Graduate Reflection Paper 4(a) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Graduate Reflection Paper 4(a) - Essay Example There are many factors that create a leader with strong communication skills. Covey (1989) states that being a good listener brings many benefits for the leader. It helps the leader build relationships and it is a very important part of appraisal and training. Covey also suggests that communication has four components: speaking, writing, reading and listening. Caputo et al. (2003) suggests that leaders must create a system of effective communication with their employees and leadership must have effective communication in order to have complete leadership. Covey (1990) created seven principles regarding communication: "Be proactive, begin with the end in mind, put first things first, think win/win, seek first to understand and then to be understood, synergize and sharpen the saw" (p. 41). Covey talks about these habits as human endowments that enhance a leaders communication skills by placing them in a frame of mind that creates their ability to move their employees forward (Covey, 1990). This means that they also need to have a voice in communication. Leaders must be active listeners, create a space for employees to speak their minds respectfully and help their employees to recognize their own voice (Covey, 2004). Each leader must be influential which means they also need to understand how to persuade their employees. This does not the must coerce their employees but rather understand how to move them towards what is expected or needed. Carnegie (1964) suggests that the one way to get someone to do something is to make them want to do it. A strong leaders does this by helping their employees improve, not by criticizing them. Also, leaders must show employees that they are appreciated. These ideas will help employees stay motivated to communicate well with their manager. This also means that the manager must seek to find a

Bio-fuels and Future Energy Needs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Bio-fuels and Future Energy Needs - Essay Example Americans have begun to make choices regarding the type of energy depending on the long-term sustainability of energy, in addition with the environmental impacts, portended by these choices. Because of this, agricultural bio-systems have become a significant player in the determination of the American energy sector’s future. The Future of Bio-fuels As the Main Source of Energy Although bio-fuels are still some way off replacing other forms of fuel, the diversity of biomass being converted to fuel has continued to increase (Demirbas 22). It is now becoming an increasingly popular form of energy in research, especially with soybeans and corn. However, soybeans and corn alone are not enough to change the dependence of America on fossil fuel. It has been estimated that the US has a supply of approximately one and a half billion tones of sustainable biomass every year. This can be used for producing liquid fuel, which provides for only around thirty percent of fuel that is needed f or America’s annual requirements. Another route for future bio-fuel use regards the increasing popularity of other techniques of converting biomass into bio-fuel. Currently, ethanol is developed by using only the kernels of corn since it is the only part of the corn ear that has enough sugars for fermentation and distillation. However, in the future, husks and stalks could be used for the production of bio-fuels as more advancement continues to emerge (Demirbas 23). These husks are made of the polymer cellulose that is made up of sugar molecules. If treated with an appropriate catalyst, the sugars can undergo fermentation and distillation to come up with alcohol. This would make the process of converting biomass into bio-fuels more efficient by saving on the corn itself and using the other parts of the corn plant. Once there is a way of efficiently converting biomass to bio-fuels, the pressure applied on food production by bio-fuel energy should dissipate and make this a choi ce source of energy in the future. Impacts of Bio-Fuels on Food Supplies Bio-fuels have raised concerns with dieticians, nutritionists, biologists, and farmers with regards to supply of food (Demirbas 31). A question that this technology raises is whether the use of popular food crops for the production of energy is sustainable. Over the period when it has been used, input costs have skyrocketed such as machinery, storage, fertilizer, pesticides and seeds. This has led to a carry-on effect to the consumer. Additionally, aggressive farming techniques have seen soil erosion and depletion that have caused a discernible decrease in crop yields, thus decreasing food supply to the consumers. Farmers in the Mid-west have begun to devote more of their land to the production of corn, which has led to a perpetuation of mono cropping that has led to a decrease in bio-diversity (Demirbas 38). Although the change may not be immediately discernible, the results will eventually transform the suppl y of food and the way people eat. Subsidization of agricultural products meant for energy production portends a huge influence on the health and nutrition of the American people. When mono-crops become the norm, food supply diversity dwindles and this will be reflected in the diets of the American people. Furthermore, as more crops are directed towards ethanol production, their price will fluctuate. As corn demand rises, its price will also increase leading to a rise in cost of eggs, poultry, dairy products and beef. This will prove critical to families with low income devoting 30-40% of their budgets towards food, as well as to the budgets of nutrition programs in the US that deal with such programs

Nagarjuna's Concept of Emptiness versus Buddhist Philosophical Essay

Nagarjuna's Concept of Emptiness versus Buddhist Philosophical Teaching - Essay Example The beliefs of emptiness is not just an ultimate error but the foundation for attachments that humans have, besides this, it is responsible for the adhering to and development of numerous prejudices. On the other hand, Buddhist philosophical teaching has narrations which are a style of representing a topic and not its theme; this is the core of Buddhist art. The representation becomes a narrative when its representation unfolds as a chain of events or at times it becomes a story that consists of various episodes; the representation revolves around an action that progress into time and later into space. Nagarjuna's concept of emptiness has the notion of intrinsic and independent existence that is often incompatible with causation because causation signifies contingency and dependence; therefore, something that poses independence is usually immutable and self-enclosed. Everything is composed of events that are dependently related and have phenomena that are continuous interacting with an essence that is not fixed or immutable hence they have a relation that is constantly changing. Both occasions and possessions are bare and do not possess permanent essence, realities that are intrinsic or an absolute being that make them afford impartiality. Infirmity takes place when there is grasping of autonomous existence; this eventually leads to a series of actions that are destructive, sufferings, and reactions. In addition to this, the theory of Nagarjuna emptiness has profound ethical and psychological implications (Olson, 45). For instance, ideologies responsible for dividing humanity come from the tendency of people to perceive things to be inherently divided and disconnected; this misconception brings about the belief that the divisions are essentially independent and self-existent. On the other hand, Buddhism narration involved ancient classics and the story and all related action unfolds out of disclosure; they often evolve from a chain of stories that are not linke d together. Discourse and introduction of the story initiates moral in the story and supports it, same applies to the other story and the other except for the case of visual narration which is somewhat different. In visual narration, moral is deducted but does not come at the beginning of the narration; likewise, it has the discourse technique but it is not on the ground to take off. The narrator is required to be precise when selecting episodes that are able to reveal the whole story; moreover, the narrator has to know how to portray actors, represent spaces in the story and shape the time during which the story unfolds (Edelglass, 602). Literary narratives have stories that manipulate time and space; for instance, in a sentence that talks about two people who met in France after five years and they both had grown beards has time and space appearing in the narrative body. It is said that in one of his first sermons, the Buddha made a prescription of a middle path between the charac ters of self indulgence and self mortification, stating that there had to be a balance between the two. Nagarjuna, who came in a later period, made a citation of the same but while this was the case, he went even further by stating that there was a middle way between existence and non-existence and also between what is permanent and what is not. According to this philosopher, the development of ignorance among individuals tends to be the source of all the suffering that they

Bio-fuels and Future Energy Needs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Bio-fuels and Future Energy Needs - Essay Example Americans have begun to make choices regarding the type of energy depending on the long-term sustainability of energy, in addition with the environmental impacts, portended by these choices. Because of this, agricultural bio-systems have become a significant player in the determination of the American energy sector’s future. The Future of Bio-fuels As the Main Source of Energy Although bio-fuels are still some way off replacing other forms of fuel, the diversity of biomass being converted to fuel has continued to increase (Demirbas 22). It is now becoming an increasingly popular form of energy in research, especially with soybeans and corn. However, soybeans and corn alone are not enough to change the dependence of America on fossil fuel. It has been estimated that the US has a supply of approximately one and a half billion tones of sustainable biomass every year. This can be used for producing liquid fuel, which provides for only around thirty percent of fuel that is needed f or America’s annual requirements. Another route for future bio-fuel use regards the increasing popularity of other techniques of converting biomass into bio-fuel. Currently, ethanol is developed by using only the kernels of corn since it is the only part of the corn ear that has enough sugars for fermentation and distillation. However, in the future, husks and stalks could be used for the production of bio-fuels as more advancement continues to emerge (Demirbas 23). These husks are made of the polymer cellulose that is made up of sugar molecules. If treated with an appropriate catalyst, the sugars can undergo fermentation and distillation to come up with alcohol. This would make the process of converting biomass into bio-fuels more efficient by saving on the corn itself and using the other parts of the corn plant. Once there is a way of efficiently converting biomass to bio-fuels, the pressure applied on food production by bio-fuel energy should dissipate and make this a choi ce source of energy in the future. Impacts of Bio-Fuels on Food Supplies Bio-fuels have raised concerns with dieticians, nutritionists, biologists, and farmers with regards to supply of food (Demirbas 31). A question that this technology raises is whether the use of popular food crops for the production of energy is sustainable. Over the period when it has been used, input costs have skyrocketed such as machinery, storage, fertilizer, pesticides and seeds. This has led to a carry-on effect to the consumer. Additionally, aggressive farming techniques have seen soil erosion and depletion that have caused a discernible decrease in crop yields, thus decreasing food supply to the consumers. Farmers in the Mid-west have begun to devote more of their land to the production of corn, which has led to a perpetuation of mono cropping that has led to a decrease in bio-diversity (Demirbas 38). Although the change may not be immediately discernible, the results will eventually transform the suppl y of food and the way people eat. Subsidization of agricultural products meant for energy production portends a huge influence on the health and nutrition of the American people. When mono-crops become the norm, food supply diversity dwindles and this will be reflected in the diets of the American people. Furthermore, as more crops are directed towards ethanol production, their price will fluctuate. As corn demand rises, its price will also increase leading to a rise in cost of eggs, poultry, dairy products and beef. This will prove critical to families with low income devoting 30-40% of their budgets towards food, as well as to the budgets of nutrition programs in the US that deal with such programs

The Home Depot SWOT Analysis Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Home Depot SWOT Analysis - Article Example This paper seeks to do a SWOT analysis of this giant specialty retailer by evaluating its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in order to make suggestions on how to keep the company growing and profitable. Home Depot has ensured continued success and lead in the home improvement industry due to various strengths which include: The home depot’s continued growth is as a result of continuously renewing and working on its culture aimed at producing good products, sustaining its employees and customers thus effectively maintaining its competitive edge in the retail industry. The Home Depot culture is focused on taking care of its employees by paying those modest wages and benefits, providing them with excellent and superior training and granting them opportunities for advancement. The employees are regarded as the most important people after the customers due to their role in interfacing with the customers (Marcus and Blank, 271) Home depot also provides their customers with value, loyalty and low pricing. Through the company’s focus in customer satisfaction, the company’s NPS, (Net Promoter Scores) has improved significantly allowing it to wrest a further market share from rival companies. Home Depot’s success is also attributed to its ability to form alliances with strategic partners. Through its partnerships with the industry’s leading manufactures it is able to deliver exclusive and innovative assortments such as to do-it-yourselfers and professional contractors alike, with combination of other brands like LG appliances. Home depot’s continued upgrading of its computerized systems and implementation of satellite communication increased its operational efficiency. This was evident as significant reduction in operational costs were realized thus supporting the overall growth of the company and better

A new life Bully Essay Example for Free

A new life Bully Essay A new life. An new school. A new bully. Thats what Darrell Mercer faces when he and his mother move from Philadelphia to California. After spending months living in fear, Darrell is faced with a big decision: He can keep running from this bully, or find a way to fight back. AuthorBorn in Philadelphia, Paul Langan spent his early childhood in the city before moving with his single mother to southern New Jersey. There he attended public school and worked a variety of jobs—including salesperson at a shoe store, attendant at a horse ranch, landscaper at a mental hospital, and a night-shift stockperson in a warehouse store near Atlantic City. â€Å"Each job,† he says today, â€Å"could be the topic of several juicy novels.† STORYThe story was about a boy name darell Mercer he live in Philadelphia, he had a friend named Mark which fought all of his fights because Darrell was a small and skinny punk. But then his mom found a better job in California and when they moved Darrel was scared of school because he had no friends. So he thought people will bully him and then he went to the supermarket and he saw a girl that was going to the same school as him which was Bluford high school. So then they talk and they where both freshmen’s.Then Darrel went to his first day of school and there was a boy who started bulling him and his name was Tyran .Darrel was scared of him and then he started paying him $10 every Friday. Then the same girl that he met at the supermarket he found out she liked him but Tyray the one that was bulling him he liked her so he was scared to ask her out. Darrel even tried out for the wrestling team and he made it and he had got good at it but he lost the first match by two points and the second he won eight- two .But he went to a dance which she went but Tyray went to and Darrel danced with the her and her name is Amberlynn and then Tyray came and humiliated Darrel and then Darrel went home. Then it was Christmas brake and for new years Darrel said he did not want to be scared of Tyray and will not pay him again. So then he went to school it was a Friday and he did not go to the supermarket to pay Tyray but he went straight to school. So then Tyray went and he asked him were was his money but the teacher came in and Tyray was scared. So then at lunch Tyray and Darrel started fighting and Darrel toke him down using the tricks he learned in wrestling and Tyray was crying that he broke his wrist and they were both sent to the principals office and Darrel told the principal what happened since the begging of the school year and Tyray got suspended but not Darrel he got out with a warning.

Meaning Of Engineering Disaster

Meaning Of Engineering Disaster The duty of the engineer is to react to people need by building or creating something along an appropriate set of guidelines. Importantly, that device, plan or creation should perform its function without any failure. Everything, nonetheless, must eventually fail to perform its given function with a sought after level of performance. Hence, the engineer must struggle to design in such a way as to avoid failure which could result in loss of property, damage to the environment of the user of that technology, and possibly injury or loss of life. Through analysis and study of engineering disasters, modern engineering designers can learn what not to do and how to create designs with less of a chance of failure. (Leveson, 1993) The history of Chernobyl nuclear power plant Chernobyl is a small town in the Ukraine near the Belarus border, with a population of 45,000. The nuclear power station of Chernobyl lies 15 kilometers to the northwest of the actual Chernobyl town. In 1986, the USSR generated roughly 10% of the worlds nuclear power from only 43 operating reactors. Together they produced 27 thousand Mega Watts of electricity. By 1986, the year of the accident, four of the reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear power station were the most modern to date Soviet reactors, the RBMK-type. Two more of these reactors were still under construction at the station. (http://library.thinkquest.org/3426/data/introduction/location.html) Aim of this topic This research can be roughly divided into three parts as follows. Firstly, a variety of opinions and different perspectives of the survey would be discussed. Then, a discussion will include the information from other related sources and analyze the survey together. Finally, a conclusion will be drawn concerning the findings of the research project; recommendations will be made with regards to future research into the issue, and limitation on this report. Literature review Overview of engineering disaster The failure into an engineering disaster There are many factors that can cause engineering disaster and much of the reason why we consider an engineering failure to be an engineering disaster has to do with public perception of risk. For example, in 1992 roughly the same number of fatalities occurred (in the United States) in transportation accidents involving airplanes (775), trains (755), and bicycles (722). Yet the public perception of the risk associated with air travel is often much higher than that for trains and certainly for bicycles. (Matousek, 1976) This stems from two reasons: (1) the large loss of life resulting from a single air crash, and (2) the air passengers lack of control over their environment in the case of air or, to a lesser degree, rail accidents. Both of these reasons results in increased fear, and hence a higher degree of perceived risk. Principle cause of engineering disaster The primary causes of engineering disasters are usually considered to be Design error Standard of the plant (depending on cost) Operating error Human lack of knowledge and skill 1.2.3 Mechanical error Management tools (Preventive maintenance) (Bernhard, 1999) How Nuclear Physics works Nuclear Fission Nuclear fission is the process whereby large, unstable atoms are split up and as a result release large amounts of energy. The most common element used for this process is called uranium. Process of nuclear reactors Nuclear fission reactions occur inside the core, producing heat. The control rods control the system by absorbing stray neutrons which in turn slows down the rate of reactions. The heat from the core is transferred to the water through conduction, which then turns into steam with a temperature of 580Â °C. The pressure of the steam turns the turbine, powering the generator. The generator converts the turning motion of the turbine into electrical energy, which now can be injected into the national electricity grid. This steam is then cooled by water from the cooling lake which then causes the steam to condense back into water. The cycle then repeats. (Ben, 2008) Pros and cons of Nuclear power plant These days, there are a great number of alternative energy that human found and nuclear energy is one of the best choice of alternative energy. On the plus side, there are many benefits of nuclear power. To begin with, it is a clean energy; therefore, it would dramatically improve the environment. For example, smoke and carbon are not contributing to greenhouse effect and consequently protect the ozone. Furthermore, nuclear power is reliable because it is use only a little uranium to make nuclear reaction which cause a great number of energy. On the other hand, nuclear technology is problematic in some ways. One of the main drawbacks of nuclear energy is that radiation can harm cells of human body; hence, it can make humans sick or even cause death, and symptom illness can affect and kill people in follow years. Dangers of radiation When unstable atoms naturally break down (decay) they release they release radioactive particles. There are three types of particles: alpha ÃŽÂ ±, beta ÃŽÂ ² and gamma ÃŽÂ ³. They are considered dangerous as they are able to ionise. They are able to change the stucture of atoms by knocking off or dragging electrons away from the atom. In humans, animals and plants, this ionising effect alters the DNA code in cells causing cell mutation. Through this, the altered cells are reproduced through cell division which may then form cancerous growthsThis radiation isnt only sourced from the site of a nuclear disaster. Poising can occur through contaminated water which then infects soil and hence food supplies. To add more to this potential problem, radioactive particles can stay hazardous for thousands of years. (Ben, 2008) The Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster The Accident The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor that occurred on 26 April 1986 was the most serious accident ever to occur in the nuclear power industry. The reactor was destroyed in the accident and considerable amounts of radioactive material were released to the environment. The accident caused the deaths, within a few weeks, of 30 workers and radiation injuries to over a hundred others. In response, the authorities immediately evacuated, in 1986, about 116,000 people from areas surrounding the reactor and subsequently relocated, after 1986, about 220,000 people from Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine. The accident caused serious social and psychological disruption in the lives of those affected and vast economic losses over the entire region. Large areas of the three countries were contaminated with radioactive elements, and radionuclides were measurable in all countries of the northern hemisphere. (Alexander, 1993) The Cause of the disaster There are several factors which cause Chernobyl nuclear power disaster. 1. Human error (Operator Over-Confidence) The operators felt they were an elite crew and they had become overconfident The operators did not think carefully enough about the effects on the reactor. The operators felt under pressure to complete the test this time. 2. Design error (Safety System Inadequacies) A fault in the control system also makes the emergency shutdown unable to function. The emergency shutdown desired effect relied on the reactor being operated correctly. There had to be at least 30 control rods in the core for the emergency shutdown to work to according to standard. The reactor could not be run at low power normally. (http://library.thinkquest.org/3426/) The Affected by the disaster One major result of the Chernobyl accident that would cause as much agony to the incident was the spread of radiation. A definite effect of the spread of the radiation was the damage it had on the Eastern European agriculture. The EC (European Community) immediately put a 90 day ban on agricultural goods from Eastern Europe. This was initially thought of as political strategy from the US as well as other Western countries. This caused the Soviet Union to take the responsibility to pay for all the damage done to the Eastern European agriculture. Post-Disaster The effects on health Chernobyl affected the health of many people throughout Russia. Altogether the total number of fatalities caused by Chernobyl stands at 31 officially. Around 600,000 however were classified as being significantly exposed and will have their health monitored their whole lives. Twenty-four people were disabled by the accident; some so severely they were left as invalids for the rest of their lives. Two-hundred thiry-eight people have suffered acute radiation syndrome. The total number of people that were in this classification is somewhere around 10,000. The official report on the number of cancer effects is as follows as prescribed by the International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group (INSAG) of the IAEA. (Vladimir, 1991) Environmental impact Besides the effects on humans, the Chernobyl disaster also dramatically affected the environment with 150 000 km2 of land contaminated with radioactive material. Mutations in both plants and animals were evident Leaves changed shape and some animals were born with deformities. Despite this, rare species of moose, birds, beavers, wolves and boars have returned in the absence of humans. (Vladimir, 1991)