Monday, September 30, 2019

Off Job and on Job Analysis Essay

Introduction of Topic The subject study is aimed to investigate an issue i. e. â€Å"Comparative Analysis of on-job & off-job training effects on employee performance† for this I have select to method of training off job training and two moderate variables environment and trainers which control on employee performance. On job training and off job training variable are conducted as comparative variable while other variable conducted as moderate variables. In general the organizations are using performance appraisals in order to appraise their employees and to assess their annual performance. Performance Appraisals have become a management craze over the past decade whereby every organization seems to think that by faithfully adhering to this practice, people within the organization will grow and develop in the company image. Nothing could be further from reality. Experience has proved to me that since those who are carrying out the assessment are usually poorly trained, poorly prepared and with an ‘ I am your boss so I must be more effective than you’ attitude. The result is often than not highly subjective and of very little value to either the organization or to assess. Every human resource manager knows that through training they can improve the skills or performance of employees or work force. But I want to clear which training method is most beneficial for work force. So that human resource manger would provide that training method which is most suitable for improve the performance of employees. For this purpose I conduct my research and comparative analysis that which training method is efficient and which factor influence more on performance of an employee. Problem Statement: Comparative Analysis of on-job & off-job training effects on employee performance Objective Statement: From side to side training can get better the skills or achievement of employees. My objective of conduct a comparative research is to find out efficient method of training to enhance or improve the skill of employee. Introduction to Variables: Dependent variable: Performance of Employee Independent Variables: On job training, Off job training Moderate Variables: Environment, Trainers Chapter 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE. Training on the job has become a major source of skill buildup for workers in the last two decades due to the rapid pace of technological change. Studies by Bishop (1994) and Bartle and Lichtenburg (1987), among others, establish that a well-trained workforce provides returns to employers in the form of higher productivity and better flexibility to technological change. Hence, there is a strong incentive for employers to sponsor training for their workforce. However, employers also need to think with the possibility that workers may quit before employers can fully realize the benefits of the training that was provided. For nearly three decades since Becker (1964) classified training as general training (training that builds skills transferable to other firms) or specific training (training that builds firm-specific skills), researchers have assumed that employers would be more willing to sponsor specific training as opposite to general training that could be used elsewhere. However, many recent experimental studies have failed to provide any evidence for this idea. Instead, experimental research has consistently found that most employer-sponsored training does, in fact, provide employees with skills that are transferable to other employers (i.e. , that most employer-sponsored training should be classified as general training). Studies by Barron, Berger and Black (1999), Lowenstein and Splatter (1999), Booth and Bryan (2002) find, that most or all the training that is sponsored by employers result in workers acquiring general skills that can be used at other firms. Such recent findings have sparked a changed interest in the following question: do workers who acquire transferable skills from employer-sponsored training continue working in the same job or do they seek better returns for their newly acquired skills from other  employers? While this question has been explored in many recent studies, most of this research (possibly due to the nature of the survey data available) has focused on younger workers or a cross-section of workers. In doing this, workers who are in the middle of their careers – a subset of workers who enjoy a considerable benefit from training – have been overlooked; it is well-understood that the type of training undergone by young workers is considerably different from the re-training of mid-career workers. De Grip and Van Loo (2002) detail the various ways, in which a workers skill may degrade over the course of a career, necessitating corrective on-the-job training is often essential to maintaining worker productivity. In this context, it could be reasonably expected that the nature of training mid-career employees receive would take fundamentally different forms than training for the labor force at large. Also, workers tend to be highly mobile between jobs early in their careers; Topel and Ward (1992), for example, show that a typical worker holds seven different jobs during the first 10 years of his/her career, with the rate of job mobility then declining significantly. Hence, employers may be more willing to sponsor general training for such workers, believing that they would be more likely to experience the rewards of this training due to the decreased job mobility at this stage of the worker’s career. Effective training programmers’ require the dedicated support of top management (Motwani, Frahm et al. 1994). Such organizations provide training mapped to employee and organizational needs (Mann, 1997), and provide this at the proper time. Yet, not all companies place the same emphasis on, or show the same commitment to employee training (Roberts and McDonald, 1995; Hughey and Mussnug, 1997). Some companies work hard to recruit the best people and yet spend relatively little effort to retain them once hired (Cappelli, 2000). There is evidence to show that benefits follow to organizations that are committed to employee training (Wills, 1994). Organizations that place a high value on training give resources to the management of the training process. They devote time to ensuring that employees get the training programmers’ that is most appropriate for them given their existing IT skill sets (Eighteen, 1999). Such firms are most successful at maximizing the effectiveness of their training programs (Huang, 2001). Organizations that commit effort and finances to training programmers’ and employee development do so with the  objective of a pay-off in terms of increased skill-sets, increased motivation, increased knowledge transfer (Pate, Martin et al. , 2000), more positive psychological and organizational dynamics, as well as a measurable aggressive edge. The use of training courses future outstrips what is known of their usefulness (Foxon, 1989; Schonewille, 2001). Mann (1996) maintains that despite heavy investment in training, organizations can frequently fail to evaluate adequately the value or success of their training programmes. Organizations that devote considerable resources to training also understand the value of evaluating the training process (Motswana, Frahm et al. , 1994; Mann, 1996). Such evaluation is a key phase in any proposed training and development process (Al-Khayyat and Elgamal, 1997). While such appraisal is desirable in principle it is difficult in practice (Morris, 1984). Even those companies who do carry out evaluations often use measures later considered ineffective (Schonewille, 2001). The most common metric of evaluation is trainee perceptions . Such assessments are random, informal, and unstructured evaluations of training programmers, which tend to be post training appraisals rather than approaching the evaluation of training programmers from their design stages (James and Rolfe, 2000). Many forms of training exist ( Switzer and Kleiner, 1996; Huang, 2001). The range of training techniques has been expanded by the application of technology in its â€Å"hard† (for example through computing technology) and â€Å"soft† (for example through instructional design) (Sadler-Smith, Down et al. , 2000). In relation to IT training, many methodologies for the approach to and delivery of training can be used: forms of training include instructor console training in a classroom situation, stand-alone terminals with remote instruction, computer based training (CBT) without instructor, hypermedia training (a computer based method of non-sequential reading and writing, a technique with which chunks of information can be arranged and rearranged according to an individual’s needs, previous knowledge, and curiosities (Higginbotham-Wheat, 1992; Murray, 1998)), self-paced training using a variety of delivery methods (Compeau, 1995), distance learning (whether by videoconferencing, email, or other method). Learning networks, simulations, groupware communication, use of mentors or coaches, job rotation, management games, role playing and behavior modeling (Williams, 2001), or Internet based training. While many new training approaches based on new technology  exist, these modern training methods have been subjected to comparatively little empirical or critical study (Sadler-Smith, Down et al. , 2000). The literature suggests that that some of the most effective training techniques are not new, but are merely the application of old-fashioned common sense to the assessment of training needs (Switzer and Kleiner, 1996; Sadler-Smith, Down et al. , 2000; Smith, 2002). Sadler-Smith et al. (2000) believe that flexibility of delivery is a fundamental issue for smaller firms, to which open/distance/technology-based learning may present a workable solution; however, the modernity of some delivery methods may in itself lead to assumption of applicability and efficiency. Bostrom at all (1988) argue that the delivery method can directly influence the effectiveness of, and the benefits accrued from training. Read and Kleiner (1996) present the most commonly used training methods across non-industry specific U. S Companies. They found that the top ten training methods used in business, listed in order from highest to lowest use, were: videotapes, lectures, one-on-one instruction, role plays, games/simulation, case studies, slides, computer-based training, audio tapes, and films. In a survey carried out by 450 respondents, Mathews et al. (2001) studied the incidence of training delivery methods across non-industry specific organizations in the U.K. , Portugal, and Finland within the context of benefits accrued. They found that training methods most commonly used tended to be traditional, with little impact evident of more HITECH methods. Traditional methods included external short courses, internal lectures and seminars, issuing of training manuals and materials to be self-taught, using training videos, short demonstrations, and the delegation of training responsibilities to training consultants. This study found that in-house participative seminars were the preferred training delivery method in the UK, whereas external short courses were the preferred method in Finland and Portugal. Impersonal methods such as training videos, and internet or Computer-based training, were viewed across the UK, Finland, and Portugal as poor methods. In contrast, highly personal methods of training such as participative courses and seminars were viewed as the most effective and highly regarded methods. From a company perspective, training and development of company employees are essential for organizational operation, and organizational development. From an employee perspective, these same factors are both vital and critical for skill development and for career advancement. Retention of employees, and the retention of valued skill sets, is important for continued business achievements (Mak and Sockel, 1999). The successful retention of employees leads to knowledge conservation within the organization (Cappelli, 2000). Employee turnover may lead to a loss of human resources weakening competitive positions. At a company level, mechanisms that allow for and promote knowledge transfer amongst employees can help minimize the effect of the loss of skilled staff to other companies (Cappelli, 2000). Training employees leads to increased employee satisfaction, facilitates the updating of skills, leads to an increased sense of belonging and benefit, increased employee commitment to the organization (Bushardt, Fretwell et al. , 1994), and strengthens the organization’s competitiveness (Hughey and Mussnug, 1997; Burden and Proctor, 2000). Job-related training increases an employee’s ability to perform job-related tasks. Job satisfaction is an important motivator for employee performance and is negatively related to turnover (Mak and Sockel, 1999). Company commitment to the training needs of its employees positively influences employee satisfaction, leading to an increase in employee motivation and an increase in retention (Mak and Sockel, 1999; Ranft and Lord, 2000). Such commitment culminates in employee exposure to quality job-related training, leading to better employee morale, an increased sense of employee achievement and accomplishment (Elizur, 1996), and ultimately to an increase in organizational competitiveness. Whilst company commitment to training for its employees positively affects retention and leads to desirable outputs, there are many different categories and types of training (Switzer and Kleiner, 1996; Huang, 2001; Mathews, Ueno et al. , 2001). To have positive results, organizational commitment to training must tie closely to appropriate effective training methods and training delivery mechanisms. In terms of training methodologies, what may be appropriate for one company (or employee) may not be for another. This paper describes a descriptive study, which assesses the impact of training on employee retention, and examines the relationship between organizational commitment to training and benefits accrued. Results of the study demonstrate that organizational attitudes and provision for training relate positively to employee expectations and requirements. Findings indicate that well-engineered training initiatives lead to increased organizational strength, job-related employee competencies, and job satisfaction. The study finds that training helps in retaining knowledge within the organization, but may not help in retaining employees. The main method of training delivery is by instructor-led formal sessions, followed by self-training and workshops. Findings show that more modern methods such as web-based and computer based training are not pervasive. Almost one third of respondents believe that training received has not helped to reduce job-related stress. More than one quarter of respondents indicate that their organization does not structure training based on employee feedback on requirements. There are many cases where the training needs of employees have not been sufficiently addressed and cases where organizations have not evaluated the quality or effectiveness of training programmers, making return on investment hard to measure. To succeed, an organization must create an environment that not only attracts people to join and give their best every day, but one that also strives to retain existing staff. The retention of talented experienced, productive and knowledgeable employees can be a source of competitive advantage for companies (King, 1997; Cheng and Brown, 1998; Roepke, Agarwal et al. , 2000). The maintenance of employees provides staff stability, which aids organizational knowledge retention (Cappelli, 2000), offers the opportunity to raise quality standards through continuous improvement practices (Motwani, Frahm et al. , 1994) and facilitates the achievement of more reliable customer care (Rowley and Purcell, 2001). It is important for employers to identify and to understand their employees’ viewpoints on what the employees consider to be the most important aspects of their jobs, if employees are to be more content (Ventakesh, 1999; Mulder, 2001). While staff retention in general is important, the retention of IT employees is vital for business success (Mak and Sockel, 1999; MacDonald, Gabriel et al. , 2000). understanding IT leaders recognize that the greatest impediments to success are often related to people rather than to information, technology, and systems (Roepke, Agarwal et al. , 2000). Considering the high costs associated with replacing IT staff and their experience, it makes sense for companies to invest in mechanisms designed to keep IT staff longer (Mak and Sockel, 1999; Moore, 2000). One such staff retention mechanism is the use of employee training programmes for existing members of staff (Mulder, 2001). The use of such programmes in recent times by employers may have more to do with securing employee commitment in uncertain times than about transforming skill levels (Hallier and Butts, 1999). As such, for some organizations the key objective of training is to increase employee commitment to the organization and to create a culture that underlines the value of long-term employment. Mak and Sockel (1999) found that most employees consider career development a priority motivational tool; and once motivated, they are more likely to be devoted to their job and the company’s retention rate should improve. As such, management commitment to the development of the employee can significantly affect retention, even in situations where economic incentives such as incremental salary increases do not (Ranft and Lord, 2000). Specific training initiatives have specific goals. These include the improvement of employee job performance, employee development (Burden and Proctor, 2000), the development of skills, knowledge, and attitudes (Al-Khayyat and Elgamal, 1997), and a means of achieving a competitive edge (Hughey and Mussnug, 1997; Hallier and Butts, 2000). Given the fast obsolescence of IT specific skills there is a repeated need to provide opportunities for employees to update their technical skill sets. The failure to provide such training increase the chance of failure and such companies may pay more in the long run (Auer, 1995). Organizations must respond to demands for change while at the same time realizing that advances in technology and knowledge are rendering many traditional employee skills obsolete, while simultaneously developing needs for new ones (Read and Kleiner, 1996). It is this continuous risk of knowledge obsolescence that makes training and retraining necessary, not only for individual growth but also for organizational growth (Read and Kleiner, 1996). Within the IT sector, training can be considered to encompass organized, structured, formal events and sessions offered to IT employees as a company initiative. This paper does not consider on-the-job daily experiences to be classed as formal training, although such experiences can aid the development of skills related to job functions (Sadler-Smith, Down et al. , 2000; Smallbone, Supri et al. , 2000). The beginning of the modern concern about skills and economic competitiveness in the United States came perhaps with the government report, A Nation at Risk (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983), which documented the poor academic performance of U. S. students compared to those of major competitor nations. Studies such as Baumol, Blackman, and Wolff (1989) focused attention on the long-run and comparative performance of the U. S. economy. Piore and Sabel (1984), Cohen and Zysman (1987), and others drew attention to the importance of production work to an economy and to the fact that work organization and employee skills influenced the competitiveness of manufacturing firms and their ability to adapt to changing markets. Dertouzos, Lester, Solow, and the Industrial Productivity (1989) developed these views into an argument about declining U. S. competitiveness that became almost a standard for future studies. The work organization and management structures of U. S. firms rely too much on outdated scientific management approaches. They are hierarchical, based on narrow job titles and unskilled workers, and, as a result, are not as flexible in adjusting to changing markets as the competitor firms in other countries. The more flexible techniques of Japanese management in particular demand higher skills from the labor force. Other studies soon pounced on the connection between skills, productivity, and economic performance. Both America’s Choice (1990) and the Office of Technology Assessment’s report (1990) argued that higher levels of skills in the workforce were necessary in order to develop the new, more productive systems of work organization and compete successfully with other nations. With these reports as a backdrop, the Secretary of Labor’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) was established in 1990 to identify the skills that the workplace was demanding. In its various reports, the Commission has argued forcefully that new types of organizations and new arrangements for organizing work—employee empowerment, teams, and new work technologies—require new skills and a higher level of existing skills from workers. Furthermore, the skills that are required are at least in part general work skills that translate across employers and industries. Both employers and individual workers are seen as benefiting from those higher skills (SCANS, 1992). Arguments like these have in large measure been responsible for a new thrust in public policy toward raising skill levels, especially through schooling. The National Goals for Education, for example, is an effort to raise educational standards in the country at least in part to improve competitiveness. The list of skills identified by SCANS as reasonably generic to the U. S. economy has been used to drive the curriculum in high schools and in training programs such as the Job Corps and those funded by the Job Training Partnership. The School-to-Work Opportunities Act, passed by Congress to establish school-to-work change programs like youth apprenticeships, is also designed to raise work-related skills. Given the speed with which these arguments have moved forward, it is indeed surprising to find so little experiential research that examines the relationship between skills, worker productivity, and economic performance. It is not obvious, in the absence of empirical evidence; those higher levels of skills will necessarily lead to better economic performance. Unless jobs require or allow workers to make use of higher skills, for example, one should not expect performance to improve when skills increase. Further, jobs that require higher levels of skills now than in the past still may not tax the skills that employees already have. In assembly jobs, for example, the initial skill requirements are so low that they could rise substantially and still be within the set that virtually all workers possess. Loewenstein and Spletzer (1999), Booth and Bryan (2002) find, that most or all the training that is sponsored by employers result in workers acquiring general skills that can be used at other firms. Such recent findings have sparked a renewed interest in the following question: do workers who acquire transferable skills from employer-sponsored training continue working in the same job or do they seek better returns for their newly acquired skills from other employers? While this question has been explored in many recent studies, most of this research (possibly due to the nature of the survey data available) has focused on younger workers or a cross-section of workers. Finally, where skills are in shortage, the relevant skills may be job-specific ones that are typically seen as being the responsibility of the employer to provide. Perhaps the main reason for the lack of research on skills and performance is the difficulty in obtaining direct measures of an employee’s skill. What are typically available are aggregate measures of the amount of education and training workers receive. These are the inputs that should produce skill and that are related to indirect measures of performance. The body of research on the economic returns on education is particularly wide and may have some relevance for these questions. Human capital research clearly finds that employees with more education earn more, suggesting that the skills they have are valued in the market. Whether education is simply a alternate or screen for some other desirable characteristic, such as resolve, is a complicating factor in the argument. The fact that the return on education appears to be rising over the past decade—rising rapidly for college graduates and falling sharply for high school dropouts— suggests that such education is increasingly valuable in the labor market (cf. Levy & Murnane, 1992). The fact that both initial and further education and training earn a higher return suggests that some of the skills associated with education are increasingly valuable (see Tuijnman, 1992, for references to research in Colombia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, and the United States). But for which specific skills is the return being earned? Research on the relationship between vocational course work and subsequent job performance may shed some light on this question. Vocational education programs typically provide training for specific occupations, and research on the labor market outcomes for students in these programs can help in understanding the effects of general or vocational skills on the economy. Altonji (1992) found that students who took more vocational courses earned higher wages, other things being equal. Other studies find that enrollment in vocational education programs improves participants’ labor market experience but only for those who find jobs in the field for which they received training (e. g. , Campbell, Eliot, Laughlin, & Suesy, 1987). High school students who participate in vocationally oriented programs like workstudy and co-op substitute on-the-job training for academic classes, andstudies suggest that they do not necessarily do better in the labor market than those who did not participate in such programs (Bishop, Blakemore, & Low, 1985). Hollenbeck (cited in Stern, Stone, Finkelstein, Latting, & Martinez, 1993) found that students enrolled in occupationally based technical training following high school did better in the labor market than did those who pursued a baccalaureate program. It is difficult to draw reliable conclusions from these studies about the skills needed to improve economic performance (Berryman, 1994; Stern & Tuijnman, in press). The fact that vocational skills pay off when graduates find jobs in their field of training but not otherwise may indicate, for example, that the programs help simply by giving access to a well-paying job market. In one of the few studies that attempts to sort out the source of higher wages, Grubb (1991) concludes that the return on a two-year college degree comes mainly from access to better paying occupations than are available to non-degree workers and not from obtaining higher paying jobs within the same occupation. The latter measures the extent to which education produces higher performance for the economy as a whole. The complication noted above about interpreting evidence on returns from education is that education may function as a screen for some other desirable characteristic, such as persistence, that covaries with educational attainment and drives success. One way around this problem is to examine individuals’ skills directly, as opposed to their educational attainment. Bishop’s (1991) comparison of workers’ wages with their scores on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery is one example of this approach. (Al-Khayyat and Elgamal, 1997) He finds that higher competencies were not associated with higher starting wages. Basic academic competencies such as mathematical ability actually received a negative premium from the labor market while vocational skills such as typing speed earned a considerable premium. , (Hughey and Mussnug, 1997; Hallier and Butts, 2000). These competencies were related, however, to performance on the job as measured by the reports of supervisors. SCANS conducted its own, although indirect, test of the relationship between skills and performance by examining the current wages for a sample of jobs and the SCANS competencies associated with them (SCANS, 1992, p. 9). Not surprisingly, it was found that jobs requiring higher skills pay more. As noted above, however, it is not clear what to conclude from this. It does not indicate, for example, that workers with higher skills perform better in the same job or that the economy would be better off if skills levels rose. A second complication about interpreting evidence from the economic returns on skills as measured by wages is that such skills raise wages in two ways. The first is by providing access to higher paying occupations, and the second is by helping improve performance within occupations. The policy interest associated with the arguments above is mainly with the second relationship. While jobs in medicine, for example, require higher skills and pay individuals more, the economy as a whole cannot grow by making more and more people into doctors. Even for individuals, the gains from expanding access to higher wage occupations face the well-known fallacy of composition. If the supply of workers with the skills needed to fill a particular job rose, the wages associated with that job would fall, as would its desirability. Performance and wages can grow, however, if all workers become more productive at their current jobs. An alternative approach, therefore, is to examine the relationship between skills and job performance within one’s current job, using actual job productivity measures for the estimates. Most of these studies come from personnel psychology where they form the basis of attempts to validate selection procedures (see, e. g. , American Psychological Association, American Educational Research Association, & National Council on Measurement in Education [Joint Committee], 1985). Studies of skills that might generalize across settings concentrate mainly on academic material of the kind associated with classroom instruction. Academic skills as measured by aptitude tests can be reasonably good predictors of job performance (cf. Barrett & Depinet, 1991). The best known of these tests is the General Abilities Test Battery (GATB), which is used extensively by the employment service. The cognitive composite scale from GATB measures traditional academic skills such as verbal and numeric skill. It is related to job performance at roughly the same level as vocational skills, which correlate at levels between . 20 and . 30 (see National Research Council, 1989). Academic performance as measured by grades in school, however, is a substantially worse predictor of job performance (cf. Hunter & Hunter, 1984; Schmitt, Goodling, Noe, & Kirsch, 1984). Other studies use organizational performance measures to examine the relationship with skills. Bartel and Lichtenberg (1987) find, for example, that the rate of innovation is higher in industries that have more educated workers. Cohen and Levinthal (1990) also find that firms that have made a greater investment in learning experience greater innovations. Overall, the results surveyed above suggest that job performance—and ultimately economic performance—might be improved by raising academic skills in the workforce as a whole. 2 With respect to the policy arguments above, however, it is not clear which skills are the important ones for performance or whether new work systems are creating higher demands for skills. SCANS essentially performed a job analysis for the economy as a whole, producing a set of basic skills that are said to generalize across virtually all jobs in the workplace. While all job analyses are somewhat subjective, the SCANS skills are similar to those generated by other widely used job analyses such as the Position Analysis Questionnaire (McCormick & Jeanneret, 1988). SCANS identified two categories of these general skills: foundation skills associated with traditional academic education and interpersonal skills, and workplace competencies, which are more practical and vocational, applying skills to a workplace context.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Bygone Ohio

The first poem talks about the beauty of Ohio with its people living happily in the comfort of beautiful scenery and clean environment as reflected by the artificial water fall coming out from a pipe connected with the main sewer, the river and the railroad. The poet recalls in his vivid memories how at once he sat on the railroad not far from that ‘waterfall’, just above the main sewer overlooking the river with a ferry traversing on it. But now, as he walks around, that beauty is gone. What the poet sees are the remains of the beauty that he too had enjoyed in the past.What are left are broken walls with lots of cracks, â€Å"while grimed trees and oil cans liters just around. The river fast flowing clean water has now become a lost bath tub. The poet summons up colorfully in his memory the once beautiful Ohio perhaps during his youthful days, but the beauty that the poet once admired is now a Bygone memory of those old men of Winnebago. The wild grimed trees, the cra cks on walls of abandoned barns and the lost bathtub are now just a gleam remains that reminds the old folks of the former beauty of Ohio.The first poem is full of descriptive words describing the beauty of Ohio and the peaceful atmosphere the people enjoyed. The scenic description of the environment reveals that Ohio has not been touched yet by the arms of industrialization. The old men can enjoy the fresh air and the peaceful environment not being crowded by buildings, and individualism and the consumerism culture have not taken its stall yet with the people. The poem uses the elements of poetry to strongly illustrate the impact of utter neglect of the environment for the sake of commercialization or industrialization.The first poem used poetical words such as â€Å"shining water fall out the pipe as somebody might gouge through the slanted earth† to describe clean environment where people actively participated on it. The next four lines of the poem talk about these environ mental interaction. The poem goes as he said, â€Å"Quickened the river with the speed of light and the light caught there, the solid speed of their lives in that waterfall,† where people enjoyed the benefits of the clean and simple environment.The second poem is the reverse scenario of the first poem. The songs of the men of old Winnebago has gone. The clean environment which is reflected by the shining water fall out of the pipe from the main sewer is gone too and is now replaced by oil cans Littering just at the very place where the shining water fall was.. The once river bang filled with people perhaps doing picnics and swimming, is now empty. What was left are â€Å"cold balloons† of lovers. The river which once enjoyed by the people is now â€Å"a body of a lost bath tubs.†The proud houses which once stood nicely along specific places apart from each one as they have relatively small population of only one thousand six hundred families were now abandoned w ith walls each has crack and the trees that serves as shades, are now wiled and grim. The proud houses that once stood nicely as nobody are dwelling in the once beautiful place are gone. In the first poem, the author expressed his feeling and memories of the beautiful Ohio with such poetical description as men of Winnebago singing â€Å"shining† water fall out of the pipe, Martins ferry, my home, my native country, quickened river, with the speed of light.† All these reveal that the author is proud of Ohio. But the second poem also reveals the author’s disappointment about utter neglect and abandonment of this once beautiful place. The author picturesquely describe what it has now turn perhaps after a long years being away. What he now sees are broken walls, wild grim trees, oil cans that litters around and the empty river bang which were at once full of people happily interacting with the environment. Perhaps some lovers are dating and enjoying the scenic beauty of the river, others are swimming while still others are doing family picnic and some maybe fishing.All these are now gone and the author feels lonely as if the place is a cemetery. In the two poems, I like best the first one as it gives me mental picture of what it looks like for most cities now crowded not only with mix races of people but also with tall buildings too. Although the second poem depicts reality in most places but it always good to see nice places, I mean scenic environment. It made me feel good to imagine of fresh air, waterfall, clean river where everybody can swim or fish and lots of trees that provides shadow. The first poem provides the reader a positive imagination that creates interests in such kind of place.The second one creates a feeling of regret, a feeling of frustration and anger why the people allow the deterioration of the beauty of their place. Since most people would not like bad news, or bad place, as it also create negative feeling or bad impressi on, I would rather say that I like and I favor the first poem. It makes me feel good and leave positive outlook not only on environment but in my own life particularly to environmental protection and to those who work hard for this cause. I think I owe them something that I need to do something. That is for the protection of the environment.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Personal statement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 38

Personal statement - Essay Example I was compelled to reconsider my career options and I opted to transfer to Cornell University where I majored in biology as an undergraduate. Unlike my childhood dream of becoming a doctor, my decision to major in biology was founded on in-depth research and soul searching to match my choice of career with my personal skills and interests. During my major, I endeavored to undertake voluntary programs, attended seminars and conferences in effort to explore my utmost desire and further advance my skills in the field of biological sciences. One of my invaluable experiences as an undergraduate student was when I volunteered to work as a laboratory technician. For a period of one month, I had the opportunity to learn how to conduct a plasmid minirep, protein purification and western /dot blotting. I was further responsible for making agrose gel, SDS gel and the recording of laboratory notes. My desire to pursue biomedical engineering was cemented by the satisfaction that I got after solving lab research cases. I was able to acquire first-hand experience as a biologist within a clinical set up, which not only enhanced my personal skills but also instilled professional confidence within me. I have also been actively engaged in community work from 2009 up to date. I have offered community services through the UAE Red Crescent on 3 occasions, 2009, 2014 and 2015. Working as volunteer, I was responsible for the supervision of the medical laboratory and management of laboratory logistics. Working with the UAE Red Crescent enhanced my teamwork capability and communication skills with the members of the public. I also volunteered for the Foundation for the Elderly from 2009 to 2010 when I gained insight and lessons on having positive impact on the society. I was further compelled to participate in additional community works that included the Together for Benevolence project, Tenth campaign to

Friday, September 27, 2019

UK economy during 2008 recession Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

UK economy during 2008 recession - Essay Example It is worth mentioning that decline in consumption has direct adverse impacts upon production, which then leads to closure of businesses followed by retrenchment and unemployment. Also, the subprime mortgage property crises in USA triggered closures, mergers and acquisitions of US financial institutions, but it also negatively affected UK investment, commercial banks and financial institutions as they were among the businesses that also made huge investments in US banking and property sectors. Finally, this led to a credit crunch like situation that sabotaged the financial position of UK banks, which were facing liquidity problems and were reluctant in sanctioning loans to borrowers. Finally, the expectations and forecasts that UK economy would contract by more than 2 – 2.5% in 2009 also aggravated the situation and interest rates were reduced to 3% from 4.5% by Federal Bank after instructions of UK government regarding formulation of new monetary policy to reduce business cos ts, to boost investors and consumers’ morale and to trigger greater purchase responses. Recall that economic theory argues that the greater the number of transactions and consumption level, the more employment and jobs opportunities will create due to multiple exchanges of money among people (Hetzel, 2009). As far as the fiscal policy is concerned, it should be pointed out that UK government announced financial bailout packages of ?12bn and ?18bn so that it could pump money in the economy to eradicate liquidity crises and trigger consumer purchase responses. In addition, the government also announced tax cuts (direct and indirect levies) so that businesses could ensure their survival in challenging external business environment. Had the above measures not been taken, the UK cumulative negative GDP growth rate had surpassed 3% due to credit crunch and rising debts (Wren-Lewis, 2010). 2. Explain UK monetary and fiscal policy during the crisis according to IS - LM model. It is w orthwhile to mention the fact that IS – LM model shows the relationship between real interest rate and output level. The IS curve shows the corresponding interest rate that clears the good market. The IS curve slopes downward because the aggregate output increases at low real interest rates and vice versa. Indeed, IS curve is derived from changes in desired investment and desired saving in an economy. The LM curve shows the real interest rate that clears the asset market. For instance, the LM curve is actually derived from changes in real money supply and real money demand. In addition, economic theory talks about Full Employment Line that shows the labour market equilibrium i-e employment and output are at Full employment level. As far as the UK economy is concerned, I would assume that the IS – LM had been in general equilibrium prior to recession i-e the goods, asset and labour market were in equilibrium simultaneously. Real interest IS LM Equilibrium point Output N ow when UK economy entered in recession, the UK government changed the monetary and fiscal policies that would cause shifts in IS and LM curves. For example, the reduction in nominal interest rate on money will reduce money demand, thereby reducing the real interest rate that clears asset market and causing a downward shift in LM curve. Similarly, increasing nominal money supply in market through stimulus package will reduce real interest rat

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Young People Essay

Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Young People - Essay Example Many agencies have taken a stand on teen sexual activity teaching abstinence or protection, but the American Social Health Association (ASHA) is a leader in the understanding and prevention of the transmission of STIs in sexually active individuals, especially young people. Not only can information be found on their website, www.ashastd.org but can also be found at their teen oriented site, www.iwannaknow.org. These sites and this agency are bound to the education and prevention of the spread of STIs in the United States and in concert with other non-profit and governmental agencies. ASHA has been working as a non-profit public health agency since 1914. Initially named the American Social Hygiene Association, its first main focus was to prevent the spread of venereal disease in military soldiers fighting in World War I. In the 1920s, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. helped to fund the ASHA mission, and a special fund was used to create the Committee for Research in Syphilis (ASHA, 2009). In the 1930's, 36 states have created local affiliations with ASHA, and help to change the view of venereal diseases from a moral to medical issue (ASHA, 2009). A major milestone occurred in 1947 when the International Union of Venereal Diseases and Treponematoses names ASHA as its American liaison to the United Nations. Even as early as 1956, ASHA took an interest in the growing number of teenagers being infected with the diseases. In the years leading to today, ASHA has not sat back quietly, but has been the rallying force for many studies, prevention training for medical professional s and educational professionals. In essence, ASHA has remained at the forefront with helping those who have questions through hotlines, community centers, and now even the internet (ASHA, 2009). Mission and Vision of ASHA The mission of ASHA has never changed in all the years it has been working for public sexual health. The three person executive staff along with the board of directors ensures the ASHA remains focused on education in and prevention of STIs. The association has four main visions that they work on constantly. The first is the public awareness that is focused on educating, preventing, and the destigmatization of STIs. The second focus is the "patient education and support" which educates patients in aspects of their infections and how to deal with doctors and partners. The third vision health care policies working as advocates for the research and prevention of STIs. The last part of the vision focuses on provider training in the areas of prevention and treatment of STIs (ASHA, 2009). Who Benefits the Most ASHA benefits all that are looking for help or answers to questions. However, the association has taken a strong interest in the youth in relation to the contraction of STIs and how the numbers are growing and have been for the past 40 plus years. Because of this, ASHA has created the www.iwannaknow.org website to make finding answers easy and anonymously by the teens that truly need the

Marketing in the Information Age for Specialty Record Music Store Research Paper

Marketing in the Information Age for Specialty Record Music Store - Research Paper Example There exists a music store on Queen Street West in Toronto containing theme based CD's, records and DVD's. The collections are based on the cultural interests of the shop owners. The store does not have any online presence. Store enjoys reasonable amount of foot fall. But, due to the unorganized nature of the shop very few people actually buy the collection. As a matter of fact many people fail to locate the desired music collection due to unorganized nature of the shop. Due to the lack of online presence and hence losses customers to larger firms like HMV. The store owner also has 50% ownership of a local bar that specializes in in-house music.Based on the above the background thee study looks to provide a proposed marketing diagnostic plan. The plan includes the used of strategic and marketing concepts like AIDA model and SWOT analysis. The study also focuses on social media and viral marketing conceptsBased on the back ground of the study and the SWOT analysis it can be understood that the shop has entered in to a viscous circle. Customers are visiting the shop; but due to the organized nature of the shop, people are losing interests, People are switching to other firms like HMV through the online medium. Add to that the firm has no online presenceThe first step towards making the digital presence is to have a website. As mentioned earlier having a business without a website is like having a business without face. If the store owner does not have the expertise, then it can be outsourced to any SEO company

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

British decolonization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

British decolonization - Essay Example The cartoon is striking in that it reduces the geopolitical tension of the Cuban Missile Crisis, where the United States and Soviet Union reached the brink of nuclear war over the stationing of Russian missiles in Cuba, to a bar game or crude, male ego-driven sport. From the Soviet perspective, the Americans had previously stationed nuclear missiles positioned at Russia from similar strategic locations in Europe and Asia. The two countries, in less than 20 years, had built nuclear arsenals hundreds of thousands of times greater than the weapons used to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki. By many scientific estimates, the two countries possessed sufficient nuclear weapon power to destroy the entire earth many times over. Few were completely certain of the effects of nuclear war on a mass scale, but both sides had built the largest, most powerful war machines the world had ever seen, and Khrushchev and Kennedy pursued a policy of brinksmanship to bring the entire global civilization to the th reat of destruction through their two nuclear arsenals. That the two political leaders are reduced to the caricature of a bar-room arm wrestling match represents the anxiety felt by the general populace who were restrained from truly participating in the decision making of the match, but were rather forced into the role of spectators to watch how events unfolded in mass-media and television. The public could only wonder if two human beings, with human emotions and weaknesses, could be trusted to manage the behavior of nations and armies with such a great destructive firepower. The policy of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) was based in the brinksmanship of the political rulers in the cartoon, highlighting the tension of the day in a manner that also illuminates the risk of the human emotions in a centralized leadership command structure. This activity was also depicted in Stanley Kubrick’s classic movie Dr. Strangelove. The brinksmanship ended with the Soviets withdrawing t he nuclear missiles from Cuba in the end to a standoff that had captivated the world as the first and possibly most serious escalation of conflict between superpowers in the Cold War. This cartoon is useful to understand the public opinion of the times, but could be further verified through relations to other news media such as editorials and journalism of the events. Historians Craft Assignment Question 2 Source 2 of 2: An Excerpt from a Political Diary Sunday, November 26, 1967 So this is the end of the second devaluation week and we’re still completely without any central control or decision-taking in this Labour Government. And the chances of getting this as a result of the devaluation are very small indeed. .... the lower the Government plummets the stronger my position grows in my own little corner. Suppose the impossible happened and as a result of the crisis Jim [Callaghan] replaced Harold [Wilson]. That’s not inconceivable when you remember Macmillan replacing Eden after Suez. But it’s something I wouldn’t tolerate because I know the qualities of Mr Callaghan. He’s not an adventurous bold forward-looking Macmillan who could rejuvenate the Party. Right inside he’s a coward with a wonderful outside image and a very likeable personality. ... however, I don’t see the remotest chance of Harold going. It’

Monday, September 23, 2019

GREAT BARRIER REEF Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

GREAT BARRIER REEF - Assignment Example The seabird nesting failures are also evidence on the impact of the climate related events on the coral reef system. The failures were observed between 2002 and 2005. Despite the fact that we cannot solely segregate climate events as the threat to the coral reefs systems, its effect also interact with other external pressures, unsustainable fishing and degraded water quality, increasing the threat to the coral reef system. This is a phenomenon that occurs as a result of reactions to increase in water temperatures. This has been depicted o be a possible destructive force to the great coral reef system. Corals have lots of vibrant colors due to the inhabitance of algae on them. The warm water is in hospitable for the algae as it kills them. The report by Australian Government, (2007) found that the death of the algae leads to the discoloration of the corals. The corals lose the coloration and thus the bleaching effect (Australian Government, 2007). This is the condition from which the coral bleaching gets its name. The death of algae also results to the death of creatures something that has a ripple effect on the food chain. These events have been depicted to become more clear and frequent in the coming decades. One the food chain has been disrupted due to the bleaching of the algae. The marine habitat is eradicated. The loss of the algae results to elimination of a source of food for many marine organisms. This puts other aspects of the system; marine turtles, seabirds, fish, mangroves and planktons (Australian Government, 2007). These mass die off of the sea birds have been observed during periods of unusual high temperatures. These are factors that can be attributed to the difficulties that come with acquisition of food by the parent birds. These habitats are therefore at risk with changes in climate. Degraded water quality reduces the resilience of the reefs. This can be

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Arab Isreal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Arab Isreal - Essay Example The roots of the conflict can be traced back to the late 19th century in which there was a rise in national movements, including Arab and Zionism nationalism. Zionism, a Jewish national movement, was seeking sanctuary when they sought to establish a Jewish State in Palestine (Seger, Tom, pp26). The mandate for Palestine was a historical League of Nations document. It contained the Jewish legal right of settling anywhere in western Palestine between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan river. Palestine became a trouble spot of competing territorial claims and also political interest by the early years of the twentieth century. While World War one was underway the British high commissioner, Sir Henry of Egypt corresponded secretly with the patriarch of Hashemite family and governor of Mecca and Medina. He convinced them to lead an Arab revolt against the empire of Ottoman aligned with Germany against Britain and France with the promise of the establishment of an independent Arab state (Price, Randal, pp20). In 1921 the British divided Jordan into two: the Emirates of Transjordan and the Palestine Mandate. Arabs were angered by Britain’s failure to fulfill the creation of an independent Arab state. The situation was most complicated in Palestine because of the promise to support the creation of a Jewish national home by the British. The Palestine Arabs opposed the British Mandatory because it threatened their aspiration for self-rule. Moreover, the massive immigration of the Jews threatened their position in their country. Clashes broke out between the Arabs and the Jews in 1920 and 1921 whereby roughly equal numbers from the two communities got killed. The Jewish National Fund purchased large portions of land from the absentee Arab landowners leading to their eviction. The displacements led to increasing tensions and violence between the Arab peasant tenants and Jewish settlers (Haiduc-Dale, pp34). According to the

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Customer Satisfaction Essay Example for Free

Customer Satisfaction Essay Filipino’s have been given a chance to finally choose groceries business and minimart across the country. One of the pioneer groceries in town is the Consumers Minimart Inc. formerly named Caragan. Ever since Consumers Minimart Inc. experienced a lot of competitors on their times, minimart is still existing and alive.At this time many establishments exist like CSI, Royal Mall, Save More, but the Consumers Minimart Inc. is still having a profit and their loyal customers were always remained.Bayambang is one of the town with the largest number of barangays in Pangasinan, a largest place to establish a business. Business opportunity is increasing like mini grocery market, malls, fast food chains, banks, water refilling station and other small and big enterprises. This business establishment where very profitable and have impact to the customers especially here, is the groceries stores because customer or people can get or buy their daily needs into this kind of business, and one of that business is the Consumers Minimart Inc.Consumers Minimart Inc. is owned and manage by Jovita De Leon. It was established last March 18, 2010. They established their business in Bayambang because this place is very promising town, has 77 barangays and there is a lot of nearby town, and prospect customers such as Bautista, Alcala, Urbiztondo, and Malasiqui.Caragan was became Consumers Minimart Inc. because of being long term industry and the owners were became stockholders. The standard monthly income has been reach also by the said business. The formerly competitors were Lita’s grocery, old Royal mall stores and some local stores located at the market of Bayambang.But there are things that this business needs to improve, including the satisfaction of the customers. Consumers Minimart Inc. need additional effort in making their service much better including in queueing system or waiting time, delivery service, visual merchandising and physical set-up, and add to the strategies of the business. This will be used as strategy to makes their customer more satisfy in their service, it will add to have more customers and become more profitable, more improvement in their services. Consumers Minimart Inc. also need to improve their marketing strategy because it is a part of over all plan of the said business by establishing another branch in the province of Pangasinan for expansion for them to become more popular in terms of selling diffirent kinds of product. According to Peng Shao and Zeliang Sun (2012), Groceries today have to deal with the more dynamic and competitive environments than before. The frequent mergers and acquisitions among the groceries suppliers and retailers made industry structure strongly concentrated and competitive.And the limited retail stores are being increasingly standardized and homogenized. Facing the Bayambang market which only has 96,609 population, the three major competitors grocery, CSI, Savemore and Royal Mall need to differentiate themselves. Thus maintaining long-term relationship with customers is important, in order to keep their good organizational performance and profits. Identifying the key attributes influencing customer satisfaction during customers’ purchasing in their stores is critical. Groceries need to explore their resources and internal capabilities, so that they can make proper strategies to remain competitive. Unique attributes and sub-attributes are the important resources and internal capabilities of each grocer, which can help grocer to differentiate themselves from its competitors, and maximize the level of customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction means that customer needs are fulfilled when doing the purchases. So the groceries must understand what the customers want and provide customers with what they need. A large number of studies have demonstrated a positive relationship between organization performance and customer satisfaction. Keeping long-term customer satisfaction is seen as a critical success factor for grocery retailers, because the competition in the groceries industry is strong and margins are becoming limited. There is a straight forward and simple link between customer satisfaction and profits. Retailers used to shape customers shopping habit, without listening much to consumers needs and desires. However, as the industry has been changing, customers change their shopping behavior. For example, the proximity between home and stores become less concerned, so retailers should adapt to new change of customers shopping behavior. Retailers must concern about the attributes, including quality of product, assortment, customer attention, additional service, store atmosphere, store location and price and discount, so that they can shorten the customers perception gap. In the future, the company will have applied its best practices especially to the customer satisfaction in their service not only in the province, but also in the entire Philippines. These Best Practices will not only consist of the most efficient systems, but also consider human elements such as local knowledge and relationship building which are equally essential in attaining great satisfaction. Statement of the problemThis study focused on the extent of customer satisfaction of Consumers Minimart Inc. located in Bayambang, Pangasinan. Specifically, this study sought to answer the following questions: 1. What is the profile of customers in terms of : a) Types of customers ; and b) Average purchased per transaction 2. What is the extent of customer satisfaction in terms of : a) Queueing system or Waiting timec) Visual merchandising b) Delivery systemd) Physical set-up 3. What are the problems encountered by the customer in terms of: a) Availability of product b) Parking area c) Sanitation d) Ventilation e) Services Accuracy f) Facilities g) Physical set-up h) Distribution i) Inventory j) Pricing Scope and Delimitation of the Study This study determined the extent of customers satisfaction of Consumers Minimart Inc. in the Municipality of Bayambang. The respondents of this study have the total of 100 respondents in a random basis like owners of sari-sari store or retailers, and end users who purchased in the Consumers Minimart Inc., regarding in their types of customers and average purchased per transaction, queueing system or waiting time, delivering system, visual merchandising, physical set-up, availability of product, parking area, sanitation, ventalition, services accuracy, pricin, inventory, distribution and facilities. Significance of the Study The researchers believed that the result of this study would benefit the following. The Manager. This study will enhance competence in the management and operation of the business and will provide with additional knowledge on how to improve business and to get customers satisfaction and loyalty. The Customers. The result of this study will serve as the source of affordable and easy buying decision. They would also be informed and be guided about the different services and existing prices that the business render to the public which the people will appreciate. The Government. This study will bring about additional income to the local government in the form of taxes and they will be provided with some needed basis to come up with rules and regulations to prevent cheating on the suggested retail price. The Future Entrepreneurs. This study will serve as a guide to those future entrepreneurs who wants to establish this kind of business. Definition of Terms To facilitate understanding of this study, the following terms were defined operationally. Consumers Minimart Inc. It is the name of the mini grocery business in the Municipality of Bayambang, that we are studying in our research. Satisfaction. Is an attitude of a person of being happy of the products and services offer. Suppliers. Is a person, company or organization that sells or supplies something such as goods or equipments to business. Customers. They are the retailers and end-users who consumed or use the products and services. Product. Something that is made or created by the manufacturer or supplier. It is offered to customers. Services. A product of human activity meant to satisfy a human need but not constituting item of goods. Queueing System. The queuing discipline describes the order in which arrivals are serviced. Visual Merchandising. Is a form of store presentation of all forms of advertising and marketing. Physical Set-up. Is a form of displaying the products. Delivering System. process for conveying a product or service to a customer. Chapter 2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES This chapter present a review of professional literature and related studies relevant to the present study. This literature and studies have given the researchers more information and clearer view of the problem in this study. Those that are relevant to this research are presented in the following discussion. RELATED LITERATURE This section presents the both foreign and local related literature relevant to the study. This relevance is shown by the proponents in order to give more reason and understanding of the proposition. Customer Satisfaction Customer satisfaction provides a leading indicator of consumer purchase intentions and loyalty. Customer satisfaction data are among the most frequently collected indicators of market perceptions. Organizations need to retain existing customers while targeting non-customers. Measuring customer satisfaction provides an indication of how successful the organization is at providing products and/or services to the marketplace. Customer satisfaction is an ambiguous and abstract concept and the actual manifestation of the state of satisfaction will vary from person to person and product/service to product/service. The state of satisfaction depends on a number of both psychological and physical variables which correlate with satisfaction behaviors such as return and recommend rate. The level of satisfaction can also vary depending on other options the customer may have and other products against which the customer can compare the organizations products. In retailing, consumers typically patronize multiple outlets. Thus, an important issue is why consumers vary in how they divide their purchases across outlets and how outlets can get a greater share of consumer expenditures. Two potential avenues for increasing customer share are to raise customer satisfaction, and increase repeat purchase through loyalty cards. This study examines the effects of customer satisfaction and loyalty cards as well as consumer characteristics on customer share spent on the primary grocery store. The findings suggest that customer satisfaction has a positive, albeit modest, effect on share while consumer economic shopping orientation has a negative direct effect on share. The economic orientation of shoppers, their felt importance of a personal relationship with store personnel, and the level of their aggregate purchase volume moderate the effect of satisfaction on customer share. Finally, the results provide mixed support for the impact of loyalty cards on customer behavior. Customer Satisfaction in Queuing Systems Companies have to increase their customers’ satisfaction to keep their competitiveness. In services, waiting has great impact on service level and customer satisfaction. Consequently, in time-based competition, one of the main objectives of service companies is to minimize customer waiting. Waiting can be defined in several ways; however, the ultimate management objective should be the maximization of customer satisfaction. The paper shows how customer satisfaction can be approximated with utility functions and establishes a theoretical background for utility transformation of waiting time. The case study of the checkout system of a real do-it-yourself superstore is used to illustrate the application of the suggested method. The results show that utility related objective function may justify queuing system changes even if the average waiting time does not improve. Elements of Queueing Systems Population of Customers can be considered either limited (closed systems) or unlimited (open systems). Unlimited population represents a theoretical model of systems with a large number of possible customers (a bank on a busy street, a motorway petrol station). Example of a limited population may be a number of processes to be run (served) by a computer or a certain number of machines to be repaired by a service man. It is necessary to take the term customer very generally. Customers may be people, machines of various nature, computer processes, telephone calls, etc. Arrival defines the way customers enter the system. Mostly the arrivals are random with random intervals between two adjacent arrivals. Typically the arrival is described by a random distribution of intervals also called Arrival Pattern. Queue represents a certain number of customers waiting for service (of course the queue may be empty). Typically the customer being served is considered not to be in the queue. Sometimes the customers form a queue literally (people waiting in a line for a bank teller). Sometimes the queue is an abstraction (planes waiting for a runway to land). There are two important properties of a queue: Maximum Size and Queuing Discipline. Maximum Queue Size (also called System capacity) is the maximum number of customers that may wait in the queue (plus the one(s) being served). Queue is always limited, but some theoretical models assume an unlimited queue length. If the queue length is limited, some customers are forced to renounce without being served. Queuing Discipline represents the way the queue is organised (rules of inserting and removing customers to/from the queue). There are these ways: 1) FIFO (First In First Out) also called FCFS (First Come First Serve) orderly queue; 2) LIFO (Last In First Out) also called LCFS (Last Come First Serve) – stack; 3) SIRO (Serve In Random Order); 4) Priority Queue, that may be viewed as a number of queues for various priorities; and 5) Many other more complex queuing methods that typically change the customer’s position in the queue according to the time spent already in the queue, expected service duration, and/or priority. These methods are typical for computer multi-access systems. Most quantitative parameters (like average queue length, average time spent in the system) do not depend on the queuing discipline. That’s why most models either do not take the queuing discipline into account at all or assume the normal FIFO ( First In First Out) queue. In fact the only parameter that depends on the queuing discipline is the variance (or standard deviation) of the waiting time. There is this important rule (that may be used for example to verify results of a simulation experiment). The two extreme values of the waiting time variance are for the FIFO (First In First Out) queue (minimum) and the LIFO (Last In First Out) queue (maximum). Theoretical models (without priorities) assume only one queue. This is not considered as a limiting factor because practical systems with more queues (bank with several tellers with separate queues) may be viewed as a system with one queue, because the customers always select the shortest queue. Of course, it is assumed that the customers leave after being served. Systems with more queues (and more servers) where the customers may be served more times are called Queuing Networks. Service represents some activity that takes time and that the customers are waiting for. Again take it very generally. It may be a real service carried on persons or machines, but it may be a CPU time slice, connection created for a telephone call, be ing shot down for an enemy plane, etc. Typically a service takes random time. Theoretical models are based on random distribution of service duration also called Service Pattern. Another important parameter is the number of servers. Systems with one server only are called Single Channel Systems, systems with more servers are called Multi Channel Systems. Output represents the way customers leave the system. Output is mostly ignored by theoretical models, but sometimes the customers leaving the server enter the queue again (round robin time-sharing systems). Queuing Theory is a collection of mathematical models of various queuing systems that take as inputs parameters of the above elements and that provide quantitative parameters describing the system performance. Because of random nature of the processes involved the queuing theory is rather demanding and all models are based on very strong assumptions (not always satisfied in practice). Many systems (especially queuing networks) are not soluble at all, so the only technique that may be applied is simulation. Nevertheless queuing systems are practically very important because of the typical trade-off between the various costs of providing service and the costs associated with waiting for the service (or leaving the system without being served). High quality fast service is expensive, but costs caused by customers waiting in the queue are minimum. On the other hand long queues may cost a lot because customers (machines e.g.) do not work while waiting in the queue or customers leave because of long queues. So a typical problem is to find an optimum system configuration (e.g. the optimum number of servers). The solution may be found by applying queuing theory or by simulation.

Friday, September 20, 2019

Process Intensification In Chemical Engineering Engineering Essay

Process Intensification In Chemical Engineering Engineering Essay Process Intensification (PI) is a concept in chemical engineering which first defined back in 1970 sparked by the need to reduce capital cost involved in a particular production system This was first pioneered by ICI to reduce plant volume without sacrificing its production capacity [1, Dautzenberg] (Dautzenberg, et al., 2001). There was a first international conference in 1995, International Conference for Process Intensification in the Chemical Industry. Ramshaw was the early scholar who worked on process intensification philosophical foundation, defined PI as a strategy for making dramatic reductions in the size of a chemical plant to achieve a given production objective (Ramshaw, 1995). Process intensification involves dramatic reduction in chemical plant equipments by installation or individual equipment volume as presented by (Ramshaw, 1995) and (Stankiewicz, 2003). By mentioning dramatic reductions, Ramshaw mentions of miniaturizing volume by the order of 100 to 1000. This definition by Ramshaw is quite limited and is cited in Stankiewicz (Stankiewicz, et al., 2000) as being too narrow that it discussed more on size reduction. PI can be defined as intensification on particular desired effect and size reduction is one of many desired results that can be achieved through PI. This definition is widened by Stankiewicz definition of process intensification as any chemical engineering development that leads to a substantially smaller, cleaner and more energy-efficient technology is process intensification (Stankiewicz, et al., 2000). BHR Group defines process intensification as: Process intensification is a revolutionary approach to process and plant design, development and implementation. Providing a chemical process with the precise environment it needs to flourish results in better products, and processes which are safer, cleaner, smaller, and cheaper. PI does not just replace old, inefficient plant with new, intensified equipment. It can challenge business models, opening up opportunities for new patentable products and process chemistry and change to just-in-time or distributed manufacture (BHR Group, 2003). This has been widely accepted (try to connect references) as definition of process intensification in chemical industry. Process intensification can be categorised into two types of approaches which are; (1) methodology-based approach and another one is (2) equipment-based approach. Figure Process intensfication and its components (from Stankiewicz et al. 2004). This major categorisation of two approach in process intensification is also presented and some of the latest existing industrial examples are given in an article in The Chemical Engineer journal (King, et al., 2010). Reaction Engineering involves Sizing and bla bla bla Reaction engineers spend a lot of efforts and ingenuity in enhancing reactors performance by studying and implementing any optimum trajectory for the reaction system to be operated (Nicol, et al., 2001). bla bla bla In reaction engineering, equipment-driven approach is about reactor improvement of rate of reaction by specific-volume, heat transfer and mass transfer, hence may push chemical process or catalyst performance to achieve the best out of their potentials. Nowadays this is done in terms of enhancing conversion rates and reducing by-products formation by achieving concentration and temperature profiles [4, Multfunct.React. Agar pp. 379-381] (Agar, 2004). Catalysis is one of examples of process intensification approach by methodology in general sense, as it serves a function to reduce activation energy required for a reaction to occur. In chemical industry there are two major types of catalytic reactor configurations, being the structured and random reactors. These categories are reviewed later in the next section regarding their benefits in reaction engineering process intensification. Some applications in chemical industry by process-intensifying equipment approach are integrating several unit operations or equipments into one multifunctional reactor, designing a new hybrid separation such as reactive distillation and reactive absorption [2, Trans] (Stankiewicz, et al., 2000). Integration in between two equipments as examples has been reviewed by Stankiewicz (2003) [5] Stamicarbons Urea 200plus technology. In this paper, the reactor is designed incorporated with condenser and known as pool reactor. Size comparison shown that in this particular case size of equipment reduced to one-fourth of the conventional equipments (Stankiewicz, 2003) [5]. The best reactor design and configuration is identified in a particular chemical process by knowledge available in its reaction chemistry, contacting pattern in terms of how and when individual elements pass through the reactor and contact one another and how long its identity changes. Furthermore, critical studies in reaction overall kinetics as well as its thermodynamics to which elements are exposed along their reaction trajectory is important in enhancing chemical reactor or in order to integrate reactor with any other unit operations. Through this reactor design concept, the most suitable reactor configuration is selected, e.g., ideal plug flow, packed-bed and etc. Overall kinetics bla.. bla.. bla.. In considering thermodynamics, heat transfer within or across the boundaries of reactor is a crucial consideration to establish optimised reaction in multifunctional reactor, based on their activation energy needed for raw materials to react. In multifunctional reactor this is the scope where energy would be supplied or removed from an endothermic or exothermic main reaction to maintain a forward drive of chemical reaction. Energy balances are important at this stage and establishing temperature profile is needed from analysis for purpose of chemical reaction intensification. Methods of heat transfer are also reviewed as there are categories of heat transfer methods known to be efficient in a particular reaction. This is the normal and widely accepted procedure Individual reactor design such as static mixer reactor, monolithic reactor, spinning disk reactor and etc, are examples of equipment-driven approach in process intensification (Stankiewicz, 2003). This examples are actually concepts revolves on developing component design and improvement of a particular reactor. Development of Modelling of process intensification. MAIN PARTS a PI Area of Concern in Reaction Engineering Applications. Heat exchange in reaction engineering Reactor usually contains high amount of energy namely heat as reaction is progressing with reactor usually being operated at the highest temperature compare to other equipment upstream and downstream. This is essential to the reactions as thermal energy required for molecular bond to form or dissociate. Heat exchange in reaction engineering design has been studied extensively as heat transfer plays a significant role in all chemical reactions. Agar D.W. (2004) (Agar, 2004) has categorised heat transfer into four categories, namely convection, recuperation regeneration and reaction (Figure ). This categorisation helps a lot in providing the best heat transfer solution in knowing which the best reactor configuration is in adding or removing heat. Figure Heat transfers for manipulating temperatures and concentration profiles in chemical reactors (from Agar, 2004). Convection is additional or removal of side-streams which intentionally limits the availability of one reactant, hence, improving selectivity, e.g.; cold-shot reactor. In recuperation heat transfer there is an external heat transfer sources and sinks which operates to generate temperature differences in between reaction phase and heating medium by taking in or removing heat somewhere else, e.g.; cooling towers, fin fan coolers, heat exchangers and etc. Regeneration heat transfer makes use of the reactor internals, usually beds or packings as an accumulation of heat and mass in order to establish temperature profile and also concentrations. This temperature could not increase when in steady-state operation (Agar, 2004). Reaction is a straight-forward combination of main reaction with compatible supplementary reaction either thermally or materially, e.g.; oxyhydrogenation (Agar, 2004). Operating temperature is achieved in reactor by one of these heat exchange approaches using various kinds of reactors accessories in multifunctional reactor such as heat jacket, tubes heat tracing or less commonly by heating coil. Mass transfer in reaction engineering Integration of mass transfer and catalyst has been studied (since, whom, what are achievement so far.) and prominently applied in reactive distillations which will be reviewed in details below. Packing shapes Multifunctional reactors development. e.g; Pool reactor, reactive distillation column, heat exchanger reactor Multifunctional reactors are reactors that serve many functions of unit operations in single equipment. These reactors usually combined with separators either distillation or absorber, or with heat transfer equipments such as cooler, heater or condenser. Some of the examples are: Pool reactors (reactor-condenser) Reactive distillation columns Pool reactor were discussed in Stankiewicz 2003 [5] (Stankiewicz, 2003), where combination of reactor and condenser yielded a novel equipment. Worlds first pool reactor is known developed by DSM Research back in 1945. A type of multifunctional reactor in which combined reactor and condenser was studied in details by Ben Amor et al (1999) (Ben Amor, et al., 1999) took methanol synthesis from its raw material, syngas in prototypes as main scope. (Add a bit of elaboration for advancement achievement). This is further developed and analysed in Haut, et al (2004) (Haut, et al., 2004) Heat exchanger reactor is designed by combining reactor, heat exchanger and scrubber by the PI in multifunctional reactor design. Multifunctional reactor has been a good example of process intensification by equipment-driven approach. Process intensification in multifunctional reactors were presented in Pros: Examples in practiced Cons: There Several functions or processes are designed to occur simultaneously in multifunctional reactors. One of many examples of these reactors is fluidised catalytic cracker (FCC) that has two reactions occur in one unit operation namely cracking and another is removal of coke in hydrocarbon (Dautzenberg, et al., 2001). Issues Implementation MAIN PARTS b Chemical reactors often used catalysts in its operations as they provide easier path for reaction to happen that the activation energy is lowered with their presence in reaction phase. Two general categories of catalytic reactor configuration are random catalytic reactor and structured catalytic reactor. Structured catalysts has been paid attention Random catalysts Reactive distillation is one of many examples of process intensification in multifunctional reactor. One of many good examples in process intensification by integration of unit operations is the reactive distillation in which reaction phase is put together with separation phase in single equipment. This has been call as pool reactor (Stankiewicz, 2003 [5]) (Stankiewicz, 2003). Reactive distillations uses column packing which made by the catalyst material as the reactants pass through the column will react and the separation takes place along the column throughout the packing This was initiated by the studies.. where column internals which use conventional packing shape with materials that could probably be replaced with catalytically compatible materials to bring forward reaction equilibrium for more yields. An example of this ground-breaking new packing is Super X-pack (structured packing) designed and manufactiured by Nagaoka International Corp., able to reduce size of column down to five times smaller compares to conventional column and much lower pressure drop across the packing. This dramatic reduction of equipment size was illustrated as comparison to conventional applications by Stankiewicz (2003) [5] (Stankiewicz, 2003) as shown in figure (Figure ). Figure Super X-pack revolutionary packing for distillation columns by Nagaoka International Corp. Sulzer Chemtech developed KATAPAK-S packing as catalytic packing and this is packing has been studied in details regarding the geometry of flow channel, hydrodynamics and mass transfer performance in Behrens et. al. (2006) [9] (Behrens, et al., 2006). Modelling of liquid hold-up, pressure drop and mass transfer were conducted specifically based on this Sulzers KATAPAK-S as the main focus in this publication. This knowledge is crucial for further developments and applications. Stankiewicz (2003) (Stankiewicz, 2003) is also cited in this paper in terms of combining reactors and separators. Future researches on these Super X-pack and Sulzers KATAPAK-S are potential development of catalytic version of this packing. From process-intensification point of view this could possibly be the breakthrough shift in vast reduction of column size and a key step up in reactive distillation that will bring a extensive benefits in chemical industry. Parkinson (2000), Drip drop in column internals Applications in Chemical Industry. Catalytic reactive distillation has been commercially used in chemical industry (DeGarmo J.L., 1992) [8] (DeGarmo, et al., 1992). One of the examples of applications in chemical industries is the Methyl Acetate separative reactor technology development by Eastman Chemicals. This is presented by Siirola (1995) [12] (Siirola, J. J.; Eastman Chemical Company, 1996). This has been cited in Stankiewicz (2003) [5] to reflect the extensive reduction in plant size. This massive plant size of seven tasks is integrated into single piece of equipment. Distillation, extractive distillation, reaction, reactive distillation are the discrete tasks which have been combined into one column. As the result, numbers of equipment are reduced to 3 from conventional plant that has 28 equipments. This is shown in figure (label figure below) Figure 4 Plant integration in methyl acetate separative reactor process by Eastman Chemical (from Siirola 1996 [13]). Benefits (to relate this point of integration benefits in between [5, Stankiewicz], [Ramshaw,1999] cost reduction and [6, Hendershot] safety regarding integrated unit operation e.g.; pool reactor, in reactive distillation) Cost reduction on the major plant item was the primary objective of PI, but other benefits comes along with this reduction of costs such as structural work, earth/civil work for large vessel foundations, installations and labour as well as less pipe work needed (Ramshaw, 1999). While looking into process intensification from safety point of view this equipment integration .. (Hendershot, 2004) This can reduce the risk of reaction stage while in operation as reducing the size of the plant means minimising hazardous material usage concept proposed by Kletz (Kletz, 1996). The possible opportunity for chemical fugitive through pipe connection in between unit operations is also eliminated as what you dont have cant leak (Kletz, 1978). This simpler plant is the result one looking for in achieving the objective in process intensification. Smaller plant is one of the objectives in process intensification and parallel with the concept of mentioned above in introduction (Stankiewicz, et al., 2000). Potentials of further development of reactive distillation: Pool reactor was started as RD program by DSM Research back in 1945 and after 51 years, the technology was established and patented in 1996 in urea production known as Urea 2000plusà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ technology. The first commercial plant was commissioned in 1998 when start-up of first Urea 2000plusà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ pool reactor plant. Stamicarbons Urea 2000plusà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ technology reduced the size of installed equipments from early establishment at total height of 78 metres .. (Bakker, 2004). Reactor Stripper Condenser Scrubber Pool Condenser Pool Reactor Urea 2000plusà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ technology Conventional urea technology C:UsersdynaPicturesMP Navigator EX2010_10_03Urea 2000Plus Pool Reactor2.jpg Figure 5 Reduction of size by integration of reactor, condenser and scrubber featured in Stamicarbons Urea 2000plusà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ technology (from Bakker, 2004). MAIN PARTS c Modelling of process intensification. Modelling Modelling of Krishna Taylor (2000) MAIN PARTS d Process intensification for safety. In establishing a chemical plant nowadays, there are massive lists of safety legislations need to be adhered. One of the best practices in chemical industry is to construct a plant with elements of inherent safety. Inherent safety and intrinsic safety mean the same and would be used interchangeably from this point onwards. Process intensification is an important aspect that needs to be implemented in achieving an inherently safer chemical process and plant. Process intensification for inherent safety concept has long been establish has been Intrinsic safety in reactor configuration and operation is a crucial element since reactor is a heart of a chemical manufacturing plant. Being the centre of a process containing various components of chemicals as raw materials are introduced and as reactions took place there would be mixture of products and normally more than two by-products. Reactor also traditionally contains high amount of energy namely heat as operating with usually being operated at the highest temperature compare to other equipment upstream and downstream. This is where energy would be supplied or removed as stated before in the introduction. From the point of equipment integration reviewed before, reactor combination with other unit operations such as distillation, condenser, scrubber or heat exchanger is another approach in process intensification, i.e; equipment-driven approach (King et. al. 2010) [10]. MAIN PARTS e Barriers and potential prospects of process intensification in reaction engineering. Besides wide-ranging advancement in PI in reaction engineering, there are several difficulties known in holding back the research and implementation of technologies. This occurs especially in upscaling from lab or pilot scale to commercial scale. In 1998 AIChEs Center for Waste Reduction Technologies organised two workshops that has recognised barriers for reactive/hybrid separations and as agreed there were three categories of technical and nontechnical difficulties which are: Technical gaps, such as lack of simulation and scale-up capability, lack of validated thermodynamics and kinetic data, lack of materials (compatible materials, e.g., integrated catalysts/sorbents, membrane materials) as these materials have to be developed specifically for the purpose of new process chemistry, and lack of high-level process synthesis methodology. Technology transfer barriers, lack of experts in multidisciplinary team in process integration approach, lack of communality of problems (each application has unique technology) and lack of models/prototypes on a reasonable scale (most of the studies still regarded as science which involves small-scale researches). General barriers, such as higher standards, to require implementation of new technologies, as opposed to conventional technologies, lack of process economics (as new technologies have not been proved to be feasible as there is no commercial model available) and fear of risk in operating new technologies. Besides those difficulties, future opportunities CONCLUSIONS The implementations of process intensifications transform conventional chemical engineering unit operations into a revolutionary process technology whether by integration of several unit operations or by altering intrinsic chemical process elements to eliminate unnecessary process bottlenecks. Changes usually measured by the substantially cost improvement, progress delivery/process time, [3, Re-Engineering chem]

Thursday, September 19, 2019

The Greenland Shark Essay -- science

The Greenland Shark Sharks live in almost every part of the oceans, from coastal environments to deep-sea habitats. They also live in the warm waters of the tropics to the cold frigid waters of the polar region. The Greenland shark, also known as â€Å"somniousus Microcephalus,† lives in the dark, cold waters of the North Atlantic (I 65). The Greenland shark belongs to the order Squaliforms, more usually known as dogfish sharks. There are 70 species in this order, which includes the spied sharks, spiny dogfish, Sleeper sharks and lantern fish (I 50). Greenland Shark Classification: Kingdom: Anamalia Phylum: Cordates (possessing a notochord) Sub Phylum: Vertebrates (possessing a back bone) Super Class: Gnathostomata (jawed vertebrates) Class: Chondrichthyes (cartilaginous skeleton) Subclass: Elasmobranchas (ribbon like gills) Super Order: Selachii or Selachimopha (shark shaped) Order: Sqauliforms Family: Sqaulidea Species: somniousus Microcephalus (I 185) The shark’s habitat largely depends on the water temperature this allows its habitat that ranges from the Polar latitudes to the North Sea in the east and the St. Lawrence River in the West. The Greenland shark has also wonders south as far as the waters off Cape Hatteras and has also been found in the Gulf of Maine. The shark usually lives in cool water ranging from 2-7deg Celsius (II 63). However the sharks has also been found in the waters in the Artic Circle. (I 65) Typically the Greenland sharks live at extreme depths. In the winter months the Greenland sharks can be found at the surface and at the edges of ice burgs and glaciers. The sharks will also enter fjords during these months. However in the warmer months of summer, the sharks dives back to depths and lives at an average depth of 100-400 fathoms and has been caught in water as deep as 600 fathoms (II 63). Depending on season and water temperature, the shark’s habitat moves. The diet of a Greenland will eat almost anything that it will come across. With its slow swimming body plan, it includes bottom living shellfish, but it also hunts seals, porpoises and other small whales and sea birds at the surface in its diet (I 65). These sharks also eats many kinds of fish, such as capelin, char, herring, halibut, lumpfish and even salmon. There has even been fast swimming fish found with its tail bitten off inside ... ...heir vision is not needed at that depth in the dark water (I 77). These parasites might actually help the sharks. These parasites are biolumiscent and they might attract those fast swimming fish to the oral side of the shark. With out these parasites it is possible that the sharks could not catch as many fish as it does, due to its slow speed. On top of the parasites on its eyes, the Greenland shark also has poisonous flesh. To get rid of the poison n order to eat it, the flesh must be boiled and dried several times (II 63). If the meat is not prepared correctly, it can cause, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain, tingling and burning sensation of tongue, throat and esophagus. It can also cause muscular cramps, respiratory distress, coma and death (III Vol 25, 905). This shark may not kill you when it’s alive, but you have to careful when it’s dead. References 1. Parker, Steve and Jane. The Encyclopedia fo Sharks. A Firefly Book: Buffalo, 1999. 2. Castro, Jose. THe Sharks of the North American Waters. Texas Univerisity Press: US, 1983. 3. Britanica, 15th Edition. Micropedia: Chicago, 1990. 4. Allen, Thomas B. The Shark Almanac. Lyoness Press: NY, 1999.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Free Essays - Alices Adventures in Wonderland Essays :: Alices Adventures in Wonderland Essays

In Lewis Carroll's novel Alice in Wonderland, Alice is curious, well-mannered, and confused while she tries to find her way out of Wonderland. Alice meets many unique and weird creatures which eventually help her escape wonderland. Alice shows that she is curious through her actions. At the beginning of the book Alice gets distracted from her "boring" work, and chases a white rabbit down a hole. This excerpt describes Alices curiosity, "Alice started to her feet, for it flashed in her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket". When Alice is at the bottom of the hole she find a bottle labeled "Drink Me", she wants to see what it tastes like, this excerpt describes the event "...this bottle was not marked `poison', so Alice ventured to taste it, finding it very nice". Another instant that shows her curiosity when she looks for the white rabbits fan and gloves, she finds a bottle, this time there was no table, "There was no label this time with the words `Drink Me' ... `I know something interesting is going to happen' ... ` I'll just see what it does',". Alice is like a little girl that is still exploring the world around her, but she finds that she is more mature than the creatures in Wonderland. Alice is very well mannered in Victorian ways to the creatures of Wonderland. Alice shows her good manners when she enters the white rabbits house and the rabbit tells Alice to go fetch his gloves and fan, "I'd better take his fan and gloves- that is if I can find them", since Alice is a guest, uninvited, she follows the owners orders. When Alice runs into caterpillar she calls him "Sir", here is an excerpt from the book , " I can't explain myself myself, I'm afraid, Sir", this shows that she respects the creatures of Wonderland. When Alice enters the Duchesses house and the Duchess throws the baby to Alice, Alice starts to take care of it, " `Here! You may nurse it a bit, if you like!' Alice caught the baby with some difficulty ...", this shows her maternal side. Wonderland is an illogical land, nothing seems to make sense to Alice. She starts to become very frustrated and confused. When Alice meets the caterpillar the following conversation takes place, " `Who are you!' the caterpillar asked ... `I - I hardly know, Sir, just at present - at least I know who I was when I got up this morning' ... ", Alice is so confused she does not even know who she is.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

H.D.: The Fusion of Classicism and Modernity Essay -- Hilda Doolittle

H.D.: The Fusion of Classicism and Modernity With foundations rooted deeply in an appreciation for and understanding of classicism, H.D. fused ancient Grecian literature, thinking and mythology with modernistic feminism, bisexuality and psychoanalysis to establish for herself a prominent voice among her contemporaries. Born Hilda Doolittle in 1886 to Helen and Charles Doolittle, her education was fostered by the intellectual curiosity of her parents (an artist and an astronomer, respectively) and the proximity of The University of Pennsylvania. Closely associated with poet Ezra Pound, she spent much of her adult and professional life surrounded by literary contemporaries. Doolittle was a woman whose work was not limited to a single interest but instead expanded to envelop several of the most outstanding facets of modernism: the exploration of women within a literary movement, the exploration of homosexuality and the exploration of self through psychoanalysis. H.D.’s major contribution to modernism is most often recognized as her use of poetic imagery. After only two years at Bryn Mawr, H.D. moved to England, where much of her poetry was written. Pound, a close friend and twice-fiancà ©e not only facilitated her acceptance into the literary circles of expatriate American writers, but also her entrance into the literary world. Affixing the signature "H.D., Imagiste," Pound submitted H.D.’s early verses to Harriet Monroe’s Poetry Magazine, which were accepted and published (Scott). Her poetry remains at the forefront of the imagist branch of modernism, a division whose writers dedicate themselves to the direct treatment of the subject, the prohibition of any word that not essential to the presentati... ...://www.literaryhistory.com/20thC/HD.htm http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?prmID=238 Works Cited â€Å"A Brief Biography Of H.D.† < http://www.imagists.org/hd/bio.html> Bryan, Marsha. â€Å"Modern American Poetry.† Doolittle, Hilda. Asphodel. Editor: Spoo, Robert. Durham; Duke University Press, 1992. pp. ix-xix. Doolittle, Hilda. Collected Poems 1912-1944: Martz, Louis L. New York; New Directions. Pp. 39, 118, 128, 281. â€Å"H.D. Poetry Exhibit† <http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?prmID=238> Levertov, Denise. †H.D.: An Appreciation† Modern Critical Views H.D.: Bloom, Harold. New York; Chelsea House Publishers. Scott, Bonnie Kime. â€Å"About H.D.’s Life and Career† Bryan, Marsha. â€Å"Modern American â€Å"Poetry.† <http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/hd/life.htm>