Corruption and Anti-Corruption in Reform China Essay

After 1989 Tiananmen Square event, the new Chinese leaders have giventhe priority to the anti-corruption work on their agenda and strengthened the anti-corruptionefforts. But up to now, the corruption phenomenon is still very rife , and presentlyis seen as the second greatest public concerns(behind unemployment )? The abilityor inability of â€Å"third generation† political leaders to successfully curb corruptionwill play a major role in their political survival. This article will focus on theanalysis of the extent, forms and characters of corruption in current China, itscauses and effects, and the anti-corruption efforts of the Chinese Communist Partyand its government. 2 The extent, forms and characteristics of corruption in current China What is corruption? The notion of corruption varies with time and places. Accordingto Chinese official terminology , the core element of the definition of corruptionin current China is the notion of use of public power and public resources for privateinterests (‘Yi Quan Mu Si’ )? This is a very broad definition, which can includea series of phenomenon and behaviours and vary with time. Consequently, it canbe adapted to include new forms of corrupt practice. Corruption in current Chinais often links with negative phenomenon and unhealthy tendency within party andgovernment departments. As a result , anti-corruption effort also includes fightagainst all of these phenomenon and behaviours. This definition has three features. First , the core element of corruptionis not ‘abuse’ or ‘misuse’ of public power via-a-via legal norms or social standardsfor private benefits but the very ‘use’ of public power for private benefits. Onthe one hand, this is a very strict standard for determining what behaviours canbe defined as corrupt since it can includes any behaviour utilising public powerfor private benefits. On the other hand , given that legal norms and moral standardsmay change with time, the definition may take some risks to exaggerate the extentof corruption or arbitrarily label some practice as corrupt. Another feature of this definition is the ambiguous of the term ‘private interests’in contrast to â€Å"public interests† , i. e. the interests of whole nation and partyPrivate benefits include not only personal gains, but also the interests of workunits , departments and regions when they are given priority over public interests. Third , the definition leaves open the question of which the subject of corruptionis. It not only refers to individual public officials , but also can includes therelatives of public officials and retired public officials, and can also refersto some public bodies and their leaders (as legal rather than natural persons)? As mentioned above, in official terminology, corruption , â€Å"negative phenomenon†and â€Å"unhealthy tendency† are linked together. Although government officials andthe public generally agree on some practices as â€Å"corrupt† , there are fewer consensuseson other practices. Heidenheimer’s three-category classifications system providesa useful framework for understanding both the Chinese categories and the areas ofconsensus and lack of consensus. Heidenheimer’s framework includes three categories:(1 )? Class A or â€Å"black corruption†:The corrupt practices in this category,including graft , bribe, fraud, embezzlement , extortion, smuggling, tax evasion,etc. , Constitute an important part of â€Å"economic crimes†. Because they are obviouslyillegal and the main purpose of those involved in these practice is to increasetheir personal wealth , government officials and the public generally agree thatsuch practices are corrupt. (2 )? Class B or â€Å"grey corruption† : The key characteristicsof this category, into which more and more practices are being categorised , isleaders of public institutions using their institutional power to increase the oftheir institutions and improve the welfare of their staffs through various legal,semi-legal and illegal ways. Such practices includes public institutions makingprofits by engaging in business activities(such as public bank enter into the stockmarket, the bureau of environment protection selling environment protection facilitiesto their clients), setting up satellite companies , and imposing fines or collectingadministrative fees or charging the so-called ‘service fee’ and then putting theincome into their own coffers. Class B also includes such â€Å"unhealthy practices†as the extravagance and waste , e. g., spending public money to support luxuriouswork conditions and/or life style by senior officials. Such extravagance and wasteis manifested in many aspects : expensive entertainment, costly foreign cars forsenior officials, magnificent and tastefully furnished office buildings, domesticor foreign travel in the name of official business, etc. Such â€Å"unhealthy tendencies†and the associated corruption , both significantly increasing the public’s burden,ha ve led to a significant public outcry. This has led Chinese authorities to attemptto stop these practices. However they have met strong resistance from these publicinstitutions which, in turn, justify their practices in terms of the purpose oftheir practice, the legitimacy of their institutional power and the work requirement. (3 )? Class C: or â€Å"white corruption†: Class C practices constitute a kind of’common practice’ of social life. They include the nepotism and favouritism in thepersonnel recruitment and promotion , bending the law in favour of relatives andfriends in law enforcement, preferential treatment in resource-allocations forrelatives and friends , etc. They are characterised by preferential treatment byofficials of relatives, friends, fellow-villager etc. much of which is, in fact,a way of reciprocating previously given favours. Such practices have penetratedwidely into public life , influencing the behaviour of government officials andordinary citizens as well , contributing to the operation and existence of networksof personal ties throughout China. Creating and maintaining the networks of personalties to seek and give favourable treatment is accepted by most people , includinggovernment officials, as a ‘normal’ practice when they involved in these practice. However , such networks are condemned by those excluded from them although theywill not be hesitate to engage in such practice should they have an opportunityto do so. The late British China scholar Gordon White had also made a similar classification. 3 Inasmuch as the Chinese authorities combine all the above categories togetherin their anti-corruption work , in this paper I will treat them all as corruption. However by so doing , the Chinese authorities have set a difficult goal for themselvessince the limited consensus on white corruption may increase the difficulty of attackingthese practices. On the other hand, the labelling of some common practice falleninto the grey area from the white area and some common(â€Å"white† ) as â€Å"corruption†may help to delegitimize them and/or push them into the â€Å"grey† category , thuscontributing to anti-corruption and social and political progress. The extent of corruption has increased dramatically and sharply since 1978 withthe situation becoming even worse after in the 1990s. This tendency is apparentfrom the data on perception of corruption in developing countries provided by TransparencyInternational and summarised in table. The above table demonstrates a clear drop in the scores of corruption in Chinafrom until 1980 until 1995 reflecting the increase of corruption in China in thisperiod. The slight improvement is likely due to the strengthen of anti-corruptionefforts by the third generation political leadership and the deepening of market-orientedreform. But despite these slight improvements , the public and its deputies arestill very dissatisfied with the widespread corruption and the inadequate effortsat fighting corruption. The vote of nearly forty per cent of the deputies in the1997 session of National People’s Congress against General procuratorators ZhangSiqing’s Annual work report is an indication of this dissatisfaction. In the 1990’s , corruption has worsened and taken new characteristics withinthe above three categories:(1 )? Class A: corruption as a form of economiccrimes has increased with the following manifestations. First , the number of large-scalecorruption cases increased sharply.

Barack Obama ‘Yes We Can’ Essay

â€Å"Yes we can† is one of the most influential phrases in the speeches of barrack obama, But this 10-min speech blew me away. This was a scripted speech, and one of the best written and delivered I have seen in some time. this short speech had it all: simple but eloquent and powerful language, and a strong yet upbeat, friendly delivery. I think that Barack Obama’s Victory speech was extremely inspiring, motivating, and most of all in my opinion comforting to a rehabilitating nation in dire need. From the introduction of the speech one can clearly see that the tone of the speech is inspirational. The speech is about change, reaching for a higher purpose and uniting to solve the problems in America. Obama sums up his introduction when he states: â€Å"We are hungry for change and we are ready to believe again.† The listener is curious to find out what exactly needs to be changed? President elect Barack Obama uses a variety of techniques to address and unify his audience. He uses the unity word â€Å"we† and â€Å"you†repeatedly throughout the speech. He includes the people and make them a sense of being participants. Obama’s use of second person, directly making reference of his audience, â€Å"tonight is your answer†¦it belongs to you†¦it cannot happen without you† is cleverly employed to demonstrate the importance of the individual and how his victory and future effort to change America will rely on the efforts of the collective. In the mind of his audience, it is used to make people feel a sense of belonging, having their presence acknowledged. The message of the speech is â€Å"yes we can change, if you elect me.† Obama continually repeats this message as he wanted to drive it home to the audience. It is a classic technique in Obama’s victory speech making and in design as well. If there was one thing that they would remember from the speech it is that catch phrase or sound bite. Obama uses this catch phrase six times in the last three paragraphs! This repetition is used to†¦

Essay on Eating Locally

Why We Should Eat Locally It isn’t any secret that the United States is in a state of relatively bad health, but most Americans aren’t entirely aware of the overall global and personal impact of the way we eat. By corporatizing the distribution of almost all of our food resources, we are increasingly contributing to global destruction with every food item we purchase. Barbara Kingsolver, American author and expert in biology, asserts, â€Å"Each food item in a typical U. S. meal has traveled an average of 1,500 miles. If every U. S. itizen ate just one meal a week composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country's oil consumption by over 1. 1 million barrels of oil every week. † The impact of our eating habits is astounding. The way we distribute food lends itself to the destruction of our planet and resources, the widening gap between the rich and poor, uncertainty about food quality, and most importantly the health of ou r citizens. By consuming more local foods, we can stimulate our communities, conserve energy and achieve better health for our country as a whole.The safety of what we eat is the number one concern among those who worry about factory-produced food. In order to produce as much product as possible, factory animals are pumped full of hormones and antibiotics. Likewise, our fruits and vegetables are genetically modified and sprayed with insecticides. These chemicals have detrimental effects on our health and are ruining our food for no reason other than corporate profit. The only way to avoid our exposure to these things is to either buy organic food or buy it locally. Organic foods are the most rapidly growing segment of our food industry, doubling in growth every few years (Ikerd).Unfortunately, Organic food from supermarkets is just another big business which contributes to eliminating earth resources and often misleads consumers with its claims. If more people began eating locally, we would decrease the resources we use for transportation and completely eliminate our uncertainty about where our food comes from and what’s in it. Another reason to support local farms is that it would stimulate local economies and increase our personal responsibility in the world. Instead of shipping our jobs off to corporate farms, we could create jobs in our own ackyard. Not only would we be able to create jobs, but overall sustainability in our local communities. Today, farmers only get about 20% of the money for their products because the rest is spent on transportation and packaging (Muren). If we ate locally, farmers would begin to earn the true value of their products and eliminate the need for a middle man. John Ikerd, professor of Agriculture at the University of Missouri, argues that people who buy their food from local farms are also more likely to shop locally for other items, further stimulating local economy.Like all changes, the industrialization of our food came about one farmer at a time. In the same way, the road to change begins with each individual consumer (Ikerd). If Americans begin purchasing their fruits, vegetables, meat and dairy products from local farms, our country can move toward better overall health, economic sustainability, and decrease our contribution to the destruction of the planet. If we want to begin solving the biggest problems in our society, a good way to start would be to focus on and perfect how we obtain of one of our most basic needs, food.

Transformational leadership highlights the importance of trait theory Assignment

Transformational leadership highlights the importance of trait theory Critically evaluate the trait theory of leadersip and how - Assignment Example The two earliest approaches that explained leadership were the trait and behavioural theories. The trait theories emphasised on identifying and fostering the personal traits that distinguished a leader whereas behavioural theorists stressed on maintaining various sorts of leader behaviours. No doubt, both these theories are capable of offering fresh insights to current and future managers in leading their organizations or companies. One can trace back the origins of all modern popular leadership styles (such as charismatic, transformational and transactional leadership styles) in the trait theory. This paper deals with the various aspects of trait theory, its advantages and disadvantages and tries to make a probe into the relevance of the theory today. One should have a thorough understanding of the meaning and definition of trait theory to evaluate its relevance. Trait theory, in short, â€Å"attempts to specify which personal characteristics (physical, personality, mental) are ass ociated with leadership effectiveness† (Duening & Ivancevich 2003, p. 282). Kinicki and Kreitner in this respect, consider the trait theory as the successor to the â€Å"great man† theory of leadership. However, one can find considerable differences between both the theories. While the ‘great man’ theory held that leaders have an inborn talent to lead, â€Å"trait theorists believed that leadership traits were not innate but could be developed through experience and learning† (Kinicki & Kreitner 2009, p. 461-462). Thus, the theory emphasises that not all leaders are born leaders and that leadership abilities can be acquired by anyone. The trait theorists also hold that good leaders possess certain physical or personality characteristics known as ‘leader traits’ which distinguish them from their followers. There have been a number of studies during the post war period to identify these leadership traits that differentiated a leader from h is/her followers. In this regard, Stogdill and Mann stressed on five leadership traits that differentiated leaders from average followers. They include intelligence, dominance, self-confidence, level of energy and activity, and task-relevant knowledge (Kinicki & Kreitner 2009, p. 462). However, further studies revealed that people with these traits are more likely to be followers than leaders. There have also been studies on the perceived notion of who an ideal leader is and the major leadership prototypes stemmed out of those researches were associated with intelligence, masculinity and dominance. There were also researchers who regarded honesty as the most significant leadership trait whereas some others stressed on emotional intelligence or personality. While there are a lot of debates over the most important leadership traits, it is evident that anyone who does not possess such leadership traits cannot be expected to be at the top of an organization or company. One can clearly o bserve the relation between the trait theory and transformational leadership. It is essential to know why transformational leadership highlights the importance of trait theory. According to Farrell, Souchon & Durden (2000), a transformational leader is most likely to be â€Å"charismatic, inspirational, intellectually stimulating to followers, and individually considerate† whereas a transactional leader is likely to be â€Å"short-term and instrumentally focused, in that s/he will lead by providing rewards contingent on performance, and manage by exception†

Design and Installation Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Design and Installation - Assignment Example In carrying out these activities, the engineer will use a combination of the User Experience Model and the Visual (model) types. This will help in inviting the active human interaction as the engineer aspires to realize a more extensive research that will obviously lead to a more profound result as per the demands of the client. When the engineer opts for the user experience model, a combination of tools and materials are used. The material used in this prototype is plywood and CNC machined components and the RP processes. It is not constructed using from scratch, but using industrial CT scanning techniques. On the other hand, the use of the visual prototype will help in creating a more aesthetic appeal to make the structure have an attractive color, appearance, and texture that will, of course, make the product be appealing to the intended users to admire it properly. This is the surest way through which the prototype specialist will ensure that the real product is simulated. Hence, it will be so cheaper to have this prototype in place than it would be practically possible if the product is designed. The computer software can be used to help in creating the computer model prototype that will help in making a good prototype for the product intended to be made. This in itself is essential in helping to design a more appropriate product with the required weight and appropriate size and shape to aid in an admirably good final product (Howard A. P., 2009). On the other hand, the in situ concrete is the type of slab that is constructed at the exact site of the building. It requires the investor to avail all the required materials (sand, cement, and hardcore) together with the essential tools (spade, trowel, plump bob and others) and the necessary expertise required in this process.

Invasive ductal carcinoma Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Invasive ductal carcinoma - Research Paper Example A century and a half ago Rudolf Virchow’s seminal ideas linked inflammation with cancer; and opened avenues for comprehension of the scariest disease mankind continues to face. Virchow suggested the presence of â€Å"lymphoreticular infiltrate†, at the site of inflammation was indicative of cancer initiation. The researches in previous decade have offered support to the ideas of Virchow; that malignant tissues formed during cancers create an inflammatory microenvironment (Balkwill & Mantovani, 2001). Breast cancers arise from the epidermal lining of the terminal duct lobular unit. Cancerous cells either remain confined to the terminal duct lobular unit and the draining duct; or proliferate beyond the basement membrane to the adjacent tissue. While the former is referred to as in situ or non-invasive; the latter is called invasive or infiltrating carcinomas. A misnomer used in the classification of invasive carcinomas was ductal and lobular carcinomas; where the two were believed to arise from ducts and lobules respectively. It is now understood that both of these types of breast cancer have origin in the lobule. The invasive breast cancers are now classified on the basis of specific cellular growth patterns and morphology of cells. Breast cancers with distinct features are called invasive cancers of special type; and the rest referred to as of no special type (figure 1) (Sainsbury et al., 2000). Cancers of breasts are the most common affecting women, with 232,340 new cases of invasive breast cancers reported from USA alone (ACS, 2014). Survival rates for breast cancer for women in the age range of 50-69 years, for five years is estimated to be 80%, for younger women it is slightly lower (Coleman et al., 2004). It is the second most common cause of death in women (first in case of Hispanic women) in USA (CDC, 2013). 72-80% of the cases of breast cancer are those of Invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC). The

Foundation Business Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Foundation Business Management - Essay Example This paper briefly analyses the management model, structure and culture in three different companies; Microsoft, Apple and Coca Cola and the impact of these management styles on the employees. Microsoft does not need an introduction in the world because of its established monopoly in software industries and computer world. Founded in 1981, controlled by Bill Gates and his team, Microsoft has become one of the all time best companies in the world at present. Microsoft is not following any conventional models of management. In fact they don’t have even a president or CEO. Jung (2003) has mentioned that all the Microsoft operations are controlled by eight chief financial officers. The companys seven business units are: Client, which includes its Windows operating system; Information Worker, including Office business software applications; Server Platforms, for server software; Home and Entertainment, including Xbox video-game consoles and the Xbox Live online gaming service; MSN, its Internet service; Business Solutions, including software for small and medium sized businesses; and CE/Mobility, including software for wireless phones and mobile devices (Jung). Microsoft has divided its entire business portfolios into seven different categories and named a head for each category. The above strategy helped them to manage each areas of their business more effectively because of the different heads at the top of different units instead of a single head at the top of the organization. The unit heads need to concentrate only on their units and hence their workloads are comparatively less when we compare other organizations with a single CEO at the top. Employee-employer relations in Microsoft not seem to be in a good shape at present because of the recession problems. Salary reduction, termination of jobs, temporary layoffs etc are common nowadays in Microsoft because of the

Is there a connection between human freedom and modern physics Essay - 1

Is there a connection between human freedom and modern physics - Essay Example Every man has a natural right to pursue happiness but the human thought process is very tricky. This is Maya, and Maya incites the human mind to dance to its tune. Through its thoughts the human mind can create individual and societies but these very thoughts bring it to a state of confusion. Thinking cannot control the forces of nature, says Wilhelm (Ch1, p45). Thoughts like to drown itself in the assumption that it has control over the senses and nature. Ideas are intelligent perceptions but they too can take different forms. An individual has to assume responsibility to express ideas and this may eventually lead to a new reality. This demonstrates the power in human thoughts, and this very power of ideas, reality and thoughts have led to discoveries in science. Ideas have the power to make us believe in the reality or turn the ideas into reality. It also has the power to create chaos. Human beings are always struggling for freedom – freedom not from other human beings but from their own thoughts. Freedom is not external to the self. Freedom lies in one’s own thinking process, in one’s own perception. It is freedom from one’s own confusion. This is precisely what Lord Krishna in Bhagwad Gita has conveyed. Human beings are forever fighting with their own inner selves – sometimes the divine mind reigns Supreme only to be overpowered by the demonic thoughts. Freedom is to evolve from this Maya and und erstand the Reality. It is freedom from the inner conflict and not a fight between two individuals that has been portrayed. Arjuna’s thoughts and ideas formed a chain and distorted the Reality; he was far away from the Truth. Today human beings view freedom as a right without responsibility. Standards of behavior are determined through the use of statistical curves. Money and success is the yardstick of freedom. Money is linked to spirituality. Spiritualism is a profession and those

A South Affican Investment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

A South Affican Investment - Essay Example They argue that this profit would then be used to help move blacks into positions of management. Indeed, CalTex could show that they had moved 40% of their black work force into positions once only held by whites. They also showed that their operations had moved blacks into 22% of their lower management positions. They also were paying a higher than average wage to their black workers, resulting in improved living conditions. The argument against the utilitarian benefits of CalTex continuing to refine oil did not negate the political realities of South Africa. None of their black workers were able to unionize, vote or even travel into â€Å"white† areas without special permission. The negation of these basic human rights counteracted any good that CalTex was providing to the black community through job opportunities, improved wages or slight upward mobility. Building the plant would give tax revenue to the government and imply cooperation with the regime. I believe that it is more important for the corporation to not expand because without basic human rights, a better job doesn’t really make life much better. I believe that as a stockholder I should have voted for CalTex to suspend operations in South Africa. This first proposition was the best way to set a good example of moral corporate governance. I would know that I would surely lose money if the other stockholders voted with me, but I would feel better about the future profits of the company. CalTex is an international company and pulling out of South Africa would not have a long-term effect. The refinery could have been sold and the corporation could have withdrawn. As to the second proposition of not selling to the military, I believe that I would not have voted for this proposition. The simple fact is that South Africa had passed a law specifically against such actions. My feeling is that if a corporation is going to do business in a given country, they should obey the laws

Supply Chain Management of Marks and Spencer Essay

Supply Chain Management of Marks and Spencer - Essay Example The essay "Supply Chain Management of Marks and Spencer" examines supply chain strategies of one of the most famous retailers in the UK, Marks and Spencer (M&S). The paper will also discuss supply chain structure that the company has been designed to implement its supply chain strategy. At the time of its initiation, M&S did not face much competition as the number of market players was very small. However, over the years the number of retail firms has increased in the UK as well as throughout the world with increasing popularity if retail culture. With the increase in the level of competition, M&S felt it necessary to devise some effective strategies to deal with increased market competition. In order to sustain in an intensely competitive market, it is very much necessary to retain existing customer base and expand it over time. M&S has rightly recognized this need and accordingly have placed focus on delivering goods in the best possible manner to its customers. This strategy is very helpful in improving the profitability of the firm and fostering a huge competitive advantage in the industry. M&S have now emphasized on delivering high-quality up-to-date garments at fair prices to its customers. M&S has also realized that purchasing from overseas suppliers is the most effective way of saving costs. As one of its competitive strategies, the company emphasizes on redesigning its stores in such a way that they provide more comfort, more space, and more convenience to the customers at the time of their shopping and browsing.... M&S has rightly recognized this need and accordingly have placed focus on delivering goods in the best possible manner to its customers. This strategy is very helpful in improving profitability of the firm and fostering a huge competitive advantage in the industry. M&S have now emphasized on delivering high-quality up-to-date garments at fair prices to its customers. (Neef,. 2004; Hensher, 2001) To survive under extremely competitive environment, it is necessary to improve its operational activities, suppliers, logistic, designing of stores and so on. The old stocks should be cleared from the warehouses to give way for new stocks that are up-to-dated. Apart from this, it is also necessary to provide due consideration on packaging of the products. M&S has identified all these needs for improving its competitive strength in the market and has designed competitive strategies accordingly to meet these needs. (Neef,. 2004; Hensher, 2001) M&S has also realized that purchasing from overseas suppliers is the most effective way of saving costs as well as of providing the products to the customers at lower prices. Hence, it has abandoned its policy of confining to UK suppliers only. (Neef,. 2004; Hensher, 2001) As one of its competitive strategy, the company is emphasizing on redesigning its stores in such a way that they provide more comfort, more space and more convenience to the customers at the time of their shopping and browsing. (Neef,. 2004; Hensher, 2001) Supply chain strategy: For a large scale of business enterprises, Marks and Spencer, one of the famous retailer in Britain, had set a very big example. For a very long time, Marks and Spencer has been a leader in the industry where there is a team of local suppliers working

Manufacturing Systems Theory Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Manufacturing Systems Theory - Lab Report Example Normally, this department employs vendor management system in order to maximize its value to the firm by dealing and controlling with suppliers. Just-in-time management system is also utilized in-order to manage inventory and minimize costs. The transformation process is the process of converting input materials into finish products and services needed by the customers. It has several subsystems that work hand-in-hand, with overlapping functions and continuous roles. These subsystems are planning, sourcing, manufacturing and logistics. The transformation process involves different systems in manufacturing. The component systems include sourcing, planning, manufacturing and logistics. The planning and development of products is an essential element for transformation. The inputs for planning include customer requirements and technical information. The information is converted through production planning and schedules using a material resource planning system. The outputs of the department are efficient use of resources, finished product and safer work environment. The manufacturing process is the core process of transformation. The inputs of manufacturing include the raw materials, people, equipments and energy. These inputs are utilized in producing goods, operating the plant and processing materials. The outputs of manufacturing are the finished goods, final assembly or end product that meets the objectives of department and the requirements of the customers. Just-in-time system, lean manufacturing system and flexible manufacturing systems are employed in modern manufacturing firms in order to be effective, efficient and responsive to the demands of the markets. Logistics is a system of warehousing and distribution of finish products intended for the customers. The inputs of logistics are the finish products that are packed and ready for the customers. The transformation process includes the management of the distribution system and allocation of shipment activities. The output is the finished products delivered to the customers, on-time and as required. Total quality management is system of measurements, analysis and improvements. Quality management system is important for the continual improvement of business processes employed in the organization. The system converts information gathered during every processes of manufacturing into analysis and recommendations that are necessary for improvements. Quality management systems may include six sigma practices, business process re-engineering, kaizen and ISO quality systems. Management involves planning, leading, organizing and controlling the whole organization and all the business processes of the firm. The inputs of management include the reports and analysis that are produced in the total quality management system. It is the responsibility of management to utilize the reports and analysis in order to allocate resources, create business strategies and forecast market demands in order for the organization to generate competitive advantage as well as sustain the existence of the business. Corporate and business strategies are the outputs of management. Marketing is another output of management that is focused on the acquisition of new customers and maintenance of existing ones. The inputs of marketing are the

An editorial about the writings of Ida B. Wells Essay Example for Free

An editorial about the writings of Ida B. Wells Essay Ida B. Wells wrote the three pamphlets Southern Horrors (1892), A Red Record (1895), and Mob Rule in New Orleans (1900) as an attempt to publicize the atrocities being committed against African Americans in the New South. These writings are important today, not because lynching of African Americans occurs with any regularity, but because they are accounts contemporary with the events they detail and because the pamphlets illustrate the dangers of: mob rule, justifying immoral acts by claiming to have a moral purpose, and the tendency of people everywhere to strike out against anything new or different with violence. This message is even more relevant today when the current president is so willing to suspend the rights of others so that the people of America can be safe. The fear of one group of people who mistrust another group should never result in suspension of rights of another. Just like the eroding of the rights of African Americans during the time when Wells was writing, the suspension of rights of people who look as if they are or might be terrorists in the current world is wrong and should not be tolerated. Ida B. Wells wrote with two purposes in mind: one was educational, the other was to publicize the atrocities committed in the New South with the hope of eliciting reaction from people who would then help bring an end to Lynch Law and other injustices committed against African Americans. Wells wanted to educate those people who were unfamiliar with the New South regarding the violence and double standards far to common in the South. Wells wrote to tell the facts about lynchings in the South so that people would no longer believe lynching was a response to an egregious crime. She sought to recast lynching in the public eye so that it was not perceived as an understandable though unpleasant response to heinous acts, but as itself a crime against American values (Wells 27). According to Wells the perception that all white women were pure and uninterested in have African Americans as husbands is untrue, there are many white women in the Sought who would marry colored men if such an act would not place them at once beyond the pale of society and within the clutches of the law (Wells 53). At the same time laws forbade African American men and white women from commingling, Wells points out they leave the white man free to seduce all the colored girls he can (Wells 53). Although Wells writing centers on lynching because of alleged rape she makes an important point when she cautions that a concession of the right to lynch a man for any crime, . . . concedes the right to lynch any person for any crime, . . . (Wells 61). Wells also wanted to call citizens of the North, government officials and people in Great Britain to act to end lynch law. She urged them employ boycott, emigration and the press . . . to stamp out lynch law . . . (Wells 72). Ida B. Wells wrote to three different audiences. To those people living in the New South Wells wrote not so much about horrific events that occurred, but about the justifications they used to excuse their behavior. As mentioned above, she wrote of the double standard between the races and of the potential danger of expanding lynching to suit the whims and fancies of any mob at any time. To those Americans living outside the South Wells wrote to shock them with the descriptions of the horrid events, to educate them about how African Americans were still being treated despite the Civil War and despite the Constitutional Amendments guaranteeing rights to African Americans. Wells writes to the people of the North to show them that all is not well in the South and that the advances made in the past were being pushed aside. In her first pamphlet, Southern Horrors, Wells wrote about the existing injustices and ongoing terrorist acts performed against African Americans. To the rest of the world, particularly Great Britain, Wells wrote A Red Record she respectfully submitted [this pamphlet] to the Nineteenth Century civilization in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave (Wells title page). This pamphlet recounts the numbers and details of more than four hundred lynchings occurring in the United States against African Americans. Wells hoped to appeal to the sensibilities of British people who were potential investors in the South so they would invest elsewhere the appeal to the white mans pocket has ever been more effectual than all the appeals ever made to his conscience. To those in power in the United States Wells wrote Mob Rule in New Orleans to those in power in hopes of their bringing to an end to authorities who allow, and at times encourage mobs to act. Although it is difficult to quantify what the actual affects of Wells writing were, it is clear that during the next century, the groups she wrote for did make great strides toward establishing equality and eliminating injustices based on race. It is not unreasonable to suggest that Wells writing had a hand in starting this process. Wells writings are certainly among the earliest of Post-reconstruction writing to reintroduce the difficulties of African American lives, but they were not the last. It is likely that her writing influenced and encouraged others to continue the work Wells began. As I read through the accounts of these horrible, disgusting lynchings I felt saddened and depressed. Clearly there were many injustices committed and many were people hurt, imprisoned, or killed. Some of these are particularly gruesome such as Chapter III of A Red Record, Lynching Imbeciles: An Arkansas Butchery where Henry Smith was tortured and burned at the stake (Wells 88-98). According to figures gathered by the NAACP (an organization with Wells as one of the founding members) there were 3,318 African Americans killed by lynching between 1892 and 1931. Certainly one cannot dismiss or excuse these egregious acts in any fashion. However I was not particularly surprised or shocked by these events. Perhaps it is because I live in a world where the Jewish Holocaust of World War II is well known, a world where a country, Cambodia, went mad, and slaughtered between 1. 5 and 3 million of 7 million its own citizens. Perhaps it is because I live in a world where the recent genocides in Rwanda and Somalia were largely unknown until made into a wide screen blockbuster movie. Perhaps it is because of the 9/11 attacks (coincidentally the number killed on 9/11 and the number of dead American soldiers in Iraq are remarkably similar to the 3300+ listed in the NAACPs figures). For whatever reason, I find myself somewhat inured against these accounts. I am not sure whether this reveals more about me or about the society I live in, but I cannot help but wonder if Ida B. Wells were writing today would there be any impact at all.Perhaps not: mores the pity. Works Cited Wells, Ida B. Southern Horrors and Other Writings: The Anti-Lynching Campaign of Ida B. Wells, 1892-1900. Ed. with intro Jacqueline Jones Royster. Boston: Bedford Books, 1997.

Impact of Mobile Communications on Construction Industry

Impact of Mobile Communications on  Construction Industry 1. INTRODUCTION The total annual turnover of the building and construction industry in most economies around the world amounts to billions of dollars per annum, contributing approximately 10 per cent of GDP (Olomolaiye et al, 1998, quoted in Farin et al 2001). Although the Construction sector is pivotal in any economy as noted above, it is however an industry which is plagued by inefficiency which is caused by the lack of communication within organisations involved in the delivery of a project solution. According to Bowden and Thorpe (2002), 65% of contractor rework is attributed to insufficient, inappropriate and conflicting information on construction sites. The problem of communication on most construction sites are exacerbated because many operatives working in the field capture data manually (or maybe use a standalone handheld device) which is then physically transported to office. The information may then have to be manually keyed into the office computer system. This process is time consuming and requires extra workforce to re-enter data into the office computer. The introduction of Internet and communication technologies has seen the urgency in the expectations of people within the industry to have access to the latest information produced at any point in the project life. These expectations reflect the increasingly competitive pressure within the construction sector to deliver quicker and cheaper solutions. It also reflects the increased electronic awareness that internet use has cultured, realising a one-stop information on demand medium. The invention of handheld computing device enabled with a suitable wireless capability has proved a valuable innovation which reduces travel costs, increase operative efficiency, and speed data transfer. Data can easily be keyed on site and communicated wirelessly to the office computer. This information can further be uploaded on from the computer to the internet or extranet enabling faster and quicker process which reduces times. The use of project extranet solutions (a single project database shared by all project members: Client; Designer; Contractors; Suppliers) and document management systems is now common on large projects. Mobile communication technologies therefore can strategically be implemented to reduce cost and increase returns on investment. There are many applications of mobile communications in the construction industry. This report however focuses on the impact of mobile communication technologies in the construction industry. 2. Mobile Communication Mobile communication is a technology that eases communication by linking individuals or groups who are not physically present at the same location via wireless means. There are various software and hardware been used such as PDA, mobile phones, CAD application, data capture, project management etc. The mobile phone is still the king of mobile communication, and it has evolved to include smart features such as picture messaging, diary management, e-mail and web browsing. Likewise, many handheld computers (Personal Digital Assistants) are being produced with phone capabilities. For many individuals however, affordable smart phones have become feature rich enough to lure them away from their handheld computer, mainly because smart phones are more compact (Kinns and Babtie, 2005). As smart phones win over the personal computing device market, handheld computers are being developed more for the business computing market. Users in this market are more willing to sacrifice device size for increased computing power, and so devices such as the Tablet PC and Ultra Personal Computer (uPC) are being developed. Unlike most personal use, business use of mobile communication is concerned with the transfer of all forms of electronic data. Equally important is the way in which data and information is captured, and then managed to ensure it is readily available to other people/ devices when and where required. Improved cost effective mobile computing power will further reduce the office/ field divide. The uptake of integrated mobile communication computing devices and services has been significant. This growth in use will continue as smart phone devices gain more features, and handheld computers gain increased computing power. This is the belief of many leading players within the construction and telecom industries. Companies need to plan for this wireless future, and exploit the expected growth in their business strategies. 3. BENEFITS OF MOBILE TECHNOLOGY IMPLEMENTATION With the introduction of laptops into the work environment as a substitute for personal computers, the potential of the mobile worker became evident(Bowden et al, 2005). 3.1. Reduction in construction time and capital cost of construction According to (Bowden et al., 2005) mobile technologies can help minimise time and cut capital cost in the construction industry. Generic benefits of the provision of mobile technologies to point of activity workers include: doing away with retyping/redrafting, minimizing travel time in order to retrieve information and cut travel time to view point of actions or activities. Further explanation of cost savings and time are touched on in each of the developments assisted by mobile technologies below. 3.2. Reduction in operation and maintenance costs Mobile technology can help reduce maintenance cost and operation by improving upon the efficiency of workers and as well gather and provide information throughout the life cycle of a building or structure. The following construction industries (Network Rails London, North East and East Anglia Region) are using a PDA, GPS and GIS system to perform earthworks checks; look at the integrity of their embankments and cuttings. Network Rail currently obtains data from the inspections team on a week to week basis instead of waiting till the end of a 4-month inspection. This allows Network Rail to proactively organise their workload systematically. Getting Data using GIS can easily be grouped by condition enabling the identification of all ‘poor’ earthworks, including their location (automatically recorded by the GPS). A maintenance team can then be instructed to rectify groups of faults in a single pass. Within 1 year Network Rail achieved benefits for the solution(Bowden, 2004) . GPRS connected to PDA has been implemented by Rosser and Russell for obtaining new developments in terms of information from their maintenance engineers and delivering work orders. This has caused a significant change in administration required to accomplish their maintenance operation (Gooding, 2004). According to (Gooding and Bowden, 2004) GPS trackers are been utilised by Biwater for the implementation of fleet management system. This has given them the opportunity to able to analyse and track the actual position of their maintenance crews. Time has reduced drastically since the nearest crew to an incident could be spot on and instructed. The improved planning and implementation has considerably reduced maintenance cost, mileage, and also the fuel costs of the fleet. 3.3. Reduction in defects There have been several changes in national initiative that challenge the construction industry to target zero defects in handover. An example, even though Egan(Egan, 1998)came up with target for United Kingdom construction industry as a 20% annual reduction in the number of defects on handover, Egan proposed that there is considerably number of evidence which suggests that within 5 years the aim of zero defects could be achieved across the construction industry. Egan again touched on how some clients in the United States and the United Kingdom have already attained zero defects on handover. Taylor Woodrow and Mace piloted digital pen and paper solution and PDA solution respectively in their project. Both results gave them the knack to gather data electronically at source in a standardized format, and later were stored in a central database. The following trends could be searched on the database; reoccurring fault, re-offending subcontractors and setbacks in correcting errors. The various trends could be outline proactively. An additional benefit of having a central system for defect management is that the costs of rectifying snags can begin to be understood and hence a more proactive approach to managing quality throughout the construction process should be adopted to avoid these costs(Sommerville et al, 2004). According to (Newton, 1998) a research conducted in Australia depicted that 65% of contractor-rework is attributed to inadequate, unsuitable or contradictory information. Tablet PC system linked to a central database via a wireless LAN was developed by 3.4. Reduction in accidents For workers to report near misses, Mobile technologies could provide a mechanism that would increase the number of near misses reported in the construction industry. Those areas which need improvement in terms of electronic data could be analysed and highlighted. According to (Kiser and Fosbroke, 1994) the most common fatal injury is falling from height. OSHA Fall-Safe programme in the USA came up with a tablet PC audit tool(Becker et al, 2001). The work concluded that contractor control of fall hazards were improved when the conduct of an audit and the reports were generated. Next to fall from height are workers being struck by a moving vehicle which accounted for 10 fatalities in the UK in 2003/2004. In the Oil and Gas industry work is been carried out on the application of virtual exclusion zones for oil platform cranes. Cameras mounted on a crane boom can compute the position of personnel in an area hence could provide audible alert for the crane driver and personnel who are in d anger. Although, some vehicles give audible alerts this caution is not directed specifically to the person in danger and can be overlooked and identified as surrounding noise. This virtual exclusion or information zone could be utilized in the construction industry providing warning around machinery such as piling rigs or cranes and to provide information when entering areas with specific safety requirements. A step further along the line towards improving health and safety on-site is the possibility of automated construction, eliminating the need for personnel to be in dangerous areas. An example application is presented by 3.5. Reduction in waste Construction and demolition (CD) debris constitutes the waste generated during construction, renovation, and demolition projects. CD waste commonly includes building materials and products such as concrete, asphalt, wood, glass, brick, metal, gypsum wallboard, roofing, insulation, doors, windows and frames, flooring, and furniture. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that approximately 136 million tons of building-related CD debris were generated in 1996 — the majority from demolition (48%) and renovation (44%). New construction generated only 8% of building-related CD debris(Fishbein, 1998). The first step in understanding and reducing wastage on-site is to know what materials and equipment have been delivered. Several construction suppliers are currently considering or piloting Mobile IT solutions to facilitate their goods delivery process, providing electronic goods received notes (GRNs) and proof of delivery. A commonly held view is that the weakest point of the supply chain in the construction industry is the site; paper gets delivered and then lost. It may not get filed properly and the people on-site have no real awareness of how all the documents in the supply chain are linked. Lost GRNs are a huge problem for both the contractor and the supplier. One supplier stated that out of 4.5 million tickets issued each year contractors asked them to replace 300,000 GRNs. A contractor stated that on a  £45M project  £133,000 of invoices was being queried on any one day; Chen et al, 2002). The benefits achieved in relation to waste reduction include: faster location of materials/equipment; certainty that only the correct materials are used, reducing costs associated with damaged items; reduction in lost or stolen items; easier maintenance of a materials tracking database. CPIC (Centre for Performance Improvement in Construction) has developed a toolkit for measuring performance on-site; CALIBRE 2000. Wastage in time, materials and energy are collected by construction â€Å"observers† using a PDA device, which is then synchronised with a central database. The PDA enables information to be collected in real-time and it is then available for analysis by the site team the next day. (Chen et al, 2002).According to (Chen et al, 2002)suggest the use of bar-codes to facilitate a crew-based incentive reward programme (IRP). The workers are rewarded according to the amounts and values of materials they saved from their operations. This resulted in a 10% saving of material wastage. In both of these examples the drawback is that collection of the data still requires manual intervention. (Li et al, 2005). This reduces the possibility of damage to materials from ingress of weather and movement of people, plant and equipment within temporary storage facilities. As stated above, the majority of CD waste is generated during demolition and renovation. RFID tagging provides the capability of attaching information permanently to building components, which in turn offers the opportunity to provide future owners with information about the make-up of each component. Items can then be easily identified for recycling or reuse; even those items that cannot currently be recycled may be recyclable in the future. This would eliminate some of the prohibitive costs associated with identifying and sorting materials, making recycling a more viable option. 3.6. Increase in productivity Productivity is defined as the ratio of the amount of work produced to the resources used in its production. Productivity is increased if it takes fewer resources to do the same amount of work, or the same number of resources can achieve more. The drive for improved productivity in the construction industry has come with the recognition that productivity is inextricably linked to international competitiveness(Teicholz, 2004). Several of the national construction change initiatives promote the use of information technology as a tool to increase productivity, through automating tasks and enhancing collaboration. Task automation provides the following productivity enhancements: delivery of required information e.g. method statements; production of reports e.g. daily progress reports; alerts e.g. notification of safety hazard; data collation, reduces number of administration staff required. One area where significant losses in productivity occur is downtime on-site due to unforeseen problems. The opportunity for mobile technologies to provide immediate access, from the point of activity, to the personnel which may be able to resolve the problem has been an ongoing subject of research(Ballard and Howell, 1994). The Last Planner system has been set up to facilitate this method of planning and its toolset includes: collaborative programming; look-ahead meeting; weekly work plan meeting. The premise is that better planning improves productivity by reducing delays, getting the work done in the best constructability sequence, matching manpower to available work, and coordinating multiple interdependent activities 3.7. Increase in predictability The construction industry is noted for its delays in project delivery and over budget(Bourn, 2001). This is engineered by the following reasons methods of procurement, communication issues and culture. This section of the industry could be transformed by using mobile technology to provide precise real-time progress and cost information as the project progresses. In the above sections it can be observed that communication enhancement from one phase to the other became possible and in some situations have been achieved by most of the construction industries. The following Mobile applications are already in use progress reporting, timesheet, materials management and plant utilisation. This should now pave a way for most construction industries to compare and contrast planned programmes or budget and use this information in future projects. 4. CURRENT USE OF MOBILE TECHNOLOGY IN CONSTRUCTION. 4.1 Software and Hardware Innovations in Mobile Communications 4.1.1 Software Mobile CAD applications: Mobile devices equipped with CAD applications used by Construction personnel can mark-up, view, create and edit 2D/3D AutoCAD compatible designs at any place at anytime on construction site. CAD application may contact engineers, drafters and designers etc. who needs supports of designs and drawings in the construction site. Majority of mobile CAD applications are compatible with well-known mobile devices that run Windows mobile and Windows CE operating systems (COMIT, 2003). In order to communicate drawing files with desktop PCs, mobile CAD applications can connect and swap data with PCs by using ActiveSync for Windows OS or HotSync for Palm OS. The following are some of the CAD applications been used PocketCAD, PowerCAD and ZipCAD. Data capture applications: Bar code scanning, wireless sensors network and data capture are the three various types of data capture application used on sites. One of the mobile data capture system known as SHERPA enable users to collect real time piling work data by using mobile computers through a wireless local area network (WLAN) (Ward et al., 2003). Mobile construction chain supply(M-ConSCM) also named as bar- code enabled PDA, has been developed to create convenience and improve information flow in the construction supply chain environment through the integration of bar code scanner and PDA combined (Tserng and Dzeng, 2005). A new innovation has come into play i.e. Wireless sensor network that consists of various devices capable of a cooperative sensing task and is compared with the concept of ubiquitous computing. A mass concrete curing management system (CMS) has been developed to investigate the possibility of applying wireless sensor network to on-site data collection proces ses (Lee and Kang, 2006). This system can allow the collection, transfer, and delivery of the recorded curing temperature data automatically in real time in a wireless sensor network environment. Project management applications: Applications in the project administration area provide users with the capabilities of project and programme management such as construction activity review, activity monitoring and updating, progress management, risk management, Microsoft Project file view and update, and material and equipment management, through their on-hand mobile computers. Available commercial applications include Primavera Mobile Management, CYtools, and OnSite FDM. 4.1.2 Hardware Palmtops / PDA – Personal Digital Assistance PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), sometimes known as a Palmtop, is a mobile computer that allows you to store, access, and organize information. More sophisticated PDAs can run word processing, spreadsheet and industry specific applications and also provide e-mail and internet process. Some models now offer the functionality of a mobile phone and a PDA in a single unit. These units use either a Palm or Microsoft Windows Pocket PC operating system. In general, the more functions offered on the device, the shorter the battery life. Currently, there are no rugged devices available in this category, since they could be seen as more akin to a non-rugged mobile phone. Many of these devices use an electronic pen (called a stylus) rather than a keyboard for input. This is associated with special operating systems that support handwriting recognition so that users can write on the screen or on a tablet instead of typing on a keyboard. Hand-held Computers A hand-held computer offers the main functionality of a laptop in a smaller package. They feature a full QWERTY style keyboard and a landscape display. Typically, they run on a Windows-based operating system, like a desktop PC. Because they have a keyboard, this type of device is probably best suited where it can be used on a stable base, for example in a pick-up truck. Although the Windows CE OS is more demanding on battery life and memory, many of the devices will compensate for this by providing more memory space and larger capacity batteries as standard. 4.2 Health and Safety One of the most hazardous industries to work in the is the construction industry; it is noted that 3.6 per 100,000 workers in the United Kingdom encounter fatal injury, associating with 70 people, depicts an unfavourably average of 0.81 in the industry(Mckerman, 2001). 4.2.1 Case Study (Health and Safety-Skanka) The civil engineering division of Skanska known as Skanska Tekra Oya in Finland is currently using SMS/WAP and MMM based system which propels them to collect data electronically by using the supervisor’s phone. It then passes problem notifications on to the subcontractors who then respond with via SMS when problem is resolved. Issues which took days to complete could be dealt with in few hours and since then accidents have decreased drastically with the use of the system. The gathered data are stored on a central database facilitating the classification of trends to be automated. Continual non application can be emphasized and a more positive approach of doing away with their reoccurrence can be established, such as training preventative measures put in place e.g. warning signs placed at dangerous areas and barriers around overhead electricity cables. In addition, subcontractors who are time and again causing safety issues and are reluctant in putting an end to them can be dea lt with properly. Finnish Institute of Occupational Health came up with a mobile system that replicates MVR safety method for civil engineers and is used in most construction industry in Finland. Coming up with a single tool and comparing across construction sites will smooth the progress of improvement hence reduce. The â€Å"Accident Triangle†(Heinrich et al, 1980)illustrates that fatal injuries are just the tip of the iceberg (Fig 1). Theory states that â€Å"if you reduce the number of near misses, this in turn will reduce the number of fatalities†. The records show near misses is performing badly. The reason could be the number of times they occur and the amount of paperwork that has to be completed and recorded. 5. Emerging Trends and innovation The core reason of mobile in the built environment is its mobility. Mobile phones (speech and text messages), cameras in cell phones, GPRS are the commonly used within the construction industry. In terms of logistics, quality control and control of equipment, RFID reader is applied. Additional use of RFID is the access right control, emerging in janitorial services; access rights controls and mobile access managements with very short-range wireless point-to-point interconnection technology. This technology is likely to become common in mobile phones, and in fact such kinds of phones are been in use in the industry offering intuitive and user-friendly touched based communication. The interactions that exit between the two devices are reasonable in terms of price and also low immunity to eavesdropping. According to (Tolman et al., 2006b) the new messaging and communication systems been used gives current method and possibilities to communicate and manage with embedded sensors networks in a buildings with general terminal equipments through local or global information networks. During the past decade the port of services has been rated as one of the most powerful trends in information technology. Services offered by web can be thought as environment where services are delivered in a formal way and this formal are interpreted by client side browsers. With the nature of all browsers been able to use all services it is of no importance to install locally specific software to use a specific service. Web paradigm is gradually taking place in mobile devices but there have been several impediments that slow down the trend. In technology mobile browsers are not in the same level as compared with that of desktop browsers and top of that since the web has been design with more resources, the of resources in mobile devices are limited hence makes it a problem. That indicates that mobile devices that use web pages should be designed for them. Web paradigm is a natural fit to mobile devices as distributing software to mobile devices is cumbersome and leads to difficult maintenance problems. 6. Challenges of mobile Technology in the construction industry Though the above benefits of mobile technology shows a headway for most construction industry in using mobile technology there are several challenges faced by the industry that needs to be addressed. 6.1. Hardware for Mobile Technology Handheld computers, lightweight and compact laptops have come into extensive use over the past few years; other devices like wearable computers are also making great impact as well. Where improvement has been sluggish the integration ofmobilehardware seams to bridge a user’s desktop, activities whilemobile, and the Internet. There are four basic issues that complicate implementation and design (Satyanarayanan, 1996). In relation to static element mobile elements are resource-poor in terms of weight, size and power. Due to the transmission of data through open space mobile communication are vulnerable to security violation. In addition, wireless connectivity is very unpredictable in reliability and performance. Finally,mobile elements must rely on limited energy sources. It is important to note that these issues are not artifacts of current technology but are intrinsic to mobility. Collectively, they complicate the design ofmobile technologysystems. As a result, even though imp ortant research progress has been conducted, the implementation and design of mobile computing systems still remain a problem. 6.2. Location-Sensing One of the most widely used location-sensing today is the Global Positioning System (GPS). Using time-of-flight information derived from radio signals broadcast by a group of satellites in earth orbit. GPS makes it possible for a relatively cheap receiver (on the order of $100 today) to deduct latitude, longitude, and altitude to an accuracy of a few meters (Hightower and Borriello, 2001). The U.S. Department of Defence maintained the expensive satellite infrastructure, but with the investment been made many civilian benefits from it. Without a doubt, the past few years there has been a real sudden increase of GPS-based services for the consumer market. Although GPS is certainly important its location mechanism is not universally applicable. It cannot function indoors, particularly in places where there are steel-framed buildings and for many applications its resolution of a few meters is not adequate. GPS requires coordinates relative to specific objects whereas some applications (e .g., guidance systems for robotic equipment) use an absolute coordinate system. Further, the specific mechanism required for GPS impose cost, energy use requirements and weight that are difficult formobilehardware. Consequently, the following mechanism for tracking location (e.g., active badges, e911, and Cricket) considerably varies in their capabilities and infrastructure requirement. System costs vary as well, reflecting different trade-offs among device portability, device expense, and infrastructure needs. For applications involvingmobileobjects, orientation sensing (determining the direction an object faces) is also important, and this continues to be an active area of research. 6.3. Wireless Communications There has been a tremendous growth in the deployment of wireless communication technologies in the past decade. Although there has been considerable increase in data communication technologies, the most recognised one is voice communication (cell phones) which has been the primary driver. With many vendors offering hardware that supports the IEEE 802.11, wireless LAN technologies is now widely embraced in the construction industry (Williams, 2000). Although Bluetooth offers no bandwidth advantage as compared with 802.11, its standard has been backed by a number of hardware and software vendors and it is cheap to produce and frugal in power demand (Haartsen, 2000). The lowest-cost wireless technology in the market is the Infrared wireless communication this is due to the fact that it is primarily used in TV remote controls. IrDA supports handheld computers, laptops and other peripherals devices like printer been used today. Infrared wireless communication must be by line of sight, wit h range limited to a few feet. It is also affected adversely by high levels of ambient light, such as prevail outdoors during daylight hours. Greenhalgh claim that WI-FI network do perform well in open space when on construction site, due to the fact that when projects starts, getting wireless signals is easy but at a stage when they are boxed there seems to be interferences (COMIT, 2003). It is difficult to foresee what new wireless technologies will emerge in the future. Power consumption clearly will be an important factor for untethered devices, such asmobile computers, PDAs, and Smart Dust. In addition, it is clear that advances will be constrained by trade-offs among four factors: frequency, bandwidth, range, and density of wired infrastructure. Devices operating at a higher frequency could have greater bandwidth but would require major advances in high-frequency very-large-scale integration (VLSI) design. Advances also will be constrained by policy decisions on frequency usage (spectrum allocation) by the Federal Communications Commission. Range is fundamentally related to transmission power, but generating high pow er at high frequency always has been a difficult technical challenge. This is not a short-term annoyance but a core, long-term requirement of successful system architectures 6.4. Privacy and Trust Mobile computing and distributed system have been experiencing problems when it comes to privacy and this is greatly complicated by pervasive computing. Smart spaces, surrogates imonitor and location tracking are mechanisms used on a continuous basis. As a users keep on depending on this pervasive computing systems, they get more knowledge about the behaviour pattern, habits and the movement. Utilising this information becomes vital to successful proactivity and self-tuning. In addition, unless information used is strictly controlled, they will be unsafe from targeted spam to blackmail. Indeed, the constant loss of confidentiality will discourage users from using computing system. Greater dependence on mobile communications on site means that users should have confidence in that infrastructure to a considerable extent. On the other hand, the infrastructure has to be confident enough to authorise and identify users credential before responding to request. It is very challenging to cre ate this mutual trust in a manner that is minimally intrusive and thus preserves invisibility. Privacy and trust are likely to be enduring problems in Mobile communication technology in the construction industry. 7. Conclusion The current usage of mobile communication in the construction industry brings many change improvements wished for within the industry by enabling point of activity workers to participate in the electronic flow of information using mobile technologies. Although this is not the only solution to the problems to be addressed, it does offer the potential of significant impact in reducing construction time and cost, defects, accidents, waste

Physicochemical Study of Palm Ester for Cosmetic Application

Physicochemical Study of Palm Ester for Cosmetic Application 2.0 Introduction Palm oil is extracted from the fruit of oil palm, Elaeis guineensis. Besides, Malaysia is one of the leading exporters and producers of palm oil in the world (Keng et al., 2005 Palm oil has been widely applied in various industrial sectors due to the uniqueness of its composition (Keng et al., 2009). It consists of triglycerides; the combination of glycerol and different fatty acids. Furthermore, other palm oil fractions can be extracted as palm oil is rich in Palmitic acid and Oleic acid (OBrien, 2004). Specifically, in this study, Palm Olein will be used to produce palm ester instead of the other fractions. Wax esters are one of the most important ingredients in cosmetic formulations (Hallberg et al., 1999). The emollient behavior of wax esters makes it applicable for numerous personal care products (Peter Robert, 2001). Besides, synthetic ways to produced ester has been introduced since naturally occurring wax esters are limited and expensive (Keng et al., 2009). Thus, in this study lipase-catalyzed reaction of Palm Olein and Oleyl alcohol by using immobilized lipase will be carried out in order to synthesize wax esters (palm ester). Physicochemical study as well as thermal stability will also be conducted since the characterization of esters is important in order to examine their effectiveness in industrial applications. 3.0 Literature Review 3.1 Waxes In general, the mixture of long-chain of lipid forming a protective coating on plant leaves and animals is waxes (Keng et al., 2005). Besides, it has been used commercially in many areas. Lubricants, polishes, coating materials are some of its applications (Hamilton, 1995; Hallberg et al., 1999). Carnuba wax, beeswax, wool wax and spermaceti wax are some examples of waxes that exist naturally. Animals, plants and minerals are the source of natural waxes (Gunawan et al., 2005). Thus, waxes can be classified into two types which are natural waxes and synthetic waxes. 3.1.1 Natural Waxes Sperm whale oil is one of the natural waxes and it can be found in the open ocean. Years ago, the whale species of P. macrocephalaus was a prime source of wax. This is because of the liquid wax called spermaceti that contained in the head of the whale (Rice, 2009). The liquid wax is present abundantly in the spermaceti organ of the whales. Moreover, manufacturers found that spermaceti is very useful (Whale facts, 10 November 2014). It is a great substance that can be used in many sectors. However, due to the extinction of this species, the government has banned all the whale hunting. Thus, jojoba oil has become the main natural sources of wax since the cessation of whale hunting (Keng et al., 2009). Other than that, Jojoba is a shrub which can be found in Arizona, Mexico and some other areas (Allawzi et al., 1997). The seed of the Simmondsia chinesia (jojoba) plant contain a unique oil which known as jojoba oil. Besides, jojoba oil makes up approximately 50% of the seed’s weight. It is composed of the straight chain monoesters of the monounsaturated C20and C22 alcohols and acids (Wisniak, 1994). Furthermore, the uniqueness of jojoba oil is due to its chemical composition. It contains a little or no glycerin. As the glycerin is almost completely absence, it indicates that jojoba differs from the other seed oil. It is proved that it is a liquid wax not fat. 3.2.2 Synthetic Waxes Day by day, the demands of waxes keep growing. Unfortunately, it is too expensive for large-scale use of natural waxes like jojoba oil. Moreover, it requires up to 5 years for commercial jojoba plantations to start produce seeds (Keng et al., 2009). Thus, ways to synthesize wax with cheaper materials and in shorter time become very crutial (Radzi et al., 2005). In order to synthesize synthetic wax, chemical and enzymatic methods can be used (Keng et al., 2005). However, chemical-catalyzed method may leads to high energy consumption and degradation of esters whereas the enzymatic synthesis offers mild reactions and environmental-friendly process (Yadav Lathi, 2003). Normally, synthetic waxes are used in cosmetics formulations as replacement of natural waxes. Synthetic waxes from natural raw materials have not much different from the natural ones. Synthetic beeswax, synthetic spermaceti, polyethylene waxes and polawax are the examples of synthetic waxes (SpecialChem, 8 November 2014) 3.2.3 Wax Ester The long chain of esters that derived from fatty acids and alcohols are referred as wax esters (Chen Wang, 1997). The chemical structure of wax ester is shown in Figure 1 below. Typically, it is composed of n-alkanoic acids and n-alkan-1-ols with carbon atoms ranging from C12-C32 (Misra Ghosh, 1991). Wax esters are very important in various industries, especially in cosmetic formulations. This is due to its characteristics which are non-irritating and non-greasy feeling when in contact with skin (Peter Robert, 2001). Figure 1: The Chemical Structure of Wax Ester (AOCS lipid library, 10 November) Wax ester can be extracted from animals and plants. Besides, it is a major component of beeswax and jojoba plants. Hence, it’s can’t be deny that the extraction of wax ester from natural sources are expensive for commercial use and it is limited (Keng et al., 2005) 3.2 Palm Oil In early 1870, the oil palm tree (Elaeis guineensis) has been introduced in Malaysia as an ornamental plant by British (Malaysian palm oil council, 11 November 2014). The oil palm tree originates from West Africa (Hartley, 1988). Typically, it has been used as cooking oil. As this plant can be commercialized, it has also been introduced to many other countries. From wild plant, it was developed into an agricultural crop. Moreover, the expansion of its plantation was due to the high demands from the consumers. Figure 2 below shows the oil palm tree as an agricultural crop. Figure 2: The Oil Palm Tree (Wikipedia Palm Oil, 12 November 2014) The first commercial of oil palm in Malaysia was founded on 1917 (Malaysian Palm Oil Council, 11 November 2014). From that onwards, the huge palm oil industry in Malaysia had started. Recently, palm oil, the extraction from the fruit of oil palm is the leading agricultural crop of Malaysia (MPOB, 2004). Besides, Malaysia has been announced as one of the largest producers and exporters of palm oil in the world (Malaysian Palm Oil Council, 11 November 2014). The uniqueness of palm oil composition makes it easy to be commercialized. In addition, it has been applied in many industrial sectors such as pharmaceutical, cosmetic formulations and food manufacturing (Keng et al, 2005). In Malaysia, the oil palm trees planted are the crossbred of dura and pisifera, known as tenera variety (Latiff, 2000). The mature trees will grow up to 20m tall. The size of the palm fruits is approximately the same with the size of the small plum and it’s grow in bunches. The weight of each bunch is between 10-50 kilograms and containing around 2000 individual fruits. Usually, the oil palm tree will start to produce fruits after 30 months. Its productivity will keep growing for the next 3 decades (Palm oil world, 11 November 2014). Normally, the fruits are dark purple and almost black (Malaysian Palm Oil Council, 11 November 2014). The colour will turns to reddish orange when ripe. The fruits consist of an outer pulp and kernels (Gunstone, 2001). The fruit of palm tree is the source of two different oils. Palm oil and palm kernel oil are the types of oil that can be obtained from the fruit of oil palm tree (Malaysian Palm Oil Council, 11 November 2014). The outer pulp contains palm oil while palm kernel oil is obtained from the kernel of the fruit. Even though these two types of oil are derived from the same plant, they are completely different by comparing their characteristics and properties (Keng et al, 2009). Figure 3 below shows the fruit bunches of oil palm tree and its cross section. Figure 3: The Fruit Bunches of Oil Palm Tree and Its Cross Section. (Malaysian Palm Oil Board, 12 November 2014) Furthermore, palm oil consists of triglycerides. Triglycerides are a combination of glycerol and different fatty acids. Palm oil is rich in palmitic acid and oleic acid, while palm kernel oil is rich lauric acid (O’Brien, 2004). Besides, these fats can be fractionated into solid and liquid fractions to produce stearins and oleins, respectively (Keng et al, 2009). Even though Lipase-catalyzed reaction of palm oil and palm kernel oil by using lipase are quite simple, the characterization of long chain esters is significant in order to examine their ability and efficiency in industrial sector. Palm Olein, the liquid fraction of palm oil will be used in the synthesis of palm ester instead of the other fractions (Malaysian Palm Oil Council, 12 November 2014). Thus, the synthesis, physicochemical properties and thermal stability of palm ester will be carried out specifically focusing on alm Olein. 3.3 Enzymes Human body is characterized by complex system of related chemical reaction. Besides, the reaction must be fully controlled in order to maintain life. Thus, enzymes are necessary for many reactions to confirm that it occur at suitable rates (Brown et al., 2012). Enzyme is a substance that speeds up reactions without any permanent changes and also known as catalyst. The building blocks of enzymes are amino acids and they are proteins. Enzyme catalyzes reaction takes place at specific location known as active site. Usually, enzymes are specific according to the reaction they catalyzed and the substrate that involves in the reaction. However, unwelcoming inhibitors are naturally occurring and disturb the enzyme reaction. Since enzymes are flexible, the active site is continuously reshaped. Besides, the combination of enzyme and substrate is called the enzyme-substrate complex. As the enzymes react with many substrates, the rigid lock and key model is not valid. In 1958, the modification of lock and key model has been proposed. Figure 4 below shows the modification of lock and key model (Koshland, 1958). Figure 4: The Lock and Key Model (Wikipedia, 11 November 2014) 3.3.1 Lipases Lipases are water-soluble enzyme and it’s able to catalyze both hydrolytic and synthetic reaction. Lipases are widely used in many sectors. They play an important role in the production of leather, detergent industries and in production of surfactants (Knezevic et al., 2004). Naturally, lipases are used in hydrolysis of acylglycerides. However, they are useful in many other reactions. In fact, lipases are qualified of catalyzing the reverse reaction synthesis Due to its ability to combine with broad range of substrate specificity (Gandhi, 1997). Besides, some lipases are more suited for synthesis than hydrolysis reactions. 3.3.2 Immobilized Lipases Lipases used in detergents and many other applications are not immobilized. However, due to an increasing specialty application of lipases demand an immobilized biocatalyst for efficient use (Sharma et al., 2001). Besides, immobilized lipase can reduce the cost and poor stability of free lipase. Adsorption, covalent binding and entrapping are some of the immobilization techniques (Knezeic et al., 2004). Since the immobilization method is typically accompanied by changes in enzymatic activity, pH, temperature and stability, each of the methods has its advantages and disadvantages. Besides, the used of immobilized lipases are very useful in the pharmaceutical, oleochemical and food industry (Knezevic et al., 2004). 3.4 Lipase-Catalyzed Reaction Lipase-catalyzed reaction can be classified into two main categories which are hydrolysis and synthesis. Synthesis category can be further separated into esterification, interesterification, alcoholysis and acidolysis. Table 1 below shows the classification of lipase-catalyzed reaction. Table 1: The Classification of Lipase-Catalyzed Reaction (Gandhi, 1997) In this experiment, alcoholysis of lipase-catalyzed reaction will be conducted. It is also called enzymatic transesterification as the last three reactions (interesterifiction, alcohoysis and acidolysis) are grouped together into single term which is transesterification (Gandhi, 1997). 3.5 Oleyl Alcohol Oleyl alcohol is long chain fatty acids. Fatty acids can be derived from natural fats and oils. Besides, it can be found I beef fat as well as fish oils. Cis-9-Octadecen-1-ol and Oleo alcohol are the synonyms name of oleyl alcohol. The chemical formula of oleyl alcohol is CH3(CH2)7CH=CH(CH2)7CH2OH. Moreover, oleyl alcohol is a clear oily liquid and insoluble in water (chemicalland21, 10 November 2014). Furthermore, fatty alcohols are emulsifiers and emollients to make skin smoother and prevent moisture loss (chemicalland21, 10 November 2014). Hence, it has been used widely as raw materials in industrial sectors such as cosmetics, pharmaceutical, metal processing and lube additive. In this study, Oleyl alcohol will be used as internal standard of gas chromatography analyses. The chemical structure of oleyl alcohol is shown in Figure 5; Figure 5: The Chemical Structure Of Oleyl Alcohol (chemicalland21, 10 November 2014) 3.6 The Application of Physicochemical Study in Cosmetic Formulations Nowadays, industrial cosmetic has immerged along with the advancement of global technology. The development of new cosmetic formulations is due to the discovery of active component in herbs and other natural sources. Thus, study has been done in order to investigate the chemical composition and characteristics of the active components. 3.6.1 Physicochemical Study According to Brasil (2004), physicochemical study is the determinant step in the development of cosmetic formulations. Physicochemical study is the study of the relations between composition and physical properties of the elements. Besides, this study is significant in order to know the intrinsic properties of elements and their ability to react with specific reagent (High Technology Detection Systems, 12 November 2014). Slip melting point, refractive index, saponification value, iodine value and acid value are the physicochemical measurement that will be analyzed in this study. Slip melting point is one of the physical properties which is useful in identification purposes and assessment of purity. It’s proportional to the increase in chain length and degree of saturation. In addition, slip melting points fats usually contain 5% solid fat; thus slip melting point generally happens at lower temperature than the melting point of the fat itself (Akoh et al., 2004). The ratio of the speed of light in a vacuum to the speed in the medium is known as the refractive index. Besides, refractive index is easily determined characteristics of fats, oils and their derivatives. It is important to obtain an accurate refractive index for the purposes of identification and for the progress of reaction like catalytic and isomerization. Generally, for the liquid oils, the density increases with increase in unsaturation and decreases with the increase in molecular weight at constant temperature. On the other hand, the refractive index will increases with the length of hydrocarbon chain and when the number of double bonds in molecules increase (Formo, 1999). Saponification is hydrolysis of ester under alkaline solution. Saponification value is the measure of chain length of all fatty acids present. The saponification value of an oil or fat is defined as the number of mg of potassium hydroxide required to neutralize the fatty acids resulting from the complete hydrolysis of 1 g of the sample. Besides, low saponification value is found from the long chain fatty acids due to the fewer number of carboxylic functional groups (Virtual Amrita Laboratories Universalizing Education, 13 November 2014). For the Iodine value, it measures the content of unsaturation or double bonds of fats and oils. Besides, it is one of the parameters used to measure the quality of olein (Buana et al., 1998). The iodine value also denotes the percentage by weight halogen, calculated as iodine and absorbed under the condition of the test. It is expressed as the number of iodine (grams) absorbed by the fat (100 grams) under test condition. According to O’Brien (1988), iodine value is a valuable constant that can be easily determined for fats and oils. One of the common parameter used in specification of fats and oils is acid value. It is defined as the number of milligrams potassium hydroxide needed to neutralize the free acid in one gram of sample. Besides, it is a measure of free fatty acids present in the fat or oil (chemprime, 13 November 2014). 3.6.2 Applications in Cosmetic Since ancient times, natural extracts from animals, plants and minerals have been used as special ingredients in cosmetics (Elsner Maibach, 2000). Wax esters are formulated in numerous personal care products due to its emollient behavior. Due to that, proper study on its characteristics is as important as the synthesis reaction (Keng et al., 2009). Besides, one of the most essential phases in development of new cosmetic formulations is the adequate physicochemical characterization to guarantee the identification of new patentable compound (Crystal Engineering, 12 November 2014). Physicochemical study is not a visible nor directly applied in cosmetic. However, the determination of each properties of physicochemical study is important in order to verify the compatibility of the extraction of palm oil for cosmetic application. Besides, it is important to verify whether the cosmetics are safe to be used. Hence, in this study the physicochemical properties of palm oil fraction focusing on palm olein will be carried out. 4.0 Problem Statement Currently, most of the chemical product derived from synthetic origin. However, product produced from chemical synthesis is not pure and involved hazardous chemicals. Thus, enzymatic reaction is preferable due to green synthesis process, environmental friendly and the product is pure. Physicochemical study is important in cosmetic formulations. However, rarely study on physicochemical had been reported in journal and any research paper. Due to that, in this research, a physicochemical study will be carried out such as slip melting point, refractive index, saponification value, iodine value, and acid stability. Besides, thermal stability will also be carried out in this research. Nowadays, a lot of synthesized products had been produce. However, the verification of those products was rarely reported. Hence, in this study, the synthesized product will be verified using spectroscopy methods such as thin layer chromatography (TLC) and gas chromatography (GC). 5.0 Objectives In this study, the synthesis of palm ester will be carried out. Enzymatic synthesis will be applied in order to produce palm ester. Besides, the physicochemical study will be conducted in order to apply palm ester in cosmetics. Therefore, this particular work will be carried out with the following objectives: To synthesize palm ester through enzymatic transesterification. To investigate the physicochemical properties and thermal stability of palm ester. To verify the synthesized palm ester using spectroscopy methods.

Willy Loman Is The Cause Of Hi :: essays research papers

Willy Loman is the cause of his own misfortune   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Many characters in literature are the cause of their own misfortune. In the play Death of a Salesman by author Miller, Willy Loman is responsible for his misfortune as well as the misfortune of his two sons Happy and Biff. Willy creates his own small world in which he is the boss, everything goes around him, nothing will change and nothing will go wrong. But by thinking this way Willy causes his own misfortune.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Willy brags to his boys that he is well liked, that he is a 'big man';, but in reality he is not. He says that he went to Providence, met the Mayor, had coffee with him. Willy says: 'And they know me, boys, they know me up and down New England'; (Death of a Salesman 30). This comment illustrates how Willy shows off in front of his sons. He says he can park his car in any street in New England, and the cops will protect it like their own. Willy believes that he is a 'number one'; man but at the same time he knows and says that he is not what he dreams about, but he just does not want to admit it. 'You know, the trouble is, Linda, people don't seem to take me… They seem to laugh at me… they just pass me by. I'm not noticed'; (36) says Willy. He knows the fact that he is a total failure and he never admits it. Then Willy mentions that he cannot sell anything and when Linda says that he is the handsomest, he disagrees with her, says he is fat, foolish to l ook at. Willy tells everyone and believes in the dream that he is well liked, that he is a 'number-one'; man. Thinking that way Willy creates his own little world where he is the boss and he does the things which he should not do causing his own misfortune.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Willy believes in and follows his wrong ideas. And the worst part is that he teaches them his sons Biff and Happy. He thinks that appearance is everything. Willy says: 'Because the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never want'; (33). This comment illustrates Willy's belief in the wrong idea that appearance is everything.

steroids :: essays research papers

Q. I have patients previously diagnosed as Asthma who are now classified as COPD. Should I keep them on inhaled steroids? A. If you have a strong suspicion that your patient has COPD rather than asthma (smoking history, progressive shortness of breath), then you should slowly reduce the dose of inhaled steroids (over several months - e.g. 25% reduction every 2-3 months). In most patients with COPD you will be able to withdraw the inhaled steroid completely, without any increase in symptoms or change in lung function. Q. What is a recommended 'steroid trial' for COPD? A. The most frequently used regime for a steroid trial is to give oral prednisolone (40mg daily in a single morning dose) for 2 weeks. It is best to make measurements of peak expiratory flow (PEF) twice a day for 2 weeks before starting oral steroids in order to get a baseline value and then during the treatment period. FEV, should be measured at the beginning and end of the baseline period and after the inhaled steroids. A steroid trial is considered positive if FEV, or mean PEF increase by more than15%, when a diagnosis of asthma is made. It is important to remember that some patients will have asthma and COPD at the same time. Q. What is the role, if any, for oral steroids in COPD? A. Oral steroids are used in a formal trial of steroids and may be useful in acute exacerbations of COPD. They should not be used as a maintenance treatment because of the side effects of long-term steroid therapy. Q. With a newly diagnosed COPD patient should I initiate steroid therapy, if so how? A. If a patient has COPD with no evidence of response to oral steroids (negative steroid trial) then inhaled steroids should not be used. It is possible that inhaled steroids may alter the accelerated annual rate of decline in lung function with age. Q. How will I know if a COPD patient is benefiting from steroid therapy? A. The best way to determine whether inhaled steroids are beneficial is to slowly reduce the dose. If FEV, or mean PEF show no deterioration, the inhaled steroid can be completely withdrawn. Q. Will COPD patients need to be on long-term steroid therapy? If so, what about side effects? A. Only patients who have shown a positive response to oral steroids (steroid trial) should be on inhaled steroids.

Nicolaus Copernicus :: essays research papers

Nicolaus Copernicus His Life:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Throughout history people have always looked up at the sky and wondered about the universe. Some just wonder while others attempt to solve this mystery. One of the people who had endeavored to solve it was Nicolaus Copernicus.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Copernicus was born in the present day town of Torun, Poland in February of 1473. While still a young boy, Copernicus was put in custody of his uncle when his father died. His uncle made sure that his nephew got the best education they could obtain. This is how Copernicus was able to enter the University of Krakow, which was well known for its mathematics, and astronomy programs. After finishing in Krakow, he was inspired to further his education by going to the University of Bologna in Italy. While there, he roomed with Domenico Maria de Novara, the mathematics professor. In 1500, Copernicus lectured in Rome and in the next year, obtained permission to study medicine at Padua. Before returning to Poland, he received a doctorate in canon law from the University of Ferrara.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Copernicus lived with his uncle in his bishopric palace. While he stayed there he published his first book which was a translation of letters written by the 7th century writer, Theophylactus of Simocatta. After that he wrote an astronomical discourse that laid the foundation of his heliocentric theory; the theory that the sun is the center of our solar system. However, it was 400 years before it was published.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After leaving his uncle, he wrote a treatise on money, and began the work for which he is most famous, On the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres, which took him almost 15 years to write. It is ironic that what he devoted a good part of his life would not be published until he was on his deathbed. His Theory:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To understand the contribution Copernicus made to the astrological community, you first need to understand the theory that had been accepted at the time of Copernicus.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The question of the arrangement of the planets arose about 4000 BC. At this time the Mesopotamians believed that the earth was at the center of the universe and that other heavenly bodies moved around the earth. This belief was synonymously know as geocentric. They believed this, but they had no scientific proof to support it.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It was not until the 2nd century that the famous astronomer, Ptolemy, gave an explanation for the movement of the stars across the sky, that the geocentric theory began to become creditable.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  That was the theory that existed at the time of Copernicus. Copernicus was not the first one to come up with the idea of a sun-centered (heliocentric)