Research paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 11

Research Paper Example Among the main concerns that are raised concerning the move are: what is the main motive of India launching mars orbiter especially with increased space exploration across the globe, and, is there a rivalry in competition between China and India concerning space exploration? Therefore, this discussion aims at establishing reasons why India’s space exploration is such an esteemed undertaking amidst complains on increased poverty levels and substantiate on claims that India invests in space exploration to counter China’s supremacy in space exploration within the Asian region. Discussion In a recent article by MacAskill and Nagarajan (2013), India, have plans underway to launch a space ship ‘Mars Orbiter’ towards Mars as race for space power intensifies between the country and China. The two countries are the recent entrants into the race with US, Russia as well as Europe having already launched space explorers into the mars orbit in the past. It is however wo rth noting that in spite of the open contest between India and China in space supremacy, few or none of the officials in India would not admit this. â€Å"India is clearly concerned about China’s recent rise in space prestige and wants to minimize that damage† (MacAskill and Nagarajan, 2013) as is reported by the report and this illustrates the tag existing between the Asian countries. There have been ongoing debates and research studies aimed at establishing the truth in the postulation that India’s increased zeal to launch the mars orbiter is for competition with China as a rival in Asia as against being propelled by reason of gathering scientific knowledge on existence of life on Mars or even to showcase technology advancement of the country. This study therefore identifies the problem in justifying the motives of space exploration by India and sets forth to substantiate the claim. This therefore makes the question of ‘what exactly is the aim to the gre at exploration investments?’ paramount to the discussion. Besides the main goal of this essay as being to investigate the above posed question, this study envisions to contribute towards bridging the previously identified gap in literature concerning the motives of India launch of the mars orbiter. This study will also guide in future studies in the same theme where the findings will be instrumental in revealing the direction to be taken by future researchers of Asian space exploration in the 21st century. Indian government and the space exploration mission is not based on race towards space exploration supremacy as argued by many. On the contrary, Indian mars exploration is meant to gather scientific information and displaying Indian technology in space exploration. Depending on various literatures available on the topic, there is justifiable evidence to support the postulation above. Technological development as well as social development is necessities for economic growth and development within any nation. India is seen to have increasingly invested in space exploration in the recent past, a phenomenon that sparks heated debates on the intentions while majority of the population in the country still live in absolute poverty. Among many other missions, that India continues to undertake in space exploration in the launch of mars orbiter is a major one. However, with claims circulating that India is determined

What Cyber Events Could Really Cause Terror in the Australian Essay Example for Free

What Cyber Events Could Really Cause Terror in the Australian Essay In general terms, cyber events, such as cyber attacks or terrorism is defined as any action intended to damage computer networks, which mainly affects the operation of various infrastructure such as air transport and security logistics. The increasingly high growth rate of cyber crimes has drawn the attention of the public domain and the media. This is because the potential damages, which can be brought by cyber crimes, have far reaching consequences to the government and the whole population of any given country. This paper is written to discuss the cyber events which could cause terror in the Australian population. The military defense system in Australia is well equipped to defend the nation against any external assault. If the military communication and other defense logistics where to be hacked or attacked through cyber events, this would mean a security threat to the nation’s population. Take for instance a situation where the Australian cyber space is invaded and remotely controlled by enemies, this would invade not only the national security but also breach individuals’ privacy, a factor which would cause public outcry. Still to be noted here is the security threats imposed by cyber terrorism in the business and government information systems. Cyber events targeted at business institutions such as the banking sector would instill fear to investors. This would not only affect the banking sector but also all businesses, whether small, medium or large businesses. A good example of the government’s information system attack is the recent attack of the prime minister’s website. The website was accessed after the government’s internet filtering legislation was attacked. It followed that the prime ministers website was overloaded by information requests and loaded with pornography. In this context, such cyber events threaten the national security and can amount to terrorism.

herbert hoover and his role in the great depression Essay -- essays re

Herbert Hoover and His Role in The Great Depression   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  With the continually worsening conditions, and the stock market crash on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929, the United States was thrown into the biggest economical disaster of our history. Everyone, excluding the rich upper class, became poor and most unemployed. The majority of the American populace found themselves living in ‘shantytowns’ or ‘Hoovervilles’ as they later became to be known, which consisted of many cramped shacks constructed from whatever was available. This meant old burnt-out cars, cardboard boxes, random pieces of lumber, and anything else that people could find. Times truly were tough. It was a daily struggle for people to support their own lives, let alone those of their family on the meager amount of money they had. The lucky man in charge of bringing us out from the depths of this very great of depressions was none other than the thirty-first president of these United States.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Herbert Clark Hoover was born in an Iowa village in 1874 to a Quaker blacksmith. He grew up in Oregon and eventually graduated from Stanford University as a mining engineer. After marrying Lou Henry, his girlfriend from Stanford, they went to China where he worked as the leading engineer for the country. Upon entering World War I, President Wilson placed Hoover at the head of the Food Administration where he successfully kept the Allies well fed. Following the war, Hoover organized food shipments for millions of starving people in Europe and Soviet Russia as a member of the Supreme Economic Council and head of the American Relief Administration. Finally, in 1928 Hoover became the Republican Presidential nominee, and later the President of the United States of America. A year later, those United States sank into deep depression.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Following the crash of the stock market in 1929, Americans looked to their federal government for help through these hard times. The public required Direct Relief, or cash payments or food provided for the poor by the government. Hoover and his rugged individualist mentality, however, believed that the government should not interfere with the economic happenings of its citizens. He said that aid to the hungry and the deserving unemployed should come from local govern... ...nto the shoulders of Hoover, between 10 and 20 thousand World War I veterans marched to Washington D.C. in the spring of 1932. This Bonus Army, as it was to be called, made the trip under Walter Waters to support a bill under debate that might grant them a cash bonus. The original bonus, previously passed in 1924, was supposed to give them life insurance in 1945. This new bill in Congress was to give each soldier $500 immediately. Surprisingly, Hoover wasn’t upset with the Bonus Army’s gathering, and even encouraged them by providing food and supplies. On June 17, 1932, the Patman Bill was put down and Hoover ordered the Bonus Army to depart. When 2,000 of the men refused to move, the president sent 1,000 soldiers to send them home. With tear gas and bayonets, their task was accomplished. A few men were killed in this ordeal.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Herbert Hoover was the boy from Iowa fated to lead this nation through one of its greatest disasters. Unfortunately, he receives much undeserved blame for the crash of the stock market and subsequent depression the U.S. faced. Considering the circumstances, Hoover did a commendable job pulling us through this very hard of times.

A Look At Cheap Amusements Essay -- essays research papers

An extremely interesting, but ever-contradictory sociological study of sexual relationsis presented in the Kathy Peiss book Cheap Amusements . The reason I say that it is ever-contradictory is that the arguments are presented for both the benefit of cheap amusements for a woman s place in society and for the reinforcement of her place. In one breath, Peiss says that mixed-sex fun could be a source of autonomy and pleasure as well as a cause of [a woman s] continuing oppression. The following arguments will show that, based on the events and circumstances described in Cheap Amusements , the changes in the ways that leisure time is spent by women has indeed benefited them in both the workplace and at home. This position requires a closer look at specific leisure activities; where and with whom they are spent, and the ultimate effect that these activities had on society and gender roles. More significantly however, is how the establishment of leisure activities for women came about, rather than the simple change in availability of such activities. First let s look at Peiss s position on the matter of how cheap amusements challenged gender traditions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What does Peiss have to say about women s roles at the turn of the century? Peiss argues initially that young women experimented with new cultural forms in terms of sexual expressiveness and social interaction with men, linking heterosocial culture to a sense of modern individuality and personal style. Creating this style was an assertion of self. Peiss quickly discounts these assertions by saying that without economic independence, such freedoms are hollow. Peiss s essay claims to focus on the role of working women in fostering change from a homosocial to a heterosocial culture, but as we can see from the earlier quote, there is still what seems to be a hint of male dominance in preventing the experience of true leisure. By this we can see that Peiss believes women were challenging gender norms, but doing so under the implied watchful eye of the male-dominated culture.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One very interesting point that Peiss makes is that there is now a market for leisure time. This market included such activities as attending shows at a nickelodeon, riding the trolley, and, especially in Manhattan, spending the day at Coney Islan... ...not explicitly challenging the social conditions of the day, but implicitly doing so. I agree with Peiss s statement that women were expressing the aspiration for selfhood and fulfillment but that this did not attempt to transform the web of gender and class relations in which [they] were situated. Women did not attempt to challenge their situation explicitly, nor did they even realize they were challenging their social condition. At the same time, attendance at particular popular dance halls and club events served to reinforce the notions of female submission and some Old Word traditions. Overall, however, we can see that the changes in society over this period of 1880-1920 benefited women. Look at how family life changed because of the movie theater experience. It brought families together; husbands and wives would attend with their children. Also, we can see that clubs and dances were safe places to meet those of the opposite sex, whereas previously, you may have had a husband chosen for you. It can be said with confidence then that the challenges implicitly mounted by women s search for leisure has indeed benefited their position in the late 19th and early 20th centurysociety.

Management Information Systems Assignment Report

115. 107 Management Information Systems Assignment Report Contents Part 1 – ER Diagram2 Part 2 – Tables and Keys3 Part 3 – Queries4 Part 4: Spreadsheet filters and pivot tables7 List of Figures Figure 1 – ER diagram for event management system of hotel2 Figure 2 – Query 1 QBE for staff allocation4 Figure 3 – Query 1 output for staff allocation4 Figure 4 – Query 2 QBE for scheduled events beginning of October5 Figure 5 – Query 2 output for scheduled events beginning of October5 Figure 6 – Query 2 database report for scheduled events beginning of October6Figure 7 – Query 3 QBE for total number of registered participants6 Figure 8 – Query 3 output for total number of registered participants7 Figure 9 – Spreadsheet data with no filers or conditional formatting applied7 Figure 10 – Spreadsheet with the â€Å"show only events commencing after 15th October filter applied7 Figure 11 – Spreadshe et with the ‘show only events commencing after 1st November as underlined' conditional formatting applied8 Figure 12 – Pivot table8 Figure 13 – Pivot table as a bar chart8 List of TablesTable 1 – Attributes for ER diagram for event management system of hotel2 Table 2 – Attributes for ER diagram for event management system of hotel3 Part 1 – ER Diagram StaffMember Venue Event Registration Attendee Reserved for Manages Accept Makes Applies to 1.. * 1.. * 1 1 1 0.. * 0.. * 0.. * 0.. * Payment Accept 0.. * 0.. * 1 Gains entry Client System Presents 0.. * Record Details 1 0.. * Inputs 1.. * 1.. * Figure [ 1 ] – ER diagram for event management system of hotel Table [ 1 ] – Attributes for ER diagram for event management system of hotel Entity Type| Attributes| Key attribute|Venue| venueID, venueCapacity, venueDescription| venueID| Event| eventID, eventName, eventType, startDate, endDate, startTime, endTime, availableSpaces, eventFee| e ventide| StaffMember| staffID, firstName, lastName, jobTitle | staffID| Registration | registrationID, registrationDate, eventID | registrationID| Attendee| attendeeID, firstName, lastName, title, companyName, contactAddress, phoneNo | attendeeID| Payment| paymentAmount, paymentDate, paymentType, paymentCredit, creditcardID, creditcardName, creditcardExpiry| paymentID| Client| clientName, companyName, contactAddress, contactPhone, clientIndustry, clientNeeds| clientID| System| systemClient, systemAttendee, systemVenues, systemInvoice, | systemID| Part 2 – Tables and Keys Table [ 2 ] – Attributes for ER diagram for event management system of hotel Table| Column| Primary Key| Comments|VenueTbl| venueID, venueCapacity, venueDescription| venueID| | EventTbl| eventID, eventName, eventType, startDate, endDate, startTime, endTime, availableSpaces, eventFee, staffID| eventID| staffID is a foreign key into StaffMemberTbl. | StaffMemberTbl| staffID, firstName, lastName, jobTitle | staffID| | RegistrationTbl| registrationID, registrationDate ,eventID, attendeeID| registrationID| eventID is a foreign key into EventTbl while attendeeID is a foreign key into AttendeeTbl| AttendeeTbl| attendeeID, firstName, lastName, title, companyName, contactAddress, phoneNo, eventID, registrationID| attendeeID| RegistrationID is a foreign key into RegistrationTbl while event ID is a foreign key into EventTbl. ReservedforTbl| eventID, venueID, attendeeID, | reserveID| eventID is a foreign key into EventTbl while attendeeID is a foreign key into AttendeeTbl| Part 3 – Queries Query 1 -StaffAllocation Figure [ 2 ] – Query 1 QBE for staff allocation Figure [ 3 ] – Query 1 output for staff allocation Query 2 – YearEndSchedule Figure [ 4 ] – Query 2 QBE for scheduled events beginning of October Figure [ 5 ] – Query 2 output for scheduled events beginning of October **For unknown reasons, event 9, 16 & 17 is not listed in the search result e ven when the date falls within the range as set out in the criteria. I have attempted to modify the criteria selection to cover between the date range of 30/09/2011 – 01/01/2050 etc but it has still failed to come up. Query 2 – Year End ReportFigure [ 6 ] – Query 2 database report for scheduled events beginning of October Query 3 – Registration Numbers Figure [ 7 ] – Query 3 QBE for total number of registered participants Figure [ 8 ] – Query 3 output for total number of registered participants Part 4: Spreadsheet filters and pivot tables Figure [ 9 ] – Spreadsheet data with no filTers or conditional formatting applied Figure [ 10 ] – Spreadsheet with the show only events commencing after 15th October filter applied Figure [ 11 ] – Spreadsheet with the ‘show only events commencing after 1st November as underlined' conditional formatting applied Figure [ 12 ] – Pivot table Figure [ 13 ] – Pivot table a s a bar chart

Manipulation in 1984 Essay Example

Manipulation in 1984 Essay Example Manipulation in 1984 Essay Manipulation in 1984 Essay Essay Topic: 1984 Language is a very powerful tool and can easily be misused to benefit the person who uses it; harming the people who are subject to its effects. How one utilizes language to spread certain imaginings or viewpoints can greatly influence the way people think. One can use language to manipulate the minds of others and bring them under some form of suppression. In the novel 1984, author George Orwell uses Oceania’s Ministry of Thought’s Newspeak to demonstrate a simple manipulation. George Orwell uses a variation of different verbal methods to stimulate the opinion and principles, making the readers to determine and generate their own feelings about the appearance that occur in the novel 1984. George Orwell’s Newspeak is a massively strong and extreme party-political language which facilitates fraud and manipulation, and its purpose is to restrict the new people’s understanding of the physical world and challenge their ability for free thought. Newspeaks limits the amount of words used, removing and blurring words like â€Å"hot† because it is the contradictory of cold, which limits the mindfulness and information of those who use it, making them more likely to comply and more likely to do what they are told. George Orwells main intention for creating Newspeak was to display how the frequent abuse of language by the government and by media could be used to betray and manipulate people, which could eventually influence and lead to a society, culture and identity in which the people automatically follow their government and carelessly accept all propaganda as reality. In 1984, language is a dominant importance to behavior control. The major intention is that if control of language were centralized in a place, then the likelihood of rebellion or disobedience would be eliminated. Dont you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there w

Global Perspective Project essays

Global Perspective Project essays Jamaicans have a long history of immigration to the United States, especially since the end of World War Two. Most immigrant from Jamaica settled in New York, and in Queens particularly. When Jenny and her family arrived in New York, they were greeted by a flourishing Jamaican community with deep roots. Moreover, Jenny's relatives had moved there five years earlier and sponsored them for American residency. Jenny started preschool immediately after arriving; her mother works both at Jenny's junior high school and at JFK international airport; and her father is a cook at a Queens-area rehabilitation center. The family struggles but they make ends meet. They passionately support Jenny's education and value her academic achievement. Jenny herself is highly motivated both in school and in extra-curricular activities, especially sports. She runs track formally in school and jogs with her father nearly every day at a local park. When investigating Jenny's funds of knowledge, it is important to reflect on her Jamaican heritage. Both her parents speak Patois, which they use to converse with their relatives and with other Jamaicans in the community. Jenny understands Patois and occasionally uses it at home or in the Jamaican community but does not speak it as much as her parents because unlike her parents, Jenny has lived in Brooklyn since she was two years old. Patois should be viewed as a fund of knowledge because of the way language helps define communities. As Gandi & Evering note, "A boundary is something used to express one's membership in a specific ethnic group. Jamaican Patois serves as a boundary for the Jamaican-American community." Because the Jamaican community has nurtured Jenny's family, easing their transition from the island to New York, it is also important to investigate sources of Jenny's funds of knowledge that are within the community. Some of Jenny's father's coworkers have become family friends and likewise, Jenny's mo...

How To Nail Product Positioning With April Dunford

How To Nail Product Positioning With April Dunford The success of your company depends on the marketing you do, how you choose to present the benefits of a product or service, and which audience to target. How you position a product or service can make or break your company. Stop right there. Forget everything you thought you knew about product positioning. Connecting your product or service with buyers is not a matter of following trends, selling harder, or trying to attract the widest customer base. Today, my guest is April Dunford, who has launched more than a dozen products and shares some of the biggest mistakes that startups, marketers, and entrepreneurs make with product positioning. Also, she’s the author of Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning So Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It. April’s book describes her point of view on positioning and offers a step-by-step process to perfectly position your product or service. Career Change: Fake it til you figure it out. How hard can it be? Do it right, and the company grows quickly, gets acquired; you get bored and do another startup Definition of Positioning: How to win at doing something that a well-defined market cares about Perfect marketing execution won’t save you from weak positioning; marketing execution and results are only as good as positioning that feeds into them Who should decide the positioning for your product? Everybody Siebel Story: Too small to buy out beyond a billion dollars Positioning Pitfalls: People don’t do positioning deliberately; and when they try to fix it, they don’t follow a process but wing it or write a â€Å"Positioning Statement† Positioning Statement Components: Who’s your competitive alternatives? What are the unique capabilities or features that your product has? What’s the value that those features can enable for customers? Who’s my target customer? Is this a market that I’m going to win? Signs of weak positioning include: How a customer reacts to your product/service They compare you to a non-competitor; not in the right market Customer knows what you do, but not the value or why they should careLinks: April Dunford Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning So Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It If you liked today’s show, please subscribe on iTunes to The Actionable Content Marketing Podcast! The podcast is also available on SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Quotes by April Dunford: â€Å"Not only is positioning a thing I should figure out, its potentially a super powerful thing.† â€Å"Two years after graduating from engineering, Im running this great big marketing team. Its global. I’ve got this giant budgeteven though I was completely unqualified for it.† â€Å"I focus on positioning, mainly because I think people do a really terrible job at positioning. Theres not many people that know how to do it right.† â€Å"A shift in positioning can totally result in a shift in the product roadmap, a shift in your pricing, a shift in a way you sell, a shift in your channels.† You see signs of weak positioning across your entire sales marketing funnel, but often the place where it’s most obvious is looking at how a customer reacts when they first encounter your product or your offering.

Mercedes Benz Company Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Mercedes Benz Company - Case Study Example The deal created a new entity, DaimlerChrysler, which was the highest revenue earner in Germany. The best of technology, safety and comfort in automobiles came together to create the world's best known car company. "Responding to changes and challenges in the European marketplace, Mercedes-Benz's German truck business embarked on a project with Accenture to define and implement a sales and marketing strategy. The team designed, developed and implemented customer-oriented products and services. Accenture performed 10 pilots to implement the sales strategy, followed by a rollout at the retail level. The value creation for Mercedes-Benz Trucks includes a reorganized sales organization, as the division also has seen additional revenue from increased vehicle sales and penetration rates in services-not to mention more focused and efficient customer service." The sale of the Chrysler group to Cerberus Capital Management giving it 80% in the new company in August 2007 and the change of name from DaimlerChrysler to Daimler AG seems to be a tactical decision. The sale reportedly took place for US$6billion. This might have helped it overcome the losses it had suffered in 2006 and restore profitability in 2008. Keeping all the above in mind, information quality is of ut... 3.Identify the information likely to be needed to take each of the decisions identified in task 2 and explain how issues of information quality may apply to this information. 1. A very professional attitude to business. 2. Knowledge of market competitors and a will to merge with the competition if deemed fit for the growth of the business. 3. Innovation (new models), adoption of latest technology (simulators), application of information obtained from market surveys (Accenture survey in 2003). 4. In-depth market intelligence. Take into account complete global/regional scenario and demand for a particular vehicle before launching it in the market. Keeping all the above in mind, information quality is of utmost importance as the right information would lead to right decisions about the adoption of technology for launching new vehicles, dealership issues, outsourcing of labour and parts, government incentives/subsidies to look for and the kind of vehicle to be launched in a particular region. Successful trade leads could also mean more business in strategic and new locations. With the rise of e-commerce, it becomes not only necessary, but also easy to have access to quality information about the market competion. 4.Give at least 4 documented examples of competitor intelligence which are likely to be of interest to your company. Do not repeat material used in task 3. 1. Competition from Lexus According to Dan Lienert in Showroom Showdown dated 09.08.05, http://www.forbes.com/vehicles/2005/09/08/Lexus-Mercedes-convertibles-cx_dl_0908show_ls.html (accessed April 23, 2008) "In the first eight months of 2004, Lexus sold 141% more SCs in the U.S. than Mercedes sold SLKs--6,607 vs. 2,745. Pricing

Managing Communications, Knowledge and Information Essay - 4

Managing Communications, Knowledge and Information - Essay Example In order to assess what information and data is required; it is customary that data gathering methods as well as the criteria for gathering such data shall be outlined also. Once the required information is gathered, next phase will involve a systematic dissemination of data and information among the management as well as the operational staff in order to keep them informed about what potential changes may be introduced as a result of the expansion. Further, this report will also provide an appropriate information system diagram to visually present the flow of information besides providing a detailed description of at least three performance measures which should allow the management of hotel to practically judge the success and failure of the proposed expansion plan. This report will therefore attempt to explore all the above mentioned areas and will provide an analysis of how this can be achieved and what resources and requirements will make it possible to achieve the intended objectives. Having defined this, next step shall be to identify the data required to perform such type of analysis. It is therefore assumed that both the qualitative as well as quantitative data will be required to complete this project. Most important sources of data will be internal and a temporal analysis of available data is required to assess as to whether the customers, historically, requested for such services. Further, external sources of data will be required to assess as to what the market is charging for providing such facilities and what may be the costs involved in constructing and maintaining such facilities. This data will be required because it will allow the management to assess the commercial viability of the projects and will provide them a critical insight into how to design the facilities in a manner so that cost of maintenance remains low while at the same time offering high quality services. Some of the methods to collect the data will include survey of

The Man with Head of Blue Hortensias Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Man with Head of Blue Hortensias - Essay Example The paper "The Man with Head of Blue Hortensias" will be the formal analysis of the two famous paintings. Gazing at the painting and then taking notes on what is observed can be the best strategy to achieve this. The Man with Head of Blue Hortensias is a painting done by Salvador Dali, a prominent Spanish surrealist artist. He had a range of art work that included photography, statuettes, cooperation with other artists, and paintings. Salvador was recognized for his extraordinary art work. Many accredit his artistic skills to the inspiration he got from the masters of rebirth. This paper will look at the painting depth, iconography, and color. In the Painting Depth, The Man with Head of Blue Hortensias, Salvador Dali tries to create depth in a number of ways. First, the male stature is perceived to be seating on a small rock near other large ones with his head bent or seating in a vertical position, depending on the position one is viewing the painting. The use of slightly bright col ors makes the rocks and the male stature appear close. In addition, there are dark clouds in the sky. The use of darker colors helps to make some rocks and the clouds appear to be far away. There seems to be a pathway separating the towering rocks on the left and where the male shape is seated. It appears close due to the slightly brighter color used. The rocks that have been painted in blue appear further away than those painted in brown. This goes a long way in depicting depth in the painting.

Types of Journalism, Mass Media and Communication in History Essay

Types of Journalism, Mass Media and Communication in History - Essay Example The Vietnam War was adequately pictured and recorded by photojournalists and this prompted the international community to react promptly and put an end to these merciless killings (Vaughan and Thomas 405). In such instances, most of these repressive regimes leadership becomes hostile to such individuals and in some cases subject them to torture and psychological traumas (Deephouse and David 1096). The primary aim of Journalism, for instance during war periods is to ensure that all acts of injustices are pictured to attract actions from the government and the international community. The media fraternity as a whole has undergone numerous changes and challenges in equal measure (Deephouse and David 1099). In a tense political setting, for instance, the involvement of the media in ensuring proper checks and balances of the repressive regime to ensure that all acts against humanity are articulately recorded and appropriate actions against perpetrators reported. However, a photojournalist, like any other professionals must operate within some set rules and standards as dictated by the society (Deephouse and David 1113). Their actions should be such that any reasonable man in their situation will define as â€Å"normal† and as pro-human dignity. A photojournalist, for instance, is expected to record and report honest accounts of events as they happened without any form of manipulation. They should not give in to any form of intimidation be it physical or psychological in a bid by fraudulent to manipulate the true accounts of the recorded events. Integrity and honesty are crucial qualities a photojournalist must be in a possession of.  

How much I like the film and reccommend it to others Movie Review

How much I like the film and reccommend it to others - Movie Review Example Depression and loneliness further segregate them. If this is the state of the normal individuals, the plight of the physically and mentally disabled people is even harder to imagine. Looking into the lives of the characters of the movie "the heart is a lonely hunter" we can understand how hard it is to live with various physical and psychological abnormalities. Disabilities differ for each and every character in the movie. Some are deaf-mute, while some are mentally impaired. I like the movie and recommend it to others as it portrays the struggles and sufferings of the disadvantaged. Comparing the disabilities and the struggles of the characters help us understand the lives of the people who are afflicted with different abnormalities. The movie also criticizes the various forms of inequalities like handicapped man vs. normal man, black vs. white, rich vs. poor and so on. I love this movie for all these reasons. The movie is centered on the admirable character John Singer who is a dea f-mute. Several other characters with other sorts of disabilities pass along his path, each striving to locate their own path of self-discovery. The physically challenged Singer however has invaluable help for each and every one of them. ... John Singer is the first example from the movie who is with a disability. John Singer the main character and the focal point of all other characters is a deaf-mute. He lives with his close friend Antonapoulos who is also a deaf-mute. Singer puts all his efforts in his friendship with Antonapoulos. When Antonapoulos is taken to an asylum Singer becomes depressed and lonely. This makes him change his residence to a rented room. Singer's devotion and love to his deaf-mute friend Antonapoulos reveals the human desire to be expressed and loved by someone. This also reveals the desperate plight of Singer who thirsts to find some love in Antonapoulos. His disability of being deaf-mute helps us understand the world of deaf mute people who live in their own isolated world with the heavy desired to give and take love. Losing the company of Antonopoulos made Singer look for another source of friendship. Singer later creates a circle of friendship where his friends are people who are disabled, l onely and afflicted. We find him surrounded by four other main characters of the movie who are also struggling with weaknesses of their own. Singer cannot speak and cannot express his thoughts or desires. This makes him helpless to disillusion or refute them. Even though Singer pour out his life to widen the world of his disabled friends, they take it for granted for Singer is a deaf-mute who cannot present his thoughts. In spite of offering the best companionship for these characters Singer’s devotion and love is less recognized by other for he is unable to express it being a deaf mute. Though he offers solace to the hearts of his friends there is none to

Types of Journalism, Mass Media and Communication in History Essay

Types of Journalism, Mass Media and Communication in History - Essay Example The Vietnam War was adequately pictured and recorded by photojournalists and this prompted the international community to react promptly and put an end to these merciless killings (Vaughan and Thomas 405). In such instances, most of these repressive regimes leadership becomes hostile to such individuals and in some cases subject them to torture and psychological traumas (Deephouse and David 1096). The primary aim of Journalism, for instance during war periods is to ensure that all acts of injustices are pictured to attract actions from the government and the international community. The media fraternity as a whole has undergone numerous changes and challenges in equal measure (Deephouse and David 1099). In a tense political setting, for instance, the involvement of the media in ensuring proper checks and balances of the repressive regime to ensure that all acts against humanity are articulately recorded and appropriate actions against perpetrators reported. However, a photojournalist, like any other professionals must operate within some set rules and standards as dictated by the society (Deephouse and David 1113). Their actions should be such that any reasonable man in their situation will define as â€Å"normal† and as pro-human dignity. A photojournalist, for instance, is expected to record and report honest accounts of events as they happened without any form of manipulation. They should not give in to any form of intimidation be it physical or psychological in a bid by fraudulent to manipulate the true accounts of the recorded events. Integrity and honesty are crucial qualities a photojournalist must be in a possession of.  

Czechoslovakia Crisis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Czechoslovakia Crisis - Essay Example Wilson pushed for inclusion of his fourteen Points especially the League of Nations. Many of his proposals however, clashed with the secret treaties and territorial rearrangements already made by the other three European powers. They found it difficult to hide their contempt for what they saw as Wilson's naivet and superior attitude. The political wrangling became intense. Finally, agreement was reached and a treaty presented to the German representatives on May 7, 1919. The terms were harsh. Germany was stripped to approximately 13% of its pre-war territory and all of its over-seas possession. The Ruhr-Germany's industrial heartland - was to be occupied by allied troops. The size of Germany's military forces was drastically reduced. The treaty further stipulated that Germany would pay for the devastation for the devastation of the war through annual reparation payments to its European neighbors. The victors ignored the bitter complaints of the German delegation. On June 28, two rather German representatives signed the treaty. Ever since the treaty was signed it brought bitterness to Germans but they had no other choice other than facing it. The latter years were spent to pay the debts. Ever since Hitler came to power in 1933 he had made successive assaults on the restrictions that had been placed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles. He had begun secretly the process of rearmament and felt confident enough to announce the program in 1935, the same year in which he introduced conscription to the new German army. CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS THAT LEAD TO THE CRISIS Since the public announcement of German rearmament in 1935, in defiance of the treaty of Versailles, there had been apprehension among the European states, large and small, as to Germany's intentions. That they would not be pacific was made clear in the following year with the remilitarization of the Rhineland zone that had been permanently demilitarized by the same treaty (2). Thus, it was felt that it would only be a question of time as to when Hitler would proceed to realize the pan-German dream of German-Austrian unity (i.e., Anschluss): after all, Hitler himself had been born in Austria. Inasmuch as the earlier aggressive moves had produced no serious retaliation from either Britain or France, it was not to be expected that the absorption of Austria under threat of invasion on March 12 (soon to be endorsed by referendum of the Austrian people) would be met by other than words of protest from the Western powers. The gravest implications of Hitler's action, however, now pointed to Czechoslovakia (3), France's vulnerable ally now that hope of French assistance had been dealt a death blow by the earlier remilitarization of the Rhineland zone along the Franco-German border. RHINELAND CRISIS On March 7, 1936, in defiance of the Treaty of Versailles, troops of the German army entered the demilitarized buffer zone along the River Rhine. Earlier, in 1925, the then German government, in order to facilitate its entry to the League of Nations and regain its status of a great power, had signed an Agreement (the Locarno Pact) with France that provided, under an Italo-British guarantee, for mutual acceptance of their existing border, including

Cultural Hybrids Essay Example for Free

Cultural Hybrids Essay There are many people from different countries with different cultures who want to live the American Dream. They want the idea of freedom and they feel that United States is the only country in the world who can give the people the liberty it offers. The life of a person whom no one speaks with because of one’s difference can be quite miserable. The story â€Å"This is what it means to say Phoenix, Arizona† by Sherman Alexie shows the audience how different the life of Native Americans are compared to modern day Americans. Throughout the story, details about events that happened in Victor and Thomas’s life which combines the Indian and American side of their heritage were given. Alexie was trying to tell the readers how the Indians in the reservations want to hybridize their Native American and modern American culture. Since Thomas and Victor both grew up in the reservation, they see a big difference their lives are compared to the modern day Americans. The first detail that illustrates my thesis was the Fourth of July celebration when Victor and Thomas were kids. Thomas states, â€Å"It’s strange how us Indians celebrate the Fourth of July. It ain’t like it was our independence everybody was fighting for† (16). Alexie displays how Indians try to act more Americanized in order to fit in better with the modern American crowd. Back then, no one besides their own might have spoken to them because they were different so they want to be accepted. For example, the event when they were in the airport and had talked to the gymnast, Victor says, â€Å"Everybody talks to everybody on airplanes. It’s too bad we can’t always be that way† (19). Alexie sends the readers a message of how in their minds, the only way that they were going to be liked was by forgetting their Native American culture and acting more like the modern Americans. Another factor the author provides the audience of this hybridization was through the remains of Victor’s father. Alexie writes, â€Å"They set him down carefully behind the seats, put a cowboy hat on the wooden box and a Dodgers cap on the cardboard box. That’s the way it was supposed to be† (20). The cowboy hat displays the Indian side of their heritage and the Dodgers cap conveys the American side. In this situation, Alexie provides a clear view of how the characters combine their two different cultures. It is not the fact that they are forgetting the beliefs they grew up with; they blend the two cultures together to better their lives in both nation. Next was the Spokane falls incident with Thomas and Victor’s father. Thomas utters, â€Å"He drove me over to Denny’s, bought me dinner, and then drove me home to the reservation† (20). Denny’s is an American fast food restaurant. The way Alexie combines the fact that they eat at a modern American restaurant and then goes home to the reservation once again shows the mixture of the two customs. In addition to the modern American cultures, Alexie also shows how Victor and Thomas hold on to their Native American heritage. When Thomas and Victor were kids, they had stolen a car and parked it in front of the police station. Now in the modern days, if a kid was to do this, it would be a crime and the kid would be punished. Yet the turn out for this was the exact opposite. Instead of being scolded, everyone cheers â€Å"You were very brave. Very brave† (17). They even thought of themselves as warriors. Moreover, the fact that they still call each other junior also shows a way they keep their tradition alive as Native Americans. Nowadays, people do not often call each other with respect. They just call a person by their name no matter the age. The Native Americans, on the other hand, gives the people who are older a term that shows respect. Thomas states, â€Å"Everybody on this reservation is named Junior† (17). Victor and Thomas were two of the youngest people that live in the reservations therefore everyone to them are called Junior. It is a symbol for elderly. Alexie uses Victor and Thomas Builds-the-fire as the representation of these two cultures. Thomas is the person who sticks to the old fashioned, Native American values while Victor illustrates the modern day Americans and wanting to fit in. Thomas is more traditional. He demonstrates the old Native American beliefs. Victor, on the other hand, lives in the present. Both holds on to their Native American beliefs while also trying to grasp the modern American traditions. Alexie clearly represented the hardships the Native Americans have had living in the poor reservations by using details about Thomas and Victor’s life growing up. Being judged at by the way a person is or what culture they came from is a big reason why Victor and Thomas, but mostly Victor, try to act more like the modern day Americans. Although some traditions were forgotten as they grew up, in many ways, they still held on to the fact that they are still Native Americans. Some events in their life displays Victor and Thomas turning away from their culture but still is able to remember it. No matter where a person is or who they communicate with, a culture one grew up with can never be easily forgotten.

Enzyme Kinetics of Acetylcholinesterase

Enzyme Kinetics of Acetylcholinesterase David Romero Perez Enzyme kinetics of Acetylcholinesterase and its behaviour in the presence of Edrophonium. Abstract The aim of the present study was to test the effects of edrophonium on the enzyme kinetics of acetylcholinesterase. The use of s-acetylthiocholine as a substrate with its breakdown by acetylcholinesterase and the later reaction into a coloured product, allowed the utilization of colorimetric technique in conjunction with spectrophotometry. A Michaelis-Menton and a Lineweaver-Burk plot showed edrophonium to be an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor that does not fit with the classical descriptions of competitive, non-competitive or uncompetitive inhibitors. The results though were coherent with previous research that classed edrophonium as a mixed inhibitor at concentrations similar to the ones used in the present study, 10 uM. On the contrary, the same study suggested that edrophonium behaves as a competitive inhibitor at concentrations of 0.1 uM but this concentration was not tested on the present study and, therefore, further research is required. Introduction Chemical reactions are the fundamental basis of all matter and, therefore, of life. The study of the chemistry relevant to life is called biochemistry and inside this discipline the study of enzymes has been of particular importance. Enzymes simply make rare chemical events common enough to allow the accumulation of, otherwise, improvable molecules or products required for life (Laidler, 1997). Thanks to millions of years of evolution the level of sophistication in biological systems has reached high levels, allowing fine-tuned regulation of enzymes and their products (Berg, Tymoczko and Stryer, 2012). Nonetheless, the study of the enzyme kinetics and how their regulation works had to overcome, with great efforts, the technological difficulties of such small and fast reactions (Laidler, 1997). The first studies done on enzyme kinetics were on fermentation. From ancient cultures to the present humans have use fermentation to produce alcohol and bread. But it was not until the 19th century that fermentation started to be studied. Fischer’s lock and key hypothesis was one of the first successful although not completely accurate attempts to explain the process (Laidler, 1997). On 1902 Brown studied invertase, using yeast and sucrose, discovering the Enzyme-Substrate complex (ES) (Kenneth, 2013). This provided the fundamental blocks for the development of the new-born biochemistry discipline. Another hallmark on biochemistry was the work of Leonor Michaelis and Maud Leonora Menten, 1913, Michaelis-Menten equation (E + S →↠ ES →↠ ES ´ → E + products). Their experiment failed but gave us important lessons on the importance of pH on enzyme reactions (Laidler, 1997). The pH is important because most, if not all, enzymes are active only at specific ranges of pH, and usually reach their optimum activity around 7.0 pH. This value is common in biological systems although specialized enzymes may require higher or lower values (Berg, Tymoczko and Stryer, 2012). Also, the previously mentioned researchers produced an easy way of visualizing the data in the form of a graph called the Michaelis-Menten plot. This graph allows quick recognition of important parameters like the maximum activity reached by the enzyme (Vmax) and the amount of substrate required to produce half Vmax (Km) (Berg, Tymoczko and Stryer, 2012; Laidler, 1997). The Michaelis-Menten plot will be used in this study to show both parameters in relation to the enzyme achetylcholinesterase. Acetylcholinesterase is an enzyme of vital importance for the nervous system. As an enzyme is a globular protein mostly released to the inter-synaptic space between neurons’ axons and dendrites. Its purpose there is to break down the neurotransmitter acetylcholine to prevent it from continuously activating acetylcholine receptors on the post-synaptic neuron (Berg, Tymoczko and Stryer, 2012). As with every enzyme other substances can interact with it or with the conformation of the E+S complex. These components are called inhibitors and are usually described as competitive, non-competitive or uncompetitive, although mixed inhibitors have been also described (Berg, Tymoczko and Stryer, 2012; Howard, 2007). For any chemical to be classed as an inhibitor it must have an negative effect on the Vmax and/or Km. The effect on those would decide what type of inhibitor the chemical is. If competitive the inhibitor binds to the catalytic site and Vmax remains the same while Km is increased. On the other side, if non-competitive, it would bind on a different location than the catalytic site, preventing the binding of the substrate. In this case Vmax would be the same but Km would be decreased. In turn, an uncompetitive inhibitor binds to the Enzyme-Substrate complex (ES) and both Vmax and Km, are decreased (Berg, Tymoczko and Stryer, 2012; Howard, 2007). In the present study the kinetics of achetylcholinesterase are tested in the presence or absence of edrophonium in order to investigate if it is indeed an inhibitor and to which class it belongs. These values were found using a combination of spectrophotometry and colourometry techniques. Spectrophotometry is a technique in which light crosses a cuvette containing the solutes. The content of the solution absorbs a certain amount of light depending on the concentration of the coloured chemical, therefore, less light will reach the detector at the other side of the cuvette. This is called the transmittance, and allows us to calculate the absorbance by subtracting the transmittance to 1 (1-T=A). The absorbance increases or decreases with the capacity of the solution to absorb light, giving an accurate reading of changes in solution composition or concentrations as is the case with enzymes in the presence of their specific substrate (Blauch, 2014; Reed, et al., 1998). This is calculated using the Beer-Lambert law which states that absorbance can be obtained by the equation A=Ecl (E=molar absorbitivity, c=concentration, l=longitude of the path of light which is commonly 1cm) (Anon., n.d.) Being the molar absorptivity (E) of 5-thio-2-nitrobenzoic acid 1.3610^4. The Beer-Lam bert equation can be rearranged (Anon., n.d.) to study the concentrations of unknown samples given that A and E are known and it provides the basis to accurate study of enzyme kinetics together with colourometric technique. Colourometry is based in the natural correlation between the amount of coloured chemical in a solution and the intensity of that colour. Therefore, by comparing solutions of known concentration of the same chemical it is possible to determine the concentration of the unknown concentration sample (Lancashire, 2011). To do so, a spectrophotometer is used by setting it up at the specific wavelength that corresponds to the colour of the reaction (Reed, et al., 1998). In some cases the product of the enzymatic reaction may not produce any colour and a modified substrate can be used. As it was explained before, acetylcholinesterase hydrolyses (breaks down) acetylcholine into an acetyl group and choline. The problem when trying to use the colourometric technique to measure the substrate production is that choline is colourless, hence the reason s-acetylthiocholine is used instead. The break down product thiocholine reacts with 5,5’dithiobis acid (DTNB) to produce 5-thio-2-nitrobenzoic acid (E=1.3610^4). This final product is yellow coloured and can be measured using the spectrophotometer at 412nm wavelength, allowing the precise study of acetylcholinesterase kinetics. Materials The agents used in this experiment were phosphate buffer (0.1 M), acetylthiocholine (15mM), DTNB reagent (6mM), acetylcholinesterase enzyme (0.3 u/ml) and water. All of them provided by UCLan School of Biomedical Sciences. In order to create the mixtures Gilson pipettes ( p20, p200 and p1000) with their respective tips were used. In addition, 3ml tubes were used for the initial adding of agents and 1ml standard plastic cuvettes for the spectrometer, which was also used to measure the absorbance. Methods The present study was divided in three parts. The aim of the first part was to find out the effect of enzyme concentration on rate reaction. The second part aimed to find the effect of different substrate concentration on rate reaction. Finally the third part studied the effect of edrophonium on enzyme rate reaction at different substrate concentrations. As a general note, every single dilution was kept at 3.0ml volume, using phosphate buffer as solvent. Also, every single dilution had 0.1ml AChE but in controls it was replaced with 0.1ml phosphate buffer to keep the 3.0ml volume. All mixtures were produce at room temperature. Plastic cuvettes were used to measure up absorbance in a spectrometer at 412 nm wavelength for two minutes, being the result the average per minute of those two minutes. For the first part of the study on effect of enzyme concentration on rate reaction the mixtures were produced as showed in table 1. AGENT VOLUME 1ST MIXTURE VOLUME 2ND MIXTURE VOLUME 3RD MIXTURE STOCK CONC. REACTION CONC. PHOSPHATE BUFFER 1.25 ml 1.2 ml 1.1 ml 0.1 M 50 mM ACETYLTHIOCHOLINE 0.1 ml 0.1 ml 0.1 ml 15mM 0.5 mM DTNB REAGENT 0.1 ml 0.1 ml 0.1 ml 6 mM 0.2 mM AChE 0.05 ml 0.1 ml 0.2 ml 0.3 u/ml 1st-0.005 u/ml 2nd-0.01 u/ml 3rd-0.02 u/ml WATER 1.5 ml 1.5 ml 1.5 ml n/a n/a Table 1 Reaction Mixtures. Before measuring every mixture the spectrometer was blanked with the correspondent control without the enzyme. The second part of the study looked at the effect on rate reaction of different substrate concentrations. The mixtures were produced with the volumes detailed in table 2. ACETYLTHIOCHOLINE (ml) PHOSPHATE BUFFER (ml) DTNB REAGENT (ml) AChE (ml) WATER Reaction conc of Acetylthiocholine (uM) 0.20 1.1 0.1 0.1 1.5 1000 0.10 1.2 0.1 0.1 1.5 500 0.05 1.25 0.1 0.1 1.5 250 0.02 1.28 0.1 0.1 1.5 100 0.01 1.29 0.1 0.1 1.5 50 0.005 1.295 0.1 0.1 1.5 25 Table 2 Composition of mixtures of acetylcholinesterase enzyme reaction without edrophonium. The effect of edrophonium on rate reaction was studied on the third part of the experiment. The mixtures were produced following table 3. Acetylthiocholine (ml) Phosphate Buffer (ml) DTNB Reagent (ml) Edrophonium (ul) AChE (ml) Water (ml) Reaction conc of acetythiocholine (uM) 0.20 1.1 0.1 100 0.1 1.5 1000 0.10 1.20 0.1 100 0.1 1.5 500 0.05 1.25 0.1 100 0.1 1.5 250 0.02 1.28 0.1 100 0.1 1.5 100 0.01 1.29 0.1 100 0.1 1.5 50 0.005 1.295 0.1 100 0.1 1.5 25 Table 3 Composition of mixtures of acetylcholinesterase enzyme reaction with edrophonium. Once the absorbance was recorded, the Beer-Lambert law equation was transformed to calculate the Velocity of 5-thio-2-nitrobenzoic acid (E=1.3610^4) production in Moles/litre/min achieved by every mixture: -A=ECL → C=A/E (L equals 1 per 1 cm of light path length inside the spectrophotometer cuvettes). The full calculations can be consulted in appendix 1. Results For the first part of the study the effect of enzyme concentration on rate reaction was measured and the velocity on nM/L/min was calculated and noted in table 4. Acetylcholinesterase concentration in u/ml Velocity of reaction in ÃŽ ¼M/L/min 0.005 2.05 0.01 3.97 0.02 7.8 Table 4 Calculated Velocity of reaction by acetylcholinesterase concentration. The velocity was plotted against enzyme concentration in graph 1, which shows a linear relationship between both parameters. Graph 1 Enzyme reaction of acetylcholine in response to enzyme concentration. Next the velocities of enzyme reaction at acetylthiocholine concentrations ranging from 25-1000 ÃŽ ¼M in the presence or absence of edrophonium were calculated and noted in table 5. Reaction concentration of Acetylthiocholine (ÃŽ ¼M) Velocity of reaction without edrophonium (ÃŽ ¼M/L/min) Velocity of reaction with edrophonium (ÃŽ ¼M/L/min) 25 2.5 0.15 50 2.87 0.95 100 3.6 1.25 250 3.75 2.57 500 4.34 2.65 1000 6.62 3 Table 5 calculated Velocities of acetylcholinesterase enzymatic reaction with and without edrophonium. Using the data from table 5 a Michaelis-Menton graph was plotted in graph 2 in order to reveal changes in Vmax and Km in the presence or absence of edrophonium. Graph 2 Michaelis-Menton plot of acetylcholine in the presence or absence of edrophonium. Clear differences on Vmax and Km were found between mixtures with or without edrophonium. In its presence Vmax dropped from 4.34 uM/L/ml to 3.01 uM/L/ml. On the contrary, the amount of substrate (s-acetylthiocholine) required to achieve 50% of Vmax was increased from 30 uM/ml to 100 uM/ml. There was a problem with the higher concentration mixture of the absence condition as it produced a higher than expected absorbance. This was examined in the discussion section. A Lineweaver-Burk plot (graph 3) showed the same results with decreased Vmax and increased Km. Graph 3 Lineweaver-Burk plot acetylcholinesterase in the presence and absence of edrophonium. In agreement with what was observed in graph 2, the graph showed that edrophonium is an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor. The kind of inhibitor it belongs to was examined in the discussion section. Discussion When comparing the Michaelis-Menton and the Lineweaver-Burk plots with the standard results of competitive, non-competitive and uncompetitive inhibitors (Berg, Tymoczko and Stryer, 2012), it became clear edrophonium did not belong to any of those. This can be explained by understanding the mode of action of a given inhibitor with the enzyme-substrate complex. Different inhibitors interact with different parts of a given enzyme or at different moments. A competitive inhibitor â€Å"competes† with the substrate for the catalytic site of the enzyme. As a consequence, the Vmax is reduced but if the concentration of the substrate is increased, more substrate would reach the catalytic site, nullifying the effect of the inhibitor although increasing the Km. An uncompetitive inhibitor does not bind to the catalytic site but somewhere else on the enzyme. It binds only once the E+S complex has been formed, decreasing the reaction rate regardless the substrate concentration. As a result the enzyme can not reach its normal Vmax and the Km is decreased. On the other hand, a noncompetitive inhibitor does not need the E+S complex to bind to the enzyme and does not decrease E+S formation. However, the E+S+I complex would not create a product, inactivating the enzyme. Basically, the noncompetitive inhibitor has taken a percentage of the active enzy me from the population, decreasing the Vmax but maintaining the same Km for the rest of the active enzyme population (Berg, Tymoczko and Stryer, 2012). The results of the present study suggest that edrophonium decreases the Vmax whilst increasing the Km and this effect can not be overcome by increasing substrate concentration. As a result, it can be classed as a mixed inhibitor, which inhibits the binding of the enzyme to the substrate and, at the same time, inactivates a proportion of the enzyme population (Berg, Tymoczko and Stryer, 2012). This has been supported by previous research (Robaire Kato, 1975) that found edrophonium to be a competitive inhibitor at concentrations of 0.1 uM but a mixed inhibitor at concentrations like the used in the present study, 10 uM. There were some limitations with the materials used. Plastic cuvettes were used instead of glass ones which are more suitable for organic solvents (Reed, et al., 1998). Also, the relative pipetting inexperience of the researches might have affected the accuracy of the resulting mixtures, hence the odd results for the mixture of higher substrate concentration on the absence condition. In future research it is recommended to improve pipetting accuracy maybe by using an automated pipetting system. Also, the timing in enzymatic reactions is critical, as these reactions occur often in seconds or even milliseconds (Laidler, 1997). Therefore, a multiplate spectrophotometer reader could be used to measure the absorbance of the mixtures. This would avoid any potential differences and delays from the moment the mixture is done to its reading. Also, lower concentrations of edrophonium (0.1 uM) should be tested to corroborate Robaire and kato’s (1975) research. In conclusion, in agreement with previous research (Bonaire Kato, 1975), the data points at edrophonium as an acetylcholinesterase mixed inhibitor at least at high concentrations (10 uM). Nonetheless, it needs to be confirmed in future research that edrophonium is also a competitive inhibitor at low concentration. At the same time, the technique could be optimized by the use of automated means in order to improve accuracy given the odd results produced by poor pipetting accuracy. References Anon (n.d.) Beers Law. Available: http://teaching.shu.ac.uk/hwb/chemistry/tutorials/molspec/beers1.htm. Last accessed 15th Jan 2014. Berg, J. M., Tymoczko, J. L. and Stryer, L. (2012) Biochemistry, 7th ed. New York: Freeman. Blauch D. N. (2014) Spectrophotomery. Available: http://www.chm.davidson.edu/vce/spectrophotometry/Spectrophotometry.html. Last accessed 15th Jan 2014. Howard, A. J. (2007) Enzyme inhibition and regulation, CSRRi,iit, [online]. Available at: http://csrri.iit.edu/~howard/biochem/lectures/enzymeinhibition.html. Last accessed 15th Jan 2014. Kenneth, A. J. (2013) A century of enzyme kinetic analysis, 1913 to 2013. FEBSLetters. 587, 2753-2766. Laidler, K. J. (1997) A brief history of enzyme kinetics. In: A. Cornish-Bowden ed. New Beer in an Old Bottle: Eduard Buchner and the Growth of Biochemical Knowledge. Valencia: Universitat de Valencia, pp. 127-133. Lancashire, R. J. (2011) EXPERIMENT 36 COLOURIMETRIC DETERMINATION OF PHOSPHATE. Available: http://wwwchem.uwimona.edu.jm/lab_manuals/c10expt36.html. Last accessed 15th Jan 2014. Reed, R. Holmes, D. Weyers, J. Jones, A. (1998) Practical Skills in Biomolecular Sciences. 4th ed. Essex: Pearson. 310-313. Robaire, B., Kato, G. (1975) Effects of Edrophonium, Eserine, Decamethonium, d-Tubocurarine, and Gallamine on the Kinetics of Membrane-Bound and Solubilized Eel Acetylcholinesterase. MOLECULAR PHARMACOLOGY. 11 (6), 722-734. Appendix 1 Velocity calculations Normal absorbances (nM) Divided by E Velociy (ÃŽ ¼M/L/min) 1/Velocity 0.034 2.5 0.4 0.039 2.87 0.35 0.049 1.3610^4 3.6 0.277 0.051 3.75 0.266 0.059 4.34 0.23 0.090 6.62 0.15 absorbances in the presence of edrophonium (nM) Divided by E Velociy (ÃŽ ¼M/L/min) 1/Velocity 0.002 0.15 6.6 0.013 0.95 1.05 0.017 1.3610^4 1.25 0.8 0.035 2.57 0.39 0.036 2.65 0.37 0.041 3 0.33

Emerging Female Literature in the 15th and 16th Century :: Free Essay Writer

With the â€Å"successive reigns by two educated queens† in the sixteenth century there began a close examination of the woman’s role in society (Hull 1). Although nothing drastic, small numbers of women began to gain an education which taught them to read. The exact number is unknown and there is some controversy as to how many women could actually read. However, according to Suzanne Hull the â€Å"small but steady stream of books for a female audience† (Hull 1) indicates that there were a growing number of women who could read. These books were directed towards women for various reasons. One main reason was to â€Å"instruct women in their roles as marriage partners, making certain that women (and men) understood the subservient role of the female sex† (Hull 6). Many books focused on the daily activities of women–â€Å"mid-wifery, cooking, housewifery. . .education of young girls. . .Benedictine rules† (Hull 10) are some of the s ubjects addressed. These educational texts far outnumbered the fictional texts. However, this was rapidly changing. As the number of women reading increased, so did the publishing of recreational books (Hull 74). More women began to read â€Å"the romances (see history of the novel), the poetry, the jingles. . .allegories. . .[and] female biographies† (Hull 71). This brought up controversy about what girls were putting into their heads (see controversy). â€Å"Both the feminist and anti-feminist positions appear in drama and fiction as well as philosophical arguments† (Hull 83). However, try as they might, the anti-feminists were fighting a losing battle. Although this controversy of what women read was not as strong as it was in the eighteenth century–there were other topics which led great debate. One such topic was the nature of women. These arguments included that women were inferior because they were created from Adam’s rib, men are stronger and therefore superior, Eve as a woman, caused the original sin. With each argument is a counter argument which allowed this topic to be discussed for many, many years.

Personal Narrative- Living Life on the Edge :: Personal Perspective

Personal Narrative- Living Life on the Edge Heart racing, palms clammy, stuttering with nervousness. All things that usually don’t describe one’s favorite thing in the world, however in my case those are the common symptoms for my favorite way to relax in the world, adrenaline rushes. Anything that puts you so close to death you could touch it, but still hang on to a thread of life to pull yourself back up with. It sounds immature and irresponsible, I know, but don’t judge until you’ve tried, and I could never describe the rush and the complete whole, peaceful state of meditation adrenaline rushes put me in that makes all the danger in the world entirely worth it. It was late afternoon in early July and the most clear day ever conceived. I spent most of the day hiking on a mountain in North Carolina, surprisingly not sweating all that bad, but growing impatient of when â€Å"paradise† would place itself in front of me as promised. Every time I asked I got a clone answer â€Å"soon†. Alright soon but define soon, soon could mean different things right? Wrong! Right as the last breath of my question left my mouth it fell in front of me , Paradise. Well, the middle of nowhere to be exact, but paradise all the same. It was the side of the mountain where a long cliff jetted out. Being the little daredevil I am I had to see more. I climbed down off the side of the mountain on to the ledge and walked to the very edge. As I walked further out it narrowed to a one foot across point. I sat down and dangled my feet and where earth was below me there was this little hidden beach with crystal blue water. Not a single footprint in the white sa nd with a soft flowing waterfall of clear water and soft gray rocks strategically placed to make up a true paradise. It was the most spectacular sight ever. It was truly the closest thing to heaven I had ever seen. I have been told that nothing is perfect, well obviously whomever said that had never been here. As I sat there with my feet dangling the pit of my stomach dropped.

Information Technology and Innovation at Shinsei Bank

9-607-010 REV: OCTOBER 4, 2007 DAVID M. UPTON VIRGINIA A. FULLER Information Technology and Innovation at Shinsei Bank Jay Dvivedi looked once more at the proposal in his email inbox, sighed and closed his laptop for the night. He owed his boss, Shinsei CEO Thierry Porte, a response and he knew that he would need to send it in morning. One of the heads of Shinsei’s business units had approached Porte directly with a proposal for a new, off-the-shelf customer relationship management (CRM) system for his business.He wanted to fund it and implement with his own personnel, but he needed approval from Porte. Before Porte responded he had requested input from Dvivedi. When Dvivedi discussed the idea with his team the opinion was divided. The information technology organization had played an integral role in the revitalization of Shinsei Bank from the ashes of Japan’s failed Long-Term Credit Bank (LCTB). In March 2000, Dvivedi had been charged with the task of developing a rev olutionary technology infrastructure for the newly formed Shinsei Bank.When he asked then CEO Masamoto Yashiro for some guidelines he was told to do it â€Å"Fast† and â€Å"Cheap†. Drawing on his wealth of experience in technology and operations in the banking industry he and his team were able to come up with a quick, robust, and inexpensive approach through which the reborn bank could deliver its newer products and services. Shinsei, which literally meant â€Å"new birth† in Japanese, was committed to providing an improved, customer-focused model with such conveniences as Internet banking, 24-hour cost-free ATMs, and fast service based on real-time database reconciliation1.Developing and organizing the technology required to enable this was a monumental task, but one that Dvivedi and his team were able to execute within one year (one quarter of the time that would be needed to implement a traditional system), and at only 10% of the forecasted cost of a tradit ional system. By 2005, the bank had 1. 4 million customers, and was acquiring new business at a rate of 35,000 customers per month. When Dvivedi discussed the proposal with his team some said that the business understood its own objectives best.If a business unit felt that it should add a new system at its own cost then that was its right. Alternatively, other team members felt that this was against all of the principles that had been used to resurrect Shinsei’s IT systems and represented a dangerous step backwards. 1 In many other banks in Japan, deposits and withdrawals did not appear until the next day in order to reconcile the transaction and primary databases. Shinsei wanted to immediately update and make visible the data for its customers. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Professor David M. Upton and Research Associate Virginia A. Fuller prepared this case with the assistance of Masako Egawa, Executive Director of the HBS Japan Research Office, and Akiko Kanno, Research Associate at the HBS Japan Research Office. Portions of this case draw upon â€Å"Shinsei Bank (A),† HBS No. 302-036, â€Å"Shinsei Bank (B),† HBS No. 302-037, â€Å"Shinsei Bank (C),† HBS No. 302-038, and â€Å"Shinsei Bank (D),† HBS No. 02-039 by Professor Michael Y. Yoshino and Senior Research Associate Perry L. Fagan. HBS cases are developed solely as the basis for class discussion. Cases are not intended to serve as endorsements, sources of primary data, or illustrations of effective or ineffective management. Copyright  © 2006, 2007 President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-5457685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to http://www. hbsp. harvard. edu.No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of Harvard Business School. 607-010 Information Technology and Innovation at Shinsei Bank Dvivedi needed to draft a thoughtful, well-reasoned reply to Porte and he would have to do it first thing in the morning. Shinsei’s Predecessor: LTCB LTCB, was established by the government in 1952 to provide long-term funding to rebuild Japan’s basic industries after World War II.This strategy proved successful until the 1980s when financial deregulation diminished the demand for loans by traditional borrowers and LTCB aggressively expanded in the real estate and construction markets. Because of Japan’s booming economy, land prices were skyrocketing and many loans were provided based on land collateral rather than an appropriate analysis of risk or future cash flow of the borrower. When the asset bubble burst and land prices plummeted in the early 199 0s, banks were left with an enormous amount of bad debt.In spite of the increase in non-performing loans, Japanese banks were slow to take action. At the time, many still believed that the fall in land prices was temporary and that they could wait out the crisis. Furthermore, Japanese banks placed great importance on long-term relationships with their borrowers and were reluctant to raise lending rates in what seemed like a temporary business slowdown. LTCB desperately explored ways to save itself. Conditions continued to deteriorate, however, and its stock price continued to fall.On October 23, 1998, LTCB finally collapsed with nearly $40 billion of non-performing loans and was nationalized. The failure of LTCB marked the largest banking failure in post-war Japan. Acquisition by Ripplewood The events that followed were unprecedented; a Japanese landmark was bankrupt, and was subsequently purchased by a U. S. private equity fund, Ripplewood Holdings, with Goldman Sachs representing the Japanese government. Masamoto Yashiro, former president of Exxon Japan who had just retired after heading Citicorp Japan, was persuaded to join the American investors in acquiring the bank.The government initially favored selling the bank to a Japanese financial institution or an industrial company, but Ripplewood eventually won the bid. On March 1, 2000, LTCB became the first Japanese bank with foreign ownership. â€Å"New Birth† The name of the bank was changed to â€Å"Shinsei,† and Yashiro became CEO. In the first few months, Yashiro moved quickly to establish a new organization and build the bank’s business in three main areas: commercial banking, retail banking2, and investment banking.LTCB had previously generated most of its revenues from corporate loans, but Yashiro was eager to move out of this low-margin business. â€Å"The asset quality [of our loans] was extremely poor, the number of corporate and individual accounts had shrunk by 40%, the trad itional business – corporate lending – was very unprofitable, and the bank’s IT infrastructure and operational capability were significantly inferior even relative to our local competition,† said Yashiro. Fortunately, the bank had received JPY 240 billion in public funds, and was able to start business with a strong capital ratio3 of 12. %. 2 Banking services for individual customers 3 The capital ratio is the ratio of a bank’s equity to a risk-weighted sum of the bank’s assets. 2 Information Technology and Innovation at Shinsei Bank 607-010 LTCB did not have much presence in retail banking, with only two dozen branches throughout Japan, while major commercial banks had several hundred branches. The bank sold debentures (instead of receiving deposits) to high net worth individuals, but those individuals conducted their banking transactions at other banks which had a broader branch network.Shinsei bank needed an entirely new business strategy, and that, decided Yashiro, would be to serve retail customers. To create a retail banking business from the ground up, Yashiro needed the help of a visionary and technologist. Dhananjaya â€Å"Jay† Dvivedi looked like the right man for the job. An experienced manager of technology and operations with whom Yashiro had worked at Citibank Japan during the 1990s,4 Dvivedi had an engineering background and sought to apply manufacturing principles to the development of the new IT infrastructure. Retail Banking BusinessThe traditional methods of retail banking in Japan were anything but convenient. Business hours ended at three o’clock in the afternoon (to allow time to reconcile computer system information with the databases), no ATM usage outside of business hours, fees for ATMs, no Internet banking, long lead times for new account openings, separate accounts for each type of financial product, and other inconveniences had been an unavoidable, bitter pill for people managi ng their money in Japan. Yashiro and Dvivedi, therefore, endeavored to offer an alternative.Shinsei would have to â€Å"wow† potential customers into switching over from other banks. They had to offer something â€Å"extra† to convince customers to bank at Shinsei. The way to do this, they felt, was through outstanding customer service. Customer Service Model Yashiro believed it was better standards of service, and innovation in services, that would ultimately attract customers to the bank. â€Å"We were new. If we didn’t have something new to offer, there would be no reason for customers to come to us,† said Sajeeve Thomas, head of Shinsei’s retail group.The goal of developing new and closer relationships with customers through unique products and services became central to Shinsei’s transformation. The shift to meeting the competitive requirements of a retail bank, however, proved to be a significant undertaking for an institution speciali zing in corporate financial work. For the transformation to be effective, speed, flexibility, and cost control were paramount. A complete overhaul of the IT system would be required in order to enable this. The new customer-service-based business strategy required a scalable and robust operational and technological infrastructure.Such an infrastructure would help the new business segments grow by supporting enhanced, high quality, 24Ãâ€"7 customer service, product innovation and volume growth. This process involved nothing short of a revolutionary approach to information technology. â€Å"Indeed,† said Yashiro, rather wistfully, â€Å"the real challenge of transformation was not in painting the end state but in choosing the means to reach it effectively. † 4 Their work at Citibank included a major turnaround of that company’s IT system in Japan during the 1990s. 3 607-010Information Technology and Innovation at Shinsei Bank Thinking about Technology at Shinsei â€Å"We quickly came to the conclusion that the systems that were used at the old LCTB were of almost no use to us,† recalled Yashiro, lamenting the realization that the extant mainframe infrastructure was actually an impediment to building new business at Shinsei. Its mainframes were overloaded, with no spare capacity, and they relied on separate and disparate networks which were tied closely to the old business model. Maintenance costs were unacceptably high due to locked-in contracts with vendors.The network capacity was inadequate and too expensive. At the same time, the operational processes were inefficient and full of multi-layered, repetitive paper trails. Mainframes were large room-sized computers based on models developed in the 1960s by computing giants like IBM and Fujitsu. For banks, with their enormous amounts of customer data, daily transactions involved collecting information from millions of accounts, transferring it to the mainframe computer at midnight, th en refreshing the data by batch processing for the following day.Dvivedi believed that mainframes imposed great risks onto businesses; since they held the total data in the organization and this meant that if anything happened to that one computer, the business would be temporarily disabled while the system was transferred to backup machines. It was safer to distribute risks by designing systems that linked several smaller computers, such as servers, together. Servers were much smaller computers, often as small as a pizza box, based on cheaper microprocessors and standard UNIX or Windows operating systems.Such smaller servers were often combined into clusters of many hundreds of devices and were thus not only cheaper, but also more scalable than mainframes as capacity could be added to the system in much smaller increments. In the past, almost all banks had run on mainframe-based computer systems, but â€Å"removing the mainframes created granularity within the system,† said Dvivedi. This drastically reduced hardware maintenance costs and allowed flexibility such that services and new products could easily be added to the system. Building a New SystemOnce he had a skilled team in place, Dvivedi focused on centralizing the operations and creating a functional organization. Investigation into traditional methods of large-scale systems implementation exposed the significant risks and difficulties in adapting a traditional, monolithic, mainframe-based system to the dynamism of Shinsei’s freshly rekindled businesses. Indeed, new technology requirements were being developed even as the new business plans took shape, and they would need a scalable IT system that could grow with and even more importantly, adapt to the business. Technology delivers the product to the customer,† affirmed Dvivedi. Information technology had to be used as a driver of business, and a source of new business, rather than as a support function. Dvivedi also believed that S hinsei should forge its own IT strategy, rather than follow the examples set by other banks, so that competitors might one day turn to Shinsei for advice. Dvivedi could have chosen a gradual approach to creating a new infrastructure by improving the existing technology and processes over time, replacing one system and process after another.This would have minimized disruption but would have taken too long. Alternatively, he could have attempted a â€Å"big-bang† approach, replacing the existing infrastructure with a completely new set of systems and processes in one fell swoop. This approach, however, was deemed too risky, too disruptive, and too expensive. As part of building the new infrastructure Dvivedi focused on parsimony in selecting standards. There would be one network protocol, one operating system, and one hardware platform. Dvivedi 4 Information Technology and Innovation at Shinsei Bank 607-010 did not wait for consensus before moving to new standards.Choosing one set of standards, rather than allowing a patchwork of multiple standards to build up, helped keep the complexity low, which, in turn, made the system easier to manage. The skills needed to run and maintain this infrastructure were standard and people trained in them were easy to find. Instead of looking at the whole system, Dvivedi preferred to break it down into pieces. â€Å"How can we modularize pieces so they can be used again and again? † he asked. He believed that the key to success was to keep creating new elements and to introduce them into the system without stopping the enterprise.A caveat of this, however, was the challenge of keeping things safe and secure, yet not so locked-down that they became unchangeable. The approach that Yashiro and Dvivedi decided on was at once radical and accelerated, driven by the evolution of their new business strategy. It involved implementing, as needed, a new, modular operating infrastructure that operated initially in parallel wi th, but ultimately superseded, the existing infrastructure. Dvivedi’s Vision Dvivedi made choices not simply based on available technologies; rather, he focused first on the business problem that had to be solved.Once the problem was clearly identified, it was broken down into as many logical parts as possible. â€Å"We’d keep breaking down the elements until the solution was obvious,† said Sharma Subramanian, the IT group’s Planning and Coordination Officer. In addressing each element, the team looked to its toolkit of standard modules and components, and determined whether or not any appropriate solutions existed. If not, they went to the market and sought the missing piece of technology, looking specifically for its availability as a standard component.If it was not already available as a standard component, they would ask one of their partners to build the component. They would build it so that it was reusable. For a component to be reusable, it had t o have a clear specification of the function(s) it performed, as well as a standard interface into which other components or modules could connect. The various components were assembled and reused in order to build products and services for Shinsei’s customers, and 90% of the technology components were used by more than one product. To meet Yashiro’s andate, Dvivedi devised five basic guidelines that were to govern all work going forward. His approach addressed waste and unnecessary work, and the elimination thereof, to make processes more efficient. Every job done was evaluated on the basis of these five criteria: †¢ Speed – How fast can the work be done? The goal was to build a new IT system within 18 months of conception. Changes were made in small, frequent, and predictable steps. The use and re-use of standard components enabled the team to roll out new capabilities quickly and with minimal testing (since the components already had been tested in their previous context).Cost – How low can we keep costs? For example, Shinsei understood that they did not have to build everything from scratch. By combining a number of software packages, they were able to construct the new system in a very short time. For example, Shinsei used Intel-based, Windows servers and Oracle database servers on the back-end and off-the-shelf solutions on the front-end. They used standard Dell PCs running Windows. In the process, Shinsei became the largest bank running its back-end systems on a Windows platform.Capability – What new capabilities will IT enable? For example, to support multiple currencies and financial products for retail customers the old technology platform that handled deposits, loans and other services had to be changed. †¢ †¢ 5 607-010 Information Technology and Innovation at Shinsei Bank †¢ Flexibility – How easily can the system be changed to respond to business needs? Dvivedi assumed that the business needs of the company would change over time and that the IT systems had to respond to this rather than prevent ecessary change as the mainframe system had done. The infrastructure needed to be expandable and robust enough to support the operation as volumes grew. Re-usable component-based architecture would enable flexibility. To make its services flexible, Shinsei used alerts, not reports, to manage workflow. Machinedriven prompts notified employees when work went unattended, demanding attention and action when required. Similarly, when making infrastructure decisions Yashiro made a point of focusing on the business objective, not the ‘as-is’ environment.Designing an infrastructure to support a new business objective had to begin with that objective in mind and not with Shinsei’s current capabilities. If the objective could be met without changing existing infrastructure then they would not change it. If elements of the existing infrastructure were made redunda nt by the new approach, then they would become irrelevant and be superseded over time. Flexibility meant not being inhibited by previous decisions. †¢ Safety – How secure is our system? Safety was built into the process by breaking down the problems into very small parts.Smaller elements meant a smaller piece of the project that went wrong if something were to fail. Furthermore, a number of small parts meant that each part could be tackled simultaneously to fix the problem more quickly. The approach to safety could be seen clearly in Dvivedi’s decision to leverage the public Internet. Back in 2000, Dvivedi met tremendous incredulity at the notion of using the Internet for internal banking transactions. Nevertheless, the Bank went with public Internet lines as opposed to leased lines.Public Internet technology allowed Shinsei to move work to any location, including lower-cost locations, such as India. ATMs, telephones, call centers, video, and data were also connec ted through public lines, at a fraction of the cost of leased lines. â€Å"We use the Internet in two ways, for transport both within and outside the company and we use it to run different elements of our processes. The key is to ensure that each activity or session is performed in a secure manner. We assume that everything will fail. The key task is to ensure there are no single points of failure.When components fail, we assume that staff will not notice or will be busy on something else. The safety must be passive, that is to say if one component fails, the work must seamlessly move to another component all without any intervention,† said Nobuyki Ohkawa. Ohkawa had decades of experience working on these problems and was the person Dvivedi assigned the task of designing and deploying the networks and machines on which Shinsei ran its business. To ensure that the data sent over the public Internet was kept secure, Shinsei encrypted all the data it transmitted.In addition, its networks were secured by deploying the latest in network technology and by a process of continuous monitoring for unauthorized intrusions and denial of service type attacks. Should there be any indication that an attack was attempted, the source of the attack was identified and actions taken to disable or block it. Most of all, however, Dvidedi relied simply on the fundamentals of the internet itself: â€Å"The Internet is anonymous. Your messages and our data travel over the same network in a random fashion. The anonymity is our first level of security†.Given these parameters and the scope of the undertaking, Yashiro and Dvivedi did not believe they could entrust the project to one hardware vendor. Also, the fluidity of the envisioned end-state made it difficult to engage an outside vendor economically. Yashiro and Dvivedi needed to reach out to external partners to get the resources and know-how that they envisioned, as applied to their projects. Partner companies in Dvive di’s native India proved to be a tremendous boon. 6 Information Technology and Innovation at Shinsei Bank 607-010 Outsourced WorkDvivedi engaged multiple Indian firms to handle different parts of Shinsei’s information technology. This outsourced work focused on areas where internal development skills were lacking and where Dvivedi felt that they were not necessary for the bank to acquire. Thus, Dvivedi was free to pull together work groups of specialists without regard to their physical location. This was a major departure from existing practices in Japan, and proved to be a culture shock for the staff. In fact, Shinsei was the only company in Japan to use solely Indian software services.Nucleus Software, in Delhi, and Polaris Software Engineering, in Chennai, were two collaborators, as well as the larger Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services companies, in developing pieces of Shinsei’s financial software. By employing translators, Shinsei acquired best-of-breed e ngineers, and did not bother trying to teach them Japanese. They could remain in their respective silos, working on a portion of the Shinsei technology, without assimilation into Shinsei headquarters. In order to outsource work, Dvivedi and his team had to divide the work up into modular parts.Removing interdependencies was key as they believed that dependency slowed down the work; without dependency, people could work at their own speeds and avoid bottlenecks. For this reason, old systems maintenance was kept separate from new systems development. If unnecessary stress was placed on old systems, the entire system would become unstable and the speed at which new ones were developed would also be at risk. With each company, Shinsei worked to establish a relationship characterized as a â€Å"partnership† rather than one of a supplier.The bank worked with its partners without requiring competitive bids, avoiding traditional requirement documents such as RFPs (request for proposa l) or RFIs (request for information). Dvivedi believed that these were superfluous process steps that added unnecessary time and overhead work to the engagement. Furthermore, Shinsei did not enter into fixed-price contracts; on the contrary, engagements were quantified on a time-and-material basis. Implementation Shinsei moved from mainframes to a Windows-based platform, supported by a high-speed, lowcost, packet based network operated as an internal utility.They centralized the decentralized, but made sure that everything was modular and highly flexible. Organizational silos were broken down in order to integrate processes. â€Å"We have learned to deliver precision where needed rather than trying to be precise in all things,† said Yashiro. Despite the carefully constructed approach to assembling the guiding principles for the company’s IT strategy both Yashiro and Dvivedi knew that just as many, if not more, IT transformation projects failed during implementation.As such, they spent a substantial amount of time creating principles to guide the implementation process. †¢ Parity – Parity allowed the old and new systems to coexist in parallel. Dvivedi believed that employees should choose to use the new system if it were placed in front of them. He did not want to appear as though he was convincing people to use the new technology. He told employees: â€Å"We will not change – but we will change the technology. † He believed the new systems should function much the same as their predecessors, and possess the same look and feel even if this mimicry resulted in extra cost.At the same time the new system should provide new capabilities so that employees would be excited about using them. As comfort with the new systems increased, the old systems were removed. Dvivedi mused: â€Å"Nothing must change for change to happen. † 7 607-010 Information Technology and Innovation at Shinsei Bank †¢ Incremental steps â€⠀œ The smaller the changes, the lower the degree of disruption in the bank. The work was done on multiple parallel paths; development occurred in rapid, short cycles, with progressive delivery of requirements.As components were tested, they were implemented and reused if they fulfilled their objectives or they were promptly discarded if they did not work. Incremental steps also kept the system accessible as changes could be made on an almost continuous basis. Inclusiveness – Yashiro believed that the business strategy must always drive infrastructure change, and it was therefore imperative that senior managers be closely involved in the technology transformation. Said Yashiro: â€Å"I have learned that technology and operations are not just support functions.They also offer capabilities that can open up new strategic opportunities and businesses for us. † Transparency – Dvivedi tried to keep the technology transparent to the customer, such that the customer woul d not notice anything different when the technology changed. This would allow Shinsei to remain flexible in its technology choices at no inconvenience or disruption to the customer. Ironically, this required great discipline. Dvivedi had to resist advertising the new technology because, as he said, â€Å"the moment you say ‘this is going to improve things for you,’ you create a dependency. Dvivedi felt this was important so that the bank would be free to pick and choose its technology as systems changed, while the customer would experience only consistent service. Paperless – Any paper generated had to be checked, filed, and secured while the absence of paper made work distribution easier. Paper intensive, manual processes were replaced with a nearly paperless environment. A room dedicated to scanning services received all incoming paper correspondence and invoices. Such paper documents were scanned and then filed electronically.The paper documents did not move any further into the office than that initial receiving room. After that, everything was accessible online. †¢ †¢ †¢ All of these efforts supported Yashiro’s principle of minimizing the change required of people. Making new systems look as similar to old ones as possible, and allowing the two to co-exist in parallel, were necessary to minimize the disruption of Shinsei’s employees. Furthermore, they did not set formal replacement dates for any of the new systems they implemented.Instead, they performed parallel runs with reconciliation to ensure proper functioning of the new system. They repeated this process for as long as was necessary until they were sure that the employees were comfortable with the new systems. Only then did they turn off the old system. Getting Results Shinsei’s key success was in assembling the building blocks of its new infrastructure. The entire retail bank system was implemented faster than planned and well below budget. In the end, Shinsei achieved rejuvenation in one year (instead of the projected three years) and at 90% less than the riginal cost estimate. The cost of the overhaul totaled $50 million, while other banks in Japan had paid ten times this amount for similar initiatives. The success of the system transformation enabled 24Ãâ€"7 multiple channel access to customers rather than a single channel service that was only available from 9am to 3pm. In addition, they were able to obtain real-time balances from these channels, and roll out new products quickly by leveraging standard building blocks that were already in place. Management controls were also significantly improved through the new system.The old 6-day reporting cycle – characterized by chronically late financial ledger data – was replaced with a daily one, with the added ability to provide customer and product profitability tracking data on demand. 8 Information Technology and Innovation at Shinsei Bank 607-010 They w ere also able to perform continuous reconciliation on all accounts and standardized what were non-standard, non-documented procedures. New Services â€Å"We have a very specific value proposition for customers,† incoming CEO Thierry Porte said. It’s based on convenience, ease of use, empowering customers, offering things on a low-cost basis, so our ATM system is free and we also offer free Internet transfers. At the same time, we offer high-quality products and services. † One of these new services was an innovative branch operation featuring â€Å"cashless tellers. † Dvivedi believed that a key tenet of the customer service model was the interaction between staff and customers. To enhance this interaction both paper and cash had to be eliminated from the hands of the branch staff.Paper and cash, Dvivedi felt, were â€Å"avoidable distractions† that merely got in the way of superior customer service. In eliminating paper and cash, the staff was abso lved of the traditional duties of cash-counting and receipt-printing, and could solely service the customer. Indeed, the bank’s branch services were entirely self-completed; the staff was present only to provide assistance as needed. All transactions took place online, at Internet portals in the branch. The transaction could take place anywhere, however, that the customer was connected to the Internet.Online-only transactions effectively eliminated paper from the system, and also allowed the customer to be responsible for his own transactions. The customer was asked to double-check each transaction before authorizing it. This greatly reduced the frequency of errors. Cash was available from the branch’s ATM machines; staff guided the customers to use the ATMs for both withdrawing and depositing cash. If a customer did not have his ATM card, a staff member would electronically transfer the desired sum from the customer’s account into a teller’s account, and then retrieve the cash for the customer from the ATM.ATMs Most Japanese banks charged fees of 100 to 300 yen, when ATMs were used in the evenings or on weekends, or when customers withdrew money from other banks. Shinsei, to make up for its limited branch network, allowed customers to use ATMs any time free of charge. This distinguished Shinsei from other Japanese banks. Shinsei saw this as a way to attract customers to the bank at very low cost, for they did not have to expand their branch network in order to connect with their customers; they could do it through ATMs. The operating cost of the ATMs was relatively low.In 2001, Shinsei offered a new service enabling customers to withdraw cash free of charge from ATMs outside of Japan – 650,000, to be exact, in 120 different countries, through the PLUS system offered by Visa International. Citibank also offered no-fee use of international ATMs, but was part of the CIRRUS MasterCard network, which had only 530,000 ATMs in abou t 100 countries. Hours Shinsei kept its branches open on weekends and holidays in order to offer services such as same-day account openings, targeting customers who might be too busy to visit the bank during the week.Shinsei used its computer system – operated nonstop – to enable the processing of new accounts and other applications in the same day. Other financial institutions followed suit and began staying open on Saturday and Sunday, but services were limited to mortgages and asset management consulting. Anything that required the computer system could only take place during the week as their systems shut down on the weekends. Shinsei’s branch hours of 10am to 8pm every single day of the year (except New Year’s Day) enabled ustomers to do any type of banking, including sale of mutual funds and insurance policies, at their own convenience. 9 607-010 Information Technology and Innovation at Shinsei Bank Looking Back Yoshikazu Sato, a senior member of th e Technology team at Shinsei, who worked closely with Dvivedi, revealed the apparent simplicity of Shinsei’s model: â€Å"If you stand back and examine what we have done, there is nothing unique about it. The principles we follow have been around for years. Describe what we do to a manufacturing engineer and he may well remark, ‘what’s so special about it? ’ Anybody can buy what we buy.Deconstructing a problem until a standard component can be used, or using low-cost, easily available materials (in our case Dell PCs and Windows software) has been practiced for decades,† he said. â€Å"What makes us different is our ability to focus on applying these principles repeatedly with persistence and without deviation. The manufacturing industry has been moving its operations to the lowest cost and most effective locations for decades. We have replicated it in our use of virtual organizations; people with skills needed for our work are connected in from whe rever they are located.Not having to move people around saved us time, money and gave us an extremely scalable capability,† said Pieter Franken, the architect and designer of Shinsei’s core systems. â€Å"My key task is to ensure that as we do all of this, we are also institutionalizing the work we have done and to continuously expand the technical team to take up all this work,† said Dvivedi. Looking Forward Dvivedi’s â€Å"institutionalization† of Shinsei’s system development process forced the team to think about applications of the model in the future, as well as what challenges lay ahead.Shinsei was focused on growing by acquisition and, for those acquired businesses, the objective was to change the technology and process platform to enable rapid new product roll-outs and to build better quality services. The ability to do this at lower cost would create a significant competitive advantage. â€Å"Our focus is to be able to support all t he Shinsei businesses for their Information Technology needs and help them achieve the same level of technology now being employed by Shinsei Bank,† said Dvivedi. â€Å"We can add value to our businesses with our strength and know-how. In 2006, Thierry Porte succeeded Yashiro as President and CEO of Shinsei. â€Å"Thierry has a clear vision of where he is guiding Shinsei,† noted Dvivedi. â€Å"He has outlined a growth plan for our key businesses that will require us to scale up for much higher volumes, and support a whole range of new functions and features to facilitate the launch of new products and services. † As CEO, Porte was well-aware of how Shinsei’s technology would enable his plans for the bank. â€Å"Our technology is a door-opener for new business opportunities.If we can get our customers in other industries interested in the approach we take to technology design and deployment, to look at the kind of capabilities and services we can help the m build, it will be a unique way to position ourselves and grow our core business of banking. If we can do this it will expand our franchise and be a source of additional revenues,† said Porte. Dvivedi’s Response After a night of reflection the time had come to respond to Porte’s request. Dvivedi opened an email and began typing†¦ 10