Vegetarianism Could Save the Planet

A. Students' Declaration I hereby declare that this project report has been written by me and no part has been copied from any source other than the ones I have mentioned in the reference. Topic: Vegetarianism could save the planet. Discuss Name: Md. Reaz Uddin Yousuf ID# 504802 Class: EAP-3. 01 B. Acknowledgement One good reason to write a research report is to express publicly one's gratitude for those who has offered their help during the difficult process of gaining knowledge. I would like to express my gratitude to many people who have contributed to this research endeavor.First, I would like to thank my advisor, Kari & Vicki. Their trust, encouragement, support, and guidance provided an enjoyable atmosphere for me to pursue knowledge and grow intellectually. Without their initial enthusiasm this research would have been quite difficult to undertake. Their constructive criticisms motivated me to explore various aspects of the topic. I am extremely grateful to them as they gave m e the immense opportunities and exposure that one would require to complete this research.Next, I would also like to thank all of my friends and my near & dear ones who let me do my project with freedom, without putting any restrictions and always supporting and inspiring me until the end. Words alone cannot express what I owe them for their encouragement, patience and love which enabled me to complete this paper. The One without Whom my thanksgiving is incomplete is the Almighty ALLAH (GOD); I want to thank the Lord for His continual blessings in my life in addition to all the support He provided me with, through all the above mentioned aspects.I put my trust on Him, and He continues to make my paths straight. â€Å"Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet†-Albert Einstein Various ethical reasons have been recommended for choosing vegetarianism under various religious beliefs along with the con cept of animal rights. Vegetarianism influences the people for plant-based diets with the keeping out of meat (red meat, poultry, and seafood). The majority of people who are overweight or obese increase with age due to fat, which in most of the cases, come from animals’ fat (Foer, 2009).Maintained by seniors, yet often forced upon children, to maintain a healthy diet and reasonable weight vegetable and fruit are the most valuable food. People with the highest consumption of vegetables and fruits could save the planet by consumption of less animal products and keeping the land fertile by reduced soil erosion & water contamination. Well-planned vegetarian diets are suitable for all stages of the life succession, including pregnancy, childhood & for athletes.A 2010 study compared a group of vegetarian and non- vegetarian in which vegetarians scored less depression tests and had better mind profiles. A vegetarian diet excludes all animal products, including eggs, dairy, honey th at means all food which directly or indirectly comes from animals. Production of animal feed consumes about one-third of Earth’s total arable land. (Vegetarianism and environment, 2010)Removing vegetation exposes the ground to more intense solar radiation, which increases evaporation and the risk that plants not eaten by cattle will die from lack of water.When the vegetative cover is removed it’s easily saying that the fertility of soil is easily decreased. Because when farmers cultivate the land they use some chemical which helps the land become fertile. So, by not killing the animals which are needed for our environment as well as to keep our planet balanced by saving our land, vegetarian people save the planet. On the other hand, some people think that becoming a vegetarian is not necessary for many individuals & religion as it is also harmful to stop eating animals. It may be a reason for a lower number of vegetarian people live in the society.Animal produced for f ood can benefit the environment. They also think that, wastes are created by animal which are decomposed by land and the process of decomposing releases necessary minerals and nutrients, so that the next generation of plant life and other living organisms can be benefited from them. Though meat is good for health, according to the critics, when erosion on farmland is not check properly and timely manner, so much topsoil can fade away that, that’s why most of the farmland can no longer be used to grow crops.Most of the farmland around the world is becoming useless to cultivate any food & it also harmful for the farmers as well because they have no work in that period of time. And avoiding meat means ultimately we support the animal creature to live in this earth and keep our planet balanced. Cultivate additional land is another understandable way to supply food for an escalating population. For better fertilization and reduce soil erosion waterless lands with limited vegetatio n cover 40 percent of the earth’s land area which can help the soil. Saxena, 2011) Animals play a vital role in our wild environment but animal byproducts are creating very bad situation for the environment. According to Saxena, many harmful gases and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are formed when anaerobic bacteria decompose liquid manure held in the lagoons which are filled up by animal wastes. And, it becomes sources of harmful gases and many other hazardous particles mixed up with neighboring air when the lagoons are sprayed for decomposing on farmland. The far-away and neighborhood long-term effects of the emissions from this action include acid rain and global warming.For example, dissolved ammonia in the farmland filling of lagoons consisting of fertilizers and animal waste is serially broken down by microbes to form a variety of nitrogen gas, including nitrous oxide. This gas has harmful effects on the ozone layers of the atmosphere. Air also polluted by volatile o rganic compounds because these are gases that react with close air in the entire atmosphere. To support and increase living places for animal and for human as well many forests have been cut down, especially in tropical countries.Deforestation increase the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere and obviously carbon dioxide is the major gas which can directly involve for greenhouse effect. (Saxena, 2011) As part of their digestive process, many animals such as goats, cattle, sheep and camels emit methane and methane gas also plays a very important role for greenhouse effect. Biodiversity creates a set of connections that maintains oxygen in air, enriches soil, purifies water, protects against flood and regulates climate.Not amazingly, the biodiversity of our planet is declining at an disturbing rate due to human behavior because human are mostly dependent on farm animals for food and there is a significant reduction of vegetarian people, that supports other animals. The era of vegeta rianism can improve the environmental growth of this planet and its sub-components have reached their zenith for the developed world. By avoiding all animal products vegetarians could save the planet because a grazing-based production can limit soil erosion.However, some people argue that vegetarianism alone won’t save the planet and animals. Each correspondent from vegetarian urges us to slash our greenhouse gas emissions, but each has a different perspective on where the knife should fall. Opposition include that, vegetarian must bear the burden of climate change by scaling their lavish lifestyle. Continuous degradation of land to produce more fruits and vegetables in same regions may lead to desertification, a process that is introduced by soil erosion, loss of groundwater etc.Desertification converts productive arid lands to wastelands. Studies show that people who consume a lot of vegetables and fruit, obviously, in most of the cases, avoid rich food, smoking habit & dri nking as well. So, conclusion is that without any hesitation vegetarian people are quite healthy and save the planet by cleaning the environment. In this case, avoiding animal is not the only issue, there is other issue as well which is avoid farming animal because their waste products are too much harmful for country’s environment.When the land is compacted by the hooves of cattle, rainwater cannot easily reach into the soil. Ideally, it is wise to obtain vitamins from vegetables, not from any meat. Vegetable provides vitamins in the most biologically available form, in the right amounts & combined with other complementary nutrients. People from different religion also are very happy about the concept of vegetarianism because they believe that only vegetarian people support them about saving animals which are necessary to keep the planet in a balance condition.Most of the earth’s plant and animal life has evolved during the last few centuries in a delicate balance wit h the cyclic temperature variation in each region. Vegetarians also help the planet by saving huge amount of wildlife those are very important to make this world a perfect living place. References: Foer J. , 2009, ‘Eating animals’, Penguin Group, Great Britain, London, pp: 4-18. Krien A. , 2012, ‘Us and them on the importance of animals’, Morry Schwartz, Collingwood VIC, Australia, pp: 6-15. Melle, 2012, ‘Mad cow, E. coli & other health hazards associated with beef’.Viewed 24 May 2012, Omniv, ‘Why Vegetarianism is Wrong’, Viewed 18 May 2012, Saxena M. , 2011, ‘The Vegetarian Imperative’, The Johns Hopkins University Press, United States, pp: 31-64. Shahan Z, Vegetarianism and environment, April 2, 2010, Viewed 18 May 2012, Tudge C. , 2002, ‘Food for the future’, Dorling Kindersley limited, London, pp: 14-21.

Digital Morphogenesis

Digital morphogenesis refers to the applicability of the digital media not as the conventional implement for visualization but rather as been a generative implement used in the transformation process and derivation in its form. Its aim is exploring the possibilities of the different forms that are of importance in respect to the highly emerging generative techniques in digital forms. It is the process of survey into the computational architectures brought out by digital processes.It bases its scope of study on computational architectures basing its views on isomorphic surfaces, topological space, keyshape animation, genetic algorithms, dynamics, kinematics and parametric designs. The current architectural technology has seen the establishment of many digital infrastructures in buildings and cities. The new technological architecture is been replaced by the emerging computational architectures that are modeled in form of non-Euclidean space geometries, topological designs, genetic alg orithms above other methodologies.The current nature of architecture is undergoing a metamorphosis and a recasting process on experimenting the computational techniques, topological geometries as well as the kinematics and generative spaces of architectural sculptures. Therefore, the creative and generative potentials held by digital media are bringing up new architectural dimensions. (http://faculty. arch. usyd. edu. au/kcdc/journal/vol6/papers/fischer_html/index. html)Architectural work in the digital era seeks to address the broad scope of architectural practices in correspondence to how the digital technology is radically giving a change about the conception of buildings, their building process and their designs. Digital morphogenesis has brought about changes that are digitally driven changing the traditional foundations of the architectural work. It has also led to change in the effects grounded by the current architectural process by evaluating derivative processes that bring change in the architectural process.It is a hope for even brighter future when current activities in the architectural process is developed to yet more technologically visible frontiers. Digital morphogenesis has captured the use of software and hardware in bringing evolution to design computing which is used in developing structures, shapes as well as various functions held by human habitations. It has therefore enhanced a generative process in recognizing valuable support towards designing explicit paradigms that address the finding nature towards human understanding for architecture.(http://faculty. arch. usyd. edu. au/kcdc/journal/vol6/papers/fischer_html/index. html) Digital morphogenesis comes as a wide spread phenomena which captures a varied dimension of architectural artifacts. Firstly, computational architectures imply to the process of computation that yields transformations and origination of digital morphogenesis. The forms of computational architectures are also widel y varying. The resulting implications of this technology have brought light in the search of technological advancement in the world.It has developed architectural design as a component of three forms which include the animate form, physical and the traditional forms. Animate form is that which conceives change as a result of force action. This employs the use of dynamic motions that generate architectural forms. The physical form is that whose resolution accrues at one point in time as governed by changes in the rates of motion. The physical form of architecture is that whose definition can be through static coordinates. (Branko, 2003)Digital morphogenesis has led to fundamental interaction in the traditional states of architectural perceptions to yield a framework of values that are instrument in advanced approaches, efficiencies and environmentally friendly physical artifacts of buildings. Generally, digital morphogenesis brings light into the foundations of architecture where bui lding process is monitored and engineered in a framework of process that are featured towards bringing creative and inventiveness in the world of architectural technology (Branko, 2003)

Different Kinds of Engineering Material Assignment - 1

Different Kinds of Engineering Material - Assignment Example Brittle fracture basically is a fracture where there is a rapid run of cracks within the stressed material. In this case, the crack works much faster and it is difficult to understand the fracture before failure occurs. The scientific principle in the brittle fracture is that the crack moves close to the perpendicular where the stress is applied, because of this action, there remains a perpendicular fracture which leaves a flat surface at the broken area. Apart from having a flat fracture surface, brittle material more or less showcase a pattern on their fractured surface. Fatigue is the most common material failures found in the engineering field. Fatigue is a kind of failure mode where the material tends to fracture by means of progressive brittle cracking with regard to a repeated cycle of stress. Here, the stress implied on the material is of lesser intensity which means below the average strength. Creep is a failure mode which occurs on engineering materials at an elevated speed. Basically, it is seen on stainless steel when there is constant stress on the material with exposure to high temperatures. According to â€Å"The stress that produces a specified minimum creep rate of an alloy or a specified amount of creep deformation in a given time (for example, 1% of total 100,000 h) is referred to as the limiting creep strength or limiting stress†. The destructive test method is performed to understand the strength, hardness, and toughness of a material. The test utilized here is the stress test and for this purpose, the material chosen was the aluminum crank arm. The specimen was obtained and different loads and stresses were applied on the same. The destructive testing which is also known as mechanical testing displayed some results when stress was put on the iron with the help of a hammer.  

Shang and Qin dynasty. Han dynasty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Shang and Qin dynasty. Han dynasty - Essay Example Contrasting the economic elements of the Shang Dynasty with that of the Qin Dynasty it can be stated that the element of maintaining an agrarian economy essentially remained consistent during this epoch however, the pivotal difference in the economic setup of these dynasties is that the advent of the Qin dynasty marked the establishment of a monetary system. Moreover, the political sphere of China under the Shang dynasty was characterized by the unprecedented and supreme power of the emperor who was responsible for all matters of governance in all areas of the citizens’ lives. However, the Qin dynasty maintained a hierarchal system of political governance whereby the nation’s administration was made more efficient by granting territorial assignments to respective governors whose appointment was not conducted on the basis of familial connections or the right to ascend to governorship. The social structure under the Shang dynasty comprised of an exclusive focus upon the stratification of China’s communities on the basis of hierarchy and chain of command. This notion implies that while, the king remained all powerful the common man did not have access to the most basic rights under the regime. While, this aspect remained analogous in the Qin dynasty the primary difference in both governments is that of the inclusion of administrators and governors who previously did not exist during the Shang dynasty.

Analyze the main causes of African immigration to the United States of Essay - 1

Analyze the main causes of African immigration to the United States of America - Essay Example As it were, there is a crisis of being that presents existentially and materially, affluence in the intended country of immigration, and widespread poverty in the home country. Attending the poverty are serious political and socio-economic crises that make departure and immigration all the more attractive.†(Okome). After the Second World War, several African migrants swamped the U.S. Consulate with the apparent objective of quick and immediate departure from their respective countries. Many of them sought different purposes like education, business or simple leisure. But analysts derived the motives of migrating to U.S. were far more complicated in socio-political and economic fronts. The main problem with the Third World countries, in this era of globalization lies in the fact that they are considered just as a vast resource of lowly paid labor force. The migrants, inhabiting these Less Developed Countries (LDCs), consequently get drawn to the other parts of the looking for a permanent remedy to their crisis of unemployment and underemployment. After the migration, many of them settle there permanently, except for short period home visits and many others lack visas to get back. According to Okome, the Immigrants are defined as migrants who turn out to be everlasting settlers in the U.S., as b ecause migrating moves are temporary. Exiles are those who are relocated out of the home countries due to political reasons. The 1951 Convention regarding the Refugees is well demarked. All of the different types forms a cluster and signifies the migration volume from the African continent. The situation indeed is quite different qualitatively between African migration then, and the present immigrations. However it is statistically observed that the number of immigrants coming from Africa is much less when compared to the total immigrants in U.S. according to the

Marketing management case 2 Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Marketing management 2 - Case Study Example Motor starters were installed on or near individual pieces of equipment and usually operated only a single motor. They ranged in price from $50 to several thousand dollars. Motor control centers consisted of dozens or even hundreds of motor starters that were combined in a customized enclosure and were capable of starting motors in various areas of the plant from a centralized location. They ranged in price from less than $50 000 to several hundred thousand dollars. The motor starter made fewer sales than the projections. It however managed to sell 8.5% of the entire industry sales. Repair parts were the most improved products, after realizing sales of 14% of the whole industry sales. The control centre increased in sales by 83.03 5%, the motor starter product fell by 5.76% and the repair parts increased by 25.42%. The total performance for all the products was an increase of 8.952% from 2001 to 2002. 1. Yvonne Belanger, owner of Yvonne’s European Deli, has decided that she wants to add a new item to the current selection of baked goods she sells in her upscale deli. Currently, she sells cookies and brownies for $2 each, and muffins for $3 each. She makes a standard 30% margin on all sales. Yvonne wants to buy homemade apple, cherry, and lemon pies and sell them from a local supplier for $10 each. 3. Fashion Forward operates three retail locations across Canada: in Halifax, Toronto, and Vancouver. It recently purchased a limited-edition collection of 300 designer dresses and sent 100 to each city. The dresses were all suggested to sell for $1200 each; all dresses had a net cost to Fashion Forward of $400. Sales results from the three locations varied: 1. Ontario Steel Manufacturing (OSM) manufactures steel components for other manufacturers. It has the opportunity to make stainless steel taps and faucets for a Canadian hardware company that will then package the products and sell them under

Discussion prompt Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Discussion prompt - Essay Example When I previously thought of Vodou, of course the dolls came into my mind first. I thought of practitioners of Vodou were like witch doctors. I thought of it more as a witchcraft type of religion. I can presume that my opinion of this religion was based only on what I had learned from the media, primarily in movies. I had stereotyped the religion and thought of it as a practice with male hierarchy who worked in the Bayou in Louisiana. That is simply not the case with Mama Lola as a priestess of Vodou. She is everything that is good and is very welcoming to the people who need help. Mama Lola is actually one of the most well-known priestesses in Vodou. She learns from the spirit what people’s problems are. Anyone can come to her regardless of their own religion, status, class, ethnicity or some other classification. She teaches more about Vodou to others and she is strong in her belief system. She simply wants to help others based on what she has learned from the philosophies of the religion of Vodou and the worship of the spirits. Much of Vodou is practiced through various traditions such as songs and chants. It is not through the use of Vodou dolls. Mama Lola introduces the humanism and spiritualism that are intertwined within the practice of her religion. Any theology about Vodou that I previously assumed was void. Her religion is a lifestyle and it her entire life encompasses the belief. Vodou actually encompasses more than what meets the eye as well. As long as she has a faith in what she is doing and is able to practice and help others, she is doing what she truly believes she was put on this earth to do. That is what I believe religion actually is now. I think it is finding a way to discover a meaning to life and making it count for something. We may never know our purpose here on earth but through religion, we can look at the bigger picture. No one way could be the right way but as long as we have some

Individual Report - Fast Food Case Context Essay - 1

Individual Report - Fast Food Case Context - Essay Example 2. The Economic Environment The Chinese Foodservices industry is currently valued at $366.9 billion USD and is expected to grow to nearly $500 billion USD by 2015 (New Zealand Trade & Enterprise 2012). Full service restaurants maintain approximately 75 percent market share in China, whilst fast food concepts maintain 25 percent market share in this industry. A recent study further revealed that approximately 50 percent of all Chinese consumers prefer eating in restaurant environments over that of home-cooked products, representing a potential market of a half billion consumers geographically dispersed throughout the country (Ganster 2006). This preference for external restaurant dining is fuelled by rising consumer incomes which have increased by nine percent in urban regions and 12 percent in rural areas (Censky 2012). There are ample market opportunities in China based largely on social trends of restaurant consumption that are favourable for launching a new fast food brand with su fficient incomes to consume under a moderately-priced business model. By 2020, it is estimated that total, national seafood consumption volumes in China will be at 35.9 kg/capita, fuelled by a strong consumer demand for seafood (Redfern Associates 2010). Market expansion into China will further require access to appropriate capital and credit to ensure adequate asset procurement and structuring of operations. In 2012, the country’s fiscal leadership injected nearly 58 billion USD into the economic system to stabilise currency exchange rates and fuel new corporate borrowing in the financial sector (Safe Trading 2013). This has opened avenues for support in foreign direct investment and improved the dynamics by which financial lenders evaluate loan generation to fuel economic growth through business development. However, there is a risk as it relates to the economic environment in China. As a product of the recession begun in 2008 that impacted international economies, Chinaâ⠂¬â„¢s efforts to stabilise the exchange rate led to rapid inflation in the food sector that has raised pricing along the foods supply chain (Ho 2011). Though inflationary costs provide opportunities to increase revenues by nearly 17 percent in the foods industry by superimposing higher pricing models to offset procurement costs, rising costs in a very complicated foods supply chain pose risks in a country where consumers are notoriously price-sensitive (Vangpeng 2012). Price-sensitive buyers represent the ability of consumer target groups to impose pricing transparency and leverage pricing demands. 3. Political Considerations Fortunately for the fish and chips brand, progressive changes to a more capitalistic model of government are providing new support for both domestic and foreign business development. Influence of the World Trade Organization has opened new distribution channels with much less stringent regulations and imposition of import/export tariffs that promote better int ernational trade (Areddy 2009). For the business desiring to establish a supply chain network utilising foreign seafood product farmers and distributors, rather than domestic suppliers, the government provides ample support in legislation to remove economic barriers that can complicate cost control. At the same time, the domestic supply chain for aquatic foods products is complicated and widely dispersed, but

Ethical dilemma Essay Example for Free

Ethical dilemma Essay Two summers ago, my friend Anne became depressed. Her depression was guided by something solemn, mysterious, and in its own way, terrifying. Fearing that I would catch it too, that contagion of morose misery and unrelenting disturbance. I stood away. Most of her friends also stood away as Anne seemed to lose sight of that which mattered to her before she retreated into the shadows. Previously a girl who exuded such harmony and light, incredibly warm, friendly, and sociable. Anne faced the world with a confident optimism and it seemed that nothing could disturb someone with such strong equanimity and social grace. I, and many others standing aside, observed with sorrow as the person we used to know so well and love so well transformed. Anne, in her blue t-shirt and faded jeans, became a hesitant, anxious, aggressively nervous person who brushed her hair endlessly with her fingers and mumbled out phrases whenever she made a feeble effort to make conversation. While I guessed but never inquired due to my protective cowardice, fate eventually took my hand and it all came to a crisis after one phone call. In late August I was brushing my teeth when I heard my phone ring, and with toothpaste in my mouth, I ran to catch the call. It was Anne. She spoke with agitation and fumbled with the lines she seemed to have crafted hours ago in preparation for this. She finally told me in a tired and tormented way that after her grandmother died of colon cancer she stopped feeling happy. She saw her grandmother wither away and in the end the pain was too much to bear. Though we knew her grandmother was dying we never really talked about it as she never spoke of the event that cascaded through her life and left it forbidding and forsaken. Her life had transformed into something that was engulfed like a swamp with the air of solitude and sadness. What had previously existed, that golden pond kind of metaphor of sweetness and light, was indeed no more. Apparently, she had seen her grandmother heave her last breaths and her eyes close for the last time. The shattering effect of witnessing the destruction of a life once so vigorous and always so precious shook her to the depths of her soul. Her life lost its compass of control and she no longer knew what to believe as her orientation towards life had to contend with the ultimate certainty of death. Her fatalism was hard to believe, the immensity of her worries and her grave doubts was immense as it was impressive. I felt, that, my thoughts were so trivial when compared to her philosophical poignancy and her infinite compassion for someone who was suffering. As her grandmother lay dying, Anne fought her grandmother’s death as well as anyone could. As I knew I could not. Listening to her I felt as if I had been so disgracefully wrong and sought redemption. I wanted to not be so numb to everything that involved anything unpleasant. I wanted to love life in spite of knowledge that it’s a scarce thing and much too brief in the end. Yet, in spite of life’s evanescence, I do one can still acknowledge how finite it is while being able to appreciate the infinity of reflection and most powerfully, the mystery and maintenance of love. Anne laughs again, and I laugh with her. Yet we still both stand silent sometimes and communicate that we understand how life can turn around so quickly and extinguish itself so quickly and sometimes without any warning at all. For that it is a treasure beyond all other treasures, and for that lives have greater ultimate meaning. As for redemption, I’m working on it and every day I benefit from being able to experience that day. To breathe in the air and engage myself in what makes me happy and sad, loving life even when it must end. In the end, I should be the better for it.

Promotion of Effective Communication †Workbook Essay Example for Free

Promotion of Effective Communication – Workbook Essay Question  1 Look at your company’s policies and procedures on completing records and maintaining effective communication, what is your role? Answer: I browsed and read my organisation’s policy regarding the service user’s rights and those legislations which promotes equality, diversity, and discrimination. a. Each service user has a right to information regarding their care service that does not discriminate on the basis of race or ethnic origin, creed, colour, religion, political affiliation, disability or impairments, marital status, parenthood, sexual gender or sexual orientation. b. Each service user has the right of access to their personal care records and to comment on them accordingly. Service users have the right to appoint an advocate to make their wishes and preferences known if they are unable to do so. c. Each service user has the right to be assured that no personal or confidential information concerning their affairs will be disclosed to a third party without their express permission. d. Each service user has the right to communicate using their preferred methods of communication and language. When completing records and reports look through your staff hand book or induction pack you were given at work and explain any rules and regulations or policies you need to follow when completing records and reports at work some of which might include: †¢ Records should be completed as soon as possible after the event †¢ Details should be accurate †¢ Details should be relevant †¢ Details should be legible †¢ Details should clearly indicate if it is a fact, opinion or hearsay. Opinions are acceptable as long as it is clearly stated as such. †¢ Always record as little as possible but detailed and as much as necessary. 2, 3, 10, 11 Describe ways that you provide support to individuals to communicate their needs. How might your communication alter with different individuals ? What aids might be used to support effective communication ? Answer: To support individuals and key people to communicate their needs you will need to: a. Arrange the individual’s environment to facilitate effective communication and promote understanding. This can be done by ensuring privacy going into a quiet room, if the area is noisy because of the volume of a radio or television it needs to be reduced. Poor lighting in the room needs to be changed and some more that you can think of. b. As a care worker you need to check that the individual have the appropriate support to communicate their views. This could be making sure the individual who uses glasses and an hearing aid is supported by making sure the glasses is at client’s reach or that hearing aids is switched on and working properly. c. Appropriate styles and methods of communication should be used with respect to the individual. Such as: Active listening – showing be gestures that you are listening, sitting or standing half turned away gives the message that you are not listening. Responding appropriately – nodding your head.  Good body language and maintaining eye contact – Leaning forwards can be used effectively when you want to emphasize your interest or support. The methods that can be used to communicate effectively are: a. Support equality and diversity †¢ This can be done by using appropriate language that the service user understands also using the appropriate register of language, for instance not using phrases that could be referred to as jargon. Another method is to use the appropriate way of speaking within a speech community. For instance communicating with young people may mean using their style of language e.g. whats up with you, hello mate. †¢ Provision of communication aids and use of non-verbal communication if service user has hearing or vision impairments or learning and physical disabilities. b. Are effective when dealing with, and challenging discrimination †¢ Working with key people demands that you communicate in a language that they understand and also using simple words. For example the use of clinical words that is not commonly understood would not be necessary if you know they are not familiar with them. †¢ Sometimes we come across people who cannot understand us for one reason or the other instead of ignoring them it would be helpful to source a skilled interpreter but we still need to make effort to communicate with the person by learning some of the ways of communication or a few useful words from their language. The methods to support individuals to communicate are: Ensure environment is suitable (lighting, noise background) Provide interpreter if necessaryAllow sufficient time for individuals to understand the content of communication. Use relevant aids for communication (e.g. cards, symbols, hearing aids, large print) Provide advocate to speak for a service user Ensure written material is in suitable formats or language. Specific aids that may be used to support effective communication : Aided communication is communication supported or replaced by materials or equipment. There are simple materials or equipment used everyday such as a pen and paper to write messages, alphabet charts, pictures or symbols or photographs. Communication aids can be categorized into 3 broad groups: Symbolic Aids This is commonly the use of signs and symbols, it requires individuals to undertake a form of training on the correct forming of signs used and types of symbols: †¢ British Sign Language used as a communication aid for individual with hearing loss. †¢ Makaton used as an aid to support speech and not intended to replace it. †¢ Picture Exchange communication systems (PEC) This aid helps individuals to be independent as they able to exchange a picture for what they want from a compiled album of pictures. †¢ Deaf Blind manual alphabets Slightly modified version of the BSL. Finger- spelling alphabet is used. Technical Aids †¢ Talking microwaves usually for individuals with sight loss †¢ Computers which read out the text on the screen. †¢ Light writer this is a portable device into which the individual types in what they would want to say. Human Aids †¢ Interpreter is a person who supports the communication between two people who do not have the same language. This also includes the sign language. †¢ Translator is a person who changes the written word into an easier format for the individual to read. This could be into Braille or symbols. †¢ Advocate This is someone who speaks on behalf of an individual when they are not able to do so. 4, 5, 19 In relation to the promotion of effective communication, give examples of what you do to maintain the following laws and guidelines: a) Data Protection Act b) Access to Health Records Act c) The General Social Care Council Code of Conduct d) Standard 37 National Minimum Standards for Care Homes e) Caldicott Report Answer: a) To maintain Data Protection Act it is necessary to complete the records as soon as possible after the event and always record as little as possible but detailed and as much as necessary; to make sure that the details are accurate, relevant and legible and that they clearly indicate if it’s a fact, opinion or hearsay. Another important thing is that opinions are acceptable as long as it is clearly stated as such. The information shared by the individuals must be confidential to ensure data protection. In case that the information suggests that the client is under risk, the consent of the individual needs to be obtained before passing the information to an appropriate member of the staff, and even when the consent is not given it becomes important to report. b) To maintain the Access to Health Records Act I have to make sure that the records are accurate, legibly written, shareable so that the information can be used to provide individuals with the support and care required. The  members of a care team are fully informed of new developments and changes in a client’s care plan and the evidence of the actions taken in specific circumstances are available if the need arises. I can access information and records about an individual by: talking to the service user, accessing previous records after permission has been sought from the appropriate person, talking to colleagues who know the individual, to family members or to other professionals c) To maintain The General Social Care Council Code of Conduct, as a social care worker, I must establish and ensure the confidence of service users and carers. This includes: communicating in an appropriate, open, accurate and straightforward way; respecting confidential information and clearly explaining agency policies about confidentiality to service users and carers. I must be accountable for the quality of my work, I have to maintain clear and accurate records required by procedures established for my work. 6,7 Where can you find out about an individuals communication and language needs, information about communication and language skills to improve your practice ? Answer: I can find out about an individuals communication and language needs by asking my manager or the service user, discussing with other care workers who know the individual, talking to family members, to a speech therapist or other professionals for advice, exploring the internet or consulting a library for more information. In order to improve my practice, I can find out about information, communication and language skills by asking my supervisor or manager, or colleagues who have confronted with similar cases. I can also consult the case notes of the individual, or relevant documents provided by the organization that will help me learn how to communicate effectively – for example the induction manuals, search for information via the internet or specialist organizations for the particular condition, attend relevant training courses to communication, supervision and appraisal sessions. 9  What factors may affect communication skills, abilities and behaviour of an individual ? How may they react as a result of these factors? Answer: Factors that can affect communication skills, abilities and behaviour of an individual are: Physical Impairments visual and hearing Language barriers accents, different language Cognitive or sensory impairments learning difficulties, memory loss, Illness – dementia, stroke Environmental problems – poor lighting, noisy environments If this happens, the individual in question becomes withdrawn from others around them, isolated from others. This may affect his self-esteem and self-confidence negatively. That individual may also become confused, angry and frustrated. 12  If you were trying to have a conversation with an individual how would you arrange the environment and position yourself to communicate effectively? Answer: First of all, I have to make sure that there isn’t any background noise that could make the communication difficult. Then, another important step to achieve effective communication with individuals is arranging the environment to aid communication. Here are some factors that can hinder or disturb good communication: Poor lighting, because individuals with poor sight are unable to see you Background noise from the radio, other individuals, TV and so on Obstacles between me, the care worker, and the individual, for example furniture and household items Insufficient distance to keep appropriate space within me and the individual to avoid encroaching or invading on their personal space 13, 14  Describe some conflicts that might occur as a result of communication difficulties. How would you deal with these conflicts? Answer: Some of the conflicts that might occur as a result of communication difficulties are: individuals can become frustrated and isolated when the  communication between themselves and their workers is encountering problems. These problems or dilemmas are sometimes the result of: a difference in the language spoken by the service user and the worker the service user has visual impairments or hearing difficulties the individual might have a physical illness or disability either physical disability or learning disability. There are many ways to solve the conflicts that might occur. It depends on the nature of the problem. For example, for: †¢ Language differences: If there are conflicts due to language differences, then an interpreter will be appropriate for any serious discussions or communications. Efforts should be made to learn a few important words to communicate with the individual or teach the individual some words in the workers language if they are willing to facilitate communication. Non verbal communication will be an effective method in solving this kind of conflict. †¢ Hearing difficulties: Individual with hearing difficulties need to be assisted to ensure their hearing aids are working and fitted properly. It would be necessary that a worker will assist the individual to clean the equipment, change the batteries when appropriate. Workers will also need to give the client the appropriate space and communication pace that would make communication effective. If the need arises words can be written down for clarity. The use of signs and telecommunication services such as type talk service are very useful. †¢ Visual difficulties: Individual with visual difficulties need to be provided with glasses or contact lenses so they can observe non verbal communication. This will prevent misunderstandings during communication with people. †¢ Physical disabilities: Communications with individuals in this category will be according to the type of physical disability or illness. If the illness has affected the individual’s ability to speak and understand, for instance a stroke then the use of short, simple sentences, gestures, writing and drawing or using flash cards, the use of closed questions which only need yes or no should be useful. †¢ Some illness do not affect the clients understanding, so there is no need to speak slowly but will need to be patient to receive a response as the client might have difficulty with their speech e.g. stroke. †¢ Learning disabilities: The method of communication will depend on the level of the disability. I will need to communicate at the pace and space suitable for the client. Physical contacts are of an advantage to be used along with  verbal communication. †¢ Cultural differences: People have different cultural backgrounds, therefore it is necessary to find out from the individuals their communication preferences or alternatively check their care plan records or ask people such as their family, f riends, colleagues or key people who have worked with them. 15, 16  When communicating difficult, sensitive or complex messages, how might your style of communication alter? What type of environment would be most appropriate for this sort of communication ? Answer: Communicating with individuals who are distressed or upset due to bereavement this could be sensitive, complex or difficult. In this situation, I will ask if the person would want to discuss any concerns with me or maybe another person of their choice. I can use non verbal communication while been a good listener such as making good eye contact with the individual as she talks, which will depict that I’m willing to listen. If the client is displaying a behaviour that dictates that they are able to put others or themselves at risk, then I might need to involve the attention of appropriate members of the care team. For this sort of communication, the environment must be comfortable and appropriate. I would come across times when I need to discuss matters with individuals that are referred to as sensitive issues. If an individual needs to discuss his personal needs with me, I have to ensure that he feels comfortable and encouraged to communicate these issues. On the other hand, I might want to discuss with the service user about their changing needs such as diet, incontinence, mobility and so on. Communicating bad news, like a bereavement of a spouse or close person to the individual will also require certain communication skills. The things that should take into account are: †¢ Remember individuals have a right to their privacy, therefore the immediate environment should be arranged to ensure privacy. For example a client’s bedroom or apartament should be free from visitors at the time. †¢ Individual’s preferred method of communication should be made available. †¢ Communication should be made at the pace of the individual, giving enough time for both of us to understand the content of the communication. †¢ Observe and respond appropriately to reactions fromà ‚  individuals. 17  Who do you need to gain permission from to access records and why ? Answer: I need to gain permission of my manager or client to access records. Accessing information will help me to improve my practice and also my responsibility. Within the organization there should be relevant documents to access information or if I work with individuals in their own home the care plan should contain useful information. 18  Define the following words: a) Fact b) Opinion c) Judgement Why is it important that you aware of the difference of these words when reporting and recording information about individuals ? Answer: a) A fact is a true statement that cannot be disputed, knowledge or information based on real occurrences; something demonstrated to exist or known to have existed. b) An opinion is a personal belief or judgment that is not founded on proof or certainty- it is the result of emotion or interpretation of facts, a subjective statement or thought about an issue or topic. An opinion may be supported by an argument, although people may draw opposing opinions from the same set of facts. c) A judgement is a cognitive process of reaching a decision or drawing conclusions. Judgments are also personal and developed from experience; they differ from person to person. For example, if a client is dying and all the symptoms and signs show the evidence, reports and records should show these facts. On the other hand if the client only refused to talk, people might have different opinions and judgments to explain the reason. Records and reports will need to be verified to deduce the correct and most suitable reason. It is important to aware of the difference of these words when reporting and recording information about individuals because I have the responsabiliy to provide seamless services for individuals, and this thing can be done only if the  information is correct, precise.

Aligning Operations and SCM with Other Functional Strategies

Aligning Operations and SCM with Other Functional Strategies 1. Discuss the importance of aligning operations and SCM with other functional strategies (e.g. Design, Marketing and Finance) in creating a viable business strategy. Skinner gives us a broad picture of how we look at the business as a whole moving away from sub optimization which he has criticised it and making choices that are sensible and how will compete on the market. Skinners work introduced the importance of the concept of trade-offs and the need to align the delivery systems to what market really require therefore the sub-functional trade-off choices are strategically aligned with key manufacturing tasks. Hill come with the concept of OWC and qualifying criteria and highlights the fact that focus should be on what important to the customer and a system require a common objective and everyone on the system is focus on common objective. Rumack Pharmaceuticals is an example of marketing strategy where they produce lots of variants of that ingredient, different pills, different potions, different bottle sizes, different packages because they little way of exploiting market opportunity. The cost of manufacturing is small compare to the value of the product because of the paten and the manufacturing was bottlenecked in this situation. In this case manufacturing means to be subordinate to the opportunity of the business and the nature of the product should be supporting the market opportunity. They end up with capacity problems and long setup times as they did not understood the implications of higher variety on that capacity. Higher variety means to go either for large batches but also inventory or smaller batches and where capacity is more absorbed thru setup. Tyndall B is another example where marketing influenced where company went. Manufacturing invested a lot of effort in chair and their process choice was to go for standard high volume but the demand was more than they would coop with. So marketing made them look at case goods but case goods would not give them so much return. They were not good in manufacturing producing case goods so the profits was declining. But why they did not invested more in tables and chairs rather than spending on galleries where marketing driven to produce a full range of products causing variety to go up and profits down. They was not paying attention of what manufacturing is capable of delivering. They werent aligned. Compare to Rumack there is no paten but there is capability which can be exploited. For both companies idea of alignment strategy was to be for volume and variety. Referring to Babcock Wilcox case study they mix up trade-offs choices because what is good for high volume is not good for low v olume and choices needs to be aligned. Regarding Finance operation strategy from Skinner point of view was all about avoiding local cost and local efficiency. Focus operations on delivery, speed, price and everyone work together to align themselves. Also he argue that quite often in factories every department try to optimise local cost and efficiency which encourage push and pull thinking. Local optimisation is not aligning with the system and we can see evidence of that at Rumack Pharmaceutical where basically in manufacturing you need to be align with the strategy thats being adopted which is all introducing new products resulting in new product capacity which should not happen as will require more capacity in the system. Going for higher variety will put more pressure on capacity because of the setups. Tyndall they had really good arrangements in terms of producing tables and chair colonial style lots of demand for them but they wont exploit it because they said that there is no capacity for that so they went for case goods. Problem was that case goods was providing throughput but no revenue. They were doing everything rather then bringing throughput per bottleneck/minute. There was no alignment to improve throughput per limiting factor or to understand what constraints are and if is a market or resource constraint. Coming to Design from an operation point of view we would like standardisation. From market point of view they want customization. So product have to be standardised as much as we can and have the ability to customise later in other words to postpone it and reduce variability and introduce the buffering options as late as possible. Postponement is used to achieve customisation and efficiency within one operating system. 2 Critically discuss how developing operational excellence can support and lead a business strategy. Porter argue that operational effectiveness is not a strategy and also Lean and TOC are not strategies because they can be copied. Lean, TQM, TOC are all about managing flow in organisation with the idea of cost, push and pull. The main question is how can we improve performance and rid away of trade-offs or how can we break them. Slack et al. (2004) argue that there are five operations performance objectives: cost, quality, speed, dependability and flexibility. The law of trade-offs states that no single plant can provide high performance in all dimensions simultaneously. We would expect to find support for this law if all competitors use similar technologies and are operating near the asset frontier. If all plants are far from the asset frontier, however, one plant can simultaneously provide higher levels of product quality, flexibility, and delivery at a lower manufactured cost if, through betterment, its management approaches create an operating frontier which is superior to its competitors. The theory of performance frontiers clarifies the impacts that assets and operating practices have on competitive advantage. However, the resource-based view took this thinking a step further through positing that competitive advantage can be sustained only if the capabilities creating the advantage are supported by re sources that are not easily duplicated by competitors. Both the asset and the operating frontier can be the source of competitive advantage but they are based on resources of different nature. Armed with an understanding of a firms operating position relative to both competitors and the performance frontiers, strategic planners are better equipped to evaluate and plan manufacturing initiatives. For example, a quality improvement initiative may well be more attractive than a new technology initiative to a firm that considers itself far from its asset frontier. Can operation not just follow business strategy and lead business strategy? Hayes and Wheelwright stage 4 evidence that.In 80s quality and lean was a paradigm shift. Operation capability can actually win the orders. Porter(96) argue that Japanese dont have a strategy as they have operational effectiveness which wins on short term but actually Toyota production system is still difficult to copy on long term. Thus, the process of strategy development should be based on a sound understanding of current operational capabilities and an analysis of how these could be developed in the future. This can then provide the basis for decisions about which markets are likely to be the best in which to deploy current and future capabilities, which competitors are likely to be most vulnerable and how attacks from competitors might best be countered (Hayes et al., 2005). organization fits with the resource-based view (RBV) .toc lean etc 3 Practically evaluate the means of enabling pull (e.g. production, project and distribution) referring to the design of a specific planning and control system. Lead time requirements of the customers tend to drive the OPP towards the customer whereas product variability and demand uncertainty drive it away from customer. The more product variables, less likely it is economically sustainable to keep every variable in stock. Therefore, often large and steady volume products are kept in stock whereas products with a lot of variance are either assembled- or made-to order. Thus, companies have often multiple OPPs depending on the product characteristics. MTS method of production reduces before demand is realise or before orders come in.This are some goods or builds based on capacity or forecast which more often are greater than current demand. This is the reason that stocks are made only to be stored or sold at some future date. MTO builds according to actual demand. This system wont produce stock as all outputs are consumed or sold immediately. MTO is a pull system since every station doesnt start processing unless pull by demand or next process. Therefore we can talk about a pull line or JIT line. This is a type of MTO system in which all working stations are strictly produce according to the takt time. JIT is also known as a lean system or Kanban system. Kanban system control the flow thru a form of electronic or physical signal which tell to start producing or deliver the next part. In the case of MTO the overall approach is termed Drum Buffer Rope (DBR). Pull means small batches and we try get as required by the system. JLR is a pull system because everyone is working at the pace of the system. They relishing car or raw material into the system at the plant rate and everyone is working at the management prescribed rate called takt time. Ohno didnt had physical restriction of space but he had this rule to do something only if you have a Kanban instruction, the signal. Fords moving assembly line physical space was the control, the signal. Kanban was the idea of inventory in the system and TOC BM was another signal: what do I do next? When do I expedite? When do I interfere with the process? Ford had pretty much a lean system that why Ohno quoted from fords book. There is a more complex environment but the principles are the same. planning of stock or raw materials or finished stock in excess is a waste(ford 1926,p99).Ford understood the importance of the flow. He forced everyone to work on the same pace and had the idea of flow line. Ford was applying principles of flow to an environment where it was not so much variety. Ohno had variety and apply principles of flow thru JIT and C.I. linked to law of variability and variability buffering and theory Theory of Swift and Even Flow. He put a lot of effort in minimizing the fluctuations, stabilizing the demand and reduce variability. Ford didnt had Jidoka but he had teams which responded fast. C. I. challenged the traditional trade-offs model. Batch size reduction was the key for lean (Schronburger 1982).Right from the beginning was all about how to reduce batch quantities and setup time which is interpreted like a source of variability in the process. Batches will be reduced till will create a bottleneck again. Reducing setup times will reduce variability. Kanban represents inventory but also time and they are interrelated. In JLR they have a fast response and they doing first order which is coming compare to buffer management. In the case of MTO the overall approach is termed Drum Buffer Rope (DBR) introduced by Goldratt(1990) to reduce variation and improve activity. In the next case study SDBR was used with time being the rope and drum the market demand. The drum previously was the roasting and char grill departments which were considered constraints. In the case of Freshcut Foods when it was to manage the flow they was releasing work in the system to early and cause quality issues and wastages. They had late demands but they were uncertain if they have the capacity to produce. So they needed a system to tell them if they have capacity to take the orders. Finally a system which can tell them how to prioritise what they should produce next and when to release the working to the system was put in practice. If is in the red zone they need to expedite if the red zone is growing means that they have a problem and they need to escalate it.. So Kanban is like an automatic system where everyone knows how to use it. 4 Critically evaluate the circumstances best suited to Kanban and Buffer Management pull systems. Benton (2014, 2) describe that the main objective of manufacturing planning and control function: is to ensure that the desired products are manufactured at the right time, in the right quantities, and meeting quality specifications in the most cost-effective manner. To illustrate the significance of BM in TOC, the functions of BM in TOC is compared with Kanban in TPS. Firstly, both BM and Kanban prioritise work orders albeit with different assumptions and mechanisms. For Kanban, there is a pre-planned quantity or WIP in buffers designed in between every work center. In addition, there is also a specific routing sequences or dedicated production line required for each product, which results in rigidity in responding to market requirements. In BM however, the priority of work is triggered by the percentage buffer penetration of completion time. As it is time-based, it allows each work center to have flexibility to react (or catch-up with time) to disruptions when Murphy strikes. Other than the function of prioritisation, both BM and Kanban have their own mechanism to monitor and control their production throughput. In Kanban, the deployment of distributed buffers in between work centers enables problems to be immediately surfaced and dealt without passing the problem to the subsequent work centers (Ohno, 1989:30). In TOC, aggregated buffer is deployed and thus has a certain delay as problems are only escalated and expedited for attention after entering into the Red zone of BM. However, as highlighted by Stratton and Knight (2010), though Kanban is more sensitive, the problems highlighted are mainly related to quality and process, whereas in BM, it also includes issues such as product volume and mix changes. In spite of these differences, both BM and Kanban advocates continuous improvement. This is seen in the final steps of both TPS: Pursue Perfection (Womack and Jones, 1996:90) and TOC: not to allow inertia to cause a systems constraint (Goldratt and Cox, 2004:307). In Kanban, continuous improvement is encouraged through reducing inventory to expose problems which then can be targeted; whereas in BM, causes of delay (Red zone penetration) are being targeted. 5. Critically evaluate the use of MTA and dynamic buffer management as a means of practically enabling a pull distribution system. VMI say communicate demand and stock levels thru the system and replenish them on the regular basis. Replenish on the stock target MTA is similar with VMI but give a priority code in terms of buffer penetration. DBM is less common as the buffer status signals whether the target level is too large or too small and this can be used to signal automatic adjustments. By monitoring how we are performing in terms of green,yellow and red we can determine whether we need to increase or decrease the stock target For example if we are in the green zone reduce stock target and if is in the red zone increase the stock target. It is the means of getting the system to work at the pace of the consumption where drum is the consumer so is signalling down to distribution system what we need to replenish and how fast which resulting in an idea of pull. In the case of Frozen Meals they replenish based on consumption on the 3rd party distributer so is very straight forward till the stock time. MTA will say if there are multiple orders in the system will give an indication what the priority is. If the consumption was high and replenishing the full quantity in the distribution depot will be less stock. This stock will have to be replenish very quickly so VMI will communicate consumption across the whole supply normally replenishing it within a day or couple of days. So all the demand in the distribution depot will go in the red zone. So VMI says communicate demand and stock level always thru the system and replenishing to the stock target. The problem come when Frozen Meals tried to replenish and couldnt because the warehouse was full. Analysing demands and orders there is obviously that demands are pretty stable and orders are more volatile in demand represented by the consumption of consumer in Weatherspoon. This difference was caused by 3rd party distributer which has his own warehouse and has more stock that he needed and fluctuating and planning orders ad hoc. Because placing order in ad hoc manors caused Frozen Meals to ask for 7 days delay of supply. The ordering system from 3rd party distributer was ad hoc. There was a stock target so why not just replenish this stock automatically communicate down the supply chain whats required. The solution was to go for VMI rather than 3rd party distributer placing orders on Frozen Meals. A pull system was created when the supplier is responsible for maintaining agreed target stock levels. 6 Discuss the strategic importance of postponement through configuration, packaging and distribution, making reference to the concept of an Order Penetration Point (OPP). In the first part I was discussing about focus factory and separating different orders. This can be also separate by postponing which means that will be 2 strategies. one at the first part of the supply chain which is looking to stabilise and standardise and a different strategy at the later stages with a decupling point. How can we design the supply chain to postpone the impact of variation and uncertainty? This can be done in the manufacturing process but distribution side as well. Skinner strategy is about how we take the system perspective and how we meet the needs of the market reducing variability in the process. With TQM the reason why ends up with variability in the process is that no-one consider how to reduce variation. This is what SPC done: to focus on variation which will bring the cost down. Unless will do that then the variability tend to be there which make the trade-off choices about quality and cost. So all of them are about reducing variability. Agility is about dealing with demand uncertainty and demand variability. Stability is associated with lean and uncertainty demand with agility. This table is similar with line vs jobbing looking for two extremes such as delivery speed and low cost. Skinner will argue that this should be two different factories because the owc are different Fisher model talking in the idea of Skinner operation trade-offs in terms of a supply chain. If we have variability in demand we need to buffer like any variation. The ideal efficient model will have flow, minimum variation in demand and process, minimum buffering. In contrast the responsive model demand varies and also product changes in the same time and we got demand uncertainty and we ll buffer with inventory capacity. Talking about lean and agile supply viewed in terms of dependency, fluctuation, buffer capacity and buffer inventory we can refer to law of variability, law of variability buffering, law of variability pooling. Talking about service it represents the customer input which can be put on MTS which can be a date, a forecast. MTA say that the priority of the order all depends on what stock level is, if the stock level goes down rapidly the priority goes up, if the stock level is not priority (demand is low) the priority goes down. In Lego case they was doing bad because they grow over the years resulting in too much variety as increasing number of elements, to many colours and they diversified to do other things(low of focus) As a start-up they cut the number of colours and elements (no elements to be unique to one product stated by the law of variability pooling).In manufacturing they segmented some of the machines as all machines should be able to do everything. They organised and streamlined how they going to manufacture elements. They rationalized the suppliers which is a lean thing. The distribution changed to a pull system and the they supply to one distribution centre in Europe in 3-4 days which is consider closer to the customer. In terms of packaging machines and capacity. By reducing the range of colours and elements setup process variability all this helped to reduce variation and uncertainty. Buffering packaging they postponed rather than holding stock in packets they opted for a centralized distribution centre and more frequent distributions. All this system was about flow. Production is lean if is accomplished with minimal waste due to unneeded operations, inefficient operations, or excessive buffering in operations. Production is agile if it efficiently changes operating states in response to uncertain and changing demands placed upon it ( Narasimban et al..,2006) References Benton, W. C. Jr. 2014. Supply Chain Focused Manufacturing Planning and Control. Stamford, Connecticut: Cengage Learning

Advertisements - The F-150 SuperCrew Pickup :: Adverts, Compare and Contrast, Analysis

The target audience throughout the 129-year history of Popular Science magazine has traditionally been working age males. The advertisements within the magazine reflect the audience in whom they are attempting to reach. From new technological gadgets to old-fashioned tools, the advertisers know what will be attractive to the reader, and to the reader’s wallet. Of these advertisers, the most popular by far have been those from the automotive industry. The Ford Motor Company has chosen to strategically advertise within the pages of this magazine on numerous occasions and with various ads that were meant to lure new customers into buying Ford vehicles. It is interesting to notice that the styles of these advertisements are schemed with just the right qualities to attract as many male consumers as possible. The January, 2001 issue of Popular Science depicts a classic, two-page advertisement from the Ford Motor Company displaying its new F-150 SuperCrew pickup truck. From the colors of the ad, to the write-up found on the pages, it is very clear that the purpose was to attract males by using some of advertising’s basic appeals. The advertisement appeals to men by providing an outlet for their need for affiliation, the need to aggress, and the need to dominate. One of the most common appeals toward men in advertising is concerning the need for affiliation among men. This advertisement depicts a photograph of six hard-working men performing various duties – all around a brand new Ford truck. Above this photograph is another picturing six empty styrofoam cups of coffee. These subtle innuendoes are intended to support one of the major themes of the ad – that this particular truck provides seating for six. The way the cups are pictured, lying atop of one another supports the idea that many men hold that friendship and comradeship is greatly important to the success of their lives. Another detail supporting this idea is the fact that the men in the picture are dressed primarily the same. They all wear dark jeans, dark work shoes, and white tee shirts. This gives an impression of uniformity, and of the need for affiliation with friends and co-workers. The advertisement inconspicuously displays a sense of belonging – if the re ader decides to buy a new Ford truck! The need to aggress is depicted by quite a few aspects of this ad. First of all, the strong lettering at the tops of both pages of this advertisement depict a sort of cynicism toward mainstream thinking – a sort of â€Å"go against the flow† mentality.

Character of Nick Carroway in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby :: Great Gatsby Essays

The Character of Nick Carroway in The Great Gatsby In his novel, The Great Gatsby, author F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the character of Nick Carroway as a decent person. Nick stands out when being compared to the other characters in the story. It is Nick's honesty with himself and toward others, his morality, and his unbiased, slow to judge qualities that make him the novel's best character. The chain of events that occur in the story begin with Nick meeting Jordan Baker at Gatsby's party. It was this meeting that causes Nick to mention the topic of honesty. Nick learns about Jordan's cheating in a golf tournament, and he realizes how dishonest Jordan really is. "She was incredibly dishonest," (Page 58) Nick said, adding, "Dishonesty in a woman is a thing that you can never blame deeply." (Page 59) Jordan seemed to contrast her own dishonesty with Nick's honesty. On the night of the party, Jordan leads Nick to say, "Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people I have ever known." (Page 60) He supports his words with his actions as a narrator, as well as his role as a character in the story. As the narrator, he was honest with himself, one example being Nick admitting to himself that Jordan was not only dishonest, but selfish and cynical as well, but he loved her regardlessly. As the novel's main character, he was the only one that did not feel the need to mislead other people. All of the other characters would use an impressive, unreal facade in order to attract people and make a good first impression. For example, Daisy acted completely different around company from when she was with Tom. However, this happened while Nick would always let his honest, true character show through the entire time. Nick also seemed to be The Great Gatsby's only uncorrupted, unmaterialistic character. Every other character, including Gatsby himself, seemed to think that money could buy happiness. Gatsby's though process is a prime example of that: he thought that he could win over Daisy by impressing her with his extravagant parties. The fact is, Daisy, being materialistic herself, probably would have been won over, had she not been already married to a rich man. That materialism is what leads to the character's corruption.

Middleware Essay

What is middleware? The term middleware is defined by one’s point of view. It is used to describe a broad array of tools and data that help applications use networked resources and services. Some tools, such as authentication and directories, are in all categorizations. Other services, such as coscheduling of networked resources, secure multicast, object brokering and messaging, are the major middleware interests of particular communities, such as scientific researchers and business systems vendors. One definition that reflects this breadth of meaning is â€Å"Middleware is the intersection of the stuff that network engineers don’t want to do with the stuff that applications developers don’t want to do. † Why is middleware important? Middleware has emerged as a critical second level of an enterprise IT infrastructure, sitting on top of the network level. The need for middleware stems from the increasing growth in the number of applications, in the customizations within those applications and the number of locations in our environments; these and other factors now require that a set of core data and services be moved from their multiple instances into a centralized institutional offering. This central provision of service eases application development, increases robustness, assists data management, and provides overall operating efficiencies. Okay, so it is important. Lots of things are these days. Why is it urgent? There are several drivers bringing middleware to campus; Advanced scientific computing environments such as PACI are placing requirements on campus researchers for middleware services such as authentication and directories. Library projects such as the UCOP/Columbia certificate project will be extending across a broader higher ed community . The Federal government is preparing requirements for digital signatures for student loan forms. New versions of software, such as Windows 2000, come with the tools to build ad hoc middleware components. What is urgent is that the campus builds a coherent infrastructure to respond to these drivers. What makes the higher ed and research communities distinctive in its need for middleware? Many companies and other communities of interest are rapidly understanding the importance of middleware to their missions and are proceeding with development. Higher education faces unique technical and policy issues in its deployment. Technical issues include the mobility of students, the diversity of equipment, and advanced application requirements. Policy issues include ownership of data, FERPA and other public records issues, and extended collaborative relationships. Together these considerations make the middleware deployment significantly harder within higher education. When middleware becomes part of the IT environment, how critical will a robust infrastructure be? The middleware components of the future IT environment will be every bit as critical as the underlying network infrastructure, requiring 7Ãâ€"24 service, high-performance, and appropriate redundancy. Directory services will be receive millions of hits per day; identifiers will have explicit control mechanisms; attribute services will be invoked by almost every application on campus; lawyers will place stringent operational constraints on security services. Is middleware a centralized or distributed issue on campus? It is both. Like network services on campus, there is a need for a consistent infrastructure across campus that is best provisioned centrally. At the same time, much of the contents of this infrastructure are best maintained by the individuals themselves and their departments. The trick is to create a centrally coordinated service that provides tools and authority for distributed management of the contents. Aren’t we going to get middleware from the commercial marketplace? It is certainly the case that most basic middleware products that higher education will deploy commercial products, from broad software companies such as Microsoft and Novell, and from specific product providers such as Netscape, HP, and ATT. However a number of distinctive characteristics of the higher ed community create design considerations that in turn cause complex implementations. In addition, the research part of the academic enterprise needs additional discipline-specific middleware that is likely not going to attract a commercial interest. Finally, the collaborative nature of higher education suggest interoperability issues that must be addressed within the community. What kind of investments will campuses need to make? Like networking, middleware will require considerable commitments of time and money. However, the types of costs are different. Networking has required large sums of capital (for fiber, routers, switches, etc. ) and considerable operating costs (for external access, maintenance, etc. ) Personnel costs have been relatively modest. For middleware, the hardware costs (servers, readers, etc. are likely to be relatively low. Software costs are unclear now, but there are clearly considerable expenses in building bridges to legacy systems and evolving middleware-enabled applications. Unlike networking, there is a second major cost component in middleware – process time. A campus must develop consensus and support for the need for middleware, clarify data ownership and management issues, specify relationships among individuals, groups and information technology objects, establish legal agreements and change the way that information is managed on the campus. How does the Internet2 Middleware Initiative intend to address these needs? Efforts will focus on advancing the level of middleware within higher education through a set of related activities, including fostering technical standards, aggregating and disseminating technical design and implementation strategies, fostering opportunities for vendors and Internet2 members to shape and deploy products, and integrating efforts with particular scientific and research communities. What should campuses be doing now? It is not to early for campuses to begin the processes that address the â€Å"policy-side† of the challenge, building awareness about the need for middleware, identifying key constituencies that will be involved in the process, and taking basic inventories of the data and management relationships on campus. At the same time, experimentation in the core technologies, most notably in directory services, should be undertaken.

Police Management Organizing, Planning, Controlling, Leading

March 28, 2012 Dear colleagues: To prepare for learning Motivational Interviewing in the healthcare field, we’d like to start off with a pre-test of your current knowledge. Cut and paste this url address into your websearch engine http://www. ceuuniversity. com/emc/emctesting. html It will take you to an â€Å"interactive† on-line test on Motivational Interviewing. There are 34 questions. At the end of the test you click on submit. It will identify – by number(s) – which questions you scored incorrectly. Write those numbers down.Send them in an email back to Tammy Strickland (for medical staff) or Frank Heitmann (for clinical staff). The reason we need the specific numbers of the questions you answered incorrectly is to see if there are patterns we can address by more focused training. The results will be aggregated – so no one will know anyone else’s score – and we’ll give all of you a report on the results. Secondly, identify your learning preferences. Do you prefer we do one or more of the following: Send you reading material?Send you web url addresses of youtube clips showing actual MI sessions? Send you web url addresses of youtube clips of Power Point reviews of MI / MI techniques? Let you join a group watching one or more DVDs on MI? Or be in a discussion group to role play MI skills from a set of very-common-to-us scenarios? Or ______________________________ (some other preference of yours) This is due no later than Wednesday April 11th (but earlier responses are much appreciated). Best bet is the materials will go out to you as soon as you email your test results.

Dream Chocolate Company Essay

Analysis of D.C.’s Competitive Environment and Information Need Dream Chocolate (D.C.) is a small company trying to survive in an industry with many competitors. The competitive environment comes from some factors. Firstly, D.C. bars are sold in specialty markets, fine gift stores and also available online. However, the competitive companies can also provide various chocolate bars for customers with the low price on the Internet. Secondly, comparing to the big chocolate company like Mars, D.C. is a small company that has the lower brand reputation. Therefore, there may be not many people would trust their products. On the other hand, facing this competitive environment, D.C. has developed many competitive advantages that could attract customers to choice its products. D.C. Company pursues the high quality chocolate and changes the basic milk chocolate bar into variety of flavors. The company’s niche is European-style custom chocolate bars and labeling, and it is known f or its flexibility and speed. A small customer order can be printed, labeled, and ready for pick up or shipping within one hour if the company already has the label in its system, which few company can achieve that level. Moreover, D.C. also faced the pressure from the continued national recession hurt sales in 2011. Thus, in order to deal with the internal and external competitive environment, the D.C. Company needs more business to utilize their capacity and make a profit. The main issue will be training people. It takes up long time to train people adequately. Also, customer labeling needs to be more effectively marketed, which is D.C.’s best margin area. For purpose that the company’s strategy and product can be efficiently carried out, D.C. Company should provide actual cost per order or per unit that can compute the operating margin for the individual products and the allocation of overhead costs that can know whether orders are profitable or not. Pros and Cons for Different Costing Systems Job Costing System A job is simply a product or service that can be easily distinguished from other products or services and for which the firm desires that a specific cost be recorded for the product or service. Job order costing records the  actual materials and labor expenses for specific jobs and assigns overhead to jobs at a predetermined overhead rate. Job order costing offers a detailed analysis of the costs of materials, labor cost and overheads by functions and nature. One advantage of job order costing is that it allows managers to calculate the profit earned on individual jobs, helping them to better decide whether specific job are desirable to pursue in the future. This is best for businesses that do highly custom work, such as construction contractors and consultants. Also, Job order costing gives managers the advantage of being able to keep track of individuals’ and teams’ performance in terms of cost-control, efficiency and productivity. It can evaluate efficiency of diff erent types of jobs with cost records by using statistical techniques. Job order costing facilitates the estimation of the cost of a similar job and allocates overheads on the basis of a predetermined rate. Moreover, job order costing makes easy to identify spoilage and defects to take corrective actions. However, there are also several problems with the job order costing system. Firstly, job order costing needs a great deal of clerical work in recording material issue, wage computation, payment and overhead charges. Therefore, the employees are required to track all materials and labor used during the job, which will need more accountants to works and creates additional cost for small company. Secondly, job order costing focuses attention primarily on products rather than on departments or activities. This is not an issue if there is supplemental systems in place that record information about other cost categories, but it leaves management with inadequate information if this is not the case. Additionally, strict control of cost associated with a job is difficult since overheads are allocated on estimation, which should using reasonable parameters like selecting suitable basis. Process Costing System Process costing typically used by companies that produce large quantities of identical products that are made in long, continuous production runs through a series of process centers (departments). Process costing accumulates costs in a department for an accounting period and then spreads them evenly, or on an average basis, over all units produced that month. Process costing is an easier system to use when costing homogenous products compared to other cost allocation methods. Each process applies direct materials, labor and  manufacturing overhead to the production cost total. Management accountants take the total number of goods leaving the process and divide the total process cost by this number. This creates a simple average cost for each item produced. Another advantage is that business owners use process costing because it creates a flexible production process. Companies needing to refine their process can simply add or remove a process as necessary. This also allows companies to lower their production cost for each good. Adding a process allows companies to produce slightly different goods or improve product quality. This flexibility ensures companies can produce at the most competitive cost in the economic marketplace. Also process costing provides an approach to allocate costs to partially completed production. But the process costing also exists several disadvantages. Production cost error is a significant disadvantage for cost accounting systems. Process costing does not use direct allocation to apply business costs to individual goods, which will arbitrarily increase each item’s cost and also increases the consumer product price. Management accountants may also create under-costed products. Under-costed products usually result in lower business profits because goods are actually more expensive than actually reported. Other problem is that accountants must calculate equivalent units in the process costing system. Equivalent units represent the amount of unfinished goods left in a process at the end of an accounting period. This information is reported as the work-in-process on a company’s balance sheet. Inaccurate work-in-process accounts may also result in distorted finished good totals. This creates a difficult process for managing inventory and determining how many products the company has to sell in the open marketplace. Operation Costing System Operation costing is a hybrid of job and process costing, which is used in manufacturing goods that have some individual characteristics plus some common characteristic. An operation is a standardized method of making a product that is repeatedly performed. Operation costing is often used when different products use common processes but differ in their material. The advantage of operation costing system is that some products are mass-produced and can be customized to order, which cost accountants use the operation costing system. Using operation-costing system could be more accurate to record the cost of product because it separates materials for  each type of products and allocate the conversion costs through departments. Also, because much of the production is the same for all products manufacture, accountants use operation costing to distinguish these costs and determine individual product costs However, operation-costing system is more complex to calculate, company should require collecting much more data comparing to process costing or job costing. It needs to compute the units of production and the product cost of each unit according to the information of materials be collected and the unit of equivalent products. Activity-Based Costing System Activity-based costing (ABC) is two-stage product costing method that first assigns costs to activities and then assigns them to products based on the products’ consumption of activities. The use of ABC is especially important to businesses that provide customized products or services. A customized production environment requires ABC’s allocation of actual indirect costs to a product to identify its true cost. Implementing ABC is a challenging task for any business and the process carrying several advantages and disadvantages. One of advantage of ABC system is to improve business processes. It allocates indirect cost based on a product’s cost drive or the factor that creates the cost, which would be more accurate than the other costing methods. ABC can be used to identify non-valued added activities and can help to better allocate resources to efficient and profitable activities. Another advantage of ABC system is to identify wasteful products. ABC can allow the business to better understand where overhead costs are going. The data can identify wasteful products and unnecessary costs, so that resources can be used productively. The method also helps to fix the price of products or services that are excessive or incorrect. Overall product and service quality can improve as ABC’s data details production and cost issues that need to be resolved. Additionally, ABC system tends to reduce per unit cost of high volume products and increase per unit cost of low volume products, but the impact is more dramatic on the low volume products. However, implementing an ABC system can be expensive and time-consuming. Manager should break down business activities into each activity’s individual components. The entire process needs to collect much valuable resource as data to measure and enter into the new system.  Businesses may also require hiring the assistance of a consultant who specializes in the setup of an ABC system and provide training for them. Moreover, using ABC system sometimes is easily to misinterpret the data. It is also possible that some ABC may be irrelevant in certain decision-making scenarios. For instance, ABC does not conform to accounting standard and should not be used for external reporting. Since traditional cost figures tend to be the norm, interpreting ABC data along with regular accounting information can be confusing and lead to bad decision-making. Recommend a Costing Method to D.C. D.C. is a small but growing company trying to survive in an industry with many players. This small company has limited staff and they do not currently track actual cost information during production. However, D.C. has the competitive advantage that it combines high-quality, variety of flavors and custom labeling together. Due to D.C.’s high-end process, high volume and various types of chocolates, I recommend D.C. use operation costing system that combines the process costing and job costing together. Firstly, D.C. has three sizes of chocolate, which are 1.25 oz. bar, 3.0 oz. bar and 3.25 oz. Bar. And the three sizes bar can be divided into two types chocolates that are organic and non-organic. The different materials will be added into production to get various flavors. Thus, the martial of production that is direct cost can use job-costing method. Using job order costing is that it allows D.C. to calculate the profit earned on individual jobs, helping them to better decide w hether specific job are desirable to pursue in the future. Job order costing also makes easy to keep track of the production, identify spoilage and defects to take corrective actions during the period of production. Then, the labor cost should be included in product cost. Direct labor comes from pouring, inspecting, foiling and labeling. Notice that larger bars can be inspected twice as fast as the smaller bars. Because each area might be working on multiple customer jobs at a time, it is difficult to track labor hours for each customer order. Therefore, using the job costing system records the different type of customer order, which would be more accurate to record labor cost. And we should also calculate equivalent unit to compute labor cost per bar for each department. Finally, for the overhead cost which is indirect cost, each product is produced using the  same process, which means there is no difference in the overhead costs for the different products. So it is suitable to use process-costing method. And process costing is more flexible in allocating conversion costs, because it only accumulates the total costs and allocates the costs to each department or process. The operation costing system is a flexible way to handle high-volume or low-volume production month. It is used when different products use common processes but differ in their materials. When the volume is high, D.C. company do not need to hire more employee to work because the combination of job costing and process costing could figure out the mass production. Also, the operation costing can easily find any mistakes and don’t have to wait till the end of the month to fix the problem. Handling the new special order and new cost Recent order from the wellness company shows that bars can have one or more types of special flavors and ingredient additives. Bars with higher-cost flavor additives such as coffee and Kava can be viewed as direct cost. Thus, they would be treated for the same as direct materials and be allocated to the specific products. But less expensive additives, such as flavoring oils are not included in direct costs and these cost usually show up in overhead cost. In addition to the direct materials cost for these ingredients, there is additional labor required for stirring to achieve equal distribution throughout the bar. Moreover, the labeling design cost for new special order is overhead cost, which is related to the product cost. So it would be allocated to the specific product separately as well. Summary and Implementation In conclusion, I will recommend the company using the operation costing system, which combine the job costing and process costing. In case of DC the manufacturing environment is complex. Product in its initial stages has identical processing, and then is finished using specific procedure like adding activities or customized packaging. The method accounts for costs based on difference in the products. Also operation costing as it will give clear cost of products and their profitability. It will help Kay to set up the price of the products will help him to determine most profitable product. In order to calculate the cost of chocolate bar, we should require  the actual production for organic and non-organic bars, cost of ingredients for special orders and additional training and labor hours for special order.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream: an Ecological Interpretation

A Midsummer Night’s Dream: An Ecocritical Interpretation Lieutenant Asit Biswas Bio-Notes: Lieut. Asit Biswas is an Assistant Professor, Dept. of English, and Associate NCC Officer, Acharya B. N. Seal (Govt. ) College, Cooch Behar, W. B. ABSTRACT: Shakespeare studies in India started as early as in the early decades of the 19th century when the Indians seldom engaged in Shakespeare interpretation and so the term ‘ecocriticism’ was unheard of.What we mean by the phrase ‘Critical studies of Shakespeare’ started in India in 1917 when Hindu College (later on Presidency College and now Presidency University) was founded. Then Shakespeare began to be evaluated from an oriental point of view. Some of those interpretations may be considered ecocriticism. The same thing was done by Purna Chandra Basu (in his article â€Å"Sahitye Khoon†, D. L. Roy (in his book, Kalidas O Bhababhuti) etc. Eco-criticism as a literary movement, as Yogesh K.Tiwari and N. D. R. Chandra say, began in the 1990s. But ecocritical evaluation of Shakespeare’s plays from Indian point of view is yet to flourish well. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream one can find plethora of materials relevant not only for the students of literature but of environmental studies also. The aim of the present play is to reinterpret Shakespeare’ play A Midsummer Night’s Dream from ecocritical point of view and thereby justify the contemporaneity of the Bard.Now-a-days many in many universities in India the students have to read English and Environmental Studies as compulsory subjects, Shakespeare being a part of the former. As the students of literature they would be keen to trace out the aesthetic aspects of the dramas of Shakespeare while belonging to various disciplines they would naturally seek for the relevance of Shakespeare in the present context. So the paper is an attempt to bring out Shakespeare’s anticipation of the environmental problems a nd thereby prove Shakespeare as a topic of both literature and environmental studies.Modern environmentalism began with ‘A Fable for Tomorrow’, in Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962). Mrs. Frederick Boas edited the Cambridge collection of Tempest Essays; Richard Kerridge N. Shammells published Writing the Environment, Eco-criticism and Literature (Zed Books-1998); J. Bate & L. Coupe published The Green Studies Reader from Romanticism to Eco-Criticism (by New York, Routeledge-2000);but the most outstanding book in this field is Green Shakespeare by Gabriel Egan who says, Crossing he boundaries of literary and cultural studies to draw in politics, philosophy and ecology, this volume not only introduces one of the most lively areas of contemporary Shakespeare studies, but also  puts forward  a convincing case for Shakespeare's continuing relevance to contemporary theory. There is a significant school named as the Association for the study of Literature and Envi ronment which was started in America and now has its branches in Japan and UK. It is mainly an association of the eco-critics. The Role of Literature in Placing a Value on the Environment: As Daniel B.Botkin and Edward A. Keller say in their book Environmental Science (5th edition, Page No. 11) the value of the environment is based on the following justifications: aesthetic, creative, recreational, inspirational, moral, cultural and utilitarian (materialistic). Aesthetic justification has to do with our appreciation of beauty of nature. Many people prefer living in the world of wilderness to one without it. Rabindranath Tagore created an instance by leaving the clutter of Calcutta settling down in the lap of Nature in Santiniketan.In Shakespeare the Forest of Arden minimizes the bereavement of the Duke in As You Like It. But in the Duke’s bemoaning for the subordination of the forest we hear the voice of an ecologist. It would not be a digression to say that Tagore’s e cocentrism is again found in Siksha: Tapoban in his comment on Shakespeare’s plays. While ecology is a mother branch of science, ecocriticism is comparatively a new branch which attempts to establish a relationship between literature and the physical environment.As Greg Garrard quotes in his book Eco-criticism from Glotfelty’s book The Eco-criticism Reader: Landmark in Literary Ecology: Simply put, eco-criticism is the study of the relationship between literature and physical environment. Just as feminist criticism examines language and literature from a gender conscious perspective, and Marxist criticism brings an awareness of modes of production and economic class to its reading of texts, eco-criticism takes an earth-centred approach to literary study.Garrard also adds that eco-criticism is closely related to environmentally oriented developments in philosophy and political theory. So eco-criticism may be interpreted as the analysis of a literary text from the point of view of an ecologist. Another epoch making writing that has relevance in our interpretation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is Simon C. Estok’s research paper titled Shakespeare and Ecocriticism: An Analysis of â€Å"Home† and â€Å"Power† in King Lear in which the author explains the key terms â€Å"Anthropocentrism†, â€Å"Biocentrism/ Ecocentrism† and â€Å"Ecophobia†.Agreeing with Greg Garrard, Estok says that ecocriticism is not simply the study of nature or natural things in literature; rather it is any theory that is committed to effecting change by analysing the function – thematic, artistic, social, historical, ideological, theoretical, or otherwise— the natural environment, or aspects of it, represents in documents that contribute to material practices in material world. The explanation of the term ‘ecophobia’ is also very much necessary in our revaluation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Estok thinks that â€Å"ecophobia is the fear of loss of agency and control to Nature†.This ecophobia, found in both Oberon and Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, gives birth to various conflicts, both inner and outer, or, to say more explicitly, psychological and social (which includes ecological aspects also) and this sociological aspects of the play justify the contemporaneity of the bard. Some minor research works have been done on this particular topic on national and international levels. Some research papers have been published on eco-criticism in Shakespeare’s dramas in some journals; mention may be made of the one written by Dr.Subh Brat Sarkar, Rishi Bankim Chandra College, Naihati, W. B. The paper already written by the present researcher and published in the Research Spectrum (August-2012 Issue) contains some hints of the Eco-criticism in Shakespeare’s plays as seen by Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore considered it to be a kind of colonialism. Accord ing to him colonialism is not only the subordination of a weaker nation by a powerful one but the subordination of nature by human beings. Tagore also probably finds the ‘ecologist Shakespeare’ as in As You Like It, The Tempest etc.According to Nirmal Selvamony, the humans have introduced a hierarchy in nature. In that the humans have placed the domesticated animals higher than the wild animals. â€Å"Even animals were ranged in hierarchic order, the domestic and the wild† (Selvamony 4). But in A Midsummer Night’s Dream the role of the dominating power is taken by the fairies and the inferior race is the human beings. The fairies have occupied the topmost position in the hierarchy of Nature and they subordinate man and they quarrel in order to decide who will ‘domesticate’ the Indian boy who is the representative of the colonized people.This kind of colonialism found in Nature may be termed ‘Ecocolonialism’ or ‘Eco-imperiali sm’. In a supernatural drama like the present one the imperialists are the fairies but in reality they are the mighty people and the colonized ones may be the flora and fauna or even linguistically, culturally, racially, socially, politically, religiously or financially weaker section of the people. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream an ecologist easily finds plenty of materials relevant not only to the students of literature but of science, especially ecology also.The human beings in the person of the Indian boy or the European lovers are merely playthings to the mighty fairies. The fairies play with the humans for their own pleasure and showing their might and not for the amusement of the humans and they do it from anthropocentric point of view. In his Master’s Degree dissertation paper, (University of South Florida) Roy Patricia points out the environmental issues in MND by referring to â€Å"Folk Medicine and the Four Fairies of A Midsummer Night’s Dream,à ¢â‚¬  by Lou Agnes Reynolds and Paul Sawyer who have recovered the fairies from evil associations by casting them as herbal doctors.The article points to the strong early modern interest in the medicinal use of plants and finds that, by the use of this imagery, Shakespeare imbues his fairy characters and their natural remedies with beneficial, medicinal properties. Reynolds and Sawyer’s points are well taken, but we can develop them even further. Not only do the four attendant fairies – Cobweb, Mustardseed, Peascod and Mote – represent fairy medicine but all the actions in the forest also act therapeutically upon the lovers. The inversion of love-roles and the dreams of the lovers depend upon Oberon’s extensive knowledge of the herbal lore of his world.As Oberon himself states: â€Å"Fare thee well, nymph [Helena]. Ere he do leave this grove / Thou shalt fly him, and he shall seek thy love. (2. 1. 245-6). In Act-1I, scene-i of from the speech of Puck we come to know that the king, Oberon is angry with the queen, Titania as she has seized away a boy from India and made him her servant. â€Å"For Oberon is passing fell and wrath, / Because she as her attendant hath / A lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king†. But the king wants to roam about the forests (Nature), along with the boy. As a result whenever they meet, they quarrel.Titania also alleges him of emptying of the venom of jealousy. She says that whenever they meet they quarrel and as a result the wind cannot sing the song of peace and is sucking the fog from the surface of the seas and the water level of the seas has been raised up; the natural system has been disrupted, resulting in untimely flood and thereby destruction of vast area of crops and extinct of a number of species. The ever smiling spring, the scorching summer, the frowning autumn and the cruel winter have changed their plight and so people cannot identify them.Titania confesses that they are responsible for this unholy variation of the cycle of seasons. The people cannot endure the change of the cycle of seasons; suffer from untimely winter and also various kinds of diseases due to the change and endangered bio-diversity. In reply to the allegation of the queen, the king urges her to correct the ecological imbalance as she has the power to remedy. The reason of their quarrel is also clear to the readers—possession of the boy kidnapped from India.Here the quarrel is between a power that has deprived the creature of his natural habitat and made him her servant and the eco-friendly power that is keen to roam about the forests, along with the innocent creature. But none is ready to provide the boy with absolute freedom and so their quarrel does not come to an end here. The king requests the queen to hand the boy over to him but she is too obstinate to nod. She frankly declares that she cannot lose her control over the boy even if she is given the whole fairy land. So Oberon deci des to use tricks.He advises Puck to extract the juice of a certain flower which would act like black magic and leave its evil influence on Titania’s eyes, if administered properly. It would also be able to invert the usual behaviour and natural instinct of a person as in the modern age we see the evil influence of narcotics especially in the third world countries. The harmful effect of the use of drugs on eco system is mainly felt in the developing countries. Again Titania, admits that their quarrel has destroyed the usual course of the natural phenomena and nature has undergone vast changes, creating ocean of troubles for human beings.In Act-1, Scene-ii (Lines 81-117) Titania, the Queen of the fairies alleges that their quarrel has destroyed the usual habits of the natural phenomena and Nature has undergone vast changes, creating ocean of troubles for human beings. It may be considered Shakespeare’s anticipation of what McKibben says in his book The End of Nature (19 90): We have changed the atmosphere, and thus we are changing the weather. By changing the weather we make every spot on earth man-made or artificial. We have deprived nature of its independence, and that is fatal to its meaning. Nature’s independence is its meaning; ithout it there is nothing but us. (McKibben 1990: 54) In this connection it may be recalled that India was a favourite commercial place to the Western countries form the time of ancient history. And for the sole possession of India several wars were for between the English and the French and others. The Indian boy in the play is symbolically a colony, an ideal place for business. Now-a-day it may be a typical Indian plant for whose patent the economic colonialists are ever fighting among themselves and in order to supersede one another destroying the eco system of the whole globe.Recently we witnessed the war between Iraq and U. S. A. Various reasons may be found out but the naked truth is that the sole reason o f the notorious war is nothing but the shameless effort of control over the petroleum mines of the Arabian countries. When the two â€Å"do square, that all their elves for fear/ Creep into acorn cups and hide them there†. The peaceful people whenever get frightened, seek refuge in nature and it may be kept in mind that the best remedy of various pollutions including noise pollution is plantation.Nature is the man’s ultimate refuge because only nature can provide the human beings with eternal pleasure, both physical and mental. Puck also confesses that he, in order to make a fun and to show his prowess, perturbs the natural habits of an object both animate and inanimate. In modern age the modern Pucks very often destroy the Nature and subordinate the creatures of Nature very often out of fun. Examples may be given of the tortured animals in the circus shows, poachers’ activities etc; moreover, we torture the animals in the zoo.Keeping bird cages is a favourite b ut cruel hobby of a kind of people even after the passage of law against it. It is not only inhuman and unlawful but harmful to bio-diversity also. Recently a television channel telecast a live show of beating thousands of innocent seals to death in Antarctica by a community as it is the annual festival of the community. The pain of the poor seals, especially the half dead ones, the fear of the eco system to be disturbed, the melting of the glaciers and thereby upheaval of the sea level cannot render them anxious of the future of the earth.In this post-Modern age MND is quite relevant and significant since we witness the ecological imbalance, extinction of a large number of species, climatic change, global warming, uprising of the sea level, earth quake, tsunami, El Nino etc. The reason behind such troubles may be, along with the others, the wars (Gulf war, the long war between Iran and Iraq and of course the two World Wars), nuclear bomb testing and above all merciless deforestatio n. Here in the speech of Titania we seem to hear the voice of an environment scientist or of an ecologist.It may be noted that the more mighty the power, the more strong a destroyer is he in this post-Modern Age. Probably Shakespeare anticipated the natural problems created by the super-human power. The Titanias now-a-days are the war-mongers greedy of absolute power, who seldom think of the future of the globe. So in this age of science and technology the revaluation of the plays of Shakespeare is very much significant. In the same Act and scene the speech of Oberon (L-176–185) is also significant.He speaks of the juice of a flower that is able to hypnotize any man or woman and make him/her fall in love with any creature seen first. But the remedy is known to Oberon only. So it may be supposed that he wants to administer the cunning trick only to destroy the natural habit of a creature and to apply his remedy and thereby to prove his power. In the post-Modern age of economic colonialism this cunning theory is felt to have come back, but with a new dimension. For example the parthenium plant has allegedly come from U. S. A. As found in an e-article (http://www. streetdirectory. om) It appears that Parthenium is not native to India, but it came with the imported wheat as a mixture, when the US sent wheat to India under PL 480 (Public Law 480 passed in 1954 to give food grains to developing countries) in 1956. However this concept was contradicted by some as not the real story because Parthenium was present in India even in 1951 itself. Some people allege that this plant causes asthma whose medicine would be made in USA and so in order to sell the medicine and to prevail over the subcontinent, the Americans sent the parthenium seeds as adulteration with wheat seeds.So the purpose is to make the Indians asthma patients and then to sell to them asthma medicine. But we should not engage ourselves in this controversy, since we are not talking of international politics but of literary criticism. Here, in the drama the role of Oberon is like that of a modern capitalist who uses his cunning method in order to prove his supremacy and thereby dominate over the comparatively weaker sections and he is doing this out of ecophobia. Ultimately Oberon, the king realizes the harmful effect of his sports and then he feels sorry and takes the responsibility and so urges his assistant to correct the mistakes.He also pacifies his quarrel with Titania, once again with the help of the same narcotics. Here we see the constructive use of the herbs. Thus the play ends with an optimistic note and indirectly upholds the banner of Nature which is the best remedy for the revival of the impaired eco system. It also opines that man cannot remain happy by subordinating nature. Now in the age of global warming the plays of Shakespeare deserve a re-reading. One may recall the peaceful atmosphere in the Forest of Arden (As You Like It) and realize that subordination of nature cannot bring us mental peace as Tagore realized.He establishes his opinion by citing examples from As You Like It, Sakuntala etc. In the concluding song Puck urges the audience to consider the play to be a dream. We may do but it would not be an overstatement to consider it to be a dream of an ecologist because in the play we see what an ecologist would think of the vast change taken place in environment due to the modern leaders of the planet. Reference 1. Arumugam, E. (2008) Principles of Environmental Ethics, Sarup Book Publishers Pvt. Ltd. , New Delhi-2, India. 2. Bookchin, Murray, Anthropocentrism versus biocentrism – a false dichotomy http://climateandcapitalism. om. 3. Botkin, Daniel B. ; Keller , Edward A. , (2005), Environmental Science, John Wiley ; Sons, Inc, U. S. A. 4. Estok, Simon C. , Shakespeare and Ecocriticism: An Analysis of â€Å"Home† and â€Å"Power† in King Lear, http://simonestok. com. 5. Garrard, G. (2007) Ecocriticism, Routled ge, London and New York. 6. Gifford, Terry: (1999) Pastoral, Routeledge, London and New York. 7. Glotfelty, C. and Fromm, H. (ed) (1996) The Eco-criticism Reader: Landmark in Literary Ecology, University of Georgia Press, London. 8. McKibben, B. (1990), The End of Nature, Penguin, London, 9.Patricia, Roy, (2004), â€Å"Shakespeare’s Midsummer Fairies: Shadows and Shamen of the Forest†, http://scholarcommons. usf. edu/etd/1226 10. Purohit , S. S. ; Ranjan, Rajiv (2003), Ecology, Environment and Pollution, Agrobios (India), Jodhpur, India. 11. Sarkar, Subh Brat, (2005), â€Å"Ecological Theatre: Performance and Ecological Issues† (in Prakashkal) Unique; Panshila, Sodepur, W. B. , India. 12. Selvamony, Nirmal, (2001): â€Å"Persons for Alternative Social Order†, Chennai, India. 13. Shakespeare, William, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, New Delhi: Oxford ; IBH Publishing Co.Pvt Ltd. , 1980. 14. Tagore, R. , (1932) The Religion of Man, George Allen and Unwin, London. 15. Thompson, Jr. , E. , (1926), Rabindranath Tagore: Poet and Dramatist, Read, p. 12, http://en. wikipedia. org. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 1. Dr. Amit Bhattacharya, Associate Professor ; Head, Dept. of English, University of Gour Banga, Malda, W. B. , India. 2. UGC (India) for MRP (No: F. PHW-131/09-10 (ERO) Date: Sept. 07, 2009) 3. The Essay was published in the International Journal of Innovative Research and Development (ISSN 2278-0211), Vol-1, Issue-6 September, 2012. www. ijird. com.