Econ 100a Midterm

Econ 100A–Midterm 2 solutions. Thursday, March 22, 2012. True/False (2 questions, 10 points total) Answer true or false and explain your answer. Your answer must ? t in the space provided. T/F 1. (5 points) Suppose the government wants to place a tax on one of two goods, and suppose that supply is perfectly elastic for both goods. If the government wants to minimize the deadweight loss from a tax of a given size, it should put the tax on whichever good has worse substitutes. False: If the supply curves are identical, the only factor that determines the amount of deadweight loss is the elasticity of demand.Placing the tax on the good that has the lower elasticity of demand will minimize the deadweight loss of the tax. It is true that, holding all else equal, a good without good substitutes will have more inelastic demand than a good with good substitutes. However, this is not the only factor that determines the elasticity of demand. The goods could also di? er in terms of the i ncome e? ect. If the good with worse substitutes happened to be strongly normal while the good with better substitutes was strongly inferior, then the income e? ects might overwhelm the substitution e? cts, causing the good with better substitutes to be more inelastic. T/F 2. (5 points) In a perfectly competitive market with no taxes, if the price consumers are willing to pay for the marginal unit is the same as the price at which producers are willing to produce the marginal unit, then there will be no way to make anyone in the market better o? without making someone else worse o?. True. The price consumers are willing to pay for the marginal unit is the height of the inverse demand curve, and the price at which producers are willing to produce the marginal unit is the height of the inverse supply curve.Thus, when these prices are equal, it must be the case that supply is equal to demand, which is to say, the market is in equilibrium. If the quantity ? rms produce, and consumers co nsume, is more than the equilibrium quantity, then the ? rms’ cost of production will be greater than the consumers’ willingness to pay, and either consumers will have to pay more than the units are worth to them, making them worse o? , or ? rms will have to receive less than the units cost them, making them worse o? , or both.If the quantity is less than equilibrium, then there will be units not produced or consumed for which the cost of production would have been less than consumers’ willingness to pay, meaning that either ? rms have given up pro? table units, or consumers have given up units that generated consumer surplus, or both. In any case, at least one side of the market will have been made worse o?. Thus, from equilibrium there is no way that either ? rms or consumers can be made better o? without someone being made worse o?. 1 Short Answer (2 questions, 20 points total) Your answer must ? t in the space provided. SA 2. 10 points) Explain what we mean when we say that ? rms in long-run equilibrium are earning zero pro? t even though their owners and investors are making an adequate return on their labor and investments. The statement refers to â€Å"economic pro? t†, which is the di? erence between revenue and opportunity cost. The opportunity cost of the labor of the owner of a ? rm is the wage the owner could have earned if he or she chose not to run the ? rm, but to get a job instead. The opportunity cost of the capital investors invest in a ? rm is the rate of return they could have earned by investing their capital in some other ? m in some other industry. Thus, if the owner of the ? rm receives an amount just equal to the opportunity cost of their labor, and the investors receive an amount just equal to the opportunity cost of their capital, we do not include those amounts in economic pro? t, and the ? rm will be said to be earning zero economic pro? t, even though an accountant would say that both the owner and the investors are making an â€Å"accounting pro? t†. The accounting pro? t earned by the owner and the investors is the amount of money that is just adequate to make them choose to put their labor and capital into the ? m. 2 Problem Solving (2 problems, 50 points total) Problem 1. (26 points total) Consider a perfectly competitive ? rm with a production technology 1 1 represented by the production function, y = 10 K 2 + L 2 . Let p, r, and w be the price of the ? rm’s output, the rental rate of capital, and the wage, respectively. (a) (8 points) First let’s consider long-run pro? t maximization. (i) Set up the ? rm’s long-run pro? t maximization problem and compute the ? rm’s pro? tmaximizing demand for labor and capital, and pro? t-maximizing output, as functions of p, r, and w. ii) Is labor a gross complement or a gross substitute for capital, or neither. Prove your answer mathematically and explain what it means. The long-run pro? t maximization pr oblem is, max p  · 10 K,L v K+ v L The ? rst-order conditions are, 5p 5p for L: vL ? w = 0 for K: vK ? r = 0 Solving these for L and K respectively we get L? (p, r, w) = (f rac5pw)2 and K ? (p, r, w) = (f rac5pr)2 . Plugging these pro? t-maximizing levels of capital and labor into the production function we get the pro? t-maximizing output of the ? rm, y ? (p, w, r) = y(K ? , L? ) = 10 5p r 2 , 5p w 2 = 50p r+w rw .To determine whether labor is a gross complement or gross substitute for capital we take the partial derivative of the labor demand function with respect to the rental ? rate of capital, ? L = 0. Since this is zero, labor is neither a gross complement ? r nor a gross substitute for capital. What this means is that when the price of capital changes, the amount of labor the ? rm uses will not change. (b) (8 points) Set up the ? rm’s cost-minimization problem and compute the ? rm’s conditional demand for labor and capital, as functions of y, r, and w. The ? r m’s cost minimization problem is, v min rK + wL K,L K+ L =y ? s. t. 10 Setting up the LaGrangian function, this minimization problem becomes, min rK + wL ? ? 10 v K+ v L ? y ? v K,L,? The ? rst-order conditions are, 5 for L: w ? ? vL = 0 for K: r ? ? v5 = 0 for ? : 10 K the production constraint. v K+ L = y , which is just ? w 2 L. r Taking the ratio of the ? rst two conditions we get this into the production constraint we get, 10 3 v vK = w ? r L v v w r L+ L K= Plugging = y ? L? (y; r, w) = ? y2 r 10(r+w) 2 . Plugging this back into the expression for K that we derived earlier 2 w we get, K ? (y; r, w) = y 2 10(r+w) labor and capital respectively. These are the ? rm’s conditional demand for (c) (10 points) Now let’s consider scale and substitution e? ects. Assume that initially the price of the ? rm’s output, p, the rental rate of capital, r, and the wage, w, are all equal to 10. (i) How much labor will the ? rm use at these prices, and how much output will it produce? (ii) Using only the mathematical results you got in parts (a) and (b), compute e? ect of an increase in the rental rate to r = 20. Plugging the given prices into the pro? t-maximizing labor demand and output supply 2 functions from part (a) we get, L? (p, w, r) = 5 ·10 = 25, and y ? p, w, r) = 50  · 10 10 (f rac10 + 1010  · 10) = 100. ? ? you might have plugged the new prices into the ? rm’s supply function to get y ? (10, 10, 20) = 50 ·10 10+20 = 75. If you then plugged this into the 10 ·20 ? rm’s conditional factor demand at the new prices you would get L? (75; 10, 20) = 75 20 10 10+20 2 = 25. 4 Problem 2. (24 points total) Consider a perfectly competitive industry with 10 identical ? rms, each of which has variable costs of 10y 2 and ? xed costs of 1000. We will de? ne the short run as the time scale in which ? rms cannot enter or exit the industry, and cannot avoid their ? xed costs. In other words, in the short run ? rms must continue to pay their ? xed costs even if they produce zero output. ) In the long run, ? rms can enter or exit the industry, and can avoid their ? xed costs by shutting down. (a) (8 points) Compute the short-run inverse supply curve of the ? rm, and the short-run inverse supply curve of the industry, and graph them on the same graph. [Hint: it matters a lot that ? rms can’t avoid their ? xed costs in the short run. ] Each ? rm’s cost function is C(y) = 10y 2 + 1000, and the marginal cost curve is M C = 20y. Normally we say that the inverse supply curve of the ? m is the upward sloping part of the marginal cost curve, above the minimum of the average cost curve, because if the price is below the minimum of the average cost curve, the ? rm will make negative pro? t and will shut down. However, in this case, in the short run, if a ? rm shuts down it will still have to pay its ? xed cost of $1000. As a result, it will continue to produce output even if it is losing money, as long as it does not lose more than $1000. So we need to ? nd the price below which the ? rm will have lose more than $1000. Pro? t is py ? 10y 2 ? 1000 and we want the price below which this is less than ? 1000.To do this we have to plug in the ? rm’s pro? t-maximizing quantity as a function of price, which we get by solving the ? rm’s marginal cost curve p p p 2 to get y ? = 20 , which gives us p 20 ? 10 20 ? 1000 = ? 1000 ? p2 19 = 0 ? p = 0. 40 The ? rm will continue to produce at any positive price rather than shut down and 5 pay its ? xed cost without any revenue. Thus, the ? rm’s inverse supply curve is simply the entire marginal cost curve, p(y) = 20y. To compute the short-run inverse supply curve of the industry we ? rst have to aggregate ? rm supply to industry supply, and to do that we have to have the direct supply curve of the ? m, which we get by solving the inverse supply curve for y to p p get y(p) = 20 . Short-run industry supply is Y (p) = N yj (p) = 10 20 = f racp2. j=1 Solving for p we get the short-run inverse supply curve of the industry, p(Y ) = 2Y . Your graph should look like this: (b) (6 points) Suppose the demand for the industry’s product is de? ned by pd (Y ) = 700 ? 5Y . (i) What will be the short-run equilibrium price and quantity for the industry? Illustrate this equilibrium on a graph. (ii) Explain why this market outcome is an equilibrium in the short run. [Be sure to make reference to the general de? ition of equilibrium in your answer. ] (iii) Is this industry in long-run equilibrium? Explain why or why not. [Again, be sure to make reference to the general de? nition of equilibrium in your answer. ] The short-run market equilibrium is where the quantity demanded at the price paid by consumers is equal to the quantity supplied at the price received by producers, and since, in the absence of a tax, the price paid by consumers is the same as the price paid by producers, we just solve for the intersection of t he supply curve and the demand curve: 700 ? 5Y = 2Y ? Y ? = 100.Plugging that into either the demand or the supply curve we get p(Y ) = 200. Your graph should look like this: In general, equilibrium means that no individual agent has an incentive to do anything other than what they are currently doing, which means that the system will 6 not move from the point it is at. In the case of short-run market equilibrium this means that at the market price consumers cannot be made better o? by increasing or decreasing consumption, and ? rms cannot be made better o? by increasing or decreasing production. This is clearly the case at the market equilibrium we have solved for.If consumers increase consumption they will have to pay more for the additional units of the good than the value of those units, and if they consume less they will be giving up units that are worth more to them than they are required to pay for them. In either case, they are made worse o? , and thus have no incentive to c hange. For ? rms, roughly the same argument applies. If they produce more, the maximum they will be able to charge will be less than the cost of production, and if they produce less they will be giving up units that they were able to sell at a pro? t. In either case, ? ms are worse o? , so they have no incentive to change what they were doing. The industry is in long-run equilibrium. To see this we need to know whether ? rms are earning zero pro? t, and to determine that we need to know something about the ? rm’s average cost curve, which is AC = 10y + 1000 . If we minimize this we ? nd y that the ? rms’ minimum average cost is minAC = 200. And since this is equal to the price in the current equilibrium, ? rms’ pro? t is (p ? AC)y = 0y = 0. Long-run equilibrium is de? ned as the point at which ? rms will have no incentive to enter or exit the industry. The reason ? ms enter or exit is in response to pro? ts being either positive or negative, so if pro? ts are ze ro in the industry there will be no incentive to enter or exit, which is to say, no ? rm will have any incentive to do anything di? erent from what they are currently doing. (c) (10 points) Suppose the government imposes a tax of $50 per unit on the ? rms in the industry. (i) Compute the short-run after-tax equlibrium quantity, price paid by consumers, and price received by ? rms, and graph them. (ii) Calculate the change in producer surplus caused by the tax in the short-run. Add it to your graph. iii) Compute the long-run after-tax equilibrium quanitity, price paid by consumers, and price received by ? rms. Add this equilibrium to your graph. How many ? rms will exit the industry? (iv) Calculate the change in producer surplus caused by the tax in the long-run. Why is this the same or di? erent from your answer to ii above? To compute the short-run after tax equilibrium we need to ? nd the point at which the quantity demanded by consumers, at the price they pay, is equal to the qua ntity supplied by ? rms at the price they receive. This is the quantity that solves the equation, pd = ps + t, which is to say, 700 ? Y = 2Y + 50 ? YtSR = 92. 9. Plugging this quantity back into the inverse supply curve we get ps = 2  · YtSR = 185. 8, which means the price paid by consumers is pd = ps + t = 185. 8 + 50 = 135. 8. The change in producer surplus is the area to the left of the supply curve between the pre-tax price and the after-tax price received by ? rms. It includes the ? rms’ share of the tax revenue as well as the part of deadweight loss that comes from ? rms. In the case of linear supply it is the area of a parallelagram with height equal to the di? erence between the pre-tax price and the after-tax price received by ? rms, and bases of Y ? nd YtSR , which is ? P SS R = (200 ? 185. 7) 100? 92. 9 = 1379. 2. 2 7 By now your graph should look like this: In an industry with identical ? rms the long-run supply curve is horizontal, which is to say, in long-run equilibrium ? rms will be earning zero pro? t because entry and exit will always drive the price down (or in this case up) to the point where the price is equal to the minimum average cost. Thus, the after-tax price received by ? rms will be ps = 200. Otherwise ? rms would be losing money and would have an incentive to leave the industry, and the industry would not be in long-run equilibrium.Thus, we know that the tax will be passed on entirely to consumers, which means that the price paid by consumers will be pd = ps + t = 200 + 50 = 250. Setting the inverse demand curve equal to that price, we can compute the long-run after-tax equilibrium quantity, 250 = 700 ? 5Y ? YtLR = 90. To determine the number of ? rms in the industry we have to know how much output each ? rm will produce when they are operating at their minimum average cost. We computed the direct supply curve of p the ? rm in part (a), y(p) = 20 , which means that at the minimum of their average cost, minAC = 200, each ? rm will produce 200 = 10 units of output.Since the 20 industry as a whole is producing 90 units, there must be 9 ? rms in the industry. One has exited the industry. Your graph should look like this: In an industry with identical ? rms, by de? nition, the long-run producer surplus is zero. There are two ways to see this. The ? rst is that the long-run supply curve is horizontal, which means that in long-run equilibrium the price is the same as the height of the supply curve, and since producer surplus is the area between the price line and the supply curve, there clearly can be no producer surplus. The other way to see it is to refer to the de? ition of long-run equilibrium in an industry with identical ? rms, which is that all ? rms are earning zero pro? t. The reason this is di? erent from the answer to ii, above, is that in the long-run ? rms can escape the burden of the tax by leaving the industry and going into some other industry that is not taxed. We know that the burden of a tax always falls most heavily on the side of the market that is less able to change it’s behavior to escape the tax, which is to say, the side of the market that is most inelastic. In the long-run, the supply side of the industry is perfectly elastic, and thus bears none of the burden of the tax. 8

Franklin D. Roosevelt vs. Barack Obama

Franklin D. Roosevelt vs. Barack Obama The economy of the 1930s was a devastating financial situation that the American public will never forget. However, this doesn’t mean that history will cease to repeat itself. The political policies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt are often acknowledged for the relief of our country’s depression and some of which are still in effect today. To avoid our current recession, will Barack Obama choose to base his policies off of FDR’s in hopes that the same plan will work twice?There are some similarities and differences between the political action today and the action during the Great Depression. Within just the first 99 days of his election as President, Roosevelt’s New Deal was put into action with the support of Congress. The New Deal was proposed to help relieve those who were unemployed or in danger of losing their homes and recover agriculture and business. Programs such as the Tennessee Valley Authority, Social Securi ty, and Medicare were created because of Roosevelt’s action in the Great Depression.Herbert Hoover, the preceding president, did not feel that government spending should be given directly to citizens. He believed that ‘helping’ the American people in this way would actually hurt their morale and cause them to become more like a socialist nation. Certain ideas such as enforcing fixed pricing, controlling businesses, and manipulating the value of currency were suggested and quickly declined by Hoover who believed all were Socialist ideas. Though many people saw Hoover as an evil man that refused to give away federal money, he was actually quite accurate with his predictions.For example, Welfare, which is a program used today that was created in the New Deal, is often misused today by people who are capable of working, but are too lazy to actually make their own income source. I believe that a lot of Americans today are spoon fed because of the government ‘hel p’ that they receive. Though Roosevelt did help in the Great Depression, his temporary ideas were turned into permanent solutions that have caused new damages today. Now our current President is forced with the decision to either help the public with temporary ideas like Roosevelt’s or look out for what is best for our future like Hoover.It’s not an easy decision. Barack Obama has made an impact in our economy in areas similar to Franklin Roosevelt. He has created jobs and packages, like Obamacare, that he believes will help American citizens. Obama helped bail out the auto industries similar to how Roosevelt helped bail out the banks during the depression. However, Barack passed the Wall Street Reform (which helped the American financial system be less confusing and more apparent) to make sure that we would never have to bail out the banks again.Barack has also eliminated tax breaks for companies who ship overseas to try and promote American companies to create more jobs for the citizens who are here. In his term, Obama has added over 479,000 jobs which is the most growth we’ve had in a decade. He has spoken many times on how he plans to build â€Å"from the middle class out† rather than from the top down. Our middle class is of high importance to Barack and because of this, he has gained a tremendous support from the public.It seems that our current president has taken a few ideas from Roosevelt with the added caution of the foreseeable future. Our country looks like it’s headed in the right direction, but we may never know whether the help provided will be temporary until we live through it. As citizens, it would be the best for us to learn how to live on our own without the help of our government. If we were to become too dependent on our welfare checks or social security, then we could end up being controlled instead of governing ourselves.The best solution would to be to save our money and work hard at what we do . Though it may seem that there are no jobs available to us at the moment, we do have to trust that the companies around us will see it better to provide domestic jobs rather than sending them overseas. Though I don’t entirely agree with how Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to solve the Great Depression, I have to admit that what he did he thought he was doing for the best. Great presidents like Obama, Roosevelt, and even Hoover are great because they think of us and not themselves.

Jewish Temple Sections

Sections of the Jewish TempleMrs. McCurdy Mostly From Icons, p. 10-11 The Outer Court is also known as the Court of Gentiles Gentiles or non-Jews were not allowed beyond this court. Traders could be found here selling birds and animals to be used for sacrifices. It was also a place to change Roman money into Temple money (money-changers). [When Jesus got angry with these people and threw them out of â€Å"His Father’s House† he did this because they were giving the people a very poor exchange rate, and so were make lots of money at their expense, after all, they had to buy the sacrifices with Temple money! The Court of Women Women and children were not allowed to beyond this area. It was a favourite meeting place for families when they came to Jerusalem on pilgrimage. [This was probably where Mary would have been looking for Jesus when he was 12 years old. ] The Court of Israelites Only Jewish men were allowed to enter here. They would see the altar of sacrifice and the offers being made to God. At the time of Jesus, animal sacrifices were an important part Temple worship. The Court of Priests This was exclusively reserved for priests. In this area was the altar on which the birds and animals were sacrificed. Only domestic animals would be sacrificed. This included pigeons and doves, the offerings of poor people. The Holy of Holies This was the innermost and most sacred part of the Tempe. A large veil covered its entrance. Only the high priest was allowed to enter, and he only went in once a year, on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. He offered sacrifices and asked God’s forgiveness in the name of all the people. On this day only he spoke aloud, in full, the name of God. [You will learn much later from the Gospel of Jesus’ trial that during this trial, before the High Priest, when asked, Jesus said he was the Son of the â€Å"Blessed One†. The Jewish authorities were then able to accuse Jesus of blasphem, because only the High Priest was allowed to speak out aloud the name of God, so under Jewish law, Jesus was committing a grave sin. ] This day marked a new start, a renewal of faithfulness to the laws of God.

Week 3 dq's Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Week 3 dq's - Essay Example Even though the number of shares increase, the total value of these shares remains the same thus resulting in no direct benefit. The benefit of stock splits is said to only lie in the future. A lower share value can bring the market share price to â€Å"an acceptable trading range† (Stickney, 2004, p. 545). The resulting higher trading volumes, more investors and continuing good performance of the company can potentially result in a higher stock price. Dividend Policy: The dividend policy varies from company to company. A company can give dividends in form of cash or more stock for each share owned, have a stock repurchase offer, a combination of both, or to retain earnings and not announce any distribution of profits. Each has its merits and demerits. Cash dividends incur higher tax rates and usually appeal to investors who are low-end taxpayers. Stock dividends, in which additional company shares are offered at a proportion of existing shares dilute the shares and bring no immediate benefit to the shareholder. They only allow the investor to merely have a potential of future higher net value. Purely from the shareholder’s perspective, stock repurchase can offer higher value to a large percentage of investors as the stock price increases after repurchase and if the investor sells, the money they gain by selling stocks falls in the lower capital gains tax bracket (Bierman, 2001, p. 112). Finally, companies that retain their earnings offer value by gaining shareholder confidence in its growth and thus a higher stock price. Sources of Venture Capital: Venture capital is offered by investors looking for unusually higher returns. They are willing to work with higher risks and invest in companies with perceived profits or growth. The money can come directly from these investors, specialized venture capital firms, investment banks or other financial or brokerage institutions with similar investment policies. VC’s Due Diligence: Venture capitalists,

Organizational Quality Culture Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Organizational Quality Culture - Assignment Example A quality manual is a document prepared by the management of an organization, and it establishes and illustrates the overall policies which govern the quality management system. The policies explain the intention of the management in overseeing operations in accordance with the established quality framework (Lee & Dale 220). 2. In a quality system, the quality manual has various purposes. The quality manual illustrates the processes required for quality management systems of the organization and the usage of this system in the entire organization. The quality manual also describes the sequence and the interaction of the quality management processes in the organization. The quality manual finally describes the most appropriate criteria required for ensuring effective and efficient operation and control of production processes. 3. Quality documentation systems have several purposes in the organization. The system ensures that correct, consistent and complete information is effectively utilized in realizing customer and other stakeholders’ requirements. Good documentation system is also a major part of the organization’s quality assurance system. 1. Work instructions are a sequence of procedures or steps that are required to effectively perform or execute an activity in the organization. Work instructions have importance in the organization. The first importance is that it provides reference during employee training sessions; this ensures employees are equipped with adequate competencies. The second importance is that work instructions ensure consistency in work execution; this is because all the employees needed in performing a specified job are trained in the same manner.

The use of Algae in the Mediterranean Research Paper

The use of Algae in the Mediterranean - Research Paper Example Biodiesel is produced from oils and fats of animals and vegetables such as sunflower oil, palm oil, jatropha as well as algae. Sustainability of feedstock could be ensured in the case of algae fuel due to fast growth of algae. Development of technology for manufacturing biofuel using algae at lower cost and higher productivity assumes importance in this backdrop. High initial investment is an important barrier to the growth in this industry. This is expected to come down in the future through R&D efforts in the industry with the active support of governments and research institutions. Climate in Mediterranean and other sub-tropical countries is suitable for growing algae for producing algae based biofuels. Since the country of Cyprus is surrounded by sea with good port facilities, growing marine algae for producing biodiesel and the by-products based on this type of algae is considered. Also, increase in demand and good prices for the by-products and can reduce the overall cost of pr oduction of algae biofuels to make it more competitive in the markets. Conservation of natural resources Depleting fossil fuel sources of energy and growth in energy consumption over years cause serious threat to energy security of the world in the future. According to Scot et al. (277) â€Å"Microalgae offer great potential for exploitation, including the production of biodiesel, but the process is still some way from being carbon neutral or commercially viable. Part of the problem is that there is little established background knowledge in the area.† For achieving the desired progress in this area for the purpose of conservation of fossil fuels and for mitigating the effects of climate change, concerted efforts for the development of this industry on international scale is very important. McDonald (2012) stated that Biologists at US San Diego have made researches to establish that marine algae can be just as capable as fresh water algae in producing biodiesel. According to Kothari and Gujral (272) biofuels derived from algae and microalgae or genetically modified algae and genetically modified co-cultures of Shewanella and Synechococcus have been commercialized. It is further pointed out that algae fuel yields considerably more energy than fossil fuels and biofuels under development include Cellulosic ethanol, Algae fuel, BioDME, Fischer-Tropsch diesel, DMF, bio-hydrogen and biohydrogen diesel. The superior fuel efficiency of algae fuel compared to fossil fuel has been proved in driving Algaeus, a modified Toyota Prius car. "It got 147 miles per gallon in the city," says  Fuel  director Josh Tickell of the converted to plug-in  Prius hybrid  that he drove on a mix of battery power and algae fuel blended with conventional gasoline. (Biello) Project profile In a project for producing algae fuel several factors have to be taken into account such as capital investment involved, availability of suitable space for growing algae for the project, envi ronmental clearances by the local bodies and the governments, infrastructural facilities available, growth, research and development in the industry, marketability of the products and availability of managerial skills and skilled labor. The country of Cyprus is considered ideal for the project to grow marine algae for various reasons. The government of Cyprus has taken initiatives for development of microalgae as an alternative fuel by partnering with leading institution in the region. â€Å"To foster the development

Coporate Strategy about global steel manufacture industry Essay

Coporate Strategy about global steel manufacture industry - Essay Example (Wikipedia, Steel) These are major components in buildings, tools, automobiles and appliances. The life of steel does not stop. If steels become old and torn out, it can be melted again to produce new steel. The US market experienced a decline in production from 110M tonnes in 2004 to 104.6M tonnes in 2005. The decline was a combination of overcapacity and production declines in 2005 of two (2) automobile manufacturers namely General Motors and Ford. These two (2) companies are the leading consumer of steel. (Steel Price and Policy Issues). The same scenario in China, an emerging market, is facing challenges in terms of overcapacity that lead to price erosions. (Rocsearch.com, Executive Summary, Chinese Steel Industry Analysis) Asia will be the leading steel market by 2014. Growth of Japan, China and rest of Asia are determinants of steel demand in the future. (Euro Strategy Consultants, Global Steel Industry Outlook to 2014, p.7, February 2005) The industry experienced sluggish growth rate in mid-1970s until the turn of the century. There were overcapacity and high exit barriers generated high cyclicality and decades of declining prices. In 2001, the industry climate changed. The demand surged brought about by the boom of China's economy. In 2001-mid 2006, the demand for steel in China increased to the tune of 25%. In about four (4) years from 2001-2005 prices of steel products increased. Prices of raw materials such as iron ore, coke, scarp alloy materials contributed to the high level cost of steel. The growth of global steel market transformed the business activities and outlook of steel companies. There have been restructuring across regions, privatization, re-orientation of companies' focus on high profit margin and modernization of steel-making facilities particularly in China, India and Commonwealth Independent States (CIS). (Boston Consulting Group, Beyod Boom, F. Deforche, J.Hemerling, D.Kim, W.Piacsek, M. Shanaha n, M. Wolfgang and M. Wortler, February 2007) . There have been various technological innovations for steel companies to remain competitive in the market. China is facing the challenge of upgrading to high quality steel products to counter the increasing costs of iron ore prices and price erosions due to overcapacity. (Rocsearch.com, Executive Summary, Chinese Steel Industry Analysis). The development of steels in the market also corresponds to the improvement of buildings and other industrial constructions. The industrial buyers of steels are confirming to the new trends that suits the lifestyles of the people in any parts of the world and the creation of new buildings for commercial or any type of industrial construction. There have been some improvements and upgrades of steels. The rods or bars in the past have been improved to ribbed bars, followed by the cold twisted deformed bars and the current thermo mechanically treated bars. (Wikipedia, Steel). Another development in steel industry is the growth of minimills. In the US, large manufacturers concentrate in the market across other regions. The huge volume in manufacturing led to the creation of minimills. Minimills produced small volume of steel products mostly for the local markets. They convert local scrap metal

Art of Viewing Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Art of Viewing Art - Essay Example two extremely large factors that are nowadays driving our life; people are constantly in the search of their true identity without witnessing any judgments. Thus, the advancement of technology is playing an effective role in new identity representations. There is a correlation with the height of the trans-rights movement in a time where both creation and identity building are eased through the use of Internet. This idea breaks the norm and the dangers of self-creation by enabling the construct and manifest of an identity that is often seen as off-limits or not â€Å"correct† in the physical world. The artwork named as Juliana is in the form of a human figure, resting on a raised surface. The motivation behind the creation of this human figure is Juliana Huxtable, a renowned artist. Mark Guiducci stated that, â€Å"Frank Benson saw a photograph of Huxtable’s first Nuwaubian persona two years ago and asked her to model for him around that time† (n. pag.). Besides, this artwork surprises the viewers because of its life-size image and the cunning amalgamation of 3D printing with sculpture making. Similarly, the sculpture is in naked form, projecting sexual organs. Besides, this artwork represents the visual symbol of self-creation, inherent in the character (Juliana Huxtable) and his/her identity in the society as a transgender. On the other side, the artwork named as Untitled in the Rage is in the form of a photograph. Apart from the first artwork, this artwork exploits the scope of self-portrait. To be specific, the artist made use of her own body to represent her real identity. Besides, this artwork is symbolic of the rich tradition of Africa and its amalgamation with American culture in general. But the first artwork is symbolic of the scope of 3D printing and the second artwork is symbolic of the scope self-portrait and photography within art. In short, both the artworks belong to different genres, but the theme is same. The mastermind behind this sculpture (3D

Legalizing Same-sex Marriage in America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Legalizing Same-sex Marriage in America - Essay Example Scientific research to date proves that homosexuality is genetically inclined, and those who are indeed homosexual, have a genetic predisposition of sorts to their sexual orientation. Sexual orientation is not a â€Å"sexual preference†; it’s not something that one can change, therefore, those with homosexual orientation should be granted each and every single American right that heterosexuals have, including marriage, parenting, etc., otherwise America, who takes pride in being a nation of equality, is making their claim on fraudulent terms. While proving that sexual orientation is not a choice and that homosexuality is indeed the genetic makeup of an individual, it should be recognized by the U.S. government that homosexuality is a â€Å"normal† orientation just like heterosexuality is, and those of a homosexual orientation should be granted the same equal rights as heterosexuals, Whites, Africans, Hispanics, and everyone else who call this great nation their à ¢â‚¬Å"home†. Genetically speaking, it has been discovered that antibodies in the womb can attack the Y chromosome in an unborn male, causing him to be gay. This normally happens when a woman already has several, several, meaning two or three, â€Å"straight† male sons; her body just builds up an antibody to carrying males, and these antibodies attack the Y chromosome in the unborn male, making him homosexual (Independent). For every prior male brother who is â€Å"straight†, the chances of the next male becoming gay later in life, increases by one third (Independent). This study, conducted by Canadian scientists in 2006, proves that homosexuality in men is of a biological nature and nothing else. Gay men are â€Å"created† (Independent) meaning; they are born with a genetic predisposition to homosexuality. Thus proving that homosexuality is not a choice, but completely biological, even before birth (Independent). Also, it is common that most homosexual mal es have reported the same feelings concerning their identities and such during childhood. Many say that they â€Å"felt different† at an early age and often had to defend their masculinity (Handbook). They also reported that from a very, very young age, they did not take interest in the same games, toys, clothing, etc. as other â€Å"straight† males their age, and also felt an overwhelming attraction to the same sex, even from as early as 2 to 5 years old (Handbook). These young males reported that they often enjoyed playing with toys made for the opposite sex and also enjoyed wearing clothes of the opposite gender as well. The males said they did not take much of an interest in masculine games, such as sports and â€Å"boy† toys. â€Å"My cousin, who is now an openly gay, nineteen year old male, always collected Barbie dolls,† says Bessie Cherry, an award-winning journalist from Tennessee. â€Å"It was always a question ‘if’ my cousin was g oing to be gay or not. He loved to play with toys of the opposite sex, often carried a purse, and wore girls’ jeans and shoes. He was always very interested in things that boys his age were not, like collecting antique dishes and such. He never wanted to play football, like the rest of his male cousins his age. He never wanted to play with ‘boy’ toys, such as trucks and cars; it was always Barbie dolls and ‘girly’ things that he chose to play with instead. When my cousin became a teenager, he was so handsome that so many of the girls

Determinism and Free

Determinism and Free Will Essay ?What are the implications of determinism for our understanding of free will? Argue your position. There are several implications of determinism that illustrate our understanding of free will. It is a general understanding that we as humans should be free to make our own choices our lives; yet we also understand that events, including human behaviour, may have a prior cause, perhaps due to natural or some other circumstance. This paper aims to identify and present these implications of determinism on free will. Naturally, we are raised in a society where ‘agency’ or the ability to act freely is a given birth right (in most countries anyway), subsequently followed by the self being regulated over time to develop socially acceptable and rational conduct, through autonomy. Already we are able to identify how determinism holds an impact on one’s free will. How can we have true ‘freedom’ and free will to behave as we wish, when it is already determined that the society will live in will regulate our ability to make choices and decisions in life? A fear of determinism on free will is that, if it is true, humans are no longer accountable for the consequences of their actions through their freedom. Hence to say that human reasoning has no influence on the final outcome. This raises further topics to discuss, to investigate what free will/freedom actually is, and whether it truly exists if the decision is pre-determined. The perception of free will is open to interpretation by many philosophers and ordinary people. For the purposes of this discussion, we will maintain that free will is a human’s capacity to make a decision freely and openly for themselves. We must then take in to account the concept of psychological determinism; taking in to account all the elements, which have formed one’s character such as their genetics, childhood, relationships, workplace and social autonomy. When this is in question, it is plausible to say the person may actually not be making a decision from free will, as they are constrained by their biological and social construct in the process. This form of determinism elucidates how one’s understanding of ‘free will’ can be created within the mind (Skinner, 1948) as they would make a choice in a psychological context that they are comfortable with i. e. ‘the right decision’ for them- but that does not necessarily mean that the choice is made freely. What if however, whether or not we are able to choose freely, that certain events are inevitable in our fate as humans, and there may be no alternative outcome? Fatalism is the term is what underpins this concept. The concepts of fatalist approaches such as theological and logical determinism are to be explored further within this paper in relation to their implications to free will. Both concepts however hold a common ground however, where outcomes are not generated from pre-determined events, but emphasise that the outcome will take place regardless of the prior events and therefore, regardless of what choice the human makes. Many theological determinist approaches involve an element of divine knowledge or omnipotence. Most commonly the example of God or a supreme being is used, to uphold that he who is believed to be the creator of all, knows all things timely, as to what will happen as per our fate. This inflicts the understanding of free will, as the individual is left to ponder as to whether they actually have a power to control the resulting outcome from a choice that they make. Boethius (524) referred to this in The Consolation of Philosophy where he outlines the natural trait of humans to be able to act on their will with reasoning, which is independent of chance or any scheduled fate. His idea was that any sort of divine pre-emptive knowledge could co-exist with free will, and does not necessarily have to imply a sense of a determined future. Referring to the above-mentioned concept of logical determinism, we may now factor out any element of religious or omnipotent basis. Logical determinism is important to consider for our understanding of free will, as it sets a true/false premise to an outcome occurring (Taylor, 1963). For example, X will happen tomorrow or not, but if Y happens, the premise is still fulfilled by X not occurring. (Aristotle, 350). Arguably, this can restrict free will. When the outcome is fixed and may occur on probability, free will cannot permit us to change this. Although what is true, will always be true and remain true in the principle of this form of determinism, regardless of whether we know the outcome, can exist a freedom of choice, which potentially leads to the final outcome. It has been enveloped before, if there were some sort of intellect that could calculate everything about the world and the beings in it or ‘condense into a single formula’, we subsequently may be able to predict the future (Laplace, 1814). Yet considering the possibility that an external or unaccountable factor (free will) enters the equation in a sense of randomness (Bohm, 1951), this ‘intellect’ would not be able to be entirely deterministic. Throughout this paper, there has been a focus on the ‘chain’ or sequence of events prior to an event occurring. If these prior actions could be examined and explained, there may be a reason for a certain event to occur. This is referred to as causal determinism, which has emphasis on events or the acts of ‘free will’ prior to an outcome occurring. This further implies that causal determinism, like other forms of determinism can co-exist with freedom, where we are free to make our choices, sometimes knowing or not knowing what the outcome will be. The fact alone that the choice is present, definitively shows that free will is present. One who is a ‘hard determinist’ will refuse the possibility that free will may exist or be logically compatible with determinism. Some of the examples discussed can be considered as hard determinist approaches if we rule out this possibility. More importantly though, we should look at the position of a ‘soft determinist’, where free will can exist in a determinist environment, but where the concept of ‘free will’ is not what we think it may be. We as humans have individual experiences for each and every thing in our lives, including knowing the feeling of how to evaluate, deliberate, and make a decision. We are able to feel that this is our own choice, regardless of what context our personal character or ‘self’ we have constructed since birth, where we also have the ability to change our mind about our decisions. These are fundamental feelings possessed by all human beings regarding their own free will. What potentially causes a division is the different methods in which people portray this, for example- free will is incompatible with determinism, humans have free will; determinism is false (Libertarianism). Or perhaps a dualist approach where whatever in the human mind is exercising free will, may or may not change the course of the future. Furthermore, compatiblism (soft determinism) seems to provide the most realistic approach. This is on the premise where free will is not incompatible with determinism, therefore determinism is true, so is free will. This argument is on the grounds that the term ‘free will’ is coined in an ambiguous and poor manner. An example would be to consider an online game of ‘Connect 4’ with one human player and against a computer’s artificial intelligence (AI). When you make a move, you generally feel that you were able to freely choose that despite perhaps several other moves you may have made, but chose the one as the best clear move for strategic purposes. We now consider the AI, which has been programmed with algorithm to be deterministic and produce certain outcomes. Asides from the human turning the computer off or removing it’s RAM, the AI is in the same condition as the human, with the ability to make several strategic moves to it’s desire. Therefore, the AI is displaying human-like behaviour by displaying an act of free will even though it is a machine; somewhat like how humans over time have been educated and developed to make decisions. Notably, the possibility still exists for the human to strategically and freely choose their desired moves in order to win the game, despite the fact that the AI was programmed with knowledge to also deterministically win the game. As to whether a machine can actually behave like a human is a potentially debatable essay in its own, but the principle shows us that free will does co-exist with determinism, and that deterministic behaviour can alternate ‘free will’ and vice versa. Ultimately, when you make a choice, you bring your character, judgement, past experiences, memories, morals and desires, and can justify that it was a choice made from free will. This is also the essence of determinism, where an event has occurred from antecedent factors. Provided that this understanding is present, there is no real implication on ‘free will’ from determinism, asides from the views that take measures beyond accepting the existence of freedom. References Aristotle. , Ackrill, J. L. Aristotle. (1963). Categories, and De interpretatione. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Boethius. (524). The consolation of philosophy. Bohm, D. (1951). Quantum theory. New York: Prentice-Hall. Laplace, P. S. (1814). Essai philosophique sur les probabilites. Paris: Courcier. Skinner, B. F. (1948). Walden Two. New York: Macmillan. Taylor, R. (1963). Metaphysics. Englewood Cliffs, N. J. : Prentice-Hall.

Gordon’s Functional Health Patterns Assessment

Gordon’s Functional Health Patterns Assessment Lalita bhandari Overall Introduction: I am presenting here my overall health assessment by using the Gordon’s functional health patterns. Then, my stress is presented as focused assessment. This part of assessment assist me in knowing the level of stress while the internet source help me in gaining more knowledge about causes , effects of stress in normal health status and the methods to reduce the stress or its management. Finally essay on the health promotion is presented at the last. Part 1: Self Health Assessment and plan Functional Health Pattern (Gordon) Biographical Data Name: Lalita Bhandari Address: 3/5 Danica Ct., Kearneys Spring Date of Birth: 13th Feb. 1992 Place: Nepal Age: 22 years Gender: Female Occupation: Student Marital status: Single Qualification: Bachelor in nursing (ongoing) Contact number: 0404473722 Height: 162 cm. Weight: 60 kg. Health perception and management pattern: Past health history: No history of any chronic illness Present condition: Stress due to study workload and homesickness -Immunized all the vaccines which include tuberculosis, all three doses of Diphtheria, Pertusis and Tetanus, polio, measles, BCG, hepatitis and Rubella. -No habit of alcohol consumption, smoking and chewing of tobacco and no use of other injectable drugs. Nutritional-metabolic pattern: Good appetite Food intake: 2-3 times a day and many snacks No any food allergies Fluid intake: 3-4 liters of water per day Have no difficulties with eating and swallowing Vitals (at the time of doing assignment) Temperature: 36.8 deg. centigrade Pulse: 74/min. Respiration: 78/min Blood Pressure: 110/60 mm of Hg. Height: 162 cm. Weight: 60 kg. But sometimes get disturbed with stress. Elimination pattern Bowel: regular bowel at least once daily Bladder: normal frequency of menstruation and no problem associated with bladder or urination Activity-Exercise pattern No planned routine for regular exercise regime Depends upon mood and only on leisure time but rare Sleep and rest pattern Normally no problem of insomnia Have 5-6 hours of sleeping pattern Never use of any sleeping aids and sedatives to rest But sometimes, when I get stress, I suffer from insomnia Cognitive-Perceptual patterns Good sensory and auditory adequacy No difficulties in learning Good memory Oriented Self-Perception and self concept patterns I am kind, helpful and soft-hearted Show positive attitudes towards others Respect others feelings But sometimes I feel losing hope when nobody cares. Roles and relationship pattern Family life: Recently I live with my friends as a family. I have responsibility towards my parents as a daughter and sister. I can cope with the difficulties that arise among family members and have good bond among all family members. Student life: Being a student, I have responsibility towards my studies. As with the case with most of international students I need to cope with various level of difficulties like stress, anxiety and workload. Coping-Stress tolerance pattern New environment, new face, new rules, new study patterns make me stress. always listen to songs, watch pictures/photos of my cell and also talk to my close friend and family. If the stress is too severe and cannot be controlled, I cry silently and let the stress burst out with tears and feel like relaxed then after. Values-Beliefs pattern Cultural and religious beliefs Goal set to be a qualified and dedicated Registered Nurse Punctual, obedient and hardworking Never give up and learn from every mistake and move forward Part B: Focused Assessment While performing self health assessment, I found some problems in my behavior, which is mainly caused by stress due to new environment, new place, new rules and regulation. Study and distance between me and my family are the other factors that lead to stress. In this focused assessment, I am focusing in assessing level of stress. I browse internet to gain more knowledge on my stress level. I assessed my stress level using â€Å"life change index scale/ The Stress Test†, written by Thomas H. Holmes and Richard H. Rahel. This stress test has three different rows including event, impact score and my score. As event adds up, there occurs increase in score. The higher the score, the chance of becoming ill will also be higher and also the change of returning back to normal health will decrease. LIFE CHANGE INDEX SCALE : THE STRESS TEST Life Change Units Likelihood Of Illness In Near Future According to the score interpretation presented above in the table, my level of score is 100 which is less than 150 so I have less risk of illness in my near future. In this way Homes and Rahes stress life change index scale helps me to assess my level of stress and help me in reducing the stress and promote my health. References Holmes, T. H., Rahe, R. H. (1967). The social readjustment rating scale. Journal of psychosomatic research, 11(2), 213-218. Retrieved from http://www.dartmouth.edu/~eap/library/lifechangestresstest.pdf Part 3 Internet Sources While doing my individual self assessment, i determine that stress is the main cause for detoriating my healthy living and daily activities. For promoting my own health, I have selected two internet sources to reduce my stress. As per the source, i came to know that stress is determined as the physical reaction to several events of our life in our daily way of living. Both the sources provide brief information about the stress, causes, management and technique to relief or cope with the stress. According to the helpguide.org, â€Å"stress is a normal physical response to events that make you feel threaened or upset balanc e in some ways†. Also with the help of the source i came to know that stress have both merits and demerits .These both explained about the stress and mainly focused on various strategies for stress management which include 4As-Avoid unnecessary stress , Alter the situation, Adapt the streesor and Accept the things cannot be changed. Similarly the article prep ared by University of South Australia also has been presented with more information about the management of stress. This source focuses mainly in different strategies of managing stress according to our body, mind, thinking and behaviour. As both the sources have the name of the author with the date and name of publication with more information , i found these are the reliable and trustworthy for me. I found both the sources important and informative in handling with the stress. References : Managing stress Monday (2013). Retrieved April 22, 2013, from http://w3.unisa.edu.au/counsellingservices/wellbeing/stress.asp Smith, M., Segal, R., Segal, J. (2013). Stress Symptoms, signs and causes. Retrieved http://www.helpguide.org/mental/stress_signs.htm Part 4. Health Promotion Essay Health is considered to be the precious wealth of an individual. It is an important aspect of our life. According to the definition provided by World Health Organization, â€Å"Health promotion is the process of enabling people either individually or in group like community to increase control over, and to improve their health† as cited by Selekman,( 2006).Health is affected by various factors so that to promote the health a teamwork is required between health personal, community and other different sectors. Being a health person, Nurses play vital role for accessing the health of patients, identify their health needs and encourage them to promote their health in an effective way. This essay explains about the problems in student nurses health and the programs to promote their health. Nurses are the key persons to promote the health. They are well experienced either with the knowledge they gain or exposing with the patient of different health condition. According to Dempsey(2009), â€Å" Health promotion model is important for an individual to promote their health†. . According to Mary,Sally and Kathleen (2011) , the student nurse are known as the main person to identify health issues where low school performance and change in health status are found more common ,as cited by American Academy of Pediatrics Council on School Health (2008). This explains that the students are found to be more stressed which causes great changes in academic achievement and also their health status will detoriate. The student nurse may face problem like difficulty in identifying the problem in their clinical placement , sometimes hard even to understand the medical term. As per Fethiye and Fatos(2009),there are numerous factors that causes negative influence on decision making a nd nursing practices such as individual variables such as personal character traits and value , lack of knowledge and sensitivity about ethics and patients rights ,limited autonomy and unsatisfactory working . There are different approaches to health promotion and different health promotion model are in use. Health promotion model include characteristics models to promote environment where healthy decisions can be made about attaining high standard lifestyles reducing. According to Jennifer , fran and janat (2013) explain that the health-promoting behaviors of nursing students might be the key factor for their academic success and also facilitate them for post graduate practices . the health promotion behavior includes change in lifestyle , adjustment with new environment of study as well as hospital and development o, lifestyle, beliefs and thoughts, motivation health and promoting behavior. Practicing nurse can use these health f strength to cope with various people. According to Chambers and Thompson(2009), â€Å"empowerment is the other main focus on health promotion and participate† The student nurses should be encouraged to promote their health, change their behavior and also motivate them in changing their lifestyle and behavior and also reduce stress by avoiding , adapting the stressor and accepting the changes . At conclusion, there are many factors that cause stress in the student life of the nurses which causes problem in their health. There are many reasons to promote health. Encouragement helps nursing student to promote their health by brining change in their lifestyle Overall conclusion I have done my own self assessment with stress as a focused assessment. I found stress as a main factor that chauses change in my normal health status. Finally the essay on health promotion is presented at list of references the end of the assignment. List of References : Baisch, M. J., Lundeen, S. P., Murphy, M. (2011). Evidence-Based Research on the Value of School Nurses in an Urban School System. Journal Of School Health, 81(2), 74-80. doi:10.1111/j.1746-1561.2010.00563.x Retrived from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.usq.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=95fefa95-373a-4bb3-a0d3-09b4b9baaf42%40sessionmgr4005vid=0hid=4212 Bektas, M., Ozturk, C. (2008). Effect of health promotion education on presence of positive health behaviors, level of anxiety and self-concept: Social Behavior Personality: An International Journal, 36(5), 681-690. doi:10.2224/sbp.2008.36.5.681 RETIREVED FROM http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.usq.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=53bd6502-3b56-4fb0-9ad8-dfe19e80ee51%40sessionmgr4005vid=0hid=4212 Bryer, J., Cherkis, F., Raman, J. (2013). Health-Promotion Behaviors of Undergraduate Nursing Students: A Survey Analysis. Nursing Education Perspectives, 34(6), 410-415. doi:10.5480/11-614 RERIEVED FROM http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.usq.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=394eddc7-bbd1-4e40-9b94-3546e235556b%40sessionmgr4004vid=1hid=4212 Dempsey,J., French ,J., Hillege,S., Wilson,V.(2009) . Fundamental of Nursing midwifery: A person centered approach to care,(5th ed). Lippincott Williams wilkins, broadway, NWS Erdil, F., Korkmaz, F. (2009). ETHICAL PROBLEMS OBSERVED BY STUDENT NURSES. Nursing Ethics, 16(5), 589-598 Holmes, T. H., Rahe, R. H. (1967). The social readjustment rating scale. Journal of psychosomatic research, 11(2), 213-218. Retrieved from http://www.dartmouth.edu/~eap/library/lifechangestresstest.pdf Managing stress Monday (2013). Retrieved April 22, 2013, from http://w3.unisa.edu.au/counsellingservices/wellbeing/stress.asp Smith, M., Segal, R., Segal, J. (2013). Stress Symptoms, signs and causes. Retrieved http://www.helpguide.org/mental/stress_signs.htm 1

Ultra High Temperature Ceramics for Thermal Protection

Ultra High Temperature Ceramics for Thermal Protection Recent Developments in Oxidation Resistance and Fracture Toughness of Ultra High Temperature Ceramics for Thermal Protection Systems Katrin Abrahams (Dated: February 3, 2015) For safer and faster space vehicles a reduction of the tipradius of the leading edges is inevitable. This leads to temperatures exceeding 2200  °C which the used material has to withstand. ZrB2/SiC and HfB2/SiC have suitable properties, but the oxidation resistance and fracture toughness at high temperatures have to be improved. This review describes the recent approaches to handle these problems that base mainly on the addition of a third material (La2O3, Gd2O3 or graphite). The addition of either La2O3 or Gd2O3 led to increased oxidation resistance, but the processing, the amount of additive and the testing methods have to be improved. Due to the addition of graphite à ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡akes the fracture toughness of ZrB2/SiC (20 vol%) increased from 1. INTRODUCTION The Thermal Protection System (TPS) of space ve ­hicles is one of the most important parts of the whole vehicle [1–3]. This protects it from the heating during re-entry. During this process the temperatures are very high, especially at the nose cone and leading edges as shown in Fig. 1. Figure 1: Temperature proà ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ le of a space vehicle during re ­entry prepared by the NASA. The dark red colour represents the highest temperatures and the light blue regions are coolest parts (copied from [4]). The tip of the leading edge has a radius of 10 cm, but a radius in the range of millimetres is wished so that sharp leading edges instead of blunt leading edges can be used [5]. This would have the advantage to â€Å"help reduce the vehicles drag, enhance maneuverability and performance, and also improve safety due to an increased cross-range-capability† [5]. The problem of a smaller tip radius is that this leads to higher surface temperatures, which can exceed 2000  °C [6, 7]. Jin et al. [8] investigated the maximum surface tempera ­ture depending on the radius of the tip using an oxyacety ­lene torch. Fig. 2 shows that the temperature increases from 1930  °C with a radius of 1.5 mm to 2100  °C with the radius of 0.15 mm. Due to the high requirements for these materials only a few can be considered. Very good potential for the usage show Ultra high temperature ceramics (UHTC). These are ceramic materials with high melting points (> 3000  °C), good thermal shock resistance and chem ­ical and mechanical stability e.g. ZrB2, ZrC, HfB2 or HfC [6, 9, 10]. Although the carbides have a higher melt ­ing point than the diborides, their thermal conductivity is lower, which is very important because the heat on the surface has to be transported as fast as possible away [5]. Therefore the main focus of research is on ZrB2 and HfB2. The problem with these diborides is their brittleness and their oxidation at temperatures exceeding 1200  °C [11]. To fabricate a more ductile material SiC was added to ZrB2 or HfB2 [12]. Although ZrB2/SiC and HfB2/SiC are promising materi ­als for the usage in TPS, there are still two main problems which have to be solved. On the one hand side there is still the problem with the oxidation resistance at higher temperatures [11, 13]. On the other hand the fracture toughness decreases with the temperature to rather low values which also leads to mechanical problems [14]. This review gives an overview over solution attempts that have been made in the last years, with the main focus on ZrB2/SiC. 2. OXIDATION RESISTANCE The oxidation resistance of MeB2/SiC (Me = Zr, Hf) depends on the ratio of MeB2/SiC [10, 15], the pres ­sure [10, 16, 17], the temperature [18], the exposure time [19], on the processing [20, 21] and in case of the addition of additives also on their chemical structure and the amount of additive [22, 23]. Considering just ZrB2, the following happens during ox ­idation [24]: The liquid B2O3 forms a protection layer for the porous ZrO2 layer, where oxygen can dià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â€š ¬use very fast and easily through. But at 1100  °C this protective layer evaporates and cannot prevent the oxidation of the bulk material anymore. The addition of SiC leads to the following additional re ­actions [10, 25, 26]: During oxidation four dià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â€š ¬erent layers can form (Fig. 3). Above the bulk material the SiC depleted zone forms, where SiC oxidizes to SiO2 which forms a borosilicate (BS) glass on the surface. This layer is porous due to the formation and evaporation of CO (Eq. (2)). Above this layer there is the oxidized layer, which consists of porous ZrO2 and the upper layer is the Silica rich layer which consist of the BS glass, that also à ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ lls partly the pores of the ZrO2 layer. Due to the evaporation of B2O3, the protection layer is shrinking over time and shows an oxidation resistance up to 1600  °C [24, 26]. In general the oxidation resistance is measured by the thickness of the reaction zone under the given parameters of the experiment. But also the dià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â€š ¬usion coeà ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã†â€™cient of O2 is important but rarely measured. 2.1. Ratio ZrB2/SiC The dependency of the oxidation resistance on the ra ­tio of ZrB2/SiC was investigated by many researchers [10, 12, 15, 27–29]. The addition of SiC led in all cases to a re ­duction in grain size, a homogeneous distribution of SiC, higher viscosity and higher density. Karlsdottir et al. [29] investigated not only the reaction Figure 3: Schematic demonstration of the dià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â€š ¬erent layers that form during oxidation of ZrB2/SiC and their arrangement. zone thickness but also the viscosity depending on the volume fraction of SiC. The results are shown in Table I and an increase in viscosity with the amount of SiC can be seen. This reduces the dià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â€š ¬usion coeà ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã†â€™cient of O2 in the layer. Seong et al. [10] compared ZrB2, ZrB2/SiC (20 vol%), ZrB2/SiC (30 vol%) and ZrB2/SiC (40 vol%) and mea ­sured the resulting thickness of the reaction zone. All samples were densià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ ed by hot pressing and exhibit a ho ­mogeneous distribution of SiC. The grain sizes were be ­tween 1.0  µm and 3.0  µm. They investigated the oxi ­dation under low and high pressure and the results are shown in Figure 4. The SiC depletion layer did not form and therefore the reaction zone consisted only of the Silica rich layer and the oxidized zone. In air (2âˆâ€"104 Pa) the thickness of the reaction zone was in ZrB2 the thickest due to the missing protecting silica layer and with increasing amount of SiC the thickness de ­creases. The problem with high amounts of SiC (30 vol%) is, that it does not form single grains anymore, but in ­stead a network, which leads to higher porosity. Under low pressure the behaviour is vice versa. Because the space shuttle has to deal with low and normal pressure ZrB2/SiC with 20 vol% or 30 vol% SiC is the best choice. Apart from the improvements of oxidation resistance due to optimization of the ZrB2/SiC ratio, at temper ­atures above 1800  °C active oxidation (Eq. (4)) of SiC takes place and this hinders the formation of the BS layer. 2.2. Additives To increase the oxidation resistance at higher temper ­atures transition metals were added to the ZrB2/SiC ma ­trix [21, 30–32]. They are suitable due to their high melt ­ing points and low reactivity with the environment [30]. The transition metal cations can be enclosed in the BS layer to form a higher viscous layer that decreases O2 dià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â€š ¬usion [11]. Furthermore this may lead to a higher evaporation point of the protective layer so that the ma ­terials are stable at T > 2000  °C. This is based on an assumption, the mechanism how the transition cations interact with ZrB2 and SiC is not understood yet but in general a positive trend to higher oxidation resistance can be seen [11]. Several attempts were made with many dià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â€š ¬erent transi ­tion metal oxides [9, 30], borides [11, 33], carbides [21, 31] and silicates [32]. This review focuses on La2O3 and Gd2O3 because they are the most promising additives and introduce two dià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â€š ¬erent processing methods that ef ­fect the properties [30]. 2.2.1. Addition of La2O3 The addition of La2O3 to ZrB2/SiC was investigated by several researchers and led to dià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â€š ¬erent results, espe ­cially various new phases were found [6, 9, 22, 23]. Ta ­ble II gives an overview over the composition, the pro ­cessing routes to densify the material and the new phases that were discovered. Although Table II shows many dià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â€š ¬erent results, gen ­eral trends due to the addition of La2O3 despite the usage of dià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â€š ¬erent processing routes (hot pressing, spark plasma sintering (SPS)) were observed [6, 22, 23]: †¢ Higher density Higher Vickers Hardness Reduction of grain sizes Besides the use of La2O3 leads to a more homogenized distribution of SiC, because it is always close to it and therefore prevents agglomeration [9]. In the case of fracture toughness there are contradictory statements: Li et al. [22] measured an increased fracture toughness compared to the material without additive and Guo et al. [23] published a lower fracture toughness due to the addition of La2O3. After hot pressing at 1900  °C for 60 min Li et al. [22] dis ­covered the formation of new phases: La2Zr2O7 (melting point: 2295  ± 10  °C [9]) and La2Si2O7 due to the follow ­ing reactions: 2ZrO2(s)+ La2O3(s) → La2Zr2O7(s) (5) 2SiO2(s)+ La2O3(s) → La2Si2O7(s) (6) La2Zr2O7 was also observed by Zapata et al. [6] and Jayaseelan et al. [9] but no other working group detected the formation of La2Si2O7. The addition of 10 wt% La2O3, densià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ ed by SPS and oxidized for 1 h in air at 1600  °C led to the formation of two dià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â€š ¬erent oxidized layers [9]. On the surface a La ­BS-glass formed (Eq. (7)), below it two oxidized layers, one consisting of La2Zr2O7 (Eq. (5)) and the other one of ZrO2. SiO2 + La2O3 → La − BS − glass (7) The large expansion coeà ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã†â€™cient of La2O3 causes à ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ lling of the pores that appear after the evaporation of B2O3 and therefore still protects the bulk material. The same composition and the same processing was used by Guo et al. [23] but they could not detect the new phases. Instead they found out that La2O3 reacts Table II: Overview over the composition (always ZrB2/SiC (20 vol%) + the given amount La2O3), the processing route and the new phases that formed. amount La2O3 processing new phase 5 vol% hot pressing La2Zr2O7 (1900  °C, 60 min) La2Si2O7 3 vol% hot pressing La2O3-SiO2 (1900  °C, 60 min) 10 wt% SPS La2Zr2O7 oxidized (1600  °C, 1 h, air) La-BS-glass 2 wt% SPS La2Zr2O7 oxidized (1400  °C, 16 h, air) La-BS-glass with SiO2 to form La2O3-SiO2 as a protective layer. Further studies were made by Zapata et al. [6] who used less La2O3 (2 wt%). Due to the proximity of the La2O3 particles to the SiC particles they are also included in the BS melt whereby this results in a higher viscosity, a higher thermal stability and in general a better protec ­tion against O2 dià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â€š ¬usion. The oxidation tests show that at 1400  °C the sample with La2O3 has a better oxidation resistance but at 1500  °C and 1600  °C it is worse. The reason is that because of the addition of La2O3 the BS layer has a higher viscos ­ity and therefore the ZrO2 particles cannot precipitate directly to the top of the surface layer. This leads to a more homogeneous mixing with the BS melt. The oxy ­gen dià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â€š ¬usion through ZrO2 is much easier than through B2O3 and therefore a homogeneous distribution of ZrO2 makes it easier for O2 to dià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â€š ¬use through this layer, al ­though the La-BS-glass has a higher viscosity due to the addition of La2O3. Mo reover at 1600  °C ZrOxCy and SiOxCy form with dif ­ferent O/C ratios which were found in the BS melt and in the oxide layer [6]. This can be seen as another pro ­tection layer because when O2 dià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â€š ¬uses into the oxidation layer it will react with ZrOxCy or SiOxCy, so it can be seen as a puà ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â€š ¬er zone and it takes longer until the oxygen reaches the bulk material. HfB2 dià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â€š ¬ers from ZrB2 because the formation of HfO2 is more dià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã†â€™cult [6]. Therefore a smaller amount is formed which leads to a lower amount of B2O3 and therefore a thinner protection layer compared to ZrB2. But it has the advantage that the dià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â€š ¬usion coeà ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã†â€™cient for O2 through HfO2 is smaller. Another problem in the case of HfB2 is that SiC is not as homogeneously distributed as in ZrB2 and it forms large agglomerates. When these agglomerates become oxidized they leave behind a highly porous material where O2 can easily dià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â€š ¬use throug h. This shows that further improvements are inevitable in a more homogeneous distribution, further analysis of the new formed phases must be made and the C/O ratio can Figure 5: Topview (a) and sideview (b) of the surface with the dimensions of the cavities for Gd2O3. oxidation layer was 15  ± 3  µm and formed in accordance with the following reaction equation [9]: 2Gd2O3(s)+2ZrO2(s) → Gd2Zr2O7(s) (8) Gd2O3(s)+ SiO2(s)+ B2O3(l) → Gd − BS − glass (9) The thickness of the layer below it was 160  µm and consisted mainly of porous ZrO2 due to the oxidation and evaporation of the glassy phase. The advantage of Gd-BS-glass compared to BS glass is the higher viscosity and therefore the reduced dià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â€š ¬usion of O2 through this coating. At higher Gd2O3 fractions Gd stops ZrO2 particles at the glassy phase and they cannot dià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â€š ¬use further. This leads to O2 vacancies which is the driving force for inward O2 dià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â€š ¬usion. Using a distance of 20  µm between the cavi ­ties, the Gd2O3 fraction is high enough to get a higher viscosity in the BS melt but ZrO2 can still precipitate so that no O2 inward dià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â€š ¬usion occurs. 3. FRACTURE TOUGHNESS In 2009 the à ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ rst tests were made to include graphite in the ZrB2/SiC matrix [34, 35]. Hu et al. [34] investigated the fraction of additive graphite to ZrB2/SiC (20 vol%). They found out that the addition of graphite led to a 1high dense material with an increasing fracture toughness be optimized. But the addition of La2O3 is already a from 4.5 MPam (ZrB2 + SiC (20 vol%)) to 6.1 MPam1 22 very promising approach for a better oxidation resistance although further research is necessary. 2.2.2. Addition of Gd2O3 For an improved surface and at the same time un ­changed bulk material a new processing method was in ­vented [11]: At à ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ rst the sample was prepared and densi ­Ãƒ ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ ed using the bulk material ZrB2/SiC. Afterwards they used a laser to make equal sized cavities on the surface that were à ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ lled with Gd2O3 nanopowder. The dimen ­sions of the best sample can be seen in Fig. 5. Due to this new processing it was possible to create only a thin protection layer that consisted of BS mixed with Gd2O3 ( Eq. (9)). After 1 h in air under 1600  °C the thickness of the outer (ZrB2 + SiC (20 vol% + graphite)). The dià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â€š ¬erences be ­tween 10 vol% and 15 vol% graphite were negligible small. Moreover there were investigations about the inà ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uence of the diameter size of the graphite à ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡akes [36]. They found out that in the range of micrometres the diameter size does not change the fracture toughness. Asl et al. [14] used soft graphite nano-à ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡akes. They found out that ZrB2 + SiC (20 vol%) + graphite (10 vol%) showed a higher density than the samples without graphite. Furthermore the addition of graphite led to a decrease in grain size from 6.9  µm to 3.2  µm. The reason is the homogeneous distribution of graphite which stopped grain growth. Because of the reactions of graphite with the surface impurities the addition of graphite results in higher dense samples: ZrO2(s)+ B2O3(l)+5C(s) → ZrB2(s)+5CO(g) (10) The particles that form due to this reactions can à ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ ll the pores in the ZrB2/SiC matrix and therefore lead to a higher density. The resulting fracture toughness can be seen in Fig. 6. An increase in fracture toughness due to the addition of graphite is obvious. The following mechanisms led in this case to a higher fracture toughness: nano-à ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡akes pull-out, crack bridging, branching and deà ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡ection. 1 Figure 6: Fracture toughness depending on the composition of the sample at RT [14]. Wang et al. [37] investigated the dependency of the fracture toughness of ZrB2 + SiC (20 vol%) + 1 graphite (15 vol%) on the temperature in vacuum and in air (Fig. 7). Over the whole temperature range the fracture toughness in air was higher than that in vac ­uum. In vacuum the fracture toughness decreases from This oxidation layer densià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ es with higher tempera ­ture and yields in higher fracture toughnesses than with ­out this layer. That is the reason why there is nearly no decrease in fracture toughness between 1200  °C and 1300  °C. Moreover crack deà ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡ection which absorbs the energy leads to higher fracture toughnesses at higher temperature. These mechanisms all result in a slower decrease in frac ­ture toughness in air than in vacuum. Figure 7: Fracture toughness depending on the environment and on the temperature [37]. 4. CONCLUSION The recent developments to improve the oxidation re ­sistance and the fracture toughness based mainly on the addition of a third component (La2O3, Gd2O3 or graphite). Concerning the oxidation resistance, the best matrix composition is ZrB2/SiC (20 vol%) because it shows the best oxidation protection over the whole range of O2 partial pressure. Above 1800  °C active oxidation of SiC begins and oxidation resistance is not given anymore. at 1300  °C because The approaches for a better oxidation resistance at higher ual thermal stresses between the ZrB2/SiC matrix and temperatures due to the addition of La2O3 or Gd2O3 arethe graphite inclusions are released. The residual stresses very promising, but more research to understand the real acted at low temperature as toughening mechanism and function of the additives and the interaction with the ma ­with the release of these stresses the fracture toughness trix is necessary. Furthermore there are many parameecreases. At 1300  °C the group observed a brittle to ductile trans ­formation which leads to a slight increase of fracture toughness. But afterwards the fracture toughness de ­creases further due to the distorted graphite and the larger ZrB2 grain sizes. In air at higher temperature the material starts to ox ­idize and a oxidation layer forms on the surface due to ters that have to be optimized, e.g the amount of ad ­ditive, the processing route and especially the analytical approaches. Due to the varying experimental parameters and insuà ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã†â€™cient analytical tests it is dià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã†â€™cult to compare results. To solve this problems standard tests have to be introduced and a wider temperature range for oxidation has to be investigated. The fracture toughness increased due to the addition of Eq. (1), (2) and the following reaction: graphite from 4.5 MPam to 7.1 MPam creases, but also this is slowed down due to the graphite tives, because extensive testing of the dià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â€š ¬erent samples à ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡akes. is missing. Especially tests under real atmospheric and Taken into account the oxidation resistance and the frac-re-entry conditions are important but not done yet. ture toughness it is dià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã†â€™cult to announce the best addi ­

German Expressionism Essay -- Essays Papers

German Expressionism German Expressionism is a kind of art that is supposed to make you feel something. When you look at a painting such as â€Å"The Scream† by Edvard Munch (1863-1944), you ask yourself what kind of emotions does this painting give you. A group of early 20th century German artists used the term â€Å"expressionism† to desribe the way they produced art. The title later turned into â€Å"German Expressionism†. This art movement was prominent during 1905-1925. In German it is known as â€Å"Die Brucke† and â€Å"Der Blaue Reiter†. Unlike Impressionism, its goals were not to reproduce the impression by the surrounding world, but to express the artists feelings on the surrounding world. Expressionism comes from the route word â€Å"expression† which means to make known or reveal or show. The text b...

Shakespeares Macbeth - Lady Macbeth Far Worse than Macbeth :: GCSE English Literature Coursework

Lady Macbeth Far Worse than Macbeth      Lady Macbeth is depicted as being much worse than her husband in Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth. Although they both think of murdering King Duncan as soon as they hear the witches' prophecies, Macbeth thinks more about what he may or may not do, whereas Lady Macbeth immediately appeals to evil spirits to give her the strength to kill Duncan. When Macbeth first hears the prophecies, and when the prophecies begin to be fulfilled, he does think of killing the king, but also, towards the end of Act 1, Scene 3, he thinks that perhaps he doesn't need to do anything to become the king : "If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me without my stir." On the other hand, Lady Macbeth, on receiving the letter telling her about the witches' prophecies, she immediately thinks that she and Macbeth will have to kill king Duncan. She also decides that Macbeth is too nice to kill the king, sayin that he "is too ful o' the milk of human kindness" and when she hears the Duncan will visit their castle that night, she immediately appeals to the evil spirits, to (ironically) give her the strength to kill the king. In Act 1, Scene 7,   Macbeth is doubtfull of Lady Macbeth's plot to kill the king. He doesn't think that he will be able to live with the guilt of killing his king while he is staying under his very roof, and then decides that he will not kill the king. This shows that Macbeth is thinking about what he is going to do, and shows that he does feel guilt and is weighing up the situation, unlike Lady Macbeth who never thinks twice about killing the king. When Lady Macbeth notices that Macbeth has left the room, she goes to speak to him. Macbeth firmly tells her that they will not kill the king : "we will proceed no further in this business".   Lady Macbeth, however, tells him that his love is worth nothing if he refuses to go through with the plan, saying that his love is as accountable as his indecisiveness. Macbeth wants his wife to love him and wants her to trust him, so he agrees to go through with their plan. The way Macbeth questions and thinks about killing the king shows that he knows that killing the king is wrong and that he will feel guilty if he does so.

As people rely more and more on technology to solve

Most of the Jobs that we have today were not known to our forefathers as early as the beginning of 20th century and they had this same equation with their forefathers going back another hundred years. What drives this changes ? And more Importantly what Impact does this evolution have on our lives ? The first question Is simple, It's caused by the advent of a new technology, which phases out some Jobs whilst creating new ones going ahead, As for the latter question, let's take a deeper look at this process of evolving technology and hen conclude It's impact on our lives.By the middle of 19th century Industrial Revolution had transformed the face of USA. Assembly line production, network of railroads, industrial farming methodologies, these were changing the way people did their work, gone were the days of farmers toiling under the sun to plough their fields, mechanized farm equipments took away that pain and the same farm that took tens of people to plough could now be done by lust o ne person trained to operate these new machines. This person had orientations from manual labor to more skilled work that utilized his cognitive abilities.The other farmers that got laid off too got to work in newer roles which supplemented the advent of these machines, factory workers, mechanics and such. These were all jobs that were more mentally taxing than physically making these former laborers a part of the new skilled workforce. Advances in computing and robotics brought about a similar shift in our lives around the middle of 20th century. We built smarter automated machines that allowed us to lid taller buildings and longer bridges and even space station, conduct medical procedures such as Mrs. and heart surgeries.The proliferation of Internet has created new avenues for learning and enabled us to spread education to the farthest corners of the world. In effect technology made our lives longer and more fruitful. In the 21 SST century we have ever Increased our reliance on t echnology to enable several aspects of our daily lives and supplement our efforts to solve ever bigger problems. The next big shift In our lives might be defined by quantum computing, emetic engineering, deep space exploration or something else but we shouldn't be skeptical about the coming change.Today when we stand at the brink of another technological revolution, we should look back and realize how each age of humanity was defined by their technology and how central it has been to the evolution and betterment of our society. Fallacy. While there are several aspects of our daily lives that have become automated, the one thing that machines haven't taken away from us is the ability to think What next? ‘, that is strictly the domain of the human mind.

Google in China Essay

Google is the fastest growing Internet search engine company. Google’s mission is â€Å"to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.†(International Business: Competing in the Global marketplace, pg 148-149) They have a mantra of â€Å"Don’t be Evil.† Google started this mantra to be the main message to show consumers they would not compromise the integrity of its search results. This case reviews the situation under which Google was required to censor its content and chose to launch its new search engine site. The case explains the role of the Chinese government and its regulations in the Internet market which had a negative effect on Google’s operations in China. In 2000, Google started a Chinese language service. This service was operated from the United States. Chinese authorities blocked the site in 2002 because China censors information to their citizens. This block surprised Google’s managers . This was a challenge the managers did not plan on. If they done their research of the Chinese Government and culture prior to launching the Chinese language service, they would have known the block would be inevitable and they could have tailored their service to the Chinese regulations, culture, and laws. Google knew China was an advantageous business and they would need to adapt their service in order for it to be acceptable and profitable. Google also had to move the Chinese operations to China. Operating from the United States caused slow connection speed and hinder their operation and growth. This was a good move because it enabled Google to employee Chinese citizens who would be able to help understand and adapt to the Chinese laws, regulations, and censorship demands. Google managers made a mistake by not researching their target market. However, they acted quickly in learning and correcting this mistake. Google still offered Chinese citizens a better search engine, but it was not without censorship. The Google search engine offers more results than its competitors, Yahoo, Microsoft’s MSN, and China’s own company, Baidu. Google states Chinese consumers will â€Å"get more information on their site, though not quite all of it.† (International Business: Competing in the Global marketplace, pg 148-149) In 2006, Google had 30 percent share of China’s internet search engines. Baidu had 40 percent. This left another 30 percent split between Yahoo and Microsoft’s MSN search engines. These percentages are good, especially when one considers Yahoo and Microsoft had entered the Chinese search engine market prior to Google. Baidu has several advantages over Google that are mostly associated with it being a Chinese based company, the search engine has â€Å"competence in pinpointing queries in the Chinese language† (Yin & Yulin, 2010, p. 4). Government relations with China are precarious for businesses effectiveness. Google did not have a clear understanding of what they would be involved in. China has become more supported and self-assured due to its increasing economic significance. They are more reluctant to be pressed by Western governments or companies into changing its long term regulations and censorship. Because of this aspect, China does not yet comprehend global strategies and the importance of global public relations. This causes them to be more rigid in their international business dealings. All-in-all, Google has been able to grow successfully in the Chinese search engine market and maintain the number two spot (behind Baidu) in China despite their lack of early research on the Chinese culture, governmental regulations, and laws. References International Business. Competing in the Global Marketplace, Seventh Edition, Chapter 3: Differences in Culture ISBN: 9780073381343 Author: Charles W. L. Hill copyright  © 2009 McGraw-Hill, a business unit of the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Is playing Sports a Good Hobby ?

Sport is identified as a physical activity carried out by human beings usually executed by following a set of rules and principles to ensure fair competition among the candidates. Playing sports and indulging in physical activities aids in confirming various health benefits including comfortable respiration, muscular development, bone strength, advanced life expectancy, and coronary fitness. Playing sports helps in safeguarding the body and prevents it from contracting various types of diseases like cancer.Also, it assists in controlling unnecessary weight gain and depression by diverting the mind in a positive direction. Some of the affirmative effects of playing sports have been discussed below. It is a known fact that regaling in any kind of physical activity leads to a healthy workout and consequently promotes weight loss. Sports acts as a catalyst for the metabolic processes and resultantly increases lean body mass, burns calories and aids in attaining perfect body shape.There i s a lot of variation in the amount of suggested physical work. It is mainly due to the variation in the shape/size of the body of different individuals and amount of calorie input, nonetheless it is remedial for people who are obese. As enumerated by the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, Weight stability can be obtained if 2-5 hours are invested in playing averagely demanding sports. Playing high intensity sport is extremely significant for people who wish to reduce their weight adequately.It is advised by physicians that people of all age groups must undertake any kind of physical activity or sport as it in helps in cultivating a healthy heart and mind. As delineated by the British Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, about 40 percent of deaths related to coronary heart disease take place due to insufficient physical work, overweight, mental stress and increased blood pressure. Sports can help in dealing with these physical ailments by reducing the contingen cy of coronary disease by almost 50 percent.Decrease in the strength of muscles, bones and joints, is an inevitable corollary of growing old. Aged people are advised to go for regular walks and practice numerous physical exercises so that their body parts are in healthy and working condition. Thus, it can be concluded that playing sports is very significant for people of all age groups and must be taken up seriously in order to maintain a healthy body.

Narrative Technique of Sula Essay

Although Sula is arranged in chronological order, it does not construct a linear story with the causes of each new plot event clearly visible in the preceding chapter. Instead, Sula uses â€Å"juxtaposition,† the technique through which collages are put together. The effects of a collage on the viewer depend on unusual combinations of pictures, or on unusual arrangements such as overlapping. The pictures of a collage don’t fit smoothly together, yet they create a unified effect. The â€Å"pictures† of Sula’s collage are separate events or character sketches. Together, they show the friendship of Nel and Sula as part of the many complicated, overlapping relationships that make up the Bottom. Morrison presents the novel from the perspective of an omniscient narrator — one who knows all the characters’ thoughts and feelings. An omniscient narrator usually puts the reader in the position of someone viewing a conventional portrait or landscape rather than a collage. (In such situations, the viewer can perceive the unity of the whole work with only a glance.) To create the collage-like effect of Sula, the omniscient narrator never reveals the thoughts of all the characters at one time. Instead, from chapter to chapter, she chooses a different point-of-view character, so that a different person’s consciousness and experience dominate a particular incident or section. In addition, the narrator sometimes moves beyond the consciousness of single, individual characters, to reveal what groups in the community think and feel. On the rare occasions when it agrees unanimously, she presents the united community’s view. As in The Bluest Eye and Jazz, the comm unity has such a direct impact on individuals that it amounts to a character. In narrative technique for Sula, Morrison draws on a specifically modernist usage of juxtaposition. Modernism, discussed in Chapter 3, was the dominant literary movement during the first half of the twentieth century. Writers of this period abandoned the unifying, omniscient narrator of earlier literature to make literature more like life, in which each of us has to make our own sense of the world. Rather than passively receiving a smooth, connected story from an authoritative narrator, the reader is forced to piece together a coherent plot and meaning from more separated pieces of  information. Modernists experimented with many literary genres. For example, T. S. Eliot created his influential poem The Wasteland by juxtaposing quotations from other literary works and songs, interspersed with fragmentary narratives of original stories. Fiction uses an analogous technique of juxtaposition. Each successive chapter of William Faulkner novel As I Lay Dying, for instance, drops the reader into a different character’s consciousness without the direction or help of an omniscient narrator. To figure out the plot, the reader must work through the perceptions of characters who range from a seven-year-old boy to a madman. The abrupt, disturbing shifts from one consciousness to another are an intended part of the reader’s experience. As with all literary techniques, juxtaposition is used to communicate particular themes. In Cane, a work that defies our usual definitions of literary genres, Jean Toomer juxtaposed poetry and brief prose sketches. In this way, Cane establishes its thematic contrast of rural black culture in the South and urban black culture of the North. Morrison, who wrote her master’s thesis on two modernists, Faulkner and Virginia Woolf, uses juxtaposition as a structuring device in Sula. Though relatively short for a novel, Sula has an unusually large number of chapters, eleven. This division into small pieces creates an intended choppiness, the uncomfortable sense of frequently stopping and starting. The content of the chapters accentuates this choppy rhythm. Almost every chapter shifts the focus from the story of the preceding chapter by changing the point-of-view character or introducing sudden, shocking events and delaying discussion of the characters’ motives until later. In â€Å"1921,† for example, Eva douses her son Plum with kerosene and burns him to death. Although the reader knows that Plum has become a heroin addict, Eva’s reasoning is not revealed. When Hannah, naturally assuming that Eva doesn’t know of Plum’s danger, tells her that Plum is burning, the chapter ends with Eva’s almost nonchalant â€Å"Is? My baby? Burning?† (48). Not until midway through the next chapter, â€Å"1923,† does Hannah’s questioning allow the reader to understand Eva’s motivation. Juxtaposition thus heightens the reader’s sense of incompleteness. Instead of providing quick resolution, juxtaposition  introduces new and equally disturbing events. Paradoxically, when an occasional chapter does contain a single story apparently complete in itself, it too contributes to the novel’s overall choppy rhythm. In a novel using a simple, chronological mode of narration, each succeeding chapter would pick up where the last one left off, with the main characters now involved in a different incident, but in some clear way affected by their previous experience. In Sula, however, some characters figure prominently in one chapter and then fade entirely into the background. The first chapter centers on Shadrack, and although he appears twice more and has considerable psychic importance to Sula and symbolic importance to the novel, he is not an important actor again. In similar fashion, Helene Wright is the controlling presence of the third chapter, â€Å"1920,† but barely appears in the rest of the book. These shifts are more unsettling than if Shadrack and Helene were ancestors of the other characters, generations removed, because the reader would then expect them to disappear. Their initial prominence and later shadowy presence contribute to the reader’s feeling of disruption. The choppy narration of Sula expresses one of its major themes, the fragmentation of both individuals and the community. Sula. New York: Knopf, 1973. Rpt. New York: Penguin, 1982