Analysis Of Noun Phrase In English And Vietnamese Education Essay

Examination Of Noun Phrase In English And Vietnamese Education Essay Thing phrases just as different expressions assume a significant job in acing any language. Without thing phrase, there would have no operators, no patients, and no beneficiaries. Also, regardless of how wide our jargon might be, a solitary word is regularly deficient in communicating our idea.. A contrastive examination among English and Vietnamese is essential and fascinating for instructing and considering. Pretty much every language has thing phrases, be that as it may, regardless of having a similar essential structure, they have some differences..This study intends to investigate inside and outside structure of English and Vietnamese thing phrases at that point cause an examination between two sorts of NP just as to recommend some instructing suggestions. I trust through this task, both I and the perusers will get the hang of something supportive which can apply to English educating and learning. Thing phrase in English Definitions : Le (2002) characterized thing phrase (NP) as a gathering of words starting with a thing and working appositive. This NP regularly goes directly previously or directly after the thing it communicates. Ex: A casualty of war, he detested seeing troopers. (A casualty of war = he) As per L.H.Nguyen (2004), a NP is a gathering of words with a thing or pronoun as the primary part (the head). In his book Analyzing English, Jackson included some more arrangement about the head which is the insignificant prerequisite for the event of a thing expression. In spite of the NP is in basic structure, for example, understudies or in complex structure, for example, the anecdote about the young lady who used to live there, it must have a thing or pronoun communicating the primary thought. Structure : Essentially, a thing expression comprises of 3 primary parts : Pre Modification, Head, Post Modification. In any case, in some mind boggling NPs, we can see that the Pre Modification may contain different components. In light of the hypothesis of NP in the book Analyzing English by Howard Jackson, we have a point by point recipe of NP as following : Pre Modification Head Post Modification Pre determiner (A) Identifiers (B) Numeral/Quantifier (C) Modifiers (D) Thing modifier (E) N/master (F) Relative conditions, non-limited provision, prepositional expression, modifiers, verb modifiers. (G) Table 1 : The structure of a NP in English Presently, we will go into subtleties of the structure of a NP. Pre Modification This part essentially has 5 components as appeared in the above table. The main component is pre-determiners. They are a little gathering of words which may happen before the identifier in a NP. They additionally have quantifier reference (all, both, half, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢ ¦); part numerals (33%, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢ ¦). Next component is identifiers. This component incorporates articles (an, a, the); illustrative (this, that, these, those); possessives (my, your, his,㠢â‚ ¬Ã¢ ¦). Be that as it may, there is one thing we should focus. In any NP, simply just a single identifier may happen, it implies that articles, decisive and possessives are totally unrelated. We cannot state that my home however on the off chance that we utilization of-express with the possessive pronoun, we can communicate that NP in another way that book of mine. In certain NPs, for example, five felines, a few books, the pre adjustment here is numeral (five) or quantifier(several). Additionally, some of the time, we can see the blend of these two components in certain NPs. The regular arrangements are ordinal numeral (particularly first and last ) + uncertain quantifier ( eg the initial hardly any hours), ordinal + cardinal (eg the second five days), inconclusive quantifier + cardinal numeral, particularly round number (eg a few thousand individuals) (Nguyen, 2004, p. 44). To enhance the head thing here and there, the following component, descriptors, come after the identifier and numerals/quantifiers. In any case, on the off chance that that few descriptive words co-happen in a NP, there is a standard for their request. designation Size shape age shading cause substance present participle enchanting Little round old earthy colored French oaken composing table Table 2 : The modifier request The last component is thing modifiers which interfere with the descriptive words and the head thing. As should be obvious, things may work as heads of NP as well as modifiers in NP. For instance, in NP a youngsters book, kids changes book and a kids book implies a book for kids. Adjacent to 5 essential components referenced above, there is one further sort of pre-alteration that is NP in genitive case. This sort is set apart by a s added to the its last word (eg my companion s bike). Head : The most normal sort of head of NP is thing, yet in certain NPs, for example, She is my closest companion, the head might be a pronoun or the like, generally an individual pronoun (he, she, you㠢â‚ ¬Ã¢ ¦). Additionally, Jacobs (1995) expressed that numerous NPs in English are single structures comprising maybe just of a thing or a pronoun. At the point when the head is a pronoun, it doesnt need any change, particularly the pre-adjustment. Sorts of pronoun working as the head Models Individual pronoun He, she, you, they, we, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢ ¦. Uncertain pronoun Somebody, something, nobody,㠢â‚ ¬Ã¢ ¦ Possessive pronoun His, her, your, their,㠢â‚ ¬Ã¢ ¦ Definite pronoun This, that, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢ ¦ Table 3 : Kinds of pronoun working as the head of NP Post-alteration This part is most much of the time followed by expressions or statements. Three sorts of phrasal/clausal post-change we frequently observe is: relative statements, non-limited provisions, and prepositional expressions, once in a while we additionally observe a descriptive word or an intensifier working as a post-modifier in NP (Jackson, p.15). A relative provision comprises of a relative pronoun (who, whom, which, that, whose,㠢â‚ ¬Ã¢ ¦) as a head, which notices back to the head thing of NP. In the event that the relative pronouns work is object in the relative proviso, we can exclude that relative pronoun. Non-limited proviso is statement normally without subjects presented by a non-limited type of the action word. That sort of statement incorporate 3 sorts : boundless provision, present participle proviso, past participle. In a NP, prepositional expression happens most much of the time working as post-modifier. A few models: All the schools around A B F G (prepositional expression) The most recent couple of days B C F Dong Bang Shin Ki, my preferred music band. F G (appositive NP) My uproarious 4-year-old white Siamese feline B sobriquet age shading F This insidious assessment authorities getting hand NP Genitive D F The Korea history which has recently been distributed. B D F G (relative proviso) Something imperative to do F (inconclusive expert) G (descriptive words) G (non-limited provision) The young lady behind you B F G (intensifier) Two ponies eating grass. A F G (non-limited provision : present participle) A signature tune formed by Lee So Man B E F G (non-limited provision : past participle) 33% of the populace A B F Thing phrase in Vietnamese Definitions : Mai, Vu and Hoang (2006) characterized NP (danh ng㠡⠻â ¯) is an expression where the thing capacity as the primary part. Additionally, NP in the hypothesis of Doan, Nguyen, Pham (2001) is a free blend of a thing core and at least one than one subordinate components which can be front components remaining before the core thing or can be end components remaining after the core thing. Structure : As an expression, NP in Vietnamese likewise has three fundamental parts : Pre-Modification (Front Element), Head (Nucleus), Post-Modification (End Element). Increasingly definite, as indicated by Mai et al. s hypothesis (pp. 276-280), the structure of NP in Vietnamese can be depicted as following : T㠡⠺â ¥t c㠡⠺â £ nh㠡⠻â ¯ng Cã ¡i con mã ¨o Ä‘en à ¡Ã¢ ºÃ¢ ¥y (- 3) (- 2) (- 1) Head thing (0) (1) (2) Table 4 : The structure of a NP in Vietnamese Front components As should be obvious from the table, the components in the position (- 3), (- 2) and (- 1) are called front components, while the components remaining after the core (1) and (2) are called end components. Those components are set in a steady manner as appeared in the above table. As far as the front components , we have three sorts. In the position (- 1), quantifiers, for example, t㠡⠺â ¥t c㠡⠺â £, t㠡⠺â ¥t th㠡⠺â £y, h㠡⠺â ¿t th㠡⠺â £y, h㠡⠺â ¿t c㠡⠺â £, c㠡⠺â £,㠢â‚ ¬Ã¢ ¦.are utilized. Those words can happen previously: clear numerals : m㠡⠻â„ ¢t, hai, ba, b㠡⠻‘n,㠢â‚ ¬Ã¢ ¦ Ex : t㠡⠺â ¥t c㠡⠺â £ b㠡⠻‘n mã†â °Ã£â€ Ã¢ ¡i sinh viã ªn (1) aggregate things : Ä‘ã n, lã… Â ©, bã ³, b㠡⠻â„ ¢, n㠡⠺â ¯m, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢ ¦. Ex: c㠡⠺â £ lã… Â © con trai general things : qu㠡â ºn, à ¡o, binh, lã ­nh, xe c㠡⠻â„ ¢, mã ¡y mã ³c,㠢â‚ ¬Ã¢ ¦ Ex: h㠡⠺â ¿t th㠡⠺â £y mã ¡y mã ³c Lets focus on the quantifiers, for example, t㠡⠺â ¥t c㠡⠺â £, t㠡⠺â ¥t th㠡⠺â £y, h㠡⠺â ¿t th㠡⠺â £y, h㠡⠺â ¿t c㠡⠺â £, cà ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ £,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.From the models above, we can see that such those quantifiers happen before the head thing. Presently, taking the principal model, is it right in the event that we state it in such a manner b㠡⠻‘n mã†â °Ã£â€ Ã¢ ¡i sinh viã ªn t㠡⠺â ¥t c㠡⠺â £ ? All things considered, regarding language, it is right however the significance is extraordinary. The NP t㠡⠺â ¥t c㠡⠺â £ b㠡⠻‘n mã†â °Ã£â€ Ã¢ ¡i sinh viã ªn implies that no understudies are left, yet in b㠡⠻‘n mã†â °Ã£â€ Ã¢ ¡i sinh viã ªn t㠡⠺â ¥t c㠡⠺â £, there are a few understudies left. In this way, we can infer that t㠡⠺â ¥t c㠡⠺â £ can remain when the head thing relying upon the speakers consideration. Diep Quang Ban (2000) expressed that position (- 2) is the spot taken by word class as following : Clear numeral/cardinal number (t㠡⠻â « ch㠡⠻†° s㠡⠻‘ lã†â °Ã£ ¡Ã¢ »Ã¢ £ng xã ¡c đ㠡⠻†¹nh/s㠡⠻‘ t㠡⠻â «) M㠡⠻â„ ¢t, hai, ba, b㠡⠻‘n, mã†â °Ã£ ¡Ã¢ »Ã¢ i, trã„æ'm à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢ ¦.. Mã†â °Ã£ ¡Ã¢ »Ã¢ i con mã ¨o Gauge

British Empire and India Essay

India is situated in southern Asia. India fringes Pakistan, China, Nepal, and Bangladesh. Pakistan is on the northwest outskirt. China and Nepal are on the northern fringe. Bangladesh is on the northeastern fringe. The greater part of India is encircled by the Indian Ocean. Atmosphere, Weather, and Seasons India has one of the most various atmospheres on the planet. It has rainstorm, to sweltering climate, right to the blanketed Himalayan Mountains. A rainstorm is a breeze that alters course with the difference in seasons. Rainstorm likewise bring precipitation which can cause flooding and different calamities. Rainstorm practically just occur in the Indian Ocean. And yet, the rainstorm are exceptionally useful, in light of the fact that they give the individuals of India their water to flood their yields, developing their harvests, and for drinking water for the individuals of India. India has three primary seasons. Their seasons are the blustery season which is from June-October, the Indian Winter which is from November-January, and the Humid Heat from April-May. The rainstorm for the most part come through in April-October. Major Landforms The Himalayan Mountains is a mountain go that experiences India. Himalaya implies House of Snow in Sanskrit. They go east to west for 1,500 miles making three mountain runs among India and Tibet. They are the most elevated and most youthful mountains on the planet. The Indo-Gangetic Plain is a level territory of land. The Plain is the place the Ganges River goes through. It covers 300,000 square miles of northern India. It has the absolute most ripe soil in the nation of India. The Thar Desert is a sandy locale that covers 100,394 square miles of land. It just gets ten creeps of downpour in one year. Camels are significant in the desert since they need some method of transportation. The Southern Peninsula isolates northern India and Southern India. These mountains are around 4000 feet high, not close to as tall as the Himalaya. The Eastern Ghats, The Western Ghats, and the Vindhya Range structure, the Deccan Plateau. There is water wherever on the Southern Peninsula. It has numerous streams. Significant Rivers, Lakes, Seas, and Other Bodies of Water One of the most well known streams on the planet is the Ganges River and the Ganges is situated in India. The Ganges River is significant in the Hindu Religion, since they should wash in the River at any rate once in their lives. It is situated in northern India and goes practically right across India. The Bay of Bengal is a narrows flanking nearly the whole eastern outskirt of India. It likewise fringes Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Myanmar. It converges with the Padma Delta. Likewise, numerous streams stream into the Bay of Bengal. Despite the fact that, in view of the rainstorm the northern shore of the straight is losing its kin. The Arabian Sea outskirts India, The Arabian Peninsula, Iran, and Pakistan. The Indus River is the most significant waterway that streams into the Arabian Sea. It is an enormous standard in India and Europe’s exchanging. Noteworthy, Unusual, or Unique Geographic Features of the Country India is a subcontinent of Asia. A subcontinent is an enormous landmass that is generally connected to a mainland. India likewise has 4,000 miles of unadulterated coastline. The Indian Ocean is the thing that makes up the 4,000 miles. History of India Pre-History One of the first civic establishments in Quite a while settled around 2,500 B.C. That human progress lived in focal and southern India. They were known as the Dravidians. The relatives of the Dravidians despite everything live in southern India today. Another early development was known as the Aryans. They were there from around 1,500-200 B.C. The word Aryans implies â€Å"noble ones.† They attacked the Dravidians and caused them to go more distant south. A portion of the Dravidians remained with the Aryans and carried on with the Aryan way of life. Consequently the Aryans would utilize a portion of the Dravidians customs. The Aryans additionally imagined the Sanskrit language, which is perhaps the most established language on the planet. They likewise set up the Caste System. They began the Hindu religion and composed the Vedas, which is the most significant book of the Hindu sacred texts. Antiquated Empires Two hundred years before Alexander the Great attacked a realm was shaping. They were known as the Maurya’s. The principal leader of this domain was Chandragupta. They administered for around 140 years. They had a major armed force, a legislature, and assessment assortment. Be that as it may, in 184 B.C. the domain self-destructed. In A.D. 319 a lord named Chandragupta I established the Gupta Empire. Chandragupta II was his grandson and during his rule was the pinnacle of their realm. He ruled from 330-375. Chandragupta II likewise developed the idea of zero and made sense of that the world was round. The Gupta Empire finished in 550 on the grounds that the White Huns vanquished them. Attacks and Exploration In 518 B.C. the Persian King Darius vanquished both the Indus Valley and West Punjab. In 327 B.C Alexander the Great of Macedonia crushed and ousted Darius III and the vanquished ruler Porus and walked to the Beas River. The Indians were savage to such an extent that Alexander was powerless to the point that him and his soldiers needed to return home. In 977 scoundrel assaults of Muslims came into India. At that point in 1192 the Muslims walked in again and vanquished some land. They worked there state house at present day Delhi. At the point when the Muslims were vanquishing they pulverized numerous Hindu sanctuaries and sculptures, yet when they were settled there were not many issues between the Hindu’s and Muslims. Marco Polo was one of the first Europeans to go to Quite a while. He turned into a most loved to Kublai Khan, who sent him on endeavors all around Asia including India. In India Marco Polo was astounded by the abundance of India. He gave Europe their data about India, which just made them need India’s wealth. Mughal Empire In 1526 the Mongols attacked northern India and made the Mughal Empire. Their pioneer was called Babur. The Mughal Empire’s land was northern India, portions of southern India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Their legislative halls were Agra and Delhi. The Mongols didn't dispose of the lifestyles before them, and for the Hindu’s assurance they made them make good on charges. The nearby government was responsible for the individuals that lived there. The Mongols were the ones to fabricate the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort. Akbar was viewed as their best ruler, since he consolidated military capacity with strict resilience and some culture, he had enthusiastic conversations with all religions, and he additionally forestalled charges. Revolts inside and outside of the realm debilitated the domain and by the 1800’s the realm had fallen. English India East India Trading Company By the mid nineteenth century Great Britain controlled practically the entirety of India. The East India Trading Company was the organization of India. The organization was administered by either the administration or officers, all whom which Britain had picked. They in reality just controlled portion of India. The other half was constrained by an Indian princess whom had promised dependability to Great Britain. English Changes in India Great Britain caused numerous progressions for India. They manufactured school, emergency clinics, cleared streets, and they constructed the railroad framework in India. They likewise developed the Indian Civil Service; which was a path for Indians to be utilized. Be that as it may, they likewise passed the Permanent Settlement Act of 1793, is a law that says on the off chance that you can not pay your duties for your property, your territory will be removed. Ruler Cornwallis passed a law that keeps Indians from high posts in the administration. Additionally, in light of the Industrial Revolution in England, the material from England was sent to India with the goal that the costly fabric in India quit being bought and numerous craftspeople left business. In 1857 the Indians revolted and numerous individuals kicked the bucket. In 1858 the uprising was finished, the East India Trading Company lost power over India and the British government took control. English Raj After the Sepoy Mutiny the British guideline was at its pinnacle. Sovereign Victoria was named Empress of India in 1877. The British individuals gloried over their standard of the Indians. As of now the Indians started to need their own nation without the British in charge. The India National Congress was shaped in 1885. From the outset the Congress was only a little gathering of individuals that met and discussed what they might want to do in India, however then it transformed into a major gathering of individuals which frequently and transparently contradicted British standard. In 1906 the Muslims began a gathering called the All-India Muslim League. This gathering battled for the privileges of Muslims. The British had two in number powers against them now. Freedom Around 1915 another pioneer developed, his name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Gandhi was an attorney from a rich Hindu family. In 1915 Gandhi came back from South Africa. He devoted his life to battling for India’s freedom. Gandhi utilized a technique called Satyagraha, which implies peaceful in Hindi. Rather than genuinely battling he would do things like quiet walks, hunger strikes, and declining to purchase British products. In 1919 the British armed force terminated on a quiet dissent and slaughtered 400 Indians and harmed 1,200 Indians. The slaughter turned nearly the whole world contrary to British principle. Numerous pioneers, for example, Gandhi and Nehru were placed in jail for their serene opposition. In 1935 the British passed the Government of India Act, which said that it was conceivable that later on they could act naturally administered. On August 15, 1947 the Indians commended their first autonomy day. Muslims likewise needed their own territory away from the Indians, so the British gave them East and West Pakistan. In any case, the Muslims and Hindu’s broke into riots. Gandhi was extremely disturbed about the uproars so he proceeded to express his quiet word to various pieces of India trusting that the mobs would stop. Some Hindu’s thought Gandhi was in effect excessively thoughtful to the Muslims and one of those individuals shot Gandhi on January 30, 1948. Present day India The individuals had won their autonomy, yet they needed much more opportunity. On January 26, 1950 India beca

Wearing the apron

Wearing the apron One of the greatest parts of college is independence. One of the hardest parts of college is independence. High school is very structured. Same classes, same classmates, everyone is doing the same assignments and studying for the same tests. Your schedule is like the food trays in the cafeteria- you don’t have much of a say as to what goes on it. SAT Prep Pizza, maybe an AP Apple, a Boxed Mik of a Basic Language, and a Common Core Cookie to top it off. Yum. College is when they stuff you in a chef’s apron and tell you it’s time you learn to make your own lunch. You’ll always have someone to advise you, because let’s be real, if they just left you alone in the kitchen you’d probably burn the place down. But in the end, you’re the one planning the final course and gathering the ingredients. Your likes and dislikes are now taken into account. If you love biology, you can sprinkle in some more bio. If you want to be an engineer, but focus more on technology for the developing world, you can do that. In the end, you get a finished product that is just the way that you like it. A cool side product of all this ~independence~ is that there are a thousand people around you busily making their own special dishes, and you’re all working in the same (very large) kitchen. Maybe you’re busy whipping up some Management Science Soup, but the student next to you is putting the final details on a Computer Science Cake. You can ask about her recipe, admire her masterpiece. Maybe theres an aerospace engineer sitting to the other side. You can ask him how he’s freeze drying that fruit salad.   Everyone around you is just as passionate about something as you are, and now they all have a chance to follow those passions, too.   (My personal favorite is to hear the chemical engineers and economics majors talk about their studies. Not sure what it is about courses 10 and 14, but its always a good time.) The natural problem with having so much freedom is sometimes it’s hard to choose: “I really like a good pasta dish, but I also think I might like taco salad. How do I pick just one?” Or maybe, “I’ve put two years into this soufflé, but I don’t think I’m into it anymore”. I’ve been fortunate in that I sort of spontaneously decided to be MechE (course 2) and it’s worked out so far. I was pretty indecisive my freshman year because I felt like I had a wide range of interests, so I was reassured by the flexibility of mechanical engineering. If courses were dinners and classes were ingredients, course 2 would be a stir-fry- you can throw pretty much anything into the pan and it’s probably going to turn out just fine. *whew* okay I’m going to take a break from the weird food analogy for now. (Sidenote: if by now you’re fully sold on this idea that going to college is like being on Food Network, an MIT education is the equivalent of a Cutthroat Kitchen episode where youve just been told you have to finish your seven problem pset course meal blindfolded, and with nothing but a single spatula (Okay, now I’m actually done)). What really i nspired this post was when I looked at the shelf above my desk and realized realized how much machine shop paraphernalia and miscellaneous prototypes Ive accumulated: Including (from left-ish to right-ish): Lantern, flashlight, paperweight, 3D printing mistake (which I keep as a reminder that good bed adhesion is crucial), another lamp-like project, and my first piece on a lathe. Not including: my robot, which fought valiantly but did not make it out of the 2.007 final competition intact. Rip. It hit me that I never in a million years could have predicted this when I stepped on campus three years ago. Way back then, I had no idea what I wanted to major in, but I knew that the only course that 100% didn’t interest me wascourse 2. Funny how that worked out. There were a lot of small occurrences that sort of added up to me changing my mind.   One was the simple fact that I had a long time to explore before I decided on a major (fun fact: MIT students dont declare until freshman spring, and you can still switch around for another year or so after. ~independence~). However, the tipping point was IAP of my first year. I had a UROP in a materials science lab (which I thought was going to be my major), and one of my jobs was to make what were essentially chunks of plastic so they could later be melted down and drawn into fibers. My grad student had shown me the basics of how the 3D printer operated so I could maintenance it when it got jammed, and how some of the code behind the controls made it run . It was the first time I had looked at something that complicated and sort of maybe understood a bit of how it worked. Before when I looked at a 3D printer, all I saw was a semi-magical tangle of wires and “science” , and I didn’t care to learn more because I didn’t think it was possible for me to understand. By the end of the UROP, I realized that not only had I started to pick up on some of the “magic”, I really really really enjoyed it. The feeling of excitement hasn’t worn off yet. The engineering classes I’ve taken have literally changed the way I look at the world. After 2.001 (Mechanics and Materials I), I can’t see a crane without thinking of trusses and force-balances. 2.004 (Dynamics and Controls II) rears its head whenever theres cruise control button in a car, and most recently 2.008 (Design and Manufacturing II) has made me examine everything made of plastic to see if it shows signs of injection molding (hint: it usually does). It’s honestly pretty cool to look at something and think, “I could make that!”. It’s even cooler when you actually do: Most recent project: Solidworks CNC Mill (Look ma, no hands!) Final paperweight I’m sure all majors have those “Aha!” moments where you see things you are learning in the lecture halls applied in the wild. It excites to me think that in a few short years, I’ll be out there, in the Real Worldâ„¢?, getting to use all of this cool knowledge in Real Lifeâ„¢?. It also kind of frightens me, because that means complete INDEPENDENCE. At least for now, Im happy to stay in the kitchen a while longer. Now if youll excuse me, I have to get back to my stir-fry. It smells like somethings burning Post Tagged #2.001 #2.004 #Course 2 - Mechanical Engineering

The s Borderlands / La Frontera - 852 Words

Anzaldà ºa’s Borderlands/La frontera is a very interesting piece of writing to read because it covers a lot of issues such as identity, language, and gender. The fact that she combines several genres in her writing offers another amazement. Like a powerful concoction, her writing which embodies personal, cultural, and political realities, in a way, reflects not only the richness of her multiple cultural backgrounds but also her efforts in cultivating those cultures. In terms of language for example, she identifies herself (and her community) as a complex and heterogeneous people. As a result, they speak many languages (1586). In addition, her claim that ‘ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity’ elucidates her freedom to write bilingually and that she is not ashamed to use her native language. Somehow, it reminds me of my own native language, Javanese language which consists of three different levels namely low, medium, and grand. As I live in a region located in the coastal area in the north part of Java Island, I happen to use the low level Javanese in my everyday life. However, it does not necessarily mean that my community and I do not use the medium and grand level. It is just more common for us to use low Javanese on daily basis. People tend to use medium and grand Javanese especially when they talk to strangers and elders. Moreover, we have a very distinguished accent that people from different region can easily identify us. Like Anzaldà ºa and other ChicanasShow MoreRelatedThe Concepts Of U. S- Mexican Border Essay1187 Words   |  5 Pagesof U.S- Mexican border, and boarders in general, is the main focus of author Gloria Anzalà ºda in her publication â€Å"Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza.† In some ways, this book is an autobiography that is written in a stream of consciousness with intertextual poems, songs, and stories. 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Though all the texts depict division and struggle, they focus on different societal divisions This depiction of struggle first became clear during the reading of Plato s Republic in book I, where Thrasymachus said of justice, Justice is nothing more than what is advantageous for the stronger (Plato 15). When examined further, Thrasymachus answer came to mean that what benefits the stronger, more powerful class ofRead MoreA Wild Tongue By Gloria Anzaldua1779 Words   |  8 Pageswants you to feel every aspect of what she is saying. In â€Å"How to Tame a Wild Tongue† she persuades her readers to believe this and that she has went through hell to fight for what she believes in. â€Å"How to Tame a Wild Tongue† is published in Borderlands/La Frontera, by Gloria Anzaldua and â€Å"the book talks about how she is concerned with many kinds of borders--between nations, cultures, classes, genders, and languages.† Anzaldua gives many examples of how she felt when being classified as a Chicana. HerRead MoreIntersectionality Essay853 Words   |  4 Pagesis a very complex word with room for an open range for multiple definitions. Intersectionality is used to understand numerous types of oppressions and discriminations against people. Although, intersectionality wasnt used as a term until the 1980’s by Kimberle Crenshaw, an american civil rights activist and feminist, as a label for the types of oppressions women of color experienced. This is crucial for our understanding of US womxy’s history. The term reflects to the reality that we all have multipleRead MoreFresa y Chocolate and The Borderlands1467 Words   |  6 Pagesof who we are as individuals, the conscious experience of the self-inside. (Kaufman cited in Anzaldà ºa, 1987, p.84) The objective of this essay will be to interpret the contradictions of identity produced in the movie Fresa y Chocolate and The Borderlands. When personal identity, is stifled and shaped by nationalistic discourse. By examining the polarised dichotomies of self-identity, juxtaposed against the internalised and dominant hegemonic discourse of imposed National and cultural identity. TheRead More`` Border Arte : Nepantla, El Lugar De La Frontera1577 Words   |  7 PagesWhether they’re moving to a new home, publically announcing their sexual orientation, or embracing a new identity, transitions and changes are bound to occur. Gloria Anzaldà ºa recognizes this concept in her essay â€Å"Border Arte: Nepantla, el Lugar de la Frontera† by stating â€Å"Nepantla is the Hahuatl word for an in-between state, that uncertain terrain one crosses when moving from one place to another, when changing from one class, race, or sexual position to another, when traveling from the pre sent identity

United States And The Middle East - 1311 Words

A Review of United States’ Policy in the Middle East The crux of the institution of government from the untenable state of nature that subsisted in the days gone by was for the protection of life, liberty and property. The doctrine of individual unilateral discretion which provided a fertile ground for the domination of the strong over the weak in society diminished in significance. So sacrosanct was the need to protect the rights and freedoms of all people that all and sundry gave up their rights, powers, and privileges of the civil society for its care. The developed world took lead in this province and in the modern world, the United States of America is considered the land of the free people in the world as a result. In pursuance of this goal, US’s policy, both domestically and internationally has been to protect not only its citizens, but also to perfect recalcitrant nations bent on civil rights infractions. On the domestic front, the rule is that should any of it s citizen’s life or limb be threatened or violated by a foreigner; then the Ker-Frisbie Rule is invoked to bring the perpetrators to book. On the international plane, it has pursued a no-holds-barred approach to police the world as the Big Brother hence the tagline, ‘Uncle Sam is watching.’ Case Concept: Syriana Movie The movie is adapted from Robert Boer’s memoir, ‘See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA’s War on Terrorism’. The setting is in Middle Eastern oil industry where BennettShow MoreRelatedThe United States And The Middle East831 Words   |  4 PagesOver the past decade, the Middle East has proven to be a complex quandary that the United States is ultimately unequipped to handle. Before the U.S. can possibly pacify the region, it must first work to conquer obstacles domestically. The U.S. should also recognize the source of conflict in the Middle East and use this knowledge in the future as a foundation for a solution to amity. Thus, the approach that the United States should employ in regards to the Middle East is to gradually pull out andRead MoreThe United States And The Middle East1245 Words   |  5 Pagesmuch of the United States’ history, affairs in the Middle East have been an important focus. A more recent example is Presid ent Barack Obama attempting to deal with the terrorist organization, ISIS, because they are threatening the security of American allies. In the past, multiple other presidents have intervened in Middle Eastern affairs because they believe that doing so would be in the best interest of the United States. The importance of Middle Eastern affairs to the United States during theRead MoreThe United States And The Middle East1351 Words   |  6 Pagesto conceptualize this. The United States has broken into another civil war with all 50 states claiming independence. Your Neighbors, friends, family being killed. You don t have a home because it as blown up. And all your worried about is how to find you and your families next meal. You beg and try everything to leave this area even daring to ride a rubber boat to have the chance of safety and a normal life. But in this scenario The Middle East is the thriving united nation that stands for theRead MoreThe United States Of The Middle East120 4 Words   |  5 Pagesstatus of citizens reduced to that of aliens. The approach of the US strategy in the Middle East was to support Israel and to ensure status quo through endorsement of various autocratic leaders (Kivimà ¤ki 18). Thus, democracy was excluded in the United States card. The miseries of various citizens in the region were heightened following the September 11th attack (Khan et al 114) The approach by the United States could not separate the region from waves of globalization. By being motivated by whatRead MoreThe United States And The Middle East1653 Words   |  7 Pagesthe past decade, wars and interventions in the Middle East have broken up existing states, fostered sectarianism and destroyed infrastructures, creating the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. After years of revolutionary upheaval, the Arab world s old system is on the verge of collapse. The United States and other countries bear the blame for this emergence and growth of the indigenous movements like the Taliban, AL-Qaeda, and IS. Order in the Middle East has been undermined by corrupt and illegitimateRead MoreThe United States And The Middle East834 Words   |  4 PagesFor decades, the United States and fellow western nations have been heavily involved with and invested in the Middle East. Geographically, the Middle East region contains a large percentage of the industrialized world’s most prized resource, oil. Throughout this time, the United States has participated in Gulf War I, Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Southern Watch, Operation Northern Watch, and numerous other contingencies and operations. Most recently, the regionRead MoreThe United States And The Middle East2128 Words   |  9 Pagesthe Middle East began to lose influence over the area. In 1946, France and Great Britain were forced to withdrawal from their colonized states by the United Nation Security Council when a delegation of the Middle Eastern countries called for the removal the colonial mandates on Middle East, specifica lly in Palestine (Department of Public Information). While Britain and France did not completely abandon their influence over the area, the removal of their direct influence over the Middle East leftRead MoreThe United States Relations with the Middle East2681 Words   |  11 PagesThe United States was heavily involved in Middle-Eastern affairs during the latter half of the twentieth century. Following the election of President Eisenhower in 1952, the U.S.’s growing fear of Iranian nationalism and the potential spread of communism throughout the Persian Gulf ultimately coaxed U.S. forces into helping the British’ MI6 oust the Iranian Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, from power. The CIA successfully overthrew Mossadegh and created a power vacuum in the Middle East, in 1953Read MoreThe Tensions Between The United States And The Middle East924 Words   |  4 PagesFollowing September 11, 2001, there seemed to be a sense of fear towards Arabs and Muslims in America. Since then, the tension between the United States and the Middle East has escalated. Based on the attention terrorist attacks receive, stereotypes tend to arise toward Muslims. Terrorists can be any ethnicity or religion, but typically jihadist terrorists’ gain the most attention in the media and the press. In America, Arabs, Muslims, and Jihadists tend to all get grouped together, even though theyRead MoreThe Conflict Between The United States And The Middle East Essay2176 Words   |  9 PagesThe conflict between the United States and the Middle East is of great concern in the world today because of the heightened tensions in Syria, which is being terrorized by the radical Islamic group called ISIS. ISIS is not only creating conflict in the Middle East, they are also a homeland security threat to the United States because of the fear of terrorist attacks. Scholars and Theorists like Samuel Huntington have addressed the question of why states are experiencing heightened te nsion and have

The Truth Without All The Facts Free Essays

The main problem with A Doomsday Reader: Prophets, Predictors, and Hucksters of Salvation, edited by Ted Daniels, is that this work is intended as a guidebook or compendium of sorts for a reader concerned with prophecy and Christian salvation. However, Daniels consigns his work to the inferior status of the lofty dissertation, or more accurately, an extensive annotated bibliography for a term paper, of this contentious subject by his choice of style and configuration. This main hindrance, which appears to actually have been purposeful, comes from the format for which Daniels chooses to present information to his reader and openly excludes any contradictory statements to further support or refute his assembled facts. We will write a custom essay sample on The Truth Without All The Facts or any similar topic only for you Order Now To begin with, Daniels constructs Doomsday as a three-parter, with Part One highlighting the religious and political philosophies behind secular enlightenment, Part Two illustrating the evil lurking within those political and religious realms, and Part Three relating the tragic results, all well-known and controversial events, and how chaos originated by the all-consuming, apocalyptic movement known as the Revelation. In the Introduction, Daniels spends a few discerning pages explaining his definition, literally and figuratively, for the critical terms a reader might come across when researching Christian prophecy and Revelation. Then, after a short explanation of his theory â€Å"that apocalypticism†¦is inherently political and that [a reader] might come to understand it better by taking that aspect of it fully into account† (Daniels 15), the book begins with his collection of essays and carefully constructed footnotes on his topics. However, Daniels’ theory is more or less left behind as the reader becomes disoriented by the essays and assembled information. His thesis, which he shrewdly never states in its entirety has a fundamental problem that he attempts to ignore by presenting his information as pure fact, with nothing to dispute, deny, or, for that matter, confirm. And, because he offers no further insight into his claim, it can only be accepted as is, as fact, and while his chapters do provide a focus on his theory, they do nothing to prove anything other than to illustrate that he is more than adept in compiling facts to suit his purpose. For example, in Part One, Daniels highlights two main examples of leaders, Karl Marx and Adolf Hitler, who politically enforced their ideals for secular millenarianism, or, as Daniels has chosen to refer to it, the apocalyptic movement. Daniels uses Marxism to show how â€Å"like earlier apocalyptic ideologies†¦the interaction of opposing forces—in this case, labor and capital—drives events in the world† (56). It is a deceitful method of relating the truth, because apocalyptic ideologies, which he defines in his Introduction as â€Å"a struggle between the forces of good and evil† (4) focus on spirituality and redemption, not jobs and money, but he is clever not to mention this again because Marxism would then have nothing to do with his point at this moment. Now, the facts cannot be denied that Hitler was indeed a bad man, but in truth, his position was one of purification, of ridding the world of the tainted race, the â€Å"ape-men† (65) and was not about religious enlightenment. Daniels gets around this fact by offering that â€Å"Hitler’s program combined two related elements common to many apocalyptic movements: revenge and purity† (70). With that said, a reader can be led to believe, because of Daniels’ previous definition for apocalypse as basically anything or any movement that has the potential to destroy the world, that Hitler could be very much an averted anti-Christ. With no other testimony or evidence contrary to this, a reader is forced to accept Daniels’ claim as fact. Now, the biggest problem with his thesis comes from his claim that the apocalyptic nature inherent in all people is caused or, more succinctly, manufactured, by politics. By saying this, Daniels is expunging the reality and responsibility from people who knowingly commit suicide thinking that their salvation is at hand if they choose to follow the best salesman. To follow, dumbly and blindly without question because someone believes glory comes with a sacrifice like suicide (which is ironically the greatest of all sins, according to Christian religion) is not something that can be placed in the broad category of political maneuvering. It can be orchestrated by a political mastermind, yes; but that political mastermind is also very nearly as blind and dumb as the herd of sheep they lead to slaughter because they too believe, without question, that their own redemption or whatever freedom they are seeking comes from controlling the lives of others, and how well they manage at the task. While this can be defined as apocalyptic nature, because it is utterly destructive, it is not inherently political—it is inherently human. But to say that the apocalypse and the movement that will one day revolutionize the world is inherently human is perhaps too extreme for a book of this sort to delve into. Daniels is most certainly aware of the controversial nature of his subject and understands, too, how people read and react to this subject when taken as a whole. If he focused on the problem and the ultimate destruction of the world as originating from being human, a large segment of his audience would close the book in disgust because they are, instinctively, because of the nature of the topic, seeking answers. And, with an efficiency to be admired, Daniels is cleverly able to grant those answers—even if it means skipping a measure of the truth. But, with any decent argument or frankly, any decent production of information, the fact and the fiction of the accumulated information need to be presented side by side so that the fact, if it truly is fact, will stand on its own because, by its nature, fact has more power and authority than any fabrication ever will. With this method, information can be highlighted and validated at the same time. While this may work in the Encyclopedia Britannica, Daniels, is not an authorized authority on the subject and therefore requires room in his work, or at the very least, acknowledgement, for such interpretation. Otherwise, the reader is being led into the exact trap that Daniels expresses is responsible for sending cults off to commit suicide for a holy comet in Part Three. In this way, Daniels actually forbids a reader to consider their options, and instead, ironically commits the very same sin that he compiled Doomsday Reader to argue about: herding the people with cunningly used portions of fact. And, with his choice of format, Daniels also neatly removes himself from any sort of literary or spiritual criticism because he assigns himself as the editor of this work, and does not hold the mantle of the author. Moreover, as is his way, every chapter ends with a â€Å"Notes† section in which all sources and facts gleaned from weblogs, news, and the Bible are posted in the standard APA citation style. While this is not unusual in a reference book of this sort, it becomes a bit disconcerting when every chapter ends with two pages of sources to review. At that point, a reader is left to wonder how much, if any, of the information came from Daniels. Or, more importantly, why he chose the facts he did to illustrate whatever version of the truth he hopes to prove. But with a topic this controversial and completely emotional and sacred for a great deal of the religious community, fact needs to be presented with disconcerting arguments as well, or at least offer in his extensive Works Cited, since he took the time to make it happen, authors or websites that offer some form of skepticism. In this manner, Daniels is able to present all of the related information on this subject without ever being forced to declare his position or specify an exact opinion. But, more importantly, Daniels never offers any information to refute his truths either, so for that reason alone, Daniels is removing himself and his information from interpretation because the method he uses presents everything as fact. His sources, as they are quoted, are to be accepted and believed as fact, no questions asked, no tokens granted. Overall, while Daniels attempted to compile a compendium of information for the reader interested in prophecy or the Revelation, his theories and ideas are hardly presented at all, unless a reader gives the same weight to the slightly audacious Introduction, which offers his brief, indeterminate premise for creating and organizing his work. And, by choosing so specific a format for assembling his work, his information can be taken no other way, especially because every chapter, and very nearly every paragraph, ends with a footnote, and not an opinion. It is his chosen format that lends to an attitude of distrust from a reader because Daniels cannot be taken fully and with complete authority on such a controversial theme. If anything, Doomsday Reader serves more as a tidy and eloquent annotated bibliography for a term paper than as the foremost guidebook for understanding prophecy and the terms required by the Bible for Christian salvation. Works Cited. Daniels, Ted, Ed. A Doomsday Reader: Prophets, Predictors, and Hucksters of Salvation. New York: New York UP, 1999. How to cite The Truth Without All The Facts, Papers

Logistics and Operations Management Logic Map for Outsourcing

Question: Describe about the Logic map for outsourcing, Factors influencing decision of outsourcing and Evaluation of risk associated with process of decision making? Answer: Introduction: As the business organizations are becoming more conscious about cost and quality of their activities, organizations working in any sector are giving importance to outsource some of their operational activities. As stated by Aas, Buvik and Cakic, (2008) involving external partners to execute non-core activities of the organization not only enhances profitability but implementation of such strategies also enable organizations to improve quality of the tasks. It is evident that outsourcing some activities reduces pressure on organizations. As an impact, management of such organizations can focus on their core activities more effectively due to implementation of outsourcing strategies. The current assignment deals with analysis on the outsourcing strategies of BP. BP, being one of the largest organizations in petroleum industry of UK, requires conducting complex upstream and downstream activities (Bp.com, 2015). However management of the organization is giving importance on out sourcing some of the operational activities so that cost of running the organization reduces (Bp.com, 2015). The report contains analysis on the factors which influence decisions regarding out sourcing strategies. The report also includes some recommendations regarding out sourcing activities of BP. Logic map for outsourcing: Although the organizations are giving importance on involving external organizations with operational activities, the strategies are influenced by several factors. Analysis on the strategy development process at BP indicates that management of the organization analyses contribution of any activities on operational performance (Bp.com, 2015). However Adams and Youdal, (2007) stated that implementation of outsourcing strategies also impact on future profitability of the organization. As stated by Capasso, Cusmano and Morrison, (2013) analyzing strategic importance of outsourcing activities also require being analyzed prior to implementation of such strategies. The operational activities of BP can be categorized as upstream and downstream activities. Upstream activities of the organization include natural gas and oil exploration and development of field. However the upstream sector of BP is also responsible for production of oil and gas. Some mid stream activities such as processing of crude oil and gas as well as storing the gas is also executed by upstream sector of the organization. Downstream activities of BP mainly include manufacturing and marketing different products from crude oil and gas. Strategic alliance Exploration of oil and gas reservoir Development of fields Retention of activities Production activities Manufacturingactivities processing of crude gas and oil distribution of oil and gastoclients Elimination of activities NA Out sourcing activities Marketing Influence of upstream and downstream activities on operational performance of BP: Figure 1: Logic Map for out sourcing As BP is a part of international oil and gas industry, operational activities of the organization are highly complex. Apart from this, presence of hazardous material also increases difficulties for operational activities. Upstream activities such as exploration of oil and gas fields are effective to renewal of the resource bases possessed by BP management. As the management is giving importance on increasing the number of clients in international market, the organization also require increasing their resource bases to meet increased demand of clients. Analysis on the activities related with exploration of crude oil and gas reservoirs indicates that execution of such activities not only enables the organization to serve their clients efficiently, but execution of such activities is also effective for supplying products uninterruptedly to customers. Currently the management of BP executes all tasks related with exploration of natural oil and gas by their own staffs. However the organization can involve external organization for conducting the tasks related with oil and gas exploration. It is evident that operational activities of BP are highly dependent on availability of resources. Management of the organization can form strategic alliances with other organizations in order to execute the tasks related with exploration of oil and gas reservoirs. Apart from this, the activities related with preparation of oil and gas fields can also be done by other organizations. Upstream sector of the organization is also responsible for production of refined oil and gas. Quality of the final products depends on the activities related with production. It indicates that the efficiency of production activities influences quality of final products. As performance of business is highly influenced by production activities, involving external organizations with these activities may not be effective for present and future profitability of the organization. Employees working in the organizations of oil and gas industry require handling with highly hazardous material. The organization requires implementing highly advanced infrastructure for transporting oil and gas. However management of BP also gives importance on ensuring that none of the organizational activities is impacting on the environment. Outsourcing such activities may lead to degradation of quality of such activities. As the management of BP gives importance on retention of clients, marketing activities are important for informing customers about products and services offered by the organization. Out sourcing these activities to external organizations will not only be effective to reduce costs, but the tasks can be conducted more efficiently due to implementation of outsourcing strategies. Factors influencing decision of outsourcing: Although the management of BP gives importance on outsourcing some of the activities, the management also ensures that quality of the products and services is not affected due to implementation of outsourcing strategies. Choobineh, Mohebbi and Salim, (2013) opined as managements of different organizations are giving importance on reducing time required for completing a task, the tendency of using out sourcing strategies is increasing. As stated by Grler et al., (2013) reliability of the out sourcing service vendors requires being analyzed before implementing strategies. The analysis indicates that the organizations give importance on quality, cost and time required for completion of tasks prior to implementation of outsourcing strategies. However the managements also give importance on assessing reputation and trustworthiness of the out sourcing vendors before involving any external organization on its own activities. Quality: Quality of the products and services offered to staffs is considered as the most important factors while developing out sourcing strategies. As stated by Kutlu, (2012) maintaining quality of products and services lead to reduction of customer complaints. Management of an organization requires giving importance on reducing the number of errors while executing operational activities in order to improve quality of products and services. It is evident that the organizations which are going to implement outsourcing strategies require ensuring that the outsourcing vendor is able to complete the tasks without affecting quality. In case of BP also, the management gives importance on maintaining quality of products and services which are offered to clients. Involving other organizations with the production, processing and distribution may impact negatively on quality of the final product. The management needs to utilize its own resources and infrastructure efficiently to execute thes e tasks. However making strategic alliances with other partners will enable BP management to find new sources of natural gas and oil more effectively. As marketing activities are important for informing customers about the products and services, involving any external organization in these activities will be effective to increase quality of the tasks. Speed: Analysis on the trends of outsourcing industry indicates that the organizations become able to reduce time required for executing a task due to implementation of outsourcing strategies. As stated by Lacity and Willcocks, (2014) reduction of time to complete tasks for responding to the customers within less time. Providing services to customers within less time increases their satisfaction level. However reducing the time of service delivery also enables organizations to increase the price of offered product and services. Managements of most of the organizations tend to outsource some of their noncore activities as it enables them to finish these tasks within short time. Executing the tasks related with finding new resources can be out sourced as it will reduce complexity of operational activities of BP. In case of marketing also, implementation of outsourcing strategies will also enable the organization to reduce time and complexity of operational activities (Whitfield, 2014). Cost : Implementation of outsourcing strategies is not only effective for reducing time and complexity for conducting operational activities , development of such strategies will also lead to reduction of costs (Whitfield, 2012). If BP management makes strategic alliances with other organizations, the management will be able to expertise and infrastructure of its partners. It will enable the management to improve quality of the tasks without investing large capital. Outsourcing of marketing activities will also be effective to avoid increase in costs caused by advertisements and other promotional activities. Reliability of service vendors: Although the BP management gives importance on involving other organizations to different operational activities, it is important to analyze whether the partners are able to maintain quality of the tasks. However the tasks which impact directly on quality of final products require are not outsourced in order to avoid any degradation in quality (Sharma and Sharma, 2012). Flexibility: As availability of the technologies is increasing, organizations which are doing business in oil and gas industry require changing their operational activities regularly (Muhindo, Zhou and Kapute Mzuza, 2014). Apart from this, the management of BP also gives importance on implementing innovation in their operational activities to enhance efficiency of the activities. The BP management can implement innovation in the activities related with production, processing and distribution for developing better products. However, depending on other organizations for execution of such activities may restrict BP from implementing innovation in these activities. Evaluation of risks associated with process of decision making: Although implementation of the decisions regarding outsourcing leads to more efficient operational activities, effectiveness of these strategies may be reduced due to presence of several risks. Often the benefits caused due to development of outsourcing strategies are over focused (Schmitt and Van Biesebroeck, 2013). As an impact dependency of management on external organizations will increase. Extensive focus on outsourcing strategies may lead to loss of knowledge. However extensive focus on implementation of outsourcing strategies may also impact on quality of products and services. Ineffective selection of outsourcing strategies may degrade performance of the organization. Oshri, (2011) opined that effectiveness of outsourcing strategies depend on capabilities of the outsourcing service vendors. It indicates that the management requires selecting the external service provider efficiently so that any degradation of organizational performance can be avoided. Often the service providers try to create good impression at the initial stages of contract (Raman and Ahmad, 2013). Later quality of the out sourced services may be degraded. It indicates that the management requires analyzing reliability of the service providers before making contracts. Recommendations: Development of decision making framework: Plunkett, (2013) stated that lack of proper framework often reduces effectiveness of the out sourcing strategies. Lack of proper framework not only restricts the organization to evaluate benefits of outsourcing properly, but it also leads to ineffective selection of out sourcing service providers. The BP management should develop proper methodology for developing outsourcing decisions. The management should give importance on analyzing strategic impacts of outsourcing strategies before implementation of such techniques. However the management also can give importance on out sourcing noncore activities only so that the risks generated due to loss of quality reduces. Conclusion: Analysis made in the assignment indicates that the organizations are giving importance on involving external partners for execution of operational activities. However the process of strategy development is influenced by several factors. BP is a part of international oil and gas industry. As an impact operational activities of the organization are highly complex. The analysis also indicates that presence of hazardous material enhances difficulties for operational activities. As management of the organization is giving importance on increasing number of clients in international oil and gas market, the management also needs to increase their resource bases for meeting increased demand of clients. The discussion made in this assignment also indicates that the organizations are giving focus on quality, cost and time for implementation of outsourcing strategies. However the management of B also give importance on assessment of reputation and trustworthiness of the service vendors prior to involve any external organization on its own activities. Recommendation made in this assignment also indicates that BP management should develop proper methodology for developing outsourcing decisions. References Aas, B., Buvik, A. and Cakic, D. (2008). Outsourcing of logistics activities in a complex supply chain: a case study from the Norwegian oil and gas industry. International Journal of Procurement Management, 1(3), p.280. Aas, B., Buvik, A. and Cakic, D. (2008). Outsourcing of logistics activities in a complex supply chain: a case study from the Norwegian oil and gas industry. International Journal of Procurement Management, 1(3), p.280. Adams, G. and Youdal, S. (2007). The Evolution of Outsourcing and Insourcing in Oil and Gas Accounting. Journal of Petroleum Technology, 59(12), pp.32-35. Bp.com, (2015). Key issues | Sustainability | BP Global. [online] Available at: https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/sustainability/bp-and-sustainability/our-key-issues.html [Accessed 23 Jun. 2015]. Bp.com, (2015). Our values | About BP | BP Global. [online] Available at: https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/about-bp/company-information/our-values.html [Accessed 23 Jun. 2015]. Bp.com, (2015). Upstream | About BP | BP Global. [online] Available at: https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/about-bp/company-information/group-organization/upstream.html [Accessed 23 Jun. 2015]. Capasso, M., Cusmano, L. and Morrison, A. (2013). The Determinants of Outsourcing and Offshoring Strategies in Industrial Districts: Evidence from Italy. Regional Studies, 47(4), pp.465-479. Choobineh, F., Mohebbi, E. and Salim, B. (2013). A multiple-factor decision analysis framework for manufacturing outsourcing. International Journal of Data Analysis Techniques and Strategies, 5(3), p.270. Grler, A., Timenes Laugen, B., Arkader, R. and Fleury, A. (2013). Differences in outsourcing strategies between firms in emerging and in developed markets. Int Jrnl of Op Prod Mnagemnt, 33(3), pp.296-321. Lacity, M. and Willcocks, L. (2014). Business process outsourcing and dynamic innovation. Strat Outs, 7(1), pp.66-92. Muhindo, A., Zhou, J. and Kapute Mzuza, M. (2014). Impact of Logistics Outsourcing Strategy in Oil and Gas Industry in Uganda. IJBM, 9(6). Muhindo, A., Zhou, J. and Kapute Mzuza, M. (2014). Impact of Logistics Outsourcing Strategy in Oil and Gas Industry in Uganda. IJBM, 9(6). Oshri, I. (2011). Offshoring strategies. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Plunkett, J. (2013). Plunkett's Outsourcing Offshoring Industry Almanac 2014. Plunkett Research, Ltd. Raman, R. and Ahmad, A. (2013). Do outsourcing and non-outsourcing New Zealand SMEs perform and perceive international outsourcing differently?. International Journal of Globalisation and Small Business, 5(4), p.273. Rolstadas, A., Henriksen, B. and O'Sullivan, D. (2012). Manufacturing outsourcing. London: Springer. Schmitt, A. and Van Biesebroeck, J. (2013). Proximity strategies in outsourcing relations: The role of geographical, cultural and relational proximity in the European automotive industry. J Int Bus Stud, 44(5), pp.475-503. Sharma, V. and Sharma, V. (2012). Web-based and traditional outsourcing. CRC Press. Whitfield, M. (2012). Strategies: Outsourcing by energy equipment manufacturers. Nat. Gas Elec., 29(3), pp.22-26. Whitfield, M. (2014). Strategies: Energy IT and Business Process Outsourcing-Key Concepts and Trends. Nat. Gas Elec., 31(3), pp.24-27.

Macbeth Essays (750 words) - Characters In Macbeth,

Macbeth MacBeth Everyone who is mortal has at least one flaw. Some are more serious than others. For example, some people have addictions to gambling, while other people can't remember to put the milk away after they use it. After a while though, a person's flaws come back to haunt them. The tragedy MacBeth is no exception to this. In it, many of the character's die. And the reason is that they have a flaw, that would eventually lead to their downfall. Not every character is deserving of his fate though. Some characters have a minor flaw, which shouldn't lead to their death. But other's have a major flaw, which is would eventually lead them to their death anyway. The first Thane of Cawdor, is killed by MacBeth for trying to lead a revolution against England. His fatal flaw was that he was according to Ross, a disloyal traitor. The thane of Cawdor was greedy, and wanted the throne of England for himself, and as a result was murdered. But his murder wasn't really disheartening, because the Thane of Cawdor, deserved his fate. He was leading a battle, in which many lost their lives, for the sake of greed, and deserved to die because of his flaw. Duncan was the King of England, and was murdered by MacBeth. He was murdered, because in order for MacBeth to fulfill his plan and become king, Duncan would have to die. Duncan's fatal flaw was that he was too trusting. For example, he thought that none of his friends could really be enemies. If Duncan was more careful about his safety at MacBeth's castle, he may have had a chance to survive. But Duncan's flaw, wasn't something so horrible that he should die. Most people need to trust each other more, and just because one person did, he shouldn't have to die. MacBeth's former best friend, Banquo was also killed by MacBeth. Banquo was killed, because he knew too much about the murder of Duncan. But that was not his fatal flaw. Banquo's fatal flaw was that although he knew that MacBeth killed Duncan, he really didn't do anything about it. There were many opportunities where Banquo could tell someone such as MacDuff what he thought about the murders. But Banquo didn't deserve death, just because he didn't act quickly in telling someone that MacBeth killed Duncan. Banquo knew that if he said anything, no one would believe him, and he would be executed. Lady MacBeth is MacBeth's wife. She is his coconspirator in killing Duncan. Although she helps MacBeth get the courage to commit the murder, she isn't willing to do it herself. She uses the excuse that Duncan looked too much like her father. Unlike MacBeth though, it is harder for Lady MacBeth to live with the fact that she helped cause the murder of the king. And in the end, it makes her so crazy that she commits suicide. Whether or not Lady MacBeth deserved her fate is a tricky question. Although she did encourage MacBeth to murder Duncan, she feels regret for her action. Also, she realized what she did was wrong. But in my opinion, she realized it a little too late, and Duncan was still dead so she did deserve her fate. MacBeth was the focus of the entire play, and that's why it was named after him. All of the problems start when he murder's Duncan. He commits the murder because of his fatal flaw, he is too ambitious. If he wasn't so ambitious and determined to be king, then he would never have killed Duncan. And if MacBeth didn't kill Duncan none of the other characters would die. MacBeth deserved his fate more than any other characters in the play. He did many things wrong. First he killed Duncan, then he killed Banquo. After that, MacBeth killed MacDuff's family. And worst of all, MacBeth disturbed the balance of nature. Also, MacBeth didn't feel any remorse until he was faced with death. If MacBeth just waited for his time, he would have been king, and have had a chance to enjoy it. Every character that died in MacBeth had one fatal flaw. The first Thane of Cawdor was a traitor. Duncan was too trusting. Banquo didn't do anything about the knowledge he had. Lady MacBeth helped plot the murder of Duncan. And MacBeth, destroyed the natural order and harmony of nature. But not all of the characters who died deserved to die because of

The Environment and Free-Range, Organic, and Local Meat

The Environment and Free-Range, Organic, and Local Meat Meat and other animal products are a serious environmental issue, leading the Atlantic chapter of the Sierra Club to call animal products, a Hummer on a plate. However, free-range, organic, or local meats are not the solution. Free-Range, Cage-Free, Pasture-Raised Meat, Eggs, and Dairy Factory farmers are not animal-hating sadists who confine the animals for fun. Factory farming started because scientists in the 1960s were looking for a way to meet the meat demands of an exploding human population. The only way the U.S. can feed animal products to hundreds of millions of people is to grow grain as an intense monoculture, turn that grain into animal feed, and then give that feed to intensively confined animals. There isn’t enough available land on earth to raise all livestock free-range or cage-free. The United Nations reports that livestock now use 30 percent of the earth’s entire land surface, mostly permanent pasture but also including 33 percent of the global arable land used to produce feed for livestock. Free-range, pasture-fed animals would require even more land on which to feed. They require even more food and water than factory farmed animals, because they are exercising more. To meet the increasing demand for grass-fed beef, South American rainforests are being cleared to produce more pasture for organic, grass-fed beef to be exported. Only 3 percent of the beef produced in the U.S. is grass-fed, and already, thousands of wild horses are displaced by this relatively small number of cattle. The U.S. alone has 94.5 million beef cattle. One farmer estimates that it takes 2.5 to 35 acres of pasture, depending on the quality of the pasture, to raise a grass-fed cow. Using the more conservative figure of 2.5 acres of pasture, this means we need approximately 250 million acres to create grazing pastures for every cow in the U.S. Thats over 390,000 square miles, which is more than 10 percent of all the land in the U.S. Organic Meat Raising animals organically does not reduce the amount of food or water required to produce meat, and the animals will produce just as much waste. Under the National Organic Program administered by the USDA, organic certification for animal products has certain minimum care requirements under 7 C.F.R. 205, such as access to the outdoors, shade, shelter, exercise areas, fresh air, and direct sunlight (7 C.F.R. 205.239). Manure must also be managed in a manner that does not contribute to contamination of crops, soil, or water by plant nutrients, heavy metals, or pathogenic organisms and optimizes recycling of nutrients (7. C.F.R. 205.203) Organic livestock must also be fed organically produced feed and cannot be given growth hormones (7 C.F.R. 205.237). While organic meat does offer some environmental and health benefits over factory farming in terms of residue, waste management, pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers, the livestock do not consume less resources or produce less manure. Animals raised organically are still slaughtered, and organic meat is just as wasteful, if not more wasteful, than factory farmed meat. Local Meat We hear that one way to be eco-friendly is to eat locally, to reduce the amount of resources required to deliver food to our table. Locavores strive to build their diet around food produced within a certain distance from their home. While eating locally might reduce your impact on the environment, the reduction is not as great as some might believe and other factors are more important. According to CNN, an Oxfam report titled, Fair Miles - Recharting the Food Miles Map, found that the way in which food is produced is more important than how far that food is transported. The amount of energy, fertilizer, and other resources used on the farm may have more environmental significance than the transportation of the final product. Food miles are not always a good yardstick. Buying from a small, local conventional farm may have a greater carbon footprint than buying from a large, organic farm thousands of miles away. Organic or not, the larger farm also has the economy of scale on its side. And as a 2008 article in The Guardian points out, buying fresh produce from halfway around the world has a lower carbon footprint than buying local apples out of season that have been in cold storage for ten months. In The Locavore Myth, James E. McWilliams writes: One analysis, by Rich Pirog of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, showed that transportation accounts for only 11% of foods carbon footprint. A fourth of the energy required to produce food is expended in the consumers kitchen. Still more energy is consumed per meal in a restaurant, since restaurants throw away most of their leftovers... The average American eats 273 pounds of meat a year. Give up red meat once a week and youll save as much energy as if the only food miles in your diet were the distance to the nearest truck farmer. If you want to make a statement, ride your bike to the farmers market. If you want to reduce greenhouse gases, become a vegetarian. While buying locally produced meat will reduce the amount of fuel needed to transport your food, it does not change the fact that animal agriculture requires an inordinate amount of resources and produces a great deal of waste and pollution. Tara Garnett of the Food Climate Research Network stated: There is only one way of being sure that you cut down on your carbon emissions when buying food: stop eating meat, milk, butter and cheese... These come from ruminants- sheep and cattle- that produce a great deal of harmful methane. In other words, it is not the source of the food that matters but the kind of food you eat. All things being equal, eating locally is better than eating food that has to be transported thousands of miles, but the environmental advantages of locavorism pale in comparison with those of going vegan. Lastly, one can choose to be an organic, vegan locavore to reap the environmental benefits of all three concepts. They are not mutually exclusive.

Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 9000 words

Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship - Essay Example The company is not only selling clothes, it is marketing its products as lifestyle - the lifestyle that the rich deserves and the not so rich to aspire for. The company is the exclusive owner of the brand. The company aims to achieve a 1% share of the market it its first year, then 3% in its second year, and 5% in its third year. Its market is the whole American population but its target markets are upwardly mobile men and women aged 20 to 50 with income of more than $50,000 annually. The Cashmere Collection, Monaco is 100% owned by its parent company, The Zelective Group, and is looking for a venture capitalist to finance the company's operations in Hong Kong by investing $25 million. The online apparel retail industry is growing tremendously. Introducing The Cashmere Collection, Monaco into the Hong Kong through online selling will create huge value for its parent company. The Cashmere Collection is owned by the Zelective Group which is headquartered in Monaco - one of the world's remaining monarchies. According to the group's website, the location of the head office is very strategic as it is very close to some cities which are leading and pioneering in the world of fashion: Milan , Florence , Rome , Paris and London. Currently, Zel Currently, Zelective's business model is wholeselling clothes made from cashmere. Its mission as a wholesale is "to deliver high-end textile products at affordable prices." It sells ready-to-wear and made-to-order cashmere collections. The company's products are made from 100% cashmere which are sourced from the highlands of Inner Mongolia believed to be the origin of the best cashmere fiber in the world (Please see Figure 1 for some of the Cashmere Collections). It has 31 or so collections so far. Cashmere is a type of wool fiber harvested from Cashmere goats. The fiber is characterized to be very soft, with high napability and loft. Cashmere is noted to provide natural light-weight insulation without the bulk. Cashmere is often named drop by celebrities and celebrity stylists as one of their favorite fabrics (InStyle 2009, p. 156). Figure 1 The Cashmere Collection The products of the company are positioned not only as clothing items but fashion items. In Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the Cashmere Collection fulfills a person's safety needs - safety from cold, heat and the weather by providing insulation; and self-esteem needs by providing

Enterprise Resource Planning (SLP) Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Enterprise Resource Planning (SLP) - Coursework Example mo shows the SAP Crystal Reports and Sap Crystal Reports Server, and the uses both are put to by an IT department to set up reports for personnel across the company. The reports can be set up in a way that suits various people and departments, so it can run as often as needed, and it can be changed to a format such as e-mail or Adobe PDF format. The demo was OK, but the wording at the bottom of the screen was not always visible. A business using this program can achieve savings as the reports give up-to-date data as and when required. There is not a chance of losing their way with tracking resources, whether personnel or materials. As the report can be set up to show precise data at a certain time the financial implications are able to be forecast with a lot of certainty. It could be used by a private person who has a lot of materials, such as a DIY builder or a even a person with a hobby who has collected a lot, but is not sure what they have or what else needs to be collected. After some careful thought the third demo is in fact the 30-day trial version of SAP Crystal Reports. The reason being this is a chance to use the system itself and find out more about how it feels in actual use. The screen shot below in Fig. 1. shows the data in a report built using a simple Access database. This tool is great for keeping up to date with changes in a companies resources, something that can be difficult to track across a complex company, where it has to deal with staff, customers, materials and the processes between all these. If it is all on one system a manager can quickly find data and produce a report showing its status instead of trying to search databases, spreadsheets and other

Working Hours of Construction Employees in Hong Kong

Working Hours of Construction Employees in Hong Kong This study examines whether the local construction workers satisfied with the length of their working hours and whether there is necessary for the Government to constrain the working hours of the labours by imposing regulations or similar control measures. For your background of this study, this chapter outlined (1) background of this study; (2) the aim and objectives of this study; (3) methodology adopted and (4) overview of the study scope. Background Construction industry significantly contributes to Hong Kongs economic. The long working hours as the negative impression of the construction industry causes aging problems and lack of fresh blood in the industry. According to the Working Time Directive from Europe (Directive, 2003), weekly working hours of at least 48 hours or more should be regarded as long. Therefore, more than 48 hours could be regarded as long working hours which makes consistency among studies. Alongside with that there are voices that the workers in Hong Kong are currently required to work excessively long hours some suggested that the average workers have to work for a range of 60 to 70 hours per week. This is long if it is compared to the average working hours of labour in the U.S., the European countries, Japan or other developed countries. The nature of Hong Kong construction industry is using long working hours to cope with the tight construction schedules. Normally, the workers in the mentioned regions generally work less than 44 hours per week (OECD, 2004). In Hong Kong, the employers of the contractors are complaining that they currently suffer from labour shortage and problem of an aging labour force. Therefore, there are two significances of this study. First, the reduction in the length of the working hours shall help to make building construction a more attractive industry for young men and women and shortage and aging problems. The youth may be encouraged to join the building construction industry. Second, people may suffer from fatigue after repeatedly working for long hours, such fatigues may lead to personal and/or family problems, occupational diseases and safety hazards. Thus, the situation on labours working hours must be revealed and studied. Research Aim and Objectives This research aims investigate of there is a need for the Government to constrain the working hours of the local construction workers to a designated limit by imposing regulations or similar control measures. The study covers understandings of the weekly length of working hour of the labour and their satisfaction of the length. And it also investigates the reasons of the longer working hours compared to the counterparts in the other advanced countries, examines if there are alternative ways to implement building construction works without the need of the workers to work for more than 44 hours per week. It is expected that this study can make contributions to reveal these mentions if actions shall be taken by the legislators to control the maximum working hours of labour serving the building construction industry. The objectives of this study are as followed: To identify the situation of working hours faced by the local workers. To examine the possible impacts due to excessively long working hours of the workers in the building construction industry. To identify the concept of work life balance. To examine the leading international practice on controlling the maximum number of working hours of individual workers per week. To conduct a questionnaire survey to the workers in the building construction industry for the situation. To conduct interviews with site agents or project managers of the building general contractors for the situation. To conduct interviews with the leaders of the local labour unions for any improvements. To discuss the issues identified and make conclusions and necessary recommendations (for further studies). 1.4 Methodology The objectives of this study can be achieved through the following methods: Literature review on books, journals and websites were carried out to summarize exiting knowledge on related topics. Data collection was carried out by conducting a questionnaire survey to front-line workers in the industry. Data collection was carried out by interviewing project managers and leaders of the local labour unions in the industry. Data analysis was conducted by using SPSS16.0 for window. The reliability assessments, descriptive analysis, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis were conducted. 1.5 Scope of Study In order to achieve the objectives, this study is divided in the following main chapters: Chapter 1 Give a brief introduction of the backgrounds, aim and objectives, methodology and scope of this study. Chapter 2 Give an overview of construction industry in Hong Kong; Investigate the impacts of long working hours; Investigate the concept of work life balance; and Elaborate the concept of work life balance Chapter 3 Describe methodology adopted for this study. Chapter 4 Conduct analysis on the collected data by using statistics techniques; Discuss on the findings of study. Chapter 5 Give conclusions and recommendations; Give limitations of this study; Provide suggestions for further research. CHAPTER 2:  LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Overview of Construction Industry In Hong Kong, the construction industry plays an important role in the economy of Hong Kong. The Government announced in the 2011-2012 Budget that HK$58 billion would be spent on infrastructures, which is nearly HK$10 billion more than within 2010-2011. According to the Quarterly Report of Employment and Vacancies at Construction Sites, was published by the Census and Statistics Department, the industrys employees were accounted for 56,502 of the labour force in 2010. Also, the Government plans to invest continuously in infrastructure to promote growth, that the estimated capital works expenditure will exceed HK$60 billion for each of the next few years. In additional 600 thousands square meters land for commercial or business use will be available to enhance the self competitiveness among advanced countries. The Government expects there are 60,000 additional job vacancies will be created in this year. 2.1.1 Long Working Hours The long working hours should be divided by genders, for the male employees, long hours should be regarded as over 60 hours per week; for the female employees, it should be regarded as over 40 hours per week (Dex et al., 1995). In these recent years, Messenger (2004) had compared the working hours of employees in various countries, and found that the advanced countries like Japan, in which a high proportion of employees have to work 50 or more hours per week. According to the Working Time Directive (Directive, 2003), 48 hours per week was defined as long hours and which was used as the indicator in this study. As stated in The State of Work-Life Balance in Hong Kong 2010 survey conducted by Community Business, 48.7 hours was the average working hours to the employees in different industries. The Government announced in the 2010 Report on Annual Earnings and Hours Survey that there are more than 60% of employees in construction industry have to work more than 48 hours per week, and also the median weekly working hours increased 1.6% from 2009 to 2010. As stated in the overseas literatures review, the ideal length of working hours should be about 7 to 9 hours per day or 48 to 50 hours a week. 2.1.2 Factors for Long Working Hours The study (New Zealand Census, 2006) found that requirements of jobs, income, the culture of workplaces, and the job satisfactions provided motivate people work longer time. First, the requirements of the job include completion of the tasks appointed, even high workload and respond to the clients demands; Second, the need for more income should be driven by both maintaining basic needs of life and consuming luxury goods; Third, the culture of the construction site should be always under tight schedule, no matter due to inappropriate management or unexpected weather or accidents; Forth, the satisfaction of the workers should be intangible rewards of works (Lindy, 2009; Raphael and Itzhak, 2006; Weston et al. 2002). As the construction industry in Hong Kong is very competitive in the previous years, the number of projects is not enough for the workers due to the economic recession. Since the construction period of each contract is limited, contractors would like to compress the period of construction as possible for their own profit. Therefore, the workers have to complete their works as soon as possible to prevent delay of schedule and shorten the construction period by days. Otherwise, workers may not able to get further job opportunities. 2.2 Impacts for excessively long working hours There are many researches focus on the relationships between long working hours and fatigue, which could be associated with physical and psychological health of human. For this characteristic, Dex et al. (1995) believed that it brought both positive and negative impacts. At the positive side, the long hour working man could be regarded as a responsible, hardworking and motivated person to his/ her work, family and society. He/ she could earn more income to the family and be served as a role model. At the negative side, fatigue and stress come along with the deprivation of rest. Those feelings are not good for individual social network and family, and may damage to physical and mental health. Insufficient rest could also damage performance and cause safety problems, most accidents were due to unconsciousness (Lindy, 2009; Johanna and Joanne, 2003; Fox and Dwyer, 1999). 2.2.1 Fatigue Fatigue is not easy to be defined, which could be acute and cumulative. Konz (1998) believed that long daily work hours and long weekly work hours would make people being fatigue, especially if there is a lack of rest. Those effects of fatigue should be divided into direct and indirect outcomes, while the indirect outcome is in term of performance of work or health problems. His approach was to avoid overtime of work, that the working hour over 12 hours per day and 55 hours per week should be regarded as overtime. For the mechanisms which contributed to fatigue, Rogers et al. (1999) pointed that age, health status, quality and quantity of sleep, length of working hours, work experience, work motivation and home or family life should be used for measuring degree of fatigue. In the Asian countries liked as Japan and South Korea, researches showed that workers complained of physical and mental fatigue after excessively long working hours, such fatigue could not be escaped and be kept into the next day. The chronic fatigue brought harmful to cardiac health and decreases the cardiovascular functions (Park et al., 2001; Shimonitsu and Levi, 1992). There are evidences that the degree of fatigue is in positive relationship with the length of working time and negative relationship with the length of recovery time. 2.2.2 Physical Health A Japanese term Karoshi means people die from a syndrome of cardiovascular attacks liked strokes, myocardial infarction or acute cardiac failure after excessively overwork (Spurgeon et al., 1997). For a more biological explanation, Liu et al. (2002) conducted a research to investigate the relationship between heart diseases and length of working hours by comparing the workers who have to work more than 61 hours per week and who have to work less than 40 hours per week. The study reflected that overtime work increases blood pressure and heart rate, which induces cardiac symptoms such as chest pain. Presence of abnormal heart rate and blood pressure increases the risk of acute myocardial infarction (abbr.: AMI). Also, insufficient rest increases the rate of AMI; the risk of AMI should be induced by the combination of working hours and the quantity and quality of sleep. Besides heart diseases, Yasuda et al. (2001) pointed out that long hours working may damage the self immunity, chronic headache and irritable bowel problems might be induced by working overtime (CIPD ,2001). 2.2.3 Psychological Health In Hong Kong, the number of construction site workers in September 2010 was in total 56,503 people, in which published by the Census and Statistics Department, the ratio of male and female was approximately 12:1. The female site workers are minority in the construction industry. Shields (2000) noted that women who used to work longer hours are more likely to develop depression compared to their colleagues working normal hours. Depression could be a measure in considering stress, which the term Stress is difficult to be defined. Spark et al. (1997) concluded that there were outcome measures when defining stress. The outcome measures should include depression, anxiety, frustration, mood symptoms, poor sleep quality, role strain, irritability/ tension, problems with relationships and general mental stress amongst other things. All these diverse indicators are used to define stress in different bases. There is a small but significant correlation between psychological health symptoms and length of working hours, it should be contrast relationship. However, it was not easy to provide evidences to access the actual association with long working hours and poor mental health outcomes (Kodz et al., 2001). 2.2.4 Performance Most of the available evidences support that poor performance is related to longer working hours, but the relationship should be complicated and not conclusive. By measuring the performance effects, productivity outcomes and, speed and accuracy tests are the direct and indirect measurements respectively. A report showed that the productivity reduced for 2-4% whiles the length of working time increased by 10% (Shepard and Clifton, 2000). By conducting survey with management level, Worrall and Cooper (1999) showed that 68% of managers felt that there was an adverse effect on their productivity after working for long period of time. Kodz et al. (2001) pointed out a poll result that 62% of the managers believed that shorter working hours gives workers more incentive in production. Fatigue induced by long working hours could be regarded as a stressor, and excessive stressors will lead to decrease the performance of workers, suggested by Proctor et al. (1996). However, an appropriate level of stressors will increase arousal and enhance performance. Some researches tried to find the relationship between work performance and the weekly working days and the daily working hours, those researches had tested the employees by adjusting the different combination of working time. Shepard and Clifton (2000) noted that the length of workweek possibly affects the productivity through effects on individual motivation, effort and satisfaction, physical well-being, stress and fatigue, and absenteeism. The result showed that there are many variables in considering the correlation of working hours and performance. 2.2.5 Safety and Accident People after working for long hours would like to lose their attention and would to take risks, work-related accidents might then happen. Fatigue due to long working hours might cause man-made disasters. Wellens (2001) noted that Chernobyl or the Exxon Valdez oil spill were contributed by such fatigue. Besides the fatigue, losing attention while working might bring harms to the workers in certain working environments which are exposure to toxic chemical or hazards. Ong et al. (1982) said that the prevalence of hand injuries should be related to lack of training, supervision, inexperience and time of day. The time of day when is most likely to have accidents should be around the 8th to  ­9th hour at work (Hanecke et al., 1998). The Labour Department announced the number of accidents of the construction industry was 7.1% among the major economic activities, which about 2,755 accidents within 2009-2010. According to the statistics published by Labour Department, the top five types of accidents were (1) Injured whilst lifting or carrying, (2) Slip, trip or fall on same level, (3) Striking against or struck by moving object, (4) Striking against fixed or stationary object and (5) Contact with moving machinery or object being machined. The above types of accidents should be man-made, which could be prevented or avoided by great attention, good supervision and training. There are clearly showed that long working hours could be related to safety and accidents in particular working environments. 2.3 Work-life Balance Work-life balance (abbr.: WLB) has been being concerned in Hong Kong few years ago. As began at 2004, The University of Hong Kong (HKU) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Asia carried out a survey on the topic of work-life balance among the local employees, which was a questionnaire based survey. In that research, there were some benchmarks related to the situation in Hong Kong, they were length of working hours, general reasons for working overtime, effects on health, availability of sick leaves and annual leaves, and loyalty to company of the employees. In 2006, Community Business started to conducted a similar survey called The State of Work-Life Balance in Hong Kong, which published annually. The local situation about WLB is reviewed by this survey per year. And the objectives of the surveys are different by each year, the newest report published in 2010 studying the role of flexible work arrangements in improving the WLB of employees and reviewing the previous results since 2006. 2.3.1 Definition Until present, the concept of work-life balance is not well defined, but all the definitions are related to the work hours. If the hours of day are not measured, the concept of work- life balance should be intangible. The different combination of working hours and non-working hours in a day could provide a clear picture on the balance. Some people say WLB concerns flexibility of schedules, while the others say it is a reduction in working hours (Kodz et al., 2001; Dow-Clarke, 2000; Major et al., 2001; Fox and Dwyer, 1999; Wallace, 1999; ODriscoll et al., 1992). Also, the term of work-life balance is not the one used to describe the same issues around the world. Different researchers gave different terms to the issue in their own studies. For example, ODriscoll et al. (1992) preferred the term inter-role conflict to describe the conflicts within an individuals roles; work-family conflict brought up by Major et al. (2001) and Fox and Dwyer (1999); work-to-nonwork conflict proposed by W allace (1999). Dow-Clarke (2002) defined WLB with respect to family life, income and the life cycle of her selected employees. The work hours in WLB represent as short as achieving or maintaining individuals desired balance between work and family life. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in UK have made some practices of WLB in 2001, which are flexi-time, staggered hours, time off in lieu, compressed working weeks, shift swapping, self-rostering, working from home and etc. However, most of the practices are not practical to the workers in construction industry, especially in this study. Flexible working hours have been proposed in Hong Kong for several years, but it is not very popular; the practice has been only supported by large business companies and the Government. To narrow down the literatures review of WLB, the effects of working long hours on WLB would be focused. 2.3.2 Effects of long working hours on Work-Life Balance There are so many long hours standards in the various researches, some interviewed the employees working for 42 hours per week and some recorded the employees working more than 50 hours per week (Galambos and Walters, 1992; Wallace, 1999). It is not easy to compare the effects on long works. This review would aim to the effects on WLB only. As it is hard to measure the impacts of work on home, Kodz et al. (2001) concluded that most of the researches took off attitudinal survey or case study approaches. The survey released by DTI and Management Today in 2002, showing that the UK employees would prefer shorter working hours rather than winning the lottery and most of the workers admitted the low accessibility of any flexible working practices. For the effects on family life, there are three associations due to working long hours, (1) Disruption to family activities, (2) Dissatisfaction with the involvement and the amount of time spent in child care, and (3) Dissatisfaction with the amount of time spent with couples (La Valle et al., 2002). For the effects on personal life, they are relevant to depression and anxiety, stress, work life and role strain (Dow-Clarke, 2000; Galambos and Walters, 1992). In addition, Wallace (1999) concluded that the work life of individuals was the invader to the family life. 2.3.3 Influence of Work-Life Balance Besides the negative effects of working long hours on WLB, there are some practices like compressed workweek schedule and flexi-time schedule would be positive for working performance, job satisfaction and satisfaction with work schedule (Baltes et al. 1999). As mentioned before, there are some practices for improving WLB, which are all related to the work hours. Flexible time schedule, staggered hours, compressed workweek, shift swapping, self-rostering, annual hours, job sharing, working from home, and etc (DTI, 2001). All of them are the mechanisms to enhance the employees attitudes to work. Invancevich (1974) carried out a work performance comparison between workers worked for compressed workweek and workers worked for normal schedule; and Baltes et al. (1999) evaluated the work performance of workers under flex-time and compressed workweek, both of the studies showed the positive outcomes in shorter workweek. The latter study reflected job satisfaction and satisfaction with work schedule too. Baltes et al. (1999) pointed that the positive effects of compressed workweek would not diminish over time, and there was no disruption to the productivity of absenteeism too. The State of Work-Life Balance in Hong Kong Survey (2010) showed the problems resulting from poor WLB, there were the responses from employees. About 60% of respondents felt fatigue level, sleepiness and extreme tiredness prolonged by the poor work-life balance. Third of them complained the loss of amount of time to spend with family. Over a quarter of employees believed that their work hours invaded to their social life and decreased their job productivity. The results should be approximately same as the Work Life Balance Survey of Hong Kong Working Population published by HKU in 2009. To make a conclusion, the poor work-life balance affects the time arrangement of the employees throughout a day, functions as a stressor to the workers and harms the health of the workers. 2.4 Hypotheses of Study Long working hours is recognized as an element in the local construction industry. The factors for long working hours of each individual are various, most of them could be classified as four dimensions, requirements of jobs, income, cultures of workplaces and work satisfaction provided (Lindy,2009; Raphael and Itzhak, 2006; Weston et al., 2002). Impacts due to long working hours have been discussed for many years, which could be personal, family and social related. At the positive side, the employee could be served as a hardworking, motivated person, who should be a role model in a family (Dex et al., 1995). At the negative side, the physical and psychological health, family life, social network and safety problems are being affected by the long working hours (Lindy, 2009; Johanna and Joanne, 2003; Fox and Dwyer, 1999). Work-life balance is an important concept in a living person, but it is just mentioned for years in Hong Kong. There are many practices used to improve the balance, to reduce the proportion of work hours within the whole life. Such as flexible time schedule, staggered hours, compressed workweek, shift swapping, self-rostering, annual hours, job sharing, working from home, and etc are the ways used over the world (DTI, 2001; Baltes et al., 1999; Invancevich, 1974). For the consequences due to unbalanced work-life, there are loss of the involvement in family activities and child care, the amount of time with couples and full of stress and anxiety (La Valle et al., 2002; Dow-Clarke, 2000; Wallace, 1999; Galambos and Walters, 1992). Hypothesis 1- As suggested by the previous literatures, long working hours really affect the employee by different dimensions (Fox and Dwyer, 1999; Galambos and Walters, 1992). The workers are driven to work for longer hours by their own motivations (Lindy, 2009; Raphael and Itzhak, 2006). Since the degree of satisfaction in working long hours is different by people, it hypothesizes that the attitudes towards motivations that can enhance workers satisfaction in long working hours. Hypothesis 2- As mentioned before, people with unbalanced work-life will diminish their time in participating activities other than works (La Valle et al., 2002; Wallace 1999; Baltes et al. 1999), and make the life not well developed and healthy. It hypothesizes that flexible work arrangement can help work-life balance in all aspects like personal life, family life and productivity of work. CHAPTER 3:  Methodology 3.1 Introduction In the previous chapter, the background of the work hour problems faced by the workers in the construction industry was reviewed. Besides, the problems induced by long working hours and influences of Work-Life Balance were introduced in the literature review. The objectives of this study are (1) to identify the drawbacks of working hours to the local workers; (2) to examine the possible impacts due to excessively long working hours of the workers in the building construction industry; (3) to identify the concept of work-life balance; (4) to examine the leading international practice on controlling the maximum number of working hours of individual workers per week. In order to achieve the research objectives, a questionnaire survey had been conducted to collect data from construction workers, and a questions set with cover letter for interviews was designed to collect opinions from the union leaders and project managers in building general contractor firms. This chapter outlines the design of questionnaires, questions design of the interviews, data collection method and method of analysis undertaken in the next chapter. 3.2 Questionnaire Design In order to achieve the research objectives, a 10 questions questionnaire was designed (see Appendix 1). Part I required the respondents to provide their basic information such as gender, age, experience in the construction industry and form of employment. Part II required the respondents to provide their normal daily working hours and weekly work days, overall working hours per week, normal daily rest time and evaluate the current length of working hours. Part III listed the possible reasons for overtime work arrangement from practical cases (see Table 3.1). The respondents were asked to tick the top five reasons faced and sort the chosen reasons with numbers (1=most common, 5=least common). Shortage of Labours There are not enough labours and too many works remained. Poor arrangement of materials and/ or equipments The arrangement of materials and/ or equipments is not satisfied to the construction processes on site. Poor site management Planning is not practical enough and/ or the schedules of work are not up-to-date or poor leadership of supervisor. Reworks needed There are construction mistakes due to unclear instructions, lack of supervisions, poor quality control, careless mistakes made by workers and/ or inappropriate installations. Equipments damaged Equipments are damaged and/ or mal-function under normal operations. Changes of design Temporary scheduling caused by changes of design, preparation and construction of work have to be revised. Period of Contract Period of contract is too short for normal construction process. Unexpected weather Construction processes could not be operated caused by poor or unexpected weather, and then there is a delay. Others There are reasons not mentioned but happen in practical construction site. 3.3 Data Collection The targeted respondents of the questionnaire are the front-line workers who work in construction site. Two pages questionnaire was sent to the contractor firms and distributed to the targeted respondents. And some of the collected questionnaires were interviewed by face-to-face. The targeted interviewees were the project managers or site agents who are working in building general contractor firms and the leaders of the local labour unions. The questions set was sent to the targeted interviewees, email reply and phone interviews were conducted. 3.4 Data Analysis Method In this research, the data analysis was carried out by SPSS 17.0 for windows, including Enjoyment à ¤Ã‚ ½Ã¢â‚¬ Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ ¥Ã‚ ½Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ °Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ