Race relations Act 1976. (Amended 2000) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Race relations Act 1976. (Amended 2000) - Essay Example which are equivalent to those in his/her special group (Cross, 1989, p. 85). It is believed that equal opportunity in the UK may be taken in the context of the third meaning given. The Race Relations Act of 1976 changed the general concept of racial discrimination in the United Kingdom. Firstly, the Act widened its scope of discrimination by including indirect and unintentional forms of discrimination. Secondly, the Act also fortified the implementation of the law. As stipulated in its provisions, the Race Relations Act of 1976 created the Commission on Racial Equality (CRE), replacing the Race (RRB) Relations Board. In terms of substance, the CRE is endowed greater power than the RRB or the Community Relations Commission. The CRE was mandated to enforce the law in England, Scotland and Wales (Bolaffi, 2001, p. 42). A separate institution, the Commission for Racial Equality for Northern Ireland, is tasked with the implementation of the law on discrimination in Northern Ireland. By virtue of an Order in Council, the Race Relations (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 was enacted to provide protection against race-related discrimination in 1995 (Rogers, 1999). The Race Relations Act of 1976 was passed on November 22, 1976. The legislation was enacted to intensify existing regulations against race-related discrimination and to guide relations between individual of different ethnic origins. The Act also introduced amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975 by instituting provisions aimed towards consistency in the supervision and implementation of such amendments (Ministry of Justice 1991). The Race Relations Act of 1976 was revised by virtue of the provisions of the Race Relations (Amendment ) Act of 2000 on November 30, 2000. This 2000 amendment broadened the application of the Race Relations Act of 1976 to the police and other public authorities. The amendment also altered the stipulations for exemption under the 1976 Act

An Inspector Calls Essay Example for Free

An Inspector Calls Essay I believe that An Inspector Calls is a successful play because all audiences enjoy suspense and tension, and in this story they run rampant. The tense atmosphere and great pace means that the audience never gets bored. The feelings from the characters can be related to real life and this makes the play that bit more believable. The issues in the play are also issues of today, the prejudice and social class, mean a lot in the play and to some extent they also appear in modern day life. The rich expect different treatment from those of lower classes and also expect a different set of laws. The way the inspector talks to the Birlings and to Gerald Croft brings them down to a different level to the one that they are used to. The inspector questions things that Mr Birling thinks are not for him to question. Mr Birling: . I refused of course Inspector: Why? Mr Birling (surprised): did you say why? The inspector, it seems, will not be intimidated by Mr Birling. Mr Birling: How do you get on with our Chief constable, Colonel Roberts? Inspector: I dont see much of him. Mr Birling: Perhaps I ought to warn you that hes an old friend of mine, and that I see him fairly regularly. .. Inspector (dryly): I dont play golf. This shows that the inspector means business and will not be threatened off the case. This conflict runs through the play and the audience is awed by the way that the inspector coolly and calmly handles the investigation. He has an aura of mystery about him that audiences love. The name Goole, could be a clever trick on words, Goole sounds the same as Ghoul. One meaning a supernatural beast and the other a simple name. This theory fits in with the content of the play, the inspector is not intimidated by threats, each line of enquiry has a result, this is incredible almost as if he knew what they were going to say, as Sheila notes Sheila (slowly): We hardly ever told him anything that he didnt know. Did you notice that? It is almost as if the inspector has been sent from the future to show the Birlings the error of their ways. Sheila points out again; Sheila (passionately): Youre pretending everythings just as it is before. And Sheila: I tell you whoever that inspector was it was far from a joke. You knew it then. You began to learn something. And now youve stopped. The inspector wrenches them from their cosy world and shows them a bit of the real world. None of the family (Except the younger generation) knows what their town is really like, as Mrs Birling exclaims; Mrs Birling (staggered): Well, really! Alderman Meggarty! I must say, we are learning something tonight. The atmosphere also has a large influence on the audience. It fluctuates greatly from being light and airy when they are celebrating to when the inspector is questioning and during the final part it is dark and sombre. This has a very dramatic effect and compels you to continue reading the play if you are watching the play unfold before you the effect, I expect, is magnified. Most plots have one twist but this play has several. The audience is enthralled that a respectable middle class family could be responsible for such a death. The audience waits patiently for the inspector to implicate and arrest one but much to their surprise he implicates all of them in the suicide, each accusation getting worse from firing her as an employee to being impregnated by a young drunkard. This fact means that the audience gradually build up their suspense for the final character Eric. But another twist is evoked and the inspector does not arrest anybody. The final twist though is the greatest. As the play draws to a close, the phone rings it is the Police Station phoning to say that a young girl has just died and that an inspector will be over to ask a few questions. This is ironic in the extreme, the play has come full circle and is about to start all over again it seems. Any thing that keeps the audience waiting or does not expect, the audience likes and this final twist is certainly not expected. Another factor to the written marvel that is this play is the timing of bells or the telephone. At the beginning of the play when Mr Birling is giving the two young boys some good advice he is interrupted by the arrival of the inspector. Mr Birling (solemnly): .. that a man has to mind his own business and look after his own and We hear the sharp ring of a frond door bell. BIRLING stops to listen. It is ironic that Mr Birling is saying that every man has to mind of his own business and should look after himself. The inspector makes them see other peoples problems and not just there own. Each of the characters are implicated, this is ironic because they all say that they had nothing to/or to do with the girl. It is also ironic that Mrs Birling implicates her son. Mrs Birling(severely):. And if youd take some steps to find this young man and then make sure that he is compelled to confess in public his responsibility- instead of staying here asking unnecessary questions then you would really be doing your duty. ..Mrs Birling (understanding now): But surely I mean. its ridiculous The whole play is set in one room. This means that the characters have to focus on the characters because there is no new scene for their eyes to explore. As a result they can get an understanding of the characters that some other plays dont allow, the audience feels that they are a part of events they can relate to images and ideas explored in the play and so this makes the play that bit more vivid and exciting. It is for these reasons that the play is so successful. There are many topics that can be related to todays life, this provokes thoughts from the audience that they would not otherwise had. The characters in the play are easy to relate to and are a masterful creation, because of this the story is easy to follow and involving for the audience. The plot has been written so that things you expect to happen, happen, but they still surprise you, and things that you as the audience dont expect to happen still happen. All of these things contribute to a beautifully crafted and thought out play and this makes it one of my favorites.

All About the Philippines :: essays research papers

The first inhabitants of the Philippines arrived from the land bridge from Asia over 150,000 years ago. Throughout the years, migrants from Indonesia, Malaysia, and other parts of Asia made their way to the islands of this country. In the fourteenth century, the Arabs arrived and soon began a long tradition of Islam. Many Muslims are still living in the Philippines today.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1521, Magellan claimed the land for Spain, but was killed by local chiefs who did not want Spain’s inhabitance. However, the Spanish returned in 1543 and named the land Filipinas after King Philip II. Spain soon after began their control. At the time of the Spanish American War the colonial government in the Philippines was administered by a Governor-General selected in Spain. The Philippine islands were used to reward the king’s favorites who could return home enormous fortunes from natives and foreign immigrants via a system of taxation that savored of blackmail and confiscation. The Governor-General had a cabinet composed of the Archbishop of Manila, the Captain-General of the army and the Admiral of the navy stationed in the colonies. The administrative power lay with the Governor-General and the Archbishop, and the religious orders of the Spanish Catholic Church were the practical controllers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The climate of the Philippines, which is tropical, subjected to violent monsoons, seasons of drenching rains, and an almost intolerable heat lasting from March to July, has made it necessary to change continually the Spanish administrators. By 1571, the country had control over the islands, except for any Islamic areas.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Filipinos lived in settlements called barangays before the colonization of the Philippines by the Spaniards. As the unit of government, a barangay consisted from 30 to 100 families. It was headed by a datu and was independent from the other groups. Usually, several barangays settled near each other to help one another in case of war or any emergency. The position of datu was passed on by the holder of the position to the eldest son or, if none, the eldest daughter. However, later, any member of the barangay could be chieftain, based on his talent and ability. He had the usual responsibilities of leading and protecting the members of his barangay. In turn, they had to pay tribute to the datu, help him till the land, and help him fight for the barangay in case of war. There were four classes of society.

Statistical and managerial techniques for six sigma methodology theory and application Essay

Quality improvement (QI) comprises of continuous and systematic actions that result to measurable improvement in the health care as well as the health status of patients groups that are targeted. According to the institute of Medicine’s, which is a recognized advisor and leader on the nation’s health care improvement, health care quality comprises of a direct correlation between the desired health outcomes and the level of improved health services of populations and individuals (Shan 2008). The process of QI involves the application of a defined and a deliberate process of improvement. It involves ongoing and continuous efforts designed to achieve measurable improvements in the effectiveness, efficiency, accountability, outcomes, performance, and other indicators of quality in processes or services which improves the community health and achieves equity. Methodologies used in integrating QI strategies in the health care performance                Methodology describes theoretical analysis of the appropriate methods to a given field of study or to the body of principles and methods particular to a branch of knowledge (Barone 2012). On the other hand, a strategy refers to the science and art of marshaling and planning resources for an efficient and effective use (Menon 2010). Six Sigma                It involves monitoring, designing and improving process that eliminate or minimize waste while increasing financial stability and optimizing satisfaction. The performance of a process is applied in measuring improvement through comparing the process capability with the capability of baseline process after the potential solution piloting for quality improvement. It uses two primary methods. One method is responsible in inspecting process outcome and counts on the defects, calculates the rate per million of a defect, and applies a table of statistics in the conversion of defect rate per million in relation to a sigma metric. The second estimates the variation of the process to predict the performance through calculating a sigma metric from the observed variations of the process. It uses a five-phased process that is disciplined rigorous, referred to as DMAIC approach. It begins by identifying the project, reviewing the historical data, and lastly defining the s cope of the expectations. Next, the standards of continuous total quality performance are selected objectives of the performance are defined, and definition of sources of variability. Data are collected for assessment of how well the process was improved by changes as a new project is implemented. Customer inspired quality methodology                It concentrates on the process as well as the results of an organization. This methodology needs the service to be thorough as it focuses on the customers’ perspective. It identifies customer measures, reviewing and improving processes and getting the feedback of customers. This methodology enables the organization to realize the customer needs and works towards integrating them to the customer services. The methodology becomes continuous as the patients’ needs change with time. The organization sets down procedures which act as a reference to the organization. This calls for regular training of the staffs so as to enhance better services delivery to the customers. Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA)                Studies and projects based on QI aimed at bringing positive changes in the processes of delivering health care services can apply PDSA for favorable outcomes. This method has been widely used by healthcare institute for rapid cycle improvement. The model has a unique feature that is the cyclical nature of assessing and impacting change. It is most accomplished effectively through frequent and small PDSAs instead of using slow and big ones before wide changes are made in the system. The aim of PDSA efforts in quality improvement is to establish a casual or functional relationship between outcomes and changes in processes specifically capabilities and behaviors (Provost 2011). Three questions are proposed before applying the PDSA cycles: what is the aim of the project? How will it be revealed that the set aims were achieved? What is going to be done to achieve the aim? The cycle starts by with determining the scope and the nature of the problem, what is to be measured in order to understand the effect of change, and where the strategy is to be targeted. A change is implemented, and information and data are collected. Results from the study are interpreted and assessed through reviewing several key measurements showing failure or success. Lastly a change on QI is implemented based on the results obtained. Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS)                It occupies a significant part in the field of management technologies of clinical knowledge through their capacity to support the use of knowledge and the clinical process, from investigation and diagnosis through treatment and long-term care. These support systems are â€Å"systems of active knowledge using two or more patient data items for the generation of case-specific advice (Danniels 2010). CDSS is designed typically to integrate a medically based knowledge, an inference engine and patient data for case specific advice generation. IT applications                For health care providers to meet the increasing quality demands of their patients, they are required to focus on innovation technology. Examples of IT that can be applied include object oriented technologies, use of specific components of IT, and the computerized system records (Qi 2013). Object oriented technology ensures all different systems in the organization are connected to a unified system of management. Patient’s records are computerized to prevent damage or loss. For specific IT components, it ensures easier monitoring of quality performance in the organization. IT applications in improving performanceObject oriented technology                Links the components of quality management system to the entire management system of the enterprise, it is obtained through connection of these components via interface of a standard framework. It ensures that medical records are not lost, and there is faster delivery of services. Computerized system of patient records                It has great effects on the profitability of the organization. It minimizes time and labor that is used during data entry. The stored data is easily propagated once it has been keyed into the system (Clancy 2003). Specific IT components                It helps in sufficing the demands of the diversified population of patients. It ensures consistency in the organizations operations. It enables the organization to achieve the safety of patients and have fast service delivery. Nurses and other health workers learn fast on how to use such systems as they are specific. Use of milestones and benchmarks in quality indicators management                In quality improvement, quality indicators are used as a guide to the performance evaluation in an organization. Walshe et al (2001) stated that performance should be continually evaluated and at the end of the organizational projects. Benchmarks are operations and programs that are set out in order assess the organizational performance (Catalano 2008). This is achieved through running some trial tests and standards. It ensures a review of information technology performance of an organization. Milestones mark the end of a stage or a project. Performance is continually monitored, improved and evaluated through this process. Potential benchmarks                For the plan of QI, future event, benchmarks system level and application benchmarks will be applied. Benchmarks help the organization in achieving the set goals. The benchmarks system level is meant in evaluating how computer programs and applications are performing in overall. According to Obadiah & Boudriga (2009), use of information technology improves the organizational computer programs and systems. The application of benchmarks applies actual application programs. In the delivery of health care services, the aim is ensuring that each patient gets quality health services. The vision, mission and strategic plan of the health organization are to give satisfactory services to patients. The organization also plans to be the leading store and drug suppliers. Improvement of performance is in line with the organizational plans as they facilitate achievement of patients’ satisfaction and quality improvement. This results to increased sales, competitivene ss and revenue (Walshe et al 2001). Conclusion                Performance and quality improvement are very essential in an organization. It is achieved through the use of improved information technology system, and methodologies of performance improvement. Improvement of performance being a continuous process leads to increase in the organizational profit and customer loyalty. References Barone, S., & Franco, E. L. (2012). Statistical and managerial techniques for six sigma methodology theory and application. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley. Chiarini, A. (2013). Lean organization from the tools of the Toyota Production System to lean office. Milan: Springer. Daniels, R., Grendell, R. N., & Wilkins, F. R. (2010). Nursing fundamentals: caring & clinical decision making. (2nd ed.). Clifton Park, NY: Delmar Cengage Learning. Dou, R. (2013). Proceedings of 2012 3rd International Asia Conference on Industrial Engineering and Management Innovation (IEMI2012). Berlin: Springer. Harrington, H. J. (2013). Performance acceleration management (PAM): rapid improvement to your key performance drivers. Boca Raton: CRC Press. Menon, R., & Kumar, R. (2010). The long view from Delhi: to define the Indian grand strategy for foreign policy. New Delhi: Academic Foundation in association with Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations. Provost, L. P., & Murray, S. K. (2011). The health care data guide learning from data for improvement. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Qi, E. (2013). The 19th International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management: engineering management. Berlin: Springer. Source document

Gentrification of urban communities

Urban reclamation is frequently lauded as a approval by politicians and land developers ; it is seen as a method of conveying economic and cultural growing to an otherwise dead community. It is a set of alterations made in the hopes that new occupants come in, more concerns unfastened, and more capital flows into the country. However, redevelopment frequently consequences in the deconstruction and replacing of a preexistent community, displacing the former occupants and increasing their adversities instead than supplying revival. Gentrification, the procedure in which more flush occupants move into a poorer country and alter its societal and economic kineticss, is a term that comes up in virtually every argument sing urban renovation. In this paper, I will reason that the usage of urban gentrification for useful intents is unjust and delusory, and the Kantian thought that positive purpose affairs more than effect provides an insidious lenience. I will demo the hurt gentrification cau ses to local concerns and occupants through illustrations from countries that have undergone the procedure, and compare the statements for and against the pattern ; the effects of lifting belongings values, the alterations in a community ‘s concerns, and the alterations in a community ‘s societal make-up will be the chief countries of focal point. After the research is presented, I will research the philosophical point of views of Kant and Mill, and contrast idealism with the world that urban communities must confront in covering with gentrification. When flush fledglings set up places in a hapless community, they frequently rebuild or otherwise modify the belongingss they buy ; by making this, switch the belongings values up consequently. The belongings revenue enhancements and rent addition to fit this up grading of places and flats. These higher income households can afford these increased fees, and the excess revenue enhancement capital fluxing into the country by and large pleases the local authorities. But for long-time occupants, this displacement in belongings values can be an unwelcome load. Harmonizing to an appraisal conducted by Daniel Sullivan, longtime occupants of a gentrified community tend to be poorer than newer occupants. Consequentially, long-time occupants frequently become displaced by the newer, richer occupants. Koreatown, Los Angeles is a premier illustration of this effect. In the survey â€Å" The Contested Nexus of Koreatown † , Kyeyoung Park and Jessica detailed the alterations the urban enclav e experienced as restructured itself after the Los Angeles Riots. During the LA Riots, Koreatown ‘s belongingss suffered amendss that occupants were distressed to reimburse from ; many displaced occupants abandoned the enclave wholly. Outside investing and urban revival seemed the lone means to supply the alleviation Koreatown so urgently needed, but the research workers found its redevelopment self-contradictory ; while belongings values increased and the town experienced a singular recovery, established occupants found themselves out on the streets because they were unable to afford the new rents and fees. These occupants were largely local workers doing minimal pay wages, who all of a sudden found their flat composites being bought out by development companies ; the edifices would be renovated and refurbished, and the rents would be dual the original cost. Gentrification had compounded the supplanting of the original community alternatively of assisting them acquire back on their pess. From the point of position of the established community, it is hard to state that urban reclamation provided any societal good for them ; they had been swapped out in favour of newer occupants. As new higher-income occupants come in, the types of concerns in the country alteration every bit good. These occupants have more disposable income and the kinds of goods and services they desire differ from the other occupants. The concentration of professional services and retail shops addition, while smaller, local concerns go into diminution ( Park and Kim, 2008 ) . To run into with the demands of a altering community, some services become plethoric to the point of instability ; local concern proprietors find themselves missing the resources to remain competitory and travel out of concern, ensuing in farther supplanting of the established community versus the entrance community. In their survey, Park and Kim stated there was over-saturation of pool halls, cyberspace coffeehouse, karaoke bars, dark nines, room salons, and spirits shops in Koreatown ; while this gives the consumer more pick, the competition makes for a really hostile and unforgiving concern environment. The new sho ps and services can frequently be unaccessible to the established occupants, in footings of affordability and focal point ; it is a signifier of market positivism that takes merely the concerns of the flush into history. When Koreatown was redeveloped, the new services were centered towards pulling people to the night life with bars, nines, and high-class eating houses ; while these concerns were popular out-of-towners and the flush, the bulk of the local community had no usage for such excessive venues. Babylon Court, an upscale shopping centre located in Hollywood, is besides an illustration of disagreement between concern and the community. The shopping centre is a popular location for the upper category with its expensive retail shops and celebrated theatres, but it stand in stark contrast to the environing community of the homeless and comparatively hapless who can non afford the offering of Babylon Court ( Curtio, Davenport, and Jackiewicz, 2007 ) . Once once more, the intrigu es of the gentrification procedure have non helped the community, but hampered it ; outside investing and new concerns that were suppose to take a breath life into a fighting community have alternatively alienated and beleaguered the long-time occupants. When reclamation is enacted for the good of a community, the bing community is rarely the donee ; alternatively, the community is steadily changed and replaced so that revival is a consequence of a new public. Increased variegation and societal mixture does non happen, but replacing and segregation are frequently the consequence when covering with gentrification. In â€Å" Gentrification and Social Mixing † , Loretta Lees stated that in-between fledglings into urban communities self-segregated themselves even though they polled in favour of diverseness in a vicinity. This procedure of gentrification is on a regular basis aided by societal policies created by the province. One illustration of that happening is Cabrini Green in Chicago. In 1994, it qualified â€Å" the worst instance of public lodging in the US † , and was later given $ 50 million to redevelop ; the destruction and vouchering out that followed displaced a important part of low-income renters and recreated the community as a in-between category vicinity ( Lees, 2008 ) . The UK developed similar policies ; the London Borough of Brent New Deal for Communities undertaking funded the destruction of tower blocks and created over 1500 in private owned units, but at the loss of 800 publically owned units ( Atkinson, 2008 ) , displacing low-income occupants. The preexistent community is pushed out by the alterations in the local economic system, and an of all time so elusive societal cleaning takes topographic point, while policy shapers flaunt their love of societal public-service corporation and the public good and claim they are relieving the poorness of urban countries. A useful action should ensue the greatest felicity for the greatest sum of people. J.S. Mill demanded empiricist philosophy in infering what benefited the whole, but gentrification puts the felicity and experiences of clearly different groups at odds. Does gentrification function the felicity of the old occupants or the new occupants? Empirical scrutiny of informations Tells me the old occupants are simple garbage in gentrification and newer occupants are primary concern. Is the greater felicity a affair of population measure or is it a affair of population quality? Another empirical scrutiny reveals gentrification is process that favors people of higher income, a affair of quality instead than measure. My scrutiny reveals gentrification consequences in the greatest felicity for the few, instead than the many. So I pose the undermentioned inquiry: how does one justify gentrification as functioning the greater good? Social policies recommending gentrification claim they have improved and revitalized urban communities, when all they have done is displace the established low-income households to do it seem like they have reduced poorness in the country. This misrepresentation is something I take immense issue with ; even Milton Friedman, a adult male who was likely supportive of urban reclamation patterns, spewed sulfuric acid at utilizing the alibi of â€Å" societal good † to accomplish a personal docket. Gentrification in the name of societal public-service corporation is a failure, but Immanuel Kant said baronial purpose affairs more than effect. However, baronial purpose is something subjective ; what is baronial to one individual is non needfully baronial to another. The effects of gentrification are desperate and far-reaching and to pardon the procedure based on a subjective ideal is an indulgence excessively easy granted. In duty-based moralss, a individual must see his ideal as if it were a cosmopolitan axiom ; if it is contradictory, so it is a defective ideal. Suppose everyone went around fliping people poorer than themselves out of house and place, destructing and reconstructing belongingss for their ain usage ; this would ensue complete pandemonium, with people of all societal standings in ferocious struggle with one another. Through policy devising, advocates of gentrification have besides reduced the thought of community to a part of a map instead than people ; Kant would be taken aback by the deficiency of regard for the sovereignty of the person. Intent entirely can non salvage the policy of gentrification ; it is something flawed by subjective dockets, and Kant ‘s nonsubjective ideals can non be efficaciously applied to the worlds of the state of affairs. Gentrification carried out in the name of utilitarianism is a misrepresentation wrought upon troubled communities. It is excessively frequently that the promise of revival is made a cloak for a cleaning of a community ‘s societal order. The occupants suffer through a procedure of steadily increasing adversities and eventual replacing by the more privileged ; it ‘s â€Å" Invasion of the Body Snatchers † , except with the middle class alternatively of foreigners. With the increasing belongings values and as if by magic vanishing poorness, statistics are made reinforce the thought that gentrification works admirations for communities. I can non decently show my contempt for this sinister kind of planning ; it is a type of dastardly deed tantrum for scoundrels with long moustaches, twirling fingers, and big chapeaus. While I would immensely prefer investing and animation that allowed a community to go self-sufficing by its ain attempts, I would merely settle for the f ake of societal good to be dropped from the pitch. If you ‘re traveling to pass over out and reconstruct a community, name it for what it is ; they ‘re likely excessively hapless and incapacitated to halt you.Plants CitedAtkinson, Rowland. â€Å" Commentary: Gentrification, Segregation and the Vocabulary of Affluent Residential Choice. † Urban Studies V. 45 No. 12 ( November 2008 ) P. 2626-36, 45.12 ( 2008 ) : 2626-2636.Sullivan, Daniel Monroe. â€Å" Reassessing Gentrification. † Urban Affairs Review, 42.4 ( 2007 ) : 583-592.Leess, Loretta. â€Å" Gentrification and Social Mixing: Towards an Inclusive Urban Renaissance? . † Urban Studies V. 45 No. 12 ( November 2008 ) P. 2449-70, 45.12 ( 2008 ) : 2449-2470.Curti, Giorgio Hadi, John Davenport, and Edward Jackiewicz. â€Å" Concrete Babylon: Life Between the Stars. † Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, 69 ( 2007 ) : 45-73.Park, Kyeyoung, and Jessica Kim. â€Å" The Contes ted Nexus of Los Angeles Koreatown: Capital Restructuring, Gentrification, and Displacement. † Amerasia Journal V. 34 No. 3 ( 2008 ) P. 126-50, 34.3 ( 2008 ) : 126-150.

O Henry essays

O Henry essays The Gift of the Magi, by O. Henry, is the most famous short story he has written. This story, like many of his other short stories, was written while he was at the Ohio Penitentiary. O. Henry wrote in a manner that most readers were able to identify with the situations in the story. "The Gift of the Magi" was no different, as it showed what one couple does for love in the face of financial destitution. O. Henrys life influenced his stories. William Sydney Porter, better known to readers as O. Henry, was born on September 11, 1862, in Greensboro, North Carolina (W.S. Porter 1 of 1). He was the son of Algernon and Mary Virginia Swaim Porter. His father was a physician and his mother spent her time writing poems. Unfortunately, his mother died of tuberculosis when he was only three-years-old (American Literature 1846). Upon his mothers death, he was left to be raised by his grandmother and his Aunt Lina (American Literature 1846). His aunt and his grandmother frequently read to him when he was a child. Henry didnt have many friends as a child. He spent most of his time at home (Linder 1 of 1). O. Henry loved to read and developed a lifelong love for literature (Kirjasto 1 of 1). Henry was not like many other famous writers. He left school at the age fifteen (Kirjasto 1 of 1). He didnt attend college nor did he receive any other formal education. The only education he got was from his Aunt Lina (W.S. Porter 1 of 1). O. Henry didnt established many long lasting relationships in his lifetime. Henry got married in July of 1887 to Athol Estes. He and Athol had one daughter together, Margaret (American Literature 1846). Athol became ill in 1897 and died a few months later (W.S. Porter 1 of 1). He later remarried to his childhood friend, Sarah Lindsay Coleman. His marriage with Sarah was not a happy one though; they separated in...

Great Depression and

Great Depression and Great Depression and -the Automobile Industry Essay New Deal Economy in the 1920s -The decade of the 1920s saw a tremendous rise in the stock market and the economy was prospering. -Henry Ford was a manufacturing genius and knew how to make cars that people could afford. -The automobile industry became one of the most important industries in the nation. -It stimulated growth in many related industries, such as steel, rubber, glass, tool companies, and gasoline. -The 1920s was a period in which many men and women could afford not only the means of subsistence, but a considerable amount of what they wanted. -Middle class families purchased new appliances such as electric refrigerators, washing machines, electric irons, and vacuum cleaners. -Women purchased cosmetics and mass produced fashions. -Agriculture in the 1920s, like industry, was embracing new technologies. The number of tractors on American farms quadrupled during the decade. -These new technologies greatly increased agricultural production, but the demand for the goods was not rising as fast as the production. -This resulted in substantial surpluses, a decline in food prices, and a severe drop in farmers’ income. -More than 3 million people left agriculture altogether during this decade. Of those who remained, many lost ownership of their land and had to rent instead from banks or other landlords. -Because of this, many farmers began to demand relief in the form of government price supports. Stock Market Crash -The Federal Reserve expanded the money supply during the 1920s by about 80 percent. -Prices went up some, but not by 80 percent. Most of the extra money was getting sucked into the stock market causing stocks to go up and stocks were going up more than ever before, more than anyone had ever seen. -The average person in the 1920s didn’t invest in the stock market like they do today, but those who did invest made a lot of money. -Many people bought stock on margin. This is taking a loan to buy more stock than you can really afford, with the stock being the collateral for the margin loan. -Some people were getting rich from buying on margin. -In February 1928 stock prices began a steady rise that continued, with few temporary lapses, for a year and a half. -Trading grew from 2 or 3 million shares a day to over 5 million, and at times 10 or 12 million. -In 1929 things took a turn for the worst as the stock market went south. -Why did that happen? It’s hard to explain why stock markets do what they do (like a herd of animals in the wild, the slightest thing can spook them). The Federal Reserve saw that it had created a monster, the economy was kind of like a runaway train (they had blown a giant bubble with the inflation and are trying to suck the air out of it without it popping in their face, it doesn’t work). -In October 1929 the stock market loses a huge percentage in one day. -On October 21 and 23 there were alarming declines in stock prices, but both cases were followed by temporary recoveries. -On October 29, known as â€Å"Black Tuesday,† all efforts to save the market failed and in the months that followed it continued to decline. -It would remain deeply depressed for more than four years and would not fully recover until the 1940s. -Some people even jumped out of windows in response to the crash, having lost everything. -Stock began to drop to less than the marginal loans people took out on them. They now had no collateral and had to come up with liquid money (cash) to pay the difference. People began to sell everything to come up with the money, they pulled money out of the banks, and some banks went under and then people lost their money in those banks. -The disaster at the upper end of the economy trickled down to the rest of the economy. -Businesses began going under, factories were closing, creating lot of unemployment, and people began lining up to get unemployment relief. -What happened to the rich had repercussions throughout the economy and many suffered as

Green Ash Tree Facts, Identification, and Management

Green Ash Tree Facts, Identification, and Management Green ash will reach a height of about 60 feet with a spread of 45 feet. Upright main branches bear twigs which droop toward the ground then bend upward at their tips much like Basswood. The glossy dark green foliage will turn yellow in the fall, but the color is often muted in the south. There is a good seed-set annually on female trees which are used by many birds but some consider the seeds to be messy. This fast-growing tree will adapt to many different landscape conditions and can be grown on wet or dry sites, preferring moist. Some cities have over-planted green ash. Specifics of the Green Ash Scientific name: Fraxinus pennsylvanicaPronunciation: FRACK-sih-nus pen-sill-VAN-ih-kuhCommon name(s): Green AshFamily: OleaceaeUSDA hardiness zones: 3 through 9AOrigin: Native to North AmericaUses: Large parking lot islands; wide tree lawns; recommended for buffer strips around parking lots or for median strip plantings in the highway; reclamation plant; shade tree;Availability: Generally available in many areas within its hardiness range. Native Range Green ash extends from Cape Breton Island and Nova Scotia west to southeastern Alberta; south through central Montana, northeastern Wyoming, to southeastern Texas; and east to northwestern Florida and Georgia. Description Leaf: Opposite, pinnately compound with 7 to 9 serrate leaflets that are lanceolate to elliptical in shape, entire leaf is 6 to 9 inches long, green above and glabrous to silky-pubescent below. Crown uniformity: Symmetrical canopy with a regular (or smooth) outline, and individuals have more or less identical crown forms. Trunk/bark/branches:  Grow mostly upright and will not droop; not particularly showy; should be grown with a single leader; no thorns. Breakage:  Susceptible to breakage either at the crotch due to poor collar formation, or the wood itself is weak and tends to break. Flower and Fruit Flower: Dioecious; light green to purplish, both sexes lacking petals, females occurring in loose panicles, males in tighter clusters, appear after the leaves unfold. Fruit: A single-winged, dry, flattened samara with a slender, thin seed cavity, maturing in autumn and dispersing over winter. Special Uses Green ash wood, because of its strength, hardness, high shock resistance, and excellent bending qualities is used in specialty items such as tool handles and baseball bats but is not as desirable as white ash. It is also a favorite tree used in city and yard landscapes. Several Green Ash Hybrids ‘Marshall Seedless’- some seeds, yellow fall color, fewer insect problems,; ‘Patmore’ - excellent street tree, straight trunk, good yellow fall color, seedless; ‘Summit’ - female, yellow fall color, straight trunk but pruning required to develop strong structure, abundant seeds, and flower galls can be a nuisance; ‘Cimmaron’ is a new plant (USDA hardiness zone 3) reported to have a strong trunk, good lateral branching habit, and tolerance to salt. Damaging Pests Borers: Common on Ash and they can kill trees. The most common borers infesting Ash are Ash borer, lilac borer, and carpenterworm. Ash borer bores into the trunk at or near the soil line causing tree dieback. Anthracnose: also called leaf scorch and leaf spot. Infected parts of the leaves turn brown, especially along the margins. Infected leaves fall prematurely. Rake up and destroy infected leaves. Chemical controls are not practical or economical on large trees. Trees in the south can be severely affected. The Most Widely Distributed   Green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica), also called red ash, swamp ash, and water ash  is the most widely distributed of all the American ashes. Naturally a moist bottomland or stream bank tree, it is hardy to climatic extremes and has been widely planted in the Plains States and Canada. The commercial supply is mostly in the South. Green ash is similar in property to white ash and they are marketed together as white ash. The large seed crops provide food to many kinds of wildlife. Due to its good form and resistance to insects and disease, it is a very popular ornamental tree.

Organisational design Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Organisational design - Essay Example Noncompetitive businesses and institutions such as government controlled administrations mostly thrive on centralised structures. The managers need to consider if they want to achieve the same results where they follow a rigid work routine then they can comfortably rely on a centralised control system. However, if they seek to get the competitive edge, especially if they are in the technology business, then they need to give more autonomy to respective departments and teams. â€Å"†¦a routine technology and a stable environment all tend to be associated with organizations that have greater formalization, specialization and centralisation† (Daft, Murphy, & Willmott, 2010, p. 26) If the managers are in a business that feeds on creative ideas then they need to make their departments autonomous. The tech industry is a prominent example of highly decentralised model because the more innovative and creative their ideas the better their competitive edge. Comparing a government operated tax department with a highly mobilized and competitive firm such as Apple or Samsung would reveal a centralised versus a decentralised business structure. The government department needs to be centralised while tech companies perform better when they are decentralised. Taking the same example a step further where marketing and TV commercials are made for any business. The process needs to be highly decentralised for the initiation of innovative ideas and creative pitch for customers. One thing that bears prime importance in this whole debate is that there are no black and white areas when the managers make a decision. Many organizations usually step on gray areas where there exists a mix of centralised and decentralised chain of command. In fact, decentralised structure poses a paradox for the managers. Giving too much autonomy to a department can be detrimental for the ultimate organizational goals. The head of the business cannot lose control

Assignment Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Assignment - Research Paper Example One of the most notable empires that used communication technologies effectively to handle information was the Assyrian Empire. In the first millennium BC, the Assyrian Empire expanded to an unprecedented size; the empire stretched from River Nile in Egypt to the Iranian mountains, thereby nearly enveloping the modern Middle East. The empire’s ruling elite managed to control the empire despite its massive size primarily because they used efficient communication technologies that facilitated effective handling of administrative messages and records. Constant innovations in administrative technology facilitated the development of communication systems, which facilitated economic growth. One of Assyrians’ most prominent exports was technologies of social management and control, which entailed the technologies such as coercion, information management and control of the empire’s physical assets. Assyrians typically found effective ways of managing storage, movement an d management of goods, armies, people, information and capital. In order to sustain the empire’s massive population, Assyrian administrators developed an administrative structure consisting of four intertwining components that enabled effective communication throughout the empire. These components were the temple administration, the palace, the city or town administration and the provincial administration (Black, 2001). While all components had their individual hierarchies, as well as power bases, the ultimate power typically trickled down from the king. The four structures served to create a balance in power, allowing information and decrees to flow from the king to the common folk. These structures allowed Assyrians to construct a streamlined economic and administrative system that saved on administrative costs, while also controlling a vast majority of the empire’s internal production means. Administrators at the lowest structure (the town/city administration) were primarily tasked with collection of taxes and management of tax records, labor conscriptions, as well as military call-ups. As a result of the effective hierarchical system of communication, the king continually settled deportees from other regions of the empire and parceled out such land as favors in exchange for loyalty. This developed an extremely stratified society with minimally sized aristocratic elite, thereby keeping public expenditure at a minimal. Assyrian military innovation also enabled the empire to maintain a well-organized system of material and food distribution and storage for soldiers and the entire population. Communication problems were resolved through an effective chain of posts, which facilitated speedy communication between distant and capital province. They perfected the communication technology by using horses for military purposes and typical communication aims. One of the reasons why the Roman Empire was quite strong was because of its capacity to communi cate with the masses. Communication held the society together through beliefs in similar laws and myths, which demonstrated a common bond passed down from one generation to another (Black, 2001). Emperors in the Roman Empire used inexpensive means to communicate with the masses, for instance, emperors communicated by displaying gestures,

Business ethics law Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Business ethics law - Term Paper Example The zero pedals bikes from Green Move seem to expose its users to serious risks. As a concerned and ethical employee, the act of selling this product to the users without fixing the defect is not just at all. According to the principle of normative philosophy, one is supposed to assess whether their acts are just, fair and right. Therefore, before doing anything that might be beneficial to you, one must also consider if the act will benefit others also or infringes others’ rights. Therefore, according to the product defect information, as a new employee in this company, I’ll try my best to convince the management if they can fix the defect on the bikes by first discussing with them the dangers it exposes its users. I will ensure that I present both the budget for fixing the defect and the budget for not fixing the defect to the management. In case the management will not listen to my advice and just goes ahead with the production of the zero pedal bikes, my next step wi ll be to seek the government intervention. Being that the production of the zero pedal bikes is not controlled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, it has been very hard for the law enforcers to notice that this product has a defect. The NHTSA then needs to be informed about the defects in this product so that safety measures can be applied to control is production. Therefore, in case the management does not heed to my advice, I will move ahead, risk my job, as I ensure that the users of this product are safe. There are pressures though that applies as far as this action is concerned. For instance, just as my predecessor had lost his job while trying to advise the management to fix this defect, I too stand at a risk of losing my newly acquired job in case I try to do the same thing. In my case anyway, I better just lose my job than let the company get away with this. Another pressure is that the production of this product is not controlled by the National Highway T raffic Safety Administration; therefore it will be hard for this body to begin controlling the production just now. To be able to do so, proper legislation must be put in place by the concerned bodies. This is a process that might take a longer time than expected, yet all this period the company will just continue with the production of the product. There is another pressure that comes up being that I’m just a junior and a new employee and I’ve been proposed to a good salary package; it will be very hard for me to even go before the senior management and state to them this issue. All these pressures apply but there is nothing as great as being concerned about the lives and safety of the society around me. Therefore, amidst all those pressures, I will still move on with my mission. In my efforts to solve this problem, I will use a critical thinking method where I will put down certain questions and evaluate if they uphold the moral values of the society. Some of the que stions I’ll consider is whether the act of producing this product to the users is just? Whether the production benefits the company unjustly? I have to know the economic effects of this production, its benefits and harm it causes to others as well as whether rights are denied or exercised freely. To solve this problem, I will find a good approach to give the management. I will give them all the harms associated with the production of this product and how the rights of innocent citizens are infringed by exposing their lives to such dangers. By guiding the management through ethical reasoning, I’ll let them ask themselves if such an act is ethical to them. As the principle of eternal law states that we should act in a way that our creator would want us to act, with kindness and compassion towards others, I’ll let them to judge if allowing their customers to use this products complies with this principle. For the product to be put on the shelves of the sporting goo ds store, the store must be

You as a leader Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

You as a leader - Assignment Example I would subsequently identify possible alternatives and assess the choices based on their consequences. I had to establish the best alternative before putting it into action. According to Mathena (2002), a leader needs to examine the situation by analyzing various perceptions. Subsequently, formulating alternatives and choosing the best is equally an appropriate measure. I remember my classmates and I failed to grasp certain concepts learned in class. I identified the problem to be solved that included complicated concepts like compassionate practice. With the assistance of other group members, we came up with possible alternatives like providing simplified learning materials and starting group discussions. I established that it was necessary to perform group discussions. The discussions were viable platform that could be used to better understand the concept. Some of the leadership strengths I demonstrated include being student focused, results oriented, strategic, good at handling conflicts, and making high-quality decisions. However, I still have to improve in my communication skills since it is an essential leadership

Chanel Company - Chanel Bags Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Chanel Company - Chanel Bags - Essay Example Therefore, the profit margin always increases with fall in the prices of these channel bags. Another crucial factor that affects the supply of these products is the income differences. In any case, there is an increase in the income levels of a population holding other factors constant, the sales for channel bags increase because the extra amount will be spent on purchasing them and an increase in profit margin is realized. Although when income spent decreases, the households will only concentrate on the most essential commodities lead to a fall in sales of channel bags, as it will be considered a luxurious need. The price at which other related goods are sold will affect demand in that if a bag like travelling bag with the same features is offered for a relatively low price compared to that of channel bags there will be a fall in demand for the channel bags, which results to low sales and profit. In case there is an increase in demand of the travelling, all customers will shift to c hannel bags hence rise in sales and profit margin. Advertisement also affects sales in such a way that whenever there is an effective awareness created on the channel bags there is a boost in sales and profits.The channel bags being in fashion is another factor that has boosted its sales. Many customers always prefer whatever product that is in fashion hence there is increased demand. The supply of channel bags can be affected by price changes. If an increase in the price of channel bags is factored in, the supply of this product will increase with an expectation of widenig the profit margin but if the prices fall the supply will be low. Low supply leads to a decrease in sales while an increase in supply leads to incresed sales. Lastly, change in technoloy employed matter a lot. Up to date technology makes production to be very effective and efficient hence increased supply that enjoys from economies of scale hence incresed profit margin. Demand curve The above graph shows that an increase in price of the bags leads to a fall in demand of the bags and decrease in price of the bags leads to an increase in demand of the bags. Other actors will lead to a shift of the curve. An increase in demand leads to a shift to the right while a decrease in demand leads to a shift to the left. Supply curve The above graph show how increase in the price of a commodity leads to an increase in the supply of the commodity. In case there is a fall in price of the bags, there will be a consequent fall in supply of the bag. . Other factors will lead to a shift of the curve. An increase in supply leads to a shift to the right while a decrease in supply leads to a shift to the left. b) Market structure The kind of market structure for channel bags is a perfect competition kind of market. This is simply because there are no barriers for new sellers into the market; there are many sellers and buyers. In this market, there are many other sellers. All these companies are allowed free entry into these markets where there are many buyers. c) The channel bags company should move from this kind of market structure because there is maximization of profits. The most ideal market structure is the monopoly kind of market where the firm can dictate its own profits and prices. The most

Article Review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Article Review - Essay Example Importance of forensic accounting is unquestionable because whenever the company suspects any form of fraud or misuse of fund, they rely on forensic accounting for conduction investigation and to find out the root cause behind the problem. So forensic accounting is one of the most relied tools that help in determining and also in controlling the problem. Forensic accounting follows certain well planed procedure to carryout the whole process of detection. At first the business structure has to be identified, and then an in-depth analysis has to be conducted for all companys date records. Such scrutinizing provides clues through with prevailing fraud and misconduct can be identified. This procedure also identifies any kind of irregularity related to assets and hence indicates fraud. The procedure of forensic accounting is efficient in conserving companys precious time and time and money. This technique it often used by strategists in identifying and preventing fraud or misuse of compan ys fund which may hamper the business. Many researchers have argued that the technique of fraud accounting is highly efficient in managing civil dispute that includes: Forensic accounting can provide assistance in probate cases, this technique is efficient in handling dispute that arise due to cases of over valuation or the cases of property division in between estates heirs. Forensic accountants are the experts which deal in disputes related to legal property problems. These experts are equipped with knowledge in the field of accountancy, auditing, evidence gathering, interviews, financial reporting system, and all other developments which are taking place in national as well international accounting sector. The forensic accountants are well trained for legal procedures and other court formalities. Forensic accounting is often used to get the true and Article review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1 Article review - Essay Example Shah notes in the article that the global financial crisis started in 2007; Shah also notes that the global financial crisis led to the closure of many financial institutions around the world (Shah, 2013). According to this article, following the global financial crisis, various governments had to bail out various financial institutions that were on the verge of collapse. Shah, however, notes that, although various governments bailed out various financial institutions that were at risk of closure, the problem of global financial crisis was mainly caused by the very financial institutions that sought bail out from the government. A critical view of this point by Shah shows that the financial institutions were indeed mainly to blame for the global financial crisis. This is because the lax lending standards of many financial institutions made many people unable to access loans and mortgages, leading to serious financial crisis. Fratianni and Marchionne support this view in their article â€Å"The Role of Banks in the Subprime Financial Crisis†. According to the two authors, it is the exorbitant lending rates of many financial institutions that mainly caused the global financial cr ises, besides the imbalances in international trade (Ratianni $ Marchionne, 2009). In this article, Shah claims that the global financial crisis did not affect the financial institutions only or only the rich nations, but it affected all individuals of every nation. This is because, according to Shah, the effects of global financial crisis trickle down to all people and affect individual’s livelihood. One of the main arguments advanced in this article is that, the financial crisis could have been avoided if financial institutions had adopted the current economic models. According to Shah, the global financial crisis has been caused by people’s negligence, especially the government failure to effectively control financial institutions. Shah argues in the article that states have

Chanel Company - Chanel Bags Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Chanel Company - Chanel Bags - Essay Example Therefore, the profit margin always increases with fall in the prices of these channel bags. Another crucial factor that affects the supply of these products is the income differences. In any case, there is an increase in the income levels of a population holding other factors constant, the sales for channel bags increase because the extra amount will be spent on purchasing them and an increase in profit margin is realized. Although when income spent decreases, the households will only concentrate on the most essential commodities lead to a fall in sales of channel bags, as it will be considered a luxurious need. The price at which other related goods are sold will affect demand in that if a bag like travelling bag with the same features is offered for a relatively low price compared to that of channel bags there will be a fall in demand for the channel bags, which results to low sales and profit. In case there is an increase in demand of the travelling, all customers will shift to c hannel bags hence rise in sales and profit margin. Advertisement also affects sales in such a way that whenever there is an effective awareness created on the channel bags there is a boost in sales and profits.The channel bags being in fashion is another factor that has boosted its sales. Many customers always prefer whatever product that is in fashion hence there is increased demand. The supply of channel bags can be affected by price changes. If an increase in the price of channel bags is factored in, the supply of this product will increase with an expectation of widenig the profit margin but if the prices fall the supply will be low. Low supply leads to a decrease in sales while an increase in supply leads to incresed sales. Lastly, change in technoloy employed matter a lot. Up to date technology makes production to be very effective and efficient hence increased supply that enjoys from economies of scale hence incresed profit margin. Demand curve The above graph shows that an increase in price of the bags leads to a fall in demand of the bags and decrease in price of the bags leads to an increase in demand of the bags. Other actors will lead to a shift of the curve. An increase in demand leads to a shift to the right while a decrease in demand leads to a shift to the left. Supply curve The above graph show how increase in the price of a commodity leads to an increase in the supply of the commodity. In case there is a fall in price of the bags, there will be a consequent fall in supply of the bag. . Other factors will lead to a shift of the curve. An increase in supply leads to a shift to the right while a decrease in supply leads to a shift to the left. b) Market structure The kind of market structure for channel bags is a perfect competition kind of market. This is simply because there are no barriers for new sellers into the market; there are many sellers and buyers. In this market, there are many other sellers. All these companies are allowed free entry into these markets where there are many buyers. c) The channel bags company should move from this kind of market structure because there is maximization of profits. The most ideal market structure is the monopoly kind of market where the firm can dictate its own profits and prices. The most

The Marketing Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

The Marketing Plan - Essay Example food and beverage due to its wide range of product lines such as Arnott’s Premier Melting Moments, Emporio Amond Snap, and Emporio Chocolate Temptation etc presenting a unique taste. However, in spite of strong foothold in numerous developing and developed countries, the competitiveness and market share is decreasing due to its locally utilised ingredients of Australia. Other than this, the profit margin and customer loyalty over the brand is decreasing due to extremely high price and intensive competitive rivalry among its rivals. In addition, to the presence of numerous substitute products like cookies by competitive brands such as Kraft Foods Ltd, Tim- Tams, Vita-Wheat, and Cruskits, the market value and reliability of the organization is declining day by day to a considerable extent. Due to these underlining causes, the portfolio and uniqueness of the organization of Arnott is reducing that hinders its total sale and profitability in long run. Furthermore, numerous less co mpetitive local products are capturing the markets of Australia that hindered its loyalty and brand value as compared to other existing contenders in this age (Arnott, 2014). However, in order to amplify the competitive advantage and sustainability of the organization of Arnott, a marketing plan is developed with the help of a new product, Emporio Crispy. The financial objective of the organization of Arnott is to amplify its total sale by almost 5 percent of its previous sale by the launch of the new product, Emporio Crispy. Other than this, the profit margin of the organization of Arnott might get enhanced by a considerable extent as compared to its rival players. Only then, it might become successful in improving its dominance and position in the market (Grant, 2010, pp. 423-434). The marketing objective of the organization of Arnott is to amplify its loyalty and reliability in the market of Australia. Along with this, the launch of the Emporio Crispy might become successful in

The problem of dukkha as outlined in the sermon on the Four Noble Truths Essay Example for Free

The problem of dukkha as outlined in the sermon on the Four Noble Truths Essay Dukkha is one of the main concepts in Buddhism which in English terms corresponds to pain, dissatisfaction, suffering, anguish, discomfort, stress, affliction, sorrow, frustration and anxiety. It is a term derived from certain instances that relates to uneasiness. The teachings about Buddha are based on concrete foundation of truth as is reflected in the Four Noble Truths. The teachings on the Four Noble Truths are known by all and the beliefs have a known basis acceptable on mere faith. The Four Noble Truths therefore are said to be fundamental teachings of Buddhism taught as the first lessons to an individual being introduced to such a religion. It is considered as a doctrine which contains way of life which followers assert that it can lead to suffering. From the Buddha’s point of enlightenment, the teachings are said to have strong psychological insight and a cognitive methodology. Accordingly, the Four Noble Truths provide that suffering as part of human life can be eliminated through devotion to such teachings. The interest of Buddha was to show interest in the direct path to true happiness. The Four Noble Truths form part of Buddha’s teachings and are said to be noble as they are taught by Noble individuals. The people involved in the teachings have strong perceptions about reality and thus understanding such teachings makes one ennobled. Buddha became enlightened about the profound truth in relation to the nature of life after seeing the light under Bodhi tree. The Four Noble Truths include the noble truth about suffering, origin of suffering, cessation of suffering and way leading to cessation of suffering. The first teaching about the Four Noble Truths clearly indicates that life is characterized by frustration, suffering and dissatisfaction. Dukkha promotes individuals existence with implications on matters affecting body and mind. The human body is complex and it is affected by issues such as old age, pain, sickness, war and death. The frustration and pain which is caused by impermanence as individuals struggle with life to be happy and stay a comfortable life. During this time of seeking for comfort, finding pleasure becomes invariable hence turning to pain. In other instances, suffering becomes inevitable as much as people live according to Dukkha’s teachings. The mind is affected by matters such as failing to acquire what one likes in life, staying away from things or people a person likes most or being in a life situation which is not pleasant. Individuals suffer as a result of hopelessness which is related to lack of satisfaction in life caused by desire. IN this aspect the first provision of the Four Nobel Truths corresponds to reality about human suffering. Second teaching according to Four Nobel Truths relates to origin of suffering which results from engagement of individuals in day to day activities. Three main unsatisfactory experiences identified as causes of dissatisfactions include craving, aversion and ignorance. In this aspect, craving is a constituent of wanting more or greed. Individuals always are unsatisfied with what they have and hence want to engage in activities that lead to suffering. Aversion in its category relates to hatred or failure to engage with others hence making an individual suffer. Ignorance is a common element in the lives of many individuals which is attributable to lack of wisdom. Ending of suffering is the third component in which case life can be without dissatisfactions leading to peaceful state. Suffering can be eliminated from the life of individuals as per teachings of Buddhism. Elimination of suffering from human life is a concept that can be eliminated through being devoid of feeling and passion. Buddhism taught about an appropriate approach towards elimination of suffering which involves mortification and indulgence. Elimination of suffering from an individual’s life is therefore achieved through extinguishment of aversion, craving and ignorance. The truth of the path leading to end of suffering is the final concept of the Fourth Nobel Truths. This means a way of life without dissatisfactions which led to peace of mind and happiness. The most important aspect that leads to cessation of suffering is through following of the middle path. This is done without consideration of subsidence of extreme desire which results to full release of occurrence. According to teachings by Buddha there is the Noble Eightfold path used as a way of eliminating suffering from individual’s life resulting to achievement in one’s life. The foundation of Buddhism is rooted in Eightfold path which was first enumerated by Buddha. These provisions are considered s measures towards enlightenment and should be put into consideration to end suffering. The Eightfold path is a practical guideline that considers ethical and mental development in human life for purpose of freeing a person from delusions. The principles are classified in three categories which relates to wisdom, ethical conduct and mental development. Wisdom constitutes of right view and right intention, Ethical conduct is a constituent of right speech, right action and right livelihood. Finally, mental development constitutes of right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration. Right view is the first principle in Eightfold path which means to see and understand issues in reality as a way of realizing the Four Noble Truth. It is one of the most critical component of wisdom which makes an individual to understand the law in relation to karma and karmic. Right view is attained, enhanced and sustained in all mind capacities. Right intention is another main principle in the category of wisdom which refers to mental energy in control of individual’s actions. Basically, right intention is described as commitment to mental and ethical considerations for purpose of self-improvement. Three main types of right intentions recognized by Buddha include intention of renunciation, good will and harmlessness. In the category of ethical conduct there is right speech which clearly reflects the teachings of Buddha in which words can lead to creation of enemies, breaking or saving of life, and creation of peace or start of war. Right action is another aspect of ethical conduct which involves the entire body as a means of expressing feelings. Buddha’s teachings advocate for right action which results to respect of others for the purpose of a peaceful existence. Right livelihood is the other right of ethical conduct whereby an individual is deemed to live a righteous life. Right livelihood should be achieved through proper means which does not harm others. Mental development is the final concept of the Eightfold path which constitutes of first, right effort which is an act of will achieve through mental energy. The energy that fuels envy, desire and aggression can on the other hand promote honesty, kindness and self discipline. Right mindfulness is another principle controlled and perfected by cognition. The main principle of this concept is seeing things as they are through a clear consciousness. Right mindfulness is a concept which creates awareness on the way of individuals thought. Finally, right concentration refers to mental development occurring as a concept of natural consciousness. Right concentration according to Buddhist teachings is achieved through mediation. All these rights reflect the main issues underlying individual’s life in the concept of suffering. References Hommel, W. (2007) Budha and the Four Noble Truths: Dukkha, Rising of Dukkha, Nirvana and the Path Leading to Nirvana. Retrieved on 25th July 2010 from http://buddhismtaoism. suite101. com/article. cfm/main_buddhist_concepts Hommel, W. (2007) Budha and the Four Noble Truths: Dukkha, Rising of Dukkha, Nirvana and the Path Leading to Nirvana. Retrieved on 25th July 2010 from http://buddhismtaoism. suite101. com/article. cfm/main_buddhist_concepts

The Global Leadership of Carlos Ghosn at Nissan Essay -- Business Niss

The Global Leadership of Carlos Ghosn at Nissan In 1999, the Nissan was suffering under a decade of decline and unprofitability, in fact the company was on the verge of bankruptcy, with continuous loses for the past eight years resulting in debts of approx. $22 billion. Elements impacting Nissan’s performance prior to the global alliance with Renault Internal factors: Emphasis on short-term market share growth instead of a long term success strategy; Advanced engineering and technology, plant productivity, quality management. However, less attention was given to design and innovation, on the assumption that consumers were looking for quality and safety. This implies a lack of knowledge of the market, consumer’s changing tastes, and showed that Nissan management did not pay too much attention to what competition was doing. External factors: The devaluation of yen from 100 to 90 yen for a US dollar; Moody’s and Standard & Poors’s rating agencies announced in 1999 that Nissan would be lowered from investment grade to junk unless it could not get any financial support. Both formal and informal internal procedural Nissan norms, as well as Japanese cultural norms were holding the company back. Through keiretsu investments Nissan management believed would foster loyalty and cooperation between members of the value chain, hence they invested in real estate and suppliers’ companies. 4 billion US dollars were invested in stock shares of other companies as part of keiretsu philosophy. Nissan Company strategic alliance with French auto car manufacturer Renault was mutually beneficial for both companies, each of them expanding portfolio and becoming more competitive in the context of globalized mature automobile market. With Renault assuming a stake of 36.8% at Nissan, the latter would retain its investment grade status. The alliance enabled Renault to penetrate and expand in international markets that it was looking for - Asia and North America. In turn, Nissan would gain market share in South America. The Japanese car manufacturer agreed to the Global Alliance Agreement in March 1991, provided it would keep the company’s name, the Nissan Board of Directors would select the CEO, and it would also be responsible for implementing the company’s revival plan. The Renault alliance with Nissan injected the needed cash and revolutionized the stagnated ... ...tomakers with an 11.1% operating profit margin and more than 21% ROIC . A future customer-focused plan, Quality 3-3-3 is to be implemented as of 2005, with emphasis on three categories of quality: product attractiveness, product initial quality and reliability, and sales & service quality. The key success factors of the Nissan turnaround were: 1. Vision. The meaningful progress achieved was due to the vision that Ghosn successfully shared at all levels of the company that was clear and adopted. 2. Strategy. Management’s responsibility was to define the business strategy, and make sure it is deployed at every level of the company; everybody knew what was the contribution that was expected from him or from her for the company. 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The people committed to the turnaround from the top: personal commitment, team commitment coming from the top down. For sure the changes were not easy to implement, but the clear vision brought that people were motivated to bring to life, and the results that showed off rapidly, gave Ghosn credibility, making people feel safe about the company. The vision, strategy, commitment and results guaranteed the success of Nissan’s turnaround.

Thomas Edison Essay -- Thomas Edison Inventor Biography Essays

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison - born February 11, 1847, Milan, Ohio, U.S. d. Oct. 18, 1931, West Orange, N.J. American inventor who, singly or jointly, held a world record 1,093 patents. In addition, he created the world's first industrial research laboratory. Edison was the quintessential American inventor in the era of Yankee ingenuity. He began his career in 1863, in the adolescence of the telegraph industry, when virtually the only source of electricity was primitive batteries putting out a low-voltage current. Before he died, in 1931, he had played a critical role in introducing the modern age of electricity. From his laboratories and workshops emanated the phonograph, the carbon-button transmitter for the telephone speaker and microphone, the incandescent lamp, a revolutionary generator of unprecedented efficiency, the first commercial electric light and power system, an experimental electric railroad, and key elements of motion-picture apparatus, as well as a host of other inventions. Edison was the seventh and last child--the fourth surviving--of Samuel Edison, Jr., and Nancy Elliot Edison. At an early age he developed hearing problems, which have been variously attributed but were most likely due to a familial tendency to mastoiditis. Whatever the cause, Edison's deafness strongly influenced his behaviour and career, providing the motivation for many of his inventions. Early years In 1854 Samuel Edison became the lighthouse keeper and carpenter on the Fort Gratiot military post near Port Huron, Mich., where the family lived in a substantial home. Alva, as the inventor was known until his second marriage, entered school there and attended sporadically for five years. He was imaginative and inquisitive, but because much instruction was by rote and he had difficulty hearing, he was bored and was labeled a misfit. To compensate, he became an avid and omnivorous reader. Edison's lack of formal schooling was not unusual. At the time of the Civil War the average American had attended school a total of 434 days--little more than two years' schooling by today's standards. In 1859 Edison quit school and began working as a trainboy on the railroad between Detroit and Port Huron. Four years earlier, the Michigan Central had initiated the commercial application of the telegraph by using it to control the movement of its tr... ...s for particular technologies. His issued patents are presented here in three lists—by execution date, patent date, and subject. The execution and patent date lists are each presented in six parts to make the files less cumbersome. He execution date of a patent application is the date on which the inventor signs the application, and hence is the date closest to the actual inventive activity. However, in his early years Edison did not always rush to his patent lawyer with an invention, especially if there was little competition for the invention or he was feeling broke and unable to pay the various fees involved in an application. In a few cases Edison removed some of the claims from an original application and filed a new application to cover those claims. The execution date of such a patent can be considerably later than that of the original application even though the patent covers designs from the earlier date. The subject lists are necessarily somewhat arbitrary. They are arranged by execution date. A few patents appear in two lists—for example, Patent 142,999 is for a battery Edison developed for telegraphy, and it is under "Batteries" and "Telegraphy and Telephony."

The Future of Iptv and Ip-Video

ECE 6613: Broadband Access Networks The Future of IPTV and IP-Video Ji Hwan Kim Georgia Institute of Technology 325050 Georgia Tech Station Atlanta, GA 30332 Abstract— This paper describes the various IPTV architectures and components, which enables large-scale integration of current and future IPTV network. IPTV technologies are transforming how we perceive TV services today and global television industry as whole. However, there is pressing need for improvement on IPTV side to meet the Quality of Experience that is equal to or better than traditional TV services.In recent years, we have seen tremendous growth in Information Technology industry with the emergence of smart phone. Various new technologies are in its development to meet the demand of higher data rate, reliable data transfer, and readily available resources with distributed cloud servers to improve quality of service to the customers. With growing number of smart phone users, IPTV service has become ever more pop ular in telecommunication companies to provide streaming videos through the different new infrastructures.The biggest competitors in IPTV service in the U. S. are Verizon FioS (FTTP) and AT&T U-verse (FTTN) providing triple-play bundle service to the customer. In this paper, we are going to discuss IPTV service architecture difference of Verizon FiOS, AT&T U-verse, Cable Company, and Netflix as well as current IPTV research and development to increase quality of experience through multicast and cloud computing. Also we will analyze some of the emerging IPTV application in the future. Key Words — Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), Verizon FiOS, AT&T U-verse, MulticastIntroduction Today’s IPTV services IPTV technologies are transforming how we perceive TV services today and global television industry as whole. It is a collection of modern technologies in computing, networking, and storage combined to deliver high quality television contents through IP network. It is be coming a platform which changing how we access information and entertainment. In recent years, we have seen tremendous growth in video and networking technologies with the emergence of smart phone.Various new technologies are in its development to meet the demand of higher data rate, reliable data transfer, and readily available resources, distributed cloud servers, to improve quality of service to the customers. The figure below [1] is an example of IPTV broadband network inside a home. [pic] Fig. 1. Diagram of IPTV Broadband Network Inside Home. With IPTV service, video contents are not only limited to the TV but can utilize in multiple platforms to enjoy video content anywhere, anytime, and anydevice.IPTV alter the way the customer consume video content like personal video recorders have done and lets customer have complete control of their entertainment experience to a next level. [pic] Fig. 2. U. S. Multichannel Video Subscriber Census Above is a figure of U. S. Multichannel Vi deo Subscriber Census by SNL Kagan [2]. In 2011, the cable industry lost 1. 8 million video subscribers whereas IPTV providers gained 1. 6 million. This shows that IPTV industry is gaining market share on video content provider and it is expected to grow even more.Cable TV delivers entire line-up of broadcast content channels all the time which requires huge amount of bandwidth being delivered all the time into the home and cable companies are moving toward IPTV delivery services to reduce bandwidth on their infrastructure. IPTV architecture is very different in that it only delivers the single channel that is requested by the consumer’s individual TV. Therefore, IPTV architecture can greatly reduce bandwidth by only providing specific request from the consumer at any given time [4]. [pic] Fig. 3.Expected Growth in IPTV subscribers. However, there is pressing need for improvement on IPTV side to meet the Quality of Experience that is equal to or better than traditional TV ser vices. To provide great quality of experience in IPTV requires almost no packet loss, delay variation of 200ms, and delivery of no more than one perceivable error during a two-hour movie. This constrains and requirements puts heavy burden on service provider to provide reliable and lossless IPTV to customers and requires video admission control. The paper is outlined as follows.In Section II, we overview the different IPTV system and architecture exist today and how service providers are planning to improve their IPTV infrastructure. In Section III we will discuss the multicast protocol in depth and current research from Cisco to deliver IPTV service with multicast protocol. In Section V, we will discuss some of the potential future application that can be seen in near future with IPTV service. IPTV System and architecture IPTV networks generate their video contents for transmission using many clustered components collectively called headends.There are three common types of IPTV hea dends to meet national, regional and local content distribution requirements. Super Headends (SHE) receives and digests content on the national level typically from satellites. After processing and encoding, the SHEs distribute the national content to video hub offices (VHO) over a core IP/MPLS network. VHOs aggregate national, regional, and local content with the on-demand services, and serve metropolitan areas with a population of between 100,000 to 500,000 homes.VHOs are connected to video switching offices (VSO) over metro aggregation networks. VSOs distributed the IPTV streams to the customer premises over access network. The IPTV architecture is shown in Figure. 4. [pic] Fig. 4. End-to-End IPTV Network Architecture. The most conventional transport technique for IPTV is to multicast UDP/IP packets with MPEG-2 video compression scheme. The newer standard video architectures use RTP protocol which can provide error repair and stream monitoring unlike UDP protocol.IPTV service hav e slower channel change time compare to CATV service provider since all the TV channels are broadcasted simultaneously whereas IPTV needs to request certain channel from the provider. IPTV zapping time is affected by several factors such as Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) signaling delay of leaving and joining multicast group, MPEG decoding delay, program specific information (PSI) including program association table (PAT) and program map table (PMT) acquisition delay, random access point (RAP) delay, conditional access system (CAS) key acquisition delay, and de-jittering buffer delay in the STB [4].More detail of video admission control in IPTV multicast protocol will be discussed in Section III. IPTV service over a packet-switched network demands near zero packet loss and limited jitter. Thus, it is often necessary to enforce traffic management and admission control in IPTV network by sufficient provisioning and resource allocation [4]. More detail on resource allocation through retransmission server to improve IPTV will be discussed in Section III. Telco companies are embracing the IPTV technology since this will open up huge market share with Cable TV companies.Telco companies have been delivering packet-based IP traffic over their xDSL technology for many years and utilizing their existing technology to move to IPTV is a natural choice for them. However, there are great roadblocks to deploy IPTV over DSL which primarily concerned with quality of experience that is equal or better than traditional CATV. Below is the figure of IPTV infrastructure for Telco companies [1]. [pic] Fig. 5. Telco End-to-End IPTV Network Architecture. The primary difference in Telco companies’ architecture can be seen in red cloud shown in Fig. 5.Digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM) is located in environmentally controlled vaults or huts. It is also called video ready access devices (VRAD), which is placed on lawns or easements or a common space in a partment building. DSLAM often serves 100 to 200 residential gateways (RGs) that are attached to the outside of a residence and various techniques are used to transport signal between DSLAM and RG. Very high-bit-rate DSL (VDSL) for copper and broadband passive optical network (BPON) and gigabit PON (GPON) for giber transport. This metro access segment uses a hub-and-spoke architecture [5].Cable companies have been utilizing Hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC), combine optical fibers and coaxial cables, network since early 1990s to provide broadband internet access over existing cable TV system and its been employed this protocol globally and Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) is the international standard for developing equipment for HFC networks. Cable IPTV architecture is able to evolve from the traditional CATV with simple changes by adding few more components: cable modem (CM), cable modem termination system (CMTS), and a PacketCable Multimedia (PCMM).The cable comp anies’ architecture is shown in the figure below. [pic] Fig. 6. Cable Company Network Architecture. The CMTS and CM can provide a bidirectional IP over DOCSIS transport in the HFC network. CMTS can provide media access control (MAC) and physical protocol layer (PHY) in a single device by integrate with DOCSIS however, cable industry is moving toward a modular CMTS (M-CMTS). M-CMTS separates MAC and PHY layers to improve the scalability of DOCSIS transport.The CMTS manages DOCSIS QAM switching and provides QoS over the DOCSIS channel as well as manages residential CMs by dynamically load-balancing CMs among DOCSIS downstream channels to optimize traffic flow. PCMM policy server in DOCSIS networks defines admission control QoS policies by using session managers to request and reserve bandwidth for CMTS to enforce these QoS policies. A. Verizon Fios In 2004, Verizon began deployment of its Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) access network. The initial deployment used the ITU-T G. 983 BPON standard and in 2007, Verizon began using equipment with the ITU-T G. 84 G-PON standard. Fig. 6 below is Verizon’s BPON FTTP architecture diagram describing the connection between Optical Line Terminal (OLT) and Optical Network Terminal (ONT). OLT provides interface between Core network with voice, data, and video signals and Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier (EDFA) boosts the [pic] Fig. 6. Verizon BPON FTTP architecture optical video signal. ONT performs the optical to electrical signal conversion and provide the data, voice, and video service to the subscriber. Wavelength division multiplexer (WDM) combines the three wavelengths onto a single fiber for transmission to the premises. 310nm wavelength is used for upstream traffic and for downstream, 1550nm (broadcast video) and 1490nm (data and voice) are being utilized. Fiber Distribution Hub (FDH) cabinet contains 1Ãâ€"32 passive optical splitters. Each subscriber is connected to a dedicated fiber between FHD and the premis es. BPON delivers 622 Mbps downstream and 155 Mbps upstream per PON for voice and data through ATM. FiOS provide over 600 channels between 50 to 870 MHz RF signal transmitted over the 1550nm wavelength. [pic] Fig. 7. Verizon FiOS RF spectrumGPON physical architecture is same as BPON however it provides significant improvements over BPON in bandwidth. GPON can provide 2. 5 Gbps downstream and 1. 2 Gbps upstream for data and voice and in addition, GPON have different transport by implementing Ethernet based protocol to transfer data instead of ATM. The comparison of BPON and GPON is shown in Table 1 below. [pic] Verizon uses Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) technology to provide data communication inside the resident. MoCA is installed in the ONT, Broadband Home Router, and set-top boxes and permits two-way IP data transmission over coax.By using MoCA, Verizon can reduce installation cost by using existing coax cable instead providing Ethernet cables to connect devices in the resi dent. [pic] Fig. 7. Verizon FiOS MoCA Verizon is using two main FTTP deployment schemes, the FTTP Overlay architecture and the FTTP Full Build. The [pic] Fig. 8. FTTP Overlay and Full Build Deployment Choice between two deployment scenarios is dependent on the specific deployment area and the likely take rates. In the FullBuild architecture, the fiber is deployed to each house and each subscriber gets an ONT together.In Overlay architecture, fiber is available to pass all homes and business in a distributed area but only a small percentage of homes and businesses are connected to and served with FTTP [7]. B. AT&T U-Verse In 2006, AT&T launched its U-Verse IPTV service (project lightspeed), comprising a national head-end and regional video-serving offices. AT&T offered over 300 channels in 11 cities through FTTN technology. AT&T utilizes copper pair to connect VRAD to Residential Gateway (RG) using xDSL technology. With U-verse, it can provide 25Mbps to home approximately 2500~4000 f eet away.By using MPEG-4 H. 264 compression technique, U-verse can provide 4 simultaneous TV stream (2HD and 2 SD TV), 2 VoIP and POTS service to the resident. Figure below is U-verse architecture. [pic] Fig. 9. U-verse FTTN Architecture The DSL technology at its beginning stages could only deliver 6 Mbps but now with ADSL2+ and VDSL, it can provide much higher bandwidth over a single copper pair. [pic] Fig. 10. xDSL technology. The various techniques are being implemented to improve the bandwidth and physical loop length capabilities of different DSL technologies.Bonding copper cable pairs can provide higher bandwidth by terminating 2 copper cable pairs together to act as 1 larger copper pair. ADSL2+ and VDSL is bonded together to provide higher bandwidth. VDSL can provide higher throughput than ADSL2+ however, it can only support short loop length. There is newest xDSL technology standard VHDSL2, which approved in February 2006, can provide bandwidth of 200 Mbit/s but maximum dist ance of 300 meters. xDSL technology goal is to provide VDSL speed with longer loop length [4]. The various different xDSL technology characteristics are shown in table below. TABLE 2. xDSL SELECTED CHARACTERISTICS. pic] AT&T typically uses mix of xDSL technologies to deliver broadband service to subscribers. Mainly ADSL2+ from the central office and VDSL2 from the VRAD through FTTN fiber based technology. C) Cable TV to IPTV Transition Cable companies are the largest subscription television service provider in the world and can easily integrate IPTV services to their existing infrastructure. In cable TV infrastructure, there are two main categories of digital video services: broadcast and on-demand Broadcast service defined as a service in which one copy of a program is sent to all subscriber in a broadcast manner.Broadcast services include : – Digital broadcast- Encoded/compressed programs are sent to a subscriber’s STB, where they are decoded/uncompressed for playbac k on a TV. All programs are transmitted regardless of which programs are currently watched by the customer – Switched digital video (SDV) – SDV is similar to digital broadcast but only requested programs are sent to a subscriber group. This group typically consists of all the subscribers served by HFC node which can serve range o 125 to 2000 subscribers. SDV is first two-way communication with subscriber for program selection.The digital broadcast architecture begins with the polling the content in the headend from satellite and terrestrial sources. The acquired content is generally forward to a multifunction media processing device performing following three functions: – Statmux – performs statistical time-devision multiplexing of real-time video content from various sources. – Groomer – adjust rates of content into a maximum bandwidth and limiting the rate of video burst – Splicer – inserts ads into programming breaks as need ed for a regional market. [pic]Fig. 11. CATV Architecture. The content is then forwarded across IP transport network to an IP-enabled quadrature amplitude modulator (QAM), where video content is encrypted and forward to STB for the customer. An out-of-band (OOB) channel provides the STB with basic tuning information, basic tuning information, decryption keys, software upgrade, and other communications. Switched Digital Video (SDV) was designed as a cost-effective method to expand bandwidth capacity in a way different than plant upgrades or better video compression method.Traditional digital broadcast sends all the channels into the HFC network but with SDV, programming terminates at the headend (VHO) or hub (VSO) and does not send channel unless it’s requested. When an SDV program is selected, tuning software in the receiver sends an upstream message and SDV session manager receives the quest and maps the program to a frequency within the allocated pool. If the program is alr eady being viewed within the same subscriber group, the task is as simple as reusing the existing session frequency information. On-Demand service is an interactive service where a requested video program is streamed to one subscriber.All on-demand content is encoded/compressed and stored on server to be received by individual subscriber’s request. On-demand services include following: – Video on demand- Content is stored on a server and subscriber views a list of titles and requests to view a specific title. The VOD system authorizes and streams the requested content to the requested user. – Network-based personal video record (nPVR) – this service is like home PVR except the content is on the service provider network. A subscriber uses the STB to record specific content to record and watches content at a user-chosen time which is same manner as VOD. pic] Fig. 12. Integrated Cable Video Service Architecture Cable IPTV architecture needs three newly added components to enable IPTV to their customers: Cable modem (CM), Cable Modem Termination system (CMTS), and a PacketCable Multimedia (PCMM). [pic] Fig. 13. Cable IPTV Architecture The CMTS and CM provide a two-way IP over DOCSIS transport in the HFC network. Cable Companies are moving toward M-CMTS technology, which can separate, MAC and PHY layer to improve scalability of DOCSIS transport unlike traditional CMTS where both MAC and PHY layer in a single device.In order to utilize IPTV in Cable company network, IP STBs or other IPTV capable devices must be able to receive video over IP transport and remove network delay variation. Major Cable companies are finding hybrid STBs as attractive solution for IPTV. The Hybrid STB with an embedded cable modem can receive video from either IP path or traditional QAM/RF transport path, which is good strategy to migrate from traditional cable architecture to IPTV. Admission control in Cable IPTV can be applied to both the IP network from the vi deo source to the CMTS, and the HFC network between the QAM and the CM through PCMM policy server.Policy server in DOCSIS networks defines QoS policies for CMTS to enforce them. Admission control signaling can be categorized as off-path and on-path. Off-path is when the control path is different from the data path and on-path signaling traverses the data path for bandwidth requests that use the commonly selected Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP). In order to provide better IPTV services to the customers, Cable industry must improve bandwidth efficiency in the last mile. The biggest recent innovation to optimize available bandwidth is SDV but additional solutions are becoming more important as cable company transition to IPTV service.QAM sharing holds great promise of improving bandwidth efficiency without the need of major change in their current infrastructure. However, there are several factors contribute to the bandwidth efficiency of QAM sharing: †¢ Even if SDV and VOD h ave the same peak hours, a viewer is likely to receive only one service at a time. †¢ The gain of QAM sharing comes from the statistical advantage of a bigger QAM pool, shared by two or more services. †¢ Differing peak hours of DOCSIS and video service contribute additional gains.For instance, the spectrum allocated for DOCSIS commercial services during the day may by reallocated for video services in the evening. Dynamic QAM sharing is being realized through new technologies and standards for the following reasons: †¢ The DOCSIS M-CMTS architecture, which separates the DOCSIS MAC and PHY protocol layers. This allows the PHY layer (specifically the QAMs) to be dynamically allocated and de-allocated. †¢ The recent emergence of universal QAMs, which can function as either MPEG video QAMs or DOCSIS QAMs. †¢ Standardization in edge QAM resource management. pic] Fig. 14. Dynamic QAM Sharing with M-CMTS Architecture ERMI specifies several interfaces to an edge res ource manager (ERM). The ERM is a plat- form that manages and leases QAM channel bandwidth for all applications: †¢ ERMI-1 is an interface for edge devices to register QAM channels to the ERM and notify the ERM of any QAM failures or state changes. †¢ ERMI-2 is an interface for the ERM to bind the QAM resources from an edge device to the resource allocation request. †¢ ERMI-3 is an interface for the M-CMTS core to allocate QAM-channel andwidth from the ERM. Variable bit rate (VBR) video provides considerable bit saving compared to constant bit rate (CBR) video. WITH VBR statistical multiplexing, Cable Company can save as much as 30 percent of bandwidth by just varying the output data per time segment. Recently, DOCSIS 3. 0 was release to compete with Telco companies FTTx deployment and it is redefined the communication between cable modem (CM) located at subscriber premises and cable modem termination system (CMTS) at cable service provider’s network headend. D OCSIS 3. are design to allow channel bonding to boost up network throughput and number of bonded channel is usually 4 or 8. With DOCSIS 3. 0 standard, it can provide 300 Mbps download and 100 Mbps upload [8]. TABLE 3. DOCSIS 3. 0 Standards and Characteristics [pic] D) Netflix OTT IPTV System and Architecture Netflix is the leading provider of OTT on-demand internet video streaming in the US and Canada with more than 23 million subscribers. Netflix can stream out HD quality video with average bitrate of 3. 6 Mbps and it is single largest source of Internet traffic in the US by consuming 29. % of peak download traffic. [pic] Fig. 15. Netflix Architecture Designing large-scale network infrastructure to support fast growing video streaming platform with high availability and scalability is technically challenging. The Majority Netflix infrastructure used to be hosted in its own datacenter but recently resorted to the use of cloud services, Content Distribution Networks (CDNs), and other public computing services. Amazon AWS cloud is being utilized by replacing its in house IT infrastructure along with SimpleDB, S3 and Cassandra for file storage.Video streaming is distributed out of multiple content distributed networks (CDNs), UltraDNS, and a public DNS service is used as its authoritative DNS servers. Microsoft Silverlight is employed as the video playback platform for Netflix desktop users and Netflix manages to build its IPTV with little infrastructure of its own. †¢ Netflix data centers – Netflix uses its own IP address space for the host name www. netflix. com. This server primarily handles registration of new user accounts and captures payment information and redirect users to movies. etflix. com or signup. netflix. com. This server does not interact with the client when handling movie request and playback. †¢ Amazon Cloud service – Most of the Netflix servers are served from various Amazon cloud services and key functions are content ingestion, log recording/analysis, DRM, CDN routing, user sign-in, and mobile device support †¢ Content Distribution Networks (CDNs) – Netflix utilize multiple CDNs to deliver the video content to the subscriber. The encoded and DRM protected videos are stored in Amazon cloud and copied to CDNs.The three main CDNS are Akamai, LimeLight, and Level-3. These three servers provide same quality level content to all the subscribers. †¢ Player – Netflix employ Silver light to download, decode and play Netflix movies on desktop web browser. There are different players for mobile phones and other devices such as Wii, PS3, Xbox, Roku, etc. Netflix utilize Dynamic Streaming over HTTP (DASH) protocol for streaming. In DASH, each video is encoded at several different quality levels and is divided into small chunks. The client requests one video chunk at a time via HTTP.With each download, it measures the received bandwidth and runs a rate determination algorithm to deter mine the quality of the next chunk request. It allows the player to freely switch between different quality levels depending on the bandwidth of subscriber. TABLE 4. KEY NETFLIX HOSTNAME [pic] Netflix Client player have many functions to improve its performance and quality of experience (QOE). Netflix video streaming is controlled by instruction in a manifest file, which Silverlight client downloads. This metafile provides the DASH player metadata to conduct the adaptive video streaming capability.It is client-specific and generated according to each client’s playback and bandwidth capability. It is in XML format and contains several key pieces of information including list of the CDNs, location of trickplay data, video/audio chunk URLs for multiple quality level, and timing parameters such as time-out interval, polling interval and other data to provide QoE to users. Manifest files ranks CDNs to indicate which CDNS are preferred for content delivery. Trickplay is achieved by downloading a set of thumbnail images for periodic snapshot during network congestion [15]. IPTV multicasting protocolIn early IP networks, a packet could be sent either in unicast (single device) or broadcast (all devices). With multicast, single transmission for a group of devices is possible. Multicast transmissions enable efficient communication between groups of devices by allowing Data to be transmitted to a single multicast IP address and received by the group of interest. Multicast over IPTV network presents many challenges related to reservation of resource and maintaining quality of experience (QoE). Backbone can be built based on IP/MPLS and the routers can be enabled for multicast using IGMP protocols.Before going into detail of multicast protocol in IPTV, we will discuss multicast protocol in detail and how it can help IPTV through multicast mechanism. TABLE 5. IGMPV2 AND IGMPV3 MAJOR DIFFERENCE [pic] The IGMP was defined to allow a host computer to select a stream fro m a group of multicast streams a user request. Following is the basic functions IGMP protocol: †¢ Join: an IGMP host indicates that it wants to receive information from a multicast group to become a member. †¢ Leave: An IGMP host indicates that it no longer wishes to receive information from a multicast group. Query: An IGMP router can ask the hosts which groups they are member of. This is done to verify a JOIN/LEAVE request or to look for error conditions. Queries maybe be: o Specific Query: Asks whether the host is a member of a specific multicast group o General Query: Asks the host to indicate all groups that it belongs to †¢ Membership Report: an IGMP host tells the IGMP host what group it belongs to. This report can be either: o Solicit Membership Report: Sent in response to a QUERY o Unsolicited Membership Report: initiated by the client.In the IPTV network, each broadcast TV channel is an IP multicast group. The subscriber changes the channel by leaving one gr oup and joining a different group. IGMPv1 is not suitable for IPTV because it does not include an explicit â€Å"Leave† capability. The client will continue to receive all requested stream until the multicast router issues next query. The standard for IGMPv2 and IGMPv3 major difference is shown in Table 5. IGMPv2 supports Any Source Multicast (ASM) networks and which allows host to specify which multicast group it wishes to join.Most deployed IPTV clients supports IGMPv2. The Major enhancement in IGMPv3 is that it allows Support Specific Multicast (SSM). Host can specify the source address it wants to listen to. Here’s basic IGMP operation involving two devices: †¢ IGMP host (client or STB) – issues messages to join or leave a multicast group. The client also responds to queries from the multicast router. †¢ IGMP router – responds to the join and leave messages to determine if multicast groups should be forward out an interface. Periodic queries are used to discover from error conditions and verify requests.The IGMP router receives multicast groups either through the use of a multicast protocol such as PIM or static flooding. It is the termination point for IGMP messages and does not send any IGMP information to its upstream neighbors. [pic] Fig. 16. DSL Access Network IPTV Service In xDSL IPTV architecture, the subscriber initiates channel change requests and responds to status inquiries. The Routing Gateway (RG) at the subscriber’s site and DSLAM aggregate traffic from multiple subscribers in order to act on request from the STB.However, IGMP networks were not originally designed to have networking equipment between IGMP client and the IGMP routers. This creates some challenges to the multicast implementation: – Excessive multicast traffic: When delivering high bandwidth IPTV over broadband network, it is important to ensure that IPTV channels are forward only to those subscriber currently viewing them sinc e bandwidth is scarce. If the intermediate devices are unaware of IGMP flows then all multicast traffic is broadcast out all ports – Excessive IGMP traffic: Extra bandwidth is consumed as IGMP flows are broadcast to across the network.A single STB IGMP request can result in responses from thousands of IGMP peer clients. – Excessive time to Leave a group: With small spare bandwidth in broadband networks, Leave request often must be processed before additional join request can be served. To mitigate above challenges, several techniques are proposed and developed in intermediary devices: Local Replication, Proxy routing, Proxy Reporting, and Immediate Leave. Local replication, IGMP snooping from DSLAM, allows DSLAM to inspect incoming IGMP Join and Leave request and take appropriate action.If the channel being requested to view is already being received at the DSLAM, it will replicate the stream and forward to the subscriber. The DSLAM builds a table to track which channe l are being forwarded to each port. [pic] Fig. 17. DSLAM with IGMP Snooping Proxy routing works by allowing intermediate device (DSLAM) takes active role of terminating all IGMP flows. This makes DSLAM to act as IGMP host and responds to all incoming requests. DSLAM will recreate the IGMP request and use its own IP address as source.The major benefit of proxy routing is scaling since router is not aware of individual subscribers. [pic] Fig. 18. IGMP Proxy Routing Proxy Reporting reduces the number of IGMP packets flowing across the network by selectively dropping IGMP packets that are not need to be forwarded. The Proxy Reporting can be subdivided to two categories: Query Suppression and Report Suppression. Query Suppression reduces traffic between the DSLAM and the subscriber premises by having the DSLAM intercept and respond to IGMP queries sent by the router.DSLAM will never send a specific query to any clients and forward general queries only to those client receiving at least o ne multicast group. [pic] Fig. 19. Query Suppression. Report Suppression reduces traffic from DSLAM to the router by having DSLAM aggregate the response. The DSLAM can intercept IGMP reports coming from STB and forwards a summarized version to the IGMP router only when it is necessary. There are two categories of reports. Unsolicited membership reports are forward when first subscriber joins a multicast group or last subscriber leaves a multicast group.This tells router to begin or stop sending channel to this DSLAM. Solicited membership reports are forward once per multicast group. The DSLAM will aggregate multiple responses together into a single membership report to save bandwidth. [pic] Fig. 20. Report Suppression Immediate leave alleviate IPTV challenge to change channel rapidly. The standard IGMP Leave operation for channel change is as follow: – The STB sends a request to leave one multicast group – Router responds by issuing Membership Query to confirm the requ est. The STB responds with a Membership Report which does not include the multicast group By implementing immediate leave, STB can leave the multicast group by just simply sending a request to leave one multicast group [16]. [pic] Fig. 21. Standard IGMP Leave and Immediate Leave. The emerging IPTV deployments utilize Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) in order to deliver media content. Unlike UDP, RTP protocol can provide sequence numbers to maintain packet ordering and detect losses, and timing information to determine network delay and synchronize timing between senders and receivers.RTP control protocol maintains session state between senders and receivers and report sender and receiver statistics bi-directionally [17]. The rapid acquisition is illustrated in the Fig 22 flow diagram below. [pic] Fig. 22. Rapid Acquisition Flow Diagram 1) The RTP receiver sends a Multicast Leave message to its upstream multicast router to leave the current multicast session and end the currently v iewed channel. 2) The RTP receiver sends a feedback message to the feedback target asking for rapid acquisition for the session it wants to join. In this feedback message, the RTP receiver can specify its specific requirements. ) The retransmission server receives the feedback message and decides whether or not to accept the request. If the retransmission server accepts the request, it sends a message to the RTP receiver that describes the burst that the retransmission server will generate and send, including the indication when the RTP receiver should join the new multicast session. The unicast burst stream consists of retransmission of a specific block of packets which will allow the RTP receiver to begin displaying video without waiting for a certain random access point to arrive in the multicast flow.If the retransmission server denies the request, it informs the RTP receiver immediately. 4) If the retransmission server accepts the request, it transmits the unicast burst data an d any additional message(s) needed to carry the key information about the new channel. The key information is used to prime the decoder inside the IPTV STB so that it can start decoding sooner. The unicast burst continues at a higher than natural rate until the unicast burst catches up with the real-time multicast flow. The sustainable burst rate depends on the access network link characteristics. ) At the appropriate moment (as indicated or computed from the burst parameters), the RTP receiver joins the new multicast session by sending a Multicast Join message to its upstream multicast router. 6) The RTP receiver starts receiving the multicast flow and completes the rapid acquisition. The STB will not join multicast session immediately with rapid acquisition since there would not be enough available left over on the access link. By utilizing unicast burst sent from the retransmission server o catch up with the multicast flow in a reasonable amount of time before joining to multicas t group allows faster channel switching capability rather than joining multicast group immediately [18]. Cloud Computing service in IPTV IPTV videos can be delivered to subscribers through various different network structures. For many years, Proxy servers have been utilized to decrease network traffic and delays through high speed and robust connection. Telco companies are looking for ways to keep service calls rejections to minimum through cloud service for on-demand IPTV service. Figure below shows on-demand IPTV service for cloud architecture. pic] Fig. 23. On-demand IPTV cloud services Video can be streamed from any of the virtual servers by load balancing among server and handle peak loads by avoid overload to achieve continuous, high utilization levels of servers. Virtual servers can provide low cost computing resources. The Virtual server acts like a dedicated server but it co-reside on a single physical machines acting as multiple physical dedicated server. However, if too many virtual servers reside on the single physical machine, services may face problem due to scarce computing resource per virtual server.Virtual storage through cloud computing allow easy share of resources among themselves. Physical storage is virtualized into virtual disk, which allows storage consolidation across heterogeneous vendors and protocols, enabled by dynamically growing and shrinking of storage through live migration, in the enterprise storage area network to be used by applications [22]. F uture application of IPTV The key to differentiating IPTV from traditional TV service of VOD and Network-based personal video record (nPVR) is the real-time interactive application and social TV.With FTTx or Gigabit Ethernet providing more bandwidth in broadband network allows new killer application to maximize the value of the IPTV service. A) SayUTV SayUTV service allows users’ participation into TV sports, discussion, variety show, and so on. SayUTV allow mixing their vide o and sources into provider’s content to allow maximum interactive and customize IPTV content. The subscriber can click participation button on SayUTV GUI. After service provider or host of the content allows his/her participation, the subscriber’s audio and video content is mixed into program’s content.All the viewer of the content can view the participant’s image and voice. [pic] Fig. 26. SayUTV Service System Architecture SayUTV service divides the role of users into three major roles: †¢ Controller – who creates a service session and has a control over that session. †¢ Participants – who joins the session and contributes his/her own multimedia content. †¢ Simple Viewer – who enjoys this service in a passive way [pic] Fig. 27. SayUTV Implementation. SayUTV is an advanced IPTV service, which combined with bidirectional multimedia communication technologies allowing interactive user-participation [20].B) IPTV Interacti ve Online Shopping In order for IPTV service provider to maximize the profit from IPTV service require smart ad insertion based on customers’ preference. TV series and sports media are well known for effective product advertisement aid. Apparels worn by a main actress of TV series or MVP sports athletes have greater potential for larger sales than conventional display by online shopping website. In order to provide customer’s shopping craving while watching TV series or sports event is to add additional information to the product description field such as TV series name, and character or athletes name.This will allow customers place some tags on that particular product through watching particular TV series or service provider can collect customers’ preference based on content and insert smart ad targeting each subscriber. [pic] Fig. 28. Shopperama Service Screen in Korea Shopperama is OTT provider in Korea providing series, which have broadcasted through a TV st ation, online along with smart ad insertion. The apparels worn by main actors and products inside the episode are displayed in a synchronized manner with video content as shown in Fig 25.This allows customer to shop for products very easily while watching TV series and reduce customer’s burden of trying to find particular product [21]. To improve interactive online shopping with IPTV service still needs many enhancements to fully flourish in E-business model. Behavior targeting content to users is estimate to be 20 billion dollar industry and in order for IPTV interactive online shopping to gain market share requires smart integration of cross layer platforms. C) Final Remarks With IPTV service deployment, Cable Company is afraid of cord-cutting case.The IPTV service is gaining popularity amongst consumer and there are many opportunities for new killer application to integrate with IPTV service. In this paper, we described current IPTV architecture in the market and presented recent efforts to improve IPTV technology. 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