Thursday, October 31, 2019

Film Appreciation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Film Appreciation - Essay Example Art is what comes out of a production, it is the movie that is presented to an audience. In the long run, the movie can be considered the art that becomes commerce - it will be the product that needs to be sold in the end. Commerce is something that can be difficult to come by; art is something that can be made even by those that do not possess the commerce for production. The concept of art is something that cannot be bought or traded. 2. The opening scene of North by Northwest shows a busy city, with people rushing around trying to catch buses and the subway, or else fighting each other for the next taxi. Everything is fast paced and it makes the viewer feel almost as rushed as the characters. The opening scene sets the mood of the film by introducing the smaller aspects, the things to be expected throughout the film: the rush, the suspense, the tension that comes with being hurried. The music adds to this by being an equally fast paced song; it almost encourages what is going on on-screen. You can still hear the rush of people and traffic throughout the song, so this intensifies the emotions. The shots that are used are wide shots, though there was no real establishing shot; the viewer, however, would still be able to discern that the movie starts out in an incredibly busy city. The use of wide shots also increases the feeling of being rushed, since more people are being fit onto the screen in one shot, it gives the feeling of being cramped and hurried. This scene sets up the rest of the film, preparing the viewers for a movie that will be as fast paced as the opening. 4. The crop duster scene in North by Northwest is one of the most well-known scenes because of how powerful it is, due to the choices that the director made in terms of music, shots, and angles. There is no music in this scene; the only sounds that

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Bus Reservation System Essay Example for Free

Bus Reservation System Essay Traveling is a large growing business in Pakistan and other countries. Bus reservation system deals with maintenance of records of details of each passenger who had reserved a seat for a journey. It also includes maintenance of information like schedule and details of each bus. We observed the working of the Bus reservation system and after going through it, we get to know that there are many operations, which they have to do manually. It takes a lot of time and causes many errors. Due to this, sometimes a lot of problems occur and they were facing many disputes with customers. To solve the above problem, and further maintaining records of items, seat availability for customers, price of per seat, bill generation and other things, we are offering this proposal of reservation system. By using this software, we can reserve tickets from any part of the world, via internet. This project provides and checks all sorts of constraints so that user does give only useful data and thus validation is done in an effective way. 2. INTRODUCTION Our project is to computerize traveling company to manage data, so that all the transactions become fast and there should not be any error in transaction like calculation mistake, bill generation and other things. It replaces all the paper work. It keeps records of all bills also, giving to ensure 100% successful implementation of the computerized Bus reservation system. Our reservation system has three modules. First module helps the customer to enquire the availability of seats in a particular bus at particular date. Second module helps him to reserve a ticket. Using third module he can cancel a reserved ticket. 3. SYSTEM STUDY System study aims at establishing requests for the system to be acquired, development and installed. It involves studying and analyzing the ways of an organization currently processing the data to produce information. Analyzing the problem thoroughly forms the vital part of the system study. In system analysis, prevailing situation of problem is carefully examined by breaking them into sub problems. Problematic areas are identified and information is collected. Data gathering is essential to any analysis of requests. It is necessary that this analysis familiarizes the designer with objectives, activities and the function of the organization in which the system is to be implemented. 3.1. Study of existing system * Existing system is totally on book and thus a great amount of manual work has to be done. The amount of manual work increases exponentially with increase in bus services. * Needs a lot of working staff and extra attention on all the records. * In existing system, there are various problems like keeping records of items, seats available, prices of per/seat and fixing bill generation on each bill. * Finding out details regarding any information is very difficult, as the user has to go through all the books manually. * Major problem was the lack of security.

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Project Life Cycle in Construction

Project Life Cycle in Construction The project is broken into phases, and then into control points that are relevant to the particular development. This gives management an organized structure to the overall development. Cooperatively, the project phases are known as the project life cycle. These are sequential. Phases and control points are agreed by management. Due to the complex nature of the office block phase will overlap the concurrent phase. This method will also fast track the project. Overlapping phases can save time and cost however the risk of discrepancies is increased due to progression without accurate information being available from the previous phase. The first phase initiates the project by establishing a need for the office spaces. A P.E.S.T analysis is generated to determine the objective. Perth has seen a significant growth in the number of National and Regional headquarters servicing the Mining, Resource and Oil and Gas sectors. It has been reported that a further 250,000 offices are required in Perth by 2014. F, Murphy. (2011). P.E.S.T. Analysis A PEST analysis was created for this project and the following information was recovered. (P)olitical Political is the factors that influence the project. These can be government, economic or even other business. Political factors represent policies such as taxes and environmental. The current rate of GST in Australia is 10%. J, Scully. (2012). this is added on to all purchases. Due to the client being a mining company a 30 per cent mining levy will also be charged, which was introduced in March 2012 for companies who have profits above $75 million. (E)conomic Economic refers to areas unique to economy and directly influenced by economy or comprised by economy, areas such as inflation rate and interest rate. With inflation rate reaching 1.5% in June 2012. P,Flynn. (2012). If the Inflation rate changes it would cause a dramatic impact on the development cost and profit margin. If an increase in the cost of capital and materials/labour rose then the break-even rate from this project would change. The cost of labour and materials could raise enough to deem the project unsuccessful, an increase in the cost of capital would significantly increase the cost of the project. All these areas can greatly influence the development, making them of high importance within the PEST analysis. (S)ocial Perth city is undergoing going a shortage of office space due to the growth in the mining industry. Many companies are expanding and require larger office while on the other hand many businesses are being created. The development has had a large increase in population over the last 10 years. (CSO 2011) this is mostly because of the mining boom, people started to relocate into Perth. 5.2 Organizing and preparing Once it has been proven that the project is viable the design and development phase commences. This involves outlining the build-method and developing detailed schedules and plans for making or implementing the product. Feasibility study and cash flow forecast are generated as part of this section. Feasibility study A company maybe trading successfully but if it does not have money to pay bills and wages then the company fails. Cash flow throughout the refurbishment of the office block will be an on-going requirement. For the business to succeed it needs efficient funds at all times. A profitable organisation can become bankrupt if they do not have enough cash to pay day to day bills. Factors such as expanded too ambitiously, or not receiving payment from debtors can cause this. To prevent from occurring a developers budget will be developed. 5.3 Carrying out project work This phase will implement the project as per the scope of work and design drawings. The Longest sequence of activities in the project will have to be completed on time to insure project is not delayed. A Critical path shows this and makes it possible to control all phases of the project. 5.4 Closing the project: The final phase of the development is closure. This confirms the development has been built to the design specification. There are various testing and procedures to be implemented these include inspections and any remedial work that may result from the inspections. In addition a checklist which includes certifications and approvals is signed off, finally a set of as built drawings are handed over before contractor receives final payment. Commission check list will be given to the contractor and all components will be checked and approved by superintendent before hand over to client. Commissioning of all equipment is undertaken and any faults are amended before all reports are handed over to the client. All Licences, certifications and registrations that are necessary by Australian Workplace Standards, shall be provided prior to the client accepting the project. A Defect liability period (DLP) of six months shall be in place and confirmed by the Australian Workplace standards. Adequate training sessions are held to educate the line managers in each sector. As-constructed or as-removed information must be submitted, prior to the project handover meeting. Executive control points are used in the development, this act like check points allowing progression on executive approval. These reinforce the construction manager on decisions to progress on the project. As the project proceeds through its lifecycle, the clients financial commitment and liabilities increase. At each control point a full management review is undergone this provides assurance that the development can progress to the next phase. It is determined that it costs about 10 times as much to implement a change during construction. This information gives the manager a level of control over the profile and timing of the project. The construction manager can therefore ensure that their project can be customized with minimum delay to the overall project. Equally, these formal approvals supply the project manager with the ability to drive the development to closure. It also provides guidance . The most significant control point in the project is the conclusion of the development phase. This symbolises the projects progression from feasibility to implementation. Feasibility studies provide this information. This information is document into a Project Brief. This gives the client an over view of what to expect. The project life cycle is subdivides the development into manageable project phases, in turn then are then subdivided into an input, process and output format. The following table shows the different components of the project lifecycle Control Points Each Phase is aligned one or more specific objectives for monitoring the project. These phases are all related the principal phase; the names are typically taken from their input into the development. Milestone and hold-points are created these provide focal point for the project team and impose control. These will close control of the interaction between activates to ensure full and proper integration and to minimize conflicts or misunderstandings. The contraction Phase is the most critical and every effort will be made to ensure all milestones are met. Close management is required to ensure delays are addressed. There are five control points that are key to the success of any project. Effective project management: make sure the safety, cost and schedules are implemented in the plan. Management staff is to understand and follow the projects critical path. Critical milestones play a significant part in sustaining an effective development. Cost management: The most effective approach is to develop a cost management function which focuses on all purchases. Budget control and expenditure tracking will be the most important. Supplier performance management: A QA (quality assurance) will reduce risk and improve the overall project. This improves third party performance which improves relationship with stakeholders. Healthy stage gates: develop a holistic capital project program with a control point for evaluating progress and enabling informed decisions about next steps. In addition to minimizing rework on front-end engineering and design, improve cycle time and generating punch lists for handoff maintenance, this discipline makes the project move more effectively. Early involvement is essential Risk assessment and reduction: To ensure the project is completed to a high standard cost controls and quality controls are implemented. This is completed on a day to day basic. Life cycle structure normally follows the following stages: Cost and staff requirements are high at the intervill of the project and slowly decrease as the project draws to a close. Figure 3 illustrates this. Stakeholder influences, risk and uncertainty are greatest at the start of the project. These decrease over the life of the project. Within the context of the generic life cycle structure, a project manager has the option to increase control over certain deliverables if required. More intricate projects may require additional level of control. In such instance, the work carried out to complete the projects objective ay benefit from being formally divided into phase.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Dispelling the Myths of Ageism Essay -- Age Discrimination in Western

Ageism is prejudice in which people are categorized and judged solely on the basis of their chronological age (Berger, 2008). Our western culture has embedded ageism into our everyday lives, and we may not be able to identify the ageist behavior when it occurs. Older adults are frequently given negative labels such as senile, sad, lonely, poor, sexless, ill, dependent, demented, and disabled. (McGuire, Klein, Shu-Li, 2008) It is inevitable that we will experience decline in physical and mental capacities. However, the timing, quality, and degree of the aging process are highly variable and very different for each individual. General assumptions and stereotypes about aging are harmful to individual senior adults and do not benefit society. After World War II ended in 1945, veterans returned home to get married and start families which resulted in a â€Å"baby boom.† This generation, which has been dubbed â€Å"Baby Boomers,† was born between 1946 and 1964. In 2011 this generation will begin to reach age 65, which is a pivotal age for senior adults. In 2050, the number of Americans aged 65 and older is projected to be 88.5 million, more than double its projected population of 40.2 million in 2010. The baby boomers are largely responsible for this increase in the older population, as they will begin crossing into this category in 2011. (US Census Bureau, 2010). With our population shifting to an older demographic, ageism will weigh heavily on our society and the importance of researching, discussing and finding solutions to ageism will come to the forefront. By definition, ageism is a form of discrimination that can occur at any age. However, it is the senior population that has been distressed the most. Only a few of the man... ...70802042123. Palmore, E. (2004). Research note: Ageism in Canada and the United States. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 19(1), 41-46. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database. Palmore, E. (2005). Three decades of research on ageism. Generations, 29(3), 87-90. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database. Ryan, E., Jin, Y., Anas, A., & Luh, J. (2004). Communication beliefs about youth and old age in Asia and Canada. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 19(4), 343-360. doi:10.1023/B:JCCG.0000044688.27282.7b. US Census Bureau (2010), The next four decades: The older population in the United States 2010 to 2050, Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/prod/2010pubs/p25-1138.pdf Zhou, L. (2007). What college students know about older adults: A cross-cultural qualitative study. Educational Gerontology, 33(10), 811-831. doi:10.1080/03601270701364545.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Labor and Employment Law Synthesis Paper

Labor and Employment Law Synthesis Paper Honglei Qin HMD 259-2005 11/14/2012 Labor and Employment Law This law is the one capable of explaining the economic motivation, background and implication of employment and labor regulation so as to help the policymakers, researchers and advocates express their own positional ideas (Simpson, 2011).. These regulations are the ones that provide the initial ideas of the labor law to any person getting into the studies regarding the economic perspectives.The labor law consists of various aspects which mostly are directly involving the employment processes. In this case, there are many categories of employments whereby the regulations guiding them are of different kinds. Some of the examples are the gender bases in the labor sector whereby both sex are protected by the law from any kind of discrimination in the workplaces (Simpson, 2011). In case of age matter, the law provides regulations on the age required for the employment hence preventing any kind of child labor.Other special cases that are guided by the labor law are the issues of slavery, human trafficking and the forced labor whereby the victims are being forced to work in bad conditions without their requirements been observed by the employers. According to the study conducted by Ann Sophie, the role of employment law economically is to generate a frame work of legal aspects to maximize the labor exchange joint value by reducing the incentives of the parties (Simpson, 2011).This is done in order to an advantageously use the element which are unspecified of contractual relationship and by doing this the cost of detailed employment and enforcement is reduced at a high rate. In order to understand well the concept of the employment or labor law, let us look at different ways of employment. Two of the main ways that a person can be employed is as an employee or may be as a contractor that is independent contractor. This will help as understand various obligation of the labor law since the two employment categories are assigned different rights under different obligations in the employment law (Simpson, 2011).Taking the case of the employee, he/she works directly under the service contractor with the employer, that is he/she works completely in the employer’s authority (Pagura, 2011).. He therefore have contract of service. In the other case of contractor, they do they work under sails of service and they do not only sell these services to one employer at a time but can as well sell them to many employers. Therefore they work under the contract for service. In order to understand this more, let us take an example of john and James who are both mechanics working in the same garage.John works there as a full time employee while James works as a contractor reporting to duties only in two days a week (Pagura, 2011).. In case of john, he waits to be told how, when and where to work by the boss. He gets his salary at the end of the month and it is fixed regardless of how many cars he has repaired (Pagura, 2011). All the tools are provided by the employer and he does not pay for any breakages or loses all that is under the employer’s obligation. In the case of James, he works only on Mondays and Fridays.After every peace of work he records it and at the end of every week he prepares an invoice for the job done of which he receives payments. Unlike john, James has to bring his toolbox with him and if he wants to use any from the garage he has to pay for it. Here are the deferent obligations provided by the labor law to these two different workers. In terms of flexibility, James is more flexible and independent than john. The independence of both is measured in terms of ability to work for others (Pagura, 2011).James is allowed to work for other contracts from Tuesday to Thursday while john is working exclusively for this one employer. Looking at the case of commercial risks, the employee is free from any commercial rich instead are taken by the employer while the contractor bears or the risks at work. These points are some of the points that an industrial court look at in order to determine whether a certain worker is an independent contractor or an employee.According to the contractor’s Act 2006 all the contractors are provided by the same rules and regulations. The labor law also provides regulations among the employee themselves. Let us look at one example of a case that is common in workplaces and that, if not handled properly, can be dangerous (Cornock, 2012). This is the issue of discrimination. There are several different types of discriminations such as the gender discrimination whereby a certain worker is denied her / his regal rights simply because of the sex type.The other type of discrimination is the religion or belief. This kind of assault can be from the employers or from the employees themselves. In order to report or raise such an issue, the victims should do it using a wri tten grievance with clear grounds of the problem and should be done before the end of three months from the incident (Cornock, 2012). In conclusion, the whole paper has tackled some of the aspects of the labor law and their implementations.We have seen how each employee is eligible to these employment rules which protect them in all kinds of work. The topic of labor law is broad and in order to understand further more studies are required. References Cornock, M. (2012). What to do when an employer acts unfairly. Nursing Standard, 26(38), 63. Pagura, I. (2011). Employment law: Employee v Independent Contractor. Journal Of The Australian Traditional-Medicine Society, 17(2), 36-37. Simpson, B. (2011). Labor and Employment Law and Economics. Industrial Law Journal, 40(1), 111-114.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Lesser Known Planning Tools Ansoff, Boston, and the Strategy Clock

Lesser Known Planning Tools Ansoff, Boston, and the Strategy Clock These tools are still widely taught but have largely fallen out of favor over time, as better and more detailed planning and strategic management tools have been developed. Nevertheless, these tools do offer some frameworks for assessing various kinds of strategies, and being familiar with them can serve as a good starting point for developing effective strategic planning methods. Remember, it doesnt matter how difficult your task is, our writers are ready to  help you with any writing assignment you need! The Ansoff Matrix The Ansoff Matrix was developed in the mid-1950s by Igor Ansoff, a Russian-born applied mathematician described by The Economist as â€Å"the father of modern strategic thinking†. Ansoff’s original work was not actually concerned with business management at all but was developed to aid NATO in strategic problem-solving at the height of the Cold War in the early 1960s (Ansoff was an analyst for the Rand Corporation and a Vice-President at Lockheed before moving into the academic field). In practice, various potential alternatives for growth strategies developed by planners are arranged in the matrix according to the generic strategies they represent, where they can then be analyzed in a systematic way through other methods. The biggest shortcoming of the Ansoff Matrix is that it is actually more an information-management tool than a planning or analytical tool; that makes it very helpful for assessing businesses from an external perspective (such as part of a competition analysis), but of limited use in strategic planning. A market penetration strategy is one in which business markets existing products to existing customers. The options available to the company in this strategy would involve promoting the product, adjusting the price, updating or repositioning the brand, and so on; no new product is introduced, and the business is simply cultivating its present customer base. A product development strategy is one in which new products – but products that are still natural evolutions of existing products, rather than being something totally unrelated – are marketed to the existing customer base. A market development strategy is when new markets are sought for existing products. A diversification strategy involves the development of new products and new markets at the same time. Market and product development strategies are opposites of each other, as are market penetration and diversification strategies. The Boston Consulting Group Product Portfolio Matrix (Boston Matrix) The Boston Matrix was developed by the Boston Consulting Group in the 1970s as a tool for assessing a company’s product portfolio and is based on two variables, market share and market growth. Each product is placed into one of four categories: Stars  are products with high market share in high-growth markets. These products generate high levels of revenue, though not always high margins. Cash cows  are products with high market share in low-growth markets. These products generate stable revenue and high margins because they require little investment to maintain their competitive position. Question marks  (in some versions, they are called problem children) are products with low market share in high-growth markets; they have potential because of that but are currently generating poor revenues and margins. Dogs  are products with low market share in low-growth markets. They do not generate worthwhile income (and may actually be losing money for the company) and do not have prospects for improving. In general, a company would want to rid itself of any Dogs and keep its Stars and Cash Cows; Stars may eventually become Cash Cows, and Cash Cows provide the source of funds to support promising Question Marks. Some Question Marks can become Stars, others will not, and become Dogs. One additional advantage of using the Boston Matrix is that the format (in most cases, with the amusing graphics excluded) can be used to plot a competitor’s products alongside a company’s own products, thus creating a simple, clear competitive analysis. The biggest inherent disadvantage of the Boston Matrix is that it tends to lead to oversimplification because it has only two variables; it is best used as a tool that provides input to a larger portfolio analysis, rather than the sole basis of the analysis. Another problem of the Boston Matrix, which is not really a problem with the tool itself but rather the way in which it is used, is that it is often misapplied; using it as a tool to assess entire strategic business units has for reasons that are not entirely clear become somewhat of a management fad. In this  usage, the oversimplification almost always leads to a bad decision, because business units are not products, but are rather more complicated. The Strategy Clock Unlike the Ansoff and Boston Matrices, which are designed for product and marketing planning,  the strategy clock is a firm-level competitive analysis tool  along the same lines as Porter’s Generic Strategies or Five Forces analysis. First published in 1996 (C. Bowman D. Faulkner,  Competitive  and Corporate Strategy), the strategy clock presents options for competitive positioning according to price level (cost advantage strategy) or the level of perceived added value (a differentiation advantage strategy): Of the eight options on the clock, options 6, 7, and 8 are almost certainly doomed to failure, so in practice, the company would want to determine first if it is following or is heading towards one of these strategies. Option 6, increasing the price of a standard product, can only be successful if competitors do the same, or lower the value of their products. Option 7, a high price on a low-value product, can only be successful in a monopoly situation. Option 8, offering a low-value product at a standard price, is an automatic failure because it provides the competition two opportunities to take away market share, either through lower prices or higher-value products. The three most successful strategies, options 3, 4, and 5, can be best illustrated with some well-known examples, auto manufacturers: Toyota  pursues a hybrid strategy, maintaining relatively low prices while offering a high level of value, mainly through having a very wide range of products. BMW  pursues a differentiation strategy, dividing it between providing high value at moderate prices at the lower end of its product range, where the value added comes mostly in the form of brand equity and product quality, and high value through premium pricing at the upper end of its product range. Ferrari  pursues a strategy of focused differentiation, providing high value at premium prices to a specific market segment. The only real drawback to the strategy clock is that  it only provides any useful information when it includes more than one competing company; like the Ansoff Matrix, this makes it perhaps more useful as a case study or competition analysis than as a reflective strategic analysis and planning tool. We hope that this article has been of help to you. However, we are not ignorant of the depth and width of the field of strategic management. If you would like to know more about anything we have discussed in this article or a related topic just get in touch with us. We would love to write you an informative and unique article on any topic of your choice. Place your  order NOW. More tools (ADL Matrix, Gap Analysis, and Directional Policy Matrix) can be found  here.