart’s price cuts. Even worse, the results of several independent surveys, commissioned by newspapers or conducted by Stiftung Warentest, a highly influential government-sponsored consumer protection agency, and the Gesellschaft fur Konsumforschung (GfK), Germany’s biggest market-research institute, demystified Wal-Mart’s fundamental value proposition â€Å"everyday low prices† as a (largely) empty promise: They showed that Wal-Mart had not been able to systematically undercut Aldi and the other hard discounters, and that, by contrast, its assortment was not even substantially cheaper then the traditional retailers’ (Rewe, Edeka etc. offerings. †¢ So far Wal-Mart Germany has not succeeded in delivering on the second part of its value proposition – â€Å"excellent customer service† – either. By contrast the company has repeatedly been rated as only just or even slightly below average in terms of overall consumer satisfaction (Table 7). 67 In our view , this is because Wal-Mart’s traditional US-centered view of customer service, enshrined in some of its famous/notorious basic beliefs and rules, is only partly compatible with the expectations of German consumers. This is in particular true of the famous â€Å"tenfoot- rule† (â€Å"three-meter-rule† in metric Germany) and the institution of the â€Å"greeter† (which, in the meantime, have been largely abolished after shoppers unaware of its key role in Wal-Mart’s service concept had repeatedly complained that they had been harassed by strangers on store premises). While yielding little tangible conomic benefits – German consumers have been accustomed for decades to shopping at self-service formats without any staff assistance –, the additional personnel required to perform these services efficiently, are the cause why Wal-Mart’s labor costs (as a percentage of total costs) continue to remain above the industry’s average. Finally, suffice it to say that Germany’s restrictive shopping hour regulations prevent Wal-Mart (as well as any other Germany-based retailer, to be sure) from offering its customers the additional convenience and superior shopping comfort associated with 24/7 operations. Repeated Infringements of German Laws and Regulations With the ensuing negative publicity, Wal-Mart stands accused of, or has already been tried and fined for breaching several important German laws and regulations, in particular †¢ Section 20(4) of the †Act Against Restraints of Competitionâ€Å" (Gesetz gegen Wettbewerbsbeschrankungen or GWB). This centerpiece of German antitrust legislation bans all †undertakings with superior market powerâ€Å"68 from selling a range of goods †not merely occasionally below its cost price, unless there is an objective justification for thisâ€Å", Section 335a of the †Commercial Actâ€Å" (Handelsgesetzbuch or HGB). It requires all corporations to disclose basic financial information including a balance sheet and an annual profit or loss statement and, in early January 2003, the recently amended †Obligatory Deposit Regulationâ€Å". It stipulates that retailers must provide a deposit-refund-system for certai n types of plastic and metal beverage containers or, alternatively, to refrain from selling any product bottled or canned in containers which are covered by this piece of legislation. Wal-Mart’s failure to comply with the provisions of the German antitrust act may simply be considered a further proof of its initial hubris with regard to the workings and intricacies of the German retail market. 69 Its unwillingness to publish key financial data – despite increasingly hefty fines levied against the company, and more recently, also against Dave Ferguson, head of Wal-Mart’s European operations, Kay Hafner (CEO Germany), and Gottfried Haug (CFO Germany) personally – is now widely perceived by analysts and the media as a blunt attempt to prevent outsiders – including shareholders – from taking a true and fair view of the dire state of Wal-Mart‘s German business activities. 70,71 Conclusion and Outlook Wal-Mart’s difficulties on the highly competitive German market can, after five years of extremely disappointing results, no longer be discarded as mere teething problems. Widely perceived now as a mediocre retailer with no particular strengths and weaknesses, let alone any particularly attractive and credible value proposition, Wal-Mart Germany seems light-years away from meeting the internal financial benchmarks set by Wal-Mart Inc. ’s Bentonville headquarters: a return on equity of 17 per cent (10 per cent after tax) and the requirement that any investment must have been completely refinanced by means of the cash flow it generates after a maximum period of 15 years. As we have tried to demonstrate, Wal-Mart’s failure on the German market has been the inevitable result of its inability – caused by an astounding degree of ignorance of key principles of internationalization strategies and intercultural management – to select and implement an adequate entry and business strategy. Instead of shaking up the extremely competitive German retailing sector with an innovative approach to doing business, as it has so convincingly done in the USA, in Germany the company seems to be the prey rather than the hunter. Wal-Mart Germany’s future looks bleak indeed.