Volkswagen of America: Managing It

Case 7  Ã¢â‚¬â€œÃ‚  Volkswagen of America: Managing IT 1. What is your assessment of the new process for managing priorities at Volkswagen of America? Are the criticisms justified? Is it an improvement over the old process? The new system of prioritizing IT projects to determine funding is a very efficient way of ensuring those projects that are critical to business strategy meet their financial requirements. However, the method of dropping entire goal portfolios simply because they ranked lowest in the list could be deemed a flaw in the system, and one that could be detrimental to business unit integration slowly over time.This understandably frustrates those whose proposals are receiving no funding, and if this prioritization system has any hope of future success, the business units being consistently funded will need to work better at recognizing other priorities, or the system will need to be restructured to allow for smaller projects to be phased in at the very least to mainta in integration. 2. Who controls the budgets from which IT projects are funded at Volkswagen of America? The parent company of VWoA – VWAG – caps the IT budget at $60 million.However, the control of this budget includes the involvement of several cross-functional teams (AKA – â€Å"several organizational entities†, p. 5) that review project proposals before final approval – for instance, during Phase I the DBC (Digital Business Council) reduced the initial $210 million project proposals to $170 million (p. 6). Ultimately the PMO (Project Management Office) subsection of the BPTO (Business Process, Technology and Organization), which Matulovic established as a new internal IT department upon his arrival, approves projects prioritized by the IT steering committee (ITSC).Who should control these budgets? Should the IT department have its own budget? 3. How should Matulovic respond to his fellow executives who are calling to ask him for special treatmen t outside the new priority management system? Matulovic should tell the fellow executives the new priority management system was developed and implemented by ELT members and senior management group. The process is now complete and not reversible. It would be unfair for any ELT member to get a special treatment. . What should Matulovic do about the unfunded Supply Flow project? The unfunded project was critically important to the company. Lack funding would delay globalization initiatives. Since the project needed full funding to continue on track and the cost was a significant part of the IT budget, funding should come from alternative sources. Matulovic should argue that the project will have a large impact on the global integration and save costs for the company as whole, rather than just VWoA. 5.On page 8 we see that $16 million of the $60 budget is for SIB projects, under the spending direction of Matulovic; on page 1 we see that some people consider this unfair – is it? Should budget be â€Å"set aside† for IT projects? Why? The budget allocated for SIB projects, under the direction of Matulovic, is fair. Many individuals across the organization were involved in project proposals and creating the process for managing the priorities and selection. The head of each business unit was a member of Executive Leadership Team that helped develop and rank the proposals for the projects.Senior business and IT members in the IT steering committee guided and approved project selection and prioritization process. After the process is implemented and executed, it is too late to voice an objection. 6. In general, what characteristics should a process for deciding about funding of IT projects have? The process of how to fund IT projects has to include the means to categorizing the projects and relating them to company’s strategy. There has to be adequate guidance for developing proposals.Since buy-in and trust by unit leaders is critical, they have b e involved in developing the process. The process has to be fair and transparent. It has to be based on what is best for the company as whole. Summary The Volkswagen of America: Managing IT Priorities case study describes the efforts of the US subsidiary of Volkswagen AG (VWAG) – Volkswagen of America (VWoA) – to arrive at a new process for setting IT funding priorities and deciding on what projects to fund. Dr. Uwe Matulovic, the new ChiefInformation Officer (CIO) of VWoA, has a dilemma in that peers from the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) have been openly hostile and critical of the new prioritization process, particularly in regards to the lack of funding for high priorities for their areas of the company, and have pressurized him â€Å"to insert an unfunded project (or two) into the IT department’s work plans† (p. 1). Dr. Matulovic position is particularly challenging as more than 40 projects have been proposed for IT, with funding requirements total ing $240m, when a budget of only $60m has been approved by VWAG.The new prioritization process that was implemented is complex. It includes the involvement of several cross-functional teams or â€Å"several organizational entities† (p. 5) that review project proposals during three separate Phases before final approval. For instance, during Phase I the DBC (Digital Business Council) reduced the initial $210 million project proposals to $170 million (p. 6) by way of identifying dependencies among projects. That is, removing those projects from the budget that required other projects to be completed before they could start.Ultimately the PMO (Project Management Office) subsection of the BPTO (Business Process, Technology and Organization), which Matulovic established as a new internal IT department upon his arrival, approves projects prioritized by the IT Steering Committee (ITSC). In conclusion, it became apparent to Dr. Matulovic that the Supply Flow Project, which is viewed a s critical to the company’s global supply chain management objectives, was poorly served by the new prioritization process in that it was left only partially funded.The process overlooked this project primarily because much of its value was felt at the global level, and not at the VWoA importer level. Dr. Matulovic found himself in a quandary and struggled with related decision-making as he understood that the loss of funding for this project would constitute a major setback for globalization initiatives based in Germany. 1. Who controls the budgets from which IT projects are funded at Volkswagen of America? The budgets for IT projects were controlled through a process that involves several organizational entities that establish priorities.There were four specific teams that were involved in this process: the ELT (Executive Leadership Team), the ITSC (IT Steering Committee), the PMO (Project Management Office), and the DBC (Digital Business Council. ) The ELT was responsible for executing the NRG (Next Round of Growth) strategy in which the IT governance is a part. The ITSC consisted of business and IT managers and was responsible for guiding and approving the process of IT project selection and prioritization. The PMO administered the project proposal and approval process.The DBC was responsible for the project filtering process which decided which projects were most in line with the companies business strategy. 2. What is your assessment of the new process for managing priorities at Volkswagen of America? Are the criticisms justified? Is it an improvement over the old process? The new IT priority management process was driven by the new IT budget constraint given to VWoA by the parent company VWAG. If the new budgetary constraint was not initiated, it is likely that elements of the former less organized and less centralized method would be maintained.In the end, this may benefit the individual business units, but be detrimental to the business as a wh ole. In creating the new process, Matulovic enabled the business unit managers to work together to make the decisions that would effect their departments using the overall company strategy as the driving element. In doing this, he succeeded in involving all of the managers that would be affected by the prioritization system while maintaining the executive leadership team’s strategic goals. This new system was a substantial improvement over the former system. . On page 8 we see that $16 million of the $60 budget is for SIB projects, under the spending direction of Matulovic; on page 1 we see that some people consider this unfair – is it? Should budget be â€Å"set aside† for IT projects? Why? The budget allocated for the SIB (Stay in Business) projects (business continuity and legal) should receive the highest priority. As denoted by the name, if any of these projects are incomplete or fail, the risk to the business is substantial compared to business unit priori ties.However, the amount budgeted may be a point that could be questioned. Instead of predetermining the amount required, he should have submitted the SIB to the same process as all of the other projects which would have reduced or eliminated the business unit manager’s perception that Matulovic was trying to control company strategy. 4. How should Matulovic respond to his fellow executives who are calling to ask him for special treatment outside the new priority management system?What should Matulovic do about the unfunded Supply Flow project? Matulovic created a well organized system that focused on company goals. His fellow executives were involved in the IT priority decision making and the company expectation is that business unit managers also support company goals. If they think that these goals in relation to their requests does not make sense, then they had the opportunity in this process to voice their concerns to the one of the process teams (the ELT,ITSC,PMO, and/o r the DBC), not to Matulovic himself.Because the Supply Flow project is tied into global strategy, Matulovic should propose that the funding for this project come from VWAG. 5. In general, what characteristics should a process for deciding about funding of IT projects have? General characteristics that an IT funding process should have: –  Involve all of those who will be affected by the funding decisions in the process. –  Align IT funding priorities with company strategy. –  Enable communication between business units depending on the funding and between those units and executive management.

American History Since 1865 Essay

In the presidential election of 1912 there were two progressive candidates that impacted the landscape of America. Candidates Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were the frontrunner of the 1912 election. This election changed the country in ways that we as Americans can feel today. These two candidates spawned a progressive movement from a place where many American felt as if their government fell to help out the man on the ground doing the work. In a time when there was a big disparity between the rich and the poor throughout the country because of capitalism the President McKinley was assassinated to usher in Theodore Roosevelt. Although he became the President because he was the Vice President at the time of the assassination, Roosevelt’s charisma and his talent for public speaking made him a popular president. His ability to relate to the common man wasn’t the only thing that created favor among the masses; his policies while in office gave played a major role in his popularity. Let’s take a look at some of them. Roosevelt was a person that cared for the people, and as such when the popular book â€Å"The Jungle† by Upton Sinclair brought the countries attention to the meat and how it was packaged. The book told of the horrible unsanitary conditions that the Chicago meatpacking industry used to package their meats. The President then conducting his own investigation, after finding out that conditions were worst then what was in the book he acted quickly signed into law the Food and Drug Act. Thinking of the people and their conditions Roosevelt created what is known today as the Food and Drug Administration. This is just one of the things that President Roosevelt accomplished while in office, showing that he had the welfare of the country in mind. As President Roosevelt’s foreign policy played a major role in making America a superpower. With the creation of the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, President Roosevelt told the world that the United States would police the nations of Central America, northern South America, and the Caribbean. This wasn’t because we wanted to be nice, but it was to protect the interest of European investors and America’s economic interest (Mitchener and Weidenmier, 1941). This showed that President not only had the people’s welfare in mind but he had the financial future of the country n mind as well. During the election of 1912 there were two big Progressive Candidates that ran in this election. We covered some of the accomplishments/views of Theodore Roosevelt during his presidency before this election period, now let look at the Woodrow Wilson’s views. â€Å"I am, therefore, forced to be a progressive, if for no other reason, because we have not kept up with our changes of conditions, either in the economic field or in the political field. We have not kept up as well as other nations have. We have not kept our practices adjusted to the facts of the case, and until we do, and unless we do, the facts of the case will always have the better of the argument; because if you do not adjust your laws to the facts, so much the worse for the laws, not for the facts, because law trails along after the facts. Only that law is unsafe which runs ahead of the facts and beckons to it and makes it follow the will-o’-the-wisps of imaginative projects. † (Wilson, 1913) In this statement that Wilson made he shows his feeling of why he is a progressive. Just as Roosevelt, Wilson felt as if the government was doing too much, yet not enough for people. So during the 1912 election he found himself running on a New Freedom platform where he wanted to limit federal government and fight the monopolies. He did this by addressing Tariffs, Banks and Business. He was successful in lowering tariff on such things as woolen, steel rails, raw wool, and iron ore. Now when he did this he brought back the federal income tax which hadn’t been in existence since the days of the civil war. Wilson used these federal income taxes to help run our government that he campaigned need to be limited. This federal income tax we are still paying today and we still haven’t limited government’s control over us. By addressing Banks I think that Wilson was able to help the agriculture industry and hurt the country’s finical status in the long run. With the Federal Farm loan Act farmers were able to cover the increasing cost of land. This helped the agriculture industry, but the Federal Reserve System created a system where the country was able to stabilize prices of goods in the country, and mange long term interest rates. I know you’re asking how is this a bad thing, to which I reply â€Å"Housing Market. † I think that if you owned a house or even watched the news you know that this when our system failed us. Thanks Wilson. As far as the Business Wilson was able to establish the Federal Trade Act. This Act was established to deter business from conducting unfair trade practices. The Federal Trades Act allowed its member to investigate and take action on companies who practice unfair trades. Summary In his campaign to change the Country through a New Freedom Woodrow Wilson beat out the more popular Theodore Roosevelt. The changes that Roosevelt made in office and the promises of a new and improved government did not fair that well against the promise of less government in the New Freedom that Woodrow Wilson offered during his campaign. The two Progressive Presidents stood for the betterment of the people and the removal of these giant corporations in the government. They both accomplished this in their own way, yet they did it differently.

Toxicological Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Toxicological - Research Paper Example Some aromatic amines are under utilization as carcinogens in industries. Research was conducted to find what industries emitted these aromatic amines and to what extent these were damaging to the environment and the people around. It was an observation that the plastic, chemical, and dye industries emitted these in high amounts. Bladder tumors are a common side effect of these aromatic amines and the people who encounter these harmful gases often suffer from these diseases. â€Å"Auramine, naphthylamine, benzidine, and aminodiphenyl† (Walpole, 1959) were common aromatic amines that were believed to be one of the main chemicals causing bladders problems amongst workers working in these industries. Other effects of these amines include â€Å"drowsiness, headaches and dizziness that eventually lead to the person experiencing lack of coordination, muscular pain, contractions, a state of confusion, etc† (Books, 2010). These harmful gases may also cause certain respiratory pr oblems and liver diseases. Various laboratory tests and field researches were conducted to identify the exact side effects. Tests on animals were also conducted to find out the toxic effects of aromatic amines (Walpole, 1959). References Books. (2010). Aromatic Amines. General Books LLC. Walpole, A. L.

A ritical Analysis of UK Teaching Standard Essay

A ritical Analysis of UK Teaching Standard - Essay Example The teacher took the initiative of class management and assigned me as a representative. I, therefore, oversaw pupils attainment and outcomes of each stage of the progress. I build on pupils capabilities and prior knowledge of working. Furthermore, the institution empowered a counseling department. The counseling listens to student innate problems (Mills and Niesche, 2014, p. 122). I worked alongside the counseling department to ensure that I generate skills to build working abilities. As well, the institution developed courses related to moral and social behavior as well as, courses related to communication skills. At the end of the semester, the teacher evaluated at the end of the semester. The evaluations improved the understanding of the course in general. The assessment provided a detailed account of how the student was aware of virtues of responsibility, respect, and truthfulness. As a result, I guided the students throughout a professionalization agenda, where positive virtues of education were taken. The teacher heavily involved with the student and the institution hence expanding the overall interactivity level. As well, I welcomed students in a life of academics where interactivity was relatively high. Likewise, I encouraged pupils to take up responsibility and conscientious attitude, it was possible to increase the interactivity level. In summary, the student’s progress depended on the nature of the DEAN department.  The teacher provided the curriculum outline.  

Case study #1 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

#1 - Case Study Example Basing on the company’s experience and an interview with one of the workers at the customer service center of Nike Inc, the paper examines the process of customer service within the company. Creation of strong brand equity has over the past four decades become major strengths for the enterprise. The structure and emphasis within the business ensure that the customer get the concept of the idea behind the brand and want to have a connection with the name. After identifying the importance of customer experience, the company is making major steps towards the creation of a competitive advantage. It is believed that seventy percent of purchasing trends and purchasing experiences among customers are a result of clients feeling regarding their treatment. The availability of strong competing brands like Addidas and Puma has led to the realization of the importance of handling customer experience within the company. Since customers are aware of the availability of strong brands competing with Nike, they enjoy the luxury of demanding better services and better treatment while their complaints are being resolved. Because customer brand experience directly correlates with the exper ience enjoyed by the client, ensuring an existence of authentic customer engagements before and after completion of a sale is essential (Frisch, 2009). The approach needs requires a personal commitment with the client throughout the period to ensure any needs or requirements of the client are handled. As Nike company operations involves engaging in direct contact with customers, the company emphasizes on the importance of customer interaction through these processes throughout its retailers worldwide. The organization has consequently created loyalty programs among customers to ensure continuous interactions with customers that in return lead to the development of customer experience. The company’s

Media Relations in the Social Media Age Assignment

Media Relations in the Social Media Age - Assignment Example Therefore, the report intends to develop an effective plan and implement the traditional and social media engagement activity for EH-SWZ-5000 during its forthcoming UK launch. In order to successfully launch EH-SWZ-5000 in the respective business market, the development of proactive media relation opportunities would primarily focus on three major aims in line with the conventional and social media across the market. Firstly, the report devises a brief and creative outline regarding the media opportunities for the launch day of the product. The second aim of the report is to plan an effective outline through incorporating the essential elements including the core story, key messages of the product along with its target audiences and media in the respective business location. And, the third aim of the report is to create three major supporting resources for the proposed launch campaign of EH-SWZ-5000 in the UK market. With regard to the proposed plan for EH-SWZ-5000 home cinema projector during its forthcoming UK launch, the creative media opportunities would be considered in accordance with efficacy along with their capability of demonstrating the product in the respective business market. The stages to be implemented for EH-SWZ-5000 in the UK electronics market at the product launch day will focus on three major media opportunities including press conference, photocall and positioning through news release. Firstly, a press conference would be conducted through involving diverse media channels such as print, electronic and online networks. The press conference for EH-SWZ-5000 will focus on conveying essential information to the media channels and networks regarding the features, effectiveness, price and availability of products in different outlets to the media. Secondly, the photocall strategy would be organized through involving local media while inaugurating EH-SWZ-5000 in the UK

Network Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Network - Essay Example So, we use repeaters and hubs (as shown in Figure 1). Repeaters buffer the input signal and send the amplified version of the same signal to only the output port. Hubs are basically broadcasters (multiport repeaters). The signal is repeated to all ports other than the input port. Ethernet is a shared medium, so, all nodes use the same medium for transmission of data. When two nodes send data at the same instant, the data collides and its validity and integrity is compromised. Data has to be sent again. Although Ethernet uses CSMA/CD (Tanenbaum 2003) for collision yet there are still delays. So, networks are designed to avoid collisions while ensuring efficient utilization of bandwidth, providing good network throughput. In Figure 1, in case two nodes broadcast at the same time, collision occurs. Hubs/repeaters also limit the number of nodes that can be supported (see Table 1 (Technick n.d.)). So networks cannot expand beyond a limit. As at a time, the entire bandwidth can be utilized by only one node, so the overall throughput is limited. For avoiding collisions, the network traffic needs to be isolated. So the big networks are divided into smaller segments. These segments are connected together through bridges and switches. Bridges and switches (bridges with enhancements) are transparent intelligent devices that facilitate growth of LANs with the same underlying functionality. They can connect a node or a full Ethernet segment (with its own set of switches, hubs and repeaters) of even different LAN technologies on each of their ports (see Figure 2). They map the MAC addresses of nodes to each port. For each incoming frame the bridge/switch checks the destination MAC address. If the destination MAC lies on another port, only then it forwards, else it filters the frame thus keeping it within the segment it came from. The collision domain is separated. If there is a collision in one segment, the effect

Interviw with nurse in indiana state university health center Assignment

Interviw with nurse in indiana state university health center - Assignment Example The stage involves developing a comprehensive job description for the nursing position and formulating a hiring procedure. These two crucial aspects are outlined in detail in the subsequent sections. The eligible candidate will oversee maintenance of accurate and complete patient reports, as well as, medical records. The nurse will also be responsible for adjusting patient treatment regimen on the basis of respective patients’ condition and response to treatment. Further responsibilities include observing, recording and reporting changes in patients’ state while supervising and directing healthcare personnel with fewer skills in medicine. The nurse will also be expected to consistently monitor patient characteristics, including dietary, physical and physiological aspects, and to prepare patients for examinations by doctors or other medical specialists. The nurse will also shoulder the task of offering advice to individuals, families and groups on subjects like health education, disease prevention, and childbirth thus aiding in the development of suitable health improvement programs. The process of hiring provides an organization with a unique opportunity to align staff members’ skills with initiatives that foster growth. Proper planning and evaluation of the hiring process is, therefore, instrumental to the achievement of this success. The first step involves formulating interview and reference questions, as well as, criteria for interview assessment. The second stage in the hiring process entails development of a recruitment strategy, which would allow the hospital to map out a plan to attract and select the most competent candidate for the nursing position. The third step in the hiring process involves selection of a search committee. This group, equipped with the interview and reference questions, as well as, candidate assessment criteria, will ensure that

The Taming of the Shrew Essay Example for Free

The Taming of the Shrew Essay William Shakespeare’s play, The Taming of the Shrew, is a controversial play that introduces a battle between a man and woman. The woman, whom is strong-willed, must show submission to her husband. As this play has been read by many people, there has been a wide range of different reactions about the play. Whether people agree with the morals of this play or disagree, it is based upon ones beliefs of what role women play in society. Petruccio, the man who is trying to tame Katherine, tries to â€Å"teach [her] that she must obey him [and he] acts the part of ‘shrew tamer’† (159). Katherine is quite reluctant to Petruccio trying to tame her, and she has the right to the anger she feels toward him. Katherine is a very strong woman who feels the need for independence in her life. Petruccio, however, would like to hold power over her so that he may tame her. Throughout the play the audience is guided along Katherine’s journey of complete submission to Petruccio, whom eventually becomes her husband. The end of the play marks the most important and significant part of the play. Katherine shows her submission to her husband, Petruccio. In Katherine’s speech at the end of the play she admits: â€Å"Such duty as the subject owes the prince, Even such a woman oweth to her husband, And when she is forward, peevish, sullen, sour, And not obedient to his honest will, What is she but a foul contending rebel, And graceless traitor to her loving lord?† (Lines 159-164) This part of her speech signifies that women are supposed to treat their husband as a servant would treat their royal prince. This is putting men in a higher reign of power and acknowledging them as rulers of their women. This is not agreeable by any means because women should have the right to equality in a marriage. In a sermon, titled ‘Of Domesticall Duties: Eight Treatises’ by William Gouge, it is noted that wives are to be â€Å"in subjection to obey [their] own husbands† (1). It is also said that if the â€Å"wives be stubborn, froward, and malapert, their husbands are compelled thereby to abhor and flee form their own houses even as they should have battle with their enemies† (1). This quotation is immoral because when a man and women are married, the man should not be allowed to flee at his own discretion. In those times, however, this unfortunately was permitted. After studying the play further and reading through relatable sermons, it is evident that womanly independence was highly discouraged. A woman having a man in her life, who gives her some direction, is not terrible. The ways that a man holds power over a woman and essentially becomes the boss of her however, is not right. There is a fine line between being a woman’s husband, and being a woman’s boss. A woman should be entitled to her own independence and sovereignty. Looking at the period where this play originated, it is common to discourage women from having equality to men. However, it still doesn’t make their views correct. It is encouraging to see our time period evolve since then, as it is less common to have a man trying to tame his wife. It is heartbreaking to see that some people still live by those same morals in our society. I believe that we as a generation have done a better job of trying to disregard the same views that were held during Shakespearea n times.

Green Building Technology Essay Example for Free

Green Building Technology Essay 1. Introduction Would there be a technology that can benefit nature and human beings at the same time? Conventional belief over the use of technology is that nature is sacrificed and used up for the sake of human beings. However, technology is not simply about efficiency anymore, and its associated grounds are expanding. Concern over environment is one of the most prominent ones, and ‘Green building technology’ falls under it. Green building technology aims to create environmentally responsible buildings or housings throughout its life span, while using the resources available efficiently. It involves the whole process of building certain structure, covering the processes of design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation and deconstruction (EPA). In short, it is construction technology that tries to optimize environmental sustainability and efficiency while not giving up the necessary qualities of living spaces. Idea of Green building arose as OPEC oil embargo occurred in year 1973 with an Initial goal of reducing its fossil fuel usage. This being a motive, further researches was done by different groups and green building came into housing trend (Marble Institute) After that, there had been increased attention and development of green building technology. People are more interested in looking for environmentally friendly housings and many governments are promoting it through different kinds of green construction standards. Yet, is this technology really giving us substantial benefit in our daily lives? What kind of benefits, in specific, is it providing? What would be the processes of achieving such impacts? Even though this technology does not have a long history, it is already causing changes in reducing energy and resource usages; economic and social benefits are in rise too. Green building has substantial positive effect in both environment and economy, with potential for better outcomes in the future. This can be supported by numerous facts and application of technology. Specific applications of controlling energy usage leads to outright reducing of resources used in construction, which in bigger ground, leads to overall change of human society. 2. Functions in Resource Conservation 2.1 Background The need to conserve natural resources arose from several natural changes in climate. First major change was the global increase of temperature, which also caused devastating natural disasters. (Figure 1) For example, this diagram from NASA’s investigation implies that until the point of 1990s, at least there were below-zero global temperature anomaly. But it has exceeded the point of 0 degrees Celsius since then, reaching higher points. This caused problems like shifting natural characteristics for some countries (i.e. gaining more tropical climate, while the area doesn’t fall under tropical area) and extreme weathers like heat waves leading to hundreds of casualties (IPCC). Stanford researchers predicts summers will keep getting hotter for the next 20 years (Rust,2011) Additional problems of high energy dependencies and its consequences are not negligible too. Oil prices have doubled since 10 years ago with annual increase of 25% between 2004 and 2008 (Bauer, 2010). For countries who import their energy resources, reducing the energy usage and saving money is a big concern. High dependency in energy usage often causes crisis in some special crisis situations. It could be financial, political, or literally natural disaster. While so, housing alone takes up major portion of total energy usage. According to United States’ Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it accounted for 38.9 percent of total U.S. energy consumption in 2005. In year 2006 it took 72 percent of total U.S. electricity consumption and this number will rise to 75% by 2025. So it can be seen how change in managing housings can lead to positive changes (EPA). Green building technology tackles against these problems with many different technologies, adopting them appropriately for each aspects of energy conservation. While so, 2 examples that directly fight against specific aspects are brought up here. 2.2 Heat Control Firstly, it has been said that the heating and cooling process of a household heavily uses electricity and causes substantial carbon emission. Following are statistics stated by EPA: †¢ The average household spends at least $2,000 a year on energy bills — over half of which goes to heating and cooling. †¢ Out of the total energy consumption in an average household, 50% goes to space heating, 27% to run appliances, 19% to heat water and 4% goes to air conditioning. The numbers are self-explanatory; heating and cooling alone is a big part of whole energy consumption. Temperature control technology for green building enables reducing such consumption and carbon emission. During summer the sun light directly enters through houses through windows or hits the surfaces of outer building and heats up the whole construction. Four factors affect heat accumulation in a home: solar heat gain, internal heat gain, air leakage, and temperature difference. To solve these problems, approaches such as using shades, changing color of outer building, change of roof structure, reducing internal heat generating sources (ex. Electronic equipment), and better use of spaces for air ventilation are used. Today’s buildings also use machine controlled ventilation system or, manual adjustment of ventilation openings to control the heat (Bauer, 2010). On the other hand, during winter it is important to keep and gain every possible heat. A simple method like building the houses facing towards south or optimizing use of sunlight would be the most well-known methods. Additionally, methods of ‘loading up’ the heat into the building are also used, which is using methods like using atria or double faà §ade- dual dimensioned surfaces like windows or wall surfaces- which can support the heat insulation by 20% (Bauer, 2010). As a particular example, window films are proven to be effective in solar radiation cut, reducing the heat level entering a house. The benefit of windows films is clear; it reflects the sun radiation that causes heat and let the room keep cool with less efforts, in terms of both cost and energy usage. This means less air conditioning is used and less energy is consumed. It is proposed by Solar Gard ®, that â€Å"Not only do Solar Gard’s architectural solar control window films help cut energy expenditures by up to 30%, its Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) scientifically proves that Solar Gard and Panorama ® solar control window films have a net positive environmental impact worldwide (Solar Gard). These are specific effects of window film proposed by them; 1. One square meter of a low-e wood window, the type with the smallest carbon footprint, has a carbon cost of 253 kilograms. The carbon cost of Solar Gard window film is less than one kilogram per square meter. 2. Solar Gard window film saves 1001 times more GHG emissions from entering the atmosphere than is used and/or created during its manufacture. 3. Solar Gard window film installed between 2007 and 2008 saved 3.6 million tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere; this is equivalent to the carbon output of 16,350 American families (with four people). This particular products’ such effects can be expected from other window films too. In short, all these heat controlling technologies serve to reduce the electricity usage with additional energy conserving effects of reduced carbon emissions. 2.3 Emission Control Speaking of carbon emissions, there are specific uses of materials that combats them. In United States, housing alone takes 38 percent of the total carbon dioxide emissions (EPA). Carbon dioxide emission is one of the well-known factors that are blamed for the global warming. The famous Kyoto Protocol was established in order to limit this and also to achieve better results with global warming around the world. Choice of materials for constructions is thus carefully chosen from the planning stage, since once used in the process of construction, it is hard to replace them afterwards. Different sorts of materials has different amount of carbon emissions, and in green building that is considered as major criteria. Other aspects of renewability and sustainability are also considered carefully when material is picked. One specific example of such effort would be use of wood for floorings. Wood has its advantage as a building material from its characteristics of low embodied energy, low carbon impact, low pollution emission, and sustainability. Low embodied energy means it takes less efforts and resources in order to get it. Wood, since it has minimal energy processing during harvesting, has relatively lower embodied energy than those like steels, concrete, aluminum, plastic. In terms of carbon impact, it has lower carbon emission than most of other construction materials. Compared to other artificial or metal types or materials, it shows significantly lower level of carbon emission just as shown in figure 2. Figure 2 Basically, this is the most important characteristic of wood usage for green building, and it is listed as the followings in the website of The Solid Wood Flooring Company: * For every tonne of CO2 a tree absorbs from the atmosphere nearly  ¾ of a tonne of oxygen is produced * Over 83% of the timber supplied in the UK is certified to be sustainable * Using wood instead of other building materials saves an average of 0.9 tonnes of CO2 per cubic metre. * An ‘EUR’ wooden pallet stores around 29kg of CO2 taken from the atmosphere during the growth of the tree While metals and other fossil-based materials are not renewable resources, wood can be maintained forever if carefully used. It has to be accompanied by careful forestry planning, but it is definitely one resource that can be continuously re-grown. 3. Impacts 3.1 Social Impacts With all the features that efficiently use the natural energy and resources, green building technology also supports well-being of tenants in the buildings. It typically contributes to improve employees’ and students’ health, comfort and productivity. Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ)—one of the criteria of the U.S Green Building Council’s LEED-H rating system—evaluates the subtle issue that influences people’s status of mind and body in a space. It has been scientifically proven by related study that people tend to be more productive and contribute better performance in environment with better ventilation and proper temperature control (Abdou, 2006). Figure 3 Just as shown in figure 3, improved working or living condition leads to better work performances. The study sponsored in part by commercial real estate giant Cushman Wakefield, reported 30 percent fewer sick days among one companys employees, and discovered a 10 percent increase in net revenue per employee in another company, after each office moved to LEED-certified buildings. Schools operating in green buildings also demonstrate higher test scores and heightened academic enthusiasm among students (Abdou, 2006) Plus, nature friendly methods and materials used in green buildings proved to ease sicknesses that could occur in daily lives of tenants. It is believed to contribute widely to respiratory problems, allergies, nausea, headaches, and skin rashes. With much emphasis on ventilation, non-toxic, low emitting materials and cutting use of air conditioning, green buildings indeed create healthier and more comfortable living environments, which keep people away from ‘Sick Building Syndromes’ (Fisk, 2002). In summary, all these benefits retrieved from applying green building technology can lead to wholesome social benefit of people, by promoting health initiatives and pleasurable living spaces. Hence it further goes on to the bigger scale of expanding economic ground, by improving productivity and economic activity of the users of this technology. 3.2 Economic Impacts Green buildings are so much more cost effective compared to conventional buildings. According to the USGBC’s LEED rating system, green buildings tend to be 25-30% more energy efficient and more likely to generate the renewable resource on-site. Due to its cost effectiveness, energy saving and easy maintenance, green buildings outperform non-green buildings in the resale market. Basically a newly–constructed green building will perform 10.9% better than its original construction value. Prospective buyers who realize the utility and maintenance cost and are more concerned about the sustainable design of the building will be attracted towards it. Though there is a common perception that green buildings cost a heavy premium over normal buildings, the cost of green design has dropped in the last few years as the number of green buildings has risen. Hence buildings both residential and commercial with sustainable design component continue retaining a high property value in th e retailing market (McGraw Hill Construction, 2010). By continuing to grow in different ground of constructions from the usual ones, green building technology is opening new opportunities for more economic activities with its prospects. As consumers and suppliers become more interested in such technology, it carries much potential for better outcomes. 4. Future Prospects Then would these outcomes continue to exist in the upcoming future too? Green building is getting on the line of popularity within the general public who are becoming more aware of environmental conservation. Governments are encouraging it with various policies and incentives with brandings. It does seem like there are some positive prospects for green building technology to continue to grow in the future. There are supple amounts of factors encouraging such potentials. Regarding the future upcoming green building designs, buildings such as Zero-Energy Buildings are being explored. Zero-energy building (ZEB) is the designation given to buildings that have zero net energy consumption and zero carbon emissions annually. These buildings harvest energy produced on-site to meet their own energy needs. In addition to this, ideas of green schools are also being developed. Certified Green Schools are growing rapidly as part the LEED System. This trend will accelerate as understanding of the health and educational benefits of green schools grow (Yudelson, 2010). On the other hand, research efforts for further protection of environment are encouraging the future growth too. Awareness of the coming global crisis in fresh water supply leads building designers and managers to take further steps to reduce water consumption to increase sustainability. This will be done in buildings through the use of more conservation-oriented fixtures, rainwater recovery systems and innovative new water technologies. Lifecycle Analysis (LCA) examines the impact of materials and will allow architects to determine what products are more sustainable and what combination of products can produce the most environmentally friendly results (GEP, 2011). In 2011, the annual Image Power Global Green Brands Study polled more than 9,000 people in 8 countries (USA, UK, China, Brazil, India, Germany, France and Australia) to analyze consumers’ perception of green products. All participating countries, either developed or developing, indicated that they were quite willing to open up their wallets and pay a bit more for green options in real estate. Most of the informants showed great interest to the green buildings. To be precise, 60% of the surveyed consumers globally intend to extend their green choices more and more to items in the real estate, energy and technology sectors (Longsworth, 2011). By 2013 overall global green building market, both residential and commercial, may more than double in its scale from approximately $36-$49 billion to $96-$140 billion. When looking solely at the commercial and institutional real estate development markets, the green building market is projected to grow from its current occupation of 10-12% of the market to 20-25% (GreenBuildings.com). The future market trends are predicted to continue to grow with certain incentives and initiatives. One of them would be green building technology being encouraged to be used in government sectors. Government offices will need to be transformed into green buildings because of regulatory requirements in many countries. Such need will be the key growth area for green building market. Cash incentives for developers will play a major role in this too. Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong and Japan have developed strong support system and incentives for green building developers, designers and owners. Seeing benefits from such incentives, more experts will enter into green building area, stimulating its growth (FrostSullivan, 2009). 5. Conclusion Green building, regardless its short history, has achieved a lot in a short term. Its variety of technologies gave rise of new solutions for using less energy yet enjoying more nature friendly benefits, and as it get popular, economic and social benefits arose. Specific technologies that have been discussed were temperature control technologies and choice of building materials. Such direct outcomes lead green building’s positive impacts to be applied on overall human society and economy. From the current outcomes of green building technology and its rising popularity, it seems to have good prospects for the future growth too. There are different factors of future designs and economic incentives encouraging this trend, and so further growth followed by more positive impacts can be expected. These all consequently support the idea; green building has substantial positive effect in both environment and economy, with potential for even better outcomes in the future. Still, there are problems and limitations of green building technology that we have to consider about for the moment. It is a new born technology and yet to be fully developed. Hence full green buildings that incorporate much of the technology are prone to be accused for its high costs as mentioned before and also its insufficient development of efficiency are often pointed at as something unworthy of further developments. Nevertheless, its future potentials cannot be abandoned simply because of its current limitations. Since the initial goal of green building is to reduce human use of natural resources and promote sustainability, current green building technology should be pushed on for further developments that can solve problems at the moment and so forth move on to achieve its goal in an even better way. Besides, its potentials are sufficient to predict better efficiency and profound benefits for our society. Hence green building technology should be acknowledged for its supportive impacts on environment not only for the current moment, but also for the upcoming future that will aid human beings to continue to live on without exhausting the natural resources.

The Return Of Martin Guerre Film Studies Essay

The Return Of Martin Guerre Film Studies Essay To begin, film can be a dangerous method if audiences intend is to study history. Films can really persuade audiences to the direction of the perspective of filmmaker; this can be seen optimistically or pessimistically. If one does not have any formal knowledge of characters in the movie, how one visualize the characters are influenced by the interpretation of the filmmaker themselves. Films can manipulate and control the minds of the audiences; producers can make audiences adore, hate, sympathize or be terrified with specific characters in the film. Furthermore, film assigns specific character for an antagonist or a protagonist. Personally thinking, the film made Arnaud du Tilh, the imposter of Martin Guerre, to look as the protagonist of the film. In comparison to the book, Arnaud appeared to have truly fallen in love with Betrande and acted like a good husband and father to her and her son. Unlike Arnaud Martin du Tilh, Pierre Guerre was the character that appeared to be aggressiv e and money-hungry who did not want to inherit any money to his long lost supposed nephew. But in contrast, films allow audiences to empathize with a character from the past. When viewers create strong relationship with a character, viewers enter the film as if it is part of their life; audiences may believe they indeed understand characters action and thoughts. Throughout the film, I came to love, hate, and sympathize Martin Guerre du Tilh. I felt attached to the character and had hopes that he was the true Martin Guerre though I knew he was not. I felt the strongest connection to Arnaud when he confessed that the reason why he pretended to be Martin Guerre was because he fell in love with Betrande at the first sight. When the audiences get to see emotions and body language of a character, it creates stronger connection between the audience and the character. Another key disadvantage of learning history through film is that it adds a lot of inaccurate but entertaining twists to mak e the film more attractive. Unfortunately, some audiences become completely absorbed and believe what is projected without any doubt. Nonetheless, these inaccurate twists bring entertainment and spark to history, luring the audiences attention. While the film allows us to sympathize and connect with historical characters, books allow audiences to interpret characters to audiences perspective. Audiences get to imagine characters rather than being influenced by the visual interpretation the filmmaker projects throughout the story. With film, audiences are trapped with the image that they see in the film; with book, audiences get to imagine visual appearance and personality of a character. In other words, each audience can interpret the storyline and the characters on their perspective. In the book, The Return of Martin Guerre, Arnaud du Tilh appeared to be more as an antagonist rather than a protagonist as interpreted in the film. Since the book focused on broader issue; for example, explaining how Guerre family settled in Artigat and the life of Bertrande, Arnaud du Tilh did not seem as important character as shown in the film. I could only imagine him to be a fraudulent, pretending to be Martin Guerre to take the familys in heritance. Furthermore, unlike the film, where it focuses on Martin du Tilh and Betrande de Rols, the book went beyond and explained the lives of other characters. For instance, Jean de Coras, the Toulouse judge who documented the infamous trial of the Sixteenth Century. Like Davis mentions in the preface of her book, she explains that the film failed to point out some historical record of the case such as the abandonment of the Basque background of the Guerres, and the rising of Protestantism from Catholicism in the rural area. Regarding accuracy, books always reveal the underlying historical truths broader and more accurately than films can ever. Written work explains all the possible details that most films ignore due to its dullness and the time limit. Learning history through written works, in general, seem more reliable and accurate compare to films produced for mass audience. Essentially, the film Le Retour de Martin Guerre is mostly true, except the fictional account of Bertrandes motives at the end of the trial. In the book, Arnaud du Tilh insisted on being the real Martin Guerre till his death. Bertrande, in the end of the film, confesses that Arnauds eyes told her to give up and admit the newly claimed Martin as real Martin Guerre. In addition, Davis, a script consultant of the film, decided to write a more scholarly version of Martin Guerre after producing the film to assure a more historically accurate and detail work is available to public. However, she mentions in the introduction that she tried to look beyond the historical facts to unravel and understand the motivation behind the characters pursuit. This might input Daviss opinion on possibilities and ideas that Betrande knew that the new Martin Guerre was not her husband and secretively agreed to help him become Martin Guerre. But essentially, this is only a theoretical guess and no one really knows if Betrande actually knew Arnaud du Tilh was her husband or not. Personally I prefer the film over the book. The book was dull and uninteresting than the film. The film made me think the storyline is actually entertaining. The suspense created in the film really made me wonder if the man that claimed to be Martin Guerre, was indeed himself though I knew he was a fraudulent prior to watching the film. The film made the whole historical phenomenon to look real -the atmosphere, buildings, and even the lives of townsmen of Pyrenean village of Artigat seemed real. These really helped me to connect with the characters and the plot. Furthermore, media sources in general are a great way to introduce learners to historical events. Though there can be certain historical flaws, it still gives audiences a general storyline and visual interpretation of how life looked in certain periods. For example, the film, Le Retour de Martin Guerre, really presented the peasant life in the Sixteenth Century in France, while exhibiting the case of Martin Guerre. A person can say that the movie is lacking historical detail; however, the meaning, lesson, and the essence of the storyline were presented in the movie. It is my opinion, the film could be rather boring and long if all the historical details were added. Unlike the book, audiences get to see and learn the life of the peasants. Although both reading the book and viewing the film helped me enhanced my understanding of the historical event, I would choose to show the film if I had to teach history to students. Reading a historical book may not be as thrilling as watching a film and students might not get enough messages from the book as they are supposed to. But prior to or after viewing the film, I would teach the students some foundation and historical flaws which would help them learn the knowledge of the historical event and characters. In The Return of Martin Guerre, Davis went beyond the historical facts and tried to comprehend the possibilities behind the characters actions and pursuits. Both the film and the print amazingly delivered the historical information of the infamous case of Martin Guerre, a man who lived three years of another mans life by cheating the village of Artigat. Unlike many other historical films, Le Retour de Martin Guerre remained mostly true to the historical facts and told the audiences a fiction-like real story in the Sixteenth Century. Both mediums did excellent job informing historical occurrence to different types of learners. The book allowed us to learn broader and deeper into the roots of the content and taught audiences more in-depth view of each characters. However, my opinion is that the film did even better job at communicating the message of the content to audiences in such a short time limit.

Glimmer of Hope Essay -- Analysis, Carl Sandburg

In the darkest of places, the hardest of times, or the lowest of lows, hope can always be found. â€Å"Hope Is a Tattered Flag,† by Carl Sandburg, illustrates where hope can be found, even when it seems like all is lost. This optimistic poem focuses on the depth of hope and the many aspects of life in which it lies. The setting of the work is in America amid a time of depression and hardship during the 1930s. In these trying times, all people were struggling to find their own gleam of hope anywhere they could. Sandburg speaks to every class of people, especially appealing to the common man who faced the most hardships during this time, with his unrhymed and simple writing style. He uses images of familiar places such as steel mills and salesrooms to speak to the working class citizens, and displays simple symbols of hope that can be found in these places. Also, the poem uses specific word choices, allusions, and metaphors to further depict the symbols of hope encountered in the poem. Sandburg incorporates the concept of hope with the instability of America during the 1930s with the use of vivid imagery, word choice and a writing style of free-verse to convey his theory of hope throughout the poem. Carl Sandburg was born on January 6, 1878, in Galesburg, Illinois. In his early years of schooling, he only advanced as far as the eighth grade before having to leave school to help support his family by working many different jobs that included brick laying and shining shoes. After working a variety of jobs, Sandburg traveled as a hobo until enlisting in the military when the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898. When he returned from the war, he went back to school at Lombard College, which was the place where he first learned of his... ...ct different visions of hope. In his poem, Sandburg deliberately uses a free-verse style of writing. This style is better-suited for Sandburg’s purpose in writing the poem because it directly emphasizes the point of each line while appealing to the common man. The first line of the poem expresses, â€Å"Hope is a tattered flag and a dream out of time† (Sandburg 120). Here, â€Å"tattered† provides an indication of conflict. The â€Å"dream out of time† is signifying that the dream of hope is of another era. During the time of the depression, the American people had so many troubles that they felt hope was unreachable to them. Mahony explains that this image â€Å"portrays hope as a survivor, emerging not unscathed from battle† (129). Sandburg uses clear and understandable language in his free-verse style to get his point across to all types of people in an understandable manner.

Lime Disease Essay example -- essays research papers

Lime Disease   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Lyme disease is caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, which is a tick-borne spirochete. The dangers of this disease became more publicised in 1977, where a geographic grouping of children in Lyme, Conneticut were thought to have juvenile rheumatoid arthritis1. Soon after, it was discovered that lyme disease was an illness that mainly affects the skin, nervous system, heart, and joints. The borrelia species is part of the eubacterial phylum of spirochetes. Containted within a protoplasmic cylinder is a cell membrane, followed by wavy flagella, and then an outer membrane. The genes encoded within the outer membrane are located on plasmids which allows the organism to make antigenic changes in these proteins. When a borrelia cell attaches to its host, the whole outer membrane moves to one end of the cylinder, which is called capping to patching1. B. burgdorferi do not live in water, soil, or plants. Borrelia grow slowly compared to most bacteria. They elongate for 12 to 24 hours before dividing into two cells. B. burgdorferi is approximately 20 to um long and 0.2 to 0.25 um wide, with 7 to 11 flagella. More than 30 proteins are contained within B. burgdorferi1. This bacteria uses white-footed mice, mosquitoes, and deer as their hosts.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This disease does not discriminate between sex and age; male and female, as well as old and young are affected. It is widely distributed around the world in the temperate zones3. A person is infected when a black-legged tick imbeds itself into them while out in the open in wodded and forested areas. This usually occurs between the months of May and July. Tick abundance is associated with humidity, temperature, landscape slope, forested areas with sandy soils, and the extremity of residential development?.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Generally, lyme disease occurs in stages, which are not always clear-cut; they may overlap. The first stage involves the injection of B. burgdorferi by the tick. Shortly thereafter (3 days to 4 months), it spreads throughout the skin, causing erythema migrans (EM), which is basically a skin lesion. This lesion can vary in size, body site, color, duration, intensity, and recurrence. Erythema migrans is a marker of the disease, yet may also be absent altogether. EM resolves spontaneously in a few weeks or months4. Also like to occu... ...itive skills in children who have been treated for lyme disease using antibiotics. It seems likely that the lyme disease spirochete can cause an adverse fetal outcome. However, the question is, how likely and just what are the outcomes, which is what I would like to test for. My proposed study will be an experimental study in which lyme disease treated pediatric populations will be examined to identify possible cognitive or psychologic abnormalities resulting from lyme disease. The focus will be on children because they have a high incidence of lyme disease? and are less likely to have cognitive deterioration due to confounding factors, such as aging.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Children between the ages of 5 and 15 who have been treated with lyme disease will be studied. These children will be randomly chosen for endemic areas such as Delaware. Serologic testing (ie. enzyme-linked immunosorbent assa; ELISA) will be used to determine the presence of B. burgdorferi antibodies. The following hypotheses will be tested: Ho: No cognitive differences between lyme disease children and control group HA: Cognitive differences between lyme disease children and control group are present.

Cmis102 Assignment 1

CMIS102 Homework Assignment 1 (Worth 13% of your grade) Problem definition: Calculate the usable area in square feet of house. Assume that the house has a maximum of four rooms, and that each room is rectangular. A. Problem Analysis – Following the directions in the assignment, clearly write up your problem analysis in this section. This program will compute the area of a house that has four rectangular rooms. Output is the value of the total area (total_area) of the house and is to be calculated by area/length/width input (A1, A2, A3, A4, L1, L2, L3, L4, W1, W2, W3, and W4) variables declared as float variables.The program will utilize the standard mathematical formula of obtaining area of a rectangle: A = L*W. As well, the formula will be coded in the program as Area=length*width (A=L*W) respectively for each room. L1 = length of first room, as float W1 = width of first room, as float A1=L1*W1 L2 = length of first room, as float W2 = width of first room, as float A2=L2*W2 L3 = length of first room, as float W3 = width of first room, as float A3=L3*W3 L4 = length of first room, as float W4 = width of first room, as float A4=L4*W4 B.Program Design – Following the directions in the assignment, clearly write up your problem design in this section and comment your pseudocode. Raptor software will be used in designing and testing this program. The three fundamental tasks of creating a program will be incorporated: 1) Input Data: Use of Raptor to add Input and Assignment symbols will allow user to input data when running the program. The Main and Input_Data modules will heavily use the Input and Assignment symbols in Raptor. In the Input_Data_module, variables will be assigned and declared.As well, the Main module will execute the entire program by calling the completed sub-charts. 2) Calculate formula: Use formulas to attain total_area of the house by calculating area of each of the four rooms. total_area = A1 + A2 + A3 + A4 to get the sums of all are as we must calculate the formula for each room A1 = L1*W1 A2 = L2*W2 A3 = L3*W3 A4 = L4*W4 3) Obtain Output: The program will display the result of total_area from process and calculation in the previous two steps. The design of the modular program will be created in Raptor and the design will look like this: Main module:Comment: â€Å"This program computes the total area of a four bedroom house in square footage. Call Input_Data_module Call Calculations_module Call Output_Data_module End Input_Data_Module: Write â€Å"Length of first room† (L1) Write â€Å"Width of first room† (W1) Write â€Å"Length of second room† (L2) Write â€Å"Width of second room† (W2) Write â€Å"Length of third room† (L3) Write â€Å"Width of third room† (W3) Write â€Å"Length of fourth room† (L4) Write â€Å"Width of fourth room† (W4) Call Calculations_module End Perform Calculations module: Declare A1, A2, A3, and A4; as floatSet A1 = L1*W1 Set A2 = L2*W2 Set A3 = L3*W3 Set A4 = L4*W4 Set total_area = (A1+A2+A3+A4) End Output Data module: Write â€Å"The total area of house is:† + total_area End C. Program Comments and Test Data – Following the directions in the assignment, include your test data and expected results in this section. Table 1. Include your test data table here TEST RUN OF DATA INPUT INTO PROGRAM Room#:| Input: Length & Width (in feet)| | Expected Output: Footage of house (in feet)| | Test Run 1| Area of Rectangle 😠 A=L*W| Room 1| L=10, W=5| | 50=10*5|Room 2| L=10, W=5| | 50=10*5| Room 3| L=10, W=5| | 50=10*5| Room 4| L=10, W=5| | 50=10*5| | Total Area=A1+A2+A3+A4:| 200 sq ft. | | Test Run 2| Area of Rectangle 😠 A=L*W| Room 1| L=12, W=6| | 72=12*6| Room 2| L=12, W=6| | 72=12*6| Room 3| L=12, W=6| | 72=12*6| Room 4| L=12, W=6| | 72=12*6| | Total Area=A1+A2+A3+A4:| 288 sq ft. | | Test Run 3| Area of Rectangle 😠 A=L*W| Room 1| L=20, W=10| | 200=20*10| Room 2| L=20, W=10| 200=20* 10| Room 3| L=20, W=10| 200=20*10| Room 4| L=20, W=10| | 200=20*10| | Total Area=A1+A2+A3+A4:| 800 sq ft. |

Accounting fraud Essay

Accounting fraud can be defined as knowingly falsifying accounting records in order to increase sales revenue and net income. Accounting fraud is committed in corporations by means of showing false information, using funds for illegal purposes or inflate expenses, overstating revenues, understating expenses or overstating the value of corporate assets. All these activities are entirely unethical. Behaving ethically depends on the capability to recongnize the ethical issues and to believe on their existence. This ability to respond ethically at workplace related more to attributes of corporate culture than to attributes of individual employee Individuals often fail to realise their moral obligations at work and by being subject to world’s temptation fails to tread on their set ethical standards and behave unethically. People especially of todays generation are so much engrossed in their own different criterias of their lives that they almost forget to confine themselves to ethi cal boundaries that is why ethical decisions are always difficult to make and its foundation is based on several factors however if we talk about the decision by considering moral philosophies of a person; that depends on whether the person is making a work-related decision or personal-life decision. See more: Basic Economic problem of Scarcity Essay A person in the business sector might view of the problem by thinking differently beacause of the outside force and under the work pressure. However, the same decision might be unacceptable to him outside the work. The second reason of people changing moral philosophies could be the corporate culture where they work. Rules and personalities of a business culture person eventually effects on the person and exerts pressure to conform to the firm’s culture. Edward Hall (1959), described culture as a silent language, and defines it as â€Å"that part of man’s behavior which he takes for granted, the part he doesn’t think about, since he assumes it is universal or regards it as idiosyncratic.† Geert Hofstede (1993) defined it as â€Å"the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes one group or category of people from another.† (P.489) A culture followed in corporate or on industrial level is known as Meso- culture and every organisation has t heir own set agendas regarding ethics because work ethics plays a pivotal role at work place to rein employees to behave ethically and keeping into account the ethical dimensions. In most of the organizations, there are set rules and policies specifically formulated to make ethical environment. Every  organization has a culture which mainly comes from the side of upper management and the rest of the employees follows the set trends and culture of their own corporate sectors. The culture of the organization varies from organization to organization because of the different perceptions of the chief executive officers (CEO) and the Board of Directors (BOD). Individuals in practical lives tend to take decisions according to their own moral values and set standards however, in business it changes and is quite the other way round. People get pressurised often and take decisions whatever is percieved as right or wrong in their surroundings and also choose on producing the greatest benefits with least harm. Individuals cannot simply enforce their personal perspective, though they are responsible for their actions but the idea of middle- management or entry level employee to have the freedom to take decision on their own at the work place is unrealistic.For example, if an employee can attract more customers by giving bribe to someone in the business, his decision would rely on whether complying with company policy or requirements is an important motivation to the individual or not. So for that purpose, according to Drake and Drake (1988), â€Å" there is a necessity for the development of training programmes to implement corporate values. These programmes must explain the ethical and legal principles to the employees and show practical examples which can be used as a guidance.† (p.111) Thus, the set principles and policies regarding work ethics in an organization and in addition to that the training programs can guide, govern or direct the employees to follow ethics and helps in institutionalizing organizations. According to ethics consultant David Gebler, â€Å" Most unethical behaviour is not done for personal gain, it’s done to meet performance goals†. Mostly people are of the view that individual moral philosophies plays main role for the ethical behaviour in business. Although moral philosophies learned through family, religion and education are important but it is only one factor which helps in decision making; it is not sufficient to prevent ethical misconduct especially in the business sector. Studies show that the reward for meeting performances and the corporate culture are the main drive rs in ethical decision making because the companies have a life of their own and the individuals working in the company are transcended by its corporate culture and with the passage of time, these patterened activities become instituionalized within the  organization. Peer influence also effects to some extent in the decision making; employees can be lulled by each other in making unethical decisions or when facing with ethical dilemmas nonetheless, everything still surrounds around the corporate culture and its strict policies for the ethical behaviour because when the policies will be strict, every employee would strive hard for the performance goal. If I fit myself in a situation where I can easily inflate my account on company’s expenses, I would be swayed by the company’s culture. I might not even think of committing any fraud or inflate the expense on company’s account, if the company is strict in its policies. But at times, it also depends on an individual moral values of a person in taking decision which is transmitted normally from families. According to my vantage point, individual moral development for taking a decision is a secondary factor; what drives first instantly to the person to behave ethically is the corpo rate culture since a company cannot rely on every individual to behave ethically on their own. â€Å"They can’t just stand in front of people and say they want them to have a good attitude and be excited,† says Pecos River president Elizabeth Wilson. Taking decision in practical life and in work life differs. People in their work lives are driven by some targets and goals which are triggered in them by the organisation where they work and that effects on their performance. Similarly, when they take decision in their work lives , they are not driven by their own values, the company’s formulated culture effects their decision making. Nevertheless, if a person takes any decision without any concern or reflecting on the ethical dimensions; these sort of misbehaviours are referred to as â€Å"unethical business practices† (eg Garrett et al.,1989; Giacalone and Jurkiewicz, 2003 ; King, 1986).According to Murphy (1989), â€Å"Ethics should be followed in corporate sectors in the form of corporate creed and ethical code. The former establishes the organisational ethical values whereas the latter is a specific set of guidelines which must be developed in all functional areas of the firm.† To conclude, business ethics plays a pivotal role in developing a corporate culture. Although, all the implementation of principles and ethics is a bit difficult procedure but it impacts on the employees in the organisation in higher degree and rein them from involving in unethical activities. â€Å"It is obvious that in principle individuals are more ethical if a corporation has a written, formal code and  less ethical otherwise.† (Vitell et al.,1993,p.336). Hence, according to Vitell, the idea of a formal written code for ethics works well in corporate sector. In addition, moral values of an individual which are mainly effected by religion, personal cognitive approach, family, beliefs, education et cetera also plays an important role in preventing the employees in taking any unethical decision, however, it is only a secondary factor for an employee has a performance goal in his mind while working and the decision forms according to a corporate culture and the ethics followed in organizations since a company cannot rely on individuals individually to have e thical standards and beliefs. For that purpose , there is a necessity of a corporate culture which work as the main driver to act ethically in a work- place and in situations related to corporate sector. REFERENCES: Arunchand, C H; Ramanathan, Hareesh N. Organizational Culture and Employee Morale: A Public Sector Enterprise Experience, Journal of Strategic Human Resource Management2.1 (2013): 1-8. Mickalowski, Kyle; Mickelson, Mark; Keltgen, Jaciel. â€Å" Apple’s Iphone Launch: A Case Study In Effective Marketing The Business Review, Cambridge9.2(Summer 2008). Retrieved from Proquest Database, viewed 29 September,14 Caulkin, S.: 2002, ‘Good Thinking, Bad Practice’, The Observer (7th April), 11 Claver, Enrique; Llopis, Juan; Gasco, Jose L. International Journal of Value – Based Management15.2 (2002): 151-163 Drake, B. H.and E. Drake, (1988), â€Å"Ethical and legal aspects of managing corporate culture† California management review 30 (2), 107- 123 Fritzche, D. J.: 1995, ‘Personal Values: Potential Keys to Ethical Decision Making’, Journal of Business Ethics 14(11), 909–922. Retrieved from Proquest Database, viewed 5 May,14 Garrett D. E., J. L., Bradford.,R. A. Meyers., J, Becker :1989 Issues Management and Organizational accounts: An analysis of Corporate responses to Accusations of Unethical Business Practices, Journal of Business Ethics 8 (7), 507- 520, Retrieved from Proquest Database, viewed 6 May,14 Geert, H., Bond, M. H., & Luk, C. L. (1993). Individual Perceptions of Organizational Cultures. Organization Studies, 14(4), pp. 483-503. Retrieved from Proquest Database, viewed 11 may,14 Hall, E.T. (1959). The Silent Language, New York: Doubleday Lincoln, D., M. M. Pressey and T. Little: 1982, ‘Ethical Beliefs and Personal Values of Top Level Executives’, Journal of Business Research (10), 475–487 Murphy Herta A., Effective Business Communication (7th Edition), Herbert W. Hildebrandt , Mc Graw- Hill. Nakano, Chiaki. Asian Business & Management, suppl. Special Issue: Japanese Business & Society in a Global Age6.2 (Jun 2007): 163-178. The Significance and limitations of Corporate Governance from the perspective of Business Ethics: Towards the Creation of an Ethical Organizational Culture, Retrieved from Proquest Database, viewed on 10 May, 14. Vitell, S. J., et al, (1993), ‘Marketing Norms: The influence of personal moral philosophies and organizational ethical culture’ Journal of the academy of marketing science 21 (4), 331-337, Retrieved from Proquest Database, Viewed on 12 May,14. Yallapragada, RamMohan R.; Roe, C. William; Toma, Alfred G.: Accounting fraud and white collar crimes in the US, Journal of Business Case Studies8.2 (2012): 187. Retrieved from Proquest Database, Viewed on 7 May,14.

Roles of Women in the Early Europe

In early, medieval Europe, everyday life and the duties of people were greatly different than they are today. Obviously, there was no technology and life was a lot simpler. However, some of the former ways of life are not always praised as something good. For example, women during the time were treated very inadequately. Yes, this has happened in just about every society in history, but it seems like most women during this period were used and disrespected more notably than in others. In Philippa Gregory’s novel, The Other Boleyn Girl, this theme is seen greatly. In the story, the narrator, Mary, is defending her sister, Anne, after she is sentenced to death for producing an incest baby instead of a son for the king, King Henry. Mary, pleading for her sister, yells out â€Å"We did nothing more than that was ordered. We only ever did as we were commanded. Is she to die for being an obedient daughter? †(Pg. 650). During this time period, many women in the royal courts were used to produce male heirs, mainly to keep the name of the king and the family continuing. I strongly agree with the quote by Mary because killing a human being for a reason such as that is immoral and women are not just objects for men. In the story, Henry did have a choice to kill Anne or not, but I understood why he did end up taking her life. When Mary claims that the two Boleyn girls â€Å"did as they were commanded†, something drew to my attention. Mary was completely valid in saying that. Anne and Mary were mainly just used to birth a son. Several members of their family, including their uncle, demanded for one of them to bed the king. At first it was Mary who had an affair with the already married king. Even though Mary produces two children, one being a boy, it is not legitimate due to the fact that Mary is merely a mistress and not the queen. When he was done with Mary, King Henry moved on to Anne, who was more determined to become queen and have the child be legitimate. She eventually becomes the Queen of England, but it is proven that Henry was just using her for her child after he kills her. I do not agree with this concept by any means. However, this was a common role for women at the time. Kings and royal families were so concerned about keeping their name going in the court that they would risk the lives of women in doing so. You would think that one of King Henry’s seven wives would pick up on this trend at some point, or any woman in any court for that matter. It seems like women were treated as objects in the royal courts. The women were the croc pot that prepared the kings’ stew. And, if that stew was not one hundred percent correct, the croc pot would be set aside and replaced with a new one. I do not feel this is morally acceptable at all. I understand that kings wanted to have a male heir to keep the name going, but they should have had to complete that task so viciously. In this case, I do not agree with King Henry’s tactics at all, but I understand why he killed Anne. I believe that it was so common to banish or kill a wife for such crimes as adultery or incest that Henry had no choice, but to kill her. He was a very strong, determined man with a bold reputation for being so. By beheading Anne, he was retaining his reputation, but also proved that it was never true love between him and Anne. He had women lined up to take the place of Anne. â€Å"He is at her house every night. He is as he was in the old days, when it was her. † (656). This quote just proves the fact that Henry wanted nothing more of Anne than a son, which is a common theme of the roles of women during this time period. I do not agree with the concept of using women for the production of male heirs because it is immoral and women should not be viewed as objects. That is a major theme in The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. It is prevalent throughout the story and in history that King Henry of England used women as devices used to produce male heirs. This was also seen throughout history. Kings were so determined to keep their name going that they would execute their wives for such faults as not producing a boy, or in this case, birthing an incest baby. The kings had to maintain a strong reputation. I understand that, but do not agree with how they did so.

Language and structure Essay

Language and structure are used in Kew Gardens to create certain effects though language and structure. One of the main meanings presented in Kew Gardens is how man kind is part of a larger picture. Furthermore, Virignia Wolf depicts a bigger picture through the use of extended metaphors. For example, the use of a snail and comparing this to the path of human life, and how it is scattered with obstacles. Imagery is used to create many effects as stated above in the first paragraph. One type of language used by Virginia Wolf is extended metaphors. For example, Wolf writes â€Å"The snail, whose shell had been stained red, blue and yellow. † In the following quote the shell is described with many adjectives to describe the beauty of life. For example, she writes â€Å"blue and yellow. † The use of the following evidence once again emphasises the use of imagery to create the effect that life is eternal and beauty. However, the use of imagery is some what of a contradiction from a normal snail emphasising to the audience that although man envisions a perfect picture of everything it may not seem the case. There is also a greater use of personification in the language to create meaning. For example, â€Å"tongue shaped leaves† and â€Å"yellow gloom of the throat† The following quote just like the snails idealises things. By idealising flowers just like the snail it juxtaposes with the description given of people within the text. Emphasising to the audience that humanity is part of a bigger cycle. Presenting to the audience how human life is intertwined with the flowers in the garden that is essential for our survival. Wolf’s tone and style can be considered very descriptive with little action. The use intense description makes nature sound tranquil and pleasant whilst the deliberate lack of description on human does the opposite creating meaning that man is not as great as it assumes. For example, Wolf gives the descriptions of the of an old, poor women as ‘Sugar, flowers, kippers greens. ‘ Emphasising my point above that through description Wolf makes humans sound dull and self centred. Furthermore, another point which can be emphasised is that Wolf uses language in order to make humans be portrayed as judgemental people. However, through the use of descriptive language on the parks it shows that nature can be appreciated by all. â€Å"The ponderous woman looked through the pattern of falling words at the flowers. † This quote creates a meaning to the audience that although Victorian society is divided by class. Our lives as humans are short and in insignificant and that like nature and the park we are forgotten and we become that cycle of intense beauty. This point can be suggested to have been created by Virginia Wolf because in Victorian society they followed the Bible which states ‘ashes to ashes dust to dust. ‘ Which can be interpreted just like Kew Gardens that we enter with and we end with nothing. However, we ourselves are part of humans nature. Lastly, through dialogue action Virginia creates the effect that going against nature results in disastrous consequences. For example, as the old man states in his dialogue â€Å"heaven was unknown to the ancients as Thessaly, William and now, with this war, the spirit matter is rolling between the hills like thunder†, and â€Å"women! Widows! Women in black! This quote by the old man demonstrates that although man wishes to feel invincible the message of peace and cooperation has to happen just like nature with man in harmony. Therefore, Virginia Wolf through tone and style and dialogue shows how nature and man live side by side. Furthermore, that although man wishes to be invincible and conquer everything through the old man we as humans acknowledge just like nature that we have to live in harmony to accept our existence.

Business Organisational Strategy for Adelaide -

13Cabs is the taxi network service provider that operates in different regions of Australia like Hobart, Adelaide, Sydney, Newcastle and Melbourne. 13Cabs is owned by Cabcharge that operates about 7, 400 taxis throughout Australia (13cabs.com.au. 2017). The service is operated using the cab apps available in various app stores. The cab facility service has chosen the right technology in order to carry out their business they use apps to connect with the customers. The black taxis under this organisation are well known for the service provided by 13 Cabs. 13 Cabs app is the most popular Australian taxi app that has connected the largest fleet of cabs around the different regions of Australia anywhere and anytime (13cabs.com.au. 2017). 13Cabs has also won the Monash Business Awards that shows the efficiency in their business. The customer care service is always available and any smart phone user can easily get access to the service of the taxi apps. The customer service is always available and the company is well known for the service that it provides. The cabs are grouped together by the means of apps and mobile systems in order to create a large segment of taxis. The customers from the segments like Sydney, Melbourne and other regions fall under the customer segments of the cab service (13cabs.com.au. 2017). The channels used for the purpose of connecting with the customers are through the web and any apps available in android or apple phones. The key partners of 13 Cabs are ABC Taxis, Black Cabs Combined Pty Ltd, Yellow Cabs, Maxi Taxis and others (13cabs.com.au. 2017). The cab service maintains and develops the market based on ride sharing activities. The service is available in the inner city and for long journeys as well. The idea is to share the rides of the taxi among the users in order to avoid the higher rates to be paid by the consumers. The key resources are the IT platform or the software that is used for carrying out the business activity (13cabs.com.au. 2017). The idea is to utilise these resources in order to attract more consumers in the market. The company operates in more than 76 locations and has huge fleet of drivers. The cost structure is depended on the employees and the partnership that the company has to maintain with others. The fixed costs include the rent and the utilities and other costs needed for the marketing and partnership activities of the organisation. The current revenue of the company is 121, 000 AUD (13cabs.com.au. 2017). Overall comment on strategic business: The business model used by the organisation is to create a wide network that would attract the maximum number of passengers or customers (Yellowadelaide.com.au. 2017). This would definitely add to the profitability of the business. However, the business model does not consider other aspects of the business like sustainability and competitive measures to improve business activities. Environmental sustainability could be the most challenging issue faced by 13Cabs in the near future. It has been evident that greater approaches have been made towards improving the business activities that it would not cause harm to the environment. There have been no such implications in the business strategies of 13 Cabs that would support sustainability of the business and so this is the upcoming challenge faced by the organisation. The organisation needs to support the sustainability approach in the coming 3-10 years of its business. 13cabs.com.au. (2017).  13 Cabs. [online] ProductReview.com.au. Available at: https://www.productreview.com.au/p/13-cabs.html [Accessed 29 Aug. 2017]. 13cabs.com.au. (2017).  13CABS App @ 13CABS. [online] Available at: https://www.13cabs.com.au/IphoneApp [Accessed 29 Aug. 2017]. 3cabs.com.au. (2017).  Taxi Cab Service @ 13CABS. [online] Available at: https://www.13cabs.com.au/ [Accessed 29 Aug. 2017]. Yellowadelaide.com.au. (2017).  13CABS Adelaide. [online] Available at: https://www.yellowadelaide.com.au/ [Accessed 29 Aug. 2017].

Answering the questionaries Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Answering the questionaries - Essay Example Similarly, I am very altruistic, which often seems like a weakness in this rational and materialistic world. However, all these strengths and weaknesses have made me a stable and realistic person, who can bring some change in this globe. As earlier mentioned in my personal statement, I have always been curious to know the reason of my existence, and this curiosity brought me closer to underprivileged and stressed people. My intellectual competence has allowed me to analyze the change that can be brought by dentists around the globe. My concern for others, and intellectual curiosity has prompted me to pursue dentistry. During the last couple of years, I got the opportunity to work with different people from diverse backgrounds, and it helped me understand the way people work and communicate with each other. Effective articulation of language and academic understanding are some of the imperative factors that helped me in working effectively with colleagues during my individual research at Madison, Wisconsin, as well as, during other associations at UW-Madison Pre-Dental Society. Self-esteem and a desire to learn are some of the factors that stand me out from rest of the applicants. It is very important that an individual should be able to incorporate her academic ability with stability, which is one of the important requirements for being a competitive applicant. During the learning process, individuals have to work under different supervisions, as well as, work according to the instructions, and therefore, a person should be emotional matured enough to learn and work, in order to become one of the successful individuals in this globe. Our globe is a practical world that respects people with rationale, and therefore, it is imperative that individuals should set and organize realistic goals, in order to prolong learning process and achieve the

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

The Obamacare - Research Paper Example The second objective of the program is to create stock exchange for insurers, which will purchase insurance at a reasonable price to those Americans who dont have it yet. At the same time, Obama is going to provide loans and preferential prices for those businesses and individuals who do not have sufficient resources (Tate, 12). The third point of the plan provides the introduction of compulsory health insurance, which would reduce unplanned budget expenses for treatment of uninsured persons. This innovation will affect only those individuals and institutions that will be able to pay the appropriate fees (Tate, 12). Thus, I consider that this reform is necessary for the USA. The current medical system differs with unresolved interaction between the public and private sectors. Despite the fact that the government allocates huge sums into the health care system, it has no effective levers of control over prices and costs of services and drugs and it will get those levers due to this reform. So, as you see, this plan would entail mainly positive effects. The average American will likely see a reduction in the cost of his health insurance, and up to 30-44 million citizens who now do not have insurance will get access to insurance coverage through Medicare, Medicaid or public insurance plans (Wilensky). In addition, they will be able to include in their insurance the child until he will reach the age of 26. It wont depend on whether a child has own family or whether he lives with parents/separately/on the university campus or whether he depends or not on parents financially. Previously, this kind of insurance was limited by age of 18 years. ObamaCare also brings unprecedented reforms in Medicare for pensioners. Now they do not have to pay a certain amount of money from their own pocket – the program will cover it. Millions of pensioners are already exempt from additional payments "out of

Executive Summary on Vegan Restaurant in New York City Research Paper

Executive Summary on Vegan Restaurant in New York City - Research Paper Example Whereas the restaurant is highly sensitive to market trends and can face many issues due to the change in market. The strengths of the restaurant are Strong market research, internal management system, Focused team, affordable prices, Location, Restaurant ambiance, Quick service, and Quality of food. Whereas the weaknesses are new in the market, time\cost, lack of experience, Lack of strong backward integration and not so highly educated customer services staff. The opportunities available for the restaurant are growing vegetarian food industry, growing modern life style, rising awareness of meat related diseases, rising awareness of global warming through the production processes of meat products, political influence on healthy environment and speedy growth in tourism at New York City. As the restaurant going to be located in New York City, the direct competitors are restaurant and cafes which are offering variety of veggie food, whereas the indirect competitors are ready to eat and tin pack veggie foods which are much cheaper. Our Vegan restaurant is intended to provide wide variety of customized veggie food at one roof, so people from different cultures can come and enjoy the food according to their tastes and preferences. The target market consists of local inhabitants, immigrants in New York and tourist. Last year witnessed 50.6 million domestic and international tourists, whereas immigrants to NYC make up 40% of population in the city whereas remaining 60% are locals (NYC statistics, 2010).). Customization is basic strategy to meet the expectations of target market and social networks, magazines, newspapers, coupons, billboards and brochures contributes to healthy media mix for this restaurant to flourish. The restaurant is positioned to be known for its healthy delicious customized veggie-food, delightful ambiance and quick delivery service all over the city and to sustain the image this restaurant will conduct informal research and surveys. Final step o f marketing plan is to check return on investment of each media channel and re-allocate the budget if needed. Also revise the budget allocated for human resource in terms of their productivity. In the last check controls on performance and market trends, than implement the plan successfully. 2.0 Situation Analysis Macro environmental risk analysis In recent years, competition in catering industry has become intense and large international food enterprises have captured a prominent share in the market. In vegan food chain, presences of Chinese and big popular vegetarian restaurants seize the market share in US food market. Our vegan restaurant would be largely impacted by these macro economic factors. Management risk analysis The restaurant industry needs an internal management system to manage all its operations as the quality of employers is not that high in comparison to other industries because of the educational factor therefore to cope up with low performance risk, presence of internal management system is very important. Market risk analysis Market trends changes with time, competition and consumer preferences which may impact the product life cycle of companies (Lehmann, 1985). Therefore the market risk of the restaurant would be: In the start up phase, presence of homogenous restaurants would

Policy issues that should be addressed over the coming years by the Essay

Policy issues that should be addressed over the coming years by the Department of Finance Canada - Essay Example Welfare is not traditionally something that is in the purview of the Canadian Department of Finance. Other social issues, however, such as strengthening and continuing investments in health care, post-secondary education and financial assistance, are a core part of its functions, so undertaking an attempt to aid low-income families is not something that is wildly outside of its mandate. Furthermore, a properly run welfare system can have great economic advantage for the country, increasing productivity, employees skill sets and so on, along with improving social conditions. In order to attempt to reform aid to low-income people and families without overstepping its bounds, the Canadian Department of Finance would have to channel its reform or assistance through one of its existing areas of expertise. A prime area for this change would be a somewhat radical overhaul to the tax system by introducing reverse taxes for incredibly low-income people and families to help them get out of pov erty. A reverse tax would operate something like a guaranteed minimum income – if someone’s taxable income is below a certain threshold (the particular number would have to be negotiated) the reverse tax would kick in, giving money to those people to help compensate for their low income. One of the biggest problems with existing tax structures is the fact that many social help programs, from business expenses to college tuition, are only available in the form of tax deductions. For people who need this help the most, those with incredibly low incomes, these programs are completely inaccessible to people who do not make enough to have a high enough tax bracket to access those deductions. Existing welfare systems come with so many strings attached that they keep people in welfare, unable to take risks to get a better chance in life, so a reverse tax could also help people get out of welfare, as test programs for guaranteed minimum income programs have demonstrated feasib le (). This proposal would have a variety of economic consequences. The first is obvious: higher taxes. In order to fund giving more money back to people who need it, taxes would have to be higher. Higher taxes have the possibility of limiting economic growth, so the best way to fund this program might be from sin taxes, and or from eliminating existing tax deductions to people who reach a certain income threshold, compensated hopefully by the economic gains of having a reverse tax (which will be discussed below). The bottom line is that systems of wealth exchange always have a degree of inefficiency to them, which means that a reverse tax will remove money, at least from the short term, from the economy. There are economic upsides to this scheme as well, however. One of the major ones is that if executed correctly, a reverse tax has the possibility of replacing much of the current welfare system, which is incredibly wasteful and has demonstrated little ability to get people off of welfare due to punishing rather than rewarding employment and having too much