Technological Applications within Human resource Essay Example for Free

Technological Applications within Human resource Essay Human resource department is moving from the traditional way of doing things that is remote and inefficient to a more modern way through computerization that comes with great benefits and surpasses the traditional methods. A computerized system can be termed as eHR which simply means the use of predictable, web and voice innovations to enhance firm’s dealings, organization and process performance. It is therefore prudent for the CEO of the company to embrace such a modern system for efficiency in the firm in order to enhance the human resource services, in order to reduce operational costs, to improve the relationship between the management and the entire staff, to meet customer demands and to offer quality services to its customers and the staff. Technological applications within HR department have various benefits that include the following: with computerized systems the human resource department can develop a viable information strategy that will lead to increase in accessing the relevant information. Another benefit is that of achieving consistent and streamlined processes. This leads to a good and organized system that ensures that the laid down procedures are harmonized to be applicable to all and without confusion. The other benefits come up through the acquisition of the right information for those who need it to make correct decisions thus avoiding risks and losses that come up from guesswork. Also with technological application the management has the opportunity to achieve and maintain a superior internal profile for human resource that leads to achieving the goals and objective of the organization as stipulated by the mission and the vision of the company. (Hal and Dianna, 2005) However, such technological innovations have their own drawbacks and therefore needing the CEO’s attention; such problems include lack of understanding of the system developed using advanced technologies. There is need for the organization to incur extra funds to manage the advancement and also train those working to be better and efficient in utilizing the new technology. Another problem comes up due to inadequate coding of information that is arrived at when there is poor setting of the structures used to code. The middle level managers and supervisors may also bring a problem by holding and maintaining information that may help both the workers and the company at large. This comes when the managers do not have easy access to the system and a lot of manual that holds them . Lack of clarity of responsibilities for getting information on how the system can be used can also cause a great harm thus needing responsibilities to be well specified to correct the problem Research has shown that there is need to come up with a good computerized system for efficiency in the HR department to ensure that there is ease of managing the human resource. Such systems will include: holding personal details about the individuals workers that will include skills, qualification, career history, leave and absence records. Another system will include the production of reports which summarize diverse aspects of this information. It will also hold particulars about employees’ jobs which include things like their job grades, job description, role classification and pay and their benefits. It will also be of value to the company if the CEO ensures that there is information on recruitment and training administration. The computerized system in the company should also be able to provide information by recording and analyzing absence, labour turnover and attendance that helps management to make decisions on individual workers. It should be able to do job evaluation of the workers. For reward management and human resource planning, it will need a sophisticated system that will be in a position to support strategic decision making. (James, 2002) Provision of linkages to the internet is also a part of computerized system which will ease the function of the management of the company and can be of help in instances where the companies do recruitments and other things through the internet. There will be pitfalls that will automatically come from computerization that will not be received well by the affected in general. This are for instance the need for all the personal details about individuals can be tricky to workers since the management can base it in making decisions about them that may be of negative impact. Those being retrenched for instance will be sorted according to the information on qualification academically rather than experience In the event where the accessibility of workers information is not well protected, it can find way to people who can use it against persons who are the bearers of the said information and it becomes very dangerous to the workers. The personal details that must be handled with privacy include: medical history and discipline, employees qualifications, absence, special skills and competence e. t. c must be kept very private. Some top managers may take advantage and misuse the available information to mistreat those that are vulnerable and result to even others deciding to leave the organization while others will be affected psychologically and lead to reduced labour turnover. Some workers inaccessibility and familiarity with technology will make them feel inferior and will not take into account their various responsibilities and needs thus affecting them in the way they perform their duties. (Hal and Dianna, 2005) Best plan for the CEO The CEO must adopt the modern computerized technology to be in a position to be efficient and more organized for the success of the company. The CEO must establish the current need and also the future needs of the business and also analyze everything that results from information system that will be designed. It will require the company to ensure that the systems developed will be well customized to better serve the company and the whole population at large and it can be in a position to hold all the information of workers and avoid information overload so as to be integrated and also give maximum output for the benefit of the company. There is a need to come up with a good statement of all the requirements to make the computerization a success. Taking into consideration the business requirements, the CEO must identify the best options to tackle the problem while at the same time being strategic to realize the business goals set by the company. The CEO must support it by giving financial support after evaluation and analysis and then go ahead to buy the needed facilities. (James, 2002) The system should be in a position to get direct input at source to be able to get the data that is vital for the basis of decision making. It should solve the problems that were experienced there before and help the line managers by giving them information in an easy understandable manner. The system designed must not only help deal with the management information system but should also handle the administrative processes well. The CEO must ensure that they acquire the best technical infrastructure to support the program well. They will include the following; Application Service Provider (ASP) It will help the administration to do its administrative role well through a proper. Smaller or medium sized organizations rely on ASP in outsourcing the burden of running the system. ASP will help the company very much since the number of workers is around 200 HR/corporate intranet It is an electronic system that is networked therefore enabling all the available information to be communicated to departments and the centers that require the information within the organization. The available information that can be relayed comprises HR policies’, links that can be of help to the management to interface with other workers directly with HR applications and make changes or enquiries that can give assistance when required. B2E portal The organization can utilize this system that can help the human resource department by providing it with a single intranet screen that can make the company to collect information on the workers and give the workers and the people ready access to it. Human resource information system It is very important for the CEO to have a human resource information system that helping managing the HR processes and include important data that include, payroll systems, reward and performance management, recruitment e. t. c (Hal and Dianna, 2005) Conclusion It has been proved globally that modern organizations can only succeed when they are equipped with modern computerized system that can help the management of human resource for the growth and success of firms. The CEO has no choice but embrace the modern way that is easily manageable and less costly in the long run. With a number that is between 180 to 200 workers ‘keeping the file system to store information for the whole population can be quite hectic and also expensive since it will require a good number of workers to work in the human resource department to serve the company and the workers. Information required from files takes a very long time to be accessed unlike in the computerized system that is fast and efficient and can be made to perform multi-tasks and handle I perfectly unlike the use of workers who can only give attention to only one chore at a time. The company will now be in a position to assist give crucial information for better management and also handle issues related to their payments and also administer pay reviews, job evaluation e. t. c for the success of the company. (James, 2002)

Analysing the culture of the United Arab Emirates

Analysing the culture of the United Arab Emirates In this research, I will analyze the culture of the United Arab Emirates. I will analyze also aspect of the contemporary U.A.E culture and some challenges that this culture is facing. In this paper, I will give importance on 5 cultural aspects. First, I will discuss the problem of weak identity and heritage collapse. Second, I will discuss social stratification system. Third, I will discuss changes in role of women in the UAE contemporary society. Fourth, I will discuss issues of marriage, and lastly I will discuss family structure in U.A.E. Historically, gender roles and family relationships in Middle Eastern culture have been very Traditional and steeped in beliefs and customs stemming from Islam. With rapid economic development and modernization, changes may be occurring among younger generation. (Questa 1). However, UAE society over the last decade, had experienced a number of social problems, but it has shown more problem in the UAE contemporary society. However, the most important example that sociological and cultural theory can help interpreting them are (1) Social stratification system (2) lost of UAE Identity and culture (3) change in the roles of women in UAE society and (4) marriage (5) family structure. One example of contemporary UAE Society example is social stratification system in UAE society. The UAE or Emirates society consists of two social categories, the UAE National and Foreign immigrants. The UAE nationals are subdivided into four main social classes: (1) The Ruling family, (2) the merchant or business people, (3) the professionals like teachers, engineers are middle class people and (4) Bedouin nomads and pearl divers. On the other hand, the immigrants are also divided into groups. (1)Comes the top professional like doctors and professor at universities , (2) middle class like school teacher , skilled technicians, and other professional (3) semi skilled laborers who mainly work in construction sites, however , this form of classing system in UAE is changing dramatically to a meritocracy system . A classing system that give importance to personal merits, and achievement rather than inequality in society. This dramatic change is mainly due to the notion that meritocracy sy stem will definitely increase productivity, efficiency and, thus economy becomes better. Social mobility will be common in a meritocracy Society. For example, A Bedouin Nomads, who was mainly classified as a low income group, is now one of the ministers in UAE. This proves that equality and reward based on individual effort had motivated all low income groups to study and learn new skills, so that social mobility could happen. In addition to this , immigrants also benefited and felt of this dramatic change in classing system , they also have been more productive , efficient , and UAE economic success story is the prove of this . As to link this contemporary example of social stratification in UAE society to structural functional approach, we can know that social stratification is a must in the operation of society, and meritocracy system is a must in the success of the operation of society and economy in a country like UAE. Further , a manifest function of meritocracy system is that every level of professional need a different knowledge and skills , so meritocracy system has unrecognized and unintended function , which is the Latin function of social stratification or meritocracy system is that it help people link their performance to reward and not social class categories . Finally, in my point of view, Social Stratification has no dysfunction, because it is common in all societies around the world, and has to be there for appropriate function of society. Another example of UAE contemporary society is the lost UAE national identity and lost of culture and heritage. American cars and fast-food, British universities, European stores, the fact that its not compulsory to learn Arabic in many private schools, and some expatriates are encouraged to live in certain areas. If this is the case, then inevitably, elements of the Dubais Arab culture and traditions will be lost(Gulf News 1). The UAE population structure consist of the following percentage of each foreign nationalities (Asian Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, and Sri Lankiness) account for about 45 percent of the population of the UAE, followed by Arabs (about 33 percent), and Iranians (17 percent). Westerners (Americans and Western Europeans) account for about 5 percent. Jordanians, Palestinians, Egyptians, Iraqis, and Bahrainis are employed throughout the government bureaucracy. As the number of foreigners increases tremendously, making UAE national only 15% percent of the total population, it is worth debating on this phenomenon. (Every culture 1). Multiculturalism and globalization has been encouraged in UAE, and the result is lost of UAE identity. Restaurants, Churches, malls, and all other infrastructure have been designed to accommodate all culture, but not UAE culture. In addition to this, social integration is completely nil; people from every nationality prefer to socialize with their mates from the same nationality, this result in the creation of sub cultures in society. According to Hanna Shaman, a French citizen who lived in UAE has said that this problem was once in French and most Europe country in the industrial revolution, however, government in Germany has forced all foreigners to learn Dutch in the first 2 years they are in Germany, or residence visa will not be given. Such an action, in my point of view, is a must to be implemented in UAE to solve this issue. As a matter of fact, all post industrial societies have faced this problem of g lobalization and multiculturalism. As to link this example of lost of UAE identity and culture to Durkheim theory, as social integration in people of a society is strong, they are likely not commit suicide and die. On the other hand, as member of society strength their social integration, social norm, mores, and culture they are most likely not to commit suicide and live a better life than those, who have less socialization and integration in their society. This theory further illustrates that if social integration in a society is forgotten, the consequences may be hard to the member of that society. As a result of this, I would like government agencies to take this contemporary problem of UAE society in a very serious way. Because as late sheikh Zayed said, who dont know his past is dead for the future. A third example of UAE contemporary society is the change in gender roles of men and women in UAE. Although statistics proven that women are performing better in schools, they are still discriminated in work place. In 1990, only 6% of labor force was women, however, in 2000, it has jumped to 42%. This shows that women in UAE society began to given more importance in work place. But the problem is from men side they believe that women should work in a place where there is no mixing with men, however, in 2006; we can see more 50% of women labor force work in a not segregated work place. This shows further that the cultural point of view of women in UAE society has changed. On the other hand according to feminist movement, working women have double burden in their life. A work at morning, and afternoon being a domestic servant at home. This notion of double burden is spread in UAE, but as matter of fact, most of working women now have an Asian female servant to do the main domestic work at home. As a result, the contemporary UAE society has successfully proven to the world that UAE society is clear from any Social or Gender conflict. A fourth example of UAE contemporary society is Marriage. marriage in the community of the UAE traditions and values, derived from the customs authentic Arab and Islamic concepts of tolerance was characterized by the marriage in the past and free from the complexities and difficulties that were dictated by social and economic conditions present that made the marriage problem and the dilemma facing young couples and threaten the stability of family and social system. Which is the duty urged by Islam religion, is the highest social relations between spouses and in-laws and strangers also within the same society, it is characterized by the status and sanctity of the private in terms of the nature of the procedures and stages of completion. When held parents intention to marry their son, they look to him for a girl belonging to the family of decent folk who show characteristics of religion and morality and a good reputation and the task of searching for the girl sought rests with the mat chmaker or the Prophet, a woman with a mind and thought, tact, have the ability to assess the girl and shown her qualities that the community was still giving special consideration, the ratio of the girl, the beauty, creativity, and religion, Recipes are essential to young people going to get married, and that the reputation of the girls family and lineage, authenticity, and social status of the father or to his creation of decent and good behavior are also the qualities youre looking for the grooms family and require the availability It may not be the matchmaker, a role in the process of the marriage to happen or if the marriage between relatives, the keenness of people formerly on the relative affinity, as his sons married the father of the daughters of his brother, sister or cousins and an increase in family bonding and family cohesion In the case of the use of katapa, theyre a friendly visit to the house of the people of girls, and may you see the girls by surprise because it is difficult to meet the daughter when entering a foreign woman to her family and if I go back matchmaker informed all of the opinions of the people of the groom and the light of that, they make their decision, either to apply for a sermon girl or search for other In the past, the bride price does not exceed in the desert seven twin whereas in the amount of the dowry when the people of the cities between 40 dirhams, and a hundred dirhams and ensures the bridegroom pay (Alqtuap) and it was money specific pay for a daughter of the clothes and decorations and vary according to the case of the people the physical and social status. Also provides for the groom requirements. At the forefront of the wedding banquet. The different marriage customs and manifestations when compared to the people of the desert cities and villages in some of the details. Another example of UAE contemporary society is family structure. Arranged endogamous marriage within the kinship (tribal) units was the preferred pattern in the period, but this pattern has changed somewhat. Individuals now have greater choice, yet many nationals still prefer arranged marriages. Emiratis are strongly discouraged from marrying non nationals, and a young man receives $19,000 from the Marriage Fund if he marries a national. As prescribed by Islam, a man is allowed up to four wives, but most men have only one wife. In UAE the conventional family used to live in extended form of family. But with the development in the economy, this form of family is declining. Recent research found that around 80% of Emirati families live in small family with one or two child (Nuclear). However, due to imbalance population structure in the country. Nuclear families are discouraged and instead government wants their people to have large family with many members. Also, some changes in the role of women as discussed above in this research have changed the role and power of husband in the house. Husband power and authority is declining. In addition to this, due to increase power of women and her responsibly in her work. On average, each household employs two live-in domestic servants, usually Asian. In addition to this, Family and tribal connections form the basis of Emirati social structure. The family and tribe are highly influential and play a role in shaping a persons values and behavior (every culture 2). In UA E culture, tribe and family play an important role in shaping the behavior and customs of the society. It is believe so because It serves to support its members both financially and emotionally and as such, the family comes before anything else and its honors are protected by doing whatever necessary( every culture 2). Furthermore, UAE society and family support kinship too much because many business are run by family members and also same tribe like to live near to each other since they believe that they will support each other. As a result, I will summaries below the changes that might occur in the UAE family structure in the coming decade: 1) One will see the configuration built for the family the UAE has changed in the future in terms of style, size, number of children, and is this change in the predominance of the pattern of the nuclear family (small) on the extended family, and the direction of family size to the average number, and the direction of families to reduce the number of children. 2) One will occur on the marriage process in the future some of the changes is the disappearance of the traditional methods of marriage and was accompanied, to be replaced by modern methods, with the attendant arrangements. 3) One will occur on the network of social relations within the family group of changes, is to chill the relationship between spouses, and the predominance of selfishness, love of self to the members of one family. 4) changes in roles of women within the family in the UAE society, where the wife will put a lot of roles that go beyond the traditional form in parenting and care of home affairs, and exercise of women within the family and the UAE in the future to participate more in decision-making process within the family. 5) There would be some changes in the functions carried out by the Emirati family in the future, especially those related to emotional and psychological function and reproduction. 6) There would be the format of the Family Values in the UAE society in the future to some changes, especially those relating to the value of cooperation and solidarity and obedience, as well as the system of religious values and ethics, and values of consumption. 7) Family in UAE society will face some social problems, some of them did not know before, such as: saturation of Western values, and the entry of innovative patterns of crime, and some other extension of the old problems, but it will worsen in the future, such as family disputes. 8) One will see the Emirati family in the future escalation to divorce. These above changes might occur in the near future. If you open the news paper on daily basis you will see that some of these issues are being discussed. I think there shall be some huge reform from government side and also people to minimize these problems. I would prefer government to establish a strategy to face these problems. In Conclusion, the UAE contemporary society is more likely to face a numbers of social problem and issues due to imbalanced population structure and over speedy construction boom the country is experiencing. As a Solution, government agencies should pay attention to their society and try the limits those issues. In this research paper, I discussed many important aspect of one of the most growing countries in Middle East. I discussed issues that have relationship to cultural studies in Middle East. First, I spoke about the contemporary UAE culture and discussed some of its problems. In that context, I spoke about the national identity issue; also I spoke about how the western society has affected UAE culture. Further, I spoke about marriage in UAE in the past, and the end I spoke about family structure and how that structure is changing from nuclear to extended family. Finally, I gave some recommendation and changes that might occur in UAE society in the near future. Work cited http://www.everyculture.com/To-Z/United-Arab-Emirates.html http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/06/09/14/10067514.html (2 http://www.communicaid.com/access/pdf/library/culture/doing-business-in/Doing%20Business%20in%20the%20UAE.pdf http://www.lahaonline.com/index.php?option=contenttask=viewid=913 http://www.emartyvision.com/vb/showthread.php?t=26 http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=26C14DDA8FF15E35979E7AED0FAE7FA0.inst2_1a?docId=5010976997

Life Cycle of a Compact Disc (DC)

Life Cycle of a Compact Disc (DC) LIFE CYCLE ANALYSIS OF A COMPACT DISC CDs have become an essential item in everybodys life. Despite its simple structure, it allows you to listen hours of music, to watch films on a player as well as to store a huge amount of information. For all these reasons, CDs consumption has increased in the last few years. Thats way a compact disc is an important matter of analysis in terms of life cycle and environmental footprint. In this essay Ill discuss the main points on the life cycle of this product from its creation to the final stage of its life. MATERIALS ACQUISITION CDs are made of many different materials. The main of them are: aluminum, polycarbonate, lacquer, gold, dyes and some other materials such as water, glass, silver and nickel. Aluminum is the most abundant metal in the Earths crust but the common aluminum is not economic sources of the metal. Thats why almost all metallic aluminum is produced from ore bauxite. Smelting of the ore occurs in different countries than the mining activity, so it involves its transportation. Polycarbonate is a type of plastic which is made from crude oil and natural gas extracted from the Earth. Lacquer is made of acrylic, another type of plastic. Gold is straight mined from the Earth. Dyes are chemicals made in laboratory, partially from petroleum products that come from the Earth. Mining is a key process at this point of the life cycle as it supposes the obtaining of the necessary raw materials that will make up the CD. All mining process involves the use of machinery such as trucks and excavator. Those vehicles consume energy and release CO2 emission to the atmosphere. In this stage, proposing any improvement is difficult as nowadays there is no other way of getting raw materials from Earths crust but by means of excavators. MATERIALS PROCESSING Materials acquisition is not the previous step to the manufacturing process. Most mined materials must be processed before manufacturers can use them to make CDs. As I mentioned before, bauxite ore is processed into a substance called â€Å"alumina† by washing, crushing, dissolving, filtering, and harvesting the materials. Alumina is then turned into aluminum through a process called â€Å"smelting.† Then the metal is shaped, rolled, or made into a cast. Regarding this material process, it has to be taken into account the fact that larger deposits of bauxite occur in certain countries and its processing takes place in different points of the world. This implies transportation from one place to the other and its consequent CO2 emissions. To make plastics, crude oil is extracted from the ground and combined with natural gas and chemicals in a manufacturing or processing plant. In some cases, burning plastics as part of a process can release toxic fumes. Moreover, the manufacturing of plastic often creates large quantities of chemical pollutants. In order to determine the carbon footprint due to all those material processes, we have to take into account the energy consumed in manufacturing and processing plant. Energy consumption is kept at a high level as smelting and some chemical processes require a huge amount of energy to be accomplished. MANUFACTURING PROCESS The manufacturing process of a CD is complex. An injection molding machine creates the core of the disc, a 1-millimeter thick piece of polycarbonate (plastic). Polycarbonate is melted and poured in a mold. Then, with the aid off high pressure, a stamper embeds tiny indentations, or pits, with digital information into the plastic mold. Those indentations or pits will be read by a laser when playing a CD. Therefore, it is an accurate process and it involves some specialized tools and machines. Then, the so-called process â€Å"sputtering† takes places. Through it, the â€Å"metallizer† machine coats the CDs with a thin metal reflective layer (usually aluminum). The playback laser reads the information off of the reflective aluminum surface. In order to protect the CD against scratching and corrosion, it receives a layer of lacquer as a protecting coating. Most CDs are screen printed with one to five different colors for a decorative label. Screen printing involves the use of many materials, including stencils, queegees, and inks. In the manufacturing process, a considerable amount of environmental aggressive products are used such as lacquer and inks. PACKAGING CDs are packaged in clear or colored plastic cases or cardboard boxes that are then covered with plastic shrink wrap. This packaging can be made from recycled or raw materials. For example, the plastic used can be from recycled bottles or from crude oil and natural gas extracted from the Earth and combined with chemicals. Manufacturing cardboard require cutting trees down. This is an important and aggressive action against the environment and therefore, it has to be taken into account when evaluating the environmental cost of packaging CDs. TRANSPORTATION/DISTRIBUTION The transportation supposes a considerable contribution to carbon footprint. Once discs are packaged, they are sent to all parts in the world where they are distributed. Transportation by plane, truck, or rail requires the use of fossil fuels for energy, which contribute to climate change. Moreover, manufacturing plants usually are located in underdeveloped countries due to economic reasons whereas the main consumption of this product is registered in developed countries. This involves long transport distances and then important CO2 emissions. USEFUL LIFE CDs are created with materials that are extremely stable. If properly stored and handled, most discs will last for decades. Certain conditions, such as high humidity, or extended periods of high temperatures, rapid temperature changes, and exposure to certain types of light, can damage discs and shorten their useful life. Keeping discs out of direct sunlight and away from heat and water will help them last longer. Following those easy instructions not only will save money, but it will also reduce the discs environmental impacts by preventing waste. From my point of view, this stage has an important meaning in terms of waste minimization. Our CDs consumption rate would decrease significantly if handling them properly. Making the useful life longer involves reducing all the process previous to the use, and so reducing the carbon footprint generated by the processing, manufacturing, transport process, etc. REUSE, RECYCLE OR DISPOSAL In order to reduce the discs environmental impacts, the disposal must be seen as the last option. Depending on their condition, discs can be reused or recycled instead of thrown away. Reuse A good way to keep discs out of the garbage is to reuse them. In this sense, one of the reasons why we get rid of discs is scratches. Minor scratches can be repaired by rubbing a mild abrasive (such as toothpaste) on the non-label side of a disc in a circular motion from the center out. Also, some commercial refinishers can inexpensively repair your CDs. Another main reason is that the disc is not longer wanted. Unwanted CDs or can be sold to some stores, traded with friends, or donated to schools, libraries, or other organizations. Buying used CDs borrowing them from the library can also help reduce the environmental impact associated with manufacturing new products. In my opinion this is the better alternative to disposal because unlike recycling, reusing doesnt involve any manufacturing or smelting process. Therefore less energy will be consumed resulting in a lower carbon footprint. Recycle CDs can be recycled for use in new products. Specialized electronic recycling companies clean, grind, blend, and compound the discs into a high-quality plastic for a variety of uses, including automotive industry parts, raw materials to make plastics, office equipment, alarm boxes and panels, street lights, and electrical cable insulation, jewel cases. Most CD recycling companies only accept large stockpiles of old, damaged, or unused from businesses. A few companies will accept smaller quantities of discs mailed by individuals. Once the recyclers receive the CDs, they separate the packaging materials, manuals, and CDs for individual recycling processes. You might consider contacting a CD recycling company on behalf of your school or school district-collecting CDs for reuse could be a good school or community fundraising project. Check your local phone book or search the Internet for a list of recyclers, and be sure to have one in place before you begin collecting CDs for recycling. As with most stages of product life cycles, even recycling has environmental tradeoffs. CD recycling is now an emerging technology, which means that many companies are not yet capable of recycling these discs. So, while recycling CDs saves natural resources, the trade-off comes from the amount of fuel and energy thats consumed to transport discs long-distances to an appropriate recycling facility. Disposal Only dispose of your discs when you have no other choice. Always try to share, donate, or trade your discs or drop them off at an appropriate recycling center. CDs and that are thrown away waste energy and result in lost valuable resources.

Julius Caesar :: essays papers

Julius Caesar Julius Caesar was born on July 12/13, 100? BC, and died March 15, 44 BC.Julius Caesar was a celebrated Roman general and statesman, the conqueror of Gaul (58-50 BC), victor in the Civil War of 49-46 BC, and dictator (46-44 BC), who was launching a series of political and social reforms, when he was assassinated by a group of nobles led by Brutus in the Senate House on the Ides of March, in an attempt to free Rome of the dictatorship. After Caesar's death Marc Anthony waged a war with the murderer of his mentor, ending with the suicide of Brutus. Caesar changed the course of the history of the Greco-Roman world decisively and irreversibly. The Greco-Roman society has been extinct for so long that most of the names of its great men mean little to the average, educated modern man. But Caesar's name, like Alexander's, is still on people's lips throughout the Christian and Islamic worlds. Even people who know nothing of Caesar as a historic personality are familiar with his family name as a title signifying a ruler who is in some sense uniquely supreme or paramount--the meaning of Kaiser in German, tsar in the Slavonic languages, and qaysar in the languages of the Islamic world. Caesar's Rome was filled with large rather plain stone buildings filled with ornate statues and busts. People's homes seemed to be quite large (although most homes that were portrayed were those of the wealthy), with large open courtyards. Rooms were without doors, but a thin cloth was draped across the bedrooms. The clothing of the day was limited to togas, some including designs and others were quite plain. Jewelry wasn't prevalent, although the men did wear a band of metal around their wrists. All of the men's hair was styled almost identically, with a part in the back and combed forward on the top as well as on the sides. The Romans warfare was similar to the wars of early America, in that they had both infantry and Calvary. A group of men on horses, led scores of men on foot. Weapons were limited to swords, knives, and bows. The armies were split up into groups of a certain number of men, which were led by an "officer". When the order was given to attack, each of these "officers" would in turn, give the order to their group of men, thus putting the battle into play.

muscle memory :: essays research papers

What does it mean to learn a new skill and go from "novice" to "expert"? In the world of heavy equipment, part of that learning means memorizing how to use levers, joysticks, and even pedals in a coordinated way to control the attachment at the end of the boom. But how does this memorizing take place? At first, you need to concentrate in order to make your fingers, hands, arms (and feet) move in just the right way, based on what you see. What you're learning is precision, i.e. how to make the boom attachment perform the task (move a load, grapple a tree, drill a hole, etc.) carefully. (Scientists have discovered that there are a large number of internal brain structures, which work together with the input and output brain structures to form fleeting images in the mind. Using these images, we learn to interpret input signals, process them, and formulate output responses in a deliberate, conscious, way.) But after a while, the "seeing-thinking-doing" gradually becomes "seeing-doing" because your muscles seem to "know" and "remember" just what to do. What you're learning now is speed, i.e. how to perform the task carefully and quickly. That's muscle memory. Scientists call this "kinesthetic memory" or "neuro-muscular facilitation" and they speak of "sensory-motor" learning, since you are combining sensing input, i.e. what you see with your eyes, with motor output, i.e. what you do with your body. Of course, during the "drill-and-practice", your muscles aren't really memorizing anything (since all memories are stored in your brain). Instead, what you see with your eyes is interpreted by your brain in the form of nerve signals to your muscles to make your body move. Now by making the same movements in response to the same visual cues over and over again, the associated nerve-muscle connections gradually become more effective, i.e. the transmission of the signals becomes more effective, and this is how the "thinking" in the "seeing-thinking-doing" is gradually replaced by "seeing-doing", i.e. by muscle memory. And this is exactly what we observe when people spend time at the controls of our Personal Simulators. At first, their body language tells you at a glance that they are concentrating carefully, working hard to watch and learn. But come back sometime later and the same people are now relaxed, sitting back, and making the same precise gestures but now much faster! In the world of heavy equipment, muscle memory is especially important because it's the combination of care and speed that make operators truly competent.

Nike Inc: Cost of Capital Essay

The Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) is the overall required rate of return on a firm as a whole. It is important to calculate a firm’s cost of capital in order to determine the feasibility of a particular investment for a firm. I do not agree with Joanna Cohen’s WACC calculation. She calculated value of equity, value of debt, cost of equity, and cost of debt all incorrectly. For value of equity, Joanna simply used the number stated on the balance sheet instead of multiplying the current stock price by the number of outstanding shares. The correct calculation is $42.09 x 271.5M = $11,427.435M. The correct method of calculating the value of debt is to multiply the price of publicly traded bonds by the amount of debt outstanding. This calculation results in 95.60% x $1296.6M = $1,239.550M. The sum of debt and equity is equal to $12,666.985M. Therefore, the weight of equity is 0.902 and the weight of debt is 0.098. In order to determine the cost of debt, the yield to maturity of the debt must be calculated. Using a financial calculator (N=30, PV=-$95.60, PMT=$3.375, FV=$100), the YTM is equal to 7.24%. This is the cost of debt. The cost of equity can be determined using the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). Joanna was correct in using the 20-year yield on U.S. treasuries as her risk-free rate and was also correct in using 5.90% as her risk premium. However, she should have only used the most recent year’s beta instead of using an average of multiple years. The correct calculation is 5.74% + 0.83(5.90%) = 10.64%. This is cost of equity. Using a 38% tax rate, we can now calculate the WACC. WACC = 90.2%(10.64%) + 9.80%(7.24%)(1-38%) = 10.03% Using the Dividend Discount Model, the cost of equity can be calculated as the sum of the dividend yield and the dividend growth rate. In this case, it is ($0.48/$42.09) + 5.50% = 6.64%. Using the earnings capitalization ratio, the cost of equity can be arrived at by dividing the projected earnings per share by the current market price of the stock. Therefore, $2.32/$42.09 = 5.51% is the cost of equity using this model. The advantage of using CAPM is that it is relatively easy to calculate, but a disadvantage is that it assumes perfect asset valuation, which does not always happen in reality. An advantage of the dividend discount model is that it allows investors to value stocks based on the dividends they pay and it is also easy to calculate. However, not all companies pay dividends so another method would have to be used for those firms. Kimi Ford concluded that at discount rates below 11.17%, Nike’s stock would be undervalued. At Nike’s cost of capital rate of 10.03%, Kimi Ford should invest in the company.

Alexander Hamilton and the founding of the Nation Essay

American history Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Alexander Hamilton was a very controversial man of his age and he was a gifted statesman who was brought down by serious faults of arrogance, extreme candor and stubbornness. Hamilton’s career and life were marked by a dramatic rise to heroism, tragedy and scandal (Hamilton & Morris, 1957). However his contributions are still evident. As the Secretary of the Treasury in the turbulent early years of the state, Hamilton spearheaded the transformation of young nation into industrial powerhouse. American experience is a 2-hour documentary which features actor Brian F. O’ Byrne, Tony Award winning Broadway who is the most controversial founding father in America. American Experience brings to life most persuasive stories of the past which inform people’s understanding of the contemporary world. This film is more than just a history lesson due to its attention to Hamilton’s peccadilloes and psychology (Nelson, 2011).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Hamilton’s public life and also the policies that he advocated are granted plenty of attention since they are very interesting. The most fascinating thing is the comparison which is inevitable between then and today, and how conflict of ideas that started soon after the contemporary nation was instituted is still evident (Hogeland, 2007). Hamilton devoted his entire life on creating the United States to be a better nation. The documentary shows how united stated was able to develop quickly from the newborn nation under the watch of Hamilton becoming the one of the strongest economies around the world, making the Louisiana Purchase a reality, the size of the united states doubled, the building of railroads and canals, and establishment of heavy industry which helped in fueling the development of the largest cities in United states (Murray, 2007). The film also shows how Hamilton advocated for a central government that was strong and an economy based upon manufacturing –ideas and commerce which was deemed as radical by many individuals. He advocated for equality, opposed slavery and also led to birth of a two-party system in America (Hamilton & Frisch, 1985). References Nelson, S. (Director). (2011). American experience [Documentary]. united states: PBS Distribution. This film covered Hamilton’s short life, one that had more than its share of tragedy, heroism and scandal. It also shows the achievements and his contributions towards developing United States. Hamilton, A., & Morris, R. B. (1957). Alexander Hamilton and the founding of the Nation. New York: Dial Press. This book illustrates the short life lived by Alexander Hamilton and also how he founded United States. In this regard the book explains his many contributions and developments that transformed United States for the better. Hamilton, A., & Frisch, M. J. (1985). Selected writings and speeches of Alexander Hamilton. Washington: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. This book shows Hamilton’s speeches and writings. I t also shows the policies that he advocate including how he was fighting for equality and opposing slavery. Hogeland, William. â€Å"Inventing Alexander Hamilton†. Boston Review 32:6 (Nov/Dec 2007); 21-24 This article how Alexander Hamilton founded and developed America from being a weak nation to a strong nation. This article also depicts his life and many policies that he initiated to develop the United States. Murray, J. A. (2007). Alexander Hamilton America’s forgotten founder. New York: Algora Pub.. This book also shows Hamilton’s controversial life and also many policies that he advocated towards achieving equality for all and for a better United States. Source document