Optical Computing Essay

Jainam Shah Kalol Institute Of Technology, Kalol, Gujarat, India. jainam_8888@yahoo.co.in Abstract—Optics has been used in computing for a number of years but the main emphasis has been and continues to be to link portions of computers, for communications, or more intrinsically in devices that have some optical application or component (optical pattern recognition, etc). Optical digital computers are still some years away, however a number of devices that can ultimately lead to real optical computers have already been manufactured, including optical logic gates, optical switches, optical interconnections, and optical memory. The most likely near-term optical computer will really be a hybrid composed of traditional architectural design along with some portions that can perform some functional operations in optical mode. Computing applications as a consequence of faster processing speed, as well as better connectivity and higher bandwidth. II. NEED FOR OPTICAL COMPUTING The pressing need for optical technology stems from the fact that today’s computers are limited by the time response of electronic circuits. A solid transmission medium limits both the speed and volume of signals, as well as building up heat that damages components. One of the theoretical limits on how fast a computer can function is given by Einstein’s principle that signal cannot propagate faster than speed of light. So to make computers faster, their components must be smaller and there by decrease the distance between them. This has resulted in the development of very large scale integration (VLSI) technology, with smaller device dimensions and greater complexity. The smallest dimensions of VLSI nowadays are about 0.08mm. Despite the incredible progress in the development and refinement of the basic technologies over the past decade, there is growing concern that these technologies may not be capable of solving the computing problems of even the current millennium. The speed of computers was achieved by miniaturizing electronic components to a very small micron-size scale, but they are limited not only by the speed of electrons in matter but also by the increasing density of interconnections necessary to link the electronic gates on microchips. The optical computer comes as a solution of miniaturization problem. Optical data processing can perform several operations in parallel much faster and easier than electrons. This parallelism helps in staggering computational power. For example a calculation that takes a conventional electronic computer more than 11 years to complete could be performed by an optical computer in a single hour. Any way we can realize that in an optical computer, electrons are rep laced by photons, the subatomic bits of electromagnetic radiation that make up light. I. INTRODUCTION With the growth of computing technology the need of high performance computers (HPC) has significantly increased. Optics has been used in computing for a number of years but the main emphasis has been and continues to be to link portions of computers, for communications, or more intrinsically in devices that have some optical application or component (optical pattern recognition etc.) Optical computing was a hot research area in 1980’s.But the work tapered off due to materials limitations that prevented opt chips from getting small enough and cheap enough beyond laboratory curiosities. Now, optical computers are back with advances in self-assembled conducting organic polymers that promise super-tiny of all optical chips. Optical computing technology is, in general, developing in two directions. One approach is to build computers that have the same architecture as present day computers but using optics that is Electro optical hybrids. Another approach is to generate a completely new kind of computer, which can perform all functional operations in optical mode. In recent years, a number of devices that can ultimately lead us to real optical computers have already been manufactured. These include optical logic gates, optical switches, optical interconnections and optical memory. Current trends in optical computing emphasize communications, for example the use of free space optical interconnects as a potential solution to remove ‘Bottlenecks’ experienced in electronic architectures. Optical technology is one of the most promising, and may eventually lead to new III. SOME KEY OPTICAL COMPONENTS FOR COMPUTING The major breakthroughs on optical computing have been centered on the development of micro-optic devices for data input. A. VCSEL (Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser) VCSEL (pronounced ‘vixel’) is a semiconductor vertical cavity surface emitting laser diode that emits light in a cylindrical beam vertically from the surface of a fabricated wafer, and offers significant advantages when compared to the edge-emitting lasers currently used in the majority of fiber optic communications devices. The principle involved in the operation of a VCSEL is very similar to those of regular lasers. Fig. 2. Optical Interconnection Of Circuit Boards Using Vcsel And Photodiode VCSEL convert the electrical signal to optical signal when the light beams are passed through a pair of lenses and micromirrors. Micromirrors are used to direct the light beams and this light rays is passed through a polymer waveguide which serves as the path for transmitting data instead of copper wires in electronic computers. Then these optical beams are again passed through a pair of lenses and sent to a photodiode. This photodiode convert the optical signal back to the electrical signal. B. SLM (Spatial Light Modulators) SLM play an important role in several technical areas where the control of light on a pixel-by-pixel basis is a key element, such as optical processing and displays. 1) SLM For Display Purposes Fig. 1. Two semiconductor materials sandwiching an active layer There are two special semiconductor materials sandwiching an active layer where all the action takes place. But rather than reflective ends, in a VCSEL there are several layers of partially reflective mirrors above and below the active layer. Layers of semiconductors with differing compositions create these mirrors, and each mirror reflects a narrow range of wavelengths back in to the cavity in order to cause light emission at just one wavelength. For display purposes the desire is to have as many pixels as possible in as small and cheap a device as possible. For such purposes designing silicon chips for use as spatial light modulators has been effective. The basic idea is to have a set of memory cells laid out on a regular grid. These cells are electrically connected to metal mirrors, such that the voltage on the mirror depends on the value stored in the memory cell. A layer of optically active liquid crystal is sandwiched between this array of mirrors and a piece of glass with a conductive coating. The voltage between individual mirrors and the front electrode affects the optical activity of liquid crystal in that neighborhood. Hence by being able to individually program the memory locations one can set up a pattern of optical activity in the liquid crystal layer. C. Smart Pixel Technology Smart pixel technology is a relatively new approach to integrating electronic circuitry and optoelectronic devices in a common framework. The purpose is to leverage the advantages of each individual technology and provide improved performance for specific applications. Here, the electronic circuitry provides complex functionality and programmability while the optoelectronic devices provide high-speed switching and compatibility with existing optical media. Arrays of these smart pixels leverage the parallelism of optics for interconnections as well as computation. A smart pixel device, a light emitting diode under the control of a field effect transistor can now be made entirely out of organic materials on the same substrate for the first time. In general, the benefit of organic over conventional semiconductor electronics is that they should lead to cheaper, lighter, circuitry that can be printed rather than etched. D. WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing) Wavelength division multipl exing is a method of sending many different wavelengths down the same optical fiber. Using this technology, modern networks in which individual lasers can transmit at 10 gigabits per second through the same fiber at the same time. which interact with light and modulate its properties. Several of the optical components require efficient-nonlinear materials for their operations. What in fact restrains the widespread use of all optical devices is the in efficiency of currently available nonlinear materials, which require large amount of energy for responding or switching. Organic materials have many features that make them desirable for use in optical devices such as 1) High nonlinearities 2) Flexibility of molecular design 3) Damage resistance to optical radiations Some organic materials belonging to the classes of phthalocyanines and polydiacetylenes are promising for optical thin films and wave guides. These compounds exhibit strong electronic transitions in the visible region and have high chemical and thermal stability up to 400 degree Celsius. Polydiacetylenes are among the most widely investigated class of polymers for nonlinear optical applications. Their subpicosecond time response to laser signals makes them candidates for high-speed optoelectronics and information processing. To make thin polymer film for electro-optic applications, NASA scientists dissolve a monomer (the building block of a polymer) in an organic solvent. This solution is then put into a growth cell with a quartz window, shining a laser through the quartz can cause the polymer to deposit in specific pattern. V. ADVANCES IN PHOTONIC SWITCHES Logic gates are the building blocks of any digital system. An optical logic gate is a switch that controls one light beam by another; it is ON when the device transmits light and it is OFF when it blocks the light. Fig. 3. a. Wave length division multiplexing b. A WDM System WDM can transmit up to 32 wavelengths through a single fiber, but cannot meet the bandwidth requirements of the present day communication systems. So nowadays DWDM (Dense wavelength division multiplexing) is used. This can transmit up to 1000 wavelengths through a single fiber. That is by using this we can improve the bandwidth efficiency. IV. ROLE OF NLO IN OPTICAL COMPUTING The role of nonlinear materials in optical computing has become extremely significant. Non-linear materials are those, Fig. 4. Optical AND-logic gate To demonstrate the AND gate in the phthalocyanine film, two focused collinear laser beams are wave guided through a thin film of phthalocyanine. Nanosecond green pulsed Nd:YAG laser was used together with a red continuous wave (cw) He-Ne beam. At the output a narrow band filter was set to block the green beam and allow only the He-Ne beam. Then the transmitted beam was detected on an oscilloscope. It was found that the transmitted He-Ne cw beam was pulsating with a nanosecond duration and in synchronous with the input Nd:YAG nanosecond pulse. This demonstrated the characteristic table of an AND logic gate. A. Optical and Gate In an optical NAND gate the phthalocyanine film is replaced by a hollow fiber filled with polydiacetylene. Nd:YAG green picoseconds laser pulse was sent collinearly with red cw He-Ne laser onto one end of the fiber. At the other end of the fiber a lens was focusing the output on to the narrow slit of a monochromatic with its grating set for the red He-Ne laser. When both He-Ne laser and Nd:YAG laser are present there will be no output at the oscilloscope. If either one or none of the laser beams are present we get the output at the oscilloscope showing NAND function. faster read-out rates. This research is expected to lead to compact, high capacity, rapid-and random-access, and low power and low cost data storage devices necessary for future intelligent spacecraft. The SLMs are used in optical data storage applications. These devices are used to write data into the optical storage medium at high speed. Fig. 6. Optical Disk More conventional approaches to holographic storage use ion doped lithium niobate crystals to store pages of data. For audio recordings ,a 150MBminidisk with a 2.5- in diameter has been developed that uses special compression to shrink a standard CD’s640-MB storage capacity onto the smaller polymer substrate. It is rewritable and uses magnetic field modulation on optical material. The mini disc uses one of the two methods to write information on to an optical disk. With the mini disk a magnetic field placed behind the optical disk is modulated while the intensity of the writing laser is held constant. By switching the polarity of the magnetic field while the laser creates a state of flux in the optical material digital data can be recorded on a single layer. As with all optical storage media a read laser retrieves the data. A. Working The 780nm light emitted from AlGaAs/GaAs laser diodes is collimated by a lens and focused to a diameter of about 1micrometer on the disk. If the re is no pit where the light is incident, it is reflected at the Al mirror of the disk and returns to the lens, the depth of the pit is set at a value such that the difference between the path of the light reflected at a pit and the Fig. 5. Optical NAND-logic gate VI. OPTICAL MEMORY In optical computing two types of memory are discussed. One consists of arrays of one-bit-store elements and other is mass storage, which is implemented by optical disks or by holographic storage systems. This type of memory promises very high capacity and storage density. The primary benefits offered by holographic optical data storage over current storage technologies include significantly higher storage capacities and path of light reflected at a mirror is an integral multiple of halfwavelength consequently, if there is a pit where light is incident, the amount of reflected light decreases tremendously because the reflected lights are almost cancelled by interference. The incident and reflected beams pass through the quarter wave plate and all reflected light is introduced to the photodiode by the beam splitter because of the polarization rotation due to the quarter wave plate. By the photodiode the reflected light, which as a signal whether, a pit is on the disk or not is changed into an electrical signal. VII. APPLICATIONS 1) High speed communications: The rapid growth of internet, expanding at almost 15% per month, demands faster speeds and larger bandwidth than electronic circuits can provide. Terabits speeds are needed to accommodate the growth rate of internet since in optical computers data is transmitted at the speed of light which is of the order of 3.10*8 m/sec hence terabit speeds are attainable. 2) Optical crossbar interconnects are used in asynchronous transfer modes and Shared memory multiprocessor systems. 3) Process satellite data. VIII. MERITS 1) Optical computing is at least 1000 to 100000 times faster than today’s silicon machines. 2) Optical storage will provide an extremely optimized way to store data, with space requirements far lesser than today’s silicon chips. 3) Super fast searches through databases. 4) No short circuits, light beam can cross each other without interfering with each other’s data 5) Light beams can travel in parallel and no limit to number of packets that can travel in the photonic circuits. 6) Optical computer removes the bottleneck in the present day Communication system IX. DRAWBACKS 1) Today’s materials require much high power to work in consumer products, coming up with the right materials may take five years or more. 2) Optical computing using a coherent source is simple to compute and understand, but it has many drawbacks like any imperfections or dust on the optical components will create unwanted interference pattern due to scattering effects. Incoherent processing on the other hand cannot store phase information. X. SOME CURRENT RESEARCH High performance computing has gained momentum in recent years, with efforts to optimize all the resources of electronic computing and researcher brain power in order to increase computing throughput. Optical computing is a topic of current support in many places, with private companies as well as governments in several countries encouraging such research work. A group of researchers from the University of Southern California, jointly with a team from the University of California, los angles, have developed an organic polymer with a switching frequency of 60 GHz. This is three times faster than the current industry standard, lithium niobate crystal based device. Another group at brown university and the IBM, Alma den research center has used ultrafast laser pulses to build ultra fast data storage devices. This group was able to achieve ultra fast switching down to 100 picoseconds. In Japan , NEC has developed a method for interconnecting circuit boards optically using VCSEL arrays .Another researchers at NTT have designed an optical backplane with free-space optical interconnects using tunable beam deflectors and mirrors. The project achieved 1000 interconnections per printed circuit board; with a throughput ranging from 1 to 10 Tb/s. XI. FUTURE TRENDS The Ministry of Information Technology has initiated a photonic development program. Under this program some funded projects are continuing in fiber optic high-speed network systems. Research is going on for developing Fig.7. Use of optical devices in future New laser diodes, photo detectors, and nonlinear material studies for faster switches. Research efforts on an particle thin film or layer studies for display devices are also in progress. At the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mumbai, efforts are in progress to generate a white light source from a diode case based fiber amplifier system in order to provide WDM communication channels. XII. CONCLUSION Research in optical computing has opened up new possibilities in several fields related to high performance computing, high-speed communications. To design algorithms that execute applications faster, the specific properties of optics must be considered, such as their ability to exploit massive parallelism, and global interconnections. As optoelectronic and smart pixel devices mature, software development will have a major impact in the future and the ground rules for the computing may have to be rewritten. XIII. REFERENCES [1] [2] See for example: Chemical and Engineering ews, â€Å"Photonic Crystals. Assembled on Chip†, 79(47), 31 (2001). P. Boffi, D. Piccinin, M.C. Ubaldi, (Eds.), Infrared Holography for Optical Communications— echniques,MaterialsandDevices,SpringerTopics in Applied Physics: Vol 86, July 2002. Alain Goulet, Makoto Naruse, and Masatoshi Ishikawa, â€Å"Simple integration technique to realize parallel optical interconnects: implementation of a pluggable two-dimensional optical data link†, Applied Optics 41, 5538 (2002) Tushar Mahapatra, Sanjay Mishra, Oracle Parallel Processing, O’Reilly & Associates, Inc., Sebastopol, California, USA, 2000. S. J. van Enk, J. McKeever, H. J. Kimble, and J. Ye, â€Å"Cooling of a single atom in an optical trap inside a resonator,† Phys. Rev. A 64, 013407 (2001). A. Dodabalapur, Z. Bao, A. Makhija, J. G. Laquindanum, V. R. Raju, Y. Feng, H. E. Katz, and J. Rogers, â€Å"Organic smart pixels†, Appl. Phys. Lett. 73 , 142 (1998). Henning Sirringhaus, Nir Tessler, and Richard H. Friend, â€Å"Integrated Optoelectronic Devices Based on Conjugated Polymers†, Science 280, 1741 (1988).

Review of the Disabled in the United Kingdom

Society, in general, has been developed to accommodate the able bodied. The consequence is that dependency is automatically associated with the disabled. As such, the disabled are expected to merge seamlessly with a society that has been designed for and by the physically sound. To effect this integration, the disabled are provided with numerous rights and privileges. However, several of these provisions are difficult to access for a disabled person.In general, the disabled are regarded as acquiescent and thankful patrons and not as regular clients, endowed with responsibilities and privileges (Stevenson, 2001. P. 169). The disabled have consistently, contested subjugation and demanded incorporation into mainstream society with dignity. Such people have demonstrated their administrative capacity, as is evidenced by the fact that the British Deaf Association and the National League for the Blind had been headed and administered by the disabled.These organizations had initiated campaig ns for obtaining rights for the disabled in the 1890’s (Cole, 2006. Pp. 149 – 150). With the advent of the 1980’s, the disabled have continually enhanced their presence, and have in the process, emerged as an important segment of society. The United Kingdom was witness to quite a few protests, which served to increase the awareness of the general public regarding the plight of the disabled. Notable among such protests were those that had been conducted by the Disability Action Network (Marks, 1999. P. 3).Moreover, within the UK, organizations like the British Council of Disabled People have proved to be very effective in substantially mitigating the seclusion of and enhancing the self respect of the disabled. A similar task, at the international level, had been carried out by organizations like The Disabled People’s International (Marks, 1999. P. 3). The act of viewing disability, purely from the perspective of a physician, served to sideline the social s ignificance of this problem. In fact in the 1970’s, a child diagnosed with the Down’s syndrome would have been considered incapable of being educated.All this has changed and at present, several such pupils are permitted to attend regular school and take the usual seven to eight GCSE’s. Moreover, there is no segregation by their peers (Cole, 2006. Pp. 149 – 150). The 1920’s saw a dramatic increase in the number of disabled persons, due to the advent of disabled veterans. Several protest measures were adopted, all over Britain, to bring in legislation to uphold the rights of the disabled. The outcome of these protests was the enactment of the Disabled Persons Act in 1944, which allowed for a three percent reservation in jobs.The 1995 Disability Discrimination Act rescinded this reservation, it is unfortunate, that the disabled are deemed to be a burden on society (Cole, 2006. Pp. 149 – 150). It is essential to impose restrictive measures on t he able bodied, although, only to a limited extent, in order to accord similar access to the disabled. The Disability Discrimination Act is the culmination of a protracted struggle to implement the rights of the disabled. It was enacted on the 8th of November 1995.In the year 1999, the UK parliament enacted the Disability Rights Commission Act, which brought into being the Disability Rights Commission. Two major goals of this commission are to ensure equal opportunity and to prevent discrimination, Vis – a – Vis the disabled. However, from the 1st of October, 2007 these objectives have become the duty of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (The Disability Rights Commission , 2007). Under the Disability Discrimination Act, the employer is under an obligation to make reasonable changes to the workplace, in order to make it conducive for a disabled person to work effectively.Moreover, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, specifies guidelines to determine the rea sonableness of modifications to be made in the workplace (Employment rights and the Disability Discrimination Act). Some of the cases, in which the tenets of the Disability Discrimination Act had not been adhered to, are discussed in the sequel. In Vernon v. Roper, the golf club had refused the appellant to use a motorized golf cart. The court opined that it was incumbent upon the golf club to make such provisions as would have made it conducive for the appellant to avail himself of the club’s facilities (Lawson & Gooding, 2005.P. 153). In Glover v. Hannah’s cafe, the claimant had a specially trained dog that helped him to find his way, as he was blind. In addition, to his blindness, he had also been afflicted with diabetes. He was prevented from entering Hannah’s cafà ©, to obtain a snack for maintaining his blood sugar level, because of the dog accompanying him. The court took strong exception to this callous act of the restaurant staff and awarded exemplary damages (Glover v. Hannah' Cafe, 2003).The UN General Assembly adopted The International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities, on the 13th December 2006. This convention would bring considerable pressure to bear upon countries that do not adequately protect the rights of the disabled. Moreover, the countries, which ratify this convention, have to perforce, submit periodic reports regarding the progress made by them in protecting and promoting such rights (International disability rights and the UN Convention).Despite the aforementioned pieces of legislation, disabled people in the UK are highly underprivileged. They remain unemployed for longer durations than their able bodied counterparts. In addition, the disabled obtain lower wages. However, the government takes disability issues very seriously, as is evidenced by the fact that the annual expenditure incurred in this context is to the tune of  £ 19 billion (Giddens, 2 006. P. 288).

Investigations of the risks and challenges with offshore outsourcing Research Paper

Investigations of the risks and challenges with offshore outsourcing - Research Paper Example IT companies outsource their programming process. Despite being cost-effective, developed countries faces some risks and challenges outsourcing their IT. These also include hidden costs incurred during the outsourcing process. These factors have hindered the attainment of the desired wage rate savings. At times, companies adopt this labour arbitrage play with little or no regard of the risks, challenges or hidden costs involved leading to later regrets. These include distance, vendor selection, confidentiality, chain management, reduced wage gap, competition, compliance risks among others. India has benefited most from IT offshoring due to its technically proficient manpower and large pool of English speaking people. Risks and challenges Challenges of distance and transition According to Gonzalez et al (2010), great distance poses a challenge in vendor selection. This force IT companies in developed countries to rely on consultants in the foreign country hence making the initial proc ess expensive. The long distance between the country of origin and the vendor leads to high travelling expenses. This is because the company management needs to make regular direct monitoring of the business process in the foreign country to ensure smooth operation and maintenance of quality standards. This leads to additional costs that threaten to wipe the anticipated savings. During the offshore outsourcing, transition has been found to be an expensive part of the business. Companies have to restructure their delivery pyramids in order to overcome the operational complications of offshore outsourcing. The need for restructuring gets some companies off guard. This leads to significant increase in project costs in ways that were not expected (Doh 2005). The importation of workers with foreign knowledge is necessary during the transition phase. These workers are usually imported from the mother country of the company making the offshore outsourcing. The imported workers are required to learn how applications work, create required documentation and query offshore staff. They smooth up the requirements process and reduce rework. Some of them are brought in as business analysts or project managers. However, this is not sustainable for long if at all the company has to cut down on labour costs. In some cases, the imported staff experience language and cultural barriers during their offshore business relationship. Communication difficulty makes it challenging for them to work with staff in the vendor country. This means that the workers of the vendor country may not be able to get all the directions they need for effective and quality operations (Herath and Kishore 2009). There have been concerns from some of the consumers concerning the technical support and levels customer care offered oversees workers due to language barrier. A serious damage to technical support and quality of customer care affects the market. Customers may loose confidence in the quality of pr oducts being offered to them. When the challenge of distance is compounded with language and cultural barriers, it makes it difficult for the onshore and offshore teams to function as a coherent team. It also leads to reduced effectiveness in task assignments, project delays and missed requirements (Falk and Wolfmayr 2008). According to Raisinghani et al (2008), the cumulative result of the challenges of distance and, language and

Effect of the media, TV advertising and commercials to individual, Essay

Effect of the media, TV advertising and commercials to individual, families and to society - Essay Example This essay "Effect of the media, TV advertising and commercials to individual, families and to society" outlines the changes that media and advertisement industry has brought to our society. To improve the body image, teenagers go fasting getting into unhealthy cycle of malnutrition, anemia and become an open field for attacking diseases. At the same time, young men devote their focus on a well-built, athletic body to make their mark in the female arena, and in the world at large. Both these pressures hardly give the youngsters any time for their intellectual or educational development. All advertised images of men and women are full of perfectly shaped bodies, drooled over by the lesser fortunate mortals. The average viewer watches 400 to 600 advertisements every day and this enormous amount of messaging can create a permanent mindset. Fatty foods are shown with awfully thin bodies triggering off a confused and strange eating tendency among the really younger sets. Acceptance of violence, almost expecting it, is another tendency that is unhappily growing among viewers. Children are becoming more and more bloodthirsty. Recent media story about a TV game where the little viewer had to blow up President Kennedy’s head was an ultimate example of the horrifying intellectual bankruptcy. Children know all names in the TV game world, but cannot recognize the next-door kid, as they hardly play in the open. Perhaps a positive and encouraging, almost ethical approach is necessary for TV to make the right impact on viewers.

Management of a Health Care Staff Group Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Management of a Health Care Staff Group - Essay Example A respiratory therapy division involves culmination of multi-disciplinary professionals with the overlapping of daily duties of therapists and technicians. Methodology/Sequence of events: The behavior and method of performing duties of a set of employees in the respiratory therapy division was observed. The set of employees under observation included three respiratory therapists, an intern, an administrative staff member and a supervisory head managing their activities. Also, factors such as personal characteristics, likes and dislikes, professional motive and so on, which determine the behavior of employees were studied and noted down. The degree of complication involved in the situation was analyzed. The problem issues were listed followed with possible solutions. Outcomes: It was observed that there were varied activities going on within a single division. Some performed the activities directly related to respiratory therapy and the others were performing supporting activities. However, each activity seemed indispensable to the overall performance of the division. Among the respiratory therapists, one of them was young, extremely enthusiastic and high spirited. The other one was slightly older, calm, calculative and procedure oriented. The third therapist was as young as the first one, but lacked the enthusiasm, but anyway continued to perform his duties without complains. These therapists mainly performed duties such as analysis of the problem on hand, performing tests, setting up equipments and ventilators as well as educating the patients and their family members. The intern was new in the hospital premises. He only assisted the therapists by taking down the patients' explanations and acting only when instructed. The administrative staff member was responsible for helping the patients fix appointments, preparation of doctors' schedules, managing physical documents and attending phone calls. Though the number of duties the administrative staff member was assigned with was very few, her hands seemed to be full all the time. She showed a few signs of frustration, but nevertheless continued to work vigorously. The supervisory head only handled unusual or exceptional cases, and in the meantime supervised the work performed by the therapists, managed involvement of technicians and resolved conflicts, if any. The supervisory head had very few years of experience in supervision and management. Problems/Conflicts/Constraints: The therapists worked under constant pressure. They were often required in ICUs and ERs. Their duties were crucial to the well being of the patients. Their patience too was of great importance to keep the patients at ease. They attended to wide variety of patients from infants to the elderly. The young enthusiastic therapist seemed to get along well with patients belonging to all age groups. He was extremely friendly and the patients seemed to be at ease in his company. The slightly older therapist was more formal in his approach. He did put the patients at ease through his self confidence and strong belief in the system, but at the same time kept a distance from the patients by not going beyond the medical problem on hand. He treated all patients the same, whether infants, young, or old. The third therapist was always untouched by what was going on. He performed his duties quiet

The common causes of crime in the world Research Paper

The common causes of crime in the world - Research Paper Example Every country has a certain common crime amongst its citizens. Most of these crimes result to deaths of either the offenders or the offended, and sometimes, both parties. Research indicates that most victims of crime are the young people. This paper will seek to establish and validate that economy; drug use, TV violence, and a lack of law enforcement are four common causes of crime in the world. In the 1990s, there was a low crime rate in the US compared to other proceeding years. This is attributed to the economic boom during the 1990s decade. This is majorly considered being because of low rate of unemployment and increased per capita income. However, during as economic recession, crime rate has been on the increase all over the world (Martin, 2012). There are many reasons behind the decrease in crime rate during economic prosperity ranging from strong support on the police department and law enforcement agencies to sufficient income among citizens to satisfy their needs. This means that citizens are less likely to involve themselves in crime in pursuit of means for survival, and increased law intervention is likely to caught people with intentions to commit crime due to stable support from financial resources. When there is no enough money to support the crime police unit and the law enforcement agencies, only a few policies and strategies are implemented giving criminals an opportunity to boost their crime activities. When inflation rate is high, people tend to involve themselves in black street market in order to provided cheaper goods. Inflation means high cost of living that many people may not afford put up with forcing them to adopt other means of survival. For example, high house rates may force some people the vacate house and look for cheaper ones that they are able to pay rent without much struggle (Hamm, 2007). The vacated houses may stay

The Shows Big Love and The Simpsons Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Shows Big Love and The Simpsons - Essay Example Both shows: deal with relatively large families, although one show is about an extended family and one family is a nuclear family; have interpersonal relationship troubles, although one show’s interpersonal problems are more complicated than the other; and deal with people who have troubles, but one show is less easy for people to relate to than the other. Big Love and The Simpsons both deal with large families. However, Big Love is really more about a quite larger family than The Simpsons. In Big Love, Bill’s family is a fundamentalist Mormon family practicing polygamy, which means he has multiple marriages. The main characters of the show are Bill (the businessman who owns a chain of home improvement stores), and his three wives, Barb, Nicki, and Margene. The first episode was about their family’s struggle to live their polygamous way of life while keeping it a secret. The Simpson family is a nuclear family with bold traits. Each character is an icon by itself, but when they are together they form the iconic nuclear family. The key family members are the parents Homer and Marge and their three children Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. Big Love and The Simpsons, in their first show, both breach the topics of relationship troubles within the family. The difference is that the troubles described within Big Love are more serious in nature than the troubles in The Simpsons, which are rather petty problems. The first episode of Big Love focuses on Bill’s effort to find balance in the midst of having three wives while dealing with Nicki’s father, who wants a larger share of the store's profit. Meanwhile, in The Simpsons, Bart sneaks away and goes to get a tattoo saying â€Å"Mother.† However, while getting the tattoo, Marge—his mother—finds out and interrupts the procedure.  

Dyslexia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Dyslexia - Essay Example orld Federation of Neurology’: â€Å"Specific developmental dyslexia is a disorder manifested by difficulty learning to read despite conventional instruction, adequate intelligence, and adequate socio-cultural opportunity. It is dependent upon fundamental cognitive disabilities that are frequently of constitutional origin.† (Ariniello, 1999). Through this proposal it is hoped to analyze the learning disabilities of children such as reading, writing and spelling errors such as, mirror writing, back forward writing and so on. It is hoped to identify the link between these abilities (Alexander, & Slinger-Constant, 2004). That is how specific learning disabilities have an impact on other factors such as social factors, psychological factors or environmental factors and so on. Reading and learning are the two factors that decide the success of a child during his school career. Initially he learns to read. After that he reads to learn (Griffiths, & Snowling, 2002). As such reading is of paramount importance in the educational process. Unfortunately poor reading skills, and as a result poor learning skills, have become a stark reality for a disturbing number of children. The Institute for Global Education and Service Learning states that 40% of American children have difficulty reading or learning to read, and as many as three- quarters of pupils who are poor readers in third grade will remain poor readers in high school. The word "dyslexia" is frequently used to refer to the child who has an average or above average IQ and is reading 1 1/2 grades or more below grade level and whose reading problem is accompanied by the signs such as: Reversals of letters (Carrol, & Iles, 2006). That is children with dyslexia frequently confuse letters like b and d, either when reading or when writing, or they sometimes read (or write) words like "rat" for "tar," or "won" for "now." The primacy and immediacy of a priori and a posteriori implications of dyslexia among school children

Rhetoric Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Rhetoric Assignment - Essay Example The conclusion of the statement has failed to follow the premise and for this reason considered as an incomplete argument. The argument in the second paragraph is also incomplete. The writer says â€Å"The Pope has not yet said much concerning the women and the church and there exists reasons based on his will. Instead on more understanding and compassionate take on women’s stand in church, he has repeatedly embraced the Old Catholic’s view that women roles are at home’’. The statement is a claim and has no prove. The conclusion does not follow the premise and is based on probable rather than true statements (Moss & Burden, 4). The dates are inadequate since they are based on approximations. The use of words such as ten days ago or last week without necessarily giving the exact day and time makes it inadequate. Additionally, the writer has utilized several incomplete arguments to explain his opinions towards the Pope. The numerous incomplete arguments have made the warrant unclear. In addition, the few arguments raised by the writer cannot be used to generalize Pope Francis’s judgment on women and the church (Moss & Burden, 4). It is too much to expect, that the church will decide to admit women to the clergy even with Pope Francis in the Helm. In addition, recognizing women as contributors to the church life is not a violation of the doctrine. The pope has however failed to express these statements and appears to be buying time (Moss & Burden,

Scientific method Essay Example for Free

Scientific method Essay Empiricism is the theory that experience is of primary importance in giving us knowledge of the world. Whatever we learn in this world, we learn through perception using our senses, according to empiricists. Knowledge without experience with the possible exception of trivial semantic and logic truths, is impossible (‘theory of knowledge’). It is often opposed to with rationalism which is knowledge is attributed to reason independently from the senses. (Galvin, 2012) The tabula rasa or idea of the mind being a blank tablet as the independent observer is completely passive and should not attempt to influence the delivery of data first came from Aristotle (Galvin, 2012). Empirical methods reports the results of a study that uses data derived from actual observation or experiment used in ‘fields to allow testing’ and can be a substitute of anything that can allow theory to emerge from data (Cahill, 2012). There are two commonly known ways of collecting data which is 1. quantifying which is using numerical data or data that can be converted into numbers 2. qualitatively is exploring issues that raise questions that can be answered by a verbal analysis as they cannot be measured or do not require measurement (‘explorable. com’) The article that will be contextualized in this essay is the Ward et al. (2007) paper which is ‘Living and working in an urban class communities’. The paper interviews 141 carers with at least one dependent child in three contrasting areas in London and Manchester with the main focus on Wythenshawe. There are many authors in the creation of this journal who have their own individual contribution as well as collective input using other references. Kevin Ward is a political economist in Human Geography in Manchester, with interests in urban politics and policy (‘Manchester academic’). Collette Fagan is a research director of Social Science in Manchester University (Manchester academic’). Linda McDowell is a Professor of Human Geography at Oxford. She is of particular interest to this journal as she is an economic geographer interested in the connections between economic restructuring, labour market change and class and gender divisions in Great Britain (‘Oxford geography academic’). Diane Perrons is a Professor of Economic Geography and gender studies (‘London school of economics’) with Kath Ray being involved in Senior Research in a social policy group specialising in qualitative research (‘Policy studies institude’). The status that this journal obtains is that of economic, social and cultural structure in society of how low-income mothers cope, live and labour in a rapidly changing city as they preform paid work at the same time as ensuring social reproductions in the household. It is based on a working-class rank in society with the aims such as to draw attention to the lives of people in working class communities in order to address the imbalance caused by the rash of middle class studies and to emphasise the role played by mothers and their mothers in the everyday reproduction of households and communities (Ward et al. , 2007, pp. 314). It can be argued that the theme of the journal is the traditional economic structure of women shaping decisions around whether to preform paid work or conform themselves to caring duties. Given the authors roles as geographers and researchers, the content of the journal adapts well to the authors taking into account that it covers aspects in which they specialise in. An example of one author, Linda McDowell has been ‘at the forefront in the development of feminist perspectives on contemporary social and economic change’ (‘School of geography and the environment’) but as this journal indicates women in traditional roles and/or deprivation of income, Linda McDowell’s selection of this disadvantaged area allowed her as a feminist geographer to pose theories on the area and question the approach of pre-feminism tradition to be seen. In this paper, there are four selected concepts dealt with individually which are: 1. Getting by in the working class neighbourhoods 2. Intergenerational geographical immobility and a sense of place 3. A constrained juggling act of paid and unpaid work commitments and, 4. Unpaid and informal extended family care. In terms of work, many of the women talked about their time in paid and unpaid employment and the nature of their partners work. Women are dispensed in the 5 C’s and even when in full time employment are receiving 18% less than men. (Ward et al. , 2007, pp.314) Many of the women interviewed were part-time workers with only four out of sixteen women given in table 2 of Ward et al. , 2007, in full time employment. Women are seen to conforming to structural constraints in deciding whether to preform work or not with families needing at one and half or two incomes to be beyond poverty. Many households were questioned about amenities, leisure and extended family and childcare. Many of the women lived close by their families with more than 50% living within a mile of their parents as recorded in table four (Ward et al., 2007, pp. 317). It would advocate that various on the interviewees would not survive financially without being close to parents or other extended family members with the burden of childcare costs diminished slightly due to complementary care. Wythenshawe is a region in South Manchester which is the second most deprived local authority district on the 2004 index with low levels of house ownership and with many people suffering from unemployment in a region called Sharston within Wythenshawe. (ODPM, 2004, pp. 315) It showed a decline in population in Shartson in the years of 1991 and 2009 with a drop of 15% with twice as many lone parents with dependent children living there (Ward et al. , 2007, pp. 315) Many of the women that were in the areas are thought to be in a progression of spatial entrapment which is when companies relocate to areas of residence where women whose domestic responsibilities restrict their employment prospects and job search (Kim, 1993). With that, a selected number of women in this journal are victim to this theory mentioned. The study was theoretically driven as it was intended to reflect an array of household work and family circumstances as an entire area rather than characterise the household structure of a small area. Wythenshawe has many participants who have experienced the theory of the study and based on the philosophy that they were in a working class neighbourhood responding to contemporary challenges and how women in general manage responsibilities. Candidates were gathered from a range of locations such as pre-schools, playgroups, libraries, a number of other pre-school amenities and snowballing and which consisted of at least one pre-school child (Ward et al. , 2007, pp. 316-317). Each of the interviews lasted between one-two hours highlighting a number of themes with close attention paid to eleven women. The analysis was separated under different headings to differentiate the topics discussed. Interviews allow knowledge to be gained from personal experience and gives insight of the social structure and people’s experience of the world. Interviews are tedious but an effective method of documenting information. Surveys were used to gather statistics for a number of different topics in this study such as households, intergenerational mobility, and the type of work and hours performed. Surveys generally are a quick and easy way to collect data especially as this journal covers a larger area. With that, as these statistics are accounted for in a number of areas within Manchester some of the data produced may be misleading as many of the surveys are averages or have some information missing therefore not producing accurate data which may be deceptive. The case study overall is the most effective tool as the candidates chosen were able to relate to the hypothesis of the journal within the areas selected. Under the associated headings mention above, the results were represented under the various sections in regard to each candidate that was spoken to. The main method used was interviews therefore the verbal accounts from each individual are seen in particular areas of interest to the individuals allowing the journal to have a flow from topic to topic. The other results were collected and amounted into tables containing numerical data which the authors conducted themselves. The majority of the journal reflected the theoretical stance of the authors such as Kath Ray as her speciality of qualitative research was an independent tool in the research conducted. Also as many of the authors have specialities in gender roles and policies, much of the theory in the journal is leaned towards theses aspects. Empirical research methods will continue to play a helpful role in the qualitative research in geography. Empirical methods allow qualitative research to have proof to its theory as qualitative research is to describe the certain phenomenon and answering questions (‘QSR international’) Given that it provided information does not mean that the content of the theory in question is true, therefore, empirical research provides the an alternative for a test/experiment to be carried out to verify that research carried out is true and that qualitative research as a duplicate in theory and in practice. An area of the reported research that is not empiricist in approach is of course the bibliography. It contains resources that obtained some prior knowledge about the study before it was carried out. Overall, the journal shows the use of empiricism and empirical methods throughout. The contrasts between the two are highlighted in the analysis and results of the journal which portray their uses in geographical research. Section 2 Bridging the fields of geography and biology, biogeography is the study of the distribution of plants and animals across the earth (Potito, 2012). It requires a primary understanding of ecology and evolutionary factors through space and time concerned with identifying how historical, physical and biological factors have contributed to the past and present distributions of individuals, species, communities, ecosystems and biomes. The aims of the course is to introduce students to various methodologies used in biogeography research and hands-on field, lab and data analysis exercises that will allow students to put learned concepts into practice and give students experience working with the techniques used in biogeography. In sum of the above the learning outcomes is for one to have a comprehension of the basic principles of biogeography as a discipline, a developed capacity to apply the field of methodologies and data analysis techniques used and finally to critically understand the human impact on species distributions and conservation strategies. With regard to the course material covered so far, empiricism has found importance in some aspects covered. Although, there is a need for a more empirical approach as it is hard to distinguish between concepts of process and evidence of pattern and on the greater use of analytical methods (‘sciencedirect’). Much of physical geography modules are viewed purely as empiricism. They could once be viewed in this light but given present day resources they are aspects of both concepts seen in biogeography. The content and reading materials were once unique events experienced by the senses and were accepted as geological truths. This however was granted under no data to prove theories or events. Much of biogeography is about understanding theories about what has happened in the past such as extinction or succession patterns and using the knowledge that already exists to test theories and to try formulating the future. As it is a physical aspect of geography, the course also leans in the side of empirical methods as it involves labs and getting out into the field collecting data using a theory or hypothesis having prior knowledge about the experiment. Empirical methods are seen throughout the course so far as some of the theory thought has shown results of tested theory in numerical forms of data etc†¦ In relation to empiricism and empirical methods in biogeography, it is defined by the courses aims and objectives as much of the course (so far) has been introducing pre-existing information/evidence of various methodologies used in the research of biogeography and collecting data out in the ‘field’ of observation during lab sessions and putting learned concepts into practice which gives the students hands-on experience. The course should consider using more of an empirical method approach for students to gain a wider understanding of world experience in the field as researchers and testing hypothesis. Bibliography Section 1: Cahill, R. , and Galvin, S. , (2012), Theory and Practice 1, Empiricism, [online], (‘https://nuigalway. blackboard. com/webapps/portal/frameset. jsp? tab_tab_group_id=_2_1url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_32490_1%26url%3D’) Accessed 31 October 2012. Explorable. com (2009), Research Designs: Quantitative and Qualitative Research [online], (‘http://explorable. com/quantitative-and-qualitative-research. html’) Accessed 31 October 2012. Fagan, C. , and Ward, K. , (1998/2007), Manchester academic; Staff profiles [online], The University of Manchester, (‘http://www. manchester. ac. uk/research/directory/staffprofiles/’) Accessed on 31 October 2012. Kim, V. L. , (1993), Suburban Pink Collar Ghettos; The Spatial Entrapment of Women, 83 (2), pp. 225-242. McDowell, Linda. , (2012), School of Geography and the Environment; Staff profiles [online], University of Oxford, (http://www.geog. ox. ac. uk/staff/lmcdowell. html ‘’), Accessed on 31 October 2012. ODMP, (2004). The English Indices of Deprivation (revised). London, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister [online], (‘http://www. communities. gov. uk/documents/communities/pdf/131209. pdf’) Accessed on 31 October 2012. Perrons, D. , (2009) Research and Expertise; LSE Experts Directory [online], The London School of Economic and Political Science (‘http://www2. lse. ac. uk/researchAndExpertise/Experts/d. [emailprotected] ac. uk’).

Importance of Parental Involvement in a Childs Education

Importance of Parental Involvement in a Childs Education Partnership with Families and the Community Individual Assignment. INTRODUCTION: Children are the foundation of sustainable development. The early years of life are crucial not only for individual health and physical development, but also for cognitive and social emotional development. Young children need the support from a caregiver and from the parents so that they can feel secure within the preschool environment. Parental or family involvement in early childhood education plays an important role because it creates a connection between the school and the home environment. Furthermore, family involvement in school helps them to have a peek into the world of young children. CONTENT: EXPLANATION OF PARENTAL OR FAMILY INVOLVEMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD: The family seems to be the most effective and the economical system for fostering and sustaining the child’s development. Without family involvement, interventions are likely to be unsuccessful, and what few effects are achieved are likely to be disappear once the intervention is discontinued. Urie bronfenbrenner Parental or family involvement in early childhood education is a term used to involve families in their child’s early education and form a strong partnership with their child care provider. This helps to make a significant positive impact on the child’s growth and development. Parents are the important source because it relate to young children positive healthy learning in early childhood. For example, family involvement in school is a way for building trust, respect and opens two –way communication between the teacher and parent’s .A healthy partnership often leads to positive living and with this, children will develop good values in them .Including parents in early years of young children learning are important as parents are the primary educators besides the teacher. The role of parents in young children education often leads future success as a source in early learning. School should choose practice that help to identify the goal of each student. The types of practices that can be helpful is communicating .Teachers can communicate to families about their child progress through effective school to- home and home to- school communication .Communication is also a way for teachers to have conferences with the parents about their child progress at least once a year. Decision making is also effective when teachers include families as participants in school decision, governance, advocacy and committees. Other practices such as learning at home also help parents to provide information and ideas to families about how to help student at home with homework and other curriculum –related activities, decision and planning. IMPORTANCE OF INVOLVEMENT: Parental or family involvement in early childhood expands the child to success academically. For example, parents interest in learning shows that they value education and they know the best for their child. Parents that are connected with the school curriculum can expands their ideas on what the child has learnt in school. For example, if a child learns about animals, parents might take the child to the zoo or read animal’s book to them. Parents that are involved in their child curriculum get the better sense of what goes on in the program .Besides all, significant research over at least 25 years has demonstrated that family involvement is critical to the educational success of young children. For example, school that acknowledge the relevance of children’s homes and cultures and promote family involvement, they can develop supportive environment for learning through meaningful activities that engage and empower families. Parents that are involved in child’s educ ation do help the child but the parents themselves. For example parents that are involved will help to cope with separation anxiety .Studies has shown that parents that are involved in children education can build strong foundation of a well educated person .Children can also adjust better in school when parents are involved, allowing them to have a more positive attitude towards education .This also includes by giving them message that education is very important for now generation. BENEFITS OF INVOLVEMENT: Parent’s involvement in preschool setting helps to develop trust between the teacher-parents. Furthermore, parents that are involved in their child school curriculum tend to increase their interaction between their children and know about their child social, emotional and intellectual needs .Moreover, parental and family involvement is way to help parents increase their confidence and parents decision making skills in home and schools .Preschool teachers that includes parents often leads to greater respect for their profession from the parents. Other benefit includes, children have better self esteem and more self disciplined, and show higher aspiration and motivation towards school .Young children from diverse cultural backgrounds tend to do better when the parents and professional work together to bridge the gap between the cultural at home and the cultural in school .Family or parents that are involved in young children’s education has a higher opportunities for the children to score higher grades, test scores and graduation rates. Parents or families that are involved in their child’s education often tend to experience an increase of confidence in them and in their child’s education program. This is because, parents feel valued by the educator working with their children .Parents that include themselves in child’s education helps to see the strength and weaknesses of the child and if weaknesses arrived ,parents can find way to work on it . CHALLENGES TO INVOLVEMENT: The challenges for parents/family involvement often are arise when parents are included into their child’s curriculum or settings. Teachers that include parents into the child’s curriculum should think about family involvement as a continuum. For example, teacher should actively reach out and invite parents to share both their child’s and their experiences in previous setting, as well as how they would want to be involved in the present .Language/culture differences are also the challenge in early childhood education .This is because, parents or families that enrol the child in early years often stands with different ethnic background or culture differences such as Indian ,Chinese or Malay that has different views .Language difficulties is also a major challenge where parents can’t understand the perspective of a teacher or language barriers between teacher-parents relationship .Often language/cultural differences lead to different perspective of each pare nts. This happen when parents has different thinking or role into their child development or what they think is best for their child and this lead to great confusion in the settings of early ears enrolment .Lack of understanding and trust is also one of the other challenge. For example, miscommunication between the teacher-parents often leads to disagreement and lack of understanding of each other’s role .Parents that are not satisfied or they think that their child’s is not receiving enough education often blame the teacher role in early years but in this case, parents should work together with the teacher to help overcome the problem by playing their role as parents in educating the child besides the teacher. Time consuming is also a factor because parents that have other priorities in their lives often neglect their child’s education which requires children that need their parent’s time too. Availability is very important in the sense of attending scho ol meetings. Busy parents often have no time to attend any school meeting where face-to- face interaction is lacking to know their child’s development in school. Family stress is the normal stresses of parenting of growing and changing child challenge all parents. As children develop, parents must learn to handle the new behaviors that come along the way. This normal life stress can be made more difficult by other families. At times child care providers might be not aware of the problems that make it hard for family member to get involved. WAYS TO INVOLVE PARENTS/FAMILIES: Parental or family involvement can include parent-teacher conference. For example, teacher can prepare a day for meeting where parents can know about their child development in school and to know better about the strength and weaknesses of their children by these meetings .Besides that, teacher can also prepare message book for the parents to know further information regards to preschool curriculum. Helping with class activities is also a way to include parents into the curriculum because it makes teacher-parents relationship strong as well the child as they will feel good with the support of parents beside them. Having family nights, carnivals and potluck dinners is also a great way to include family involvement because it strengthens the relationship between the teacher and parents. Celebrating achievement thorough work sampling is a fun way to include parents. For example, teachers can create portfolios, scrap books, and other collection of children’s experience in the clas sroom for parents to look at whenever they visit the classroom CONCLUSION: In conclusion, parental or family involvement in early childhood education is extremely important for the child development. This is because; children will feel secure and protected with the involvement of family in preschool curriculum. Family involvement in preschool setting may give the parents a change to know more about how their children a developing academically than parents that are not involved. As said, a parent who shares their time and talents enriches the preschool experiences for her own child and for the other students. Parents that give most of their time to their children will develop a healthy and happy living lifestyle. BIBLIORAPHY: http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/earlyyearsmatters/m/meettheparents.asp. www.hfrp.org/content/download/1181/48685/file/earlychildhood.pdf. http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/importance-parent-involvement-early-childhood-5294.html. http://www.education.com/reference/article/benefits-parent-involvement-research/ http://www.learninglinks.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/LLIS-53_Parent-Involve.pdf

My Response Phase Portfolio - Hot-Seating, Roleplay, Cross-cutting, :: Drama

My Response Phase Portfolio - Hot-Seating, Roleplay, Cross-cutting, and Marking the moment. My Response Phase Portfolio Hot-Seating When we Hot-seated Johnny we found out a lot of information about the character. Little things such as "How old are you?" helped. By Hot-seating we learned that even such things , that matter so little can help develop a drama. We could also find out personal details that he probably didn't want anyone else to know. By doing this we could then decide how to develop the plot and characters. For example, If I asked Johnny "Where do you live?" and his reply was "By the Sea", we could produce a scene on the beach. This is just a typical example of how Hot-seating helps. Roleplay When we did a short Roleplay we could see how Johnny acted towards life, and this allowed to take a sneak at what everyday life is like for Johnny. We also got to see how he acted towards family and friends. On rare occasions we might be able to see how Johnny got himself into this situation. This helped us explore the text because we could see how he acted and what he does, If there are any problems and could those problems be solved. For example we might see Johnny in a pub with a drug gang after him because he owes money. We can now understand and see how and what life is like for Johnny. We (As an audience) could then decide whether to deal with the problem or just let it get out of hand. This is just an typical example of how Roleplay helps. Cross-cutting When we used Cross-cutting we saw how Johnny got himself into this bad situation of a drinking problem. This helped because we could see how others reacted to his drinking problems. For example we found out that Johnny's parents really did care for him, even though Johnny went around telling people his family were dead and that they wouldn't care anyway. We found this strategy helped because we could see what life was like before and while his problem occurred. Marking The Moment We marked the moment when we was developing our first scene in our drama. The scene was about Johnny in a pub, he was there drowning his sorrows. However when he thought life couldn't get worse 2 drug addicts came in asking for their money. Johnny had to tell them that he didn't have the money and they didn't like it. So they beat him up and leave him on the pub floor, threatening him before they leave. and he was being chased up by drug addicts for there moneyText Box: .

Analysis of Buried Child by Sam Shepard Essay -- Buried Child Sam Shep

Analysis of Buried Child by Sam Shepard Sam Shepard has always written plays that have numerous illusions to frustrate the reader. Shepard has also been known for several twists in his plays, and also makes the reader believe in something that is not real. Born in 1943, Shepard always enjoyed Theatre and Playwriting. Now, nearly 60 years of age, Shepard is one of the most famous playwrights in America. In Shepard’s Buried Child, there are many twists and turns that have the reader wondering and wanting more. Buried Child can be similar to classic plays such as Oedipus Rex, where Shepard includes the theme of incest. He has also included many symbolic objects and Native American symbols of renewal with the large quantity of vegetables in the backyard of the family’s house. There are seven main characters in this play, the majority belonging to one family. The first impression seems like the family in the play are a normal Middle American family. Dodges one-track alcoholic mind, Halie’s irritating personality, and Tilden’s distant relationship with his father seems fairly typical of an elderly family; however, this is far from the truth. The play begins with Dodge, who is in his seventies, may not have much longer to live. He has an unhealthy cough, which gives the thought that he is extremely ill. In the play, Shepard is pointing out that Dodge is not only sick physically, but also mentally. His vicious cough seems to show the progression of his illness throughout the play. The introduction of Tilden, Dodge’s son, is quite unusual; he enters the house with an armful of corn and drops it in front of his father. The significance of this action will be noticed further into the play. When Tilden brings the corn in from the backyard, his father looks at him and tells him to give the corn back, thinking he has stolen it. Dodge snaps, "I haven't planted corn back there since 1935, so take that damn corn back form where ever you got it.† Yet, Tilden argues that the entire back yard is filled with tall stalks of corn, carrots and potatoes. Tilden is a young man living with his parents after getting in trouble in New Mexico. Halie, Tilden’s mother and Dodge’s wife, is abnormally protective of Tilden, which he is not allowed to do or say anything without the permission of Dodge or herself. Halie is constantly worrying about Ti... ...the family, and will hopefully lead them in a positive direction. The ending of this play comes to the conclusion that this family can never be a normal Middle American family. This family is at a loss, and will probably never see life the way that they have before. I believe the message Shepard is trying to reach out to the reader is that secrets and dishonesty can tear a family apart and make them go insane. Unfortunately for this play, the terrible secret was exposed too late. Shepard created an ending which the world could appreciate its simplicity yet complications. Buried Child explores the inner tensions of a rural existence, father-son relationships, and the place women hold in an ambiguous domestic atmosphere. Simply poetic, humorous, and mysterious, Buried Child is a vision of a troublesome family transformed into a symbol of America's loss of innocence. This play made Shepard a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1979, and is very much earned. Bibliography Jacobus, Lee A. 1994. The Bedford Introduction to Drama--Third edition. Microphil Publications. American Repertory Theatre. â€Å"Past Productions: Buried Child.† Dec. 96 http://www.amrep.org/past/buried/buried.html

Media Texts, Brands, and Identity: For Him Magazine (FHM Magazine) Essa

Media Texts, Brands, and Identity: â€Å"For Him Magazine† (FHM Magazine) In this essay I will firstly introduce the magazine I am discussing, and talk about ideas of representations and gender in their issues, and also how it in effect they market themselves as a brand that articulates identity. FHM magazine stands for â€Å"For Him Magazine†; its core target audience is males 25-35. The magazine is produced monthly at the cost of  £3.40 per issue. FHM is now on global release as it publishes 27 different editions around the world in every continent, each with its own unique content. The UK version sells approximately 600,000 copies per month making it one of the most popular magazines in the country. For their company Emap under an umbrella of 58 magazines it is the most popular. Its content varies inside as it is essentially seen as a lifestyle magazine. Every month it has recurring themes of reviews and articles centrally focused around the opposite sex and hobbies the magazine assumes the audience has. A way we can look at the notion of identity is through representations given through the magazine. Since the magazines are aimed at men, we can assume that the magazine has underlying issues about gender. Therefore FHM would like to express itself through masculinity to create a meaningful link to its audience. In the following I will show how different men and women magazines are completely different in content and identity. Contemporary ideas of masculinity and femininity will be different to those of previous generations. Current themes may be stereotypical but to study it using binary oppositions gives it greater meaning; men are seen as masculine, dominant, strong, aggressive, intelligent, rational, and active. Whilst women are the opposed, they are feminine, submissive, weak, intuitive, emotional and communicative. As well as theses factors men and women are also seen to like different things, men like cars, technology, getting drunk and having casual sex with strangers whilst women like shopping, make-up, social drinking with friends, and having committed relationships. However, it is also clear that these lists are not truly representative of what men and women are really like. You all probably know a woman who likes cars and can be aggressive or a man who doesn’t drink and cries at weepy romantic comedies. These stereotypes exist, to ... ...romotional day where FHM itself confirmed their brand status. Since Topman is Europe’s biggest men’s retail store, they hired it out for the duration of a whole day. They had many attractions as well as the clothes feature. They also had new technology testing, massaging, tasting of alcohol and everything else they magazine stands for. By doing this it influences people’s choices and decisions regarding their lifestyle, by doing so it alters people’s identity. So was this just an identity building process or did it happen because there was demand? I finish with a quote from Hermann Bausinger who talks about how the new media sphere has evolved, â€Å"Technology has long since been integrated into the everyday. Tools themselves are distinguished by the fact that they rapidly take on the character of artificial limbs† (1995: 537). Brands are now extensions of our bodies. Sources used: Bausinger, H. (1995) â€Å"Media, Technology and Daily Life†. London: Edward Arnold. Hall, S. (1997) â€Å"Cultural Representaions and Signifying Practices†. London: Sage Hermes, J. (1995) â€Å"Reading Women’s Magazines†. Cambridge: Polity Press FHM - January 2008 FHM – March 2008 Marie Claire - January 2008

Roger Sperry

Born August 20, 1913, Roger W. Sperry, won the 1981 Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine. He shared it with two other scientists, Wiesel and Hubel, for research on the nervous system and brain. They were praised for demonstrating the difference between the two hemispheres of the brain and special functions of the right brain. (Roger W. Sperry Biography (n.d.) A moderately controversial psycho biologist, Sperry changed the history of psychology. In 1935, Sperry attended an Introduction to Psychology class. His first page of notes reported two questions. One being, â€Å"Where does behavior come from?† and two, â€Å"What is the purpose of consciousness?† (Puente, A. 1995) His questions lead this intellectual giant into decades of research that would make a permanent impact on neuroscience, neuropsychology, psychology, philosophy, and society worldwide. (Puente, A. 1995) Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Sperry was a son of a banker and son of an Assistant to the Principle at a local High School. He had one brother named Russell, a year younger, who went into chemistry. At 10 years old, Sperry read a William James (1842-1910) publication that influenced his thoughts. At 11 years old, his father passed away, which left him mentally and emotional unfit for some time. As he attended high school, he played sports and was able to letter n the varsity athletics. Between high school and college he lettered three times in varsity athletics. He went on to graduate as an English Major in 1935, obtained a Masters in Psychology in 1937, then earned his Doctorate in Zoology 1941. In his professional career, Sperry held six different professional positions throughout his studies as a researcher and professor. He achieved near thirty-five different awards, honors, and scholarships in his lifetime. He also traveled all over the world to join in research studies. (Odelb erg, W. 1982) Sperry was a shy and reserved man. He married Norma, a fellow biologist in December 1949. Together they had a son and a daughter ten years apart. In his home life, he appeared as a family man as well as he loved collecting fossils, fishing, snorkeling, painting, sports, sculptures, ceramics, and dancing. In the first year of the Sperry's marriage, Roger, during a routine chest x-ray showed evidence of tuberculosis. The couple were sent to New York for treatment. During treatment he began writing monumental concepts of â€Å"Mind and Brain†, (1952) where he began to describe, â€Å"Present day science is quite at a loss even to begin to describe the neural events involved in the simplest forms of mental activity†. (Sperry, R. W. 1952 p.311) His thoughts became a published article in 1952 titled â€Å"Neurology of mind and brain problems.† This was one of two hundred-ninety publications by Sperry. Experimental Studies Sperry is most famous for experimental studies of how brain circuits are formed and for research on mental activities after the connecting tracts between cerebral hemispheres have been cut. While working toward his doctorate, Sperry was in close association with biophysicist Paul Weiss. Weiss developed a surgery to analyze how connections between nerves and muscles are patterned in amphibian. This experiment showed regeneration of links from eye to brain, and brain to muscles after having one eye removed and one rotated 180 degrees. (Trevarthen, C. 2004) In 1950, Sperry took one eye and transferred the other eye to the opposite side of the head in a fish or newt, resulting in them going in circles or appearing to be chasing their tail. Sperry concluded there is an internal brain signal, helping both perception of self movement and the focus of perception while the world is in motion. (Trevarthen, C. 2004) In 1953, Sperry and graduate student, Ronald Myers, invented an operation in cats to cut the crossover of visual nerves, and lead the nerves to only one cerebral hemisphere. While leaving one hemisphere intact for the animal to function . They tried several versions of crossovers. Specific connections could transmit learning. This operation is the route of the term â€Å"split brain†. These experiments extended to monkeys. (Trevarthen, C. 2004) In 1960, Neurosurgeon Joseph Bogen and Sperry observed behavior of split brain monkeys outside test situations. Their observations indicated that the left hemisphere which is normally the dominant and learning side, was virtually unimpaired and offered promise of relief from debilitating epileptic fits. (Trevarthen, C. 2004) Epilepsy disturbs brain function and can cause injury, brain damage or death. In 1962, Bogen performed a total neocortical commissurotomy, also known as brain surgery on a man who suffered frequent epileptic attacks. Sperry was able to apply systematic psychological tests after the surgery. In 1965, researchers explored a small population of brain surgery patients. Once understanding the connections achieved, this step in human brain surgery reached into all areas of human mental life and excited immense public and scholarly interest. (Trevarthen, C. 2004) In 1964, Roger Sperry, in a conference to the Division of Biology at Caltech, presented his ideas on consciousness. For the first time in psychology's history, Sperry was able to give his professional thesis on behavior and consciousness. Stating behavior is not only the culmination of complex interworking of neuronal patterning, but such patterning would give rise to consciousness. This consciousness would have causal effect on specific neuronal activity. (Puente, A. 1995) In laymen's terms, our behavior affects our consciousness, and our consciousness affects our behavior. Giving an answer to questions he had asked himself nearly 30 years before. Summary Sperry continued his research until the end of his life. He received an APA Lifetime Achievement Award at the 101st convention of the American Psychological Association in August of 1993. Several extraordinary breakthroughs have been achieved from the dedication, research, and logic Sperry was able to share with his colleagues. He was able to give humans with neurological problems life rather than having to suffer. Roger W. Sperry died on April 17, 1994, in Pasadena, CA from neuromuscular degenerative disorder. References http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1981/sperry-autobio.html# http://www.faqs.org/health/bios/41/Roger-W-Sperry.html http://people.uncw.edu/puente/sperry/sperrypapers/50s/46-1952.pdf

Legal and ethical management

The future of any organization depends on its employees. It has been observed that organizations with intelligent, efficient and devoting employees progress more than those which compromise with workforce efficiency. These days several tests like cognitive abilities, motor and physical abilities, personality & interests, and achievement tests have come up. By conducting these tests on applicants his/or her abilities can be properly judged and hence a proper selection of employees can be made. (King, 2006, 45)Cognitive abilities testIn cognitive abilities test the aptitude of an applicant to work intelligently and efficiently in unfavorable situations or under pressure or in distracting and competing situations is tested.   The speed with which an applicant focuses his attention on any issue, understands it, encodes and categorizes it is observed. His ability to analyze and implement comprehensive instructions accurately, his versatility to respond properly to two or more different issues of concern at a time, his ability to recognize the importance and urgency of some issues and making specific response to those issues, his ability to maintain speed with perfection is tested.The potential of a person in maintaining steady and precise responses during unremitting and recurring activities is observed. The ability of a person to formulate programs and recall and put them into action efficiently and accurately is observed. In cognitive abilities test individual's capability of identifying and analyzing perceptual information, discriminating the information and processing the information to derive solutions for the problems is also tested. (King, 2006, 97)Personality & interests testsPersonality and interests test measure applicant’s interests, choices, emotional makeup, personal characteristics and stability.   This test can help in assessing the applicant’s talents and skills and hence jobs can be allotted based on their interests. Personality te st is a kind of psychological test and is conducted to determine applicant’s personality, interests, values and skills. By this test managements can have a better idea of what kind of person the applicant is and what are his capabilities.Achievement testsAchievement tests are the test of the applicant’s performance. Unlike the Cognitive abilities test this test is a kind of practical test. In this test the applicant is made to face the real working conditions of the organization, so that the actual performance of the candidate can be properly judged. These tests are very beneficial for both the candidate and the management. The candidate becomes acquainted of the original working condition of the organization and the management of the organization can get an idea of the capability of the applicant. (Lamb, 2004, 228)Motor and physical abilities testIn motor and physical abilities test applicant’s physical fitness and strength is tested. There is a popular saying that a healthy body can only have a healthy mind. An employee, who is physically fit, can work with all his heart and sole.   In every company there are certain types of jobs for which physically fit and strong employees are needed. Thus physical abilities test is must. Motor ability test is an individual's ability to perform motor skills is tested. The applicant should have fine motor control. The applicant must have the aptitude to control motor movements accurately. So that making incorrect responses can be avoided and more motor speed can be obtained.Advantages and disadvantages of the above testing systemsThere are several advantages and disadvantages of the above testing systems. Cognitive abilities, Achievement tests and Physical abilities testing systems are the most legitimate testing systems. Cognitive abilities tests are highly reliable. The method of numerical tests, aptitude tests and verbal reasoning has high validity, which increases with complexity of job. This tes t can be conducted with several candidates at a time. Thus have higher validities. Results can be generated through computerized equipments. Thus this test saves both time and money and is advantageous than personality tests.Physical abilities test help in identifying candidates who are physically unfit for any specific job. This tests decrease company’s costs on insurances, medical and disability claims and workers compensations. It also decreases non-attendance among workers due to medical reasons. Achievement tests are very beneficial for both the candidate and the management. The candidate becomes acquainted of the original working condition of the organization and the management of the organization can get an idea of the capability of the applicant.Personality & interest tests have more negative ethical and legal consequences than the Cognitive abilities, Achievement tests and Physical abilities testing system.   There are no proper answers to personality tests.   Th us scoring of the test can be questioned. Assessment of applicant’s personal behavior is practically not possible. The applicant may hide his original nature during selection. Evidences supporting personal behavior of the candidate may not be available. Any applicant might have interest in any job, but this does not prove he is good in it. Personality of an applicant has lesser impact on his job performance than his education and experience. Again this method of testing is very costly. (King, 2006, 117-9)Contribution of modern technology in staff selection processAdvancements in technology have helped to make the applicant testing and selection process more efficient. The previous hand scoring method of testing where marks were calculated by adding number of correct answers given by the candidate is an erroneous process. Now days with use of computers computer-based scoring and optical scanning systems have come up. Tests are scored with the help of a computer and software de signed test scoring. On-site systems produce test scores and as well provide interpretive reports. Mail-in and fax scoring system completed answer sheets are scanned and faxed or mailed to test publisher. He checks the papers, calculates the scores and sends reports to the employer. (King, 2006, 15)It is very important to make a proper choice while appointing employees in the organization. Assessment of applicant’s interests, personality, and skills aptitude and physical fitness help in determining which kind of job will be appropriate for the candidate.References:King, H; (2006); Management Today: Ethical and Legal Concepts; HBT & Brooks Ltd.Lamb, Davis; (2004); Cult to Culture: The Development of Civilization on the Strategic Strata; National Book Trust.

Sullivan Ford Case Study

Introduction This case details the position of Carol Sullivan-Diaz, the 28-year-old daughter of Walter Sullivan who died at the age of 56. Walter had bought a Ford dealership in 1983 that eventually grew into what is now Sullivan Ford Auto World. The business sells cars but also services them. Carol is disappointed by current turnover in car sales and sees that the service revenues are below average for this size of dealership. Carol’s now has to decide what way to tackle the future. She can sell the business but will probably only return a value below what it might be worth if profitable or she can look at the operation and see if she can turn it around herself. While she has a bachelor’s degree in economics, an MBA degree and a background in health care management, she also served time working with her father so she appears to have the skills and experience to tackle the issue if she so desires. Characteristics of Services The car sales and car service are closely linked. Here, we look at the car service following on from the car sale and both these processes are happening with the same provider, Sullivan Ford Auto World. While we generally say that services are intangible, in this case the car sales service has a high goods content that is the car at the end of the process. The car service on the other hand, is intangible. The core business here can be looked at as the car sales and the supplementary service is the car servicing. Sullivan is trying to establish the service as a stand-alone service. Sullivan could have customers that have not bought a car but have their own car serviced at the garage. But Sullivan would hope that when they sell a car, this customer will come back regularly to have their car serviced. However, survey results suggest Sullivan is not getting repeats. Another difference here is that when a car is sold, ownership changes to the buyer but in services we say that ownership does not change. What happens is that the car service â€Å"process† changes the physical possession that is the car. As we know, services cannot be stored. The physical car can be stored and kept as stock or inventory but the car servicing cannot. Therefore, it is essential that the servicing is kept working in order to generate turnover. If the service department has capacity to service ten cars per day, it must try to meet that target because if it is idle at any stage, that time (and time is money) cannot be regained. In the sale of a car, the customer can be involved as they are making the purchase decisions. They will decide if they need or want the car and then seek information. They can view the car, test drive it, smell the â€Å"new car† smell and enjoy the experience. They can contact Sullivan and see what’s on offer in advance. With the car service, the customer is not really involved (except to deliver the car for appointment) as car service is specialised and the customer will not be present when the service is being carried out. They cannot see the â€Å"service† and may have to wait and drive for days to be sure the service was successful. When the customer is buying a new car, they will be fairly sure of what they are getting. Ford has a good reputation and is seen to be a reliable brand, so the customer can be confident. The service is not the same. It is harder for Sullivan to maintain consistency with the service. Sullivan will be depending on his own mechanics to provide the quality whereas the car purchase will depend on Ford. Also, if there is a problem with the service, it will be difficult to hide this from the customer. It will be essential for Sullivan to be aware of the customers expectation so as he will not be disappointed afterwards. I also feel that there is a feel-good factor to buying a car and the customer is often happy to be involved in the deal but with a service, it usually happens when there is a problem so the customer may not feel happy when availing of this service and needs to be made feel comfortable. Walt said this himself when talking about the front end; â€Å"everybody’s happy when someone is buying a new car† and also observed of the service side â€Å"customers always seem to be miserable back there†). Also, as it takes time to service the car and doing without the car may inconvenience the customer, they may have a negative perception before the process starts. There is need to be aware of the difference between the car service and the customer service. The service may be good but the customer service can be bad at the same time. Customer Behaviours ) A search quality is a characteristic that can be easily accessed before purchase. [1] In the case of the car, the customer will be able to research qualities like colour, performance. He can get a feel for the car by looking around the interior, the boot, see what the engine looks like and sounds like. These are qualities he can use his five senses to evaluate. They are tangible. Ford’s reputation should eliminate risk when purchasing. However, this is not the case for the service. He cannot have a pre-purchase experience. There is no tangibility. For this, his behaviour will change. He may seek testimonials from others and depend more on word of mouth. He will seek advice on the reputation of Sullivan’s service. From the case, we see that there are problems with the service. Delays at processing, inconvenient scheduling, availability of parts etc. There is a risk here as the service may not be satisfactory so Sullivan must reassure the customer. Sullivan must ensure that the mechanics are fully trained and that customers have confidence in them b) An experience quality is a characteristic that can only be assessed after use. [2] Generally, there is a feel good factor after someone buys a car. With a reliable brand like Ford, customers would feel little risk involved and would enjoy their new car. Providing that the car runs well, the buyer should be in a position to pass on this experience by word of mouth. This is not true of the car service. Firstly, the customer may not know if the service worked. There is a risk there even after the service. One could, for example, have left the car in for servicing because every now and then the car may lose power. I believe that the customer will still be wary for some time after. If the car then loses power, there will be that sense of let down. I have found I am often on edge after a service, almost waiting for something to go wrong. If the customer is unhappy with the delays, etc outlined earlier, that too will affect the experience quality. Sullivan’s customers do not seem to be enjoying the experience between delays, inconvenience and a grubby work entrance as well as the mechanics not explaining what is happening. c) A credence quality is a characteristic that consumer may have difficulty assessing even after purchase because they do not have the knowledge or experience. [3] This may not be an issue when buying the car. The buyer immediately knows how a new car is. One expects that the driver is experienced enough to know how the car feels and also would be aware of their expectations. When it comes to the car service, the customer may not know anything about car mechanics but will know how they feel after and if they are happy with the car. They do not need any expertise to know if the problem has been resolved. Sullivan’s people are not communicating with them well. d) There are different risks involved with the two services. Ideally, buying a new car should involve no risks but you can be unlucky. You could end with a car that has problems but this is reasonably rare. The car service is different. You have to trust the service provider that they can do the job. You may be depending on recommendations and unsure of the quality of the service. The customer will not be present so has to rely on the provider that they will do the job correctly (and will work first time, â€Å"was it fixed right†) and indeed must feel sure that they will actually do the job at all. This is an area open to fraud, as the customer will not see the process. The customer here may be worried about the risk of delays. It tells us that Sullivan is slow to write the orders, not convenient when it comes to scheduling, unsure of availability of parts and this all takes times. e) The decision making process for buying the car will be as follows. First, the customer recognised the â€Å"want† for the car. Next they will seek information. The information will come from research, word of mouth, specialist publications, etc. Step three will be the evaluation of alternatives. The alternatives are fairly limited and will be to decide if he wants to take public transport, get a bicycle, depend on lifts but if one ants to be independent, there are no alternatives. Next is the purchase and then after that, evaluate the product. Has it satisfied his needs? Was it of value? f) The car service will have a different 3-stage process. Firstly, at the pre-purchase stage, the customer will be aware of their need and that means that the car needs servicing. They will explore solutions and that may mean going to t he service provider or look for alternatives. They will talk to third parties and maybe the supplier themselves. This will help them identify risks and their desired service level. The zone of tolerance will be established at this time. An alternative will be to service the car at home or get a friend who is skilled to do this that they trust. If they decide to go ahead, they will then make that decision. Service will be delivered and payment made. After this step is the post-encounter stage. Here they will evaluate the performance and compare it to their expectations. Are they satisfied or not with the service? Interestingly, the survey shows that the customers are made aware of what they had to do if they needed a service but less than a third had been introduced to someone in that department Flower of Service Below is the Flower of Service and analysis of the problems facing Sullivan. The â€Å"core† is the car servicing and both the facilitating services and enhancing services surround it. [pic] Facilitating Services Information – This is the first step in the service where the customers get the information they need. In Sullivans, they are told what to do if they need a service but they are not being introduced to any of the team. Here they should find out about the scheduling, how long the service will take, the price, does the warranty cover it, etc. Order Taking – This is where the bookings are taken; the scheduling is put into place and so on. Sullivans seem to be falling down here. Their survey results show the worst ratings and things like promptness of orders, scheduling convenience, service hours convenience are all pointed out. The fact that all orders were hand-written slowed down processing and often the telephone ringing slowed it down even more much to the frustration of the customers. Another frustration was that if the job was not of routine nature, a price could not be given on the spot. The customer would be called later in the morning with an estimate. Billing – People expect clear and precise billing and there is nothing to suggest that there is a problem here and as all orders are handwritten and with carbon copies, it should be easy for the bills to be clear. Also, the customer is either given an instant quotation for routine work or will contacted with a quotation so this should make billing clear. Payment – As the cars are due to be collected by 6pm on the day of the service, it would be expected that payment be made then. The service writer would have all the paperwork in order when the customer would collect the car. Enhancing Services Consultation – This is more than just information. Information really consists of answering the questions of customers whereas consultation is deeper and probes the specific needs or requirements of the customer and then draw up an appropriate plan. This would be important in an area where the customer is unfamiliar with actual service. The mechanic should diagnose the problems and then take the customer step by step through the possible solutions and alternatives. Here in Sullivans, they explained what to do when a service was needed but after that not many were introduced to someone in the service department. This is where the expertise lies and therefore consultation should have followed. The survey also said that customers were offered poor explanations of the work done and found the staff rude and impolite. Hospitality – This is the welcome that customers should get on arrival and a sense of being a valued customer. This should be easy to deal with as a smile and a friendly face costs nothing. Feargal Quinn, of Superquin fame, says, â€Å"If somebody comes to us looking for a job, we make sure they know how to smile†. [4] It is the small things that make people feel welcome. Sullivans seem to be failing here too in the service department. When greeting the customer, there must be a smile, it must be sincere and there must be eye contact†. [5]In Walt’s time, he made everyone welcome in the front office and had little time for the service area. This showed. It was shabby and greasy. The customers were interrupted by ringing phones while waiting for their car re ports to be written. Rick Obert was â€Å"gruff and argumentative†. The service department people feel uncomfortable bringing people over to the service bays so that does not seem hospitable. There was a man in a confrontation over his service so that certainly lacks hospitality and should have been dealt with immediately. Safekeeping – People expect that their possessions would be safe while being kept by the service provider. The customer here would hope that their car is safe while on the premises for the service and when not being worked on by the service people, that it would be parked in a safe place and manner. A perception here could be that Sullivans is lacking here. While there is no direct evidence, the fact the building was â€Å"old and greasy† and the service writers’ room was â€Å"cramped with paint peeling† might lead customers to believe there is a lack of safekeeping in the department. Exceptions – These are services that fall outside the normal service. We are told that the scheduling is inconvenient and service hours are too. Here exceptions should be made. There does not seem to be an atmosphere of making the customer satisfied. It seems as if Walt’s idea of not bothering with the service department has grown. There does not seem to be an ethic of problem solving. I felt from reading the piece it was a case of take it or leave it. There also seems to be no way of handling complaints. The man who Was shouting at the end had issues of â€Å".. three visits†¦service stinks†¦who s in charge†. This should have been dealt with quickly in a hospitable manner. Advice On Marketing Mix Carol has a background that could be very useful in dealing with this. She has a bachelor’s degree in economics, an MBA degree and is involved in health care management. She worked with her father so she has the skills and experience to deal with this. The 7 Ps are; Product, Place, Promotion, Price, Physical Environment, Process & People. I will look at these individually and see how Carol can mix them to help improve her situation. Product – The product in this case is the actual car service. This is the core of their offering and it is essential that this is a safe, reliable product. The customer has to be satisfied that the service is of quality. They could give the customer some confidence by making sure that they are introduced to a member of service team who can answer any questions or worries they might have about the service. Customers did worry about the product. They worried about how much the service might cost, how long it took, how did the warranty sit, etc. These are basic parts to the product that must be addressed by Carol. Place – The â€Å"place† of Sullivan’s car sales appears to be of no concern. It is on an intersection of a busy urban highway, with many new developments near by. In 1996 he bought the current site and developed it into what it is now. The place seems to be known as the study says â€Å"everyone seemed to know Walt†. But the worry from Carol’s point of view for the service department is that this area cannot be seen from the road. So people looking for services and who may not be as familiar with Sullivan’s could easily pass by. On top of that the building looks â€Å"old and greasy†. Promotion – As far as I can see from the study, the only promotion that takes place is on site promotion. The garage is decked out with bunting, flags and banners that say â€Å"Lets Make A Deal†. This is an area that she could easily develop. She could offer a free service with a car sold. She could also make appointments in advance by working out the customers’ average mileage and schedule an appointment like a dentist would. She could manage supply and demand better by offering discounts for services on days she finds are quiet. She has the academic background for this as well as her medical and family business experience. Price – In this case study we are not told that the price is affecting the number of customers that avail of it. Price is often the most thing that will make customers decide where to buy so Carol could look at this. Where there is an issue is the explanation of the work, how much it will cost and will it work on first attempt and not be a recurring cost. Physical Environment – Judging from the description of the garage, the physical environment of the service area leaves a lot to be desired. Firstly, the service area is hidden behind the showroom. Even though the equipment is modern, the building is old and greasy. The service writers work in a cramped room with peeling paint and the customers have to stand and wait while orders are being written up. This seems like an old style office plan and not acceptable in modern day car dealing. The study has told how stressed and bothered customers are when in the building so the physical environment should be made pleasant to help calm the clients. Process – The process here needs an overhaul. Customers find the order taking slow and it can be interrupted easily by the phone ringing. She must computerise it immediately. The customer leaves the car and collects it later. This is fine but the service hours are inconvenient along with the scheduling so the whole process is a trauma for the customer. She needs to implement an evaluation system that she can monitor the quality of service and maybe get the staff to explain the nature of service. She needs to put a new process in place that will allows the car to be dropped off and have a convenient entrance, instead of a side door of a greasy building and then be met with a smiling service writer who will schedule a service that is convenient. People – This is a very weak area for Carol. The survey results show that the people served by Carol and her sister were much more satisfied. The customers reported that interpersonal variables were poor. For example, politeness and understanding customer problems rated badly. The service manager was said to be gruff and argumentative with customers. This has to be addressed. When people are dealing with a possession as personal as a car, the dealer has to be polite, patient and understanding. Larry Winters is vital here. He has been leading salesman and has shown strong management capabilities. She also needs to employ more mechanics to utilise the equipment and have the service department working to capacity. Conclusion I think Carol has the skills to turn her business around. She is educated and has experience in her own business. She has the turnover of people coming through the business so if she uses her know how, I believe she will succeed. ———————– [1] Essentials of Marketing, Charles W. Lamb, Joseph F. Hair, Carl McDaniel, 2011 [2] Essentials of Marketing, Charles W. Lamb, Joseph F. Hair, Carl McDaniel, 2011 [3] Essentials of Marketing, Charles W. Lamb, Joseph F. Hair, Carl McDaniel, 2011 [4] â€Å"Crowning The Customer, How To Become Customer Driven†, Feargal Quinn, O Brien Press, 1992 [5] Mechanization Takes Command, Organizations As Machines, Gareth Morgan â€Å"Images Of Organization†, Sage Publications, 1986.