BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY (GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK) Research Paper

BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY (GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK) - Research Paper Example The Blue Ridge Parkway is a carefully designed landscape that has been set in a narrow corridor of a protected land estimated to be about 88,000 acres (Whisnant 2). As the name suggests, it is a way through a park with boundaries surrounding the entire landscape designed to present and protect the Pathway. The park is owned and managed by the National Park Service system of the American public and is also the key component of the larger southern Appalachian park complex. The Blue Ridge Parkway is known to be an America’s most favorite drive that spans over 400 miles from Shenandoah Valley in Virginia to the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina (Karen 2). It is the second most visited National Park Services unit and annually welcomes over one million visitors (Reco 2). The park connects Shenandoah National Park in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Cherokee. It I also fed all round by several exits and entrances at all major federal and state highways extending even to towns and communities surrounding the region. Along the Blue Bridge Parkway are major cities like Boone, Asheville, NC, Roanoke, and VA. From its time of construction, the park still evolves through a dynamic increase of relationships in different facets. For instance, there is a continuous change in the landowners, the surrounding communities, and the public (Whisnant 2). Winding its way through 12 Virginia and 17 North California counties, it is characterized by beautiful and uncountable Appalachian landscapes. It is also surrounded by numerous communities with a profound impact on their social, economic, and cultures. The construction of the Pathway was a product of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Great Depression’s New Deal Programs to provide employment to the people to boost the economy of the United States. As the primary

Dog Food Essay Example for Free

Dog Food Essay Dogs are probably the most common and numerous pet in World, and Mexico is not the exception for this rule. The purpose of this work is to analyze the characteristics of the demand for the dog food business in Mexico. This business has shown a CAGR of 3% during the last six years. Dog Food business is divided in three categories based on food type: Dry Dog Food, Wet Dog Food and Treats / Mixers. The most important category is Dry Dog Food with 89% far followed by Wet Dog Food with the 6%. There is another category division based on price: Super Premium, Premium and Standard. In terms of Market players there are 13 competitors in this category: The most important producers are EFFEM with 48% of market share and Nestle with 21%. Regarding brands, the most important are: Pedigree: 33%, Dog Chow 7%, Perfect Fit 5% and Eukanuba with the 5%. DogFood Brand Shares % 2008 DogFoodCompanyShares % 2008 Methodology For the analysis of the dog food market, it was necessary to do a research for the market trends (increase/decrease of dog population, education of the dog owners about benefits of dog food); the view of the dog owners about the dog food and its presentations, prices and quality. As well as the willingness of the dog owners to continue buying the dog food in the changing circumstances of the market (price raising, economic crisis, market substitutes, etc. ). The steps followed to achieve this objective are: 1. Bibliographic investigation of the market size for dog food in the Mexican market, the view of the dog owners, the companies producing dog food, price, substitutes. 2. Comparison of the indicated characteristics through and between years 3. Interpretation of the collected data to observe the market behavior for this particular industry, when faces changes in the dog owner view of the market, crisis or rising of prices. 4. Determination of the challenges faced by the industry. 5. Conclusions. Determinants of Demand: 1. -Price As up year 2008, the demand felt down 21% in comparison to previous year. Among the main reasons for this fall are: The row material cost of producers increased due to the Mexican currency devaluation. This fact â€Å"forced† the manufacturers to transfer the cost increase to the consumers. Since this market is considered an Oligopoly, the demand is elastic to the price changes. In addition, it is easy to find substitutes products; such as: Human food leftovers. The outcome of the described situation pushed the demand down. The â€Å"Mon and Pop† distribution channel leveraged the circumstances and offered the market Dog food in bulk. This strategy allowed them to maintain their sales in spite of the reduced total market. As a result, the producers decided to launch smaller size presentations, which in the long run stopped the sales fall, reducing the sales fall from 21% in 2008, down to only 3% in 2009. . -Marketing Initiatives -Dog owner emotional engagement fuels potential market growth Manufactures realized that the ratio of dog per household was still low, making evidence that there was still a significant growth potential. As a consequence, dog food producers encouraged diverse nonprofit associations to promote emotional engagement to the dog wellness. Dog owners started to care more about: Nutrition, health care and dog pampering. Therefore, the manufacturers found new market niches for new products, such as super premium brands focused on health enhancement or treats to pamper the dog. The current dog owning households ratio in Mexico has grown from 38. 3% in 2004 up to 40. 5% into to 2009. In order to exploit this booming market, different efforts have been done by producers, launching marketing campaigns such as: â€Å"Adopta un perro†. Awareness of Dog Food benefits In addition, manufacturers realized that the ratio of dog food prepared vs. none prepared was too low in Mexico. Therefore, manufacturers began to develop marketing strategies in order to create a higher awareness of dog food benefits. These strategies were mainly implemented through: ) TV advertising campaigns Emotional situations between owner and pet were exploited by producers to encourage pet care i. e. EFFEMS Perfect fit showing a situation suggesting that the dog wants a balance life, such as the owner enjoys. b) Point of Purchase material. Additional exhibition at key seller â€Å"hot spots† were implemented to promote the different products benefits i. e. Hill Pet Nutrition, w hich sells only through veterinary sale points, spread out brochures in the veterinary clinics and pet stores. c) Consumer Promotions Producers decided to increase sales volume in the short term by encourage the consumer through give away attractive items for each product bough i. e. Dog Chow promotion in which a dog bed was gave away when customer purchased a package of four kg and above; in a similar promotion, premium brand Beneful offered a free dog bowl. d) Sponsorships Producers developed different sponsorship programs to increment brand awareness i. e. â€Å"Incredible dog challenge†. e) Product Innovation In order to maintain, and even increase profit margin, producers improved the food formulations and packages. I-e. (Nestle’s effort to re-launch Campeon brand with a different formula using the slogan of â€Å"looking similar to human food†. All these efforts helped to reduce the shortfall of 8 pps showed between 2007 and 2008 down to only 1 pps between 2008 and 2009. Conclusions The market of dog food has changed in last few years, due of the changes in the perception of the pets inside families, mostly in developed countries. Dogs are the most common and numerous pets, and nowadays are treated as another member inside the family. Dog owners pamper their dogs, and care about the nutrition and general wellbeing of their animals. One of the findings about this market is that it has an elastic demand, strongly dependent of the income of the families in Mexico; as income decreases, the demand for dog food decreases as well. Besides, the dog food in Mexican market has one mayor (and almost free) substitute: the human food leftovers. Commonly, the families, mostly the low income ones, feed their dogs with the food they don’t use, or the parts of the meat markets that is not sold for human consumption. Because of that elastic demand, the industry had the need to change the ways producers do business. First, market players need ongoing innovation to adapt themselves to the changing needs of the market, such as: New and smaller size presentations, sales and marketing promotions, effective campaigns of education on how to feeding dogs with specialized and prepared food. These initiatives, along with dog adoption programs were key elements to increase market penetration. Currently, the industry of dog food is facing new challenges as low recovery of world economy, need of new formulation and customized and specialized products (aged dogs, puppies, small breeds, active dogs and sedentary dogs) demand from producers more effective sales promotions to change the mindset of the Mexican consumer about feeding dogs with the â€Å"leftovers†.

Birth of the Calle Ocho Festival :: Little Havana Miami Latin Culture

The Birth of the Calle Ocho Festival In the heart of Miami, Florida, the Calle Ocho Festival is an event open to people of all ethnic backgrounds and age groups. This event dates back to the late seventies. The festival originated in 1977. It was organized by two men, Leslie Pantà ­n Jr. and Willy Bermello, who wanted to start a project with the Miami Herald to bring the community closer together. They decided on a festival while scribbling on the back of a place mat at lunch one day at the Red Coach Inn during the summer of 1977. Pantà ­n and Bermello's goal was to have a street party that would display the Latin-American lifestyle in the city of Miami for non-Spanish speakers. Today, this festival has grown into the largest Hispanic festival held in the United States. Hundreds of thousands of people attend the event for the dancing, eating, and getting to know everyone and everything that is part of Little Havana. The Calle Ocho festival was originally named the Open House Eight, because the two organizers wanted the festival to be an open welcome to southwest Eighth Street. With no credit, Pantà ­n and Bermello ran into a slight problem with their idea. They needed money to start up their plan for the festival. Relying solely on the aid of friends for finance, they managed to raise $37,000 to put on a fifteen block street party. However, Pantà ­n and Bermello still needed coverage for the new festival. Thanks to knocking on many doors, making presentations to advertisers, and receiving television coverage, they received all the publicity they needed. People from all over South Florida came to attend the Calle Ocho festival. The first festival, held in 1978, was a major success. Music, food, dancing, and smiling faces are some of the many attractions you may find at this festival. Performers such as Willy Chirino, Oscar de Leon, El Gran Combo, Celia Cruz, The Barrio Boys, and Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine, among others, have performed during the past twenty years. Salsa, merengue, cumbia, and guaguancà ³ dancers fill the streets of Little Havana every year.

Electronic Voting Machine

International Journal of Information and Electronics Engineering, Vol. 3, No. 2, March 2013 A Preview on Microcontroller Based Electronic Voting Machine Diponkar Paul and Sobuj Kumar Ray, Member, IACSIT Abstract—Voting is most pivotal process of democratic society through which people determine it’s government. Governments around the world are increasingly considering the replacement of traditional paper-based voting schemes with electronic voting systems.Elections of Bangladesh are conducted most exclusively using electronic voting machines developed over the past three years. In this paper we describe the design, construction and operation of a digital voting machine using a microcontroller profoundly. Again we also portray counting system of votes, market survey and cost analysis. Index Terms—Voting system, atmega16l microcontroller, voting analysis, security of EVM. I. INTRODUCTION Voting is a crucial device to reveal the opinion of a group on an issue that i s under consideration. Based on the promise of greater e? iency, better scalability, faster speed, lower cost, and more convenience, voting is currently shifting from manual paper-based processing to automate electronic-based processing. The term â€Å"electronic voting† characteristically depicts to the use of some electronic means in voting and ensure the security, reliability, guarantee and transferency[1],[2]. Now a day the wide range of application of voting include its use in reality student body elections, shareholder meetings, and the passing of legislation in parliament. Perhaps the most important, in? ential, publicised, and widespread use of voting is its use in national elections. Compared to its traditional paper-based counterpart, electronic voting is considered to have many greater potential bene? ts. These bene? ts include better accuracy by eliminating the negative factor of human error, better coverage for remote locations, increased speed for tally computat ion, lower operational cost through automated means, and the convenience of voting from any location Whether or not electronic voting is a necessary replacement for the traditional paper-based method, it is irrefutable that the conduct of voting as been shifting to the use of electronic medium. To date, electronic databases are used to record voter information, computers are used to count the votes and produce voting results, mobile devices are used for voting in interactive television shows, and electronic voting machines have been used in some national elections. Generally, the term â€Å"electronic voting† refers to the de? nition, collection, and dissemination of people’s opinions with the help of some machinery that is more or less computer supported. Despite Manuscript received August 15, 2012; revised October 12, 2012.The authors are with the Department Electrical and Electronic Engineering, World University of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh (e-mail: [email  pr otected] com, [email  protected] edu. sg) the transition from traditional paper-based systems to electronic medium, the purpose and requirements for voting remain. Voting is a decision making mechanism in a consensus-based society and security is indeed an essential part of voting. The critical role in determining the outcome of an election, electronic voting systems should be designed and developed with the greatest care.However, a number of recent studies have shown that most of the electronic voting systems being used today are fatally defective [3], [4], [5] and that their quality does not match the importance of the task that they are supposed to carry out. Flaws in current voting systems, which were discovered through testing and other analysis techniques, have stimulated a number of research efforts to mitigate the problems in deployed voting systems. These efforts focused on ameliorating security primitives, such as the storage of votes [6], [7] and auditing [8], and on fo rmally assessing and making procedures more effective [9], [10].Finally, the standards that set the functional and performance requirements against which the systems are developed, tested, and operated have often been found to be inadequate [11], [12], [13]. Among the reasons for concern, critics include vague and incomplete security guidelines, insufficient documentation requirements, and inadequate descriptions of the configuration of commercial software. An electronic voting machine has been designed by a microcontroller for which the code is written in assembly language.Various code protection schemes specified by the manufacturer of the microcontroller are used to prevent inadvertent or deliberate reading and reproduction of the code contained in the microcontroller. The election data contained in the EEPROM of the microcontroller can download into a central computer for tabulations. The security of data in this computer is enforced by generating digital signatures for each dat a file created. This process makes it impossible for anyone to substitute wrong or deliberately altered data files at any intermediate stage between the capturing of voter’s intent by the machine and the final results tabulations.Prior to the election, all con? guration data is set up on the counting server. The con? guration is then transferred to the ballot-box server. Con? guration data include: candidate names, polling station identity, and a list of barcodes. During the voting period, voters are authenticated as per the traditional paper-based voting, and asked whether they wish to vote electronically or use the traditional paper-based method. A voter choosing to use the traditional paper-based method proceeds by being given a ballot paper, casting the vote on the ballot paper, and placing the ballot paper in a ballot-box.On the other hand, a barcode is chosen at random and is given to the voter choosing to use eVACS. Voter authorisation on the electronic voting booth co mputer is by 185 DOI: 10. 7763/IJIEE. 2013. V3. 295 International Journal of Information and Electronics Engineering, Vol. 3, No. 2, March 2013 using the barcode. The electronic voting booth computer communicates the barcode to the ballot-box server for validation and to inform that the voting process is initiating. Upon validation of an invalid barcode, the ballot-box server returns an error message to the voting booth computer.Otherwise, the ballot-box server returns the equivalent of a ballot-paper containing the names of candidates to the voting booth computer. The voter may select the candidates in a particular preference ordering, and restart or complete their selection afterwards. The selection is displayed on the screen forcon? rmation, and the voter is allowed to change or con? rm their selection. The voting booth computer returns a warning given invalid selection or informal vote, however casting invalid or informal vote is allowed. The voter con? ms the selection by using the barcode, and both the vote and a log of key sequence pressed are then communicated to the ballot-box server. The ballot-box server checks that the same barcode is used to initiate the server counts the votes, and produces a voting result. II. HARDWARE DEVELOPMENT OF ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINE Fig. 1. Block diagram of digital voting system Fig 2. Circuit diagram of the digital voting system A. Circuit Description The high level digital voting machine built with ATmega16 Micro controller. The Micro controller port D uses for LCD display and port C. (pin 22) uses for voting power or presiding officers button. The candided button input from Port C. 1 – C. 4 (pin 23 to 26; 4 candided). The output LED and buzzer uses Micro controller port C. 5 and C. 6. The LCD backlight also connected to port C. 7 via a transistor. At the starting of voting the election commission offices setup the machine at the centre. Then power on the switch and sealed it that nobody can power off. The pre siding officer identifies the original voter of that particular area and pushes the voting power button. The voting power LED glow then and continue it until once press the candided buttons.The voter then goes to the secret room where Voting unit placed and press button beside his candided symbol. Voter can watch success of voting by glowing confirmation LED and beep indication. The presiding officer can also hear beep sound watch a confirmation LED. Same time the voting power goes down and nobody can vote again. Mainly when presiding officer press voting power button, Micro controller start scanning from pin 23 to pin 26. When get response from a specific pin, increase the counter one of that candided and stop scanning. So it is not possible to voting twice or more.All the counter result store at Micro controller EEPROM. When the voting is under process it will showed at display â€Å"Voting under Process†. At the end of voting we need to know result. Then election commissio n or presiding officer presses the secret key (password). Now the Micro controller shows the result and supply the power to LCD backlight that it illuminated. If it needs to return voting process again one should press another secret key. There uses a transistor to operate buzzer and confirmation LED with proper current. There also uses a voltage regulator (7805) to supply 5v continuously.Here uses a dry cell 9V battery as power source. The power consumption of the system is very low (50mW150mW varying). After collected data and need erase recorded data from EEPROM just broken the sealed on power button and power off the system. Now the system is ready for next election. This measurement System includes the following components: †¢ Voting Unit †¢ Control Unit †¢ Confirmation Unit †¢ Display Unit (LCD) †¢ Power Supply Unit B. Voting Unit Fig. 3. Output circuit diagram of the digital voting system Fig. 4. Voting 186 International Journal of Information and Ele ctronics Engineering, Vol. 3, No. 2, March 2013Fig. 5. Confirmation unit In this Voting unit we have been used five button switch and five 2. 2K? resister which connected to the five button switches. C. Buzzer A buzzer or beeper is an audio signaling device, which may be mechanical, electromechanical or piezoelectric. Typical uses of buzzers and beepers include alarm devices. These devices are output transducers converting electrical energy. As power is applied this mechanical device will energize and by doing so interrupt the power source and the cycle continue until the power is removed. The frequency of oscillation is strictly dependent on mechanical inertia.The piezo buzzer produces sound based on reverse of the piezoelectric effect. The generation of pressure variation or strain by the application of electric potential across a piezoelectric material is the underlying principle. These buzzers can be used alert a user of an event corresponding to a switching action, counter sign al or sensor input. They are also used in alarm circuits. The buzzer produces a same noisy sound irrespective of the voltage variation applied to it. It consists of piezo crystals between two conductors. When a potential is applied across these crystals, they push on one conductor and pull on the other.This, push and pull action, results in a sound wave. Most buzzers produce sound in the range of 2 to 4 kHz. The Red lead is connected to the Input and the Black lead is connected to Ground. D. Light Emitting Diode (LED) A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor light source. LEDs are used as indicator lamps in many devices and are increasingly used for other lighting. Introduced as a practical electronic component in 1962, early LEDs emitted low-intensity red light, but modern versions are available across the visible, ultraviolet, and infrared wavelengths, with very high brightness.When a light-emitting diode is forward-biased (switched on), electrons are able to recombine with electron holes within the device, releasing energy in the form of photons. This effect is called electroluminescence and the color of the light (corresponding to the energy of the photon) is determined by the energy gap of the semiconductor. LEDs are often small in area (less than 1 mm2), and integrated optical components may be used to shape its radiation pattern. LEDs present many advantages over incandescent light sources including lower energy consumption, longer lifetime, 187 mproved robustness, smaller size, and faster switching. LEDs powerful enough for room lighting are relatively expensive and require more precise current and heat management than compact fluorescent lamp sources of comparable output. Light-emitting diodes are used in applications as diverse as replacements for aviation lighting, automotive lighting (in particular brake lamps, turn signals, and indicators) as well as in traffic signals. LEDs have allowed new text, video displays, and sensors to be developed , while their high switching rates are also useful in advanced communications technology.Infrared LEDs are also used in the remote control units of many commercial products including televisions, DVD players, and other domestic appliances E. Controller Unit A control unit in general is a central part of the machinery that controls its operation, provided that a piece of machinery is complex and organized enough to contain any such unit. One domain in which the term is specifically used is the area of computer design. In this work Microcontroller ATMEGA 16L is used as the controller unit which controls the sensed signal.A single highly integrated chip that contains all the components comprising a controller. Typically this includes a CPU, RAM, some form of ROM, I/O ports, and timers. Unlike a general-purpose computer, which also includes all of these components, a microcontroller is designed for a very specific task — to control a particular system. As a result, the parts can be simplified and reduced, which cuts down on production costs. Microcontrollers are sometimes called embedded microcontrollers, which just mean that they are part of an embedded system that is, one part of a larger device or system.F. Power Supply Unit Power supply is a very important part of electronic circuit this circuit required fixed +5 V supply so to fix this voltage we needed voltage regulator. In this work used 7805 Voltage regulator which output fixed +5 volt. A voltage regulator generates a fixed output voltage of a preset magnitude that remains constant regardless of changes to its input voltage or load conditions. There are two types of voltage regulators: linear and switching. A linear regulator employs an active (BJT or MOSFET) pass device (series or shunt) controlled by a high gain differential amplifier.It compares the output voltage with a precise reference voltage and adjusts the pass device to maintain a constant output voltage. G. Display Unit Display device sho wn the result of the measuring instrument. A observer can see the result and observe the temperature of electrical machine. In this work we used a 2Ãâ€"16 character LCD (LM016L) display. A liquid crystal display (LCD) is a thin, flat electronic visual display that uses the light modulating properties of liquid crystals. H. Printed Circuit Board A printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanicallyInternational Journal of Information and Electronics Engineering, Vol. 3, No. 2, March 2013 support and electrically connect electronic components using conductive pathways, tracks or signal traces etched from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate. It is also referred to as printed wiring board (PWB) or etched wiring board. A PCB populated with electronic components is a printed circuit assembly (PCA), also known as a printed circuit board assembly (PCBA). Printed circuit boards are used in virtually all but the implest commercially produced electronic devices. PCBs ar e inexpensive, and can be highly reliable. They require much more layout effort and higher initial cost than either wire wrap or point-to-point construction, but are much cheaper and faster for high-volume production; the production and soldering of PCBs can be done by automated equipment. Much of the electronics industry's PCB design, assembly, and quality control needs are set by standards that are published by the IPC organization. Pin descriptions of ATmaga16L Microcontroller VCC: Digital supply voltage.GND: Ground. Port B (PB7†¦ PB0) Port B is an 8-bit bi-directional I/O port with internal pull-up resistors (selected for each bit). The Port B output buffers have symmetrical drive characteristics with both high sink and source capability. As inputs, Port B pins that are externally pulled low will source current if the pull-up resistors are activated. The Port B pins are tri-stated when a reset condition becomes active, even if the clock is not running. Port B also serves th e unction’s of various special features of the ATmega16. Port C (PC7†¦PC0) Port C is an 8-bit bi-directional I/O port with internal pull-up resistors (selected for each bit). The Port C output buffers have symmetrical drive characteristics with both high sink and source capability. As inputs, Port C pins that are externally pulled low will source current if the pull-up resistors are activated. The Port C pins are tri-stated when a reset condition becomes active, even if the clock is not running. If the JTAG interface is enabled, the pull-up resistors on pins PC5 (TDI), PC3 (TMS) and PC2 (TCK) will be activated even if a reset occurs.Port C also serves the functions of the JTAG interface and other special features of the ATmega16. Port D (PD7†¦ PD0) Port D is an 8-bit bi-directional I/O port with internal pull-up resistors (selected for each bit). The Port D output buffers have symmetrical drive characteristics with both high sink and source capability. As inputs, Po rt D pins that are externally pulled low will source current if the pull-up resistors are activated. The Port D pins are tri-stated when a reset condition becomes active, even if the clock is not running. Port D also serves the functions of various special features of the ATmega16.Port A (PA7†¦ PA0) Port A serves as the analog inputs to the A/D Converter. Port A also serves as an 8-bit bi-directional I/O port, if the A/D Converter is not used. Port pins can provide internal pull-up resistors (selected for each bit). The Port A output buffers have symmetrical drive characteristics with both high sink and source capability. When pins PA0 to PA7 are used as inputs and are externally pulled low, they will source current if the internal pull-up resistors are activated. The Port A pins are tri-stated when a reset condition becomes active, even if the clock is not running.RESET Reset Input. A low level on this pin for longer than the minimum pulse length will generate a reset, even if the clock is not running. Shorter pulses are not guaranteed to generate a reset. AVCC Fig. 6. Printed circuit board (pcb) of this voting system I. Pin Configurations Discription Fig. 7. Pin configuration of Atmega16L microcontroller[14] AVCC is the supply voltage pin for Port A and the A/D Converter. It should be externally connected to VCC, even if 188 International Journal of Information and Electronics Engineering, Vol. 3, No. 2, March 2013 he ADC is not used. If the ADC is used, it should be connected to VCC through a low-pass filter AREF AREF is the analog reference pin for the A/D Converter. III. SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT FOR ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINE Flowchart of Program: user. In both of the systems that we analyzed, we found major security vulnerabilities that could compromise the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the voting process. The results of our study suggest that there is a need for a drastic change in the way in which electronic systems are designed, deve loped, and tested.Researchers, practitioners, and policy makers need to define novel testing approaches that take into account the peculiar information flow of these systems, as well as the combination of computer security mechanisms and physical procedures necessary to provide a high level of assurance. Electronic voting software is not immune from security concerned. Here we describe Hack-a-vote, a simplified DRE voting system that we initially developed to demonstrate how easy it might be to insert a Trojan horse into a voting system.In case of a discrepancy, there either must be a row with the fresh random number. But without a mark of the voter or the alignment information on the ballot and on the receipt must differ. The proof consists either of a row containing the fresh random number but no mark without revealing which row this is or the proof consists of the two differing alignment bar codes without showing the mark at all. After the publication of the receipts the situatio n is analogous to the paper based schemes above as the voter possesses a correct receipt as electronic evidence.In addition to using unforgivable receipts with a special paper one can assume a trusted printer containing a chip card this printer could have the chip card and print the signature to the receipt. Having two in dependent ways to proved receipt to be not a forgery is a big advantage. REFERENCES D. Balzarotti, G. Banks, M. Cova, V. Felmetsger, R. A. Kemmerer, W. Robertson, F. Valeur, and G. Vigna, â€Å"An Experience in Testing the Security of Real-World Electronic Voting Systems,† IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol. 36, no. 4, 2010. [2] A. Villa? orita and K. Weldemariam, and R. Tiella, â€Å"Development, Formal Veri? ation, and Evaluation of an E-Voting System with VVPAT,† IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, vol. 4, no. 4, 2009. [3] Y. D. Wagner, M. Bishop, T. Baker, B. D. Medeiros, G. Tyson, M. Shamos, and M. Burmester, â₠¬Å"Software Review and Security Analysis of the ES I Votronic 8. 0. 1. 2 Voting Machine Firmware,† Technical report, Security and Assurance in Information Technology Laboratory, 2007. [4] T. Kohno, A. Stubblefield, A. Rubin, and D. Wallach, â€Å"Analysis of an Electronic Voting System,† in Proc. of IEEE Symp. Security and Privacy, pp. 27-40, 2004. [5] E. Proebstel, S. Riddle, F. Hsu, J.Cummins, F. Oakley, T. Stanionis, and M. Bishop, â€Å"An Analysis of the Hart Intercivic DAU eSlate,† in Proc. of Usenix/Accurate Electronic Voting Technology Workshop, 2007. [6] D. Molnar, T. Kohno, N. Sastry, and D. Wagner, â€Å"Tamper-Evident, History Independent, Subliminal-Free Data Structures on PROM Storage-or-How to Store Ballots on a Voting Machine (Extended Abstract),† in Proc. of IEEE Symp. Security and Privacy, pp. 365-370, 2006. [7] J. Bethencourt, D. Boneh, and B. Waters, â€Å"Cryptographic Methods for Storing Ballots on a Voting Machine,† in Proc. o f Network and Distributed System Security Symp, 2007. 8] S. Garera and A. Rubin, â€Å"An Independent Audit Framework for Software Dependent Voting Systems,† in Proc. of ACM conf. Computer and Comm. Security, pp. 256-265, 2007. [9] J. Hall, â€Å"Improving the Security, Transparency and Efficiency of California’s 1 Percent Manual Tally Procedures,† in Proc. of Usenix/ Accurate Electronic Voting Technology Workshop, 2008. [10] K. Weldemariam and A. Villafiorita, â€Å"Modeling and Analysis of Procedural Security in (e) Voting: The Trentino’s Approach and Experiences,† in Proc. of Usenix/Accurate Electronic Voting Technology Workshop, 2008. [11] R.Hite, â€Å"All Levels of Government are needed to Address Electronic Voting System Challenges,† Technical report, GAO, 2007. [1] Fig. 8. Flowchart of program IV. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS This work contributed to three very basic research questions arising: in the context of verifiable elections. First, we discussed the problem of keeping ballot secrecy to a certain extent in the case of a corrupted doting machine or voting authority. Our contribution to this is an approach where all secret information is encapsulated in the voting machine. Second, we considered the attack of receipt stealing and manipulation of the corresponding votes.Here we proposed a novel approach of linking all receipts by a hash chain such that each single receipt guards the integrity of all receipts issued previously. Together with a display in the polling place this approach shortens the time window in which an adversary can perform the ballot stealing attack without almost zero risk. Third, we discussed in detail the possibility of contesting an election based on the evidence provided by the verifiable election scheme. We compared the situation for Bingo Voting to the evidence provided by paper based schemes.We shortly sketched an approach to prove an error or a manipulation in the voting booth without vi olating ballot secrecy. However, this was only a proof of concept and for a practical application the usability of this approach needs to be further improved. V. CONCLUSION As part of these exercises, we devised a testing methodology, developed new tools that are specifically tailored to the security analysis of these systems, and learned a number of lessons, all of which should be of use to other 189 International Journal of Information and Electronics Engineering, Vol. 3, No. 2, March 2013 [12] M. Gondree, P. Wheeler, and D. D.Figueiredo, â€Å"A Critique of the 2002 FEC VSPT E-Voting Standards,† Technical report, Univ. of California, 2005. [13] R. Mercuri. Voting System Guidelines Comments. [Online]. Available: http:// www. wheresthepaper. org/VVSGComment. pdf, 2005. [Online]. Available: [14] Atmel. http://www. atmel. com/Images/doc2466. pdf Mr. Diponkar Paul is currently working as Assistant Professor in the department of Electrical and Electronic engineering at World Uni versity of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh (www. wub. edu. bd ). After passing his master degree from March 2008 he was serving as Assistant Professor, EEE at Bangladesh University upto July 2010.He is having qualifications: B. Sc. Engg. , DISM (software engineering), M. Sc. Engg. His research interests are in the area of energy conversions, power system modeling and advanced control theories covering the application of IT. From 0ct 2004 to July 2006, he was working as Lecturer in department of computer science and engineering at Pundra University of science & technology, Bogra. In Singapore during his master dgree at Nanyang technological university, he was involved in financial service operation integrated to IT system administration jobs from Dec 2006 to February 2008.Mr. Sobuj Kumar Ray was born in 1987, Bogra, Bangladesh. Mr. Ray received his Bachelor degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology (RUET), Rajshahi, Bangl adesh in April 2010. He is now Assistant Manager (Technical) in DESCO. Mr. Ray worked at Internal University of Business Agriculture and Technology in the department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Dhaka, Bangladesh (www. iubat. edu) from 12th July 2010 to 1st October, 2012. He is enthusiastic on researcher on control system and Power System. 190 Electronic Voting Machine Project Outline In general the EVM consists of two units that can be inter linked. A ballot unit, which a voter uses to exercise his vote. And the other, a control unit used by the polling officials. But the EVM prepared by us is totally automated. MCU is acting as the Polling Officer in this EVM. Ballot Unit It consists of a 16Ãâ€"2 LCD and IR LEDs. LCD displays the name of the post and candidate for which voting is going on IR LEDs are used as touch switches. For anything which you have to select, put your figure just above the option where it is being displayed on the LCD. Control UnitIt consists of a MCU and a 7 keys keypad. MCU stores the program, run it and also stores the data given by voters. We have made keypad, which can be used to input the name of Posts and the Candidates. By using this we will not have to program the machine each time before any election. One can enter the name of posts and candidates just before the election. This can also prevent programming the EVM t o favour any particular candidate. 1. 1 The Electronic Voting Mach ine – An Electronic Marvel. Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) retains all the characteristics of voting by ballot papers, while making polling a lot more expedient.Being fast and absolutely reliable, the EVM saves considerable time, money and manpower. And, of course, helps maintain total voting secrecy without the use of ballot papers. The EVM is 100 per cent tamper proof. And, at the end of the polling, just press a button and there you have the results. 1. 2Description: Electronic voting machine has now days become an effective tool for voting. It ensures flawless voting and thus has become more widespread. It ensures people about their vote being secured. It avoids any kind of malpractice and invalid votes.Also such kind of system becomes more economical as consequent expenditure incurred on manpower is saved. It is also convenient on the part of voter, as he has to just press one key whichever belongsto his candidates. Voting machinesare the total combination ofmechanical,electromechanical, or electronic equipment (includingsoftware,firmware, and documentation required to program control, and supportequipment), that is used to define ballots; to cast and count votes; to report or display election results; and to maintain and produce any audit trail information.The first voting machines were mechanical but it is increasingly more common to use electronic voting machines. A voting system includes the practices and associated documentation used to identify system components and versions of such components; to test the system during its development and maintenance; to maintain records of system errors or defects; to determine specific changes made after initial certification; and to make available any materials to the voter (such as notices, instructions, forms, or paper ballots).Traditionally, a voting machine has been defined by the mechanism the system uses to cast votes and further ca tegorized by the location where the system tabulates the votes. Voting machines have different levels of usability, security,efficiency and accuracy. Certain systems may be more or less accessible to all voters, or not accessible to those voters with certain types of disabilities. They can also have an effect on the public's ability to oversee elections. SUMMARY Electronic voting machine has now replaced the traditional mechanism of voting due to several advantages like security, automatic counting etc.This project presents a way to develop an electronic voting machine which displays the count of votes on a 16Ãâ€"2 LCD interface. A user can get his/her vote register through a set of switches (one for each candidate). After every cast of vote, the subsequent count can be seen on LCD. The circuit uses AT89C51 microcontroller and the code for the project has been written in C. DESCRIPTION This LCD based electronic voting machine is designed for four candidates. The input part consists of a set of six tactile switches. The switches and 16Ãâ€"2 LCD are interfaced to microcontroller AT89C51 for various operations and displays.The provision of casting votes for the candidates has been provided through four of these switches. These switches are made active high and connected to pins 2-5 (P1^1 – P1^4) of the controller. The remaining two switches (both active low) are to start and stop the voting procedure. They are connected to pins 1 and 6 (P1^0 and P1^5) respectively. The Init (start) switch initializes the voting system when pressed, while the Stop switch ends the voting and displays the poll results on LCD screen. For more details on working with LCD, refer LCD interfacing with 8051.The data pins of the LCD (pins 7-14) are connected to the output port P2 of the microcontroller. The control pins (RS, R/W and EN) are connected to port P3 pins P3^0, P3^1 ; P3^6 respectively. Working: The voting is started by pressing the Init switch after which the user is p rompted to vote. The count of votes is stored in four different variables. As soon as the user votes for a candidate by pressing one of the switches, the value of the corresponding variable is increased by one. After this a Thank you message is displayed on LCD to acknowledge the registration of user’s vote.The message stays on the screen until the next user either presses the Init button to cast another vote or Stop switch is pressed get the poll results. When the stop button is pressed, the names of the candidates are displayed along with their vote counts. After some delay, the result is displayed which could be either declaration of the winner candidate or the candidates with a clash of their number of votes. PRESET | | A preset is a three legged electronic component which can be made to offer varying resistance in a circuit.The resistance is varied by adjusting the rotary control over it. The adjustment can be done by using a small screw driver or a similar tool. The res istance does not vary linearly but rather varies in exponential or logarithmic manner. Such variable resistors are commonly used for adjusting sensitivity along with a sensor. The variable resistance is obtained across the single terminal at front and one of the two other terminals. The two legs at back offer fixed resistance which is divided by the front leg. So whenever only the back terminals are used, a preset acts as a fixed resistor.Presets are specified by their fixed value resistance. | | AT89C51 MCAT89C51 is an 8-bit microcontroller and belongs to Atmel's 8051 family. ATMEL 89C51 has 4KB of Flash programmable and erasable read only memory (PEROM) and 128 bytes of RAM. It can be erased and program to a maximum of 1000 times. In 40 pin AT89C51, there are four ports designated as P1, P2, P3 and P0. All these ports are 8-bit bi-directional ports, i. e. , they can be used as both input and output ports. Except P0 which needs external pull-ups, rest of the ports have internal pul l-ups.When 1s are written to these port pins, they are pulled high by the internal pull-ups and can be used as inputs. These ports are also bit addressable and so their bits can also be accessed individually. Port P0 and P2 are also used to provide low byte and high byte addresses, respectively, when connected to an external memory. Port 3 has multiplexed pins for special functions like serial communication, hardware interrupts, timer inputs and read/write operation from external memory. AT89C51 has an inbuilt UART for serial communication.It can be programmed to operate at different baud rates. Including two timers & hardware interrupts, it has a total of six interrupts. Pin Diagram:  Pin Description:     Pin No|   Function|   Name| 1| 8 bit input/output port (P1) pins| P1. 0| 2| | P1. 1| 3| | P1. 2| 4| | P1. 3| 5| | P1. 4| 6| | P1. 5| 7| | P1. 6| 8| | P1. 7| 9| Reset pin; Active high| Reset| 10| Input (receiver) for serial communication| RxD| 8 bit input/output port (P3) pins| P3. 0| 11| Output (transmitter) for serial communication| TxD| | P3. 1| 12| External interrupt 1| Int0| | P3. 2| 3| External interrupt 2| Int1| | P3. 3| 14| Timer1 external input| T0| | P3. 4| 15| Timer2 external input| T1| | P3. 5| 16| Write to external data memory| Write| | P3. 6| 17| Read from external data memory| Read| | P3. 7| 18| Quartz crystal oscillator (up to 24 MHz)| Crystal 2| 19| | Crystal 1| 20| Ground (0V)| Ground| 21| 8 bit input/output port (P2) pins/High-order address bits when interfacing with external memory  |   P2. 0/ A8| 22| |   P2. 1/ A9| 23| |   P2. 2/ A10| 24| |   P2. 3/ A11| 25| |   P2. 4/ A12| 26| |   P2. 5/ A13| 27| |   P2. 6/ A14| 28| |   P2. 7/ A15| 9| Program store enable;  Read from external program memory| PSEN| 30| Address Latch Enable | ALE| | Program pulse input during Flash programming| Prog| 31| External Access Enable;   Vcc for internal program executions| EA| | Programming enable voltage; 12V (during Flash program ming)| Vpp| 32| 8 bit input/output port (P0) pins  Low-order address bits when interfacing with external memory  |   P0. 7/ AD7| 33| |   P0. 6/ AD6| 34| |   P0. 5/ AD5| 35| |   P0. 4/ AD4| 36| |   P0. 3/ AD3| 37| |   P0. 2/ AD2| 38| |   P0. 1/ AD1| 39| |   P0. 0/ AD0| 40| Supply voltage; 5V (up to 6. V)| Vcc| | | LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screen is an electronic display module and find a wide range of applications. A 16Ãâ€"2 LCD display is very basic module and is very commonly used in various devices and circuits. These modules are preferred over seven segments and other multi segment LEDs. The reasons being: LCDs are economical; easily programmable; have no limitation of displaying special & even custom characters (unlike in seven segments), animations and so on. A 16Ãâ€"2 LCD means it can display 16 characters per line and there are 2 such lines.In this LCD each character is displayed in 5Ãâ€"7 pixel matrix. This LCD has two registers, namely, Command an d Data. The command register stores the command instructions given to the LCD. A command is an instruction given to LCD to do a predefined task like initializing it, clearing its screen, setting the cursor position, controlling display etc. The data register stores the data to be displayed on the LCD. The data is the ASCII value of the character to be displayed on the LCD. Click to learn more about internal structure of a LCD.Pin Diagram:  Pin Description:     Pin No|   Function|   Name| 1| Ground (0V)| Ground| 2| Supply voltage; 5V (4. 7V – 5. 3V)|   Vcc| 3| Contrast adjustment; through a variable resistor|   VEE| 4| Selects command register when low; and data register when high| Register Select| 5| Low to write to the register; High to read from the register| Read/write| 6| Sends data to data pins when a high to low pulse is given| Enable| 7| 8-bit data pins| DB0| 8| | DB1| 9| | DB2| 10| | DB3| 11| | DB4| 12| | DB5| 13| | DB6| 14| | DB7| 15| Backlight VCC (5V) | Led+| 6| Backlight Ground (0V)| Led-| | | APPLICATIONS & ADVANTAGES Fast track voting which could be used in small scale elections, like resident welfare association, panchayat level election and other society level elections. It could also be used to conduct opinion polls during annual share holders meeting. It could also be used to conduct general assembly elections where number of candidates are less than or equal to eight in the current situation. It could be used at places where there is no electricity as the thing is operational with the help of a simple 5 volt battery.It could well become a fine example of using environment friendly resources as there is no need for having lakhs of ballot papers as was used in older system of voting. It involves very less time for a voter to actually cast its vote unlike conventional method where it becomes very cumbersome to handle ballot papers. It is more fast and reliable. FUTURE SCOPE Number of candidates could be increased by using ot her microcontroller or an 8255 IC. It could be interfaced with printer to get the hard copy of the result almost instantly from the machine itself.It could also be interfaced with the personal computer and result could be stored in the central server and its backup could be taken on the other backend servers. Again, once the result is on the server it could be relayed on the network to various offices of the election conducting authority. Thus our project could make the result available any corner of the world in a matter of seconds In days of using nonpolluting and environment friendly resources of energy,it could pose a very good example.REFRENCES AND BIBLOGRAPHY 1. Muhammad Ali Mazidi , Janice Gillispie Mazidi, Rolin D. Mckinlay. Second edition, THE 8051 MICROCONTROLLER AND EMBEDDED SYSTEM 2. K. J. Ayala. Third edition, The 8051 MICROCONTROLLER 3. Millman & Halkias. INTEGRATED ELECTRONICS. 4. http://www. wikipedia. com 5. http://www. 8051microcontrollerprojects. com 6. www. datas heet4u. com 7. www. rickeya„? sworld. com Reference: http://seminarprojects. com/Thread-electronic-voting-machine-project-full-report#ixzz2RD8Xd1cO

Organisation Learning Essay

Where Argyris and Schon were the first to propose models that facilitate organizational learning, the following literatures have followed in the tradition of their work: Argyris and Schon (1978) distinguish between single-loop and double-loop learning, related to Gregory Bateson’s concepts of first and second order learning. In single-loop learning, individuals, groups, or organizations modify their actions according to the difference between expected and obtained outcomes. In double-loop learning, the entities (individuals, groups or organization) question the values, assumptions and policies that led to the actions in the first place; if they are able to view and modify those, then second-order or double-loop learning has taken place. Double loop learning is the learning about single-loop learning. ?March and Olsen (1975) attempt to link up individual and organizational learning. In their model, individual beliefs lead to individual action, which in turn may lead to an organizational action and a response from the environment which may induce improved individual beliefs and the cycle then repeats over and over. Learning occurs as better beliefs produce better actions. ?Kim (1993), as well, in an article titled â€Å"The link between individual and organizational learning†, integrates Argyris, March and Olsen and another model by Kofman into a single comprehensive model; further, he analyzes all the possible breakdowns in the information flows in the model, leading to failures in organizational learning; for instance, what happens if an individual action is rejected by the organization for political or other reasons and therefore no organizational action takes place? ?Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) developed a four stage spiral model of organizational learning. They started by differentiating Polanyi’s concept of â€Å"tacit knowledge† from â€Å"explicit knowledge† and describe a process of alternating between the two. Tacit knowledge is personal, context specific, subjective knowledge, whereas explicit knowledge is codified, systematic, formal, and easy to communicate. The tacit knowledge of key personnel within the organization can be made explicit, codified in manuals, and incorporated into new products and processes. This process they called â€Å"externalization†. The reverse process (from explicit to implicit) they call â€Å"internalization† because it involves employees internalizing an organization’s formal rules, procedures, and other forms of explicit knowledge. They also use the term â€Å"socialization† to denote the sharing of tacit knowledge, and the term â€Å"combination† to denote the dissemination of codified knowledge. According to this model, knowledge creation and organizational learning take a path of socialization, externalization, combination, internalization, socialization, externalization, combination . . . etc. in an infinite spiral. ?Nick Bontis et al. (2002) empirically tested a model of organizational learning that encompassed both stocks and flows of knowledge across three levels of analysis: individual, team and organization. Results showed a negative and statistically significant relationship between the misalignment of stocks and flows and organizational performance. ?Flood (1999) discusses the concept of organizational learning from Peter Senge and the origins of the theory from Argyris and Schon. The author aims to â€Å"re-think† Senge’s The Fifth Discipline through systems theory. The author develops the concepts by integrating them with key theorists such as Bertalanffy, Churchman, Beer, Checkland and Ackoff. Conceptualizing organizational learning in terms of structure, process, meaning, ideology and knowledge, the author provides insights into Senge within the context of the philosophy of science and the way in which systems theorists were influenced by twentieth-century advances from the classical assumptions of science. ?Imants (2003) provides theory development for organizational learning in schools within the context of teachers’ professional communities as learning communities, which is compared and contrasted to teaching communities of practice. Detailed with an analysis of the paradoxes for organizational learning in schools, two mechanisms for professional development and organizational learning, (1) steering information about teaching and learning and (2) encouraging interaction among teachers and workers, are defined as critical for effective organizational learning. ?Common (2004) discusses the concept of organisational learning in a political environment to improve public policy-making. The author details the initial uncontroversial reception of organisational learning in the public sector and the development of the concept with the learning organization. Definitional problems in applying the concept to public policy are addressed, noting research in UK local government that concludes on the obstacles for organizational learning in the public sector: (1) overemphasis of the individual, (2) resistance to change and politics, (3) social learning is self-limiting, i.e. individualism, and (4) political â€Å"blame culture. † The concepts of policy learning and policy transfer are then defined with detail on the conditions for realizing organizational learning in the public sector. Organizational knowledge What is the nature of knowledge created, traded and used in organizations? Some of this knowledge can be termed technical ? knowing the meaning of technical words and phrases, being able to read and make sense of economic data and being able to act on the basis of law-like generalizations. Scientific knowledge is ?propositional’; it takes the form of causal generalizations ? whenever A, then B. For example, whenever water reaches the temperature of 100 degrees, it boils; whenever it boils, it turns into steam; steam generates pressure when in an enclosed space; pressure drives engines. And so forth. A large part of the knowledge used by managers, however, does not assume this form. The complexities of a manager’s task are such that applying A may result in B, C, or Z. A recipe or an idea that solved very well a particular problem, may, in slightly different circumstances backfire and lead to ever more problems. More important than knowing a whole lot of theories, recipes and solutions for a manager is to know which theory, recipe or solution to apply in a specific situation. Sometimes a manager may combine two different recipes or adapt an existing recipe with some important modification to meet a situation at hand. Managers often use knowledge in the way that a handyman will use his or her skills, the materials and tools that are at hand to meet the demands of a particular situation. Unlike an engineer who will plan carefully and scientifically his or her every action to deliver the desired outcome, such as a steam engine, a handyman is flexible and opportunistic, often using materials in unorthodox or unusual ways, and relies a lot on trial and error. This is what the French call ? bricolage’, the resourceful and creative deployment skills and materials to meet each challenge in an original way. Rule of thumb, far from being the enemy of management, is what managers throughout the world have relied upon to inform their action. In contrast to the scientific knowledge that guides the engineer, the physician or the chemist, managers are often informed by a different type of know-how. This is sometimes referred to a ? narrative knowledge’ or ? experiential knowledge’, the kind of knowledge that comes from experience and resides in stories and narratives of how real people in the real world dealt with real life problems, successfully or unsuccessfully. Narrative knowledge is what we use in everyday life to deal with awkward situations, as parents, as consumers, as patients and so forth. We seek the stories of people in the same situation as ourselves and try to learn from them. As the Chinese proverb says â€Å"A wise man learns from experience; a wiser man learns from the experience of others. † Narrative knowledge usually takes the form of organization stories (see organization story and organizational storytelling). These stories enable participants to make sense of the difficulties and challenges they face; by listening to stories, members of organizations learn from each other’s experiences, adapt the recipes used by others to address their own difficulties and problems. Narrative knowledge is not only the preserve of managers. Most professionals (including doctors, accountants, lawyers, business consultants and academics) rely on narrative knowledge, in addition to their specialist technical knowledge, when dealing with concrete situations as part of their work. More generally, narrative knowledge represents an endlessly mutating reservoir of ideas, recipes and stories that are traded mostly by word or mouth on the internet. They are often apocryphal and may be inaccurate or untrue – yet, they have the power to influence people’s sense making and actions. Individual versus organizational learning Learning by individuals in an organizational context is a well understood process. This is the traditional domain of human resources, including activities such as: training, increasing skills, work experience, and formal education. Given that the success of any organization is founded on the knowledge of the people who work for it, these activities will and, indeed, must continue. However, individual learning is only a prerequisite to organizational learning. Others take it farther with continuous learning. The world is orders of magnitude more dynamic than that of our parents, or even when we were young. Waves of change are crashing on us virtually one on top of another. Change has become the norm rather than the exception. Continuous learning throughout one’s career has become essential to remain relevant in the workplace. Again, necessary but not sufficient to describe organizational learning. What does it mean to say that an organization learns? Simply summing individual learning is inadequate to model organizational learning. The following definition outlines the essential difference between the two: A learning organization actively creates, captures, transfers, and mobilizes knowledge to enable it to adapt to a changing environment. Thus, the key aspect of organizational learning is the interaction that takes place among individuals. A learning organization does not rely on passive or ad hoc process in the hope that organizational learning will take place through serendipity or as a by-product of normal work. A learning organization actively promotes, facilitates, and rewards collective learning. Creating (or acquiring) knowledge can be an individual or group activity. However, this is normally a small-scale, isolated activity steeped in the jargon and methods of knowledge workers. As first stated by Lucilius in the 1st century BC, â€Å"Knowledge is not knowledge until someone else knows that one knows. † Capturing individual learning is the first step to making it useful to an organization. There are many methods for capturing knowledge and experience, such as publications, activity reports, lessons learned, interviews, and presentations. Capturing includes organizing knowledge in ways that people can find it; multiple structures facilitate searches regardless of the user’s perspective (e. g. , who, what, when, where, why,and how). Capturing also includes storage in repositories, databases, or libraries to insure that the knowledge will be available when and as needed. Transferring knowledge requires that it be accessible to everyone when and where they need it. In a digital world, this involves browser-activated search engines to find what one is looking for. A way to retrieve content is also needed, which requires a communication and network infrastructure. Tacit knowledge may be shared through communities of practice or consulting experts. It is also important that knowledge is presented in a way that users can understand it. It must suit the needs of the user to be accepted and internalized. Mobilizing knowledge involves integrating and using relevant knowledge from many, often diverse, sources to solve a problem or address an issue. Integration requires interoperability standards among various repositories. Using knowledge may be through simple reuse of existing solutions that have worked previously. It may also come through adapting old solutions to new problems. Conversely, a learning organization learns from mistakes or recognizes when old solutions no longer apply. Use may also be through synthesis; that is creating a broader meaning or a deeper level of understanding. Clearly, the more rapidly knowledge can be mobilized and used, the more competitive an organization. An organization must learn so that it can adapt to a changing environment. Historically, the life-cycle of organizations typically spanned stable environments between major socioeconomic changes. Blacksmiths who didn’t become mechanics simply fell by the wayside. More recently, many fortune 500 companies of two decades ago no longer exist. Given the ever-accelerating rate of global-scale change, the more critical learning and adaptation become to organization relevance, success, and ultimate survival. Organizational learning is a social process, involving interactions among many individuals leading to well-informed decision making. Thus, a culture that learns and adapts as part of everyday working practices is essential. Reuse must equal or exceed reinvent as a desirable behavior. Adapting an idea must be rewarded along with its initial creation. Sharing to empower the organization must supersede controlling to empower an individual. Clearly, shifting from individual to organizational learning involves a non-linear transformation. Once someone learns something, it is available for their immediate use. In contrast, organizations need to create, capture, transfer, and mobilize knowledge before it can be used. Although technology supports the latter, these are primarily social processes within a cultural environment, and cultural change, however necessary, is a particularly challenging undertaking. Learning organization The work in Organizational Learning can be distinguished from the work on a related concept, the learning organization. This later body of work, in general, uses the theoretical findings of organizational learning (and other research in organizational development, system theory, and cognitive science) in order to prescribe specific recommendations about how to create organizations that continuously and effectively learn. This practical approach was championed by Peter Senge in his book The Fifth Discipline. Diffusion of innovations Diffusion of innovations theory explores how and why people adopt new ideas, practices and products. It may be seen as a subset of the anthropological concept of diffusion and can help to explain how ideas are spread by individuals, social networks and organizations.

Biography of Gregor Mendel essays

Biography of Gregor Mendel essays Often called the Father of Modern Genetics, Gregor Mendel gains his fame as the man who discovered the basic principles of heredity. Even though his research with pea plants was revolutionary, it was so ingenious and unparalleled at the time that it was disregarded. It took 34 years for the scientific community to even realize what he had done and the tremendous importance of his discoveries (Gasking). He was a dedicated researcher who spent every spare hour in the study of natural sciences. In the course of a few years at his quiet and humble monastery, he made breakthroughs that now rest as the centerpiece of one of the most important and latest of todays sciences heredity. Mendel was born in 1822 in the small town of Heinzendorf (Edelson, 19). His parents, Anton and Rosin Mendel, were both farmers so money was never plentiful in his household. His father scraped enough money together to send his son to school in Hyncice. One of the principles by which his school was run was money and property can be taken from me, but never the art of scientific knowledge. (Edelson, 23)The teachers noticed that young Gregor was unusually intelligent and arranged for him to attend a school at Lipnik which was about 16 miles from his home. His parents were having financial troubles at home so he decided to become a teacher. This way, he could tutor people and make money while still continuing his education. Mendel graduated from the Gymnasium, the rough equivalent of an American high school, at the age of 18 (Edelson, 23). He wanted to continue his education, but ran into more financial troubles. No one wanted his tutoring so he could not earn the money he needed for school. In 1941, he enrolled in the Philosophy Institute in Olomouc. He had difficulty in raising the money, but managed to finish with high grades in math and philosophy (Seung). In 1843, he entered an Augustinian monastery in Brunn, Austria...

Hippies essays

Hippies essays Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can. No need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man. Imagine all the people sharing all the world (Lee). The words of this famous song Imagine were sung by John Lennon, a member of the Beatles and a hippy well-known for his legendary love preaching. Like John Lennon, many others shared this simple wish; the wish that the whole world could come together and work as one. This aspiration singled many individuals out, and they became known as hippies. The term hippy has been defined, since 1953, through ones beliefs, styles and speech, and important events throughout history. Whenever the term hippy is mentioned, the things almost certainly running through most peoples heads are: flowers.. beads.. bellbottoms.. etc. But physical appearance isnt all what makes one a hippy; its much more than that. The entire hippy philosophy can be summed up into three simple words- peace, love, and freedom. Hippies accept others as they are, dont judge appearances, and give freedom to express themselves. They live and let live. They believe in harming nothing. To them, everything has its place in life, no matter what it may be. They believe in flower power and free love. Nature and the planet are viewed as a whole. They reject the nine-to-five lifestyle, the monotonous, mundane routine-like life. The pressure of being normal serves as a burden to them. In other words, they create their own reality. (Lee). Perhaps a reason for their many eccentric ethics and values, hippies were very big on, and loved to experiment with drugs; specifically LSD and marijuana. LSD (lysergic acid) can also be known as: acid, A-Bombs, blotters, dots, microdots, juice, or trips. It gives people a mystical feeling of intense extreme happiness. Time and sense of movement either speeds up or slows down. People clai...

Understanding the Concatenation of Strings in Java

Understanding the Concatenation of Strings in Java Concatenation in the Java programming language is the operation of joining two strings together. You can join strings using either the addition () operator or the String’s concat() method. Using the Operator Using the operator is the most common way to concatenate two strings in Java. You can provide either a variable, a number, or a String literal (which is always surrounded by double quotes). To combine the strings â€Å"I’m a† and â€Å"student†, for example, write: I’m a student Be sure to add a space so that when the combined string is printed, its words are separated properly. Note above that student starts with a space, for example. Combining Multiple Strings Any number of operands can be strung together, for instance: I’m a student ! And so are you. Using the Operator in a Print Statement Frequently, the operator is used in a print statement. You might write something like: System.out.println(pan handle); This would print: panhandle Combining Strings Across Multiple Lines Java disallows literal strings to span more than a line. Using the operator prevents this: String quote Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.;   Combining a Mixture of Objects The  operator   normally acts as an  arithmetic operator  unless one of its  operands  is a String. If so, it converts the other operand to a String before joining the second operand to the end of the first operand. For example, in the example below, age is an integer, so the operator will first convert it to a String and then combine the two strings. (The operator does this behind the scenes by calling its toString() method; you won’t see this occur.) int age 12;System.out.println(My age is age); This would print: My age is 12 Using the Concat Method The String class has a method concat() that performs the same operation. This method acts on the first string and then takes the string to combine as a parameter: public String concat (String str)​   For example: String myString I have decided to stick with love.;myString myString.concat( Hate is too great a burden to bear.);System.out.println(myString); This would print: I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear. Differences Between the Operator and the Concat Method You may be wondering when it makes sense to use the operator to concatenate, and when you should use the concat() method.  Here are some differences between the two: The concat() method can combine only String objects - it must be called on a String object, and its parameter must be a String object. This makes it more restrictive than the operator since the operator silently converts any non-string argument to a string.The concat() method throws a NullPointerException if the object has a null reference, while the operator deals with a null reference as a â€Å"null† string.The concat()) method is capable of combining only two strings – it cannot take multiple arguments. The operator can combine any number of strings. For these reasons, the operator is more often used to combine strings. If you are developing a large-scale application, however, performance can differ between the two because of the way that Java handles string conversion, so be aware of the context in which you are combining strings.

Exam 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Exam 2 - Essay Example Also, he said that he would be willing to sell the Dealership to a third party. The loan officer verbally said that the Bank would not foreclose or sue on the promissory note as long as the note was paid when the Dealership was sold, but not later than September 1, 2010. Analysis: The promissory note and the deed of trust both contained the following clause: â€Å"Any amendment hereto or modification hereof must be in writing signed by both parties. Any waiver or indulgence of any default by Dealer shall not operate as a waiver of any subsequent default. Time is of the essence hereof.† Clearly, the Dealer was able only to reach a verbal settlement with the bank officer, so his liability exists and he can be prosecuted for not making a written negotiation. Issue 2: The promissory note called for monthly payments of interest but 16 of the 24 interest payments due under the note had been made untimely. Moreover, the last three payments had not been paid at all. Analysis: It is astonishing that the bank did not take action in time. The bank could have sought legal help against the Dealer earlier too. In such circumstances, the role of the concerned lean officer should be examined by the court. as stated by the website â€Å"Cornell Law School †¦ Lawyers in the Best Sense† under the auspices of the American Law Institute and the National Conference of Commissioners on United States Laws. Needless to say, this article is equipped with a strong framework to prevent unfair and unreliable financial action and prosecute the wrong doer. â€Å"U.C.C. – ARTICLE 3 – NEGOTIABLE INSTRUMENTS.† Cornell Law School †¦ Lawyers in the Best Sense. The American Law Institute and the National Conference of Commissioners on United States Laws, 2005. Web. 7 Aug. 2010.

Analysis of Globalization and the Production of Locality in Urban Essay - 3

Analysis of Globalization and the Production of Locality in Urban Egypt Article by Farha Grannam - Essay Example The problem arises when globalization is viewed as neocolonialism or Americanization. The flows from the United States and Europe are said to shape the landscape of Cairo in different ways. There is a need for broadening the globalization concept so that the flows responsible for shaping cultural identities and practices. Grannam (250) says that ‘many changes were needed to facilitate the operation of capital†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ this shows that there is a need for several changes to take place in globalization. The new boundaries, differentiation, and social inequalities being produced and clanged by global flows are important to asses. There are things that attract attention to the inequalities that are produced by global processes. Global flows are not only structured but they also structure. There are groups that are empowered by having connections with the western cities. Production of urban locality is an issue that requires to be addressed with the increased movement of images, people, and commodities. Locality is produced by the interactions of those dwelling and those traveling. Locality is what allows individuals to follow collective flows that are resisted in different contexts (Grannam 256). Diane Singerman reviews how there are international scholars who have collaborated in producing information on politics and culture. Looking at Cairo we realize how complicated the normative project of citizenship is within globalization. Through carrying out research on shops, malls, neighborhoods, villages, towns, and historical areas then it is easy to understand the global flows. With the example of Cairo whose economy was not planned, it is easy to understand why it is megalopolis (Singerman 85). I agree that transforming public space to private is legitimated except if it results from the crime, terrorism, or pollution.  

Cross Cultural Awareness for the International Manager Essay - 1

Cross Cultural Awareness for the International Manager - Essay Example This report assesses the operations of Muffin King Ltd, an international chain of bakery outlets that is fast expanding in the global market. The key objective of the report is to propose business strategies based on a high level of awareness and close insight of cross cultural differences among different international markets, which will yield the business a competitive advantage. Achieving business competitiveness in today’s highly competitive globalised scenario is no longer possible through traditional success factors such as low production costs, high productivity and shorter lead-times, which have now become prerequisites to stay in business. Neither can global players in the market offer standardised product offers or implement standardised work processes and human resource management (HRM) practices across different nations in which they operate. Companies today have realised that to succeed in the global market place, a high level of awareness and a deep insight is required of the cross- cultural differences existing across the world (Broek 2005). These cross-cultural dimensions are a source of competitive advantage if understood and exploited to the company’s advantage. As global multinationals such as Ecare the Swedish furniture marketer, the MTV Broadcasting Company or MacDonald have realised, companies need to change and adopt their products and business practices to suit different cultural dimensions in order to stay competitive (Hill 2003). This report aims at evaluating the business operations of â€Å"Muffin King Ltd.† a UK based international chain of bakery outlets, and make recommendations which will exploit the sources of competitive advantages in the sphere of cross -cultural differences. â€Å"Muffin King Ltd.† is a UK based retail chain of bakery outlets, which has recently expanded to the

Describe the relationship between health care cost and quality Essay

Describe the relationship between health care cost and quality - Essay Example In health care, â€Å"cost† may be defined in different ways, depending on the individual’s perception. Two of these definitions are (1) when consumers and financiers pertain to the â€Å"price† of health care; and (2) when it is seen in a national perspective, referring to how much a nation spends on health care services (Shi & Singh, 2008, p. 484). Health care quality is said to be judged subjectively, according to the standards of an individual or an organization. Donabedian (n.d.) identified three determinants of the overall quality of health care: (1) structure of care, referring to the qualifications of health care providers and characteristics of facilities; (2) process of care, or the manner health care is provided; and (3) outcome of care, or effectiveness of the care provided (as cited in Wiest, 1988, p. 54). It is contended that without the existence of these three, it is not possible to achieve a high quality of health care. In health care, cost and quality possess a certain relationship, where cost does not always equate to quality (Marquis & Huston, 2009, p. 210). Considerably, O’Kane (2006) presents that â€Å"what higher spending often buys is unnecessary care, which...exposes patients to risk and wastes time, resources, and money, all of which could be put to better use† (as cited in Marquis & Huston , 2009, p. 210). In this light comes the concept of cost-effectivity, where the term â€Å"cost-effective† connotes that the product or service gained is adequate to the resources used and the finances spent. For instance, the purchase of a needed drug previously not in stock increases cost of care, but is expected to increase care quality as well. However, in the event that a wrong drug is purchased and neglectfully given, the cost increases with a lowered quality of care. Further, being cost-effective also suggests

AN ASSIGNMENT PAPER Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

AN PAPER - Assignment Example According to this Spanish Civil Law, any person or group can either establish a local corporation or a foreign business in Mexico. If a person is willing to establish a local corporation then the procedure is really very simple. First of all corporation is registered by getting provisional registration in the maximum of 48 hours and final registration is obtained in the maximum of four months. Whereas corporation can start functioning once the provisional registration is done. For getting the local corporation registered, it must have at least two members and corporation’s charter is executed in the form of Public Deed. Spanish Law allows the following types of companies to be established. A foreign corporate that needs to establish branch in Mexico is required to fulfill few legislative steps while getting registered. Commercial registration is awarded to foreign corporation once all the steps listed below are fulfilled. First of all foreign organization needs to produce a legal copy of all the by-laws and articles of the corporation in front of Mexican establishment and also it needs to sign a bond in favor of Mexican Government. Dear Isabella, as far as ‘sociedad en commandita’ is concerned, it is applicable to the establishment of foreign branch which is governed by at least two general partners and a few limited partners. This rule does apply to the corporation you are getting to start. Also, starting your new branch in Mexico based on this law helps you eliminate all other remittances and expenditures other than taxes to your business. Mexico is an open market for foreign business therefore; you can clearly follow this law as compared to NAFTA in your business. NAFTA(Canada) does supersede this law only if Mexico would not provide an open market environment. You are already getting subsidy for launching new branch in

Computer crime Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Computer crime - Article Example My personal security and information is protected under the various provisions of the U.S. constitution and I am not just about to surrender it to the FBI based upon a court order. The FBI has it all wrong, the citizens of America do not pose a threat to national security in general. But they are creating situations wherein the actions of the very government that was sworn to protect our interests, become the very threat to our national security. In fact, â€Å"...a group of prominent computer security experts argues that mandating â€Å"back doors† in online communications products is likely to compromise the security of Americans’ computers and could even pose a threat to national security. â€Å" (Lee, 2013). Would there be any reason for the FBI to legally intercept my electronic communications and spy on my internet activity? I believe that the only reasons that should be allowed would be if the person being surveilled is a foreigner on American soil who hails fr om a known terrorist country. If that person, or any American for that matter, proves to have some sort of terrorist leanings as evidenced by his offline activities, or, if the person is a known activist or perceived terrorist threat listed in other international terrorist warning lists. There is absolutely no reason in my book to surveille any average American citizen based on the assumption that he is a potential threat. According to Sanchez (2013), â€Å"The FBI’s misguided proposal would impose costly burdens on thousands of companies (and threaten to entirely kill those whose business model centers on providing highly secure encrypted communications), while making cloud solutions less attractive to businesses and users. It would aid totalitarian governments eager to spy on their citizens while distorting business decisions about software design. Perhaps worst of all, it would treat millions of law-abiding users with legitimate security needs as presumed criminals â€⠀ while doing little to hamper actual criminals. â€Å"It is upon those beliefs that I would not support any legislation to monitor private citizens on the internet if I were a legislator. Sources Lee, T. (2013). How the FBI's online wiretapping plan could your computer hacked. The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/05/17/how-the-fbis- online-wiretapping-plan-could-get-your-computer-hacked/ Sanchez, J. (2013). FBI's latest proposal for a wiretap ready internet should be trashed. wired.com Retrieved from http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/05/the-fbis-plan-for-a-wiretap-ready-internet- is-misdirected-shortsighted-and-ridiculous/ Journal Question 2 The first big threat to computer security that I believe will be a big issue over the coming days will be the increased Windows 8 attacks geared towards malware, ransom kits, and rootkit modifications. I consider this threat to be a general one as it affects all computer users. The rootkits, ransom kits, and malware programs that are unknowingly installed into the computer poses a high level of personal information security breach and big scale attacks, thus leaving everyone vulnerable to the problem. Once our personal information, as stored on our computer hard drives are accessed by others, the problem of identity theft becomes a very hard to solve problem for everyone. This will not be an easy problem to solve as Windows has a track record of having the most problematic software that hackers can easily

AN ASSIGNMENT PAPER Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

AN PAPER - Assignment Example According to this Spanish Civil Law, any person or group can either establish a local corporation or a foreign business in Mexico. If a person is willing to establish a local corporation then the procedure is really very simple. First of all corporation is registered by getting provisional registration in the maximum of 48 hours and final registration is obtained in the maximum of four months. Whereas corporation can start functioning once the provisional registration is done. For getting the local corporation registered, it must have at least two members and corporation’s charter is executed in the form of Public Deed. Spanish Law allows the following types of companies to be established. A foreign corporate that needs to establish branch in Mexico is required to fulfill few legislative steps while getting registered. Commercial registration is awarded to foreign corporation once all the steps listed below are fulfilled. First of all foreign organization needs to produce a legal copy of all the by-laws and articles of the corporation in front of Mexican establishment and also it needs to sign a bond in favor of Mexican Government. Dear Isabella, as far as ‘sociedad en commandita’ is concerned, it is applicable to the establishment of foreign branch which is governed by at least two general partners and a few limited partners. This rule does apply to the corporation you are getting to start. Also, starting your new branch in Mexico based on this law helps you eliminate all other remittances and expenditures other than taxes to your business. Mexico is an open market for foreign business therefore; you can clearly follow this law as compared to NAFTA in your business. NAFTA(Canada) does supersede this law only if Mexico would not provide an open market environment. You are already getting subsidy for launching new branch in

Bees Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Bees - Research Paper Example The tiny bees may appear to be aggressive in nature but, are yielding so many benefits in the form of honey and wax. For all the women out there, one be should be thankful to these tiny insects as they have been taking care of an individual’s skin for a very long time. As one all are familiar with the common role of bees which is the pollination, some other useful role of bees include its antibacterial effect, its skin care benefits and who can forget the sweetest role of bees which is the making of honey. There are approximately 20,000 species of these little insects, the bees. The tiny creatures can be found in every part of the world but not in Antarctica. European honey bee is the most widely known specie of bees. As the human nature forces him to keep himself abreast about everything that happens around so, the human being could not resist to extract the benefits out of the honey bee. Today, beekeeping is being carried out by human beings to manage the benefits out of honey bee. Bee keeping is necessary to take care of the population of these useful creatures. Check out how one can benefit from this little creature but, do not forget to give it some space too. As far as the question is concerned how to give space to bees then the answer to it is simple! Drill deep holes into a large pine block and place a roof over it. The bee box is ready. Later, place this bee box in such an area where pollination is required. After one are done with this kind gesture, it is time to contribute in boosting pollination. This initiative will help one to ensure that maximum number of plants are building an active reproduction and producing fruits. Honey bees are required by the plants for an efficient as well as effective reproduction. Mason bees also actively play their part in pollination but, they do not produce honey. Carpenter bees are very helpful as they pollinate those plants which are not pollinated by honey bees. Please do not get wild upon seeing a bee

Official Crime Statistics Essay Example for Free

Official Crime Statistics Essay What are the main strengths and weaknesses of official crime statistics and victimization surveys? In this essay I will be discussing the main strengths and weaknesses of official crime statistics and victimization surveys. I have done tremendous research to back up my work, I have also used famous criminologists and other bodies who understand criminalization to help re-enforce my points. Most experts and successful authors, such as Tim Newburn, Brent E. Turvey and Clive Coleman have attempted, through their literature to show how crime has evolved and how surveys have influenced the public’s views about it. The first ever national crime statistics were published in France, 1827. Adolphe Quetelet, a scholar and previous astronomer was the first individual to take a serious approach and interest in criminal statistics. He then went on to become a leading body in criminology and social sciences for his work. Official crime statistics are placed under the ideology of crime rates in the UK and Wales. Numbers that the BCS, police and other law aboding bodies can gather together from the public, their research and other sources to help give the most accurate rate of crime they can. Victimisation surveys are generally random samples of the population asked whether they have been a victim to crime within a specific period of time. The reasons why these two different types of surveys must be taken are so that crime statistics can attempt to be more solid, although the argument is always made that there will never be an accurate percentage of crime and I will also be touching on why this statement has and always will be made. Crime statistics and Victimisation surveys are polls taken and received by victims of crime or the criminals and individuals who commit them. There has been much controversy amongst crime statistics of how accurate and precise they really are. I will be discussing these issues, but overall focusing my main points onto the strengths and weaknesses of official crimes statistics and victimisation surveys. Without crime statistics there would be no base grounds on the numbers of crimes averagely committed, by what sex and by what age group. Howeve r, without victimization surveys crimes may stay ‘hidden’ crimes such as domestic violence, burglary and intimidation. Why I mention these three in particular are because statistics show that most common repeat victims of crime are within these types of offences. Other offences also include other household theft and vandalism. One example of a top victimization survey is the British Crime Survey. The British Crime Survey or BCS for short is a nationally represented survey with a successful sample of approximately 47,000 adults living in private households in England and wales every year. The BCS started its survey’s in 1981 and it became a fluent survey database until 2001/2002. This survey is a face to face interview where the respondents or victims are asked about their experiences and feelings of crime that may have happened to them or people they know in the last 12 months, the BCS also ask them about their opinions of crime and crime related topics such as anti-social behaviour. These types of people would also be asked about the effectiveness of the police and how they deal with these is sues of crime. The British crime survey is a very important key piece of information and source of data on the background of respondents and the overall circumstances of victimization. A public, accurate crime statistic is most commonly the police, a more community based, less national and less accurate version as it’s range of scope does not cover the nation; however both sources limit themselves to a set of offences. Making it easier to gain a more accurate percentage. One main difference between the BCS and the police is that the BCS excludes victimless crimes, drug dealing and murder. The reason for this is the victims are no longer available to discuss the events that happened. Other crimes they exclude are sexual offences; this is generally due to the small number reported and the unwillingness of respondents to come forward. Another main difference between the two is that BCS thefts including personal property and other household items, because with the police they would involve everything included in the theft, jewellery, personal belongings, with the BCS it would all fall into a similar category making it a difficult task to achieve. A weakness of official crime statistics and victimisation surveys is that an argument could be bought up are they actually official? Just because they’re published doesn’t make them correct. What about the crimes that aren’t reported, Because of victims being afraid, intimidated or not having trust in the police. These events being called ‘Hidden Crimes’ or as they are often referred to ‘Dark Figures’. In addition to this, modern day statistics are now more enclosed, for example in Tim Newburn’s ‘Criminology’ he discusses how crimes such as violence against the person accounts to events such as murder, assa ult, however not reckless driving which could be considered to focus fully on physical damage. So as statistics are not as open to as many crimes as they wish, some will slip through and possibly go into a much minor category. Obviously a disadvantage being that individual may feel neglected and reluctant to detail the events. Due to the declining of main volume crimes in the recent years, beliefs about crime are still quite high. A third of the population from 2003 still believed that crime was a high rated problem. Advantages of Statistics such as these are that they tend to give the public a clear understanding of what crime rates are at. This table shows beliefs about crime, public fear that possibly the tabloids could have caused. This is discussed a weakness to crime statistics and the public, in a way the media are creating crimes, feeding on crime fear. As I mentioned earlier Crime statistics are never fully accurate and power is always an important factor when determining crime. Smaller crimes such as robbery are associated with the ‘Underclass’ Theory by Charles Murray. These types of offences are more down to the individual rather than a group. Dr Ziggy MacDonald of the University of Leicester wrote a piece in the Economic Journal about ‘Hidden Crimes’, one of the things his research showed was that ‘forecasts of crime trends fail to take proper account of what drives unreported crime. For example, someone who is currently unemployed is 7% less likely to report a burglary than someone who is currently in work, while someone on a relatively high income is 8% more likely to report a burglary than someone on less than average income’ He discussed how the decrease in employment could eventually lead to the higher rate of theft from people’s properties, and resulting in victims not reporti ng it, maybe thinking it won’t matter as their income isn’t high enough to replace the item anyway. Even though the difference between low income individuals and high income individuals is 1% which from my research closely is around 16% burglaries every year as a crime rate, 1% of those victims with a low income are subjected towards not reporting theft of their possessions. Certain individual’s economic status (as shown in from MacDonald’s work) can become a huge factor when determining ‘Hidden Crimes’. People could feel helpless as income is low, or they may live in a deprived area, with no way of being helped their behaviour could become ‘broken’ referring to the ‘broken glass theory’ a single building could have a shattered window for a period of time and the community around that area may feel unwanted, leaving a physical and emotional gap between this community and the open world. Because of this, other buildings may become trashed and broken, people would begin to avoid the area it ‘self, the idea of fear within these ‘Hidden Crimes’. This adds to the statistics the BCS and the police may not know about, smaller areas may not be expected to have high rates of crime and therefore focus is taken away from them. Bigger areas such as Birmingham would be a prime target for crime, the assumption is made. Another theory could that there could possibly be Marxist Criminology, Crime due to class divisions within a society or community, or pe rhaps crimes of the powerful, individuals or groups of people being treated differently in society, expelled from other physical and emotional contact, leaving them no choice but to turn to crime. Transference, to be precise. In August, 2011 the riots in the United Kingdom gave breach to a huge collaboration of crime sprees. Over 1000 people were arrested, yet possibly over 100,000 protested against this Marxist Criminology from politics, student fees and tax increases. Not every individual was caught, making statistics even scarcer. These significant changes within society set alight events that triggered this. This idea of Neo Marxism relating to ‘Dark Figures’ as not every individual in society has the same equal access as other fortunate people, be it financially, emotionally and they lash out because of it. Yet these ‘crimes’ aren’t recorded, they go unnoticed and became a damaging part of a society. In relation to this is the Left Realism theory, a social democratic approach to the analysis of crime and the development of effective policies of crime control. At the heart of all of this is a source of suffering for the poor and the vulnera ble, this links from the ideology of smaller much petty crimes. Bullying for example which as many of 44% of suicides by children from the ages of 10-14 are potentially linked. Data sources of the years have developed and grown onto this topic from the 1900’s as society and trends begin to evolve. Children picked on because of their backgrounds or income, yet data sources still have a less accurate number to this topic than any other. Official crime statistics do not generally show crimes committed by corporations, if any results are shown, they aren’t ever big corporations. An example of corporations is Citibank, high profile data breaches, and even the business Sony. These ‘White Collar Crimes’ are not easily detected, distinguishing them from victimization surveys. They could be breaches of health and safety laws, not identifiable to the easiest detail. Linking to this could be an idea of a corporations being known as ‘Mavericks’ people who are the exceptions rather than the rules, so society and governing bodies refuse to believe that they would commit corporate crimes, allowing them to get off easy. Or even reduc ing the expected costs. One of the biggest corporate crimes was an incident that occurred in 1984 Bhopal. Hundreds of people were killed in a chemical accident, by a company called Union Carbide. They owned a pesticide plant which was around 3 miles from Bhopal. The leading director of that company told the BBC that ‘methyl isocyanate gas (MIC) had escaped when a valve in the plants underground storage tank broke under pressure’ As laws are different from the USA and India, payments have still not been made to the families, who deserve compensation, an American firm that is above the law and have been forced into no legal action whatsoever. Could this have future affects to India, How people live, fear foreign businesses, Should they have to live in fear. In conclusion to my research and the theories I have mentioned. I believe that crime statistics can define the crime rate in the UK every year, both types of surveys have their weaknesses and strengths, society as a whole helps mould the body of crime, they can also be the reliable source to provide it, and stop it. My results and research from numerous sources have given an indication on the levels of crime in the UK. Bibliography http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-statistics/crime-research/hosb1011/ http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/627523/victim-survey http://www.statistics.gov.uk/hub/crime-justice/crime/victims-of-crime/index.html http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110218135832/http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/crimeew0809.html http://www.res.org.uk/society/mediabriefings/pdfs/2002/february/macdonald1.pdf http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/3/newsid_2698000/2698709.stm http://www.civitas.org.uk/crime/factsheet-YouthOffending.pdf