Diversity in the Grocery Store Professor Ramos Blog

Diversity in the Grocery Store It was the evening after my last day of school before winter break began. There I was, standing in line in the checkout at Albertsons with my mom after having tagged along with her to do our family’s weekly grocery shopping. Directly in front of us was a woman, who looked no older than thirty, trying to calm her crying baby along with her other young daughter who looked to be about 5 or 6. Her cart was, noticeably, barely full, or at least compared to ours which was almost overflowing with groceries. As she went to pay, the cashier looked visibly irritated, then tells her that there was an issue with her card. This was when the cashier, instead of privately attempting to flag down a manger, made an announcement over the intercom, something along the lines of, â€Å"I need help in checkout line _, a food stamps card didn’t go through.† This is when the woman looked as if she was beginning to tear up. Her shoulders began to droop as her demeanor suddenly changed fr om friendly to extremely uneasy. After an uncomfortably long amount of time, a manager finally made his way down to fix the problem and luckily had everything up and working again in under a minute. Everything went smoothly after that, however, the woman did still look like she was holding back tears. She quickly left, looking almost ashamed, as soon as it was our turn to check out. Being only eight years old at the time, I didn’t quite know what the issue was, but I felt absolutely horrible for her. After both my mom and I made it back to the car and loaded up all of the groceries in the trunk, she started the car and we began to make our way back home. Being a bit curious, I asked her for a bit more information on everything that had just went down inside the store. She then explained that when some people can’t afford to buy food, the government will provide it for them. â€Å"When some people don’t need that kind of help, they don’t really underst and what those who are struggling with that are going through. They don’t think it’s fair to everyone else and will treat other people who do have to rely on extra help from the government for food badly.†      I sat and thought about that for awhile. It seemed extremely unfair. Those who are struggling enough with money to need the government to step in don’t need the extra stress of having to deal with people who are not willing to even try to understand their situation. This was one of my more memorable experiences with diversity during my childhood. At that point, having lived most of my life in a predominately middle-income neighborhood, I had always been surrounded by people of the middle to upper-middle class. My family was always a bit less well-off than the families we were surrounded by, but we never truly knew what it was like to struggle, or at least financially. This was what I knew as normal, so as a result, that specific instance was one of my first (memorable) exposures I had to prejudice towards people of lower incomes. Although I now knew that this problem existed, I still did not know how much of a problem it really was- as well as how close to home of a problem it really was. This would not be the last time I would have to witness someone being treated so badly just because they could not afford to buy the basic necessities for themselves and their families to live. One Sunday when I was thirteen years old, I was at my grandparents’ house for a family gathering, just like we had every single other Sunday. I was sitting in the living room with all of the adults since none of my cousins who were my age had arrived yet. The conversation then turned to my aunt, who had just started a new job as a receptionist at a local gym. â€Å"I’m so glad you were able to find something stable. Does this mean you won’t need help from the government for much longer?† my grandma asked, then immediately bit her tongue, forgetting for just a second the kind of company we had at the time. My aunt looked a bit embarrassed but she answered, â€Å"Yep, that’s the plan†. This is when one of my uncles, with a smug smile on his face, decided to pipe up, â€Å"Welfare huh? Well how long have you been on that?†. Partly ignoring the question she attempted to correct him, â€Å"Well I mean it isn’t quite welfare, but I have been on the food stamps program.†. Brushing her off, he then says, â€Å"Same thing. Government handouts are government handouts† and just goes silent again. My aunt, who seemed understandably, very uncomfortable with the whole situation, didn’t take much longer to leave after that. For the rest of the night I sat there feeling angry about what I had just seen happen. This was when I began to remember an instance very similar to the exchange I’d witnessed. I recalled the instance I’d seen happen five years earlier with the woman in the grocery store, and imagined my aunt, who I love and care about, in the same exact position. It absolutely broke my heart to think about her being treated that way, and the fact that it was likely that she has been.   Ã‚  Many people will choose to confront diversity simply with hatred, especially when they are not quite able to relate to those who are different than them, whether that is in race, culture, gender, religion, or as my experiences have shown, in socioeconomic status. The two experiences I had regarding this have pushed me to be a more understanding and tolerant person, especially with what I had seen my aunt go through behind the scenes. Not only that, but over the past few years I’ve had to watch as close friends have had to go through financial struggles as well and from what I’ve seen, there is so much more to it than what is on the surface. The anxiety and stress of not knowing whether or not you will be able to eat can be crippling. Overall, what I took from this, is that life does not treat everyone the same, and despite this, everyone deserves to be treated with kindness and respect- no matter their circumstances.

Create, Parse and Manipulate XML Documents With Delphi

Create, Parse and Manipulate XML Documents With Delphi What is XML? Extensible Markup Language is a  universal language for data on the Web. XML gives developers the power to deliver structured data from a variety of applications to the desktop for local computation and presentation. XML is also an ideal format for server-to-server transfer of structured data. Using an XML parser, software evaluates the hierarchy of the document, extracting the structure of the document, its content, or both. XML is in no way limited to Internet use. In fact, XMLs main strength organizing information makes it perfect for exchanging data between different systems. XML looks much like HTML. However, whereas HTML describes the layout of content on a webpage, XML defines and communicates data, it describes the type of content. Hence, extensible, because it is not a fixed format like HTML. Think of each XML file as a self-contained database. Tags   the markup in an XML document, offset by angle brackets delineate the records and fields. The text between the tags is the data. Users  perform operations like retrieving, updating and inserting data with XML using a parser and a set of objects exposed by the parser. As a Delphi programmer, you should know how to work with XML documents. XML with Delphi For more information about pairing Delphi and XML, read: Learn how to store TTreeView component items to XML preserving the Text and other properties of a tree node and how to populate a TreeView from an XML file. Simple Reading and manipulating RSS feeds files with DelphiExplore how to read and manipulate XML documents with Delphi using the TXMLDocument component. See how to extract the most current In The Spotlight blog entries (RSS feed) from the About Delphi Programming  content environment, as an example. Create XML files from Paradox (or any DB) tables using Delphi. See how to export the data from a table to an XML file and how to import that data back to the table. If you need to work with dynamically created TXMLDocument component, you might get access violations after you try to free the object. This article offers a solution to this error message. Delphis implementation of the TXMLDocument component, which uses Microsoft XML parser by default, does not provide a way to add a node of the ntDocType (TNodeType type). This article provides a solution to this problem. XML in Detail XML W3CPeruse the full XML standard and syntax at the W3C site. XML.comA community website where XML developers share resources and solutions. The site includes timely news, opinions, features and tutorials.

People Resourcing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

People Resourcing - Essay Example With the stated objective of ‘protecting the rights of workers’, unions negotiate with the management of the company and other regulating bodies to extract the best possible solution for the problems arising from time to time. But the union will be able to negotiate the solution only if it is recognized the management and the regulatory bodies for the purpose. The first step towards recognition is to be acceptable amongst the workers. To seek recognition, the union has to be acceptable amongst the employees as well. This implies that the union will have to enrol good number of employees as its members. In general, the minimum number of employees to be enrolled by any union for recognition, is defined in the rulebook. It also needs to be emphasised that enrolment or affiliation of a member with union has to be purely voluntary and without any coercion. The recognition itself is a multistage process comprising of the following steps (OPSI, 2004);  Step-1: After ensuring support of the requisite minimum number of workers, the union writes to the employer/ management requesting recognition. For the request to be valid there must be at least 21 employees under the banner of the union. The management can grant the recognition on the basis of the request or it may wish to verify the claim or further negotiate it with the employees and the union. At times, the help of Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) is also sought in case of some disagreements.  Step-2: In case of persistence of some difference, the matter can be referred to the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) by the union (s). The CAC is supposed to decide on the matter within a fixed time period by taking into account the merits of the case and the percentage of employees being represented by the union. Representation of at least 10 percent of the total workforce is once such criterion which helps in deciding in favour of the union. Step-4: Once the bargaining unit is formed the union is granted recognition either directly or by carrying out a referendum amongst the workers to ascertain the validity of the claims being made by the union.

Schizophrenia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Schizophrenia - Essay Example This difference in levels of cognition in various patients led to more research into other underlying pathologic pathways responsible for severe cognitive impairment in NPI patients but was apparently working fine in patients on NPNN category. Brain morphometry was used to analyze differences. Both groups were tested against each other on the basis of four tests to asses the attention and working memory (verbal and nonverbal) and were confirmed by California verbal learning test and degraded stimulus continuous performance test. The standard deviation within 0.5 was the cut off for near normal cognition whereas 1 standard deviation below normal rendered the patient cognitively impaired. They gray matter was found to be smaller in both the groups along with larger third ventricle. An additional pathology found in NPI was that along with the gray matter, their white matter was also decreased in volume. The lateral ventricle cavity was also enlarged. Whitford et al (2007) further invest igated the white matter abnormalities in schizophrenics and also studied whether the degenerative changes are progressive. T1 weighted magnetic resonance images (MRI) of 41 first- episode schizophrenics were compared against those of 47 normal comparable people for baseline volume of white matter using voxel-based morphometry in statistical parametric mapping- 2 (SPM2). The schizophrenics had decreased volume of white matter in frontal and temporal lobes. However there was an increase in white matter at frontoparietal junctions on both sides. The longitudinal changes at follow up after 2 to 3 years were compared using tensor based morphometry which showed decreased white matter bilaterally in middle and inferior temporal cortices of schizophrenics. The neural connection abnormalities were attributed to this progressive loss of white matter. The structural brain abnormalities at the time of first psychotic episode were studied by Fannon et al (2000) whose research involved 37 patient s going through their first episode of psychosis. T1 weighted steady brain scans of 1.5 mm contiguous sections were obtained and volumetric brain measurements were taken. The patients were found to have structural deviations and there was generalized reduction in brain volume, along with enlarged third and lateral ventricles. Cortical and temporal gray matter was found to be decreased. Schizophrenia is a chronic progressive mental disorder. It is associated with cognitive impairment and worsening interpersonal skills. The attacks are accompanied by hallucinations and delusions. Person feels that he is hearing different sorts of voices and has false beliefs and perceptions. There is extreme emotional instability and the patient may suffer from depression or social isolation. Cognitive decline involves memory impairment, decreased ability to pay attention and difficulty in functional execution of activities. The abnormalities are attributed to abnormal distribution and ratios of gray and white matter in the brain. Apart from that, increase in size of ventricular cavities as well as generalized reduction in brain volume also adds to affect the typical schizophrenic picture. The result is alterations in various brain functions owing to

Han Dynasty and Roman Empire Essay Example for Free

Han Dynasty and Roman Empire Essay Both the Han dynasty and the Roman Empire were bureaucratic. The central rulers all eventually became hereditary and both empires had rulers that oppressed the peasants in order to boost political control. However, the two empires differ in that the emperors had varying justifications for ruling and rose to power in different ways. The Han Dynasty and The Roman Empire both were able to expand and develop their empires with their distinctive governing methods and control. To China, the centerpiece that supervised everything was knows as Confucianism. With all dependability focused on the emperor and society serving as a family unit, Han Chinas political system was known for a centralized, closed unit. It was ruled by an emperor who greatly observed the Mandate of Heaven. The Han developed a supply of soldiers, which kept their borders secured and made them capable to exchange with others from time to time. On the other hand, Rome had a centralized, blended structure. The main focus points of the Roman Society were operated by a Roman Republic, which was more like a monarchy, who controlled their complex structure. The Roman Society had more residents and rights than the Hans, Romans political control lay in the hands of the wealthy, which then they were elected to a political seat. The governors were picked from family networks. The only way Romans could accomplish anything big in a certain time span was to make strong changes in their community. It was an enormous weight on Romes resources and power, when they had to stress over big wins. For example, when there was barely any food to support the developing empire. The Romans and the Hans both had their wealthiest people control over their peasants, which caused a social distribution to each and every one, and could have leaded to outbreaks in little battles, wars between the communities, and what not. This was entirely not beneficial on each empires part and especially their social interaction. The political structures of both Rome and Han China were based on bureaucratic systems with a strong monarchy set of succession. They strengthened their control by reducing the land holdings of old aristocratic families. However, the reversal of this process led to breakdown of authority in the central government. During its reign of power, the central bureaucracy promoted trading with neighboring societies. However, Rome was more aggressive with its role in trading in the Mediterranean verses Han China’s river trade. Rome’s trade led to a much greater technology, culture, and general transfer of knowledge in areas surrounding the Mediterranean which in turn led to a much longer lasting influence on the world. Under the Han Dynasty, the power of the emperor and bureaucracy were emphasized. The organized structure of government allowed such a large territory to be effectively governed, even though it was the largest political system in the world at the time. The Hans political framework stressed male dominated families. Han rulers didnt support local warrior-landlords, believing that they were corrupt. Because bureaucracy was so important, civil service exams were first given, a tradition that would be incorporated into modern politics. Not only did bureaucracy effectively govern, but it had a sort of checks and balance on the upper class. Chinese bureaucracy from the Han Dynasty lasted well into the twentieth century. The imperial government sponsored intellectual life, such as astronomy and mathematics. Han rulers promoted Confucianism, with the idea that they were in charge of their subjects beliefs. The administration also took part in the economy. It organized production, standardized currency and measures, sponsored public works like canal systems and irrigation, and tried to regulate agricultural supplies to control price increases. The Roman republic allowed all citizens to meet in assemblies to elect magistrates. The most important legislative body was the Senate, made up of aristocrats. Public service and participation, political ethics, uncorrupt government, and oratory were extremely important. Roman leaders were very tolerant of local customs and religions and believed that well-made laws could hold the lands together. Aristocratic leaders supported legal codes to protect private property as well as their poor subjects. It was a sort of check on the upper class. They believed that laws should evolve to keep up with the demands of the changing society. Imperial law codes also controlled property rights and trade. The law of the land was fair and equal for everyone, for the most part. The Roman government also supported public works like roads and harbors to facilitate transport and commerce. It also supported an official religion, but tolerated others as long as they didnt interfere with loyalty to the state. Unlike the Chinese, the Romans didnt emphasize as much on hierarchy, obedience, or bureaucracy, but more on participation. However, some of the Romans political writing did resemble Confucianism. Both governments also supported government funded public works.

The Film Camila :: movie films movies

Camila Camila is an Argentinean film set in the mid 19th century, during the Rosas regime. The film focuses on the lives of a young girl, Camila, and her Jesuit priest Ladislao Gutierrez. Camila and Ladisalo fall in love and the film follows their troubles. Through following the events that happen with Camila and Ladisalo, the director shows how restrictive and devout followers of Rosas were and of the resentment against him.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The unjust ways of the Rosas regime were illustrated passively. Instead of having Rosas a central character issuing orders to be carried out, Rosas was instead placed in the background of the film. You would see Rosas through the actions of the church, military, and of the common people. His picture adorned the towns, everyone was to wear a red ribbon symbolizing their loyalty to Rosas. His supporters spoke of him proudly while those against him had to hide in silence. To illustrate the inherent problems of the Rosas era, the director chose to show the injustices through the ordeals of Camila and Ladislao.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  First of all, in everyday life, Rosas demanded public showings of loyalty. Every citizen had to wear a bright red ribbon symbolizing their faith in their leader. Slaves, commoners, and even priests had to wear this ribbon. Through the execution of the bookseller, the tyranny of the Rosas regime is clear. He will tolerate to questions to his authority or allow anyone with a dissenting opinion to speak without fear of retribution. At the end of the film when the two young lovers are captured, Rosas rears his head again. Wishing to set an example to inspire terror into the masses, he doesn't hold Camilas execution even with the knowledge that she is pregnant. To further illustrate this point, the film makes it appear that Rosas is operating directly in contrast with the blessings of god.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  While never specific in

Computer Networks Essay

I. Internet and layered protocol architecture: Q1. (5 points) In the layered protocol architecture the transport layer functionality includes congestion control and error recovery (e.g., retransmission). One suggested that this functionality should be done strictly at the end points (i.e., at the hosts) without aid from the network. Do you agree? Why? Elaborate showing the design trade-offs. Answer: (5 points) In general, error recovery (e.g., re-transmission) is specific to application needs. Some applications require 100% packet recovery, even with delays and jitters (such as TCP-based applications, http, ftp and telnet traffic). Other applications may be tolerant to loss but less tolerant to delays and jitter, such as voice applications. Re-transmissions and packet recovery add to the jitters and the delays and hence may not be desirable for realtime or voice applications. Hence it is not a good idea, in general, to include error recovery at the network layer (that is not aware of application needs) and it is better to implement such functionality at the transport layer end-to-end. In cases of lossy channels in the network (such as X.25 in the early networking days, or wireless links) it may be desirable to reduce the bit error rates on those links by including error recovery at the end points of those links. [In general, most links nowadays have very low BER, and for wireless links the MAC (such as IEEE 802.11) layer provides Ack’ed delivery]. For congestion control, a similar argument may be given. That is, congestion reaction may be application specific and is better implemented end-to-end. Congestion notification, on the other hand, may provide useful information to the end points to react appropriately. Since losses in the network may be due to congestion or other factors, a signal from the network to the end point may help distinguish congestion errors from other errors. Only congestion errors should trigger ‘back off’ or rate cut at the end points. So, network assistance in congestion notification may help in some scenarios. [extra: In other scenarios network assistance may prevent synchronization effects of congestion control, e.g., RED, or may prevent/isolate misbehavior, e.g., WFQ.]. Q2. (5 points) What advantage does a circuit-switched network have over a packetswitched network? How can it establish such advantage? Answer: A circuit-switched network can guarantee a certain amount of end-to-end bandwidth for the duration of a call. Most packet-switched networks today (including the Internet) cannot make any end-to-end guarantees for bandwidth. Circuit-switched networks use admission control, and reserve a circuit (in TDM it is done in the form of an assigned time slot per source that no other source can use). The allocated resources are never exceeded. Q3. (10 points) What are the advantages and disadvantages of having a layered protocol architecture for the Internet? (mention at least 3 advantages and 2 disadvantages) Answer: Is it true that the change in any of the layers does not affect the other layers? (support your answer/arguments with examples) Advantages: Allows an explicit structure to identify relationships between various pieces of the complex Internet structure, by providing a reference model for discussion. Provides a modular design that facilitates maintenance, updating/upgrading of protocols and implementations (by various vendors) at the various layers of the stack. Supports a flexible framework for future advances and inventions (such as mobile or sensor networks). Disadvantages: overhead of headers, redundancy of functions (sometimes not needed) [such as reliability as the transport layer and the link layer, or routing at the network layer and some link layer protocols (such as ATM)] It is true in many cases that the change in one layer does not affect the change in the other layers, but not always. Examples of change that did not affect the other layers: change from FDDI to token ring, to Ethernet at the MAC layer. Examples of change that affected other layers: wireless vs. wired (performance of TCP and routing degraded drastically). Introduction of 802.11 for wireless and ad hoc networks (a change in the physical and MAC layers), does affect in a major way routing at the network layer and the transport layers. In that case, many of the protocols needed re-design. Q4. (10 total points) Design parameters: In order to be able to analyze performance of the Internet protocols a researcher needs to model some parameters, such as number of nodes in the network, in addition to many other parameters. a. Discuss 4 different main parameters one would need to model in order to evaluate the performance of Internet protocols. [Elaborate on the definition of these parameters and their dynamics] b. Discuss 2 more parameters for mobile wireless networks [these two parameters are not needed for the wired Internet] Answer: a. Traffic model temporal and spatial (packet arrival processes, session/flow arrival processes, spatial distribution of traffic (src-dst) pair distribution across the topology), topology/connectivity model, node failure model, membership dynamics (for multicast) spatio-temporal models. [Any reasonable 4 parameters are ok, with 1.5 points per parameter] b. For mobile wireless networks there is a need to model ‘mobility’ (spatio-temporal), and wireless channel dynamics/loss/bandwidth since it changes with time much more drastically than the wired Internet (in which virtually the max bandwidth of a channel/link is static) [Any 2 reasonable parameters are ok, with 2 points per parameter] II. Statistical multiplexing and queuing theory Note: You may want to make use of the following equations: M/D/1: queuing delay ; Ts is service time & Ï  is link utilization M/D/1: average queue length or buffer occupancy M/M/1: queuing delay , buffer occupancy: Q5. (8 points) Consider two queuing systems, serving packets with lengths that have exponential distribution, and the packet arrival process is Poisson. The first queuing system (system I) has a single queue and a single server, and hence the packet arrival rate is X, and the server speed is Y. The second queuing system (system II) has two queues and two servers, and hence the packet arrival rate is X/2, and the server speed is Y/2. Derive a relation between the delays in each of these systems. What conclusion can you make? Answer: (8 points) We use the M/M/1 queue (because the question states Poisson arrival and exponentially distributed service time). For the first system (I): Tq=Ts/(1-Ï )=1/M(1-ÃŽ »/M)=1/Y(1-X/Y), For the second system (II): Tq=2/Y(1-X/Y)=2Tq (of system I) That is, using ‘1’ queuing system performs better than using ‘2’ queues with half of the arrival rate and half of the output link capacity. Q6. (5 points) In an Internet experiment it was noted that the queuing performance of the switches/routers was worse than expected. One designer suggested increasing the buffer size in the routers drastically to withstand any possible burst of data. Argue for or against this suggestion, and justify your position. A6. Increasing the buffer size allows switches to store more packets (which may reduce loss). However, it does not alleviate the congestion. If this was the only cure proposed, then we expect the queues to build up, increasing the buffer occupancy, and increasing the delays. If the build up persists (due to lack of congestion control for example) the queues shall incur losses and extended delays. Delays may lead re-transmission timers to expire (for reliable protocols, such as TCP) leading to re-transmissions. Also, the TTL value in the header of each packet is reduced based on time (and hop count). So, many of the TTLs may expire leading to the discard of packets. So, in ge neral, only increasing the buffer sizes does not help improve the queuing performance. Q7. (7 points) Describe the network design trade-off introduced by using statistical multiplexing and define and describe a metric that captures this trade-off. A7. (7 points: 3.5 for the link between stat muxing and congestion and 3.5 for the trade off metric (network power) and its description). Statistical multiplexing allows the network to admit flows with aggregate capacity exceeding the network capacity (even if momentarily). This leads to the need for buffering and the ‘store and forward’ model. Subsequently, queuing delays and build up may be experienced as the load on the network is increased. Two major design goals of the network is to provide maximum throughput (or goodput) with least (or min) delay. However, these two goals are conflicting. In order to increase the throughput, the congestion increases and so does the delay. In order to reduce the queuing delays then we need to reduce the load on the network and hence the goodput of the flows would decrease. This is the throughput-delay trade off in network design. One metric that captures both measures is the network power=Tput/Delay, as the Tput increases, so does the network power, and when the delay decreases the network power increases. Q8. (8 points) Flows in the Internet vary widely in their characteristics. Someone suggested that in order to be fair to the various heterogeneous flows then we need the different flows to experience the same delay at the different queues. Argue for or against this suggestion. A8. (8 points: 4 points for the constant ratio and the link to the fluid flow model, 4 points for the unfairnes/greed description) In order to provide the same delay for the various flows we need to maintain the rate/capacity ratio constant (this is based on the fluid flow model we introduced in class). Hence, if the different flows arrive at various rates, then the capacity allocation should reflect such variation. The allocation leading to same delays would favor (i.e., allocate more capacity to) flows with higher rates at the expense of flows with low rates. This strategy encourages greed in the network and cannot achieve fairness, where the existence of high rate (large) flows in the network would adversely affect low rate (small) flows in the network by increasing the overall delay experienced by all the flows. Q9. (12 total points) Consider a network that uses statistical multiplexing. The network has ‘N’ number of ON/OFF sources, each sending at a rate of R packets per second when ON. All the sources are multiplexed through a single output link. The capacity of the output link is ‘M’. – A. (3 points) What is the condition on N, R and M in order to stabilize this network? – When the number of sources to be supported is increased from R to 10R, there were two suggestions to modify the network: Suggestion I is to replicate the above system 10 times. That is, create 10 links, each with capacity of ‘M’ handling R sources. – Suggestion II is to replace the link with another link of capacity ’10 M’ B. (9 points) Which suggestion do you support and why? [Argue giving expressions for the delay/buffer performance of each system. Give both the advantages and disadvantages of each case] Answer: ÃŽ ±=ÃŽ »Ã  A. (3 points) The conditions for a stable network are N.R. ÃŽ ± < M, N.R > M, where ÃŽ ± is the fraction of the time the sources are ON (on average) If ‘N.R. ÃŽ ± > M’, then this leads to constant build up of the queue with no change of recovering from congestion (and draining the queue), which would lead to unstable system. B. (9 points) Write down the equations, M/D/1: queuing delay ; Ts is service time & Ï  is link utilization M/D/1: average queue length or buffer occupancy M/M/1: queuing delay , buffer occupancy: The buffer occupancy depends on Ï  only. If Ï  is the same (i.e., the load on the queue server is the same) then the buffer occupancy is the same, Ï  = ÃŽ ». Ts = ÃŽ ±. N. R / M Increasing the bandwidth of the link to 10M means that we can get the same average buffer occupancy in the two systems. In system I we would need 10 times the buffer size as in system II, so system II is advantageous in that sense. (more sharing and statistical multiplexing) In addition, the queuing delay will be decreased drastically (by a factor of 10) where Tq=Ts. f(Ï ) (6 points for the above argument) (3 points) On the other hand the std deviation/fluctuation around the average in the queue size will be higher since it is shared by more number of flows, and hence the jitter will be relatively higher. III. Application layer and related issues Q10. (5 points) (Stateful vs. Stateless) Discuss one advantage and one disadvantage of having a ‘stateful’ protocol for applications. Advantage: The protocol can now maintain state about (i.e., remembers) users preferences (e.g., shopping preferences as in browser cookies), Disadvantage: when failure occurs the state needs to be reconciled (more complexity and overhead than stateless) [other correct and reasonable answers are accepted] Q11. (5 point) (Web Caching) Describe how Web caching can reduce the delay in receiving a requested object. Will Web caching reduce the delay for all objects requested by a user or for only some of the objects? Why? Ans. Web caching can bring the desired content â€Å"closer† to the user, perhaps to the same LAN to which the user’s host is connected. Web caching can reduce the delay for all objects, even objects that are not cached, since caching reduces the traffic on links. Q12. (1 0 points) Discuss three different architectures of the peer-to-peer applications. Give examples of real applications for each architecture and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each architecture. Ans. 1. Centralized directory of resources/files, as in Napster. Advantage is that search for resources is simple with min overhead (just ask the centralized server). The disadvantages are: single point of failure, performance bottleneck and target of lawsuit. 2. Fully distributed, non-centralized architecture, as in Gnutella, where all peers and edges form a ‘flat’ overlay (without hierarchy). Advantages: robustness to failure, no performance bottleneck and no target for lawsuit. Disadvantages is that search is more involved and incurs high overhead with query flooding. 3. Hierarchical overlay, with some nodes acting as super nodes (or cluster heads), or nodes forming loose neighborhoods (sometimes referred to as loose hierarchy, as in BitTorrent). Advantages, robust (no single point of failure), avoids flooding to search for resources during queries. Disadvantages, needs to keep track of at least some nodes using the ‘Tracker’ server. In general, this architecture attempts to combine the best of the 2 other architectures. Q13. (7.5 points) Push vs. Pull: A. Give examples of a push protocol and a pull protocol B. Mention three factors one should consider when designing pull/push protocols, discuss how these factors would affect your decision as a protocol designer (give example scenarios to illustrate). Answer: A. An example of a push protocol is: http. An example of a pull protocol: SMTP B. The factors affecting the performance of a pull/push protocol include (but are not limited to): 1. access pattern: how often is this object cached and how often is it accessed (example: a push mechanism for a very popular video that is pushed closer to a large population that is going to frequently watch it, would be better than a pull mechanism), 2. delay: what is the delay to obtain the object, and 3. object dynamics: how often/soon does the information in the object expires (example: in a sensor network where the information sensed is constantly changing, but is queried once in a while would be better ‘not’ to push it, but to pull it when needed only). Q14. (7.5 points) We refer to the problem of getting users to know about each other, whether it is peers in a p2p network or senders and receivers in a multicast group, as the â€Å"rendezvous problem†. What are possible solutions to solve the rendezvous problem in p2p networks (discuss three different alternatives and compare/contrast them. Answer: The possible solutions for the rendezvous problem include: 1. Using a centralized server: advantages: simple to search, little communication overhead. Disadvantages: single-point-of-failure (not robust), bottleneck, doesn’t scale well 2. Using a search technique for discovery, perhaps using a variant of a flood (or scoped-flood) or expanding-ring search mechanism. Advantages: avoids single-point-of-failure and bottlenecks. Disadvantages: may be complex, incurs high communication overhead and may incur delays during the search. 3. hybrid (or hierarchy): where some information (e.g., pointers to potential bootstrap neighbors, or pointers to some resources) are kept at a centralized (or replicated) server or super-nodes, then the actual communication is peer-topeer. Advantage: if designed carefully can avoid single-point-of-failure, bottlenecks, and achieve reasonable overhead and delay. Disadvantage: need to build and maintain the hierarchy (can trigger costly re-configuration control overhead in case of highly dynamic networks and unstable super-nodes).

Character Sketch Sample

Sample character sketch – my friend Liz. My friend Liz is the most amazing friend anybody could ask for. We’ve been through so much together, we’re basically like sisters. We met on the first day of school in sixth grade, both of us terrified by the massive size of the middle school. She had the locker right above mine. I told her I didn’t know anybody in our class and she said â€Å"You do now. † We’ve been friends ever since. Most boys think Liz is cute. She has long red hair, cascading over her shoulders. She laughs about everything and when she does, you see about a hundred white teeth – so bright, you almost need sunglasses. When she laughs, her eyes grow wide, glowing emerald green. Liz likes to dress kind of skater-ish, in camouflage pants, sweatshirts, and wristbands. But, she’s unpredictable, too. Sometimes she’ll wear overalls or a fancy dress. She must have three closets full of clothes, because she barely ever wears the same outfit twice. Liz is the most lively, animated character I’ve ever known. She’s always rushing around, trying to get the latest scoop on everybody. It’s like she’s in the FBI. Right before she shares important news, Liz tosses back her hair, takes a deep breath, and quickly looks side to side, to be sure the coast is clear. She never says anything mean about people, she just wants to know what’s going on. She always supports me in everything I want to do. Not many girls in our group of friends play sports, but when I told Liz I wanted to go out for basketball, she said â€Å"Go for it. † Now, she comes to see almost every game I play and cheer me on. Not only is Liz a tremendous supporter, she also trusts me to give her my honest opinion and to say what I feel. Last year, she thought Mrs. Jones gave her a lower math grade than she deserved. I told her the truth – that Liz handed everything in late and what did she expect? Next marking period, Liz got her work in on time, and pulled off an A-. Thanks to me, she said. Liz is a wonderful listener. She lets me tell her all my problems and she never diminishes the importance of my worries. I can tell she’s really listening, too, because she looks directly in my eyes the whole time, like she’s trying to see inside my head and figure me out. We don’t always agree on everything, and sometimes we even fight like sisters. But, in the end, we always stick together. Writing a CHARACTER SKETCH – can you draw your friend IN WORDS? Writers need to describe people believably and realistically. They need to describe characters in such detail readers can actually feel they know them. A character sketch is a way to put people on paper. It goes beyond just describing a person’s physical characteristics. Character sketches are most effective when they reveal â€Å"telling† details that capture the essence of someone’s personality. ?You are going to write a character sketch for someone you know. It could be a friend, family member, or anybody you know well. Here’s a list of things to include in your character sketch: †¢ opening – introduce the topic (your friend) †¢ explain how you met, or where you know each other from †¢ give a physical description – appearance, clothes, voice, habits, mannerisms, etc. †¢ personality trait #1, and supporting evidence †¢ personality trait #2, and supporting evidence †¢ personality trait #3, and supporting evidence †¢ closing comment – try to reconnect to your opening You do not have to follow this exact order, but your character sketch does need to include all these parts. TIP: Think about your friend in vivid detail. What color are her eyes? What kind of clothes does she favor? What kind of shoes? How is her hair cut and styled? Dig deeper. How does he talk? Fast, slow, soft? What nervous habits does he have? What does he daydream about? What music does he like? What sports? What subjects in school? These details can say a lot about personality.

Research Paper on Finance

Research Paper on Finance The research and financial analysis of this report are based on the information provided by the Ryanair Financial Report, relevant internet and library. Introduction The purpose of this research paper is using financial management techniques to provide an overview of Ryanair Holding Plc. After analyzing the information from different resources, this research paper will supply other companies with a guide to make many decisions required to effectively manage of their business and to develop their future financial plans for the future requires reliable and pertinent information on the financial performance and financial position of the firm although if the analysis forecasts serious financial problems. Financial management techniques in todays business The main objective of financial management is maximizing shareholders wealth. Company needs money to acquire resources to operate. Money for investment is referred to as finance, financial management is concerned with managing a companys finances. When company decides to use their expertise, time and money in a particular way, they have an objective in mind. The objective governs the decisions to be made. A companys major objective is maximizing the wealth of its shareholders, but other objectives should be satisfied at the same time, like managerial objective, short-term objective, other parties objective, non-financial objective. The company needs machine, staff, and working capital to exist and grow in the market, which is the reason why we have to invest. First, we should have strategic management and analysis. Like current environment, capacity for change. Where are we now? Where are we going? P.E.S.T and SWOT analysis can help you analysis the companys situations. The rule of t humb is that long-term assets should be financed by long-term funds and short-tem assets by short-term funds. Short-term finance is usually cheaper than long-term finance. This is largely due to the risks taken by creditors. There are some financial management techniques that we could apply in the chosen company Ryanair Holding PLC. About Ryanair The Irish company Ryanair is the famous low-fares airline company in Europe. It started in 1985 and had IPO in 1997 when it floated Ryanair Holdings plc on Dublin and New York (NASDAQ) Stock exchanges. Company goal is to be the Europes largest airline in the next 8 years. Ryanair operates 45 routes across 11 European countries. They have daily services from most of these routes. In 1995, Ryanair had become the biggest passenger carrier on the Dublin-London route. But compare with other large airlines, Ryanair only operates European continental routes. It lacks the link with other continents. However, in addition to route availability, the actual flight schedule is also important to maximize the available flying time of the airlines most significant tangible asset, its aircraft. Ryanair has a fleet of 31 Boeing 737s, orders for up to a further 25 new 737-800s which will be delivered over the next 2 years. Over the past ten years it has increased its annual traffic from under 700,000 t o over 15 million passengers. Along the way it changed the face of air travel, broke hire fare cartels, rocked airport monopolies and made it possible for millions to travel. Ryanair provide unique services with low price. If their seats are not booked, customers can seat wherever they like. However, their in-flight services are limited. For example, customers have to pay if they want any drinks or food. There are always some complains about seats overbooking from customers. Ryanair has committed itself to safe operations and has put in place extensive safety training programs to ensure the recruitment of suitably qualified pilots and maintenance personnel. In addition, the company is also committed to the operation and maintenance of its aircraft in accordance with the highest European Aviation Industry Standards, which are closely monitored by the Irish Aviation Authority. In year 2000, Ryanair launched Europes largest travel website at WWW.RYANAIR.COM, which within three months of its launch was taking over 50,000 bookings per week, by offering unbelievably low airfares. The passenger acceptance of this website enabled Ryanair to reduce travel agent commission. Ryanair is well positioned in European market to implement its low cost strategy. After the full EU air transport deregulation in 1997, Ryanair was free to set up new routes to Continental Europe. The airline entering these market offered air fares which were more than 50% lower than the cheapest fares then provided by the flag carrier airlines. The European airline sector is dominated by high cost; long haul national carriers like British Airway, Lufthansa and KLM. These airlines control 50-60% of market share, but are beginning to lose the bottom end of the market to low cost carrier like Ryanair. Financial Situation The major revenues of Ryanair gain from the tickets that they sold during the year. Therefore, we can regard the tickets as a kind of the stock of the airlines company. But they dont have any value before they are sold. That is the only different with the tangible stock value. Once the tickets are sold, the company gets the revenues from the operation. They have amount of cash and debt. The company uses cash to pay the relevant cost, like staff wages, fuel and oil cost, marketing and distribution cost and so on. The rest of the revenues are kept in retained profit as the capital of company. If the profit grows, the company share price will increase accordingly. Once the share price increased, the shareholders will enjoy the prior return on their investment, more and more investors will have more interest in the company. Therefore, the company achieves the source of finance. After that, they should consider about where they should invest to growth in the market and expand their compan y. Last year, Ryanair companys operation revenues are 298149 in 2002 (Increase 64413 than 2001). It includes net cash inflow from operating activities: 125417. This should thank for the contribution of the sales team. Ryanair insists to offer lower airfares in European countries and try to increase sales continuously. Increased revenue is one of the major sources of finance. The strength of the performance is highlighted by the fact that the groups cash on hand is equivalent to 53.6% of annual turnover. This figure is a little bit high according to their sale growth. They should invest the cash flow to generate more return. But there is a special reason that they have to maintain a deposit US$500,000 with the guarantor bank for as long as the bank gave its guarantee. The operating expenses during the year are Ђ 229740; Net cash inflow from operating activities is 12304; profit and loss account is 112758. As the growth of the profit during the year, EPS increased by 17% to 35.16 and is based on 164,759,808 shares which represent the weighted average number of ordinary shares outstanding during the year. We can see the profit is increasing; the capital of the company is increasing. Because the market is growing, Ryanair should think about where they should invest and how. i.e. Invest new aircraft, improve quality of service or setup new routes. Ryanair announced a new investment program with a US$2billion order for up to 45 new Boeing 737-800 series aircraft. Continued strong cash flows generated from trading operations combined with the proceeds of the London offering and the receipt of debt financing for the first of the Boeing 737-800 next generation aircraft, has allowed the group to increase its cash on hand by 74m. Before Ryanair makes decision about buying what type of aircraft, the two alternatives would be mutually exclusive, in that the choice of one will exclude the other. The company may use NPV and IRR to calculate which one may give more return. Appendices: Net Profit Ratio: In 2001, 54822/233736*100%=23% In 2002, 112758/298124*100%=38% Return On capital Employed: In 2001, 56736/149385*100%=38% In 2002, 68410/287752*100%`=28% Asset Turnover: In 2001, 233736/149385=1.56 In 2002, 298124/287752=1.04 Current Assets Ratio: In 2001, 88979/71877=1:1 In 2002, 197879/115319=2:1 Acid-Test Ratio: In 2001, (88979-6638)/71877=1:1 In 2002, (197879-13021)/115319=1:1 Total Gearing: In 2001, 14834/(134551+14834)*100%=10% In 2002, 34760/(252992+34760)*100%=12% Equity Gearing: In 2001, 14834/134551*100%=11% In 2002, 34760/252992*100% =13% Interest Cover: In 2001, 63017/(1087+13388)=4.4times In 2002, 76662/(239+11368)=6.6times Ratio Analysis Ratios are quiet common method of analyzing financial management. It refers to the use of simple ratios which are calculated from the figures of financial statements in order to measure certain aspects of a firms financial condition. Ratios make comparisons with: The performance of the business in previous years The budgeted or planned performance in the current years The performance of similar business The ratios make easier to make better decision. However, there are some limitations in ratio analysis. For instance, since ratios are constructed from accounting data, if we do comparison within two different firms, their accounting policies (i.e. depreciation charge, the accounting years) could lead to the inaccurate illustration. The Net Profit Ratio was dramatically increased by 15% during the year 2001 and 2002. Even though their expenses cost had increased by a certain percentages in different items and because of their low fares system. They still gained a high return in net profit when compared to 2001. The reason of this was because the rise of sales and the interest received. These revenues gave the company a good return that could cover the expenses and other additional costs. The increase in profitability reflects the positive impact of the growth in passengers volume because of the increase in seat capacity on exiting routes and the launch of new 7 European routes during the year. In the Return On Capital Employed Ratio the amount of money that the investors can get back after investing in the company, the ratio decreased to 28% in that year. The explanation of this figure was because their company needed to consider the contract that with Boeing worth US$2 billion by ordering for up to 45 aircraft in the coming years, in order to succeed the expansion of our company. Asset Turnover Ratio is a measure of productivity as much as profitability. Within 2001 and 2002, the ratio dropped from 1.56 to 1.04, it meant that more assets were to be used to generate every unit of sales .The reason was because their introduction on new fleet of 22 aircraft on our network of 27 routes in request to increase the level of passengers and the low fares system. According to the Current Asset Ratio, The company had a well cover of their current liabilities under current assets. Even though in Acid Ð C Test Ratio, which we examined that by excluding the inventories, their current assets also covered the liabilities by 1.14 in 2001, and 1.60 in 2002. It increased by 46%. From the current assets, cash was the major inflows to their company in the past two years. Especially in 2002, there was an increase in cash from 892160 TO 12742400. Move to the cash flows statement. Cash is King. Company fail, not because of their insufficient profits, but because they have run out of cash to pay their liabilities. Cash and bank balances should be kept to a minimum, as they earn nothing for the company, but make sure you have enough cash to pay employees and creditors. Cash generated from operating activities grew up for 25.6 million. This increase was due to the increase of sales and profits and the add back of the non-cash items primarily depreciation charge since they had a new aircraft during the year. The cash flows was from trading operations combined with the proceeds of the London offering and the receipt of debt financing for the first Boeing 737-800 next generation aircraft, has allowed the group to increase the cash on hands despite having to pay advance deposits to Boeing. The performance is highlighted by the fact that the cash on hand is equivalent to 53.6%of annual turnover. The next ratio is Gearing which means how reliable of the company on the financial institutions when raising the finance. Even though their ratio was slightly increased by2%, they were still in a low-geared situation in these two years. The interest cover were good since Ryanair only needs to pay interest once a year and they could pay 4.4 times in 2001 and 6.6times in 2002. The Earning Per Share considers the profits that could be paid to each ordinary shareholder. The increase in profit resulted in the increase in EPS. This also stated that the increase in the value of shareholders as the companys profit and traffic has grown. After finishing the ratio analysis, we can see that Ryanair is healthy. Here is the comparison ratio with other major airline companies and industrial average. After seeing this you will more agree that Ryanairs performance is good. Other non-financial consideration Ryanair has a bad reputation for over booking and early check-in time. On the other way, every company has limitation. For airline companies, these problems are normal. Ryanair changed their booking system last Christmas and the new system is more accurate and working well. Company said that they will not only improve the hardware but also the staff. There are a group of new staffs now is trained by American Airline. Conclusion After reading the research paper, hopefully you have an understanding of airline finance. Ryanair is a new member of airline companies (started from 1985). It is young and healthy. Based on Europe and has a strong relationship with America, there are lots of areas that it can improve and expand to. Ryanairs developing speed like a flying superman, going up and away. It is the kind of company we should put money in.

Hypacrosaurus - Facts and Figures

Hypacrosaurus - Facts and Figures Name: Hypacrosaurus (Greek for almost the highest lizard); pronounced hi-PACK-roe-SORE-us Habitat: Woodlands of North America Historical Period: Late Cretaceous (70-65 million years ago) Size and Weight: About 30 feet long and 4 tons Diet: Plants Distinguishing Characteristics: Pointed crest; spines growing out from backbone About Hypacrosaurus Hypacrosaurus received its odd name (almost the highest lizard) because, when it was discovered in 1910, this duck-billed dinosaur was considered second only to Tyrannosaurus Rex in size. Needless to say, it has since been outclassed by numerous other dinosaurs, both herbivorous and carnivorous, but the name has stuck. What sets Hypacrosaurus apart from most other hadrosaurs is the discovery of a complete nesting ground, complete with fossilized eggs and hatchlings (similar evidence has been found for another North American duck-billed dinosaur, Maiasaura). This has allowed paleontologists to piece together a fair amount of information about Hypacrosaurus growth patterns and family life: for instance, we know that Hypacrosaurus hatchlings attained adult size in 10 or 12 years, far sooner than the 20 or 30 years of the typical tyrannosaur. Like most other hadrosaurs, Hypacrosaurus was distinguished by the prominent crest on its snout (which didnt quite attain the baroque shape and size of, say, the crest of Parasaurolophus). The current thinking is that this crest was a resonating device for funneling blasts of air, allowing males to signal females (or vice-versa) about their sexual availability, or to warn the herd about approaching predators.

Theories of Cognitive Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Theories of Cognitive Development - Essay Example He named the stages according to the possible outcomes. Stages 5 to 8 explain the transition from childhood through death. During adolescence as explained in stage 5, children are becoming more independent, and begin to look at the future. During this period, they explore possibilities and begin to form their own identity based upon the outcome of their explorations. In young adulthood, people face the challenge of developing intimate relationships with others. Based on stage 6, if they do not succeed, they may become isolated and lonely. In stage 7, during young adulthood, people face the challenge of developing intimate relationships with others. If they do not succeed, they may become isolated and lonely. In old age, explained in stage 8, people examine their lives. They may either have a sense of contentment or be disappointed about their lives and fearful of the future. Leaders therefore should know how to provide the proper recognition to their subordinates to motivate them and it should be dynamic since needs differ with age. Jean Piaget's Formal Operational Stage of Cognitive Development. Jean Piaget conducted a program of naturalistic research that has profoundly affected our understanding of child development. He called his general theoretical framework genetic epistemology because he was primarily interested in how knowledge developed in human organisms. The concept of cognitive structure is central to his theory (Piaget, 1985). Cognitive structures are patterns of physical or mental action that underlie specific acts of intelligence and correspond to stages of child development. The formal operational stage begins at approximately age twelve and lasts into adulthood. During this time, people develop the ability to think about abstract concepts. He believes that deductive logic becomes important during the formal operational stage. Deductive logic requires the ability to use a general principle to determine a specific outcome. According to him, while children tend to think very concretely and specifi cally in earlier stages, the ability to think about abstract concepts emerges during the formal operational stage. Instead of relying solely on previous experiences, children begin to consider possible outcomes and consequences of actions. During the formal operational stage, he asserts that the ability to systematically solve a problem in a logical and methodical way emerges. It is therefore a guide for leaders that problem solving skills should be developed because it yields more efficient subordinates. Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development. Lawrence Kohlberg focused on moral development and has proposed a stage theory of moral thinking which goes well beyond Piaget's initial formulations (Kohlberg, 1971). In stage 1, the child assumes that powerful authorities hand down a fixed set of rules which he or she must unquestioningly obey. In stage 2 children recognize that there is not just one right view that is handed down by the authorities. Different individuals have different viewpoints. Since everything is relative, each person is free to pursue his or her individual interests. Within stage 3, children see morality as more than simple deals. They believe that people should live up to the expectations of the family and community and behave in good ways. In stage 4 the emphasis is on obeying laws, respecting

Qualitative Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Qualitative Research - Essay Example Hubbard reckons the gendered attitudes and beliefs to arise from a merging of the students’ school, family and community ethos. Her results prompt the author to question â€Å"the wisdom of Ogbu’s undifferentiated treatment of the African American student population.† (p. 605). In her study, Hubbard found that a combination of ethnicity, class and gender determined the academic achievements of her subjects whereas Ogbu had asserted that under-achievement in schools by minority students was influenced essentially by cultural factors, and not by any inherent deficiency of racial, genetic or academic traits. According to Hubbard, â€Å"Recognizing the salience of gender in constructing academic identities extends the work Ogbu started and corrects an oversight that plagues his work.† (p. 606). Hubbard has chosen to focus on cases of successful minority students rather than look to explain the reasons for minority students’ failure. Through this study, Hubbard has tried to find answers to several questions including how to â€Å"account for the relative success of African American students who not only stay in school but also do well and become eligible for college?† What made the subjects of her study â€Å"not assume an ‘oppositional stance’, as Ogbu’s theory predicts?† and â€Å"why are female African American high school students typically more academically successful than their male counterparts?† The gender issue in the educational field is not a new phenomenon and it is not restricted to any ethnic group. In fact, low aspirations coupled with poor examination results in boys seem to be a global problem. Furthermore, gender-based differentiation vis a vis over-achieving girls and under-achieving boys has become a common feature in recent years so that experts in education are strongly advocating specific strategies intended to improve educational outcomes for