Case Sharp Printing Essay

Three years ago the Sharp Printing (SP) strategic management group set a goal of having a color laser printer available for the consumer and small business market for less than $200. A few months later the senior management met off-site to discuss the new product. The results of this meeting were a set of general technical specifications along with major deliverables, a product launch date, and a cost estimate based on prior experience. Shortly afterward, a meeting was arranged for middle management explaining the project goals, major responsibilities, the project start date, and importance of meeting the product launch date within the cost estimate. Members of all departments involved attended the meeting. Excitement was high. Although everyone saw the risks as high, the promised rewards for the company and the personnel were emblazoned in their minds. A few participants questioned the legitimacy of the project duration and cost estimates. A couple of R&D people were worried about the technology required to produce the high-quality product for less than $200. But given the excitement of the moment, everyone agreed the project was worth doing and doable. The color laser printer project was to have the highest project priority in the company. Lauren was selected to be the project manager. She had 15 years of experience in printer design and manufacture, which included successful management of several projects related to printers for commercial markets. Since she was one of those uncomfortable with the project cost and time estimates, she felt getting good bottom-up time and cost estimates for the deliverables was her first concern. She quickly had a meeting with the significant stakeholders to create a WBS identifying the work packages and organizational unit responsible for implementing the work packages. Lauren stressed she wanted time and cost estimates from those who would do the work or were the most knowledgeable, if possible. Getting estimates from more than one source was encouraged. Estimates were due in two weeks. The compiled estimates were placed in the WBS/OBS. The corresponding cost estimate seemed to be in error. The cost estimate was $1,250,000 over the senior management estimate; this represents about a 20 percent overrun! The time estimate from the developed project network was only four months over the top management time estimate. Another meeting was scheduled with the significant stakeholders to check the estimates and to brainstorm for alternative solutions; the cost and time estimates appeared to be reasonable. Some of the suggestions for the brainstorming session are listed below.

Language Autobiography Essay

Being a girl of a mixed ethnic background, you can imagine the diversity of language used across my family. The dialects and accents have a wide variety as my family are spread all across the globe. My mother carol is British born and bred in the Essex country side. Whereas my father ahmed is, half Lebanese and half Palestinian. My mum’s first language is English and she speaks in standard English, this could be because of her profession as a nurse has an influence on her speech and it wouldn’t be professional of her to constantly use colloquial language. My father’s first language is Arabic, the Palestinian dialect Arabic. There are so many dialects of Arabic sometimes it seems like it’s a completely different language! He can also speak French as fluent as he can Arabic because French is also a main language in Lebanon. he is also fluent in English, but he has an Arab accent. My father lives in Lebanon so his dialect of Arabic has changed to the Lebanese dialect because of his surroundings but he still has a twang of the Palestinian dialect. The main languages in my family are English and Arabic, but there are so many dialects, such as Egyptian, Jordanian, Emirati, Lebanese, Moroccan, Saudi Arabian, Syrian Arabic and Essex accents, Dorset accent, Scottish accent, American accent, Australian accent. This is just the start of the variety of language in my family! So you’re probably thinking, what is my first language? Well, I was born in the United Arab Emirates in the Emirate of Dubai. Yes, I think it too†¦ why did I immigrate to sunny England? Growing up in Dubai my first language was English because my mother’s Arabic was very basic; however I was fluent in Arabic and could also speak some Tagalog as I was brought up with a Pilipino nanny, Lily. I immigrated to England when I was about 4 or 5 years old, I was constantly speaking English. I remember some of my mum’s friends telling me I had a slight American accent. But my accent quickly changed because of influences around me in school. My surname is Said, but it’s pronounced â€Å"Syed† and I remember reading the Biff and Chip books in my first school and saying â€Å"and Chip Syed this†. My teacher found it highly amusing! Ever since I moved to England, over the years I slowly forgot how to speak Arabic as I got out of the habit of speaking in Arabic often. Now I only know greetings and little phrases in Arabic. Trying to learn Arabic again was extremely difficult because I’m so used to the rules in the English language such as the â€Å"Ough† sound. Being so used to certain rules really affects trying to learn a new language, especially Arabic. Learning Arabic was very different to English and the Arabic alphabet has more letters than the English alphabet, which include sounds as well as letters. Also not every word in Arabic can be translated perfectly into English, and there is no word in the English language for it. Sometimes it’s hard to get a near enough definition of the word without meaning something else. Also in Arabic they can have one word which in the English language translates to a group of words or a sentence. From my experiencing of learning Arabic again I have noticed that the language is very cultural and influence by religion, for example a lot of words or phrases refer to god (Allah). However not just Muslims and religious people use these words, these words are used by all Arabic speakers. In the Spanish language I realized a difference in tenses. In English there are only three tenses, present, past and the future. Whereas in the Spanish language there are many more. This makes its complicated and more difficult to learn as realistically there is only 3 tenses, and it’s hard to picture other tenses. I would describe my accent as a southern English accent. My cousins who live in Essex say that I have a â€Å"brightonian† accent, is there such thing? According to my cousins, people from Brighton raise their tone at the end of every sentence like they are constantly asking questions. I can’t notice myself doing it or other people doing it around me. The way I talk changes depending on the context. For example, when I’m with my friends I use a large amount of colloquial language. Whereas when I’m with my mum or teachers I would not use this language, I would talk in a more Standard English way. Having a lot of friends from an ethnic community, I’ve learnt a lot of slang and colloquial words. Even though these friends are from an Arabic background, I would never talk to my family in the Middle East in this way. I think I change the way I speak to different people, depending on who it is to make a good impression and to make my language appropriate to the situation. The different use of language always comes back to the context its used in.

Case study of the Image Cafe

Case study of the Image Cafe Image Cafà © was founded by Clarence Wooten in 1998. Prior to that he was also a founded of Envision Designs while he was an undergraduate in 1991 and Metamorphosis Studios in 1994 with co-founder Andre Forde. However, the three company did not really last long. In 1998, Metamorphosis Studios had sold to Medisolv, Inc and Image Cafà © was acquired by Network Solution after sever months of market launch (Clarence Wooten, Jr., 2005). About Clarence Wooten, Jr. Clarence Wooten had a big dream since childhood. His dream is to get rich someday. His childhood hobby was playing with computer games. He was so obsessed with computer that his parents banned him at the age of 14 (Kathryn F, Spinelli, 2004: 33-40). At the age of 18, he attended college to study architecture in Catonsville Community College. During that time he believes that by taking up architecture courses can satisfy his creative instincts. In the early 1990s, many professional architects went back to school to upgrade them selves due to the recession. At that point of time, he manages to learn from the senior architects. After the first two failure of his business, he realised that he did not really understand anything about finance after he read the stories from Fred Smith, Reginald Lewis and Bill Gates. This had inspired him to upgrade himself with a business administration and finance. In 1998, he was graduated with B.S. in Business Administration from Johns Hopkins University (Kathryn F, Spinelli, 2004: 33-40). Clarence Wooten, Jr. Venture Spirit Clarence Wooten started Envision Design which was his first business while he enrolled for Catonsville Community College. The type of service he was offering was using form and cardboard to model out a proposed building. The company did not perform well during that time and eventually closed down (Kathryn F, Spinelli, 2004: 33-40). In 1994, Clarence Wooten started his second company Metamorphosis Studios with his co-founded Andre Forde by focusing on spec ial effects and multimedia presentations. Their first customer is Bingwa, an educational software company. However, Bingwa require Metamorphosis Studios to relocate to Princeton, New Jersey and worked for Bingwa. After a thought Clarence Wooten and Andre Forde turned down the offer as they know they are heading for something big (Kathryn F, Spinelli, 2004: 33-40). Metamorphosis Studios was not a successful project too, in 1998 Metamorphosis Studios was acquired by MediSolv, Inc (Clarence Wooten, Jr., 2005). In early 1998, Clarence Wooten started his third company Image Cafà ©. Back in 1995, internet service began to grow. Many companies had started to create their own companies website in order to promote their products and services over the World Wide Web. However, during that time, many companies do not have their own expertise to create a website. Clarence Wooten knew that this is an opportunity and started Image Cafà © to help companies by design their website to promote their products and services over the web (Kathryn F, Spinelli, 2004: 33-40). At the start of Image Cafà ©, Clarence Wooten went around to search for capital in order to start his business. What Clarence Wooten wants was $300,000 capital based on $3 million valuation. In total he received $110,000 from 10 different investors. Image Cafà © website was ready to launch after four month of preparation. However, at that point of time, Clarence Wooten had utilised the cash during the launch. He went back to the existing investors to ask for additional $150,000 in form of bridge loan. This time, Clarence Wooten expects to raise $3million at $10 million valuation (Kathryn F, Spinelli, 2004: 33-40).

Reflection paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 12

Reflection paper - Essay Example Utilitarianism also points out the idea that the good thing to do is to maximize individual ability for making the whole world a better place. Therefore, impartiality proves to be appropriate in order to maximize pleasures. Utilitarianism also eliminates the idea of moral dilemma for as long as majority is happy on a certain action, then it is absolutely the right thing to do. A â€Å"Pokerface† could mean a person who is not honest about his real emotion or feeling and hiding it may be the best option so that nobody could know about it. Pokerface was coined from an actual poker card play, by which each opponent would not want to show a real expression of their face to others so that any hint about what cards they are holding may not be detected. This paragraph depicts the idea about deception which would be made possible if the girl would be able to successfully hide her real intention of deceiving the man. Achieving it seems would what make the girl happy. Wearing pokerface based on the song would maximize the girl’s pleasure. Based on utilitarianism, from the point of view of the girl, there would be no any moral dilemma, for as long as her move maximizes her happiness. However, from the perspective of the man who has been deceived, that might not ensure maximizing his happiness. For this reason, for as long as there is no majority who got the maximum pleasure, then utilitarianism would fail to tell us what is good or bad, but what is right would always mean subjective at this point. Applying this in the general context, we know for sure that the majority always has the authority over the minority if there would be maximum happiness generated by the former. However, provided that the minority has something more important point compared to the majority, up to what extent then does the latter hold over the former? Does following the majority would still ensure

Web-Based Distance Learning Project Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Web-Based Distance Learning Project - Assignment Example 29 Oct 2007 A Business Model with ERD and normalization. 5 November 2007 Design logical database design & development. 19 November 2007 Testing business rules and data integrity. 10 December 2007 Interim Report 8 January 2007 Interface Design and form development. 22 January 2007 Trigger design and implementation. 4 February 2007 Testing and validating the trigger codes of different units. 18 February 2007 Report requirements and design. 4 March 2007 Physical database design 18 March 2007 Final system documentation & user manual. 4 April 2007 Margin for any contingency 5 April 2007 - 15 April 2007 Final Report 24 April 2007 Live demonstration. The presentation should demonstrate the most interesting and attractive implementation features and functions of University Information System. 5 May 2007 RESOURCE REQUIREMENT: Following are the resource requirement for this project: Hardware Requirements: The hardware requirements for this project are as follows: Processor (atleast Pentium III, 733 MHz) RAM (the minimum RAM requirement is 128 MB. However, the RAM of 512 is recommended) Hard Disk (The required capacity of hard disk depends on the amount of data to be saved. But on minimum side 40 GB hard disk is required) LAN Card or Modem is also required. Besides, the general accessories of a standard PC will also be required. The university will not be required to arrange for these requirements. Software Requirements: The softwares required for this project are: MS Access - this is required for the actual development of the database. MS Visio - this is required to develop the logical diagram / model for the structure of the database MS Word - this is required for the documentation purposes Macromedia Dreamweaver - this is...The concept of distance learning was still there even before the intervention of technology in the field of education, but it gained momentum, when technology was applied to make the system of distance learning more effective. As a result of this intervention, distance learning has now become one of the most prominent areas of education and learning, where the application of the technology is at its peak. Furthermore, the more technology is applied in right direction, the more distance learning will get popular. This project would be yet another step into that progress. The outcome of this project would be an MS-Access based Tutorial database. As tutorials are major source of learning for distance learners, thus this product will be helpful to them to a great extent. The aim of this project is to develop a database of tutorials for the distant learners. This database tutorial is a web-based tutorial. The user of this database will be provided with the user interface in order to fetch the information through queries and add, edit or delete the tutorials. A reporting module will also be added into the database. Besides, there are some other technical requirements too. Such requirements include the internet connectivity, the relevant drivers required for the database and its cross platform interaction with the web based front end.

Fraud And Errors of the Companys Financial Statement Case Study

Fraud And Errors of the Companys Financial Statement - Case Study Example Finally, the detection risk which analyses the risk that auditors’ procedures would fail to detect a material error (Hall, 2013, pp. 691). Accsys Technology PLC is a chemical technology group quoted on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) on the UK stock exchange. It develops and commercialises a range of transformational technologies that are based on the acetylating of wooden elements, such as particles, wood chips and fibres, and solid use for us as a leading, environmentally sustainable, construction materials. Analysis of the company’s most recent financial statements indicates some anomalies that need further investigations. These areas include revenue, gross profits, and remuneration whose balances show a large positive difference in 2014 as compared to 2013. Material misstatements in the financial statements are often as a result of an overstatement or understatement of revenues. It is crucial for auditors to presume that there are risks in revenue recognition. From the quantitative analysis (Appendix 1) it is clear that the company’s total revenue had materially increased by 78% in 2014 as compared to that reported in the year 2013. According to the financial director, the increase had been attributed to a 61% increase in Acoya revenue because of an increase in sales to Medite. This increase in sales to Medite is because the company had finished its built up stock which it was still utilizing earlier. There was also an increase in license income from Solvay and other revenues such as the sale of acetic acid. According to the financial statements, the increase in total revenue was as a result of an increase in revenues in the UK and Ireland by 183.70% (Appendix 2). This was further explained by an increase in revenue generated fro m one customer who represented 43% of this revenue and exceeded 10% of the group’s revenue. This area creates an audit risk because in 2013 the revenue generated from a customer did not exceed 10% of the Group’s revenue.  Ã‚  

Review and analysis designers in Objectified A documentary film by Movie

And analysis designers in Objectified A documentary film by Gary Hustwit - Movie Review Example Such an understanding, for designers, should weave into nearly all areas of human interest. This position reinforces the view that designers should seek to create solutions through their products and to meet the material and non-material needs of the consumers. Material goods and design products are embraced as aspects of culture in the sense that they create a sense of identity to the targeted consumers (Lipton 116). Perhaps it would be necessary to regard the mixture of the designers within the broad subject of globalization and the liberalization of market. According to the various speakers in the documentary, many of these designers are driven largely by forces beyond their creative impulse. The documentary provides various examples where designs have evolved in response to certain difficulties or a shift in preferences within cultures, groups, or communities. The design of kitchenware, for instance is largely conditioned by matters of convenience. Basing on the opinions supplied by various speakers in the documentary, it is important for designers to seek an understanding of various cultural aspects that determine people’s values and practices. Such an understanding enhances the capacity of designers to develop products that respond to the specific needs of populations. The Japanese are cited severally and variously as people with close attachment to their culture. The Japanese designers often tend to infuse cultural aspects into their product in a manner that balances the cultural aesthetics and the utilitarian value of the products (Ashoraft 2). On this score, it becomes important to consider the cultural forces that provide the creative synergies of products from Asia and other parts of the world. Moreover, the documentary provides evidence that designers have to rely on the outside world and the needs of the markets and targeted end users to develop products that meet specific objectives. Designers have to work together with

Fracking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Fracking - Essay Example Fracking is done in four steps. During the first step, a vertical well is drilled into the ground up to the rock of interest. It then turns horizontally for some distance inside the shale containing the petroleum and gas. Under high-pressure, water is pumped into the well to create cracks from which gas can be released. The released gas along with the petroleum are then sucked up to the surface for processing. The used water, or waste, is pumped out of the well onto the surface from which it is disposed of carefully to avoid environmental contamination. The water is disposed of carefully as it contains harmful minerals and substances picked up below the ground (Michael, 2013).Fracking is done in four steps. During the first step, a vertical well is drilled into the ground up to the rock of interest. It then turns horizontally for some distance inside the shale containing the petroleum and gas. Under high-pressure, water is pumped into the well to create cracks from which gas can be r eleased. The released gas along with the petroleum are then sucked up to the surface for processing. The used water, or waste, is pumped out of the well onto the surface from which it is disposed of carefully to avoid environmental contamination. The water is disposed of carefully as it contains harmful minerals and substances picked up below the ground (Michael, 2013).The benefits for fracking cannot be overstated. The method avails great environmental and economic advantages. Fracking produces what is commonly known as the shale gas. Hence, the merits of production of shale gas are numerous. The gas produced is used to fend of the energy deficit that face the country. Through the gas produced by fracking, it reduces the dependence on imported energy sources like oil (Michael, 2013).The method creates employment for many unemployed persons. The reason why it creates employment is that it is a relatively method. Hence, it has to create room for employees before people can sign contr acts. The oil obtained from fracking fends off the dependence of a country on oil.It is evident that fracking is a beneficial procedure that has provided an alternative to the traditional methods of gas and oil manufacture.  

Learning Principles in Video Games Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Learning Principles in Video Games - Essay Example Presently the â€Å"Play- station† has revolutionized gaming as it is fun, trendy, at times violent and at most times intelligent and kindles curiosity. It appeals to all age groups because it includes sped, accuracy with a filmic production values and background. Game Chosen – â€Å"Democracy†: Democracy is a highly educational game. It featured as the best Sim Game of the Year in 2005. It is related to politics where the player finds himself as the President or the Prime Minister of a country. â€Å"Democracy†, lets you find out how you would fare as a leader of a developed country such as The United States of America, France, Germany or Canada. The game allows you to take charge and manage your country’s finances, policies, internal affairs and security. Principles of Democracy: The most important principle of any video game is its multi media form of entertainment involving a unique synthesis of 3D art, CG effects, architecture, dramatic performance, music, sound effects, story telling, artificial intelligence and most importantly inter- activity. The basic principles of this particular game, is to educate a person on how to cope with a situation using good leadership tactics. The player is very often placed in the middle of a dilemma or a crisis where he has to use his skill and intelligence to get out of it. The most difficult aspect faced by the player is in finding the correct balance between finances, taxation and legislation to ensure the country doesn’t go into bankruptcy.

Peer Review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Peer Review - Essay Example â€Å"What Tecumseh is fight for is the ability of Indian people east of the Mississippi to hold onto their homelands,† R. David Edmund, a historian, says in We Shall Remain. Tecumseh’s confederacy fought alongside the British (ICTMIN Staff, June 18, 2012, pp. 2) to protect Canada from the onslaught of American forces during the War of 1812. Tecumseh’s defeat at the battle of Thames in Canada in 1813 was the beginning of the end for Native nations. Tecumseh was mortally wounded and with his death his confederacy fell apart, as did his vision of driving back the white settlers. After the war, (ICTMIN Staff, June 18, 2012, pp. 1) the United States negotiated more than 200 treaties with Indian nations that involved ceding land and 99 of those resulted in the creation of reservations. There were also key left outs in terms reasons behind some key decisions that arose as part of the war. An example of this has to do with reasons why the British were supporting Native American in their fight. This allegation takes a larger political twist and should therefore have been elaborated further to draw correlation with some key happenings in world history as far as British and American political histories are concerned. The most memorable part is how the fall or death of the hero could become the end of his entire dream. This is memorable because that piece of phenomenon whereby political dreams and aspirations are left to rest in the hands of only some people so that when they die, their dreams fade continues to exist in modern times. In Port Angeles, Washington the Elwha Dam was removed and once the waters receded a sacred site was found. The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe knows the area as their creation site. Oral stories have been passed down that claim the Creator blessed the Klallam people at the site and it is a place where tribal members voyaged to learn about their future (Associated Press 2012). Prior to the removal of the dam it was determined

Understanding and Evaluating the Arts Essay Example for Free

Understanding and Evaluating the Arts Essay Art is subjective. It varies in recognition and identification, and translates differently from one individual to the next. Art can constitute the traditional slap of paint on canvass, or a drawing and sketch; to some people, it can also relate to something as arbitrary as the instance of a sunrise or sunset, and the ocean.. At most, the English journalist and art critic Jeanette Winterson considers art as a sublime element of humanity when she writes, â€Å"What art does is to coax us away from the mechanical and towards the miraculous. † (Winterson). In a general, and less incensed take on the subject matter, art is defined as the result of creative human activity composed of the ideology, opinons and particular persuasions of the artist or individual creating it. Under this definition, art is categorized into different forms such as painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, printmaking, cnceptual art, installation art, and performance art, among others (Barnes). But though art may vary in recognition and definition, the following works exist as a general example of what art constitutes, based from the aforementioned definitions of the subject. Painting While almost every painting by any renowned artist can easily qualify as art, the Russian born French painter, Marc Chagall perhaps best encapsulates, and immediately brings into attention arts capacity, as has been previously referred to by Winterson, to transfrom the mechanical into the miraculous. His paintings, which mostly consist of dream-like elements, of lovers and angels afloat, among other things, affirms arts capacity to gravitate people towards the miraculous. This is made even more evident in I and the Village (1911) in which Chagall paints a a picture of his childhood home where churches, houses, farm animals, and people from his community intertwine, in varying shapes, shades and colors. He takes the mundane and the routine instance of life in his village, or any village for that matter, and translates it into a vivid, pulsating portrait of one as he sees it in his head, evoking a sublime sentiment on the part of people viewing it. Sculpture Ssculptures have always held a prominent part in the art world. One of the most prominent of which is Michelangelos Pieta (1499) in which the Italian artist is able to translate into marble a portrait of Mary holding the mortal body of Jesus Christ in her arms. Every intricate detail such as the creases on the virgins robes and the way by which Christs limp body falls on her lap, the expression on both Mary and Christs face, and most importantly the likeness of the marble sculptures to real bodies, and the humanity which is evoked through the said piece of seemingly cold and inanimate object speaks volumes. And communicates a sentiment and ideology to people who perceive of it, which is what most great art is about. Architecture Antoni Gaudi immediately comes to mind when the subject of architecture and art is concerned. Gaudis inspired architectural designs, again affirms us of arts capacity to rescue or release us from the mechanical drag of the routine. And buildings, in their mundane and uniform dullness is probably the last thing to come to mind, when one mentions art. But Gaudi is able to do so, to transform buildings into something which could be deemed as an artform, through his architectural genius, and the less than common, aesthetic appeal which he endows every building with. Examples of these are Sagrada Familia (1926), Casa Mila (1912) and the wonderful, fantasy-castle type sublime restoration of a building that is the Casa Batllo (1907). Photography Taking effective photographs which convey meaning and evoke particular sentiments is more than just about ponting and shooting. Edward Weston transcends the mere act of documentation that is photography to an art form. His portraits of female bodies in the nude (1923-1945) in their seeming black and white mutedness, instead of being automatically dismissed as pornography, is treated as exactly the opposite. Weston is able to convey in the said series of photographs, the fragility and sacredness of the human body. Each picture overwhelms with emotion and a seeming fullness of idea in every shot. It transcends mere documentation and gravitates towards the miraculousness which only art is able to afford. Printmaking Rembrandt Van Rijns Three Crosses (1653) exemplifies the art form that is printmaking. Althugh Rembrandt is better known for his paintings than his printmaking, Three Crosses is given the same regard. The etching relates another religious episode, in which Jesus is pinned at the cross, two murderers crucified like himself joins him in welcoming death. A group of people stand huddled at their feet, and the rest of the picture exists in a play of light and shadows. The print evokes and conveys the drama of Christs crucifixion and communicates the artists vision and interpretation on the subject. Conceptual Art Art which isnt confined to aesthetic values, but in presenting and evoking an alternative ideology and consciousness, Marcel Duchamps Fountain (1917) illustrates and exemplifies exactly this. The said artform is a standard old-fashioned urinal which the author salvaged form obscurity, signed his name on, and entered in an exhibition. Despite not being well received, the controversy exacted by the piece provoked people to into considering other forms of art, which is what art is also about, it encourages us to broaden our horizons, and depart from what we are typically aware of and confined to. Installation Art Liza Lous Kitchen, in its ode to the routine and the mundane space which most every women work with, or work in at least once everyday transforms peoples view regarding it. Rendered into a marvelous number of million glass beads of different shapes and colors, the result is anything less than â€Å"miraculous,† which was what Jeanetter Winterson was ultimately referring to in the quotation in the initial part of this paper, Liza Lous work on Kitchen takes a piece of the mundane and the mechanical, and transforms it to something that can only be regarded as miraculous, or in less flamboyant words: art. Performance Art Jackson Pollocks incensed abstract-action painting can be categorized as performance art, the manner by which he lays out a canvass on the floor and proceeds to splatter copious and beautiful amount of paint over it, more than the end visual product, is an art form in itself. His incensed take on painting and the physical outpouring of artistic energy which coarses through every part of his body, makes the medium by which he creates his art, another art form altogether. References Barnes, Bernardine. â€Å"Art. † Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2007. Retrieved 15 February 2008 from http://encarta. msn. com/encyclopedia_761556523/Art. html Weston, Edward. â€Å"Nudes. † Retrieved 15 February 2008 from http://www. edward-weston. com/edward_weston. htm Winterson, Jeannete. â€Å"Visual Arts: Liza Lou. † Retrieved 15 February 2008 from http://www. jeanettewinterson. com/pages/content/index. asp? PageID=383 â€Å"Gaudi Battlo House. † Retrieved 15 February 2008 from http://www. gaudiallgaudi. com/AA006. htm â€Å"Marc Chagall: I and The Village. † The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 15 February 2008 from http://www. moma. org/collection/browse_results. php? object_id=78984 â€Å"Pieta by Michelangelo. † RomaViva. Retrieved 15 February 2008 from http://www. romaviva. com/Vaticano/pieta-michelangelo_eng. htm â€Å"The Three Crosses. † Rijk Museum. Retrieved 15 February 2008 from HYPERLINK http://www. rijksmuseum. nl/aria/aria_assets/RP-P-1962-39? lang=en HYPERLINK http://www. rijksmuseum. nl/aria/aria_assets/RP-P-1962-

Industrialised Building System: Precast Concrete Elements

Industrialised Building System: Precast Concrete Elements In Malaysia, the implementation of Industrialised Building System (IBS) by using precast concrete elements were introduced since 1966 when the government lauched two projects which involves the construction of Rifle range Road Flats in Penang and Tuanku Abdul Rahman Flats in Kuala Lumpur. From the survey conducted by CIDB Malaysia, the level of usage in IBS in the local construction industry is 15 % in 2003 although many government initiatives have been introduced to encourage the use of IBS. Therefore a study is conducted to study will be conducted to study the current awareness of the usage of IBS in Malaysia. Furthermore this study will be conducted to analyse ways to improve the implementation of IBS in the local construction industry. Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Rationale for the Research Industrialised Building System (IBS) was introduced since the 60s in Malaysia. There are several benefits of IBS such as speed up the construction progress and possibly reduce labour force, construction cost and risk as well. Even IBS have many benefits but there is still have some problems in implementing IBS into the construction industry mainly due to lack of knowledge in IBS among the contractor. Research done by Lim Sin Peng in year 2009 showed that the usage or implementation level of IBS is still low in Malaysia construction industry. According to Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) (2003b) report construction project using IBS in Malaysia stands 15 percentage (%) in the year 2003 and the complete project using IBS in year 2006 only 10 % ( CIDB, 2007b) less than one-third of the total construction project (using at least one IBS product) in year 2006 (CIDB 2007a). The first IBS project, Pekeliling Flat, was initiated by the Government at Jalan Pekeliling, Kuala Lumpur in 1964. The implementation of IBS in Malaysia was not well accepted by the construction industry after the first adoption of IBS proves to be a failure in keeping to construction cost within the estimated budget. Thus, the aim of study is to change the perception of the construction industry towards IBS. 1.2 Problem Statement The implementation level of IBS is perceived to be lower compared to the advantages outlined by the construction industry. The following questions need to be answered before the issues could be addressed: Question 1: What is the implementation level of IBS in Malaysia construction industry? If the implementation level of IBS is consider low in Malaysia construction industry, then only can proceed to the next research question. Question 2: Why there are fewer contractors implementing in IBS? This will provide some ideas that about what stop the contractors from using IBS. Question 3: How to motivate contractor to implementing in IBS? This will provide recommendation to increase the level of implementation to meet the objectives of CIDB and Government to provide better production in construction industry. 1.3 Research Aim The research aim is to examine the reasons and factors of why fewer contractors implement IBS in Malaysia construction industry 1.4 Objectives The objectives of this study are to establish the implementation level of IBS here in Kuala Lumpur as general of Malaysia. The study also determines the barriers to contractors for not implementing IBS. In addition, it also evaluates the usefulness and advantages of using IBS. Moreover, the study also is to recommend factors that would encourage contractor to implement IBS. 1.5 Importance and Benefits of Study The importance of this study is to find out the reasons of unpopularity of this system in Malaysia in comparison to other countries such as Japan, Singapore, and United Kingdom (UK) which have implemented the IBS successfully. In chapter 2, the literature reviews will discussed further. Beside that, the benefits of this study are Getting familiar with the concept of IBS Clear of view on the type and characteristics of IBS Get to know the level of acceptance of IBS in Malaysia construction industry Visualized the benefits and limitation of using IBS 1.6 Scope of Research and Limitation In the dissertation, the scope of study will on focus on the adoption level of using IBS especially in the contractor point of view. Further more, some reasons and factors that might affect the implementation of IBS and what would be the best motivations for contractor to use IBS will be discuss as well. The limitation of this research is the questionnaire requires a lot of respondent around 200 and it does not ensure that they will make any feedback. Due to the limitation of the transport and there are many contractor firms, so this research will only remain in Kuala Lumpur and Klang Valley area. 1.7 Research Methodology 1.7.1 Questionnaire Quantitative method will be used to conduct this research. Question survey will be conducted for targeting respondent from Kuala Lumpur and Klang Valley area to determine their awareness of the certain issues or factors. This method will take some time of conducting a survey, so time must be allowed for late returns and responses to follow up attempts. Moreover, this is the simplest way to obtain information from targeted groups. Data collected from questionnaire will firstly check for the accuracy before carried out to work out the analysis by using statistical analysis software such as SPSS. Objective 1 To find out the implementation level of IBS in Malaysia Objective 2 Determine the barriers for contractor to implement IBS Literature Review Quantitative method Objective 3 Evaluate the positive effect of using IBS Questionnaire Objective 4 Give factors that would encourage contractor to implement IBS Analyze and develop solutions SPSS software Achieve aim and objectives. Conclusion and Recommendation Figure Research Methodological Method 1.8 Structure of Dissertation This dissertation is consists of five (5) chapters as described as below: Chapter 1 Introduction This chapter includes brief description of the problem statement with the purpose of conducting this research and its aim and objectives. It also includes the scope of study and benefits of the study. In addition, a brief description of the method that used in study, collecting relevant data and information. A brief introduction on the subsequent chapters is discussed as well. Chapter 2 Literature Review This chapter focuses on the review made from articles, journal, newspapers cutting, quotes from authors and online articles related to IBS. The fundamental part of this chapter is to discuss in depth about the benefits of using IBS, limitation of using IBS and barriers implementing IBS in construction industry of Malaysia. Chapter 3 Research Methodology This chapter explains the methodology will adopted in detail including the method used by the researcher to achieve the earlier mentioned objective for the research purpose. Chapter 4 Analysis of the Results This Chapter will covers the presentation on the result from carries out the data collected from the respondents through the survey questionnaire will be analyzed and will be tabulated in the form of chart and discussed in detail. Chapter 5 Conclusion and Recommendation This chapter concludes the research, its findings and analysis regarding the issue of the study including the limitations encountered during the research. The last part of this chapter is the recommendations and some personal comment had been given to improve the study as well as future research. Chapter 2.0 Literature Review 2.1 Introduction In this chapter, the author reviewed works done by others through journals, articles, newspaper cutting, and quotes from authors and online articles collected. IBS system is a process to speed up the construction work and to minimize the dependency of labour on site. The objective of this study is further discussed about the barriers of contractor in implementing IBS. Besides that, this chapter also will focus on the basic review of IBS such as definitions, background, types and characteristics in IBS and have a basic introduction about the detail of IBS. Industrialised building is the term given to building technology where modern systematized methods of design, production planning and control as well as mechanized and automated manufacture are applied (Ingemar Lofgren and Kent Gylltoft, 2000) While Building system mean a building system includes design rules and a product system whose parts have compatible interfaces, thus permitting the use of several alternative components and assemblies is assured by means of a dimensional and tolerance system as well as connection and joint (Ingemar Lofgren and Kent Gylltoft, 2000) 2.2 Definition of IBS There was no commonly accepted or agreed definition of IBS. Several authors have defined IBS as process or a technique. Blimas et. al. (2006) and Pan et. al. (2008) defined that IBS is often referred by literatures as off -site construction, off-site production, industrialised and automated construction. Warszawski (1999) explain in detail that an industrialized process is and investment in equipment, facilities, and technology with the objective of maximizing production output, minimising labour resource, and improving quality while a building system is defined as a set of interconnected element joint together to enable the designated performance of a building. Another definition by Trikha (1999) claimed that IBS also may be defined in which all building components such as wall, floor slab, column and staircase are mass produced either n factory or at site under strict quality control and minimal on site activities Another definition that clarified by Junid (1986) where IBS as process by which components of building are conceived, planned and fabricated, transported and erected at site. The system includes balance combination between software and hardware component. The software elements include system design, which is complex process of studying the requirement of the end user, market analysis and the development of standardise component, establishment of manufacturing and assembly layout and process, allocation of resources and materials and definition of a building designer conceptual framework.The software elements provide a prerequisite to create the conducive environment for industrialised to expand. According to Junid (1986), the hardware elements are categorised into three major groups. These include frame or post and beam system, panel system, and box system. The framed structures are defined as those structure that carry the loads through their beams and girders to columns and to the ground whilst in panel system load are distributed through large floor and wall panels. The box systems include those system that employ three-dimensional modules (or boxes) for fabrication of habitable units are capable of withstand load from various directions due to their internal stability. CIDB defined IBS as construction system whereby the components are manfactured in a factory, on-site or off-site, then positioned and assembled into structures with minimal addtional site work. 2.3 Classifications of IBS This section will focus on the classification of the building system that are published internationally and in Malaysia There are four types of building system under IBS in Malaysia and there are namely conventional column-beam-slab frame systems with timber and plywood as formwork, cast in-situ system with steel or aluminium as formwork, prefabricated system and the composite building system is shown in figure 2.1. Each building system is represented by its construction technology, functional and geometrical configuration (Badir et al, 1998). (cited at Thanoon et. al., 2003) According to Majzub (1977) has different concept in classifying building system that is the relative weight of the components should be used as a basis for building classification shown in figure 2.2. The factor of weight has significant impact on the transportability of the components and also has influences on the production method of the components and their erection method on site. This classification method is found to be inadequate to incorporate other building system flourish recently. There are five types of IBS had being used in Malaysia: (IBS Road Maps 2003-2010) Type 1: Pre-Cast Concrete Framing, Panel and Box System The most common group of IBS products is pre-cast concrete of elements in construction industry. For example, there are including columns, beams, slabs, Three-Dimension (3D) components (balconies, staircase, toilet, lift chambers), permanent concrete formwork, and so on. (CIDB, 2005). Pre-cast concrete framing, panel and box system is under categories of prefabricated system. The advantage using this is because it cans minimum waste due to work environment in factory is easier to control. Panel system is use for the construction of interior walls and exterior walls offer speed of construction in many ways. For box system will achieve ultimate objective of industrialization that is a maximum saving of human labour on site. Figure Pre-cast Concrete Elements Type 2: Steel Formwork Systems This system considered as least prefabricated IBS, as they generally involve site casting and subject to offer high quality finishes and fast construction with less site labour can come in tunnel formwork, beams, columns, and slab moulding forms permanent steel formworks (metal decks) and so on. (CIDB, 2005) The steel formwork is prefabricated in the factory and then installed on site. Figure Steel Formwork Systems Type 3: Steel Framing System This system always be the popular choice and used intensively in the fast-track construction of skyscrapers. Recent development in this types system included the increased usage of light steel trusses. Steel is non combustible material and improves fire safety and reduces amount of structural damages in the event of a fire happen. Example: Steel beam, columns, portal frames, roof trusses. (CIDB, 2005). Steel framing also consider as prefabricated system and it to be erected whereby welding at joints are conducted. This system cans faster the progress construction. Figure Steel Frame Systems Type 4: Prefabricate Timber Framing System While the latter are more popular, timber building frame offering interesting designs from dwelling units to buildings requiring high aesthetical values such as chalets for resorts Example: Timber frame, timber roof trusses (CIDB, 2005). The advantage of the system is mainly in the interior flexibility, as large space can be used for different functions and can be easily changed or modified according to the use. Figure Prefabricated Timber Framing System Type 5: Block Work System This system has revolutionizes by the development and usage of interlocking concrete masonry units (CMU) and lightweight concrete blocks. The tedious and time-consuming traditional brick-laying tasks are greatly simplified by the usage of there effective alternative solutions. Block work system also consider under prefabricated system. The benefits of block work system are faster construction and increase bricklayer longevity. Moreover, its also increased energy savings like lightweight concretes resistance to heat flow is twice of medium and heavy weight concrete, its mean that less heating/cooling energy is needed. Figure Block work 2.4 Characteristics of IBS It is important to have the following characteristics only consider to be accepted as part of the IBS and ensure the achievement of proven benefits of IBS. Each of them will be discuss briefly at below (CIDB 2008): Industrial production of components though pre-fabrication; or highly mechanized in-situ processes. For example, permanent steel formwork Reduced labour during pre-fabrication of the components and site works. Modern design and manufacturing methods involving information Technology such as the usage of Computer Aided design (CAD) and Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) Systematic Quality control such as ISO 9000 principles Open Building Concept i.e permitting the hybrid applications, and adaptable to standardization and Modular Coordination (MC) Figure The Characteristics of Building System Sources: Adopted from Abdullah M.R., 2009 2.5 Implementation Level of IBS in Malaysia The use of IBS have various advantages such as the reduction dependency of foreign workers, less wastage, less volume of building materials, increased environmental and construction site cleanliness and better quality control compare to conventional method. These advantages also promote a safer and more organised construction site, and reduce the completion time of construction. Many world-class Malaysian developers have chosen IBS over the conventional methods for important projects such as the Petronas Twin Towers, Putrajaya, KL Sentral, and KLIA. (IBS Roadmap, 2003 -2010) Even so, the usage level of IBS in building is still low. From a survey conducted by CIDB Malaysia, the usage level of IBS in the local construction industry stands at only 15% (IBS Survey 2003). The early efforts of the Government to encourage the use of IBS in the construction sector has yet to garner a good response, and this sector is still practicing conventional construction methods that have proven time and again to be wasteful, dangerous and messy. Relatively, the low labour cost in this country is the root cause of the industry failing to reform and being complacent with the current level of productivity, quality and safety. (IBS Roadmap, 2003 -2010) Moreover, according to the newspaper the star 2009 stated that Jamilus explained that IBS was a construction technique in which components were manufactured in a controlled environment (on-site, off-site), transported, positioned and assembled into a structure with minimal additional site work. Beside that, out of 1,400 contractors in Johor, there only 4% of it are using this systems. Moreover, he said that since year 2008, there only 51 contractors in the state have been reported to use the IBS system in their building projects and the number were expected improve in time. (The star, 2009) 2.6 Malaysias Experiences in IBS The usage of IBS is not new in the Malaysia construction industry. The idea using IBS in Malaysia was first purpose during the early 60s when the Minister housing and Local Government visited several European countries and evaluated their building system performance. At the time, the government makes a big decision to give a try on a two pilot projects using IBS concept. The first project, Pekeliling Flat was constructed along Jalan Pekeliling with construction of 7 blocks of 17 storey flats, and 4 blocks of 4 storey flats comprising around 3,000 units of low cost flats and 40 storey shop lot and this project using large panel industrialized prefabricated systems. On the other hand, the second project was built in Penang with the construction of 6 blocks of 17 storey flats and 3 blocks of 18 storey flats comprising 3,699 units and 66 shop lots along the Jalan Rifle Range and this project was using the French Estiot System (Din, 1984). Even though the first implementation IBS was not successful due to the failure to keep within cost estimation but there are some successful adoption too. Among the significant projects that implement IBS are including KL Sentral. KL Convention Centre, KLIA, etc Following is the Successful implemented of IBS throughout Malaysia (CIDB Malaysia, 2003) Year 2007 Stormwater Management and Road Tunnel (SMART Tunnel), Kuala Lumpur The Spring Shopping Mall, Kuching, Sarawak Year 2006 Kuching International Airport, Kuching, Sarawak Persada Johor International Convention Centre, Johor Bahru Year 2005 Serdang Hospital, Serdang, Selangor The Curve, Mutiara Damansara, Selangor Year 2001 Kuala Lumpur Sentral ( KL Sentral), Kuala Lumpur Likas Stadium, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah Year 1998 Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), Sepang, Selangor Malawati Indoor Satdium, Bukit Jalil, Selangor Year 1997 Petronas Twin Tower, Kuala Lumpur Bukit Jalil, Bukit Jalil, Salangor Year 1984 Daybumi Complex, Kuala Lumpur Year 1981 High end bungalows and low cost houses throughout Selangor 2.7 The Advantages for IBS adoption in Construction Industry There are some several advantages using IBS (MCRJ, 2009) 1. Reduce Remittances by foreign worker: The Government aimed to achieve 100 percent usage of IBS and to reduce to 15 percent or approximately 50,000 of foreign workers in the construction industry by 2010. With the current foreign workers totaling 227,000, the remittances of the foreign workers amounted to about 7.5 billion. It is expected that the Government would be able to reduce the remittances with the full implementation of IBS. (Bernama.com, 2006) 2. Enhance Efficiency of Construction Process and Higher Productivity: IBS is a methodology whereby a local construction industry is driven towards the adoption of an integrated and encouraging key players in the construction industry to produce and utilize pre-fabricated and mass production of the building at their work sites. This will help to enhance the efficiency of construction process, allowing a higher productivity, quality, time and cost saving. (CIDB, 2004) 3. Produce Better Product: IBS promises elevated levels of expertise throughout the industry, from manufacturers, installers, engineers, planners, designers, and developers. The benefits of IBS will ultimately produce better products for the population (CIDB, 2003) 4. Reduce Wastage, Less Site Materials, Costs, Cleaner and Neater Environment: The IBS, which enables on-site prefabricated or pre-cast building components manufactured at factories offers minimal wastage, less site materials, cleaner and neater environment, controlled quality, and lower total construction cost (CIDB, 2003). For example, the repetitive use of system formwork made up of steel, aluminium, etc and scaffolding provides considerable cost savings (Bing et al. 2001). 5. Higher Quality of Component: An industrialised building system component produces higher quality of components attainable through careful selection of materials, use of advanced technology and strict quality assurance control (Din,1984) 6. Reduce Labour at Site: Prefabrication takes place at a centralised factory, thus reducing labour requirement at site. This is true especially when high degree of mechanisation is involved (Warszawski, 1999) 7. Faster Completion: An industrialised building system allows for faster construction time because casting of precast element at factory and foundation work at site can occur simultaneously. This provides earlier occupation of the building, thus reducing interest payment or capital outlays (Waleed et al., 2003) 8. Not Affected by Adverse Weather Condition: Construction operation is not affected by adverse weather condition because prefabricated component is done in a factory controlled environment (Waleed et al., 2003) 9. Flexible Design: An industrialised building system allows fexibility in architectural design in order to minimise the monotony of repetitive facades (Warszawski, 1999). An industrialised building system provides flexibility in the design of precast element as well as in construction so that different systems may produce their own unique prefabrication construction methods (Zaini, 2000) 2.8 Barriers of Adoption in Malaysia Construction Industry IBS can replace the conventional building system which is labour oriented However, since the first project of IBS not well accepted by construction parties because of fail to deal with the risks such failure of keep within the cost estimate. For example, the first project incurred 8.1 % higher costs than a similar building that using conventional construction method, while the second project was 2.6% lower than the cost. Both projects also completed in 27 months in term of compare to the construction speed but are inclusive the time of set up the recasting factories too. When come to the quality, the conventional method seems have better quality than IBS. In conclusion, there is a competitive with conventional construction method. Even though IBS is good to implement due to its advantages but the implementation of usage level is still very low. According to Waleed et. al. (2003), the common consensus of all the stakeholders of construction in Malaysia is that, the IBS implementation in Malaysian building construction industry is still very low compared to the conventional methods. This is due to several reasons(MCRJ, 2009): 1. Costs and Return Investment: Wide swings in houses demand, high interest rate and cheap labour cost, make it difficult to justify large capital investment. At present there is an abundance of cheap foreign workers in Malaysia and contractors prefer to use labour intensive conventional building system because it is far easier to lay off workers during slack period. The economic benefits of IBS are not well documented in Malaysia and the past experiences indicated IBS is more expensive due to fierce competition from conventional building system. 2. Lack of skilled and knowledgeable manpower: Fully prefabricated construction system requires high construction precision. Malaysian labour force still lack of skilled workers in IBS implementation. 3. The Practices: The construction industry is very fragmented, diverse and involves many parties. Consensus is required in the use of IBS during planning stage. 4. Knowledge based: Lack of Research Development (RD) in the area of novel building system that uses local materials. Majorities of IBS in Malaysia are imported from developed countries, thus driving up the construction cost. Engineering degrees in local universities seldom teach about the design and construction of IBS. 5. Low Quality: The use of IBS in Japan and Sweden are so successful due to high quality and high productivity but it sis the opposite in Malaysia. Previous projects constructed with IBS concept were of low quality and high construction cost. 6. Lack of Incentive and Awareness: Due to the lack of incentive and promotion from government in the use of IBS, many many architects and engineers are still unaware of the basic elements of IBS such as modular co-ordination. 7. Lack of Scientific Information: An IBS system can only be acceptable to practitioners if its major advantages are valuable compared to the conventional system. However, up to date, there is inadequate corroborative evidence to substantiate the benefits of IBS system. It is therefore, arguable that the implementation of IBS is particularly hindered by lack of scientific information (Badir et al., 2002) 8. Wastage of Material: Standardization of building elements faces resistance from the construction industry due to aesthetic reservation and economic reason. One good example of this is when a 300mm thick modular standardized floor slab has to be used although a 260mm thick floor slab can achieve the similar structural performance. This results wastage of material (Waleed et al., 2003) Issue that related to IBS and contractor 1. IBS first time use by DBKL in infrastructure project of build a bridge Jalan Dewan Bahasa-Jalan Hang Tuah because of time saving and reduce traffic jam. This also can give benefit for those students that around the school area. Beside that, around 75 % of IBS have been use to prevent any problem that not complete according to the schedule. Ibs also can save time, reduce labour and site very clean, tidy and have quality. Mostly IBS is use for building. This project is the first infrastructure project using IBS. Moreover, the rest of the project will be using IBS. 2.9 Summary of the Chapter Nowadays in Malaysia, IBS still being developed and applied in new building. Mean while, the implementation level is still very low what has anticipate by the government. The purpose of IBS is very clear as an alternative for conventional method and also reduces the dependency of labour, and increase the performance in time, cost, and quality. The Government of Malaysia promote IBS component to the construction industrials. In the literature review have proved that there are many benefits of IBS but still is low usage among contractors and the implementation of using IBS level is still very low. Chapter 3 Research Methodology 3.1 Introduction Research methodology explains methods that used in the research study, what data have been collected, what method is adopted, why particular technique of analyzing data used; all of these will be answered in this chapter. The quantitative approach will be carried out in this research and the questionnaire survey method will be used in this research. This section of study will focus on the method of the study to achieve the objective of this research. The questionnaire has been chosen to survey the factors, and degree of acceptance, usage, advantages and comment of adoption in IBS. This method is saving in terms of time and cost as well as convenient as it can distributes to large amount of respondent but the possible also did not get receive any respond from respondent and the quality of the information gather from questionnaire might inconsistent and inaccurate and also need to be carefully analysis. 3.2 Method of Research Figure 3.1 shows the methods that be carried out in order to achieve the objective of this study and followed by the explanation of each step. Constructing Questionnaire Distribute Questionnaire Results Gathering and Analysing Conclusion Figure Method of Research 3.2.1 Construct the Questionnaire For the purpose of designing the question, the research objectives and literature review had been taken into account to lead to differentiate various issues, topics and ideas to create the questions in the questionnaire. The quantitative questionnaire will be use in this study. Before questionnaire to be produce out, there should be required to review thoroughly to the literature review and the research aim and objectives. This is to make sure that there will not be out of topic from the research, this is the initial stage for formulating question. Secondly, produce question that can achieve aim and objectives and related to literature review. The third stage is to make the questionnaire easy to understand and suitable with comprehensive but short enough, no leading question and double question. This will make respondents can fill up easily and faster due to the possibility that the respondents are busy. 3.2.1.1 The Rationale of Questionnaire Design The first part is ask about the background or experiences a

Factors Affecting Witness Accounts

Factors Affecting Witness Accounts Witnesses Accounts and the Reality The information given by an informant may vary significantly with the actual information or what happened on the ground. The most basic question that interviewers, weather in the justice system or in research always grapple with is how to know whether the informant is giving the truth (Dean Whyte 1958). It would be difficult to determine whether this information is the actual absolute truth. However, most interviewers use epistemological approaches to detect the level of truth in the interviewees information. Navarro (2012) asserts that the researches that have been conducted over a long period have not come up with a single conclusive modality of truth detection. Witness accounts may also lack a level of truth or may vary from the reality that transpired at the scene of the event. This difference can be motivated by several factors that range from the effects of the environment to psychological factors. This essay examines the main reasons that can lead to a distortion of the witness accounts from the reality. Specifically, the paper looks at the deflection of the truth due to perception and the effect of long-term memory on the accounts given by the witness. Laub (1992) examines the effect of age and long term memory on the ability to reconstruct the happenings of the Holocaust. At the time of the happenings, the author was a small child that had little knowledge of the happenings in the world. It has to be remembered that the events lasted some time and at the time of the witnessing, the author was already an adult. The author appears to have had a precocious development at the initial stage of life, making him to be able to make out the events. Through learning the basics of this event and the impact of age, the author is able to clearly understand the happening as they should have been. The only difference is that the ability to exaggerate or distort the information is quiet high. In the long term memory, the author cannot single out the specific details of each even and has to fill in the missing information from common knowledge. The deflection of the accounts given, in this case, is based on the learning experience on the subject that the witness has had over a period. In (Dean Whyte 1958), this long term effect of learning on the memory of a witness is described as cognitive formulation. The common knowledge here is that what the witness will have learnt over time will cause a difference on the accounts are given and the actual truth. In Callender (2011), the temporal aspects of philosophy are discussed with regards to the existence of the self. In this study, the author opines that there is a possibility of change in individuals over a period whether physical or in mental strength through learning. The discussion about eternalists is also reviewed by this study. It demonstrates the fact that eternalists perception of different times as analogous to the difference in locations. The argument presented by the eternalist here is that different events that occur or exits at different times give the specific ti mes different images. It is, therefore, possible to have a different perception of time and the events that occurred at those times. This spatial difference and learning is what supports the notion that it is possible to have a different of account from the real happening. A prevalent emotion in time also has an effect on the objectivity of the judgment of an agent or individual (Campbell-Sills, Barlow, Brown, Hofmann 2006). At the time of delivering an account of happenings, the emotional component of the witness are likely to impact on the testimony because this was not present at the time of the occurrence of an event. The argument here can take two facets: first it is difficult to give a real simulation of the events that transpired in terms of emotion. Secondly, the impact of the prevailing emotions of another individual could distort the contents of the account. As a result, emotions play a double role in the delivery of the accounts of witnesses both of which are subjective on the long term memory. On rare cases, the judgment of a person to give an objective account despite the subjective effect of the emotions has also taken place. In this case, emotions are not considered but the correct and proper outcome as is the norm is the guiding princi ple. Apart from the emotional context generated in the long term memory of a person through learning, it is possible that the effect of subjective perception could generate a level of difference. In subjective perception, the main idea is that everyone develops a meaning of the world as they so experience it. As a result, the difference in the experiences that have been gathered in the long term memory of individuals could be the cause of difference on the level of perception. In psychology, subjective perception and the resultant impact on the result of surveys is the main reason for disputing the level of accuracy of a research. This notion of subjective perception mainly concerns the researches that are conducted through the use of observation and non-scientific method. The reason for the bias in the observation and non-scientific methods is that each individuals observation would be different from the reality. And this also informs the difference in accounts of eye witnesses. Perception is closely related to the aspect of objectivity in individuals. Coon (2006) illustrates this objectivity role of perception as the ability of one to just recognize and believe what they see. When one sees something, the mind registers the image generated and can recognize the image. Other sensory stimuli information is also perceived by the brain. The sensory input is first received by the appropriate sensor then taken through the recognition process which utilizes the knowledge that is already owned by the individual. The brain compares the input by the data or information that the individual has learnt over time and selects the closest information that the same individual has of the same input. The mechanism of perception is can also be used to explain the idea behind an illusion. It is common knowledge that illusions are things that can be perceived wrongly. The simplest explanation that can be given in illusions is that the senses send a wrong signal to the brain for i nterpretation returning a wrong conclusion. The result of illusions can also weigh in on the major differences of witness account as compared to the reality. This is mainly attributed to the wrong interpretation or the ability of an event to have more than one interpretation The comparison mechanism in perception is the main reason there could a difference in the perception of different persons. It has been known that there are objects which can be perceived in more than one way. Apart from the different perceptions of a similar object, there is a possibility that different persons might have different perceptions. A common example of the difference in perception is the fact that different persons might perceive a similar color in two different ways. This condition is usually referred to as color blindness (Brewer, Heitzeg, 2008). Color blindness is a common reason for the difference of the witness accounts in cases where the witness is required to pin point the actual color of an object. The result is that while the color could be known or perceived singly by many, a witness could give a different account of the same. In perceptual learning, humans tend to develop a habit or a distinct pattern of learning. These patterns of learning if altered could result to the distortion of the information that is received by the individual. According to Coon (2006), these patterns are imparted by the prevalent norms in a society. It also gives an example of an inverted picture of a human head. Most persons walk upright and as such a human mind is accustomed to learning facial differences at an upright posture. Significant differences can be noted if the same picture of a human head were looked at from the two perspectives. The perception mechanism as described in human psychology has two parts that involve the detection and the search mechanisms. According to Shiffrin Schneider (1977), this process can either be automatic or controlled by an individual. Once the attention of a person has been drawn towards some stimuli input, the control of the process is shifted to the brain power. In a controlled perception, the study found out that the mechanism is serialized. It also requires a high level of input by the user which could limit the amount of information one retains in the whole process. In an automatically controlled process, the input of the user is limited and as such much of the processing power of the brain is focused on generating the conclusion of the perception exercise. These two different forms of perception could be the basis of the difference between a witness account and the reality. As notes, if the process was automatically triggered then the witness could end up with much information as it can which could be the truth anyway. However, if the process is controlled by the individual, it is possible that there could be a large amount of information (Shiffrin Schneider 1977) that is left out in the process. The study further explains that it is difficult to ignore, alter or delete from the long-term memory of a person if the perception was automatically instigated. Apart from memory and perception factor, Undue egocentrism is also a factor in deflecting the opinion of the witness that can cause a difference between the account given by a witness and the truth. This argument proposes that the impact of subjectivity on the minds of individuals is the main cause of the distortion of the account. An example of this would be an account given of a vehicle accident. A witness can state that the driver of the vehicle that was swerving was drunk at the time, and nothing else could be affecting the driving. This is an egocentric opinion or emotions that foster the belief that such driving must only be caused by drinking. Studies that have been conducted on the distributive justice judgment indicate that the basis of the conclusion either the norms or the egoistic self-serving notions (Ramsbotham, Miall, Woodhouse 2011). Apart from these forces, egocentrism is also part of the judgment that could lead to a skewed judgment in giving witness accounts. In conclusion, the level of accuracy in most of the accounts given by witnesses would be varied from the truth. At an early age, a witness would give a different account from the account given after a longer period usually in adulthood. The reason behind this level of difference is that as a person grows, the details in the long term memory can be forgotten or lost. Apart from the loss, there is a possibility that the learning process changes the ideas that a person has. The level of knowledge will shape their opinion and how they would have reported the whole event at an early age. It would take a precocious ability to reproduce the exact account owing to the time difference and the learning process. Perception is also an important aspect (Kuehn1974) of the delivery of a witness account. The main reason which can lead to the difference in the accounts given and the reality include the ability of certain objects to have double perception. A possibility of confusion through the illusion is also a factor that could limit the accuracy of the account. As an individual experiences a world from childhood, the experiences are custom to the person and can also affect the accuracy or the information that is given. It is, therefore, important to have the individuals who verify the accounts of witnesses to take into account the impact of all these factors on the truth value of the account. Bibliography BREWER, R. M., HEITZEG, N. A. (2008). The racialization of crime and punishment  criminal justice, color-blind racism, and the political economy of the prison industrial complex. American Behavioral Scientist, 51(5), 625-644. CALLENDER, C. (2011). The Oxford handbook of philosophy of time. Oxford, Oxford  University Press. CAMPBELL-SILLS, L., BARLOW, D. H., BROWN, T. A., HOFMANN, S. G. (2006).  Effects of suppression and acceptance on emotional responses of individuals with anxiety and mood disorders. Behaviour research and therapy, 44(9), 1251-1263. COON, D. (2006). Psychology: a modular approach to mind and behavior. Belmont, CA,  Wadsworth/Thomson Learning. DEAN, J. P., WHYTE, W. F. (1958). How do you know if the informant is telling the truth?.  Human Organization, 17(2), 34-38.   KUEHN, L. L. (1974). Looking down a gun barrel: Person perception and violent crime.  Perceptual and Motor Skills, 39(3), 1159-1164. LAUB, D. (1992). An event without a witness: Truth, testimony and survival. Testimony: Crises  of witnessing in literature, psychoanalysis, and history, 75-92. NAVARRO, J. (2012). The Truth About Lie Detection. Psychology Today.   RAMSBOTHAM, O., MIALL, H., WOODHOUSE, T. (2011). Contemporary conflict  resolution. Polity. SCHNEIDER, W., SHIFFRIN, R. M. (1977). Controlled and automatic human information  processing: I. Detection, search, and attention. Psychological review, 84(1), 1. SHIFFRIN, R. M., SCHNEIDER, W. (1977). Controlled and automatic human information  processing: II. Perceptual learning, automatic attending and a general theory. Psychological review, 84(2), 127.

Immigration :: essays research papers

Should immigration into the United States be limited? Immigrants are a large and growing factor in the stubborn level of poverty seen in the United States over the past two decades because newcomers to the country are more likely to be poor and to remain so longer than in the past, according to a new study. The report, to be released today by the Center for Immigration Studies, says the number of impoverished people in the nation's immigrant-headed households nearly tripled from 2.7 million in 1979 to 7.7 million in 1997. During that same period, the number of poor households headed by immigrants increased by 123 percent while the number of immigrant households increased by 68 percent, according to the study. The share of immigrants living in poverty rose from 15.5 percent to 21.8 percent, the report notes, a change that some analysts say holds troubling implications for the nation's future. About 12 percent of the nation's native-born population lives in poverty, a figure that has hardly changed in 20 years. "Each successive wave of immigrants is doing worse and worse," said Steven A. Camarota, the report's author. "Each wave of immigrants has a higher poverty rate, and a much larger share of their children will grow up in poverty." The report by the center, a Washington-based research group that advocates reduced immigration, uses information compiled in the 1980 and 1990 censuses, as well as information contained in the March 1998 Current Population Survey, to make its case that poverty in the United States is increasingly being driven by the nation's immigration policy. The report says immigrants are more likely to be poor because they have higher levels of unemployment, have lower education levels and have larger families than native-born families. And much of their economic slide has come despite the fact that the nation's economy has been in good shape for much of the past 20 years, the report notes. The report is rekindling the sharp-edged debate over whether high levels of immigration benefit the nation. The number of immigrants living in the United States has almost tripled since 1970, dramatically altering the nation's demographic and social mix because the vast majority of current immigrants are either Hispanic or Asian. Overall, immigrants now account for nearly 10 percent of the nation's residents, the highest level since the 1920s. About one in four Californians and one in three residents of New York are foreign-born.

Hucks Identity :: essays research papers

3/08/01 Huck's Identity That The danger of not knowing who you are, this could lead to disastrous effects in your future life. Throughout the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn the main character Huck is having adventures and trying to find out who he is. Through each step of the book, Huck tries to disguise himself as somebody else to see if maybe he's the character that he is playing. Finally at the end of the book he realizes he is the person who started out in the beginning of the book but with maturity and self identity. This whole book is about a character named Huckleberry Finn trying to find himself in the world, this should be more closely examined, why does he want to be someone else.?, and what do his adventures teach him. Life, change, identity, they are all a big part of this book as well as life in general. Huck is a person who the author Mark Twain tries to portray as lost in himself as well as in society. Huck throughout the book is looking for an identity that he believes he will find on his journey down the Mississippi river. "I'd go down the river fifty mile and camp in one place for good, and not have such a rough time tramping on foot."(pg31) Why does he want to get away from his life? I think Huck's character is very independent and he has his own thoughts on where he wants to end up in life. In his old life everybody was always telling him what to do where to go how to eat and he was getting sick of it. On page 4 he says "All I wanted was to go somewheres; all I wanted was change , I warn't particular." He was looking to get out of his old life and into the life that he thought was right for him. Where there was no boundaries or limits, he wanted to be free from the shackles of Christian home life. What did his adventures on the river teach him about his own personality and character? They taught him what he already knew in the beginning of the book that he is himself. If he tries to hard be somebody else he is never going to achieve that self-fulfillment that he so desires in the beginning of the book. I also believe that his companionship with the black slave Jim helped to shape his character as a human being.

Comparing An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge and The Snows of Kilimanjaro :: comparison compare contrast essays

An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge and The Snows of Kilimanjaro. Death is an intriguing thing. From time immemorial we have feared it, used it, pondered it. Frequently, stories allow the reader into the minds of those immediatly surrounding the one who will die; but all of us "will die." Our morbid interest is in dying, the going, that threshold between death and life. What happens there? There are similiarities and differences in how death appears to the protagonist, written by Ambrose Bierce in An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge, and Ernest Hemingway in The Snows of Kilimanjaro. Bierce offers An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge to show the incredible fantasy that passes through the mind of a man as he dies. Hemingway's engrossing description lies in The Snows of Kilimanjaro. Here, on the African savannah, a man encounters death slowly and with excruciating lucidness. While the differences between the two stories are easy to enumerate, it is the simliarities that may offer the most insight into the minds of the authors and, perhaps, into the minds of us all. The setting for An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge is northern Alabama during the Civil War. Peyton Farquhar (Peyton) is said to be a planter who is left behind by the Confederate Army due to circumstances "...of an imperious nature," but he longs for the "release of his energies, the larger life of the soldier, the opportunity for distinction." Immaturity seems the watchword for him; the eagerness with which he swallows the bait presented by a Union spy may give a glimpse of the lack of gravity in Peyton's character that leads to his capture and to the fantastic attempt at escape or denial that his mind fabricates just before his death. Peyton is not a realist. Harry is a realist. The protagonist in The Snows of Kilimanjaro faces his pending doom with distinct clarity and resignation. In fact, his insistance greatly distrubs his wife (naturally) who tries to cheer him up by telling him that help is only a day away, and all that is needed to make it is a positive attitude. Harry is positive. He is certain that he will die very soon. He knows the mistake that has sealed his fate. Although he would change the past if he could, he does not seem to lament his end except for the writing he will never do.

Language Manipulators Essay

UNMIK regulations clearly state that English is the official language, and any translations to Albanian, Serbian or otherwise are done as a â€Å"courtesy. † This means that all official correspondence including contracts, their exhibits and notifications must be accomplished in English, otherwise they are not valid. The following is a typical example drawn from a contract between UNMIK and a local Kosovar company. â€Å"Article VIII: Miscellaneous Provisions, section DD. English Language, states: â€Å"This Contract is written in the English language and executed in 4 counterparts plus 4 drafts in Albanian language and 4 drafts in Serbian language. It shall be construed and interpreted in the English-language version, which shall govern. Any translation into another language is provided as a matter of courtesy. † The ignoring of Kosova’s majority of 90% ethnic Albanians, and the imposition of English as the â€Å"legal† language in Kosova has created extreme difficulties, hardships and has placed Albanian Kosovars at a significant disadvantage and vulnerability, which UNMIK organizations and others have capitalized on, to the detriment of Kosovar businesses and organizations. In the United States, following the end of the civil war, individuals that came to the South and took advantage of the war-torn situation and people came to be known as â€Å"Carpet Baggers† because of the luggage they carried. As we are in a similar position, perhaps we should recognize the effective negative manipulation of Kosovars by UNMIK and Internationals by referring to them as â€Å"Language Manipulators. † The â€Å"Power† given to the English language requirement by UNMIK is being misused daily, and it enters into all forms of community action, business and our government. Just imagine if UNMIK and KFOR had to carry out it duties, and daily living using a language that the great majority of people cannot speak or write, and their actions were legally determined and evaluated by this â€Å"foreign† language. It is clearly understandable to utilize the English language within the operations of the International community, the United Nations (UN), as this has been so for quite some time. However, since UN has set precedence by creating UNMIK as the first government of a region following a war, it is unrealistic to continue to impose a foreign language on the operations of Kosova’s people. UNMIK, according to UN Regulation 1244 (1999) is supposed to be aiding the establishment of â€Å".. provisional democratic self-governing institutions to ensure conditions for a peaceful and normal life for all inhabitants of Kosovo,† and it is ludicrous to state this aim while insisting on the â€Å"legal† use of the English language. In an effort to correct the daily injustice and outright manipulation of the Kosovar people, the following corrective action needs to be implemented immediately. (1) That UNMIK, through regulations and law, recognize the Albanian Language as the Official Language of Kosova, in any and all communications and contractual negotiations and legal actions; and that the Serbian Language be also recognized as a valid language when ethnic Serbs are involved in contractual and other legal ventures with UNMIK and/or others operating fully within the borders and governing process of Kosova. OR (2) That UNMIK establish an independent organization of qualified English & Albanian speaking attorneys, one or more of which would be appointed, at the expense of UNMIK, and not drawn from the Kosova Budget, to each and every Albanian organization or corporation that must enter into contractual arrangements with UNMIK. This is necessary so long as UNMIK insists that the non-native language of English is the Legal Language over the native Albanian language of Kosova. Furthermore, no contract or agreement entered into with UNMIK shall be deemed valid in any manner if this assistance is not provided during negotiations and through the final signing of the contract or agreement. A â€Å"Double Edged Sword† Well, what do you think about the presentation so far? Does the imposition of English being the official language of Kosova make you angry, or sympathetic to the problems of the Albanian businessman, or Government Officials? Do you see â€Å"Unfairness† in it all? Are you upset with the â€Å"Language Manipulators† for taking advantage of ethnic Albanians? And which solution would be preferable to you; (1) where Albanian becomes the official language immediately, or (2) where there is an independent English Speaking support organization? If you feel that number (1) is the best option at this time, then I ask that you carefully reconsider your position as we continue the discussion. There is another side to the ingenuity of the â€Å"Language Manipulators,† and that is their passive support of the ethnic Albanian’s continued use of the Albanian Language in all aspects of their private and public life. The â€Å"Language Manipulators† are very pleased that there is no English news on TV or radio, and not one of the local papers has any English articles and we can only find job announcements for NGOs in English. And they are especially pleased that demonstrations and protests â€Å"boycott† the use of English, and are done in the Albanian Language. We see that, because UNMIK forces the English Language in official matters, many Albanians â€Å"rebel† and fight against using English, keeping it out of their newspapers, TV and radio. Just think for a moment. On the one hand they are imposing English as the â€Å"official† legal language in Kosova, creating problems and taking advantage of Albanian businessmen, but on the other hand they are â€Å"pleased† that no English is being used in Kosovar daily life, and they encourage pride in the Albanian Language. Do you see the beauty in this strategy yet? The simple fact is that those who don’t support the Independence of Kosova want ethnic Albanians to keep speaking and writing in Albanian, and to ignore the use of the English Language! English is the language of world business and western politics, and if Albanians begin using English effectively, the â€Å"truth† about Kosova could be heard by the English Speaking world, such as the United States of America. And we thought the American â€Å"Carpet Baggers† were clever and nasty in their dealing with people in the South following the civil war. â€Å"Language Manipulators† are very clever in their large-scale use of an age-old manipulation. If you don’t want someone to have or do something, then tell him or her they â€Å"must† have it or use it. We all tend to rebel against anything that is forced on us, and if we are not careful, we will be manipulated out of the very thing we want or need. And in this case, the â€Å"forcing† of the English Language on the Albanian people in Kosova is blinding them to the fact that this is the very thing they need if they are to survive and gain their full Independence. In this modern world, and in the current circumstances that Kosova finds itself in, the proficient use of the English language is the only way to get the truth beyond the borders of Kosova, to gain allies and support, and to develop the skills necessary to succeed in business and politics.

Financial Analysis Apple Inc.

————————————————- To: ————————————————- ————————————————- By: ————————————————- ————————————————- FINANCIAL REVIEW TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Company Background 3 2. Stock Price Analysis 6 3. Risk Return Analysis 9 5. References11 PART I A. Company Background Apple Inc. long with its wholly-owned subsidiaries designs and manufactures and markets mobile communication, media devices, personal computers and portable digital music players along with a variety of related software’s, services, peripherals and networking solutions. The Company offers a range of mobile communication and media devices, personal computing products, and portable digital music players, as well as a variety of related software, services, peripherals, networking solutions and third-party hardware and software products. The most important of which are enumerated below: 1. Phone – iPhone combines a mobile phone and an iPod, Internet communication device in a single handheld product. 2. iPad – is a multi-purpose mobile device, for browsing web, sending and reading email, viewing photos & watching videos, listening music, playing games and reading e-books etc. 3. Mac Hardware Products – includes likes of iMac, Mac-Pro and Mac mini. The iMac desktop has design that incorporates display, processor, graphics, storage, and other components in a single enclosure 4. iPod – line of portable digital media players includes lik es of iPod touch, iPod shuffle and iPod classic. Pod is a flash-memory-based device with a widescreen display, a Multi-Touch user interface. 5. iTunes – is an application, which supports the sale, purchase, download, organization and playback of digital video and audio files and is also available for both the Mac and the Windows based computers. The Company not only sells to retail and bulk consumers, but also to small and mid-sized businesses, and to educational institutions, enterprises and government customers. The Company’s fiscal year ends on the last Saturday of September and is of 52 or 53-week period.The company has almost 60400 permanent employees and has the second largest market cap after IBM with about 563. 79 Billion dollars and an equal enterprise value, with revenues in excess of 142. 36 Billion dollars and with and EBITDA of 53. 27 billion dollars. B. Business Strategy & Organization The Company’s business strategy is to uniquely leverage its abi lity to design, develop its own operating system, hardware, applications software’s, to its customers, and new products and new solutions with superior usage ease and seamless integration and innovative design.The Company’s strategy, also includes and basically rests on, expanding its distribution network so in order to effectively reach more customers. The Company manages business primarily on geographical basis and has segregated the business locations of its customers into the following 1. The Americas consisting of both North and South America, 2. Europe, Middles East and Africa, 3. Japan, 4. Asia-Pacific, Australia and Asian countries and 5. Retail. It is to be noted that all the above four segments do not include the retail segment figures and strategy.The retail segment consists of stores directly opened by the company and managed by it. C. Competition The products and services offered by the company are a part of highly competitive markets segment it faces stif f and aggressive competition in almost all areas of its business. The market is characterized by very frequent new product introductions and a rapid technological advancement that has substantial capabilities of use of mobile and related communications devices.There is a cut throat competition in the market where the company’s operates, as the competitors are continuously innovating and selling products at extremely low rates. However still the company has been able to maintain its market brand values and sees a good and extremely high level of operating cash flows generation. The Company’s major services i. e. digital content services is facing significant competition from other companies who are promoting their own digital music, services and content products, including free peer to peer video and music services.Some of Apple’s competitors have enough substantial resources and may provide such products and services in market at virtually little or no even prof it to compete with the Apple’s offerings. The most important and major company’s competitors can be classified in various ways as below: However for our study later on, we shall consider HPQ or Hewitt Packard as a close competitor. PART II A. Stock Price Analysis For our stock price analysis, we consider the time period from 16 Mar – 2012 to 6 April – 2012.However it is to be noted that the time frame provided here is not ample for a detailed study and an accurate one for future predictions. We first study the movement of the Apple Inc. stock price movements’ vis-a-vis the S&P 500. From the above figure it is clear that the movement of Apple is less volatile than that of the Index. It is also to be noted that the pattern of movement of Apple’s price show that it is lagging behind or trailing the trend movement of the index. Furthermore in the period under consideration above there seems to be an immediate uptrend developing and sustaining.Al so the major point of astonishment here is during the period post 3 April 2012, the S&P 500 and Apple’s stock prices are moving in opposite direction thereby indicating of some news based movement. This move was probably preempting the Q2 filing by the company which was due later in the next week. However no serious trend or movement is visible in either of the charts above. We do the same comparison of Apple with its peer HPQ for the same period. From the graph above it is quite clear that where Apple’s price movement is positively trending upwards, that of HOQ is a sideways movement without any perfect present trend or direction.The reason being the expectations from the forthcoming Q2 results of Apple, which was an event based movement for Apple, which was absent for HPQ. Now we study the movement of the stock prices on a standalone basis. From the above diagram it is clear that there is no significant or sudden movement in prices or volume of the stock. However the y both show a good trend, and there is not much pressure on the prices of the stock at higher levels which is shown by the build of white candles and an uptrend, which indicates of further upside room present in the stock.However this seems to be news based event and should be properly traded. In all there are five black and ten white candles, which show an imminent uptrend in the stock price, which is also supported by sustenance in the daily volumes. PART III A. Risk Return Analysis We now perform a risk return analysis on the stock. We use the concepts of CAPM model and data for the period as specified in the above segment and calculate different measures as shown below and abridged in the accompanying excel file.From the above calculations we see that the Beta of Apple is lesser than that of HPQ and more close to 1 which resembles that Apple is less volatile than HPQ and more in tandem with the normal or broad market movement. On the other hand HPQ has a high beta indicating tha t the movement in prices of HPQ is more volatile and would yield a higher return, either positive or negative, as compared to Apple. This is also visible in the fact that the Expected return of HPQ is less than that of Apple, which is at least a percentage point or a 100 bps better than HPQ.It is also seen that Apple has been able to give positive returns as compared to HPQ and even the market. This means that Apple has been able to outperform the market. The reason behind the same is the fact that it is expected that the results of Apple for Q2 are going to be better due to the fact that they have recently launched new products and expanded on existing sales and product line, which would result in better revenue e, margins and sales and net profits, which would ultimately react in the EPS.Hence the returns of Apple are positive and more than that of HPQ. This indicates the fact that Apple seems to be an underpriced stock and should be bought as it seems to be giving more returns th an the expected returns and compared to HPA and the index is an outperformer due to more fundamental reasons likes above expectation performance rather than purely and only technical reasons. All this is pretty evident in the Beta and the Expected returns of the stock.PART IV REFERENCES: 1. Thirty Year US T-Bill rate; Available at http://www. bloomberg. com/markets/rates-bonds/government-bonds/us/ 2. Apple Inc. Annual Report and About Company; Available at http://secfilings. nasdaq. com/edgar_conv_html%2f2011%2f10%2f26%2f0001193125-11-282113. html#FIS_BUSINESS 3. Stock Prices Data, Apple, S&P, HPQ; Available at http://finance. yahoo. com 4. Apple Competitors; Available at http://www. nasdaq. com/symbol/aapl/competitors