Current coal burning policy in U.S.A Essay Example for Free

Current coal burning policy in U.S.A Essay Coal is the largest power producer in America. Recently, the International Energy Agency said that until the year 2030, it will remain to be the worlds largest source of power. However, we have to face the consequences of using coal, because of all fuels; it produces the most carbon dioxide, the number one cause of global warming. Research has shown that American coal burning power plants produce up to two billion tons of carbon dioxide per year. (Nao Nakanishi, 2008) Coal is produced from fossil fuels, which come from plants that decayed millions of years ago. When these fossils are burnt, carbon, nitrous oxide, methane and fluorocarbons are emitted. Carbon combines with oxygen when it is released to the atmosphere, to form carbon dioxide. In the atmosphere, carbon dioxide, together with the other gases like nitrous oxide, methane and fluorocarbons form the green house gases. Carbon dioxide forms 76% of the total green house gases. These gases hang in the atmosphere, such that when the sun’s rays hit the earth and reflect back, some are unable to pass through the green house gases. These rays remain in the atmosphere and cause the earth to be 33 degrees Celsius warmer than it should be. The change in the climate causes global warming. The effects of global warming are evident today; increase in diseases like malaria, drought, increased floods to mention just a few. (Hopwood N. etal, 2008) Questions like why coal has to be used as the major electricity producer world wide have been asked many times. The most common answer to this question is that it is found in abundance and is a reliable source of electricity. In addition, it is quite affordable and above all cheapest to produce. However, its demand has become more than its supply so the manufacturers will have too continue manufacturing more of the product. Besides the facts that it has become the back bone of Americas economy, in that if the coal industry failed, there would be a power shortage in the other industries. This explains that economic factors have resulted to coal being a cause for global warming. The diagram below shows the consumption of coal, and the predictions for the future years. (Fueling the future, 2000) It is very sad to know that the American courts have denied the common citizen his right to file for charges against the polluters. This decision has been based on the fact that the common citizen is not harmed by the core emissions to the extent that the harm caused provides sufficient ground for them to file charges. This incident happened a few years ago ion Alabama, where core mines are found. Such an incident is enough proof that even the authorities are now involved in the corruption that comes with core mining. The politicians have not also been left out in the contribution of coal as a cause of global warming. The Bush’s government was a big supporter of coal production. Obama’s government too has not done much to support the use of an alternate source of energy that is not so hazardous. Even after the historic spill of the coal ash in Tennessee, the coal industry has continued to receive support from the members of the Obama government, who have said that they intend to maintain coal as the major source of energy all over America. The government can come up with other ways of producing electricity like the wind power, the hydro electric power or the solar energy. (Power Stephen etal, 2009). Coal mining imposes threats to human life, at both the external and the internal level. At the internal level, coal affects the health of the workers at the mine fields. They breathe the gas when they are mining, and this can lead to serious problems like diseases such as black chest, which is caused by accumulation of the gases on the chest of the miners. The external effects of global warming due to the coal pollution can be seen in the increased environmental degradation. For example, the open pit method of mining the coal leads to land degradation. There are also the deformities that are seen in children born by mothers who were exposed to the gases found in coal. For example, there is mercury, which may cause the children born to be deformed, or may cause them death. The Tennessee coal ash spill, which occurred late, last year shows the ignorance being displayed by the coal manufacturers. More than fifteen homes were destroyed, while the ones that were nearby were exposed to very hazardous conditions. Studies by scientists showed that the ashes contained heavy metals like lead, arenic among others; which could cause neurological problems and diseases like cancer. The ash spill made brought back a debate that had died a few years ago, whether the government should declare the ash from coal as a toxic and hazardous substance. Officials from the coal mining company said that the ash was ’clean coal’. However, environmentalist are warning that there is nothing as clean coal, which is true because if the ash was clean, then they would not be storing it in the first place, but would be releasing it to the atmosphere. (Shaila Dewan, 12/25/2008). The history of coal The first ever coal to be mined in America was in 1748, and it weighed 50 tons, but today, more than one billion tonnes are produced every year. In 1762, people whom settled in the Wyoming Valley discovered the deposits of coal. By then, Pennsylvania was a flat, moist but hot plain and was mostly covered in swamps. It was estimated that 16 billion tons of coal lied beneath the service, and an estimated 7. 5 billion tons of the coal could be mined. In 1768, the coal was first mined, and the mine was located near Pittston. Between 1776 and 1780, the coal that was discovered at the Wilkes- Berre area was mined. It was then used as an industrial product in 1788, to heat the metals that were used to make iron nails. After the first mining and use of coal in the industries, other uses were also discovered. From then, coal became a major boost to the industrial revolution, and it continues to be used in the industries up to date. A total of 38 states have coal deposits and each has been mined one time or another. Coal mining is one of the reasons for the development of these states since the early 1800s. The uses of coal have improved as the years pass. At first, coal was used for the manufacture of the gas lights. In the 1950s, illuminating gas that was commonly used in Britain was also made from coal. In general, coal was in the past used for the steam engines, as a domestic heat provide and as a fuel for rail roads. Efforts to stop global warming by coal There are environmentalists such as Al Gore, have tried to come up with solutions to reduce global warming by coal. There are such as the use of alternative sources of energy like the solar and the wind power, which do not contribute to global warming. They have argued that the energy sources would be important in the conservation of the environment and the effect of global warming would definitely decrease. There is also the on going research on how the coal gases can be cleaned before they are released to the atmosphere to reduce the level of pollution that they cause. President Obama has supported this move, saying that since he supports the use of coal as the major source of electricity for all of America, then clean coal, free from any toxins would be a good idea to reduce global warming. Review of the research This research has been done through the use of secondary sources. The sources are reliable, some of them on statistical data. However, more research needs to be done on the use of coal as the major source of electricity in America. There, is a need to join the environmentalists in the campaign against the use of coal, and to come up with other methods that are friendlier to the environment. We all have a role to play in the reducing the effects of global warming. Works cited 1) Beacon Theater, January 15, 2004, Al Gore Speaks on Global Warming and the Environment, New York, retrieved on 1/27/2009 from: http://civic. moveon. org/gore3//speech. html 2) Dewan Shaila, 12/25/2008, Tennessee coal ash spill revives issue of its hazards: Herald tribune Retrieved on 1/27/2009 from http://www. iht. com/articles/2008/12/25/america/25sludge. php? page=1 3) District 1 Coal Mine Safety and Health History of Anthracite Coal Mining: United States department of labor, retrieved on 1/27/2009 from http://www. msha. gov/district/dist_01/history/history. htm 4) Fueling the future: American gas foundation, 2000, retrieved on 1/27/2009 from: http://www. fuelingthefuture. org/contents/Graphs. asp 5) History of core use: fossil oils. org 14/19/2004, retrieved on 1/27/2009 from http://www. bydesign. com/fossilfuels/links/index. html 6) Hopwood Nick, Cohen Jordan, (2008), Green house gases and society, retrieved on 1/27/2009 from http://www. umich. edu/~gs265/society/greenhouse. htm 7) John Stuart Richards, 2002, Early Coal Mining in the Anthracite Region, New York, Arcadia Publishing, 2002 8) Kutcha David, 2003, Pennsylvania coal mine history, retrieved on 1/27/1009 from http://www. tccweb. org/penncoal. htm 9) Nakanishi Nao, 11/14/2008. Coal to remain worlds top power source: Energy plan USA, Research and comment, retrieved on 1/27/2009 from: http://www. reuters. com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE4AD3CQ20081114? sp=true

Introduction to Synchronization

Introduction to Synchronization Synchronization is a mechanism which helps to use shared memory resources in an operating system. In the current world, most of the computers are multi-tasking computers. So these computers can do more than one process at the same time. And the networking technology is has become one of the most modern and developed technologies in the current worlds. So both these computer and network technologies work together in order to achieve common goals. While working together these technologies have to share resources such as memory at the same time. While sharing memory, there can be many problems. To avoid these problems synchronization mechanisms were implemented. Concurrency As it is mentioned above, operating systems share memory in order to achieve common goals. The data can be shared among two processes in one operating system or two operating systems over a network. However there are sometimes that the shared data can be accessed by only one process at a time. As a real life example, shared bathroom can be taken. A shared bathroom can be used by many people but it can be used by only one person at the time. If someone is using the bathroom, others have to wait until that person to come out. Then the one of the waited people can use the bathroom. Another real life example for this is shared streets or junctions. In shared streets, people can use only one direction at one time. If the shared street is used by any direction, people from other direction have to wait till others to stop using the shared street. Otherwise there can be clashes and a lot of problems. Like these, when the operating systems use shared memory, sometimes only one process can acc ess the data at one time. So this is called concurrency. There must be some mechanisms to avoid this concurrency. In the above given two real life examples, the shared bathroom can use a lock in its door to make sure that only one person is using the bathroom at one time. In the shared streets, traffic lights can be used to make sure that only one direction is using the street and avoid the clashes. Like this, locking and synchronizations are the mechanisms that can be used to avoid concurrency in operating systems. Properties of systems with concurrency There are some properties of the systems with concurrency. Those properties are, multiple actors, shared resources and rules for accessing the resources. In the above given two real life examples, the multiple actors are people and vehicles while the shared resources become bathroom and street. The rules for accessing these shared resources are one person at one time for the bathroom and one direction for one time for the shared streets. When talking about these three properties in relating to the operating systems, it can be explained like this. Here, the multiple actors are processes within the operating system or threads in processes. Shared memory, global variables and shared devices can be taken as the examples for the shared resources property while locking and semaphores techniques become the rules for accessing the shared resources in operating systems. These are the three properties of the systems with concurrency and it helps to understand what the concurrency is. Situations with no risk of concurrency In the current computer technology, there are some situations that there is no risk of concurrency but the shared resources are accessed by more than one processes or threads at the same time. Those situations are as follows, No shared memory or communication :- Here, the processes or threads do not have shared memory or communication. So those processes or threads work only with its private memory. Shared memory with read-only access :- Here, the shared memory can be accessed by one or more processes or threads at the same time. But in this situation, the shared memory is only available for processes or threads to read-only. So the shared memory cannot be modified in this situation. Copy-on-Write (COW) :- Here, the shared memory is accessed by one or more processes or threads at the same time and each process or thread has a separate copy of the shared memory. So each process is accessing its own copy of the shared memory and there is no risk of concurrency. Situation with risk of concurrency As well as the situations with no risk of concurrency, there are some situations with risk of concurrency in the current operating systems. Those situations can be explained as follows, Using of shared memory without any synchronization :- Here, if the shared memory is accessed by more than one processes or threads at the same time without and synchronization (without having any separate copy for each process or threads), there is a risk of concurrency. Any modification to the shared memory :- If the shared memory is accessed by more than one processes or threads, and at least one of the processes or threads makes any changes to the shared memory, then there is a risk of concurrency. These are the situations with risk of concurrency. If one of these happens, then there is a risk of concurrency in the system. If a concurrency is happened, then there may be a lot of problems in the system. And the risk of happening the concurrency is known as race condition. Race condition Under this topic, the race conditions is discussed by using an example. Here, an example of a bank account is taken to discuss the race condition. In this example, there are two peoples and a bank account. Execution of the code of this example as follows, account.balance =  £200; int withdraw (account, amount =  £50){ balance = account.balance; balance -= amount; int deposit (account, amount= £100){ balance = account.balance; balance += amount; account.balance = balance; return balance; } account.balance = balance; return balance; } For this example, the two persons are named as person1 and person2. The code executed by the person1 is coloured with blue colour while the code executed by the person2 is coloured with red colour. This is a sketch of the programme but not coded with any programming language. In the very first line, the balance of the account is set to  £200. The rest of the code is explained as follows, Line 1 :- person1 starts executing the code and calls the withdraw() by giving the account and  £50 of amount as the parameters. Line 2 :- person1 reads the balance from the account class and assigns the value of balance variable in account class to his balance variable in his withdraw(). Line 3 :- person1 modifies the value of the balance variable in his withdraw() by subtracting the value of amount. So the value of the balance variable in his withdraw() becomes  £150. Line 4 :- In this line, the person2 starts executing the code by calling his deposit() by parsing account and  £100 of amount as the parameters. Line 5 :- Here, person2 reads the value of the balance variable in account class and assigns it to the balance variable in his deposit(). Here, still the value of balance variable in account class is  £200 as the person1 has not updated the balance in account class. Line 6 :- Person2 modifies the value of the balance variable by adding the value of amount variable to it. So the value of balance variable in deposit() becomes  £300. Line 7 :- person1 updates the value of the balance variable in the account class as  £150. Line 8 :- person 1 returns the value of the balance variable in withdraw() Line 9 :- person2 updates the value of the balance variable in the account class as  £300 Line 10 :- person2 returns the value of the balance variable in his deposit() After executing this code 2 peoples complete their transactions by leaving the final value of the balance variable in account class as  £300 while the real value of the balance variable in account class has to be  £250. So there is clear error in the final output of the process and this is called as the race condition. Manage concurrency Manage Synchronization means, use synchronization mechanism programs to write rues for control concurrency situations. One of these rules are as follows: Atomicity Atomicity allows one threat to access data to manipulate at a single situation. In another way, will allows no other threats to change data while one is running. This will either will lock the threat is in progress of manipulating the record or let other records to be waiting while one record access record. The other rule is conditional synchronization In this explain threats will be in a particular order to access the record. When threats arrives to access record rule will check the order and add to the queue and let wait until the turn of the threat to access the records. All above access methods will be easy to implement when can identify which is the critical part of the process should allow to access at a time. i.e. When Person A accessing account balance person B not allows to access balance at the same time. If extract further as bellow. 1.int withdraw (account, amount) { 2.int balance = account.balance; 3.balance -= amount; 4.account.balance = balance; 5.return balance; 6.} Line 1: will initialize threat and pass external parameter values into the threat withdraw as account and amount in this situation. Line 2: will declare balance variable locally to retrieve stored account balance from the database for threat to process and pass account balance in the account table account.balance. Line 3: will manipulate balance variable value (in this situation, we will deduct since it is withdrawal) from the amount has been pass form external parameter. -= notation for the deduction. Line 4: will update database with new balance value after withdrawal amount deducted from original balance. balance which is a local variable holding the new balance transfer to the account.balance and update record with new balance value. Line 5: will return new balance value to the screen if necessary Line 6: will terminate the process of withdraw by } There will be no concurrent when two threat access lines 1, 5 and 6. But if any threat try to access lines 2, 3 and 4 will be given incorrect information for one of the threats. Therefore from line 2 to 4 is very critical to let access only for one threat at any given time of the process as explain bellow. int withdraw (account, amount) { int balance = account.balance; balance -= amount;Critical Section account.balance = balance; return balance; } This identified sections will call as a critical section in another word, no other threats will allows to access while one threat is using at any given time because data will be manipulate when access line 2, 3 and 4. Critical section Critical section is set of codes access shared resources and there are several ways of developing critical section such as: Locks, Semaphores, Monitors and Messages. In this report will describe locks and semaphores how behave and how priority will work. Locks in synchronization First method of synchronization is locks. Locking is a very primitive system been used. Lock will lock the threat in the critical section while it is processing the record. Mainly lock has two stats Held and Not Held. At the Held state, one threat is in the critical section and at the Not Held state no threats in the critical section and can prioritised threats to have access. Also locks having two operations Acquire and Release. Which threat will request the lock to be held to access critical section and once threat previously use critical section release the lock acquired thread will get a chance and change the state as held. When threat finish it process in the critical section must release the lock to use by the other threats which are waiting in the queue. Figure The above figure has explain how acquire and release will behave at the critical section access, i.e. threats A, B and C request access permission to critical section at the same time by Acquire operation and threat A will grant access with the lock Held state enable. Once threat complete the process will call release operation to change the lock state to Not Held and lock will change state to Held with threat B and so on will be proceed to complete different threat request at the critical section. By using previous example take a look where to use Acquire and Release operations threat. int withdraw (account, amount) { acquire (lock); // Request lock to held to access critical section int balance = account.balance; balance -= amount;Critical Section account.balance = balance; release (lock); // Release lock after complete critical section access return balance; } With further explanation considering previous withdraw and deposit situation Figure 2. Overcome concurrency situation had occurred while both people access same account balance to manipulate the amount. Figure When implement locks use Boolean variable to check is lock held TRUE or FALSE? Acquire operation will keep other threats in the waiting state while lock held values is TRUE. If lock held VALUE is false, will change to TRUE with requested threat. When the threat completed process in critical section will call release operation and change lock held value as FALSE to make lock available for other threats will show in below construct. First create a global Boolean type variable held values TRUE or FALSE to check is lock holding by a threat or not and by default lock will not hold by any threat and value will be FALSE. structure lock { bool held; // initial value FALSE } Construct acquire by requesting a lock to be held and if lock à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚  held value TRUE request threat will wait in the queue for lock to be released. If lock à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚  held is FALSE and by acquire change value of lock à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚  held to TRUE and take the control of the critical section access. void acquire (lock) { while (lock à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   held) ; // Hold other threats in the wait queue lock à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   held = TRUE; // Once get the lock, change lock value to TRUE } Construct release operation simply will change the start of lock à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚  held value to false and allows other threat to access critical section for the next process. void release (lock) { lock à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   held = FALSE; // When complete process in the critical section, change lock value to FALSE } Semaphores in synchronization This is the second method of synchronization. This method is a very basic and powerful mechanism but difficult Implementation method and use blocking threats to access critical section instead of locking threats while using critical section. Semaphores has two operations and they are: wait (semaphore) or P() First of all as soon as threat request access permission P() or wait (semaphore) will decrease the counter values which is 1 by default. Then check is counter value become 0 or signal (semaphore) or V() Once a threat complete process in the critical section will call V() or signal (semaphore) and will increase counter value by 1. i.e. if a P() had decrease counter value 0 while it was in critical section and no other threats can access, but second threat has decreased to -1 while requesting permission to access critical section and waited. Also since second threat is still waiting to get permission it goes to sleep mode, hence V() will wake up threat in a sleep to start it process in critical section explains in Figure à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Figure à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. Figure Readers/Writers synchronization This is another powerful method of synchronization. In this method, the data is accessed by two different ways. Those two ways are, readers and writers. Here, the readers only read files and writers update file contents or data. There are four (4) rules while using the readers/writers synchronization methods and they are as follows, If any reader(s) read the file and no writer is pending, the next reader can read the file without waiting. Writers have to wait till the reader(s) finish reading file. After readers finish reading, writer(s) will can start writing. If any writer is writing to the file, acquiring readers have to wait till writer finish writing. If one writer is writing to the file and if both readers and writers are waiting, at this situation priority will be given for writers who are waiting. Therefore readers will wait till all writers to compete writing and then readers will start reading. So readers can read most updated file. Future trends of synchronization In the current situation, locks and semaphores are widely used in order to prevent the concurrency. So it is very important to deal with the codes in critical section as otherwise there will be a lot of problems with the reliability of information systems. However using of systems with the locks are not time efficiency. So in the current situation of the computer technology, there is a trend of implementing lock free systems. According to the previous example of shared street, the shared street has to be controlled by using traffic lights. So on the shared streets, only one direction is allowed at one time. So the other directions are blocked at the same time. But there is a technique that does not need of using any traffic lights on the shared street. Here, fly over technique can be used and avoid blocking the directions. So all the directions on the shared street can be used at once without having any problem. But here, this technique may has some more waiting time as the length of the street can be increased while using fly over technique. Like in this example, lock free systems can be implemented in information systems. Semaphore method can be taken as an example for lock free system. But here as well, the processes have to wait sometimes as in the give example of fly over technique on shared streets. The weakness of this method is that lock free and wait free features cannot be implemented in the same information system. So only one of these methods (lock free or wait free) can be implemented in information system.

The Advantages And Disadvantage Of Bribery Economics Essay

The Advantages And Disadvantage Of Bribery Economics Essay The enterprises or merchantmen have different views on bribery under different circumstances; sometimes the different nations with different background have completely different ideas. In some places, peoples attitude is slightly loose to bribery, while in other places, such as in the United States, people look down on this act in public, but they do not clean themselves. In spite of the publics tolerance for bribery, there are not a national people will agree that powerful people can hurt the publics interests (Joseph A. McKinney, 2008). Corruption and the Global Economy, said that both the developed and developing countries, whether the so-called democratic countries, or dictatorships, corruption almost exists everywhere. In order to obtain some profits, such as the market access, policy benefits and scarce resources, whether multinational or local companies adopt all means to improve the relationship with the government and the government officials, which affirmed the existence of a large number of illegal acts (Mathias Nell, 2009)? Former Indonesian President Suharto, former South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan and Roh Tae-woo, former President Abacha of Nigeria, former President Ferdinand Marcos of Philippines, former Mexican President Salinas had stepped down because of corruption and bribery, in these famous events, there are many multinational presences. In this essay, it will firstly discuss the advantages of bribery by an actual example. Further, it will introduce the disadvantages of bribery with making out an unfeigned instance. Finally, it will summarize that the bribery plays a role in the international business. The advantages of bribery A few years ago, the survey that the World Bank on the 3600 foreign trade companies in the earth showed that there are 40 percent of companies did business through bribery in 69 countries. It is estimated that the corruption fund account for 10 to 20 percent of the total amount of the global business, some companies bribe money reached 100 million dollars (Carl Pacini, 2002). However, in fact, there are not many cases of transnational bribery which have been exposed, while there are few of punishment. China has become the most potential and the fastest growing emerging market in the world, particularly in the past decade, the import and export trade and the direct investment from the multinational companies were rapidly develop. To quickly open the Chinese market and make huge profits, the multinational companies not only exhibit their fund advantage, technical superiority and management advantages, but also show their bargaining power that convincing the relevant Chinese authorities and enterprises, even including adopting the bribery. All business books relevant to do business in China would warn the occidental the importance of the relations, which often means paying bribe for the government officials and the leaders of state-owned enterprises. There is no one doubts the existence of bribery, while there is almost not a multinational company admit encountering such a thing, all public interviewed west managers have denied that they had been extorted or bribed. Procter Gamble which is one of the best developing multinational companies has set up in China over 20 years. Currently, P G with its multi-brand advantages has occupied 60% of Chinese commodity market. Any other company can hardly achieve such success, the secret of success is the strong capital, strong research team of P G, but almost no one can guarantee that there is no the suspects of bribery. The Chinese dental treatment group certification message was printed on the shell of Procter Gambles Crest brand toothpaste, which has convinced Chinese consumers, so this brand toothpaste was in popular. However, But in 2007, the Ministry of Health publicly said the investigation of Chinese dental treatment group certification and economic problems, P G was quickly drawn into the whirlpool because of its close relations. P G has been reported that it donated 10 million Yuan to Chinese dental treatment group, while it also allowed enterprises and institutions related to public interest in donation or sponsorship between the names of the financial transactions to be concerned. Although P G quickly responded, said the money was donated to the Chinese Foundation of dental prevention and treatment for promoting oral health, which has nothing with the certification of Crest toothpaste. However, this approach immediately attracted greater challenge. It is understood that Dental Prevention and Treatment Foundation and Dental Treatment Group even to be a pair of twins, the Foundation is established based on Dental Treatment Group, and in turn, the Foundation support the public activities of Dental Treatment Group with its received funds. From this, there is nothing between donations and certification according to P G, which is purely sophistry. Procter Gamble donated 10 million Yuan to Dental Treatment Group or its brother agencies, which can not have any relation with the long-term. If the two sides had not volunteered admit the information, and without documents and other evidence to prove a causal relationship between them, then the law can do nothing. On the other hand, if we can prove that P Gs contributions related to the dental certification, then the Dental Treatment Group and Procter Gamble have a commercial bribery and should take legal responsibility. Obviously, no one will take the initiative to admit commercial br ibery. Although P G had some implications in this matter, but this did not affect their normal interests, on the contrary, it greatly increased its advertising effect to increase its sale. The Dental Treatment Group certificated Crest toothpastes efficacy, which recognized the prevention and treatment of their products. Procter Gamble obtained profits is far more than 10 million Yuan from the event. The disadvantage of bribery Since the reform and opening up, Chinas real estate industry has been rapid develop, so the demand for steel continues to rise, while the raw material iron and steel iron ore is the competed objects by Chinese steel mills. China is the largest iron ore importer in the world, but China has been in a passive position in the price negotiations of iron ore, because Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Brazils CVRD monopolized 70% of the global iron ore. With the growing demand and intending to seek more ways of importing, China has started to increase its iron ore imports from other countries (Christopher Baughn, 2010). Although the amount of the small countrys imports are increasing, the Australian ore and Brazilian ore are still the main sources of Chinese iron ore. Thus, the ceaseless contest has been started between China and the three mines. The case of Rio Tinto spy is a typical example in July 2009. According to the media reports, the computers in Shanghai office of Rio Tinto was taken away by the related departments has dozens of steel enterprises information which have a long agreement contract with Rio Tinto. The information is concerning the enterprises detailed stock plans, raw materials inventory, production schedules and other data, including large steel enterprises monthly steel production and sales. There are no more than 10 people know about all the details of Chinese steel production process. Mining companies can master these secrets; it may be pay bribe for the specific operators of the relevant enterprises. The insiders said the emotional communication between the mining companies and the steel companies is very close, in addition to the normal business commission; a number of mining companies would be necessary paying bribery for the relevant personnel. March 29, 2010, at the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate Peoples Court worked out the first instance verdict on the Rio Tinto case, which identified Stern Hu, Yong Wang, Mingqiang Ge and Caikui committed non-national staff of accepting bribes and violating commercial secrets crimes, were sentenced to their term imprisonment ranging from fourteen years to seven years. Although the end of this bribery case, it left people many reflection. Many people give away the national interests for some petty profits, while Rio Tinto is not a separate company in the case; it represents the interests of the three mines. Rio Tinto case not only damaged the friendship and mutual trust between China and Australia, and mutual trust, but only involved in Chinas commercial secrets. Transparency International There is not the Global anti-corruption or bribery legislation yet, but the regional legislation is playing an increasing role. Since 1993, a named Transparency International international organization determined through the international and countries cooperation to encourage the Government formulate and implement effective laws and policies to hold out corruption. Transparency International carried out a large number of activities, a very important activity is investigating the businessman, the political analysts and the public around the world to determine the perception of various countries degree of corruption from the respondents. The corruption perceptions index is the international access targets for evaluating the degree of a countrys corruption (Table 1). Table 1: Corruption perceptions Index 2009 (from http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2009/cpi_2009_table) Country CPI 2009 Country CPI 2009 New Zealand(1) 9.4 United stated (19) 7.5 Denmark (2) 9.3 China (79) 3.6 Singapore (3) 9.2 India (84) 3.4 Sweden (4) 9.2 Russia (146) 2.2 Switzerland (5) 9 Iraq (176) 1.5 Australia (8) 8.7 Afghanistan (179) 1.3 Japan (17) 7.7 Somalia (180) 1.1 From the table, it is concluded that the Nordic countries possess of the highest ethical standards, the Asias Singapore is known as a model for the worlds anti-corruption, the members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development also has a strong anti-corruption efforts, while Asia, Africa and some Latin American countries most affected by corruption (Carl Pacini, 2002). The companies of United Stated would be prohibited by the state law if they pay bribe in foreign. Back in 1997, the United States promulgated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, took the lead in working out disciplinal provisions about multinational companies paying bribe for the host countries government officials (Margot Cleveland, 2009). Despite the subsequent time, few cases of punishment of transnational corporations, the American multinational companies also considered harming the interests of U.S. companies in foreign countries, affecting U.S. companies competitive abroad. U.S. Commerce Secretary said that the American companies lost 64 billion dollars business within a year, because of anti-bribery and anti-corruption. The American enterprise which has been still pay bribes has been marked decreased. However, many multinational companies are still trying bribery, because the contract is too attractive. At now, the member countries of the Economic Cooperation and Development Organization and the Organization of American States are the most effective anti-corruption countries; it can not have bribery activities when people opened offices in those countries or making the global marketing business. Government officials in these countries have higher moral standards. In Asian and African countries, bribery is much more common. General estimates, the multinational companies gave the government officials kickbacks account for 15% of the total income when the global companies operated in Asia. Although bribery is illegal, each company had to work to pay bribe. Conclusion In conclusion, this essay clearly discussed the advantages and disadvantages of bribery from clear from the positive and negative sides. In fact, we all know the advantages and disadvantages of bribery, if paying bribe is successful, then the person or group will get their hoped interests; if paying bribe is fail, the briber and bribe will be punished by the related law. Although, there are the stringent laws in this regard in every country, many people go to pay bribe and corrupt at risk and at all costs in the driven of interests. Multinational bribery is not a national issue, this is a global issue. There should be some organizations such as Transparency International in each region or country, together with the local government to develop and implement effective laws and policies to put down corruption. International and the countries bosom should strengthen cooperation in order to effectively keep within limits corruption. Multinational bribery is not an isolated phenomenon, onl y when the powder large-scale is away from the economy, the legal system is more robust and the social atmosphere is better, it will be got the basic reverse, it also requires the joint efforts of all mankind.

Alzheimers Disease Health Promotion Case Study :: Alzheimers Disease Essays

Introduction This section will discuss the impact of Alzheimer's disease on racial, cultural, and gender variables, with the focus being on the various approaches to care of the disease. Developmental stages and tasks will be discussed for both the client and the caregiver. Gender and Culture Alzheimer's disease and related dementias affect all races, ethnicities and cultures equally. (Anonymous, 1998) Of people over 65 an estimated 6-10% will be affected by some form of dementia. (Hendrie, 1998) It is only in gender where we see slightly more women than men who are affected by this destructive illness. (Lautenschlager et al., 1996) The only controllable risk factor that is known at this point is cigarette smoking. In a large study in Germany smoking cigarettes doubled the risk of dementia in the older population. (Ott et al., 1998) Alzheimer's disease patients can survive for 3-20 or more years. It is not the AD that kills the patient, rather it is diseases of aging and/or inactivity, with pneumonia being the leading cause at 70%. This is followed by heart disease, stroke, and cancer. (Thomas, Starr, & Whalley, 1997) Cultural Differences Race, culture, religion and ethnicity all play a part in how we care for our elderly. Each family makes decisions based on background, experience, expectations, knowledge base, and economics. Most people would like to be able to care for their aging parent or spouse with as little disruption to lifestyle as possible. Alzheimer's Disease, however, is a full time commitment, not just eight hours a day, but "24/7", as the current idiom implies, the patient needs continuous care. Sleep habits are disturbed, wandering is common, medications must be carefully controlled, safety is always important. Home care soon becomes frustrating and exhausting if left to one or two caregivers. When the primary caregiver has his/her own medical needs to see to, is also aged, or is the parent of young children as well, the burden can become overwhelming. In-home care is a possibility as is placement in a live-in facility, but both are expensive alternatives. In California ethnic minorities make up a large part of our population. In the book Culture and Nursing Care: A Pocket Guide, there are characteristics of these groups and generalizations are made about how they care for their elderly. (Lipson, 1996) The following table highlights some of these groups that are represented in the Bay Area. American Indian Status of "elder" begins in middle age.

Christian Rhetoric in The History of Mary Prince and Second Class Citiz

Christian Rhetoric in Mary Prince’s The History of Mary Prince, and Buchi Emecheta’s Second Class Citizen It is true, perhaps, that women are the subset of humanity whose rights had been the longest stripped of them, and who had been abused the worst and for the longest time. Even today, many people believe that women still do not have the equality that ought to be afforded them. Since women first started making steps to approach that ideal equality, they have used various means, including literature, to further their cause. Both Mary Prince’s The History of Mary Prince, as well as Buchi Emecheta’s Second Class Citizen, use language of Christian rhetoric to simultaneously cast their characters and themselves as sinners and the redeemed and righteous as well as portraying the journey of redemption between one and the other. This subconscious wording engenders fellowship in their readers, who can relate to the story of the redeemed, and who exist in an overwhelmingly moral and Christian society. The use of Christian rhetoric as a means to instill empathy in the reader is first and foremost evident in the specific language of the texts. The word choice of the author subtly highlights Christian ideals with direct relevance to the author and character herself. For example, Prince recalls a time after the white slave owners pulled down the slaves’ prayer shed, saying, â€Å"A flood came down soon after and washed away many houses, filled the place with sand and overflowed the ponds: and I do think that this was for their wickedness; for the Buckra men there were very wicked† (Prince 19). Prince’s use of the word wickedness here implies some sort of tie to Christianity. There is a vast array of words that could fit in the place of â€Å"wic... ...to view the writer’s work as in concert with Christian ideals and ideology, therefore establishing, in the mind of the reader, a thorough connection between the writer and their cause, and what the reader perceives, most likely, as moral and good. This holds true especially in Mary Prince’s The History of Mary Prince, as well as Buchi Emecheta’s Second Class Citizen, both of who use Christian rhetoric in a subconscious, literal, and in the case of Prince, plot-oriented manner. This causes their respective audiences to see them and their causes, through their characters, as righteous, therefore successfully fulfilling the purpose of using such language. Works Cited Emecheta, Buchi. Second-class Citizen. New York: G. Braziller, 1975. Print. Prince, Mary. The History of Mary Prince: a West Indian Slave Narrative. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, 2004. Print.

Colonialism and Imperialism in Heart of Darkness and A Passage to India

It is best to analyze the works, Heart of Darkness and A Passage to India, applying the historical and cultural conditions of the society in which they were produced. The relations between groups and classes of people that imperialism sets up, and that these two works explore, starkly reveals the contradictions within capitalism in a way that a similar piece of fiction set within one culture and dealing with characters from that culture alone cannot. Prior to the analysis however, I would like to give a brief, pertinent explanation of the Marxist approach to the analysis of literature and of the terms I will be using. After years of study and research, Karl Marx published the first volume of his monumental Das Kapital in 1867. In it Marx presents his theory of the materialist conception of history in which the economic base of a society gives rise to and interacts in a dialectical way with the societal superstructure of culture, law, religion and art. Among other things, Das Kapital traces the historical development of industrial capitalism as arising out of feudalism, predicts capitalism's further evolution, and sets forth theories of class structure and class struggle. It also critiques the methods by which industrial capitalism organizes the means of production so that capital and labor are separated and held by distinct and antagonistic groups within the society. This separation overwhelmingly benefits the holders of capital, politically and economically, to the corresponding detriment of those who sell their labor. Though this is by no means an adequate summary of Marx' ideas and contribution s, my aim is to provide this simple theoretical framework within which to focus on more particular elements of Marxist theory. Fo... ...ieve that imperial rule, if inevitable in the short run, was an inglorious enterprise that deformed both those who ruled and those who submitted" (153). I believe that Joseph Conrad and E. M. Forster were two such artists and that the two works in question reflected their growing awareness of imperialism as an "inglorious enterprise" whether this was consciously expressed by the author(s) or not. This study will also attempt to tease out the ways in which each work both supports and subverts the imperial mission and its ideology and I will also speculate to a certain extent as to how these contradictions in the works reflected contradictions in the society in which they were written. Works Cited: Conrad, James. Heart of Darkness and Other Tales. Great Britain, BPC paperbacks ltd. 1990. Forster, E.M. A Passage to India. Neew York: Harcourt Brace, 1984.

Fast Fit Case Study

1. FastFit Case Study FastFit Sporting Goods is a successful New England regional supplier of sporting goods to the high end consumer market. They sell an exclusive selection of equipment and apparel to men and women who exercise and pursue outdoor activities on a regular basis. They operate five (5) upscale retail stores in the New England market that offer a high level of customer attention, with a headquarters (HQ) is in Burlington, Massachusetts, and a single warehouse, distribution, and eCommerce fulfillment center in Haverhill, Massachusetts.Most of their products are purchased from two suppliers, Winter Gear Distributers outside of Providence, Rhode Island, and Boston Fitness Supplies in Marlboro, Massachusetts. FastFit has expanded successfully in the New England area over the past five years. However to expand nationally as a major retailer, they need to improve the scalability of their operations (stores and warehouses). A key part of their strategy is to leverage informati on systems to automate and improve operations, to strengthen management controls, and to enable significant growth while maintaining the â€Å"high touch† customer experience.A diagram of their complete non-Web based operations follows. See figure 1. [pic] Figure 1: A Schematic diagram of FastFit Sporting Goods Operations The Initial Set of Case Study Questions The simple system diagram below may be used to answer the following questions. The questions should be answered using your common sense and knowledge of retail processes because we have all bought things at a store. Be specific about the items of information, where they are captured, stored and used.How the information flows or is moved within FastFit may be shown by the student adding labeled arrows added to the diagram below. See figure 2. Figure 2: Starting Point for a System Diagram of FastFit Business Information Flows A General Question 1. Mark the main flows of goods and money in the diagram (above). Use single headed arrows and employ a key or table of descriptive elements to explain your answer. Customer Questions (focus on the customer and FastFit process flows, i. e. the front end of the diagram) 2. ) List the specific items of information that are usually gathered at the POS (Point of Sale terminal or cash register) and recorded when a customer checks out (excluding obtaining the identity of the customer which is covered in Q3)? b) What are three important uses of this information at the store by the store manager and by headquarters management – a total of six uses? 3. a) What are some ways to obtain the identity of the customer at the POS and to associate this â€Å"identity† with more detailed information about the customer? b) What business actions could FastFit then take based upon this additional information? . Assume HQ is responsible for replenishing inventory at the stores. a) What information is needed and how is it used to decide what to send to each store? b) Where does the information come from? c) Why didn’t we have each store decide what to order from the warehouse? Supplier Questions (focus on the FastFit and Supplier process flows, i. e. the back end of the diagram) 5. a) Draw a system diagram that shows the key information and product flows between FastFit (HQ and Warehouse) and a supplier, including the steps for ordering and invoicing and label each flow descriptively.This diagram will have three circles. b) Compare your drawing with the diagram showing the flows between the customer and the store and explain why the former is more complicated. 6. Assume that FastFit headquarters receives and pays invoices from suppliers. a) How do they decide whether to pay and how much to pay? b) From where do they get the information to make this decision? eCommerce Set of Case Study Questions 7. Describe three geographic locations from which customers can submit orders and any information technology components customers would need (on their end) to accomplish this ordering activity. Location |Information Technology Component | |Home |Server | | |Desktop | | |Laptop | | |Routers | | |Web Server Application | |Road / Anywhere |Smart Phones | | |Web | |Work |Laptops | |School |Routers | | |Web Server Application | 8. a) Describe the information technology components FastFit needs to interact with customers on the web. [Hint: Locate a detailed explanation of e-commerce system platforms in the course textbook and/or web search. ] b) At what geographic location within FastFit would you place these information technology components and why? a) |IT components | |Application providers for the purchase and sale of goods |Software applications | | |Web software | | |Security software | | |Database | |Technology infrastructure providers that enables e-commerce |Routers | | |Storages | | |Servers (web and commerce) | | |Data centers | | |Hardware | | |Networks | from MD PowerPoint session 20 9. FastF it is planning to invest significantly in its e-commerce platform to increase online ordering. Describe three technology features/capabilities that should be included in the platform and provide business justifications for each feature. |Technology feature/capability |Description |Business Justification | |Browser |Program that a user uses to interact with web|Users have access to the Business from | | |servers on the internet |anywhere.Increase costumer contact with | | | |store. | | | |Improve operations by making store more | | | |accessible to customer. | |Web Server |Program that communicates with many browsers |Allows for multiple users to interact with | | |at the same time using http, by processing |the web page at the same instant. | |and responding to their requests |Increase number of transactions being | | | |processed at the same time | |Commerce Server |Computer that provides a business with |Allows transactions to be completed through | | |web-based programs that disp lay products, |the web. | | |support online ordering, implements a |Enables consumers to receive information | | |shopping cart, record and process payments, |about products.Automates inventory | | |and interface with inventory-management |management | | |applications | | *from MD PowerPoint session 20 10. a) What does the Haverhill order fulfillment center do? b) Describe the information needed at the warehouse to provide fulfillment services. c) Describe the information created or changed/updated during the course of an e-commerce business transaction. a) i. Warehousing ii. Order processing iii. Finding the item ordered iv. Packing order v. Shipping it to the right address b) Fulfillment Service |Information Needed | |Warehousing |Inventory information | | |Warehouse capacity | | |Warehouse organization | | |Suppliers information | |Order Processing |Order Information | | |Item ordered and amount ordered | | |Inventory information (items and quantity) | | |Consumer Informat ion | |Finding the item ordered |Warehouse structure information | | |Item ordered code | |Packing order |Order Information | | |Ending inventory Information | |Shipping order to right address/store |Consumer Information | | |Delivery/Shipping Information | *Vendorseek. com c) i. Costumer Address for delivery ii. Order payment confirmation iii. Consumer Confirmation of order iv. Consumer email contact v. Consumer confirmation of delivery date