The Black Report - 1284 Words

The Black Report There are considerable health inequalities amongst Britain’s social classes. Health is formed by socio-economic, political and environmental factors; these elements shape inequalities and influence the health of various social groups in Britain. Health inequalities is the term used to describe the consistent recurring differences of the health complaints involving the social classes of Britain. These differences were first highlighted by Sir Douglas Black in a research study called The Black Report. The reason for The Black Report was to find information about the problems with health variations among the social classes. In 1977 under a Labour Government, the Secretary of State for social services†¦show more content†¦In relation to this, Lobstein (1995) established that deprived areas had poor diets because healthy food tended to more expensive in poorer communities than in the well-off ones (Holborn, Burrage and Langley, 2009) It is understood that manual workers e ndure more work related injuries than non-manual workers. Recent studies to support this claim come from Clapp et al (2005) who indicate that a probable 12ï€ ¥ of cancer deaths are workplace related, also, Meldrumm (2005) found that working conditions cause up to 20ï€ ¥ of lung cancer deaths (Holborn, Burrage and Langley, 2009). Social Capital explains health inequalities in various ways, including unexpected disadvantages. This can be supported by Shaw et al (1999) who found that if difficulties occur at important times of life it can result in health inadequacies; for example, lack of nutrients as a child (Holborn, Burrage and Langley, 2009). Josh et al (2000) suggested that Social Capital was an important explanation regarding health issues. Supporting the theory that life chances are influenced by social environment and the people around us (Holborn, Burrage and Langley, 2009). The Black Report unearthed an increasing gap in the inequalities of health between lower and hig her social classes. There was a general improvement in health but it wasn’t equal within the classes; poor health was increasing. The Black Report also discovered that healthShow MoreRelatedBlack Report : The Black2369 Words   |  10 PagesBlack report 1942 The black report is a finding which was is really large differentials in mortality and morbidity which its more liked in the higher social classes and that these were not being adequately addressed by health or social services. Between the rich and poor the black report has a wider divide the health care provision now. In countries where there is small income usually would have the best healthcare and the best health and the countries like the UK are rich and they have health inequalitiesRead Moreblack report798 Words   |  4 Pagesyoung children and older adult. This report influenced the governments green paper, Our Healthier Nation (1998) and the 1999 white paper, saving lives (bbc.co.uk21.06.13). Evaluation of the Black Report This essay will look at the Black Report and its findings, and also compare it with the findings of both the, Acheson and Marmot reports on health inequalities in social class. The Black Report (1980) assessed the health service of Britain and its impact on society. It underlined four types ofRead MoreBlack Analysis : Black Hearts Book Report1067 Words   |  5 PagesBlack Hearts Book Report Reading this book I found it to be very intriguing. It is a story about men from the 101st Airborne Division’s legendary 502nd Infantry Regiment known as â€Å"the Black Heart Brigade. These men were deployed to the country’s worst and most unfavorable location at the most dangerous time. The platoon the book talks about the most would be the Bravo Company First Platoon. They were constantly in a rough patch throughout the entire book, facing constant leadership changed and tryingRead MoreBlack Like Me : Book Report979 Words   |  4 PagesGrace Haskin Communication Research: Book Report November 21, 2014 Black Like Me Black Like Me is a research diary kept by John Griffin in 1959. Griffin, a white male, is bothered by racism and wants to experience what it is like to be black. He begins taking medication and rubs shoe polish on himself to darken the color of his skin to temporarily pass as a black man. Sepia, a black oriented magazine, sponsors Griffin’s study in exchange for written articles about the experience. With his newRead MoreBlack Hearts : A Journalistic Report Of Horrible Leadership1813 Words   |  8 PagesBlack Hearts is a journalistic report of terrible leadership and of the events that led to the heinous crime committed by four soldiers of 1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 502d Infantry, 101st Airborne Division. These soldiers were living in an environment of dysfunctional leadership, which included irresponsible decisions, disrespect, and leader egotism. This environment led to crumbling unit cohesion and an overall low morale. The leadership failures in these events were all encompassing, from theRead MoreBlack Like Me: a Cultural Book Report910 Words   |  4 Pagessaid. Because of this he felt that they had encouraged him to cross the color line and write Black Like Me. Plot: Black Like Me is the story of a man named John Howard Griffin, who underwent a series of medical treatments to change his skin color temporarily to black; a transformation that was complete when John Howard Griffin shaved off his hair, and looking in the mirror, saw a bald, middle-aged black man. The reason he does this is for an experiment to see how racism was in the Deep South fromRead MoreFanny Taylors False Claim in Rosewood Report and Film739 Words   |  3 Pageswhite women named Fanny Taylor falsely claimed that she had been beaten at the hands of a black man. Outraged at these alleged allegations, white men of rosewood would parade the town in search for the person responsible. According to the rosewood report these angered mobs had killed about eight blacks including Sam Carter who supposedly knew where the acclaimed suspect was headed. There were numerous reports of the massacre from newspapers, citizens, and later the survivors of the rosewood eventsRead MoreThe White Lady Cries Wolf in Rosewood1495 Words   |  6 Pagesschools, mills and a growing population. The town was a majority black town, but that was not much of a problem until a white lady â€Å"cried wolf†. Fannie Taylor, wife of James Taylor who worked at a mill nearby, would have an affair with a white man. Fannie and her white lover got into a physical altercation that left Fannie with obvious bruises. To prevent from having to tell James about the affair she told her neighbors that a black man came and attacked her. As word spread throughout the townRead MoreBlack Males And Male Males1552 Words   |  7 Pagesaverage, black males experienced 3.4 police stops in the past two years, compared to 0.7 stops for white males and 0.5 stops for Chinese males. Although black females are less likely to be stopped and questioned by the police than black males, they are significantly more likely to report police stops than white or Chinese females. In fact, black females (9%) are more likely to report three or more police stops than white (8%) or Chinese males (6%). On average, black females report 0.7 policeRead MoreBlack And Minority Ethnic Offenders1373 Words   |  6 PagesClinks and The Black Training and Enterprise Group to discuss how the changing landscape of the Criminal Justice System could improve the outcomes for Black, And Minority Ethnic offenders (BAME). Following the meeting Baroness Young met the Secretary of State for Justice to seek his support to establish a task group. The Justice Secretary requested that the review included Muslim Offenders. The investigation and subsequent Young Review led by Baroness Lola Young, examined why young black and Muslim

Forensic Accounting Assignment Example

Essays on Forensic Accounting Assignment The paper "Forensic Accounting" is an extraordinary example of an assignment on finance and accounting.This paper will take a cursory look at the phenomenon of forensic accounting and its implication is the existing business set up around the world. The paper has been formulated in a way that it will first go on to explain the concept of forensic accounting and what it actually entails. It will then move onto specific case examples which will shed some more light and provide deeper analysis into the topic at hand. Forensic Accounting: Now, forensic accounting is that specific area of specialty practice pertaining to the field of accountancy that caters to those specific appointments that ensue as a result of actual or anticipated disputes or matters of litigation. Forensic, by simple means of literal definition denotes an item which is "suitable for use in a court of law", and the work of forensic accountants is geared towards the ascertainment of this specific standard or sometimes potential outcome. Forensic accounts, which are also referred to in the global business setup as forensic auditors or investigative auditors, hold a critical position not only in the financial spectrum but also in the legal spectrum as well as they most often are called upon to give expert evidence at a trail concerning those transgressions which these auditors had researched upon in the first place. Most of the major accounting firms around the world in addition to a large number of medium-sized as well as boutique firms have created specialist forensic accounting departments for themselves. In addition to this, there are many intricate sub-specializations of these departments: some forensic accountants may, for example, just specialize in insurance claims, personal injury claims, and fraud, construction, or royalty audits. (Crumbley et al, 2005) Now, the paper will look at specific cases which relate to forensic accounting. Q1: Mergers and Acquisitions The most critical aspect of this specific case is the rationale that has been provided for the need for this specific acquisition. Cutting costs via the route of vertical integrations basically means that the organization wants to remove the margin of its suppliers by itself becoming a supplier to its major production process. As an accountant, this would appear to be a sound investment strategy as despite not having previously operated in the market that they wish to permeate into with this acquisition, they at the very least have seen the tangible output that their suppliers have provided to them over the past. However, the case is not as simple as it seems to appear. As a forensic accountant, it is imperative that the first and foremost objective that is ascertained is the actual process of the acquisition takes place in an orderly manner which conforms to all the laws related to mergers and acquisitions. Since this acquisition is taking place over three different geographical locations, there will be laws and regulations in these regions which might be averse or in conflict to each other; therefore, their harmonious resolution is the key goal of the forensic accountant who is handling this case. Furthermore, it is critically important that the forensic accountant determine all the possible costs and revenue streams that exist in the newly acquired market. Having not directly operated in the aforementioned markets i.e. Africa and South East Asia, the job of the forensic accountant takes a new role after the acquisition is complete, which is more of an investigative role as opposed to the literally forensic role which is played at the time of the acquisition. To better understand this, lets take a simple example: if the input resources that were being purchased earlier for a $10 per unit and a margin of $2 per unit, then the job of the forensic accountant now is to ascertain the cost streams which sum together to form the $8 per unit cost of the input resource. Here, a forensic account ants’ contribution is perhaps most significant as they have to determine whether the $8 itself could be shrunk even further giving that the market of operation is not the U.S anymore. These will critically hinge the decision to acquire or leave the business as the most critical goal of the organization is to cut costs as much as possible through vertical integration. (Bruner, 2004) Q2: Financial Failure In this specific case, the role of a forensic accountant comes to the fore as they look to ascertain the reasons that led to the demise of the large business which was supposed to be economically sound and financially stable in the not so distant past. The critical aspect of the report that will be filed by the forensic accountant must deal with the most critical problem: what series of events led to the dramatic drop in share prices? Here, the forensic accountant would have to deal with the share trading activities and determine specious patterns of trading which could very w ell be related to improper trading of the stock. Insider trading would have to be looked at with an increased degree of magnification as the allegation that has been levied in this case has been that officials at the business have ruined the share price for their personal benefit. This leads us to a second critically important section of the report: conformity to the international accounting standards and rules and regulations that have been put in place by the Securities and Exchange Commission in order to control stock trading. Here a very important part of the investigation will be the determination of the business related parties of the large business which has failed as defined by the international accounting standards. This is very important as the forensic accountant needs to determine which business entities are related to the large business and/or the personnel working in the business and then determine any streams of payments or stock trading whereby the related parties co uld benefit at the expense of the large business which has failed. Lastly, the report should look to determine the exact revenue streams of the family assistance payments that have been made to the business by the government and hence, determine exactly where they money has been employed by the business in order to be certain that these payments had been used for the purpose which the government made them. Q3: Authority Investigating Corruption This example looks at a different aspect of the job description of the forensic accountant; one that directly relates to the legal facet of their job. Crime syndicates will be an entity with which forensic accountants would have to regularly deal with, therefore, this specific example becomes doubly important. Now, as a forensic accountant, the first and foremost action that can be taken is to have a close look at the books of the business that is being run by the drug dealer. In it, the most critical facet is ascertaining the revenue streams of this business which could very well point towards the issue of money-laundering. Money laundering, by definition is the process whereby cash that is created or raised through criminal activities is made to appear ‘legitimate’ by its strategic re-integration into the global financial system. (Bedi, 2004) Therefore, the forensic accountant should look for evidence of any stream of revenues which cannot be completely catered to i.e. whose whereabouts over a certain stretch are not properly identifiable. In addition, the forensic accountant should try to relate the streams of income from the drug trade with those that are used in the business in order to find any similarities that could attach these two together. This can be done by trading drugs with this specific drug dealer using numbered notes and then ascertaining whether those notes find their way into the business of the rug dealer; a practice which if successful would provide incriminating evidence against the d rug dealer in a court of law in the form of those numbered notes which were used for the drug trade. Other more innovative mechanisms are also used to achieve this same end in this case.   ReferencesCrumbley, D. Larry; Lester E. Heitger, G. Stevenson Smith (2005-08-05). Forensic and Investigative Accounting. CCH Group. ISBN 0808013653.Rohan Bedi (2004). Money Laundering - Controls and Prevention, ISI Publications, ISBN 962-7762-87-3, http://books.global-investor.com/books/16287.htm 3. Bruner, Robert F., (2004)† The Merger of Union Bank of Switzerland and Swiss Bank Corporation (A): The Proposed Merger†, Vol. 3, pp. 1-40, Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=909748

Emerging Adults free essay sample

Being an adult means that one person must go through stage of different kinds of relationships. It is not how or when that makes a person become an adult, but what they learn. Each relationship is going to be different for every person. In the book, Emerging Adulthood, Arnett talks about some of the main qualities the relationships are part of. The five main qualities are identity explorations, instability, self-focused age, feeling in-between, and possibilities. In the time when a person is considered an emerging adult, they will have had some very different experiences than others. Identity exploration is the time in which a young emerging adult can try new things. Just as when a person was old enough to drive, or drink it adds excitement in someone’s life. It was a new obstacle to overcome. Back in the 1970’s people had no choice on what they did. Women could not have any real job because after they got married it was time for kids. We will write a custom essay sample on Emerging Adults or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page So they had to stay home and clean and take care of the children. The men had to get jobs right away to support the family. But now people get to have choices. They get to decide on if they want to stay at home after high school, get a job, or even stay in school to reach a degree. At the end of senior year the main question floating around everyone’s head is, what am I going to do now? This will be the being of the relationship stage of self-focus. With every emerging adult now is the time of the main choice for themselves. Either they will just get a job and work for the rest of their lives; or they will go to college. No other person can make that decision for them; they are going to do what they want to do for themselves. For the emerging adults that are going to go to college and received their degree they are already a step ahead. They get to start off with more money and more jobs are available to them. Some of the emerging adults get to save more money by living at home and pay only the bills that they need to. And for the rest they have to pay for rent, food, insurance, and whatever other bills they may have. Now they might get lucky and get help from their parents every month. On the road of becoming an adult an emerging adult must be able to pay their own bills without relying on friends, parents, or family. Making new choices about love, work, and school can make an emerging adulthood’s life more intense and instable. While an emerging adult is in college they get to meet a wide variety of new people. Now while they are attending school they might have a few little relationships, long term relationships, and even the one night stand. With all of these relationships emerging adults need to worry about only one major thing, STD’s. In college many people may get around so they need to be safe always. And when it comes to who they are dating their parents still might have an input, or would like to have one. Most parents want their child dating someone who is in the same ethnic group, as well as marring within the same ethnic group. Depending on how their parents are they might even go as far as telling their child a lie about a different ethnic group so that they would not trust them. What happens when the parents are not around and you become best friends with people in different ethnic groups; your dating range just got larger. You know the truth and have the chance to date whomever you want, and even marry whomever you want. Emerging adults today will marry out of their own ethnic group to their college sweetheart. Being able to make up your own mind about who you want to date makes emerging adults another step closer to becoming an adult. There are a lot of times when a person feels like they should have done something else. They are not sure of what they really want to do; this is the feeling in-between time. There is no age at which a person reaches that means they are an adult. It is the things that have been decided to do that will make them an adult. About 60% of emerging adult aged 18-25 said that they have â€Å"yes and no† feelings about whether they are an adult or not; but they are confident and have a better idea of what they want to do with their life. There are so many different possibilities available to every single person in this world. After high school is over with the door is opened. Emerging adults get to make their own decisions on whom they date, who they are friends with, and what they want to be. No matter of family background all emerging adults get their chance at new possibilities. If they decide to go to college they will have more possibilities than someone who has gotten a job. But that does not mean that the emerging adults who just go into the world and get a job right away have no possibilities. It is how they take on the world and take on the responsibilities of that road. The main event in an emerging adult’s life is marriage. For most it is a meaning that they are ready to be an adult. They are ready to accept the responsibility of what they do, make independent decisions, and be financially able to live on their own. They are now more considerate of others. For some emerging adults they have an in-between feeling about where they are in life. They know that they are ready for the next step, but still think they can learn more. Before an emerging adult becomes an adult they will look back on their life; they will mostly think about high school. They will think about high school because it was the easiest time of their life; being able to hang out with friends, no bills, no job, no real responsibilities. It is very normal for anyone to think about that because they are now taking on all of the responsibilities. No one to help them but the person they will marry. And not everyone has the same experience as others. But this is what makes every person unique.

The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid by C.K Prahalad A Book Review

Introduction The term â€Å"the bottom of the pyramid† has gained prominence in the field of economics in recent past. As a concept, it is used to refer to the â€Å"largest, (but) poorest socio-economic† class at the bottom of the hypothetical pyramid used in economics to depict resource distribution (Gunther 9). Estimates of the number of people in the society who fall within this segment vary.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid by C.K Prahalad: A Book Review specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The World Bank estimates that about 2.5 billion people globally fall under this segment (Gunther 9). These people, according to these estimates, these are the people who survive on less than $2.50 in a day (Gunther 9). The business world has been abuzz with this concept of â€Å"the bottom of the pyramid† given the sheer size of this market. Business analysts who ar e keen on formulating new business models that specifically target this population are the ones that use this term most of the times. They develop new business strategies using new technology to target this group of consumers (Karnani 6). They also refer to this strategy as the base of the pyramid model. Several writers with business inclinations have made this concept more popular by writing several books and articles on it. The books and articles exalt the potential market and the profits that business enterprises can make by targeting this market. The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid by C. K Prahalad is such one book dedicated to this subject. This essay is going to review this book by Prahalad. The author will look at the organisation and structure of the book as well as the themes riding on the book. A critique of the book will also be provided along the way. C. K. Prahalad: A Brief Historical Overview Before embarking on the analysis and critical review of his book, it is important at this juncture to look briefly at the background of the author. With this background, the reader will have a clear picture of the kind of person that they are reading about in the paper, as well as their way of thinking. The background will create a link between Prahalad and the book within the mind of the reader.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The late Coimbatore Krishnarao Prahalad was born on August 8, 1941, in Coimbatore region of Tamil Nadu (Viklund 9). He took after his father, who was an established Sanskrit scholar and a judge (Viklund 9). He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Loyola College in Chennai. He is also a graduate of Harvard Business School, where he got his D.B.A degree in mid 1970s (Viklund 8). Before his death on April 16, 2010, this man was a renowned scholar and a professor at Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan (Karnani 7). He was a distinguished professor, and this means that his works at the time were taken seriously in the business world, and this continues today. Several works are credited to this scholar. This is for example The Core Competence of Corporation, which he co-authored with Gary Hamel, and Competing for the Future, with the same author. He co-authored his last book two years before he succumbed to lung infection, in 2008. The book, The New Age of Innovation, was a joint effort between him and Krishnan (Schumpeter 4). The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits is one of the books that Prahalad authored alone. It is one of the popular books in his collection, and continues to attract the attention of business analysts and other players in the business world today, one year after his death. The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: An Overview This book was published by Wharton School Publishing press in the year 2004. In about 389 pages, Prahalad talks of the bottom of the pyramid consumer and how businesses can exploit the segment to make profits. By targeting this group, the businesses will not only be making profits for themselves, they will also be playing a part in eradicating among the poorest populations in the world. In this book, Prahalad asserts that about 80 percent of the world population lives within the bottom of the pyramid. By using the approach advocated for in this book, businesses will be able to mobilise resources, in partnership with other stakeholders such as non-governmental organisations, to eradicate poverty in this group (Stefan 4). The resources will be used to formulate and implement solutions that will address the socio-economic challenges of the more than 4 billion people living in this segment of the society (Stefan 4). This way, business corporations will be eradicating poverty through their profit making ventures, as the title of the book suggests.Advertisin g We will write a custom essay sample on The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid by C.K Prahalad: A Book Review specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More To achieve this, Prahalad is of the view that the bottom of the pyramid consumers have to be respected (Prahalad 9). This means that the input of the consumers in the formulation of solutions to their problems has to be respected. According to Prahalad, the consumer should be â€Å"†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. (taken as) equally important joint problem-solvers† (67). When this is done, the situation of the consumer (read poverty) will be turned into an opportunity to be exploited by all stakeholders in the strategy. The investors will use it to make profits, while the consumers will use it to pull themselves out of the cycle of poverty. The book, which is divided into three parts, provides the concerned parties with a strategy to collaborate for the benefit of all. Prahalad provides a blue pr int for a profitable coalition among the business executives, non-governmental organisations, the poor themselves and other stakeholders where all parties emerge as winners (Viklund 2). To achieve this, Prahalad suggests that all the players have to make adjustments, accommodations and sacrifices, otherwise the results of the coalition will not be realised. To undergird his arguments, Prahalad uses 12 case studies, where the owners of the business, either through design or by default, applied a business strategy similar to the one proposed in this book (Landrum 27). The businesses emerged as success cases, and the author is of the view that the strategy can be used by other businesses to excel. According to Prahalad, in all these case studies, the â€Å"bottom of the pyramid is becoming an active market†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ (which brings) benefits that go beyond the products consumed by the customers† (Prahalad 56). All the enterprises in these cases are interested in somethi ng more than just making profits. They are all interested in changing the face of poverty among the consumers by actively involving the consumers and other players in the field.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Prahalad writes the book from the point of view of the bottom of pyramid consumer (Karnani 7: Viklund 4). These are the players that the author assumes to be poor, and they benefit by accessing products and services at affordable rates. However, this is not the only benefit that they draw from the business strategy. The consumers also â€Å"†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.get recognition, respect and fair treatment (from the entrepreneurs)† (Prahalad 87). From this, the self-esteem of the consumers is boosted, giving the business plan a human face. The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Book Structure and Organisation Book Structure and Organisation As earlier indicated, the book covers about 389 pages. These are organised into three parts, and each of the parts is further sub-divided into several sections. The following is an analysis of the organisation and structure of this book: Part I: The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid This part is divided into six chapters, with each of the chapters addressing a specific aspect of the so called fortune at the bottom of the pyramid. Chapter 1: The Market at the Bottom of the Pyramid This chapter addresses several aspects of the market segment in this portion of the society (Prahalad 3-22). Among the issues that are addressed in this chapter are the power of dominant logic and the nature of the bottom of the pyramid market. Prahalad asserts that â€Å"there is money at the bottom of the pyramid† (10). This is considering the sheer size of the market and the fact that members of this segment of society also have a disposable income, albeit at lower levels than those of the upper echelons of the society. Chapter 2: Products and Services for the BoP In this chapter, Prahalad provides the business executives with a philosophy that will help them develop products and services for the consumer at this level (Nicola 9: Prahalad Stuart 2). He is of the view that there are â€Å"twelve principles of innovatio n† that the businesses should employ (Prahalad 25), including innovativeness and respecting the consumer. Chapter 3: BoP: A Global Opportunity? Here, the author analyses the BoP market within the global context. He is of the view that local growth opportunities are linked to innovations and opportunities in the global market (Prahalad 50, 52: Saritha 20). Chapter 4: The Ecosystem for Wealth Creation In this chapter, the author talks of the environment within which wealth is made as far as the BoP is concerned. He particularly talks of the contract between the poor and the business enterprises amongst them. The author is of the view that the poor must be respected in these contracts, and the â€Å"inequities in the contracts (should also) be reduced† (Prahalad 69, 72). Chapter 5: Reducing Corruption Here, the author identifies corruption as one of the hindrances to eradication of poverty among the 4 billion poor people of the world (London 5). He provides strategies to r educe corruption here by creating what he refers to as â€Å"transaction governance capacity† (Prahalad 77) amongst the poor. He provides several case studies where this strategy has worked, including the Andhra Pradesh e-Governance project and the Centre for Good Governance (Prahalad 85, 90: Kandachar Minna 30). Chapter 6: Development as Social Transformation In this chapter, the author argues on how development can be conceptualised as a social transformation in the society, providing a social aspect of development. He identifies several barriers to this form of development, such as communication barriers and exclusion of women, and provides possible remedies to the same. Part II: Innovative Practices at the Bottom of the Pyramid It is in this section that Prahalad provides case studies of business enterprises that have adopted his proposed mode of operation and succeeded (Prahalad 113-381). Some of these case studies are provided in text while others are provided in audio CDs. This part is divided into six sections. In section I, Prahalad talks of the market at the BoP and provides the cases of Casas Bahia and CEMEX. In section II, he talks of the missing link in engaging community in eradicating poverty via a business model. He provides the story of the Annapurna Salt Company and the Hindustan Lever Limited. The same structure of providing case studies to drive home some of the arguments is used in throughout the other sections. Part III: CD This section is provided in a CD format. It is 35 minutes of video coverage depicting success of the case studies that were covered in text format in section II. The filming for the CD is done on location, with BoP locations in five countries acting as the stage. These are India, Peru, Mà ©xico, Brazil and Venezuela in Latin America (Prahalad 34). Critique of the Book Structure and Organisation The book starts with a preface, which is a great idea as it prepares the reader on what to expect within the text. Th is is followed by a section titled About the Author, where a brief overview of Prahalad is given. This is also a great idea, as it provides the reader with an idea on the kind of person that they will be interacting with throughout the book. It was also a great idea for the author to organise the book into three parts, each of which is further subdivided into several sections. This makes the book appear organised, and it also makes it easy for the reader to go through it. There is no unnecessary clutter in the organisation of the book as far as the sections are concerned. The use of the CD was similarly ingenious. It enriches the interaction of the reader with the book. Prahalad uses the same innovation that he beseeches business executives to use in interacting with his readers. Thematic Analysis Several themes emerge from this book, the major one been eradication of poverty through the BoP business model. The other themes revolve around this major one, and they can be seen as supp orting the same. The following are some of the themes that are discernible from the book: The Theme of Poverty Prahalad is of the view that the consumers at the bottom of the pyramid are afflicted by poverty, meaning that more than 4 billion people in the world today live on about $2.50 per day (Landrum 28). This state of affairs is brought about by interplay of various factors. This is for example illiteracy among this group, lack of employment and high birth rates among others. To underscore the status of poverty in the society, Prahalad provides the case of India, where more than 5.5 million people have their limbs amputated (Schumpeter 4). More than 25,000 continue losing their limbs in this country per annum, further increasing the population. The loss of limbs is caused by several factors such as disease, accidents and such others. These people cannot afford a prosthesis, which goes for about 7,000 dollars. This being the case, it becomes very hard for this people to exploit t heir potential, and as such, they continue wallowing in poverty. The author also provides the case of Mà ©xico, a country where, according to latest statistics, approximately 24 million people live on less than five dollars in a day (Prahalad 45). The banks are unwilling to provide these people with credit facilities, making it really hard for them to escape from poverty. Prahalad is of the view that business enterprises need to tackle this problem of poverty in order to create a sustainable consumer base. As such, instead of focusing so much on profits, businesses should come up with strategies that will make these people escape poverty, increase their per capita income and subsequently, their purchasing power. Eradicating Poverty Through Profits The proposed business strategy points out to the fact that it is possible for businesses to make profits and at the same time eradicate poverty in the community. This can be done through collaboration with the consumers and other stake ho lders such as non-governmental agencies (Kandachar Minna 31). When this happens, all the stakeholders benefit, creating a win-win situation, as opposed to the win-lose situation where businesses appear to exploit the local communities. The local community benefits by having the poverty levels reduced, the business enterprises benefit by making profits, while other stakeholders such as the NGOs benefit by having attained one of their goals, that of reducing extreme poverty in the community. The Need for Collaboration Another theme is that of the need of collaboration among the various stakeholders in order to make the proposed business model work. It is noted that the players cannot work in isolation; rather, they have to make adjustments and sacrifices to accommodate each other. The business enterprises need to respect the consumer, taking their perspectives into consideration when coming up with strategies to fight poverty. The consumers, on their part, need to look at the busines s enterprises as partners in development, rather than viewing them as exploiters. On their part, the NGOs should strive to ensure that the members of the community and the business enterprises work in tandem. This is for example encouraging the businesses to contribute to corporate social responsibility efforts in the community. Conclusion.  A Critique of the Book Prahalad’s arguments in this book and largely logical, and are acceptable and significant in reducing poverty among the bottom of the pyramid segment. However, there are several inherent assumptions made by this author that waters down the credibility of their book. For example, it seems that Prahalad overestimates the purchasing power of the poor within the bottom of the pyramid bracket. A case in point is when he seems to exaggerate their number. His statistics vary from those of other analysts in the field, and they seem to be the highest. The World Bank puts the number of the poor at about 2.7 billion, while P rahalad doubles this to about 4 billion (Landrum 29). There are also those who question whether the multinational corporation are suited to the bottom of the pyramid market as Prahalad suggests. His argument to this end is further weakened when one takes a critical look at the profile of the businesses that he uses in his twelve case studies. These businesses, at least most of them, are small to medium enterprises, while others are non-profit making (Karnani 9). Given that none of the case studies given seems to support a multinational in this market, questions arise regarding the tenability of Prahalad’s recommendation to this end. Apart from these minor weaknesses, Prahalad’s book can be regarded as a bold and significant step towards eradication of poverty among the world’s poorest. The suggestions put forth, as well as the business model, appear credible enough to be adopted by business enterprises. Works Cited Gunther, Gregory. The Theory of Economic Growth . London: Allen and Unwin, 2006. Kandachar, Peter Minna, Hay. (Eds.) Sustainability Challenges and Solutions at the Base of the Pyramid – Business, Technology and the Poor. Sheffield: Greenleaf Publishing, 2008. Karnani, Aneel G. Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: A Mirage. Ross School of Business, Paper No. 1035, 2008. Landrum, Nancy. Advancing the â€Å"Base of the Pyramid† Debate. Strategic Management Review, 1(1): 27-29, 2007. London, Titus. The Base-of-the-Pyramid Perspective: A New Approach to Poverty Alleviation. In G. T. Solomon (Ed.), Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings, 2008. Nicola, Day. Bottom of the Pyramid from the Perspective of Poverty Reduction. NRI. June 18, 2007. Web. Prahalad, Coimbatore K. The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits. Wharton: Wharton School Publishing, 2004. Prahalad, Coimbatore K., Stuart, Hart L. The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. Strategy and Business, 26(3), 2002. Saritha, Rai. In Rural India, a Passage to Wirelessness. The New York Times, August 4, 2001. Schumpeter. The Guru of the Bottom of the Pyramid. The Economist, April 24, 2010. Stefan, Stern. Manifesto Writer for Business Survival. Financial Times, April 19, 2010. Viklund, Andreas. Book Review: The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. First Friday Book Synopsis. September 1, 2010. Web. This essay on The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid by C.K Prahalad: A Book Review was written and submitted by user Jeramiah Q. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Review of a Notated Score essays

Review of a Notated Score essays I am going to write a review of the score I have been given, this is the third movement of the piece Romanza written by the composer Vaughn Williams. I will review this piece by going through all the aspects of the notated score such as the rhythm, tempo, harmony, tonality, melody, dynamics, genre, instrumentation and timbre. There are two parts to this part of the piece and I will refer to them as section one and section two. The rhythm for the stringed part of section one is very conjunct and on the beat. All the instruments in this part play simple triads all in time with each other to the beat. In section two of the stringed instruments the rhythm seems like it could be faster but it isnt, all the notes are played at the same speed and are still on the beat and conjunct except for the last part of the first violin where a much more rigid rhythm is present. The rhythm in the brass and woodwind section is quite syncopated when compared to the strings section. The tempo of the piece seems quite fast when viewed as a notated score but the piece is played at a slow tempo of 66. Also the word lento is present beside the tempo, lento meaning slow. There is a very close harmony within this piece. All the chords are triads so all the notes are kept within the stave to a certain extent. Also this is a crematic piece, as the notes do not keep within the key signature. Because the C major scale consists of all notes and no flats or sharps there are many accidentals in this piece mainly in the first stringed section. As mentioned above this piece is in the key of C major and there are many accidentals within the whole of section one. The melody in this piece is very scalic; it has quite small intervals with a perfect fourth being the biggest interval within this section. There are also scales present within section two of the stringed instruments making this piece more melodic. ...

How to bond with your employees without compromising your authorityÂÂ

How to bond with your employees without compromising your authority   Authority and power are complex issues that come with the task of being a manager. In the workplace, the ability to hire, fire, and give raises sets the power dynamic between employees and bosses. But while power and authority are clearly linked, authority is a bit murkier to define- it relies on the established relationship between employees and their bosses and can be built over years and lost in an instant. Bonding with your employees and projecting authority are not mutually exclusive. In fact, the two things are much closer than one might think.Here are a few ways you might develop both leadership traits.Establish an atmosphere of mutual respectAuthority doesn’t come automatically with a job title. It is earned when managers are clearly knowledgeable and competent, and when they get results. But you can’t get those results without team effort- and your interaction with employees plays a vital role in establishing authority. In order to truly lead a team, you need t o earn trust and establish an atmosphere of mutual respect with employees. If you find yourself pounding on your desk and engaging in intimidation tactics, chances are you are trying to assert authority rather than earn it. But if you build a base of shared respect, then bonding with employees will grow your authority rather than diminish it.Take an interest in your employeesYou don’t want to invite daily gab sessions or become a shoulder to cry on, but being responsive to employees and really listening can help foster your authority. Simple things like knowing where your employees went to college, or the names of their family members, or their personal interests and hobbies, can help you understand their motivations and actions at work and help establish basic respect. This type of bonding also fosters a working relationship that can open the channels of communication so that when your employees have a good idea, they can reach out. This way you can be the boss employees wan t to listen to and will trust to follow.Be a real personSo, can you drink a beer with your employees and just be a regular person? Sure. But you can’t drink too much or share too much personal information. Letting employees see that you’re a real person with your own life and interests outside of work does not compromise your authority, but is part of that two-way street of building mutual respect. Social settings like the office party can help you bond while keeping it professional.hbspt.cta.load(2785852, '9e52c197-5b5b-45e6-af34-d56403f973c5', {});Set boundariesAfter you relax with employees at an office party or talk up your golf game, you need to be clear when it’s time to focus back on work. The afternoon progress meeting is not the place to shoot the breeze, so take care to establish the atmosphere you want with a simple, firm-yet-kind acknowledgment of when it’s time to get back to business.Head off problem employeesOccasionally there will be the e mployee who can’t separate the friendly boss from the friend and switch gears back to work-mode. If you find an employee becoming overly familiar, too joking, or disrespectful, this is where your authority needs to put its foot down. Nipping a problem in the bud is best, and opening the channels of communication with the individual employee can turn the situation around.Bonding with your employees, when done the right way, can actually help you gain authority. It can take years to cultivate but largely stems from you setting appropriate boundaries and maintaining genuine interest in your employees as people. So ask yourself: are you approachable, or intimidating? And which do you think will get better results?

Geography Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Geography - Research Paper Example Indias climate is influenced by mainly the southwest winds. South-west monsoon brings most of the rainfall during a year in the country. In the months of summer temperature rises up to 45 degree centigrade in the day. In the winter, it falls to as low as 1 to 8 degree centigrade in the night. Intensity of the summer season causes rain in plains of the India. The rain fall varies region to region and it is found to be between 500 mm to 1500 mm except desert of Rajasthan and Kutch where precipitation usually remain less than 250 mm. (Climate) Agriculture has always been a back bone of Indian economy since independence until 1990 when agriculture contributed more than one-third in Gross Domestic Product. India has vast arable area of 170 million hectares in 2005 which is the second largest arable area after U.S. India is among the world’s leading producer of rich, wheat, milk, sugar cane. India is either the world leader or the second largest producer in eight top crops. India is the world leader in the production of bananas, mangoes, and spices which are the important part of Indian meals. (India’s Role†¦) Post reform India saw a big surge in industrial activities and the industrial output showed the growth of 8.4 percent in 1994-95 and exports increased by 27 percent. Experts opine that Indian contribution in the world GDP will rise from 6 percent to 11 percent by the year 2025 and it will become the third largest economy after U.S, and China. The contribution of Indian industry in GDP comes to about 26 percent. (India Industry) India has been in limelight due to its software industry – the sector has been a major export earner for the country. As per The National Association of Software & Services Cos (NASSCOM), Indian IT sector is likely to see exports of $59 billion in fiscal 2011, which will show strong revenue growth of 18.7 percent over previous year. The

Concepts learned in International Relations Essay

Concepts learned in International Relations - Essay Example the ‘national interest’ is captured in the image of a social evolutionary process that predetermines a series of associated connotations and denotations of an otherwise natural phenomenon (Trubovitz, 1998, p.3). The individualistic view of ‘what’s good’ is truly based on the concept of private benefit while social good or benefit is located in a larger context that even encompasses international interests. It’s against this backdrop that American national interest as against international collective benefit ought to be examined. Concepts such as ‘absolute good’ and ‘relative good’ in a politically charged environment of conflict between ideologies are more relevant and highly feasible though definitions of them might vary according to biases and prejudices of individuals who seek to interpret them. Social issues of conflict and ideological differences deserve more attention in a study of international relations than a superficial analysis of consequences thereof. Theoretical underpinnings of social transformation in an international relations context focus attention on the inevitable concept of conflict between private interests and public interests. By extension it’s the same conflict between national interests of the individual nation state and the collective interests of the international community at large. The subsequent developments that unfold as the conflict evolves into a multifaceted phenomenon bear a closer semblance to those social issues such as ideological differences, social biases and prejudices, ethnic and religious interests and societal mores or value systems. At an international level the macrocosmic phenomenon though might assume a diversity and a complexity that has little parallel in conflicts within the boundaries of a nation state. The theoretical rigor with which the polemical issues in interstate relations are treated generates a greater degree of enthusiasm in the conflict and its impact on such relations. While

Problem of Evil Essay Example for Free

Problem of Evil Essay The traditional problem of evil emerges when people believe in and argue for the existence of a God who is both omnipotent and wholly good. According to Mackie’s study (1955), few of the solutions to the problem of evil could stand up to criticism. Today, someone suggests an alternative: God is not perfectly good, but maximally cool. By cool he means to be free from tension or violence. Since God is maximally cool, he is not so much concerned about either eliminating evil or maximizing goodness than promoting coolness. This God appears to be logically valid, but this essay will show that the existence of such God is impossible. First, we should ask this: if God aims to promote coolness, why would he bother to create evil? It is clear that evil is not cool, given that evil creates tension and violence. It may be replied that God is maximally cool and therefore creates anything based on his will and is not concerned with what happens to his creation afterwards. This reply is arguing that God created some cool thing which later then turned into the uncool evil. Then, the fact that uncool evil exists implies that God cannot make this uncool evil to be cool again, which contradicts with the premise that God is omnipotent. Secondly, good is also uncool. According to most theists, good is defined to be opposite to evil and thus always fights to expel evil (Mackie, 1955), so that good is in constant tension and possible violence with evil. Though the God in argument is claimed to be not perfectly good, this God is still good to a certain degree. Then he will still fights against evil and therefore is not always cool. This leads us to conclude that this God cannot be maximum cool. This guy in defense of the existence of a maximally cool God might argue that uncool is necessary as a counterpart to cool. It seems natural and necessary to consider why there should be uncool things if God is maximum cool. He might argue that if there were no uncool, there could be no cool either, in that if there were no violence or tension to be created and involved in, there could be no violence or tension to be free from. It might be that out of randomness, God created evil that generates tension and good that engages in tension against evil. To detach from involvement in tension or to destroy tension might create another tension and may incur violence. If God were to eliminate uncool things that he created, he would enter a tension between cool and uncool. Then, it would be uncool to make uncool things cool. Because God is maximally cool, he will not enter such tension and therefore he leaves good and evil as uncool as they are. By claiming that cool cannot exist without uncool, this guy shows that God cannot create cool without simultaneously creating uncool. This sets a limit to what God can do, which involves two possibilities: either God is not omnipotent or that omnipotence has some limits. If it is the first case, then we can deny the existence of a God who is omnipotent and maximally cool. If it is the second case, one may argue that these limits are logically impossibility. However, according to Mackie (1955), some theists hold the view that God can do what is logically impossible, while many theists maintain that God created logic. This leads us to the paradox of omnipotence, where we consider whether an omnipotent being can bind himself. According to Mackie, although we can avoid the paradox of omnipotence by putting God outside time, we cannot prove that an omnipotent God binds himself by logical laws. Therefore, it is a fallacious approach to prove the existence of a maximally cool and omnipotent by claiming that cool and uncool are counterparts to each other. To summarize, if a God is omniscience, then he must know the existence of uncool. If he is omnipotent and maximum cool, he will promote coolness to the maximum. However, we observe that there are uncool things which are against God’s will to promote coolness and which God cannot make them cool. Therefore, a God that is omniscience, omnipotent and maximally cool cannot exist. Works Cited J. L. Mackie, Evil and Omnipotence, Mind, New Series, Vol. 64, No. 254. (Apr. , 1955), pp. 200-212. In Pascal’s Wager, Pascal concludes that rationality requires people to wager for god. He bases his argument on mainly three premises. The first premise is his construct of the decision matrix of rewards. The second premise suggests that we are required by rationality to assign positive and not infinitesimal probability to God existing. The third premise states that we are required by rationality to perform the act of possible maximum expected utility. This essay will argue that Pascal’s Wager does not demonstrate solid prudential reasons for us to believe in God, by showing the third premise is not necessarily true. We consider that it is not in all cases that we are required by rationality to maximize expected utility. In Pascal’s Wager, we pay ‘one life’ to wager for God and obtain infinite expected utility. Paying finite amount to play a game with infinite expectation appear to be at our interests and can therefore serve as a prudential reason for us to wager for God. However, in certain cases, this action could be regarded as absurd and alternatively, and to the contrary, taking intuitively sub-optimal actions would actually maximize the expected utility. For example, the St. Petersburg paradox could be representative of this kind of situations. In the St. Petersburg game (Martin, 2011), we keep flipping a coin until we get a coin. The total number of flips, n, yields the prize which equals $2n. There are infinite sum of flips possible, so we have infinite number of possible consequences. The expected payoff of each consequence is $1 and therefore the ‘expected value’ of the game, which equals the sum of the expected payoffs of all the consequences, will be an infinite number of dollars. Then, intuitively we will be willing to play the game as long as we only need to pay a finite number of dollars, given that the ‘expected value’ of the game is infinite. However, Hacking (1980) suggested that â€Å"few of us would pay even $25 to enter such a game. † If we were to pay $25 for the game, half of the time we receive $2 and one quarter of the time the game pays $4, so the probability to break-even is less than one in twenty five. Still, because of the very small possibility of the number of flips to be greater than $25, the expected payoff of the game is larger than the $25 payment. According to standard Bayesian decision theory (Martin, 2011), we should play this game. Then again, because of the very small possibility of getting high enough payment, it is very likely that we will need to flip a coin longer than our physical possibility. In that sense, it will be absurd to pay this finite amount and flip longer than physical constraints for the infinite expected payoff. Therefore, it is not always true that rationality will require us to perform the act that yields maximal expected utility. In the St. Petersburg game we experiment infinitely many trials which yield infinite expectation. In Pascal’s wager, we have a single-trial which also yields infinite expectation. It seems natural for Pascal to assume that expectation is a good guide to solve this decision problem. However, according to Hajek (2012), we need to take variance into consideration to make better decision, because in this one-time shot, a large variance could lead us to an outcome which is much worse than the expectation. When the variance is small, it is probable to get an outcome close to the expectation. However, the further the distribution of outcomes spreads out, the more likely it is to get a bad outcome, and the less compelling the third premise seems to be. Assuming that the expectation of wagering for God is infinite, we can calculate the variance of the outcomes of the wager. Given the infinitely good of the good outcome and the status quo of the bad outcome, the variance is infinite. In the case of an infinite variance, due to our risk-aversion, we might be better off choosing to minimize variance than maximizing our expected utility. Indeed, if f2 is made as low as possible, the variance of wagering for God would be much greater than wagering against God. If the probability of the probability of receiving infinite good, is made as low as possible, the resulted variance might make we deviate much further away from the expected utility in an undesirable direction. Both cases above could happen, and if they do, we would feel less compelled by our rationality to maximize our expected utility because the large variance could lead us to a situation that is much worse than expectation. To summarize, Pascal’s premise three is not necessarily true. This premise says that we are required by nationality to maximize expected utility where there is one available. However, the St. Petersburg paradox suggests that rationality does not always require us to maximize our expected utility. Furthermore, in consideration of large variance, expectation might not be a good measure of choiceworthiness (Hajek, 2012). Without the validity of premise three, we cannot draw the conclusion that rationality requires us to wager for God. Therefore, Pascal’s wager does not solidly demonstrate that we have prudential reasons to believe in God. Works Cited Hajek, Alan, Pascals Wager, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2012 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed. ), URL = http://plato. stanford. edu/archives/win2012/entries/pascal-wager/ Martin, Robert, The St. Petersburg Paradox, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2011 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = . Hacking, Ian, 1980, â€Å"Strange Expectations†, Philosophy of Science 47: 562-567. According to Pollock (1986), you might be a brain floating in a vat filled with nutrient fluid. You do not realize that you are a brain in a vat because this brain is wired to a computer program that produces stimulation in brain to cause experiences that are qualitatively indistinguishable from normal experiences of being a human being. The problem lies exactly in that whether you are a brain in a vat or not, everything seems to be the same to you. Many philosophers have attempted to prove that you are not a brain in a vat and their approaches seem to be valid. Among those, Moore’s argument and Putnam’s argument are two influential but different approaches. This essay tries to show that you cannot use either of these arguments to prove that you are not a brain in a vat. While going through Moore’s argument seems to be an easy way to show that you are not a BIV (brain in a vat), it is not difficult to show how this approach is flawed either. By Moore’s argument, first you open your eyes and form perceptual knowledge that you have hands. Then you deduce that you are not a BIV which does not have hands and thereby you come to know that conclusion. However, it should be argued in the first place that your senses are not reliable. As Descartes argued in Meditations (1986), while you might form the perception that you are wearing a dress in the dream, you are actually undressed in your bed. The flaw in the logic of this approach can be demonstrated in the following analogous story. You see an empty glass on a table. The glass looks orange and in fact it is. You form perceptual knowledge that the glass is orange. You deduce that it is not colorless and filled with orange juice. You thereby come to know that the glass does not appear orange to you because it is colorless with orange juice filled in it. By assuming that there is orange juice in the glass, you establish that the glass does not appear orange to you because it is colorless with orange juice filled in it. Here the problem is that there is no orange juice and you are trying to prove there is orange juicy by assuming its existence. For the same token, if you are a BIV, then the hands that you perceive are hands* produced by one feature of the computer program. The premise asserting that you form a perception of hands is assuming that you are not a BIV and therefore can form a perceptual knowledge of hands. This is begging the question because we want to prove that we are not BIV. Therefore, you cannot prove that you are not a BIV by going through Moore’s argument. Another famous discussion is Putnam’s semantic arguments. One problem of this approach is the narrow scope of the arguments. Putnam started his arguments by drawing analogy between the mental image of a Martian and that of a BIV. Claiming that Mars does not have tree, Putnam established that BIV’s utterance of ‘tree’ has a different referent from the referent of a non-BIV speaking of a tree. While it is possible that you have always been a BIV since you come into being, so you have never seen a tree that a non-BIV sees. It is also possible that you have lived certain part of your life as a non-BIV and then at some point you are made into a BIV. For example, if you recall in The Problems of Knowledge (Pollock, 1986), by the time that Margot tells Mike that he is a brain in a vat, he has been a brain in a vat for three months. According to Margot, Henry, or the brain in a vat that Mike sees, receives a fictitious mental life that merges perfectly into Henry’s past life. To merge perfectly, the language and its referents that the computer generates for Henry must be indistinguishable from those before his envatment. Similarly, if Mike has been speaking English up until three months ago when he was envatted, his utterance of ‘Margot’ after envatment must have the same referent as the one he had before. It must be that now his words retain the same English referents to the same contents in order to achieve a perfect merge (Brueckner, 2012). This perfect merge makes brain* in a vat* the same as BIV, which means whether you are BIV or not, you always speak English rather than vat-English. Because there are no differences in the languages between BIV and non-BIV, the semantic arguments have nowhere to start in this case. Unless you know with certainty that all BIVs have been BIVs since they came into beings, you cannot use semantic arguments to prove that you are not a BIV. To summarize, Moore’s arguments appear to be an easy solution to the problem of knowledge, but these arguments are begging the question and therefore cannot refute the brain-in-a-vat hypotheses. It seems that Putnam’s arguments are more compelling, but still they fail to rule out all possible versions of the brain-in-a-vat hypotheses. Therefore, you cannot prove that you are a non-BIV by using either of these arguments. Works Cited Descartes, Rene. Meditations on First Philosophy. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1960. Print. Pollock, John L. Contemporary Theories of Knowledge. Totowa, NJ: Rowman Littlefield, 1986. Print. Brueckner, Tony, Skepticism and Content Externalism, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2012 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed. ), URL = .

MADD: Mothers Against Drunk Driving Essay -- Expository Drinking Essay

MADD: Mothers Against Drunk Driving It is 2:20 in the morning when the phone rings. You are automatically startled and jump to pick it up after the second ring. That feeling in your stomach tells you that something is terribly wrong. It is the police on the other end of the line telling you that your daughter has been in a fatal accident. As the officer is talking, you seem to freeze and zone out. Your spouse is up now and takes the phone and talks to the officer to find out what is going on. You are in a state of shock as you both drive to the hospital so that you all can identify your daughter. When you become more coherent, you learn that a senseless fool who was drunk took your precious baby away from you. This is one phone call that parents all over America go to sleep praying every night that they will not get. It is horrifying to learn that your child has been in a car accident, but if the cause of the accident was a drunk driver then it is even worse. This is so because you know that it was someone’s cho ice to drink and drive and this led to the death of your child. Losing a child or a family member to drunk driving is hard fact to come to grips with. Losing someone you love is hard to deal with, yet when it is due to drunk driving it is hard for different reasons. There are support groups throughout the country that were created to aid people in dealing with the loss of some one that they loved. People who have to face these hardships need to know that there are others out there who want to help. Those suffering need to know ways in which they can support others in their same situation and ways in which they can help defeat the crime of drinking and driving. Probably the most famous group that helps people cope wi... ... audience and help get the message out that MADD wants to send. Mothers Against Drunk Driving is an organization that strives to stop drinking and driving, supports the victims of this crime and attempt to prevent underage drinking. This determined group of people is also known for the support that they give to the families of the victims. The websites of this organization are key in guiding those interested in helping or being helped. The websites are a great way to get involved in achieving their cause and learning more about MADD. Without the main website of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, some victims would go unsupported because of the lack of audiences. Works Cited MADD. 1 Oct. 2003. < http://www.madd.org/home/>. MADD Illinois. 2 Oct. 2003. (http://www.maddillinois.org/). MADD: Mothers Against Drunk Driving. 2 Oct. 2003. (http://www.madd.ca/).

Different Kinds of Joy Essay

The pursuit of happiness is a reoccurring theme in numerous novels. In the novel, Their Eye’s Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, what brings happiness differs to each character. To the main character Janie, happiness is found in love, but to her grandmother Nanny, happiness is found in security. At first, Janie does what Nanny wills her to. At the age of 16, Janie marries into security. She is safe, but unhappy. Still yearning for love, Janie runs away with Mr. Starks. With Starks, Janie is once again safe, but unhappy. Starks then passes away, and Janie finds her true love, Tea Cake. Through Tea Cake Janie re-realizes her dream of love and abandons Nanny’s dream of security, she descends into the muck with Tea Cake, learning to love life too. To find happiness, Janie has to step down from her pedestal and into the muck. Hurston efficiently uses this reverse metaphor to convey that happiness comes from mutual love, and that this can be found anywhere, even from the muck of society. Nanny’s ideals in life and Janie’s are different. To â€Å"take a stand on high ground† (p16) is the ideal for Nanny. Nanny wants Janie to marry into security. With security, Janie could be safe from the abuse that her grandmother and mother had experienced. At first, this is what Janie does even though it is not what she wants. She wants to be in love, â€Å"to be a pear tree—any tree in bloom! With kissing bees and singing of the beginning of the world! † (p11). When Janie finds this, she realizes what Nanny’s dream had done to her. She realizes that her dreams had been â€Å"pinched it in to [into] such a little bit of a thing that she could tie her grandmother’s neck tight enough to choke her† (p89). With this realization, Janie’s dream rekindles. She realizes that mutual love, him loving her, and her â€Å"wants (wanting) to want him†, is all she needs to find love in life and herself. Janie’s search for love ends with Tea Cake. Janie and Tea Cake are at opposite ends of the social spectrum when they meet. Janie is known as Mrs. Mayor Starks, while Tea Cake is known as a â€Å"player. † Even though Tea Cake can offer her no security, he can offer her love and acceptance. When first meeting, Tea Cake asks Janie to play checkers. Janie â€Å"found (finds) herself glowing inside. Somebody wanted (wants) her to play. Somebody thought (finds) it natural for her to play† (p96). Tea Cake sees Janie as woman, not a trophy wife. And because of this, Janie sees Tea Cake as a lover, not a lowlife. Once Janie is able to love Tea Cake, she learns to love the muck as well. Janie thinks, â€Å"if people think de same they can make it all right. So in the beginnin’ new thoughts had tuh be thought, and new words said† (p115). Janie has to experience new things with Tea Cake, like the muck, in order to love and understand him even more. Once she accepts the muck, she becomes a part of it. Sometimes Janie would think of the old days in the big white house and the store and laugh to herself† (p134). This is because like Tea Cake, the muck accepts her. â€Å"Only here, she could listen and laugh and even talk sometimes herself if she wanted to† (p134). Being in the muck is like being in love, except with place, and eventually with life. Even though the muck has no riches and is the lowest aspect in society, it doesn’t matter to Janie. In the muck, Janie is poor but she is accepted. Janie is loved, and Janie is happy. Janie has a dream of love and happiness, but her grandmother also has a dream of security. At first Nanny’s dreams overpowered her own, leading Janie into a secure but loveless marriage. Janie then becomes Mrs. Mayor Starks, which Nanny would have loved, but joy still eludes her. To find this joy, Janie has to find love. Then Tea Cake appears in her life, becoming her one and only. He gives her what she wants, a mutual love. Janie then moves to the muck with Tea Cake and learns to work. She is no longer Mrs. Mayor Starks, she is Janie. In the muck, she learns that love is trust and acceptance. She learns to find love in everything, even herself. Janie is now truly happy. Even in the lowest part of society.

bpo management system Essay

1. Introduction 1.1 Purpose This document describes the high level design for the CHART/EORS Intranet Mapping Application and the CHART Internet Mapping Application. The purpose of this design is to show the high-level technical approach to meeting the requirements defined in system requirements specification. This serves to identify the architecture of the system and high-level interactions between major system components. 1.2 Objectives Identify and describe the software architecture for the system. Provide  high-level approaches to various technical challenges. Provide a guide for future development efforts, such as detailed design and coding. 1.3 Scope This high level design encompasses the approach for meeting the requirements as defined in the documents CHART/EORS Intranet Mapping System Requirement Specification and CHART Internet Mapping System Requirement Specification. 2. System Architecture 2.1 Overview The following diagram shows the system architecture used by CHART mapping applications.  The system design utilizes web based multi-tier system architecture. The data storage is managed at the data tier by the databases. The main business logics are hosted in the two applications in the web server. Because mapping is an area that there are many requirements related to client side interactions with the graphic content of the application, application logics are partitioned based on the most appropriate location to execute them. Some are located on the client browsers to provide instantaneous feedback to the user. The general system operation flow involves the following: 1. Data updates from various sources such as the CHART II CORBA events, EORS data inputs, device and event editing modules are stored in the databases. 2. When a mapping application receives a mapping request, it sends the image map generation request to the ArcIMS map server. The ArcIMS server retrieves the map data from the databases and creates a rendering of the map and saves it as a raster image file. The mapping application generates HTML pages embedded with the image and sends it to the browser client. 3. For the CHART Intranet mapping client, the application also generates the dynamic content in VML format, which encodes the device and event information in vector format. This enables the application to update the dynamic data without having to reload the whole map image. This avoids the heavy load on the map server when the application scales up. 4. When the images and VML  data arrives at the client browser, the client displays the map to the user. The user can interact with this data on the client. 2.2 SQL Server and ArcSDE ArcSDE from ESRI allows managing of geographic information in commercial databases such as SQL Server, Oracle, DB2 and Informix. ArcSDE provides functionalities to efficiently store and retrieve spatial information using spatial indexing mechanisms. ArcSDE provides a set of API and administrative utilities that help manage the spatial data storage. For the CHART mapping systems, the combination of ArcSDE and SQL Server manages the spatial information in the relational database. ArcSDE adds spatial functionalities without disrupting standard SQL database capabilities. 2.3 Map Server (ArcIMS) ArcIMS includes a few components that will play important roles in the CHART mapping application. The workhorse component that processes the data and generates maps is the spatial server. Managing the spatial servers is the ArcIMS Application Server, which monitors each spatial server’s activity and brokers map requests to the least busy spatial server. The detailed interaction of a map request is as the following: When the ASP.Net page receives a map request, it parses it and uses the ActiveX Connector object model to construct a map request. The connector then sends the map request in ArcXML format to the Application Server. The Application Server then finds the least busy spatial server and forwards the map request to it. The spatial server performs the query against the ArcSDE database, retrieves the data and renders them into a raster image file. The location of the file is then sent back to the connector and the ASP.Net page writes it back to the client as HTML page with the image embedded in it. 2.4 Web Server (IIS) .Net Framework and ASP.Net The web server hosts and publishes content to the client browser. In the case of the CHART mapping applications, most of the content is dynamic content generated by ASP.Net modules. When IIS recognizes a page being an ASP.Net module (an aspx extension), it passes the request to the .Net Framework to load the module and handle the request. The ASP.Net pages are then loaded into memory and executed. The .Net Framework provides many utilities such as garbage collection, tracing, just-in-time compilation that manages the execution of ASP.Net modules. The ASP.Net page modules are where the CHART mapping application logic is coded. The web server also provides security via the Secured Socket Layer (SSL), allowing interactions between the user’s browser and the web server to be encrypted when necessary. 2.5 Security 2.5.1 Network Level Security Network layer security will be managed by the network security configurations like firewall and RSA secure ID. 2.5.2 Secured Socket Layer (SSL) MDOT has a certificate server to provide digital certificates for the SSL configuration. The server name must remain consistent with the certificate. All links shall use the same server name, otherwise, if the server is referred using an IP address or a local server name, etc., the user will see an alert indicating the certificate is in-consistent with the resource. IIS supports the configuration of one folder in the web application requiring SSL while other portion does not. The session information remains consistent between SSL portion of the web site and the non-SSL portion. 2.5.3 Enterprise User Enters Read-Only View Many of the CHART mapping functionalities are for display and reviewing data, i.e. a read-only view. The design allows enterprise viewers and CHART users to access the read-only portion of the web site without having to input user name and password. This also enables CHART users to reach the viewing area without having to enter their login information again. When system receives a user request to enter the secured area, the system checks whether the current session has been authenticated. If not, system displays login screen. The user shall enter their CHART user name and password. Upon receipt of the user name and password, the system checks it  against the CHART II database’s user tables. If they are authenticated, the system stores the user information in the session. The session will be managed in the server until the configured timeout expires. All subsequent requests from the same user session will inherit the same authorization information for the user. 2.5.4 CHART User Enters Editing Area Other applications, like future versions of CHART II and CHART Lite, can launch the map editing URL via the HTTPS protocol. The user name and password can be sent via https request. The system verifies their authentication information against the CHART II user database using an OLEDB/ODBC connection. If the authentication information is correct, the system will store this information in the session. The user will be redirected to the map page. If the authentication is rejected, the user request will be redirected to the login screen to reenter the authentication information. Associating a CHART user with an op-center/default map view area: Based on CHART II R1B3 database design, users are not associated with an op-center; rather, the user specifies an op-center during logon. In order to display a default map view area based on an op-center, an external application launching the CHART mapping application will also need to pass in the operation center name to initialize the map to the associated extent. Passing user name and password in URL request: The mapping site shall have a module that verifies the user name and password, then forward the page to the map page, hence avoiding showing the password on URL address box. At the current time, without the full integration with CHART II and CHART Lite, the system will expect plain text user name and password. In the future, an encryption/decryption algorithms agreed between the systems can be added to achieve higher security. 2.5.5 EORS Security Currently, the EORS security has not been implemented. EORS functions will be hard-coded with security configuration. 3. Network Configuration The design above depicts CHART network configuration as the Internal network, a Demilitarization Zone (DMZ) network for hosting the web server and connecting out to the external Internet network. There will be two firewalls, one between the Internet and the DMZ network and another one between the DMZ network and the internal network. The map server and database servers are to be hosted in the internal network for maximum security. The initial configuration calls for two physical computers to host the map servers and database servers. In the future, if the system needs to scale up, additional physical servers can be added. The Intranet web server can optionally be hosted on the load-balanced virtual server too. 3.1.1 Map Server Load Balancing The design achieves load balancing by a combination of Windows 2000 Advanced Server Network Load Balancing (NLB) Service and the ArcIMS Application Server. The system utilizes two physical server computers. The two servers are configured with NLB. NLB works on the TCP/IP level. Any incoming traffic from web server to the virtual server IP address is load balanced between the two application servers by NLB. ArcIMS Application Server operates at the application level, monitoring each spatial server’s load and operation. When a spatial server is busy, it directs the map request to idling spatial server(s). Each physical map server hosts one ArcIMS Application Server and two ArcIMS Spatial Server instances. An application server failure forces NLB to direct new connections to the remaining application server. When the failed server is recovered, new client connections should once again be shared between the two servers. The two spatial server instances are â€Å"cross registered† to the application servers. As shown in the diagram, Spatial Server A1 and A2 are registered to Application Server B and A correspondingly. This arrangement ensures that when a spatial server is down, the application server can still  utilize the spatial server from the other server to serve the map request and the application server continue to function. Also, this configuration also allows ArcIMS to load balance at the Spatial Server level as opposed to just the network traffic level, which is what NLB provides. This configuration can withstand an Application Server failure, a Spatial Server failure, a simultaneous Application/Spatial Server failure or hardware failure of one of the physical map servers. Using two map servers with network load balancing should provide high-availability load balanced ArcIMS web site. 3.1.2 Database Load Balancing By running two SQL Server and ArcSDE instances with NLB to balance the load, the system can achieve high availability at the database server layer. The database servers are completely independent and share no hardware components. This type of availability is achievable with the standard edition of SQL Server. The two database servers are setup with Transactional replication. One of the two SQL Servers is configured as the publisher and the other one as a subscriber. All the data modification such as insert, delete and update will be performed on the publisher and changes are replicated to the subscriber. Transactional replication can provide very low latency to Subscribers. Subscribers receiving data using a push subscription usually receive changes from the Publisher within one minute or sooner, provided that the network link and adequate processing resources are available (latency of a few seconds can often be achieved). When the web server and map server requests use the virtual IP address on the load-balanced group of database servers, they are directed to the database server with the least amount of load. If one of the database servers goes down due to hardware failure, NLB detects that this server is down and no longer directs database requests to this machine. The remaining machine handles the database requests and apart from a slight drop in performance the users are unaware that a database server has failed. When the hardware is fixed the offending machine can be brought back online. One limitation exists for this design. It happens when the publisher database is down. In this situation the data updates cannot be committed until the publisher database comes back. But at the same time, all read access from the Internet and Intranet server could still be directed to the secondary server. In the case when the publisher data is going to be down for extended time period, system configuration need to allow system administrator to change the configuration so that the replica will serve as the main database. Compared with clustering solution, this system design provides the maximum database availability and performance benefit. The databases that need to be replicated would include: 1. Background map database. Background map data does not change often. A snapshot replication is sufficient for replicating data updates in one database to the other. 2. CHART/EORS Spatial Database CHART/EORS spatial database stores CHART and EORS device and event information with spatial data. They are dynamically updated throughout the day. Transactional replication will be setup to ensure that data change in one database gets replicated to the other one. 3. SDE metadata. In general, the system can continue to provide access of map and data to both the Internet and Intranet users in the case of failure of any one component in the system. The only exception is that when the publisher database is down, the new data cannot be updated into the system. Users will get delayed information. 3.1.3 DMZ Configuration CHART is currently implementing a Demilitarization Zone (DMZ) network to enhance the network security. This entails creating a separate network for the web server computer(s) and separating it from the internal network with a firewall. In an ideal world, the DMZ would have no physical connection to the internal network. This would require two separate map server setups to serve the  Internet and Intranet users. The recommended way to implement is to disallow any access from the DMZ to the internal network, but allow access from the internal network to the DMZ. In other words, allow out-bound connections. On each of the ArcIMS server computers, mount a network drive to a shared drive on the Web server. Each ArcIMS spatial server would write the output raster image files to the location on the web server to be delivered to the Internet client browsers. 4. Database Organization To reduce the dependency and operation interference between the spatial data and the attribute data, the EORS spatial database and CHART spatial database will be created as two SQL Server databases. To reduce the performance overhead when joining data between the spatial and attribute data, the EORS spatial database will reside on the same database server(s) as the EORS database. 5. Technical Challenges 5.1 Map Display Mechanism CHART Intranet mapping application requires that changes in event and device data be reflected on all map clients in a near-real-time fashion (within 5 seconds). To do so via the traditional raster map publishing mechanism will result in all clients retrieving updated map every 5 seconds or at least when event/device status update requires a new map to be generated. When there is large number of users of the system, it will result in a high map server load in a concentrated short time period. To resolve this issue, the project team reviewed various technical approaches and summarizes their advantages and disadvantages as the following: 5.1.1 Raster (JPEG, GIF or PNG) Image This is a popular approach that utilizes the basic image display functionality of web browsers. It utilizes the server processing power efficiently. The disadvantages are that the images have limited client side intelligence, leaving most of the computation concentrated on the server. It’s capability of handling large number of concurrent map requests is limited. Generally, one map server can support 4-8 requests per second. For  CHART’s situation, when an event changes status, if a new map image needs to be generated, it would be about 40 requests per second (200 users at 5 second update interval). Many servers will be required to support the load. With the license fee involved with using GIF format, we will not use GIF for map publishing. Compared with JPG format, PNG graphics do not have the â€Å"bleeding† effect inherent with the JPEG compression algorithm. With the map displaying lines rather than continuous tone images, it is much cleaner. PNG also results in a smaller file, which translates into faster download times for client. The only JPG advantage is server side image generation times. It is recommended to utilize PNG for the Intranet application to produce highest quality images for standardized IE browser while utilizing JPG for the Internet to allow for support of as many browsers as possible. Also, the reduction in image processing time should deliver better web image generation performance. 5.1.2 XML Based Vector Graphics 5.1.2.1 Vector Markup Language (VML) VML is a XML based W3C standard in describing vector graphics. Basically, it encodes the vector coordinates of points, lines and polygons in XML format. The support of VML is included in Internet Explorer 5.0 and later. There is no download needed to display VML encoded vector graphics. It also has built-in support for style sheet and scripting. This makes it possible to modify the display properties and positions of the vector graphics using the JavaScript on the client-side browser. Using this functionality, we can dynamically update the display of devices and events. 5.1.2.2 Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Scalable Vector Graphics is another XML-based W3C standard format for vector graphics. Compared with VML, it requires Java or ActiveX based plug-in to be displayed. Also, based on review of the plug-ins (SVG Viewer by Adobe), there is not as much support for scripting as for VML. 5.1.3 ArcIMS Java Viewer ArcIMS includes a Java Viewer, which provides a Java Applet that can be customized to a certain extent to display vector encoded GIS data on the client side. It requires a download to the client. The Java Viewer reads vector data from ArcIMS feature server encoded using an ESRI proprietary compression format, which makes it difficult to implement special features such as WSMS offsetted road networks because they need to be offset dynamically based on map scale. 5.1.4 MapObjects Java MapObjects Java from ESRI provides a set of Java-based objects for GIS functionalities. It has an extensive set of functionality that can satisfy the requirements. But, it requires a license fee of $100/seat, or comparable server-based licensing. It also requires a download to client machine to run it. 5.1.5 Summary Based on the research above, the project team recommends the following design: Use raster map for background map display (background data with SHA grid map are often large amount of data, suitable for server side processing) Use XML data format to transport the device and event data from server to browser client. Use JavaScript to create and update the VML vector data elements to display the dynamic layers including all the CHART/EORS devices and events. The diagram above illustrates the map display mechanism: 1. Map server reads the spatial data from background database and sends the published map image to the client browser to be displayed as background. 2. Device and event information is broadcasted from the CHART II system in the form of CORBA events. 3. CORBA event listener receives the event broadcast and saves the data into CHART spatial database. 4. CHART/EORS device and event data are published in XML format to the client. Client browser parses the XML into a XML Document Object Model (DOM) using the XML parser. 5. The client browser then iterate through the DOM tree structure and create corresponding VML elements based on the XML device and event data. The VML elements are displayed on the top of the background raster map image. 6. At a pre-configured interval, the browser client retrieves update of device and event data from the IIS server in XML format and update the VML display  based on the updated information. 5.2 Automated Refresh of Device and Event Data CHART/EORS device and event information needs to be updated at a pre-configured interval. They should be updated separate from the background map to reduce the load on the map server. The technical approach to achieve this will be to use a hidden frame to send the request to retrieve updated device and event data and receive the response. The response will package the data in XML file to be parsed into a document object model (DOM) and display the data on map. The request can be to retrieve all data or only retrieve data newer than last retrieval. When the new device/event is received and it requires changing the display of the device/events, the style assignment for the elements can be changed to update the device and event display.   The VML elements will be sent using real-world coordinates (Maryland State Plane 1983). After the data has been retrieved to the client side, the VML map layers can be dynamically projected using the â€Å"local coordinate space†. When user zooms or pan the map, the VML will be projected using the updated coordinates to fit the new map extent without going back to the server to retrieve new data set. 5.3 Inter-Frame Client Script Synchronization The map page has a few frames and the browser loads them asynchronously. Scripts in one frame may call scripts in another frame that may not have been loaded. The approach to resolve this is to add client-side exception handling and verification routine to ensure that the script is called always after the frame is loaded. 5.4 Assigning and Editing Event Location The dynamic nature of VML elements in the browser allows adding and modifying VML elements by scripting. When the user clicks or drags the mouse on the map, client-side script manages the transformation of screen coordinates and real-world map coordinates. The coordinates are sent back to the server’s secured URL where the information is extracted and saved to the database. 5.5 Scalability The CHART mapping application serves not only the Intranet users, but also Internet browser clients. During emergency situations, the load on both the Internet and Intranet servers could get extremely high. The system must be able to scale up to serve large amount of users. The technical approach to solve this issue involves two main facets. As described in the network configuration section, the system will employ network load balancing and allows adding additional hardware in the future. The system should also be able to utilize the caching feature of IIS and ASP.Net to scale up without significantly increase hardware investment. ASP.Net allows caching configuration for individual page modules, such as whether the page is cached and how long it is cached. After the application is deployed, these caching settings can be configured on the web pages. For example, if it is determined that the Internet mapping can be up to 3 seconds late, by setting caching time to 3 seconds, all requests from the Internet will receive a cached response without creating additional load on the map and database server. 5.6 Exception Management and Recovery CHART II keeps its clients updated via a push model using the CORBA Event Service. The Event Service does not guarantee delivery; therefore it is possible for event data to be lost/dropped (although in practice, this is rare). To account for this possibility, the CHART Web Event Listener will refresh its information about the status of devices and traffic events from CHART II at a configurable interval. Also, each time the Event Listener is started, it will retrieve all relevant data from CHART II. Thus, the update model becomes a push model with an occasional pull to be safe. This process will be used to recover from the following situations: 1. The Event Listener was down and did not receive new data from CHART II. 2. CHART II CORBA event(s) occasionally dropped while the Event Listener is up and running. Another likely scenario is that the CHART II server or service(s) restart. After a typical restart, the CORBA Event Service CORBA objects will be  recreated with the same characteristics allowing the Event Listener to continue to automatically receive CHART II CORBA events. As the CHART II services will not be processing events during this time, no events are likely to be missed. Therefore, the Event Listener does not need to do anything special to handle a CHART II server or service(s) restart. Sometimes CHART II maintenance will require that new (and different) Event Service CORBA objects be created. This might happen during a CHART II upgrade, for example. In this case, the Event Listener will need to be restarted so that it can pick up the new objects. Since this type of maintenance does not occur often and the Event Listener restarting is fast, the restart can be handled as part of the CHART II upgrade procedures. 5.7 Integration with ASP Code in EORS and CHART Web Application The CHART Intranet Mapping, replacing the existing EORS mapping application, will still be launched as a separate window by a URL string with a few parameters identifying the district, view type, etc. The impact on EORS web application should be limited to modifying the URL links. The current CHART Internet Mapping site uses â€Å"include† statement to include site navigation pages from upper level CHART web site’s pages. When upgrading Internet Mapping to ASP.Net, â€Å"include† statement is no longer used. Instead, a ServerXMLHTTP request can be formulated to request the text from the included ASP page and merge them into the mapping ASP.Net pages. The limitation of this implementation would be that the ASP.Net application couldn’t share the session and application variables from the ASP application. Currently, there are only a couple of them, such as database connection string. The ASP.Net mapping application will maintain a separate set of application variables. 6. User Interface Design 6.1 Intranet Map Site User Interface Design Here following is a high-level frame structure for the Intranet mapping site: 1. AppFrame is the highest-level frame that includes all the child frames. On the top of the page, there will be the title frame, which will host the  CHART icon. Also inside the title frame will be a group of tabs, such as Traffic, Roadway Weather, Message Sign, etc. 2. ToolsFrame hosts the map navigation and other map related tools. The ToolsFrame will also host menu system that allows the user to bring up data and other detailed information. 3. HiddenFrame will be used to submit and receive information from the server. 4. ContentFrame is further divided to a map frame on the left and a data frame on the right. The user shall be able rearrange the frame boundary to give more space to the map or data area. Data frame will display data as well as legend, layer control and other items when needed. 5. PromptFrame will display the current tool selected and instructions for user activities. Here is a screen shot of the preliminary user interface design: 6.2 Internet Map Site User Interface The overall CHART Internet mapping web site design will stay the same as current web site. The site will stay as part of the overall CHART web site by including the CHART navigation menus into the site. The site will not be using frames; instead, all elements will be laid out as HTML tables. 7. References 1. CHART/EORS Intranet Mapping System Requirement Specification 2. CHART Internet Mapping System Requirement Specification 3. Security and ArcIMS – ESRI White Paper 4. ArcSDE Configuration and Tuning Guide for Microsoft SQL Server – ESRI White Paper 5. ArcIMS 4.0 High-Availability Configuration Testing Using Network Load Balancing –ESRI White Paper 6. Vector Markup Language (VML) Specification – W3C 8. Terms and Glossary ArcXML – ESRI’s map request/response specification in XML format CORBA – Common Object Request Broker Architecture CSS – Cascading Style Sheets DOM – Document Object Model ESRI – Environment System Research Institute GIS – Geographic Information System GML – Geography Markup Language NLB – Network Load Balancing SSL – Secure Socket Layer SVG – Scalable Vector Graphics VML – Vector Markup Language XML – Extensible Markup Language