Onion DNA Extraction Essay

DNA(deoxyribonucleic acid) is found in every living organism. It provides the information and instructions to build and regulate cells in organisms. The information it contains is used when organisms are being reproduced. It is made up of two polynucleotide chains known as DNA strands. Within the two chains there are four nucleotide units: adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine. Materials and Methods An onion was cut into pieces and placed in a blender with 50 mL of water and blended for one minute. Once blended, 20 mL of 25% saline solution and 10 mL of liquid detergent was added to the mixture and blended for 3 minutes. The mixture was then added to a flask and placed into a bath of hot water at 42? C for 10 minutes. The mixture was then removed from the hot water bath and filtered using a cheese cloth (dryer sheet) into a beaker. In a test tube (test tube â€Å"B†), 10 mL of 90-95% ethanol was placed into a beaker filled with ice. Then 10 mL of the filtered mixture was then placed into a test tube (test tube â€Å"C†). Test tube â€Å"C† was tilted at an angle and the ethanol from test tube â€Å"B† was slowly poured into test tube â€Å"C†. After 5 minutes, a white layer was formed between the onion-detergent mixture (test tube â€Å"B†) and the ethanol (test tube â€Å"C†). A plastic pipette was used to remove the white layer from the tube and placed into a micro centrifuge tube. The micro centrifuge tube was centrifuged at 10 K rpm for 1 minute. The supernatant in the tube was then removed and discarded only leaving the white pellet that was formed at the bottom. Results During this experiment, the DNA of the onion had formed at the bottom of the micro centrifuge tube.

Entice the audience to the film Essay

Snake eyes is an action thriller. The storyline seems to be quite simple from the outside. There is a murder, perhaps more then one, and its up to the homicidal detective to figure out who did it, why and how. However, the victim is the Secretary of Defence. The murder takes place in the presence of 14,000 witnesses, in the audience of a high profile boxing match, and to make things worse it is very likely that there is more then one person involved, and at least one more potential victim. It seems almost impossible that the detective will not get caught up in the web of lies, treachery and deceit. Maybe even become a victim himself. This essay is about film trailers, specifically Snake eyes, and how different techniques are used to entice the audience to the film. Camera shots are very important in film trailers. They can be cut and edited to create the desired effect of the producer. For example, in snake eyes it shows a number of shots go by very fast to create a general sense of foreboding. There’s a point in the trailer where it shows close ups of the suspects like the woman in red, the boxer and several others. This leaves you with a strange and confusing feeling, are you being told the story to the letter, or are they tricking you? Many different camera shots are used, such as close ups like the woman in red, sitting in the front row of the audience, you see her face and get the feeling she is inwardly smirking, why? What has she done? It causes uneasiness and questions to pop up in the watchers mind, and that is very memorable. Another interesting shot used in the trailer is when the detective looks up into a camera; it has a rather sinister effect, making you think someone is watching him. There is much use of lighting in this trailer. Because the setting is dark and gritty any lighting is going to stand out. When the boxing match is in progress the lighting is centred on the boxing match, to emphasise its importance at that moment in time. The middle shots of the women in red, using a combination of the colour of her clothes, the audiences and the lighting makes her stand out from the rest of the crowd, and forces any audience to focus their attention on her, a very clear and powerful message emphasising her importance to the story. In this trailer lighting is also used to light up a man black and white as he looks into the camera, creating a startling effect, in someway it makes the audience believe that he has just realised something and is about to make an important discovery. A rather unorthodox use of lighting in films, but an interesting one none the less. If you go by the trailer then nearly the entire film is set indoors. This gives the cameraman and director plenty of opportunity to experiment with shadows, especially lit up ones that disappear almost as fast as they appear. The use of shadows in the trailer is excellent, but there are two in particular that deserve mentioning. The first is the dark outline of a figure holding a gun, ready for action; this annoys and frightens the audience. What right has this person got, skulking around in the shadows like that? On the other hand, what is this person going to do? The second use of shadows is even more spectacular. A flash of lightning, and against the thin material, a man is seen poised, ready to strike, as in the background the roar of the thunder continues. This, followed shortly by a picture of the detective in the same room, a look of absolute terror on his face leaves the audience in the highest form of anticipation, wanting to know what happens next, but the trailer goes on, leaving the audience slightly shaky and dieing to see the film. In the two minute long snake eyes trailer, it is the music and voice over that binds it into a coherent piece, as opposed to a series of exciting pictures with no apparent theme. It seems impossible to imagine modern cinema without sound. No one would ever go and watch the film and the companies that funded these productions would go bankrupt. So listening is just as important to the audience as watching, with this in mind snake eyes has done another wonderful job, not just with the music but also with the voice over. Using a number of straight to the point remarks that the audience automatically responds to with encrypted messages that confuse and worry them, for example one of the strangest is worded † trust everything but your eyes. † This is rather confusing, usually people trust nothing but their eyes, so this twist on the old saying concerns the audience and makes them want to find out more. A brilliant use of voiceover. In this essay I have covered several important techniques used in the moving media, film industry. Camera shots, obviously important, the position of a shot often determines the way an audience interprets what they see in front of them. Lighting, used to emphasise something or someone and create eerie effects. Shadows, important in certain genres and locations, and voice over, the technique that in my opinion ties the whole thing together, and puts the audience into the right frame of mind. I believe that this particular snake eyes trailer is brilliant, it creates just the right amount of craving excitement to have any watcher instantaneously caught up in its webs, using a combination of all these techniques and particularly good sequences, such as the lightning and thunder shadow man ready to strike. I searched for the film, just so I could see how accurate or jumped up the trailer was, though I must admit the trailer really made me want to watch it. Unfortunately however I did not find it, though this may have been a good thing, because that trailer was exceedingly good and I wouldn’t have liked to be disappointed. I think it was a good trailer to study because the developers definitely knew how to create the correct psychological effect, and as a result of that made it very interesting. So, film trailers, are they really effective? In my opinion, yes.

Classification of Data Collection and Analysis Depending on the Assignment

Classification of Data Collection and Analysis Depending on the Research Methodology Employed - Assignment Example This research is significant because it is based on surveys, experimental and other various research methods. Therefore, the dissertation will utilize this research method in order to determine whether the leadership styles employed by both directors of nursing and social serves have a positive impact in the psychological well- being of nursing home residents. Experiments: The research will collect data through the use of experiments that may involve completing various tests for measuring the leadership abilities. The researcher will then compare and contrast various results obtained from different tests. The aim of the tests is to judge leadership styles employed by both directors or measure their so-called aptitude (Fulton, Lyon, and Goudreau, 2010). However, it will focus on the relations between their performance level and other factors. The researcher may be interested in observing  the way both directors reacts or behaves before or after the intervention programs such as training. This will enable the researcher to compare the leadership styles between the director of nursing and director of social services effectively. Sample surveys: The researcher will gather information from a fairly larger sample group of participants by use of questionnaires, interviews, observation and other techniques. The effective means of carrying out a survey is to sample the population at a time (Thomas, 2003). In this case, the researcher will survey the nursing home residents in order to determine the effective services they receive from both directors. Case studies: This usually involves detailed research analysis on a certain case or group of people (Bernard, 2000). Various data collection methodologies such as interviews, questionnaire, and observation, may be applied in this case. For instance, the researcher may interview both leaders about their personal records of leadership performance. He or she will narrow the results in descriptive data, in the environmental settings; thus challenging the existing theories or approaches of the domains.

What means have been retained for government agencies and officials to Essay

What means have been retained for government agencies and officials to run the Chinese economy - Essay Example The SOE’s constitutes of capital intensive industries and therefore absorbs a huge share of the state’s financial resources through financing. Additionally, in the Chinese stock market, the shares offer price lacks a reflection of real relation amid the shares supply and demand. The government restrictions on decision making rights, prices, control rights and trade have made it more challenging for enterprises and firms to grow (OECD 2010, 1-40). According to Tubilewicz (2006, 120-134), the government is the prime mover of the economy and the regulatory government should therefore ensure that the societal welfare is maintained and business persons have a better working environment. However, in China’s case, this has not yet been applicable. This clearly states that the government agencies and officials who have a major stake in Chinese economy should play a major role in boosting its performance and mitigating major economic challenges. In order to do this, it important to analyze ways through which the government officials can play their roles in the economy. By taking a look at the negative impacts that have resulted from the Chinese government paying extra attention to the SOE’s and overlooking other business enterprises, one gets clear picture of the negative economical impact caused by Chinese government excessive control on the economy. Around 1979, China’s government introduce their own profit retention mechanisms, mandatory planning reduction, production responsibility systems and profit tax reform thereby taking autonomous SOE’s managerial control in order to increase the SOE’s efficiency. However, the reforms which were inducted under the traditional state socialism allowed no room for ownership structure changes and hence, the state bore the SOE’s losses. The contracted managerial responsibility system made most managers maximize

Approaches against Fraudulent Activities Case Study

Approaches against Fraudulent Activities - Case Study Example Hence, even poorly performing firms obtained huge amounts of credits from MCI and this condition adversely affected MCI’s operational efficiency. When receivable collection periods went beyond the stipulated timeframe, the organization was forced to write off some of its receivables. Undoubtedly, this condition caused the firm to experience a rise in its expenses and thereby a decline in earnings per share. Ultimately, MCI’s stock price dropped due to the decline in EPS. As Lyon and Tocco (n. d.) point out, Pavlo used a variety of accounting tricks to convince the management that the level of bad debts and amount receivables had fallen under the safety range. In other words, Pavlo totally manipulated the accounting system to conceal the actual state of affairs of the company. It is obvious that the absence of a well-executed internal check system assisted Pavlo to apply unfair accounting tricks to deceive the company management. A person is not allowed to carry through a transaction from beginning to end under the internal check system. ... situation aided him to employ accounting malpractices such as ‘unapplied cash’ and ‘placeholder credits’ to conceal MCI’s actual financial status. Approaches against Fraudulent Activities If an individual suspects fraudulent activity within the organization where he works, it is advisable for him not to make any false allegation. In addition, he must never try to take any unfair advantage of that fraudulent activity. Every organization has a distinct corporate culture and hence a specific mechanism to report fraud. It is recommendable for the individual to strictly adhere to the accepted fraud reporting mechanism of the organization. If an individual suspects fraud in his organization, firstly he must make an immediate note of his concern. He should specifically try to note relevant details concerning the fraud including telephone conversations, date and time, or names of parties involved. Secondly, the individual has to report the fraud to someone wi th proper authority and experience. Generally, it is better to report fraud to line managers, internal auditors, or whistleblowers. In addition, fraud may be reported to the Monitoring Officer, Chief Executive, or the Director of Finance. The individual should not make any delay in reporting the suspected fraud to proper authorities because such a situation would cause the organization to suffer further financial loss. Finally, the individual should ensure that the authority has taken proper actions over his fraud report; otherwise, he must report the case to higher authorities. Under no circumstance, the individual can disclose his suspicion to public or any other unauthorized person.  

The Current Evidence of Human Evolution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

The Current Evidence of Human Evolution - Essay Example Interestingly, humans, Homo sapiens, have not yet stopped the journey of evolution. To date, humans still evolve (Schumann, 1998, p93). Nature is very dynamic and with every change in nature, humans have always found a way of adapting to the new domains. Change in nature is inevitable obliging life forms to keep abreast to the changes in order to thrive or survive. A life form that finds it hard to transform to the changing demands of nature eventually dies out (extinction). Humans are the most intelligent creature in the world and they have been so dynamic to the dynamic life conditions they get subjected to by nature. Scientists have come up with new ideas to study this course and a wealth of evidence has been established that supports the fact that indeed, human beings (Homo sapiens) do still evolve to date. One can only imagine the next life forms human would be like if the currently continuing trend. Before the evidences were discovered, many scientists believed that humans have stopped evolving because the advanced cultural and technological states have annihilated the possibility of natural selection that induces evolutionary changes. However, recent scientists have established that humans are still evolving due to social and environmental changes. There is always a specific and special need for humans when the environment changes. The assumption that human technology has been able to create provisions to humans, hence, reducing the biological pressures that could trigger genetic alterations has been disqualified by recent research. In fact, it is reported that the genetic signals are very vivid and can be detected in few births. In Quebec, a town in Canada, for instance, recent human evolution has been detected. Researchers (scientists in this quest) say that micro-changes in the overall gene structure in humans can be detected in

Biology project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Biology project - Essay Example The moment this happen, there is no death of cell when they should; later, new cells form regardless of whether the body needs them or not. The extra cells which formed can develop into a mass of tissue that is popularly known as Tumor. Tumor (Cancer Council, 1: 6) may exist as lump; it can be malignant (cancerous) or benign (not cancerous). Cancer cells that grow larger than "pin's head" typically has their own blood vessel. Occasionally, they go away from the primary location of the cancer either by the region of the blood or lymph vessels and later begin to invade other organs of the body. At the new site, they continue to grow to form another tumor (Cancer Council, 1: 7). Specific type of cancer is Lymphoma. Lymphoma (Michigan Cancer Consortium, 1:1) that affects white blood cells known as lymphocytes. These are immune cells which are basically working to protect the body from getting. In lymphoma, malignant cells are formed and may accumulate to develop into tumors. Later it enlarge; making lymph nodes seemed swollen while other cancer cells spread to other parts of the lymphatic system like bone marrow, spleen, skin, or mucosal linings of the stomach. Common symptoms caused by this illness are : Drenching night sweats, Persistent fevers or chills, Persistent skin rashes and itching, Unexplained weight loss, Unexplained fatigue, Painless swelling of lymph node (Kuppers, 2:34). Lymphoma is the most commonly existing blood cancer, and in fact, it is the third common childhood cancer. Since the 1970s, the incidence rate of non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma (NHL) with each year has increased 4% annually (Karl, 1:par Your Name Here 2 2. Research the mechanism of that particular cancer i.e. what enzymes, proteins are involved).Basically, lymphomas are cancers which begin by the "malignant transformation" of a WBC lymphocyte in the areas of the lymphatic system. Many lymphomas are known to be due to specific genetic mutations.Lymphocytes recognize pathogens (infections and abnormal cells) and destroy them. There are 2 major subtypes of lymphocytes: B lymphocytes and T lymphocytes, also referred to as B cells and T cells. B lymphocytes are much affected in individuals with lymphoma; Note that the former produce antibodies. When a cancer causing agent like a virus is detected, the T cells, are immediately activated, which in turn kill pathogens directly. Part of the mechanisms of T cells are the immune system control (controlling over activity or under activity). B and T lymphocytes are the one's fighting off an invader. Cancer occurs the moment normal cells undergo a transition whereby they grow at the same time mul tiply uncontrollably. Consequently, as the cells continue to multiply, formation of mass or tumor may also be formed. Tumors usually invade tissue spaces and areas surrounding it; if lymphomas are no controlled, it can progress on and/or invade the neighboring tissues or distant organs (emedicinehealth.com; 7). Tyrosine (protein) kinase and the phosphoinositide

The Regulation of the Internet Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

The Regulation of the Internet - Essay Example The internet has become one of the most widespread technological advancements which have gained popularity in recent years. Since its inception, its use has expanded and its coverage has grown extensively. Most everything can now be found and done online. Business transactions can be carried out online, so can social interactions, buying, selling, and even dating. Various individuals use it for both their professional and personal needs; it serves purposes which mostly relate to convenience and easy accessibility. In recent years however, due to its widespread use, issues on censorship have been raised. Due to the delicacy of internet materials which have become widespread in their use, the idea of internet censorship has been suggested. However, issues on the application of democratic ideals seem to clash with the idea of internet censorship. This paper shall answer whether or not internet censorship is compatible with democratic values and ideals. Body Internet censorship is defined by Colthorp as â€Å"internet material that is examined and then removed or suppressed when it is considered morally, politically, or otherwise objectionable†. This includes a very wide range of materials which can be considered censorable; defining what is morally or politically objectionable can spawn various materials in the legal, ethical, religious, liberal or the conservative sense. Nevertheless, materials often defined to be subjects of censorship include pornographic, politically seditious, and even criminally offensive materials. The purposes of censorship in different countries often have various motivations. Three main regions in the world engage in internet censorship, including East Asia, Central Asia, and Middle East/North Africa (Misa, 60). Other countries like Germany, France, and even the US also implement some form of censorship against certain websites and under specific settings. The US for example, filters internet activitie s in computers in libraries as well as K-12 schools (Reichman and American Library Association, 39). In France and Germany, materials about Nazism and Holocaust denial are also blocked (Deibert, 190). Child pornography and other pornographic sites are also banned by various countries in the world, including China, Singapore, and most countries in the Middle East (Deibert, Palfrey, and OpenNet Initiative, 5). Some of these countries are actually democratic countries and have long respected the freedom of speech and of expression, and yet are involved in some form of internet censorship. The practice of internet censorship has been supported, to some extent, by governments because various reasons. The significant growth of the Internet has led to a new realm of human communication whose ease is facilitated by cyberspace, its low cost in participation, as well as its potentially vast audience (Malakoff, 1). In many ways, it actually represents a purely democratic forum where any litera te person can express his thoughts, feelings, and opinions. On the other hand, electronic communication and the internet also have negative consequences owing to the fact that most people can now access any morally and politically pervasive materials on the internet (Malakoff, 2). This is the primary reason driving some governments to implement regulatory practices for internet use. Countries which have historically suppressed the transmission of data in an attempt to control and suppress any civilian dissent have found the internet to be a particular problem. These countries have an innate fear that materials that their people would read and obtain

Sustainability in the Hotel Industry Assignment

Sustainability in the Hotel Industry - Assignment Example The hotel industry forms an integral part of the tourism industry and if it is not managed properly could cause detrimental to the natural and social environment. Thus to reduce the impact, hotels are adopting the â€Å"go green† initiative. Until recently the hotel industry has been unaware of the environmental damage that it posed to the environment due to its operations and services. However the last two decades have bought about tremendous change and created awareness among the public and in the development of â€Å"green consumerism†. Therefore to achieve greater environmental responsibility, hotel industries are implementing the relevant strategies and tools. The hoteliers are aware that it is essential to protect the environment where it does its business and are crucial towards the development and performance of the industry. According to reports by Bohdanowicz et al. there exist a huge number of examples which shows the development of pro-ecological initiatives .1 With continuous growth in environmental degradation, society has become aware of the needs for adopting more effective measure towards protection of the environment. Sustainable development has therefore become vital priority as well challenge in the competitive environment. The sustainability issue should be addressed at all the levels ranging from the policy makers, industry, academia, and the general public and other stakeholders. The global tourism industry is expected to grow at a rate of 2.8% in 2012 and will represent 9% of the global GDP. The hotel and tourism industry is expected to contribute about $10 trillion to the growth of global economy by 2022 and generate... To conclude it can be said that Holiday Inn has implemented the going green strategies and has performed well in implementing the practices and this is evident as the hotel is a certified green lodging hotel and has also received awards for environmental sustainability. Holiday inn has taken into consideration the recycling process and conservation of consumption and waste. However, it is still important to keep inventing the going green process and sustain in the industry and achieve a competitive advantage. Some of the recommendation includes as follows,   Installation of the green roof will help to mitigate the effect of heat island and also helps to reduce the amount of energy to be required to heat or cool the rooms. Apart from providing environmental benefits, the green roof of the hotel will serve as a commitment of commitment towards sustainability and will provide the guest with a connection with nature. Secondly, the hotel can provide environmentally friendly transportati on for the guest. The transportation will provide fuel efficient and environmentally friendly environment to travel to the desired place by the guest. The low emission and eco-friendly bus would reduce vehicle emission, lighter traffic and a convenient way to travel for the guests. Thirdly, the hotel can install high-efficiency plumbing fixtures along with water reduction by implementing much more efficient fixtures, appliances and water landscaping outside the hotels to preserve water and reuse it.

The Issue of Automation in Business Practices Research Paper

The Issue of Automation in Business Practices - Research Paper Example   Allen (2001) looks critically at the disadvantages of manual processes. The main demerit of undertaking business operations manually is that it is time-consuming and wastes organizational resources. Take for instance; a highly automated factory can achieve a higher amount of production within a set timeframe compared with when the processes are undertaken manually. Process automation also encourages organizations to reduce the number of workers and subsequently cut the cost of operation. The undeniable fact is that any organization that carries out most of its operations manually can hardly attain the state 2 of cost-efficiency (Allen, 2001). This is because the organization’s limited resources would be squandered on paying wages and maintaining the large number of employees hired to do the long manual processes. The good news is that every step in a business operation can be automated with the use of applicable technology and software for better efficiency. In a big corpo ration or networked organization, it is helpful to implement Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) as a system of coordinating all the sections of operations within an organization through the use of software that necessitate swift communication and higher performance among these sections in real-time (Allen, 2001). Automating with ERP helps organization to cut down the number of human personnel required for a job and eliminate cumbersomeness that often affects human activities within an organization. Most proponents of ERP believe that the system provide a unique opportunity for employees of an organization to harness their potentials in a speedy manner while attending to the goals of their organization. And automation is the backbone on which ERP depends on for successful implementation. 2.2 Value-Added Functionality Automating a process or a set of processes undoubtedly increases the value of the output of such processes. Corcoran et al. (2010) believe that automation affords organi zations the benefits of fastness, sustainability and quantifiable outcomes. In other words, when an operation is automated, it increases the added value to the output in a way of quick delivery and better presentation in environmentally friendly nature that would lead 3 to the output being well accepted by consumers. For example, consumers are likely going to show more interest in organizations that offer quick services and products. Though, how much value automation adds to the quality of a service or product is still an ongoing debate. Bannerman (2008) opines that even though an organization enjoys process improvement, this does not necessarily mean that it will lead to business improvement for the organization. However, Allen (2001) states that improved business operations are likely going to add to the value of the goods and services offered by the concerned organization.  Ã‚  

Who To Love Essay Example for Free

Who To Love Essay To begin, all of these stories are similar. This paper is going to be about how they are all similar. This is going to be about all of the stories that I read. The stories that I read are â€Å"Sweet Potato Pie† by Eugenia Collier â€Å"Initiation† by Sylvian Plath, and â€Å"Lalla† by Rosamunde Pilcher. These were three great stories and all of their plots were very similar so everyone figured the plots out. Firstly, this is going to be about the short story that this class read called â€Å"Sweet Potato Pie† by Eugenia Collier. This is a great story and it is about a family that cannot afford to send all of their kids to school so they can only send one. They send this kid to school and then he goes to college. Then he turns into the most educated one out of all of them and he makes the most money. He also has to learn though that he has to love his family the same and treat them the same as always. The next short story that we read is called â€Å"Lalla† by Rosamunde Pilcher. This is a very good story about young people in love. The life lesson in this story is to always follow your heart. Lalla discovers if she follows her heart it will always lead her in the right direction. An example of this situation in this story is when Lalla goes back to Carwheel to see Godfrey again, and to be with Godfrey forever. This really explains this story because she doesn’t follow her heart the whole time until the end. To wrap it up this short story tells us all to follow our hearts and everything will be okay. Now this will be about the short story â€Å"Initiation† by Sylvian Plath. This story is about a girl that has to go through a thing called â€Å"Initiation. † This stories life lesson is to not do stuff just because other people are doing it. I think this should happen because when people are not themselves they tend to be friends with the wrong people and lose their good friends. That is an example of not doing stuff because other people are doing it. In this short story the life lesson that the class learned is to always be yourself no matter what other people are doing. Lastly, all three of these stories talked about how and who people should love. Love is a great thing and it should always be devoted towards the persons family and others that they truly love. These three stories tell us this because no matter what these people in these stories always love their family. These stories were also about how people should follow their heart. All of these people in these stories follow their heart on who they should love and their heart always takes them in the right direction. All in all these stories are all very similar. These stories all teach people to follow their heart. It also teaches people to love who they want. It is all about loving the family and always following your heart to the right people.

Electronic Notice Board Software

Electronic Notice Board Software ENB project was created to modernise the classic means of communication through the pin and paperboard based communication to the more efficient and dynamic communication of general information to the students of the Bolton University. Student and faculty will get the timely information while they are walking around School office or in Labs. ENB will remind the student about the critical dates for the exams, social events, and warnings etc. It will positively affect the student behaviour towards the academic excellence and time management. ENB will decrease the rate of late assignments submission and absents among the students. ENB will decrease the workload of university management for printing and pasting the traditional paper based notice boards. ENB system will not require any additional hardware and it will be developed in the Microsoft Visual Basic .net Express Edition and Microsoft SQL server Database hence low cost of development and implementation. ENB will bring forth a positive change in the university environment. ENB project was created using the VB.NET and SQL database express editions, which are free of cost. Database is designed to ensure the efficiency of the software in the network environment. A survey was conducted on the sample of students to evaluate the potential of ENB to improve the overall communication in the campus. To ensure the successful implementation of the project the software was tested and evaluated in the campus environment. The final solution met all the basic requirements and also delivered some extra features. Further features and improvement can be added in the future. The report has the details of the ENB project from start to end, including the requirement analysis, background research, design, implementation, testing and evaluation stages. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Problem Definition During my time in university I have missed many recreational occasions and a couple of times I have missed important dates of final assignment submissions as I was miss informed about the dates. All these errors of misinformation made me realize the necessity of an electronics notice board. In the University of Bolton there are many problems, distinguish is between rumour and true information. At times dates are changed and change of plan is very poorly communicated to the students and faculty, which creates confusion. In case of an ENB students will have access to important announcements while walking around and have the benefit of being reminded several times a day. Currently university administration is using a Paper based notice board. A printed black and white poster is pasted on the notice board to announce university events. The method indeed consumes the administrative and clerical time of the university. Sometimes the change of dates is not timely announced, which provokes frustration among the students of the concerned disciplines. The ENB project was realised and envisaged based on the concept of improving the communication channels within the University campus among students and the faculty members. For example to announce the start of new semester a simple piece of paper is loosely pasted at the front door notice board of school office. Sometimes the fonts are not appropriate and the black ink prints are not very attractive and appealing to grab the real attention of the concerned students. So the students miss the critical information and often submit the final project or prepare for the final exams very close to the deadline. In my opinion irrespective of the students aptitude the fault might be at the universitys end. The ENB will effectively convey the key academic information to the students hence there will be great reduction in the late submission of the final projects and assignments. The ENB will play a powerful role at will increase the academic productive of the students. A notice board can be defined as Abulletin board(pinboard,pin boardornotice boardin British English) is a place where people can leave publicmessages [1] A Notice Board is a traditional tool for the dissemination of information in academic campuses. A traditional Notice board is made of a wooden frame with a soft central square of cork for pinning the papers of information for the students. Widespread adaptation of information technology has changed the traditional means of information dispersion. Electronic notice board is an innovative replacement for the traditional wood and cork notice boards. Due to the dynamic nature of the electronic notice board it has practical application in the corporate environment. Following are some of the case studies about the practical application of electronic notice board in both academic and corporate scenarios. Aim The project ENB aims to develop and implement application software that will disseminate the academic information in the network environment among the students and faculty members. The project ENB will open the new powerful channel of communication between university management and students. The solution will consist of a page server and client PCs as the notice boards. In the design phase I will focus on to simplifying the end user experience of using the ENB. End users will probably include members of admin staff. For the administrator it will be hassle free to upload the different formats of multimedia. There will be some quick templates to quickly upload the announcements. The ENB system first time configuration will be automatic therefore very easy. There must be server software on one end therefore the client side will automatically detect the server. In case of multiple page servers the ENB system will give options to connect. The ENB system will be Database driven hence it will take the minimal amount of network bandwidth. The ENB system will be network based therefore additional network optimization technology will be deployed to make it as fast as possible The system will be operated by Administrator and other staff to assist them in scheduling tasks for messages in the near future. Also an aim of the project is to develop the framework so that it is easy to extend in the future. Objectives The ENB system will be developed using the visual basic programming language and MS SQL SERVER database. I will focus on the following outcomes for the finished product. In order to satisfy the aim the following objectives need to be achieved: Deploying a software engineering methodology relevant to the ENB project Design a data model for ENB Design and develop an integrated system to query the data model Test and Evaluate the ENB against the requirements Minimum Requirements A prototype of an integrated framework for Electronic Notice Board system which can be informative and flexible. A prototype to input and store task commands. A prototype to input and store scheduled task commands. A prototype to input and transfer scheduled task to task command data. Enhancements A login system to provide security for the server application. View of Report of pending tasks for any date. View of Report of completed tasks for any date. Administrator prototype to add new users on database server. Administrator prototype to run client in Admin mode. Data bound schema to control scheduled tasks. Controlling the clients status active or inactive Input FIFO: First in First out. As task is set to client, it is executed straight away. Time Controlled pattern: Events are controlled by given time. Time can span to any number of minutes, hours or even days. Date Controlled pattern: Events are controlled by given Date. Time and date controlled pattern: combination of Time Controlled pattern and Date controlled pattern. Client Registration Data Primary Input Client Id, Client Name, Client Unique Id, Time of Registration, Date of Registration. Secondary Input Client State. Base Data (Client Data) Base table is basically a blueprint for all clients. (Primary Input) Record Id, Task Id, Task Command, Task Arguments (Additional input) Task in Time, Task in Date, Task State Scheduled Data It is same as Base Database. (Primary Input) Record Id, Task Id, Task Command, Task Arguments (Additional input) Task in Time, Task in Date, Task State Output For each task that is in current execution schema is grouped by registered users and are performed by clients on given time span. Scheduled tasks are placed in scheduler and on given time they are transferred to corresponding client(s) for execution. Requirements Analysis The purpose for this project is not to develop a system that can act as a notice board but to integrate and utilize data driven technology to accomplish complex tasks with ease without any additional hardware to display message. Integrated scheduling technology provides flexibility and automation. Orange valley systems are the market leader for marketing the ENB application for the business organizations Appendix WRITE IT IN END. A thorough analysis was conducted on the orange valley product. Basic idea for the ENB features was captured from the screen shots available from their website. In depth interviews were conducted with the students, friends, and the IT administrator staff. On collecting the requirement analysis data from the above research the following functional and non functional requirements were devised. Functional Requirements Add and edit tasks. Add and edit scheduled tasks. Add and remove tasks. Schedule tasks Display reports of tasks. Non Functional Requirements System must be easy to use and navigate. System should have a consistent interface. CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGIES Methodologies Communication is the lifeline of any social system. Success of any organization is directly related to the effectiveness for their communication systems. Academics are no exception for this. An effective campus communication system must be understood, credible, and practically utilized. Attributes about the campus communication In the year 1973 Mr. Anderson Jerry M presented his research papers at the Annual meeting of the Nebraska speech communication association. Title of the research papers were Improving the internal communication: A campus Quandary. Research papers were based on the formal interviews with the 90 interviewees. Each interview took 15 to 90 minutes. Interviewees were randomly selected persons of the campuses. Interviewees included the campus administrators, faculty, students, staff, alumni and trustees representing 30 post secondary institutions of different sizes. Past research data was also used to analyze the results of the research. The 1971-72 opinion research was based on an interview format designed to be open-ended to encourage respondents to call upon personal experience and ventilate feelings. The interviews unveiled the issues and anxieties regarding the campus communication. Two questions formed the basis for interviews, except in a few instances where a more structured questioning approach was necessitated to elicit more extended responses. Those two questions: From your perspective and experiences, how effective is communication on this campus? What, if anything, would you do to improve it? [2] Three general attitudes clearly emerged. The need for improved campus communication is among the most significant and pressing problems. When asked why, most answered that the functional operation of the campus was dependent upon communication effectiveness and it could be much improved, and internal effectiveness as perceived by those outside the campus would determine the level of future support. Recommendations for improvement were multiple, usually incomplete in development, and concluded with the statement that no clear solutions existed. Concern was expressed about the lack of sensitivity and attention to communication problems by those with the expertise to improve the situation and by others in positions to effect change. Opinion research drew the following conclusions. Research uncovered a strong need to improve the campus communication. Old faculty members were nostalgic about the good old days when they knew everybody in campus and always knew the important events Campus members realize the ultimate responsibility of communication lies on administration Administrator is frustrated about changing the campus communication. They dont understand the approach to the change. They themselves are confused on aligning their communication between deans and faculty. Faculty members and chairman were not happy with the unreasonable deadlines, dissemination of information in clusters, reactions to proposed policies. Communication denial and communication under load were the main concern of middle level management. Campus staff was concerned about the lack of confidence upon their colleagues due to surveillance and audit of their work. Information used to distort when passing down or up in the hierarchy of the organization. Traditional approaches were not working 20% of the sample showed their lack of interest for improving the campus communication. These were mostly the students and faculty members. Interviewees were most distrustful about the administrative communication behaviour especially lack of disclosure Solutions for improving the Campus Communication Communication had been improved using the technological advances. Providing informational announcement is on closed circuit television between classes had proven to be effective. The use of telephone answering services in offices during after hours, and as a message dissemination system for people to call and hear important recorded messages. Catalogues and bulletins and other information sources need be written with the sensitivity to readability. Departments or divisions, large institutions, should be encouraged to develop newsletters. Bulletin boards could be kept up to date and used more extensively I have chance to review the communication methods deployed by the UK universities. These are some general and specialise methods. News Kantor, Brian and Phil Lapsley Network News Transfer Protocol: A Proposed Standard for the Stream-Based Transmission of News. 1986. [3] Universities employ NNTP (network news transfer protocol) service named News as the official bulletin board. NNTP provides discussion forums for modules, programming languages and other both academic and non-academic topics. NNTP has also the application of a notice board where official announcements are posted. Students can access the news by any newsreader. Thunderbird email client and Tin are popular newsreader. Students are required to read the newsgroups on a regular basis as it is the main method of official communication between the school and students. It has been noticed in the recent years a falling trend of reading news among the university students. Email Universities provide everyone with an email account. Using email to communicate has several advantages. Email Communications are often more effective than printed direct mail. [4] Firstly email is a flexible system that by now has large amounts of web integration. Therefore people have flexibility in how to access their email account Secondly email is an accepted method of communication with people usually inspecting their email on a habitual basis and therefore messages be likely to get read. As a broader point, email is simply further widely used all-round. SIS The term SIS School Information System is used in some of the UK universities. SIS provides information on students, staff, modules, timetables, coursework and more. From the perspective of an undergraduate student, SIS provides access to the school timetables, modules information, and coursework results and is also used to facilitate the submission of electronic coursework. Module websites In most of the UK universities every module has its own WebPages. Modular group of pages can be accessed on adding codes in the official URL. These web pages typically include the outline of the module, lecture slides from each lecture, sample coursework, additional reading and information on the examination and assessment process for the module. [5] Wiki The simplest online database that could possibly work.[6] Universities have link to the WIKI. WIKI has rigorous information of how to and guides to using the facilities. The wiki provides plenty of helpful information and is frequently the first port of call for numerous students when students have a problem or desire information on the University facilities. University of Bolton has the WIKI. It also has new information that people are continuously adding. However until now nearly all of the edits have been through by staff or by a small selection of students. It has up till now to be fully embraced by undergraduate students with a small number of using it on a regular basis and barely any undergraduates contributing to it. VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) Mostly Uk Universities Library has a virtual learning environment which the universities developed in-house and launched in around 1996. Access to the environment is available through a web browser for both students and guests [7].The thought is to create a virtual campus online separated up into various buildings which house the different resources on offer. The quantity of information available varies from school to school and from module to module. For example the business school has a chat room, module information, lecture slides and past exam papers for a large number of their modules. The School of Computing however does not. This is most probably because all this information is available on the schools intranet. The VLE also provides quick access to searching Google, Oxford reference dictionary, Thesaurus.com, Institute and the library catalogue. Facebook Facebook is a social networking website analogous to MySpace. It was at first targeted at university students. The site was launched in 2004. It was primarily developed for student community of Harvard and extended to offer networks for other universities and ultimately opened membership to all and sundry in 2006. The idea is based around a series of networks, one for each university. In order to join the network one needs to use a valid email address for that institution (for instance, in order to join the University of Bolton network you require to use a @Bolton.ac.uk email address. You then have access to that networks features such as being able to view peoples profiles, joining groups and creating and replying to event invitations. Facebook is amazingly popular with students, claiming a penetration rate of 85% among US college students. Facebook also achieves very high levels of user retention. Over 50% of its user base visits the site every day [8] and on average each user view s 50 pages of the site per day. The main problem with Facebook from the perspective of the school is that is it not managed by the Institution and the Institution has no control over it. The school has no effective way to utilise Facebook to communicate with students as it does not have control over the School of Computing group on Facebook and only a minority of the staff are registered on the site. A more elemental problem is that Facebook is a social networking website intended for students and was not intended to be used for academic activities or to be utilised by academic institutions. Conclusion In the universities of UK current methods of campus communication do not seem to be engaging the students. Declining use of the News and other web based IT platform shows that students information needs are not met. Facebook is very popular but Universities have no control on it. Therefore it would appear to the Universities requirement to deal with these problems either by upgrading their existing systems or adopting a new system in order to engage students more and meet the new level of expectations of the students. CHAPTER 3 BACKGROUND RESEARCH Background Reading Software Engineering Methodologies A methodology is a structured approach to design and develop the software, hence reducing the chances of software project failure. Methodology provides a recommendation of a series of steps to be followed [9]. There are number of software development methodologies. The selection of the methodology depends on the scoop and complexity of the project. Some of the famous methodologies are Waterfall Model which is also described classical model [10]. The Spiral Model was introduced to replace the Waterfall Model [4]. The Spiral model is being criticised for its rigidity. The Rapid Application Development (RAD) methodology became popular in the early 1990s due to the perceived deficiencies of the traditional waterfall approach [11]. RAD is ideal for the projects where requirements may change during or after the development.RAD has advantage on other methodologies to save the time required for development. Prototyping is another methodology in which developer builds an application from the requirements. There are two types of prototyping methodologies evolutionary prototyping and throwaway prototyping. It is important to decide in advance the selection for the type of prototyping methodology [12]. After a thorough analysis it seems that no single methodology is suitable for the ENB project. Chosen methodology will be explained in the following section. Chosen Methodology It has been decided after reviewing the common methodologies, it seems appropriate to select the Evolutionary prototyping methodology for the ENB project. RAD will be used to develop the required features of the ENB software. Using an only the approach of RAD will lead to the errors and the prototyping will allow correcting the errors. Prototyping has the four main stages. Identification of the requirements. Development of a prototype system. Review the prototype. Revisions and enhancements of the Prototype. Prototyping typing will allow the development of the certain module of the project. Even if the whole project is not developed, there will be basic system to be developed further in the future. For example server side application will be developed with all requirements of scheduling, the tasks and defining the users rights. The client application will be developed afterwards. Client application will have support for the features of the server. On the user evaluation the further features will be added on the server side. RAD will be used on each phase of the development therefore the client server applications will be developed rapidly. RAD will be used within each phase of development, so the Time Controlled pattern / Date Controlled pattern Input task will be developed rapidly. Similarly the other aspects will be developed like this and will together form the overall framework, which will develop as an evolutionary prototype. Each aspect of the system will be developed using a RAD approach and then modified, this will include the database development, the input component and the output component. The evolutionary prototype will allow for any bugs to be corrected during the development instead of detecting and correcting them during the testing phase. Tools and Applications Database Systems The system involves the use of a lot of information, some which will be needed several times and the most appropriate form of storage of this data is in a database. This will allow data to be saved from input to the system and retrieved to be used by the system. As an important aspect of this project is use of Time Control System. In this section several databases are reviewed for their suitability to this project. Microsoft Access Microsoft Access is Bundles of RDBS with the Microsoft Office. MS Access is widely spread on the windows based PCs. It is dependent on the windows environment therefore it cant be deployed on the Linux or UNIX environment. MS access has a GUI, Which facilitates creating the database tables and their relations, queries, forms and reports. MS Access is one of the best selling databases and it has a lot of support available from Microsoft and this is likely to remain so in the future [13]. MS access has disadvantages. It has data limit of 2GB. It is not ideal to use on the network. MS access has lax security measures to prevent the unauthorized access. These disadvantages would be an issue for this project as the system is likely to be accessed by a multiple users at a time and multimedia files will be run on it, it is very likely to exceed 2GB in size. There is a possible security risk of an MS Access database due to it being stored as a single file if un-trusted sources gain access to the folder it is contained in [14]. Most important drawback of MS Access is that lack of network support. ENB is totally depending on Network environment for communication which is by no means supported by MS Access. MS SQL Server MS SQL Server has been developed by Microsoft and it is their more expensive but more robust alternative to MS Access. MS SQL Server is more commonly used by businesses for small to medium sized databases. MS SQL Server is a high performance database with a bundle of functionality and it also has built in security features for LAN/WAN and web environment. There are free express versions of MS SQL Server that can be downloaded for free, however free versions offer less in functionality [15]. MS SQL Server utilizes Transact-SQL as its primary query language. MS SQL Server allows procedures to be stored within the database comparable to MS Access queries. This reduces load on the network bandwidth because only the variables are sent to the data along with the related procedures to be executed not the entire queries. This method is useful for the regular database queries. The method also protects the database from the injection attacks [16]. Sql server has the following disadvantages. It can only work on Windows environment Professional and Enterprise editions has costly license fee As far the ENB project the Enterprise edition is not required. MySQL MySQL is free open source relational database management system. MySQL is the most popular open source database due to its high performance [17]. MySQL has compatibility with any operating system including Linux, UNIX, Mac and Windows. It can also handle large amounts of data and provides security through user authorization and access privileges [18]. MySQL was designed to use on the internet, due to the high performance and very advance features MySQL is a favourite database for the desktop applications. A disadvantage of MySQL is that it is not ideal to set foreign key references [19]. PostgreSQL PostgreSQL is also an open source RDBMS, it is a platform independent database management system analogous to MySQL, however it has more advance features such as triggers. On implementing all features PostgreSQL performance is slower as compare to MySQL. PostgreSQL is the database of many high profile applications such as Skype and Hi5.com. PostgreSQL database design is more complex than MySQL. Performance of PostgreSQL is relatively slow [19]. Chosen Database Management System On reviewing the above database systems the following analysis are being concluded. Ms Access has been discarded from the selection list. It has no support for the network environment. Due to the network oriented nature of the ENB project the network performance is the core issue. Network performance cant be compromised. It will jeopardize the overall functionality of the project during the network load times. PostgreSQL has similar feature as MySQL. Both are discarded on the grounds of limited GUI support for development and maintenance. Both are not closely integrated with MS VB.Net. MS SQL server 2008 Express editions has been decided to be used as database platform for the ENB project. SQL Server 2008 Express is a correct choice for project to include Multimedia database services. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 is a relational model database server produced by Microsoft. Its primary query languages are T-SQL and ANSI SQL. Due to the limited scoop of the ENB application I will use MS SQL Express Edition. Microsoft SQL Server Express is available at no cost. SQL Server Express edition relational database management system, comprises a database is limited for embedded and smaller-scale applications. Database engine is limited to receive work from a small number of users. It has several technical limitations; therefore it cant be deployed in the enterprise environment. Maximum database size of 4 GB per database. The 4 GB limit applies per database (log files excluded); but in some scenarios users can access more data through the use of multiple interconnected databases. It has the several advantages. The advantages are listed in the following lines. Its free of cost SQL server express edition has all the features required for my ENB project. SQL server express edition has Management studio. Limited support for multiple clients on LAN. SQL management studio will simplify the management and maintenance of the ENB database. Most of the IT technician and administrators are well versed with the MS SQL server. GUI tools will allow administrator to easily troubleshoot the common database issues. Main reason for selecting the SQL server is the TCP/IP pipes. TCP/IP pipes technology is very efficient on network as compare to the traditional TCP/IP packets. Programming Environments An appropriate programming environment is required for the system development. The programming tool must be capable to develop the graphical user interface to display the understandable output to the end user. In the ENB project the end user will the system administrator. It has been selected that MS SQL Server will be used to store the Database so the Programming tool must be able to interact with the MS SQL database. The chosen language should include support for object-oriented implementations. Booch (1998) stated Each object can be viewed as an independent little machine with a distinct role or responsibility [20]. Objected oriented language would allow efficient data parsing. The development in the high level programming tool is simpler than coding in the low level programming environment. Indeed high level programming tool reduces the cost of development as well the time spent on coding. Some of the programming environments are analyzed in the detail. Java Java is an object oriented programming language, developed by Sun Microsystems [21]. Java is a well accepted high-level language. ICN students study java during the firs

Poor Time Management Skills

Poor Time Management Skills ICBT leads in delivering Edexcel HNDs. However, recent observations showed HND Business Management students showed an increase in poor attendance punctuality, failed in on time delivery resulting in late non-delivery of assignments, the main reason identified for the negative results were, students poor time management skills. This negatively effects key stakeholders such as institute, students, parents lectures, resulting in inability of students to achieve good grades, increased stress years taken to complete the HND, reduced the practice working on deadlines, makes ICBT unable to reach its mission vision, impacts the existing positive image with Edexcel the market, fades parents goals hopes, increases pressure upon lecturers leads to demotivation as results are not achieved as expected from students. The importance of a solution was recognized, identified improving students planning organizing, prioritizing goal setting skills improves time management skills. Improving the said skills, increases students on time submission rates, capability to work on time reduces stress, enable ICBT reach its mission vision maintain good name with both Edexcel the market, reduce work load pressure incenses motivation of lecturers lead parents see their children achieving success. Introduction Established since year 2000 (ICBT, 2011) International College of Business Technology Ltd (ICBT) has become one of the most leading private sector higher education offering institute in Sri Lanka offering variety of internationally accepted study courses. It was observed most students at ICBT studies Edexcel HNDs, ICBT is most popular in delivering HNDs as ICBT was awarded by Edexcel International (The Sunday Times, 1996 2011) as the leading center for Edexcel HNDs in Sri Lanka However recent observation showed students studying Edexcel HND business management shows average poor attendance punctuality, fail to submit assignments on due dates resulting in late submissions not submitting assignments. The main reason identified for students inability to submit assignments on time poor punctuality, was students poor time management skills. Symptoms identified through observing students which led me to look into these problem was students grades achieved, on average students poor attendance, poor punctuality, students complaints on subject matters, students non-verbal expressions such as showing less interest concentration towards lectures, sleepiness, negative attitude towards lectures, talking with friends while lectures are being conducted within the class room, etcà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ The importance of identifying finding a solution to these problem was recognized upon identifying the negative effects it could have upon all key stakeholders involved such as students, parents, lecturers the institute the benefits it could bring to the mentioned stakeholders as discussed below. Improved students time management skills, will increase students ability to submit assignments on time, which could be a criteria leading to achieve high grades, reduce both stress levels enable students to complete the HNDs within the time frame of eighteen months, avoid additional payments required on on late extension re-modules of assignments. Further more achieving high grades would increase students knowledge skills levels, which would benefit in gaining building core competencies necessary when entering the job market. Also finding a solution to improve students time management skills, would increase students practice ability to mange time effectively, efficiently under pressure of work while in the university, which could be highly believed would be useful in their career life as time management is considered as a vital interpersonal skill in todays business world. Further if strategies are not implemented to improve students time management skills it would make it impossible for ICBT to reach its mission vision as identified in figure - in appendix , as ICBTs mission of enhancing quality of human resources available to the market, would be negatively effected as students poor grades, poor time management skills, poor punctuality, etcà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ would not result in an increase of quality human resource available to the job market in the future, it would not enable ICBT to reach its vision, since poor performance of students would effect ICBTs reputation recognition in both the local international market negatively, impacting both international local market growth negatively. Also if this results in an continuation, there is an high possibility that ICBTs quality of education reputation in the private higher education could be adversely effected, resulting in ICBTs reputation recognized by Edexcel International as discussed above to de teriorate. Students ability to mange time effectively is a vital factor that could effect a child ability to meet parents goals hopes, such as seeing children passing exams with good grades on planned time frame being highly educated, having a good career a work life balance. Further good time management skills would result in not requiring to pay any additional payments to the college on late submission or re-modules resulting in less financial burden upon parents. Increase in students time management skills would increase students ability to submit assignments on time, this would enable the lecturers to complete checking the whole batches assignments on a particular day, without the need of carrying forward any due checks, putting additional pressure burden upon them. Further effective time management plays a major role in students ability to achieve a Distinction criteria other good grades, which could be a motivating factor for lecturers act as proof of lecturers high performance. As problem was identified ICBT City campus Edexcel HND business management students, area of influence or the scope of the study was identified as the collection of all the current registered Edexcel HND Business Management students at ICBT City campus. As identified discussed above how students poor time management skills effects students other core stakeholders such as parents, lecturers, the institute, the importance of finding a solution for this problem was highlighted by doing so it would not only fulfil the knowledge gap, but also bring massive benefits to all the key stakeholders as discussed below. Research Problem Why are ICBT City campus Edexcel HND Business Management students inefficient in their time management? Research Questions What is time management? What is efficiency effectiveness? What is effective time management? What are the factors influencing effective time management of students? Research Objectives Identify what is time management by reading articles other relevant documents published on time management on or before 12/09/2012 Read articles other relevant documents identify what is efficiency effectiveness why it is important to students before 13/09/2012 Identify what is effective time management by reading articles other relevant documents published on effective time management skills on or before 16/09/2012 Search relevant theories literature to identify factors effecting effective time management of students on or before 18/09/2012 Literature Review Time management involves balancing all the activities in which a person participates within the confines of the week (Canyons, 2001-2012). Efficiency effectiveness plays a vital role towards determining an individuals ability to balance manage all activities of a perticular time period. Efficiency is where time or effort is well used for a planned task efectiveness is doing the right thing. Therefore effective time management could be considerd as an individuals ability to ensure right things are done at the right time, while ensuring time effort is well used for the planned task. However factors effecting time managemnt skills of an individual is discussed below. A study done to find the relatinship between, delay the lack of ability to set daily routines associated with academic activities (Dietz, Hofer Fries, 2007) suggested that students planning is important to prevent delays in academic work, while Drucker in 1967 recognized that planning activities task does not always ensure completion of planned work, specially when time presure is high. However a study done by Gerhard in year 2007, showed that student planning is only one factor among several other factors that could effect time mangement, through results observed by both pre post training skiils observed, which focused on four criterias such as self assesment, goal setting, time mangement self regulation, which was capable to show a major increase or improvement in between students pre post self managemnt skills. According to Sandberg in year 2001, stated that effective utilisation of time would help to achive goals as planned, it is the art of arranging, organising, scheduling, budgeting ones time for the purpose is the factors that influence effective work productivity. Obi in year 2003 stated that time mangemnt involves accurately identifying tasks to be performed, planning scheduling of activities, prioritisng activities in order, allocating time to tasks according to the degree of imporatane that enhances productivity. Olaniyi in 1998 Akomolafe in 2005 argued that, there is nothing to mange in time as time is beyod human control, what individuals are capable to do is to decide what to do with the available time how well to organize activities within the available time frame. Adedeji in year 1998 also came up with a strong similar argument that supports, Olaniyis Akomolafes findings, where he sead time is an scares resource utilization of time could be achived by doing the right thing at the right time. A study done by university students in the United states (Macan, et al, 1990) identified a four factor model which effects students time managemnt skills they were setting goals and priorities, planning and scheduling, perceived control over time, and preference for disorganisation. Out of the four factors perceived control over time had shown the strongest contribution to students academic and emotional adjustment. Further Macans identification that goal setting could infleunce time managemnt was also surported by Richards in 1987 where Richardss concluded that setting life goals keeping time logs were important techniques for effective time managemnt. McCay in 1959 developed a concept for time management training programme, where the critical elements highlighted in it were, giving insight into time consuming activities, changing time expenditure, increasing work day efficiency by teaching people how to make daily planning, how to prioritise task how to handle unexpected tasks. A study done by Britton Tesser in 1991, had identified that 67% of undergraduate students find time managemnt as the most difficult task to manage 36% varience among the grades werte due to time mangemnt skills. This further highlights proves the importance of finding why and how time mangemnt skills could be improved among ICBT City campus HND Business managemnt students. Planning organizing skills Figure (Conceptual model) Time management Prioritising skills Gaol setting skills Alternative Hypothesis identified Students planning, organizing prioritising goal setting skills effects time management Planning organizing skills is the ability to manage self and/or others, and resources including time and surrounding circumstances to reach a specific goal (University of Strathclyde, n.d) Prioritizing skills is the ability to define, rank, and assign levels of importance to tasks, activities, and/or issues and deal with matters of higher importance first. Create a list of items in order in which they need to be completed or delegated. Align personnel and other resources according to priority while maintaining organizational mission, vision, and objectives. Determine matters of urgency and handle accordingly (Selection criteria examples, 2012) Goal setting is the ability of an individual to establishing specific, measurable and time targeted objectives (Objectiveli, 2012) Time management is a set of principles, practices, skills, tools, and systems that work together to help you get more value out of your time with the aim of improving the quality of your life (Time thoughts, 2004 2011), time management skill of an individual depends upon the individuals planning organizing, prioritising goal setting skills. Methodology The sampling frame would be derived from the current ICBT city campus HND Business management students registers, available from the programme coordinating office, which would give a complete list of all students registered for the course under each batch. Out of the sampling frame, a student sample would be obtained in order to conduct the research. However, HND Business management batch 38 46 would be excluded from, the survey as batch 38 has already completed the HND only awaiting for the finalised results batch 46 would be excluded, as the batch is the freshest HND Business management batch, which has started on the second week of September 2012, would not enable to gain required information. In order to avoid the sampling error study would be done to identify the most suitable sampling method to be adopted a larger sample size would be considered in the survey, than the sample size requirement calculated through the sample size calculator. Table (Operational model) Criteria to be measured Measurement unit Planning organizing Skills Ability to estimate time effort required to complete a task Ability to organize systems required resources Organize personal time to carry out responsibilities Maintain satisfactory preparation time for scheduled deadlines Capability to develop schedules timetables with clear milestones deadlines Ability to measure results milestones for self Prioritising skills Ability to identify critical task arrange tasks in logical order Establish priorities systematically differentiate between urgent, important unimportant tasks Ability to monitor or adjust priorities on a daily basis Goal setting skills Ability to set SMART objectives Criteria to be measured Measurement unit Time management skills Students attendance On time delivery, late submissions not submitted rates of assignments (University of Strathclyde, n.d) (Top achievement, n.d) To measure the relationship of the conceptual model identified in figure an operational model had been created in table above. According to the conceptual model organizing, planning prioritising goal setting skills are considered as independent variable time management skills is considered as a dependent variable. Table - (Logical link created to prove the accuracy of measuring units used in the operational model) Criteria to be measured Measurement unit Logical link to prove accuracy of measuring unit Planning organizing skills Ability to estimate time effort required to complete a task Ability to estimate the time effort required to complete particular task, would enable a student to plan in advance on future tasks help to identify how much remaining time is available towards achieving other tasks Ability to organize systems required resources Ability to organize systems resources required to accomplish an task in advance, would help students to fully utilise its separated time towards achieving the task, without the need to use that time in finding required resources systems which would save time Organize personal time to carry out responsibilities If students have the ability to organize time to carry out personal responsibilities in their lives, the separated time could be fully utilized in meeting personal responsibilities, where this would help to avoid personal responsibilities interrupting at times students are engaged in academic work. Maintain satisfactory preparation time for scheduled deadlines Students ability to maintain satisfactory preparation time for scheduled deadlines would help to avoid stress levels of students, an increase their ability to accomplish their goals as planned. Criteria to be measured Measurement unit Logical link to prove accuracy of measuring unit Planning organizing skills Capability to develop schedules timetables with clear milestones deadlines Ability to set clear milestones deadlines with the use of clear schedules time tables, would lead to student motivation also highlight the targets students have to achieve at each given time or date thereby enable to plan organize tasks Ability to measure results milestones for self Ability to measure results milestones for self, would give an students a clear personal idea on where adjustments needs to be made thereby help to plan organize tasks more accurately in the future Prioritising skills Ability to identify critical task arrange tasks in logical order Students ability to identify critical tasks would enable students to give more priority towards achieving them, among other less important tasks Establish priorities systematically differentiate between urgent, important unimportant tasks Ability to priorities systematically differentiate between urgent, important unimportant tasks, would enable a student to give more priority accordingly to urgent, important unimportant tasks. Ability to monitor or adjust priorities on a daily basis In general there is high possibility that sudden unexpected tasks may arise than expected, or an unmet task as planned, may be have to reposition into daily tasks. At a given situation, students ability to accurately monitor readjust the set plans accordingly would enable to reprioritise tasks accordingly. Goal setting skills Ability to set SMART objectives Ability to set SMART objectives would enable student to avoid underestimation or overestimation of work capabilities Criteria to be measured Measurement unit Logical link to prove accuracy of measuring unit Attendance Students attendance records Students attendance records would provide an clear understanding on students punctuality attendance, which could be count towards time management skills Assignment submission rates On time delivery, late submissions remoulded rates Students on time delivery, late submissions remoulded rates of assignments, would set a clear criteria towards evaluating time management skills, as ability to submit assignments on time mostly depends on students ability to manage time effectively Students planning, organizing prioritising goal setting skills would be measured using pre determined questioners used by researches that have been capable of measuring students planning, organizing prioritising gaol setting skills. The results obtained using the questioners would be compared against students late on time assignment submission rates, re-module rates attendance in determining if, HND Business management students planning, organizing prioritising goal-setting skills has an effect upon time management skills. Data collection plan Note Questioner attached in the appendix Data / Information required Primary / Secondary data Source of data Sampling frame Secondary data Data obtained through the programme officeof ICBT city campus Data / Information required Primary / Secondary data Source of data On time assignment, late submission re-module rate of assignment submission of students Primary data Questioners distributed among the sample students Student attendance Primary data Questioners distributed among the sample students Students planning organizing, prioritising Goal setting skills Planning organizing skills Primary data Questioners distributed among the sample students Prioritising skills Primary data Questioners distributed among the sample students Goal setting skills Primary data Questioners distributed among the sample students Sampling methods to be adopted Simple random sampling All students considered under the population will be listed in Excel software according to batch wise, in order to the student register, a sample of students would be selected using the, random formula provided in Excel in order to conduct the survey. Simple random sampling would avoid biasness in selection of students for the sample, enabling every student considered under the population to have an equal chance of being selected for the survey would thereby be capable to represent the whole population. Difficulties limitations faced in using Simple random sampling Although the list of students names are readily available at the programme coordinating department gaining access to the list may be challenging as it may require permission from a authorised personal, as the list of students names may be protected under certain privacy policies Efficiency of the programme coordinating department team influence the ability to gain information on students names list, which may influence the time required to complete the research positively or negatively The list of students names provided by the programme office may not be readily available in one single document, therefore it may be difficult time consuming to bring all data together into one single document or worksheet to create a final list from where a sample could be created. There may be a possibility that all students chosen to represent the sample may have planning, organizing, prioritising goal setting skills, or all the students chosen to represent the sample may not have planning, organizing, prioritising goal setting skills, which may create an inability in comparing the results of both kinds of students, arrive at a valid conclusion. Project plan (Gantt chart) of the research Activity completed Activity not completed X Table Task Start date Finish date Length Task dependent on Progress (Activity completed/ not completed) Comments rescheduled date if task not accomplished as planned 1 Research proposal 10/09/2012 20/09/2012 1 week 4 days Was able to complete task before the planned date 2 Prepare the questionere 13/09/2012 16/09/2012 4 days Was possible to prepare the questionere by 15/09/2012 3 Get the student names list required from the programme office 24/09/2012 27/09/2012 4 days Was able to obtain the names list on 13/09/2012 before the planned date of 27/09/2012 4 List the student population in Excel sheet use simple random sampling to select the sample students 27/09/2012 30/09/2012 4 days 3 Task Start date Finish date Length Task dependent on Progress (Activity completed/ not completed) Comments rescheduled date if task not accomplished as planned 5 Distribute questionere get the feedback from all selected sample students 01/10/2012 20/10/2012 20 days 2 4 6 Start editing, coding, data entry, data analysis of data obtained through thequestionere 21/10/2012 05/11/2012 15 days 5 7 Final research project 06/11/2012 30/11/2012 25 days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Conclusion ICBT well renowned private higher education provider has been recognized as the leading center for providing Edexcel HNDs in Sri Lanka (The Sunday Times, 1996 2011). However, it observed students studding HND Business management has shown an increase in poor attendance punctuality, fail to submit assignments on due dates, influencing all key stakeholders such as students, lecturers, institute the parents negatively. The reason identified for poor attendance punctuality, failure to submit assignments on due dates was students poor time management skills therefore imporatance of identifying finding a sollution to these problem was recognized. Through a detailed literiture, conceptual model was derived where which displayed planning organizing skills, prioritising skills goal setting skills influence students time managemnet skills, therefore the alternative hypothesis developed was, Students planning, organizing prioritising goal setting skills effects time management. Planning organizing, prioritizing goal setting skills was identified as the indipendent variable, where it could influence the dependent variable which is time managemnt skills. The operational model identified in table - lists the measurements that could be used in mesuring all the dependent indipendent variables. In order to to find how ICBT HND Businesss Managemnt students planning organizing, prioritising goal setting skills effects time managemnt, the sampling frame was identified as all the current students studing HND Business managemnt at ICBT City campus. However batch 38 46 would be excluded from the survey as batch 38 has already completed the HND batch 46 would be excluded, as the batch is the freshest HND Business management batch, would not enable to gain required information. Data collection plan in table shows the data required the sources of data collection in gathering the required details. Simple random sampling was identified as the suitable sampling method to derive the sample to conduct the survey, in order to minimise the sampling error a larger sample size would be considered in the survey, than the sample size requirement calculated through the sample size calculator. Difficulties in adopting simple random sampling method are listed on page- Table shows the project developed to conduct the research.

Southern Comfort :: essays papers

Southern Comfort Visual communications I We are shaped by the world around us, all we experience in life determines our way of thinking and ultimately defines who we are. This essay will show how the film "southern comfort" demonstrates this and how perception is affected by our surrounding and our experiences. The commanding officer of team Bravo because of his service and Discharge in the Vietnam war gave him the leadership qualities the would have been a great help later in the film,. He , while he was alive, displayed some bitterness at the fact that he was in the national guard and not fighting in the war, that he cast aside to and now had to lead a bunch of misfits in routine training exercises he believed would never put to good use. The fact that he Allowed his men to steal canoes from locals displays his weariness of the service because no normal commanding officer would allow such acts within the US Reese was decidedly the proverbial rebel without a cause. He displayed an apathetic attitude since he was a new addition to the national guard in the state of Louisiana. His unpleasant past experiences in the Texas national guard lead him to believe it would be no different in this unit and so became the stereotypical rebel without a cause.Interacting with the others "troops" when spoken to and never in a receptive fashion. So it is not surprising that when faced in that combat situation he did not volunteer his opinion of impose his will on the other troops unless the situation was critical to their survival. Stuckie, otherwise know as the village idiot in any other environment, did not present any maturity to any one, the fact that he pointed an armed weapon and fired it at a fellow officer despite using blanks demonstrated that fact quite clearly. He viewed everthing as a joke and took nothing seriously especially Firearms and by his actions, shooting on the Cajuns with blanks, put Bravo team in jeopardy. If it were not for his immaturity and shear stupidity, bravo may have been spared however there wouldn't be much of a movie either. Cultural differences also contribute a a persons personality. The black officer was a reminder of that in addition to be a token black character so that African Americans who viewed this movie could identify with it. Southern Comfort :: essays papers Southern Comfort Visual communications I We are shaped by the world around us, all we experience in life determines our way of thinking and ultimately defines who we are. This essay will show how the film "southern comfort" demonstrates this and how perception is affected by our surrounding and our experiences. The commanding officer of team Bravo because of his service and Discharge in the Vietnam war gave him the leadership qualities the would have been a great help later in the film,. He , while he was alive, displayed some bitterness at the fact that he was in the national guard and not fighting in the war, that he cast aside to and now had to lead a bunch of misfits in routine training exercises he believed would never put to good use. The fact that he Allowed his men to steal canoes from locals displays his weariness of the service because no normal commanding officer would allow such acts within the US Reese was decidedly the proverbial rebel without a cause. He displayed an apathetic attitude since he was a new addition to the national guard in the state of Louisiana. His unpleasant past experiences in the Texas national guard lead him to believe it would be no different in this unit and so became the stereotypical rebel without a cause.Interacting with the others "troops" when spoken to and never in a receptive fashion. So it is not surprising that when faced in that combat situation he did not volunteer his opinion of impose his will on the other troops unless the situation was critical to their survival. Stuckie, otherwise know as the village idiot in any other environment, did not present any maturity to any one, the fact that he pointed an armed weapon and fired it at a fellow officer despite using blanks demonstrated that fact quite clearly. He viewed everthing as a joke and took nothing seriously especially Firearms and by his actions, shooting on the Cajuns with blanks, put Bravo team in jeopardy. If it were not for his immaturity and shear stupidity, bravo may have been spared however there wouldn't be much of a movie either. Cultural differences also contribute a a persons personality. The black officer was a reminder of that in addition to be a token black character so that African Americans who viewed this movie could identify with it.

Sleep :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Sleep Sleep is my favorite thing in life. My first waking thought is usually "when will I be able to sleep again?" But why do I love to sleep? What goes on behind my closed eyelids and what does sleep do for me? As early as 350 BC, Aristotle pondered the state of sleep: "With regard to sleep and waking, we must consider what they are: whether they are peculiar to soul or to body, or common to both." Researchers are still engaged in investigating the complexities of sleep. To answers these questions, I turned to the Internet for help. After an exhausting search, weeding through web pages designed for the average insomniac looking for a quick fix to his/her troubles, and technical research papers discussing the specifics of neurobiological functions, I found some helpful writings. What is known is that sleep is founded on patterns of bodily functions and brain activity. While we are asleep, our brains exhibit distinct and separate stages of activity. This paper will discuss the basic pattern s and stages of sleep within humans and the functions of each stage. This introduction to sleep will serve as the basis for further research later in the semester. Sleep follows distinct patterns throughout the day. Circadian rhythms are daily cycles of biological activity which mediate many of our metabolic functions. Blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature and hormonal secretions ebb and flow throughout the day in a cyclic pattern, often referred to as the "biological clock". These rhythms are controlled by the superchaismatic nucleus region of the hypothalamus, which relies on both internal timing mechanisms within specific neurons as well as outside influences to set this clock. The biological clock is kept running by "zeitbergers", that is, any input to the brain such as daylight, the smell of food, or temperature change. Sleep cycles follow our circadian rhythms. It has been found that the natural hormone melatonin plays a large part in mediating sleep. As darkness falls, enzymes in the brain stimulate the release of melatonin from the pineal gland in the brain. Melatonin induces sleep by influencing the superchiasmatic nucleus. The release of melatonin is halted when daylight arrives, and we experience wakefulness. Other mediators such as seratonin, prolactin and prostaglandin have also been linked to the sleep cycle, but their exact role is unclear. Upon falling asleep, the brain and body go through five stages of sleep in one sleep cycle.

Americas Segregation Essay -- essays research papers

America Segregation how has it been affecting the society of Americans for so long? Well according to American Apartheid there just hasn’t been enough time for the 1960s civil rights laws to work themselves out. How long will this take, and will it ever just work itself out? Why are there ghettos and how did they come about. Why are most ghettos in towns and cities in parts that are usually run down? Well if we can remember back in time when immigrants started to enter the United States the different cultures established in the same neighborhoods and communities. Why did they do this? Because they were around people that made them comfortable they were around their cultures and communities that they were accustomed to. They were around a society that was their own. So how did minorities end up in the ghetto? I don’t think they ever got out. When commerce was booming in the city most people lived in the city because that’s where the action was. The jobs, schools, bakeries whatever you needed was in the city. Back in the day when there was no cars or a form of transportation people had to walk or ride horses to where they were going and by being in a place that was condensed with all of these things it made it easy to live there. I think it was a case of a couple different ideas that all had an effect on minorities but primarily I think that the major ingredient was that the elites of the community prevented minorities for exiting the poverty stricken lifestyles and here is how they did it. Education, transportation and flat out racism. These three factors play a major role in why there is segregation today in the U.S. let’s start with transportation.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I started with transportation because with transportation came elites moving out of the city to the suburbs. When this happened only people with some kind of money could afford a car to commute to and from the city. These people were the ones who had good jobs and power. Mostly whites had cars at the time and few blacks. These elites moved from the city to establish communities of their own and I am pretty sure that minorities were not welcome. Without transportation minorities were forced to stay in the city and as the suburbs grew larger and larger jobs and commerce that at were one time in the city had now left for the booming suburbs. Business was better in the suburbs and mone... ...re afraid of educated minorities running the country or educating their children. Political power this will come with education. If you are educated and can get your part of the community to support you then you have a great shot of being elected. How do you maintain your power? You keep the people that supported you happy and you don’t upset the other side to bad while you do it. Who doesn’t want you to have to power anyone else who wants it and the ones that you are not giving the benefits too. For instance politician gives tax breaks to elites while struggling citizens still pay high taxes this is not good and destroys a community. I don’t care if your white or black on this issue you will still have major problems.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I believe that changes have been made and are being made to desegregate I do believe that there will always be a ghetto. Today cities and towns all have them and have to deal with the crime and poverty that comes along with them. I do believe that education will help these communities somehow but a little self-help in these communities is also needed. Lets face it some people like the ghetto and couldn’t think of a better place to live.