Befr Case

The main problem that Nundies has been facing is that the store repurchase rate by companies has not met Nundies expectations. About 6% of stores placed additional units beyond the initial purchase. Additionally, online purchases are not used frequently. Another problem is that store personnel that sell Nundies, have not been suggesting or talking about Nundies to customers. Furthermore, the displays for Nundies seem to merge in with the other merchandise in the store, which has a big impact on sales.If the stores are not properly displaying the merchandise and the sales associates do not promote Nundies this will lead to a decrease in sales and impact the company from reordering Nundies, which affects Nundies overall sales and profits. II. SITUATION ANALYSIS Nundies is a single-use, disposable panty that sticks to the inseam of women’s leggings, athletic wear, shorts, and jeans. This product helps women maintain a degree of protection when they decide not to wear underwear. T he introduction of the new product â€Å"Nundies† by Advanced Materials Inc. s a transition from a foam fabricator manufacturing business to a proprietary medical and consumer products. Nundies is a true departure from the ordinary product offered by Advanced Materials, Inc. AMI manufacturing estimated that the labor and material costs to produce a single liner would only be $. 60. Three colors/package options would be produced including, black, buff and assorted. The liners would be packaged in a colorful 5-count plastic pillow package, which would cost about $. 45 per unite to produce. The wholesale price to retail store would be $7. 0 for each 5-count package. Moreover, manufacturer’s agent would be paid 12 percent commission on the wholesale price for each 5-count package sold. This agent is responsible to establish the distribution coverage among women’s boutique store and specialty shops for Nundies. Based on Nundies’ marketing research, womenâ€⠄¢s boutique and specialty shops account for the largest percentage of women’s underwear sales (30. 9%), followed by department stores (30. 7%), mass merchandise and warehouse club stores (29. 1%), and other retail outlets such as internet retailers (9. %). According to a nationwide research conducted by Nundies among 1,042 women between the ages of 18-49 revealed that: ? 84% of women would be interested in a product that would eliminate panty lines ? 81% of women said â€Å"yes† to the questions would u be interested in a product that provides hygiene and comfort, but is not underwear ? 22% of women had tried no undies as a solution for no visible panty lines. ? When women were asked if they would be interested in a garment-safe disposable, but no panty lines; 36% said â€Å"yes,† 49% said â€Å"maybe†.

A Game of Thrones Chapter Nine

Something about the howling of a wolf took a man right out of his here and now and left him in a dark forest of the mind, running naked before the pack. When the direwolf howled again, Tyrion shut the heavy leatherbound cover on the book he was reading, a hundred-year-old discourse on the changing of the seasons by a long-dead maester. He covered a yawn with the back of his hand. His reading lamp was flickering, its oil all but gone, as dawn light leaked through the high windows. He had been at it all night, but that was nothing new. Tyrion Lannister was not much a one for sleeping. His legs were stiff and sore as he eased down off the bench. He massaged some life back into them and limped heavily to the table where the septon was snoring softly, his head pillowed on an open book in front of him. Tyrion glanced at the title. A life of the Grand Maester Aethelmure, no wonder. â€Å"Chayle,† he said softly. The young man jerked up, blinking, confused, the crystal of his order swinging wildly on its silver chain. â€Å"I’m off to break my fast. See that you return the books to the shelves. Be gentle with the Valyrian scrolls, the parchment is very dry. Ayrmidon’s Engines of War is quite rare, and yours is the only complete copy I’ve ever seen.† Chayle gaped at him, still half-asleep. Patiently, Tyrion repeated his instructions, then clapped the septon on the shoulder and left him to his tasks. Outside, Tyrion swallowed a lungful of the cold morning air and began his laborious descent of the steep stone steps that corkscrewed around the exterior of the library tower. It was slow going; the steps were cut high and narrow, while his legs were short and twisted. The rising sun had not yet cleared the walls of Winterfell, but the men were already hard at it in the yard below. Sandor Clegane’s rasping voice drifted up to him. â€Å"The boy is a long time dying. I wish he would be quicker about it.† Tyrion glanced down and saw the Hound standing with young Joffrey as squires swarmed around them. â€Å"At least he dies quietly,† the prince replied. â€Å"It’s the wolf that makes the noise. I could scarce sleep last night.† Clegane cast a long shadow across the hard-packed earth as his squire lowered the black helm over his head. â€Å"I could silence the creature, if it please you,† he said through his open visor. His boy placed a longsword in his hand. He tested the weight of it, slicing at the cold morning air. Behind him, the yard rang to the clangor of steel on steel. The notion seemed to delight the prince. â€Å"Send a dog to kill a dog!† he exclaimed. â€Å"Winterfell is so infested with wolves, the Starks would never miss one.† Tyrion hopped off the last step onto the yard. â€Å"I beg to differ, nephew,† he said. â€Å"The Starks can count past six. Unlike some princes I might name.† Joffrey had the grace at least to blush. â€Å"A voice from nowhere,† Sandor said. He peered through his helm, looking this way and that. â€Å"Spirits of the air!† The prince laughed, as he always laughed when his bodyguard did this mummer’s farce. Tyrion was used to it. â€Å"Down here.† The tall man peered down at the ground, and pretended to notice him. â€Å"The little lord Tyrion,† he said. â€Å"My pardons. I did not see you standing there.† â€Å"I am in no mood for your insolence today.† Tyrion turned to his nephew. â€Å"Joffrey, it is past time you called on Lord Eddard and his lady, to offer them your comfort.† Joffrey looked as petulant as only a boy prince can look. â€Å"What good will my comfort do them?† â€Å"None,† Tyrion said. â€Å"Yet it is expected of you. Your absence has been noted.† â€Å"The Stark boy is nothing to me,† Joffrey said. â€Å"I cannot abide the wailing of women.† Tyrion Lannister reached up and slapped his nephew hard across the face. The boy’s cheek began to redden. â€Å"One word,† Tyrion said, â€Å"and I will hit you again.† â€Å"I’m going to tell Mother!† Joffrey exclaimed. Tyrion hit him again. Now both cheeks flamed. â€Å"You tell your mother,† Tyrion told him. â€Å"But first you get yourself to Lord and Lady Stark, and you fall to your knees in front of them, and you tell them how very sorry you are, and that you are at their service if there is the slightest thing you can do for them or theirs in this desperate hour, and that all your prayers go with them. Do you understand? Do you?† The boy looked as though he was going to cry. Instead, he managed a weak nod. Then he turned and fled headlong from the yard, holding his cheek. Tyrion watched him run. A shadow fell across his face. He turned to find Clegane looming overhead like a cliff. His soot-dark armor seemed to blot out the sun. He had lowered the visor on his helm. It was fashioned in the likeness of a snarling black hound, fearsome to behold, but Tyrion had always thought it a great improvement over Clegane’s hideously burned face. â€Å"The prince will remember that, little lord,† the Hound warned him. The helm turned his laugh into a hollow rumble. â€Å"I pray he does,† Tyrion Lannister replied. â€Å"If he forgets, be a good dog and remind him.† He glanced around the courtyard. â€Å"Do you know where I might find my brother?† â€Å"Breaking fast with the queen.† â€Å"Ah,† Tyrion said. He gave Sandor Clegane a perfunctory nod and walked away as briskly as his stunted legs would carry him, whistling. He pitied the first knight to try the Hound today. The man did have a temper. A cold, cheerless meal had been laid out in the morning room of the Guest House. Jaime sat at table with Cersei and the children, talking in low, hushed voices. â€Å"Is Robert still abed?† Tyrion asked as he seated himself, uninvited, at the table. His sister peered at him with the same expression of faint distaste she had worn since the day he was born. â€Å"The king has not slept at all,† she told him. â€Å"He is with Lord Eddard. He has taken their sorrow deeply to heart.† â€Å"He has a large heart, our Robert,† Jaime said with a lazy smile. There was very little that Jaime took seriously. Tyrion knew that about his brother, and forgave it. During all the terrible long years of his childhood, only Jaime had ever shown him the smallest measure of affection or respect, and for that Tyrion was willing to forgive him most anything. A servant approached. â€Å"Bread,† Tyrion told him, â€Å"and two of those little fish, and a mug of that good dark beer to wash them down. Oh, and some bacon. Burn it until it turns black.† The man bowed and moved off. Tyrion turned back to his siblings. Twins, male and female. They looked very much the part this morning. Both had chosen a deep green that matched their eyes. Their blond curls were all a fashionable tumble, and gold ornaments shone at wrists and fingers and throats. Tyrion wondered what it would be like to have a twin, and decided that he would rather not know. Bad enough to face himself in a looking glass every day. Another him was a thought too dreadful to contemplate. Prince Tommen spoke up. â€Å"Do you have news of Bran, Uncle?† â€Å"I stopped by the sickroom last night,† Tyrion announced. â€Å"There was no change. The maester thought that a hopeful sign.† â€Å"I don’t want Brandon to die,† Tommen said timorously. He was a sweet boy. Not like his brother, but then Jaime and Tyrion were somewhat less than peas in a pod themselves. â€Å"Lord Eddard had a brother named Brandon as well,† Jaime mused. â€Å"One of the hostages murdered by Targaryen. It seems to be an unlucky name.† â€Å"Oh, not so unlucky as all that, surely,† Tyrion said. The servant brought his plate. He ripped off a chunk of black bread. Cersei was studying him warily. â€Å"What do you mean?† Tyrion gave her a crooked smile. â€Å"Why, only that Tommen may get his wish. The maester thinks the boy may yet live.† He took a sip of beer. Myrcella gave a happy gasp, and Tommen smiled nervously, but it was not the children Tyrion was watching. The glance that passed between Jaime and Cersei lasted no more than a second, but he did not miss it. Then his sister dropped her gaze to the table. â€Å"That is no mercy. These northern gods are cruel to let the child linger in such pain.† â€Å"What were the maester’s words?† Jaime asked. The bacon crunched when he bit into it. Tyrion chewed thoughtfully for a moment and said, â€Å"He thinks that if the boy were going to die, he would have done so already. It has been four days with no change.† â€Å"Will Bran get better, Uncle?† little Myrcella asked. She had all of her mother’s beauty, and none of her nature. â€Å"His back is broken, little one,† Tyrion told her. â€Å"The fall shattered his legs as well. They keep him alive with honey and water, or he would starve to death. Perhaps, if he wakes, he will be able to eat real food, but he will never walk again.† â€Å"If he wakes,† Cersei repeated. â€Å"Is that likely?† â€Å"The gods alone know,† Tyrion told her. â€Å"The maester only hopes.† He chewed some more bread. â€Å"I would swear that wolf of his is keeping the boy alive. The creature is outside his window day and night, howling. Every time they chase it away, it returns. The maester said they closed the window once, to shut out the noise, and Bran seemed to weaken. When they opened it again, his heart beat stronger.† The queen shuddered. â€Å"There is something unnatural about those animals,† she said. â€Å"They are dangerous. I will not have any of them coming south with us.† Jaime said, â€Å"You’ll have a hard time stopping them, sister. They follow those girls everywhere.† Tyrion started on his fish. â€Å"Are you leaving soon, then?† â€Å"Not near soon enough,† Cersei said. Then she frowned. â€Å"Are we leaving?† she echoed. â€Å"What about you? Gods, don’t tell me you are staying here?† Tyrion shrugged. â€Å"Benjen Stark is returning to the Night’s Watch with his brother’s bastard. I have a mind to go with them and see this Wall we have all heard so much of.† Jaime smiled. â€Å"I hope you’re not thinking of taking the black on us, sweet brother.† Tyrion laughed. â€Å"What, me, celibate? The whores would go begging from Dorne to Casterly Rock. No, I just want to stand on top of the Wall and piss off the edge of the world.† Cersei stood abruptly. â€Å"The children don’t need to hear this filth. Tommen, Myrcella, come.† She strode briskly from the morning room, her train and her pups trailing behind her. Jaime Lannister regarded his brother thoughtfully with those cool green eyes. â€Å"Stark will never consent to leave Winterfell with his son lingering in the shadow of death.† â€Å"He will if Robert commands it,† Tyrion said. â€Å"And Robert will command it. There is nothing Lord Eddard can do for the boy in any case.† â€Å"He could end his torment,† Jaime said. â€Å"I would, if it were my son. It would be a mercy.† â€Å"I advise against putting that suggestion to Lord Eddard, sweet brother,† Tyrion said. â€Å"He would not take it kindly.† â€Å"Even if the boy does live, he will be a cripple. Worse than a cripple. A grotesque. Give me a good clean death.† Tyrion replied with a shrug that accentuated the twist of his shoulders. â€Å"Speaking for the grotesques,† he said, â€Å"I beg to differ. Death is so terribly final, while life is full of possibilities.† Jaime smiled. â€Å"You are a perverse little imp, aren’t you?† â€Å"Oh, yes,† Tyrion admitted. â€Å"I hope the boy does wake. I would be most interested to hear what he might have to say.† His brother’s smile curdled like sour milk. â€Å"Tyrion, my sweet brother,† he said darkly, â€Å"there are times when you give me cause to wonder whose side you are on.† Tyrion’s mouth was full of bread and fish. He took a swallow of strong black beer to wash it all down, and grinned up wolfishly at Jaime, â€Å"Why, Jaime, my sweet brother,† he said, â€Å"you wound me. You know how much I love my family.† A Game of Thrones Chapter Nine Something about the howling of a wolf took a man right out of his here and now and left him in a dark forest of the mind, running naked before the pack. When the direwolf howled again, Tyrion shut the heavy leatherbound cover on the book he was reading, a hundred-year-old discourse on the changing of the seasons by a long-dead maester. He covered a yawn with the back of his hand. His reading lamp was flickering, its oil all but gone, as dawn light leaked through the high windows. He had been at it all night, but that was nothing new. Tyrion Lannister was not much a one for sleeping. His legs were stiff and sore as he eased down off the bench. He massaged some life back into them and limped heavily to the table where the septon was snoring softly, his head pillowed on an open book in front of him. Tyrion glanced at the title. A life of the Grand Maester Aethelmure, no wonder. â€Å"Chayle,† he said softly. The young man jerked up, blinking, confused, the crystal of his order swinging wildly on its silver chain. â€Å"I’m off to break my fast. See that you return the books to the shelves. Be gentle with the Valyrian scrolls, the parchment is very dry. Ayrmidon’s Engines of War is quite rare, and yours is the only complete copy I’ve ever seen.† Chayle gaped at him, still half-asleep. Patiently, Tyrion repeated his instructions, then clapped the septon on the shoulder and left him to his tasks. Outside, Tyrion swallowed a lungful of the cold morning air and began his laborious descent of the steep stone steps that corkscrewed around the exterior of the library tower. It was slow going; the steps were cut high and narrow, while his legs were short and twisted. The rising sun had not yet cleared the walls of Winterfell, but the men were already hard at it in the yard below. Sandor Clegane’s rasping voice drifted up to him. â€Å"The boy is a long time dying. I wish he would be quicker about it.† Tyrion glanced down and saw the Hound standing with young Joffrey as squires swarmed around them. â€Å"At least he dies quietly,† the prince replied. â€Å"It’s the wolf that makes the noise. I could scarce sleep last night.† Clegane cast a long shadow across the hard-packed earth as his squire lowered the black helm over his head. â€Å"I could silence the creature, if it please you,† he said through his open visor. His boy placed a longsword in his hand. He tested the weight of it, slicing at the cold morning air. Behind him, the yard rang to the clangor of steel on steel. The notion seemed to delight the prince. â€Å"Send a dog to kill a dog!† he exclaimed. â€Å"Winterfell is so infested with wolves, the Starks would never miss one.† Tyrion hopped off the last step onto the yard. â€Å"I beg to differ, nephew,† he said. â€Å"The Starks can count past six. Unlike some princes I might name.† Joffrey had the grace at least to blush. â€Å"A voice from nowhere,† Sandor said. He peered through his helm, looking this way and that. â€Å"Spirits of the air!† The prince laughed, as he always laughed when his bodyguard did this mummer’s farce. Tyrion was used to it. â€Å"Down here.† The tall man peered down at the ground, and pretended to notice him. â€Å"The little lord Tyrion,† he said. â€Å"My pardons. I did not see you standing there.† â€Å"I am in no mood for your insolence today.† Tyrion turned to his nephew. â€Å"Joffrey, it is past time you called on Lord Eddard and his lady, to offer them your comfort.† Joffrey looked as petulant as only a boy prince can look. â€Å"What good will my comfort do them?† â€Å"None,† Tyrion said. â€Å"Yet it is expected of you. Your absence has been noted.† â€Å"The Stark boy is nothing to me,† Joffrey said. â€Å"I cannot abide the wailing of women.† Tyrion Lannister reached up and slapped his nephew hard across the face. The boy’s cheek began to redden. â€Å"One word,† Tyrion said, â€Å"and I will hit you again.† â€Å"I’m going to tell Mother!† Joffrey exclaimed. Tyrion hit him again. Now both cheeks flamed. â€Å"You tell your mother,† Tyrion told him. â€Å"But first you get yourself to Lord and Lady Stark, and you fall to your knees in front of them, and you tell them how very sorry you are, and that you are at their service if there is the slightest thing you can do for them or theirs in this desperate hour, and that all your prayers go with them. Do you understand? Do you?† The boy looked as though he was going to cry. Instead, he managed a weak nod. Then he turned and fled headlong from the yard, holding his cheek. Tyrion watched him run. A shadow fell across his face. He turned to find Clegane looming overhead like a cliff. His soot-dark armor seemed to blot out the sun. He had lowered the visor on his helm. It was fashioned in the likeness of a snarling black hound, fearsome to behold, but Tyrion had always thought it a great improvement over Clegane’s hideously burned face. â€Å"The prince will remember that, little lord,† the Hound warned him. The helm turned his laugh into a hollow rumble. â€Å"I pray he does,† Tyrion Lannister replied. â€Å"If he forgets, be a good dog and remind him.† He glanced around the courtyard. â€Å"Do you know where I might find my brother?† â€Å"Breaking fast with the queen.† â€Å"Ah,† Tyrion said. He gave Sandor Clegane a perfunctory nod and walked away as briskly as his stunted legs would carry him, whistling. He pitied the first knight to try the Hound today. The man did have a temper. A cold, cheerless meal had been laid out in the morning room of the Guest House. Jaime sat at table with Cersei and the children, talking in low, hushed voices. â€Å"Is Robert still abed?† Tyrion asked as he seated himself, uninvited, at the table. His sister peered at him with the same expression of faint distaste she had worn since the day he was born. â€Å"The king has not slept at all,† she told him. â€Å"He is with Lord Eddard. He has taken their sorrow deeply to heart.† â€Å"He has a large heart, our Robert,† Jaime said with a lazy smile. There was very little that Jaime took seriously. Tyrion knew that about his brother, and forgave it. During all the terrible long years of his childhood, only Jaime had ever shown him the smallest measure of affection or respect, and for that Tyrion was willing to forgive him most anything. A servant approached. â€Å"Bread,† Tyrion told him, â€Å"and two of those little fish, and a mug of that good dark beer to wash them down. Oh, and some bacon. Burn it until it turns black.† The man bowed and moved off. Tyrion turned back to his siblings. Twins, male and female. They looked very much the part this morning. Both had chosen a deep green that matched their eyes. Their blond curls were all a fashionable tumble, and gold ornaments shone at wrists and fingers and throats. Tyrion wondered what it would be like to have a twin, and decided that he would rather not know. Bad enough to face himself in a looking glass every day. Another him was a thought too dreadful to contemplate. Prince Tommen spoke up. â€Å"Do you have news of Bran, Uncle?† â€Å"I stopped by the sickroom last night,† Tyrion announced. â€Å"There was no change. The maester thought that a hopeful sign.† â€Å"I don’t want Brandon to die,† Tommen said timorously. He was a sweet boy. Not like his brother, but then Jaime and Tyrion were somewhat less than peas in a pod themselves. â€Å"Lord Eddard had a brother named Brandon as well,† Jaime mused. â€Å"One of the hostages murdered by Targaryen. It seems to be an unlucky name.† â€Å"Oh, not so unlucky as all that, surely,† Tyrion said. The servant brought his plate. He ripped off a chunk of black bread. Cersei was studying him warily. â€Å"What do you mean?† Tyrion gave her a crooked smile. â€Å"Why, only that Tommen may get his wish. The maester thinks the boy may yet live.† He took a sip of beer. Myrcella gave a happy gasp, and Tommen smiled nervously, but it was not the children Tyrion was watching. The glance that passed between Jaime and Cersei lasted no more than a second, but he did not miss it. Then his sister dropped her gaze to the table. â€Å"That is no mercy. These northern gods are cruel to let the child linger in such pain.† â€Å"What were the maester’s words?† Jaime asked. The bacon crunched when he bit into it. Tyrion chewed thoughtfully for a moment and said, â€Å"He thinks that if the boy were going to die, he would have done so already. It has been four days with no change.† â€Å"Will Bran get better, Uncle?† little Myrcella asked. She had all of her mother’s beauty, and none of her nature. â€Å"His back is broken, little one,† Tyrion told her. â€Å"The fall shattered his legs as well. They keep him alive with honey and water, or he would starve to death. Perhaps, if he wakes, he will be able to eat real food, but he will never walk again.† â€Å"If he wakes,† Cersei repeated. â€Å"Is that likely?† â€Å"The gods alone know,† Tyrion told her. â€Å"The maester only hopes.† He chewed some more bread. â€Å"I would swear that wolf of his is keeping the boy alive. The creature is outside his window day and night, howling. Every time they chase it away, it returns. The maester said they closed the window once, to shut out the noise, and Bran seemed to weaken. When they opened it again, his heart beat stronger.† The queen shuddered. â€Å"There is something unnatural about those animals,† she said. â€Å"They are dangerous. I will not have any of them coming south with us.† Jaime said, â€Å"You’ll have a hard time stopping them, sister. They follow those girls everywhere.† Tyrion started on his fish. â€Å"Are you leaving soon, then?† â€Å"Not near soon enough,† Cersei said. Then she frowned. â€Å"Are we leaving?† she echoed. â€Å"What about you? Gods, don’t tell me you are staying here?† Tyrion shrugged. â€Å"Benjen Stark is returning to the Night’s Watch with his brother’s bastard. I have a mind to go with them and see this Wall we have all heard so much of.† Jaime smiled. â€Å"I hope you’re not thinking of taking the black on us, sweet brother.† Tyrion laughed. â€Å"What, me, celibate? The whores would go begging from Dorne to Casterly Rock. No, I just want to stand on top of the Wall and piss off the edge of the world.† Cersei stood abruptly. â€Å"The children don’t need to hear this filth. Tommen, Myrcella, come.† She strode briskly from the morning room, her train and her pups trailing behind her. Jaime Lannister regarded his brother thoughtfully with those cool green eyes. â€Å"Stark will never consent to leave Winterfell with his son lingering in the shadow of death.† â€Å"He will if Robert commands it,† Tyrion said. â€Å"And Robert will command it. There is nothing Lord Eddard can do for the boy in any case.† â€Å"He could end his torment,† Jaime said. â€Å"I would, if it were my son. It would be a mercy.† â€Å"I advise against putting that suggestion to Lord Eddard, sweet brother,† Tyrion said. â€Å"He would not take it kindly.† â€Å"Even if the boy does live, he will be a cripple. Worse than a cripple. A grotesque. Give me a good clean death.† Tyrion replied with a shrug that accentuated the twist of his shoulders. â€Å"Speaking for the grotesques,† he said, â€Å"I beg to differ. Death is so terribly final, while life is full of possibilities.† Jaime smiled. â€Å"You are a perverse little imp, aren’t you?† â€Å"Oh, yes,† Tyrion admitted. â€Å"I hope the boy does wake. I would be most interested to hear what he might have to say.† His brother’s smile curdled like sour milk. â€Å"Tyrion, my sweet brother,† he said darkly, â€Å"there are times when you give me cause to wonder whose side you are on.† Tyrion’s mouth was full of bread and fish. He took a swallow of strong black beer to wash it all down, and grinned up wolfishly at Jaime, â€Å"Why, Jaime, my sweet brother,† he said, â€Å"you wound me. You know how much I love my family.†

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Week june 2 - Essay Example West expression of San Cooke’s , â€Å"he [Cooke] expressed the centuries-held hope of black folks trapped in a country that considered them subhuman†¦Sam Cooke’s ‘Change’ brought with it a certain hard-earned sense of possibility tempered by reality† is actually a memoir of Cornel West poignant admiration of Sam Cooke’s optimism to pursue the black folks centuries-held hope which most black people have abandoned. This is contained in the book entitled â€Å"Living and Loving Out Loud† where Cooke initiated a dialogue about race and justice where Cooke’s idea of â€Å"change† was one of the topic of discourse as he provoke the reader about the passionate struggle of the black man in the not so distant past which may now have seemingly forgotten. The gist of the expression was simply about the unwavering belief that in due time, the blacks will be free from the shackles of slavery no matter how long it will take. This is also reflective in Peter Seeger song in the late 50s entitled To Everything There is a Season which is abbreviated as â€Å"Turn, Turn, Turn†. The lyrics of the song is consistent with Cooke’s hope for â€Å"Change† albeit Seegers version has religious connotation because it is lifted from the Holy Bible’s Book of Ecclesiastes in Chapter 3. Nevertheless, both work expressed that â€Å"there is a season for everything† including â€Å"change† that eventually, injustice against the black man will end which it did even if it took long and claimed many

Should Veil be Banned in the UK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Should Veil be Banned in the UK - Essay Example Considering Sura 7:46, a veil acts as a separation between the resident of Heaven and the resident of Hell. In Sura 19: 16-17, a veil is remarked as the symbol of sovereignty and purity. Other explanations in the Quran also describe veil as a separation of evil with the good (Amer, 2000). On this note of an affirmative definition of veiling one shall think that why veil should be banned in the UK or any other country contradicting preaches of Islam and the belief of Islamic women. It was in the year 2006, when Mr. Jack Straw, a leader of the House of Commons in the UK stated ‘Hijab’ to increase the differences between Islamic religion and other religious groups and remarked the practice as a â€Å"visible statement of separation†. This incident was led by the suspension of an assistant teacher wearing veil in her workplace (Sultan-ul-Qalam, 2006). Since then, the practice of wearing veil in the UK by Muslim women has become debatable in relation to the judgment be hind banning the veil in the economic region. The paper presented here will intend to discuss various aspects related to this issue with due regards to local and global values regarding ‘Hijab’ or ‘Full Face Veil’ along with cultural imperialism and national sovereignty of the UK. The role of media will also be analysed to obtain rational in relation to the debated topic of banning veil in the UK. Local Values vs. Global Values Abraham (2007), in his study adroitly states â€Å"Just as complex discourses have developed around the metaphor of ‘the closet’ and ‘coming out of the closet’, the metaphor of ‘the veil’ and the concept of ‘lifting the veil’ have developed their own political debates†. With due consideration to this explanation of veil, the local values can be recognised in this context. Veil which is also called ‘Naqab’ or ‘Hijab’ originates as an Arabic word that refers to as barrier. Moving further from the lexicon explanation, veil has a broader meaning in the local values of Islam. It largely indicates towards the philosophy of modesty in both men and women (Long, 2009: 93-94). However, in the current day context, the most common metaphor of Hijab is an Islamic woman wearing on veil to cover her head, her face and her body. Furthermore, according to the Islamic values, a veil also tends to provide sexual space to the women in the society indicating that women should keep themselves covered in front of any unknown male figure with whom they were unable to theoretically be engaged, i.e. men who do not relate with their family (Long, 2009: 93-94; Abraham, 2007). Even in the current practices, veil is considered by Muslim women to provide them with space in terms of sovereignty and modesty as well as in terms of sexuality (Gabriel & Hannan, 2011). On the contrary, from a generalised point of view the global values of Islam have often presente d the religion as ‘barbaric’ restricting many natural flows of human life. In many instances, the religious beliefs are also stated to reflect the society to be male dominated. For instance, Islam states that men can have more than one wife provided he is able to render equal love and affection to each (Long, 2009: 92). Similarly, from the global perspective wearing a veil is considered to be a religious belief that creates a social difference between the Muslim women and men of the same as well as other religions. Thus, it is

The origin of passover Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The origin of passover - Research Paper Example The paper also explains how the Lord God instructed the Israelites to be commemorating the Passover feast in every year. For better understanding of the Origin of the Passover, it is better to look at the Passover in the context of the ten plagues that the Lord God unleashed upon the Egyptians as the result of Pharaoh’s obstinacy in letting the Jewish people leave Egypt for the Promised Land, i.e. the Canaan. The incident of the Lord’s passing over the houses of the Israelites took place during the tenth plague, which led to the death of every first born son of every Egyptian family. It was after this incident, that Pharaoh finally allowed the Israelites to leave Egypt as the Lord God had required of them as we shall see in this paper. The origin of the Jewish Passover feast is clearly recorded in Exodus 12. Before the Lord God unleashed the tenth plague upon the Egyptians, the Lord God commanded Moses to ask every Jewish household to take, on the tenth day of the month, a one year old lamb without any defect. The Jews households then were asked by the Lord God to take care of the lambs till the 14th day of the month when they would slaughter the lambs at twilight. The Israelites then were commanded by the Lord God through His servant Moses, to smear the blood of the lambs on the doorposts of the Jewish households. This was meant to distinguish the households of the Jews from the households of the Egyptians so that when the angel of destruction cane to strike the first born male child of every Egyptian household, he would easily notice and pass over the households of the Jews. On the meat of the slaughtered lambs, the Israelites were commanded by the lord to roast the meat, and to eat it with bitter herbs and unleavened bread. The bitter herb was a sigh of the Jew’s painful maltreatment by the Egyptians, while the unleavened bread was a sign of spiritual preparedness, repentance, among the Jews as

Reading the Text of the Photograph Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Reading the Text of the Photograph - Essay Example The mother’s eyes are directed outside the window where she could be looking at something which caught her attention – or could just be lost in her thoughts. They both appear to be pensive as both their lips are curved downwards. Both are wearing white which glow as the sun shines on them. Two throw pillows neatly covered by a weaved pattern appear beside the mother, with one pillow directly providing cushion to her back. To their back, at the upper left portion of the photograph appears a top thin table containing picture frames which are about nine in number. There are bigger frames, numbering three, which are mounted on the wall above the thin table. Most of the background is obscured in contrast to the bright light focused on the mother and child. It is possible that this picture is taken either late morning (almost near noontime) – or immediately after lunch. The photographer could possibly be a member of the family – the father, or brother, or even a sister who wanted to capture the lazy, reposed mood of the members. It is possible that mother and child did not expect their photos to be taken, as they remain sober and melancholy. This photograph is taken inside an auditorium where two prominently seated men are close to the photographer. A total of seven men are clearly seen in this photo – all smiling. These men could be batch mates or members of an all male organization; maybe a fraternity or a professional civic organization. It is eminent that these men are viewing someone, possible a colleague or a person with great humor. There were not viewing a film as their eyes were not focused on a movie screen – but rather on someone directly in front of them. They could possibly be listening to a guest speaker or a batch mate talking about his previous experiences. The man on the right front seat was holding a snack (possible filled with peanuts) and he was seated in a slouching position

Machiavelli’s story Essay Example for Free

Machiavelli’s story Essay He wrote to medic embellished with magnificent words together with extrinsic allurements wishing the Medic’s honor should give him the position of the office that he definitely was stuffing of. He contemplated and made assumptions of himself being humble and low before the concerns of the princes, pretending to have understood the needs of people. He also thought that the book was a present to the prince to entice him in order to be given a vacancy in the new government. He even recommends to the prince to intelligently and diligently read and consider the book as in the Prince will end up learning Machiavelli’s extreme desire for prince to attain the greatness that fortune and other attributes promise. Machiavelli figured that the principalities are all hereditary to power and its acquisition is accustomed to live under the prince by either fortune or ability. He anticipated that the prince should keep the corrupt government continue to rule for the benefits of the few him included against to which what it was. His story from is was ultimately different from what it should be. For instance, Duke of Ferrara in Italy who could not have withstood the attacks of the Venetians in 1984 nor those of Pope Julius in 1910 unless of the establishment of dominions. For hereditary prince has less cause to and less necessity to offend to happen that he will be more loved but the vice versa caused him to be more hated as it was reasonable that Machiavelli’s subject naturally disposed him off from the prince, his motives was derived to no existence of change and his own definition of change was the one that leaves the toothing for another to keep the corrupt government from one generation to another that impossibly didn’t happen. Machiavelli’s story was defining change as the deception of the willing election of the new ruler hoping to better themselves expectation that could hardly rise from the inherent difficulties from the new to be principalities. He figures solidarity as hardship that he must put upon his new acquisition in order to satisfy those who elected Medic into power. Machiavelli egocentrically viewed himself as the core pillar for the success of Medic’s government, thus he must be given the position on this regime to excel. He beliefs not that Borge Cesare lost power by malignity of fortune that he acquired during the ascendancy of his father. In Machiavelli’s story, he didn’t imagine to care about the so called enemies whom he injured in seizing principality and he is not even considering the essence for them to feel satisfied as the way the expected or hopped when they were electing you into power. Instead Machiavelli suggested for the strong measures to be taken against them, feeling not bound to them anymore and they are profound to be oppressed by the use of the strong forces under the command of the leader in charge. This was totally different from even the theoretical view of Medic when he came into power. His mission and vision was to have equality among all those who elected him, stop/ eradicate corruption and that is why he disputed the gift from Machiavelli that was vividly giving him a clue towards the corrupt government to benefit the a few including Machiavelli. Medic wasn’t gullible for the public properties as the story of Machiavelli portray him as somebody who is gullible, selfish/mean, corrupt and egocentric. Basing on Machiavelli’s story, he viewed that the hold of accustomed hereditary pass of power was a prudent courtesy from the ancestors and anybody doing contrary to it was like transgression towards the ancestors. In order to deal prudently with circumstances as they arise and for the care to maintain Medic in state Machiavelli must be in the cabinet in the government and if not so something sinister will happen to deprive Medic extra-ordinary from power, which was untrue and didn’t happen. Reference: 1. The Prince By Niccolo Machiavelli, Translated By George Bull Published By Penguin Books Ltd (1995).

MEMS: Comparison With Micro Electronics

MEMS: Comparison With Micro Electronics Micro Electro Mechanical Systems or MEMS is a term coined around 1989 by Prof. R. Howe and others to describe an emerging research, where mechanical elements, like cantilevers or membranes, had been manufactured at a scale more akin to microelectronics circuit than to lathe machining. But MEMS is not the only term used to describe this and from its multicultural origin it is also known as Micromachines, a term often used in Japan, or more broadly as Microsystem Technology (MST), in Europe. However, if the etymology of the word is more or less well known, the dictionaries are still mum about an exact definition. Actually, what could link an inkjet printer head, a video projector DLP system, a disposable bio-analysis chip and an airbag crash sensor yes, they are all MEMS, but what is MEMS? It appears that these devices share the presence of features below 100 micro metre that are not machined using standard machining but using other techniques globally called micro-fabrication technology. Of course, this simple definition would also include microelectronics, but there is a characteristic that electronic circuits do not share with MEMS. While electronic circuits are inherently solid and compact structures, MEMS have holes, cavity, channels, cantilevers, membranes, etc, and, in some way, imitate `mechanical parts. This has a direct impact on their manufacturing process. Actually, even when MEMS are based on silicon, microelectronics process needs to be adapted to cater for thicker layer deposition, deeper etching and to introduce special steps to free the mechanical structures. Then, many more MEMS are not based on silicon and can be manufactured in polymer, in glass, in quartz or even in metals [5, 6]. Thus, if similarities between MEMS and microelectronics exist, they now clearly are two distinct. Actually, MEMS needs a completely different set of mind, where next to electronics, mechanical and material knowledge plays a fundamental role. 1.2 MEMS technology The development of a MEMS component has a cost that should not be misevaluated but the technology has the possibility to bring unique benefits. The reasons that prompt the use of MEMS technology can be classified broadly in three classes: a) Miniaturization of existing devices, like for example the production of silicon based gyroscope which reduced existing devices weighting several kg and with a volume of 1000 cm3 to a chip of a few grams contained in a 0.5 cm3 package. b) Development of new devices based on principles that do not work at larger scale. A typical example is given by the biochips where electrical are use to pump the reactant around the chip. This so called electro-osmotic effect based on the existence of a drag force in the fluid works only in channels with dimension of a fraction of one mm, that is, at micro-scale. c) Development of new tools to interact with the micro-world. In 1986 H. Rohrer and G. Binnig at IBM were awarded the Nobel price in physics for their work on scanning tunneling microscope. This work heralded the development of a new class of microscopes (atomic force microscope, scanning near optical microscope) that shares the presence of micro machined sharp micro-tips with radius below 50 nm. This micro-tool was used to position atoms in complex arrangement, writing Chinese character or helping verify some prediction of quantum mechanics. Another example of this class of MEMS devices at a slightly larger scale would be the development of micro-grippers to handle cells for analysis. 2.Micromirrors 2.1 History of Micromirror : In recent years, deformable mirror devices (DMDs) have emerged as a new micro-electromechanical (MEM) technology with tremendous potential for future applications. As shown in Fig. 1-1, the concept of deformable mirrors was developed and utilized as early as 211 BC by Greek soldiers to destroy enemy ships [1]. 1 However, it was not until 1973 that serious development of micromirror devices began to emerge. Currently, several designs of deformable mirrors have been fabricated, some before a practical use had been identified. It is these devices that are now receiving serious attention as optical communication and related fields are expanding. 2.2 BACKGROUND Mirror devices are a specific type of spatial light modulator (SLM).Spatial light modulators are devices that can alter the phase, amplitude, and/or the direction of propagation of an incident beam of light. Deformable mirror devices do this by moving a reflective surface to achieve the desired effect. Currently, two distinct types of micro-mirrors are used [1]. Continuous surface devices use one large reflective membrane that is locally controlled by individual actuators to form a continuous reflective surface. Circus fun house mirrors are an example of such a device. Segmented devices, on the other hand, use a mirror surface that is divided into numerous individually controllable smaller mirrors. Greek soldiers used segmented mirrors to form a parabolic reflective surface which was used to focus sunlight onto enemy ships. 2 Segmented devices are used today in the formation of large parabolic mirrors. As shown in Figure 1-2, the primary mirror of many modern optical telescope systems is comprised of segmented deformable mirrors. In the past, the size-limiting factor in such systems has been the size of the primary mirror which had to be mechanically stable yet light enough to move to various positions throughout a full field of view. Larger mirrors were frequently damaged or caused damage to other components of the telescope when movement was attempted. With the application of segmented deformable mirror technology, the practical limit in telescopic primary mirror size can be extended since much lighter and smaller mirrors can be individually anchored, controlled, and placed adjacent to each other to form the necessary parabolic mirror. The segmented mirrors are not only placed at a slight angle to each other, but are shaped by the segmented actuators and are free to bend to form smaller parabolically curved surfaces. The segmented actuators are manipulated by the control electronics which receive information from the laser figure sensor and the edge computer which is then translated into a necessary change in the position or shape of the mirrors. These monitoring devices continually check the status of the segmented mirrors to maintain the parabolic form of the entire device and to ensure that no gaps or severe discontinuities are present in the surface of the primary mirror which would result in a distorted image or a loss in image resolution. The basic principles of this macroscopic technology can also be used in microscopic applications which involve fabricating deformable mirrors on integrated circuits. Several forms of micromirrors have emerged that combine on-chip addressing electronics with the micro-mechanical mirrors [1]. The geometric and material variations of these devices demonstrate that deformable mirrors can be designed and implemented for a variety of specific uses. The micromirror devices currently used are segmented surface devices in which the actuation of a small reflective mirror is controlled by a single address electrode. The metallized mirror and the address electrode of the device form a parallel plate capacitor. The voltage between the mirror and the electrode creates an electrostatic force acting on the mirror in the downward direction. The flexures holding the mirror are designed to deform, allowing the mirror to move vertically with applied voltage. The resulting spring force of the flexures ac ts on the mirror in the upward direction, countering the electrostatic force of the capacitor. 3.MICROMIRROR ACTUATION METHODS FOR SENSING 3.1 Electromagnetic Actuation: A micromirror can be deflected in two ways by electromagnetic actuation. First, by using Lorentz force to move a patterned coil by exerting external magnetic field. Second, by repulsive/attractive forces to repel/attract the magnetic material attached to the mirror from/to the actuator. Advances in material fabrication to provide thick film deposition of magnetic material on the surface of micro actuators should reduce voltage and current requirements. Magnetic MEMS can offer non- contact operation, and can induce mechanical resonance by magnetic element excitation. However, thermal budget imposed by the current CMOS technology limits the fabrication of the magnetic film on the substrate from reaching the desired characteristics [3]. 3.2 Piezoelectric Actuation: The piezoelectric actuation takes advantage of the corresponding physical deformation to applied electrical voltage property . It has relatively lower operation voltage (3-20 Volt DC) with low power consumption, better linearity, and fast switching time 0.1 to 1.0 milliseconds [3]. 3.3 Thermal Actuation: The main advantage of thermal actuation is the simplicity of the fabrication method. However, in general, thermal actuation tends to have higher power consumption and slow response time. The out-of-plane thermal micro actuator uses thermal expansion due to ohmic heating. A thin arm and wide arm configuration with one end fixed to the substrate has nonlinear property due to temperature dependency . 3.4 Electrostatic Actuation: Despite suffering from the pull-in effect, nonlinear behavior, and higher operating voltage, the electrostatic actuations fast response time (less than 0.1 ms), low power consumption, and the easiness of integration and testing with electrical control system make the electrostatic actuation one of the preferred choices for micromirror actuation . The operation voltage of the micromirror can be lowered while achieving more angular deflection if the stiffness of torsion bar is reduced. However, when the stiffness is lowered, the natural frequency of the micromirror also decreases, thereby reducing operational bandwidth. Say w, v, d scales as L1. Maximum Electrostatic Potential Energy Stored is given by: 3 Permitivity of vacuum and relative permitivity remains unchanged with scaling. Assume Vb scales linearly with d (Out of Paschen effect range), then 4 Electrostatic Forces Found to Scale as Square of L. Since mass and hence inertial forces scale as cube of L, Electrostatic Actuators are advantageous in Scaled Down Sizes [3]. Paschen Effect: Breakdown of continuum theory Figure 3 -Vb v/s P,d Paschen Effect: Breakdown of continuum theory: a) Vb scales non linearly in Paschen effect range. b) Vb increases in Paschen effect range. c) Higher Vb implies higher storage of energy and so larger force. 4.Summary of Advantages and Disadvantages of Each Actuation Mechanism Actuation Advantages Disadvantages Magnetic Low actuation voltage Relatively large angular deflection with lower driving power Difficult to assemble permanent magnets and coils with current CMOS technology Challenge in minimizing the size of device Piezoelectric Higher switching speed Low power consumption Short actuation range Thermal Ease of fabrication (require only one composite beam) for bulk production -High power consumption Slow response time Fatigue due to thermal cycle Electrostatic Low power consumption Fast switching Ease of integration and testing with electrical control circuitry Nonlinear characteristics Limited by the pull-in effect High actuation voltage Fabrication complexity 5.Proposed Designs 5.1 ANALYTICAL MODEL OF THE STACKED MICROMIRRORS In this section, micromirrors of different configurations are presented and compared in terms of their deflection angle and actuation voltage. The conceptual schematics of the three configurations analyzed are shown below. Figure 1(a) shows a conventional micromirror configuration. Figure 1(b) shows a unique configuration of the stacked micromirror also denoted as the first stacked mirror configuration, and Figure 1(c) shows a novel configuration of the stacked micromirror with an offset, which is also known as the second stacked micromirror configuration [8]. Figure 1. Schematics of Three Different Micromirror Configurations. The moving electrode (middle plate) in the stacked configurations is designed to be identical to the micromirror in size and material. Solutions for the following analytical model are independent of the shape and size of the plate (micromirror) as long as the dimensions of each layer are identical. First, an analytical model of the micromirror is derived to better understand the relationship between each parameter of the micromirror. The torque created by the electrostatic force between the micromirror and its electrodes, as denoted by M for each configuration, is derived from the following dynamic Equation (1): I (d2O/dt2) + C (dO/dt) + kO = M -(1) where, I is the moment of the inertia. C is the damping coefficient representing the squeeze-film. k is the torsional stiffness of the rotated serpentine spring. M is the torque created by the electrostatic force between the micromirror and its electrodes. The moment of the inertia of the micromirror along the y-axis is equal to (1/12)*ml2. Second, the value for damping coefficient, c, representing the squeeze-film damping of the micromirror is derived from the linearized Reynolds equation [13] and presented in Equation (2). C= -(48w3)/(à Ã¢â€š ¬6(b2+4)D3) (2) where, ÃŽÂ ¼ is the dynamic viscosity of the air. l is equal to the half length of the micromirror, . w is the width of the micromirror. b is the ratio of the width to the length of the micromirror. D is the initial air gap between the micromirror and its electrodes. Third, the torsional stiffness, k, of the rotated serpentine spring K= (G Jp)/(2NLp+3Lp) (3) where, G is the shear modulus of the material used in the rotated serpentine spring. Jp is the torsion factor of a beam with rectangular cross-section [14] and can be derived from the Equation (4) below. N is the number of the loops or turns in the rotated serpentine spring. Lp is the length of the rotated serpentine spring segment that is parallel to the rotation axis. Jp= (tw3/3)*(1-(192w/3t)*à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬Ëœt=1,2,3.1/t3* tanh(tà Ã¢â€š ¬t/2w)) (4) Fourth, for the sake of simplicity, the micromirror is considered to be a rigid body and the deflection of the rotated serpentine spring in the Z axis is assumed to be negligible. In order to find the torque created by the electrostatic force between the micromirror and its electrodes, the parallel plate capacitor theory is used to derive the differential force that acts on a small segment of the micromirror and its electrodes: dF = 1à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ®V2 (wdx)/(D-x2 -(5) where, à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ® denotes the permittivity of air and V represents the potential difference. The torque, M, for each configuration is simplified with the normalized angle as represented by the following Equation (6), (7) and (8): MO = 0.5 à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ®wV2 (L2/D2 o2)*(o/1-o + ln(1-o)) (6) M1 = 0.5 à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ®wV2 (L2/D2 4o2)*(2o/1-2o + ln(1-2o)) (7) M2 = 0.5 à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ®wV2 (L2/D2 2)*(1/(1-2o+o2)) (8) where, M0 represents the torque created in the single mirror configuration. M1 and M2 denote the torque generated in the first and second stacked mirror configurations, respectively. To simplify the analysis, the fixed bottom electrodes are not used to actuate the micromirrors in both stacked configurations [8]. Figure-2. Torque versus Angle Comparison Plot for Three Micromirror Configurations. To visualize the magnitude of torques against the normalized angles, the normalized torques of M0, M1, and M2 are plotted in the Figure 2. The red line shows an exponential increase in the normalized torque as the normalized angle grows. The black line (conventional single mirror configuration) shows relatively gradual increase. As expected, while the deflection angle is small there are negligible differences between the three configurations in terms of the torque created by the same actuation voltage. However, as the deflection angle increases, the torque acting on the first stacked mirror grows exponentially. On the other hand, the second stacked mirror configuration shows a 50% increase in torque when compared to the single mirror configuration. 5.2 GEOMETRY The size and geometry of the micromirror are determined by the diameter of the optical beam as well as its application. For example, a micromirror used in an endoscope would require a smaller form factor. The micromirror discussed here is designed to be 1 mm in length, 1 mm in width and 10 ÃŽÂ ¼m in thickness. Also, it is assumed to be made of polysilicon that has a Youngs modulus of 160 GPa, Poissons ratio of 0.22 and density of 2330 kg/m3. Normally, the micromirror is designed to be suspended over a cavity by two torsion bars. Even though a straight torsion bar is simple to design and fabricate, it suffers from residual stress, which alters the stiffness of a torsion bar and the micromirrors frequency response. Furthermore, modification of the physical or geometric properties of the straight torsion bar is not straightforward since the geometry of the torsion bar such as the width and thickness are limited by the fabrication process. Hence, two rotated serpentine springs are chosen to hold the micromirror in place while the micromirror rotates. The serpentine springs stiffness can be easily customized regardless of the fabrication process. Thus, a rotated serpentine spring is employed in this analysis. The rotated serpentine spring used in this analysis is 4 ÃŽÂ ¼m wide, 10 ÃŽÂ ¼m thick, and 100 ÃŽÂ ¼m in length from one end to another end. The gap between each turn is 4 ÃŽÂ ¼m. Figure.3 (a) shows the expanded view of the rotated serpentine spring, and Figure.3 (b) shows the relative size and location of the spring on the micromirror. Figure 3. (a) Rotated Serpentine Spring Torsion Bar and (b) the Micromirror. Two different configurations of the micromirror are presented in Figure 4. To simplify modeling and analysis, the geometry and material of the plates (micromirrors) are kept identical except the stacking configuration. As shown in Figure 4(a), a micromirror is placed 250 ÃŽÂ ¼m directly above another square plate along the z-axis. In Figure 4(b), a micromirror is placed above another mirror with a 250 ÃŽÂ ¼m gap in the z axis and a 500 ÃŽÂ ¼m offset along the x- axis. The top plate is the micromirror, and the bottom plate is used as moving electrodes [8]. The micromirror and its moving counterpart have two electrodes located on their bottom. The electrodes are assumed to be made of 1 ÃŽÂ ¼m aluminium thin film. The rotated serpentine springs provide electrical connection between the electrodes and control circuitry. Figure-4. Stacked Micromirror Configurations. 5.3 Flexure Beam Micro-Mirror C:UsersAjiteshDesktopUntitled1.jpg C:UsersAjiteshDesktopUntitled.jpg Figure-5: Flexure Beam Micromirror APPROACH In order to develop the characteristic model of the Flexure-Beam micromirror device, it must first be characterized by equating the electrostatic actuation force of the parallel plate capacitor with the mechanical restoring force of the spring. Figure-6 shows a Flexure-Beam device in the resting ( V = 0 ) and active ( V > 0 ) modes where Zm represents the vertical height of the mirror above the address electrode. It is initially assumed that when no electrode potential is applied, the mirror rests firmly in the resting position, Z0, where the deflection distance, d, at all points on the mirror is zero [1]. Figure-6: Forces acting in flexure Beam Micromirror The Flexure-Beam device is a phase-only device since the direction of motion of the mirror is orthogonal to the reflective surface. Therefore, the optical path length can be altered while the direction of propagation remains unchanged. This makes the piston device very appealing for phase modulated filters or for adaptive phase correcting optics. Figure-7: Cloverleaf Micromirror One design improvement is another cantilever device known as the Cloverleaf. As shown in Figure, the flexures holding the reflective surfaces are placed in the center of the geometry. This takes the basic design of the Inverted Cloverleaf and reduces some of the negative effects observed. Also, the electrodes are located directly beneath each mirror which allows the cantilever surfaces to be individually addressable. Moving the support for the mirrors to the center of the pixel cell allows for better use of overall space. Now, the pixels can be placed so that adjacent cells nearly touch each other with only a small gap required between the mirrors of one cell and the mirrors of another. Most of the total surface area of the device is reserved for the active elements with the exception of the posts which hold the mirrors in place. This increases the active area of the device to as much as 86% which is similar to the remaining devices described in this chapter. This device, however, maintains the side effect of redirecting an incident beam of light in four distinct directions. C:UsersAjiteshDesktopUntitled3.png Figure-8 The Quad-Cantilever deformable micromirror device The significant advantage over the Cloverleaf devices is that the mirrors are aligned so that the redirection of the incident beam of light is in a common direction. This allows the device to be capable of switching or redirecting the incident light with little loss in amplitude. One characteristic similar to the Inverted Cloverleaf and Cloverleaf devices is the slanted behavior of the deflected mirror. This behavior is typical with cantilever devices and creates a non-uniform phase response across the surface of each mirror [1]. ELECTROSTATIC FORCE In order to compute the electrostatic force on the mirror, it must first be determined by which means this force will be calculated. More specifically, it must be decided whether the charge distribution, which is not uniform over the mirror surface, will be considered. The charge distribution will change with the position of the mirror surface and will also be altered by any mirror surface deformations or discontinuities such as etch holes. This leads to a complicated solution when integrating across the mirror. As an alternative, since both the charge distribution of the mirror and the applied electrode voltage are related to the electric field within the device, it is possible to express the potential energy, of the electric charge distribution solely in terms of this field: C:UsersAjiteshDesktopUntitled4.jpg Where, a is the surface charge distribution on the mirror, V is the actuation voltage between the mirror and address electrode, A is the area of the mirror, e0 is the free space dielectric constant and E is the electric field intensity at any point in the volume v within the device . By assigning an electric energy density of V-2coloumbs to each point in space within the device, the physical effect of the charge distribution on the mirror surface is preserved. From this approach it is easy to see that the non-uniform charge distribution on the mirror surface and the fringing effects of electric fields around the edges of the mirror are complementary descriptions of the same electrical phenomenon. 5.4 Dual Axis Micro-Mirror Figure-9: Dual-Axis micromirror Micromirror working principle The micromirror is made up by a circular polysilicon micromirror plate that is connected to a gimbal frame by a pair of polysilicon torsion springs (Fig. 9). The gimbal frame is supported by a pairs of polysilicon springs too. The structure is a dual axis micromirror: the slow axis works at the resonance frequency of 300 Hz while the fast axis works at the resonance frequency of 30 kHz. The fast axis allows the micromirror to be tilted around y direction while the slow axis allows the micromirror to be tilted around x direction. Both the two axis are actuated by electrostatic vertical comb drives. Vertical comb drives provide a motion in and out of the plane and present several advantages if compared to lateral comb drives. First of all, they generate a vertical force larger than lateral comb drives ,then they achieve larger scan angle at high resonance frequencies and finally they directly apply the torque to the micromirror without needing any hinges to couple their linear motion i nto torsional micromirror motion [4]. Each vertical comb drive consists of a set of moving mechanical polysilicon electrodes and a set of rigid electrodes suspended over an etched pit. The rigid electrodes are bound to the substrate, while the movable electrodes are linked to the axis. When a voltage is applied between the fixed fingers and the movable fingers, an electrostatic Torque arises between the two electrodes [4]. Consequently the movable fingers rotate around the torsional axis until the Electrostatic Torque (Te) and the Mechanical restoring Torque (Tm) of the springs are equal. These two torques can be expressed by (1) and (2). C:UsersAjiteshDesktopUntitled5.jpg C:UsersAjiteshDesktopUntitled 6.jpg Figure-10: Forces acting in a Dual-Axis Micromirror 5.5 Micromirror with Hidden Vertical Comb Drives The actuators and the torsion springs are hidden underneath the mirror to achieve high-fill factor in micromirror arrays. In this case, the fringing capacitance is significant and cannot be ignored [2]. The total capacitance as a function of angle can be calculated by integrating over the finger length. Fig. 11 shows the 3-D design of this: C:UsersAjiteshDesktopUntitled7.png Figure-11: Hidden Vertical-Comb Drive Micromirror 6.CONCLUSION: In this report, the first three phase of the project have been completed. The different actuation principles , their advantages and disadvantages have been discussed. Also four designs have been proposed and analytical study of them has been done. We can now move on to the next phase which comprises of modeling as well as analysis of the designs chosen.

Teaching in the Nude :: Personal Narrative Essay Example

So there I was, standing in the locker room. There were eight four-year olds (boys and girls) the two teachers (both women, around the age of twenty five) and me. It was a Wednesday, which means it is a swim day. As everyone around me began shedding his or her clothes, I felt my heart skip a beat as I wondered where I was going to change. "Um, do I just take off my clothes and change right in front of the children?" I asked, sheepishly. "Well, unless you plan to swim in your clothes, I think it would be a good idea to take off your clothes!" was the Danish response. They were not used to my cultural views on nudity; but I was. Well, seeing as I did not want the children to think I was strange, I took a deep breath and stripped down. Standing there naked, for the first five minutes was the hardest thing I had ever done - or so I thought. Here in Sweden, when changing in the locker room, it is proper etiquette to wander around in the nude. One's towel does not serve any other purpose besides drying one off - it is not a cover for one's nude body. This was a big step for me. It is the American way to use your towel as a shield from exposing your naked behind to others. Well, not here. So, I proceeded into the shower chamber (naked) along with my naked class of children and the two naked teachers. The shower chamber consisted of a long corridor of waterspouts - there was no place to hide! I had to grin and bare it, literally! After our six to ten-minute communal nude shower, we finally put our bathing suits on and went swimming. I thought I had accomplished a great feat! I, the modest American, stood naked in front of the whole class and the teachers. Yay for me!! But, to my surprise, I was mistaken. After our swim, we entered the naked chamber once again. Our bathing suits and towels were hung up, and the naked party began! We all showered again (the Danes are really clean people!), and as I grabbed my towel and began to dry off, I received strange looks. "Am I not supposed to be getting dressed yet?

Madonna the Goldfinch

Henry Kutilek Grinvalds Humanities (A8) 10/31/12 Emotions From the Finch 100 years ago the first car was made. This created an entirely new form of transportation that was innovative to that generation. Similarly, the 100 year difference between the end of the Medieval Era and beginning of the Renaissance Era showed amazing changes in the form of art. The painting â€Å"Madonna the Goldfinch† by Raphael Sanzio was created in c. 1505-1506. This was the very beginning of the Renaissance Era, and the painting strived for perfection unlike any of the paintings created before it.Madonna the Goldfinch portrays a sense intrigued curiosity, but to those who analyze it will find a guiding informative response with a deep understanding of symbolic foreshadowing. This essay will discuss the visual, expressive, and associative responses experience from Raphael’s painting, The Madonna the Goldfinch. The responded will be ordered by when chronologically experienced. The primary respo nse I feel is visual. The first thing that catches my eye is the pale face of the woman (Mary) and her blue and red clothes. Her face is close to white, its large, and located at the top of the painting.She is looking down, and the expression on her face looks close to surprised, with a faint smirk on her lips. This makes me think she is curious, yet knowing of the situation at hand. Next I look at the two children on the left and right (John the Baptist, Jesus) below Mary. I immediately notice the clothed John and naked Jesus, and then the bird that John is holding. He is offering it to Jesus, and Jesus strokes the top of its head with assurance. He is also being held tightly between Mary’s knees, and she has an arm around John, which makes me feel like she is encouraging him.These three bodies make a near perfect triangle, which balances the painting to a tee. Also, the colors on their bodies contrast the green landscape in the background. I noticed this, and then saw that there is a city very far in the distance across a river (Florence, Italy). If I had been another foot away from the painting I wouldn’t have noticed this, and without the zoom in feature on the google art galleries I would not have known it was a city. Either side of the bodies show two different landscapes, and they are both of equal size.On the left side shows trees in the distance, along with a bridge. The most impressive showings of detail are found in the bird, John’s hair, and the city in the background. This had to be truly amazing for the people in this time period. Not only is this painting artistically impressive, it is expressively impressive. The first feeling I get when looking at this painting is security. Mary is holding Jesus tightly between her knees, and holding an arm around John. Along with this, John is gently holding on to a bird that he is offering to Jesus.Mary’s face looks similar to a teacher watching a student try something new they ju st learned, and her holding the book adds to this. All of this makes me feel guidance, and gives me a motherly feeling of love that can push me along with whatever troubles I have in my life. The aspect of motherly love is exactly how I relate to this picture. I associate this painting with a favorite picture in my house of my mother watching my two oldest brothers play when they were just a few years old. It struck me early on in the viewing of the picture how similar it is to my young family.My mom is watching over them while they are sitting down in the yard, and my oldest brother is offering my other brother a toy to play with. The similarities between Mary’s face and my moms is shocking. These similarities make me think about what is actually happening in the painting, and the story that is being told. This is called the intellectual response. One main theme I see is actually a Renaissance Concept, that that is Emulation of the Classics. Art made in Europe in the Medieva l Era was all mainly funded by the church, and in turn it was made to glorify god.It is obvious this painting is doing something similar, but just with a perfected brush stroke that had depth and balance. Also, the idea of Humanism comes into play. Mary is holding a book that she seems to have just been reading, and in the Renaissance Era people were just beginning to not be afraid to learn. Maybe Raphael was trying to portray that reading is an okay and safe thing to do by having someone as idealistic as Mary reading. I noticed how both Mary and John have halos above their head, but Jesus does not.I was very confused by this at first, and it made my question whether the bird had something to do with it. Upon researching I learned that this bird is a Goldfinch, a bird that eats primarily off of throned plants. The legend is that when Jesus was carrying his cross to become crucified he had a thorn painfully poking at his head, and a Goldfinch flew over to him and removed it from his head. The Goldfinch is often used as a symbol of resurrection, so there is no doubt in my mind that the bird is used as a symbol of John foretelling Jesus about his future. Madonna the Goldfinch† is a truly amazing piece of artwork, with incredible attention to detail. It made me think about how good Raphael is as an artist, but also what he meant to portray. In my eyes, it shows the guidance of a mother and the wonder of two children. It really made me interpret the painting in ways I never have before, like considering facial expressions and what they mean. If I had to rename this painting it would be â€Å"Wisdom of the Goldfinch†. This is because the bird is the focus of the painting and it is causing the emotions of all of the people in the painting, through which wisdom is being passed.

Short Notes About Some Point

SIM: A subscriber identity module (SIM) on a removable SIM card securely stores the service-subscriber key (IMSI) used to identify a subscriber on mobile telephony devices (such as mobile phones and computers). A SIM card contains its unique serial number, internationally unique number of the mobile user (IMSI), security authentication and ciphering information, temporary information related to the local network (also temporary local id that has been issued to the user), a list of the services the user has access to and two passwords (PIN for usual use and PUK for unlocking). SIM cards are available in two standard sizes. The first is the size of a credit card (85. 60 mm ? 53. 98 mm x 0. 76 mm). GSM: GSM is stands for Global System for Mobile communication. It is a digital mobile telephony system that is widely used in Asia and other parts of the world. GSM uses a variation of time division multiple access (TDMA) and is the most widely used of the three digital wireless telephony technologies (TDMA, GSM, and CDMA). GSM digitizes and compresses data, then sends it down a channel with two other streams of user data, each in its own time slot. It operates at either the 900 MHz or 1800 MHz frequency band. Mobile services based on GSM technology were first launched in Finland in 1991. Today, more than 690 mobile networks provide GSM services across 213 countries and GSM represents 82. 4% of all global mobile connections. According to GSM World, there are now more than 2 billion GSM mobile phone users worldwide. Since many GSM network operators have roaming agreements with foreign operators, users can often continue to use their mobile phones when they travel to other countries. GSM, together with other technologies, is part of the evolution of wireless mobile telecommunications that includes High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data (HCSD), General Packet Radio System (GPRS), Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE), and Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMTS). GPRS: GPRS (General packet radio service) is a packet oriented mobile data service available to users of the 2G cellular communication systems global system for mobile communications (GSM), as well as in the 3G systems. In 2G systems, GPRS provides data rates of 56-114 kbit/s. GPRS data transfer is typically charged per MB of traffic transferred, while data communication via traditional circuit switching is billed per minute of connection time, independent of whether the user actually is using the capacity or is in an idle state. GPRS is a best-effort packet switched service, as opposed to circuit switching, where a certain quality of service (QoS) is guaranteed during the connection for non-mobile users. 2G cellular systems combined with GPRS are often described as 2. 5G, that is, a technology between the second (2G) and third (3G) generations of mobile telephony. It provides moderate speed data transfer, GSM is the only kind of network where GPRS is in use. GPRS is integrated into GSM Release 97 and newer releases. It was originally standardized by European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), but now by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). GPRS was developed as a GSM response to the earlier CDPD and i-mode packet switched cellular technologies. W-Lan: A wireless local area network (WLAN) links devices via a wireless distribution method (typically spread-spectrum or OFDM) and usually provides a connection through an access point to the wider internet. This gives users the mobility to move around within a local coverage area and still be connected to the network. Wireless LANs have become popular in the home due to ease of installation and the increasing popularity of laptop computers. Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi (short for â€Å"wireless fidelity†) is a term for certain types of wireless local area network (WLAN) that use specifications in the 802. 11 family. The term Wi-Fi was created by an organization called the Wi-Fi Alliance, which oversees tests that certify product interoperability. A product that passes the alliance tests is given the label â€Å"Wi-Fi certified† (a registered trademark). Originally, Wi-Fi certification was applicable only to products using the 802. 11b standard. Today, Wi-Fi can apply to products that use any 802. 11 standard. The 802. 11 specifications are part of an evolving set of wireless network standards known as the 802. 11 family. The particular specification under which a Wi-Fi network operates is called the â€Å"flavor† of the network. Any entity that has a wireless LAN should use security safeguards such as the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption standard, the more recent Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), Internet Protocol Security (IPsec), or a virtual private network (VPN). ALU: An (ALU) Arithmetic Logic Unit is a digital circuit that performs arithmetic and logical operations. The ALU is a fundamental building block of the central processing unit (CPU) of a computer, and even the simplest microprocessors contain one for purposes such as maintaining timers. The processors found inside modern CPUs and graphics processing units (GPUs) accommodate very powerful and very complex ALUs; a single component may contain a number of ALUs. Mathematician John von Neumann proposed the ALU concept in 1945, when he wrote a report on the foundations for a new computer called the EDVAC. REFRESH RATE: The refresh rate (most commonly the â€Å"vertical refresh rate†, â€Å"vertical scan rate† for CRTs) is the number of times in a second that display hardware draws the data. This is distinct from the measure of frame rate in that the refresh rate includes the repeated drawing of identical frames, On CRT displays, increasing the refresh rate decreases flickering, thereby reducing eye strain. However, if a refresh rate is specified that is beyond what is recommended for the display, damage to the display can occur. For computer programs or telemetry, the term is also applied to how frequently a datum is updated with a new external value from another source. RESULATION: The display resolution of a digital television or display device is the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed. It can be an ambiguous term especially as the displayed resolution is controlled by all different factors in cathode ray tube (CRT) and flat panel or projection displays using fixed picture-element (pixel) arrays. One use of the term â€Å"display resolution† applies to fixed-pixel-array displays such as plasma display panels (PDPs), liquid crystal displays (LCDs), Digital Light Processing (DLP) projectors, or similar technologies, and is simply the physical number of columns and rows of pixels creating the display (e. g. , 1920? 1200). A consequence of having a fixed grid display is that, for multi-format video inputs, all displays need a â€Å"scaling engine† (a digital video processor that includes a memory array) to match the incoming picture format to the display. PIXEL: A pixel (or picture element) is a single point in a raster image. The pixel is the smallest addressable screen element, it is the smallest unit of picture which can be controlled. Each pixel has its own address. The address of a pixel corresponds to its coordinates. Pixels are normally arranged in a 2-dimensional grid, and are often represented using dots or squares. Each pixel is a sample of an original image, where more samples typically provide more-accurate representations of the original. The intensity of each pixel is variable. In color image systems, a color is typically represented by three or four component intensities such as red, green, and blue, or black. In some contexts (such as descriptions of camera sensors), the term pixel is used to refer to a single scalar element of a multi-component representation (more precisely called a photo site in the camera sensor context, although the neologism sensel is also sometimes used to describe the elements of a digital camera's sensor),[2] while in others the term may refer to the entire set of such component intensities for a spatial position. In color systems that use chrome sub sampling, the multi-component concept of a pixel can become difficult to apply, since the intensity measures for the different color components correspond to different spatial areas in such a representation. The word pixel is based on a contraction of pix (â€Å"pictures†) and el (for â€Å"element†); similar formations with el for â€Å"element† include the words: voxel and texel. SCAN-PORT: A port scanner is a software application designed to probe a network host for open ports. This is often used by administrators to verify security policies of their networks and by attackers to identify running services on a host with the view to compromise it. To portscan a host is to scan for listening ports on a single target host. To port sweep is to scan multiple hosts for a specific listening port. The latter is typically used in searching for a specific service, for example, an SQL-based computer worm may port sweep looking for hosts listening on TCP port 1433. HTTP : Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is a combination of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol with the SSL/TLS protocol to provide encryption and secure (website security testing) identification of the server. HTTPS connections are often used for payment transactions on the World Wide Web and for sensitive transactions in corporate information systems. HTTP is a request-response standard typical of client-server computing. In HTTP, web browsers or spiders typically act as clients, while an application running on the computer hosting the web site acts as a server. The client, which submits HTTP requests, is also referred to as the user agent. The responding server, which stores or creates resources such as HTML files and images, may be called the origin server. In between the user agent and origin server may be several intermediaries, such as proxies, gateways, and tunnels. SEARCH ENGINE : A program that searches documents for specified keywords and returns a list of the documents where the keywords were found. Although earch engine is really a general class of programs, the term is often used to specifically describe systems like Google, Alta Vista and Excite that enable users to search for documents on the World Wide Web and USENET newsgroups. Typically, a search engine works by sending out a spider to fetch as many documents as possible. Another program, called an indexer, then reads these documents and creates an index based on the words contained in each document. Each search engine uses a proprietary algorithm to create its indices such that, ideally, only meaningful results are returned for each query. RTAP : Short for Real Time Streaming Protocol, a standard for controlling streaming data over the World Wide Web. Like H. 323, RTSP uses RTP (Real-Time Transport Protocol) to format packets of multimedia content. But whereas H. 323 is designed for videoconferencing of moderately-sized groups, RTSP is designed to efficiently broadcast audio-visual data to large groups. RTSP grew out of work done by Columbia University, Netscape and Real Networks. RSVP : R. S. V. P. stands for a French phrase, â€Å"repondez, s'il vous plait,† which means â€Å"please reply. The person sending the invitation would like you to tell him or her whether you accept or decline the invitation. That is, will you be coming to the event or not? Etiquette rules followed in most Western cultures require that if you receive a formal, written invitation, you should reply promptly, perhaps that same day. For hosts who are planning a dinner party, a wedding or a reception, this is important from a practical po int of view, because they need to know how many people to count on and how much food and drink to buy. More important, though, is the simple courtesy of responding to someone who was nice enough to invite you, even if it is to say that you regret that you will not be able to attend. APPLICATION SERVER : Short for Domain Name System (or Service or Server), an Internet service that translates domain names into IP addresses. Because domain names are alphabetic, they're easier to remember. The Internet however, is really based on IP addresses. Every time you use a domain name, therefore, a DNS service must translate the name into the corresponding IP address. For example, the domain name www. example. com might translate to 198. 105. 232. 4. The DNS system is, in fact, its own network. If one DNS server doesn't know how to translate a particular domain name, it asks another one, and so on, until the correct IP address is returned. MAIL-SERVER : A mail server is a computer that serves as an electronic post office for email. Mail exchanged across networks is passed between mail servers that run specially designed software. This software is built around agreed-upon, standardized protocols for handling mail messages, the graphics they might contain, and attachment files. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) each have a mail server for handling their clients’ mail messages, sometimes referred to as private mail servers. Some websites also offer public email services, utilizing their own mail servers. DNS: The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participants. Most importantly, it translates domain names meaningful to humans into the numerical (binary) identifiers associated with networking equipment for the purpose of locating and addressing these devices worldwide. An often-used analogy to explain the Domain Name System is that it serves as the â€Å"phone book† for the Internet by translating human-friendly computer hostnames into IP addresses. For example, www. example. com translates to 192. . 32. 10. The Domain Name System makes it possible to assign domain names to groups of Internet users in a meaningful way, independent of each user's physical location. Because of this, World Wide Web (WWW) hyperlinks and Internet contact information can remain consistent and constant even if the current Internet routing arrangements change or the participant uses a mobile device. Internet domain names are easier to remember than IP addresses such as 2 08. 77. 188. 166 (IPv4) or 2001:db8:1f70::999:de8:7648:6e8 (IPv6). The Domain Name System distributes the responsibility of assigning domain names and mapping those names to IP addresses by designating authoritative name servers for each domain. Authoritative name servers are assigned to be responsible for their particular domains, and in turn can assign other authoritative name servers for their sub-domains. This mechanism has made the DNS distributed and fault tolerant and has helped avoid the need for a single central register to be continually consulted and updated. In general, the Domain Name System also tores other types of information, such as the list of mail servers that accept email for a given Internet domain. By providing a worldwide, distributed keyword-based redirection service, the Domain Name System is an essential component of the functionality of the Internet. Other identifiers such as RFID tags, UPC codes, International characters in email addresses and host names, and a variety of other identifiers could all potentially utilize D NS. The Domain Name System also defines the technical underpinnings of the functionality of this database service. For this purpose it defines the DNS protocol, a detailed specification of the data structures and communication exchanges used in DNS, as part of the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP). Symbian OS: Symbian OS is an operating system (OS) designed for mobile devices and smart phones, with associated libraries, user interface, frameworks and reference implementations of common tools, originally developed by Symbian Ltd. It was a descendant of Psion's EPOC and runs exclusively on ARM processors, although an unreleased x86 port existed. In 2008, the former Symbian Software Limited was acquired by Nokia and a new independent non-profit organisation called the Symbian Foundation was established. Symbian OS and its associated user interfaces S60, UIQ and MOAP(S) were contributed by their owners to the foundation with the objective of creating the Symbian platform as a royalty-free, open source software. The platform has been designated as the successor to Symbian OS, following the official launch of the Symbian Foundation in April 2009. The Symbian platform was officially made available as open source code in February 2010. Devices based on Symbian OS account for 46. 9% of smartphone sales, making it the world's most popular mobile operating system. DE-MORGAN: The law is named after Augustus De Morgan (1806–1871)[3] who introduced a formal version of the laws to classical propositional logic. De Morgan's formulation was influenced by algebraization of logic undertaken by George Boole, which later cemented De Morgan's claim to the find. In formal logic, De Morgan's laws are rules relating the logical operators â€Å"and† and â€Å"or† in terms of each other via negation, namely: NOT (P OR Q) = (NOT P) AND (NOT Q) NOT (P AND Q) = (NOT P) OR (NOT Q) EBCDIC: Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code (EBCDIC) is an 8-bit character encoding (code page) used on IBM mainframe operating systems such as z/OS, OS/390, VM and VSE, as well as IBM midrange computer operating systems such as OS/400 and i5/OS (see also Binary Coded Decimal). It is also employed on various non-IBM platforms such as Fujitsu-Siemens' BS2000/OSD, HP MPE/iX, and Unisys MCP. EBCDIC descended from the code used with punched cards and the corresponding six bit binary-coded decimal code used with most of IBM's computer peripherals of the late 1950s and early 1960s. ASCII: Acronym for the American Standard Code for Information Interchange. Pronounced ask-ee, ASCII is a code for representing English characters as numbers, with each letter assigned a number from 0 to 127. For example, the ASCII code for uppercase M is 77. Most computers use ASCII codes to represent text, which makes it possible to transfer data from one computer to another. UNICODE: Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent representation and manipulation of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. Developed in conjunction with the Universal Character Set standard and published in book form as The Unicode Standard, the latest version of Unicode consists of a repertoire of more than 107,000 characters covering 90 scripts, a set of code charts for visual reference, an encoding methodology and set of standard character encodings, an enumeration of character properties such as upper and lower case, a set of reference data computer files, and a number of related items, such as character properties, rules for normalization, decomposition, collation, rendering, and bidirectional display order (for the correct display of text containing both right-to-left scripts, such as Arabic or Hebrew, and left-to-right scripts). The Unicode Consortium, the nonprofit organization that coordinates Unicode's development, has the ambitious goal of eventually replacing existing character encoding schemes with Unicode and its standard Unicode Transformation Format (UTF) schemes, as many of the existing schemes are limited in size and scope and are incompatible with multilingual environments. Unicode's success at unifying character sets has led to its widespread and predominant use in the internationalization and localization of computer software. The standard has been implemented in many recent technologies, including XML, the Java programming language, the Microsoft . NET Framework, and modern operating systems. Unicode can be implemented by different character encodings. The most commonly used encodings are UTF-8 (which uses one byte for any ASCII characters, which have the same code values in both UTF-8 and ASCII encoding, and up to four bytes for other characters), the now-obsolete UCS-2 (which uses two bytes for each character but cannot encode every character in the current Unicode standard), and UTF-16 (which extends UCS-2 to handle code points beyond the scope of UCS-2).

Effects on Performance Management

Effects on Performance Management and the Company when Nepotism and Cronyism is Present. Cronyism is Present. Whether deliberate or unintentional, workplace nepotism and cronyism threatens positive corporate culture as well as the company's overall performance management. Managers who give special treatment to their family members or their favorites decrease the morale of the other employees and do not pay attention to the areas of need that the employee may be facing in their Job performance.Finding yourself on the non-receiving end of desirable assignments can be rough-?especially when the recipient also lacks adequate employment lubrications. The organization being discussed is a relatively small organization; there are approximately twenty full-time employees and seventeen part-time employees. The organization serves adults with developmental disabilities on cite and in the community. They are a non-profit organization and rely on state funded money as well as fundraisers.Their p erformance evaluation they work with does not have any weight when considering raises or pay scale. There have been two directors in the last ten years and both directors suffered from performance management issues. However, since the latest director has been in charge the organizational culture is also changing rapidly. The previous director hired her daughter and the daughter's best friend. When both were hired neither had the required skills to perform their duties. They both rapidly moved up the ladder of success during the director's time.A couple of years prior to the director's retirement an â€Å"assistant director† position was created to train the upcoming replacement. She also happened to be a family friend. This friend had experience as a support coordinator and some college experience. After the new director took over, the entire center seemed to be recreated. The â€Å"daughter† was made a program manager and the â€Å"friend† was made a program ma nager. Once these positions were filled and time went on, cronyism became very visible among the center staff.The â€Å"daughter† had now been moved into an â€Å"invented position† since she was unable to perform her managerial duties, as told to staff, yet her salary and status seemed to remain intact. The â€Å"friend† however seemed to shine brighter daily and chain of command communicated regularly. The morale of the organization started falling and stories and complaints traveled quickly between staff. It was starting to be evident that the word â€Å"team† did not exist. If rooms needed assistance, coverage, or other types of conflict arose there was not anyone to come and offer support.The staff knew they had to call the program manager per chain of command but she was never available. After months of back and forth from trying to get answers from the director and when questioned, the program manager, who also happens to have tightened the bond of friendship with this director would lie and say it is handled or Just not show up when needed the staff began feeling like no matter how much they complained or tried fixing the situation the director valued the friendships more than the organizations culture all together.Every year when it is time to do performance evaluations the direct support staff would cringe. They all knew that no matter what was on the form that they signed it did not matter because â€Å"if† there was a raise to be given, it would be a standard 1%-3% across the board. The facts that the â€Å"mangers† actually had a larger salary increased their raises due to the percentage factor.This past year most staff filled out their own evaluations and wrote their own goal to work towards the following year and the managers Just signed off and passed to the director. The character of cronyism is proactive and dynamic. Goanna (1991) notes that loyalty has two true-hearted dimensions: emotional and behav ioral. The emotional aspect of loyalty results from gratitude. Since emotions are invisible, one's loyalty is evaluated through the behavioral dimension.In situations where loyalty is a highly valued characteristic, individuals tend to display loyal behaviors in order to receive positive evaluations and personal benefits, in this case no consequences for not being supportive to the program staff or not being held accountable for her lack of performance. Additionally, it may not be easy to distinguish between behaviors hat emerge from true-hearted gratitude and behaviors that result purely from â€Å"impression management. † That is why this definition of cronyism is based on the notion of perceived loyalty.The lower ranked employees are likely to play an active role. For instance, a program staff may want to influence the perception her supervisor by uncritically agreeing with the program manager on work or non-work related issues or by speaking highly of that program manager in the presence of the director of the center. (Deluge and Perry, 1994). This perceived loyalty plays a major factor when the yearly evaluations roll around. Since there is not clear Job descriptions or expectations in any area of the organization there would not be anything to effectively measure or evaluate.Popularity or convenience plays more of a role. When the evaluations rotate through the managers, they have many other things that rank higher in priority so it is usually rushed through and passed back to the director to file. In a healthy organizational culture personal relationships and loyalty, to a certain degree, may be functional and does not necessarily breed cronyism. Coffee and Jones (1996), argue that sociability, which refers to sincere approachability among members f an organization, raises morale, fosters teamwork, and promotes creativity.However, when the stress on relationships is so great that it is turned into strong in- group bias and when loyalty becomes un reserved, cronyism is likely to occur. There is a more complex system of social interactions that arise spontaneously as people associate with one another. Dissimilar to the formal structure, which accentuates official positions in terms of authority and responsibility, the informal structure emphasizes people and their unofficial relationships (Newsroom and Davis, 1993).The informal system develops to fulfill needs that cannot be met by the formal system. Increasing informal relationships with the right people, which may include subordinates, peers, and superiors, can be a useful means of acquiring power Nouns, 1992). The coupled relationship between the superior and subordinate in the context of cronyism tends to be governed by their personal ties rather than assigned Job duties or responsibilities.These casual relationships may override organizational hierarchy and involve an element of â€Å"power-seeking,† where individuals exchange ore than friendship among themselves t o further individual goals that cannot be met through formal channels. Studies suggest that the mere act of categorizing people as â€Å"cliques† and out-groups have a tendency to result in favoritism (Teasel et al. , 1971; Turner et al. , 1983). Clique members are given high levels of trust, interaction, support and rewards while out-group members receive low levels of each and often denied valuable opportunities (Vehicle, 1997).These behaviors breed a competition among the staff that creates stress among the employees since they hank that if they are not a member of that clique or friendship they may not get any of the â€Å"rewards† they feel those clique members receive. Some examples of this description within the organization is when an instructor, someone with no authority, brings gifts or constantly offering flattering compliments to feel as though she is in the â€Å"clique† status and when an opportunity arises like a special outing or work opportunity that is praise worthy she usually gets it.The opposite end of the spectrum however is the employee that constantly goes above and beyond her jugular Job duties to help others and seems knowledgeable of her position gets constantly overlooked for promotions, raises, or passed by because she chooses to focus more in her Job rather than the social side of relationships. Personal loyalty toward the program manager or director is different from loyalty to the organization or organizational commitment.The director or program manager's cronies may not be committed to the organization as a whole. In fact, the increase of a deep sense of obligation toward the director or program manager may surpass connection toward the organization (Chem. and Francesco, 2000). An example could be that if the director leaves the organization, her cronies will try to follow suit. Being trusted supporters, â€Å"clique† members of a work unit tend to cultivate a feeling of gratitude towards the program manager or director.These same employees are likely to be pleased with their work due to the existence of receptive bonds in their working relationships. These same employees shared motivational factors and experienced less role-related stress like Job overload, insufficiency, ambiguity, or conflict. Unfortunately, out-group employees who do not possess these same connections seem to have lower Job distraction because even if they are the â€Å"cream of the crop,† their chances of climbing the ladder of success are slim.This has an antagonistic impact on their sense of self-worth as they become trapped in organizations that require friendships to â€Å"earn† promotions (Hurley et al. , 1997). This reason alone should be evidence enough that performance evaluations should be considered more serious than they are in this particular company. They are likely to feel a sense of inequality when they perceive that in-group members, regardless of competency, manage to be prom oted much faster than they do.It is not surprising to find that out-group members are more likely to file grievances (Coleman et al. , 1993). The clique group of employees is likely to show low commitment to the organization. This is where prominence on loyalty to the director or manager may transform into negative organizational performance when the directors personal goals struggle with those of the organization. Although cultural influence plays an important part here, the practice of cronyism, with its stress on loyalty toward management rather than the organization, greatly emphasizes such influence.When the company's strategic plan ND evaluation standards are stated to be practiced one way in the personnel handbook and the actual actions of the management staff proves otherwise the staff could view that situation as an opportunity to slack on their personal performance and not care whether or not the company actual succeeds or not. Obligation is related to organizational depen dability or the degree to which an organization is perceived to be looking after the interests of its employees in practices such as Job security and career development (Buchanan, 1974; Steers, 1977).Due to in-group bias, the hard work of out-group members is often unrecognized by their previous. Furthermore, out-group members do not experience the Job security and preferred rewards in-group members enjoy. They are often overlooked in terms of opportunities for personal achievement. While in-group members are delegated key roles in the organization, and the out-group members are merely assigned peripheral functions that are easily expendable (Change, 1999).Ingratiation, an attempt by individuals to increase their attractiveness in the eyes of others, is one particular rising influence strategy whereby ingratiation behaviors are driven by attempts to influence someone higher in the formal hierarchy of an organization Porter et al. , 1983). Loyalty is adored in cronyism; employees may openly reaffirm the manager's views and defend her appearance and prestige. They may also acknowledge the power distance in the hierarchy ladder and show their submissiveness in order to win the manager or directors heart (Fisher, 1977).The noticeable benefit associated with the in-group status encourages ingratiation behaviors. In addition to having impacts on individuals working in an organization, it can also greatly impact the clientele the organization serves; cronyism also produces significant consequences at the group or organizational level. Personal feelings can seriously bias Judgment. Positive affect toward employees makes managers less likely to give them negative performance feedback. With this being said, incompetence among in-group members has a tendency to be hidden and covered up in the organization.Since in-group members are rewarded on the basis of loyalty rather than competence, they do not see the need to excel and may at best achieve average performance. Addit ionally, these same employees tend to channel their energy and attention to ingratiating themselves with the manager or director or other related political behaviors. This ultimately distracts the employee from completing their proper Job duties (Coffee and Jones, 1996). Talent, which would otherwise rise to the top, is blocked and stifled by lack of opportunity. This leads to talented people leaving the organization.The constant leeching away of talent inevitably weakens the strength of the organization (Redding and Whish, 1993). Finally, the quality of decision making is a victim of cronyism. Any leader who is surrounded by â€Å"yes men† is unable to benefit from the diverse perspectives, experience, and knowledge of their employees. Worse still, with stress on conformity, ideas are unlikely to be fined and improved through group discussion and debate. The result of having such differentiated treatment can cause hostility between the two groups, consequently harmfully affe cting their cooperation and sense of teamwork.Progressively, the relation between the in-group and out-group employees suffers as the unjustified practices continue, and the leader's cronies are perceived to be getting more benefits than deserved (You kill, 1994). Over time, the morale of the out- group will be eroded by their feelings of alienation, powerlessness, and inequity as favoritism of in-group employees renders the relationship between performance and reward less obvious (Preponderates and Topple, 1996). Cronyism stems from the fact that management is able to manipulate rewards and punishments for their employees.The greater their ability to do so, the greater is the personal dependence of employees on them. Missies, (1998) maintains that favored â€Å"clique† treatment may be reduced by making evaluation criteria explicit, objective, and public. To sum up, presence of competent managers and directors are likely to reduce crony behaviors. It is instinctual that comp etent managers tend to reward and promote competency among their employees. But, incompetent managers and directors would feel heartened by competent employees, and inevitably drive away competent employees (Bodleian and Ramekins, 1998).Preponderates (1993) notes that â€Å"yes men† tend to be concentrated among less able workers and among workers with less able managers. In conclusion, the organizational problem of nepotism eventually stemmed to accepted cronyism. By management allowing this to take place the employees began feeling resentment and the organizations moral dropped dramatically. In this particular organization, the clientele are the main ones affected by these behaviors to take place.