Services management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Services management - Essay Example The goal of CSM is to focus the management structure on extraordinary client relations and service. If every of the four functions of management (planning, organizing, most important, and scheming) is customer-centered, then client service will be the foundation of an association. This is true whether the organization is a commerce, university, or administration separation. The following is an assessment of how every of the management processes can be listening cautiously on putting the client at the center of managerial behavior. Through the Pivotal Commercial Lending Solution, your sales power maintains the individual stroke that fosters high-quality customer relationships. At the similar occasion, they turn out to be part of a true sales team, with right of entry to a full knowledge bottom of the preponderance current customer in order. There's no more need to choose brains and bring together in order scattered among dissimilar systems in order to obviously see anywhere a customer association has been, and where it's leaving. Instead, all the customer information you require is instantly obtainable, so your advertising, sales and service teams all have the planned cleverness they need to make the most of opportunities at each point of customer get in touch through Research shows, for instance, that populace... There are two matters here: the first is the matter of doing what's right, and the next is the subject of responsibility what will advantage communities the most, and they go give in give. If you treat every customer with the admiration they merit, you will add to customer "retention" and support as healthy as revenues. Not to mention trust. Performance measures old by world-class organizations are inclined to be customer- somewhat than management-centered. Customer-centered presentation measures are connected with product excellence, reliability of service, waste decrease, timeliness, suppleness, novelty, and other indicator tied to actual work procedure completion of these events has often resulted in marked improvement in interior work efficiency and in the presentation of products and armed forces in the market. Conversely, management-centered presentation measures be tending to focus on short-term profits, price trade-offs, transaction-driven management, and useful department silos. This often consequences in a company-centered, interior management orientation, breakdown to appreciate what the customer really wants, and the give up of long-term presentation for short-term increases Employees sometimes stereotype clientele by believing that a convinced kind of customer will not pay money for or use your foodstuffs and/or services. This supposition can actually turn out to be a self-fulfilling prediction. Because workers wait for that the customer will not buy, use, or assist, they give less-than-great service; and since the service wasn't outstanding, the customer does not go back or buy a second occasion, and he or she may file a grievance or not tip healthy

The Strength of Weak Ties by Granovetter | Review

The Strength of Weak Ties by Granovetter | Review This paper is a critical review of the popular article The Strength of Weak Ties by Mark S. Granovetter (1973). After an introduction to the paper at hand and a summary of the texts main points, a closer look at some of the premises on which the author builds his arguments is taken as well as examining the arguments themselves. Followed by that, the articles major contributions to the field of civic networks and social capital and its importance in this realm especially for the contemporary society are examined. Finally, I will conclude by summing up the points and highlighting the significance of the article. Introduction Mark S. Granovetters article The Strength of Weak Ties (1973) is one of the highly influential and most cited works of our times. By emphasizing a part of social networks which had hitherto been neglected, the author clearly caused a stir (not only) within the scientific community of sociology and social sciences. Granovetter is a contemporary sociologist and professor in the school of humanities and sciences at Stanford University. His main fields of interest are Economic Sociology, Social Stratification and Sociological Theory. Contributing to these realms, he published several articles and books. Here, we will focus on the input he gives through the paper cited above. Summary In his renowned and influential paper The Strength of Weak Ties (1973), Mark Granovetter makes a basic distinction between the respective functions of strong and weak ties and points especially to the importance of the latter. He defines the strength of a tie by the combination of time spent together, the emotional intensity, the intimacy and the reciprocal services (p. 1361) present in a particular relationship. He states that the stronger a tie between two individuals, the higher is the proportion of common friends due to three main factors: the time committed to each of ones friendships, similarities that connect friends and the logic of Heiders cognitive balance theory which serves as explanation why the combination of a positive relationship between person A and person B as well as between A and person C will most probably result in a positive relationship between B and C (1958). Concluding from these statements, he points out that only weak ties connect one group of people (fri ends) and another, as strong ties already imply an overlap between two groups. Relationships that are the only connecting point between two groups are bridges or if a tie is not the only but the shortest connection between members of different groups local bridges (p.1364). According to Granovetter, in the process of diffusion of e.g. new ideas or concepts these bridges play an essential role as they allow for the spread of an idea from one group to another. The author presents a set of studies that demonstrate how new ideas spread (most rapidly) through people with few strong but several weak ties. This seems to be especially so if the idea introduced is rather unconventional and deviating from a certain norm and the spread of which requires a considerable degree of freedom from peer pressure. After clarifying the overall importance of weak ties, Granovetter takes a closer look at their significance on two levels: the individual and the community level. He explains that for the individual, the maintenance of weak ties (e.g. former working colleagues) is crucial as those are usually bridges that provide access to groups of people and to information that one would otherwise not be able to obtain. For the community, on the other hand, bridges are essential in order to prevent pure clique building which would inhibit community cohesion and hinder collective action. Weaknesses of the argumentation Not without any reason is Granovetters The Strength of Weak Ties considered a highly influential and important paper. In contrast to many other sociologists writing about social theories or social capital, Granovetter makes a clear distinction between interpersonal (strong ties) and mere transaction (weak ties) relationships and he adheres with it throughout his argument an important step that many sociological argumentations around social capital lack. There are, however, a number of weaknesses in his argument which I will outline in the following. One of the premises he builds his argument on, is that the proportion of overlapping friendship circles of two individual is related to the strength of these individuals tie. Thus, a weak relationship between two people implies that there are only few common friends or acquaintances. This, however, does not have to be true. Take former class mates as an example: Person A and person B were class mates several years ago, but nowadays they are only in loose contact, they thus have a weak tie. However, each of them does have an approximately equally strong tie to most of the people from the former class. Hence, there is an overlap of acquaintances even though they are only very weakly bonded to each other. Furthermore, a friendship that developed over a longer period of time may remain a very strong one even if the two individuals involved do not see each other frequently anymore. This would then imply that there is a strong tie between the two friends but obviously not very much overlap of their friendship circles where they live. This facet becomes ever more important with new communication technologies evolving, which facilitate keeping contact despite spatial separation, and the general globalization which leads to ever more people changing their location more easily and more frequently. Hence, the definition of the strength of a tie, though quite precise at first sight, does not cover every kind of tie and is thus not completely comprehensive. Another premise Granovetter states is that due to the similarity which friends usually share it is very likely that if person A is a friend of person B and of person C, then B and C do become friends, too. If one always chooses ones friends because they have much in common can be doubted, though. Not without cause is the proverb opposites attract so well known and often used. Often people tend to feel comfortable around someone that is different in his personality and character, this being an anti-pole to ones own weaknesses and strengths. Thus, the similarity that the author implies here rather refers to sharing an interest in or commitment to something, be it in the labour world or common hobbies. However, if A likes B because of their perpetual discussions about politics and A is a friend of C because of their shared passion for soccer, B and C are not necessarily likely to build a deep friendship as well. When writing strong ties lead to overall fragmentation (p.1378), Granovetter clearly underestimates the importance of strong ties. His paper is unique in emphasizing a thitherto neglected part of human interaction. Nevertheless, strong ties build the basis for any kind of trust to evolve, which again is a main component of social capital and community cohesion. A person who does not have any intimate relationships will have a hard time trusting people. Now, one could state that everyone is bonded in at least one strong relationship and hence, this remark is redundant. However, nowadays the number of weak ties people have is increasing steadily as online platforms such as facebook allow for an easy way of handling the climbing number of relationships. Still, these relationships do demand some input to remain present and thus it can be questioned if people still invest in their strong ties or if the number and intensity of friendships is declining in recent years. What one can be sure about, though, is that for community cohesion to evolve and remain, both weak and strong ties are needed, rather that seeing strong ties as a threat to social cohesion. Last, one can question if the generalization of the importance of weak ties is legitimate. It may, very well be the case that they facilitate the spread and diffusion of and thus gives access to information that one could otherwise not obtain. This function (enhancement of diffusion) is, however, one that does not require reliance on the vis-ÃÆ'ÂÂ  -vis one interacts with. Take the example of an old colleague telling a person about a job offer. This widens the job seekers horizon but he does not have to rely on this single job offer. Here, weak ties fulfil their function beautifully. As soon as something is at stake, though, one has to doubt that people would still make extensive usage of weak ties. Here, they would rather rely on someone they know and well enough to be sure that he can be trusted. This holds true not only for interpersonal issues but also in a mere trade relation. Strengths and contributions of the article Nevertheless, one can not possibly question the importance of this article. One major contribution is a solution to the threat of an in-group bias that may occur: As recently found out in a study by Hooghe, Reeskens, Stolle and Tappers, generalized trust, which furthers social cohesion and is a core component of social capital, develops more easily and in greater amplitude within homogenous groups whereas heterogeneity of a group decreases it (2009). These findings bring along some troublesome issues: How can collective action and social cohesion take place in heterogeneous societies? Naturally, heterogeneous groups will divide into subgroups which can lead to fragmentation. With the linkages, the bridges, between these groups, the threat of fragmentation and a resulting lack of participation in public life can be allayed. Furthermore, it clearly gives the basis for several important publications not only in the fields of civic networks and social capital. Richard Floridas The Rise of the Creative Class (2002), for example, explains the crucial importance of the spread of information through weak ties for the facilitation of creativity in the labour sector. This is just a representative of the many contemporary influential theories that build on Granovetters paper. The Strength of Weak Ties contributes to the discussion around the concept of social capital not only by making a clear distinction between different types of ties (as stated above already) but also by showing how weak ties can be a connecting point between leaders and a group and the resulting trust and participation in the leadership and by emphasizing the significance of the spread of information which can ultimately lead to collective action and the involvement of the majority of a society in public matters. Finally, as already shortly mentioned above, Granovetters stress on weak ties does not become outdated by new findings although the publication lays more than 35 years in the past. In contrast, it should acquire even more importance by the introduction of new technologies and online platforms that alleviate the maintenance of a vast number of loose relationships, even bridging great distances. This trend is crucial for understanding nowadays (Western) societies and hence, for many fields of sociology and social sciences. Conclusion Considering the points made above, one can clearly state that the publication is a basic contribution in civic networks theory despite the weaknesses it may have. There are scholars that tend to favour strong ties and disregard the significance of weak ties such as Robert Putnam foremost in his book Bowling Alone (2000). This only makes Granovetters article more important providing an anti-pole to such neglect. Even though there are flaws in the argumentation and the premises on which the approach is built, those are minor ones. Furthermore, Granovetter states himself that his work is a limited, basic one that is a fragment of a theory (p. 1378). He does not claim to offer a comprehensive and elaborated concept that does not need further improvement. As part of a theory and by drawing the attention to an entirely neglected part of human interaction, it paves the way for further research in this direction. Granovetter, hence, managed to contribute greatly to several fields of research and this piece of work will not loose significance in the future as it is the basis further studies and will not be replaced by those.

The Development of the Torpedo during World War I :: Torpedoes Torpedo Research Papers

The Development of the Torpedo during World War I The year is 1942, and German U-boats are wreaking havoc on allied shipping to Britain; the vital lifeline which allows the island nation to survive. Unchallenged, they sink hundreds of the merchant vessels which carry the desperately needed food, arms, and other equipment that is necessary for Britain's survival. They are silent and deadly; undetected until it is too late. With a loud deafening blast, a torpedo impacts the center of a ship, breaking its back. The other ships try to run, as their crews search for the unseen attacker by the glow of the ship slipping under the water to her final resting place. Cries of terror pierce the sky, as a ghostly shadow is seen heading for the flagship. The ship rolls to the side as it turns as hard as it can. The torpedo misses, but a second blast pierces the sky, disabling the ship's rudder and propellers. Tracking the submarine with its sonar, a destroyer escort moves at full steam to counter the threat. Once over the spot where the submarine lurks, depth charges are shot over the railing, and they sink quietly in the water to bring the fight back to the concealed enemy. As each detonates, the water bulges over top of where they were dropped. Knowing when it has met its match, the German U-boat retreats and the battle is over until another day. The histories of many weapons of World War II are well known, such as that of the tank and the airplane. However the torpedo is one that is often talked about, yet its history remains in the shadow of these other well known weapons. In an effort to learn more about this topic, I interviewed my grandfather. During the war, he worked in a group developing the sonic controlled torpedo. For many years, he was not able to tell anyone what he did, including his parents. It was not until several years ago when he saw a documentary on the television which had a segment that described the development of the torpedo did he feel that he could talk about what he really did during the war. I first began by asking him what he did during the war. He told me that he led a group who was developing sonic controlled torpedoes, which were designed to follow sound made by a ship or a submarine's propeller.

Salvador Dali the Burning Giraffe

Salvador Dali The Burning Giraffe 1. Structural Frame In Paris in the mid sass's surrealism became the new art movement and was widespread and lasting. The movement was characterized by pictures that contained detailed, strange and unnerving objects with dream like character. The art has a visually striking, controversial and bizarre quality, which was the result of the rejected ‘need' for rational thought and behavior. Salvador Dali described the art as hand painted dream photographs†.This description pinpoints the realistic detail hat was contrasted with surreal images. ‘The Burning Giraffe' Salvador Dali was painted during his exile in the United States, but shows his personal struggle with the battle in his home country of Spain. It was painted before the Second World War and Dali believed the burning giraffe was a premonition of war. Dali interpreted the image of a giraffe with its back ablaze as â€Å"the masculine cosmic apocalyptic monster†. The paint ing illustrates ideas of death- through war, loss of individuality and the weakness of society.In contrast to the usual surrealist obsession with unconscious thought, Salvador Dali described his technique as the â€Å"paranoiac-critical method. † He employed this technique to create ‘The burning Giraffe' which allowed him to paint many optical allusions to create a dreamlike state. Surrealists painted with a high level of detail to create a sense of realism within the ‘dream'. Dalais style is precise and this enhances the ‘dream' or ‘nightmare' effect of ‘The burning Giraffe'. Dali used thinned oil paints s well as dense oil paints on a panel, which were traditional at the time.Salvador Dali was one of the many surrealist painters that often incorporated images of women into their work. Many male surrealist painters had a typical male attitude towards women such as worshipping them symbolically through stereotypes and sexist norms. Surrealists in cluding Salvador Dali had an interest in the concept of psychoanalysis developed by Sigmund Freud. This influence combined with his desires towards women enhanced the nightmare effect of his painting, which the realist painters tried to create. 2.Cultural Frame Women were often made to represent higher values and transformed into objects of desire and mystery. ‘The Burning Giraffe' depicts two women that are slim and curvaceous. One has a drawer opening from below her breasts and several more down her leg. This imagery gives an underlying impression that she is a sexual object as the open drawer could be a symbol of her sexual offerings and favors. The head, hands and part of the arms of the closest female are stripped down only to e the muscles beneath the skin whilst one figure holds a piece of meat.The meat is another symbol of an offering, giving the impression that the women were possibly seen as ‘meat', meaning they possibly were used for sexual favors. Dali shows a state of exhaustion by the uses of the crutches that hold and support the women. This image is symbolic of weakness and is present in many of Dalais work, consistent to address different themes with same effectiveness. Dali believed that both The Burning Giraffe and The Invention of Monsters were premonitions of war.Both of these paintings contain the image of a giraffe with its back ablaze, an image which Dali interpreted as â€Å"the masculine cosmic apocalyptic monster†. He first used this image of the giraffe in flames in his film L ‘Age door (The Golden Age) in 1930. The Burning Giraffe appears as very much a dreamboats, not simply because of the subject but also because of the supernatural aquamarine color of the background. Against this vivid blue color, the flames on the giraffe stand out to great effect. In the foreground, a woman stands with her arms outstretched.Her forearms and face are blood red, having been stripped to show the muscle beneath the flesh. The woman's face is featureless now, indicating a nightmarish helplessness and a loss of individuality. Behind her, a second woman holds aloft a strip of meat, representing death, entropy, and the human races capacity to devour and destroy. The women both have elongated phallic shapes growing out from their backs, and these are propped up with crutches ‘ Dali repeatedly uses this symbolism for a weak and flawed society.

Did the Industrial Revolution improve life for people? Essay

The Industrial Revolution was a time of drastic change, for both the better and worse. Changes like factories, steam power, and more people flocking to the city generally improved life. However, these changes also meant that working conditions declined, and massive increases in pollution and disease. The above suggest that the Revolution had pros and cons. Population growth changed Britain’s life style immensely. The Industrial Revolution witnessed a huge growth in the size of British cities. In 1695, the population of Britain was estimated to be 5.5 million. By 1801, it was 9.3 million and by 1841, 15.9 million. This represents a 60% growth rate in just 40 years. On average, 20 people shared a small house of four rooms. One toilet was shared by 120 people. This meant that there was not enough clean water or sewage for everyone, and disease spread easily. On the other hand, more people in Britain meant that more food, clothing, and everyday items were needed. The people also p rovided the workforce for the new industries. The new factories were often terrible places for people working in them. Punishments were harsh: for example, if a worker talked, left the working room without consent of the overseer was late to work, or broke any equipment, they would be fined. The factories were often also extremely dangerous- especially for girls, with their long dresses, aprons and hair. Workers would sometimes get caught in the machinery, resulting in horrible injuries or even death. While jobs were created, there were few if any rules about how much people could be paid, what training they would receive and whether they could be fired for any reason. The jobs were dangerous and if you died, no one really cared. There was no unemployment or sick pay: with no job, you got no wages, and could starve. However, wages in the factories were higher than on farms and jobs were plentiful. On the other hand, factories also improved peoples’ daily lives – by expanding the number and quality of the kinds of products factories could turn out, ordinary British lived better and had m ore time on their hands as conveniences and efficiencies defined the Industrial Revolution. Factories in the major cities created hundreds of thousands of jobs, expanded the cities and attracted immigrants by the millions. – The Industrial Revolution turned out many notable inventions like the battery, the telephone, and the calculator. The huge growth of business and factories meant that our transportation network expanded out of  necessity and brought us canals and highways. The success of the Industrial Revolution depended on the ability to transport raw materials and finished goods over long distances. The growth in transportation meant that we now have cars, bicycles, traffic lights and trains. To conclude, the Industrial Revolution changed Britain for both good and bad. However, there is more evidence above to show that the Industrial Revolution did not improve life for the people of Manchester during the time. Regardless, there is no denying that the Revolution brought on more technology, wealth and power to modern society, and that it had a huge impact on t he world and shaped the world to what it is today.

I Will Bear Witness, a Diary Drafted by Victor Klemperer

I Will Bear Witness, a Diary Drafted by Victor Klemperer Introduction Klemperer Victor drafted his diary â€Å"I Will Bear Witness†, to show the way in which Nazi regime condemned Jewish and other groups. It was unusual experience to the Jewish community during the twelve years rule by Hitler Adolf. The diary of Victor Klemperer showed holocaust experience when the Jews community were condemned and dehumanized in Germany.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on â€Å"I Will Bear Witness†, a Diary Drafted by Victor Klemperer specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Actually, the diary explained the horrible situation which Klemperer Victor had undergone during condemnation of his Jews community. In 1933, Klemperer Victor began to write his diary and proceeded to draft it till the end of Second World War in 1945[1]. Indeed, Klemperer managed to survive simply because he was a husband to a baptized Aryan. Nevertheless, Klemperer was compelled to put on the star and was horribly mistreated by Germans. Though, Eva (Klemperer‘s wife) never put on the star, she suffered a lot of difficulties just like her husband. In addition, each day Klemperer and his family struggled to look for daily meal in order to survive. Surely, Klemperer’s family lived under great fear since they would t be captured and persecuted by the Nazi regime. Indeed, Klemperer kept his document under severe risk since if the diary were to be discovered by the Nazi party, and then definitely Klemperer would be deported and murdered. Moreover, Klemperer aimed at two priorities. First, he intended to record all injustices he and his family had undergone. Secondly, he wanted to deviate from monotony of normal life in his society. The diary explained that Klemperer manage to survive through determination to life, to act within his capability, in fact not to withdraw or to give up from what he wanted1 Klemperer, who was a professor, felt the importance of involvement in many occupatio ns as a way to remain sane. In fact, he engaged in many activities such as involving in studies and providing for his family. However, Klemperer’s commitment was interfered with when he was compelled to shovel snow together with other Jews people. Indeed, the task was really horrible for him because of his advanced age. Klemperer performed the task for some time after which was freed, and thus led his usual life. Furthermore, Klemperer’s family encountered health complications, and the matter was made worst when they could not seek medical attention since people’s movement was restricted in Germany. Indeed, the Nazi regime suppressed their movement and freedom. For example, when moving from one house to another, the Jews people were only allowed to take things that could be accommodated in a suitcase and anything that could be carried on their back1.Advertising Looking for essay on history? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In 1943, Klemperer was compelled to do labor task that discouraged him greatly. However, the task was not cumbersome, but was boring and monotonous. Indeed, he suffered the punishment that he was given in a factory firm. Actually, Klemperer performed labor task for more than one year. In 1945, Jews people, who practiced mixed marriages, were forced to do labor task and later were deported out of the nation. Moreover, unknown armed groups succeeded to bomb Dresden. Fortunately, Klemperer’s family survived. In fact, they managed to locate to another house in order to hide from the Nazi party. Among the Jews community who lived at Dresden, only Klemperer and a few people managed to survive the bombing incident. Indeed, Klemperer was one of the holocaust survivors during persecution of Jews people in Germany1. Actually, Klemperer’s diary shows how people should appreciate determination put forth by Klemperer in order to survive in a life challeng ing situation. Indeed, it is a positive experience that could be learned when Klemperer never give up despite the war-situation became worst. For example, Klemperer’s family managed to persevere when basic commodities could not be found in their surrounding. In fact, it was time when the Nazi party rationed commodities to Jewish community and other opposition groups. In addition, non- Jewish communities also suffered because impacts of the war affected them too. For example, food rationing led to escalation of commodities prices. In his diary, Klemperer accepted to lead a positive life toward whatever agony that he and Jewish people had undergone. Klemperer was responsible person who looked for several survival ways. Moreover, non-Jewish persons who lived at Dresden were empathetic to Jewish community. However, such non-Jewish people (Germans) did not offer direct support to Jews people because they feared Nazi party to condemn them. Indeed, the fact was that, not all Germans were bad people, and such attitude really encouraged Klemperer to search for good. Actually, Klemperer realized that if people, regardless of their background, could lead a compassionate and rational life, then they would be humane, indeed, to support life. Such situation indicated that several Germans were wiling to abandon Nazi’s attitude of conflict, and surely intended to end violence in Germany. Conclusion Klemperer’s diary is actually important in order to understand the holocaust experience in Germany, and how such violence should be avoided not to happen again. In fact, the diary explained what really occurred and thus could not be replicated. Therefore, as a survivor of the holocaust experience, Klemperer acted wisely to account for what he actually experienced in life. Indeed, Klemperer was wise enough to keep the document under great risk, knowing how it would be important in the community later.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on â⠂¬Å"I Will Bear Witness†, a Diary Drafted by Victor Klemperer specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Bibliography Rosen, Philip., Apfelbaum, Nina. Bearing Witness: A Resource Guide to Literature, Poetry, Art, Music, and Video by Holocaust Victims and Survivors (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2002), 5-10. Footnotes Rosen, Philip., Apfelbaum, Nina. Bearing Witness: A Resource Guide to Literature, Poetry, Art, Music, and Video by Holocaust Victims and Survivors (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2002), 5.

How Peer Review Works in the Social Sciences

How Peer Review Works in the Social Sciences Peer review, at least in intent, is the way the editors of academic journals attempt to keep the quality of articles in their publications high, and assure (or attempt to assure) that poor or fallacious research does not get published. The process is tied up with political and economic issues involving tenure and pay scales, in that an academic who participates in the peer review process (whether as author, editor, or reviewer) gets rewarded for that participation in an increase in reputation which can lead to an increase in pay scales, rather than direct payment for services rendered. In other words, none of the people involved in the review process is paid by the journal in question, with the sole exception (maybe) of one or more editorial assistants. The author, editor, and reviewers all do this for the prestige involved in the process; they are generally paid by the university or business that employs them, and in many cases, that pay is contingent upon obtaining publication in peer-reviewed journals. The editorial assistance is generally provided in part by the editors university and in part by the journal. The Review Process The way academic peer review works (at least in the social sciences), is that a scholar writes an article and submits it to a journal for review. The editor reads it over and finds between three and seven other scholars to review it. The reviewers selected to read and comment on the scholars article are chosen by the editor based on their reputations in the specific field of the article, or whether they are mentioned in the bibliography, or if they are personally known to the editor. Sometimes the author of a manuscript suggests some reviewers. Once a list of reviewers is drawn up, the editor removes the name of the author from the manuscript and forwards a copy to the chosen stout hearts. Then time passes, a lot of time, generally, between two weeks and several months. When the reviewers have all returned their comments (made directly on the manuscript or in a separate document), the editor makes a preliminary decision about the manuscript. Is it to be accepted as is? (This is very rare.) Is it to be accepted with modifications? (This is typical.) Is it to be rejected? (This last cases is also fairly rare, depending on the journal.) The editor strips out the identity of the reviewers and sends along the comments and her preliminary decision about the manuscript to the author. If the manuscript was accepted with modifications, it is then up to the author to make changes until the editor is satisfied that the reviewers reservations are met. Eventually, after several rounds of back and forth, the manuscript is published. The period from submission of a manuscript to publication in an academic journal generally takes anywhere from six months to over a year. Problems with Peer Review Problems inherent in the system include the time sink between submission and publication, and the difficulty obtaining reviewers who have the time and inclination to give thoughtful, constructive reviews. Petty jealousies and full blown political differences of opinion are difficult to restrain in a process where no one is made accountable for a specific set of comments on a particular manuscript, and where the author has no ability to correspond directly with her reviewers. However, it must be said that many argue that the anonymity of the blind review process allows a reviewer to freely state what he or she believes about a particular paper without fear of reprisal. The burgeoning of the internet in the first decade of the 21st century has made a huge difference in the way articles are published and made available: the peer review system is often problematic in these journals, for a number of reasons. Open access publishingin which free draft or completed articles are published and made available to anyoneis a wonderful experiment that has had some hitches in getting started. In a 2013 paper in Science, John Bohannen described how he submitted 304 versions of a paper on a bogus wonder drug to open-access journals, over half of which were accepted. Recent Findings In 2001, the journal Behavioral Ecology changed its peer review system from one which identified the author to reviewers (but reviewers remained anonymous) to a completely blind one, in which both author and reviewers are anonymous to one another. In a 2008 paper, Amber Budden and colleagues reported that statistics comparing the articles accepted for publication before and after 2001 indicated that significantly more women have been published in BE since the double-blind process began. Similar ecological journals using single-blind reviews over the same period do not indicate a similar growth in the number of woman-authored articles, leading researchers to believe that the process of double-blind review might assist with the glass ceiling effect. Sources Bohannon J. 2013. Whos afraid of peer review? Science 342:60-65. Budden AE, Tregenza T, Aarssen LW, Koricheva J, Leimu R, and Lortie CJ. 2008. Double-blind review favours increased representation of female authors. Trends in Ecology Evolution 23(1):4-6. Carver M. 2007. Archaeology journals, academics and open access. European Journal of Archaeology 10(2–3):135–148. Chilidis K. 2008. New knowledge versus consensus – a critical note on their relationship based on the debate concerning the use of barrel-vaults in Macedonian tombs. European Journal of Archaeology 11(1):75–103. Etkin A. 2014. A New Method and Metric to Evaluate the Peer Review Process of Scholarly Journals. Publishing Research Quarterly 30(1):23-38. Gould THP. 2012. The Future of Peer Review: Four Possible Options to Nothingness. Publishing Research Quarterly 28(4):285-293. Vanlandingham SL. 2009. Extraordinary Examples of Deception in Peer Reviewing: Concoction of the Dorenberg Skull Hoax and Related Misconduct. 13th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics: International Symposium on Peer Reviewing. Orlando, Florida. Vesnic-Alujevic L. 2014. Peer Review and Scientific Publishing in Times of Web 2.0. Publishing Research Quarterly 30(1):39-49. Weiss B. 2014. Opening Access: Publics, Publication, and a Path to Inclusion. Cultural Anthropology 29(1):1-2.

The Tragic Life, Murder Case of Dr. Sam Sheppard

The Tragic Life, Murder Case of Dr. Sam Sheppard Marilyn Sheppard was brutally murdered while her husband, Dr. Sam Sheppard, slept downstairs. Dr. Sheppard was sentenced to life in prison for the murder. He was eventually freed from prison, but the scars of the injustices he had to endure were permanent. Attorney F. Lee Bailey fought for Sheppards freedom, and won. Sam and Marilyn Sheppard Sam Sheppard was voted the man Most Likely to Succeed by his senior high school class. He was athletic, smart, good looking, and came from a good family. Marilyn Sheppard was attractive, with hazel eyes and long brown hair. The two began dating while in high school and eventually married after Sam graduated from the Los Angeles Osteopathic School of Physicians in September 1945. After he had graduated from medical school, Sam continued his studies and received his Doctor of Osteopathy degree. He went to work at the Los Angeles County Hospital. His father, Dr. Richard Sheppard, and his two older brothers Richard and Stephen also doctors, were running a family hospital and convinced Sam to return to Ohio in the summer of 1951 to work in the family practice. By this point, the young couple had a four-year-old son, Samuel Reese Sheppard (Chip), and with a loan from Sams father, they purchased their first home. The home sat on a high cliff overlooking Lake Erie shore in Bay Village, a semi-elite suburb of Cleveland. Marilyn settled into the life of being married to a physician. She was a mother, homemaker, and taught Bible classes at their Methodist Church. A Marriage in Trouble The couple, both sports enthusiasts, spent their leisure time playing golf, water skiing, and having friends over for parties. To most, Sam and Marilyns marriage seemed free of problems, but in truth, the marriage was suffering due to Sams infidelities. Marilyn knew about Sams affair with a former Bay View nurse named Susan Hayes. According to Sam Sheppard, although the couple experienced problems, divorce was never discussed as they worked to revitalize their marriage. Then tragedy struck. A Bushy Haired Intruder On the night of July 4, 1954, Marilyn, who was four months pregnant, and Sam entertained neighbors until midnight. After the neighbors left, Sam fell asleep on the couch and Marilyn went to bed. According to Sam Sheppard, he was awakened by what he thought was his wife calling his name. He ran to their bedroom and saw someone who he described later as a bushy haired man fighting with his wife but was immediately struck on the head, rendering him unconscious. When Sheppard awoke, he checked the pulse of his blood-covered wife and determined she was dead. He then went to check on his son and found him unharmed. Hearing noises coming from downstairs, he ran down and discovered the back door open. He ran outside and could see someone moving toward the lake and as he caught up with him, the two began to fight. Sheppard was struck again and lost consciousness. For months, Sam would describe what happened over and over- but few believed him. Sam Sheppard Is Arrested Sam Sheppard was arrested for the murder of his wife on July 29, 1954. On Dec. 21, 1954, he was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. A pre-trial media blitz, a biased judge, and police that focused only on one suspect, Sam Sheppard, resulted in a wrongful conviction that would take years to overturn. Soon after the trial, Sams mother committed suicide on Jan. 7, 1955. Within two weeks, Sams father was dead from a gastric ulcer that hemorrhaged. F. Lee Bailey Fights for Sheppard After the death of Sheppards lawyer, F. Lee Bailey was hired by the family to take over Sams appeals. On July 16, 1964, Judge Weinman freed Sheppard after finding five violations of Sheppards constitutional rights during his trial. The judge said the trial was a mockery of justice. While in prison, Sheppard corresponded with Ariane Tebbenjohanns, a wealthy and beautiful blond woman from Germany. The two married the day after his release from prison. Back to Court In May 1965, a federal appeals court voted to reinstate his conviction. On Nov. 1, 1966, a second trial began, but this time with special attention given to ensuring that Sheppards constitutional rights were protected. After 16 days of testimony, the jury found Sam Sheppard not guilty. Once free, Sam returned to work in medicine, but he also started drinking heavily and using drugs. His life quickly dissolved when he was sued for malpractice after one of his patients died. In 1968, Ariane divorced him and said he had stolen money from her, threatened her physically, and was abusing alcohol and drugs. A Life Lost For a short time, Sheppard got into the world of pro wrestling. He used his neurological background to promote a nerve hold he used in competition. In 1969, he married his wrestling managers 20-year-old daughter- although records of the marriage have never been located. On April 6, 1970, Sam Sheppard died of liver failure as a result of heavy drinking. At the time of his death, he was an insolvent and broken man. His son, Samuel Reese Sheppard (Chip), has devoted his life to clearing his fathers name.

The Effects of the Cold War on the Middle East Essay

The Effects of the Cold War on the Middle East - Essay Example The condition for the communism’ triumph was to bring the whole world under communist rule, whereas the West’s target was to thwart the threat of communism. Eventually with the dissolution of the former Soviet Union, the West had been able to destroy the main drive of expansionist communism. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the remnants of communism were no more threat to the capitalist world. Thus the US-led west proved itself to be the true claimant of communism. Yet the United States’ success to eliminate the threat of communism through the dissolution of the Soviet Union perpetuates the debate on whether the United States as a superpower can, decidedly, declare its authority unchallenged. From a different perspective the Cold War can be viewed as the superpowers’ conflicts of interests. In plain eye, on the Soviet Union’s part, the war was a fight of idealism and on the United States’ part, it was a moral defense against expansionist c ommunism. But beneath both these moralist and idealist apparels lies the superpowers’ contest for a superior position in international politics. Through the Soviet Union’s dissolution in 1989, the threat from the communist front simply changed its platform from the communist block to the Islamic block and the Cold War turns into â€Å"War on Terror†. Indeed the threat from the extremist Islamists was one of the direct derivatives of the Cold War. Since even after the Cold War, the United States had to face additional Islamic threat, once watered by the Reagan Administration, one can deem that the US did not really win the War; rather the communist just lost it. A Brief Overview of the Cold War The Cold War can be defined as the conflicts of interests between the two superpowers, the United States of America and the Soviet Union, in the post Second World War period. It existed from 1947 to 1991. After the Second World War, the US President Franklin D. Roosevelt d id not need the Soviet support any more to win over Japan after testing the atomic bomb, ensuing the 50 years long Cold War. Thus, the Yalta Conference in the Crimea, Soviet Union, in February 1945 between the â€Å"Big Three† allies of the Second World War was one such event that structured the start of the Cold War (â€Å"The Cold War† 1). Though during the Cold War, ideological, political, economic and military tensions existed at an extreme level, the superpowers did not become involved in any direct war. Rather their military involvements were confined to proxy wars in various geographical regions of interests. Nuclear arm race between the two main parties of the war, the USA and the Soviet Union, began as a response to the superpowers’ desire to overpower each other. During the period, the world experienced a worldwide regrouping of the countries into the US block and the Soviet block. This regrouping in the Soviet block was mainly based on the Marxist pol itical ideology of Communism, whereas capitalism and democratic interests dominated the countries in the US block. This regroupings in both of the blocks often turned into expansionism and counter-expansionism. (Schweizer, 1994, pp. 69-74) Reagan’s Policy to Win the Cold War Reagan’s policy towards the Soviet Union can significantly be marked as a dual approach in the sense that on one hand Reagan’s administration chose to provide both overt and covert support to anti-communist communities and guerrilla movements in order to â€Å"roll back† â€Å"Soviet-backed communist governments in Africa, Asia, and Latin America† (D'Souza, 2003) and on the other hand, it put effort on growing an intimate, but cautious, relationship

Practical 1 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Practical 1 - Assignment Example Annealing process effects on mechanical properties of the sample’s test strain properties. The material loses its ductility during the cold rolling process. Anneal strengthening effect or toughness of the material under investigation (copper) increases in degree of prior cold work and the corresponding annealing. The ability of crystalline material to plastically deform depends on the ability for dislocation movement within copper. When the movement of dislocations is impeded, the material is strengthened. This is achieved through a number of ways such as; Strain hardening or work-hardening or cold working is a process that makes copper harder and stronger through plastic deformation. As it is plastically deformed, dislocations move as additional dislocations are produced. As dislocation within the material increases, the grains interact and become pinned or tangled. As a result, there is decreased grain mobility of dislocations as the material is strengthened. Ductility increases with the grain size, as the strength decreases. Atomic diffusion occurs as temperature increases and it releases internal strain energy. Since atoms are not fixed in a position but move once they have enough energy to break their bonds, diffusion increases rapidly with the increase in temperature. This allows the atoms to move to unrestrained positions and recover a normal position in lattice structure. This is the recovery phase and leads to adjustment of strain. In the annealing process, the test sample was performed in 1000Â ºC capacity furnace. It was observed that the hardness of the copper sample increased with gradual increase in reduction in cross-sectional area. This is due to strain hardening. The maximum value of hardness was obtained at 117HB 40% reduction in area. Understanding of mechanical deformation properties ensures efficient stress relieving procedures. Thickness of material affects the hardness of the material. It is observed from the experiment that

Joseph Epstein The Perpetual Adolescent Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Joseph Epstein The Perpetual Adolescent - Essay Example This argumentative paper aims to defend my view of growing up and gaining maturity that should also be projected by media. The defensive account will be made in the paper by taking examples from Epstein’s article into consideration. The reason why I consider growing up as a wise phase in life is due the experience of older people that have allowed the young ones to learn from and understand the difference between right and wrong. The distinction between the adolescents and older people is in terms of experience. I would say that gone are the days when men and women were proud of the fact that they were growing wiser. Epstein has also stressed on the same view in his article by comparing example of intellect of older people with Aristotle (Epstein). Similarly, older generation needs to understand that they have the power of experience that would allow them to have a mature approach towards life. Maturity should be considered as an asset by the older generations, which is now no t given due consideration. It is because even older people are impressed by the false youth culture being projected by the media. Such a claim as per my observation becomes easy to understand by considering modern day older women as an example of this. Older women are no more reluctant to follow fashion trends displayed by young models in the media (Epstein). American women who are growing wiser must understand the distinction between youthfulness and adulthood, and then follow the trends. Similar example has also been given by Epstein in his article stating that women undergo a great deal of plastic surgeries just to look young because they think that being young and by following adolescent culture they will be valued more. However, the true attractive feature of women is when she grows older and wiser (Epstein). I believe that Epstein’s view on the faded line of distinction between the youth and adulthood in terms of the American nation is correct. At one hand, being young is not dire as adolescents have a lot of energy because they get to see new in life and are full of creativity; while on the other hand, becoming older and wise is a blessing as individuals have already been through crucial moments of life. But it should be noted that the media has misinterpreted the distinction between these two phases of life. The American nation has become a victim of the media’s agenda to sell youth culture depriving the confidence of living a life with wisdom and maturity (Epstein). I have also observed that our society has also accepted the youthful culture being projected by media in this way. This acceptance has led lives of adult to become miserable, as they have started to run after the youthful culture. The point to be noted here is that the adults are chasing youthful trends and culture which has passed them long before and it is about time that they must live with mature decision-making in every aspect of life. Society and media should go hand in hand to make a difference in people’s view for growing older and wiser. Media should celebrate experience of older people by appreciating them. Media should enhance the need of maturity that is lacking in the American society (Epstein). Through the above counter arguments, it could be said that adolescences have the energy that can create implications of a vision. Youth can be strong

Respect Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Respect - Essay Example However, this is counterproductive since when they work in fear, employees will spend more time worrying about their job security and produce mediocre results. Americans feel pressured by their employers and hardly have time to spend with their families and friends, long working hours as well as stressful conditions are hazardous to their health (Waldman). Ironically, it has been scientifically proven that workers who take time off and whose bosses treat them in a friendly and respectful manner are likely to be highly motivated therefore more productive than insecure employees who expend too much time trying to keeping avoiding trouble. A vacation is the ideal time for employees develop innovative ideas by temporarily escaping monotony of the office routine and in the long-term, an employer can reap substantial benefits form letting their staff relaxes every now and then. Waldman explains the situation further by examining the issue of drug testing; he claims that employers who teste d their staff for drugs were often less productive than those who did not (Waldman). While drug tests may sometimes be necessary, they are often seen as a violation of one’s privacy and even when one has not used drugs being tested evidenced that their employer does not trust them. Consequently, the more poorly treated workers are, the less productive they become, primarily because they lose their intrinsic motivation and only work as a means of avoiding trouble or getting fired (Martins). Conversely, employees who are treated with respect are intrinsically motivated and they are driven by results since they do not feel threatened or insecure so they can give the job their full attention, in addition since they get enough time to relax they will be more innovative and productive. Personally, I agree that the respect showed to employees by their employers is directly proportional to their productivity and vice versa. After high school, I worked for a while as a cashier in a fa st food restaurant in my town, it did not take me long to realize that the floor supervisor was a brutal inconsiderate individual to whom the employees were only as good as the last satisfied customer. On my second day, I observed him yell at a busboy who had dropped a glass and he told him if he broke another one, he should not bother to clean it up because he would be fired, this was in full sight and view of the lunchtime crowd. For the rest of the day, the young man was jumpy and irritable and he missed several orders and I heard him speak rudely to a customer, fortunately, the supervisor did not hear about it since he would have probably fired him on the spot. I had assumed it was an isolated case but I later came to realize that harassing employees was the norm at the restaurant; the turnover rate was very high as someone quite almost every week. As the cashier, I soon discovered that one of the reasons productivity was low was that we were training a new employee every other week and as such, we had an inexperienced waiter on the floor that would naturally be slow on their feet. However, as soon as they had become skilled enough to take multiple orders and speed things up, someone would quit and once again, we would have a deficiency and another slot to fill. If the workers had

Paraphrasing Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Paraphrasing - Assignment Example (Audubon 1990, pg. 17) Research has shown that out of the one thousand lives lost as a result of bicycle accidents three quarters results from head injuries and half of these deaths affect school children. Another study also indicated the use of helmets reduces chances of head injury by approximately 85% through provision of a cushion to head as well as the absorption of shock (Unused life savers Consumer Report 1990, pg. 348). Matisse in the most excellent artist among the contemporary artists in making realistic scenarios to his viewers; an example of his work is the Casbah Gate which is mostly known to many of his fans as the Bab el Aassa. It exhibits a feeling of the breeze as essential to well-being and a smell of oranges as crucial to constant life. This piece of work is strategically located on a wall near the Sultan’s palace. The painting on the wall is made by rough pieces of ivory to form an aqua blue together with a rose that is surrounded by a gray outline to give the viewers a feeling of tangier afternoon as well as an artful occurrence of the bowaab which faces the entry of the Gate (Plagens1990, pg. 50) Despite the fact that Sear Towers is considered as the greatest achievement in the Skyscraping Engineering dimension, engineers as well as architects are still enthusiastic to develop the tallest buildings in the world. This has raised concerns on the maximum height in which buildings can be erected. A building twice as high as the Sear towers has been designed by the famous Structural Engineer William and has a dimension of half a mile in height. Research by Sobei depicts that the contemporary technology can capacitate the construction of a five hundred story tower (Bachman 1990, pg.

Civil Society and Global Finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Civil Society and Global Finance - Essay Example This transition occurred in the running century, however, it initiated in the 1990s; the reason was increasing competition for economic sustainability and supremacy. In the running decade, the magnitude of the economic activities is considered enormous than previous decades, unfortunately, this success is the cost of ignorance or non-compliance of social and environmental obligations. The companies are more interested in improving their financial positions for obtaining credit facility. The devised financial policies are extremely converged to point of high revenue generation, such that significant environmental and social aspects have been outclass. Such practices was never exercised in 20th century, the companies considered compliance of social and environmental laws obligatory, the financial profits were curtails, production numbers were reduced only to secure the necessary non-financial interests, beneficial for the human society (Clarkson, 2002). As per critics, it was in 1980s when the international investment regime transformed significantly. The attributing factors towards such transformation included "extra-ordinary increase in the volume of global FDI flows and stocks; second, the rising levels of corporate concentration in high technology global production resulting from mergers, acquisitions and network relationships, in particular strategic business alliances; and third, the development and widespread application of information technologies to international corporate organization". During the 1980s and 1990s, the economic indicators of the world economy were negative, and severe slowdown in the foreign direct investment was witnessed, "global foreign direct investment flows declined in 1991 for the first time since 1982, falling from USD 230billion in 1990 to USD 180billion in 1991" (Jan 2002).  

Paraphrasing Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Paraphrasing - Assignment Example (Audubon 1990, pg. 17) Research has shown that out of the one thousand lives lost as a result of bicycle accidents three quarters results from head injuries and half of these deaths affect school children. Another study also indicated the use of helmets reduces chances of head injury by approximately 85% through provision of a cushion to head as well as the absorption of shock (Unused life savers Consumer Report 1990, pg. 348). Matisse in the most excellent artist among the contemporary artists in making realistic scenarios to his viewers; an example of his work is the Casbah Gate which is mostly known to many of his fans as the Bab el Aassa. It exhibits a feeling of the breeze as essential to well-being and a smell of oranges as crucial to constant life. This piece of work is strategically located on a wall near the Sultan’s palace. The painting on the wall is made by rough pieces of ivory to form an aqua blue together with a rose that is surrounded by a gray outline to give the viewers a feeling of tangier afternoon as well as an artful occurrence of the bowaab which faces the entry of the Gate (Plagens1990, pg. 50) Despite the fact that Sear Towers is considered as the greatest achievement in the Skyscraping Engineering dimension, engineers as well as architects are still enthusiastic to develop the tallest buildings in the world. This has raised concerns on the maximum height in which buildings can be erected. A building twice as high as the Sear towers has been designed by the famous Structural Engineer William and has a dimension of half a mile in height. Research by Sobei depicts that the contemporary technology can capacitate the construction of a five hundred story tower (Bachman 1990, pg.

CD 1 @2 W4 Parent P Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

CD 1 @2 W4 Parent P - Essay Example The present value tables are used to determine the discounting factor to obtain the present value total. DQ2 When an analyst applies the NPV value method he should only consider projects with positive NPV value. The optimum selection of a project using NPV methodology is the project that has the highest NPV (Besley & Brigham, 2000). Corporations can use NPV to evaluate multiple projects. The math used in the NPV analysis is a proven formula that has been used for hundreds of years. There are circumstances in which an NPV analysis might give distorted data. For instance the risk of natural disaster in an area can increase the odds of failure of a project particularly if the project is time sensitive. A project with a higher NPV geographically located in the Caribbean region during hurricane season might be not chosen by a conservative risk adverse investor that feels that a project in the middle states of the Unites States has a lower risk of being hit by a natural disaster that could lead to project failure. References Besley, S., Brigham, E. (2000). Essential of Managerial Finance (12th ed.). Fort Forth: The Dryden Press.

Mobile Computing with WirelessLAN and its Modes

Mobile Computing with WirelessLAN and its Modes Mobile computing with WirelessLAN And its modes Ad hoc network with challenges Pallavi D. Dudhe, Prof. P. L. Ramteke Abstract In this paper, we summarized Mobile computing with WirelessLAN and its modes Ad hoc network and infrastructure. We define the operational model of our mobile computing environment, where we plan to demonstrate our proposed solutions. Mobile cloud computing is the combination of both cloud computing and mobile networks to bring benefits for mobile users, network operators, as well as cloud computing providers. In the present mobile communication environment, lot of research is going on, to improve the performance of issues like handoffs, routing etc. Security is another key issue that needs to be considered, when the setup of communication channel is to be set. Wireless local area network (WLAN) security are inherently weak and do not provide adequate security. Newer, more robust, wireless security technologies are being developed but have not had widespread acceptance within corporate information infrastructures. An ad hoc network is a collection of mobile nodes equipped wi th wireless communication adapters; these nodes dynamically form a temporary network without the need of any existing network infrastructure. Earlier studies on ad hoc networks aimed to propose solutions to some fundamental problems, such as routing, coping with the new challenges caused by networks and nodes features without taking the security issues into account. Keywords – Mobile computing, mobile computing security, mobile agent’s security, mobile ad hoc networks, wireless networks. I. INTRODUCTION Mobile computing requires wireless network to support outdoor mobility and handoff from one network to the next at a pedestrian or vehicular speed. Traveler in car using laptop connected with a GSM phone engaged in mobile computing. One of the more exciting information technologies to come about in the last several years was wireless computing. Computer users have to be tied to massive desktop computers to accomplish their daily tasks. Ubiquitous computing or pervasive computing refers to access to computer network at any location by any person all the time. With the rapid growth in the wireless mobile communication technology, small devices like PDAs, laptops are able to communicate with the fixed wired network. Because of its flexibility and provision of providing ubiquitous infrastructure, there is need to provide security at any level. As wireless communication takes place mainly through the radio signals rather than wires, it is easier to intercept or eavesdrop on the communicat ion channels. Therefore, it is important to provide security from all these threats. There are different kinds of issues within security like confidentiality, integrity, availability, legitimacy, and accountability that needs to be individually taken care off. Mobile Cloud Computing at its simplest refers to an infrastructure where both the data storage and the data processing happen outside of the mobile device. Mobile cloud applications move the computing power and data storage away from mobile phones and into the cloud, bringing applications and mobile computing to not just Smartphone users but a much broader range of mobile subscribers. Nowadays, microprocessors and wireless adapters are embedded in many devices, as cell-phones, PDAs, Laptops, digital sensors, and GPS receivers. These well-equipped devices allow the creation of wireless mobile networks, which make the vision of nomadic computing with its ubiquitous access more and more attractive. II. VARIOUS FORMS OF COMPUTING Mobile, ubiquitous, nomadic, untethered, pervasive and anytime, anywhere, any person computing  are used by researchers to refer to computing that uses small portable devices and wireless communication network. Nomadic computing refers to limited migration. Migration is within a building at a pedestrian speed. In the same vein, users carrying laptop with DIAL-UP modems are engaged in nomadic computing. Ubiquitous computing or pervasive computing refers to access to computer network all the time at any location by any person.Ubiquitous computing can not be realized unless mobile computing matures. Figure 1. Relationship between computing One of the more exciting information technologies to come about in the last several years was wireless computing. WirelessLANs operate in one of two modes, ad-hoc or infrastructure. Ad-hoc defines a method of wireless computer peers to exchange data without a predefined network infrastructure and has not met with great success. The infrastructure mode of operation is predominantly used for construction of wireless networks and requires two components; wireless access point(s) connected to a traditional wired network and wireless network interface card(s) installed into the computing devices. III. GENERAL ARCHITECTURE OF WIRELESS NETWORKS Wireless LAN is a traditional LAN architecture extended with a wireless interface to service small low-powered portable terminals capable of wireless access. The wireless LAN is further connected to a more extensive fixed network such as LAN or WAN. Wireless LANs have limited range and are designed to be used only in local environments. There are two types of wireless LAN architectures: ad-hoc networks and infrastructure networks. The Wide-Area Wireless Networks are special mobile radio networks that provide wide coverage for low bandwidth data services. In paging networks the service is usually receive-only and has very low bandwidth. The initial applications for satellite systems are voice and paging. Additional services planned include messaging and fax transmission. Wireless networks communicate by modulating radio waves or pulsing infrared light. Wireless communication is linked to the wired network infrastructure by stationary transceivers. The area covered by an individual transceivers signal is known as a cell. Cell sizes vary widely: Figure 2. Architecture of wireless networks A. Operational problems associated with wireless network Disconnection:-Wireless communications suffer from frequent disconnections due to a higher degree of noise and interference as well as the process of inter-cell hand-offs. Disconnections can be hidden by asynchronous operation. Heterogeneous network:-To achieve wireless communication a mobile host must get connected to different and heterogeneous networks. The general problem of heterogeneity can be addressed by exploiting emerging distributed systems. Bandwidth and Interface Variability:-Bandwidth can shift one to four orders of magnitude, depending on whether the system is plugged in or using wireless access or switching interfaces, e.g. from infrared to radio when the user moves from indoors to outdoors. Mobile applications have to adapt their behaviour properly. Security Risks:- Precisely because connection to a wireless link is so easy, the security of wireless communication can be compromised much more easily than that of wired communication. B. Challenges regarding wireless network Main cause of loss of packets in wired network is congestion because error rates are very low. In wireless network, congestion still remains a problem, but this situation is somewhat reversed. Wired and wireless network require different techniques to achieve reliability and flow control. TCP works is unsuitable for wireless network as it interprets errors as packet loss. ITCP (split/indirect TCP) splits TCP into two parts , One between sender and local MSS of the recipient. The other between local MSS and recipient. If MH switches cell during life time of a ITCP Connection center point of connection moves to new MSS. sender remains completely unaware about it. IV. AD HOC NETWORK An ad hoc network is a collection of mobile nodes equipped with wireless communication adapters, these nodes dynamically form a temporary network without the need of any existing network infrastructure. A mobile ad hoc network, or MANET, is a temporary infrastructure less network, formed by a set of mobile hosts that dynamically establish their own network, without relying on any central administration. Mobile hosts used in MANET have to ensure the roles that were ensured by the powerful fixed infrastructure in traditional networks. This is a challenging task, since these devices have limited resources such as CPU, storage, energy, etc.Moreover, the networks environment has some features that add extra complications, such as the frequent topology changes caused by nodes mobility, and the unreliability and the bandwidth limitation of wireless channels. A. Security requirements of ad hoc network The security services of ad hoc networks are not different than those of other types of network communication. The goal is to protect the information and the resources from attacks and misbehavior. In working with network security, there are many requirements that an effective security must ensure: Availability: ensures that the desired network services are available whenever they are expected, inspite of attacks. Systems that ensure availability seek to combat denial of service and energy starvation  attacks that we will present later. Authenticity: ensures communication from one node to another is genuine. It ensures that a malicious node cannot masquerade as a trusted network node. Data confidentiality: is a core security primitive for ad hoc networks, It ensures that a given message cannot be understood by anyone else than its (their) desired recipient(s). Data confidentiality  is typically enabled by applying cryptography Integrity: denotes the authenticity of data sent from one node to another. That is, it ensures that a message sent from node A to node B was not modified by a malicious node, C, during transmission. Non-repudiation ensures that the origin of the message is legitimate. i.e. when one node receives a false message from another, nonrepudiation allows the former to accuse the later of sending the false  message and enables all other nodes to know about it. Digital signature may be used to ensure  nonrepudiation B. Challenges regarding Ad hoc network Ad hoc network routing is the ultimate challenge. Ad hoc networks arise in rapid deployment scenarios: Emergency disaster management. Military operation in remote sites. Business meeting venues without infrastructure support. Many routing algorithms are designed: AODV, DSR, DSDV, TORA, FSR, LAR, ABR, etc.There are interesting application of conventional graph theoretic problems in ad hoc network routing. V. CHALLENGES REGARDING MOBILE COMPUTING Mobile computing affects entire spectrum of issues in computing. First of all it is distributed and mobile computing. Distributed computing as we know works on static wired network. Node may initiate computation somewhere and migrate to another place. So two major problem that arise due to mobility are Searching for current location of a mobile node and to impose a communication structure among nodes. Physical location of mobile is not the network address, so how do we route the message to a mobile host. This question is being addressed by two different communities: Internet community and cellular community . Work of Internet community involves Mobile IP which work as assumes connection-less, packet switching scenario. Cellular communitys effort based on location management of cellular phone users. It deals with connection oriented communication, since it is motivated by issues in call-setup in telephony. Main problem in mobility management is to find an appropriate trade-off between searching and informing. Searching is performed when address of the message recipient is not known or at least not known precisely. Informing is a responsibility of the mobile unit when it migrates. Extreme situations can be Mobile unit never informs works for units receiving few messages and for units which dont move during receiving. Always informs works well for units receiving messages frequently. VI. CONCLUSION In this paper we have studied the different challenges regarding wirelessLAN, its modes Ad hoc network and infrastructure as well as requirement regarding security. As with every Information technology project, security must be a primary consideration. For security to effective, it must be deployed proportional to risk. WLANs present a security risk to organizations but providing security for WLANs is not an insurmountable challenge. There are security solutions available for WLANs to mitigate those most conceivable risks we think securing ad hoc networks is a great challenge that includes many opened problems of research, and receives more and more attention among ad hoc networks community. REFERENCES [1] Abolfazli, Saeid; Sanaei, Zohreh; Ahmed, Ejaz; Gani, Abdullah; Buyya, Rajkumar (1 July 2013). Cloud-Based  Augmentation for Mobile Devices: Motivation, Taxonomies, and Open Challenges.IEEE Communications Surveys Tutorials 99 (pp): [2] R.K.Ghosh ,CSE100, April 2005. [3] Arbaugh, W. A., Shankar, N., Wan, J. Y. (2001). Your 802.11 Wireless Network has No Clothes. Unpublished manuscript, University of Maryland at College Park. Retrieved October 21, 2004, from http://www.cs.umd.edu/~waa/wireless.pdf [4] William Stallings. Cryptography and Network Security principles and practices. Pearson Education  Inc, third edition edition, 2003. [5] Frank Stajano and Ross Anderson. The resurrecting duckling: Security issues for ad-hoc wireless  networks. In 7th International Security Protocols Workshop, Cambridge, UK, April 1999. [6] Duchamp, D. (1992) Issues in Wireless Mobile Computing. Proceedings Third Workshop on Workstation Operating Systems, April 1992, 2-10. [7] Sumi Helal,Ph.D Associate professor, computer information science Engineering Department , University of Florida, Gainesville.FL32611,[emailprotected]. [8] Berghel, H. (2004). Wireless Infidelity I: War Driving.Communications of the ACM, 47(9), 21-28. [9] Forman, G.H. and Zahorian, J. (1994) The Challenges of Mobile Computing. IEEE Computer, April 1994, 38- 47. [10] Charles.E. Perkins and Elizabeth.M. Royer. Ad hoc on demand distance vector (AODV) algorithm.  In the 2nd IEEE Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications (WMCSA99), pages 90-100, 1999.

The Importance of the Tutor in The Flies :: Lord Flies Essays

The Importance of the Tutor in The Flies In Jean -Paul Sarte's play, "The Flies", the main character Orestes manages to lift a curse that has plagued the dwellers of Argos for decades. Both the current king of Argos and Zeus himself are perpetuating this curse for as long as possible for the curse keeps the people subservient and in a state of mourning and terror of their own actions; two things that both the king and Zeus favor in their rule over people. Orestes was actually a resident of Argos and is the first child of the Queen Mother and the dead king. He returns to Argos with a traveling companion, the Tutor, who used to be the child's teacher in the ways of the world. Now the man is Orestes' slave and close advisor. Orestes' stance towards the Tutor and their past relationship essentially effects his ability to break the curse in Argos. In a completely literary sense he was both a counselor for Orestes and a sort of Narrator to fill in holes in dialogue and the story line. Orestes' background was the foundation for his decision-making in this play and Sartre had to find a way to let the audience know what this background was, not only for a linear and complete plot, but also as a testament to the thoughts themselves. The Tutor completed his role in both senses, tying the plot together at the beginning and the very end, and also moving the story along with gifts of advice and observations to Orestes. He almost in a sense doesn't belong in the play. He is a complete contrast to all of the other characters other than maybe Orestes himself. And yet he seems to be a part of Orestes, like his conscious, his voice of reason in this whole tribulation. As a character, the Tutor is much more complicated than one might assume upon first glance. The Tutor as a person was fairly simple in his wisdom and ideas. He had no delusions, no emotional or religious ties, and no 'truth' other than simple and deductive logic. As for personality traits, he was a skeptic, an atheist, and help a kind of detachment from the world and it's people. He is an admitted skeptic of the world, telling Orestes that he had "been trained in skeptic irony" (61).

Exploring the Horror of Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness Essay

Exploring the Horror of Heart of Darkness "The horror, the horror!" Kurtz exclaims prior to his last breath of life on earth. In those final moments, Kurtz was able to say something so true about the whole mess of human life. A life dominated by the fittest, perceived differently through each human eye, and full of judgement lacking understanding of all sides. The various ways the world is viewed causes many problems amongst its people. Whether they are about racism, wealth, or even common sense, conflicts are still subject to arouse. Why? The answer to this is not yet clear because of its complexity and endless variables. Yet what is clear is that it ties into two other aspects-prejudice and social Darwinism or survival of the fittest. Perception is the seed from which those two aspects grow. Throughout `Heart of Darkness', its readers are given a taste of the many different perceptions belonging to the characters. As the Belgian doctor examines Marlow before his long journey to the Congo, he questions Marlow of his sanity and predicts the trip will have an effect on him mentally. Marlow eventually becomes insane to some of the readers, while the others argue the opposite. Depending on how Marlow's actions were perceived determined their overall view of him. Racism was also argued through Marlow's actions. A shade of skin seemed to somehow be viewed as a factor that determined a person or that person's individual rank in a sense. It was as though Marlow always looked down at the dark colored Africans and preferred to communicate only with whites of his own "kind." For instance at the beginning of the novella, Marlow finds a group of Native Africans chained together.... ...arkness" has a deeper meaning about life and how humans react with it. Perception causes human beings to view things differently from one another, which leads to misunderstandings and unnecessary quarreling. Misunderstandings mixed in with fear of the unknown cause prejudice to arouse and people to disregard and treat others with disrespect and inequality. The inequality of people in society is marked by Social Darwinism, in which only the fittest and most accepted survive, leaving no possibility for those who are different to thrive. The darkness of the world is truly a deeper shade of black containing the fears, nightmares, and misunderstandings of its people. A never-ending pathway is thus created for inequality amongst people who should be working side by side, forgetting their differences, and helping to make the world a better place.

Revenue-Recognition Problems in the Communications Equipment Industry Essay

1) In late 2000, Lucent announced that revenues would be adjusted downwards by $679m as a result of revenue recognition problems. Yet the firm’s market capitalization plummeted by $24.7bn. Why do you think the market reacted so negatively to Lucent’s announcements of the problems? The large drop in market capitalization is probably due to several factors. Historically, Lucent had successfully met analysts’ projections for 15 consecutive quarters before announcing, in January 2000, a major shortfall in profits relative to previous expectations. In June, the quarterly balance sheet reported an operating loss of $301m (for the first time since 1998) while warning of weaker profits in Q4. In addition, the revenue recognition issues announced by the new CEO appointed in October were surely perceived as an indication that Lucent’s management was managing revenues and therefore a possible cause of a future fall in revenues. This led investors to modify their earnings expectations in light of the revenue-recognition problems faced by the firm. Since a company’s share price reflects forecasts of future cash flows, and Lucent’s Q3 and Q4 revenues were substantially written-down, investors would rationally expect future earnings to be affected as well. In an efficient market environment, the $24.7bn in lost market capitalization would equal the discounted value of these expected cash flows. However, it is also likely that the repeated missed expectations caused an overreaction by investors, as the company was forced to revise its revenues downward two times over the span of two quarters. This probably raised fears in the market of more widespread problems with the firm’s accounting practices. It should also be kept in mind that the Internet bubble had just burst and a technology related company announcing an operating loss and lower revenues could easily cause a panic selloff among investors, as typically happens when a speculative bubble bursts. 2) What are the specific revenue recognition problems faced by Lucent? On December 22, 2000, Lucent announced a $679m downward adjustment in revenues  of their fourth-quarter financial statement from September 2000. There were four different reasons for the adjustment. First of all, Lucent stated $125m of recorded sales that did not meet the company’s revenuerecognition rules. These revenues were included in the financial statement due to â€Å"misleading documentation and incomplete communications between a sales team and the financial organization†. Additionally, Lucent sold $452m worth of equipment to system integrators and distributors and recorded them as revenues. In fact, the products were not passed on to the customers, because of their weakened financial condition, and Lucent had already verbally agreed to take back the equipment. Therefore, the sales could not be accounted as revenues. Thirdly, sales teams had verbally offered credits to customers worth $74m and booked them as revenue in order to boost the fourth-quarter numbers. As the credits were meant for use at a later date without an actual sale of equipment taking place, these could not be accounted as revenues in the fourth-quarter. Finally, sold equipment worth $28m had not been completely shipped, leaving the service incomplete. Since this violated the first revenue recognition criteria â€Å"The firm has performed all the services or conveyed the asset to the buyer†, recognition of these revenues is not in line with regulation. 3) What financial statement adjustments will Lucent have to make to correct the revenue recognition problems announced in late 2000? In our treatment of the accounting figures we found it necessary to make assumptions relating to tax rates and COGS, as the information is not given directly. In deciding which tax rate to use for the adjustments we have two obvious alternatives; either assume a corporate tax rate of 35%, or calculate the average tax rate based on the presented financial statement. However, due to certain revenues and expenses being non-taxable we have opted to discard the average tax rate as a suitable estimate, and assumed a corporate tax rate of 35%. In relation to the Cost of Goods Sold, Lucent faces the problem that some of  their goods are tangible (communications equipment) while some are intangible (software licenses, services etc.). We are aware of the fact that Lucent’s intangible assets are subject to different costs as its tangible assets, and therefore have to be restated differently. However, we do not know the costs of neither intangible nor tangible assets due to a lack of information and thus assume a representative cost mix that is proportional to total revenues. Hence, we use the average COGS (69% of revenues in Q4, 2000) when we calculate the restatements. In the balance sheet, we treat the physical goods as â€Å"inventory†, and intangible goods as â€Å"other current assets†. When readjusting the income statement and balance sheets we need to reduce the revenues by a total of $679mn, with a corresponding reduction in accounts receivable. The cost of goods sold is reduced by $470mn, as per our assumption above relating to the average cost of goods sold. On the balance sheet this is reflected in the increase of inventories for tangible sales, and other current assets for intangible sales. This leads to a reduction of pretax income of $209mn, and subsequently a reduction in income taxes of $73mn. In the balance sheet this is represented by a reduction in the deferred tax liability (current liabilities in Lucent’s balance sheet), and finally a reduction in stockholders retained equity by $136mn. 4) How would you judge whether a firm is likely to face revenue recognition problems? Revenue-recognition problems in Lucent’s case emerge from mismanagement of the financial statements by all parties involved in compiling them. For instance, the initial $125 million adjustment was due to miscommunication between the sales team and the financial organization. The lack of a proper internal reporting organization or of efficient external auditors therefore is a sign of increased risk of revenue misrepresentation. It is also important to mention that the events described in the case occurred before the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was enacted. This means that, at the time, financial statements did not require a seal of approval from top management in order to be published. The fact that these reports were approved and published suggests awareness and involvement of the board of administrators in the revenue-recognition problems. Making CEOs accountable  for the financial statements was an important step toward prevention of unwanted accounting practices. From a broader perspective, companies are constantly subject to the need of reaching – and beating – the market’s profitability expectations. Missing these targets may result in a steep share price fall, especially considering the â€Å"herd mentality† that is prevalent during market bubbles. Investors will typically overreact at the first sign of negative news from a company, triggering sharp sell offs in stock, as was the case with Lucent, during the height of the dotcom bubble. Further revenue misrepresentation drivers we can deduce from Lucent’s case are: firstly, firms providing financing solutions to customers may fall into the temptation of using these tools in order to boost their quarterly revenues by granting credits to clients. In fact, computing Lucent’s Account Receivables / Turnover ratio, it is observable that average collection days increase substantially from 1998 (85 days) to 2000 (119 days). This means that Lucent was selling products extending financing rather than collecting cash. Secondly, when companies rely on a distribution network rather than on direct sale it is easier for them to engineer revenue-boosting activities (e.g. provide distributors with more than what can be sold and take back the equipment later on). Thirdly, relying on big clients accounting for a large percentage of revenues increases may enhance corporate relationships, thus facilitating non-transparent verbal agreements or offbalance-sheet operations (e.g. financing, discounts). In addition, any changes in accounting practices and assumptions accounted for in the income statement should be investigated closer as a possible case of accounting fraud, as in the case of Lucent. In the 1st quarter of fiscal 1999 $1.3bn is booked as a â€Å"cumulative effect of accounting change†. This is enough to say that a revenue recognition problem exists, but certainly warrants further investigation. Finally, incentives of a more general nature to accounting malpractice include regular evaluation of company credit quality by rating agencies, and distorted compensation incentives for management. The former occur at regular intervals, providing incentives for management to â€Å"polish† a firm’s balance sheet prior to evaluations by the agencies, while the latter usually  involves stock options. Since employees are only allowed to sell their options at certain dates, they have an incentive to push the company’s share price up through accounting manipulation, prior to executing their options. 5) Assess whether any of Lucent’s competitors are likely to face revenue recognition problems in the coming quarters. Cisco Systems’ multichannel approach to sales and marketing includes a direct sales force to distributors, value-added resellers and system integrators. This could allow them to boost their revenues by selling excessive amounts to distributors close to the end of a quarter and taking the equipment back afterwards. On the other hand, Cisco does not rely on a single client, but has a diversified client base. In addition, the financing that Cisco provides is clearly reported on the balance sheet as noncurrent long-term lease receivables, which clearly differs to Lucent’s approach concerning verbal agreements about credits to clients. Unlike Cisco, Juniper Networks mainly relies on one large customer, WorldCom, who generated 18% of their revenues in 2000. Thus, they were highly dependent on that client and had most likely build up a close relationship with them, both concerning equipment sales and credit granting. This increases the risk of false revenue recognition due to either channel stuffing or the sale of equipment (meant to be taken back if not sold) close to the end of the quarter. Nortel is mainly a service provider, in fact 82% of its revenues are made up by services. This could be a red flag for revenue-recognition issues as services may have no clear delivery date and thus allow revenue management. In addition, Nortel granted credit to its customers of $5.6bn, of which only $1.5bn had been used. This could mean that Nortel is trying to attract customers by aggressively offering financing. On the other hand, Nortel does not depend on any single client. We did not find any significant pattern in insiders’ dispositions of their stock options to indicate fraudulent activity, neither for Lucent or any of their competitors. We also closely examined the two key ratios â€Å"Account Receivables Turnover† and â€Å"Cash Flow Return† for Lucent and its competitors (Juniper Networks has been excluded due to data absence). As can be seen in  the following graph all cash flow returns recently started to decline, which could raise concerns with regards to their revenue recognition policy. In Cisco’s and Nortel’s case one can see that this change is due to a parallel decline in cash flow from operations as well as an increase in sales. However, this movement by itself is not a red flag and could be due to other factors, which calls for a more detailed investigation. We can see that the suspicious decrease in cash flow return is mainly due to a substantial increase in sales and can also be seen in a substantial increase in accounts receivables. Hence, we looked at â€Å"accounts receivable turnover† or more precisely â€Å"days sales outstanding† and found that the average level over the course of the previous three years stays approximately the same while showing a negative trend for Cisco and even constantly decreased slightly for Nortel. This is a very good sign and means that these two still manage to collect their receivables in a timely manner although sales increase rapidly. Cash Flow Returns should therefore stabilize again in the ne ar future. Lucent’s Account receivables turnover on the other hand, as already elaborated in the previous question, steeply increases. This may indicate Lucent was selling products by extending financing to customers rather than collecting cash since we cannot apply the same argumentation as for Cisco and Nortel in Lucent’s case.

Pursuit of Happiness (Siddhartha Essay)

Throughout Herman Hesse’s novel, Siddhartha, Siddhartha defines his own happiness and Siddhartha does not let anything beside himself dictate his happiness. Throughout his journeys, Siddhartha becomes enlightened because of the way he can so easily find happiness. Siddhartha proves this through his life decisions that go against the grain of â€Å"normal† decision making. Siddhartha throws ideas of money out the window if it is not what is going to make him happy.After a long journey, Siddhartha is finally able to find his happiness. Everybody is always scrambling for happiness; however, there are only few who can actually obtain happiness. The story begins with the background of Siddhartha: son of a Brahmin, lots of friends, plenty of money and advantages in life. Yet, Siddhartha decides he wants to become a Samana. At this point in the story, Siddhartha is willing to do anything to get his father’s permission to become a Samana. Once he earns his father’ s blessing, Siddhartha becomes a Samana and leaves behind all the advantages he had in life. This shows that Siddhartha is not ruled by material things.Siddhartha shows that making decisions solely on what will make him happy is the true way to find happiness. With no regard for money or pleasing others, many would call Siddhartha selfish; however, any happy person must be selfish because if a person is not fulfilling his or her needs then he or she is not truly happy. On the other side, if someone is fulfilling his or her needs, he or she is, in some ways, selfish. In chapter eight, Siddhartha raves and is elated over a simple night’s sleep: â€Å"What a wonderful sleep it had been! Never had sleep so refreshed him, so renewed him, so rejuvenated him!Perhaps he had really died, perhaps he had been drowned and was reborn in another form. No, he recognized himself, he recognized his hands and feet, the place where he lay and the Self in his breast, Siddhartha, self-willed, in dividualistic. But this Siddhartha was somewhat changed, renewed. He had slept wonderfully. He was remarkably awake, happy and curious† (91). This shows that Siddhartha enjoys the simple things in life and he is happy. By the end of his life, Siddhartha is happy and enlightened; however, he is not unwaveringly happy throughout his life. Siddhartha goes through depression and even thoughts of suicide.After leaving his wife and child –Who once were what made him happy- Siddhartha contemplates suicide but after being found by the river,  Siddhartha realizes that life is worth living. He later discovers the beauty of depression: â€Å"’Things are going downhill with you!’ he said to himself, and laughed about it, and as he was saying it, he happened to glance at the river, and he also saw the river going downhill, always moving on downhill, and singing and being happy through it all. He liked this well, kindly he smiled at the river.Was this not the river i n which he had intended to drown himself, in past times, a hundred years ago, or had he dreamed this?† (96). Siddhartha goes from rich to poor to rich again to poor again, yet through almost every change in his life, Siddhartha remains happy. An unknowingly eerie real life comparison to Siddhartha is former NFL running back: Ricky Williams. Like Siddhartha, Ricky Williams went through life and did whatever made him happy and did not let outside influences make decisions for him since he simply did whatever made him the happiest. Williams, like Siddhartha, started his journey as a young man with many advantages.Being a superstar athlete, Williams received a full ride scholarship to the University of Texas. After three years of being the big man on campus, Williams entered the NFL draft in 1999 and was selected fifth overall by the New Orleans Saints. After three successful seasons with the Saints, Williams was traded to the Miami Dolphins. After testing positive for a couple of drug tests, Williams was faced with a short suspension. However, Ricky Williams shocked the world by announcing his retirement from football in the prime of his career, similar to Siddhartha’s choice to embark on Samana life. Williams was finding himself lost in superstardom and was no longer enjoying the game he so dearly loved.The Miami Dolphins demanded money back off of Williams’ contract claiming that he had not held up his end of the bargain. Williams did not care about the money though. In the next year Williams downgraded to a modest house and lived with his long time girlfriend. Williams even spent time living off the grid in Australia and struggled with diagnosed clinical depression problems. After a one-year sabbatical from the game, Williams returned to his homeland of happiness and played organized football for the next six years and made more money but only because he could; Williams could have played football for free because it was his true passion. Th is part in Williams’ life is similar to Siddhartha’s time spent with Kamala in the way that Siddhartha did become a wealthy business man but only because that was what made him happy.Siddhartha makes a similar decision as Williams when he says, â€Å"He could have remained much longer with Kamaswami, made and squandered money, fed his body and neglected his soul; he could have dwelt for a long time yet in that soft, well upholstered hell, if this had not happened: the moment of complete hopelessness and despair and the tense moment when he had bent over the flowing water, ready to commit suicide. This despair, this extreme nausea which he had experienced had not overpowered him. The bird, the clear spring and voice within him was still alive –that was why he rejoiced, that was why he laughed, that was why his face was radiant under his gray hair† (98).The point of the comparison is that even people who seem to have it all may be lacking happiness, which t o Siddhartha and Ricky Williams is the most important aspect of life. Williams’ life took him all sorts of ways and through years of trying to find inner peace he was able to be a happy man just like Siddhartha. As Siddhartha says in chapter nine, â€Å"my path had once led me from his hut to a new life which is now old and dead† (101). Siddhartha’s happiness is a vital theme throughout Hermann Hesse’s novel.Rightfully so, Hesse shows happiness as one of the main goals of life. Similarly to Siddhartha, Ricky Williams also displays happiness through almost all walks of life and they both prove that one must suffer and do some searching before finding his or her true happiness. Through disregard of others’ opinions and society’s view of happiness is the only way to find oneself and the only way that Siddhartha could find himself and reach enlightenment.