Social Studies in the Elementary School

About the stone Periodot, the birthstone of the month of august

About the stone Periodot, the birthstone of the month of august PeridotHave you ever heard of the birthstone peridot? Well, if you haven't I'll teach you a little bit about it. The reason why I'm researching peridot is because my birthday is on August 18, so that makes peridot my birthstone.Peridot comes in the color olive-green, and sometimes comes in a yellowish green. It is very pretty and it looks beautiful on a necklace or as a ring. When rubbed on a piece of glass peridots streak is white, and the luster is glassy. Every time I see my birthstone it is shiny and it looks very elegant. Peridot was tested on the Moh's hardness scale and its range is from 6.5 to 7.0, so it is pretty hard but not as hard as a diamond. The chemicals used in a peridot are (Mg, Fe2)2 S04. Now, where is peridot found? It's found in Arizona, Hawaii, China, and in Yellowstone Park, Wyoming.Peridot from the San Carlos Apache reservation in ...Peridot is found pretty close to Kentucky, but it's still a while away. Unlike the diamond, peridot is only semi-precious, and i t can still be valued pretty high. Peridot was named from its color. Its color olive green is referred to peridot. Now you have hopefully learned a lot about peridot.The history, folklore, and superstitions about peridot are, that it is given as a gift to celebrate a 16th wedding anniversary. Peridot was believed to have the power to break evil spells, so people would wear peridot on a necklace. Peridot was thought to bring the wearer to success, peace, and good luck. Cleopatra loved peridot and wore it all the time. Some other powers of peridot are protection, health, and sleep. It is also used to attract love and calm anger while also soothing nerves, and dispelling negative emotion. There...

Energy Sources of the Future Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Energy Sources of the Future - Essay Example Three of these include solar power, wind power and biomass. Solar Power Solar power, or solar energy, is a viable alternative to fossil fuels. Solar power comes from the sun through the use of solar panels that contain solar or photovoltaic cells. In fact, one square meter of solar panel can generate as much as 100 watts of electricity (â€Å"Solar Power†). Once used only to power satellites, the solar panel is now used to generate power for houses and companies. Aside from the use of solar panels, solar power can also be used to heat water using glass panels on the roof. This powers up the home’s central heating system (â€Å"Solar Power†). Moreover, a third type of machine that utilizes solar power is a solar furnace. The huge array of mirrors in a solar furnace is used to concentrate all the sunlight into a small space in order to produce an extremely high temperature of heat. Solar furnaces may be used for scientific experiments. There are also solar-powered electric boats and solar towers. (â€Å"Solar Power†) On the subject of availability and renewability, solar power may be advantageous as it basically â€Å"needs no fuel† and is renewable as long as the sun shines (â€Å"Solar Power†). ... Even if only 2.5% of this radiation is converted into electricity, it would be enough for the total energy consumption of the whole nation in a year (Zweibel et al., University of Colorado). Another related development in the utilization of solar energy is the very recent invention of the nanocone-based solar cell. This particular type of solar cell, which boosts the light conversion efficiency of traditional solar cells by a whopping 80%, is in fact a result of the â€Å"minimization of defects and voids in semiconductors† (â€Å"New Solar Cell,† ScienceDaily). This property alone enhances electric and optical properties of the solar cell in order to convert sunlight to electric power more efficiently, thus increasing its availability while maximizing its utilization. Perhaps the only disadvantage of solar power is that, unless stored, it does not work at night and may be very expensive to build. (â€Å"Solar Power†) When it comes to environmental impact, solar power does not produce any pollution or waste (â€Å"Solar Power†). According to the Union of Concerned Scientists in the United States, primary environmental issues associated with solar power concerns only â€Å"how [solar power systems] are manufactured, installed, and ultimately disposed of† (â€Å"Environmental Impacts,† UCSUSA.org). Arsenic, silicon and cadmium are the major elements used in the manufacture of photovoltaic cells and are therefore hazardous to workers and anyone else who comes in contact with the solar panels. Safety regulations should therefore be strictly kept. Moreover, solar-thermal plants require cooling water, which may be costly or scarce in the southwest United States where the area is more

Able Tool Corporation Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Able Tool Corporation - Case Study Example Since its incorporation the company’s mission statement is that of a genuine commitment to on-time delivery, quality pricing, excellent service and reliability. The company is dedicated to give its customers the best price and timely delivery. In 1987, the company relocated to Ohio. In 1990, Able Tool Company bought the Gilman Company of Ohio in order to broaden its capabilities. The ability of the firm to serve a wide variety of customers is what has seen this company through this volatile industry and a un- predictable market. The PEPT (Portable Electric Power Tools) Industry that able corporation operates is collectively affected by economic variables like general taxation interest rates as well as inflationary variables. General economic indicators such as interest, foreign exchange and inflation rates have always affected the power tool market since these variables greatly affect disposable income that is a very crucial determining factor for the construction and or renov ation of houses or residential estates. Due to high interest rates in the United States, the housing market has continued to decline since 2004, this has greatly affected the power tool market as well as the general cost of houses rising by about 2.8% annually. Apart from the interest rates, foreign exchange rates also affect the operations of the companies in this industry including companies like Milwaukee Electricity Company. Exchange rates affect the sales of the industry since a substantial proportion of these companies sales are in overseas markets. The explicit and underlying costs of housing starts are very crucial to the advancement of this industry. Currently due to high interest rates compounded by high costs of mortgages for the last four years, the demand for portable electric power tools has been on the decline. To compound this situation due to increasing inflation the industry has had to increase moderately the price of their products. According to market analysts, this has led to the increased cost of setting up residential and commercial properties. This in turn has shied of prospective investors in the industry. This in turn has caused some of the industry players to relocate their firms especially in Asia where the cost of production is cheap. By doing this these firms have been able to import back the same products into the American market at a more cheap price. The increased cost of environmental protection, especially through the sale of pollution rights, has led to increased operational costs within the industry that have further caused them to increase their commodity prices. Concerns of air pollution, water pollution and land contamination have been highly emphasized by western countries to a point that many industry players have been forced to relocate to India and china, where environmental protection policies have not been highly emphasized. Incases where the parent company does not relocate, most commonly the firms have relocated production plants either to Asia or Latin America. CONCLUSION: The portable electric power tools industry has been faced with many challenges. However, due to a booming world economy buoyed by among others a more than 5% economic growth rate in many newly industrialized countries, the industry has been able to source new markets especially in china. REFERENCES: www.abletool.com www.free-press-release.com/news/200704/1177416298.html www.ibisworld.com.au/industry/default.aspx www.strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/inimr-ri3.nsf/en/gr-92637e.html

Hawthorne effect Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Hawthorne effect - Essay Example n at Hawthorne, I would define the Hawthorne Effect as the confounding that occurs if experimenters fail to realize how the consequences of subjects performance affect what subjects do". In a Design industry environment consisting of around 150 draftsmen as workforce it was found that the productivity dropped suddenly in the recent six months’ time. Although the workers were given good wages and incentive packages, the productivity didn’t increase. In spite of repeated meetings and re-fixing of targets, there was no improvement in the productivity. The management was confused and tried to study the cause of the situation. After much thought, the Hawthorne studies were taken for experimenting with the situation. The entire workforce was working on a 5 day week, on a general shift of 8Â ½ hours a day, i.e. between 09:00 to 17:30 hours, including 30 minutes break for lunch. Each worker in the entire workforce of 150 draftsmen currently designed 5 AutoCAD drawings per day. The workforce was grouped into two – the formal group and the informal group. At first, both the groups were put on specific targets of 6 AutoCAD drawings per worker per day over a period of 12 weeks. The formal group was made to work on the existing timing. The informal group was given a rest break of 10 minutes twice in the day over a period of 4 weeks. Observations showed that the output of informal group went up. As the next step, the rest breaks for the informal group were lengthened to four 10 minutes rest breaks. The workers complained that the pace of their work was getting disturbed. As a result, their productivity decreased. Then, the rest breaks of informal group were returned to the two rest breaks, the first one with a supply of tea by the Company free of cost. As a result, the productivity increased. Then as the next step, the week was extended to six day working week for the informal group over a period of 4 weeks. The productivity decreased. Finally, the rest breaks

Sustainable design

Sustainable design Introduction Sustainable design is the philosophy of designing physical and conceptual objects, the built environment and services to fulfil the principles of economic, social, and ecological sustainability. Sustainable designs are more commonly seen nowadays because of the rise in environmental issues like greenhouse effect and global warming. With reference to a survey done by Autodesk Inc, the results indicate that mechanical engineers expect to see an increase in sustainable design work in 2010. â€Å"According to survey results, designs that use less energy or reduce emissions remain the most important sustainable technology practice, while manufacturing processes that use less energy and natural resources were also a priority.† There are several factors to consider when creating a sustainable design. They are ecological sustainability, built environment, economic sustainability and social responsibility. Ecological sustainability deals with issues regarding the natural Ecological Sustainability environmentally-friendly designs Built Environment man-made design, indoor and outdoor design Economic Sustainability marketability of the design Social Sustainability -cohesion, place and people Social Responsibility Ethics is fundamentally a practical matter. It is concerned with how we should live, how we should treat other people and the world around us. It is how we should act in a moral and responsible manner. Sustainable designs are strongly encouraged because it is beneficial to our environment. It is each and every one of our duties and responsibilities to protect and take care of our environment. Achieving Sustainable Design Sustainable designs are achieved through sensitive designs, for example, energy efficiency. Sensitive designs include good contextual studies of the surroundings, factors like site location, weather and local culture. The choice of material for the design is also an important factor as well. It is encouraged that renewable resources are used for building materials as it is environmentally-friendly. An example of a sustainable design is the EDITT (Ecological Design in the Tropics) Tower (Figure 1) in Singapore. It adopts many climatic responsive techniques: â€Å"wind walls† to direct wind to internal spaces, solar panels, mechanically joined connections between building components to facilitate recycling, rainwater collection, sewage composting and grey-water reuse. The tower has well-planted facades and vegetated terraces which is approximately about 3800 sq meters, almost about half of the gross usable area of the building As seen from the layout plan , the greenery are planted at the edges of each level. The placement of the vegetation within the tower at different levels correspond to the microclimates of each individual sub-zone at the tower. Human Nature Relationship A good sustainable design should also relate people with the natural environment. Human and nature interaction are encouraged in architectural designs by creating openings to create views, allowing people to be in touch with the natural surroundings. Man activities that destroy the environment and consume energy are meaningless because they contribute little to our well beings and the quality of life. Recycled furniture is therefore becoming a very popular choice. Wood and glass are good examples of recycled material. However, recycled furniture could also mean to reuse old and unwanted items. Figure 4 shows a recycled chair made of compact discs. As information are conveniently stored into thumb drives and computers in modern days now, old and burned compact discs are not wanted anymore. Alternative suggestions to reuse the discs may include coasters, but the recycled chair in figure 4 is a good way to reuse loads of discs all at once. However, the comfortability of the chair is another issue. Figure 5 is a coffee table made of bicycle wheel. Bent and spoiled bicycle wheel may be useless to some but after some alterations, the faulty wheels could be turned into a useful piece of furniture. Cons of Sustainability The aim of sustainable design is to accommodate peoples current demands and needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to accomodate their own needs. Many of the current processes the modern world chooses to obtain and use our natural resources are short-sighted. Companies looking to make a profit right away can cause long term damage to the environment when they do activities for example, cutting down too many trees or produce pollutants. However, sustainable design would require huge amount of time, money and research to find out which methods of production would damage the environment the least. This is the major reason why people are hesitant to support sustainable development. Case Study The Marcus Beach House designed by BARK Design Architects in Australia has a coastal setting, providing the owner with a relationship with the landscape and sensitive surrounding environment. This site explores filtering natural breezes, lightness, layers of transparency and integrating between indoor and outdoor spaces within dynamic patterns of light and shadow, being a simple frame to enable a contemporary sustainable lifestyle. The Marcus Beach House Design uses open concept where there are a lot of flexible spaces available. Walls are made retractable to allow better air ventilation. As seen from figures 5 and 6, the blue arrows indicated the wind flow directions through windows and void spaces. Such architectural designs made use of available natural surrounding elements, for example the wind and the sunlight. Therefore, the energy consumption is greatly reduced. Conclusion Sustainability in designs is greatly beneficial to our environment and hence strongly encouraged. The factors to consider when creating a sustainable design are ecological sustainability, built environment, economic sustainability and social responsibility. Everyone is responsible for the natural environment that they are living in and hence should play a part in protecting our Earth. Sustainable designs can be created through sensitive designs with reference to the site context to achieve energy efficiency.

Cis 210

^&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& In today’s â€Å"tech† and competitive world, businesses are in transformation from manual inventory system to automated inventory system, including small businesses. Automated Inventory systems can reduce costs, retain the existing customers and gain profits. It can replace the time consuming manual process by providing more accurate data. Every business should have a proper inventory system in order to track whether the store is running out of the stock of an important item or there are some items that are obsolete.Nowadays, automated system is used almost by all the retailers, grocery stores and manufacturing companies. A good inventory control system will alert the retailer when it is time to reorder (www. barcodesinc. com). Automated inventory system will keep the competitive advantage of your company and increase the value of your business. This plan will describe all the necessary equipment required for a low-cost automated inventory system fo r a small clothing store.It will also explain the costs involved in creation of the system and describe the ongoing maintenance that will be required for the smooth running of the system and provide a workflow diagram of how the system will work. The equipments required to install a low-cost automated inventory system in small clothing store consists of a computer- desktop or laptop whichever is more cheaper, system requirements that can handle and store the inventory system, backup/recovery/portable hard disk and archive device, wireless router, inventory software, mobile scanning device like RF gun or any other device, barcode printer and barcode labels.The system will be user-friendly and provide reliability and versatility in performance of application. It will make tracking inventory simple and flexible. It will allow tracking and scanning inventory away from the physical computer. The automated system will update the inventory records and perform transactions on an instant bas is. The system will make it simple to

Change Management: The Komatsu Case

Organizations are in constant interactions with their environments.   A change in the environment will subsequently cause a change in the organization that interacts with it.   This change can be positive or negative, and in both cases, it alters the organization’s status on many different levels.   Dealing with this change on all the levels is a key factor in minimizing disruptions to the organization’s functioning and growth.   In other words, change management is â€Å"a managerial and organizational process that realigns an organizations strategy, structure and process in pro-action or reaction to chaos in the environment† (Worthy et. al., 1996, p. 16).   The process of change management, and how it influences an organization’s strategy and management, is analyzed herewith in context of the Komatsu company.Brief HistoryKomatsu Iron Works was a subsidiary of Takeuchi Mining Industry, manufacturing industrial tools for the parent company.   I n 1921, the founder of the company, Mr. Takeuchi, incorporated Komatsu Ltd. as an independent company.   Komatsu originally manufactured mining equipment, but started making agricultural equipment such as tractors by 1931.   During the second world war, it was an important manufacturer of tanks, bulldozers, and other heavy machinery.   Post-war, Komatsu began focusing on the earth moving equipment (EME market).   In the 1950s, the company’s machinery was in demand because of the ongoing postwar construction in Japan.   Although its customer base was strong at that time, Komatsu did not command a significant market share, and the quality of its machines was inadequate.   This was a major factor in customer dissatisfaction, however, the Japanese manufacturers operated in a protected environment at that time, with no significant foreign competitors.In 1963, the Japanese Ministry of Trade allowed the entry of foreign EME manufacturers in Japan.   This signaled a com plete change in Komatsu’s market environment.   Now the competition extended to foreign counterparts, most of whom had long been established as market leaders in the EME category.   The following sections discuss Komatsu’s strategies for managing these challenges, and how they dealt with change in the process.CompetitionMajor heavy machinery manufacturers like Caterpillar, J.I. Case, Fiat-Ellis and John Deere were all technologically more advanced than Komatsu, and had widespread dealer networks and manufacturing bases.   The most formidable competitor in the EME segment was Caterpillar, the world’s largest manufacturer of heavy machinery.   Caterpillar’s equipment was much more sophisticated and of a higher quality, and its distributor and dealer network was very solid.   Komatsu realized then that it was imperative for the company to upgrade its products and operations, in order to survive the competition.The company was headed at the time by Yashinari Kawai, who recognized the urgent need to revamp the company’s product quality, both technically and functionally.   In order to bring Komatsu products up to date, the company signed licensing arrangements with two major EME manufacturers, International Harvester and Bucyrus Erie.   This gave Komatsu the opportunity to improve the equipment quality for the agricultural and the industrial sector.In addition, Kawai implemented the Japanese concept of TQC (Total quality Control), which led to a huge improvement in the performance, reliability, and durability of the equipment.   This was one of the major change management challenges that Kawai handled successfully.   Kawai realized that in order to change the customers’ perception of Komatsu products, it was first necessary to change the employees’ own view of the kind of products that the company made.Changing the mindset of every employee and incorporating the philosophy of uncompromised quality a t every level in the company required a strong, skillful leader.   Kawai manouvered this change implementation by open communication, reward, and most importantly, setting an example for all employees by involving everyone from the top management to the shopfloor workers, in this endeavor.  Ã‚   When Komatsu was awarded the Deming Prize for quality control just 3 years later, it served as a huge morale booster for the company.Another major change measure implemented at this time was Project A.   In the first phase of this project, the employees were instructed to ignore costs and concentrate solely on achieving the best possible quality for their equipment.   Once this goal was achieved, the second phase of Project A was implemented, focusing on cost reduction.   Each and every aspect of design and manufacturing was closely scrutinized, checking for bottlenecks and wastage of resources.This resulted in a lean, finely-tuned manufacturing process, that complemented the high quality of Komatsu’s equipment.   From 1965 to 1970, the company’s domestic market share grew from 50% to 65%, despite the presence of Mitsubishi-Caterpillar.   According to Kawai, this feat was achieved largely due to the employee morale and drive at Komatsu.   In his words, â€Å"the prevailing atmosphere was that of a crisis, resulting in a spirit of unity between the management and the staff†.   This company-wide presence of a common goal took precedence over management and labor issues, and resulted in highly successful change management.Komatsu had implemented a two-pronged strategy to achieve success – vertical integration and TQC.   Vertical integration meant that the entire line of business had to be perfectly aligned and free of defects, right from the bottom.   To ensure this, they started with quality raw materials.   The second aspect was TQC – incorporating the philosophy of quality control everywhere and within everyone in the company.   Komatsu also extended the TQC strategy to its dealerships, encouraging them to implement the system.   This strategy of tackling the problem at the root and improvising upon it was the key to strong growth, and enabled Komatsu to offer formidable competition to Caterpillar – accomplishing what other companies such as J.I. Case and John Deere could not.Business EnvironmentFrom the time Komatsu started implementing change, the business environment was constantly shifting, in terms of demand, cost advantage, and regulations.   By mid-1970s, the domestic market for EME was stagnating, with Komatsu having 60% of the market, and the Mitsubishi-Caterpillar partnership having 30%.   Growth was slowing down in the less developed countries too.   Komatsu’s management responded by developing the V 10 plan, aiming to reduce costs by 10% while improving quality.   In 1976, an unexpected event in the financial markets caused further concern.   The Ja panese Yen was appreciating rapidly against the dollar, rising from 293 in 1976 to 240 in 1977.   To cushion the company’s exports, Komatsu’s management followed an internal exchange rate of 180 yen to the dollar.   This ensured that Komatsu’s costs and pricing were well-adjusted to the market conditions, and their exports did not suffer.   Komatsu’s policy of anticipating change and fortifying the company against any adverse effects again worked to its advantage.Problems faced by KomatsuExporting their equipment to other countries had always been a part of Komatsu’s vision.   This goal constituted the company’s Project B.   With their improved and technically capable equipment, by 1970 Kawai was eager to launch major international operations for the company.   However, there were considerable barriers to this end – Komatsu’s limited international recognition and dealer base, fierce competition, and legal regulation s.The technology license that it had obtained from International Harvester and Bucyrus Erie had imposed export restrictions on them.   Komatsu recognized this as an impediment, and established its R&D laboratory in 1966.   But there were still significant requirements for establishing an international market presence.   Caterpillar, for example, had its dealership centers across the globe, some of which were exclusive dealerships.   This made it difficult for Komatsu, with its relatively limited product line and manufacturing base, to create the required dealer network.   In order to overcome this obstacle, Komatsu priced its products 30 to 40 percent below Caterpillar’s.   This allowed them to get the intial foothold in the international markets.   Komatsu also benefited from the increased demand for construction machinery in less developed countres in Asia and Mexico, and in Saudi Arabia.In the 1970s, Komatsu had also started expanding its product line.   Ry oichi Kawai, now the president of Komatsu, made special efforts to build and develop international client and dealer relationships.   He also instructed managers to regularly visit customers, and get first hand information on their requirements and issues.   Keeping abreast of technological changes and being one of the first to adopt and incorporate new technology in its equipment was a key factor to success.Komatsu incorporated electronic technology into all its machinery, creating differentiated, high quality products.   In 1979, the worldwide construction industry was at a low.   To combat the depressed economy, Komatsu’s management launched the â€Å"F and F† or Future and Frontiers program, formulated to develop new products and new businesses.   Once again, a companywide buzz was created, and suggestions were welcomed from every level within the company.   These suggestions resulted in the production of diverse new products such as arc-welding robots and an excavating system for deep-sea sand.In the early 1980s, Komatsu objected to the export restrictions which still continued to be imposed on it by Bucyrus Erie.   Komatsu won this appeal and gained export rights from Bucyrus Erie.   It also managed to free itself from the agreement with International Harvester, and gained full freedom to export its equipment worldwide.   This was a major milestone for Komatsu, and the company took full advantage of its established quality and dealerships.   It also capitalized on the embargo that prevented Caterpillar from exporting to Russia in the early 1980s.   In 1981, the Siberian Natural Resource Project was handed over entirely to Komatsu.   In a short while, Komatsu was expected to outperform Caterpillar in the Russian market.As their international customer base increased, so did the need for customized equipment for different countries, based on the type of work, environment, and legal regulations.   Designing customized equipment for each customer separately was not cost effective.   To counter this, the management adopted the policy of EPOCHS – Efficient Production-Oriented Choice Specifications.   The idea was to save costs by standardizing production modules for core projects along with the required number of parts, and adding different specifications as necessary.Around this time, the increasing freight and shipping costs, and Japan’s strained trade relations with the US and Europe were increasingly becoming a cause for concern.   It was during this time that the US automakers opposed the import of Japanese cars in the market, and Komatsu was fearful that a similar plea might be raised by Caterpillar and other heavy-machinery manufacturers. In order to curb these potential problems, Komatsu manufactured the core parts of its equipment in all its plants.   This reduced the shipping frequency as well as the freight costs.   It also developed assembly bases in Brazil and Me xico, and was working on a joint venture proposal with its dealer in Indonesia.Current Situation and OptionsThe case refers to the scenario in 1984, a period of recession around the world.   The building and construction industry was also affected, with most players assuming some losses.   The biggest source of concern for Komatsu, however, was Caterpillar.   Caterpillar had experienced its third consecutive year of losses, and was in the midst of a major labor strike.   Kawai knew that this was an opportunity to take over where Caterpillar faltered – but it was also an indication of the increasingly difficult   business environment.   Witnessing a large, successful company like Caterpillar struggling to retain its position in the market, Kawai became concerned about Komatsu, and what it could do to avoid being in a similar situation.Komatsu’s options were centered around keeping a close watch on the market and on Caterpillar.   Komatsu employees were in the habit of reading Caterpillar’s monthly news bulletins and press releases, in order to stay informed regarding their competitor’s activities and plans.   Komatsu also realized the need to keep its labor force functioning, and continue keeping the costs down.   Their international operations also had to be strengthened at this time, capitalizing on Caterpillar’s compromised position.  Ã‚   These options are evaluated in the following section.RecommendationsIn keeping with its established policy, Komatsu should place particular emphasis on anticipating change and devising measures to optimize the benefits while curbing the negative effects.   To an extent, it was complacency that had cost Caterpillar – the managers’ priority was on increasing the customer base without addressing customer value or employee needs.   Therefore, managing labor relations is one of the most important issues for Komatsu.   The workers at Komatsu earn signific antly lesser than their counterparts at Caterpillar.   However, this is offset by high employee morale and  Ã‚   strong labor-management relations.   Maintaining this status is extremely important for Komatsu, both in terms of employee productivity and controlling costs by minimizing overhead.The second recommendation for Komatsu would be to strengthen its international presence.   With the capital that it has accumulated, Komatsu is in a position to either buy out a number of smaller competitors, or acquire a successful ally.   This would further consolidate Komatsu’s manufacturing operations and distributor channels.   It should also continue its R&D efforts and product diversification plans, and stay ahead of the competition.   If necessary, Komatsu can form a joint venture with a company to ease the manufacturing and operations of diversified products.ReferencesWorley, C.G., Hitchen, D.E., & Ross, W.L. (1996). Integrated strategic change: How OD builds a com petitive advantage. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Custom Component Development in Delphi

Custom Component Development in Delphi Components are essential elements of the Delphi environment. One of the most important features of Delphi is that we can use Delphi to create our own components. We can derive a new component from any existing component, but the following are the most common ways to create components: modifying existing controls, creating windowed controls, creating graphic controls, subclassing Windows controls and creating nonvisual components. Visual or not, with or without property editor, from scratch...you name it. Developing Delphi components isnt a simple task, it involves quite a bit of knowledge of the VCL. However, developing custom components is not an impossible task; writing components is just pure programming. Articles, Papers, Tutorials What follows is a list of articles that deal with custom component development in Delphi. Accessing protected members of a componentMany Delphi components have useful properties and methods that are marked invisible (protected) to a Delphi developer. In this article, you will find the workaround to this problem - thus enabling you to access a DBGrids RowHeights property, for example.Creating Custom Delphi Components - Inside and OutThis tutorial will explain component writing to you, which should result in more code reuse. It will go over properties, events, and methods, and will also explain how to install components. The final part of this tutorial is about Object-Oriented design.Creating Custom Delphi Components, Part IThis first part demonstrates some of the best approaches to building components, and at the same time provides tips on deciding on the best base class to inherit from, using virtual declarations, the complexities of overriding, and so on.Creating Custom Delphi Components, Part IIQuite often it is necessary to write components that perform more advanced f unctions. These components often need to either reference other components, have custom property data formats, or have a property that owns a list of values rather than a single value. We will explore various examples covering these very subjects, starting with the most simple. Creating Custom Delphi Components, Part IIIThis article is the final part of a three part article on components. Part one covered the basic creating of components, part two covered how to write advanced properties, how to write custom streaming for those properties and sub-properties. This final part will cover property/component editors, how to write dedicated editors for your component/property, and how to write hidden components. More Resources First, if you want more, consider buying a book on Developing custom components.Second, why not try locating an existing (with source perhaps) component you are looking for.Third, when you are 100% sure there is no such question on custom component development you cant answer...there will be something that you dont know. Everything you have to do is to ask a question on the Delphi Programming Forum and wait for answers. Articles, papers, tutorialsHere is a list of articles that deal with custom component development in Delphi. VCL Component Messages [RTF]Component Messages (CM_) are generated only by the VCL and are not reflected Windows Messages (WM_), as one may assume. In spite of that Component Notifications (CN_) are reflected Windows Messages. The idea behind it is, that Windows often sends messages to a parent window of a control instead of the control itself. The VCL simply converts (reflects) these messages to Component Notifications and then sends it to the control, for which the message originally was meant. Delphi Component Building.In this article, read about every aspect of Delphi Component building. Design a TTicTacToe component and learn about: how to build our own components for Delphi, how to add properties, methods and custom events to them, how to wrap them around DLLs, how to install them, how to design a palette bitmap and write on-line help to support the component user. Building SuperComponents in Delphi [download]SuperComponents, also known as aggregate or compound components, are collections of existing sub-components and their relationships combined into a single component. The collections are typically arranged inside a container parent component that manages the visual layout of the sub-components.

How Many Volunteer Hours Do You Need for College

How Many Volunteer Hours Do You Need for College SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Community service is one of the most popular extracurricular activities for high school students to do in their free time. There are hundreds of ways that high school students can get involved in their communities. There is really something out there for everyone, no matter what your personal interests are! Admissions officers also love to see community service on college applications. Having community service experience means you're passionate about making a difference in the world and are ready to take action and be involved. But how many community service hours for college do you actually need in order to make sure your contribution is â€Å"good enough† for admissions officers? Is there a certain numberof hours that you need for different schools? Read on to find out! Do You Need to Complete a CertainNumberof Volunteer Hours for College? As a rough guideline, anything between 50 and 200 hours is going to sound impressive and show that you have made a commitment.However, once you get above 200 hours, you should start to consider if your free time could be better spent doing something else. Unfortunately, there is no one magic number of community service hours that is going to be your golden ticket into college. Grades and test scores will always come first. Though community service work can showcase an aspect of your personality and make admission officers see you as a good citizen and leader, it isn’t going to guarantee admission on its own. Even if youhave spent 500+ hours on volunteering, admissions officers won'thold spots open for you based just on that. You still need to be the full package. So treat volunteer work as you would any other extracurricular activity. If this is what you choose to do with your time, make sure that it counts. Fortunately, a recent study by DoSomething.org will help you to do just that. They asked admissions officers from 33 of the top 50 colleges for guidance on how they judge community service as an extracurricular activity. Their answers are a great guide towhat admissions officers are actually thinking when they see your community service hours on your application. You may be surprised to learn thatthe number of hours you spend doing community service is notthe most important focus. In fact, most admissions officers say thatthey care more about what you have done, why you are doing it, and what you are getting out of it. As long as you can adequately explain these things, they don’t care as much about the number of hours you spent doing it. Two-thirdsof college admission officers say that it’s not possible to have too many community service hours. As long as it’s not affecting your grades or other parts of your life, you can volunteer to your heart’s content. But the opposite is also true. As long as you have made a valuable contribution that you can explain, most admissions officers are probably not going to discount community service work that you have done just because you haven’t spent enough hours doing it. How Should You Allocate Your Volunteer Hours? So if your goal is 50-200 hours, how should you spend that time? In general, it'seasier and takes fewer hours to havean impact if you keep volunteering for the same project, instead of spreading yourself across several different projects. Try to find a project that you can spendat least fifty hours on.If you have much less than this, most admissions officers will not be convinced that you have dedicated enough time to really be making a difference. Be intelligent about how you spend your free time if you're going to dedicate more hours. However, once you get above 200 hours, you should start to consider if your free time could be better spent doing something else. At the end of the day, 500 hoursis not going to seem that much more impressive than 200 hours,and those are hours that probably couldbebetterspent elsewhere, such as on other extracurriculars, getting top grades, or test prep. If the numberof hours you spent doing community service isn't the most important thing that admissions officers are looking for, then what DO they want to see in your community service? What Do Admissions Officers Want to See in Volunteer Work? There are three main qualities that you should be showing inyourcommunity service work: commitment, passion, and leadership.The best students will also use their community service experience as an opportunity forreflection. #1: Commitment You can show commitment by being involved in your chosen project over a long period of time. In the DoSomething study, 70% of admissions officers said they would prefer to see long-term dedication to an unglamorous cause such as local service work instead of a short-term commitment to something flashy like volunteering abroad. Furthermore, 60% of admissions officers would prefer to see students who have made a commitment to just one cause over their high school careers. Why? They're more interested in seeing what you can accomplish when you're dedicated and put your mind to it than they are by a longer list of volunteer activities. One officer noted,â€Å"Longevity and dedication are traits necessary for collegiate success.† Long-term commitment shows passion and dedication. Over 60% of admissions officers say that they would like to see service that goes back to the beginning of high school, and 15% more say that the service commitment should start before high school. But what really matters is that you have been volunteeringfor a long enough time that you have actually made a difference in the community and your own development as well. #2: Passion To showpassion, doa community service activity thatrelates to something thatyou're already interested inor care deeply about. If you have a certain interest, community service can be a great way to explore it. For example, if you're passionate about animals, you could consider volunteering at an animal shelter. As mentioned above, long-term involvement is important. Students who already care about a cause are more likely to make a long-term commitment. Working in an area you care about also shows thatyou can take action to improve things where you see a need, which is a great trait that admission officers look for. Also, the more you can talk about why you care about a cause, the more sincere you will seem in your efforts. #3: Leadership You can show your leadership skills by managing others and being in charge during an event or activity. You can also show leadership by being responsible for motivating others to succeed. As with any extracurricular, schools are interested to see how you've taken charge and made your extracurricular activity better than you found it.Colleges want to admit people who will change the world, and leaders have a better chance of doing this.Over 50% of admissions officers thought that having a founding or leading role in your volunteer work was the most important quality that you could show them. #4: Reflection The best students who have done community service work will also be able toreflect on how their work has made a difference, both to others and to themselves. Students should ask themselves if their community service projects have actually made a positive contribution to society. After all, that is the point of community service. Successful community service can be a lot trickier to gauge than success in other extracurriculars. Ask yourself if you have accomplished what you set out to do and who is better off because of your work. Also, check to see thatyou understand whythe work you've done is important and how you've made an impact. Students who can reflect on these aspects are more likely to impress admissions officers because theyshow that they are thoughtful and have dedicated themselves for sincere reasons – not just to have something to list on their resume. Ask yourself, have you spent enough time doing community servicethat you have actually made a difference?If you just showed up and did some hours for the sake of a better resume, admissions officers won't be impressed. Finally, what kind of experience have you gained? In particular, admissions officers are looking for leadership experience, as mentioned above. However, they're also interested instudents who have become more mature and developed in other ways as a result of their community service. If your service work has made you more empathetic, for example, this would also be a greatthing to write about. Students who can reflect on these aspects are more likely to impress admissions officers becausethey canshow that they did community servicefor sincere reasons – not just to have something to list on their resume. Want to build the best possible college application? We can help. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools, from state colleges to the Ivy League. We know what kinds of students colleges want to admit. We want to get you admitted to your dream schools. Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in. What Do Admissions Officers NotWant to See? Many students willdo community service work for the wrong reasons - and it willshow. Admissions officers are always on the lookout for students who volunteer just to fulfill a quota. If you talk about your experience in terms of hours instead of causes and accomplishments, this can be a red flag. Words like â€Å"required† and â€Å"mandatory† are also red flags for admissions officers. If community service was required by your high school, even if you did productive and meaningful work, don't describe it in a way that makes it sound like you were forced to do it. This can make admissions officers feel you hada negative relationship with the work you accomplished and only did it because you had to. If it’s obvious that you are only doing community service work so that you can list it on your application, admissions officers would prefer that you leave it out. As with any other extracurricular activity, you should only list it if it’s beensignificant to your development. The Bottom Line Though all extracurriculars are theoretically equal, I would still recommend that you have some typeof community service on your application if you have the means to do so. This is especially important when applying to top schools. Try to have a project that you have committed at least 50 hours to.If you want community service to be your main extracurricular activity, try to dedicate even more time over several years. Though most officers say that all activities are totally equal and can show the same traits, some admissions officers for top schools say that community service can be mostconspicuous on an application if it'scompletelyabsent. This is especially true in applications for the most competitive schools, where most students will have done some volunteer work. However, also keep in mind that community service is not mandatory, especially if you have a good reason for not having done it.Almost 100% of officers say that there are many ways that you can show you are a good citizen and leader that DON’T involve community service. This can be accomplished through other extracurriculars, work experience, or helping out your family if that is what your personal circumstances require. What's Next? If you need some inspiration, check out our list of 129 community service activities that you can try. Want to find your own project? Here are the 9 best places to do community service. Not sure that community service is worth your time? Learn about some of the ways that community service can benefit you. Did you know that doing community service can help you pay for college?Check out our list of community service scholarships that you can win! Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Economic issue Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Economic issue - Assignment Example This is counterproductive to the developing nations whicgh are increasingly implementing free and voluntary education and healthcare provision. This has led to civil unrest due to increasing unemployment and pay cut in an effort to restore IMF’s proposed economic targets. The interest paid back by the borrowers to IMF translates to increased taxation against constant wage rate leading to higher and unaffordable living standard. This forces the citizens to go on strike for increades wages and lower commodity prices. 3. a) There is no European Monetary Union without fiscal union. The micro-economic imbalance in Euro cannot be managed without fiscal union. It is efficiency.it will make the union stable satisfactory finances. The European Monetary Union makes the union greater. Fiscal union is a major move to create great political union. The federal bodies will be administered and a central tax would become a great idea in Europe. With fiscal union the European union will have a united stand, to stop Europe’s decline in global market, an economic union must be formed. This will result to fiscal union that will otherwise raise the Europe

International Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 3

International Business - Essay Example (Appelbaum and Lichtenstein, 2006, pp.106-107). These global networks create buyer-driven commodity chains, which play the crucial role in shaping the world’s markets, setting the prices, and decide on the global distribution of labor. Both the UK and the US economies have undergone dramatic changes following the retail revolutions. The US is home to 7 out of 10 largest world retailers, which account for 30.1% of all sales of the 250 retailers(Campling,n.d). The most important US retailer is Wal-Mart, which owns nearly 4200 stores all over the world. In the UK, there are four big retail chains: Tesco, Asda, Safeway and Sainsbury, which possess 65% of the national market share (Burt and Sparks, 2003, p.239). Such market concentration, in the US case on international scale, has never taken place before. Thus, rapid rise of retail chains has benefited their shareholders and managers with enormous profits; Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, was ranked as the richest man in the U nited States from 1982 to 1988. Wal-Mart also created workplaces for 1.35 million associates all over the world. Thus, shareholders, managers and employees of large retail chains are definite winners of retail revolutions. However, there have been also waves of criticism regarding negative impact of retail concentration on suppliers, suppliers, and society in general (Seth and Randall, 2001, pp.256-257). Both the UK and the US economies have undergone dramatic changes following the retail revolutions. This paper focuses on the cases of Wal-Mart and the four leading UK retail leaders to contrast and compare the retail revolutions in both countries, their key factors, characteristics, and the winners and the losers of retail revolutions in the UK and US. To start with, while the changing structure of British retailing has affected the markets only on a national and local scale, the rise of large US retailers has had an enormous impact on the global economy (Burt and Sparks, 2001). In 2001, the world’s thirty largest retailers, most of them based in the USA or the European Union countries, reached the annual revenues of nearly 1.3 trillion dollars. The report by an international consulting group Deloitte from 2008 reveals that the economic concentration of the largest world retailers is growing continuously; in 2005 alone the market share of 10 largest retail companies increased 10 %, accounting for the 30.1% of all sales of the 250 top retailers (Campling, n.d). While 7 out of 10 the largest retailers are US-based companies, such as the world leader Wal-Mart or Home Depot, there is only one UK company, a grocery and general merchandising retailer, Tesco, in this ranking. Thus, the influence of the US leading retailers on the global economy is greater than of any other country; Wal-Mart alone operates nearly 4200 stores and employs nearly 1.35 million associates all over the world (Burt and Sparks, 2001). It owns over 386 million ft 2 of floor space in the US and 80 million ft2 abroad, with approximately 94 000 ft2 of sale space in each discount store and 182 000 ft2 per supercenter. In fiscal year 2000 Wal-Mart added 30 million ft2 to its floor space, planning to add further 40 million ft2 of space in 2001. In comparison, the British leading supermarket chain ASDA owns a total of only 18.8 million ft2, out of which 52% is sale space. That great difference in the scales of the UK and the US retail activities is also reflected through the overall share of world trade of these