Critique of the Literature Review Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Critique of the Literature Review - Assignment Example The study sought to investigate the relationship among leadership styles, demographic factors, and confidence in the delegation of duty by registered nurses in a nursing facility. Results identified lack of a relationship between confidence in delegating duties to â€Å"unregistered assistive personnel† and applied leadership style by registered nurses (Saccomano and Pinto-Zipp, 2011, p. 522). The results also noted that fresh nurses with lower academic qualifications reported lower confidence in delegating duties to the unlicensed personnel than registered nurses. This however changed and after years of experience, the nurses with lower qualifications reported higher confidence than registered nurses did (Saccomano and Pinto-Zipp, 2011). The article identified the study’s problem with clarity. Based on its literature review, registered nurses focus on clinical practice but disregard managerial and leadership roles. Previous studies had also not explored the relationship between leadership among registered nurses and their confidence in delegation despite a belief that leadership is significant to the nurses’ ability to manage unlicensed personnel and this knowledge gap informs the study’s problem. The researchers also identified frameworks for their study through the concept of transformational leadership and through the path-goal theory. They defined a relationship between transformational leadership concept and problem, delegation among nursing leaders, and the relationship between the Path-Goal theory and the delegation problem. The theory, the concept, and their proposed effect on an individual’s ability to empower followers and delegate duties to them make the theory and concept appro priate for the study’s problem (Saccomano and Pinto-Zipp, 2011). Reviewed literature was appropriate for the topic and contributed to knowledge development on the topic’s variables. Selected information from the reviewed literature was relevant to the topic and the scope of the  literature’s contents was consistent with the scope of the article’s aim.  

Organizational Communications Strategy Essay Example for Free

Organizational Communications Strategy Essay Leaders are responsible for motivating people to do their work effectively and achieve common objectives. Some believe leaders are born but some of the qualities can also be embedded in leaders through training and learning. Communication is the process when one person conveys thoughts or feelings to another individual or collection of people. The effectiveness of the communication process can be measured by message intended is equal to the message extracted. Feedback is essential for the communication process as this provides a response to on how successful we have been in transferring our message as originally intended. Teams focus on a collective style of working where the team members work together to achieve common goals. In teams the synergy level is positive, that is the performance of the team is greater than the individual efforts. The self managed teams discussed in this case are linked with empowerment, empowering employees enables them to participate better in team decision making processes. Leaders should facilitate and gain the trust of these teams rather than try to control and dictate to them. This allows instant action to be taken against a problem leading to valuable solutions. Communication is the back bone of an organization; it is one of the most important aspects required for the survival and success of the organization, whether the objective is dealing with corporate clients, employees or general public. The aim of the massage is to get across the Messages clearly, convincingly and to the relevant targeted audiences, Content that is delivered should be conveyed using the most effective and efficient channels, and a important aspect which is to be kept in mind is that Communications are customized to reflect cultural, and local diversity so it should be utilized accordingly for the betterment of the organization. Every thing done in the organization is through communication so it is a very significant element of any organization. The company I have chosen of the fortune 500 is FedEx the communication strategy is accordingly to the current trends in the business, I will emphasize on IT for the purpose of communication whether it be with in the organization or out side to customers, the internet will be used in fact for this purpose, as it is the most efficient and effective communication medium of present era. IT internal use it is a blessing as at present organization are moving toward paper less offices and e-mails are the best way to correspond and to Provide timely responses to all questions and feedback received. For external use website is a best source to attract new and maintain present customer as a large population of the world uses the WWW, for socializing, checking e-mails, browsing etc. using this medium will help FedEx in Developing focused, targeted communications at the right time to the correct audience, Communicate concise, pertinent, interesting content with a positive tone to cater the market. Website will be used for the purpose of providing a repository of business wide communications and questions and answers that is easily accessible to all FedEx concern employees. Another vital source I would use for my communication strategy will be the mobile phone, it has been growing rapidly at present and the cell phone has become one of the most vital means to convey messages, as the general public who use cell phones are addicted to it. We could target our customer by mobile massages which are used at present companies to attract customer, further the merge of the mobile and the internet has had a positive impact on the industry. Further, we could use other means of promoting their Internet marketing efforts offline like newsletters, direct mails, etc in order to reach more people nationally and internationally. The same tools can be used to promote not only the website but the company as a whole at the same time based on data gathered about customers online. Conduct online promotion using banner ads, e-newsletters, e-zines, etc. Since internet marketing is a new concept, those people who do go online may not be aware of exactly which companies have websites now. Therefore it would be a really effective idea right now to start placing banner ads on websites, there should be an overall increase in awareness of the use of Websites to interact with their customers online. I believe that the postal system is not very reliable but the usage of online advertisement can increase the interactivity and understanding of consumers and become more personalized. The World Wide Web has got billions of users with a great deal of attention from press and industry analysts. It’s got big names like Amazon and Yahoo which makes it sound even more intimidating to small businesses to use the Internet as a big part of their marketing solution. Like traditional advertising, Web marketing does not need a catchy slogan or striking images or animations. To get started, all one needs to do is state just the facts: who you are, what you sell, where you’re located, and other basic information. It does not cost a lot to fix mistakes, add new information or make other changes. That’s one source of anxiety absent in Web marketing. The same free tools used to develop web pages can be used to fix them, add to them or expand them. Todays consumers rarely wait until they enter a store before they begin to develop a decision to purchase one brand over another. For most businesses this is one of the greatest opportunities of the Internet. By responding to the consumers need for information and providing them with the information they are looking for earlier in the sales cycle, a business of any size can develop the kind of branded relationship that at one time only corporations with large ad budgets could afford. To get maximum benefit one can blend conventional advertising with online advertising to further energize and empower the overall campaign and make it interactive. What is needed is creativity and imaginative thinking. There is no particular, sure-fire way of doing it right and there is hardly a code of conduct. That gives internet-advertising a lot of breathing space but also leaves no excuses for not being innovative. As I have mentioned above if we conduct a cost and benefit analysis it would portray more benefit than the cost, the major target market of this media are the corporate clients as they make up most of the market in using FedEx services, with this innovative medium we will attract new customer for our product as well, the stake holder are the employee, loyal customer, the management of FedEx etc. In order to cater cultural nuances of people from all over the world we will have website customized to match the particular countries culture, and we will endeavor to cater the worldwide culture accordingly for instance Take nudity, Many Mildest cultures are reluctant to displaying women’s skin, while Europeans are far more tolerant of public nudity than Americans, these cultural difference will be catered for the effectiveness of the organizational communications strategy. Culture is a very difficult term to define. However, certain people have gone on and defined culture well by saying that it is a ‘set of shared values, opinions and practices of a community or group of people. ’ (Definition of Culture) The importance of the understanding of a socio-cultural environment of any country is imperative to attaining business advantage and eventually translatable success. This understanding of socio-cultural environment is then translated effectively into business practices so that they appeal to the local crowd and create a positive image of the firm in their minds. (Cultural Barriers) In my opinion this organizational communications strategy will do wonders for the organization, I hope this strategy will be implemented for the betterment of the organization.

Convolutional Codes Simulation Using Matlab Computer Science Essay

Convolutional Codes Simulation Using Matlab Computer Science Essay Abstract: In order to reduce the effects of random and burst errors in transmitted signal it is necessary to use error-control coding. We researched some possibilities of such coding using the MATLAB Communications Toolbox. There are two types of codes available Linear Block Codes and Convolutional Codes. In block coding the coding algorithm transforms each piece (block) of information into a code word part of which is a generated structured redundancy. Convolutional code uses an extra parameter (memory). This puts an extra constraint on the code. Convolutional codes operate on serial data, one or a few bits at a time. This paper describes basic aspects of Convolutional codes and illustrates Matlab encoding and decoding implementations. Convolutional codes are often used to improve the performance of radio and satellite links. Key words: Convolutional codes, error-control coding, radio and satellite links. 1. Introduction Convolutional codes are commonly specified by three parameters (n,k,m): n = number of output bits; k = number of input bits; m = number of memory registers. The quantity k/n called the code rate, is a measure of the efficiency of the code. Commonly k and n parameters range from 1 to 8, m from 2 to 10 and the code rate from 1/8 to 7/8 except for deep space applications where code rates as low as 1/100 or even longer have been employed. Often the manufacturers of convolutional code chips specify [1] the code by parameters (n,k,L), The quantity L is called the constraint length of the code and is defined by Constraint Length, L = k (m-1). The constraint length L represents the number of bits in the encoder memory that affect the generation of the n output bits. The constraint length L is also referred to by the capital letter K, which can be confusing with the lower case k, which represents the number of input bits. In some books K is defined as equal to product the of k and m. Often in commercial spec, the codes are specified by (r, K), where r = the code rate k/n and K is the constraint length. The constraint length K however is equal to L 1, as defined in this paper. Even though a convolutional coder accepts a fixed number of message symbols and produces a fixed number of code symbols, its computations depend not only on the current set of input symbols but on some of the previous input symbols. In general, a rate R=k/n, k  £ n, convolutional encoder input (information sequence) is a sequence of binary k-tuples, u = ..,u-1, u0, u1, u2,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦, where . The output (code sequence) is a sequence of binary n-tuples, v = ..,v-1, v0, v1, v2,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦, where . The sequences must start at a finite (positive or negative) time and may or may not end. The relation between the information sequences and the code sequences is determined by the equation v = uG , where is the semi-infinite generator matrix, and where the sub-matrices G i , 0 £ i £ m, are binary kXn matrices. The arithmetic in v = uG is carried out over the binary field, F 2 , and the parts left blank in the generator matrix G are assumed to be filled in with zeros. The right hand side of v= uG defines a discrete-time convolution between u and , hence, the name convolutional codes [2]. As in many other situations where convolutions appear it is convenient to express the sequences in some sort of transform. In information theory and coding theory [3], [4] it is common to use the delay operator D, the D-transform. The information and code sequences becomes and They are related through the equation , where is the generator matrix. The set of polynomial matrices is a special case of the rational generator matrices. Hence, instead of having finite impulse response in the encoder, as for the polynomial case, we can allow periodically repeating infinite impulse responses. To make the formal definitions for this case it is easier to start in the D-domain. Let F 2((D)) denote the field of binary Laurent series. The element contains at most finitely many negative powers of D. similarly, let F 2[D] denote the ring of binary polynomials. A polynomial contains no negative powers of D and only finitely many positive. Given a pair of polynomials x(D), y(D)Æ’Å ½ F 2[D], where y(D) ¹0, we can obtain the element x(D)/y(D)Æ’Å ½ F 2((D)) by long division. All non-zero ratios x(D)/y(D) are invertible, so they form the field of binary rational functions, F 2(D), which is a sub-field of F 2((D)). A rate R = k/n (binary) convolutional transducer over the field of rational functions F 2(D) is a linear mapping which can be represented as v(D)=u(D)G(D), where G(D) is a k X n transfer function matrix of rank k with entries in F 2(D) and v(D) is called the code sequence corresponding to the information sequence u(D). A rate R = k/n convolutional code C over F 2 is the image set of a rate R = k/n convolutional transducer. We will only consider realizable (causal) transfer function matrices, which we call generator matrices. A transfer function matrix of a convolutional code is called a generator matrix if it is realizable (causal). It follows from the definitions that a rate R = k/n convolutional code C with the k X n generator matrix G(D) is the row space of G(D) over F((D)). Hence, it is the set of all code sequences generated by the convolutional generator matrix, G(D). A rate R = k/n convolutional encoder of a convolutional code with rate R = k/n generator matrix G(D) over F 2(D) is a realization by linear sequential circuits of G(D). 2. Convolutional encoder simulation The Convolutional Encoder block encodes a sequence of binary input vectors to produce a sequence of binary output vectors. This block can process multiple symbols at a time. If the encoder takes k input bit streams (that is, can receive 2k possible input symbols), then this blocks input vector length is L*k for some positive integer L. Similarly, if the encoder produces n output bit streams (that is, can produce 2n possible output symbols), then this blocks output vector length is L*n. The input can be a sample-based vector with L  =  1, or a frame-based column vector with any positive integer for L. For a variable in the MATLAB workspace [5], [6] that contains the trellis structure, we put its name as the Trellis structure parameter. This way is preferable because it causes Simulink [5] to spend less time updating the diagram at the beginning of each simulation, compared to the usage in the next bulleted item. For specify the encoder using its constraint length, generator polyno mials, and possibly feedback connection polynomials, we used a poly2trellis command within the Trellis structure field. For example, for an encoder with a constraint length of 7, code generator polynomials of 171 and 133 (in octal numbers), and a feedback connection of 171 (in octal), we have used the Trellis structure parameter to poly2trellis(7,[171 133],171). The encoder registers begin in the all-zeros state. We configured the encoder so that it resets its registers to the all-zeros state during the course of the simulation: The value None indicates that the encoder never resets; The value On each frame indicates that the encoder resets at the beginning of each frame, before processing the next frame of input data; The value On nonzero Rst input causes the block to have a second input port, labeled Rst. The signal at the Rst port is a scalar signal. When it is nonzero, the encoder resets before processing the data at the first input port. 3. Convolutional decoder simulation 3.1. Viterbi Decoder The Viterbi Decoder block [7], [1] decodes input symbols to produce binary output symbols. This block can process several symbols at a time for faster performance. If the convolutional code uses an alphabet of 2n possible symbols, then this blocks input vector length is L*n for some positive integer L. Similarly, if the decoded data uses an alphabet of 2k possible output symbols, then this blocks output vector length is L*k. The integer L is the number of frames that the block processes in each step. The input can be either a sample-based vector with L  =  1, or a frame-based column vector with any positive integer for L. The entries of the input vector are either bipolar, binary, or integer data, depending on the Decision type parameter: Unquantized Real numbers; Hard Decision 0, 1; Soft Decision Integers between 0 and 2k-1, where k is the Number of soft decision bits parameter, with 0 for most confident decision for logical zero and 2k-1, most confident decision for logical one. Other values represent less confident decisions. If the input signal is frame-based, then the block has three possible methods for transitioning between successive frames. The Operation mode parameter controls which method the block uses: In Continuous mode, the block saves its internal state metric at the end of each frame, for use with the next frame. Each traceback path is treated independently. In Truncated mode, the block treats each frame independently. The traceback path starts at the state with the best metric and always ends in the all-zeros state. This mode is appropriate when the corresponding Convolutional Encoder block has its Reset parameter set to On each frame. In Terminated mode, the block treats each frame independently, and the traceback path always starts and ends in the all-zeros state. This mode is appropriate when the uncoded message signal (that is, the input to the corresponding Convolutional Encoder block) has enough zeros at the end of each frame to fill all memory registers of the encoder. If the encoder has k input streams and constraint length vector constr (using the polynomial description), then enough means k*max(constr-1). In the special case when the frame-based input signal contains only one symbol, the Continuous mode is most appropriate. The Traceback depth parameter, D, influences the decoding delay. The decoding delay is the number of zero symbols that precede the first decoded symbol in the output. If the input signal is sample-based, then the decoding delay consists of D zero symbols. If the input signal is frame-based and the Operation mode parameter is set to Continuous, then the decoding delay consists of D zero symbols. If the Operation mode parameter is set to Truncated or Terminated, then there is no output delay and the Traceback depth parameter must be less than or equal to the number of symbols in each frame. If the code rate is 1/2, then a typical Traceback depth value is about five times the constraint length of the code. The reset port is usable only when the Operation mode parameter is set to Continuous. Checking the Reset input check box causes the block to have an additional input port, labeled Rst. When the Rst input is nonzero, the decoder returns to its initial state by configuring its internal memory as follows: Sets the all-zeros state metric to zero; Sets all other state metrics to the maximum value; Sets the traceback memory to zero; Using a reset port on this block is analogous to setting the Reset parameter in the Convolutional Encoder block to On nonzero Rst input. 3.2. APP Decoder The APP Decoder block [8] performs a posteriori probability (APP) decoding of a convolutional code. The input L(u) represents the sequence of log-likelihoods of encoder input bits, while the input L(c) represents the sequence of log-likelihoods of code bits. The outputs L(u) and L(c) are updated versions of these sequences, based on information about the encoder. If the convolutional code uses an alphabet of 2n possible symbols, then this blocks L(c) vectors have length Q*n for some positive integer Q. Similarly, if the decoded data uses an alphabet of 2k possible output symbols, then this blocks L(u) vectors have length Q*k. The integer Q is the number of frames that the block processes in each step. The inputs can be either: Sample-based vectors having the same dimension and orientation, with Q  =  1; Frame-based column vectors with any positive integer for Q. To define the convolutional encoder that produced the coded input, we have used the Trellis structure MATLAB parameter. We tested two ways: The name as the Trellis structure parameter, for a variable in the MATLAB workspace that contains the trellis structure. This way is preferable because it causes Simulink to spend less time updating the diagram at the beginning of each simulation, compared to the usage in the next bulleted item; For specify the encoder using its constraint length, generator polynomials, and possibly feedback connection polynomials, we used a poly2trellis command within the Trellis structure field. For example, for an encoder with a constraint length of 7, code generator polynomials of 171 and 133 (in octal numbers), and a feedback connection of 171 (in octal), we used the Trellis structure parameter to poly2trellis(7,[171 133],171. To indicate how the encoder treats the trellis at the beginning and end of each frame, its necessary to set the Termination method parameter to either Truncated or Terminated. The Truncated option indicates that the encoder resets to the all-zeros state at the beginning of each frame, while the Terminated option indicates that the encoder forces the trellis to end each frame in the all-zeros state. We can control part of the decoding algorithm using the Algorithm parameter. The True APP option implements a posteriori probability. To gain speed, both the Max* and Max options approximate expressions by other quantities. The Max option uses max{ai} as the approximation, while the Max* option uses max{ai} plus a correction term. The Max* option enables the Scaling bits parameter in the mask. This parameter is the number of bits by which the block scales the data it processes internally. We have used this parameter to avoid losing precision during the computations. It is especially appropriate for implementation uses fixed-point components. 4. Conclusions In these work we have constructed and tested in Maple convolutional encoders and decoders of various types, rates, and memories. Convolutional codes are fundamentally different from other classes of codes, in that a continuous sequence of message bits is mapped into a continuous sequence of encoder output bits. It is well-known in the literature and practice that these codes achieve a larger coding gain than that with block coding with the same complexity. The encoder operating at a rate 1/n bits/symbol, may be viewed as a finite-state machine that consists of an M-stage shift register with prescribed connections to n modulo-2 adders, and a multiplexer that serializes the outputs of the adders.

Real Estate Agent Essay -- miscellaneous

Real Estate Agent Buying or selling a house or an apartment is one of the biggest decisions of a person’s life. And when selling or establishing a price for real estate, people seek out real estate agents to do the dirty work. A real estate agent has to convince a prospective homeowner that he or she is trustworthy and knowledgeable. In many ways, the agent acts as a counselor to individuals and families about to embark on a huge commitment. Real estate agents have a thorough knowledge or real estate market in their community. They know which neighborhoods will best fit their client’s needs and budgets. Real estate agents are generally independent sales employees who provide their services to licensed brokers on a contract basis. In return, the broker pays the agent a portion of the commission earned from property sold through the firm, by the agents. They are familiar with local zoning and tax laws, and know where to obtain financing. A good real estate agent is informed about things like schools, tax rates, public transportation systems, and should be aware of going mortgage rates. To be eligible to become a real estate agent, he or she must first be a high school graduate, be at least 18 years of age, and pass a written test. In every state real estate agents must obtain a state license to sell and rent properties. Over 1,000 universities, colleges, and junior colleges offer courses in real estate. Many local real estate associations sponsor courses covering...

Kate Cooper Case Essay

Green Meadows Hospital is newly constructed community hospital owned by Southern Hospitals Corporation. Kate Cooper was very excited when she got a new position at Green Meadows as a Manager of Adult Services. They started hiring people and were getting ready to open the hospital. However, things did not go well as they planned and wanted to. Therefore, Kate had to resign. The biggest problem that I see in this was their unorganized management skills and communications skills. They should have more prepared since they were new hospital and related to people’s lives but from the beginning, it seemed like they did not think that it was a big of deal and just went it the flow. Communications at Green Meadows Hospital is more likely one way communication. It started out with 2 way communication model somehow, but it ended up having just one way communication model. At first, Alan seemed like he understood Kate’s situation and encouraged her with her getting higher education and seemed like he was going to be a strong supporter. However, it didn’t really work out. It was always him giving her too much work when even she told him that she does not think that she can handle all the responsibilities and works due to her duties and school. Also, There were never really clear communication or/and understanding among Doug, Alan, and Kate. 2 way communication model would have fixed their problems. Even though one way communication is a lot easier and faster, using 2 way communication is more accurate, can make fewer mistakes, and will have fewer problems. They could have asked questions to each other, talk about concerns, and even make suggestions or modifications if they needed to. That would have helped them to understand each other, information that they should know about, and what is being communicated. This could have help them to share information effectively and the team could have performed better. I would have to say that Doug and Alan both have the SIL style of between S1 and S2. They both are somewhat directing and coaching at the same time. They seem like they are listening to their followers but the result shows us that they didn’t really. At first he seemed like he was very encouraging and supporting his followers and he turned out to be very selfish and self-centered leader. To be a S3 or S4 leaders, they need to listen to their followers more since they are working with their patients directly and might know better than them. However, decisions were never made with the followers, instead the leaders made most of the decisions and just announced it. On the other hand, Kate is in the level of D2. She has had some experiences as a charge nurse and a house supervisor. Kate has some relevant skills with the new position but since she was new to this position and to the hospital, she needed some help from her leaders. I would say Peter is in the level of D4. He just knew what he was doing and seemed like very confidence of what he was doing but like Alan, he was very selfish, seemed like he always thought about himself first instead thinking about the team as a whole. To help Kate and Peter, they could change their leaderships to S3. I think S4 would be too much for everyone with this situation, but having 2 way communication, when making decisions followers can be involved, but still the leaders can make the final decisions. Instead of Doug and Alan telling Kate and Peter what to do, they all can be involved and talk about what is going on at the hospital and talk about it to make it better or make a better decisions. Kate and Peter will more feel like they are important and will be more motivated and perform better. First theory is expectancy theory. If people put their effort into something and they perform to get the result. Between putting effort and performing they think that their effort will make them to attain their goals. Also between their performance and outcome, they expect specific result. Maslow’s Need Hierarchy is the next theory. People have to have the low level of needs to have higher needs. Also once a need is satisfied, it is not a powerful motivator anymore. Third is Alderfer’s ERG Theory. This theory is somewhat similar to Maslow’s theory but slightly different. It has three sets of needs: existence, relatedness, and growth. Unlike Maslow’s law ERG theory states that several different needs can be done at once and at the same time because they are all connected. This can either motivate or demotivate people. They should use ERG theory to prevent managers like Kate from resigning. Environment like hospitals should have existence needs, relatedness needs, and growth needs at the same time. They do not have time to wait for one thing to get done and go onto another. At the hospital they work with people. They should respect each other, not just respect the leaders but also leaders should respect the followers. And also they should have relationship that includes all the employees and share their thoughts, discuss problems together, and try to find the solutions together. And people need some kind of motivations to work better with other people, be productive, or perform better. These can happen all at once. However, Kate did not get any respect from her co-worker or her leaders and also did not have any motivations. Alan just kept pushing her to the edge. He did not even ask her opinion and told her what to do. Again, there was no communication between them and that was the main problem tha t they had. a. Absence of Trust – At first, they trust each other, but as time goes by, they didn’t really talk about the problems. They didn’t even try to help each other out. They didn’t talk about when Alan behaved unprofessionally and inappropriately. No body was really getting along well. b. Fear of Conflicts – They should have worked as a team but seems like to me they were just working as an individual. They didn’t respect each other, didn’t care about each other, and ignore some issues that they were having. They didn’t really try to fix problems but just covered up when they should have talked about Alan’s behavior or Peter taking Kate’s orientation dates. c. Lack of Commitment – Since they don’t trust each other, don’t respect each other, it led them to have lack of commitment. No body really knew what they were really doing. Everyone was on their owns. There were no priorities, no directions, and had same problems over and over again: Kate having too much responsibilities and work). d. Avoidance of Accountability – Alan always gave Kate way too much work that she cannot even handle them. Alan and Dough were supposed to be communicating each other and lead them team but even they did not really communicate well and resulted in Alan overstepping Doug’s positions. e. Inattention to results – Because of all of the above, it got to the point where Kate was told that she had to quit school. This clearly shows how Alan’s leadership style and ethics were very wrong. I would say, right now they are in the Storming stage. It is the stage when hostilities and conflicts arise, and people jockey for positions of power and status. They can’t go on to the next stage that is Norming stage if they can’t solve the problems. Peter and Alan being selfish and having a self-centered leadership, having no communication among the team members, giving too much work and all the responsibilities to one manager, leader’s unprofessional/inappropriate behavior should be all solved for them to continue to the Norming stage. At Norming stage, the team members share their ideas, thought, goals, and develop closer relationship, which will lead them to perform better, and success as a whole. For Green Meadows Hospital, the most needed solution is communication. Communication is always important in any kind of situation. If they start communicating as a team, having regular meetings that will build their trust. Trust is also important factor but with out communication, it can’t be built. The leaders should have a heart for the company, should be able to motivate their followers, and should have right ethics. Leaders should not have any deception, fear, pride, or greed. Alan showed a lot of greed and deception in this case (telling Kate to quit school, unprofessional behaviors, not following his leader†¦etc). Of course it is important to have great leadership skills but without a heart, they will have no followers. To have faithful, committed followers, then leaders should do it first.

Effective Stage Combat Techniques

Effective Stage Combat Techniques Conflict is the essence of drama.  Onstage, many characters will fight with words only up to a certain point before physically expressing their frustration on something or someone.  Most plays include some element of violence: a slap, a punch, a stab, or just attempts at these types of strikes.  Some plays, especially classics, have complicated sword fights and mass battles.   To present such scenes- called â€Å"fight scenes†- on stage so that they look realistic, but do not actually harm the participants, actors learn and practice stage combat. No matter the number of moves in the fight scene- one move or fifty- stage combat is the term used for any act of violence done or attempted on another character. Armed and Unarmed Armed stage combat involves weapons, any type of weapon- rapiers, daggers, broadswords, quarterstaves, knives, guns, or found weapons. (Found weapons are exactly as they sound- an actor uses whatever is in reach to threaten, defend, or attack. This includes anything from a cushion to a clip board to a broom.) Unarmed stage combat refers to any and all moves that do not involve weapons: punches, kicks, slaps, grappling, and falls.  Actors and directors often mishandle unarmed moves because they appear less dangerous than armed attacks.  Unarmed fight scenes, however, are where most injuries occur. Slaps in particular have earned themselves a reputation as the most dangerous move in stage combat circles. In the hands of untrained actors, they can hurt when performed hand to cheek and leave giant red marks on faces. Just as with armed stage combat, behind each punch, kick, and slap, there are whole sets of moves and methods developed to produce a believable act of violence on stage.   A fight director is someone who has studied and trained in all or most of the stage combat disciplines. Fight directors can evaluate the actors, stage or performance space, and audience angles to plan and teach the best way to provide a realistic scene or moment of violence.  Like a choreographer who brings dance expertise, a fight director brings realistic looking combat moves and safety to stage performances. The most dramatic and poignant moments in a play often involve elements of stage combat. A good fight director can heighten those important climatic scenes and keep the audience thoroughly engaged in the dramatic action. Without the guidance of a fight director, two actors in a heated debate may be too obvious as they pull their punches (not hit as hard as possible), the actor who performs a crucial stabbing can clearly miss his mark, or an actor who has been shot in the back can fall the wrong way.  Fight directors know how to blend these combative moments believably into the audience’s experience. Stage combat is a fascinating and fun element of theatre.  Like many other aspects of theatre, its rich background and methods require study and dedication- all of which go completely unnoticed when a fight scene is done well!

3 Methods Used to Steal Trees

3 Methods Used to Steal Trees Tom Kazee is s woodland security expert based in Orange Park, Florida. Tom has decades of experience in the woodland security business and contributes regularly to Tree Farmer Magazine. He has written a great piece on timber theft with tips on how to prevent this kind of theft. Mr. Kazee suggests there are basically three ways timber is stolen. As a timber owner or forest manager, you would be wise to study these methods of theft and take preventative actions to avoid a rip-off. The purpose of this report is only to make you wise to the ways of a timber thief. Although the vast majority of people who buy and harvest trees are honest there are people who will cheat and try to deceive timber owners and sellers for financial gain. Harvesting Directly on Your Property Thieves will set up a harvest directly on your property or will move over on you from adjacent ownership. They have observed that the propertys management and know that timber theft is an acceptable risk. Although mistakes can happen to honest loggers, I am talking here about timber being taken with evil intent. Ways to Prevent the Theft: Inspect your property regularly. Your own neglect can encourage thieves. Inspections will also catch insect and disease problems early and head off line encroachment.Maintain and refresh proper boundary markings. It is much easier to do this when property lines are still visible. Always freshen up your lines when harvesting is occurring on adjacent property.Cultivate good neighbors and encourage good lease-holders to keep an eye open. Pretend to Be a Buyer Thieves dressed as buyers will offer absurdly low prices for timber knowing that the landowner has no idea of the value. Although it is not a crime to give away your trees, it is a crime to misrepresent their value Ways to Prevent the Theft: Timber market values and tree volumes can be hard to determine without a professional. Always get a second opinion of values and volumes, especially where large acreage is involved. You might want to hire a forestry consultant or buy a timber inventory from a third party.Check out all timber buyers by asking for referrals and by inquiring about the buyer at your local or state foresters office.Avoid the temptation to make a quick sell to a friendly buyer. Take a deep breath and ask the buyer for some time for you to think about what you are going to do. You should not feel pressured by the buyer. Making a Lump Sum Sale Thieves can actually steal trees after you have approved and allowed the harvest. Poor accounting in both lump sum sales and unit sales can tempt a logger or a trucker to misreport trees cut and/or volumes represented. Ways to Prevent the Theft: No timber should leave the loading site on pay-as-cut sales unless the load has been recorded by date, species, time and destination. Reputable loggers have these records.All records must be available for inspection and collected at the end of each week. These records should then be compared to scale tickets for reconciliation.You or your agent need to be on-site and visible at random times during the week.

Using Social Media To Promote Your Business Example

Using Social Media To Promote Your Business Example Using Social Media To Promote Your Business – Article Example Social Media Marketing Using social media sites as steady sources of traffic to the online businesses is a widely popularizing marketing strategy. Compared to the conventional advertising and promotional methods the social media marketing is cheap and effective. The effectiveness of this marketing strategy in empirical application however depends on the type of business and its compatibility to the new web based model (Lake, 2013). Popular social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn adopt educative videos and guidelines specially designed for the business communities. Integrating of business community with the social media network is a mutually beneficial marketing strategy.On line retailers such as Amazon.com and eBay display business advertisements on social media sites which have similar content example: Amazon.com display Halloween offers on blogs that are describing Halloween festival. Thus the probability of advertisement being viewed by potentia l buyers is higher compared to advertising in conventional media such as Tv, Radio and magazines. Similarly there are blogs which assimilate customer reviews and ratings on product brands example: laptops, mobiles, exercise equipments etc. These blogs are marketing channels which effectively connect business communities and end consumers. Facebook fan pages, Youtube channels, Google groups and LinkedIn profiles are increasingly popularizing in contemporary Social Media Marketing. These websites have vastly decreased the proximity between the business community and consumers by enabling them to live chat, upload of photos, videos, description and customer feedbacks. ReferencesLake, Laura. â€Å"Understanding the Role of Social Media in Marketing.† â€Å"About.com Guide.† N.p. n.d. Web. 15 February 2013

Consulting article Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Consulting article - Essay Example Certainly, most people do not really require hand held internet access, video camera and telephone in the same device. However, communications within a company requires compatibility. In the case of communications, providing compatible hardware is more important than upgrading. Technology change generally would not be a vital factor in the decision to upgrade unless a specific application requiring the upgrade became available. Health diagnostic equipment is high cost and regulated on a need basis. The desire to expand a hospital by adding 50 beds to meet a health demand may occur years before a Certificate of Need (CON) process is completed. The anticipated technology incorporated in the certificate application may be functionally antiquated. Technology may eliminate the need for the beds. So, when management collects data to assess the decision in-house, they must anticipate future developments or their time will be wasted lobbying for an irrelevant change. The environmental remedi ation regulations are both pliable and rigid. Brownfield sites are judged on a â€Å"risk assessed† basis to encourage redevelopment of contaminated sites. The building may be restricted to industrial usage only, or perhaps residential with no basements. The increased allowable limits of contamination are attained at less cost than full compliance remediation. Once the site is cleared for redevelopment, utilities are installed. However, now instead of Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) regulations, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations cover workers in trenches cut from contaminated soil. OSHA may require breathing apparatus and specialty clothing to work in a hydrocarbon rich environment. Worker safety and health regulations are much more rigid. The soil cuttings may be unusable on the site, but removal is complicated since the increased, compromised, level of contamination is greater than landfills can receive. The cost of disposal incr eases. Management requires a broader view of Brownfield development in this scenario because future costs and inconvenience may outweigh the initial savings. Time and application change the regulations regarding levels of contamination, and therefore, the company bottom line. In these three examples, technology, regulations and consumer demand change with time and the application of technology. Prudent business manages to the balance sheet and the income statement. In the first scenario, with telecommunications devices, forecasting technological change is relatively accurate and simple. Poor decisions do not affect the bottom line too badly, and overcoming the poor decision is not difficult. In the latter scenarios, poor decisions complicate operations and negatively affect the bottom line. And unfortunately, forecasting change is difficult. The health care system problem resolves when management â€Å"hindcasts† technological change. Using the hospital bed example, managemen t needs to look at two past trends. Population growth and bed utilization data in the service area for the past ten years will show a trend comparing supply and demand. When service area population increases, bed utilization should increase if the number of beds remains constant, unless technology reduces in-hospital stays. So, the proper statistic is rate of bed utilization per 1000 people. If this number is decreasing faster than the population increa

Environmental Planning and Landscape Urbanism Essay

Environmental Planning and Landscape Urbanism - Essay Example The resulting phenomenon is that the architectural features within the region are gaining new exploitations as tourist destinations and mediums of cultural preservation. For many cities in North America therefore, the culture of architecture is being exploited as a means of creating a brand synonymous with destination travel, themed cultural entertainment and tourism excursions. With more and more residents moving out of the cities and into the devolved suburban environments, the importance of landscape is becoming more glaring as it is essential in the creation of environments that the urban contemporary population deem preferable for habitation. The preferred surroundings of residence are a fusion of massive vegetation and built environments with minimal density and room for the utility of automobiles. As a result, landscape is a fundamental element in the development and maintenance of the multifaceted natural surroundings, the management of post-industrial locations and planning of communal infrastructure (Waldheim, 2002). Key Concepts in Environmental Planning and Landscape Urbanism In his article, ‘Terra Fluxus,’ James Corner metes out an in-depth analysis into some of the concepts of landscape urbanism. One of the concepts emphasized by Corner is that of the importance of processes compared to that of time in landscape urbanism. Corner states that â€Å"the processes of urbanization are more significant to the shaping of urban relationships than the spatial forms of urbanism† (Waldheim, 2002, n.p.). Such processes include the protection of the physical environment, deregulation, the process of globalization, and the accumulation of capital. This concept dispels the impression that the process of socialization can be redesigned by the construction of new physical structures. This is not to say that the spatial element does not contribute to changes in urbanism; but rather to imply that the relationship between the spatial frame and urb an processes is one that entails urban processes streaming through the spatial frame in order to manipulate and protract it. This shift emphasizes the systems that acclimatize the dispersion and density of urban structures, rather than the material properties of space. This poses the greatest challenge to designers and planners (Waldheim, 2002). The implication of this development on the spatial planning of cities and their regions is that their structuring has to borrow more from a comprehension of the processes that urbanism involves as opposed to an insight into the concept of form; that is, an understanding of â€Å"how things work in space and time† (Waldheim, 2002, n.p.). According to Corner, in this respect landscape may act as a propellant for the formation of cities. A case in point is the development of the Olmsted Central Park in Manhattan, which was initially envisioned as a space that could provide a respite to the city residents from the unremitting nature of li fe in the city. The effect of the construction of the park however turned out to be more than just that, as it acted as a catalyst for massive real estate development within the region (Waldheim, 2002).

Management skillsDiversity within in the Workplace Article - 1

Management skillsDiversity within in the Workplace - Article Example This reflects AusBank’s external and internal customer base and there place as banking firm in the country. In order to create diversity at work place, it is vital to establish a diversity council which in turn will foster great initiative that aims in developing women and creating more opportunities for them. It has been witnessed having balanced leadership with women in leadership position leads to a diverse team of leaders at work. Although AusBank has been identified as the only institution promoting diversity at work place, its hierarchy is shaky in that it negatively influences employees who are not white especially male employees. More so, in order to promote diversity, it significant that an organization treat all its members based on the skills, abilities and experience but not gender, race or religion as they derail success in the organization due to conflicts. In addition, presence of personal skills and abilities such as self awareness, interpersonal an group skills are important towards promoting diversity since there is mutual understanding of tasks through effective communication. In addition, workers are intrinsically and extrinsically motivated to

Health Informatics Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Health Informatics - Assignment Example Thus good quality research may be considered an effect of clinical informatics. Alternately, clinical informatics may be identified as a cause of good quality research. We, as health care professionals, should be more involved with the organizations of health care informatics because the research they do and the knowledge they produce is meant to bring an improvement in our own health care strategies, policies, and procedures. As health care professionals, we serve as important sources of information for the health care informatics organizations. â€Å"Clinical Informatics is concerned with information use in health care by clinicians† (American Medical Informatics Association, 2012). They require our input and need us to share our experiences in order to have a detailed in-sight into the problems and identify the correct solutions. Moreover, health care informatics organizations are important to us as they provide us with an opportunity to learn about the latest biomedical knowledge, information technology, and methodologies of knowledge management which we can implement in our work to improve the quality of our work and our performance. He alth care professionals and health care informatics organization are mutually beneficial to each

Create a Short story Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Create a Short story - Essay Example Sure, he had enough things to feel proud, but they failed to meet Jacks great life expectations. Tony, his neighbor and secret enemy, was an epitome of success. Tony was everything Jack wanted to be. He was tall, well-dressed, successful, self-confident and humorous person who had all doors open for him. They worked at the same organization where Jack had the opportunity to observe how Tony climbed his career ladder. Jack remained an ordinary clerk when Tony was promoted again and again. Tony was loved, celebrated and appreciated when Jack was forgotten. Daily routine swallowed Jack and his thoughts. There were papers to be sighed and reports to be made up. There were piles of paper on his desk and a dozen of unread emails. Jacks depression was getting worse and worse with every thought which popped up in Jacks head. The invisible fight between Tony and Jack was over and Jack had to grasp his knockout. The day was over and Jack had to go home. When the doors of the elevator closed, he found himself standing in front of Tony with no other people around. The tension was increasing with every second. Jack could hardly control his despair and anger; he wanted to stop this humiliation of being so close to the person whom he hated most in his life. â€Å"You have everything I want to have in my life. When I look at your loving and beautiful wife and marvelous two kids, I understand that my life is completely empty. You might be the happiest person in the world. Sorry if I bother you.† The doors opened and Tony rushed to his car leaving puzzled Jack behind his back. He did not look at Jack and left the office building quickly. The situation was totally absurd, and Jack struggled to understand what had just happened. His role model and his greatest enemy turned into a secret admirer of Jacks humble family

Summarize Strategic Management in a Healthcare Organization Research Paper

Summarize Strategic Management in a Healthcare Organization - Research Paper Example Additionally, Strategic management has a combination of elements that are correlated and are crucial to achieving the predetermined objectives. Strategic management is important in healthcare organizations because it plays a fundamental role in correctly predicting the future and establishing mechanisms for dealing with emerging issues (Hunger & Wheelen 2010). Ideally, strategic management assist healthcare organizations in identifying potential opportunities as well as challenges and establishes mechanisms for dealing with the inherent situations (Hunger & Wheelen 2010). Strategic management is essential for healthcare organizations because it aids in planning for various activities and operations effectively discarding frustrations. Healthcare organizations are constantly faced with external threats, and strategic management provides a solution to this challenging event. Ideally, strategic management aid in determining external pressure by coming up with effective solutions to deal with the issues (Hunger & Wheelen 2010). Strategic management is important in a healthcare organization because it is growth oriented. Essentially, the role of strategic management is to constantly seek for opportunities that are effective for success (Hill et al., 2012). Healthcare organizations require strategic management plans as a consequence of remaining relevant in a dynamic environment. The tool can aid healthcare organizations in planning, monitoring development programs and the implementation of processes. Consequently, healthcare organizations are capable of predicting the future and responding to the inherent challenges and

Health Informatics Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Health Informatics - Assignment Example Thus good quality research may be considered an effect of clinical informatics. Alternately, clinical informatics may be identified as a cause of good quality research. We, as health care professionals, should be more involved with the organizations of health care informatics because the research they do and the knowledge they produce is meant to bring an improvement in our own health care strategies, policies, and procedures. As health care professionals, we serve as important sources of information for the health care informatics organizations. â€Å"Clinical Informatics is concerned with information use in health care by clinicians† (American Medical Informatics Association, 2012). They require our input and need us to share our experiences in order to have a detailed in-sight into the problems and identify the correct solutions. Moreover, health care informatics organizations are important to us as they provide us with an opportunity to learn about the latest biomedical knowledge, information technology, and methodologies of knowledge management which we can implement in our work to improve the quality of our work and our performance. He alth care professionals and health care informatics organization are mutually beneficial to each

Summarize Strategic Management in a Healthcare Organization Research Paper

Summarize Strategic Management in a Healthcare Organization - Research Paper Example Additionally, Strategic management has a combination of elements that are correlated and are crucial to achieving the predetermined objectives. Strategic management is important in healthcare organizations because it plays a fundamental role in correctly predicting the future and establishing mechanisms for dealing with emerging issues (Hunger & Wheelen 2010). Ideally, strategic management assist healthcare organizations in identifying potential opportunities as well as challenges and establishes mechanisms for dealing with the inherent situations (Hunger & Wheelen 2010). Strategic management is essential for healthcare organizations because it aids in planning for various activities and operations effectively discarding frustrations. Healthcare organizations are constantly faced with external threats, and strategic management provides a solution to this challenging event. Ideally, strategic management aid in determining external pressure by coming up with effective solutions to deal with the issues (Hunger & Wheelen 2010). Strategic management is important in a healthcare organization because it is growth oriented. Essentially, the role of strategic management is to constantly seek for opportunities that are effective for success (Hill et al., 2012). Healthcare organizations require strategic management plans as a consequence of remaining relevant in a dynamic environment. The tool can aid healthcare organizations in planning, monitoring development programs and the implementation of processes. Consequently, healthcare organizations are capable of predicting the future and responding to the inherent challenges and

War Is Good or Bad for the Economics Essay Example for Free

War Is Good or Bad for the Economics Essay Consider the following in your answer: 1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of various methods of war financing? 2. What are the costs imposed on the economy by engaging in war? 3. Provide an example from US History; analyze the effects on economic institutions in the long run after a war. 1. In war, there are various economic benefits. First, all economic resources are being used, both goods and services. The unemployment rate hits the floor and there are goods being manufactured faster and more. Thus, this boosts GDP and increases the AS curve, due to the mass production of the goods. There may be the disadvantages of too small of a workforce, or after the war is done, coming back to the previous economic state may be difficult. 2. The population may fall, as wars take a toll on that factor. Also, to support the massive cost of the war, the government may have to take loans from other countries leading to a deficit. If the country loses the war, then there may be further financial repercussions, as we saw with Germany in the World Wars. 3. The second World War is the foremost example of such an economic turn. Stuck in the Depression, Americans needed a way to exonerate themselves from the suffering and poverty, and couldn’t find it. With the second world war and the need for goods and services, employment rose, as did spending, kickstarting the economy and getting it rolling again. This is a major example of an economic state being changed positively due to the war.

Single Stage to Orbit (SSTO) Propulsion System

Single Stage to Orbit (SSTO) Propulsion System This paper discusses the relevant selection criteria for a single stage to orbit (SSTO) propulsion system and then reviews the characteristics of the typical engine types proposed for this role against these criteria. The engine types considered include Hydrogen/Oxygen (H2/O2) rockets, Scramjets, Turbojets, Turborockets and Liquid Air Cycle Engines. In the authors opinion none of the above engines are able to meet all the necessary criteria for an SSTO propulsion system simultaneously. However by selecting appropriate features from each it is possible to synthesise a new class of engines which are specifically optimised for the SSTO role. The resulting engines employ precooling of the airstream and a high internal pressure ratio to enable a relatively conventional high pressure rocket combustion chamber to be utilised in both airbreathing and rocket modes. This results in a significant mass saving with installation advantages which by careful design of the cycle thermodynamics enable s the full potential of airbreathing to be realised. The SABRE engine which powers the SKYLON launch vehicle is an example of one of these so called Precooled hybrid airbreathing rocket engines and the conceptual reasoning which leads to its main design parameters are described in the paper. Keywords: Reusable launchers, SABRE, SKYLON, SSTO 1.Introduction Several organisations world-wide are studying the technical and commercial feasibility of reusable SSTO launchers. This new class of vehicles appear to offer the tantalising prospect of greatly reduced recurring costs and increased reliability compared to existing expendable vehicles. However achieving this breakthrough is a difficult task since the attainment of orbital velocity in a re-entry capable single stage demands extraordinary propulsive performance. Most studies to date have focused on high pressure hydrogen/oxygen (H2/O2) rocket engines for the primary propulsion of such vehicles. However it is the authors opinion that despite recent advances in materials technology such an approach is not destined to succeed, due to the relatively low specific impulse of this type of propulsion. Airbreathing engines offer a possible route forward with their intrinsically higher specific impulse. However their low thrust/weight ratio, limited Mach number range and high dynamic pressure trajectory have in the past cancelled any theoretical advantage. By design review of the relevant characteristics of both rockets and airbreathing engines this paper sets out the rationale for the selection of deeply precooled hybrid airbreathing rocket engines for the main propulsion system of SSTO launchers as exemplified by the SKYLON vehicle [1]. 2. Propulsion Candidates This paper will only consider those engine types which would result in politically and environmentally acceptable vehicles. Therefore engines employing nuclear reactions (eg: onboard fission reactors or external nuclear pulse) and chemical engines with toxic exhausts (eg: fluorine/oxygen) will be excluded. The candidate engines can be split into two broad groups, namely pure rockets and engines with an airbreathing component. Since none of the airbreathers are capable of accelerating an SSTO vehicle all the way to orbital velocity, a practical vehicle will always have an onboard rocket engine to complete the ascent. Therefore the use of airbreathing has always been proposed within the context of improving the specific impulse of pure rocket propulsion during the initial lower Mach portion of the trajectory. Airbreathing engines have a much lower thrust/ weight ratio than rocket engines (à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‹â€ 10%) which tends to offset the advantage of reduced fuel consumption. Therefore vehicles with airbreathing engines invariably have wings and employ a lifting trajectory in order to reduce the installed thrust requirement and hence the airbreathing engine mass penalty. The combination of wings and airbreathing engines then demands a low flat trajectory (compared to a ballistic rocket trajectory) in order to maximise the installed performance (i.e. (thrust-drag)/fuel flow). This high dynamic pressure trajectory gives rise to one of the drawbacks of an airbreathing approach since the airframe heating and loading are increased during the ascent which ultimately reflects in increased structure mass. However the absolute level of mass growth depends on the relative severity of the ascent as compared with reentry which in turn is mostly dependant on the type of airbreathing engine selected. An a dditional drawback to the low trajectory is increased drag losses particularly since the vehicle loiters longer in the lower atmosphere due to the lower acceleration, offset to some extent by the much reduced gravity loss during the rocket powered ascent. Importantly however, the addition of a set of wings brings more than just performance advantages to airbreathing vehicles. They also give considerably increased abort capability since a properly configured vehicle can remain in stable flight with up to half of its propulsion systems shutdown. Also during reentry the presence of wings reduces the ballistic coefficient thereby reducing the heating and hence thermal protection system mass, whilst simultaneously improving the vehicle lift/drag ratio permitting greater crossrange. The suitability of the following engines to the SSTO launcher role will be discussed since these are representative of the main types presently under study within various organisations world-wide: Liquid Hydrogen/Oxygen rockets Ramjets and Scramjets Turbojets/Turborockets and variants Liquid Air Cycle Engines (LACE) and Air Collection Engines (ACE) Precooled hybrid airbreathing rocket engines (RB545/SABRE) 3.Selection Criteria The selection of an optimum propulsion system involves an assessment of a number of interdependant factors which are listed below. The relative importance of these factors depends on the severity of the mission and the vehicle characteristics. Engine performance Useable Mach number and altitude range. Installed specific impulse. Installed thrust/weight. Performance sensitivity to component level efficiencies. Engine/Airframe integration Effect on airframe layout (Cg/Cp pitch trim structural efficiency). Effect of required engine trajectory (Q and heating) on airframe technology/materials. Technology level Materials/structures/aerothermodynamic and manufacturing technology. Development cost Engine scale and technology level. Complexity and power demand of ground test facilities. Necessity of an X plane research project to precede the main development program. 4.Hydrogen/Oxygen Rocket Engines Hydrogen/oxygen rocket engines achieve a very high thrust/weight ratio (60-80) but relatively low specific impulse (450-475 secs in vacuum) compared with conventional airbreathing engines. Due to the relatively large à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬  V needed to reach low earth orbit (approx 9 km/s including gravity and drag losses) in relation to the engine exhaust velocity, SSTO rocket vehicles are characterised by very high mass ratios and low payload fractions. The H2/O2 propellant combination is invariably chosen for SSTO rockets due to its higher performance than other alternatives despite the structural penalties of employing a very low density cryogenic fuel. In order to maximise the specific impulse, high area ratio nozzles are required which inevitably leads to a high chamber pressure cycle in order to give a compact installation and reduce back pressure losses at low altitude. The need to minimise back pressure losses normally results in the selection of some form of altitude compensating nozzle since conventional bell nozzles have high divergence and overexpansion losses when running in a separated condition. The high thrust/weight and low specific impulse of H2/O2 rocket engines favours vertical takeoff wingless vehicles since the wing mass and drag penalty of a lifting trajectory results in a smaller payload than a steep ballistic climb out of the atmosphere. The ascent trajectory is therefore extremely benign (in terms of dynamic pressure and heating) with vehicle material selection determined by re-entry. Relative to airbreathing vehicles a pure rocket vehicle has a higher density (gross take off weight/volume) due to the reduced hydrogen consumption which has a favourable effect on the tankage and thermal protection system mass. In their favour rocket engines represent broadly known (current) technology, are ground testable in simple facilities, functional throughout the whole Mach number range and physically very compact resulting in good engine/airframe integration. Abort capability for an SSTO rocket vehicle would be achieved by arranging a high takeoff thrust/weight ratio (eg: 1.5) and a large number of engines (eg: 10) to permit shutdown of at least two whilst retaining overall vehicle control. From an operational standpoint SSTO rockets will be relatively noisy since the high takeoff mass and thrust/weight ratio results in an installed thrust level up to 10 times higher than a well designed airbreather. Reentry should be relatively straightforward providing the vehicle reenters base first with active cooling of the engine nozzles and the vehicle base. However the maximum lift/drag ratio in this attitude is relatively low (approx 0.25) limiting the maximum achievable crossrange to around 250 km. Having reached a low altitude some of the main engines would be restarted to control the subsonic descent before finally effecting a tailfirst landing on legs. Low crossrange is not a particular problem providing the vehicle operator has adequate time to wait for the orbital plane to cross the landing site. However in the case of a military or commercial operator this could pose a serious operational restriction and is consequently considered to be an undesirable characteristic for a new launch vehicle. In an attempt to increase the crossrange capability some designs attempt nosefirst re-entry of a blunt cone shaped vehicle or alternatively a blended wing/body configuration. This approach potentially increases the lift/drag ratio by reducing the fuselage wave drag and/or increasing the aerodynamic lift generation. However the drawback to this approach is that the nosefirst attitude is aerodynamically unstable since the aft mounted engine package pulls the empty center of gravity a considerable distance behind the hypersonic center of pressure. The resulting pitching moment is difficult to trim without adding nose ballast or large control surfaces projecting from the vehicle base. It is expected that the additional mass of these components is likely to erode the small payload capability of this engine/vehicle combination to the point where it is no longer feasible. Recent advances in materials technology (eg: fibre reinforced plastics and ceramics) have made a big impact on the feasibility of these vehicles. However the payload fraction is still very small at around 1-2% for an Equatorial low Earth orbit falling to as low as 0.25% for a Polar orbit. The low payload fraction is generally perceived to be the main disadvantage of this engine/vehicle combination and has historically prevented the development of such vehicles, since it is felt that a small degree of optimism in the preliminary mass estimates may be concealing the fact that the real payload fraction is negative. One possible route forward to increasing the average specific impulse of rocket vehicles is to employ the atmosphere for both oxidiser and reaction mass for part of the ascent. This is an old idea dating back to the 1950s and revitalised by the emergence of the BAe/Rolls Royce HOTOL project in the 1980s [2]. The following sections will review the main airbreathing engine candidates and trace the design background of precooled hybrid airbreathing rockets. 5.Ramjet and Scramjet Engines A ramjet engine is from a thermodynamic viewpoint a very simple device consisting of an intake, combustion and nozzle system in which the cycle pressure rise is achieved purely by ram compression. Consequently a separate propulsion system is needed to accelerate the vehicle to speeds at which the ramjet can takeover (Mach 1-2). A conventional hydrogen fuelled ramjet with a subsonic combustor is capable of operating up to around Mach 5-6 at which point the limiting effects of dissociation reduce the effective heat addition to the airflow resulting in a rapid loss in nett thrust. The idea behind the scramjet engine is to avoid the dissociation limit by only partially slowing the airstream through the intake system (thereby reducing the static temperature rise) and hence permitting greater useful heat addition in the now supersonic combustor. By this means scramjet engines offer the tantalising prospect of achieving a high specific impulse up to very high Mach numbers. The consequent de crease in the rocket powered à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬  V would translate into a large saving in the mass of liquid oxygen required and hence possibly a reduction in launch mass. Although the scramjet is theoretically capable of generating positive nett thrust to a significant fraction of orbital velocity it is unworkable at low supersonic speeds. Therefore it is generally proposed that the internal geometry be reconfigured to function as a conventional ramjet to Mach 5 followed by transition to scramjet mode. A further reduction of the useful speed range of the scramjet results from consideration of the nett vehicle specific impulse ((thrust-drag)/fuel flow) in scramjet mode as compared with rocket mode. This tradeoff shows that it is more effective to shut the scramjet down at Mach 12-15 and continue the remainder of the ascent on pure rocket power. Therefore a scramjet powered launcher would have four main propulsion modes: a low speed accelerator mode to ramjet followed by scramjet and finally rocket mode. The proposed low speed propulsor is often a ducted ejector rocket system employing the scramjet injector struts as both ejector nozzles to entrain air at low speeds and later as the rocket combustion chambers for the final ascent. Whilst the scramjet engine is thermodynamically simple in conception, in engineering practice it is the most complex and technically demanding of all the engine concepts discussed in this paper. To make matters worse many studies including the recent ESA Winged Launcher Concept study have failed to show a positive payload for a scramjet powered SSTO since the fundamental propulsive characteristics of scramjets are poorly suited to the launcher role. The low specific thrust and high specific impulse of scramjets tends to favour a cruise vehicle application flying at fixed Mach number over long distances, especially since this would enable the elimination of most of the variable geometry. Scramjet engines have a relatively low specific thrust (nett thrust/airflow) due to the moderate combustor temperature rise and pressure ratio, and therefore a very large air mass flow is required to give adequate vehicle thrust/weight ratio. However at constant freestream dynamic head the captured air mass flow reduces for a given intake area as speed rises above Mach 1. Consequently the entire vehicle frontal area is needed to serve as an intake at scramjet speeds and similarly the exhaust flow has to be re-expanded back into the original streamtube in order to achieve a reasonable exhaust velocity. However employing the vehicle forebody and aftbody as part of the propulsion system has many disadvantages: The forebody boundary layer (up to 40% of the intake flow) must be carried through the entire shock system with consequent likelihood of upsetting the intake flow stability. The conventional solution of bleeding the boundary layer off would be unacceptable due to the prohibitive momentum drag penalty. The vehicle undersurface must be flat in order to provide a reasonably uniform flowfield for the engine installation. The flattened vehicle cross section is poorly suited to pressurised tankage and has a higher surface area/volume than a circular cross section with knock-on penalties in aeroshell, insulation and structure mass. Since the engine and airframe are physically inseparable little freedom is available to the designer to control the vehicle pitch balance. The single sided intake and nozzle systems positioned underneath the vehicle generate both lift and pitching moments. Since it is necessary to optimise the intake and nozzle system geometry to maximise the engine performance it is extremely unlikely that the vehicle will be pitch balanced over the entire Mach number range. Further it is not clear whether adequate CG movement to trim the vehicle could be achieved by active propellant transfer. Clustering the engines into a compact package underneath the vehicle results in a highly interdependant flowfield. An unexpected failure in one engine with a consequent loss of internal flow is likely to unstart the entire engine installation precipitating a violent change in vehicle pitching moment. In order to focus the intake shock system and generate the correct duct flow areas over the whole Mach range, variable geometry intake/combustor and nozzle surfaces are required. The large variation in flow passage shape forces the adoption of a rectangular engine cross section with flat moving ramps thereby incurring a severe penalty in the pressure vessel mass. Also to maximise the installed engine performance requires a high dynamic pressure trajectory which in combination with the high Mach number imposes severe heating rates on the airframe. Active cooling of significant portions of the airframe will be necessary with further penalties in mass and complexity. Further drawbacks to the scramjet concept are evident in many areas. The nett thrust of a scramjet engine is very sensitive to the intake, combustion and nozzle efficiencies due to the exceptionally poor work ratio of the cycle. Since the exhaust velocity is only slightly greater than the incoming freestream velocity a small reduction in pressure recovery or combustion efficiency is likely to convert a small nett thrust into a small nett drag. This situation might be tolerable if the theoretical methods (CFD codes) and engineering knowledge were on a very solid footing with ample correlation of theory with experiment. However the reality is that the component efficiencies are dependant on the detailed physics of poorly understood areas like flow turbulence, shock wave/boundary layer interactions and boundary layer transition. To exacerbate this deficiency in the underlying physics existing ground test facilities are unable to replicate the flowfield at physically representative sizes , forcing the adoption of expensive flight research vehicles to acquire the necessary data. Scramjet development could only proceed after a lengthy technology program and even then would probably be a risky and expensive project. In 1993 Reaction Engines estimated that a 130 tonne scramjet vehicle development program would cost $25B (at fixed prices) assuming that the program proceeded according to plan. This program would have included two X planes, one devoted to the subsonic handling and low supersonic regime and the other an air dropped scramjet research vehicle to explore the Mach 5-15 regime. 6.Turbojets, Turborockets and Variants In this section are grouped those engines that employ turbocompressors to compress the airflow but without the aid of precoolers. The advantage of cycles that employ onboard work transfer to the airflow is that they are capable of operation from sea level static conditions. This has important performance advantages over engines employing solely ram compression and additionally enables a cheaper development program since the mechanical reliability can be acquired in relatively inexpensive open air ground test facilities. 6.1 Turbojets Turbojets (Fig. 1) exhibit a very rapid thrust decay above about Mach 3 due to the effects of the rising compressor inlet temperature forcing a reduction in both flow and pressure ratio. Compressors must be operated within a stable part of their characteristic bounded by the surge and choke limits. In addition structural considerations impose an upper outlet temperature and spool speed limit. As inlet temperature rises (whilst operating at constant Wà ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡T/P and N/à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡T) the spool speed and/or outlet temperature limit is rapidly approached. Either way it is necessary to throttle the engine by moving down the running line, in the process reducing both flow and pressure ratio. The consequent reduction in nozzle pressure ratio and mass flow results in a rapid loss in nett thrust. However at Mach 3 the vehicle has received an insufficient boost to make up for the mass penalty of the airbreathing engine. Therefore all these cycles tend to be proposed in conjunction with a subsonic combustion ramjet mode to higher Mach numbers. The turbojet would be isolated from the hot airflow in ramjet mode by blocker doors which allow the airstream to flow around the core engine with small pressure loss. The ramjet mode provides reasonable specific thrust to around Mach 6-7 at which point transition to rocket propulsion is effected. Despite the ramjet extension to the Mach number range the performance of these systems is poor due mainly to their low thrust/weight ratio. An uninstalled turbojet has a thrust/weight ratio of around 10. However this falls to 5 or less when the intake and nozzle systems are added which compares badly with a H2/O2 rocket of 60+. 6.2 Turborocket The turborocket (Fig. 2) cycles represent an attempt to improve on the low thrust/weight of the turbojet and to increase the useful Mach number range. The pure turborocket consists of a low pressure ratio fan driven by an entirely separate turbine employing H2/O2 combustion products. Due to the separate turbine working fluid the matching problems of the turbojet are eased since the compressor can in principle be operated anywhere on its characteristic. By manufacturing the compressor components in a suitable high temperature material (such as reinforced ceramic) it is possible to eliminate the ramjet bypass duct and operate the engine to Mach 5-6 whilst staying within outlet temperature and spool speed limits. In practice this involves operating at reduced nondimensional speed N/à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡T and hence pressure ratio. Consequently to avoid choking the compressor outlet guide vanes a low pressure ratio compressor is selected (often only 2 stages) which permits operation over a wider flow range. The turborocket is considerably lighter than a turbojet. However the low cycle pressure ratio reduces the specific thrust at low Mach numbers and in conjunction with the preburner liquid oxygen flow results in a poor specific impulse compared to the turbojet. 6.3 Expander Cycle Turborocket This cycle is a variant of the turborocket whereby the turbine working fluid is replaced by high pressure regeneratively heated hydrogen warmed in a heat exchanger located in the exhaust duct (Fig. 3). Due to heat exchanger metal temperature limitations the combustion process is normally split into two stages (upstream and downstream of the ma- LHLH LOx/LH2 Fig. 1 Turbo-ramjet Engine (with integrated rocket engine). LOx/LH2LH2 LOx/LH2 Fig. 2 Turborocket. LH2LOx/LH2 Fig. 3 Turbo-expander engine. trix) and the turbine entry temperature is quite low at around 950K. This variant exhibits a moderate improvement in specific impulse compared with the pure turborocket due to the elimination of the liquid oxygen flow. However this is achieved at the expense of additional pressure loss in the air ducting and the mass penalty of the heat exchanger. Unfortunately none of the above engines exhibit any performance improvement over a pure rocket approach to the SSTO launcher problem, despite the wide variations in core engine cycle and machinery. This is for the simple reason that the core engine masses are swamped by the much larger masses of the intake and nozzle systems which tend to outweigh the advantage of increased specific impulse. Due to the relatively low pressure ratio ramjet modes of these engines, it is essential to provide an efficient high pressure recovery variable geometry intake and a variable geometry exhaust nozzle. The need for high pressure recovery forces the adoption of 2 dimensional geometry for the intake system due to the requirement to focus multiple oblique shockwaves over a wide mach number range. This results in a very serious mass penalty due to the inefficient pressure vessel cross section and the physically large and complicated moving ramp assembly with its high actuation loads. Similarly the exhaust nozzle geometry must be capable of a wide area ratio variation in order to cope with the widely differing flow conditions (Wà ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡T/P and pressure ratio) between transonic and high Mach number flight. A further complication emerges due to the requirement to integrate the rocket engine needed for the later ascent into the airbreathing engine nozzle. This avoids the prohibitive base drag penalty that would result from a separate dead nozzle system as the vehicle attempted to accelerate through transonic. 7. Liquid Air Cycle Engines (LACE) and Air Collection Engines (ACE) Liquid Air Cycle Engines were first proposed by Marquardt in the early 1960s. The simple LACE engine exploits the low temperature and high specific heat of liquid hydrogen in order to liquify the captured airstream in a specially designed condenser (Fig. 4). Following liquifaction the air is relatively easily pumped up to such high pressures that it can be fed into a conventional rocket combustion chamber. The main advantage of this approach is that the airbreathing and rocket propulsion systems can be combined with only a single nozzle required for both modes. This results in a mass saving and a compact installation with efficient base area utilisation. Also the engine is in principle capable of operation from sea level static conditions up to perhaps Mach 6-7. LH2 LO2 Liquid Air Turbopump Fig. 4 Liquid Air Cycle Engine (LACE). The main disadvantage of the LACE engine however is that the fuel consumption is very high (compared to other airbreathing engines) with a specific impulse of only about 800 secs. Condensing the airflow necessitates the removal of the latent heat of vaporisation under isothermal conditions. However the hydrogen coolant is in a supercritical state following compression in the turbopump and absorbs the heat load with an accompanying increase in temperature. Consequently a temperature pinch point occurs within the condenser at around 80K and can only be controlled by increasing the hydrogen flow to several times stoichiometric. The air pressure within the condenser affects the latent heat of vaporisation and the liquifaction temperature and consequently has a strong effect on the fuel/air ratio. However at sea level static conditions of around 1 bar the minimum fuel/air ratio required is about 0.35 (ie: 12 times greater than the stoichiometric ratio of 0.029) assuming that the hydrogen had been compressed to 200 bar. Increasing the air pressure or reducing the hydrogen pump delivery pressure (and temperature) could reduce the fuel/ air ratio to perhaps 0.2 but nevertheless the fuel flow remains very high. At high Mach numbers the fuel flow may need to be increased further, due to heat exchanger metal temperature limitations (exacerbated by hydrogen embrittlement limiting the choice of tube materials). To reduce the fuel flow it is sometimes proposed to employ slush hydrogen and recirculate a portion of the coolant flow back into the tankage. However the handling of slush hydrogen poses difficult technical and operational problems. From a technology standpoint the main challenges of the simple LACE engine are the need to prevent clogging of the condenser by frozen carbon dioxide, argon and water vapour. Also the ability of the condenser to cope with a changing g vector and of designing a scavenge pump to operate with a very low NPSH inlet. Nevertheless performance studies of SSTOs equipped with LACE engines have shown no performance gains due to the inadequate specific impulse in airbreathing mode despite the reasonable thrust/weight ratio and Mach number capability. The Air Collection Engine (ACE) is a more complex variant of the LACE engine in which a liquid oxygen separator is incorporated after the air liquifier. The intention is to takeoff with the main liquid oxygen tanks empty and fill them during the airbreathing ascent thereby possibly reducing the undercarriage mass and installed thrust level. The ACE principal is often proposed for parallel operation with a ramjet main propulsion system. In this variant the hydrogen fuel flow would condense a quantity of air from which the oxygen would be separated before entering the ramjet combustion chamber at a near stoichiometric mixture ratio. The liquid nitrogen from the separator could perform various cooling duties before being fed back into the ramjet airflow to recover the momentum drag. The oxygen separator would be a complex and heavy item since the physical properties of liquid oxygen and nitrogen are very similar. However setting aside the engineering details, the basic thermodynamics of the ACE principal are wholly unsuited to an SSTO launcher. Since a fuel/air mixture ratio of approximately 0.2 is needed to liquify the air and since oxygen is 23.1% of the airflow it is apparent that a roughly equal mass of hydrogen is required to liquify a given mass of oxygen. Therefore there is no saving in the takeoff propellant loading and in reality a severe structure mass penalty due to the increased fuselage volume needed to contain the low density liquid hydrogen. 8. Precooled Hybrid Airbreathing Rocket Engines This last class of engines is specifically formulated for the SSTO propulsion role and combines some of the best features of the previous types whilst simultaneously overcoming their faults. The first engine of this type was the RB545 powerpla

The World Wide Web Essays -- Internet Technology Computers Essays

The World Wide Web Communication--it is a fundamental part of our everyday lives. It characterizes who we are, what we do, and how we relate to others in society. It is a very powerful tool that holds many different uses for our basic needs and survival. At a very simplistic level, it is key in attaining our very basic needs for survival. In that respect, it is key in achieving all needs in Maslows hierarchy. Its uses and possibilities endless. Over time, the discoveries that have been made in relation to communication have been revolutionary in that they have changed the way we live and act dramatically. For example, the writing on walls, pencils, pens, ink, paper, the printing press, telegraph, telephone, television, electronic mail--these only touch the surface. But, what they all have in common is that they have impacted our lives and the way in which members of society relate to one another, understand and percieve one another. As technology advances, the ways in which we communicate will change and advance. In 1992, the inception of the World Wide Web brought about, which at that time many people were unaware, a revolution in the communication industry. In essence, the way in which people communicate with one another would be changed forever. Families with relatives, friends, managers and employees, organizations-public and private, commerce--the consumer and the supplier. These and an endless number of communication relationships would be changed forever. This web site provides a detailed description of the World Wide Web, its history, the traditional and technological implications that have been brought about with it and raises some moral and ethical questions about the WWW. TARGET TECHNOLOGY--The Wo... ... to do with it or how it was going to change our futures. But, as time went on, we learned to better utilize the invention and how to capitalize on the advantages it holds. Today television is key in many peoples' lives. It changed communication, advertising, commerce and a countless number of things forever. I believe that the Web already has and will do the same in these areas in the future, only with an even greater impact. References Pasadena Public Library. "Internet Tutorial." A World Wide Web Tutorial. http://ci.pasadena.ca.us/library/tutorial.html (13 April 1999). Halonen, Olli-Pekka. "Guide for creating World Wide Web." A World Wide Web History. http://www.netppl.fi/~okko/ddd/history.html (13 April 1999). Ray, Tim. "HTML Definition." A Definition of HTML. http://ernie.bgsu.edu/~timray/hypertext/htmldef.html (15 April 1999).

Confronting Fear in Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now :: Movie Film comparison compare contrast

Confronting Fear in Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now    Inherent inside every human soul is a savage evil side that remains repressed by society. Often this evil side breaks out during times of isolation from our culture, and whenever one culture confronts another. History is loaded with examples of atrocities that have occurred when one culture comes into contact with another. Whenever fundamentally different cultures meet, there is often a fear of contamination and loss of self that leads us to discover more about our true selves, often causing perceived madness by those who have yet to discover. The Puritans left Europe in hopes of finding a new world to welcome them and their beliefs. What they found was a vast new world, loaded with Indian cultures new to them. This overwhelming cultural interaction caused some Puritans to go mad and try to purge themselves of a perceived evil. This came to be known as the Salem witch trials. During World War II, Germany made an attempt to overrun Europe. What happened when the Nazis came into power and persecuted the Jews in Germany, Austria and Poland is well known as the Holocaust. Here, human's evil side provides one of the scariest occurrences of this century. Adolf Hitler and his Nazi counterparts conducted raids of the ghettos to locate and often exterminate any Jews they found. Although Jews are the most widely known victims of the Holocaust, they were not the only targets. When the war ended, 6 million Jews, Slavs, Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Communists, and others targeted by the Nazis, had died in the Holocaust. Most of these deaths occurred in gas chambers and mass shootings. This gruesome attack was motivated mainly by the fear of cultural intermixing which would impurify the "Master Race." Joseph Conrad's book, The Heart of Darkness and Francis Coppola's movie, Apocalypse Now are both stories about Man's journey into his self, and the discoveries to be made there. They are also about Man confronting his fears of failure, insanity, death, and cultural contamination. During Marlow's mission to find Kurtz, he is also trying to find himself. He, like Kurtz had good intentions upon entering the Congo. Conrad tries to show us that Marlow is what Kurtz had been, and Kurtz is what Marlow could become. Every human has a little of Marlow and Kurtz in them.   Marlow says about himself, "I was getting savage (Conrad)," meaning that he was becoming more like Kurtz.

My Decision to Pursue an MBA Degree

The decision to pursue a master’s degree these days is highly important due to the professionally competitive environment that we live in. Everyone has a bachelor’s degree but an MBA is a way to stay ahead from the rest, it sets you on a higher level. I chose to purse my MBA in order to further my career and have better opportunities. According to the â€Å"What’s my Jungian 16-type Personality? † assessment I have a possible career future as a manager, management trainer, stockbroker, lawyer, chemical engineer, police officer. I currently have a manager’s position inside a family owned company where there aren’t any more professional growth opportunities. In order for me to remain competitive in a very competitive job market I decide to pursue an MBA in Business Management without discarding the option of also including and MBA in Project Management as well. While searching for new jobs I have discovered that there are many positions for project managers. Some of the qualities mentioned in these job postings are that the person has to be visionary, responsible, have leadership qualities, organized, and so on. According to the results of the â€Å"What’s my Jungian 16-type Personality? † assessment I am outgoing, visionary, argumentative, have a low intolerance for incompetence, and often seen as a natural leader; so I believe I have what it takes to be a great project manager. Professional growth and/or advancement opportunities are a very important part of my decision to pursue an MBA. I was feeling stuck and unable to move forward with my career goals, but I believe that with a higher level of education I can achieve those goals. Fresh out of college I thought I had my life planned out but it was all based on me having an awesome job in a place I liked and doing what I like and what I know I’m good at. But that didn’t work out so well. So I found myself stuck at my part time job which was supposed to be only a temporary thing while I was in college. I don’t want to be one of those people who look back on their life and wonder where the time went and why didn’t they do something to change it. Although sometimes I feel frustrated and that I’m getting nowhere, I know I’m doing the right thing and I just need to hang in there. While it took me some time to actually get up and do something about it, here I am, ready to take on this MBA and land that job I am looking for.

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain juxtaposes Huck’s adventurous and liberating journey along with Jim on the raft down the river Mississippi with the corrupt life that allows unconscious acceptance to the values of society on the shore. The novel unfolds Huck’s inner mind and records his learning and moral development as he encounters morally corrupt and crooked people on his journey to freedom. The novel contrasts between the constricting life on the shore and the freedom offered by the journey on the river.   Though Huck’s raft follows the river towards its downward journey, he goes against the stream in his life learning on his own the hard realities of life. Huck finds the two wealthy sisters Widow Douglas and Miss Watson, who adopt him, as the true representatives of the society that is based on hypocritical religious and ethical values. Though Widow Douglas is more patient and gentle towards Huck, he finds her care and concern quite restrictive. When she puts him in new clothes he could do nothing but feel cramped sweating a lot. He does not find any meaning in prayer before the dinner and in the stories of Moses and the Bulrushers who were dead long time ago. Though the life in the care of Widow Douglas is decent and dignified, cozy and comfortable, Huck does not like it much. He feels his old ways of living are the best. Living in a house and sleeping in a bed pulled on me pretty tight mostly, but before the cold weather I used to slide out and sleep in the woods sometimes, and so that was a rest to me. I liked the old ways Best. (Twain 13) He finds Miss Watson’s attempts to ‘sivilize’ him most annoying. For him, she is the best example of severe and unforgiving laws of Christian life which are against his individual freedom. He feels â€Å"Miss Watson she kept pecking at me, and it got tiresome and lonesome†.   He is so vexed with the ways of living under the care of Miss Watson that he feels one night quite depressed and feels â€Å"I felt so lonesome I most wished I was dead.†   (Twain 5) When Miss Watson insists that he should pray he can not find any reason to pray when his prayers are not answered by God. When he asks her to try for him she calls him a fool. Huck tries several times in his own way asking God for the things he wanted, but he could not find any response from God. He finds it quite impractical. He does not find any advantage for him in praying for others as told by Widow. He finds a lot of difference between Widow and Miss Watson who both pray and teach the same things to him about Providence. The following lines best illustrate his understanding of his two guardians who differ a lot in their attitude. I judged I could see that there was two Providences, and a poor chap would stand considerable show with the widow’s Providence, but if Miss Watson’s got him there warn’t no help for him any more. (Twain 11) Huck’s father, Pap, an incorrigible wreck with his disgusting and ghostlike appearance in tattered clothes, represents the generally debased white society and the failed family. Pap, who is always after the money earned by Huck, feels jealous of his son’s education when his son is living with Widow Douglas and going to school. He not only kidnaps his son but also virtually imprisons him in a cabin in the woods and beats him completely drunk. In fact, he proves dangerous and provides the immediate and most potent cause for Huck’s escape from the society on the shore. On the contrary, he finds a trusting and caring surrogate father in Jim who accompanies him in his escape from the shore. Jim, a runaway slave from the house of Miss Watson, stands for strong family relationship, nobility and loyalty. He takes the extreme step of running away from Miss Watson’s house as he suspects he would be sold for another master which will eventually separate him from his family. Though he seems superstitious and ignorant, he is an intelligent man with a deep understanding of human life. Jim he was right; he was most always right; he had an uncommon level head for a nigger. (Twain 55). There is a strong bond of friendship and understanding between Huck and Jim on the raft. Both are desperately in need of protecting themselves from the selfish people in the society. The raft on the river Mississippi provides them an opportunity to save their lives. It offers them the much needed freedom. The following passage aptly conveys their dire need to run away from society. I was powerful glad to get away from the feuds, and so was Jim to get away from the swamp. We said there warn’t no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don’t. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft. (Twain 83) The life on the raft is different in many ways from the life that is found on the shore. The raft provides them not only as escape from the corrupt and selfish people, but also an opportunity to be what they are and to do what they like. It gives them a unique opportunity to explore their true identity and their stand in relation to many things in life. They are closest to their true nature on the raft in the lovely and mighty presence of the river and the woods. It offers them unrestricted and uninhibited freedom. Huck feels happy and liberated on the raft and expresses the same in the following words: It’s lovely to live on a raft. We had the sky up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made or only just happened. (Twain 84) Twain has brilliantly contrasted the plight of a white boy with that of a slave Jim. The story of the novel revolves around these two characters that are almost in the same boat with similar problems. As luck would have it, they share the same raft in their escape for freedom. Huck finds Jim’s presence on the raft comforting and supportive as Jim is practical, intelligent and trustworthy though, at times, he seems sentimental. Jim not only cooks food for Huck but also protects him from dangers. Jim’s acts of selflessness and his longing to meet his family have left an indelible impression on Huck. Huck is very determined till the end to save Jim and to get him free. However, the life on the raft is not without its share of dangers and threats. Huck and Jim get separated when their raft is hit by a steamer in the river. Huck’s encounter with the family of Grangerfords exposes him to pretentious importance that people attach to their family’s honor or prestige. Huck suspects behind the kindhearted and gentle people in the family, there is an unreasonable feud between them and the Shepherdsons. It makes no sense to Huck. Many of the people belonging to these families die in a bitter gun fight from which Huck luckily escapes. After facing many challenging situations Huck and Jim once again continue their journey on the raft further towards the south. The two con artists who ask for help and seek refuge on the raft prove dangerous to Huck in the end. The two con artists involve in various crimes at times claiming to be the descendants of royal family and sometimes, pretending to be great actors and evangelists. They once again remind the crookedness of the people in the society on the shore. The raft has proved an excellent place to enjoy the perfect freedom and bliss without any interference. Though Jim is there with him all the time, he is silent and provided a good company with his accommodating nature. Huck enjoys Jim’s company and the journey most. He expresses his happiness saying, It was kind of solemn, drifting down the big, still river, laying on our backs looking up at the stars, and we didn’t ever feel like talking loud, and it warn’t often that we laughed — only a little kind of a low chuckle. (Twain 47) The long journey on the raft has provided Huck with many opportunities to learn new things and develop his own logic. Every challenge he faces presents him with an opportunity to think about it deeply and to come to a conclusion which he feels right. His association with Jim on the raft has given him opportunity to think clearly and form his own opinion without any interference. He prefers to follow his own instinct and logic than to accept the unquestioned conventions of the society.   Huck’s determination to save Jim when he is caught demonstrates his maturity and broadness of understanding. Huck has to undergo an internal struggle to overcome some of the notions that have been ingrained in him by the society. Every time Huck faces a problem he applies his mind and comes out with a decision what he feels right, though it might look wrong and offending to the white community. He takes help from Tom Sawyer in rescuing Jim finally. Huck loses his faith in the society that has failed to protect him. Though the Widow tried her best to give him what he has missed, it has proved imperfect to mould him. His growing distance from the society makes him skeptical about it. His natural intelligence and his ability to think through a situation have enabled him to form his own right conclusions. Thus, he creates his own rules and develops his character throughout the journey. Twain depicts the society around Huck with people who are degraded in their values. The actions of these people defy logic and commonsense. For example, when the judge allows Pap, the wreck and disgusting drunkard, to keep custody of Huck, he gives more importance to the right of ownership than to the welfare of the innocent boy. It clearly depicts the social system that has fallen in its moral standing. It highlights the white man’s rights over his property whether it is a slave or a son. The Mississippi River plays the most important role in the novel providing freedom and refreshing experience to Huck and Jim who are in their quest for freedom. They travel from their home town St. Petersburg, Missouri, north of St. Louis, hundreds of miles into the Deep South.   The odyssey down the river lends the story a mystic element offering contentment to the people who come in search of freedom. The river with its power and grandeur sets a meaningful background to the story that contrasts life on the river with the life on the shore. The river plays the role of liberating influence on the two characters Huck and Jim. It is the only place where they can feel at home though they are on a raft. Huck arrives at the conclusion that the idyllic life, peace and brotherhood of himself and Jim have given him more satisfaction and a sense of freedom and understanding as opposed to the inhumanity, the feud and the degenerated values of society. Thus, it is a journey in search of understanding and freedom leaving behind the so called ‘sivilization’ that destroys innocence and enslaves human beings. In short, Huck’s journey is from unthinking acceptance of received values and knowledge to an independently achieved understanding of what is right. It is journey from boyhood to manhood, from servitude to freedom. T. S. Eliot, the great English poet and critic of the twentieth century who also grew up on the banks of the same river says, â€Å"the river makes the book a great book† It has fired the imagination of the boy Huck and became the only real home for him. Reference Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn < http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/twain/huckfinn.pdf   >