The Problem Of Genetically Modified Foods - 925 Words

Sustainable living is, in short, living in harmony with the community around you and the natural world you are placed in, in such a way that your actions will not harmfully affect the world around you now, or the state of that community for future generations. Nowadays a problem of genetically modified food is widespread all over the world. More and more GM foods appear on the shelves of our stores and supermarkets. But, how much do we actually know about genetically modified foods? I believe there is not one answer for whether they are; good or bad for us, the environment, or for the economy. GM foods are designed for greater resistance to viruses and pests, higher nutritional value and a longer shelf life. However, their safety, potential risks and ethical concerns are still being debated. According to the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, the US National Academy of Sciences, and the British Royal Society, GMOs are safe to eat, even offering vitamins pr eviously unavailable in certain crops. There is still very little research or the ability to do research on long-term affects because GMOs are still very new (within the past 20 years). Inserting or deleting genes in various plants is how we synthesize GM crops, enabling those plants to resist drought, resist pesticides, grow in non-native environments, or produce more (Schnurr, lecture, September 24, 2015). This allows people, especially in the developing world, to get more nutrition fromShow MoreRelatedThe Problem Of Genetically Modified Food1098 Words   |  5 PagesA world where all your food was flavorful and healthy, big and ripe. No more shortage of food or worries about processed food, a utopia for food. But, a Utopia is only a fantasy, a fantasy is not reality. Genetically modified (GM) foods is starting to become more and more of a reality. But, with that reality comes the choice of should it be done; even though genetically modified food has positive effects, there ar e also negative effects that cannot be overlooked, such as cost, also the negativeRead MoreThe Problem Of Genetically Modified Foods913 Words   |  4 Pagesyou now, or the well being of that community for future generations. Nowadays a problem of genetically modified food is widespread all over the world. More and more GM foods appear on the shelves of our grocery stores and supermarkets. But, how much do we actually know about genetically modified foods? I believe there is not one answer for whether they are; good or bad for us, the environment, or for the economy. GM foods are designed for greater resistance to viruses and pests, higher nutritional valueRead MoreThe Problem Of Genetically Modified Foods1604 Words   |  7 PagesConsumers do not need to go far to find Genetically Modified (GM) foods at the grocery store considering â€Å"90% of the corn and soybeans planted in the United States† (Landrigan, 2015, p.1) are genetically modified, helping to increase farmerâ €™s crop yields. The GM corn alone is used extensively in many other forms such as processed foods, sodas, bread and more. Even though GM foods have been around since the early 90’s, the debate surrounding the plausible health and environmental impacts have onlyRead MoreThe Problem Of Genetically Modified Food1968 Words   |  8 Pagesfor global leaders and must be addressed and handled soon. As with any large issue, people turn to science to solve the problem and some members of the scientific community have concluded that genetically modified foodstuffs are the solution. Since the 1990s, scientists have been perfecting biotechnology and genetics. With this advancement in knowledge came genetically modified organisms (GMOs). GMOs take a favorable trait from one organism and attach it to the DNA of another to make it more nutritiousRead MoreThe Problems With Genetically Engineered and Modified Foods Essay2049 Words   |  9 Pages Genetically engineered and modified foods have recently developed into one of the most widely debated issues in the United States. Arguments aside, the problem is going to be one that the world is going to have to feel the results of, whether prepared or not. Newly expanded research regarding biotechnology presents a willing audience with a whole new outlook on just how far scientific investigation and expansion can go. The accelerating rate, at which these new progressions are being made, is aRead MoreGenetically And Genetically Modified Food947 Words   |  4 PagesAs genetically modified food appeared into people’s consciousness, it had been at the center of vehement controversy. Because people lack information about genetically modified food’s potential influence, they wonder whether genetically modified food is a miracle or not. Genetically modified food can solve several problems. The potential effects of genetically modified food also should be measured. However , people should not assume that genetically modified food only has disadvantages, but understandRead MoreGenetically Food And World Hunger Problem1202 Words   |  5 PagesGenetically modified food And World Hunger Problem As Lehrer writes in the article â€Å" We, Robots†, compared to expectation on each other, people are extremely eager to take sides on technology (Lehrer, n.d.). In the 21st century, Technology has an extremely significant effect on the lives of individuals. Technology shows people a more efficient way to do things; Medical discoveries occur at an increasingly fast rate and agricultural processes that once required a plenty of human workers can now beRead MoreEssay about Rogerian Argument of Genetic Engineered Foods1161 Words   |  5 PagesRogerian Paper: Genetically Modified Food â€Å"Biotechnology has been used for more than 6,000 years for lots of interesting and practical purposes: making food such as bread and cheese, preserving dairy products and fermenting beer† (Biotechnology - Promising a Brighter Future for the World). Although we do not always realize it, biotechnology is a huge part of our everyday lives, from the medicine we use to keep us healthy, the fuel we use to take us where we need to go, and even the food we eat andRead MoreGenetically And Genetically Modified Foods1457 Words   |  6 Pageslike a healthy food to feed your family, but think again. That can of corn most likely contains traces of genetically modified proteins or DNA. These genetically modified foods were made to improve food, but some wonder if they are solving more problems than they cause. Genetically modified foods, or seeds, should not be produced because they cause vulnerability and disadvantage to populations, cause allergenic problems, and contaminate organic crops. Genetically modified foods are foods with differentRead MoreGenetically Modified Foods : Harmful Or Helpful?1199 Words   |  5 Pagesagainst genetically modified foods because they believe that these foods are associated with many health problems. Sixty percent of people in the United States do not realize that they have ever eaten a genetically modified food. These foods are all around us and constantly being improved by scientists. Genetically modified foods are really good for the world’s population. First of all, genetically modified foods have been around for centuries. Gregor Mendel had the first genetically modified food when

Literature Search Free Essays

Grap, Mary. ,Munro, Cindy. , Hummel, Russel. We will write a custom essay sample on Literature Search or any similar topic only for you Order Now , Jessica. , Elswick, and Sessler Curtis. 2005. Effect of Backrest Elevation on the Development of Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia. AACN. Retrieved from ajcc. aacnjournals. org on March 3, 2012. Abstract †¢ Background Ventilator-associated pneumonia is a common complication of mechanical ventilation. Backrest position and time spent supine are critical risk factors for aspiration, increasing the risk for pneumonia. Empirical evidence of the effect of backrest positions on the incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia, especially during mechanical ventilation over time, is limited. Objective To describe the relationship between backrest elevation and development of ventilator-associated pneumonia. †¢ Methods : It is a nonexperimental, longitudinal, descriptive design was used. The Clinical Pulmonary Infection Score was used to determine ventilator-associated pneumonia. Backrest elevation was measured continuously with a transducer system. Data were obtained from laborato ry results and medical records from the start of mechanical ventilation up to 7 days. †¢ Results Sixty-six subjects were monitored (276 patient days). Mean backrest elevation for the entire study period was 21. 7 °. Backrest elevations were less than 30 ° 72% of the time and less than 10 ° 39% of the time. The mean Clinical Pulmonary Infection Score increased but not significantly, and backrest elevation had no direct effect on mean scores. A model for predicting the Clinical Pulmonary Infection Score at day 4 included baseline score, percentage of time spent at less than 30 ° on study day 1, and score on the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II, explaining 81% of the variability (F=7. 1, P=. 003). Literature Search 3 †¢ Conclusions Subjects spent the majority of the time at backrest elevations less than 30 °. Only the combination of early, low backrest elevation and severity of illness affected the incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia. Amelia Ross. (2006). The impact of an evidence-based practice education program on the role of oral care in the prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia. Ret rieved from, www. elsevierhealth. com/journals/iccn. on March 2, 2012. Abstract BACKGROUND: Despite strong evidence in the literature on the role of oral care in the prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), nurses continue to view oral care as a comfort measure with low priority and utilize foam swabs rather than toothbrushes. Although an evidence-based oral care protocol existed and best-practice oral care tools were available, the VAP rates had not significantly decreased even though nurses reported providing oral care. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to determine if an evidence-based practice (EBP) educational program would improve the quality of oral care delivered to mechanically ventilated patients; thereby, reducing the VAP rate. RESULTS: Improvement in oral health was demonstrated by a decrease in median scores on the Oral Assessment Guide (pre (11. 0), post (9. 0)). A t-test analysis revealed a statistically significant difference (p=0. 0002). The frequency of oral care documentation also improved as demonstrated by a positive shift to the more frequent timeframes. The VAP rates have decreased by 50% following the EBP education Literature Search 4 ntervention. CONCLUSIONS: The implementation of an EBP educational program focused on patient outcome rather than a task to be performed improved the quality of oral care delivered by the nursing staff. Carolyn L. , Cason, Tracy, Tyner. , Sue, Saunders, Lisa, Broom. , 2007. Nurses Implementation of Guidelines for Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia from the Ce nters for Disease Control and Prevention. AACN. Retrieved from ajcc. aacnjournals. org on March 1, 2012. Abstract †¢ Background Ventilator-associated pneumonia accounts for 47% of infections in patients in intensive care units. Adherence to the best nursing practices recommended in the 2003 guidelines for the prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should reduce the risk of ventilator-associated pneumonia. †¢ Objective To evaluate the extent to which nurses working in intensive care units implement best practices when managing adult patients receiving mechanical ventilation. †¢ Methods Nurses attending education seminars in the United States completed a 29-item questionnaire about the type and frequency of care provided. †¢ Results Twelve hundred nurses completed the questionnaire. Most (82%) reported compliance with hand-washing guidelines, 75% reported wearing gloves, half reported elevating the head of the bed, a third reported performing subglottic suctioning, and half reported having an oral care protocol in their hospital. Nurses in hospitals with an oral care protocol reported better compliance with hand washing and maintaining head-of-bed elevation, were more likely to regularly provide oral care, and were more familiar with rates of ventilator-associated pneumonia and the organisms involved than were nurses working in hospitals without such protocols. Literature Search5 †¢ Conclusions The guidelines for the prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are not consistently or uniformly implemented. Practices of nurses employed in hospitals with oral care protocols are more often congruent with the guidelines than are practices of nurses employed in hospitals without such protocols. Significant reductions in rates of ventilator-associated pneumonia may be achieved by broader implementation of oral care protocols. Grap, Mary. ,Munro, Cindy. , Hummel, Russel. , Jessica. Elswick, and Sessler Curtis. 2005. Effect of Backrest Elevation on the Development of Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia. AACN. Retrieved from ajcc. aacnjournals. org on March 3, 2012. Abstract †¢ Background Ventilator-associated pneumonia is a common complication of mechanical ventilation. Backrest position and time spent supine are critical risk factors for aspiration, increasing the risk for pneumonia. Empi rical evidence of the effect of backrest positions on the incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia, especially during mechanical ventilation over time, is limited. Objective To describe the relationship between backrest elevation and development of ventilator-associated pneumonia. †¢ Methods : It is a nonexperimental, longitudinal, descriptive design was used. The Clinical Pulmonary Infection Score was used to determine ventilator-associated pneumonia. Backrest elevation was measured continuously with a transducer system. Data were obtained from laboratory results and medical records from the start of mechanical ventilation up to 7 days. †¢ Results Sixty-six subjects were monitored (276 patient days). Mean backrest elevation for the entire study period was 21. 7 °. Backrest elevations were less than 30 ° 72% of the time and less than 10 ° 39% of the time. The mean Clinical Pulmonary Infection Score increased but not significantly, and backrest elevation had no direct effect on mean scores. A model for predicting the Clinical Pulmonary Infection Score at day 4 included baseline score, percentage of time spent at less than 30 ° on study day 1, and score on the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II, explaining 81% of the variability (F=7. 1, P=. 003). Literature Search 3 †¢ Conclusions Subjects spent the majority of the time at backrest elevations less than 30 °. Only the combination of early, low backrest elevation and severity of illness affected the incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia. Amelia Ross. (2006). The impact of an evidence-based practice education program on the role of oral care in the prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia. Ret rieved from, www. elsevierhealth. com/journals/iccn. on March 2, 2012. Abstract BACKGROUND: Despite strong evidence in the literature on the role of oral care in the prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), nurses continue to view oral care as a comfort measure with low priority and utilize foam swabs rather than toothbrushes. Although an evidence-based oral care protocol existed and best-practice oral care tools were available, the VAP rates had not significantly decreased even though nurses reported providing oral care. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to determine if an evidence-based practice (EBP) educational program would improve the quality of oral care delivered to mechanically ventilated patients; thereby, reducing the VAP rate. RESULTS: Improvement in oral health was demonstrated by a decrease in median scores on the Oral Assessment Guide (pre (11. 0), post (9. 0)). A t-test analysis revealed a statistically significant difference (p=0. 0002). The frequency of oral care documentation also improved as demonstrated by a positive shift to the more frequent timeframes. The VAP rates have decreased by 50% following the EBP education Literature Search 4 ntervention. CONCLUSIONS: The implementation of an EBP educational program focused on patient outcome rather than a task to be performed improved the quality of oral care delivered by the nursing staff. Carolyn L. , Cason, Tracy, Tyner. , Sue, Saunders, Lisa, Broom. , 2007. Nurses Implementation of Guidelines for Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia from the Ce nters for Disease Control and Prevention. AACN. Retrieved from ajcc. aacnjournals. org on March 1, 2012. Abstract †¢ Background Ventilator-associated pneumonia accounts for 47% of infections in patients in intensive care units. Adherence to the best nursing practices recommended in the 2003 guidelines for the prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should reduce the risk of ventilator-associated pneumonia. †¢ Objective To evaluate the extent to which nurses working in intensive care units implement best practices when managing adult patients receiving mechanical ventilation. †¢ Methods Nurses attending education seminars in the United States completed a 29-item questionnaire about the type and frequency of care provided. †¢ Results Twelve hundred nurses completed the questionnaire. Most (82%) reported compliance with hand-washing guidelines, 75% reported wearing gloves, half reported elevating the head of the bed, a third reported performing subglottic suctioning, and half reported having an oral care protocol in their hospital. Nurses in hospitals with an oral care protocol reported better compliance with hand washing and maintaining head-of-bed elevation, were more likely to regularly provide oral care, and were more familiar with rates of ventilator-associated pneumonia and the organisms involved than were nurses working in hospitals without such protocols. Literature Search5 †¢ Conclusions The guidelines for the prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are not consistently or uniformly implemented. Practices of nurses employed in hospitals with oral care protocols are more often congruent with the guidelines than are practices of nurses employed in hospitals without such protocols. Significant reductions in rates of ventilator-associated pneumonia may be achieved by broader implementation of oral care protocols. How to cite Literature Search, Essay examples

Five Personality Factors and Individual Performance

Question: Discuss about the Five Personality Factors and Individual Performance. Answer: Introduction An organization is made up of various individuals with disparate tasks with the aim of achieving a common goal. For most businesses, the ultimate objective is to develop and deliver services or goods to their customers. Organizational behavior thus attempts to understand how individual staff or groups work together to achieve such purpose. Its main focus is on the management of organizations, individuals, groups, and processes. Moreover, the ability to work together as a group to achieve organizational goals depends on the individuals personality. One of the most important factors influencing the staff and their ability to work effectively is motivation. Motivation is a vital driver in an organization and management of intellectual capital. It underlies the choices made by employees in task performance how and how much effort they are willing to apply in a particular task. The paper examines personality as a factor in organizational behavior using the Big Five Model. It also applies various OB theories and concepts to shade more light on effects of personality in motivation and work performance. The Big Five Model It has been the need in psychology to develop a model that can describe human behavior conveniently to be able to remedy personality problems or disorders. Understanding human personality would be vital in comprehending their attitude towards different things including their workplaces. Therefore, some models have been established to help describe human personality among which some have been successful in achieving this (Attia, Aubin, 2013). The five-factor or the Big Five is one of the prominent models in the contemporary psychology. The theory involves the use of five disparate variables applied into a conceptual model for explaining personality. The theory has been proved to be the most applicable and practical model used in the field of personality theory. The Five Factors The theory was established by mathematical the importance of combination five factors for explaining personality and hence the need to identify such factors (Mlinaric, 2013). Following extensive experimenting and debating the scholarly defined the five factors, their importance in the analysis of personality together with their interpretations. The factors were identified as extroversion-introversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and conscientiousness. Extroversion which is considered to be one of the most important factors in determining ones personality is also referred to as social adaptability (Attia Aubin, 2013). It is defined as trait characterized by an interest in other individuals, venturing into the unknown with confidence as well as keen interest in external events. Neuroticism is another important factor in ones personality; a higher score is an indication of the positive result since the term is associated with negative denotation. Its bases are levels of volatility and anxiety. Within such bounds, this factor defines ones personality by low anxiety and stability as opposed to high anxiety and instability on the negative end (Mlinaric, 2013). Agreeableness, Openness, and Conscientiousness are popular terms applied in the general realm of psychology. Openness refers to the willingness of people to make adjustments in activities and notions depending on new situations or ideas. Agreeableness, on the other hand, measures compatibility between individuals or their ability to get along with each other. Finally, conscientiousness describes how much one considers others in decision making. To offers a clear picture of the personality, there are limits in between the three scales like extroversion and neuroticism (Personality Research, 2016). Such limits include helpful and trusting versus uncooperative and suspicious in the scale of agreeableness, reliable and hardworking versus careless and lazy in the scale of conscientiousness, and creative and nonconformist versus down-to-earth and conventional in the scale of openness. My Personality Based On the Big Five Dimensions Based on my score in the Big five measure I have been described as somewhat conventional which means I tend to follow the general principles, methods, and behavior. I have recorded a low score in the scale of openness which is characterized by being conventional, having narrow interest and being uncreative. This score, therefore, describes me to poses an analyzer personality in a workplace (Carter, 2014). It would thus be considered a weakness due to inability to generate new ideas in performing my tasks. In the scale of Conscientiousness, I have been described as being reliable and well-organized. High scores are associated with being well-organized; self-discipline, careful, and reliable while low scores describe those who are undependable, disorganized and negligent (Mlinaric, 2013). This can be considered strength especially in the workplace where reliability and self-discipline are highly valued traits. Reliable and well-organized employees tend to have positive attitudes towards their jobs. They ensure that every task is accomplished on time and effectively to ensure satisfaction of the client. My low scores in Extraversion scale described me as being quiet, introverted, inhibited and reserved who tend to shy away from social situations. This is a weakness in my personality as I am not able to interact with other employees freely. Inability to socialize especially in duties involving group work can hinder group performance and hence the outcome (In Raab et al., 2015). On the dimension of Agreeableness, I tend to consider other peoples feelings in my decisions. A high score describes me as someone who is good-natured, forgiving, sympathetic and courteous. This is a strength in my personality as can relate well with my colleagues and cooperate to accomplish a task. Finally, my low score in neuroticism describes me as someone who remains calm and relaxed even in tense situations. It reveals my hardy and secure nature as someone who is emotionally stable hence able to handle extreme situations especially high work pressure. Relation of my personality to work place Based on my scores in the Big Five measure, my personality can be described as an analyzer in the workplace. Analyzers are known for making decisions based on their feeling and security and hence tend to avoid risks. They rely on the analysis of data to make decisions. That is, in the occurrence of a problem, they take the time to collect, study and analyze situations using whatever resources available (Shragay Tziner, 2011). Moreover, they rely on thoughts and opinions of other involved personnel to reach a feasible decision. Analyzers also tend to be very academic and prefer serious working environments. Moreover, they use facts, past illustrations and histories as the basis of their arguments in a group or individual tasks. Although they may offer the best advice in most of their conversations, the serious nature of their work environment might be boring to some people who might consider them unsocial. Analyzers also have little or no interest in cultural change in the organization. They tend to be comfortable with their current ways of operation and hence would oppose new methods. They consider new methods to be associated with a lot of risks which they tend to avoid by all means (Brunacini, 2014). Thus they can be secure but stubborn especially when involved in group duties that require collectively developing new ideas or methods of accomplishing tasks. Strengths in Workplaces As described in the Big Five results as a secure individual, it applies to a work place where am strictly concerned about the security of whatever plan I am involved in. For instance, I would ensure that the entire plan either for developing a new product or marketing is successful and develop a plan B in case plan A fails. Similar to analyzers, they employ effective data analysis techniques which are essential in ensuring that the problem-solving process is safe from any failures. By gathering accurate data relevant to a specific situation, analyzers ensure that all facts presented in a problem-solving process are implemented effectively (Farnady, 2011). The Big Five measure also described my personality as being organized, careful, reliable and self-disciplined. This relates to being systematic which is typical of analyzers at the workplace. Analyzer like routine and systems hence prefer doing things in an organized way where they can be easily followed through from the beginning to the end with little errors (Dipboye, 2014). By performing their duties systematically they provide a clear guideline that can be easily used for subsequent similar projects or used by the different team. Being systematic is also admired at workplace especially where the production process is performed in stages. The production process that requires the product to go through various departments from design to sales requires the use of the well-organized procedure. That is, a systematic documentation or manual has to be generated by every team handling the product to help the next team as a guideline. Another important strength of my personality to a workplace is effective risk management. Similar to analyze personality, every process involving decision making is implemented with maximum knowledge of margin of errors. As analyzers perform extensive data collection and analysis, they ensure that the final decision has little or no errors as they are based on empirically sound information (Kohnstamm et al., 2014). Moreover, they collect thoughts and opinions from different relevant personnel which enables them to manage risk to the minimum point possible. Rules and Regulations define how tasks are accomplished as well as defining relationships within an organization. Without rules, every employee would be reporting to and leaving the job as they wish and working depending on how they feel which would in turn affect productivity (Potocan, 2011). Nonetheless, many people find rules restricting and tend to break or avoid them. However, analyzers like me work best with regulations. They find it easy to monitor closely the set boundaries to ensure that everything is performed as required. By complying with rules, they make sure that everything is on schedule to avoid any problems associated with violation of task boundaries. Weaknesses in my personality hindering my performance and motivation Being an analyzer makes me slow to adapt to new culture or methods of working. As described in the Big Five Measure I am conventional and prefer doing things the normal way. Such behavior can hinder my ability to adopt new technologies and embrace new production methods. For dynamic industries like business, engineering, and technology where new methods are created everyday it would mean not being competitive. For such companies, a rival may easily beat the other for using contemporary technologies to enhance production and reduce cost. For analyzers, venturing into a new production method or technology is considered a risk that they would not want to take thus hindering their motivation and performance (Kavcic, 2014). Employing extensive analysis to come up with a solution to a specific problem require much time. Therefore, it is a weakness of my personality as I would take too long to find a solution to problems. As an analyzer, I would spend much time gathering data required to ensure that the plan is perfect for execution. Moreover, the process may even last longer than required which can be more costly regarding human labor and finance. As opposed to other personalities like that of a promoter where a decision would be made simply by consulting a few individuals in the group, analyzer requires accurate data to support it. Therefore, finding a solution to urgent problems could be challenging to an analyzer hence hindering their work performance. The Big Five measure also revealed my personality as being shy from social situations; it would be difficult for me to initiate a conversation with a colleague (Dipboye, 2014). Similar to employees with analyzer personality starting a discussion with others even when in brainstorming sessions would be difficult. This would also hinder the quality of solutions found as it lacks others input. Improving motivation and work performance Employees with analyzer personality tend to be more critical and worried about errors which hinder their performance regarding speed. Therefore, they should be encouraged to be less critical by convincing them that some errors cannot be avoided, and they should focus more on the result. Moreover, most of them are introverts who can be motivated to interact with other people by being friendly to them (Kohnstamm et al., 2014). Being friendly to people who are not social gives them the courage to relate personally with people hence opening up to others. Conclusion In conclusion, all firms and organizations including small nonprofit to big companies have to deal with organizational behavior. It is through the knowledge of organizational behavior that managers understand how the organization attempts to achieve its goals. References Attia, N., Aubin, S. (2013).Big Five personality factors and individual performance. Brunacini, A. V. (January 01, 2014). Organizational alignment, continued.Fire Engineering. Brunacini, A. V. (January 01, 2014). Creating a positive organizational environment.Fire Engineering. Carter, H. R. (January 01, 2014). Going for the gold - learn to deal with people: Understanding organizational behavior.Firehouse. Dipboye, R. L. (January 01, 2014). Bridging the Gap in Organizational Behavior: A Review of Jone Pearce's Organizational Behavior: Real Research for Real Managers.Academy of Management Learning and Education,13,3, 487-490. Farnady, C. (January 01, 2011). Organizational behaviour: Knowledge management.Canadian Emergency News. In Raab, M., In Lobinger, B., In Hoffmann, S., In Pizzera, A., In Laborde, S. (2015).Performance psychology: Perception, action, cognition, and emotion. Kohnstamm, Gedolph A., Halverson, Charles F., Jr., Mervielde, Ivan, Havill, Valerie L. (2014).Parental Descriptions of Child Personality: Developmental Antecedents of the Big Five?. Psychology Pr. KavcÃÅ'Å’icÃÅ'Å’, T., ZupancÃÅ'Å’icÃÅ'Å’, M. (2014).Significant life events in university students: Associations with the Big Five. (Putting personality in context.) MlinaricÃÅ'Å’, V., Podlesek, A. (January 01, 2013). Item context effects on Big five personality measures.Review of Psychology,20,1-2. PotocÃÅ'Å’an, V., Mulej, M. (January 01, 2011). Managing organizational change as innovation.Intellectual Perspectives Multi-Disciplinary Foundations,1-11. Psicologa del Trabajo y de las Organizaciones.) Revista de Psicologa del Trabajo y de las Organizaciones. Oregon University, measuring the Big Five Personality Domain Accessed: August 9, 2016 From: https://pages.uoregon.edu/sanjay/bigfive.html Personality research, The Five Factor Model: Emergence of taxonomic model for personality Psychology ,Accessed: August 9, 2016 From: https://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/popkins.html Shragay,Dina, Tziner,Aharon. (2011).The Generational Effect on the Relationship between Job Involvement, Work Satisfaction, and Organizational Citizenship Behavior. (Revista de Psicologa del Trabajo y de las Organizaciones.) Revista de Psicologa del Trabajo y de las Organizaciones. Tziner,Aharon, Kaufmann,Rudi, Vasiliu,Cristinel, Tordera,Nuria. (2011).Organizational Perceptions, Leadership and Performance in Work Settings: Do they Interrelate?. (Revista de Rothmann, S., Cooper, C. L., Rothmann, S. (2015).Work and organizational psychology.

Left38354000right38290500Ground water Tyler Duffy Essays - Water

left38354000right38290500Ground water Tyler Duffy center21018500 Water table: The surface below which the ground is saturated with water Zone of aeration: The region between the earth's surface and the water table. The main components of this region are the soil and rocks. The zone of aeration is also known as the unsaturated area, pore spaces contain some water but mostly air. Zone of saturation: The area in an aquifer, below the water table, in which relatively all pores and fractures are saturated with water. All pore spaces completely filled with water Capillary fringe: The subsurface layer in which groundwater seeps up from a water table by capillary action to fill pores. Region above the water table in which water rises against gravity as a result of surface tension. Water budget Recharge: The refilling of soil water supply at times when plants need little moisture Surplus: Condition of having rainfall greater than the need for moisture when the soil is already saturated Usage: The condition where the plants draw water from the soil at times when the need for moisture is greater than the rainfall Deficit: A condition in which stored soil water is gone and the need for moisture is greater than the rainfall 368683511582400Pollution Materials from the land's surface can move through the soil and end up in the groundwater. For example, pesticides and fertilizers can find their way into groundwater supplies over time. Road salt, toxic substances from mining sites, and used motor oil also may seep into groundwater. In addition, it is possible for untreated waste from septic tanks and toxic chemicals from underground storage tanks and leaky landfills to contaminate groundwater. Drinking contaminated groundwater can have serious health effects. Diseases such as hepatitis and dysentery may be caused by contamination from septic tank waste. Poisoning may be caused by toxins that have leached into well water supplies. Wildlife can also be harmed by contaminated groundwater. SOURCES OF GROUNDWATER CONTAMINATION Storage Tanks May contain gasoline, oil, chemicals, or other types of liquids and they can either be above or below ground. Over time the tanks can corrode, crack and develop leaks. Septic Systems Septic systems are designed to slowly drain away human waste underground at a slow, harmless rate. An improperly designed, located, constructed, or maintained septic system can leak bacteria, viruses, household chemicals, and other contaminants into the groundwater. Uncontrolled Hazardous Waste Hazardous waste sites can lead to groundwater contamination if there are barrels or other containers laying around that are full of hazardous materials. If there is a leak, these contaminants can eventually make their way down through the soil and into the groundwater. Landfills Landfills are supposed to have a protective bottom layer to prevent contaminants from getting into the water. However, if there is no layer or it is cracked, contaminants from the landfill make their way down into the groundwater. Chemicals and Road Salts Chemicals include products used on lawns and farm fields to kill weeds and insects and to fertilize plants, and other products used in homes and businesses. When it rains, these chemicals can seep into the ground and eventually into the water. Road salts are used in the wintertime. When the ice melts, the salt gets washed off the roads and eventually ends up in the water. Atmospheric Contaminants Since groundwater is part of the hydrologic cycle, contaminants in other parts of the cycle, such as the atmosphere or bodies of surface water, can eventually be transferred into our groundwater supplies. Minerals in groundwater The most common dissolved mineral substances are sodium, calcium, magnesium, potassium, chloride, bicarbonate, and sulfate. Drainage from salt springs and sewage, oil fields, and other industrial wastes may add large amounts of chloride to streams and groundwater reservoirs. Small quantities of chloride have little effect on the use of water. Minerals dissolve into the groundwater from ground water running along lower soil levels or bed rock, it dissolves minerals. Artesian Formations 285963327510800Sometimes an aquifer dips underground between impermeable rock layers. A sandwich of permeable and impermeable rocks is formed. This arrangement is called anartesianformation. The upper impermeable layer of anartesian formation, usually shale, is called the cap rock. Gravity moves the water downward in the dipping aquifer. The water is pushed along by the weight of all the water above and behind it. Great quantities of water may enter the aquifers

Amazon River Basin essays

Amazon River Basin essays The Amazon is one of the largest rivers of the world and the chief river of the South America. It is 4,000 miles long, about 6,400 km. It is the second largest river in the world's and the flow is the world largest by far. It is also one of the deepest rivers. The Amazon River begins at Huarco. The Amazon system is joined to the Orinoco by the Casiquaire River in Venezeula. The Amazon Basin is almost 40% of the total area of South America. The Amazon area is a home to many of the known animals and many unknown animals. The Amazon holds a great biodiversity. The Amazon spreads over 2,030,000 square mile. Over 25,000 species of plants and more butterflies can be found here than anywhere else on the planet. There are also 170 Indian cultural groups living in the Amazon, remnants of the 7 million who flourished there once, but who have been reduced to no more than 200,000 today. Tropical is considered to be the rivers climate and 87 degrees farenheit being its average temperature. The average rainfall across the whole Amazon Basin is approximately 2300mm annually.As known in some areas of the northwest portion of the Amazon Basin, yearly rainfall can exceed 6000mm. The Amazon Basin has not always been an area of lush tropical rainforest. During several times in its history, the basin has been the location of huge lakes and shallow seas. Salt deposits up to 600 meters thick(nearly 2000 feet) have also been found in some locations indicating that at one time the basin may have been desert-like, drying up the shallow seas and creating the salt deposits.The Amazon rainforest has a great variety of plant life. Scientists have found it to be up to 3,000 species of plants in one sq. mile. Amazons' Climate The Amazon's climate is heaviliy influenced by where the Amazon is situated in the tropics. This gives it a warm temperature and plenty of rain. The major contribution the climate makes to the Amazon ...

How Putonghua Is Used in Mainland China

How Putonghua Is Used in Mainland China Mandarin Chinese is known by many names. In the United Nations, it is known simply as Chinese. In Taiwan, it is called Ã¥Å"‹è ªÅ¾ / å› ½Ã¨ ¯ ­ (guà ³ yÇ”), which means national language. In Singapore, it is known as è  ¯Ã¨ ªÅ¾ / Ã¥ Å½Ã¨ ¯ ­ (hu yÇ”), which means Chinese language. And in China, it is called æ™ ®Ã©â‚¬Å¡Ã¨ © ± / æ™ ®Ã©â‚¬Å¡Ã¨ ¯  (pÇ” tÃ… ng hu), which translates to common language.   Different Names Over Time Historically, Mandarin Chinese was called Ã¥ ®ËœÃ¨ © ±/Ã¥ ®ËœÃ¨ ¯  (guÄ n hu), meaning speech of officials, by the Chinese people. The English word mandarin meaning bureaucrat, is derived from Portuguese. The Portuguese word for bureaucratic official was mandarim, so they referred to Ã¥ ®ËœÃ¨ © ±/Ã¥ ®ËœÃ¨ ¯  (guÄ n hu) as the language of the mandarims, or mandarim for short. The final m was converted to an n in the English version of this name. Under the Qing Dynasty (æ ¸â€¦Ã¦Å"  - QÄ «ng Cho), Mandarin was the official language of the Imperial Court and was known as Ã¥Å"‹è ªÅ¾ / å› ½Ã¨ ¯ ­ (guà ³ yÇ”). Since Beijing was the capital of the Qing Dynasty, Mandarin pronunciations are based on the Beijing dialect. After the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1912, the new Peoples Republic of China (Mainland China) became more strict about having a standardized common language to improve communication and literacy across rural and urban areas. Thus, the name of Chinas official language was rebranded. Instead of calling it national language, Mandarin was now called common language, or æ™ ®Ã©â‚¬Å¡Ã¨ © ± / æ™ ®Ã©â‚¬Å¡Ã¨ ¯  (pÇ” tÃ… ng hu), starting in 1955. Putonghua as Common Speech PÇ” tÃ… ng hu is the official language of The Peoples Republic of China (Mainland China). But pÇ” tÃ… ng hu is not the only language spoken in China. There are five major language families with a total of up to 250 distinct languages or dialects. This wide divergence intensifies the need for a unifying language that is understood by all Chinese people. Historically, the written language was the unifying source of many of the Chinese languages, since Chinese characters have the same meaning wherever they are used, even though they may be pronounced differently in different regions. The use of a commonly spoken language has been promoted since the rise of the Peoples Republic of China, which established pÇ” tÃ… ng hu as the language of education throughout the Chinese territory. Putonghua in Hong Kong Macau Cantonese is the official language of both Hong Kong and Macau and is the language spoken by the majority of the population. Since the ceding of these territories (Hong Kong from Britain and Macau from Portugal) to the Peoples Republic of China, pÇ” tÃ… ng hu has been used as the language of communication between the territories and the PRC. The PRC is promoting greater use of pÇ”tÃ… nghu in Hong Kong and Macau by training teachers and other officials. Putonghua in Taiwan The outcome of the Chinese Civil War (1927-1950) saw the Kuomintang (KMT or Chinese Nationalist Party) retreat from Mainland China to the nearby island of Taiwan. Mainland China, under the Maos Peoples Republic of China, saw changes in language policy. Such changes included the introduction of simplified Chinese characters and the official use of the name pÇ” tÃ… ng hu. Meanwhile, the KMT in Taiwan retained the use of traditional Chinese characters, and the name guà ³ yÇ” continued to be used for the official language. Both practices continue up to the present time. Traditional Chinese characters are also used in Hong Kong, Macau, and many overseas Chinese communities. Putonghua Features PÇ”tÃ… nghu has four distinct tones which are used to differentiate homophones. For example, the syllable ma can have four distinct meanings depending on the tone. The grammar of pÇ” tÃ… ng hu is relatively simple when compared with many European languages. There are no tenses or verb agreements, and the basic sentence structure is subject-verb-object. The use of untranslated particles for clarification and a temporal location is one of the features that make pÇ” tÃ… ng hu challenging for second-language learners.

Management - Employee Participation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Management - Employee Participation - Essay Example Importance of Employees’ Participation One of the most important forms of employees’ participation is teamwork. According to Hodson and Sullivan (2012, p. 421), work groups have been instrumental in increasing an organization’s production for many years. Work groups consist of individuals with shared goals, who try to accomplish their goals through the development of efficient and effective organizational structure. Every work group should consist of approximately eight to ten workers who are assigned the same task. In most successful organizations, managers use employees’ teams to improve the quality of working life through the reduction of work intensity and pressure. When employees work in groups, their tasks and responsibilities, cease to feel like chores. This is because they complete tasks early; furthermore, work flows because the workers help each other (Hodson & Sullivan 2012, p. 421). The workers feel valued in high performing teams; thus, increa sing their commitment to the firm. Such teams are more productive making them contribute to the increase in the overall production of an organization (Wheelan 2010). As a means of forming the winning teams, the leaders in organizations should introduce training sessions where workers learn how to work effectively in teams. In some firms, teams are given names and the team members wear T-shirts that have their team names printed on them (Wheelan 2010). In addition, group work as a means of employees’ participation helps in increasing the performances of organizations because they promote proper use of resources. Teamwork enables the corporate leaders to allocate resources appropriately, which include the workers and other material things. Proper allocation of resources increases the performances of businesses since it helps in reducing the organization expenses through wastage. Teamwork increases the innovativeness of workers in a firm since members are always free to share th eir ideas enabling them to study new things from other affiliates. The teams also house many individuals from different backgrounds who have different ideas. The new ideas that will upgrade the team production are shared through the interaction of the members from different backgrounds. The implementation of some of the new ideas in the firm increases the production of the whole organization (Adair 2010). Moreover, teamwork makes the problem-solving process to become faster. Adair (2010) indicates that the various ideas presented by the team members enable the production of creative solutions. During problem solving, team members should be allowed to brainstorm since it helps in uncovering many answers. Teamwork increases corporate performance by upgrading the quality of work. It increases employees’ commitment because in teams, members feel like they are part of it. This enables them to own a project. Even if a task is hard, team members will always encourage each other to p roduce quality work compared to when managers dictate the work. Furthermore, teamwork develops synergy because of joint forces; thus, increasing business production (Adair 2010). Suggestion Schemes Suggestion scheme is a form of workers participation, which gives employees chances to present their ideas. Some organizations have suggestion boxes where employees put their written suggestions. To

The importance of having a safety program in an organization Term Paper

The importance of having a safety program in an organization - Term Paper Example Thus it is the responsibility of the organization to protect its employees from safety and security concerns. The safety program helps to build an atmosphere of peaceful and steady work where employees are able to concentrate on their job without being concerned over the possible issues of their safety (Alston, 2003). Importance of safety program in an organization The employees are the most valuable assets of an organization. Apart from the employees, the workplace of an organization also constitutes of the customers, the employees of the customers, agents, suppliers and the general public. Any injury or accident in the workplace is a highly undesired event that could break the flow of workplace activities of the organization. The disruption of work due to events of violence or accidents would not cause losses of daily work output but would also affect the human resource of the organization. The cost of such danger situations is unexpectedly high for the organization that demands es timation and subsequent measures. The implementation of safety programs in an organization is an important step to safeguard the employees, internal and external stakeholders and other valuable assets of the organization for sustainable healthy operations. ... The parameters of job security and job satisfaction are among the highly rated criteria that employees look for fulfillment. The role on safety measures by the organization keep the employees loyal to the organization with higher level of satisfaction and feeling of care taken by employers. The safety program to be set up by the organizations is also a legal requirement. The laws and regulation of the federal, state, locality and community are enforced so that no compromise is done on the acts of safety. The research on safety issues of the organization indicated that 80% of the reported accidents in workplace are due to unsafe behavior rather than the unsafe environment. Thus the safety programs included focus on the unsafe behavior of participants in the workplace which is a proactive approach rather than identifying the causes of unsafe environment and waiting for the changes to produce a safe environment. Ways for successful implementation of safety programs The various ways of s uccessful implementation of safety programs in an organization are given as follows. The implementation of successful safety programs of an organization depends majorly on the initiative of the various levels of management of the organization. The management should be accountable to exhibit exemplary behavior to their employees in the workplace. The rules on safety in workplace should be abided by the entire workforce with high level of mutual respect and co-operation at work. The expectation on safety standards are required to be set among the employees in order to bring out responsible behavior in the workplace. While entering into contracts with

Coffee and Starbucks Essay Example for Free

Coffee and Starbucks Essay Starbucks is a premium coffee wholesaler which has strayed from its original service of coffee. The advent of newer technology has diminished the Starbucks experience. Howard Schultz, Starbucks chairmen, sent a memo on February 14, 2007 addressing this problem to the president and chief executive officer of Starbucks, Jim Donald. In the memo, Schultz voiced his opinion on how the rapid expansion of Starbucks is causing him to revaluate the company’s values between how it operated when it began and where it is heading in the future. Starbucks isn’t the same neighborhood store as it was when it was established and no longer shows the passion for coffee that they had in the beginning. â€Å"I have said for 20 years that our success is not an entitlement and now its proving to be a reality. Lets be smarter about how we are spending our time, money and resources. Lets get back to the core† (Schultz). Along with its expansion, Starbucks has been trying to utilize new technologies to improve the product they sell to consumers. Starbucks changed their espresso machines from manual to automatic to speed up service and efficiency. These machines â€Å"blocked the visual sight line the customer previously had to watch the drink being made, and for the intimate experience with the barista† (Schultz). People no longer have that intimate connection with the people making their coffee, or to the finished product. The employees are also more disassociated from their work because of these new machines that speed up production. Starbucks also incorporated flavor-locked packaging to supply the demand for fresh roasted coffee. This is a great service to the customer because it keeps coffee grounds or beans fresher longer, yet the effectiveness of the flavor-locked bags contributed to the loss of aroma, â€Å"perhaps the most powerful non-verbal signal†, in Starbucks (Schultz). The romance of Starbucks is lost with these improvements and the unforgettable scent is lessened along with its heritage. Starbucks is still a coffee-loving company, and consumers are still receiving the coffee delicacies they want, but at what cost to tradition. https://sites. google. com/site/hollymadalyn/writing/Starbucks-Research-paper SYNOPSIS Starbucks Corporation, originally founded in 1971, but purchased by Howard Schultz in 1987, is the market leader in selling gourmet coffee (Starbucks, 2008). Starbucks main objective is to establish itself as the most respected and recognized coffee brand in the world (Fact Sheet, 2008). Starbucks has accomplished this objective and experienced much success through their competitive strategy of clustering several stores within the same community and through their distinctive competencies of roasting and selling the quality coffee while providing high quality customer service. The question is, can Starbucks continue their market share growth with rising competitors? Should they focus more on their international operations? Can they continually reinvent themselves to maintain their strong brand image in the long run? PROBLEMS. †¢ Overall economic downturn can affect Starbucks’ market share if management neglects to address competitors’ strategies with lower priced offerings as consumers are becoming more conservative in spending their discretionary income. †¢ Loss of identity and authenticity focused upon the foundational Starbucks experience, which, if unaddressed by management, can result in dissatisfied customers, loss of sales, and decreased market share. †¢ Considering the economy and increasing domestic competition within the U. S. , Starbucks must address their less profitable international operations. SWOT ANALYSIS[1] INDUSTRY EVALUATION In the past two decades, the coffee industry has experienced a significant increase in the demand for premium coffee. Today, about one in five Americans drinks some type of espresso-based coffee drink each day. The average yearly coffee consumption per capita in the U. S. is around 4. 4Kg. Among these coffee drinkers, the average consumption is 3. 1 cups of coffee per day, with men drinking approximately 1. 9 cups per day, and women drinking an average of 1. 4 cups per day (Coffee Research [continues].

The play A View from the Bridge is set in the 1940’s in a place called :: English Literature

The play A View from the Bridge is set in the 1940’s in a place called Red Hook in America. Arthur Miller is the writer of this play ‘A View from the Bridge’ The play ‘A View from the Bridge’ is set in the 1940’s in a place called Red Hook in America. Arthur Miller is the writer of this play and he has been quoted as saying that this play is based on a lot of his own personal experiences. The culture of Red Hook is a mixture of the newly formed American culture and the Sicilian culture, which has come through immigrants being brought here from Sicily. The main characters in the play are Eddie Carbone, who is a long shoreman, his wife Beatrice, their niece Catherine who is adopted, and there are Beatrice’s two cousins, called Marco and Rodolfo, who are illegal immigrants from Sicily, looking for work in America. Beatrice and Eddie are both American citizens, and were born in America, but their grandparents were from Sicily. Catherine has been raised and brought up by Beatrice and Eddie since she was a young child and Eddie has grown attached to her and is very protective of her due to his incestuous attraction to her. Alfieri is a lawyer from an Italian American background and has lived in Red Hook since he was 25. Alfieri has a dual role in the play. He speaks directly to the audience and he reminds the audience of things that have happened in the play, plus he is also a character involved in the action of the play. Alfieri introduces the themes that run through the play. In Alfieri’s opening speech he uses the words â€Å"watched it run its bloody course† as if he knows something bad is going to take place in the play, a tragedy. Alfieri also points out that there is a difference between the modern American law and the ancient law of the Sicilian justice because â€Å"the law has not been a good idea since the Greeks were beaten† and the â€Å"justice is very important here†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬  these quotes are showing how the people are connected to Sicilians from their past. It is important for Alfieri to be a character as well as the narrator in the play because as the narrator he comes in to speak directly to the audience and keep us interested in what is happening. As a character in the play, he is important because he talks to Eddie and tries to help him, because he understands him. He gives the audience insights into Eddie’s character. The play A View from the Bridge is set in the 1940’s in a place called :: English Literature The play A View from the Bridge is set in the 1940’s in a place called Red Hook in America. Arthur Miller is the writer of this play ‘A View from the Bridge’ The play ‘A View from the Bridge’ is set in the 1940’s in a place called Red Hook in America. Arthur Miller is the writer of this play and he has been quoted as saying that this play is based on a lot of his own personal experiences. The culture of Red Hook is a mixture of the newly formed American culture and the Sicilian culture, which has come through immigrants being brought here from Sicily. The main characters in the play are Eddie Carbone, who is a long shoreman, his wife Beatrice, their niece Catherine who is adopted, and there are Beatrice’s two cousins, called Marco and Rodolfo, who are illegal immigrants from Sicily, looking for work in America. Beatrice and Eddie are both American citizens, and were born in America, but their grandparents were from Sicily. Catherine has been raised and brought up by Beatrice and Eddie since she was a young child and Eddie has grown attached to her and is very protective of her due to his incestuous attraction to her. Alfieri is a lawyer from an Italian American background and has lived in Red Hook since he was 25. Alfieri has a dual role in the play. He speaks directly to the audience and he reminds the audience of things that have happened in the play, plus he is also a character involved in the action of the play. Alfieri introduces the themes that run through the play. In Alfieri’s opening speech he uses the words â€Å"watched it run its bloody course† as if he knows something bad is going to take place in the play, a tragedy. Alfieri also points out that there is a difference between the modern American law and the ancient law of the Sicilian justice because â€Å"the law has not been a good idea since the Greeks were beaten† and the â€Å"justice is very important here†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬  these quotes are showing how the people are connected to Sicilians from their past. It is important for Alfieri to be a character as well as the narrator in the play because as the narrator he comes in to speak directly to the audience and keep us interested in what is happening. As a character in the play, he is important because he talks to Eddie and tries to help him, because he understands him. He gives the audience insights into Eddie’s character.

Java-Whitepaper Essay

This white paper compares C++/Qt with Java/AWT/Swing for developing large-scale, real-world software with graphical user interfaces. References are made to independent reports that examine various aspects of the two toolsets. 1 A Comparison of Qt and Java 1. What Do We Compare? When selecting an environment for a large software development project, there are many aspects that must be considered. The programming language is one of the most significant aspects, since its choice has considerable impact on what other options are available. For example, in a GUI development project, developers will need a GUI library that provides ready-made user interface components, for example, buttons and menus. Since the selection of the GUI library itself has a large impact on the development of a project, it is not uncommon for the GUI library to be chosen first, with the programming language being determined by the languages for which the library is available. Usually, there is only one language per library. Other software components like database access libraries or communication libraries must also be taken into consideration, but they rarely have such a strong impact on the overall design as the GUI libraries. In this white paper, the objective is to compare the C++/Qt environment with the Java/AWT/Swing environment. In order to do this in the most useful way, we will begin by comparing the programming languages involved, i. e.C++ and Java, and then compare the two GUI libraries, Qt for C++ and AWT/Swing for Java. 2. Comparing C++ and Java When discussing the various benefits and drawbacks of particular programming languages, the debate often degenerates into arguments that are based on personal experience and preference rather than any objective criteria. Personal preferences and experience should be taken into account when selecting a programming language for a project, but because it is subjective, it cannot be considered here. Instead we will look at issues such as programmer-efficiency, runtime-efficiency and memory-efficiency since these can be quantified and have been examined in scientifically conducted research, although we will also incorporate information based on the practical exerience of projects that have been implemented in our own company. 2. 1. Programmer-efficiency Programmer-efficiency describes how efficiently (i. e. how quickly and accurately) a programmer with a given degree of experience and knowledge can implement a certain set of requirements in a particular programming language, including debugging and project setup time. Since developer salaries are one of the primary cost factors for any programming project, programmer-efficiency greatly affects the 2 A Comparison of Qt and Java cost-efficiency of the project. To some extent, programmer-efficiency is also determined by the tools available. The main design goal of Java is increased programmer-efficiency compared to other general-purpose programming languages, rather than increased memory- or runtime-efficiency. Java has several features designed to make it more programmer-efficient. For example, unlike C++ (or C), the programmer does not have to explicitly â€Å"free† (give back) allocated memory resources to the operating system. Freeing unused memory (garbage collection) is handled automatically by the Java runtime system, at the expense of memory- and runtime-efficiency (see below). This liberates the programmer from the burden of keeping track of allocated memory, a tedious task that is a major cause of bugs. This feature alone should significantly increase the programmer-efficiency of Java programmers, compared to C++ (or C) programmers. Research shows that in practice, garbage collection and other Java features, do not have a major influence on the programmer-efficiency. One of the classic software estimation models, Barry Boehm’s CoCoMo1 predicts the cost and schedule of a software project using cost drivers which take into account variables like the general experience of a programmers, the experience with the programming language in question, the targeted reliability of the program, etc. Boehm writes that the amount of effort per source statement was highly independent of the language level. Other research, for example, A method of programming measurement and estimation by C. E. Walston and C. P. Felix of IBM2, points in the same direction. Both the reports cited here pre-date the advent of Java by many years, although they seem to reveal a general principle that the sophistication of a general-purpose programming language has, compared with other aspects, like the experience of the developers, no significant influence on the overall project costs. There is more recent research that explicitly includes Java and which supports this hypothesis. In An empirical comparison of C, C++, Java, Perl, Python, Rexx, and Tcl3, Lutz Prechelt of the University of Karlsruhe, describes an experiment he conducted in which computer science students were assigned a particular design and development task and asked to implement the specification provided in any of the languages C, C++, or Java which they could freely choose according to their personal preferences (the other languages were examined in a different part of the research project). The data gathered shows almost the same results for C++ and Java (with C running third in most aspects). This is also backed up by our own experience: if programmers can choose their favorite programming language (which is usually the one they have most experience of), programmers with the same level of experience (measured for example, in years of programming experience in general) achieve about the same programmer-efficiency. Another interesting aspect that we noted (but which is not yet supported by any formal 3 A Comparison of Qt and Java research) is that less experienced developers seem to achieve somewhat better results with Java, medium-experienced developers achieve about the same results with both programming languages, nd experienced developers achieve better results with C++. These findings could be due to better tools being available for C++; nevertheless this is an aspect that must be taken into account. An interesting way to quantify programmer-efficiency is the Function Point method developed by Capers Jones. Function points are a software metric that only depend on the functionality, not on the implementation. Working from the function points, it is possible to compute the lines of code needed per function point as well as the language level which describes how many function points can be implemented in a certain amount of time. Intriguingly, both the values for the lines of code per function point and the language level are identical for C++ and Java (6 for the language level, compared with C’s 3. 5 and Tcl’s 5, and 53 for the lines of code per function point, compared with C’s 91 and Tcl’s 64). In conclusion: both research and practice contradict the claim that Java programmers achieve a higher programmer-efficiency than C++ programmers. 2. 2. Runtime-efficiency We have seen that Java’s programmer-efficiency appears to be illusory. We will now examine its runtime efficiency. Again, Prechelt provides useful data. The amount of data he provides is huge, but he arrives at the conclusion that â€Å"a Java program must be expected to run at least 1. 22 times as long as a C/C++ program†. Note that he says at least; the average runtime of Java programs is even longer. Our own experience shows that Java programs tend to run about 2-3 times as long than their equivalent C/C++ programs for the same task. Not surprisingly, Java loses even more ground when the tasks are CPU-bound. When it comes to programs with a graphical user interface, the increased latency of Java programs is worse than the runtime performance hit. Usability studies show that users do not care about whether a long running task takes, say, two or three minutes, but they do care when a program does not show an immediate reaction to their interaction, for example when they press a button. These studies show that the limit of what a user accepts before they consider a program to be â€Å"unresponsive† can be as little as 0. 7 seconds. We’ll return to this issue when we compare graphical user interfaces in Java and C++ programs. An explanation about why Java programs are slower than C++ is in order. C++ programs are compiled by the C++ compiler into a binary format that can be executed directly by the CPU; the whole program execution thus takes place in 4 A Comparison of Qt and Java hardware. (This is an oversimplification since most modern CPUs execute microcode, but this does not affect the issues discussed here. ) On the other hand, the Java compiler compiles the source code into â€Å"bytecode† which is not executed directly by the CPU, but rather by another piece of software, the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). The JVM in turn, runs on the CPU. The execution of the bytecode of a Java program does not take place in (fast) hardware, but instead in (much slower) software emulation. Work has been undertaken to develop â€Å"Just in Time† (JIT) compilers to address Java’s runtime efficiency problem, but no universal solution has yet emerged. It is the semi-interpreted nature of Java programs that makes the â€Å"compile once, run anywhere† approach of Java possible in the first place. Once a Java program is compiled into bytecode, it can be executed on any platform which has a JVM. In practice, this is not always the case, because of implementation differences in different JVMs, and because of the necessity to sometimes use native, non-Java code, usually written in C or C++, together with Java programs. But is the use of platform-independent bytecode the right approach for crossplatform applications? With a good cross-platform toolkit like Qt and good compilers on the various platforms, programmers can achieve almost the same by compiling their source code once for each platform: â€Å"write once, compile everywhere†. It can be argued that for this to work, developers need access to all the platforms they want to support, while with Java, in theory at least, developers only need access to one platform running the Java development tools and a JVM. In practice, no responsible software manufacturer will ever certify their software for a platform the software hasn’t been tested on, so they would still need access to all the relevant platforms. The question arises why it should be necessary to run the Java Virtual Machine in software; if a program can be implemented in software, it should also be possible to have hardware implement the same unctionality. This is what the Java designers had in mind when they developed the language; they assumed that the performance penalty would disappear as soon as Java CPUs that implement the JVM in hardware would become available. But after five years, such Java CPUs have not become generally available. Java automatically de-allocates (frees) unused memory. The programmer allocates memory, and the JVM keeps track of all the allocated memory blocks and the references to them. As soon as a memory block is no longer referenced, it can be reclaimed. This is done in a process called â€Å"garbage collection† in which the JVM periodically checks all the allocated memory blocks, and removes any which are no longer referred to. Garbage collection is very convenient, but the trade offs are greater memory consumption and slower runtime speed.. With C++, the programmer can (and should) delete blocks of memory as soon as they are no longer required. With Java, blocks are not deleted until the next garbage collection run, and this depends on the implementation on the JVM being used. Prechtelt provides figures which state that on average (†¦ ) and with a confidence of 80%, the Java programs consume at least 32 MB (or 297%) more memory than the C/C++ programs (†¦ ). In addition to the higher memory requirements, the garbage collection process itself requires processing power which is consequently not available to the actual application functionality, leading to slower overall runtimes. Since the garbage collector runs periodically, it can occasionally lead to Java programs â€Å"freezing† for a few seconds. The best JVM implementations keep the occurrence of such freezes to a minimum, but the freezes have not been eliminated entirely. When dealing with external programs and devices, for example, during I/O or when interacting with a database, it is usually desirable to close the file or database connection as soon as it is no longer required. Using C++’s destructors, this happens as soon as the programmer calls delete. In Java, closing may not occur until the next garbage collecting sweep, which at best may tie up resources unnecessarily, and at worst risks the open resources ending up in an inconsistent state. The fact that Java programs keep memory blocks around longer than is strictly necessary is especially problematic for embedded devices where memory is often at a premium. It is no coincidence that there is (at the time of writing) no complete implementation of the Java platform for embedded devices, only partial implementations that implement a subset. The main reason why garbage collection is more expensive than explicit memory management by the programmer is that with the Java scheme, information is lost. In a C++ program, the programmer knows both where their memory blocks are (by storing pointers to them) and knows when they are not needed any longer. In a Java 6 A Comparison of Qt and Java program, the latter information is not available to the JVM (even though it is known to the programmer), and thus the JVM has to manually find unreferenced blocks. A Java programmer can make use of their knowledge of when a memory block is not needed any longer by deleting all references that are still around and triggering garbage collection manually, but this requires as much effort on the part of the programmer as with the explicit memory management in C++, and still the JVM has to look at each block during garbage collection to determine which ones are no longer used. Technically, there is nothing that prevents the implementation and use of garbage collection in C++ programs, and there are commercial programs and libraries available that offer this. But because of the disadvantages mentioned above, few C++ programmers make use of this. The Qt toolkit takes a more efficient approach to easing the memory management task for its programmers: when an object is deleted, all dependant objects are automatically deleted too. Qt’s approach does not interfere with the programmer’s freedom to delete manually when they wish to. Because manual memory management burdens programmers, C and C++ have been accused of being prone to generate unstable, bug-ridden software. Although the danger of producing memory corruption (which typically leads to program crashes) is certainly higher with C and C++, good education, tools and experience can greatly reduce the risks. Memory management can be learned like anything else, and there are a large number of tools available, both commercial and open source, that help programmers ensure that there are no memory errors in the program; for example, Insure++ by Parasoft, Purify by Rational and the open source Electric Fence. C++’s flexible memory management system also makes it possible to write custom memory profilers that are adapted to whichever type of application a programmer writes. To sum up this discussion, we have found C++ to provide much better runtime- and memory-efficiency than Java, while having comparable programmer-efficiency. 2. 4. Available libraries and tools The Java platform includes an impressive number of packages that provide hundreds of classes for all kinds of purposes, including graphical user interfaces, security, networking and other tasks. This is certainly an advantage of the Java platform. For each package available on the Java platform, there is at least one corresponding library for C++, although it can be difficult to assemble the various libraries that would be needed for a C++ project and make them all work together correctly. However, this strength of Java is also one of its weaknesses. It becomes increasingly difficult for the individual programmer to find their way through the huge APIs. For any given task, you can be almost certain that somewhere, there is 7 A Comparison of Qt and Java functionality that would accomplish the task or at least help with its implementation. But it can be very difficult to find the right package and the right class. Also, with an increasing number of packages, the size of the Java platform has increased considerably. This has led to subsets e. g. , for embedded systems, but with a subset, the advantage of having everything readily available disappears. As an aside, the size of the Java platform makes it almost impossible for smaller manufacturers to ship a Java system independent from Sun Microsystems, Java’s inventor, and this reduces competition. If Java has an advantage on the side of available libraries, C++ clearly has an advantage when it comes to available tools. Because of the considerable maturity of the C and C++ family of languages, many tools for all aspects of application development have been developed, including: design, debugging, and profiling tools. While there are Java tools appearing all the time, they seldom measure up to their C++ counterparts. This is often even the case with tools with the same functionality coming from the same manufacturer; compare, for example, Rational’s Quantify, a profiler for Java and for C/C++. The most important tool any developer of a compiled language uses, is still the compiler. C++ has the advantage of having compilers that are clearly superior in execution speed. In order to be able to ship their compilers (and other tools) on various platforms, vendors tend to implement their Java tools in Java itself, with all the aforementioned memory and efficiency problems. There are a few Java compilers written in a native language like C (for example, IBM’s Jikes), but these are the exception, and seldom used. 3. Comparing AWT/Swing and Qt So far, we have compared the programming language Java and the programming language C++. But as we discussed at the beginning of this article, the programming language is only one of the aspects to consider in GUI development. We will now compare the packages for GUI development that are shipped with Java, i. e. AWT and Swing, with the cross-platform GUI toolkit, Qt, from the Norwegian supplier, Trolltech. We have confined the comparision on the C++ side to the Qt GUI toolkit, since unlike MFC (Microsoft Foundation Classes) and similar toolkits, This seems to contradict Java’s cross-platform philosophy and may be due to the the initial AWT version being reputedly developed in under fourteen days. Because of these and a number of other problems with the AWT, it has since been augmented by the Swing toolkit. Swing relies on the AWT (and consequently on the native libraries) only for very basic things like creating rectangular windows, handling events and executing primitive drawing operations. Everything else is handled within Swing, including all the drawing of the GUI components. This does away with the problem of applications looking and behaving differently on different platforms. Unfortunately, because Swing is mostly implemented in Java itself, it lacks efficiency. As a result, Swing programs are not only slow when performing computations, but also when drawing and handling the user interface, leading to poor responsiveness. As mentioned earlier, poor responsiveness is one of the things that users are least willing to tolerate in a GUI application. On today’s standard commodity hardware, it is not unusual to be able to watch how a Swing button is redrawn when the mouse is pressed over it. While this situation will surely improve with faster hardware, this does not address the fundamental problem that complex user interfaces developed with Swing are inherently slow. The Qt toolkit follows a similar approach; like Swing, it only relies on the native libraries only for very basic things and handles the drawing of GUI components itself. This brings Qt the same advantages as Swing (for example, applications look and behave the same on different platforms), but since Qt is entirely implemented in C++ and thus compiled to native code; it does not have Swing’s efficiency problems. User interfaces written with Qt are typically very fast; because of Qt’s smart use of caching techniques, they are sometimes even faster than comparable programs written using only the native libraries. Theoretically, an optimal native program should always be at least as fast as an equivalent optimal Qt program; however, making a native program optimal is much more difficult and requires more programming skills than making a Qt program optimal. Both Qt and Swing employ a styling technique that lets programs display in any one of a number of styles, independent of the platform they are running on. This is possible because both Qt and Swing handle the drawing themselves and can draw GUI elements in whichever style is desired. Qt even ships with a style that emulates the default look-and-feel in Swing programs, along with styles that emulate the 9 A Comparison of Qt and Java Win32 look-and-feel, the Motif look-and-feel, and—in the Macintosh version— the MacOS X Aqua style. 3. 2. Programming Paradigms In Qt and Swing While programming APIs to some extent are a matter of the programmers’ personal taste, there are some APIs that lend themselves to simple, short, and elegant application code far more readily than others.

Equal Employment Opportunity

One of the key responsibilities of a human resource management professional is the management of diversity and equal employment opportunities within the organisation. Equal employment opportunity refers to the situation in which every individual has access to employment and its benefits. Equal employment opportunity (EEO) refers to the outcomes of human resource management policies and practices and employee and management behaviour. EEO is aimed at transforming an organisation; reviewing the processes associated with the creation and use of power by some groups; and implementation of new measures and policies which attempt to remove bias from procedures such as recruitment and promotion. Managing diversity accepts that the workforce consists of a diverse population of people, with visible and non-visible differences including sex, age, background, race, disability, personality, and work style. There has been a lot of debate recently about affirmative action (AA). Affirmative action (also known as positive action) is where organisations take special initiatives to redress perceived gender or ethnic imbalances in the workforce. At first, affirmative action aimed to eliminate racial imbalance in hiring policies; later it was extended to protect people of color, women, older people and people with disabilities. Equal opportunity laws ban discrimination. Affirmative action goes further by requiring employers to take â€Å"affirmative† steps to achieve a balanced representation of workers. Affirmative action may take many forms. One example would be providing special training solely for women. However, some people see affirmative action as an insult. Some people see affirmative action as assuming that they are not capable of success based on their own merits. This paper will examine whether affirmative action is an insult to women and any other member of an AA target group. The argument put forward for affirmative action is that it allows minority groups, who would otherwise be disadvantaged, to get to the starting line and to allow for a level ‘playing field†. Affirmative action is used as a tool to break the perceived injustice and discrimination of the past. In Australia, the Affirmative Action (Equal Employment Opportunity for Women) Act 1986 requires the removal of direct and indirect discrimination through the application of the merit principle in employment policies. Contemporary writing puts forward the theory that managing diversity should be based on ‘no preferential treatment†. Although there is no specific quota system in the above Australian legislation , AA has in the past often been associated with the requirement to maintain certain quotas based on minority group representation. A move to ‘no preferential treatment† means that individuals are not given preference for employment based on specific group membership. Giving preferential treatment to a minority group is sometimes referred to as the ‘remedial action† AA. This means that whereas some people are benefiting by virtue of their group membership, other individuals are excluded, even though their developmental need might be as great. Singling out individuals based on a minority quality (sex, religion etc) can be seen to be an insult to that individual. This is particularly true if the individual has all the attributes and skills that would normally mean success. The impression given is not about fairness or equal opportunity, but rather about achieving numbers or targets. There is also ‘research that suggests that, as currently construed, affirmative action policy can thwart rather than promote workplace equity. The stigma associated with affirmative action can fuel rather than debunk stereotypical thinking and prejudiced attitudes†. Managing diversity should not focus on minority groups. Managing diversity should focus on the problems of the individual. It should focus on identifying what the individual needs in terms of development. Actions ought to be targeted on any individual who has a particular development need and not restricted to those who are members of a particular group. However, all of the above is idealistic. There has often been a realism in the marketplace that contrasts the above. In some respects, affirmative action has been a necessary tool to ensure that minority groups have representation in theorganisation. The goal has been not so much to achieve a quota or a target, but rather to force down the walls of discrimination that many organisations have had in the past. In this respect, affirmative action should not be seen as an insult to minority groups. For as some minorities may have all the skills necessary to gain a certain appointment or job, it is all but useless if the employer (or the person who makes the decision on who gets hired) has a bias against that person based on their minority attribute (whether that be sex, religion or what not). Women, in general, have been the main beneficiaries of affirmative action. The number of women entering the professions, including medicine, law and accounting, has increased substantially in 30 years. Women of all races have increased their share of professional positions in corporations, and it is arguable that there would be no women police officers, fire fighters, bus drivers or construction workers without affirmative action. Affirmative action is not an insult to women (or other minority groups), but rather a method to ensure that the glass ceilings that have implicitly existed in the workforce in the past are destroyed. Affirmative action does not mean that minority groups are employed simply based on minority attributes. Affirmative action means that employers make that extra effort to ensure that their organisation reflects the wider community. However, women have yet to achieve equality in the work place. There is still a large portion of the female workforce working in a narrow range of low-paying, low-status jobs. They are under-represented in many occupations. Up until the 1970s, there were few women in law schools; few opportunities to go outside of jobs traditionally reserved for women. Many women face invisible employment barriers that block access to advancement opportunities into higher-paying jobs with increased responsibilities. Some women are stuck in low-wage jobs with little or no opportunity to advance into supervisory or managerial positions. When women do obtain managerial jobs, they often are confined to specific departments with less authority and outside the track to upper-level, senior management jobs. These ‘glass ceiling† barriers prematurely halt the progress of women in the workplace and prevent them from developing their full potential and talents as workers. Affirmative action programs help to shatter the glass ceiling because they expand opportunities for qualified women and can lead to higher wages, more advancement opportunities, and improved financial security. One of the key responsibilities of a human resource management professional is the management of diversity and equal employment opportunities within the organisation. One method of ensuring equal opportunity within an organisation is by the use of affirmative action. Affirmative action is a policy to encourage equal opportunity and to level the playing field for groups of people who have been and are discriminated against. Affirmative action has been considered essential to assuring that jobs are genuinely and equally accessible to qualified persons, without regard to their sex, racial, or ethnic characteristics. Affirmative action was not established to punish any particular group or place people into positions they are not qualified for. It was established to involve everybody; to have the opportunities for economic, academic and social success accessible to everybody. It should not be regarded as an insult to women or other minority groups. Affirmative action does not mean that minority groups are employed simply based on minority attributes. Affirmative action means that employers make that extra effort to ensure that their organisation reflects the wider community. Affirmative action has been useful to society. Through equal opportunity programs, workplaces are much more diverse than several decades ago, because of the opportunities for seeing work and education have been expanded to include everyone. Affirmative action should not be regarded as an insult. It should be regarded as a tool and medium that ensures that suitably qualified people are provided with jobs, and not discriminated against based on a minority attribute.

How to Write an Effective News Article

How to Write an Effective News Article Whether youre interested in writing for a school newspaper, fulfilling a requirement for a class, or seeking a writing job in journalism, youll need to write like a professional to produce a good article. So what does it take to write like a real reporter? Researching the News Story First, you must decide what to write about. Sometimes an editor or instructor will give you assignments, but often you’ll have to find your own topics to cover. If you have a choice about the topic, you might be able to pick a subject related to your personal experience or family history, which would give you a strong framework and a dose of perspective. However, you must work to avoid bias. You may have strong opinions that could affect your conclusions. Beware of fallacies in your logic. You also could pick a topic that revolves around a strong interest, such as your favorite sport. Even if you end up with a topic close to your heart, you should begin with research, using books and articles that will give you a full understanding of the subject. Go to the library and find background information about people, organizations, and events you intend to cover. Next, interview a few people to collect more information and quotes that reflect the public’s perception of the event or story. Dont be intimidated by the idea of interviewing important or newsworthy people.  An interview can be as formal or informal as you want to make it, so relax and have fun with it. Find people with backgrounds in the topic and strong opinions, and carefully write down their responses for accuracy. Let the interviewees know that you will be quoting them. Parts of a News Article Before you write your first draft, you should be aware of the parts that make up a news story: Headline or title: The headline  of your article should be catchy and to the point. You should punctuate your title using Associated Press style guidelines, which specify, for instance, that the first word is capitalized, but, unlike other title styles, words after the first word (except for proper nouns) typically arent. Numbers arent spelled out. Other members of the publication staff frequently write the headlines, but this will help focus your thoughts and maybe save those other staffers some time. Examples: Lost dog finds his way homeDebate tonight in Jasper HallPanel chooses 3 essay winners Byline: The byline is the name of the writer- your name, in this case. Lead (sometimes written lede): The lead is generally the first paragraph and is written to provide a preview of the entire story. It summarizes the story and includes many of the basic facts. The lead will help readers decide if they want to read the rest of the story, or if they are satisfied knowing these details. The story: Once you’ve set the stage with a good lead, follow up with a well-written story that contains facts from your research and quotes from people you’ve interviewed. The article should not contain your opinions. Detail any events in chronological order. Use active voice- not passive voice- when possible and write in clear, short, direct sentences. In a news article, you typically put the most critical information in the early paragraphs and follow with supporting information, to make sure the reader sees the important details first and, you hope, is intrigued enough to continue to the end. The sources: Put your sources with the information and quotes they provide, not at the bottom of each page or the end of the story, as you would for an academic paper. The ending: Your conclusion can be your last bit of information, a summary, or a carefully chosen quote to leave the reader with a strong sense of your story.

The United States Economy in World War I

The United States Economy in World War I When war broke out in Europe in the summer of 1914, a sense of dread rippled through the American business community. So great was the fear of contagion from tumbling European markets that the New York Stock Exchange was closed for more than three months, the longest suspension of trade in its history. At the same time, businesses could see the enormous potential the war might bring to their bottom lines. The economy was mired in recession in 1914, and the war quickly opened up new markets for American manufacturers. In the end, World War I set off a 44-month period of growth for the United States and solidified its power in the world economy. A War of Production  Ã‚   World War I was the first modern mechanized war, requiring vast amounts of resources to equip and provision massive armies and provide them with the tools of combat. The shooting war was dependent on what historians have termed a parallel â€Å"war of production† that kept the military machine running. During the first two and a half years of combat, the United States was a neutral party and the economic boom came primarily from exports. The total value of U.S. exports grew from $2.4 billion in 1913 to $6.2 billion in 1917. Most of that went to major Allied powers like Great Britain, France, and Russia, which scrambled to secure American cotton, wheat, brass, rubber, automobiles, machinery, wheat, and thousands of other raw and finished goods. According to a 1917 study, exports of metals, machines, and automobiles rose from $480 million in 1913 to $1.6 billion in 1916; food exports climbed from $190 million to $510 million in that same period. Gunpowder sold for 33 cents a pound in 1914; by 1916, it was up to 83 cents a pound. America Joins the Fight   Neutrality came to an end when Congress declared war on Germany on April 4, 1917, and the United States began a rapid expansion and mobilization of more than 3 million men. Economic historian Hugh Rockoff writes: â€Å"The long period of U.S neutrality made the ultimate conversion of the economy to a wartime basis easier than it otherwise would have. Real plant and equipment were added, and because they were added in response to demands from other countries already at war, they were added in precisely those sectors where they would be needed once the U.S. entered the war.† By the end of 1918, American factories had produced 3.5 million rifles, 20 million artillery rounds, 633 million pounds of smokeless gunpowder, 376 million pounds of high explosives, 21,000 airplane engines, and large amounts of poison gas.  Ã‚   The flood of money into the manufacturing sector from both home and abroad led to a welcome rise in employment for American workers. The U.S. unemployment rate dropped from 16.4% in 1914 to 6.3% in 1916. This fall in unemployment reflected not only an increase in available jobs but a shrinking labor pool. Immigration dropped from 1.2 million in 1914 to 300,000 in 1916 and bottomed out at 140,000 in 1919. Once America entered the war, around 3 million working-age men joined the military. About 1 million women ended up joining the workforce to compensate for the loss of so many men. Manufacturing wages increased dramatically, doubling from an average $11 a week in 1914 up to $22 a week in 1919. This increased consumer buying power helped stimulate the national economy in the later stages of the war. Funding the Fight   The total cost of America’s 19 months of combat was $32 billion. Economist Hugh Rockoff estimates that 22 percent was raised through taxes on corporate profits and high-income earners, 20 percent was raised through the creation of new money, and 58% was raised through borrowing from the public, mainly through the sale of â€Å"Liberty† Bonds. The government also made its first foray into price controls with the establishment of the War Industries Board (WIB), which attempted to create a priority system for the fulfillment of government contracts, set quotas and efficiency standards, and allocated raw materials based on needs. American involvement in the war was so short that the impact of the WIB was limited, but the lessons learned in the process would have an impact on future military planning. A World Power   The war ended on November 11, 1918, and America’s economic boom quickly faded. Factories began to ramp down production lines in the summer of 1918, leading to job losses and fewer opportunities for returning soldiers. This led to a short recession in 1918–19, followed by a stronger one in 1920–21. In the long term, World War I was a net positive for the American economy. No longer was the United States a nation on the periphery of the world stage; it was a cash-rich nation that could transition from a debtor to a global creditor. America had proved it could fight the war of production and finance and field a modern volunteer military force. All of these factors would come into play at the start of the next global conflict less than a quarter-century later. Test your knowledge of the homefront during WWI. Sources The Economics of World War Iï » ¿Federal Reserve Bulletinï » ¿. p. 952. Oct. 1, 1919, Washington, D.C.Fraser. â€Å"War and Postwar Wages, Prices, and Hours, 1914-23 and 1939-44 : Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, No. 852.†Ã‚  FRASER.Jefferson, Mark. Our Trade in The Great War. Geographical Review. American Geographical Society, 1917, New York.â€Å"Legal Immigration to the United States, 1820-Present.†Ã‚  Migrationpolicy.org.Perspectives, Advisor. â€Å"100 Years Ago, The New York Stock Exchange Experienced A 4-Month Long Circuit Breaker.†Ã‚  Business Insider. 29 July 2014.â€Å"Social Security.† Social Security History.Sutch, Richard. â€Å"Liberty Bonds.†Ã‚  Federal Reserve History.â€Å"World War I Centenary: 100 Legacies of the Great War.†Ã‚  The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Company.