Causes and Consequences of World War I Essay

Belief in inevitability of war and advocacy of war to become supreme major cause for WW1. 5. Anglo-german naval rivalry Britain was supreme at sea and was challenged by germany. Britain couldn’t accept this. The rivalry culminated in WW1. 6. Absence of international organisation Concert of europe was informal group of nations aftr napoleans defeat but couldn’t control its member and didn’t represent the entire free world. The system of pacific settlement of international disputes set up by the hague conference was unsatisfactory. And couldn’t contain imperial rivalries. 7. Negative role of the press in creating war psychology despite attempts of governments to normalise their relations. 8. Autrian and serbian rivalry Austria-hungary wanted access to sea at the cost of slav territories and serbia represented slav nationalism. The two had contradictory aims. This led to a conflict of interest and was encouraged by the russian czar as well building grounds for war. 9. Personal ambitions of leader. Kaiser william II of germany, austra-hungary, russian leaders(czar and his wife). 10. The Sarajevo incident Annexation of bosnia-herzegovina by austria in 1908, 2 balkan wars, italian annexation of tripolo ,moroccan crisis along with the japanese threat to peace in the background, the assassination of the crown price of austria-hungary, archduke franze ferdinand with his wife in sarajevo june,1914 was a direct cause for WW1. Consequences The results of the great war were almost as numerous as its causes. By the end of the world war in 1918, american president woodrow wilson proposed peace and made a statement of war aims in his famous ’14 points’ 1. Open covenant of peace,openly arrived at and Abolition of secret diplomacy 2. Absolute freedom of navigation at sea, outside territorial waters in peace and war except by international action. 3. Removal of eco barriers and establishment of equal trade conditions 4. Reduction in national armaments to the point only needed for domestic security 5. Free,open minded and impartial adjustment of all colonial claims 6. Evacuation of all russia territory and allowing its to politically develop in acc with her own national policy 7. Evacuation and restoration of Belgium 8. Same for france and return of alsace and Lorraine to it. 9. Readjustment of italian frontiers along clear line of nationality 10. Freest opportunity of autonomous devt for people of austria-hungary 11. Evacuation and restoration of romania,serbia and montenegro and free access to sea for serbia 12. Autonomous devt of the non turkish possessions of the sultan 13. Resurrection of independent polan with access to sea. 14. Formation of a general association of nations for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of pol independence and territorial integrity to small n great alike. These were accepted but not followed by the european nations of the peace conference and were later rejected by the american senate after woodrow wilson lost his popularity and presented them befre the senate. Paris peace conference Fightin in WW1 ended with complete surrender of germany in nov,1918. Representatives of allied and associated powers assembled at paris on 18 jan 1919 to draw a new map of europe and the world. Selection of paris as venue unfortunate decision. It was done to take revenge from germany for the french humiliation at the hall of mirrors in versailles aftr the french defeat in the franco-prussian war. The conference was a victors club as none of the leaders of the defeated countries attended it as they were allowed no say in the conference. The conference was dominated by 4 leaders- woodrow wilson, PM lloyd george of britain, PM of france george celemnceau, italian PM vittorio orlando. It was at this conference that the treaty of Versailles was signed, officially ending WW1 on 28th july 1919. Provisions of treaty of versailles 1. Territorial provisions territorial changes in respect of germany. †¢alsace and lorraine returned to france †¢eupene,malmady and mernet given to belgium east germany given to posen †¢ Parts of west prussia and silesia to poland. Poland given access to to sea at the cost of german by way of corridor in west prussia. †¢port memel and hinterland taken away but fate undecided. Later given to lithuania. †¢coal mining area of saar demanded by france by nt given to france. Only under temporary control of france. Aftr 15 years- plebiscite conducted whether saar wants to go to germany, france or remain with league of nations †¢ Ausrtia-hungary broken up into small states. New austria small ger speaking landlocked state. Due to fears of france, germany and austria prevented from uniting without permission of league of nations of which france was permanent member. †¢small german territory also given to czechoslovakia. †¢germany also lost all colonies which were taken up by other powers of league of nations. 2. Economic provisions of reparation. †¢War indemnity cudnt be imposed on germany because a)cost of war borne by allies impossible to return for germany b)woodrow wilson against war indemnity since war cost weren’t only borne by allies but also by defeated powers. so allies demanded compensation for indiscriminate bombing and loss of lives at the hands of germany †¢no payable amount was fixed. A reparation commission set up to determine the extent of civilian losses keeping in mind germanys capacity to pay back. †¢germany was to gives horses and cattle to france n belgium and coal to france,belgium n italy. It was to surrender it submarine telegraph cables to allies and surrender all merchant ships more than 1600 tonnes. †¢default on part of germany was punishable by allies †¢customs union between Luxembourg and germany abolished to end german control over luxembourg economy. repartion commission submitted its report in april 1921 and total amount payable by germany was 6,600,000,000 pounds. †¢germany ws to giv trade facilities of certain commodities to allies. Acces to sea to Czechoslovakia and Switzerland. †¢german rivers and canal internationalised. 3. Disarmament †¢principle of reduction of arms incorporated in covenant of league. But it was not followed by allied powers. There were severe disarmament provisions for germany that made her a military cripple †¢army limited to 100,000 troops and 4000 officers. Recruitment only voluntarily. †¢navy limited to 6 battle ships,6 light cruisers,12 destroyers and 12 torpedo boats. No submarines. Strength of navy only 15000 men and 1500 officers. War ships in excess were to be dismantled. †¢debarred from having an air force and naval aircrafts. †¢german general staff abolished. Allied control commission set up to supervise enforce of these clauses. Set up ws to be funded by germany again. 4. War and guilt crimes †¢germany declared solely responsible for war by article 231 of treaty. german emporer kaiser william II was found guilty of violation of treaties and international law. He sought asylum in netherlands who refused to hand him over to allies for a trial. †¢german people could never accept that their country alone was responsible for the war. 5. Provisions regarding international organisation †¢1st part of treaty provided for the establishment of a world organisation to be known as league of nations. †¢ Its constitution,called covenant, was adopted at the paris conference and included all peace treaties. It was to consist of an assembly,council and secretariat. †¢ A permanent court of international justice and international labour organisation was to be set up. †¢ These bodies were meant to maintain peace,settle international disputes peacefully,punish countries who may break the covenant and improve social and economic life all over the world. The guarantees of the enforcement of the treat were written in part XIV according to which until successful execution of the treaty the entire Rhineland(west of rhine with bridgeheads) would be occupied by allied powers. Germany was ultimately reduced from a world power to an insignificant small power. She was forced to give up monarchy and accept democracy which was something the country wasn’t prepared for. The treaty was so humiliating that the german had sworn revenge for it. The seeds for WW2 had been sown. Hitler later exploited this situation and imposed dictatorship in 1933 and began rearmament under the excuse that the allies had not reduced their armaments. This led to another arms race,violation of the treaty and eventually culminated in the second world war. Other treaties †¢treaty of st. ermain with austria on the model of treaty of versailles with excpetion of the reparation clause. †¢treaty of neuilly with bulgaria †¢treaty of tianon with hungary †¢treaties of sevres and luasanne with defeated turkey to separate its constituents and reduce military capacity and pay reparation Fall of Ottoman empire Its fall during the war created many newly independent middle eastern nation states which were quickly taken over by britain france etc. Economic depression The end of the war also caused a temporary economic bubble which soon popped and led to the great depression.

Effects of Computer Society Essay

Traditionally, courses that deal with computers and society issues focus primarily on enumerating the various ways in which computers impact society. This is done by listing categories of topics such as privacy, computers in medicine, military uses of computers, etc. Classic cases of computer abuse or errant systems are typically described in detail, as a way of simply making students more aware of how computers affect society. These examples are meant to serve as warnings to future professionals, in the hopes that they will practice their profession with greater care. What is missing from these discussions, however, is  why  computers have the impact they do on society. What are the characteristics that are the root of this impact? Are there fundamental differences between this technology and others that have transformed our world in the past? The intent of developing a list of these characteristics is that it could lead to a better understanding of the nature of the social impact of computers. In this way, it might be possible to examine a new computer project at the time of its  design  (not, as is the usual case, a long time after the project has been implemented and disseminated) to determine its potential impacts as a social change agent. The characteristics given below are not necessarily unique to computer technology. However, in many instances computers have created situations that were previously impossible to accomplish (such as space flight), were essentially inconceivable until the technology was applied, or at least were very difficult to achieve without the aid of computer technology. Furthermore, even though other technologies may have had impacts similar to computers in many ways, computer technology has greatly amplified their effects to the point of entirely overshadowing any previous technology’s impact. Finally, the term  computer technology  is meant to be inclusive of any device that is essentially controlled by a basic computer (CPU, program, etc. ). This would include, therefore, modern telephones, VCRs, microwave ovens, CAT scanners, supermarket scanners, and the like. The following are in no particular order. Also, some devices or examples are likely to fit into more than one of the categories below: (1) Ubiquity – It is perhaps stating the obvious that computers appear to be everywhere today. Even when we don’t encounter them directly in their various forms of modern convenience devices, such as digital watches, microwave ovens, VCRs, and the like, we generate transactions that are processed via computers without actively doing anything: the utility companies are recording our usage, the phone company records incoming calls, our answering machine might be recording a message while we are doing something else, someone is performing a credit check on us, etc. (2) Magnification – Computers tend toward magnification in several different ways. First, the explosion of the availability of information is due in large part to the computer’s ability to generate, collect, and store an ever increasing amount of raw data. Since the ability to create and collect data is growing exponentially, so too is the generation of information that can be synthesized from this data. Second, the types of negative impacts a single error can have has grown enormously with computer technology. Finally, the number of people directly affected by a system error has also grown enormously, to where a single software system literally can affect millions directly. 3) Accessibility – Access to information continues to increase at hard to believe speeds. Many information resources are available only in digital form, via, for instance, the Internet. As more information is converted to digital form (e. g. voice and video), the ability to duplicate and distribute such information increases enormously. Indeed, there are some forms of publishing that can exist only within the context of a computer system. The concept of hypertext and hypermedia (including audio and video), the ability to create non-linear accessibility to information, was conceived out of the ability to randomly access information via computers. Its increasing success easily shows how important information in a digital form has become already. (Oz, 1994). (5) Lack of Accountability – It has become a popular complaint that it is getting more and more difficult to locate a human being who is willing to accept responsibility for an error made by a computerized system. While it is tempting to blame such problems on incompetent employees, in truth the problem may be a poor user interface, lack of training, or an error in the software, none of which can be solved by those providing the front-line service. Another difficulty is finding someone who will, indeed, fix an error in an account. It is often the case that service representatives are reluctant to accept the responsibility for making a necessary change. In addition, it can often be difficult to even find a human being to deal with a problem. Getting lost in a voice-mail system has become a modern urban legend. (Nissenbaum, 1994). (6) Temporality – Computers have several effects on time and the timeliness of information. It seems that computer technology is to blame in large part for the â€Å"speed p† of modern society – everything has to get done faster, be there sooner, be available immediately. Another form of temporality in computer systems is that information can be retained over long periods of time, even when they appear to have been destroyed (consider the classic case of Col. Oliver North). There is little reason that information should be entirely lost any more, even due to accident. And it is reas onable to suspect that every scrap of information generated today will be available virtually forever. Another temporal shift for which computers have been responsible is that people who work together do not necessarily have to do so at the same time. Finally, services and information are more frequently available on a 24-hour basis. This allows people to request a service or seek information when it fits their schedule, rather than when it fits the service provider’s schedule. (7) Spatiality – Computers have done more to shorten distances than any previous technology, even the supersonic jet. It is possible to send large amounts of data, messages, video, etc. virtually anywhere in the world via networks such as Internet. Long distance learning, using information databases or video feeds of courses via satellite, is a reality for a growing portion of our modern society. We can now even be on the move when we talk with someone on the phone, or receive a fax. (8) Surveillability – Is there any doubt that computers have made surveillance easier than at any time in history? In addition to the usual surveillance equipment such as cameras and microphones, transactional data is increasingly being collected for virtually all types of transactions, even cash purchases and the acquisition of services. There has even been discussion by the government of using a universal health card, which is seen by many as the first step toward finalizing the move (begun with the co-opting of the social security number) in the US toward a national identification card. (9) Shifting of Relationships/Changes in Intercommunication Protocols – One of the more difficult characteristics to track is how computer technology has changed communication between people and groups of people. In particular, the use of email has been shown to eliminate a lot of the usual visual and verbal cues we often use in communicating with one another (whch can be viewed as both an advantage and as a disadvantage). In addition to removing such cues, computer-mediated communications mask attributes such as race, gender, age, or physical disability, in addition, perhaps, to the person’s social or management status within an organization. (Grudin, 1994; Perrole, 1987). (10) Illusion of Precision – It is not difficult to make many (perhaps even most) people who are not in the computer field believe that any numeric result generated by a computer is correct. Those not well versed in the hardware of computers have little understanding of the fact that numbers must be converted back and forth between decimal and binary forms, or that there is a limitation on the accuracy of numbers due to memory constraints. As a result, they willingly accept values generated by a computer as infinitely accurate. (Liffick, 1985). Conclusion The characteristics described above are factors in the social impact of computer technology. For most there is at least anecdotal evidence of their existence (with seemingly countless examples). For some, there is also experimental evidence. It has finally become widely accepted that technology is not value neutral, as originally thought. By examining this list and using it as a set of landmarks for evaluating new systems, it may be possible to better anticipate the social impact of new systems, prior to their dissemination.

Communication Leaflet Essay

Idea occurs: this is when you think of an idea that you want to communicate. We all communicate for a reason, which is usually to pass on information to another person. Message coded: once we have thought of an idea we compose this within our thoughts, how we are going to say our idea to the recipient in a way the recipient will understand. For example, is the message going to be spoken to them, do they speak English. Is the message going to written down for them or are we going to use sign language, if so, what signs are we going to use to portray our message. Message sent: idea/message sent to the recipient. Message received: message is received by the other person. The recipient senses they have a message, for example either by seeing the message you’re signing or have written to them or hearing the message you’re speaking to them. Message decoded: recipient looks at the message and has to process what you have communicated for them to understand what has been spoken, signed or written, the message could be misunderstood easily by interpreting words differently. Message understood: the message has been received, decoded and understood by the recipient. If it has been communicated clearly, for example if there were no barriers within the communication cycle, the recipient will show their understanding by replying to your message. As the conversation continues, the sender of the message will then become the receiver of the replied message and so on and so on. Example of a message being sent using the Communication Cycle. The cycle will only continue if both parties understand what one another are sending, they can only do this by listening and processing what is being sent, understand then you can reply appropriately. In the communication cycle, things don’t always go smoothly and communication can break down when the cycle is broken. The cycle can break if the sender is unclear when they are sending their message or the receiver can misunderstand the message due to other distractions and then assume something else was being sent. Working in health and social care, your communicational skills are one of the most important skills you’ll need and use everyday. When communicating with patients/service users it is important they understand what discussions are taking place so they can join in them and it is equally as important for you to understand them so you know what they need and the choices they want to make. Communication barriers There are so many barriers that could affect communication between people. For example: Noisy surroundings: these can be a barrier as you may not be hear what is being spoken over the noise. For example, The manager of a care home was having a staff meeting when they were distracted with a noisy drilling and hammering sounds from workmen using loud tools in the room next door.. To overcome a noisy distraction you could ask the workmen how long they are going to be and if it isn’t too long you may take a break or postpone your meeting until they have finished. You could ask if they could delay theirs works for the remainder of your meeting. If this is not possible, rearrange your meeting for a later day, move room location for the remainder of the meeting. Disabilities: A physically disabled person attending their eye appointment and there is no lift at the opticians. To overcome this barrier you would enquire to see if the have another means to transporting the service user up the stairs and if this was not possible, enquire if the appointment could take place downstairs and if this was not possible, arrange an appointment where they can accommodate a wheelchair. Cultural differences: same meaning but different beliefs in different cultures. For example, eye contact when initially greeting some cultures is important but continuing eye contact is seen as a sign of disrespect. Some cultures like you to introduce yourself, they like a smile and a shake of hands. They are particular with the way they shake hands, extend the hand out and gently touch the other person’s hand, they don’t like the strong grasping shake of hands that the some cultures have. Bad lighting: bad lighting can be a distraction for example, someone who is visually impaired and wears glasses is at a meeting and the bright florescent lights are reflecting off their lenses or flickering distracting their sight. To overcome this barrier, you would enquire of any disabilities people may have, such as visual impairments or epilepsy and would not use lighting that will affect their condition or change room locations if the problem of flickering lights persists. Jargon: is technical terminology used by professionals for example, when a doctor uses full medical terminology when speaking to a service user and they do not explain what they mean in a way the service user can understand. Slang: is wording and phrases that are used by service users that could have several ways of being misinterpreted by others, for example, the elder service users may say they have water problems, and they are meaning they have toileting problems, we may think they mean tap water problems. Slang can be used when all parties understand. Language barriers: someone who doesn’t speak in a language you understand, for example, they are foreign or they can only communicate with sign language. To overcome a language barrier, enquire what language they communicate and have in place a signer if needed or a translator. Body language: is an aid to expressing what we want to communicate, verbally and none verbally. Body language that can be misinterpreted, for example, a manager stood at their office door with their arms folded may be seen as they are angry when really they are stood there listening as they are waiting for a visitor. Aggression: an aggressive attitude is often a barrier as this behaviour is frightening to others and can be intimidating. Mobile phones: ringing at the wrong time, for example, you are at Sunday mass with a service user and whilst your at the alter with the service user, your mobile phone rings. To ensure mobile phones do not ring, put signs in place to ask people to kindly turn their mobiles on silent if they cannot turn them off for any reason.

Gay Marriage and Adoption Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Gay Marriage and Adoption - Essay Example The major problem in the country is that the gay community feels that civil partnerships are less valued than marriages and therefore, there is need for the government to recognize their unions as marriage (Culley, 2007). However, critics argue that if this is implemented, it will redefine marriage, which according to them, is a union between a man and a woman. This paper is a critical evaluation of gay marriage and adoption in the United Kingdom. Discussion Gay marriage is a marriage which incorporates the unification of persons of the same sex. This is for example a marriage between a man and man or a woman and a woman. In the UK, this type of marriage is not recognized under the common law. Article 12 of the European convention on human rights, which the UK is party to, does not compel European countries to recognize gay marriage as a human right (Culley, 2007). This assertion has been applied in the European court of human rights while resolving disputes involving gay rights. For example, the court ruled out a case, which was presented before it by a French gay couple, Valerie Gas and Nathalie Dubois, who claimed that the denial of adoption rights by the French was discriminatory and against article 12 of the European convention on human rights (Bowater, 2012). However, the British government, with the support of the prime minister, has been consulting rigorously on the possibility of legalizing gay marriages. The ministry concerned with issues of equality in the country has made it clear than no threats or opposition will hamper efforts to ensure that these marriages are allowed by the end of 2015 (BBC, 2012). Currently, the country only recognizes civil partnerships involving same sex couples. It has been argued that this has already given these people more than enough civil liberties and therefore, the debate to legalize gay marriages is a waste of precious time, which could be spent in discussing other important issues affecting this community. However, gay couples feel that the categorization of their relationships as civil partnerships is not enough as this makes them inferior to heterosexual couples (Culley, 2007). They have the right to feel this way owing to the fact that there is a possibility of being treated unfairly whenever they indicate their marital status, for example in documents while seeking employment. Some of these documents have blank spaces in which one is supposed to fill whether he is married or in a civil partnership. This may have a direct impact on the decisions of the recruiting officers, who may be homophobic. Despite the fact that UK laws prohibit such discrimination, it may be difficult to prove that the reason a person was not hired was due to his or her sexual orientation. This may be worse in the private sector, where hiring processes are not closely monitored by government instruments. Recognizing gay marriage will definitely remove this obstacle thereby resulting to a situation where an interviewe e will only be required to state whether he is single or married. The law prohibits calling out people to identify their sexual orientation and therefore, it will be easy for victims to know what law to cite when defending their accusations (Hicks, 2008). Marriage is a union, which is founded on love and synchronization of bodily needs and desires. The move by some of

Thomas Edison Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Thomas Edison - Research Paper Example Edison obtained the majority of his educational materials from The Cooper Union, which specialized in supplying higher education materials and instruction for students. Through his education, Edison became interested in various branches of science, which played a role in his later career as an experimenter and inventor. Growing up, Edison held a variety of odd jobs to increase his income. While living in Michigan, he made a modest salary by selling candy and newspapers on the trains that ran through his city. He also sold vegetables to help his family with their expenses. Edison’s first stable job came after he saved a little boy from being hit by a runaway train. The station agent, J.U. MacKenzie, who was also the father of the little boy, was so appreciative of Edison’s actions that he trained Edison to be a telegraph operator. Edison spent many years in this position. When he was nineteen, he moved to Kentucky where he received a boost in his career by being given a job with the Associated Press news wire. During his career on the news wire, Edison made sure that he always received the night shift so that he would be able to work, read, and experiment. However, on one particular night, Edison’s attention on his experimenting ended up costing him his job when a lead-acid battery he was playing with spilled sulfuric acid onto the floor, which then leaked through the floorboards and spilled onto the desk of his boss below. Edison was immediately fired upon arriving at work the following morning. However, despite losing his job, one good thing came from Edison’s time as a telegraph operator. While working, he met Franklin Pope, another telegrapher and an inventor himself. Pope allowed Edison to work out of the basement of his home, which allowed Edison the space he needed for his first two inventions, a stock ticker and the electric vote recorder that was officially patented on June 1, 1869 (Pretzer, 1989). When Edison was twenty-four , he married Mary Stilwell. He met her while she was working at one of his shops. Together they had three children, Marion, Thomas Jr., and William. Mary died thirteen years later from a brain tumor; two years later, Edison married again, this time to Mina Miller, who was almost half of Edison’s age and the daughter of a famous inventor. They also had three children, including Charles and Theodore, both of whom went on to follow in their father’s footsteps as inventors. Mina outlived her husband, dying in 1947 from natural causes. Thomas Edison became most known for his numerous inventions, obtaining over one thousand patents in the United States during his lifetime, as well as many patents in Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. As previously mentioned, among Edison’s first inventions were a stock ticker and an electric vote recorder. He also invented numerous telegraph machines and improved on telegraph machines that had already been invented, such as inve nting the quadruplex telegraph, which made it possible to transmit four messages at once. He also invented the electric pen, which was a device used for copying. However, regardless of these first useful inventions, Edison first became known for his invention of the phonograph in 1877, which is the first record player. Even though the phonograph had very poor sound quality and could only be used a few times, the public was taken back by this surprising, wonderful invention, giving Edison the nickname of the Wizard of Menlo Park. Edison spent a few years perfecting his original phonograph,

Public Health Advocacy And Preventive Medicine Essay

Public Health Advocacy And Preventive Medicine - Essay Example This encompasses upholding individual rights and freedoms in relation to accessing healthcare services (Landesman, 2005). To me, health advocacy also entails speaking out for minority groups, and further airing my views and opinions that are highly likely to reform healthcare system for the better. Health advocacy has had a significant impact on my personal life. This issue has shifted my healthcare concerns from an individual perspective to a social and global context. In other words, there are diverse and dynamic healthcare issues that remain unaccounted for by health advocates. If every advocate plays his or her role, then the outcome will without doubt be overwhelming. Health advocacy has, therefore, resulted in self-actualization in the advocacy pursuit. In my own community, Hospital Acquired Infections HAIs constitute a health advocacy need. While many patients have succumbed to HAIs among other hospital errors, inadequate attention is directed to them (Landesman, 2005). Personally, I would actively become involved in advocacy activities related to HAIs since few or no patients understand their

Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words - 5

Marketing - Essay Example In the current case, an expensive line of women bathing suit is to be launched internationally. For this, the bathing line will have to create strategic alliance either with the host nation or with a local organization. The various criteria for choosing a country are as follows: Political assessment- It means accessing government stability as well as friendliness to foreign market entrants. Economic assessment- It involves documenting and analyzing of economic indicators such as, health, foreign investment activities, taxes as well as history or mergers and acquisitions. Social assessment- It involves collection of demographic information such as, age, employment rates, income history and population. Infrastructure assessment- It involves evaluation of ground conditions like, power, roads as well as telecommunications reliability. Legal assessment- It includes preparation of all regulatory compliances which the company is not following currently. Each of the countries chosen, Brazil, UAE and Spain are politically and economically suitable for the expansion business. Also, the infrastructure in all three countries is well established and shows constant growth (Lawrence, 2000). Brazil and UAE are major emerging economies and Spain has an established market for luxury swimsuit line for women. Thus, all these three countries are suitable according to most of the chosen criteria. Marketing communication Before entering into an international market, it is extremely important to understand the foreign market and the industry environment. Before marketing communication planning, the Swimsuit Company will have to look into following criteria: Assessment of growth potential It involves projecting realistic and opportunistic growth trajectory after entry into the market. Spain is one of the major European markets for swimsuits, after Italy and France. The overall yearly swimsuit sales are increasing. This can be attributed to huge tourist footfalls as well as local market consumption. Brazil has become one of the hottest destinations for luxury apparel market, as a result of increasing number of international brands as well as affordability among consumers. Even though apparel sector has seen a constant growth in UAE, the sale of men’s luxury swimsuits is much more than the ones for women. Competitor evaluation It involves identification of top players in the industry. Spain is the home for some of the top-notch luxury swimsuit brands such as, Women’s secret and Oysho, which are market leaders. Other prominent market leaders are Andres Sarda, TCN and Selmark. Brazil is still an emerging market in terms of luxury swimwear. Local brands such as, Gap and H&M, are not doing a good job. Brazil has the opportunity for luxury swimsuit market. Most of the women swimsuits in UAE are available only in malls. Customer evaluation It involves gathering customer behavior insights which can help in making useful adjustments in product designs as well as marketing communication strategies (Young & Aitken, 2007). Tools such as, fit matrix and customer opportunity matrix, can be used. As discussed earlier, both Brazil and Spain are preferable markets for expansion. However, Spain can be considered as a mature market and competition will be tough. Compared to this, Brazil has fewer competitors in luxury swimsuits category and market demand is constantly increasing. Pricing and positioning analysis It is important to forecast appropriate approaches

News Article Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

News Article Analysis - Essay Example As asserted, due to the apparent higher expected supply of corn in the current year, the FAO index was reported to have exhibited an average of 199.1 points for the month of September; which was measured to manifest a 1 percent decline from the average points reported in the month of August. The more prominent change was reported to be a significant 5.4% decline from the average points reflected at the start of 2013. These trends were accurately pinpointed to be sourced from the significant level of production or supply of corn; of which the United States was reported to contribute as much as 348 million tons, or a 27% increase, from the production level in 2012. The favorable weather conditions this year, in conjunction with the greater expanse of acreage allotted to corn production were instrumental in the increased supply for corn in 2013. The article is related to the economic topic of demand and supply, particularly how markets respond to changes in demand and supply. From the e xplanation that was provided, there is an apparent impact on the increase of supply of corn to the world prices of food. With greater supply, and assuming a constant demand, the impact would evidently mean a decrease in prices of commodities affected by the abundance in supply of the mentioned product. In this situation, the global cereal production, composed of wheat and corn, was projected to manifest an increase in supply. It was clearly revealed that â€Å"global cereal production, which includes wheat and corn, is expected to be 8% higher over 2012’s level, at 2.49 billion tons. The U.S., the world’s largest corn producer, is responsible for the bulk of the increase, expected to harvest a record crop of 348 million tons—that’s 27% higher than the previous year† (Rai, 2013, par. 4). Likewise, another international agency, the International Grains Council corroborated the trend through their own projections that indicate production of corn to in crease to 943.2 million tons; while wheat supply would reach 692.6 million tons. Therefore, given that the demand remains on a fairly stable level, with no significant or considerable increase, the impact of the increase supply would be an evident decrease in prices of food, which is measured through the FAO index. The article provided greater insights in terms of the repercussive effect of economic components of demand and supply from one market or economy to another market or to the global market, in general. The incident could actually be evaluated as macro-oriented in terms of the supply of corn and wheat being instrumental in impacting other food products that uses them as their raw materials or main ingredients. Evidently, the impact is not restricted in the domestic market, such as the United States where the supply or abundance in production was seen to rise to significant levels. The fact that the U.N. FAO regularly monitors demand and supply of basic commodities only confi rm that there is a stronger repercussive effect as markets are seen to be closely correlated through economic activities and movements of economic indices. Since the United States has an overpowering impact as a powerful nation to other international economies, any significant changes in basic raw materials would have important effects to other economies in terms of prices of commodities. It would therefore be crucial to anticipate these changes to prepare other

Carriage trade medicine case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Carriage trade medicine - Case Study Example The solution of her problem lies either with the Government sponsored health care programme or the HMO package since both the plans are much cheaper than the other plans, therefore, she can afford it and pay it easily. It transpired from the above contents that the scope of health care facilities in the USA is limited and it varies from segment to segment of the income group. The decision making process is limited. Answer: After a thorough study of available health care options, she come close to engage one out of the doctors Smith, Jones, Williams and Connors in line with the criterion mentioned at Table-A. In spite of that she could not decide which option she should adopt best suited for her health care. The reason being she developed her mind to allocate 100 points as per the criteria at cited table but could get only 45 points out of it. She can have HMO affiliation or state owned health care facilities being cheaper as compared to the other available options. In fact, she wanted to have two things a) best medical facilities b) best doctors to treat her. The mentioned two can be available provided her wallet size permits her to do so which is not possible due to her low income. In my opinion she should go for state sponsored medical facilities. She considered and reconsidered the options available which includes free health care state plan wherein all contributions covered by the state, contrary to that HMO required monthly contribution from Charlotte, Plan ‘A’ requires monthly contribution 32.75 USD and Plan ‘B’ requires 41.05 USD. After a thorough study of the available health care options, she comes close to Plan ‘B’. In spite of that she could not decide which option she should adopt best suited to her health care. Answer: Yes, Charlotte should opt for the compensatory decision rule keeping in mind the manifold expenses on this count. She

Withholding Information Essay Example for Free

Withholding Information Essay It is frequently advisable for those in positions of authority in government to withhold information from general public Some information the public has the right to know while other information is better to be withheld. There are plenty of reasons why it is better not revealing information. Withholding information that may put the population in danger would be better than revealing information which would bring chaos. On the flipside, transparency and honesty between the government and the public are very important. Transparency is essential in order for a democracy to function and honesty is important in cases when there is need for strong relations to be created. And although I support the idea of freedom of information, the general public will never be educated enough to maintain consensus and national problems. In these cases withholding information helps to ensure stability in terms of national security, preserving the peace and well-being. The main reason authority keeps information is the fear from criticism and disapproval. A rational society would never be satisfied with vague information and would want to take part in the decision-making process. Government has a lot of information which the people may have an interest in but still some of this information is dangerous. Things like war strategies and secret missions need to be withheld. Being kept in the dark on some things as long as its truly for the good of the nation and not for someone’s benefit is acceptable. For example if government find the cure for cancer but decide that it would ruin pharmaceutical companies and chose not to reveal this information it isn’t right. On the other hand, there is a lot of information which public doesn’t deserve access to. Like information that endangers the government. Another reason for withholding information could be to cover mistakes and not causing discontent. The government always makes big promises and eventually it will have to fulfill some of them. If government promise to reduce the crime rate in 30% within a year and don’t follow the plan it will lose it’s credibility. I think that the idea some information to be withheld is valid. However, information that would improve the living standard of people or information which is of great importance for the future of humanity, in my opinion shouldn’t be kept. There is no clear moral answer here. When there is too much that is at stake, we can’t say that information should always be free. Should it benefit the public to know how their government works, or it should benefit the government to have the full control over our lives. Im not so sure.

Attitudes towards Air Pollution among University Students

Attitudes towards Air Pollution among University Students Research Proposal Research specific topic The topic of the study is â€Å"Attitudes towards Air Pollution among University Students†. Rationale of the study Ramanathan Feng (2009) claim that â€Å"Every part of the world is connected with every other part through fast atmospheric transport.† This has made us think that the negative effects of air pollution will not only happen in one region, but also take place in other areas. Air pollution causes many side effects on health, environment and economy. According to the WHO, in 2012, 7 million people died as a result of air pollution. Moreover, the WHO assessment found the majority of air pollution deaths were linked with cardiovascular disease, heart disease, stock, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer. We feel that not so many people concern of this issue. Consequently, we decide to conduct a research on the topic of â€Å"Attitudes toward Air Pollution among University Students† as we believe that university students may have studied some subjects regarding to this problem. In addition, the major reason that encouraged us to conduct a research on this topi c is to discover how much university students know about air pollution. Another factor is to explore the effective methods that university students can think of to prevent themselves from the negative effects of air pollution. On top of that, providing the best solution to solve the entire problem by university students is also another main purpose of doing this research. The research finding will help to encourage university students to get involved more in this problem and spread the information to the public so that more people will join in addressing this issue. Research aim The aim of the study is to know about attitudes towards air pollution among university  students. Research objectives and research questions Research objectives To find out the university students’ perception towards air pollution To determine the ways that students can prevent themselves from the negative effects of air pollution To ascertain the solutions that university students can think of to address this issue Research questions How do university students think about air pollution? How can university students prevent themselves from the negative effects of air pollution? What are the solutions to this issue raised by university students? Literature review Operational definition â€Å"Air pollution was defined as the presence in the outdoor and /or indoor atmosphere of one or more contaminants or combinations thereof in such questions and of such duration as maybe or may tend to be injurious to human, plant or animal life, or property or which unreasonably interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property or the conduct of business† (Wark, K., et al 1998). Attitude is a feeling or opinion about something or someone. Theoretical framework Among the most pressing of today’s environmental issues is the pollution of the air we breathe, that the world is concerning about. There are many countries that are affected and some are being put on. â€Å"More than 10 million people in eight different countries are at serious risk for health because they live in the polluted places† (West, 2014). Therefore, it has become a problem which many researchers have been studying and finding the causes as well as the solution. According to the Environmental protection Agency, there are a great number of types of air pollution such as pollution from industries, vehicles, stationary items etc. This shows that air pollution is really a concerning issue that we cannot ignore, and more research about the solution is needed to enhance the understanding of it. Some people have already known about air pollution. Groot (1967) claims that â€Å"In the most recently completed study; however, a cross-sample of the whole United States revealed that 48% of all people thought air pollution to be at least a somewhat serious problem for their area of residence.† More importantly, some researchers tend to conduct a research on the attitude of students towards air pollution, which is an attractive factor. The study on students’ attitudes has been carrying out to explore the factors which provoke to find out the solution because they may have studied about environment. â€Å"Research has shown that university students who have studied courses specializing in the environment maintain more pro-environmental attitudes than other students† (Meinhold Malkus 2005). â€Å"It was also found that demographic factors such as gender and years of education may have some influence on one’s attitude and pro-environmental behaviors† (Fernandez Rodriguze, Carrasquier, 2007; Tuncer, Ertepinar, Tekaya, Carrasquier, 2007). After realizing about this, researchers can go further to identify how university students think about air pollution. Some university students have expressed their concern about air pollution. Al. Rabaani Al-Mekhlafi (2009) claim that â€Å"Air pollution is a problem which has recently become a cause of concern, due to accelerated economic development, an increase in transportation; this may account for students’ increasing concern with the problem.† We have tried to find the other researchers’ finding about the perceptions of university students toward air pollution, the methods to prevent themselves from the negative effects of air pollution and their solutions to solve the problem, but we can find only their perceptions. Conceptual framework The study will focus on only attitudes of university students towards air pollution since we still believe that university students’ perception will lead other university students and people to get involved more in this problem. Meinhold Malkus (2005) claim that university pupils doing the course related to environment have expressed more reactions toward air pollution than those who do not. Demographic factors such as gender and years of education may make one’s reaction and pro-environmental behaviors vary† (Fernandez Rodriguze, Carrasquier, 2007; Tuncer, Ertepinar, Tekaya, Carrasquier, 2007).The accelerated economic development and the rise of transportation have made air pollution become and increase university’s concern (Al. Rabaani Al-Mekhlafi, 2009). The research instrument Within this research, questionnaire will be used as the tool for data collection. The reason we finally select questionnaire is that it is easier than conducting interview with respondents; they just read the questions, interpret what is expected then write down their answers. In  addition, students at IFL who will be respondents are busy with their study, so they do not have enough time to be interviewed. The questionnaire consists of three sections. The first section is about the respondents’ sex, age, statue, the living condition, and how they travel. The second section focus on whether they concern about air pollution or not. The last section is about their attitude to air pollution, how it occurs and how to solve the problem. We predict that the questionnaire will take time around 10 minutes because we think that they will have enough time to think deeply to understand the questions. Some students will probably just answer the questions while others may broaden their information. However, we might face some problems; some of them might just tick the answers and some just keeping blank on the answer spaces because they may think that it is a waste of time. Therefore, if that case happens, we will have to look for others to reach our 200 respondents. We will provide the questionnaires for the other class, but this time we will increase 5 minutes more for them to answer the questions. Respondents The study population of this research is the undergraduate students from year two to year three at the Department of English, Institute of Foreign Languages, Royal University of Phnom Penh. The reason is that the courses at IFL provide topics about environment and there are many programs that are related to the saving environment like clean up day etc. The total sample size is 100 students, who are 50 students in year two and 50 students in year three and studying in the morning shift. Data-collecting procedures The questionnaires will be carried out directly at Institute of Foreign Languages (IFL). Participants will be provided the questions before the break time in their classrooms. For the data collecting process, we will divide our members into two different groups and each group has two members. Group one will be responsible for year two students and group two for year three students. Each member in the group will be waiting for respondents to finish their answers and help students to understand the questions. However, before we provide questionnaire, we will have to ask for permission from the lecturers first. Data-processing procedures After collecting the data, SPSS and C++ program, which are programs for statistic tasks, will be used to analyze data. References Al-Rabaani, A. Al-Mekhlafi, S. (2009). Attitudes of Sultan Qaboos University Students Towards Some Environmental Problems And Their Willingness To Take Action To Reduce Them. Journal of Social Sciences, 5, 9-15 Retrieved from http://thescipub.com /pdf/ 10.3844/jssp.2009.9.15 on June 14, 2014 Groot, I.(1967). Trends in Public Attitudes Towards Air Pollution, Journal of the Air Pollution Control Association, 17:10, 679-681. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline. com/doi/pdf /10.1080/00022470.10469056 on June 14, 2014 Briggs, H. (2014, March 25). Air Pollution Linked to Seven Million People Globally. BBC News Health Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/health-26730178 on April 25, 2014 World Bank (2002). The Health and Economic Impacts of Air Pollution. How serious is the impact of air pollution on public health? Retrieved from http://emb.gov.ph/eeid/airpol.htm on May 10, 2014 West, L. (2014). The Top 10 Worst Polluted Places on Earth. About.com Environmental Issues Retrieved from http://environment.about.com/od/pollution/a/top_10_polluted.htm on May 15, 2014 Ramanathan, V. Feng, Y.(2009). Air Pollution, Greenhouse Gases And Climate Change: Global and Regional Perspectives. Atmospheric Environment, 43, 37-50 Retrieved from www.ramanathan.ucsd.edu/files/pr166.pdf on April 1, 2014 1

Force Measurment System Based On Strain Gauges Engineering Essay

Force Measurment System Based On Strain Gauges Engineering Essay In this part there will be a use of a strain gauge device which experiences a change of electric resistance when it is strained. Design, build and test a force sensor using strain gauges are provided, as well as development of the appropriate combination of strain gauges with other electrical components to obtain an electric voltage or current representing tensile, compressive or bending strain, together with means of displaying and/or recording its value, is a strain gauge system. Tasks Design and build a strain gauge based force sensor based on a cantilever design or otherwise. Build an appropriate VI that can be used to carry out all tests on the sensor. Experimentally evaluation of the output/force transfer functions of the sensor. Include linearity, hysteresis, sensitivity, accuracy and repeatability in the evaluation. Calculation the expected theoretical output values of the sensor and compression them with the experimental results obtained above. Investigate the effect of temperature on the accuracy of the sensor. Based on this investigation suggest a temperature compensation scheme to improve the performance of the sensor. Build an appropriate VI that takes the output of the sensor and display the result in appropriate units. Part I Explain how the AC Power (wattmeter) measurement is carried out at NPL. Draw a block diagram of the measurement system used. You should include the sources of uncertainties in your discussion. Volts, Amps, Watts, VARs and Power Factor are essential fundamental quantities which must be measured accurately in order to optimize the control and delivery of electric power. Definition of electrical power At a given moment, when a current i travels from generator G to receiver Rin the direction defined by the voltage v delivered by the generator (figure 1), the instantaneous power supplied to the receiver R is equal to product v.i. Figure Generator Receiver If the voltage and current are DC, the mean power V.I is equal to the instantaneous power V.I. If the voltage and current are sinusoidal AC, there is generally a phase shift à Ã¢â‚¬   between the voltage and the current (figure 2). The instantaneous values of voltage v and current (I) have the form: v = Vmax cos à Ã¢â‚¬ °t i = Imax cos (à Ã¢â‚¬ °t à Ã¢â‚¬  ) Where à Ã¢â‚¬ °, the pulse, is proportional to the frequency F (à Ã¢â‚¬ ° = 2à Ã¢â€š ¬F). Figure phase shift between the voltage and the current The instantaneous power has a value of: Vmax . Imax . cos à Ã¢â‚¬ ° . cos (à Ã¢â‚¬ °t à Ã¢â‚¬  ). You must take the average value of this product during a period to obtain the expression of the power provided by generator G to receiver R. This power is called the active power and is expressed by the formula: The wattmeter provide the expression of this product, either by causing a deviation of the pointer in the case of a device with an electrodynamics moving coil, or by supplying a DC current or a voltage proportional to the product in the case of electronic wattcmeters; this current or this voltage is then applied to an analogue or digital display. The existence of a phase shift à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ between the current and the voltage leads, for AC currents, to the introduction of 3 additional quantities: à ¢-   The apparent power S = Veff . Ieff, in VA (volt-amperes), defining the voltage Veff not to be exceeded (insulator breakdown, increase in core loss) and the intensity Ieff circulating in the receivers. à ¢-   The power factor: When the current and voltage are sinusoidal quantities: à ¢-   The reactive power Q = Veff . Ieff . sin à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢, in rva (reactive volt-amperes). The latter may be directly measured by a wattmeter if for voltage Vmax . cos à Ã¢â‚¬ °t we substitute a phase-shifted voltage of à Ã¢â€š ¬/2, i.e. Vmax x cos (à Ã¢â‚¬ °t à Ã¢â€š ¬/2). The mean product measured will be Vmax . Imax . cos (à Ã¢â‚¬ °t à Ã¢â€š ¬/2) x cos (à Ã¢â‚¬ °t à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢) which is expressed by: Vmax. Imax Q = cos (à Ã¢â€š ¬/2 à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢) = Veff . Ieff . à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ sin à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ 2 Knowing P and Q, we can calculate the apparent power and the power factor: Apparent power: S = à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡P2+Q2 Power factor: PF = P/S = P/à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡P2+Q2 Knowing the parameters defined above: active power, reactive power, apparent power, power factor, is fundamental in electrical engineering and enables accurate calculation of the characteristics of the equipment used: yield, load, cos à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢, utilization limits. The wattcmeters used for these measurements are classified in three major families: electrodynamics and electronic. Digital Sampling Watt Meter In NPL the digital sampling AC wattcmeters, which are used for calibration work, each require the generation of sample timing pulses suitably locked to the frequency of the AC which is to be measured. Repetitive waveforms representing the instantaneous test voltage and test current are digitised at equal intervals of time harmonically related to the period of the waveforms. A new NPL standard wattmeter calibrator incorporates improved sample timing generation. It uses a crystal digital oscillator to govern both the sample timing and the AC source frequency. This avoids reliance on timing interpolation uniformity within an input period; only digital frequency dividers are needed. Alternatively, commercial frequency synthesizers can be used, with a common master frequency, to give sampling and signal frequencies. Either alternative allows digital phase control, and reduces the use of special-purpose precision analogue electronics. AC power wattmeter and voltmeters: Figure AC Power Measurement by sampling Power measuring at NPL is based on a digital sampling technique. This works by using a pair of analogue to digital converter (ADC) to take instantaneous samples of the respective voltage and current waveforms involved in measuring by multiplying the specimen pairs, the instantaneous power can be established and by averaging instantaneous over a defined interval the average power of that interval can be arranged. Figure Sampling Wattmeter This technique relies on the execution of the ADC in terms of its exactness and its ability to take samples at well-defined instant in time. To meet these requirements NPL has developed an ADC system based on the fastest shape of ADC, known as a blaze converter. Unfortunately, these devices are of circumscribed resolution and to overcome this limitation they are included in configuration that uses a Digital to Analogue Converter (ADC). This organized whole makes employ the repetitive properties of the waveforms of attention where single round is extremely like to the following round. Figure Phantom Power The computer takes a conjecture at the signal level at a stated moment on the waveform. This digital guess is accurately converted to voltage using the DAC. The guess can then be compared to the incoming signal at the required dot in time and the mistake voltage is converted using the blaze converter and passed back to the computer. Because the waveforms are assumed to be repetitive the computer can improve its conjecture for the next round of the waveform using the mistake knowledge from the former round. In this manner the computers conjecture converges on digital reproduction of the input waveform. This reproduction can then be used for AC voltage, current measuring. Figure NPL ADC Schematic Two of these ADC systems are used for single-phase measuring. They are used in conjecture with transducers that change unlike levels of voltage and current to the working signal levels of the ADCs. In organization to present traceability all of these components require single calibration and characterisation. Uncertainty Contribution Any estimation of uncertainties must start by identifying all significant contributions. There may be several sources of error in a measurement where the magnitude of the error could be quantified. Where these can be identified, they should be corrected such that only the residual unknown component contributes to the uncertainty of the measurement. Using the importation of DC voltage from a higher level laboratory as an example, there will be the following uncertainty components: Calibration Uncertainty Transportation Stability with Time Stability with Temperature Noise Usually the measurement techniques used will ensure well defined conditions and minimize loading effects such that the main contributions listed above will be the only significant ones. Calibration Uncertainty Calibration uncertainty is a significant contribution and is usually reported on the certificate of calibration issued by another organization i.e. the national laboratory. Quite reasonably, the national laboratory is beyond the control of other commercial organizations and there is little that can be done by the customer to evaluate the uncertainty reported as a single  ± value on the certificate. For this reason the calibration uncertainty is usually treated as a type B contribution. The reported uncertainty may vary slightly for each calibration and will usually be at a 95% minimum confidence level. Part II Force measurement system based on strain gauges Introduction A small product based of strain gauge is designed in this part of the assignment, force measurement based on strain gauge. Two strain gauges connected properly on each side of a steel cantilever; these two strain gauges are a part of a resistance combination called Wheatstone bridge supplied by 5V. The output of this circuit connected to data acquisition card through an amplification circuit. A Low pass filter circuit provided. The circuit has been designed and calculated then built on a PCB supplied by power supply device. Moreover the circuit has been tested and practically operated using suitable weights (UK 1 penny to 10 pence); ten coins have been used. Data acquisition card used to pass the results to the computer. LabVIEW software was the tool used for monitoring the results. Strain gauge: As an external forces applied to an object, this will produce a stress and strain. That means the metal object will be compressed and the resistance of the metal will increase, while the resistance will decrease if the metal stretched. By using this feature of a specific metal; force measurement sensor bas been built. This called strain gauge. The design of a force measurement system was based on strain gauges because as the name implies they are used for measurement of strain. The strain gauge is attached to the object by a suitable adhesive, such as superglue as shown below: Strain gauge mounted on component under test Figure strain gauge glued on cantilever  [1]   Strain gauge operation: Generally electrical resistance (R) of a metal wire is proportional to the length (L) and inversely proportional to the area (A) as given by (where à Ã‚  is the resistivity). The change in resistance in a strain gauge of resistance R is nearly proportional to the applied strain. [ref9] Hence: K is constant known as the gauge factor which is the sensitivity to strain. Strain; . The gauges used in this report have K=210 ±0.02 Figure (2) shows loaded cantilever Beam SG 1 SG 2 L F X Figure stain gauge block diagram  [2]   The gauges are glued at a distance (L-X) from the load, a load of mass m and weight mg is suspended from the cantilever beam. The beam has thickness t and width w and is made from stainless steel with a young modulus. The calculated strain due to the suspended mass is. Therefore the relative change in the resistance of the strain gauge is given by: . Wheatstone Bridge The change of the resistance of the strain gauges is very small; so the strain gauges have to be connected in a Wheatstone bridge shown in figure (6). The gauge glued on top of the beam is in tension, the gauge glued underneath the beam is in compression, hence strain causes equal and opposite resistance changes in the gauges. By using two gauges the effects of temperature variations on the gauge resistance are cancelled. The bottom end of the bridge circuit is connected to the ground, the circuit is powered by the bridge excitation voltage VEX applied to the top side of the bridge. Figure Wheatstone bridge  [3]   If the strain increases the resistance of Gauge One from R to R + then the resistance of Gauge Two is decreased from R to R . Hence the voltage VG is given by: To balance the Wheatstone bridge the Zero Adjust resistor is adjusted to produce a voltage of VADJ . [ref11] Therefore the output voltage V0 of the Wheatstone bridge is given by: Substituting Then: Circuit design details: Figure Circuit design This circuit is designed and built by a team of three students; and its a number of stages as shown in the block diagram below: Two strain gauges connected on a Wheatstone bridge. Amplification circuit Low pass filter circuit (RC circuit). Data acquisition LabVIEW software based on Computer Strain Gauges Wheatstone bridge Amplification Circuit Filter (RC) D.AQ Computer Screen Figure circuit block diagram Stage one Pre-circuit has been designed and built; which is consists of two strain gauges of resistance of 120à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¦ of each glued on the cantilever. Wheatstone bridge provided with R1,R2 of 1k à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¦ of each and powered by 5v. The figure below show the circuit diagram of first stage. Figure First stage circuit connection The circuit above is a half bridge; while the output voltage will be as: and the object that are used to be measured by the strain gauge sensor is the UK pennies as shown in figure and the mass for it is 3.5 gram. Calculations bridge output voltage L = 140mm, x = 50mm w = 8mm t = 0.5mm E = 210Gpa G = 2 The maximum loading force that the Cantilever can handle is: Where is the Fatigue strength for steel? Since, Then, Kg m = 204 gram So the maximum mass that courses the max force is 204gram Since: G=2 Vs=5V So: Then: 0.219485 mV 0.43897 mV 0.658455 mV 0.87794 mV 1.097425 mV 1.31691 mV 1.536395 mV 1.75588 mV 1.975365 mV 2.19485 mV The following table shows the calculated values: Calculated values No of coins Mass (gram) 0 0 1 3.5 2 7 3 10.5 4 14 5 17.5 6 21 7 24.5 8 28 9 31.5 10 35 The figure shows the relation between the mass of the coins and the calculated output voltage of the bridge circuit. Chart 1. The relation between the mass and O/p voltages Second Stage: In this stage an amplification circuit is needed in order to increase the output voltage to a range of 0 10 v as an input to the data acquisition, INA126 OP AMP has been used with a gain resistance of around 80 ohms to get a 1000 amplification ratio, the following figure show the op amp circuit diagram: Figure Op amp circuit diagram According to the data sheet, and from the table shown above the gain of the circuit can be adjusted by varying the Gain Resistor RG. The gain 1000 needed could be done by using or adjusting the gain resistance RG to be 80.4 à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¦ (variable resistor has been used). And the following calculations proves the value of the Gain Resistor RG Since; So; Third stage: Figure Low pass filter circuitAs show in circuit diagram, an RC filter with a components of C= 22uF and R = 10 k ohms. The calculation below shows that this filter values is above the maximum frequency of the expected values from the dc components and to guarantee to get rid of the voltage spikes. The frequency value is about 1 Hz. Measuring the Bridge output voltage As the circuit has been connected, start measuring the output of the Bridge circuit for each number of coins. Measurement values No of coins Mass (gram) 0 0 1 3.5 2 7 3 10.5 4 14 5 17.5 6 21 7 24.5 8 28 9 31.5 10 35 And the chart bellow shows the relation between the mass of the pennies and the measured output voltage of the bridge circuit. Chart 2. The relation between the mass and O/p voltages The chart above shows the relation between the mass of the coin with the output voltage values, it can be clearly seen that there is a non-linearity with the chart and this caused by the non accurate measures. The red line is the trend-line which used to simulate the real linearity for the chart. The following table shows the results of the output of the amplification circuit Measurement No of coins Mass (gram) Output of the Bridge in (mV) 0 0 0 1 3.5 0.20 2 7 0.41 3 10.5 0.62 4 14 0.83 5 17.5 1.12 6 21 1.42 7 24.5 1.57 8 28 1.78 9 31.5 1.93 10 35 2.21 Experimental procedures Procedures: Connecting and implementing the circuit as shown in the circuit connection Testing the circuit if its working Make sure of the output of the bridge is set to 0V. Put the coins (penny) on the beam and observe the output of the circuit, if the circuit it works, go to next step. The bellow picture shows the penny which has been used as the weights to be measured in the experiments. The weight of this penny is 3.5. That should be taken into account in the calculations. Figure UK Penny Data acquisition: Lab View has been used to simulate the operation of the circuit. Lab view is a measurement application which uses a variety of data acquisition hardware. The following Figure shows the block diagram consisting of the DAQ assistant and some numerical representation of the number of coins and weight in grams with the ability to adjust the offset. The bellow pictures showing how the practical work had been carried and what stage we did carry to finish this piece of work: Integrating all the circuits had been justified and connecting the output to the LabVIEW by the data acquisition. LabVIEW screen shots below show the real practical results of the circuit: Figure LabVIEW simulation Output values with no load on cantilever Figure output value with on load Screen shots for some values: When taken the results another test has been done by exchange the cantilever upside down and negative results found. And the following LabVIEW screen shot result show the output voltage with 10 coins on, with both negative and positive results: Figure output of 10 coins (negative and positive) Results and Analysis No of coins Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Test 4 Test 5 Test 6 Test 7 Test 8 Test 9 Test 10 Mean (Average) Standard Deviation 1 0.20 0.24 0.23 0.21 0.22 0.23 0.24 0.25 0.26 0.20 0.228 0.02044 2 0.41 0.47 0.43 0.42 0.39 0.38 0.41 0.44 0.49 0.42 0.426 0.03373 3 0.62 0.71 0.69 0.64 0.63 0.62 0.65 0.64 0.63 0.61 0.644 0.03204 4 0.83 0.78 0.81 0.83 0.83 0.82 0.79 0.72 0.75 0.82 0.798 0.03795 5 1.12 1.21 1.18 1.19 1.09 1.05 1.17 1.16 1.15 1.11 1.143 0.04968 6 1.42 1.37 1.34 1.25 1.23 1.22 1.28 1.18 1.21 1.41 1.291 0.08749 7 1.57 1.81 1.79 1.71 1.64 1.62 1.67 1.66 1.61 1.56 1.664 0.08462 8 1.80 1.79 1.81 1.77 1.69 1.67 1.69 1.63 1.67 1.81 1.733 0.06929 9 1.93 1.99 2.01 2.05 1.99 1.99 1.89 1.93 1.97 1.92 1.967 0.04855 10 2.21 2.29 2.32 2.28 2.20 2.26 2.16 2.26 2.10 2.21 2.229 0.06624 Maximum Experimental Error The maximum experimental error in the expected value of Vo using the formula The error in our application was acceptable and its expected, many factors may affect the results especially temperature affect as the strain gauge based on resistance variation of the metal which affected by temperature. Self evaluation During working on this mini project I have learn a lot according to sensors application specially strain gauges application, and how we could make use of the sensors and how to design a circuit by choose the suitable components as well as improving the output results of the circuit. With the help from the tutor Dr Ahmed we succeed to design and built the circuit. The team which I was involved to do the work with was very good as very accomplish to finish the work as soon as possible. Working on teams has so many advantages as the work would be split to save the time. The designing and the building for the circuit didnt take much time, by the time we finished the design we started to take the measuring and the readings for the outputs. Working on new software like the LABVIEW was very challenge because its the first time for me to get use to this software and a very hard work has been taken to carry some tutorials and know how the software is work. As this software is very wide in use and has everything that the engineer can have the benefit from the use of such amazing software. Conclusion A mini project has been designed and built based on strain gauge trying to perform what it is regarded as basic function like measuring the weight. Stain gauges are quite simple in design. The circuit diagram of the design was designed in the MULTISIM electronic workbench software. All components were calculated to get suitable values as well as a typical calculation has been done for the results. The measurement values compared with the calculated values and a very small different was provided as this is expected and acceptable. Lapview tool was the best software to simulate the output of the circuit where the output can be clearly achieved as well as we could multiply, divide and/or add factors to the output results value.

Multicultural Education Essay -- Sociology, Ethnic Differences, Equali

Multicultural Children’s Literature Multicultural education must be integrated into the curriculum and focus on the appreciation of all cultures and ethnic differences. Much research has been documented supporting the use of high quality multicultural children’s literature as a powerful medium to develop varying cross-cultural understandings of perspectives concerning cultures, roles, insights, traditions and beliefs (Au, 2001; Callins, 2006; Howrey & Whelan, 2009; Lowery & Sabis-Burns, 2007; Mei-yun, 2007) . Teachers also can use multicultural literature depicting children's worlds as a means to bridge home and school cultures personally as well that of the students. Within Howrey and Whelan’s (2009) research project, utilization of multicultural children’s literature was used to enhance teachers to become culturally responsive educators. â€Å"According to Villegas and Lucas (2002), exposure to the literature of different groups can give future teachers access to the rich textures of people†™s lives, hopes, aspirations, dreams, disappointments, pains, and joys† (p. 27). Literature can be a powerful vehicle for understanding cultures and experiences different from our own. Howrey and Whelan (2009) research analysis concluded that multicultural children’s literature provides not only â€Å"a mirror on one culture and a window to another† for children, but for adults as well. (p. 132). In parallel, the work of Evans (2010) highlights the use of multicultural literature to address racial, ethnic, and linguistic equality. In this qualitative study, demonstrated that through using an innovative critical literacy practice with multicultural literature, students’ awareness and understanding of others was positively impacted. Over a period of ti... ... diversity of our society and understand that all teachers enter the classrooms with personal social identities and cultural biases. Respecting, valuing, and celebrating personal and students’ unique strengths foster in creating equitable classroom communities. Taking the time to develop appropriate knowledge bases, having high expectations for all students, providing a welcoming environment, and working with family members and the community, depict a multicultural classroom atmosphere. Sheets (2009) provides on culturally responsive instruction, â€Å"it is important to become conscious that the arduous journey from novice to expert requires hard work, relentless commitment, and a high investment of time and energy† (p. 17). All teachers must continually acquire the ability to apply and translate ideologies immersed within diversity to enable all students to achieve.

Dysfunctional Medical Insurance Essay -- Argumentative

Dysfunctional Medical Insurance A mom is waiting frantically in the local emergency room while her little girl continues to cry with pain. An hour goes by without any news as to when she will finally be treated. At last, their number gets called and they go over to the registration desk. The lady behind the desk opens their file and shakes her head in disbelief as she turns to look at yet another mother with remorse. She continues to tell the mother that the hospital has refused to provide medical attention to her little girl due to insurance problems. This scenario is sadly very common in the lower class families with little or no insurance coverage, in fact â€Å"20% of the U.S. population lacks medical coverage† (Richman). While the initial idea of medical insurance seems more beneficial than not, the current health insurance situation has caused many negative repercussions for both the patients and the physicians. Some of these disadvantages include: denial of health care, compromised medical att ention, astronomical billings, privacy issues, discriminatory plans, and even possible risks of fraud. The original idea of medical insurance should have been a noble way to help Americans afford medical bills in a case of an emergency or just routine physicals and check-ups. A lot of Americans coming from different financial situations could not afford the emergency or even the customary treatments and would therefore go without medical attention. This obviously had dire consequences on the patients’ health, thus forcing the need of an alternative option. â€Å"Fortunately, a handful of physicians associated with Sacramento's Sutter General Hospital saw beyond the despair. Seeing a need for an alternative health care financing vehicle in the early 1930s, the doctors created the first open enrollment hospital insurance plan in the United States† (Sutter Health). As originally planned, this new medical insurance proposed benefits to both the doctors and the patients; patients could afford to be treated, while doctors could see more patients-even of the lower income clas s. Somehow—between then and now, the plan has been twisted and turned around so much that it has lost some of its greatest benefits and reputation. Because of the numerous loop holes in the current insurance plan, I believe that right now the drawbacks and disadvantages are overshadowin... ...been hit with a half of billion dollars in claims. As the extensity of this crime allows, there are many other issues to be dealt with besides just the insurance aspect. However, if insurance wasn’t implemented into our society or even if loop holes didn’t exist in this case, then this crime could not have been possible. Since insurance was introduced to our society, there have been many problems. Much like the little girl who was denied medical attention, many people suffer from these disadvantages of medical insurance. I believe that the medical insurance idea is argumentative, because there are a lot of repercussions that people may or may not have thought about. Besides the recent crimes being committed against them, the insurance companies are benefiting immensely, but are we? The prices of medical treatments are rising, the doctor’s attention to actual patients as opposed to who has insurance is diminishing, and less people are benefiting from health insurance. I do not think that medical insurance should have been proposed in the first place. I do admit that it should have been a benefit to Americans, but I have yet to see everyone benefit as initially planned.

Intercultural Communication Essay on How Humor Envokes Emotion Essay

There are many factors in which effect one’s sense of humor in each particular region. Certain things and instances may reflect humor in a different way for each individual. Humor also varies in the sex of the individual also, because something a male would find funny a woman would find repulsive or vice versa. In Japan there are several instances in which humor is used either positively or negatively towards its own people. For instance, the Japanese are movie makers in which they convey these messages somewhat clearly in their storylines. They also have literature that stresses some issues of harsh Japanese tradition. Some Japanese films have comic elaboration on such matters such as ethnocentrism, stereotyping, individualism/collectivism and last but not least masculinity and femininity. The way that masculinity and femininity effect Japanese culture is by having the woman take a back seat in power. According to Hofstede’s concepts, they tend to focus more on achievement and success orientated goals instead of family values. The Japanese ratings on masculinity/femininity dimension in 1991 were -238, which indicate the country prefers masculinity over femininity. This to me tells me that because of such a high rating women in this country are under scrutiny because in high masculine cultures it is believed that men should be assertive and the women should be nurturing. Sexual inequality is regarded as beneficial and the quality of life for a woman is disregarded. (Lustig&Koesterp. 27-128) In some cases to show humor they will depict a woman in a room with men present and ask her to leave as a sign to her that it is a men-only meeting, in which case a Japanese man would find this amusing. This would show to another Japanese person that his actions are acceptable to the rigid gender roles they instill. In other cases such as in the work place, family priority isn’t of importance, for instance if a worker asked his boss for time off because his wife is sick or pregnant the boss would laugh in a condes cending way and deny his request. This would be humorous to the Japanese in the sense that it’s funny that the worker would make such an outrageous request, and for not showing any sympathy for the unfortunate. The Japanese culture believes in achievement and ambition in judging someone on their performance and results as a man, instead of having acceptance of equality for all. This in turn is the humor that the Japanese culture find amusing do to their viewpoints on masculinity and femininity.

Teknolohiya

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Recommendations for Auric Bank Essay

Auric Bank is a modern British bank that cares about its customers. Business at Auric Bank is constantly reviewed in order to provide customers with excellent service at competitive prices. The objective of this business report is to scrutinize different solutions to the two issues Auric Bank is currently facing. One of them is customer service improvement and the second one involves implementing a policy which will cut the bank’s costs and at the same time will boost its profits and share price. As a part of the major reorganization a look has to be taken at the cost of customer service since Auric Bank generated a loss of approximately  £1.5 billion in 2011 by investing in unprofitable areas of business. Since that time the bank has carried out a major review of its operations the main points of which are: 1. Customers believe Auric Bank is charging too much for its services 2. Auric Bank no longer has the image of a ‘caring ´ bank that is close to its customers and understands their needs 3. The bank needs to reduce costs to increase profits and price per share Today Auric Bank has 2,500 employees working in three call centers located in different cities in South England. There are four solutions which the directors of the bank are considering: 1. The call centers could be kept in-house  2. The call centers could be outsourced to a Company based in South Africa 3. The call centers could be outsourced to a Company based in Scotland 4. The call centers could be outsourced to a Company based in India PROBLEM SOLUTIONS First option One of the solutions is to keep call centers in their current locations in South England and reduce costs by using more part-time workers, reducing working hours of business centers and enhancing productivity by increasing the ratio of calls returned per hour. Estimated cost of running the call centers for the next five years is  £16 million. Estimated savings by introducing changes are above  £3 million with actual costs being equal up to  £13 million. The price is really high for our cost-cutting policy. There are three positive parts of this solution: 1. Current employees in call-centers are ready to provide the customers with personal approach as they have been acquainted with each other for a long time 2. Current employees know the operations and transactions inside out and, therefore, do not need intensive training 3. South-English workers show that Auric Bank is an English bank and, therefore, reinforce the bank’s closeness to its customers Second option Another way is to outsource services of call-centers to a company based in South Africa. Resource Plc is a company based in Cape Town. Calculations show us that cost of the contract with Resource Plc to run call centers for the next five years is  £8 million. This firm has an excellent reputation for its reliability and good service, and that is a crucial aspect because one of the priorities in banking sphere is the quality of customer service. Moreover Resource Plc has a lot of experience in running this kind of centers. We must take into consideration that Resource Plc offers good balance of costs and quality of service. It is expected that they will manage call centers more efficiently. The staff will be trained to provide the bank with new products and services at much lower costs than the UK centers and will undoubtedly conduct business very professionally. Third option Third possible solution could be outsourcing the call center to a Scottish company Orion Plc. Estimated cost of running the call centers for five years is  £10 million. The positive part of this company is that it is a new firm with young, energetic managers, which can work almost restlessly. Second advantage is that they have several contacts with big companies; this means that these companies trust them. Also they are experienced in running call centers that will help to avoid confusion during work. However, there also are setbacks such as complaints of the customers about telephone lines being always busy, which does not indicate a high productivity level. Contracts with big companies can undermine the reputation and performance of our collaboration. Price of contract with Orion Plc is not relatively low, but quality of their service is not enough for this price. Fourth option Last solution is to outsource the call centers to an Indian company that is based in Bangalore. X-source India is a fast growing company that has contracts with several large US companies. This means that it does not have problems with hiring employees and operating with low costs. An estimated cost of the contract with X-source India over the next five years is  £5,5 million. We must take into consideration that a lot of US companies perform cost-cutting policy through Indian outsourcing call centers. Indian employees have good qualification because the majority of them are university graduates. Indian management will provide fast and effective service and price of the contract is very low. RECOMMENDATIONS We understand that Auric Bank is the English bank, and if directors decide to relocate call centers abroad they will have some problems with laying off 2,500 employees. This fact will negatively affect the reputation of Auric Bank and of course labor unions will be against this action. Quality of service might not stay on the same level abroad, however, keeping call centers in England is too expensive. Taking all facts into consideration I would advise to relocate the call centers of Auric Bank abroad. Scottish and Indian companies have been servicing a lot of big clients. This fact, their serious commitment, can affect the quality of their services provided to other customers in a negative way. The call centers had better not be kept in-house because it is a very expensive solution that will not let AB focus on developing parts of business. Therefore I suggest moving call centers to South Africa and collaborating with Resource Plc. The offer of this company represents an appropriate price-to-quality ratio. If AB cooperates with the South African company it will achieve its goals: reduce operation costs, increase quality of services and get customer loyalty.

Stefan’s Diaries: Bloodlust Chapter 22

I straightened the cuffs on my neatly pressed white shirt and buttoned my overcoat. The shiny brass buttons glinted in the lamplight as I turned the corner onto Laurel Street. I wiped my face, to make sure no blood lingered on my lips. Id visited my barmaid from Miladies, sating my hunger before my evening out on the town with Callie. The barmaids blood had tasted sweet, like lilies dipped in honey. The second the warmth had hit my tongue, my senses had become honed and the world had sharpened around the edges. Now the cicadas shrieked in my ears and the smell of roses assaulted my nose, but my stomach was calm and my veins were sated. I was ready for my date. The park at the end of the street was filled with magnolias and ancient elm trees, and in the center, a marble fountain was topped with a sculpture of a naked woman. Through the burble of the fountain, I could hear the beating of a human heart. â€Å"Hello?† I called. â€Å"Stefan!† Callie stepped out from behind a stone cherub into the weak light of a gas lamp. Her red hair, a flame in the flickering light, hung loose and curly around her shoulders. She wore a simple, cream-colored dress, with a lace bodice and a flouncy skirt that draped over her tiny hips. Blood raced through my body. â€Å"What?† Callie said, reddening as she noticed my stare. â€Å"You look, uh, like a girl,† I said. She looked beautiful. â€Å"Gee, thanks.† Callie rolled her eyes and softly slugged my shoulder. â€Å"Youre just used to seeing me in work clothes.† She gazed at me. â€Å"You look quite handsome.† I cleared my throat and tugged on my collar. Suddenly my clothes felt uncomfortable and constricting, and the night air stuffy. I wondered briefly if the barmaid had something in her blood that hadnt agreed with me. â€Å"Thank you,† I said formally. â€Å"Stefan?† Callie lifted her arm expectantly. â€Å"Oh, of course.† I took her arm in mine. Her freckled hand grazed my palm. I flinched and readjusted so that her hand was resting on the soft fabric of my jacket. â€Å"Where to, Miss Gallagher?† She looked up at me, a smile on her face. â€Å"Bourbon Street, of course.† Callie guided me through cobblestone side streets, where gardenias dripped from balconies. On a whim, I grabbed one and tucked it behind her ear. Back home in Mystic Falls, it was customary to bring flowers or a small token when visiting with a lady. â€Å"Want to know a secret?† Callie whispered. â€Å"What?† I asked, curious. I was already the bearer of too many secrets. But perhaps Callies could lead me to Damon She got up on tiptoe and cupped my ear with her hand. The sound of her blood pumping beneath her skin magnified tenfold. I gritted my teeth, forcing my fangs back down. â€Å"Your shirt has come untucked,† she whispered. â€Å"Oh,† I said, as I self-consciously smoothed down my shirt. â€Å"Thanks.† Callie let out a gleeful laugh. â€Å"You know what I really want to see?† she asked, grabbing my arm. â€Å"What?† I asked, trying to devote all my energy to not listening to the steady thrum of her blood. â€Å"A burlesque show. Madame X has a showeveryone'sbeen talking about,† she said. We walked together through the town, past bustling crowds and wavering street carts, ending up in a well-kept neighborhood in front of a pristine, stately house. A simple placard next to the door readMADAME Xin black script. Soft lamplight shone from all the windows, and carriages pulled up, one after another, to the front gate, releasing their well-dressed passengers into the depths of the club. I momentarily panicked. I didnt have any money. And I was wearing a schoolboys clothes that hadnt been in style since the turn of the century. â€Å"Callie, I think † I began, trying to come up with an alternate idea for our evening when the front door swung open to greet us. â€Å"Good evening. Are you guests of the house?† The mans eyes flicked down my old clothes. I was wildly underdressed for this venue, and I knew it. Callie, however, looked radiant. â€Å"Yes,† Callie jumped in, straightening her shoulders. â€Å"And your names?† From the way Callies lips flattened, I could tell she hadnt realized there was a guest list. I stepped in front of her, suddenly inspired. â€Å"Were the Picards. Remy and his wife, Calliope.† â€Å"One moment, sir.† The man waddled in his slippers over to a podium holding a list that almost certainly did not include Mr. Remy Picards name. He turned a page, then turned it back. â€Å"What are you doing, Stefan?† Callie whispered. â€Å"I have it under control,† I said quietly. â€Å"Just smile and look pretty.† The man returned, looking genuinely distressed. â€Å"Im terribly sorry, sir, but your name is not on our list for tonight.† He glanced around, as if ready to beckon a security guard if we made trouble. I want you to let us in without asking us any more questions, I thought, channeling all my energy. â€Å"Wed really like to come in,† I said aloud, concentrating on looking deep into his eyes, ignoring Callies curious gaze boring into my back. â€Å"Are you sure you didnt see our names on the list?† The mans eyes flickered. Let us in without looking at the list. â€Å"You know, I believe Imighthave seen your names. In fact, Im sure I did. The Picards! Im sorry. It was my confusion. Right this way,† he said, a slightly vacant expression on his face. He led us through large double doors and into a sumptuous parlor. Low crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling, and the air smelled of jasmine, magnolia, and freesia. â€Å"Enjoy your stay at Madame Xs. And if I can be of any assistance to either of you, dont hesitate to come fetch me,† the man said, turning on his heel. â€Å"Thank you,† I said. Callie simply stood there, looking slack-jawed at me. â€Å"How did you do that?† I shrugged. â€Å"I just made him doubt himself. He wouldnt want to say no to the Picards, whoever they are. Besides, what if our nameswereon the list, and he said no to us, then we complained to the owner?† Secretly, I was thrilled. My Power was strengthening. â€Å"So I take it that this isnt your first time sneaking in where you dont belong?† I glanced at her slyly. â€Å"You of all people should know that to be true.† She laughed, and I gave her an impromptu twirl. People stared at us. Even though a pianist was playing a jaunty tune in the corner, this wasnt a room where people danced. Instead, guests drifted from one conversation to the next as they sucked on cigars and gulped down champagne. â€Å"Do you know anyone here?† I asked as we brushed past couple after couple, all clad in finery. Callie shrugged, the shadow of a frown crossing her face. She glanced around the room. â€Å"They all hate Father. They say hes a Unionist whos taking advantage of New Orleans with his business. And perhaps he is, but at least his show doesnt pretend to be something its not,† she said, jutting her chin. I shifted in my seat. Wasnt that exactly what I was doing? Pretending to be someone I wasnt? I couldnt look at her, in case she could see the depths of my lies in my eyes. A server came by with a tray laden with champagne. I grabbed two glasses. â€Å"Cheers,† I said, handing one to Callie. As we sipped the bubbling liquid, conversations swirled around us, growing louder and more boisterous with every tray of drinks the waiters brought out to serve. Mens movements grew more languid, women laughed more readily. â€Å"Is your father ready for the next show?† I asked, forcing a conversational note to my voice. â€Å"I suppose so.† â€Å"Who will the vampire be fighting?† â€Å"I dont know,† Callie said. â€Å"A crocodile, or maybe a tiger. It depends on what Father can get on such short notice. Why?† I shrugged noncommittally. â€Å"I want to place a bet.† â€Å"Father wants something cheap. Hes worried people wont pony up as much money for another animal fight. It seems the monsters much stronger than a beast.† â€Å"Oh,† I said, trying to process the information. â€Å"But lets not talk about work. Tonight is supposed to be fun! Lord knows we dont have enough of it in our real lives.† Callies voice grew melancholy. â€Å"Speaking of fun,† she said, pointing to a small crowd moving through a set of double doors at the back of the club, â€Å"I think the burlesque show is back there.† â€Å"Shall we?† I asked, offering my arm. The back room, much smaller than the first one, had numerous wooden tables crammed onto the floor. A stage was set up at the front of the room, and the space was dimly lit by candles. Instead of joining the crush toward the front, Callie and I sat back on a low-slung, red velvet bench beneath a large mirror in the back of the room. As soon as everyone settled into seats, a master of ceremonies took to the stage. I was surprised to see that he was a man wearing a dinner suit and cape. Id imagined a burlesque show to be louder, larger than this, with plenty of music and scantily clad women. â€Å"Good evening! As weve all heard, we have a vampire in our midst,† he said dramatically. Audience members tittered nervously. I glanced at Callie out of the corner of my eye. Was this some sort of trap? Did she know what I was? But Callie was leaning forward, as if mesmerized by the mans words. The master of ceremonies smiled, drinking in the suspense. â€Å"Yes, a vampire. Down at that two-bit circus by the lake.† Jeers filled the room. Callie hadnt been exaggerating when shed said her father was infamous in this town. I turned to look at her. Although her cheeks were as red as her hair, she gazed straight ahead, her elbows on her knees. â€Å"And eyewitnesses say Gallagher had to chain his up so it wont run away. But, here at Madame Xs, our vampire has come to visit all on his own.† â€Å"We can go if you want,† I whispered. But Callie shook her head and clasped my hand. It felt warm against my cool skin, but this time I didnt push her away. â€Å"No, I want to stay.† A thin man walked onstage, clad in a black cape. His face was powdered, and thin lines of fake blood were drawn from the corners of his lips. He smiled at the crowd, revealing fake fangs. I shifted in my seat. â€Å"I am a vampire, and you all are my prey! Come to me, my pretties!† he cackled, in an exaggerated voice that made me squirm. The â€Å"vampire† stalked around the stage, his teeth bared and his eyes scanning the audience. A woman in a pearl-embroidered gown stood up from a table in the front and walked toward the stage as if in a trance, emitting a low moan with each step. â€Å"The vampire has special eyes that can see through clothing. And this vampire, ladies and gentlemen, likes what he sees!† The master of ceremonies leered at the audience. At this, the audience applauded enthusiastically. I glanced at Callie again. Had she known this was a show about vampires? â€Å"But, now, the vampire has his hunger awakened. And what hell do to feed the hunger, you wont believe,† the master of ceremonies said as the vampire onstage waved his hands toward the woman, as if conducting an orchestra. As he did that, a trumpet player began playing a slow, mournful tune. The woman began to move her hips, slowly at first, and then more and more quickly until she looked as though she would topple over. â€Å"Maybe Father should give our vampire dance lessons,† Callie whispered, her breath hot on my cheek. Then, suddenly, the vampire stopped waving his arms. The music stopped, and so did the woman. The vampire lurched toward her, took hold of the sleeve of her dress, and tore it off, exposing her milky-white arm. â€Å"Do you feel wicked tonight?† the vampire called to the audience, waggling the fabric toward the crowd. Then he tore off the other sleeve. My stomach turned. â€Å"I ask you, do you feel wicked tonight?† he called again, tossing the fabric into the audience. The crowd cheered as the dancer continued her gyrations, rubbing her back against the â€Å"vampire.† Slowly, she peeled away her clothing, item by item, sending a silk stocking or a slip into the audience until most of her body was on display. As the music picked up speed, she got closer to becoming entirely nude. At last, she sat in a chair on the stage as the master of ceremonies pulled off the last bit of her top, forcing her to cover herself with her hands. â€Å"As he is a beast from hell, the only way to stop a vampire is with a stake to the heart. But they can also be kept away with a crucifix â€Å" At this, the dancer pantomimed a futile search for pockets that might contain a stake or crucifix. I slumped in my chair, thinking of my own attacks. Of Alice, of Lavinia, of the nurse whose name Id never known. There was nothing beautiful or romantic about those attacks. They were quick, bloody, deadly. Id ended their lives without a second thought, with swift violence and a thirst for more. â€Å"Are you okay?† Callie asked. For the first time, I realized how tightly Id been clutching her hand. I loosened my grip, and instantly she snuggled closer to me in my seat. Her blood pumped like sweet music through her body, and the warmth of her body soothed my anger. I relaxed into her, taking in the softness of her voice as she laughed at the play. Callie was warm and soft and so veryalive. I wanted this moment to freeze, to last into eternity, with nothing but me and Callie and her beating heart. There was nothing else I needed in that moment, not blood, not power, not D– My body tensed and I sat straight up. What was I doing? Had I forgotten my brother, what I had done to him, so quickly? I stood up. â€Å"Down in front!† a voice barked a few rows behind me. â€Å"I-Im sorry. I have to go,† I said, stumbling toward the door. â€Å"Stefan, wait!† she called. But I kept going until I was on the street, running from the late-night bustle all the way to the riverbank. As I stared down at my reflection in the swirling water, Percys words echoed in my head: â€Å"Youll either want to kill her or kiss her, and neither scenario will end well for you.† He was right. Because while I truly didnt know whether I wanted to kiss or bite Callie, I knew I wantedher.