Feminist Film Criticism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Feminist Film Criticism - Essay Example The movie stars Zhang Ziyi, as the female protagonist Nitta Sayuri2, who, through a relentless desire to achieve her one and only goal in life3, has made it to the peak of her pursuit to be a geisha and eventually to become the mistress of the oki-ya4. The social position of the geisha is best described as something peculiar to the society of its source. This is so because their status in the traditional civilization is to some extent considered as indeterminate. This undefined portrayal of a geisha was successfully clarified in the film. As manifestly illustrated in the film, a geisha was given an unsurpassed status in the Japanese society. It evidently gave justice to the frequently mistaken position of a geisha with respect to their status in the populace. More often than not, a geisha is mistakenly perceived and identified as a "prostitute". However, this misconception was effectively dismissed as the film nearly reached its conclusion. The viewers correspondingly learned that a geisha is far more different from a prostitute. Although seen as somewhat rundown, the oki-ya is viewed as a house having significantly acceptable structure in the society. Comparatively similar to a boarding house, oki-ya is where the geisha and the geisha trainees stay and settle. As seen in the movie, a Geisha House is not as terrible and horrific as that of a brothel house where prostitutes are maintained. Its social structure as traditionally acknowledged in the Japanese culture gives a clear view how oki-ya is boldly accepted in the society. One becomes a geisha after an extensive training from the time she enters the oki-ya where she eventually turns into an apprentice, serving the mistress of the house by doing the domestic chores. Sayuri entered the oki-ya at the age of nine (9) and started as a servant for the "mother" of the house and to Hatsumomo5, the only geisha in the house. She was then prepared and trained to become a geisha with Pumpkin in a training school, learning the arduous arts of a geisha, which include, among others, dance and music; elaborate make-up of pale white faces and their enthralling red lips; wearing the kimono, pouring sake to reveal just a slight touch of the inner wrist, and the remarkable struggle with jealous rivals for the attention of men of the higher class. As the American anthropologist Dalby stated in her book, a geisha's position in the society is unavoidably vague. She wrote: "(m)arked as [a geisha] is by both high and low prestige, the Geisha and her place in Japanese culture remain elusively ambiguous." [172] The fundamental role of a geisha is to entertain men in business and politics in Japan. They were trained to function as the very amusing and gracious hostess, usually, in an important gathering which prominent men would throw. An essential part of bringing entertainment is through music and dancing where they show their talents as developed by the extensive training they underwent. "Each geisha is highly accomplished in particular skills such as playing the koto, dancing or singing, but they all train for years in the more general arts of caring for their guests (or, strictly speaking, clients). [Hendry, Taylor and Francis, 201] The geisha house or the oki-ya is controlled by

Power and Politics in Organizational Development Essay

Power and Politics in Organizational Development - Essay Example The concepts of power and politics are two areas of organizations that can be very difficult to define and understand. However, in order to be successful in organizational life and development these areas must be explored. In the past Organizational Development has been criticized for not taking these factors (French & Bell, 1999, pg. 282). French & Bell (1999) explain that the understanding of Power and Politics is still in very early stages in OD. However with recent research we still continue to derive theories and applications for the OD field. Organization development is influenced by and depends upon politics and power, culture and effective performance of the management team. Organization development is complex process which relies on high moral values that transcend both the organization and the individual. The shared values that underlie a high-performing organization's strategy and bring meaning to the individual employee's work are reflected in both the decision-making and the goal-setting processes. Power is the potential to influence behavior, "to change the course of events, to overcome resistance, and to get people to do things that they would not otherwise do (Pfeffer, 1994, pg. 30). In short, it is a way to get things done; not the only way, but at least a major way, and one that is often used in organizational life. ... 283). Managers use power to accomplish goals all the time. The use of power is sometimes called "organizational politics" as managers use power and influence to produce results. Because of its association with politics, power is many times looked upon with disdain, as a dirty word. At the same time, we admire managers for what they achieve, and while we may not like it, we acknowledge that the ability to willingly wield power is often a prerequisite to managerial success. Following David McClelland, "positive faced of power is characterized by a socialized need to initiate influence and lead" (French and Bell 1999, pg. 282). Power is used frequently when the necessity to accomplish goals requires us to rely on those on whom we depend. It is especially important when they have a different point of view and cannot otherwise be relied on to do what we want them to do (Pfeffer, 1994, pg. 39). The greater the degree of difference in point of view, the greater the resistance and conflict and the more important it is to use power, influence, and organizational politics as a way to get things done. If everyone has the same goal and is in agreement about how to achieve it, there is no need to use power. Studies have shown that the more agreement there was on the goal and the means to attain it, the less political activity occurred (Pfeffer, 1994, pg. 39). There is no need to engage in politics or exercise power when there are no differences in perspective or w hen no conflict exits. The time and energy can, in these situations, be more productively employed toward goal accomplishment. To the extent that organizations can agree on goals and on the means to attain them, organizational politics can be reduced. In the absence of this

Government control Essay Example for Free

Government control Essay There are many challenges that have to be faced by humanity in the twenty first century. Some of these challenges are major that have to be addressed immediately while there are some challenges that do not require immediate action. The stronger nations are somehow able to tackle some issues but still there are some issues that are difficult to handle. However, the smaller and the weaker countries that lack finances find it difficult to come up with solutions to these 21st century problems. Diversity and unity Diversity is one of the major issues that need attention as people are moving from their native countries to other countries where they find better opportunities. Diversity means differences in cultures, beliefs and habits that create a mixture of cultures. Here, the issue is to maintain harmony amongst the people belonging to different cultures and so it is essential to ensure that harmony does not collapse. Besides diversity, unity is also one major challenges that have to be worked upon and since one country has many different cultures residing in it, maintaining unity is indeed something difficult to achieve. Today, there is an influx of people who have become selfish and they have opted for individualistic approach that has further spoilt the society. Other problems that can be seen are communalism, regionalism and the increase in the rate of violence that is directly and indirectly affecting the value system of the world. Technological advancements Technological advancements have greatly affected the world and are serving as a major challenge. Since these advancements are taking place at a very fast pace, all the nations are trying hard to keep pace with this and for the weaker nations, this serves as a Herculean task to achieve the goals. The first and the foremost thing that has to be done to cure this is to spread literacy and to make everyone educated. It should not be the aim to get degrees and diplomas but the real essence of education should be understood as this will further lead the people to expand their knowledge, wisdom and to develop positive attitudes. However, it is not just important to educate the people but it is also essential to provide with opportunities to the people so that they can use their talents but this is also serving as a major challenge as many people remain unemployed despite of being educated. Industrialization As progress is taking place, industrialization is increasing rapidly and the natural resources are being consumed at a very high rate. Moreover, increase in pollution is also evident and this can bring adverse affects on the people and the environment especially if no action is taken to cure this problem. There are many other strategic challenges that will be faced in the 21st century and most them are caused due to the changes in styles of businesses that have now introduced. Previously, the marketers used to sell one product to the entire market but today, the customers have become more intelligent and savvy and they seek for customer value and since all the companies are battling against each other to grab the share of their piece of cake, it is hard to achieve targets easily as it was done previously. Market volatility has increased and rate at which organizational change is taking place is high and all these changes have a dramatic affect on the business strategies that are made and implemented. When the business needs are changing, it is also a must that there are changes occurring in the requirement of human input too. Employing the right workforce One of the strategic challenges being faced by the companies is the employment of the human resources. The management has to ensure that it employs the workforce that is not only efficient but effective too. However, there are some factors that affect the global instability and there is a huge global impact and people are entering in high numbers in the market that makes it hard for the social arrangement to sustain. Other than this, there is a very vast pool of human resources that are being wasted and this means that the human beings who are being employed are not able to work at their full potential as they not employed in a productive manner. Moreover, more and more people are added to the entire human workforce each year because of which there is a high pressure on the institutions and on the resources. Wastage of resources The non-human resources that are available to the human beings are being wasted at a very high rate. Both the renewable and non-renewable resources are not being fully utilized and are exploited and if this continues, the people will not be left with anything in the future. The environment is having a very negative impact on it because of the human activities that are taking place. The technological explosions are one of the most dangerous as well as costly damage to the society. Other disruptions that are serving as 21st century challenges are air pollution, soil pollution as well as depletion and desertification. Besides this, deforestation and misuse of water are two other factors that are serving as great challenges and if they will not be controlled, this can lead to major problems in the future. Biospheric disruption is another major challenge that needs attention. Despite of the fact that these are unavoidable, we can at least lessen the destruction that can be caused by the natural disasters that includes the climatic, geological, meteorological and space-oriented disasters. Global warming and ozone loss are climatic, earthquakes and eruptions are geological, floods, storms and droughts are meteorological while asteroids are space-oriented. Human insecurity Human insecurity is also a major challenge and this also leading to global unrest due to the violence that is persisting in the world and inter-human combat is occurring due to the ethnic and religious differences. Moreover, hazardous frustration has to be reduced and since the weapons are being created, they are being used as well and since there is an increase in unemployment, terrorism is increasing in the society. People have to fulfill their basic needs without which survival is more than impossible because of which they are doing crime. Due to this, the crime rate is increasing and is leading to unrest in the society and also affecting world peace. The numbers of extremists are increasing day by day and drug dealers have also outnumbered because of which the youngsters are getting immune to drug usage and are doing crime. Medical challenges Countering the medical challenges also needs immediate action and there are two main trends that are causing increase in health concerns. Firstly, both the people and the things are moving and this has caused transfer of various kinds of diseases that the other people are getting from the humans and from the animals. Even the animals that have some kind of disease are a major threat of spreading diseases. Moreover, the animals that are consumed by the human beings are getting diseases such as bird fly and mad cow disease and if any animal suffering from any such disease is consumed by the human being, it will create serious problems for that individual. Secondly, people are using antibiotics at a very high rate and this has produced more resistant mutations. For this, tighter preventives and control measures are required to ensure human security. Rules and laws A global rule is lacking in the world and so it is serving as a challenge to the society as the world is lacking universal rules and these should be created so that global standards are formed. Today, the world has become a global village and for this it is essential for it to have some universal laws and regulations that must be followed by all the countries. However, the international law must keep pace with interdependence as well. Therefore, global rights must be developed and should also be accepted and implemented by the society. It is argued by some governments that human rights are based on the cultures but universally there should be one common ground or code on the basis of which a norm should be developed. Migration Compared to the previous years, the rate of migration has greatly increased and people are looking for more opportunities outside their home country. It has indeed become difficult to handle all these immigrations and to provide jobs to the people who are moving to the other countries such as United States, UK, Canada and Australia. There are refugees too, who are forced to move out of their own countries and these people have to be settled in other countries where they move. These people create problems when they move to other countries and this is resulting in increase in the global issues that have to be dealt on a global level only. Financial money transfers and trade It has also become difficult to maintain global financial checks and since the number of financial transfers is increasing day by day, the role the government plays and the government control is reduced. Moreover, it also threatens the stability of the currencies and so it is suggested to apply certain percentage of taxes on such transfers. International trade is also growing but it is creating new problems for which negotiation has to be done between the trading countries. Moreover, regulation and adjustment is also needed to keep things smooth. The World Trade Organization ensures that it deals with the rapidly growing trade in a proper manner; however there are still some challenges that have to be met. Trade of services is also growing and the world has to face chronic problems with agricultures and other issues such as problems related to international investment. Corruption has also increased at a major rate and this has also become a major challenge to the world trade. There are many economic agreements that are treated globally and they are becoming more and more complex with the increase in trade. Taxing of international trade has become an issue as well and negotiations have to be made to come up to a common stand. Conclusion Due to all the problems that are being faced by the human beings, the rate of global distress is accelerating day by day and this is leading to serious problems. People become frustrated and hopeless due to the current situation. Income divergence is also increasing between nations and this challenge must be addressed immediately. All the 21st century problems that have been talked about above are sociological, philosophical, economic, historical, and geological and they relate to the human activities in some or the other way. The goal of the human beings should always be to minimize the threat that they get from these challenges if they cannot fully be removed. Moreover, the people should be educated about these disasters and challenges and they should be told about the ways they can adopt to reduce any negative impact created by the human activities. Besides this, backup plans should be made to ensure that the destruction is dealt properly and results in least problems. Work Cited Ciulla, Joanne. B. The Working Life: The Promise and Betrayal of Modern Work. 1st Edn. Crown Business / Times Books, 2000. Colwin, Laurie. Goodbye Without Leaving. Harper Perennial, 2000. Hochschild, Arlie. R. The Commercialization of Intimate Life: Notes from Home and Work. University of California Press, 2003. IMF. (2006). Meeting the Challenges of 21st Century Globalization: The Medium-Term Strategy of the IMF. June 4th, 2010. Retrieved from: http://www. imf. org/external/np/speeches/2006/090806. htm

IntelliP: Effective Mechanism for Resource Monitoring

IntelliP: Effective Mechanism for Resource Monitoring IntelliP: Effective Mechanism for Resource Monitoring in Private Cloud Vivekanand Adam Abstract—Cloud computing paradigm makes huge virtualized compute resources available to users as pay-as-you-go style. Resource monitoring is the premise of many major operations such as network analysis, management, job scheduling, load balancing, billing, event predicting, fault detecting, and fault recovery in Cloud computing. Cloud computing is more complicated than ordinary network owing to its heterogeneous and dynamic characteristics. Hence, it is a vital part of the Cloud computing system to monitor the existence and characteristics of resources, services, computations, and other entities. Monitoring data between hosts and servers should be consistent, and data transfer from hosts to servers should be efficient. In this paper, I will use an effective mechanism for resource monitoring called IntelliP which is based on a modified push model. It reduces useless monitoring data coherency between hosts and servers in CloudStack. Keywords—Cloud computing, Monitoring, self-adaptive, coherency, CloudStack, IntelliP. I. Introduction Cloud computing has rapidly emerged as a method for service delivery over TCP/IP networks such as the Internet. It disrupts the traditional IT computing environment by providing organizations with an option to outsource the hosting and operations of their mission-critical business applications. Cloud computing paradigm makes huge virtualized compute resources available to users as pay-as-you-go style. Resource monitoring is the premise of many major operations such as network analysis, management, job scheduling, load balancing, billing, event predicting, fault detecting, and fault recovery in Cloud computing. Cloud computing is more complicated than ordinary network owing to its heterogeneous and dynamic characteristics. Hence, it is a vital part of the Cloud computing system to monitor the existence and characteristics of resources, services, computations, and other entities. Apache CloudStack [1] is one of the most popular open source IaaS solutions. CloudStack is the best choice of all open source clouds to migrate the services and integrated the maximum security level in its architecture [2]. In IaaS Cloud environments, two aspects should be considered: 1. IaaS hardware and software: In Cloud environment, there are various kinds of hardware and software, including physical hosts, network devices, storage devices and databases. Monitoring system should obtain the performance data of these hardware and software, and report the real-time running status. 2. The Cloud user’s resources: Everything the user has in the Cloud. These are instances, disk volumes, guest networks, templates, ISOs, etc. For all these components, the Cloud user needs clear and reliable knowledge of their status. My goal is to develop an effective monitoring system for CloudStack which will use an effective mechanism for resource monitoring called IntelliP which is based on a modified push model and it reduces useless monitoring data coherency between hosts and servers. The monitoring system can collect utilization information from both physical and virtual resources. The monitoring metrics should be accurate, i.e. they are as close as possible to the real value to be measured. This can help the administrators know the status of Cloud system, and give end users a clear view of their resources in Cloud. II. Background This existing monitoring system named SCM is proposed to monitoring the Apache CloudStack platform [3]. SCM is a flexible monitoring system supporting for cloud environments, which can monitor both physical and virtual resources. SCM users can choose their interested metrics and set a custom interval. In order to meet these requirements, SCM needs a well-designed user interface, and flexible, dynamic data sources. In Clouds, monitoring metrics are also important to the billing systems, job scheduling and other Cloud components. Because of the characteristics of Cloud environment, the monitoring metrics will be dynamically changed and the volume of data may become very large, a scalable and high performance storage system is needed. The SCM monitoring system has four main functionalities, which are metric collection, information processing and storage, metric display, alert. The architecture of the SCM monitoring system is shown figure 1. Collectors In Apache CloudStack environment, the hosts have different meanings [1]. These hosts may be physical or virtual, customer instances or system virtual machines, so the metrics need to be collected vary with the host’s type. In the SCM monitoring system, they use collectors as the data sources which are deployed on each host. These collectors can easily be configured to collect different metrics. In fact, the collector Figure1. The architecture of the SCM monitoring offers a framework, in which users can develop their own programs to collect metrics they interested in. The collector periodically retrieves performance metric values from the host, e.g. cpu usage, memory usage, disk I/O. When the host becomes management server or storage server, the performance metrics of MySQL, tomcat, NFS and other CloudStack components are also collected. As mentioned above, CloudStack has different network traffics on a host, some of traffics do not to need be monitored. The collector monitors the public and storage traffics. The collector also monitors the network devices through SNMP. These metric values are then pushed to SCM Server. The SCM server The SCM server is the core of the SCM monitoring system. There are five main modules of the SCM server. Host aggregator is used to aggregate the metric values from the collectors. A host aggregator may receive metric values from a lot of collectors. Apache CloudStack provides an API that gives programmatic access to all the management features. They designed the platform aggregator to communicate with ACS management servers and call the ACS API through HTTP to get the CloudStack related information, such as the version of CloudStack and how many zones, pods, clusters and hosts in the current environment, etc. After a pre-set time, the aggregators send the metrics to the storage module. The storage module is used to communicate with the storage system, putting the metric values into the storage system or getting values from it. The storage module receives the metrics from the aggregators and stores all these data locally, when the metrics file is large enough, it puts the metrics into the storage system. This can reduce the I/O operations on the storage system. The statistics module is a data processing module. It analyses the metric values from the storage module and provides the average, minimal, maximum, performance outliers, etc. To improve the availability of the ACS, abnormal running information should be reported to the Cloud users immediately. The alert module obtains exceptions from statistics and records the information, and then notifies the Cloud user. If the ACS scale is large, there are hundreds or thousands of hosts, multiple SCM Servers may be needed for load balance. The SCM Client The metric values are organized as a tuple (metric name, timestamp, value, tags), these tuple are not friendly to the Cloud users. So just collecting various resource utilizations information is not enough to explain the observed performance of hosts or applications. In order to let the Cloud users easily to understand the meaning of these metric values, it is very important to display information in a simple and flexible way. The SCM Client gives an overview of the whole system, and displays the metric values in time series graphs with several filters, which is used to help the Cloud users quickly find the minimal or maximal of the current metric value or calculate the average performance in a period of time. Also the Cloud users can customize the graphs by selecting the metric names and tags in tuples. Then only the interested metric values will be displayed in the user interface. Storage system The metric values need to be stored persistently for analysis as well as displayed on the fly. Resources in the Cloud change dynamically and the deployment of the Cloud is large. Monitoring such distributed system may produce a large amount of metric values. So the storage system should be scalable and flexible, with the ability to collect many thousands of metrics from thousands of hosts and applications at a high rate. Above system uses pure push model for data collection [3], hosts initiatively send running status (CPU, memory, I/O, etc.) to a monitoring server. This model has better real-time, and makes the monitoring data between hosts and servers higher in coherency, but lower in efficiency. Usually, the push model is triggered by a time interval or exceeding a threshold. The value of time interval and threshold is important to this model. If the value is too small, even a little change on hosts may make the status information deliver to monitoring servers over a network. This may cause network congestion. If the value is too big, a lot of useful information may be ignored. It consist useless monitoring data coherency between hosts and servers. A pure Push or Pull model is not suited for many different kinds of virtualized resources III. Related work In Clouds, resource monitoring is the premise of job scheduling, load balancing, billing and many other major operations. Therefore, data coherency and real-time are important indicators for a monitoring system of Clouds. Elastic compute is one of the main characters of Clouds, resources in Clouds change dynamically. So the monitoring system should adapt to this kind of situation. To solve the above problem He Huang and Liqiang Wang proposed a combined push and pull model called PP model for resource monitoring in Cloud computing environment [4]. The PP model inherits the advantages of Push and Pull models. It can intelligently switch between Push and Pull models depending on the resource status and external customer request. But the combination of the push model and pull model is more complex to the pure push model and pull model. When there are a large number of requests, event driven method will increase the load on the monitoring servers, and the servers will become the bottleneck. The switch between push and pull has some extra costs [4] and it consist useless monitoring data coherency between hosts and servers. In an attempt to minimize unnecessary and useless updating massages, and maximize the consistency between the producer and consumer. Wu-Chun Chung and Ruay-Shiung Chang [5] have proposed GRIR (Grid Resource Information Retrieval), which is considered a new algorithm for resource monitoring in grid computing to improve Push model. They examined a set of data delivery protocols for resource monitoring in the push-based model, such as the OSM (OffsetSensitive Mechanism) protocol, the TSM (Time-Sensitive Mechanism) protocol, and the hybrid ACTC (Announcing with Change and Time Consideration) protocol. This hybrid protocol is based on a dynamically adjusted update time interval and the consideration for early update when the change is larger than a dynamic threshold. IV. Proposed solution We can use a self-adaptive mechanism for resource monitoring in Cloud computing environment based on push model. As mentioned earlier, push model has better coherency, but lower efficiency in small threshold situation. We can set up a transportation window to store metrics before they are delivered to the monitoring server. We can design an algorithm to control data delivery. The design of the Self adaptive Push Model Monitoring data between hosts and servers should be consistent, and data transfer from hosts to servers should be efficient. In this section, I introduce a self-adaptive push model called IntelliP, which is based on a modified push model. It reduces useless monitoring data coherency between hosts and servers. IntelliP has a transportation window, as shown in following figure 2. Figure 2: A push model with transportation window. When collectors get metrics from adapters on hosts, instead of delivering these data to servers immediately, they put these metrics into the transportation window. The window accepts a new metric and then compares it with the average value of the former metrics. (1) If diff is smaller than the current threshold, collectors put the metric into the window and keep accepting new data, otherwise, deliver the metric to monitoring server and empty the window. When the window is full deliver the average value of the metrics in the window to monitoring servers. The size of transportation window is not fixed, in order to adapt to the dynamically changing situation of Clouds the window size changes too. Small size means that resources change frequently, and large size hosts are running in a stable status. When the window is full, that means in the past periods of time, hosts were running in a stable status, and the next few periods may still in this status, so the size of window adds one. If diff is bigger than the threshold, it shows that CPU usage, Memory, I/O throughput or other resources of a host changed suddenly. This may indicate that the host becomes active. An IntelliP data delivery control algorithm At this moment, the window size reduces to half of the original size, so more metrics will be delivered to monitoring servers. In push model, the value of threshold is very important. IntelliP decides the size of threshold according to two parameters ÃŽ ± and  µ. Α ÃŽ ± has a close relationship with the current network condition. If current network condition is good, ÃŽ ± is small, more metrics would be delivered. While current network condition is poor, the value of ÃŽ ± increased, less metrics would be on the network. When the network condition is in an ideal status, the value of ÃŽ ± is 1. Another parameter is a constant value set by users. Users can customize the size of  µ according to their requirement. We use m_average as the average value of metrics in window, and define threshold as; threshold= ÃŽ ± Ãâ€"  µ Ãâ€" m (2) One problem is that if the host was running smoothly for a long time and resources usage on this host did not change a lot, then the size of window will be very large. This will lost a lot of metrics. We set an upper limit of window size to solve this problem, when the window size increases to the maximum limit, then the size would not increase any more. . V. conclusion and future work In Clouds, resource monitoring is the premise of job scheduling, load balancing, billing and many other major operations. Therefore, data coherency and real-time are important indicators for a monitoring system of Clouds. Elastic compute is one of the main characters of Clouds, resources in Clouds change dynamically. Using a self-adaptive push model called IntelliP, which is based on a modified push model we can build an effective cloud monitoring system which will reduces network congestion and also reduces useless monitoring data coherency between hosts and servers in CloudStack. In future I will try to improve data delivery control algorithm for increasing effectiveness and adaptive nature of monitoring system, which will be available for all. References Apache Project, Apache CloudStack, 2013 [online] http://cloudstack.apache.org Sasko Ristov and Marjan Gusev, â€Å"Security Evaluation of Open Source Clouds† EuroCon 2013, 1-4 July 2013, Zagreb, Croatia. Lin Kai; Tong Weiqin; Zhang Liping; Hu Chao, SCM: A Design and Implementation of Monitoring System for CloudStack, Cloud and Service Computing (CSC), 2013 International Conference on , vol., no., pp.146,151, 4-6 Nov. 2013. He Huang and Liqiang Wang, PP: a Combined Push-Pull Model for Resource Monitoring in Cloud Computing Environment 2010 IEEE 3rd International Conference on Cloud Computing. W. Chung, R. Chang (2009), A New Mechanism For Resource Monitoring in Grid Computing, Future Generation Computer Systems FGCS 25, PP 1-7.

Creating a Robot Pet Dog Essay example -- Robotics

Missing Figures Abstract The objective of this project is to build a robotic dog that performs tricks that are determined by the number of times it is petted. The robotic dog would be a perfect toy and friend for a child, especially an only child. It would not require training, since the tricks would already be programmed into the robot. Although the idea of the robot seems simple, the actual construction of this robot is extremely difficult and takes up a lot of time. Three different models of the body structure were constructed until a fully functioning robot was finally discovered. Background/Purpose About 10,000 to 15,000 years ago, human beings had developed signs of relationships with wolves, which are believed to be the ancestors of the modern housedog. The wolves were social animals that traveled in packs that they were willing to defend with their lives. Social ranks existed in these wolf packs, in which all the wolves would submit to one leader. This submission made it easy for humans to raise wolves for beneficial reasons because the wolves allowed the recognition of humans as their leaders. As a result, humans lived in harmony with the human-raised wolf companions, utilizing the wolves for hunting, rounding up their flocks, and protecting them when intruders were a threat. After a long period of time, the wolves gradually evolved into the typical household dogs of today. A household dog would be a perfect companion for an only child of modern times, especially since less people want to have children and since some only want to have one child. An only child with no siblings would sometimes feel lonely or bored and would then resort to begging their parents for dogs. The dog could potentially be ... ...ite a difficult task. Robot construction can sometimes be more difficult than programming itself. As a result, it takes a lot of time to actually construct and program a fully functioning robot. If given more time, I believe I would be able to successfully complete this robotic dog. If I could change anything in the project, I would change the amount of time I am given to complete the project. I would also try to ask for help earlier, since I have no experience with designing my own robots. It would have also been nice if I had chosen an easier robot to make. Reference 1. Animal Freedom. The History of Dogs. Retrieved July 1, 2005 from the World Wide Web: http://www.animalfreedom.org/english/opinion/pets/history_of_the_dog.html 2. DogQuotes.com. History of Dogs. Retrieved July 1, 2005 from the World Wide Web: http://www.dogquotes.com/historyofdogs.htm

Nuclear Weapons and their effects :: essays research papers

A nuclear explosion is caused by the release of energy in an atom, either through fission or fusion. Fission weapons cause an explosion by the splitting of atomic nuclei. This happens when a neutron collides with the nucleus of an atom. The protons in the nucleus are transformed into a great amount of energy and two or three more neutrons are sent out, which go on to split other nuclei. If this continues, a chain reaction will occur. The result is a gigantic explosion. To form a chain reaction, a certain amount of material is needed. This amount is known as the critical mass. If the amount is too small it is called a subcritical mass. The critical mass of a material depends on its purity. The materials used in making fission weapons are uranium and plutonium. They are the only elements able to be used in making a fission weapon.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The destructive power in fusion weapons comes from the combining of very light atoms, such as hydrogen. The atoms of the element are fused, and they release a great amount of energy. The element must first be heated to a temperature of 50 million degrees Celsius. The only way to do this, without using more energy than is produced, is to use a fission explosion. So, a ball of hydrogen is surrounded by either uranium or plutonium and then by a non-nuclear explosive. The explosive is set off, and it causes the uranium or plutonium to react through fission, which in turn causes the hydrogen to fuse. Once again, the result is a colossal explosion meant for mass destruction.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The three main effects that would follow a nuclear explosion are blast, thermal radiation or heat, and radiation. The very first thing to happen is the formation of a fireball. The fireball gives off the thermal radiation that cremates anything within a quarter mile and ignites any and all flammable materials within ten miles. The thermal radiation can cause eye injuries as well as skin burns called flash burns. Between 20 and 30 percent of the deaths at Hiroshima and Nagasaki were caused by flash burns. When the fireball begins to dissipate it forms a blast wave that travels away from the explosion at speeds up to 400 miles per hour. This destroys most building within 6 miles. It also kills most people within 3 miles and severely injures or kills most people up to 6 miles away. Nuclear Weapons and their effects :: essays research papers A nuclear explosion is caused by the release of energy in an atom, either through fission or fusion. Fission weapons cause an explosion by the splitting of atomic nuclei. This happens when a neutron collides with the nucleus of an atom. The protons in the nucleus are transformed into a great amount of energy and two or three more neutrons are sent out, which go on to split other nuclei. If this continues, a chain reaction will occur. The result is a gigantic explosion. To form a chain reaction, a certain amount of material is needed. This amount is known as the critical mass. If the amount is too small it is called a subcritical mass. The critical mass of a material depends on its purity. The materials used in making fission weapons are uranium and plutonium. They are the only elements able to be used in making a fission weapon.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The destructive power in fusion weapons comes from the combining of very light atoms, such as hydrogen. The atoms of the element are fused, and they release a great amount of energy. The element must first be heated to a temperature of 50 million degrees Celsius. The only way to do this, without using more energy than is produced, is to use a fission explosion. So, a ball of hydrogen is surrounded by either uranium or plutonium and then by a non-nuclear explosive. The explosive is set off, and it causes the uranium or plutonium to react through fission, which in turn causes the hydrogen to fuse. Once again, the result is a colossal explosion meant for mass destruction.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The three main effects that would follow a nuclear explosion are blast, thermal radiation or heat, and radiation. The very first thing to happen is the formation of a fireball. The fireball gives off the thermal radiation that cremates anything within a quarter mile and ignites any and all flammable materials within ten miles. The thermal radiation can cause eye injuries as well as skin burns called flash burns. Between 20 and 30 percent of the deaths at Hiroshima and Nagasaki were caused by flash burns. When the fireball begins to dissipate it forms a blast wave that travels away from the explosion at speeds up to 400 miles per hour. This destroys most building within 6 miles. It also kills most people within 3 miles and severely injures or kills most people up to 6 miles away.

Starion Entrepreneurship Case Analysis

M3786 NEW VENTURE PLANNING SAMPLE CASE ANALYSIS REPORT STARION ENTREPRENEURSHIP SAMPLE CASE ANALYSIS REPORT Starion Instruments, headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA is a private company with core IP assets based on the exclusive license of groundbreaking medical research in the field of laser tissue welding. Starion hopes to revolutionize the electrosurgical field with the introduction of products like its cautery forceps used for cutting and sealing (cauterizing) tissue. The overall annual market for these types of medical devices is in excess of $1 billion.Furthermore, Starion’s promising IP and continued research goals will enable it to gain a significant foothold in the worldwide medical technology industry with sales reaching $150 billion annually. The foundation of Starion’s IP lies in the hands of Dr. Michael Treat’s research. In the 1980s Dr. Treat and Dr. Larry Bass, a plastic surgeon resident at Columbia Presbyterian, started experimenting with lasers in sur gery. With a humble beginning the two surgeons worked from Columbia Presbyterian’s 17th floor lab on their innovative research.Together, these two pioneers invented the field of laser tissue welding – using thermal energy to rejoin tissue severed in surgery. However, this technology remained uncommercialized for several years after its initial discovery. Shelly Monfort, a Stanford-trained engineer, began her entrepreneurial career in 1986. With a background in R&D on medical devices as well as start-up experience, commercializing those devices, Ms. Monfort and two engineers, Ken Mollenaur and George Hermann, were involved in the creation, funding, and exit of at least 6 surgical device companies from 1990-1996.Ken Mollenaur maintains experience designing and building medical prototypes. George Hermann possesses extensive experience navigating the medical device approval process; working with the major regulatory bodies in the industries. By June 1988, Ms. Monfort had s igned a license with Columbia; Starion Instruments could now begin building a staff and a product to bring to market. With their exclusive licensing deal in place, Dr. Treat left Columbia for Starion’s California headquarters and began developing the product.In October 1999 Starion instruments, represented by Dr. Treat, made its debut at the American College of Surgeons Conference, the single most important industry event for people who would buy and use the product. At the time, the company’s goal was to raise $750,000 in capital. Ms. Monfort assembled $2 million from private investors along with a pair of venture capital firms. At the time Starion’s valuation was $7 million. This was a crucial point for the company. Success or failure is often based on an initial market foray.The direction chosen by management in this situation had an irrevocable effect on the company’s overall performance. A capital infusion of only $750,000 severely limited the compan y’s marketing and development capabilities and was a gross underestimation of the company’s capital needs; a clear representation of Ms. Monfort’s inexperience. Furthermore, the company’s additional capital requirements were highlighted by the investors’ willingness to infuse a $2,000,000 round when only solicited for $750,000. To Ms. Monfort’s credit it was her colleague and mentor, Dr.Thomas Fogarty, a legend in the surgical world, who insisted on the additional capital. The company planned to go to market with a package consisting of single use disposable forceps and a disposable battery pack. The forceps would carry a price tag of $410 and the battery pack would list for $39. The effort was directed toward an open surgery application. Open surgeries accounted for approximately 80% of procedures performed at the time. Starion planned to eventually expand to laparoscopic devices once it gained additional market share.An important aspect of Starion’s strategy was to market its product as not only a superior tool as far as results, but also to highlight the simplicity and cost effectiveness of its offering. Surgeons, the principal buyer in this space, are known to be fairly innovative, willing to try new things. However, it is only with repeated use that they gain skill with a given device. Therefore, it is critical that they see not only a cost advantage, but a significant increase in product performance in order for considerable adoption to take place.Starion’s choice to focus on the core buyer requirements magnifies their intimate knowledge of the space and contributed greatly to the company’s overall success. The decision was made to concentrate on an open surgery strategy. Early adoption, particularly for a small fish in a big pond, is critical to any start up. This direction, spearheaded by management, was a deft decision for several reasons. The customer base in this field consists of an end user with a complex hierarchy and buyer process. However, it is ultimately the end user’s decision which makes or breaks a product in this ield. Therefore, the decision to launch the product for use in open surgeries as opposed to laparoscopic procedures vastly increased the attractiveness to the early adopter base. The open surgery tool strategy enabled doctors to rely on backwards compatibility (the ability to simply fall back on the tried and true cut and suture method), another key point with â€Å"experimental† tools and methods. Prior to Starion’s laser tissue welding breakthrough, the most common electrosurgical tool was the monopolar device, also known as the Bovie device.With this technology, the patient is wired to a grounding pad that provides a path for the electrical current to flow. The surgeon uses an electrode to pass a high-frequency electrical current through a patient to cut and cauterize tissue in a selected area. The Bovie requires a genera tor that costs between $7,500 and $10,500 a year. In addition, each operation requires disposable (one time use) grounding pads and electrodes, whose combined cost is 5 to 6 dollars per procedure. The disadvantages include (relatively rare) situations in which the device causes burns to the patient at the side of the grounding pad.Additionally, the Bovie’s high energy output can interfere with the ever growing mass of electronic equipment in modern operating rooms. An alternative to the Bovie device is the UltraCision, also known as the harmonic scalpel. This device uses ultrasound to generate the heat needed to cut and seal tissues. Ethicon Endo-Surgery Inc. a Jonson & Johnson subsidiary owns UltraCision. Starion estimates that the ultrasound based product has annual sales of approximately $100 million. Like the Bovie device, the UltraCision system requires a reusable power supply, which costs approximately $15,000.The system also uses an electrical cable that costs $630 and must be replaced after approximately 100 surgeries. In addition, single-use tips that cost approximately $325 are also required. Given the relatively high degree of cost associated with marketing medical technologies, Starion pursued a strategy in which it would segment a large market and avoid going head to head with its competitors. Due to its small size and relative weaknesses, Starion was forced to parse the market even further deciding to promote its technology specifically for use in a single procedure which would greatly reduce the overall cost of their product launch.The variable costs, excluding sales commissions, for both the battery and forceps were projected to equal about 40% of the sales price. Fixed costs, excluding R&D, were expected to total $1. 1 million in the first year of operation and $1. 65 million in the second year. R&D for the first year was projected at $1. 25 million and $1. 45 million for the second year. Given the industry standard, this team had the n ecessary components for a successful start-up. The initial engineering and development of a product like Dr.Treat’s is best done in a small workshop by passionate and dedicated serial entrepreneurs. However, the team’s inability to surrender the reigns of the company inexorably inhibited the firm’s future growth. Conversely, the small, dedicated team was able to react dynamically to the market positioning their product with care in a segment which allowed a gain in market share. This short-term success may well translate to continued development; however, the degree of future shareholder value is limited by an order of magnitude equal to the founder’s shortsightedness.In the medical device field, there are some significant barriers to entry; the combination of patents, expensive/extensive clinical trials and research in conjunction with strict federal government oversight can overwhelm smaller companies, and help protect established players against compet ition. The FDA is the primary regulator of medical devices, and its mandate is to insure that the devices that reach the market are safe and effective. The medical device industry is populated by a small number of major device manufacturers and diversified medical companies in addition to the large number of small companies.Dominant players in the industry include: Johnson & Johnson, Baxter International, Becton Dickinson, Medtronic, Guidant, Boston Scientific, and U. S. Surgical (a unit of Tyco). The combined market capitalization of the industry leaders mentioned is approximately $300 billion with the smallest just over $9 billion (Source: Bloomberg). Medical products and services companies invest around 8% of annual revenues in R&D, this compares to 3 to 4% invested by U. S. manufacturers (Standard & Poors). However, the true path to innovation in this industry is through mergers and acquisitions.Due to overwhelming development and production costs coupled with a large upfront ma rketing outlay, partnership and acquisitions are the industry norm, not the exception. Even well capitalized companies will often choose the route above, rather than face the huge barriers that exist in this market. The Four P’s: Product, Promotion, Protection and Price. Product – Revolutionary technology. Promotion – Combination of in-house and franchised channels. Protection – Strong IP backed not only by the company but by Columbia. Price – 91. 45% savings†¦Speaks for itself.Further data was not supplied however the following is an example of some of the continued financial analysis we would conduct. Financial analysis: Profit ratios: Gross Profit Margin = (Sales revenue – COGS) / Sales Revenue Net Profit Margin = Net Income / Sales Revenue Return on total Assets = Net income available to common stock holders / Total Assets Return on stock holders equity = net income available to common stock holders / stockholders equity Liquidity R atios: Current Ratios = Current Assets / Current liabilities Quick Ratio = (Current assets – Inventory) / Current liabilities Inventory Turnover = COGS / InventoryLeverage Ratios: Debt-to-Assets Ratio = Total Debt / Total Assets Debt-To-Equity Ratio = Total Debt / Total Equity Cash Flow Analysis: Determine appropriate debt levels, payout periods and additional analysis to confirm liquidity. Net Profit Margin = Net Income / Sales Revenue First Year: -4,639,464/4,000,000= -1. 16 Second Year: -689,333/8,000,000 = -. 086 Gross Profit Margin = (Sales revenue – COGS) / Sales Revenue (4,000,000 – 1600000) / 4,000,000 = 0. 6 Pricing strategy: Pricing is currently very aggressive and sales strategy prudent.Initial management was executed properly, however it is likely that changes will need to be made in the near term to achieve significant market share. Partners: Strategic alignments are mainstays in this industry and should be aggressively pursued. Strategic investment ; merger; acquisition. Intellectual Property: IP is an essential aspect of any medical device company given the simplicity of the concept; the device may come up against some protection issues. Early indications seem to support the strength of the company’s IP, however it is certainly a concern which warrants further investigation.Note: Both Starion and Columbia would be behind any major IP issue. Given the state of the industry and the unique positioning of the company’s IP prospects a partnership/acquisition would be our main point of recommendation in the near term. During this transition it may be prudent to rethink the current organizational structure, with a specific focal point on senior management (when moving to a new phase often times senior management, who were suited for the initial stage or better succeeded by a new team).RECOMMENDATIONS: Our recommendation consists of three key elements that will drive profitability, continued growth, and increase market share – adding shareholder value. Breakeven and ultimately profitability can be achieved (1) by instituting aggressive pricing to both vendors and sales force, (2) the merger of Starion Instruments with a bigger firm and/or (3) the acquisition of another firm that will allow them to manufacture, distribute, market and sell the product at a cheaper and more efficient manner.Current State: Currently, Starion is the one of the world leaders on surgical device development. It has expanded worldwide distribution of its proprietary tissue welding technology to physicians in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Last year the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons named Starion Instruments the 2007 Innovator of the Year for the development of its next-generation Tissue Ligating Shears which use its innovative cut and cauterizing technology.Since the launch of their original Cautery Forceps, Starion has created an entire line of Forceps and Ligating Shears which can all be viewed on their website http://www. starioninstruments. com/products. html. They are still a privately held company which is astounding given their tremendous success. This is not surprising given the fact that the first time they were offered to be bought out they declined. This has kept the leadership at the mercy of the owners and founders and will provide a unique company such as Starion the ability to continue providing innovative, cost efficient, and quality