Persuasive Outline Essays (413 words) - Cannabis,

Persuasive Outline Topic: Legalization of Marijuana Audience: Essay General Purpose: To persuade Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience that hearing is very valuable and if some precautions are not taken then it may be lost forever. Thesis: I. Introduction A. Attention Getter: Did you know that the American government spends more than 20 billion a year on marijuana prohibition? B. Reason to Listen: Legalizing marijuana will have a positive effect on our country. C. Thesis Statement: Marijuana prohibition is ineefective because of its high cost, infringement of personal liberties, does not help, and has strong potential for medicinal use. people of all ages. D. Credibility Statement: 1. I have done research on the internet and from reading a TIME magazine article on this topic. 2. I have previous background knowledge on this topic E. Preview of Main Points: III. Conclusion A. Review of Main Points: 1. Liberty: people deserve freedom to use marijuana. 2. Cost: keeping marijuana illegal is expensive. 3. Failure: prohibition doesn't help. B. Restate Thesis: : Marijuana prohibition is ineefective because of its high cost, infringement of personal liberties, does not help, and has strong potential for medicinal use. Point 1 - Liberty: From a philosophical point of view, individuals deserve the right to make choices for themselves. Marijuana is far less dangerous than some drugs which are legal, such as alcohol and tobacco Marijuana use does not endanger others and so therefore the government has no reasonable cause to ban its use. SUMMARY:Individuals deserve the right to decide whether or not they should use marijuana. The government should not tell individuals what to do as long as they do not harm others. Point 2 -Cost: keeping marijuana illegal is expensive: It would save our government lots of money. Marijuana users often get locked up in prison and the taxpayers have pay. In addition, if marijuana were legal, the government would be able to collect taxes on it, and would have a lot more money to pay for effective drug education programs and other important causes. SUMMARY:We would have more money to spend on important problems if marijuana were legal. Point 3; Fa ilure: prohibition doesn't help There is no good evidence that prohibition decreases drug use, and there are several theories that suggest prohibition might actually increase drug use One unintended effect of marijuana prohibition is that marijuana is very popular in American high schools. SUMMARY:Prohibition does not work. Education and treatment are better ways to address the drug problem.

The Value of the You Attitude in Professional Writing

The Value of the 'You Attitude' in Professional Writing The you attitude is more than a matter of playing with  pronouns or even of playing nice. Its good business. In professional writing, the you attitude means looking at a topic from the readers point of view (you) instead of our own (me): Me Attitude: I have requested that your order is sent out today.You Attitude: You will receive your order by Wednesday. In emails, letters, and reports, emphasizing what our readers want or need to know is likely to generate goodwill and lead to positive results. Why It's All About You, You, You Put yourself in the readers place and think about the kinds of emails and letters that you like to receive. Messages that are stuffy, pushy, and vague? Unlikely. Messages that elicit a positive response are generally positive themselves: courteous and considerate, with just enough information to anticipate the most common questions and concerns. In any case, dont make your message all about me or us. If youre trying to persuade your readers to buy a product, accept an offer, pay a bill, or perform a service for you, emphasize whats in it for them. You're in Good Hands or Maybe Not Heres an excerpt from a letter (addressed to Insured followed by a ten-digit number) that shows a marked insensitivity to the you attitude: As a participating company of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), policies written through Allstate Flood are subject to periodic reviews by the Risk Mitigation Unit of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). This review process serves to ensure that policies have been properly rated based on the supporting documentation provided and according to the rules and regulations set forth by the NFIP... The above referenced policy was reviewed by the Flood Service Center and it has been determined that this policy has been rated incorrectly, or that additional information or clarification of submitted documentation is required to ensure that the policy has been properly rated. The following items are needed to complete the underwriting file and establish the proper rate for this account ... Clearly, its going to take more than a ​you to fix this letter. For one thing, theres not even a ​we here. The persistent use of the passive voice obscures any sense of a human subject a problem also demonstrated by the signature line, which reads (sincerely and monolithically), Allstate Flood Underwriting. One presumption of the you attitude is that both writer and reader are real people. But like the wrapper on a loaf of Wonder Bread, the Allstate letter might just as well say, Never touched by human hands. The multiple-choice format of the second paragraph only deepens the mystery. Just who reviewed, determined, and rated? Thats not for us to know. Has the policy been rated incorrectly for the past eight years, and if so, when and how did this blunder come to light? Has information been misplaced dropped behind a filing cabinet, say, or deleted by a clumsy intern? All things are possible in the stilted language of this form letter, and nothing is certain. Except for one thing, of course: it looks like our rates are going up again. Five Guidelines for Writing With the "You Attitude" Establish a good, respectful relationship with your readers by addressing them directly, writing in the active voice and using the second person (you, your, and yours), not just the first (I, me, mine, we, us, and ours).Try to empathize with your readers. Ask yourself: what do they want, what do they need to know, and whats in it for them? Rather than focus on your product, your service, or yourself, stress how your readers will benefit from complying with your message.Earn the respect of your readers by being courteous, tactful, and gracious.And finally, if youre ever tempted to write it should go without saying, stifle the impulse.

LIterary Analysis, Bioethics, Psychology, Sociology, and History of Essay

LIterary Analysis, Bioethics, Psychology, Sociology, and History of Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro - Essay Example This has required the readers to scrutinize the cultural supposition on the subject of human humanness, and to countenance intricate questions: what it means to be human. How humanity can be defined. The novel has led to the many research; the literal research can be as follows: bioethics, sociology, and psychology of the book. The book goes through past the boundaries of the literal novel, by gripping the mystery of the beautiful love story, wounding critique of human insensitivity, also in the moral examination of people tend to treat the fewer fortunes in our different society today. The book can be analyzed, and we can easily come up with various themes, which can educate our society of today, starting from, the sociological and psychological and history of the book (Whitehead, 55). The history of human cloning started, from a group in the New Castle University who took eleven women (Whitehead, 54). They took their genetic resources and replaced it with DNA from the developing stem cells. The project was to make the cloned embryos from which the stem cells could be used to cure the diseases. The stem cell lines are produced by taking the genetic materials of the patient and putting it into the eggs that donated by the donors. The resultant egg, therefore, became a perfect match for individuals, and used in treating disease such as diabetes without any problem of rejection. The therapeutic cloning believed to have a huge potential to cure diseases, and disabilities in people, therefore, allowed in Britain. On the other hand, the reproductive cloning, this is the cloning of human embryos with the intention of creating a baby. It has become illegal since 2001 (Toker & Daniel, 164).Let me go as been enormously received extremely received, critically, and included t he curriculum courses of various colleges in both, Britain and the United States of America, it has also been include the secondary schools

Tobacco Addiction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Tobacco Addiction - Essay Example Nicotine is what which causes tobacco addiction; it is justified indeed as tobacco comes from a plant called Nicotiana. Hydrogen cyanide is also present in tobacco which is more commonly known as rat poison. Even the most forgotten corners of the world know for a fact that anything that contains tobacco is dangerous for health. It is rational that they know the risk. Still, one billion people use tobacco; that's more or less 16% of the world population!Smoking seems to help a lot of people overcome many problems; from wafting their troubles away to even thinking of it as some sort of a companion. A person starts smoking for a lot of reasons but once they start it seems harder and harder to quit. They become a drug addict: they crave for the feelings which arise in them whenever they smoke. Some people don't want to stop smoking others just can't tolerate the smell of the smoke. Smoking is cool for teens, a way of life for adults and a part of personality for the aged. People smoke so that they can concentrate on something, part with stress or just simply pass the time. People who smoke generally tend to feel relaxed which is not true as smoking immediately increases the heart rate, flow of blood from the heart and blood pressure. It does, however, calm the senses and numbs the fingers of feet and hands. It weakens appetite and feelings of hunger but it hasn't been proven that obese people would benefit from smoking. All this happens because the brain releases a lot of chemicals which eventually have the smoker in a sate of pure bliss. The nicotine receptor gene of smokers causes them to be eight times more prone to start smoking than non-smokers. Although there are five ways of smoking: cigarette, hookah, pipe, cigar and roll-your-owns; only cigarette is the most common. Cigarettes are known to have pleasing short-term effects but hazardous long-term ones. Nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide are the substances which make up the 'tobacco smoke.' Tobacco smoke is tasted or more commonly, inhaled. Nicotine takes exactly seven seconds to make up its way to the brain and trigger feelings in pleasing combinations of reduced anxiety, heightened pleasure, and a state of alert. It can be used as an anesthetic or a pick-me-up by controlling the amount of nicotine absorbed in the bloodstream. Extended, intense inhalations, additional puffs per cigarette, or smoking down to the end can increase the nicotine being absorbed to a level higher than the printed one. A large amount of diseases are caused by smoking. Over forty chemicals in the tobacco smoke can cause cancers of larynx, throat, tongue, lungs, bladder, pharynx, oesophagus, lips, colorectal, colon, nasal sinuses, nasal cavities, liver and stomach. It also plays a part in developing cancer of the cervix, pancreas, and kidneys. It causes cardiovascular disease, lung diseases such as chronic bronchitis, emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). It affects all parts of the body from the hair to the immune system. Smoking causes osteoporosis, cataract, leukemia, infertility, Buerger's disease, peptic ulcer, thyroid diseases, erectile dysfunction, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), leukoplakia, skin disorders, peripheral vascular disease (PVD), stroke and insomnia. Passive smokers are also susceptible to diseases related to smoking. Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) causes cardiovascular disease and lung cancer in non-smokers. Childhood exposed to ETS tend to have severe asthma. ETS exposure of toddlers also causes an increased risk of bronchitis, pneumonia and ear infections in them. Hence, smokers benefit many people by quitting smoking and they should be aware that anyone can quit smoking; it's just a matter of time

Creating a Pamphlet for College Students on Pregnancy Coursework

Creating a Pamphlet for College Students on Pregnancy - Coursework Example The main components that are required for a healthy pre-natal period are the womans mental and physical health. The changes that the womans body goes through during this period will require regular mental and physical pre-natal check-ups by a professional health care provider, as well as an appropriate exercise program (Fetal Development). Physical health is vital, and "proper prenatal nutrition is essential for healthy fetal development" (Civitas). The woman will need to consult professional information to assure she is getting the adequate intake quantities of folic acid, iron, protein, fluids, and calcium (Civitas). In addition, there may be foods that need to be reduced and substances, such as alcohol and tobacco, which need to be eliminated. In conclusion, risky sexual behavior that sometimes characterizes a college lifestyle may result in an unwanted pregnancy. The couple should be emotionally ready and the woman should be physically prepared. The pre-natal period should include proper nutrition, adequate exercise, and total abstinence from substances that can affect the healthy development of the

Engineering procurement and construction

Engineering procurement and construction Integrated Project Teams With Multi Office Execution, A Study Of EPC Projects In Canada Abstract Engineering procurement and construction (EPC) projects in the Canadian oil and gas industry have gained significant economic importance due to rising hydrocarbon commodity price. The oil and gas industry in Alberta has planned to spend approximately 142 billion dollars (Government of Alberta, 2010) within the next two decades on capital projects. Alberta has recognized the shortage of human resources during peak economic activities, to execute mega capital projects. Multi office execution (MOE) is a way forward for all the major EPC houses in Canada to meet the demands of Clients within budget and on schedule. Further, it has been identified by the industry needs that integrated project teams are critical to the success of these complex oil and gas projects. In this environment, project management techniques need to be adapted to match project complexity. This paper will provide much insight through case studies related to project teams in multi office execution, and review the existing literature body of knowledge. An analysis is presented based on the project management knowledge areas. Recommendations are made based on this analysis. The objectives of this paper are to review literature related to managing MOE projects and to determine the keys to success and areas that need improvement in MOE. Introduction Alberta oil and gas industry has gained significant economic importance over the past decades. In 2010, it is estimated that the industry has an inventory of 57 capital oil and gas projects with a total value of 142 billion dollars (Government of Alberta, 2010). Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) companies have been providing oil and gas owner companies with expertise and resources to execute these capital projects. Under current market condition, the oil and gas owner companies want the EPC companies to share more risks. More and more projects are based on lump sum and fixed-fee contracts and are executed under lower budgets and tighter schedules. To stay competitive, many EPC companies have adopted global execution business model. Work is carried out in multiple offices or even by multiple organizations (Macquary, 2003). Cost saving benefit is achieved by allocating project scopes to high-value low-cost offices in other provinces or other countries. The companies may develop a partnership with other companies with specific technical expertise or local business expertise in order to gain market share in a new or emerging market. The MOE improves resource availability under booming economy, where resource shortage becomes a sig nificant problem in executing large projects. Despite several benefits, MOE projects can be very challenging to manage. Although the project management methodology is applicable to both single-office and multi-office projects (Cowle et al, 1995), the multi-office projects require particular emphasis on some of the project management processes. The objectives of this paper are to review literature related to managing MOE projects and to determine the keys to success, challenges and areas that need improvement in MOE. Interviews with project management experts from the EPC industry who have experience managing multi-billion dollar MOE projects provided insights into MOE best practices. The interviews were designed based on project management knowledge areas established by Project Management Institute or PMI (Project Management Institute, 2004) in order to present the findings using internationally accepted framework. These knowledge areas are: project integration management, project scope management, project time management, project cost management, project quality management, project human resource management, project communication management, project procurement management, and project risk management. The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 reviews literature related to MOE. Section 3 briefly describes methodology and the MOE projects studied in this paper. Keys to success and challenges for MOE are discussed in Section 4. This is followed by conclusions in Section 5.   Literature Review Multi-Office Execution Concepts Engineering and Construction Risk Institute (2009) defines two main elements of a multi-office executing organization: 1) Lead office which is an office that provides leadership and has overall responsibility for the execution of the project; 2) Support office which is an entity participating in the project under the overall management and supervisory control of the lead office. The multi office execution strategy is found to be popularly framed within concepts such as virtual teams and offshore outsourcing (off shoring). A common definition available for a virtual group/team is a group of geographically and temporally dispersed individuals who are assembled via technology to accomplish an organization task. Joseph (2005) specifically defines Global Virtual Engineering Team (GVET) as a group of geographically dispersed individuals organized through communication and information technologies that need to overcome space, time, functional, organizational, national, and cultural barriers for the completion of a specific engineering task. According to Joseph (2005), the following comparison can be made between a virtual team and a conventional team. The most critical and important feature of virtual teams is that they cross boundaries of space. Whereas the members of traditional teams work in close proximity to one another, the members of virtual teams are separa ted, often by many miles or even continents. Although many traditional, localized teams also communicate through computerized communication media, technology such as video conferencing is typically used by virtual team members to supplement their rare face-to-face communication. In physically collocated teams, members of the team are likely to have similar and complementary cultural and educational backgrounds since they have gone through the same recruitment and selection procedures as they are employed by the same organization. In a virtual team the members may vary in their education, culture, language, time orientation and expertise. There can also be conflicting organizational and personal goals among the members of a virtual team. Multi-office execution also can be part of off shoring when local EPC companies subcontract project activities to branches or a different company in a foreign country. Off shoring is an extreme version of outsourcing, and it refers to the transfer of production/service capacity from a site within a country to a site in another country and then importing back for national consumption of goods and services that had previously being produced locally (Goff, 2005). Off shoring business operations offer a potential for 15-20% cost savings, but further analyses show that organizations that properly plan and operate offshore initiatives can reap substantially higher rewards (Fox and Hughes, 2008). According to Goff (2005) the benefits of off shoring for large companies include: maintaining or increasing profitability by reduced labor costs if resources with the same or higher level of expertise can be obtained in the foreign countries; maintaining its competitive position or even protecting it from going out of business; and increasing the market share of a company by improving their capacity and utilizing available in-house resources to more value added ventures. Canada ranks high among most attractive host countries for companies wishing to locate abroad to improve their financial position according to the offshore location attractive index (Goff, 2005). The multi-office execution has been made possible and successful, solely due to the advancements in the information and communication technology. With the rapid advancement of the electronic age the ability to staff a project from multiple offices has gone from a dream to a practical reality (Cowle et al, 1995). The latest developments in communication technology such as teleconferencing, video conferencing and host of other online applications coupled with ever increasing speed of data, voice and video transfer literally eliminate distance barriers. According to Macquary (2003) we are at a point in time where information technology is allowing us to change many of our traditional way of doing work. Hence it is possible to create an organizational structure agile enough to accept them and quickly apply them to add value. MOE Driving Forces Economy conditions are the main driving forces for the MOE strategy (Macquary (2003), Joshep (2005), Global Insight USA (2004), and Engineering and Construction Risk Institute (2009)). Under booming economy, labor shortage becomes a problem for many organizations and the MOE is a way to acquire project teams from other remote offices or even other companies. The MOE strategy is also used to add resources in order to meet tighter/compressed project schedules. On the other hand, slower economy growth demands constant vigilance over cost. Companies with global operations often allocate or outsource work to high-value low-cost offices, especially when qualified resources with lower wages are available. For instance, offices in India, China or Far East countries could be candidates for such support offices. Company policy to gain market share is another driver for MOE strategy. Companies can setup offices in other countries or develop business partnership with local companies to capture global or emerging markets. A joint venture between companies (or even competitors) with complementing expertise to take on a project that requires diversified expertise is also another driver for MOE. Other driving forces are: development in technology such as internet connections and other communication tools; a need to free resources for core business or higher value purposes; change in educational trend which results in smaller number of graduates in some studying fields (Joseph, 2005). Managing MOE Projects Engineering and Construction Risk Institute (2009) suggested issues to be addressed for MOE projects during sales/pre-execution, project mobilization, project execution, and project completion phases. Key issues are: early engagement with the client to obtain agreement to MOE and address clients concerns; early engagement of the support offices; clear definition of scopes and responsibilities for individual offices and kick-off meetings; alignment of work processes, deliverables, and reports; selecting suitable key project roles who are opened to MOE; and communication plan. Joseph (2005) has identified technology, management, organization, project control and team communication as important items to consider in global virtual team formation and execution. Clear and frequent communication, periodic face-to-face meetings, good communication tools and compatibility in information technology, standard work processes and communication procedures, and clearly defined scope expectations are named as top success criteria for multi-office execution. Whereas lack of or poor communication, lack of face-to-face meetings, lack of understanding of local work practices/ cultural differences and/or language issues, lack of management involvement experienced leadership, changes not handled properly, slow response to changes, incompatible or poor technology including hardware and software are top failure factors found within EPC industry for multi-office execution. Chinowsky and Rojas (2003) outlined the top 10 management issues that must be addressed when initiating and maintaining virtual teams. They are categorized as Team issues and Process issues. Team issues include: initial face-to-face meetings are required to develop a sense of ‘‘team, managers must visit remote participants during the course of the project, trust between team members is difficult to establish when operating in a virtual environment, and virtual team leaders should be selected with an acknowledgment of the unique demands placed on distributed teams. Process issues includes: project objectives must be restated and reinforced frequently to ensure that all members remain focused on a common outcome; conflicts must be addressed quickly to prevent unresolved issues from interfering with communications; discussions on decisions will be more difficult as participants continue discussions via electronic media; expectations of each team member must be stated clearly to assist the members as they work independently; team member workloads should be monitored to ensure that significant increases do not occur due to increased electronic communications; and regular training must occur equally for all members of the virtual team. Methodology And Studied MOE Projects The methodology used in this paper to gain insights into MOE best practices and challenges is interviewing project management experts who have experience managing MOE projects in EPC industry. The interviews were designed using project management knowledge areas: project integration management, project scope management, project time management, project cost management, project quality management, project human resource management, project communication management, project procurement management, and project risk management. The project management knowledge areas are identified by its knowledge requirements and described in terms of their component processes, practices, inputs, outputs, tools, and techniques (Project Management Institute, 2004). The two major reasons for the projects to implement MOE strategy found in this paper are resource constraint and cost saving. All of the projects discussed in this paper were executed during the booming economy (i.e. high oil price) and manpower shortage became a problem for many projects. Therefore, the MOE beame a necessary strategy to acquire project teams with required skills from locations with more resource availability. To save cost, project scopes were allocated to high-value low-cost offices in either other provinces or other countries (e.g., India and China). Cost benefit was achieved in both cases. Some of the projects allocated â€Å"less technical† work such as cloning design work and closing project work to these support offices. Another driving force identified is a company strategy to expand and maintain national or global operations. The MOE strategy is used to balance resource utilization. In booming economy, work is allocated to reduce workload at some offices. During an economy down turn, work is allocated to maintain support offices as it is more economical than closing the support offices and rebuilding them when demand resumes. Engineering work is usually allocated among lead and support offices. For better coordination, a procurement organization is usually setup in the offices that perform engineering design. However, smaller projects may choose to have only one procurement organization in the lead office. Construction is mostly executed by the lead office. However, some construction scopes (e.g., fabrication and modularization programs) may be subcontracted to local or international third-parties, therefore they are considered as MOE. Prime contract management/ legal functions are usually executed by the lead office only. Other project functions such as Project Management, Project Controls, and Document Management are executed from the lead office. However, depending on the size of the project and project strategy, these functions may also be executed from other support offices. Keys To Success Challenges In MOE Further discussion on keys to success, challenges, and areas required improvement for MOE projects is divided into 9 subsections per Project Management Knowledge Areas (Project Management Institute, 2004): project integration management, project scope management, project time management, project cost management, project quality management, project human resource management, project communication management, project procurement management, and project risk management. The discussion is summarized at the end of this section. Project Integration Management For MOE projects, the lead office is normally responsible for developing the project charter and preliminary project scope statement. This is due to closer contact with the Client. Furthermore, at the early stage of the project, the support offices may not have been involved yet. It is important that the project management team provides MOE justification to gain support from the Client. It is recommended that the project management plan developed during the planning phase addresses the MOE strategy including high-level justification, organization, resource utilization and scope allocation. Some projects may choose to develop a separate subsidiary plan which addresses MOE issues such as scope allocation, responsibility, and communication in more detail. The MOE brings many challenges in monitoring and controlling project work. All offices should take responsibility for their own work but the lead office must take the responsibility to monitor and control overall project work. Managers in the lead office need to understand their roles in monitoring and controlling project work even though the work may be executed by the support offices. Basic communication approaches such as regular phone calls and VDO conference meetings and information systems that allow progress information to be collected from support offices are used for monitoring and controlling project work. Project changes should be managed and controlled centrally by the lead office. Changes are initiated from all offices but only the lead office should have authorization to approve changes. The approved changes need to be captured and project plans (e.g., budget and schedule) are adjusted accordingly. It is important that no office should start executing the changes before they are approved even if the changes are initiated by the Client. Closing project is identified in this paper as one of the major challenges in MOE. Each office is normally responsible for closing the work under their scopes. However, the support offices have smaller scopes of work, therefore they usually de-staff earlier than the lead office. If the support offices de-staff before the close out is complete, the work is transferred to the lead office which may not have sufficient background understanding to properly close out the work/scope. To avoid this circumstance, the projects must plan and execute the project closing process carefully. It is also important that sufficient budget is allocated for the project closing process. Electronic archiving of project documents is recommended to facilitate the project closing. Other challenge identified for project closing process is lessons-learned management. Lessons learned from all offices need to be captured, analyzed for follow-up actions or recommendations, archived, and internally published. Lessons learned are proprietary and required careful review before they are published to avoid any commercial or legal impacts. Some EPC companies may have a corporate function dedicated to manage lessons learned from all projects. If not, the project management team in the lead office should be responsible for managing lessons learned from all offices. As this is a part of project closing, management of lessons learned needs to be planned, scheduled and have budget provided for like other project work. Project Scope Management After the preliminary project scope statement is developed, the project scope must be further refined. Scope allocation among the offices is a major part of scope management for MOE projects. Depending on the types of projects, the scope can be further divided vertically or horizontally. For example, oil and gas facility construction projects normally divide scope vertically by geographical areas of the facilities while power plant construction projects usually divide the scope horizontally, by specialized technical systems such as steam lines, control systems, rotating equipments, etc. Nevertheless, the project scope should be divided in the fashion that requires as little coordination as possible. In reality establishing a balance between MOE scope division and effort to coordinate the project scopes becomes a fine art for the project management team. Several criteria are used to allocate the scopes among the multiple offices. These include expertise and experience, cost, resource availability, and organizational strategy. The lead office is mainly responsible for scope allocation. It is identified in this paper that clear understanding of scope is one of the key elements to successful MOE. Therefore, it is highly recommended that the lead office organize kick-off meetings to engage the support offices as soon as possible in order to develop the scope definition and WBS. It is crucial that these processes are a joint effort between the lead office and support offices. This will develop a better understanding of the scope and a sense of ownership for the support offices which will later benefit the scope control process (e.g., recognizing scope changes and their impacts). Tools that are used for scope planning are responsibility matrices that clearly indicate the responsibility among the offices at project deliverable level (e.g., division of responsibility, material assignment schedule, control and monitoring needs, etc.). Detail responsibility to verify and accept the project deliverables can also be included in the responsibility matrix. Critical deliverables are accepted directly by the lead office for review before transferring to the Client, while the other deliverables can be submitted directly by the support offices to the Client. However, the lead office has overall responsibility to ensure that the project deliverables are completed as per project scope. The scope should be controlled centrally by the lead office as a part of integrated change management discussed in the previous section. As a result, it is important that the lead office has a good understanding and control of the scopes that are performed by all offices. Project Time Management Project work broken down into tangible components and assigned to a resource is essential for schedule development. Project schedules should be developed by the lead office in close communication and cooperation of support offices. The lead office usually initiates high-level schedule which contains major project milestones usually knows as master schedule, then the support offices provide detail information (e.g., activity sequence, activity resource estimating and activity duration estimating) to be incorporated into the master schedule. Once the project schedule is developed and adopted as a time management tool, activity status information required to update this schedule is collected from all offices. It is important that all offices follow the master project schedule. Use of universal scheduling tools that provides visibility to all offices particularly benefits the MOE execution. Communicating and resolving schedule misalignments among offices is considered to be one of the challenges for MOE. Therefore, it is recommended that the master schedule control is centralized and the lead office assign personnel to coordinate schedule information from all offices. Project Cost Management Cost estimating is a significant activity during the early execution of the project. During the early stage the scope and responsibilities are with the lead office, therefore the cost estimating is also performed by the lead office. Early estimates are conceptual estimates with some details (e.g., major equipment cost, estimated bulk quantities and construction cost). When further design development takes place and if significant scopes are allocated to support offices, area estimators could be assigned to provide input to the lead estimating team. Detail estimates are developed when significant engineering is completed. Input and feedback from all the execution offices are used in developing detail estimates. Once the detailed estimates are approved and implemented each support office is responsible for its scope of work. Typically, total cost management and final reporting remain the responsibilities of the lead office. Cost control strategy can be either centralized or decentralized, depending upon the scope splits, project staffing, level of effort needed to control and report project cost. For instance, if a support office is allocated a small scope (e.g., the support office only produces isometric drawings), total cost control can be performed by the lead office. On the other hand, if a support office has significant scope (i.e. a complete plant area), cost control for that area can be assigned to the support office with periodic reporting to the lead office. Regardless of centralized or decentralized cost control strategy, the lead office has a responsibility to control and report to the Client overall project cost. Project Quality Management The quality planning should be initiated by the lead office with consideration to Clients quality standards and requirements. Project quality assurance and quality control are typically executed by all offices. For the MOE projects that involve support offices from foreign countries or from different companies, different quality practices may be allowed as long as they comply with the project quality management plan. In case the quality assurance and control of support offices do not comply to project quality plan, the lead office may need to execute these two processes as appropriate. Project Human Resource Management For MOE projects, the lead office should initiate the human resource planning by providing allocated man-hour budget to the support offices. Factors such as capability, reliability, quality, and expertise of the support offices should also be considered when developing the budgets. Then the support offices are responsible for developing their own staffing plans. The lead office should also ensure that: the budgets allocated to the support offices are appropriate; all managers are trained to do staff planning; and the staffing plans developed by the support offices align with project plans (e.g., budget, schedule, and scopes of work). As leadership is crucial for project success, the project lead roles (e.g., engineering leads) in the support offices should be identified early. These lead roles provide direction to the teams and are communicating channels between the lead office and the support offices. Some projects may instead select to assign a coordinating role for smaller scope of work allocated to the support offices. Lead offices may influence staff assignments at support offices especially for the lead positions. However, the support offices are usually responsible for acquiring their own project teams for the reasons that they have better knowledge and understanding of their staff as well as they are directly responsible for the staff career development. MOE projects have to overcome many challenges in developing the project team. Phone calls and meetings between offices in different time zones are more difficult to arrange while communicating only via emails may not be an ideal approach to develop a working relationship. Cultures and languages also add challenges to communication. It also takes time to develop trust and working relationship between offices which is a challenge for offices that have never worked together before or offices that have high-turnover or are downsized. Other challenges are standardizing or aligning work processes. This paper identifies that having staff from the leading office visit support offices at regular intervals and vice versa is an effective approach to build project team for MOE projects. These visits could be for training, meetings, or trouble shootings. The project should arrange these visits as often as possible during the project life cycle. VDO conference is also recommended as a more effective meeting tool than just a phone conference. The project management should be instrumental in arrange all-office team building activities such as project progress presentation, discipline presentations and recognition and reward program. Each office is responsible for managing its own staff. However, the lead office needs to manage overall performances of the support offices. Cultural difference should be considered for appropriate management style. It should also be noted that the performances between offices should not be compared without understanding the legitimate factors that may impact the performance from each office (e.g., expertise experience). Other challenge found in managing the MOE team is that delivery and performance issues (e.g., rework, delay, or actual amount of remaining work) may not be communicated to the lead office. These are often driven by fear of negative consequences such as losing work. Therefore, it is important to set reasonable performance targets based on capability of the support offices and the lead office provides support in solving any performance issues such as training and trouble shooting. Project Communication Management As a part of communication planning, it is recommended that the stakeholder analysis is performed for all offices to determine the project communication requirements. Communication planning should address information, information originator, information receiver, frequency, and communication medium. It is important that the lead office is the only point of contact for handling commercial and contractual matters. When appropriate, mass communication methods such as group email, project portal, shared drive are recommended for MOE projects. It is important that project changes (e.g., revisions) are communicated with high priority between offices to prevent rework, especially if work is shared between multiple offices (e.g., outputs from one office become inputs for the other offices). To facilitate the information distribution during the execution phase, the use of information distribution matrix is recommended. The matrix determines the list of employees that the information is to be distributed to and is managed by document management group. Overall project performance reporting should be a responsibility of the lead office with inputs from support offices. The performance reporting should be included in the communication management plan. Reporting schedule and format should be developed and agreed upon by all offices. Necessary trainings (e.g., use of tools to collect performance information, data gathering and data analysis) should be provided to all offices to ensure reporting accuracy and consistency. Project Procurement Management One of procurement decisions to be made at the beginning of an MOE project is purchasing and managing strategy for each material commodity. It is generally more economical that bulk material (e.g., bulk piping materials, steel, and cables) requirements from all offices are consolidated and purchased together by the lead office. However, commodities that require customized engineering design such as mechanical and electrical equipments may be managed more effectively if they are procured by the same engineering office. After the decisions are made, the procurement organization then can be setup to support the commodity management strategy. It is a best practice to have procurement organizations in all engineering offices. However, some smaller projects may choose to setup only one project procurement organization in the lead offices. Subcontract function (which is a part of procurement management per project pr

Christianity On-line Essay -- Personal Narrative Communities Essays

Christianity On-line On-line communities are a foreign concept to me. I have never joined one, or even been curious to see what they are like. The only experience I have had with them is in middle school when I used to go into chat rooms and talk to other teens. The only conversation involved there was about music and movies. It has been years since I have ventured into anything on-line except for checking my e-mail or downloading music. In order to write about on-line communities, the assignment given to the class I am in, I had to go on-line and explore the culture myself. Since I had no idea what server to use or what sites were popular, the task was a little daunting. The first thing I looked at was " The Lost Library of Moo ," a site I went to because it was a resource tool listed on the Website for my English class. We had looked at it once before in class to practice navigating it. The only thing I got from the site was that the pictures were pretty and interesting. I did not understand the purpose of it or how to play games that were available. Even reading the introduction and summary of what the site was about confused me. It talked about making verbs written in the language of Moo and virtual reality. The concept of Moo had never been clearly explained to me, so trying to figure the site out on my own was not getting me anywhere. The site is categorized as a MUD or MOO, which is designed to be an educational tool. I was getting discouraged because I could not even understand the directions. The site also talked about signing on to the server and being a "character." I did not even know how to maneuver a game; creating a charact er for it was not even an option for me. Since I was totally l... ...manner. It is easy for people with common interests to meet and exchange views. A person is able to cut through normal small talk that is involved when first meeting someone else, and ask direct questions about the topic known to be important to both of them. On-line communities offer a sense of belonging right away. That is why Christianity or any religion often becomes popular sites with active discussion boards. A topic that is carefully worded to be politically correct when talked about in person, can be discussed frankly when using a screen name. It allows people to be comfortable enough to share their feelings and show their ignorance without worrying about repercussions. I support on-line discussion boards, even though it takes away from face-to-face interaction, something that is necessary when building a solid relationship with another person.

Art: in the beginning Essay

Art, can you imagine a time when art wasn’t part of your culture, it has been around for an extremely long time even the crave man did it. Imagine how much it has evolved since then. In order to understand the technical aspect of art, how the art was created and understanding it’s meaning, you have to travel back in time to Egyptian art. Egypt started it all which influenced the Greeks’ art. Both Egyptian and Greek art has played a heavy influence on today’s Western traditional art. However, they both went about the creation of Art differently. They had different focal points, technics and humanistic views. Embark through the journey of learning about Ancient Art and maybe your view point on art will change. Egyptian imagery was governed by sociality ideals of what was suitable at the time which is why their art seem to appear extremely stagnant. This was done on purpose because they believe that it made their art seem stable with a deific balance. Egyptian art had a common theme, its focused on gods/goddess, royalty and the afterlife. Their art conveyed an idealized version of a person. However, Greeks art may have been influenced by Egyptian art but they took a more of a realistic focal point of art. When creating a human they created a realistic idea of a person by emphasizing facial expressions, stance and their location upon the canvas. When the Egyptian may have focus more on the afterlife then the living the Greeks was the opposite, they value life. Their differences doesn’t stop there it is evident that they both used different approaches to create art. Every artist has a median they used to create the picture they have in their mind. For instance the Egyptian used stone, wood and metal to create sculptures. This limited the amount of movement and actions of the depicted image. Egyptian artists embraced the two-dimensional surfaces. This is where registers where created, separate the scene in the picture as well as a floor for the figure to appear to be standing on. Without the registers the scene would appear chaotic; battles and hunting scenes. The Greeks enjoy creating art on pottery, the Black-and-Red (later there was also Red-and-Black) techniques were used to decorate fine pottery. The formation and creation of the pot in its self is art with the added effect of the  picture that was place on the surface. This form of art had a practical used to it because the specific shapes signified its daily usage, storing and transportation of wine and amphora (food things). Both Egypt and Greece biggest influence of art was based on the human world. They saw the beauty of the naked body but they still have different ideals. The Egypt highlighted the physic of a person rather the humanistic characteristic. While the Greek figure is in the nude, athletic built, youthful, and has a perfect proportion. Egyptians mainly focus on the complete picture. If you standing in an ancient art museum will you be able to identify the Egyptian art and the Greek art by now looking at the technical aspect? They may have a big influence on today’s world of art. The creation of pottery is relatively the same just more efficient with modern technology. The center point of art may have shifted but they all universally go back to the same theme, human life. The technical aspect of art varies now a days and humans remain the focal point of art. Both Egyptians and Greeks approach of art was great, both embodies today’s art.

buy custom Medical Care of Wounded Veterans essay

buy custom Medical Care of Wounded Veterans essay Introduction Veteran soldiers have been receiving medical care since the World War II. During the war, quite a large number of soldiers got injured. Some were even deceased as a result. For these reason medical care was availed to the soldiers to ensure that they were well cared for. This medical care was provided free of charge to the soldiers and in some cases the soldiers benefited from the medical care even after they were discharged from the service. However, there were some conditions which were considered before one could benefit from the medical services. These conditions were to be the key factors to be considered during the process of awarding medical benefits to the war veterans. Some of these conditions included the following. If a veteran soldier was wounded during the war and the wounds caused a permanent disability due to injuries acquired from the war, the veteran was entitled to a lifetime medical care (Priest and Hull, 14). The Situation during World War 2 During the war some of the veterans were exposed to mental shock that needed psychological attention. Due to this reason the soldiers were to be given quality mental health that would see them through these conditions. These benefits were received in terms of monthly pension for the permanently disabled veterans due to injuries or due to disease that was acquired during the wars. These benefits were supposed to be an incentive to the war veterans who took part in various wars from World War II, Vietnam war to Iraq and Afghanistan war. But the question is do this veterans receive these benefits in terms of medical services as stated? According to Wheeler and Thomas (308), during the Second World War the war veterans were entitled to medical care during and after the war. The injured or the diseased soldiers were given special medical attention in the process of war. During this second war, airplanes were the most preferred mode of transferring the wounded soldiers to the hospitals for treatment. It is imperative to note that there were varying situations in the various hospitals that offered medical care to the war veterans. Among the most notable deplorable conditions was in the Walter Reed hospital in the US where injured veterans were more often than not caught in a Catch 22 situation. There was a much messed up bureaucratic situation which would only be compared to the battlefield where the soldiers were fighting. Many of the soldiers brought in the hospitals were being taken care of by other wounded soldiers owing to the fact that here were minimal practitioners in the medical camps. The soldiers who faced p sychological disorders were the ones put in charge of more suicidal patients brought in the facilities. Improvement in Medical care now There has been a very considerable improvement in the quality of helth care that the war veterans have received In Iraq. It has been noted especially by the third eye or otherwise the media that wounded soldiers in Iraq who would probably not have survived under normal conditions are now surviving thanks to the high standards of medical care given to the wounded soldiers. According to a report by Shapiro (67), although close to 47% of the respondents feel that there is a high quality of medication offered for the wounded soldiers in the front line in Iraq than in the military hospitals immediately they get back to the US, there are also a number of people who feel that the wounded soldiers do not get quality treatment on the front lines, this was represented by 43%. It has been also reported that a majority of Americans whose family member has been serving in the military carry a negative opinion of the military facilities with 41% believing that the care given in the military facili ties is worse. Recent efforts to improve medical care for veterans During the 2008 presidential campaigns, there was a highly contested debate that was centered at bringing to the forefront the issue of compensating the veterans. According to the Harvard School of Public Health (23) the issue of dissatisfaction in the health care services offered in the medical facilities became a major issue in the presidential campaigns. This would particularly affect the majority of the voters who had family members working in the military. During the World War 2, there were many veterans who suffered in quest of securing their countries. As such, many of them suffered work related injuries and consequent disability; many were exposed to chemicals that affected them in more than one way. Recently, there have been considerable government efforts to compensate the veterans who grossly suffered, there were those who were exposed t atomic bomb blasts during training and therefore developed high cancer rates. In a camp in LeJeune, families of the military men and wome n have suffered from cancer owing to the high risk occasioned by the carcinogens buried on the ground by the government (Priest and Hull, 18). Financial Implications for poor medical care Economists in the US have attributed the ongoing cases of poor medication on the veterans to improper government incentives thanks to the myopic eye of the finance docket. According to a recent study by Harvard University, there is a very serious financial implication of the war in Iraq as well as Afghanistan that if care is not taken, there is going to be a meltdown in the Department of Veterans Affairs the arm charged with the duty of taking care of the war veterans in the United States of America. According to the study, the Veterans Association is underfunded as well as under-equipped to tackle issues to do with the current and future financial implications of the veteranss healthcare. This will no doubt mean that in there is a high likelihood that there will continue being a deteriorated service offered to the veterans since there are not enough infrastructures to deal with the ever increasing number of cases. Literature on the situation Just like during the World War 2 however, there has been no major change in the kind of care give to the war veterans. For instance, during the world war 2, military officers in Vietnam received medical care fee of close to USD 5,000, this at that point in time was quite a lot of money that would sustain them, unfortunately, even as the economic times get harder, this amount has not been reviewed and as such, the officers are subjected to a very pathetic condition. The study further estimates there are almost 16 soldiers who get wounded in every fatal situation ever since the beginning of Global War on Terror. This is a casualty rate which exceeds the statistics of previous wars (Priest and Hull, 23). The findings of this report were that at least 200,000 soldiers who had been deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan got treatment at the Veterans Associations medical facility. In this regard, this study further predicts a sky rocketing in the cost of medical care as well as compensation targeting the returning veterans to up to seven hundred billion dollars. Perhaps it would give a more insightful look if we considered veteran fighters all over the world as the single most people who gave birth to many independent nations today. It is also a more insightful approach if we considered the fact there are indeed many more veteran fighters who until today have strongly upheld the mantle in ensuring that the light of stability in many wore torn countries is upheld (Harvard School of Public Health, 23). Conclusion In conclusion therefore, the question that therefore arises is to what extent the independent governments have and other agencies done to ensure that these fighters have been well taken care of. There is an African proverb that states that it is only a fool who sits on a plate that has fed him. It is in this regard that I would love to mention categorically that the government should be keen in ensuring that war veterans have been accorded the best medications since they protect a country more than any other citizen. The fact that there are more veterans who suffered than those who survived means that there should be a system of rewarding them not only financially through compensation for the injuries they suffered but a good medical system that would assure them of their health tomorrow. Today, many governments and especially the United States have considered improving the Veteran Association facilities to cater for the health needs of the soldiers in the event of injuries in their course of duty. Buy custom Medical Care of Wounded Veterans essay

The Atomic Bomb on Japan essays

The Atomic Bomb on Japan essays World War II began on September 1, 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Three days later Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declared war on Germany when Hitler refused to withdraw from Poland. On December 7, 1942 the United States joined the war after Japan made a surprise attack and virtually destroyed the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. The United States practically went head to head with Japan in the South Pacific. The war was finally ended on August 9, 1945 after the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs over Japan. One was over the city of Hiroshima and the other was over the city of Nagasaki. According to the History Channel and numerous other sources people have asked if it was right to totally destroy two Japanese cities and kill hundreds of thousands of people? In my opinion it was because it destroyed the Japanese will to fight, it saved many American lives, and effectively ended World War II. Dropping the atomic bomb on Japan destroyed the Japanese will to fight. There are some that say the only reason it destroyed their will to fight was because it killed innocent people. While it did kill innocent people, I do not believe that it was the reason that their will to fight was destroyed. I think that it was because they could not figure out how to defend themselves against an enemy that could destroy an entire city with one bomb. Had the war gone on any longer, Tokyo would have been bombed and the emperor most likely killed. By surrendering when they did they ensured that the emperor would not die. Had the United States invaded Japan, the loss of life would have most likely been enormous. The Japanese considered it a great honor to die for their country and emperor. This can be witnessed in the way that they built their aircraft and fought. The Zero Fighter was very lightly armored. This was done so that it could be faster and more maneuverable. The pilots kne ...

The relationship researches establish with those they study Essay

The relationship researches establish with those they study. (Questioning the Us vs. Them divide) - Essay Example For a time, an intellectual compromise seemed an unreachable destination. Until the World Health Organization offered an operational elucidation, which for decades now, holds the title for acceptability and universality. WHO states that gender pertains to the socially created roles, behaviors, activities and characteristics that a particular group of people deems appropriate for the male and the female (WHO). Gender systems, on the other hand, are binary and hierarchic classifications and distinctions based on empiric (biological) or social considerations: male or female; man or woman. This set of categorization, which determines how society looks at and deals with a person, is a matter of great importance. But â€Å"even though there are actual differences between the two human beings, these do not signify that one sex is better than the other† (Lippa 2). From Mars, from Venus The school of Gender Fundamentalism posits that men and women are absolutely and intrinsically diffe rent in so many ways more than the physical. That an attempt to ask which genitalia is better than the other is way too nonsensical. ... According to him, both sexes have communication patterns that are situated in opposite poles. In times of stress, women cope by narrating their stories with others, while men just shy away and retreat before any resolution is achieved. In terms of intimate relationships, men desire to be trusted, appreciated and needed; while women long to be cherished, cared for and affirmed (Gray 15-16). But a close examination of Dr. Gray’s bestselling book tells readers that aside from the unmistakable differences in behavior, outlook and character, men and women still have fundamental similarities with each other. This point-of-view is supported by a book written by communication connoisseur Deborah Cameron in 2007, as a seeming rejoinder to Gray’s nonfiction masterpiece. She points out that the theories of Darwin hold water in the case of social roles and relationships between the sexes. In her dissertation, she also cites that the linguistic variations between the male and the fe male ‘discourse patterns’ are rooted from childhood when the socialization process begins. â€Å"The need to create and to express personal meaning and identity are significant players in the characterizations of men and women. Both desire to be understood. Both need to be accepted. The difference only lies in how society views their actuation† (Cameron 55). Another insightful discussion on this matter shall be undertaken in the succeeding portion of this paper. History versus Herstory Since the dawn of civilization, societies are governed by leaders who are identified with the ‘male’. Anthropologists and even the members of the laity know that societies are inclined to be patriarchal, if not chauvinistic in favor

Important Trends in Popular Music Emerged in the Early 1960s Assignment

Important Trends in Popular Music Emerged in the Early 1960s - Assignment Example It was in the sixties that Soul and Surf music, Latin tunes, Country and Folk hymns, and Psychedelic Acid Rock rise out from Rock ‘N Roll, making all of these accepted by that year’s generation. Apparently, though his about splashy tides of oceans, pretty ladies in bikinis, and muscular gents with surfing boards became the basis of â€Å"surf music.† Characteristics of its hymn include being brazen and â€Å"instrumental† like that of the sea’s excitement and captivating sense of â€Å"rush.† Since then, people associated the sport called â€Å"surfing† with it, that is why, famous tunes like Surf City of Jan and Dean, Misirlo of Dick Dale, and Surfin’ USA of the Beach Boys appeal to all surf-lovers even if the artists themselves are non-surfers. However, tunes are not all about shores and oceans since this had started in Hawaii as â€Å"chants† for their prayer and meditation purposes. Its impact during the sixties was so intense that even if there were no shorelines to relate with and buildings rather dominate the place, it was embraced by American youth at that time (â€Å"Surf Culture†). During the critical days of the sixties when violent things seemed to monopolize, the so-called Rhythm and Blues (R&B) in the industry have flunked shortly to give way to â€Å"soul music.† Inspired with the uprising of â€Å"civil rights,† the blacks have dominated it, though it was seen as a counterpart of white’s R&B; thus, it has given them the opportunity to defy cultural differences. With this, the songs were basically inspirational and were aiming to relay a message of peace, equality, and unity.