What Is Pleiotropy Definition and Examples

Pleiotropy refers to the expression of multiple traits by a single gene. These expressed traits may or may not be related. Pleitropy was first noticed by geneticist Gregor Mendel, who is known for his famous studies with pea plants. Mendel noticed that plant flower color (white or purple) was always related to the color of the leaf axil (area on a plant stem consisting of the angle between the leaf and upper part of the stem) and  seed coat. The study of pleitropic genes is important to genetics as it helps us to understand how certain traits are linked in genetic diseases. Pleitropy can be spoken of in various forms: gene pleiotropy, developmental pleiotropy, selectional pleiotropy, and antagonistic pleiotropy. Key Takeaways: What Is Pleiotropy? Pleiotropy is the expression of multiple traits by a single gene.Gene pleiotropy is focused on the number of traits and biochemical factors impacted by a gene.Developmental pleiotropy is focused on mutations and their influence on multiple traits.Selectional pleiotropy is focused on the number of separate fitness components affected by a gene mutation.  Antagonistic pleiotropy is focused on the prevalence of gene mutations that have advantages early in life and disadvantages later in life. Pleiotropy Definition In pleiotropy, one gene controls the expression of several phenotypic traits. Phenotypes are traits that are physically expressed such as color, body shape, and height. It is often difficult to detect which traits may be the result of pleitoropy unless a mutation occurs in a gene. Because pleiotropic genes control multiple traits, a mutation in a pleiotropic gene will impact more than one trait.   Typically, traits are determined by two alleles (variant form of a gene). Specific allele combinations determine the production of proteins which drive the processes for the development of phenotypic traits. A mutation occurring in a gene alters the DNA sequence of the gene. Changing gene segment sequences most often results in non-functioning proteins. In a pleiotropic gene, all of the traits associated with the gene will be altered by the mutation. Gene pleiotropy, also referred to as molecular-gene pleiotropy, focuses on the number of functions of a particular gene. The functions are determined by the number of traits and biochemical factors impacted by a gene. Biochemical factors include the number of enzyme reactions catalyzed by the protein products of the gene. Developmental pleiotropy focuses on mutations and their influence on multiple traits. The mutation of a single gene manifests in the alteration of several different traits. Diseases involving mutational pleiotropy are characterized by deficiencies in multiple organs that impact several body systems. Selectional pleiotropy focuses on the number of separate fitness components affected by a gene mutation. The term fitness relates to how successful a particular organism is at transferring its genes to the next generation through sexual reproduction. This type of pleiotropy is concerned only with the impact of natural selection on traits. Pleiotropy Examples An example of pleiotropy that occurs in humans is sickle cell disease. Sickle cell disorder results from the development of abnormally shaped red blood cells. Normal red blood cells have a biconcave, disc-like shape and contain enormous amounts of a protein called hemoglobin. Comparison of sickle cells and normal red blood cells.   ttsz / Getty Images Plus Hemoglobin helps red blood cells bind to and transport oxygen to cells and tissues of the body. Sickle cell is a result of a mutation in the beta-globin gene. This mutation results in red blood cells that are sickle-shaped, which causes them to clump together and become stuck in blood vessels, blocking normal blood flow. The single mutation of the beta-globin gene results in various health complications and causes damage to multiple organs including the heart, brain, and lungs. PKU PKU Testing.   Scientifica / Getty Images Plus Phenylketonuria, or PKU, is another disease resulting from pleiotropy. PKU is caused by a mutation of the gene responsible for the production of an enzyme called phenylalanine hydroxylase. This enzyme breaks down the amino acid phenylalanine that we get from protein digestion. Without this enzyme, levels of the amino acid phenylalanine increase in the blood and damage the nervous system in infants. PKU disorder may result in several conditions in infants including intellectual disabilities, seizures, heart problems, and developmental delays. Frizzled Feather Trait This image illustrates aspects of the frizzle chicken phenotype. Adult homozygous frizzle chicken feathers curve away from the body.   Ng, Chen Siang, et al. PLoS Genet 8(7): e1002748. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1002748 The frizzled feather trait is an example of pleiotropy seen in chickens. Chickens with this particular mutated feather gene display feathers that curl outward as opposed to lying flat. In addition to curled feathers, other pleiotropic effects include a faster metabolism and enlarged organs. The curling of the feathers leads to a loss of body heat requiring a faster basal metabolism to maintain homeostasis. Other biological changes include higher food consumption, infertility, and sexual maturation delays. Antagonistic Pleiotropy Hypothesis Antagonistic pleiotropy is a theory proposed to explain how senescence, or biological aging, can be attributed to natural selection of certain pleiotropic alleles. In antagonistic pleiotropy, an allele that has a negative impact on an organism can be favored by natural selection if the allele also produces advantageous effects. Antagonistically pleiotropic alleles that increase reproductive fitness early in life but promote biological aging later in life tend to be selected for by natural selection. The positive phenotypes of the pleiotropic gene are expressed early when reproductive success is high, while the negative phenotypes are expressed later in life when reproductive success is low. SEM of sickle cell and normal red blood cells.   Callista Images / Getty Images Sickle cell trait is an example of antagonistic pleiotropy in that the Hb-S allele mutation of the hemoglobin gene provides advantages and disadvantages for survival. Those who are homozygous for the Hb-S allele, meaning that they have two Hb-S alleles of the hemoglobin gene, have a short life span due to the negative impact (damage to multiple body systems) of the sickle cell trait. Those who are heterozygous for the trait, meaning that they have one Hb-S allele and one normal allele of the hemoglobin gene, do not experience the same degree of negative symptoms and show resistance to malaria. The frequency of the Hb-S allele is higher in populations and regions where malaria rates are high. Sources Carter, Ashley Jr, and Andrew Q Nguyen. Antagonistic Pleiotropy as a Widespread Mechanism for the Maintenance of Polymorphic Disease Alleles. BMC Medical Genetics, vol. 12, no. 1, 2011, doi:10.1186/1471-2350-12-160.Ng, Chen Siang, et al. The Chicken Frizzle Feather Is Due to an ÃŽ ±-Keratin (KRT75) Mutation That Causes a Defective Rachis. PLoS Genetics, vol. 8, no. 7, 2012, doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1002748.  Paaby, Annalise B., and Matthew V. Rockman. The Many Faces of Pleiotropy. Trends in Genetics, vol. 29, no. 2, 2013, pp. 66–73., doi:10.1016/j.tig.2012.10.010.  Ã‚  Phenylketonuria. U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/phenylketonuria.

Evolution of Slavery in Justice Essay - 1183 Words

Slavery is immoral. Why? Because we hold this truth to be self-evident: that all men are created equal? Because life, liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness are unalienable rights endowed by our Creator? (â€Å"Declaration of Independence.† 1776.) Well, not all men are created equal. At least according to our Founding Fathers, African tribes, 18th century Europeans, the ancient Romans and Greeks, and †¦ the Bible. As a matter of fact, slavery has not been immoral from humanity’s (also to be interpreted as America’s) standpoint but for only 150 years. Why then can we so firmly and undeniably declare that slavery is immoral? The answer lies in the writings of great political visionaries like Solon, Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, Marx, and Lincoln.†¦show more content†¦Acknowledging the sanctity of human life was the first step towards the abolition of slavery. With the sanctity of human life comes Moses, Exodus, and the Ten Commandments. Moses delivered the Israelites from slavery and together they journeyed to Mount Sinai where God gave Moses the sacred stone tablets. These tablets were inscribed not only with the Ten Commandments, but also with new ethical laws that the Israelites were to obey. What tends to be lost in translation, however, is the specific laws regarding slavery. Hebrew men were allowed to purchase other Hebrew men as slaves, but they may only enslave them for a total of six years. The families belonging to the enslaved party will be handed over to the purchaser unless the slave was married beforehand. Men who bought Hebrew women as slaves did not have to release them after the six year period. Instead the man is only limited in the fact that he cannot sell her to foreigners. (Exodus 21:2-11 NLT.) Moses had seen the cruelties that befall slaves, so he attempted to define a more justifiable form of slavery. By freeing the Hebrew males after six years, Moses is acknowledging that there is a limit on how harsh the term of enslavement can be. In just three hundred years the morality of slavery has shifted from, â€Å"One man cannot harm another man’s slave,† to, â€Å"Slavery of certain people is only justifiable for a small number of years, and then they must be set free.† The foundation laid by the Code ofShow MoreRelatedJohn Locke: Second Treatise of Civil Government Essay900 Words   |  4 Pagesunder these circumstances is the person who has been wronged. The basic principle of justice is that the punishment should be proportionate to the crime. When victims are judging a crime; they likely to judge it of greater severity than an impartial judge. As a result, there will be miscarriages of justice. Slavery: Is the state of being in the absolute or arbitrary power of another. On Lockes definition of slavery there is only one way to become a legitimate slave. 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Supply of Gas in Australia-Free-Samples-Myassignmenthelp.com

Question: Analyze the Market type that usually Prevails in Supply of Gas in Australia. Answer: Introduction: Economics as a subject deals with market and market dynamics among other concepts. A market is generally known to be a place where buyers and sellers interact in order to maximize individual as well as overall welfare. Markets, however, can be of different types based on the nature of commodity, number of buyers and sellers and other determining factors. A perfectly competitive market is an extreme example of free market with no barriers and uniform distribution of market power among buyers and sellers (Kirzner 2015). However, there are obvious exceptions to this hypothetical market namely, oligopoly, monopolistic competition and monopoly. These are generally examples of imperfectly competitive ones, monopoly being the other extreme form of market. The report tries to analyze the market type that usually prevails in supply of gas in Australia. To study the market type and the consequences of that market on the concerned industry the report takes reference of the article named, Gas su pplier monopoly pricing hits domestic users hard: ACCC, by Stephen Letts (Abc.net.au, 2017). Storys Essence: Monopoly market implies the presence of single seller or seller group in an economy with innumerable buyers, thereby implying that the seller enjoys almost all of the market power and price making powers. The article takes into account the presence of monopoly pricing powers of the eastern state suppliers of gas and operators of pipelines. It tries to address the issue of misusage of this monopoly power by these gas providers in the country (Gillespie 2014). The assessment conducted by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission shows the presence of substantial evidences of monopoly pricing by majority of the gas providers in this region. In addition to monopoly pricing, the absence of appropriate and sufficient regulatory measures is also noticed in this market (Abc.net.au, 2017). Gas being one of the most essential household consumption commodity and a primary source of energy for Australian households, this issue raises concern among the government officials and policy mak ers. The commodity in conern being one of the primary essential ones, the suppliers are enjoying a tremendously high demand for their product, thereby gaining control of huge market power. On the other hand, monopoly power of these suppliers collectively and a presence of cost effectiveness are keeping out any kind of external competition out of the market, thereby making the consumers the direct sufferers of this issue (Ekelund Jr and Hbert 2013). The market though claimed to be highly regulated, in reality lacks proper regulatory measures, with even less than twenty per cent of the east cost suppliers coming under the regulations of the National Gas Law of the country. The industry also suffers from lack of transparency regarding imposition of restrictions and policy implications thereby affecting the clientele adversely (Nelson et al. 2013). Economic Interpretations: Monopoly market necessarily implies the presence of full market power in the hand of the supplier, as he is the only one supplying the product, which in general is assumed to have considerably high demand. The only interest of a monopolist is necessarily maximization of his own profit. The seller being a price-maker and not a price-maker, in the long run he is expected to earn economic profit as the surplus generated is attributed to him solely (Longley 2013). From the above figure, it can be seen that, in this market, due to a presence of difference between the cost of production and the price at which it is sold there is presence of economic profit for the supplier in the long ring unlike that of the perfectly competitive market (Rios, McConnell and Brue 2013). The above discussion implies that, in this scenario due to the presence of monopoly power in the hand of the gas providers and a simultaneous absence of appropriate regulatory policies on these providers, they are trying to maximize their economic profit and to do that they are resorting to stiff monopoly pricing in this market (Abc.net.au, 2017). Policy Recommendations: The continuous and stiff monopoly pricing by the gas suppliers cartel and consequent sufferings of the direct consumers of the product, which includes the households of the Australian economy, can be controlled with the help of correcting restrictive policy measures on part of the government. The projected price hike in this sector can be curbed to considerable extent with the help of price control mechanisms such as imposition of price ceilings on these producers which will force them to keep their prices below a certain maximum level. Monopoly power of these producers can also be decreased by opening the market to foreign competitors, who will help in taking the overall price levels down to certain extent (Cramton and Ockenfels 2012). Conclusion: It is evident from the above discussion that currently Australia is facing a monopolistic situation in the market of one of its most essential household commodity. This is posing as a matter of great concern for the Australian government. The absence of proper regulatory mechanism in the market being the main reason for this monopoly pricing, imposition of proper price ceilings and opening the market to potential competitors of these gas providers, can solve this particular problem substantially References Abc.net.au (2017).Gas supplier monopoly pricing hits domestic users hard: ACCC. [online] ABC News. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-22/gas-supplier-monopoly-pricing-hits-domestic-users/7350338 [Accessed 24 Aug. 2017]. Cramton, P. and Ockenfels, A., 2012. Economics and design of capacity markets for the power sector.Zeitschrift fr Energiewirtschaft,36(2), pp.113-134. Ekelund Jr, R.B. and Hbert, R.F., 2013.A history of economic theory and method. Waveland Press. Gillespie, A., 2014.Foundations of economics. Oxford University Press, USA. Kirzner, I.M., 2015.Competition and entrepreneurship. University of Chicago press. Longley, N., 2013. Introduction. InAn Absence of Competition(pp. 1-7). Springer New York. Nelson, T., Nelson, J., Ariyaratnam, J. and Camroux, S., 2013. An analysis of Australia's large scale renewable energy target: Restoring market confidence.Energy Policy,62, pp.386-400. Rios, M.C., McConnell, C.R. and Brue, S.L., 2013. Economics: Principles, problems, and policies. McGraw-Hi

The winner is one Review Essay Example

The winner is one Review Paper Essay on The winner is one With the work of Paulo Coelho I already knew before reading this book, and without guile, I can say that it works I sympathize. Therefore, the new novel of his, I began to read, while in some anticipation, especially considering the intriguing title. The plot, I must say, is not devoid of originality, though it can not be called a genius. Rich successful Russian businessman, who some time ago abandoned his wife, arrives at the Cannes Film Festival, where at the moment are his ex-wife with a new lover. Arrives and begins one by one to kill random people. Guilt him, however, almost no glozhit, because he believes that this is his mission and for the sake of love should go all out! In parallel with the storyline develops and sideline. And it demonstrates the history of people trying to get into the world of fashion and beauty, movies and celebrities. And impressions of people have already achieved in this area very top. Reveals the basic principles of functioning of the world of fashion and cinema. For me, the story line of a side is quite clear, there is much to ponder. To reflect on the true values ​​of the person, his aspirations and meet the expectations of rich and poor, goals and achievements of greed, deceit and the influence of money on the fate and behavior of the people and of how false and strange is the world of fashion and a great movie. We will write a custom essay sample on The winner is one Review specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The winner is one Review specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The winner is one Review specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer With the storyline difficult. In any case, I, as yet, failed to grasp its meaning and to understand what the author wanted to convey. The intertwining of these complex emotions such as love, jealousy, hatred, taking sometimes very intricate shapes. And the ending of this story another confirmation of this. Ironically, but I was fascinated by the protagonist (Igor), but I can not justify his murder. If it happened in real life and touched me, that the victim would have been me or one of the people close to me, I would have called him a crazed, unfeeling brute, which is not clear from what motives imagines himself the supreme arbiter. In fact, in the shower until the last warmth something like hope that it will not get caught. Strange :) The style is not quite standard. The narrative throughout the book switched with the story about the thoughts and actions of one character to another, being diluted biographies and experiences of persons of tritium. All the action of the book takes place in the context of a single day. In summary we can say that this book deserves to be read and is an actual relatively prosperous today the world of fashion and cinema. And much love and so much the more is a timeless and classical theme.

Business Process Management and Reengineering

Introduction A few decades ago, many businesses experienced slow change or remained static due to poor management or non-visionary leadership practices. However, an enormous difference exists between the ancient and current business scenarios.Advertising We will write a custom article sample on Business Process Management and Reengineering specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Contemporary organisations are characterised by tremendous changes due to continued innovation in the field of technology. This situation has ensured a neck-to-neck competition among various business entities. Highly performing businesses have to adapt to the ever-shifting plans and processes that are implemented to capture new market niches. Various changes in management orientations have led to emergence of practices such as Business Process Management (BPM), Business Process Reengineering (BPR), and Enterprise Integration (EI) among others. This article review s two organisational approaches that include Business Process Management and Business Process Reengineering by exploring their differences and benefits to modern enterprises. Business Process Management (BPM) and Business Process Reengineering (BPR) BPM is an approach that is systematically implemented in an enterprise to ensure improvement of all automated and non-automated processes. It plays a crucial role in linking together all the activities in the entity. For example, there must be a well-stipulated collaboration between the organisation, information technology, and staff. This approach is accomplished to align the staff with varying business processes and information (Ryan, Stephen, Wah 2009). In addition, BPM ensures that the enterprise is able to define, apply, and manage all its activities that pertain to interactions among employees and implementation of various types of applications.Advertising Looking for article on business economics? Let's see if we can help y ou! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More This situation promotes efficient handling of the vast dynamic change procedures and processes (Ryan, Stephen, Wah 2009). Business process management must portray features that include modelling of methods that dictate the development and performance of various applications and integration of technologies. For instance, the management of technological business processes demands deployment of competent personnel who can use the internet to retrieve data and display information with a view of maintaining efficient running of all processes in the organisation (Chen, Chiang, Storey 2012; Ryan, Stephen, Wah 2009). BPM must also exhibit a thoroughgoing monitoring technique of various business activities. The reports of these activities must be shown promptly to ensure smooth and express flow of information (Chen, Chiang, Storey 2012). Most performing managers practice BPM through warranting effective re-designing, implementatio n, documentation, monitoring of activities, control, and measuring of any activities that are carried out. Such managers also embrace flexibilities through the BPM cycle that includes vision, design, modelling, execution, monitoring, and optimising processes (Leymann, Roller, Schmidt 2002). This situation ensures efficient implementation of change processes with a view of achieving organisational goals. Various components that managers who practice BPM should consider include laying out robust platforms for modelling and implementing applications and business rules (process engineering). They should also apply proper business analysis with a view of identifying management issues, current trends, and opportunities.Advertising We will write a custom article sample on Business Process Management and Reengineering specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Figure 1: showing sample Business Process Management with respect to Information Techn ology (Gulledge Sommer 2002). The reaction to such issues is paramount to the overall success of the organisation (Ravesteyn Ronald 2010). Other components that have to be considered in BPM include proper handling and management of contents that pertain to proper documentation of company information. However, modern businesses are highly advised to use electronic means for data storage. Lastly, the managers must embrace collaboration through minimisation of barriers that exist among the different departments (Ravesteyn Ronald 2010). The diagram above summarises how a BPM tool can be implemented in an organisation to improve its processes through integration of activities, systems, and personnel. Business Process Reengineering Redesigning the performance of activities in an organisation is termed as process reengineering. Many enterprises worldwide have implemented business process redesigning to suit organisational goals. Therefore, Business Process Reengineering (BPR) is a rapid and radical change that involves restructuring various business processes or the whole enterprise with an aim of improving production, quality, and cycle time.Advertising Looking for article on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More This process is initiated by the management through formulation of new strategies that are aimed at improving the value of the organisation to meet the consumer needs (Ryan, Stephen, Wah 2009; Al-Mashari, Irani, Zairi 2001). The process of reengineering ensures that most of the unproductive aspects such as costly processes that are difficult to implement in production are eliminated. The approach encompasses the reorganisation of the operational aspects of the entity to come up with the relevant cross-functional processes. It also includes the implementation of technology in data processing to improve communication and decision-making processes (Al-Mashari, Irani, Zairi 2001). However, BPR demands a proper lay out of activities that are in tandem with various factors that affect the operations of the enterprise. At the outset, a refocus must be ensured to include company values that are related to the needs of consumers. Secondly, the processes must be redesigned using the releva nt and current information technology systems to guarantee improved production and flow of activities. In addition, the business enterprise must be reshaped to capture the cross-functional and responsible teamwork based on end-to-end processes. Other aspects that the designers must take into account include rethinking of issues that are related directly or indirectly to the organisation, workforce, and overall improvement of the business processes (Caron, Jarvenpaa, Stoddard 1994). Proper implementation of BPR ensures that enterprises reduce costs and cycle time. This state of affairs is achieved through redesigning the operational processes to get rid of unproductive processes and underperforming employees who implement such procedures (Caron, Jarvenpaa, Stoddard 1994). Various operational groups that exist in the organisation are rationalised in a way that is relevant to the required expertise to reduce aspects of management layers. This situation promotes the flow of informatio n. It also ensures minimisation of errors during the production processes. Other companies also practice business process reengineering to improve the quality of products through establishment of transparent and clear ownership of various organisational activities. This situation results in effective measurement of personnel performance due to efficient feedback. Other reasons that compel business entities to embrace BPR include improving the competitive nature of the enterprise, expansion purposes, and urge to embrace current technology among others with a view of ensuring the continuance of the enterprise (Caron, Jarvenpaa, Stoddard, 1994). Figure 2: Sample flow chart of BPR in a company (Aguilar-Saven 2004). Differences between BPM and BPR Business Process Management Business Process Reengineering It re-implements the processes in place It starts from scratch Low risks are involved There is higher risks involved There is a continuous change Change is done at a specific time that is suitable for redesigning processes The time taken to implement the process is less It takes a lot of time to implement BPR The outcome is always continuous The outcome is seen as drastic There are less expenses incurred There are more expenses incurred The culture of the organisation is not changed The culture of the organisation is changed Table 1: The table shows the differences between BPM and BPR. Advantages of Business Process Management The primary advantage of business process management is that it enables efficient planning and alignment of organisational functions to meet the needs of the consumers. It also ensures that the executive management provides clear directions, monitors, and measures the available resources to improve production while minimising costs that are incurred in the process (Jennings, Norman, Faratin, O’Brien, Odgers 2000). Implementation of the BPM also results in the improved efficiency, minimisation of errors, transpar ency, and accountability of processes. This state of affairs is achieved through proper monitoring of activities and expenditures. Accurate and timely information is crucial for the management of organisational processes since it promotes opportune formulation of production decisions (Jennings et al. 2000). Another advantage of the BPM is its ability to ensure simplicity and adherence to regulations. This state of affairs is realised through maintenance of clear records that are in tandem with the government protocols concerning the operations of the entity. The updated records ensure cost reductions that can be incurred due to non-compliance. There is also avoidance of wastages that are related to BPM. Regular performance of BPM promotes identification of errors, wastes, and areas that result in inefficiency (Trkman 2010). It also creates safer working conditions. Finally yet importantly, the BPM enables the management to ensure improved production through frequent learning during the operations (Trkman 2010). Summary of BPM and BPR From the above detailed examination of the BPM and BPR, it can be concluded that the two processes are complement each other in the realisation of organisational targets. It is clear that implementation of BPR prompts the enterprise to change its vision, value, and mission. Therefore, organisations should scrutinise this approach in depth to ensure that the risks that are involved in its execution are covered. BPR implementation also leads to restructuring of various critical aspects of the organisation such as the cooperate culture. This approach is different from the BPM, which allows for flexibility. BPM deals with a few processes at a given time. Furthermore, there are no risks involved in implementing BPM. However, more expenses accompany the application of BPR; hence, it increases the operational risks (Leymann, Roller, Schmidt 2002). Conclusion The article has critically examined BPM and BPR processes that affect the norma l operations of any organisation upon their implementation. Nonetheless, it is realised that both of the operational processes are beneficial to the organisation since they are concerned with consumer needs. The BPM technique is more advantageous because it requires less time and cost of implementation. In addition, the strategy does not interfere with the company’s corporate culture. Its outcome is also continuous. On the other hand, the business process reengineering is perceived as expensive and time-consuming. Nonetheless, a drastic change in performance and outcome is always expected upon its application. Therefore, managers should focus on implementing the BPM since it does not interfere with the company’s culture. However, enterprises that require an overhaul of their organisations, a BPR technique can be beneficial, especially when the company culture, location, and values are to be changed. References Aguilar-Saven, R 2004, ‘Business process modeling: Re view and framework’, International Journal of production economics, vol. 90 no. 2, pp. 129-49. Al-Mashari, M, Irani, Z Zairi, M 2001, ‘Business process reengineering: a survey of international experience’, Business Process Management Journal, vol. 7 no. 5, pp. 437-55. Caron, J, Jarvenpaa, S Stoddard, D 1994, ‘Business reengineering at CIGNA Corporation: experiences and lessons learned from the first five years’, Mis Quarterly, vol. 18 no. 3, pp. 233-50. Gulledge Jr, T Sommer, R 2002, ‘Business process management: public sector implications’, Business Process Management Journal, vol. 8 no. 4, pp. 364-76. Jennings, N, Norman, T, Faratin, P, O’Brien, P Odgers, B 2000, ‘Autonomous agents for business process management’, Applied Artificial Intelligence, vol. 14 no. 2, pp. 145-189. Ko, R, Lee, S Lee, E 2009, ‘Business process management (BPM) standards: a survey’, Business Process Management Journal, vol. 15 no. 5, pp. 744-91. Leymann, F, Roller, D Schmidt, M 2002, ‘Web services and business process management’, IBM systems Journal, vol. 41 no. 2, pp. 198-211. Ravesteyn, P Batenburg, R 2010, ‘Surveying the critical success factors of BPM-systems implementation’, Business Process Management Journal, vol. 16 no. 3, pp. 492-507. Trkman, P 2010, ‘The critical success factors of business process management’, International Journal of Information Management, vol. 30 no. 2, pp. 125-34. This article on Business Process Management and Reengineering was written and submitted by user Kat Farrell 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.

What field of business should you pursue based on your personality

What field of business should you pursue based on your personality So you’re thinking about pursuing business but have no clue where you would fit in best? Should you become a public accountant, a digital marketer, or maybe even human resources? The possibilities are endless in business. You are bound to find your perfect match based on what you enjoy doing. This quiz is perfect in helping you decide where your skills will shine in the business field.  Source [ Playbuzz ]

Innovative Organizations in the UAE Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Innovative Organizations in the UAE - Essay Example It also merged with GasCities to improve production and increase its presence in the market across Europe and America. The firm is also a top innovative organization because it engages in the acquisition, discovery and expansion of fuel concessions (Al, 238). The other top innovative firm is the Emirates Airline that operates cargo and passenger services. The company is engaged in sports sponsorship of top football clubs across Europe, such as Real Madrid, PSG and Arsenal among others (Wilson 32). This helps it with increasing its market base beyond the UAE borders with the aim of beating competition from Etihad Airways. The company also comes up with considerable offers that favor international passengers with its continuous commercial flights. Emirates Airline is a recognized brand that launches latest flights from the Boeing Company to enhance luxury, class and comfort (Wilson 56). It is significant to launch and diversify the products and services to create a distinction from the competitors’ products. As a result, Emirates Airlines and Crescent Petroleum are among the innovative organizations in the

MANAGEMENT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

MANAGEMENT - Essay Example Students are multi-dimensional and understand all facets of what the program entails. Additionally, this programs offers interactive learning. One of the best methods for learning is interactive learning that is reached via collaboration. Conducive research shows that interactive learning is one of the best methods to engage students in a simulative learning. As a matter of fact, this new type of learning of application has allowed students to truly be more engaging. It breaks away from the traditional scope of learning in a conventional classroom that extends beyond writing boring notes, engaging in useless writing drills and discussion. The interactive learning has harnessed learning because it allows students to engage in a learning environment. For instance, the application has a feature of an ACT test flashcards. If the student gets a question wrong, the APP will prompt the student to justify why they picked that certain answer. A weakness in the program is that Miami Dade College does not have a vast network of corporations that seek the potential candidates out of universities. This can be problematic because students, who may not have the adequate resources to seek other resources to find One of the major opportunities is the program is the fact that online program can be embedded to attract longer distance students. Technology and media has drastically facilitated this cause. One of the greatest benefits of E-learning that it provides dynamic technology it provides to learning. Undoubtedly, E-learning has been the pinnacle and focal point of learning. Conventional school learning relies on endless drills, homework and lecture notes. Online or virtual learning also has been gained a lot of the importance due to the technological revolution. Some teachers in many times complain that the steady use of technology is hampering the real growth of the students with many side effects. In my paper will tries to discuss the cause

Suitable media(a song, poem, cartoon, etc.) that can be used to Essay

Suitable media(a song, poem, cartoon, etc.) that can be used to illustrate a concept - Essay Example These are organizational behaviors that are undesirable but they depict how employees would behave if they are demotivated and lost faith leadership about their leadership by thinking (which later influenced their actions) that their organization represents all that is â€Å"soulless and wrong!". The most obvious negative element present in Initech was the alienation of employees. The first kind of alienation was the inability of the Peter Gibbons, Michael Bolton, Samir Nagheenanajar and Milton Waddams to appreciate the fruits of their labor because they cannot concretely connect how their jobs contribute to the software they are creating that made that Peter to stare at his computer all day. They despised their work and this alienates them from it which their rebellious and antagonistic behaviors showed. As a result of the alienation from work, Peter et al felt alienated from themselves because they feel that their jobs are sucking the life out of them with Peter Gibbons remarking â€Å"We weren't meant to spend it this way. Human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day†. ... Workers fall into place of what they do by the rational legal authority vested to its bosses which in the movie Office Space case was Bill Lumbergh whom the protagonist workers hated because he represent all that is â€Å"soulless and wrong†. It is important to stress that despite Peter, Milton, Michael and Samir loathe of Bill, Bill still continue to lord over them as Vice President because the structure of the organization provided him the legal authority to be the boss no matter how hated he was. This set up is what Weber called to be the iron cage of bureaucracy that employees are still in the organization even if it is spent in Gibbons terms â€Å"filling out useless forms...and listening to eight different bosses drone on about mission statements† because they needed the job. In plain language, the job may suck but they have to be there to make a living because there are bills and mortgages to pay. There may be no prison bars but certainly, the formal offices whic h Weber described as the place they do their specialized skills and reason to be in the organization also felt like a prison cell. Thus, the person in the organization is diminished and turned into a soulless or alienated bureaucrat because he or she still has to be there no matter how despicable the job and organization is. The movie of course is an exaggeration just like any other narrative to underscore certain points of which the moviemakers intend to impart to its audience which in this case organizational behavior of discontented and unhappy employees. One of these exaggerations is the penchant of their boss Bill to write memos reflective of Weber’s nature of organization to abide by formal written communications which in this case,

Fuzzy Logic Technique for Image Enhancement

Fuzzy Logic Technique for Image Enhancement Abstract Now days applications should be require various types of images and pictures as sources of information for interpretation and analysis. Whenever an image is changed from one to another form such as, digitizing, scanning, transmitting and storing, some of the degradation always occurs at the output end. Hence, the output image has to go in a process called image enhancement which consists of a collection of techniques that need to improve the quality of an image. Image enhancement is basically improving image and its interpretation and perception of the information in digital images and providing good input for different other automated image processing techniques. The fuzzy set theory is always uncertainties (like it comes from the information available from situation such as darkness may result from incomplete, imprecise, and not fully reliable). The fuzzy logic gives a mathematical model for the representation and processing of good knowledge. The concept is depends upon i f-then rules in approximation of the variables likes threshold point. Also the Uncertainties within image processing tasks often due to vagueness and ambiguity. A fuzzy technique works as to manage these problems effectively. IndexTerms Fuzzy Logic, Image Processing, Image Enhancement, Image Fuzzification, Image Defuzzification Whenever an image is changed from one to another form such as, digitizing, scanning, transmitting and storing, some degradation is always occurs at the output stage. Hence, the output image has to go in a process called image enhancement. Image enhancement consists of a collection of techniques that need to improve the overall quality of an image. Fuzzy image processing is the approaches that understand, represent and process the images and their pixels with its values as fuzzy sets. The representation and processing is depending upon the selected fuzzy techniques and the problem to be solved. The idea of fuzzy sets is very simple and natural. For instance, if someone want to define a set of gray levels, one has to define a threshold for gray level from 0 to 100. Here 0 to 100 are element of this fuzzy set; the others do not belong to that set. The basis logic behind fuzzy technique is the basis for human communication. This observation depends upon many of the other statements about fuzzy logic. As fuzzy logic is built on the logics of qualitative description used in everyday language, fuzzy logic is very easy to use. A filtering system needs to be capable of reasoning with values and uncertain information; this suggests the use of fuzzy logic. II. FUZZY IMAGE PROCESSING OVERVIEW Fuzzy image processing techniques is not unique theory. It is a collection of different fuzzy approaches to image processing techniques. The following definition is to be regarded to determine the boundaries of fuzzy digital image processing: Fuzzy image processing is the approaches that understand, represent and process the digital images and their segments and also features as fuzzy sets. The representation of it and processing is always depending on the selected fuzzy techniques and on the problem which need to be solved [9]. Below a list of general observations is defined about fuzzy logic: Fuzzy logic is conceptually very easy to understand. The mathematical concepts behind fuzzy logic reasoning are simple. Fuzzy logic is important approach without the far-reaching complexity. Fuzzy logic is flexible. Everything is indefinite if you look closely enough, but more than that, most things are indefinite. Fuzzy reasoning prepared this understanding into the process rather than just theory. Fuzzy logic can model the nonlinear functions of mathematically complexity. One can create a fuzzy logic system to compare any sets of input and output data. This process is very easy by some of the adaptive techniques such as Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference Systems, which is already available in Fuzzy Logic Toolbox. Fuzzy logic can be design on the top of experience of experts. In case of neural networks, it must need training data and generate the outputs. But fuzzy logic will explain you about the experience of people who already understand the whole systems. Fuzzy logic can be mixed with any conventional control techniques. Fuzzy systems dont replace conventional control methods necessarily. Sometimes fuzzy systems increase them and simplify its implementation. Fuzzy logic is based on natural language communications. The basis for fuzzy logic is the basis for human communication and this observation explain many of the other statements about fuzzy logic as well. Actually Fuzzy logic is built on the structures of quality description used in everyday languages used for communications. Fuzzy logic is very easy to use. Natural language, which people used on a daily basis, has been comes by thousands of years of human history to be efficient. Sentences that are written in ordinary language always represent a triumph of efficient communication [3]. Fuzzy image processing has three stages: 1) Image Fuzzification 2) Modification of membership values 3) Image Defuzzification. Figure 1. Basic Fuzzy Image processing [5] The fuzzification and defuzzification steps are that in which we do not own fuzzy hardware. So, the coding of image data often called as fuzzification and decoding of the results called as defuzzification are the steps to process images with fuzzy techniques. The main thing of fuzzy image processing is in the intermediate stage that is modification of membership values (See Figure 1). After the image data are transformed from grey-level to the membership plane that is known as fuzzification is appropriate fuzzy techniques which modify the membership values which can be a fuzzy clustering and a fuzzy rule based approach and also it can be a fuzzy integration approach. The Fuzzy set theory Fuzzy set theory is the extension of crisp set theory. It works on the concept of partial truth (between 0 1). Completely true is 1 and completely false is 0. It was introduced by Prof. Lotfi A. Zadeh in 1965 as a mean to model the vagueness and ambiguity in complex systems [3]. Definition Fuzzy set A fuzzy set is a pair (A, m) where A is a set and m: A-> [0, 1]. For each, x A m(x) is called the grade of membership of x in (A, m). For a finite set A = {x1,,xn}, the fuzzy set (A, m) is denoted by {m(x1) / x1,,m(xn) / xn}. Let xà ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ½ A Then x is called not included in the fuzzy set (A, m) if m(x) = 0, x is called fully included if m(x) = 1, and x is called fuzzy member if 0 m(x) x à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ½A |= m(x)>0} is called the support of (A, m) and the set {x A | m(x)=1} is called its kernel. Fuzzy sets is very easy and natural to understand. If one want to define a set of gray levels one have to determine a threshold, say the gray level from 0 to 100. All gray levels from 0 to 100 are element of this set; the others do not belong to the set (See Figure 2). But the darkness is a matter. A fuzzy set can be model this property in better way. For defining this set, it needs two different thresholds 50 and 150. All the gray levels which are less than 50 are the full member of this set and all the gray levels which are greater than 150 are not the member of this set at all. The gray levels that are between 50 and 150 have a partial membership in the set. Figure 2. Representation of dark gray-levels with a fuzzy and crisp set. Fuzzy Hyperbolization An image I of size MxNand L gray levels can be considered as anarray of fuzzy singletons and out of which each are having a value of membership denoted its brightness relative to its brightness levels Iwith I=0 to L-1. For an image I, we can write in the notation of fuzzy sets: Where g, is the intensity of (m, n)th pixel and  µmn its membership value. The membership function characterizes a suitable property of image (e.g. edginess, darkness, textural property) and it can be defined globally for the whole image or locally. The main principles of fuzzy image enhancement is illustrated in Figure. Figure 3. Fuzzy histogram hyperbolization image enhancements [2] Image Fuzzification The image fuzzification transforms the gray level of an image into values of membership function [0à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦1]. 2 types of transformation functions are used, the triangle membership function, and Gaussian membership functions. A triangular membership functions is shown in Figure 4 and its equation is written as, Figure 4. Triangular membership functions The Gaussian membership function is shown in the Figure 5 and is characterized by two parameters {c, à Ã†â€™}. The equation for the Gaussian membership function is written as, Figure 5. Gaussian membership function Modification of Membership Function This process needs to change the values of the membership functions resulted from fuzzification process. In this algorithm, the shape of the membership function is set to triangular to characterize the hedges and value of the fuzzifier ÃŽÂ ². The fuzzifier ÃŽÂ ² is a linguistic hedge such that ÃŽÂ ² = -0.75 + ÃŽÂ ¼ 1.5, so that ÃŽÂ ² has a range of 0.5 2. The modification is carried out to the membership values by a hedges operator. The operation is called dilatation if the hedge operator ÃŽÂ ² is equal to 0.5 and it is called concentration if ÃŽÂ ² is equal to 2. If A is a fuzzy set and its represented as a set of ordered pairs of element x and its membership value is defined as ÃŽÂ ¼, then AÃŽÂ ² is the modified version of A and is indicated by below equation The hedge operator operates on the value of membership function as fuzzy linguistic hedges. Carrying hedge operator can be result in reducing image contrast or increasing image contrast, depending on the value of the ÃŽÂ ². The hedge operators may use to change the overall quality of the contrast of an image. Image Defuzzification After the values of fuzzy membership function has been modified, the next step is to generate the new gray level values. This process uses the fuzzy histogram hyperbolization. And this is due to the nonlinearity of human brightness perception. This algorithm modifies the membership values of gray levels by a logarithmic function: Where, ÃŽÂ ¼mn (gmn) is the gray level in the fuzzy membership values, ÃŽÂ ² is hedge operator, and gmn is the new gray level values. Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) Figure 6. Fuzzy Inference Systems Fuzzy inference is the process of mapping from the input-output using fuzzy logic. Mapping provides a basis from which it is possible to make the decisions. Process of fuzzy inference are mainly, the Membership Functions, the Logical Operations, and If-Then Rules. There are basically 2 types of fuzzy inference systems that is possible to implement in Fuzzy Logic Toolbox. 1) Mamdanitype and 2) Sugeno-type. These 2 types of inference systems vary in the way outputs are determined. Fuzzy inference systems has been successfully applied in fields such as data classification, decision analysis, automatic control and computer vision. As fuzzy is multidisciplinary, it can be used in fuzzy inference systems such as fuzzy-rule-based systems, fuzzy associative memory, fuzzy expert systems, fuzzy modeling, and fuzzy logic controllers, and simply fuzzy systems. Mamdanis fuzzy inference method is the most commonly used fuzzy method. Mamdanis method was the first control systems designed using fuzzy set theory. It was firstly proposed in 1975 by Ebrahim Mamdani [7] to control a steam engine and boiler combination by synthesizing a set of some linguistic control rules which can be obtained from experienced human operators. Mamdanis model was based on Lotfi Sades 1973 on fuzzy algorithms or complex systems and decision processes [8]. Mamdani-type inference, which defined for Fuzzy Logic Toolbox expects the output membership functions needs to be fuzzy sets. After the aggregation process, there is a fuzzy set for all the output variable that needs defuzzification. In many cases a single spike as an output membership functions are used. This type of output is usually known as a singleton output membership function. It always enhances the efficiency of the defuzzification process as it simplifies the computation required by the more simple Mamdani method, which finds the centroid of a 2D functions. Instead of integrating across the 2D function to find the centroid, one can use the weighted average of some of the data points. Sugeno-type system support this type of model. Sugeno-type systems can be used to design mathematical model of any inference system in which output membership functions are linear or constant. Fuzzy rule based system One other approach to infrared image contrast enhancement using fuzzy logic is a Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy rule based system. Takagi-Sugeno rules have consequents which are numeric functions of the input values. This approach is used to enhance the contrast of a gray-scale digital image which proposes the following rules: IF a pixel is dark, THEN make it darker IF a pixel is gray, THEN make it mid-gray IF a pixel is bright, THEN make it brighter Membership functions in a fuzzy set map all the elements of a set into some real numbers in the range [0, 1]. When the value of membership is higher, the truth that the set element belongs to that particular member function is higher as vice versa. The input membership functions for an image contrast enhancement system is shown in Figure 7. The set of all input image pixel values is mapped to 3 different linguistic terms: Dark, Gray Bright. The values ÃŽÂ ¼i(z) quantify the degree of membership of a particular input pixel intensity value to the each of the 3 member functions; denoted by the subscript (i). Thus, ÃŽÂ ¼dark(z) assigns value from 0 to 1 and in between to how truly dark an input pixel intensity value (z) is. Same way, ÃŽÂ ¼gray(z) and ÃŽÂ ¼bright(z) characterize how truly Gray or Bright a pixel value z is. The Dark and Bright input membership functions can be implemented by using a sigmoid functions and the Gray input membership function can be implemented by the Gaussian function. The sigmoid function, also known as the logistic function that is continuous and non-linear. This can be defined mathematically as follows: Where x is input and g(x) is gain. The Gaussian function is defined as below: Figure 7. Input Membership Functions for the Fuzzy Rule-Based Contrast Enhancement Three linguistic terms can be defined for the output member functions; and these are referred to as Darker, Mid-gray and Brighter. Because it is common in some of the implementations of Takagi-Sugeno systems, the output fuzzy sets are usually defined as fuzzy singleton that says the output membership functions are single-valued constants. Here the output membership function values can be selected as follows: Darker = 0 (ÃŽÂ ½d) Mid-gray = 127 (ÃŽÂ ½g) Brighter = 255 (ÃŽÂ ½b) These are shown below: Figure 8. Output Membership Functions for the Fuzzy Rule-Based Contrast Enhancement For a Takagi-Sugeno system design, the fuzzy logic rules which determine the outputs of system have been used the following linear combination of input and output membership function value. As the output membership functions are constants, the output ÃŽÂ ½o to any input zo, is given by: Where, ÃŽÂ ¼dark(z), ÃŽÂ ¼gray(z) and ÃŽÂ ¼bright(z) = the input pixel intensity values and (vd, vg and vb) = the output pixel intensity values. This relationship accomplishes the processes of implication, aggregation and defuzzification together with a numeric computation. In case of image processing, fuzzy logic is computationally intensive, as it requires the fuzzification, processing of all rules, implication, aggregation and the defuzzification on every pixel in the input digital image. Using a Takagi-Sugeno design which uses singleton output membership functions can reduce computational complexity Figure 9 is the block diagram of the process developed for the fuzzy logic technique implemented for this work. Figure 9. Flow chart for the implemented fuzzy logic process Contrast enhancement using an INT-Operator from fuzzy theory Many researchers have applied the fuzzy set theory to develop new techniques for contrast improvement. A basic fuzzy algorithm for image enhancement, using a global threshold, has been briefly recalled. Let us consider a gray level digital image, represented by the gray level values of the pixels with the range [0;1] and Let l be any gray level of a pixel in this digital image, l [0;1] . Contrast improvement is a basic point processing operation which mainly used to maximize the dynamic range of the image. A higher contrast in an image can be achieved by darkening the gray level in the lower luminance range and brightening the ones in the upper luminance range. This processing generally implies the use of a non-linear function; Form of such a function could be the one presented in Figure 10. Mathematical expression of such a nonlinear function, Int (l) is as below: The expression represents operator in the fuzzy set theory, namely the intensification (INT) operator. When it is applied on digital images, it has the effect of contrast enhancement. Figure 10. Fuzzy intensification Let us denote the resulting gray levels in the contrast enhanced image by g given by: Thus, the contrast enhanced image have gray levels of its pixels given by the nonlinear point-wise transformation in Figure 10, applied to the original gray level image. Implementation on Matlab The following are the steps which are carried out for the implementation to get the output: Read the original image. >> I = imread(Input image) Convert it into Gray Scale image if it is RGB image. >> I = rgb2gray(I) Add the noise to the image. >> Z = imnoise(I,gaussian,0.2); Calculate size of original image. >> [row col] = size(Z); Perform morphological operation on image. To find Maximum pixel value of image >> mx = max(max(Z)); To find Minimun pixel value of image >> mn = min(min(d)); To find Mid point of image >> mid = (mx+mn)/2; Apply fuzzy algorithm. Show the output. >> figure,imshow(output),title (output enhanced image) Conclusion Four different fuzzy approaches has been implemented to enhancement the high voltage images. Compared to the basic approaches, one can notice that fuzzy methods offer a powerful mathematical model for developing new enhancement algorithms. The global fuzzy approaches not gives satisfactory results. But here a locally adaptive procedure for fuzzy enhancement has been proposed. The contrast enhancement of high voltage images is also not satisfactory sometimes. The reason behind that is the physics of EPIDs which produces images with poor dynamics qualities and that is why sometimes there is no information in MVI to be improved. The fuzzy logic algorithms offer many different possibilities to optimize its performance, like parameters of membership functions, due to that it can certainly be expected that fuzzy image enhancement techniques can be applied in many areas of medical imaging in future. References [1]Farzam Farbiz, Mohammad Bager Menhaj, Seyed A. Motamedi, and Martin T. Hagan, A new Fuzzy Logic Filter for image Enhancement IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, And Cybernetics-Part B: Cybernetics, Vol. 30, No. 1, February 2000. [2]Om Parkas Verma, Madasu Hanmandlu, Anil Singh Pariah and Vamp Krishna Madasu Fuzzy Filter for Noise Reduction in Color Images, ICGST-GVIP Journal, Vol. 9, No. 5, September 2009, pp.29-43. [3]Rafael C.Gonzalez and Richard, E. Woods Digital Image Processing, New Jersey, Pearson Prentice Hall, Third Edition 2008. [4]Aboul Ella Hassanien and Amr Bader, A comparative study on digital mammography Enhancement algorithms based on Fuzzy Theory, International Journal of Studies in Informatics and Control, SIC Volume 12 Number 1, March 2003, pp. 21-31. [5]Alper Pasha Morphological image processing with fuzzy logic, Aerospace and space technology magazines, Vol. 2, No. 3, 2006, pp.27-34. [6]Tamalika Chaira, Ajoy Kumar Ray, Fuzzy Image Processing and Applications with MATLAB, CRC Press, vol. 1, 2010,pp. 47-55. [7]Mamdani, E.H. and S. Assilian, An experiment in linguistic synthesis with a fuzzy logic controller, International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, Elsevier, Vol. 7, No. 1, 1975, pp. 1-13. [8]Zadeh, L.A., Outline of a new approach to the analysis of complex systems and decision processes, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Vol. 3, No. 1, Jan. 1973, pp. 28-44. [9]H. R. Tizhoosh, G. Krell and B. Michaelis, On Fuzzy Enhancement of Megavoitage Images in Radiation Therapy, Proceedings of the 6th IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems, July 1997. [10]Stefan Schulte, Valerie De Witte, and Etienn, E.Kerre, A Fuzzy Noise Reduction Method for Color Images, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, Vol. 16, Issue 5, May 2007, pp. 1425-1436. [11]C.Castiello, G.Castellano, L.Caponetti and A.M.Fanelli, Fuzzy Classification of Image Pixels, IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Signal Processing, 2003

American Universities Contribution to Society Essay

Since the first time a female high school graduate stepped foot into an American university, it has become a tradition for high school graduates to attend college. Prior to this shift in American culture, only wealthy families could send their sons. Instead, sons worked for the family business, or joined the military. During this time it was a privilege to attend a university. The men that came out of these American institutions graduated with a special skill that they could offer to the American public. Now most young men and women attend college. The question I wish to raise now is: what does the American university contribute to the public? The answer to the question is simple. The American university still produces a well-rounded, cultured individual. American universities since have altered their ways of running their institution to account for the large enrollment of students. Institutions hired more professors to teach smaller classes so students could get more focused attention rather then having professors teach larger classes. Several hundreds of universities now have organizations, clubs and activities that culture and shape their students. These organizations provide the students with opportunities to meet new people and learn about their backgrounds and differences. This is crucial for a college graduate when they are ready to go into the business world. The American university gives their student this quality of understanding of differences between people they encounter, which allows the graduates to better understand their colleagues in the workforce. Collegiate organizations also provide many experiences, such as community service activities, which provide the students a minimum understanding of what it is like to poor or misfortunate. Most of these students can benefit the American culture by starting their own organizations and benefiting the less fortunate. Another thing a college could offer the American culture is a well educated person, also skilled in a specified field. During their collegiate career, students choose what they would like to study because, eventually, they would like to have an occupation involving what they studied. Considering the fact that the students enjoy what they study, it would do them better in the business world. It would allow them to work to their fullest because they like what they do. Not only would a skilled person properly execute their job, they make it easier to interact with their associated because they have learned how to work with people and their differences. This is what an American university provides to the American culture. A well rounded man and women, who, over their collegiate career, have learned to accept differences, helped out the community and studied what they loved, is what an American university gives to American society. The more mature people of today’s society don’t believe that the youth of America have it in them to fill their shoes and lead America to a brighter tomorrow, but that isn’t right. By that I don’t mean their parents, I mean the war vet who feels 1950s America was ideal. A good college experience and education can and will provide American culture with the well cultured, experienced future leaders of America.

Albert Einstein’s vs. Newton: General Theory of Relativity

Albert Einstein, most famously known as a physicist, was a contributor to the scientific world with his many known researches and humanitarian work. As a Nobel Prize Winner in 1921, his chronicled and more important works include Special Theory of Relativity (1905), Relativity (English Translation, 1920 and 1950), General Theory of Relativity (1916), Investigations on Theory of Brownian Movement (1926), and The Evolution of Physics (1938). (Nobel Prize Foundation, 1921) In all his important works, Einstein’s Theory of Relativity has lead the way for how science currently views time, space, energy, and gravity. Relativity, which all motion must be defined relative to a frame of reference and that space and time are relative, rather than absolute concepts, consists of two principal parts: The theory dealing with uniform motion, or the Special Theory of Relativity (1905) and the theory dealing with gravity, or the General Theory of Relativity (1916). (dictionary. com, pars. 2) Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity is the physical theory of measurement in inertial frames of reference. Although Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity was â€Å"special† because it dealt only with inertial reference frames; his General Theory of Relativity accounts not only for these, but also for bodies that accelerate and are based on the postulate that the local effects of a gravitational field and of acceleration of an inertial system are identical. (dictionary. com, pars. 2) An example of Einstein’s Special Relativity: One of the peculiar aspects of Einstein's theory of special relativity is that the length of objects moving at relativistic speeds undergo a contraction along the dimension of motion. An observer at rest (relative to the moving object) would observe the moving object to be shorter in length. General relativity or the general theory of relativity (GR) in whole is the geometric theory of gravitation. It is what we currently define as gravity in modern physics. GR integrates with special relativity in relatively, but GR consists of Newton’s law of universal gravitation and describes gravity as a property of the geometry of space and time. Even though special relativity intertwines a lot with general relativity, these two viewpoints are really what GR is about and relate greatly to each other. In the first viewpoint of GR, it is a theory of the behavior of space and time. Before the 20th century, all physics theorists assumed space and time to be absolutes, or separated from each other. Now called spacetime, together space and time formed a background within which matter moved. (Felder, pars. 4-5) In Einstein’s theory of GR, this physical theory was to describe how different kinds of matter would interact with each other and predict their motions. The theories of space and time greatly changed after the development of the Special Relativity Theory and shortly later the General Relativity Theory by Einstein. This results that space and time came to be viewed as the important variables in physics, which are capable of being changed by the mater within them and in turn changing the way that matter behaves. (Felder, pars. 5) Spacetime is an important factor in GR. In Newton’s world and before the 20th century, physics space and time again were viewed completely separately. In relativity theory, time is the fourth dimension our world has instead of the three one would think there is. It is hard to picture a 4D world, so to make things simpler let’s picture a 2D world. As shown in diagram 1, we can view spacetime as a 2D surface where the horizontal direction is space and the vertical direction is time. The diagram below shows the world line of an object in a one-dimensional space (Felder, pars. 7): (Diagram 1) A spacetime diagram like this is very critical to help in understanding relativity. It answers questions like: What’s the world line of a particle at rest? What the world line of a particle moving with constant speed in one direction? How would you describe the motion of a particle with the world line shown below? Viewing spacetime this way allows us to formulate physics in new ways. It is a similar way in getting Newton’s first law of motion, which states that an object with no force acting on it will move in a straight line at a constant and we can just say that the world line of a free object (one with no forces on it) is a straight line. speed (Harrison, pars. 6) Comparing to Newton’s laws, spacetime are considered two separate things, while in relativity, both in special and general theory, it is necessary to view spacetime as one. In GR this team of spacetime is curved by the effects of gravity. Now in GR, curved space often refers to a spatial geometry, which is not â€Å"flat. † Spacetime becomes curved in the response to the effects of matter and there is no gravitational force deflecting objects from their natural, straight paths. This puts gravity to correspond to changes in the properties of space and time, which in turn changes the straightest-possible paths that objects will naturally follow. So the act of curving is caused by the energy-momentum of matter and affects matters behaviors. In Newton’s first law of motion, it states that, where an object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. In a curved spacetime what used to be straight lines are now twisted and bent, and particles with no forces acting on them are seen to move along curved paths. (Physics Classroom, pars. 1) John Archibald Wheeler, an American theoretical physicist, paraphrases, â€Å"Spacetime tells matter how to move; matter tells spacetime how to curve. † (Britannica Encyclopedia, pars. ) To explain curved space in an example, suppose there are two people. Each person stands two feet apart from each other facing the same direction and begins walking straight. Even though one might think the two people are walking in parallel lines (since they are walking only in a straight line), is one will stand behind them in between them, he/she will notice that those two people will start to drift apart. In awhile the two people will become four feet apart instead of the 2 feet that they started on and both are not pointed in exactly the same direction as they started on. One might assume it’s because one is not going in a â€Å"straight† line. (Picture of Geodesics) Although, what is a â€Å"straight† line? One assumes that a straight line means being parallel or that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points. But in curved space path that stay parallel to each other are not paths of minimal distance and vice-versa, there is no path in space that fits a â€Å"straight† line being parallel or the shortest distance. In space, a straight line is curved and the shortest path between two points is called a geodesic. The second viewpoint of general relativity is described as a theory of gravity. In Newton’s second law of motion, that states that the acceleration of an object is dependent upon two variables – the net force acting upon the object and the mass of the object. (Physics classroom, pars. 2) In other words, getting two massive bodies like the Earth and Newton’s â€Å"famous† apple are going to pull each other because of the law of gravity. To explain further, if an apple started out at rest and when it just breaks off from a tree, gravity would make it move towards the Earth until it collided with it. Newton’s curiosity of a fallen apple not only explains his law of gravity and the falling of apples, but also the orbit of the moon about the Earth, the motions or the planets about the sun, and much more. Einstein’s theory of GR relates to this because it explains all of Newton’s laws, but in a very different way. In GR, a massive body like the sun causes the spacetime around it to curve and this act of curving in turn affects the motion of the planets, causing them to orbit around the sun. In Newton’s second law of motion, these objects (i. e. the earth and the apple) will have a gravitational attraction, causing them to accelerate towards each other until they eventually collide. In GR, the same effect will happen, but the description is different because gravity is not a force in GR. Objects neither exert nor feel any-non-gravitational forces, so basically the objects should act like free particles moving alone geodesics. (Felder, pars. 5) In a flat spacetime, which has no gravity, the geodesics would be in straight lines. Since objects started out at rest, their world lines would be vertical lines, this means that they would always stay the same distance from each other. However, in the effects of gravity, we know that the objects will have spacetime around it. In a curved space, parallel lines do not always stay parallel. The geodesics in this curved spacetime start out parallel but over time it doesn’t. This results in the objects colliding. Einstein shows that although Newton’s theory of two objects colliding is predicted, the underlying description of the curved space is different. To show an example about gravity and curved space with a couple of geodesics, here is another graph (Felder, pars. 14): To explain the graph in more detail, the yellow rectangle is the sun (and the space around the sun is really three-dimensional), the spatial axis is â€Å"r† (radius) instead of x, and â€Å"t† (time) instead of y. The geodesic lines (red ; blue, respectively) are the particles moving directly towards or away from the sun. The red geodesic shows that an object initially at rest will curve towards the sun. Even an object moving away from the sun could fall back in if it were moving slowly. While the blue geodesics, is for the particle starting out at the same place but with an initial outward velocity large enough that I will never fall back, objects that have an escape velocity. Explaining the basis of GR helps form a stepping stone to Einstein’s more complicated theories and consequences, along with some knowledge of the General Theory of Relativity. In this very complicated version by Einstein of Newton’s laws of motion, it in fact shows not that Einstein just complicated Newton’s theories, but showed that results are not the same. The result in fact that objects collide are there and come out slightly the same, but the behavior is different. Spacetime is therefore â€Å"curved† as a straight line. The theory of GR has brought the science world to a dramatic position of understanding the universe. Space and time, in which were two separate things are now explained as one union with each other. In GR gravity is not only viewed as a force but now as a description of the geometry of the universe. This helps scientists envision the universe in a more dramatic and insightful way. As Albert Einstein was forced to summarize the general theory of relativity in one sentence, he quoted: â€Å"Time and space and gravitation have no separate existence from matter. † Works Cited â€Å"Albert Einstein† Pac Bell. ; http://home. pacbell. net/kidwell5/aebio. html; â€Å"Albert Einstein†, Colliers Encyclopedia, (MacMillan, 1985) Volume 8, pg. 684-685 â€Å"Albert Einstein†, World Book, (World Book Inc. , 1999) Volume 6, pg. 146-147 â€Å"Albert Einstein†, Encyclopedia Britanica, ( Encyclopedia Britanica Inc. , 1997) Volume 4, pg. 403 â€Å"Albert Einstein†, Current Biography Who's News and Why, (H. W. Wilson Co. , 1953) Volume 1953, pg. 178-180 â€Å"Albert Einstein†, Current Biography Who's News and Why, (H. W. Wilson Co. , 1955) Volume 1955, pg. 177-178 â€Å"Albert Einstein†, The Biographical Dictionary of Scientists, (Oxford University Press, 1994) Second Edition, pg. 206-208 Felder, Gary. North Carolina State – Math and Physic Help. 2003. ;http://www4. ncsu. edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/kenny/papers/gr1. html; â€Å"general relativity. † Dictionary. com Unabridged (v 1. 1). Random House, Inc. 05 Feb. 2009. ;Dictionary. com http://dictionary. reference. com/browse/general relativity;. General Relativity† Albert Einstein Biography, Spark Notes. 05 Feb 2009 ;http://www. sparknotes. com/biography/einstein/section7. rhtml; Geroch, Robert. General Relativity from A to B. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978. Harrison, David M. Homepage. 18 August 2007 ;http://www. upscale. utoronto. ca/GeneralInterest/Harrison/GenRel/GenRel. html; Leaving Certificate Physics Homepage. â€Å"Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity. † ;http://www. teachnet. ie/torourke/Physicswebsite/Relativistic%20Length%20Co traction. htm; â€Å"Newton’s Laws. † The Physics Classroom. 1996-2009. ;http://www. physicsclassroom. com/Class/newtlaws/u2l1a. cfm; Nobel Prize Foundation. Nobel Lectures, Phys ics: Albert Einstein. 1901-1921. ; http://nobelprize. org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1921/einstein-bio. html; Truth ; Reality. â€Å"Einstein Relativity. † 1997-2009. ; http://www. spaceandmotion. com/albert- einsteins-theory-of-general-relativity. htm; Wald, Robert M. General Relativity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.

Cadbury Marketing Assignment Essays

Cadbury Marketing Assignment Essays Cadbury Marketing Assignment Essay Cadbury Marketing Assignment Essay Essay Topic: Marketing In this assignment, I am trying to discover what a suitable product is for Cadbury to sell to children which are 14 16 years old. The product would have to be a chocolate bar. I have to discover what type of chocolate bar should Cadbury produce and other information which is needed. The method which I used to find out the following information was to first find out what information needed to be discovered. Then I designed a questionnaire to find out most of this information which was required. I wrote down my questionnaire results which I got from questioning twenty 14 16 year old children. I questioned children between aged 14 16 years because this is the age group at which the product is aimed at. I wrote the results down in a data collection sheet which I made for the questionnaire. I then made another questionnaire which was smaller, to discover some more information which needed to be discovered. During this investigation, I have discovered many things about what the product should be like, what the price should the chocolate bar be, how it should be advertised, where it should be sold, what kind of packaging should the chocolate bar have and what type of chocolates do children aged between 14 and 16 years like. The product itself is a chocolate bar. This chocolate bar is aimed at children aged between 14 and 16 years. From my research which I have conducted, I have discovered that children in this age group prefer to eat milk chocolate rather than white or dark chocolate as thirteen out of twenty children preferred milk chocolate. I have also discovered from my questionnaires, that children in this age group like to eat chocolate which has nothing within it. From my second questionnaire, I discovered that the chocolate should be soft and not hard. It should also have a flaky texture and should melt in your mouth. This is also how I came across the name of this product- Dairy Milk Crumbly. I think this name describes the product well and is also a well known and trusted name which from my research is also one of the most favourite brand names in the UK. The price I have set for this product is 45p. This price has been selected after doing two questionnaires. In my first questionnaire I asked about what the 14 16 year olds think the price should be and I also asked this in the second questionnaire. The difference was, that in the second questionnaire, I used relatively smaller price groups to choose from. This price is also similar to prices of other chocolate bars sold in shops. Selling the product at 45p would make a good profit, as it only costs 8-10p to make one bar. From my research, I have also found out how the product should be advertised. From my first questionnaire, I discovered that a child is more likely to find out about a new chocolate bar from the internet. I discovered from my results of the second questionnaire that an overwhelming majority of children within the age group accesses the internet at least 3 days a week, and half access the internet at least five days a week. Using the internet to advertise is very advantageous to Cadbury as they sell their products worldwide. The internet is also worldwide and the adverts would be able reach a large number of children. For their secondary means of advertisement, I suggest that Cadbury use television advertising. But this method of advertising can be disadvantageous as many people do not watch the adverts on TV as they may go to make a drink or get some food. The chocolate bar should be sold in newsagents, supermarkets and to leisure centres. I have also identified a mistake made earlier which is that I asked where someone would go to buy a bar of chocolate. The mistake was that I asked only about buying chocolates singularly but I have now realised that more chocolates are bought from supermarkets as many people buy multi packs of chocolates. The packaging of the chocolate should be brightly coloured as this attracts more people to look at the chocolate when they enter a shop. As they are attracted to the chocolate as they enter, they are more likely to be tempted to buy the chocolate bar. Also the packaging has to be kept airtight to protect the chocolate. The packaging also has to contain information on the weight of the product, its nutritional value, its ingredients and has to separately name the ingredients which may cause allergic reactions.

The eNotes Blog eNotes Book Club OctoberFinds

Book Club OctoberFinds If you’ve been following our stories on the Instagram, you will have seen us post about our book club a few times. As literature experts, we’re constantly on the hunt for new and interesting stories to read. That’s why five of us decided to create an book club where each week, we discuss a new short story, poem, or essay. For the month of October, we each picked haunting short stories to get us in a spooky, Halloweeny spirit. If you’re looking for reading recommendations, look no further! â€Å"Teatro Grottesco† by Thomas Ligotti Hailed by The Washington Post as â€Å"the best-kept secret in contemporary horror fiction†, Thomas Ligotti arguably deserves this title- although Id prefer it if more people read and discussed his work. Imagine my joy when our reading group agreed to read the titular short story from his collection Teatro Grottesco. â€Å"The first thing I learned was that no one anticipates the arrival of the Teatro.† We quickly realized that the other thing we could not anticipate was the direction our analysis and discussion would take. Despite claims that Ligotti deserves to inherit the horror mantle from Lovecraft, â€Å"Teatro Grottesco† goes profoundly beyond cosmic horror and Eldritch monstrosities to stress the boundaries of our beliefs. The writing is literary, complex, and engaging- it is also frustrating, obtuse, and puzzling. â€Å"In a word, I delighted in the unreality of the Teatro stories. The truth they carried, if any, was immaterial.† At the beginning, we learn that the narrator, a writer of nihilistic prose works, is sharing his own Teatro story. So, what do we make of his claims that the Teatro tales are delightful but their truths are inconsequential? If the truth of the tale is nothing of substance, then what is the point- where is the horror? Make no mistake; several scenes are rightfully disturbing, from a visceral artists painting a moonlit night red to a photographers surreal encounter at the headquarters of T.G. Ventures. However, the horror of these moments only builds to the existential terror eventually revealed. â€Å"You can never anticipate the Teatro- or anything else. You can never know what you are approaching or what is approaching you.† We could not quite conclude just what the Teatro actually is. The story tantalizes, teases, and troubles. Read it carefully, but know that â€Å"The soft black stars have already begun to fill the sky.† - Wes â€Å"The Yellow Sign† by Robert W. Chambers A short story in his larger collection The King in Yellow, I selected â€Å"The Yellow Sign† for us to read because I had previously read a different story in Chambers’s collection, â€Å"The Mask.† I especially enjoyed the hints of mystery threaded throughout the piece. Chambers tells the story, but he doesn’t overtell- a tactic that kept us all wondering. â€Å"When I first saw the watchman his back was toward me.† Although he tells the story with an air of mystery that kept us all guessing, we noticed that Chambers tended to add a few too many extra details to his story. Some of us felt that these details didn’t necessarily add to the story and instead distracted from the â€Å"point† of the short story; this, in turn, led to questions about what’s â€Å"necessary† in a short story and whether or not rules for writing are arbitrary, taking our discussion outside of the realm of the story itself. â€Å"I could tell more, but I cannot see what help it will be to the world. As for me, I am past human help or hope.† â€Å"The Yellow Sign† by Robert W. Chambers is a great short story to read if you want to discuss omens and their place in storytelling. - Kate â€Å"Bog Girl† by Karen Russell After consulting with the oracles on what to read- i.e. Googling â€Å"good spooky short stories for a book club†- I found this short story by Karen Russell, originally published in The New Yorker on June 20, 2016. I wanted to pick a story by a female author I knew no one had read yet with, of course, various threads of interesting discussion to tug on. As I first read the story (and what made me ultimately choose it), I was anticipating what would happen next and was right, oh, about 0% of the time. The narrative was entirely unexpected, and, when compounded with the natural wordsmithing, I assigned it immediately. â€Å"In the Iron Age, these bogs were portals to distant worlds, wilder realms. Gods travelled the bogs. Gods wore crowns of starry asphodels, floating above the purple heather. Now industrial harvesters rode over the drained bogs, combing the earth into even geometries.† Our group particularly enjoyed the feminist themes and commentary on female bodies and personal agency as well as the interesting transitions employed by Russell. â€Å"The girls had matching lunches: lettuce salads, diet candy bars, diet shakes. They were all jealous of how little [the bog girl] ate.† My favorite part of the story is how Russell introduces Cillian’s Uncle Sean. I’ve since added â€Å"smearing† into my personal lexicon to describe such†¦ smearers. (You know the type.) â€Å"He smeared himself throughout their house, his beer rings ghosting over surfaces like fat thumbs on a photograph. His words hung around, too, leaving their brain stain on the air.† There are a lot of avenues of discussion to take with this piece, and we could have very easily talked about it for several more hours. I don’t want to give much more away, but this is a highly recommended, surprising, and well-liked piece for your next book club! - Sam â€Å"Winter† by Walter de la Mare Walter de la Mare is best known as a prolific poet, critic, and anthologist who contributed widely to the world of British letters in the early 20th century. His short stories, though seldom read today, stand among his best work. For our book club, I chose de la Mare’s 1922 story â€Å"Winter,† a sparse, enigmatic tale about a man who walks into a churchyard on a winter’s day and encounters something- or perhaps someone- he cannot explain. At the start of the story, the narrator tells us that â€Å"any event in this world- any human being for that matter- that seems to wear even the faintest cast or warp of strangeness, is apt to leave a disproportionately sharp impression on one’s senses.† The story that follows is both a confrontation with the uncanny and a probing of the mind. The narrator constantly questions his own senses and intuitions as he tries to account for the unaccountable. At the end of the story, the narrator describes the inexplicable being: a beautiful, angelic figure â€Å"in human likeness [but] not of my kind, nor of my reality.† The being looks in terror upon the narrator and his human world- the churchyard filled with its monuments of death- and disappears, returning to the reality whence it came. The narrator is left with both a longing to visit that realm and a deep feeling of distortion, for the ethereal visitor has revealed the rends and frayed edges of our map of reality. In riddling, poetic phrases that accrue like snow on a barren field, de la Mare serves up the best kind of supernatural tale: one which illuminates the mysteries of our world. A perfect read for the darkest season of the year. - Zack â€Å"Especially Heinous: 272 Views of Law Order SVU† by Carmen Maria Machado Every literary mailing list I’m on has been recommending Machado’s collection Her Body and Other Parties for months, so assigning â€Å"Especially Heinous† was a smug way to integrate personal reading with workplace obligations. â€Å"Especially Heinous† is composed of episode summaries for 12 fictional seasons of Law Order: SVU, ranging in length from 4 to over 150 words. Its sentences tend toward staccato rhythms and are objective- even clinical- as they describe events of absurdity and horror. For example, an episode from season one: â€Å"Misleader†: Father Jones has never touched a child, but when he closes his eyes at night, he still remembers his high school girlfriend: her soft thighs, her lined hands, the way she dropped off that roof like a falcon. Featured motifs: sexual violence; fairy-tale tropes (here, a triad of attributes); a haunting image offering neither context nor judgment. (Father Jones returns in season three.) I’m not sure this was a story anyone loved, but it offered a lot to discuss. The episodic structure left metaphors, and sometimes entire plot points, almost entirely up to personal interpretation, alienating some from the narrative. The objectivity of tone resulted in a divided readership: some readers found a lot of humor in the blatant absurdity of Machado’s narrative (the word â€Å"whimsical† was used); for others, that absurdity read as dark and ominous, engaging themes about cultural fixations and sexual violence. While all of us were interested in the story as an exercise in form, its success as a story was still up in the air as we left the table. â€Å"Especially Heinous† is interesting. It’s also hard (and for me, at least, emotionally exhausting) work. I want to go back and read it again, now that I know what I’m getting into, but book clubs, be warned: this is a rough one to unleash on unsuspecting coworkers. - Caitlin

Wal-Mart Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Wal-Mart - Case Study Example People are supposed to be able to relax themselves and properly feed their bodies during the lunch break. â€Å"Lunch is really important for us to have a recharge of energy and just take a break† (Luckerson, 2012). The premise of Wal-Mart’s management that women are not interested in managerial positions is completely false. Women have the same goals and desires as men of moving up the corporate ladder. Unfortunately at Wal-Mart its corporate culture suffers from the glass ceiling effect. â€Å"The popular notion of glass ceiling effects implies that gender disadvantages are stronger at the top of the hierarchy than at lower levels and that these disadvantages become worse later in a persons career† (Cotter, Hermsen, Ovadia, Vanneman, 2001). Women at Wal-Mart are viewed as second class citizens that do not have the same opportunity for career growth as men. Women were systematically discriminated by Wal-Mart. Female workers accounted for 65% of the workforce, but only 33% of managerial positions. The company has not been able to truly take advantage of the virtues of diversity because of its discriminating stance against women. The position of Wal-Mart of not offering health care coverage up to par with the benefits other employees receive in the industry can be considered an ethical issue due to the fact that Wal-Mart is not attending the health needs of its workers. Wal-Mart has been hiding behind the excuse that it offers some health care coverage to part-time employees which many companies don’t to justify their extremely poorly designed health care benefit coverage. The reason that Wal-Mart’s medical plan is so poor is because Wal-Mart has been looking for everyway to save money on medical coverage for its employees. Wal-Mart pays $3,500 yearly on health coverage per employee which is over 40% lower than the industry standard. I do not think that Wal-Mart should be concerned with unionization of stores based on what occurred in the