Physical Security Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Physical Security - Essay Example This essay stresses that there is a possibility that during the opening ceremony a certain country’s athlete may get attacked by a terrorist group. It may also happen that the opening ceremony may get sabotaged altogether by a terrorist or militia group so as to defame the pride of the host country. In any of these cases, it becomes very important to understand the fact that security breaches are possible and consequently, security needs to be tightened. This paper makes a conclusion that equally important is upholding the security during the medal distribution ceremony all for the same reasons which have been mentioned above. Again, it might happen that to hamper the national pride of the host nation or the participating nation one may try to attack the winning team/sportsperson during the medal-distribution ceremony. Also, it may happen that a winning participant or sportsperson maybe a terrorist supporter or a terrorist itself in guise. The security assessment of the nearby hospital or medical center is also very significant and critical to the overall security process. Hospitals are locations of maximum vulnerability if compared to other locations which are part of the entire event. There is a possibility that a minor disaster may lead to the hospitalization of some people (sportsters/spectators/organizers) and a major disaster can be planned to be executed in the hospital because it provides a good vantage point to the perpetrat ors of the security breach.

Research Question, Literature Review and Sample Essay

Research Question, Literature Review and Sample - Essay Example has been a number of reports and incidents that have been filed in the past where elders have been victims of crime and which have moved on to create a fear within them. The paper will provide a detailed literature review of the topic and will include statistical data and information that is available that pertain this topic. The literature review that has been discussed is a combination of the literature and theories that have been presented in the past along with the recent statistics that are available on the topic. This will be followed by the research questions and research hypothesis which form an essential part of the research. With age come a number of issues like the physical vulnerability and also lowered income which in turn leads to a high level of fear of crime. Various researches have been conducted in the past however no single definition has been developed for ‘fear of crime’. There have been a number of debates on the best and most effective way to measure crime. Elchardus, De Groof and Smits (2003), argue that although not much literature is available in terms of the fear of crime, however there are two main patterns that have been followed. These include, a rationalistic view and the other is a symbolic view. Donder, et.al explain, â€Å"The rationalistic paradigm interprets fear as a consequence of risk and vulnerability with regard to crime and victimization. The symbolic paradigm interprets fear of crime as a consequence of more general feelings of vulnerability and dissatisfaction that become feelings of being threatened of crime and victimization† (Donder, Verte, & Mess elis, 2005). Over the years authors like Baumer and Skogan and Maxfield have divided the factors into three main fields. These include: It is evident that the above factors play a major role on the fear of crimes and leads to a number of issues among people across the world. The next sub section will deal with the relationship of elders and fear of crime. A number of

Solid Lipid Nanoparticles of Clobetasol for Psoriasis

Solid Lipid Nanoparticles of Clobetasol for Psoriasis Formulation and Evaluation of Solid Lipid Nanoparticles of Clobetasol for Topical Treatment of Psoriasis CHAPTER 4 Methodology 4. METHODOLOGY MATERIALS USED: Table 5: LIST OF CHEMICALS USED WITH SUPPLIERS Table 6: LIST OF EUIPMENTS USED WITH SUPPLIERS Physicochemical study on the drug: Melting point determination Melting point is the temperature at which the pure liquid and solid exist in equilibrium. In practice it is taken as equilibrium mixture at an external pressure of 1 atmosphere; this is sometimes known as normal melting point. The Thiel’s tube method of melting point determination liquid paraffin was used in present study. UV spectrum UV scanning was done for pure drug from 200-400 nm in the dilution medium of methanol and in the dilution medium of phosphate buffer pH 7.4 Standard calibration curves of Clobetasol: Reagents Methanol Phosphate Buffer pH 7.4 114,115 Medium- Methanol  116 50 mg accurately weighed CP was dissolved in the methanol and volume was made up to 50ml with methanol [Stock 1]. From stock 1, different dilutions were prepared in the concentration range of 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 µ g/ml using methanol as dilution medium. The absorbance of these solutions was measured against blank as methanol in UV spectrophotometer at 240 nm. Medium- Phosphate buffer pH 7.4 solution 50 mg accurately weighed CP was dissolved in the methanol and volume was made up to 100ml with methanol [Stock 1]. From stock 1, different dilutions were prepared in the concentration range of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 µ g/ml using Phosphate buffer pH 7.4 solution. The absorbance of these solutions was measured against Phosphate buffer pH 7.4 solution as blank in UV spectrophotometer at 239 nm. Compatibility studies of drug and polymers: FTIR spectra of pure clobetasol, physical mixtures, and SLN formulations are carried out to determine if there was any interaction between the drug and the other formulation components117. Since IR is related to covalent bonds, the spectra can provide detailed information about the structure of molecular compounds. In order to establish this  point, comparisons were made between the spectrum of the substances and pure compound. The Preformulation study was carried out prior to the development of the dosage forms. The compatibility of the drug and the excipients used were determined by IR spectrometer Shimadzu 8400 series. The spectra of formulations were compared with that of pure drug in order to ascertain for any possible interaction between polymer and drug. Preliminary studies: Initially, SLN was prepared by solvent injection method by using clobetasol (drug), carnauba wax and beeswax as lipid phase, cetyl alcohol and lecithin soya as surfactants. Tween 20 as co surfactant phase and finally distilled water to make up the volume. Where in this method, both liquid phase and lipid phase were heated to 70-75oC. When lipid phase was heated to desired temperature drug was dispersed in it and added to aqueous phase under the magnetic stirrer for 30mins. The lipid phase is added in to aquoes phase by drop wise using syringe. Thus SLNs were formed due to rapid crystallization of oil droplets and precipitation. This respective formulation design is shown in table 7. But the formed SLN was not dried and unstable. Therefore lipid extrusion method was used to prepare various formulations with different concentrations of lipid in an effort to optimize the formulations for the particle size ranging in nano scale. Table 7: Formulation design for solvent injection method The lipid extrusion method was adopted to prepare SLN. At 25mg of CP is kept constant in all formulation. Initially, the drug with different lipids tried with different concentration constant speed. The SLN were evaluated for particle size. The composition of formulation is shown in table. Formulation design:11,17,18 Procedure for preparation of SLN by lipid extrusion technique: Lipid extrusion is carried out at temperatures above the melting point of the lipid and is similar to the homogenization of an emulsion. A pre-emulsion of the drug loaded lipid melt and the aqueous emulsifier phase (same temperature) is obtained by high-shear mixing device (like Polytron PT 1600E homogenizer). High pressure homogenization of the pre-emulsion is done above the lipid melting point. Usually, lower particle sizes are obtained at higher processing temperatures because of lowered viscosity of the lipid phase. Fig 11: Schematic representation of SLN preparation by lipid extrusion Table 8: Formulation design for lipid extrusion method Table 9: Formulation design with stirring speed and duration of rotation using Polytron pt 1600E for Formulation F EVALUTION OF SLN: Physical Evaluations: Visual appearance pH: The pH of SLN formulations were measured using pH paper. Rheological studies Rheological properties (study of deformation and flow of matter) are required in various pharmaceutical areas. It helps to monitor the effect of vehicles consistency on release of drug from the preparations and subsequent percutaneous absorption. Also it is important from the manufacturing point of view. Viscosity measurements were carried out using a Brookfield viscometer (T – bar spindle). The formulation of SLN was kept in 100ml beaker and dial readings was noted at 3, 5, 6, 10, 12, 20, 30, 50 and 60 rpm. The speed was then successively lowered and the corresponding dial readings were noted. Particle Size Analysis118: The particle size should be less than 1000 nm in nanoparticles. It can be analyzed by using Malvern particle size analyzer. Particles in the size range of colloids display constant random thermal motion which is known as Brownian motion. This motion causes the intensity of light scattered by the particles to vary with time. The larger the particle slower their motion and hence the smaller the variation in intensity of light scattered. Photon correlation spectroscopy uses the rate of change in the intensity to determine the size distribution of particles. The zetasizer has a correlator with 64 channels. Each of this channel measures changes in light fluctuation over a defined time span. The time span is known as the sample time or delay time the correlator measures the light intensity by counting photons. For a very short time period the changes in light intensities will be very small as the particles had very little time to move. The position of the particles can be statistically defined as being highly correlated, Contrast to this with a long sample time, particles will have moved randomly from their initial positions. Therefore the particles can be described statistically as not being correlated. Zeta potential measurement Zeta potential of the SLNs were measured by malveren zetasizer. The zetasizer mainly consist of laser which is used to provide a light source to illuminate the particles within the sample. For zetapotential measurements this light splits to provide an incident and reference beam. The incident laser beam passes through the centre of the sample cell, and the scattered light at an angle of about 130 is detected. when an electric field is applied to the cell, any particles moving through the measurement volume will cause the intensity of light detected to fluctuate with a frequency proportional to the particle speed and this information is passed to the digital signal possessor and then to a computer. Zetasizer software produces a frequency spectrum from which the electrophoretic mobility hence the zeta potential  is calculated. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM): Surface morphology of the specimen will be determined by using a scanning electron microscope. Procedure: The samples are dried thoroughly in vaccum desicator before mounting on brass specimen studies, using double sided adhesive tape. Gold-palladium alloy of 120 °A Knees was coated on the sample sputter coating unit (Model E5 100 Polaron U.K) in Argon at ambient of 8-10 with plasma voltage about 20mA. The sputtering was done for nearly 5 minutes to obtain uniform coating on the sample to enable good quality SEM images. The SEM was operated at low accelerating voltage of about 15KV with load current about 80mA.The condenser lens position was maintained betwee 4.4-5.1. The objective lens aperture has a diameter of 240 microns and working distance WD=39mm. Drug content119: The drug equivalent to 10 mg of formulation was taken and dissolved in small quantity of methanol. Then the formulation is warmed on the water bath so that the drug present in the formulation was completely dissolved. Then the solution was filtered through Whattman filter paper in 25 ml. volumetric flask and volume was made up to the mark by methanol to give concentration of 1000 ÃŽ ¼g/ml. for Clobetasol. Then 1 ml. was pipetted out in 100 ml. volumetric flask to give concentration of 10ÃŽ ¼g/ml and then absorbance was measured at 240 nm. In-vitro release studies114,115,120: In Franz diffusion cell, 6 gm. of sample was kept in donor compartment. The entire surface of cellophane membrane was in contact with the receptor compartment containing 50 ml of phosphate buffer pH 7.4. The receptor compartment was continuously stirred using the magnetic stirrer. The temperature was maintained 35 °C. The study was carried out for 24 hrs and the sample was withdrawn at 30 minute time interval and same volume was replaced with free phosphate buffer. The content of clobetasol from withdrawn sample was measured after suitable dilution. Stability studies: Whenever a new formulation is developed, it is very essential to establish that the therapeutic activity of the drug has not undergone any change. To conform this, the selected formulations were subjected to stability studies. Generally, the observation of the rate at which the product degrades under normal room temperature requires long time. To avoid this undesirable delay, the principles of the accelerated stability studies are adopted. The International Conference of Harmonization guidelines titled â€Å"stability testing for drug substance and product† describes the stability tests requirements for drug registration applications in the European Union, Japan and United States of America. Table 10: International climatic zones and climatic conditions Table 11: General stability testing consideration Study

Physics of Paper Airplanes :: Physics Science Planes Plane Airplane

Paper Airplanes, flight at its simplest for humans. As kids, we learned how to build paper airplanes and send them soaring into the sky. We didn't stop to think about why the airplanes where able to fly after the initial thrust we gave them or how they were able to glide for so long afterwards. Ignorance was bliss then, but now we strive to understand how things work. Looking back to the childhood past time of flying paper airplanes, I will try to explain some of the parts that make paper airplanes fly. First off, it should be stated that there are many different designs of paper airplanes and that different designs could affect the physics applied to it. If one paper airplane used a second set of wings or had a tail like a real airplane, those items would have more physics applied to them like extra drag. Up, Up and Away! So your paper airplane takes to the air and glides gentely to the ground but you still don't understand how it is able to glide. Your paper airplane uses lift to carry it through the air and to its landing area. Now you are interested and want to know how lift works. The lift for your paper airplane doesn't work quite the same as a real airplane but understanding how an airplane maintains lift is useful. Now something important to remember is that lift can only happen when in the pressense of a moving fluid and that air has fluid properties. The basic concepts of lift for an airplane is seen. The air that is flowing splits to move around a wing. The air that that moves over the wing speeds up creating lower pressure which means that the higher pressure from the air moving slower under the wing pushes up trying to equalize the pressure. The lift generated can be affected by the angle at which the wing is moving into the flowing air. The more surface area of the wing resisting against the flow of air can either generate lift or make the plane dive. This can be easily simulated in everday life. Next time you are riding in a car with someone stick your hand out the window. Have your fingers pointing in the direction of the motion of the vehicle. Now move your hand up and down slightly. You can feel the lift and drag that your hand creates.

Spending and Investing Practices

Introduction How come some people make lots of money, others basically maintain the status quo, and many are awash in debt? What makes the difference? Spending habits – the difference between needs, wants, and self-indulgence. Investing practices –how time and compound interest can create a fortune. Spending without planning is seeking instant self-gratification NOW. Over-spending creates a bondage that limits opportunities. We all have dreams, priorities, fears, and limited time. In large part these are the key factors that influence what we do with our money. After all, the money we have at the moment is limited.The key questions are: What are the things that are important to you now, five years from now, in 25 years, etc. How much money do you have at the moment that is beyond the basics? What are your best investment choices based upon your age and the time available? Financial Planning Definition The process of: managing your money and resources to achieve economic and personal satisfaction. The Financial Planning Process. Determining your current financial situation. What is your income, expenses, and debt? Developing your financial goals. What are your future plans for housing, transportation, medical, marriage, retirement, etc.Identifying courses of action. Evaluating each course of action. Every decision closes off other alternatives. Creating and implementing your financial action plan. Write it down. Continually review your plan and revise as necessary. Selecting Financial Goals Should contain time goals Short term goals of a week, month, six months, a year or two years. Medium term goals that may be achieved within five years. Long term goals such financing college for children, retirement plans, Should contain need goals Consumable product goals: food, clothing, entertainment, etc. Durable product goals: cars, furniture, appliances, sporting equipment, etc.Intangible purchase goals: health, education, leisure, relationships, etc. Goal -setting Guidelines Financial goals should be realistic. State in specific measurable terms Should have a time frame Should indicate the type of action to be taken. Influences on Financial Planning Stage of adult life cycle: young single, married, married with children, single parent, older 50+. Marital status, household size, and employment. Personal values and major events such as graduation, marriage, children, retirement, etc. Local and global economic conditions such as: consumer prices related to inflation. interest rates for borrowing money. oney supply printed by government. unemployment related to job availability. Investing In The Stock Market Investing started when someone had an idea that possibly would make money but didn’t have the financing to develop it. So he sought money from others who were willing to risk their cash in exchange for a share of the potential profits. When the idea proved profitable and looked as if it would generate an income for an extended period of time, outsiders would try to buy shares in the company by offering cash to the original owners. If several people start bidding for shares and the share owners were willing to sell, the price increased.What Is Bought & Sold in the Stock Market Stocks are shares of ownership in a company. Shareholders may benefit from company profits and a rising stock price. They may also lose their shirt if the company loses money and stock prices fall. Note, ‘Penny’ stocks that are low priced tend to be highly speculative with few buyers and sellers and high risk. Below are some well-known stocks. Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) hold a diversified portfolio of stocks and/or securities that are minimally managed. ETFs have the following advantages: ETFs are safer than stocks because an ETF is a basket of securities.With multiple securities, you aren’t subject to the wide array of risk including corporate scandals, after market earning reports, and other factors that affe ct individual stocks. ETFs may be traded during market hours. ETFs allow the use of limit orders and STOP-loss orders. ETFs have no penalties for early withdrawal and are ‘no-load’ (although usual broker fees apply). ETFs are passively managed so their expenses tend to be lower than comparable mutual funds. ETFs holdings are very apparent and portfolio changes are relatively infrequent. Options are available on some ETFs . Index Funds: securities that represent entire sectors:S&P 500 Index (SPY)| Dow Jones Industrial (DIA)| NASDAQ 100 (QQQQ)| Russell 2000 Fund (IWM). | Options are purchasable and sellable contracts that guarantee rights, but not necessarily obligations to buy or sell a security for an agreed upon price within a certain time period. Mutual funds: pooled money managed by professional money managers who charge for their services. Mutual funds are only traded after the market closes each day. Mutual funds cannot be protected from falling prices during the d ay. If the market is crashing, a sell order to get out is initiated only after the market has closed.No-Load Mutual Funds: no fees charged for buying or selling. On an average these tend to be more profitable than loaded funds. Loaded Mutual Funds: an upfront fee or exit fee is charged to enter or cash out a fund. Bonds: loans made to a company or government with a guaranteed return if bankruptcy doesn't occur. Often bonds are sold to raise cash to expand the business. Commodities: raw materials such as sugar, wheat, pork bellies, metals, etc. During economic expansion commodity prices generally rise due to increasing demand. During a recession or deflationary times the opposite is true except in the case of precious metals.Sometimes when people lose faith in their paper money they purchase gold or silver as insurance against devaluation of the dollar. Currencies: paper money that people believe has value. As the amount of paper money increases, the value of the paper money decrease s. With more paper money chasing goods, the rate of inflation rises (gas used to be 23 cents a gallon). REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts): publicly traded companies that own and manage investment-grade commercial real estate. REITs invest in office buildings, malls, industrial facilities, hotels, resorts, health care facilities, and self-storage.REITs provide a simple and inexpensive way to invest in commercial real estate without buying property directly. However, they are not very liquid. REITs provide a fairly reliable source of income. At least 90 percent of taxable income must be distributed annually to shareholders. Financial Participants Banks and Credit Unions typically manage accounts and provide services including checking, savings, loans, credit and debit cards, notary services, safe deposit boxes, etc. Brokerage Firms typically manage all types of trades (stocks, mutual funds, ETFs, etc. ) for a fee.Some are full service, providing advice and charging for their servi ces. Others are discount brokers that handle transactions for a minimal charge. Broker: a licensed professional who advises people about investments for a fee and may work for a brokerage firm. Stock and Commodity Markets are exchanges where stocks, options, securities, indexes, currencies, commodities, etc. are traded. Market Maker: a professional securities dealer who buys and sells stocks or commodities held in inventory and must ALWAYS provide a bid and ask price at which they will buy or sell something.Investors (speculators) are individuals who usually hold longer-term investments. Traders (scalpers) are individuals who usually trade quickly looking for quick profits. Momentum investors track prices and volume data to identify stocks trending higher. Market Timers try to time their investing so they’re buying at market troughs and selling at peaks. Growth Investors target stocks of companies that produce, and should continue producing, above-average earnings growth. Val ue Investors shop for bargains, hoping to buy low, as the cliche goes, and sell high.There are four market trends. Down trending markets in which security prices are falling. People typically do not know how to trade this market. Yet trading a down trending market is usually the most profitable. Security prices fall faster than they rise, typically taking 5 years to reach a high versus 3 months to lose most of the gain. High volatility markets in which security prices swing wildly from one extreme to the other. Day traders and professional traders are very active in this scenario. Up-trending markets in which security prices are rising.Most people invest in an up-trending market because of their optimistic outlook. This market ranks third in trading profitability. Sideways trending markets in which security prices trade within a fairly tight range with little fluctuation. It is important to note that . . . Money can be made or lost no matter the market direction Protecting Trades Wi th Stops Frequently novice traders fail to protect profits and lose money even though a security has bounced in and out of profitability several times. The use of a STOP is one way to protect an account.A STOP is a chosen price in which a trader wants to sell a security to prevent a further price decline. There are four kinds of STOPS. Automatic Hard STOP. This STOP is set immediately after the initial purchase and is not changed until it is deleted or adjusted. Market makers may see hard STOPS and often knock them out during trading by dropping the price suddenly and then raising the price shortly thereafter. Trailing STOP — a favorite. As the price of a stock rises, this STOP correspondingly rises. A Trailing STOP allows a winning stock to run while protecting against a loss if the price drops.Mental STOP. This STOP is written down but not placed with the brokerage firm because full-time traders may not want to be inadvertently stopped out of a trade due to a momentary larg e price swing. STOP Limit. A ‘Limit Order’ is an order to buy or sell at a specific price or better and is only ACTIVATED when the desired price is hit. Searching For investments Determine market trends. What are the current market trends with the Dow, S;P 500, etc. Select high-ranking industry in which money is flowing into it. Studies have shown industry ranking is responsible for at least 50% of a stock price movement.Scan For Higher Volume. Look for securities that trade more than 750,000 shares daily. A stock needs to be liquid; meaning that there are plenty of buyers when it is time to sell. Search For Top Contenders. The companies should be profitable, with low or no debt. Trading Volume Drives Trends When there is a dramatic change in the volume being traded daily compared to its average daily volume, PAY ATTENTION! Typically this means professional money managers are either buying or selling a security. Like a garage sale, when there are a lot of buyers, prices tend to stay put or rise.If there is an abundance of sellers, prices typically fall. Rising prices with high volume mean institutional professional money managers are buying. The larger the volume increase — 50% above average — the better chance it is a true breakout. During major breakouts it is not uncommon for new market leaders to show volume spikes from 200% to 1000%. Rising prices with little volume is often a sucker’s rally and novice buyers tend to be taken to the cleaners because the price rise lacks support by institutions. Falling prices with high volume mean institutional money managers are selling.Falling prices with little volume may mean a strong base of support is forming for a possible uptrend. Professionals tend to purchase heavily and then wait four to eight days before buying again. Trend Insights A trend is the direction of movement of a market or individual security. Trends are characterized by a series of zigzags that resemble a series of waves with peaks and troughs. There are three trends: An uptrend is a series of higher highs and higher lows. A downtrend is a series of lower highs and lower lows. A neutral trend is horizontal, or equal, peaks and troughs, and reflects a period of indecision.This is also known as the consolidation phase. If a trader is wrong about the trends — all other factors are basically worthless. What is popular one moment may be a ‘dog’ shortly thereafter. Trends are your friend. Money is always flowing somewhere! Large Market Trends are determined by an analysis of the buying and selling volume of the Dow, NASDAQ, S&P 500, Russell, etc. Sector Trends deal with an overall analysis of similar companies. Listed below are ETFs that cover sectors. Sector ETFs| Internet| HHH| Oil Service| OIH| Transportation| IYT| Telecom| IYZ|Real Estate| IYR| Big Tech| QQQQ| Software| PSJ| Media| PBS| Defense| PPA| Construction| PKB| Insurance| PIC| Financials| IYF| Nanotech| PXN| Alt. Ene rgy| PBW| Industry Trends are a subcategory of sector trends. This is where individual stocks are listed. Calendar Trends. Some things happen on a recurring basis which cause stock prices to rise and fall almost like clockwork. For instance, Christmas goods are usually shipped in August and September influencing the stock prices of UPS or FEDX. India’s wedding season increases the demand for gold. CAN SLIM COMPANY ANALYSIS CRITERIAWilliam O'Neil, founder of Investor’s Business Daily Newspaper (IBD), developed the ‘CAN SLIM’ investing analysis criteria that is based upon many years of research and readily displayed in IBD. The following is a summary of the analytical criteria used. C = Current Quarterly Profit Increases. Strong growth in earnings, more than any other factor, is what defines the market leaders that potentially are going to experience big price advances. IBD recommends looking for stocks with a profit gain of at least 25% compared to the same quarter of the previous year.IBD found that three of every four such stocks boosted profits by more than 70% in their most recent quarter BEFORE their big run-ups. A = Annual Earning Increases should be at least 25% for the last three to five years. Some of the biggest market winners had annual earnings growth of 50%+ before starting their big run-ups. A trend of three to five years of annual earning increases coupled with recent strong earnings in the last several quarters increases the probability of success in an up-trending market. N = New Products, Management, or Highs.It seems that anything new that makes our lives richer, extends our health, or increases our productivity is desirable. Old companies or newly created companies that provide these new things or new services tend to increase in value because of increase in sales. S = Supply & Demand. When there are plenty of buyers and few sellers, prices increase. When demand for stock shares increases, the company with the leas t amount of shares available will experience a greater price increase. The greater the number shares available (for sale) the less the price performance.Usually older larger companies with billions of shares are more sluggish than companies trading only 50 million shares. Note, the larger the percentage of ownership by management, typically the greater the growth potential. L = Leaders, Not Laggards. There are many ‘wannabes also-ran’ companies. Their price growth results are average at best or a flash-in-the-pan. Select best-of-breed stocks from the top three in strong industry groups with the best quarterly/annual earnings growth. Note, in a bull market correction, the stocks that drop the least are usually the best on rebound.I = Institutional Sponsorship. When big traders (mutual funds, pension plans, etc) are buying millions of shares, it is a good sign the price will run-up. But not all mutual funds are equal in quality. Follow the leaders of the best mutual funds . M = Market Direction. Track the trend averages using the S&P, DJIA, and NASDAQ. And Finally CFO: Corporate Fraud Officer. FIAT Money: Financial Instrument Administering Theft of Money Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. – Einstein

Introduction to Robotics and Industrial Automation

Adama University of Science and EngineeringSchool of Engineering and Information TechnologyDepartment of Electrical Engineering| Course Number | ECEG-5506| Course Title| Introduction to Robotics and Industrial Automation| Lecturer| N. N. | Credits| 3| Course Objectives & Competences to be Acquired| * Understand the elements of an industrial robot, mechanisms, sensors, actuators and end effectors. Program robotic manipulators * Acquaintance with artificial intelligence applications in robotics * Introduce industrial control circuits and applications of PLCs in modern industrial control| Course Description/Course Contents| * Robotic FundamentalsIntroduction, Robot kinematics; rigid body motion; transformation of coordinates * Mechanisms and Actuators * Sensors and DetectorsPosition, Velocity, Acceleration, Force torque; Touch and Tactile Sensors; Proximity and Range Detectors, Machine Vision * Modeling and Control of ManipulatorsNewton’s equations; Euler Lagrange method; motion control; manipulator control; trajectory generation; computer control * Robot Applications and ProgrammingPick and place; spot and arc welding; surface coating; assembly * Introduction to Computer Control Role of computers in the control of Industrial processes (plants). Elements of Computer Controlled Process / Plant. Classification – Batch, Continuous, Supervisory and Direct Digital Controls.Architecture – Centralized, Distributed and Hierarchical Systems. Man Machine or Human Computer Interface (HCI). * Basic Ladder Logic and ControlProgrammable Logic Controllers and Applications | Lab Exercises:| Motion control; manipulator control; machine learning using MATLAB and relevant tools; PLC Programming| Pre-requisites| ECEG-3206: Introduction to Control Engineering| Teaching & Learning Methods| Lecture supported by tutorial, assignment and laboratory exercises. | Assessment/Evaluation & Grading System| Assignment (20%), Mid-semester Examination (30%), Final examination (50%)| Attendance Requirements| 75% lecture attendance and 100% lab attendance| Literature| Textbook: Von Mark W.Spong , Seth Hutchinson , Mathukumalli Vidyasagar: Robot Modeling and Control, Wiley & Sons; Auflage: 1st edition Nov 30, 2005). John J. Craig: Introduction to Robotics, Mechanics and Control, Prentice-Hall; Auflage: 3rd edition July 27,2004. References: 1. P. J. McKerrow, Introduction to Robotics, Addison-Wesley, 1991. 2. Sciavicco, L. , and Siciliano, B. : Advanced Textbooks in Control and Signal Processing Series, Springer-Verlag, London, UK, 2000. 3. Canudas de Wit, Siciliano and Bastin: Modeling and Control of Robot Manipulators, 2nd Ed. , Springer-Verlag London Limited, 1996. 4. Asada, H. and Slotine, J. -J. E. , J: Theory of Robot Control, Wiley and Sons, 1986 5. Murray, R. , Li, Z. and Sastry, S. : Robot Analysis and Control CRC Press, 1994. |

Whats Actually Tested on the ACT English Section

What's Actually Tested on the ACT English Section SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Are you planning to take the ACT soon? Curious about what the English section is like? It's more than just correcting grammar and recognizing proper punctuation. In this post we will break down exactly what the ACT English section tests. What Is the ACT English Section Like? The ACT English section is a 75-question, 45-minute test. That comes out to just 36 seconds per question! So you will have to work pretty quickly to complete each question before you run out of time. Also, be aware this is always the first section of the ACT, so you need to be ready to tackle it very early on a Saturday morning. Do some warm-up problems at home so you’re not starting this section cold. Each English test has five essays or passages, each of which is accompanied by a sequence of multiple-choice questions. Some of the questions ask about specific phrases or sentences in the passage, and some ask about a paragraph or the entire passage as a whole. We will explore what those questions specifically test below. What Does ACT English Cover? ACT English tests two broad content areas. The first is Usage and Mechanics (including punctuation, grammar, usage, and sentence structure). The second is Rhetorical Skills (including strategy, organization, and style). Usage and Mechanics requires fine-tuned punctuation and grammar knowledge. Rhetorical Skills focuses on your comprehending of the passage as a whole and your ability to maximize the passage's organization and style. You'll receive a subscore for each of those two categories, though keep in mind that your overall section score is more important. (For more about how the ACT is scored, see our post!) So rather than worry about the subscore you'll get for each section, just use those two categories to help guide your studying. Spelling and vocabulary aren’t tested on ACT English. And while grammar rules are tested, you will be working with passages, meaning you can use context to help you find the correct answers. You won't be expected to know tricky, obscure grammar rules in isolation. Now let's look at each subsection in depth, and show you some practice questions to give you an idea of what you will face on ACT English. Subsection 1: Usage/Mechanics Think of this as the nitty-gritty, detailed portion of the English test. You have to know punctuation rules, grammar rules, and how to construct a sentence properly to do well on this part. One trick for these questions is to pretend you're editing a paper for class. Choose the answers that make the passage as clear and precise as possible. Punctuation (10-15%) These questions test conventions of internal and end-of sentence punctuation. In other words, you have to understand correct comma, apostrophe, period, and semicolon use. Punctuation questions emphasize the relationship of punctuation to meaning. In other words, how can you use punctuation to make sure the writing is as clear as possible? Make sure to take the entire sentence into account, even if the question asks about the punctuation of just a short phrase. Check out the example below to see what we mean. Source: ACT Assessment Practice Multiple-Choice Test. Although the question is asking about the correct punctuation to use for the phrase "charcoal gray suits," you have to take the entire sentence into account to make sure you choose the correct answer choice. The phrase comes at the end of a list of various subway passengers, ending with "a group of stockbrokers in crisp, charcoal gray suits." Since commas are used to separate items in lists, you do not need to add a comma after the last item in a list. Thus, you can leave this phrase alone and select F., No Change. In other words, our process here was to take into account the sentence as a whole, and use that to guide our punctuation choice. Never focus on just the short phrase when doing ACT English questions. Always make sure your answer choice makes sense in the entire sentence. Grammar and Usage (15-20%) These questions test your understanding of grammar rules like agreement between subject and verb, agreement between pronoun and antecedent, and agreement between modifiers and the word modified. Verb formation, pronoun case, and formation of comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs are also tested. Finally, you have to be aware of idiomatic usage. While we won't explain each individual grammar rule in this post, you can refer to our complete ACT grammar guide to get a more in-depth look at what you'll see on this section. And check out the example below to see what an ACT grammar question can look like. Source: ACT Assessment Practice Multiple-Choice Test. The question is seeing if you can identify correct and incorrect forms of a verb tense. You have to decide which of the four answer choices would be incorrect. One simple way to do this is to plug each of the answer choices into the sentence and see if they fit correctly. By doing this, it's easy to pick out that choice H., "played," does not fit in the sentence, making it the right answer. This question is an example of an ACT English question that asks you which choice is NOTacceptable in the sentence. Make sure you are reading these questions carefully so you don't make the silly mistake of choosing an answer that is acceptable in the sentence! Sentence Structure (20-25%) These questions test your understanding of relationships between and among clauses, placement of modifiers, and shifts in construction. So while the previous two question types tested punctuation and grammar in short phrases, these questions your ability to understand the relationship between clauses in order to form correct sentences. Check out the example below to see what this looks like. Source: ACT Assessment Practice Multiple-Choice Test. Even though the question only looks like it's asking about a few words, it's actually testing your ability to link the clauses "About three and half million people a day ride the subways" and "I think maybe I might have possibly have met them all." As it stands, these clauses have been grouped next to each other with nothing to link them, so choice A (No Change) can't be correct. So now you have to decide the word that best links the two clauses. Testing the choices in the sentence, only choice B. "subways, and" makes sense. The conjunction "and" links the two clauses as a sequence. The other two choices, "which" and "actually," would imply comparison which doesn't make sense in context. In short, make sure to keep an eye on the sentence as a whole and find the answer that makes the relationship between clauses as clear and natural as possible. Subsection 2: Rhetorical Skills Think of this as the â€Å"big picture† part of the ACT English test. Rather than correcting individual sentences, you are now thinking about the passage and argument as a whole. You have to find the answer choices that make the ideas, organization, and style of the passage the clearest. We'll dive into the subcategories below. Strategy (15-20%) Strategy questions test how well you can develop a given topic by choosing words or phrases that match an essay's audience and purpose. You also have to judge the effect of adding, revising, or deleting supporting material. Ask yourself, does the extra material add to the argument, or just confuse it? You have to judge the relevance of possible additional statements in context, and choose whether to include them or not. For these questions, you have to take the entire passage into account and carefully consider whether the possible revision clarifies or confuses the passage's message. For example, check out the example below, which asks about the entire passage. Source: ACT Assessment Practice Multiple-Choice Test. You have to figure out two things: first, whether or not you should make the addition, and second, why you should or should not. We won't make you read the entire passage for this post, but when faced with a style question like this, consider the material the passage has already introduced. Would adding the sentence enhance the passage's point or confuse it? Only choose to add a statement if it directly ties to information already introduced in the passage. Organization (10-15%) The organization questions test how well you organize ideas and choose effective opening, transitional, and closing sentences. These questions tend to focus on the beginning and ends of paragraphs, so again, it's important to have a solid grasp of the passage's meaning as a whole to do well here. Here's an example of what an organization question might ask: Source: Preparing for the ACT, 2014-15. Given the content of the paragraph, you need to find the choice that most naturally leads into the first sentence. The paragraph starts with a description of biking that leads into a longer description of nature. Although this makes choice C, "Nature always impresses me," tempting, you need to make sure the first few sentences still make sense. In this case, "Bicyclists streak past" best introduces the description of bikers. This makes the answer A, "No Change." For organization questions, make sure to consider both the paragraph's overall point, but also think about how to make smooth, logical transitions. Style (15-20%) These questions test how well you select precise and appropriate words and images, maintain the level of style and tone in an essay, manage sentence elements for rhetorical effectiveness, and avoid ambiguous pronoun references, wordiness, and redundancy. Again, it's important to have a solid grasp of the passage's tone and meaning to get these questions right. Source: Preparing for the ACT, 2014-15. The question asks you to choose a phrase that communicates the narrator's "positive, friendly attitude." The phrase in the passage, "moves slowly," as well as choice C, "proceeds carefully," are pretty neutral, so you can eliminate them. Choice B, "travels safely," is positive but not particularly friendly. This leaves choice D, "purrs softly," as the correct answer. For style questions, make sure you focus on identifying the passage's tone and choose words or phrases that add to it. What’s Next? Not sure if you’re up to speed on grammar rules? We have a complete guide to all of the grammar you need to know for ACT English. Ready to try some practice questions? Check out our links to free, official ACT practice tests to try out a full English section for yourself. Want to ace this section? We have nine strategies to get a perfect 36 on ACT English. Want to improve your ACT score by 4 points? Check out our best-in-class online ACT prep classes. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your ACT score by 4 points or more. Our classes are entirely online, and they're taught by ACT experts. If you liked this article, you'll love our classes. Along with expert-led classes, you'll get personalized homework with thousands of practice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step, custom program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. Try it risk-free today:

Power Issues And Case Analysis Imbalances Social Work Essay Essays

Power Issues And Case Analysis Imbalances Social Work Essay Essays Power Issues And Case Analysis Imbalances Social Work Essay Essay Power Issues And Case Analysis Imbalances Social Work Essay Essay he besides highlights how we should resist the force per unit area to do people conform to white malestream norms ( Thompson 2000:141 ) . Healey ( 2005 ) discusses anti-oppressive pattern and how this looks at the personal, cultural and structural objects that can determine the jobs that service user s experience. Healey ( 2005 ) further discusses that through anti-oppressive pattern societal workers aim to advance service user authorization by promoting them to speak about and portion their feelings of impotence, to assist them understand how cultural and structural unfairnesss can determine their experiences of subjugation. Therefore when working with Ms. Evans and her household I would necessitate to integrate anti-oppressive pattern in order to authorise, and enable her to portion with me her feelings and experiences of impotence in order to derive a better apprehension of the households state of affairs. However Thompson ( 2000 ) high spots, societal work intercession involves the exercising of power, which if used negatively can reenforce the disadvantages that service users experience. Used positively nevertheless power can assist to heighten the working relationship, the results, and authorise the service user, as Healey ( 2000:202 ) writes postructuralists see power as an ever-present and productive characteristic of societal dealingss , and Foucault cited by Healey ( 2000 ) highlights the demand for us to recognize the productiveness of power, and argues that by concentrating on power as merely being oppressive ignores the positive dimensions of power. Ms. Evans has been referred to societal services via the Health Visitor ; this could be doing her feel disempowered and nervous about the Forth coming intercession of societal services. Therefore when working with Ms. Evans and her household I would hold to recognize the power instabilities between us, ( Thompson 2000 ) . I would necessitate to be sensitive to the issues of power and instabilities by being clear with Ms. Evans on my function and intent, explicating professional boundaries and duties ( Trevithick 2005 ) . I would besides necessitate to see my usage of linguistic communication and how every bit Dalrymple ( 1995 ) cited by Healey ( 2000:184 ) explains the manner in which linguistic communication can reflect power derived functions and have an impact on the people with whom we are working . Equally good as recognizing power issues and instabilities, as the societal worker cubic decimeter would besides necessitate to set about a hazard appraisal. As Thompson ( 2000 ) high spots, to measure the grade and nature of any hazard to which Ms. Evans and her household could be exposed to. Measuring exposure to hazards or a individual, who is vulnerable to it is cardinal to assessment within societal work pattern ( Davies 2005 ) . Stated in the Codes of Practice, as a societal attention worker, you must esteem the rights of service users while seeking to guarantee that their behavior does non harm themselves or other people ( GSCC 2007:4 ) . This includes following hazard appraisal policies and processs to measure whether the behavior of service users presents a hazard of injury to themselves or others ( GSCC 2007: 4.2 ) . Therefore when working with Ms. Evans and her household I would necessitate to be cognizant of my organizational and statutory responsibilities as there are significant policies, counsel, and models to inform my pattern on hazard appraisal. When working with kids and households as Brayne ( 2005 ) high spots, I would necessitate to be cognizant of the jurisprudence, which under the Children Act 1989 provinces ; my primary duty would be when working with Ms. Evans and her household to that of the kid, or kids. Ms. Evans has stated that on occasions she and her household have experienced verbal maltreatment, which would necessitate to be investigated farther to make up ones mind on any hazards this may present to the household. However she has been described by the Health Visitor as enduring from station natal depression, and finds it hard to care for her kids, aged seven, five, and a 10 hebdomad old babe who has spinal bifida. Therefore it could be said that my primary statutory concern would be, to what extent is her station natal depression set uping the attention and public assistance of her kids, and does this present any hazards that need to be identified. Risk appraisal and the direction of hazard have become dominant in all countries of societal work. Kemshall ( 1997:123 ) cited by Davies ( 1997:123 ) high spots that within societal work hazard appraisal and hazard direction have become cardinal issues and are frequently cardinal in the determinations, to allocate resources, to step in in the lives and picks of others or to restrict the autonomies of activities of clients . Risk appraisal has become a dominant discourse within societal work because societal workers are employed within a hazard society, which searches for ways to place and pull off hazard efficaciously . ( Higham 2005:182 ) However every bit stated in the codifications of pattern, societal workers should besides recognise that service users have the right to take hazards, and assist them to place and pull off possible and existent hazards to themselves and others ( GSCC 2007: 4.1 ) . Higham ( 2006:182 ) discusses how service user s strengths that are likely to decrease the predicted hazards should be assessed in maintaining with the societal work value of authorization. Pritchard ( 1996 ) cited by Davies ( 1997:124 ) discusses how service users should non be denied the chances to take hazards or exercising pick, and provinces that, risk-taking is an of import characteristic of all our lives ( Davies 1997:124 ) . However, as Thompson ( 2000 ) explains, the balance between attention and control within societal work can be hard to keep. By nearing this instance with a undertaking centred attack would as Healey ( 2005 ) explains, average focusing on enabling Ms. Evans to do little and meaningful alterations in her life, that she has recognised, acknowledged and wanted to work on. Coulshed ( 1998 ) high spots that within this attack the service user is the chief alteration agent, assisting the worker to measure what the precedences for alteration ought to be. She farther explains that because the worker is every bit accountable as the service user in transporting out agreed undertakings this lessens the sense of impotence that the service user possibly feeling. A undertaking centred attack works on a specific set of processs whereby the service user is helped to transport out problem-alleviating undertakings ( Coulshed 1998 ) . Healey ( 2005 ) explains that it consists of the pre-intervention phase, followed by four consecutive but overlapping stairss. Therefore foremost I would necessitate to understand and set up the beginning of referral ( the Health Visitor ) and negotiate with them any outlooks and positions. However as Healey ( 2005 ) provinces, by understanding the positions of the mentioning bureau does non intend that this has to be the focal point of work, as I would necessitate to work with Ms. Evans on specifying the mark jobs. Common lucidity between Ms. Evans and me would necessitate to be addressed, discoursing any bounds or boundaries, explicating confidentiality, my function, every bit good as any legal or other duties. Working in coaction with Ms. Evans I would seek to research and prioritize Ms. Evans positions of her jobs, as the service user engagement in placing the mark jobs are critical to concentrating their attempts on alteration ( Healey 2005:119 ) . Epstein and Brown ( 2002 ) cited by Healey ( 2005 ) suggest a upper limit of three mark jobs, as it is non necessary to turn to all jobs identified. Success in a few can hold a knock-on consequence for other jobs in a service user s life that may enable them to populate with these jobs or to cover with them ( Healey 2005:113 ) . However as Healey ( 2005 ) writes, although within a undertaking centred approach the service user s definitions of their jobs should predominate, in fortunes where the worker is duty edge to take a firm stand on sing certain jobs, or a opinion has been made of a possible hazard that the service user may present to themselves or others, than these issues should be clearly raised. An expressed understanding ( contract ) would necessitate to be reciprocally clarified. This would include times, location of meetings, and elaborate information on the ends of intercession, whereby the service user should be responsible for make up ones minding the order in which jobs should be addressed ( Healey 2005 ) . It should besides include any ends the societal worker has on behalf of their bureau or statutory responsibilities. For illustration when working with Ms. Evans, ends for intercession might include her wellness position to be investigated in relation to her station natal depression. Equally good as this a statement of undertakings would be listed to turn to mark jobs and to develop the service user s problem-solving accomplishments ( Healey 2005 ) . This is the cardinal purpose of undertaking centred pattern, hence we must defy any enticement to make for , instead than make with the service user ( Healey 2005:122 ) . An illustration of one undertaking could be ; Ms. Evans to derive more information on spinal bifida and so frontward this to her spouse, as she feels that he has non accepted their girl s status, and this could be a fright of the unknown. In back uping Ms. Evans in her undertaking public presentation I would promote, and assist construct on her strengths possibly through practising set undertakings with her in the signifier of function drama ( Healey 2005 ) . This would enable for any schemes necessary to be put into topographic point to assist Ms. Evans overcome any obstructions that she may experience could impede the completion of a certain undertaking. Undertaking centred pattern is a systematic procedure, hence throughout my work with Ms. Evans I would necessitate to regularly reappraisal performed undertakings in order to admit any addition made, every bit good as reference any undertakings that have non been performed. This would give me the chance to turn to any issues with Ms. Evans and to research ways if deemed necessary to revise our contract. Finally built-in to the undertaking centred construction is the demand for a well planned expiration. Healey ( 2005:124 ) writes that a clear and looming deadline is critical for concentrating worker and service user attempts on alteration . Within the expiration meeting I would reexamine with Ms, Evans the overall advancement of our work, and how in the hereafter she might keep any advancement that has been made ( Healey 2005 ) . Healey ( 2005 ) explains that a undertaking centred model provides a shell in which other theoretical positions can be incorporated. Integrating a strengths position would, like undertaking centred pattern focal point on, constructing a service user s capacity to assist themselves and to promote a common acquisition partnership between workers and service user s , ( Healey 2005:158 ) maintaining within the societal work values of authorization, regard and service user self-government. Harmonizing to Healey ( 2005 ) the strengths position dressed ores on enabling service users and communities to work towards their hereafter hopes and dreams, instead than looking at past or present jobs. Saleeby ( 1997:4 ) cited by Healey ( 2005:152 ) provinces that the strengths perspective expression is straightforward, where workers are required to mobilise service users strengths in order to enable them to accomplish their ends and aims, which would take to the service user holding a better quality of life on their footings ( Healey 2005:152 ) . Some of the cardinal premises of the strengths position are, all people have strengths, capacities and resources , and people by and large demonstrate resiliency, instead than pathology when confronting inauspicious life events. ( Healey 2005:157 ) . Healey ( 2005 ) discusses the pattern rules and how the societal worker should follow a positive and optimistic attitude towards service users, working in partnership with them so solutions to jobs are developed collaboratively. Healey ( 2005:162 ) farther states that the formation of a good working partnership can increase the resources available to work out the job at manus . Therefore when working with Ms. Evans I would concentrate on listening to her narrative, placing her capacities, strengths, and resourcefulness which could lend to positive alterations. I would clear up any strengths with her as Healey ( 2005:162 ) explains, service users can grow when others peculiarly helpers actively affirm and back up their capacity to make so . My function as the societal worker would be to ease Ms. Evans capacity to admit, and utilize existing strengths and resources which would enable her to develop new 1s. These strengths could be for illustration ; the accomplishments she has developed from rearing, most of which due to her spouse being in the Navy she may hold done independently. Ms. Evans defines herself as Asiatic and that Islam is of import to her, hence, another strength could be that of adaptability, and holding the interior strength to research new experiences, as she may hold moved from an Asian community to be with her spouse in the naval married quarters. Harmonizing to Saleeby ( 1996 ) cited by Healey ( 2005:164 ) belonging to a community is the first measure towards authorization . Therefore by working towards societal justness rules I would research with Ms. Evans what formal and informal aid was available to her within the community. For illustration, a female parent and yearling group, which would enable her to go portion of the community that she feels she has non been accepted into. Healey ( 2005:164 ) explains community support can construct and pull on the capacities of service users to assist themselves and to assist others . I would besides discourse with her the aid she is already having in relation to her babe and her diagnosing of spinal bifida, which could intend the household are entitled to both fiscal and practical aid. This could include a household support carer to give some reprieve, which would let Ms. Evans some clip to prosecute her ain involvements, such as her faith. Further to this I would necessitate to recognize any strengths and assets within Ms. Evans societal webs, such as people she may experience can be supportive, possibly discoursing with her possible personal support from household and friends ( Healey 2005 ) . In decision this assignment has discussed the issues of power and how societal workers need to be sensitive to and recognize power instabilities. .Following this, hazard discourse has been explained, every bit good as a undertaking centred attack to the instance survey. Finally the strengths position was incorporated which focuses on the capacities and potencies of the service user.

Last Minute PSAT Cramming Tips

Last Minute PSAT Cramming Tips SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips The PSAT is coming upfast. Test day will be here whether you've been studying or not.For the SAT, I would recommend delaying for a later test date, but that's not really possible for with the PSAT. You may have less than three weeks left, which means you're going to have to cram. So? How are you best going to preparefor the ordeal? In this article, I'll guide you through how to prepare, including which techniques to focus on for each section of the test, not to mention test-day techniques (like whether or not to guess if you have no idea). General Guidance There are a few over-arching principles that are crucial to this process. Commit to a Strenuous Process Push yourself hard. Cramming for the PSAT is hard work. It will not, however, build muscles. This test is the NMSQT (National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test), which is huge news for any National Merit Scholarship hopefuls out there. The PSAT also indicates your likely performance on the SAT, which is great information to have. That way, you know what kind of a fight you're in for as you prepare for the SAT. (Speaking of which, don't delay studying so muchnext time, eh?) Time is of the essence, so make sure you spend it preparing for the test. Don't give up your homework, thoughgrades are hugely important in the bigger picture of college admissions: more important than the PSAT. That being said, the PSAT is not going to determine your fate. The National Merit Scholarship is nice, but colleges won't see your PSAT scores. You've got several more chances to knock 'em dead with your test-taking prowess. So, please: don't blow this out of proportion. Listen to Your Own Needs Rest is beyond important. Practice good sleep hygiene and enact a decently early bedtime starting a good week before the test. Your bodystarts storing sleep not just the night before an event, but the night before that. Plus, if your sleepis usually limited (or simply not great), getting enough sleep can make you experience some extra fatigue, initiallyso give your body time to adjust to getting rest. Temper healthy nerves by way of a reality check. This is an important test, and knowing that the stakes are high can give you some adrenaline and keep you committed to the task. At the same time, as we said above, it's not the be-all, end-all of your life, your schooling, or even your high school career. Keep your confidence, and your calm. Limit stress, fatigue, and pessimism (in other words, the effects of overwork). Monitor your mindset: this is an opportunity to shine, not just a chance to get stomped on. There will be more on this topic later, including specific tipsabout maintaining or regaining your cool in the midst of test day. Preparation You may not havemuch time, but you do have some. Put those last few days or weeksto good use! Cooking, like the taking the PSAT, requires lots of preparation. #1 Take a Practice Test The first thing to do is take a full-length practice test. It's best to take it under test-day conditions if you can, but, if that's not possible, just make sure you get through the thing. If nothing else, this will serve as an opportunity to get thoroughly acquainted with the instructions and what they mean in practice. This will boost your confidence and decrease the time you waste on test day trying to figure out what you're expected to do. This is also a chance to acclimate to the types of questions on the test. Take note of the style and wording of the questions. Especially note that not all questions are technically questionssome include a command term and end in a period. (This is the difference between, "What is the solution?" and "Identify the solution.") See if you can find any patterns. Certain types of questions and formats of possible answers show up disproportionately. Perhaps most importantly, a practice test will show you what areas need some extra attention. Ideally you should work every section of the test as you prepare, but give documented weaknesses a little additional care. #2 Drill Official Questions This applies to all sections: drill. There's nothing like having at some actual questions to show you where your potential difficulties lie. This is an area where both quality and quantity matter. You want to work as many problems as you can, but you also want to dissect what's going wrong when you make mistakes and work through the same (tricky) problems multiple times, to get the hang of those routines. The more you go through the process, the more comfortable that process will become. #3 Reading: Read a Lot You don't have a lot of time, but spend your spare minutes immersed in literature. You're going to be doing a lot of reading on both the Reading Test and the Writing and Language Test. Do your best to become at ease with finding yourself at the bottom of a flood of tricky words. Granted, this would work better if you were starting the process sooner, but even just acclimating to doing that much reading in a short period of time can be useful. If you dive right in now, it'll seem less horrific by test day. This cactus didn't prepare before test day, and now see how overwhelmed he is? Now, I also don't mean you should ditch your homework in favor of the average comic book. Rather, I mean you should spend every spare moment reading The New York Times, Shakespeare's canon, ofFahrenheit 451. Not all reading is created equal. Reading for pleasure and entertainment is amazing. Right now, though, our focus is this test. Reading what's uncomfortable and unfamiliar builds new connections in your brainnot to mention that there's just more meat to dissect, and dissecting text is exactly what the test wants from you. The PSAT is going to present some pretty dense text, and you need to be at least somewhat used to looking at non-contemporary, formal, and/or academic literature. Read attentively and read critically, and get in as much as you can. #4 Writing and Language: Review Basic Grammar You need to know the basic rules that govern sentence structure, etc. (If you have more time, go more in depth.) It's important to know these rules; you can't just follow your ear. As any theater practitioner will tell you, pauses, like emphasis, are completely subjective. I can pause wherever I want in a sentence, and often that will change the implications or even the primary interpretation of the sentence. Don't hang your grammatical hat solely on what sounds right to you, because the test-makersmight have a different intention. Commas, semicolons, em-dashes, and all the rest of those punctuation marks serve strict grammatical purposes, telling us where units of thought begin and end (among other things). It's nuanced, and it's more exactingthan our personal patterns of everyday speech make it out to be. #5 Math: Get Comfortable with Your Tools Review the formulas that will be given to you on the test, as well as those you'll need to have memorized. As for the ones in your test booklet, they're no good to you if you barely recognize them; get familiar with them. As for the rest, you'll be on your own on test day when you find you need them. Practice rearranging equations; there's alot of algebra on this test, and mathematical manipulation is one of the primary skills that the test-makerslook at. Make sure you're comfortable with your calculator. Even if you've been using it in math class, try it out on some of the math problems that you're drilling (right?). There are a few odd functions that'll come in handy, and you may or may not be familiar with them now. Also make sure your calculator is approved. Don't bring an abacus to the PSAT. Test-Taking Tips No matter how much studying you've done (or haven't done), there are a few solid principles that can make test day run much more smoothly. Warm Up the Morning Of Wake up, stretch, do your thingand then do a bit of a warm up. Review tricky practice problems that you've persevered in mastering, and try a fresh, new problem or two. Don't go beyond a simple warm-up, though: don't try to cram new material into your head. At best, it won't stick; at worst, it will muddle you up and stress you out. Feeling Panicky? Work It Out Self-talk is huge. How are you treating yourself? Kindly? Gently? Compassionately? Avoid being harsh or judgmental. Instead, affirm your assets: you've prepared, and you're ready. Put your game face on. Visualize the specifics of what's going to happenand how you're going to handle it all like a champ. Let's try not to end up like this guyhe's not eveninside the test center yet. Answer Every Question There's no guessing penalty, so you can'tlose anything by bubbling in a choice. Do what you know how to do first. Next, eliminate answers where you can. Then, guess away! Guess on everything that's left. Leave nothing blank. To use this technique to your especial advantage, take a moment to read about how to guess strategically. Test-Taking Tips #2 No matter how much studying you've done (or haven't done), there are a few solid principles that can make test day run much more smoothly. Warm Up the Morning Of Wake up, stretch, do your thingand then do a bit of a warm up. Review tricky practice problems that you've persevered in mastering, and try a fresh, new problem or two. Don't go beyond a simple warm-up, though: don't try to cram new material into your head. At best, it won't stick; at worst, it will muddle you up and stress you out. Feeling Panicky? Work It Out Self-talk is huge. How are you treating yourself? Kindly? Gently? Compassionately? Avoid being harsh or judgmental. Instead, affirm your assets: you've prepared, and you're ready. Put your game face on. Visualize the specifics of what's going to happenand how you're going to handle it all like a champ. Let's try not to end up like this guyhe's not eveninside the test center yet. Answer Every Question There's no guessing penalty, so you can'tlose anything by bubbling in a choice. Do what you know how to do first. Next, eliminate answers where you can. Then, guess away! Guess on everything that's left. Leave nothing blank. To use this technique to your especial advantage, take a moment to read about how to guess strategically. Test-Taking Tips #3 No matter how much studying you've done (or haven't done), there are a few solid principles that can make test day run much more smoothly. Warm Up the Morning Of Wake up, stretch, do your thingand then do a bit of a warm up. Review tricky practice problems that you've persevered in mastering, and try a fresh, new problem or two. Don't go beyond a simple warm-up, though: don't try to cram new material into your head. At best, it won't stick; at worst, it will muddle you up and stress you out. Feeling Panicky? Work It Out Self-talk is huge. How are you treating yourself? Kindly? Gently? Compassionately? Avoid being harsh or judgmental. Instead, affirm your assets: you've prepared, and you're ready. Put your game face on. Visualize the specifics of what's going to happenand how you're going to handle it all like a champ. Let's try not to end up like this guyhe's not eveninside the test center yet. Answer Every Question There's no guessing penalty, so you can'tlose anything by bubbling in a choice. Do what you know how to do first. Next, eliminate answers where you can. Then, guess away! Guess on everything that's left. Leave nothing blank. To use this technique to your especial advantage, take a moment to read about how to guess strategically. Test-Taking Tips #4 No matter how much studying you've done (or haven't done), there are a few solid principles that can make test day run much more smoothly. Warm Up the Morning Of Wake up, stretch, do your thingand then do a bit of a warm up. Review tricky practice problems that you've persevered in mastering, and try a fresh, new problem or two. Don't go beyond a simple warm-up, though: don't try to cram new material into your head. At best, it won't stick; at worst, it will muddle you up and stress you out. Feeling Panicky? Work It Out Self-talk is huge. How are you treating yourself? Kindly? Gently? Compassionately? Avoid being harsh or judgmental. Instead, affirm your assets: you've prepared, and you're ready. Put your game face on. Visualize the specifics of what's going to happenand how you're going to handle it all like a champ. Let's try not to end up like this guyhe's not eveninside the test center yet. Answer Every Question There's no guessing penalty, so you can'tlose anything by bubbling in a choice. Do what you know how to do first. Next, eliminate answers where you can. Then, guess away! Guess on everything that's left. Leave nothing blank. To use this technique to your especial advantage, take a moment to read about how to guess strategically. Conclusion It's always best to start any study program with plenty of time before an exam. When that doesn't happen, though, or when it's just not possible, some types of cramming are smarter than other types of cramming. When it comes to the PSAT, taking a practice test and drilling extra practice questions can give enormous benefits. Beyond that, a lot of it is reading and reviewing basic rules. Also, remember: you're going to be working hard, so it's especially important to take intentional care of yourself. What's Next? Learn about the score range associated with the PSAT, so you know what general kinds of numbers you might expect to see when scores come out. Wondering exactly when scoreswill come out? It's a great idea to check out the dates to look for. If you're not sure what agood score might look like, though, take a moment to read about why that's a more complicated question than it seems. Get a sense of what an appropriate goal would be for you, while you're at it. Don't repeat the procrastinate-and-cram cycle for the SAT; start preparing earlier next time around. Take practice tests, and consider an SAT preparation program: PrepScholar has a great, customized program developed by experts, complete with a score-improvement guarantee.

Annual report analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Annual report analysis - Essay Example It shows that company was not performing as good as it is performing in the current year and it is coming back to its real best. Ans 3 Working capital is basically is a ratio which indicates after deducting liabilities from its assets mean current assets. So it is originally the sign of strength of the company. If any company has large enough working capital after paying off all of its liabilities that means it is still in position to run its operations. Working capital and current ratio are directly related because both indicate the strength of the firm after paying off its liabilities. Yes, definitely because the larger the working capital firm has after deducting its liabilities the larger the chances that it can pay off its liabilities gracefully. Ans 8 After overall analysis of the firm, figures suggest that firm is not doing well enough work in the form of its profitability area. The firm is not enough to eliminate its expenses and that is why all of its ratios represent very poor figure of their profitability scenario. Almost all the ratios are giving a very poor picture of the company's standing in the industry. It has been the situation in all three years and they are still not putting effective to overcome this problem. ans 11 After analyzing the company's debt and debt equity ra... 2003 0.21 2004 0.4 2005 0.34 Ans 6 The price earning per share is 0.4. Ans 8 After overall analysis of the firm, figures suggest that firm is not doing well enough work in the form of its profitability area. The firm is not enough to eliminate its expenses and that is why all of its ratios represent very poor figure of their profitability scenario. Almost all the ratios are giving a very poor picture of the company's standing in the industry. It has been the situation in all three years and they are still not putting effective to overcome this problem. Ans 10 The Company's debt ratio and debt equity ratio are as follows: Debt ratio debt equity ratio 05 0.618 1.618 04 0.164 0.197 03 0.043 0.045 02 0.064 0.068 ans 11 After analyzing the company's debt and debt equity ratio it has been noted that the company is using its investments very efficiently and the industry average of ratio should be around 0.1 - 0.5 Ans 12 ROI is the earnings on the investments that are originally brought by company's borrowings (equity) ROI and ROE are interrelated in a manner that the company invests its borrowed money to earn profits. Financial leverage takes the form of borrowing money and reinvesting it with the hope to earn a greater rate of return than the cost of interest. Leverage allows greater potential return to the investor than otherwise would have been available. The potential for loss is greater because if the investment becomes worthless, not only is that money lost, but the loan still needs to be repaid. Ans 13 The Company's debtor turnover ratio is as follows: 3 69.3 4 78.8 5 122.16 Ans 14 After analysing the

You will be analyzing the lateral pass in rugby and the spike in Lab Report

You will be analyzing the lateral pass in rugby and the spike in volleyball - Lab Report Example The environment does not, therefore, affect the skills and movements are based on a set of patterns. In addition, the performer is conversant with what exactly he or she is doing and when. On the other hand, spiking in volleyball is based on an open skill classification. This is because when the environment changes constantly during the game, one has to continually adapt the movements. Skills such as a lateral pass in rugby are externally paced and predominantly perceptual. On the other hand, closed skills take place in a predictable as well as a stable environment (Payton 36). The overall performance objective is the ultimate goal that must be achieved with any kind of sports by the respective players. The Overall Performance objective for a lateral pass in Rugby is an accurate projection with speed, while that of spike in volleyball is a projection with accuracy (Ashby and Heegaard 289). a) To describe body segment motions in the rugby lateral pass, there is a lever action in the elbow and a wheel-axle movement on the shoulder. On the other hand, the spike in volleyball, there are 2 wheel-axle movements, in the shoulder and in the wrist, while a lever motion takes place on the elbow (Payton 76). b) In rugby lateral pass the sequence is transverse flexion at the shoulder, elbow extension, and wrist extension. The starting position is when the player is holding on to the ball and has squared his shoulders towards his ankles. On the other hand, the Volleyball spike-analysis of body segment movements is complex. These movements involve the take off phase as well as coordination aspects during flight phase. The most commonly preferred spike position is position four against diagonal spikes. The flight angle of the ball is also considered while the jump height is essential for the success in volleyball spikes. In addition, body segments contribute in a sequential manner from proximal towards distal in order to increase the

Financial deficit Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Financial deficit - Essay Example In the year 1886, British North America debt charges were amount to 28.9 percent of total government expenditures. Economic growth trends have the potential to influence financial deficits of government budget. Since taxes are one of the major sources of income of the government, increase in tax collection increases government revenues that further help to reduce the fiscal deficit for a financial year. Conversely, at times of economic downturns the government expenditures are found to increase considerably. Financial deficit is a condition when the total expenditures of an entity exceed the revenue generated by it, but excluding any external borrowings. The financial deficit of a government of any country is generally called ‘fiscal deficit’. A government has to prepare a budget which proposes expected revenues and spending for a financial year. If the budget estimates that the overall revenues to exceed overall expenditure for the given financial year, then such budget will have surplus or positive balance which is then termed as budget surplus. On the other hand, when the overall government spending exceed total revenues for given financial year the budget has negative balance and it is called fiscal deficit. The budget surplus is generally invested elsewhere like the government bonds and treasury bills of another country, etc. whereas a budget deficit has to be financed using external borrowings in order to balance the budget. In the past, government debt had incurred almost exclusively for some of great public works such as harbours, canals, ship channels, railways, roads for transport, and so on. In the year 1886, British North America debt charges were amount to 28.9 percent of total government expenditures. During the Rothschild dynasty in the late 18th century, the deficit could only be financed by taking loans

Technology Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Technology - Research Paper Example Creative, Samsung and Sony and a plethora of other companies manufacture small, portable music players which is an answer to apple ipod, since ipods are quite expensive people prefer buying other reliable music players which are way cheaper than the ipod. Steve Jobs resigned as the CEO of Apple just a few days ago, under his leadership Apple became a force to reckon with. They launched a series of successful products like the iPhone, Mac, Ipad and a host of other successful products. Steve Jobs identified the potential of modern gadgets and took Apple forward in a very unique way. This paper will shed more light upon the Ipad which has been incredibly successful in the market. â€Å"The Apple iPad is one of the best-selling tablets in the world, and the iPad 3 is one of the most anticipated devices from Apple this year. This article explains you about the new features that are to be included in the  iPad 3.† (iPad 3) Ipad is without a doubt my favorite device; it is my favorite because it is arguably the best gadget in the market currently. The retina display is a very exciting feature, the clarity of the screen has been enhanced by several folds and this has excited almost all the Apple fans. No other similar product in the market offers 2048Ãâ€"1536 pixels, this means the screen would be crystal clear and an avid Apple fan just can’t ask for more. The latest model will also have an SD Card slot which is again an unprecedented feature; sharing media would become much easier with an SD Card slot. These days almost all the gadgets have HD ports, the Ipad has an HDMI port which means it can be connected to an HD television set and pictures and videos can be viewed on the HD television. This is again an exciting feature; sharing media has become really easy these days. Apple has made brought about these exciting changes. The latest model is the Ipad three and it is also the best one to buy, it is the best because it is the latest and has many

BUS 401 CA MOD 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

BUS 401 CA MOD 2 - Essay Example Starbucks, being an international firm might consider factors like geographical variances, cultural differences, regulations of host countries, and market conditions as they intend to export the business to foreign regions. According to Pahl (6), selection of business area, scope of business place, ways to attract customers, and speed and accuracy of business moves etc, are the inevitable factors that an international company should take into consideration while planning to expand its business to new regions. As Starbucks had increased its business areas by launching a number of subsidiaries globally it faced the risk of exposure. Eventually, the company reduced its subsidiaries in USA and exported the business to China. The decision was appropriate that made Starbucks coffee one of the most popular coffee brands among the Chinese people (Fowler). Moreover, Starbucks’ downsizing in the USA and the new Chinese focused business brought remarkable changes in their financial reports. â€Å"The company’s net profit for fiscal year 2008 plunge 53 percent from 2007 to 315.5 million US dollars† (China Daily). More than 70% of the Starbucks’ business is spread in China; and subsequently, the lion’s part of its revenue is derived from the same market. Starbucks had its own unique strategy to enter the Chinese market. For instance, they undertook social responsibility programs as one of their entry level tactic including many charitable works favoring Chinese soci ety. Therefore the Chinese government affectionately welcomed Starbucks’ project home. However, the advent of Starbucks caused the peril of several traditional Chinese industries that prompted the government to initiate certain regulations to control Starbuck’s business operation in China. Therefore, Starbucks declared a $5 million educational program for the well being of the new generation. The Starbucks constituted a committee consisting of Starbucks executives and Chinese

Project management assignment NO.2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Project management assignment NO.2 - Essay Example During construction, activities are done based on the order that they should be carried out. Duration for each activity is estimated based on current data available. A network model is established to show the relationship among the activities and a critical path method is used to determine the critical and non critical activities. CPM is important because it shows the management the activities that need much attention and monitoring to avoid unnecessary delays in project completion (Taha 267). As shown in Diagram 1, constructing foundation and framing are the first two important activities to do because they serve as the framework of the house. Several activities such as plumbing, roofing and wiring are done right after framing since these activities are associated with the different parts of the house and so, they can be started anytime without any delay. Landscaping requires a stable water system so it should be done only after plumbing is finished. Finishing activities and painting are both done after plastering since the house is considered almost finish by that time. Lastly, activities such as making curtains and laying carpet are considered as final activities and should only be done after the whole structure of the house is built and painted. This means that these two paths constitute the time period of project completion. According to the computed critical path (Table 1), the project will be completed in 42 working days. Therefore the project should be started on November 17, 2008 in order to finish it by January 19, 2009. Working days exclude weekends and holidays like New Year and Thanksgiving Day. All the critical activities are shaded in Table 1. This means that these activities are the most important tasks in the project and therefore must be done on schedule. Non critical activities are plumbing, wiring, landscaping, finishing and attaching TV antenna. They are considered non critical because they can be done in advance or

BUS 401 CA MOD 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

BUS 401 CA MOD 2 - Essay Example Starbucks, being an international firm might consider factors like geographical variances, cultural differences, regulations of host countries, and market conditions as they intend to export the business to foreign regions. According to Pahl (6), selection of business area, scope of business place, ways to attract customers, and speed and accuracy of business moves etc, are the inevitable factors that an international company should take into consideration while planning to expand its business to new regions. As Starbucks had increased its business areas by launching a number of subsidiaries globally it faced the risk of exposure. Eventually, the company reduced its subsidiaries in USA and exported the business to China. The decision was appropriate that made Starbucks coffee one of the most popular coffee brands among the Chinese people (Fowler). Moreover, Starbucks’ downsizing in the USA and the new Chinese focused business brought remarkable changes in their financial reports. â€Å"The company’s net profit for fiscal year 2008 plunge 53 percent from 2007 to 315.5 million US dollars† (China Daily). More than 70% of the Starbucks’ business is spread in China; and subsequently, the lion’s part of its revenue is derived from the same market. Starbucks had its own unique strategy to enter the Chinese market. For instance, they undertook social responsibility programs as one of their entry level tactic including many charitable works favoring Chinese soci ety. Therefore the Chinese government affectionately welcomed Starbucks’ project home. However, the advent of Starbucks caused the peril of several traditional Chinese industries that prompted the government to initiate certain regulations to control Starbuck’s business operation in China. Therefore, Starbucks declared a $5 million educational program for the well being of the new generation. The Starbucks constituted a committee consisting of Starbucks executives and Chinese

OHMs prac report Essay Example for Free

OHMs prac report Essay Introduction: OHMS Law states that the current passing through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the potential difference (i. e. voltage drop or voltage) across the two points, and inversely proportional to the resistance between them. The mathematical equation that describes this relationship is: Independent Variable: changing the resistance (OHMS) Dependant Variable: The current (A) is decreased because of the increasing resistors. Constant: The voltage is kept constant but is changed at the end of each test to make the investigation more accurate. Materials: Method: 1. Collect materials listed in above diagram 2. Set up apparatus shown above 3. Set the voltmeter to 1 volts and place the lead in the 5 OHMs resistor 4. Turn to the Power Pack and record the reading on the ammeter 5. Repeat step 3 and 4 2 more times. 6. Change the volts to 3,5,7,9,11,13 and 15, remembering to only record with the 5 OHMs resistor. 7. Record the results using the 5 OHM resistor 8. Repeat steps 4 7 but instead of using the 5 OHMs resistor, use 10 OHMs, 18 OHMs and 56OHMs resistors 9. Clean up all equipment and analyze the results Results: Current (A) Volts 5 OHMs 10 OHMs 18 OHMs 56 OHMs 1It can be seen from the Graph that as the volts increased and so did the resistors, the current was recorded lower that the previous. The highest current recorded was, 2. 557amps with a resistance of 5 OHMs and a voltage of 15 volts. The lowest current recorded was, 0. 017amps with a resistance of 56 OHMs and a voltage of 1. This shows that as the resistors increased the current was weaker, than of a low resistor at the same voltage. Using the Formula and rearranging the equation so R is the average value for the Resistor can be found. The Formula now would be . The Average resistor value for: The 5 OHMs resistor = 5. 857, The 10 OHMs resistor = 10. 340, the 18 OHMs Resistor = 18. 038 and the 56 OHMs resistor = 56. 238. Discussion: Systematic errors: The resistor not calibrated to the exact value displayed Ammeter not calibrated properly Voltage on battery pack not correctly calibrated properly Random errors: Leaving the resistors on to long causing the resistors to over heat and decrease the resistance. Loss of resistance to the resistors due to ware and tare on the resistors over a long period of time. Damaged equipment. Humidity and room temperature Improvements: There are some possible improvements that could be made to improve the results and practical experiment. The Equipment should be checked prior to the practical to reduce errors during the experiment. Also introducing more accurate results by recording the results ten times, instead of five, and work out the average. Use digital ammeters to measure the current. Compare the results to other practicals that were conducted and compare views and data. The Results: It can be seen from the Graph that as the volts increased and so did the resistors, the current was recorded lower that the previous. The highest current recorded was, 2. 557amps with a resistance of 5 OHMs and a voltage of 15 volts. The lowest current recorded was, 0. 017amps with a resistance of 56 OHMs and a voltage of 1. This shows that as the resistors increased the current was weaker, than of a low resistor at the same voltage. Conclusion: The Hypothesis is correct, as the volts and the resistance was increased, the current decreased. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Electricity and Magnetism section.

The Turnover Culture In The Hotel Industry

The Turnover Culture In The Hotel Industry Part B Abstract It is revealed that high labor turnover is a major global problem in hotel industry. The human resource management in the hotel industry is facing challenge about retaining employees and minimizes the turnover. Therefore, it is worth to investigate about the human resource management in the hotel industry. The purpose of this study is to explore the labor turnover in hotel industry, and its associated the factors affecting the labor turnover and how to manage the labor turnover. The labor turnover in hotel industry is influenced by the work related factors, external factors and external factors. According to some statistics, the cost of labor turnover in hotel industry is very high. Moreover, some retention strategy are propose to overcome the labor turnover are discussed including training, employee motivation and employee recognition. Section 1 : Introduction Reason for choice of topic The tourism industry is the leading industry in many countries. Hong Kong tourism industry contributing $162.8 billion or 10.8% of gross domestic product in 2009(http://www.gov.hk/en/residents/, http://www.tourism.gov.hk/textonly/english/statistics/statistics_perform.html ) and Thailand tourism industry generate 6.5% of gross domestic product in 2008 (http://www.thaiwebsites.com/tourism.asp). Accommodation is an essential element of tourism service and it is vital to the quality of the tourist experience, as it constitutes a major part of consumption. This study is to investigate the labor turnover in the hotel organization. It is general known that the hospitality industry has a major challenge about the labor turnover and staff stability rates. These problems are usually occur in the front-line staff as it is related to a lot of unfavorable working conditions in hotel, such as the long working hours, unstable working schedule and lack of promotion opportunities. Therefore, many people are not willing to enter to the hotel industry or some people have work for many years in hotel industry but shift to another industry because of those unfavorable working conditions. Besides, the human resource management in the hotel industry are facing some serious problems about retaining the employees and recruits the right people to fill in the right job. Therefore, it is worthwhile to investigate the factors that cause the front-line employees to quit the job. In addition, to discuss what the human resource management can do to retain the st aff and manage the labor turnover in the hotel organization. Another reason for choosing this topic to study is the authors want to become the human resource manager in a hotel. Therefore, it is vital that the author have a clear understanding of what challenges that the human resource management are facing and to use the specific approach to overcome those problems. 1.2 Academic objectives of dissertation This paper aims to achieve the followings objectives: To find out what is the meaning of labor turnover and have an overview of the turnover culture in the hotel industry To discuss the factors that influence labor turnover in hotel industry. To explain the cost of labor turnover in hotel industry. To find out what the human resource management can do to managing the labor turnover. Outline of sections In section 1, the author talked about her reason for choice this topic and the major objectives through this project. In section 2, the authors explained the concepts of labor turnover briefly and provide an overview of the turnover culture in the hotel industry. In section 3, the author would explain the factors influence the turnover in the hotel industry and have an understanding of the cost of labor turnover. It could help to show the labor turnover is a serious problem within the industry. Moreover, in section 4, the author wants to make others understand how to manage the labor turnover in the hotel industry. Finally in section 5, would be the summary and conclusion about this project. Section 2: Literature review 2.1 What is labor turnover? According to Price (1977, p.15) the term turnover is defined as the ratio of the number of organization members who have left during the period being considered divided by the average number of people in that organization during the period and also each time a position is vacated, a new employee must be hired and trained. This replacement cycle is known as turnover (Woods, 1995, p. 345). Labor turnover refers to the movement of employees in and out of a business. Labor turnover affects both workers and firms: workers may need to learn new job-specific skills, whilst firms incur the costs of hiring and training new workers (Brown et. al., 2009). The new workers may be more highly motivated and more highly skilled. Hence, turnover may enhance firm performance. However, high labor turnover causes problems for the firm as it is costly, lowers productivity and morale. Labor turnover can be divided into two main types: voluntary, where the employees leave of their own free will, and involuntary, where the employer decides that employment should terminate. Retirement can fall into either category (Boella, 2000). Most often the voluntary turnover arises where some employees leave to escape negative work environment factors and other are pulled away from the organization by more attractive opportunities and Cheng and Brown (1998) stated that people quit their job for many reasons, but most reasons are not related to management. In recent study, the involuntary turnover can applied to those employees have a poor performance or have did some serious mistakes then the organization would encourage them to quit than fire them. 2.2 The turnover culture in the hotel industry Everyone knows that the hotel industry is a highly labor-intensive industry but the high labor turnover is a serious problem within the industry all around the world. Some theorists such as Mobley (1977), Price (1977), Price and Mueller (1986) identified a range of other variables such as pay, communication, social integration, reutilization, role overload, promotional opportunity, training, supervisor and co-worker support, and distributive justice as having a significant impact upon turnover. According to the research Griffith University, the primary reason for managerial and operational turnover was voluntary resignation, followed by an internal transfer. Performance related terminations were very low. The main motivating factors for executives, managerial and supervisory staff to change jobs, within the hotel industry, were better career opportunities and better working hours. Changing jobs outside the industry was primarily motivated by higher salaries, working hours and better career opportunities. The data suggests that higher wages and better working hours are the major drivers for managerial employees to leave. Similarly, operational staff seek better wages, better working hours and improved career opportunities. In the pervious years, a small among of staff in hotel industry will stay for longer than five years but the voluntary turnover is gradually increase compared with the last decades. According to Kennedy and Berger (1994, p. 58) they stated that, in the hospitality industry, the highest turnover occurred during the first 4 weeks (in employment). The cause of turnover is often poor human resource decisions and the unmet expectations of newcomers. 2.3 Factors affecting employee intent to leave in the hotel industry There are many factors affecting employee turnover. According to a widely accepted though, employees usually quit their jobs because of lack of wages. However, many studies show that there are also many complex factors affecting employee turnover other than wage, such as the management of the company, economics, and psychology. In the following section, some factors affecting employee turnover are discussed. 2.3.1 Work Related Factors The work related factors are other factors that will influence the labor turnover in the hotel industry. The following section will mainly focus on the job satisfaction, pay, working environment, work performance, promotion opportunities and the organization commitment how to influence the labor turnover. 2.3.1.1 Job Satisfaction Job satisfaction is containing the satisfaction with pay, satisfaction with the work itself, satisfaction with the supervision, satisfaction with the promotion opportunities (Khatri et. al., 2003). According to Davis (1981), job satisfaction can be defined as pleasantness or unpleasantness of employees while working. In addition, Oshagbemi (2000) has defined job satisfaction as individuals positive emotional reaction to particular job. The term job satisfaction is considered an attribute that exists as the equity of a variety of desired and non-desired job-related experiences. It is also defines as the degree of fit between the features of a job and employees expectations. In addition, there are researchers who view that job satisfaction is a result of both employees expectations and aspirations and their existing status (Clark Oswald, 1996). When the employees with a lack of job satisfaction they will be quitting the job, and the basic reason is that they expect to have a more sati sfying job. On the other hand, if the employees have a high job satisfaction, the organization will be fewer labor turnovers. Price and Mueller (1981) stated that job satisfaction has an indirect influence on turnover through its direct influence on formation of intent to leave. Another study stated that employees with higher degree of trust would have higher levels of job satisfaction in the hospitality industry (Gill, 2008). 2.3.1.1.1 Pay According to the past study, the average annual wages of hotel are very low compare with the other industries such as the IT technology and education industry. A low starting salary is found in the frontline department in the hotel industry such as the housekeeping, Food and Beverage and front office. It was shown that dissatisfaction with pay is among the significant factors responsible for turnover (Pavesic and Brymer, 1990; Pizam and Ellis, 1999). Pay is received by the staff and money is equivalent to staffs effort to provide service. The salary, compensation and fringe benefit received by the staff are also the pay. Therefore, if the pay is increase, it can reduce the labor turnover. The relationship between pay and job satisfaction has received considerable attention (Churchill, FordWalker, 1974; Lawler, 1995). The pay was the most important job attribute contributing to job satisfaction in the Hong Kong hotel industry. Therefore, higher pay is significantly related to greater job satisfaction. The staff will be more satisfied with their job when the actual pay is more than the expected pay. The other situation that causes the staff to be more likely to leave their organization is that when they perceive that they are receiving lower salary but they know the other people elsewhere are offered better pay. Therefore, offering higher wages than competing organization will enable the organization to retain some talented worker. 2.3.1.1.2 The work itself The work itself is a critical dimension in employee job satisfaction (Luthans, 1992; Lawler, 1995; Qu, Ryan Chu, 2001; Groot Van Den Brink, 1999) and Glisson and Durick (1988) considered the worker and the nature of the work itself as two important factors affecting job satisfaction. The internal satisfactory factors are related to the work itself, such as: feeling of achievement, feeling of independence, self-esteem, feeling of control and other similar feelings obtained from work. And the external satisfactory factors such as: receiving praise from the boss, good relationships with colleagues, good working environment, high salary, good welfare and utilities. There is a relationship between job satisfaction and stress. Barsky, Thoresen, Warren and Kaplan(2004) argued that high level of work stress will be decrease the job satisfaction and finally leaving the organization because workers feel their job duties are difficult to fulfill. Price (1977) divided job stress into four types: lack of resources to perform, the amount of workload, the clarity of the role obligations and the role conflict. Those job stresses will also make the employees intent to quit the organization. 2.3.1.1.3 The supervision Supervision, being one of the dimensions of job satisfaction (Rust et al., 1996), is defined from the employee-centeredness perspective, it is manifested in ways such as checking to see how well the subordinate is doing, providing advice and assistance to the individual, and communicating with the worker on a personal as well as an official level (Luthans, 1992, pp. 121-122). Some information show that, satisfaction with supervisor will influence job satisfaction positively and finally decrease the labor turnover. If the supervisor provide more concern and social support to the employees, they will be more satisfy and the turnover will be decrease. 2.3.1.1.4 The promotion opportunities Price (2001) stated that promotion opportunities are the potential degree of movement to a higher level status within an organization. The promotion opportunities are also the important category to define the employees are satisfy or dissatisfy, because promotion opportunities are usually associated with increase the salary. However, the result show that hotel sector are lack of promotion opportunities rather than not having enough fair promotion policy (Iverson and Derry. 1997). Due to the hotel industry are lack of promotion opportunities, it will reduce the chance to retain the talented employees in the organization. When employees suffering from unfair treatment, they will change their job attitude immediately and may quit in long run (Vigoda, 2000). 2.3.1.2 The Organization Commitment According to Pennstate (2006), organizational commitment is the relative strength of an employees attachment or involvement with the organization where he or she is employed. Organizational commitment is important because committed employees are less likely to leave for another job and are more likely to perform at higher levels. There are three dimensions of organizational commitment, which are affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment. Turnover literature has consistently found a strong relationship between turnover and organizational commitment, indicating that employees with low commitment are likely to withdraw from the organization. Alternatively, a positive relationship has been found between organizational commitment and career progress or internal promotions indicating that promoted employees are more likely to exhibit higher organizational commitment. 2.3.1.3 Work Performance Employees work performance is another factor affecting labor turnover. According to a study conducted by Jewell and Siegal (2003), it was found that the employees having high performance were not willing to leave their jobs. At this point of view, if the employees having low performance leave their jobs for any reasons, labor turnover is not an important matter for the company. On the other hand, if the employees have a high job performance. Low wages, exclusion from prizes, unsuitable jobs are also among the reasons causing low performance and high employee turnover. 2.3.1.4 Personal Reason Some employees also leave their jobs because of personal reasons. A principal reason that employees leave their jobs is lack of incentives (Pizam and Ellis, 1999). Employees may simply want recognition or an opportunity in advance. For example, The Ritz Carlton Company has reduced employee turnover by focusing on quality recruitment, providing better training and orientation, establishing realistic career opportunities and creating long-term incentive and reward systems. 2.3.2 Demographic Factor Most voluntary turnover models include demographic variables such as age, gender, race, tenure, marital status, number of dependents, and educational experience. However, this paper only focuses on the level of education, gender, marital status and age. 2.3.2.1 Level of Education One of the major challenges of the hospitality industry is the retention of highly educated employees. We define highly educated staff as employees who have followed a higher education program at a bachelors or masters level successfully ( Deery and Shaw, 1999). Carbery et al. (2003) noted that those more highly educated managers or non-managers are more likely to intent to make a turnover decision. One research study by (Blomme et. al., 2010), it shows that among alumni of the Hotel School The Hague who are working worldwide has shown that within 6 years after graduation about 70% of all graduates from the hotel school The Hague leave the organization in which they are working. The more highly educated staff will be less easily satisfied with their jobs than those staff with lower education level because the highly educated staff have higher expectations in job status and salary and they may not be willing to join or stay in the hotel industry. In addition, the external labor market s will provide many opportunities for those highly educated people to satisfy their high expectation on financial benefit. (Wong, Siu Tseng, 1999) 2.3.2.2 Gender Some study noted that, the female and male have their particular behavior that would influence the labor turnover. According to a study conducted by(Doherty and Manfredi,2001:62), it was found that women workers leave their jobs more than men workers, because the roles of women have to taking care of children, having baby in a society and doing house work. In addition, Hersch and Stratton (1997) stated that women, especially married women, spend more time engaged in household activities and are substantially more prepared to quit their job for a family-related reason than men . Some women workers also do not want to return to their jobs after having baby. On the other hand, the study conducted by Tang and Talpade (1999), it stated that males tended to have higher satisfaction with pay than females, whereas females tended to have higher satisfaction with co-workers than males. Its means that women tend to rate social needs as more important than men such as working with people and being helpful to other. Men tend to consider pay more important than do women. Women often begin their careers with much lower expectations than men do and they are willing to take career risks and change employers to do so. Finally, women workers usually work at the entry level jobs in hotel and accordingly get less pay than their men co-workers. According to a study conducted by Iverson (2000) in the USA, it was found that women managers in hotel got very less wages than men managers whether in the beginning or top of their careers. In a similar study, it was found that men workers got more wages than women workers got (Burgess, 2000). It was also found that in order to balance the wage differences among men and women workers, basic and routine job were given to women workers than men workers. 2.3.2.3 Marital Status According to Pizam and Ellis (1999), it stated that marital status could influence labor turnover. Those married employees are most concerned with the balance between their work and family life. Hom and Griffeth (1995),stated that married employees will not want to have a voluntary turnover. Because they have many concerns about the financial needs for their family. If they cannot afford the long and unstable working hours, they will tend to give up the job. However, this issue mostly occurs on women. Therefore, they will have more time for family life and take care of their child. On the other side, the unmarried employees will consider factors related to their jobs such as promotion opportunities and organization commitment more than those married employees (Wong, Siu Tsang, 1999). Therefore, they are less satisfied with their job than married employees. 2.3.2.4 Age In recent study, Hartman and Yrle (1996) points out that the Generation Y employee mostly creates the labor turnover in hospitality industry. In addition, the study conducted by Iverson and Deery (1997), it stated that younger employees have a higher propensity to leave than older employees. The problem was arisen in this decade; as the employees born in the baby boomer are retire gradually. The baby boomer is anyone born between 1946 and 1964. They have been through periods of war; therefore have less opportunity in education institutions. They tend to demand more stability in their workplace, and they are very loyalty to their employees. On the other hand, the Generation Y employee who was born between the years 1979 and 1994, they can adapt the changes easily and seek a higher standard of life therefore, they consider more about their interest in the work. Furthermore, they usually change their job, as they want to gain more experience and make their life more diversity. 2.3.3 External Factors The external factors are the factors that we cannot control and very difficult to predict. Some of these factors include political shifts, legislation, new or modified regulations, global economic conditions, technology changes and major mining disasters. In some study, the hotel industry is quite easily influenced by the global economic conditions. The economic situation could predict most of the labor turnover within the industry. Therefore, the unemployment rate affects the employees perception on job satisfaction. If the economic is down turn, the employees who perceive a high level of job dissatisfaction, they may still stay in organization because they dont want to lose their current job and also the job market is a lack of opportunities for them to get a better job. On the other hand, if the economic condition have improve, the employees will leave the organization immediately to find a better job. Therefore, it may create the high level of labor turnover when the economic have improved. In the later part of the literature will focus on how to manage the labor turnover in order to minimize the labor turnover within the hotel industry. 2.4 The cost of labor turnover In the previous section, some of the critical factors that affect the labor turnover are discussed. The following section will focus on the cost of labor turnover and its impact. Labor turnover is a significant cost to hotel and it may be the most significant factor affecting hotel profitability, service quality and skills training. (Davidson et. al., 2009). The cause of labor turnover is multidimensional, such as low morale, low productivity, low standard of performance and absenteeism. According to the statistics from TTF Australia(2006), the annual cost of replacing managerial employees was $109,909 per hotel and the annual cost of replacing operational employees was $9,591 per employee. The total annual cost of turnover ($49M) equates to 19.5% of 64 surveyed hotels total payroll costs ($250M). Another study stated that the Marriott Corporation alone estimated that each 1% increase in its employee turnover rate, costs the company between $5 and $15 million in lost revenues (Schlesinger and Heskett, 1991).Therefore, the cost of labor turnover is very high. Labour turnover is not only a significant tangible dollar cost but also an intangible or hidden cost associated with loss of skills, inefficiency and replacement costs (Lashley Chaplain, 1999). The direct impact of labor turnover will cause financial suffering such as administrative cost and Lashley (1999) refers to lost investment in training and lost staff expertise as particular examples of turnover costs and opportunity costs. For the indirect impacts caused by high labor turnover are lack of manpower, poor quality of service and low morale of employees and also if turnover increases, service quality may decline as it takes time and resources to back fill departing employees, especially at busy hotels (Lynn, 2002). Labour is a significant cost and the leakage of human capital through unnecessary turnover is an element of critical importance to bottom line performance. A number of HRM practices have been suggested as potential solutions for turnover, such as investment in training, offering organisational support, adopting innovative recruitment and selection processes, offering better career opportunities (Cheng Brown, 1998; Forrier Sels, 2003; Hinkin Tracey, 2000; Walsh Taylor, 2007; Walters Raybould, 2007) and adopting measures to increase job satisfaction and commitment. 2.5 How to manage the labor turnover in the hotel industry? High staff turnover is the common problem in hotel industry, it is also a major factor affecting workplace efficiency, productivity, and hotel cost structure. Labor turnover represents a challenge for contemporary HRM strategies and practices. Therefore, in this section, it will turn to focus on how to manage the labor turnover from the human resources perspective. In the previous section, the cost of labor turnover in the hotel is discussed. The total annual cost of turnover ($49M) equates to 19.5% of 64 surveyed hotels total payroll costs ($250M). The turnover cost are very high, thus the awareness of the importance of employees staying with an organization is evident. Hinkin and Tracey (2000) advocate that hospitality executives who understand the value of human capital and adopt organizational policies and management practices in pursuit of employee retention will outperform the competition. Effectively designed and well implemented employee retention programs that increase employee tenure more than pay for themselves through reduced turnover costs and increased productivity (Hinkin and Tracey, 2000). According to 2500 supervisors, managers and executives within this sector, the top five most important aspects a company can provide to retain their people are as follows: communication, Leadership, Career path, development and understanding aspirations and helping the individual towards achieving them.(Baum ,2006) This shows that, the employee are highly concern for this five elements to determine their job satisfaction. Therefore, when HRM design for a retention scheme, they can consider those five elements before their decision. 2.5.1 Training In organizations where employees receive the proper training needed to assume greater responsibilities, turnover rates are generally lower. Several studies show that training activities are correlated with productivity and retention (Delery and Doty, 1996; Huselid, 1995; Kallenberg and Moody, 1994; MacDuffie, 1995; Shaw et al., 1998; Terpstra and Rozell, 1993; US Department of Labor, 1993, Walsh and Taylor, 2007; Youndt et al., 1996). Staff is a unique asset in the company. Therefore, many hotel have invest a huge number of money per year for staff development. Because they realize that provide training to their employees would enhance the organization produtivity and improve their job performance. For the long-term purpose, training can solve the problem of high labor turnover in a hotel. Moreover, the hotel industry are now have a general shortage of the middle management staff. Therefore, the training should be around to develop and train new management personnel. For example, in 2004 Shangri-La Hotel Resorts Shangri-La Academy was born, this is a full-time facility that handles internal training for progression up the ranks. In addition, the Intercontinental Hotel Group also launched an in-house training center in order to groom their high potential employees to take on managerial positions within their company. Those measures of the Shangri-La Hotel and the Intercontinental Hotel Group is to do the retention of their employees and confront the trend of shortage of experienced staff and try to minimize the labor turnover. 2.5.2 Motivate the employee Staff motivation is as vital to success as any skill or personal attribute and its also plays a key role in staff retention. Motivation is the process by which a persons efforts are energized, directed, and sustained toward attaining a goal.(Stephen Coulter, 2006:482) . Staff motivation is a key element in retaining staff and help them increase the job satisfaction thus the labor turnover rate may be decrease. It is essential for the management of hotels to develop efficient HRM polices and practices that enable them to motivate competent employees who can contribute to the achievement of their objectives. This requires employees at different levels of management and at different stages in their career in order to maintain high morale and high performance (Enz and Siguaw, 2000). If hotel managers can satisfy their employees, it will help them to improve customer satisfaction in the long run and retain them. (Tsaur and Lin, 2004). 2.5.3 Employee recognition, rewards and compensation Numerous studies have addressed the impact of employee compensation, rewards and recognition on turnover and retention. If the hotel manager gives more recognition, rewards and compensation to their employees, it can minimize the turnover. Several research studies found that highly competitive wage systems promote employee commitment and thus results in the attraction and retention of a superior workforce (Becker and Huselid, 1999; Guthrie, 2001; Shaw et al., 1998). Shaw et al.s (1998) study further noted that employees will remain with an organization as long as it serves their self-interest to do so better than the alternatives available to them elsewhere. The study also found that companies providing incentive plans to employees are more likely to experience lower turnover rates among non-managerial employees. Milman (2003) concluded that the most significant retention predictors included intrinsic fulfillment and working conditions rather than monetary rewards. Similarly, the study by Walsh and Taylor (2007) revealed that although compensation and work-life balance are important, it is the absence of opportunity for professional growth and development that affects management retention and turnover (Walsh andTaylor, 2007). Section 3: Summary and Conclusions Labor turnover refers to the movement of employees in and out of a business. Labor turnover may enhance firm performance but high labor turnover causes problems for the firm such as lowers productivity and morale. Labor turnover can be divided into two main types: voluntary and involuntary. High labor turnover is a serious problem within the industry all around the world. A range of other variables such as pay, communication, social integration, reutilization, role overload, promotional opportunity, training, supervisor and co-worker support, and distributive justice as having a significant impact upon turnover. The reasons of labor turnover in hotel industry can be classified as work related factors, demographic factors and external factors. For the work related factors, job satisfaction can be defined as pleasantness or unpleasantness of employees while working. It is containing the satisfaction with pay, satisfaction with the work itself, satisfaction with the supervision, satisfaction with the promotion opportunities When the employees with a lack of job satisfaction they will be quitting the job. On the other hand, if the employees have a high job satisfaction, the organization will be fewer labor turnovers.