Monday, July 22, 2019

Girl Power Essay Example for Free

Girl Power Essay Sensitivity analysis helps to test the sensitivity of the optimum solution with respect to changes of the coefficients in the objective function, coefficients in the constraints inequalities, or the constant terms in the constraints. For Example in the case study discussed: The actual selling prices (or market values) of the two products may vary from time to time. Over what ranges can these prices change without affecting the optimality of the present solution? Will the present solution remain the optimum solution if the amount of raw materials, production time, or storage space is suddenly changed because of shortages, machine failures, or other events? The amount of each type of resources needed to produce one unit of each type of product can be either increased or decreased slightly. Will such changes affect the optimal solution ? The Input or Arrival Process †¢The input process is usually called the arrival process. †¢Arrivals are called customers. †¢We assume that no more than one arrival can occur at a given instant. †¢If more than one arrival can occur at a given instant, we say that bulk arrivals are allowed. †¢Models in which arrivals are drawn from a small population are called finite source models. †¢If a customer arrives but fails to enter the system, we say that the customer has balked The Output or Service Process †¢To describe the output process of a queuing system, we usually specify a probability distribution – the service time distribution – which governs a customer’s service time. †¢We study two arrangements of servers: servers in parallel and servers in series. †¢Servers are in parallel if all servers provide the same type of service and a customer needs only pass through one server to complete service. †¢Servers are in series if a customer must pass through several servers before completing service. Queue Discipline †¢The queue discipline describes the method used to determine the order in  which customers are served. †¢The most common queue discipline is the FCFS discipline (first come, first served), in which customers are served in the order of their arrival. †¢Under the LCFS discipline (last come, first served), the most recent arrivals are the first to enter service. †¢If the next customer to enter service is randomly chosen from those customers waiting for service it is referred to as the SIRO discipline (service in random order). †¢Finally we consider priority queuing disciplines. †¢A priority discipline classifies each arrival into one of several categories. †¢Each category is then given a priority level, and within each priority level, customers enter service on a FCFS basis.

Sunday, July 21, 2019

The Success Of Google Maps

The Success Of Google Maps Google Maps a free web mapping service application and technology provided by Google. It offers street maps, a route planner, and an urban business locator for numerous countries around the world. Google Maps can generate driving directions between any pair of locations and can also show turn-by-turn instructions, an estimate of the trip time, and the distance between the two locations. To be able to embed Google Maps into web pages for either more elaborated customization, we need Google Maps API. Google API stands for Application Programmable Interface. As its name implies, it is an interface that queries the Google database to help programmers in the development of their applications. [By definition, Google APIs consist basically of specialized Web services and programs and specialized scripts that makes it possible for Internet application developers to better find and process information on the Web. In essence, Google APIs can be used as an added resource in their applications. In the real world, application programmers, developers and integrators write software programs that can connect remotely to the Google APIs. All data communications are executed via the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), which is a Web services standards as defined by the industry. The SOAP protocol is an XML-based technology meant to easily exchange information entered into a Web application. Googles API can better help developers in easily accessing Googles web search database. This empowers them in developing software that can query billions of Web documents, constantly refreshed by Googles automated crawlers. Programmers can happily initiate search queries to Googles colossal index of more than three billion pages and have results delivered to them as structured data that is simple to analyse and work with. Additionally, Google APIs can perfectly access data in the Google cache, while at the same time provide checking in the spelling of words. Google APIs will more precisely implement the standardized search syntax used on many of Googles search properties.] The map data in Google Maps is compiled by a private company with whom Google have a partnership. This company is Tele Atlas and they are a world leaders in navigation and location-based services. The maps are highly accurate and have been praised for recording extremely rural areas and mapping the terrain correctly. Google Maps also coordinates with several other in-house application currently run by Google. The most obvious of these is Google Earth. The two services use each others data for coordinating satellite imagery and in updating newly-developed areas which have yet to be updated on both databases. Business and premises which are place-marked on maps have been supplied by directory listings. In the US, Google say that they use Yellow Pages directories but also mentions, We arent currently able to share our full list of U.S. Yellow Pages sources. All other premises and place-marks are shared by users which we will take a look at next. The technology behind Google Maps could generically be described as a map server. The map server generates a map for the requested location from a large set of pre-generated map tile images covering the entire planet. The map server may overlay data from other databases on top of this. The combination of a map viewer client and geographical database is traditionally called a Geographical Information System (GIS). A bit more detail, google maps uses a big div element to contain several img elements. each of those img elements is 256 pixels square, and is positioned on a regular grid. from there, the google maps javascript program calculates which grid images should be loaded into each img tag and uses regular dom manipulation to position each img in the right place. Only the tiles of the map that would be visible inside the div are loaded. when you scroll off the side, the javascript library unloads the image, and loads new ones as needed. Other elements, like the zoom controls, markers, and lines, are stacked or drawn on top of that as needed. Overlays are objects on the map that are tied to latitude/longitude coordinates, so they move when you drag or zoom the map. Overlays reflect objects that you add to the map to designate points, lines, or areas. The Maps API has several types of overlays: * Points on the map are displayed using markers, and often display a custom icon. Markers are objects of type GMarker and may make use of the GIcon type. * Lines on the map are displayed using polylines (representing a collection of points). Lines are objects of type GPolyline. * Areas on the map are displayed either as polygons if they are areas of an arbitrary shape or as ground overlays if they are rectangular. Polygons are similar to polylines in that they consist of a collection of points with a closed loop and may take any shape. Ground overlays are often used for areas that map either directly or indirectly to tiles on the map. * The map itself is displayed using a tile overlay. You can modify this with your own set of tiles by using a GTileLayerOverlay or even by creating your map type using a GMapType. * The info window is also a special kind of overlay. Note, however, that the info window is added to the map automatically, and that there can only be one object of type GInfoWindow attached to a map. Each overlay implements the GOverlay interface. Overlays can be added to a map using the GMap2.addOverlay() method and removed using the GMap2.removeOverlay() method. (Note that the info window is added by default to the map.) GPolyline objects use the vector drawing capabilities of the browser, if available. In Internet Explorer, Google Maps uses VML (see XHTML and VML) to draw polylines; in other browsers SVG is used if available. In all other circumstances, we request an image of the line from Google servers and overlay that image on the map, refreshing the image as necessary as the map is zoomed and dragged around. Google Apps Script privilege users with a new level of control over Google products. One can now access and control Google Spreadsheets and other products using ones own JavaScript scripts. Unlike browser-based JavaScript, the scripts you write run directly on Google servers in order to provide direct access to the products they control. These scripts interact with Google applications such as Google Spreadsheets, Google Finance, and Google Sites, and enable varying degrees of interactivity among the applications. Google Apps Scripts is powerful and flexible enough to be used to accomplish a wide range of different tasks, but its also easy enough to use that you dont have to be a programmer to create scripts. ================================================== The Google Apps Script language is JavaScript, with objects and methods that are unique to Google Apps Script. These objects and methods give the scripts access to Google Docs and Spreadsheets, Gmail, Google Finance, and other Google applications. Youll read more about objects and methods in Using the Google Apps Script APIs. Scripts are saved and run from an associated Google Spreadsheet. You can save as many scripts as you want to a particular Spreadsheet, then run them at will. The data your script works with is typically stored in a Google Spreadsheet, but you can retrieve information from many external sources, including web pages and XML sources. You can use Google Apps Script to create email, spreadsheets, pages on Google Sites, and files in the Google Docs Document List. The instructions in a script are grouped into functions. Each function performs a section of the larger task your script accomplishes. For example, if you write a script to manage your budget, the first function might display custom menus in the Spreadsheet and the second might pop up a dialog box that you use to insert additional information into the Spreadsheet. Google Apps Script provides a robust API (Applications Programming Interface) of objects and methods that you use in your scripts for such tasks such as displaying a dialog box, creating a calendar event, creating a page on a Google Site, and many other activities. The Google Apps Script API document is here. ========================================================= The JavaScript class that represents a map is the Map class. Objects of this class define a single map on a page.More than one instance of this class can be created since each object will define a separate map on the page.When creating a new map instance, specify a HTML element in the page as a container for the map. HTML nodes are children of the JavaScript document object, and we obtain a reference to this element via the document.getElementById() method. This code defines a variable (named map) and assigns that variable to a new Map object, also passing in options defined within the myOptions object literal. These options will be used to initialize the maps properties. The function Map() is known as a constructor and its definition is shown below: ========================================================= While an HTML page renders, the document object model (DOM) is built out, and any external images and scripts are received and incorporated into the document object. To ensure that the map is placed on the page after the page has fully loaded, the function, which constructs the Map object once the element of the HTML page receives an onload event, is executed. Doing so avoids unpredictable behavior and gives the user more control on how and when the map draws. The body tags onload attribute is an example of an event handler. The Google Maps JavaScript API also provides a set of events that one can handle to determine state changes. ============================================================================================ The maps on Google Maps contain UI(User Interaction) elements for allowing user interaction through the map. These elements are known as controls and variations of these controls can be included in a Google Maps API application. The Maps API provides built-in controls which may be useful when creating a map: The Navigation control displays a large pan/zoom control as used on Google Maps. This control appears by default in the top left corner of the map. The Scale control displays a map scale element. This control is not enabled by default. The MapType control lets the user toggle between map types (such as ROADMAP and SATELLITE). This control appears by default in the top right corner of the map. controls cannot be accessed or modified directly. Instead, the maps MapOptions fields, which affect the visibility and presentation of controls, is changed. ===================================================================== can be calculated by using the DirectionsService object. This object communicates with the Google Maps API Directions Service which receives direction requests and returns computed results. The user may either handle these directions results himself or use the DirectionsRenderer object to render these results. Directions may specify origins and destinations either as text strings (e.g. Chicago, IL or Darwin, NSW, Australia) or as LatLng values. The Directions service can return multi-part directions using a series of waypoints. Directions are displayed as a polyline drawing the route on a map, or additionally as a series of textual description within a element (e.g. Turn right onto the Williamsburg Bridge ramp). ====================================================================== The Elevation service provides elevation data for locations on the surface of the earth, including depth locations on the ocean floor (which return negative values). If Google does not know the exact elevation value, it uses four nearest locations and returns the avareged value. The ElevationService object provides you with a simple interface to query locations on the earth for elevation data. Additionally, you may request sampled elevation data along paths, allowing you to calculate the equidistant elevation changes along routes. The ElevationService object communicates with the Google Maps API Elevation Service which receives elevation requests and returns elevation data. ============================================================= The SDK includes two SWC files, a Flex version for use within FlexBuilder (or with the free Flex SDK), and a non-Flex version for use within Flash CS3. The Flex *.swc is denoted with a _flex suffix in the filename. These SWC files contain interfaces for all public classes in the Google Maps API for Flash development environment. Compiling your application with this library ensures that it can utilize and communicate with all public functionality of the runtime Google Maps API for Flash library, which is retrieved from Googles servers whenever a client loads your application. ============================================================ The Google Earth Plug-in and its JavaScript API let you embed Google Earth, a true 3D digital globe, into your web pages. Using the API you can draw markers and lines, drape images over the terrain, add 3D models, or load KML files, allowing you to build sophisticated 3D map applications. If you have an existing Maps API site, you can 3D-enable your page with as little as one line of code.

Reality of Unification Theory

Reality of Unification Theory Introduction Unification means: finding the similarities, finding the limiting physical constants, finding the key numbers, coupling the key physical constants, coupling the key physical concepts, coupling the key physical properties, minimizing the number of dimensions, minimizing the number of inputs. This is a very lengthy process. In all these cases observations, interpretations, experiments and imagination play a key role. The main difficulty is with interpretations and observations. At fundamental level understanding the observed new coincidences and confirming the observed coincidences seem to be a very tough job. Constructing semi empirical relations among the physical constants of various interdisciplinary branches of physics with all possible interpretations may help in resolving the issues. Which way/method is the best will be decided by future experiments, observations and interpretations. As it is interconnected with all branches of physics, ‘semi empirical approach’ se ems be the easiest and shortcut way. It sharpens and guides human thinking ability in understanding the reality of unification. For any theoretical concept or mathematical model or semi empirical relation, ‘workability’ is more important than its inner beauty and ‘workability’ is the base of any semi empirical approach. In this paper by introducing the unified mass unit the authors made an attempt to fit and understand the origin of the nuclear charge radius, the Planck’s constant and the strong coupling constant in a unified approach that connects gravity and strong interaction via the electromagnetic and gravitational force ratio of proton and electron. Finally by considering the proton rest energy and the nuclear charge radius the authors made an attempt to fit the semi empirical mass formula energy coefficients in a very simple way. To fit the nuclear charge radius, the Planck’s constant and the strong coupling constant It is well known that e, c and G play a vital role in fundamental physics. With these 3 constants space-time curvature concepts at a charged particle surface can be studied. Similar to the Planck mass an interesting unified mass unit can be constructed in the following way. (1) Note that plays a crucial role in microscopic physics as well cosmology. It is having a long history. It was first introduced by the physicist George Johnstone Stoney [1]. He is most famous for introducing the term ‘electron’as the ‘fundamental unit quantity of electricity’. With this mass unit in unification program with a suitable proportionality it may be possible to represent the characteristic mass of any elementary charge. It can be considered as the seed of galactic matter or galactic central black hole. It can also be considered as the seed of any cosmic structure. If 2 such oppositely charged particles annihilates, a large amount of energy can be released. It is well assumed that free space is a reservoir for pair particles creation. If so under certain extreme conditions at the vicinity of massive stars or black holes, a very high energy radiation can be seen to be emitted by the virtue of pair annihilation of . Note that the basic concept of uni fication is to understand the origin of ‘mass’ of any particle. Mass is the basic property in ‘gravitation’ and charge is the basic property in ‘atomicity’. So far no model established a cohesive relation in between ‘electric charge’ and ‘mass’ of any ‘elementary particle’. From astrophysics point of view the fundamental questions to be answered are: 1) Without charge, is there any independent existence to ‘mass’ of any star? 2) Is black hole – a neutral body or electrically a neutralized body? To understand these questions the authors made an attempt to construct the above unified mass unit. The subject of final unification is having a long history. After the nucleus was discovered in 1908, it was clear that a new force was needed to overcome the electrostatic  repulsion of the positively charged  protons. Otherwise the nucleus could not exist. Moreover, the force had to be strong enough to squeeze the protons into a volume of size 10−15 meter. In general the word‘strong’is used since the strong interaction is the â€Å"strongest† of the four fundamental forces. Its observed strength is around 102 times that of the  electromagnetic force, some 105times as great as that of the  weak force, and about 10 39 times that of  gravitation. The aim of unification is to understand the relation that connects ‘gravity’, ‘mass’, ‘charge’ and the ‘microscopic space-time curvature’. Many scientists addressed this problem in different ways [2-4]. The authors also made many attempts in their previousl y published papers [5-11]. Experimentally observed nuclear charge radius [12-15] can be fitted with the following strange and simple unified relation. (2) Here can be considered as the Schwarzschild radius [16,17] of the proposed new mass unit . (3) Whether the expression playing a ‘key unified role’ or ‘only a fitting role’ to be confirmed. With a great accuracy the famous Planck’s constant can be fitted with the following relation. (4) Recommended value of and the error is 0.189%. From relations (1) and (2) above relation can be simplified into the following simple form. (5) Comparing this with the standard definition, (6) where is the fine structure ratio. Let (7) Proceeding further qualitatively and quantitatively currently believed strong coupling constant [18] can be fitted with the following relation. (8) Its recommended value is 0.11847 and uncertainty is ppb. Now the characteristic nuclear force can be expressed as follows. (9) Note that can be considered as the limiting magnitude of any kind of force. Similarly can be considered as the limiting magnitude of any kind of power [1,20,21]. To fit and co-relate the semi empirical mass formula energy coefficients In nuclear physics, the semi-empirical mass formula is used to approximate the mass and various other properties of an atomic nucleus. As the name suggests, it is based partly on theory and partly on empirical measurements [23-24]. The theory is based on the liquid drop model proposed by George Gamow, which can account for most of the terms in the formula and gives rough estimates for the values of the coefficients. It was first formulated in 1935 by German physicist Carl Friedrich von Weizsacker, and although refinements have been made to the coefficients over the years, the structure of the formula remains the same today. In the following formulae, let be the total number of nucleons, Z the number of protons, and the number of neutrons. The mass of an atomic nucleus is given by (10) where and are the rest mass of a proton and a neutron, respectively, and is the binding energy of the nucleus. The semi-empirical mass formula states that the binding energy will take the following form. (11) Its modern representation is (12) Here = volume energy coefficient, is the surface energy coefficient, is the coulomb energy coefficient, is the asymmetry energy coefficient and is the pairing energy coefficient. By maximizing with respect to , one can find the number of protons of the stable nucleus of atomic weight as, (13) This is roughly for light nuclei, but for heavy nuclei there is an even better agreement with nature. Now with the following two energy units semi empirical mass formula energy coefficients can be fitted in the following way. Let (14) where, (15) The coulombic energy coefficient can be expressed as (16) The asymmetry energy coefficient can be expressed as (17) The pairing energy coefficient can be expressed as (18) The surface energy coefficient can be expressed as (19) The volume energy coefficient can be expressed as (20) Thus (21) For light and heavy atoms (including super heavy stable isotopes), proton-nucleon stability relation can be expressed with the following semi empirical relation. Clearly speaking by considering its corresponding stable mass number can be estimated directly. (22) where can be considered as the stable mass number of (23) Please see table-1 for fitting the proton number and its corresponding stable mass number. Table-1: To fit the stable mass numbers of S.No 1 21 44.8 2 29 63.3 3 37 82.6 4 47 107.9. 5 53 123.9 6 60 142.8 7 69 168.0 8 79 197.3 9 83 209.4 10 92 237.3 11 100 263.0 12 112 303.0 13 118 323.7 See table-2 for the comparison of the semi empirical mass formula energy coefficients. See table-3 for the calculated semi empirical mass formula nuclear binding energy. Table-2: Existing and proposed SEMF binding energy coefficients Existing energy coefficients Proposed energy coefficients Table-3: To fit the SEMF binding energy with the proposed energy coefficients in MeV in MeV 26 56 490.9 492.254 28 62 544.8 545.259 34 84 725.3 727.341 50 118 1005.6 1004.950 60 142 1184.3 1185.145 79 197 1562.9 1559.40 82 208 1634.8 1636.44 92 238 1818.9 1801.693 Discussion and conclusions The main object of unification is to understand the origin of elementary particles rest mass, magnetic moments and their forces. Right now and till today ‘string theory’ with 4 + 6 extra dimensions not in a position to explain the unification of gravitational and non-gravitational forces. More clearly speaking it is not in a position to bring down the Planck scale to the nuclear size. Note that  general relativity  does not throw any light on the ‘mass generation’ of charged particles. It only suggests that space-time is curved near the massive celestial objects. More over it couples the cosmic (dust) matter with geometry. But how matter/dust is created? Why and how elementary particle possesses both charge and mass? Such types of questions are not being discussed in the frame work of general relativity. The first step in unification is to understand the origin of the  rest mass  of a charged elementary particle. Second step is to understand the combined effects of its electromagnetic (or charged) and gravitational interactions. Third step is to understand its behavior with surroundings when it is created. Fourth step is to understand its behavior with cosmic space-time or other particles. Right from its birth to death, in all these steps the underlying fact is that whether it is a strongly interacting particle or weakly interacting particle, it is having some rest mass. To understand the first two steps somehow one can implement the gravitational constant in sub atomic physics. In this regard can be considered as the nature’s given unified mass unit. To bring down the  Planck mass  scale to the observed elementary particles mass scale certainly a large scale factor is required. In this regard, the electromagnetic and gravitational force ratio of proton and electron can be considered as the nature’s given universal scale factor. Thinking positively the proposed relations for fitting the nuclear charge radius, the Planck’s constant and strong the coupling constant can be considered for further analysis positively.

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Migration and Disease in Africa during European Imperialism Essay

The Relationship between Migration and Disease in Africa during European Imperialism During the era of European Imperialism, from approximately 1880 to 1930, an increasing number of Europeans began to colonize West Africa. Because of this colonization many African natives migrated eastward, inadvertently transporting diseases to which the East Africans were not immune (Ransford 76). This phenomenon can be explained through examining the implications of geographical isolation, the effects of large-scale migration, and alluding to a specific example of disease transference in Africa from the west to the east. Because of geographic isolation, human societies develop either genetic or cultural defenses against certain types of disease, an adaptation that keeps them free from major endemic devastation (Patterson 3). K. David Patterson, Associate Professor of History, describes the African environment as â€Å"extremely dangerous for outsiders† and goes on to say that Europeans â€Å"generally found Africa’s ‘fevers’ and ‘fluxes’ deadly until the beginning of tropical medicine in the late nineteenth century† (7). Similarly, once the geographic and cultural barriers between West and East Africa were broken down, they became extremely vulnerable to the other’s infectious diseases (Azevedo 121). Nevertheless, Europe had still not entered into the scene, maintaining the balanced east versus west arrangement. Fear of the diseases, unsavory climate, shallow rivers and impassible swamps all deterred Europe from colonizing Africa (Ransford, 8). However, beginning in the late nineteenth century, the deterrence was outweighed by the pressures of European Imperialism, and many Europeans fled to the African front. ... ...n Congo, specifically. It is extremely detailed in content, yet covers a variety of issues including imperialism, disease, climate, and indigenous tribes of the African Congo. http://www.rbm.who.int (Roll Back Malaria – WHO) A link that describes the malaria issues facing Africa currently. Malaria, along with sleeping sickness had a profound effect on the history of Africa during the Imperialist era. Specifically, this website advertises Roll Back Malaria which is an international mission to increase and hopefully help prevent future malaria epidemics. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/trypanosomiasis/default.htm (CDC) This link goes to the Center for Disease Control and provides some basics about West and East African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness). It also includes a weekly Morbidity and Mortality Report (MMWR).

Friday, July 19, 2019

I want to be a manager when I grow up Essay -- Business, Business Proc

I believe you learn about leadership by acting as an example. You should be prepared to do the things you are asking others to do by getting on your hands and knees, if need be, and get your hands dirty. This engraves a picture into the mind of an employee or subordinate to what type of a manager you are. In this paper, I will cover the role a manager plays in an organization describing four functions of management: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. I will then describe three traits: conceptual, human, and technical, which an individual must possess to become a successful manager within an organization and how they fit in with the four functions. There are usually three management levels within an organization: first-line, middle, and top managers. First-line managers are typically referred to as supervisors. They have the duty to oversee employees in non-management positions who do certain jobs to make the merchandise for the organization. All departments within the organization will have a first-line manager (Jones & George, 2011). Middle managers oversee the first-line management teams and seek methods to organize human and additional sources to reach goals for the organization. The middle manager will have marketing or production knowledge and they assist their supervisors to attain a more efficient way to use their operating budget and to lower manufacturing cost. If organizational goals are not being met, middle managers will make proposals to top managers on how to obtain the goals (Jones & George, 2011). Top managers are accountable for the running of every division. Organizational goals are made by top managers such as the type of merchandise the organization should make, in what ways the div... ...a manager’s list of achievements and aids in the reaching of a company’s business goals. It is vital for a manager to possess these skills and can lead to an organizations’ success or failure. I believe you learn about leadership by acting as an example. You should be prepared to do the things you are asking others to do by getting on your hands and knees, if need be, and get your hands dirty. This engraves a picture into the mind of an employee or subordinate to what type of a manager you are. In this paper, I covered the roles a manager plays in an organization describing the four functions of management: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. I described three traits: conceptual, human, and technical, which an individual must possess to become a successful manager within an organization and how they fit in with the four functions.

Thursday, July 18, 2019

Mobile Technology in Higher Education

THE IMPACT OF MOBILE INFORMATION COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY ON STUDENT’S ATTITUDES AND PERCEPTIONS IN HIGHER EDUCATION The use of the mobile technologies gives an excellent opportunity to connect the digital division that has an effect on so many students. At University of the Western Cape, we proudly possess leadership that leads underrepresented students. This article will show the efforts made to: change and construct positive attitudes toward the use of Mobile Information Communications (ICT), understand habits in computer usage, and do experiments to show which methods are more effective in usage of mobile technologies to improve academic performance. Our way was to make use of mobile technologies with differing form factors into the learning environment and find their impact on student insight and performance. Results, ways and evaluation tools were developed within a general framework to gauge the effectiveness of our approach.The results on hand in this article will sho w how technology factor, use and student categorization has a positive impact on student’s attitudes and views as well as their academic performances. Introduction When students’ access to computers is limited outside of computer lab available, there was need that existed to promote the use of technology as an essential instrument that could be used as an integral part of the curriculum. For some a smaller group of students, studies showed that gaining access to computers and technology as a child growing up was not as vast as the other students. Hence, it was realised that there may be the fear factor at the introduction of technology to students 2. Enhanced understandings of computers and how they work and how information is exchanged was an important concern toward using technology effectively. Our attempt addressed the need to correct and construct positive attitudes toward mobile technology and heavily promote the need to understand habits of computer usage by the underrepresented categories and which methods were most effective in using mobile technologies.The approach we used was to highlight the neccessity to improve the students’ awareness of how technological tools ( mobile tools in particular) can have impact on their academic efficiency and performance. As a result we developed a short course module that could be used in any discipline to gauge and positively strengthen the productive aspects of mobile technology. The idea was to give a certain group of student’s mobile technology in various forms that they could take with them once the period class in this course ended (mobile class) period has ended.Our enthusiasm drove us to make use of this opportunity to further study the impact of mobile computer ownership on user views and performance within the academic framework in that effort. First year student matriculation as a whole was relatively low and unbalanced where close to 50% of students left university before rece iving a degree. Students go into the university with very little understanding as to: * What tasks a student accomplishes, the courses involved, and the technical aspects required. First semester is important in shaping if the student finishes as well as the pace in which the student finishes.However, it was shown that educational understanding and construction has a larger effect on attrition than complexity of the subject or ability * . The preceding factors make first year students interesting candidates for the mobile technology incorporation studies. The Technology The introduction of local and personal area networks such as Wi-Fi provided an affordable mobile solution to broaden learning and collaborating capabilities outside the classroom. Wi-Fi provided a platform that allowed the use of personal digital assistants (PDAs), tablets and wireless capable laptops by connectivity to the internet.It also enabled students to create peer networks that made information shared and deb ated in groups Students that took part in the mobile course modules had three mobile gadgets to choose from: COMPAQ/HP Tablet PC TC1000, the Gateway notebook PC and HP IPAQ 5450 POCKET PC. These mobile devices had a customized version of the Microsoft Windows Platform made to processing power and memory allocations available. The Windows CE incorporated built-in a platform for the pocket touch screen, recognition of handwriting, file transfers via infrared, Bluetooth connection, and biometric security.The Windows XP Tablet PC edition incorporated a system for the pen stylus, handwriting recognition, and remote presentation displays. All devices were capable of Wi-Fi connectivity. The device a particular student received was based on likes and availability. Preference depended on the main five categories: shape factor or size, processing power, memory space, data entry, and network connectivity. We classed the mobile devices in factors below to quantify which device the student would prefer if all devices were available.They had to rate wither it was best, worst or intermediate. It was in terms of the shape, processing ability, memory availability, data entry ease and network connectivity. The result was that the Table PC was the best trade off between sizes, data entry, processing power, memory, and connectivity. Students were most likely to take the tablet PC first. It also showed that the students who had tablet PC responded much positively to the mobile computing modules exercises. The wireless notebook was best described as a replacement for the desktop class machine.The students got the devices at the start of the course and were allowed to maintain ownership till the end of the module. Ownership was a vital characteristic to give students freedom to discover the capability of the device and roam within the wireless factor outside the classroom. The convenience of the device depended on the application and type of projects. Assessment and Attitudes of Mob ile Technology Module Design Incorporating mobile technology into the classroom needed a clearly distinct educational goal for the student to gain anything valuable.The overall goal for this course module was to restrain the anxiety associated with introduction to new technology. This expectation was to allow the students with the technology to enhance investigative skills and collaborative skills. Students were originally advised to try the material individually to acquire core competency and ease with the technology. Afterwards, students were placed into groups to work together on complex tasks using the mobile technology. Designing of the course module, emphasis was ought to be placed on all aspects of learning.According to Marzano and Pickering an excellent way was to follow the dimensions of learning structure. The model illustrated five dimensions of learning: * Positive attitudes and views about Learning * Processes involved in getting and incorporating knowledge * Processes involved in extending and enlightening knowledge * Processes involved in using knowledge significantly * Efficient behaviour of the mind Dimension one affected students’ effort put in the course. The attitude and view of course material upon getting into the classroom may have had a dramatic impact on overall performance of the student.Second dimension involved the students’ capability to incorporate the knowledge into long-term memory. Therefore the student acquired the skills to use what they had learned to future courses or assignments. Extension of the incorporated knowledge encompassed the third dimension. The student applied reasoning processes to help them grow and improve the material. Fourth dimension involved the use of the acquired knowledge for solving problems, making decisions and analysis. The final one focused on traits development for the student that allowed critical thinking, creativity, and ability to regulate themselves.After establishing the frame , strategies must be in place to blend in technology successfully into the course, record outcomes, and report results. The main focus in the design of this course module was to cover the first two dimensions. We wanted to avoid the fear, and encourage healthy attitudes and views that first year students have about technology and their curriculum over the long run. While students completed assignments, conducted research and worked together in teams, integrating and using the acquired knowledge is required.The 3 objectives that were common in all activities that involved mobile usage technology: * Promoted an environment that allowed the student to judge the weaknesses and strength of computer ownership and impact of ownership on performance. Student appraised advantages and disadvantages of different mobile platforms in a classroom environment. The student learnt about computer/network organization. * Issued assignments that required extended hours to complete * Evaluated and asses sed the most effective form of ownership that impacted the student’s ability to complete an assignment.BEFORE AND AFTER SURVEY * Had the students do an interactive recreational activity during off hours. * Encouraged students to find other areas that would encourage them to consider private ownership * Monitored usage statistics THE METHODS OR METRICS USED 1. Divided the students into teams that have mobile computational systems with varying types 2. Distinguish strengths and weaknesses of each platform in implementing a task. The students had to learn about computer/network organization and set-up different of simple wireless connections. THE METHODS OR METRICS USED . Had the students arrange simple fixed and wireless networks 2. Developed an initial level understanding of network protocol stack and connectionless networks Written Report 1. Had the students construct pages for peer to-peer and structure networking 2. Familiarized students with mobile computing skills and inf ormation sharing. The aims, outcomes and assessment methods shown in gave a high-level sight of material taught in the module. The tasks were made interactive in which the students had the ability to investigate capabilities of the technology further.In class works were carried out in a co-operative learning style environment where the team size varied between 2 to 4 students. Outside class students were encouraged to work together but all written assignments were collected individually. The students had to research and report on technology, implementation of the technology, and show its usefulness. The student learnt the complexities of the computer networking, device and wireless networks. Projects ranged from the use of pocket pc and/or laptops to create peer-to-peer networks over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. An exampleThe students are investigated a mobile application by examining how one used a pocket PC device. An in class demonstration was done where teams of students were to explore the major components of a web based application. Afterwards they had to complete this task and report on advantages and disadvantages of the different forms . Also they were required to find these components, on the internet, and write a short report that had to be handed in electronically before the next class. Students also used applications e. g. virtual network computing to handle servers and desktops remotely .Also some applications contained servers that allowed complex computation on the server to be reported on the device The survey analysis was divided into three categories: * Perception of students on mobile technology * Usage of mobile technology * Effect of mobile on retention Targeted Programs and Course Some first year courses had been designed to familiarize students with the faculty, our facilities and resources and projects that required group work. Four three-week sections of the courses involved 118 first year students.Addition to using that course module to inves tigate some of their main curriculum courses, were made to infuse mobile technology into the different research organizations within the university. Thirty-six foundation students in the Law faculty used notebook and tablet PCs for six weeks to help in their research t. These students studied various topics such as basic laws, family, corporate and ethics. Ten students, including 3 from Zimbabwe, in the Science faculty used tablet PCs for eight weeks to discover knowledge fusion and acquisition techniques.The usage of the mobile technology to students in the different research groups varied depending on the nature of the research. For example, teams may deal closely with mobile technology using remote procedures needed technology or application development. Whereas, other teams may not use e-mobility technology for research but instead use them for information communication among members or work division. Perception on Mobile Technology * The most frequent trend in the analysis was that students felt mobile technology had higher relevance after having ownership and using the device than before. Ownership and using the device allowed the student to find relevance and apply the device to his/her environment. * Another trend taken note of is the relationship between time of ownership and the change that actually comes in student’s perception. The Science and Law students’ ownership period was close to three times longer than that of the other faculites’students. Therefore, in the end positive perceptions of students others faculties changed approximately higher on average. However the perceptions of students in Law and Science changed more dramatically.Positive perceptions for Science increased close to 60% and students participating in Law increased about 15% on average. Mobile Technology Usage While finishing interactive tasks with the mobile device and discovering its capabilities, most students gained a sense for the usefulness of the dev ice and mobile networking. For instance, while gaining knowledge about the technology and finishing a task using Bluetooth technology, the student found out that their cell-phone was also able to communicate via Bluetooth. The students were able to finish the tasks by joining his cell phone to network with other students using PDA’s.This technology raised the student’s interest and they showed initiative to use the technology further. Focusing on the aspect of ownership students’ views changed on buying a device for fun and convenience to that of buying for information access and research. Students who had longer ownership found means to use technology and contemplated more about using computational tools in their studies. STUDENT MAINTENANCE Attrition in faculties was discussed earlier in this paper. Theories within department’s research indicated that more exposure to technology made the curriculum more interesting.The prospect was to enhance the studen ts, increase probability of finishing through their degrees. It was discovered that even limited use of Mobile Technology raised the students’ interest in the more technological advancements to come. OTHER FACULTIES IN THE RESEARCH A modified questionnaire on computer attitude was developed to gauge on attitudes about computer value, enjoyment of the computer, studying habits, empathy, persistence and motivation, tendencies to be creative, school, mobile ownership, knowledge and importance for the first year courses. Results indicated fair amount of anxiety over all platforms.Also in views and acquired knowledge showed that technology ownership had a direct effect on the first two scopes of learning in the presence of technological combination. Most frequent were the fluctuating results in enjoyment of computer, email usage, e-classroom application and usage of computers. Tablet PC users exhibited constant satisfaction across the board. We hypothesize that the tablet PC strik es the balance in portability, performance and functionality that the user used it more and was more productive with it compared to the rest used in the study.This was especially applicable in urban areas where the student was tasked with selecting mobile computational devices to help counterbalance the many demanding situations placed by the bulk of communications, transportation, and social networks that surround them. Conclusion In this article, we showed a course specifically customised to introduce mobile technology to first year students. First year students were given a wide indication of device usage, connecting to the network, and low-level network design.Our attempt to instil mobile technology into the module was highly successful in raising the student curiosity, view, usage, and interest in the curriculum. Results revealed that the prolonged time of ownership and student categorisation or maturity has a positive impact on our student’s attitudes and views on mobil e technology. In addition mobile forms that offer a balance between size, weight, system and performance seem to have the greatest effect on student attitude and academic performance

China Dolls Essay

Jeffrey Cheong picked up the tract label URGENT, which his secretary had just fit(p) on his table and looked at its content. The folder contained letters from two of his major clients, KiKi and Houida. twain(prenominal)(prenominal) KiKi and Houida, two European mood houses, were Haute Couture dash Berhad (HCF)s first guests and have been with HCF since its inception. They were piece of music to Jeffrey to inform him that they may be expression to China to contract manufacture for them as the prices there were re all toldy competitive.Jeffrey stared out of his windowpane in contemplation. He was in a dilemma. Loss of its two major clients would be disastrous to HCF. As it s in like mannerd, HCF had been experiencing falling margins and remuneration over the become some days as evidenced in the fiscal state ments enclosed. Loss of Kiki and Houida would mean that HCF would then(prenominal) be incurring losses.As briefly as his new(prenominal) clients heard of this fre shly development, they too would be taking similar steps. Jeffrey accomplished he had to review his strategy readily if he cute to retain the cave in clientele. He knew the inevitable. During the late 1990s and into the advance(prenominal) 21st century, China had make inroads into the cloth industry and was forecasted to grow further. Fol minoring the tranquillity of trade barriers, many of the European and American way of life houses were looking at trade habilitate from China at very low prices. This was mainly collectible to its low direct equals. This had a massive negatively charged impact on many companies direct at lavishlyer hails and base elsewhere. The previous adverse perception of make in China labels had soft changed as China now manufactured attire that are high-pitcheder quality at substantially lower operating follows.If Jeffrey wanted to survive in this industry, he too must consider moving his operations to China.Haute Couture Fashions Bhd (HCF)Houte Couture Fashions Bhd was established in the 1974 by the tan family. burn Boon Kheong, the patriarch of the Tan family was a skilled master cutter, adept by British cutters in fifties in Penang. He ran a mild exclusively successful business adapt mens clothing in Argyll Road, Penang until his retirement in 1980. pricking Tan, the oldest son of Tan Boon Kheong, initially low his father as a young 17-year-old but afterward terce historic period left for Europe as he was interested in creating for both men and womens means, rather than and tailoring mens suits and pants. His inhabit in Europe motto him teach at Yves St Laurent and Gucci. He had a bang-up eye on womens project and soon established himself as a dexterous physical bodyer. numerous of the demeanor houses were able to employ him into their team. He returned to Malaysia with a wealthiness of experience, eager to put his newly acquired knowledge into use. His return to Malaysia coincided with the trend of European raiment manufacturers looking at Asia for outsourcing. scratch maxim this as an opportunity to kick-start his business venture, especially with his contacts with the European musical mode houses.HCF started out as a family owned business with all of its shares being held by the Tan family. beam prepared to conspire for contract manufacturing deals with the European fashion houses. With the help of his contacts and excellent booster cable record with the fashion houses, he soon managed to convince three of them to sign outsourcing deals with him. These fashion houses were keen on doing business with the concourse known to them as they dress out-off their new venture.HCFs GrowthHCF started its first fully equipt pulverisation in Penang in November1974. nether Peters helm, HCF very apace established itself as a high quality manufacturer of both mens and womens clothes. It had no embarrassingy meeting the necessity of the fashion houses as Peter had recruited several European-trained Malaysian designers to sum total his team.By late of 1970s, HCFs turnover had reached RM10 jillion. Over the ensuing five years since its inception, HCF had managed to add two more European fashion houses into its customer base. HCFs talented designers wereproviding inputs toward the development of the off-the-shelf designs and were well original by the fashion houses. HCF was now face up with a problem. The pulverization located in Penang was no longer big lavish to cope with the output capacity. Peter right away sourced a large plot of overturn in mainland Penang Butterworth and began building a new and much(prenominal) larger state-of-the-art factory to cater for the growing pauperism.In July 1980, HCF undefended its new factory in Butterworth. Peter, then the Managing Director of HCF, decided not to leave out down the Penang factory but operated both factories. HCF then employed among 80 to 100, mostly tailors in the Penang fa ctory, while the Butterworth factory employed close 300 employees.HCF keep to experience growth in gross r veritable(a)ue throughout the early 1980s to mid(prenominal) 1990s, charted annual sales of around RM100 million. Its customer base had also increased, drawing in customers from Europe as well as America. Profits were also riding high. HCF clear two more factories. In 1990, it spread out up its third factory in Jitra, Kedah. The factory had a capacity of producing 1 million garments a year with a faculty of 300 employees. In 1995, due to plane increasing demand for its clothes, HCF decided to open its fourth factory with a production capacity of 2 million garments a year. This time, it looked to Thailand, as tug was very cheap. HCF set up a wholly owned subsidiary Haute Couture (Thailand) Pte. Ltd to operate the Chieng Mai base factory. It recruited about 500 employees.In 1997, Malaysia was facing m onetary crisis, with foreign exchange market irritability being the main issue. Manufacturers with foreign customers were unable to honour their contract price as exchange judge fluctuated. HCF was cought unaware. HCF had to tender for a contract six months before the obstetrical delivery of the consignment. Fluctuation in the exchange rates made it impossible to predict the cost of poppycock that HCF had to purchase form the fashion houses. HCF found itself selling its garments at very low margins for the very first time. 1998 saw HCF suffering its first loss since its inception. Many of its competitors also suffered losses and some even had to cease manufacturing. In a bid to survive the financial tsunami that had hitMalaysia, Peter Tan consolidated HCFs go under by deciding to cut operating costs.HCFs major cost away from the cost of imported material was grate cost. Peter Tan made the finality to shut down the Penang factory, much to the withstand of his father. HCF was still able to meet the demand while still operating the other three factories in Butterworth, Jitra and Chieng Mai. He also decided to shift as much of the production to Chieng Mai, as the labour cost was a quarter of the labour cost incurred in the Malaysian factories. Moreover, HCF was facing labour shortage problems in Malaysia, as many of the labour force were moving to the cities for violate prospects. As a result of this integration exercise, about 300 of HCFs employees were made redundant, many of whom had been with HCF since its inception.Over the next few years, its profitability increased gradually and HCF slowly pulled itself out of the loss making situation. HCF managed this difficult feat because of its customer base as well as its reputation for high quality clothes, which commanded premium prices with its customers. The financial crisis had not affected Europe much, and as such, demand for the clothes continued.HCFs Contract Manufacturing social systemThe contract manufacturing deals signed with the European fashion houses were suc h that the designs were provided by the fashion houses and HCF had to cleave to the designs when producing the respective labels. The fashion houses welcomed suggestions from HCFs designers but were particular that the designs were not crossed between the various labels that HCF was producing. Cross producing design between labels would be disastrous for HCF as it would at once loose the contract for the labels involved.Further, the European fashion houses would supply the material for the clothes as they wanted to maintain the quality of the output. HCF purchased the material, sourced for detach accessories locally and produced the clothes. The fashion houses would contract for a particular quantity of a particularized design at a specific quality to be delivered at a specific time. Any variation out of doors the contract stipulation would have to be borne by HCF itself.Usually, the contracts were for delivery of clothes one lenify ahead. This meant that summers design clothe s would have to be delivered by the beginning of spring. HCF would sell the manufactured clothes at a contracted price. The fashion houses allowed HCF to tender for the contract price based on the design, quantity and price of material supplied. The contract tendering process usually took infinite about six months before the due date for the delivery of a seasons batch.HCFs CustomersHCF manufactured ready-to-wear clothes for a number of European and American fashion houses. Its clothes were well-sought after for its modern designs and high quality finishing. HCFs customers have remained loyal over the last three decades, although its major coup was the securing of 2 major American fashion houses as its customers within the last 5 years. completely of HCFs clothing was manufactured under the customers own label.