Daytun Case Report Essay

A. Acquisition of the local dealership of office products and POS system company B. Acquisition of the dealership of Konica at the larger metropolitan area C. Establishing a new dealership in the small metropolitan area D. Acquisition of the local competitor E. Develop new business model like cost-per-copy product Strategy A Analysis: Since the current Copier business in Daytun increased only by 6.7% and the copier market is mature in London area, acquisition of the local POS dealership is the best strategy for Dayton to reach the goal within the next 2 years. Daytun needs to consider the following aspects in this strategy: 1. Can Daytun Finically secure to purchase the POS company? The value of the POS company is around $200-300K. Base on the current assets status, Daytun can slightly increase the debt from bank to purchase the company. 2. Can Daytun keep the same service excellence with the new business? The current POS company has the same service-oriented philosophy as Daytun does, and there is not dominated brand in the POS market. Daytun can establish the same reputation and earn the customer royalty. 3. Can Daytun merge with the POS company without losing the talnets? The current POS company has one 1/5 size of Daytun. Base on the very similar company culture and well-defined compensation policy, Daytun should be able to keep the talnets on both side. Daytun needs to provide more training to the whole new organization to understand and operate the new business in the very early stage. 4. Can management handle the acquisition and business expansion? Since the POS company is local, there is no geographical challenge to deal with by the senior executives. Daytun needs to provide more management training for the middle management level to allow the senior executives spend more time on acquisition and business expansion. Recommendation: Daytun must make decision to purchase the local dealership of office system and POS company to reach the goal in the next 2 years. By doing that, Daytun needs to carefully deal with the acquisition process and improve the training in whole organization to keep the same excellence of customer services for both business. Daytun also need to invest on the POS market to establish the same reputation as it did in the copier market.

Bio Enzyme Lab

Enzyme Lab Experiments Problem: How can we demonstrate how enzymes work? What happens if we alter the environment of an enzyme? Materials: G;lucose Test StripsTest TubesPipettesRaw HamburgLettucePotato Raw LiverChalkBeakersDairy Lactose TabletWaterSugar Solo Cups Hot PlateKnifeGlovesSkim MilkGlow SticksPeroxide Hypothesis: 1. If we change the environment via temperature the glow stick will Its intensity will change 2. If hydrogen peroxide is added to a certain food liver then It would bubble 3. If a lactaid enzyme to milk the It would separate Procedure (A): 1. Collect three glow sticks. 2. Boil water in 400 mL beaker add 1st glowstick for 30 minutes. 3. Place second glowstick in freezer for 30 minutes 4. Leave third glow stick at room temperature for 30 minutes 5. Observe and record findings. Data Collected (A): Place a glow stick in each environment below. Using a scale 1-3 1 being normal intensity 3 being brightest intensity BeakerObservation Freezer1 Boiling Water3 Room Temperature (control)2 Procedure (B): 1. Collect sample of raw liver, potato, raw hamburg, lettuce and chalk. 2. Place each sample in individual test tube in rack. 3. Observe samples prior to adding peroxide. 4. Add 1 mL of peroxide to each test tube 5. Observe and record findings Data Collected (B): Reaction after hydrogen peroxide is added. Using a scale of 0-5 0 Being no bubbles 5 being the most bubbles Test tubeObservation before adding hydrogen peroxideObservation after adding hydrogen peroxide # 1 liverDark brown in color (expired meat)5 # 2 potatoInner slice with some skin2 # 3 raw hamburgNormal in color4 # 4 lettuceFresh green lettuce1 # 5 chalk Yellow colored chalk0 Procedure (C): Preparation: 1. Enzyme Solution: Add one lactase tablet to 200 ml of water. Stir until the tablet is dissolved. . Skim Milk: This solution contains lactose. 3. Sucrose Solution:Add 5 grams of sugar to 100 ml of water. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. 4. Denatured enzyme Solution: 1. Place 20 ml of enzyme solution into a test tube. 2. Add 200 ml of water to a 400 ml beaker. 3. Place the test tube in the beaker. Make sure it does not spill out. 4. Place the beaker and the test tube on a hot plate. 5. Boil the water for 30 minutes. 6. Let the solution cool to room temperature. Procedure (C-1) 1. Collect 6 mL of skim milk, place 2mL in each test tube (3 test tubes of skim milk). . Collect 4mL of sucrose solution, place 2mL in each test tube (2 test tubes total). 3. Observe and record initial observations. 4. Add 1mL of enzyme solution to a skim milk test tube; add 1mL of water to 2nd skim milk test tube, ad 1mL denatured enzyme solution to 3rd skim milk test tube. 5. Add 1mL of enzyme solution to 1st test tube of sucrose solution; add 1mL of water to 2nd test tube of sucrose solution. 6. Insert Glucose test strip in wch test tube (5 total). Wait 2 minutes. 7. Observe and record whether or not glucose is present and how much. Test tubeInitial ObservationGlucose Test strip: Is glucose present 1. 2 ml of skim milk and 1ml of the enzyme solutionBubbles3000 Glucose 2. 2 ml of skim milk and 1 ml of waterNo bubbles 2 layers300 Glucose 3. 2 ml of skim milk and 1 ml of denatured solutionBubbles and layers 0 Glucose 4. 2 ml of sucrose solution and 1 ml of enzyme solutionClear liquidYellow in color zero glucose 5. 2 ml of sucrose solution and 1 ml of waterClear liquid Yellow in color no glucose What happens when the enzyme is denatured? The Enzyme does not work. Result Questions: 1. In which beaker did the glow stick glow the most? Why do you think that is? The beaker that contained hot water. The heat from the water will speed up the chemical rate of reaction taking place, and therefore will glow brighter; the cold one will have its rate of reaction slowed, and thus be dimmer. 2. What did the glow stick show about enzymes and different environments? How does changing the temperature affect the rate of an enzyme-controlled experiment? The increasing temperature increases molecular motion and may increase the number of times an enzyme contacts and combines with a substrate molecule. Temperature may also influence the shape of the enzyme molecule, making it fit better with the substrate. 3. What effect may change in PH have on an enzyme activity? The three-dimensional structure of a protein leaves certain side chains exposed. These side chains may attract ions from the environment. Under the right conditions, a group of positively charged hydrogen ions may accumulate on certain parts of an enzyme. A change in pH disrupts an enzyme's shape and structure. When the pH changes an enzyme's structure, the enzyme can't do its job. Changes in pH break the delicate bonds that maintain an enzyme's shape. An enzyme will unravel, or denature, and become useless in a different pH. Stomach enzymes work in a super acidic environment of pH 2. A little way down the digestive tract, intestine enzymes need a pH of 8. 4. Why did the hamburger and liver react differently with hydrogen peroxide? They have natural catalase enzymes which were broken down with the presence of hydrogen peroxide. 5. What is the job of the lactase enzyme? Lactase is an enzyme which breaks down lactose, a sugar found in milk and other dairy products. 6. In which test tubes was the glucose present? Why? In test tube #1 the enzyme broke down the lactose . Lactose is a disaccharide of glucose and galactose. The lactose tablet contained lactase which hydrolyzed the lactose into constituent galactose and glucose. Glucose is naturally occurring in skim milk thus in test tube # 2 found in a much smaller amount than test tube #1. 7. What happened when the enzyme was denatured or altered by heat? Did it work the same? Was glucose present? There was no glucose present. It did not work at all. Summary: What the class learn today about the jobs of enzymes? What questions does the class still have?

Karl Marx’s theory

The theory of Karl Marx as regards society and how it should move and organize itself is contrary to the view that all the members of the community must collaborate and contribute to the greater and common good. For Karl Marx, conflict is necessary in order to effectuate changes within the society. In fact, he considers conflict the most fundamental ingredient in making change possible in a given society.The foundation of this theory is Karl Marx’s theory that the society is composed of different classes. The class to which a particular person belongs will largely depend on the role or part played by that individual within the bounds of society. Where classes exist, people are continuously segregated, and hence it cannot be said that there is presence of absolute equality. Hence, for Karl Marx, this is where conflict begins.His belief in the formation of classes is traced in his notion that men has been in constant contrast with nature or his environment. There is the belief t hat due to man’s active participation or connection with his environment, he finds more and more ways to contrast with it in order for him to survive. As correctly pointed out,Marx insisted that men make their own history. Human history is the process through which men change themselves even as they pit themselves against nature to dominate it. In the course of their history men increasingly transform nature to make it better serve their own purposes. And, in the process of transforming nature, they transform themselves.In contrast to all animals who can only passively adjust to nature's requirements by finding a niche in the ecological order that allows them to subsist and develop, man is active in relation to his surroundings. He fashions tools with which to transform his natural habitat (â€Å"Dynamics Of Social Change†).Hence, men found it imperative to formulate measures and processes in order for him to survive. This is the same need that moved and provoked men t o associate with other individuals that are more like them. This is the start of the formation of classes where men of the same roles in the society grouped and formed their own class for purposes of survival.Due to the creation of different classes or groups within the society with the same purpose, said groups found themselves in conflict with one another. This is due to the fact that for purposes of subsistence, one class must necessarily dominate all the other classes in the society. In a scenario where different classes exist with one purpose, the presence of conflict, for Karl Marx, is inevitable. â€Å"Classes are conflict groups involved in extremely intense and violent conflicts directed toward equally extremely sudden and radical changes†(Dahrendorf, 1959). Due to their struggle to survival, it becomes imperative that the classes be in conflict with one another. The subjective class deemed it necessary to rise above the dominating class.In order for the subjective c lass to rise above the dominating class, it becomes crucial for conflict to exist. As mentioned above, it was the view of Marx that men as beings do not merely adapt to his nature. In order to survive, men find means and process to fight back and struggle with nature. This is precisely what happens in the society, the people do not merely assent to what constantly occurs within the society, and hence conflict must be created for change to materialize. Marx believed that if the lower class simply cooperated with the higher class, exploitation will continue and worsen until change is no longer possible.For Marx, society cannot change nor move forward if people simply assented to the appeals and desires of the dominant class; that society cannot be changed if men simply adhered or responded to nature. Marx put too much premium in the concept of conflict as a tool for transforming the society people live in. Truthfully, in the world we live in today, conflict is not difficult to find. A s correctly pointed out by Dahrendorf, â€Å"we can maintain at the very least that in many societies there are associations and classes, and in all known societies social conflicts†(1959). And within each society, conflict is not a simple element, but rather a necessary one.   For Karl Marx, In order that change to the systems running the society and arrangements within the society to be effected, conflict, albeit a negative term, is a necessary tool which must be considered and utilized.REFERENCERalf Dahrendorf. Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1959â€Å"Dynamics of Social Change†.

The Curse of her Beauty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Curse of her Beauty - Essay Example The woman's contradictory appearance is conveyed through a series of similes. She is old as ocean yet young as mornings. In spite of the woman's contradictory appearance (which seems to foreshadow ambiguity), the observer takes great delight in her. Roach personifies the beauty of the land through the woman's characteristics (That saw beauty walk on the wind and the sea). He speaks of nothing more about the woman other than her physical beauty. Much like the poet, tourist know of nothing more than what meets their eyes (the land's physical beauty), which is equivalent to the woman's physical appearance. The Caribbean is known to attract tourists with its lush vegetation and mild climate. However, Roach points out the land's deceptive seduction of the land's beauty. In fact, the land's beauty taints its true image. Rather than seeing the land for what it truly is (a place enduring the abusive lashing of the sea spray), the poet is tantalized and intoxicated by kisses that cause him to envision a beautiful goddess (Love tinted that shore). As he realizes the goddess's true repulsive side, the poet finds out that there is more than what meets the eye. Reality sobers the poet. He is no longer intoxicated by the beauty of the land. ... In The Odyssey by Homer, Sirens lured sailors with their sweet hypnotic songs. Their songs detracted sailors from their careful journeys and caused them to crash their ships into the rocks. In its efforts to lure and trap unwary observers, the land produces an attractive woman who is similar to the sirens. In essence, the woman is the land. Normally, Roach uses the land as a metaphor for the struggle between Eurocentric hegemony (dominance) and Caribbean independence (Jennings 25). The evidence of dominance is shown in the first stanza. The trees are symbolic of the Caribbean people who endured much abuse from the Europeans (lashing sea spray) but remained strong. As an islander who was forced to conform to European studies (Breiner 113), Roach uses examples from his studies (the siren coast; deceptive Sirens from Homer's Odyssey). In addition, Roach struggles with the identity of the land (shown in the ambivalent view of the woman or land). In doing so, he denounces the history of the land while acknowledging its undeniable beauty and his love for it. In the end, the poem makes a full circle (back to the beginning) where the he reflects on the devastatingly true image of the shore. The only difference now is that remnants of his love accompany the brutalities of the lashing sea spray. Works Cited Breiner, Laurence A. An Introduction to West Indian Poetry. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Jennings, Lisa Gay. "Renaissance Models for Caribbean Poets: Identity, Authencity and the Early Modern Lyric Revisited." MS Thesis. Florida State University, 2005.

Explain Socrates' claim that the unexamined life is not worth living Essay

Explain Socrates' claim that the unexamined life is not worth living (Apology) - Essay Example Therefore, Socrates claimed that for a human being to live a worthy life, everyone should question, examine and re-examine the values of their lives daily. This paper explores the meaning and the significance of the Socrates claim that â€Å"the unexamined life is not worth living† focusing on the Apology and Euthyphro. The words, ‘the unexamined life is not worth living’ by Socrates comes from Plato’s Apology when Socrates is sentenced to death after being accused of corrupting the youth and impiety. Patterson (16) posits that apology is one historical account of Socrates’ defense during his trial, and these words appear at the end of the Apology when Socrates is going through possible punishments for charges against him. Socrates utters these words when the jury has already found him guilty and has to decide on what kind of punishment to impose on him, which was agreed to be a death sentence. After being sentenced to death, he has to choose an alte rnative punishment like life sentence or exile but he declines the offer claiming that giving up philosophy would be disobedient to god. Therefore, by ‘the unexamined life is not worth living’, Socrates meant that he was ready to face death instead of living a simple life where he is not capable of examining claims of knowledge from other people, to challenge them and be able to ask them hard questions about reality. He urged people to be concerned about virtue to examine themselves and others because unexamined life is not worth living (Patterson 15). The dialogue between Socrates and Euthyphro revolve around the issue of piety. Briefly, both Socrates and Euthyphro are involved in this aspect of piety. Euthyphro suggests that piety is all about prosecuting anyone who is guilty of murder but after challenged by Socrates, he states that piety is something that is dear to gods, arguing that piety is what all the gods love whereas impiety is what all the gods hate. Socrate s refused to accept many popular tales about activities of gods (Patterson, 11). According to Socrates, piety represents unexamined life, which is not worth living, and as such, he was accused of creating new gods and ignoring the traditional Athens gods. Therefore, by stating that unexamined life is not worth living, Socrates was informing individuals to look within and get the true value of life by carefully analyzing their actions in order to live a happy life where no one gets hurt. Critical examination of life is necessary as it involves evaluation of events from both the past and present. Through this, one is able to learn from the past mistakes and correct them, watch his actions and live a more fulfilling life; this is because without thorough examination of life, life is worthless. In a situation where a person fails to examine his life, he will keep on repeating past mistakes and stagnation is inevitable. People should try to be virtuous, try to find out and realize what t hey do not know in life to have a broader view of the world (Kamtekar 154). Socrates claim about unexamined life is unworthy can be seen as implying that a life without introspection, with no personal reflection is totally a waste since lack of self-understanding and analysis is likely to lead to repetition of past mistakes and blaming others. Failure to have a deep personal understanding makes a person to live unexamined life. Moreover, lack of meaningful life and progress is a waste of time; it

Organizational Behavior Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Organizational Behavior - Case Study Example Ultimately, the case study which will be presented herein revolves around the employment experience of I, the statistics that this employment was able to generate, and the levels of interaction between the following 3 shareholders: my coworkers, Mr. Majed, and I. Shareholder 1: The Author As such, these three shareholders all integrated together under the umbrella of the firm in question; however, the job responsibilities and levels of power that each of these represented was distinct. Due to the fact that I was new to the employment process, the level of decision making abilities and overall power over the management process was necessarily limited. However, regardless of the lack of experience, I was tasked with quality of service improvement and set about categorizing some of the main functional areas in which the firm could develop a competitive improvement with relation to how it understood, appreciated, and dealt with its customers. The ultimate levels of interaction that took place with regards to the other two shareholders were mainly concentric upon seeking to implement and understand the means by which consumer needs could be furthered within this context. Shareholder 2: Fellow Coworkers The secondary group of shareholders was of course the other individuals that were working in the firm at the same time that I was seeking to integrate with them. ... own departments and individualized initiatives, they were on the whole rather uninterested in seeking to maximize profitability with regards to the given task that I had engaged with. Shareholder 3: Mr. Majed Finally, the third shareholder that is represented within the case study is that of Mr. Majed. As such, he represented the rather intractable and stoic representation of the manager that did not appreciate any type of challenge to authority. In this way he was of course the motivating factor in encouraging the situation into a position that resulted in my ultimate removal from the task that my original manager had placed me over. The interaction that took place was necessarily confined to I and Mr. Majed; with the other employees only playing a fleeting role in the situation due to their general lack of interest in the process or in seeking to change the existing dynamics that existed within the firm. Summary of Incidence: After a small study in the main branch, it was found tha t here were 350 to 450 customer’s visitors per day. Just, 250 to 300 of them were provided with the service. As result, the firm was losing between 50 to 150 possible customers each and every day. After a discussion of the observations with management, it was recommended that six employees would be hired to assist me in completing the task. What this affected was a type of interaction between my employees and the salesmen. However, three weeks later, my colleagues had a new boss who was of course Mr. Majed. This only occurred after my original manager had gone on vacation and proved to be a turning point with regards to how the entire situation unfolded. Soon thereafter, the dynamic which has been described imploded as Mr. Majed had no desire for either I or my former employees to do

The advantages and disadvantages of coursework as a means of Essay

The advantages and disadvantages of coursework as a means of assessment - Essay Example Assigning coursework helps teacher in analyzing each student’s strengths and weaknesses. Some students are good at speaking while others are good at writing. Course works also save time of both student and teachers. Teachers cannot be with students all day long, but assigning course works helps teachers in assessing each individual student’s capabilities. As I see, invention of internet is the main problem of coursework. No longer children portray their own viewpoint in regards to their assigned tasks and cut and paste the ideas, facts and figures of others. Before the advent of internet, assigning coursework to students used to be very successful as it helped them in illustrating their own creativity in their coursework, but nowadays, course works are more inclined towards plagiarizing. At times, even the student doesn’t know what he has written in assignments. As a matter of determining how much information a student has attained from a coursework, in my opinion, is a useless tool. The focus is more on presenting the assignment instead of learning something out of it. In actual, there’s little learning taking place in coursework scenarios and the tendency of peers to copy each other’s assignment is higher. Due to the reason of copy paste phenomena, universities, schools and colleges are now more concerned in investing in plagiarism detecting software so that anything which is lifted from the internet can be detected. Coursework has always been the most beneficial and effective tool to enhance the capabilities of students, but the advent of internet is making it ineffective. It is necessary for teachers to design and allot the coursework in a way that there are lesser chances of plagiarizing and higher chances boosting student’s skills. Perhaps, by the little modifications it will be feasible to restore the effectiveness in

Advising the client,site and location analysis Assignment

Advising the client,site and location analysis - Assignment Example While the initial construction of factories was solely based on their functionality as a mechanism for the mass production of goods, giving little consideration to the environmental or social ramifications of its existence, the architects of the MAS Intimates facility sought to counteract this trend by creating a structure that would allow every occupant to enjoy the fresh air, natural light, comfortable surroundings, and beautiful outdoor views of intact natural settings within their work environment (Holcim, 2008). Such considerations have allowed MAS Intimates to surpass the traditional model of the factory to create an extraordinary facility that is not a detriment to the environment, but an asset to the ecosystem in which it occupies (Holcim, 2008). From the humble beginnings of a small factory sweatshop in Ratmalana with 26 sewing machines and 60 employees purchased by three brothers in 1986 (Business Superbrands) and revitalized by MAS Holdings in 2006, MAS has grown into a wo rkplace in unison with nature that has significantly diminished its carbon footprint through carbon-neutral power sources and uses 25-40% less energy than companies of the same magnitude (Holcim, 2008; MAS Intimates Thurulie, 2009). ... This plan was initiated as a 340 million (USD), five-year, company-wide environmental and social sustainability program consisting of a hundred points to be achieved by 2012, including establishing green factories that supply goods to Marks & Spencer (MAS Intimates Thurulie, 2009). MAS Intimates Thurulie was the first purpose-built green clothing factory in the world to be designed in compliance with USGBC (U.S. Green Building Council) standards for green buildings and to attempt to qualify for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification (Holcim, 2008). MAS Fabric Park cost 2.66 million (USD), which Marks & Spencer partially financed in the amount of 400,000 (USD), paying for the majority of the green design and the largest photovoltaic system in Sri Lanka (MAS Intimates Thurulie, 2009). The concept of sustainable construction seeks to incorporate the concepts of fairness and respectful treatment to everyone throughout the design, construction, use, and recycli ng of buildings and cities (Holcim, 2008) and the ecological design of the factory was conceived as an ethical response to consumers demanding stronger environmental stewardship from the businesses they patronized (MAS Intimates Thurulie, 2009). The new MAS Fabric Park factory has renewed a historic industrial center and reestablished a local economic base while providing sustainable long-term employment for 1,300 neighborhood inhabitants (Holcim, 2008). In the renewal of the Thulhiriya Textile Mills, 75% of the MAS Intimates Thurulie spatial area has been left in its natural state left to nature and managed as a habitat for the native flora and fauna (see Appendices 1-5) (Holcim, 2008). In the landscaping of the new site, approximately 400 trees

Sociology - Symbolic interaction and gay marriage Essay

Sociology - Symbolic interaction and gay marriage - Essay Example What is most significant is the fact that the society has to approve the same and not hold the gay men accountable for what they indulge within. There is a good amount of information available at hand which suggests the proper incorporation of the gay marriages within the society’s aegis. The other side of the issue suggests that the society does not quite accept such gay relationships. They believe that it is very strange to enter into such relationships because it would bring problems for the people who are spread in different areas of the world. The straight individuals feel that the gay relationships effectively mar their own linkages that they have with the people around them, and make the same look awry and skewed (Bell, 2009). This perspective has been reached upon with the passage of time as gay relationships have come on excessively in this day and age, and within different areas of the world more than anything else. The gay marriage is such an important part of the s ociety in the current times that one cannot look beyond the same. There have been immense comprehensions that have been reached upon which suggest the notion of people being against the same as well as the ones who believe it is the right of the individuals to pick and choose their own orientation.

Choose two ads from popular magizines. Do a pre-write in which you Essay

Choose two ads from popular magizines. Do a pre-write in which you consider what elements these ads have in comman, and what ele - Essay Example Both these advertisements have catchy captions and provide stark images to the consumer that will be able to have an impact on his mind on viewing. They are persuasive in nature and have been analyzed and explained below. The advertisement from Nike is a very different and innovative one, something not most business enterprises would be able to publish in the print media. This is because it shows a young boy peeing in the corner with a caption that reads â€Å"Just Do It†. It is indeed a very persuasive and catchy to the image as well. The entire image tries to depict and make a consumer understand on his sub conscious level, how important it is to just do things without thinking twice about them. It tries to make people understand that mostly when people think about carrying out an action a few more times, they chicken out by the entire idea and are not able to follow through or implement. With the help of the young boy in the image, it tries to tell people that when they wer e young, they did not have a care in their minds and would just do whatever they felt like. However, with age comes responsibility and most of the times the heavy weight of the responsibility that people carry on their shoulders, weighs them down and they are unable to do things for themselves. This advertisement has helped to bridge that very gap by showing the young boy peeing on the road – an indication of a young carefree mind, not bothering about the implications and ‘just doing it’; in this case, ‘just buying’ products from the brand Nike. (Nike) The second advertisement from the Condomshop.ch is a image of a naked man standing with three soldiers in a war zone, completely armed and thus, ‘protected’. This ad is from a company of condoms and thus is trying to tell the consumers how important it is to be protected while having sexual intercourse with their partners. With the help of the soldiers and guns in the war zone, the adverti sement helps the consumer to form an image in their heads of the particular condom providing the best results. It is an analogy that suggests that the condom will provide as much protection to the men that make use of it, as arms and bullet proof clothing provide soldiers in a war like environment. Again, it is a very persuasive advertisement with the tag line ‘Don’t Be Stupid’. This indicates a very simple and concise manner of portraying how one should not fall prey to the implications that not using a condom might have i.e. unplanned pregnancies and thus in order to avoid all that and not be stupid, one should make use of the condom from Condomshop.ch which provides the maximum amount of protection. (Condomshop.ch) Both the advertisements thus are quite rhetoric in nature as they suggest exactly what they portray in the images. On viewing, it instantly hits the consumer’s mind about what the images might be suggesting or trying to say. Both advertisemen ts also have a very simple and catchy line that people are able to remember with ease. This is a very good strategy to use because simple captions help to attract more consumers and play in their heads all the time, making them finally make use of or purchase the product or services. Both advertisements also present images that the consumer is able to relate with very easily. They are also fairly explicit in nature, suggesting a very probable as well as obvious statement to the consumer. Thus, they make for very good marketing strategies for the both the

Public Human Resource Management Essay Example for Free

Public Human Resource Management Essay Please respond to the following: * Analyze the topics discussed in Chapter 1, with the exception of the laws. Select two topics and discuss two positive effects and two challenges the topic poses for human resource departments in the public sector. Performance Managementfor human resource departments it is important; to utilize the skills, focus and provide incentives for employees that are based on performance to achieve the organization’s goal. Human resource departments need to provide training and programs that are accessible to help enhance members of the organization’s learning with constant changes in policies and procedures. Two challenges posed to human resource departments; the inability to provide essential information to access or evaluate an employee’s performance accurately, Failure to provide quality and satisfactory customers services to connect with a task group with the strategies and plans the organization has implemented. Improvement in Labor Managementfor human resource departments it mean networking and communicating with various industrials and labor force can be a way to improve relationships even though they may not agree on some issues. Implementing policies and strategic plans that will benefit the public and private globally as well as nationally is vital in society today. Challenges posed to human resource departments; a human resource department or union disputing and failing to negotiation and resolve an issue, Trends in the change or advancement of technology and the ability of human resource departments to deal with the change especially in a global labor market. The outsourcings of jobs and employees that perform their jobs without being in a traditional workplace can create challenges for human resource departments when there is less or no communication among staff. Two topics that have an effect for human resources are 1) Recruitment and 2) Training and development. Two positive effects for recruitment is that there is a need to  fill 300k positions annually, and their is a need to attract quality applicants. Two challenges for Recruitment are recruiting qualified applicants, and keeping up with the rapid pace to hire the most qualified applicants. Two positive effects for training and development is that it will allow employees to take advantage of gaining knowledge to increase their chances of getting promoted. It will also allow companies to attract the best employees. Two challenges would consist of the cost for setting up training and development, and the alloted time allowed for an employee to complete neccessary training. Week1-Dq2 Public Human Resource Management in the News Please respond to the following: * From the e-Activities, discuss the current event you reviewed from the selected agency and determine the cause of the issue, noting if the cause was due to neglected public bureaucracies from elected and appointed officials. Discuss at least two results of the issue. Using USA.gov, I chose to investigate the United States Postal Service (USPS) agency. I was aware that this group was in financial strain for some time, but I found it interesting to review some of the latest information regarding key problems and possible solutions. Currently, the USPS operates with about 650,000 unionized personnel. Employees sort, package, transport, and deliver the public mail. Although the organization charges for its services (postage rates, etc), as an agency, much of its budget is subsidized by public funds. In discussing the current situation, the Washington Post reported, â€Å"first-class mail volume [is] plummeti ng as Americans conduct more business and communications through the Internet.† Perhaps what is most important is the fact that this trend is continuing as the USPS reportedly lost $16 billion in the 2012 fiscal year. For this reason the USPS issue has been debated in Congress for years and has recently been one of several key debates for lawmakers during the â€Å"fiscal cliff† dilemma. In the past Congress has had difficulty deciding whether to adopt solutions such as suspending Saturday delivery and limiting other specialty services. Also, there is the question of how much public money should go to USPS employee retirement benefits and labor contracts. To many individuals, this is traditionally seen as a bureaucratic problem; however, personally I do not believe that the problem is purely the result of public  sector negligence. Like many government services, it is more likely that the answer lies in serious reform rather than complete suspension. Interestingly, I located an article about the nonprofit National Academy of Public Administration – that suggested a kind of public/private hybrid approach to fix the USPS’s difficulties. The concept entails â€Å"farming out† much of the behind the scenes process while a federal letter carrier would still handle front-line delivery services. What is apparent is that there are several significant results from this issue including the continuing postal rate increases, the reduction of service (e.g. limited post office hours), and continued legislative debate of whether this public service is vital enough to continue to ask taxpayers to subsidize what seems to be a failing business formula. http://www.usa.gov/directory/federal/us-postal-service.shtml http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/think-tank-to-study-privatizing-most-postal-service-operations/2013/01/03/2adc0b08-55ed-11e2-8b9e-dd8773594efc_story.html http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/universal-service-postal-monopoly-history.pdf http://www.gao.gov/assets/210/203772.pdf wk2dq1 Building HRM Capacity Please respond to the following: * Imagine you are the consultant for the agency you selected in the Week 1 e-Activity (you may choose from one of the e-Activities). Assume the selected agency is large but poorly performing in a highly visible public program which did not have performance measures for employees. The public program serves over two million citizens across the 52 states. Propose and provide a rationale for two change strategies to address the agency’s performance. * Propose two methods of performance measures for the department to meet within six months. Provide a rationale for each method. * In week one I selected to analyze the United States Postal Service (USPS). Over the past decade this agency has been under increasing scrutiny regarding operation costs, procedures and personnel. Since last week’s discussion I took a few minutes to speak to my postal carrier in order to gain some perspective on internal communication within the agency. It was  surprising to learn that the departments within the organization are isolated in such a way that – with exception to â€Å"water cooler† talk – most USPS workers have about the same understanding of the agency’s problem as the general public. * * After reading the â€Å"Instructor’s Insight† supplemental article, I started to consider how the USPS personnel might benefit from a more constitutional administrative approach. Like many, I have noticed that customer service (or just simple pride in the job) is severely lacking with many USPS employees. Considering today’s job market, one would assume that individuals would take their work and team management very seriously. One might also say that it appears that some postal workers are immune from accountability. * * This said, one of the strategies that I would implement would be to reform the organizational culture. It should be a privilege to be employed by and serve the American people, while also being trusted to process citizens’ personal property. I agree with Newbold’s (2010) article, in that, public personnel members should pledge to uphold the U.S. Constitution through their service. I also feel that department management should be given the authority to make certain that this new attitude sustains. A simple professional attitude change within the organization can lead to greater productivity, and it could be measured in 6-months via public reaction (exit surveys, media reports, increase in sales, etc). * * After reading Chapter 2 in the Riccucci (2012) book, it also became apparent to me that the method in which recruiting and managing personnel could also benefit from change. In the section regarding â€Å"Strengthening Teaching† Klinger (2012) writes, â€Å"†¦transition includes ethical competencies: the ability to balance conflicting expectations like employee rights and organizational effectiveness†¦ (p22)† Balancing job productivity and employee needs is a challenge in almost every industry. Perhaps another solution might be to focus not only on hiring quality personnel, but continually reassessing employee qualities and how it might best serve the organization. * * Individuals can be motivated by compensation; however, exceptional performance tends to stem from passion. My recommendation would be that 21st-century HRM has to be focused on the individual’s strengths and weaknesses and not what the worker’s union requires. This in my opinion is currently a shortcoming of the USPS. Therefore, I would offer a 6-month challenge that involves department managers communicating with each staff members every 2 to 4 weeks – and document at least one unique item that each staff person could offer that would benefit the USPS operation team. I believe that with a slow transition, personality can be infused into traditional staff procedure which will lead to empowerment and greater productivity.

My First Skydiving Experience Essay Example for Free

My First Skydiving Experience Essay Jumping is fun! Skydiving is not just falling; it is flying—the closest we have been able to come to free, unencumbered, non-mechanical individual flight, says Mike Turoff in the book The Skydivers Handbook. I totally agree with him because skydiving provides the maximum liberty that one can ever experience. In this article, Id like to describe to you my first jump in order to show you how much fun skydiving is. First of all, I learned about skydiving via the Internet and TV. There are countless pages of information about skydiving on the Internet. My first jump was a part of the accelerated free fall (AFF). AFF is a course for training new skydivers which includes fourteen jumps. Even though it has fourteen jumps, you will always remember the first one! On the jump day, I went to the skydiving center at 8:30 in the morning. The AFF course started at 9:00. The course included basic parachute equipment information, free falling information, emergency procedures, parachute opening, canopy control, and finally landing information. We were only four people in the classroom. The AFF students studied all the necessary lessons to make a safe skydive. We used special equipment to study parachute equipment, canopy control, and landing. After seven long hours, at the end of the class, we took a written exam. We had to score 100% in order to pass the test. Everybody passed. Then came the gear-up part! We put on our diving overalls, parachutes, altimeters which are used to watch the altitude during the skydive, helmets, gloves and goggles. There were many professional skydivers around, and they were giving us a hard time with some traditional skydiving jokes. I myself was the first person from the class who was going to jump. The next step was boarding the airplane. We used a twin otter double engine aircraft. That was a large aircraft; at least twenty skydivers could get on that plane. I was sitting between two jumpmasters (skydiving instructors) and in front of a cameraman. At that moment, I started feeling extremely worried and excited. The jumpmasters were talking to me, asking questions about my feelings. During the planes take off, all I could say was, Wow! Then, I began watched my altimeter to see whether the altitude number was changing. I want to stop here to tell you something about the other skydivers on board. They were very relaxed although the aircraft was uncomfortable. Probably, I was the most frightened person on board. The others were telling jokes to each other and even drinking juice. Some of them were offering me candies and gum to celebrate my becoming a skydiver. In short, those guys were the craziest people that I have ever seen together. Can you imagine someone drinking orange juice just before jumping down from thirteen thousand feet? Well, thats what they did. The altimeter was working perfectly. Only that fact was able to make me smile a little bit, but I was also considering what I could do if my parachute didnt open! Finally, all the altimeters were saying thirteen thousand feet. The jumpers opened the door. I looked down and was able to see someone who had al ready jumped. Then, because of the cold air at that altitude, my goggles smoked up and I could hardly see anymore. After a few seconds, the smoke disappeared and I could see the airplane was empty. All the other skydivers had already jumped except for my jumpmasters and myself. They told me to stand up and walk toward the exit door. I felt pretty heavy and could hardly walk.This may have been because of the heavy jump suit and parachute equipment. As I approached the door, I felt colder and colder. My cameraman was outside of the plane, and the jumpmasters were holding me tightly for a safe, very first skydive. My jumpmasters and I did the exiting procedures and finally let ourselves go out of the airplane. Those were the most interesting and enjoyable seconds that I have ever experienced. For a few seconds, I had a sense of falling. Then, I noticed that we were falling faster and faster as the seconds passed. After a while, after about the first ten seconds, I could see my cameraman filming my free fall. I was supposed to do some air maneuvers to pass to the second AFF level. I did those. My jumpmasters were still holding me and waiting actively for any possible emergencies. There was no longer any sense of falling and speed. It was mostly like floating in the air and hearing the wind deep in your ears. I periodically checked my altimeter to see the proper altitude to pull my ripcord and open the parachute. The necessary altitude to pull it was 5,500 feet. At that altitude, I gave a 5-5 signal to my jumpmasters, and I pulled my ripcord. That was extremely enjoyable. My parachute opened fast, and I felt a little shocked. Once my canopy opened, I checked it for any malfunction. It was perfectly okay and stable. The canopy flight, of course, was much slower than the free fall. I could see the beautiful environment from thousands of feet above. Then I looked for the drop zone landing area and saw it behind the clouds. I flew my parachute to the drop zone and very smoothly landed on the ground. I was one of the successful students who were able to walk right after touching down, without falling. The 5-minute adventure was ended! I picked up my parachute and walked through the skydiving building. It was a sunny day. My friends and my family members celebrated the adventure for the rest of the day, and I decided to continue skydiving. Today, I am an AFF level four student with three successful jumps. However, of course, my first jump will always be the most enjoyable and unforgettable one. If I were you, I would not waste any more time. I would sign up for a very first jump as soon as possible. Once you try it, you will not be able to stop making jumps. At least, I have not been able to do so. I continue to go skydiving whenever I can. I would like to give one more personal message: Skydiving is a must-do activity, and everyone must try it at least once in his or her life. I guarantee you that it will be an unforgettable experience for you, too!

Symbolic Violence and Structural Violence

Symbolic Violence and Structural Violence This weeks readings are composed of the topics of structural violence and symbolic violence. Galtung and Farmers perspectives on personhood and conflict relationship are built around the concept of the structural violence. In general terms, structural violence means sociopolitical inequalities emerge out of the structures. In addition to them, Bourdieu and Bourgois Schonberg bring new perspective by looking at the debate from different angle with the term symbolic violence which means gender inequalities emerges out of the embeddedness of female subordination by male in daily life. Galtung first discusses the concept of violence in his 1969 article of Violence, Peace and Peace Research and displays the relationship and difference between direct/personal/with subject and indirect/structural/without subject violence. In his article Cultural Violence (Galtung, 1990), it is defined as any aspect of a culture that can be used to legitimize violence in its direct or structural form (p.291). In Pierre Bourdieus article, we analyze how symbolic violence influences the gender relations by being embodied in the daily life habits of an agent. We may add that culture sometimes play a legitimizing role to strengthen symbolic violence. In my country, Turkey, there is still the honor killings phenomenon in the name of culture, which actually includes cultural and symbolic violence. It is a somewhat direct violence but also somewhat symbolic for the rest of the society and male-female relations. Galtungs prescription against those types of violence is clear; establish negative (the absence of direct violence) and positive (absence of structural and cultural violence) peace (p.183). In his article of Gender and Symbolic Violence, Pierre Bourdieu looks at violence in a different perspective than Galtung and builds relationship between violence and gender. According to him, hegemonic power and the domination of this power on its victims can be called symbolic violence. The male domination over the female can be strengthened with the help of the concepts, language, and symbols used in daily life habits. He does not mean to reduce the importance of physical violence, instead, focuses on the construction of misrecognition through the dominant discourses in various types of socio-cultural domination. Misrecognition is confirmed by dominant discourse and is embodied in womens body with hidden symbols. As he mentions this symbolic violence is most of the time unnoticed-partly unconsciousness- because the victims of this violence may not recognize it, or become silent because of their subordination or they feel daunted against the violence. His prescription is explained as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦radical transformation of the social conditions of production of the dispositions that lead the dominated to take the point of view of the dominant on the dominant and on themselves.(p.342). Paul Farmers personhood is much more related to structural issues. In On Suffering and Structural Violence, he tries to understand the mechanisms which cause social forces from poverty to racism to be embodied as individual experiences (p.281). He argues that what happens to Acephie and Chouchou the former dies because of AIDS and the latter dies because of political violence- are two different versions of structural violence. He reaches the conclusion that inequality of power and its implications on the poor are because of the structural arrangements of dominant powers of the world. Silence of socioeconomically poor people is because of the dominant power relations and its reflections on Third World countries. According to him, what happened to Acephie and Chouchou is explained as; these afflictions were not the result of accident or of force majeure; they were the consequence, direct or indirect, of human agency(p.286) He also mentions that when people are suffering because of pov erty, their access to health, food, and shelter are limited because of their social status. His prescription is much more related to the humane and offers global precautions. He thinks that instead of debating cultural differences, the social inequalities should be reduced. The precautions should focus on reducing global poverty, by so we can break the link between social violence and social acceptance of poverty. After the discussion on historically reproduced structures of social inequality and the deficiencies of accessing to health care which is a basic human right in Third World countries in Farmers article, we witness similar arguments in Philippe Bourgois and Jeff Schonbergs book of Righteous Dopefiend. The authors give us a portrayal of the sufferings of the homeless and heroin addicted community of Edgewater from their own personal participant observations. In general, the book is so impressive because of the use of photographs, transcripts of recorded conversations and the authors participant observations. The authors display the daily experiences of these heroin addicted-homeless people and analyze anthropologically those experiences. In the book, we see how those people suffer but also try to hang onto life one more day by involving in burglary, day labor, panhandling and so on. The book is constructed on the themes of how violence is seen in childhood, community of addicted people, in gender relations, in race issues, sexuality, power inequality, and so on. In the book, one of the main arguments is that while we enter into twenty first century, neoliberalism has produced a strata of rich people but also a strata of lumpen in United States. Those people who couldnt adapt themselves into the changing system are marginalized and exposed to the structural violence and victimized. They are Edgewater dopefiends now. On page 320, the authors mentioned that the burden of lumpenization is more severe in nonindustrialized societies. They add that there is not only power inequality and poverty issue but also poverty is being punished which is actually the extension of symbolic violence. Authors barrow from Bourdieus concept of misrecognition and symbolic violence (Bourdieu 2000) and apply it to Foucaults power/knowledge relationship. According to them, policy debates and interventions often mystify large scale structural power vectors and unwittingly reassign blame to the powerless for their individual failures and moral character deficiencies. (p.297). Here we see that, the heroin addicted-homeless people of Edgewater, Sanfransico, are not only excluded from the whole social network and locked up into their own social network but also blamed on them for their failure. Although the book criticizes so much of health care system and the role of structural forces on the suffering of those people, I believe I would be happy to read ethical considerations of the authors during their research. In conclusion, this weeks reading were so impressive and must be thought on more. In addition to that, I believe what they are theorizing must be put into practice and the awareness on structural, cultural and symbolic violence must be increased with policy recommendations. Or the project/practice areas should be determined and implemented by the field experts.

Huck Finn Grows Up :: essays research papers

Many changes violently shook America shortly after the Civil War. The nation was seeing things that it had never seen before, its entire economic philosophy was turned upside down. Huge multi-million dollar trusts were emerging, coming to dominate business. Companies like Rockefeller’s Standard Oil and Carnegie Steel were rapidly gobbling up small companies in any way possible. Government corruption was at what some consider an all time high. “The Rich Man’s Club'; dominated the Senate as the Gilded Age reached its peak. On the local front, mob bosses controlled the cities, like Tammany Hall in New York. Graft and corruption were at an all time high while black rights sunk to a new low. Even after experiencing freedom during the Civil War, their hopes of immediate equality died with the death of Lincoln. Groups like the KKK drove blacks down to a new economic low. What time would be better than this to write a book about the great American dream, a book about long h eld American ideals, now squashed by big business and white supremacy? Mark Twain did just that, when he wrote what is considered by many as the “Great American Epic';. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, “The great American epic,'; may be one of the most interesting and complex books ever written in the history of our nation. This book cleverly disguises many of the American ideals in a child floating down the Mississippi River on a raft with a black slave. On the outside of the story, one can see an exciting tale of heroism and adventure; however, that is not all. The book shows Mark Twain’s idea of the classic American idealism, consisting of freedom, morality, practicality, and an alliance with nature. Twain manages to show all this while poking fun at the emergence of the “robber barons,'; better know as the big business of the late nineteenth century. Twain portrays many different American values in this book by expressing them through one of the many different characters. The character that Twain chose to represent morality and maturation is none other than Huck Finn himself. Throughout the novel one sees many signs of chang e. The setting is constantly fluctuating, except for the constant Mississippi, and Huck and Jim, a runaway slave, under-go many changes themselves. At the end of the novel Huck Finn shows a large change in his level of maturity than he had exhibited in the beginning of the book.

Procter & Gamble Rely Tampons Case Study Essay -- essays research pape

Abstract The purpose of this research paper is that to present the difficulties Procter & Gamble faced in the early 1980 ¡Ã‚ ¦s due to a correlation between the company ¡Ã‚ ¦s Rely tampon and the disease Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS). Also, how the company handled the findings before and after new laws were passed by Congress giving the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the authority to regulate medical devices, which included tampons. Thereafter, I will analyze the ethical issues relevant to this case within a SWOT analysis. Introduction Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is about how companies manage their business processes to produce a positive impact on society. Companies introduce new products in markets, usually after testing concludes that the product is safe for use or consumption. It is nearly impossible for a company to truly know all of the potential risks a brand new product may have, even after thorough testing. However, once a company receives reports that its product may be causing harm to consumers, it is their responsibility to conduct more research and tests to rule-out any possible truth in the reports. This is what a socially responsible company would do, one who is preoccupied not only with their bottom-line, but one that is also worried about its customers. After Procter & Gamble introduced its Rely tampon in the market in the 1970 ¡Ã‚ ¦s, the company began receiving reports as early as 1975 that the product was causing a rare but possibly deadly disease, TSS (Toxic Shock Syndrome). This product was not made with cotton as the competitors ¡Ã‚ ¦ tampons. The Rely tampon was made with synthetics, like carboxymethylcellulose and polyester in order to be the first extended wear and most absorbent tampon in the market. I will first discuss these reports and what the company ¡Ã‚ ¦s initial response was. Next, I will elaborate on the case and the company ¡Ã‚ ¦s course of action following the passing of new laws and further research conducted by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the illnesses and the women affected by these decisions. Following, I will conduct a SWOT Analysis of the company in which I will include relevant ethic theories pertaining to the case. Finally, I will conclude and provide recommendations based on my findings. Company History William Procter, who emigrated from England, and James Gamble, who emigrated from Ireland, met... ...er menstruation or any accidents. References: www.pg.com/translations/history_pdf/english_history.pdf http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=PG http://www.hoovers.com/gillette/--ID__10655--/free-co-factsheet.xhtml http://sev.prnewswire.com/retail/20041209/CLTH02809122004-1.html http://www.pg.com/content/pdf/04_news/agl_2004_shareholders_speech.pdf http://www.mum.org./relyart7.htm http://www.citizen.org/congress/civjus/tort/articles.cfm?ID=802 Armand, Lione, Kapecki, Jon. 1975.  ¡Ã‚ §Testing Tampons in Rochester: just what can you Rely on? ¡Ã‚ ¨ Jul23-Aug5. Rochester Patriot. Vol.3, No.14 Meadows, Michelle. 2000.  ¡Ã‚ §Tampon Safety, TSS Now Rare, but Women Still Should Take Care ¡Ã‚ ¨. March-April. FDA Consumer Magazine. http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2000/200_tss.html Klein, Joel MD. 2004.  ¡Ã‚ §Toxic Shock Syndrome ¡Ã‚ ¨. Nemours Foundation. January, 2004. http://kidshealth.org/PageManager.jsp?dn=KidsHealth&lic=1&ps=207&cat_id=20015&article_set=20277 Foote, Susan B. 1984.  ¡Ã‚ §Corporate responsibility in a changing legal environment ¡Ã‚ ¨. California Management Review. Spring. V.26, p. 217-228. Hostman, Barry M. 2000.  ¡Ã‚ § Author Found a Web of Paranoia, Secrecy ¡Ã‚ ¨ 01March. The Cincinnati Post.

A Life Changing Experience Essay -- essays research papers

First day of the rest of my life, my stomach is in knots and I can’t seem to do anything with my hair. I have all my pens, papers, notebooks and other miscellaneous items stuffed into my brand new blue book bag. My mother is down stairs on the patio drinking her morning tea watching the world wake up. I gave my brand new shoes a quick shine, checked my hair about three more times each time finding something new wrong. Mother yells at me from down stairs.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å" You’re going to miss the bus!† The bus! I can’t believe my ears. I can’t show up to high school on my first day by riding the bus. I was scared I needed my mother to drive me to school. Somehow knowing my mother was going to be there part of the way made it a little bit easier for me to go. I need her in a way to hold my hand as I embark on a new chapter in my life. Plus I was a little brat and felt too good for the public transportation system. My mother could sense that I felt uneasy and drove me. The drive to the newly built high school was just under fifteen minuets away. As we traveled my mother gave me some tips to make it through the day. She told me to introduce myself to my teachers on personal bases, to sit up front and to eat a good lunch. As we arrived at the entrance I felt my breakfast wanting to jump out of my stomach. I was shaking and on the verge of tears. Mother gave me a hug and a kiss on the forehead, told me everything was going to be just fine. I jumped out of the car and stood on the sidewal...

Computer Studies

1 GCSE Computing Revision Booklet This booklet has been created to provide an overview of each of the topics that you need to revise. Each section is broken down and guidance given on what you need to know. Use it in conjunction with your own revision techniques, e. g. mindmaps, to prepare for the exam. Name: †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 2 Fundamentals of Computer SystemsYou need to be able to: (a) define a computer system (b) describe the importance of computer systems in the modern world (c) explain the need for reliability in computer systems (d) explain the need for adherence to suitable professional standards in the development, use and maintenance of computer systems (e) explain the importance of ethical, environmental and legal considerations when creating computer systems. What is a computer sys tem? At its very basic, a computer system nothing more than an input, a processor and an output. InputProcessor Output A computer system will usually have some storage capability and more often now – a way of communicating with other devices. Computers are all around us and I’m not just talking about your desktop or laptop computer. Your â€Å"smartphone†, your games console, your ipad, even your Sky+ or freeview recorder is a computer system of sorts. 3 Computer systems are integral parts of our lives. Think about all the computer systems you or your parents use on a daily or weekly basis: Running washing programmes and sensing when clothes are dry.On-board computers to control everything from engine efficiency to voiceactivated MP3/Bluetooth hands-free system. Cashless catering system in school to add and subtract money from your account. Self-service checkouts in supermarkets that scan, weigh, take payment and give change. Contactless card payment systems whe re a small RFID (radio frequency ID) tag is embedded into the card and read when the card is near. RFID technology – often used in library books and shops to detect theft, also has future applications in â€Å"smart† clothes and food products.Imagine the RFID tag in your clothes tells the washing machine how to wash them. Or a smart fridge that knows when the milk is past it’s sell-by date and adds it to your online shopping list. Since we rely so much on technology there are huge problems when it goes wrong! If a supermarket checkout system goes down this could result in lost sales of thousands of pounds. However, if an automated system, like those onboard aircraft fails then it could end in disaster! 4 Why do we need to use the same professional standards when developing and maintaining computer systems?Without standards to adhere to we risk developing systems that are not compatible with each other. Would you be happy if your Nokia mobile could only call othe r Nokia mobiles? Standards also improve the quality of the computer system and its maintenance by ensuring that best practice is followed and people don’t cut corners. Considerations when creating computer systems: The Data Protection Act 1998 provides protection for all information stored on a computer system. It requires the person who owns the system to store the information securely and only use it for the purpose it was originally gathered for, e. . the school holds data on you for the purpose of your education; it cannot sell this data to companies who may wish to sell you things. The speed of progress means that many gadgets become old and obsolete quite quickly. This means there are potentially stockpiles of old technology which could end up in landfill. Many companies now recycle these by selling reconditioned devices to other countries or cannibalising the parts to be used again. Websites like Google use huge server-farms around the world. These buildings are full o f computers running 24/7.There is an impact on the environment from the huge amount of electricity needed to run these server-farms. Technology enables us to do many things. But are they always right? Google’s Street View caused controversy when it was launched after people said that taking photos of their houses was an invasion of privacy. Social networking sites, like Facebook, have made it easier to share information but have made it difficult to set privacy settings. You can now be tracked using GPS technology and Facebook places! Is this the â€Å"Big Brother† state? 5 Computer SoftwareYou need to be able to: (a) explain the need for the following functions of an operating system: user interface, memory management, peripheral management, multi-tasking and security (b) describe the purpose and use of common utility programs for computer security (antivirus, spyware protection and firewalls), disk organisation (formatting, file transfer, and defragmentation), and sy stem maintenance (system information and diagnosis, system cleanup tools, automatic updating) (c) discuss the relative merits of custom written, off the shelf, open source and proprietary software.Operating System functions Memory management User interface The OS manages the transfer of data between the CPU, RAM and main storage (e. g. hard drive) The OS provides the user with a way of controlling the functions of the computer without resorting to machine code. It can be graphical (GUI), e. g. Windows or text-based [no mouse] (CLI – Command Line Interface), e. g. MSDOS. The OS manages the input and output devices connected to the computer, including things like keyboard, mice and printer. The OS allows more than one program to be run at once so users can switch back and forth between applications easily.The OS provides security features to restrict access to the system or particular files. Peripheral management Multi-tasking Security When trying to remember the functions of a n Operating System – think MUMPS! Memory mgt, User interface, Multi-tasking, Peripheral mgt and Security. 6 Utility programs Type Security Purpose Detects and protects the computer against virus threats. Quarantines infected files. Spyware Detects and removes spyware (small protection programs that quietly monitor what you are doing) Firewall Restrict communication in and out of the computer from the applications that are running.Formatting Sets up a hard drive, memory stick or card into a format that the computer can use to store/retrieve data. The process of formatting erases any data that was previously on the storage medium. File Transfer Allows movement of files from one location to another, either locally or via memory stick/FTP to another computer. Defragmentation Re-organises the data on the hard drive to improve read/write access times. System info & Provides information about the diagnosis system in order to help with diagnosis of problems. System cleanup Removes te mporary files and tools compresses/archives unused files to increase free storage space.Automatic Uses the Internet to check the OS updating is up-to-date and applies software patches/fixes as necessary. Program Antivirus Security Security Disk Operations Disk Operations Disk Operations System Maintenance System Maintenance System Maintenance 7 Software development Custom written Developed specifically for a particular organisation. (a. k. a. bespoke/inAdv: custom made to meet exact purpose house) Disadv: very expensive and need technical expertise to develop. Off-the-shelf Developed by a software company to be sold to the general public. Adv: cheaper than developing it yourself and tech support available.Disadv: inflexible – might not do everything you want it to do. Open source Written by general public for everyone else to use. Source code provided so software can be tweaked. Adv: allows anyone to use/adapt the software to meet their needs, collaborative approach to develo pment which can lead to better quality software. Disadv: by making source code available to all, provide opportunity for people to â€Å"take advantage† of software installed on users’ computers compromise security. Proprietary Written by developer and allowed to be used by others but with certain restrictions, e. . can’t adapt software. Source code is hidden. Adv: can allow for different versions of same software, e. g. educational version with limited functionality or fullfunctionality version costing more. Disadv: source code cannot be inspected so may contain spyware or other malicious features within the software. 8 Computer Hardware Definition: Computer hardware refers to the physical parts of a computer and related devices. Internal hardware devices include motherboards, hard drives, and RAM. External hardware devices include monitors, keyboards, mice, printers, and scanners.The internal hardware parts of a computer are often referred to as components, wh ile external hardware devices are usually called peripherals. Source: www. techterms. com Inputs and Outputs (Peripherals) You need to be able to: understand the need for input and output devices (a) (b) describe suitable input devices for a wide range of computer controlled situations (c) describe suitable output devices for a wide range of computer controlled situations discuss input and output devices for users with specific needs. (d) Inputs and outputs are the computers way of communicating with us – the user.Without inputs or outputs our system would be quite limited. Imagine a calculator which didn’t allow you to type in numbers or display the answer on the screen! Here are some of the common input devices used: Keyboard The keyboard, along with the mouse, is one of the most used input devices. Once you get the hang of where the keys are, it allows people to enter textbased data quickly into the computer. A numerical keypad (found on most keyboards on the right) provides a fast way for accountants and people who work in finance to enter numbers. 9 There are some interesting variations on the keyboard:Roll-up keyboard (portable – can be rolled up and stuffed in laptop bag) Wireless keyboard (no need for messy wires, frees up user needing to be near computer) Laser Projection (projects a keyboard layout on to any surface; sensors detect which â€Å"keys† have been pressed) Mouse The computer mouse is another common input device. It allows the user to interact with the software on screen. The mouse is quite versatile, with at least two buttons and the ability to move in any direction. However, it can be difficult to be precise – e. g. drawing using the mouse is quite hard! Mice have also undergone a few changes over the years as well:Laptop touchpad (touch-sensitive pads that allow the mouse to be controlled by just a finger) Trackball (the user moves the pointer on-screen by moving rolling the ball; the unit doesnâ€℠¢t move around like the mouse) Optical Mouse (old mice used balls which used to get clogged with dirt and grease – new mice use small cameras to detect movement instead). 10 Other Input Devices Scanner Scanners convert physical documents and photos into digital format. They can be used in conjunction with special software to automatically read handwriting and convert it into computer text. This is called Optical Character Recognition.Some tickbox forms are scanned in, like the Census form or your multiple choice Science exams; this is called Optical Mark Recognition. Touchscreen Touchscreens have been around for years in one form or another. The latest versions, like the Apple ipad interface use multi-touch technology to allow greater control. Microphone Microphones convert analogue sounds into a digital format that the computer can understand and playback. Sounds are usually recorded as . wav or . mp3 files (the latter uses compression to make the file size smaller and is mo re likely to be used to store music tracks).Digital Camera Digital cameras convert live images into digital format. Photos are usually stored as JPEG files. The quality and size of the picture is determined by the number of megapixels the camera is capable of detecting, e. g. photos taken with an 8 megapixel camera are made up of 8 million pixels. 11 Webcam Webcams capture live video feeds and using appropriate software can then transmit those across a network. Sensors Sensors measure the physical world and translate that into a digital format that a computer can understand. There are various sensors that detect ll manner of things: movement, light, heat, moisture, gases (e. g. carbon monoxide levels), location (GPS), etc. For example, the iPhone has an accelerometer so it knows which way round it is to ensure the screen is rotated the correct way. Output Devices Printer Printers produce physical documents and photos from digital files. Most photo printing is done by inkjet printers which can be expensive to run. Laser printers use toner cartridges which are more expensive initially but can print more pages before being replaced. 12 Monitor/screen Monitors/screens provide the visual output from the computer system.Most computer monitors and mobile phones use colour LCD (liquid crystal display). Speakers Working the opposite way to the microphone input, the speaker converts digital sound into analogue waves. 3D Printer A 3D printer uses lasers and a special kind of plastic to build physical 3D shapes from drawings made using CAD software (computer aided design). The object is built up layer by layer. The whole process can take many hours before the final product is finished. They are often used for creating prototypes in manufacturing, e. g. Dyson uses them to create prototype parts for their products.They are still very expensive but the price is coming down. Motor A motor can be driven with precision by a computer system. Often used in manufacturing, e. g. bu ilding cars, motors are used to control robotic arms. 13 Input and output devices for specific needs Keyboards have been adapted for users with limited movement in their arms/hands. A keyboard designed to minimise the movement of your hands. Trackballs have also been used where users only have limited motor ability. They can be used by hands or feet, like the one below: A foot-operated mouse, ideal for people with limited/no mobility in their arms.For quadriplegic users, there are two alternatives to using the mouse or keyboard. The first is voice-recognition; this involves the user reading a passage of text from the screen so the computer â€Å"learns† their voice pattern. They can then use special software to control the computer using voice commands. The technology is getting better but can still make mistakes. The second is eye-tracking which uses small cameras mounted on the monitor to detect eye movement and move the cursor to the point where the user is gazing. A mouse click is made by blinking slowly.Stephen Hawking uses a special device to allow him to communicate. An infra-red sensor detects twitches in the cheek muscle below his eyes in order to enter words and then his device generates a computer synthesised voice to read them out loud. 14 Internal Hardware Devices (Components) Central Processing Unit (CPU) You need to be able to: (a) state the purpose of the CPU (b) describe the function of the CPU as fetching and executing instructions stored in memory (c) explain how common characteristics of CPUs such as clock speed, cache size and number of cores affect their performance.The purpose of the CPU is to Fetch and Execute instructions stored in memory. It acts as the brain of the computer and controls the rest of the system. INPUTS and OUTPUTS CPU RAM 15 Fetch Execute Cycle (using Little Man Computer) Download the software: http://www. cs. ru. nl/~erikpoll/III/lmc. Allows you to quit out of the current program and go back to the Start This d isplays which phase of the fetch/execute cycle we are currently in. The program that is currently being carried out. The current instruction is the one in line with the phase display. Provides the name of the current instruction, along with it's op code and operand.This explains what the little man is doing at each stage as he follows the program. Fetch phase Before the little man can carry out an instruction, he needs to find out which instruction he has to carry out. He does this by first getting the value from the program counter (The thing that looks like a green mushroom in a block of wood), and then fetching the value from the corresponding address in memory. The Program Counter The little man uses the value in the program counter to decide which address in memory he should get the next instruction from.After getting the value, but before going and getting that instruction, he increments the program counter, so that it has the correct value in it when he visits it next time. M emory Memory can be used to store programs, and data. In the fetch phase of the fetch execute cycle we are only interested in the fact that we can get instructions from the memory. 16 Execute phase Once the little man knows which instruction he is going to perform, he has to set about actually doing it. This is the ‘Execute' phase of the fetch execute cycle. For each instruction the little man will perform a series of tasks.For instance, for an input instruction, the little man will go to the input tray, take the value he finds there, and go and put it into the calculator. For an add instruction, he will take a value from memory, and add it to the value presently in the calculator. Once the execute phase is complete, the little man will start the cycle again, and head to the program counter to get the value of the next instruction he has to fetch. The Input and Output trays These are what we (the user) use to communicate with the little man. We provide him with data via the in put tray, and when he's ready, he provides us with data via the output tray.Calculator (Arithmetic Logic Unit – ALU) On a ‘real' computer, this would be the Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU). It’s basically a calculator that will carry out arithmetic operations. Memory Memory is accessed during the execute phase when we need to store or access data. It is possible to overwrite your programs when putting data into memory though, so be careful where you put it. Following a program (Decoding instructions) The program is a series of instructions made up of an op code and operand (either data or the address where data is stored).For example: Op code Operand 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 800 801 802 9 Load Store Add Subtract Input Output Halt Skip If Negative Skip If Zero Skip If Positive Jump 2 means â€Å"Store† 2 99 99 refers to the memory address where little man should store the data. These can be stored as binary bit patterns, e. g. 10 could refer to the op code (2) above and 1 1000011 could refer to the memory address (99). Remember 2 in binary is 10 and 99 is 11000011. This would give the bit pattern for the above instruction as 1011000011 Q. How does little man (CPU) know the difference between data or an instruction?It all depends on which phase of the cycle the CPU is in, e. g. in the Fetch phase the CPU knows it is an instruction. In the Execute phase the CPU knows it is data. Op codes understood by LMC 17 Characteristics which affect performance Clock Speed This is the number of cycles that the CPU can complete in one second (measured in Hertz or Hz) A faster clock speed means the CPU can process more instructions per second. For example a 1MHz processor can process 1 million instructions a second; whereas a 1GHz processor can do 1000 million instructions in the same time.This is the A larger cache size means holding area for more data can be held and data from the it’s less likely that any cycles are wasted. A RAM. It ensures the CPU smaller cache size and is always busy fast clock speed may with data. result in a bottleneck between the RAM and CPU. A dual-core processor or This is the quad-core processor is 2 number of processing cores to 4 times faster than a conventional chip as they the CPU has. A can process simultaneous dual-core has instructions. two and is able to process two instructions simultaneously in the same cycle. Cache sizeNumber of Cores It is important to balance all of the above to avoid â€Å"over-speccing† one area and creating bottlenecks elsewhere. 18 Memory You need to be able to: (a) describe the difference between RAM and ROM (b) explain the need for ROM in a computer system (c) describe the purpose of RAM in a computer system (d) explain how the amount of RAM in a personal computer affects the performance of the computer (e) explain the need for virtual memory (f) describe cache memory (g) describe flash memory (h) discuss how changes in memory technologies are leading to innovative c omputer designs.RAM and ROM Both are needed in a computer system but for different reasons. In a computer computer, ROM (Read Only Memory) is used to store all the instructions (the BIOS – Basic Input/Output System) to get the computer up and running. It seeks out the amount of memory, input and outputs available to it and then loads up the operating system. In some computer systems, like your washing machine, the ROM stores the software to control the hardware, as well as data such as cooking/washing times etc.RAM (Random Access Memory) is used as temporary storage for instructions and data between the inputs, outputs, secondary storage (e. g. hard drive) and CPU. The larger the RAM, the more instructions/data can be held in quick access memory without needing to use Virtual memory; this can improve performance. Random Access Memory Read Only Memory Volatile (forgets everything when power switched off) Non-volatile (remembers content even if power switched off) Can be writte n to and read from Can only be read from (not written to) Usually measured in Gigabytes (Gb) For the BIOS, usually measured in Kilobytes (Kb) 9 Virtual Memory Depending on the size of the RAM, it is not always possible to store all the running programs in the RAM at once and the computer will start running low on memory and slow down. This is where virtual memory comes in. It stores the data that the RAM isn’t actively using on the hard drive to free up the RAM. Then, when the CPU needs the data it pulls it back from the virtual memory on the hard drive. As far as the CPU is concerned, all the programs are running from the RAM. The operating system sets up a page file on the hard drive to be used for virtual memory.This is usually set at twice the size of the amount of RAM, e. g. 1GB of RAM should have a 2GB page file. Cache Memory This has been explained in the CPU section on page 17. Flash Memory Flash Memory is often referred to as solid-state storage, which means that the re are no moving parts. It’s similar to RAM but is non-volatile which means when the power is cut off, it still remembers the content). Flash memory is used in USB memory sticks and memory cards for digital cameras and some games consoles, e. g. Sony PSP.Future developments in Memory technologies Physical Size & Capacity Costs Speed Power Memory chips have become more compact (storing more bits per chip) which has lead to smaller computing devices and larger capacities. The cost of memory has fallen which means it is now affordable to have large amounts of RAM available. Read/write times are improving which mean faster access and better performance. Memory chips are more power-efficient meaning portable devices work for longer between charges and batteries can be smaller and lighter. 20 Secondary StorageYou need to be able to: (a) explain the need for secondary storage (b) describe common storage technologies such as optical, magnetic and solid state (c) select suitable stora ge devices and storage media for a given application and justify their choice using characteristics such as capacity, speed, portability, durability and reliability. Secondary storage is needed for when we want to store files permanently or semi-permanently. We might want to transfer files between computers by using portable secondary storage media. Storage TechnologiesCodes data using microscopic dips on the surface of the disc. Units Optical Codes data using small changes in magnetic fields. Magnetic Uses non-volatile memory chips to store bits of data Solid State Candidates should be able to: (a) define the terms bit, nibble, byte, kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, terabyte Bit 1 Nibble 4 bits Byte 8 bits Kilobyte (Kb) 1,024 bytes Megabyte (Mb) 1,024 kilobytes Gigabyte (Gb) 1,024 megabytes Terabyte (Tb) 1,024 gigabytes 21 Storage Media Comparison Storage Medium CD Method Optical Capacity Medium 650-700Mb Small 1. 4Mb Large 1Gb to 2+ Tb Speed Fast access Portability Lightweight and fl at Lightweight and flat Heavy and not designed to be carried around. Requires integrating into computer system. Medium-weight. Plugs into computer USB or Firewire port. Lightweight and small. Durability and Reliability Easily scratched and will then not work. Can only be written to once. Can be snapped. Can be damaged by strong magnets or heat. Quite reliable but can crash – when the read/write head crashes into the platter. Sometimes happens on laptops when dropped. Can be damaged by magnets.Same concerns as internal hard drive. Floppy Disk Magnetic Slow access Internal Hard Disk Magnetic Fast access (dependent on speed of motor RPM – rotations per minute) Portable Hard Disk Magnetic Large 40Gb to 640Gb Medium-fast access (dependent on connection method, e. g. USB cable) Flash drive (USB stick or memory card) Blu-ray disc DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) Solidstate Optical Optical Medium/Larg Medium-fast access e (dependent on connection 1Gb to 64Gb method, e. g. USB cabl e or card reader) Large Fast access 50Gb Large Fast access 4. 7Gb Not affected by magnets.Quite hardy. Can be dropped without damaging contents. Easily scratched and will then not work. Easily scratched and will then not work. Lightweight and flat. Lightweight and flat. 22 Binary Logic You need to be able to: (a) explain why data is represented in computer systems in binary form (b) understand and produce simple logic diagrams using the operations NOT, AND and OR (c) produce a truth table from a given logic diagram. Computers use binary as it's a lot simpler. Each CPU is made up of millions of transistors which can only have two states (ON/OFF).Anything can be converted into a binary number so a computer can understand, process and store it. NOT Gate NOT Truth Table Input Output 0 1 1 0 Flips the input, e. g. 0 becomes 1 and 1 becomes 0. AND Gate a b Waits for 1 on both inputs before outputting a 1. AND Truth Table Input Input Output a b 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 OR Gate a b Wait for 1 on either input before outputting a 1. OR Truth Table Input Input Output a b 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 You can practice with NOT, AND and OR gates using the following website: http://logic. ly/demo/ 23 Representation of data in computer systemsNumbers You need to be able to: (a) convert positive denary whole numbers (0-255) into 8-bit binary numbers and vice versa (b) add two 8-bit binary integers and explain overflow errors which may occur (c) convert positive denary whole numbers (0-255) into 2-digit hexadecimal numbers and vice versa (d) convert between binary and hexadecimal equivalents of the same number (e) explain the use of hexadecimal numbers to represent binary numbers. Denary and Binary conversions Numbers greater than 1 can be represented in binary by using more bits. e. g. 129 can be represented in 8 bit (byte) binary as 10000001.Denary Binary 128 1 64 0 32 0 16 0 8 0 4 0 2 0 1 1 This means that if you put a 1 on each increased by double bit (i. e. 11111111) the highest denary for each new bit added to the left. number 8 bits (a byte) can store is 255; 128+64+32+16+8+4+2+1 = 255. Notice how the number To convert binary into denary, just add together the denary numbers above each bit that has 1 in it, e. g. 10000001 = 128 + 1 = 129. To convert a denary number into binary, find the highest value that will go into it and then continue down the number of bits with the remainder until there is nothing remaining. 4 For example, to convert 44 into binary 8-bit format: 44 is smaller than 128 and 64 so we place 0s in those bits: Denary Binary 128 0 64 0 32 does go into 44 with remainder of 12, so we place a 1 in that bit: Denary Binary 128 0 64 0 32 1 The remainder of 12 is smaller than 16 so we place a 0 in that bit: Denary Binary 128 0 64 0 32 1 16 0 8 does go into 12 with remainder of 4, so we place a 1 in that bit: Denary Binary 128 0 64 0 32 1 16 0 8 1 4 does go into 4 with with nothing remaining, so we place a 1 in that bit: Denary Binary 128 0 64 0 32 1 16 0 8 1 4 1 nd 0s in all the remaining bits: Denary Binary 128 0 64 0 32 1 16 0 8 1 4 1 2 0 1 0 Therefore 44 as an 8-bit binary number is: 00101100. 25 Adding two binary numbers together Adding two binary numbers together is not as scary as it sounds or looks. It uses the same principles at the denary number system (Hundreds, Tens, Units). For example: Work from right to left, like you do when adding denary numbers using HTUs. 00010010 + 00010100 0+0=0 0+0=0 0+0+1 1+1=0 0+0=0 0 0 11 0 0 1 1 0 0+0=0 1+0=1 0+1=1 (carried over) = 1 (carry 1)Let’s convert it back into denary to check it is correct: Denary 128 Binary 0 16 + 2 = 18 Denary 128 Binary 0 16 + 4 = 20 Denary 128 Binary 0 32 + 4 + 2 = 38 64 0 32 0 16 1 8 0 4 0 2 1 1 0 64 0 32 0 16 1 8 0 4 1 2 0 1 0 64 0 32 1 16 0 8 0 4 1 2 1 1 0 So as 18 + 20 are 38. Then we know the binary calculation is correct! 26 Hexadecimal Numbers Programmers started to use hexadecimal to reduce mistakes and make it easier for them to underst and than using lots of 0s and 1s. Denary and hexadecimal conversions Hexadecimal uses a base 16 system = 0-9 and then A-F.That means that the denary number 15 is equal to F in hexadecimal. The denary number 16 is equal to 10 in hexadecimal (which means 1 lot of 16) The highest denary number represented in 8-bit (byte) binary is 255 and was represented by 11111111. In hexadecimal this would be represented as FF (15 lots of 16 + 15). Confused?! Remember, F in hexadecimal represents 15. Therefore F0 would be 15*15=240. The second F is 15, therefore FF = 240+15 = 255. To convert denary to hexadecimal you can divide the number by 16. For example, to convert 141 into hexadecimal do the following: 141 / 16 = 8 remainder 13. /16 = 0 remainder 8. Therefore, working from right to left, the hexadecimal number is 8 13 (and 13 is represented as D in hex) so it would be 8D. Alternatively, convert the denary number into binary and then binary to hexadecimal. 27 Binary to hexadecimal conversions To convert binary to hexadecimal you need to break it down into nibbles (blocks of 4 bits). For example, 141 as a binary number is: 10001101. The two nibbles are 1000 and 1101. Converting each nibble into denary we can see that 1000 = 8 and 1101 = 13.Remembering that 13 = D in hexadecimal then 141 would be represented as 8D. To convert hexadecimal to binary you just reverse the process. Convert each part of the hexadecimal number into nibbles of binary numbers. For example: Hex Denary Binary 8 8 1 4 0 nibble D 2 0 1 0 8 1 4 1 nibble 2 0 1 1 HELP! This conversion chart below may help to make sense of it all! Denary 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Binary 0000 0001 0010 0011 0100 0101 0110 0111 Hexadecimal 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Denary 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Binary 1000 1001 1010 1011 1100 1101 1110 1111 Hexadecimal 8 9 A B C D E F 8 Using binary to represent characters You need to be able to: (a) explain the use of binary codes to represent characters (b) explain the term character set (c) describe with exampl es (for example ASCII and Unicode) the relationship between the number of bits per character in a character set and the number of characters which can be represented. Computers use the ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) format to use binary codes to represent numbers, letters and special characters. It uses 8-bits (byte) to represent each character, so every character has it’s own unique 8-bit ASCII code.Using the ASCII character set on the next page we can convert characters into binary numbers. For example, Isambard would be represented in binary as: I s a m b a r d = = = = = = = = 73 115 97 109 98 97 114 100 = = = = = = = = 0100 1001 0111 0011 0110 0001 0110 1101 0110 0010 0110 0001 0111 0010 0110 0100 Notice how the capital I is different from the lowercase i in the ASCII format. An upper and lower case version of each letter is present in the chart to enable the computer to tell the difference between them. If you remember what we said about binar y numbers back on page 23 then you know that 8-bits (a byte) can store up to 255 in denary.This means that the ASCII format can have up to 255 characters represented in a character set. 29 American Standard Code for Information Interchange character set Note: You don’t need to remember these codes for your exam but just be aware of how it works. 30 Using binary to represent images You need to be able to: (a) explain the representation of an image as a series of pixels represented in binary (b) explain the need for metadata to be included in the file such as height, width and colour depth (c) discuss the effect of colour depth and resolution n the size of an image file. Images on the computer are made up of lots of individual pixels (small squares of colour). If you zoom into any image enough times you will see these little blocks of colour. We can use binary numbers to represent each pixel. In a simple image, where there are only two colours (colour depth of 1) then we can si mply use a 1 for one colour, and 0 for another. For example, look at this small 3 x 3 pixel image below. The 1s represent the black colour and the 0s represent the white. 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 31 That is the principle behind storing images as binary. However, we also need to know a few other things about the image in order to display it correctly, i. e. its height, width and colour depth. Image Metadata Height Width Colour depth Resolution The height of the image in pixels The width of the image in pixels The number of bits available to represent each pixel The pixels per inch (PPI) – if the pixels per inch is high, then the resolution and image quality is also high.Without this metadata the computer would not be able to reconstruct the image properly. Colour Depth In a simple 1-bit colour depth image, we can only display two colours. However, in an 8-bit colour depth image (like the gif format), we can display 256 colours (one for each binary number from 00000000 to 11111111). In a 24-bit colour depth image (like the jpeg format), we can display just over 16 million colours! If we use more bits to store each pixel, then the file size will be larger. That is why . gif images are often smaller in file size than . peg images. Resolution If the image has a higher resolution, it has more pixels to store data about and is therefore larger in size. If the image is lower resolution, this means that there are less pixels per inch, which means less pixels to store data about and is therefore smaller in size. 32 Using binary to represent sound You need to be able to: (a) explain how sound can be sampled and stored in digital form (b) explain how sampling intervals and other considerations affect the size of a sound file and the quality of its playback.Sound is stored in the computer by taking samples of the sound wave at regular intervals and converting those into binary numbers (using an analogue-to-digital convertor). The computer can then re-create the sound by reve rsing the process. The file size and quality of the sound recording is affected by the sample rate and bit rate. The sample rate refers to the number of samples taken each second. It is measured in Hertz (like the CPU clock speed). If the sound wave is not sampled at a higher enough rate, this can lower the quality of the sound recording, but the file size would be smaller.If the sound wave is sampled at a higher sampling rate, this will increase the quality of the recording, but the file size will be much larger. The bit rate refers to the amount of bits used to store the different levels of sound at each sampling interval. The more bits, the greater range of levels that can be distinguished. This also has the affect of increasing the file size if the bit rate is high (e,g. 16-bit instead of 8-bit). 33 Computer Communications and NetworksNetworks You need to be able to: (a) explain the advantages of networking stand-alone computers into a local area network (b) describe the hardwar e needed to connect stand-alone computers into a local area network, including hub/switches, wireless access points (c) explain the different roles of computers in a client-server and a peer-to-peer network (d) describe, using diagrams or otherwise, the ring, bus and star network topologies (e) describe the differences between a local area network and a wide area network such as the Internet explain the terms IP addressing, MAC addressing, packet and (f) protocols (g) explain the need for security measures in networks, such as user access levels, suitable passwords and encryption techniques (h) describe and justify network policies such as acceptable use, disaster recovery, failover, back up, archiving. Why network? Allows computers to communicate with each other and share resources, e. g. peripherals (printers, scanners), storage, internet access. Data Packets Information is sent around a network in data packets. Data is broken down into packets to be sent over the network and ofte n may take different routes to get there. It contains info on where it needs to go (the address) and the packet number and an error-checking facility to ensure the packet arrives intact and can be put back together in the right order. 34Basic components of a local area network (LAN) Client/ Computer Hub, Switch or Router See next page for explanation of each. Server In a Client-Server network, the server handles the logins, applications and file storage. Modem Interfaces between the Internet and the network. Shared Peripherals Networks allow peripherals like this printer to be shared by all the computers on the network. Internet 35 Hub, Switch or Router? These are not the same. You need to know the difference between them. Hub A hub receives all data sent over the network and sends it to all the other devices on the network. Only the device who the data packet is for will acknowledge it; the other devices will ignore it.A switch is bit more intelligent than a hub and it learns which devices are on the network (and their port number/address) and only sends the data packet to the computer who is the intended recipient. This is more efficient than a hub as it doesn’t result in lots of unnecessary network traffic. A router is cleverer still than both hubs and switches. It can re-direct network traffic and deal with different packets in different ways. It can protect the computers on the network by hiding them from the outside world (i. e. a firewall). Some routers have a modem built-in and wireless capabilities. Most homes have a 4-port wireless broadband router to access the Internet. This combines the router and modem functions. Switch RouterWireless access points don't require a physical connection and therefore are suited for a variety of different devices and provide access to network over an area, e. g. iPad or smartphone. IP address The IP address (Internet Protocol) is a computer's unique address on the network, e. g. 192. 168. 0. 1 is usually your home router's address. On the Internet, each website has its own or several IP addresses. 36 MAC address The MAC address (Media Access Control) is a hexadecimal number that is unique to that particular device. Hey! Did you know that there are 281,474,976,710,656 possible MAC addresses in the world? That’s a lot of MACs baby†¦ huh huh! Network Protocols Protocols are a set of standards and guidelines that tell computers how they should handle the sending and receiving of data over the network.TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol) Used to exchanged data between computers on a network and route packets between networks and over the Internet. Used on WWW to transfer webpages and web content from the website host server to the computer requesting the page. Used to transfer files between computers over a network. Used to transport emails. HTTP (HyperText transfer Protocol) FTP (File Transfer protocol) SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) LAN or WAN? A L AN is a Local Area Network which is usually set-up within a certain area, e. g. a building or group of buildings – hence the term â€Å"local†. A WAN is a Wide Area Network which is usually on a nationwide or worldwide scale. The Internet is an example of a WAN – a series of interconnected LANs. 7 Network Topologies A network can be set up in three main ways: Ring 4 3 5 1 2 All the computers are linked together in a ring and data packets are sent one way round. For example in the diagram above to get from PC 1 to PC 5 the data needs to go through PCs 2, 3 and 4. It can’t go anti-clockwise back to PC 5. Drawbacks: If there is one break in the ring then the network breaks down. Also not very efficient as a lot of network traffic doesn’t take the most direct route. Bus All the computers are connected to a central bus. You can add and take away computers easily in a bus network as the computers are connected to the central bus, rather than between one another.Drawbacks: Only one computer can use the bus at once which means only one computer can communicate at a time – the others have to wait until the bus is free before sending their data; this makes it slow. If a computer connected to the bus breaks down, then the network still runs but if the central bus breaks down then so does the whole network. 38 Star 4 3 5 1 2 All the computers are connected to central server. The server can handle multiple communications at once and re-directs traffic over the network. More computers can be added or taken away without affecting the network. Drawbacks: If the main server fails then the network goes down. Client-server and peer-to-peer networks In a Client-server network, the server acts as the main computer handling login requests, user storage, etc.The client could be any computer. The user can log on to any client and still access their stuff on the server. In a Peer-to-peer network, each computer shares information equally and pl ays an equal role in the network. Network Security Part of Data Protection Act 1998 requires companies who store data electronically to keep it safe and secure. Without security then anyone could hack into the network and intercept data packets. Confidential data packets should be encrypted so if they are intercepted they are unreadable. There may be a need to prevent unauthorised access to particular areas of the system; this could be controlled by passwords and different user levels, e. g. n the school a student can only access the student shared drive, whereas teachers can access both the student shared drive and the staff shared drive. 39 Network Management Policies Disaster recovery In the event of the system failing there needs to be plans in place to get the network up and running again as quickly as possible. Many organisations, such as banks, have a disaster recovery plan which may mean relocating to a different location (if the building is no longer accessible). Failover a nd backups If there is a power cut, many networks have UPS (uninterrupted power supplies) which are large batteries with enough charge to keep the network going long enough to shut it down correctly. If a hard drive fails, there is usually a backup which can take the strain.Networks are often backed up at least daily and these backups are stored off-site or in a fire-proof safe so in the event of a disaster in the building, the data is still intact. Maintenance Sometimes data needs to be kept but is not accessed regularly. This data can be archived off onto tape to help free up space on the network. Acceptable Use It is important for the network to have an acceptable usage policy to provide users with guidelines about what they can and can’t do using it. For example, it would use up vital network bandwidth if some users decided to play a network game or download the latest torrent from the Internet. If users start file sharing copyrighted materials, like music, using the netw ork then there is a legal issue to consider as well. 40 The InternetYou need to be able to: (a) describe the nature of the Internet as a worldwide collection of computer networks (b) describe the hardware needed to connect to the Internet including modems, routers etc (c) explain the need for IP addressing of resources on the Internet and how this can be facilitated by the role of DNS servers (d) explain the importance of HTML and its derivatives as a standard for the creation of web pages (e) describe common file standards associated with the Internet such as JPG, GIF, PDF, MP3, MPEG (f) explain the importance of compressing files that are transmitted via the Internet (g) describe the differences between lossy and lossless compression. What happens when you type in a web address in your browser? When you enter a web address in your browser, it heads off via your modem to your ISP’s (Internet Service Provider) domain name servers (DNS).These computers store the IP address(es) for each website and directs your request to the relevant server hosting the webpage you want to view. The information is then sent back to your ISP and then back to your computer. Why HTML? HTML (HyperText Markup Language) provides a standard format which any computer with web browser can interpret and display the pages. It allowed the World Wide Web to get going as there was a universal standard that everyone could now use to share information. 41 Common file formats used on the Internet . html . jpg HTML Web page JPEG image Used to store webpages Used to store photos as can show up to 16. 7 million colours. Used for simple graphics and short animations – can show up to 256 colours.Used to store noneditable documents for viewing on the Internet using the free Adobe viewer software. Used to store music tracks. Compressed to make downloading faster. Used to store videos. Compressed to make downloading faster. Used for Adobe Flash files to add interaction and/or animations to websites. Used to store video files playable using free Apple viewer software. .gif Graphic Interchange format image .pdf Adobe Portable Document format .mp3 MP3 Music format .mpg MPEG video format .swf Shockwave Flash format .mov Apple Quicktime format Why compress on the Internet? The Internet can be slow at times, especially in it’s early days relying on early 56Kbps modems as opposed to the 3-4 Mbps average.Therefore if you could compress the files that were being sent on the Internet, then you sent smaller files, and smaller file sizes meant faster downloads. It also frees up the network and avoids clogging up the bandwidth. 42 Lossless versus Lossy Compression Lossless compression Compression used means the original file stays completely intact and unchanged. Used for text documents, data files and executable programs where it would not be desirable for parts to be lost. Used for multimedia files, i. e. sound, images, video. Lossy compression Compression which involves discarding parts of the file which won’t be noticed if they are not present.For example, it is possible to remove some data within an image and your brain fills in the gaps. Take a look at the images of the dog below: Source: wikipedia. org The image has more compression applied to it as you go from left to right. Even though the image on the right in heavily compressed, we can still see it is a dog. Our brain fills in the gaps. 43 Databases What is a database? A database is a persistent organised store of data which can be easily and quickly searched. They are most commonly used for Marketing, e. g. loyalty cards. Huge databases are searched for patterns in customer’s buying habits and then targeted coupons are mail shot to customers.The school has several databases to store everything from your behaviour logs and Brunels, to your address, date of birth and even how much money you have on your lunch card! Data handling software, such as Microsoft Access, allow users to: add tables, define fields and validation (create) add/edit/delete data (maintain) run queries to extract information from the database (interrogate) DBMS (Database Management System) Many large databases use a database management system (DBMS). This system separates the data stored from the data handling applications used to maintain and interrogate the database. Feature Concurrent usage Security Recovery & Backup Data integrity Why is this good? Allows multiple users to use the database at the same time Provides bility to allow/restrict data access to individuals or applications Provides backup solution and recovery tools to ensure data is not lost in event of failure Enforcing data integrity by ensuring data is consistent and adheres to the rules Relational databases A flat-file database is when all of the data and fields are stored in one table, e. g. an excel spreadsheet full of names and addresses – see below: 44 A relational database is when that data is separated i nto individual tables (entities) that are linked by a primary key (which appears in each table). Student Student ID First name Surname Class Class ID Student ID Teacher ID Teacher Teacher ID Name SubjectIn the example above, the STUDENT, CLASS and TEACHER are all tables (entities) in the database. The id is the unique piece of information (the primary key) that identifies each instance of a student, class or teacher. We couldn’t use First Name as the primary key in STUDENT as many people share the same first name – it isn’t unique enough! The advantage of separating the data into different entities is to avoid data redundancy – when the same data is stored in several places in the database. Let’s imagine if we stored the information above in a flat-file database (all in one table) – it would look something like this: Duplicated data Can you see the duplicated information?Not only does this use up space but it is easier to make a mistake (and lose data integrity) if we only update one of the records. E. g. if Miss Parsons gets married and her name changes to Mrs Smith then we need to make this change for every record in the database. If are using a relational database, because the Teacher’s name is stored in a separate table and linked to the rest of the entities, we only need to update it in the TEACHER table once. In the CLASS entity, both Teacher ID and Student ID are foreign keys (primary keys that when linked to another table become foreign keys in that table). Components of a relational database Tables Represents the entity in the database. Fields and primary keys are defined and data stored in the table. Create) Forms Provide a customisable user interface to add/edit and delete data (Maintain) Queries Allow data that meets specific criteria to be extracted and displayed (Interrogate) Reports Displays the results of queries in a customised format designed to be printed Querying a database 45 When interrogat ing a database, you need to specify the fields you wish to display and the criterion you will use to search. E. g. if you were searching for a car on a car supermarket website you might search using the make of the car you wanted: Make = â€Å"Ford† You could also use logical operators such as (NOT equal to), < (less than), > (greater than), = (greater than or equal to). E. g. Mileage