Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Global Population Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Global Population - Essay Example Taking into consideration the expected future data till 2050, population growth estimation can be viewed till 2020 in the figure below, showing fast growth till 1656 until the Flood of Noah decreased the population. At the time of Christ, world population was between 200 to 300 million. The world population would be 12,000,000,001 by the year 2200 if we take into consideration the recent history of population growth (Dolphin). Due to uncertainty regarding the population growth 2000 years before, logical bounds on the value of world population in AD1, for example, can be put with a lower bound of 50,000,000 and upper bound with 200,000,000. Population in AD 1000 can be bounded for lower and upper at 250,000,000 and 350,000,000 (Dolphin). According to the Press Release (11 March, 2009) of the UN population division, the world population currently at 6.8 billion will touch the mark of 7 billion by early 2012, and reach to 9 billion people by 2050, as revealed in the 2008 Revision of the official United Nations population estimates. The data indicates certain trends in world population like the population in developing countries will be young with children under the age of 15 accounting 29 percent of the total population and between 15 to 24 years age accounting to 19 percent of the total population. It would be a bigger challenge for the governments in developing countries to face education and employment challenges with the economic and financial crisis surmounting. Another trend would be seen on the growth rate of population above the age of 60 increasing more than 3 percent per year. Controlling HIV/AIDS would be another challenge linked to continuous growth. There is vast difference in the data of developing countries and developed countries on population growth. Let’s take the example of United Kingdom to analyze the population growth data, as given below

Monday, October 28, 2019

Personal Goals Essay Example for Free

Personal Goals Essay My goal in life is to become a neonatal nurse practioner; this not only accomplishes my long-term professional goal but a long-term personal goal as well; I want to provide for my family, and set an example for my children. To teach them that if they work hard and never give up they can accomplish anything. My professional short term goal is to be able to stop my two in the morning paper route and become employed by the local children’s hospital; giving back to a wonderful profession that helped me when my two littlest were in the NICU. My personal short term goal is to pass my courses as they come here at University of Phoenix, and gain the necessary knowledge to become the best nurse and mother I can possibly be. The skills I need to accomplish these are good time management, attention to detail, compassion, and persistence. I hope to be able to pass these qualities on to my children, but also use them in my professional life as well. To accomplish these goals there are a lot of milestones to achieve along the way. First I had to receive my ADN-RN degree; this was something I did not know if I could accomplish. With the loving support, understanding and help from my family I graduated and made the Dean’s list, all while pregnant, working a full time job and taking care of 4 other children. Next milestone, after six years, was deciding to back to school to obtain my BSN, this too will be an uphill climb but I will accomplish it. It took me forever to get all the paper work in order, get the financial aid needed, get my transcripts from my other university, but through it all I was helped by the wonderful staff here at University of Phoenix. After all that are my Masters degree and my NNP license my final milestones as my professional goals are concerned but just the beginning of the rest of my career. Along the way my personal milestones will be to get into a house that I do not rent, watch my children go off to college themselves and enjoy the peace and quiet of an empty house. By doing these things, taking one step at a time and enjoying he moments I will be gaining the necessary skills to not only be a great nurse but a great teacher to my children; good study habits, time management, determination, and will to accomplish the goal at hand will be needed in both my profession and as a mom. According to Anonymous 2002, â€Å"nearly 40,000 low-birth-weight babies are born each year in the United States, there will continue to be a market for neonatal nurses. † This saddens me to think of all the babies in the NICU, but also reassures me that I will always have opportunity to be employed and able to take care of m y family. Salaries vary by region but may start â€Å"in the upper $30’s to $40’s† (Anonymous 2002). This financial security will allow me to not only support my family, get a house of my own, but also continue my education with minimal stress. Putting in my due diligence not only academically but personally helps alleviate doing everything last minute. By setting aside a few hours a day for rigorous studies allows me to budget the rest of my time accordingly between my children, me and research to improve my career. I recommend a planner or calendar of some sort to keep you accountable for how your day is spent. Remember the dishes will be there, the laundry will eventually get folded, the paper will get written but time with your family can never be replaced, so make sure to schedule that time as well. It helps sometimes to step back regroup and get a perspective of why you are doing this and relax. According to Harvey and Leslie (2006) â€Å"†¦senior neonatal nurses can do much to develop an evidence and research culture on units and to guide program development. † This milestone is also a great goal of mine, to be able to make a difference in neonatal evidence based practice. To apply my knowledge, do research, better a prognosis and pass it on to the next generation of nurses. This should be a goal of every nurse to improve the medical field while being advocates for our patients. By building good time management skills now while I am still in school will help me prepare to continue doing so in my professional and personal life. In Harvey and Leslie (2006) it also states, â€Å"by developing a substantial community of people embedded in clinical settings and universities who can address these diverse issues surrounding research leadership, neonatal nursing will move to a new era of evidence based practice. In conclusion, I want to make a difference this is my short and long term professional and personal goal. To help my fellow student succeed in their endeavors when possible, but to also see my own children grow, prosper and head out into the world themselves. Cappleman (2004) describes â€Å"the process of initiating, maintaining, and eventually terminating the professional-family relationships. † I want the families to be comfortable talking with health care professionals as people not just doctors and nurses; to ask questions, learn how to care for their infants on their own. Cappleman (2004) witnessed â€Å"teaching mothers how to interpret their infants’ behavior, and helping them to acquire skills in caring for them, are therefore essential nursing activities. † I recommend becoming more than just a nurse to our patients; become a confidant, friend, mentor, shoulder to cry on giving them the necessary tools to eventually take care of themselves, but also making them feel comfortable in asking questions and talking to us when necessary. By breaking down these barriers we not only care for the medical needs but emotional and psychological as well. When we allow ourselves to become in tune with our patients by sharing of ourselves, our fears it shows that we are people too. This allows us to be more caring and sincere in our personal lives to show compassion and understanding for those around us. Although there is no formal training, time management issues, obstacles and milestones I have accomplished with difficulty, and more to come, my goal remains to become a neonatal nurse practioner, be an example to my children and make a difference in the world.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Born Too Early Essay -- essays research papers

According to the American Association of Premature Infants (AAPI), over 400,000 babies are born prematurely or at a low birth weight. As a result of being born early they are more likely to require high-technology intensive and specialized care in the hospital and follow-up care as infants and children. As a result, many have chronic medical problems and developmental problems. Some of the problems consist of respiratory distress, feeding issues, language delays and several other problems.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As a mother of a premature infant, I know these issues are a major concern when the baby is born and the stress that it can put on the families. In order to be able to deal with the situation effectively you have to acquire information and learn the good and the bad that come with having a premature infant.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   When a baby is born prematurely there are a number of tests that the baby has to go through. First the doctors and nurses have to assess the baby’s heart, lungs, color and temperature. If the baby is having trouble with any of these things then it is taken into what is called the neonatal intensive care unit. In some of the smaller hospitals they aren’t equipped with the technology that is needed to keep the baby alive and the baby has to be transported to a bigger hospital, usually to a hospital in a metropolitan city in order to get the proper care. After the baby has been assessed for problems then it is watched closely ...

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Analysis of the Warehouse Automation Failure at Sainsbury’s

Abstract All organizational departments play a collective role in ensuring that the intended goals and targets are achieved. It is vital that they work together because the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Because of the connection that exists amongst different departments, failure in one department may have a detrimental effect to the entire organization. In this regard, this report addresses the case of warehouse failure at Sainsbury’s. It provides an in-depth discussion of the failure and utilizes Porter’s value chain analysis model to explore how failures in primary and supporting activities from the model might have contributed to this. Introduction One of the responsibilities of managers is ensuring that all components or departments within the organization work effectively. This is because success in organization is dependent on the contributions made by different departments. There have been several cases where failure in a single department has adversely affected all operations of the company. This paper seeks to address this management issue by focusing on the failures that occurred in the warehouse automation strategy at Sainsbury’s in 2004 (Double Loop, 2013). It is based on the view that there are many operational failures or disasters occur due to managers’ lack of understanding about the whole organization. This leads to problems in the synchronization of different organizational functions. An Overview of Sainsbury’s Sainsbury’s is one of the largest supermarket chains in the United Kingdom, with a current market share of 17.7%. Apart from running the supermarket business, the brand also deals in the banking and property industries. Since it was founded in 1869, the company has undergone a phenomenal growth. Currently, it runs more than 1,106 convenience stores and supermarkets, and has more than 150,000 employees. The company operates both as a wholesaler and as a retailer (Sainsbury’s, 2014). It has stores that comprise of supermarkets, convenience stores, and pharmacies. In the supermarkets’ category, the company runs Sainsbury’s cafe and Sainsbury’s fuel. It also has an online business referred to as Sainsbury’s online, and comprises of Sainsbury’s Energy, Entertainment, Compare and Save, and Sainsbury’s gift cards. There are also banking and mobile businesses that are run by the company. Even with this level of success that the company presently enjoys, it has also undergone a number of challenges, some of which have led to heavy losses. Key among these was the warehouse project failure in 2004 (O’Brien, 2004). Warehouse automation failure at Sainsbury’s The warehouse automation project commenced in 2000 and had originally been meant to improve the efficiency of the company’s supply chain. The project was under the â€Å"business transformation programme†, whose key planks were Electronic Point Sale (EPOS), supply chain management, and outsourcing of its IT projects to Accenture. The warehouse automation project was intended to overhaul and improve supply chain management of the company. The company had originally intended to make installations of automated fulfilment systems in one of its distribution centres, Waltham Point in Essex. This is the company’s biggest depot, and distributes stock around London and southeast England. By implementation of a barcode based fulfilment system though this project, it was projected that it could make the company’s warehousing operations more streamlined and efficient (Double Loop, 2013). Three years into the launch of the business transformation programme, the CEO who had launched the project reported that it was on the right track, and had saved the whole organization a total amount of ?700 million. However, it was later realized that automation system had developed technical issues, mainly errors in reading barcodes. Not only did this failure affect the company’s operations, it also caused contractual rows between Sainsbury’s and Accenture, financial losses and undue attention from media. With reference to O’Brien (2004), implementation of this project led to a pre-tax loss of ?39 million in the first half of 2004, the worst that the company had ever recorded in its 139 years of operation. This also made the company lose ground to its competitors in the market, which included Asda and Tesco (Double Loop, 2013).Causes of the failureThis failure can be attributed to several management issues in the company. One of these was the situation on whic h IT projects, which were to facilitate the automation project, were outsourced to another company (Abdullah & Verner, 2012). Even though the company being outsourced to might have had a good reputation in implementing such projects, the lack of involvement by parent company managers in the monitoring and evaluation of the project can affect the attainment of the intended objective (Alexander & Walker, 2013). The minimal involvement by Sainsbury’s management in this project explains why it took three years and a change in leadership to realize that the project was not likely to attain its set objectives (Alexander & Walker, 2013). Another possible cause, which has also been identified by Double Loop (2013) is that there was insufficient engagement between the company’s CEO and its IT suppliers in projecting the possible key business and IT risks. For this reason, no delivery strategy that could tackle these challenges was promptly designed (Chermack, 2011). This can also be considered as the lack of sufficient preparations by the then CEO (Sir Peter Davis) before the initiation of the project. Insufficient preparation exposes projects to the risk of possible failure and over-expenditure (Kardes et al., 2013). There was also a communication problem, which can be mainly blamed on Sir Peter Davis. Whereas it must have been known to him that the project could probably fail to serve its intended objective, his presentation about the project to the public was that its progress was as planned and that by 2003, it had saved the company ?700 million. Had the issues been frankly and promptly pointed out, necessary measures could have been undertaken to avert the heavy loss that was later incurred (Aula & Siira, 2010). Given that this failure was associated with the warehouse automation exercise at Sainsbury’s warehouse automation project, it is also worth noting that the failure might have been partly caused by automation challenges. The fact that automated system failed to operate as it was intended to, indicates that all the inputs in terms of time, money and resources were lost (Kardes et al., 2013). Porter’s Value chain Analysis of the Failure Porter’s value chain model can be used to identify the primary and supporting activities which contributed to the failure at Sainsbury’s According to Porter (1985), generic value added activities can be divided into two. These are primary activities and support activities. Primary activities comprise of inbound and outbound logistics, sales and marketing, services and operations. Supporting activities, on the other hand, comprise of firm infrastructure, senior management roles, internal culture, procurement, outsourcing and technological developments. The model is represented in the diagram below, in which the functions that contributed to the failure at Sainsbury’s have been marked. Fig. 1: Sainsbury’s value chain components that contributed to the failure in warehouse automation The functions marked in the value chain model above have been identified as the contributors towards the identified failure. They are explained in more detail below: Outbound logistics: in the value chain, outbound logistics are referred to as activities that mainly relate to transference of goods to customers through warehousing. The automation of the warehouse at Sainsbury’s was being done so as to facilitate this primary activity in the organization. The failure of the warehouse automation to effectively take place thus affected the activities in outbound logistics (Zott et al., 2011). Senior management Roles: There was a failure by the senior management, led by the company’s CEO to effectively make an exhaustive plan of the warehouse automation project, which could have identified the potential risks and contributed to the formulation of possible strategies to overcome these challenges (Kardes et al., 2013). Another failure by the management was in terms of their involvement in the implementation of the project, only to identify issues three years after implementation of the project (Double Loop, 2013). Internal Communications: This function refers to how effectively and accurately information is passed within the organizational precinct (Wright, 2012). The failure was due to the miscommunication by the CEO, where he purported that the project was on the right track and had in fact saved the company a reasonable amount of money. This shows that he was either being given the wrong information by the contractor company or he was presenting wrong information about the project. Technology developments: It has to be acknowledged that the company’s agenda was to improve its service delivery to its customers through technological innovation. However, given that the entire automation project failed to materialize, it can be argued that there was a technological development failure. According to Porter’s (1985) model, technological development comprises of all activities that relate to the processing and management of information. It also involves the activities undertaken in ensuring that the organization keeps up with the latest technological changes. Outsourcing: The IT automation project was undertaken by Accenture, an outsourced IT company, which failed to deliver the intended automation results, and ultimately led to the cancellation of the contract (Double Loop, 2013). Conclusion This paper has presented a case of warehouse automation failure at Sainsbury’s in 2004. With the help of the Porter’s value chain model, several primary and supporting activities that might have contributed to the failure have been identified. The identified primary activities are inbound logistics and outbound logistics. Supporting activities are outsourcing, technology developments, internal communications and senior management roles. The fact that all these activities affected and were also affected by the warehouse automation failure at Sainsbury’s proves that many operational failures or disasters that occur because there is lack of understanding of the whole organization, resulting in problems in the synchronization of different organizational functions. References Alexander, A. & Walker, H., 2013. Sustainable supply chain management: towards a systems theory perspective. Dublin: EUROMA conference. Double Loop, 2013. Sainsbury’s Warehouse Automation Project. [Online] Available at:http://www.doubleloopconsulting.com/sainsbury-warehouse-automation [Accessed 6 March 2014]. Kardes, I., Ozturk, A., Cavusgil, S.T. & Cavusgil, E., 2013. Managing global megaprojects: Complexity and risk management. International Business Review, 22(6), pp.905-17. O’Brien, L., 2004. Digital disaster. [Online] Available at:http://www.supplymanagement.com/analysis/features/2004/digital-disaster/ [Accessed 6 March 2014]. Porter, M., 1985. Competitive Advantage. New York: Free Press. Sainsbury’s, 2014. About us. [Online] Available at: http://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk/about-us/ [Accessed 6 March 2014]. Zott, C., Amit, R. & Massa, L., 2011. The business model: recent developments and future research. Journal of Management , 37(4), pp.1019-42. Abdullah, L.M. & Verner, J.M., 2012. Analysis and application of an outsourcing risk framework. Journal of Systems and Software, 85(8), pp.1930-52. Aula, P. & Siira, K., 2010. Organizational Communication and Conflict Management Systems: A Social Complexity Approach. Nordicom Review, 31, pp.125-41. Chermack, T.J., 2011. Scenario Planning in Organizations. California: Berrett-Koehler. Wright, M., 2012. Gower Handbook of Internal Communication. Burlington: Gower Publishing.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

1984 by George Orwell: Challenging Relationships and Power Play

1984 by George Orwell explores the challenging relationships between different sets of powerplay. It ultimately maneuvers subordinates into positions where it is able to hold power against them, shaping the wants and desires of the powerless. The public awareness of this use of power is nil, as everyone struggles to be the perfect party member, yet as individuals, the desire to hold what is beyond their grasp calls them, and members of the public strive to find the pieces of their independence. Orwell places a normal character into a world where every aspect of life is dominated by a power so indestructible, hope created is scarce. The protagonist, Winston, is concerned with individual freedom and expression, and these two issues control his journey through the book. Winston struggles to discover his individuality, with the knowledge that the moment he began to separate from the public thought, he was a dead man. Winston holds onto hope, writing in his journal towards the beginning of the text, † If there is hope, it lies in the proles. The unsatisfying reality hits Winston the moment he realises the proles (short for proletarians, the lowest class in this society) are of no hope at all. The statement, that the proles † can be granted intellectual liberty because they have no intellect„ , brings the truth to light. If we view the entire lower class in 1984 as one individual, it portrays the helplessness of the proles against the Party, against Big Brother, the larger powers of society. The manner in which Winston describes the lower classes, it is not difficult to view them as one whole, one more character in the text. Another failed idea of hope is that of the younger generation. Often used in other texts as a positive change in regime, 1984 turns the children into the armours of betrayal, abandoning even their own families to the Thought Police, as Parson#s children do to their father while he sleeps. By creating a situation which mocks reasonable hopes, 1984 alludes to the issue of vulnerability of the individual once again. This irony is similar to that in the poem † Ozy Mandias„ by Percy Bysshe Shellie, who creates an irony through change in history. The persona declares † I am Ozy Mandias, king of kings/ look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair! „ These two lines juxtapose the next, which simply states † Nothing else remains„ . Just when a power thinks it can survive even God, shown through the capatilisation of the †M„ in † Mighty„, time destroys his works, leaving † Two vast and trunkless legs of stone„ standing † in the desertâ€Å" . Although the irony is cutely different in technique, the emphasis remains in the power driven manners they are obtained. Through the systematic indoctrination of the children in 1984 to preserve Big Brother for the future, leaving no hope of change, so too does Shellie through writing this poem preserve the legacy of OzyMandias. And so sure is Ozy Mandias that his image will survive that of God#s, so too is modern society#s hope in their children. This irony leads the individual on, leaving the reality of the situation too late to escape it.