Hybrid cars Essay Example for Free

Hybrid cars Essay Hybrid 1 Outline I. Introduction A. Gas prices are up, the environment is suffering, and Americas are fearful of relying too much on foreign oil. Are hybrid cars the answer? II. What a hybrid car is A. Description of a hybrid car B. The two types of a hybrid 1. Parallel 2. Series III. Advantages of a Hybrid car A. Environment 1. Carbon Dioxide 2. Global Warming 3. Effect on the human body B. National 1. Discussion on foreign oil 2. What America can do to reduce our dependence C. Federal 1. Tax Deductions on National level 2. Local incentives D. Mileage Hybrid 3 1. Why hybrids get more mileage 2. Calculator on my own car IV. Disadvantages A. Price V. Conclusion With all the advantages that hybrids have to offer, it’s something a new car consumer should seriously consider. One person can make a difference! Hybrid 4 Gas prices are up 23% from a year ago and global warming is a constant fear of scientists and people alike. What then can one person do to help the current situation of gas and pollution? Buy a hybrid car! Hybrid sales have doubled in the past year and according to J. D. Power and Associates, hybrid sale should hit 200,000 in 2005. Within 20 years, Toyota’s top guy in the U. S. , Jim Press, thinks almost every car on the market is going to be a hybrid. So what exactly is a hybrid car and what are all the things a consumer should look for when buying one? Here are some specifics; the good and the bad. A vehicle is considered hybrid is the source of power comes from two sources. A hybrid car combines gasoline and electric power. The car has a normal gas tank, but also a set of batteries. The batteries are recharged every time the person drives the car so there is no need to plug it in like very old, original electric cars. Instead of having just a transmission, the batteries provide electricity to an electric motor which then turns the transmission. There are two different types of hybrid cars. One is a parallel hybrid. This has a fuel tank and batteries and both the engine and batteries turn the transmission over at the same time. Both the electric motor and gas engine can provide power. The other is a Series hybrid, which has a generator. Gas turns the generator and that can either charge the batteries or power the motor. The gas engine never actually powers the car. The electric motor of a hybrid car is very sophisticated. It works as a motor and generator and draws energy from the batteries. The batteries store energy for the car and the motor can either draw energy from them or recharge them. Hybrid 5 So what are some advantages of owning a hybrid vehicle? This is going to look at environmental, national, federal, and economic advantages of having one. First is environmental. â€Å"A car that burns twice as much gas to go a mile will generate approximately twice as much pollution. † (Nice, Karim. ) A gallon of gas weighs about 6 pounds and when it’s burned off it produces almost 20 pounds of carbon dioxide. In the U. S. alone, cars and trucks consume 8. 2 million barrels of oil EACH DAY which calculates to over 300 million tons of carbon each year. This is the largest part of carbon dioxide emissions, even more then factories and homes. If cars and trucks improved by just 5 mpg, Americans could save 1. 5 million barrels of oil a day or 55 million tons of carbon a day. Decreasing fuel consumption therefore reduces emissions. There is also carbon dioxide that cars release into the air and that scientists believe contribute to global warming. Again, twice as much gas leads to twice as much carbon dioxide. If saving the environment still sounds like something too big for one person and one at a time, here is a more personal thing to consider, the effect that vehicle air pollution has on the human body. It can cause problems such as decreases in lung capacity, acute respiratory problems, reduces the release of oxygen to body tissue, contributes to birth defects low birth weight, infant death, and makes otherwise healthy kids 3 to 4 times more likely to develop asthma. There are also concerns on the national level. Even though our consumption of oil is ever increasing, our production of oil has gone down since the 1970’s. For most of the 20th century, we made so much oil that we had enough left over for export. But now Hybrid 6 America relies on imported oil. â€Å"In 2001, imported oil accounted for 55% of US consumption; this figure is projected to rise to 70% by 2020. † (http://www. hybridcars. com. ) Nearly two-thirds, or 80%, of the world’s known oil reserves are under just six Persian Gulf nations: Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Iran and Qatar. This forces the U. S. military to stay in foreign bases to oversee our free excess to oil, it arouses hostility from those in these countries who have anti-American feelings, and the production of oil in these countries only benefit world super-powers and make the rich richer and the poor poorer leading to more hostile feelings toward America. Some also go so far as to say us paying these countries for oil is providing terrorists with great sums of wealth, which they use for organized anti-American endeavors such as the plane high-jackings of September 11th. Ever since September 11th, Americans are leery of relying on gulf countries for our oil supply because rely is exactly what we do. The gas prices we pay reflect what other countries charge for their barrels of oil. Increasing efficiency of cars and trucks can play a role in reducing our dependency on foreign oil. By raising fuel efficiency by just 2. 7 mpg, Americans can save enough to extinct all oil imports from Iraq and Kuwait combined. By raising it 7. 6 mpg, Americans could eliminate 100% gulf oil imports! And, in President Bush’s energy bill proposal, he said he wants to use empty military bases as oil refineries in order to increase our supply, but instead of relying on government, individuals can really impact our part in buying foreign oil by getting better gas mileage and basically using less. Hybrid 7 There are also the federal level incentives the think about when buying a hybrid vehicle. The Clean-Fuel Vehicle Deduction tax break was given during this season. People who bought a hybrid in 2004/05 could claim up to a $2000 deduction when they do their taxes. In 2005/06, it’s scheduled to drop to $500, but if a new energy bill passes the number will go back up. There are also local incentives to buying a hybrid. If a person bought one in San Jose, CA, they are exempt from local parking fees. Colorado offers a tax credit. Connecticut exempts the sales tax on a hybrid meeting certain requirements. In Florida and Georgia people who have hybrids can use the high occupancy lanes at any time of the day and no matter how many people are in the car. And Illinois has a program called The Illinois Alternate Fuels Rebate Program which pays 80% or up to $4000 to convert your vehicle to an alternate fuel system. On to mileage. This is a big one that car consumers are looking at today. Instead of getting the average 15 to 26 mpg, a hybrid can get anywhere from 50 to 60 mpg! That’s a huge difference! This is achieved because hybrid vehicles convert energy that is normally wasted when a person coasts and breaks into electricity, which is then stored into the batteries until needed by the motor. The motor is also used to assist the engine when going up hills or when the car is driving in low speeds. Low speeds, like city driving are the least efficient fuel conditions. Some hybrids also automatically shut off the engine when the car comes to a stop preserving the fuel and energy. Some websites have online calculators that measure your own car up against a hybrid of your choice. I used one to measure my own car and got these results. If a person typically drives 10,000 miles a year and pay the national average of $2. 10 per gallon and gets 23 miles per Hybrid 8 gallon, this is what a person would save if they had a hybrid: 235 gallons of gas, 4,696 pounds of carbon dioxide, and $493 a year. (Stern, Linda. ) For this online calculator, I used http://www. hybridcars. com/calculator/index. php to compare my car with a new Lexus RX, which is a hybrid vehicle similar to my own. This website allows you to put in what make and model your car is and compare it to any hybrid vehicle to see the difference in consumption and cost. Hybrid 9 So are there really any downsides to owning a Hybrid? Almost every car review only state one flaw, and that’s the price. A 2005 Ford Escape Hybrid base cost $27,560. The Toyota Highlander Hybrid with four-wheel drive costs $39,290. And the most popular, Toyota Prius, cost around $27,000. The sophisticated computer control that makes everything work in these cars makes is what makes them expensive, at least more expensive then their non-electric counterparts. Also hybrid owners complain that they don’t actually get the mileage they are supposed to but that can be said for every car since too many factors go into affecting your mileage per gallon. With all the advantages such as helping the environment and saving ourselves from being so dependant on foreign oil, not to mention helping our health and our own personal wealth, most feel the added price of a hybrid vehicle is not something to hard to overcome. New car consumers should seriously look into whether a hybrid car is the right choice for them because this really is something that individuals can do to better our world. Hybrid 10. Bibliography Nice, Kerry.â€Å"How Hybrid Cars Work. † How Stuff Works. 1998-2005. http://auto. howstuffworks. com/hybrid-car. htm. Newman, Richard J. â€Å"Invasion of the Green Machines. † U. S. News and World Report. V138 (May 9, 2005) pg. 48-54. Stern, Linda. â€Å"Money: Is a Hybrid Worth It? † Newsweek. April 4, 2005. Berman, Bradley. 2003-2005. http://www. hybridcars. com/. No Author. â€Å"Spotlight: What’s a Hybrid Car? † CARE2 Make a Difference. 2005. http://www. care2. com/channels/ecoinfo/hybrid.

Solutions To Overcome HR Issues

Solutions To Overcome HR Issues Reliance telecommunications LTD is an Indian telecommunication company founded by Anil Ambani in 2004.The headquarters of the company is in Navi Mumbai India. Reliance telecommunication is the 15th largest telecommunication provider in the world with 150 million subscribers and the second largest telecommunication provider in India. The company has segments like wireless and broadband in telecommunication industry. The company achieved a high growth in telecommunication industry from the beginning stage itself. Customer satisfaction and good company policies made them to competitive with other companies. Reliance communications follows good human resource policies and procedures even though it has some draw backs. Vision of the company-Providing information, communication, entertainment services and being the benchmark in customer experience, employee centricity and innovation is the main vision of the company. Mission of the company-meeting beyond customer needs and wants with a segmented approach, relentless offering of services and products that are value for cash and stimulate customers, offer a network experience that is best in the communication industry, make reliance in to an international brand which is a iconic brand by others and lead industry in target to purchase and faithfulness. INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Human resource management refers to an assortment of policies used to systematize work in the employment relationship and centres on the management of work and the management of people who undertakes this work. Therefore HRM is concerned with recruitment, selection, learning and development, reward, communication, teamwork and routine management. While it is relatively easy to list activities that make up HRM, It is a subject that stimulates much debate and disagreement. The hr process is considered as important for the management of the consumer pleasure with human recourses. The clients find comfortable and will be satisfied when they understand the hr processes and how they are connected and the hr processes interact. Modern hr processes are measured and frequently analysed and identifies the irregularities in the activities and it brings the improvements for the benefits of the organisation. The success of Human Resources Management is in the connection of all HR processes as they provide the adequate supports to workers and the managers. So the main aim of Human Resource Management is to keep the human capital ready for action on the market and the rational grouping of HR Processes helps to interact and manage the individual processes. Every organisation has their own HR processes, but the main HR Processes are always same in all companies as it is the market HR Best Practices. Human Resource Management is considered as a comparatively new approach to Personnel Management. HRM emphasizes primarily on its strategic contributions and its closer alignment to business, HRM is a vital component of any organization, its involvement among other components of line management is notable (Paauwe. J, Jan 2009). Paauwe further suggests that HRM aims on its ultimate goals such as High job performance, low absence and high cost effectiveness through the efficient utilization of the man power of the company. Human resource is really the major component of any organization, the success or failure of an organization heavily relies on its Man power management. Maslows need Hierarchy theory is considered as guiding principle for HR Management across the globe. Maslow identified the very basics of human motivation factors. Following this principle it can be assumed that to motivate an employee HR manager should understand his level of expectations, potential of the employee, a nd should evaluate the performance before and after certain motivational measures implemented. KEY HUMAN RESOURCE ACTIVITIES OF RELIANCE TELECOMMUNICATIONS MANPOWER PLANNING Human Resource Planning is the integral part of Human Resource Management Human Resource Planning estimates the optimal level of Man power requirement on the basis of quality and quantity. Thus HRP can be considered as the foundation of Human Resource management. Although HR planning is very important it cannot be executed faultlessly in all cases, as HR is dependent on various factors such as employment situation of the country, influence of technological advancement, changes in the organization structures, Demographic factors such as age, population, composition of workforce, lack of skill, multicultural workforce etc. Certain pressure groups will also affect the precision of the HRP. Understanding of competencies of the Human resource is vital in forming a successful HR frame work. Lengnic-Hall, 1988, Milliman et al., 1991, describes the terms Internal and External fit, Internal fit refers to the extent to which the manpower constituents are linked in a logical way and how effecti vely they support themselves, on the other hand external fit primarily focus on the strategy of the organization, external fit reveals to what extent human resources systems are integrated. Manpower Planning or Human Resource Planning includes putting exact number of people, exact kind of people at the exact place, exact time at a low cost. Personnel Planning hold an important place in the world of industrialization. Personnel Planning has to be a systematic approach and is managed in a set of model operations. The procedure is as follows: Assessing the present manpower in the company Forecasting the future needs budding employment programmes Organising training programmes BENEFITS OF MAN POWER PLANNING Manpower planning is very important part of human resource management. A few importance of man power planning are. concentrated labour cost.-with the help of manpower planning there is most favourable operation of labour force in the organisation workers are given those jobs to implement for which they are skilled (right person for the right job).it leads to overall progress of the man power in the organisation. Optimum utilisation of manpower: it helps to utilise the labour force in the company which helps in the growth of manpower in the organisation. Develops business plan-Man power planning is an important part of overall business planning. No business can survive without having the right type and number of people doing the right work at the right time. Helps in career succession planning-with the help of better manpower planning it helps to produce a good career succession of employees which provides much lead time for internal succession of workers through higher position through encouragement. Development of the organisation- The man power planning helps in the expansion of an organisation. Growth in overall business planning-Manpower planning is a main part of overall business planning. Efficient manpower planning will help to improve the business. RECRUITEMENT AND STAFFING Recruitment and staffing is the process of selecting the right labours in to the organisation. The main aim of recruitment is to look for and be a magnet for persons with skilled to fill the vacancies. This process includes job analysis preparing personnel requirement sources of skilled employees. Job analysis Job analysis is a process of analysing the job in detail and providing the details of job needs to the HR planning department they present details as job specification and job analysis. Job analysis is important in the whole organisation. And they will provide the details of manpower requirements. The main sources of recruitment are Reliance communications have two main sources of recruitment internal and external internal external sources of recruitment(figure.2) Internal sources of recruitment are. Promotion-This is a normal source of recruitment, which means providing higher position, salary and responsibilities to the employee. So the position of the job vacancy is filled by promoting the suitable employee within the organisation. Transfers-It means transferring one employee to the other organisation without change in salary and position, so the vacancy can be filled by transfer. Advertising internally-Here the job vacancy is advertised within the organisation so the existing employees in the organisation can apply for the post. So the recruitment is take place inside the organisation. External sources of recruitment are. Selective recruitment through job boards-This is a major source of recruitment .To ensure most appropriate qualified candidates are being applied for the major position. The agency considers the following details for every positions junior, intermediate, senior, Level of education degree, diploma etc. Using these details the company determines which job boards, communication channels, and advertisement strategies are suitable for attract the right skilled candidates to apply for the job positions. Management consultants-For the vacancies in the higher positions in the company, management consultants are used to find the qualified and skilled employees. They act as a recruiter on the behalf of the company. Advertisement for public-The Company advertises the vacancy in internet, newspapers, Television etc. And this will provide the details of the company, job and the qualification required for the position. NEED AND IMPORTANCE OF STAFFING Keep space with new development-New developments are happening every day. A business will have to keep phase with new changes. This will be possible only if competent persons are employed who can adjust as per the new situation. Manpower Development-man power planning will have to be done in advance. The future requirements of personnel will be estimated quite in advance. The new staff will be recruited, people will be prepared for talking up higher responsibility jobs, and all this will be possible with a well planned staffing function. HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPEMENT This function helps the employees to develop their skills and knowledge for increasing their output. This process is not only done for the freshers but also to the existing employees in the firm to develop their skills and responsibilities. Human resource development helps to increase the total knowledge, abilities, skills, talents, and aptitudes of an organisations work force. Human resource development includes function such as training, career development. Training-Training is providing to improve the knowledge and skills of the employees there are mainly two types of training they are on the job training and off the job training. On the job training is a process of giving training in normal working situations using actual materials or documents, equipment, actual tools trainees will make use when completely moulded. Off the job training is usually provided away from the usual working environment, it may include more general skills and knowledge which is useful for the job. This type of training is given by the specialised trainers or from an outside company who outsource the trainers. METHODS OF TRAINING A.Programmed learning- It is a step by step process of self learning method,providing questions, facts, and problems to the learner then allowing the person to respond and providing feed back on the accuracy of the answer. B. Apprentiship training- It is a method of process that the employees will become efficient workers through grouping of classroom coaching and also through on job training. C. Audio visual based training- This method of training includes tools like power point presentation, online video conferencing, audiotapes and video tapes. D. Computer based trining- This training method is widely used to provide good training to employees, it is time consuming and easy way to provide training. It is cost effective while comparing to other training methods. E. Simulated training- In this method trainess will learn from the actual or simulated equipement they will use on the job, but actually trained off the job. F. Lectures- When their is a large number of trainees, this method is used it is the immideate way to give instruction of job related activities within a specified period of time. H. Internet and distance Training Internet training includes video conferencing and web based training, distance training means traditional training paper and pencil correspondence course. 1. Tele training where a trainer in a central location teaches groups of employees at remote locations via television hookups. 2. Videoconferencing Video conferencing will provide the opportunity to train the employees from one location and communicate live through video and audio visuals with people in different locations another country, city etc. 3. Training via the Internet the Internet based learning programs are very popular. Several companies simply let their employees to take online courses provided by online course providers while others use their intranets to facilitate computer-based training. CAREER DEVELOPEMENT Diagram demonstrating your personal development Carrer developement of employees is a crucial part of the organisation, It helps to identifies the overall acheivement of the employees .Career developement is becoming an essential part of HR departement due to todays everchanging organisaton enviornment and work place. Reliance communications helps the employees to attain a good carrer graph based on the company HR policies and procedures. First of all the company gather the strength and weakness of every individual, then they provide different opportunities to develop their carrer based on the strength and weakness. The basic formula for the career developement is self awareness every individual asses their own problems and issues and then the company will help to over come this issues .Now days people are changing their jobs to attain a good carrer success .Reliance communication identifies this problem and they had a good career sucession plan for every individual employee in the organisation. COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS Compensation and benefits is a basic motivational factor to the employees.Every employee will search for high paid jobs,benefits is also another important factor if the company provides good benifits the employees will get good attachment to the company. Benefits include bonus, medical insurance,retierment policies, life insurace, vacation etc.Reliance communicatons provide basic pay which is satisfiable for every employee to motivate the employees and to attract to qualified employees to the organisation. LEADERSHIP DEVELOPEMENT Leadership developement helps the organisation to achieve the goals, through the developement of good leadership in each employee reliance aims at the overall developement of the organisation as well as the growth in employees functioning.Every employee in the organisation is gaining a better leadership quality through the leadership developement function.Each emloyees in the company are closely monitored by the management and if they are weak in the work the company will encourage them.And the workers are councelled by the management to increase work efficiency.And their will be a structured plan to create a positive working enviornment.The main aim of leadership developement is to leading self,leading others and leading the organisation. MAJOR HR ISSUES FACED BY RELIANCE COMMUNICATION ISSUES IN RELIANCE COMMUNICATIONS EMPLOYEE RETENTION POOR HR POLICIES CASH AND COMPENSATION ISSUES 1.CASH AND COMPENSATION ISSUES: Cash and compensation issues is a major problem faced by HR managers in reliance communications. There is more pressure on HR function to pay more incentives and basic pay for the employees.However reliance paying basic salary to each individual employees the company faces more pressure to meet the employee beniefits . 2.EMPLOYEE RETENTION ISSUES: Most of the companies face the same problem of employee lay-offs. So the organisation have to prevent the issue by retaining the employee by providing good working condition and benefits whichever the employees need. In reliance industries there are so many employees leave the company due to lack of co-ordination between workers. The organisation tries to check the issue but fails sometimes. 3. POOR HR POLICIES : The plocies and practices adopted by the HR managers regarding their networking sector is an important example. They brought some new plans in mobile networking sector like low call rate for mobile users, low internet browsing charge.etc., but the competitors like AIRTEL communications, BSNL network, VODAFONE facilitated some more exciting offers than the reliance. In that situation the Reliance communication hesitated to change their HR policies and techniques. From the graphical representation of reliances communications profit from 2007 to 2012, we can easily determine that the profit is coming down in last two years comparing to the past this is due to the poor HR issues as mentioned above.The company is earning a high growth in 2008 and 2009 which is around 55000 million and it is dramatically falling down in the upcoming years.That means the company is facing some major HR issues and also high competition from other companies, so the organisation must change their HR policies eventually. SUGGESTIONS TO OVERCOME THE HR ISSUES Nowdays telecommunication industry is facing high competition from other telecommunication companies, If the company has no good HR stratergies the company cannot exist in the high competative world.Reliance communication is facing some HR issues as mentioned above, to overcome this problems company must do some good HR restructuring process in the company .The first main issue is ; Cash and compensation issues- As it is a major problem the company must find a good solution to overcome this issue, the suggestion to solve this problem is to pay cash and compensation based on the experience of the employees.As mentioned above the company is paying a basic salary to each individual, first of all the company must change this basic payment method,and the compensation and benifits must be paid according to the experience and skills of each individual. So the company can reduce the cost of labour so the company can meet the compensation and benifits of each individual according to the profit earned by the company. Employee retention issues-Retention of employees is another HR issue faced by the company, nowadays a lot of employees are leaving the company due to high pressure of work and lack of co-ordination between employees are the main employee retention issues faced by reliance communication, to reduce this problems reliance must provide good working enviornment to reduce the pressure of work, communication is another way to over come this problem good communication between the management and staff will make a good understanding between the employees and management, this will increase employees confidents and reduce the work pressure.A high rate of employees resigning their job and going to another companies who offer better working enviornment. Better co-ordination is the another way to improve employee retention,co-ordination will improve better relationship between employees and management.And this will result increase employees confidence and work efficiency. Poor HR policies-Due to high competition in communication industry lots of companies introducing new HR techniques to improve their company goodwill .Reliance communication is following the traditional HR policies and plans so the company is facing high market competition from other companies, to exists in the competative market company must improve their HR stratergies and policies.Nowadays companies are providing good offers to the employees so the company must realise the problems and try to overcome such issues.

Key Cryptography Basics :: Encryption Internet Essays

Key Cryptography Basics Problems with internet transactions As discussed in class there are several problems with internet communication. The major three are: Eavesdropping is the risk of having private information viewed as it travels from sender to recipient by a third party. The most popular fear is having your credit card number and information stolen while purchasing something online, but this would apply to any private information delivered over the internet. Tampering is the risk of a third party intercepting a private transaction of information and changing it. An example of this would be altering the recipient fields on a purchase order. Impersonation is the risk of someone impersonating a trusted recipient in order to receive private information. This Encryption Cryptograms in the newspaper are probably one of the most basic forms of encryption. A simple system of swapping letters for other letters is used to disguise the message making it indistinguishable to anyone who does not know the rules of the system. Even though the cryptogram system is so simplistic it is actually considered sporting to crack, the basic logic of encoding is the same for more sophisticated methods. Key Based Encryption (symmetric encryption) In this example of Key based encryption we first create a number conversion table so that we can apply mathematical rules to our message after converting it. Number Conversion Table: a b C d e f g h i j k l m 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 n o P q r s T u v w x y z Space 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 0 Then we decide upon a key. In order to decipher this code the recipient will also be required to posses this key. It will become obvious by the end of our example that the shorter the key the easier the code will be to crack. Key: Encrypted We then take the message and the key convert them using the conversion table and add them together. Then in order to reassign them to a letter value we take the mod base 27 in order to restrict the letter assignment to numbers within the 0 to 27 table. Message: on the internet nobody knows you are a dog

Danger In The Air At North Intermmediate School In Wilmington? :: essays research papers

Danger in the Air At North Intermmediate School in Wilmington?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Is there danger in the air at the North Intermediate School in Wilmington? Apparently carbon dioxide levels have been found to be above acceptable levels in some class rooms. According to a report dated Dec. 9, 1996, by ATC Associations, an independent consulting firm hired by the Town of Wilmington to conduct Indoor Air Quality and Microbiological testing at the school. â€Å"All indoor air quality parameters were within normal guideline ranges with the exception of consistently elevated levels of carbon dioxide and low relative humidity levels throughout the school,† said the report.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  High levels of carbon dioxide indoors can be a sign of poor ventilation in a building. Carbon dioxide is an odorless gas which can cause discomfort at lower levels and act as a mild narcotic at higher concentrations. According to the Dec. 9 report, â€Å"If carbon dioxide levels exceed 800-1000 parts per million(ppm), the ventilation system is not effectively working.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  At the Wilmington School Committee meeting on Feb. 12, school Superintendent Dr. Geraldine A. O'Donnell stated that there was a complaint of a musty odor in one of the class rooms after heavy rains on Nov. 6. There were also complaints of nausea and headaches from numerous students. The room was inspected by Roger Lessard, Public Building Superintendent. Mr. Lessard found the odor was being caused by Science chemicals stored there and mildew on a window ledge in the room.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  School principal Doug Anderson checked with the school nurse for the attendance rate between Oct. 22 and the first week in November and found nothing out of the ordinary. However, being concerned about the safety of the students and staff, Mr. Anderson requested Lessard hire an outside consultant to evaluate the school's air quality.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Town of Wilmington then contracted with ATC Associations of Woburn, Environmental, Geoteccnical, and Materials Professionals. ATC conducted a test at the school Nov. 21 and sampled 19 locations. 11 of the 19 locations tested had a carbon dioxide level of over 800 ppm. The average carbon dioxide level was 900ppm showing the results of inadequate ventilation.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  ATC explained numerous ways to improve the school's ventilation system. These included: trimming the shrubs close to vents; opening windows to allow air

Challenges of Hong Kong Essay

Topic: Challenges of Hong Kong’s full service airlines facing today This essay examines the challenges faced by Hong Kong’s full service airlines nowadays. Air transportation serves not only to encourage trade and growth in the tourism industry in Hong Kong, but also to improve people’s mobility and to form a modern society. In this essay, full service airline is defined as traditional airline that provides services such as allocated seat, transfer of baggage between flights, blankets and meals. Full service airlines suffer several challenges in the aspect of production cost for developing advanced system and competition with low-cost airlines nowadays. For this reason, I would like to investigate the challenges in depth according to the above aspects and figure out possible solutions. Challenge 1: Low-cost airline invasion In recent years, the airline industry has undergone a revolution caused by the growth in population of low-cost carriers, which are airlines that provide discounted fares and no-frills service to passengers, and the increase in the number of low-cost carriers caused a huge growth in departure and arrival of regional airports and established a brand new market in short-break tourism. While low-cost airlines are gaining an increased market share within the industry, the full-service airlines are struggling. Numbers of full-service airlines are on the edge of bankruptcy, and some even had to sign agreements or mergers to ensure their long-run existence. To compete with the no-frills airlines, some full service airlines had set up their own low-cost subsidiary, but a few of them ended up in operational losses, forced to sell their subsidiary. Pels (2008) describes full service airlines as aiming to offer ‘quality’, whereas no-frills carriers aim to keep costs low. He states that although it may be difficult for low-cost airlines to earn money on ticket sales, they may gain profit on board by selling snacks and beverages, and from the airports depart from or land on. Moreover, most low-cost airlines promote themselves for their transparency in the pricing system, thus keeping air travel remarkably affordable, despite the high cost of jet fuel. As low-fare airlines ‘invades’ the airline industry, full service airlines will not only encounter fare pressure, but will also have to progressively  fight with the upstarts for takeoff, landing slots and gate space in Hong Kong or other crowded airports in Asia. In order to encounter this challenge, the airline should emphasize on the services it provides, and focus on improving their flights operations both in the air and on the ground, utilizing optimum flight management procedures and providing customers with sustainable products and services, in order to compete with the rising trend of low-cost airlines. Challenge 2: Managing destinations Full service airlines use the Hub and Spoke System, which enables passengers to travel from one smaller city to another smaller city via a hub or even two hubs. This system not only service more cities at a lower cost, but also maximizes passenger loads, thus saving fuels. Low-cost airlines use ‘simple’ point-to-point networks, as they operate routes which originate or end at a major airport, which allows them to enter any market they see fit. Thus, if the route turns out to be unprofitable, the low-cost carrier will close it down. According to Pels (2008), full service airlines cannot easily withdraw from a market, even if it is hardly profitable, because a full-service carrier’s link between a hub airport and spoke airport serves many different indirect markets. If this route is closed because of the decrease in load factor due to competition on the market between the hub airports and spoke airports, passengers and profits, in all other markets using this link a re lost. According to a survey by the Company Barclaycard, a relatively large number of the business travellers (71%) used low-cost airlines for business trips. This indicates that passenger preferences may be shifting to low-cost, less service airlines. The low-cost carrier attracts passengers from the full-service airlines, thus causes competition and reduces load factors and profits for the full-service airlines. In order to solve this problem, full-service airlines can offer more low-fare tickets on short-haul routes, and use short-haul routes as feeders for the global markets where they make most profits. Even though the competition for indirect travellers is very intense, they will allow conventional airlines to maintain a large network with relatively high frequencies. Challenge 3: Investment on the advanced technology With the rapid development in advanced technologies and popular use in mobile gadgets, reserving a seat on the plane is just one click ahead. Simply by browsing the website of their desired airline, customers will be able to get all the relevant information they will need to plan their trip, including the list of fares in specific dates and allocation of the seats on the aircraft. In addition, systems like automatic airport check-ins and ticketless air travel are getting more popular, and will be the future trends in the airline industry. Therefore, in order to provide the passengers accessibility in online reservations and to build up the image of a green airline, investments are needed to be made on improving the systems. Acknowledging the numerous benefits provided by the internet, airlines have been investing resources in their websites. Standing (2000) claimed that the Web has changed from pushing firms and services to pulling clients into value-added opportunities that a company provides. Airlines do not only compete among each other, they also compete with online travel agents such as Expedia. Thus, to solve this challenge, the airlines should entice travellers to book their trips via the airline’s website, by providing extra benefits to customers when they purchase online. Conclusion To summarize, the challenges that full service airlines in Hong Kong faced are the rising of low-cost airlines, the managing of destinations and huge investments made on developing and improving the systems for reservation and check-ins. It is crucial for airlines to understand that when passengers purchase an airline seat, they are not just paying for a seat in the aircraft; they also purchase the service behind. In order to attract a consumer’s attention, benefits or attributes of using full service airlines and low cost carriers such as price, safety, network connections, and service will be important. REFERENCES: Cooper C. and et al. (1999) Tourism: Principles and Practice, 2nd ed., Longman Publishing: Harlow. Driver, J. (1999). Developments in airline marketing practice. Journal of Marketing Practice: Applied Marketing Science, 5 (5), 134–150. Law, R. & Leung, R. (2000). A Study of Airlines’ Online Reservation Services on the Internet. Journal of Travel Research, 39 (2), 202-211. Moiseiwitsch, J. (2012). Budget airlines find Hong Kong a tough market to crack. In South China Morning Post. Retrieved November 6, 2014 from http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/1404255/budget-airlines-find-hong-kong-tough-market-crack Pels, E. (2008). Airline network competition: Full-service airlines, low-cost airlines and long-haul markets. Research in Transportation Economics, 24 (1), 68-74. Sigala M. (2003) The Information and Communication Technologies Productivity Impact on the UK Hotel Sector, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 23(10), 1224-45. Wang, J. & Lee, S. (2014). Asia’s Budget Airline Invasion. In Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved November 6, 2014 from http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-02-13/asias-budget-airline-invasion-cathay-pacific-defends-hong-kong

Counselling Interview Skills Essay

I declare that this assessment is my own work, based on my own personal research/study . I also declare that this assessment, nor parts of it, has not been previously submitted for any other unit/module or course, and that I have not copied in part or whole or otherwise plagiarised the work of another student and/or persons. I have read the ACAP Student Plagiarism and Academic Misconduct Policy and understand its implications. I also declare, if this is a practical skills assessment, that a Client/Interviewee Consent Form has been read and signed by both parties, and where applicable parental consent has been obtained. Reflective report. During this module I have learnt how important it is to keep in mind that everyone has a set of values and beliefs. I have learnt the importance of knowing what your values and beliefs are, in order to be an effective counsellor. Client’s values and beliefs may be very different to my own, but that does not mean that they are wrong. Some of my values are to treat people with respect and to try and be empathetic to others. I think these values will help me be a good counsellor in that if the client feels respected and understood, they will feel comfortable with me. I am sure there will be times when a client has values that are just so incompatible with my own, that I will need to consider referral, this does not mean that I have failed the client. The client will benefit more from a counsellor who is able to find a connection with them and who does not judge them. The learning activities I have participated in during this module have helped me see many different points of view. In week four we were asked to view a video called focusing. Everyone identified the same areas of concern such as not explaining the process of counselling correctly. In week eight we had a discussion on the type of issues or clients we would find challenging. My response was counselling a court ordered client, some of the other students had the same response. I said I would like advice from a supervisor, to find helpful ways of connecting to this type of client. In week nine we were asked to research an organisation to refer a client with an identified issue. I chose to refer a client who displays a serious mental health issue, I found three organisations to refer clients to. As a result of all the activities I have undertaken in this module I have a much better understanding of the counselling process and the skills a counsellor needs. Communication skills are at the top of the list in importance. I have learned that counselling is about helping a client find their own solutions to their issues and is not about giving the client your advice. During the workshop for this module, I was able to put into practice the skills I have been learning about this term. I have to say I enjoyed the experience immensely, meeting all of my fellow students and seeing the  different approaches and styles was a great learning experience. Having learnt counselling interview skills, I feel I have the tools for becoming a good counsellor in the future and I am looking forward to learning even more.

Cango Wk 4 Swot

SWOT Analysis: Swot stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The SWOT analysis will assist CanGo understand the opportunities that are obtainable and what threats may have an effect on its business. Before moving onward with new ventures CanGo needs to evaluate the arrangement they currently have in the market. Performing a SWOT analysis technique would be very beneficial at this point and will serve as the baseline to elaborate on a strategic plan for the organization.C&G consultants have been monitoring CanGo’s processes for quite sometime, and we have developed the following preliminary SWOT analysis: Strength: ?Purchasing an automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) would help to improve the warehouse, by purchasing an automated storage and retrieval system it is a great solution for CanGo’s handling inventory in a more effective and efficient manner. ?CanGo has had tremendous growth over the past couple of years. CanGo has also been recogni zed for as one of the fastest growing small business in the Hudson Valley. CanGo is continually looking to venture out into other areas, in an effort of improving the overall organization. Weaknesses: ?One of the biggest issues is the fact that CanGo does not have a Vision and Mission Statement. Without a vision and mission the organization does not have a clear direction of the organization. ?CanGo is also missing a Strategic plan, without a strategic plan there is no roadmap for growth and prosperity. Strategic planning will help you foresee and react quickly to market changes and opportunities.CanGo should conduct these strategic plans routinely, by doing so it helps you to see opportunities earlier and set up contingency plans so threats are minimized. ?Lack of a system analysis and programmer is also a weakness for CanGo, in general a system analyst would ensure that the requirements set forth by the business are captured and documented correctly before the solution is develope d and implemented. Currently this is not happening for CanGo, so this is an area that needs to be addressed, without it CanGo would not have the knowledge of understanding how present and future business needs will impact the olutions and the implementation process. Opportunities: ?Investing in an in-house database that incorporates into an automated storage and retrieval system ASRS. Fully automated and integrated storage systems are the ultimate in warehouse management and efficiency. They allow for complete integration of the company’s ERP software with warehouse retrieval storage system. Order picking is optimized and controlled. ?CanGo would also benefit from updating their website to reinforce corporate and brand identity, this would help their existing investment in marketing go further.This would allow for CanGo to advertise services and products, build customer relations through personalized services, they could also benefit by conducting market research through thei r website. The internet is a great opportunity for your business to compete on a much more level playing field with much larger businesses. Threats ?CanGo faces losing business from their website to other websites due to their web search taking too long, where the competition’s website is optimized and produces the results quicker Recommendations Issue 1: Marketing to the right customers and consumers is vital to every business.A company needs to know how to market to a certain target to attract their customers so they can sell their goods and create a profit from their inventory. CanGo built their success onluck and they never bothered to get into the details of how their company became successful. They are lacking important and vital information to keep their company successful. Since there is no marketing department in CanGo, I would suggest for them to hire an outside company to conduct their marketing research; I believe that they would benefit from this.The upper manage ment of CanGo should research the company that would best fit the job; perhaps choosing a company that specializes in the same industry as CanGo. There are many advantages to hiring an outside research company; they would be able to determine who the target customers are, where these customers are located, how to reach the target customers and exactly what type of product or services they are looking for. Once the marketing research company determines all of these issues, CanGo would be more effective in marketing their product.Issue 2: The fact that no one is tracking where the work is and who is supposed to be working on what can lead to many problems. Some employees may be doing more work than others because they are efficient and everything seems to land on their desk while others may be receiving credit for work they are not doing. In the video we saw that Nick was tasked out with creating a process flow chart, but he passed it on to someone else, and that some one pass it down to two more people. I believe in fair and equal work between team members so they should break down the work prior to initiating any task.There is nothing wrong with helping your teammates but not do the work for them. Passing work like that can also lead to it getting misplaced. They should use a flow chart to track where the work is. A Gantt chart or a document flow chart seem like a perfect fit for this occasion. The document flow chart will trace the process flow chart document through the system to avoid it getting lost. Losing information can also lead to the loss of secret or personal information. It can be very costly and time consuming to redo all the work that was lost.No one wants to redo what he or she already did. Issue 3: CanGo has been experiencing issues where customers are browsing the website and even selection items to purchase and placing them in their check-out cart; however the customers are leaving the website without making their purchases. It appears that t he customers are experiencing issues regarding making purchases from the website. C&G consultants have a number of recommendations to enhance the shop experience on CanGo’s website. One of the reasons may be due to trust.With internet connection, people want instant gratification. If your sale process is not hassle-free, many customers will go elsewhere. In order to keep customers coming back and to making purchases, CanGo needs to make sure that it is easy to navigate throughout the website, such as making sure that when a customer click on an item it loads up in a timely fashion, time counts, when shopping on websites. Other things that could enhance the website are having a clean and professional design; your home page has a huge impact on visitors.I would also include a search box that is user friendly, this way customers can locate items that they are interested in quickly. Online customer service is another feature that would enhance business, if customers wanted to cha t about checkout problems, this could prevent cart abandonment. Not only can live support help customers figure out your site, locate products or ask questions, live chat can be reactive, where the system triggers a chat invitation based on user behavior. Last but not least there should be links to social networks, such as (Facebook, Twitter, etc. , all of these functionalities would enhance the customers visit to your website more inviting and pleasurable. Issue 4: At CanGo, there is an increase in customer complaints and returns, and before they bring in a new ASRS system and spend more money, they need to correct the customer issues beforehand. If customers are not satisfied with CanGo products or the way they are handling the ordering process, then complaining is a good way for CanGo to realize they are doing something wrong, so they can fix it.In order to keep loyal CanGo customers as well as gain more, the company needs to address where the customers complaints are coming from . This could be from the website not being user-friendly or the customer is not getting enough feedback and going through with the purchase. If the customer does go through with the purchase, then CanGo seems to be getting more returns of the merchandise bought through the website.What CanGo needs to do is to start at the beginning to to look at the company through the eyes of the customer, and they need to figure out the best way to have the customer feel great and good about their purchases from step one of the buying process to the final purchasing stage of the process. Issue 5: Website optimization is very important to online businesses, when a customer makes a search on the website they do not want to have to wait long periods for the results.To improve the issue with the long search times they need to optimize their website and use website compression, this will allow the website to run much faster and produce the quicker results that the customers are wanting. Issue 6: To sol ve is issue with where the employees that are pickers will go once the ASRS system is implemented is simple, they can look at areas that have performance and possibly quality issues and they can place these employees there as opposed to terminating them. By placing these employees in these â€Å"problem† areas, this can increase the productivity of these areas increasing more work flow.Reference Monique. (2012, January 23). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://upandrunning. bplans. com/2012/01/23/the-benefit-of-market-research/ Best practices for speeding up your web site. (n. d. ). Retrieved from http://developer. yahoo. com/performance/rules. html CanGo Video Week 3&4. (2012, November 11). Retrieved from DeVry University: www. devryu. net Harris, D. (n. d. ). Types of Flow Charts. Retrieved November 20, 2012, from eHow: www. ehow. com/about_5061018_types-flowcharts. html CanGo Videos Weeks 3&4. 2012, November 19). Retrieved from DeVry University: www. devryu. net Center for simplified Strategic Planning. (2011, November). Simplified strategic planning. Retrieved November 2012, from The best ways to reward employees: www. cssp. com/http:;www. entrepreneur. com/article/753340 CanGo Videos Weeks 3&4. (2012, November 19). Retrieved from DeVry University: www. devryu. net Top 10 Things Customers Expect from Your Online Store. (2012, 11 20). GetEelastic. Retrieved from http://www. getelastic. com/customer-expectations/